Dec 25, 2013



2013 was a very good year for Samsung, The Galaxy S4 and the Galaxy Note 3 and the long anticipated - the Galaxy Gear got a warm welcome from every Android enthusiast, but how can Samsung take it to the next level in 2014?

The Shape of Things to Come: Samsung in 2014

By: Unknown on: Wednesday, December 25, 2013

Dec 7, 2013




Samsung is now providing consumers with more style choice by introducing Rose Gold White and Rose Gold Black editions of its monster Samsung Galaxy Note 3. The Galaxy Note 3, which launched back in September during the IFA trade show in Berlin, will soon be available with Rose Gold White and Rose Gold Black accents as well as brand new Merlot Red option. The new editions of Galaxy Note 3 integrate touches of premium Rose Gold finishes to its Jet Black and Classic White devices for a distinct and refined design. Both editions complement the iconic Rose Gold Galaxy Gear to provide users with a truly integrated and stylish Galaxy experience.





Check out the press release for more info:

Samsung Expands Galaxy Note 3 Line with New Color Accents

By: Unknown on: Saturday, December 07, 2013

Nov 18, 2013



The prestigious Innovations Design and Engineering Awards, sponsored by CEA (Consumer Electronics Association) who produce the International CES - the global gathering place for all who thrive on the business of consumer technology, have been recognizing achievements in product design and engineering since 1976, This year, CEA has announced the Innovation Awards list for the upcoming CES and Samsung has been honoured with 24 CES 2014 Innovation Awards, taking their total to 258 awards in the past 10 years.

Samsung holds one of the biggest booths at the CES showcasing products ranging from smartphones, laptops, cameras to home appliances. Samsung hasn’t revealed the complete list as it wants to save some of the winning products for CES’ press conference but Samsung has listed some of the award recipients:



Check out the full Press Release for more info.



 SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS HONORED WITH 24 CES 2014 INNOVATIONS AWARDS, BRINGING ITS 10-YEAR TOTAL TO 258

Industry Specialty Awards – one Best of Innovations and three Eco-Design – and its history of accolades reflect Samsung’s commitment to advancing technology and promoting sustainability

Amman, Jordan (November, 2013) – Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., a global leader and award-winning innovator in consumer electronics, semiconductors and telecommunications, announced that it won 24 prestigious International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2014 Innovations Awards. CES, the world’s largest consumer technology tradeshow held by the Consumer Electronics Association® (CEA) every year, has honored Samsung with 258 awards in the past 10 years.

Among the 24 CES awards for 2014, Samsung was recognized with a Best of Innovations award and three Eco-Design honors. Products entered in the CES Innovations program are judged by a pre-eminent panel of independent industrial designers, engineers and members of the media to honor outstanding design and engineering in cutting-edge consumer electronics products across 29 categories.

“Samsung continues to create superior groundbreaking products as well as unique content and services,” said Y.K. Kim, president and CEO, Samsung Electronics North America. “We are honored that CEA and the industry recognize this commitment, and we look forward to sharing our latest product innovations at the 2014 International CES.”

Samsung Electronics’ award-winners include products in the Video Display; Home Audio/Video Components; Wearable Tech; Tablet, E-Reader, and Mobile Computing; Home Appliance; Digital Imaging and Embedded Technologies categories. All of Samsung's award-winning products will be on display during the 2014 International CES, which runs January 7-10, 2014, in Samsung booth #12004 in the Central Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center. Honorees will also be displayed at CES Unveiled: The Official Media Event of the International CES from 4-7 p.m. on Sunday, January 5 in the South Seas Ballroom C at Mandalay Bay.

Many of the winning products will be first unveiled at Samsung’s CES press conference, scheduled for 2 p.m. on Monday January 6, 2014. The following are additional details for some of the award recipients:
  •             Samsung’s ultra-slim, high density 3GB LPDDR3 Mobile DRAM Chip enables slimmer smartphone designs with higher performance, increased battery life, full HD resolution and smart features such as gesture control and facial recognition. It provides transfer speeds of up to 2.133 megabits per second (Mbps) per pin, speeds that help most users enjoy PC-like performance on a mobile device.
  •             Samsung’s Galaxy Gear™ is revolutionizing the way people interact with their mobile devices. This groundbreaking wearable keeps you connected like never before by expanding the Galaxy smartphone experience to your wrist and enhancing everyday moments with real-time updates for quick and convenient access.

  •             The Samsung Curved OLED TV takes an unprecedented leap forward in picture quality as well as the TV viewing experience. By enabling two people to watch two different programs at the same time on one TV - both in full screen and full HD, the KN55S9C may bring an end to fights over the remote. 

