Chinese, smartphone copies and consumer choices

Smartphones are produced almost exclusively in China. In large part, the Chinese have access to the complete technology, owning the practical schemes of these devices.

Copies of smartphones are becoming more diverse, certainly the most copied is new product of a top of the range manufacturer. Most of these products go to the European market or the U.S. market and, to the surprise of many, even very successful. Price is one of the most important factors. When you have a product similar to one that cost 600 euros, and the final selling price for your product barely reaches 200 euros, you have all chances of immediate success.

Samsung Galaxy S3 copies are very successful, both in terms of design, as well as that of functionality and performance. You cannot see the difference in touchscreen or operating system. Android is a free product that facilitates passage to Chinese products, which until now were trying to copy iOS or Symbian with their products.

Absolutely all manufacturers who have introduced products at MWC 2013 is looking for distributors in Europe. Are willing to sell their products at a price of 100 dollars for those who offers to buy more than 2000 pieces - this is somehow the lower limit. Of course for larger quantities the price can drop even more. Add the taxes which can reach up to 300%, provides a healthy profit to those who engage in such business.

An important element is product liability. Not like renowned manufacturers like Samsung, components aren’t tested so well and they are not as reliable. Quite common problems of poor quality are batteries or devices who cease to function after only 2-3 weeks of use. Therefore, the products look very good, but the internal processor and all components have a short life span. Nobody can guarantee for their operation and their manufacturer assumes no responsibility.

As a whole even these Chinese phones are worth a look, but the decision lies with the costumer. Consumers should think if they pay 100-150 euros on such a device, cheaper than the devices of renowned companies, or if they prefer brand products with all warranties included.

Samsung Galaxy S4 Review

As always when I get a new gadget or update for my PC something new gets on the market. When I bought my Samsung galaxy S3 they announced the S4. 

Confirms expectations and rumors that we will see a new S bigger faster. At first glance it's a power upgrade that promises a phone on anabolic steroids. Let's see some specifications which anticipate. Screen, housing, camera, processor, battery, new functions.

Screen: Is 5 "too much?

Samsung is aligned with the diagonal of 5 "(4.99 exactly) with a resolution of 1920 × 1080 pixels, or 1080p. This implies a pixel density of 443 ppi, which is the most advanced mobile display used so far by Samsung. The solution is already used in several smartphones like Sony Xperia Z, Huawei Ascend D2, ZTE Grand S, Asus Padfone Infinity. On the market there are displays Sharp or LG IPS technology in these figures. And Samsung has already announced this month that it will have a Super AMOLED 4.9 1080p "is therefore logical to guess that S4 will be their first phone with this display. It's the third over iPhone5 as pixel density though you will never notice in everyday life. The idea is that you now have in your pocket a screen as detailed as the one at home, if you have an LED, LCD or plasma FULL HD. This however comes at a cost. Battery and GPU will work harder, will consume more power. More pixels projected demand more rear light to see them. 5 "diagonal density (crowding of pixels) is so large that we need more light. It remains to be seen how it will do so in sunlight.

I would also add something about the ergonomics of the display. It's already more than 0.2 "from the Samsung Galaxy S3 considered when launching too high. Meanwhile we got used to the 5.5 "NOTE2's so it would be a solution for small hands. Increased by 0.2 "in diagonal could be introduced without affecting the ergonomics if Samsung would lower the edge of the screen bezel that site. Motorola Razr I have already done this successfully (although as a lower diagonal) display but packs a more compact housing causing the phone to not look so big.

CPU: 8 cores??!

Samsung makes its own processors. Exynos is already a recognized name in the industry. The problem is that everyone has quad-core smart phones for over a year so you can’t come up with the same Exynos on it modifying the frequency and helping it with 2 GB of RAM. Hearing about the possibility of a phone with 8 cores clocked at 1.8 GHz so. Unfortunately is enormous and unnecessary for an ordinary user’s needs. At least at first glance. So I'd bet on a different strategy. I think we actually have two physical processors with four cores or eight cores logical one in four individuals. The idea is to offer its users the optimal speed for typical use and to "put NOS" on the 4 cores x 1.8 GHz when running advanced 3D games, video 4K (?) Or you can transform your phone into a computer connected to TV. Samsung promises we can’t just muscle up a bodybuilder on steroids who can’t run 100m hurdles. WOW must come up with something to put this machine to work beyond the leader’s scores in “benchmark" test.

Case: I hope it will not be all plastic. But...

You already know the Samsung's custom. Everything looks fine and dandy on their phones, less material for its housing. Here to save and put plastic so thin that it flexes like a piece of paper. Varnishes him and tell him Glaze Hyper. However Samsung Galaxy S3 looks sexy and feels nice in the hand because it's thin. To quote from Korean: "Le plastique east Fantastique." It would be wrong however to upgrade to aluminum or magnesium. Let's dream of polycarbonate, carbon fiber and Kevlar. If HTC, Nokia or Motorola can, so can Samsung. Otherwise you end up Samsung Galaxy S4 is said to be a HTC One plastic. That would hurt...

