Our Newest Phone - Samsung's 32GB Galaxy SIII

Our Newest Phone - Samsung Galaxy SIII

Technorati Tags: Innovation, Computer, Internet, Blog, Digital, Mi-Fi, Wireless, Verizon, Samsung, Galaxy SIII, Smartphone, Android

Gather Tags: Innovation, Computer, Internet, Blog, Digital, Mi-Fi, Wireless, Verizon, Samsung, Galaxy SIII, Smartphone, Android

I have an update on the technology front, I just got a pretty cool update to my technology platform, the new Samsung Galaxy SIII smartphone in pebble blue.  I cannot fit everything into this blog about the Smartphone, so I will try to hit the highlights and what I thought is important, or perhaps interesting to you.

You may have seen my other technology upgrade in June - the Windows Phone 7.5 running on the Nokia Lumia 900.  Yes, I still have that phone, it will be the last AT&T phone I will probably own.  Don't get me wrong, what I said in the Blog is true about the Windows Phone 7.5, you won't be dissapointed with that selection if you want to experience a pure Microsoft setup - I still enjoy that phone completely.

Onto the Samsung Galaxy SIII smartphone.  I purchased the 32GB version this past weekend.  I also added the 16GB Micro SD card for external storage (key when taking pictures).  The unit has a usable 40GB of storage when combined with the internal RAM & external Micro SD card.  There is talk that it would support up to 64GB of RAM when the next version of Android is available.

The Marketing View of the Galaxy SIII from Samsung

As I am a stickler for standardization, I purchased one for my wife as well.  I know, a couple that has matching phones - how sickening!  ;-)

How it started...

The initiator for this migration to the Verizon offering was caused by two factors:

1. My wife's plan (iPhone) on AT&T was up for renewal, and;
2. I had the Verizon Mi-Fi that I have had for several years (see previous blog "Mi-Fi Fantastic!").  The data quality/delivery from Verizon has been excellent.

So far...

I have had the Samsung Galaxy SIII since this weekend and very impressed!  I was concerned that its primary function as a Mi-Fi would be underwhelming.  This is not the case as I have pumped over 500MB of data through tethering my laptop to it over the last 2 days.  It has worked just as good (if not better) than my Samsung JetPack 4G LTE.  I will surley blow my 8GB limit on the dataplan if I keep that up, but it is comforting to know that it can defintely serve out the Internet without issue.

As a Mi-Fi replacement, this phone gets a big thumbs up!

The Smartphone itself is very easy to use and when coupled with the Google products (Google+, Gmail, etc.), all of your contacts are easily available on the device.  I imported Hotmail, Windows Live, Yahoo! contacts and e-mail with great ease.  I cover some of the Google experience below.

My first couple of day's impression is excellent.

But what about the phone?  The phone also works very well, and with Verizon, I have yet to experience a dropped call, interference or other "telephony" issues with it.  The supplied ear-buds and microphone work really well together, people cannot tell I am on Cellular phone.

Here is a good shot of one Samsung hanging out with some Garlic, Salt, Pepper & Olive Oil:

A smartphone and its spices.

The Android Smartphone arena has really matured over the last two years.  I found no shortage of the applications that I had on the iPhone or now the Windows Phone 7.5 that Android did not have.  In many cases, the applications are better on Android now.

The real test about applications would be through my wife.  She has found every application she had on her iPhone, and she is still discovering them.  If my wife gives the Android application landscape a thumbs up, the Android market place has been doing something right.

When I hooked up the Galaxy SIII to my laptop, I was not expecting the complete ease of copying my multi-media items over to it.  It is simply "plug and play".  Windows 7 immediately installed the drivers, and Windows Media Player immediately detected the Galaxy SIII device as a Media Player, allowing me to select the songs, video and movies - synching them when I pressed the Synch button on the screen.  It really was that simple.

