Sony unveils the Xperia XA Ultra, a head-turning Android phone

House and features a near bezel-free, six-inch display pumping out a vibrant FHD resolution.

If you're used to the company's Z-series of Xperia phones, the XA Ultra brings some fresh ideas to the table. We've already touched on one of them, the edge-to-edge screen.

• Hands on: Sony Xperia XA Ultra review

Similar to how Dell built a 13-inch screen into an 11-inch chassis with the XPS 13, Sony has performed a similar feat of engineering prowess with the XA Ultra by cramming a six inch screen into a form factor that would usually stock a 5.5-inch display.

Next up, the cameras aim to deliver promising results. The rear-facing camera has a 21.5MP sensor and a 1/2.4 aperture Exmor RS sensor. During our testing, the pictures we snapped looked quite alright.

Unlike most other phones, Sony's latest stunner puts as much focus on the front-facing snapper as it does with the rear. You'll find a 16MP Exmor RS sensor that is capable of shooting a wide angle selfie and features optical image stabilization (OIS.)

To round things out, the Sony Xperia XA Ultra packs in a Mediatek Helio P10 chipset, with 3GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage backing it up. Thankfully, the XA Ultra features a microSD card to expand your storage horizon, but at the time of writing, Sony told us that you won't be able to install apps on removable media.

The Sony Xperia XA Ultra is set to release in July if you're in the UK and (fingers crossed) sometime this year in the US. If you aren't a fan of the white model shown in our hands-on photos, you'll also be able to choose between black and lime gold seen above. About that price? We're still waiting on it, so stay tuned for the full.

PlayStation 4 review with video

When the competing consoles were first released, we gave the edge to the PS4 over the Xbox One. And at this point in time, the PS4 is still looking good. It continues to improve thanks to regular system firmware updates and a consistent stream of console-exclusive independent games. Exclusive AAA-titles are less frequent, but the PS4 has some promising titles coming down the pike, including The Last Guardian and Horizon Zero Dawn, both scheduled to arrive in 2016. But if you're concentrating more on the exclusives 2015 has to offer, the Xbox One wins that immediate holiday battle.

The majority of games are available on both platforms and PC. We call these multiplatform games. In our testing, we've found that a handful of titles perform better on a PlayStation 4. The most recent example of this is Call of Duty: Black Ops III.

To be clear: The PS4 and the Xbox One are very closely matched. Both offer a growing library of third-party games -- mainstays like the Call of Duty and Assassin's Creed series, as well as newer titles like Fallout 4 and Rainbow Six Siege. And both double as full-service entertainment systems, with built-in Blu-ray players and streaming services like Netflix, YouTube and Hulu Plus.

At this stage in the game we're still partial to the PlayStation 4. Our reasoning is below -- along with a few caveats about areas where the PS4 can improve.

PS4 ecosystem

The PlayStation ecosystem includes various products with some shared functionality. For example, the PS Vita can stream PS4 games via "remote play" mode. The PlayStation TV (PSTV) can also stream PS4 games as well as play Vita games and legacy PlayStation titles. Select phones from Sony's Xperia line can also stream gameplay from the PlayStation 4.

Sony also offers PlayStation Vue, a cable TV alternative starting at $50 a month available on the PS3 and PS4. PlayStation Now, the company's legacy game-streaming service, is available on every PlayStation platform and lets subscribers play games from the Sony vault. If you purchase in three-month increments, it works out to around $15 a month.

Firmware updates

Sony regularly updates the PS4's firmware -- as of this writing it's currently at version 3.11. Recent updates to the console have brought along features like:

- YouTube live game broadcasting

- Party chat

- Game communities and events sections

- Suspend/resume: The console can be put into "rest mode" and then woken up to resume gameplay without needing to relaunch a game.

- Share Play: Now PS4 owners can "host" a play session and "hand off" the game controller for up to 60 minutes to one of their friends on the PlayStation Network. At the end of the session players can simply restart. Share Play can also work with co-op games that let two players engage at the same time. Share Play works with any PS4 game and only the host player needs a copy of the game and a PlayStation Plus membership.

Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge review

Design hasn't always been Samsung's strong suit. Just two years ago, Samsung released the Galaxy S5. The handset was the most powerful phone available at the time, but it wasn’t a looker. Last year’s Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge signalled a much needed change for Samsung, and the change is only more obvious with the S7 Edge.

On the surface, the S7 Edge looks just like its predecessor. A metal rim is sandwiched between two slabs of Gorilla Glass 4, with a lock switch on one side and separated volume keys on the other. The back is almost completely clean, with a now flush camera sensor, heart rate monitor and a Samsung logo.

Along the top is the repositioned sim-tray, which now pops in a microSD slot too, plus a microphone. The bottom houses the headphone jack (this should always be on the bottom, can other manufacturers please take note), another microphone, a tiny and frankly disappointing speaker, plus a microUSB port for charging.

Rumours suggested Samsung was going to make the switch to the new, reversible USB–C connector that’s already being used on the Nexus 6P, OnePlus 2 and LG G5, but it hasn’t panned out that way. This isn’t really a bad thing, in fact USB–C is more of a hindrance than a help at the minute. Especially as it means getting rid of all those microUSB cables you’ve accumulated over the years.

The front is almost as clean as the back, and features an elongated home button set under the display, plus another Samsung logo – does it really need two?. Unlike the HTC One A9, the front control is a physical button, not a capacitive pad. The front button houses the Galaxy S7 Edge's fingerprint sensor, which is just as fast as all the others on the market now.

Samsung has once again decided not to use on-screen buttons, so glowing ‘back’ and ‘multitasking’ keys light up when needed. Ditching virtual buttons gives you more screen space, but this phone could be even more compact if Samsung went down that route.

Samsung's also redesigned the Galaxy S7 Edge's camera module. Unlike the S6's, the S7 Edge's module sits flat on the phone's back. This might sound like a small change, but it makes a big difference. I can now tap out a text with the phone flat on my desk without it jumping and rocking from side to side.

But, the biggest change between the S6 Edge from last year and the Galaxy S7 Edge is the size. Instead of simply keeping both the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge the same, with just the Edge sides to differentiate them, Samsung has positioned the Edge as the ‘higher-end’ device, pushing up the screen size from 5.1-inches to 5.5-inches.

When I first heard Samsung made this changed, I was a little annoyed. There was something unique about having a fully-powered phone with a screen that was on the small and compact side. It’s a rarity these days. Pick up the S7 Edge though, and you might have to double to check the spec-sheet, surely this phone doesn’t have the same size screen as the iPhone 6S Plus?

Yet it does. Somehow Samsung has managed to cram a large screen into the body of a much smaller phone. Next to the iPhone 6S Plus, the S7 Edge is narrower, shorter and much lighter. I can even use it comfortably in one hand, stretching my thumb from one corner to the other without too much trouble. There’s something else the size increase helps too: those gorgeous, sloping curved edges. The Galaxy S7 Edge is the fourth Samsung phone to use this design trait, but it’s the best implementation I've seen yet.

The S6 Edge was difficult to hold for an extended period, while the Galaxy S6 Edge+ was simply too big. The Galaxy S7 Edge, though, is just right. There’s enough space between where the curved screens stops and the back starts to grip, while the newly curved back – reminiscent of the Galaxy Note 5 – slips nicely into my palms. In short, it feels great to hold and it’s an impressive feat by the Samsung design team that these slight changes have made such a big overall difference.

Just like the microSD slot, Samsung has brought back another fan favourite from the Galaxy S5; an IP68 rating for water-resistance. While this is by no means a vital feature, it’s admirable that it has been added without any noticeable loss to the design. There are no flaps covering the ports, no added thickness and no extra space between the display and glass.

