Category: News

Pink opened up to Glamour Magazine recently about what it means to be a new mom, how to make a celebrity relationship work, and why she calls herself a “reformed slut”.

“It’s my very unsophisticated way of taking the power back,” she explains. “I’ve always had an issue with [the notion that], ‘OK, we’ve both decided to do this. Why am I a slut and you’re the player? You didn’t get anything from me that I didn’t get from you.’”

The 33-year old singer seems to always be brutally honest in interviews and doesn’t hold much back, but now that she’s a married mother of one, the topic always seems to switch to her family rather than what lies in her past. After a brief split from motocross driver Carey Hart, the two reconciled and are now the parents of 2-year old Willow.

“Long-term relationships are an everyday choice. It’s harder to be in a marriage than it is to bounce from one relationship to the next,” Pink says. “We’re good because we communicate and we’ve grown up together, not because we don’t fight.”

Pink appears on the most recent issue of Glamour, showing off that famous chiseled body and her many tattoos.

Image: Ellen von Unwerth

On April 23 of last year, President Obama visited the Holocaust Museum, and unveiled a comprehensive strategy to prevent mass atrocities.

In his remarks at the Museum, the President reflected on places where the United States’ efforts had helped prevent or mitigate surges of violence – and had saved innocent lives. He spoke of our efforts surrounding the South Sudan independence referendum, the measures we had taken to counter the Lord’s Resistance army in Central Africa, and the coalition that we and our allies formed to protect the people of Benghazi.

The President also noted that for every success we have in preventing and stemming violence, there will always be more work to be done. And he made clear that, for all the challenges we will face, we must continue to do what we can.  We must strive for a future where there is a “place for dignity for every human being,” and make this, “the work of our nation and all nations. “

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I admit that I’m prone to an optimistic outlook, a belief that most problems can be tackled with hard work and the right mindset. I’ve read the research that indicates that positive thinkers tend to do better in school, work and life. Perhaps I even assumed that optimism was infectious and that people wanted to work with a confident, hopeful leader. In the true spirit of optimism, how could this possibly go wrong?

Then I found out from a colleague that he didn’t find my optimism nearly as reassuring as I did. We were in the middle of a high-stakes research project with a small window of opportunity to write an article for a prominent academic publication. To pull this off, we needed to complete a complex analysis, do a round of additional research, and actually write the article, all while working on several other projects and operating on a thin budget.

To me, this seemed like a feasible, interesting challenge, and I enthusiastically dove in. Then at one critical meeting, a more junior colleague turned to me and said, “Liz, I need you to stop saying that!”

“Saying what?” I asked.

“Saying that thing you always say — ‘How hard can it be?’” I looked puzzled. He explained, “You say that all the time. ‘How hard can it be? We can do this. After all, how hard can it be?’”

I recognized what he was saying and began to explain my logic: While I was working for Oracle Corporation, a small but rapidly growing company, I had been thrown into management at the tender age of 24 and was told that I was now in charge of training for the entire company and was tasked with building Oracle University and making it work in globally. I learned to say to myself, “We can do this. After all, how hard can it really be?” Now, I explained how this growth mindset had worked beautifully for me and many of my colleagues over the years. Yet steadfast, my colleague reiterated, “Yes, but that is what I need you to stop saying.”

“But why?” I probed.

He paused and said, “Because what we are doing is actually really hard, and I need you to acknowledge that.”

He wasn’t opposed to the idea that our enormous task was doable; he simply wanted me to acknowledge the reality of the challenge and recognize his struggle. He didn’t want me glossing over the challenge with my coat of optimism. So I did admit, “Yes, what we are doing is hard. It is really, really difficult.” I then assured him that I would do my best to stop saying that thing. Meanwhile, in the back of my mind I told myself “Sure, I can stop saying that. After all, how hard can it be?”

Is it possible that a can-do attitude that worked so well for you as an individual contributor may actually work against you as a leader? When you play the role of the optimist, you may undervalue the struggle the team is experiencing or their hard-fought learning and work (or give the impression that you do). Your staff may wonder if you have lost your tether to reality. And, when a leader seldom focuses on the problems, it leaves more junior managers to worry about those risks. In fact, by being too optimistic, you may actually be putting your employees in the role of having to play the “sensible pessimist.” Or worse, you might be sending a message that mistakes and failure are not an option because, after all, “How hard can it be?” And yet wise managers know that mistakes are inevitable, and that failure is just the price of creativity.

Having coached many executives, I know that senior leadership ranks are filled with glass-half-full types (in fact, one might need to be an optimist to cope with the inherent pressure of these positions). Consider how Nike, Inc.’s chief of global design, John Hoke, sparked a transformation in his organization once he realized the restrictive impact his and his management team’s optimism was generating. John gathered his senior leaders for a week-long offsite to explore new thinking in design and how leaders can multiply the talent inside their organization, which I helped facilitate. As I described the profile of the optimistic, creative, energetic leader, John and his team quickly recognized their own reflection and were curious how they might be inadvertently diminishing capability and ingenuity in others. John asked that we pause our agenda to better understand how his own hopeful style of leadership might actually be causing some angst. His team explained the extraordinary pressure they felt to deliver flawless design, every time. With the London Olympics around the corner and a brand promise to sustain, the group insisted that there simply was no room to fail.