  •             The Samsung T9000 Four-Door Refrigerator represents the next evolution in appliance innovation. Among the features of this 32 cu. ft. refrigerator is a modern and sleek design that brings a heightened level of sophistication to the kitchen such as a best-in-class 25.6 cu. ft. of fresh food storage with a 6.1 cu. ft. convertible freezer compartment.

  • -          The Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 – 2014 Edition redefines the tablet experience with a 10.1” Super Clear LCD display and an Exynos 5420 quad-core processor. Improving upon its innovative and immersive tablet experience, Samsung introduces enhanced S Pen and Multi-Window capabilities and a new Multi User Mode.

  •            The Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 is a premium tablet that enables creativity and productivity on-the-go in an ideal form. It brings a new era of intelligent Note technology, featuring Samsung’s S Pen and Multi-Window capability, set to re-ignite the mid-size tablet category that Samsung pioneered in 2010.

  •             Samsung’s new Galaxy Tab 3 8.0 is thin, lightweight, feature-packed and powerful, making it the ideal portable tablet. The Tab 3 makes it easy to stay connected and balance many tasks such as emailing, managing your schedule, reading and streaming content on the HD display.

  •             The Samsung Galaxy NX is the first fully-connected interchangeable lens camera. Merging the superior imaging precision of a compact system camera, 3G/4G LTE and WiFi connectivity with the power and functionality of the latest Android OS, the Galaxy NX turns every picture into a story worth telling. 

As part of Samsung’s PlanetFirst™ initiative, a commitment to become one of the world’s most environmentally friendly companies, Samsung has a dedicated goal to develop environmentally friendly products and building green manufacturing sites. In its latest effort to support that commitment Samsung received three Eco-Design awards which include:
  • The Samsung DV457 Front-Load Dryer which combines superior fabric care performance and smart features to significantly streamline the laundry process without compromising energy efficiency. Its temperature modulation system makes it the first super-efficient dryer on the market, and its 2013 ENERGY STAR Emerging Technology Award is the first-ever to be earned by a dryer.

Samsung Wins a Whopping-24 CES 2013 Innovations Awards

By: Unknown on: Monday, November 18, 2013

Nov 4, 2013


We've seen a lot of apps that help you manage your income, smoking and drinking habits, calories intake and many other things, but so far I didn't come across an app that deals with car related matters, until "Markabaty" that is.

Markabaty is an app that keeps track of your maintenance schedule, the cost of parts you've replaced, Gas consumption patterns, and reminds you of your next check-up appointment. One more feature the app brings to the table is troubleshooting, with a couple of very easy steps -that doesn't require an expert- You can skip the annoying visit to the mechanic to figure out the the problem, The app suggests what to do in various situations, it basically asks you a number of questions in order to get down to the cause and gives you a number of solutions if available or directs you to the closest workshop.

Markabaty - screenshot Markabaty - screenshot Markabaty - screenshot

Markabaty, A must-have app for all car owners

By: Unknown on: Monday, November 04, 2013

Oct 24, 2013


This is a smartphone with a display of 5.7 inches on the diagonal and a HD 1080p resolution, identical to the screen type used on the Galaxy Note 3, except that it is incurved on its vertical axle like the incurved OLED televisions already released by Samsung.

The potential gains from this screen type are still unknown, leaving some specialists perplexed. Samsung is mainly using this as a marketing point, pushing the communication plan on their new feature: the "Round Interaction", I can see this typr of screens benefiting Samsung's latest gadget, The Galaxy Gear. 

The "Round Interaction" is a simple function gained from the different shape of the smartphone and its gyroscope. When the device is placed on a flat surface, the user simply has to rick the phone and it will wake up and display the last notifications that haven’t been viewed (see the video).


Besides the peculiar shape, the Galaxy Round comes with some very interesting technical characteristics. It is only 7.9 mm thick (although it is slightly more in reality due to the additional space the device takes up due to its shape), is 154 grams and comes with a 2800 mAh battery. It comes with a 13 mega pixel camera lens and runs Android 4.3, has 3 GB of RAM and a 2.3 GHz quad core processor.

