This year’s Google I/O keynote didn’t see hardly anything in the way of hardware announcements, but it did see one very interesting development: the announcement of a Samsung Galaxy S4 “Google Edition”.

This new version of the Galaxy S4 will be sold unlocked through Google Play, and will run on a stock version of Android – ditching Sammy’s TouchWiz UI and custom S4 software. The idea here is that you effectively get a Nexus device, which means that you will get the latest and greatest versions of Android directly from Google at a much quicker pace.

It also means that some of the customized features on the Galaxy S4 won’t work, as they rely on the TouchWiz UI. Still, for those that absolutely love a pure vanilla Android experience, this could be their dream phone.

Unfortunately, it might be like a Nexus – but there isn’t Nexus pricing here. The 16GB Galaxy S4 will sell through the Play Store for $649. While the Nexus 4 sold like hotcakes, part of its success was that it was dirt cheap relative to the specs that the phone packed.

Considering there are devices that aren’t much weaker than the S4 (like Nexus 4) but considerably cheaper, this might be a hard sell except for those that absolutely want the most cutting edge hardware or are big Samsung phone fans that happen to dislike TouchWiz.

So when is it coming? The phone will arrive to Play on June 26th and will only be sold in the United States. Additionally the phone will have LTE and will work with both AT&T and T-Mobile.

More than likely this will be the same Snapdragon 600 version sold by carriers, but how cool would it be if the Google Vanilla version of the S4 instead ran on the Exynos processor? What do you think of the S4 Google Edition, would you pay $650 outright for it?

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Surprise, the Samsung Galaxy S4 is a smash hit! Okay.. so that’s not really a shocker, is it? As expected, the Galaxy S4 is a runaway success so far, but the big question is just how many units have already been shipped. According to Samsung, the number has now reached 4 million globally (through April) and is quickly rising.

In comparison to Galaxy handsets of the past, the Galaxy S3 took 21 days to reach 3 million units and the Galaxy S2 took 55 days to reach just 3 million.

Demand is continuing to grow for the S4, and one unnamed Sammy executive even says they’ve already sold more than 6 million units, and some predictions say that by this month’s end, they will reach 10 million Galaxy S4 shipments.

Keep in mind that Samsung’s “sales” are not to the end-user, but to the wireless carrier, making them look a little better than they actually are.

Still, no matter how you slice it, the Galaxy S4 is looking to be Samsung’s biggest hit yet. What’s interesting is that for the first time in a while, Samsung actually has major competition in the form of solid devices like the HTC One and Sony Xperia Z and yet it doesn’t seem to be slowing the Korean giant down any.

With S4 variants like the Zoom and Mini rumored to be on their way in the not-too-distant future, I’d say that it will be a long while before the Galaxy S4 hype dies down.

What do you think of Samsung’s latest? How does it compare to devices from Apple, Sony, HTC, Nokia and other major competitors?

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Samsung is famous for releasing all sorts of hardware configurations to fit the needs of just about anybody out there. To make matters worse for their competitors, the company is said to be planning to release different variants of their latest and greatest smartphone, the Galaxy S4. We have told you about the rugged S4 and about the S4 Zoom, but the most talked about handset is the S4 Mini.

The device that you see above and in the gallery below could be the S4 Mini, and it looks similar to the S4 but with a smaller display. No other details are available, and we can’t really say whether this is the real one.

As for what we know, the S4 Mini should be cheaper and less powerful when compared to the S4. The rumored specs include a 4.3 inch Super AMOLED qHD display, 1GB RAM, a 1.6GHz dual-core processor, a 5MP camera, Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean, and many of the features coming with the S4.

The device is expected by many to hit the market by the end of this month.

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Think the Samsung Galaxy S4 is pretty great? Things are only getting started, as several variants could be one their way in the near future.  The newest of these rumored devices is the Galaxy S4 Zoom. 

