10 things you need to know about the Samsung GALAXY S4
In addition to our first impressions of the new Samsung GALAXY S4 we've considered the tech specs, features and applications that Samsung is offering users with its latest smartphone and, to make things easier for you, distilled all of this info into an easy-to-remember ten-point guide.
So, without any further ado, here are the top ten things that you need to know about the new Samsung GALAXY S4...
The S4 is not a smartphone, it's a "life companion"
Samsung is all about improving the way we live, using technology, as J.K. Shin, the company's President and Head of IT & Mobile Communications Division explained at the S4 launch event this week:
"All the innovative features of GALAXY S4 were developed based on the insights and needs we found from our consumers all around the world. Following the successful GALAXY S series, this phone is yet another great proof point of people-inspired innovation. At Samsung we'll never stop pursuing innovation conceived by people, so we can inspire them in return."
The S4's lucky 13-megapixel camera
Okay, it might "not be all about the megapixels" as keen amateur snappers often say, but the tech improvements of the new 13-megapixel camera on the GALAXY S4, combined with the software improvements to Samsung's onboard camera app are sure to blow any would-be David Bailey away.
S4 snappers can now place themselves in their pictures far easier and better than ever before, which is a particularly cool feature for on-the-fly family shots. Also, you can now record sounds for photos taken on your S4; a minor but fantastic way of recording a memory.
Touch-less tech is the future
We are all so familiar with touchscreen technology nowadays that Samsung's mention of "touch-less tech" at the S4 Unpacked launch was quite novel.
What the S4 designers mean when they speak of "touch-less tech" is, plain and brilliantly simple, Air View, which has been one of the most popular features on the GALAXY Note II, helping to create what Samsung's JK Shin referred to as "instant, effortless and accurate touch-less interfaces" on this latest smartphone.
Storming the Tower of Babel
Imagine if you were able to talk to and communicate with the vast majority of the world's population, despite only being fluent in English and, perhaps, having a smattering of one or two other languages you vaguely remember from school?
Samsung's S Translator on the S4 makes this inspiring vision an actual reality, allowing you to swiftly translate voice or text into nine different languages. It's essentially Douglas Adams's vision of "the Babel Fish" made real!
Don't be a solitary smartphone user
One real problem with smartphone usage to date is that it has, by force of habit for many of us, become a solitary activity, distancing us from our friends, family and colleagues at work. The S4 will change all of this, by encouraging and helping us to play and listen to music together again.
The S4's Group Play feature encourages users to share music and play games together, in ways that are easier and more intuitive than ever before.
A smartphone to keep you in shape
Samsung's new S Health software promises to "empower your life by keeping you up-to-date with health and wellbeing information through a range of accessories," using a number of sensors to track your progress, in addition to Samsung peripherals such as the S Band; Body Scale and HRM heart monitor.
All of which is an incredibly handy way of reminding you to keep up with your running, swimming or gym regime; eat ing healthily, and keeping a check on your weight and overall fitness.
Samsung Knox will change the way you work
With Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD) being a major issue for many workplaces right now, it's vital that you invest in a smartphone that is going to let you work as well as play. After all, do you really want to be carrying two devices around with you at all times?
This is why Samsung Knox might well be the perfect security solution for keeping your IT manager at work happy and safe in the knowledge that you are using a phone that will connect 100 per cent securely with the corporate network.
Samsung HomeSync will make entertainment easier
You know that annoying feeling when you have a movie you are watching on your phone, yet cannot finish watching it on the TV at home on the weekend?
There is yet to be a name for this malaise, though Samsung has already come up with a solution to the problem, in the shape of HomeSync, an Android-powered set-top box that lets you store, share and stream the movies on your S4 with absolute ease.
Adapt Display means the S4 is easy on the eye
The Samsung GALAXY S4's new Adapt Display feature means that the HD Super AMOLED display will automatically alter to give you the optimum viewing experience, no matter what you are doing.
Whether you are watching a movie; playing a game or checking your email, Adapt Display ensures that the S4's superb 5-inch screen is giving you the best viewing experience whilst being as easy on the eye as possible at all times.
Make beautiful photo albums
Taking; carefully editing, and storing thousands of great photos on your S4 is something that most users will do purely by habit, but what about those truly memorable photos that you want to keep forever?
Samsung's new Story Album offers a superb auto album-creating function for proud new parents or first-time Glastonbury goers, who want to capture and always remember these precious moments in time. Plus, with a new partnership with book-printing specialists Blurb you can also get beautifully-bound hard copies of your albums (costing in the range of $10 to $30; UK pricing is yet to be confirmed).
