The Samsung Galaxy Note III

The Samsung Galaxy Note III

It’s that time of year again; the Samsung galaxy Note III is tipped for an early September announcement. Phone speculation is an interesting sport* and this year things are hotter and more exciting than ever before.
The Note III is set to be a smash hit no matter what. The Note series is a perfect idea with no serious competition, so it’s pretty much impossible to screw up… unless Samsung does something truly stupid.  If you want proof, just look at the Note II, till now the Galaxy Note II is without a doubt still one of the best devices on the market. You can go as far as to say that it is one of the greatest devices ever made!

You can see my take on it here.

But back to the galaxy Note III.

Manufacturers are starting to wake up and there will be competitors. Everyone from HTC to Sony to LG… but outside of the Asian market, nobody can match the infinite advertising budget of Samsung. All marketing power belongs to Samsung . Because of this, all competition ris set to largely fall flat on their faces even they are BETTER phone-tablets. Chances are, the only reason you’ve heard of the HTC ONE MAX,  LG Optimus G Pro or Sony’s Xperia Z Ultra is because you follow technology news. The general public has no idea.

Enough with the ramble.

So what do we know?

Well, we know a fair bit about the device, but let’s break it up into 3 categories.

Design, Hardware and Software.

Design

Above: Probable design for the Galaxy Note III 

The Note III is said to be about 8mm thin and retain the plastic body style with a removable back panel, with a thinner bezel than the previous Note. I would say there’s an 85% chance that Samsung will play it safe and stick with a “larger S4” design. Nothing new, fun or exciting here guys. I personally have a bit of a problem with this but that’s another can of worms.

Samsung’s flexible, unbreakable screen that has been supposedly been floating around for the past year will probably not make an appearance here.  

Hardware

CPU

✖  Snapdragon 800

✖  28nm Krait 400 CPU at 2.3 GHz per core

GPU

✖  Adreno 330 (featuring a 50% performance increase over the Adreno 320!)

RAM

✖  3GB LP-DDR3

There will probably be an Octacore international variant with the same specs as the Galaxy S4 (perhaps with a CPU speed bump of 0.2 GHZ)

SCREEN

Screen size has been flakey the latest rumours are saying 5.7", but previous sources have stated 6.1” and 5.99”
However, a 1080p super AMOLED screen is expected. The 5.7” screen will of course work in Samsung’s favour, bumping up the screen size by a steady 0.2” each year. In addition to this, Samsung will not want to cannibalize the Galaxy Mega sales so soon after it’s release.

Interestingly enough, it is known that sharp can make a 6.1” display with a resolution of 2560x1600 creating 494dpi, we'll just have to wait and see..

CAMERA

✖  13MP Rear

✖  2.1MP Front

S-PEN

✖  Improved grip and feel, perhaps with 2048 pressure levels.

BATTERY 

✖  Some sources are saying 3700 mAh but this is unconfirmed.

Software

Like the Galaxy Note II, the Note III will receive the latest version of android (Android 4.3 in this case) out of the box, since google is set to release android 4.3 in July.

Of course there will be a whole host of S4 features such as air scroll, air gesture, air view air AIR etc..
Let’s just hope it doesn't bog the phone down like it did for the S4, I trust that Samsung has learnt about efficiency this time round. 

Moving on, the camera may have Samsung orb. Similar to the 360 photosphere camera app in stock android 4.2. Aside from this, there will be a whole bunch of S-Note tweaks and the return of air view (with a stylus) and multi-window (Sweeet!) but apart from these, not much else is known.

What do you guys think if these specs are indeed true? Let me know in the comments section below. 

I'll leave you with a collection of leaked images. A video version of this blog post will be up soon :)

Sound Track for HTC ONE Review

Listen to the full tracks on Youtube or Soundcloud.

The 1975

✖ The 1975 - Head. Cars. Bending

✖ The 1975 - Settle Down








Submotion Orchestra 

✖ Submotion Orchestra - Snow

✖ Submotion Orchestra - Thinking (Maths Time Joy Remix)







J.U.D 

✖ J.U.D - Lucid

















Ghost Town DJ's

✖ Ghost Town DJ's -My Boo (Wave Rider Remix)









Still Parade

✖ Still Parade - Actors













Lindsey Lowend 

✖ Lindsey Lowend - Room Enough









$ouls

✖ $ouls - Morphine












Lasers

✖ Lasers - Seeds

KR$CHN

✖ KR$CHN - Come With Me








Yung Life

✖ Yung Life - Holy

Annndd Here's the video |
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5zKOwrzZUA

Cheers!

