IFA is the global launchpad for innovations and business addressing global buyers, retailers and media. Along with the innumerable product debuts IFA is underlining its standing as the world’s leading event for the Consumer Electronics and Home Appliances industries. IFA has continued to succeed in 2012: Full display halls, enthusiastic visitors, satisfied exhibitors, and an impressive worldwide media response – all at exactly the right time as the end-of-year phase kicks off.
More than 240.000 visitors, thereof 138.000 trade visitors including 45.750 trade visitors from abroad experienced and utilized IFA 2012. 1.439 exhibitors from 56 countries displayed their latest product debuts on 142.200 square meters rented space. IFA attracted the world´s top tech leaders and global buyers by measuring business exceeding 3.8 billion Euros.
We’ll admit to being puzzled by Sony’s recently uncovered QX10 and QX100 lens cameras — how do they work? Thankfully, SonyAlphaRumors has answered some of our questions with a leaked user manual. Both cameras are mostly independent from their mobile hosts, with each getting its own battery and storage. The two should also have their own shutter buttons and zoom levers, although the QX100 adds a ring control to go along with its larger sensor. The manual still doesn’t answer questions about price or availability, but there’s a chance that Sony will fill in those blanks at its IFA press event next month.
This morning, Bloomberg reports that Samsung Samsung is poised to unleash and Android-powered timepiece at its Unpacked event on September 4th ahead of IFA. Are you ready to wear a gadget called Galaxy Gear?
We know it’s been trademarked and patented and hyped in general, but now we also have a tentative launch date for Samsung’s anticipated smartwatch. A report by Bloomberg, attributed to two unnamed sources, says the device — which we suspect may be called the “Galaxy Gear” — will be unveiled at IFA in Berlin on September 4th. Other details are scarce, beyond the watch reportedly being able to “make calls, surf the web and handle emails” using Android, but that sounds like plenty to be getting on with.
Now this is innovation, folks. Sony’s reportedly gearing up to announce a pair of “lens cameras” that attach to your existing smartphone or tablet. The unique devices are said to feature a sensor, processor, zoom lens, WiFi connectivity and an SD card slot, but no display or other typical controls (beyond a zoom toggle and perhaps a shutter release). You’ll use your handset or slate to control the lens, adjust framing and transmit images. According to SonyAlphaRumors, the electronics giant is expected to release two models: the DSC-QX10 (pictured above) and the DSC-QX100. The latter will ship with the same 1-inch sensor used with the RX100 Mark II, while the other lens will include a larger 10x focal range and a 1/2.3-inch 18-megapixel CMOS sensor. There’s no word on pricing or availability, but with Sony’s IFA press conference right around the corner, we’ll likely get the full scoop (and hopefully some hands-on time) come September 4th.
Samsung has always had a big presence at the annual IFA convention in Berlin. It’s where they’ve unveiled a number of notable devices, including the Galaxy Camera and the Galaxy Note II. This time around, the company is teasing “UNPACKED 2013 Episode 2,” and if their clever “note the date” phrase is any indication, we […]
It’s once again time to get heavy into the world of conjecture for the Samsung Galaxy Note series, this time for the third iteration of the handheld machine that started the series in the first place. What we’re seeing this week is a heavy-handed drop of a release date – September 4th – as well as a rolling-up of specification rumors from the past several weeks. This device may well be the largest (non-tablet) Note in the family yet, and it’ll likely appear right before IFA 2013.
While sources speaking with China Mobile News have suggested the accelerated production on the Samsung Galaxy Note III, a person “close to the matter” speaking with Android Geeks has pinpointed the event in question to September 4th. As in past years the machine has been dropped inside the Berlin-based technology convention IFA, this push for a pre-event reveal would follow instead the Samsung-only event trend of devices like the Samsung Galaxy S 4.
This release will likely be paired with a larger display than in the past, reaching up towards 6-inches instead of the measely 5.5-inch panel working with the Galaxy Note II. While the current-gen machine has an HD Super AMOLED display at 1280 x 720, it’s been suggested that the Galaxy Note III might work with IPS LCD instead, and the size 5.9-inches has popped up more than once.
Inside we’ll likely see specifications rather similar to that of the Samsung Galaxy S 4, as in past iterations. Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean will almost certainly be onboard with Samsung’s TouchWiz UI over the top, complete with a set of hover-friendly abilities like the Galaxy Note 8.0.
The big difference between the Galaxy S 4 and the Galaxy Note III (besides its size and addition of S Pen technology) may be the processor inside. As the Samsung Galaxy S III worked with a Qualcomm processor inside the USA and an Exynos processor abroad, so too has this situation arisen for the Galaxy S 4. It’s been suggested that, as with the Galaxy Note II, the Exynos processor included in the international edition of the Galaxy S device from this generation will be appearing in the USA release of the newest Note.
It all depends on how willing Samsung is to work with Qualcomm radios inside paired with their own “Octa” processor. We shall see!
Rumor has it that Sony is working on two smartphones which it is expected to release some time this year. Back at the Mobile World Congress in February, the company was expected to announce a 6.44 inch full HD display “phablet” which carried the codename Togari, but we haven’t heard much about that device since then. Rumor has it that as part of its “One Sony” branding campaign, the company will be releasing a smartphone that features Sony’s top technologies. The announcement is expected at IFA Trade Show, which takes place in September.
