I received the Samsung GT-S8500 when I renewed my contract with T-Mobile. That was about a year ago and I never bothered to connect the phone to the Internet or see if Samsung has released a newer firmware for the device.

That changed today when I decided to find out how to update the phone’s firmware. And since I’m probably not the only one who cannot figure it out in a matter of seconds, I have decided to write a tutorial on how its done.

You need the following equipment to check for and install updates: The Samsung Android phone, the USB cable to connect the phone to the computer, and the Samsung Kies software [here] which handles the updating and other things.

Install Samsung Kies first. This may take a while. The program installs mobile phone drivers and may restart your computer without warning. Next thing that you need to do is to close all open applications on your phone. This is done by holding down the center button on the phone’s front until a new screen pops up with an option to close all running applications.

Use the USB cable to connect your mobile device to the computer and select Samsung Kies as the USB connection method. Start the software, the mobile phone should be recognized immediately.

Samsung Kies will search for updates automatically if the computer it is running on is connected to the Internet.

I’d advise anyone to stop the process at that time to export the phone’s settings and data to the PC first. Firmware updates may alter or remove data on the phone and it is always a good idea to make sure you can restore your data if that is the case.

Click Import/Export in Kies, switch to Export and use the Export buttons to backup the phone’s data to your computer. You can backup contacts, photos, music, videos, schedule, or to-dos.

Go back to the basic information tab in the Samsung Kies software after you have backed up your phone’s data. Click on the Firmware Update button to start the upgrade.

An informational page is displayed next. Samsung offers tips on how to make sure that the firmware update will complete without errors. The company suggests to connect the phone to a power supply, to back up data before the process, to not use the phone during the upgrade and to not connect other devices to the computer in that time.

The process may take up to 30 minutes, but is usually faster. My phone’s firmware upgrade took about five minutes.

If everything went fine you will receive a success message in the end. The device needs to be restarted (happened automatically in my case). You should now check if the data that you have stored on your phone is still available. If it is not, use the import feature of the Samsung Kies software to upload the data again to your phone.

Have you ever updated your smartphone? If so, how would you describe the process?

I wanted to get a debate going here though on capitalism in technology, with particular reference to the ongoing patent wars.  First some background.  Technology companies are different from other big business in that they were generally started by visionary people, like Steve Jobs and Clive Sinclair, who wanted to change the world for the better.  These people wanted to open up access to technology for everybody and largely they’ve done that.  This means that the entire basis for the big modern technology companies hasn’t been money and greed, it’s been helping people gain access to new opportunities.  This is something that sets technology companies apart from almost all of the rest of big business.

However the patent wars are getting in the way.  No better is this highlighted than with the ongoing battles between Apple and Samsung, with the cupertino giant trying to ban, worldwide, sales of any Samsung product that looks remotely like an iPhone or iPad.  These lawsuits, which cost money and therefore push up prices, also have the effect of limiting consumer choice.  The best thing about the modern computing market that we have now is that there is more choice than ever before.  There are more computing devices than ever before, more form-factors and more styles and colours than ever before.

Now it has emerged that some Windows 8 Metro app developers are concerned they may be targeted by a company called Lodsys for patent infringement of in-app billing.  The patent wars have now got to such an extreme state where small, independent software houses now have to worry about it.

These patents are a big problem now because there are so many of them out there, all being owned or traded by multinationals, and there’s no way to be sure that what you do hasn’t already been patented by someone else.   However, when you are creating a smartphone, a tablet or even an app, there are only so many ways to make it look, what size it will be or how certain features operate.  When you take into account operating systems like iOS, Windows Phone and Windows 8 though that are trying to encourage app developers to make apps that look and operate in the same way the situation can only get worse.

Personally, I believe the the patent wars have now gone too far and the big players involved need to back off, stop focusing on the money and allow the innovation not only that people want, but that we all genuinely need.  This can only create more competition, drive down prices and open technology up to more people, the way people like Steve Jobs originally intended for things to be.  If we really want to create access to technology, access to the Internet and access to new opportunities, especially for the developing countries, we need to take this focus away from money now and go back to basics.

I’m very curious what your comments are about this as I feel you’re all either going to agree strongly or you’ll be completely polarised on the issue.  Please leave your comments below, it’s free, it’s open and anybody can take part  ;)

Samsung are defining themselves as one of the better TV manufacturers out there, with their Smart TV range delivering not only superb performance, but also excellent versatility. See, a TV isn’t just a box to show pictures anymore, and Samsung know this. Rather, it is an important part of a fully integrated entertainment experience and, because of this, Samsung have created a TV that not only displays pretty pictures – and they are very pretty – but also provides a host of connectivity options.

The Samsung Smart TV UA40D5500RR (or D5500 for short) is a beautifully constructed, very thin 40 inch LED TV that delivers awesome clarity and contrast, along with bright colours. It supports a host of added extras, including wireless LAN support and the ability to play media via its USB ports.

