WHEN I caught the Samsung Wave in my hand I was immediately and magically drawn to it – for the look, weight, size and feel. Although I liked the form, fit and finish I did not know what to expect from Samsung’s bada platform as I had not heard anything from my peers or read anything about it.

 

 

 
In my hand, I loved the cool metal casing. It just felt better than any plastic, and it imparted resilience in my mind. The glass capacitive touchscreen that stretched almost to the left and right edge of the face impressed me even more than the Samsung GALAXY S’s massive 4.0-inch screen. The Wave’s screen is only 3.3-inches but it is still a WVGA (Wide VGA measuring 800 x 480 pixels) SUPER AMOLED display.

 

 

 
The Wave’s external buttons and controls are straightforward. On the face you have the capacitive touchscreen and three buttons at the bottom. The right button is used as a Close call or the button to turn on and off the device. At the centre is a raised diamond shaped button that is a singular button, and not a D-Pad for directional control. It brings up the main application screen. On the left is the Call button.

 

 

 

 

Looking at top of the Wave, there is a 3.5-mm headphone jack, sliding cover microUSB and a small opening that is used to let out the speaker audio when using speakerphone. I love the sliding USB cover. No more lost or broken off covers.
 

 

On the back side of the Wave, you will notice the oddly shaped digital camera. The camera lens will always be the same shape it is. Just that Samsung decided to make the glass window stylish and shaped it like a diamond with a matching LED flash. The shape does not add or detract the phone's picture-taking capabilities. Notice as well the rear cover finish is brushed aluminum as is most of the body.

 

 
The location of the battery makes it impossible to change out the SIM and/or microSD flash memory card without removing the battery first.

  

Now that I’ve covered all the cosmetics and hardware let me tell you that my biggest worry when I looked at the Wave was whether or not there is proper application support for the hot applications – Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and others.

 

 
It was a relief to find direct support for those applications. If those applications are not able to satisfy your cravings, you can always try out Samsung’s App store.

 

 
 
Here’s a shot of the Facebook application. Looks neat, tidy and easy to navigate.

 

 
The album view mode of the Facebook application looks quite like the media file viewer (See below).

 

 
When I was first introduced to Samsung’s 5-megapixel with my Samsung Jet, I immediately fell in love with the quality and capabilities of the built-in camera software. I am happy to see and report that the same great software setup and features made its way into the Wave. Some of the features have been tweaked a bit but otherwise the camera works great. The video capture capability is something not to be missed. It doesn’t capture 720P or 1080P HD video. But what it does capture in DVD quality turns out amazingly for amateurs. Just make sure you have adequate light for shooting.

The media browser is easy to use and useful for shutterbugs that have difficulty remembering when a particular photo was taken because the browser will neatly organize the pictures as thumbnails sorted chronologically using the date the picture was taken.

 

 

If you prefer a big overview of the photos on the phone just change the orientation to landscape and you’ll get a visual list of the photographs.

 

 
The Wave may not have thousands of applications like those available for the Android™ platform, but Samsung made sure the important applications were done without having to resort to using the Internet Browser directly to access the web applications.

Time will tell if the bada platform can grow in popularity with the key being application availability. However, even if it doesn’t become popular, the Wave is a great phone and you’ll probably often get asked, “What is it?” and comments like, “It looks great – sleek, slim and a beautiful LED screen!”

Grab one now to show off the beautiful 3.3-inch SUPER AMOLED screen, the smooth application and onscreen keyboard input.

Here are some photo samples taken using the Wave's 5-megapixel camera.

 

 

  

 

| Posted by JamCanSing 28-Jul-2010

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The first thing I noticed when I received my Samsung GALAXY S was how plain it is. That impression changed quickly when I held it in my hand and turned it on.

The shape is not revolutionary but is very comfortable given it is pretty wide. The comfort comes from having soft curved edges. Other than the curves I came to notice the soft curved bump on one of the edges and strangely without even trying to analyse the reason for the bump I believe I figured it out. It is ever so subtle but by not making the device symmetrical, Samsung gives you a way to recognise which end is the top and the bottom as soon as you pick up the phone without having to look at it.

 

 

There are very few buttons to deal with – a power button, volume up/down rocker and a centre button on the face. All other functions are activated via the huge 4.0-inch capacitive touch screen.

The GALAXY S has a 3.5mm headphone jack for audio and video output. Located near to the headphone jack is an ingenious little sliding cover that protects the microSD connector from dust or damage. This is a really cool feature because most of the other manufacturers use pop-out rubbery covers that eventually wear out or become brittle and then break.

