Samsung Galaxy S4 | Life Companion is knocking it out of the park

Samsung Galaxy S4 Unpacked - New York - March 14th 2013

There is so much new going on in Samsung Galaxy S4. They call it the Life Companion

Techy, dry yet impressive improvements are:  

1. Network: 3G (HSPA+ 42Mbps) : 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100 Mhz
2. Display: 4.99 inch Full HD Super AMOLED [1920x1080] display [441 ppi]
3. OS version: Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean
4. Main Camrea (Rear): 13 megapixel AF camera with Flash & Zero Shutter Lag BIS
5. Sub Camera (Front): 2 megapixel camera, Full HD recording830fps with Zero Shutter Lag BIS
6. Video: Codec: MPEG4, H 262, DivX, DivX3.11, VC-1, VP8, WMV7/8, Sorenson Spark, HEVC 
7. Video Recording and Playback: Full HD1080p
8. Audio: Codec: MP3, AMR-NB/WB, AAC/AAC+, WMA, OGG, FLAC, AC-3, apt-X
9. Connectivity: WiFi a/b/g/n/ac [HT80], GPS/GLONASS, NFC, Bluetooth 4.0 [BLE], IR LED (Remote control) MHL 2.0
10. Sensor: Accelerometer, RGB light, Digital Compass, Proximity, Gyro, Barometer, IR Geature, Temperature & Humidity
11. Memory: 2GB LPDDR3 RAM, 16 / 32 / 64 GB User Memory + microSD (up to 64GB)
12. Dimension: 136.6 x 69.8 x 7.9mm, 130g
13. Battery: 2600mAh

Those fancy features could lead to the following applications:

1. Screen reacts to a touch through a glove
2. You can embed yourself in a video that you are taking
3. You can embed yourself in a picture that you are taking
4. You can have a 3-way video call that uses both front and back cameras at the same time while also displaying the 3rd video feed on the screen
5. S Transation: Voice to text and text to speech translation. 9 Languages
6. Library of communication phrases in multiple languages available even without network connectivity
7. Faster internet connection
8. Wider range of supported connection technologies
9. Backup and restore from any other smartphone with any other mobile OS 
10. Air Gesture
11. Smart Scroll / Pause: phone automatically pauses if you look away
12. S Health: connected to exercise gadgets though many of the new sensors
13. S Voice Drive: Voice activated handsfree operation of the maps and built in GPS
14. Voice activated message reading and writing
15. Drama Shot feature - 100 shots in a second lets you pick the best one
16. Eraser: let's you pick an area from a picture and erase with one tap
17. Air View: just like on your Samsung Note but using just your finger, not the stylus anymore
18. Adapt Display: makes images more comfortable for your eyes to watch
19. Story Album: automatic album creating feature - you just pick a template for a cover and for the pages and / or add text to pictures 
20. Blurb integration: $10-$ 30 for a hardcopy album of shots from your Story Album
21. Home Sync Device: ability to display newly takes picture at home while their being taken. 1 TB of cloud storage for your pictures and videos taken with Galaxy S4. Up to 8 users and each of them can have their own chunk of the storage. View content on a home TV in Full HD
22. Samsung Hub: videos, games, books, learning with an intuitive magazine feature
23. Samsung Knox: lock your device down to keep it safe - separate your phone info personal and corporate side of things. Privacy for you, security for your manager
24. Group Play: turn up to 8 Samsung Galaxy S4 Devices into a multichannel boombox. It also allows you to share pictures and videos
25. Accessories: S view cover (see what's happening without opening the cover), flip cover, pouch

That was an impressive Unpacking show. It's hard to pick a favorite new feature. I think I like that 1TB Home Sync the most... 

What's your favorite?

You can watch a repeat of Samsung Galaxy S4 Unpacked show online. Alternative URL will also point you to YouTube.

Do You Prefer an iPhone or an iBrick? Jailbreaking Censorship.

Apple takes the topic of jailbreaking seriously. It's not about those boring terms of use or EULA - more and more often users seem to prefer their phones to remain safe and sound, while the vendor ensures that nobody feels encouraged to take that fatal step.

Apple Support Forums are full of references to jailbreaking, it's legality and impact. I recently came across a very popular issue where I could not connect to iTunes and a recurrning pop-up kept asking to try again. A hint about modifying DHCP settings to DNS of 8.8.8.8 seems to eventually have solved the issues, while others suggested steps as drastic as jailbreaking. I noticed a recommendation about that and added (what I thought at the moment was) a neutralizing reply to that iPhone hacker. I just didn't feel right leaving obscure and extreme statements like that on publicly available resources. 

<Edited by host> what used to be a suggestion to
 jailbreak your iPad or iPhone

That forum post flat out said that the only way to resolve that issue is to jailbreak your phone. 1 or two days later, something interesting happened. That post didn't include any foul language or inappropriate imagery. Today, in place of that comment, we see a cryptic text that reads <Edited by Host> . 

In forum terms, that could possibly equate to administrative moderation. But I think it's more than just simple moderation. It's 'white glove' 21st century censorship. As negative as that description may sound, I think the host's behaviour belongs on that forum for the following 3 reasons:

1. There really are better ways to address a pop-up message - multiple forums, blog posts and comments suggest a wide variety of tips and tricks, and risk of negative impact of jailbreaking far outweighs the possibility of benefits
2. The more jailbroken devices users circulate, the harder it is to build reliable apps that span both fully-functional and tinkered-with smarthphones, and the harder it is to maintain a stable mobile environment for all of us. That is exactly what killed an innovative mobile operating system called Windows Mobile 5 and 6 (as recently as in 2007).  But does anybody even remember that system? Given the power of mobile devices 6 years ago (approx. 20 times slower), out of the box that Microsoft mobile system worked like a charm even on the worst cellular coverage on my Samsung BlackJack II. Once people started leaving unorganbized content behind on the hard drive, attempting to impose their onw way of file and folder structure, performance and usability took a nose dive
3. Do you prefer an iPhone or an iBrick? - as one of the Apple forum participans puts it in his/her comment, more often than not, jailbreaking leaves you with a broken device and no way back. During the days of Windows Mobile 6, users had a way of totally restoring an OS while getting full support from Microsoft and a wealth of online help articles. Apple won't help if you jailbreak your iDevice

Now we all know that Apple's position is solid on that topic. They don't mess around - they'll 'erase your thoughts' if you recommend jailbreaking. I wonder what others think about other aspects of jailbreaking: ethics, piracy, safety, etc.