"All my apps and data were wiped. I feel so empty"
Back in the good ol' days, between walking a mile to school shoe-less, in the snow, you'd make you're own fun with a cardboard box and a piece of string. Or so my Dad tells me.
In 2013, people seek entertainment on their phones, with 23% of the people surveyed by Apigee saying they "would be unable to feel happy" without the apps on their phones. Like, at all. No laughter, warmth or contentedness without apps.
And, it gets worse.
If you agree with anything you see here, it's time for a camping holiday
12% wouldn't be able to order dinner, 20% couldn't navigate to work and 19% would be unable to maintain relationships.
Puh-lease
Who are these feeble-minded idiots? Cavemen with square-eyes, scratching about in the dirt with sticks until their phones beep at them? Waiting on a GPS unit to point them to McDonald's and then back to bed again?
For perspective, we should point out that, even though Apigee did search far and wide -- surveying people in France, Germany, Spain, the UK and US -- the total number of respondents totaled only 762. So, not example a brimming sample pool.
And, its possible the answers to this survey were taken out of context. Maybe listing Facebook and SMS as the primary ways you communicate with loved ones translates to "destined to die alone and without ever finding love" in garbage-survey land.
It's also worth noting that Apigee is a company dedicated to selling API platforms to developers, so the more people who seem unable to live without apps, the better business will be for them. Still, anyone reading this who can be counted among the 700 respondents should be ashamed of themselves.
Are you listening, mobile Pandora users? That's the sound of free unlimited music shriveling up.
The internet radio service today announced a plan to cap free mobile listening at 40 hours per month, starting in March.
The reason, explained Founder Tim Westergren in a blog post, is rising royalty rates.
"Pandora's per-track royalty rates have increased more than 25 percent over the last three years, including 9 percent in 2013 alone and are scheduled to increased an additional 16 percent over the next two years," he wrote.
"After a close look at our overall listening, a 40-hour-per-month mobile listening limit allows us to manage these escalating costs with minimal listener disruption."
The other 96 percent
Pandora-ites will remember the company introduced a 40-hour monthly cap on free desktop listening previously but rescinded that policy in September 2011.
According to Westergren, less than 4 percent of Pandora users ever hit the 40-hour mark a month, meaning a small percentage of uber users will be effected.
Average Pandora people usually hang out around the 20 hours of listening a month across all devices, not just phones.
That said, should you exceed the listening limit, you'll need to fork over US$0.99 for the remainder of the offending month.
Of course, there's still the option to listen limitlessly on desktops and laptops, or to pay US$3.99 for a Pandora One subscription that not only offers unlimited tunes but eliminates groove-interrupting advertising.
Are you listening, mobile Pandora users? That's the sound of free unlimited music shriveling up.
The internet radio service today announced a plan to cap free mobile listening at 40 hours per month, starting in March.
The reason, explained Founder Tim Westergren in a blog post, is rising royalty rates.
"Pandora's per-track royalty rates have increased more than 25 percent over the last three years, including 9 percent in 2013 alone and are scheduled to increased an additional 16 percent over the next two years," he wrote.
"After a close look at our overall listening, a 40-hour-per-month mobile listening limit allows us to manage these escalating costs with minimal listener disruption."
The other 96 percent
Pandora-ites will remember the company introduced a 40-hour monthly cap on free desktop listening previously but rescinded that policy in September 2011.
According to Westergren, less than 4 percent of Pandora users ever hit the 40-hour mark a month, meaning a small percentage of uber users will be effected.
Average Pandora people usually hang out around the 20 hours of listening a month across all devices, not just phones.
That said, should you exceed the listening limit, you'll need to fork over US$0.99 for the remainder of the offending month.
Of course, there's still the option to listen limitlessly on desktops and laptops, or to pay US$3.99 for a Pandora One subscription that not only offers unlimited tunes but eliminates groove-interrupting advertising.
4G LTE is the fastest commercially available wireless data standard, but as travelers will attest, fragmentation between the world's more than LTE-supported 40 frequencies means that it's not universal in the U.S. and Europe.
Qualcomm, the third-largest semiconductor producer in the world, is looking to put an end to all of this 4G LTE roaming, which bumps travelers down to 3G, and it wants to begin solving the problem as early as this year.
"LTE is the first technology to be capable of being present in all the different regions worldwide," said Qualcomm Vice President of Product Marketing and Business Development Roberto Di Pietro to CNET.
"The issue is that the spectrum is completely different in different regions. Band support is one of the major issues we are working on."
RF360 to turn things around
Qualcomm's solution is its RF360 Front End Solution chipset, which is a single, global 4G LTE design for mobile devices.
"Currently there are around 40 different frequencies on which LTE is available," said Di Pietro.
"Our chipset supports around 40 different bandwidths. It is a step forward for the LTE global roaming scenario where you can roam with a single device in different regions."
Qualcomm hopes to mitigate the 4G LTE fragmentation problem while improving radio frequency performance.
The company also wants to help OEMs develop multiband, multimode devices that support all seven cellular modes: LTE-FDD, LTE-TDD, WCDMA, EV-DO, CDMA 1x, TD-SCDMA and GSM/EDGE.
4G LTE carriers still an issue
Qualcomm's global chipset with LTE carrier aggregation would make 4G phones compatible throughout the U.S. and Europe, however carrier compatibility would still be an issue.
Networks haven't laid out their plans for roaming agreements over 4G when customers travel abroad, notes CNET, so using an existing number and contract wouldn't be feasible even with a global 4G LTE phone.
Popping in a foreign SIM card, however, would be possible once Qualcomm's RF360 chipset makes it to market in the second half of 2013.
