Amazon Kindle Event Reactions

Amazon had their big Kindle annoucment on September 6, 2012 and unveiled a huge lineup of Kindle devices. They unveiled the Kindle Paperwhite, the Kindle Fire 2, the Kindle Fire HD 7 inch, and the Kindle Fire HD 8.9 inch. That is plenty of new devices and I think that all of them are pretty solid devices. I do have some reserves on the Kindle Fire 2, it actually brings me back to another article I wrote recently,(http://mptechblog.blogspot.com/2012/09/motorola-doesn-need-razr-hd-or-crazy.html) I just don't think that the Kindle Fire 2 was needed especially with the KindleFireHD 7 inch also in the lineup. I really do like the fact that Amazon offered a VERRRRY CHEAP AT&T plan, even though it only offers a 250 MB monthly cap.

I first want to get in depth on the Kindle Paperwhite, the Kindle Paperwhite is basically the newest version of Amazon's barebones E-Reader. This device I think has definitely eclipsed the Barnes and Noble Simpletouch with Glowlight. The Glowlight was definitely a sort of gamechanger for the market. It came with an illuminated display and works really well for reading in low light and no light situations. The Glowlight wasn't perfect it was a bit uneven, but the Kindle Paperwhite has taken that idea and built on it. The Paperwhite has what seems like an almost perfectly distributed light. The Kindle Paperwhite also has a new generation display technology that gives the device a 212 ppi count. Overall, I think the Paperwhite is a classleading device and will stay there.
The Kindle Fire. The device that put Android tablets on the map. I really like the Fire. As a matter of fact I think that it is a pretty good device. The 7 inch has a HD display (just above 720p), and the 8.9 inch full HD (1080p) display. The displays look really good on both of the devices, even better than the Nexus 7. (Currently the best Android tablet).
As far as software goes the Kindle devices are a big fail, they run Amazon's proprietary operating system which I think is much less efficient and less useful than Android 4.0 (the version of which the kindle runs) and 4.1 (the version the Nexus 7 runs). On top of that from the reviews I've read and videos I've watched it seems like the Kindle can't run as smoothly as the Nexus 7, and the appstore has a far lower app count. I believe the Amazon Appstore only has 30,000 apps while they Google Play Store is somewhere over 600,000 apps.
The Kindle markets Amazon features, which I do like, they are plenty of movies, TV shows, and books available, and Prime is a good deal.
Overall, I think that all the Kindle Paperwhite is a great device, (best in class as I said before.) But I think that the Kindle Fire is a bit underwhelming and would've been much better if it ran Android 4.1 Jelly Bean.

Motorola doesn't need the RAZR HD or a crazy number of devices this year

Wow, It seems as if the people at Motorola have not been paying much attention to the trend these days. They released a total of three devices at their event with Verizon. That's one device too many. Both HTC and Samsung have pledged to release as many devices as they did last year, but Motorola still doesn't see why that is a good idea.
From when the Android operating system first came out till 2011 HTC has arguably been the top manufacterer for Android. They put out the highest quality devices, with a pretty helpful skin in Sense. At the same time they were moving on to a big problem, HTC released far too many devices in 2010 and 2011. They basically reintroduced the same devices over and over again with minute changes. Buyers remorse was at an all time high in the 2010-2011 years.
Samsung was also releasing plenty of devices between those two years, and while they haven't slowed down as much as HTC, they still don't release as many phones as Motorola.
Off the top of my head I can remember three more phones this year, the Photon Q 4G LTE, the Atrix HD, and the Electrify 2. Those aren't plenty of devices but I wished Moto went with a more unified stance ala the HTC One series of devices. They released three new RAZR devices at their announcment with Verizon. The DROID RAZR M, DROID RAZR HD, and the DROID RAZR MAXX HD. Like I said before, that's one too many. I don't see the purpose at all for the DROID RAZR HD, why Motorola, why? I understand the RAZR M's purpose, it's the budget device of the bunch and packs some pretty decent specs. I understand the DROID RAZR MAXX HD's purpose too, it's the high end device. Even though the MAXX HD has a stupidly long name that brings back terrible memories (Samsung Epic 4G Touch) it still packs the best specs, the RAZR HD has the same specs as the MAXX except for the battery. But why do you need to have three price points? You can just have the MAXX and the RAZR M and you'll be fine. I know that the original RAZR sold pretty well, but when the original RAZR MAXX came out it was the top dog over at Verizon.
The RAZR HD would be competing with the Samsung Galaxy S III which is a hair better. Also, the S III is much more popular than the RAZR HD which could have consumers running for the S III off top. If you were to compare the S III to the MAXX HD some would argue that the MAXX HD is better due to it's battery.
All in all, I'm just trying to say that the RAZR M and the MAXX HD would sell plenty for Motorola. Also, their new Verizon lineup would be less fragmentated. Meaning more people can recognize two phones instead of three.
I know that this has been a long rant but Motorola needs to pay attention to the trend these days and release less phones.