 

On the rear of the GALAXY S body is the 5-megapixel digital camera and surprisingly it does not have a LED flash or Xenon flash. This may limit your usage to only daylight or brightly lit subject shooting. Look out below for my usual gallery of photos. The rear cover features a scale like imprint that reminded me of reptilian skin but it also has an interesting iridescence to it.

A peek under the rear cover reveals the large battery with a capacity of 1500mAh (milliamp hours). It is a pretty big capacity but there are many other factors to consider when looking at just how long the battery will last.

The telco SIM has a slot as does a flash memory microSD card slot. You’ll also notice the speaker for speakerphone operation and if you recall the rear cover has 6 small holes that fit over the speaker.

 

Powering up the Android (version 2.1) operating system installed GALAXY S is quick. As I had not seen the 4.0-inch screen in person prior to receiving mine, I was blown away by the screen that greeted me. The colours are vibrant and the screen is bright, but what contributed to my wide eyed look was the cool animated wallpapers that also interact when your finger taps on them. Samsung's own user interface that deviates away from the stock Android setup. It is nice and with the 1GHz processor and 16GB of internal memory the whole package felt good and fast. The screen touch sensitivity seemed just right and with the slightly larger girth also meant that the onscreen keyboard had larger keys and were better spaced for faster typing.

 

 

A short technology lesson and background on the screen. The GALAXY S uses a SUPER AMOLED (Amorphic Light Emitting Diode) and the 'SUPER' designation means it is superior to other AMOLED systems. For instance, last year Samsung unleashed AMOLED technology when it released the Samsung JET. When I look at the Samsung JET and the GALAXY S side-by-side the new GALAXT S SUPER AMOLED is definately better. Note, that older screen technology uses LCD technology and may incorporate LED backlighting but it pales in comparison to the SUPER AMOLED. A benefit to using SUPER AMOLED technology is the reduction of power consumption and it is quite viewable even in bright direct sunlight conditions.

 

As the GALAXY S is using Android for the operating system you may find that the included applications are generic applications. However, you may not know what the applications are and I thought I'd share some of the applications with you. The GALAXY S is currently exclusive to SingTel and that gives you some unique applications - MobileTV, IDEAS, AMPed, inSing, and the TrafficLive Widget. Also included with mine were some Samsung Apps. This included: Vlingo Voice, Asphalt5, English Dictionary, Chinese Dictionary, blinkx Beat, Road SMS. The other applications are straighforward as are those included with Android. If that's not enough just open the Market to find a free application. Strangely I liked some of the built-in software. I liked the Mini Diary and Memo function. I would have liked to have seen direct link from the Memo to the Calendar for reminders or task lists.

 

 

 

The rest of the phone functions like the telephone and keypad as well as the contact list, email and browser works and does so without issues. So, there isn't anything to fear for the regular mobile phone operation. Moving along to the area that interests me the most, the built-in digital camera. The GALAXY S sports a 5-megapixel camera but does not feature a LED or xenon flash. 5-megapixels is more than enough for many instances especially if you drive your software properly for in-camera processing of the captured images.

The camera interface is straightforward and you can interact with the touchscreen to choose your focusing point. Take note there is no physical shutter button so you will need two hands at all times for operation as a one handed approach makes it difficult to press the virtual on-screen shutter. Two hands also makes for steadier shots, try not to depend on built-in functions like steady-shot or anti-shake. These functions help you but are not always able to 'fix' a blur photo because of the demanding photo taking environment - low light and/or moving subjects.

 

The shooting modes will impress the 'point & shoot' users as it emulates those cameras.

 

The photo results can be browsed using the Gallery application. The Gallery can display your photos in different modes. Thumbnails and an informative 'calendar' type view. The latter mode will lump photos taken on specific dates together.

 

 

There is a built-in slideshow function and as the GALAXY S has a TV-out function you can easily view and share your photos on a bigger screen.

 

I really like panorama photos and have diligently created two to share. The night shot is tough because if you leave the camera settings to Auto ISO your photos turn out very noisy. So, I manually forced the ISO to 100 and then, as best as I could, took the photo without shaking.

The sunrise panorama was shot in the vertical orientation to catch as much detail as possible.

I shot a variety of photos ranging - macro, outdoor, indoor, landscape, food and architecture. This should give you a good idea of how capable the camera is and with such a capable smartphone and thousands of Android applications available, I feel the GALAXY S is a winner. The superb screen, responsive operating system and hardware makes using the phone a joy. I was always drawn back to the phone just to interact with it that doing so so often meant my battery life suffered. If you are a hardcore social media user, I think you'll need to think about having a charger nearby or a spare battery.

