Android

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=cUiRThvCp8E

Samsung posted the video above today on its YouTube channel featuring interviews with some of the designers and executives that worked on the just launched Galaxy S4. With the hardware of the Galaxy S4 not changing too dramatically from previous Galaxy devices, it’s not much of a surprise that Samsung focuses on many of the software features it crammed into Android for the S4. The device just started selling through AT&T, hits T-Mobile today, and will be making its way to other carriers in the coming weeks. 
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Samsung has finally made things official for the Galaxy Tab 3 today, announcing in a press release on its website that the 7-inch tablet will become available globally starting next month. Samsung didn’t confirm pricing on the new tab, but did reveal specs including a 1.2GHz dual for process, 7 inch WSVGA (1024 x 600, 169 PPI) TFT display, 1GB of RAM, and 8 and 16GB variants expandable to 64GB via microSD.

The new Galaxy Tab 3 will be running Android 4.1 out of the box, but Samsung will only be shipping the Wi-Fi version of the device when it begins selling next month.

Other specs include a 4,000 mAh Li-ion battery, 3-megapixel main camera, 1.3 -megapixel front facing cam, A-GPS ＋ GLONASS, WiFi Direct, and Bluetooth 3.0. Rather underwhelming specs, so we assume pricing will be on the low end of things when Samsung finally decides to fill us in.

As for those waiting out for a WiFi + 3G variant, the company currently plans on beginning sales of that model in June with rollouts happening gradually and availability varying by market.

As we discussed in February,  HP is re-entering the Android tablet game after a little 4-year WebOS hiatus. Their first effort, the HP Slate 7 goes on sale today for a very reasonable $169.  On the plus side, HP offers SD Card espansion, built-in printing and Beats Audio to the package when compared to the $199 Nexus 7. Like the Nexus 7, the Slate is almost entirely Stock Android (Here Here!). Unlike the Nexus 7, however, the screen is the same 1024×600 resolution as the two year old base model Kindle which currently sells for $159.

The real news here for Android is that HP’s expansive network of international customers now have easy access to an inexpensive tablet.  I expect this to be a big deal.
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The guys and gals over at iFixit are once again performing their usual teardown ritual and this time they have gotten their hands on the just released Samsung Galaxy S4. It probably won’t be the most exciting teardown you’ve ever read, as the internal design of the device, like the outer design, hasn’t changed much since the Galaxy S3. The good news is that the S4 gets a higher 8 out of 10 score for repairability.

• Snapdragon 600 APQ8064T 1.9 GHz Quad-Core CPU
• Qualcomm MDM9215M 4G GSM/UMTS/LTE modem
• Qualcomm PM8917 power management
• Samsung K3QF2F200E 2 GB LPDDR3 RAM
• Qualcomm WCD9310 audio codec
• Skyworks 77619 Power Amplifier Module for Quad-Band GSM / EDGE
• Qualcomm WTR1605L Seven-Band 4G LTE chip (same part found in the Nexus 4)
• Broadcom 20794S1A standalone NFC chip
• Maxim MAX77803 microcontroller
• Silicon Image 8240BO MHL 2.0 transmitter
• Qualcomm PM8821 Power Management

Check out a full list of highlights from the teardown below and head over to iFixit to see the full teardown step by step:
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While observing that Chromebooks have so far failed to make much of a dent in the market, we mentioned Intel’s CEO saying that he expected notebook prices to fall as low as $200. CNET reports Intel’s chief product officer saying that he expects most of these to run Android …
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Twitter’s quirky video-sharing app Vine, which allows users to record and tweet ultra-short video loops, is coming to Android ‘soon’ according to a comment by Vine co-founder Dom Hofmann to The Verge.

The app, which is currently iOS-only, allows users to record a short video loop of up to six seconds to share on Twitter and Facebook. Vine was acquired by Twitter last October, and the app topped the iOS app charts earlier this month. It briefly caused embarrassment when a porn clip made it to the top of Vine’s Editor’s Pick.

Samsung Electronics celebrated the launch of the Samsung Experience Shop today with the grand opening of their newest location in New York’s Union Square Best Buy store. JK Shin, CEO and President of IT and Mobile Business at Samsung, Hubert Joly, CEO of Best Buy, and Tim Baxter, President of Samsung Electronics America hosted an executive grand opening.  Samsung also announced an experiential consumer event featuring Bruno Mars to celebrate the launch of this innovative retail concept.

The activities mark the beginning of a nationwide rollout of the Samsung Experience Shop, which will be installed in more than 1,400 Best Buy and Best Buy Mobile specialty stores across the U.S. by early summer. Samsung Experience Shops are beginning to open just in time for the official launch of the highly-anticipated Samsung Galaxy S 4.

