Showing posts with label jelly bean. Show all posts
Showing posts with label jelly bean. Show all posts

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Ios vs Android: The battle is over

   Wrong am I? No i'm not. The ios vs android war is over and a winner has emerged. If this were in the wee months of 2012 we might have given it to the ios but fast forward to 2013 and android has won the battle and probably the war. These operaring systems have changed mobile devices and what they can do in the palms of our hands, ios with its simplicity and sureness of efficiency. Android with its effectiveness of acheiving whatever you set it to do. The debate would continue to rage and points will continue to be made but android has a couple of advantages over the ios and they are pretty solid ones.

 The home screen: ios and android have gotten better and a lot of cosmetic and structural changes have gone into them after ios 4 and gingerbread. These versions of their respective operating systems were where they really got it right, the newer versions were built on these systems.










The android home screen gives you everything, live wallpapers, weather, news streams, notifications widgets, everything. The iphone is different from the android phones as the os and phone come from the same manufacturer so it is relatively easy for them to make the phone look exactly as they envision. The number of phone makers and the different mobile operators have given the android homescreen very diverse looks. The nexus line seems to be the only brand that offers an unadulterated android homescreen. With the notifications bar just a pull away, weather widget, news and all the nexus homescreen is a real beauty. The amount of custimization is simply breathtaking and that is exactly what android is all about. Do as you please.



 Variety: one major strenght of android is its variety. With sammy churning out devices like tomorrow is another day to die hard and Htc showing that its not by thousands of plastic phones but hundreds of solid well built devices and Lg, Motorola and other brands producing phones with diverse specs and screen sizes plus their own modifications to the os, the iphone is outgunned and outnumbered. Even Mohamed Ali cant fight Tyson and Mayweather at a time and expect to win.















Apps: The itunes store has the largest volume of apps, something the windowsphone  would cringe at hearing. But android is growing fast, and fast enough that it is likely it overtake the istore. Also the argument that iphone apps have a better quality than its android counterparts is losing steam because the quality of apps in the playstore has drastically improved. Every app that the android os has can stand toe to toe with its ios version. Games like modern combat 4, nova, shadowgun, real racing and a lot of others offer great graphics and an awesome gaming experience.

nba 2k12 android

need for speed iphone
nba 2k12 iphone

fifa 12 android
need for speed android

fifa 12 iphone


Screen size: according to a survey, smartphone owners prefer a bigger screen something along the four inches line. The 3.5 screen of the iphone was great but now with far larger android screens and equally stunning graphics they lay out small screens dont cut it anymore. Even though the iphone 5's screen grew in height it still doesn't look large.


Cross app integration: The ios closed nature doesnt allow apps to share common resources, for example a pdf document in your email can never be saved. It'll only exist in your email. The android os allows you to share a document or picture, anything as far as another app can make use of it there is the option for that app to find it and use it.


I for innovation: the I in the iphone and iproducts mean innovation. Well that's what some people believe. But after ios4 innovation seems to have ended with the iphone. Meanwhile android has grown in leaps and bounds in this regard. Project butter, widgets, smooth transition between panes, apps, heavy web pages, and a lot of cosmetic changes have occured on the os. The different manufacturers also add their own ideas, sometimes it works other times it doesnt. The samsung s3 with its front facing camera that knows when you are not looking at the phone and puts off the screen then turns on when you do, pauses and plays videos when you look away and look back, Samsung s4 with its hovering gesture control and the likes.



The andy boys will be heard loud and clear for years to come thats a given, the uncertainty lies with ios catching up or falling further behind. So many factors aid androids cause, Mark Zuckerbergs plunge into androids waters with the new "facebook home" feature is an indication that he beleives totally in the os. Steve Jobs death also a big loss for apple as it seems their innovation died with him. Or the closed system of apple that you need to jailbreak your idevice then download an app from cydia before you can send your mom the picture you just took with her or maybe its the browser that doesnt support any flash content. Android built its os in a way that google search, gmail, google maps, google+, youtube, google now and google docs are all knit round the os. A really smart move as some of these features are used everyday by us and like Manchester united and Manchester city the android family are really getting noisy. Spending $213m in 2011 on tv, magazine & newspaper adverts surely makes a lot of noise and more was spent in 2012, 2013 will undoubtly increase. The android os has overturned the ios in a lot of areas that are evident. What we are all pondering is how wide it'll stretch its lead.

