This week was exciting. Samsung is not happy about the
patent ruling, an Android gaming tablet is announced, and Samsung has lots of
new devices coming out.
First, if
you were thinking of purchasing a Kindle, don’t! Both the Kindle Touch and
Kindle Touch 3G are out of stock at Amazon.com.
This pretty much confirms that a new Kindle line is coming out very
soon, possibly a new Kindle Fire will also be announced.
Nokia has
set the date of September 5th, where apparently, “Things are about
the change.” It is expected that they
will announce new Windows Phone 8 devices, since Microsoft will also be at the
event.
Archos reviled
an Android 4.0: Ice Cream Sandwich gaming device today called, GamePad. This thing looks exactly like a PlayStation
Vita. It is a 7-inch tablet with
physical buttons. It will be able to
play all games on the Android Market. It
holds 1GB of RAM, a 1.5GHz CPU, and a quad-core GPU. It will also house a Micro-USB port. It will
release first in Europe at about $188 and afterwards it will come to our neck
of the woods.
A really
cool Lap-Let (a combination of a laptop and a tablet), was announced, the Vaio
Duo 11. This Sony device holds like a
tablet, but you can push the screen back and revile a full QWERTY keyboard. It is running Windows 8, has an HDMI port,
two USB 3.0 ports, an SD card slot, and a VGA port.
Samsung is
also going to announce a new Windows 8 tablet, the Samsung Series 5. It will have a clip on keyboard much like the
upcoming Windows Surface. It sports an
8-megapixel rear camera and a 2-megapixel front camera, it will have an Intel
chip, ship with the full version of Windows 8, and will have about 10 hours of
battery life. It will be reviled in full
detail on September 5th.
A Korean
store showed off the upcoming Samsung Ativ S, which is the first Windows Phone
8 device. It has a 4.8-inch HD Super
AMOLED screen and a 1.5GHz dual-core processor.
It is equipped with a 8-megapixel rear camera as well as a 1.9-megapixel
front-facing camera. It will have a
microSD card slot and NFC support.
The biggest
announcement from Samsung is the Samsung Galaxy Note 2. It has a 5.55-inch AMOLED screen, a more
accurate S Pen, a 1.6GHz quad-core Samsung Exynos processor, 2GB of RAM, and a
8-megapixel rear camera and a 2-megapixel front camera. It will launch with Android 4.1: Jelly Bean.
It may be a
grim day for all phone users; the jury ruled in favor of Apple in the Apple vs.
Samsung patent case. Samsung has to pay
Apple just over $1 billion in damages, but Samsung has said that they will
appeal. Apple wants to ban the sales of
the Samsung Galaxy S 4G, Galaxy S II, Droid Charge, Galaxy Prevail, and Galaxy
S Showcase.
The reason why this is bad
is that Apple said they infringed the patent on the rectangle shape of the
iPhone. This means any phone that is a
rectangle, can be sued by Apple. Apple needs to drop this or all other phone manufacturers will have to drastically change the shape of “the cell
phone” and it will cost more.
Lastly,
let’s talk about iPhone rumors. The
current rumors say that the new device will not have a NFC chip, but it will
have a smaller dock connector. This
means all of your iHome’s and other accessories will not work with the new
phone.
It will have a 4-inch Retina
Display and the phone will launch on September 21st. This has a lot of evidence because during
that time all Verizon employees cannot ask for that week off, in anticipation
for the new device. It will also have a
MicroSIM card.
That’s it
for this issue of Spec Tech, be sure to go to http://vsuspectech.blogspot.com/ to
watch my #5 favorite video game of all time! The question for this week is, “What
do you think of the Apple vs. Samsung ruling?” You can email your response to smsetser@valdosta.edu or at http://vsuspectech.blogspot.com/.
