Why the Samsung Galaxy S4 Micro SD Card is Useless

The Samsung Galaxy S4 is a great smartphone, but after a week I only have 3.5GB of storage left and dumbed down Micro SD card support on Android highlights the missing 32GB and 64GB Galaxy S4 models.

Currently the 16GB Samsung Galaxy S4 is theonly model available for purchase from U.S. carriers, and several confirmed it will be the only model they offer. Some sources claim a Samsung Supply chain issue is behind the problem, but carriers are quick to point out that users can rely on a Micro SD card and the Cloud instead of the internal storage, but that’s not completely true.

There are limitations to what users can place on a Micro SD card and using the Cloud will push data usage up, which could force customers to spend $10 to $20 more a month.

The Samsung Galaxy S4 Micro SD card is worthless for apps, purchased movies and most music.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the inclusion of a Micro SD card to store media and USB OTG support makes it possible to plug a USB drive into the Samsung Galaxy S4 when I need even more, but this doesn’t solve the problem of limited internal storage.

Google is focused on pushing consumers towards internal storage with changes in the ability to move apps to the SD card in Android 4.2 and in the design decisions of the Nexus 4, which only offers internal storage.

After using the Samsung Galaxy S4 for a week, and only downloading some of the apps I traditionally use, I am left with only 3.5GB of storage left on my 16GB Galaxy S4. That’s after a week of use, and forcing 1080P HD video and my photos onto an SD card.

Currently the biggest data hogs, after Samsung’s implementation of Android, are games, Google Play movie purchases and a few other apps. I’m afraid to download all the games I’ve purchased and to store any Google Play Music on the phone.

Fastest Smartphone Ever Launches Thursday, It’s Not the Galaxy S4

A phone that is being dubbed the “Fastest Smartphone Ever” will be launching this Thursday, March 14th. However, it won’t be theSamsung Galaxy S4, a device that will also be launching on March 14th. Instead, it will be XOLO that will be announcing a new Intel-powered smartphone that will evidently be the fastest smartphone ever in Goa, India on Thursday.

Most eyes will be on the Radio City Music Hall in New York City where Samsung will be hosting an Unpacked event on March 14th. The company is widely believed to be announcing the new Samsung Galaxy S4, a device that has been rumored since 2012 and will be replacing the Samsung Galaxy S3, a device that has sold over 40 million units worldwide.

XOLO is trying to steal attention away from the Galaxy S4.

And while a majority of consumers will likely have their eyes on that event, another company hopes to steal some of the Galaxy S4′s thunder next week on March 14th.

XOLO has sent out media invites, according to Tech2, for an event in Goa, India to show off a new Intel smartphone that it’s calling the “Fastest Smartphone Ever.” The company does not specify what the invite is for but the company’s homepage is teasing something called Mission ‘X’, complete with a countdown to the launch event.

The company also says that the “speed barrier is all set to be shattered. Fasten your seatbelts and get ready for Mission X. 4 days to take off.”

Maybe proclaiming the death of Android in early 2013 is a bit outlandish, but the Android landscape has changed dramatically since HTC had announced the very first Android smartphone, the HTC G1, in October 2008, and the platform will continue to evolve drastically in years to come.

In a few years, I speculate that Android as we know it–not the OS variants and the way the UI looks–will be drastically different, and Google’s vision of Android may become secondary to the many disparate builds curated by Android’s licensees.

Born of a Common Enemy

When Android was introduced, it was a geeky OS that offered competition to the simplistic language of iOS. It was edgy, nerdy, and offered promise. If iOS, with its growing market share and rapid consumer uptake was the Windows equivalent in mobile, Android definitely was a geeky mobile Linux build, and there’s nothing wrong with that. It was aimed at fighting the dominance of Apple’s iPhone and iOS platform.

When Apple was the common enemy, prosumer users of Android often shunned gimmicks that were introduced by smartphone manufacturers. Consumers appreciated the appeal of the HTC Sense UI to make Android more aesthetically pleasing while pro-users despised Samsung’s TouchWiz UI, marking it a bloated blasphemy to Google’s vision.

However, those days are long gone. Android grew up with its own maturing design language that had evolved over the years. And a new star rose in Android’s circle in the form of Samsung, one that is powerful enough to battle Apple head-on.

