Let's Talk Tech
Nokia is looking really hot right now. I think we’re hitting a Windows Phone tipping point where Live Tiles are starting to be taken seriously as a third place alternative to iOS and Android. This has been built pretty much solely on Nokia’s back as they’ve been making the most compelling hardware for the ecosystem.
Taking that up a notch, we’ve got some footage to share of the up coming Lumia 2520 tablet, and two large screened phones, the Lumia 1520 and 1320. Enjoy!
I’m a little exhausted by Lumia 1520 leaks and rumor posts. Thankfully Nokia has made this thing real, so now we can talk about it again.
Soon-to-be-Microsoft-Employee (CEO perhaps?) Stephen Elop took the stage at Nokia World this morning in Abu Dhabi to show off Nokia’s new wares. The worst kept secret in tech made it’s appearance, and we all finally got to confirm what the rumors and leaks have been feeding us for a couple months now. Nokia is making a phablet, and the Lumia 1520 looks like it’ll be a formidable piece of gear.
The 1520 will sport a 1080p six inch display, the highest resolution screen ever put into a Nokia or a Windows Phone. The Qualcomm 800 is unsurprisingly confirmed as well, boosting Windows Phone into more current quad-core processors. Along with the GDR3 software update (now called Nokia Black), the screen size has allowed Nokia to add a third column of Live Tiles to the home screen. 
It’ll have 32GB of storage on board and will be the first premier Lumia to finally include a MicroSD card slot for expanded storage (up to 64GB). Nothing like walking around with almost 100GB of flash storage in your pocket to make you feel powerful. The purchase of a 1520 will also include an additional 7GB of Skydrive storage free.
The Lumia 1520 sports a new 20MP Pureview camera, something of a halfway point between the Lumia 9xx series and the monster 41MP Lumia 1020. It’ll sport optical image stabilization and oversampling software tech, which means we’ll probably get some of the zoom and crop capability from the 1020, and photos downsampled to 5MP for uploading online should look pretty good. Also of note, the camera app is getting a refresh. Dubbed ‘Nokia Camera’, most of the features from the separate Nokia Pro Camera, Smart Camera, and Video camera apps are getting rolled into one interface. I would expect the horsepower of the Qualcomm 800 to improve on the auto-focus and white balance speed of the sometimes pokey dual-core in the Lumia 1020.
AT&T and Nokia have been pretty tight since the first Lumia 900 hit the USA. It seems whenever Nokia drops cutting edge hardware, it’s likely that AT&T will have first crack at it.
It’s now been officially announced that Nokia’s newest handset, the Lumia 1520 phablet, is destined to be on Big Blue’s LTE network. This will also give AT&T the most robust collection of Phablets on the market with the Lumia standing along side the Galaxy Note 3, the LG Optimus G Pro, and the HTC One Max.
It was also announced that AT&T will be carrying the Lumia 2520 Windows 8.1 RT tablet, which will be one of the more affordable tablets to include LTE when it’s released later this year.
No pricing or availability as of yet, but at least now you know so you can plan for your holiday phone and tablet shopping.
(via AT&T)
Quick show of hands, who here knows what carrier their smartphone is on? Pretty much as I figured. If you’re savvy enough to use a web browser to find my site, chances are pretty good you know what carrier you send money to each month for your phone. Good.
Welp, new press images have surfaced courtesy of @EVLeaks, showing the HTC One Max not only for Verizon, but also for AT&T. It looks like there might not be CDMA exclusivity for HTC’s up coming phablet. Neat. Of course, this wouldn’t be internet news without something to complain about, and many HTC faithful checking the renders out are somewhat upset by the fact that on both the Verizon and AT&T shots, HTC’s branding between the home and back buttons has been shoved out of the way for AT&T’s globe and Verizon’s awkward off center check mark thing. I’m serious, for a mutli-billion dollar company, that logo never looks like it’s on straight, but I digress…
This got me wondering, why does this bother people? Is it aesthetics? Brand loyalty? Are you ashamed to be doing business with your carrier? I’d be curious to hear people’s thoughts on the matter. Living in an age where everything is branded, clothes, cars, technology, what is it about the carrier logo which might upset folks?
Maybe the title for this post is a touch dramatic, but we’ve been talking about this for a while now. HTC is at the beginning of their trek to rebuild their brand identity. While all Android manufacturers make a variety of handsets, you can usually count on a Premier line of handsets that consumers can identify with. Samsung has been branding “Galaxy” into our brains for years now for example.
This is only the first year of devices where HTC has badged “One” across all carriers. Even Sprint’s fetish for “Evo 4G LTE Pro Touch 3D LMNOP” product names has finally succumbed to the fact that consumers shopping an alternative handset to the iPhone or Galaxy S4 wanted the One. Not something JUST LIKE the HTC One. Nope. Just the HTC One please and thank you.
While the One Mini hasn’t performed as well as many would’ve hoped, it still succeeds in continuing the brand message of a unified platform, a family of devices you can count on HTC to continue supporting and producing. Now they’re adding another One to the line up, the HTC One Max.
It’s all about recognition. You can spot an iPhone from a mile away. We understand that look. HTC is trying to create the same visual identity. Aluminum construction, front facing stereo speakers, and a large Aperture-Science-style “eye” of a camera on the back. That is the look of a “One” device. The One Max continues in this aesthetic, adding a larger screen to the line up and a fingerprint reader under the camera.
The 5.9″ 1080p screen is slightly larger than the 5.7″ job on the Galaxy Note 3, an interesting role reversal as the Galaxy S4 had a slightly larger screen than the regular HTC One. The One Max is larger in every dimension than the Note 3, not only because of the larger screen, but those Boomsound stereo speakers add to the overall length of the phone.
Interestingly enough the One Max is powered by the Qualcomm 600 series quad-core found in the OG One, and not the 800 series chipset which is popping up in the LG G2 and Note 3. From hands on time, the 800 is more powerful, though it’s hard to see much of a performance advantage in day to day tasks. Whether to balance the larger screen, or to provide better power management, some might find that processor choice a little curious. The 600 is a very solid performer, and it’ll be a long while before it struggles with future apps or games. Phablets are audacious devices though, and you want to be able to talk about bleeding edge hardware, high end specs and numbers and benchmarks. HTC’s processor choice here is entirely reasonable, but it means they lose out on a talking point.
The fingerprint sensor below the camera thankfully doesn’t add any additional bulk to the face of the phone, and it allows users to unlock their handset with a swipe. I’m fairly sure this style of security will prove as defeatable as the iPhone 5S proved to be, but as a consumer deterrent, it could be handy.
While the 4MP UltraPixel sensor from the One is returning, the One Max sadly the camera lacks optical image stabilization. It’s that feature in my opinion, more than ANY other (including resolution), which improves the camera experience. The HTC One still has my favorite camera on any Android handset, but when playing with the One Mini, I didn’t enjoy video or photo output nearly as much. That’s somewhat understandable on a mid-range handset, but it’s cringe inducing on a premier phablet. Lacking OIS, I fear camera performance on this beast will be closer to the One Mini than the One.
The battery built in is 3300 mAh, and when paired with the slightly less powerful processor, should mean very good battery life. I would expect to see HTC’s Power Saver controls on board as well, which should improve run time for those who wish to manage that. The back cover is now removable, allowing access to a memory card slot. I’m really happy to see this return. The One Max tops out at 32GB of storage built in, but that can get eaten up quickly these days by power users, especially with HD video, which is gloriously watchable on screens this size. Adding another 64GB via MicroSD card for movies, music, photos, and other media means your on board storage should stay safe for huge games and apps.
Also announced is a handy new flip cover case. The power case protects the huge screen, and also folds up to act as a stand for the phone. Pogo pins connect the One Max to a built in 1200 mAh battery which should add another 30% to the phone’s run time. It’s a power user affair though, as the phone is already large, and adding the case means squeezing in a hair more bulk. Probably not a combo which will look flattering in a pair of slacks.
Lastly, when purchasing an HTC One Max, HTC will throw in 65GB of Google Drive storage for two years free. It’s always handy having a little extra cloud to fall back on for storing files, backing up photos, videos, and docs while on the go.
And that’s the jam folks. HTC has re-joined the phablet wars. While I think this is definitely a win from a branding and marketing perspective, visual consistency and familiar software, the phone itself seems like an interesting set of compromises. The most obvious competitor to compare it to is of course the Note 3, but HTC will also have to face down phones like the Optimus G Pro, and soon Nokia will be walking into the large screen arena with the Lumia 1520. The One Max’s initial release will be on Sprint and Verizon, and we’ve not heard anything official about GSM carriers AT&T or T-Mobile. No exact dates or prices, but you should be able to get your hands on one later this month.
Full PR and specs list after the jump!
Continue reading “HTC announces the One Max phablet – 5.9″ HD screen and Fingerprint Reader”
Damn it tech press! See what you’re making me do here…
It should be pretty clear by now that I’m not pre-disposed to liking Apple products. That’s not to say I don’t think they’re quality tech solutions. They’re just not my cup of tea, and lately I’ve been worried that Apple is missing critical opportunities with recent product releases. No NFC Passbook? Really? But I digress…
While spending some time with the iPhone 5S, I’m actually coming around on the iPhone 5C. I was initially one of those “know it alls” that panned it when it came out. An iPhone 5 in plastic? Meh…
What’s getting frustrating however is the media’s expectations of success. Every new phone or tablet which is released is now expected to be a “hit” instantly out of the gate. No one can really explain what sales metrics a device needs to hit to be considered a “hit”, but apparently no phone recently released is capable of meeting those expectations. After a point, one has to wonder if maybe these new phones aren’t the problem, and that maybe we’re giving too much consideration to analysts who are fantastically terrible at predicting the future.
Apple is launching a new product line.
Sometimes that works for them like the iPad Mini. Sometimes it’s a slow burn like Apple TV. Apple isn’t immune to this kind of market pressure. Customers know the iPhone. They know that a new number comes out, then an “S” model arrives the following year. They get it. They’ve been trained. They don’t know this “C” model. Just like any new company walking into the mobile space now, it should be expected that Apple will have to build credibility for this new line over time. Customers wont part with cash until they see it’s going to stick around for a while and get support and accessories. Anyone expecting the 5C to be a hot seller has no business calling themselves a tech pundit or analyst.
At best we can judge relative success by comparing 5C sales to 4S sales last year, but even then we’d be comparing a very well established phone (the iPhone 4 and 4S sharing a number of accessories) to a completely brand new phone. It doesn’t matter that the internals are similar to phones we’ve seen in the past, Apple customers are a fairly conservative demographic. Tech consumers in general tend to shy away from anything actually “new”.
So there it is. I get what Apple is doing with the 5C. I think they need to diversify the iPhone line up like they did with the iPad. I don’t know if the 5C is the right answer, but they needed to do something. However this fake shock, and the tech backlash towards cool sales is getting terrifically frustrating. From users and consumers, I completely understand the cynicism and skepticism, but so-called “journalists” need to cool it with the constant barrage of fanboi hate.
I mean DAMN IT! You just made me defend the iPhone 5C…
This is pretty trick.
So, if you run your finger across your phone or tablet, what are you likely to feel? Right, pretty much nothing but a smooth surface. Almost all of our interactions with modern tech require a heavy visual component. As we can’t feel where we are on the screen, we need to see where we are on the screen. As our screens are made out of glass (and soon more will be made out of sapphire) it’s fairly unlikely we’ll be able to make morphing screens commercially viable any time soon.
What if we didn’t need to shape shift the screen though?
A team at Disney is working on a method of tactile feed back which works on vibration. We’re all used to very basic haptic feedback. You hit a key on your virtual keyboard and a tiny buzz from the vibrator in your phone let’s you know something has happened. These researchers are taking that to another level.
Scanning an image or a video, contours and edges are given values. As a finger is run across the image on the screen, those values correspond to more and less powerful vibrations. Those tiny pulses tied to image data essentially feed tactile info to our brains, and we think we’re touching actual edges, bumps, and contours.
This information can even be delivered in real time via a device with camera, allowing users to touch a live video feed. There are any number of potential applications from aid to the sight impaired, to improving feedback for touchscreens in automobiles, to adding new dimensions to video game play. It’s fascinating research.
Check out the video from Disney below. SCIENCE!
(via BBC)
I love watching companies actually compete.
T-Mobile is our little-engine-that-could fourth place carrier, and over the last year they almost got bought by AT&T. When that fell through we’ve seen a plucky little organization work to really shake up how we buy smartphones and service plans. It’s been fun, and their attempts at market disruption have actually forced the bigger players to adapt.
Now T-Mobile is unleashing an incredible upgrade to their data plans: free data in over 100 countries.
If you travel a lot, this has probably affected you. I’ve had several friends return from trips abroad with either huge cellphone bills or recounting frustrating stories of trying to use local carriers short term. T-Mo’s new offerings aim to end-run around that problem.
Without doing anything, without signing a new agreement or getting a new fee tacked on to your bill, T-Mo customers on a Simple Choice plan now have free unlimited data around the world. There’s a list of participating countries on the T-Mo site, so I’m not going to write it out here. If you were planning on backpacking across Europe though, chances are pretty good you’ll be covered.
Now what KIND of data you can expect is still somewhat up for grabs. I’d be surprised if T-Mo has worked out licensing agreements in each of these countries to provide super-fast 3G and 4G unlimited connections. In many areas you’ll probably be rocking EDGE, but that’s still plenty of bandwidth to get your email, look up map info, and check your socials.
Along side free data, free texting is included, and calls are 20 cents a minute, which isn’t too shabby. All in all, it’s a pretty nice value add.
Check out their bold announcement video below:
(via T-Mobile)