LED vs. XENON flash......... What we know about that???

What is flash???

           A flash is a device used in photography producing a flash of artificial light (typically 1/1000 to 1/200 of a second) at a color temperature of about 5500 K to help illuminate a scene.

A major purpose of a flash is to illuminate a dark scene. Other uses are capturing quickly moving objects or changing the quality of light. Flash refers either to the flash of light itself or to the electronic flash unit discharging the light. Most current flash units are electronic, having evolved from single-use flashbulbs and flammable powders. Modern cameras often activate flash units automatically.

Flash units are commonly built directly into a camera. Some cameras allow separate flash units to be mounted via a standardized "accessory mount" bracket (a hot shoe).

 In professional studio equipment, flashes may be large, standalone units, or studio strobes, powered by special battery packs or connected to mains power. They are either synchronized with the camera using a flash synchronization cable or radio signal, or are light-triggered, meaning that only one flash unit needs to be synchronized with the camera, and in turn triggers the other units, called slaves.

Comparison of xenon flash and high current LEDs for photo flash in camera phones:::

            The quality of camera phones is continually improving – more megapixels, better lenses, improved image-processing software, anti hand-shake features. The one area that has been lagging behind is the power and energy of the flash for taking pictures in low light. It is often in low light environments where people want to take photos to record the occasion, such as in restaurants, bars or nightclubs. Many cell phones have compromised by providing a low-current LED photo light or flash, which provides insufficient light energy for an acceptable photo in low light .


Now, two solutions are emerging to provide a good photo flash in low ambient light:
− high current LEDs supported by a super-capacitor
− and xenon

This article will explore the limitations of existing LED flash implementations without a super-capacitor, and go on to compare LED flash with super-capacitor and xenon flash solutions. The comparison will be across multiple dimensions:
− light power and energy
− shutter requirements
− ease of circuit implementation
− safety
− size

Light Power vs Light Energy

The light power of a flash determines how bright it appears. Naturally, this is what draws most people’s attention. However, what is important to a pixel in a camera sensor is the total amount of light it receives while it is capturing data. This is the light energy. For a flash pulse, this is the area under the curve of light power over time. If the light power is constant during the flash pulse, as is the case for LED flash, then the light energy is light power (lux) x the flash pulse duration (secs), and the unit is lux.sec.

− Xenon flash has fantastic light power, up to several hundred thousand lux, but a very short pulse duration, typically 50 – 100μsec.

− An LED Flash, with the support of a supercapacitor, can now generate upwards of several 100 lux with a flash pulse of up to ~100msecs.

This means the xenon needs to have 1000 to 2000 times the power of the LED Flash to deliver the same light energy. A major restriction on the light energy delivered by a xenon pulse is the size of the electrolytic 330V storage capacitor.

In this article we show the results of light power over time for:
− Three xenon camera phones, with varying size storage capacitors, the largest of which has an external xenon flash accessory
− Existing low-power LED flash
− A supercapacitor-based high-current LED Flash solution.

Integration of the area under the curves gives light energy available to fill pixels in the camera sensor and enables the relative merits of the two solutions to be objectively compared.


Limitations of LED Flash currently used in camera phones

The standard Flash driver is a boost converter in current control mode. There are many demands on cell phone batteries, so designers are loath to allow more than 800 - 1000mA to be drawn from the battery for LED Flash. Assume the battery voltage is 3.6V, the LED Forward voltage = 4.2V and the boost converter efficiency is 85%. Then, for 800mA battery current, the LED current = 0.8 x 3.6/4.2 x 0.85 = 580mA and LED Power = 2.4W. At this current, a typical high-current LED will only provide 7 – 8 lux at 2m distance from the scene1. If the camera sensor frame rate is 7.5 frames/sec, then the light energy per pixel = 7.5lux x 0.133s = 1 lux.sec. Figs 8 & 9 show that the light energy for a Nokia 73 with an image exposure time of 90msecs using a low current LED at 1W is only 1.7 lux.secs at 1m from the subject and 0.4 lux.secs at 2m. Most LED Flash phones today drive LED Flash @ 1W – 2W and provide < 4 lux.secs at 1m and < 1 lux.secs at 2m distance from the subject. Examples are the Nokia 6680, N70 and N73 which all drive their LED at 1W, and the SonyEricsson K750 which drives a pair of LEDs at ~2W total.

A good picture ideally requires 10 – 15 lux.secs of light energy. Until the advent of supercapacitors, a xenon flash tube was the only practical means of generating reasonable light energy, but this poses some problems for camera phones.

