Samsung finally debuts metal-clad Galaxy Alpha

Samsung is stepping away from its plastic-clad devices to debut the new metal-framed Galaxy Alpha. It features a more squared-off look and is made with premium materials. This new device has a 4.7-inch Super AMOLED display and runs on an octa-core Exynos CPU (quad 1.8GHz and quad 1.3GHz), 2GB of RAM, 32GB of storage (no external storage though), Android 4.4.4 KitKat, and a 12-megapixel rear camera as well as a 2.1MP front-facing shooter. It also has the latest TouchWiz UI and Samsung apps and features available on the Galaxy S5. This handset is said to be available starting September and will come in black, white, blue, silver, and gold.

Source: Android Central

Google Play Store screenshots show possible introduction of offline mode for YouTube

Offline mode for Google has been discussed in the past few months and it would seem we are getting a bit closer to that becoming a reality. Or at least we hope so. Droid Life reports that new screenshots for YouTube on the Google Play Store show a tab that has Offline on it. This obviously alludes to the Offline Mode that would let users cache videos for several days on their gadgets so they can watch videos even when they aren’t online. Google hasn’t really made an official announcement yet but we really hope they introduce this soon.

Spotify now available in Canada to pre-launch users

The popular Spotify music streaming website service and app is now available to Canadians who signed up for the pre-launch invite codes. Emails to these individuals started coming in today with codes to try the service for free for 30 days. Spotify has 40 million users and 10 million paid subscribers worldwide. 

Review: Toshiba Canvio AeroMobile Wireless SSD

Text and Photos by Simon Cohen

Small, light and powerful, this wireless hard drive manages to impress with great features and performance.

We’ve clearly hit a point in our technological evolution where we have begun to see the presence of wired connections (whether for data or for power) as an annoyance and not as a critical component of our gadgets.

We crave a life where all of our tech toys can talk to each other wirelessly and – dare we dream – charge themselves wirelessly too.

And while the wireless charging scenario is still a few years from becoming mainstream, wireless data is here and it is rapidly gaining a foothold amongst most of our devices.

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