Didn't see anything about PhotoSphere although their promo has a 360 camera mode which I'm assuming is the same thing. They probably didn't demo it because they couldn't claim they invented it. They added a Cinegram like feature which seems pretty cool. You can make GIFs with it. Also the S Health seems like a good idea. Instead of needing a Nike fuel band or a Fitbit, the phone becomes the sensor.

 

god they couldnt have picked cheesier music

 

Wow got the utorrent app from the playstore. This is crazy. But after a downloading a song via h33t I tried getting more and the download won't start even with a ton of seeders. I left one file to d/l overnight and it was still at 0. DL set to unlimited. Apparently this is an issue as per the reviews.

 

Nevermind. Went with TTorrent. Easier to select files rather than d/l the whole torrent. So far for me this is killing iOS

 

Sucks that it still will in the same fragile casing... :/

 

Yep. tTorrent is awesome. Looks great and functions great.

I don't think fragile is the correct word. Plastic is fairly durable and is the primary reason Samsung is still using it and probably why it got so popular in the first place considering the 4 and 4S were fragile and a lot of people were turned off by that. They're also actually one of the few manufacturers that use impact points in their phones to decrease shattering. The battery cover is even designed to pop off when it hits the ground to distribute the impact properly. I know quite a few people with SIIIs, Notes I and II who have dropped their phones quite a few times and their phones have a few minor scratches. I think what you meant to say is cheap feeling which is still debateable since none of us probably have held one yet. Now the Nexus 4, that's a fragile phone from what I've read...

Just to add, the Nexus 10 has a plastic back as well just Samsung added a coating to it to have a better feel. Plastic =/= fragile.

 

So Samsung's announcement yesterday put itself in an odd place. Considering most of the features they announced yesterday could be added to the S III and Note II easily, I wonder if they'll omit some of them to make the S IV a compelling upgrade. If they do, they'll practically fragment their own skin by holding back certain features in the same manner Apple fragments their own devices by holding back certain features. (Siri, Navigation, etc.)

Also, they only mentioned Android maybe once during their whole presentation which is pretty interesting and it was only to mention that their phone was on Android 4.2.2. They even made their own translation app when Google Translate is capable of doing the same exact thing. Should be interesting to see what Samsung does in the future. Its almost like they're preparing to go off in their own way once they've got all the necessary apps to do so kinda like how Amazon forked Android. They already have their own app store and since they have the majority of the numbers Android users already, I wouldn't be surprised if the devs went that way as well considering that's where the money would be at...

 

Some apps on sale today for $0.99:

Modern Combat 4

Hunters: Episode One

GTA III: Anniversary Edition


Modern Combat 4 came with my MOGA Power A controller and I must say its a pretty good looking game. If you have a bluetooth controller to play it with its pretty fun. It has a multiplayer mode kinda like CoD.

http://youtu.be/GOx7qf8FEqw

 

so they bag on customers waiting in line for an iPhone yet they try to build the same type of hype for their products?

 

Throwing you guys a bone.... last night's unpacked event was subtitled "episode 1", episode 2 will be the Note 3, and episode 3 will be their first high end Tizen phone. Reason why they are still stuck on Gingerbread styled Touchwiz is so when Tizen is announced, no general consumer will know the difference.

 

Nope, I've meant fragile. Everyone I know with an S3 (and that's a lot of people), say they must baby the phone, and half of these people have cracked screens from light accidental drops...

The back cover is designed to breakaway? Yes, tell me more

 

^Tizen will probably help people wean off Android then they'll try to move them all off Android...

As far as the same looks of the IV as the III, you still have to give Samsung some credit as they were able to increase the screen size and resolution coming from the III while making it slimmer and slightly smaller than the S III. They even added a way faster processor and more tech (IR Blaster, Qi charging, hexaband LTE) than the previous gen. Russell Holly wrote up a great article on this:

http://www.geek.com/articles/mobile/...bump-20130315/


Some numbers:

S III: 136.6mm x 70.6mm 8.6mm, 133g


S IV: 136.6mm x 69.8mm x 7.9mm, 130g

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6832/s...ction-hands-on

 

Just so you guys know, the Motorola X Phone rumours that are about to be blasted all over the internet in a few are so ridiculous that if you believe them, you might need to see a head doctor, and you should PM me because I would like to sell you the entire North Pole.

 

GameKlip is giving away a free Note 2 case. Just have to pay shipping:

http://buy.thegameklip.com/products/free-note2-case


The cases apparently don't work on the GameKlip because of the coating so they want to get rid of them. They look similar to the Incipio Feather cases for the Note 2.

 

I bought another case but I will try for $2.25. Thx

 

I concur with your statement. My phone took such a small hit. Also theres this small looking crack on the back. The bottom of the plastic cover has chipped as well. My NS took about 100 times the amount of beating this phone has been through and it just had the screen crack a lot later in life.

Talking about the configurable hardware that goes beyond storage??

Can someone clarify this for me. The X phone is not going to be part of the Nexus program, is it??

 

GMail just got an update to allow Archiving/Deleting/Replying to e-mails straight from the Notification bar!

http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2013/0...gmail-app.html

http://www.theverge.com/2013/3/18/41...-notifications


Been waiting for this feature. Just like how they do it for Text Messages. Now I wish they added a Read button like how CM 10.1 added it for Text messages since you can sorta read the e-mail from the Notification bar without opening up GMail. Love that feature as it allows me to read texts from the notification bar and mark them as being read without having to unlock the phone.

 

DO NOT UPDATE if you have Light Flow installed! LF will crash uncontrollably.

