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Are Technical Difficulties Slowing Samsung Galaxy S5 Production?
The Samsung Galaxy S5 global launch date is getting closer by the moment, but it appears there might be trouble in paradise for at least some folks eager to get their hands on the device when it finally goes on sale due to technical difficulties in the production process.
Last week, we reported that Samsung was having problems with molding the complex 6-element optics to be precisely centered. Apparently, that issue was quickly dealt with, but now problems with the 16 MP ISOCELL camera’s lens module and the coating process have popped up which could result in the company facing some low yield concerns out of the gate.
As a result of the initial molding difficulties, only 20-30% of the needed Galaxy S5 units were being produced, and even though production is back in full swing, there’s still a lot of catching up to do. The initial goal was to have between 5 to 7 million units ready at launch, but now it looks like there will be somewhere in the neighborhood of 4 to 5 million. How this will affect customers in certain locales is a story yet to be told, but it doesn’t necessarily sound like there’ll be a shortage of the devices altogether, it might just be a little harder to find one at first than Sammy would like it to be.
In case you’ve somehow managed to miss the specifications list, this year’s rendition of Samsung’s flagship Galaxy S device will come toting a 5.1-inch Super AMOLED 1920×1080 resolution display giving you a 432 pixel per inch experience. Under the hood, it’s rocking a 2.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 quad-core processor, 2GB of RAM, and either 16GB or 32GB of internal storage. The device’s 2800mAh battery and the interesting addition of Lucid’s PowerXtend battery savings software should be more than enough to carry you through the day. The camera — which seems to be the root of many headaches for Samsung — is a 16-megapixel rear-facer with LED flash, ISOCELL, and 4K video recording, so expect to see some beautiful images and video captures taken with this device.
With Galaxy S5 pre-orders already happening for most major carriers, we can only hope Samsung gets caught up with supplies before what will surely be one of the biggest smartphone launches of 2014. The device is expected to be available in most markets in early April. As for our readers, we want to know how many of you are eyeing up the S5 as your next device. Also, do you think these production issues should be a cause for major concern, or will everything smooth itself out in the end? Drop us a comment in the thread below!
Adios, Windows Azure. Hello, Microsoft Azure
Microsoft will announce its rebranding of its "Windows Azure" cloud operating system to "Microsoft Azure," this week, according to a couple of tipsters of mine.
The announcement is expected to happen tomorrow, March 25, and to take effect on April 3, the second day of Microsoft's Build conference in San Francisco, said a couple of individuals who asked not to be identified, but who are familiar with Microsoft's plans.
The rebranding makes sense, given Windows Azure isn't all about Windows. Azure customers can run Linux in virtual machines on the operating system. Azure users also can runOracle databases and middleware, and use non-Windows-specific development tools, including Java, Ruby, PHP and Python.
Since 2008, when Windows Azure was still known by its codename "Red Dog," Microsoft's message was that Windows Azure was a cloud version of Windows Server. (Microsoftcombined its Server and Cloud teams into a single unit in late 2009.) This twinning of its on-premises and cloud offerings has been at the crux of Microsoft's private/public/hybrid cloud messagaging.
In 2012, there was some brief confusion when Microsoft eliminated the word "Azure" from its cloud billing portal. Microsoft officials said at that time that Microsoft had no plans to move away from the Windows Azure branding.
But these days, even though Windows is still key to Microsoft, the company is emphasizing it's not Windows-only. Microsoft officials are working to position Microsoft as a cross-platform software and services provider. Microsoft's Office on iPad suite, which the company is expected to launch this Thursday, March 27, is another example of that new corporate positioning.
Add useful features to the Windows 8 Start Screen
The Windows 8.1 Start Screen is populated with tiles to apps and a link to sign out, lock Windows, or switch users. You can customize the appearance of the Start Screen, but there's not much you can do to add features or functionality.
Start Screen Unlimited is a Windows 8 program that adds a few useful features to the Windows 8 Start Screen, like date and time, a link to the Windows control panel, and more power options. It also adds a Google search bar directly to the Start Screen.
After you install Start Screen Unlimited, you'll see a toolbar in the upper right-hand side of the Windows 8 Start Screen. If you press on the infinity logo, you can move the toolbar around the screen. The power options include hibernate, sleep, reboot, and power off. The configuration options display a link to the control panel and allow you to close the toolbar. The "i" button allows you send feedback, buy the deluxe edition, and check for updates.
The Google search bar can be used to search directly from the Start Screen, but it requires a physical keyboard. The official Google search app for Windows 8 brings up the Touch Keyboard automatically, making it a better choice for touch-screen users.