Rovio has released an update to Bad Piggies that delivers 30 new levels to the popular mobile title. The new maps are part of a bundle called Flight in the Night but the new content doesn’t stop there as players also have access to new Road Hogs events, a new sandbox and additional achievement features.
Rather than giving players a basic map pack, Rovio has taken things one step further with the 30 new levels by infusing them with Angry Birds. True to its name, the Flight in the Night maps take place after the sun has set when the Angry Birds are sound asleep. You’ll need to pilot the pigs to their destination without disturbing the sleeping fowl as they are extremely territorial. One false move and they will attack!
Aside from the 30 new maps, Rovio also included six new time trial events that pit you against the clock, a brand new sandbox to exercise your creativity and six additional achievements to try and collect.
The Angry Birds spinoff was released last September, quickly climbing the App Store ladder to become one of the top grossing apps less than 24 hours after it was released. Instead of catapulting various species of birds, Bad Piggies lets you build contraptions to transport the green pigs from point A to point B. It’s somewhat reminiscent of the Incredible Machine series from the ‘90s albeit with a twist.
The update is available free of charge for the regular version as well as HD variants through your respective app marketplace.
The rivalry between Snapdragon and Tegra chips isn't showing any signs of letting up, as Qualcomm used its MWC showing to claim the lead over Nvidia's Tegra 4.
Qualcomm's Senior Vice President of Product Management, Raj Talluri, told The Verge that his company isn't overly concerned about competing against Nvidia's 72 core chip.
Referring to the Tegra 4, Talluri said the latest Snapdragon 800 chips "beat it easily," due to it being "so much more integrated," much like the LTE modem built into the design.
He also referred to the Snapdragon 800's ability to record and play back Ultra High Def 4K video, though the Tegra 4 also supports 4K.
The mobile chip matchup
The Snapdragon 800 uses quad Krait 400 CPUs clocked up to 2.3GHz for high performance and low power consumption.
Nvidia claims the Tegra 4 chip offers record-breaking performance with its 72-core architecture, though the firm hasn't disclosed exact clock speed.
Perhaps a better comparison comes from the Nvidia Tegra 4i chip, which packs a 60-core design onto a chip half the size of Qualcomm's Snapdragon 800.
Like the Snapdragon 800, the Tegra 4i is clocked at 2.3GHz and features an on-board LTE modem, which on paper reads more like an even matchup than the easy win Talluri implies.
While looking at specs is one thing, it's real-world performance that matters most, and in that area Qualcomm seems to have the edge.
The newly announced ZTE Grand Memo is one of more than 50 planned handsets to feature Qualcomm's Snapdragon 800 chip in the year's second quarter, while smartphones equipped with mid-range Snapdragon 600 chips will start to arrive even earlier.
Perhaps timing is the real reason Qualcomm is less concerned with the competition, though we will have to see if the chip maker is singing a different tune once Tegra 4 starts rolling.
The rivalry between Snapdragon and Tegra chips is not showing any signs of letting up, as Qualcomm used its MWC showing to claim the lead over the Tegra 4.
Qualcomm's senior vice president of product management, Raj Talluri, told The Verge that his company is not overly concerned about competing against NVIDIA's 72 core chip.
Referring to the Tegra 4, Talluri said the latest Snapdragon 800 chips "beat it easily," due to being "so much more integrated" such as the LTE modem built into the design.
He also referred to the Snapdragon 800's ability to record and play back Ultra High Def 4K video, though the Tegra 4 also offers 4K support.
The mobile chip matchup
The Snapdragon 800 uses quad Krait 400 CPUs clocked up to 2.3GHz for high performance and low power consumption.
NVIDIA claims that the Tegra 4 chip offers record-breaking performance with its 72-core architecture, though the firm has not disclosed the exact clock speed.
Perhaps a better comparison comes from the NVIDIA Tegra 4i chip, which packs a 60-core design onto a chip half the size of Qualcomm's Snapdragon 800.
Like the Snapdragon 800, the Tegra 4i is clocked at 2.3GHz and features an on-board LTE modem, which on paper reads more like an even matchup than the easy win Talluri implies.
While looking at specs is one thing, it's real-world performance that matters most, and in that area Qualcomm seems to have the edge.
The newly announced ZTE Grand Memo is one of over 50 planned handsets to feature Qualcomm's Snapdragon 800 chip in the year's second quarter, while smartphones equipped with mid-range Snapdragon 600 chips will start to arrive even earlier.
Perhaps timing is the real reason Qualcomm is less concerned with the competition, though we will have to see if the chip maker is singing a different tune in the second half of the year.
Samsung has always enjoyed dabbling with the rugged crowd: be it the original Xcover or the Beam range, it's enjoyed offering up more robust phones. The Samsung Galaxy Xcover 2 brings with it a whole new gamut of features and functionality and really shows straight away that it's not a phone to be messed with.
Let's get the key features that make it such a tough Mother Hubbard on the table now, shall we? Well firstly it's IP67 certified, which means you can submerge it for up to 1 metre for 30 minutes before it will start to go a bit wrong.
In reality it means you can pop it in with the nightly washing up to get it all nice and clean after a day's hard extreme rambling, or whatever it is you fancy doing. You can also chuck it in sand or drop it from a height of two metres before worrying about smashes - plus it has a neat screw-in battery cover on the back that means it won't all fall apart should you do so.
But under all the tough exterior beats the heart of a decent smartphone - and it's hard to explain how glad we were not to be looking at another Samsung Galaxy S3 clone, since this is all decked out in a plastic/rubber hybrid that makes it super easy to grip no matter what the conditions.