It is a variant of the yet to be released S4 Mini, but this handset’s special niche is the fact is will boast a 16 MP rear facing camera, with 10x optical zoom.  I’ll give you a minute to re-read that, yes 10x optical zoom.  That blows the Nokia 808 PureView’s miniscule 3x zoom out of the water.  According to Unwired View, this variant arrived for certification at the Bluetooth SIG this week under the model number SM-C101.

Samsung is making a run at a majority market share with all its variations of their Galaxy S4s (at least if rumors are to be believed).  They have brought to the table the mini for those that don’t want such a large screen.  Also a variant that is similar to the Xperia Z, made to be rugged and withstand the worst conditions that can be thrown at you, and now the S4 Zoom which will have amateur shutterbugs doing backflips at the possibility.

Thus far optical zoom was really the only thing traditional cameras had over the previously limited point and shoot cameras in mobile phones.  This will pave the way for a new standard in mobile phone cameras if it takes off like I’m sure it will.

This variation is rumored to land soon, maybe even as early as June according to some of the circulating rumors.  Keep your eyes open for more info on this handset.  It will surely be a hit with users serious about photography and those casual snappers alike.  What do you think about the Zoom?  Is this a technology that you would like to see on your phone, or should it be left to the handheld camera market?

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AT&T subscribers, listen up.  AT&T is now offering the long awaited Samsung Galaxy S4 on their US network.

The Samsung Galaxy S4 is a 32GB, 5 inch Super AMOLED 1920×1080 display with a quad core 1.9GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 processor running the show with 2 GB of RAM. It also has a super high quality 13 MP rear facing camera and 2 MP front facing camera.  What will this set you back you ask?  You can own one for a reasonable $249.99 with a new two year contract with AT&T.

That price is quite reasonable for this powerhouse of a phone.  What do you think of the Galaxy S4, how does it compare to other flagship handsets from brands like Nokia, Sony, Apple and HTC?

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Samsung is right now leading the smartphone race, so something big certainly should come from Apple if they have plans to reach the top again. Apple is expected to bring out their next iPhone at their worldwide developer conference in June. Further evidence that this is happening comes from reports claiming that suppliers are already making the display for the so-called iPhone 5S.

While other companies have already started the manufacturing, the next gen iPhone’s LCD displays from Sharp will enter production in June. All these developments are pointing to a possible launch sometime in June or July.

The iPhone 5S is expected to run iOS 7 and come with an updated processor, a fingerprint sensor, improved cam, and more RAM, among other additions. Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has earlier said that the device will take time to arrive due to delays in development of the fingerprint sensor and their next OS.

Meanwhile, the rumored low cost iPhone, which is expected to be unveiled beside the iPhone 5S, could enter mass production sometime in the near future. This has been suggested by a new rumor about Apple supplier Pegatron’s plans to increase its workforce in China by 40 percent in the second half of 2013.

As for their upcoming iPad Mini 2, it is expected to arrive with a high resolution Retina Display, which could delay the manufacturing of the device.

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BlackBerry devices have always been marketed as being very secure. It looks like the Department of Defense agrees. The DoD has officially approved the use of BlackBerry 10 devices, including the full lineup of the Z10, Q10 and the PlayBook, on its network.

This approval has come after earlier reports that the DoD was going to approve Apple iOS devices and some Samsung Galaxy handsets. While iOS 6 devices are expected to join BlackBerry 10 devices in being allowed in the next two weeks, devices running Samsung Knox, the South Korean company’s enterprise mobile solution, have already got the green light.

The Knox was earlier expected to be available with the S4, but later reports have pointed to the feature being available only by July. Samsung is certainly making a good effort, but BlackBerry is still the best when it comes to security.

