Category Archives: Android

The Samsung Galaxy S4 has arrived – read on

Android, Tech News

The Samsung Galaxy S4 has been launched, and here are the full specifications. First Impressions will be posted soon.

– 5 inch Full HD Super, 441 ppi, AMOLED (1920 x 1080) display

– 13 Mega pixel Auto Focus camera with Flash & Zero Shutter Lag.New features include: ‘Dual Camera’: so you can take simultaneous photos and videos using both the rear and front cameras, then blend the pictures together

– Samsung Smart Pause means you can control the screen using your eyes. When you are watching a video, the video pauses when you look away, then it starts right up again when you are back.

– Samsung Smart Scroll allows you to scroll the browser or emails up and down without touching the screen. It detects your eyes and recognises the movement of your wrist, and then scroll the pages up or down accordingly

– The Galaxy S 4 supports HSPA+42 Mbps and 4G LTE which means wherever you are in the world, you can rely on perfect connectivity. The LTE version supports up to 6 different band sets which allows it to function in most LTE coverage areas as well as enabling global LTE roaming

– Air View allows you to hover with your fingers to preview the content of an email, S Planner, image gallery or video without having to open it. You can even see a magnified view on the internet browser, or a phone number saved in the speed dial on the keypad. With ‘Air Gesture’, you can change a music track, scroll up and down a web page, or accept a call with a wave of your hand

– Dual Camera – See both sides of the story. Two cameras, one extraordinary photo. Capture ‘I was there’ moments of your life by simultaneously shooting with the Front and Rear cameras. Get the shot you want with more varieties and styles to choose from. With Dual Video Call or Dual Video, friends and family can experience everything with you, no matter how far they may be.

– Sound & Shot – Listen to your photos.Every picture you take on the Samsung GALAXY S4 can come with sound. So now you can remember what was said, played, and heard, not just what it looked like. It adds another layer of excitement to help you relive and share every moment of each picture much more vividly.

– Drama Shot- Capture every action in one photo.Get a sequence of photos in one frame to create a collage that tells the story better than a single photo could. Drama Shot lets you take a series of pictures of any moving subject and puts them together – so you can see the detailed action that’s seamlessly merged into one very dynamic photo.

– Group Play – Share the enjoyment with friends. Get your friends together and let them enjoy your music simultaneously. Wirelessly connect multiple Samsung GALAXY S4 phones to play games and share photos and documents. Get all Samsung GALAXY S4 phones together and create a powerful sound system that enhances the sound quality and keeps the party going.

– Story Album – An album for every occasion. Have the Samsung GALAXY S4 organize your photos and create albums based on specific events or customize them the way you want. You can even apply themes and choose various layouts. Then print the photos and hold the memories in your hand.

– Samsung Hub – One stop shop for any content you want. With the Samsung GALAXY S4 you can browse and shop through any content available from every Samsung Hub in one place. Videos, games, music, learning – it’s all in one Integrated Store. It has what you’re looking for in an easy to use and stylish magazine layout.

– S Translator. No more language barriers Say or text what you need translated into your new Samsung GALAXY S4 and it’ll read or text back the translation. The Samsung GALAXY S4 is a handy companion while traveling abroad, allowing you to easily communicate with locals, discover exotic foreign dishes, and explore hidden hangouts around the world.

– S Health. Achieve more for your health Stay active and fit with the Samsung GALAXY S4 phone. It will track your workouts, daily intake, and weight levels. Know current status of your surroundings for your activities with the Samsung GALAXY S4’s Comfort level. It shows your comfort level based on temperature and humidity. Monitor your progress with both Health board and various charts. Together with Samsung GALAXY S4, being motivated for better health has never been so easy.

– Adapt Display. Optimized display settings that fit you Give your eyes a rest and let the Samsung GALAXY S4 adjust your view. With 7 automatic modes and 4 manual modes, the Samsung GALAXY S4 provides the optimal viewing experience. See your favorite videos, games, books and emails displayed with amazing color quality. Get the perfect and optimized view with the Samsung GALAXY S4.

– Samsung Adapt Sound. Sound, the way it was meant to be heard Hear everything with the right balance and perfect volume customized for you. The Samsung GALAXY S4 dials music up and down and balances left and right audio based on your hearing, the sound source and your preferences. The Samsung GALAXY S4 provides an optimal sound experience tailored to you.