One complaint that we can level at this otherwise wonderful TV are the inputs. It features four HDMI inputs, 2 USB ports, a LAN port, headphone jack, antenna input, and a number of audio in and out options. That’s a good list (particularly the HDMI ports.) But the still necessary component cable ports are conspicuously absent. The solution is to supply a specialised interface cable… but although this comes with the unit, it cuts down component cable use to one item. Now, realistically, anyone in their right mind should be using HDMI for… well, everything, but there are still older devices that use component cables only. And we found the performance of the D5500’s component cable converter to be disappointing.

But that’s about it. Everything else, with regards to this TV, was great. OK, it’s not a 3D model, but we’re still a little unconvinced about home 3D viewing (or any 3D viewing, for that matter.) Sure, if you’re after a 3D TV, you’ll probably look elsewhere, but undecided users who don’t think that 3D is a ‘must have it or die’ aspect to a TV need look no further.

The extremely user-friendly device is really top notch. It would be difficult to choose another TV over it, except for almost purely cosmetic reasons (like the fact that it has a very shiny screen that reflects light easily and really is a pain to keep clean) or based on its inputs. Price might be an issue too… it’s not the cheapest TV around, but good quality LED TVs cost more than poorer models.

In short, it is a beautifully constructed TV that has a good, solid base, great remote functions and performs excellently. The decision to buy it or not may only come down to a silly reason like brand loyalty, but there are worse brands to support than Samsung. And if you’re still on the fence, a quick demonstration of its excellent picture quality alone will probably make your decision for you.

Verdict:

A great TV, particularly if you’re not after a 3D option

Pros:

• Excellent picture
• Extra functionality
• 4 HDMI ports

CONS:

• Shiny
• Expensive
• Component ports lacking

Buy

You can buy the Samsung D5500 TV in many online stores, including Amazon.

In the documents reported on today by Cnet, Apple is trying to ban, so it would seem, every Samsung smartphone and tablet product including the Galaxy Ace, Galaxy S, Galaxy SII smartphones and the Galaxy Tab 7 and 10.1 tablets.

The complaint demands that Samsung also recall all unsold stock from resellers in the country “within 14 days” because that stock is infringing Apple’s intellectual property.  In the suit Apple say…

“For the record, we mention the fact that by the stock, the offering and/or  selling said Galaxy smartphones [and tablets, red], infringes the intellectual  property of Apple Inc.,”

Cnet asked Samsung for a statement and they replied…

Samsung will continue to actively defend and protect our intellectual property  and to ensure our continued innovation and growth in the mobile communication  business.”

Earlier in the month Apple was granted a preliminary injunction in Germany banning the sale of the Galaxy tab 10.1 across almost the whole of the European Union.  That sales ban was lifted this week.  The current ruling allows sales to continue until Samsung and Apple meet in court on August 25th.

The source of the problem appears to be Google’s Android operating system, which Microsoft has also taken issue with over patents.  Google appeared to be in such a rush to get Android out of the door that they allegedly trampled on a few patents owned by their competitors.  However the actual evidence of this is embroiled in legal complications.

Whatever the current situation it is becoming clear that consumers are growing tired of the endless patent battles between the big technology companies over smartphones and tablets.  What consumers want is choice and a good selection of quality products.  It’s very clear that patent squabbles are fuelled by nothing more complicated than money, profit and shareholders dividend payments.  These are things the average man and woman on the street care little about.

There have been discussions previously about the physical resemblance of some Samsung Galaxy phones to the iPhone, though let’s be honest there are only so many shapes and styles a phone can be, and there are only so many materials they can be made from and so many factories equipped to do so.

It is inevitable therefore that some smartphones and tablets will go on sale looking and operating very similarly to one another.  This again isn’t something that consumers care about.

Ultimately Apple, who some commentators have been reporting for a couple of years seems to be heading down a course that will lead them into anti-trust battles with the US government and the EU, don’t seem to care about anything other than the consumer getting an Apple product.  The fact that there are more than enough consumers of technology on the planet to keep all the major shareholders in the big technology companies in absolute luxury seems to be unimportant.

At the moment the question probably needs to be asked if the gentle art of “Patent Tennis”, whereby technology companies lawyers justify their ludicrous salaries by constantly throwing lawsuits back and forth, isn’t getting out of hand.  Android is a major target at the moment with Microsoft already collecting a $10 ‘patent tax’ on every unit sold.  The only losers in all of this will be Google’s Android operating system and the people who want to use it.

Make no mistake the big guns have got it in for the open-source upstart, and they seem determined to destroy Android at whatever the cost.

There are some major, I won’t call them failings as that would be unfair, but certainly issues with the operating system around the lack of offline storage and offline apps.  There’s no native document editing or media playback, and with everything the OS does requiring a live Internet connection to work, there’s the fact that the device will be a useless brick when you try to use it offline.

There’s still a chance that the Samsung hardware can redeem it though as Chrome OS isn’t a bad operating system or indeed a bad idea.  It’s a very polished OS and very quick; though some people have said not quite as quick as a standard Linux installation and not being able to install Linux on the Series 5 I was unable to test this.

The build quality of the Series 5 is superb.  The bright white top (it’s also available in black) is just lovely and the quality of the plastics used throughout are up to Samsung’s usual high standards.  It’s got a mini VGA port, a USB 2 port and a combined headphone/microphone socket on the left of the body, an SD/MMC card reader on the front and another USB 2 port and, crucially, a USIM slot on the right of the body.  This is helpfully behind a flap, though the SD/MMC card reader isn’t and so a card will protrude from the machine when inserted, which is a touch disappointing.

