Tuesday, January 31, 2012



Posted: 30 Jan 2012 04:53 PM PST

Samsung is among the most familiar brands around, that’s a gimme. In addition to being more familiar with the general consumer because of its great electronics and gadgets, it has a bit of a niche following too— considering it has some of the most popular devices in the game. Although it is one of the more popular brands among Android users, its brand is not as popular as a certain giant from Cupertino. That’s why Sammy wants to take the next step in its popularity and have consumers become not just intrigued with Samsung products, but it wants to consumers to become passionate fanatics… or even obsessed with the Samsung brand.
Sammy has made it clear of its intentions too. In a recent interview, marketing executive Younghee Lee stresses it is ready to “change people’s attention” because “people are obsessed with Apple”. Sounds ambitious, doesn’t it? Since Samsung has some of the more popular phones around and also has some clever ads to promote its capabilities recently, I’d say Samsung is off to a great start.
It looks like Sammy is ready to unleash an all-out attack for 2012 too. It is scheduled to air a commercial spot during this weekend’s Super Bowl for starters which will likely promote is uber-cool Galaxy Note phone. Don’t forget— Samsung has a sponsorship for this year’s Olympic games as well, so you can expect the brand to launch a major product… and we think we may know what that major product will likely be too. There’s no better 2-week stage to promote a superior device, don’t you think? This will be in addition to the additional barrage of other existing products.
You’ve already been Samsunged. You all ready to become Samsunged and obsessed?
source: Droid Life
via: AllThingsD
Posted: 30 Jan 2012 04:51 PM PST

Samsung has big plans for Super Bowl Sunday. They just tweeted that a  device will be launched alongside their first ever Super Bowl ad, stating that “only an ad in America’s biggest game can do it justice.” They also mentioned that it will be one of the longest ads during the event. Taking into account the going rate for average Super Bowl ads, a 60 second spot would cost them $6 million dollars. I think they are pretty pumped about this one. But what will the ad be for exactly? Their follow up tweet specifically mentions the Galaxy Note, but the first is cryptic enough for me to believe they have something else up their sleeves. Maybe, maybe not.
Looks like we have about a week before game time. Until then, start your speculating!
source: Twitter
via: TheNextWeb 
Posted: 30 Jan 2012 02:59 PM PST
While I am certainly not one to use this app, as I live in the USA, those in London that ride public transportation may find this app to be quite useful. As the company puts it, the UK’s best-selling travel app has made its way to Android phones and you can instantly know when your bus will be arriving at any of London’s 20,000 bus stops. You can get the lite version of Buschecker by Fat Attitude LTD. which offers you a 30 day free trial of it’s full features. Otherwise you’ll be paying about $1.95 for all its features. They include:
MAIN FEATURES: 
  • Live, updated countdown display of bus arrivals.
  • Real-time GPS map of nearest bus stops.
  • Full route maps for all London Bus Routes – see exactly where your bus goes.
  • Service information – diversions/closures/cancellations.
  • Home screen widget – live arrivals for your favourite stops.
  • Tap on bus numbers to filter the list: see screenshots.
  • Details bus stop information – routes/map location/direction.
  • Map/route number display – find the right bus to get you home!
Hit the break below to get your free trial of what is considered one of the best apps for traveling by the likes of BBC Click, The Telegraph, Guardian Online, The Independent and Wired UK. While this app doesn’t work for me, I would certainly recommend anyone in or traveling to the UK in giving this a shot and letting us know what you think in the comment section below. Also if you’re interested you can check the video on it below. Enjoy!
Click here to view the embedded video.
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Posted: 30 Jan 2012 02:25 PM PST
Remember that “unplugged” teaser Motorola did before CES? They weren’t kidding because I’ve had the DROID RAZR MAXX for a couple of days now, and all I can say is if battery life is any concern to you, you can forget about anything else and just buy this phone. I’m still conducting more tests, but I wanted to give you some of my preliminary results.
