galaxy note
Latest
IRL: Pioneer Kuro PDP-6010FD, Tonium Pacemaker and the Samsung Galaxy Note
Welcome to IRL, an ongoing feature where we talk about the gadgets, apps and toys we're using in real life and take a second look at products that already got the formal review treatment. For those of you who think all we do in IRL is wax nostalgic about gadgets we've owned for years, you'd be... mostly right. Indeed, this week we've got Mr. Ben Drawbaugh talking up the HDTV he owns (as opposed to the one he wants), and James is here to break down the limitations of his discontinued Tonium Pacemaker. We've got one happy new gadget owner, though, and that would be Zach Honig, who recently traded his iPhone 4 for a Samsung Galaxy Note. So how's that S-Pen working out for him? Head past the break to find out.
Samsung's in a gifting mood, is giving away up to 16 free games for select Galaxy devices
Well, it seems as if the holiday freebies won't stop coming. Chances are, if you own a smartphone you're an app collectionista (sorry, guys), and if you've got a certain Samsung Galaxy device in particular you're about to get a major boost to your application arsenal. In the spirit of the holidays, or maybe its 100 million downloads, Sammy's going to hook you up with some free virtual treats from its Apps store. The selection of up to 16 games won't be available for the entire line of galactic phones -- and may vary by region -- but if you own a Galaxy WiFi 5.0, Galaxy S II, Galaxy Note, Galaxy Ace or Galaxy Gio, then you are amongst the lucky ones. Included in the deal are games such as: Air Penguin, Air Attack HD, Bubble Fish, Samurai 2 and a few others (full list after the break). There's no word on when the bargain ends, so hop into the store before you miss out.
Samsung Galaxy S II and Note get late ICS Christmas presents, arriving Q1 2012
Samsung has cemented its plans for the roll-out of Ice Cream Sandwich, and it looks likely to land on most of its top drawer Android devices. This (unsurprisingly) includes the Galaxy S II, its LTE variant, the Galaxy Note, the Galaxy R and whole range of Samsung tabs, from the Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus to the Galaxy Tab 10.1. The update is penned to arrive first on both the Galaxy S II and Note in Q1 2012, with other devices following, although the Korean giant says that separate announcements will be made on the finer points -- depending on the "market situation and carriers' requirements."
Samsung Galaxy Note for AT&T to ditch Exynos, sport 4G LTE?
Is a 4G LTE-capable Galaxy Note headed stateside? According to PocketNow, that could very well be the case. Rumour has it Sammy's bringing a branded variant of the 5.3-incher, purportedly the SGH-I717, to AT&T's lineup sometime in early 2012. We'd already seen the Note pass through the Commission's gates and had anticipated a U.S. debut would soon follow, but that version -- the GT7000B -- might simply be a color variant of the currently available international model. An operator tramp stamp and 700MHz / 1700MHz radios won't be the only changes reportedly on deck, as this tablet / phone in-betweener is said to pack a dual-core 1.5GHz MSM8660 -- similar to the HSPA+ 42 and LTE-friendly Qualcomm chipsets found in the Skyrocket and T-Mobile's GS2. Bear in mind, folks, that this is all still hearsay. Until we get word of an official release, you'll just have to make do with an unlocked import.
Samsung claims record 300 million mobile sales this year
Add together ten million Galaxy S IIs, a dollop of Galaxy Nexii, a gargantuan gathering of Galaxy Notes and a healthy serving of Badas, and what do you get? 300 million handset sales so far in 2011, that's what. And Samsung claims that makes this the best year in its mobile-making history, surpassing 2010 by a whopping 20 million. Of course, more sales doesn't necessarily translate into greater revenue -- Nokia is still the world's largest manufacturer by volume and is a case in point. Nevertheless, we'll know more when Samsung reveals its Q4 earnings next month.
Samsung Galaxy Note vs. Dell Streak 5... fight!