While no international launch has been announced, Samsung has already presented one piece of bad news: the price for the device will be over a $1000 and international availability is doubtable, The Round is now on sale in Samsung's home country of South Korea, but according to SamMobile it will only be produced in limited numbers. It's a proof-of-concept of the curved screen, which will presumably find its way into future phones.
Samsung GALAXY ROUND Product Specifications  

Network 
LTE 150/50M bps
Processor 
MSM 8974 (Quad Krait 2.3 GHz)
Display
5.7” Full HD Super Flexible AMOLED
Memory
32 GB + microSD (up to 64GB)
3GB RAM
Camera
13 MP AF w/Flash + 2MP

Camera Mode: Drama Shot, Sound & Shot, Animated Photo, Eraser, Best Photo, Best Face, Beauty Face, HDR (High Dynamic Range), Panorama, Sports, Golf, Surround shot, Live effect.
OS
Android 4.3 (Jelly Bean) 
Connectivity
Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac, WiFi Direct, BT 4.0 (BLE), USB 3.0, GPS+GLONASS, NFC
Additional Features
Group Play: Share Music, Share Picture, Share Video, Share Document, Play Games
Story Album, S Translator
Samsung Smart Scroll, Samsung Smart Pause, Air Gesture, Air View
Samsung Apps, Samsung Hub, ChatON (Voice/Video Call, Share screen, 3-way calling), Samsung WatchON
S Voice™ Hands Free, S Health
Samsung Adapt Display, Samsung Adapt Sound
Auto adjust touch sensitivity (Glove friendly)
Samsung Link, Screen Mirroring
Safety Assistance, Samsung KNOX
Dimension
151.1ⅹ79.6ⅹ7.9mm, 154g
Battery
2,800mAh


Samsung Galaxy Round Announced [Press Release/Specs]

By: Unknown on: Thursday, October 24, 2013

Oct 20, 2013


LG's G2 is the company's newest flagship and it replaces the former model, the Optimus G, it has the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 and some pretty impressive features as well. So let's take a deeper look at what makes this smartphone stand out.

Design




From the front it's a gorgeous device, the branding is up to it's minimum, it's not really in your face and since there is no hardware buttons on the front, they took advantage of that and used the space to enlarge the screen, The side bezels are almost non-existent, the top and bottom areas are small enough, and you truly feel like you are holding nothing but one giant smartphone panel in your hand without any extra fuss. to the top left corner you'll see the 2.1 MP front facing camera along with the proximity and the brightness sensor then comes the phone speaker in the center.


On the sides you won't see any physical buttons, no volume rockers nor power button, LG has moved them to the back of the device -Which we'll talk about more later on in this review- right under the camera, on the left you'll see the SIM card slot, and from the top you'll see the noise cancellation mic along with the IR blaster, from the bottom you'll see the 3.5 mm headphone jack with the main microphone, Micro USB port and the speaker, From the back you'll see the volume rockers and the power/sleep button which has a secondary notification light raped around it in line to the rear facing 13 MP camera with an LED flash with a plasticy back that I'm not digging very much, There is nothing redeeming about a black slab of shiny plastic that needs to be wiped a minute after using it to clean the mess your figures have caused. If you buy the G2, invest in a case… like, now.


Personally I'm not a big fan of the physical buttons placement but it's simply my personal opinion that you might completely disagree with, with that being said, I cannot stand LG’s decision to move buttons from the traditional side placements and place them in the middle of the backplate under the camera. Pressing them often feels completely unnatural and regularly confusing, Thankfully, LG included KnockON, so you don’t necessarily need to press the power button in order to wake or sleep your phone. This is something that almost anyone could more than likely get used to if this phone became theirs for a long period of time. It’s just such a drastic change for someone like me that uses a traditional button setup after traditional button setup, that I couldn't get over it . 



Display


The device rocks a beautiful 5.2 inch True IPS+ LCD screen. At a resolution of 1920×1080 with 423ppi, it's very sharp and it's clarity is unlike almost any other smartphone screens I've seen. Videos look like true 1080p, games are full of amazing detail - of course the Adreno GPU plays a big role here-, The display itself leans slightly to the cooler side of display temperatures, whereas the AMOLED in a device like the Galaxy S4 and Moto X clearly comes off warm. The on-screen buttons does take a small bit of the screen but they're not always there as when you're playing videos or going through pictures but personally I did have some issues with them as I do on all devices with on-screen back, menu and option buttons like the Nexus 4 or the Moto X especially when I'm typing in vertical mode, because the space button is right above the menu button and I often mistaken these two and press menu in the middle of typing. 