Xenon Flash

In a xenon flash, an electrolytic capacitor is pre-charged to 330V. This is then discharged across a tube filled with xenon gas to produce an intensely bright flash (up to several hundred 1000 lux at 1m) of very short duration (typically < 100μsec). A trigger circuit operating in the range of 4000 – 8000V is required to precipitate the gas discharge. The high energy stored at 330V is a safety concern, special care is required to prevent the high voltage trigger circuit from arcing to other circuits, and the electrolytic capacitor is bulky and difficult to fit in thin form factor camera phones.

Supercapacitor-based LED Flash::

Using a supercapacitor to support LED Flash allows the battery to supply only the charge current to the supercapacitor while the supercapacitor provides all the LED current during the flash pulse. Supercapacitor-based LED flash drivers were recently detailed in Power Management Design Line,

 The current switch is shown on the high side, but can also be placed on the low side of the LEDs.
 The current level can be set to either fixed levels (say Torch and Flash), or the current level in flash mode can be set based on the ambient light to achieve optimum exposure for the picture. The supercapacitor has sufficiently high energy (high C) and sufficient power (low ESR) to supply the
 LED current for the flash pulse with little or no contribution from the battery.

The battery charges the supercapacitor between flash photos. For example, if a 0.5F supercapacitor discharges 1V during the flash pulse, then it only requires 250mA charging current to recharge it in 2 secs to be ready for the next photo. Fig 3 shows flash current and battery current for a flash pulse driving 4 x Luxeon PWF1 LEDs at 1A each.

Note that the battery current is limited to 300mA and the supercapacitor provides all the LED current during the flash pulse.



Some major differences between the LED and Xenon flash are shown below:::-

Is the technology for us (I mean Human ) only ???

Pet-Friendly Technology

These days, it seems there is an app for EVERYTHING. From apps to help you go green to those addicting games you just can't put down, your smart phone can access information beyond your wildest dreams. It would be pretty impossible to not find an app for whatever it is you are looking for. Fido may begin to feel jealous because he can't play Fruit Ninja on your iPad or send you a text when he's hungry. Well have no fear pet owners, because we found nine apps specifically made for you and your pet!

1. PetMinder

With play dates, vet appointments and of course, Morris Animal Inn Daycare parties, Fido's schedule is pretty packed. With the PetMinder app, you can organize your pup's busy schedule by placing these events into a calender. You receive an email as a reminder prior to the playdate/appointment. It's a great way to keep track of vaccinations and your pup's social engagements.

2. All Pets Radio Player

This radio station allows for all day listening of pet news, facts and stories and more! This app allows you to be 'in the know' of all thing pet-related all the time.

3. Spotlight

This tool is great for those times Fido is a little better at hide and seek than you are! His location is updated every five minutes so you can find him wherever he goes!

4. Pet Acoustics

Does your furry friend run and hide during thunderstorms? Does he get jumpy during car rides? This apps plays soothing music to calm him down during anxious activities. The music is designed specifically for the sensitive hearing of dogs and cats to keep them relaxed.

5. Vet DVM

It's late at night and you have a question about your pet that you'd LOVE an answer to right now. There's an app for that! Use Vet DVM to send audio, text, or video questions to on-call veterinarians. Access answers any time of the day! Of course this app in no way replaces the care, attention and expertise of your trusted veterinarian.

6. Pet First Aid

Jam-packed with videos and illustrations, Pet First Aid gives instruction on how to address cuts, bruises and other health related issues. Also, you can track your pet's vaccinations and vet appointments!

7. PetSnap

We know your phone is filled with pictures of your pets and PetSnap can help when you pup just doesn't want to look at the camera. PetSnap is built with 32 sounds to attract your pet's attention for the picture. You can then pick from seven frames to finish your picture and share with friends!

 

8. iKibble

From investigating the food Fido accidently eats to finding dishes both you and your pet can eat together, iKibble is a great resource for finding the proper and improper foods for your pet!

9. Rate My Puppy

Get your pup using social networks with Rate My Puppy. You can get opinions from others on how cute your pup is and comment on other dogs!

Samsung Galaxy S4 vs. HTC One

Introduction

Two flagship smartphones carrying such a weight of expectations that one would think they'd have no time and energy to worry about each other. The Samsung Galaxy S4 has to outsell the Galaxy S III and the HTC One is expected to turn the fortunes around for an ailing company. So, which one's bigger? And we mean the job, not the phone.



