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First look : Samsung Galaxy S III

Arjun Komath — Thu, 03 May 2012 18:53:41 +0000

The Samsung GALAXY S III features a large 4.8 inch HD Super AMOLED display, an 8MP camera and a 1.9MP front camera, and runs Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich.

Video review

Specs

The 4.8-inch display is a Super AMOLED panel with 720 x 1280 (306ppi) resolution, and inserted just above that display? Why, it’s a 1.9MP forward-facing camera which shoots 720p video. Over on the Galaxy S III’s backside, it’s got a simple 8MP camera that can shoot 1080p video. But don’t let that lowly sensor number put you off – Samsung’s got a few camera tricks in store this time, which I’ll touch on in a minute.

Running on one of Samsung’s beastly new 1.4GHz Exynos 4 Cortex-A9 quad-core chips, it comes with 1GB of RAM, and a choice of either 16, 32 or 64GB internal storage configurations (all of which also let you chuck a microSD card up to 64GB in, as well.)

In certain territories (the US, Japan and Korea), the S III will be available in LTE, but we’ll have to make do with HSPA+ here in the UK.

Seven sensors, including an accelerometer; RGB light; digital compass; proximity; gryoscope; NFC, and barometer have been shoved in too.

All of this in a body that weighs 133grams, measures 136.6 x 70.6 x 8.6mm, and houses a 2100mAh battery; Samsung’s first smartphone with a battery that size.

New features :

- Smart Stay, which uses the forward-facing camera to determine if you’re looking at the phone. You can set time intervals from as little as 15 seconds, which result in a small flashing eye logo in the Android notification bar. If it recognises that your eyes aren’t focused on the phone anymore, the screen dims.

- Direct Call, which will auto-dial a contact if you have their contact details or a message open. By moving the phone to your ear, the proximity sensor; accelerometer and gyroscope all kick into use, and automatically dial the contact’s number.

- Smart Alert, which will make the phone vibrate in your hand and flash an LED if you pick the phone up after a missed call.

- S Voice, which is a Siri-like voice recognition feature, that you can use to enquire about the weather; take a photo (“Hi Galaxy, please take a photo” to open the camera app, or “cheese” to snap it), and other tasks such as locking the phone, or controlling music. Each demand can be configured by the user.

- Social Tag, which links photos of friends in your photo gallery to their Facebook or Google+ accounts, using facial recognition.

- S Beam, which pairs other Galaxy S III phones (and only them, for now) via NFC, shares photos, videos, files or even albums of media over Wi-Fi. If your friend’s S III doesn’t have Wi-Fi enabled, S Beam will automatically turn that user’s Wi-Fi on, and then off.

- AllShare Cast, which pairs to TVs, laptops or tablets over Wi-Fi, mirroring whatever’s on the S III. You can also use the S III as a game controller.

- PopUp Play, which will literally pop a video out of its player, rendering it in a small thumbnail so you can continue watching while surfing the web or doing other functions on the phone. The thumbnail is movable around the display, even if it’s pretty small.

DreamBoard – An Alternative To WinterBoard

Arjun Komath — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 14:19:37 +0000

DreamBoard is a new jailbreak app that allows users to easily customize their iPhone. The app, which is currently available in the Cydia Store, is a great alternative toWinterBoard – Jay Freeman’s own theme applying jailbreak application.

As you can see in the demo video below, DreamBoard allows users to easily apply an Android OS theme to their iDevice. This places a calendar and weather widget at the top of your Home screen, and app icons at the bottom. However, a variety of other themes can quickly be applied, too.

Android-like gesture-based lock screen for iOS

Arjun Komath — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 06:08:47 +0000

Apple intelligence 9to5mac claims that Apple is working on a new Android-like gestures based lock screen for iOS devices. This new type of lock screen is already being tested internally. The new lock screen system is the same as the one Google Android uses. The user sets up a pattern and needs to input that same pattern in, instead of a password or a four number code. There’s no official word from Apple if it’s planning to push it in the next iOS update or in the future. More screenshots below:

First Dual-SIM Android Phone : Motorola Glam

Arjun Komath — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 14:16:06 +0000

Motorola has introduced first dual-SIM supporting Google Android smartphone XT800 Glam in India. The new Motorola XT800 Glam is India’s first Android smartphone to support dual-SIM (GSM+CDMA) handset. The new XT800 Glam handset runs Android 2.2 Froyo and is priced at Rs. 31,999.

