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Samsung unveils the Galaxy S 4's software tricks: camera modes, Story Album, S Voice Drive and more
Samsung is revealing what Smart software additions the Galaxy S 4 will bring to the table, and they're well beyond what's been rumored. The camera is one of the biggest focuses, borrowing much from the Galaxy Camera: Cinema Photo captures still images with moving backgrounds, a Drama Shot burst mode that creates animated GIFs, an Eraser mode to remove unwanted background subjects, and a Sound & Shot mode that puts audio in the background of still images. A Story Album automatically creates photo albums (including ones you can print via Blurb) based on common details such as location and time. And did we mention that it can shoot photos and video from both the front and back cameras at the same time? That's just the start. AirView now works with your finger, rather than a pen, and is effective right from the lock screen. Adapt Display and Adapt Sound automatically tune the picture and speakers for varying viewing conditions, and WatchOn uses a built-in IR blaster to tune your TV. S Translator, meanwhile, will take both spoken and written words and translate them through several languages, inside of multiple apps. S Voice has been upgraded to S Voice Drive to let drivers get navigation, find points of interest and otherwise interact with the phone without having to take any hands off the wheel. S Health, which Samsung initially mentioned last year, is around to track calories and steps through accessories such as S band, a body scale and a heart rate monitor. Like to do things that involve more than one person? There's more still. ChatOn has been upgraded to support video chat, and Group Play both allows for sharing songs in a surround mode or playing local multiplayer games -- when it's supported, that is. All told, there's a small deluge of new features that could amount to a lot, even excluding new hands-free elements like Smart Scroll. Check after the break for a quick preview video and the press release. %Gallery-182892% Check out our event hub for all the action from Samsung's Galaxy S 4 event.
App review: AirView
We just came across a neat little iOS app called AirView which, as you can probably tell from the name, transforms your iOS devices into AirPlay video receivers. And since iOS can also output video via AirPlay, this means you can use AirView to either grab AirPlay streams from your computer's iTunes, or you can stream videos from one iOS device to another (provided that they are both running iOS 4.2 and above, of course). Theoretically, little work is required to get the ball rolling -- just launch the app, then play your desired video clip from the source, and finally pick your client device using the AirPlay button. We say theoretically, because it took us awhile to figure out that none of our purchased videos worked, even though AirPlay supports DRM content -- the assumption is that AirView lacks the component for receiving authorization key. Alas, we stuck with our, ahem, homemade videos which actually worked very well over both iTunes-to-iOS and iOS-to-iOS connections, although sometimes we had to relaunch AirView and the iPod app to start a new stream. Perhaps some folks will have better luck than us, so feel free to give this app a go -- it is free, after all. Video demo after the break.
AirView brings AirPlay reception to iOS devices
If you've been looking for device-to-device AirPlay support, the free AirView utility that just debuted on the App Store offers a simple solution. Offering a no-frills AirPlay receiver, AirView allows you to watch AirPlay video streams from other devices or, if you have AirFlick installed on your Macintosh, from your primary computer. As I've written extensively before, I'm not entirely sure why or when you'd use this option (e.g., "Hey, instead of watching that movie on my HDTV, why not use a 3-inch display instead?" or "Want to watch this YouTube video? Instead of handing you my phone or emailing you the URL, I'll make both of us sit here while I serve the data to you live!"), but there you have it. It's available for download from the App Store, and it works equally well on iPad, iPhone and iPod touch. Thanks, Steven TS