The Trojan Horse Within

While there is still a lot of attention on the very public battle between Samsung and Apple as the two companies fight over patents and money in courtrooms around the world, there is a more subtle battle that is happening from within Android. With the rise of Samsung, Google and other Android handset-makers are on edge.
Rather than shunning TouchWiz, consumers are now overwhelmingly choosing the Samsung experience over other UI overlays on Samsung. From the beloved Galaxy Note phablet, which many had predicted would flop due to its sheer size and what was once thought of as a gimmicky S-Pen, users are looking to Samsung for innovation.

This has pushed the platform to be even more fragmented. Motorola, now under Google’s control, is attempting to keep neutral grounds on the user experience by staying as true to the Android vision as possible. HTC is choosing design and simplified software with the new iteration of HTC Sense on the HTC One. And LG is focused on software innovation to keep pace and keep ahead of Samsung: from eye tracking technologies to maximizing the use of sensors to make its phones smarter.

Rather than battling Apple, these Android manufacturers are now battling each other–regardless of how useful these innovations are, how much of a gimmick they are viewed as, or how much value they’ll be in the end to end-users–to try to steal Samsung’s crown. The enemy has moved from outside to inside the Android camp, with Samsung acting like a Trojan horse for Google to handle. And all these players are offering their own versions of Android to combat each other.

Fragmentation Doesn’t Matter

For prosumers, fragmentation is a big deal as it means that the latest innovation from Google may not make it to their phones of choice, but consumers do not really care about fragmentation. For them, the HTC One provides the best audio experience and low light imaging capabilities in a simple, elegant zero-gap design while the Samsung Galaxy S4 offers a variety of sensors to track their activities throughout the day so they don’t have to think about it. Fragmentation is good, for the average consumers, as it offers them choice and surely one of these devices on the market will fit their needs. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter which Android OS version their device runs as long as their devices perform.

And sure enough, with the launch of the Galaxy S3, people are asking for the Samsung experience. The Galaxy S3 shows that Samsung has matured into its own, with an elegant nature-based UI and design, software innovations on top of Android, and an experience that was primarily Samsung, and Android a secondary function. This is quite the drastic shift from a couple of years ago when tech pundits declared Samsung’s tile interface to look ‘cartoonish’ and its experience slow and buggy.

And Samsung isn’t the only one creating its own experience. Even more drastic Android make-overs come from Amazon and Barnes & Noble with the Kindle Fire and Nook tablets. With those devices, no trace of Android remains and even Google’s Play Store has been replaced with their own proprietor’s proprietary digital storefronts.

And the latest to the pack may be Facebook, which may make its Android invasion with a custom-made phone from HTC to focus on social media streams, and perhaps leverage the Facebook marketplace.

iPhone 5S: Apple Rumored to Replace Home Button With Sapphire Crystal Fingerprint Reader

Apple is rumored to be replacing the physical home button on the next iPhone, widely believed to be called the iPhone 5S, with a Sapphire crystal capacitive touch button thathides a fingerprint sensor. This will essentially be the first time that Apple has moved away from having a physical home button since the iPhone originally debuted in 2007. The new capacitive touch home button will help Apple create a more reliable iPhone model that will hold up to wear and tear better than the physical button that exists on all previous iPhone models.

One common complaint of the iPhone is that over time, the home button may fail to register a press. Over time, the hardware will wear out. With a capacitive touch button, there are no moving parts so the risk of failure is slimmer. Also, as Apple will be employing Sapphire crystal, which is the second hardest material–only diamond exceeds the strength of Sapphire–the material will help protect the capacitive surface as well as the underlying fingerprint reader.

This change was reported on Cult of Mac, which says that Taiwanese publication TechNews had spoken to Apple’s supply chain.

HTC One Makeover Rumored

The HTC One, which is currently only available in black or white, will apparently be getting a makeover at some point in the future as a new rumor suggests that the device will be getting not one, but two new colors at some point down the road.

Since it arrived earlier this year, we have known about a possible red HTC One, a device that emerged on HTC’s own website around the time the HTC One launched. And although HTC denied a future launch, it’s pretty hard to imagine that the company accidentally put a fake render of a red HTC One on its website. Instead, it’s likely coming to shelves in the future, the question is when.

The red HTC One could be joined by a blue HTC One.