It's hefty alright, with a 12mm (0.47 inches) thick chassis and a weight that tips the scales at nearly 150g (0.33lbs) - but you're glad of all that when you're holding it, because it gives the impression of impregnability that we assume you're after.
The dual-core 1GHz processor, the 4-inch screen with WVGA resolution and the 1GB of RAM all combine to make an impressive phone - it's basically an upgraded Samsung Galaxy S2 with a really protective shell whacked on the outside.
There's also a killer feature that we love to see: the camera shutter button on the side. This can even be fired underwater, so if you're taking a short snorkelling excursion over some quite picturesque fish, then you may snap away with the Samsung Galaxy Xcover 2 at 5MP resolution.
The LED flash also doubles up as a torch - sure, that's nothing new, but on the new Xcover 2 you can set it so that the torch fires when you hold the Volume-Up key in sleep mode. It's a useful feature, but hard to use without accidentally waking the screen at times.
Samsung was also keen to point out to us that the phone was upgraded with GLONASS technology to make tracking you more efficient than ever before. This is pretty important to the outdoorsy types, as being able to locate yourself, even on an offline map, is something that makes you feel a lot safer.
The only worry we have is over the battery size: it's only 1700mAh and while the screen is smaller than others on the market, it still needs a bit of power behind it. Given the increased dimensions, we'd have liked to see a thicker phone and a larger battery instead.
Media-wise the Samsung Xcover 2 is pretty well stocked, if you're prepared to invest. While it only has 4GB of onboard storage, you can add in another 32GB through the microSD slot (make sure you shut everything up before dunking the phone underwater, alright?) and the screen was bright and vivid enough to imagine it would be great for watching videos.
You can't do that underwater though, since the headphone jack is under a cover too - you'll need some submerged Bluetooth headphones if you're that way inclined. Maybe you don't want to go diving and work on a building site though - in which case you'll be fine.
Early verdict
The Samsung Galaxy Xcover 2 is one of the better phones we saw at MWC 2013, simply because it was a different proposition to the rest of the identikit Samsung Galaxy family. We didn't get to dunk it underwater, which is still a favourite test of all mobile phone reviewers, but we're pretty confident it can stand the heat. Also literally.
It looks to not be a super-expensive handset either, which is a real plus for those thinking of picking it up, as the spec level belies a mid-range phone. We're expecting this to land any month now on shop shelves, and if you're in the market for a tough, attractive next-gen smartphone, the Samsung Galaxy Xcover 2 could certainly be worth checking out.
If you think smartphone designs are getting a little stale, you may want to hold out for the next Russian export from Yota Devices.
Thanks in part to a licensing deal with Qualcomm, the company's two-sided Yota Phones, which combine e-ink and LCD displays, could soon hit the global market.
Yota Devices announced at Mobile World Congress on Wednesday that a new software licensing agreement with Qualcomm will helo it bring LTE smartphones, modems and routers to market in Russia.
As TechCrunch pointed out, the deal will also help Yota compete on a global scale.
But what's in it for me?
This is Qualcomm's first software licensing deal in Russia, a market that it sees as "strategically important," according to Qualcomm Europe president and senior vice president of Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., Enrico Salvatori.
"We expect strong growth in the number of 3G smartphones [in Russia] over the next two years," he said.
But for Yota Devices, the Qualcomm deal means an easier way into the global market.
Yota has made its bread and butter up to now with modems and routers within Russia, the Android Jelly Bean-powered Yota Phone being its first foray into smartphones.
According to TechCrunch, the Yota Phone will debut in Russia during the second half of 2013, with an Asian release to follow. If the two-faced phone catches on no doubt the company will look to a worldwide release, and with Qualcomm's weight behind it that transition could be easier.
"Yoda" or "Yota?"
Either way, Yota Device's Yota Phone certainly has strange powers.
There's a 4.3-inch, 1280x720 LCD display on the Yota Phone's face, while the back features a 4.3-inch e-ink electronic paper display.
The e-ink side can be used to see notifications, check the time, answer calls and more, while the LCD display only needs to be woken up for videos, web-browsing, and other similar functions.
Since the e-ink display uses just a trickle of battery power, the Yota Phone can last a while on a single charge. That's the idea, at least.
Music streaming service Spotify has issued a major update to its app for iOS devices, bringing a revamped user interface and easier, faster navigation for subscribers.
Swiping from left to right now brings up the Search, Playlists, and Radio portions of the app, which had previously sat at the foot of the screen. They sit alongside What's New, Friends, Inbox and Settings tabs.
Version 0.60, as it has been coined, also brings a neat Now Playing title bar, which resides at the bottom of the screen when browsing the app, meaning users are able to see what's playing at all times.
Annoying bugs also fixed
From the Title Bar users can swipe left or right to move back or forward a song, pause and restart, and can also drag up to launch other the full cover art and other playback options.
Users can then tap the cover art for the options to Scan, Share, Star, Add To Playlist or Start Radio from a particular track as well as Shuffle, Repeat or adjust the volume.
Each track listed within search results is now accompanied by a "..." button, which prompts a revamped Track Menu, allowing users to perform much of the above functionality without actually playing the track.
A minor pet peeve of ours previously was actually having to play a track before we could add it to a playlist.
Zippier
Although the release notes do not mention it, the new Spotify update is definitely zippier than its predecessor. Navigation is faster, while custom radio stations begin playing almost instantly.
There's also fixes for a host of annoying little bugs that had plagued the user experience on previous versions.
The app will no longer display a pesky "track won't play offline" notification on start-up, and the correct current track will also appear in the lockscreen.
