Samsung Galaxy S6 launch: Watch it live as it happens

If you’re reading this then it’s obvious that you want to catch the Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge launch as it happens. Per tradition, Samsung will be live streaming the event for your viewing pleasure on YouTube. Head on over to Samsung’s official YouTube channel to catch the event live on March 2 at 1:30am, Malaysian time.

Also follow us on Facebook and Twitter for the latest updates on location at the Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge launch.

Samsung will unveil the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge on March 1 in Barcelona in conjunction with Mobile World Congress 2015. The devices are expected to showcase Samsung’s completely new approach towards product and software design addressing many of the issues that users have been vocal about — plastic build, bloated UI and copycat design, to name a few.

You can expect the S6 and S6 Edge to feature an all-new metal-framed body with possibly dual front facing speakers and an array of new colour options — blue, gold, white and grey plus a never before seen green colour option for the Galaxy S6 Edge. Leaks suggest that Samsung will be using a more advanced on board storage unit built in house by Samsung to offer a considerably faster read and write speeds over previous memory. We expect Samsung to drop the 16GB option that’s been a staple in its device line up and replace it with 32GB, 62GB and 128GB options.

Microsoft gives eligible students free Office 365 subscriptions worldwide

Are you a student in need of a word processor and all the useful features that come with Microsoft Office? Microsoft has a surprise in store for students worldwide. They promised free Office 365 subscriptions to US students in 2013 but have extended that offer to students globally as long as they’re in a country that’s been listed as eligible for the offer.

The list of eligible countries can be viewed here, and Malaysia is one of them. Schools will have to buy subscriptions for staff and faculty but once they have, students and teachers alike can self-install for no charge by using a school-issued email address at the Office in education site. After signing up they’ll get access to the gamut of Office applications and will be able to install them up to five computers and five smartphones or tablets. The account will also come with Office Online and 1TB of OneDrive storage, which is icing on the cake.

But we do see a caveat here; your school will probably have to have already purchased a Office 365 subscription beforehand for this to work, as well as have a school-issued email address available as well; which is not something all local schools are likely to possess.

AMD’s Carrizo laptop processors to focus on power efficiency

AMD has revealed their new Carrizo range of processors that are heavily focused on extending the run time of performance-oriented laptops.

Efficiency is the main feature of the Carrizo chips, with the new core architecture named Excavator being 5 percent faster than it’s predecessor the Kaveri, but it purportedly takes 40% less juice at the same clock rate, with even the graphical core supposedly using 20 % less power.

The chip is also the first processor to meet the completed Heterogeneous System Architecture spec, which essentially lets the CPU and intergrated graphics share memory. This allows some tasks to finish faster than they normally would and is likely to give performance and battery life a much needed boost. The Carrizo chips will also feature dedicated H.265 video decoding which will aid in video streaming.

Overall the new processor looks quite promising, and Carrizo is expected to hit PCs by the second quarter of this year; close to Intel’s mid-year target for it’s quad-core Broadwell chips. If we’re lucky we’ll have both Intel and AMD chips hitting the market simultaneously.

Looking for a 7-inch tablet for below RM500?

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 3V is now available in Malaysia with the distinction of being the cheapest Samsung tablet you can get right now. For RM499, you get a 1.3GHz quad-core with 1GB RAM and 8GB of on board storage. There’s also a micro SD card slot that takes up to 32GB cards. The 7-inch LCD display has a resolution of 1024×600 which equates to about 170ppi. There’s also 3G connectivity and a 2MP camera.

As far as specs go, the Galaxy Tab 3V is a barebones as it gets and in terms of pricing the device competes directly with another cheap 7-inch tablet, the ASUS fonepad 7.

In comparison, the fonepad 7 packs an Intel Atom Multi-Core Z2520 1.2GHz processor with 2GB RAM and 16GB expandable storage up to 64GB via the MicroSD slot. You also get a 4,000mAh battery. The 7-inch IPS is similar in specs with the Tab 3V which means the same 1024×600 pixel count and 170ppi pixel density. There’s an 8MP rear camera with a f/2.4 lens that feature a blues glass optical filter. the front camera is a 2MP unit and you also get ASUS’ really good PixelMaster Low Light Mode for better images in low-light. The fonepad 7 sells for RM 529 which is RM30 more than what Samsung is asking for, but considering the additional features, it might be RM30 well spent.

Beware of Fakes: Xiaomi Mi Note gets cloned

There’s no limit to what the Chinese can do. In less than a month since its announcement, imitation units of the Xiaomi Mi Note is now available in the Chinese market. While it looks like the real deal, they are actually nothing but cheap fakes.

The front still gets a similar sized 5.7″ display but underneath it runs on an unspecified Quad-Core processor with just 1GB of RAM, instead of 3GB on the standard Mi Note. Side by side, the clone unit is noticeably   thicker and the back is made out of cheap plastic instead of a more expensive 3D gorilla glass. The biggest difference is in the performance where it scores a lower 18,000 points instead of 46,600 points on Antutu.

If someone approaches you with a cheap offer that’s too good to be true, then it probably is. We recommend buying your device only from authorised dealers and reputable sources. A while back, a guy in Malaysia was sold a fake Redmi Note which performed very badly compared to the original. Even OPPO is having a similar problem as they have highlighted a significant number of counterfeit cases in Malaysia.

Check out more photos of the original versus the fake Mi Note after the break.