Samsung I9003 Galaxy SL review

Success breeds imitation and we have the next Galaxy S remake to bear witness. But make no mistake about it – the Samsung I9003 Galaxy SL is not just another clone. This time changes aren’t just skin deep.

Samsung I9003 Galaxy SL official photos
We are talking a new screen, a new CPU and a different battery here. Although it’s actually hard to notice a difference on the outside, save for a slightly thicker body. Basically most of the internals have been replaced, which may have or may have not resulted in a significant change in the user experience.

Key features

• Quad-band GSM and tri-band 3G support
• 7.2 Mbps HSDPA and 5.76 Mbps HSUPA support
• 4" 16M-color Super Clear LCD capacitive touchscreen of WVGA (480 x 800 pixel) resolution
• Slim 10.9mm profile
• 1GHz Cortex A8 CPU, PowerVR SGX530 GPU, TI OMAP 3630 chipset; 478MB of RAM available to the user
• 5 MP autofocus camera with face, smile and blink detection
• 720p HD video recording at 30fps
• Wi-Fi 802.11 b, g and n support
• GPS with A-GPS connectivity; Digital compass
• 16GB internal storage, microSD slot
• Accelerometer and proximity sensor
• Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
• Secondary video-call camera
• microUSB port (charging) and stereo Bluetooth v3.0
• Android OS v2.2 (Froyo) with TouchWiz UI customization
• FM radio with RDS
• Adobe Flash 10.1 support for the web browser
• Document editor
• File manager comes preinstalled
• Samsung Apps brings a few nice apps for free
• Battery has increased capacity (1650 mAh) over the original Galaxy S (1500 mAh)

Main disadvantages

• Super Clear LCD is somewhat inferior to SuperAMOLED
• Camera lacks flash
• No dedicated camera key
• The all-plastic body is a real fingerprint magnet
• Feeble loudspeaker
• Increased thickness (10.6mm), height (123.7mm) and weight (131 g) compared to the original Galaxy S (9.9mm, 122.4mm and 119 g)
• Less capable GPU compared to the original Galaxy S

The Samsung I9003 Galaxy SL is a victim of timing. It couldn’t have been less fortunate to follow in the footsteps of the original Galaxy S – knowing it will never be able to catch up. At least Samsung should know perfectly well what to expect.
This is not the first flagship they’re forced by circumstances to replace. Much like the S8530 Wave II, the I9003 is more of a substitute, rather than an upgrade. You can think of the I9003 SL as a way to make sure there will be enough AMOLED panels for the Galaxy S2 without the need to discontinue the original Galaxy S altogether.

Samsung I9003 Galaxy SL at ours
The AMOLED shortage is to be felt for at least another while and Samsung are trying hard to work their way around it. We’ll have to see how this next attempt plays out. The I9003 has many people to convince that it’s a good enough replacement. Users have every right to be skeptical. It will take a good deal of persuasion to keep them from spending their cash elsewhere.
So let’s see if there’s life after SuperAMOLED for the Galaxy SL

busines

GBP40k iPhone 4 Made from Meteor and T-Rex Tooth

 

Luxury electronics maker Stuart Hughes has hit the headlines again, this time peddling an iPhone 4 HISTORY Edition crafted out of a chunk of meteor and a 65-million-year-old T. rex tooth.

The iPhone case is hewn from a block of meteoric stone, which is polished and then combined with splinters and shavings from the dinosaur tooth. Both the meteor and tooth were said to have been sourced from Arizona, USA. The case of the iPhone HISTORY Edition is also encrusted with 8.5ct of flawless diamonds, and the Apple logo on the rear of the phone is platinum with diamonds added.

On his website, Mr Hughes almost manages to describe his design intentions with the iPhone 4 HISTORY Edition: "I have worked with Dinosaur in the past but I wanted to go fierce on this one hence we sort (sic) a tooth, doesn't come more fierce than that... "

The Liverpudlian designer is famous for creating gaudy and extremely expensive versions of popular gadgets. Mr Hughes' wife Katherine is also involved in the business, and is described as contributing her "sheer eye for beauty" to the projects. This, combined with Mr Hughes' "exquisite ideas for design", provides the basis for a company dedicated to producing the most ostentatious gadgets possible.

