So pretty much everyone — especially the carriers — rewrote their strategies around Android, and, when available, the iPhone. And so far, Microsoft has not offered anything compelling enough to disrupt that balance. It doesn’t seem to be attacking at either the high- or low-end of the market, or have any noticeably distinct strategy yet. It’s just there, not really making much noise.
Rewrote strategy? Carriers are in the business of offering subsidized phones and then attaching as much voice, text, and data plans as possible.
Microsoft’s strategy is to bully itself into a market with cold hard cash: the browser and search being two good examples. And now phones, with a massive infusion of financial capital into Nokia.
Microsoft did whatever was necessary to obliterate Netscape Navigator. Microsoft pays you to search on Bing. If Microsoft is serious about phones it should hand out the Nokia Lumia 800 for free to grab unit share, mind share, and then do what it does best: sell operating systems (Windows) and business software (Office). That’ll make some noise.
For all who have asked, just confirmed @Corning Gorilla Glass is not on the new Galaxy Nexus.
1280 x 800 pixels in a smartphone display is quite a feat, and it’s just as impressive to behold as it sounds. The Note’s 5.3-inch Super AMOLED screen is incredibly bright, vibrant and detailed, thanks to its 285ppi resolution.
1280×800 is unique for smartphones. I’m surprised Samsung broke away from 16:9.
What is the correct method of calculating resolution (as in ppi) for PenTile Matrix displays?
Pixels on a PenTile Matrix display are not hardwired pixels but virtual pixels: a pixel can be made up of 2×1 or 2×2 sub-pixels. And those sub-pixels can be made up of RG, BG, GR, GB or RGxBG, GRxGB, BGxRG, GBxGR.
Is 285 ppi accurate for the 5.3-inch RGBG Super AMOLED display? In light of virtual pixels is there a better method of measuring resolution?
Nick Bilton, The New York Times:
Enter Siri.
It’s the stuff of science fiction. You sit on your couch and rather than fumble with several remotes or use hand gestures, you simply talk: “Put on the last episode of Gossip Girl.” “Play the local news headlines.” “Play some Coldplay music videos.” Siri does the rest.
iTV will probably come with a Siri-enabled iPod touch.
Right now, the Apple TV box is aiming for “input 2″ on your TV [...]
But long-term, Apple probably wants its TV platform to be “input zero.” That is, the first thing you see when you turn your TV on. The only thing you need to watch video, make FaceTime calls, download apps, play games, and maybe even use Siri to order a pizza. The only remote control you need. The heart and soul and brain of your living room.
Imagine watching a baseball game on a TV where ESPN is a smart app, not a dumb channel. When you’re watching a game, you could tell the TV to show you the career statistics for the current batter. You could ask the HBO app which other movies this actress has been in. Point is: it’d be better for both viewers and the networks1 if a TV “channel” were an interactive app rather than a mere single stream of video.
I would not want the game or TV episode I’m watching to be cluttered up with statistics and other ‘useful’ information. I don’t even like the shiny logo glued unto the bezel of the TV. Wouldn’t it be better if useful information like batter statistics showed up on my iPhone, or iPad instead?
Siri: Listen to me, you little twerp. If you ask me one more inane question [...]
Jung-Ah Lee and Evan Ramstad, The Wall Street Journal:
Samsung in the July-to-September period surpassed Apple Inc. as the leading seller of smartphones by shipping around 28 million, about four times the number it achieved a year earlier, in a rapid transformation of its biggest business by sales. Apple said earlier this month it shipped around 17 million smartphones in the same period.
Shipped, as in shipped into the channel. Apple did not say shipped; Apple said sold. The difference is huge.
We also enjoyed using the screen on the Atrix 2. First, while both Atrix devices (Atrices?) take advantage of qHD displays with 960 x 540 resolution, the newer one looks better despite having a larger display to hold the same number of pixels in. This is mainly because HelloMoto opted not to use the Pentile matrix scheme, which is something that the company has elected to do on most of its qHD screens — including the first Atrix and the Droid Bionic.
The first Atrix had a 4.0-inch LCD with PenTile Matrix; the Atrix 2 has a 4.3-inch LCD with RGB.
“They have production plans for 2,048×1,536 displays. Starting in November. But those are only plans at this point,” said the source, referring to LG and Samsung.
“It’s not a question of making just one. That, of course, can be done. The challenge is making lots of them,” the source said. “This is a quantum leap in pixel density. This hasn’t been done before.”
That’s LG Display. And the “quantum leap in pixel density” is from 132 ppi to 264. The 9.7-inch IPS LCD used in the current iPads has a pixel format of 1024×768. Based on what Apple did with the iPhone 4 a Retina Display-equipped iPad would sport a pixel format of 2048×1536.
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