Camera


The 13MP Sony IMX135 Exmor sensor in the G2 is pretty good, in face I've rarely had to re-take a photo especially with the 9-point autofocus and OIS ( Optical Image Stabilization ). But to be honest I didn't notice the difference in photos, OIS mainly works with video which you can see clearly when recording a 1080p video. Low light images were outstanding, it competes with other high end devices,Only issue I had with the camera is that it takes quite a while to adjust the 9-point autofocus which sometimes can be annoying and even worse when the flash is needed because it lights up in your face (in case if you were taking a selfi) for about 4~5 seconds which leaves you semi-blind for a moment! with that being said, the end results are pretty awesome, Check out pictures below and to see some camera samples.
(Click to enlarge)
 
 


Connectivity

The G2 supports 4G LTE but I couldn't try that out because in Jordan we're still living with shitty 3G/HSPA, It also has NFC connectivity, Bluetooth 4.0 LE ( Low Energy ) which has became standard in 2013 flagship devices and an IR blaster which can be programmed to duplicate any remote which I found to be an awesome feature! unlike other flagship devices that comes with a pre-programmed set of codes that can only work with a hand-full of brands, the G2's IR blaster can be used to copy any remote control simply by directing the IR blaster of the remote to the IR blaster of the device and pushing a button for two seconds so that the G2 can record the code and re-use it to control other devices. It's not a jaw-dropping feature but I like how LG paid attention to this little detail. 


Performance 



The LG G2 is the first smartphone to launch with the Snapdragon 800 processor -Quad core clocked at 2.26GHz- which is one of the most powerful CPU's out there at the moment, it's extremely power efficient and it's a monster when it comes to gaming, along with the Adreno 330 GPU ( Graphics Processor Unite ) it gives some pretty impressive performance and benchmark results, During my testing period I didn't suffer any kind of lag or software issues, It didn't crash on me not even once, I honestly can't understand why Samsung won't distribute the Snapdraon version of their devices in the middle east - we always get the Exynos version - not that the Exynos version is bad or anything but the Snapdragon is just better when it comes to performance and power management and it never heats up.




Software






The G2 comes with Android 4.2.2 out of the box, LG has put a lot of effort into developing the UI, it's full of beautiful animations, very slick and smooth, you can even play with the icons sizes or replace them with images from your gallery. They have included apps like QuickMemo, QSlide, and Slide Aside that all want you to be able to accomplish multiple tasks at once. With the pulldown of the notification tray, you can jump into a variety of QSlide apps that hover as mini apps over whatever you are doing. You can change their transparency to see through to your background task and even open more than one at a time. With Slide Aside (my least favorite of the three), LG wants you to use a 3-finger swiping gesture while in an app to hide it off to the side. You can stack up to three apps to the side, accessing them again with another 3-finger swipe. It’s unnecessary since Android already has a multi-tasking app that can be accessed with a long-press on Home and shows much more than your last three apps.


 


Battery Life 



Last but not least, let's get to the battery... Now, I've tried a lot of devices and the G2 has the best battery life I have ever seen, Thanks to a 3,000mAh -unremovable- battery the G2 packs, I ran into zero battery scares. On 3G with regular usage, The device lasted for a good 18 hours and still had 20% or so left. When you tuck the device in your pocket, 3% will get you through 5 hours, on light use the G2 can last for 2 days without worrying about charging.



The Verdict



The Good:

  • The processor is lightning fast. 
  • Beautiful transaction animations, very customize-able. 
  • The 5.2 display is gorgeous, awesome for watching videos and browsing internet. 
  • Battery life is simply out standing and will keep you going for a full day of regular use no problem. 

The Bad:

  • No SD card slot, the device comes with two options of storage either 16 or 32 GB. 
  • The backplate materials feel very cheep and it's a figure print magnate (Solved by purchasing a back case). 
  • Physical buttons placement needs some getting used to. 
  • Multi-Tasking limitations, You can't run more than 2 apps in minimized mode and you can only save up to 3 apps in Slide a Side feature. 

Bottom line

LG tried to create the ultimate powerhouse with the G2 and succeeded. To power it all, you have the latest quad-core Snapdragon 800 processor from Qualcomm clocked at 2.26GHz with an upgraded Adreno 330 GPU. Then you add on the 5.2″ True IPS+ display, 2GB RAM, 13MP camera with OIS (optical image stabilization), 4G LTE, 32GB of storage, and 3,000mAh battery all tucked into a frame that is only 8.9mm thick, the LG G2 may last three or four years before it shows signs of aging. The screen is as good as it gets, the processor is the most powerful on the planet, and the camera includes the next movement in mobile photography. 

Well done, LG.

Gallery







Video Review [Arabic]


Unboxing Video [Arabic]

LG G2: The Best Smartphone LG Has Ever Made [Review]

By: Unknown on: Sunday, October 20, 2013
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