It's no secret that software played a major role during Samsung's over the top Galaxy S4 unveiling Thursday, with the hardware in many respects taking a back seat.
The phone's polycarbonate exterior is nothing to write home about, while a few users might mistake the device initially for its predecessor, the Galaxy S3.
Despite some deficiencies, the phone's still got enough going for it to make it a serious smartphone contender, if not eventual champion. TechRadar chatted with Ryan Bidan, director for product marketing for Samsung Telecommunications America, about the S4's virtues and vices. He unsurprisingly held fast to the software line.
"The important thing is we've really taken the software innovation side a lot further than we have on any previous device," he said post-unveiling. "We've really integrated a lot of features that we think a lot of people are really going to gravitate to and really use."
Feature talk
Among those features are S Health, Dual Camera, Smart scroll and Air Gesture. While S Health is practical in a keep-you-living-longer sense, the other features are arguably just fluff.
Bidan sees it a different way.
"Samsung is very much about offering choice. It's a very innovative device that has a lot features that are going to appeal to a lot of folks."
The hardware isn't something to shun, either.
"Right off the bat you're going to notice the 1080p Super AMOLED display," Bidan said. "Because it's a 5-inch display in a device that's the same size as the Galaxy S3, it's basically the entire front of the device.
"People will notice and take advantage of the camera too. It's 13MP, there's zero shutter lag, and you're really just able to take a great picture. And we've added a lot of great software features on top of that."
The camera experience is inspired by the Galaxy Camera UI, he explained.
"We really leveraged that for this camera, so we made it more discoverable, more unique and are making it start to feel more consistent across our line of products."
Bidan wouldn't go into the processor topic - "you'll have to hold tight on that" - so it's still up in the air which regions are receiving the Octo-core Exnyos 5 and which Qualcomm's Snapdragon S4 Pro.
Price range also remains an unknown, but Bidan did confirm that some of the features of the S4 will eventually make it onto legacy devices.
When it comes time to buy, while Bidan's job is to say a Samsung is better than a competitor's device, he offered a few reasons why the S4 should win out over, say, an iPhone.
"We've got a great looking screen, and we're actually doing a lot of stuff on the software side that you just can't do on other phones," he said. "Whether we're talking about Air Gesture, the stuff for the camera, there are a lot of features here that you can't find anywhere else."
Probably eagerly reading the post-performance reviews
Samsung tap-danced, traveled and got tipsy during its hour-long press conference to introduce the Galaxy S4 Thursday.
Hosted in the "best theater in New York" – Radio City Music Hall - the event was a production of Broadway proportions, all to show off the new flagship device in real world applications.
"Before you hear about the device itself, I would like to emphasize one thing," JK Shin, Samsung's head of mobile, said as a prelude to introducing the handset.
"We are continuing innovation. We are always listening to learn from people around the world, about what kind of progress they really want. And these efforts have taken us where we are today."
The phone will certainly hit a decent amount of global citizens - Shin said it will launch through 327 mobile operators in 155 countries in both 3G and 4G LTE varieties.
Shin was all smiles at Radio City Music Hall
The company's message on the S4 was clear; it's designed to make your life simpler and simply better while imposing upon it as little as possible. It's a "life companion," but one that doesn't feel like a ball and chain.
"Once you spend time with the Galaxy S4, I am confident you will feel how it makes your life richer, simpler and fuller," Shin said.
Ta-da! S4 made its NYC debut
Ryan Bidan, director of product marketing for Samsung Telecommunications America, helped knock out the obligatory hardware rundown.
Physically the phone is slight - it's only 136.6 x 69.8 x 7.9mm and weighs 130 grams. The screen however, is hefty enough, coming in at a full 5 inches. It's a Full HD Super AMOLED display and houses 441ppi.
Ryan Bidan, director of product marketing for Samsung Telecommunications America (left) talks up the S4's screen
The phone has a polycarbonate finish, likely to disappoint many a user, and is dressed in either Black Mist or White Frost.
It can support downloads at 100MB per second and uploads of 50MB per second, a factoid that drew "woo hoos" from the crowd. It also has Bluetooth 4.0, a 13MP camera on the back (more "woo hoo-ing") and a 2MP on the front.
The S4 comes in 16GB, 32GB and 64GB variants, plus the option to bump up to 64GB more through microSD. There are eight sensors in total - including infrared gesture and temperature and humidity, two new additions.