More recently, the red HTC One popped up at an online retailer though the device has still not yet made it to shelves. The retailer then took down the listing.  According to a new report from Pocket-lint though, the red HTC One is not only still coming but it will be joined by another color.

Reports: Boot to Desktop, Start Button on the way in Windows 8.1

Not only will Microsoft return the Start Button to the taskbar in its forthcoming update toWindows 8, Windows 8.1, the company will also let users boot directly into the Desktop interface.

The changes may be seen in the preview version of Windows 8.1 next month at Microsoft’s BUILD conference, according to All About Microsoft. They will also include other features and UI tweaks that are designed to address the concerns of users that don’t enjoy Windows 8’s Metro designed interface.

The updated Start Screen rumored to be coming in Windows 8.1

These changes will reportedly include a way to allow users to forego the Live Tiles in today’s Start Screen for a view that only displays the currently installed applications on the machine whenever they navigate to the Start Screen.

Samsung Galaxy Note 3: New Launch Dates Emerge

The Samsung Galaxy Note 3 has several times been pegged for arrival during the month of September, however, a new report suggests that Samsung could actually launch it in either July or August, much earlier than has been expected.

All along, signs have pointed to a Samsung Galaxy Note 3 launch in September, at IFA 2013 in Berlin, Germany. The event is the same place that Samsung has announced the previous two Galaxy Note models and is, as of right now, the most likely candidate for an Episode 2 of Samsung’s Unpacked launch event series.

The Samsung Galaxy Note 3 could arrive as early as July, according to a new report.

However, a new report from Digitimes suggests that Samsung might be planning to launch the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 as soon as July or August, August of course being the same month that Samsung launched last year’s Samsung Galaxy Note 2. The publication has a mixed track record, but on many occasions, has been correct so it’s hard to ignore what are now two new launch dates in July and August. No specific date is given.

As we saw with the Samsung Galaxy S4, initial launch rumors aren’t always correct, so it’s entirely possible that we could see the Galaxy Note 3 arrive in a different month, apart from IFA 2013. We also saw Samsung release the Samsung Galaxy S4 earlier than the Galaxy S3, so it’s entirely possible that we could see it do the same with the Samsung Galaxy Note 3.

Despite the new dates, IFA 2013 should still be considered the frontrunner.

Rumors in regards to the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 have been heating up recently with whispers suggesting that Samsung is planning to release a phablet with a Samsung Galaxy S4 design, 13MP camera, Exynos 5 Octa processor and/or a Snapdragon 800 processor, and a larger 5.99-inch to 6-inch display with 1080p resolution.

The software is still a mystery though consumers should expect it to arrive with the latest version of Android to go along with some new, Samsung-made software features. Just what those features might be, and if they pertain to the Galaxy Note’s unique S Pen, are unclear at this time.

25 Samsung Galaxy S4 Hidden Features

The Samsung Galaxy S4 is host to a number of hidden features that unlock the full potential of the device.

Many of the best Galaxy S4 features are hidden deep in menus and behind settings that even experienced users wouldn’t tap on. This Galaxy S4 guide will show you how to get more out of the Galaxy S4 without buying any Galaxy S4 accessories or spending money on Galaxy S4 apps.

These hidden Galaxy S4 features aren’t tucked away behind a secret button combination, but thanks to the way Samsung sets up the menu, many of them are hidden behind toggles and hidden deep in the settings. Many users could spend a year with the Galaxy S4 without finding half of these settings, so we’ve dug deep to pick our favorite settings so you can enjoy the Galaxy S4 more right now.

The essential list of hidden Samsung Galaxy S4 features.

There is no need to root the Galaxy S4 or install a custom ROM to access any of these functions, though users can root the Galaxy S4 for access to other features and apps if they want to.

These Samsung Galaxy S4 hidden features are available on all versions of the device, though there may be some small differences in functionality.

Here are 25 hard to find Galaxy S4 features the Gotta Be Mobile team uncovered after using the Galaxy S4 extensively for the last month.

Access All Toggles With a Two Finger Pull

The Samsung Galaxy S4 includes over a dozen Notification toggles to quickly change settings on the Samsung Galaxy S4 without diving into the settings.

With a one finger pull down of the notification center you can swipe side to side, but pull down with two fingers and you’ll have access to all of the toggles at once.

From here it’s also possible to quickly edit the notification toggles so that you can remove those you don’t use every day.

