Galaxy S4: Samsung Unveils New Galaxy Smartphone With Bigger Screen, Better Specs, Wild Features

The Galaxy S4 is now Galaxy S for real.

Samsung unveiled the Galaxy S4 (or Galaxy S IV, as it is officially known) at an event Thursday night in New York. The fourth in the increasingly popular Galaxy S line is Samsung's latest attack at Apple and its iPhone. And once again, Samsung is tackling Apple with a huge screen, an impressive camera and an entire suite of new, imaginative software features that differentiate the Galaxy S4 from any other phone on the market.

The Samsung Galaxy S4's largest physical change is its display, a 5-inch monster (up from 4.8 inches on the Galaxy S3), with an improved screen resolution and pixel density. (You can see full specs for the Galaxy S4 here).

Despite being a bit taller and wider than the Galaxy S3, the Galaxy S4 is thinner and weighs three grams less, at 130 grams. The rear camera, too, has been upgraded, from 8 megapixels to 13 megapixels.

The Galaxy S4 will run Android 4.2.2 "Jelly Bean," with Samsung's familiar TouchWiz skin loaded on top.

It is the additions to the software that are likely to get the most attention. As it did on the Galaxy S3, Samsung has added several new apps and features -- some of them quite fanciful.

Let's start with the camera, whose core software has been redesigned to resemble the shooting modes (like night mode, portrait mode, etc.) available on many consumer shooters. Samsung has also added several nifty new features, including a "dual shot," which allows you to shoot a photo with both the rear camera and front camera simultaneously, so that the photographer can join the subject of his or her picture; a mode that allows you to create a cinemagraph, where part of the photo is moving and part is stationary (as seen here); an "eraser mode," which takes several photos and then allows you to erase background movement, like someone walking behind the subjects of the shot; and several other imaginative modes that may be familiar from third-party apps on Android and iOS, but which are now baked into the native camera on the Galaxy S4.

Also getting a boost is Samsung's work on gesture recognition and eye tracking to control the smartphone. "Smart pause," for example, uses the front camera to detect whether you are looking at the screen while watching a video. If you look away from the screen, the video automatically pauses. Similarly, "smart scroll" can tell if you are looking at the screen while reading an article on a webpage. If you are, you can tilt the phone up or down to scroll up or down.

New gestures, meanwhile, allow the user to operate certain apps without touching the phone. "Air view" lets you hover your finger over the display to view a preview of certain content, like the first few lines of an email in your inbox, or your day's schedule in the calendar. "Air gesture" allows you to swipe your palm over the face of the screen to switch tabs on your web browser or skip a song in the music player. Samsung execs said in a meeting that this function was ideal for drivers or for those with dirty fingers while eating.

Other new features are more transformative. The Galaxy S4 -- like the HTC One, unveiled earlier this year -- comes with an IR sensor, which allows your smartphone to act as a remote control for most television sets, changing the channel, powering the set on and off and viewing a guide of your cable listings. A new app called S Health works as a kind of fitness diary. The phone comes with a built-in pedometer to track your steps, and you can input every meal you eat and the Galaxy S4 will estimate the number of calories you are consuming (and burning) on a daily basis.

The phone also comes with a built-in translation app, for both spoken words and text, and an option for the camera to "read" a business card and create a new contact based on that information.

Will that glut of innovative features prove sufficient to seduce iPhone owners to drop their Apple smartphone and try out Google's Android? For the first time since its launch in 2007, there was a month that the iPhone was not the best-selling smartphone on the planet. That honor belonged to Samsung and its Galaxy S III.

And, too, recently several prominent Apple bloggers have announced switching to Android smartphones. On Wednesday evening, the day before the Galaxy S4's grand unveiling, Apple marketing executive Phil Schiller took to The Wall Street Journal and Reuters to bash Android, claiming that Apple owners enjoyed and used their devices more, and that Android owners often had to wait to upgrade to the latest operating system.

(Indeed, the Galaxy S4 will ship with Android 4.2.2; Google is expected to announce Android 5.0 in May, and the upgrade process can take months in the United States).

The Galaxy S4, pictured next to an iPhone 5. (HuffPost)

Still, Samsung clearly has momentum on its side, with some suggesting that this launch was the first to match the hype usually reserved for the introduction of an iPhone. Whether the Galaxy S4 will live up to that hype -- in either sales or critical acclaim -- we will know soon.

Samsung did not immediately announce a price or release date, but did say that in the U.S., the Galaxy S3 would be available in the second quarter of the year, and for sale on AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile at launch.

You can view several photos of the Galaxy S4, with many of the features mentioned in the article, below:

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The lockscreen on the Galaxy S4. Image credit: HuffPost/Jason Gilbert

The homescreen of the Galaxy S4. Here you can see that Samsung has reduced the "bezel" of the display, meaning that the glass stops closer to the horizontal edges of the phone. This allowed the screen to balloon to 5.0 inches from 4.8 inches without the device getting too much larger. Image credit: HuffPost/Jason Gilbert

The back of the Galaxy S4, with the 13 megapixel camera and flash. Image credit: HuffPost/Jason Gilbert

A Galaxy S4 on the left in white, and a Galaxy S3 in blue on the right. Image credit: HuffPost/Jason Gilbert

Another look; the Galaxy S4 is slightly larger than the Galaxy S3. Image credit: HuffPost/Jason Gilbert

Another view. Image credit: HuffPost/Jason Gilbert

Image credit: HuffPost/Jason Gilbert

The display on the Galaxy S4 is now a full inch larger (in diagonal) than the iPhone 5. The iPhone 5 has a 4.0-inch display, while the Galaxy S4 has a 5.0-inch display. Image credit: HuffPost/Jason Gilbert