The two contenders themselves will have an entire review to each prove their point. These two superdroids make no compromise and charge big bucks. They need to make sure users are getting their money's worth. That's what flagships are all about. They win big but they lose big too - and last season Samsung and HTC were on either side of that line.
Things look different this time around. We know the two phones quite well already, the HTC One review is only just behind us, and the Galaxy S4's in the final stages. The setting for this clash has changed too - the elite flagship club isn't exclusive to top-tier manufacturers anymore. Yet, there should be no better guarantee for a thriller than the names of Samsung and HTC. The prodigy children of two of the most revered Android makers are about to fight it out, and even the slightest edge could give a massive advantage in the marketplace.
Running over the entire spec sheet of each phone will take too long - both droids are impressively armed - so instead we'll just list the differences. Here's how one is better than the other and vice versa.

Samsung Galaxy S4 over HTC One

• Bigger screen; works with gloves and air gestures
• Higher resolution camera - 13MP vs. 4MP
• Newer Android version - 4.2.2 vs. 4.1.2
• Multi-window multitasking
• Higher clock speed chipset
• Expandable storage
• User-replaceable battery of higher capacity
• Additional sensors (barometer, thermometer, hygroscope)
• Exclusive software features
• Smaller, thinner, lighter

HTC One over Samsung Galaxy S4

• Brilliant-looking aluminum unibody
• Optical Image Stabilization, image sensor with 2µm pixel size
• HTC Zoe, BlinkFeed
• Front mounted stereo speakers, Beats Audio
• FM Radio

Looking at the two lists above, you'd thing the Samsung Galaxy S4 has the upper hand. It's not that simple - not all bullet points have the same weight. For example, we'll take the sleek aluminum unibody over a hygroscope any day of the week. And the megapixel debate for the two cameras will probably take a huge chunk of this article to resolve.
But let's look at the schools of thought behind the two phones. The Samsung Galaxy S4 is the power user's heaven with settings, tweaks and toggles scattered all over the place - with all the proper hardware support too. TouchWiz is familiar and intuitive enough so regular users will not be lost, but they might miss out on some of the more exotic features of the Galaxy S4.

Samsung Galaxy S4 and HTC One sizing each other up
The HTC One is quite the opposite - it aims to make things simple. Zoe looks impressive, but require nothing of the user, it's all done automagically. The Optical Image Stabilization and Beats Audio similarly work behind the scenes to enhance the experience.
Anyway, let's take this one step at a time. Just one important note before we let the HTC One and the Galaxy S4 off the leash. The Samsung flagship in this shootout is the I9505 version, the one powered by a Snapdragon 600.

Hardware comparison

Samsung and HTC set out on different paths from the very drawing board. Samsung focused on sensible finish and practical build, while HTC wanted a design that makes a statement.
In the end, the Samsung Galaxy S4 uses a plastic body with a Hyperglaze finish just like that of its predecessor. Taking after a design that wasn't too widely loved in the first place is a bit of a turnoff to be honest, but the slimmer waistline and thinner bezels still make the Galaxy S4 look much better than its predecessor (which is larger, despite the smaller screen). The Galaxy S4 is actually more compact than the HTC One as well, but the difference is negligible - at least until you account for the fact that the Samsung fits a bigger screen.

Samsung Galaxy S4 and S III side by side
The plastic build has a number of practical advantages - it's lighter for one, 20g, and the removable back cover means a user-replaceable battery and a microSD card slot.
HTC developed a complicated process of carving the One out of a block of aluminum and the result is arguably the best looking smartphone to date. The phone is a bit thicker than the Galaxy S4, but the curve of the back hides that very well. The extra weight and the aluminum finish give the HTC One a premium feel that really puts its competitor today to shame, though.

HTC One is a looker
Even if you don't care about the exact numbers, the differences you're likely to notice are that the Galaxy S4 is thinner, lighter and has a bigger screen compared to the HTC One.

Size comparison between the Samsung Galaxy S4 and HTC One
On the other hand, a 4.7" screen was a conscious choice by HTC (as something more manageable) and the front-facing stereo speakers are a great touch. We're not sure about removing the third button though, whether it's Menu or App switcher, physical or on-screen, a third button is practically expected out of Android phones. The duties of the missing task switcher key on the One have been taken over by the home key, but that's its third function and that makes it a bit unintuitive.



Unusual two-key setup for the One • standard Samsung three-key setup for the Galaxy yS4
With an IR emitter on the top, both phones can control appliances at home - TVs, set-tops, air conditioners and so on. On the HTC One, the emitter is built into the Power/Lock key, which isn't a problem, but the button itself is small and flush against the surface, making it difficult to use. The volume rocker isn't much better.



IR emitters on top for both the Galaxy S4 and the HTC One
Samsung kept the IR emitter separate on the Galaxy S4 and put the Power/Lock key in the traditional spot on the right, which benefits single-handed use. It helps that the button is properly raised too.


The keys on the S4 protrude more and are easier to use

Winner: Tie. This is by no means a goalless draw, though - From a pure design standpoint, the HTC One wipes the floor with the Samsung Galaxy S4. The One is the phone to be seen with, it looks more expensive if you will. The Galaxy S4 on the other hand is deliberately underplaying the looks - as if to say that what matters is on the inside.

The best thing about the Samsung Galaxy S4 hardware is that the smartphone is more compact while offering a bigger screen and a larger battery. But it just looks boring, a minor update of the Galaxy S III design, which we didn't love in the first place.

The HTC One on the other hand looks and feels great. With 32GB of built-in storage (there's a 64GB version too), we didn't miss the microSD card slot much either. The speakers are definitely a plus.

Yet, a card slot (more than just memory expansion) and a removable battery (easy to throw in a spare, or replace a defective unit) are important to many users and help the Samsung Galaxy S4 clinch a hard-fought draw.

INTEL (A big game of processors).........

What stays the same?

Well, it's still the same style of CPU and GPU combo that made Intel's Sandy Bridge such an impressive wee beastie in the first place.

"Sandy Bridge was a pretty major platform repartitioning with a lot of things integrated on die. We retained a lot of the goodness that Sandy Bridge brought forward," said Varghese George, chief architect for Ivy Bridge, in today's tech insight into the new processor.

There will be a similar number of product offerings along the same line as Sandy Bridge in terms of SKUs, so we can expect the same sort of product line up in terms of i3, i5 and i7 variants including the K-series.

Ivy Bridge also retains the same Ring architecture that brings the CPU and GPU components together on die and unfortunately puts a limit on the overclocking side.

So it's still going to be a case of upping the multipliers and not the bus speed.

And only then if you've got one of the unlocked K-series chips in the first place.

It has also retained the same socket configuration making it backward compatible with the previous generation.

Ideally that should mean any ol' Sandy Bridge mobo will be compatible with this new chip. That may not necessarily work in practice for all Intel 6-series motherboards, even with a firmware update, but that remains to be seen.

What gets changed?

Well, actually quite a lot. For a start the entire processor, GPU part too, will be manufactured on the 22nm production process. That means higher performance and lower power.

Combined with the lower power coming from the tighter lithography, thanks mostly to those much vaunted Tri-gate transistors, there's also a bunch of new power management goodies to go with it.
The main crux of this is the scalable feature set, including configurable Thermal Design Point (TDP) and Low Power Mode. These two are mainly to help OEMs design more scalable systems around the same architecture.

For example they will be able to set a system up using three separate TDPs; 'TDP Up', Nominal and 'TDP Down'. If the machine in question has a lower thermal envelope then using the chip in the lower power state will save on super-heated chips.

Interestingly Intel has also incorporated more overclocking goodness into Ivy Bridge.
You still have the locked multipler/K-series divide, but on the unlocked chips there is now increased maximum ratio support, moving the bar from x57 up to x63.

It has also introduced more dynamic overclocking, allowing the ratio to be changed on the fly without the need to reboot the machine.

This lends itself perfectly then to the application-based overclocking tools over the good ol' BIOS.
On the memory side too things have changed, with much more granularity involved in adjusting your DRAM's frequency. Where once you had to shift the speed of your memory in 266MHz increments you can now move in 200MHz jumps.

That small change could mean a lot in OC terms.

The big change for Ivy Bridge though is in the graphics core on board.
Where the CPU component follows perfectly on the tick tock Intel development model, with the simpler die-shrink tick following the more in-depth architectural revamp tock, the GPU part is being characterised as a 'tick plus'.

The new HD graphics in Ivy Bridge represents far more than just a die-shrink down to 22nm.
Because of the introduction of DirectX 11 support the whole GPU has effectively been redesigned. With the latest graphical API demands Intel has had to incorporate both Tessellation engines and Compute shaders into the mix.

With this redesign comes a far more modular GPU design, allowing the HD graphics of Ivy Bridge to be far more closely tailored to the individual SKUs. With Sandy Bridge desktop part you had two options, either the HD 2000 in the standard chips or the HD 3000 in the K-series alone.

That's changed now with Intel assuring us there will be lower power Ivy Bridge processors with the high-end Ivy Bridge graphics core on board.

So it will no longer purely be the domain of the top chips in the family.

On Sandy Bridge there was more of a disconnect with only the top-end K-series chips have the top-end graphics. Yes, those CPUs that were more than likely going to be paired with a discrete card anyway.

The Ivy Bridge GPU also comes with its own L3 cache too. This means the graphics side of the processor no longer have to keep calling on the shared cache of the CPU side.

But it's not just in the technicalities that things have changed on the graphics side, performance is apparently well up.

