Category: Technology

On the heels of a typically impressive Apple launch event, quiet proof that Apple is actually fallible…

Egads, here’s The Verge with an early video review of a Samsung Windows RT tablet. Seems like you could summarize the video by saying:

To do anything interesting you have to switch to classic desktop mode, but desktop mode is hideous without a mouse and keyboard.

You have to be kidding about how to rotate the screen…

Arizona? New Mexico?

No, Mars.

Seriously, NASA’s Curiosity rover is the coolest thing…

No, I’m not talking Olympics here. Last night, NASA successfully put a one ton rover the size of a small car on the surface of Mars. The logistics involved were ridiculous. This is amazing stuff.

And of course, you can now follow the rover on Twitter.

Or not…

I’ve had the HTC Incredible for a very long time. I got it the first day it came out. So it’s been 2+ years, a long time in phone land. It has been an awesome phone. I am a loyal Verizon customer, for one reason only, the network.

I have so many friends with iPhones on AT&T. They always claim to have great service. But they don’t. They have great phones which blinds them to the lame network.

So I have been incredibly (no pun intended) happy with the HTC Incredible. It is/was a great phone. When I first got it, my iPhone 3 friends were envious.

Verizon 4G was very tempting. But every phone that came along was good but not great. I couldn’t justify the expense of a new phone when the only draw was 4G (and the accompanying lame battery). The iPhone on Verizon was only moderately tempting, since I’m a heavy Google user. So I’d been sticking with the Incredible with minimal issues.

The Galaxy S III finally convinced me. I pre-ordered so I’ve had it for over a week. My Incredible was great, but the Galaxy rocks.

I haven’t even touched on many of the newest features. So I will only comment on a few:

4G: Um, holy crap. When at home, if I turn off my phone’s WiFi, I will double my speed by using 4G. That’s just a crazy statement. Unless you are paying for ultra turbo home high speed, 4G is faster. I get 10MB down sitting in a cab.

Size/Screen: I really wasn’t sure if I wanted the big Android thing or not. I ordered without holding it in my hands. My initial reaction was, “wow big, and wow, light and wow, thin”. It’s really light. That feels either cheap or just really light. Despite being big, in your back pocket it is nothing. It took about a day to get used to the size. Going back to my Incredible I think, too small. Yes, I have big hands and long fingers so maybe if you don’t you wouldn’t like it. But for me the smaller size is pointless. The screen looks great (not retina but very nice, and bigger is better when watching video).

Ice Cream Sandwich: Super good. I loved Gingerbread on the Incredible, but ICS is super smooth and very nice.

Processor: The international version has a quad core (why exactly do you need a quad core on a phone?) but the US 4G version is dual core. Doesn’t matter, it’s crazy fast.

Battery: The reviews said it was bad, but I haven’t seen it. Maybe because I get WiFi so many places so I don’t use 4G a lot, but even 4G doesn’t seem to kill it. So far, so good.

Camera/Video: TBD, I haven’t tested enough. The camera is super fast and seems good. The flash may not be as good as the Incredible. Haven’t tested video.

Samsung Extras: For the most part I’d say Samsung didn’t mess up Android. Verizon added some crap that I can’t delete which annoys me but is easily ignored. Samsung’s Siri clone is as useful as Siri, which is to say not that much. They added a feature where the front facing camera can detect eye movement so if you are holding the phone and reading, so it doesn’t go to sleep. I play Words With Friends and often look at the board and think. You see this eye icon in the notification bar as it detects your eyes moving and doesn’t go to sleep. That is super cool. Samsung is advertising a bunch of other cool things but they mostly depend on other people using the same phone, so I haven’t tried them.

What else? Samsung seems to be going with a Zen feel to the phone, mainly in terms of the default sounds. For the most part I like it (the default notification sound is someone whistling – the first day I kept looking around).

But the default alarm sound is very soothing. I don’t need soothing, I need to wake up. A quibble, but I slept through it once. I don’t use the default sound anymore.

But overall, a seriously great phone. My wife has the latest iPhone. I am not envious.

Classic snark from John Gruber…