The lite edition of Start Screen Unlimited is free. Buying the deluxe edition allows for commercial use and adds additional menu customization options.
Avoid spam calls, find numbers faster with Current Caller ID on Android
Last year, I shared how to use the Whitepages Current Caller ID app to easily track blocked calls and texts. Now, Whitepages has added the ability to spot many of today's spam/scam numbers, along with some other convenient features.
If you don't have the app already, there's no time like the present to get a copy. Current Caller ID is available for Android 2.2 and up.
The UI for the app has received a makeover, sporting lighter colors and better organization for its features. For example, the previous version of the app had two tabs for your call log -- one Recent and the other Frequent -- but now there's just one tab with a toggle for the two choices. The Blocked calls/texts menu has also moved to the row of icons along the bottom.
Avoid spam calls
When a phone number is part of an area code that has a high spam score, an alert will be shown on the Whitepages info window when making or receiving a call. According to Whitepages, their app can identify over 21,000 different scam numbers. Additionally, they will keep updating their spam directory to maintain the accuracy of flagged numbers.
Find numbers faster
Right before the update that enables you to spot spam calls, Whitepages added a smart contacts feature to the Current Caller ID app. This allows you to see not only numbers that are stored in your address book, but also those identified by the app in the past. You can also link your Facebook and LinkedIn accounts to gain access to profile information your connections have shared. If you download the official Whitepages app, which Current Caller ID can access through the search feature, you can easily look up numbers for people and businesses listed in their directory. There's even a built-in dialer, so you can just tap on a number to make a call.
Current Caller ID is an app that has improved with each update. The new UI, ability to spot spam numbers, and quick access to numbers are just a few of the reasons why nearly 5 million people have this app on their Android device.
The inside story of the HTC One M8
There was unfinished business with the HTC One.
It was critically praised, yes. In a sea of bland plastic phones, the HTC One's aluminum-clad body stood out like a Mercedes Benz flanked by Toyota Camrys. One touch, and you couldn't help but to think "premium."
Yet to Scott Croyle, who heads up design for HTC, the company could do better. In fact, three months before the original HTC One even launched, Croyle was already getting the wheels turning on improving the unique construction by adding more metal to the successor phone.
The result: the HTC One M8, a more understated, but refined update of the original phone that was unveiled on Tuesday. It's a thing of beauty, its trademark metal backing extended to wrap around the sides and up to the glass, arcing with the graceful curve of an aircraft wing.
"We really tried to achieve this beauty through craftsmanship," Croyle said in an interview with CNET.
The pressing question, of course, is will any of it even matter?
Once a high-flyer in the mobile world pushing the industry with innovative designs -- it was the company that created the firstAndroid phone, the G1 -- HTC has long since ceded any semblance of a leadership role to Samsung Electronics, whose own powerhouse Galaxy S franchise sits alongside Apple's blockbuster iPhone atop the smartphone food chain. Its star having faded considerably over time, HTC's core dilemma can be summed up this way: it makes great phones, but few people tend to notice them.
HTC even opted last year to copy Samsung's strategy of creating a single flagship phone to rally behind. The company insists the One is its best-selling phone ever, but it didn't do much to reverse slumping sales or prevent the company from posting its first quarterly loss as a public company in October. Only the sale of its stake in Beats Electronics saved it from posting a second consecutive loss in the fourth quarter.
The success or failure of the M8 will play an even more critical role in HTC's fate. At stake is the direction of the company's financial health, which continues to sit in a precarious position. Moreover, just how consumers take to the M8 could dictate whether it can hang on to its role as a maker of aspirational, high-end mobile products, or if it eventually fades into the crowd of countless faceless phone vendors. Worse off, it could end up going the way of Palm or Nokia, getting scooped up by a larger competitor.
"Are they going to be a premium smartphone vendor or not? This is the phone that dictates that," said Maribel Lopez, an analyst at Lopez Research.
Even as larger conglomerates such as LG, Lenovo, and Huawei have gained market share over the past year, HTC has slipped in the rankings, often shoved into the "other" category of companies that no longer warrant mention. To be exact, it held 1.8 percent of the global market in the fourth quarter, down from 3.2 percent a year ago, according to Gartner. Samsung, in comparison, controlled nearly a third of the market.
Making it worse, HTC already spends a paltry amount next to its competitors.
CHECK OUT THE SLEEK, METAL HTC ONE M8 (PHOTOS)SEE FULL GALLERY
Skeptics, meanwhile, will look at the M8 and complain that it isn't dramatically different from its predecessor. Superficially, it isn't a huge leap. The changes to the M8 are subtler, requiring you to hold the phone to truly appreciate the improvement. HTC believes it is building up its identity using its best asset: the eye-catching look of its phones.
