Android Leftovers

• Best Android Phone Under $700

  The Galaxy S7 is the best version of Samsung's flagship yet. It's equipped with a powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor, 4GB of RAM, and a 3,000mAh battery pack. Its 12-megapixel rear-facing Dual Pixel camera is particularly impressive, and you'll appreciate its performance in low light. Of course, as is the case with most versions of Android that aren't directly developed by Google, Samsung's version of Android is polarizing. The newly dubbed Grace UI offers some helpful features, but the extra software that comes bundled is redundant. At the very least, you can disable and hide any apps you don't care for.

• Best Android Phones with Expandable Memory

  The Galaxy S7 edge is the total package. The phone features a stunning metal-and-glass exterior backed by an excellent 5.5-inch display. The dual curved display is easily one of the best you'll find on a phone, and differentiates the S7 edge from the pack. The handset is powered by Qualcomm's beastly Snapdragon 820 SoC, and offers 4GB of RAM along with 32GB storage. The 12MP camera is outstanding, and the 3600mAh battery ensures you get at least a day's worth of usage from a full charge. Best of all, Samsung re-introduced the microSD slot after leaving it out on the Galaxy S6 series. The phone accommodates microSD cards up to 256GB, which should be more than sufficient for all your movie or music needs. If all that isn't enough, the S7 edge is water resistant with an IP68 rating.

• Nexus 5X, Nexus 6P Troubled By Android 7.0 Nougat Problems

• The reason this lifelong Android user jumped ship to the iPhone 7 Plus is surprising

• Android Wear 2.0 dev preview 3 images are ready to download

• Video: Six years of Nexus - A Google phone history

• Android malware that can infiltrate corporate networks is spreading

• Google officially rebrands 'Google for Work' as 'Google Cloud' and 'Google Apps for Work' as 'G Suite'

• Action Launcher 3 update adds Android 7.1's launcher shortcut feature

• Google Maps for Android Gets Voice Search and Commands

Tizen News

• Samsung Gear Watch Designer Beta v 1.2.1 Released

  Samsung Gear Watch Designer is a software application used to create watch faces for supported Gear Smartwatch devices such as the Gear S, S2, S3, and Fit2. The app has been updated to version 1.2.1, which is available for both Windows and Mac Operating Systems (OS), but still there is no Linux option for those that prefer our little Tux friend.

• Smart View SDK update – Offers New version of DMP and Wireless speaker support

  The new version of Smart view SDK has just rollout. This update has an updated version of the Default Media Player (DMP), which allows new support for music, photo contents and playlists. Now, Samsung wireless speakers will also be a part of Samsung’s smart view enabled devices. With this update developers can easily implement casting features and get much easier control over playlist control. Users will now be able to enjoy casting a variety types of content with simple controls. The casting features are basically two different types, App casting and Media casting. App casting will allow you to discover and launch TV applications on a compatible Samsung Smart TV by the use of a smartphone using the relevant APIs, and Media casting will allow you to Send photos to the TV, Play and control videos as well as music.

• Spreadtrum Acknowledges SC9830i LTE SOC adopted in Samsung Z2

  The System On a Chip (SOC) that Samsung had used in the Z2 Tizen smartphone was a tight secret despite most of the details of the phone was leaked prior to its launch. Rumors were also spread that the device could possibly employ one of its own Exynos SOC. However, post the launch of the device it was found that Samsung had continued with a Spreadtrum SOC. The Z2 has the Spreadtrum SC9830i SOC and although the world already knows this fact, Spreadtrum Communications recently took some time to talk about it at an event in Shanghai, China.

• Samsung Gear Watch Designer Beta v 1.2.1 Released

  Samsung Gear Watch Designer is a software application used to create watch faces for supported Gear Smartwatch devices such as the Gear S, S2, S3, and Fit2. The app has been updated to version 1.2.1, which is available for both Windows and Mac Operating Systems (OS), but still there is no Linux option for those that prefer our little Tux friend.

• Smart View SDK update – Offers New version of DMP and Wireless speaker support

  The new version of Smart view SDK has just rollout. This update has an updated version of the Default Media Player (DMP), which allows new support for music, photo contents and playlists. Now, Samsung wireless speakers will also be a part of Samsung’s smart view enabled devices. With this update developers can easily implement casting features and get much easier control over playlist control. Users will now be able to enjoy casting a variety types of content with simple controls. The casting features are basically two different types, App casting and Media casting. App casting will allow you to discover and launch TV applications on a compatible Samsung Smart TV by the use of a smartphone using the relevant APIs, and Media casting will allow you to Send photos to the TV, Play and control videos as well as music.

• Spreadtrum Acknowledges SC9830i LTE SOC adopted in Samsung Z2

  The System On a Chip (SOC) that Samsung had used in the Z2 Tizen smartphone was a tight secret despite most of the details of the phone was leaked prior to its launch. Rumors were also spread that the device could possibly employ one of its own Exynos SOC. However, post the launch of the device it was found that Samsung had continued with a Spreadtrum SOC. The Z2 has the Spreadtrum SC9830i SOC and although the world already knows this fact, Spreadtrum Communications recently took some time to talk about it at an event in Shanghai, China.

ownCloud Desktop Client 2.2.4 Released with Updated Dolphin Plugin, Bug Fixes

ownCloud is still alive and kicking, and they've recently released a new maintenance update of the ownCloud Desktop Client, version 2.2.4, bringing some much-needed improvements and patching various annoying issues.

Early Benchmarks Of The Linux 4.9 DRM-Next Radeon/AMDGPU Drivers

While Linux 4.9 will not officially open for development until next week, the DRM-Next code is ready to roll with all major feature work having been committed by the different open-source Direct Rendering Manager drivers. In this article is some preliminary testing of this DRM-Next code as of 29 September when testing various AMD GPUs with the Radeon and AMDGPU DRM drivers. Linux 4.9 does bring compile-time-offered experimental support for the AMD Southern Islands GCN 1.0 hardware on AMDGPU, but that isn't the focus of this article. A follow-up comparison is being done with GCN 1.0/1.1 experimental support enabled to see the Radeon vs. AMDGPU performance difference on that hardware. For today's testing was a Radeon R7 370 to look at the Radeon DRM performance and for AMDGPU testing was the Radeon R9 285, R9 Fury, and RX 480. Benchmarks were done from the Linux 4.8 Git and Linux DRM-Next kernels as of 29 September.