Samsung shows 'designed for humans' handset Samsung has unwrapped the Galaxy S III, a handset it boasted is "best smartphone in the world" thanks to its "nature-inspired" design, voice recognition and eye-tracking. The handset is based around a 4.8in, 1280 x 720 OLED display and Samsung's quad-core Exynos processor. It'll provide LTE and 3G HSPA+ connectivity. It will …
I was just about to post a message to the effect that going back to battery life as a boasting feature is the main advancement I'm looking for in mobile phones... but then I realised that eye tracking while the screen is on in order to make a value judgment as to whether you're still looking is a feature I'd actually really like. Especially when it's late at night and I've set my phone brightness to the absolute minimum (such that the about to go to sleep screen dimming isn't visible), I'm forever being annoyed by the phone just suddenly going to standby. Even with the small amount of light it's shining out at me in those circumstances it could probably still spot my eyes if it were trying.
Battery life is a major consideration for me too.
For Samsung I'd also have to add "has a message/missed call notification LED?"... I'm almost too scared to check this one out... They couldn't have missed out that basic feature for the 3rd generation running could they?
NFC is a complete "meh". I've had an NFC credit card for ages. It looks like it will be expiring before it ever gets waved.
Very similar reaction to the contact-less charging feature too. Will be nice once everything has got it, but right now I have a cable which will fit it almost anywhere I sit.
> I'd also have to add "has a message/missed call notification LED?"
It has an OLED screen so these are redundant. Just install NOLED on it and you can have all the notifications you want with all the information you wish. Simples. Of course, lacking physical LEDs, it should come with the software already installed!
Well I did read something recently (on El Reg?) that the Exynos 4 is almost 2x as powerful for 20% less juice which is a fine feat of engineering, so dependant upon how much juice the eye tracking and voice commanding takes up combined with that screen it could be like an S2 or maybe a bit better on battery...
Will have to wait for the hands on reviews, natch.
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I like the idea of wireless charging, NFC, and eye tracking. It's not much physically bigger than the S2 which is an excellent thing for me and my tiny girly hands.
It's gadgety, but that's awesome. Bring it on. 'Designed by humans' is a rubbish slogan, it's true. Is any worse than the average marketing spin put out by any Apple or HTC, for instance?
"Cos it's subjective which is always a bit murky when you have playground bullies like Apple around who'd happily tie you up in court for a decade nit-picking over that."
Apple has no compunction of flat out lying or embellishing the truth when it suits them, e.g. most recently with its 4G claims, but has a record of doing it going back years.
It doesn't mean others should lie too but at the same time I don't see how Apple could object if they did since they're as bad.
So who was the jerk who thought "including British English" was funny ( or perhaps simply ignorant) ? You just need to say "English" since, by definition, that is what is spoken in Britain.
Of course if somebody wants to distinguish between variants from standard English such as South African, Australian or American then the country would need to be specified.
Sa whoa wor t' jerk whoa thowt "includin British English" wor funny ( or 'appen simply ignorant) ? theur just need ta seh "English" sin, by definition, 'a' is wha' is spoken i' Briteeam.
Of course if somebody wants ta distinguish atwixt variants fra standard English such as Sahth African, Australian or American then t' country 'ood need ta be specified.
Soh whoh was the jerk whoh thought "including British English" was hilaaaarrious ( or perhaps simply ignorant) wot wot? you, one's old bean, fie need to seay "English" since, by definitiohn, that is what is spoken in Britain.
Of course if somebody fancies to distinguish between vaaariants mwah mwah sweetie standaaard English such as South African, Australian or American then the country would need to be specified.
So oo wuz de jerk oo thought "includ'n British English" wuz laughin' ( er perhaps simply ignorant) ? yous juss need ter say "English" since, by definition, dat is wa' is spokun in Britain.
Of cose if somebody wants ter distinguish betweun variants from standard English such as South African, Australian er Yank dun de country would need ter be specified.