With John’s encouragement, we decided to define a space for experimentation. We rapidly laid out their various work scenarios into two buckets: One where failure was OK and the other where success had to be assured. The group debated each until they agreed on every scenario. Within an hour, they had created a playground — a safe space for their teams to struggle and potentially fail without harming their stakeholders or their business. This thinking rippled across Nike’s design community and sparked leaders like Angela Snow, VP of creative operations and Casey Lehner, senior director of global design operations, to introduce the “risk and iterate” performance goal that encouraged each team member to identify something they would take a risk with and then iterate solutions throughout the year. This effort legitimized the possibility of failure and created safety for designers to tackle the scary problems.

John Hoke and his management team didn’t lower their aspirations or become less optimistic about the capabilities of their team. But, by acknowledging the downside and recognizing the messy, iterative path of innovation, they liberated their team to go bigger and reach further.

Go ahead and be optimistic. But first, be sure to acknowledge the downside so your team is free to explore the upside.

When you think “big data,” you probably don’t think of the United States Postal Service (USPS). As it processes more than 528 million pieces of mail each day, the USPS has become an active participant in the big data revolution, and operates one of the most powerful non-classified supercomputing databases in the world.

Residing in the Eagan IT and Accounting Service Center in Eagan, Minnesota is the core of the USPS supercomputing operations. The supercomputing and revenue protection program helps to cut fraud on its reported $65 billion in annual revenue. To detect fraud on 528 million pieces of mail each day the USPS started building IT architecture in 2006, and has been expanding it ever since.  Simultaneously processing data from 6,100 mail pieces per second requires some hefty compute power.

“All of this happens in an average of 50 to 100 milliseconds,” says Scot Atkins, USPS program manager. “If something is off – a package with insufficient, duplicated or fraudulent postate – it is detected and intercepted in near real-time. A distribution clerk can reassess a package, errors can be tracked down, and fraud attempts – large or small – are reported to the U.S. Postal Inspection Service for further investigation.”

The system used to process and detect fraud is impressive. In a recent interview the USPS in-memory database was noted at 16 terabytes, up 6 terabytes from a 2010 Oracle case study report. Coupled with a transactional database it will perform billions of mail piece scans in a standard 15 hour processing day. Real-time scanning performs complex algorithms, powered by a SGI Altix 4700 system. Oracle Data Warehouse keeps fraud results stored in 1.6 terabytes of TimesTen cache, in order to compare and then push back into the Oracle warehouse for long term storage and analysis. Data ingest rates exceed 1.5 million records ingested per second per 16 core blade.

Fighting fraud, waste and abuse is top of mind for USPS and government organizations, as budgets are cut, and billions of dollars are lost in duplicative payments, overpayments and fictitious vendors.

One of the side benefits of the completion of T-Mobile’s merger today, at least for customers of MetroPCS, is that they will eventually be able to use an iPhone on their current carrier. The all-new T-Mobile hasn’t said when that will be. But there’s also an interesting benefit for Apple when this does happen: the iPhone maker may edge further into the lower-cost smartphone category.

MetroPCS’s current customers can choose from a variety of feature phones or inexpensive Android-powered smartphones: there’s just one flagship Android device offered, the Samsung Galaxy S III. The vast majority of the devices cost around $99. If MetroPCS subscribers have been waiting for an opportunity to switch to an iPhone, it’s probably less likely they’ll be going for a $200 to $300 iPhone. But the free-on-contract iPhone 4 or $99-with-contract iPhone 4S could be more appealing than their current options.

This also represents a chance for MetroPCS to convince feature-phone owners to upgrade too. And the trend among late-stage smartphone adopters is that they, in general, go for lower-cost devices.

A recent survey of iPhone buyers in the U.S. by CIRP showed while the iPhone 5 represented a little over half of all new iPhones purchased, that is a historically low number: never has an Apple device that’s been available for just over one fiscal quarter seen such slow demand. The iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S, either free on contract or $99 with a contract, are more popular than legacy iPhones have ever been.

T-Mobile says that by joining with MetroPCS, it’s bringing 9 million new customers — and potential new iPhone activations — with it. That might seem small when compared to what T-Mobile already has (a little over 30 million customers) and to what could happen if Apple hooked up with China Mobile. But at this point, Apple needs to expand its footprint anywhere it can. Whether that’s among luxury-brand hungry customers in Tokyo, Shanghai or Moscow who shell out for an iPhone 5, or among smartphone hold-outs who just want a free or very cheap phone, Apple is going to take it.

Last week, Apple CEO Tim Cook used the example of first-time iPhone buyers in China to explain why he’s OK with this scenario: ”China has an unusually large number of potential first-time smartphone buyers and that’s not lost on us. We’ve seen a significant interest in iPhone 4 there and have recently made it even more affordable to make it even more attractive to those first-time buyers. We’re hopeful that helps iPhone sales in the future.”

It’s true that trading iPhone 5 sales for the iPhone 4 or 4S could mean lower profits in the end for Apple. But being able to sell smartphones to people who otherwise wouldn’t have purchased an iPhone (either for a feature phone or a cheaper Android device) is not a bad fallback.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
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There are now 60,000 fewer households willing to pay Comcast for its cable television services than there were a quarter ago. The New York Times reports that Comcast lost 60,000 cable subscribers over the past quarter, which was “62 percent worse than the more modest losses it reported in the first quarter of 2012.” That said, losing all those cable subscribers hasn’t hurt Comcast’s bottom line since the company also reported Q1 2013 earnings of $1.44 billion, an increase of 17.4% from the earnings it reported in Q1 2012. The Times says that Comcast’s improved earnings “were partly the result of more expensive cable bills for 72% of Comcast’s subscribers.”

Aerize Loader is an install manager that raises the limit of how many apps you can have installed on your legacy BlackBerry by storing the apps on an SD card.

