Android Community |
- Samsung Galaxy S II Hands-On
- Motorola developing own OS? [silly rumor]
- Samsung Galaxy S2 TouchWiz 4.0 Special Features Demo [EXCLUSIVE]
- Samsung Galaxy S 4G Review
- Touchscreens may do double duty as solar panels
| Posted: 25 Mar 2011 04:43 PM PDT We’ve been given the opportunity to take a hands-on peek behind the scenes at Samsung with a fully functional Samsung Galaxy S II phone running Android 2.3.1 with TouchWiz 4.0 over the top. In addition to the hands-on video we’ve got here, we’ve also got a demonstration of some of the more fun gesture-based elements in TouchWix 4.0 [as presented by] our main homie Philip Berne. The Samsung Galaxy S II handset is an impressive device – one that I mistakenly call the thinnest device in Samsung’s line of phones.*
*The reason I’m wrong is that it’s in fact the thinnest phone ever. Period. In the world, ever. A point we heard more than once this past week is that the thickness of Samsung’s newly introduced versions of their Samsung Galaxy Tab line the 8.9 and the 10.1, are 8.6 mm compared to the Samsung Galaxy S II which is an amazing 8.49 mm. That’s thin! Holy crap!
A bit on the specs: this phone features a 4.3-inch Super AMOLED WVGA display, a nameless 1GHz dual-core processor, an 8-megapixel camera on the back, a 2.0-megapixel camera on the front (NOTE, I MISTAKENLY SAY 1.3MP IN THE VIDEO,) and what will surely be the newest version of Gingerbread when the device is released. There’ve been some mixed reports on this, saying sometimes that it’ll be released with Honeycomb, but I assure you, holding this device in my hands literally, it’s got Android 2.3.1, for sure, for real. This phone is both large and small, having a brilliantly fabulous screen (when the battery is charged up, that is,*) rolls out with a dual-core processor, but manages to slide under doors with it’s smallest-ever thinness. It’s going to be a barn-buster. It’s going to be the best!
Have a look at our closeup shots of this phone, check out the video(s) we’ve got filmed of the insides and the handling, and get pumped up for our full review that shall be coming sooner than later!                  Also BONUS here’s the original press release if you’ve not yet happened upon it: )
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| Motorola developing own OS? [silly rumor] Posted: 25 Mar 2011 03:26 PM PDT Motorola is working on their own OS? What? Back that up. Several blogs are putting forth the rumor that Motorola’s friendship with Google is waning and that the cellphone manufacturer has been quietly hiring Apple and Adobe engineers with the aim of developing their own platform OS to compete with Android. The thinking is that Google is “shooting itself win the foot” with fragmentation problems, manufacturer support issues, and market saturation of so many Android phones, you can’t tell one from the other. Can this rumor really be credible?
Now, the fact that Motorola is hiring people from Apple and Adobe is interesting. It’s really easy to see some strange Frankenstein-esque OS that’s as elegant as the iPhone but can freakishly and natively play Flash. And it’s easy to see how there are so many different Android products in the market that it becomes really different to tell one from the other in terms of performance. But creating a new OS to go up against two very seasoned platforms with vast app catalogs is extremely risky. Particularly when Motorola has been doing quite well with products like the Droid and Xoom thanks to the Android Platform. Motorola may also be thinking of the next generation OS, years down the road when everything is linked to cloud. Sure, that could be. And with Google’s CR46 project, HPs webOS, it seems that everyone has their heads in the clouds. So why not Motorola as well? But seriously, we don’t think Motorola is going to kill the goose that laid the golden egg. Not by a long shot. [via Information Week] )
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| Samsung Galaxy S2 TouchWiz 4.0 Special Features Demo [EXCLUSIVE] Posted: 25 Mar 2011 03:14 PM PDT Whilst at CTIA 2011 we were given the opportunity to take a peek at the fabulous new Samsung Galaxy S2 running with the excellent new version of Samsung’s user interface overlay, TouchWiz 4.0. In the video you’re about to watch, you’ll see our good pal Philip Berne speaking about some of the new features coming in on the Samsung Galaxy S2 via the new version of TouchWiz featured on it. I’m sure you’re aware that we’re always a bit hesitant to work with manufacturer-added interfaces, instead relying on 3rd party people to give us what we want, but behold this: TouchWiz 4.0 seems like a really excellent addition to the history of Android and we can’t WAIT to use it – it and all of its everloving gesture movements for great justice in interaction.
