Samsung has launched two new Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) smartphones. Both the GALAXY Ace 2 (S$438) and GALAXY beam (S$648) will be available in July. Prices include GST but excludes line contract.
GALAXY Ace 2 (left, S$438) and the GALAXY beam (right, S$648).
You’ve seen the Nikon compact camera that comes with a built in projector. Now there is a smartphone that comes with a built-in projector – the GALAXY beam.
GALAXY beam
The built-in projector of the GALAXY beam lets users spontaneously share photos, videos or other digital media with family or friends by beaming content stored on the device directly onto walls, ceilings or improvised flat surfaces.
The GALAXY beam comes with a built in 15 lumens projector.
No need to huddle around a tiny smartphone or tablet screens. Project full-screen video clips at up to 50 inches wide with the GALAXY beam’s bright 15 lumens projector.
Both smartphones run on Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) and will ship in July.
Other than that, the GALAXY beam has a 4-inch (480×800 WVGA) TFT display, 5-megapixel AF rear camera with flash, and a 1.3-megapixel front camera.
A large 2,000mAH battery feeds the projector. Despite having a built-in projector, the GALAXY Beam is only 12.5mm thick, and comes with a USB 2.0 port and 8GB of internal memory, as well as a microSD slot for up to 32GB of external memory.
The GALAXY beam will be available from 7 July at S$648.
GALAXY Ace 2
The GALAXY Ace 2 is the affordable successor to the GALAXY Ace from last year.
With a 3.8-inch (480×800 WVGA) PLS TFT display, it has a 5-megapixel AF rear camera with flash, and a VGA front camera.
The GALAXY Ace 2 has a 1,500mAH battery and comes with a USB 2.0 port and 4GB of internal memory, as well as a microSD slot for up to 32GB of external memory.
The GALAXY Ace 2 will be available in July at S$438.
Samsung has rolled out more than 40 new interactive edutainment apps in partnership with Singapore developers. These apps will be available on Samsung smart mobile devices.
Overview of content strategy and edutainment apps by Winston Goh, Senior Product Marketing Manager, Mobile Communications, Samsung Asia
The 40 new apps are entertaining, intuitive, social and visual in nature and allows users to engage in self-learning experiences, whether at home or on-the-go.
The suite of edutainment apps includes:
Mandarin Speaking Skills for Kids: comprises speech interactive exercises to build Mandarin speaking skills for kids from Primary 1 to 6.
Zalairos Adventures: comprises 25 e-books for kids aged between 5-10 years old to improve vocabulary, reading and comprehension skills.
Skoolbo Core Skills: comprises more than 50,000 questions designed for kids aged between 4-10 years old to improve mathematics and language skills.
PREPTEST: standardized self-assessment modules and admission guidelines for GMAT (Graduate Management Admission Test), SAT (Scholastic Aptitude Test) and more.
Samsung is working with the developer community to promote the creation of interesting educational content.
Hands-on impression
My favourite is the “Skoolbo Core Skills” app from Skoolbo which drills young children on basic words and math concepts without them even realising it.
Colourful graphics are used and the kid feels he’s playing an adventure game.
Answering the drill questions correctly is only part of progressing in the game.
The company commits the tools, resources, technical content and support that app developers require, to create rich applications optimised for its GALAXY range of tablets and smartphones, as well as the GALAXY Note.
The local app developers that Samsung is working with for this range of edutainment apps are B-Secure Technologies, Prep Zone, iQ-hub and Skoolbo.
Some of these apps, such as those developed by B-Secure Technologies and Prep Zone will be made exclusively available on Samsung mobile devices.
Another impressive app is iQ-hub’s “Mandarin Speaking Skills for kids”.
Going beyond basic word recognition, the app is able to grade the accuracy of pronunciation by the user, who reads out chinese characters displayed on the screen.
Various exercises using the word recognition and grading engine are available and it was quite fun even for an adult to go through some of the exercises.
The launch was held at Samsung’s store at Vivocity.
I tried out some of the apps during the launch and it’s quite impressive what our local developers are capable of.
Windows Phone 8 will get a Start screen facelift; share technology core with Windows 8; support for NFC, in-app purchases and eWallet; more developer tools; and better security for enterprise use.
