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hey don't be grading me on this
It’s too small!! It’s too big for a phone!! It’s too expensive!! Google says Android isn’t meant for tablets!! Seems to be what a lot of people are saying to bash the Tab, whether they have actually used / seen the device we do not know but my guess is no. A lot is riding on this device as it is the first ‘true competitor' to Apple’s iPad. The question is does the Tab hold up to this high standard that Apple has put in place? I think it is important to know that the Android OS on the Tab hasn’t been completely reworked to look like a tablet, whatever that may be. It seems like that comment from Hugo Barra, director of products for mobile at Google, was taken a bit too far. The software that comes on the Galaxy Tab is pretty much the same stuff you would see on your typical Galaxy S phone or any other Andoird device. Only a few apps have been modified to take use of the extra real estate. If you already own an Android device you will immediately be at home with your Galaxy Tab as it delivers the same experience you would expect on your phone.
Initial Impressions
The first thing you will notice about the Tab when you hold it is that it is a very solid device. That seems to be what everyone who’s held mine has said, and it’s true! Its 7” size actually fits really well in your hand. Holding it with one hand and using the other for surfing the web is pefect. Contrary to what people say, having a device in this size just feels better, and more natural. The Tab is very easy to hold and very easy to type with in portrait - you don’t feel like you are stretching your fingers across the screen to hit the keys and I would consider this very important. The screen offers a much higher PPI over the competition which in turn offers stunning clarity. Now I must note that the Galaxy Tab does not offer S-AMOLED. Rumors say that this may change, but don’t let that deter you from your purchase.
Pricing
Ah, pricing. Here’s where a lot of people start to complain that it is ‘too expensive’. To be fair, look at mobile phones. Off contract they are about $500. Sprint and T-Mobile both offer this device on a 2 year contract for $400 (may have to go in store for off contract prices), while ATT offers it for $650 and VZW offers it for $600 with pay as you go data plans (no contract price offered). This seems to be pretty fair... it is good to have options. Comparatively, Apple starts their 16GB iPad 3G for $650 with a no on contract price. 32GB and 64GB devices add about $100 to the price. I’ve also noticed a lot tend to confuse the price of the iPad WiFi to the Galaxy Tab. Saying iPad starts at $499. Well, yes, it does, but we need to compare apples to apples. There is no WiFi offering as of yet for the Tab so let’s not compare it to something that that is in a different class. So pick your flavor, would you rather get the device cheaper and be locked in a data contract or would you rather pay more and pay data as you go. Side note: Personally these devices should not be locked into a 2 year contact. Actually, I think all mobile devices should be 1 year only. Life cycles of electronics are far, far less than 2 years, but I digress.
Hardware
The hardware. CPU/GPU combination is one of the strongest in the market. The Tab has the same CPU and GPU that’s found in other Galaxy S phones. The device has a MicroSD slot for user upgradable memory (up to 32GB), volume rockers, an off button (which I wish was on the top and not the side arg), and has capacitive buttons to go back, home, search, and to access settings of an app. NOTE: It would be really nice if the capacitive buttons stayed on when the screen was lit because in the dark it’s hard to find them. A front and rear facing camera is also included. The front features a 1.3mp camera and the back features a 3.2mp camera. Maybe Samsung skimped on the rear camera… but you aren’t going to be replacing your point and shoot so this is not a deal breaker. I would have been nice to see all the effects in the camera settings like the ones seen on the Galaxy S phones. Quadrant scores are only about 1000, which seems a bit low for a device that is a lot more powerful than most devices on the internet. There is a fix for this which takes scores over 2000 but overall people say the device just feels the same (from what I read). Over all the hardware is top notch.
Not going to go into memory because some carriers have different specs.
Software
The device ships with Android 2.2 (Froyo) and features Samsungs TouchWiz UI. The overall feel of the TouchWiz UI is pretty good but it would be nice to have a few more options with the app drawer though. Rather than scrolling left or right to view apps it would nice to have the option to switch to up and down scrolling. I also am not fond of the background square behind the app. My biggest issue with the TouchWiz UI is that you can’t switch which homescreen your home button goes to. You can add up to 9 screens but you can’t change the fact that number 1 is always the home screen. With it like this you can only scroll to the right from home, not left and right.
The default browser has no home button. What’s up with that? That’s a pretty big letdown. Brower performance is not stellar either. Sites that have flash can be very laggy. Being a tablet and having that extra screen real estate shouldn’t mean that sites are forced to their mobile variant. Some mobile sites don’t even have the option to do to desktop and when you are trying to view flash content (like TV shows) this can be frustrating. I recommend downloading Dolphin HD this browser seems to fix some of my issues sans the mobile site issue. The Tab comes with Swype as the standard keyboard. I don’t love it and I don’t hate it because I do use it sometimes, but the one thing that bothers me with Swype is when you tell it to predict words from the settings and then you type, it puts the words in this box rather than in the field you are typing in. With it this way I feel I am constantly making errors when I type. The Tab also has the Samsung keyboard installed. I like this one a little better but I can’t seem to figure out how to turn off the vibrating when I type. The text box for corrections keeps popping up and down when corrections are needed and it can get pretty frustrating because it moves the window you are looking at. After some research Smart Keyboard Pro fixed all my problems.
Bottom line, the Samsung Galaxy Tab is a solid device and lives up to my expections. Whether you buy it out right or on contract you will definitely love it. The pros out weight the cons and the really most cons are really just me be being picky.
Pros:
• Solid device, feels good in hand.
• Easy to type with, very mobile and light.
• Battery life is great.
• Hardware is top notch.
• Screen is great and very clear.
• Has both front and rear cameras.
• Different carriers to choose from.
• Android 2.2.
• Some stock apps are made to be more tablet friendly.
• Great for reading books.
• Very minimal bloat with Sprint version.
• Gorilla Glass for screen
• Sends and receives unlimted SMS, MMS (with data plan).
Cons:
• Not many apps made specifically for the device. Yet.
• Stock browser performance sucks, no home button.
• Samsung connector – Not necessarily a negative but mini or micro USB would have been nicer.
• Swype could use some work / no default Android keyboard.
• Phone feature taken out for US users.
• No way to assign home screens to home button. Default home screen is panel 1.
• No WiFi 'only' model.
• 2 year contracts if purchased on contract. Where’s the 1 year?!
• Emails disappear randomly.
• Samsung seems to be lagging on 2.2 for the other Galaxy S devices, will the same be true when 2.3 comes out for the Tab?
• Video Player FC on me about 6 times when watching a movie. Movie rented from Media Hub with $50 credit.
The device is definitely worth an 8.5/10. Expect the device to get better when updates are put out/new OS arrives.
I could not agree more....I initially regretted the purchase only because I felt like I didn't really need it as is still the case, but I love it nonetheless. I too have a sprint version.
The browsing experience left a bit to be desired, but Dolphin HD does help out a bit. As time passes, support for the tab will grow and we'll start seeing many more dedicated apps
Even though not perfect, I'd still pick out over an ipad any day
Sent from my SPH-P100 using XDA App
I have used the galaxy tab for a 2 weeks. I have never regretted. I have used it for reading email, ebook, surf internet and internet chat. The user experience is good.
sent from Sgp Galaxy Tab
+1 on nearly everything.
What I understand is that the connector for the tab its a PDMI port which is to become the new standard for portable media devices. If so, this shows excellent insight by samsung, ans in the future we will be able to take advantage of new accessories and tech.
Download Dolphin HD browser for faster performance.
On some versions of the Galaxy Tab (Verizon), you can set Home screens.
makami19 said:
+1 on nearly everything.
What I understand is that the connector for the tab its a PDMI port which is to become the new standard for portable media devices. If so, this shows excellent insight by samsung, ans in the future we will be able to take advantage of new accessories and tech.
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Dell is using it on the Streak as well, I believe.
ConceptVBS said:
Download Dolphin HD browser for faster performance.
On some versions of the Galaxy Tab (Verizon), you can set Home screens.
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Click to collapse
I think we are gonna need someone to rip out the touchwiz apk
Croak said:
Dell is using it on the Streak as well, I believe.
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The port on the Streak is not the same as the Tab. I believe that the Streak is PDMI.
Regards,
Dave
I agree with pretty much what you said. I got rid of touch wiz and use launcher pro. It's much more customizable. One of the things I notice on the kb (swype at least) is when I go on forums and double tap a word to edit I can't select the word. Not sure why. On others like typing a url outre other things I can select it. Just not in forums context. Weird.
mach330 said:
I agree with pretty much what you said. I got rid of touch wiz and use launcher pro. It's much more customizable. One of the things I notice on the kb (swype at least) is when I go on forums and double tap a word to edit I can't select the word. Not sure why. On others like typing a url outre other things I can select it. Just not in forums context. Weird.