Internally there’s an Intel Atom N570 processor running at 1.66GHz and 2GB RAM.  This is backed up by just 16Gb of storage, of which the operating system takes an ‘unspecified’ amount; remember the Chromebook isn’t about offline storage so doesn’t provide feedback on how much storage space it has available.

The screen is super-bright and generally excellent and the machine will give you a solid 8.5 hours of battery life between recharges, so it will easily keep going for the entire day.  The battery is non-removable however as is becoming the trend these days.  Last but by no means least there’s a 2MP webcam above the screen.

Google have specified a new keyboard layout for Chromebooks with the row above the numbers now having keys for back, forward, refresh, switch screen (you can open browser links in new windows and what I dub the earthquake button as it makes the screen shudder when you have only one window open, will otherwise slide between them.  Then there are controls for brightness up and down, volume up and down, mute and finally a power button.  The caps lock key is now a wide search key, but it’s a bit too wide which results in a narrow enter key.  This I found disappointing and I’d have hoped for a slightly better keyboard layout.

If you press the power button it’s debatable whether you actually turn the device off.  As it’s entirely flash memory-based it’s never really off.  This makes for a maximum 8 second startup time and from standby you can be working in under three seconds.  This really is the definition of “instant on”.  The machine weighs 1.48kg and is the size of a small netbook.  It’s also worth noting that the lightweight charger comes equipped with a USB socket for charging your smartphone or other device, a very thoughtful addition.

But what is the Series 5 like to live with.  Well it’s certainly portable though perhaps not as light as you might hope for such a ‘lightweight’ machine, which will be down to the excellent battery and screen.  You can merrily use the Series 5 out and about thanks to the USIM slot and with my 3G data SIM installed it connected quickly and seamlessly to my provider and a provided a broadband-speed connection.  You can enable and disable both the wireless and mobile data connections in the software to maximize battery life and make certain you’re not wasting your valuable paid-for data when wi-fi is available.

So I can dispel one myth straight away.  On the evening of getting the Series 5 delivered I took it down the pub and was using it happily.  This machine is anything but a brick when away from wi-fi, this is excellent news though you’ll want a good data package to go with it.  This means that if you want a Series 5 or another Chromebook it would be worth finding a good deal with a mobile phone operator.

It’s nice to see a multi-touch trackpad too and indeed this is one of the most friendly things about the Series 5 as it’s both large and extremely usable.  Indeed the keyboard quality, despite the narrow enter key deserves a mention for being very easy to type on with large keys and easy to read letters on the keys.

This brings me on to the types of people who might benefit most from having a Chromebook.  These people being children who might benefit from having something at school that will help them access Google Docs, as this is commonly used by schools now, and pensioners who will benefit from the simplicity of the OS, the great keyboard and bright screen.  On this note though, Google will have to do some work to enable the partially sighted to  scale the whole OS and not just the contents of the browser window.

Google are updating Chrome OS regularly though and even my issues with offline apps is being addressed with a forthcoming offline version of Google Docs.  Who knows what will happen with a media player and other apps in the future.

So what what do I think of it and can I recommend the Series 5?  The machine is $430 (£350) or $500 for the 3G version which is the price of a high-end netbook with a 320Gb hard disk.  So would you want to buy a Chromebook rather than a netbook onto which you can install Google’s Chromium OS, the downloadable alternative to Chrome OS?  To be honest, at this point I’d rather recommend a good netbook instead, but Chrome OS is a great operating system and they’re addressing all the shortcomings one by one.

To top this off with the Series 5 being such a quality product, if you’re not a big user of files and music (perhaps you use your phone for music) then the Series 5 can be recommended.  Certainly if you’re looking for a sturdy portable device for the kids going back to school next month coupled with the dependability of Linux, you can’t go far wrong with the Series 5 Chromebook, just make sure you buy the 3G one.

Overall 7/10

You can buy the Samsung Series 5 Chromebook at Amazon: There are currently four models available, two Wi-Fi models and two 3G models in the colors Titan Silver or Arctic White.

Samsung Series 5 3G Chromebook (Titan Silver)

Samsung Series 5 Wi-Fi Chromebook (Titan Silver)

Samsung Series 5 3G Chromebook (Arctic White)

Samsung Series 5 Wi-Fi Chromebook (Arctic White)

Most of us live in our browsers and perform 90% of our computer-based activities either in the browser itself on in an app that replicates something you can do in a browser, such as Windows Live Mail or Tweetdeck. It stands to reason then that an operating system into which there isn’t any actual installable software, with the exception of some browser plug-ins from the Chrome OS App Store, is one that the average user would be happy with for around 90% of the time.

Well I’m a dedicated Windows user and generally not a huge fan of Google.  That aside though I’m going to give it my best try to live with Chrome OS as my primary operating system for the next week.

I’m starting right now, writing this article on the Chromebook in a browser that has tabs open for my email and social networking, so I’m off to a good start.  Do I see any problems though? Well currently I’m working on a document in Microsoft Publisher.  Sadly there’s no online equivalent to this software from Microsoft, Google or any other company so I might have to revert to the PC for just doing that job for a few hours and music might be an issue.  There’s no in-built media player in Chrome OS but I could try Spotify and see how I get on with it.