But existing Windows Phone 7.5 users will only get the revamped Start screen through an upgrade to Windows Phone 7.8.
Microsoft gave a preview of what Windows Phone 8 will be at the Windows Phone Summit in San Francisco.
The immediate cosmetic change to the user-interface is the Start screen.
In addition to the current square tiles and rectangular (twice the width of the square tiles) tiles, there is now a third size for tiles.
This is what I call the “mini-square” tile. Each of these is a square tile a quarter the size of the original square tile.
Whereas Windows Phone 7.5 does not allow users to specify which tile to use for an app – Windows Phone 8 will let users specify which tile size to use for each app.
Bigger tile for more frequently used apps (or to display more live information), and smaller tiles for less used apps.
The smaller tiles also allows more tiles/apps to be displayed on each screen to minimise scrolling.
Existing Windows Phone 7.5 users will get this revamped Start screen through an upgrade to Windows Phone 7.8 (no date given), but that’s pretty much all they’ll get – they will NOT be able to upgrade to Windows Phone 8 when it becomes available end of the year.
Yes, some who have just bought spanking new Windows 7.5 phones are complaining that they’re now landed with “obsolete” handsets.
Microsoft says that Windows Phone 8 is a generation shift in technology so it will not run on existing hardware.
Read more details about Windows Phone 8 on the official Windows Phone Blog.
Sony Mobile has unveiled another two new Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) smartphones. The Xperia ion takes over the flagship role from the Xperia S, while the Xperia neo L is a follow-up to the Xperia neo V.
Both smartphones will be available in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore in calendar Q3 2012.
New flagship from Sony Mobile: Xperia ion; and the Xperia neo L.
The Xperia ion and Xperia neo L were launched today as part of Sony Mobile’s South East Asia debut of a slew of six new Xperia smartphones.
The Xperia ion and Xperia neo L are part of a slew of six that debuted in SE Asia today. From left: Sony Xperia ion, go, acro S, neo L, miro, and tipo.
They had been unveiled progressively over the past two weeks.
New flagship Xperia
The 4.6-inch screen of the Xperia ion is bigger than the 4.3-inch display of the Xperia S.
The Xperia ion also has a microSD card expansion slot for up to 32GB – which the former flagship model lacked.
The Xperia ion has a massive 4.6-inch display (1280 x 720 pixels on a 16-million colour TFT), and a high-capacity embedded 1,900mAH battery.
Both the rear (1080p) and front (720p) cameras are HD capable.
The 12-megapixel rear camera boasts a quick sleep-to-snap speed of just over a second via a single key press.
The Xperia ion will be available in black in Singapore; and in black and red in Malaysia and Indonesia.
Sony Xperia neo L
The Xperia neo L has a 4-inch display (480 x 854 pixels on a 16-million colour TFT), a 5.1-megapixel (720p) rear-camera, VGA front camera, and a 1,500mAH battery.
It has a sleek curved back design and glossy finish; and incorporates Sony’s xLoud technology for crisp and loud sound.
The Xperia neo L is available in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia in both black and white.
The tech specs for the Xperia ion and Xperia neo L can be viewed/downloaded below.
Sony Mobile’s debut of new Xperia phones in SE Asia
The six new models are: Xperia go, acro S, miro, tipo, ion, and neo L. The first four models were announced over the last two weeks, while the Xperia ion and neo L were unveiled today.
All six phone models will be available in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore in calendar Q3 2012.
Mathew Lang, Corporate Vice President and Head of SEA & Oceania Customer Unit, Sony Mobile at the event at Art Palates Café, Istana Park, Singapore.
The Xperia ion is the new flagship smartphone for Sony Mobile.
Its 4.6-inch display is bigger than that of the 4.3-inch in the previous flagship Xperia S.
Water resistant Sony Xperia acro S. Don’t try this at home. Photo taken with Panasonic LUMIX DMC-GF5.
The Xperia ion also includes a microSD card expansion slot for up to 32GB – which was absent in the Xperia S.
They are supposedly water-proof up to a depth of 1m.
The Xperia miro offers deep Facebook integration and features Sony’s xLOUD audio technology together with the Xperia neo L.
The Xperia tipo comes in both single and dual SIM versions.