This device reportedly carries the Honami codename and touts a 5 inch dull HD display. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 800, which is a 2.3Ghz quadcore processor that enters mass production in May, will power this device with at least 2GB of RAM. The device itself is said to be dust and water resistant, much like Sony’s Xperia Tablet Z, and is said to have a non-removable battery that ranges between 2,700 and 3,000 mAh. One of the major features of this smartphone is said to be its camera, a 20 megapixel shooter on the back with a Cybershot CMOS sensor and Carl Zeiss lens.
Is there room in the market still for e-paper ereaders? Kobo says yes, and has the consumer research to prove it and the new model, the Kobo Aura HD, it claims will fit the bill. A survey of 10,000 of the company’s existing users found that 90-percent plan to buy a new, dedicated ereader sometime in the next twelve months, Kobo says; 36-percent apparently have both a tablet and an ereader, and 53-percent use their ereader every day. We caught up with Kobo to take a look.
For that target audience of avid readers, Kobo insists that E Ink remains the way forward for usability. The Aura HD’s panel sees a step up in specifications, however, with a 1440 x 1080 resolution, 6.8-inch Pearl panel, running at 256ppi; it also has front-lighting, as we’ve seen on other recent ereaders from Amazon and B&N, though Kobo claims its system offers the most even illumination. It’s certainly bright and looked consistent across the panel. Inside, there’s WiFi b/g/n though no cellular connectivity, Kobo telling us it still doesn’t believe the hassle of getting 3G/4G hardware certified and the costs of data involved make it worthwhile for its audience.
Kobo is pretty keen to highlight its angular back-panel, though, modeled after a creased sheet of paper. The raised edges give your fingers somewhere to rest, so the theory goes; in practice, it’s certainly not the thinnest way to read an ebook – the iPad mini and Nexus 7 have replaced a standalone ereader for many – but the Aura HD is easy to grip and feels like it could survive a fall from your nightstand. Physical controls are limited to a power button (finished in a contrasting color) and a key for the “ComfortLight” illumination.
Everything else is operated with the touchscreen, which seems reasonably responsive. The Kobo homescreen pulls together your recently read titles – complete with both a percentage of how much is read, and a useful indication of roughly how long it might take you to read the rest, handy if you’re trying to plan ahead for a journey – with recommendations for new books and authors. A tally keeps track of how many books you’ve finished and how long you spent reading them, and you’re prompted to rate completed titles. The Aura HD also supports basic gaming, like chess, with widgets to access your most recent game.
In use, what impresses the most is the clarity of the ereader’s screen. Even at small font levels, there’s no graininess or jagged edges to the text, something Kobo said it achieved not only by virtue of the higher-density display resolution but by going back to first-principles with the fonts and redesigning them pixel-by-pixel to suit the E Ink panel. The screen is also 30-percent larger than other ereaders of a similar scale, and together with the improved readability at small sizes, that means more text on a single page and fewer turns. Fewer turns also adds up to longer battery life, as e-paper displays like the Aura HD’s only use power when they’re changing the content of the display, not maintaining it.
Otherwise, it’s pretty much par for the course for the Aura HD. The onboard 4GB of storage can be expanded by up to 32GB with a microSD card, and there’s a new Freescale i.MX527 processor that, at 1GHz, is apparently 25-percent faster than any rival model out there. We can’t say we noticed a significant uptick in speed, though we also didn’t encounter responsiveness issues.
Kobo has high hopes for the Aura HD, and says there’s still a strong market for ebook-centric devices rather than tablets. In fact, its own ereader sales tripled year-over-year, something the $169.99/€169.99 Aura HD is expected to contribute to. It’s already up for preorder in the US and Europe, and will arrive in US and UK stores come April 25.
Samsung may have only just put its S-Series Ultra HD TVs on sale recently, but the company isn’t slowing down, revealing it has new models – big and small – due in September. Presenting at the pre-IFA Global Press Conference, Samsung confirmed that it has larger and smaller versions of its UHD S9000 sets running at 4K resolution for IFA 2013 later this year.
The company wouldn’t be drawn on exactly how large or small the new models would be, only referring to the 85-inch “entry level” S-Series set currently available. That leaves plenty of room for those with smaller rooms to find a model to fit, though whether they’d have sufficient space to make the most of the high resolution remains to be seen.
There’s also the question of content, something which even Samsung concedes that is significantly lacking unless you’re relying on upscaling. Broadcast UHD shows aren’t expected until 2016 at the earliest – Samsung pointed out that the decoding and tuner standards aren’t settled upon yet, which means they can’t yet build them into the TVs with any confidence – while physical content will probably land in 2015.
Streaming or downloading might be the answer, though it’ll demand a fat internet connection. Again, though, there are issues surrounding that, not least the fact that the HEVC codec likely to be used – the successor to the MPEG4 codec currently prevalent – isn’t yet standardized for UHD 3D at 60fps.
In short, “currently there is no television which is compatible with the upcoming UHD standards” Samsung admitted, its own included. However, the firm is relying on its Evolution Kit to fill that gap down the line, a slot-in box that will add an upgraded processor, graphics chip, connectivity and more, bringing older sets up to speed with technology released after they’ve gone on sale.
So far, though, we’ve only seen Evolution Kit plans for the 2012 range, granting them the same specs as the 2013 line-up; it’s unclear how far back Samsung will retroactively be polishing old products. We’ll be at IFA 2013 in September to find out how the new size Ultra HD sets slot into the new range.
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