One fact that Samsung seemed to skip was the processor: While we played with one that had a 1.6GHz Octo-core Exnyos 5 chip, some regions of the world will get a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro.
Showtime
Having gotten the hardware out of the way, Samsung moved onto the things it really wanted to talk about: features.
Through a series of elaborate and at times unbearably hokey vignettes, a troupe of Broadway actors, the night's MC and Bidan pranced through the various bits of software and apps that make the S4, in Samsung's mind, really tick.
Jeremy was there too - in fact, he not only carriers around mysterious white boxes, he tap dances, and does it rather well.
The real star of the S4 show?
This was all to show off Dual Camera, which uses the front and rear camera simultaneously to take two pictures at once, plus a few other "take a better image" functions such as an eraser that eliminates unwanted clutter from the background.
In the spirit of ease, Air View was also introduced - no need to actually touch the phone to preview something when you can hover it over the screen to bend it to your will. Not to be confused, we also have Air Gesture, which lets you navigate your phone in the same fashion, ideal for situations you don't want to touch the screen (sticky fingers, drink in hand, etc.).
Samsung took us on a very long romp through China, Brazil and France with its S Translator feature, an app that can understands nine languages and translates text to speech and vice versa, plus other connection-increasing functions like Story Album, which automatically throws your snaps into a collection.
Galaxy S4 travels the world
Samsung talked up Samsung Knox, a tool that keeps work and life separate and safe, S Health and Share Music, which lets you play music through up to eight Galaxy devices, even without an internet connection.
You can mamba with your S4
The groovy girls above helped confirm the Smart Scroll and Smart Pause features we've heard so much about, thanks in part to an unnecessarily shirtless "gardener" walking across the stage while one of the woman was watching a less interesting video.
The features came on hard and fast, but the tune Samsung wanted to sing came through crystal clear - the S4 is a nifty device that will give consumers features they didn't even know they needed.
In spite of the theatrics, the phone managed to stay in focus. Samsung accomplished its mission in getting the S4's message across, but whether it's been heard by consumers, we'll have to wait until April to find out.
Don't worry gamers, Samsung hasn't forgotten about you (credit: Engadget)
Samsung's Galaxy S4 Unpacked event was missing a few key aspects we've come to expect from a major phone launch. There was no word on the OS (Android 4.2.2) and nothing said about the phone's Octo-core processor -- mostly due to the fact that it will be Octo-core in some regions and not in others.
It also lacked the obligatory gaming demo, used to showcase both the graphics processing and the quality of the screen. But that doesn't mean that the event was a total bust for gamers.
Backstage, Engadget got its hands on a prototype gamepad that Samsung is working on. In the image above, the Galaxy S4 fits neatly onto the unit, but because it communicates over Bluetooth, the gamepad should be compatible with other recent Galaxy devices, including the Note 2 and Note 8.0.
A familiar face
Though the unit as a whole looks like a large, glossy meringue, the buttons and joystick alignment are suspiciously similar to Microsoft's Xbox 360 controller design, with the familiar rainbow-coloured A,X,Y and B buttons.
It also seems to sport a custom-designed UI for games, but whether this is something that comes with the gamepad, or something Samsung is including in the updated TouchWiz UI, we don't know.
This is a great time for Samsung to stake its claim on smartphone gaming, with system's like Ouya raising the profile of Android games, and the Galaxy S4 having a screen of a similar size to Sony's PlayStation Vita.
Though, as we mentioned above, this is just a prototype, so no word yet on pricing or availability.
The Samsung Galaxy S4 brings a huge Full HD screen, an improved camera and faster innards, and fits in all in a chassis the same size as the Galaxy S3.
However, many will struggle to tell the difference between the S4 and its predecessor, as the polycarbonate chassis is still in use, although the metallic banding around the side, while still plastic, is much sturdier and feels more premium.
We've already seen a lot of the Samsung Galaxy S4, as it's been snapped multiple times in leaks – some more accurate than others, it has to be said – and the specs mooted have turned out to be pretty bang on.
But that doesn't matter – megapixels and gigabytes don't mean anything if they're not wrapped up in a decent package, so how much of an improvement is the Samsung Galaxy S4 over the S3, and more importantly, the competition?
Design
The Samsung Galaxy S4 is built on four foundations: an improved camera, better connections with others, health and wellbeing improvements and simply making life easier.
While this is all a little hyperbolic, the S4 at least brings an integrated feel to things while improving nearly every spec on offer. The outside is still plastic, but harks back to the mesh design, if not feel of the Galaxy S2.