The latter allows one-touch switching between two numbers through a dedicated network switch button on the phone.
All six models either ship with Android 4.0 installed or can be upgraded over-the-air to Android 4.0.
The six new Android smartphones debuting in SE Asia in Q3 2012: Sony Xperia ion, go, acro S, neo L, miro, and tipo. Photo taken with Panasonic LUMIX DMC-GF5.
With such a range of smartphones catered to different tastes and needs, Xperia fans willl be spoilt for choice when shopping for their next smartphone.
Samsung is bringing in to Singapore the GALAXY Tab 2 (10.1) 3G tablet (S$798) on 16 June, and the GALAXY Tab 2 (7.0) tablet (S$598) on 23 June. Prices include GST but excludes line contract.
Update (22 June, 2012):
Samsung has just announced that the GALAXY Tab 2 (7.0) will only be available in Singapore on 30 June 2012. Price remains unchanged at S$598 (inclusive of GST) without contract.
Pricing and availability of the Wi-Fi versions for the GALAXY Tab 2 series will be announced closer to the launch date.
Samsung GALAXY Tab 2 in 7-inch and 10.1 inches
The GALAXY Tab 2 series of tablets are Samsung’s first Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich tablets. There are now some 400,000 apps for Android phones and tablets.
The GALAXY Tab 2 tablets are available in 3G and WiFi versions.
Samsung GALAXY Tab 2 (7) and GALAXY Tab 2 (10.1)
GALAXY Tab 2 Series offer users easy multimedia access, playback and sharing experiences with Samsung Hub services.
Samsung’s Music Hub provides a full music store solution with access to over 17 million tracks.
GALAXY Tab 2
The Readers Hub provides access to over 2.3 million e-books, 3,500 magazines and over 2,000 newspapers in 51 languages, while Game Hub instantly connects users to the latest game titles.
Samsung’s upgraded Touchwiz user interface features Hub widgets for one-step access to users’ content in Hubs.
The device also presents S Suggest, a new service offering recommendations of apps suited to users’ tastes directly on a home screen.
Samsung’s AllShare is a content-sharing service that allows users to search for and play video, photo, and music files freely across their GALAXY Tab 2 Series from PCs and other Samsung smart devices – such as PC, TV, mobile phone, and digital camera – by using the local network for streaming playback.
With the voice call capability, the GALAXY Tab 2 Series can be used as a phone, serving as a second device in case they misplace their primary phone.
It also lets users spontaneously arrange multi-party video calls via Google+ hangouts, as well as engage in group chats or micro-communities to collectively chat or share content.
In addition, ChatON, Samsung’s cross-platform communication service, connects all phone users of any platform into a single community.
Rear of the Samsung GALAXY Tab 2 tablets
ChatON uses phone numbers instead of ID and passwords, and provides easy instant messaging and group chatting in various formats — images, video, voice, contacts — to make messaging simple and intuitive.
Below are the main technical specifications of the two Samsung GALAXY Tab 2 tablets.
The HTC One S Regular Edition will be available at S$748 from this Saturday, 21 July. The HTC One S Regular Edition does not include the Beats Solo Headset.
The HTC One S Deluxe Edition, which includes the Beats Solo Headset is still available at S$948.
The HTC One S will be available in Gradient Metal.
The HTC One S is the slimmest of the four phones in the HTC One series of Android phones. The others are the HTC One X, HTC One V, and HTC One XL.
The HTC One S is launched with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich; HTC Sense user interface; and runs on a 1.7 GHz dual-core CPU.
It has a 4.3-inch (540 x 960) screen, an 8-megapixel camera with 1080p HD video recording, and a 1,650 mAh battery.
As with the other phones in the HTC One series, the phone excels in its camera and audio performance.
S$948: HTC One S bundled with a Beats Solo Headset
The camera has an f/2.0 aperture and 28mm wide angle lens, captures a shot in 0.7 seconds and in burst mode can shoot up to 60 continuous snapshots at one go.
Bundled with a Beats Solo Headset, HTC One S users enjoy a superb audio experience with Beats Audio Technology, which is integrated into the hardware and software of the smartphone.
Other notable features include an internal storage of 16GB with 2 years’ worth of free 25GB Dropbox storage; and the ability to playback the smartphone’s content on a large screen, via an optional HTC Media Link HD accessory.