New Motorola XT800 Glam has a 3.7-inch touchscreen FWVGA (480×854) capacitive display supporting 16:9 aspect ratio natively. By default, the new XT800 Glam will come with Google Android 2.2 Froyo update. Aimed at the multi-media frenzy folks, the XT800 Glam handset has a 5-megapixel camera capable of 720p HD video capture and also an HDMI out port for plugging it to an HD TV.

[via techtree]

HTC Flyer Due for March, Prior to iPad 2 release

Arjun Komath — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 14:20:01 +0000

DigiTimes confirmed that the first model from the HTC stable codenamed Flyer is due to begin shipping in US by March. The Flyer will run on Android 2.3 or Froyo and will be upgradeable to Android 3.0 or Honeycomb. The other two models will hit the market in the second quarter of 2011 and both will run on Honeycomb juice. As per the sources, HTC will partner with an unannounced U.S. telecom carrier and introduce the Flyer tablet in March. The company will introduce two more tablets running Android 3.0 in June this year. Flyer is expected to get some lead before RIM PlayBook and Motorola XOOM which are expected to be launched in March-April time frame.The device is rumored to have a resolution of 1280×780 and will be powered by a Tegra 2 dual-core microchip. Other specs included a 32GB memory car, 2GB of internal storage, Wi-Fi, GPS and Bluetooth. It was reported that it would be priced at around $750.

Google Android Devices, Froyo On 51.8%, Gingerbread On 0.4%

Arjun Komath — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 15:53:26 +0000

Google Android 2.2 Froyo has gained 8.4% of the total number of Google-powered devices since we last took a look at the stats published by Android Developers back in December, a tad more than a month ago. According to the figures, Android 2.2 Froyo now powers 51,8% of devices while Android 2.1 Eclair is present on 35.2% (4.4% lower than last month’s 39.6), putting a solid 16.6% between the two. Unfortunately, Froyo is not the latest of Google’s operating system with the launch of Gingerbread, which is only active on 0.4% (most of them probably Nexus S smartphones) of the total devices powered by the platform.

[via pocketnow]

Creamy new Android 2.4 coming out in June ?!

Arjun Komath — Sat, 15 Jan 2011 11:59:56 +0000

Google has code named Android 2.4 as ‘Ice Cream’. Google already has made two new Android versions public, Android 2.3 Gingerbread, available on the Google Nexus S, and Android 3.0 Honeycomb, coming on board the Motorola Xoom soon. But it looks like a third, intermediate Android version is also going to be unveiled at some point in the future and that’s Android 2.4 Ice Cream Sandwich. Android 2.4 Ice Cream is scheduled to be released in June or July of this year.

First time around Android 2.4 was spotted on the newly announced Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc, and Sony Ericsson quickly said that it was just a simple mistake. But now Android 2.4 has been spotted on a Google Nexus S, and below is a video proving that. So, it wasn’t a coincidence after all!

The mobile operating system’s nicknames are based on tasty dessert treats and are named in alphabetical order:

Cupcake
Donut
Eclair
Froyo
Gingerbread
Honeycomb
Ice Cream

No details about potential new features or improvements were provided.

Google Offering music sync on Android 2.3

Arjun Komath — Sat, 15 Jan 2011 11:34:08 +0000

Google will soon bring a native music syncing feature into its Android operating system, as you can see from the leaked image shown below. The image is said to be taken from a device running Android 2.3. It could also hint at an iTunes-like program from Google that would help users better manage their multimedia libraries. (Something like the iTunes store, with lots of media content.) With the Music Sync feature, you can sync all the music contents on your device, it will be stored in the server, so you will always have a backup of your purchase.

Have a look at the screenshot :

Android 2.3 ported to Apple iPhone 3G

Arjun Komath — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 09:24:02 +0000

Android 2.3 has been ported to Apple iPhone 3G, you can see a video of it here.

After several weeks of work, Nick Pack and others have found a way to install the Android OS on an iPhone 3G, using the OpeniBoot software that has been used on previous ports. OpeniBoot is an open source implementation of iBoot for iOS devices, which allows booting of unsigned code, such as Linux kernels, on the device.

Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc Runs Android 2.4

Arjun Komath — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 09:19:04 +0000

While most smartphones are waiting to be updated to Android 2.3 Gingerbread, the Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc is already sporting Android 2.4 (not to be confused with Android 3.0 Honeycomb).

With Android 2.3 already spotted on the ultra slim Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc, it may not be too long before handsets get the update after Gingerbread. The update of course is not going to be major and may be for minor new features that they didn’t have time to include in Android 2.3 Gingerbread.