Samsung S4 to be unveiled March 14

[VVanks]

You know, for a lot of **** people say, Apple still does a much better job at things such as Siri.

I own an Android smartphone, and use an iPad, and Mac... and I have to say after all this garbage, Apple's Siri implementation is still far superior to any other ones.

I'm so used to using Siri on my iPad and my gf's iPhone that I barely even use the actual phone to do a lot of basic tasks.

On my gf's iPhone, we just ask "where's the nearest movie theatre... take me to it.. and it works"

On my phone, it takes about 2-3 tries before it even picks up the proper words, then proceeds to do something weird.

Furthermore, Siri gets more of the quirks, like who played Batman in Dark Knight.

Of course, fanboys will just tune in and prove me wrong, but after using a HTC ONE X for my own cell phone, and using iPhone 4S + iPad, and others, Apple does do a few of the things better.

Although iOS is still utter garbage for app installation, I've been prompted my password 50 times installing free apps...

[ice]

I've had the complete opposite experience with my tablet. I don't know what kind of ungodly accent you have, but I've never had a single issue with it knowing what I'm saying even in noisy rooms.

To me, Siri is a gimmick that you can ask "Hey Siri, where can I bury a body LOLOLOLOOL" and for simple tasks, Google Now is actually useful in showing you what you want to know, showing you relevant info without asking etc. all on one screen. Not to mention it's a hell of a lot faster finding information, and I've tested it side by side with my brother in law's iPhone 5 and I get results in about a second instead of 3-4 seconds of waiting for Siri to do whatever the **** it does.

http://techcrunch.com/2013/02/11/thi...e-hating-siri/

That pretty much sums up what I use Google Now for and why I like it a lot more than the cutesy little Siri.

[nrs421]

Apple bought Siri. They had nothing to do with it.

[Sasquach]

Originally Posted by FMT

Specs sound alright, but still 8 cores....Jeeeeeeesus. And as zero mentioned above, whats the battery life gonna be.

I bet its the same

They'll probably throw a 5000mah on in it instead of 2000mah.

[Zero]

Google voice search was more accurate I found. Neither it nor siri are perfect though but I feel like Google's implementation gives back better results, is faster (vs 4s at least), and is a bit more intelligent.

Related to the S4, I find a lot of TW S features to be SUPER gimmicky. Very few are actually useful like Allcast. So unless they have something that's really going to change the user experience, I'll pass on the S4 just for those.

[wc326]

i thought 4 core were too many, now we get 8......

[Sasquach]

Originally Posted by wc326

i thought 4 core were too many, now we get 8......

Well 8 is turning into the new 4. So i think its time for 16 cores.....

[wc326]

Originally Posted by Sasquach

Well 8 is turning into the new 4. So i think its time for 16 cores.....

so now we have 8 core 2 gb ram, 1080p screen. 13 mega pixel cam.


they got anything left??

[Sazar]

Originally Posted by VVanks

You know, for a lot of **** people say, Apple still does a much better job at things such as Siri.

Nope.

Google Now is pretty good. And there are some apps for WP8 out there that are pretty damn good in their own rights.

I own an Android smartphone, and use an iPad, and Mac... and I have to say after all this garbage, Apple's Siri implementation is still far superior to any other ones.

What Android smartphone do you use? A G1?

I'm so used to using Siri on my iPad and my gf's iPhone that I barely even use the actual phone to do a lot of basic tasks.

Live tiles and widgets == you won't need to say much. The only time I ever "talk" to my phone is to send texts and make calls while driving, hands-free.

On my gf's iPhone, we just ask "where's the nearest movie theatre... take me to it.. and it works"

My WP8 does that, 1 try, no gimmicks, map pulled up automatically as well and it routed me. Pulled up the Batman result too. The search results in WP8 are pretty awesome because you can easily flip between what type of result you want to navigate to.

Of course, fanboys will just tune in and prove me wrong, but after using a HTC ONE X for my own cell phone, and using iPhone 4S + iPad, and others, Apple does do a few of the things better.

