Short-of-expectation iPhone 4s and Samsung Galaxy Nexus leads to hopeful 2012

jhay — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 06:41:41 +0000

When it was first announced that Google has partnered with Samsung to make the Galaxy Nexus which is the flagship phone to carry Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, anticipation among Android fans grew as Apple fans salivated for the next iPhone.

It turned out that there was no iPhone 5 just the iPhone 4s. So we all thought that it was a good opportunity for Google to score with the Galaxy Nexus or so we thought?

Gizmodo has come out with a review of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus which said that it’s the best Android phone to date simply because of the raw Ice Cream Sandwich on which it runs. No questions there as Android 4.0 has been received well by critics and tech pundits.

However, one cannot ignore the Galaxy Nexus’ shortcomings, Gizmodo points out:

the worst thing about this phone: The camera, the camera, the camera! Sweet Jesus Diaz, what were they thinking? When I heard they’d gone with a 5MP sensor instead of the now-standard-on-high-end-phones 8MP sensor, I promised I’d reserve judgement until I’d tried it. The camera does pretty okay in bright daylight, but it doesn’t come anywhere near its competition, plain and simple. Colors are washed out, low-light shooting is a noise-fest, and it’s not nearly as sharp. Why would you totally revamp your camera software, make it fast and awesome, include time-lapse, panorama, and really fun face-morphing video features, and then put a piece of crap camera in there? It’s utterly baffling.

Other deal breakers are the lack of an SD card for extra storage, the lack of a dedicated camera button and the cold hard fact that it is easily outperformed by the Samsung Galazy S II which is an older-generation phone.

With both Apple and Google falling short of expectations with their new ‘flagship’ phones, 2012 will be exciting as other phone manufacturers will try to fill in the void with their new handset offerings running on Android 4.0

But with the Christmas shopping season soon to pick up with stores offering current generation Android phones on great deals, it’s hard to resist waiting for another 6 months for great phone running the latest version of Android.

Image by laihiu

Samsung to open a factory in the Philippines?

jhay — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 14:21:41 +0000

While waiting for some official announcement or news as to whether classes in the tertiary level would be suspended tomorrow, I chanced upon this short story about Samsung pondering on the idea of opening a factory here in the Philippines.

“As far as I know, Samsung Electronics and the Philippine government are talking about the plan. However, some technical issues still remain before a final decision,” a source at Samsung told The Korea Times.

The source said the company would “announce via a regulatory filing if any concrete decision comes out,” the newspaper reported.

Philippine government officials have been talking with Samsung about constructing a plant to make integrated circuitry for chips in the Clark Special Economic Zone north of Manila in the Philippines, the report said.

In Clark eh? That’s where Hanjin, also a Koren firm, is based locally but has been in some hot water of late because of some serious string of on-site accidents claiming the lives of its workers. Tsk tsk tsk.

Going back, it seems that Korean firms are much more inclined to setup shop north of Manila, while Chinese and Japanese firms are more akin to opening theirs south of Manila like in the economic processing zones of Cavite, Laguna and Batangas. Just as observation though.

If Samsung does setup a factory in the country, would it make Samsung products a bit more affordable? I’m not keen on their mobile phones but one of the top toys in my wish-list is their hi-def LCD TVs. Just sharing some wishful thoughts here.

The Four-eyed Journal » Samsung

Short-of-expectation iPhone 4s and Samsung Galaxy Nexus leads to hopeful 2012

Samsung to open a factory in the Philippines?