One of the interesting limits of the classic mobile OS is that there’s a specific amount of application memory for each device. If you like apps or have a huge collection of games, fitting them all on the BlackBerry 9800′s 256mb of application memory is impossible.

Aerize Loader bypasses this limit and returns your BlackBerry back to normal after doing a device reset or a battery pull. Aerize Loader works even if you’re offline and not connected to WiFi or the network.

Click here to buy Aerize Loader for $4.99 for Legacy OSes 4.5 and above.

Ask photojournalists to name a peer they admire, and Sebastião Salgado’s name is sure to crop up. The Brazilian is renowned for the long-term projects he undertakes, devoting years at a time to documenting the story of a particular people or the evolution of a certain place. Sebastião Salgado: The silent drama of photographyAs he describes in the talk he gave at TED2013, his attention to detail and his personal attachment to his subjects caused health problems that nearly killed him.

Thankfully, he didn’t give up. His most recent project is Genesis, which he describes as “my love letter to the planet” and for which he spent eight years traveling the world to photograph humans, animals and nature in their native glory. (To read more details about Salgado’s process, see this rather lovely Q&A with TED photographer Ryan Lash.) The resulting black-and-white images include the astonishing shot, above, of a Southern right whale, which he photographed in the Valdés Peninsula in Argentina in 2004. Together, the series forms the focus of a book (including a vast, two-volume edition that costs $9,000 and comes complete with a wooden stand designed by the Japanese architect Tadao Ando; mere mortals can pick up a hardcover version for $69.99). There’s also a documentary, Shade and Light, filmed by Salgado’s son and Wim Wenders, and exhibitions in cities around the world.

The scale is appropriate. This is truly breathtaking work. And, for all that the scenes Salgado captures will likely feel alien to most of us, the images are imbued with no less than the spirit of humanity. If that sounds overblown, seriously, check these out:

Is it the guns, hookers, drugs or auto theft that makes the Grand Theft Auto series so enticing? GTA has been around since 1997, and over the last 16 years has developed into the most popular franchise in video game history. The newest version, simply titled Grand Theft Auto V is due out this September and features three main characters, Michael, Franklin and Trevor. GTA V is the most anticipated release on console gaming history for the simple fact that the series has been not only amazingly produced, but offers a level of gaming that has yet to be matched by any other game from any other developer. As mentioned, we’ve still got to wait until fall for “V” to come out, but until then feel free to check out the new cast after the jump.

Source: Youtube.com

Law firm Clifford Chance has announced a fresh deployment of BlackBerry 10 devices for their workforce. The law firm has used BlackBerry for their mobility deployment for the past decade and they’ve committed to adopting the new platform for their 1600 employees.

Clifford Chance is a long standing BlackBerry client, having managed their mobile deployment using BlackBerry for a long time. They’ve announced that they’ll be adopting BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10 along with BlackBerry 10 devices for their employees to communicate with each other securely.

In addition to their business deployment plans, they will also be using BlackBerry Balance to keep work and personal life separate and encrypted on the smartphone.

Forgetting whether you took your meds will be a thing of the past if Proteus Digital Health has its way.  Last year, the Redwood, Calif. company received FDA clearance for a ”digital pill” that tracks whether patients are taking their medication and how their bodies are responding to it. On Wednesday, Proteus said it had raised an additional $62.5 million to help bring its product to market.

The company said the second closing of its Series F round (it closed the first round in December) included new investor, database giant Oracle, as well as previous investors Otsuko, Novartis, Sino Portfolio and others.

Proteus declined to comment on the new funding but, in a statement, CEO Andrew Thompson said the company is looking to its strategic partners to help accelerate its mission by embedding Proteus into already established products and services.

Since launching in 2003, the company has raised north of $100 million for its ingestible sensor technology. Proteus’s system includes the “digital pill,” a patch worn on the torso and an app on a Bluetooth-enabled mobile device. The sensor, made from a proprietary chip, is about the size of a grain of sand (1 mm square) and is mostly made of silicon.

Once the sensor is ingested with medication, the magnesium and copper in it reacts with the acid in the stomach to create a small electrical charge that enables it to communicate with the patch and app. The technology then lets the patient to log his medication, as well as share that information with health care providers and/or caregivers.

Swallowing a digital pill may turn the stomachs of some patients but medication adherence is a major problem. According to the New England Healthcare Institute, patients who don’t take their prescription medication cost the U.S. health care system an estimated $290 billion in avoidable medical costs each year.

In addition to receiving a minority investment from Oracle, Proteus said the two companies plan to work together in clinical trials and integrate Proteus’ ingestible sensor with Oracle’s clinical trial products, including its life sciences data hub and clinical trial management system, which both use the Oracle Health Sciences Cloud.

Proteus, which previously received approval from the European Union to market its ingestible sensor, says it plans to launch its first consumer-focused caregiver product Helius in select Lloyds Pharmacy stores in the UK soon,

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
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How many inactive smartphones do you have sitting around? Chances are the number continues to grow with each new phone you buy. At first having the extra smartphone makes sense. It acts as an insurance plan in case your new one breaks. But when you have three, four, five old smartphones lying around? You should probably start getting rid of them.

Consumers won’t find many easy options for recycling their old phones, which exacerbates the problem. You could find a gadget bin, where you can dump old electronics, but that old smartphone has to hold some value, right? And so we hold onto them, hoping, but not searching, for a solution.

Even more problematically, semi-well-known gadget trade-in companies, such as Gazelle.com, are taking in a smaller and smaller array of products. Have a Samsung Galaxy S II on Verizon? It’s the second best-selling Android smartphone of all time, and it’s on the nation’s most popular carrier. Yet you won’t get a dime for it from Gazelle. And so it’s even more likely to sit in a drawer.

