Android Circuit: Sony's Xperia Z3+ Mistake, Galaxy S6 Beats iPhone 6, Samsung Risks Apple's Anger


Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge (image: Ewan Spence)
Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge (image: Ewan Spence)
Taking a look back at seven days of news across the Android world, this week’s Android Circuit highlights a number of stories including the reveal of Android M, Google Now on Tap, Project Brillo and ‘The Internet of Things’, Google Photos spins out of Plus, Android loses market share to Apple, Samsung’s new camera control, The Sony Xperia Z3+, and how the Galaxy S6 beats the iPhone 6.

Android Circuit is here to remind you of a few of the many things that have happened around Android in the last week

Google Reveals Android M, The Sixth Major Version Of The OS
As Google’s annual I/O developer conference opened, the big focus was on the next version of Android. Android M (which confectionary the M will be named after is still to be announced) brings in a sea of changes to Mountain View’s mobile operating system, and Forbes’ Gordon Kelly has taken a look at the differences between M and its predecessor, Android Lollipop (L):
Well, just like Apple’s upcoming iOS 9. Android M will also focus primarily on optimisation with speed and battery life central to the experience. That said there is still a lot of key differences between Android M and Android Lollipop, the first of which is a potential game changer.
That game changer is Google ‘Now On Tap’ (more on that in a moment), and that change sits alongside updates to Google Pay, improved handset security, better battery life, and a number of other changes.

Tapping Into The Contextual Market
The biggest change is Google ‘Now On Tap’. This moniker covers a sea of updates and improvements to the contextual ‘Google Now’ application which is currently available through a long-press on your Android smartphone’s home screen. It brings even more granularity to a search, with Google Now able to interpret data from any app that you are currently using. TechCrunch’s Frederic Lardinois explains what it will tap into:
Say you are playing a song in Spotify. Tapping and holding the home button will bring up more info about the song you are looking at. But you can also do a voice query and ask: “Who is the lead singer?” Google Now already knows what song is playing and using data from the Knowledge Graph project — it can (hopefully) answer your questions.
Similarly, this service can work its magic from Hangouts, for example. Say you are discussing “the new George Clooney movie” with a friend. Bringing up Now On Tap will give you more information about Tomorrowland, because Google knows that’s what you are talking about. Some of the information you can expect to see are movie times, reviews and maybe more information about the actors in the film. Because of Google’s App Indexing project, it can also recommend related applications (maybe IMDB or Flixster) and deep links into them (if you have them installed). If your friend had asked you to remember to buy tickets for the movie, Google Now would also have popped up a box to set a reminder for you.
And best of all (for Google) developers do not need to add in any more hooks, as the platform’s APIs provide enough data to work with (although extra meta-data can be supplied by an application if a developer wishes).
With search on mobile not generating the same level of revenue as search on desktop, this extra interaction should benefit Google’s bottom line… if there is enough buy-in from end users. Searching on what you are doing on your phone feels a touch creepy to me.

Stunning Photos Of Google's Massive Data Centers


Photo: Google/Google
Project Brillo Targets The Internet Of Things (Not Andrew Neil)
Google also revealed its plan for ‘The Internet Of Things”. Project Brillo is built around Android, but is focussed on the smaller things in life. It’s very early days yet, with developer access later in the year, and no word on when consumer hardware running Brillo will arrive. Android Authority’s Andrew Grush:
Brillo is a new Android-based solution that is power frugal and should work with even the most basic hardware. Google worked hard with Nest to make Brillo, with security at the front of all their design decisions.
Brillo will be ran through a centralized console and will support Bluetooth andWi-Fi for connectivity. Not a lot of details have been shared on how Brillo will work, though Sundar Pichai did mention it will use a common language to talk to devices, called Weave. Weave is a new protocol that not only works with Brillo, but is cross-platform and can be used with other IOT OSes.
Brillo will hit developers in Q3 this year and Google has given no indication when it will be fully ready for prime time. I’d consider this the ‘big public experiment’ from I/O 2015.
Taking The Photos Out Of Google Plus
One final announcement from I/O to highlight, and that’s the separation of Google Photos from Google Plus, turning the media storage platform into a standalone product. It offers a significant amount of ‘unlimited’ storage if you stay within certain parameters that The Verge has highlighted:
The new service, which has “graduated” from Google+, now offers unlimited storage of photos up to 16 megapixels and video shot in 1080p. You can also store higher-resolution imagery in Google Photos, though it will count against the 15 GB of free storage you get with your Google account.
Spinning this out of Google Plus is an interesting move to give this a bit of life outside of the stagnant social network. Offering it as a backup service puts it into direct comparison with the feature set of cloud storage providers such as DropBox and Microsoft’s OneDrive, which heavily promote the backup capabilities of the services.
SAN FRANCISCO, CA – MAY 28: A Volkswagen featuring Android Auto is displayed during the 2015 Google I/O conference on May 28, 2015 in San Francisco, California. The annual Google I/O conference runs through May 29. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
Continued from page 1
Android Loses Market Share To Apple
Android’s market share has fallen back slightly in the first quarter of 2015, reports Gartner. The 1.9% drop in share appears to be down to Apple’s focus on sales in China.

