Leaked photos of an upcoming Samsung camera show memory and battery gauges. Reminds me how wonderful analogue controls and displays are.
Link: New Samsung TL320 (WB100) has OLED display and analog gauges (1001noisycameras.com)
Posts Tagged: samsung
10
Jan 08
Samsung on the future of mobile UI
“Adaptability of the interface, to allow for a personalisation of the experience. Here he shows the example of Samsung’s uGo interface for mobile phones (developed jointly with Adobe), an adaptive user interface that automatically responds to the user’s environments. The main screen displays a landmark picture that changes based on where you are and what time of day it is, with added graphics and animation alerting you of your mobile phone status (battery charge, missed calls, etc.). For example, the battery charge is displayed by an air balloon in the photo that high up in the sky when the battery is full, but increasingly closer to the ground when the battery starts running out.”
Link: Samsung on the future of electronic devices (experientia.com)
9
Oct 07
Serenata
A production phone /music player that looks like a concept device. Putting controls above the screen is an interesting one.
Link: Serenata (serenatamobile.com)
25
Dec 06
Samsung gives phones point and click
Convergence has arrived. Samsung’s SCH-V960 now has a mouse. I’ll let the picture speak for itself.
“Users can point the cursor and click directly on icons on MyScreen, similar interface to that on a PC environment, and gain direct access to frequently used menus such as photo album, messaging, and music menu. Users can also use the Optical Joystick to easily scroll through the play list while listening to their music.”
Link: SAMSUNG’s Digital World – Press Release (samsung.com, via)
29
Nov 06
Novel Samsung camera user interface
Samsung’s just come out with a couple of cameras in their new NV line that use their “Smart Touch” UI. Instead of the standard hardkeys + navigation key provided on most cameras, the screen has a set of unlabelled buttons to the right and below the screen and a zoom rocker switch. The controls are used as sliders and buttons are to ‘triangulate’ and then select options on the screen.
DPReview wrote: “Virtually all settings can be changed with just two button presses using a system that – once mastered – is incredibly fast and powerful. It’s not perfect, but it’s a big improvement on the pages and pages of menus it replaces.” (see the review for video of the UI in action)
DCRP Review wrote: “This unique user interface sometimes simplifies using the camera, and other times complicates it. Changing things like resolution and metering are easier than ever, while other things (such as deleting a photo) are more of a chore than they would be if the camera had a dedicated button for it. Sometimes the UI was very frustrating. The buttons on the right side of the LCD are right where your thumb rests, making them easy to press accidentally. When playing back photos, the buttons are too sensitive, making it very easy to race past the photo you’re looking for. Other times the buttons aren’t sensitive enough, such as with the playback zoom feature, which is very sluggish.”
PhotographyBLOG wrote: “Initially I found Samsung’s touch sensitive smart button system to be more revolutionary than effective, but once I’d discovered the Hide option and used it for a while, it became a lot more intuitive, making the various menu options much more accessible and speeding up the operation of the camera. It’s a very brave step by Samsung as it may put some buyers off (particularly as it takes some time to get used to), but on the whole it’s also a great idea.”
Link: NV10 (samsungcamera.com)
16
May 05
Complexity can be awful: Samsung 800
David Pogue pans the new Samsung 800 phone. It tried to do everything and fails on all counts. The convergence meme seems to be dominating thoughts at the moment (hey, even Mr Gates is talking about it).
“Unfortunately, as the manual puts it, “Phone may not recognize the biz card due to certain circumstances: letter type, letter color, background color, the focal distance, etc.” Evidently, that “etc.” also includes “hopelessly inaccurate recognition software and overzealous marketing types”; it’s a rare feat indeed for the A800 to scan a card with 100 percent accuracy. And on a phone with no alphabet keyboard, correcting typos is no picnic.”
“The trouble is, all of these features saddle the poor little device with a complexity that will boggle even the veteran cell fan. You have to wade your way through a staggering 583 menu commands, along with far too many pointless “Are you sure?” confirmations, to find them all. Just looking up your own phone number requires eight button presses, for goodness’ sake.”
Link: The Cellphone That Does Everything Imaginable, at Least Sort Of