Clearly, the best way to handle gadget recycling is for carriers themselves to offer trade-in programs. You walk into the store with your old phone, you pick out a new one, and you get a trade-in credit applied to the sale. Sounds simple, but few carriers do this. Verizon has in the past, but the values have been absolutely horrible. I tried to trade in a 2010 model BlackBerry when I bought an iPhone in 2011, and they offered me $20 for it.

In another consumer-friendly move, AT&T has started a smartphone trade-in program that offers customers a real incentive: $100 towards the purchase of a new smartphone, service, or accessories. So not only do customers realize actual value for their old phones, but they can apply it right away to the purchase of something new.

Trading in a newer smartphone that might be of greater value than $100? AT&T will take that into account. So if you want to trade in your Galaxy S3 for something new, you’ll get more than that $100 credit. (Gazelle offered me $165 for my S3, so I imagine AT&T would be willing to offer more as a trade-in.)

There are conditions to this offer, of course — the press release contains more asterisks than perhaps any other I’ve ever read. It does cover phones up to three years old, so you can certainly trade in a phone from your last contract. That’s actually huge; with Verizon’s trade-in program you rarely get even close to $100 for a two-year-old phone, never mind a three-year-old one. Other than that, you’re pretty much free to trade in what’s eligible and get that credit towards your new phone.

Current AT&T customers can go to the trade-in website to see if their devices are worth more than $100. AT&T will accept non-AT&T phones, but you’ll have to go to a company owned retailer to make the trade.

Via Phone Scoop.

The post Trade In Your Old Smartphone for $100 in AT&T Credit appeared first on MobileMoo.

An old ad for Filigranes Bookstore, advertising Franz Kafka’s literary classic, The Metamorphosis, has drawn some buzz from the reddit community, appearing in the “WTF” subreddit, and ultimately drawing thousands of upvotes.

Now that’s a viral ad. The ad is drawing this buzz years after it was released. It’s been around since 2008 at least. That’s the power of reddit.

Well done, Filigranes.

Click over to Imgur for a bigger, more NSFW version if you like.

Over the weekend, Coffee County, Tennessee Commissioner Barry West posted a photo on his public Facebook profile that has many in the area and across the country up in arms (no pun intended).

The image, which is being called a “hate filled post targeted at Muslims,” features an older man in a cowboy hat aiming down the sights of a long-barreled shotgun. “HOW TO WINK AT A MUSLIM,” says the caption. Here’s a screencap of the post, courtesy of The Daily Dot. West has since deleted the post:

West says that he didn’t actually create the image, but he did share it. He also said that it was meant to be humorous.

“Why am I being singled out?” he asked.

“I’m prejudiced against anyone who’s trying to tear down this country, Muslims, Mexicans, anybody,” he told The Tullahoma News. “If you come into this country illegally or harm us or take away benefits, I’m against it”

“I just showed it to somebody else,” he continued. “If you’re going to harm this country, I’m not in favor of you…I don’t appreciate people trying to tear down this country.”

Concerned with a recent string of anti-Muslim acts in Middle Tennessee, The Islamic Center of Murfreesboro had this to say:

“This does not only incite hatred but also violence against law-abiding citizens of our great country. Mr. West obviously lacks in wisdom and judgment and, therefore, cannot be trusted as commissioner. I wonder what would Mr. West’s response would be if the same photo was posted by someone with a caption that says: ‘How to Wink at Mr. West, a Coffee County Commissioner?’”

West is also drawing criticism from groups on Facebook, like the Christian Left.

“Coffee County, TN Commissioner Barry West (D) posted this on his facebook page on Saturday. This is a hate filled post targeted at Muslims and is not acceptable from anyone, let alone someone holding a public office!
Tell Commissioner Barry West this is NOT acceptable and that he needs to apologize to the Muslim community immediately,” they say in a post.

Coffee County Mayor David Pennington has released a statement distancing himself from West:

“As the Mayor of Coffee County I apologize to the Muslim people. I have no control over what the commissioners do outside of public meetings. I personally wouldn’t have done it, I have a great relationship with the Muslim community.”

Three people die every minute from tuberculosis — a treatable and largely preventable disease. Resistant forms continue to thrive, and increased travel makes the global threat very real. We face a public health emergency.

Without adequate financing, ministries of health and even private hospitals in developing countries often don’t have the resources needed to purchase diagnostic equipment, train workers, and ensure access to appropriate treatment. These obstacles make it difficult to track or report disease rates and also to purchase medications in sufficient quantity to create economies of scale.

What can the health care industry do to help fight disease, while still maintaining its commitments to shareholders?

While currently crippled by inadequate infrastructure in many countries, low- and middle-income countries will be the fastest-growing markets for pharmaceuticals and medical devices over the next decade. We at Beckton, Dickinson saw the opportunity to marry public health and business objectives through our Global Health Initiative, which we established to find sustainable ways to fortify over-burdened and under-resourced health care systems in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Our teams work in partnership to provide technical assistance and training to expand lab workers’ skills, secure pricing agreements to increase access to our products, and design medical technologies appropriate for resource-limited settings.

Fast and accurate diagnosis is essential in effectively treating a TB patient and preventing the further spread of the disease. Unfortunately, in sub-Saharan Africa, many labs use outdated diagnostic equipment, and the public health systems lack the infrastructure needed to ensure that patient specimens are properly transported and analyzed. Addressing systemic problems requires long-term commitment and cross-sector collaboration; a partial solution, such as donating equipment, is useless if workers are unable to use it or patients don’t receive their diagnoses.

