Recent videos claim to show the supposed sapphire screen withstanding some intense abuse -- but it's not invincible.
This supposed iPhone 6 screen is tough but not invincible. Earlier this week, I nearly had an anxiety attack over the prospect that the expected iPhone 6 would sport a sapphire screen impervious to even the most creative methods of torture-testing, which has became a passionate hobby of mine in recent years.
This excited panic was brought on by a video showing a purported iPhone 6
sapphire screen taking all sorts of abuse from big blades without
showing so much as a scratch. Frequent Apple leaker Sonny Dickson also
posted a video earlier this week that allegedly shows a rather flexible
sapphire crystal display destined for the iPhone 6.
I envisioned
having to journey to the ends of the Earth or get reacquainted with the
harsh handshake of battery acid in order to really push Apple's next big
thing to its limits. (Check out my previous pondering post on the iPhone 6 screen to understand what I'm rambling about. )
A new video surfaced Thursday, this one apparently out of Hong Kong,
that appears to show iPhone 6 screen panels standing up to similar
forms of torture, including a direct flame. Eventually the video show a
sapphire screen shattering when driven over with a car tire -- reminding us that an iPhone 6 sapphire screen would be tough but not invincible.
You can watch this latest torture test below. Assuming these videos are accurate, which an expert recently said could be possible, I'm open to heading to Hawaii or Guatemala to do an extreme heat test on one of these with the help of a local volcano. Let me know how else in the comments you'd like to see a rumored iPhone 6 sapphire screen stretched to its limit.
Samsung's latest Android tablet, the Galaxy Tab S, takes direct aim at the iPad with units that are both thinner and lighter -- despite offering larger screen sizes -- for the same price as Apple's iconic tablets.
The new Samsung models add to the already dizzying array of tablets from the Korean giant available at different price points, sizes, and across two different product lines: the consumer-focused Galaxy Tab and the more productivity/business oriented Note line, which includes a stylus.
And while all new tablets always come out of the gate with the iPad in their sights, the Galaxy Tab S seems to have a leg up on its earlier Samsung siblings, at least from a specs and value perspective.
Same price as the iPad, but thinner and lighter
The Galaxy Tab S comes in two colors -- Titanium Bronze and Dazzling White -- and two sizes, a smaller 8.4-inch model and a larger 10.5-incher. Due to ship in early July, they'll retail for $399.99 (£349 ) and $499.99 (£449) respectively.
Prices sound familiar? Yes, the iPad Mini Retina (16GB) starts at $399 while the entry-level Air (16GB) goes for $499. The shape and screen sizes of the iPads don't correspond exactly to the two Tab S slates, which have a widescreen format, but they're in the ballpark.
Both Tab S models measure 6.6mm thin.
The Tab S models weigh slightly less than their iPad counterparts, with the Tab S 8.4 coming in at 10 ounces or 294 grams (compared to the Mini Retina's 331 grams) while the Tab 10.5 tops the scales at right around a pound (465 grams), or 4 grams less than what the iPad Air weighs.
Thickness? The Tab S measures in at measly 6.6mm compared to the iPads' 7.5mm. And I can tell you that both Tab S models feel very slim in hand - just as the iPads do - and share some of the same design elements as the Galaxy S5, most notably the dimpled back, which has its supporters and detractors (I happen to like it).
First AMOLED tablet displayBeyond the operating systems -- the Tab S runs Samsung's version of Android 4.4 (KitKat) -- there are differences, of course, and Samsung is highlighting them, even it never mentions the iPad or Apple by name. That's kind of weird, but it's very Samsung to do battle with an enemy that's quite visible yet invisible at the same time.
The biggest talking point -- or selling point if you buy into Samsung's marketing -- is the Tab S's display. It's the first Super AMOLED display to appear on a Samsung tablet and it's the first thing that stands out when you pick up the devices.
Its 2,560 x 1,600 pixel resolution (16:10 aspect ratio) equates to 2x HD or 2K TV (as opposed to 4K TV). The iPad Air, by comparison, has a 2,048 x 1,536 resolution with 264ppi density, so you'll be hard-pressed see any difference in sharpness. But AMOLED is known for having deeper blacks (higher contrast ratios) and richer colors. Samsung says the Tab S has a 100,000:1 contrast ration, which is 100x greater than traditional LCD displays.
Samsung says its new AMOLED display offers deeper blacks and richer colors.
In my brief hands-on time with the products, I wasn't able to whip out an iPad to compare it to the Tab S, but that AMOLED display does have plenty of pop to it, and the short video demos I watched looked impressive. (Samsung says the number one thing people do with their tablets is watch video, followed by surfing the Web and social networking).
Samsung wouldn't let me take the tablet outside, but it says its "advanced outdoor visibility technology makes on-screen content look bright, natural, and easy to view." The display is also "adaptive" and will adjust to certain lighting conditions and applications, just like the Samsung Galaxy S5 smartphone. A few different "professional" manual presets are available, too, including AMOLED Cinema and AMOLED Photo.
Battery life is rated at 11 hours of continuous video watching (for both tablets), which again, is slightly better than the iPad's rated battery life of 10 hours of continuous video watching.