Google users will find not only Samsung Android  phones and tablets (and cameras!) but Chromebooks at the new store-within-a-store. Full press release follows:
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CompareMyMobile.com reported that Samsung’s announcement of the Galaxy S4 generated a 127 percent increase in valuation requests on older Samsung phones, and a 29 percent increase in trade-ins. The firm, which monitors over 40 recycling stores in the UK, said that these kind of numbers had only ever been seen before following iPhone announcements. Trade-in values from a range of sites after the break …
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In other news, I’m going to intern for Google in a few weeks.

— comex (@comex) April 24, 2013

Former notable iOS jailbreak developer Comex announced on Twitter that he will be heading to Google for an internship position.

Comex previously interned for Apple, but left the company after failing to respond to an email to renew his contract with the company. It is also notable amidst a time where people are speculating that Apple is losing people resources to competitors such as Google.

Comex, whose real name is Nicholas Allegra, developed a notable Jailbreak.me hack that could jailbreak an iOS device via a simple website.

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Following in the footsteps of Apple and Google attempts at the set-top-box market, Amazon is planning to release a set-top-box, according to Bloomberg. 

They say the box will plug into TVs and give users access to Amazon’s expanding video offerings. Those include its a la carte Video on Demand store, which features newer films and TV shows, and its Instant Video service, which is free for subscribers to the Amazon Prime two-day shipping package. The Amazon set-top box will compete with similar products like the Roku, Apple TV and the Boxee Cloud DVR, along with more versatile devices like the Playstation 3 and the Xbox. An Amazon spokesperson declined to comment.

The device is reportedly being developed in Amazon’s Cupertino based labs and could launch this fall. The project is reportedly being spearheaded by a former Apple and Cisco employee:

The project is being run by Malachy Moynihan, a former vice president of emerging video products at Cisco (CSCO) who worked on the networking company’s various consumer video initiatives. Moynihan also spent nine years at Apple (AAPL) during the 1980s and 1990s.

Perhaps this future product is the reason that Apple and Amazon have no deal for Amazon content streaming on the Apple TV.

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Two of the major US carriers today announced they would be pushing back availability of the Samsung Galaxy S4 citing inventory challenges on Samsung’s end. First, T-Mobile late last night informed customers that it would be delaying the launch of the device until Monday, April 29th. The carrier originally planned to have the device available through its online store today. T-Mobile’s statement cited delays with “inventory deliveries,” and a press release from Sprint shortly after confirmed carriers are experiencing “unexpected inventory challenges from Samsung.”

Sprint initially planned on making the device available on April 27, but now will only be taking orders online with supplies in brick and mortar stores “as inventory becomes available.”

Sprint is excited to launch the new Samsung Galaxy 4.  We had planned to launch this next generation of the award-winning Samsung Galaxy line-up on Saturday, April 27. Unfortunately, due to unexpected inventory challenges from Samsung, we will be slightly delayed with our full product launch.  Sprint is one of Samsung’s largest partners and we are working closely with them to launch in all Sprint channels as soon as possible. We expect to make Galaxy S 4 available at www.sprint.com and Telesales (1-800-SPRINT1) as planned on Saturday with Sprint retail stores and other channels receiving devices as inventory becomes available.

Earlier today the unlocked variant of the Galaxy S4 found its way to eBay at a cost of $739.

As for Verizon, it had originally quoted an online release date of April 30th with shipments sometime in May and is yet to make an announcement regarding delays. The nation’s other major carrier, AT&T, is planning on making the device available in-store on April 27. You can check out 9to5Google’s full review of the Galaxy S4 here and we’ll keep you posted if there are any further announcements regarding availability.

http://youtu.be/3OI9L3vOOXc

Swype, the predictive keyboard that allows you to simply leave your finger on the touchscreen keyboard and swipe from letter to letter, has finally arrived in the Google Play store – but only after Jelly Bean was released, with its built-in Swype-alike Gesture Typing …
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That’s the S4 sandwiched between the HTC One and the iPhone 5

I’ve been playing with Samsung’s Galaxy S4 (no, I won’t write S 4) for the better part of a week and, not to spoil the whole review: I love it.  It is better in every way than the S3 hardware-wise, and Samsung even has some good software on this phone, particularly in the camera field. I’ve never been a fan of Samsung’s software.

It is what is on the inside that counts, right?

This phone will do extremely well in the market and will keep up the fight against the almighty iPhone 5 and HTC One (which we reviewed earlier this month and loved). In the Apple world, this S4 is called an ‘S update’ – where the outward design is mostly the same but a lot of changes have taken place under the hood.

Below I’ll drill down exactly what that means.
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Three Nexus One smartphones are orbiting the Earth as the brains of what NASA calls a nanosatellite: a tiny cube satellite measuring only four inches square and costing less than $3500 …
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