Jet-setting with the Samsung Jet

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SAMSUNG JET’S innovative smartphone-like features take handsets to the realms of being ‘smarter than a smartphone’

THE Samsung Jet has opened up a whole new world of mobile web browsing with its high performance Dolfin web browser and revolutionary 3D cubic interface, allowing super-fast surfing. The device also supports the option of multi-window browsing – allowing one to surf up to five pages simultaneously.

The 3.1″ Samsung WVGA AMOLED display is four times sharper than a WQVGA screen, has a fast touch response, and is also very efficient in its power consumption – consuming 40% less energy than a mobile phone equipped with TFT-LCD display.

When it comes to music, Samsung Jet’s unique features give users the option to operate simultaneous playback audio and scroll through the phone’s music library.

For video, the DVD-like video playback recording (with D1 Video Playback and D1 30fps Video Recording) enables seamless playback without residuals and the ability to instantly download and play DivX and Xvid formats without converting and resizing- all in HD-like quality.

This full-touch mobile phone boasts revolutionary speed thanks to its 800MHz Accelerated Application Processor. This sophisticated high-performance processor is the Samsung Jet’s secret to speed and versatility, integrating multiple applications and functions, such as navigation and viewing.

Samsung Jet also has an A-GPS application, to provide navigation services in life-like 3D, to convey real places, information and directions in real-time. This incorporates 3D Map Navigation, GPS on Google maps and location-based services. And if all that isn’t enough, it also includes a Geotagging feature.

SAMSUNG JET SPECS:

• HSDPA 3.6Mbps (900, 2100 MHz)
• Revolutionary 3D Cubic Interface
• Display: 3.1″ 16M WVGA AMOLED
• Camera: 5.0 Megapixel AF camera+ Dual Power LED
• Face Detection, Smile Shot, Panorama Shot, Blink Detection, Geo-tagging, Photo Editor
• Video: D1 Video Playback/D1 30fps Video Recording, Video Editor
• Supports: MPEG4, H.263, H.264, WMV, DivX, XviD
• Audio: Music Player with DNSe & SRS WOW Sound Effect
• Find Music, 3.5 Ear Jack, FM Radio/Recording
• Supports: MP3, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, WMA, AMR, MIDI, SP-MIDI, i-melody, WAV, MMF, XMF, OMA DRM v2.1, WMDRM,
• DivX VOD & Wi-Fi
• Active Sync for Push Mail

Value Added:

• In-house developed Dolfin Browser, WAP 2.0, One finger Zoom
• Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync, Share Pix & Mobile Widget
• A-GPS, On Board Navigation(3D Map), TouchWiz 2.0
• Motion UI, Media Gate 3D, Multi-tasking Manager
• Connectivity: Bluetooth® v2.1, microUSB (USB v2.0 Hi-Speed), Wi-Fi
• Memory: 2GB onboard memory & 8GB microSD card (included)
• Battery: 1,100 mAh – Talk time : 2G/492 minutes, 3G/300 minutes
• Standby: 2G/422 hours, 3G/406 hours
• Size: 108.8 x 53.5 x 11.9 mm

Related Reviews:
Samsung S3500: Budget Bundle
Samsung Corby: Teen dream machine

- issued on belhaf of Samsung Mobile Phones
www.helloworldagency.com

Dancing for humanity

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The video “Where the Hell is Matt?” has seen over 21 million views to date, so you’re likely to have seen it before, but if you haven’t, you should give it a watch. It takes you to a place of magic and joy and wonder – a place where all the bad in the world is forgotten for 4mins 29secs. It is one of the most viewed viral videos of its time and one of my top dancing videos.

“14 months in the making, 42 countries, and a cast of thousands. Thanks to everyone who danced with me” – Matt Harding

Thanks Matt. You Rock.
Happy Friday!

Related video post: Playing for Change: Peace Through Music

iPaint on my cellphone

SOME of the latest hype arriving in the wake of the new iPhone 3G S is an Apple application for the device called Brushes, which allows users to do more than just doodle on their iPhones. The images are “painted” freehand, using fingers and thumbs.

The app allows users to make use of various painting tools and brush sizes and pick up previously applied colours using the eyedropper tool.

The standard “pinching” gesture, which has become a feature of the iPhone, can be used to zoom in for detailed work, and there’s an undo and redo function on the Brushes app as well.

Professional artists, such as Susan Murtaugh, have applied themselves to the task of creating iphone art and some of their works have received such vast amounts of global attention that there are plans afoot for exhibitions in bricks and mortar art galleries.

In a new craze sweeping the world, iPhone and iPod Touch users are producing extraordinary 'paintings' on their Apple devices. All the images were created using an application called Brushes and 'painted' freehand using fingers and thumbs

Brushes, created by Steve Sprang, also records every brush stroke while you are painting - allowing you to watch how your painting builds up

Artists Susan Murtagh said: "It took me a little while to get the hang of it but once I figured out my work flow it was almost like painting on canvas"

"It's easy to use - just take your finger and doodle. Next thing you know you've made the background blue and you're doodling in orange - it's fun"

Mike Miller, a 32-year-old from Colorado, America, thinks he had mastered the art of digital painting after a week of practice. He added: "The more I use the application, the more it feels the same as the real thing"

Priced at £2.99 Brushes can be downloaded through Apple iTunes

Fellow digital artist Mathew Watkins finds "painting on the iPhone more immediate and pleasurable than painting on the computer with mouse or pen tablet"

"Physically drawing on the touch screen is the same method I use on pad and paper, except it isn't messy and fits in my pocket"

Classically trained artist Susan Murtaugh, from Wisconsin, America, is already selling prints of her digitally-created art for around 15 pounds

Images: www.telegraph.co.uk

Condensed twitterature takes off

NEW YORK — Arjun Basu writes short stories. Very short stories.