The design duo's previous achievements include a £5 million iPhone 4, the 'Diamond Rose', said to be the world's most expensive mobile phone. Mr Hughes also produces gold and platinum versions of TVs, computers, music systems and even an aquarium.

The iPhone 4 HISTORY Edition is priced at £39,995 and will be made in a limited edition of ten.

LG Optimus Me Commercial, A Candidate For The Wall Of Weird

Well, this one is definitely nabbing a spot on the wall of weird.  LG released a commercial for the leaked Optimus Me, and we have to say,  it’s odd.  The commercial sports a series of questions about the device between two woman.  Questions range from “Isn’t it small and uncomfortable?” and “Does it have only one color?”.  The questions are displayed in “comic like” bubbles and give off a weird vibe.  Check it out for yourself and let us know what you think.  I’m truly not sure if something like this can improve sales or scare them off for LG, but we’ll let you be the judge of that.

Angry Birds Rio Debutes In March

Angry Birds Rio Debutes In March

If you thought the Angry Birds hype was settling down a bit, think again.  It appears as though Rovio is going to ride the Angry train all the way to the last stop.  And who can blame them?  Angry Birds has got to be one of the most popular mobile games of all time.  In my home, you can find one of my kids hiding in the corner with my hijacked Galaxy Tab, teaching some thieving pigs a lesson.


 Well, come March, hitting “app stores everywhere”, it looks like the pig dropping birds have made their way to Brazil and will be battling a new enemy.  In the animated game trailer, you’ll get a glimpse of the new wildlife-napping villain, a white Cockatoo.
The game’s new edition is part of a 20th Century Fox backing called Rio, from the creators of Ice Age, which should debut in theaters, sometime in April.  Hit the break to check out the game trailer and let us know what you think in the comments below.  And if you’re new to the world of Angry Birds, then head on over to the Android Market, where you can check out the pig bombing game for yourself.  Good luck trying to put the phone down before getting all three stars on each level and unlocking all the golden eggs.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7gIpfrQdAI&feature=player_embedded

Free Fun Morphing

Free Fun Morphing creates a sequence of frames which are the transformation of the source image to target image, giving the appearance that the source image "becomes" the target.
Images must be true color (24 bit) and have the same size. In the program you can create lines (the same number in Source and Target) which describe the transformation. You should create line objects in the same order on boths images. There are various viewing tools for preview morphing.
Features:

- You can specify the number of frames in sequence.
- You can create symmetric sequence.
- You can save resulting movies as animated GIF, AVI and so on.

Screenshot

System requirements

PentiumII, 64 MB RAM

Supported OS

WinXP, Windows2000, Windows2003, Windows Vista Ultimate, Windows Vista Ultimate x64, Win98, WinME, WinNT 4.x, Win95, Windows Vista Starter, Windows Vista Home Basic, Windows Vista Home Premium, Windows Vista Business, Windows Vista Enterprise, Windows Vista Home Basic x64, Windows Vista Home Premium x64, Windows Vista Business x64, Windows Vista Enterprise x64

Supported Languages

English

Kings Speech’ Wins At Celebrity Studded

In a surprise win, The King’s Speech took the top prize Saturday at the Producer Guild of America Awards, giving The Social Network its first setback of the trophy season and setting up a possible showdown at the Academy Awards.

The PGA gave its best animated film award to Toy Story 3 over Despicable Me and How To Train Your Dragon, while Waiting for Superman won the best documentary feature award.
PHOTOS: The Stars Toast With Moët & Chandon At Golden Globes For A Good Cause
The guild recognized television as well. Best comedy-series went to Modern Family, while Mad Men claimed best dramatic series. The full list of winners is after the jump.
Some of the celebrities in attendance were Justin Timberlake, a sultry Amy Adams, Mark Wahlberg, Joe Manganiello, Footloose‘s Lori Singer wearing an interesting outfit along with a slew of others. Launch the gallery to check out the inside pics and red carpet photos out.
Do you think this is going to hinder The Social Networks chances for Best Pictures at the Academy Awards? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.