Hasta La Gadget!

Today at Samsung’s Unpacked event in Germany, the company unveiled an updated version of one of its big tablets — the Galaxy Note 10.1. Until now, the Galaxy Tab 10.1 and the Galaxy Note 10.1 came with a 1280×800 display. The company finally put a 2560×1600 display to better compete with the iPad’s retina display. As always, Samsung bets on its own set of features, such as the S-pen, to convince customers. But Android tablets really shine in the 7-inch form factor, not in the big iPad-like form factor.

Inside the tablet you’ll find the same components as the newly unveiled Galaxy Note 3: an 8-core Octa system on a chip clocked at 1.9 GHz, 3GB or RAM, an 8-megapixel rear camera with a 2-megapixel front camera. Just like the Note 3, you’ll get the same faux-leather casing. Finally, all of this will come in 16GB, 32GB and 64GB models.

But specs only tell part of the story. Why should you get this tablet? Samsung hopes that its unique features are enough to pick this one over an iPad. While it comes with Android 4.3, you will be able to use Samsung’s multi-window mode, S Voice, S Note and everything Samsung. The S Pen is a nice addition that some users will actually find useful. But many users won’t ever use the vast majority of those Samsung-only features.

Yet, the most important flaw is the Android ecosystem itself. 10-inch Android tablets are not popular because Android captured the lower end of the market. That’s why many tablet apps are just scaled up versions of their phone counterparts. Developers don’t spend time reworking the UI for big screens. It still works on a 7-inch tablet, but it makes you feel like you are holding a giant phone with a 10-inch tablet.

When it comes to watching movies, photos and browsing the web, the Galaxy Note 10.1 will be a nice device for Android users. But if you plan to make the best of the display, you won’t find many apps to achieve this. Most Android users would prefer a smaller tablet. It’s easier to carry in one hand and you get the exact same apps without wasting screen real estate. Moreover, the high resolution display will make the overall experience more sluggish with stuttering animations.

While the Galaxy Note 10.1 is a good attempt to compete with the retina iPad, Android still has a long way to go to make these tablets compelling. No word on price or availability yet.

Samsung’s Galaxy Gear smartwatch will launch with 70 native apps, and it turns out that there’s quite a few heavy-hitters in that bunch. Path is available to share photos taken from the Gear’s wriststrap; Pocket users, meanwhile, can have Gear read saved articles out loud. And fitness apps will definitely be in vogue — RunKeeper, MyFitnessPal, Phigolf and others have embraced Samsung’s vision. There are too many other apps to list them all, although we’ve noticed big-name titles like Snapchat in the mix. If you’re planning to pick up Samsung’s wristwear in the next few weeks, there won’t be any shortage of things to do with it.

Filed under: Cellphones, Wearables, Mobile, Samsung

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Source: Pocket

Samsung’s big Unpacked Episode 2 event is underway, and as expected, the company has used the venue to announce the Galaxy Note 3 smartphone. The Note is the original phablet, and the new version continues the tradition of big screen gadgets best-suited for big-handed people.

The new Galaxy Note 3 features a design with extremely slimmer bezels and sharper angles on its rounded edges, marking a slight departure from Galaxy device design language thus far. It’s thinner than its predecessor and lighter (168g), despite offering a larger screen at 5.7-inches. It also offers more battery life than the Galaxy Note 2, and there’s a new and improved S Pen, too. Plus it supports faster, and more “seamless LTE” with multi-band support.

The camera has 4K video recording capabilities with a new CRI LED flash that should improve low-light photography. Samsung claims nearly four more hours of battery life when playing back video, and performance in general during normal use should also extend battery by up to 40 percent over the previous generation.

Samsung was emphasizing craftsmanship with the Galaxy Note, which features a stitched leather rear cover (available in black, white and pink). It also has a metallic rim running around the edge, and there’s a flip wallet accessory available in 10 different colors that also features a larger S View window cover for checking messages, making calls and accessing more info at a glance without having to activate the whole display.

The new S Pen is designed to work with the larger screen. Samsung called it the “key” to unlocking Note features and power. This works via a number of new interface controls. There’s a dot on-screen that appears when you can activate “Air Command,” which is a tool wheel that provides quick access to memo, scrapbooking, screenwriting, and a finder search function. There’s also something Samsung calls “circle,” which uses a circle drawing gesture to capture content you want to save to your scrapbook, as called up via Air Command. Box is a way to multitask, that lets you do two things at once via essentially a picture-in-picture interface.

Samsung’s Knox mobile security feature, which is designed to help increase enterprise and consumer security via partitioned software for consumer and business use for BYOD device users. The Note 3 will ship September 25 in 149 countries around the world.

Samsung’s smartphone fortunes are the subject of major scrutiny at the moment, since the company is perceived as possibly having hit a ceiling in terms of growing its overall share of the market. The company is hosting a meeting with investors and analysts to discuss its long-term plans in the face of these fears, and the Note line drives quite a few sales, though not as many as the flagship Galaxy S4. Estimates for break-out sales of the Note 2 on its own are hard to place, but Samsung has in the past said it anticipated the device would pass 20 million units shipped.

Galaxy Note 3 specs:

• 151.2mmx79.2mmx8.3mm
• 5.7-inch SuperAMOLED 1080p display with 368 ppi pixel density
• 2.3GHz Snapdragon 800 processor, or 1.9GHz Samsung Exynos Octacore depending on market
• Android 4.3
• 13 megapixel rear camera, 2 megapixel front camera
• 3GB RAM
• 32 or 64GB storage
• MicroSDXC card storage expansion
• Bluetooth 4.0, WiFi 802.11ac, LTE Category 4
• 3,200 mAh battery
• LED/IR combo

No information on Galaxy Note 3 availability just yet beyond the September 25 date, and the official Samsung press materials around the launch says only that it’ll make it out to all major U.S. carriers “later this year.”

Developing…

At least one person knows exactly what the much-hyped Galaxy S IV looks like: Samsung’s “secret messenger” Jeremy. In a video posted to Facebook, Samsung plugs its upcoming Unpacked 2013 event where we’re sure to see the new flagship, and inspires envy by letting young’un Jeremy have a quick peek. If the end of the clip is anything to go by, he’s probably had a quick hands-on with it, too. It’s only 10 days until we get a look at it ourselves, but the video does leave us wondering whether it was the S IV in that suitcase in Pulp Fiction all along. Check out the vid for yourself after the break.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Samsung

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Source: Samsung (Facebook)