Samsung i8910 Omnia HD Review: It’s a Media Monster

Samsung has its eyes set on the number one mobile handset manufacturer spot. It has been pumping out handsets by the dozen (almost) recently in its bid to get ahead in that race. While it certainly has been gaining more popularity in recent times, it certainly has a long way to go. With the likes of the iPhone 3GS, the HTC Touch Pro2 and the Palm Pre, it is not going to reach the top spot any time soon. Not to mention the slowly emerging Android phones that are really making their presence felt.

Samsung’s latest attempt is the i8910 Omnia HD phone that has a lot of things going for it. It is a rather large phone. I mean it is positively huge when compared to other phones like it. But is also a phone that packs a lot of punch when it comes to media capabilities. You don’t have to take my word for it really, just look at the AMOLED screen and the HD camera that it comes with. Yes, that is an AMOLED screen. So should you expect all the great things you that you have heard about AMOLED? Continue to the other side to find out.

Specifications

Processor: 600Mhz

RAM: 256MB

Internal Memory: 16GB

Expansion: MicroSD

Sensor: Accelometer, Proximity Sensor

Camera: 8MP, LED flash, Video Recording, Video calls

Battery: 1500mAh

Compass: Yes

OS: Symbian v9.4, Series 60 5th Edition

Form Factor: Candy bar

Network: HSDPA (900/1900/2100), GSM Quadband (850/900/1800/1900), Integrated GPS, EDGE Class 12, FM RDS, GPRS

Display: Touch Screen, 360×640, 16 million, OLED

Talk Time: 10 hours

Stand-by time: 430h

Connectivity: USB 2.0, Bluetooth 2.0, 3.5mm Audio Connector, HDMI out

Build

The build of the Samsung i8910 HD is pretty solid. It feels every bit as tough as it ought to be to take regular abuse. The chassis is a large one and weighs more than your average smartphones. However, at 148g it is not heavy enough to make you feel uncomfortable while using it.

Design
The phone has a simple minimalistic design without any extra graphics or accents. There is a chrome ring around the display and the face is mostly taken up by the large 3.7 AMOLED display. The three buttons on the face have a low profile and also chrome finished. The phone has a shiny black finish and the camera is quite prominently displayed on the back along with the flash.
The expansion slot for microSD cards is on the left side of the phone along with the volume keys. The right side has the lock button, the camera key (activate/shutter) and a micro USB port. The top has a covered 3.5mm headphone out.
Display
The display on the Samsung i8910 is actually one of its strong points. You pay for the AMOLED display with the price and the bulk but it is worth it. The bright and vibrant screen brings images and videos to life. Webpages also look great on the screen. However, despite all the talk about AMOLED being really bright, it does not remain very usable under direct sunlight.
The 3.7inch display is a capacitive touchscreen, so it is free from the hang-ups that resistive touch screens like the ones on the Touch Pro2 and the N97 face. The accelerometer works well and the switch is almost immediate. The proximity sensor locks the phone from accidental inputs when it detects that you are holding the phone very close like when you are on a call. The accelerometer is available withinin all the apps.
UI
The TouchWiz interface that was debuted in the earlier touch phones from Samsung, receives an upgrade in the i8910. There is the same tray on the side that allows you to drag and drop apps to your home screen for quick access. Now however, you have two more panels to work with so that your home screen does not get crowded and cluttered. There are also more apps to choose from thanks to the expansion that Samsung has made to the app catalogue.
There is a permanent toolbar that is positioned at the bottom of the screen. It gives you instant access to the phone app, contacts. Text entry can be done via an onscreen keyboard in the landscape mode or through an alphanumeric one in the portrait mode.
Performance

The  Samsung i8910 Omnia HD is a media centric device. It has an 8-megapixel camera that can record HD video. The camera has six shooting modes, 14 scene settings and 8 resolutions to choose from. There is also ISO and blink detection. You can also record video in one of the four available resolutions. Features like image correction, white balance and Wide Dynamic range are available while shooting both still and video.
The picture quality of the i8910 is rather impressive. The images shot with the phone are extremely sharp and well defined and the colors are accurate. The richness of the colors could’ve been a bit more pronounced. This can be corrected afterwards though.
Video on the i8910 is also pretty good. The videos come out with great clarity and without too much blurring and pixelation. In bright sunlight however, the video may be overexposed.
The built-in media browser makes for an easy way to browse around for the photos and videos that are present on the phone. The accelerometer lets you browse by tilting the phone left or right. You can also upload directly to social networks like Facebook, MySpace, etc. The DLNA standard is also supported for hooking it up with a TV that has DLNA.
The i8910 supports all the common audio and video formats. So you won’t run short of entertainment on the device. With 5.1 surround sound, an equalizer, sound effects and visualizations, this is one great phone for media applications.
Conclusion
If you have the budget for it and want to carry around a full-blown media-playing device with an HD camcorder in it, the Samsung i8910 Omnia HD will work for you.