New Wallpaper Pack [1968 Retro]

                              [New Wallpaper Pack]

I always found this era fascinating. So why not have a wallpaper pack to encapsulate it? Here's a sample of a few. Download link: http://www.mediafire.com/?4awdj771ai9z7bu

Enjoy

Simple Text Files + Simple Flash Fix

Hey all, my simple text designs are up for download here:
http://www.mediafire.com/?3dyhwycnt306yfv
Enjoy.
To add an icon, just create a "Styles" folder in the simple text directory.

Also, for those having trouble with flash, it's been pointed out to me that flash works natively on boat browser, available here.
 https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.boatbrowser.free&hl=en
 

3D UI Getting Stuck?

Hey all!

I think the a lot of people are having a problem with the wallpapers getting "stuck" mid transition when unlocking the phone or getting out of an app. It seems that this problem occurs when changing orientation. If your lockscreen is in portrait and your launcher is in landscape, it's best to have them both in portrait or, you could do what I do, and use another locker (such as widget locker) that allows for landscape orientation and then have them both in landscape.
Hope that helps!

Idea For A Universal Way Of Processor Testing

This one is pretty nerdy but if widely accepted, it could end confusion once and for all.

Background:

I was just thinking about getting the nexus 4 today while driving. Then I thought, "how could I compare the Nexus 4 with the Galaxy Note II in a universal, quantifiable and uniform way?"

I haven't seen it done before, usually people just do a bunch of benchmarks and say that one phone "won" against another by the phone by "winning" more benchmarks, but the margin was never quantifiable. Anyway I came up with this method in the car lol, here it goes.

Method:

We run a set of 5 bench marks, all suited to testing different aspects of the processor (eg quadrant linpack etc).We then compare how well one phone performs with respect to the other and vice versa (we simply just divide one phone's score by the other's to achieve this).

This can be called the "R. Score" or Relative Score. The R. Score is naturally a percentage of how well one phone performs against another. 

For example, in Test A if we divide phone B's score phone C, and we get and R. Score of 1.25, this means that phone B performed 25% better than phone C for that test.

For the next step, we are only concerned with the phone with the highest Total R.Score. We subtract 1 from each R.score in each test and add them together and divide by 5 (basically just finding the average) This is now a measure of how much the winning phone outperforms the other in terms of percentage. Because this is done over 5 tests, it provides a fairly well-rounded overview of performance.

The full raw Scores are available here: http://www.mediafire.com/view/?32ri7n4by7ddvp2

Test score sources can be seen here:

http://wowmobi.net/android/android-news/benchmarks-samsung-galaxy-note-2-vs-htc-droid-dna.html

http://androidandme.com/2012/11/smartphones-2/nexus-4-vs-htc-droid-dna-benchmark-showdown/attachment/smartbench-nexus4-droid-dna/

Advantages:
-If widely accepted, could provide an easy universal reference for phone comparisons.
-Unit Independent.
-Reduces sensitivity of tests that favour a certain type of processor.
-Anyone can carry this test out.

Disadvantages:
-It's quiet possible that no one actually cares.

ColdFustion's Predictions Of The Future Of Tech Till The Year 2020

So I was just listening to my ipod touch the other day and began to think about the history of the ipod and if apple would eventually abandon the whole ipod line up because of the rapidly shrinking market. Somehow these thoughts progressed and I began to think about the future of all the major tech companies from a tech analyst's point of view.


Here's what I came up with. (A word of warning, these are only creative guesses and I couldn't possibly see +20 years in the future with 100% accuracy) This was fun to write and hopefully it's fun to read.


We'll start with Samsung:

SAMSUNG

2012-2013:

Samsung releases Note 2 in late 2012/ early 2013 with a larger 5.5 screen but the NOTE’s overall footprint is reduced. It features the same processor as S3 but with modified dedicated graphics. Benchmarks show that the Note 2 is the fastest device to date.

Judging by the success of the S3 and Note.. http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/07/27/uk-samsung-earnings-idUKBRE86P1LQ20120727

Sales are a runaway success. To the extent of original Note and galaxy S3 combined (with people from the S3 market, Original Note market, undecided-between-the-two-market and I’m-sick-of-iOS-market joining forces).

2015:

Samsung focuses more on the Galaxy S # and Galaxy Note # series on the high end but still maintains a strong low end market.

APPLE

2012-2014:

Apple starts to really feel the pinch of all the court cases, suing and bad publicity (foxxcon ). Fans slowly begin to leave towards the Note, S3 or One X.