Sure, some may have had a good ole laugh at the Streak 5, arriving with enough display real estate to border on tablet territory -- in fact that's what Dell sold it as. Fast forward a year, and it looks like that weighty slab of phone -- or tiny tablet, depending on your interpretation --was simply ahead of its time. Most phone manufacturers are now skating around the five-inch mark, and Samsung even went a little further. With the Galaxy Note recently paying a visit to the FCC, we thought it was time to see how these two barely-phones stacked up against each other. We're leaving the technical specs aside at this point -- you can check the reviews for those -- but we can still line them up and take plenty of photos of the resulting face-off. The full gallery awaits below.%Gallery-141381%
Meizu MX hangs out with the M9, Xiaomi Phone, Nokia N9 and many more friends
What better way to welcome a new boy in town than just a quick hands-on with it? Well, how about throwing a mini phone party for the Meizu MX? We just so happened to have a stash of phones with us today: the M9, iPhone 4S, Nokia N9, Xiaomi Phone, Galaxy S II and Galaxy Note. Conveniently, the MX's four-inch display lets it sit bang in the middle of the group, and the phone also turns out to be a tad thinner, narrower and shorter than the Xiaomi Phone. Of course, we'll dig a little deeper in our review, so stay tuned and enjoy our party pics for now. %Gallery-141324%
Galaxy Note for AT&T hits FCC for cups of tea
Samsung's Galaxy Note is pretty popular here at Engadget towers and it looks like it's finally gonna arrive on this side of the Atlantic. Yesterday, it passed through the swing-doors of the FCC's Washington bunker for the obligatory prodding: it's packing the same AT&T-ready 850 / 1900MHz bands as the original, but has a different model number (GT-N7000B). Either it's a reference to a change in the internals, or the B equals Black and the White version will follow soon. Either way, we'll be keeping our eyes on the domestic launch just to make sure we aren't missing out. Heck, maybe Sammy's gonna throw in a few cute extras to apologize for making us wait this long.
Mobile Miscellany: week of November 28, 2011
This week was packed with news on the mobile front, so it was easy to miss a few stories here and there. Here's some of the other stuff that happened in the wide world of wireless for the week of November 28, 2011: Last week, the FCC announced that it had approved AT&T's request to purchase 700MHz spectrum from Qualcomm -- previously used to support MediaFLO service -- but it hasn't finalized the process yet. So, the company recently met with the FCC to ask if the deal can be sped up. [Phone Scoop] The Nokia Lumia 800 is rumored to finally be available at O2 beginning December 9th. [Unwired View] Nokia also announced the X2-02, a Series 40 dual-SIM handset geared towards music. It comes with an audio processing feature that brings clear sound, dedicated music keys and a feature that lets you play recordings directly from the FM radio. It also offers a 2.2-inch QVGA display, dedicated Facebook and Twitter clients, 2MP camera and 9.7 hour talk time. Sadly, the phone doesn't come with 3G included, and no markets or launch dates were announced, but it'll be priced around €60 before subsidy. [Unwired View] Cincinnati Bell added the HTC Radar 4G to its lineup this week and is available for free to new customers with a two-year commitment and after a $100 mail-in rebate; existing customers eligible for an upgrade can get it for $100 on contract and after $50 mail-in rebate. [BusinessWire] Samsung just released SDK 1.0 for the S Pen, also known as the stylus for the Galaxy Note. As to be expected, the kit will aid developers in writing apps that will take advantage of the pen. [Android Police]
Samsung draws in developers with S Pen SDK for Galaxy Note
Ever since the mighty Galaxy Note first popped up at IFA we've been curious about that S Pen and how it'll make its way into our real-life workflow. Samsung promised there'd be an SDK back at its October London launch and it's finally here, letting developers get busy adding some S Pen magic to their apps. Version 1.0 lets you add a basic canvas, a pop-up for pen settings (opacity, line color and so on) as well as erase and un/redo. Sure, ICS might natively support stylus input, but as Samsung is keen to point out -- with its capacitive tip and configurable button -- a simple stylus this is not. And remember: until the Note gets an ICS update, you'll be scribbling all over that snappy Gingerbread install anyway. Tap that source link if you want to get your hands on the goods, and let the tic-tac-toe commence.