Below are the key specifications of the HTC One S at a glance.
As usual, Apple has revealed a slew of statistics to illustrate how it is leading the field. Here are some of the more interesting numbers from WWDC 2012.
Apple and WWDC 2012 in numbers
There are now 650,000 apps in the App Store, out of which 225,000 are specific to the iPad.
In its four years of existence, 30 billion apps have been downloaded from Apple’s App Store, with US$5 billion for all app sales.
There are 400 million iTunes accounts with credit card. 140 million iMessage users send > 1 billion messages a day.
There are 365 million iOS devices out there, with 80% of these on the current latest iOS 5.
Apple contrast this with the Android’s profile, where slightly less than three-quarters of Android devices are still on Android 2.3.
To date, 26 million copies of Lion OS have been sold. Overall, there are 66 million Mac users.
A year ago, Steve Jobs made his last appearance at an Apple WWDC. This year, Tim Cook helms his first WWDC as Apple’s CEO.
Apple's WWDC 2012 is from 11-15 June in San Francisco.
The annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) this year is being held from June 11 – 15 at San Francisco’s Moscone West. Tickets were sold out in a mere two hours when it went on sale in April.
Here’s a quick roundup of some of the revelations from the opening keynote presentation on first of the 5-day conference.
MacBooks / OS X Mountain Lion
Refreshed MacBook Air & Next-generation MacBook Pro ships today.
In comes Ivy Bridge processor and USB 3.0, out goes Ethernet and FireWire 800 ports, MacBook Air becomes thinner and lighter, MacBook Pro gets 60% faster graphics performance.
Retina display in MacBooks: 220ppi with 2880 x 1800 resolution.
Highest-resolution notebook display in the world.
Retina Display support: Final Cut Pro, Aperture and Diablo3 now supports 220ppi display.
AutoCad and Photoshop support in the works.
iPad-style Dictation is introduced to Mountain Lion for Macs.
Speak directly into native Apple software, Microsoft Word and Facebook.
Mac updates emails, notifications and photos, and backs itself up while charging.
OS X Mountain Lion available on Macs in July.
Free upgrade for new Mac purchases between now and arrival of the new OS.
iOS 6
iOS 6 unveiled Beta today, full release in the fall.
More than 200 improvements: launch apps with enhanced Siri, and it comes to iPads, FaceTime over cellular data.
Supported: iPhone 3GS and up, 2nd gen iPads and up, 4th gen iPod touch.
Enhanced Siri launches apps and comes to new iPads and eventually into cars.
Siri to get into the car with Eyes Free: demo: Toggle Siri on by tapping a button the steering wheel.
iOS 6 to get Do Not Disturb feature from Mountain Lion.
Select which push notifications to mute and which to stay on.
iOS 6 integrates more tightly with Facebook, Twitter and App Store.
Share directly from core apps like Maps, Photos and Safari.
Safari offers unified search across the web, browser history and bookmarks.
Following in Chrome’s footsteps.
iCloud Tabs syncs Safari web-browsing across all devices.
Simultaneously see all the tabs open on any device.“IOS 6 will include Apple’s own mobile mapping software to compete with software from Google. TomTom will supply Apple with map data and related content.” – statement from TomTom.
Enhanced Safari features.
Multitouch to help navigate tabs, upload images directly, Offline Reading List.
Passbook provides one-stop purchase of tickets and boarding passes.
No more paper QR-codes and tickets.
Apple replaces Google Maps with own Maps app.
Maps comes with Yelp integration and turn-by-turn navigation, and 3D.
The Samsung GALAXY S II LTE is now available at SingTel (S$298).
Samsung GALAXY S II LTE is now available at SingTel (S$298)
SingTel officially launched its 4G services for smartphones in Singapore yesterday. From today, customers who purchase a 4G-enabled handset with a SingTel Flexi and iFlexi plan can enjoy the 4G service.
The Samsung GALAXY S II LTE (S$298) is one of three handsets available at launch. The other two 4G smartphones are the HTC One XL (S$318) and the LG Optimus LTE (S$198).
The specifications of the Samsung GALAXY S II LTE can be viewed or downloaded below.