– HomeSync. Enjoy your personal cloud Samsung HomeSync is the optimum personal cloud device for family entertainment. With 1TB of storage capacity, Samsung HomeSync stores tons of pictures and videos once it’s taken wherever you and your family members are. Bring Android games, movies, TV shows and streaming content direct into your living room on a large and vivid TV. Mirror Mouse, the specialized navigating feature of Samsung Samsung GALAXY S4’s, is a much simpler and easier way to enjoy all the features of Samsung HomeSync!

2G Network GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
3G Network HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100
4G Network LTE
SIM Micro-SIM
Dimensions 136.6 x 69.8 x 7.9mm
Weight 130 g (4.59 oz)
DISPLAY Type Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors
Size 1080 x 1920 pixels, 5.0 inches (~441 ppi pixel density)
Protection Corning Gorilla Glass 3
SOUND Alert types Vibration; MP3, WAV ringtones
Loudspeaker Yes
3.5mm jack Yes
MEMORY Card slot microSD, up to 64 GB
Internal 16/32/64 GB storage, 2 GB RAM, 16gb has 8.9gb available to the user
DATA GPRS Yes
EDGE Yes
Speed HSDPA, 42.2 Mbps; HSUPA, 5.76 Mbps
WLAN Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band, DLNA, Wi-Fi Direct, Wi-Fi hotspot
Bluetooth Yes, v4.0 with A2DP, EDR, LE
NFC Yes
Infrared port Yes
USB Yes, microUSB v2.0 (MHL 2), USB On-the-go, USB Host
CAMERA Primary 13 MP, 4128 x 3096 pixels, autofocus, LED flash, check quality
Features Dual Shot, Simultaneous HD video and image recording, geo-tagging, touch focus, face and smile detection, image stabilization, HDR
Video Yes, 1080p@30fps, dual-video rec., check quality
Secondary Yes, 2 MP,1080p@30fps, dual video call
FEATURES OS Android OS, v4.2.2 (Jelly Bean)
Sensors Accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass, barometer, temperature, humidity, gesture
Messaging SMS(threaded view), MMS, Email, Push Mail, IM, RSS
Browser HTML5, Adobe Flash
FM Radio No
GPS Yes, with A-GPS support and GLONASS
Java Yes, via Java MIDP emulator
Colors White Frost, Black Mist
– Wireless charging (market dependent)
– S-Voice natural language commands and dictation
– Smart stay, Smart pause, Smart scroll
– Air gestures
– Dropbox (50 GB storage)
– Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic
– TV-out (via MHL 2 A/V link)
– SNS integration
– MP4/DivX/XviD/WMV/H.264/H.263 player
– MP3/WAV/eAAC+/AC3/FLAC player
– Organizer
– Image/video editor
– Document viewer (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF)
– Google Search, Maps, Gmail,
YouTube, Calendar, Google Talk, Picasa
– Voice memo/dial/commands
– Predictive text input (Swype)
BATTERY Li-Ion 2600 mAh battery
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The Amazon Threat

Android, Apple, RIM, Tech News, Windows

I have strongly believed that the biggest threat to the mobile space won’t be Apple vs Google or vs Samsung but Amazon vs The Rest. Why?

Well it already has one of the best media libraries and credit card details for millions of customers. It already has the logistics and customer service setup to deal with mass selling of hardware. And Amazon has already sold some top budget android based tablets.

It just announced that its own Appstore on Android, will include expansion to “nearly 200 countries,” after rolling out in Europe and Japan, but wisely it’s asking for developers to get on board first. It already has Game Circle, similar to Apple’s Game Center.

So all that is left is for Amazon to launch a killer phone at a really low cost. The only issues might be the ability to manufacture so many devices versus available resources which probably have been taken up by Samsung and Apple.

One thing that is certain, is that Google, Microsoft, Nokia, Blackberry, Samsung, Sony, HTC and Apple aren’t just going to let Amazon walk all over them. Also shareholders might get twitchy with Amazon still not making a profit! The other certainty is we the consumers are going to have a tough time choosing from some top notch devices.

Siri is a virtual assistant – but remembers your voice for longer than you think

Android, Apple, Tech News,

If you search using Siri, that search query could be kept for a very long time. In the Siri’s Privacy agreement, Apple says that it deletes your user data as well as the recent things that you’ve said to Siri whenever you slide the Siri switch off. But it keeps the older stuff.

