US Energy
Department funds two huge machines that combine IBM and Nvidia chips
with Mellanox networking. A further $100 million goes toward making
faster next-gen supercomputers.
This
rendering shows a few of the cabinets that ultimatly will comprise
IBM's Sierra supercomputer at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
IBM
In
a Department of Energy deal worth $325 million, IBM will build two
massive supercomputers called Sierra and Summit that combine a new
supercomputing approach from Big Blue with Nvidia processing accelerators and Mellanox high-speed networking.
The companies and US government agency announced the deal on Friday ahead of a twice-yearly supercomputing conference
that begins Monday. The show focuses on the high-end systems --
sometimes as large as a basketball court -- that are used to calculate car aerodynamics, detect structural weaknesses in airplane designs and predict the performance of new drugs.
The
funds will pay for two machines, one for civilian research at the Oak
Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee and one for nuclear weapons
simulation at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California.
They'll each clock in with a peak performance surpassing 100 petaflops
-- that's a quadrillion calculations per second as measured in the Top500 list that ranks the world's fastest machines. Trying to do that with modern laptops would take something like 3 million of them, Nvidia estimates.
In
addition, the DOE will spend about $100 million on a program called
FastForward2 to make next-generation, massive-scale supercomputers 20 to
40 times faster than today's high-end models, Energy Secretary Ernest
Moniz was scheduled to announce Friday. It's all part of a project
called Coral after the national labs involved: Oak Ridge, Argonne and
Lawrence Livermore.
"We expect that critical supercomputing
investments like Coral and FastForward2 will again lead to
transformational advancements in basic science, national defense,
environmental and energy research that rely on simulations of complex
physical systems and analysis of massive amounts of data," Moniz said in
a statement.
Supercomputing progress faltering?
The deal is a
lucrative feather in the cap for the companies. IBM will build the
overall system using a design that marries main processors from its own
Power family with Volta accelerators from Nvidia. IBM has decades of
experience in high-performance computing, but Nvidia, most of whose
revenue comes from graphics chips to speed up video games, is a relative
newcomer.
The world is accustomed to steady increases in computing power, but growth of supercomputing progress slowed
in recent years. No longer do processor clock speeds conveniently
ratchet up to higher gigahertz levels each year, and the constraints of
funding, equipment cooling and electrical power consumption are
formidable.
To tackle the problem, IBM is adopting a supercomputing approach it calls data-centric design.
The general idea is to distribute processing power so it's close to
data storage areas, reducing the performance and energy-consumption
problems associated with moving data around a system.
"At the
individual compute element level we continue the Von Neumann approach,"
IBM said of its design, referring to the traditional computer
architecture that combines a central processor and memory. "At the level
of the system, however, we are providing an additional way to compute,
which is to move the compute to the data."
Modern architecture
The
system encompasses relatively new computing trends, including
flash-memory storage that's faster but more expensive than hard drives,
and the graphic processing unit (GPU) boost from Nvidia. Such
accelerators aren't as versatile as general-purpose central processing
units, but they can solve particular types of math problems faster.
That's why accelerators from Nvidia, AMD and Intel have found a place in supercomputing systems.
"This
is a huge endorsement for the Tesla GPU accelerator platform," said
Sumit Gupta, general manager of Nvidia's Tesla accelerated computing
business. "To be able to build up these large systems, you need the
energy efficiency that GPU accelerators provide."
One big problem
with systems that include both CPUs and GPUs is getting data where it
belongs. CPUs generally run the show, offloading some work to GPUs, but
to do so, they have to transfer data from CPU memory to GPU memory. To
speed that up, Nvidia offers its NVLink interconnect, which IBM said is
five to twelve times faster than today's technology at the transfer.
Another
key player in the system is Mellanox, which is supplying high-speed
networking equipment using the InfiniBand standard to rapidly shuttle
data around the system.