Gartner today released the results of a report on worldwide smartphone marketshare in Q1 2015 (first three months) which most notably found that Android’s hold on the smartphone OS market dropped 1.9% while Apple’s iOS saw it’s third consecutive quarter of gains. The research firm attributed Android’s loss largely to Apple’s newfound success in China – where Android saw a 4% decline over its share of that market last year –  on the back of the larger-screened iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, as well as increased differentiation and ecosystem lock-in through offerings like Apple Pay and Apple Watch.
With 78.9% share, the combination of Android manufacturers still dominants, but Apple on its own is still able to move the needle when it puts its mind to entering a new territory.
Samsung’s Update Will Anger Apple Camera Fans
Forbes’ Paul Monckton takes a look at an additional camera control that Samsung will be adding in the Android 5.1 update – manual exposure. Although it is available in the ‘pro’ mode of the Galaxy S6, this ‘brightness’ control will now be available in the ‘auto’ mode as well. It’s also spookily familiar to iOS users:
Known to photographers as “manual exposure compensation”, this feature allows iPhone users to slide a finger up and down on the screen to vary the brightness of the image at the time they are taking it. It was a brilliant move by Apple… and now the Samsung Galaxy S6 does it too.
SamMobile sources explain that the Galaxy S6’s forthcoming Android 5.1 update brings with it an exposure slider almost identical to the one found on the iPhone. Screen shots from a pre-release version of the update show a vertical slider to the right of the focus point, but with the sunburst icon, found on the iPhone, replaced by a small lightbulb on the Galaxy S6. The functionality remains the same, just slide a finger up or down to achieve your prefered level of brightness in the final image.
We’ll keep an eye on this here at Forbes and will let you know the impact the update has on the camera software once it ships.
Japan’s Sony Mobile Communications president Hiroki Totoki displays the company’s new smartphone ‘Xperia Z4′  (YOSHIKAZU TSUNO/AFP/Getty Images)
Which Is Better, The Xperia Z4 Or The Z3+? Neither!
Earlier this year Sony announced the Xperia Z4 would be released in Japan. The updated Android flagship from the struggling manufacturer certainly looked the part, but the strategy felt unfocused. That perception has not been improved by the announcement of the handsets European arrival – under the product name of Xperia Z3+.
So is this a new flagship, a small update to the previous model, or something in between? It’s not entirely clear how the marketing message is going to sell what is arguably one of the best specced Android handsets available for the summer. Engadget’s Aaron Souppouris:
…the Z3+ is powered by Qualcomm’s best, the octa-core Snapdragon 810 processor paired with 3GB of RAM, which should keep Android 5.0 chugging away nicely when compared to the Z3′s 801. In order to reduce the Z3+’s dimensions (it’s 6.9mm thick, compared to 7.3mm last year) the battery has been cut from 3,100Ah to 2,900mAh. Hopefully the 810′s four low-power cores will mean that reduction won’t affect real-world battery life — Sony isn’t sharing usage figures yet, only declaring “up to two-day battery life.”
And Finally…
Adam Mills steps up swinging at the biggest debate in consumer smartphone circles… the iPhone 6 or the Galaxy S6. Over on Gotta Be Mobile he argues that the S6 beats the iPhone in seven key areas. One of those is close to my heart… wireless charging:
The Samsung Galaxy S6 comes with built-in wireless charging that allows you to charge the phone without any cords. It’s not as fast as traditional charging but it’s still extremely useful if you don’t want to hook the phone up to something while it’s charging.
You can toss a wireless charger on your night stand, your desk at work, or even in the car for easy hassle-free charging. It doesn’t work with the Galaxy S6′s fast charging capabilities but again, it’s nice to have the option available. The iPhone 6 doesn’t come with wireless charging.

forbes.

