Tech Roundup: Mar 17, 2013
Samsung launches Galaxy S4 in Broadway musical style; Apple, LG and HTC swing into action:
Amidst all the dance and music unfolding on stage at the Radio City Music Hall in New York, South Korean chaebol Samsung took the wraps off the Galaxy S4 smartphone in what could be one of the most anticipated tech events of the year. With leaks, rumors and speculation aplenty ahead of the release, the hype created was sky-high that its competitors immediately swung into action to dampen the enthusiasm surrounding the gadget.
Apple's Phil Schiller was particularly vocal in voicing his concerns with Android (like fragmentation) and eventually targeted Samsung itself for releasing S4 with an year-old software. Samsung's Korean counterpart LG was not far behind. After rumors of eye-tracking features on the S4 surfaced, the company released a value-pack update for LG Optimus G Pro that adds Smart Video and dual camera features, while HTC went a step ahead on the day of the phone's launch by letting the waiting press and mediapersons to check out its latest flagship smartphone One in addition to distributing free snacks and hot cocoa!
And when the phone was unveiled (it confirmed the leaks, if you are interested!), there was a sense of deja vu. For me, this should have been the S III! While the design is more iterative in nature, it's the software that packs in all the goodies. Boasting of an octa-core Exynos 5 processor (available outside US and other international markets), a 13 MP rear camera and a 4.99-inch 1080p AMOLED display, the phone has been touted as the 'Life companion' and Samsung wants to ensure it stays that way: by adding an extensive list of software features like Knox, Dual Camera, S Health, S Translate, S Scroll, S Pause, S Voice Drive, Note II's Air View (an overdose of 'S'!), a redesigned Samsung Hub and many more, it is fairly correct to assume that Samsung wants to create its own ecosystem.
With the word Android barely mentioned during the entire hour-long event, it won't be long before Samsung forks off the operating system like Amazon! But critics have been left largely unimpressed primarily because of the fact that most of the software features borderline on gimmicks than be of some genuine use. A Galaxy S III like design aside (why still the hardware button Samsung?? And I am not even getting into the abomination that is TouchWiz), there is every chance that the phone will continue to sell in millions given the popularity of the Galaxy series.
Though the S4 will be available only at the end of April in several countries worldwide, Apple is not sitting idle. It has launched a promotional campaign highlighting the iPhone 5's features: "There's iPhone. And then there's everything else." Seriously Apple, when did you start taking potshots at your competitors? HTC, in the meanwhile, is pleased to see that there is no innovation from Samsung in terms of design. Well all these fights seem to be entertaining, if not anything else!
RIP Google Reader, you will be missed:
Google's RSS aggregator service Reader of late wasn't receiving any love from its parent and from that I could make out it won't be long before it was shut down. And that day has finally come. As part of its spring cleaning initiative, Google has announced its plans to close the service starting July 1 citing its declining popularity among users. The move has been met with predictable outrage, with third party services like Feedly, which hook on to your Google (Reader) account, having taken it up in their hands to come with an alternative.
Watching all this unfold, I feel a lack of usage doesn't seem to be a reason for the search giant to pull the shutters down on the service. Rather it seems to be a calculated move aimed at promoting Google+ and Google Currents. Having said that closing Google Reader is not the end of the road for RSS, there are many other equally good substitutes (Feedly itself is one such option). And if you didn't know, the Google Reader app has already been yanked off from the Google Play store. I wouldn't be surprised if one fine day they chose to shutdown Google Groups and redirect users to Google+ Communities!
Facebook, Likes and your personality:
Liking something on Facebook may seem so simple an activity, but they have far-reaching consequences like revealing your personality, for instance, in addition to making things easier for advertisers to target (or bombard) you with ads. The latest study involved researchers taking all these likes from 58,000 volunteers who consented to part with their personal information for this purpose and the findings, needless to say, were pretty accurate in judging their personalities.
"The algorithms proved 88% accurate for determining male sexuality, 95% accurate in distinguishing African-American from Caucasian-American and 85% for differentiating Republican from Democrat. Christians and Muslims were correctly classified in 82% of cases and relationship status and substance abuse was predicted with an accuracy between 65% and 73%," reports BBC on the study.
However it's very much possible that this crucial bit of information could prove futile if a person's likes are out of date. No doubt the social network giant too has realized that users may not effectively utilize the About page on their Timeline profiles to create their perfect virtual personalities. Hence its attempt to redesign the whole page itself which categorizes user likes based on what they have watched/ read/ listened, and what they are planning to watch/read/listen and so forth, in turn making Graph Search return more relevant results. Clever move Facebook!
In other news:
Amidst all the dance and music unfolding on stage at the Radio City Music Hall in New York, South Korean chaebol Samsung took the wraps off the Galaxy S4 smartphone in what could be one of the most anticipated tech events of the year. With leaks, rumors and speculation aplenty ahead of the release, the hype created was sky-high that its competitors immediately swung into action to dampen the enthusiasm surrounding the gadget.
Apple's Phil Schiller was particularly vocal in voicing his concerns with Android (like fragmentation) and eventually targeted Samsung itself for releasing S4 with an year-old software. Samsung's Korean counterpart LG was not far behind. After rumors of eye-tracking features on the S4 surfaced, the company released a value-pack update for LG Optimus G Pro that adds Smart Video and dual camera features, while HTC went a step ahead on the day of the phone's launch by letting the waiting press and mediapersons to check out its latest flagship smartphone One in addition to distributing free snacks and hot cocoa!
