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Friday, April 22, 2011

Exactly how boring is the Samsung Galaxy II S?

Mark Bridge writes:

In July last year I wrote about the ‘geek porn’ of unboxing being taken to a new level with celebrity unboxing (which sounds rather like a challenge from a reality TV show).

Sony Ericsson had persuaded Maria Sharapova to give her first impressions of the X10 Mini Pro. The end result was entertaining, if not insightful.

And now Samsung have added a new facet to the trend with ‘extreme unboxing’. They’re promoting the UK launch of the Samsung Galaxy II S by throwing Dan Sung from Pocket-lint out of an aircraft clutching their smartphone, by putting TechDigest’s Gerald Lynch on a rollercoaster and by sitting Chris Davies from Slashgear.com in a rally car. There’s also a speedboat trip, a stunt plane and some abseiling.

Oh yes, it’s entertaining. However, all this doesn’t really have much to do with the phone. Sure, the Galaxy II S is ‘fast’ - but not in the sense of plummeting to earth or the 0-60 speed of a Subaru. And that doesn’t do the phone any favours if you think about it.

After all, if the best way to promote a product is through a variety of sensational videos that don’t really reflect the phone’s specifications and features, your audience could easily assume the product itself isn’t very interesting.

By all means show me a rugged phone on a mountain or a waterproof phone in an aquarium.

But when you have a versatile smartphone, please show me the versatility of the phone. Otherwise I might get the impression you don’t have much to talk about.

Okay, so I’m a little jealous of Chris in the Subaru. And I really shouldn’t grumble because there was much more ‘tech talk’ at the official launch of the phone in Barcelona. If you’d like to hear my interview with Jim Powell of Samsung at Mobile World Congress, click here or find us on iTunes.
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Opinion Articles

Last week at The Fonecast: 24th June 2013

More of the same

Mark Bridge writes:

Another week, another couple of product announcements from Samsung. There appears to be no stopping them, despite a recent drop in the company’s share price.

This time it’s a couple of tablets – one of which runs both Android and Windows 8 – and a 20 megapixel camera that’s got a 4G-enabled Android device built in.

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Last week at The Fonecast: 17th June 2013

Making the network truly mobile

Mark Bridge writes:

The telecommunications industry was making plenty of headlines last week – but much of it wasn’t particularly upbeat.

The debate about privacy and security continued in the wake of allegations about US agents intercepting internet traffic. Meanwhile, Nokia prepared to make its last Symbian smartphones and Tradedoubler warned that mobile devices were having a negative effect on high-street consumer loyalty.

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How to shield from internet snooping

George Putic of voanews.com writes:

When news broke about U.S. government agencies collecting metadata about its citizens’ Internet and phone communications, many were surprised by its scope. The surveillance covered a vast number of Internet messages and phone calls. The government did not deny the action but pointed out that the collected data contained, not the substance of the communication, but the so-called metadata.

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Giving it all away

Paying with our privacy

Mark Bridge writes:

There’s been a lot of talk recently about PRISM, which may allow the US National Security Agency - and anyone they choose - to access some of our personal online information if it passes through the USA. It’s unclear exactly what (if anything) is being shared with whom… and given the nature of national security, we may never know.

However, alongside the possibility of governments seeing information we thought was secure, it’s also worth pointing out that we choose to share plenty of online information ourselves.

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6 things you need to know about mobile research, smartphone rumours and imaginary new products

Mark Bridge writes:

Where did it all go wrong?  When did the mainstream mobile industry start to slide away from innovation and into repetitive nonsense?  For a while I suspected the downloadable ringtone was to blame. Just days after hearing 'Barbie Girl' on the mobile phone of a man from Vodafone Value Added Services in the late 1990s, I'd downloaded a poptastic tune to my own Nokia 2110. Soon, the entire mobile world was focussed on 30-second instrumentals instead of technical innovation. It was the beginning of the end.

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