Samsung Galaxy S4 release date 1 April 2013

Samsung Galaxy S4

It’s not an easy task to choose the right Android smartphone for you, that’s why some of you may ask about Samsung Galaxy S4 release date. Others may be forced to wait until 2013 to buy a new Android smartphone because they are tied on a contract with a carrier.
Since the launch of the Samsung Galaxy S, each new flagship Android smartphone of the South Koreans was sold better than its predecessor. Samsung Galaxy S was outsold by Galaxy S2, Samsung reporting that 10 million GS2 units were shipped 5 months after the official launch. Galaxy S3 is by far the best selling Android-powered smartphone manufactured by Samsung: 30 million units were shipped in the first 100 days after the launch. Now, everyone expects the Samsung Galaxy S4 to be even more popular than its predecessor.

The analysts are estimating that 660 million smartphones will be shipped by the end of 2012, with a growth of 21.4% forecasted for 2013. Of course, both Apple’s and Samsung’s shipments will grow, but the South Koreans are seeking to bite an even larger chunk of iPhone’s market share, withSamsungGalaxy S4 on song.'

he first Galaxy was meant to be a competitor for the iPhone 4. It was released in June close to the debut of iPhone 4, with not enough time left to hurt iPhone 4′s sales. Next year the Samsung Galaxy S2 was made available for purchase in April, while Apple launched the iPhone 4S six months later, in October. By that time the Galaxy S2 sales were going down, as the customers already forgot about the smartphone launched by Samsung.

The war between Apple and Samsung is continuing to heat up. Days after the release of the iPhone 5, Samsung came out with an attack ad promoting their latest available smartphone – the Galaxy S3 (video below) and are reportedly readying the next generation Galaxy. While there no definitive reports of the Samsung Galaxy S4 release date, it is rumored to be released in February. This is slightly different than Apple’s releases as they have been known to tackle the holiday season, but it looks like Samsung Galaxy S4 release date will give Samsung a big boost in 2013. We have included everything that we know about the GS 4 below, check it out!

Statistics have indicated that the popular devices reach the sales peak in the first quarter after the launch, therefore the Samsung Galaxy S3 has hit the market at the right time and its sales were not affected by the iPhone 5 launch. I guess that the South Korean phone maker will have a similar approach for 2013. It will try to give the Samsung Galaxy S4 enough time (three months) to hit at the iPhone 5S, iPhone 6, or whatever the guys at Apple decide to call it.

Samsung has yet to confirm any of the reports on specs, but here is what we know. It’s expected that the Galaxy S4 will sport a quad-core processor and depending on the country, will feature Samsung’s Exynos processor or Qualcomm’s Snapdragon. The OLED screen will be larger than that of its predecessor, the S3 (4.8 inches), and the iPhone 5’s (4 inches) – most likely 5 minches. It will also sport 4G LTE connectivity and an Android OS. All of these rumored specs look to build upon the already impressive Galaxy S3 which boasts a 4.8 inch 720p HD display, 4G LTE connectivity, Android’s 4.0 OS, and a reasonable contracted price of $199. We have included some of the mock ups of what the Samsung Galaxy S4 might look like.

Earlier it was rumored that Samsung galaxy S IV is to be released or launched in February or March 2013. The rumor surfaced just after few days of iPhone 5 release. I was certainly very suspicious to the claim and couldn’t digest it. After all, Samsung Galaxy S3 was just launched in May,2012. My doubts were cleared when Samsung officially announced on their twitter page that no such event or launch is planned for now. This means that the reported rumor was not true. This rumor already caught media sites like fire and had been published wildly on several news and phone sites and blogs. However, we expect the release date of Samsung Galaxy S IV to be around July/August of 2013.

Samsung Galaxy S IV Specification

A new rumor has caught our attention. It is about camera module of 13 megapixel. It is rumored that Galaxy SIV will have 13 MP rear camera, something which many people expected in S III as well as in Note II but unfortunately, Samsung remained intact with 8 MP in the current generation phones. I am amazed by the work Nokia does with camera, especially in Nokia Lumia 920 and PureView 808. If you are to ask me, I’ll say, instead of bumping more megapixels in our captures, provide us with a better camera with optical image stabilization, excellent low-light performance which can replace our point and shoot digital camera at all in every way. I have not been fond of camera on Samsung phones which, according to me, is not as better as in iPhone 5 (lets not talk about Nokia Lumia 920 here as it outperforms all other phones easily). To support the rumor of 13 megapixel camera in Samsung galaxy S4, we believe it likely to happen because of late, we’ve seen 13 MP camera in the new LG Optimus G also. Even, the front camera is expected to receive megapixel jump.

