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Samsung Just Killed Nokia’s ‘True PureView’ Windows Phone And It’s Not Even Unboxed Yet

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Poor Nokia. Samsung doesn’t stop. It’s just announced a new iteration of its flagship Galaxy S4 handset which has a digital camera embedded in its rump. The Galaxy S4 Zoom has a 10X optical zoom lens on the back, giving it two clear aspects: from the front it looks exactly like Samsung’s flagship S4 smartphone. But from the back it looks like a point and shoot digital camera.

The result is a hybrid handset that squeezes the ability of Nokia’s carefully crafted PureView cameraphone brand to stand out. Sure, Nokia’s high end phone lenses might still have better — or at least decent — low light performance, but to the untrained consumer eye which device is going to look more capable in the camera department?

This one:

Or this one?

And that’s before Nokia has even got around to launching the long rumoured ‘true PureView’ Lumia. Which will possibly look a little like the original (Symbian-based) 808 PureView — so something along the lines of this:

If you’re going to ask consumers to lug around a bulky, heavy phone, might as well make it look as much like the camera they used to own as possible. Familiarity will aid the trade off, helping them justify carrying a much larger device because it clearly melds two functions. Meanwhile Nokia’s PureView brand has to shout even louder to get noticed. And no matter how great their camera algorithms are, a lens that relies on digital zoom alone simply doesn’t look as capable as an optical zoom lens.

As well as a 10X optical zoom, the Galaxy S4 Zoom has a 16 Mega Pixel CMOS Sensor, Optical Image Stabiliser (so it’s raining on the Lumia 920′s parade too) and Xenon Flash. So basically Samsung is pushing into all the areas where Nokia is trying its utmost to differentiate its flagship Lumias vs the Android-powered competition (i.e. low light photography and extra steady video). Nokia could still push the boat out on megapixel count — if it launches a 41MP Lumia — but that’s a nerdy specs game to play that’s unlikely to have an impact on the mainstream consumer.

Beyond looks and specs, Samsung has also embedded new camera functions into the S4 Zoom designed to tie hardware and software together. For example, a feature called Zoom Ring allows the user to activate an in-call photo sharing feature by twisting the zoom ring on the device and then capturing and sending an image to the caller via MMS — all without having to suspend the call. The Zoom Ring can also be used to activate the Quick Launch and Shortcut features to navigate to the camera and through its modes quickly, again by twisting the ring.

Of course, the S4 Zoom will stand and fall on camera performance — so there’s a lot riding on the quality of the optics and the smoothness of its functions. But from the outside, at least, Samsung has created a device that bellows a heck of a lot louder than Nokia’s Lumias do, for all the marketing cash Nokia has poured into PureView. Even if Nokia can produce some camera comparisons that rank its kit over Samsung’s, being technically better isn’t always enough in the fiercely competitive smartphone space. Having the marketing brashness and brass neck (and massive budget) to get noticed is what counts.

Samsung has not released full details of all the markets where it intends to sell the S4 Zoom but has confirmed the handset will be coming to the U.K. this summer, and the U.S. and other parts of Europe from Q4. Like Nokia with the original 808 Pureview, Samsung dabbled in this area before with last year’s Galaxy Camera but that device was a Wi-Fi/3G/4G connected camera only, so did not include a phone dialler function. The Galaxy S4 Zoom is a full hybrid of phone plus camera, and yet another iteration of a flagship brand. This is Samsung continuing its strategy of iterating its portfolio to saturate the market by pushing its hardware into all the niches, large and small.

Nokia, meanwhile — which used to follow a similar strategy to Samsung, i.e. by producing a vast portfolio of devices across multiple price-points and form factors — now has a larger mountain to climb to get its camera-focused flagship phones noticed by the general consumer. Since switching to the Windows Phone platform, Nokia has had to rein in its portfolio to fit the shrinking size of its business, no longer having the resources to spread its hardware so far. But even while it’s focusing its remaining energy on specific niches, like high end cameraphones, Samsung is harrying those efforts by pushing its fingers in all the smartphone pies.

Click to view slideshow.

Don’t flinch: how the new Kinect could let games trade gimmicks for true interactivity

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Author: Brian McKinnell

Xbox-one-sensor_large

The first version of Kinect promised to completely change how we play games. Instead of sitting on our couch with a controller, we’d be running, dancing, throwing, and shouting our way through level after level. The new version of Kinect, the one that will ship with every Xbox One console in November, initially seemed like more of the same: more data, more accurately, to the same end. But as we talk to game developers at E3 2013, it’s quickly becoming clear that the next generation of motion gaming isn’t about making us stand in front of our TVs and play. It’s about watching us play, as we’ve always played, and reacting in kind.

