Samsung takes baby steps in touting Tizen OS to developers

Computerworld - SAN FRANCISCO -- The open source Tizen mobile operating system is one of the most visible examples that Samsung isn't completely dependent on the Android mobile OS.

At the Samsung Developer Conference here this week, Samsung held a single breakout session on developing apps using Tizen. The session was led by two engineers from Intel, which is working jointly with Samsung to create code to enable Tizen to run across multiple hardware platforms, including tablets, smartphones, cars and smart TVs.

Most of Samsung's smartphones and tablets run Android or the company's own Bada OS. In fact, Samsung is by far the largest Android smartphone maker globally, as well as the largest maker of smartphones overall, according to IDC and others.

The company makes Windows Phone smartphones as well, though a Windows Phone session wasn't among the 50 scheduled at the developer conference. Nearly all of the sessions focused on applications or services that work on Android.

Tizen has a modern Internet interface for use on devices, supporting HTML 5 and other Web technologies, so developers can theoretically write applications once to work on many devices. A Samsung roadmap for Tizen rollouts hasn't been announced.

At the Tizen session on Tuesday, two developers in the audience said they had different experiences with their early Tizen development efforts.

Developers at MightyMeeting, a maker of business collaboration applications, have been using Tizen with promising results because of its use of HTML 5 across platforms, said Mighty Meeting CEO Dmitri Tcherevik.

On the other hand, Shivakumar Mathapathi, chief operating officer at Dew Mobility, said his company tried Tizen with Windows Phone devices and found it wasn't very stable on the Microsoft mobile OS. He didn't provide any details.

Tcherevik said that Samsung's interest in Tizen demonstrates that it's "willing to try many different things" even as a large company.

Some attendees at Samsung's first developer conference said they were glad to see Samsung show off its distinctive features with Android at an event other than the Google I/O conference. Here, Samsung could separate itself from other Android smartphone and tablet makers.

A few analysts have said Samsung is going a step further in offering its own developer conference, using it as preludes into Tizen and its own Samsung app store. Further, those analysts say Samsung is clearly trying to show off its own brand of products and software and emphasize that it is not entirely dependent or aligned with Android and Google.

In an interview, Curtis Sasaki, vice president of Samsung's Media Solution Center in the U.S., said that Samsung's separate app store, its developer efforts, its interest in Tizen and other moves are "not about forking Android or any of that stuff ... Android is big enough and continuing to grow. If we can continue to grow that ecosystem, then that's good for everybody."

"Google is a great partner of ours. Our job as a platform provider is to really help developers take advantage of core applications," Sasaki added.

Abe Elias, chief technical officer at Sencha, a Web application developer, praised Samsung for supporting Tizen and HTML 5.

Sencha uses HTML 5 to provide cross-platform applications to many large companies. There are 2 million registered developers using Sencha's tools.

"We're a huge fan of Tizen, and HTML is native in Tizen," Elias said in an interview. One reason application developers should support HTML 5 for making Web apps is to avoid the 30% fee charged by app stores to host a native app, he said.

Elias agreed that Samsung isn't trying to fork Android, but noted that the company has been separating itself from Google with a number of forked apps that ride atop of Android. For example, Google uses the Chrome browser with Android, while Samsung's browser is simply called Internet. Also, while Google has Hangouts, Samsung has Chat-On.

"Samsung's forking apps, not Android," he said.

Matt Hamblen covers mobile and wireless, smartphones and other handhelds, and wireless networking for Computerworld. Follow Matt on Twitter at @matthamblen, or subscribe to Matt's RSS feed . His email address is mhamblen@computerworld.com.

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Samsung Galaxy Note 3 (Verizon Wireless)

Pros Massive, stunning 1080p display. Lighter and faster than before. Dizzying array of software enhancements, some of which are genuinely useful.

Cons Like all phablets, it's huge. Dizzying array of software enhancements, some of which are dubious. Bottom Line Samsung refines its top-tier phablet with the 5.7-inch Galaxy Note 3, a powerful, full HD phone/tablet combo that may be the only mobile device you need.