Colour wise you've got a choice of 'White Frost' and 'Black Mist', which adorn the large device, which runs in with dimensions of 136.6 x 69.8 x 7.9mm, despite still having to pack in a 5-inch Full HD Super AMOLED screen.
That means it will have a larger screen, but smaller chassis than the Galaxy S3, which is a superbly impressive feat of engineering, especially when you consider the specs.
But like its predecessor, the plastic feeling of the Galaxy S3 won't appeal to all. It feels very lightweight (tipping the scales at 130g) in the hand, and while people have been conditioned against this feeling cheap, compare it to the HTC One and you'll see that it's a long way from premium feeling.
However, it's exactly the same sensation as we found on the Galaxy S3, and given the record numbers of sales that had Samsung is sticking with a winning formula, plus there's more than a market for a phone that you'll barely notice in your pocket most of the time.
Compared to rest of the Galaxy line, the S4 continues in the same vein as the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 and the S3, (as well as myriad other devices) showing the Koreans are keen on creating a design heritage here.
The home button is roughly the same size and the same menu and back buttons remain from the prequel.
Overall, the effect is a much more well put together Galaxy S3 – so this means that when you take it out down the pub people won't notice you've got the latest phone, which is a bit of a shame.
The Samsung Galaxy S4 feels like much more of an iterative update than new design, and while it will probably sell well there's very little to wow you when it comes to the overall shape. Specs are important, but if there was such as thing as a Samsung Galaxy S3S, this would be it.
But away from all that negativity! We have a new phone to check over, so let's take a minute and talk about the screen: it's even more beautiful than before.
Display
We almost feel sad that this isn't the first Full HD screen we've seen on a mobile phone, as it's kind of lost its lustre since the likes of the HTC One and Sony Xperia Z have all managed the same trick – but it improves the sharpness a lot, even though you're not getting that much different from the S3.
Side by side you can see the difference close up, and the brightness and efficiency have been tweaked to make this a more compelling screen in a phone. Talk all you want about the benefits and colour saturation of LCD – the Samsung Galaxy S4 is leagues ahead when it comes to jaw-dropping screens.
The 441ppi pixel density doesn't match the HTC One, but is more than good enough for the average user.
We'll be mightily surprised if the combined popularity of the HTC One and Samsung Galaxy S4 don't prompt Apple into a re-tooling of the screen with the iPhone 5S or iPhone 6, as the sharpness will definitely wow users on the shelves.
Aside from the initial impression of the design, in the hand the Samsung Galaxy S3 feels just dandy. The design contours well against the palm, and while the screen size may be a little big for some (you'll need a bit of shuffling to reach the upper section of the screen) it's definitely useable in the hand.
So in short: if you don't mind plastic and you like cutting-edge HD screens in your pocket, this is a phone definitely worth checking out.
Interface
Samsung hasn't really re-tooled the Touchwiz overlay for the Galaxy S4, but has added some clever upgrades that will have some users talking about innovation.
For instance, the lock screen doesn't have the water rippling any more, but does register your finger from up to two centimetres away, so a little beam of light will follow your digit as you unlock. It's something you'll definitely play with for ages.
It's clear with the Galaxy S4 that Samsung has worked out there's only so much it can do on the hardware side these days – not to say that we're pretty impressed with the spec list - and as such has tried to bring the unique flavour through the interface instead.
As before with Touchwiz, there's a definite sense the whole process has been simplified, as the phone has got a much easier feel to it when swiping around. That's not to say there aren't loads of widgets to be played with, but there is less clutter on the larger screen.
The dock at the bottom of the display pervades, and there are more widgets to play with. Thanks to the Galaxy S4 running Android Jelly Bean 4.2.2 you've now got an addition in the notifications bar of a toggle in the top-right hand corner where you can turn on and off pretty much anything, from NFC to Group Cast to eye-tracking.
Swiping around the display was easy as pie – it's not exactly taxing on the processor, but we did note that there was a slight pause as we swiped through the menu screen on this pre-production model.
However, there is a worry that the octo-core (yes, you read that right) 1.6 GHz Exynos 5 CPU, with 2GB of RAM as well, could suck power a little too dramatically – but we've yet to hear the full details of how the CPU will work before we can pass any judgement on that.
Smart Stay, which tracks your eyes to tell if you're looking at the screen, has stablemates now. Smart Pause will note if your gaze leaves the screen and will pause the video, and Smart Scroll will check when you're reading a web page and scroll up and down as you tilt the device.