And when the phone was unveiled (it confirmed the leaks, if you are interested!), there was a sense of deja vu. For me, this should have been the S III! While the design is more iterative in nature, it's the software that packs in all the goodies. Boasting of an octa-core Exynos 5 processor (available outside US and other international markets), a 13 MP rear camera and a 4.99-inch 1080p AMOLED display, the phone has been touted as the 'Life companion' and Samsung wants to ensure it stays that way: by adding an extensive list of software features like Knox, Dual Camera, S Health, S Translate, S Scroll, S Pause, S Voice Drive, Note II's Air View (an overdose of 'S'!), a redesigned Samsung Hub and many more, it is fairly correct to assume that Samsung wants to create its own ecosystem.
With the word Android barely mentioned during the entire hour-long event, it won't be long before Samsung forks off the operating system like Amazon! But critics have been left largely unimpressed primarily because of the fact that most of the software features borderline on gimmicks than be of some genuine use. A Galaxy S III like design aside (why still the hardware button Samsung?? And I am not even getting into the abomination that is TouchWiz), there is every chance that the phone will continue to sell in millions given the popularity of the Galaxy series.
Though the S4 will be available only at the end of April in several countries worldwide, Apple is not sitting idle. It has launched a promotional campaign highlighting the iPhone 5's features: "There's iPhone. And then there's everything else." Seriously Apple, when did you start taking potshots at your competitors? HTC, in the meanwhile, is pleased to see that there is no innovation from Samsung in terms of design. Well all these fights seem to be entertaining, if not anything else!
RIP Google Reader, you will be missed:
Google's RSS aggregator service Reader of late wasn't receiving any love from its parent and from that I could make out it won't be long before it was shut down. And that day has finally come. As part of its spring cleaning initiative, Google has announced its plans to close the service starting July 1 citing its declining popularity among users. The move has been met with predictable outrage, with third party services like Feedly, which hook on to your Google (Reader) account, having taken it up in their hands to come with an alternative.
Watching all this unfold, I feel a lack of usage doesn't seem to be a reason for the search giant to pull the shutters down on the service. Rather it seems to be a calculated move aimed at promoting Google+ and Google Currents. Having said that closing Google Reader is not the end of the road for RSS, there are many other equally good substitutes (Feedly itself is one such option). And if you didn't know, the Google Reader app has already been yanked off from the Google Play store. I wouldn't be surprised if one fine day they chose to shutdown Google Groups and redirect users to Google+ Communities!
Facebook, Likes and your personality:
Liking something on Facebook may seem so simple an activity, but they have far-reaching consequences like revealing your personality, for instance, in addition to making things easier for advertisers to target (or bombard) you with ads. The latest study involved researchers taking all these likes from 58,000 volunteers who consented to part with their personal information for this purpose and the findings, needless to say, were pretty accurate in judging their personalities.
"The algorithms proved 88% accurate for determining male sexuality, 95% accurate in distinguishing African-American from Caucasian-American and 85% for differentiating Republican from Democrat. Christians and Muslims were correctly classified in 82% of cases and relationship status and substance abuse was predicted with an accuracy between 65% and 73%," reports BBC on the study.
However it's very much possible that this crucial bit of information could prove futile if a person's likes are out of date. No doubt the social network giant too has realized that users may not effectively utilize the About page on their Timeline profiles to create their perfect virtual personalities. Hence its attempt to redesign the whole page itself which categorizes user likes based on what they have watched/ read/ listened, and what they are planning to watch/read/listen and so forth, in turn making Graph Search return more relevant results. Clever move Facebook!
In other news:
- Existence of Higgs Boson is officially confirmed after CERN scientists gather enough data to ascertain its presence.
- New Zealand hit by worst drought in 30 years; to cost the nation $1.7 billion USD.
- Neanderthal's large eyes ultimately led to its extinction due to heavy visual processing, says a new study.
- A newly identified SARS like deadly virus claims its ninth victim, WHO reports.
- Mars Curiosity rover finds an ancient network of rivers; suggests the planet had an conducive environment to support microbial life.
- Seattle bar preemptively bans Google Glass citing privacy concerns.
- Professional social networking platform LinkedIn set to acquire popular news reader app Pulse.
- Google settles with US authorities for $7 million USD over collecting people's personal data without authorization as part of its Street View service.
- Google redesigns mobile Gmail web app; gets iOS inspired interface (Android app updated only with Key Lime Pie?).
- Microsoft enables Flash by default on Internet Explorer 10 in Windows 8 and RT.
- Google Now expected to make its entry in iOS, Chrome OS and Google Chrome browser.
- Boeing details battery fixes for Dreamliner 787 jets; operations to resume in weeks.
- Andy Rubin steps down as Google's Android Chief; will be taken over by Chrome OS head Sundar Pichai.
- Twitter working on a music discovery app, reports CNET; launches its official app for Windows 8.
- Google removes ad-blocker apps from Play Store citing violation of developer terms (no wonder; Google thrives on ads!).
- Popular cloud storage service Dropbox acquires recently launched iOS mail app Mailbox for almost $100 million USD.
- Microsoft resumes Windows 7.8 update for Windows Phone 7.5 devices; battery drain and Live Tile sync issues still said to be persisting.
- Facebook redesigns Timeline; to come up with hashtag feature for easy searching.
- New Samsung co-CEO JK Shin calls demand Windows 8 'lackluster' in an interview with WSJ.
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