Samsung Galaxy S5 Will Include More Than $500 in App Subscriptions

Samsung's Galaxy S5 will ship with more than $500 worth of premium app subscriptions and services.

Dubbed Samsung Galaxy Gifts, the services will include long-term subscriptions to fitness, productivity and lifestyle apps, premium app upgrades and subscriptions to The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg Businessweek.

In total, the apps and services bundled with Samsung's latest flagship device will total as much as $576. In dollar terms, the most valuable are a six-month subscription to the WSJ ($160), three months of LinkedIn Premium ($75) and six months of 50GB of storage on Box ($60).

Also included with the handset: a host of fitness tracking and lifestyle apps. New S5 owners will get a year of Lark's premium service (which can take advantage of the S5's heart rate monitoring capabilities), a year of Run Keeper's elite membership and six months of premium membership to Map My Run and Skimble.

The bundle will also include three months of Evernote premium, three months of 1 TB of cloud storage from Bitcasa and more than $50 in freebies from PayPal when shopping from participating retailers.

This isn't the first time Samsung has bundled free apps and services with a new device. The company previously offered similar deals for its Galaxy Note 3 handset and Galaxy Note 10.1 tablet.

Samsung hasn't indicated whether any billing information will be required upfront to access the free trial subscriptions, and which (if any) will be auto-renewed when the trial period runs out. This will likely vary from app to app.

Your Next Job Application Could Be Via Smartphone : Mashable

According to Kiplinger’s Economic Outlooks, 2.3 million new net jobs will be created in the U.S. in 2014. Add that to a recent CareerBuilder survey, which indicates two in five professionals plan to change jobs before the end of the year, and get ready for a churning employment market.

As a result, serious job seekers should be ready to apply for a job at any moment’s notice — even if that means resorting to unconventional methods such as applying via mobile devices.

Mobile recruiting is becoming the 'new normal'

Last year’s Mobile Recruiting Insights Conference reported that only 26 of the Fortune 500 companies offer a mobile-optimized job application process; but prepare for those numbers to change. As mobile device sales surpass PC sales, the business world will likely respond by creating easier mobile processes.

Rayanne Thorn, vice president of product marketing and strategy at Technomedia Talent Management, a global talent management software platform, predicts mobile will become the new normal. 

"More and more people are using mobile for all computing and online activities — online job applications are the norm now. Gone are the days of simply walking into a workplace and filling out an application," says Thorn. "Applying online is now requisite in most pre-hire situations, and with over 7 billion mobile devices out there, applying via mobile should be an obvious standard."

Mobile can be advantageous to the candidate

Even though technology innovations are driving a definite change, it’s not necessarily a bad change for candidates.


Susan Vitale, chief marketing officer at iCIMS, a provider of talent acquisition software solutions, explains why: "Applying via mobile is designed to help the candidate more than the employer. As the economy has improved in recent years, more and more workers are considering changing jobs. Essentially, the goal [with mobile job applications] is to make sure that when you do see a job opportunity listed, you can apply right away (when you’re excited about it!) versus having to bookmark the site and come back to it once you’re back on your computer."

Storing your resume on your device

Candidates need to do some planning before they can apply for a job using a mobile device. First, a copy of your resume must be easily accessible.


When it comes to storing your resume on a mobile device, Thorn has a few suggestions: "Resumes should be accessible in online or cloud storage solutions like Google Docs or Dropbox. Additionally, creating an online resume, either on a site like LinkedIn or by saving a PDF in WordPress is a very good idea — many organizations are recognizing the ease of ‘Apply using your LinkedIn profile’ and have added this to their application process."


Does applying via mobile change response time?

One of the most important questions job seekers and employers alike want answered is whether or not applying via mobile device speeds up the hiring process — ultimately, candidates want to get hired and recruiters want to fill open positions as quickly as possible.

Ultimately, the answer isn’t clear. Smooke leans toward yes: "If a company accepts mobile applications, their recruitment strategy is ahead of most companies, including most Fortune 500 companies. Companies that ‘get' recruiting respond to top talent the same day a candidate applies, reply to all rejected candidates with an invitation to connect on LinkedIn or Twitter and close all interested talent within two weeks."


On the other hand, Thorn says that hiring managers still need to adapt to the speed of improved technology. "Unfortunately, on the other side of the application, the process is the same. You may or may not receive feedback quicker," she says. "I can tell you this –- if a company has a robust mobile-application process, chances are they are doing pretty darn good at updating their process, which means a faster, better experience for all. And isn’t that what we are all striving for?"

More:- http://mashable.com/2014/03/02/smartphone-job-application/