It's a novel idea for replacing things you do already but in practice we didn't find either that useful. Smart Pause takes a second to register your gaze has gone, which means you'll still miss part of the video, and Smart Scroll (again, pre-production model) was far from accurate when we tilted the phone.
Smart Voice hasn't been upgraded beyond improving the accuracy of the voice recognition and Driving Mode, which will give you more voice-related feedback when you're in your motor.
Smart Alert has been upgraded: now it's joined by Air Gestures, which allow you to swipe the phone without touching the screen. So this means you can flip through pictures or music tracks ("good if you have messy fingers" says Samsung) flick to the top of a list by wiping upwards on the screen and Air Call Accept starts the camera… no, we're joking. It accepts a call without touching the screen.
On top of that there's Hover mode, which is the same as Air View on the Note 2 which used the S Pen and tracked when it was near the screen to give previews of emails, video scrolling without disturbing the action, and seeing who is on speed dial.
A quick test with this saw the preview being activated a little too easily, but it's definitely a neat feature and something we could get used to.
But overall the good news is the large screen looks great, the improved CPU might not be needed but is welcomed and the little touches like the shining lock screen do actually feel like a real step forward.
Media
The Samsung Galaxy S4 follows in the footsteps of its predecessors in that it's designed for media – which is what you'd expect from a phone that's the sequel to the phone we dubbed the best out there for media on the go.
The video player is obviously taking centre stage here on the Galaxy S4, and combined with the improved Full HD Super AMOLED screen is just magnificent for watching movies.
The video hub now contains both personal and downloaded content in one place, and it looks really, really nice when viewing it on the 5-inch screen.
It's an understandably excellent experience, with the screen veritably shining with quality contrast ratios and decent colour reproduction.
The navigation experience is easy as well, and slipping up and down the timeline to move through a video seems very intuitive.
AllShare Cast is included as well, powering up the ability to stream to and from other devices. In addition to being able to send content from the phone to a TV and receive from a PC in your home network, you can also do this remotely now, as long as the device is turned on obviously.
Another feature is mirroring, where you can send whatever is on the screen of your Galaxy S4 and have it show on a larger display. We've seen this on a number of devices, and while it's not going to allow big screen gaming on the go, as we've often noted that there's a lag between input and its realisation on the screen, it could be good for movies if it's less jumpy than found on the S3.
Samsung has managed to stay ahead of the pack when it comes to internal storage too – it will be available in 16GB, 32GB and 64GB flavours plus up to 64GB through a microSD card as well. That's more storage than most will ever need on it's own, right?
This will be a killer feature for a lot of smartphone users, as while the internal storage is generally good enough for most things, many love the idea of having the choice to expand if they so wish – so combining this with an expandable battery is a great idea from Samsung once again.
Camera
The Samsung Galaxy S4 camera is a step up from its predecessor, with a 13MP sensor on the back, which now has to bulge slightly from the chassis.
Samsung promises excellent low-light snaps from the S4 as well, but we doubt it can take on the might of the HTC One when it comes to low light conditions, as the Galaxy S3 was decimated by the might of HTC's Ultrapixels - and that's before we even get onto the Nokia Lumia 920.
From a blindingly bright flash to a backside illuminated sensor, our quick snaps came out crisply and clearly – and when we say quick, we mean it.
The UI has changed a bit to mimic that found on the Samsung Galaxy Camera, with a special mode wheel to move between items like the Macro, Beauty shot and smile setting, and while it's a little slow it's definitely an easier to use interface.
Burst mode is predictably back, but it now comes with a 'Drama' setting, so you can take one shot and see all the pictures merge into one. It works really well as long as you don't have something that's just too close to the camera or too large – in our tests it showed you need a lot of space between each movement.
Eraser mode and Cinema mode also come straight from the Nokia Lumia phones we've seen recently – the former works extremely well though, noting an unwanted object moving in the background and erasing it by drawing a pink outline around the thing and letting you delete.
However, you have to have the mode enabled, which takes multiple pics, rather than the standard shot, so you probably won't be able to make good use of it most of the time.
Cinema mode lets you shoot a short video and choose the part to keep static – this means you can have a background moving while the person stays the same, and is created in a GIF to make things properly early noughties.
You also get a 2MP camera on the front of the phone for some decent personal snaps – plus you can also get HD video recording too.