My Nokia/Microsoft Event Reactions

Author: Micah Providence

The Nokia Lumia 920 the flagship phone for windows phone 8, the culprit of the fake videos and pictures, and the device that should pull in the sales for Microsoft.
First, I just want to say whoever Nokia has in marketing needs to get fired. If you really are gonna fake a video at least cover it up. The 920 has a great camera so I don:t see the need for you to just not use it. You have tainted the 920's rep, and made people much more nervous about buying it. It's a sad thing that after a test conducted by The Verge (http://www.theverge.com/2012/9/7/3299784/nokia-lumia-920-pureview-camera-hi-res-photos) it shows that the camera is really good.
As far as the rest of the phone goes, I really think Nokia did a good job on the design front, it's more or less the same design,  but it really is a good one. I prefer the glossy look to the matte but I can see people missing the matte and plenty missing the cool cyan color.
Microsoft has really not shown people much of windows phone 8 and I have a feeling it will stay that way until the official release date. Hey, at least Microsoft can keep it's stuff under wraps *cough*apple*cough*.
Overall, I think the Nokia Lumia 920 is a good device and I really hope that windows phone can gain some traction this year.

Samsung Galaxy Camera Specs

Image Sensor:
16.3 effective megapixel 1/2.3" BSI CMOS Lens: F2.8, 23 mm, 21x Optical Zoom Lens IS: OIS
Display:
121.2 mm (4.77"), 308 ppi, HD Super Clear Touch Display
Network:
Auto, 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600, 3200 Network: 4G, 3G (HSPA＋ 21Mbps): 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100 MHz Processor: 1.4GHz Quad-Core processor OS: Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean)
Memory:
8GB + memory slot : micro SDSC, micro SDHC, micro SDXC Image: JPEG format 16M, 14M, 12M Wide, 10M, 5M, 3M, 2M Wide, 1M
Video:
MP4 (Video: MPEG4, AVC/H.264, Audio: AAC);
Video Output:
Full HD 1920x1080 30fps; Slow motion Movie 720x480 120fps
Features:
Smart Pro : 10 modes (Macro, Rich Tone, Action Freeze, Waterfall Trace, Light Trace, Beautiful Sunset, Blue Sky, Natural Green, Silhouette, Vivid Fireworks); Share shot, Auto Cloud Back-up; Smart Content Manager, Photo Wizard, Movie Wizard; Voice Control, Slow Motion Video, S Planner, S Suggest; AllShare Play, Family Story, Drop box Google™ Mobile Services: Google Search, Google Maps, Gmail, Google LatitudeGoogle Play Store, Google Plus, YouTube, Google Talk,Google Places, Google Navigation, Google Downloads, Google Chrome browser, Google Play Books, Google Play Movies GPS: A-GPS, GLONASS Connectivity: WiFi a/b/g/n, WiFi HT40; GPS/GLONASS; Bluetooth® 4.0
Battery:
1,650 mAh Dimensions (WxHxD): 128.7 x 70.8 x 19.1 mm Weight:
305g