On the Macintosh, it is a little different.  The Samsung application "Kies" needs to be loaded onto the Macintosh to enable the logging of all your iTunes music, and then to synch it to the Galaxy SIII.  There are some minor interraction issues to resolve with Kies, but after some work arounds, it does copy music over.  Kies will also update firmware and generally manage the device well.

I tried Kies on my HP Windows 7 Laptop, and I had a few issues.  I had to back out of it and I will attempt again at a later date to get it working.  I think this is a great piece of software, but I think it still is a little buggy.  I think that Kies will be used for firmware and Android OS upgrade, so having it working will be key.  More on that on a different blog in the future!

Another application is the Samsung Allshare.  This application is something that I found particularly promising, as it has a way of making a private sharing network between your home devices, or any device on your network.  This will also work with your Samsung TV, so I can hardly wait to find out more about this and also play around.  I have a Samsung Refridgerator - Will my Galaxy SIII somehow communicate with it?  Time will only tell...

The Verizon Experience...

The Verizon staff at my local store were excellent at providing customer service, as my situation was by no means "typical".  Even though I have an account with Verizon it only had a Mi-Fi device, which was just 10 months old.  I did not have to pay anything else for the Samsung JetPack 4G LTE,  I could just keep it and if I wanted to use it on the account, I could re-register it at any time.  I will speak more about it it later, and how it works with Verizon's new "Share Everything Plan", which is what I upgraded to an 8GB/month plan for the two Smartphones.

This was a way to dump the single purpose Mi-Fi and wrangle a phone out of it that could not only be used to replace the Mi-Fi, but get some Android experience out of it as well.

Here is how the cost of this change sorted itself out.  I had two 32GB iPhone 4's to sell as their AT&T contracts were over.  Fortunately, the Verizon sales guy said they will buy them from me for $183.00 each.  That went a long way to covering the $249.00 cost of each Samsung Galaxy SIII.  So all in, I was spending about $66.00 for a 32GB phone.  That saved me some other costs like advertising those Apple iPhones for sale, or trying to sell them on eBay where there are extra fees, etc.  Verizon did not take any of the Apple accessories so I am free to give those away to my iPhone friends.  I am not upset with the iPhone, nor do I think the iPhone was bad - it was just time for a change. The new Verizon "Share Everything Plan" works great for my wife and I.

The SmartPhone...

The Galaxy SIII is a phone with a good sized screen, plenty of viewable real estate, yet it remains light and nimble in your hands.  The screen could be a bit brighter, but I solved that issue by turning off the "auto" brightness.  I just have it set for my eyes to see it, and it is crisp, clear and a pleasure to look at.  The screen is a 4.8-inch HD Super AMOLED display (with a 1,280x720-pixel resolution).  It is certainly clear enough for any multi-media experience.

The picture taking and video capability of the 8MP rear-facing camera is very good.  For a phone, it certainly replaces any small point-and-shoot cameras you may have, and I am seriously considering retiring my secondary camera (Canon PowerShot Elph 300HS).  There is not much point in carrying another camera, when this phone really takes great pictures, in both panoramic mode and single shot.  The movies it takes are also great.

But what about the phone again?  Yes, the "telephony" piece works just great!  :-)

I played around with the front-facing camera on Skype.  It works just as advertised.

The picture below is a picture of the picture of a Galaxy SIII



A Galaxy SIII in a cradle with a Picture of a Galaxy SIII.

As I mentioned previously, the Galaxy SIII is very easy to hold and use.  It does not seem like a large smartphone.  After the first few minutes of use, one becomes very familiar with it, and has no issue in manipulating it.

A great review of the phone can be seen on CNet.  Simply click on that link to go and see their review.  CNet reviews this as the #1 Android phone, and I can certainly see why.

The newest features that relate to the combination of OS and Smartphone would be the "S" features.  They are "S Beam" and "S Voice".  Both work fairly well.  S Beam allows you to mate up two Galaxy SIII's and transfer files, video and pictures between them.  S Voice allows you to talk to your Galaxy SIII and voice command it to find things and do stuff.  S Voice is Samsung's answer to Apple's Siri. I had good success with S Voice, but it does take some getting used to.