This has been updated to allow you to record video and pictures with the front and back cameras simultaneously, which doesn't really make much sense in the grand scheme of things, but at least you can put some clever frames around your face to make it more relevant.
Battery
Samsung has managed to lower the thickness of the Galaxy S4 compared to the S3 but upgraded the battery from 2,100mAh to 2,600mAh, promising a much larger capacity and therefore longer life.
However, with all those extra pixels (1080 x 1920) to drive and more cores – we're not sure whether this will actually translate to better battery life or not. Samsung has promised that the power management will be more intelligent than ever before, but we're yet to play a good half hour of HD gaming and then watch a monster movie marathon on the S4 to really test it out.
It was excellent on the S3 for the most part, so here's hoping that that Octo-core will inspire even better battery life.
The Samsung Galaxy S4 is official and while it may be more of an incremental upgrade from the Galaxy S3 instead of a total revolution, it's still a tempting proposition.
In terms of the Samsung Galaxy S4 release date the flagship smartphone is due to land in stores on April 26 - sadly there's no one week turn around a la Apple (and BlackBerry in terms of the Z10) here.
A number of retailers and networks had pre-registration pages up ahead of the Galaxy SIV announcement in New York and Expansys told us that interest in the S4 has been "overwhelming."
So without further ado, here's the breakdown of where you can grab the Samsung Galaxy S4 in the UK.
Carphone Warehouse
You can "register your interest" in the Samsung Galaxy S4 on the Carphone Warehouse site, with the network saying the handset will be available on all networks from April 25.
Currently there is no pricing information, but expect to shell out some big bucks for the Galaxy SIV.
Phones 4 U
It's much the same story over at Phones4U which has its own registration process, but it looks like the retailer is getting its stock a day later than Carphone - with April 26 the date given for the Galaxy S4 arrival.
EE
Unsurprisingly EE has announced it will be the only UK network to offer the Samsung Galaxy S4 with 4G - basically because it's the only network which offers the super fast connection.
If you're not too bothered about the whole 4G business for now, and fancy spending less money per month you'll also be able to pick up the 3G variant of the Galaxy S4 on sister networks Orange and T-Mobile.
You can "register for updates" for all three networks over on EE's site, and once again we're waiting to hear back on pricing.
EE has confirmed its Samsung Galaxy S4 pre-orders will commence on March 28, with stock due to arrive on April 26.
Three
We're waiting to hear officially from Three, but the data-centric network does have a pre-registration page up if you fancy jumping in with it.
O2
O2 has stayed oddly quiet on all things Samsung Galaxy S4 for now, with no sign of a pre-registration form on its website. It's surely only a matter of time until something appears though.
Vodafone
Registration is the name of the game and Vodafone isn't getting left out of the Galaxy S4 party, although it's page doesn't look quite as fancy as the rest.
Tesco Mobile
Tesco has told us that it will be putting up some form of Galaxy S4 pre-order process soon.
Online retailers
Expansys and Clove have also got their pre-registration pages up, but there's no mention of availability or price just yet.
Google’s announcement to ditch Reader took a number of faithful users by surprise yesterday including the team over at Digg. But rather than scour the web for a suitable replacement, the once-thriving social news website has decided to build their own rich site summary (RSS) reader.
Digg’s implementation will take the best elements of Google’s offering (including its API) and advance them to fit the Internet of 2013. The site notes that networks and communities like Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Reddit and Hacker News are all great destinations to find what’s interesting on the web but are often overwhelming.
According to a post on Digg’s official blog, the company was planning to build their own reader later this year but given Google’s recent announcement, they have moved the project to the top of their priority list. They are confident they can come up with a worthy successor but in order to pull it off in such a small window, they will need some help.
Digg is asking their readers for input on what they want to see in a reader. They want to know what problems it should solve for you, what’s useful and what isn’t and what you wish Google Reader could do that isn’t already possible today.
Digg was one of the hottest destinations on the net during its pinnacle, once eyed by Google for $200 million but a number of miscues over the years essentially left the site in shambles. A large majority of the site’s technology team was hired by The Washington Post just before Betaworks purchased the remnants last July for $500,000. The site was then rebuilt from scratch although it’s far from what it once was during its prime.
The Samsung Galaxy S4 has finally been unveiled in New York ending months of speculation, leaks and Photoshopped images.
And a decent chunk of those rumours, especially the ones which popped up over the last few days, have turned out to be pretty much on the money.