The update is available to download from the App Store now.
The HTC One has made a huge splash so far, but you have to wonder, will the HTC One begin the path to recovery and the start of a new era of popularity for HTC, or is the praise heading the phone’s way going to be short-lived? This is a good question.
There are quite a few other higher-end smartphones arriving in the not-too-distant future, many of which will run on the same Snapdragon 600 processor and feature better or the same specs all around. That means that HTC needs to win over consumers based on the marketing and hype they’ve generated so far.
All eyes are on Samsung right now, with the Samsung Galaxy S4 scheduled to make its first appearance in March. While the HTC One might stand out against the existing S3, the Galaxy S4 is going to be tough to beat.
While we don’t know the exact specs of the Samsung Galaxy S4, the chart directly below this sentence shows several of the specs are they are currently rumored for the device and compares them to the S3 (US version) and the HTC One.
The HTC One – Can it Compete?
When it comes to core features, you can see from the chart that the HTC One is clearly a step above what the Samsung Galaxy S3 brings to the table. That said, not everyone is going to love the unibody design that makes the HTC One’s battery non-removable and creates a phone without support for microSD. There are also some users that feel the HTC One looks to much like the Blackberry Z10. Though, that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
The question is whether the HTC One has brought its ‘A game’ and can finally give Samsung a challenge. Based on rumors that HTC is buckling down and relying on the HTC One as their sole flagship for 2013, they certainly seem to have confidence in their new flagship.
The Galaxy S4 Could Put Them Back in the Same Rut
If the latest rumors are to be believed, Samsung will not be going the Exynos-route, instead relying on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 600. As the chart shows, the Galaxy S4 is rated as faster than the One, though the rest of the features match pretty closely.
Where the HTC One could run into problems is that it doesn’t have universal carrier support in the US (no Verizon, at least for now), while the Galaxy S4 likely will. Also the S4 will probably stick with their tradition of non-removable batteries and microSD, something HTC is missing.
HTC often releases a promising looking handset ahead of the competition, only to be overshadowed later on by brands like Samsung. Still, there is a lot more promise for HTC’s current path with the HTC One than we’ve seen in the last few years.
Motorola X Phone Could Also Create Problems
The Motorola X Phone also needs to be considered here. For those that don’t know, Google looks to be aiming at a high-end X Phone for later this year, which will run on Android 5.0 and will essentially be a Nexus, though it sounds like it won’t actually use the branding.
Part of the reason for this is that rumors indicate Google is concerned that Samsung has become too big of a giant in the Android world and too much means it is easier to demand more from Google. The solution could be to bring out their own big guns with the X Phone — but this could also be really bad timing for the HTC One and could further overshadow the phone.
Summing it up..
The HTC One is a solid phone for existing HTC fans and those that don’t want to wait around for other major flagships to start showing up, since HTC One is getting ahead of the game with the release of their flagship.
Long-term though? That’s much harder to answer. I like HTC and I wish them the best, but the battle certainly looks uphill for HTC throughout 2013. Does that mean they can’t pull off a turn-around with the HTC One and work their way back to the top? Anything can happen if you can get execution (marketing and hype, a good release frame, etc) right.
The Samsung Galaxy Fame offers a lot of technology for what will presumably be not much dollar – looking at the spec sheet you can see this could be seen as the natural successor for the why-won't-it-die Samsung Galaxy Ace.
Of course, you can argue that the Galaxy Ace 2 already has that mantle, but with sales of the predecessor still eclipsing that model, a case can be made for a new competitor.
The Fame, like most of the phones spewing out of Samsung's factories, is modelled closely on the design language first seen in the Samsung Galaxy S3.
Its white polycarbonate chassis feels light, and unlike the more premium devices in the Korean firm's stable, it feels worth the money you'll likely pay for it.
While it's 'only' got a HVGA screen, coming in at 320 x 480 pixels, the device has a 3.5-inch screen to really mitigate the lack of sharpness you'd expect. Compare it to a Samsung Galaxy Note 2 and you'll see the difference, but in standalone tests it really doesn't do too badly.
It's not a great experience when watching video or the like, but it's not impossible to use. We found the colours surprisingly vivid, but that screen size is never going to be attractive to anyone wanting a marathon movie session on the train.
Similarly, the screen resolution makes browsing the internet a tiresome experience, although it's rather quicker than we'd expected.
The Galaxy Fame is also treated to a spot of Android Jelly Bean, as well as packing NFC under the hood. This doesn't really mean much in the world of mobile payments yet, but it does mean that the phone will be able to share data with its bigger brothers using S Beam, as well as connect easily to the new Samsung HomeSync device.
It's got a 1GHz processor chugging along under the hood, and while we did encounter a fair few instances of apps slowing down when trying to do crazy things like open them, on the whole we didn't find ourselves wanting to throw the phone at the wall. Big tick there, then.
It's also backed up with 512MB of RAM to help save on the effort needed; given the Samsung Galaxy Fame only has a 1300mAh battery, it's going to need all the help it can get, but that should see it last for quite enough time to download apps and socially networkalise when you want to.
Another key difference between this and the Samsung Galaxy Young is the offering of a 5MP camera with flash – it might not have the sheer zip of the Samsung Galaxy S3 when it comes to taking snaps, but at least it will be able to capture the moments you're after.
We're pleased to see the addition of a microSD card slot under the lid of the phone (which comes with a removable battery) and that's also hot swappable, making it easy to load media when you want to. At the lower end of the market this is still a really key feature, since onboard storage (yet to be confirmed) is still likely to be pretty low.
