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Technology or Nerd Central

Samsung Unpacked 2013 Episode 2 (Recap of the event- Review to come later)

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Today I watched the entire Samsung Event LIVE from Berlin.

Let’s see what Samsung is “Unpacking” here with this event!

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First up is the next evolution of the Galaxy Note. The Galaxy Note 3.

It is said to be Slimmer, Lighter, Larger, Faster, Longer Battery Life.

You get true multitasking with being able to use more than one application at once.

It is coming with Samsung Knox new security system.

They are offering it with Catagory 4 LTE over multiple Carriers.

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And then they bring out the Galaxy Gear. A watch the works in tandem with your phone. You can make and receive calls through the phone hands free. Gives you Text messages and emails. Giving you “Smart Freedom” to work with your Galaxy Note 3.

Then the President of Mobile busted out the Note 10.1 edition. It has all the capability of the Note 3 but on a larger screen.

The Galaxy Note 3 and Gear will be launching on September 25th and the Note 10.1 launching in October.

Now comes a more comprehensive demonstration of the power of these new devices.

They didn’t make the device wider but they made the screen wider. There is a leather back that hugs your skin. The colors are Black, White and Pink. The S Pen fits in the top. There are various cases and flip covers that you can get for it.

Then they went into the S Pen features which are integrated into more functions than just using it as a pen.

They break down the “Action Memo” where you can write a memo with a name and number and the handwriting recognition software can translate the name and number into a contact. Pretty neat.

Using the “Circle” function you can save any content you want scrapbook style in your phone that you categorize. And it captures not only the small section of the webpage that you were keeping but the original link that the content came from.

There is a new S note with a more intuitive than before, easier layering and writing capability. The content will sync to your PC, Tablet or another phone. You get Evernote premium for 1 year.

Showing the multitasking capability they do a demo of being able to use the same app twice at the same time. The demo was chatting to two people at once, side by side and being able to copy and paste conversations between them with ease.

Pen Window is another way to make two apps run at the same time. You draw a box, whatever size you want and then you can make the other app run in the box you have just created.

New native app “My Magazine” collects all the things you want to follow and places them all in one place.

Now there is Multi Vision for the note. You can put together 2 or more Note 3s together to create a bigger screen to watch something on video.

The next demo is all about “Gear” and how it works with your phone so that you can get all notifications without taking your phone out of your pocket.

When you receive an email and look at it on your gear if you need to look at it on a bigger screen you just pick up your Note and it is automatically displayed there. There is voice command capability and motion recognition. When you get a call, you just raise your hand to your head and you are talking. Gear has a camera as well. You can point your wrist and take a picture. But it is moving toward integrations with augmented reality, like taking a picture of a sign in a foreign language and having it translate that for you. There are a series of apps that work along with it too.

Back to the Note 3 13mp camera on the back and 9mp on the front. You can take 4K videos from the phone. LED flash and stabilizer. 24 bit Audio files. Comes standard with 3 gigs of Ram. Battery life is 40% more or 4 hours longer.

Samsung Knox security keeps your private data private. It has a 2.4 Quad core processor and will be available in October for sale.

Then they start to talk about the Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 tablet. There is a new backing for the tablet to match the Note 3. It is lighter than previous editions. Ultra High Definition Screen. Now they will have Samsung hub for Tablets. Multitasking works just a seamlessly with the Tablet. The S Pen works the same on the Tablet. Running Jelly Bean 4.3.

Ice Ice BABY!! On Mercury??? WHAT?

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Who would have thought that one day we would have confirmation that there was ICE on Mercury. I don’t even know how that planet hasn’t burned to a cinder being that close to the sun. I mean in Souther Cali, where I reside, when it is 115 it FREAKS MY FREAK and I have to eat a gallon of ice to stay cool. And the ice MELTS before I can eat it all. But somehow MERCURY has ICE!! This really is amazing!!

 

The DVR- The single greatest invention of the last century. (Maybe)

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When I was a kid there was really only one option if you wanted to watch a show, be the one with the remote. There was no way to watch more than one show at once. There was no way to watch one at 7pm and then watch another that was also on at 7 later. Then the VCR came around and for those of us lucky enough to have more than one TV (Shocking I know that our houses weren’t chock a block filled with TV’s in every room as it is now.) then you could “Tape” one show in another room and all watch something in the Family room together.