By Eugene Kim

Now in its third iteration, the Galaxy Note line continues to prove skeptics wrong—people just can't get enough of these supersized smartphones. The Samsung Galaxy Note 3 on Verizon Wireless ($299.99 with two-year contract) picks up right where its predecessor left off, making key upgrades to the design and display, while adding a bevy of new stylus features. Add in the powerful processor and superb multitasking chops and the Note 3 easily wins our Editors' Choice award for phablets on Verizon.

We've already reviewed the Note 3 on T-Mobile, so see our original review for a full run down upgrades and improvements.

Design, Call Quality, and Bloatware
To recap some of the new design and features, the Note 3 is thinner and lighter than its predecessor, with an eye-popping 5.7-inch 1080p AMOLED display and a new faux-leather finish on its back. Our Verizon unit came in black, which I found makes the leather effect look a bit more convincing than the white model. The phone is available in black and white on all carriers.

Note: The slideshow below is of the T-Mobile Galaxy Note 3, which is physically identical to the Verizon Note 3 except for the carrier logo.

The Verizon Note 3 supports LTE on 700Mhz and EVDO Rev. A on 800/1900 MHz, and is global-ready with EDGE/GSM (850/900/1800/1900) and HSPA/UMTS (850/900/1900/2100) support. It will support Verizon's upcoming, faster AWS LTE network with a software update. Download speeds over LTE were consistent with what we've seen from other Verizon phones and reception was excellent in my tests in New York City. Call quality was great. Voices came through full and clear in the earpiece with plenty of volume to spare. Transmissions through the mic sounded equally clear, if a bit muted, and noise cancelling did a good job of blocking out distracting environmental noise. The Note 3 connected easily with a Jawbone Era Bluetooth headset and voice dialing worked quickly and accurately.  

One of the benefits of giant phones is the giant battery they can accommodate. The Note 3's 3,200mAh battery was good for 18 hours, 50 minutes of continuous talk time in our tests. That should be plenty to get you through a day and even beyond with moderate use.

Of the 32GB of internal storage, 24.15GB is free for users out of the box. On top of the numerous Samsung pre-loaded apps and features, Verizon went ahead and loaded up 15 extraneous apps. Of course, none of these can be uninstalled, though they can be hidden from the app drawer.

Pricing and Conclusions
You have two options for buying the Note 3 on Verizon; pay $299.99 up front and sign a two-year service contract or buy the device up front for $699.99. On T-Mobile, you get the Note 3 for $199.99 up front and 24 monthly payments of $21 or $704.99 up front, neither of which require a contract. Verizon only offers Share Everything plans now, and charges a separate monthly price for each device included in the data bucket. A 2GB plan costs $60 per month for the data and $40 per month for the individual smartphone access. So over the course of your two-year contract, the total price for the device ($299.99) and service ($2400) adds up to $2699.99. A 2.5GB plan on T-Mobile costs $60 per month, with no additional cost per device—that works out to $2143.99 for the Note 3 and two years of service on T-Mobile. So while the Verizon model might seem less expensive at first, you actually end up saving with T-Mobile over the long run. The Note 3 is also available for $299.99 on AT&T or $249.99 on Sprint, both with two-year contracts. Over two years, the Note 3 will ultimately cost $2579.99 on AT&T for the 2GB plan or $2169.99 on Sprint for unlimited data.

It's only natural that Samsung dominates the category it helped create, and the Note 3 is no exception. The greatly improved 1080p AMOLED display, fast Snapdragon 800 processor, and robust system-wide stylus support keep the Note 3 at the head of the pack. It's the best phablet you can buy right now and easily wins our Editors' Choice award.    

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Samsung UN46F5500AF

Pros Excellent color. Strong contrast. Lots of connected features.

Cons Black levels could be better. Bottom Line Samsung's F5500 LED HDTVs deliver a picture with excellent colors and strong contrast along with plenty of online features, all for a very reasonable price.

By Will Greenwald

These days, you can get a great HDTV at a great price if you don't need top-end features including 3D. (And who really needs 3D these days?) Samsung's F5500 series is proof of that. There's no 3D support, and the set is decidedly mid level, but it offers an impressive array of connected features and very good picture quality to boot. It doesn't quite beat the 55-inch Vizio M551D-A2R on bang for your buck, but the 46-inch $749.99 (direct) UN46F5500 we tested is an excellent deal.