Our vision is to establish sustainable health care systems that offer high-quality care using high-quality products, whether from BD or someone else. Our motives are both idealistic and realistic: We want to improve the standards and quality of health care in areas of the world afflicted with the greatest burden of disease, and we also expect to benefit from early experience in a nascent market. That is, we are after real shared value.

In partnership with the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and the Centers for Disease Control, we designed a platform to invest in the labs for TB and HIV in Ethiopia, Uganda, and Mozambique (and eventually in other high-growth markets like India).

Public-private partnerships are not new to corporate social responsibility, but we believe the breadth and scale of our lab-strengthening partnership are rare. Through the many challenges we’ve faced along the way, we’ve gained some insights that we hope will serve us and others as we continue to try to transform health care systems in Africa, India, and beyond:

• Set and measure ambitious goals — together. In a large, multi-country, multi-organization partnership, it’s critical that all parties be equally invested in its high-level goals, not just rhetorically, or even philosophically, but because they each really have something equally ambitious to gain. Seeking to “improve the quality of laboratory diagnostics critical for the treatment of HIV/AIDS and TB,” certainly aligns with the missions of the CDC and local ministries of health to dramatically improve the quality of care in developing nations. But it also aligns with BD’s goal of improving our knowledge of developing markets and our understanding of specific customer challenges, so that we can adapt or develop new technologies appropriate for these diverse settings and then bring these technologies to market.
• Redefine ROI. Rarely do public-private partnerships result in increased short-term sales, and if you measure ROI that way, your initiative will be doomed. A wiser approach recognizes benefits like improved reputation, strengthened customer relationships, and a deeper appreciation for an emerging market. While we cannot make a causal link from the initiative to BD’s bottom line, we do see our business growing successfully in the markets where we’ve had the opportunity to collaborate with partners, and can credit these collaborations as a catalyst that has enabled our company to develop its business in these challenging yet high-potential markets.
• Learn in order to teach. Partnerships are rarely straightforward, and determining underlying needs for program beneficiaries is often part of the process. To improve national TB programs, for example, we needed to improve not only the labs but also the tracking process of TB specimens from the patient to the lab, and we needed to learn how. To do so, we enlisted one of our NGO partners to teach our IT team how to use geographic information systems (GIS). We then, in turn, trained local lab workers, who then trained others.
• Make a multi-year commitment. After five years, BD, PEPFAR, and our local partners have made significant progress. But we are a long way from conquering TB or transforming these markets into sustained customers. That said, we hope that in the next five years through our continued collaboration, we’ll be able to show continued improvements in labs around the world.

Today’s health care marketplace calls for global problem solvers, not just products, and that is something we should all strive for — together.

Deutsche Telekom, the parent company of T-Mobile USA, today announced that the merger of T-Mobile and MetroPCS Communications is complete. The two companies will now be known under the name T-Mobile US, and stock in the company has begun trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol TMUS.

The new T-Mobile US board of directors will have 11 members, which will include two board members from MetroPCS. Tim Höttges, the CFO of Deutsche Telekom, will be the board’s chairman.

“The combination of T-Mobile and MetroPCS creates an even stronger disruptive force in the U.S. wireless market,” said John Legere, president and CEO of T-Mobile US. “Together, as America’s ‘Un-carrier’, we’ll continue our legacy of marketplace innovation by tearing up the old playbook and rewriting the rules of wireless to benefit consumers.”

The newly rebranded carrier is still the fourth-largest carrier in the U.S. but now has 43 million subscribers, putting it closer to Sprint Nextel’s subscriber numbers. T-Mobile estimates that the companies’ combined 2012 financial results would have reflected $24.8 billion in revenue.

“By uniting T-Mobile and MetroPCS, we have created a dynamic new player in the wireless industry that has the right strategy and management team in place to compete successfully in today’s marketplace,” said Höttges. “We look forward to realizing the tremendous potential of the new T-Mobile.”

It’s spring time so it must mean another edition of the Galaxy S line. The Galaxy S 4 was introduced with some pomp and circumstance last month at Radio City Music Hall. The event itself didn’t get a lot of praise, but the fact that the design of the GS4 didn’t change all that much from last year’s Galaxy S III left some people even more disappointed. Samsung didn’t hold much back in terms of specs, but the GS4 has zero to do with that. It doesn’t even have anything to do with the quality of the build. It’s the software features. Samsung started promoting software features with the Galaxy S III, and they turned up the dial even more this year. The Galaxy S III proved to be the most successful Android phone ever, and Samsung has even bigger plans for the Galaxy S 4. Does it live up to the hype? Well skip on past the break to find out.

Design

When the Galaxy S 4 was introduced, I started hearing rumblings that Samsung pulled an Apple, which means the Galaxy S 4 is nothing more than a Galaxy S III S, as in the iPhone 3S and 4S. Those versions of the iPhone were minor spec bumps with minimal changes to the phone itself. Don’t be fooled folks, the Galaxy S 4 is nothing like that. Yes the phone looks the same as last year’s model, but it’s a lot thinner (7.9mm vs 8.6mm) and it has a better and larger display (5-inches 1080p vs 4.8-inches 720p). Apple used the same exact design as the previous years in their 3S and 4S versions. On top of all this, the GS4 brings an upgraded processor, rear camera, and battery. The Galaxy S 4 might not offer much more than other current flagship phones in terms of pure hardware, but it’s far from a minor spec bump when comparing it to the Galaxy S III.