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I have LauncherPro on my Incredible, but I installed ADW on the Tab and it seems to be doing well.
Excellent and honest review. I think the Tab is the least worst tablet out there, which is praise indeed. Lots of others will join the party in the next few months but Samsung have made a very good first effort. Like the OP, it annoys me when people compare this device to the cheapest wifi-only iPad. This device has much more capability. A better comparison is to the latest smartphones, and right now I can pick up a Tab for less (often a lot less) than say an HTC Desire HD or an iPhone 4 (this is unlocked prices in the UK). In that context the Tab is good value. Shame the iPad mania has blinkered people to this situation.
Even with more use I love my tab. I'm hoping 2.3 makes it to the device. Being it was made for a 'galaxy d'oeuvres phone it would be interesting to see what comes out of this.
Sent from my Droid Incredible
No, it isn’t a movie starring Ghita Muresan, but we’re still dealing with a Star!
One came from Samsung – Galaxy Note for instance, what makes us wondering if we are faceing with a Smarphone, or a small Tablet. One of my mate called it ,,tablophone”, and who knows, maybe it suites it?!
Beyond the unusual size, Note still keeps the body line of the Galaxy class with simple and sober shapes, but with a particular add: the S-Pen, an useful tool what resembles with the PDAs of a decade ago.
On a first sight, the Note is equipied with a 8MP camera, 1080p video recording with a LED flash, and a nuclear powerplant-like batery of 2500mAh. From my experience I noticed that it passed away only after 3 and a half day of heavy usage: Internet, taking photos, videos, and using as a GPS module.
On the hardware side, the exterior body size is matchet on the internal ,,soul”: an 1.4 GHz Arm-Cortex A-9 Processor and 1 GB of RAM memory.
The Tablet-Phone’s Display is impressing for any demand: from the huge 5.3” diagonal with SuperAmoled technology, to 1200X800 pixels resolution (full scale Tablet, isn’t it?) up to the fact that on the easel-sized display you can give reign to imagination and to the painting talent with the wonderful S-Pen. With this pen you can cut out and crop images from the Internet and edit them on a funny way, you can scribble on his sizeable ,,board” or you can take screen-captures by a push of a button.
The main menu is reminding you of his smaller cousin Galaxy S II, because Galaxy Note use the same Android Gingerbread (yet) with Touchizz 4 interface, wich assures you of simple operations and unique design.
The main menu is reminding you of his smaller cousin Galaxy S II, because Galaxy Note use the same Android Gingerbread (yet) with Touchizz 4 interface, wich assures you of simple operations and unique design.
The 16 GB of internal memory + the card slot are very useful to upload your music and video content up to 1080p, and the games, thanks to the powerful processor are very, very pleasant to play with! Asphalt 6 HD is beyond any imagination, a real blessing for gamers!
On the Internet you can surf with an ease of a Tablet, with Adobe Flash Player and 21Mbps speeds, you are aloud to swipe through pages within a blink of an eye.
You can syncronize the Calendar as you wish, and the Polar Office app helps you to view and edit your documents very useful to your office. The incorporated GPS module is proving very useful thaks to the brighted and big display, being a very trusteful friend to your long journeys.
As Samsung wanted to create the ultimate and complete device, the snaping and video recording part is without any compromise! This cameraphone has an 8MP back camera and yields very sharp images as you can see beyond. The LED flash added to the camera helps you to manage succesfuly as a photografer on the parties in night clubs.
The videos taked with this device have a maximum resolution of 1080p, at 30 frames/second. There is also present a front camera with 2MP suited for 3G/Skype calls.
In Quadrant, the results are telling everything: Galaxy Note scores 3750, a record in the real meaning!
Through Note, Samsung succeeds to create the ultimate and perfect device: a cross-over between a Smartphone and a Tablet, a new start-up by implementing the S-Pen that allows you to completely give reign to creation, top harware set, and by his abilities as a cameraphone, you can forget that there are specialized photo-video appliances.
Samsung Galaxy Note is not delicate and smooth, an not aimed to be! It is a powerful device, for powerful men, and... as its owners, it doesn’t go unnoticed!
You simplu like the Note or not! Uncompromising! More on: Samsung Mobilers Romania Mihai Nanu
Review? That's a glorified spec sheet at best. This forum is for people helping one another,mate. Not promoting your website.
P.S. Might wanna improve your English skills if you consider making a career out of writing articles. I mean no offence, of course.
bahkata said:
Review? That's a glorified spec sheet at best. This forum is for people helping one another,mate. Not promoting your website.
P.S. Might wanna improve your English skills if you consider making a career out of writing articles. I mean no offence, of course.
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It was their first post. I enjoyed reading it. If you did not, why comment so harshly? You have no manners.
I agree with planoman. I too enjoyed reading Manu_mihai's post. I love this mobile phone and really enjoy reading other people's opinions on it. ...good or bad.
I think bahkata's comment pretty unconstructive and his gramatically incorrect statement "P.S Might wanna improve your English skills if you consider making a career out of writing articles. I mean no offence, of course." quite ironic.
Anyway back to reading more posts about this great mobole
hehe I also agree, the OP was fantastic hehe.
Oh, and @bahkata, don't be such a negatron! lol. I didn't know XDA Forums was limited to people with perfect grammatical skills. He's a guy who posted his opinion, and I think he did a decent job in English. I'm an English teacher in a foreign country, and I have to say, it's not half bad. I've seen (and see) a lot worse on a daily basis .
Fellas, I very much enjoy reading every other person's opinion on the Note, just like you do. And because I read most of the review's online I could tell that a very large amount of what was written was copy-pasted and taken credit for( incidently - the parts were the english was good ).
Write a review, make it good, promote your other work with it - sure, I love an entrepreneur. Not this way tho.
I've written my share of reviews and find insolence like that , just a little bit, a personal insult. Nevertheless I tried to preserve a good tone and even be constructive. ( not ironic, even tho it was hard )
chrz
OP, there are huge holes in your review.....literally
bahkata said:
( incidently - the parts were the english was good ).
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Oh how I laughed. Maybe you should perfect your own use of English before commenting on others! You've used 'were' and it should have been 'where'. You scored an own goal with that one my friend. ;-)
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Note using XDA Premium app.
Added to note review sticky. No need to keep this thread open now.
Thread Closed
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZP0Bos0plE
I noticed this video posted yesterday by GSMArena giving a quick review of the new Note 12.2 Pro. What struck me was that it doesn't appear to have the new UI and button layout that we have seen on other 12.2 Pros. This would strongly suggest to me that the new UI software update has been added as an after thought and should mean that we'll see it on our Note 10.1s.
There are other recent videos where people who have been sent review odules of the Note 12.2 don't have the new UI or the "Recent App" button... http://www.phonearena.com/reviews/Samsung-Galaxy-NotePRO-12.2-Preview_id3537
I'm now really confused as to what Samsung are playing at. Have they released 2 versions of the Note 12.2 Pro? One which looks exactly like the 10.1 with updated software and another version which has a new button layout as well as new software? Or, are these review models "old" prototypes, that have been ditched in favour of the new design/software all together?
We might not see the magazine UI any time soon, actually.
*** To me it's a big plus since it was only "pretty" without much function. At least from what I saw throw CES footages. ( I do not need to see all these samsung widgets update with their push on their Samsung hub goodies.)
The the UI is refreshing, but we might see stuff that leans away from that of what we saw at CES.
http://www.zdnet.com/samsung-may-dump-windows-like-magazine-ui-downplay-custom-apps-7000025779/
Google doesn't seem to like the new Samsung stuff. However, I must say - the Samsung Touchwiz aesthetics are the next in line for the "worst looking interface", right behind iOS 7. It needs to update ASAP.
Alasdair91 said:
I'm now really confused as to what Samsung are playing at.
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Join the club. The manual is what you need to go by and it has the new "recent apps" capacitive button in it.
It doesn't mention M-UX by name and instead introduces the concept of "Content home screens [M-UX]" and "Classic home screens [TW]. So it's possible that the sample in the GSMArena video was pre-production and the decision about moving from menu to recent apps for the capacitive button wasn't finalized yet. That sample also could have both Content and Classic home screens available but GSMArena set the home page to a Classic home screen.
Samsung should have introduced the recent tasks button on the N10.1-14, called it the Note|Pro 10.1, shipped it without M-UX, and then introduced a "Premium Suite" to bring it up to the level of the other 2014 premium tablets that were announced later. From the leak we appear to be getting 4-window Multi View and I'm assuming the rest of the updated Multi View features with it. So they'll either have to customize the N10.1-14 compared to the rest of the 2014-line to retain the menu button's function or damn the torpedoes and keep the existing icon and make it perform the "recent apps" function and hope existing users are capable of figuring it out.
Here's the Note|Pro 12's manual if you want to review it...
http://downloadcenter.samsung.com/c...28617/SM-P900_UM_EU_Kitkat_Eng_D06_140124.pdf
---------- Post added at 01:29 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:20 PM ----------
soys4uc3 said:
We might not see the magazine UI any time soon, actually.
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Click to collapse
Then Lucy's going to have some 'splainin to do. The UK watchdogs and tribunals won't be thrilled that a feature Samsung's marketing on their e-commerce site was never intended to be offered. And in a reasonable time after it was added to the site thus influencing people's purchasing decisions.
Alasdair91 said:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZP0Bos0plE
I noticed this video posted yesterday by GSMArena giving a quick review of the new Note 12.2 Pro. What struck me was that it doesn't appear to have the new UI and button layout that we have seen on other 12.2 Pros. This would strongly suggest to me that the new UI software update has been added as an after thought and should mean that we'll see it on our Note 10.1s.
There are other recent videos where people who have been sent review odules of the Note 12.2 don't have the new UI or the "Recent App" button... http://www.phonearena.com/reviews/Samsung-Galaxy-NotePRO-12.2-Preview_id3537
I'm now really confused as to what Samsung are playing at. Have they released 2 versions of the Note 12.2 Pro? One which looks exactly like the 10.1 with updated software and another version which has a new button layout as well as new software? Or, are these review models "old" prototypes, that have been ditched in favour of the new design/software all together?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
From their review:
"However, since our prototype unit didn't come with the latest version of TouchWiz, so its UI is slightly different from what the final units will have. We'll be updating this chapter when we get a completely finalized unit."
Sent from my SM-N9005 using Tapatalk
toyanucci said:
From their review:
"However, since our prototype unit didn't come with the latest version of TouchWiz, so its UI is slightly different from what the final units will have. We'll be updating this chapter when we get a completely finalized unit."
Sent from my SM-N9005 using Tapatalk
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This is what makes me think it even more likely the 10.1 will see the newer software too. If the 12.2 was originally made unning the exact same software as the 10.1, then there is no reason as to why the 10.1 wouldn't get it.
Alasdair91 said:
This is what makes me think it even more likely the 10.1 will see the newer software too. If the 12.2 was originally made unning the exact same software as the 10.1, then there is no reason as to why the 10.1 wouldn't get it.
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Yup! I just want it to come out now! Lol. And though I would love Magazine UX, the main reason I want it is the optimization of the software. Check the review below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yl6XLkmlVY&feature=youtube_gdata_player
That's the NotePro wifi only (exynos) final software and hardware. The software is butter smooth, same exact hardware as our note 10.1 2014. Doin basic stuff like in the video above I get lags and glitches which is annoying, so looking fwd to this update forealz!
Sent from my SM-N9005 using Tapatalk
I installed tsf on my Galaxy Note 2 recently. It is also butter smooth. Maybe you can try it on your 10.1
toyanucci said:
Yup! I just want it to come out now! Lol. And though I would love Magazine UX, the main reason I want it is the optimization of the software. Check the review below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yl6XLkmlVY&feature=youtube_gdata_player
That's the NotePro wifi only (exynos) final software and hardware. The software is butter smooth, same exact hardware as our note 10.1 2014. Doin basic stuff like in the video above I get lags and glitches which is annoying, so looking fwd to this update forealz!
Sent from my SM-N9005 using Tapatalk
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Just realize that this video is showing the Snapdragon 800 variant... Sad that Samsung can optimize their own CPU better than another company's...
alias747 said:
Just realize that this video is showing the Snapdragon 800 variant... Sad that Samsung can optimize their own CPU better than another company's...
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The review is of the exynos version, the reviewer is incorrect. If you notice on boot it says P900, that's the exynos version, also when he shows the right side there is no sim card slot. All wifi only (simless) versions are exynos.
Sent from my SM-N9005 using Tapatalk
Big thx for the links. But that magazine ui is pathetic in my opinion. It's just some square widgets for Samsung apps only and flipboard shortcuts. Zero added functionality or efficiency improvement over regular android home screens. There are way better tools to configure and customize your homescreen in the play store.
It's just another thing I'll disable/uninstall with titanium backup. Thx for nothing Samsung they should have put all that design and programming effort into refining and tuning their apps like s note etc. Samsung is making products that fit my needs very nice in terms of hardware and Android fits my needs in terms of software anyway. But on the software side Samsung is just throwing stuff at you. They never stick to anything. They release a new design and instead of improving it, they throw it away and start from scratch usually going into opposite directions. At least that's how it feels...
The Android launcher is amazing. And all the custom launchers in the play store make it even better. Stop trying to fix it Samsung. It ain't broken!
Looking forward to Bugfixes and performance update though.
clouds5 said:
But that magazine ui is pathetic in my opinion. It's just some square widgets for Samsung apps only and flipboard shortcuts. Zero added functionality or efficiency improvement over regular android home screens.
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Click to collapse
Android sucks on displays over 7-8". As it is, Google's done nothing to help maximize the additional screen real estate and improve the user experience on large format devices. If fact, throwing a phone UI on a 10" tablet actually makes it worse. M-UX is Samsung's attempt at improving the Android tablet experience. Edge-to-edge widgets at least make better use of the display and size to increase the amount of info that can be shown on a single page and within a single widget. How well it works, how big an improvement it is, and whether it's a good or bad idea comes down to execution (both initially and over time). So to your point it could be a disaster or it could be great. I'll withhold judgment until I get to see how it works with the way I configure my tablets.
I can't think of a worse device for Android purists to buy than any Samsung Note-series. In edition to the normal Samsung gee-gaws it's got all the S Pen and advanced Multi View stuff piled on. KNOX now makes it worse because you place your warranty at risk to root and mod a Samsung device. People who don't like Samsung's s/w shouldn't buy Samsung devices and then complain after the fact. It's not like they didn't know what they were buying. It's like buying a diesel car and saying it's "awful" compared to a car with a conventional gas engine. This may be shocking but I like some of Samsung's s/w editions a lot more than some of their Google-native equivalents. There wouldn't be a Note-series if it were up to Google. So people should buy what makes them happy and if they're purists they definitely bought the wrong device if they're in this forum.
BarryH_GEG said:
Android sucks on displays over 7-8". As it is, Google's done nothing to help maximize the additional screen real estate and improve the user experience on large format devices. If fact, throwing a phone UI on a 10" tablet actually makes it worse. M-UX is Samsung's attempt at improving the Android tablet experience. Edge-to-edge widgets at least make better use of the display and size to increase the amount of info that can be shown on a single page and within a single widget. How well it works, how big an improvement it is, and whether it's a good or bad idea comes down to execution (both initially and over time). So to your point it could be a disaster or it could be great. I'll withhold judgment until I get to see how it works with the way I configure my tablets.
I can't think of a worse device for Android purists to buy than any Samsung Note-series. In edition to the normal Samsung gee-gaws it's got all the S Pen and advanced Multi View stuff piled on. KNOX now makes it worse because you place your warranty at risk to root and mod a Samsung device. People who don't like Samsung's s/w shouldn't buy Samsung devices and then complain after the fact. It's not like they didn't know what they were buying. It's like buying a diesel car and saying it's "awful" compared to a car with a conventional gas engine. This may be shocking but I like some of Samsung's s/w editions a lot more than some of their Google-native equivalents. There wouldn't be a Note-series if it were up to Google. So people should buy what makes them happy and if they're purists they definitely bought the wrong device if they're in this forum.
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I agree with you on some points. Google indeed hasn't done anything to improve tablet experience. But for me there is enough customization available through the play store to change that.
I also agree with Samsung devices being bad choices for purists. I have a different idea about Android in general. When I choose a product I primarily look at the hardware but I want to be in charge of the software. That's why I could never buy an apple product. You're not happy with the soft keyboard? Go f*** yourself. i got this tablet because it has exactly the hardware I want. But in terms of software you have less and less freedom with Samsung... Some of their stuff is amazing some of their apps are just annoying and bad. And that is OK as long as you can get rid of them or replace! M-UX seems a step in a different direction with deep integration. As I said as long as I can delete/change it I don't care what they do.
So I agree, it's nice that Samsung is trying. But like this with only a handful of options for the widgets it's just a waste of time and resources. I used the magazine app a few times already. But it's just a launcher for flipboard. It doesn't add anything it only makes it look nice. And I always choose functionality over looks. That's just how I am
clouds5 said:
Some of their [Samsung's] stuff is amazing some of their apps are just annoying and bad.