T-Mobile BlackBerry Onyx press image leaks out

The BlackBerry Onyx hasn't exactly kept itself a secret in the past few months, so it's no surprise that we're seeing what looks to be the official press image and release from T-Mobile well before the handset's launch. No big surprises here, really -- it's still a 3G mashup of the Bold and the Curve 8900 with that new optical trackball -- but apparently RIM's preloading it with the Amazon MP3 store, so that's slightly interesting. From what we can tell, it's due in early November, but pricing is still a mystery -- hopefully RIM and T-Mobile have saved the best surprise for last.

Kingston unveils 256GB thumb drive for well-heeled memory fiends

We're sure that it's only a matter of moments before a 256GB thumb drive this bulky is something of a joke -- hell, it wasn't so terribly long ago that cramming 256MB into something this size was an accomplishment. That said, if you're a netbook user looking for a storage bump, it looks like Kingston's got your back: this guy boasts transfer rates of up to 20 MB/sec. read and 10 MB/sec. write, and for all of you Vista fans, supports Windows ReadyBoost. Now, for the bad news: only available in Europe and the UK, and custom made upon your order (presumably after the check clears) this modern technological marvel will run you £565.67 ($924).

IFA news: Samsung OLED laptop in Q3 '10

About a year ago, we had a fortune to become witness of the first OLED panel going into mass production. Back then it was a hi-tech exhibition, and, well, the story has repeated, almost. Today at the first day of IFA Berlin Samsung’s Head of Worldwide Sales and Marketing, who is Kyu Uhm of course, has given us a deem view of what will be a show stopper in a year – a (first) OLED notebook.

I am not going to speak all about his speech at IFA. Instead, let’s just have a walk through what an OLED display on a notebook can offer and take. One glance back though: Kyu Uhm has mentioned an expected growth of netbook market. In short, what he effectively said was: "We are making an OLED netbook". How good is that? If we think of power consumption, then it makes even more sense than putting an OLED display in a standard-sized laptop. What are main juice lovers in a PC? – screen, hard drive and processor. Same thing with size and weight. Organic diodes are really thin and light. Besides being overly magnificent to behold. So the future of personal computing, which is coming from Samsung in late Q3 of 2010, is a netbook with an OLED panel, SSD and low voltage processor. I like that. If only they give it out for netbook money, which I’m afraid they won’t.

You might have though the picture above is familiar to you. Yes, it is not new and not true. It’s a last year concept.

Getting unwanted message protection (preventing download)

Today, i am sharing you all of my problem as well as i solved that.
Outlook and Outlook Express have gone Big Brother on you, preventing you from downloading program files and other e-mail attachments. If you are facing problems something like this? So, what to do?

By default, recent version of Outlook block you from opening certain types of attachments including .exe and .vbs files, that are capable of infecting your PC with a virus or another intruder. To changethis setting in Outlook, select Tools>>Option>>Mail Setup>>send/receive>>Edit>>Download complete item including attchments. Another approach is to use the free Attchments Option utility; it gives you more granulat control, letting you specify which types of attachments should be allowed to download with the message.

If you are suffering the same restrictions in Outlook Express 6, the fix is simpler. Choose Tools>>Options>>Security and uncheck Do not allow attachments to be saved or opened that could potentiall be a virus.

Hope this article was helpful to you.

How to beam up more bandwidth

Ever since the early episodes of Star Trek I’ve thought that people would love Captain Kirk’s communication: a pocket-sized device that, as well as supporting simple communication, would give instant access to vast amounts of information. It looks as though we’re getting closer to that ideal. PDAs and smart phones are often built on the same operating system. They both have considerable processing power and battery life and may use a variety of communication system. For example, the Nokia 9500 can communicate via Bluetooth, 802.11b, infrared and UBS as well as GSM, GPRS and Edge technology.

The Nokia 9500 also has enough processing power to handle encoded video. And now there are 3G mobiles that can support higher mobiles data rates and video reception good enough to watch TV.

However, progress is still required on two fonts – processing power and network bandwidth. Moore’s Law should deal with the first problem, but the second is not so straightforward. Present 3G network can provide rates up to about 384kbit/s over a wide area, but this isn’t really enough. However, help is on the way.

In the 3G world, High-speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) will support faster rates, perhaps up to 10bit/s, but at the cost of using a lot using a lot of the cell capacity of the mobile operators. The first system tests will take place next year. The benefit of HSDPA is that it can be added to the existing 3G infrastructure.