The Galaxy S4 has a new app called S Health, which acts as a health diary for the owner. The phone can track your steps and you can input each meal, and the phone will calculate your calorie intake. Optional accessories -- like a fitness wristband, digital scale and sleep belt -- can also measure your blood pressure, weight and glucose levels for a total health diary. Image credit: HuffPost/Jason Gilbert

Logging my morning coffee with the S Health app. No calories! Image credit: HuffPost/Jason Gilbert

The Galaxy S4 from the side. The S4 is 7.9 mm thick, or 0.3 mm thicker than the iPhone 5. Image credit: HuffPost/Jason Gilbert

The 13 megapixel camera ships with a load of new features, including an option to simultaneously snap a photo of yourself with the front camera overlaid onto your subject taken with the rear camera. You can choose what shape your floating head appears as; here, I am inside a heart with GigaOM's Kevin Tofel. Image credit: HuffPost/Jason Gilbert

The software of the Galaxy S4 camera has been overhauled to mimic the Samsung digital cameras shooting modes (on bottom). One new mode is called Eraser, in which the camera can detect an unwanted photobomber in the background by his or her movement and then automatically delete that person from that photo using other shots. Image credit: HuffPost/Jason Gilbert

Another new feature is S Translator, which can translate between 10 different languages. You can either input text via the keyboard or speak what you want translated into the microphone. Image credit: HuffPost/Jason Gilbert

A big ni hao to all of my Chinese readers. Image credit: HuffPost/Jason Gilbert

Borrowing form the Galaxy Note, the Galaxy S4 can now detect when your finger is hovering over certain content and provide a preview of that content. Here, my finger hovers over an email and a preview of that email pops up on screen. Image credit: HuffPost/Jason Gilbert

The Galaxy S4 contains an IR sensor to control the basic functions of your television. It also contains a channel grid so that you can tune to channels on your TV.A similar feature was introduced on the HTC One earlier this year.

Image credit: HuffPost/Jason Gilbert

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Krystian Zimerman Will Have Bigger Things To Worry About

Last week’s post about the uproar surrounding pianist Krystian Zimerman’s decision to cut a recital short because he spotted a patron allegedly recording the performance with a Smartphone generated some terrific feedback from readers. In particular, readers focused on issues surrounding copyright infringement and patron interaction.

First up, was a comment from reader Rochelle Skolnick who observed that the coverage surrounding the topic was missing copyright related points.

I admit that I have not followed the coverage of this issue very closely but what strikes me about the coverage I have seen is that it does not seem to acknowledge that copyright laws play a central role. We have gotten used to the idea that illegal downloads of music and film from file-sharing sites are just that–illegal. But it is also true that anyone who records a performance without the permission of the performer is simply stealing intellectual property. Such a recording also implicates the rights of the entity (usually composer or publisher) that holds copyright in the music that is being performed. While they may only be complying with artist contracts requiring them to do so (although I suspect their conduct may also have something to do with complying with the terms of the blanket licenses they purchase from ASCAP, BMI and/or SESAC), those venues that strictly enforce bans on recording by patrons are also discouraging the violation of copyright laws within their precincts.

Next was a comment from reader Terence Hines who asserted patrons using Smartphones for any reason during a concert were distracting to other patrons.

This isn’t just a question of respect for the law, the artist, and the venue. What about audience members who just want to sit there and listen to the music without being distracted by some bozo with a smartphone? This ain’t a nightclub, folks. Turn off your frigging phone.

Both comments bring up valid points but they also confine the parameters of the discussion to predominant technology. But what happens when Google Glass (and what will almost certainly be a flood of copy-cat products) hits the market in force?

If you aren’t already familiar with Google Glass, it is basically a wearable computer with a head mounted display. It currently functions very much like a smartphone in that it can record photos, video, and sound that can be synced with a user’s cloud based account but it is worn like a pair of eyeglasses and can be controlled via a variety of verbal and tactile interfaces.

It is all but certain that live streaming of an event from something like a Google Glass device is going to be commonplace by the end of the decade.

Sure, they look kind of dorky right now, even when integrated into the cast of MadMen, but it won’t take long for the design to evolve and for those of us who wear prescription eyeglasses already, they will likely be embedded into those existing designs where you probably won’t even be able to notice who is and isn’t wearing an internet ready pair of glasses capable of recording media.

Consequently, issues of disturbing fellow patrons are all but eliminated and when it comes to copyrights and intellectual property…well…it certainly doesn’t make the issue less complicated.

Then again, perhaps Krystian Zimerman wouldn’t have even noticed the girl who was allegedly using her smartphone during his recital and would have made it all the way through in blissful ignorance. Then again, maybe not.

Postscript: if you think that folks aren’t already hashing out issues of copyright and intellectual property vis-a-vis Google Glass, think again.

"I hear that every time you show up to work with an orchestra, people get fired." Those were the first words out of an executive's mouth after her board chair introduced us. That executive is now a dear colleague and friend but the day that consulting contract began with her orchestra, she was convinced I was a hatchet-man brought in by the board to clean house. I understand where the trepidation comes from as a great deal of my consulting and technology provider work for arts organizations involves due diligence, separating fact from fiction, interpreting spin, as well as performance review and oversight. So yes, sometimes that work results in one or two individuals "aggressively embracing career change" but far more often than not, it reinforces and clarifies exactly what works and why. In short, it doesn't matter if you know where all the bodies are buried if you can't keep your own clients out of the ground, and I'm fortunate enough to say that for more than 15 years, I've done exactly that for groups of all budget size from Qatar to Kathmandu. For fun, I write a daily blog about the orchestra business, provide a platform for arts insiders to speak their mind, keep track of what people in this business get paid, help write a satirical cartoon about orchestra life, and love a good coffee drink.

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