Note 10.1 Gen1 Vs Gen 2

Usually Samsung does an incremental upgrade to all its line of products every year with no quantum jumps. This time around they have done something different the Note 10.1 line. Its just not slapping a name 2014 edition to the older one and bumping it up with minor upgrades but puts it right on top of all the available tablets in the market giving it the most premium tablet ever.


Samsung has thrown its latest Note 10.1 inch tablet right into the heart of the incredibly competitive top-of-the-line tablet space , with amazing spec bump from the previous model here is a quick glance of spec comparison between both the generation of tablets


2014 Edition· 10.1-inch Super Clear LCD display / 2,560 x 1,600 pixels 
· Android 4.3 Jelly Bean 
· 3GB RAM
· 8-megapixel rear camera
· 2-megapixel front camera 
· S-Pen
· 32GB internal storage
· micro-SD support up to 64GB
· 8,220mAh
· 243.1 x 171.4 x 7.9mm
· 540g (Wi-Fi), 547g (LTE)
· Snapdragon 800 (LTE ) / Exynos Octa ( WiFi)


Generation 1


· 10.1-inch PLS TFT capacitive touchscreen / 1280X800· Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean
· 2GB RAM
· 5-megapixel rear camera
· 1.9-megapixel front camera
· S-Pen
· 16 GB internal storage
· micro-SD support up to 64GB
· 7000 mAh
· 262 x 180 x 8.9 mm
· 600g (Wi-Fi), 547g (LTE)
· Exynos 4412 Quad-core 1.4 GHz Cortex-A9


As you can see from the above every piece and pixel have been upgraded to the best. I can say this is one the best tablets put out by samsung so far..


As more and more buyers seek such devices, the competition level explodes. Of course, this is a good thing for buyers, as competition forces manufacturers to add new features and push devices to another level.

Design


With everyone complaining plasticky feeling of the products with Samsung , they had their own Pros and Cons for using this material, simple reason being plastic is lighter durable than glass , cost efficient. all though the same design language and build materials are used, there has been a slight tweak.

The textured back makes its entry to the device giving it a " Leathery finish " at first you feel its a leather by "Looking at it " but holding it feels definitely plastic . That is not a bad thing infact gives you a better grip than the previous model with the glossy one. the bezels have been shaved a bit and the front facing speakers have now moved to the sides. The Home button makes its debut on the tablet many like ( I hate it ) .Performance : 


This is just plain simple topic to cover , the LTE model here houses the state of the art SOC Snapdragon 800 , the device is just buttery smooth with any application thrown at it ,even intense games , on synthetic benchmarks i was no short of 36000 on Antutu , all though I did hear feedbacks of a slight lag on the Exynos version.
Camera :


Although many say its stupid to take photos on a 10 inch tablet , I fancy it sometimes myself at home or just on the go to click a quick pic or 2 . the device now comes with the Note 3 / S4 camera App which have some intuitive features and fun to play around with . Not the best of the cameras but decent enough to compete with the other cameras on tablets.



Battery :

With a single charge of this beast you can easily go through a weekends work with a breeze or a road trip. the optimizations are quite good in terms of the Standby times..


Software :


As we all know from the S4 launch Samsung markets its products more based on the software than hardware , which means Samsung is now selling software bundling with hardware . although there are few gimmicky software on the S4 . they still make their way on to the tablet as well. all though the new Snote looks very nice and easy to work with a lot of enhancements and collaboration is what I can see for few apps like the trip advisor , Flip board , drop box etc.all these are definitely very appealing visually with an amazing 2560X1600 bright screen.



Screen :


At first I thought this was an amoled panel , but its indeed a Super Clear LCD , the calibration is quite good . the colours just pop out giving it the right amount of saturation and brightness . This is a definite winner for me . The screen is just beautiful to look at even just a wallpaper makes it look amazing . With a pixel density of about 299 everything is super sharp and crisp.

To Sum up this is definitely a worth the upgrade from the previous version and great device for who are looking for both business and leisure. With the integration of S pen the device is just more productive and fun to use.