Another recent leaks suggest screen size of 5 inch in Galaxy S4 which seems true as per the tradition of Samsung to increase the screen size, as is evident from its history (Galaxy S has 4 inch display, S2 has 4.3 inch display, S3 has 4.8 inch screen). But I highly doubt this. In fact, let me ask you, do you want a bigger screen in Galaxy S4? To support my argument, I’ll say that a bigger screen will diminish the gap between note series phones and galaxy s series phones, which might not be good from marketing strategy viewpoint for both the phones. But you never know! Samsung is one such giant manufacturer which brought the trend of ‘bigger, the better’ android phones in market.

A phone description can’t be complete without talking about its fine design features. Samsung has always been negligent to providing aluminum or alike kind of body which supposedly offers premium touch and the same case will be with S4 also. Not much design change will be there.

LG introduced in-cell display in LG Optimus G and iPhone 5 display employ similar technologies to make the display thinner. Well, Samsung has always been forward and technologically advanced in display tech. At IFA event lately, we had witnessed transparent displays from Sam. Well, transparent display is not coming to smartphones at this time but flexible display might come as Samsung has already developed required technology to enable such display in the phones. Even, then flexible display in Galaxy S IV is far-fetched for now.

Since we’re talking about display, rumors in this regards says that Samsung Galaxy S4 will have 1080p Full HD screen, but it won’t has Super Amoled display, instead Super clear LCD (probably because of technical limitations arising in amoled display when it comes to pumping more pixels in small dimension). To support 1080p display in galaxy s4, we can take hint from the recently unveiled HTC J Butterfly which caused stir in smartphone industry with its ultra-gorgeous screen, and as we know that Samsung always want to stay ahead of its competitors when it comes to its flagship marksmanship.


The processor could be Exynos “Adonis” 28 nanometer quad-core ARM Cortex A15 powerful chip, which is being tested actively, and hence may be slated to power the featured phone we’re discussing. The new CPU is designed with ultimate motive to exhibit undying strength without consuming more of the battery. Adonis is the supposed code-name.

LTE(4G) will be ubiquitous in the next phone as opposed to the current generation which offers 4G support in select regions only.Samsung Galaxy S IV will of course feature the latest available version of Android OS, which at the time of release might be Android 5. Take my word, Touchwhiz UI will get complete makeover. As in Galaxy S III, Samsung will introduce few new and exclusive features in terms of exclusive free services and certain software and hardware tweaks.

Without any doubt, the battery life won’t just be improved in the next version of Android OS, but at the hardware level also, it will feature extended battery backup capacity with equipped battery of more than 3000mAh. Wireless Charging and better headsets and phone speakers, processors, RAM are going to be other areas of improvements and feature additions. Also, this time, Samsung will focus more on adding awesome accessories lineup to support the phone and extend its features. A wildcard(?) hardware level exclusive feature must be planned by Samsung to fully beat Apple’s next iPhone. About price of Samsung galaxy S4, we expect it to be little higher than close competitors at launch time as was the case with S3. No doubt, the handset will rock and reign the android phone market (Galaxy S3 sold more than 20 million in just 100 days). More about this phone will be updated in this article, so keep checking it from time to time to keep yourself abreast of all the knowledge, info and news there is about your favorite phone.

Apple iPad 4 review

Three Apple tablets in a single year. This is more than anyone asked for and yet, by some weird logic - or lack thereof, not too many for Apple to successfully sell. All fine and dandy, unless you got the iPad 3 - better luck next time if you were unfortunate enough to buy it in September.

Well, so much for the new iPad. Number 4 is the new new iPad. You must've heard the one about the double positives. Did we hear some iPad 3 owners say "Yeah, right"? To be honest, they're not without a point.

Apple iPad 4 official photos
Anyway, the tablet market is still Apple's to lose and the least it could do is send a message to the competition. The double November release may look like a knee-jerk reaction to Google and Microsoft's raid on the slate market but the fact is that Apple has the depth to compete on two fronts. The mini against compact droids and the iPad 4 against the Surface means Cupertino is leaving nothing to chance in defending its number one spot.

The fourth generation iPad is no major upgrade. It keeps the design, display and the main camera of its predecessor. What it gets is a new chipset and the new Lightning port. Oh, and there's an HD FaceTime front cam but that's barely worth mentioning.

Overall, it's the same tablet as the one released in March, with the class-leading Retina display and a welcome boost to the processing power. Plus, the Lightning port ensures seamless compatibility with the iPhone 5, which has sold by the millions.