Galaxy Note gets LTE turned on in South Korea, ready to cross the Pacific?
Many of us are smitten with Samsung's Galaxy Note, in no small part because of its stunning 5.3-inch Super AMOLED screen. It's also enticed us with the inclusion of an LTE radio on spec sheets, and now Sammy has flipped the switch on that high speed capability, giving us another reason to drool over the jumbo handset. According to a Google translated press release, the Note is destined to ride waves of domestic LTE, though we certainly hope it'll bring such capabilities to the US. Speaking of, some shots have surfaced of a suspiciously Note-like device sans a tactile home button, favoring four Android capacitive buttons instead. Could Sammy be taking a page out of its Galaxy S II playbook and applying it to the stylus-packing superphone? We can't say for sure, but there's more at the source so you can draw your own conclusions.
Samsung Galaxy Note now available on O2 in the UK, priced at around $400
Well, that didn't take long. Less than a week after O2 announced that the Galaxy Note would be "coming soon," Samsung's 5.3-inch handset has just popped up for sale on the UK carrier's site. It's available now for £250 (or about $396) on the most basic of monthly plans, offering a hybridized notepad/tablet experience, in exchange. The provider is also offering £100 worth of free movies and music to early buyers, available for download via Samsung Hub. Interested parties can grab it now, at the source link below. [Thanks, George]
Galaxy Note hooks up with O2, brings the hybridized goods to British hands
Sammy's already released its massive mobile in-betweener to the UK, but so far the 5.3-inch Galaxy Note's failed to catch on with the country's carriers. Well, the winds of wireless change are sweeping in and O2 looks to be the spot for your subsidized needs. There's not much more than a November mention and the promise of it "Coming soon" on the operator's landing page. Still, it's good news for those of you on tight budgets with a predilection for tablet-like smartphones.
Engadget Distro Issue 11 is go! Download it now
You've been waiting all week, and the 11th Issue of Engadget Distro is finally here. For those of you experiencing that nasty crash bug overseas, the fix is in. We released version 1.0.2 of the app earlier this week, so if you've got an iPad (or a way to view PDFs) go on and download it. Taking center stage this week is the half-phone-half-tablet hybrid with a stylus -- pardon, S Pen -- the Samsung Galaxy Note. We'll also take you on a ride with the Grace One City e-motorbike; pick apart HTC's lady phone, the Rhyme; find out what's inside the Motorola Atrix 2; and take a couple shots at (and with) the Pentax Q, a tiny ILC with a massive price tag. But that's not all, if you've been dying to tell us how it is, we're giving you a soapbox to stand on. Yup, we're opening our little weekly to your scrutiny, so if you've got something to say about Distro send your thoughts to distroletters@engadget.com. Provide your name, city and state / country and you might just make it into Issue 12. So, hit that PDF download link below or pick up your iPad and give Engadget Distro a go. Distro Issue 11 PDF Distro on the iTunes App Store Like Distro on Facebook Follow Distro on Twitter
Behind the Glass: a detailed tour inside the Samsung Galaxy Note
While the Samsung Galaxy Note might be a behemoth of a phone (or is it a phablet?), momma always taught us that it's what's on the inside that really counts. But first we need to get to know the device a little better. To do this, we once again recruited the knowledge and insight of Francois Simond (Supercurio) to dive into the circuitry, sensors, and other innards to find out what makes this Note tick. Follow on below to get the inside scoop.