“The marriage didn’t survive the honeymoon. They acknowledged the majesty of their mistake. But they remained together. Because of the gifts.” – Twister story by Arjun Basu (@arjunbsau)

“I’m doing 140-character stories on Twitter,” said Basu, one of scores of authors and poets downsizing their literary talents to the limited format of the hot micro-blogging service.

“I call them Twisters because everything on Twitter has a stupid name,” the 42-year-old Basu told AFP at the 140 Characters Conference - a two-day talkfest devoted to all things Twitter held in New York.

“Each story has a beginning, a middle and an end,” said Basu. “I started with one story. I had an image in my head and I just did it, and I slowly built-up a following.” Basu began writing his Twisters last year.

“They went out hunting. They killed some large mammals. Later they saw the animals butchered. And one by one they ordered salads that evening,” reads the tale in one of Basu’s Twisters.

Haiku, which lends itself to the 140-character format, is another popular literary form on Twitter and the search term #haiku occasionally rises into Twitter’s list of “Trending Topics” - the 10 most popular topics on the site.

“And in the middle / of the rising city heat / the fountain is dry,” reads a Haiku from a Twitter user and poet with more than 3 800 followers who goes by the handle of @LadyParadis.

Websites have also popped up collecting the best of Twitter Haiku — known variously as Twaiku or TwiHaiku — and many users take part weekly in what is called Haiku Thursday.

Basu, who works in the magazine industry, said he has been surprised at the reception his byte-sized stories have received. “Things that I couldn’t have imagined,” he said.

“Some people have been using my stories in classes — English as a second language, creative writing,” he said.

— Sapa-AFP.

Time to chair up

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ULTIMATE V3: It’s death by comfort

THEY say that we spend a third of our lives sleeping (presumably in a bed). Well, I reckon that we spend another third of our lives sitting in a chair, especially if you work in an office. Think about it. You get out of bed, sit at the breakfast table, drive seated to work, sit at your desk, drive home again, maybe sit and watch some television, perhaps sit at your computer and do some writing or surf the web and climb back into bed.
 
Some are more disciplined than that. I had a Swiss-German friend at varsity who couldn’t even sit through a movie because it involved too much sitting. It must be his German blood.

I find nothing more satisfying than sitting (even better — lying) on a comfortable couch. The funny thing about couches is that it is always the most stuffed, unattractive-looking couch in any house that is everyone’s favourite — the couch that is probably worth less than the amount of loose change that has fallen into it over the years.

An artist

My dad has a favourite couch back home, which I’m sure is a source of some embarrassment when visitors arrive. I wouldn’t be surprised if my mother has tried to incinerate it in a freak “coal-leaping-out-the-fire” accident. I’m sure it would go up in flames pretty quickly with the amount of body oil that has seeped into it over the centuries.

This off-white relic has coffee stains, tobacco burns and an imprint of my father’s behind in the centre. Yet, when seated in its mould, in front of an early winter’s fire and after some of Mother’s good home cooking, Father is as happy as Larry (however happy he is), usually fast asleep. He probably sleeps more in that couch than in his own bed.

So, if we do spend such a significant amount of our lives in beds and chairs, then why not make them decent ones. I’m always willing to spend a little extra on something that I know I’ll use every day and probably have for a lifetime.

I thought it was high time for me to chair up and buy myself a decent gaming chair — one that I could swivel around in freely and lean back and forth in. It’s a rather simple piece of furniture, although it was one heck of a science putting the thing together.

It came in attachable parts with a set of tools, a spider diagram, some Chinese instructions, and a note of encouragement. I half expected to find a small key, some coded message, a strange map and an enchan­ted ring. Without those one definitely needs a degree to put one of these pieces of technology together.

Although I now swivel contently in my “leather” chair, I still wanted to see what else was available on the market. This is what I found …

Ultimate Game Chair V3

The V3 Ultimate Gaming Chair can be jacked into your PC, Mac, Xbox, Game Cube, iPod, Playstation, or television. Photo: ultimategamechair.com

There are a lot of fancy and alien-looking chairs out there — most of which have been designed for home entertainment. The simplest home theatre chairs have speakers mounted on the headrest and are basically REALLY comfortable and pleasant-smelling.

The most common gaming chairs, on the other hand, are designed to enhance the experience of simulators such as Flight Simulator. These have joysticks protruding out the armrests, which I imagine one could use to play a variety of games.

Racing chairs come with an adjustable chassis and have foot pedals and a steering wheel as part of their anatomy. The seats are designed to mimic the feeling of being in a Formula One car, and many even go the extra mile by vibrating as you ‘drive’ over rough roads.

Yet those chairs are old school now. You can get a close-enough experience at your local arcade. I was more intrigued by the Ultimate V3. This baby is co­vered in plugs and ports and is compatible with just about everything. To name a few, you can jack it up to your PC, Mac, Xbox, Game Cube, iPod, Playstation, or television. One reviewer had this to say:

“The V3 quite literally rocks your face off! From our experience from it, we were simply stunned. It is like getting a back massage while playing all your favourite games in a comfortable leather chair. It is simply amazing.” — ultimategamechair.com

It has 12 “strategically distributed” feedback monitors, adjustable 3D stereo speakers and a headset jack. It also vibrates and has “variable output on all three vibration sensation levels”. There are three vibration sensation levels? That takes the sensation of sitting in those vibrating chairs at the mall to a whole new le­vel.

 I imagine that one would never get out of this chair if seated in it. It would be death by comfort. So, I imagine that V3 owners have to be just as disciplined as those who are not fans of the couch.

• The V3 sells for $500 (roughly R5 000) and can be ordered online at www.ultimategamechair.com. Free shipping too.