Key features

• 9.7" LED-backlit IPS LCD touchscreen, 2048 x 1536 pixels; scratch-resistant, oleophobic coating
• Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n connectivity, carrier-dependent hotspot support
• Optional LTE connectivity (data only)
• Optional GPS with A-GPS and GLONASS support (for the 3G model only)
• Apple A6X SoC with 1 GHz dual-core processor
• PowerVR SGX554MP4 quad-core GPU
• 1GB of RAM
• iOS 6.0 with iCloud support and activation
• 16/32/64GB of inbuilt storage
• 652 grams of weight (662 grams for the LTE version)
• Bluetooth 4.0
• Lightning USB port
• 11,560 mAh battery
• Accelerometer, compass and three-axis gyro-sensor
• 5MP auto-focus camera
• 1080p video recording at 30fps
• 1.2MP secondary camera capable of FaceTime HD calls
• Four and five-finger gestures
• 1080p TV-output with the Apple Digital AV Adapter (purchased separately for $39), 720p video streaming
• Supports magnetic cases

Main disadvantages

• iTunes still required for uploading most of the content
• Reflective screen struggles outdoors
• No standard USB port
• No stereo speakers
• No GPS receiver in the Wi-Fi version
• No memory card slot
• Lack of basic iOS apps - stocks, clock, calculator, voice memos

It's an Apple device so things like a file manager and a memory card slot are not even up for discussion. They'll probably never be. Nothing on the list above should come as a surprise and, if you are still with us, you are OK with most of it.

The A6X chipset potentially doubles the processing power but let's be honest, the real life gain is not enough to make anyone throw away a still fresh iPad 3. Yet that's what Apple just did - you can think of that as investing in the future-proofing of the device more than anything else.

iPad 4 over iPad 3

• Apple A6X chipset with PowerVR554MP4 quad-core GPU for allegedly 2x faster performance
• 1.2MP front FaceTime camera with HD video
• GLONASS support (for the cellular version only)
• Lightning USB port

Whether or not Cupertino will admit to feeling the pressure from Microsoft, they knew the right thing to do is prepare. Apple could not afford to have development split between flagship devices running different hardware.

Someone had to take the hit and leaving iPad 3 users out in the cold was probably a hard decision for Apple. The new product launch schedule may've put the iPad 4's market prospects in question too - users are less certain whether they should commit to a new device that may soon become outdated. Apparently, the new Apple tablets are doing great, but the iPad 4 seems to be the one that's always in stock, while the mini takes about 2 weeks to deliver.

But the iPad mini already had its moment in the spotlight here, it's now iPad 4's turn to have our full attention. Before we get busy, we should note that numbers are the short and easy way to set the different generations of Apple tablets apart. What was until recently known as the New iPad (iPad 3) is now discontinued. The current model (iPad 4) is officially called iPad with Retina. The only older generation Apple tablet officially in circulation is the iPad 2. Quite a mess, indeed.

Apple iPhone 5 hits 55 more countries this month

Apple is expanding the iPhone 5 availability to 55 new countries this month. On December 7 the Apple's thinnest and lightest is coming to the Samsung's homeland - South Korea. A week later, on December 14, the iPhone 5 will land in 33 more markets. Those include Albania, Antigua and Barbuda, Armenia, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, China, Costa Rica, Cyprus, Ecuador, Grenada, Indonesia, Israel, Jamaica, Jordan, Kuwait, Macedonia, Malaysia, Moldova, Montenegro, Panama, Paraguay, Philippines, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Taiwan, Turkey, United Arab Emirates and Venezuela. December 21 is when another wave of countries will get to join on the iPhone 5 fun - Barbados, Botswana, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Egypt, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritius, Morocco, Niger, Senegal, St. Kitts, St. Lucia, St.Vincent & the Grenadines, Tunisia, Uganda and Vietnam. The iPhone 5 is already available in 47 countries and with these new addition the list grows to 102, making this the quickest rollout of any iPhone to date.

Google: Facebook is a 'social network of the past'

Google: Facebook is a 'social network of the past'

Google's Bradley Horowitz has chucked down the social networking gauntlet, saying that Facebook is "pissing off users". He argues that the 'Book has had its day, calling it a "social network of the past" and that its intrusive ads are what is killing it. Using a slightly laboured analogy of two people chatting while a guy in a sandwich board keeps trying to get them to sell them a sandwich, he said, "I'm trying to communicate in that sacred space of social connection. "It doesn't matter if I 'Like' the sandwich, it doesn't matter if it's personalised with my favourite mustard, that is the wrong moment to try and dangle [it] in front of me. "There is a time and place for sandwiches," he added, to soothe sandwich fans' potential ire. "It's called lunch at a restaurant." 