As I mentioned, the Galaxy S 4 looks very much like the Galaxy S III, which means it has an all plastic body. Quality of materials is where Samsung gets hammered by the critics, including myself, but if you look at Samsung’s sales, they have proven that the average consumer isn’t concerned with that. Samsung believes that consumers want light and durable phones and that’s what they give them. This is probably the only area in which Samsung hasn’t copied Apple, and for whatever reason, it has worked out for them. Samsung still implemented some minor changes in the overall look like a cross-stitched pattern on the back battery cover and front face of the phone. You will also find the edges to be straighter, which gives you a better grip. The phone is thinner, but it’s also narrower (2.75-inches vs 2.78-inches) and weighs less (4.6oz vs 4.7oz) than the Galaxy S III. It’s hard to believe that the GS4 is smaller and lighter than the GSIII when you consider the GS4 display is larger, but it’s very subtle. You wouldn’t know it unless someone told you.

As far as buttons and ports go, everything is the same as last year except you will find the power button and volume rocker to be a little longer and they added an IR blaster. The top has the earphone jack towards the left with the IR blaster towards the right, and the bottom has the microUSB port in the middle. The right side has the power button towards the top and the left side has the volume rocker, also towards the top. The main buttons on the front have the same layout as other Samsung phones. The large home button is here again for yet another year with a slightly different shape, and the back button is to the right while the menu button is to the left. Samsung continues its tradition of going against Android principles with these buttons, but it isn’t about Android for Samsung.

Just like the Galaxy S III, the Galaxy S 4 features a removable battery and microSD slot for expanding memory. It’s also one of the few flagship phones that has a removable backplate. This is where you will find the 2,600mAh battery along with the microSD slot and SIM slot.

I know many fans wanted to see a phone with a different design, but Samsung is taking a cue from Apple because consumers like familiarity. This doesn’t mean that Samsung won’t make changes in the future, but when major changes are made every year, it hurts brand marketing. Most consumers are upgrading their phones every two years so it makes no sense to put major R&D dollars into annual design changes. I personally prefer changes more often, but companies like Samsung and Apple know exactly what they are doing, and their sales and market shares prove that.

Hardware

It might not be about the specs anymore, but Samsung held nothing back with the Galaxy S 4. It has a 5.0-inch 1080p (1920 x 1080) Super AMOLED display, a 1.9GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 processor (certain regions will get the Exynos 5 octa-core clocked at 1.6GHz), Adreno 320 GPU, 2GB of RAM, 16GB or 32GB of storage, mircoSDXC slot for up to 64GB of extra storage, 13 MP rear camera, 2.1MP front camera, 2600mAh battery, Bluetooth 4.0, WiFi Dual-band 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, MHL 2.0, IR blaster, DLNA, WiFi Direct, and NFC. As for radios, each variant is different. This review is on the Sprint version, which has 850 / 1900 CDMA / EVDO and 850 / 1900 GSM / EDGE / UMTS / HSPA+.

Performance

Since I am testing the U.S. version, my experience is based on the quad-core Snapdragon 600. It’s the same CPU found on the HTC One and the LG Optimus G Pro, but the Galaxy S 4 is clocked a little faster (1.9GHz vs 1.7GHz). The overseas version has the Exynos Octa 5, which features 4 Cortex-A15s along with 4 Cortex-A7s. Samsung’s J.K. Shin says it doesn’t matter which version you have because you won’t be able tell the difference. While I don’t have any first hand experience with it, I tend to agree. I mentioned in my HTC One review that it’s getting a little ridiculous to review CPU performance because phones are so fast now that it really isn’t going to be noticeable to the average consumer. The AnTuTu came in at 24,722, which is slightly higher than the HTC One’s 23,538. The bottomline is that the Galaxy S 4 is going to feel a lot faster than the U.S. version of the Galaxy S III. It’s fast, what more can I say?

The Galaxy S 4 features a 5-inch Super AMOLED 1080p display. It’s probably the best display we have seen from Samsung, but how does it stack up against the LCD 3 display found on the DROID DNA and HTC One? It is very very close and unless you are an absolute display snob, you’re going to have a hard time picking one of them. It really comes down to what color representation you like. Holding them side by side, you can see slight differences with color temperatures, but neither one looks off when looking at either display separate from the other. I will say the HTC One seems to have better viewing angles and I think it’s better in sunlight, but again these are minimal differences.

After listening to the stereo speakers on the HTC One, the Galaxy S 4 seemed so blah. It’s on par with just about every other smartphone, but HTC has set the bar at an all time high. I personally don’t listen to much music from my phone’s speaker, but for the occasional YouTube video it gets the job done.

Battery

The Galaxy S 4 has a much larger battery than the Galaxy S III (2,600mAh vs 2,100mAh), but don’t expect that much more in performance Unfortunately 1080p displays use more energy than 720p displays. I conducted my usual rundown test in which I run continuous video while WiFi, GPS, and Bluetooth are turned on (WiFi and Bluetooth not connected). and I was able to get about 9 hours. Unfortunately we didn’t conduct the same test on the Galaxy S III, but for normal use, I didn’t find a big difference. You should get about 16 to 17 hours of moderate use, which is pretty good for a phone with a 5-inch 1080p display. It should be noted that the GS4 bested the HTC One for both the rundown test and daily use, thanks to the bigger battery (2,600mAh vs 2,300mAh)

Software

The software is really what the Galaxy S 4 is all about. I don’t mean the user interface, which is called TouchWiz. I mean the software features. If you watched the Unpacked Event, you might have noticed that they only spent a few minutes talking about the specs of the GS4. The rest of the time was to tell us about the new software features. It’s these features that make the Galaxy S 4 so smart. Even if you don’t care about them, you cannot tell me there is another phone on the market that can do as much as the Galaxy S 4 out of the box.