Design
Looking plain and unassuming without seeming cheap, the F5500 has a flat black bezel with only a Samsung logo on the bottom bezel. The screen sits on a silver plastic four-legged base that lets it pivot left and right. A four-way joystick on the back near the lower-right corner controls the HDTV and lets you navigate the menu system. On the back, two USB and two HDMI ports can be found next to the antenna connection facing the right side of the screen. The remaining HDMI port, Ethernet port (if you don't want to use the HDTV's built-in Wi-Fi), component and composite inputs, and optical audio, mini-jack audio, and infrared blaster outputs face back.

The remote is a simple rectangular wand filled with rectangular buttons, a somewhat frustrating aspect of Samsung remotes without touch pads. The navigation buttons are shaped nearly the same as the surrounding menu buttons, so it's easy to hit Return or Exit when you're navigating menus without looking directly at the remote. The volume and channel rockers are easy to find under your thumb, as is the hexagonal Smart Hub button that brings up the media navigation menu.

Features
While the F5500's physical design is plain, Samsung put a lot of work into its software design and features. The set uses Samsung's Smart Hub menu, which divides content into live TV, movies and TV shows, social features, apps, and local media. The Live TV menu has its own channel guide, and can control your cable or satellite box with the included IR blaster. The Movie and TV show menu offers a selection of on-demand titles you can purchase from Samsung, but you might prefer the apps menu's selection of more standard services like Netflix, Hulu Plus, YouTube, and HBO Go. The Apps menu also features a full Web browser, but navigating the Web and entering text on a standard TV remote is very awkward. The social tab tracks your Facebook and Twitter activity, and the local media tab can load content on connected USB drives, networked DLNA media servers, and media stored through the Samsung Link cloud service.

These content tabs use Samsung's S Recommend feature to refine suggestions for what to watch, keeping track of your viewing habits and adjusting the movies, shows, and channels it displays first to reflect them. If you want it to work with your television, you'll have to set it up to control your cable or satellite box.

Besides the features in the Smart Hub tabs, you can also mirror your smartphone or tablet screen with Miracast, found in the F5500's Network settings menu as Wireless Display. Samsung heavily pushes its AllShare features for sending media from a Samsung smartphone or tablet to the HDTV, and it worked flawlessly in my tests. I had no problem streaming a movie from my Google Nexus 7 tablet. Screen mirroring is more tricky; the screen showed up as a wireless display to the Nexus 7, but it couldn't make a connection. Samsung devices might communicate a little more smoothly through Samsung's AllShare software, but you should be able to use any DLNA-enabled device.

Performance
We test HDTVs with a Klein K10-A colorimeter, SpectraCal's CalMAN 5 diagnostic software, and DisplayMate test patterns with a basic dark room calibration for brightness and contrast. The F5500 gets satisfyingly bright at 316.360 cd/m2, but it doesn't get too dark with a black level of 0.084 cd/m2. The contrast ratio is a solid 3,754:1, but the Editors' Choice Vizio M551D-A2R edges it out with a black level of 0.031 cd/m2 and a contrast ratio of almost double at 7,145:1 even with the Vizio's dimmer (221.492 cd/m2 peak brightness) screen.

As shown in the chart above, colors fare very well out of the box. With the color temperature presets at the warmest setting but no other changes made the F5500 showed nearly spot-on white, blue, and green colors. Red was slightly oversaturated, but not enough to visibly tint the picture. For the most accurate colors, use the Movie mode with color temperature set to Warm2.

I watched Piranha and Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance on the set, and they both looked very good. The murky underwater scenes and bright surface scenes of Piranha were colorful and crisp, and the darker scenes showed deep blacks and strong detail. The rampant fire of Ghost Rider's powers were warm and bright in otherwise very dark scenes, highlighting the screen's strong contrast.

Under typical viewing conditions, the UN46F5500AF consumes 106 watts with all power saving features disabled. At the Low Eco mode setting, the screen darkens the picture noticeably, but keeps it watchable while consuming 66 watts. The Medium Eco setting borders on too dark and requires 47 watts, and the High Eco setting darkens the screen too much to watch.

The Samsung F5500 series of LED HDTVs offers a very good picture and an impressive array of smart services and features. It isn't the darkest panel, and it doesn't offer 3D, but for the price, you get a lot of screen. If you want a bigger picture and similarly strong performance, the Editors' Choice Vizio M551D-A2R offers a solid bump in size for a slightly higher price (compared with the 46-inch model we reviewed), and if you're willing to pay a bit more than that, the 55-inch Panasonic TC-L55ET60 offers excellent performance along with a 3D picture and a more stylish design.

