It is fairly typical that the hardware innovations come first, and then consumers and businesses play catch up with content. HDTVs are facing this battle and virtual reality devices are doing so too.

Gear 360 is Samsung's latest VR camera. It captures two 185-degree angles via two cameras on either side of the globe-like device that sits on its own mini tripod. The data is stored on a 128GB microSD card. The files are able to be stitched back together again for a full 360-degree view using software.

What's interesting about the just announced Samung Galaxy S7 smartphone is that it is powerful enough to stitch together video or images, via Bluetooth. A powerful desktop computer is no longer needed. In fact, the S7 can shrink the video or image size down to something more easily viewable on lesser devices. It will also work as a remote for the Gear 360 VR camera too.

The Gear 360 comes with two fish-eye lenses that capture 30-megapixel resolution images. This is a 3840 x 1920 resolution which falls just shy of being Ultra 4K. There are two audio microphones present, so audio can also be captured in stereo.

A small PMOLED display at the top of the 360 camera can control the video mode and a few other minor settings. Whilst appearing small, the camera actually weights 5.4 ounces - matching the weight of the S7 - but it is quite portable. However, perhaps its best use is to be placed on a tripod in the center of the room to record video and audio using its 360-degree perspective.

Mo Cheng

Editor

YouMobile, Inc

With the S7 and S7 Edge being just launched, the competition is heating up for the latest iPhone. In this article, we will note five points in which the S7 surpasses the iPhone 6s.

Display - To put it simply, the Super AMOLED panels by Samsung are brilliant and possibly the best in business. The S7 sports the latest iteration of that 1440p AMOLED panel and it's even brighter than that of the S6, which in itself was an excellent display. Samsung wins this one hands down.

Design - Apple phones were not known for big displays, but when they finally opted for it in the iPhone 6s Plus, the result wasn't a phone that was very comfortable to hold. The S7, despite its larger 5.1" display compared to the smaller 4.7" screen of the iPhone 6s, feels much better in hand because of Samsung's decision to round of all its edges and give it a curved back.

Micro-SD card slot - Samsung had always won on this front until last year, when they decided to ditch the expandable memory altogether. This year however, the S7 sports a SIM/micro-SD card hybrid slot that brings back the hit feature. The iPhones however have never supported expandable memory and probably never will.

Camera - An f/1.7 aperture, brighter pixel technology and a superfast focus takes the S7's camera to a whole new level. The iPhone 6s has a very good camera, but it simply cannot match up to the S7 in this aspect, especially in low-light situations.

IP 68 certification for dust and water resistance - The S7 can survive underwater for up to half an hour and is perfect for the rocky outdoors with its excellent dust resistance capabilities. The iPhone is no slouch either in this regard as it offers protection against liquid damage as well. In terms of degree however, the S7 is way ahead.

These points do not mean that the Galaxy S7 is superior to the iPhone in every way, but it does give the Korean flagship an edge over its Cupertino counterpart.

Well Samsung doesn't have much left to reveal when it comes to the specs of the Galaxy S7, thanks to all the detailed leaks. So they decided to invite Mark Zuckerberg to appear as a guest and surprise the crowd. But, they didn't know that the crowd to go frenzied by Facebook chief's sudden appearance.

The event's setting was perfect, journalists were invited to witness Samsung's Virtual Reality demo via Gear VR headsets. Once the Gear headsets were removed, Zuckerberg appeared in his usual grey T-shirt. After couple of moments of shock, the journalists and photographers started running toward the stage in order to click a picture. He was there to shed light on the collaboration between Samsung and Facebook for VR technology. Sadly, people were just too spellbound to listen to his words.

Anyway the whole idea of creating buzz was achieved for Samsung. An Australian TV presenter did a show only focused the chaos created by Mark's appearance. Though the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge are great devices, they were eclipsed by the tech celebrity's presence. On 22nd February, the morning TV and radio shows in Barcelona started with Mark Zuckerberg's name. There is no doubt that the MWC event is pretty big, but all the companies making major announcements about their product were pushed to second place because of this unexpected surprise.

Samsung is back in the game and they leaving no stone unturned to make the recently announced Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge successful. It is understable as many things depend on these two smartphones. The Galaxy S6 was released last year around February and it had some high risk redesign elements ever taken in the lifetime of the of the Galaxy S series. But it didn't get much traction owing to general market saturation, and the irreplaceable battery coupled with provision for embedded storage only. What took Samsung by surprise was the huge demand for the Galaxy S6 edge's in the initial period. They could not manufacture substantial number of curved screens for this device and that caused blockage in sales funnel.

In 2016, Samsung is making sure to listen to customer sentiments for the Galaxy S7 and S7 edge. Although the design might not be premium, the chassis factor of the device is premium. They are concentrating on the things that matter the most in the new age smartphones - performance of the snapper in low light, battery power, toughness. Along with all these they have reinstated the microSD slot in order to expand memory storage.

Given below are the final set of features of this device:

• 12 MP primary camera
• Super fast processor (Exynos 8890 and Snapdragon 820)
• 4GB RAM (DDR4)
• Water resistant chassis
• Samsung Smart Switch with USB
• Bigger battery
• Android 6.0 Marshmallow with Edge UX
• LTE Cat 12 modem
• Display screen in always on mode
• Vulkan graphics and Game Launcher
• Liquid cooling for heat dissipation
• microSD slot

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Barcelona was the site of much interest from Samsung device lovers who wanted to see what the SE Asian company had in store for consumers. A couple of flagship devices and a 360-degree virtual reality camera received much of the buzz at the industry event.

The Galaxy S7 could easily be mistaken for the Galaxy S6. Okay, so it has been updated with a more metallic look and it is sleeker too, but it is unmistakably an S series device. Fans of the S series device will also be pleased to learn that Samsung have been listening and return some of the features removed from the S6. Namely, the microSD card slot has made a welcome return and storage limits are bumped up to 200GB. The water resistance is also back, so if you spill a coffee on the phone, it might just survive. Remember, we didn't say waterproof, it's only water resistant.

The camera drops from 16-megapixels to 12-megapixels, but the larger pixels and f/1.7 aperture lets in more light for improved low-light performance. The autofocus is faster and a front-facing selfie flashes the screen to provide more light. The 5.1-inch Super AMOLED screen and Snapdragon 820 SoC makes the phone hum along.

The Galaxy S7 Edge also gets the 12-megapixel camera and microSD card slot. It also have more curves in the design and space for notifications. The icons and tabs are larger to match its 5.5-inch screen. The processor is the same as with the S7.

Both devices are released on March 11 and will be compatible with the Samsung Gear VR headset which is offered as a bonus for anyone pre-ordering either device.

The Samsung Gear 360 is a 30-megapixel 360-degree camera that uses 2 fish-eye lenses to capture images and video. Its resolution is 3,820x1,920 which is almost the 4K standard. Each f/2.0 fish-eye lenses covers 195-degrees and images can be stitched together using the S7 or S7 edge. The device is not expected for release until the summer season.

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