The Galaxy SIII has a dual-core processor, and it is extremely fast on any processing tasks thrown its way.  I saw no issue with any tasks the GS3 had to do, if there were any delays, it was network related, which is normal.

The Galaxy SIII operating system is Android "Ice Cream Sandwich", or also known as Android 4.0.4.  There is rumor that "Jelly Bean" will run on the Galaxy SIII, I will be sure to post again about that upgrade (called Android 4.1).  Ice Cream Sandwich is a great Android version to have, and it presents a lot of integrated features with the Google suite of products, and all of the other applications out there on Google Play.

So far I am impressed with the overall experience.

The Google Experience...

There is a lot to say here about the Google Experience that I cannot find any real detractors from.  Having an Android phone with the support of Google+, GMail and the other Google applications makes the overall use of the smartphone very "smart" and very "useful".

The use of Gmail as an aggregator for all my other e-mail accounts is just plain super.  I run about 8 - 10 e-mail accounts that span Windows Live, Hotmail, Yahoo, Mac and Gmail.  Gmail has a great feature that allows you to aggreate all of those accounts into Gmail, and they are immediately viewable on the Samsung Galaxy SIII.  I am still having some small issues in getting my Mac mail over, but I am positive it will be resolved soon.  The flexibility of the aggregator is impressive, and it offers a completely manual setup as well for those persnikety e-mail accounts you may not know how to get a hold of.

The contacts, tasks and calendar in Google is also very easily viewed on the Samsung Galaxy SIII as well.  After allowing Google to access the e-mail accounts I had, it arranged and formed for me an address book that I could easily go through, remove duplicates and enhance with additional information.

I also just started using Google+, but more on that later.  I have to say that the Samsung Galaxy SIII also does a great job running that application as well - just as it does all of the other Google applicaitons.

Summary

The smartphone is a hit.   I especially like the features when you have sharing to do with your family, and the software/hardware that enables that.  Taking a picture, and then in the next second sharing it with your spouse's Galaxy SIII is a great selling point.  The software that Samsung provides to hook this Galaxy SIII to your Samsung TV and PC is also good - I have only started to test out those integration points.

The support for it by the carriers is also very good, and you won't be left high and dry, without support for this phone.  Software support is also very good, with a lot of great features for working the Galaxy SIII into your home network.

If you are on the market for a good SmartPhone that you can easily see, and you don't mind "geeking out", then this is the right one for you.

Windows Phone - Nokia Lumia 900

Windows Phone - Pleasantly Surprised!

Technorati Tags:
Apple, Nokia, Lumia 900, Windows Phone, Android, Cell, CostCo, iPhone, Microsoft

 

My new Nokia Lumia 900 Windows Phone

I have not written in a while about technology so this weekend I got myself focused on a new phone upgrade.  My iPhone 4 is now 2 years old, and I thought I would re-evaluate where I am with mobile technology, and see where I come out.

In 2009 I completely bought into the Apple situation, and I was not dissapointed nor dissatisfied.  I enjoyed the engineering, clean lines and seamless operation of the Apple product lines.  Apple makes a great system, and clearly has the consumerism angle cornered for general technology use.  Anyone that is considering a new phone and does not want to have to deal with a lot of technology setup - the iPhone is for you.  The only downside to the iPhone is the size of the screen, Apple could really do something on making their screen larger.  Perhaps that is where a possible iPad 7" may fill that gap, if Apple thinks that is an option, but will it also have a phone?

Enter the Windows Phone: Nokia Lumia 900.

I spent some time clarifying my mobile technology needs, along with what financial hit my wallet could handle.  I found myself with a new take on my mobile direction due to being a heavy Microsoft user, who crunches financial and technology data constantly, as well as wanting to have as little cost impact as possible.