The Galaxy S4 arrives with a truly ridiculous 1.6GHz octo-core (that's eight people, EIGHT!) processor, 2GB of RAM, 5-inch full HD display (441ppi), 13MP rear camera, 2MP front camera, NFC, 4G and a 2,600mAh battery.
Android Jelly Bean 4.2.1 is the software on board the Galaxy SIV, with Samsung's TouchWiz user interface having been given a spruce up before being slapped on top.
Meaty competition
It also appears to be unbelievably thin - considering the amount of tech stuffed inside - with the Samsung Galaxy S4 measuring a svelte 7.9mm, and somehow it's smaller than the Galaxy S3 at 136.1 x 69.8mm and lighter at 130g.
Building on the Smart Stay feature found in the Galaxy S3 and Galaxy Note 2, Samsung has equipped the Galaxy S4 with smarter eye tracking software, including Smart Pause that stops video playback when you look away from the screen, and Smart Scroll that checks when you're looking at the screen and will move the page as you tilt the phone back and forth.
Needless to say the likes of the HTC One, Sony Xperia Z and the now aging iPhone 5 have some pretty meaty competition.
The Samsung Galaxy S4 release date has been pegged for April 26, and we expect it to cost about £480 (around $725/AU$695) SIM-free although Galaxy SIV price is yet to be confirmed.
You can find out what we make of the Korean firm's latest flagship model in our hands on: Samsung Galaxy S4 review.
In the last couple of years, Verizon Wireless has done pretty well with snatching up some of the most popular Android smartphones on the market as part of its DROID series. That why it seemed so peculiar that HTC said it would be launching its HTC One through Sprint, T-Mobile and AT&T without mentioning anything about Big Red. Well, either they changed their mind or they misspoke, because the HTC One is indeed coming to Verizon.
That’s good news for Verizon subscribers who want to get their hands on this flagship smartphone with all its Ultrapixel goodness, according to “a source familiar with the situation,” but it comes with a catch. While the exact date has not been formally revealed, we’re hearing that Verizon will be getting the HTC One some time after the other three major carriers launch it. Indeed, it’s sounding like Verizon will lag about a month or two behind. That’s enough time for current Verizon users who really want the HTC One to jump ship to someone else.
Even if that’s the case, this is still a win for HTC overall. It helps to create a more unified vision of the HTC brand in the eyes of the average consumer, since the flagship HTC One will be available through all four of the major carriers. Remember that this is the same struggle Samsung faced with the plethora of Galaxy variations before it convinced carriers to essentially all carry the same Galaxy S III last year. And look at where Samsung is now. It helps with unified branding and unified advertising efforts.
While this in itself probably isn’t enough to propel HTC above Samsung and Apple, it does seem like a step in the right direction… even if the Verizon crew end up being late to the One party.
Sales of Nintendo’s Wii U console have been slower than expected following the holiday shopping season according to GameStop president Tony Bartel. The executive noted, however, that Nintendo is planning to launch some of their biggest IP over the next few months which he expects will increase gamer interest.
Forbes recently sat down with Bartel to pick his mind with regards to the Wii U and other next generation consoles on the horizon. He told the publication that Nintendo will need some great first-party titles to compete with Microsoft and Sony this holiday season. Furthermore, Bartel believes Nintendo should do more to make consumers aware of the new features available on the Wii U.
With regards to Microsoft's and Sony’s new consoles specifically, Bartel believes the impact they have on the gaming industry will be huge. He thinks that consumers are ready for innovation and as such, the new consoles should reenergize the entire industry.
What’s more, video gaming as an industry is much more mainstream now than it was when the last console race started which means there are more consumer dollars for companies to go after. Like it or not, gaming (like virtually everything else tech related) is becoming more social so continuing to build on that will be key for next generation systems, he said.
After seeing what exclusive titles like Halo were able to do for Microsoft, Bartel said he is excited to see what Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony bring to the table.
Smartphones based on Firefox OS are slated to debut later this year in several emerging markets around the world. But if you’re itching to try it out early, Mozilla has been pushing out a simulator compatible with all major PC platforms, and today a preview of version 3.0 has arrived with a handful of new features.
The most notable is a new Push to Device option that allows developers to transfer existing work-in-progress applications to a connected Firefox OS device via USB -- assuming they're one of the few that actually has a dev unit lying around. The company notes that remote debugging must be enabled on the device and the feature only works on Linux at the moment, with Windows support set to be added in the final version.
Other additions to Firefox OS Simulator 3.0 include rotation simulation so developers can test how their apps would adapt to portrait and landscape mode from the desktop, basic geolocation API simulation for apps to read out longitude and latitude values, and an updated version of the Gaia user interface.