Mmm, sandwiches 

 He added that Facebook's ad strategy of "jamming" ads into people's news streams is "pissing off users and frustrating brands". Guess who's doing it better? That's right, Google's own social network, Google+. Horowitz says that Google's use of social recommendations rather than straight-up ads is a more "holistic" approach. That's all well and good but are your friends actually using Google+? The company reckons 100 million people are actively using the network each month but whether they're using it enough to make the recommendations engine work effectively is another story.

How to fix a broken touchscreen

How to fix a broken touchscreen
TUTORIAL A home touchscreen repair could be easier and far cheaper than you think

It's the modern nightmare: a slip of the hand, an absent minded moment and a split second later your life lies there shattered on the floor. As desperately depressing as a broken phone screen may look, it may not be as terminal or as expensive as it looks.

All phones are obviously different, but many use separate elements for the touch-sensing component called the digitser and the actual LCD/OLED display. The digitiser sits at the front and often when dropped it's this that shatters rather than the display.

A broken display usually results in rainbow effects and the display not working in sections. A broken digitizer will continue to work, just with the nasty cracks. NOTE:Future Publishing Limited provides the information for this project in good faith and makes no representations as to its completeness or accuracy. Individuals carrying out the instructions in this project do so at their own risk and must exercise their independent judgment in determining the appropriateness of parts, equipment, sealants and other adhesives for a particular use. 1. We're going to look at replacing the HTC Desire S digitiser element, while not identical it'll be a similar process on many other models. These cost as little as £10 and should come with a suitable pry tools. You'll also probably need a jeweller screw driver set and ideally a set of Torx (star shaped) drivers sized 4 to 7.

2. Clear the work area and light it well. We're going to be dealing with tiny screws that you should arrange in order, as you remove them. To begin remove any cover, battery, SIM and SD cards.

3. For the HTC Desire S we start by removing four size 5 Torx screws from the base around the battery cover. If in doubt it's a good idea to photograph your device as you go along.

4. The HTC Desire S is pretty forgiving there's only one area that needs the pry tool and that's the top camera cover. Some devices need their entire backs removing with the pry tool. These are tricky to use but start at a corner and try and work the pry tool under the edge. Once in work along the edge popping out the clips and lift away the cover.

5. Remove two more size 5 Torx screws that are revealed. Any visible connections can also be unclipped, on the HTC Desire S there are two at the base.

6. We can now carefully "push" the main device out of the metal chassis screen first. Be careful here to bend up the lower PCB, as it'll catch on the rear of the chassis. You shouldn't need to force it at all.

7. Remove two more size 5 Torx screws at the top and remove the plastic bracket that this releases. It'll just lift away.

8. At this point we're working towards separating the display elements from the phone motherboard. On the HTC Desire S spot the two ribbon cables coming in to the side, these are the digitizer and display connections. Using the pry tool remove any tape but save this. Lift up the white locking element and using the help of a small screw driver remove the ribbons.

9. We're now free to part the display and the motherboard. As with many tablets and phones these are glued together, using the pry tool carefully and slowly start to separate the two, the glue will give you just need to take your time and work around the edge.

10. Carefully fold open the phone and disconnect the final two connecting elements. Leaving you with the display section and the motherboard section.

11. This is the hardest part of the whole tear-down. An adhesive gasket binds the digitizer to the display chassis. This needs to be heated to loosen the adhesive and using the pry tool separate the digitizer from the display. We strongly recommend using a hair dryer, too much heat will damage the display. So point it away from the centre and just at the edge of the display. You can use a hot-air gun but be extra careful, use the lowest setting and keep it moving.

12. Start on just the bottom edge or the least broken section. Use the pry tool to test how "sticky" the adhesive is and reheat, repeat until it starts coming away. Move on to the next small section and repeat. Eventually you'll lift the entire digitizer out. The process takes a while but if you can save the gasket it'll help avoid the next step.

13. If you've damaged the adhesive gasket or part has some away, this will need to be replaced with 1mm or 2mm adhesive tape designed for phones. Ebay and Amazon has vendors that sell this. If any area of the digitizer touches the display or chassis it'll short and you'll get false-positive touches, sending the touchscreen crazy.

14. Remove any protective film on either side, feed the new digitizer's ribbon through the lower hole and carefully from the base, angle it back into place firmly pushing it down to make sure the adhesive holds well. Feed the ribbon along the back of the display and reverse this process to carefully rebuild your phone.

15. Cross your fingers and press the power button. If all has gone well your phone will spring back to life and the display will be sensing your touch again.