Monday, April 1, 2013

Samsung galaxy s4 mini: specifications


Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini
The unreleased samsung Galaxy s4 might have a junior brother already. There are rumours of a galaxy s4 mini to be announced this week and its release due by the end of q2. It seems to pack watered down features of its elder brother.
Rumors say that the device is slated for a late May or early June release in one of two color varieties - Black Mist or White Frost. It'll supposedly come in a wide variety of alternatives to compliment the standard quad-core S4 Mini: a dual-core dual-SIM variant, an LTE edition, and a TD-SCDMA version for China Mobile.
Specs-wise the Samsung Galaxy S4 mini is expected to have a 4.3-inch Super AMOLED screen of qHD resolution, 8MP shooter with front-facer, 1GB of RAM, and 8/16/32GB of storage. Like the Galaxy S4, the mini should run the latest Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean release, and will likely cost around £300 / $450.

Unofficial preliminary specifications.
Also known as Samsung I9190 Galaxy S IV mini.
Available as Samsung I9192 Galaxy S4 mini with dual SIM card 
General2G NetworkGSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 - GT-I9190
GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 - GT-I9192 (SIM 1 & SIM 2)
3G NetworkHSDPA 900 / 1900 / 2100
SIMOptional Dual SIM
AnnouncedExp. announcement 2013, Q2
StatusRumored. Exp. release 2013, July
BodyDimensions-
Weight-
DisplayTypeSuper AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors
Size540 x 960 pixels, 4.3 inches (~256 ppi pixel density)
MultitouchYes
SoundAlert typesVibration; MP3, WAV ringtones
Loudspeaker Yes
3.5mm jack Yes
MemoryCard slotmicroSD, up to 32 GB
Internal8/16/32 GB, 1 GB RAM
DataGPRSYes
EDGEYes
SpeedHSDPA 14.4 Mbps, HSUPA 5.76 Mbps
WLANWi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, dual-band, DLNA, Wi-Fi Direct, Wi-Fi hotspot
BluetoothYes, v4.0 with A2DP, LE, EDR
NFCYes (Market dependent)
USBYes, microUSB v2.0
CameraPrimary8 MP, 3264 x 2448 pixels, autofocus, LED flash
FeaturesGeo-tagging, touch focus, face detection
VideoYes
SecondaryYes
FeaturesOSAndroid OS, v4.2.2 (Jelly Bean)
CPUDual-core 1.6 GHz
SensorsAccelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass
MessagingSMS(threaded view), MMS, Email, Push Mail, IM, RSS
BrowserHTML5
RadioStereo FM radio with RDS
GPSYes, with A-GPS support and GLONASS
JavaYes, via Java MIDP emulator
ColorsWhite, Blue, Titan Gray
- SNS integration
- MP4/DivX/XviD/WMV/H.264/H.263 player
- MP3/WAV/eAAC+/AC3/FLAC player
- Organizer
- Image/video editor
- Document viewer
- Google Search, Maps, Gmail,
YouTube, Calendar, Google Talk, Picasa
- Voice memo/dial/commands
- Predictive text input (Swype)
Battery Li-Ion battery
Stand-by
Talk tim