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Samsung ATIV Book 9 Plus

Pros High-resolution display boasts 3,200-by-1,800 resolution and 10-finger touch. Slim lightweight design. Premium materials. Fourth-generation Intel Core i5 processor and 128GB solid-state drive keep things speedy. Long battery life. Dual-band Wi-Fi. Hinge stands up to touch but still opens wide.

Cons Limited storage capacity. Marquee software options have limited appeal. Dongles for VGA and HDMI not included. Bottom Line The Samsung ATIV Book 9 Plus goes toe to toe with the best premium ultrabooks, then tops it off with a jaw-dropping high-resolution display.

By Brian Westover

With few exceptions, the current crop of premium ultrabooks are all about the three Ps: Portability, Performance, and Pixels. The Samsung ATIV Book 9 Plus delivers on all three. The design is carried over from Samsung's proto-ultrabook, the Samsung Series 9, which helped define the new thin and light category, and it's bolstered with one of Intel's high-performance, highly efficient fourth-generation Core i5 processors and a speedy solid-state drive (SSD). And when it comes to pixels, the Book 9 Plus wins hands down, thanks to an impressive QHD+ 3200 by 1800 display that tops everything else in the category, making it our new Editors' Choice for premium ultrabooks.

Design
The obvious place to start discussing the Book 9 Plus is the display, since it so easily grabs your attention the moment you power on the laptop. The 13.3-inch display boasts a whopping 3200 by 1800 Quad HD+ touch screen. The high-resolution display isn't just better than HD, it's better than just about anything. The most immediate comparison to come to mind is the Apple MacBook Pro 13-inch (Retina Display), with its Retina display, but there have also been a couple of premium laptops sold in recent months with higher than 1080p displays, like the Toshiba Kirabook, which ramped the display up to 2,560-by-1,440 resolution. Unlike Apple's Retina display, the ATIV Book 9 Plus also has 10-point touch, an essential feature for Windows 8.

While the display is comparable to the MacBook Pro with Retina, the more apt comparison for this svelte ultraportable is the Apple MacBook Air 13-inch (Mid 2013). Both share a similar sliver-thin design, a minimalist aesthetic, and an aluminum all-metal chassis; though Samsung largely eschews the bare metal look with a dark coat of paint and only a glint of metal along the edges of the chassis. The slim ultraportable measures 0.54 by 12.58 by 8.78 inches (HWD), which is about the same size as the Apple MacBook Air 13-inch, but just a bit heavier, weighing 3.06 pounds.

The ATIV Book 9 Plus has a full-size chiclet keyboard, complete with backlight. Joining the keyboard is a fairly large touchpad, measuring 4 inches wide and 2.7 inches high. The buttons are incorporated into the touch surface, and the touchpad also supports Windows 8 gestures.

To provide a firm backing for the touch screen, the laptop hinge opens smoothly to just past 90-degrees, and then requires more force to open further, similar to the dual-friction hinge used on the Editors' Choice Acer Aspire S7-392-6411. The result is a touch screen that holds firm against all of your poking and prodding while still opening and closing without issue. The one oddity of the ATIV Book 9 Lite is the decision to use a 180-degree hinge. This lets you open up the ultraportable to an extremely flat 180 degrees, but though you can, I can't for the life of me think of any circumstances in which you would actually want to.

Features
The narrow edges of the Book 9 Plus don't leave a lot of room for ports, but there's still a pretty good selection. On either side of the laptop is a full-size USB 3.0 for use with external drives and peripherals like mice and keyboards. On the right is a combination headphone and microphone jack, and a tiny connector that converts to full-size VGA with an accessory dongle ($39.99, not included). On the left, a microHDMI port lets you connect to a second monitor or HDTV, and a minuscule LAN port offers Gigabit Ethernet when using a different adapter dongle (also $39.99, but which is included with the laptop). Also on the left is an SD card slot, which is concealed by a spring loaded cover. However, unlike most port covers used on laptops, this one doesn't pull out, but instead swings in, revealing the card slot when in use and automatically protecting it as soon as the card is removed.