Take Ryse Son of Rome, for instance. The game is played with your controller — you don’t use your arm to…

Lenovo’s IdeaPad Yoga 11S, the true successor to the Yoga 13, is finally on sale

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Author: Tiffany Shoman

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Lenovo’s IdeaPad Yoga 13 has been one of the most popular Windows 8 machines, combining an ultrabook’s design and specs with a rotating, back-bending touchscreen. But the smaller Yoga 11 was underpowered by comparison, running Windows RT on an ARM processor. As of today, though, Lenovo is rolling out an alternative: the Yoga 11S, which replaces the 11′s Tegra chip with an Intel one and runs Windows 8. Lenovo has started accepting orders for the 11S on its site, and they’ll soon be available online at Best Buy. The base model costs $ 799.99 — about $ 250 more than the current price of its RT counterpart — and comes with an 11.6-inch 1366 x 768 display, 4GB of memory, a 128GB SSD, and a Core i3 processor, upgradeable to a Core i5 or i7….

Virtuix hooks up Oculus Rift to its Omni treadmill, shows off ‘True VR’ (video)

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Author: Janet Odell

Sure, Omni-directional treadmills are nothing new, however Virtuix’s take is worth a mention now that its been displayed working in conjunction with the Oculus Rift. The business’s been publishing videos of its Omni treadmill dealing with Kinect for months, but last Thursday it upped the ante by including in the Break in what looks to be an extreme VR session of Group Citadel 2– officialy one-upping SixSenses Razer Hydra trial for the VR headset. The business’s been dealing with this unit as a cost effective option for houses, aiming to at some point try for funding through Kickstarter. Catch the video trial after the break and try withstand tossing cash at the display in an effort to obtain in on the action early.

Filed under: Games

Remarks

Via: Mashable

Source: Virtuix (YouTube)

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Is it true that LG is going to launch its first oled TV at around $10,000?

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Author: Mark Jeffries

Question by Bruce: Is it true that LG is going to launch its first oled TV at around ,000?
I read an article about LG oled TV and it said their oled tv is more expensive than Samsung’s, is it true? And I wonder why oled TVs are so expensive.

Best answer:

Answer by splash
No definite price has been set for the LG 55″ 55EM9600 but some have estimated that it will go on sale later for around $ 8000

What do you think? Answer below!

B-Class Electric Drive the first true Mercedes electric vehicle, coming to US in 2014

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Author:

B-class-electric-drive-hands-on-10_large

Mercedes has revealed its first electric vehicle for the US here at the New York International Auto Show: the B-Class Electric Drive. The German company has added a 28-kWh lithium ion battery pack to its standard fuel-powered (and slightly bulbous) B-Class compact, and it has seen fit to update the interior styling fairly extensively for the occasion. Mercedes says that the battery will offer 115 miles of range on a charge, and that it can charge up to a 60 mile range in less than two hours and up to full capacity in four hours using a 240-volt power connection (no information is available yet on how long it will take on a regular wall socket). The battery pack is placed underneath the floor of the car — rather than the trunk like some…

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QNX builds in-car speech framework with AT&T’s Watson, knows our true intentions

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Author:

QNX wants to put an end to in-car voice systems that require an awkward-sounding syntax to get the job done. As part of its CES launches, it’s rolling out a framework for its speech recognition technology leaning on AT&T’s Watson engine. By offloading the phrase interpretation to AT&T’s servers, any infotainment system with the framework inside can focus on deciphering the speaker’s intent — letting drivers spend more time navigating or playing music, instead of remembering the necessary magic words. QNX will roll out the voice element as part of its CAR platform at an unspecified point in 2013. We’ll have to wait until car and head-end unit designers implement the platform in tangible hardware, but the new speech system will hopefully lead to more organic-sounding conversations with our cars.

Continue reading QNX builds in-car speech framework with AT&T’s Watson, knows our true intentions

Filed under: Transportation, AT&T

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Source: QNX

BBC’s Connected Red Button introduces on TiVo, brings true web TELEVISION with a single click

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Author: Charity Woods

Much as brilliant Televisions might seem like a current transformation, audiences in the UK have had access to interactive, multi-window content on their boxes for over 13 years. The difference (and in numerous means, the issue) is that this bonus “Red Button” product has actually been provided over the traditional digital broadcast signal instead of over the web– which is why today’s launch of the Connected Red Button solution makes a whole lot of sense.

Beginning with the 1.2 million individuals who take place to have a Virgin Media TiVo box, pressing red will certainly bring up an overlay recommending programs from iPlayer and the radio channels, customized by BBC personnel to what they’re presently seeing, plus further curated web content from BBC News, Weather condition and Sport. They’ll have the ability to review articles in overlay mode, or click on a video to throw it fullscreen. The material isn’t brand-new of course– it can currently be accessed through the wide variety of apps that the BBC has for iPlayer and various other solutions– however it’ll now be delivered with a much easier, app-free interface that is already used by around 20 million individuals per month. We’ve had a play and can certainly guarantee it being straightforward– remain tuned for our hands-on video which will certainly up in a few minutes.

Of course, it’ll only work if your TV is connected into the web somehow, which is the explanation the BBC gives for initially only offering the solution to TiVo consumers. Starting in 2013, it’ll roll out the Connected Red Button to Freeview, Freesat, BT Vision, YouView and other connected gadgets– essentially every thing other than Sky, which BBC execs state they considered a “closed solution” instead of as a “platform.” At the same time, there’ll be an understanding campaign recommending the mainstream masses to obtain their TVs or media boxes online and therefore get ready for the inevitable.

Filed under: Home Home entertainment, InternetComments

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Neil Young Begins His Long Mission Towards True Audio Fidelity With Pono, A New Popular music Service And Device

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Author: Stacey Cook

Singer-songwriter-rocker Neil Young has been speaking about complications with modern audio codecs for decades. He was mad at CDs back in the 1990s and most recently he lashed out against MP3s and digital audio compression at a popular tech conference, saying “ My target is to try to rescue the art kind that I’ve been exercising for the past 50 years. We reside in the digital age and, sadly, it’s diminishing our popular music, not improving it … It’s not that digital is bad or inferior, it’s that the way it’s being used isn’t doing justice to the art. The MP3 just has 5 percent of the data present in the original recording. … The benefit of the digital age has required individuals to select between quality and convenience, however they shouldn’t have to make that selection.”

Luckily old Bernard Shakey understands a few people with some tech chops and is launching a service tentatively called Pono that will permit folks to switch, download, and play high quality songs on a user designed specifically for the service. He displayed his little player – a prismatic device that appears like a cross between a Shanzhai PMP and a box of Toberlone – on Letterman last evening and he ’ s aiming to offer 192kHz/24-bit audio files to purists who demand to hear every aural nook and cranny.

Young is working with labels to move the initial master tapes from each artist featuring a number of albums from Bob Dylan and additional greats. Young states the “ audio doesn ’ t get dummied down ” when played on the Pono.

While seemingly Quixotic, I think it ’ s lovely that Young is preserving this effort also in the face of an onset of reasonable bit-rate monstrosities. High quality new music has long been the provenance of the rich and/or aged and, although I suspect this will appeal even more to the older listener, a minimum of Young is dealing with one of the barricades to dulcet, high quality tracks.

by means of TheVerge

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PSA: Sprint LTE goes live today, honest and for true

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Author: Melissa Shroeder

Sprint’s decision to take its LTE live in Kansas City marked a short prelude to a full orchestral performance– the carrier’s updated 4G network is now official. Kansas City and St. Joseph in Kansas, in addition to 13 urban areas in Georgia and Texas, are taking the leap past WiMAX rates as of today. Senior network VP Bob Azzi has alerted the Kansas City Star that the current LTE accessibility is still mainly for use outside until it increases to the 3G network’s selection, although he brings that there will be a protection map accessible from July 16th onwards to let EVO 4G LTE, Galaxy Nexus and Galaxy S III owners understand when their phones reach full potential. Merely keep in mind that the genuine party begins in 2013, when Sprint intends to both flick on tone over LTE and ramp up to extra-speedy LTE-Advanced.

[Thanks, Alex]

Filed under: Mobile phones, WirelessPSA: Sprint LTE goes live today, honest and for real initially appeared on Engadget on Sun, 15 Jul 2012 11:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink|Kansas City Star|Email this|Opinions

Posts Tagged ‘true’

Samsung Just Killed Nokia’s ‘True PureView’ Windows Phone And It’s Not Even Unboxed Yet

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B-Class Electric Drive the first true Mercedes electric vehicle, coming to US in 2014

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Neil Young Begins His Long Mission Towards True Audio Fidelity With Pono, A New Popular music Service And Device

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