Day 1
I took the RAZR Maxx off the charger at midnight and it sat idle for 8 hours. I was sleeping so I can’t verify, but it should’ve been on 4G LTE most of that time, but it could’ve switched to 3G periodically since I don’t live in the heart of the city. It lost 20% during these first 8 hours, and by the time 24 hours rolled around, it still had 5% left. I would say it wasn’t a heavy day as far as usage. I played games for a couple of hours and streamed Slacker for maybe 40 minutes. The display was on 20% of the time or about 5 hours. The display was set to automatic brightness, but I realized late in the day that the GPS wasn’t turned on. Bluetooth was on (but rarely connected) and WiFi was off. All in all, I would say the battery performance was superb, but I decided to work it a little more for day 2.
Day 2
GPS on, Bluetooth on (rarely connected), Wifi off, and Auto display off and turned up to about 2/3′s brightness. I took it off the charger at 7:00am and by midnight (17 hours later) it had 5% left. A lot less, but I did a lot more with it. Other than doing a little gaming and Slacker again, I played 4 hours and 15 minutes of video. The display was on a total of 42% of the time or a little over 7 hours. It was mostly connected to 4G, but some 3G was probably thrown in. 17 hours is tremendous considering the amount of video and the fact that the brightness was set fairly high, not to mention it wasn’t officially dead yet. It might have lasted another 2 hours with light usage.
To give you an even better comparison, my Galaxy Nexus also came off the charger at 7:00am, and it was dead by 7:30pm, 12 1/2 hours later. My Nexus has extended battery (2100mAh), was on WiFi the majority of the day, Bluetooth off, GPS on, auto brightness off and set to 2/3′s brightness. The display was on 42% of the time or roughly 5 hours. I didn’t play any games nor did I play any video. Again, this was on WiFi all day except for about 2 hours.
Seriously, I never expected it to be a competition. It’s 3300mAh vs 2100mAh. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out who’s going to win.
Motorola has really changed the game with the DROID RAZR MAXX. At 8.9mm thick and a 3300mAh battery, no competitive phone comes close. The DROID RAZR MAXX is the only phone I’ve used in which I don’t need to panic when it’s down to 10% remaining battery. It could easily go another 3 plus hours with light usage.
I will continue to conduct more tests and add those results in my full review.
Posted: 30 Jan 2012 02:14 PM PST
As many know by now, the mighty duo of CEO’s at RIM, Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis have stepped down only to promote one from within.  Taking over as single and only CEO of Research in Motion is Thorsten Heins, a four year COO who worked closely under Jim and Mike.  In recent news, he’s been given the cold stare thanks to making such statements as “I don’t think there is some drastic change needed,” and  “We are evolving. We’re evolving our strategy, we’re evolving our tactics, our processes.”  As one standing from the outside looking in, I’d argue in favor of a drastic change, personally.  But hey, RIM’s the competition so I’m not pressing the issue.  However, the question does arise, should Google’s Android be afraid?  As much as I would love to shout from the roof top “hell no!“, I”ll try to keep it professional here.  
With RIM falling drastically behind every quarter, Android, iOS and Windows Phone pretty much occupy the top three OS’s of choice when thinking of purchasing a smartphone in the US, it’s very likely there’s no room for a fourth.  RIM would have to seriously step up its game if they want to penetrate the top three and make a serious come back in the market.  And the only way they are seriously going to do that is with a major wow factor.  And by “wow factor” I mean both in the software and the hardware department  There’s simply too much talk going on and as much as Blackberry fan-boys want to defend the new CEO, it doesn’t look like he’s on-board with any kind of “change”.  So, should Android be worried?  While BB10 or BBX (QNX) does look promising as well as some of the hardware floating around like the Blackberry London, it’s hard to say.  However, the newly anointed CEO states that he wants to focus more on current Blackberry owners and how to get them upgraded in a timely manner rather than focusing on a new innovative product.  On the one hand you want to think that the combo of hardware and software appears to be promising but on the other, even if they were to release such a device like this tomorrow, specs under the hood would be an entirely new post altogether.  RIM is notorious for releasing yesteryear’s specs and in my opinion Android and iOS are in no immediate danger, not by a long shot.  The company has barely introduced 1GHz CPU’s while most new Android devices will be launching quad-core processors.  However, everyone knows competition is good and more is usually always better.  So, on behalf of the Android community, I’d say to Thorsten and RIM, get it together if you want to play with the big dogs.  You’ll have to do better than devices like the Galaxy Nexus, Galaxy Note and Droid Razr Maxx if you want to stay relevant in the industry.  And who knows, there’s speculation that maybe Microsoft will buy them out, increasing their market share instantly while simultaneously benefiting the Enterprise industry.  It’s either that or quietly die.   Only time will tell if Heins’ new road map for RIM will keep them in the game.  We’ll see what the company can produce at MWC.  Stay tuned as we follow our competition closely and feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments below.