Before we get into all that, lets talk about TouchWiz. It probably isn’t the most popular user interface, but Samsung has kept it consistent, which is better for consumers. Consumers like that consistency, and it’s one of the reasons they keep coming back for more. Some of the changes include an updated settings menu, a new sidebar for multitasking, and an improved power toggle menu. In addition, Samsung added a new menu that you will see during the initial setup process (when you turn the phone on for the first time). This menu briefly tells you about many of the newer features, and you are given a choice to toggle them on or off.

Here’s a video showing you the startup menu along with the major TouchWiz changes for this year.

Click here to view the embedded video.

As to software features, Samsung has added a bunch of stuff to the Galaxy S 4. In my opinion, it’s a little overwhelming for the average consumer as they are unlikely to ever utilize the majority of them, but Samsung’s approach is to throw in as much as they can whether they are used or not. There are a couple of reasons why they do this. The first is that it creates differentiation. The more proprietary features, the more distance they create from other Android manufacturers. At the same time, they lock in consumers to the brand since they aren’t available elsewhere, at least by the trademarked name. The second reason is for marketing the Samsung Galaxy brand. Many of these features are marketable and create excitement for consumers. I don’t have anything to back this up, but I feel confident that most Galaxy S III users never used S Beam, but we all remember that commercial when the wife beamed a video to her husband before his trip. Samsung is all about building the brand and these features are what solidifies it. I will go through some of the newer features in this section, but you will also find many of the newer camera related features in the camera section.

Air View and Air Gestures

Air View was first seen on the Galaxy Note II, but you needed an S Pen to utilize it. Now you can hover your finger over emails to read the text without actually opening it, and you can see the pictures in a folder without actually tapping it. You can even use your finger as a magnifying glass in the stock browser.

Air Gestures will let you navigate by waving your hand. Instead of swiping your finger from picture to picture in your gallery, you can wave your hand instead. You can even answer your phone without picking it up.

Here’s a video showing you how they work and how to setup both Air View and Air Gestures.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Smart Pause and Smart Scroll

Sometimes when you’re watching a video, you need to look away at something else. Wouldn’t it be nice if the video paused automatically? That’s exactly what Smart Pause does, and when you return to looking down at the video, it will continue playing from where it left off. It’s pretty nifty when it works, but I found that it’s very dependent on light. You can forget it working in the dark, but I found it didn’t want to work in average light either.

Smart Scroll works with emails and web pages. When you read a webpage, you will eventually get to the bottom of your display. You have two choices: Either swipe up to reveal more information or let Smart Scroll do it for you. This one is pretty spotty as well depending on how you set it up. It can be setup to work by tilting the device or by tilting your head.

The video below shows you how both Smart Pause and Smart Scroll work.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Easy Mode

This one might be the best kept secret on the Galaxy S 4. Easy Mode has been around since the Galaxy S III, but it’s more refined on the GS4. It’s for the smartphone beginner or the person who just isn’t that tech savvy. Easy Mode will transform your Galaxy S 4 into a very simple interface with larger icons and a simplified settings menu. You won’t find widgets other than the ones that are locked in for weather and calendar, and you won’t find any of the newer features found in this section. The bottomline is that anyone can own a Galaxy S 4 with Easy Mode.

For a better idea of how it works, check out this video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

S Translator and Optical Reader

S Translator is essentially a lesser version of Google Translate, and it allows you to get language translations via text or by the spoken word. It translates Brazilian Portuguese, English (UK), English (US), French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Simplified Chinese, and Spanish. If you’re in another country, you could literally have a conversation with someone even if they don’t speak the same language as you. S Translator also has predefined phrases for you to use and allows you to favorite some translations that you might use more often for quick access.

The optical reader also serves as a translator by scanning written text on documents. It can also scan QR codes as well as create a new contact based on information from a business card.

This video shows you how S Translator and the Optical Reader work.

Click here to view the embedded video.

WatchOn

Just like the HTC One, the Samsung Galaxy S 4 features an IR blaster along with a companion app to see what’s on TV and get recommendations. Samsung’s version is called WatchON, which is built by Peel. WatchON lets you control your TV as well as a cable or satellite box through the IR blaster at the top of Galaxy S 4. You will need to go through an initial setup, but soon after, you will be able see your TV guide on your GS4 and get recommendations based on your interests. Just tap on a show or sporting event to get more information, and once more to change the channel to that particular program. You can still set up an AV receiver, but for whatever reason it’s not included in the initial setup process. If you hit the volume key, you will be prompted to select your TV or to setup an AV receiver. I never hit the volume key because I knew I didn’t use the TV to control it, so I never knew this would happen. I found this out after I recorded the video below.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Group Play

This is basically last year’s Group Share option, but with the addition of being able to share music as well. Just like Group Share, you can share a document or picture on several Galaxy devices for collaboration, but you can also share songs as well. This means you can play a song on several devices for a more full room experience. You can share via NFC or by creating or joining a group manually.

Last but not least is the Samsung Hub, which isn’t new, but it has a new look to it that’s more pleasing. If you’re not familiar with Samsung Hub, it’s where you can go for your music, TV, movies, games, and books. With the Music Hub, you can stream over 19 million songs (with a subscription) and create custom stations similar to what Pandora and Slacker offers. The Videos section offers a wide variety of movies for purchase or rent as well as TV shows for purchase. The Games section features games that are available through Samsung Apps. Most of them are available in the Google Play Store, but there does appear to be some exclusives. The Books section is where you can purchase books, magazines, and newspapers.