"We felt like we had done something right here, and we wanted to harvest as much of it as we could," Croyle said of the look of the original One.
CNET talked to Croyle to get the inside story on what went into the creation of the M8.
Metal head
By December 2012, a few months before the February launch of the HTC One, Croyle and his team were already pitching ideas for the next phone. At that early stage, the goal was coming up with a single priority, a guiding light for the engineering and design teams to work toward.
For Croyle, it was simple: eliminate as much of the plastic in the phone as possible. They knew the design of the One would be a winner, but were bothered by the plastic that lined the sides, top, and bottom of the phone. At that point, he floated the idea to make sure it was even physically possible.
In case you're wondering why there are so few metal phones out there, it's because metal and radio signals don't play nice with each other. The metal interferes with radio frequency signals, killing any chance for a phone call or data exchange.
Samsung and LG executives have previously told CNET that each had considered metal designs, but opted to stay with plastic because they couldn't guarantee the reliability of the signal. In addition, it's more costly, an increasingly important issue if you're shipping tens of millions of phones.
Even the iPhone 5 and 5S's aluminum back has two strips of glass on the top and bottom to allow for the transmission of signals.
When HTC launched the One last February, it showed off a back cover that was virtually all metal, with only lines of plastic that offered a clear reception for the antennas housed in the device. Counting the edge of the phone, aluminum accounted for 70 percent of the back housing, according to Croyle.
You would think that the team would have taken a victory lap after the launch, but Croyle said he and his team was back at work on the M8, with development in full swing at that point. By pushing the metal construction to extend to the edges, right up to the glass, he was able to get the housing to 90 percent metal.
The manufacturing process involves carving out the full aluminum housing with gaps where the strips should be. Then, plastic is injected into those gaps, and the entire body is machine-finished, allowing for a body that fits together without any gaps.
The primary color for the M8 is a gunmetal-gray with a hairline finish, with champagne and silver the alternate options. Because of the difficulty of applying unique finishes to 3D shapes, Croyle said the company had to create a process where it had to polish the aluminum back to a mirror finish, and then apply a second hairline finish on top. The process came after testing thousands of variations that included different levels of polish, color, and anodization of the metal.
"The result is this really beautiful finish that feels amazing and really looks amazing," Croyle said.
Coming into focus
While Croyle was working on refining the design of the phone in the summer, a separate team was pushing to incorporate their idea of embedding two camera lenses into the phone.
HTC has separate smaller R&D teams working on concept projects that may or may not make their way into consumer products. For example, the Boomsound stereo speakers that made their debut in the One came out of an independent team, and wasn't originally intended for that phone.
For the past one to two years, another team had worked on idea of utilizing the second lens to capture depth, allowing for Lytro-like shifting of focus after the shots were taken. After some trials and tests to see how consumers would use it and to ensure it wouldn't come off as a gimmick, the company opted to incorporate it. Fortunately, Croyle had reserved space in the back of his design, just in case.
HTC was clearly sprinting toward the finish line, with some of the more interesting features emerging late in the game. The unique flip cover, with holes that allow for the screen to display basic bits like time and weather in large, colorful graphics, came out out of Croyle's team in December. CEO Peter Chou saw it during a meeting, and liked it so much he insisted on getting it into production. Croyle warned of shortages for the cover, noting the company is already having trouble meeting the early orders.
Three to four months ago, Chou tapped the engineering team to create an "Extreme Power Saving" mode that promises to keep your phone running for an additional 15 hours despite having only 5 percent battery life. It's a feature developed so late that it's still in carrier testing in the US and won't be available at launch.
Croyle credits Chou's hands-on direction, and teases he refers to him more as the chief design officer than CEO.
"That's the benefit of Peter," he said. "Having somebody who has the respect of the entire organization and can get them to pivot on a single idea."
Chou has recently taken a more active role in the product side of HTC, leaving much of the day-to-day business and marketing responsibilities to Chairwoman Cher Wang.
A common DNA
Croyle hinted that we would see the fruits of Wang's increased focus on the marketing strategy.
HTC's ability to properly promote its products and get its name out to consumers remains its biggest weakness. Even when HTC opted to make a splash by signing Robert Downey, Jr. to as a pitchman, the campaign fizzled and derided as confusing and ineffective. It remains to be seen how Wang will do things different, but it whatever it is, it will have to be bigger and smarter.
"It's not a product problem," said Ross Rubin, an analyst at Reticle Research. "The marketing has continued to be challenging."
Croyle early on pitched a common DNA with the One, retaining the large "forehead and chin" on the front of the phone, which houses the front-facing Boomsound speakers. Chou was on board early.