Cloud storage is expensive, but it's not the only way to share a bunch of files across many devices. Instead, you can use an external hard drive and your router to create networked storage accessible to anyone on your Wi-Fi network.
When it's set up, any files stored on that drive can be accessed by all devices on your network -- even phones and tablets. Here's how to set it up on Windows.
Step 1: Choose your drive
The drive you share can be as small as thumb drive, or as large as a 3TB external hard drive. Check your router's manual to find out if there are any storage limitations, since some routers have a storage cap.
Once you've chosen your drive, plug it in.
Step 2: Enable USB drive sharing
On any computer connected to your Wi-Fi network, launch a browser, and navigate to your router's IP address. You can find this on the back of the router, in the device manual, or by searching for it online. In most cases, it looks like 192.168.X.X.
When the page loads, you'll be asked to log in with your username and password. If you changed it, you should know it. If you didn't, it's probably still admin (username), and admin (password).
Those who fall into the latter category, please change your password as soon as you can, and before proceeding to the next step.
Every router's interface is different, but if yours has a USB port, you'll find a link entitled something likeFile Sharing under the Administrator settings. In this window, enable the file sharing server (also called SAMBA). Apply the settings, and exit.
Screenshot/Sharon Profis
Step 3: Access the drive
You're now ready to read and write to your attached hard drive. Open a file explorer window, and navigate to the Network folder in the left sidebar. Then, clear out the path at the top of the explorer window, and enter \\[your IP address]. So, for example, it might look like: \\192.168.1.1
Screenshot/Sharon Profis
With that, your drive will appear. Open it to access its contents, just like any other folder. If you're asked to log in, simply use your router's login credentials (the same one used to log into the Web interface.)
If you plan on leaving your hard drive attached, so that you can easily access it from any Explorer window. To do that, right-click the drive and select "Map network drive..." Give it a name, and the folder will appear in the sidebar.
Screenshot/Sharon Profis
To access the drive on other computers on the network, repeat step 3.
Whether it's a problem, or just a preventative measure, it's always a good idea to be aware of what devices are connecting to your home network.
Sometimes a Wi-Fi password just isn't enough to keep a neighbor or a stranger from stealing your Internet connection. You may notice that websites, videos, or file transfers aren't moving as fast as they used to. The problem may not be theft, but simply a case of too many devices trying to share a slow connection.
To get to the root of the issue you can use a free app for Windows. Let's investigate:
Step 1: Install a copy of Who Is On My WiFi (henceforth known as WIOMW).
Step 2: After opening the app, follow the tutorial steps, which will initiate your first (and likely a second) network scan.
You can configure the port range that will be scanned, but if you just want to get started, you don't need to mess with any settings.
List of devices currently connected to your network.
You'll see a list of IP addresses appear in the app window after a scan. Each will be identified by MACaddress and local IP (the one your router/switch/modem assigned to it).
Step 3: Start identifying the different devices on your network.
If there are a lot of connections (like in the image above), it might be easiest to turn on Wi-Fi one device at a time so you can label them. To label, just click the Description box on the appropriate line, type a name, and then click Save in the top right-hand corner.
If you're savvy with your devices and know where to find their local IP and/or MAC address, you can just use these as references for the labeling process. For example, tapping the currently connected Wi-Fi network on Android will display the local IP.
WiFi connection details on an Android device.
(Optional) Step 4: If you find out that someone is indeed leeching your Wi-Fi, you should change your wireless password. On a personal wireless router, just login using the credentials you chose when you set it up. When using a modem/router combo from your ISP, the process may become a bit more involved. Search for the make and model of your modem to find the default login (ISPs don't change these often). If you still cannot log in, contact your ISP to help you reset the password.
Note that some devices which are hardwired into your network, and as such do not have Wi-Fi support, will show up in the list with "NO" in the Connected column.
What tools do you use to monitor your Wi-Fi connection? Share your favorites in the comments.