Samsung Galaxy S4 what we want to see

Samsung Galaxy S4: what we want to see

It certainly feels like Samsung is taking over the world right now – at least, the Android world. There's no doubt that last year's Galaxy S2 was arguably the phone of the year.

And not in recent times, discounting Apple of course, can we remember the anticipation and expectation of a phone as much as the Galaxy S3. If you needed a barometer of this, just look at how it was unveiled. Not at MWC like lots of others, but its own event. Yep, the Galaxy line has reached the level where it can guarantee hoards will come just for an unveiling. Very Cupertino. But despite the whooping masses and the queues on launch day, it wasn't the five star phone we hoped it would be... there's still very much room for improvement. So here's what we'd like to see for next year's SIV. 

Samsung Galaxy S4 screen

This was the main source of criticism. The Galaxy S2 had an amazing Super AMOLED Plus display – and boy, was it vibrant. The S3 upped the screen size from 4.3-inches to 4.8-inches and the pixel density went from 217 to 306 to take a run at the iPhone's Retina Display.

But, Samsung also opted for a PenTile approach, to the chagrin of geeks. What does that mean for the end user?

Well, the screen looks great but you can make out pixels if you really, really strain. And some of the vivacity and colour saturation is lost. On the plus side, Samsung reckons the screen will last longer – but we'd rather see a much more S2-like screen with a sharper resolution - and given that's now appeared on the Samsung Galaxy Note 2, we're pretty hopeful we'll get it on the Samsung Galaxy S4 too. Alternatively, there have been a number of rumours that Samsung is going to bring a flexible screen to the Galaxy S4 - but given the Korean brand is already pushing the delivery of such tech back into 2013 for its customers, we think we'll be in Galaxy S5 territory before that happens.

There seems a much more likely option in the shape of the 5-inch 1080p screen that could offer up an eye-splitting 441ppi, making it easily the highest res out there. It would probably need to be shrunk down a smidge to fit into the palm, or Samsung could actually just make the phone even closer to the edges of the screen. Dare we dream of an edge-to-edge display like on the 9000 series TVs? However, the bad news is that due to reported manufacturing issues these may have been delayed... does that mean the phone will have to be pushed back as well? 

Samsung Galaxy S4 release date

It seems more than likely that Samsung will eschew MWC 2013 once more for the release of its top handset, instead focusing on the launch in May 2013, which we'd really like to see.

This makes sense for a number of reasons: time to allow the current customers to buy the S3, being able to scoop up all the customers about to come out of contract from the S2 and also not making its fans feel like its throwing out a new flagship phone every three seconds. However, that didn't stop the rumour mill deciding that the Galaxy S4 launch was set for March 2013, based on something a Samsung 'representative' said to the media. The brand quickly took to Twitter to discredit the rumours, so it looks like the middle of the year launch is still firmly on the cards. 

Samsung Galaxy S4 specs

There's not a lot around about specs at the moment, but the rumours emanating from the good ol' internet rumour mill are certainly enough to make us excited. The first is that the S4 will have a quad-core chip, which might sound a little 'last gen' to many. However, it will be based on ARM's A15 architecture, bringing with it a big boost in power for all those resource-intensive tasks we love to do all the time. But then again, that's not Samsung's way really, is it? We want to see bigger, bangier and faster, so doubling it again to an OCTO-core would be the way to go. Rather than just making it super powerful though, the eight core innards would split into two groups: A15-spec chips for the big stuff, and A7 when things need to get a little lower power, bringing with it the best of both worlds.

The other big news that we think should be on our wish list is the fact that Samsung's internal storage bods have been hard at work bringing the flash memory down in size and up in speed... so think even thinner phones with higher capacity that can be written to up to 10x faster. We're now looking forward to the S4 even more now. 

Beam and beam again

Samsung may be setting up its Galaxy Beam smartphone as an individual entity but we'd love the ability to be able to beam stuff straight from our S4 onto a wall and truly show off the eight-core and Super HD capabilities. Imagine the faces of iFans when it's a spec-off and you shine THAT (literally) in their faces.

The fact of the matter is that the S3 has the processing power to run graphically-intense offerings and the Google Play store lets you download movies. As long as there was some way of also booming out the sound, we think this would be a great addition 

Samsung Galaxy S4 battery

Ok, we admit we always want more. The S2's 1,650mAh was manageable and the S3's 2,100mAh blows that out of the water. But it's still only OK. You can get by on a day of moderate use but if you use this phone heavily (and we're talking watching TV shows on the morning and evening commute alongside your normal tinkering), this handset will still want a plug in at some point. Motorola has proven it can be done by whacking a 3,300mAh power pack into the RAZR Maxx which can still be considered a skinny Minnie. Something of that size – along with ICS and Samsung's power management abilities – would really be the icing on the Ice Cream Sandwich.