The Iphone 5 “the new iphone” is released, larger screen and a few interesting features. The new iphone surpasses the iphone 4 sales but not iphone 4S sales. Samsung is #1 at this point.

Apple Reviews ipod models and ceases support for the classic. They chose only to concentrate on the shuffle and ipod touch.


**By 2015 the touch finally gets a tele-communications radio that is small enough in size to allow a similar form factor to previous models. The ipod touch eventually morphs into an “iphone air”-esqu  product that cheaper and less powerful than the iphone, its gets larger screen just like iphone.

HTC

Early 2013:

HTC realise that the “one” series was a slight disappointment due to the camera, wifi and various other scattered issues and the galaxy S3’s success.

HTC keeps with beats and doctor dre till about 2015, but start feeling the financial pinch. At this point HTC ditch beats and partner with the floundering digital audio company, creative, eventually purchasing a division of the company.

MOTOROLA

Late 2013:

-The secretive Motorola mobility section that was purchased by google unleash a new brand of phone to replace the “nexus” fragmented brand. This comes as a surprise move to some.


-Motorola also resolve their court disputes with Microsoft around this time.

GOOGLE

2013:

By 2013 Most phones come with jelly bean and hence Google Now . It starts a mini revolution among android.

2014:

Google glasses are almost a flop at first but after multiple iterations they start to catch on by 2014, they are starting to become established.

2015:

Android 6.1 is a major step up from the previous versions and renders iOS almost obsolete.   

Google works its way into every OS in the form of chrome, which eventually turns out to be a light OS inside a browser that runs on top of any existing OS

2020:

 ** Google, lose vision and close off android’s open source nature during extremely tough economic times (not the decision of Androids leaders). They only resort to licencing out versions of the OS.


This move kills off the hundreds of small localised manufactures that thrived off low end android smartphones. Samsung has enough say to licence a respectable version of the OS.

MICROSOFT

2014:

Windows phone just can’t find a solid following and soon windows stop support. They keep the ideas and experiences learnt from windows phone to make windows 9 tablets which are 5-7 inches and have a phone mode supported by Nokia. (the partnership between Nokia and Microsoft  during the Lumia era proved the most fruitful)

Microsoft based intel (super efficient) or ARM based tablet-ultrabook hybrids become the norm and Microsoft regains some ground against the mac line up from apple.
NOKIA

2017:

Nokia sinks with WP and but help out with windows 9 tablets. Nokia gets merged with carl zeiss (digital imaging specialists) to stay afloat. Nokia also keeps a few camera specialised phones under their name.

RIM

2016:

RIM after the failure of the playbook 2 - 10inch (if they ever do get around to it), failed (but solid) OS and major slump in black berry sales, announces bankruptcy and its divisions are bought out by other large manufacturers. 






This is the reported playbook 2: http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2012/07/this-could-be-the-10-inch-blackberry-playbook/.

General

2013:

-The “SoC battle” heats up. ARM Vs Intel. Cortex-A15 vs SMARTi EU2p (or something similar) http://www.forbes.com/sites/haydnshaughnessy/2012/02/24/intel-vs-arm-battle-of-the-business-model/

2014:

-75% of people who have a smartphone also have a tablet.
http://robservations.ca/are-tablets-becoming-popular/


-The death of the "feature phone" YES!

2015:

The power and capabilities of hardware completely cease to an issue. By this time It becomes impossible to keep up to date with the generations of phones because as soon as you buy one, within the next few months, the technologies, yields and manufacturing methods has improved so much that there is potential for a new chip set offering 10x the performance of yours while using half the power.

2016:

This may be at the Galaxy S5 stage when we begin to see 6-8 cores or perhaps 64 cores by manufacturers such as toshiba (http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/cpu/display/20120615144636_Toshiba_Develops_64_Core_System_on_Chip_for_Embedded_Apps.html) cores being the norm, 4 GB ram, graphics capabilities comparable to a 2010- 2011 gaming PC's.


It may be possible that mobile OS’s may just be full desktop OS’ just customised for touch.


-5.3 inches is the new 4.3 inches

-Asus Transformer style designs will be the norm

-80%-90% of Ultra books and laptops will have a touchscreen option

2018:

-LG and Sony Erricosn terminate their mobile sectors in the face of domination of apple, google, Samsung and htc.

Smartphones take over the world, basically. 
INTERESTING!!

So yea that's just my little guess of the future. Congrats on getting this far! Tell me what you think in the comments!