White Galaxy Note appears, developers wanted to pen third-party apps for its stylus
We've already inspected every inch of Samsung's big bad phone-tablet hybrid, but a soupçon of extra news has trickled out from the Galaxy Note's bombastic launch event in London yesterday. Those looking for brighter color scheme to match the striking glow of its HD Super AMOLED display are in luck, as the Galaxy Note looks set to arrive in white; the ethereal ying to its companion's midnight blue yang. Sammy added that the Galaxy Note's S-Pen SDK will be available to third-party developers starting December, hopefully bringing more uses for that slide-out stick. And that's despite the latest Android OS offering native stylus support -- the Galaxy Note remains a Gingerbread affair. The current smartphone king was unable to confirm if the UK would be getting the white model on the November 3rd launch day, or ever. Similarly, we're still waiting on Samsung to put S-Pen to paper on pricing and any possible US launch details.
Samsung Galaxy Note review
Remember the display on your first mobile phone? If you've been chatting on the go for as long as we have, it was probably barely big enough to fit a complete telephone number -- let alone a contact name or text message. And your first smartphone? Even displaying scaled-down, WAP versions of web pages was asking a lot. Now, those mobile devices we couldn't live without have screens that are much, much larger. Sometimes, though, we secretly wish they were even bigger still. Samsung releases 1.5GHz Exynos processor and 16MP CMOS for mobiles, if you're nice Samsung's Galaxy S II for T-Mobile proves that unicorns do exist (hands-on video) Samsung Galaxy Note announced: 5.3-inch display, built-in-stylus, custom 'S Pen' appsSamsung's new GT-N7000 Galaxy Note is the handset those dreams are made of -- if you happen to share that dream about obnoxiously large smartphones, that is. It's as thin as a Galaxy S II, lightning fast and its 5.3-inch HD Super AMOLED display is as gorgeous as it is enormous; the 1280 x 800 pixels you once could only get with a full-size laptop (or in the Galaxy Tab 10.1) can now slide comfortably into your front pocket. Its jumbo display makes it the perfect candidate for a notepad replacement and, with the included S Pen stylus, you'll have no problem jotting notes on the fly, marking up screenshots or signing documents electronically. But, is that massive display too much of a good thing? You'll need to jump past the break to find out.%Gallery-137768% %Gallery-137793%
New Samsung Galaxy Note ad: freedom's just a stylus away (video)
Ever wanted to soar majestically through the clouds? Good news, freedom from your earthly ties is a 5.3-inch display and S Pen away. All that and more in the Galaxy Note ad after the break -- though as we can attest, the whole creating beautiful landscapes thing isn't quite as easy as Samsung's simulated images make it out to be. No one ever said freedom was simple.
Samsung offers up the Galaxy Note's goodies, makes kernel source code available
Samsung's been pretty good at spreading the kernel source love. With the final Galaxy S II variant code released just a few short days ago, the time has come for the company's IFA-unveiled inbetweener to share its special sauce. That's right, the part tablet / part phone Galaxy Note's headed for developer customization as its particular 1s and 0s are now up on Sammy's site. While no official plans to port the 5.3-inch device stateside have been announced, eager devs familiar with the ways of GSM can sink their hacking hooks into the tab when it's purported to launch overseas next month. So, what are you waiting for? Click on the source below to get a headstart on the... source.
Samsung Galaxy Note tops benchmarks, price sheets (video)
We had a feeling the Samsung Galaxy Note would be a hit on the benchmark scene, but now its unsurprisingly speedy results are documented. Greek site TechBlog installed Quadrant Standard on one of the phone / tablet hybrid demo units at IFA 2011 and produced a benchmark score of 3,624, exactly where we'd expect a Sammy-branded 1.4GHz dual-core CPU to end up; in comparison, our review of the 1.2GHz Samsung Galaxy S II produced an outcome of 3,396. Here's the letdown: the Galaxy Note is expected to top the charts in pricing as well, as it's being reported that we should see the device show up in Scandinavia by year's end for no less than €715 ($1,000 in the US). Let's hope those benchmarks are worth the cost, because there's one thing that can't be denied -- it makes the HTC Jetstream feel like a bargain.