Initial impressions of Chrome OS are good though, and so far I like it.  It’s not perfect and it’s clear to see where it can be improved (malware protection and better accessibility options jump out at me as being the most obvious).  Generally though the overall experience with Chrome OS, given that I’ve not been using it for very long, is very positive.

So I’ll feed back to you next week just what its like living with a Chromebook.  In the mean time though it would be interesting to hear from all of you who own one what your experiences of it are, and if you’ve managed to switch to it.

This printer too though is pretty huge and not something you’d be at all comfortable having in your living room.  It’s limited too, requiring a USB or wired network connection.  What was really needed then was a smaller, better option.

Fortunate then that Samsung, along with various other pieces of review kit, sent me their new ML-1865W Mono Laser last week to test.  Now I was expecting a big, bulky and franky ugly printer to arrive.  Imagine my surprise then when a small sleek black box arrived, measuring only 341 x 224 x 184 mm.

This printer is undeniably two things, dinky and lovely.  It’s no bigger than a typical inkjet printer when closed up, and the high-quality piano black plastic body means it wouldn’t look bad in anybody’s home office or living room.

I was keen then to see if a laser printer this small could actually perform.  The first test was in connecting it wirelessly to my network.  The printer can be attached directly to a computer via USB, but can also connect via WiFi to your home or small-office network.  It does this though the pressing of only two buttons, one on the printer and one on your router (both called WPS).  This would, theoretically, pair the devices almost instantly.

Suffice to say I was slightly sceptical at this claim, but the printer connected effortlessly to my TalkTalk home router and was ready and available on the network in around ten seconds.  Eager to make sure this wasn’t a fluke, I took the printer to a neighbour where their BT Home Hub flatly refused to acknowledge the printer’s existence.  This I don’t think is a fault with the printer itself, as it will be designed to work in a standards-compliant way.  It would involve a probably lengthy call to your ISP’s technical support however and some tinkering in your router’s administration settings to get it working.  This might just be too much for some people who might just give up and connect it via USB instead.

The driver install is simple enough, even with the printer connected via WiFi, though this could cause some issues if you are using the printer with Windows XP.  Alas I wasn’t in a position to be able to test this scenario as all my computers run Windows 7 and I’m not mad enough to put XP back on them!

The true test of a printer is in it’s speed, noise and print quality.  Samsung claim the ML-1865W has a startup time of 8.5 seconds and then, oddly, don’t claim any figure for a page per minute (ppm) speed.  I thought this odd and perhaps an indication that the printer would be slow.  To test it I threw my Windows 7 Power Users Guide at it, a graphics-heavy PDF running to 170 pages.

True to their word, within 10 seconds the first page began to appear, this first page being the cover with full graphics on it.  The printer then speedily churned out the rest of the book at around 20 pages per minute, which is very impressive for a small, low cost machine.

The quality was excellent as well and overall I’m very impressed, it was very quiet too, in fact probably the quietest printer I’ve ever used.  Elsewhere there’s a 150 sheet tray and a 100 sheet capacity output tray.  The printer will print graphics and text at 1200 x 1200 dpi and connects to your wireless network by 802.11 b, g or n.

Overall then the ML-1865W is a lovely printer to have.  It’s quiet, quick and attractive with excellent print results and can be bought online for as little as $69.99 in the US and £80 in the UK (at least these were the cheapest prices I could find).

The only downfall with this printer is the lack of support with some routers, and it might be a good idea to check with Samsung if your particular router is supported and, if not, with your ISP how easy it is to get it set up in the router’s administration interface.  This aside though if you’re after a monochrome laser for a home or home office, it’s a great unit to get and a bargain at just $70.  8/10.

You can buy the printer for instance at Amazon for that price: Samsung Electronics ML-1865W Wireless Monochrome Printer

This machine sports a 17.3 super-bright inch screen, a 2GHz core-i7 SandyBridge processor, a huge 6Gb of DDR3 RAM and no less than two 500Gb hard disks.  It’s all topped off with switchable graphics which include an nVidia GT540M card with 1Gb of dedicated DDR3 RAM.

Rather than being a sexy little thing for the jet-set, this is a hulking great 2.6kg of desktop replacement entertainment laptop, complete with Blu-Ray drive, USB 3 and all the trimmings.

So what is it like to use and is it any good as a gaming machine?  I’ve written a full review on our sister website Windows7News, but I was certainly impressed with the machine.  It handled Call of Duty Black Ops at medium-high settings without breaking a sweat, though it did complain when I turned everything up to maximum.  It’s a very powerful and very pretty machine, with an all plastic case (very high quality plastic I might add) contrasting a dark grey case and black lid with high-impact silver surrounding the keyboard.

It’s a good keyboard too with generously proportioned scrabble-tile keys and good travel.  It has a large easy to use trackpad too, which you can switch off for gaming and a screen that, while not full HD at 1600 x 900, is very usable in direct sunlight.