A major part of the decision was financial.   I did not want to pay for an "upgrade".  Gone are the days when you would get a "free upgrade", all of the cell/smart phone providers want you to spend that $149 or $249 for a new device.  From several AT&T stores I went to, as well as on-line, there was no "free upgrade" to be found.  I had my eye on the new Samsung Galaxy Note™, but at $249 to upgrade to it - I decided to pass.  The iPhone 4 still has a lot of great features, and at the end I would have been fine staying on the iPhone 4 for as long as it would take to find a "free upgrade".

I decided to stop into CostCo, after I saw their flyer that has advertised a bunch of mobile phone deals.  I asked "Where has the free upgrade gone?", and I was pleased to find a free Smart Phone upgrade!  It was the Nokia Lumia 900, which from AT&T costs $99 to upgrade to, but CostCo has a special on, a no cost upgrade if you are eligible.  That just made my day!  It also comes with a mobility package for CostCo customers that includes another mini-usb connector cable, charger, screen protectors and two different cases (that actually fit!).  In addition to the 30-day money-back guarantee - I could always return it - but it was free anyway.  I could just re-activate my iPhone if I really found the Nokia Lumia 900 un-bearable.  I was not dissapointed.

For a free phone upgrade I am certainly pleased!  The interface at least for me is intuitive, and very easy to navigate.  As with the iPhone, I am used to "killing" all of those applications that stay running in the background.  Not with the Windows Phone - There really is no reason to close application as the use of resources is negligible. If you just want to - you need to keep tapping the back arrow until all apps are closed and you are back on the start screen.  That works really well, and I have not found anything that really slowed down the phone.

It is very fast as well.  Compared to my iPhone 4, the new iPhone 4s as well from other 4G capable new phones I have tried it compares very well and in fact exceeds the performance of some.  I think I am getting good value for a free upgrade, getting comparible speed and memory for $0.

The IE experience is very smooth.  Rendering is not jagged or full of stops.  It could be the Verizon Mi-Fi I have (upgraded to the LTE 4G last year), but even when my iPhone uses the Mi-Fi, I found myself waiting around a lot - in some cases, not even rendering.  I usually would be forced to close my Safari application down, and restart it - but even then, the Safari experience is not the same.  My iPhone 4 is running iOS 5.

Do you also use Microsoft Office?  I have a hotmail account and I was surprised at how well it fully integrated everything I have, including access to the SkyDrive all onto this device.  Immediately upon activation (just like with the Apple exerpience with iCloud or MobleMe) every contact I had in Hotmail, and all documents on my SkyDrive were immediately available.  The better part of this was NO translation software between the Phone OS and applications and the regular Microsoft Suite of products.  I quickly uploaded some large spreadsheets from my laptop to the SkyDrive and then immediately opened them up on my Nokia Lumia 900 - they opened flawlessly, and quickly.  The Wi-Fi is a key determinant in that (heavy upload and download), so I would suggest that you have a large data plan, or invest in a separate Mi-Fi or Wi-Fi connection system to enable that experience.

The graphical experience along with the multi-media and the camera is a big upgrade.  the 4.3" AMOLED screen is bigger than the iPhone screen, and it is much brighter.  As far as Cameras go, it is a Carl Zeiss optics, 8 MP main camera, dual LED flash, Auto Focus while the 1 MP front camera for video calling is super clear and very responsive.  All around it is impressive.

I have seen some deals for this phone from AT&T and directly from Nokia for $49 if your eligible for an upgrade.  I think if you can find a retailer that is offering a "free upgrade", then this Nokia would be a great value for that price, launch you into a new and interesting platform, and keep your Windows documents, Excel spreadsheets and Live accounts all at your fingertips.

All I have to say is that I am pleasantly surprised.  No, it is not the "perfect device", but I doubt I will find that anyway.

Good luck everyone with your 2012 mobile purchases.  I have certainly found mine.

Reach out to me if you have any questions.