"Don't be surprised if the performance is significantly higher," said Intel Senior Fellow and grumpy graphics guru, Tom Piazza.

Piazza wasn't able to talk numbers unfortunately with the chip still six months or so away, but he did say that both the QuickSync video and 3D gaming performance where very much on the rise.
So things are looking impressive for Intel's next, next chip. After all, we've got the seriously high-performance Sandy Bridge Extreme parts coming in a month or two to whet our appetite.

And what about ultrabooks....

Ultrabooks: What to Look For

Because Intel has set the minimum requirements, there are a few things you can expect in any ultrabook. Notebooks with a display smaller than 13.3 inches max out at 18mm thick, and those with displays larger than 14 inches much be thinner than 21mm. All of these units will be remarkably thin, but other design elements can vary significantly. These are such things as battery life, screen resolution, startup time and overall aesthetics. You want performance without sacrificing design and more features without adding much weight. Here are the categories we used to rank the best ultrabooks available.

Performance
As with any type of electronic device, you want something that performs the simple, everyday tasks you need it to. On top of that, expect to find an ultrabook that doesn't slow down your CPU. You shouldn't have to sacrifice speed for sleek design, and most of the computers we reviewed run at quick speeds from 1.6GHz to 2.9GHz. And if you are computer savvy, you can easily set these CPUs to run, consistently, at higher speeds.

Design
The whole premise of ultrabooks lies in their slim, light, minimalist design. The chic designs we've seen could fit in at a Paris fashion show as easily as they fit in your backpack. The design also includes screen resolution. The top products have the ability to give you high-resolution viewing with deep colors and rich textures.

Features
These devices are lightweights, but they aren't light on features. Look for ones that come with standard wireless function, Bluetooth capability and built-in, high-def webcams. There are also more extensive features such as security tools and fingerprint readers.

Memory & Battery Life
All the ultrabook laptops are packed with enough RAM to ease your mind. When it comes to storage, though, these sleek computers don't come with huge hard drives. One of the ideas of these ultra thin notebooks is to remove the dependency on hard disks and move to the Cloud. This is the large online database where you can store music, movies and more.

As far as battery life goes, these small laptops come with enough battery life to let you watch multiple movies, or go on Facebook for hours, without being tethered to an outlet. And to be classified as an ultrabook, the device has to have at least five hours of battery life.

Help & Support
It's always nice to have a company backing a product you've purchased. You may need some technical help or have an issue you need some help troubleshooting. Many manufacturers have websites with user forums where you can chat with other consumers, and some have live support features where you can talk to a professional, just in case you need extra-quick help.

When you combine all of these features in a sliver-thin notebook, you get an ultrabook. Many companies are packing screens with high-definition clarity that would be phenomenal on any display, but it's unbelievable on a screen that is 8mm thick. Outstanding features and portable design make the perfect combination for anyone who wants increased mobility and the newest technology.

And What About Iphone Six???

All the latest iPhone 6 rumors including specs, prices and release dates

All the latest iPhone 6 rumors including specs, prices and release dates

We've rounded-up all the rumors on Apple’s forthcoming iPhone 6 to see what the device might have in store.
Rumors of the iPhone 6 have been around since the iPhone 5 launched and have gone hand-in-hand with rumors of the iPhone 5S. Indeed, no one is really clear on whether the next iPhone model will stick to the ‘S’ convention Apple established with the iPhone 4S or jump straight to the iPhone 6.
Even more complications get thrown into the mix when you factor in rumors of multiple handset launches aimed at different sections of the market, but we’ll come back to that.
At present, it’s quite normal to see any rumor surrounding Apple’s next iPhone to be pegged for both the iPhone 5S and the iPhone 6, such is the uncertainty.
However, it’s also true that a few select rumors have been aimed at just the iPhone 6 specifically, particularly in cases which suggest the iPhone 6 will come on its own, later, and after a separate and distinct iPhone 5S launch.
Renders of Apple’s rumored affordable iPhone have shown up online showing a possibly plastic and colorful future. The renders were created by increasingly prominent 3D artist Martin Hajek, who’s made a number of attention-grabbing concepts in recent months.
The renders show the budget iPhone the same 4-inch size as the iPhone 5 but it appears to be a good deal thinner too. The most immediately obvious change is the bright red colour in-line with rumors that Apple will offer a variety of colour options.