There's an 8 megapixel back camera with flash.
To help manage battery life, the Tab S runs on Samsung's own Exynos 5 Octa, an octa-core mobile CPU that splits duties between a 1.9 GHz quad-core processor and 1.3 GHz quad-core processor. We're still trying to track down exactly what flavor Exynos 5 Octa is in Tab S, but it does not appear to be a 64-bit chip (the iPad Air runs on the 64-bit A7 chip).
All that said, in my short trial, the Tab S felt zippy and it does support simple multitasking (Samsung refers to it as multiwindow, where two apps share the screen at the same time), a feature currently available on the Galaxy S5 smartphone. Samsung was also highlighting SideSync 3.0, which allows you to connect the Tab S to your Galaxy S5 (via WiFi Direct) to transfer files and make calls from your tablet using your S5 as a conduit.
Expandable memory Like the iPad, the Galaxy Tab S base models come with 16GB of built-in memory (and 3GB of RAM). In fact, that's the only memory configuration that will be available at launch, but if there's one key difference between the Tab S and the iPad, it's that the Tab S has a microSD card slot for adding memory -- it accepts cards up to 128GB. That makes memory expansion is much more affordable.
I didn't get a chance to take any pictures with the tablets, but you do get an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera (with flash) and a 2.1-megapixel front-facing camera for selfies and video chats. I was told the Wi-Fi is 802.11 a/b/g/n with dual channel (2.4GHz and 5GHz) and MIMO and there'll be forthcoming versions with a 4G LTE cellular data option (add $100 or £100 for the 4G LTE models).
Samsung's SideSync 3.0 feature.
In terms of extras, you get some stuff you may or may not want. The one hardware extra is a fingerprint scanner, the very same one found on the Galaxy S5. However, there's no tap-to-pair NFC technology (I don't find it to be a terribly useful, but some people do).
Samsung has also included a Tab S-optimized version of its "free" music service Milk and itsPapergarden, a magazine subscription marketplace (as you might expect, Samsung says the content is both tailored to and designed to look good on the Tab S's AMOLED display).
For better or worse, Galaxy Gifts, a service that hawks promotions from entertainment, productivity, and news providers, is also part of the Galaxy ecosystem, and on the Tab S it includes one-year free of Gogo In-flight Wi-Fi access (up to 36 segments), a 12-month subscription to Bloomberg BusinessWeek, 6-month trial subscription to The Wall Street Journal and The Washington post, 3-month subscription to The New York Times, 3 months free Sirius XM Radio, and 3 months free subscription to Audible. This is another carry-over from the Galaxy S5 phone.
Two different sizes and colors.
Accessories One thing Samsung seems to have learned from Apple is that when you launch a tablet, it's important to have some accessories for it out of the gate. As you might suspect, the Tab S works with the Gear 2(Samsung talked a lot of about seamless connectivity with other Galaxy devices). But consumers will also get to choose between three slim covers: the Simple Cover, Book Cover, and Keyboard Cover.
What's interesting about the Simple and Book covers is that literally snap onto the tablet. The Book cover has a built-in magnet and folds into a stand with three angles to choose from.
The Tab S in its Keyboard Case.(with other cases in the background).
I got a chance to play around a bit with the keyboard cover and it seems pretty nice. It's customized for the Tab S and share the same design themes, including the dimpled back. It had a solid feel to it and the keyboard was laid out nicely.
I only saw the three covers, but apparently Samsung will also be serving up a standalone Bluetooth keyboard, S Action Mouse, USB LAN Hub, a power saving cable and portable battery packs. (SeeSamsung debuts Galaxy Tab S cover accessories and Bluetooth keyboard for more info.)
Final first thoughts When you sort through all the "special" features and marketing messages, what you're left with is a slickly designed, zippy Android tablet with a very nice screen and an expansion port for additional memory.
While the Galaxy Tab S doesn't have the iPad's aluminum unibody design, it does manage to come across as a premium tablet, though not necessarily as premium as the iPad.
The question, of course, is how the screen truly stacks up against the iPad's (we'll be doing comprehensive comparisons as soon as we get our review samples). It may very well come out the winner, but for me anyway, beyond the screen, the Tab S's biggest selling point is its expandable memory option. For about $35 more, you'll be able to turn the Tab S into an 80GB tablet, for a total of $435 or $535. Last I checked, the 64GB iPad Air cost a whopping $699.
Apple unveiled new features for Siri in the latest version of its mobile OS, but you don't need to wait for iOS 8 to find cool stuff to ask the voice assistant.
Siri will offer iPhone and iPad users several new features and enhancements when we all get our hands on iOS 8 later this year. Among them are voice activation, 22 new dictation languages, and song recognition via Shazam. But even now Siri may be capable of doing more than many of you realize.
Apple unveiled Siri in 2011 with the release of iOS 5 and the iPhone 4S. Responding to your questions, comments, and sometimes insults, the voice assistant tries to serve up answers to your queries as well as perform a variety of tasks to save you from manual labor. Apple has continually upgraded Siri with new skills and more smarts, but Siri still can be frustrating to use, especially when you aren't aware of its full capabilities.
