Our obligatory little well-wishing.
If you cannot keep track, mayhaps with so much on your mind, you might want to deploy a christmas countdown widget.
If you’re sporting one of those shiny iPhones, there are alternatives here.
After the first few happy people got their hands on the new android flagship/developer phone, the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, we’re eagerly awaiting their performance reports. I personally would look out for three main points on this device.
1. Samsung dropped the iPhone copycat home button and the iPhonelike UI/launcher (yes, Ice Cream Sandwich vanilla and all), but the new Nexus’ bezel is still made out of plastic. Does this feel cheap or in anyway subpar?
2. I’m told they went for the RGBG subpixel set, which could mean a more greenish colourset in some instances. Is this true? Is the display somewhat green?
3. Last but not least – the battery. Some of the other android flagships (Galaxy S II, Sensation) give you two days with moderate use and one day with heavy usage. Could we expect these numbers on the Galaxy Nexus as well?
The curved line feeling however is pure rock ‘n roll.
Now for the hashtag-overflow title – three things I would wish for the near future in smartphones.
1. Smudge-free displays. I would wish for some display technology that permanently eliminates the smudges and stains a typical human hand leaves on capacitive touchscreens. As it so happens, there is some research being made, with possible results under way.
2. Bummer, who-d’a-thought-it, of course, etc. – but it seems really hard to achieve: Longer battery duration. I would like to be able to turn all antennaes ON and leave them that way, and so much more. Meanwhile, manufacturers could at least deliver the best possible battery as a default. Which they don’t, seeing that you can quite often purchase something like the Anker 1900 mAh for the Sensation and extend your battery life noticeably.
3. A dream of the future – undestructable handsets. A typical user will get a lot of mileage out of his shiny little handset, and much too often the computer dream-come-true comes to a sudden halt by dropping it on the sidewalk or by leaving it on a cupboard with vibration on.
So, a bit of standard fare as to numbers 2 and 3, but I think these are the remaining issues with handset devices and also, with christmas getting nearer and nearer, you should find some comfort in things that are to be expected on blogs.
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Broken LCD screen jpg by http://www.desktopnexus.com/ . Appreciate.
As promised a while ago, I would post my musings regarding the chromebook and its usability from a consumer’s perspective. So here we go go go.
First off, the questions raised in my previous article can be easily andwered. While technically possible, you should forget about printing or word processing – the chromebooks are in no way productivity machines. You could scribble around with Google docs, email those docs to yourself and print them out on a real computer, but I wouldn’t, never ever, use it instead of something like Libre Office.There simply isn’t a reason for being online when doing something like writing a thesis or a paper, and even if there was, Wi-fi hotspots are still very rare (Europe, Berlin Mitte, and Tokyo Shinjuku is where I checked), and I’m not checking into a Starbucks only to be able to do a task every 2 cent netbook does by itself and OFFLINE. Also, Google docs is NOT available offline. So, Google lied about that and advertised falsely in my opinion.
A further set back is that it could be rather slow in rendering webpages. That is a sorry thing given that rendering web pages is the only thing a chromebook should do.
But. If you’re ok with paying a premium for essentially a netbook, if you’re not looking for a maximum of cashback on your little investment, and if you have a full productivity machine near you, you will be able to look at the upsides of the Samsung Series 5 chromebooks. It is really a slick little device, thin, light, and nearly without any noise. It boots up in a little less than the ad said, and if you’re done for a while, you can just close the lid and put it into sleepmode – if you open it up again, you’re exactly at the same screen you were before closing the lid within the time you can manage to put your hands on the keyboard – which is also a crowd favorite around my house. As opposed to a tablet it gives you quick multiuser access and a guest browsing mode (as UNIX machines do) and I have to admit – having it laying around your bed, kitchen or couch is joy. So all in all, if I’m going to do chats/voice/video, reading, shopping, or watching teh youtubes etc., I’ll grab the chromebook – if it’s free, that is.
So there you have it – a secondary machine, akin to a tablet, whick brings you the web within seconds, and has an always on feeling with its endless battery, and thinking about it, that wasn’t such a silly idea on Google’s side, because the web gets a whole new quality when you can be spontaneous about it.
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Check out a fully featured review on the Verge here - http://www.theverge.com/2011/10/18/2497238/samsung-chromebook-series-5-review