It’s easy to see where compromises have been made with the RF711 but this keeps the price affordable and it comes in around $1,000 cheaper than equivalent specification laptops from Dell, Lenovo and Sony.  You can read my full in-depth review here where I talk about the important things like battery life and what it’s really like to live with.

Let’s start correctly, I hate laptops! In fact I have always hated laptops and there are several reasons why. Firstly I’ve always found the typing position on them to be horrible, because no matter how large they make the wrist rest, it’s always not big enough and there’s too large a drop at the front of the case so that typing on them becomes uncomfortable for anything other than short messages. Then there’s the proximity of the keyboard to the screen, it’s just too short which can result in eyestrain and the screen itself is far too low which results in neck and back ache.

I’ve been using laptops on and off for a decade now and have always preferred a desktop machine. In a couple of teaching jobs prior to becoming a tech author I was given a laptop and, while I was forced to use them at work I was mercifully teaching most of the time, and on the occasions when I brought them home they just sat there, completely unused until I could take them back to work and get rid of them again.

Needless to say I have my reasons for disliking laptops. Tablets are much better, I have an ExoPC Slate and despite it being a little heavier than the iPad, I like being able to slouch around with it, having the screen a good distance from my eyes and not having to sit upright in an uncomfortable position, hunched forward, to use the thing.

Then the Samsung Series 9 appeared and everything seemed to change for me. All of a sudden I found myself reaching for this machine instead of my tablet. I even stopped thinking “I must go over and turn my desktop on” and used this instead.

So how did this new ultraportable make me fall in love with laptops? To be honest it’s all down to the design and the attention to detail. The wrist rest isn’t quite at desk level, but it’s close enough that you would never notice it’s raised upwards. In fact it’s raised no further than a standard modern PC keyboard. Then there’s the weight. At just 1.32Kg here is a laptop that is genuinely portable. It’s not something you have to hump around in a heavy bag, all the time bemoaning its presence there. It is actually a proper joy to carry around because you barely ever notice that it’s there. Indeed it’s so light that I occasionally had to check my bag to see I hadn’t left it behind somewhere.

It’s not just in the ergonomics and weight either that this laptop shines.  The screen is glorious to behold and the keyboard is one of the finest I’ve ever used.  In fact it’s so good it puts my £100 Logitech desktop keyboard to shame.  It’s just a very pleasant experience sitting in front of and using this machine.

You’ll never get over the keyboard proximity to the screen problem, but all of a sudden I found myself not actually minding this at all.  We’ll have more laptops like this coming soon too. Sony have a new Z Series coming out and there’s a new Macbook Air due. Intel have also now announced they’re planning to release ‘ultrabooks’ that will be only 0.8 inches thick, about the same as the Series 9 and with a similar specification too. The preponderance of these machines will mean prices will drop and, before you’re able to say “I’m not carrying that thing home again” they’ll be available for less than $1000. In fact Intel anticipates selling ultrabooks for as little as $600 in the coming years.

For now, while it’s pricey, the Samsung Series 9 is an absolute winner. It’s made me fall in love with laptops for the first time and proven to me they can really be a joy to use. If you’re of the same mind as I am and have the spare cash to buy one, then it’s a solid 9/10 for the Series 9 from me.

This laptop has the fastest BIOS I’ve yet seen on any computer.  It gets to the Windows Starting logo in four seconds from a cold boot and you’re at the desktop within 20 seconds.  This is really excellent and shows that Samsung have gone out of their way to get the BIOS right on the machine.  Using it is just as pleasurable an experience.

I’m used to the power and speed of a Core-i7 desktop machine but I’m delighted to be able to announce that the dual core i5 processor in this machine is just as speedy in day to day usage.  It shows four physical cores with hyper-threading and combined with 4Gb of RAM is no slouch.  There’s nothing I tried to do on this laptop that slowed it down or showed any kind of delay whatsoever.

This is all down to the new Sandy Bridge architecture from Intel which is quicker and runs at lower voltages than previous chips.  It’s not all great news though as while the exterior of this laptop might have been designed with the care of a master craftsman, the software implementation is much more sloppy.

As is common with many PCs these days the thing is loaded with trialware and bloatware.  These include lots of extra games, all of which you have to buy to play past a short trial level, and pointless extras such as a video showing off the laptop.  Why would I want to see a video showing off this laptop when I’ve just bought the thing?

More depressing though was that the Windows implementation on board was pre-service pack 1 and also without Internet Explorer 9.  The Series 9 is a luxury product and, as such, I’d have hoped that Samsung would have taken more care with the software.  This means the first thing you’ll have to do with it is download and install quite a hefty pile of updates.  With this out of the way though you quickly forget about the problems it caused.

It’s worth noting that the Series 9 is one of those computers that actually does come with a full copy of Windows 7 on DVD.  This is important to note as too many PC manufacturers don’t bundle this any more, even though you’ve paid for it.  Should something go wrong with Windows (which is inevitable eventually) it’s an essential thing to have around.

I wasn’t completely sure about the multi-touch trackpad.  Some of it’s features stopped working for me properly, such as the two-finger-tap for a right click.  I put this down to a driver update which I’d installed though.  One great feature is what I call “boss mode” where sliding four fingers down the trackpad will automatically minimise anything you have on the screen.  It could be argued though that if you have one of these laptops, you’re more likely going to be the boss.