For a quick video handson and review of both the tablet , make sure to watch the video in the below link


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLVrg2TiTs4












Anirudh Srinivas

Galaxy S4 .. are we going 4 it?

Galaxy S4 unvieled about an hour ago , Here are some specs to start of with 

GENERAL

2G Network

GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900

3G Network

HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100

4G Network

LTE (market dependent)

SIM

Micro-SIM

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, 4.99 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

Secondary

Yes, 2 MP, 1080p@30fps

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

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

- S-Voice natural language commands and dictation

- Smart Stay eye tracking

- 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

                                 So how many of you will be going 4 one? all though the specs have been slightly bumped from the S3 , there are still a few pull backs , on papers the Exynos Octa seems a powerhouse with 8 cores , in reality only 4 are active at any given point . The PHOLED screen looks bright and vivid but Samsung has always created screens which have over saturated colors and very bright screen which cause burn in issues. lets face a fact smart stay , smart pause , smart scroll how many of us will use these features on the phone in the day to day life?

The Phone has bumped its PPI to 441 which is a good the screen now has a full HD resolution good , the phone is slim good , but plasticky again .. bad!!! this is one department Samsung needs to get innovation. People really dont mind if its a bit thicker, no one here is in the race of buying a  slim phone for everyday use , we dont mind a bit of 1 or 2 mm of thickness but the feel should be premium . look at SONY , HTC they pack some premium build materials in their devices . but using plastic and still charging $$ big is not fair.

The plethora of new features are good steps in this direction, but they can be seen as gimmicks rather than game changers. At this point, Samsung appears to be trying to kill the competition with sheer volume of new features.


Let me know if you are getting one or what you feel about the new Galaxy leave your comments below..

SONY unveils Xperia Z

Yes folks!!! its here the SONY Xperia Z has just been shown off officially to the world at CES 2013 by Kazuo Hirai , this super smart phone has some amazing features , just to highlight

• Mobile Bravia Engine 2
• 13-megapixel camera with Exmor R sensor
•  can do HDR video, a first to do it
• waterproof ( finally  can use it in my bathtub ah!!!! ) 
• NFC
•  5-inch, 1080p HD display
• weighs only about 140g
•  Qualcomm's Snapdragon S4 Pro quad-core processor clocked at 1.5GHz

More as they come in .... stay tuned

Smart Refrigerators?? or Dumb Consumers?

Well Folks its that time of the year again where we get to see lots of new gadgets entering the mainstream market in technology , the CES 2013 currently at LAS VEGAS , 

So we all know what our refrigerators at home do , cool and freeze . Samsung makes it or rather calls it smarter , by introducing  a refrigerator whose space can be reprogrammed to convert from fridge to freezer space and back again.

The T9000 refrigerator comes with a built-in LCD screen and can be connected to a smartphone,  Senior Vice President Michael Abary said could be used as a baby monitor for parents who want to keep an eye on their young children while cooking. 

The Device runs Linux based OS and integrates a 8" screen with evernote integration which makes now easier to sync your grocery list whilst you keep noting them on your refrigerator .

How many of you would you really use these features in real world?

please subscribe more updates on gadgets as they get released at CES 2013

Lost your EZlink Card? Fear not !!

Ezlink card that most of us at Singapore use for daily commuting to office and other places..

Not sure how many of you have lost your General EZlink card in Singapore with some balance and didnt know what to do and then later just abandoning the card with its value as the card is trasnferable .

For those who dont know you can actually call Activate Ezlink and get this card blocked and transfer the value to another card if you have one.. Just to be on safer side for android fans download the ezlink application from play store and  register your card on it .. cause , when you loose your card you will then realise how important it would be to register it also you can see the transactions on the card for your monthly expense trending too.

So the actual process when you loose your card , Things to do 

1. Call Ezlink Activate support line on +65 6496 8300 and report the loss of card

2. Quote the Card number and block it 

3. Go to the Police website www.spf.gov.sg/epc and report the loss of card 

4. you will get the email of the report filed 

5. Use this report and send the details to customerservice@ezlinkcom.sg

6. Go to the EZlink activate webpage and register your new replacement card and nominate it for your transfer value from old card

and you are all set to go , in a weeks time usually the amount is transfered to the new card.