Dish's
network DVR that auto-skips broadcast commercials has been deflecting
networks' attacks in the courtroom, but Disney succeeds at the contract
bargaining table instead.
Dish's Auto Hop enable screen.
Dish's protections around its contentious Auto-Hop feature on the Hopper remote DVR just started to crack.
In order to renew an agreement that will ensure Dish continues to carry
Disney networks like ABC and ESPN and gain access to video on apps for
the channels, the satellite television distributor agreed to disable the
automatic ad-skipping feature on its Hopper network DVR for three days
after a program is broadcast.
The deal was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.
However, a release detailing the deal later Monday showed their deal
goes much farther than that. Dish also secured the rights to stream
video from the ABC, ABC Family, Disney Channel, ESPN, and ESPN2 as part
of an Internet-delivered television product.
That means watching Dish without a dish.
It's similar to the Dish World offering
that lets customers stream international shows without a dish, simply
by pulling up the service on the Internet. Customers could also watch
the shows on Internet-connected TVs or through set-top boxes like Roku.
The Auto-Hop feature -- which lets customers automatically skip
commercials on broadcast television recordings -- has been an embattled
tactic, praised by consumer advocates as much as it has been criticized
by television programmers. The networks say the ad-skipping feature
threatens to destroy the advertising system that supports their content
and that Dish doesn't have the right to tamper with advertising from
broadcast replays for its own economic and commercial advantage.
Dish has argued that consumers have the right to privately watch shows anywhere, anytime.
So far, the networks haven't had much success halting the product in the
courts, but Disney -- by using its high-demand channels as leverage --
seems to have found the successful route to crimping the practice.
(Disclosure: CNET is owned by CBS, which is one of the networks suing Dish over Hopper.)
However, it's an avenue that relies heavily on timing. Contracts between
programmers like Disney and distributors like Dish over the terms for
carrying the channels are long-term deals, with multiple years
intervening between when they are signed and when they expire.
Apple lost the lion's share of the global tablet market in 2013, though the iPad remained the top seller, says Gartner.
Fueled by a 127 percent surged in worldwide sales, Android tablets
collectively overtook the iPad last year, research firm Gartner said
Monday. Android tablet sales jumped to 120.9 million in 2013
to snag a global market share of 61.9 percent, up from sales of 53.3
million and a 45.8 percent share in 2012. Over the same time,
iPad sales grew to 70.4 million from 61.4 million. But Apple's share of the
tablet market dropped to 36 percent from 52.8 percent.
Apple's slice of the market fell amid increased demand for smaller,
low-cost, name-brand tablets and cheap "white-box" products from
off-brand manufacturers in emerging regions, Gartner said. Tablet sales
for the whole industry grew by 145 percent across emerging markets
compared with 31 percent in mature markets.
"In 2013, tablets became a mainstream phenomenon, with a vast choice of
Android-based
tablets being within the budget of mainstream consumers while still
offering adequate specifications," Gartner research director Roberta
Cozza said in a statement.
Apple hung onto its spot as the top
tablet maker, leaving Samsung in second place with 37.4 million in sales
and a market share of 19.1 percent. But Samsung was on fire last year
compared with 2012 when it sold just 8.5 million tablets and eked out a
7.4 percent share.
Overall tablet sales hit 195.4 million in 2013, a 68 percent increase from 2012.
Ferrari,
Mercedes-Benz, and Volvo are aboard for the launch of the operating
system, which lets drivers access various iPhone functions through a
car's built-in screen, says a report.
Apple VP Eddy Cue shows off iOS in the Car at WWDC 2013.
Apple's "iOS in the Car" operating system, which would let drivers
access various iPhone functions through a car's built-in screen, is set
to head out of the garage next week, says a report.
Ferrari, Mercedes-Benz, and Volvo are the automakers on board for the launch, says the Financial Times, which cited unnamed sources in reporting that the official announcement will take place at the Geneva Motor Show. The FT said neither Apple nor the carmakers would comment.