Samsung Galaxy Note II Specs

GENERAL

2G Network GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900

3G Network HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100

4G Network LTE 700 MHz Class 17 / 2100 - N7105

Announced 2012, August

Status Coming soon. Exp. release 2012, October

BODY

Dimensions 151.1 x 80.5 x 9.4 mm

Weight 180 g

- Touch-sensitive controls - S Pen stylus

DISPLAY

Type Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors

Size 720 x 1280 pixels, 5.5 inches (~267 ppi pixel density)

Multitouch Yes

Protection Corning Gorilla Glass 2

- TouchWiz UI

SOUND

Alert types Vibration; MP3, WAV ringtones

Loudspeaker Yes

3.5mm jack Yes

MEMORY

Card slot microSD, up to 64 GB

Internal 16/32/64 GB storage, 2 GB RAM

DATA

GPRS Yes

EDGE Yes

Speed HSDPA, 21 Mbps; HSUPA, 5.76 Mbps; LTE, Cat3, 50 Mbps UL, 100 Mbps DL

WLAN Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, dual-band, DLNA, Wi-Fi Direct, Wi-Fi hotspot

Bluetooth Yes, v4.0 with A2DP, LE, EDR

NFC Yes

USB Yes, microUSB (MHL) v2.0, USB Host support

CAMERA

Primary 8 MP, 3264x2448 pixels, autofocus, LED flash

Features Geo-tagging, touch focus, face and smile detection, image stabilization

Video Yes, 1080p@30fps

Secondary Yes, 1.9 MP

FEATURES

OS Android OS, v4.1 (Jelly Bean)

Chipset Exynos 4412 Quad

CPU Quad-core 1.6 GHz Cortex-A9

GPU Mali-400MP

Sensors Accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass, barometer

Messaging SMS(threaded view), MMS, Email, Push Mail, IM, RSS

Browser HTML5

Radio Stereo FM radio with RDS

GPS Yes, with A-GPS support and GLONASS

Java Yes, via Java MIDP emulator

Colors Titanium Gray, Marble White

- SNS integration - Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic - Dropbox (50 GB storage) - TV-out (via MHL A/V link) - MP4/DivX/XviD/WMV/H.264/H.263 player - MP3/WAV/eAAC+/AC3/FLAC player - Organizer - Image/video editor - Document editor (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF) - Google Search, Maps, Gmail, YouTube, Calendar, Google Talk, Picasa integration - Voice memo/dial/commands - Predictive text input (Swype)

BATTERY

Standard battery, Li-Ion 3100 mAh

Samsung Galaxy Note II and Galaxy Camera Reactions

Author: Micah Providence

Recently, Samsung announced two new devices at IFA in Berlin. One being the Galaxy Note II, the other being the Galaxy Camera. Both of these devices are new but I think only one of them looks pretty promising. So promising in fact I'm seriously thinking about buying it.

Samsung Galaxy Note II

Yep, you guessed it, that would be the Galaxy Note II. One of the big improvement's that I have taken note of is the lack of a PenTile display (YES!!!!). It's got a scorching processor, 2GB of RAM, a pretty great camera (recently bumped down from the number two spot by the Nokia Lumia 920) and a whopping 3100 mAh battery. All packaged in with the awesomness of the S Pen.

Samsung Galaxy Camera

Now the Galaxy Camera is a whole different story. The idea sounds decent, though I don't see any use of having a smartphone on the back of my camera. If I wanted to play Angry Birds I have my smartphone for that. Even with my less than optimistic very first impressions it went more than downhill from there. I got a hold of some sample pictures from the camera. I've got one word for the quality, terrible. Why would anybody want to buy a camera if it's terrible. The concept looks ok and I get that Samsung is trying another niche project that they hope will be succesful (ala Galaxy Note), but I have a feeling once the reviews get out people will see that its not so ingenious after all. Samsung, if your gonna make a high end point-and-shoot, at least make it of high end picture quality.

Below are sample pictures from the Samsung Galaxy Camera

Here are the full resolution links:

http://cdn.androidcentral.com/sites/androidcentral.com/files/articleimage/684/2012/08/galaxy-camera-output/samsung-galaxy-camera-samples-18.JPG 

http://cdn.androidcentral.com/sites/androidcentral.com/files/articleimage/684/2012/08/galaxy-camera-output/samsung-galaxy-camera-samples-21.JPG