Ben Lovejoy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkq68_XWXt4

This video shows the four modes this interesting hybrid device offers: tablet, notebook, stand and a weird mode Samsung is variously referring to as ‘air’ and ‘floating’. We’ll have a second video online shortly showing switching between Windows 8 and Android.

Read more about the ATIV Q here.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsKVtNoVuuo

There’s obviously less to show here – it’s essentially a smaller, less powerful younger brother to the S4, but if – like me – you prefer your phones to be, well, phone-sized, this may well be the handset you’ve been waiting for. The poor Samsung rep said this was her first ever video demo, and it shows a little, but we can cut her some slack …

Read more about the S4 mini here.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DbqijCKj0fU

Essentially an S4 mini married to a compact camera. With a 16MP CMOS sensor, it ought to solve the biggest problem with smartphone cameras – they are pretty hopeless in low-light conditions. With a sensitive sensor and optical image-stabilisation, this should give impressive results in bars, clubs and outdoors at night.

Read more about the Galaxy Zoom here.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZG1WFsvYgL8

As a keen photographer, I use a DSLR for proper photography and my phone for snapshots. But in a world in which everything is connected, I do miss the ability to instantly share a photo from the DSLR. Here Samsung is attempting to bring the two worlds together. It’s not quite a DSLR, but with a 20MP CMOS sensor and a choice of 30 lenses, it ought to be a pretty capable camera – and with 4G on board, you can share photos instantly. It’s a very, very nice concept and I look forward to testing one.

Read more about the Samsung NX.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDjdd6WO7So

A sight that would lead to much swearing with most phones, but the S4 Active looks quite at home underwater. I have to say I was impressed.

Samsung was keen to stress that the phone is not designed to be used underwater – though the touchscreen does actually respond in very shallow water – rather it’s designed to survive an accidental immersion and to allow you to take snorkel-style photos where you hold the phone just beneath the surface to take an underwater photo.

If the touchscreen isn’t responsive when you bring it back out of the water, don’t panic – it gets confused by water drops on the screen, so just wipe it dry and all is well.

Read more about the S4 Active here.
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I’m here at the Earls Court Exhibition Centre in London for the Samsung Premiere 2013 event. Our best guess is that we’re likely to see three S4 products: the S4 mini, S4 Active and the S4 Zoom Galaxy (as well as one or more ATIV Windows 8 devices), but we shall see …

Hit the more link to read all about it, and refresh the page to see the latest update … 
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The idea that Google could lose ownership of Waze less than ten days after buying it for a rumored billion dollars might sound incredible, but that’s the intriguing possibility raised by a law professor from Ohio State University writing in the New York Times.

The law requires companies to make what’s known as a Hart-Scott-Rodino filing for any intended acquisition so that the proposed deal can be checked for anti-trust issues before it takes place. Google apparently didn’t make this filing.

According to a person close to Google, the company skipped the Hart-Scott-Rodino filing by relying on an exemption. This filing is not required if the acquisition is of a foreign company that has sales and assets in the United States of less than $60.9 million. Waze is an Israeli company with headquarters in Silicon Valley, so it comes under this test.

Waze probably doesn’t have $50 million in revenue worldwide, yet the test also looks at assets. Given that Waze is worth $1 billion, it is hard to see that the value of its intellectual property in the United States business doesn’t meet the test. And the F.T.C. has previously indicated that companies should include this type of intellectual property in informal guidance … 
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Data-protection authorities in Australia, Canada, Israel, Mexico and New Zealand have written a joint letter to Google CEO Larry Page expressing concerns about Google Glass, and asking the company eight specific questions about the product, reports ZDNet.

As you have undoubtedly noticed, Google Glass has been the subject of many articles that have raised concerns about the obvious, and perhaps less obvious, privacy implications of a device that can be worn by an individual and used to film and record audio of other people.  Fears of ubiquitous surveillance of individuals by other individuals, whether through such recordings or through other applications currently being developed, have been raised.  Questions about Google’s collection of such data and what it means in terms of Google’s revamped privacy policy have also started to appear … 
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Digitimes is not a source noted for its hit-rate, but its claim that Samsung, HTC and Apple are all considering liquid-cooled phones isn’t quite as far-fetched as it sounds: NEC has already launched one.