iPhone 6 - Hardware

The most recent, and arguably most prominent rumour surrounding the iPhone 6 points to the idea that it’ll feature a next-gen Apple A7 processor, which may or may not, be a quad-core model. The story goes that Apple is soon to begin work on the 20 nanometer A7 chip with the help of TSMC, but that it won’t be ready for production until the first quarter of 2014.
In the meantime we’ll be treated to an iPhone 5S on an A6 chip, or possibly an A6X.
This does sit with some rumours which say the iPhone 5S will land in June or July, though equally similar rumours claim the model which arrives this summer will be the iPhone 6, which in turn would imply it’ll be the one toting the A6 or A6x chip.
Other reports say Apple has been in talks with Intel over a possible manufacturing deal. It’s not clear whether Intel would simply fabricate Apple’s ARM-based designs or if it would create a completely new Intel-based chipset for the iPhone 6.
Apple’s iPhone 6 was also name-dropped in reports about next-generation hardware carrying new 5G Wi-Fi and Bluetooth chips, suggesting it’ll hook up to nearby routers and remote devices at much faster speeds.
It’s expected the iPhone 6 would have the same storage options as its predecessors – 16GB, 32GB or 64GB with no microSD slot. Could we see a 128GB version, too? Maybe - although very little has been said about this aspect so far.
A camera upgrade is possible and we could see a 13-megapixel sensor, although there’s some suggestion Apple will stick to 8-megapixels and simply improve the aperture, sensor array and capture features.
Allegedly Apple has scheduled to have components for the next iPhone shipped by the end of May in order to hit the Q3 target. It will apparently have an improved processor, which could be the A6X chip found in the iPad 4. The camera will also be updated to a higher megapixel rating, presumably 13-megapixels.
Some rumours indicate the iPhone 6 will feature a fingerprint scanner chip and NFC capability, allowing a secure lock mode and secure NFC payment. Wireless charging has also been suggested.

Update - 17/04/2013
Recent reports suggest that next iPhone will boast an updated, 12-megapixel camera sensor and overhauled low-light image capture technology. The rumours, which come from an unnamed source within the company responsible for producing the iPhone's camera module, Wonderful Saigon Electronics, don't clarify whether the next device will be an incremental update, or the planned iPhone 6, but it's looking fairly safe to suggest that the next iPhone, and subsequent models, will go beyond the 8-megapixel barrier.
What we may see is an iPhone 5S launching this year with a 12-megapixel sensor on-board, followed by the iPhone 6 later this year, or early next, with an improved version of the same sensor plus new and improved features, much as we did with the iPhone 4S and its successor the iPhone 5.

iPhone 6 - Design

While there are still plenty of rumours saying Apple will stick to its conventional model of one handset at a time, but murmurings persist about the next iPhone launching in a number of variants for different sections of the market and at different price points.
There’s some suggestion Apple may launch a budget model, which may or may not be smaller than the iPhone 5 and might even be made of plastic.
Other rumours claim that the iPhone 6 will be larger than the current iPhone 5 - anywhere between 4.2 and 4.6-inches - while further speculation points to Apple making a regular-sized iPhone 6 and a larger 4.8-inch iPhone 6 ‘XL’.
Conflicting leaks and rumours imply both that the iPhone 6 could share a very similar design language to the iPhone 5 and, conversely, that Apple will undergo something of a re-invention with the new model due to waning interest in the brand.
IT'S ALL SO CONFUSING.
Multiple reports claim Apple's next iPhone will boast a range of colour options as well as the conventional white and black.
Meanwhile, a persistent rumour says the physical home button might be replaced with a capacitive 'bar', which can be pressed for Home or swiped with various gestures to perform other actions.
Aside from the exterior, it’s widely reported that Apple’s design guru Jony Ive has been assigned to oversee the development of the iOS interface, suggesting we’ll see a bold new look for Apple’s software and digital storefronts. Such a facelift is long overdue.
Further to this, Apple CEO Tim Cook is reported to have entered talks with the chief executive of Beats Audio. Rumor has it the pair discussed a possible collaboration on an Apple music streaming service in the vein of Spotify or Xbox Music.
An Apple job posting has referenced the manufacturer's need for someone to ‘lead the investigation on emerging display technologies such as high optical efficiency LCD, AMOLED and flexible display.’ It would suggest that the iPhone 6 will feature a flexible display.
The position requires someone who can ‘analyze the trade-offs between design, process, optical performance, and implementation feasibility.’
Apple isn't the first company to investigate into flexible displays. Samsung has already researched a lot into getting flexible displays onto smartphones with a concept appearing at CES back in January.
Photo concepts of the iPhone 6 or iPhone 5S have also shown off the possibility of a curved display. Although they're pretty off-the-wall, they're also pretty cool.
This video has popped up online, showing off a thinner profile than the current iPhone 5 and a much larger display, which looks like it could be 4.7-inches, or thereabouts.
The back panel seems to still be aluminum and it retains a two-tone coloration, but it’s slightly different now with a glossy panel at the bottom and a matte finish for the top three quarters. The current iPhone has these contrasting panels at both top and bottom and a matte section in the middle.
The display doesn’t appear to be quite edge-to-edge, but the bezel is extremely narrow along the two longer edges. The punched speaker grill is still present and the Lightning connector on the bottom, however, the physical Home key has disappeared completely, suggesting some kind of gesture control.