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Sandhurst's sheikhs: Why do so many Gulf royals receive military training in the UK? A parade outside the building at Sandhurst Continue reading the main story In today's Magazine The death list that names 5,000 victims Is this woman an apostate? Voices from a WW1 prison camp The Swiss selfie scandal Generations of foreign royals - particularly from the Middle East - have learned to be military leaders at the UK's Sandhurst officer training academy. But is that still a good idea, asks Matthew Teller. Since 1812, the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, on the Surrey/Berkshire border, has been where the British Army trains its officers. It has a gruelling 44-week course testing the physical and intellectual skills of officer cadets and imbuing them with the values of the British Army. Alongside would-be British officers, Sandhurst has a tradition of drawing cadets from overseas. Many of the elite families of the Middle East have sent their sons and daughters. 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The Emir of Dubai Mohammad bin Rashid Al Maktoum with his son after his Passing Out Parade at Sandhurst in 2006 Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Emir of Dubai, with his son in uniform at Sandhurst in 2006 Her Majesty The Queen's Representative His Highness Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, The Emir of Qatar inspects soldiers during the 144th Sovereign's Parade held at The Royal Military Academy Sandhurst on April 8, 2004 in Camberley, England. Some 470 Officer cadets took part of which 219 were commissioned into the British Army Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, the Emir of Qatar until 2013, inspects soldiers at Sandhurst in 2004 Emotion doesn't always deliver. In 2013, despite the personal intervention of David Cameron, the UAE decided against buying the UK's Typhoon fighter jets. But elsewhere fellow feeling is paying dividends. 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"He happened to see me talking to heads of state - the Sultan of Brunei, the Sultan of Oman, the Bahrainis, the Saudis - and he said 'How do you know all these guys?' The answer was because they went to Sandhurst." Today, Sandhurst has reportedly trained more officer cadets from the UAE than from any other country bar the UK. The May 2014 intake included 72 overseas cadets, around 40% of whom were from the Middle East. "In the future," says Maryam al-Khawaja, acting president of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights, "people will look back at how much Britain messed up in the [Middle East] because they wanted to sell more Typhoon jets to Bahrain, rather than stand behind the values of human rights and democracy." "It's one thing saying we're inculcating benign values, but that's not happening," says Habiba Hamid. Sandhurst is "a relic of the colonial past. They're not [teaching] the civic values we ought to find in democratically elected leaders." line Who else went to Sandhurst? Princes William and Harry, Winston Churchill, Ian Fleming, Katie Hopkins, Antony Beevor, James Blunt, Josh Lewsey, Devon Harris (From left to right) Princes William and Harry Sir Winston Churchill Ian Fleming, creator of James Bond (but did not complete training) Katie Hopkins, reality TV star Antony Beevor, historian James Blunt, singer-songwriter Josh Lewsey, World Cup-winning England rugby player Devon Harris, member of Jamaica's first bobsleigh team line Sandhurst says that "building international relations through military exchanges and education is a key pillar of the UK's international engagement strategy". Sandhurst may be marvellous for the UK, a country where the army is subservient to government, but it is also delivering militarily-trained officers to Middle Eastern monarchies where, often, armies seem to exist to defend not the nation but the ruling family.

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Generations of foreign royals - particularly from the Middle East - have learned to be military leaders at the UK's Sandhurst officer training academy. But is that still a good idea, asks Matthew Teller. Since 1812, the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, on the Surrey/Berkshire border, has been where the British Army trains its officers. It has a gruelling 44-week course testing the physical and intellectual skills of officer cadets and imbuing them with the values of the British Army. Alongside would-be British officers, Sandhurst has a tradition of drawing cadets from overseas. Many of the elite families of the Middle East have sent their sons and daughters. Perhaps the most notable was King Hussein of Jordan. Four reigning Arab monarchs are graduates of Sandhurst and its affiliated colleges - King Abdullah of Jordan, King Hamad of Bahrain, Sheikh Tamim, Emir of Qatar, and Sultan Qaboos of Oman. Past monarchs include Sheikh S
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