Posted: 30 Jan 2012 01:10 PM PST
On the 21st of  this month we brought to you an article about Notion Ink‘s sequel tablet the Adam II and how it would be packing an OMAP processor. This is a complete change up to the Tegra platform they were running in their original Adam tablet. A lot of folk begin to question the change from one processor to the next. In fact, they’ve been questioned enough to release an official statement explaining the reason they made that switch. While we could argue various semantics with benchmarks, memory bandwidth and so on, what really matters is how the power is utilized. In the end this is the argument that was used by Notion Ink.
The main reason that they made the switch from Nvidia to TI is because they think that they can get a lot more mileage out of the chipset. In most documentations, white papers, etc TI’s OMAP comes out as top dog. If this is coupled with OMAP’s better battery life you have yourself a good reason to switch. Tegra 3 quad-core is built using a 40nm fabrication process while the new OMAP 5 chips uses a smaller 28nm process. This makes them cheaper to produce and sell to possible manufacturers while also consuming less power.
While right now this all looks good on paper, we will have to see it in a real world application in order to say one way or another. Stay tuned as we find out more information on this sequel device!
Posted: 30 Jan 2012 11:16 AM PST

For the next 100 days, mobile phone use is punishable by death.
This is the news we’re hearing trickling out of North Korea, where the country is in mourning for the death of Kim Jong-il. This will continue for 100 days out of “respect” for the late dictator. Anyone found to be using a mobile phone during this period will be labeled a war criminal for which the penalty guarantees jail time and in some cases, death.
Though not an explicit reason, it seems likely that this outlawing of mobile phones also has to do with the the events from Spring 2011. In a time without concrete central power, the Korean government surely wants to prevent any sort of uprising that could occur from mobile phone coordination.
The decision is plain surreal to those of us here in the western world. What would you do without your phone for 100 days? While mobile phones aren’t as ubiquitous in North Korea, for the supposed 700,000 who do have and use them, just imagine being in their shoes when you fire up your favorite app.
source: AndroidPit
via: AndroidAuthority
Posted: 30 Jan 2012 10:41 AM PST
Canadians are rejoicing today because they are set to receive the awesome Samsung Galaxy Note next month. Best Buy Canada has just confirmed it will unleash the phone to the masses February 14th for a cool $249.99 on a 3-year contract. Considering AT&T is set to release the phone around February 19th in the States, Best Buy’s release date looks to be accurate. Best Buy lists the device will operate with mobile carriers Rogers, Telus and Bell, though pricing information is mysteriously absent for the Rogers version of the phone. No word yet on off-contract pricing, but you can expect it will be around or over the $600 mark. If you’re in Canada and you fancy a Galaxy Note, head on over to your local Best Buy store and pre-order that bad boy today.
source: Mobile Syrup
via: Best Buy
Posted: 30 Jan 2012 10:18 AM PST
A couple of weeks ago, I reviewed 3D Stunt Marbles, which is a cool game, but if you’re looking for something conceptually the same, but a little different, the folks over at Zebralightning Studios just released Marble Droid.