iPhone 6 - iOS 7 & Jony Ive's Vision

Up to now, little was known about Ive’s plan for iOS. But today the Wall Street Journal can shed some light on the issue. According to the report, Ive’s take on iOS is believed to be a ‘starker and simpler’ affair that will mimic Apple’s minimalist design ethos.
Ive comes from a physical design background, so it’ll be interesting to see how his ideas translate in the world of software and UX design. Expected to launch as iOS7, the redesigned UX will feature ‘clean edges and flat surfaces.’ The knighted designer is also said to be keen on gutting iOS of its trademark textured backgrounds.

The report made no mention of new features or software inside the platform, but that shouldn't be cause for alarm just yet. Ive is an industrial designer by trade so the emphasis here was always going to be on looks, not functionality – the latter will be undertaken to Apple's software engineers.
A concept video of iOS 7 has had us a little excited.
The YouTube post shows what Apple's next generation display should feature, including a highly innovative interface. His top features include:

• Lock screen controls including quick accessibility to many features
• Quick Reply to send a message without unlocking the handset
• Widgets
• Mission Control alowing you to multitask in a more imersive way

iPhone 6 - Display

Very little has been said about the iPhone 6's display other than the varying and broader design rumours concerning the device's size. It could be anywhere from 4-inches to 4.8-inches and there might be a smaller 3.5-inch version if there's a budget model.
For the main, premium model rumours point to a possible 'touch-on' display which would result in smoother touch control and there's some suggestion we may see touch controls activated from the bezel.

iPhone 6 - Release date

Multiple reports say the iPhone 6 won’t appear until 2014 where it would be expected to arrive around the middle of the year. Just as many conflicting rumors point to a 2013 arrival, however, around June or July in-line with previous launches, and possibly accompanied by other models such as the iPhone 5S, a budget variant, a large form-factor variant or all of the above.

Update - 21/03/2013: According to a report out of China, the next premium iPhone from Apple, which may be called the iPhone 5S or iPhone 6, will be launched within the third quarter of 2013 and ‘may just be a slightly enhanced version’ of the iPhone 5.

The news comes courtesy of Digitimes and its anonymous ‘sources from the upstream supply chain’ which also add to the rumors of a budget plastic-built iPhone to release this year alongside the main model.

One analyst and ex-employee of Apple thinks Apple should scrap the idea of the iPhone 5S altogether and go straight for the iPhone 6. Hi reasoning seems pretty straightforward: adding an S on the end of a name makes the device name sound outdated and we agree. Bring on the iPhone 6!

Update - 17/04/2013
Peter Misek, an analyst for Jeffries and Co. has claimed that the iPhone 6 is now likely to be delayed owing to unforseen issues in the production process. Speaking to Street Insider, Misek, who recently visited Apple's production partners in China, said "We continue to believe there is almost no chance the iPhone 6 launches in CY13 [calendar year 2013] due to supply chain issues." The most likely time-frame for the device is currently estimated to be the first quarter of 2014.

Apple is having problems with the mass pre-production of the iPhone 5S, which will push back other launches. iOS 7 is also said to be delayed, pushing back the launch even further, and Misek says the iPhone 5S probably won't launch until later in 2013.

iPhone 6 - Price

Pricing rumours are very much tied to the varying ideas of premium and budget model iPhones.
It’s generally agreed that a direct iPhone 6 successor model would be pric ed the same as the current iPhone 5 – Apple’s consistent pricing scheme which has transferred from one model to the next. This would place a 16GB model at £529, going all the way up to £699 for the 64GB version. However, if we buy into the idea that there will also be a budget model, then we could be looking at a very low price tag – as little as £200 according to some sources.
Likewise, a super-sized ‘XL’ model, if it still sports a premium spec and build, could potentially be more expensive than the standard model.

iPhone 5S/6 – Know Your Mobile's iPhone 5S/6 Wishlist

KYM Deputy Editor, Richard Goodwin, details what he'd like from the next iPhone:

• 4.7-inch display 1080p Retina Display, although 4.3-inch would suffice.
• A new UX for iOS: live widgets, a new-look and feel, more customisation options. Apple’s Senior VP of Industrial Design Jony Ive has been tasked with giving iOS a facelift and I’m more than excited about seeing what he comes up with.
• More keyboard options – Let me download other keyboards, ones like Swype. Trust developers to create better experiences. They’re more than capable, as any Android user will tell you.
• Bigger battery – make the display bigger, preferably using an edge-to-edge setup, and it creates room for a bigger battery cell that ensures the phone lasts for longer. It’s a simple point but one many manufacturers, bar Motorola, have yet to really address.