Croyle compared his decision to the strategy that premium automakers employ with similar design element year after year. Think the gull-wing doors found in Lamborghinis or the kidney grille on the front of every BMW.
The mass-market Desire smartphones also share a consistent visual appearance as the One and M8, even if they lack the premium materials. Croyle added that the lower-end phones would do the same.
Croyle said the additional product portfolio -- which he hopes will lead to more shelf space in stores -- will help give confidence to consumers looking at HTC that this is more than a one-trick pony.
Still, its marketing position is so weak that it has some wondering whether going with a broad set of carriers makes sense. Roger Entner, a consultant for Recon Analytics, believes HTC would should have signed an exclusive deal with a single major US carrier and bargained for a larger promotional push and store shelf space.
"You're better off making one of your excited about your product that try to be everyone's darling," he said.
As it stands, none of the carriers are particularly interested in aggressively promoting a smartphone that is widely available. In fact, most of the carriers nowadays seem more interested in talking about their networks than about phones in general.
HTC One was a success. Really
HTC, for its part, believes the One has already done its job of building momentum for the M8 and its eventual comeback.
"If I think about where we would be without the HTC One, it would be a pretty disastrous story," Croyle said. "It actually is our best selling product of all time."
Entner, meanwhile, gave the One the slightly oxymoronic characterization of "financially underwhelming success."
For a while, the HTC One was its sole product, only later being joined by the One Mini and One Max. This year, HTC is fleshing out its portfolio for more products, which could help reverse its flagging revenue. Still on tap are budget smartphones better able to tap into the growth of the emerging markets.
HTC is also hoping to erase some of the hiccups of last year. Croyle said there wouldn't be the same inventory issues that halted the momentum of the One a year ago. It also has the major carriers, AT&T and Verizon Wireless, signed up for the launch (Verizon waited months before carrying the One).
But it is launching against the juggernaut that is the Samsung Galaxy S5. And with Nokia getting scooped up by Microsoft, HTC is one of the last major pure smartphone makers in the market, with the rest of the major players all steeped in other businesses, whether it is networking equipment, computers and tablets, or mobile device components.
Despite HTC's optimism, one can't help but to have doubts about its prospects given the overwhelming competition it faces.
"The fat lady is clearing her throat," Entner said.
When asked if the M8 represented HTC's do-or-die moment, Croyle offered a neutral, but ultimately unsatisfying, answer.
"I take every phone as a make-it-or-break-it phone," he said. "Maybe I'm too old, but I have a more even approach. We have to push every single product to make sure it's the best."
That's a great philosophy to have. But good intentions can often be swept away by multi-million-dollar ad campaigns and institutionalized hype of larger competitors. HTC faces some tough odds in avoiding that fate.
Use Link Bubble to open links in the background on Android
While many apps are starting to display in-line media (showing content of a link without opening a new window), this capability isn't omnipresent across Android. Instead, when catching up on one of your feeds, like Twitter, you have to click the link, and then wait for it to load in Chrome. Link Bubble is an app that seeks to bridge the gap between your apps and the Web by letting you queue up a link to read when you're finished catching up on social media or RSS feeds. It's similar to when you open tabs in the background on your desktop Web browser that you intend to read when you're finished with the primary task at hand.
Ready to check it out? Let's get started:
Note: Link Bubble only works on Android 4.1 and higher.
First you'll need to grab a copy of Link Bubble for your Android device.
Before using the link loading capabilities of this app, you should adjust one of the settings. Open Link Bubble and then tap the Settings icon in the top-right hand corner. Under the first choice, Auto content display, uncheck both options and then press OK. This will keep links loaded in the background, instead of popping them up over your current app.
The easiest way to really see how this app works is to open the Facebook app or a Twitter client that doesn't offer in-line content, and then tap on a link. You'll see a pop-up asking which browser you want to use. Pick Link Bubble and then choose the Always button. You won't see this window next time.
An introduction page will load for Link Bubble, explaining how it works. You can close this by pressing the Back button on your device. To minimize links, tap on their bubble at the top of the screen. To close bubbles, press and hold on them and then drag to the Close bubble at the bottom of the screen. The only drawback at this time is not being able to choose where the bubbles will appear on the screen. As a Note 3 user, I wished they were close to the bottom or right-hand side of the screen; with smaller screens this probably won't be an issue.
In order to queue multiple links, you will need the Pro version of the app, priced at $4.99. According toAndroidPolice, this is an introductory price, and may increase in the future.
As an added bonus, you can drag bubbles to the right or left to share with other apps. The default settings are Pocket and the Share command, but these can be adjusted in the settings menu of the Link Bubble app.
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