Galaxy Note 8.0 Announced: Samsung's New Coming Pen-Equipped Tablet with Just-Right Size

Samsung Company recently announces its new 8-inch, Android tablet at Mobile World Congress, a large mobile tradeshow in Barcelona, and it hopes its new software features and the portable size will make it standout, especially against Apple's iPad Mini.

                                                   

Size: The tablet is slightly wider than the 7-inch tablets on the market, including Samsung's Galaxy Tab 7, and is meant to be easier to operate in one hand.

S Pen: just like rest of the Note line, the Note 8.0 comes with the company's S Pen stylus, which is optimized for an array of baked-in apps, like Samsung's S Note and handwritten email software. And its S Pen is a good spotlight to attract people's attention.

With an SD card slot, a home button, and S-Pen stylus support, the Note 8 offers a level of functionality the iPad can't match, but it's too early to say whether that will guarantee it fame and glory. Expect this tiny tablet to appear worldwide sometime in the second quarter of 2013.

Besides the 8-inch 1280x800-pixel screen, the Galaxy Note 8.0 sports a 1.6GHz A9 quad-core processor, a 5-megapixel back camera (plus a 1.3-megapixel one on the front for video calls), 2GB of RAM and 16/32GB of storage that's further expandable via microSD cards.

                         

Specifications for the Galaxy Note 8.0 include:

8-inch display with 1280x800 pixel resolution (ppi)

Quad-core 1.6 GHz Samsung Exynos processor

Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean OS

2GB of RAM

16GB and 32GB internal storage options

MicroSD card slot for memory expansion

IR port for TV control

5-megapixel rear camera and 1.2-megapixel front-facing camera

Dimensions: 210.8x135.9x7.95 mm and 338 grams of weight.

The Galaxy Note 8.0 will be available worldwide in the second quarter of 2013. Availability and pricing in the U.S. has not yet been announced.

Sony Xperia Tablet Z Globally Launched at MWC 2013: Release Price Confirmed

Earlier this year, the company launched the Sony Xperia Tablet Z in Japan itself. Now, at Mobile World Congress, Sony announced its world debut. Priced at upwards of $499 in USA, it will have to face a bigger fight with Apple iPad and Microsoft's Surface RT.

                         

Stuffed with a 10-inch display with a resolution of 1920 x 1200 display, 2GB of RAM, 1.5Ghz Snapdragon S4 Pro Quad Core processor, an 8-mega pixel rear camera and 2.2-mega pixel camera on the rear, 16GB/32GB of internal storage, Android 4.2 Jelly Bean (confirmed by the manufacturer), and lastly ability to play around in harsh conditions as the device comes with waterproof and dust resistant capabilities. When you put DVD movies to Xperia Tablet Z, every image is crisp and vivid, thus it would not let you down performing like a multimedia entertainment tool.

In order to have the spotlight on an already-crowded 10-inch tablet market, Sony is betting on a case that it’s only 6.9 mm thin, making Xperia Tablet Z in the thinnest tablet in the world. Sony Xperia Tablet Z is also light, weighing only 495 grams, while being dust proof and capable of resisting in 1 meter-deep waters for up to 30 minutes.

The new tablet also comes with an infrared port and with the help of the TV SideView app the Xperia Tablet Z can be used as a remote control, but I don’t know how many of the customers will be attracted by this features, especially because the “remote control” will be a bit too big.

                           

In terms of connectivity, Sony Xperia Tablet Z comes with WiFi and NFC, but Sony’s press release is not mentioning anything about 3G or 4G connections, which is a sign that the international model will be WiFi-only, even though the Japanese variant has LTE support.

Promoted as a premium tablet, Sony Xperia Tablet Z will have a price tag matching Apple’s iPad 4: $499 for the 16 GB model, and $599 for the 32 GB variant. Sony has announced some good news in that the Sony Xperia Tablet Z will be coming to the global market in the second quarter of this year. The second quarter of course encompasses April, May and June which means we will see a release by the end of June. As an impressive tablet alone, the Xperia Tablet Z is definitely worth a good hard look.

Sony Details PlayStation 4 Design, Processing Specs, controller, Eye and Other Enhanced Gaming Features

At a press conference on Wednesday evening in New York City, Sony Company showcased the next version of its next popular gaming console, the PlayStation 4, which is claimed to be Sony's last great hope in keeping control of the gaming industry. Sony this time brings remarkable features with the brand-new game device, and some of the features have been unveiled.