The ports sit in two fold-down flaps on either side of the machine.  There’s USB2 and USB 3, Gigbit Ethernet (though this requires an adapter cable that’s supplied), mini HDMI (so again you’ll need an adapter to do presentations from it), a joint Microphone / Headphone / Speaker socket (though the internal speakers are generally excellent with high volume and good depth of range) and finally and perhaps less usefully a Micro SD card slot.

In the place of this it would have been much better to see either a full SD card slot or, preferably, a SIM card slot.  I don’t really get the point of an ultraportable that has to rely solely on wifi!?  Of course you could plug in a 3G dongle, but why would you want to with something that looks this good?  For me this is the single biggest oversight with the machine.

One thing worth noting with the ports is that, while it’s fantastic to have them hidden away under flaps, if you plug in a thicker than usual USB flash drive the whole laptop will wobble a bit while its there.  This is just down to the thickness, or rather should I say the overall thinness of the machine.

The screen is absolutely glorious and one of the best things about this laptop.  It’s so bright that you’ll never be able to use it at maximum brilliance indoors.  This bodes very well for using it in direct sunlight where it should always be perfectly legible.  It’s a pity though, again especially for a luxury product, that the resolution is just 1366 by 768.  I would rather have seen a full 1080 screen for this price.

A really useful feature is that if you press the F4 key from startup you’ll be taken to a helpful GUI where you can back-up and restore your copy of Windows and also troubleshoot common problems as to why it won’t start.  This is essentially a custom skin built on top of the Windows startup repair, but it’s a lovely addition and very welcome.

It’s also worth talking about the keyboard.  This scrabble-tile affair is large and well spaced and, unlike the near £100 logitech keyboard I have on my desktop PC at home, I have never hit the wrong key while typing on it.  This keyboard is simply fantastic.  To balance out fantastic though I did have the power lead fall out of its socket a couple of times.  The magnetic arrangement on Apple laptops is much better in this regard.

Battery life is again excellent.  Even though its built-in so can’t be changed, you’ll get about 6½ hours in light usage, falling to around four or five with wifi on.  Under heavy load you’ll still get over two hours of life for it which is good for any current laptop.

So, is the Series 9 a Macbook Air killer?  Currently I’d have to say yes, despite the high price.  This is due to the performance of the machine and just given a boost by how utterly gorgeous it looks.  Anybody who buys one of these laptops will be thrilled to bits with it.  It’s fast, responsive, has excellent battery life, comes with almost every feature you’ll need on the move and weighs next to nothing.  Though with the Macbook Air about to get a Sandy bridge update, the Series 9′s reign on top could prove to be short lived.

Overall a solid 9/10

So, what is a Windows 7 ultraportable really like to use and is it a Macbook Air killer?  In the first part of this review I want to talk about the unboxing experience and the hardware itself.  Tomorrow in the final part of the review I’ll discuss what the laptop is like in actual daily usage and give my overall verdict.

The laptop runs on the new Intel Sandybridge architecture with a 1.4GHz Core i5 processor with four visible cores, 4Gb of DDR3 RAM, a 128Gb SSD and a 13.3 inch screen with a resolution of 1366 x 768.  Internally there’s gigabit ethernet, 802.11bgn wireless (though it’s only single-band 2.4GHz wireless n, not the full triple-arial variety) and bluetooth 3.  It also helpfully sports a USB 3 port as well as a USB 2 socket, a Micro SD card slot and an HDMI port.  It retails for around $1,600 (UK £1,300) so isn’t cheap and is slightly more expensive than the Air.

Clearly a lot of thought has gone into the unboxing experience.  The box itself is pretty big, though there’s not a lot in it.  The inside of the lid teases you with how thin this laptop is, while the machine itself shines out at you in glossy black.  Underneath is a wallet with all the manuals, documentation and a restore disc helpfully bundled together while a flap at the front of the box hides the power supply and an adapter needed to use an Ethernet cable with the machine. 

The laptop itself is slightly thicker than a Macbook Air, though only marginally, at 17mm at its thickest.  It’s light as a feather though and, surprisingly even lighter than it’s Apple equivalent at just 1.32Kg.  It’s deceptive just how light this laptop is and it’s quite disconcerting the first few times you pick it up.  You can easily hold it upright with just two fingers and carrying it in a case or bag is something you’d barely notice.

The exterior of the laptop is made from an alloy called duralumin, which is most commonly found used in the aeronautics industry.  It’s this that helps keep the weight down.  The build isn’t quite as rigid as the Air, but it’s quite sturdy enough with only very slight flex in the chassis when pulled about.  It’s all a brushed metal effect with a subtle Samsung logo embossed into the lid.  Open this up on a train and you’d certainly be drawing admiring glances from across the cabin.

That said, it’s generally understated enough not to attract too much attention.  I took it to the pub last night and hardly anybody batted an eyelid.  This is good for security and having a machine that won’t be the first thing a thief targets when you’re out and about.

On the left side of the laptop sits only a power socket, on the right side just a kensington lock port.  All the main ports for this laptop are hidden behind two flip-down panels on the left and right underside.  It’s a nice idea that keeps the lines clean and can help stop the ports becoming dirty.

