Bandwidth caps are absolutely brutal in Canada. A monthly cap of 60GB is the norm and even high-end packages come with caps under 100GB per month. Luckily, I typically only use about 85% of my monthly bandwidth cap – until this month. With 4 days left before my cap resets I have just 3GB of space remaining – definitely not enough and at $2/GB I don’t want to hand Rogers any money for overage charges.
While trying to conserve my usage this morning I came to the realization that I can just tether my phone to my laptop! I have a monthly cap of 6GB on my phone and have used less than 100MB this month leaving me almost 6GB of data that I can use for my uploading, surfing and media consumption. Sure, the download (~1Mbps) and upload (~0.3 Mbps) speeds aren’t the best, but it is more than usable for 90% of my tasks. The image attached to this post shows my SpeedTest.net data for my tethered connection.
In addition to the leaked information from yesterday being correct, the Samsung Galaxy S II will be out very soon! This morning, Samsung officially announced the Samsung Galaxy S II and does it ever deliver. Engadget reports the following specs:
Display: 4.27″ SuperAMOLED Plus with 800×480 resolution Camera: 8MP rear camera (capable of 1080P recording) and 2MP front-facing camera Processor: 1GHz dual-core (reported to be a Tegra 2, but now rumoured to be a custom Samsung chip) RAM: 1GB Storage: 16GB or 32GB with MicroSD up to an additional 32GB OS: Android 2.3 Gingerbread with TouchWiz 4.0 Connectivity: HSPA+, 802.11 a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0, NFC (near-field communication) option Battery: 1650mAh
We are still waiting for Samsung to release information regarding storage, RAM, and a few other details, so hopefully they will fit in-line with the information we do know. All of these amazing features come packed in a device that is just 8.49mm thick making it the thinest smartphone available. In my opinion, this phone represents what the Google Nexus S should have been. It’s unfortunate that this won’t be a stock Android experience, but there are very few Android devices that are vanilla (other than Nexus phones from Google).
Check out the announcement details and press release over @ Engadget
UPDATE: PC World reports that the Galaxy S II will sport 16GB and 32GB with an internal card slot to add more storage space!
Just a day before the presumed announcement of the Samsung Galaxy S2 comes quite the substantiated leak! The folks over at Android in Canada were the first, that I am aware of, to report this leak in North America. As someone looking to jump into the Android market later this year, I think these specs are just perfect!
The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is well underway in Las Vegas and will be the venue where some of the biggest 2011 technology announcements are made. I could post dozens of times per day relating to interesting new technology, but I will try to keep my news regurgitation to a minimum. However, Samsung made a couple of very appealing announcements today.
Samsung Infuse 4G
Samsung’s latest Galaxy S phone, the Infuse 4G sports a new 4.5″ Super AMOLED Plus display, a 1.2GHz Hummingbird processor (sadly not dual core), and a 4G HSPA+ antenna. Perhaps the coolest thing about this new Samsung device is the build quality. Matt Buchanan from Gizmodo writes:
“I pick it up. Whoa. This is quality. The first Samsung phone in ages that doesn’t feel cheap—it’s a radically better tactile experience than any Galaxy phone, even the Nexus S. The plastic is dense and matte, the back textured. The phone itself a nearly perfectly sculpted, sufficiently thin slab (AT&T’s thinnest), the expanse of the 4.5-inch screen making it seem somehow thinner. It’s what a high-end phone should feel like.”
Until now, the MacBook Air has dominated the thin-and-light notebook space. Yes, the Dell Adamo was launched, but rarely do you hear about it these days. Well, Samsung has just announced their new 9 Series laptops that are “a shade lighter, a touch thinner, and looks like the Air’s evil twin.” Sporting one of the new Sandy Bridge Core i5 processors (with strong on-board graphics), a large SSD, USB 3.0 and more, this laptop can compete with the big boys. The price might be on the high end ($1599), but this should be a sign of what’s to come from Samsung.
Earlier this week Google officially announced their successor to the Nexus One, the Nexus S. The Nexus S is built by Samsung and shares a lot of design features with the current Samsung Galaxy S line that has been so well received by the Android community.
What separates the Nexus S from other Galaxy S phones is that it has been designed by both Google and Samsung and will act as a reference design for upcoming 2011 Android handsets. The Nexus S still has the famous SAMOLED (super active matrix organic light emitting diode) screen and 1Ghz Cortex A8 processor as exist on Samsung’s current handsets, but adds a curved display, near field communications (NFC), internal storage, and, the ever-anticipated, Android 2.3 Gingerbread operating system.
Unfortunately, there are still a few big question marks when it comes to the latest Google offering. It is quite clear that the build quality of the Nexus S will not match that of the mostly metal Nexus One and the lack of an SD-card slot greatly limits storage capacity. The 16GB of storage built into the phone is a welcomed addition, but the ability to add 32GB memory cards to most Android handsets has always been a very appealing feature. Also, with dual-core mobile processors just around the corner it is somewhat surprising that Google went with a current generation Cortex A8.
Is the Nexus S enough of an upgrade over current Android handsets? If you already have a Nexus One, Galaxy S or one of the great new HTC Android handsets, then no, an upgrade is probably not worth it. However, if you are looking to move from an iPhone, Blackberry, or non-smartphone then I think the Nexus S represents the best option when it is available later this month. As someone that is looking to move from Apple to Android in early 2011, I find myself wondering what to do. Jump on the Nexus S with vanilla Gingerbread or wait until more powerful handsets appear in early 2011? Tough decision.
With 4G phones popping out all over the place and terms like HSPA+, LTE, WiMax and others being tossed around, what are these new-fangled 4G network everyone is talking about? Thankfully, those clever gnomes over at Lifehacker have published a fairly extensive guide to 4G networks in the United States.
The offerings from Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon are broken down and compared by technology, speed, coverage, compatibility and cost to educate those wishing to suit the 4G network that best suits their need. As with any new network, Lifehacker concludes that a true comparison is most difficult at this time as 4G is still in its infancy.
What are your thoughts on 4G networks in late 2010? Still too early?
In addition to the 
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