Early verdict
The Samsung Galaxy Fame won't set pulses racing any time soon when it comes to specs, but there's clearly a strong budget market to be attacked and Samsung knows what it's doing here.
We're still awaiting final prices for the phone, but if it comes in anywhere near the Samsung Galaxy Ace shelf-tag then this could be a real winner. That's if the Samsung Galaxy Young isn't even cheaper and more attractive, of course…
Adobe has released a version of Photoshop Touch for the iPhone and Android smartphones. The robust photo editing application shares an almost identical set of features with the tablet app although the overall experience has been designed specifically for smaller displays.
Photoshop Touch has been available for quite some time for tablet owners but this is the first time that it has been made available for smartphones. Much like its bigger brother, the smartphone version features core Photoshop features like layers, adjustments, filters and advanced selection tools.
Program-specific features also carried over from the tablet version like Scribble Selection to enable high-precision selections using just your finger as well as Camera Fill which lets you blend your camera feed with different layers. We are told that filters like Color Drops and Acrylic Paint are present as well as a brand new filter called Ripple.
Furthermore, the application supports Adobe Creative Cloud which happens to come with a free 2GB of storage space. This will allow users to create a project on their phone then continue working with it on a tablet before adding the finishing touches in Photoshop CS6.
Adobe Photoshop Touch is available now in the Apple App Store and on Google Play for $4.99. It’s worth pointing out that for iPhone users, you’ll need at least an iPhone 4S or newer and iOS 6.0 or later. The fifth-generation iPod touch is also supported. Android owners will need version 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich or later to run the app.
If you’ve been keeping track of Tizen or the events taking place at Mobile World Congress, you’ll have noticed Tizen showing off their new mobile operating system on a Samsung-built reference device. Although the OS hasn’t spent that long of time in development, Tizen seems eager to get it out to the public and will be teaming up with France based telecom, Orange, to bring out some Tizen 2.0-ran handsets this year.
As Samsung and Intel are working together on the Tizen OS, it’s obvious Samsung Tizen handsets will make it to the market, but Huawei will also have a shot at the OS. It’s going to be interesting to see if Samsung and Huawei can grab any smartphone space over the currently booming market though, especially with Ubuntu, Firefox OS and BB10 also launching this year, as well as all the other mobile OS’s already in play. Regardless of what happens, this year is going to be the beginning of a very interesting new chapter in the mobile wars.
From what we’ve seen, Tizen doesn’t seem to look amazingly original in its designs, and the OS being showcased at MWC bears a resemblance to both Android and iOS. Of course, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Are you interested in the new Tizen 2.0?
It certainly feels like Samsung is taking over the world right now – at least, the Android world. There's no doubt that 2012's Galaxy S2 was the phone of the year.
And not in recent times, discounting Apple of course, can we remember the anticipation and expectation of a phone as much as the Galaxy S3.
If you needed a barometer of this, just look at how it was unveiled. Not at MWC like lots of others, but its own event, proving the Galaxy line has reached the level where it can guarantee hoards will come just for an unveiling.
The name was even 'confirmed' at a recent event by a researcher, which means it's coming closer and closer to reality.
But that's last season's device, and we're looking forward to the next level of what to expect in the Galaxy SIV. The trickle of 'sources' talking about this new device is starting to build to a steady stream, so we're on hand to help let you know which whispers have a notion of truth about them - as well as providing our wishlist of what we want Samsung to improve on the new handset.
Samsung Galaxy S4 screen
The Galaxy S2 had an amazing Super AMOLED Plus display – and boy, was it vibrant. The S3 upped the screen size from 4.3-inches to 4.8-inches and the pixel density went from 217 to 306 to take a run at the iPhone's Retina Display.
But, Samsung also opted for a PenTile approach, to the chagrin of geeks. What does that mean for the end user?
Well, the screen looks great but you can make out pixels if you really, really strain. And some of the vivacity and colour saturation is lost. On the plus side, Samsung reckons the screen will last longer – but we'd rather see a much more S2-like screen with a sharper resolution - and given that's now appeared on the Samsung Galaxy Note 2, we're pretty hopeful we'll get it on the Samsung Galaxy S4 too.
However, the bad news is that due to reported manufacturing issues these may have been delayed... does that mean the phone will have to be pushed back as well?
There seems a much more likely option in the shape of the 5-inch 1080p screen that could offer up an eye-splitting 441ppi, making it easily the highest res out there. It would probably need to be shrunk down a smidge to fit into the palm, or Samsung could actually just make the phone even closer to the edges of the screen. Dare we dream of an edge-to-edge display like on the 9000 series TVs?
Image credit: Anandtech
That dream could be closer to reality after the pretty likely screen for the Samsung Galaxy S4 was shown off by Samsung Display at CES 2013, featuring a 4.99-inch screen with a Full HD pixel count and a dizzying 440PPI resolution, which is set to ship in Q1 2013... also known as the perfect time frame for manufacturing the S4.
Another report has suggested the Galaxy S4 will sport a full HD display with a leaked PDF document suggesting the handset will have a 5-inch screen with a 1920x1080 resolution.
Samsung Galaxy S4 release date
The Unpacked event, which is expected to bring the announcement of the S4, has been set for March 14 2013, in New York and for 7pm EST (sadly for the UK, this means it will be midnight before you can see what's going on).
This means that whoever leaked the March 15 launch date wasn't too far away from the truth - but who launches a phone on a Friday? You're right. Nobody.
While we knew Samsung would eschew MWC 2013 once more for the release of its top handset, smart money tipped a May 2013 launch in keeping with last year. Samsung actually took to Twitter to discredit the rumours of a March launch earlier in the year, so there's egg on the face of whoever socially networked THAT missive.