Turn on Easy Mode

If the Samsung Galaxy S4 is your first smartphone, the Easy mode is a great way to get started with your first smartphone. This simplified user interface hides some features, but it doesn’t take away from the overall experience much.

Some users will also appreciate the larger icons in Easy mode, which are easier to see and to tap.

It is easy to turn Easy mode on and off, so you can try Easy Mode and then switch to Standard Mode when you are ready for more.

Launch Google Now Fast

Google Now is a cool predictive personal assistant that comes with all new Android phones, but users may have a tough time launching it thanks to Samsung including S-Voice on the Galaxy S4.

To launch Google Now quickly, hold the menu button on the Samsung Galaxy S4 and it should pop up, letting you search with Google Now and ask the phone to do things much like you would with Siri.

You will need to turn Google Now on if this is the first time using it, so you may need to tap on the Google bar on the home screen and follow the prompts to turn Google Now on. This will then combine search and email data from your Google account to push information to you as you need it.

Eventually Google Now will know your home, work, favorite sports teams and will pick up on travel plans and remind you automatically. It’s easy to customize what it does and doesn’t show so give it a try.

Fast Access to Common Settings

Now that you know it’s possible to quickly change settings with a tap of the toggles in the Notification drawer, we want to take things a step further.

A long press on any of these toggles will open up that page in settings. This is great for quickly pairing a Bluetooth device and changing settings on the many builtin gesture and motion controls on the Galaxy S4.

This works in the small single row view and in the expanded group of icons.

Use Two Apps at the Same Time

Nokia’s Next-Gen PureView Camera Gives New Perspectives

Nokia executive Jo Harlow is hinting about a next-generation PureView technology for the company’s cameras on its Windows Phone Lumia series that could give users new perspectives to the resulting images captured. The company has been using camera technology and its experience with imaging as a unique selling proposition for its smartphone range.

The PureView Evolution

In the Symbian days, Nokia had debuted an extremely large sensor format with 41 megapixels on the Nokia 808 that kicked off the PureView imaging technology branding.

Since the debut of the Lumia 920, the camera switched to PureView 2.0 to focus on image stabilization and low light capture without the need of a flash. PureView 2.0 continues on to the Lumia 925, which addssoftware to intelligently stitch images together so you don’t need to choose a mode to use before shooting an image.

That same post-processing software architecture will also be the crux of the next-generation of PureView imaging prowess, which may be closer to launch than what we may think.

In an interview with BGR.in, Harlow says, “If you look at where imaging is going, computational imaging is an area of exploration. Being able to capture even more data — data you cannot even see with the human eye that you can only see by actually going back to the picture and being able to do things with them.”

PureView 3.0 Could Be a Lytro Worth Buying

Sounds familiar? It should given the buzz behind the Lytro camera and Nokia’s recent investment in Pelican Imaging.

Lytro, and also the basis for this new PureView 3.0 technology, uses a multiple lens array, or what Nokia calls computational imaging, to capture multiple shots at the same time so that users don’t need to choose what subject the camera has to focus on at the time of the shot. Users can decide after the shoot.

Why Is PureView 3.0 Important

Portrait photography focuses on the human face so you blur out the background with aperture control. Image from DesignYouTrust.com

For instance, imagine a landscape with an apple tree in the foreground and a mountain in the background. In today’s photography, you would either have to focus on the apple tree, the entire scene, or the mountain in the background. And you would have to decide before you click the shutter button how you’d want to focus to give your resulting image the right mood, feel, and composition. With PureView 3.0, the camera will take three shots with all three focal areas and you can decide after clicking the shutter what image looks best.

HTC One Phablet Slated to Launch Soon

HTC may soon be expanding its HTC Oneflagship line to add a new member to the family in the form of a device with similar specs and a screen size that’s described as being in the 5-inch range. The company has so far not commented on such rumors, but un-named sources to UK’s Pocket-lint confirmed that a larger HTC One phablet will be coming soon.

HTC is set to launch a bigger HTC One soon, according to people familiar with the matter talking to Pocket-lint.

The device has a code name of HTC T6.

HTC still has not commented or made any announcements about this device at this time. Despite being one of the earlier manufacturers to push devices with larger screen sizes, HTC more recently appears to be more conservative with larger displays. However, given the success of the Galaxy Note line from Samsung, perhaps HTC is taking notice.