Post: #1

Link: http://crave.cnet.co.uk/mobiles/samsung-...-50013037/

Quote:You know what's cooler than unlocking your phone by scanning your fingerprint? Unlocking your phone by scanning your eyes. And that's what Samsung has planned for next year's Galaxy S5, according to a new report out of Korea.

Our sister site ZDNet Korea quotes industry sources who reckon the company's next flagship mobile will pack an iris-scanner -- a first for any phone -- and a massively high-resolution display. These are just rumours for now, but it sounds like we could find out more sooner than we thought.

Debuting at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona at the end of February, according to the sources, the unnamed smart phone is almost certain to be the Galaxy S5, with the high-cost S models always the first with Samsung's most cutting-edge tech. That tallies with previous reports tipping a slightly earlier launch than last year after moderately disappointing sales of the S4.

The iris scanner is likely to work like the iPhone 5S's handy fingerprint scanner, meaning you can use your own unique biometrics to unlock your blower and pay for stuff too. A reliable, secure eye scanner would be harder to fool than a fingerprint detector, but would need a very high resolution camera.

The 'QHD' resolution screen mentioned in the report is four times the resolution of normal 720p HD, that is, 2,560x1,440 pixels. It's not mentioned how big the screen may be, but if it was applied to the S4's 5-inch panel, it'd have an utterly ludicrous pixel density of 587 dots per inch -- far beyond what the human eye can perceive at a normal distance.

Other likely specs include Samsung's new 64-bit eight-core Exynos processor (although the S4 missed out on the octo-core action in the UK), 3GB of RAM like the Note 3 and Android 4.4 KitKat out of the box, although Samsung's own Tizen OS may be an option.

Pretty impressive stuff. Add in that it will likely be the first in the Galaxy series to be made of metal rather than plastic, and you have what's sure to be the greatest mobile device ever built.

Post: #2

Samsung doesn't even make a good dishwasher...I have one.

At this point, I'm convinced Samsung couldn't make a reliable mousetrap.

Post: #3

I have a Nexus 5 and prefer the stock Android experience.
But Samsung has set records with their phone sales. This could be a game changer.

Post: #4

Great now they'll secretly upload my eyeball data like the TVs do with your TV watching habits. They also remotely activate the cameras.

Post: #5

I am keeping my old cellphone, i do no think to share neither my iris or fingerprint info with Apple nor Samsung.

Post: #6

i've never had a problem tapping a screen four times.

Post: #7

(12-16-2013 10:48 PM)Parlay44 Wrote:  Great now they'll secretly upload my eyeball data like the TVs do with your TV watching habits. They also remotely activate the cameras.

(12-17-2013 11:29 AM)Mekorig Wrote:  I am keeping my old cellphone, i do no think to share neither my iris or fingerprint info with Apple nor Samsung.

+1.

Thanks, but, no thanks.

Post: #8

Stop being luddites!

I want a phone that scans my balls, that would be awesome!

Post: #9

I loved my Samsung Galaxy when I first got it.

I read in so many articles that its supposed to be the "iPhone killer", and initially that observation seemed spot on.

All the annoying quirks, lack of personalization and overall "coldness" of the iPhone seemed to be remedied with the Galaxy. It made owning an iPhone seem stupid and desperate to "feel hip".

But after owning this phone for several months I can say, without a doubt, its only better than the iPhone on paper. The most glaring issues im encountering so far are:

-The cheapest feeling plastic body on any phone I have ever handled in my life. They make kyoceras seem indestructible.
-Damage vulnerability (tying into above). I dropped my past iPhones several times and at least the outside case was very resistant to scratches and scuffs. After about 2 months my Galaxy looks like it went to Fallujah on deployment.
-The big 5" screen is AWESOME. At first. Then you realize that its impossible to hold the phone in any way without activating the touchscreen
-Nearly impossible one-handed operation. The phone is almost completely useless to operate with one hand. Ive dropped many calls, sent many texts halfway through completion, made many accidental calls. Screen is too big for your thumb to reach certain functions. Pain in the ass.
-Shape of the body make it slippery as hell, its like it wants to jump out of your hand
-Typing text messages makes you want to drown kittens. The iPhone was a pain to type on but this thing takes it to a whole new level
-Same shitty android software regurgitated over and over

Using this phone has actually made me realize just how genius Apple really is. They didn't go bigger on the screen after the 5 because they realized that size is the threshold of comfortable use in the hand. It feels more "expensive" when you hold one, you just know you're holding something of importance. As much as I hate iOS, it kills this teeny bopper green and blue jellybean bullshit. Who the fuck designed that interface anyway? If I wanted my phone to look like it was programmed by Fisher Price id buy one from Toys R Us. Typing is concise and relatively effortless, especially with the 5 onward. When you unplug the Galaxy from the headphone jack, it resets the volume to halfway. Why? On the iPhone it memorized your volume for two different settings, speaker and headphone. When you plugged it in, it automatically sets your previous headphone volume. Pull it out, it jumps to previously set speaker volume. Its fucking annoying to have to reset the volume just cause I stepped out my car for 1 second to pay my weed dealer.

Oh yeah, Samsung has a program in place that artificially limits the volume of your music to "prevent" hearing damage. WTF? Bitch ill decide how much my ears can take. Sometimes I have to blast songs at full volume in order to hear it at what would be 1/3 of the iPhones max volume. This is my least favorite thing of all. And if I want to remedy it I have to root my phone and do all this nerdy faggot bullshit that voids my T mobile warranty to have normal listening volume for my fucking music.

I apologize for going off on a tangent, but this is some of the most ridiculous shit ive ever seen from a phone. If you haven't owned one before, think long and hard. Apple talks a lot of shit, but in the end they really do back it up.

That's the crux of being a design-led company, and that's why Samsung will never be able to make an iPhone "killer". They just make a bunch of different models and release them, then keep the ones that don't suck. This is essentially their business model. Apple spends several million on R&D of ONE product until it is as polished and perfect as an Egyptian obelisk. I miss my iPhone. And I had a 4, not 4s, not 5. A fucking iPhone 4, from like 3 years ago.

Post: #10

Quote: I read in so many articles that its supposed to be the "iPhone killer", and initially that observation seemed spot on.

All the annoying quirks, lack of personalization and overall "coldness" of the iPhone seemed to be remedied with the Galaxy. It made owning an iPhone seem stupid and desperate to "feel hip".

But after owning this phone for several months I can say, without a doubt, its only better than the iPhone on paper.

That's just creative marketing. Samsung is a copy and paste company. They don't innovate anything. They follow trends and try to make money following it.

Apple did it first and they did it best because their heart was in it. They want the overall experience to be pleasant and all-inclusive. I feel sad to say they are on a downward spiral after Steve Jobs passed away. It's been taken over by corporate drone MBAs.

It's ok something new will come out of the ashes.

Post: #11

I think as long as they have Jony Ives, their prolific designer, they will still be a formidable market presence.

He is, after all, the one who basically pulled the company out of the shitter by their bootstraps with the advent of the first iMac. He is also the one that proposed that they machine all their computer and phone frames starting with a solid piece of metal and using a subtractive process, rather than additive.

Jobs, however, was the fire. Without him, these last burning embers will die away eventually. Its interesting because if you really look at Steve Jobs, the main resource he brought was Alpha-as-fuck leadership. He wasn't a particularly gifted designer, and he never wrote a line of code in his life. He was not a technician in any sense of the word. He was just a fiery man who wanted to win above all and knew how to motivate the right people.