Samsung Galaxy S4 design

We've lost count of the amount of people we've shown our device off to who've replied with the words: "Yeah, it's great but looks like a bit of a toy." It's a double-edged sword: the plastic is used to keep this handset nice and light, but does detract from what should be a premium device.

A bit of glass wouldn't go amiss. Android users, say what you like about the iPhone 4/4S (and we know you won't be short of words), but aside from being smash-tastic, the glass really adds that premium and expensive feel that the S3 just doesn't have. Forget what your mum told you – it's what's on the outside that counts too, so the Samsung Galaxy S4 needs to step it up in the design stakes.

Better S-Voice

S-Voice just isn't there. At least Siri had the nous to call itself a BETA so that it could be excused for not getting things right at times. The problem we have with S-Voice is it just doesn't seem to be able to do much. Sure, it can tell you what the weather is like if you really can't be bothered to look out the window. And it'll save you 10 seconds by setting an alarm. But it's just not powerful enough - and is, frankly, awful for something that's supposed to be a headline feature on one of the world's best smartphones. We've actually been using Speak To It Assistant far more often because it's superior. Samsung could do worse than buy a company like this to give the Galaxy S4 a real chance of being the best voice-controlled mobile out there.

Better Mac support

Yep, we know many consumers believe Mac users account for only 0.000001% of Android owners (why wouldn't they just buy an iPhone, right?) But there are lots who like Apple computers as well as Android devices. And up until the S3, they got on famously.

But Android has changed the rules and how storage works so that it follows the MTP Protocol which plays along brilliantly with Windows but can't stand Macs. Yes, we know this is a Google issue and not something that Samsung can be blamed for. But having said that, the HTC One X also runs Ice Cream Sandwich and it has managed to tweak the code enough for there to not be a problem.

Please Samsung – don't shut them out. Ice Cream Sandwich may be frozen – but we shouldn't be, so when you bring out the Jelly Bean or Key Lime Pie-powered Galaxy S4, let's get some support.

Samsung Galaxy S4 accessories

Samsung unveiled the SIII alongside a raft of accessories – the usual things like cases were complimented by the C-Pen (like the Note 2's S-Pen but smaller) and the dongle for connecting to your TV to stream stuff. The problem is, they're all so expensive: £20 for the C-Pen and the best part of £70 for the AllShare Dongle. They're not mainstream accessories – and little wonder. If Samsung made these cheaper – or even threw them into the box for the Galaxy S4 (highly unlikely, but we can dream) then it would make for a much happier customer. Perhaps a premium package where you spend a little more but get the accessories at the same time would work... people like to get the most out of things when they get their shiny new device.

Better charging

Plug it in and charge until it's full. That's always been the way. But we'd love to see a more advanced version of charging - ditching the wires should be more prevalent.

Maybe something similar to the conductive methods used by Palm in the Pre which never really caught on. The idea being that you don't have to plug the phone in to charge, just place it on a particular mat or place and it does it automatically.The S3 has that functionality, but it's hardly been well-publicised since launch.

The likes of Nokia with the Lumia 920 have been banging on about the amazing world of wireless charging for ages now, with a range of accessories too. Given that it will all be based on the Qi wireless charging standard, we'll soon see reams of coffee shops and airports with these charging stations littered around - just don't forget to watch your phone.

Or how about something really radical – like a battery that can also charge kinetically on the S4. Sure, it would be slow but wouldn't it be great if you could go for a run and manage to gain an extra 10 or 20% just by doing so to get you through the day? Radical – yes. But Samsung is known for its innovation.

Improved speakers

As beautiful and wonderful as the S3 is, the speaker still sounds tinny. Ringtones sound cheap and when it is on its back, they're also muffled. At least the iPhone has a bit of bass.

But what about going a bit further? Have three or four powerful but small speakers around the rim so when you play music, it comes out loud and with a bit of bass. Hell, even make it so strong that it negates the need for a travel dock so you can play music at a decent volume when you nip away for the weekend or are sitting on the beach. That'd be a real selling point.

Better media offerings

The range Samsung has in its various hubs is admirable - the Music Hub has a lot of functionality with streaming and radio recommendations, and the Video Hub... well, it has some videos. But it's bitty and on top of that you've got all of Google's media offerings too. This is one of Apple's strengths – it just all works as one ecosystem. Maybe Samsung could look at teaming up with Google or even Amazon to create a 'super media store' that would really knock the socks off Apple when it launches the S4 - imagine a service where you got unlimited movie streaming each month as part of your contract.