 

So slowly but surely our house got more TV’s and more VCR’s so that we could tape shows to watch later. Now with the DVR that is pretty much handled. You can record (depending on what service you have) up to 4 shows at once. And in some cases watch those shows back on any TV in your house. Well, with my childhood background the obsession shouldn’t really come as a shock to anyone that I have 3 DVR’s in my house that are all Networked so I can in fact watch any of the 300 hours of HD programming from any TV in my house. Some of you out there may think, “3 DVR’s! That is WAY over the top.” Well yes and no.

Just a little tidbit about me personally, I am happily married to my gorgeous husband of 5 years and I have 2 beautiful son’s. The 4 of us live generationally in the same house with my parents. I have 1 DVR in the Family room, 1 in my Mom’s room and the other in my Father’s room. My Dad never uses it at all so it just acts as extra storage. My Mom’s is filled with TCM movies. Mine, however, there is no excuse for. I am actively, recording 40 shows. Yes I said 40. And that is before I even get in to the new fall lineup. So there will be an even greater need for the 3rd DVR. I am desperately trying to catch up on all the shows from the summer now before fall madness starts. That is no easy feat when you are a stay at home mother of 2 and are working in my “spare” time on renovating my house. I am literally staining 1000’s of square feet of fence when I am not typing here.

Thus my admiration for the DVR. I couldn’t watch everything without it!

iTunes 10 Download Debug

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I like many other excited nerds out there were eagerly awaiting the launch of iTunes 10 but every time I went to download it it kept telling me “Coming soon.” or even worse it would day “iTunes 10” and then download the 9.2.1 version. If this is happening to you just keep refreshing your screen. It takes a few times but then you will get it. I have just registered for Ping and so far it is fantastic and 100 times faster to get started on than any other social networking site.

Apple Live Streaming Keynote iPhone, iPad, iPod, & iTunes Oh my!

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For all of you out there who don’t have a Mac and didn’t get to see the live stream here is a play by play of the releases.

iPhone : HDR photos look fantastic. Once again Apple has figured out how to make pictures even easier and better looking with just a touch of a button.

Game center: Links you up to invites and sharing and there seem to be some really sweet new games coming out for multi player.

iPad: Wireless Printing!!!!! Finally!

Air tunes becomes Airplay! You can now stream more than music wirelessly! Movies, Music, Photos and TV.

 

 

IOS 4.2 coming out in November for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch.

New iPod Shuffle, Buttons, voice over and Playlists. Clip and go! $49

New iPod Nano Smaller, multi touch, Clip on the back, Voice Over, Nike +, 24 hour battery life, Photos! Customizable icons, rotatable screen! $149 8Gig $179 16 Gig.

New iPod Touch Thinner, Retina Display, Apple A4 Chip, 3 Axis Gyro, Facetime with front Camera, Rear Camera with HD recording, 40 hour battery life for music playback. Edit Videos on the phone, Facetime between iPods and iPhones! $229 8Gig $299 32 Gig $399 64 Gig.

All available next week.

iTunes10 New Logo, Simpler, more elegant, new list view with cover art. Ping, social network for music. Twitter and Facebook meet iTunes. Follow your favorite artists and friends and see what music they are listening to and what they are doing. Steve Jobs calls it a “Social music discovery.” Ping available for Mac, PC, iPhone and iPod Touch. Available today for download!

New Apple TV:  Smaller, HDMI output, Ethernet and WiFi. Remote. HD shows when available. Rentals only no purchases. Rental prices are low. Streaming videos, photos and music. No syncing. Silent and cool. $4.99 for first run HD movies. ¢99 for HD TV Shows, commercial free ABC & Fox for right now. More to come. Stream Netflix to the Apple TV. Stream You Tube and get photos from Flickr and Mobile Me as well as pod casts. Listen to all your music from your computer on your TV. Using the new Airplay you can stream from your iOS device eg iPad to your Apple TV. $99 available in 4 weeks. Pre order today!

Bonus for everyone there and me Chris Martin of Coldplay LIVE!

Once again Apple is rolling out innovation in massive doses. There is a reason why the iPod destroyed the Walkman. It is just too good. Look for me on Ping as soon as I can get the download!