Ensuring that people find Siri helpful is even more critical for Apple now that the concept of a virtual assistant has taken off in the mobile market. The voice-activated Google Now has grabbed a foothold on Android devices, while Microsoft's latest version of Windows Phone spotlights a personal voice assistant called Cortana.
So, just what can you now do with Siri without having to wait for iOS 8? Here are 12 tips and tricks that alliOS 7 users can try.
1. Hold to talk. How often does Siri interrupt you before you have a chance to finish your entire question? The problem here is that after you tap the Home button to activate Siri, the voice assistant interprets a slight pause as a sign that you've stopped talking. Well, you can easily prevent those annoying interruptions simply by holding down the Home button until you finish speaking. Doing so ensures that Siri will hear your entire question and won't chime in until you release the button.
2. Access your previous exchange. Siri keeps track of your conversations while it's open, so you can easily scroll back to a previous question and answer. But close Siri, and its memory is not as good. Still, you can at least harken back to your previous conversation when you open Siri anew. Here's how: Ask Siri a question, such as "What is the temperature?" Close Siri by tapping the Home button. Open Siri again but instead of asking a new question, tap the lower section of the Siri screen next to the question mark icon. Swipe up the Siri screen and you'll see your most recent exchange with the voice assistant.
4. Open an app.3. Edit your previous question. You've asked Siri a question, but you made a mistake, resulting in the wrong answer. You can either repeat and rephrase the question or simply edit your previous question to correct the error. To do the latter, swipe your way up Siri's screen until you see your question. Notice the phrase "tap to edit" underneath it. Simply tap your question. You can now edit it to fix the mistake, either by typing or by tapping the microphone icon on the keyboard to speak. When finished, tap the Done button on your keyboard, and your corrected question is sent to Siri for a fresh, new answer.
You can't yet use Siri to actually control a third-party app, but you can at least tell it to launch an app. Pick any app installed on your iPhone and iPad, such as Angry Birds. Tell Siri to "open Angry Birds," and it will comply. If two or more apps share a similar name, for example, Angry Birds and Angry Birds Space, Siri will ask which one you want to launch.
5. Post on Facebook or tweet on Twitter. Yes, you can tell Siri to post an update on Facebook or Twitter. Simply say: "Post on Facebook" or "Post on Twitter." Siri responds by asking what you want to say. Dictate your update, and Siri will then post it for you.
6. Send an email or text. You can tell Siri that you want to text or email someone and then dictate the message all in one fell swoop. To email a specific person, say: "Email Steve." Siri asks you for the subject of the email and then asks you to dictate the message. After dictation, Siri asks if you want to send the email. In the case of a text, tell Siri: "Text Steve." Dictate your message, and Siri will record it and send it.
7. Read your emails and texts. Yes, Siri can read aloud to you your emails and texts. To hear all of the emails in your inbox one after the other, tell Siri: "Read all my email." To hear the most recent email by date and time, simply tell Siri: "Read my latest email." With texts, you can ask Siri to read you all messages or just the latest one from a specific person. Siri complies and then asks if you want to reply to the person via text.
8. Check missed calls and voicemails. You can tell Siri to read the names and numbers of all of your missed phone calls and voicemails. That's handy in itself. But you can take all that a step further by telling the voice assistant to play back your voicemails. Simply say: "Play my voicemail," and Siri puts your iPhone on speaker and automatically reads your latest voicemail.
9. Tell Siri who someone is. Want to be able to tell Siri to text your wife or husband or send an email to your mom? You can tell Siri just who those people are in your life. To tell Siri that your wife's name is Cecelia, for example, say: "Cecelia is my wife." Siri will ask if you want it to remember that fact. Just say yes, and it will keep track of the relationship. The next time you say: "Text my wife, please," Siri will know exactly who you mean.
10. Teach Siri how to pronounce names. Frustrated because Siri mispronounces your name or the name of one of your contacts? You can teach it how to pronounce the name correctly. Let's say Siri keeps getting your cousin's name wrong when you try to email or text him. To correct the problem, tell Siri: "That's not how you pronounce [your cousin's full name]." In response, Siri asks how you pronounce the first name. Speak the name correctly, and Siri then displays a list of three suggested pronunciations that you can listen to. Pick the right (or closest) one, and Siri corrects its pronunciation. Siri then repeats that process with the last name. From then on, Siri will know how to pronounce the full name.
11. Turn a setting on or off. iOS offers an array of settings behind the scenes that you can enable or disable. But finding a specific setting can be a challenge. Instead, let Siri do the work for you. Let's say you want to turn on Bluetooth. Just tell Siri: "Turn on Bluetooth," and your wish is its command. Time to turn if off? Just say: "Turn off Bluetooth," and Siri again grants your wish.
12. Learn what you can ask Siri. One of the biggest questions might just be: "What exactly can you ask Siri?" To see a list of sample conversation items, launch Siri and either ask: "What can I ask Siri?" or tap the question mark icon in the lower left corner. Siri displays a list of topics that it can answer along with a specific example for each.
Siri can perform many other tricks, but these are some of the major ones. Stay tuned for more tips once iOS 8 hits your iPhone or iPad later this year.
