We've heard a few rumors about Samsung's upcoming Galaxy S8 phone. It might have a larger, 4K screen and no headphone jack.
But a new report from Bloomberg says much bigger changes are in the works for Samsung's new flagship. The Galaxy S8, it says, will ditch the physical home button for an all-screen design on the front.

The home button would become a virtual one, buried inside the OLED screen, Bloomberg says quoting sources familiar with the matter.
The report has no further details about the phone's specs, but does say the phone might come out in March or April of 2017, possibly due to tougher testing procedures which Samsung is employing to avoid another Note7-like fiasco.
The report echoes numerous rumors that Apple's next iPhone will come with a similar, all-screen design.
If the reports are true, neither of these phones would be the first to feature such a design: Xiaomi's Mi Mix has incredibly thin bezels on the front, with the front camera being moved to the bottom and the standard top speaker being replaced with a piezoelectric one. And Sharp's Aquos Crystal had a similar design back in 2014.
As futuristic as they look, both these phones have a number of issues such as the awkward positioning of the front camera and unwanted screen touches. If Apple and Samsung can come up with better solutions for these problems, we might finally get a truly exciting new development in the somewhat stale smartphone market.
Samsung has officially announced its Galaxy S8 in November. The only official bit of info on the phone so far is its new digital assistant from Viv Labs — an AI company whose founders built Siri and which got acquired by Samsung in October.

 

 

Your TV May Soon Be Able to Mirror Your Android Screen

It's easy to mirror an iOS device to Apple TV in just a few taps, and it looks like Google has taken notice.
According to source code tucked away in its latest Android 4.4.1 update, first reported by ZDNet, Google may be looking to make your TV screen mirror your Android phone display. This would be an extension of its existing Chromecast device and ultimately make it easier for users to "streamcast" and control content on a larger screen.
The Chromecast device plugs into any HDTV to stream online videos and music, controlled from apps on your tablet or smartphone. The $35 HDMI dongle, which debuted this summer, supports Vimeo, Redbox Instant, Netflix, YouTube, HBO Go, Pandora and Hulu Plus.
Android 4.4.1, the first update to KitKat, was mainly focused on updating the software to improve the experience of the camera on the Nexus 5 smartphone.
"It improves the camera with faster focusing, especially in low light, faster white balancing, for truer colors, the ability to pinch-zoom the viewfinder in HDR+ mode and less shutter lag," Google wrote on Nexus' Google+ page.