Scott Totzke, SVP, BlackBerry Security at BlackBerry says: “BlackBerry 10 is ideal for our government customers because it offers a rich, highly responsive mobile computing experience, along with BlackBerry’s proven and validated security model – a combination that’s unmatched in the industry. This approval will enable DoD customers to connect their BlackBerry Z10 or BlackBerry Q10 smartphones to DoD networks and securely access assets from work, while enjoying the wealth of consumer-oriented functionality that BlackBerry 10 brings to market”.

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Samsung’s latest and greatest smartphone, the Galaxy S4, is currently available in two versions, one with a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 processor and another with the South Korean company’s own Exynos 5 Octa with 4 Cortex-A15 cores and 4 Cortex-A7 cores. With the Exynos 5 Octa, Samsung promises energy efficiency by switching between battery-saving Cortex-A7 and the high-performance Cortex-A15 cores. But it appears like the S4 is not using the best possible way to do the shifting.

You can see how things work with the Octa below.

The image that you see below shows how the cores should be working.

According to Developer AndreiLux, the Galaxy S4 currently switches all 4 cores between the two processors like a cluster rather than using core-pair shifting. The device appears to have arrived with lower level firmware.

AndreiLux says:

“Basically there are three modes of operation of big.LITTLE:

Cluster migration: When load rises, just like when a phone increases its frequency per DVFS, all the cores will jump from the LITTLE processor to the big one. You either have 4 A7 cores or 4 A15 cores online.

Core migration: When load rises, it will only jump those cores from the LITTLE processor whose load exceeds the capacity of the A7 cores: You can have a single A15 online with 3 A7′s on. Or any other combination of a total of 4 processors.

HMP (Heterogeneous Multi-Processing): This is a vastly more complex working mechanism, and its implementation is also an order of magnitude more sophisticated. It requires the kernel scheduler to actually be aware of the differentiation of between the A7 and A15 cores. Currently, the Linux kernel is not capable of doing this and treats all CPUs as equals. This is a problem since we do not want to use the A15 cores when a task can simply be processed on an A7 core with a much lower power cost”.

So when the A15 cores are activated, the battery will be killed faster. This might explain why some people are experiencing heating and battery drain problems with their S4s. But hopefully Samsung will release a software fix soon that could make the S4 more power efficient.

Head here if you are interested in reading more details about this find.

What are your thoughts about all this? Do you have plans to buy the S4? If you are using the device now, are you having power issues?

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Apple is still top dog when it comes to tablet market share, a pretty impressive feat for a company with only 2 tablet models to choose from, however they aren’t sitting quite as pretty as before as their share has slipped while rivals begin to catch up.

When the ‘tablet wars’ kicked off, the Apple iPad seemed all but unbeatable, but times have changed and the iPad mini came a little late to the party giving the likes of Samsung, Amazon, Asus and others the chance catch up with their pint-sized offerings. The shift in market share is quite dramatic with Apple slipping from a 65% share at the start of 2012 to just under 40% this year. In second place Samsung enjoys a 18% market share, with Asus and Amazon making up the rest and Microsoft coming 5th with 1.8%.

From what we have been seeing Apple’s share will continue to slip unless they really do something special with the iPad 5 and iPad mini 2, but even then it won’t be easy, as a new Nexus tablet is expected soon, along with more Samsung tablets on the way.

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While T-Mobile’s version of the Galaxy S4 already has an unofficial build of Cyanogenmod up and running on it, AT&T and several other carriers aren’t going to be so lucky, due to getting a version of the S4 with a locked bootloader.

The good news is that where there is a will, there is a way. Security researcher Dan Rosenberg has started working on a way to get past the bootloader lock on the Galaxy S4, something he now looks to have succeeded at.

Rosenberg already has custom recovery up and running on the phone, and could eventually have other tools like ClockWorkMod running as well. If all continues smootly, it will only be a matter of time before bootlocked Galaxy S4 owners in the United States have a way to to flash custom ROMs and other modding efforts.

Are you thinking about getting a Samsung Galaxy S4? If so, do you care about modding or do you prefer sticking to a stock ROM?

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