However, possibly in retaliation to the HTC One buzz that Samsung predicted might pop up, the launch is earlier than last year, which means some S3 owners might feel aggrieved that Samsung is already making their handset outdated.
But it does catch the old Galaxy S2 owners nicely as they come to the end of their contract cycles, so Samsung could be playing an ace (no, not that one) by launching now.
Since then another rumour, of a phone dubbed 'Project J', has emerged, and that's set for an April unveil... will this be something different? An S4 mini?
Some sources believe the phone won't actually go on sale until May due to component shortages, and it will likely be given the model number of GT-I9500, which is leap from GT-I9300 but has been confirmed as likely legit when showing up in firmware versions, as well as on Samsung's official software page.
Other sources, apparently Samsung's Korean execs themselves, once touted an April Samsung Galaxy S4 release... and it will even come with an S Pen accessory too! However, this seems unlikely given it's only currently used on the Note range, so a boring C Pen upgrade could be all that's on the cards - then again, Samsung has just whacked $58.9 million (UK£37 million, AU$56.4 million) in Wacom, the digital pen people's, pocket as it invests in the tech, so it could come to the S4 quite feasibly.
Samsung Galaxy S4 specs
There's not a lot around about specs at the moment, but the rumours emanating from the good ol' internet rumour mill are certainly enough to make us excited.
The first is that the S4 will have a quad-core chip, which might sound a little 'last gen' to many. However, it will be based on ARM's A15 architecture, bringing with it a big boost in power for all those resource-intensive tasks we love to do all the time.
But then again, that's not Samsung's way really, is it? We want to see bigger, bangier and faster, so doubling it again to an OCTO-core would be the way to go.
Rather than just making it super powerful though, the eight core innards would split into two groups: A15-spec chips for the big stuff, and A7 when things need to get a little lower power, bringing with it the best of both worlds.
The other big news that we think should be on our wish list is the fact that Samsung's internal storage bods have been hard at work bringing the flash memory down in size and up in speed... so think even thinner phones with higher capacity that can be written to up to 10x faster. We're now looking forward to the S4 even more now.
A quad-core processor looks more likely than an eight core offering after the new Exynos 5440 quad-core chip appeared on Samsung's site, making it a strong contender to feature in the Galaxy S4.
However it looks certain there really will be an eight core phone coming from the Korean firm, as the Exynos Octa was announced at CES 2013 complete with four big cores and four smaller ones, as part of ARM's big.LITTLE architecture. Eight cores. Mental.
More support for the eight-core model materialised in the form on benchmark results claiming to be for the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S4, saying it will sport a 1.8GHz Octa processor which will run Android 4.2.1.
Other benchmarks have since surfaced that show, that show it whizzing past the original S3 and Nokia Lumia 920... although intriguingly it doesn't manage to usurp the Google Nexus 4.
According to a benchmark result claiming to be for the American varient of the Galaxy S4 (the SCH-I545) the quad-core processor will be clocked at a beefy 1.9GHz.
Also Samsung's S Health app could well make its way onto the Galaxy S4, allowing you to monitor things such as blood pressure, blood sugar, BMI and weight with the aid of a separate pad.
It's already made an appearance on the Galaxy S3, but Samsung didn't make a big deal about it last year - expect the hype to be bigger this time round.
And let's not forget about NFC - this is key to the Korean firm's plans in the future, so will definitely be embedded within the S4. A recent global deal between Samsung and Visa also hints at payWave, the contactless payment app from the financial superpower, being installed on the Galaxy S4, making it an even more powerful handset.
Combine that with the new Samsung Wallet application for cards, loyalty, plane tickets and such and you can see that Samsung is looking to take even more things from your pocket (as in your wallet as well as your cash. To buy the phone. Was that joke not clear? Dammit).
Samsung Galaxy S4 operating system
What's the good word here? Well, given the time scales involved, we'd fully expect to see the Galaxy S4 running a more mature version of Android 4.2, better known as Android Jelly Bean, as well as the next generation of TouchWiz skin on top.
There are some more daft rumours floating around, namely that the Samsung Galaxy S4 will run off a different operating system called Tizen, simply because Samsung is using it on other phones.
Don't worry, this won't happen...although a variant of the phone could be used as a blueprint for a decent alternative handset.
More likely is Samsung bringing out the Galaxy S4 to coincide with the next version of Android from Google, called Key Lime Pie.
April would be roughly the time we'd start seeing rumours of such things, so it's not unbelievable that you could buy an S4 with a cutting edge OS.
In truth, we've never really seen this happen from the Koreans, so chances are it will be boring old Jelly Bean when your S4 appears in your hands.
Rumours that the Galaxy S4 will ship with Android 4.2 have been further reinforced after a benchmark result claiming to be for the flagship handset showed the device running version 4.2.
Samsung Galaxy S4 battery
Ok, we admit we always want more. The S2's 1,650mAh was manageable and the S3's 2,100mAh blows that out of the water. But it's still only OK.
You can get by on a day of moderate use but if you use this phone heavily (and we're talking watching TV shows on the morning and evening commute alongside your normal tinkering), this handset will still want a plug in at some point.
Motorola has proven it can be done by whacking a 3,300mAh power pack into the RAZR Maxx which can still be considered a skinny Minnie. Something of that size – along with ICS and Samsung's power management abilities – would really be the icing on the Ice Cream Sandwich.
Samsung Galaxy S4 camera
What's that? You're bored of an 8MP camera on the Samsung Galaxy S3 since you've seen the likes of the Sony Xperia Z popping up with a 13MP snapper attached?