Apple talked up iOS in the
Car
at its Worldwide Developers Conference last year, with VP Eddy Cue -- a
Ferrari board member -- showing a mock-up of a car's LCD with Apple
menu buttons for maps, phone, music, and messaging. Cue said the
functions could be accessible via Siri as well. Many cars already
include integration with iOS music functions. Cue said Chevrolet,
Ferrari, Honda, Jaguar, Mercedes, Nissan, Volvo and others would be
introducing iOS integration this year.
Beyond smartphones, "the bigger opportunity for Apple and its
ecosystem is becoming essential not just for people texting, checking
news, watching movies, and playing games, but for massive growth areas
such as transportation, home automation, and health care," CNET's Dan
Farber noted last week, following a report that Apple's head of mergers and acquisitions had met with Elon Musk, CEO of electric-car maker Tesla, in 2013.
Apple's rivals are also aware of those opportunities. The Wall Street Journal reported in December that Google had teamed up with Audi to develop in-car entertainment and information systems based on its
Android OS. And, of course, on the home automation front, Google is set to buy Nest for $3.2 billion.
The HAV 304 Airlander is green, efficient, a hybrid, and, well, quite bizarre.
A touch scary?
Thanks to technology, the world is becoming a darker place.
No, I'm not suggesting that we're becoming less and less enlightened, as we sacrifice our minds to the robots.
Instead, I'm merely indicating that we will soon not be able to see that thing we currently call the sky.
There'll be Jeff Bezos's drones flying around all day, delivering
dictionaries and diapers to the distressed. There'll be journalistic
drones all around, capturing every aerial detail of multiple
car crashes.
And then there'll be the HAV 304 Airlander, which is so large that it
will block the view of several planets as it waddles through the
heavens.
I confess I hadn't heard of this plane before the Telegraph told me it was the world's largest aircraft.
Indeed, when you look at the promotional video above, it's got
massive green credentials, can fly for three weeks, and is a marvelous
hybrid of airship, plane, and helicopter.
It's 300 feet long and doesn't need an airport to take off. Yes, if you have a large garden, it can take off from it.
It can land on water, sand, or ice.
Some might be disturbed, though, by its potential uses. Though it can
be used to deliver vast amounts of humanitarian aid, I was moved by the
words of Hybrid Air Vehicles' technical director, who says in the
video: "You can put 7 or 8 tons of surveillance equipment on board."
Honestly, we can never have enough surveillance. What fun to have it being transported in a vehicle the size of Vegas.
Bruce Dickinson, lead singer of metal band Iron Maiden, is one of
those involved in this fine project, which has been given 2.5 million
British pounds (about $4.2 million) to prepare itself for a maiden
flight in the fall.
Some, though, have observed that its rear end resembles, well, a large human rear end.
That would surely be one more discombobulating sight in the skies of the future.
The
wild, weird social experiment that has enraptured Pokemon fanatics for
the last two and a half weeks has succeeding in beating the game's final
foes.
(Credit:
Screenshot by Nick Statt/CNET)
In a stunning display of sheer perseverance and impressive strategizing,
the players participating in the endlessly strange and wondrous Twitch Plays Pokemon
have, after more than 390 hours, reached the end of the game's main
plot and bested the final frontier, the Elite Four. If anything, this
definitively proves that if the Internet spends enough time at
something, it can achieve the seemingly impossible.
Throughout the course of the first series of repeated attempts at
defeating the Elite Four -- which began shortly before 11 a.m. PT on
Friday and ended around 1 a.m. PT Saturday morning -- viewership on the
stream doubled to around 100,000 and hovered there, only dipping down
when especially ill-fated failures seemed to dampen the spirit. Though
many had postulated that it might potentially take weeks to overcome the
final hurdle, it in fact took only less than two dozen attempts in a
single day.