The actual design itself is lovely, with the screen appearing to float above the body when its closed, in fact it can be said that closed this machine is even prettier than when you have it open.  There are strips of bare silver metal edging the screen and base that give it an air of luxury.  It can safely be said that on the looks front the Series 9 gets a solid 9.5 out of 10. 

Inside it’s more of the same with brushed metal complemented by a piano black high-gloss plastic surround for the keyboard and screen. This actually works very well and doesn’t look plasticy, rather more luxurious. It’s a scrabble-tile keyboard that’s slightly more spaced out and accessible than the one on the Macbook Air. Like it’s Apple counterpart the touchpad is buttonless and multi-touch, so that it acts as a single giant button or a multi-touch trackpad.

Everyone I showed the Series 9 to was absolutely amazed by how good it looks and how light it is. It has an internal battery like the Macbook Air but this helps keep the lines clean. If you tumble it in your hands the attention to detail is quite impressive, with every angle thought of carefully and some solid-looking rubber feet to help keep that brushed metal clean and safe for the life of the machine. 

All in all it’s a hugely impressive piece of engineering, especially for what they’ve squeezed into it, and tomorrow I’ll write up what this machine is actually like to use.

The majority of SSDs that are currently sold support TRIM or can be upgraded to support it. But Trim is not supported on all operating systems. At the time of writing, only Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 support it on Windows.

Samsung’s SSD Magician Tool has been released as a English beta version. The tool offers system information, performance optimization, firmware updates, data cloning and performance benchmark for Samsung Solid State Drives.

The utility detects connected Samsung drives automatically and blocks some of the program’s functionality if no drive is detected.

• System Information: Displays detailed information about the computer system and the disks that are connected to it.
• Performance Benchmarking: Only works on Samsung SSDs. It can be used to test the performance of the solid Sate drive. The test range and I/O size can be defined individually. Can be scheduled to run regularly.
• Performance Optimization: Only available if a Samsung SSD is connected to the PC. This basically runs garbage collection on the drive to improve its performance again. Only necessary if it does not support Trim or runs on an operating system that does not. Can also be scheduled to run regularly.
• Firmware Update: Offers to create a bootable USB Disk that can be used to update the SSDs firmware. The firmware file needs to be downloaded separately from the Samsung homepage.
• Date Clone: The feature is not implemented yet in the beta.

Samsung’s SSD Magician Tool is especially handy for users who run an operating system that does not support TRIM as it offers to maintain the drive to keep the performance of it near factory levels. The ability to run the garbage collection regularly means that it is possible to automate the process.

The feature set is different in some aspects to comparable tools like Intel’s SSD Toolbox. Intel’s application supports operating system tweaks to optimize the system for SSD usage. Samsung’s software on the other hand offers a performance benchmark that Intel’s tool does not offer.

Third party tools, like the excellent SSD Drive Tweaker can be helpful to overcome those limitations. (via)

The Samsung SSD Magician Tool is available for download at the project website. The very same page contains firmware downloads and installation help files.

Elsewhere the phone has 16Gb of storage, the “world’s first” 4 inch curved AMOLED screen, front and reaf-facing cameras and improved voice control.  All that aside though is it a wise move for Google to release this phone under their own name?

When the company launched the HTC-made Nexus One a year ago there was a great deal of talk about whether this would alienate Google’s hardware partners.  Fortunately the Nexus One was a resounding flop and was closely followed by far better HTC devices so this was never an issue.  It’s inevitable though that this question will be asked again.

It’s easily arguable that Google’s Android operating system is now the de-facto smartphone OS of choice so Google no longer have anything to prove personally.  The uptake among handset manufacturers has been almost universal with only Nokia and Sony Ericsson hanging on to their Symbian platform while they see it though a slow and painful death.  Despite the launch of Windows Phone there will be no change to this as the market is clearly big enough to allow both operating systems to exist side-by-side with all parties making a decent profit.

You can think though that the only reasons for Google to release another own-branded phone is because either, they want to showcase the very latest stuff (in which case I go back to my original point about annoying partners and having a potential flop on their hands as Samsung prime another handset of their own), to reinforce the Google name in people’s minds (though the public don’t and may never think of Google as a hardware company so I can’t help but wonder what the point of this would be) or simply because they can and they felt like it.

This last one is far and away the most likely scenario.

Anyway it’s here but will anyone notice?    Hopefully Samsung have learnt a thing or two from HTC’s mistakes.

The Nexus S will be available to buy or on contract after December 16th.

According to a news article on ce.cn, local manufacturers in China have been stealthily getting ready to explode on to the Android market. And explode they are going to even if only by their sheer numbers.

Apparently, these companies have actually been hiring Android experts in order to make sure that they know what they are doing. These experts come from companies like Samsung in order to lend their in-depth knowhow to these small manufacturers.

R&D is apparently happening rapidly because the phones are expected to hit the markets some time in 2010. So you can expect a flood of Android phones in 2010 that range from boring to bizarre and beyond.