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Agreed.
I used the magazine app a few times already.
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Are you talking about today's My Magazine or the new Magazine UX. They have nothing in common other than a block layout and "Magazine" in their name.
M-UX seems a step in a different direction with deep integration. As I said as long as I can delete/change it I don't care what they do.
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Click to collapse
So far based on the media the worst case scenario is you have to have at least one M-UX page and the rest can be "classic." The M-UX page doesn't have to be set as "home" either. I'm still reserving judgment until I can play with it personally. I have 21 widgets and 12 of them are Samsung's. If those 12 widgets have been made more interactive, provide more info, and are better aesthetically I'll probably be happy. If not I'll probably end up with one M-UX page (probably my home screen) with the basics like weather, e-mail, messaging, social on it and set the flanking pages up in classic just like they are today. I'm not saying M-UX is the answer to Android on 10+" tablets but I am giving Samsung credit for some innovation in trying to make content more suitable for large format displays. The jury's out until we all get to form our own conclusions based on some hands-on time.
BarryH_GEG said:
Agreed.
Are you talking about today's My Magazine or the new Magazine UX. They have nothing in common other than a block layout and "Magazine" in their name.
So far based on the media the worst case scenario is you have to have at least one M-UX page and the rest can be "classic." The M-UX page doesn't have to be set as "home" either. I'm still reserving judgment until I can play with it personally. I have 21 widgets and 12 of them are Samsung's. If those 12 widgets have been made more interactive, provide more info, and are better aesthetically I'll probably be happy. If not I'll probably end up with one M-UX page (probably my home screen) with the basics like weather, e-mail, messaging, social on it and set the flanking pages up in classic just like they are today. I'm not saying M-UX is the answer to Android on 10+" tablets but I am giving Samsung credit for some innovation in trying to make content more suitable for large format displays. The jury's out until we all get to form our own conclusions based on some hands-on time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Cool to see you can have folders in magazine ux too
Sent from my SM-P600 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
BarryH_GEG said:
So far based on the media the worst case scenario is you have to have at least one M-UX page and the rest can be "classic." The M-UX page doesn't have to be set as "home" either. I'm still reserving judgment until I can play with it personally. I have 21 widgets and 12 of them are Samsung's. If those 12 widgets have been made more interactive, provide more info, and are better aesthetically I'll probably be happy. If not I'll probably end up with one M-UX page (probably my home screen) with the basics like weather, e-mail, messaging, social on it and set the flanking pages up in classic just like they are today. I'm not saying M-UX is the answer to Android on 10+" tablets but I am giving Samsung credit for some innovation in trying to make content more suitable for large format displays. The jury's out until we all get to form our own conclusions based on some hands-on time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
See i use one single Samsung widget but that is the beauty of Android. Every device is unique because every user can customize it exactly for their needs. But I can certainly live with a m-ux page. Even if it's just to show it off to my apple worshipping friends
You're right. Let's wait and see until we have it in our hands. Maybe I end up liking it as well.
clouds5 said:
See i use one single Samsung widget but that is the beauty of Android. Every device is unique because every user can customize it exactly for their needs. B
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Click to collapse
Came over to this reading about M-UX - nice quotations about androids beauty.
I use 0 widgets...only single 1 page of NOVA launcher with app shortcuts - stock rom, rooted - and heavy debloated. I really like to sit my apps in ram, not to be killed by heavy TW launcher and heavy fancy widgets and bloat - all of my apps that i really use open instantly where i left them - and i am really just a 10 apps user. (Yes, but most used one is JumpDesktop to remoting to my server - so 95% of work is done on Windows machine .
A review of TabPro 8.4 is out with some screenshots of the M-UX or whatever you wanna call it:
http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_tab_pro_8_4-review-1042p4.php
I think that looks kinda neat, and could be somewhat useful if it's fast.
C2Q said:
A review of TabPro 8.4 is out with some screenshots of the M-UX or whatever you wanna call it. I think that looks kinda neat, and could be somewhat useful if it's fast.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It all depends on what Samsung's included widget and shortcut wise in M-UX. If it's a lot of stuff that's highly used it should be cool. For folks that use a ton of third party widgets not so much. I wonder is Samsung's publishing a M-UX API so third parties can provide M-UX widgets also? I hope we get the revised notification panel and other menus. The one's we have just look goofy on such a large display.
It'll be interesting to hear the board's opinion of M-UX once more people are using it. Even in this thread it's pretty clear how varied people's use of apps and widgets are. Time will tell...
BarryH_GEG said:
Android sucks on displays over 7-8".
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Click to collapse
I disagree with many of the sweeping statements made in this post.
In the last couple of years ive seen play up their tablet support from almost nome to sections dedicated to tablets.
What in the heck is an android purist? Is this some sort of apple hybred? Ive been on android for four years and this is pure nonsense. An os is to serve you not you the os .
As for "worst tablet", of the seven android tablets i own this is the best experience ive had. My desire is to have the best tablet and tablet experience for my needs. I want extra memmory features "pure android" doesnt support. I have always thought a pen may be the best imput for a tablet. "Pure android"? I could go on.
What makes this tablet different than all the other large android tablets? Its the features? If this tablets features fit your needs then it may be the "best" android tablet for you. If not not.
Yes i would like more flexibilty from samsung to trim tablet down. I dont like button layout. No its not perfect, but its pretty darn good.
Woody
Sent from my SM-P600 using Tapatalk
woodsonmh said:
I disagree with many of the sweeping statements made in this post.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Certainly your prerogative.
In the last couple of years ive seen play up their tablet support from almost nome to sections dedicated to tablets.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Android's been awful at scaling apps between resolutions and display sizes. It's up to the individual app developers to figure out how to get their apps to display properly rather than have the OS manage it. Here's an example of viewing two apps I use for local supermarkets in landscape, the viewing orientation by design for 10" tablets. Ironically both are produced and managed by WebGrocer on behalf of the respective brands. Do you think this is the user experience people with large format tablets should be having? Would you find something like this in the Apple App Store?
Which of these two navigation/notification bar approaches are best for a 10" tablet where the user's hands are typically closer to the bottom? The first one with tiny text placed at the top because it was originally designed for phones or the second placed at the bottom which was designed for tablets and now retired?
What in the heck is an android purist? Is this some sort of apple hybred? Ive been on android for four years and this is pure nonsense.
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Click to collapse
An Android purist, at least to me, is someone who thinks whatever Google feeds them is what God intended and anything Samsung, HTC, Motorola, LG, and Sony do to alter or supplement Android is the worst form of blasphemy. If it weren't for Samsung's additions to Android, especially S Pen and Multi View, I'd seriously consider Apple products. Yes, you give up flexibility and openness but at least the apps are consistent, well designed, vetted before being made available, and simply and predictably work. I'd never own a Nexus device because I think the UI is bland and flat and I think in many cases OEM's do a better job than Google with specific apps (EG: Gallery, Camera UI, Dialer).
An os is to serve you not you the os . As for "worst tablet", of the seven android tablets i own this is the best experience ive had. My desire is to have the best tablet and tablet experience for my needs. I want extra memmory features "pure android" doesnt support. I have always thought a pen may be the best imput for a tablet. "Pure android"? I could go on.What makes this tablet different than all the other large android tablets? Its the features? If this tablets features fit your needs then it may be the "best" android tablet for you. If not not. Yes i would like more flexibilty from samsung to trim tablet down. I dont like button layout. No its not perfect, but its pretty darn good.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry, don't understand this section.
Hello, I am using the Note 2 LTE and the PRO 12.2 LTE. I am planning to buy either the Note 4 or the new Gear S. Sure the Note 2 and Note 4 are smaller than the PRO 12.2. The latter can do almost all the things that the Note 2 and 4 are capable of (can we upgrade the software of the PRO to the ones used in Note 4?). For me, the main use of the Note 4 and Gear S is: phone calls. I guess I can do it with the PRO using some kind of bluetooth headset. Of course, besides having a better camera, the Note 4 is better at photo taking because it is too heavy and difficult to press the photo taking button while holding the PRO 12.2.
I will buy a new MacBook Pro Retina 15". It will be too heavy to carry the laptop, the PRO 12.2 and the Note 4. I probably use the PRO 12.2 for pdf annotation, pdf viewing, note taking, video watching, etc. I may not carry the MacBook Pro 15" as often as I did in the past. I do need the Mac (Mac OS and Windows) for my research work though. The PRO cannot serve as a laptop replacement in my case.
Looking to pick up the Note 4 eventually though I'm not sure if I'll do so straight away. I still like my Nexus 4 w/ Mahdi ROM.