Well, good news everyone: a picture supposedly captured from the S4 hints at an at least 10MP camera, according a snap shown on Picasa. Remember, EXIF data can be faked though, so there's every chance this amazingly well-framed photo is just the work of a chancer hoping to jump on the S4 bandwagon:
Cred: Picasa
In a separate report, a couple more images popped up on Picasa claiming that they were taken on a Samsung GT-I9505, thought to be the international version of the Galaxy S4.
Both images sport a 2322 x 4128 resolution which would suggest the Samsung Galaxy S4 is packing a 13MP camera, although we're not pinning much hope on the authenticity of these pictures.
And apparently it's not just the sensor size that Samsung is working on, with the Korean firm also developing its own version of Photo Sphere called Samsung Orb, allowing you to take 360 degree snaps with the Galaxy S4 camera.
Samsung Orb will supposedly come with some fancy Facebook integration too, allowing you to share your snaps easily on the social network.
Samsung Galaxy S4 design
We've lost count of the amount of people we've shown our device off to who've replied with the words: "Yeah, it's great but looks like a bit of a toy." It's a double-edged sword: the plastic is used to keep this handset nice and light, but does detract from what should be a premium device.
A bit of glass wouldn't go amiss. Android users, say what you like about the iPhone 4/4S (and we know you won't be short of words), but aside from being smash-tastic, the glass really adds that premium and expensive feel that the S3 just doesn't have.
Forget what your mum told you – it's what's on the outside that counts too, so the Samsung Galaxy S4 needs to step it up in the design stakes.
The latest rumours state that the phone has been in production since late last year, and thankfully (or sadly, depending on your stance on front furniture) there will be a physical home button. There won't be any room for an S-Pen though, which makes sense as this won't be part of the Note range.
We've also now had the first in what we expect to be many leaked shots claiming to be the Samsung Galaxy S4 - and it isn't filling us with a huge amount of confidence as it could quite easily be a mash up between the Galaxy S3 and Galaxy Note 2.
Again 'confirmed' is the possibility that famous home button may be here to stay if the latest image claiming to show the Samsung Galaxy S4 next to the Galaxy S3 is to be believed - although it could well be another Photoshop job.
We've also seen another half-cocked effort from a Photoshop enthusiast - as we've said, it's a lot more like a 'would like to see' rather than any proper press shot.
The Galaxy S4 Mini would be an odd choice to launch at the same time as the S4 'proper', simply because the Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini has only recently gone on sale in the last few months - surely the brand wouldn't cannibalise sales that quickly?
And as for the other device: In the last few month the smartwatch, a device that connects your phone to a small screen on your wrist, has gained massive traction, with the likes of Apple even having a 100-strong design team working on the concept.
Word is that the Project J Active (or Fortius, if you prefer) which appears to be a slightly different device with accessories such as an arm band, bike mount and pouch listed, so could easily be a transferable piece of technology - and smartwatches are what everyone is talking about, despite the fact it sounds more like another tough phone to follow on from the Galaxy XCover 2,
Reports state Project J Active is yet to be finalised, unlike the others, which have already been given the green light.
The arrival of Ubuntu, Firefox OS and Tizen 2.0 has certainly made the world of mobile operating systems a bit crowded. While Sony is going after a low end phone strategy by choosing Mozilla’s browser-based OS, Samsung appears to be more ambitious as it is going with Tizen and the Tizen 2.0 running reference device that the company showed off at MWC might be a proof of high end devices to come.
The 720p resolution developer phone runs version 2.0 of Tizen which is meant to run both native and HTML5 apps, or a mix of the two (the Vimeo app is an example), unlike the Firefox OS.
As you will see in the video from Engadget below, the OS has familiarities to what you get with many other modern OSes. You have to slide from left to right at the bottom of the display to unlock the screen to get to the home screen with a grid of apps. Swipe down from the top to reach the notification area which lets you adjust brightness and access Settings, and long press on the physical home button for the multi-tasking screen. Check out the video below to see the device in action.
As for when a Tizen 2.0 powered device will be available, Japanese NTT DoCoMo has announced that it will introduce one sometime in the future, while France Telecom-Orange will launch Huawei and Samsung devices later this year. In case you are wondering, in the US Sprint will most probably be the first carrier to offer one as the carrier became part of the Tizen Association in 2012.
It’s too early to say which new OS will become more popular in the future, but Tizen certainly has the advantage of heavy support from Intel, Samsung and other companies.
Samsung showed off a new Wallet application during a developer conference at Mobile World Congress that will allow users to store things such as event tickets, boarding passes, membership cards, and coupons in one central location. Currently available as a preview for developers, the new feature is expected to debut alongside the new Galaxy S IV on March 14, and already a number of US partners have jumped on board.
Walgreens, Belly, Major League Baseball Advanced Media, Expedia, Booking.com, Hotels.com, and Lufthansa were some of the names mentioned at the event, but Samsung says it will provide an SDK and API guides to encourage wider adoption. You can see a brief demo of a Lufthansa boarding pass on Samsung Wallet below.
The app will be connected and location aware. As such, Samsung Wallet will be able to offer push notifications to alert users when they are able to use passes stored in their account at a nearby location, and provide real-time updates whenever things like membership points or boarding pass details change.
Curiously, despite a recent tie-up with Visa for NFC payments, Samsung did not include any tap to pay features in Wallet. The Verge reports that retailers favored barcodes over NFC because they don't have to install any new infrastructure to support it, but the company isn’t ruling out integrating the technology to Wallet in the future. For now passes saved within the app will use bar codes that can be scanned at payment terminals.