There are also a number of wireless options, with dual-band 802.11n Wi-Fi providing 2.4GHz and 5.0GHz Internet connectivity that does better in crowded areas than 2.4GHz alone, and Bluetooth 4.0 + HS for use with smartphones and wireless peripherals. Finally, when you want to skip the dongles and cables, WiDi 4.1 lets you stream HD content wirelessly to WiDi-equipped TV or WiDi adapter.

The ATIV Book 9 Plus is equipped with a 128GB SSD, which helps keep the performance speedy and the boot times short, but doesn't provide a lot of local storage. If you tend to save images and video, you'll definitely want to pick up an external hard drive, preferably something that takes advantage of the USB 3.0 connections on the laptop.

Preinstalled on the hard drive are several programs and applications to accompany Windows 8, but two unique offerings from Samsung stand out. The first is Samsung SideSync, which lets you automatically sync files between the Book 9 Plus and several current Samsung Android smartphones, like the Editors' Choice Samsung Galaxy S4 (Verizon Wireless). When docked, files sync automatically and can be easily transferred back and forth from phone to PC, but the real magic comes in with goodies like the Virtual Phone, which puts your phone's screen on your laptop and lets you access the phone's functions (like text messaging) without leaving the desktop, and also lets you use your mouse and keyboard with the phone. Samsung also includes HomeSync Lite, which lets you use the PC as the central hub of a personal cloud, syncing files between multiple devices. While it skips the fees associated with paid cloud storage, it also is limited by the fact that it's tied to the laptop's local storage, which is still fairly small.

Other apps preinstalled on the ATIV Book 9 Plus include Skype, Netflix, iHeart Radio, Plants vs. Zombies, BitCasa, a 30-day trial of Norton Internet Security, and a free copy of Adobe Photoshop Elements 11. Samsung covers the Book 9 Plus with a one-year warranty.

Performance
The Book 9 Plus is outfitted with 1.6GHz Intel Core i5-4200U processor, the same fourth-generation processor seen in the Acer Aspire S7-392-6411 and the Sony VAIO Pro 13. As a result, the Book 9 Plus has strong performance in tests like PCMark 7 (4,907 points) and Cinebench (2.50 points), where it fell right in line with the similarly equipped Acer Aspire S7 and the Sony VAIO Pro 13. In multimedia tests, the Book 9 Plus finished Handbrake in 1 minute 23 seconds, and cranked through Photoshop in 5:51, edging ahead of the Acer Aspire S7 in Photoshop (6:01) and topping the Apple MacBook Air 13-inch, (3:15 Handbrake, 7:07 Photoshop).

The Book 9 Plus makes the most of Intel's integrated graphics solution (Intel HD Graphics 4400), squeezing out 3DMark 11 scores of 1,655 points (Entry) and 271 points (Extreme), just behind the Acer Aspire S7 and just ahead of the Sony VAIO Pro 13. While the performance in gaming tests doesn't indicate any sort of gaming aptitude--the Book 9 Plus couldn't manage playable results at any settings--they do present an improvement over third-generation Intel integrated graphics.

With a 55Wh battery sealed in the chassis, the Book 9 Plus lasted 8 hours 15 minutes in our battery rundown test. This puts it right alongside the Acer Aspire S7, which lasted only 7 minutes longer (8:22), and well ahead of the Sony VAIO Pro 13 (6:23), but none of these hold a candle to the Apple MacBook Air 13-inch (Mid-2013), which nearly doubled the competition with 15:33 of battery life. Regardless, the Book 9 Plus still holds its own against other super-slim Windows ultraportables.

Conclusion
In terms of performance and battery life, the Samsung ATIV Book 9 Plus is in line with other premium ultrabooks, both in performance scores and pricing. What the Book 9 Plus offers that others do not, however, is a higher-than-HD screen that rivals Apple's Retina Display. About the only thing I can knock the Book 9 Plus for is the use of ports that require dongles, but that's not so uncommon on thinner ultrabooks. For the price, it matches the portability and performance of the Editors' Choice Acer Aspire S7 and offers the sort of resolution you'll prize when working with photos or enjoying movies. Add it all up, and the Samsung ATIV Book 9 Plus is the new Editors' Choice for premium ultrabooks.

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