Speaking of fanboys

Side by side compares of the voice recognition features show just how well Google's app performs. Siri is nowhere near as great as you describe it. And Apple never created Siri either. If anything, they have dumbed it down.

Although iOS is still utter garbage for app installation, I've been prompted my password 50 times installing free apps...

Apps are the one thing Apple handles well. I never had issues with passwords on my old iPhone.

[Ciera]

Anyone see the rumour that the S4 uses retina tracking for input? If true, that would be completely sick. Imagine the possibilities

[Sazar]

Originally Posted by Ciera

Anyone see the rumour that the S4 uses retina tracking for input? If true, that would be completely sick. Imagine the possibilities

I am interested in this, because the possibilities both for it to be awesome and terrible are equally likely

But I am definitely looking forward to this.

[Danny Nissan]

About the 8-cores; Unless anything has changed it is still a 4-core device at most. It has 4 "fast" cores and 4 "slow" cores. My guess is the slow cores are used in idle/low load conditions and the fast ones switches on for heavy load - so it is still a quad-core when used.

Tegra 3, i believe, uses a similair approach but with 5-cores - 4 fast and 1 idle core.

[Destroy]

Originally Posted by Ciera

Anyone see the rumour that the S4 uses retina tracking for input? If true, that would be completely sick. Imagine the possibilities

Originally Posted by Destroy

Eye Scroll, sounds cool as hell!!

Why yes as a matter of fact.

[AdelphiaX]

Originally Posted by VVanks

You know, for a lot of **** people say, Apple still does a much better job at things such as Siri.

I own an Android smartphone, and use an iPad, and Mac... and I have to say after all this garbage, Apple's Siri implementation is still far superior to any other ones.

I'm so used to using Siri on my iPad and my gf's iPhone that I barely even use the actual phone to do a lot of basic tasks.

On my gf's iPhone, we just ask "where's the nearest movie theatre... take me to it.. and it works"

On my phone, it takes about 2-3 tries before it even picks up the proper words, then proceeds to do something weird.

Furthermore, Siri gets more of the quirks, like who played Batman in Dark Knight.

Of course, fanboys will just tune in and prove me wrong, but after using a HTC ONE X for my own cell phone, and using iPhone 4S + iPad, and others, Apple does do a few of the things better.

Although iOS is still utter garbage for app installation, I've been prompted my password 50 times installing free apps...

Originally Posted by Sazar

Nope.

Google Now is pretty good. And there are some apps for WP8 out there that are pretty damn good in their own rights.



What Android smartphone do you use? A G1?



Live tiles and widgets == you won't need to say much. The only time I ever "talk" to my phone is to send texts and make calls while driving, hands-free.



My WP8 does that, 1 try, no gimmicks, map pulled up automatically as well and it routed me. Pulled up the Batman result too. The search results in WP8 are pretty awesome because you can easily flip between what type of result you want to navigate to.



Speaking of fanboys

Side by side compares of the voice recognition features show just how well Google's app performs. Siri is nowhere near as great as you describe it. And Apple never created Siri either. If anything, they have dumbed it down.



Apps are the one thing Apple handles well. I never had issues with passwords on my old iPhone.

Agreed with what Sazar is saying. Another instance of a consumer buying into the 'Apple is better just because' motif. When the reality of it is, the competition does equally as well.



I'd be concerned with eye tracking. How is it scanning what my eye is doing? What kind of tech is that beam doing the scanning? What will it do to my eyes long term? What kind of usage statistics is it pulling from my eye!?!

[Razeus]

http://techcrunch.com/2013/03/06/u-s...ardware-specs/

[Zero]

Originally Posted by AdelphiaX

I'd be concerned with eye tracking. How is it scanning what my eye is doing? What kind of tech is that beam doing the scanning? What will it do to my eyes long term? What kind of usage statistics is it pulling from my eye!?!

Probably just optical/IR sensing. The face recognition already works that way on the S3 (Smart Stay).

[Razeus]

HTC needs to step their marketing game up if they want to survive with their HTC One flagship. Especially to overcome the bad perception problem they have.

[Danny Nissan]

The s4 looks to be a kind of big device though, 5"! The htc one will probably be chosen by those who want a "smaller" (4.7") phone.

Personally the 4.7" nexus 4 is my first smartphone, and i thought i would think its huge but i wouldnt mind getting a 5" phone if i had to choose now tbh. I saw a note 2 (5.5") and even that looked cool to use, but perhaps would look wierd talking into

Samsung also updates their (high-end) phones better than HTC. The galaxy s2 is now on jellybean but the HTC sensation (the competition from htc) is still on ICS with no confirmation of JB coming to it. At least the One X is getting sense5 (along with 4.2 i assume - both confirmed).

[FMT]

I read that it has 2 quad cores, One slower type for basic stuff and another beefier one for games.

http://www.neowin.net/news/trusted-s...core-processor

[metroidfox]

Yeah, I'm under the impression it's a big.LITTLE setup. Dunno why they need 4 LITTLEs though.

[Danny Nissan]

Maybe the little ones are used in webbrowsing etc (so you still have a quadcore - albeit weaker) while doing stuff.

The tegra 3 setup doesnt save the same amount of power i believe since the 1 small core probably is ONLY used in pure idle conditions (doubt 1 little core can power browsing etc fast enough).

I can imagine 2 little (but perhaps faster) cores could make more sense but meh, what do i know. They probably know what they are doing

[metroidfox]

Actually, I think I figured it out. Each A7 processor is paired with an A15 one. The A7 is the main core, and as it finds the workload stress increasing, it offloads the task onto its corresponding A15 (instead of having a shared A15 for example). This way you get the better performance when you need it but otherwise save on battery life by not having to run an A15 all the time.

[Razeus]

I like the looks of the HTC One better. I just fear HTC One would not get any marketing love for their flagship model. In fact, it seems it's dropped off the radar. Hopefully they get in gear as Samsung reveals and launches or HTC One will be forgotten about. This is HTC's last chance.

[ice]

I like the One too, but Samsung gets updates therefore I get Samsung. I don't dislike this design, but I do like the idea of metal parts.

[Razeus]

Originally Posted by ice

I like the One too, but Samsung gets updates therefore I get Samsung. I don't dislike this design, but I do like the idea of metal parts.

Ya, Samsung must save alot but doing these plastic bodies. Samsung simply has a superior marketing budget, something HTC needs to do and cough up the cash if they want to survive. Losing more than half your market share, even though you cranked out the phones left and right, in one year is simply bad strategy.

I'm not sure why HTC felt the need to have so many phones in 2012, but it obviously didn't help them. The HTC One not on Verizon is going to hurt them. I would go Samsung too just because going with HTC for 2 years on contract is just too risky.

[ZaP911]

Another bland looking plastic slab...not too different from the S3 and the billion other models they released throughout last year (Galaxy Grand/Premier/Express etc). Samsung need to up their designs...If HTC did it with the One X/DNA/One, I'm sure Samsung can.

[Razeus]

Originally Posted by ZaP911

Another bland looking plastic slab...not too different from the S3 and the billion other models they released throughout last year (Galaxy Grand/Premier/Express etc). Samsung need to up their designs...If HTC did it with the One X/DNA/One, I'm sure Samsung can.

But why when you're selling a bazillion Android phones and are the #1 maker of them?

[AdelphiaX]

Originally Posted by Razeus

But why when you're selling a bazillion Android phones and are the #1 maker of them?

Damn man, you just got done posting about marketing (re: HTC), that's why.



If the posted pic is actually it, I like the small amount of bezel on the sides but I'm not sure if I could tell the difference between it and the S3.

[ZaP911]

They can't stay #1 forever. With HTC fighting for survival, Google planning to step up the Nexus line and actually put Motorola to use and even Sony seems like they mean business with their new Xperia Z, competition will only get more intense. Samsung need to realize that before it's too late, gimmicky features like eye scroll can only take you so far.

[Xiro]

Looks like an S3 but I'm sure that's not the final product. We saw numerous "final" products of the S3.