Still to come is S Health and the Knox Security Suite. S Health will launch in June and will be your fitness companion. They will offer accessories similar to the Nike Fuel band, and you will be able to keep track of all your workouts. Knox is the enterprise security application that allows users to completely separate their work and personal stuff on one phone. It’s similar to the multi-user account option that’s on Android 4.2+ in that employees will be able to switch from work mode to personal mode and everything will be separate. We are not sure exactly when Knox will launch, but it will probably be sometime over the summer.

As you can see, Samsung is throwing everything but the kitchen sink in the Galaxy S 4. Yes it’s confusing, but this plan of attack is working well for Samsung. Lets also not forget that all the features that are on the Galaxy S III are still onboard such as multi window multitasking, S Voice, S Beam, AllShare, and Photo Share. With so many features, no one can argue that the Galaxy S 4 isn’t the smartest smartphone. Unfortunately since there are so many features, you will find less usable space than competing smartphones. For example, the 16GB version only has about 9GB of usable space. Thankfully you can use the microSD slot for expandability.

Camera

Samsung upgraded their lens to 13MP, which is now the new norm. HTC, on the other hand, went in the opposite direction and now offers a 4MP with UltraPixels on the HTC One. HTC promises superior low light performance while Samsung’s 13MP will give you more detail for cropping and/or zooming in. The low light performance comes from the size of the pixels. Samsung is using a 1.12-micrometers pixel and HTC is using a 2.0-micrometers pixel. The bottomline is that the Galaxy S 4 doesn’t perform as well in low light, but on the other hand, your pictures will have more detail. Overall it’s a good camera and fans of the Galaxy S III will be happy with it. Here are some pictures to judge for yourself. The last two were in very low light conditions.

Now let’s talk about the updated camera interface and the new features:

Interface and Dual Camera

Samsung changed the camera software as well as added a slew of new features or modes. The camera software has a new look and a new navigating wheel to select one of the many camera modes. One of the coolest new features is the Dual Camera function, which lets you utilize both the front and back lens at the same time for both photos and videos. So if you’re taking a picture of your family, you can be included in the image as well. You can resize the image from the front lens as well as move it around. You can even select from a number of themes such as a postage stamp or a heart.

We put together a hands on tutorial showing you the new camera interface as well as how to use the Dual Camera function.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Drama Shot and Eraser

Drama Shot allows you to take consecutive shots of something moving and put multiple images in one picture. For example, you could take a picture of a motorcyclist going over a jump, and the finished product might include five or six images of the jump itself in one picture.

Eraser mode lets you erase unwanted subjects from a photo. Say you are in a crowded park and trying to take a picture of the family. It’s hard to get a shot in which somebody isn’t walking into the picture. With Eraser mode, you can easily remove these people.

The one problem with both of these modes is that you have to be in either mode to utilize it. If you’re taking a picture in Auto mode and someone decides to jump in, you can’t remove them. Drama Shot is the same way. You can’t reproduce a Drama Shot from video or burst shots. One more issue is that if you plan on taking more photos, you will need to do your editing and fine tuning right after you take the photo. On the other hand, the HTC One allows you to do either of these after the fact if you are using the Zoe feature.

Here’s a video showing you how both Drama Shot and the Eraser work.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Animated Shot and Sound & Shot

Animation Shot allows you to make an image that has movement in it. In other words, an animated GIF. The best part of it is that you can fine tune the duration as well as what parts of the image you want to actually show movement.

Sound & Shot is simply adding voice to a photo. Take a picture, but hold it for another eight seconds for an audio message such as, “We miss you Grammy” or “I love you Mommy.”

Here’s how Animation Shot and Sound & Shot work.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Story Album

Story Album lets you select photos from a particular event and a “Story Album” will automatically be created. You can still customize the photos and even select themes. When you’re happy with your album, you can print it out or order a professionally printed version for yourself or for a gift. You can even save copies to your dropbox account. Here’s how it works.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Closing

Samsung is the reigning king of Android and although I don’t think the Galaxy S 4 is the best smartphone available, it doesn’t matter because it’s got enough to keep their brand loyalty. It’s faster, thinner, smaller, and has more features than any other phone. Of course these features are mostly a gimmick, but they solidify Samsung’s Galaxy brand as well as their differentiation from other manufacturers. Most of all, the Galaxy series appeals to everyone. Samsung continues to offer a microSD slot as well as a removable battery to appease those that continue to desire them.

The only real complaint anyone can have on this phone is that it looks like last year’s model and the quality of materials is subpar. Unfortunately for competitors like HTC, those things are not held high by mainstream consumers. But don’t misunderstand me, the Galaxy S 4 might not be the highest quality phone, but it’s well built, durable, and light.

If I were buying a phone today, I would opt for the HTC One because of the quality build and what I feel is the one killer feature in the Video Highlights powered by Zoe. On the other hand, most of the Android smartphone buyers already own a Galaxy S or Note phone and familiarity is king when it comes to technology. The Galaxy S 4 provides that as well as a solid experience.

Samsung’s tagline is that the Galaxy S 4 is a life companion. I think this is true for most of us regardless of what brand smartphone we have in our pocket, but kudos to Samsung for coming up with yet another great marketing strategy. The Galaxy S 4 may lack in the looks department, but it’s by far the smartest smartphone on earth. That makes it one helluva companion even if you don’t utilize everything that it offers.

 

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