Thanks to what ended up being a rather fortuitous set of circumstances
involving the game's final lineup of Pokemon, the team was well-suited
to the challenge and only needed to grind -- or increase one's levels
and thus strength through repetitious enemy battling -- into the 17th
day of the stream before overcoming the challenge.
The final blow.
(Credit:
Screenshot by Nick Statt/CNET)
Tracing Twitch Plays Pokemon
Having started on February 12, the massively-multiplayer Pokemon game
began as a "proof of concept," says the anonymous Australian programmer
who devised the genius social experiment and brought it to life on the
game-streaming site Twitch.tv. The original intent was to see whether or
not a group could effectively play a single-player video game by
crowdsourcing the button commands. It turns out that the 1998 classic
Pokemon Red for the original Game Boy was the perfect title to test such
an effort.
One of many impressive pieces of fan art to
come out of Twitch Plays Pokemon, Redditor whoaconstrictor's "A Most
Sacred Tablet" depicts the evolution of the stream's religious narrative
in hieroglyphic fashion.
(Credit:
Redditor whoaconstrictor)
Through the use of an IRC chat bot set up by the channel creator, tens
of thousands of players have been typing in button commands like up,
down, a, and b into the Twitch stream's comment box in an effort to
control the main character on an emulated version of the game. But
though it started simple and small, Twitch Plays Pokemon has grown into a
Internet phenomenon: Throughout the last two and a half weeks, the
stream has garnered more than 35 million views with active viewer
amounts ranging from 50,000 to peaks of nearly 120,000. Estimates put
total player participation at more than 650,000 Twitch users.
Progress was slow -- and its pace and the startling suddenness of major
setbacks sometimes infuriating -- but it was always astounding to see a
complex task accomplished by the group in real time and the subsequent
eruption of jovial celebration in the comment box.
Along the way, lives were lost -- Pokemon let out into the wild due to
uncontrollable errant button presses -- and many a meme were created.
Built from the ground up was a community to rival the most
well-established of Web collectives with a subreddit awash in fan art, multiple Twitter accounts, a crowdsourced Google site, and a slew of standalone Web sites.
The momentum of the community was due in part to the game's elaborately crowd-created religious narrative
centered on the Helix Fossil, an in-game key item that would later
manifest itself as a Pokemon that was hailed by the group as a deity.
Yes, things were weird, and only got weirder as Twitch Plays Pokemon
rolled on.
Furthering the game's intensely curated and mind-boggling wacky culture
-- as well as the ability for the group to maneuver intricate obstacles
-- was the addition of "democracy" and "anarchy" game modes seven days into the stream.
Anarchy mode retained the game's original makeup in which a free-for-all
of button inputs was used to sporadically move the character around,
while democracy was a true voting system that was painfully slow but
careful. Switching between modes was also handed over to the crowd, with
a supermajority needed to go from anarchy to democracy and a simple
majority required to revert back.
Fan artwork inspired by the push-pull between
democracy and anarchy began pouring into Web communities and shared via
Reddit and Twitter as soon as the game modes were introduced.
(Credit:
Redditor JohnMarkParker)
The tug-of-war between the two modes was instantaneously absorbed into
the narrative, oftentimes representing both a philosophical split
between how the participants viewed the "true" way to play Twitch Plays
Pokemon and a battle played out between the trigger-happy trolls and
those who favored meaningful and speedy progress.
Yet it was only a matter of hours before a routine strategy was
established: Use democracy only when it was absolutely necessary to
maneuver, and then switch quickly back to anarchy for everything else.
The use of the two modes in tandem towards a unified goal became one of
the more stunning strategic tricks employed by the collective hive mind.
Onwards to round two, and just maybe an all new game platform
Throughout the lifespan of the stream, Twitch has been more than supportive, revealing in a blog post last week that it loved the experiment.
It's also taught the company a few things. "The incredibly high volume
of chat activity has helped us to hone our chat system to deal with
massive loads like we're experiencing. It has also made us all think
deeply about creative social experiments that can be done on Twitch," Twitch's VP of Marketing Matthew DiPietro told Polygon.