Friday, March 15, 2013

The Samsung Galaxy SIV; The King of the droids

Samsung Galaxy S4
The galaxy s4 got unveiled a couple of days back and the whole world seems to be aware. I’ll get into details in a moment, but my overall sense of this phone is that it further pushes Samsung as a leading  beliver in google's dream of a worldwide android smartphone space.  Samsung came out with specs and features that we’ve never yet seen in a smartphone, not to talk of massive advertising gimmicks that makes other phones fel like useless rectangular pieces of metal. I'll pick a htc device anyday (having used a couple) thanks to build quallity and the sense UI but its sammy thats ringing all the beells presently.
True, the S4 runs Google‘s latest Jelly Bean Android software, but Samsung has done a lot to make it different from other Android phones, and it really is a lot.
Hardware specs
Like Apple, Samsung is a hardware company that innovates mainly through software. But the hardware specs are worth noting. (A detailed list is further down) The 5-inch full HD Super AMOLED; 1,920×1,080 screen, at 441 pixels per inch, is both bigger and higher resolution than the iPhone 5, although the HTC One has an equally high resolution — though smaller — (4.7 inch) screen.  Sammy also gave us a faster processor and also lets users expand the phone’s storage (internal storage ranges from 16 to 64 GB) to plug in a MicroSD card for up to another 64GB. And the phone has a mega-battery. Samsung didn’t say how long the battery will last, but it does have 2,600 mili amp hours  which should be pretty efficient.
The phone’s photo features beginning with its 13-megapixel, back-facing camera is mouth watering to say the least. With the S4 you can snap a picture of other people and place yourself — albeit in a little window or bubble — in the frame.  The camera also intelligently sorts your pictures into albums based on the background or the date and you can order picture books directly from the phone. There is also an “eraser” feature that takes a series of quick photos and lets you remove images of people who walk into your shot by deleting just those frames.
Multi-lingual voice recognition
The S4 comes with Samsung’s S Translator tool that enables you to speak in one language and have the phone translate to another. At the press event they showed someone typing a question in English and having the phone speak the words out-loud in Chinese.  When someone responded in Chinese, the phone typed out his words in English. It supports several other languages including French, Spanish, Italian and Portugese. I dont know if this is reliant on an internet connection buh we hope over here at naija it works (and understands us with our accents). The phone also has Siri-like voice recognition that outclasses Siri. You can ask it to read your email out loud and ask the phone to respond to a text message while you’re driving. It aso handles navigation and other phone features.
Knows if you’re looking
If you’re watching a video and look away, the video will pause automatically and resume when you turn your eyes back to the screen. You can also scroll by looking up or down and by slightly tilting the phone. It’s not the full-fledged eye tracking that was rumored where u can even browse the net with just your eyes — but it’s a step in that direction.
Another cool hands-off feature is “Air Gestures.” That allows you to control the phone by waving your hand above the screen. You can swipe left to right or up and down. You can even hover over an email or other item to get more information without having to touch it. Very very interesting i must say.I also love the S Health feature that turns your phone into a pedometer without any extra hardware or, when connected to other devices it can sense your blood pressure, blood sugar or other vital signs. There’s an option S Band that measures your heart beat.
The galaxy s4 will be out in stores in the Us and most of Europe next quarter and at our shores in like a month after that. Nothing concrete concerning prices has come up yet but it shouldnt cost more than say #120k, but until then we'll just keep expecting this piece of beauty and hoping our savings add up quickly. We dont want to be saying something and our oga at the top says something else. Shey?
(SPECIFICATIONS FOR THE GALAXY S4)
Also available with Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 chipset (Quad-core 1.9 GHz Krait 300 CPU, Adreno 320 GPU).General 2G Network GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
3G Network HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100
4G Network LTE (market dependent)
SIM Micro-SIM
Announced 2013, March
Status Coming soon. Exp. release 2013, April 26th
Body Dimensions 136.6 x 69.8 x 7.9 mm (5.38 x 2.75 x 0.31 in)
Weight 130 g (4.59 oz)
Display Type Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors
Size 1080 x 1920 pixels, 5.0 inches (~441 ppi pixel density)
Multitouch Yes
Protection Corning Gorilla Glass 3
- TouchWiz UI
Sound Alert types Vibration; MP3, WAV ringtones
Loudspeaker Yes
3.5mm jack Yes
Memory Card slot microSD, up to 64 GB
Internal 16/32/64 GB storage, 2 GB RAM
Data GPRS Yes
EDGE Yes
Speed HSDPA, 42.2 Mbps; HSUPA, 5.76 Mbps; LTE, Cat3, 50 Mbps UL, 100 Mbps DL
WLAN Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band, DLNA, Wi-Fi Direct, Wi-Fi hotspot
Bluetooth Yes, v4.0 with A2DP, EDR, LE
NFC Yes
Infrared port Yes
USB Yes, microUSB v2.0 (MHL), USB On-the-go, USB Host
Camera Primary 13 MP, 4128 x 3096 pixels, autofocus, LED flash
Features Dual Shot, Simultaneous HD video and image recording, geo-tagging, touch focus, face and smile detection, image stabilization, HDR
Video Yes, 1080p@30fps, dual-video recording
Secondary Yes, 2 MP, 1080p@30fps, dual video call
Features OS Android OS, v4.2.2 (Jelly Bean)
Chipset Exynos 5 Octa 5410
CPU Quad-core 1.6 GHz Cortex-A15 & quad-core 1.2 GHz Cortex-A7
GPU PowerVR SGX 544MP3
Sensors Accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass, barometer, temperature, humidity, gesture
Messaging SMS(threaded view), MMS, Email, Push Mail, IM, RSS
Browser HTML5, Adobe Flash
Radio TBD
GPS Yes, with A-GPS support and GLONASS
Java Yes, via Java MIDP emulator
Colors White Frost, Black Mist
- Wireless charging (market dependent)
- S-Voice natural language commands and dictation
- Smart stay, Smart pause, Smart scroll
- Air gestures
- Dropbox (50 GB storage)
- Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic
- TV-out (via MHL A/V link)
- SNS integration
- MP4/DivX/XviD/WMV/H.264/H.263 player
- MP3/WAV/eAAC+/AC3/FLAC player
- Organizer
- Image/video editor
- Document viewer (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF)
- Google Search, Maps, Gmail,
YouTube, Calendar, Google Talk, Picasa
- Voice memo/dial/commands
- Predictive text input (Swype)
Battery Li-Ion 2600 mAh battery