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Enjoy the photos and if you get a GALAXY S, you're sure to enjoy taking photos with the phone. In fact, you'll also like shooting videos with it as you've seen from the included sample of the singing and dancing teenagers.

 

-# END #-

| Posted by JamCanSing 17-Jul-2010

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A new Wave has arrived!

 

Samsung Wave is a full touch Bada platform phone (Samsung Open Platform) with a large 3.3” 16M colours WVGA AMOLED screen. It’s equipped with a 5 megapixel camera with auto focus, smile shot and dual LED flash. Running on a 1GHz processor, it also has a 2GB internal storage which is expandable up to 34GB when paired with a 32MB MicroSD card.

 

It also comes with Wi-Fi, high speed connectivity via HSDPA 3.6Mbps. Power packed features encased in a sleek device - 10.9mm thin and weighing only 118g.

 

Super Active-Matrix Organic Light-Emitting Diode or Super AMOLED is a display technology for use in mobile devices such as mobile phones. It differs from many other display technologies in that the layer which detects touch is integrated into the screen rather than being overlaid on top.

 

Here’s a video on what to expect in the box when you buy your Samsung Wave.

 

 

 Frequently Asked Questions:

 

Q. What is “Bada” Platform?

A. Samsung bada is a Smartphone platform released in 2010. The word "bada" means "ocean" in Korean. Samsung Wave is the first bada-powered phone and will be seen on the market soon.

 

 

Q. How many Home screen pages can I have on my Samsung Wave?

A. You can have up to 10 pages.

 

Q. Does the Camera have Auto Focus?

A. Not only does the camera have Auto Focus, it also has Marco mode and Face Detection. Other interesting camera features include Smile Shot, Beauty Shot, Vintage Mode, Auto Contrast, Outdoor Visibility and Dual LED flash.

 

Q. What is the resolution of the Video recording?

A. The resolution is 1280 x 720. (HD recording up to 30fps)

 

 

Social Hub

 

Social Hub consolidates your contacts’ numbers, email addresses, IM and social networking information at one contact point.

 

 

To set up Social Hub with your email, IM and SNS accounts,

Go to Menu > Select ‘My Accounts’ > Add Accounts > Key in relevant account details.

 

For Premium version of Social Hub, besides the Web accounts, you can also set up your social networks e.g. Facebook, My Space and Twitter. However, only the basic service is available on your phone at this moment. Basic service does not have push capabilities for POP email, IM and SNS. Do note that data charges from Service Operators apply.

 

We will notify Samsung Mobile members via edm when the premium version of Social Hub is available for the Samsung Wave. Upgrade is FREE.

 

Wireless Tethering

 

Q. What is wireless tethering?

A. Tethering is the use of a mobile device such as a mobile phone to supply Internet access for another device, which is otherwise unconnected, using the mobile device as a modem.

 

 

Steps to Activate Internet Tethering

Menu > Settings > Connectivity > Mobile AP > Activate Mobile AP > Go to Laptop Wireless Network Connection > Refresh Network List > Click Connect >Key in Network Key > Connect

 

 

Samsung Apps

 

How to download from On-device Client

 

| Posted by Admin 08-Jul-2010

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Unboxing of the Samsung GALAXY^SPICA

Let’s check out my new toy, the Samsung GALAXY^SPICA.
Before I un-box, let’s take a look what the phone comes with.
• Bundled with 1GB MicroSD card.
• The colour of the phone is Metallic Black
• It is running on the Android^TM platform
• Slim design at 13.2 mm
• 3.2 Megapixel camera with Auto Focus
• 3.2” HVGA TFT LCD screen
• MicroSD slot can support up to 32GB
• Wi-Fi, 1500 mAh battery, USB, Bluetooth
• DivX support

Let’s take a look what’s inside the box!
• Warranty Card
• User Manual
• The phone itself
• 1GB MicroSD Card & Adapter
• Battery
• 3.5mm headset
• USB Cable
• Travel Charger
• Let’s insert the Sim Card, Battery & 1GB MicroSD card
• And switch it on!

Powered by Android^TM 1.5, the interface of the phone is real smooth and easy to navigate. The Samsung GALAXY^SPICA has 3 different home screens that can be alternated by simply swiping across the screen.

To access the phone menu, touch and slide up the menu tab. You can scroll up and down to view all the applications. Touch and hold the application of your choice to create a short cut access on the home page. To delete the shortcut, simply touch and hold the application, drag and drop it into the Trash icon.

Press and hold the idle screen and widgets will appear. These range from basic feature widgets, such as calendar or alarm clock, to third-party apps such as Facebook application.

Just click on the Android Market^TM icon and you can start browsing the catalogue of free and paid mobile applications to personalize your phone with. We will talk about this more in the subsequent videos.