DiPetro also thinks that Twitch Plays Pokemon may have unleashed a whole
new game platform: "When you consider how game developers might
capitalize on features and functionality like this, the sky is the
limit," he said.
There have already been copycat streams of not only other Pokemon titles, but games like Zelda, Mario, and Street Fighter.
Where this goes from here, as DiPetro points out, is uncharted
territory in gaming and will only prove to bolster the popularity of
live game-streaming sites like Twitch.
As for the future of the one stream that started it all, beating the
Elite Four woudln't have meant that it all ends here. However, it
appears that, despite the group having selected 'continue' after
returning to the start screen post-credits, the channel creator is
laying it to rest.
"A new adventure will begin," reads the current image if you load up
Twitch Plays Pokemon, accompanied by a countdown clock set to hit zero
at 4:00 a.m. PT tomorrow morning. Given that that the creator of the
stream is an Australia native, that makes sense.
Speaking with the Guardian last month,
the creator expanded on his future plans. "I've received a lot of
requests to continue with the Pokémon franchise after the Elite Four and
the Pokémon Champion get defeated, so I'm going to do that. I'm still
deciding which of the generation 2 Pokémon games to go with," he said.
While the move to the next generation of Pokemon games is the most
likely of outcomes when the countdown runs out, many are eagerly
anticipating what kind of twist will be employed to make the next
official run, or runs if it involves simultaneous streams, more novel.
Unfortunately, that the stream is over means that the group won't get a
chance to try its collective hand at catching Mewtwo, a goal many
consider to be a high point of the original classic Pokemon games.
Though without the master ball, used to catch another legendary earlier,
and the ability to rely on a handy save file for multiple retires, it's
unlikely that task could have been overcome, even with democracy mode.
And the oft-heard directive of our childhoods to "catch them all" was
always impossible without the use of cheat codes or hacks given that
trading with Pokemon Red's companion game, Blue, is imperative to
succeed in that quest.
So perhaps it's for the best that the original Twitch Plays Pokemon has
concluded and we can all, for now, close that browser tab and get on
with our Web-based lives. Countless fans and the dedicated team of
documenters that spent hundreds of hours live updating Twitter and
Reddit and strategizing into the night can at last rest knowing both the
Internet and gaming have been changed forever.
That is until the next stream pops up -- and we're reminded yet again
that a little time, tactical problem solving, and massive collaboration
goes a long way when 100,000 people put their minds together.
We've peered deep within the Galaxy S5 to answer your burning questions about Samsung's next superphone.
BARCELONA, Spain -- Unless you were dead-set on a metal design and futuristic features, then Samsung's Galaxy S5 is a worthy successor in the evolving Galaxy S line.
Here at Mobile World Congress, where Samsung introduced its marquee phone to the world, I dove deep into the phone's new fingerprint scanner and heart-rate monitor, tested out the new 16-megapixel camera, and uncovered a few new features of our own.
I know you still have questions, so I've put together a list of some
answers. If you've got more, shout them out in the comments below.
When and where does it go on sale? Samsung will sell the
Galaxy S5 on April 11 in over 150 countries. Samsung's US PR outfit told
us that it will come to these carriers: AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile,
Verizon Wireless, MetroPCS, and U.S. Cellular. You'll also be able to
pick it up at these retail stores: Best Buy, Amazon, Costco, RadioShack,
Sam's Club, Target, and Walmart. How much will it cost? Individual carriers and stores will announce pricing on their own, but look for the handset to cost the same amount as the Galaxy S4 did last year. In the U.S., this should be about $200 with a carrier contract and around $600 to $700 unlocked.
