Posted on 03/01/2012 8:01:59 AM PST by ShadowAce
The current crop of iPhone killers failed to kill the Apple iPhone.
Many of the iPhone’s competitors are really great phones with incredible screens, amazing cameras, powerful processors and advanced user interfaces. On most specs, the iPhone has been bested by several competitors. But still the iPhone reigns supreme in the market.
Apple made more money on iPhones alone in Q4 than Microsoft did on every product it sells.
What will it take to stop the mighty iPhone?
Don’t look now, but the competition is getting ready to hit Apple’s super-villain iPhone with something akin to the X Men or the Avengers -- a group of mutant super-phones with unprecedented powers and capabilities that vastly exceed anything that has ever been put into any phone ever.
Here is the breathtakingly new crop of extreme super-phones designed to blow the iPhone away:
Wait, a 41-megapixel camera phone? Come on! That’s almost twice as many megapixels as the highly coveted (and uber expensive) Canon EOS 5D Mark II camera used by professional photographers and even blockbuster Hollywood movie makers.
The Symbian-based Nokia 808 PureView is a super phone with a camera in a league of its own. But it’s not what you think.
In normal mode, all those megapixels aren’t used as they would be with a normal camera. Instead, Nokia uses them for an oversampling technology they called PureView. Combined with the built-in f2.4 Carl Zeiss lens, the PureView takes amazing pictures.
PureView works by combing light from seven pixels into one pixel on the image, for a nearly “noiseless” image of breathtaking quality.
Or, you can turn off oversampling and just take gigantic pictures -- or instead of using a camera with a large zoom lens, you can just zoom in on the pixels. It also takes 1080p video, which is pretty crazy for a phone.
For people who like to take great pictures -- and who doesn’t? -- the Nokia 808 PureView blows away the iPhone with five times the pixels and some really advanced optics and technology. Expect to pay about $600 for the phone unlocked when it ships in May.
Nokia 808 Pureview
The Samsung Galaxy Beam represents the Holy Grail mobile device for mobile professionals who present.
The Galaxy Beam functions as a full-featured Android camera phone. But when you need to make your pitch, just pull out the phone and cast your PowerPoint on any nearby surface. The phone will project a reasonably bright 50-inch wide screen with 15 lumens of output.
And it’s not just for business. The phone could double as a big-screen TV for starving students, or any number of uses whenever groups want to view pictures, video, TV or movies.
And for people who present, the Samsung Galaxy Beam is way better than an iPhone.
The Galaxy Beam will be the first ever mainstream projector phone available in the United States. Expect it to ship this summer.
Samsung Galaxy Beam
Phone: ASUS Padfone
Smartphone electronics are more powerful than even tablets or laptops were just a few years ago.
The ASUS Padfone is an Android smart phone that plugs into a tablet with a screen the same size as an iPad (10.1 inches). When you do so, the phone now becomes the engine for the multi-touch tablet.
The Padfone takes advantage of the brand new Ice Cream Sandwich version of Android, which can re-size itself on the fly. You can also use an optional stylus, aping the functionality of very expensive Windows Tablet PCs.
If that’s not crazy enough, the tablet clips onto a full-size keyboard doc, resulting in what looks like a full featured laptop. Again, it’s all powered by the phone.
Many gadget-happy mobile users have a phone, a tablet and a laptop. Although no pricing has been announced, the ASUS Padfone with all the trimmings will certainly be way, way cheaper than buying an iPhone, iPad and MacBook Air.
The Padfone should be available by summer.
ASUS Padfone
The Danish company Lumigon plans to ship an Android phone called the T2. In addition to looking like a sleek Euro-designed piece of stainless-steel eye candy, the T2 doubles as a universal remote control.
You program it by pointing it at each existing remote control, pressing a button on the remote, then telling the phone which button you pressed. Once programmed, your phone controls your TV and other remotely controllable home appliances just like their dedicated remotes did.
The phone also uses in-the-air gestures like a Wii remote. For example, you can turn the volume up by raising the phone, or go to the next track on an album by moving the phone to the right.
The T2 will ship later this year in Nordic countries, then spread outward from there, arriving in the United States at some unknown date in the future.
These three extreme super-phones are not just a little better. They’re WAY ahead of the iPhone in specific applications that really matter to people. And they’re just part of the overwhelming assault the iPhone is facing this year from powerful competition.
For example, LG is preparing to ship a no-glasses 3D smart phone called the LG Optimus 3D Max.
LG also announced what it claims is the fastest smartphone in history: The LG Optimus 4X HD. The quad-core phone is as powerful as a PC, according to the company.
If you like the idea of a smartphone PC, you’ll love the upcoming Ubuntu for Android. The software will turn Android phones into a dual-boot phone and PC.
The way it works is that the installation puts Ubuntu Linux and Android side-by-side on the phone. The phone continues to function normally. But when you plug it into a PC monitor, keyboard and mouse -- or a TV -- Linux and Android both run off the same kernel, and the phone becomes a PC.
Your apps, files and content all function on the big screen, and with keyboard and mouse, but in a Linux environment rather than Android.
Lumignon T2
The smartphone space is about to launch into crazy new territory with these extreme super-phones.
The iPhone is a mainstream, mass-market phone. And the extreme super-phones are niche products for people with specific needs or obsessions. But together, the new generation of extreme super-phones will be very hard for the iPhone to compete with all by itself.
And whether the iPhone wins or loses, it’s clear that users are the big winners -- especially power-hungry users who want unprecedented capabilities in the pocket device they carry everywhere.
I like the projector; I’ll let the early adopters pay for the R&D because you can be sure that this will lead to a new generation of small, cheap projectors that could make big-screen TVs obsolete.
Most smartphones can be tethered to a PC. My Samsung Galaxy can be tethered via USB or can also function as a mobile wifi hotspot. That’s how I stayed online last month after I moved and was waiting for my new internet connection to be activated. Not as fast as cable or DSL but it did the job.
My 14MP Nikon digital takes better pictures than my (surprisingly good) 8MP Android, but it has a Nikor glass lens that’s probably 10 times the diameter and thickness of the one in the phone. To take a photo worthy of 41MP, imagine the lens you’re going to need, and the percentage increase in size and/or cost (some tradeoff between the two, but at levels of both I can’t see how they could make work in a cell phone).
41MP may be twice the bandwidth of professional cameras or whatever, but I bet the lens alone on those cameras costs about 20 cell phones worth.
One question for all of these phones ... how’s the battery life?
Then take a look at this: http://www.ubuntu.com/devices/android
Unbuntu Linux will be installed along side of Android on a phone that can also be connected to a keyboard and screen. Carry a complete desktop operating system in your pocket.
Those kinds of features won’t guarantee anyone will make millions, success takes talents that utilize what is available and does not rely on flashy new apps make things happen.
Most of those who make millions on the new iPhone or iPad will be the primary stockholders who know that right now, flash and glitter sells.
I never understood the appeal of smartphones until my carrier gave me a free Galaxy when my contract came up for renewal, but I was hooked on it after a day. Best free apps and websites:
Google Sky Map: Uses accelerometer and GPS, hold it over your head and all stars, planets and constellations are labelled, also has a search feature to home in on an object.
nextbus.com: Gives an ETA of buses enroute to the nearest stops, updated in real time, for transit services that track their vehicles with GPS. Works in most major cities.
http://www.nationalpost.com/m/todays-paper/index.html: Arguably the best newspaper in the world, all articles from the print edition are posted online six days per week. I find reading on my mobile device is a lot more comfortable than using my PC.
Yup. Verizon won’t let me tether my smartphone to a tablet without paying a $20 monthly fee. I mainly want it so the kids can watch Netflix on long rides.
I had the iPhone 4 for over a year but wanted to upgrade to 4G internet. I liked the phone but wanted faster data transfer capability for work. I thought the 4S had to have it, but no. Then I compared it to the Driod Razr 4G. It was no contest and blew away iPhone in every single category.
I got the Razr. It is thinner, much much faster, longest battery life in the industry, feels more solid and has a much bigger screen. I thought it was just as easy to use and was ready to go as soon as I charged it. If you can read, you can use it. I never asked for help or opened a manual. Yes, it came with a few apps that I would never use but I uninstalled them in less than one minute.
Also, it is far easier to develop your own software for Android and you don’t have to submit it to apple for approval.
I have a Verizon "Grandfathered" Unlimited Data plan, and I received a message last month informing me that I was in the top 5% of data users, and they were going to start throttling my download rate. So much for unlimited...
It was Netflix. It works great, until they catch up with you.
Yes.
That is a SPECTACULAR application, featuring an incredible marriage of technologies (actually we use a similar program on the iPAD-much better than the smaller phone screen). Took it on our trip to Tahiti to navigate the unfamiliar southern hemisphere skies.
So is the National Post readable for rock-ribbed conservatives, or am I going to have my usual blood pressure spike when reading typical journalistic output?
-——It was Netflix. It works great, until they catch up with you-——
LOL. Ok, I admit it, sometimes I’m stuck in the car waiting for my wife and daughters to emerge from tjmaxx...
So, next year’s mobile devices are better than last year’s iPhones?
OK.
41 megapixels is pretty cool, but what about the lens? Giving a camera 41 megapixels without a big quality lens to let in the light and capture a distortion free image, is akin to putting an expensive sports car engine into a Smart Car.
The article discussed some specially made Zeiss lens for it, but don’t know about specs. If anybody can make the right lens for it, though, I’d say Zeiss could.
—I wonder what the battery life on the Galaxy Beam is going to be during a presentation?—
Not an issue. You plug it in.
Keep your projector and uber-camera phones ... I’ll take a Nokia Lumia 900 please.
My question would be how long the projector bulb lasts...
I can usually plug in the phone for power...
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