With 3D Stunt Marbles it’s more about getting from point A to point B without rolling off the track. With Marble Droid, you want to get from point A to point B, but the maze or playground isn’t as dangerous. You need to figure out how to collect the orbs the fastest way possible. I say they aren’t dangerous, but I’ve only played 3 levels. The playgrounds include ramps, elevators, moving platforms, bumpers, boost pads, and even teleporters for warping to other parts of the playground. I found myself completely immersed in the playgrounds that Zebralightning Studios created, and I’ve only played three levels so far. I can only imagine how awesome the higher levels are going to be.
You can use the Accelerometer by tilting your phone or tablet (or an on screen joystick) to navigate your marble around the maze. You can even jump with a flicking motion. You can also easily change the camera angles by tapping on the the top, bottom, right or left sides.
Like many games (Angry Birds and Cut The Rope), you’re graded. While most games use stars, Marble Droid uses trophies. Just like those other games, you will unlock the next level by completing the current level (earning at least one trophy), but ultimately you want to get all three trophies to feel like you truly accomplished the level. The faster you do it, the more trophies you earn.
Marble Droid also adds OpenFeint support and the ability to unlock twenty different custom marble skins. For starters, there are 24 levels, and you can play easy, medium, and hard.
Marble Droid is one of those games you know you’re going to love before you actually play it. It costs $1.99 which is worth every penny. If you want to try it out, there is a demo version as well, but trust me, go right to the paid version because this game will give you hours and hours of fun. I’ve tried Marble Droid on the Galaxy Nexus, DROID RAZR MAXX, and the ASUS Transformer Prime. The only issue I had was with the Transformer Prime, and it was minor. The marble seemed to jump too easily, but of course that can be adjusted. Checkout my quick hands on video, and hit one of the links below to download.
Click here to view the embedded video.
Posted: 30 Jan 2012 09:25 AM PST
As if Samsung’s portfolio wasn’t big enough already, they’ve now called into action the new kid on the block.  Joining Sammy’s deadly arsenal of successful devices is the new “Galaxy S Advance”.  The Galaxy S Advance appears to be more of the Galaxy Note’s little brother but without all of the heft.
"The GALAXY S Advance adds to the successful track record of the GALAXY smartphone range with a phone that combines power and style with all the versatility of Samsung's Hub services," said JK Shin, President of IT & Mobile Communications Division at Samsung Electronics.

The device comes to the table with a 1GHz dual-core CPU under the hood, a 4-inch Super AMOLED display for crisp colors, 16GB of memory and 768 MB of RAM.  In addition, the handset will offer support for HSPA connections in the 14.4 Mbps range and touts a 5 meg rear facing camera and 1.3 meg front facing shooter.  And we already know what you’re going to ask, is ICS on board?  No, sorry.  The device will initially ship with Gingerbread 2.3 along with the usual Samsung apps variety.  We haven’t received word yet on how much the device will initially run price wise but we’re sure it will be revealed soon.  The device will initially see a gradual roll-out beginning with Russia some time next month.  Europe, Africa, Southeast and Southwest Asia, Latin America and China will soon follow suit.  Pretty much everywhere but the United States.  Feel free to scour the official press release below and don’t forget to let us know what you think in the comments as well.    

Press Release:

SEOUL, Korea – January 30, 2012 – Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd, a global leader in digital media and digital convergence technologies, today announced the launch of the Samsung GALAXY S Advance. Designed for those who define themselves by the phone they carry, the GALAXY S Advance strikes a balance of style, power and performance. It will be available in Russia starting from February, and then be gradually rolled out in CIS, Europe, Africa, Middle East, Southeast and Southwest Asia, Latin America and China.
"The GALAXY S Advance adds to the successful track record of the GALAXY smartphone range with a phone that combines power and style with all the versatility of Samsung's Hub services," said JK Shin, President of IT & Mobile Communications Division at Samsung Electronics.
Dual Core performance, curved design and Super AMOLED display
Powered by a dual core 1.0 GHz processor and HSPA 14.4 Mbps connectivity, the GALAXY S Advance has been built with power and connectivity in mind, delivering great versatility and a highly responsive user interface for easy multitasking. Application start-ups are faster with virtually no lag time, and the user experience is boosted with smoother screen transitions, faster image processing, and enhanced Web download and browsing performance.