Design
Why isn't it made of metal? Rumors that the Galaxy S5
would be made of metal, or that there would be a metal variant, picked
up steam in the run-up to the big unveiling. So you may be a bit
disappointed to learn that the GS5's body is all plastic. In the past,
Samsung has used reasons of durability, weight, and price to defend its
decision. What's up with the fingerprint scanner? The Galaxy S5's
fingerprint scanner is an optional biometric measure you can use to
unlock your phone, and also to pay for services through PayPal. You can
log up to three fingerprints.
The swipe zone sits above the phone's home button, and you pull
straight down to unlock the phone, which I found easiest to do with my
index finger. For even more, check out the photos, video, and extra details here. Why did Samsung add a heart-rate monitor? We've seen Samsung update its S Health app, release various fitness bands, and integrate a heart-rate monitor in to the Samsung Gear 2 smartwatch and Gear Fit band. They're clearly banking on the growing convergence of personal health and personal technology.
A clever little sensor on the back of the phone is what logs your
vitals, which you can track over time. Samsung isn't trying to replace
medical equipment, so the feature is more of a niche one. It doesn't get
in the way, and it may give the company a slight competitive advantage
over fitness buffs, though I'd think the market for fitness bands and
other small wearables is where they'll make the most impact there. (Read
more about the heart-rate monitor here.) Why did Samsung make the phone water- and dust-resistant? Waterproofing the Galaxy S5 was a bit of a no-brainer, really. The Galaxy S4 Active
variant proved that Samsung could make a phone like this, which only
raised the question: why not just implement this in the first place? And
so Samsung did. So what does water-resistant really mean?
Military spec IP67 means that the phone is rated to stay underwater for
up to 30 minutes at a depth of 1 meter, or about 3 feet. You'd better
make sure your important ports are sealed, too. Some phones can spend
more time under the surface without damage, but the standards are there
as legal protections and guidelines. (Here's a cool little tidbit on the
future of device waterproofing, by the way, with a neat little demo to go with it.) Does it have wireless charging
There's no wireless charging integrated into the phone, but you can buy an accessory.
Features
Is there anything new to the interface? Yes! Some details
are more subtle than others, but Samsung has sprinkled refreshed bits of
its TouchWiz interface throughout. You'll notice this most in the
camera app, the notifications tray, and the Settings menu. The virtual
keyboard also gets a tweak, and there's some good-looking new wallpaper.
You'll also notice that Samsung renamed an app or two, and pulled the
Samsung Hub completely. I'm largely a fan of these changes. Is the Samsung Hub gone for good? Yes and no. It won't
come preloaded on the phone, but you can still download plenty of
Samsung apps yourself. The company said it's making a concerted effort
to reduce bloatware right out of the gate, so removing the Hub as a
preinstallation is a small concession to balance out all of the other
space-hungry features that Samsung includes as part of the S5's ouvre.
Is the camera really as fast as Samsung claims? Samsung
claims that the Galaxy S5 performs feats of autofocus in 0.3-second. I
didn't notice much lag with autofocus, but I can't say that I was
cognizant of lightning-fast performance when I tested the camera. It
just didn't stand out for me. This is a feature I'll definitely revisit
when my review unit comes in. What does the Ultra Power Saving Mode do? Samsung claims
that its new Ultra Power Saving Mode can keep the phone running 24 hours
on 10 percent battery. That's a huge claim, and one I'll have to test
over the course of a couple days when the device comes in. A software
feature, this works by changing the display color to grayscale, limiting
the processor, cutting off GPS, turning off Wi-Fi when the screen goes
dark, and putting the kibosh on most of your extraneous apps. Will Ultra Power Saving Mode come to other Samsung phones?
Samsung is at least considering releasing a software update to give
other Samsung phones Ultra Power Saving Mode, and S Health 3.0 as well
-- though you wouldn't get the Galaxy S5's baked-in heart rate monitor.
Versus other phones
Is the Galaxy S5 better than the
iPhone 5S?
