G Machine: Technology, Music, and Entertainment

Samsung Unpacked 2012 | Replayed

Greg — Thu, 03 May 2012 20:59:09 +0000

I’ve tracked down the video from the Samsung Unpacked 2012 event. I’ve replaced the commercial and placed the video below.

Samsung Galaxy SIII

Greg — Thu, 03 May 2012 20:55:56 +0000

So the Samsung “Unpacked” event has come and gave us a unbelievable amount of new features to absorb with the announcement of the latest edition to their flagship phone, The Galaxy SIII. Some of the most notable features; Wi-Fi Channel Bonding which doubles the Wi-Fi bandwidth. Wireless charging, yeah that’s right no wires needed to charge this guy (once you get the wireless charging kit). ”Smart Stay” using the front-facing camera the phone can track you eye movement to see if your looking at it and will keep the phone lit. ”S Beam” which takes Android Beam to another level, “allowing a 1GB movie file to be shared within three minutes and a 10MB music file within two seconds by simply touching another GALAXY S III phone, even without a Wi-Fi or cellular signal.” Pop up play allows you to layer a playing video on top of whatever else your doing and manipulate it around so that you can text or surf the web while still watching the video. Availability will be end of May for Europe and June for the rest of us. I’ll leave you with the official press release. Well played Samsung, well played. -Greg

Samsung Introduces the GALAXY S III, the Smartphone

Designed for Humans and Inspired by Nature

Effortlessly smart and intuitively simple,

Samsung GALAXY S III reveals a new concept of smartphone

London, UK–May 3, 2012–Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd, a global leader in digital media and digital convergence technologies, announced today the third generation GALAXY S, the GALAXY S III. Designed for humans and inspired by nature, the GALAXY S III is a smartphone that recognizes your voice, understands your intention, and lets you share a moment instantly and easily.

This sleek and innovative smartphone has the enhanced intelligence to make everyday life easier. With Samsung GALAXY S III, you can view the content like never before on the device’s 4.8 inch HD Super AMOLED display. An 8MP camera and a 1.9MP front camera offer users a variety of intelligent camera features and face recognition related options that ensure all moments are captured easily and instantly. Samsung GALAXY S III is powered by Android™ 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich, with greatly enhanced usability and practicality to make life easier. Packed with intuitive technology, the GALAXY S III delivers a uniquely personalized mobile experience that refuses to be compromised.

“With the GALAXY S III, Samsung has maximized the consumer benefits by integrating superior hardware with enhanced smartphone usability,” said JK Shin, President and Head of IT & Mobile Communications Division at Samsung. “Designed to be both effortlessly smart and intuitively simple, the GALAXY S III has been created with our human needs and capabilities in mind. What makes me most proud is that it enables one of the most seamless, natural and human-centric mobile experiences, opening up a new horizon that allows you to live a life extraordinary.”

Introducing Natural Interaction

The GALAXY S III enhances the interaction experience between the device and user. Smart enough to detect your face, voice and motions, the GALAXY S III adapts to the individual user to provide a more convenient and natural experience. With the innovative ‘Smart stay’ feature, the GALAXY S III recognizes how you are using your phone – reading an e-book or browsing the web for instance – by having the front camera identify your eyes; the phone maintains a bright display for continued viewing pleasure.

The GALAXY S III features ‘S Voice,’ the advanced natural language user interface, to listen and respond to your words. In addition to allowing information search and basic device-user communication, S Voice presents powerful functions in regards to device control and commands. When your phone alarm goes off but you need a little extra rest, just tell the GALAXY S III “snooze.” You can also use S Voice to play your favorite songs, turn the volume up or down, send text messages and emails, organize your schedules, or automatically launch the camera and capture a photo.

In addition to recognizing your face and voice, the GALAXY S III understands your motions to offer maximized usability. If you are messaging someone but decide to call them instead, simply lift your phone to your ear and ‘Direct call’ will dial their number. With ‘Smart alert,’ the GALAXY S III will also save you from trouble by catching any missed messages or calls; your phone will vibrate to notify missed statuses when picked up after being idle.

Easy and Instant Sharing

The Samsung GALAXY S III is more than a personal device that can be enjoyed by one user – it wants you to share and experience smartphone benefits with family and friends, regardless of where you are. With the new ‘S Beam,’ the GALAXY S III expands upon Android™ Beam™, allowing a 1GB movie file to be shared within three minutes and a 10MB music file within two seconds by simply touching another GALAXY S III phone, even without a Wi-Fi or cellular signal. The ‘Buddy photo share’ function also allows photos to be easily and simultaneously shared with all your friends pictured in an image directly from the camera or the photo gallery.