If you’ve used or seen Apple’s Passbook app for iOS before then this should all be very familiar, from the interface to the functionality and even the app’s icon. Whether Samsung will be more successful in building a large user base and rich partner network remains to be seen. They’re probably the only other phone vendor with the scale to pull it off, but the growing fragmentation with Isis, Square, PayPal and others could turn users away.
Samsung Wallet is the company's answer to Apple's Passbook (credit: The Next Web)
It appears the copying machines are firing up in South Korea again, with Samsung replicating Apple's iOS 6 Passbook app for its future Android handsets.
The Next Web reported Wednesday that Samsung has unveiled a new ticket and coupon management app for Android, and this one is likely to look familiar to iPhone users.
Announced at the company's Developer Day at Mobile World Congress, Samsung Wallet takes direct aim at Apple's Passbook, an iPhone app that allows users to store tickets, coupons, boarding passes and other data electronically.
The move isn't much of a surprise considering the term "Samsung Wallet" was listed in a U.S. trademark application nearly a year ago.
Partners lined up
Although the open Samsung Wallet API is still in beta, the company is accepting early developer sign-ups ahead of a March 7 launch.
Current U.S. partners include names already familiar to Passbook users, including Walgreens, Major League Baseball (MLB), Expedia, Booking.com, Hotels.com and Lufthansa.
Samsung Wallet even replicates the smaller details of Apple's app, including time and location-based push notifications which alert users when they're near a favorite store.
Like Passbook, Samsung Wallet is not yet enabled for near-field communication (NFC) wireless payments, but the company is expected to eventually implement the technology thanks to an existing partnership with Visa.
The Huawei Ascend G510 is promising a big screen experience at a low price point as the Chinese firm looks to tie up the bottom end of the smartphone market with an onslaught of new devices.
Playing big brother to the Ascend Y300 which shares the same design ethos, the Ascend G510 will sport a surprisingly attractive price as a Huawei spokesperson told TechRadar they expect the handset to go on sale for about £130 (around $200/AU$190).
The Huawei Ascend G510 release date is pegged fro April/May this year and we'd expect it to arrive in markets around the world.
It's an unassuming handset which sports the classic black slab look of many smartphones these days, with a sturdy plastic body hugging the glass-covered front of the handset.
The edges are slightly rounded which allows the 134 x 67 x 9.9mm frame to sit pretty well in the palm, and the textured back cover adds a useful amount of grip and we never feared dropping the Ascend G510.
The G510 also comes in white and the rear of the phone has a gloss finish making it a little trickier to grip.
Something which did throw us though was the placement of the power/lock which is usually found on the right side or on top of a handset.
Instead the button is located above the volume rocker on the left side of the Ascend G510 which meant we had to perform an unfamiliar finger movement to unlock the phone.
We're pretty sure it's something we'd get used to if we used the phone for a few days, but for the first few attempts it just feels weird.
That "big screen experience" which mentioned at the start is provided by a 4.5-inch FWVGA IPS display.
It's pretty bright, Android Jelly Bean looks clear and for a handset with such a potentially low price the Ascend G510 is well equipped in this department.
As with the Y300, Huawei has stuck its premium Emotion UI which features on the flagship Ascend P2 onto the Ascend 510.
This user interface does away with the app list all together providing you with only the homescreens to manage your apps from, in a bid to make Android an easier platform for first time users.
Luckily you can easily create folders by dragging and dropping one app onto another which means you won't have to use all nine homescreens and waste time skipping between them to find what you want.
There's also a range of themes to choose from, which change the icon style, wallpaper, font and colour scheme to give a look which suits you.
Adding to the personalisation options even more Huawei has added a master widget which allows you to pop several widgets of varying sizes into one larger container - a design which reminds us slightly of Live tiles on Windows Phone 8.
Huawei has thrown a 1.2GHz dual-core processor into the Ascend G510 which doesn't have any trouble running Jelly Bean, but it doesn't have the same zip as the more powerful smartphones on the market.
When we flipped the Ascend G510 over to inspect the rear we got a bit of deja vu as the design of the camera is very similar to the HTC One X.
So similar in fact we couldn't help but put the two side by side for a camera design showdown. The winner? That's for you to decide.
The camera itself is a 5MP offering plus there's a single LED flash to help you out in low light.
Launching the camera app was a quick affair and shutter speed on the Ascend G510 was also pretty decent.
There's no HDR mode, but you can snap a panorama with the Ascend G510, plus you have the choice to apply a range of effects on your snaps.
Slightly disappointingly the G510 is only capable of shooting VGA quality video which lets the handset down a bit as we're becoming used to seeing even lower end models offering up 720p recording.
Huawei has also popped a front facing, 0.3MP camera on the Ascend G510 if you fancy grabbing a mug shot or Skyping a loved one.
Another small downer is the 4GB of internal storage, of which only around 2GB is actually available to the use, but there is a microSD slot allowing you to thankfully expand.
The Chinese firm hasn't stuck with the stock Android keyboard on the Ascend G510, instead opting to employ its own version which is perfectly serviceable but we'd prefer a third party option such as SwiftKey if we were going to be doing some serious typing.
There's a reasonably sized 1,700mAh battery housed inside the Huawei Ascend G510, but the larger screen and bumped up processor may result in a mediocre life - we'll have to wait until our full review to see how it actually fares.
Early Verdict
If it sticks with its attractively low price point the Huawei Ascend G510 could be a winner at the budget end of the market offering up a screen which is larger than most in its bracket.
The Emotion UI overlay may not be to everyone's taste but we can see it helping those who are new to Android and to smartphones in general, and we're looking forward to getting the Ascend G510 in for a full review.
