Mashed Thoughts: electronics

Showing posts with label electronics. Show all posts

Samsung Canada held three simultaneous launch parties in Canada for their newest flagship smartphone, the Samsung Galaxy S4 on Thursday, April 25th! The party in Vancouver was at Rocky Mountaineer Station.

They started letting people in at 5pm starting with VIPs and media. Being neither, we had to wait a while at the side entrance.

There was a HUGE lineup already by the time we arrived. Fortunately, K, being a former Samsung Mob!ler, is a preferred guest so we got to skip that lineup.

People helped us put our wristbands on as we walked into the venue.

So many people showed up to take a look at one of the hottest phones in the market.

A cash bar was open at one end of the building.

Organizers even created their own drink for the GS4 launch - the BLUE GALAXY!

There were two demo stations at each end of the venue with two phones at each location for people to look at. One had the blue and the other white version of the GS4.

This time it wasn't a station where all the phones were tied down. The Samsung reps were the ones giving us a spiel on the new features of the phone.

Holding the phone, I noticed how thin and light it was compared to my ~~old and obsolete~~ GSIIX as well as its predecessor the GSIII. It looks pretty much the same as the GSIII except the sides were smaller so the screen is ever so slightly larger. It is also missing a bum on the back.

Group Play - share music, video, documents, and games between up to 10 connected phones.

S Health - a new built in app for calorie tracking, pedometer and stuff like that. There's also a built in Google translate or S Translate.

13-megapixel camera which all sorts of nifty settings for phone taking, such as duo camera mode, erase people in the background, animated photos, sound and shot, drama mode just to name a few.

I wouldn't say these new features are essential but they are cool to play with. I do like the camera though. There are a lot more new features but people were vying to get their hands on the phone so I had to reluctantly give it up. It's a very nice phone and I think worth getting if you are in the market and don't have a GS3.

After playing with the phone, STARS took to the stage and the party really got going!

After STARS played a few sets, the winner of the Vancouver GALAXY S4 Casting Calls, Gio Levy came out on stage to perform. He looks so hipster.

He sung the same song at his audition:

Feist was suppose to perform in three cities - Vancouver, Montreal and Toronto AT THE SAME TIME that night but Samsung gave us nothing on how she would accomplish this feat. After a short break, it was finally revealed! Feist appeared as a hologram! She gave a performance of “A Commotion” simultaneously in all three cities!

Unfortunately holograms make for blurry photos. It was pretty cool to see though. Technology of the future, everyone!

Here's a video that Samsung posted on Youtube of Hologrammed Feist:

While the WCG tournament was going on in the Metrotown atrium, a little way off was Microsoft's popup store for their new Surface tablet, which opened on Oct 26th! I've heard lots about this tablet and was curious, as was everyone else, to see what it can do.

The popup shop drew lots of crowds, everyone was vying to try out the newest tablet on the market.

Is it a tablet or a laptop? It's almost powerful enough to be a small laptop, yet light enough to be a tablet.

To the side of the popup shop, the Microsoft Surface Events team gave a demonstration of the tablet and showcased its capabilities with the new Windows RT.

- 16:9 aspect ratio
- 720p HD front and rear facing cameras
- Skype integration
- Multitasking option, where you can run 2 apps at the same time on screen (!!!)
- Integrated kickstand

And more!

The team even gave away a XBox to a lucky person after the presentation! (It wasn't me)

The tablet by itself without the Touch Cover is priced at $519. It comes in 32GB without ($519) or with ($619) the Touch Cover and 64GB with the touch cover ($719). The thin cover acts as a keyboard for those who like that physical feel as opposed to a soft keyboard on screen. Very cool but I was a little disappointed that you had to pay extra for the Touch Cover. I was under the impression before it launched that it came with it. Oh well.

With all the Windows programs that run on the Surface, I can see how it can be very useful to use in productive applications. It's kind of like a hybrid between a laptop and a tablet. I'm impressed! Adding this to my Christmas wishlist... ;P

Yay! I finally upgraded from a BlackBerry Curve to a Samsung Galaxy SII X. I received this anticipated package on Monday, unlocked it on Tuesday and now am fully on Android!

Here are my unboxing photos. Heheh. Am I a geek for taking photos? Yes. Yes. I probably am...