With ‘AllShare Cast’, users can wirelessly connect their GALAXY S III to their television to immediately transfer smartphone content onto a larger display. ‘AllShare Play’ can be also used to instantly share any forms of files between GALAXY S III and your tablet, PC, and televisions regardless of the distance between the devices. Under AllShare Play is also the ‘Group Cast’ feature that allows you to share your screen among multiple friends on the same Wi-Fi network; you can make comments and draw changes at the same time with your co-workers, witnessing real-time sharing on your individual device.

Human-centric Design with Uncompromised Performance

The GALAXY S III not only presents features with enhanced usability, but also provides an ergonomic and comfortable experience through its human-centric design. Its comfortable grip, gentle curves, and organic form deliver a rich human-centric feel and design. Inspired by nature, its design concept is the flow and movement of nature. The elements of wind, water and light are all evoked in the physical construct of the GALAXY S III. In its essence, the minimal organic design identity is reflected in the smooth and non-linear lines of the device. Available in Pebble Blue and Marble White at launch, Samsung will introduce a variety of additional color options.

With a 4.8″ HD Super AMOLED display, the GALAXY S III offers a large and vivid viewing experience. Samsung Mobile’s heritage Super AMOLED display even enhances to HD and 16:9 wider viewing angles. To ensure faster content sharing and connectivity, the GALAXY S III offers Wi-Fi Channel Bonding which doubles the Wi-Fi bandwidth.

The GALAXY S III also sports a range of additional features that boost performance and the overall user experience in entirely new ways. It introduces ‘Pop up play,’ a feature that allows you to play a video anywhere on your screen while simultaneously running other tasks, eliminating the need to close and restart videos when checking new emails or surfing the Web. Its 8MP camera features a zero-lag shutter speed that lets you capture moving objects easily without delay – the image you see is the picture you take. With the ‘Burst shot’ function that instantly captures twenty continuous shots, and the ‘Best photo’ feature that selects the best of eight photographs for you, the GALAXY S III ensures users a more enhanced and memorable camera experience. HD video can be recorded even with the 1.9MP front-facing camera, which you can use to capture a video of yourself. Improved backside illumination further helps to eliminate blur in photos that result from shaking, even under low lights.

Mobile payment is also accessible with the device through advanced Near Field Communication (NFC) technology. The gaming experience is enhanced through ‘Game Hub,’ providing access to numerous social games, while Video Hub brings users high quality TV and movies. Furthermore, Samsung Music Hub will offer a personal music streaming service. Game Hub, Video Hub and Music Hub will be introduced in select countries initially and soon rolled out to global markets.

The Samsung GALAXY S III will be available from the end of May in Europe before rolling out to other markets globally.

For multimedia content and more detailed information, please visit www.samsungmobilepress.com.

Official ICS build for AT&T’s GS2 Leaked!

Greg — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 15:45:52 +0000

Yesterday an official ICS (Ice Cream Sandwich, Android 4.0) build for AT&T’s Galaxy S2, (non-LTE) was leaked to the public. The build was quickly ready for an Odin flash thanks to the people at RootzWiki. I was able to download and install Samsung Kies (for the Windows drivers) in moments. Then I downloaded Odin from RootzWiki and began pushing it out to my GS2. I have to say the process, as always, was pretty straight forward. I’ll run through the process and possible issues in a moment. Once completed the process I had my GS2 running the sweet ICS we’ve all looked forward too! The OS does have TouchWiz running on top; however it is so clean that as in previous version it blends very well. I did run a few speed tests following my flash to ICS and was averaging around 7000kbps down and 1000kbps up. Prior to the upgrade I had averaged around 3500kbps down. I think that shows a dramatic increase in speeds. So far the only issue I have found is with the alarm clock and the ability to schedule it for different days. I’m assuming this will be fixed before the its officially released. I was able to fix it by just installing a separate alarm clock app. I don’t have very much more input yet as I haven’t messed with it much more. I look forward to playing with it a lot more and playing with all the awesome features that the latest Android version has to offer. – Greg

NOTE: The following is for the US AT&T Galaxy S2 i777 (not the Skyrocket LTE)

Downloads:
Kies – http://www.samsung.com/us/kies/
Odin – http://www.ponack.net/designgears/leaks/I777UCLC2_RootWiki.exe

Install Kies if you have not already, this will make sure you have the most current installed drivers for your Galaxy S2.
Reboot your phone into download mode.
a. Turn phone off
b. Hold down volume up and volume down and press the power button
c. Press volume up to enter download mode
Connect your phone to your PC via the USB
Start Odin OneClick
Once you see Odin has recognized a device press “Start”
Let this run until you see it has finished and the phone will reboot.
Enjoy Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich.

If you run into any issues while this is running, errors, or it just hangs for longer than 30 minutes. Unplug the phone, close Odin, plug the phone back in, run Odin and click “start” again.

Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket to receive update

Greg — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 16:14:21 +0000

Beginning tomorrow AT&T’s Galaxy S II Skyrocket will begin receiving an OTA update. This update is not Ice Cream Sandwich, Android 4.0. This is merely a maintenance update that will that will add several new enhancements. These enhancements include:

• Improved performance from several Qualcomm patches and other refinements
• User Interface updates such as the new screen unlock swipe
• The ability to ‘reply all’ in MMS messages
• Exchange ActiveSync wipe to remove all content from the device and microSD card
• Improved battery indicator icon accuracy

This update will bring the Skyrocket to Kernel version 2.6.35.11, Build number GINGERBREAD.UCLA3. So, those looking for the ICS update you wait will continue. –Greg

UPDATE: Seems most users are having an issue installing the update. The update continues to fail after about 75%. Users have been able to complete the update after doing a stock restore. More information on what users have tried, failed, and succeeded doing can be found here on the xda-developers forums.

Tribler: the future of file sharing

Greg — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 20:06:01 +0000

Tribler is the future of peer-to-peer file sharing as it removes the boundaries of file sharing. BitTorrent is peer-to-peer file sharing protocol used to share files. It works by a user downloading a file that is shared by many other users. The user downloading is actually downloading pieces of the file from multiple users rather then from one specific source. Torrent search engines, like The Pirate Bay, contain torrent files which indexes the file to be downloaded with users sharing the file. This type of file sharing is far from new and neither is Tribler. The difference between current torrent use file sharing and Tribler, is the Tribler does this without a centralized server or torrent search engine. Tribler allows a user to search within the app itself across the users and leave torrent search engines behind. When you’re not relying on a central source of information then there is no central location for the governments or activists to shutdown or threaten with laws. This means as the developers say “The only way to take it down is to take the Internet down.” So, if the governments take down torrent tracking sites Tribler will not be affected. If a government creates a new law, Tribler will be immune. Although it has been around a while the following is still small for now, only a few thousand. Hopefully the word will spread and masses will begin using Tribler. -Greg

Tribler is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux Operating Systems.
http://dl.tribler.org/

TorrentFreak has more details directly from the developers in an article they wrote today.
http://torrentfreak.com/tribler-makes-bittorrent-impossible-to-shut-down-120208/

FoxFi brings Wi-Fi Hotspot to Android without root

Greg — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 16:35:05 +0000

FoxFi Software has just released their free app with allows the creation of a Wi-Fi Hotspot without the need of rooting your Android phone. FoxFi does point out it currently works on only large handful of phones and does not work on any HTC.

Currently works on most Samsung phones, some Motorola phones (Razr/Bionic/DroidX), LG Optimus/Vortex/Ally, ZTE N762, HuaWei Comet. Does NOT work on HTC phones or Motorola Droid.

It’s still in beta form which has a few minor bugs, so they have a few tips on dealing with those. They did include WPA2 availability for more secured connections. So far FoxFi works flawlessly on my Samsung GS2. I connected my Motorola Xoom to the hotspot created on my GS2 with FoxFi and was getting over 5Mb down on a speed test. Combined with the unlimited data plan I still have on AT&T makes this guy one happy camper. –Greg

Download FoxFi from the Google Market

Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Processors

Greg — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 10:15:42 +0000

Qualcomm was showing off their new S4 Snapdragon Processor in both mobile devices and TVs, that’s right TVs. Here we see this processor converting A.R. (augmented reality) from 2D to 3D before sending over HDMI to the TV. You can se how he has the mobile phone pointed at the flat map played on the table there and it’s turned into a 3D barrel shooting game on the TV. It really was pretty cool, no lag, and a crisp 3D image.

Here is a shot of the upcoming TV that uses the S4 processor technology. They have entered a partnership agreement with Lenova to build these TVs.

Fujitsu Waterproof Phones and Tablets

Greg — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 18:32:02 +0000

Fujitsu showed off a complete line of waterproof phones and tablets. These were built waterproof no added cases or protectors. The devices were all running Android. The phones were running Gingerbread and the Tablets were running Honeycomb. When I asked about price and availability in the US they only said Fujitsu was still waiting for a mobile carrier to pick up the devices. No comment on the price I can only assume they would fall in line with the masses. I got a chance to dunk one of the tablets myself. Worked as desribed and I didn’t notice any awkward coating or case.

Nvidia

Greg — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 09:58:35 +0000

Nvidia had a pretty cool racing demo setup. Complete with 3 monitors all of which displayed 3D. The cockpit was also hydraulic and moved with the game. Full pedal and stock controls as well.

Panasonic

Greg — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 07:32:28 +0000

Panasonic brought a lot more than just TVs with them to CES. They have quite a few concept technologies for the auto industry. Here you can see their wireless charging system concept for electric cars.