Confirmed: Samsung's Galaxy S4 Available Q2 In Australia
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LIVE: Samsung is retaliating against HTC, Sony, LG and Apple with the launch of their Galaxy S4. We’re reporting the event via Livestream as it takes place in New York.

UPDATE: Smarthouse has received official word from Samsung revealing the Galaxy S4’s local availability:

Following the massive success of the Samsung GALAXY S III in Australia, we are excited to confirm the Samsung GALAXY S 4 will be available from Q2. Pricing and availability will be available closer to the launch date.

Following is our official coverage of the Galaxy S4 launch.

Samsung’s Galaxy S3 was pivotal in helping Samsung become the largest manufacturer of phones in the world. As of January this year, Samsung sold an astounding 40 million S3s and they’re looking to build on that success with the new Galaxy S4. Will it have an 8 core processor? A 5 inch Full HD screen? A 13MP camera and can it make coffee? Read on to find out.


11:12 Here it is!

10am: The curtains are due to part at Samsung’s Unpacked Event. Invites to the event overtly hinted to the Galaxy S4 launch, echoing Apple’s invites for the iPhone 5. The background music is the Galaxy theme song popularised by many S3 users’ ringtones.

10:08: The setting remains inert. Samsung, whether deliberate or not, is stretching the lead time and building the suspense. It’s working.

10:09: Hoorah! The event is underway with previews of the many S4 teasers.

10:12: Will Chase is taking the stage along with Jeremy, the child representative of the S4. The two are comedically riffing and welcoming the audience to Time Square in New York.

“Im introducing the world to the new amazing Samsung Galaxy.”

10:14: Samsung’s head of Communications has taken the stage, Mr J K Shin. Shin is describing how the next Galaxy will enrich our lives.  

“Wouldnt it be great if the technology in our hands could take the person in the picture in the picture as well?, Shin asks….

“Wouldn’t it be convenient if the smartphone could understand when you want to scroll up and down. Or even pause when you look away from the screen.”

“Imagine touchless interfaces.”

10:16: “S Translator” pops up on the screen, suggesting the S4 could have a language translator on board. He also describes new security measures (Samsung Knox), Samsung Home sync and Samsung Health. Wow.

10:18: “It is innovation which improves the way people live every day.”

“Ladies and gentlmen, The Samsung Galaxy S4”

 


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10:19: Jeremy has waddled over to the stage and opened the Samsung Unpacked box (featured in teasers), taking out of it two new Galaxy S4s.

10:20: The galaxy S4 is slimmer and stronger (compared to the S3 presumably.)

It will be available in 155 countries starting from the end of April

10:21: Ryan Biden, President of Samsung communications America, has taken the stage.


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10:23: ITS TRUE! The Galaxy S4 has a 5 inch Full HD Screen with 440 pixels per inch.

10:24: Connectivity: The S4 supports 4G LTE, WiFI (up to ac) and has an IR LED remote (control function)

10:26: The CAMERA is 13MP and the front cam is 2MP. It ships with 2GB of RAM, comes in 16, 32 and 64GB of memory, along with an expandable memory slot.


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DUAL CAMERA record function: The smartphone can record video using the back and forward camera simultaneously, showing the cameraman and the subjects. The front cam can be paused and resumed on cue. It also works with photos.

Photos can store sound data. This way people can hear their thoughts when viewing photos.

There are 8 sensors, including an infrared and temperature and humidity sensor.

 

10:27: The battery is 2,600mAh and is removable.


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10.32: DRAMA SHOT: The S4 can take more than 100 shots in 4 seconds, and then selects some to be shown in one picture, as a one framed collage.

10:33: A backdrop is rising from the floor so they can showcase a new feature. S TRANSLATOR: You speak into the Galaxy S4 and it translates it into another language. S-TRANSLATOR supports 9 languages and is also equipped with text-to-speech and speech-to-text.

10:38: S-TRANSLATOR is deeply integrated, even in other supportive apps.

10.39: ADAPT DISPLAY: The SuperAMOLED screen actively tweaks the display with performance and eye-strain in mind.

STORY ALBUM will collate photos into thematic albums. Albums can be oriented in portrait or landscape, and the albums can be ordered as hardcopys from Blurb and sent to 70 countries.


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10:40: Home Sync, a personal cloud device, has one terrabyte of storage and syncs with up to eight users across different compatible devices. It can be connected to the S4 by simply tapping the two devices together (thankyou NFC).

 

 


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10:41: S-VOICE DRIVE: Bigger sizes and more text to speech services. It pairs with your car’s bluetooth.

You can transfer data from almost any phone on any operating system to the galaxy S4 using the complementary computer software.

10:44: If you receive a text while using the GPS, the smartphone will read it out and then vocally ask if you want to reply or return the call, rather accurately too.

10:46: The S4 works with gloves, something previously spoiled by the capacitive touchscreen technology.

10:47: Samsung KNOX: Locks your device down and keeps it safe from malicious applications. Knox separates your phone from your personal space and your work space. Professional and personal files, emails, photos are all kept separate with Samsung Knox.

10:48: GROUP PLAY: Music can be played out of up to 8 Galaxy S4 devices, even without an internet connection. It effectively assigns each phone a channel as a multi-channel home theatre system does.

Group play supports multiplayer games and allows you to share photos too.


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DUAL VIDEO CALLS: Using chat on, a video call captures people using the front and back camera simultaneously.

 

10:57: AIR FEATURE: waving your hand will flip through pages and answer calls.

SMART SCROLL: Automatically scrolls pages when you read by recognising when you tilt up or down. In the same vein, it’ll pause and resume videos when you stop/resume looking at the screen.

10:59: S HEALTH, an application that monitors calorie intake and how many calories you burn, all of which is summarised in reports.

11am: SHOCK they’re wrapping the show without saying anything about the processor. Rumour had it the S4 will have an 8 core processor running at 1.7GHz modelled on ARM’s bigLITTLE architecture. I guess Samsung is keeping that Ace up its sleeve.


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