Smartphone players such as Apple, Samsung Electronics and High Tech Computer (HTC) have started showing interest in adopting ultra-thin heat pipes for their smartphones and are expected to release heat pipe-adopted models in the fourth quarter, at the earliest, according to sources from cooling module player.

The NEC Medias X 06 E launched last month in Japan was nicknamed the ladyphone, as it was designed to appeal to women who apparently complained about the heat generated by smartphones. The phone itself was nothing special – a 1.7Ghz quad-core Snapdragon processor with 4.7-inch display – it is the cooling that made it stand out … 
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Engadget spotted that HTC’s new low-end handset, the 3.5-inch Desire 200, has gone live on HTC’s website. Likely intended as the successor to the Desire C, it’s a pretty basic device.

320 x 480 LCD display; an aging Snapdragon S1 1GHz processor running an unidentified version of Android (likely 4.0) and HTC’s Sense skin; 4GB of expandable storage and 512MB RAM; 5-megapixel camera … 
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Engadget notes that the latest version of Dragon Mobile Assistant now detects when you’re in a moving car and automatically switches to hands-free mode, where all interaction is by voice alone.

Driver Mode relies solely on voice recognition and feedback, keeping your focus on the road. Accordingly, the upgrade builds in spoken notifications for inbound calls, messages, upcoming meetings and Facebook updates. There’s also voice-aware email and customizable wake up commands … 
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Google engineering director Ray Kurzweil, never a man to shy away from bold predictions about the future, says he believes that advances in medical technology will enable human beings to be immortal within 20 years.

Speaking at the Global Future 2045 World Congress, CNBC reports (via BGR) Kurzweil’s prediction that the pace of medical developments will be such that life expectancy will be continually extended such that we will never die.

The life expectancy was 20 years 1,000 years ago. … We doubled it in 200 years. This will go into high gear within 10 and 20 years from now, probably less than 15 we will be reaching that tipping point where we add more time than has gone by because of scientific progress … 
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Any early adopter has experienced the pain of buying the latest & greatest tech only to have it superseded within weeks. You could soon be experiencing just that if you recently bought the Samsung S4 as the company launches an LTE-Advanced version of the phone later this month offering more than twice the data speeds of standard 4G LTE – albeit initially only in South Korea (Reuters via Techmeme).

Samsung Electronics Co plans to sell a variation of its flagship Galaxy S4 smartphone that will transmit data at nearly twice the normal speed, the head of its mobile business said on Monday.

J.K. Shin, also co-chief executive of the world’s biggest technology firm by revenue, said the phone would be sold in South Korea as early as this month …

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Google has been praised by child protection organisations for two initiatives it hopes will make it easier to eradicate child pornography from the web, reports UK newspaper The Telegraph.

Google’s initiatives take two forms. First, the creation of an image-flagging database accessible to all tech companies, so that any image identified as child sexual abuse can be blocked across the web. Second, a $2m fund available to software developers to create tools to combat the problem.

John Carr, a government adviser on child internet safety, said: “Google have stepped up. No one can argue about that. In all my time working in this space no company has ever devoted anything like this level of resources to working with civil society organisations to attack online child abuse images.”

Susie Hargreaves, chief executive officer of the Internet Watch Foundation, which is part-funded by Google, said: “This announcement is inspiring for those who are at the forefront of tackling child sexual abuse content. We know that the best way to tackle what is some of the most horrific content online is by working with others from all over the world to combat this on a global platform.” … 
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Huawei, a Chinese brand known mostly for budget Android handsets, seems to be aiming to push itself upmarket with the Ascend P6, due to be unveiled on Tuesday (via Android Community).

The rumored specs are pretty decent – a 1.5GHz quad-core CPU, 4.7-inch 720p screen, 8GB of internal storage, 5MP 720p front-facing camera and 8MP 1080p rear one – but Huawei is mostly focusing attention on the aesthetics, promising that the phone will be both beautiful and ultra-thin … 
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Good news for anyone living in any of the 27 EU countries: as of next July, you’ll pay the same rate for calls and data when travelling within Europe as you do at home, reports The Telegraph.

Consumers will next year be able to use their mobile phones across the European Union for the same price as at home, it is planned, after officials voted to fast-track major reforms of telecoms regulation.

Roaming fees for voice calls, texts and internet access will effectively be completely scrapped under the proposals, which are part of a broader effort to create a single European telecoms market … 
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