Design: Sony did reveal that the insides of the PS4 will essentially be a "supercharged PC," much like an Xbox. That's a big departure from the old and idiosyncratic PlayStation design and should make it easier for developers to create games.

The Hardware Specs: The PS4 will feature an X86 CPU, enhanced PC GPU, 8GB unified memory, local HD and GDDR 5 system memory. What that means in layman’s terms is that the PS4 will be significantly more powerful than the PS3.

PlayStation 4 Eye: What's really grabbing though is the development of the PlayStation 4 Eye, a newly developed camera system that utilizes two high-sensitivity cameras equipped with wide-angle lenses and 85-degree diagonal angle views.

Controller: The new PlayStation’s controller resembles that of the PlayStation 3, but adds a touchpad, motion control and a "share" button. The Japanese electronics giant said the console will be part of a new ecosystem focused on hardware, software and "the fastest, most powerful gaming network".

                        

Social As a Priority: There were rumors that Sony would pursue a significant social infrastructure in the PS4, and they were right. It appears to have been built from the ground up with social in mind, integrating real-world identification, Facebook and dynamic real-time sharing. Players will be able to not just quickly cut clips of recent gameplay footage, but stream live game sessions to friends, thanks to Sony’s dealings with Ustream.

Remote Play: Another good feature is the remote play between the PS4 and PlayStation Vita. Sony leapfrogged one of the competing Wii U’s selling points: the ability to take a full-fledged console game off the television and onto a mobile device. Utilizing Gaikai’s streaming software, the PS4 will act as a server, and the Vita as a client.

The PlayStation 4 will be Sony Corp.’s first major game console since the PlayStation 3 went on sale in 2006.

                           

Release Date: There’s confirmation that the PS4 will launch this year. But whether that means October or December remains to be seen.

The company hopes the super-charged PS4 will help it retake the top spot among console makers and prove its relevance in the changing games market. And frankly speaking, it sounds like the upcoming PS4 is not backwards when competing with any previous PlayStation consoles, I will keep you informed when news occurs.  

Is The New BlackBerry Z10 Just Another Samsung Galaxy SIII?

Just about a week ago, RIM (now BlackBerry) launched the latest handset in its BlackBerry range of smartphones – the BlackBerry Z10. And next high tech aficionados have ripped it apart to reveal the internals of the phone. From the looks of it, the new BlackBerry Z10 is very similar to a Samsung Galaxy S3. Does the new BlackBerry Z10 stand a chance against Samsung’s record-breaking Galaxy S III? Let’s give them a specs comparison. 

                         

Size and Weight: The Galaxy S III is longer and wider – but also a bit thinner – than the BlackBerry Z10. Despite being smaller, the BlackBerry Z10 is a bit heavier than the Galaxy S3.

Display: The Galaxy S III has a much larger 4.8-inch screen to the Z10's 4.2-inch screen, but they have nearly identical resolutions (BlackBerry Z10’s 768 x 1280 LCD display and Galaxy S3's 720 x 1280 Super AMOLED panel) making the Z10 appear slightly sharper in terms of pixel density.

Processor: The North American version of the Galaxy S III has the same processor as the Z10 - A dual-core 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Plus processor coupled with 2GB of RAM. Both phones have plenty of power under the hood.

Video Playback: Playback performance is smooth and crisp with both smartphones, but seeing that the Galaxy S III has the wow factor with its larger and more vibrant display, it’s the preferable choice for watching high-definition videos. In fact, it is very easy for you to convert Blu ray to Galaxy S3 for watching and play DVD movies on Galaxy S3. Furthermore, the pop up play feature of the Galaxy S III is pretty neat in the fact that we can multi-task while watching a video.

Camera: The Galaxy SIII includes 8MP rear camera and 1.9MP front camera, and BlackBerry Z10 comes with 8MP rear camera and 2MP front camera. Cameras are nearly identical!

                     

Battery: the Z10's 1,800 mAh battery lasted 10 hours and 54 minutes of talk time, while the Galaxy S III's 2,100 mAh battery lasted 10 hours and 43 minutes. That’s to say, they even have nearly identical battery life.

Other Specs: The two phones also have the same 802.11b/a/g/n 2.4 GHz/5 GHz, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, and near-field communication support.

The key difference is in the software: while Samsung has adopted Android for the Galaxy SIII, BlackBerry has gone its own way with the BlackBerry 10 platform – and it is on this that its product differentiation hinges.

All in all, the Blackberry Z10 seems to incorporate many of the component selections of the Samsung Galaxy S3 LTE. Further, which one is the mobile winner in your mind? Feel free to sound off your ideas below!