Wi-fi, Conserve Battery, Change Ringtone, Bluetooth Headset pairing

Q: How can I set up Wi-Fi connection, pair my headset with the phone, save battery energy and set my favourite song as my ringtone?
A: Please see the video clip below and follow through the steps.

Steps to set up Wi-Fi connection

Go to Menu > Settings > Wireless Controls > Wi-Fi settings > Select Wi-Fi > Select the network > Key in password

Steps to pair Bluetooth headset

Go to Menu > Settings > Wireless Controls > Bluetooth settings > Select Bluetooth > Select Discoverable > Scan for devices > Select device to pair with

Steps to conserve battery

Go to Menu > Settings > Wireless Controls > Mobile Networks > Select “Use only 2G networks”

Steps to set favourite ringtone

Go to Menu > Music Icon > Select “Songs” > Play the song that you wish to set as ringtone > Click on “Arrow up button” > Select “Use as ringtone”

Set up Email accounts

Q: How do I set up my email accounts?
A: Please see the video clip below and follow through the steps.

Video on email account setup

Steps to set up Gmail^TM account

Go to Menu > Select Google Mail^TM > Tap “Next” > Click “Sign in” > Key in Username & Password > Exit back to Menu > Select “Settings” > Select “Data Synchronization” > Select “Auto Sync” > Go back to “Google Mail” to view the mails, calendar and contacts pushed into your phone

Steps to set up pull (SMTP, IMAP, POP3) Yahoo.com.sg account

Go into your Email and allow “Pop Access” > Click “Email” and “Next” > Key in your Username and password > Select POP 3 Account > Under POP3 server, Key in “pop.mail.yahoo.com.sg” and click “Done” > Click “Next” > Under SMTP server, Key in “smtp.mail.yahoo.com.sg” and click “Done” > Give your account a name for easy reference and click “Done”. You have successfully set up your Yahoo SG account.

*Note: Using Yahoo.com account would require payment. Yahoo.com.sg account is free. Hotmail account will require MSN which is not available on the phone.

Android Market^TM

Q: How to download games or Applications?
A: Please see the video clip below and follow through the steps.

Video on accessing Android Market

Steps to Access Android Market

Go to Menu > Select Android Market > Create/Sign in Gmail

*Google, the Google logo, Gmail, Android and Android Market are trademarks of Google, Inc.

 

| Posted by Admin 26-Mar-2010

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Work on the Go
After trying out the Samsung OmniaPro B7330 for a few days, I think this is probably a businessman’s best friend. This palm-size smartphone features a QWERTY keypad, 320 x 320 resolution 65K Colours TFT LCD screen and has a battery life of up to 10 hours! And if your office email runs on Microsoft Exchange Server, you can easily reply to your emails and access your work calendar on the go.

Samung WizPro screen layout
While I am not a big fan of Windows Mobile, the Samung WizPro screen layout actually makes the whole experience more enjoyable.

For internet addicts like me, I am able to access various social networking websites such as Facebook, Youtube and Flickr at my finger tip under the communities section.

I can also create my own shortcut section on the Samsung WizPro screen layout! I can add any of my frequently accessed programs such as the Windows Live Messenger and Internet Sharing in this section. This certainly cuts down the number of steps to get to a frequently accessed program in Windows Mobile.

Camera
While this business phone doesn’t come with built-in flash, the 3.2 megapixels camera will come in handy when you have a discussion and the whole whiteboard is scribbled with the discussion points! By adjusting the ISO in the camera setting (up to ISO 400), you will be to take pictures even in low light conditions. But do note that this is a business phone. For better image quality, you may wish to consider the Samsung Pixon12 - I love its various camera modes and the image quality!

Shortcut keys
Personally, I love the “quick” key on the QWERTY keypad which is not found in most of the Windows Mobile Smartphones. It opens a menu of frequently accessed programs such as the Task Manager and Wireless Manager to save battery which are usually hidden under settings. It also allows you to switch between profiles in this menu.

By holding on to the space button, you will be able to switch your phone to slient mode without going into the phone profiles. To start a new sms, you can do it by pressing the button with the mnail Icon without going into the phone menu or the Samsung WidPro interface. You can also launch the Internet Explorer by pressing the button with the globe icon.

Micro USB Port/Headphone Jack
The only thing that one may dislike about this phone is the sharing of the micro usb port with the headphone jack as this phone doesn’t come with the typical 2.5mm or 3.5mm headphone jack. But come to think about it, such incident of using the handsfree set and doing data transfer is pretty rare as the micro SD card slot is easily accessible on the other side of the phone.

| Posted by victortan 08-Feb-2010

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