Although anyone can download the latest x86 Firefox OS runtime, the idea is for the project’s contributors to test the Gaia shell and applications that are built for the platform, as well as giving early access to third party developers who might want to start building applications ahead of its launch.
Mozilla acknowledged that the third version of the simulator is still "a bit rough around the edges," hence the preview designation, but they decided to release anyway so users can provide feedback and contribute fixes.
Samsung's Galaxy S4 Unpacked event promises to be one of the biggest tech moments of the year, whatever ends up coming out of the box.
But what does the Korean company need to do in order to really blow us away?
Is this the moment where Samsung finally takes over Apple? What new features must the S4 have if Samsung wants to keep its foothold in the marketplace?
TechRadar's editor in chief (UK) Patrick Goss talks shop with phones and tablets editor Gareth Beavis and phones and tablets writer John McCann - check out their two cents in the video below.
And don't forget to follow all our live coverage from the event as it happens.
During a recent interview, Maxis general manager Lucy Bradshaw said it would be impossible to play SimCity offline without a significant amount of engineering by the design team as the game offloads a large amount of calculations to their servers so the computations aren’t being performed on the local PC.
According to a recent post on Reddit by a modder named UKAzzer, however, that’s not entirely accurate. He explains in the post how he was able to gain access to the game’s debug mode. From here, UKAzzer was able to disable the game’s disconnect timer which allows you to play offline indefinitely as shown in the video below.
He was also able to get rid of the fluffed population count and show the real numbers – a common complaint among players since the game launched more than a week ago. What’s more, he was able to edit the highways anywhere in the game, even outside of your own city boundaries. Edits are reportedly saved even if you log out of the game then return. This proves that highway editing would easily be possible in the “main” game.
There are a few drawbacks to this method, however. Although you can play indefinitely offline, no saves/syncs or region related stuff is possible just yet but the simulation can carry on without an active connection which pretty much debunks the claim from Maxis.
In the meantime, EA has launched a SimCity Server Status page and issued a patch that claims to fix an issue that causes the game to crash. A recent post on Maxis’ blog said they will continue to optimize and improve the experience moving forward.
In the run up to the Samsung Galaxy S4 launch this evening leaks are coming in thick and fast, the latest of which consists of four videos claiming to show off various features of the upcoming handset.
The videos come courtesy of the YouTuber who brought us a video leak earlier this week, and the clips show a new lock screen, internet browsing, floating touch and Smart Pause.
In the first brief video we see the lock screen which will supposedly feature on the Galaxy S4, with the water drop animation from the Galaxy S3 dropped in favour of what looks like a shining light.
We're not overly convinced by this particular unit as the handset takes a little while to turn the screen on after hitting the lock button, and going from lock to home screen isn't the most rapid of transitions - especially on a phone which could be packing an octo-core processor.
The internet of things
Next up is a demonstration of the web browser which looks like it's been given a slight TouchWiz design tweak and the unit in question seems to have some gesture controls built in.
A swipe of the hand over the device appears to scroll the page in the direction of the movement, while a sideways glide of the palm appears to open a new tab - it's not overly clear and the handset doesn't seem to be responsive to every movement.
The browser does look snappy though, with the user in the video able to zoom and pan around a busy looking webpage at a decent speed without any hint of slow down.
Get Smart
Something we've heard many rumours about is the Smart Pause functionality, where the Galaxy S4 will pause the video you're viewing if you look away from the screen.
The premise appears to work in the YouTube clip, but the person moves their whole head away from the screen to show it in action and we're left wondering if the Galaxy S4 will be sensitive enough register your eyes flicking up, without any physical head movement.
Float like a butterfly
Last but not least is the clip showing off floating touch, which appears to be a development of the S-Pen hover technique you get on the likes of the Galaxy Note 2, Galaxy Note 8.0 and Galaxy Note 10.1.
Head over to the gallery and hover your finger over an image thumbnail but don't touch the screen and the Galaxy S4 should give you a larger preview of the photo.
It doesn't seem to just work in the gallery app, with the user also heading over to the message inbox and hovering over one to get what looks like a preview without having to open it fully.
The handset which features in these videos looks very similar to the smartphone which was snapped in a number of photos earlier today - which backs up claims that this could well be the Samsung Galaxy S4.
We're going to reserve judgement until we see the real thing on stage in New York, and luckily that's only a few hours away. We'll be reporting live from the launch event to bring you all the news.
