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:

Over the weekend, the World Cyber Games 2012 held a tournament at Metrotown to determine the best player to represent the Western Canada in the WCG Grand Final in China. Samsung is the sponsor for this exciting competition and so all the competitors faced off on seriously powerful Series 7 Gaming Laptops.








I managed to catch the very last face-off of StarCraft 2!


Optikzero vs...


FireZerg. These guys are seriously talented. Their fingers just fly across the keyboard making split second decisions in real time. Starcraft 2 is a scifi game that requires real time strategy and people are really serious about this game. It's like playing chess but harder because there are so many other variables. There are many high stakes tournaments held around the world for this game and in Korea, there is even a TV show where you can watch professional players compete!

I always like to watch the cooking demos at the Vancouver Home + Design Show and this year one of the big shows was a cook off competition between three teams of local amateur cooking enthusiasts and their local chef mentors.


Chef Jason Parsons of Peller Estates Winery Restaurant was host and judge of the competition which involved each team to make a secret recipe chosen by Samsung's wifi-enabled fridge. The two ingredients that the Samsung Fridge chose was steak and corn and each team were also allowed their own secret ingredient (chosen prior to knowing what the ingredients were) to make the dish with their own twist to it. Each team had 30 minutes to finish their creation.


First team up was Julie and Chef Sean Murray of YEW Restaurant + Bar. Their secret ingredient was cranberries!

Their version of recipe was steak with cranberry chutney and basil cilantro sauce, on a bed of potatoes! 

Their steak was delicious and tender, and the cranberry chutney gave a little heat to the yummy dish.

The second team up was Ryan and Chef Trevor Bird from Fable Restaurant. Ryan chose duck fat for his team's secret ingredient.

Using the duck fat, they made crispy crispy potatoes! The secret to the crispiness is to fry them multiple times.

Chef Bird slow cooked steak his steak and made a corn custard, added tomato jam, crispy potatoes, garnished the dish with jalapeños.

I thought the steak was a little tougher than the first competitors but their overall dish tasted better! I love the tomato jam!  

The last team up was Hannah and Chef David Robertson from the Dirty Apron Cooking School. Their secret ingredient was balsamic vinegar.

Chef Robertson was in teaching mode, explaining every he was doing to the audience!

They cooked the steak in a HALF POUND OF BUTTER! Holy smokes! He said a lot of dishes in restaurants have a lot of butter in them. That's what makes it so good!

I also liked their steak but it was oilier than the others for obvious reasons. lol




Below is the base recipe that the teams were making. Of course, they didn't follow the recipe exactly and you don't need to either. Recipes are just guidelines, it is up to you to put your own spin to it! Happy cooking!