I'm not sure I want to pick up a Tizen based wearable. I just have this personal issue with entering into another platform and wonder what support there will be for it from application developers. Its just another consideration I'd have to make which may not exist as much on plain Android Wear devices. I'll most likely pick up a Moto 360 or LG's round watch though.
When I travel both my Note Pro and my rMBP come with me. I really don't mind the weight of carrying both at all and my use case simply doesn't support the Note Pro being a laptop replacement. My Note Pro is primarily for content consumption and web browsing. Note taking is secondary and productivity is a distant last. It's quite useful for email and whatnot but I can't get significant work done on it other than mild annotation of PDFs.
Probably not. I have a Note 3, the Note 4 feels like a step backwards. (Particularly if the EU gets the N910C with the Exynos. Rubbish.)
I'm a gamer and a designer, so I always carry my laptop(17.3" Asus N76VB) with me, as the NotePro is simply not capable of replacing it. Not because of the hardware, but mainly because of Android. (iOS won't help. Neither will Linux. And the Surface has an Intel HD, so not useful either.)
As such, my NotePro is my entertainment device. Films, magazines, comics, drawing, that sort of thing. My Note 3 serves as my go-to device for most things on the road, as well as an e-reader.
As for the Gear... I'm a Scifi fan. I didn't get stuck in 1960, and as such I will not be spending my money on tech with a 'retro' design. Not to mention, I want Android, no Tizen. Until it starts working and looking like this, I'm out.
Thanks for the warnings about the Gear. The Note PRO is more like a large screen device below 1kg that I could use on public transportation and while waiting for the foods in restaurants. For research work, I still need a laptop.
I don't know why, but I've always liked the idea of making phone calls with my watch, without the need of a smart phone nearby. The Gear S is the most interesting to me. As others have mentioned, the new OS is a bit of a concern. Not to mention how nice it plays with other devices, should I replace my Note 3. I'll be keeping a close watch after release to see how it does in the wild.
I may consider the Note 4 a few months after release once prices settle down, real world results are in, and the other manufactures have released competing devices. But for what it'll cost off contract (i.e. $700+), I hardly see a reason to hand over that kind of cash any time soon. And that's coming from somebody who frequently buys new gadgets way too often.
When it comes to smart watches and Android Wear what exactly is the draw to these devices?
I currently see them as wrist mounted notification panels cleverly disguised as watches LOL. What else am I missing?
muzzy996 said:
When it comes to smart watches and Android Wear what exactly is the draw to these devices?
I currently see them as wrist mounted notification panels cleverly disguised as watches LOL. What else am I missing?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
James Bond.
That's hilariously the main reason people want one; because he wore it and that made it cool, and ever since they were kids a lot of people have wanted one to feel like they're a spy.
I'm not kidding, that was the reason they developed them (employed or not, the R&D lads are still geeks and nerds.(Aren't we all?)) and it's the main idea behind the marketing of them.
Better if it has a camera and a voice recorder.
The exciting thing about the note 4 release is the eventual release of the software enhancements that may trickle down to the other note products. The snap note feature for example or the improved floating window support.
Sent from my SM-P900 using Tapatalk
Note Edge for me TYVM?
Turnover is just too damn fast for me.
Hi Y´all!
Got my P905 pro 12.2. Got my N9005 N3. Don´t really need anything new in the months to come.
Anyway - As the title says. The turnover in this business IMHO is just too damn fast, at the very least for me, to continually keep buying the very latest.
I might just decide to get the Note5. But - on an entirely different matter - I recently found out that the 50 GB Dropbox that Samsung proudly keep advertising everytime they present a new flagship(ish) device is actually a bag of hot air if you bought another device before I knew you´d only get the 50 (48 actually) GB once. I.e. not 48 GB per device. But at the very least i´d be able to extend the 48 Gigs. But Noo - no.
So at the moment i actually consider Sony next time.
Regards
Elo
Understand the frustration there but the purpose of the promotion is to bring users to Dropbox that eventually get hooked into having to pay. In their eyes once you are hooked you shouldn't be allowed to continously increase your free capacity using the sane promotion. Every giveaway has loss built in so allowing concurrent application of them surely can't be sustainable in terms of profit margins. Like I said I hear you, this is my second note pro since I lost my first. .. sucks. .
Sent from my SM-P900 using Tapatalk
Polar67 said:
Hi Y´all!
Got my P905 pro 12.2. Got my N9005 N3. Don´t really need anything new in the months to come.
Anyway - As the title says. The turnover in this business IMHO is just too damn fast, at the very least for me, to continually keep buying the very latest.
I might just decide to get the Note5. But - on an entirely different matter - I recently found out that the 50 GB Dropbox that Samsung proudly keep advertising everytime they present a new flagship(ish) device is actually a bag of hot air if you bought another device before I knew you´d only get the 50 (48 actually) GB once. I.e. not 48 GB per device. But at the very least i´d be able to extend the 48 Gigs. But Noo - no.
So at the moment i actually consider Sony next time.
Regards
Elo
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's 50GB per dropbox account, once. You can, however, simply make a new account on dropbox. (That's what I do. I currently have 5.)
That is not something Samsung chose to do. It's Dropbox's doing.
ShadowLea said:
It's 50GB per dropbox account, once. You can, however, simply make a new account on dropbox. (That's what I do. I currently have 5.)
That is not something Samsung chose to do. It's Dropbox's doing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi!
Hmm - gotta try that - Thanks! :laugh:
Update: It worked - Yepiiee - You´re a life saver - Well - almost anyway - Now i can get the Note 5 and feel good about it
Regards
Elo
---------- Post added at 06:38 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:25 PM ----------
muzzy996 said:
Understand the frustration there but the purpose of the promotion is to bring users to Dropbox that eventually get hooked into having to pay. In their eyes once you are hooked you shouldn't be allowed to continously increase your free capacity using the sane promotion. Every giveaway has loss built in so allowing concurrent application of them surely can't be sustainable in terms of profit margins. Like I said I hear you, this is my second note pro since I lost my first. .. sucks. .
Sent from my SM-P900 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi!
Your argument makes perfect sense. On the other hand: Samsung gets a benefit by increasing the value of their product as well.
It therefore struck me as logical that there had to be some sort of deal between Samsung and Dropbox. I.e. so many $ to Dropbox each time a unit is sold. If Dropbox gets an income per unit, i´d assume (yes - i know what is said about those) they´d also have to provide a service per unit.
Damn those assumptions
Regards
Elo
Polar67 said:
Your argument makes perfect sense. On the other hand: Samsung gets a benefit by increasing the value of their product as well.
It therefore struck me as logical that there had to be some sort of deal between Samsung and Dropbox. I.e. so many $ to Dropbox each time a unit is sold. If Dropbox gets an income per unit, i´d assume (yes - i know what is said about those) they´d also have to provide a service per unit.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
LOL You're right! Sadly they're silent on the fact that you can't continually apply the credit. Perhaps its there in fine print somewhere and I'm just too excited at each product purchase to see it . . in any case I'll buy the Note 4 sometime before the end of the year and I'll lose the ability to take full advantage of that offer. Oh well . . .I'm not about to go through the hassle of using multiple dropbox accounts.
I wish Dropbox would match Google's pricing (I actually use both but reserve Google Drive for collaborating with others whereas Dropbox I use for myself and family) across the entire range of options. Would be nice to have a $2/mo 100GB option. I really don't need 1TB of space.
Back on topic though the Note 4 Edge looks interesting too. I'm concerned though that Samsung put the curved screen on the wrong product. Having never had a Note/Note 2/Note 3 I cant say for sure so I ask those of you who have - do you think its going to be hard to avoid touching the icons and menus on the curved edge while gripping the phone and doing other things?
Polar67 said:
Hi!
Hmm - gotta try that - Thanks! :laugh:
Update: It worked - Yepiiee - You´re a life saver - Well - almost anyway - Now i can get the Note 5 and feel good about it
Regards
Elo
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Happy to help!
It's such a shame to forgo a great device (As the N5 will uncountably be 64Bit and 4G) because of corporate stupidity. Good thing there's usually a way to bypass it.
muzzy996 said:
LOL You're right! Sadly they're silent on the fact that you can't continually apply the credit. Perhaps its there in fine print somewhere and I'm just too excited at each product purchase to see it . . in any case I'll buy the Note 4 sometime before the end of the year and I'll lose the ability to take full advantage of that offer. Oh well . . .I'm not about to go through the hassle of using multiple dropbox accounts.
I wish Dropbox would match Google's pricing (I actually use both but reserve Google Drive for collaborating with others whereas Dropbox I use for myself and family) across the entire range of options. Would be nice to have a $2/mo 100GB option. I really don't need 1TB of space.