What does an IP68 rating mean? Well, you’ll be able to dunk the Galaxy S7 Edge into one meter of water for up to 30 minutes without damaging the phone. Basically, you can use it in the rain without issue and even watch some YouTube in the bath without worrying about an accidental slip. Not that I did that, honest.

SAMSUNG GALAXY S7 EDGE – SCREEN

5.5-inch quad-HD panel, dual curved edges

If the design of the S7 Edge is stunning, then the same word can be used to describe the display. Not a whole lot has changed from the outgoing flagships, but this still holds up as the best screen on a smartphone for a number of reasons.

First up is the sheer amount of detail here. Samsung didn’t try and go all-out with a 4K display, but really when quad-HD (that’s 2560 x 1440) looks this good I don’t think there’s much of a need for more pixels. Maybe it would help make VR even better with the Gear VR headset, but that’ll probably come next year.

Things to Do After Fresh Installation of Ubuntu 15.10 Desktop!!

  So Ubuntu 15.10 has been released and is time to find out what you can add to make your Ubuntu experience even better. It doesn’t matter if you are have a fresh install of Ubuntu 15.10 or just upgraded from Ubuntu 15.04 to Ubuntu 15.10 version, these tips will help you add some flavor to your Ubuntu install. So let’s begin, shall we?

1. Check for Updates

No surprises here. Even though you might have just installed Ubuntu 15.10, you will surely want to have all your packages updated to their latest stable version.

This should provide better stability and in some cases performance of your system. To check for new updates, you can start the “Software Update” application. For that purpose simply click the Unity button and type “Software update“:

Update Ubuntu 15.10

The software will automatically check for newly released updates and install them automatically as shown.

Checking Software Updates

Installing Software Updates

Alternatively, you can start a terminal application and run the following command:

$ sudo apt-get update

Installing Updates from Commandline

2. Look and Feel

Ubuntu hasn’t change its outlook in quite some time now (few years if I’m correct). The ambiance and radiancetheme are not looking bad at all, but they look somehow old compared to other operating systems. But let’s not forget that Linux is flexible and it can be customized. You can change the appearance of your Ubuntu by using the “System Settings” -> Appearance.

Customize Ubuntu Desktop

Here you can select:

• Different Desktop wallpaper
• Choose different theme (quite limited at first, but you can install more)
• Change the icon size of Unity

3. Install Unity Tweak Tool

If the “Appearance” menu is not providing enough settings for you, you may add some additional tweaking features by installing Unity Tweak Tool. It can be easily installed from the Ubuntu Software Center. Simply type “Unity tweak tool” and install it:

Install Unity Tweak Tool

Unity Tweak Tool

Unity Tweak Tool allows you to greatly customize Unity’s settings including – autohide, icons theme, panel settings, behavior, switcher and many many others. It’s fair to say that you can play with this tool for hours until you finally decide which settings are the best.

4. Install Graphics Drivers

Using the proper drivers for your graphics card is important cause you can get better experience on your system, without the laggy movement of different windows. Not only that, but you can also play games on your Ubuntu Linux system which will require the proper drivers to be installed.

To install your graphic drivers, simply start the Unity dash and type “Additional Drivers” and click on the icon. A new window will appear which will automatically search the proper drivers:

Install Graphic Drivers

When found, choose the appropriate version and install it.

5. Install Media Codecs

Media is great part of the desktop experience. Whether is for listening music or watching movies, installing media codecs is a must! Due to some patent issues, the codecs are not included in the default Ubuntu install.

You can however choose to install them upon Ubuntu install. In case you have missed that, you can easily install them from here or you can directly install from ‘Ubuntu Software Center‘.

Install Ubuntu Restricted Extras

6. Install GIMP – Image Editor

GIMP is a free image manipulation software. It’s one of the best in it’s category for Linux and it’s your best friend if you need to edit an image on your Linux machine.