This is something I love about Chinese manufacturers. They hardly sell outside their premises and yet no technology is too big or too new for them. If it is technically possible, they will do not. So what if you don’t need 4 cameras on your mobile handset or slots for 4 SIM cards? It is technically possible and they are here to give you the best that modern technology has too offer. Besides, you will have to throw it away after a few months anyway.

Dell's Mini 3i

My question right now is this – with so many companies working on a platform that is essentially freely available to them, can we expect at least one decent phone that breaks the mould in some way and manages to run alongside the big players? [read]

Next we have a flip phone, the S5150 Olivia. Olivia has a slim body, smooth interiors and a stunning face. Yes, I am talking about the phone. It has the same diamond shaped texture on its front as the S7070 and there it has a camera and a secondary (looks like OLED) display. Just look at the live photos gathered by GSMArena. The main display on the inside is 2.2inch with a QVGA resolution. The camera is 3MP. It is likely to appear around the same time as the S7070.

As you can guess from a name like Diva, these are phones that are designed to attract the fairer sex. Yeah so you might think about gifting one of these to your lady love. Or if you are the lady, just talk a lot about how much you like the phones. If he still does not get it, hit him on the head with your netbook with this webpage open. Let him figure it out with an icepack over his head. You got time though, the release does not happen till early next year. No word on the pricing yet but I have a feeling that they would be priced similarly. [read]

Samsung’s latest campaign was again uploaded to Youtube. The video which is called a day in the life was produced by Samsung France to promote the Samsung Galaxy smartphone.

The video is extremely well done. It shows a day in the life of the protagonist and his use of the Samsung Galaxy phone during the day.

The Samsung Galaxy i7500 is an Android based phone which many audio and video formats that most other cell phones do not support including divx, h.264 and iTunes plkus music files. Other specs include a 5 MP autofocus camera, GPS, 7.2 Mbps HSDPA, Wi-fi. stereo Bluetooth. Here is the video of the campaign:

Well done, don’t you think?

That’s bad for the environment either way as you end up with two different phone chargers or two similar ones as they are always sold with cell phones. It is also bad if you need to recharge the battery of your cell phone at a friends house only to find out that the phone charger is not compatible with your cell phone.

Cell phone suppliers like Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Samsung, Apple, Motorola and LG have agreed to produce cell phones that are compatible with standard charging devices in Europe. First cell phones are expected next year which is expected to reduce the waste that phone chargers produce each year. About 180 million cell phones are sold in Europe each year which also means the same amount of phone chargers.

According to the New York Times only data-enabled phones (which will account for about 50% of all cell phones sold in 2010) will be compatible with the new chargers which are in the beginning sold with the cell phones. Plans are to remove the cell phone chargers later on and sell them separately. It is likely that other countries will join the initiative.

The television is sold in different sizes (as usual) including 46″ and 55″ with all models sharing the same feature set which includes energy efficient backlighting (lead and mercury free, energy star compliant), 1920×1200 Full HD support, 120 Hz Auto Motion Plus refresh rate and Internet connectivity.

The ultra slim design of the LED 7000 makes it an ideal candidate for a wall mount. Only one screw needed to mount the TV which makes the process easier and more efficient. A wireless or wired connection is available to connect the television to the network and the Internet. It can display widgets on screen that can display news or websites. Not sure if that is a killer feature but it might come in handy in certain situations.

What makes me consider buying the TV is the energy efficiency, the image quality and the wall mounting capability.

Which TV would you buy if you could select one?

24 drives equals a total storage of 6 Terabytes. The other system specs are as impressive. They added a combination of two Intel 3.2GHz QX9775 Quad-Core cpus, two ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 cards, 4GB of 800MHz FB-DIMM DDR2 SDRAM, two Corsair HX1000W power supply units, an Adaptec 5 Series RAID card, an Areca 1680ix-24 RAID card and of course the 24 256GB MLC Solid State Drives.

How fast was the system after all? They managed to top 2 Gigabytes of sequential write and reading speed. They performed some tests like loading all Microsoft Office applications (in 0.5 seconds), all 53 apps of the Windows start menu (in 18.09 seconds), copying a 700 Megabyte DVD rip (0.8 seconds) or recycling 700 files with a total size of 5.6 Gigabytes (instantly).

The viral marketing campaign is highly successful with more than 250K views on Youtube already. Can you imaging running a system like this? What are your thoughts, let us know!

Microsoft Phone Data Manager is not a full blown backup solution like the software that comes from the mobile phone company directly which can backup data like sms, games or protocols. It is a beta product on the other hand that could see those features implemented in later versions.

The major advantage of using the Phone Data Manager is that it works with phones from different mobile phone manufacturers. That is handy for a family that possesses different phones but only one computer and basically everyone else who is using phones from different cell phone manufacturers.

The list of working mobiles include phones from Motorola, Nokia, Samsung and Sony Ericsson. About 30 mobiles in total are listed on that page that have been tested and are working with the Microsoft Phone Data Manager but there are also a few that are not working. Most cell phone owners will probably have to try and find it out for themselves if their mobile phone is not listed on that page.

Microsoft has posted a user guide on their website that walks the user through the process of installing and working with the Phone Data Manager.

It supports and can identify bluetooth and usb cable connections. While it lacks on features it could be a viable alternative for users with multiple phones from different manufacturers.