Post Published on March 14, 2013.
Last Updated on April 3, 2016 by davemackey.
I didn’t buy the original iPhone, I figured I’d wait for the technology to mature. I did buy the iPhone 3G, in fact my wife is still using it to this day (though I recently bought her an iPhone 5 which we will be transferring over to momentarily). I enjoyed my iPhone, it was a device ahead of its time, breaking barriers and making way for greater innovations to come…but then I replaced my iPhone with a Verizon Droid and since then I have never looked back.

That said, in spite of having a number of nice Android phones (mainly b/c my employers paid for my cell service and I received discounted pricing through corporate pricing packages) it wasn’t until the Samsung Galaxy S3 that I finally felt satisfied. I love it – and as the months have passed by it hasn’t shown the same degradation in performance I noticed with previous Android phones.
Tonight’s big news in the technology world is the public presentation of the Samsung Galaxy S4…and boy does it look fine! I’ll share with you what I’m excited about regarding the phone and then provide a bibliography for further reading…
- It will be available on Ting, an MVNO, meaning we can finally get high quality smartphones on low-cost MVNO’s!
- It has a 1.9 GHz quad core processor.
- The dual camera mode which will allow the photographer to still be in group photos.
- Dual Video Call will be useful when attempting to demonstrate technology processes while also providing face time.
- S Health which tracks calorie burn, heart rate, and pulse…and hopefully a lot more soon.
- S View which protects the screen while also allowing one to receive important info.
- Knox for separating work from personal phone usage in a single device.
- S Health – Especially the S Band Bracelet (monitors steps, calories burned, and sleep quality), HRM (Heart Rate Monitor), and a body scale (e.g. weight scale plus some). The devices are reasonably priced from $69-$99/ea.
- Mobeam – Which allows one to use barcodes on the phone with traditional barcode scanners at retailers, no need for NFC or QR codes.
- GamePad – Somewhat like an Xbox controller which attaches to one’s smartphone and allows you to play games…this could significantly expand the types of games one can play on a phone.
I don’t particularly care about:
- The bigger display.
- The better resolution.
- The 13-MP camera (8 MP is fine for me).
- Air Gesture / Air Wave.
- Eraser.
- Group Play.
- S Translate – How about a quality voice-to-text dictation method? Google Voice is still inept.
- S Voice Car – This could be cool, but I need to get a mount for my car before this would really be useful.
Bibliography:
- Joe Wilcox. Meet Samsung Galaxy S IV. BetaNews, March 14, 2013.
- Devindra Hardawar. Hands-on with the Galaxy S IV: The most comfortable 5-inch phone yet. VentureBeat, March 14, 2013.
- Devindra Hardawar. Galaxy S IV: The new Android standard is all about killer software. VentureBeat, March 14, 2013.
- Sean Ludwig. A play-by-play of Samsung’s huge Galaxy S IV event at Radio City Music Hall. VentureBeat, March 14, 2013.
- Christina Warren. Samsung Unveils the Galaxy S 4. Mashable, March 14, 2013.
- Jordan Crook. Samsung Galaxy S 4 Beats The Best With 5-inch, 1080p Display, 1.9GHz Processor, Gesture Controls And A Q2 2013 Release. TechCrunch, March 14, 2013.
- Darrell Etherington. Samsung Debuts S View Cover For Galaxy S 4 With Integrated Display Window. TechCrunch, March 14, 2013.
- Darrell Etherington. Samsung Launches New Version Of S Health, Complete With S Band Step Tracking Wristband. TechCrunch, March 14, 2013.
- Brian S. Hall. Samsung Galaxy S4 Unveiled: Spectacular Specs & Innovative Features. ReadWrite, March 14, 2013.
- Larry Dignan. Samsung’s Galaxy S4 first to launch with B2B tool Knox. ZDNet, March 14, 2013.
- Kevin C. Tofel. Samsung Galaxy S 4 hands-on shows nice hardware but software is the star. GigaOm, March 14, 2013.
- Kevin C. Tofel. Live blog: Samsung unveils the Galaxy S 4. GigaOm, March 14, 2013.
- Kevin Fitchard. Samsung isn’t playing favorites: MVNO Ting will get the Galaxy S 4 right away. GigaOm, March 14, 2013.
- Mihaita Bamburic. Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 powers the quad-core Samsung Galaxy S IV. BetaNews, March 16, 2013.
- Andrew Cunningham. Samsung’s Exynos 5 Octa: Checking out the chip inside the Galaxy S 4. Ars Technica, March 16, 2013.
- Lance Ulanoff. Samsung’s Galaxy S4 Is Great But No iPhone Killer. Mashable, March 15, 2013.
- Dan Rowinski. Samsung Galaxy S4 First Impressions: Beautiful But Bloated [Gallery]. ReadWrite, March 14, 2013.
- Larry Dignan. Samsung’s Galaxy S4 launch makes Google’s Nexus smartphones more critical. ZDNet, March 15, 2013.
- Jonah Comstock. Samsung previews health app, new trackers with S4 launch. mobilhealthnews, March 15, 2013.
- John Coetsier. Samsung’s Galaxy S IV will mark the beginning of the end of Samsung’s smartphone dominance. VentureBeat, March 15, 2013.
- Devindra Hardawar. Mobeam makes the Galaxy S IV the first phone to support typical barcode scanners. VentureBeat, March 15, 2013.
- John Koetsier. Google and Samsung: With partners like these, who needs enemies? VentureBeat, March 15, 2013.
- Andrea Smith. Samsung Galaxy S 4 Is Your Personal Fitness Tracker. Mashable, March 15, 2013.
- Amy-Mae Elliott. 11 Samsung Galaxy S 4 Accessories to Get You Pumped. Mashable, March 15, 2013.
- Michael Seo. Samsung Unveils A Bluetooth Wireless Gaming Controller For The Galaxy S 4. TechCrunch, March 14, 2013.
- Chris Velazco. Samsung Pumps Up The Galaxy S 4′s Keyboard With Some Of SwiftKey’s Text Input Tech. TechCrunch, March 15, 2013.