Samsung Galaxy S4

At 11pm last night through a very weird and cringe worthy presentation Samsung announced the details of their new flagship handset - the Samsung Galaxy S4.

Samsung have introduced a range of new features to the 5-inch smartphone, most notably a massively upgraded camera. The handset will feature a 13 mega pixel rear camera and a 2 mega pixel front-facing camera while the camera software gets a major upgrade with some brilliant new features.Dual recording, where both the front and rear cameras are used at the same time so that the person taking the picture can also be in the picture and the same when video calling or recording video looks like a particularly useful new feature.

The screen also gets an upgrade and is now a full 5-inches on the diagonal as well as being Full HD AMOLED with 441 PPI (Pixels Per Inch). The S4 will feature 2GB RAM along with 16GB storage - 32 and 64GB version will also be available.

To power all of this new tech Samsung have stuck in a 2,600 mAh battery although they haven't said how long it will stay charged.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LHv1FPd1Ec&w=560&h=315]

Hands free seems to be the way Samsung have gone with this new phone. They've introduced air gesture, smart pause and smart scroll. Air gesture allows the user to control certain aspects of the S4 without touching the screen but rather waving above it while smart pause stops video on the screen when the user looks away. Smart scroll - a much rumoured function - isn't exactly what people thought. The user can tilt their phone up or down to scroll rather than using their fingers. Although I can see a few problems with this already.

Despite all this new technology Samsung have managed to make the Galaxy S4 much thinner and lighter than the previous version and it now comes in at just 7.9mm thick (almost as thin as the iPhone 5) and weighs just 130 grams (slightly lighter than the S3).

The handset will be released at the end of April in 155 countries, on both 4G LTE and 3G networks.

There's a few things that weren't revealed though. The price is yet to be confirmed, there was no mention of the processor and no mention of battery life - something that will definitely be on people's minds.

Interestingly Samsung made absolutely no mention of Android or Google with much of the OS and built in apps being Samsung branded - something that smartphone companies have been trying to do for a while.

Overall, the Samsung Galaxy S4 stands to be a best selling handset and will most definitely be the most successful Android based handset. There's nothing revolutionary in there, it's more of an upgrade of the S3 rather than a new handset but still a great phone.

Apple release a 128GB iPad

A 128GB version of the ever popular iPad has now gone on sale for £639. It is aimed more at the enterprise market rather than consumers. Does this signal the end of the tiny 16GB version of the iPad and maybe iPhone?

Blackberry Launch BB10

At a press launch streamed at locations around the world Blackberry (formally RIM, that's another story) released their new smartphone device, the Blackberry 10. It's offered in two forms; a touchscreen version and a traditional version with a qwerty keyboard.

The touchscreen version, called the Z10, features a 4.2" screen. The device itself looks good and looks to be of good quality.

The big 'wow' though is the OS - It looks brilliant. Something called Blackberry 'Flow' allows users to access the 'hub' where all social network and BBM notifications are without ever leaving the app their in. It look slick.

Blackberry Messenger (BBM) has also got a massive boost. It now offers video calling and voice calling, both free over Wi-Fi and a new screen sharing option that looks fantastic.

The UK will be the first country to get the Z10 as it launches tomorrow (31st January) on a number of carriers.

More details soon as more is released.

Has 'iPad' become a generic trademark?

A generic trademark, also known as a proprietary eponym, is when a brand name becomes the word used for all products of that type. The best example being Hoover. Hoover is a brand of vacuum cleaner yet the majority of people call all vacuum cleaners Hoovers.

It's extremely difficult and probably impossible to actually define the moment a brand becomes generic as it tends to happen over quite a long period of time.

In general company's do everything they possibly can to stop their brands becoming generic, after all, why would Hoover want people calling a Dyson a Hoover? Google actively discourages the media from using the term 'googling' in an attempt to stop the trademark becoming generic.

In severe cases the original company can lose all IP Trademark rights meaning any company can then use their brand name. An example is the 'Philips head screw' which was originally a trademark that Henry Philips owned. Now any company can use the term 'Philips head screw'.

There are a number of demographics that seem to use the word 'iPad' for all tablets, in particular older people and those less technologically minded.

In work they've recently installed tablets at the the till points. I'm not entirely sure what brand they are but they're certainly not iPads. Despite this my (elderly-ish) boss calls them iPads, customers comment on them saying 'Cool, you're using iPads'. For Christmas my four year old, severely spoilt nephew had a 'Child Pad'. Nearly every member of my family, including my nephew, call it an iPad despite me telling them 'IT'S NOT AN IPAD!'.

So I don't think 'iPad' is a generic trademark just yet but I'm convinced that it soon will be unless Apple and other brands like Amazon and Google do something about it.

Do you know anybody that says 'iPad' for all tablets or do you know any other interesting generic trademarks? Comment below.

Apple set to announce iPad Mini

Apple are rumoured to be announcing the iPad Mini at an event today. There are rumours circulating that a 13" Macbook Pro with Retina Display will be announced along with updates to iBooks. The event will take place at 5pm (GMT). Apple are live streaming the event on their website.