 

What's "Light Flow"?

 

^Its an app that allows you to specify the LED color for notifications. I'm using the built-in LED notifier in CM. Its not as customizable as Light Flow but it works fine so the Light Flow dev will probably push an update to fix the crashing.

 

this looks really interesting...

 

PSA: The Gmail update LightFlow unlimited crashing bug has been fixed. That was fast

Apparently LightFlow's dev got bombarded with 100,000 emails in 5 hours all due to the bug lol.

 

Da Vinci Code for free on the Play Store:

https://play.google.com/store/books/...feature=banner

 

Thx

 

Here's a very good read about how US phone carriers screw people over with subsidies (The phone you're paying for but not getting):

http://www.phonescoop.com/articles/article.php?a=12102

If T-Mobile ever gets their whole new uncarrier like carrier value plans going with actual coverage, I'll be jumping ship. USA needs to become like other countries carriers where they battle out over plans and trending downwards in prices not upwards.

 

Ive gotta say Im more then pleased with TMo. Yea the coverage can be a bit weak at times, but AT&T doesnt have service where TMo doesnt either. Im paying $63 a month for unlimited minutes/texts and 2GB of data (throttled past that). Verizon couldnt come close to that.

 

I own a gs3 on verizon had it for over 2 months now.. it's my 4th droid definitely the snappiest. I feel like the upgrade from the gs3 to the sIV is mainly all software.. and like you pointed out it will probably all be easily ported over to the S3 so why update. I'm running the PACMAN Rom right now which isn't even touchwiz (http://forum.xda-developers.com/show....php?t=2028443). so until a phone really updates the hardware specs/design I don't see a need to upgrade


I've had a small case on mine for it's life so far. A cruzer lite one.. dropped many times on hard surfaces and its bounced around no cracks or anything maybe I'm just lucky the most durable phone I had was the Moto Droid 2.. so heavy and made of metal it didn't really scratch never cracked or broke or anything. I want the Xperia Z on verizon

 

was just talking about this with my friends. We were talking about how it only makes sense if you upgrade each time its not necessary, but something like buying a Nexus phone where its already subsidized would be good.

Yea T-mobile isn't that bad. But its def not great either. I get bad service at USC. Dont see why it should be bad there. Building penetration is bad with t-mobile.

 

Except that buying a Nexus phone at full price means you are paying money every month for a subsidized phone you never upgraded to. I think the better play if you go the Nexus or use an unlocked phone route is to just grab the latest free phone you can get with an upgrade and then sell it to recoup losses........... unless Nexus gets on carriers again (stupid Verizon)_.

 

Anyone play with Google Keep yet?

http://youtu.be/UbrI20JcVVs

https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...e.android.keep


Haven't had the chance to try it yet but I can see this replacing my Tasks app once you can have it schedule reminders.

 

Play Store 4.0 Preview:

http://youtu.be/3VL-R4RPx3Q

http://www.droid-life.com/2013/03/20...y-version-4-0/


Design language reminds me a lot of Google Now. Looks pretty nice though. Can see this being the direction for KLP. AndroidPolice is working on a teardown to see what new features are coming up.

 

I meant buying a nexus on a plan that doesnt include subsidized costs like tmobiles value plan.

Yup already got it to replace my tasks app. Its nothing to powerful, but I dont need a powerful note app. Just glad google finally got a native note app. Now they can integrate it eventually.

 

The app is really nicely designed and very fast. I can see them integrating it with Google Glass. Simply just tell glass to take a Note and boom Keep will take it for you. It also works well with Google Now and even keeps an audio recording of said notes. Just need a scheduled reminder of some sort then it could totally replace Tasks for me. Overall though gotta like the design direction Google is heading especially with the new Play Store. Holo all of the things!

 

Did you guys see the review by TechnoBuffalo on the HTC One:


http://www.technobuffalo.com/reviews/htc-one-review/

They really loved the device. Looks like the One is truly what a flagship phone should be. I'm actually thinking about picking one up since the Z kinda disappointed and the S4 is well the S4. If Moto or Google doesn't drop any good stuff by I/O I think I know what I'm gonna be picking up.

I just hope HTC will release their sources on time so the CM team has something to work with. Can't be worse than the Exynos I guess since Qualcomm is pretty good about their sources. Just worried that we won't be seeing the drivers for the Ultrapixels so camera is probably gonna be unusable for AOSP ROMs. I hope HTC proves me and everyone else wrong.

 

Not sure how many of you guys are following Vic Gundotra on G+ but he's been posting pictures taken from his Google Glass and they've been getting better and better in quality. (https://plus.google.com/photos/10711...3/albums/posts) Not sure if they're getting better materials or better software. Any way, his latest shot is here:

https://plus.google.com/107117483540...ts/VhQxSG2y6y9

 

Anything that requires a date I just stick it in the calendar for now. I did that even when I had tasks haha.

If they can add scheduled reminders and even location based like siri does, that would be cool.

 

Here's a question. WHats the point of the play store wish list?

 

Its a list of things you want to grab later or a bookmark. Kinda like if you're low on funds at the moment or just want to remind yourself to get the app later. I'm guessing in the future you would be able to share it to your friends kinda like how Amazon and Newegg does it so your friends/family members can buy you whatever's on that list if they're nice enough for Secret Santa and the like.

 

Oh thanks.

I guess I don't have much use for it then. I thought it would notify you if your app goes on sale also or something like that. They should add that haha

 

Does it work for books and music too? That would make sense... A wish list of music, movies and books...