Salon.com > Samsung

Who has the best smartphone?

Fri, 14 Dec 2012 12:45:00 +0000

"Aesthetically pleasing" is very subjective.

I was deep into the fifth page of the reader comments of the first installment of Ars Technica's excellent "The State of Smartphones in 2012," when I encountered this observation, which is simultaneously the most illuminating and worthless Internet comment of all time. It was a response to the declaration by Ars Technica's Andrew Cunningham that the "Live Tiles" user interface in the brand-spanking-new Windows Phone 8 operating system was more "aesthetically striking" than the icons of Apple's iOS or the widgets of Google's Android.

(With Live Tiles, the restless smartphone user can expand or shrink the on-screen real estate devoted to a particular app or function, providing a level of configurability alien to the straitlaced universe that iPhone lovers, in particular, are accustomed to. Remember this, for future reference: Windows: freedom! Apple: tyranny!)

Apple’s enormous insult

Thu, 13 Sep 2012 18:02:00 +0000

A hotly contested presidential election hits the stretch run, a deadly foreign policy crisis breaks out in the Arab world, new census figures prove that the richest Americans are still gaining on everyone else ... and yet one of the most alarming stories of the week (judging by my perhaps unbalanced Twitter feed) appears to be the news that Apple's iPhone 5 will come with a brand-new dock connector. A dock connector that will be incompatible with all previous iPhone-connected devices -- chargers, docking stations, etc.

Really, Apple? Haven't we suffered enough? The news drove Slate's normally calm and measured Farhad Manjoo into a froth of rage and sarcasm. I feel his pain. Just two months ago, my children gave me a Sony "Dream Machine" docking station for my iPhone 4S that works very nicely as a combination clock radio/stereo. But if I dare upgrade to the iPhone 5, I would have to plunk down an additional $29 for what Manjoo describes as an "ungainly" adapter to keep my Dream Machine functional. Yes, Farhad, I agree, that is indeed "the definition of being unfriendly to your customers."

Big story you missed

Tue, 21 Aug 2012 22:01:00 +0000

The courtroom battle between tech titans Apple and Samsung could go to the jury as soon as tomorrow. The patent dispute case revolves around which company developed technologies used in wildly popular smartphones and tablet computers. The combined companies own more than half the global smartphone market.Earlier this week Apple CEO Tim Cook reportedly spoke to former Samsung chief Choi Gee Sung without reaching an acceptable settlement.

The AP reported on the distance between the companies: