Galaxy S 4 Dominates In Early Benchmark Testing

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Galaxy S 4 Dominates In Early Benchmark Testing

Posted by timothy on Tuesday March 19, 2013 @02:23AM from the competition-is-grand dept.

redkemper writes with an excerpt from BGR.com of interest to anyone in the market for a new phone: "Samsung's Galaxy S 4 might not offer much in the way of an exciting new exterior design, but inside, it's a completely different story. The retooled internals on the U.S. version of the Galaxy S 4 were put to the test by benchmark specialists Primate Labs and the results are impressive, to say the least. The Galaxy S 4 scored a 3,163 on the standard Geekbench 2 speed test, just shy of twice the iPhone 5's score of 1,596. That score was also good enough to top the upcoming HTC One, the Nexus 4 and the previous-generation Galaxy S III."

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funny thing is by etash · 2013-03-19 02:29 · Score: 3, Insightful

sgs 3 is better than iphone5 in that chart
1. Re:funny thing is by niftydude · 2013-03-19 02:39 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  sgs 3 is better than iphone5 in that chart
  The international sgs 3 is better, the US sgs 3 isn't.
  
  I was never sure why samsung put a slower soc in the phones that went to the US.
  
  --
  You can never know everything, and part of what you do know will always be wrong. Perhaps even the most important part.
2. Re:funny thing is by GNious · 2013-03-19 02:50 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  I'm more surprised that they were so close.... That's actually a vote in favour of the Apple offering, because Apple's slower processor with half the processing cores will use less battery....
  Is not quite that simple - the quad-core 1.4GHz might be able to finish some intensive operations significantly faster than the dual-core 1.3GHz, allowing it to go back to a low-power state earlier and save more battery.
3. Re:funny thing is by etash · 2013-03-19 02:55 · Score: 1
  
  yeah, look at the difference, one sgs3 is 4 core, the other 2 core, one would assume the difference wouldn't be just 300 points ( ~1700 vs ~1400 ). multicores are overrated in smartphones ( cpu )
4. Re:funny thing is by olsmeister · 2013-03-19 02:55 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  The faster Samsung processor used in the international versions didn't work with the 4G LTE that we have in the States.
5. Re:funny thing is by Nerdfest · 2013-03-19 02:59 · Score: 1
  
  It's not really that straight forward. For many tasks, multi-cores are under-rated, it just depends on the task and how the software is written. Multi-cores are not particularly helpful with single threaded applications though, true.
6. Re:funny thing is by alen · 2013-03-19 03:03 · Score: 1
  
  so why are the "slower" intel CPU's of today so much faster than the 4GHz monsters they sold 10 years ago?
7. Re:funny thing is by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · 2013-03-19 03:04 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  Qualcomm's "Snapdragon has good in-package support for cellular flavors in common use in the US. As can be seen in the wikipedia list, that puts them in quite a few US-release phones, even from people like Samsung who have their own SoCs.
8. Re:funny thing is by LordLimecat · 2013-03-19 03:55 · Score: 1
  
  because Apple's slower processor with half the processing cores will use less battery....
  Thats not a for sure unless its been shown. I thought everyone would know by now that you cant just compare mhz to mhz across CPU families?
  Quick, Ivy Bridge 3.4 GHz vs AMD 3.1GHz-- who will use less power? Pentium 4 2.8 vs Piledriver 2.4GHz-- which is faster?
9. Re:funny thing is by SpaceMonkies · 2013-03-19 04:00 · Score: 1
  
  The CPU can only have 4 active cores at a time. There are 4 high-power and 4 low-power cores, with the idea that you can use the slower cores for most tasks and save battery, but have power when you need it.
10. Re:funny thing is by realityimpaired · 2013-03-19 04:01 · Score: 1
  
  Is not quite that simple - the quad-core 1.4GHz might be able to finish some intensive operations significantly faster than the dual-core 1.3GHz, allowing it to go back to a low-power state earlier and save more battery.
  In theory, yes. In practice, if that were going to be a significant factor, then wouldn't the benchmark show a significantly higher score than the 1.4GHz quad? The two were close enough to make me wonder, is all.
11. Re:funny thing is by ahabswhale · 2013-03-19 04:03 · Score: 1
  
  Maybe that's true, in theory. But in my experience with both android and iOS is that iOS ALWAYS has more battery life that android. It's more noticeable the larger the device. My iPad outlasts my Nexus 7 by such a large margin that it's a joke. My Nexus 7 spends more time charging than it does being used (and that's not an exaggeration).
  Apple just does battery life better. I've never seen a case where any android device beats it unless you get into outliers like the Motorola Maxx phones which have crazy huge batteries in them.
  
  --
  Are agnostics skeptical of unicorns too?
12. Re:funny thing is by noh8rz10 · 2013-03-19 04:16 · Score: 1
  
  this just in: new smart phone faster than smart phones released 6mo/1yr ago. Film at 11.
13. Re:funny thing is by noh8rz10 · 2013-03-19 04:21 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  but simply the fact that more expensive device that came out, what, 6 months later, performs less well. Most end users would probably be a bit suprised to find that out given that they'd expect the more expensive device to perform better, especially when it was so much newer.
  I'm so over this meme. all new top-shelf cell phones cost the same. $199 with contract. All cheap bargain bin cell phones cost the same. there is no such thing as "iphone more expensive than galaxy s"
  
  You may not be an Apple fangirl, but you're obviously comfortable being a bit dishonest with the truth when it comes to Samsung, so fangirl or not, you're still a twat.
  thank you, what was missing from this conversation was a bit of misogyny.
14. Re:funny thing is by rjr162 · 2013-03-19 04:29 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  Faster in some senses.. the dual core did better in some areas than the quad-core (due to the faster clock speed even if it isn't a massive clock-speed jump). I have a Quad-Core international (since my wireless carrier doesn't have LTE and is going HSPA+ instead) vs some of the people I know who have the dual-core US one.. (one of which said they thought the screen on my international seemed clearer than their US one although I think that was in their head)
15. Re:funny thing is by mhsobhani · 2013-03-19 04:30 · Score: 1
  
  You're surprised that a quad core 1.4GHz processor outperforms a dual core 1.3GHz processor?
  I'm more surprised that they were so close....
  Quad what core? ARM CORTEX-A9
  Dual what core? ARM CORTEX-A15
  Does clock speed matter? Not as much as architecture when they are clocked at nearly the same speed.
  
  --
  Trust me, I'm an engineer.
16. Re:funny thing is by blakelarson · 2013-03-19 04:36 · Score: 1
  
  Can that be attributed to screen size alone? Independent of mobile OS?
17. Re:funny thing is by aztracker1 · 2013-03-19 04:43 · Score: 1
  
  Most well-written software should be threaded and evented... the front end should run in a separate thread from backend processing, with updates coming from state snapshots... Not a huge number of threads, but even a few can breakup workflow and logic so you can scale. The biggest issues is a lot of less-skilled developers make a *LOT* of mistakes in dealing with multiple threads, where you are best off really understanding race conditions, and/or keeping common points immutable with atomic changes, and making a local reference to the existing immutable state before trying to read against it.
  
  --
  Michael J. Ryan - tracker1.info
18. Re:funny thing is by aztracker1 · 2013-03-19 04:54 · Score: 2
  
  I would posit that it depends on the applications running... iOS is much more integrated than Android... by the same token, Windows Phone 7 had really good battery life, and reasonable performance on much lesser CPUs, but that's because most applications were hibernated before switching tasks... Of course complaints were pretty significant.
  
  Also, many android apps include spyware services that run in the background (which is why I try to pay a lot of attention to them), why does a flashlight app need full access to my SD storage? iOS has much better curation of their app store. I think that analysis of apps will improve for both platforms, but it will take time. I also think that hybridizing the CPUs into fast/slow modes will continue to improve. Mfg process shrinking is going to continue to slow and get more creative in how to improve performance.
  
  I think that 2000-3000mA micro-usb chargers will become much more common place, so charging mid-day will be less of an issue... just got one for my car (was using a dual port 1000mA charger, swapped for a dual-port 3000mA charger. So I don't think that battery life (as long as you get 6+ hours out of a heavily used device) is as big an issue. I also have a Qi (chi) charger on my desk at work, which works really well if your phone supports it. Though even without charging, I usually get almost two days of use from my phone on a charge (Nexus 4, I don't interact with it much).
  
  --
  Michael J. Ryan - tracker1.info
19. Re:funny thing is by cristiroma · 2013-03-19 05:37 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  Huh!? Your first assumption is incorrect!
  Listening to music while system is checking the email in background and you browse a site IS taking advantage of multicore systems on desktop OR a phone, as long as the OS scheduler is multi-core aware. Phones are multicore to accomplish such parallel tasks.
  Applications don't need to be aware of multicore. OS scheduler will take care of that.
20. Re:funny thing is by noh8rz10 · 2013-03-19 05:41 · Score: 1
  
  when a slashdot poster identifies herself as female, you call her a twat. that's misogynistic - tearing down the GP because she's female. same way if a slashdot poster identified himself as black, and you said "you're a n*" or if a poster identified himself as gay you say "you're a f*"
  
  so, yes, it's misogynistic, racist, etc.
21. Re:funny thing is by noh8rz10 · 2013-03-19 06:06 · Score: 1
  
  wait a minute, never mind, the GP post throws around twats first, so fuck it, whatever. I still stand behind the price thing. also, so what one phone has more hertz than the other? show me what you can do with it, and how you can do it faster on one phone than the other. websurfing speed? angry birds? dropped calls? what else matters?
22. Re:funny thing is by ahabswhale · 2013-03-19 06:16 · Score: 1
  
  Fair question. I don't think so though because even before Android got enormous, they always seemed to lack battery.
  
  --
  Are agnostics skeptical of unicorns too?
23. Re:funny thing is by Andy+Dodd · 2013-03-19 06:26 · Score: 1
  
  They are very different cores.
  The US SGS3 variants have a dual Qualcomm Krait. The international SGS3 variant is quad Cortex-A9.
  Krait is capable of significantly higher performance at a given clock speed than Cortex-A9 - it's capable of close to the speeds of a Cortex-A15 core at a given clock speed.
  
  --
  retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
24. Re:funny thing is by gl4ss · 2013-03-19 06:50 · Score: 1
  
  sgs 3 is better than iphone5 in that chart
  The international sgs 3 is better, the US sgs 3 isn't.
  I was never sure why samsung put a slower soc in the phones that went to the US.
  because you're(assuming) stupid enough to buy the shit US operators sell you on partial payment plans on their quirky networks they like to choose quirky tech for so that it's harder for you to switch operators and harder to buy phones from open market.
  
  --
  world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
25. Re:funny thing is by timeOday · 2013-03-19 07:13 · Score: 1
  
  They're not. In single-thread performance, the very fastest CPU (Xeon E3 1290 v2) at 3.7 GHz (2178 Passmark) is only 2.5x the speed of the Pentium 4 3.8 GHz (866 PassMark) from almost 10 years ago! Going down another factor of 2.5x puts you at the P4 1.5 GHz (344 Passmark), which was released only 4 years before that, in 2000.
  Put another way, if you go back 10 years from the P4 3.8GHz in 2004, you are at the Pentium 75 in 1994. I don't even know where to find a single benchmark to compare the two! The performance difference would be more like 20x, not 2.5x. Intel went from the P75 to the P200 in 20 months, and that was a bigger increase in single-core performance than we've seen in the last decade.
  Increases in IPC are very small compared to what we enjoyed as clock speed ramped up.
26. Re:funny thing is by noh8rz10 · 2013-03-19 07:38 · Score: 1
  
  hey Michael Scott: "You don't call retarded people retards, it's bad taste. You call your friends retards when they're acting retarded". I can't help you if you don't understand basic social concepts.
27. Re:funny thing is by Anonymous Coward · 2013-03-19 07:54 · Score: 1
  
  Probably not...the iPhone has always been significantly better when it comes to battery life, even before Android vendors started selling tablet phones. And an LTE iPad Mini is also significantly better than Android phones and tablets of similar size.
  I don't think it's a coincidence. Time and time again, you see Apple making design decisions with battery life, power consumption and recharging in mind. They significantly inconvenienced users by introducing the lightning connector, but damn if it doesn't charge much faster than the old 30-pin did and even faster than the micro-USB connectors that Android devices use. They don't really allow background processes the way that Android does. They don't have removable batteries. All these are design tradeoffs made with battery life and charging in mind. It shouldn't be a surprise that iOS outpaces Android in this metric when the software and hardware are designed to do this well.
28. Re:funny thing is by noh8rz10 · 2013-03-19 08:01 · Score: 1
  
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9sjuBF0-sRE. who is misusing language? do you go around calling women twats? is your mom a twat? is your wife a twat? you see how casual calling women twats may discourage women from posting to slashdot? This is dumb.
29. Re:funny thing is by RocketRabbit · 2013-03-19 08:15 · Score: 1
  
  Calling a person a twat is an effective insult. It's not as if I would go around using the words woman and twat interchangeably. One is a purely descriptive, non-offensive word. The other is deliberately used in an insulting manner.
  Look at what I said to you before - "You just come off like a twat when you engage in this kind of misuse of language." Now it wouldn't make much sense to me to merely replace twat with woman in that sentence. It would remove the deliberately insulting feel, invalidating the whole point of the sentence!
  I think you are deliberately misunderstanding my intentions here. My intention WAS to be insulting, precisely by the use of the word twat. I don't refer to women as twats often, and when I do it is deliberate, and it should be especially insulting. There was nothing casual about it.
  I'm sure there are men who go around using the word twat in place of woman on a casual basis, and I agree that is misogynistic. Simply calling you a twat for deliberately misusing the language, and then going further by deliberately misunderstanding my point is not misogyny, though - it is merely an insult.
30. Re:funny thing is by shutdown+-p+now · 2013-03-19 08:20 · Score: 1
  
  This would be because Apple does not permit as many things to run in the background as Android does. But, consequently, it limits the functionality of apps developed for iOS.
31. Re:funny thing is by noh8rz10 · 2013-03-19 08:21 · Score: 1
  
  perhaps this is a cultural thing? are you british or something? In US you never hear twat, and the closest synonym is c*nt, which is deeply offensive.
32. Re:funny thing is by ahabswhale · 2013-03-19 08:37 · Score: 1
  
  I don't run anything in the background of my android devices other than email fetching. So, that doesn't fly.
  
  --
  Are agnostics skeptical of unicorns too?
33. Re:funny thing is by RocketRabbit · 2013-03-19 08:38 · Score: 1
  
  Yes, cunt, twat, they are both essentially used in the same way - as a deliberate insult. By the way I am in the USA.
  My point though, is that it isn't misogynistic to insult a woman using one of these powerful words, unless the motivation for it is an actual hatred or resentment of women in general. For example, if I said, "but you couldn't understand that because you're just a dumb cunt" it would be misogynistic, however, if I said "you're being a cunt because you misused a word" it isn't misogynistic.
  I hope this is helpful, it should allow you to both insult people, and take insults, without getting indignant about possible misogyny.
34. Re:funny thing is by kaatochacha · 2013-03-19 08:46 · Score: 1
  
  People need to take offense less. That way, when something TRULY offensive comes along, shouting "I'm offended!" doesn't sound so meaningless.
35. Re:funny thing is by cheater512 · 2013-03-19 09:07 · Score: 2
  
  Erm the GP's point was older phone is faster than the new 'more fashionable' phone.
36. Re:funny thing is by metrix007 · 2013-03-19 10:01 · Score: 1
  
  It's my experience that the general user interface is significantly more responsive, so it makes for a much nicer user experience. I've noticed this on the Galaxy Nexus compared against the Nexus 4. I own the former, and noticed a much more fluid experience on the latter. Both had the same versions of Android. Not to mention gpu intensive games such as racing games can get a huge boost in looking pretty.
  
  --
  If you ignore ACs because they are anonymous - you're an idiot.
37. Re:funny thing is by niftydude · 2013-03-19 10:45 · Score: 1
  
  because you're(assuming) stupid enough to buy the shit US operators sell you on partial payment plans on their quirky networks they like to choose quirky tech for so that it's harder for you to switch operators and harder to buy phones from open market.
  Big assumption! it's been over 10 years since I last worked/lived in the US. I don't have the US sgs 3. and I always buy my phones unlocked and outright, not from carriers.
  
  You are right on about the stuff you said about the stuff US telcos peddle though.
  
  --
  You can never know everything, and part of what you do know will always be wrong. Perhaps even the most important part.
38. Re:funny thing is by node+3 · 2013-03-19 11:30 · Score: 1
  
  Except it's not worse, it's just slower (except in the US) in one benchmark.
  But you are right that most people don't care about that. They care about the experience in using it, which explains why the iPhone 5 outsells the Galaxy S3. It explains why the iPhone 4S outsells the Galaxy S3. It also explains why the iPhone 4 outsells the Galaxy S3.
39. Re:funny thing is by samoanbiscuit · 2013-03-19 11:52 · Score: 1
  
  Here's what your logic is missing shitface: you're using a word for female genitalia as an insult. When you do this, you're basically saying that being female, or possessing a vagina, is an insulting state of existence. Gendered slurs, they don't say good things about the people that use them.
40. Re:funny thing is by trentfoley · 2013-03-19 12:36 · Score: 1
  
  Put simply, multi-processing is not multi-threading
41. Re:funny thing is by noh8rz10 · 2013-03-19 13:27 · Score: 1
  
  higher-level question: what's the purpose of your words? what meaning are you trying to convey? when you call someone a twat on slashdot, your intended meaning is for it to be a generic put-down, but your meta-meaning is that you want slashdot to be men only, and women better go elsewhere. same when you call people faggy. "I mean faggy to be a generic insult! (btw real fags gtfo we don't want you here.)"
  
  just because you pretend to be ignorant of the power of language doesn't make it less powerful. I would also venture to guess you are not so much ignorant as willfully obtuse.
  
  final thought: let's say you're writing a post, and you have chosen to denigrate someone using a slur rather than make an insightful point. So you reach to your quiver of slurs and pull one out. Would you choose a slur like asshole or wanker that holds no greater meaning, or do you choose a word that is particularly hurtful to a particular community. And why did you choose what you chose?
  
  Ultimately, in our lives, we have the opportunity to hurt people or not hurt people by the slightest of actions (such as which slur we choose). Since the difference between actions is so slight, why not choose the one that causes less pain? No skin off your nose. This sounds like a nice way to live.
42. Re:funny thing is by noh8rz10 · 2013-03-19 13:34 · Score: 1
  
  it's not about being offended. All I'm saying, let's try to act in a way that makes slashdot a place where the greatest number of people feel welcome to participate, thus creating a vibrant community. If slashdot is a vibrant community, then the discussions will be better and there will be better articles and it all gets better. Isn't that what you want, too?
43. Re:funny thing is by RocketRabbit · 2013-03-19 14:01 · Score: 1
  
  Yes, a powerful insult like cunt is a useful word to use as an insult. This doesn't mean that the user hates womankind, just that they are expressing disdain for a certain woman.
  Do you get all huffy when somebody calls a guy a dick?
44. Re:funny thing is by RocketRabbit · 2013-03-19 14:10 · Score: 1
  
  I think you have an overly broad definition of misogyny. By calling an insult "unthinking" you are ignoring my point, that I choose the word deliberately to convey a powerful insult. Misogyny is a revilement of women, and having a specific beef with one woman, and using a powerful and deeply offensive insult does not make one a misogynist.
  Again, this is a big problem in our society. Calling somebody sexist, or antisemitic, or racist, or whatnot has lost meaning because people are defining the terms in an overly-broad fashion. You may feel that the use of a certain insult makes a person into one of these things I listed above, but this doesn't make it so. Insults, when well-chosen, should be deeply offensive and specific insults for different races, genders, etc. are very useful verbal weapons.
  I'm not offended personally that people have mistaken these terms for something else, in a personal way. It's more of a general disdain for people who not only dilute the language by altering the meaning of words, and a specific disdain for individuals who would attempt to make the user of a particular insult into some kind of monster by insinuating things that just aren't so. By suggesting that I (or somebody else) has been sexist by using a term specifically designed to be offensive to a particular class of person (race, gender, etc) by ACCIDENT is offensive to me because I have chosen these words deliberately. There are only a few swear or offensive words left in our language that have the power to deeply offend, and the use of these, when deliberate, can be quite effective. Insensitivity or sexism or whatnot has nothing to do with it - in fact it's quite the opposite! Realizing that people are sensitive to the use of these words is what makes them powerful, and using them sensitively is a skill and a privilege.
45. Re:funny thing is by AmiMoJo · 2013-03-19 14:17 · Score: 1
  
  Android has a handy feature that tells you which apps are using the most energy. Having background apps is a huge benefit as it allows background syncing and better push notifications.
  You can of course disable background sync, it's up to you if you want the battery life or convince. Or just get a good phone/external battery and have both.
  
  --
  const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
  SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
46. Re:funny thing is by RocketRabbit · 2013-03-19 14:26 · Score: 1
  
  By attempting to read a broad sexist agenda from the use of an offensive term is a bit paranoid. I'm happy to have anybody on slashdot who wants to be here. As the old saying goes, nobody knows you're a dog on the internet! Faggot or fag is an interesting case study, as historically it has meant a bundle of sticks, an old woman, and a gay man. Now it's like "nigga" or "nigger" wherein one group has started using what is an offensive term when used by an outsider from the group, as a vernacular to refer to themselves. This is ironic to me, but I can see the logic in it.
  You're deliberately misunderstanding me when you accuse me of pretending to be ignorant of the power of language. I explained quite clearly, that the deliberate choice of these offensive words makes an insult more effective precisely because I am aware of the impact of such a word. I'm not being obtuse, I'm being plain-spoken which I believe is a virtue that has been left largely by the wayside.
  I typically reserve insults for people who have decided to use them first. In such a case, I believe that it behooves me to up the ante and really try to be insulting. Taking advantage of a certain person's sensitivity to certain terms allows a more powerful and effective insult, whether the word has racial or sexist or etc. overtones that pertain to their particular individuality. It doesn't designate a hatred for others who happen to fall into the same category or categories, it is simply a sharper verbal weapon. The skill of insulting has taken a rather disappointing turn, both because of the dilution of the power of certain words, and because certain words are thought to be verboten lest one be labeled insensitive or politically incorrect. That saddens me, and this is why I endeavor to use the most offensive terms possible when crafting a deliberate insult. We should all take part in a rejuvenation of our language, instead of letting it become duller over time. Specific, targeted insult is a great tradition, and can be quite fun as well!
  As I said before I have tried as plainly as possible to explain why I enjoy using certain deeply offensive words - it is because they have power and make for a better insult. If you start with the premise that insults are designed to cause pain, why not choose the most painful ones? After all, if the intention isn't to cause pain, then why bother with insults in the first place?
  I enjoy talking about subjects like this one, because there is so much wishy-washy political correctness in our daily lives. I hope I have been able to explain to you, with clarity, my opinion on insults. You may not agree but at least you should take away from this that the use of them in special circumstances doesn't automatically make one bigoted - it's only when one uses then to express disdain for the entire group that takes offense at a term that bigotry enters the picture. At least, that's how I see it.
47. Re:funny thing is by RocketRabbit · 2013-03-19 14:33 · Score: 1
  
  An insult should be offensive, this is my whole point. I'm disappointed when people take offense less easily, because it narrows the choice of insulting words, which after all are designed to be insulting!
48. Re:funny thing is by RocketRabbit · 2013-03-19 14:36 · Score: 1
  
  I don't see anything particularly unwelcoming about Slashdot to women, simply because one cockbag calls a woman a cunt. An insult should be offensive. I would argue that, contrary to your view, I feel that trading insults makes Slashdot a more vibrant community. The hilarious insults embedded in the commentary here is one thing that keeps me coming back. After all, an insult should be finely crafted to deliver the biggest impact - anything less is mere laziness.
49. Re:funny thing is by noh8rz10 · 2013-03-19 14:42 · Score: 1
  
  thank you for your response, because it really clarifies the issue into a single question. given the option to hurt people more or hurt people less or not try to hurt them at all, why do you put so much energy in trying to find words that will cause the most hurt? apart from the drain on your own life, wouldn't you want to live in a world where people tried to avoid inflicting maximal wounds on each other? And wouldn't you want to be part of the change to make the world better?
  
  I used to think like you, "grr nobody can tell me what to do or what to think, I'll keep doing what I want, fuck them!" but when I stopped to think about it I realized there was an easier and better way to be.
50. Re:funny thing is by noh8rz10 · 2013-03-19 14:48 · Score: 1
  
  I'm glad you strain so many grey cells to come up with real zingers like "twat." anything less would be laziness! Keep up the good work, Jerry Seinfeld!
51. Re:funny thing is by RocketRabbit · 2013-03-19 14:55 · Score: 1
  
  You've deliberately missed another one of the points I thought I made clear. We're fast running out of deeply offensive words because of the dilution of the impact of them. Twat or cunt are words that retain a certain amount of power here. It'd be nice if noodlebrain or asshole were still potent terms, but alas they are hardly offensive any more.
  It's kind of sad that just because I didn't become putty in your hands, and refused to acknowledge the validity of some of your points, that you have chosen to take this conversation into a less thoughtful place. Or, more succinctly, don't act like a cunt just because I blew sand up your vagina.
52. Re:funny thing is by samoanbiscuit · 2013-03-19 15:14 · Score: 1
  
  This doesn't mean that the user hates womankind, just that they are expressing disdain for a certain woman.
  Listen up Captain Clueless, when someone uses a word for a woman's genitalia to insult a certain woman, they're definitely not doing it because they think woman as a group are wonderful people. It's like when straight people say "I don't care if you're gay, just don't be a faggot!", or when white people say "I don't care that you're black, just don't be a nigger.". Whatever their justifications, it's obvious that this person is not your friend, they imagine themselves above you, able to judge you as a representative of your group, and will move against you or hurt you if they think they can get away with it. A woman/gay person/black person that agrees with this line of thought ("don't be a "), has internalized a lot of self-hatred.
  
  Do you get all huffy when somebody calls a guy a dick?
  Yes I do. Like I said, using gendered insults says a lot more about the person using them than the person being insulted.
53. Re:funny thing is by noh8rz10 · 2013-03-19 15:14 · Score: 1
  
  and you missed a point about language and communication. A "good insult" is not a slur. that is the laziest way, like maturbating. so for you to throw around twat and cunt, then complain when they don't have the intended effect, is like verbally masturbating and getting upset when the target of your insults doesn't get off too. "was it good for you?" umm, no.
54. Re:funny thing is by RocketRabbit · 2013-03-19 16:20 · Score: 1
  
  I'm not saying that all insults have to be creative, just that they should have an impact and cause shock or offense. Anyway a slur is a form of insult, and can be particularly effective.
55. Re:funny thing is by cristiroma · 2013-03-19 21:10 · Score: 1
  
  Really? My desktop is currently running two virtual machines, one with Oracle, the other with Windows, has 16GB or RAM (not 256K) and i7 with quad-core hyperthreading. I have my email started, my development environment and also I have servers started inside console. All this, while I run hundreds of unit tests.
  How many core do you think it would be enough?
  Maybe I'm not average user, but average user HAS THE CHOICE to buy a Pentium 4 with 2GB, instead of a Xeon for his PC, and same thing for the phone. I'm convinced that over 90% of smart phone users are buying to brag with it instead of exploiting its features (at least from what I observed here).
  But there are some which use GPS to track their runnign etc.
56. Re:funny thing is by Entropius · 2013-03-20 03:23 · Score: 2
  
  Actually, that's because the Android market is so fragmented. There are no iOS phones other than iPhones. There are very, very many Android devices, and the S3 has a fraction of the Android market.
57. Re:funny thing is by RocketRabbit · 2013-03-20 14:51 · Score: 1
  
  It's ironic to hear about vibrant communities from a person who is riding multiple troll accounts. This is pretty unwholesome behavior. Are you a paid troll or are you just bored?
58. Re:funny thing is by RocketRabbit · 2013-03-20 15:01 · Score: 1
  
  Using gendered or racist insults can be hilarious. The fact that they still retain their potency and cause deep offense makes them even more enjoyable. Insults should be potent and the thin skin of people these days, with regards to certain words, makes gendered, racist, etc. insults very useful.
59. Re:funny thing is by noh8rz10 · 2013-03-20 15:41 · Score: 1
  
  who pays trolls? that's the dumbest shit i've heard.
60. Re:funny thing is by samoanbiscuit · 2013-03-20 17:43 · Score: 1
  
  Yes, keep thinking it's because people have thin skin, and not that they're being insulted based on their group all their lives, while you are not.
61. Re:funny thing is by RocketRabbit · 2013-03-21 06:44 · Score: 1
  
  You have no idea if that's true or not. On the Internet we are all black, wheelchair bound lesbians with a lazy eye.
But not the Z10? by blither · 2013-03-19 02:30 · Score: 1, Redundant

No mention of BlackBerry's new phone?
Would be interesting to see that comparison.
1. Re:But not the Z10? by Junta · 2013-03-19 02:34 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  You mean like they did, right in the article? It comes up just shy of iPhone 5.
  
  --
  XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
2. Re:But not the Z10? by Anonymous Coward · 2013-03-19 02:38 · Score: 1
  
  Excellent job looking at the chart in TFA.
3. Re:But not the Z10? by Mattcelt · 2013-03-19 02:42 · Score: 1
  
  This raises an interesting question: is there a suitable replacement for blackberry for the enterprise yet? None of the phones systems/solution I've seen have anything resembling the BES (Blackberry Enterprise Server) and encryption for email, etc. What will be the successor to BB in the enterprise?
4. Re:But not the Z10? by David_Hart · 2013-03-19 02:49 · Score: 2
  
  Ummm... Blackberry....
  Seriously, all of the other vendors, with perhaps the exception of Microsoft, have been focused on home users, not the enterprise. So, I guess the answer should be Microsoft, but Blackberry still has the better enterprise solution.
5. Re:But not the Z10? by alen · 2013-03-19 02:51 · Score: 2
  
  umm samsung and apple
  BB might own the super secret enterprise market, but most of it is gone. apple and samsung are more than good enough for most corporate email
6. Re:But not the Z10? by gordo3000 · 2013-03-19 02:57 · Score: 1
  
  I'm in finance (about as regulated for email as you get) and we use iphone, ipad, and android for work email now (as well as bb). So when I'm in country, I don't carry my bb anymore, just my personal as I can check the email via the Good app. I'd ditch the bb but I'm on international business often enough and if I do, my company won't pick up the tab for my calls and roaming data while on business.
7. Re:But not the Z10? by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · 2013-03-19 03:12 · Score: 2
  
  Microsoft is sort of a funny one: their attempt to push Windows Mobile devices into Blackberry's market back in the day was largely a failure, and is totally dead now; but did manage to win 'Activesync' enough support among enterprise admins as the 'Hey guys! we are totally kinda, sorta, adequately endurable compared to BES!' alternative that devices from Apple and the droid crowd that support it were able to absolutely brutalize Blackberry in ways that Windows Mobile was never able to, and Windows Phone seems to be making a rather tepid attempt to.
8. Re:But not the Z10? by segoy · 2013-03-19 04:52 · Score: 1
  
  Blackberry offers BES for iOS and Android (I think): http://us.blackberry.com/business/software/bes.html
Great! by zhvihti · 2013-03-19 02:31 · Score: 3, Interesting

Considering this is the US version with Qualcomm chips, the results for the international one with Exynos should be even better.
1. Re:Great! by Impy+the+Impiuos+Imp · 2013-03-19 06:02 · Score: 1
  
  I want the octocore one even if each core is a little bit slower. I has a sad it apparently won't be available in the US.
  
  --
  (-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
2. Re:Great! by gutnor · 2013-03-19 06:40 · Score: 1
  
  Well that would be interesting to wait for the benchmark. The Exynos contains 2 set of 4 cores: 4 slower set for battery optimising and 4 faster for CPU intensive application. The speed difference may not be that important, by design, the battery should be the main difference between the 2 (with the 8-core being significantly better). That make sense btw, with modern phones, your main concerned is keeping it powered, not really CPU speed.
It's a friggin' phone by TWX · 2013-03-19 02:31 · Score: 4, Insightful

I've had two smartphones now, the T-Mobile G1/HTC Dream, and the Samsung Galaxy SII. It's not about the phone speed, it's about the applications and the connectivity. If my wife's Palm T|X was a phone and had the ability to synch to a server automagically like Android does with Google's applications, she'd probably still be using it. Having the web is nice, but having the e-mail, calendar, contact list, music player, e-book reader, camera, picture viewer, and calculator are what make the device so useful. For me, it's a tool first and foremost, and the toy gadgets aren't what make it why I carry it.

--
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
1. Re:It's a friggin' phone by TWX · 2013-03-19 03:34 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  (I hate the "preview/submit" feature, seem to lose a lot of posts that way, this is a retype)
  
  To use your example against you, I started a new position as an infrastructure specialist a year ago, working with someone with 13 years experience at the same company. I got outfitted with a new Ryobi 18V tool set so that he and I could share batteries with his decade-old 18V Ryobi tool set. The power drill from his set has places for two bits, the plastic housing is sturdy, and the bit holders don't lose their bits easily. My new one has a flimsy plastic housing the deforms under pressure, has only one position to store a bit, and the bit frequently pops out. The only new feature on my drill is a little LED that's supposed to shine on the work area while the drill is in use, but that feature is negated by the need to use bit extensions to reach into wire management and server racks with equipment protruding.
  
  So, newer is definitely not always better, even when the newer product is a direct successor-in-market to the old product. The Dodge Aspen and Plymouth Volaré were arguably worse cars than the Dodge Dart and Plymouth Valiant that they replaced. The Netbook type of computer was a lesser product than the Subnotebook type it replaced. The modern Craftsman any-fastener wrench is a lesser product than the 12pt wrench as while it technically fits everything, it fits nothing especially well.
  
  --
  Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
2. Re:It's a friggin' phone by tlhIngan · 2013-03-19 04:03 · Score: 2
  
  paper specs
  iphone has always needed less CPU/RAM resources than android. i have a droid pro i carry for work and my wife's old iphone 4 with only 128MB or RAM was a much better phone
  I'm actually surprised the S4 only scores twice as much as the iPhone 5. Given the latter is still just a dual core 1.3GHz processor. The S4 is a 4+4 ("octacore" if you want to believe the marketing) running at 1.5-1.8GHz. Geekbench takes cores into account, so it should be much more than double the iPhone 5.
  I suppose they could've tested the Snapdragon version (North American model) which is only quadcore.
  But looking at the spec sheets, I would expect the S4 to be much faster than the iPhone. Hell, it's like comparing an i5 dual core with a quadcore i7 processor - of course the latter will outperform the former, especially in synthetic tests like Geekbench.
  It's like some threads I saw that said Android phones render webpages 50% faster than an iPhone. Well, duh, if you throw raw processing power at the problem, that should be the case.
  Android phones have ALWAYS outclassed the iPhone on the spec sheet. More RAM. More CPU. More this and that - been true since the iPhone 3G and the HTC G1. The iPhone 5 is also the first iPhone to break the 1GHz barrier on CPU speed - something that has been done on Android with the Droid or so ages ago. And the iPhone 5 also has 1GB of RAM, something Android phones have had for years before as well.
  Frankly, has it even been useful to compare? The iPhone is always inferior hardware wise. Always has been, and unless something happens to change that, always will.
  What's next, the Tegra 4 Android tablets outrun the iPad? Duh - the Tegra 4 tablets would have way more CPU horsepower (again, quad vs. dual core, or I think the Tegra has 4+4 now?).
3. Re:It's a friggin' phone by monkeyhybrid · 2013-03-19 05:41 · Score: 1
  
  Just to correct one point, the iPhone 4 has 512MB RAM.
4. Re:It's a friggin' phone by Solandri · 2013-03-19 09:14 · Score: 1
  
  At this point I think it's fairly obvious that your phone is going to become your PC. Regular PCs (first desktops and now laptops) have gotten fast enough to where even a low-end version can do everything 99% of people want. The greatest optimization that's left on desktops and laptops is reducing size and power consumption. Whereas the optimizations that still matter on phones (nee PDAs) are speed, size, and power consumption.
  
  So not it's not just a friggin phone. It's a computer. And it's well on its way to becoming your PC. The way I see it playing out is that your phone will carry the CPU, RAM, and storage. If you need a tablet, you can carry a bigger screen (probably a flexible one you can roll up into a pen-sized cannister) and the phone will transmit the display to it wirelessly. If you need a laptop, in addition to the screen you can tote along a bluetooth keyboard and mouse which will also connect to your phone.
5. Re:It's a friggin' phone by wiredlogic · 2013-03-19 12:55 · Score: 1
  
  I don't know why they can't fix the lag on the submissions around here. It's been like that for 10+ years. I always copy the text before a preview or submit just in case /. forgets about me.
  
  --
  I am becoming gerund, destroyer of verbs.
6. Re:It's a friggin' phone by exomondo · 2013-03-19 14:07 · Score: 1
  
  At least with the G4 it's something actually functional. With Apple it's just hubris and appearances.
  I hope it has decent scrolling in the web browser, I'm not much into apps - at least nothing that isn't available across pretty much all mobile platforms - but I mainly use the web browser (Chrome) and document apps (built-in pdf reader) and on Android 4.2 on my Nexus 7 they are sluggish, there is just too much scroll/pan lag compared to my iphone 5. I really want to go to a large but pocketable sized phone like the GS4 but only if it's not so sluggish in those apps, the general UI seems fine but even bloody windows phone 7 has better scrolling performance in its web browser and adobe pdf viewer than my Nexus 7 has on Chrome and it's been the same in every version of Android i've tried. Surely the Nexus 7 is powerful enough to do this.
  That said the experience in most other apps has been pretty much the same between the two devices, though the prevalence of scaled-up phone apps on Google Play over tablet versions is a bit annoying.
7. Re:It's a friggin' phone by TWX · 2013-03-19 16:15 · Score: 1
  
  In my case, I used to just hit submit, without previewing what I'd written most of the time. Now the stages are a required preview, with the notice that it's not yet saved not covering the whole window.
  
  For all I know there's a setting I could change to adjust the behavior, but I don't really care that much to bother to check.
  
  --
  Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
iPhone is not cutting edge by SpaceMonkies · 2013-03-19 02:32 · Score: 5, Interesting

The iPhone is definitely not cutting edge technology, despite what some people believe. The iPhone is more the tried and true stuff, although I think most people use it for the software, not the hardware. However, for those who like power and fun in their pockets, the S4 is the bomb.
1. Re:iPhone is not cutting edge by alen · 2013-03-19 02:47 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  the CPU and GPU in the iphone 5 were cutting edge for 2012.
  i'm playing Real Racing 3 and the graphics are about as good as the xbox
  MHz or GHz speed has never been a good predictor of actual processing power. Intel sold 4GHz CPU's 10 years ago. the 2GHz ones they sell now are A LOT faster
  cpu/gpu architecture and the having the software actually take advantage of the hardware features will give you better performance than paper specs
2. Re:iPhone is not cutting edge by Anonymous Coward · 2013-03-19 02:51 · Score: 2, Informative
  
  This couldn't be more untrue. The newest iPhones always are in the top of the pack when it comes to CPU performance and they always have had cutting edge GPUs.
3. Re:iPhone is not cutting edge by Anonymous Coward · 2013-03-19 02:56 · Score: 1, Informative
  
  The iPhone is definitely not cutting edge technology, despite what some people believe. The iPhone is more the tried and true stuff, although I think most people use it for the software, not the hardware. However, for those who like power and fun in their pockets, the S4 is the bomb.
  No. People use it because its an iphone and has a apple logo on it. They use it because they are a slave to trend and nothing else.
  That's why anytime someone has an apple product they refuse to call it a cell phone, a tablet, a computer, a laptop, a mp3 player or whatnot. They have to call it a iphone, ipod, imac, ipad and so on. While everyone else in the world regardless of who makes the product call a cell phone a cell phone.
  Its why people will defend their apple products and justify it to others even in the face of total defeat. People still to this day say imacs cant get viruses, they will say the iphone has the most features and most powerful phone even if you pull up a fact sheet proving otherwise.
  Its why I see people with apple logo stickers on their cars, and apple tshirts. While I don't see the android guy on anything.
  All of that is due to the fact people buy apple products because of the name brand recognition, they don't actually buy it for the product, they want others to know they have apple stuff and that's it.
4. Re:iPhone is not cutting edge by Anonymous Coward · 2013-03-19 03:10 · Score: 1
  
  Apple does seem to emphasize GPU speed/efficiency on their chips. Makes some sort of sense, since the UI heavily depends on the GPU.
  I don't know what geekbench tests, but I want to know is how fast single thread performance is. Currently (Likely in the phone's useful lifetime) your smartphone software really doesn't benefit much from having more than two cores. Quad core is nice in some situations, but if geekbench is running a bench on four cores and summing the result, it's not a good indicator of performance for the end-user. If this is the case then "just shy of twice" means "just shy of the iphone 5 cpu". (The iphone 5 cpu is dual core)
5. Re:iPhone is not cutting edge by alen · 2013-03-19 03:36 · Score: 1
  
  must be getting old
  either way the 2.4GHz iCore and Xeon's i'm using now are a lot faster than the 3.4GHz ones from a decade ago. still have a few old HP proliants with 3.4GHz Xeons.
6. Re:iPhone is not cutting edge by Ecuador · 2013-03-19 03:38 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  Actually, at around the time of iPhone 4, Apple started putting in some good specs. By the time the iPhone 5 came out it, was among the fastest phones. This is in direct contrast to the early iPhones which had tragically bad specs.
  I mean it seemed to me the were targeted at complete retards - people would show me their (gen 1) iPhone and say "look at how well you can browse the web". I could see how the UI of the browser was an improvement over my 3-year old PDAs (Axim X50v) browser, however trying to read on that half-VGA screen would give me instant headaches. Yes, my 3-year old PDA has twice the resolution and a faster CPU. In fact, even before that, my ancient (2003) Toshiba e805 had a 4" screen with full VGA resolution. Consider also the fact that the iPhone originally did not support apps, it should become apparent that the touch-friendly UI alone would not have given momentum to the iPhone release if it was not for marketing and fanboy-ism.
  And yet it is surprising that people would call the original iPhone e.g. as a "high resolution display" device. There were devices at least 2 years older with 3x the resolution (but Nokia was too stupid to make a phone back then based on the N770/N800), but they were "invisible" to people.
  After Apple opened a new market and everybody jumped in, then they started trying to compete on merit and not just style.
  Another reversal that has happened is that now iOS is the least innovative OS. Android - though I am still not a great fan - evolves quickly and I have seen UIs made from scratch (e.g. Swipe UI on Maemo/Meego) look like they are coming to us from the next decade (in look and functionality). Instead of a modern OS on retarded hardware Apple now offers modern (at least relatively) hardware on an aging platform. The only thing that hasn't changed is that you always get less functionality than the competition and you can't change the battery or add memory...
  
  --
  Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent. Polar Scope Align for iOS
7. Re:iPhone is not cutting edge by aliquis · 2013-03-19 04:13 · Score: 1
  
  It was cutting edge when released. And people know what it is / it's a popular phone.
8. Re:iPhone is not cutting edge by Anonymous Coward · 2013-03-19 04:31 · Score: 1
  
  "i'm playing Real Racing 3 and the graphics are about as good as the xbox"
  But hook it up to a TV, how does it look then?
9. Re:iPhone is not cutting edge by Ecuador · 2013-03-19 09:40 · Score: 1
  
  Do you have some reading comprehension deficiency? If not, re-read my post and your reply. You are quoting resolution, replying CPU, mixing up the e805 with the X50v and the X50v with the X50 standard.
  Let me make it simpler for you:
  In 2004 (3 years before the iPhone) I had Dell Axim X50v (note the v in the end) with a 640x480 screen and a 624MHz XScale CPU.
  In 2003 (4 years before the iPhone) I had a Toshiba e805 with a 640x480 screen. It had a more modest (closer to the iPhone) CPU.
  
  --
  Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent. Polar Scope Align for iOS
10. Re:iPhone is not cutting edge by node+3 · 2013-03-19 11:41 · Score: 1
  
  Yeah, right. No one ever says "my thinkpad" or "my Nexus 7" or "my Galaxy S3"...
  Apple owners aren't the brain-dead "slaves" you think they are. The problem is your assumptions are flawed, namely that people don't have any good reasons, other than "fashion", to buy Apple products. That flaw in understanding is entirely yours. It's an emotion-motivated display of ignorance.
11. Re:iPhone is not cutting edge by wiredlogic · 2013-03-19 13:02 · Score: 1
  
  Those "fast" processors from a decade ago were from the dead P4 branch of the x86 family tree created for the MHz wars. They achieved their high clock rates by doubling the length of the pipeline. This had the effect of reducing real instruction throughput compared to the traditional pipeline architecture which was kept alive in the Pentium M and subsequently morphed into the iCore lineup.
  
  --
  I am becoming gerund, destroyer of verbs.
12. Re:iPhone is not cutting edge by IwantToKeepAnon · 2013-03-20 01:20 · Score: 1
  
  those who like power and fun in their pockets
  Must ... not ... reply ... Must ... not ... reply
  
  --
  "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." -- Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
Battery life by roman_mir · 2013-03-19 02:34 · Score: 1

I want to know about battery life and how long it will actually remain at that level. I am not getting anything anymore that I cannot be sure will have battery that will actually last for more than 2 days at a time. I've got Samsung Note in the fall, initially the battery life was OK, now it's down to 2 days on standby! It's crazy, you can put everything into this thing but if it will only last for 5 minutes then it's not good. What's the battery life like after just 6 month?

--
You can't handle the truth.
1. Re:Battery life by bobthesungeek76036 · 2013-03-19 03:44 · Score: 1
  
  I would kill for 2-days of battery life. I have a SG2 and with the stock battery I was lucky to get 8 hours out of it. I now have a 3800mAh battery that gets me through the work day but not by much...
  
  --
  Karma: Bad
2. Re:Battery life by roman_mir · 2013-03-19 03:46 · Score: 1
  
  I would kill for 2-days of battery life.
  - stay away from me
  
  --
  You can't handle the truth.
3. Re:Battery life by CaseCrash · 2013-03-19 04:23 · Score: 1
  
  I would kill for 2-days of battery life. I have a SG2 and with the stock battery I was lucky to get 8 hours out of it. I now have a 3800mAh battery that gets me through the work day but not by much...
  Yeah, I bought the Samsung Galaxy Nexus right when it came out because the performance on it was great and it was the first US phone with ICS, but the battery sucks. I have to charge it two or three times a day now and it's only a bit over a year old and this is for just standard phone calls and facebook type stuff.
  
  I'd love to get an S4 but not if I can only use it for an hour before plugging the damn thing back in. Anyone see any battery life metrics for this phone yet? I can't seem to find them.
  
  --
  No, that link you posted to a web comic we've all seen a hundred times is not "obligatory."
4. Re:Battery life by Teknikal69 · 2013-03-19 04:36 · Score: 1
  
  I get just about 2 days on my Galaxy S Advance (also know as s2 lite) but that's with a mugen battery although it's the same size as my original stock battery physically, I have to say though I have some real specs lust after the S4 this may be the one that gets me to update especially if I can get the exynos version in the UK.
Cyanogenmod not on Galaxy S4 by Archangel+Michael · 2013-03-19 02:37 · Score: 5, Interesting

http://www.androidauthority.com/galaxy-s4-not-cyanogenmod-support-174322/
Reports are coming in that Cyanogenmod will not be spending any resources on Galaxy S4. None. They've complained that the Galaxy models are too hard to keep working. The strange thing about it, Cyanogen works for Samsung on their Android Team.
Question is, will that affect your decision to buy or not buy the Galaxy S4.

--
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
1. Re:Cyanogenmod not on Galaxy S4 by alen · 2013-03-19 02:49 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  if i was to leave iphone for android it would be the S4 or the Note
  couldn't care less about rooting and tooting. its like the shade tree mechanics of 30 years ago. people have nothing better to do with their devices.
2. Re:Cyanogenmod not on Galaxy S4 by dc29A · 2013-03-19 02:49 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  http://www.androidauthority.com/galaxy-s4-not-cyanogenmod-support-174322/
  Reports are coming in that Cyanogenmod will not be spending any resources on Galaxy S4. None. They've complained that the Galaxy models are too hard to keep working. The strange thing about it, Cyanogen works for Samsung on their Android Team.
  Question is, will that affect your decision to buy or not buy the Galaxy S4.
  The only reason I picked up a Galaxy S3 is because it was CM10 supported. 2 hours after purchase, warranty was voided and CM was running on it. So no CM, no sale.
3. Re:Cyanogenmod not on Galaxy S4 by Nerdfest · 2013-03-19 03:03 · Score: 1
  
  Personally, I'm not likely to buy another non-Nexus device. You can't trust Samsung to update the OS, and it's nice to be able to remove any custom Samsung software. Third-party ROM support is never guaranteed, and is often required for non-Nexus devices, even just to fix security vulnerabilities.
4. Re:Cyanogenmod not on Galaxy S4 by alen · 2013-03-19 03:08 · Score: 1
  
  i was going to "buy" a free Galaxy S2 for my mother in law 2 months ago. main reason was that it was getting ICS and maybe even Jellybean.
  as far as the point updates, don't really care if my phone has 4.2.1 and the latest is 4.2.2. i update my iphone 5 to the latest ios when its released, but don't really see any difference. the one difference i saw was a bug where my phone wouldn't work with my car's USB except on locally stored music. it was fixed in the last month and now i can listen to spotify and pandora via my car's USB port
5. Re:Cyanogenmod not on Galaxy S4 by Alter_3d · 2013-03-19 03:08 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  Unfortunately that means you will be stuck with the Android version that comes with your device until Samsung and your carrier decide to upgrade it. That takes a loong time after Google releases updates. I have a Galaxy SII running the latest version of Android (4.2.2), but if I had not rooted it and switched ROMs, it would be running 4.0.4.
6. Re:Cyanogenmod not on Galaxy S4 by alen · 2013-03-19 03:20 · Score: 1
  
  so i miss out on google now? who cares
  the way android OS versions are buying something like the S2 which has ICS is perfectly safe from an application compatibility standpoint. ICS is at its peak installs now so it will be at least 2 years before good apps will require jellybean or something later
7. Re:Cyanogenmod not on Galaxy S4 by InEnacWeTrust · 2013-03-19 03:24 · Score: 1
  
  Definitely!
  Having CM since my HTC Dream, yes, the fact that Samsung collaboration with the open source community is next to non-existent will drive my next phone choice.
  Smasung has been plainly lying to the community for years. promising tons of stuff and delivering nothing. The source they publish is wildly different from the source in their device, tons of proprietary stuff prevent quality versions of CM to be developped for Galaxys except spending countless days reverse engineering stuff.
  Contrast that to Sony Mobile who has been delivering lots of things, stays close to AOSP, and actually helps the community getting there...
8. Re:Cyanogenmod not on Galaxy S4 by interkin3tic · 2013-03-19 03:31 · Score: 2
  
  I can understand. I feel like most people hanging on rumors and press releases about the newest phone or operating system fail to realize that mobile phones are a hobby, not a necessity or something of great importance.
  
  Installing CM on my phone was fun, but honestly, it's still the same phone it was before, just with different standard backgrounds and a few apps that were bundled in with it. Jailbreaking my ipad was a bit more functional, but at the end of the day, I tinker with my devices because I enjoy it and because they're mine to do so. The fact that various companies try to tell me they're not actually only adds an element of "Fuck you, apple" to it.
  
  That said, if mobile phones aren't a hobby of yours, why upgrade at all?
9. Re:Cyanogenmod not on Galaxy S4 by wildstoo · 2013-03-19 03:45 · Score: 1
  
  Personally, I find the stock Samsung roms to be perfectly good. I've rooted my S3 and disabled a lot of the built-in Samsung apps, but apart from that, it's still running the latest official Samsung firmware. It does everything I want, so I see no reason to change for the sake of it. (In other areas/devices I'm an incorrigible modder, so this isn't just apathy, this is the 3rd party roms not being compelling enough to change).
  If I still have my S3 in a year or so when Samsung have stopped releasing updates for it, then I *might* consider flashing a 3rd party rom, but by that time I'll probably have upgraded to the Galaxy S4 or S5 or whatever the new hotness is anyway.
  So, no it won't affect my decision, and I doubt I'm a unique case in this regard.
10. Re:Cyanogenmod not on Galaxy S4 by Kartu · 2013-03-19 04:25 · Score: 1
  
  Uhm, Samsung has automatically updated my Galaxy Tab (the first version that came with 3.x) to 4.x, so I wonder where does that mistrust come from.
11. Re:Cyanogenmod not on Galaxy S4 by rjr162 · 2013-03-19 04:34 · Score: 1
  
  No, because CM for the Galaxy line has been okay at best for a while now. Once they started getting into 9 some funky stuff happened, such as Spirit FM or whatever the radio app is called you had to use since the stock FM app would't work in CM 9. Issue was, EVEN IF YOU WERE USING HEADPHONES ANY AND ALL TIMES THE FM RADIO APP WAS IN USE, your external speaker could (and fairly often like mine DID) die. At first it sounded like it was blown, and then less than two days later it quit working at all.
  There was a bunch of other gotchas.. and anymore the stock ROM is good with it's features, and if you want root you can still root it and keep the stock recovery for OTA updates and other changes that check to see if the phone has been modified before it does the changes
12. Re:Cyanogenmod not on Galaxy S4 by rjr162 · 2013-03-19 04:37 · Score: 1
  
  Samsung has to be one of the best at actually updating. The issue I think you're seeing and wrongly blaming on Samsung is your CARRIERs lack of updating. Both my Galaxy S and Galaxy S 3 are unlocked units from Immix Wireless. They don't screw with the ROMs or anything else. My wife had a Verizon Fascinate (a Galaxy S phone) and while my Galaxy S was getting updates from Samsung fairly steadily and was at 2.4.3 IIRC before I went 3rd party ROMs, my wifes fascinate was still back on 2.3 (or at least 2.3.x).
13. Re:Cyanogenmod not on Galaxy S4 by the_humeister · 2013-03-19 04:40 · Score: 1
  
  Reading that link, they talk about not wanting to deal with Exynos. In the USA, however, we're going to get the Qualcomm Krait version. Qualcomm has been much better with releasing usable sources than Samsung. And Cyanogen works for Samsung USA, so it would seem to me that getting an SGS4 is a safe bet in the USA if you want Cyanogenmod.
14. Re:Cyanogenmod not on Galaxy S4 by Nerdfest · 2013-03-19 04:44 · Score: 1
  
  The Galaxy S line is just 3 years old and can support 4.2.2 through CyanogenMod. It should be supported by Samsung for 3 years as well, I think. 2.3 is ancient (as Android versions go), and was out when the S line was still being sold. Admittedly, keeping an Android phone up to date with the latest version isn't that important for features because of overall flexibility, getting security updates is.
15. Re:Cyanogenmod not on Galaxy S4 by LanMan04 · 2013-03-19 05:04 · Score: 1
  
  Rooting is nice (.hosts ad blocking, etc), but other than that, I agree....meh. No need for crazy custom firmwares.
  
  --
  With the first link, the chain is forged.
16. Re:Cyanogenmod not on Galaxy S4 by Riddler+Sensei · 2013-03-19 05:35 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  CyanogenMod is posting across social networks that this is just the opinion of some of the devs, but is not the stance of project.
  Found on G+ just now:
  
  Let’s start with the simplest form of this: CyanogenMod does not pre-announce support or lack of support for devices. Ever. Even for the Nexus 4, we did not announce support until a nightly build was available. Further, any announcement regarding the ‘dropping’ of device support will be communicated via this Google+ page, Twitter, Facebook, our blog, or a combination of those; it will not be something buried in a forum post.
  This morning, a comment from a CM collaborator on XDA was taken to be as an ‘absolute’ in regards to support of the S4. He offered the opinion of four TeamHacksung maintainers, their frustrations and lack of interest in supporting the S4. What’s seemingly lost on those reading this is that his comments as an individual do not speak for CyanogenMod as an organization.
  As for the team’s stance on the S4, there isn’t one at this time, and most definitely won’t be one before the device is sold at retail.
  -The CyanogenMod Team
17. Re:Cyanogenmod not on Galaxy S4 by Andy+Dodd · 2013-03-19 06:34 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  Not entirely true.
  There are two major variants of the Galaxy S4 - Qualcomm and Exynos based. Similarly there are two major subvariants of the GS3 - again, Qualcomm vs. Exynos.
  The Qualcomm-based GS3s were very well supported thanks to Qualcomm having excellent reference source at CodeAurora.
  The Qualcomm-based GS4s will probably be OK because many of the Qualcomm GS3 maintainers aren't as pissed off at Samsung as the Exynos guys (including myself) are.
  The four primary Exynos4 maintainers (myself, Daniel Hillenbrand, Guillaume Lesniak, and Espen Fjallvar Olson - I may have missppelled thos slightly as we usually just go by IRC nicks) have all decided that we won't be touching any further Samsungs. We're all working with Nexus or Sony devices now. (Sony has done a MAJOR turnaround in terms of opensource support over the past year, or at least the Mobile division has.)
  This probably has little impact on the Qualcomm-based GS4s, but right now, the Exynos-based GS4s are without any prospective maintainers.
  Will a new maintainer step up? Possibly. Will they succeed without just saying "fuck this shit" and selling the phone for a different one? I personlly don't think so.
  It's a volunteer project so nothing is ever a surefire given, and collective decisions are rarely made - so far, they have only been made in regards to outdated hardware and newer versions of Android. (Such as Snapdragon S1-based phones ending at CM7).
  That said, if you look at the attitudes of developers, you can "get a feel" for how likely a phone is going to be well supported by CM.
  DISCLAIMER: THE BELOW IS MY PERSONAL OPINION AND NOT IN ANY WAY AN OFFICIAL POSITION OF THE PROJECT:
  Will the Qualcomm-based GS4s receive maintainer attention and continued support including M and stable builds? I'd be surprised if they didn't.
  Will the Exynos-based GS4s receive maintainer attention and M/stable CM builds? I'd be very surprised if they do.
  
  --
  retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
18. Re:Cyanogenmod not on Galaxy S4 by Algae_94 · 2013-03-19 07:59 · Score: 1
  
  At this point in the Android game any device with 4.x is probably fine for most people. Future upgrades will not provide the same level of functionality improvements we've seen with past versions.
  
  If you are not like most people and like to run the latest and greatest OS version, the S4 may not be a good choice.
19. Re:Cyanogenmod not on Galaxy S4 by Algae_94 · 2013-03-19 08:01 · Score: 1
  
  This is a small amount of devices and can only stretch the devices lifespan a little. Once the device gets older, it won't be able to run much of that new stuff anymore.
20. Re:Cyanogenmod not on Galaxy S4 by dargaud · 2013-03-19 10:23 · Score: 1
  
  Honest question here: what do you get with CM that you didn't get with the original Android of the S3 ? I have a SII and I was curious about CM, but I couldn't find a compelling reason to try it besides curiosity itself.
  
  --
  Non-Linux Penguins ?
21. Re:Cyanogenmod not on Galaxy S4 by shellbeach · 2013-03-19 12:58 · Score: 1
  
  so i miss out on google now? who cares
  It's not about google now, or app compatibility. It's about having a secure, up-to-date, bug-free OS and the better performance and features that come with new versions of Android. It's probably also worth pointing out that CyanogenMod comes with the ability to update itself -- fully automatically and painlessly -- from within the system settings ... so after the initial rooting and the installation of custom recovery you'll never have to worry about "rooting and tooting" again.
  You can root and install CyanogenMod on many phones in less time than it probably took you to write all your posts on this /. article. That doesn't seem much of an investment of time and effort to me, considering everything you gain.
22. Re:Cyanogenmod not on Galaxy S4 by AmiMoJo · 2013-03-19 14:24 · Score: 1
  
  A few months is hardly a long time to wait for updates from Samsung. If you buy your phone from a carrier you are an idiot anyway. You can always get a Nexus 4 if you must be on the bleeding edge.
  
  --
  const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
  SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
23. Re:Cyanogenmod not on Galaxy S4 by Rich0 · 2013-03-20 00:47 · Score: 1
  
  Reports are coming in that Cyanogenmod will not be spending any resources on Galaxy S4. None.
  Cyanogenmod doesn't really have any resources to spend on anything. It is a collection of volunteer contributions. People donate to it, but for the most part all donating does is encourage the devs to buy a new phone and stop supporting the one they currently have (that isn't to say that you shouldn't donate anyway). They aren't some shop that keeps a library of phones and systematically backports fixes to all of them. The way things get backported is that some volunteer who owns the phone tweaks things and gets it running.
  I can take a phone that is owned by 3 people, and as long as I do the work to port it, chances are I'll get listed as the maintainer and that phone will show up on the supported devices list. On the other hand, if a phone sells in the millions but none of the owners can be bothered to get CM working on it, then it won't be supported. That's just how most non-commercial FOSS projects work - they don't go where the money is, they go where the volunteers are.
24. Re:Cyanogenmod not on Galaxy S4 by iampiti · 2013-03-20 02:35 · Score: 1
  
  You can't be sure that Samsung is going to update the OS but AFAIK they've been pretty good with updates so far. At least regarding flagship models.
  The galaxy s2 was released on 2011 with Gingerbread (2.3), so far it has received two major updates: Ice Cream Sandwich (4.0) and Jelly Bean 4.1. There's even rumors they will release Jelly Bean 4.2 for the s2.
  Meanwhile, most phones from other Android device makers have received one major update (if any).
  So Apple is better, but among the Android manufacturers Samsung are among the best.
2013 phone is faster than 2012 phone by alen · 2013-03-19 02:39 · Score: 2

holy crap
is there any software that actually takes advantage of this? there are only a few games that take advantage of the iphone 5's graphical power
not like most people are going to dump their S3 or iphone 5 and run out to buy the S4 just because it gets better numbers
i know someone who is going to buy the Galaxy S3 this week if he gets if for $99 on T-Mobile. he doesn't need the S4's power and price
1. Re:2013 phone is faster than 2012 phone by gordo3000 · 2013-03-19 03:01 · Score: 1
  
  remember the screen has a much higher number of pixels, demanding a lot more computation (granted, in graphics, but still relevant for SoC)
2. Re:2013 phone is faster than 2012 phone by L4t3r4lu5 · 2013-03-19 03:22 · Score: 1
  
  I can't find any app which taxes my 2 year old Desire HD (Single core 1GHz Scorpion CPU, part of MSM8255 chipset). I think mobile processing has come to the same point as desktop processing; For 99% of the tasks, 2 years ago is more than enough (5 in desktop, really). The "new shiny" is for posers.
  
  --
  Finally had enough. Come see us over at https://soylentnews.org/
3. Re:2013 phone is faster than 2012 phone by Enderandrew · 2013-03-19 03:50 · Score: 1
  
  http://www.polygon.com/2013/1/7/3848380/hawken-project-shield-exclusive-tegra-4
  Mind you, the above link is for Hawken on a Tegra 4, which this isn't using, but the point is that developers are working on bringing console-level titles to phones.
  
  --
  http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
4. Re:2013 phone is faster than 2012 phone by fustakrakich · 2013-03-19 04:16 · Score: 1
  
  Who wants to be caught with a 2012 phone? It's like wearing last season's Pradas..
  
  --
  “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
5. Re:2013 phone is faster than 2012 phone by Enderandrew · 2013-03-19 04:35 · Score: 1
  
  So you weren't asking an honest question, you were just trolling.
  You discount the performance increase from the S3 to the S4 as a useless jump in numbers, but are quick to point out that you assume iOS will have a better increase in numbers in their next device.
  However, I'll give a real response in case anyone is still reading.
  iOS devices have often had better GPUs than many Android devices, and they have more games in their app store. An iPhone/iPad at the same price as an Android device can be seen as a better gaming device.
  That being said, I happily switched from the iPhone 4 personally to the S3 and am happy with the move. There are enough games on Android that I'm more than happy. The S3 is great hardware. And I actually prefer the software/UI/experience.
  
  --
  http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
Does that mean... by SailorSpork · 2013-03-19 02:40 · Score: 4, Funny

...those birds will look TWICE as angry on a Galaxy S 4 as they do on an iPhone 5? IN!
1. Re:Does that mean... by jxander · 2013-03-19 05:43 · Score: 2
  
  You still have the phone app? I cleared that off to save space.
  
  --
  This signature is false.
this is as bad as nvidia's hype by alen · 2013-03-19 02:41 · Score: 1

at least the S4 is going on sale next month
for the next 6 months i have to read how the Tegra 4 is the most awesomenest mobile chip even though there aren't any products on sale that have it. but all i have to do is keep waiting and not buy anything else
Obvious, why waste your/our time? by Anonymous Coward · 2013-03-19 02:45 · Score: 1

You know, those benchmarks were not necessary at all. With a four core CPU @ 1.9 GHz, or an eight core CPU @ 1.6 GHz, all you only need to do is simple math to know it beats everything else on the market at this moment. Period.
oh that's right by slashmydots · 2013-03-19 02:46 · Score: 5, Insightful

Wow, now it's fast enough to run Crysis 3! Oh wait...that's right, it's a phone. Apps are written for the slowest Android devices for the biggest marketability so that speed means nothing and does nothing but waste battery life. Maybe it can process photos faster with a built-in app or something faster but who cares? Most people run 3rd party apps the vast majority of the time. I would much, much, much rather see a doubling of the battery life than a doubling of the processor speed.
1. Re:oh that's right by swb · 2013-03-19 03:44 · Score: 2
  
  I don't think apps are written for the slowest device. My experience with Apple IOS and devices of mixed age is that over time the apps seem to target faster and faster CPUs, either by doing more things or adding new features.
  Every so often I grab an old iPhone 4 we use for a home phone and try to use Instacast and it about locks up updating 4-5 podcasts, yet it's like glass on my iPhone 5.
2. Re:oh that's right by blind+biker · 2013-03-19 05:22 · Score: 1
  
  Wow, now it's fast enough to run Crysis 3! Oh wait...that's right, it's a phone. Apps are written for the slowest Android devices for the biggest marketability so that speed means nothing and does nothing but waste battery life. Maybe it can process photos faster with a built-in app or something faster but who cares? Most people run 3rd party apps the vast majority of the time. I would much, much, much rather see a doubling of the battery life than a doubling of the processor speed.
  Samsung claims the SIV has best-of-breed voice control. What they demoed looked very impressive, even though it might have been staged (indeed, it happened on a stage :D ).
  Regardless of whether the SIV demo was staged or not, the fact remains that good voice recognition requires a lot of processing power. Bear in mind that the voice recognition process must run in parallel to whatever app is being controlled, so more cores can come in handy.
  
  --
  "The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
3. Re:oh that's right by jxander · 2013-03-19 05:58 · Score: 1
  
  One of the benefits of Apple's walled garden approach (yes, we all know the perils of walled gardens, I love rooting and installing CM, too)
  Apple currently has less than a dozen total devices still supported. That's combined between all phones, pads and pod-touches (not counting pod-shuffles - they don't get apps.) On those, only 2 or 3 potential OSes are supported, with the current OS installed on over 60% of applicable hardware.
  This makes it very easy for app developers to optimize apps for the majority of devices, with all of the potential bells and whistles of the new stuff. Compare with Android, almost 50% of devices still using Gingerbread (released in 2008, around the same time as iOS 2) and only 10% are on the current release. Also compare the maybe 20-30 total iOS devices ever (going all the way back to iphone 1) with the 4000+ android devices running around the wild today
  
  --
  This signature is false.
4. Re:oh that's right by fa2k · 2013-03-19 06:45 · Score: 1
  
  Speed does mean something. My 2 year old Nexus S has frequent delays of 5-10 seconds. It seems slower than when I bought it, but I can't see any reason why Google would make their OS slower, so I have no idea why it's like that. If there is a delay of order 100 ms, it may be caused by frequency scaling and other power saving features, but multiple second delays would definitely be fixed by a faster CPU. There is also RAM, though. Hard to tell if it's swapping or running at full speed when it's all solid state.
5. Re:oh that's right by Whatah1 · 2013-03-19 08:16 · Score: 1
  
  The thing is, a year from now when it goes on sale for $99 (with 2 year contact) it will still be a nice phone. Then at the end of the 2 year contact (3 years from now) it will still be able to run those apps that you talk about which target whatever happens to be the baseline 3 years from now. That is part of what makes it a good phone.
  But I agree, battery life is good as well...
6. Re:oh that's right by Lost+Race · 2013-03-19 11:09 · Score: 1
  
  My iphone 3gs is like that too. I figure it's mainly the flash controller working harder as the flash memory ages. I routinely fill it to 99% before purging the camera roll. After 3 years of heavy use I'll bet the average page erase count is way up there, and there are probably more than a few bad blocks by now.
  Or it could just be three generations of extra firmware bloat bogging down the primitive CPU.
Let's shoot for desktop replacement, Samsung by sl4shd0rk · 2013-03-19 02:49 · Score: 1, Interesting

As long as we're going down the road of matching cores and RAM to that of nearly current desktop specs, why not nail down some standards for connecting peripherals? And no, I don't mean shitty proprietary bluetooth/wi-fi protocols. I mean a standard mini-usb dock with VGA, HDMI, DVI output and a few USB ports for a keyboard and rat. Something that can be implemented by the entire range of Android devices whether it's HTC, or Samsung, or Motorola. Otherwise, I see no point in phone with 4 damn cores and 3-4G of ram. It's just an expensive and wasteful pocket heater. Gaming on a screen that small is ridiculous.

--
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Having been through 4 Samsung android devices... by Anonymous Coward · 2013-03-19 02:50 · Score: 1

I can confidently say that the only way I'll purchase another is if it carries the Nexus brand.
Fool me 4 times....
what's the killer ap for bigger CPU on cell phone by goombah99 · 2013-03-19 02:51 · Score: 4, Insightful

what's the killer app for increased CPU?
why do I need such a powerful computation engine in my pocket? the main use I see is if it gets to be good enough to be a desktop replacement and I can just dock it to a big screen. But until then having more cpu or GPU isn't going to let be surf the internet faster or type e-mail faster or even give me longer battery life. THe existing ones already play HD movies so the frame rate threshold has been reached for highly satisfactory video.
SO what's the killer app for increased CPU? playing halo? Nice but not a killer app for a cell phone I think. I just can't think of anything in terms of compuational horsepower that I would like my cell phone to do that it doesn't do now and for which the cell platform is the right place to do it. I need help with my imagination I guess.
For me the thing I need on my cell phone is vastly more battery. Why? Well aside from the obvious of longer charge time, you could probably vastly increase the communication rate and reliability by broadcasting more power. You could certainly increase the amount of time you would be tempted to use video (battery consumers).

--
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
who gets paid for this crap by Anonymous Coward · 2013-03-19 02:52 · Score: 1

I got to be honest...who the heck benchmarks phones......and why would anyone really care. This is up there in the top ten of get a life and do something with a purpose.
1. Re:who gets paid for this crap by Silas+is+back · 2013-03-19 07:46 · Score: 1
  
  Wow, I am really disappointed that I had to scroll down 2/3 to find the first comment asking this very question. Thank you, AC. Phone benchmarks?? Really??? I mean, this kind of benchmarks doesn't even matter on desktops, except for workstations, why are we doing this same crap on PHONES?
  
  --
  this sig is useless
Twice the cores by dFaust · 2013-03-19 02:53 · Score: 1

Given that the S4 has twice the cores of the iPhone5, this seems reasonable, if not a bit disappointing. I'd be curious to see some real-world benchmarks to see how actual apps fare, as they typically won't be making use of all 4 cores. For instance, while the S3 international flavor scores higher than the iPhone5 on this chart, there were many real world tests that the iPhone5 easily won.
I'll be anxious to see real world tests and see how well the S4 is making use of all of the available cores.
Re:what's the killer ap for bigger CPU on cell pho by alen · 2013-03-19 02:55 · Score: 1

games?
only reason to buy an iphone over android at this point is games. i play real racing 3 on my iphone 5 and the graphics are about as good as my xbox 360. ipad 4 has better GPU and will be slightly better.
and if you have an apple TV you can output the game to your TV to make it like a real game console and that takes CPU power as well as a nice wifi router
Re:what's the killer ap for bigger CPU on cell pho by geoffrobinson · 2013-03-19 02:57 · Score: 1

You get to charge your cell phone more often?
Seriously, Apple takes great care to make sure battery life lasts as long as possible.
I'm not saying the S3 or S4 are bad phones, but I think we can be sophisticated enough to worry about overall experience for what you are trying to accomplish.
Maybe I want a faster processor and lower battery life. But I agree with you. I don't see the killer app that requires a super-charged CPU.

--
Except for ending slavery, the Nazis, communism, & securing American independence, war has never solved anything.
What about battery? by houbou · 2013-03-19 02:59 · Score: 1

Got a nexus.. so, whatever apps work on my Nexus will work on the 4.. but will it offer significantly better battery life?
It will pass everything but a gas station... by unixcorn · 2013-03-19 03:06 · Score: 1

From my personal experience, if the phone does what it needs to do based on current software, the most important thing for me is battery life.
Please explain to me by nanotech · 2013-03-19 03:12 · Score: 1

How does this translate to real-world user-visible improvements?
Does it scroll more fluidly?
Do apps run noticeably faster? (Were they slow to start with?)
Is there any software out there that takes advantage of it to do more?
Can't see anyone caring about this at all in the mainstream market (you know, the one where people buy 50M+ units).
Also, comparing against iPhone5 is misleading as Android code runs via a JVM and iPhone runs native.
(Not a fan of either, aiming for objectivity)
Re:what's the killer ap for bigger CPU on cell pho by obarthelemy · 2013-03-19 03:14 · Score: 2

I've got an old Nook Color (800MHz single-core A8) lying around, it's still perfectly OK for most everything I do on a tablet, except HD video (I don't game).
I think OEMs are mis-aiming. Better battery, louder sound, more rugged design... would be more interesting to me than octo-core with bells on.

--
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Blackberry's been dead a while. by Medievalist · 2013-03-19 03:14 · Score: 2

This raises an interesting question: is there a suitable replacement for blackberry for the enterprise yet? None of the phones systems/solution I've seen have anything resembling the BES (Blackberry Enterprise Server) and encryption for email, etc. What will be the successor to BB in the enterprise?
BES was always a half-assed and expensive solution to the regulatory problems US corporations have with email.
End-users send HIPAA/HITECH/SOX/GLB/FDA-regulated material with their phones (for legitimate reasons or just because they are end users) so having the mail transit a server at RIM headquarters was a regulatory non-starter (stupid enterprises did it anyway, and most did not get caught so how stupid were they really?). So the big boys bought BES servers and we hacked their existing email systems up to support the extra mail hub.
But BES, while it kept your sensitive email on a system you controlled, also usually exposed a Microsoft host to the Internet on at least one port. That's something one generally wants to avoid, and while Microsoft's SUS automagic updating makes it a lot less risky than it used to be, and you can put some transparent firewally stuff in between, why would you want all that complexity? (answer: because the CEO has a bloated ego and wanted a blackberry just like his rivals. But now he has an iPhone).
Today you just use iPhones and Androids. It's no harder to secure them than it was to keep a BES server up to regulatory requirements in a US zaibatsu. And the whole process has always been driven by the egos of corporate officers anyway, and now those same officers are measuring their relative penis length with iWhatsits and Androids, not Blackberries.
1. Re:Blackberry's been dead a while. by aztracker1 · 2013-03-19 04:59 · Score: 1
  
  You can't use IMAP/SSL and SMTP/SSL?
  
  --
  Michael J. Ryan - tracker1.info
2. Re:Blackberry's been dead a while. by monkeyhybrid · 2013-03-19 05:35 · Score: 2
  
  YOU host the damned server, and YOU control the encryption keys. ALL traffic to the device is encrypted on YOUR side. RIM cannot see into these and does NOT have access to these keys.
  Uhhh, unless I'm mistaken, he didn't say otherwise. He does actually mention that the big boys bought their own BES servers, keeping sensitive emails under their own control.
  I think you need to take the time to read a user's comment more carefully before jumping down their throat.
Re:what's the killer ap for bigger CPU on cell pho by Aranykai · 2013-03-19 03:36 · Score: 1

You get to charge your cell phone more often?
Seriously, Apple takes great care to make sure battery life lasts as long as possible.
I'm not saying the S3 or S4 are bad phones, but I think we can be sophisticated enough to worry about overall experience for what you are trying to accomplish.
Maybe I want a faster processor and lower battery life. But I agree with you. I don't see the killer app that requires a super-charged CPU.
That's an interesting take considering the talk time, standby time and battery capacity stats are firmly in the favor of the samsung devices. The s3 out talks the iphone5 by over two hours. No telling what the s4 will do, but based upon their trend, it will improve on the s3.

--
If sharing a song makes you a pirate, what do I have to share to be a ninja?
Comparing Internals by topic7 · 2013-03-19 03:39 · Score: 1

The real question i'd like answered is for someone to benchmark the GS4 Snapdragon version VS the GS4 Exynos 5 version. If the Exynos version benchmarks higher, I may have to fly out to Europe and pick one up.
1. Re:Comparing Internals by hawguy · 2013-03-19 03:52 · Score: 1
  
  The real question i'd like answered is for someone to benchmark the GS4 Snapdragon version VS the GS4 Exynos 5 version. If the Exynos version benchmarks higher, I may have to fly out to Europe and pick one up.
  Why would you spend considerable money and fly thousands of miles (I'm assuming you're in the USA) to pick up a phone that's faster in synthetic CPU benchmarks but may not be fully compatible with next generation 4G networks here in the USA? What do you do with your phone that requires the fastest possible CPU? And what do you do every 6 months when a faster phone comes out?
2. Re:Comparing Internals by topic7 · 2013-03-19 07:46 · Score: 1
  
  Although benchmarks are not the end all be in, they are rather indicative and the closest thing we can get to real world use without actually using them in the real world. When I buy a phone speed is a huge issue for me. I have many of the newest and best tablets and computers here in my office and I am always waiting on pages to load, files to load, programs to load. Speed or lack thereof is my single biggest time waster, so this is a sticking point for me.
3. Re:Comparing Internals by topic7 · 2013-03-19 07:47 · Score: 1
  
  Not true. See links below: http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/att-clocks-average-real-world-lte-speeds-13-mbps-opensignal-survey-finds/2013-02-14 http://www.gottabemobile.com/2012/09/21/iphone-5-speed-test-verizon-4g-lte/
Latency by Twinbee · 2013-03-19 03:56 · Score: 1

I'd be more interested in the latency, responsiveness and touchscreen delay than raw CPU speed.

--
Why OpalCalc is the best Windows calc
Re:Deal breaker for me. by Githaron · 2013-03-19 04:09 · Score: 1

If you think that has a market, design, manufacture, and market a phone case with a bottle opener and corkscrew and start reaping in the dough.
HTC One X (Quad) appears to be 1808 for comparison by gravious · 2013-03-19 04:10 · Score: 1

fyi :)

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Satan, oscillate my metallic sonatas.
Geekbench is multithreaded by default+luser · 2013-03-19 04:13 · Score: 2

And the scores scale linearly, so you can just divide the scores of the new Samsung quad core by 2 to get a rough comparison with the iPhone 5. This gives an estimate of SIMILAR single-threaded performance between the two.
There are variations not handled by the simple comparison method (e.g. bandwidth-limited scaling of more cores, or clock turbo/throttling depending on number of cores used), but it's a pretty quick and fairly accurate comparison.

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Re:what's the killer ap for bigger CPU on cell pho by Wallslide · 2013-03-19 04:20 · Score: 1

But until then having more cpu or GPU isn't going to let be surf the internet faster or type e-mail faster or even give me longer battery life.

I can't believe this was labeled insightful. I have a device less than a year old, and with a faster CPU I would be able to surf the Internet faster, and type an email faster. With a newer, more efficient processor, I'd get longer battery life. Rendering webpages on a phone is still slow compared to a desktop machine. There are many cases in which I am waiting for Chrome to render a webpage on my phone, and when there is lag between pressing a link to open it, and the web browser responding to my input. As for typing emails... many Android keyboards have fairly advanced predictive text functions, and on my phone there is often perceptible lag... more often when the keyboard is first loading, but also sometimes while typing.
Re:Deal breaker for me. by 93+Escort+Wagon · 2013-03-19 04:25 · Score: 1

If you think that has a market, design, manufacture, and market a phone case with a bottle opener and corkscrew and start reaping in the dough.
Don't be absurd.
Now a cupholder, on the other hand...

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#DeleteChrome
Re:what's the killer ap for bigger CPU on cell pho by 93+Escort+Wagon · 2013-03-19 04:27 · Score: 3, Funny

what's the killer app for increased CPU?
You won't ask those sorts of questions next time you're trapped in your car, upside down in a snowbank, and that Space Heater App is the only thing standing between you and grim death!

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#DeleteChrome
News just out today ... by bob_jordan · 2013-03-19 04:33 · Score: 1

In shock news, it was revealed the new Samsung Galaxy S 4 phone is actually faster then the previous generation Galaxy S III.
Glad they cleared that one up. :-)
Bob.
The killer app is zombification! by Medievalist · 2013-03-19 04:39 · Score: 1

what's the killer app for increased CPU?
Botnets controlled by criminals, of course. It's a growth industry!
Re:what's the killer ap for bigger CPU on cell pho by blind+biker · 2013-03-19 04:53 · Score: 1

SO what's the killer app for increased CPU?
On the fly translation of spoken language, for one.

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Re:what's the killer ap for bigger CPU on cell pho by Jeremy+Erwin · 2013-03-19 05:35 · Score: 1

The AppleTV adds MPEG-4 artifacts. Even the HDMI cable adds MPEG-4 artifacts.
Re:Super by compro01 · 2013-03-19 06:05 · Score: 1

Sprint is saying Q2 for release and hasn't specified anything about pricing.

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Already available! by crow · 2013-03-19 06:08 · Score: 1

You can get a dock for the Note that is compatible with the S3. It has a HDMI port and several USB ports. There are only two downsides: It costs around $80 to $100, and it doesn't necessarily work with USB ethernet.
Oh, and with the S3, you can get a simple USB OTG cable to hook up a keyboard and mouse (using a hub). It also works with USB hard drives. When I connected my USB ethernet adapter, it fried the phone. Instant death. They replaced it under warranty, but something is very wrong with the design if a standard USB device can destroy the phone.
I just want it for the IR transmitter by crow · 2013-03-19 06:10 · Score: 1

The only feature that I really want in the S4 is the IR transmitter. There's nothing like having a remote control for all the TVs in the restaurant, primarily for using the off button.
Re:what's the killer ap for bigger CPU on cell pho by schlachter · 2013-03-19 06:43 · Score: 1

I'd take power/weight savings over processing speed any day in my phone. Wish Apple/Samsung would optimize for that.

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My God can beat up your God. Just kidding...don't take offense. I know there's no God.
faster... by schlachter · 2013-03-19 06:45 · Score: 1

not better.

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My God can beat up your God. Just kidding...don't take offense. I know there's no God.
Re:what's the killer ap for bigger CPU on cell pho by Bigby · 2013-03-19 06:48 · Score: 1

Parent post has one such task. There is also anything you want the phone to do instead of the cloud; maybe bringing together weather, traffic, calendar, your location, and other services to determine any alerts that may be important to you. But for the most part, cores good (4 is probably the best); Hz not so much
Re:Deal breaker for me. by TWX · 2013-03-19 07:08 · Score: 1

I carry a Gerber model 400 multiplier for real-world "applications" like a bottle opener. Works decently as a knife/screwdriver/file/canopener/bottleopener/centerpunch/pliers/wirecutter...

Now if I can only get a new carrying pouch cheap, this current one is falling apart...

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Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
Re:Clunky, Slow Interface, unlike iPhone by Spy+Handler · 2013-03-19 07:17 · Score: 1

how exactly would you know S4 has a clunky, slow laggy interface? It's not out yet, and the only people who were allowed to test it so far have been credentialed journalists at the event.
And I highly doubt you were one of those, seeing as how you're AC posting on slashdot.
In other news... by Torp · 2013-03-19 07:20 · Score: 1

My 15 months old iPhone 4S continues to be good enough. I'm not interested in the new Samsung, the new iPhone or the new anything.
Maybe after two more hardware refreshes...

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Relevant? by MaWeiTao · 2013-03-19 08:37 · Score: 1

Is this metric actually relevant? There's not a whole lot out there that will tax even current smartphone CPU's. The most demanding thing you can throw at a smartphone is gaming and that's where the GPU comes into play.
The iPhone's CPU has generally always been sub par in most benchmarks. But their GPU's has generally been at the front of the pack. The iPad 2/iPhone 4S GPU still scores quite favorably. The funny thing here is that the Galaxy S4 uses a newer variant of the GPU from the iPhone 5.
At the end of the day, however, this all feels like the clock speed wars of the 90's. Largely irrelevant as the performance improvements are largely incremental and won't even be fully exploited before the phone is replaced by a successor.
Weird, I'd like Qualcomm better by coder111 · 2013-03-19 09:00 · Score: 1

Strange, I'm outside US, and I'll probably stay away from S4 as I'd like my next phone to have a Qualcomm chip. They are both powerful enough for a phone.

Octocore has PowerVR GPU which is absolutely hostile to open-source driver support. While Qualcomm at least has Freedreno.

On top of that this won't be supported by Cyanogenmod out of the box. I'll probably get a nexus 4 (or maybe nexus 5?) for my next upgrade.

--Coder
Battery Life by snadrus · 2013-03-19 10:16 · Score: 1

The best battery savings is in a race to Idle. A faster phone means faster results so you'll turn-off your screen earlier, which is often the biggest power draw. Continuous uses like video can involve "buffer..sleep" cycles which involve more sleep on a faster processor.
You get this savings even if the power cost scaled equally to the CPU difference (likely better than that).

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Science & open-source build trust from peer review. Learn systems you can trust.
If I can't unlock it I won't own it. by mrmeval · 2013-03-19 12:45 · Score: 1

I currently have a Samsung Vibrant. Does anyone know T-Mobile's unlocking stance? Also will Samsung abandon the phone just as soon as they damn well can and leave owners vulnerable to malware? This happened with the Vibrant but fortunately I could use community generated firmware with as much security fixes as they were able to do without trashing compatibility with binary blob drivers.

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I'd go on a Vegan diet but the delivery time from Vega is too long. --brownkitty