The GALAXY S Advance's curved glass design enhances handling of the phone and fits the user's facial form easily and naturally. Its 4.0" Super AMOLED display provides the stunning visuals users have come to expect of Samsung GALAXY smartphones, offering unparalleled color reproduction and ensuring that photos and videos captured with the device's 5MP camera can be enjoyed with vivid clarity.
The Samsung user experience
Running on Android Gingerbread and featuring Samsung's TouchWiz user interface, the GALAXY S Advance enables users to stay connected through the Samsung Hubs and ChatON services. Music Hub offers a full music store experience with access to over 11 million tracks and the ability to fully personalize users' own music catalogues. Readers Hub offers access to over 2.3 million e-books, 3,500 magazine and 200 newspaper titles; while the hugely popular Game Hub offers access to thousands of catalogued games supplemented by gamer news feeds and news.
Samsung's cross platform communication service, ChatON connects all phone users into a single community using phone numbers instead of usernames and passwords, provides aneasy instant messaging, group chatting and sharing of content in multiple formats—images, video, voice, contacts, calendar—to make messaging simpler and more intuitive than ever.
The GALAXY S Advance also features Find My Mobile, a unique lost-phone management system that ensures secure phone data encryption in case of phone loss, and that enables users to trace their lost phone directly via the Web or even delete the device's data remotely.
For multimedia content and more detailed information, please visitwww.samsungmobilepress.com
Note to Editors: Samsung GALAXY S Advance product specifications
Network
 HSPA  14.4Mbps  850/900/1900/2100EDGE/GPRS  850/900/1800/1900
Process 
 1 GHz Dual-Core Processor
Display
 4.0" WVGA(480×800) Super AMOLED display
OS
 Android 2.3(Gingerbread)
Camera
 Main(Rear) : 5 Megapixel Auto Focus Camera with LED FlashSub(Front) : 1.3 Megapixel Camera
Video
Codec : MPEG4, H.263, H.264, WMV, DivX, VC-1
Recording/ Playback : 720@30fps
Audio
 Codec : MP3, AAC, AAC＋, eAAC＋, WMA, AC3Music Player with SoundAlive
3.5mm Ear Jack, Stereo FM Radio with RDS
Value-added Features
 Samsung TouchWiz/ Samsung L!ve Panel UX
Samsung Apps
Samsung Kies 2.0/ Samsung Kies air/ AllShare
ChatON(Downloadable via Samsung Apps)Readers Hub(Downloadable via Samsung Apps)Music Hub Game Hub
＊Service availability differs by region
GoogleTM Mobile Services- Android Market™, Gmail™, YouTube™, Google Maps™, Syncing with Google Calendar™
Polaris Office
Find My Mobile 
A-GPS
Connectivity
 Bluetooth® technology v 3.0 High SpeedUSB 2.0Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n
Sensor Proximity, Accelerometer, Geomagnetic, Light, Gyroscope
Memory 8/16GB User memory ＋ 768MB(RAM)microSD (up to 32GB)
Size 123.2 x 63.0 x 9.69 mm, 120g
Battery
 Standard battery, Li-ion 1,500mAh
＊ All functionality, features, specifications and other product information provided in this document including, but not limited to, the benefits, design, pricing, components, performance, availability, and capabilities of the product are subject to change without notice or obligation.
About Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. is a global leader in semiconductor, telecommunication, digital media and digital convergence technologies with 2010 consolidated sales of US$135.8 billion. Employing approximately 190,500 people in 206 offices across 68 countries, the company operates two separate organizations to coordinate its nine independent business units: Digital Media & Communications, comprising Visual Display, Mobile Communications, Telecommunication Systems, Digital Appliances, IT Solutions, and Digital Imaging; and Device Solutions, consisting of Memory, System LSI and LCD. Recognized for its industry-leading performance across a range of economic, environmental and social criteria, Samsung Electronics was named the world's most sustainable technology company in the 2011 Dow Jones Sustainability Index. For more information, please visit www.samsung.com.

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