But even if it's just incorporating a Samsung Galaxy Store, open to all, into Google Play, that would at least be an improvement. Some say Android is fragmented. Why not lead the way, Samsung, and end that by pushing to have it all in one place?

Samsung Galaxy S IV Rumors Swirl

Samsung Galaxy S IV Rumors Swirl

Samsung is doing quite well for itself at the moment with the Galaxy S III and Galaxy Note II, but that doesn't mean the Korean phone maker isn't working on the next big thing.

According to various reports, we might get a glimpse of Samsung's next smartphone as early as January's CES or February's Mobile World Congress. According to a Korean newspaper, the phone - the Samsung Galaxy IV - will feature a high-def, 4.99-inch, 1,920-by-1,080 display. That would mean a 445 ppi, up from the 306 ppi on the Galaxy S III.

GSM Arena, meanwhile, said the device could sport a 13-megapixel camera. Samsung did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But the South Korean company in September dismissed reports of a followup to this year's flagship Galaxy S III smartphone (pictured).

When we might see the Galaxy S IV is anyone's guess. Recently, Samsung has unveiled its newest smartphones at overseas events. The Galaxy S III $179.99 at Amazon Wireless made its debut in May in London, while the Galaxy Note II was announced at IFA in Berlin several months ago. As a result, an unveiling at MWC in Barcelona rather than CES in Las Vegas might make more sense, but we'll have to wait and see. Might the new Galaxy smartphone face competition from HTC's Droid DNA? The smartphone, released earlier this month, sports a 5-inch, 1,920-by-1,080 display. Its Super LCD 3 display is coated with Gorilla Glass 2, with a 443 pixel-per-inch resolution

Samsung Galaxy S2 Plus coming in 2013?

Samsung Galaxy S2 Plus 
coming in 2013?
Milking the S2 for all its worth?

Samsung is reportedly planning to squeeze more life out of its breakthrough Galaxy S2 smartphone with a new and improved version slated for next year. SamMobile is reporting that a Samsung Galaxy S2 Plus handset is being prepped for a Q1 2013 release.

According to the site, the phone would come with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean out of the box and the latest version of the TouchWiz UI, along with 8GB of storage and a choice of two colours - white or blue.

The report does not speculate on whether there'll be improvements in the engine room through the addition of a quad-core processor or improved memory. 

Strange timing 

The speculation comes six months after Samsung succeeded the Galaxy S2 with the all-conquering Galaxy S3, so it would be an interesting move if the predecessor was pushed back into the limelight.

Samsung also launched the downsized Galaxy S3 mini in the last month, while recent tech gossip has been trained on a potential Galaxy S4 launch at CES 2013. The original S2 is still selling well with some mobile carriers and is clinging to the top ten in TechRadar's 20 best mobile phones in the world today chart, over 18 months after it launched

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If Samsung does launch an Galaxy S2 Plus it may risks blurring its brand clarity, an issue which HTC has admitted caused confusion among customers and saw the start of its fall from grace in 2011

Tritton Pro+ review

Tritton Pro+ review 

A good 5.1 headset made (slightly) better

Should you ask anyone at Tritton what the best way to deliver 5.1 surround sound in a headset is, they'd tell you it's by putting four separate drivers in each ear cup - that's 'true' surround sound, after all. It's the ethos behind both the flawed AX Pro headset, and this Pro+. This is a revised iteration of those cans, designed to iron out the irksome mic, rigid headset design and fussy setup, while still delivering crystal clear surround audio.

However, if you asked someone who wasn't trying to sell you their 5.1 headset, you wouldn't get such a black and white response. We've heard excellent results from digital 5.1 headsets like Creative's Recon3D, which digitally interpolates (read: magics up) the points between physical drivers to create a much wider (albeit virtual) sound space.

That's what you're dealing with when choosing between true and digital 5.1 - the latter wins for fidelity, but with a bit of trickery, the best digital cans can create an experience that's just as dazzling.

Pros and cons

This is important for the Tritton Pro+ because early signs suggest a £150 price point, which means you're paying a premium for those eight drivers. You're also paying for a more malleable microphone and headset than you get with the AX Pro, plus cross-platform compatibility and an interesting volume control that lets you alter the levels of each driver to accommodate for different 5.1 mixes.

For example, we found that FIFA 13's crowds sounded like a riptide by default, until we lowered the rear and sub volumes. Sound quality isn't always where you want it to be, but with a little tweaking you can achieve a really impressive surround. We're not sure it's good enough for pro gamers to pinpoint sound cues though. The Recon3D offered a mode that exaggerated nearby sounds to that end - a feature that's missing here. Ironically, for anything less than pro gaming, the Pro+ is great. We do have a couple of grumbles around setting the headset up, though. Assembly requires quite a few cables - one proprietary cable from the headset to the Dolby box, one AC power cable, and optical and USB cables connecting to the PC, PS3 or Xbox.