Many of them dont know this , including the MRT Passenger info desk people!!!! Strange...

Cheers 

Ani 

Note 10.1 Review

the Note 10.1 looks deceptively like any other Android tablet. In fact, it’s almost identical to Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 2 10.1, right down to the chrome speaker strips on either side of the screen. Regardless of design, the Note 10.1 lacks star quality. Set against the premium tablet competition, such as Apple’s iPad or Asus’ Transformer Pad Infinity 700, the Note 10.1’s plastic shell leaves it feeling ordinary. It also picks up smudges and marks all too easily. Coming after the pixel-packed Full HD screens of Acer’s Iconia Tab A700 and the Transformer Pad Infinity, the Samsung’s 1280 x 800-pixel display appears mundane. The only compensation is the quality: with a maximum brightness of 414cd/m2, a contrast ratio of 828:1, wide viewing angles and vibrant colours, it’s not bad – the only thing lacking is pixels.

So far, so average, but the Note 10.1’s trump card is concealed within – namely, its stylus, which Samsung has dubbed the S Pen. Remove the S Pen from the Note’s bottom-right corner and the customised lockscreen springs into view. From here, a brush of a fingertip or the stylus sends you directly into the customised TouchWiz UI. Yank out the stylus while the tablet is switched on, however, and a quick-launch menu springs out from the screen’s edge, providing access to the preinstalled Adobe Photoshop Touch, Polaris Office, and Samsung S Note and S Planner apps. Sadly, it isn’t possible to customise the quick-launch menu – you’re stuck with the default apps. It feels surprisingly natural flicking through Google’s OS with a stylus.


The S Pen’s square profile and slightly rounded edges feel comfortable, and the slight give in the nib makes for a natural, pen-like feel. The extra feeling imbued in art and painting apps is amazing, where the Wacom digitiser’s sensitivity adds a level of control that capacitive styli simply can’t match. Samsung has also added multitasking to Android, with the Note’s multiscreen feature. This permits two applications to run side by side, and also allows for floating windowed apps, such as S Note and the Video Player, to be positioned freely.


 There are limitations, of course, and the first is that this feature works only with the preinstalled Internet, Video Player, Gallery, Email and Polaris Office apps. In practice, it’s an intriguing idea and makes it possible to simultaneously use a browser window to research topics, scribble notes in the app sitting next to it, and watch a video at the same time. Screengrabs can be cropped, dragged into the S Note app, and annotated with a flourish of the stylus, too. It sounds great in principle, but the flaws are all too evident. The handwriting recognition is effective, but editing mistakes is fiddly. Backtracking requires you to dab at the strip of cursor, Space and Delete keys in the toolbar above. Scrolling around the page, meanwhile, requires you to constantly flit from scrolling mode to writing mode. All the stopping and starting is enough to make anyone reach for a pen and piece of paper.



 What’s more, the multitasking additions leave the Note 10.1 struggling on occasion, with menus juddering or pausing before scrolling into view. Even flicking across the Android homescreen isn’t particularly smooth, with widgets such as the email reader scrolling jerkily. Given the hardware, this comes as a surprise. With a quad-core 1.4GHz processor and 2GB of RAM, the Note 10.1 scored ahead of the Asus Transformer Pad Infinity 700 in one benchmark. The benchmark results were impressive but patchy real-world performance suggest that the tweaks aren’t well optimised. Yet despite the number-crunching potential of the Exynos CPU, the Note 10.1’s 7000mAh battery life remains competitive. With the power-saving mode enabled, and screen brightness reduced to halfway, it lasted for 9hrs 19mins in our looping video test.

Kaskade's Rmx of Nelly Furtardo... Classic

Its a 4 year old remix but still classic!!!!! Kaskade's work is evergreen!!!!

Nelly Furtado - All Good Things (Kaskade's Club Mix) by Kaskade