Tag: Android

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Samsung Launches New Phone, Dubbed Tonolith

ImageYesterday, Samsung announced that it started production on the Galaxy Giant, a 58.3-inch  Android smartphone that stands almost five feet tall. The phone packs a 1.4GHz Snapdragon processor, 16GB of onboard memory, and the usual layer of TouchWiz. Samsung made it clear that “this is not a tablet or television. It’s simply a large smartphone that we know our customers will love.” Cynics, who felt that the “phablet” definition no longer applies, have dubbed the device a “tonolith,” after the large obsidian slab featured in Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 film, 2001: A Space Odyssey. Continue reading “Samsung Launches New Phone, Dubbed Tonolith”

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The Future is in Your Queue

netflixThere is a great metric by which companies’ success can be measured. Effectively, if the name of a corporation’s good or service becomes interchangeable with the product category as a whole, the company’s product – or at least its marketing – is probably pretty successful. Older examples would be the use of the word “Xerox” as a verb, or “Kleenex” as a catchall for tissues. In our generation, the use of “Google” as a verb is likely the best example.

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The Shotgun

I’ve written about Samsung’s shotgun approach to production vis-a-vis the Note – a different strokes for different folks view, as opposed to Apple’s one size fits all philosophy – and, over at Slate, Farhad Manjoo reiterates as much. Hit up the link for more. Continue reading The Shotgun

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The Samsung Galaxy Note II is So Big, It’s Stupid

Samsung-Galaxy-NoteHere at Ben & David, we’re pretty tolerant of most things. We don’t mind if you’re short or tall, Democratic or Republican, fans of Michael Bay films or just people who like movies with substance. However, we have a low tolerance for smartphone foibles, and chief among them, the Android industry’s insistence on using virtually pornographic names for their phones. Samsung, it’s been pointed out, makes great phones – Ben owns a Galaxy SII – but does an awful job naming them. In fact, the company’s greatest coup in 2012 was likely shifting their marketing parlance from”Galaxy S III” to simply “GS3.” Short, sweet, and totally appropriate for children under age 17.

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Dear Android, Its About Time We Had This Talk

My official Android gripe of the day is autocorrect. I am not sure why, after five years of development and feedback from hundreds of millions of users, Android still does not automatically correct “Its” to “It’s.”  I’d wager that 70% of “its” usage is in contraction, not object-possession, form. And yet, somehow, the error persists. … Continue reading Dear Android, Its About Time We Had This Talk