What we get to see here first is a feature that works in-browser only. Once you’ve got a webpage loaded up (we’ve got AndroidCommunity.com loaded up here,) you can zoom in and out by holding down on the screen with two fingers and moving your phone back and forth. Amazing! It’d never occurred to us, or at least me, that the same gear inside a phone that allows me to maneuver a starship in a game would work its way into controlling a web browser as well. Well played! Next we moved on to some widget talk, seeing that there’s some cool new “Live Tile” action going on, each of them movable with a long-press, each of them fitting together snug via a girding system that sets them up like a magazine. On top of that, the widgets drawer has been improved as well. You’re able to activate a set after set of widgets by hitting menu – add – widgets: this leading you to a set of four icons along the bottom of your screen where your drawer would normally be, each screen scrolling back and forth with a sort of slide-bump action. Very slick, very much want this functionality in my ADW drawer options. Then there’s ANOTHER gesture-based control which you’re basically going to have a conniption fit over – when you grab a widget from your widgets drawer and you want to drop it to one of your home panels, all you’ve got to do is hold down on it and move your phone from side to side, again, physically through the air. As you do so, the screens will scroll back and forth, allowing you to choose the one you want without swiping in the least! And this is only Gingerbread – again, can’t wait until we get to see what they’ll do with what Honeycomb has to offer. Neato, yes? Take a peek at our hands-on with the Samsung Galaxy S2 for a bit more general look at the phone and what you’re going to get out of it! )
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| Posted: 25 Mar 2011 01:25 PM PDT Behold a rather familiar customer upgraded to meet the needs of the ravenous hoards of Galaxy S users across the country. This is the Samsung Galaxy S 4G, and if you’re still reading this paragraph, you’ve quite obviously never picked this phone up with your own hands. It’s a nearly perfect replica of the Samsung Vibrant that you may well be rather familiar with save for a couple of differences: a front-facing camera and a super odd super awesome back cover with a dash of pazaazz, making it look like a lighting mistake whenever I take photo – every time!
First Impressions When first handed this phone at a conference, I remember wondering if someone had forgotten to put the battery inside because it seemed too light. Once I found that the battery was, indeed, in the phone, and that this was the total weight, I would have been impressed, but I was already watching Inception. I was inside of what I was inside of. This phone comes prepared to deliver the film Inception to you via a bit of a login to T-Mobile’s media distribution area where you can essentially have the video instantly – and it looks nice! I’ve had the phone for about a week now and I can tell you instantly that this phone will have no problem holding its own against the rest of its family.
The 4-inch Super AMOLED display behaves and appears rather fantastically, displaying the film Inception as well as all the games your brain can handle while remaining such a small power user that you’ll easily get 24 hours of use without going back for a charge. Cameras work fine at 5-megapixels on the back and less than 2 on the front: as a note, here, we’d like manufacturers to up their ante when it comes to front-facing cameras. Detail in everything, please.
Performance As it was just noted, the display works really well. Brightness a must, and when the 1GHz Hummingbird processor gets a flying, you’ll be seeing some real sweet and smooth action happening. TouchWiz is installed and active, and I’ve got to say, personally, that these newer versions of TouchWiz are really growing on me. For the longest time I’ve been a fan of strictly 3rd-party user interfaces, but Samsung really appears to be going in the right direction these days.
We’re running Android 2.2.1 Froyo, which the world of course knows to be a massively excellent system, and it’s rolling around on T-Mobile’s HSPA+ network for T-Mobile’s version of what they call 4G. We know that this network is not the fastest of the bunch, but heck, it’s certainly beyond anything we’ve seen even a few years ago, and that’s saying something. Need an app? Wait about a minute MAX and you’ll have it. Want to load a webpage? Basically instant.
Wrap-Up While this phone is set to be dwarfed in one feature or another by phones coming out in the months ahead, I’ll tell you this: here is a solid Android phone we know to be capable of doing anything an average user might want it to do, and it’s inexpensive, and it’s extremely light. The Samsung Galaxy S 4G comes from the most successful line of Android phones in the history of Android, so you should have no worries on whether or not it’ll be worth your time – it will be! What you’ve got to decide now, if you’re considering purchasing an Android phone, is if you’re going to want to stick to a lineage of proven phones such as this one, or if you’re going to toss your cash in a barrel marked “oddity.” There’s a whole slew of Android phones coming out sooner than later that offer up more than just a dedicated Android experience. But is “more” better? And how well do you like T-Mobile? Know these things before you step in the store, and ye shall know the truth.               )
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| Touchscreens may do double duty as solar panels Posted: 25 Mar 2011 01:02 PM PDT French company Wysips is working on a new technology which would cause smartphone touchscreens to do double duty as solar panels to recharge phones. The concept is quite interesting as it involves laying an ultra thin transparent photovoltaic film layer on top of the cellphone display screen. The film would capture energy not only from the sun, but any nearby light source. Projected recharge times would be about six hours from direct sunlight and a few hours longer from leaching energy from indoor lights. Wysips is already at work on the second generation of the technology, which looks to provide 30 minutes of talk time after just an hour in the sun.
On the whole, I’m not really a fan of mobile solar charging options, The main problem with a solar charger is that the sun moves constantly, and my experience has been that you have to move the charger every few minutes to keep it in the sun, and the trickle charge means you’re spending all day charging your phone. But I just this kind of out of the box thinking. With more people getting mobile phones and tablets, the drain on power grids is increasing. So, adding the ability for the phone to independently charge from the sunlight means they can help pull their own weight, and you wouldn’t have to bring along a separate charger or move it around. And the ability to charge in indoor light is a real plus. The phone would be constantly charging as light falls on the screen, meaning it would be topping off it’s energy as the phone just sits inactive. And word is that Wysips is working with cellphone manufacturers and mobile display companies to incorporate the new technology into future designs, so we may see it sooner, rather than later. Imagine this in tablets, laptops, even laid in the hoods and tops of cars. It’s certainly a splendid development if it pays off. Tres Bien! [via GizmoWatch] )
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