Back on topic though the Note 4 Edge looks interesting too. I'm concerned though that Samsung put the curved screen on the wrong product. Having never had a Note/Note 2/Note 3 I cant say for sure so I ask those of you who have - do you think its going to be hard to avoid touching the icons and menus on the curved edge while gripping the phone and doing other things?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well - i´m left handed and use a bumper on my N3. Being somewhat of a klutz i have to protect my device. I couldn´t hold the N4E without almost constantly being in physical contact with the curved edge. The curved edge is on the right side of the phone and looks like an ergonomic nightmare for us "leftys".
For a right handed person your right thumb looks, to me, like the "intended digit". Then you´d have to hold the device between your other 4 fingers and the root of your thumb/edge of your palm. Seems to me it´d be very nearly impossible to avoid touching along the edge. This needs to be tested IRL the phone shape is IMHO just too special to extrapolate or assume (Insert scared whine here) anything.
Edit: And speaking of bumpers - will they even be possible?
Regards
ELO
Yeah my first impression of the edge was it's too bad the S5 didn't have a variant of that instead. The larger note size doesn't seem practical for the edge technology. Also it would be nice if earpiece speakers doubled as normal speakers, hard buttons on front were removed, microphones placed on all corners and an earpiece speaker on top and bottom. With this setup, use rotation sensor to detect orientation so that the proper earpiece gets sound when the phone is in use. Use proximity sensor to up speaker volume when paying media. It surprises me nobody does this, a phone that you can answer in either portrait orientation that also doesn't need speakers on the sides or back.
Sent from my SM-P900 using Tapatalk
muzzy996 said:
hard buttons on front were removed
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Click to collapse
No thank you!
Not only will that cost us 10% screen space, it is also highly irritating if you use full-screen apps. The 'hide the notification bar' feature is already highly irritating. (Every time I try to bring it up in the middle of a video, the swipe is detected by the video player first and it changes the volume or brightness before opening the bar. UGH!)
I don't need more annoyances with on-screen buttons. The Nexus can keep those, cheers. Samsung made the decision to keep the hard buttons for a very well-considered list of reasons.
And no, they can't simply extend the screen. It's bound by aspect ratio. No, they can't add it as an additional bar on the screen either, it breaks the ratio in landscape mode.
ShadowLea said:
No thank you!
Not only will that cost us 10% screen space, it is also highly irritating if you use full-screen apps. The 'hide the notification bar' feature is already highly irritating. (Every time I try to bring it up in the middle of a video, the swipe is detected by the video player first and it changes the volume or brightness before opening the bar. UGH!)
I don't need more annoyances with on-screen buttons. The Nexus can keep those, cheers. Samsung made the decision to keep the hard buttons for a very well-considered list of reasons.
And no, they can't simply extend the screen. It's bound by aspect ratio. No, they can't add it as an additional bar on the screen either, it breaks the ratio in landscape mode.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
All good reasons. I wonder if there's a way to get full use of the device in either orientation without those annoyances.
Hi guys, I am the owner of OXY SmartWatch, a new SmartWatch available in two versions: Round and Square.
Here a few preview renders of our final product:
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
This is our website:
http://www.oxytechs.com/
And our Google+ page where you can follow our progresses:
https://www.google.com/+Oxytechswatch
The watch is running Android 4.4 AOSP and we have built a custom version of Android that is more feasible for SmartWatches than Android WEAR. Plus we have custom Android Studio templates to work with our product and we give the possibility to install any ROM without breaking warranty or support.
In this thread I want to share with this community a preview of the Watch and our links.
We are also looking for Android Developers, Android Kernel Developers and iOS Developers.
We also accept candidates from remote locations so feel free to share with us at info[at]netarchitectures[dot]co[dot]uk your resume or feedbacks about our product.
If you want to join our Developer Program, follow this link:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/android/software/oxy-smartwatch-development-t3185452
The watches have:
CPU MIPS M200 Dual Core
512 MB RAM
4 GB Disk Space
Heart Rate Sensor
Vibration
AMOLED Touch display covered with Gorilla Glass
Speakers and Microphones
Magnetic contact charging mechanism
Gyroscope, Accellerometer and Magnetometer
Bluetooth 4.0 and BLE Compatible with iOS and Android and PC
Light sensor
400 mAh LiPo Battery
72 hours with BLE and 1 week without Bluetooth enabled
Stainless steel IPV6 water proof
Right now we are working at our website www[dot]OXYTECHS[dot]com and for the end of August you will be able to see the full product description, accessories and various demo.
The 15th of November 2015 we will open the PRE-SALE Campaign.
We have a batch of 5,000 pieces available per model, so a total of 20,000 pieces:
5,000 Round Stainless Steel
5,000 Round Black Stainless Steel
5,000 Square Stainless Steel
5,000 Square Black Stainless Steel
This project is related to the porting of IWOP (Ingenic Wearable Open Platform) for OXY SmartWatches.
The platform IWOP is available here for download: http://iwop.ingenic.com/.
OXY is giving hardware development kit to each developer who is willing to contribute to the platform.
Attached to this thread there are architecture views, UX mocks and interaction design about the OXY custom ROM.
More details related to OXY are available here: http://www.oxytechs.com/
OXY ROM is composed by:
A watchface manager
Home launcher
Control manager app
Settings app
Apps navigator
A set of utilities apps delivered with the product
XDA:DevDB Information
OXY SmartWatch V 1.0, ROM for the Android General
Contributors
raffaeu
Source Code: http://iwop.ingenic.com/
ROM OS Version: 4.4.x KitKat
ROM Kernel: Linux 3.10.x
Based On: IWOP
Some preview videos of OXY ROM:
Notifications Manager
Watchfaces Manager
Phone Calls Manager
Only IPx6, multiple (more than 3) actions to access key info and apps for "Probably 249 or 299"? Hard sell, even with custom ROM support.
On the square version, a bezeless display is easily possible if the PCB and battery are not larger in area than the display area.
Lokifish Marz said:
Only IPx6, multiple (more than 3) actions to access key info and apps for "Probably 249 or 299"? Hard sell, even with custom ROM support.
On the square version, a bezeless display is easily possible if the PCB and battery are not larger in area than the display area.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi Lokifish and thank you for your feedback.
The answer you mention is about the Black version, which is full Black Stainless Steel, including the wristband. Consider that only the wristband has a production cost of 28$ (without VAT) the price of 249$ does not look that bad to me. Think about OLIO SmartWatch, it's a full Stainless Steel watch with locked ROM and it's sold for almost 600$ a piece.
About the square version, we couldn't find ANY manufacturer in Taiwan, China and Singapore capable to produce a full baseless square display, only round can be baseless but if you know any manufacturer capable of making AMOLED display squared with Gorilla Glass I would be more than happy to get your help, we are still in the beta version of our product and any feedback is welcome and well appreciated.
The OLIO is also design by watchmakers, uses 316L SS, and has a water resistance 50 times greater than that IPx7 with no time limit like IPx7 has.
As far as the band, you can get decent quality folded SS bands for around $15-20 USD at full retail price.
A bezeless square display can be done. It requires an approach not seen in smartwatches though that makes assembly a little more difficult but is still doable. Also, "Off the shelf" designs simply don't cut it as it requires the "crystal" be cut a certain way.
Have your guys look over "U.I Design", "Why this Martian.. ", and "I bet your smartwatch..." links in my signature below. Feel free to pick my brain and use the information in the links. The minimum I ask is that you give proper credit if you use any of it.
Looking at your G+ posts, nice job with the Ingenic BTW. I designed and built a smartwatch using the same platform. Too bad I killed it during a 5 ATM water resistance test.
Hi Lokifish, again useful details and feedback.
You are right, a nice and decent band is probably available on AliExpress for less than 20 bucks, but we made our with a different manufacturer and for the first batch we ended up with a cost of 28$.
This is another reason why we want to get this project into the community, to get feedback and suggestions from people that faced these problems before us.
About OLIO, of course they used high quality materials, a nice design, but I personally disagree about the ROM and UX choices (but this is my personal feeling). The point for me it's about the price. Pebble manufacturer their watch for 18$ and sell it for almost 199$, now dropped to 149$ if I am not wrong.
We are a startup and we will probably endup in some incubators or crowdfunding website in order to start the mass production. Probably the price will be around 199$ on retail but again, the prices and costs we are facing are a bit different than the one faced by watchmakers that have been on the market for many years.
What we believe is different between OXY and the rest of the world is the community, we want to make an open product, we want to make the customer capable to install custom ROM, customize the body and more. This is where we see the added value that other watch makers do not have at the moment.