It's more simple if you're running an analog setup to the PC - you just hook up the headset to a PC adapter cable via USB, and plug in four mini-jacks and a USB into your back panel - but for anything else you're going to have a lot of wires lying around. Isn't there an easier way? The Pro+'s convoluted setup procedure actually makes a great case for wireless headsets.

If we're being harsh, you're not rewarded by anything stellar at the end of the setup. The cans tend to get hot and uncomfortable after an hour, and although the sound they're producing is fantastic with the exception of some muddy low end, when you're sitting there all sweaty-eared looking at five cables going in and out of a box the size of a router, maybe fantastic sound isn't all that. This isn't a headset you'll regret buying, or one that fails to deliver on its promises, but neither is it an easy headset to love.

Nokia Lumia 610 review

Nokia Lumia 610 review

The Nokia Lumia 610 has placed itself squarely at the low end of the smartphone market, with just 256MB of RAM and a single-core 800MHz processor.

20 best mobile phones in the world today

Alongside the new stripped down Windows Phone Tango operating system and a new, more wallet-friendly UK price tag of only around £125 on Pay as you go, or free on contracts starting from just £13 per month.

This oddly puts it at a higher price than the better-specified Nokia Lumia 710 - we're not sure what's going on here, especially in the UK market.
Although the Nokia Lumia 610 is broadly competing with every other low spec and low price handset, its real competition will come from other Windows Phone Tango handsets, such as the ZTE Tania. It remains to be seen how they'll fare, since the Nokia Lumia 610 has beaten them to market, so as a pioneer of the new budget-conscious operating system, how does the Nokia Lumia 610 stack up

Based on physical impressions, it isn't likely to stand out in a crowd, with a plastic body and a dinky 3.7-inch 800 x 480 TFT screen. The sides have a metallic gleam to them but it's never likely to be mistaken for real metal, and the illusion is lost altogether once you actually hold the phone, which feels plastic through and through.

It's not flimsy, though, with a reassuringly sturdy back cover and a generally solid feel. At 131.5g, it weighs about what you'd expect for a phone of its size, which is to say that it's light, but given its relatively small dimensions of 119 x 62 x 12mm, the weight feels about right.

This all serves to give the Nokia Lumia 610 a feeling of surprisingly high quality for such a cheap phone. Especially when compared, for example, to the substantially more expensive Samsung Galaxy S2, which has none of the density or solidity to it that the Nokia Lumia 610 has.

Sticking to the trademark bright and bold colours of the Lumia range, the Nokia Lumia 610 comes in magenta or cyan, or if you're feeling more conventional, black or white.

The phone features several hardware buttons, all of which are positioned on the right-hand side. There's a volume rocker near the top, the power button in the middle and a dedicated camera button at the bottom.

The layout isn't totally ideal, since - depending on how you're holding the phone - the camera button can be awkward to reach without using two hands. And having the power button so close to the volume rocker means it's easy to press the wrong button.
We can't help but feel that having the power button opposite the volume rocker and moving the camera button slightly further up the body of the phone would have worked better, as it requires some thumb movement to turn the phone on when held naturally in the hand.

In addition, the Nokia Lumia 610 has soft key buttons just below the screen for home, back and search. These are intuitive and feature pictures of each function, making their use obvious even to someone who's never used the phone before.

The ports, meanwhile, all sit along the top of the phone, with a 3.5mm headphone socket in the centre, and a micro USB connector on the right. There's also a wrist strap hole on the top-left, while the microphone sits alone at the bottom of the phone.

There's no microSD card slot, which is especially disappointing given the paltry 8GB of internal storage. The battery cover requires a slide down from the main chassis to remove - something that can be hard for those used to popping a backplate off.

Thankfully, for most users it's a problem they'll only have to face once, since as soon as the SIM card is in there's little reason to remove the cover again. Although it's good to know that if you ever want to replace the battery, the option is there, even if it is a little fiddly to get at.

The Nokia Lumia 610 sports a respectable 5MP camera, the lens of which lies flush with the back cover of the phone. This is always cause for concern, because scratches and smudges can play havoc with photos, although in our time with the phone, while it's certainly seen its share of smudges, the lens has thankfully remained scratch-free.

Ultimately, while it's not going to win any design awards, the Nokia Lumia 610 is a reasonably attractive and well built handset.