GIMP can easily installed either via the Ubuntu Software Center:

Install Gimp in Ubuntu 15.10

Or by simply running the following commands in a terminal:

$ sudo apt-get install gimp gimp-data gimp-plugin-registry gimp-data-extras

7. Integrate Online Account

Ubuntu supports different type of online accounts such as Facebook, Twitter, Gmail and many others. You can easily integrate them via Unity Dash -> type “Online Accounts“. In the new window you will be able to choose which accounts to configure:

Add Online Accounts in Ubuntu

8. Install Google Chrome

This is probably the first thing I do whenever I install a new operating system. Google Chrome is currently the most used web browsers and if you have not given it a change yet, I highly encourage you to do so. It’s amazingly fast, easy to use and comes with thousands of useful extensions.

To install Google Chrome simply go to the following article and download and install the .deb package that matches your OS (32-bit or 64-bit) as shown in the article.

1. Install Google Chrome in Ubuntu

9. Install Synaptic Package Manager

Synaptic is a package manager that allows you to install/update/uninstall different packages as well as fix broken dependencies. And all this, with an easy to use graphical interface.

Installing Synaptic package manager is simple as:

$ sudo apt-get install synaptic

Install Synaptic Tool

When the install is complete, you will be able to find Synaptic in Unity dash -> Synaptic.

Synaptic Package Manager

10. Install some Media Applications

As mentioned earlier, Ubuntu does not come with great support for media files. This is why you can install some more apps to help you with media files:

1. VLC
2. Smplayer
3. Audacious
4. QMMP
5. Mixxx
6. XBMC
7. Handbrake
8. Openshot

All of the above can be found in the Ubuntu Software Center and can be installed with a single click.

11. Install Spotify

Spotify is probably the best alternative to iTunes right now and has millions of songs to enjoy on it. It’s a multi-platform program that can be installed on Ubuntu as well.

To complete the installation open a terminal and type the following commands:

$ sudo apt-key adv --keyserver hkp://keyserver.ubuntu.com:80 --recv-keys D2C19886
$ echo deb http://repository.spotify.com stable non-free | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/spotify.list
$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install spotify-client

After installation of Spotify, when you launch you will get a following error.

$ spotify
spotify: error while loading shared libraries: libgcrypt.so.11: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

Its due to libgcrypt11 package is no long comes with default repositories and Spotify depends on it and will not be installed wihtout libgcrypt11 package.

To install and use Spotify on Ubuntu 15.10, all you have to do is to install the libgcrypt11 deb package for your distribution from HERE.

12. Install Archive Applications

By default Linux can easily handle tar files, but to extend the amount of different archive files you can use on your Ubuntu system (zip, tar.gz, zip, 7zip rar etc) install the following packages by running the command below:

$ sudo apt-get install unace unrar zip unzip p7zip-full p7zip-rar sharutils rar uudeview mpack arj cabextract file-roller

13. Install Chat Applications

What’s a desktop operating system if you can’t use it for chat? There are many different chat applications for Ubuntu and here are some of the most famous ones:

1. Pidgin
2. Skype
3. Xchat
4. Telegram
5. aMSN
6. Viber

Most of these are easily installable from the Ubuntu Software Center. If you don’t like too much clicking, you can use these commands:

$ sudo apt-get install pidgin
$ sudo apt-get install skype
$ sudo apt-get install xchat
$ sudo apt-get install amsn
$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:atareao/telegram -y
$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install telegram

To install, you will need to download and install the Viber package as shown in the following article.:

1. Install Viber in Ubuntu
2. 
   

Install Viber in Ubuntu

14. Install a Torrent Client

Ubuntu comes with “Transmission” which is a great torrent client, but it lacks a good interface and is not that practical. Instead you can install qbittorent which has a more modern look and is much easier to use.

To install qbittorent, run the following command:

$ sudo apt-get install qbittorrent

Install qbittorrent in Ubuntu

15. Install Wine

Wine is a Windows emulator and allows you to run Windows applications on your Ubuntu system. Unfortunately not all apps are supported and some might be buggy, but at the end you will be able to do the job.