A different tack is being taken by the IEEE 802 committee, which has formed a group, called 802.20, to define a standard for high-speed mobile data that will able to support more users per square kilometer than existing system.

It looks as though the new system will rely heavily on adaptive antennas. Each base station will have an array of antennas, allowing it to form multiple radiobeams, one directed at each user. In addition, base station will work together so that several beams intersect at the user’s location, providing a personal sell of good signal that moves with them. Any mobile not in the personal cell will not interfere and so the system’s capacity will be increased.

Some of the techniques being talked about are already available commercially from ArrayComm with its iBrust product, which is being tested in several countries.

The 3G vendors are not ignoring these developments, since 3G system were and new applications to take advantage of the bandwidth.

However, those who dream about the transporter function of the Star Trek communicator will have to wait a good while yet.

New, cheaper ThinkPad USB keyboard released

The ThinkPad UltraNav USB keyboard has been available for some time now and it’s a great way to be able to use that renowned keyboard without having to own a ThinkPad or be on a notebook all the time. The UltraNav is a good product, but at $79 ($99 retail) it was always a bit much, especially considering that it’s a relatively no frills product aimed at emulating the laptop-keyboard experience than moving it over to the desktop.
Now there is a new external ThinkPad keyboard which not only dropped the price down to $59, but that took ThinkPad user feedback into consideration. The keyboard is said to be modeled after the one on the T400s. Just like the new T400s it has the double-height Delete and Escape keys, as well as volume controls above the F keys. And like any newer ThinkPad, the keyboard is spill resistant. Differing from the T400s, the trackpad is gone and users will only have a single cursor control mechanism–the only way to properly control a ThinkPad–the trackpoint.
The sales page had this to say about the device:

• Legendary ThinkPad keyboard look and feel
• Low profile, ergonomic design
• Integrated TrackPoint, no external mouse required!
• Spill resistant design
• Function (Fn) key provides access to variety of ThinkPad features
• Red backlit buttons for volume and microphone mute
• Volume up/down keys
• 3 year warranty
• Compatible with Windows XP & Windows Vista

It’s nice to see Lenovo’s copywriting team acknowledge the keyboard’s “legendary” status, though they seem to have left out any mention of Windows 7 compatibility, which we can assume it has.
In case you are curious, the button at the bottom-left of the keyboard does appear to be the Fn key. This is better suited for notebooks, but the keyboard retains all the ThinkPad’s standard Fn commands when using Windows so it probably made sense to stick with this design.

Lifecasting with Ovi to launch on Nokia N97 mini

Status updates are a very popular feature of Facebook. Many Facebook users like to use them to tell people where they are or what they are doing. Nokia is now offering a new application to make that task even easier.
Lifecasting with Ovi will allow people to publish their location and status updates to their Facebook account and do so in a very easy way. Users of the application will be able to perform updates from the home screen of their mobile device. Lifecasting will first be offered on the Nokia N97 mini. The Nokia N97 mini is expected to ship in October and will retail for EUR 450. The software will also be available for the Nokia N97 and Nokia N97 mini through Nokia Beta Labs.
This application offers a logical extension of what a lot of people already do on a regular basis. Now they will be able to do it easier by tapping into the GPS capabilities of their mobile device. Now before those with privacy issues air their concerns, here’s a simple thought. If you don’t want someone on Facebook to know where you are simply get rid of them as a friend on your Facebook account. I’ll send you my consulting bill later.

Opera 10 launches and comes with Turbo installed

Opera launched the latest version of the Opera browser dubbed Opera 10. Opera 10 is not only free, but has a wide reach since it is compatible with Windows, Mac and Linux platforms in addition to being available in 43 languages. One of the prominent features of the new browser is a new technology called Opera Turbo.
Opera Turbo is a compression technology that improves the speed of page loads over a slow connection such as one with a 3G card or sluggish Wi-Fi connection. According to tests performed by Opera, the technology offers a website experience eight times faster than other browsers over a slow connection. To emphasize this compression technology Opera offered the following video on YouTube.

YouTube to start renting movies?

In Google’s ongoing quest to make YouTube profitable the search giant is currently in discussions with some of the major film studios to start renting streaming movies. If implemented it could mean YouTube becomes one of the top destinations for watching brand new movie releases if users accepted such a service.
The WSJ believes Google are currently talking with three film studios including Sony, Warner, and Lions Gates. No deals have been struck yet, but it is believed YouTube movie rentals would cost $3.99 with content appearing the same day as a DVD/Blu-ray movie release.
The next stage of the process is to test the service internally at Google. Once negotiations with the film studios have ended with a satisfactory agreement Google employees will be the first to test rentals for a period of three months giving both Google and studios time to see whether it is a good fit. For users it means if rentals appear as an option it won’t be until early next year.