@Lokifish Marz - thanks for the reply and pointing out OXY ... I feel like there's ... just a little hope ... maybe
@raffaeu - please take into account Lokifish Marz's advice, he will be very valuable to you, from a historical, current & future point of view. You'll save a lot of time and effort.
There are only a few people in the world that can make a decent, let alone a 'good smartwatch', due to greed/profit, but it can be done with the right goals and vision. Always know your history! Courtesy to the Martian ... again
I'm not a techy as such, but an important aspect of a good product is the non-functional business aspects, how to make a robust watch and then marketing, communication, support, together with making a little profit of course. Techies alone can't do this (no offense). Out of desperation we started the Nowt Watch thread, please have read, some very interesting discussion. No doubt you're at a stage where you can't go back with your current products, but we can always better our understanding and add to our knowledge and experiences.
I purchased an Omate clone recently (I had to get it out of my system), some of the non-techy issues, charging it - a pain! Straps - awful! A companion watch, should still be like a stand-alone watch first, meaning, above all its a robust time-piece that many can/would use without a phone as maybe a sports and leisure watch.
I'm curious, what does OXY mean? You have my support if you want it. I used to be a software tester, as well as marketing, strategy, process ... all that boring important stuff. Good luck
@Lokifish Marz has some interesting articles and idea that we are taking into consideration. Our primary targets are:
make an open source product
build a brand and trust from the community
make a real watch, solid, durable and with style
We designed OXY to being able to run with a phone and without, in fact without the battery stay charged for almost 1 week. Secondly is the charger which is magnetic, so that our customers are not having the frustration of the USB cable pain.
We are here to get feedback, idea and of course help. Anybody is welcome to join us, we are also hiring so anything is possible. Of course we are a startup so we still need to pay salaries and bills but we are not willing to become rich but we are willing to build a trusted brand for IoT products and more precisely for smartwatch. I always say that OXY is a mission for me and not a company.
OXY is an acronym for oxygen, something that you need and that's required to humans to live.
Feel free to contact me @simple1i and we can discuss further our project. In the meantime I'll have a look at your links.
Oh I see Oxy. I do like the name Horology, that's what all good (smart)watch lovers are, there's an idea for a name of a smartwatch.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but you decided to used Android because it's the cheaper/faster (way to get it up and ready) option? Do you have Playstore on the OXY? Google can be very awkward about this.
Listening to the tech' community is a good thing, but for a 'fine dining' watch the experts are few, you need the Horologists, the real trick to to know what opinions to take on and what to discard. Then its a matter of goods ideas/functions vs costs. This might be a tough one to address, but the OXY needs to be either better then the Moto 360 2's (rumoured specs) or similar with a lower cost. So far I'm impressed. I am waiting to see what Pebbles does with the I/O port on the back of their watch, what hardware add-ons will they come up with? A good future proof strategy for them to expand functionality.
I'll be in touch.
@simple1i it was not easy, we had to search for conflicts with other trademarks, copyright and we also needed something simple to pronounce considering that our product will be sold worldwide. OXY sound easy but it is still a nice sound to pronounce
Our PCB is an extension of Ingenic Newton2. We had to modify the plug for the display because the original one was not enough for round and square displays plus we added an heart rate, a vibration motor a different Bluetooth and a Lipo battery of 400mAh. We changed the USB port and overall we came up with the cheapest but more flexible solution.
Why? Because we have a public AOSP for Android 4.4 and Linux which means that our product can fit any development configuration without any license problems. Just use git, download our AOSP and create your own smartwatch.
Google play will be added later, as I said our goal is to provide an open platform with a default set of apps but without any license or warranty limit. Our license and warranty will cover only the hardware, about the software our customers will be able to fully customize the product.
For sure v1 won't be perfect, for sure we will need time to build up a community but based on the fact that we have an AOSP on git, that you can easily make custom apps with Android studio and that our price range will be lower than other android smartwatches, I think and hope that our product will be well known very soon.
Finally, we will run a crowdfunding but our mass production is already set. A big, big advantage compared to other crowdfunding campaigns
Unless Google has retroactively changed a number of things and not published it, official Google Services support (certification, service framework, Play Store, etc) is a no go. A couple of smartwatch manufacturers found out the hard way, one of which made it into tech news because of it. That's just one of many sites that covered it and I was working directly with Omate at the time this happened. The only smartwatches with official support run Wear, which requires partnership status.
Here's a good place to start
@Lokifish Marz partnership status is a no go. Also Pebble tried somehow to have a sort of partnership with Google, even if Pebble does not run Android at all, but they go a big no. Regarding Android WEAR, we have submitted in June 2 requests including draw, project details, hardware details and more and we never got an answer from anybody. We know that our OXY can run Android WEAR, we also took apart the SDK of Android WEAR to see how it works and at the end we choose to stay Open Source and give up on Google WEAR for now. Then in the future anything can happen, we are totally open to any conversation but our mission is to make an Open Source Smartwatch, so having a smartwatch locked down by Android WEAR .apk is not our business model right now. The giant Samsung has left Android WEAR and also OLIO did not even approach Google at all. Why? Probably because Google is taking some business decisions that cannot fit all watchmakers out there right now.
About Google Play, that's a different story. Our current hardware is better than Asus Zenwatch and the Moto 360 v1.0, the only limit for Google Play is the resolution. Our Round watch has a resolution of 400x400 while the squared has a resolution of 320x320 and we are using the same displays manufacturers used by LG and ASUS. But again, when you talk about smartwatch, you open a Pandora Box. It is the new business for any manufacturer, Forbes announced an estimation of over 30 billion dollars business between now and 2020.
But again, we can manually install Google Play and it just works fine, so what's the point here? We need first to create a community, distribute our product with a basic ROM so that users can receive notifications, phone calls, download and create watchfaces and all the things you want to achieve with a smartwatch. We have already setup an Azure play store where any developer can grab our SDK and our Genymotion virtual image, create apps and distribute them via our Cloud.
Then, probably next year, we will see how the things go and we will be able to present again a request to Google for both, Android WEAR and Google Play.
Again, I have spent now almost 1 year in R&D and I feel confident that Android WEAR is a closed business. You must be a big firm otherwise is a no go for now. About Google Play I am more positive but only time will say. For now we are focused on our website and marketing campaign, building a community and customizing our existing ROM and SDK. Btw, if you look at the potentialities of OXY, we have already a more powerful product in terms of frameworks and hardware, than a Pebble, which has sold more than 1,---,--- pieces between 2012 and 2015. We also got a conversation with Cyanogen which gave us a go to customize Cyanogen for OXY but at this point is worth to have our own Open Source Android version and move from there with the help of the community.
I get the issues with Wear and Google, I've been there multiple times. I also agree that open source is needed for the development community. The issue with not having Google Services support (Play Store) on an Android based smartwatch is that a fully stocked app store needs to be in place and filled with all big names like Facebook, EAT24 and the like and properly formatted to the display/UI/UX. If not, it severely limits your customer base. That's why many of the Chinese based smartwatches have had a hard time getting traction.
Now if you have a long haul plan that brings in average Joe smartwatch and watch buyer on, lets say, v.2 that's great. Keep in mind that after the multitude of less than stellar attempts by others, both xda and G+ can be very unforgiving. Especially if crowdfunding is involved.
This is starting to get into areas where private conversation may be justified so lets table this until after you make a decision. Then we can pick it up elsewhere.
@Lokifish Marz you got the point and probably you got it because you have been there before us. The only big difference thing is that we want to build a smartwatch, I don't think it would be of any use having a squeezed Facebook or Google+ app on your 400 pixels smartwatch. We are focusing on other criteria.
Motion track so that you don't have to press a button to view the time, real time notifications that when received turn on the display and show the notifications on top of the watch and many other watch oriented functionalities. V1 will give to crowdfunders a working "companion", a smartwatch that is a smartwatch, a companion app that can download .apk and install them and a decent SDK that allows developer to create custom apps and watchfaces or customize existing functionalities.
I am open to have a nice conversation with you guys. This month I'll visit China and Taiwan soon, where we are manufacturing the watches but it would be nice to setup a private call/chat for when I'll be back. Probably you know better than anybody else other members of XDA that may be seriously interested and involved in the project.
Update
We are preparing some VMs on Azure running Ubuntu LT12 with our Android AOSP source code.
Right now we have 3 versions for the AOSP: Android Square watch, Android Round watch, Ubuntu Touch.
