This video makes total sense, because stalking a girl with your Galaxy S4 is totally going to land you a date. Wait a second, that makes absolutely no sense. You’re more likely to end up with a restraining order against the person, let alone a date. This ad joins the ranks of Microsoft’s peculiar watermelon-chopping ad for weirdest promotional video ever.
[BGR]
While Apple is hard at work trying to push the retina display to more Mac models, Samsung is pushing a panel that trumps what Apple offers. The 13.3-inch QHD 3200 x 1800 panel with 276 pixels-per-inch (PPI) is going to be available on a range of high-end notebooks this year, likely alongside Intel’s latest Haswell CPU refresh.
Apple shipped the Retina MacBook Pro at last year’s WWDC. Since then, a similar display has made its way to the 13″ MacBook Pro. Rumors point towards more Mac models receiving the retina treatment at WWDC 2013, which is less than a month away. However, Samsung (among others) is busy trying to push the high-resolution display towards the mainstream. Will Apple do the same?
Consumer Reports has ranked the new Samsung Galaxy S4 as its top-rated smartphone, dethroning the LG Optimus G handset. Its rankings are determined by several critical areas of testing, including the camera. In particular, the report praises the Galaxy S4′s screen:
The S4 has an excellent 5-inch, high-definition (1080p) touch-screen display, as well as oodles of gesture- and sensor-based tools for accessing and sharing content you create and capture on your phone. The display is sensitive enough to use with gloves on—handy during cold weather.
Multitasking is another strong point for the Galaxy S4:
A true multi-tasker, the S4 lets you run two apps simultaneously in a split-screen view. For instance, you can watch a video while checking e-mail, or you can use Google Maps and Messaging simultaneously. We did find that battery life and voice quality varied slightly between cell carriers, as with the LG Optimus G.
I’ll still side with the HTC One as the best Android smartphone, but the Galaxy S4 is still almost equally as impressive.
The Galaxy S 4 may not have been quite as well received as HTC’s venerable One for various issues, but that hasn’t stopped sales. The device, which is now available in almost all regions of the world, is quickly approaching 10 million sales.
Pushed by a tidal wave of both good press, carrier backing, and a massive marketing push, the device’s sales are understandably great. It’s definitely safe to predict that this will quickly become the best-selling Android device to date, with estimates predicting that the phone may actually hit 100 million sales during its lifetime. No shock there: Samsung is absolutely killing it in the smartphone market. It’s unclear how well the S 4′s chief Android competitor, the HTC One, is doing in terms of sales. While the device has been well-received by reviewers and consumers alike, HTC doesn’t have the marketing budget of the Korean juggernaut, and it often shows.
According to The Korea Times, which cites officials, the next-generation Samsung Galaxy Note III will launch at the IFA 2013 consumer electronics show in Berlin next September 6th to 11th. It is unknown if these officials are executives within Samsung or external sources.
A recent rumor calls for the smartphone to have a mammoth 5.99-inch Super AMOLED display with both an 8-core processor and 8-core graphics chip. The handset will also reportedly have 3 GB RAM, a 13-megapixel rear-facing camera and run Android 4.3 with TouchWiz.
(Image Source: Android Central)
Samsung’s Galaxy S 4 was well-received by reviewers and consumers alike, although a common issue is with the included internal storage space. Users found that Samsung’s TouchWiz customizations took up roughly half of the built-in storage. For example, the Galaxy S 4 16 GB version has roughly 8 GB free for users to install applications, store music and videos, and save photos. That’s not a whole lot, particularly considering the large size of the high-quality images and video that can be displayed on the device’s 1080p display.
There’s a chance that might be about to change, thanks to the magic of software updates: (more…)
At the Google I/O developer conference in San Francisco, a new version of the Samsung Galaxy S4 running stock Android — no TouchWiz — with an unlocked bootloader was announced. The smartphone will begin shipping on June 26th on the Google Play Store for $649 (16 GB). While the Google I/O crowd was very receptive about the handset, prompting much applause, the audience went silent when the price tag was announced. It’s expensive.
Nevertheless, the Samsung Galaxy S4 will now gain the same treatment as the Nexus lineup of devices that Google offers. The Galaxy S4, to be available on AT&T and T-Mobile, will now receive more streamlined Android updates, without carrier delays or limitations. Other versions of the Galaxy S4, including the Galaxy S4 Mini and Galaxy S4 Active, are rumored to follow next.
Samsung continues to show its strength as an Android partner, as Korean newspaper The Chosun Ilbo claims the South Korean handset maker shipped 6 million Galaxy S4 units in two weeks. The Galaxy S4 was launched on April 26th, with 4 million units sold in the first five days of availability alone.
“As of the end of April, we supplied four million Galaxy S4 handsets to telecommunication operators around the world,” an executive at the company said on Friday. ”As of Friday, we have sold more than 6 million units, and we predict that we could break the 10-million mark by as early as the end of this month.”
Comparatively, it took Samsung a total of 85 days to move 3 million units of the original Galaxy S, 55 days for the Galaxy S II and 21 days for the Galaxy S III. Samsung is on pace to sell 10 million Galaxy S4s by the end of May, on track with analyst expectations.
Further iterations of the Galaxy S4 are expected to be released in the coming days and weeks, including a smaller Galaxy S4 Mini, rugged Galaxy S4 Active and a TouchWiz-free Galaxy S4 (update: the latter was announced) that runs stock Android.
[The Chosun Ilbo via BGR]
The iPhone 5 has an excellent Retina Display. Even today, compared to the likes of the HTC One and Galaxy S 4 (which each have a larger, 1080p display with a significantly higher pixel density than the iPhone 5), the iPhone 5 holds its head high. This is partially due to the excellent color reproduction and saturation levels of the iPhone, as well as the decent pixel density.
So while the latest Android devices feature incredibly high-resolution displays, will Apple be forced to increase the resolution on their screens to compete? Most agree that the 1080p displays are great, but offer little to no major advantage over displays like the iPhone 5′s. While HTC and Samsung both have excellent panels on their flagship devices, they aren’t so excellent as to be considered vastly superior to what Apple – and others, like Nokia – ship.
It’s a matter of marketing, ultimately. Do you think that Apple will be forced to include a higher-resolution display on their next smartphone in order to compete properly, or is it just not a major factor that consumers care about?
The latest numbers from research firm Canalys are in for worldwide smart mobile device shipments, and Android continues to hold a significant lead. A staggering 183.7 million Android devices were shipped in the first quarter, accounting for 59.5 percent market share. Meanwhile, Apple shipped an estimated 59.6 million devices for 19.3 percent share of the market.
Microsoft finished a close third place behind Apple, capturing 18.1 percent of the market on shipments of 55.9 million devices. It’s important to note that Canalys factors in notebooks alongside tablets and smartphones, so much of Microsoft’s success lies in its strength in the PC market. On the contrary, Windows Phone handset and Microsoft Surface tablet sales have been dismal compared to market leaders Apple and Samsung. (more…)