“If you turn off Siri, Apple will delete your User Data, as well as your recent voice input data,” Apple’s privacy statement reads. “Older voice input data that has been disassociated from you may be retained for a period of time to generally improve Siri and other Apple products and services.”

So what exactly does ‘disassociated’ mean. And ‘period of time’. And using it to ‘generally improve Siri and other Apple products and services’. This is actually fairly open ended.

This matters, because we often say to Siri more personal stuff than we do with search with Google or Bing. Siri is, after all, a personal digital assistant; someone you can dictate messages to. And if that information is stored on Apple’s networks, it could be used by marketers, or by government investigators, or even subpoenaed in a civil suit years later. I promise I am not being paranoid.

In fact Siri was a big enough concern that last year IBM CIO Jeanette Horan, banned Siri outright on IBM’s networks, worrying that what people said to Siri might be stored somewhere.

Despite Apple’s privacy agreement, it is still not crystal clear about its data retention policies. It is not, for example, linked on Apple’s Siri FAQ page. In fact, it doesn’t appear to exist anywhere on Apple’s website.

Apple is not alone. Google, which offers its own Voice Search software on Android phones, says that it anonymizes audio samples and then stores them for up to 24 months to improve its speech recognition software.

So next time you speak to Siri, just be careful.

Amazon buys Evi Voice Guided Search

Android, Tech News

Amazon is clearly looking to define its Kindle Fire’s software experience as far as it can go, and one area left is voice search.

Amazon had a few choices. Build something from the ground up or buy an established company. It looks like it has bought Evi, the voice guided search. While neither side has publicly commented on the deal, all of Evi’s directors and its company secretary have been replaced by staffers linked to Amazon UK.

One thing is for sure, whatever Amazon’s plans for voice search, we will surely see some evidence when it launches it next incarnation of Kindle devices.

HTC One – cases review

Android, Tech News,

Yesterday I received a rubberised case for the HTC One, as mentioned in my article yesterday.

The design and colour was superb, but after a while felt uncomfortable to hold as the sides were not as smooth as I first thought. Also, there is no cut out for the sim tray.

Well today’s post brought 4 more cases. First was the hard suede finish case from eBay . I got this in 3 colours. Black with the silver is stunning. Also has cutout for sim tray and is comfy to hold. See photos.

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And in green.

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And in grey.

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I also got another similar grey case from eBay but branded. This came in fancy packaging. The screen protector was superb. Its actually fitted in the above photo of the black case.Photo below of MF case.

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And finally from Belkin, their clear matt silicone case. Comfy to hold, overlaps front screen slightly for better protection, but doesn’t look as sexy.

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So as this is the HTC One here is a video highlight of the cases.

Yahoo launches Yahoo Weather and Mail and it looks great

Android, Apple, Tech News

Yahoo brought out a pair of new mobile apps to help broaden its mobile presence. First up on the list is Mail, which is now available in all its tablet-optimized Android slates and iPads. Also added is a Flickr-integrated Weather app for iPhone and iPod touch, which allows you to look at user-submitted pictures of the weather in the city or region you’re checking out. If you upload your weather photos to the Project Weather Flickr Group then there’s a chance you’ll get featured.

The weather app also looks rather polished. All we need now is for this to feature on android.

w680

Nokia awarded injunction against the HTC One

Android, Tech News

Reuters is reporting that Nokia has received an injunction against HTC’s HTC One phone.

Nokia said it won a court injunction that would prevent rival HTC Corp from using microphone components made by STMicroelectronics NV in HTC One phones.

The Finnish phone maker said in a statement announcing the decision by the Amsterdam District Court that the microphone components were invented by Nokia and manufactured exclusively for Nokia phones.

Another battle transpires. Lets see what HTC has to say about this.

HTC One – OTA update version 1.29.401.12

Android, Tech News,

Russian HTC One owners are receiving the following update OTA.

The update contains important update for the smartphone, including:
* Increased system stability
* best geo positioning
* HTC Zoe: improved sound quality
* Camera: Adjust settings
* Bets Audio: improved sound
* Other minor improvements and bug fixes.

Lets hope it wont be too long for others now to receive this.