Actually, during the presentation the guy on the stand used his fairly heavily French accented English successfully. Personally not convinced about voice control in general, though - difficult not to feel a bit of a knob yelling at a piece of kit in public.
On the bright side, it's one more thing to get maudlin drunk about; "My [car | phone | fridge | tv | house...] doesn't understand me..."
"You just need to say "English" since, by definition, that is what is spoken in Britain"
Do you want to explain that phrase? Even as an Englishman I'm aware (reminded on a regular basis) that there is a fairly huge difference between England and Britain. And that is before we even get into the whole hornets nest that is the UK, the Crown Dependencies etc.
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I got a htc Evo smaller than this and its size started to bug me enough that I plan to keep my Huawei u8650 and thanks to several Android features and twin sim card, use them both in sync.
Samsung fans: we aren't attacking your brand, just the size (htc,lg and others do similar) and lack of comfort outdoors, sport etc. There is no conspiracy. We're not Apple agents.
What with all the hype before the launche I was half expecting a phone that could tell you the specifications of the iPhone 5 before it had even been announched.
Still for me a smartphone is one which is when your on a phone call it is able to recognise that somebody is giving you a number you asked for and having already noted the name of the person and the number - automaticly note it all down into a contact that it offers to save for you after the conversation and also has a recording of the conversation were you are told the phone number incase you need to check it. THAT is what I would call a smart phone, anything else is a phone with a PDA attached :p.
It's worrying as it might automaticaly send the latest picture you accidently take to all youre friends, heck your mate might take a picture of his privates on your phone for a laugh for your phone to not know it was your mate or have any form of facial identification and as such automaticly upload to your flicker accounts on natrual surroundings which is PG rated. This is automation.
You could be sending a text to somebody, have to scratch your ear half way thru sending it or even just afterwards and find that now as your abroad instead of iuncuring the cost of a siomple text your now engaged into a international phonecall, all becasue of a itch behind the ear from were you had your bluetooth headset on all day.
You talk in your sleep, wake up next day and your phone has told your boss he is a cambridge university national trust member and uploaded video's of you doing nightime torrets to your facebook friends.
Automation is fine, but it works on mistakes as well as what you intend. In that it needs some level of control, like time of day a simple feature like that. I'd like my phone to be able to go look its past 9pm, only these people are allowed to call you and stop syncing email until the morning. That would be a smart feature, that said old blackberry I had could do that so there is progress for you.
It also can be used as a security breach in that if somebody sends you 5 sms in a hour say the phone automatical assumes there your new best buddy and that then enables them to request contact details form yoru phone via sms like "can you give me banks number please mate" and your phone then tells them what bank you are with as you have that number in your phone under "bank" like nobody ever does that, ever.
So for me automation is a very mixed blessing and a whole new ballgame when it comes to security and social engineering. Socialy engineering AI systems isn't new either, its just not that common and as abused publicly, yet. But thats how most people beat chess computers, thru AI social engineering, thats food for thought right there on this new wonderous subject that will eventualy be the new headline in the papers in a year or two, once it's become old news :).
"It's worrying as it might automaticaly send the latest picture you accidently take to all youre friends, heck your mate might take a picture of his privates on your phone for a laugh for your phone to not know it was your mate or have any form of facial identification and as such automaticly upload to your flicker accounts on natrual surroundings which is PG rated. This is automation."
Clearly such automation needs appropriate safeguards built in. Perhaps some sort of penile recognition technology to ensure that it only automatically uploads pictures of it's rightful owner's privates to Flickr and Facebook.
Dos it corect dogey speeling? That would be nice, though it is still one simple area were we are unable to force upon users still. I know a land were if you can't even get the people to spell things correctly then what hop have you of them being even unable to understand laws and following them.
As I'm not a polatician I appologise for any percieved spelling mistake but to me they are mearly digital signatures cleaverly embebed within the text without distracting too much from what the word was actualy meant to be.
Forget about the patent implications, forget about all the other functionality - this is the killer feature that will have them queueing around the block to buy the phone...
...because, at long last, we can now own our very own machine that goes ping...
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