When the Samsung Galaxy Note hit the scene, the stylus was all-but extinct when it came to most modern mobile devices. Despite this, the Note brought new interest to touch-pens and even Apple seems to recognize there is a market for such a device.

Apple is now said to have filed a patent with the USPTO last week for an active stylus of their own, using the following words to describe their particular pen solution:

The stylus includes an electrode at a tip of the stylus; and powered circuitry coupled to the electrode and configured for capacitively coupling the electrode with a capacitive touch sensor panel. The powered circuitry can further include drive circuitry configured to output a drive voltage at the electrode and/or sense circuitry configured to sense a voltage received at the electrode.

Basically, the idea of Apple’s stylus is to improve sensing on conductive displays without having to be expensive to manufacture the new Apple pen. Not too long ago, Steve Jobs dismissed both the 7-inch tablet and the idea of the iPhone having a stylus. It’s amazing how time changes the way companies work and think.

With its smaller screen, I don’t know how well the iPhone would work with such a stylus, but it would work great with a future iPad or iPad Mini. Conversely, maybe Apple could branch out and have two iPhones, one with a bigger display and stylus? Probably not going to happen, but an interesting thought nonetheless.

Would you like to see Apple roll out a stylus-equipped iPhone or iPad?

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The Samsung Galaxy Note, oh what a debate this 5.3-inch Android smablet (smartphone-tablet) has created.  Some haters hate it, because, well, they love to hate things.  And others love it, mainly because of its beautiful bright display.  I’m going to address a few things with this review because in all honesty, we need to evolve the way we use “smart” devices.  And there are a lot of underlying issues that people just don’t talk about, or have a clue about. If we’re not using these devices with any sense, then we’re not really going to have the best experience in the long term.

The big hand problem. 

Some people, excluding myself, have gigantic hands.  They find the puny screen of an iPhone a burden to deal with.  Try sending a text without correcting every other word, it’s not going to happen, you get pissed off and you throw the phone at a wall.  One giant construction worker finger is the size of three manicured nerd fingers put together.  So there you have it; not everyone is made the same, and not everyone can use a 3.5-inch screen without trouble.

Gaming is golden.

If you love gaming on Android, the Galaxy note is the next best thing to a full-on tablet.  In fact, for many it may be better since the screen offers such a high-resolution, at 800 x 1280 on that 5.3-inches of real estate the graphics are going to be super crisp.  The design is small enough to fit in a pocket (not your shirt pocket) and easily pull out for a large and in charge session.  The dual-core 1.4GHz Cortex A9 CPU shouldn’t  be overlooked either.  That’s enough processing power to make the most out of your app experience.

Look stuper stupid. 

Holding this up to your head is going to look ridiculous, I will admit.  It’s a freaking giant smablet and I don’t care if you have a huge head, this thing is noticeably large and would likely induce spontaneous tourettial shouts of “freak” from any nearby watchers. But the big issue i’m going to talk about is not the size of the screen, it’s how you use it.  No but seriously, it’s SAR (Specific Absorption Rate): the rate at which radiation is absorbed by the human body. You see, the size of the Galaxy Note is actually a blessing in disguise.  When you hold up a cellphone to your head the brain gets confused and your frequencies get altered.  Since the brains software runs on electrochemical neuron signals, sometimes there’s interference.  You know how just before your cellphone rings you hear it in the car speaker, dat-dat-dat-dat-dat, well, the brain is much more sensitive than your car speakers.  And that dat-dat-dat-dat-dat is actually going to cause a duh-duh-duh-duh-duh instead.  It’s only now being shown that ADHD can be caused by cellphone use in utero. Shocking isn’t it?  And all this is on top of the already known tumor causing implications.  People have to understand that this is a mildly radioactive device, yes, r-a-d-i-o-a-c-t-i-v-e.  We know that radiation causes cancer, tumors, birth defects, and all that horrible stuff.  So what does the Galaxy Note offer?  Well, the ridiculous nature of holding this up to your head will hopefully stop you from holding it up to your head.  Yes, it’s as simple as that.  You’re going to use hands-free a heck-of-a-lot more, as well as a nice wired headset, and that’s about it.  We live primarily in an ego driven society and how things look is a big deal to many people, if you want to look cool you’re not going to hold a 5.3-inch monster phone up to your head. And by not holding it up to your head, you’re inadvertently saving your children and probably even yourself from having ADHD and tumors.  It’s a win win situation all around.

The Stylus. Oh the stylus.

Well, what can I say.  It’s a pen for your phone.  The app included is terrible, S Memo is laggy and often times unresponsive.  I found the sensitivity to be off and would skip entire letters of my script.  The games are neat, Crayon Physics is a good time waster “your aim is simply to move a red ball towards a star and collect it by drawing geometrical shapes that push the ball.”  It works well with the stylus, much better than S Memo, so i’m assuming that S Memo is just a poorly developed app and the hardware is totally functional and capable.

Speedy 4G/LTE.

Depending on the network and carrier, this phone can tap in to 4G/LTE. Speed tests were 9MB up and 16.4MB down averaged out on several tests. It’s definitely up there in terms of speed. There’s absolutely no lag web browsing and its snappy.

Form factor. 

The sheer giganticness of the Galaxy Note is wondrous.  You could call it the Android Playbook since it’s nearly there in screen size.  It’s super thin and that is what makes it a great device. If Apple were to make a 5-inch iPhone I would guarantee people would be lined up around the freaking mall.  Oh wait, people already line up no matter what crapple puts out.  Ok forget that notion.  But if Apple were really to make a 5-incher, you could imagine how amazing it would be, revolutionary, “your life will never be the same.”  Since it was Samsung and not Apple, you’re going to get the fanboys hating this device for everything its worth.  Some people have a notion that if Apple didn’t do it first, it isn’t right.  Whether they will admit that to you or not is another story, but the company is known for creating fanaticism amongst their users.  Why else would Ashton Kutcher play Steve Jobs?? That’s a big WTF if you ask me.  Ashton Kutcher is an amazing actor don’t get me wrong, but you can see what audience this movie is going to target already, and i’m pretty curious what kind of spin they will put on his biography.

Bottom Line

It’s a gigantic Android phone with a 5.3-inch screen.  One of the best Android devices Samsung has ever made. Once you use it, it will be hard as hell to go back to a small screen. And it’s fast as hell too, and the battery life is phenomenal with 2500 mAh of power. You would think it’d be terrible because the screen size just big, to the contrary. I streamed Money Masters for 3.5 hours over 4G full screen and still had 30% battery remaining. That’s impressive even from a regular sized smartphone standard.  I remember streaming the TechCrunch Disrupt keynote over 3G on a DROID 3 driving to San Francisco because I was late and that thing was nearly dead in 45 minutes.  If you’re in this for a big screen because you like to read websites without pinching and zooming all the time, you have gigantic bear paw hands and are sick and tired of punching in the wrong text, or all your friends have an iPhone 4 and you want to precipitate the size of their balls along with their presence, you’re going to love the Galaxy Note.

The post Samsung Galaxy Note Smablet Review appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

Remember that tablet/notebook cross which was shown off by Sony at CES earlier this year? The convertible concept tablet dubbed “Hybrid” looked interesting although there was no confirmation whether the company would work on the prototype for market launch. And now a new info suggests that Sony has plans for bringing out the QWERTY-equipped slider.

In case you were out cold during CES, Sony’s hybrid tablet is Windows powered and is suspected to feature Intel’s Clover Trail Atom chip. The device is also thought to be coming equipped with a stylus for the pen input.

A print advertisement for the device, which comes to us courtesy of Pocketnow, hints that Sony might be planning to launch the device under the Vaio U brand. Although a release date is not mentioned, the poster suggests that the device might arrive with some changes.

When compared to the prototype (see below), the device in the ad does not have a stylus holder at the front of the keyboard and it appears to have a larger bezel as well. It also looks a bit thicker. And it will be awesome if it runs Windows 8, if it’s coming that is.

We will let you know when more info arrives. In the meantime, you can take a peek at a few pictures of the Hybrid prototype here.

[Image Source]

The post Sony ‘Hybrid’ Prototype Tablet Might Arrive As VAIO U appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

As a quick refresher, this device comes with an extra large 5.3-inch WXGA HD Super AMOLED display backed with a 1.5GHz dual core processor.  It runs Android 2.3.6 Gingerbread and Samsung plans to update that to ICS later this quarter. A lot of the marketing asks you whether it’s a phone or a tablet, asserting that it’s really both. Holding the phablet (you like that?) in my hands, I did get the sense that it is a little too big, but I initially felt the same way about phones like the Galaxy S Captivate.

The build quality and industrial design is in line with the Galaxy S II and other phones in the Galaxy S smartphone series. Responsiveness was robust and using the stylus for sketching worked quite well too. I’m still not sold on the idea of a five-inch phone, but I think it’s starting to grow on me.

It’s been officially announced for AT&T in the United States and there was a big marketing campaign here in Las Vegas for the device, plastering on billboards and the sides of buses. The Samsung rep couldn’t officially say which carrier in Canada would get it (first), but he did confirm that it’s on its way to Canada too. My money’s on Bell, since they got the SII before anyone else, as well as the Galaxy Nexus.

The post CES: Hands-On With Samsung’s 5.3-inch Galaxy Note appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

Although there are many different stylus designs out there to choose from for the Apple iPad, we encourage you to check this one out. The jaja is the first ever pressure sensitive stylus for the iPad and it appears to be pretty impressive.

As you might agree, all the current iPad stylus designs are nothing much more than sticks and there aren’t any compelling reasons to use one instead of your finger. That is where the jaja comes in.

The jaja stylus comes with a new system developed by Silicon Spark called the “ii” system. This new system allows jaja to communicate the pressure that a user applies on the display. And you won’t need wires, Bluetooth or Wi-Fi.

The two customisable buttons on the stylus will allow you to select menus, and you will be able to change brushes, colors, fonts or tools and all that can be done without moving far from the drawing space.

For communicating with the iPad, the jaja uses high frequency sounds that are above human hearing but can be detected by the iPad microphone. The makers are promising 1,024 levels of pressure sensitivity, and the stylus has a transparent tip and a USB plug for quick recharging.

The jaja will retail for $69.95 once it gets funding from Kickstarter, and at present is available in black. Check out the video and head here to know more about it.

The post jaja Is The World’s First Pressure Sensitive iPad Stylus (Video) appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

HTC is bringing us the capacitive HD2; for those who don’t know – capacitive screens don’t work with a normal stylus (the plastic kind). They work by measuring a change in capacitance, (electrical charge) in your fingers or with this special stylus.  The one flaw I see is, there is no place to keep the stylus, I am sure I can figure something out. And if I do lose it, htcaccessorystore.com will gladly replace it for 17 quid (about $28).

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