Compilation is quite easy, for Android is something like:
./build/smk.sh --preset=oxy_v11_wisesquare_iwop
./build/smk.sh --preset=oxy_v11_naturalround_iwop
Next step for us is to host the whole repository over a public Git and distribute the Ubuntu VM so that anybody can start to download the VMs (already synchronized) and contribute. As soon as everything is ready I will open a different thread and start to have private conversations with the people interested in the OXY project.
Re: Ingenic Newton2 - (someone made this point) you can buy the Newton1 or Newton2 as a devkit, but you cannot buy the modules wholesale. So this isn't truly a SoM - it isn't meant to buy off the shelf and integrate into a product. It's meant to be a reference design that you can either copy, or tweak, or modify in to suit.
In other words, with Newton, you're still going to need to have someone manufacture and assemble PCBs, and it'll require a normal (and expensive, unpleasant) certification process. A true SoM would come pre-certified, making that process a lot easier (you still need to do a certification, but one one that's much less rigorous and costs a lot less)?
simple1i said:
Re: Ingenic Newton2 - (someone made this point) you can buy the Newton1 or Newton2 as a devkit, but you cannot buy the modules wholesale. So this isn't truly a SoM - it isn't meant to buy off the shelf and integrate into a product. It's meant to be a reference design that you can either copy, or tweak, or modify in to suit.
In other words, with Newton, you're still going to need to have someone manufacture and assemble PCBs, and it'll require a normal (and expensive, unpleasant) certification process. A true SoM would come pre-certified, making that process a lot easier (you still need to do a certification, but one one that's much less rigorous and costs a lot less)?
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@simple1i You got the point. We bought Newton2 and made our watch using 3D print. Later we joined IWOP (Ingenic Watch Open Platform) which is a custom version of Android but more powerful than WEAR and better designed. At that point Ingenic gave us access to resources that are absolutely not available to private, so you can purchase the Newton2 dev kit but you cannot go far without their IWOP platform.
After that, we joined a partnership with two manufacturers, which are partners of Ingenic, and start to built our PCB and changed the Display (the display of Newton2 kit sucks, it has only 130 DPI).
About certifications, there are two phases. First you need to be sure that your PCB is ready for mass production, second, when the smartwatch is ready, you have to make IFC and CE at minimum, depending on where you want to sell. And this is the most painful part cause especially for CE, the process is long and full of obstacles. Consider that products like Pebble or other crowdfunded watches were shipped without any certification cause they were T2 prototypes expressly produced for the crowdfund campaign.
It looks like a nice piece of kit - in fact I love the design, it actually looks like a watch! Unfortunately, I'm not really sold on the idea of buying a 'smart' device where there's a very good chance of there being zero app development. Android Wear is rubbish right now (and of course, as you say, is a closed platform which creates big issues for us 'experimental' types and smaller organisations like yours trying to bring a device to market) but at least it's a group of companies working towards a common goal - in my mind that's far more likely to foster a community of developers than yet another smartwatch platform with a small userbase which will depend on yet another third party companion app and the headaches that creates with ongoing OS updates and trying to properly handle notifications and other interactions with the host device. I love the Pebble platform and larger ecosystem - I find the hardware and usage model vastly preferable to Wear (passively lit displays and buttons vs backlit displays and touchscreens, though I prefer the black and white ones, the Time lacks the contrast that makes the OG so easy to use AS A WATCH.) but they're odd looking devices which are 'obviously' not normal watches (not that I care, but I guess most people do) and the companion app has serious issues - they tend to get fixed fairly promptly but other app updates cause new issues pretty frequently - I still can't figure out how to stop it giving me notifications from the GMail app twice... What makes you think you could even do as well as a company who easily garners the kind of support they do on Kickstarter (and hence probably has a sizeable budget for a development team)?
Azurael said:
What makes you think you could even do as well as a company who easily garners the kind of support they do on Kickstarter (and hence probably has a sizeable budget for a development team)?
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@Azurael you make a good point here.
I do not want to talk about WEAR because it's obvious that WEAR is the biggest market so far, but only because Google is pushing really hard to get tons of Watchfaces and Apps available for their platform. Also, comparing ourself to WEAR will sound very arrogant. We will never be able to become big like Google WEAR community and this is not the mission of OXY.
About Pebble, if you look at their backlog, most of the incoming releases have bug fixes and enhancements of the Firmware. And this is after almost 4 years (Pebble started in 2012). They sold their crowdfunding watch made of plastic, without heart rate, without AMOLED touch display and without microphone or speakers (1 version of pebble) for a range between 99$ and 149$. We will sell OXY for 199$ in PRE-SALE, and in my opinion that's a great deal compared to the hardware of the Pebble.
So, on our side we played the "partnership role" with Ingenic Semiconductor. Ingenic has developed an entire platform on top of Android AOSP called IWOP (Ingenic Wearable Open Platform). It is a set of APIs that allows you to achieve exactly the same results of WEAR but even more. It is designed specifically for Ingenic Hardware so it uses less energy, it is bug free because the hardware is tested and provided by Ingenic (so no issues with multiple smartwatches vendors) and it is already largely adopted in Asia. The advantage is that behind us there is a big hardware company which supplies already thousands of pieces to Chinese manufacturers, so it is in their interest to keep the platform up to date and bug free.
Of course we lack on apps, this is the only problem of OXY and I am totally aware of, but I am not worry about it. When Pebble came out, and same applies for WEAR, there were almost no apps or watchfaces available. After a couple of years of adoption the marketplace became bigger and bigger and now the two platforms are well known. Compared to Apple Watch, our SDK is way more powerful and more developer friendly.
We will play the same strategy here, except that we have already commissioned almost 100 apps to an external Software House in order to have a pre-set of free apps available on our platform as soon as we will be out with our PRE-SALE campaign. Than, we will start our "developer program" which will grant to each developer a free OXY smartwatch and access to all our documentation and articles. In addition to Pebble or WEAR with OXY you can also create your own ROM, your own Home Launcher and customize even the kernel. I am sure that many developers will be happy to put their hands on such a platform and get a smartwatch for free.
We have already discussed with Ingenic this topic and they are eager to expose their platform to the US/EU market, considering also that we will be the first company selling MIPS architecture in EU and US I feel confident that the gap about the lack of apps will be covered soon.
On the business plan, we will probably feed the platform for 2015/2016, so a low margin of profit will be generated but again this is not our plan (to generate money) but to make an open platform for smart devices. I think that it's important for us to explain exactly our mission in order to get the right amount of followers. Plus a bit of "viral marketing" would be beneficial too
Hardware talk
On the hardware side, could you have added more sensors if there was a need for them? And are any disadvantages for adding lots of extras sensors, like power consumption, over heating or less space to work on the PCB? Of course for every sensor you need an app for it.
Others might disagree with this view, that sensors make a device comes alive, the watch can sense more about its environment, just like a living thing. Also with the open source OS and SDK devs can make use of more of the sensors, making the watch a multi purpose device. I was hoping for a compass, it's one of those things that many won't use but like the idea of having it, just like a Swiss Army knife.
A barometer with a compass and heart rate monitor, could appeal to the sportsman. The Suunto watch gives nice weather icons to a good degree of accuracy. At least there enough sensors for the development of an app that can detect if the watch is being worn or not to stop certain functions like notifications and maybe even put the watch to sleep to save battery or have it on 'bedtime' mode.
Another advantage of having lots of sensors is that it makes the watch more of a stand-alone device.
If you talk about the Newton2 development kit the short answer is no, the long answer is yes, but with some re-design. We had to re-design the PCB of the Newton2 because we added an extra BlueTooth for iOS, an Heart rate sensor, a vibrating motor, a microphone and 5 speakers. Plus we re-designed the USB charge which is an extra PCB in the Newton2, while on our watch is into the same PCB.
Finally, the biggest and most complicated step is about the display. Newton2 use an MIPI interface specifically designed for their display, so in order to fit a Round and Square display from commercial companies like AMOLED Corp you have two options:
Make two PCB with two different MIPI, one per Display
Modify the displays MIPI to fit the same plug and play mechanism
We did not put a Baromoter because it is not easy to find a good provider and it does not deal well into mini PCB. About the GPS, we had one but we removed because it is absolutely battery drainer. If you run 3-4 hours with your GPS on the watch will end up without battery, while capturing the GPS from your Phone and streaming the amount of mt into the Watch app is way easier in terms of power consumption.
All weather apps that you see on Smartwatches are not using an internal barometer but they simply get weather conditions from a public HTTP API and stream the result into the Watch from your Phone.
What we have in additional is the WiFi so that you can run the watch in autonomous way, for example OXY can detect if you have internet on your watch, if don't then it grabs info from the internet of your Phone.
You can get fancy with sensors, we would to introduce in the future V2 more health sensors but it is early right now and you still have to deal with minimal space, each mm count.