Installing wine can be performed by running:

$ sudo apt-get install wine winetricks

16. Install Steam

Steam is a multiplayer platform developed by Valve. It provides many different games on different platforms including Linux. You can choose from great variety of different games and play with friends locally or online.

To install Steam, simply go to Ubuntu Software Center and look for “Steam“:

17. Install DropBox

DropBox is a cloud storage service where you can keep your files, photos or documents. It can be easily integrated with your Ubuntu system by installing the desktop client. For that purpose simply go to the following article and follow the instruction as stated in the article to install Dropbox on your Ubuntu.

1. Install Dropbox in Ubuntu

When the installation finishes, you will be able to find the application in Unity Dash -> DropBox.

18. Install Compiz

Adding some extra visual effects can be great for your Ubuntu Desktop. Compiz provides different awesome desktop effects for your desktop. The installation is fairly easy. Open a terminal and run the following command

$ sudo apt-get install compiz compizconfig-settings-manager compiz-plugins

19. Install SystemBack

Creating system backups is vital. That way you can always restore your system to an earlier working state in case of disaster. That’s why you can install tool such as SystemBack to create backup of your Ubuntu system.

To do this, run the following commands in terminal:

$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nemh/systemback
$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install systemback

20 Try different Desktop Environments

Ubuntu is not only limited to Unity. It can be used with different desktop environments such as cinnamon, mate, GNOME and others. While there are Ubuntu releases with those IDE’s pre-installed, you can try them within one Ubuntu installation.

To install cinnamon you can use the following command executed in a terminal:

$ sudo apt-get install cinnamon-desktop-environment

Installing GNOME can be completed with:

$ sudo apt-get install gnome-shell ubuntu-gnome-desktop

And finally MATE can be added with:

$ sudo apt-get install ubuntu-mate-desktop

21. Install Youtube-dl

Youtube-dl is a small command line tool that can help you download videos from YouTube. It can be easily installed via:

$ sudo apt-get install youtube-dl

An extensive guide how to install and use this tool can be found in our article here.

22. Adjust Privacy Settings

While the Unity Dash is great for finding different things on your OS, there might be some information you may not want to see. For example weather results, wikipedia links or different amazon products. You can adjust that, by going to “System Settings” -> “Security and Privacy“.

In there you can:

• Disable online features in the Unity Dash
• Choose which folders and files appear in searches
• Turn off automatic error reporting

23. Enable extra repositories

You can add some extra repositories for even more cool stuff. For that purpose enable the “Canonical Partners” repos via Software & Updates -> Other Software.

24. Setup a Printer

To use your printer with Ubuntu, you will need to setup the printer first. This is rather easy task. Simply follow these steps:

1. Make sure printer is on
2. Connect the printer to your computer with the appropriate cables. You might be asked to install additional drivers if the system founds one
3. You will be notified once the driver installation is complete

In case the printer is not automatically found:

1. Go to Unity Dash and search for “printers“.
2. Click “Add” and select the printer from the list of available devices
3. Click “Forward” and wait while the system searches for drivers
4. You can customize the printer’s name, description and location. When you are ready, click “Apply“
5. Try printing a test page to see if the printer works fine.

25. Enable Workspaces

With Ubuntu Unity Desktop you can use more than one workspaces. Workspaces can improve your productivity….significantly! To enable workspaces in Ubuntu, open Unity Dash -> System Settings -> Apperance.

26. Install JAVA

JAVA is a programming language and many programs and websites won’t work properly unless you have it installed. To install JAVA in Ubuntu 15.10 run the following command:

$ sudo apt-get install openjdk-8-jdk

27. Install laptop tools

If you are using Ubuntu on a laptop, you can install additional tweak tools to improve your laptops battery and power consumption. These tools can improve your battery life and add some cool new features. To install laptop tools, run the following command in a terminal:

$ sudo apt-get install laptop-mode-tools

Conclusion

So there you have it folks. You just saw that even in a good operating system such as Ubuntu 15.10 there is still room from improvements. I hope you liked the article and that it helped you improve your Ubuntu desktop experience.