Hasta La Gadget!

This week AT&T will be pushing the Samsung Galaxy Note Premium Suite upgrade with Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich, and we’ve got our hands on it right this minute. This upgrade in software brings you several features in S-Note and S-Memo and also brings on Android Beam with NFC as well as facial unlock – the strangest screen unlock of them all! You’ll also gain access to a strange application that’s also out now for the Galaxy S III: Samsung’s My Story app.

First have a peek at some of the behind-the-scenes changes, starting with NFC. This device is now able to use Android Beam to send photos, videos, and more to other devices just so long as they also have NFC and Android Beam activated. At the moment it does not appear that this feature works between the Galaxy Note and the Galaxy S III – each time we’ve tried it out, S-Beam interferes and says that it is incompatible with the Galaxy Note. A similar situation happens with our Galaxy Nexus with Jelly Bean – the beam option appears on the Nexus side, but trying to send a photo results in a message that informs us that the other device (the Note) does not accept large file transfers. The Note itself does not appear to have any response other than the “boooh” sound effect and a haptic shake, no beaming out anywhere. We expect that this situation will be fixed rather rapidly.

Recent Apps can now be pulled up by holding down your Home button. This ability works perfectly well, and closely resembles the vanilla version of the feature.

Face unlock has been activated for your lockscreen. This ability also works just as well as it does with the most updated version of Ice Cream Sandwich on the Galaxy Nexus (the only Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich Nexus device on the market. Android 4.1 Jelly Bean updates this feature to be able to work with more than one photo of your face for added security, and this one does as well, but here you’ve only got to hold up a still photo of yourself to make the unlock work. In Jelly Bean, the unlock screen requires that you move your face and head to get in – this being called a Liveness Check – the Note doesn’t quite have that yet.

This updated Galaxy Note also comes with better data usage monitoring, now allowing you to add warnings and shutoff for data caps.

S-Note

Starting with the app S-Note’s new Productivity Tools, Samsung’s suite of note and memo-taking apps has just gotten a bit sweeter. In the Productivity Tools you’ve now got, you can work with Formula Match, Shape Match, Handwriting-to-text, and Knowledge Search. You’ll be using Wolfram Alpha for both formula and knowledge.

With Formula Match, you’ve got handwriting recognition that works undeniably well to turn a scribbled down equation into something perfectly legible, first of all. Then once you’ve got that equation – however complicated or simple it may be – sent to Wolfram Alpha to either give you the answer or graph out the system’s findings.

In Shape Match you can now draw simple shapes and they’ll be corrected for you. This means that if you draw a wobbly circle, it’ll be turned into a perfect circle. If you draw a three-sided shape that looks kind of like a triangle, it’ll be a perfect straight-edged triangle. You can also make lines.

You’ll have Handwriting-to-text working for you, but it’ll take a bit more getting used to than the other features when you use it straight up. Write one word, it’ll be translated into whatever the system thinks it is essentially instantly. After one word, you’ve got to tap the space bar or the next word will be entered right after the first, and so on. It’s a good start, and it’s extremely smart!

Then there’s Knowledge Search for when you just don’t want to speak your questions out loud. Here you’ll also be working with handwriting to text (if you want to) or you can straight up type into the app, but in the end you’ve got a sentence and you’ll be entering it into Wolfram Alpha again.

Have a peek at each of these four in the hands-on video here:

You may now also add a collection of items to a new note in S-Note, including:

• Photos from your gallery or a brand new photo
• Objects you’ve clipped using your S-Pen
• S-Memos
• A map of your current location or a map of a location of your choosing

You’ll find that PDF Annotations are also now activated inside S-Note. Here you’ll be able to insert and annotate PDF documents to your heart’s delight, share or save a PDF, or print straight from the app. You’ll have to import a PDF before you begin to annotate, and you’ll find your annotated files in the Galaxy Note file directory if you need to access them later from outside the app.

There’s an S-Memo Widget that’s brand new as well, here allowing you instant access to the S-Memo app in general as well as shooting you straight to Type, Write/Draw, Add Picture, Voice Recording, or Search.

As a bit of a bonus it seems, both the Galaxy S III and the Galaxy Note have gotten access to a Samsung-promoted app that only works thus far on the two devices themselves. This app is called Samsung’s My Story and it allows you to make greeting cards that can be shared to and from the app to other users also using the app. Inside the app you’re able to add photos, change titles, and generally have an entertaining time fiddling around until you’re ready to send it off to a friend whose also got a Galaxy S III or Galaxy Note. Samsung continues to build a vertically integrated system, piece by piece.

Benchmarks

As a bit of a bonus, here are a few benchmarks run on the Galaxy Note with this software upgrade installed. Compare these to the original benchmarks we’ve got in the full review of the AT&T Galaxy Note and/or your own AT&T Galaxy Note as it stands here and now. Note that these benchmarks are taken without the device being rooted, it being in its stock state.

Software Update Timeframe

This Premium Suite software upgrade will be dropping this week – starting on the 10th of July, 2012, and pushing to users throughout the USA across the whole week. You’ll need to use your Samsung Kies desktop software to make this update happen, just as you’ve had to for each other software update for the device.

Check out our full review of the Samsung Galaxy Note for AT&T and head down to the timeline below to see all of the most recent Galaxy Note action as well!

AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note Premium Suite software upgrade hands-on is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Samsung launched its new premium TV ES9000 in Korea on July 2. As a Samsung’s flagship smart TV to tap into the global large screen premium TV market, ES9000 features a 75 inch super screen with luxurious design in rose gold color. ES9000 also adopts Super Ultra Slim Design to reduce its bezel to mere 7.9mm. The definition qualities greatly improve in clearness, contrast and brightness by adopting Diamond Black Panel to provide best visual qualities in the ultra-sized screen. Furthermore, …

Anyone looking to fill half of their lounge with Samsung LCD just got a new size to choose. The 75-inch ES9000 is the bigger brother of the ES8000 that we saw earlier this year and ahead of the official launch in Korea, we managed to get an early eyes-on at a Samsung event held yesterday in London. In short, if you loved the LED-backlit display of the 55-inch model, you’re going to adore the ES9000, which features the same smart TV brains alongside a retractable webcam unit housed on the top edge. The picture was pleasingly rich and sharp — presumably due to the aforementioned backlighting and the ES series’ edge-to-edge design. The bezel is a mere 7.9mm and Samsung has decided to coat the frame in a gentle Rose Gold coating which, due to the TV’s slightly shady location, was a little trickier to pick out. That premium finish is matched by a premium price tag, however, and will hit checkbooks for 19.8 million won (around $17,450). Despite the UK appearance, retailer John Lewis (which hosted the event) couldn’t confirm whether retail models would be coming to its stores in the future. But if you can afford 75 inches of TV, you can also afford a quick flight to Seoul to pick one up.

Samsung announces 75-inch ES9000 smart TV for Korea, with similarly gigantic price tag (eyes-on) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 05 Jul 2012 08:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Monster announced its 2012 headphone line-up back in May, including cans borrowing style from the Stealth Fighter and some seriously ostentatious models even Lady Gaga might blanch at, and we grabbed some hands-on time today. Most eye-catching – though we’re not sure we’d actually wear them – are the Monster Diamond Tears, as faceted and light-catching as the name would suggest.

They even come in a jewelry-esque box which lifts the headphones up toward you as you open the lid. So far so good – they even sound decent too – but we’re glad Monster ditched their original tagline of “Edgy like diamonds, smooth like tears” as it almost sounds like a threat.

If the Diamond Tears aren’t butch and manly enough for you – or if you fly a top-secret spy plane – then the Monster VEKTR with Diesel might fit the bill. Fewer facets and a lot more black plastic, they use similar internals but tuned to the fashion brand’s “musical style” which, as far as we can tell, is a mixture of thumpy-thumpy and punchy treble.

Looking almost pedestrian in comparison are the Monster Inspiration headphones, squared off and folding conveniently, with a choice of regular or active-noise-cancellation models. They feature interchangeable headband inserts, which snap into place magnetically, allowing you to replace the discrete black leather default with studded, colored or fabric alternatives. Monster will be running a promotion in the UK for the Olympics, bundling two different bands as standard and offering buyers their choice of a country-themed insert too.

Then there’s Monster’s range for teens, slotting into the gap, so the company explained to us, where previously it would have been pushing the Beats Solo headphones. Both over-the-ear and in-ear options are offered; the former, rather than folding, have a “practically indestructible” headband based on the idea that most wearers tend to hang their ‘phones around their neck when they’re not using them, rather than putting them in a bag.

The in-ear alternative, meanwhile, has neat anti-tangle flat wires and magnetic backs that click together behind your neck, allowing you to wear the set like a lanyard.

Monster headphones hands-on: Diamond Tears, VEKTR and Inspiration is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Samsung‘s ES9000 LED HDTVs were overshadowed by the company’s 55-inch OLED announcements, but the flagship LCDs are taking their turn in the spotlight now with the vast 75-inch model leading the way. SlashGear caught up with Samsung in London today, along with a hastily-freighted-in first 75ES9000 unit that had been brought specially from Korea this week.

Even if you have a sizable LCD or plasma strung up on your living room wall, it’s hard not to be impressed by the scale of the 75ES9000. 75-inches of 1080p Full HD resolution makes for a set that’s bigger than some peoples’ actual windows – then again, who needs natural daylight and a view when you can call upon live, on-demand and internet content through Samsung’s Smart TV system.

The ES9000 series has the same Smart TV functionality as we played with on the D8000, with the latest apps for the UK market including Netflix, BBC Sport – just in time for Wimbledon and the 2012 Olympics – and BBC iPlayer. There’s also a pop-up webcam that appears from above the top edge of the bezel, used for video calls, gesture control and face-recognition. This particular unit was running Korean software, though, as its literally just dropped in from Samsung HQ.

With WiFi onboard, among other things, the 75ES9000 can hook up wirelessly to speaker systems and your home network, and stream video, photos and music from your phone – that’s a Galaxy S III looking dwarfed in the photo below – and picture quality is incredible. Viewing angles are practically 180-degrees, and the color saturation rivals some OLEDs we’ve seen.

So how much will this slab of 75-inch visual goodness set you back when it launches in time for the holiday 2012 shopping season? Unfortunately Samsung isn’t saying, though it’s not a hard guess to predict this won’t be anywhere near a cheap TV.

Samsung 75-inch ES9000 HDTV hands-on is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.