I really don't like answering this question, because "better" is so
very subjective. Instead, let me say that I do think the Galaxy S5 is
shaping up to be a really excellent smartphone -- though I'm withholding
final judgment for the full review. Until then, you can compare the
specs, along with the LG G Pro 2, in this detailed comparison chart. Will there be other GS5 variations? Samsung hasn't said
for certain that it will introduce other phones in the Galaxy S5 family,
but history indicates yes. This would be the third generation of a scaled-back Mini, and the second generation of both the niche Zoom and Active
-- though the GS5's built-in water-resistance makes that Active seem
less likely. Look for variants several months after the flagship hits
stores.
Do you have any more questions about the Samsung Galaxy S5? This FAQ
will likely expand, so pitch in your own in the comments below.
Catch all the mobile news from Mobile World Congress 2014.
A
year after Samsung first showed Tizen on a phone, CNET looks at where
the open-source OS stands now and where it's headed next.
(Credit:
Andrew Hoyle/CNET)
Samsung made a splash at last year's Mobile World Congress by showing
off the first reference device running not Android, but Tizen OS, an
open-source operating system created by Samsung and Intel, among others.
A year on at MWC 2014, what has changed for Tizen?
The year has seen big changes, not in the look and design of the
software, but in its application. While last year, headlines shouted
about Samsung running Tizen on its phones, Tizen has since become
something of a poster child as the OS of choice for various connected
devices and wearable tech.
This week, Samsung unveiled its latest smartwatch lineup, the Gear 2 and Gear 2 Neo. Both devices shunned the
Android software of the first generation Gear, instead running on Tizen software.
You'll also find Tizen inside Samsung's NX300M camera and Intel is
using Tizen as the software behind its next-generation of in-car
entertainment services which will see its way into Land Rover
cars, among other yet-to-be-announced manufacturers. Samsung has also announced that its first Tizen-based phone will be released later this year, although no further details have been discussed.
That's not all though. Tizen explained that we'll likely see the OS
pop up in connected home technology from fridges to thermostats. Being
installed on such a wide array of product categories might seem like a
pretty big challenge, but Tizen is confident that it's the right choice
for companies to make.
Intel is working with Tizen to bring the software to in-car entertainment systems.
(Credit:
Andrew Hoyle/CNET)
The main benefit of Tizen on these devices, the company told me, is
the open-source nature of the software. The Tizen Foundation does not
hold strict control over the software, meaning that any manufacturer can
bend the OS to its needs, be it for a phone, a car, or a microwave.
It's highly customisable too, allowing for a wealth of design tweaks on
the interface -- indeed, Samsung's demo of its version of Tizen shared
various aesthetic cues to its TouchWiz interface found on its Galaxy
range. Tizen's open approach also means that manufacturers are not
obliged to include certain apps or services.
That customisation has attracted a whole host of interested companies.
Since November last year, Tizen has acquired 51 new partners, including
big names like eBay, ZTE, Sprint, Namco, and Sharp, working both on
putting Tizen into products as well as developing apps for the platform.
I went in for a closer look at the software running on a
Galaxy-lookalike phone from Samsung. Like Android, the interface is
based on various home screens, with app icons and live widgets -- called
dynamic boxes -- being placed down. These boxes allow you to swipe down
on them to bring up more information without needing to load an app.
Tizen running on a Samsung phone.
It has a clean and functional look, and Samsung has added in a few
tweaks such as the ability to bring up the camera app in a window
floating over the top of the interface -- similar to the Pop Up Play
feature on the
Galaxy S4.
Samsung is yet to officially confirm when Tizen will make an appearance
on its phones, only saying that it'll be some time this year. While
Tizen might be relatively unknown to the general public, having the
biggest name in mobile pushing the software is bound to give Tizen a
shot in the arm.
Whether Samsung and Intel's support of Tizen
allows it to rise up and give Android a serious bit of competition
remains to be seen next year.
(Credit:
Screenshot by Nick Statt/CNET)
(Credit:
Andrew Hoyle/CNET)