Memory: I hope for more than 32GB flash

Samsung also produces flash memory but is so expensive that I do not think that will give us all out of 128GB. Will probably go for the 32GB and 64GB versions plus 25-50GB of Dropbox storage for a year. Doesn’t sound bad but it will sound even better when local operators will offer free cloud for large subscriptions. Orange prepares packages between 50-100GB of free traffic slopes for mobile network cloud. Enough for me.

Operating System: Android 4.2 will do

Since 2.3.5, android never moved so well. New Jelly Bean drone versions 4.1.2 or 4.2 on quad-core phones. New features such as ball room or intelligent notifications, Google and others don’t impress us like the stability of the new operating system. HTC One for example is the most powerful Android tested which doesn’t delay not even a second when you open an application, camera or internet browser. S4 should be faster, right?

Camera: 10 megapixel useless

On Samsung Galaxy S3 camera is mediocre. In a market with 8-megapixel sensors are all "fences" I do not want to hear an upgrade to 10 megapixels is weak. I must admit that we can’t squeeze large sensor in a thin phone. I want 4-5 mpx but well. Noiseless images and better low light sensitivity. We already have good cameras on the iPhone 5, but the Lumia 920 is by far the best of the HTC One. It is expected and optical stabilization solution although I do not think it will be only one digital so that no filming or pictures end shaken.

Battery: Lithium but large capacity!!

I do not think they have the courage to reinvent battery or introduce technologies such fuel cells (fuel cell) or film solar load. Likely to climb to 3,000 mAh battery as the new S4 Galaxy to pass over an intense day. But it will be a challenge with a potent processor and a 1080p screen very dense. Think that will bring wireless charging, because Samsung has joined the alliance with PQI who wants to standardize the technology. You put the phone on all kinds of devices with wireless charging technology like mouse pads, speakers in the dashboard or in the future office from IKEA as is already with the Nokia Lumia 920.

What else?

I talked to people who have seen it and saw that it can do and some things WOW. I mean look at the bottom of the screen and runs on the picture. It used the front room as it does now with Smart Stay function that keeps the screen on while you look at it. There will probably revive the S Voice that does not work today. It is expected that Samsung's fans add features for photo and video sharing and advanced screen mirroring on new TVs. Samsung All Share Cast Dongle is already a pretty good device for that and the technology can be improved.

These are my reasonable expectations of the new S4. We need to take into account another fact. S4 will be the phone of 2013 and will cement Samsung's leadership in this market. They chose to launch in the U.S., New York in Times Square. This is a strong statement. And maybe shake and dust of is. It is the most stable operating system on a mobile phone but it's time to restore it and become the smartest.

Gadgets that turn any surface into a loudspeaker

Transform tables, floors, windows even car roofs into loudspeakers. IT’s called Eishock  and costs 45$ and has enough battery power to play music for six to eight hours. With a standard audio jack can connect to a smartphone or other music sources. It’s got a frequency response of 50 Hz to 18 kHz but don’t expect that the performance to carry over if you’re attaching it to a folding table.

A similar device is produced by Vu-lion, with a smaller 3-watt UL-U100, but comes with a Bluetooth connection for wireless music transmission. This one costs around 20$ but you have to buy them in bulk (1000)

More powerful is the cowin’s nanobeat, witch for a price of around 78$ come with a Bluetooth model and a 65$ comes with a model that plays music stored on a micro SD card. It’s suitable for short flat surfaces, Cowin produces even a model that can be attached to a window with a suction cup. 

New project 

 I would like to present my new project. It’s a history dedicated website called “History Docs”. I started this project with the idea that are a lot of people passionate about history. The first idea was a simple website where I can upload my documentaries from YouTube. Then the idea got more complex and complex to the state which is now, still in the beta stage. The main topics of the website are “the last 100 years of humanity “ and “the last 10000 years “ and for added bonus I added to more features ; the History facts having as sub-menus fun facts , pictures and maps . At the moment only the fun facts are active I try to “hide” the unfinished work.

The current link to the website is this

http://claudiubrb2008.wix.com/historydocs

 The website was made using the wix.com platform. It’s a simple to use HTML 5 platform with a lot of tools help you to create a new website. As a free version you have wix.com ads on your website requiring to “upgrade” your website to get rid of them.

It’s relatively easy to upgrade your website from the “free” version to a premium version. Wix.com provides users with a variety of packages depending on the purpose of your website. For mine this project I will go with the most popular package the ”Unlimited Entrepreneurs & Freelancers” package. It’s a good offer and it comes with 1 year free domain, 75$ worth of Google Ad Words advertising and 50$ worth of Facebook ads. This is a good deal from my point of view. 

You can use the 75$ of Ad words funds and the 50$ of Facebook advertising to make your website popular and create a target public. Mine I think are the middle men interested in history and the old men who tookpart in some of the events in the documentaries.