That’s it for me, really. Nothing too drastic, just a few design changes, a modified UX, and a bigger battery and I’d be happily jump ship back to iOS.
Got any theories on the iPhone 5S/iPhone 6 or what you'd like to see inside them? Share them in the comments below.

What do you wanna see on the upcoming flagship smartphone of SAMSUNG???

Here’s What We Want

• Samsung Galaxy S5

The Samsung Galaxy S4 has been released and now it’s the time to think about Samsung’s next flagship device, the Galaxy S5, which will probably be released in April – May 2014. We’re expecting the Samsung Galaxy S5 to come with really awesome features, considering that the technology is evolving very fast and flexible displays might be ready for use, meaning the smartphones will change radically by next year.

The Samsung Galaxy S5 will clearly come with better specs, an improved processor, GPU and more RAM, but this isn’t so important, because nowadays high-end smartphones are way too powerful anyway and we don’t really need all that power. What differentiates them are the design and features, being them software or hardware.

In a few years we’ll probably be able to replace our tablets and laptops with just a smartphone, considering the pace the technology is evolving. I have been dreaming for years at hologram keyboards and high quality smartphone projectors, that can turn the little smartphone into a computer or home cinema. But we aren’t going to see it next year, though there are a lot of others things that Samsung can do in just a year.

3D Display & Camera

We’ve seen 3D smartphones already, but they weren’t very good and faded pretty quickly. Though I believe the technology has matured and now Samsung might be able to make a high quality glass-free 3D display. Add a 3D camera to that and you already have a fun device in your pocket. I don’t know if Samsung will chose to go on that road, but it’s clearly possible at the moment.
Samsung is known for creating the best displays in the world and they are definitely the most capable at designing a good 3D one for the next Galaxy S5.
Smartphone cameras have also become very good lately and they caused compact camera sales to plummet, because there isn’t much difference between the two. It’s true that you can’t stuck a big sensor in such a small device, but neither cheap compact cameras have one because it’s expensive. So we could soon be able to record decent 3D videos with our smartphone and watch them directly on the device.

Projector

A smartphone with a built-in projector ? We have Samsung Galaxy Beam, but it didn’t get too much popularity due to its low specs. Add it to the Samsung Galaxy S5 and it might turn this into a trend. Personally I don’t have a TV set in my home so I’m watching the movies on the computer’s display. But how cool would it be to watch Netflix by using the smartphone’s projector ? Or watching the movies you recorded with the Galaxy S5 itself.
I doubt they will ever be able to pack a very high quality projector in a smartphone, because there simply isn’t enough space for a good lens, but they could fit a decent one, considering that they won’t care so much about the smartphone’s width.

Better battery

Every time a new smartphone is being released, we see that it has an improved capacity battery. But once we get to use it, we don’t notice much of a difference. And this is because new smartphones come with bigger displays and more powerful CPUs that are battery hogs.
I’m expecting the Samsung Galaxy S5 to feature a much improved battery, while keeping the not-so-necessary specs lower in order to meet the users’ actual needs. Nobody needs an 8-core processor on a smartphone, when they don’t even have one on their desktop computer. If they kept the same old quad-core processor while doubling the battery life, I would be a happy man.
An improved battery management software would be great too. Make it easy for me to see what’s draining the battery and help me save it without needing to install third-party apps and keep an eye on them all the time. Let me know what app keeps waking the smartphone up and help me stop it or limit it somehow.
The Galaxy S4 has come with a lot of new features that keep using the frontal camera and sensor all the time, which are draining battery dramatically. These features might be nice, but they should have let the users know the drawbacks of using them.

Improved TouchWiz

Many hate TouchWiz and switch to another launcher as soon as they get their hands on a Samsung smartphone. Others don’t even buy a Samsung device because of the launcher. In my opinion it looks nice and is really smooth, but it lacks the features other free launchers come with. Samsung could simply buy Apex or Nova and start integrating them into TouchWiz. In my opinion, TouchWiz looks better than either Apex or Nova, but you can’t do much about it.
I’d also like to see a better app management in the app drawer, because it’s a clutter and you have to swipe a lot until you find the app you want. Allow the user to sort the apps manually or help him do it by using some filters.
And the launcher is very important because people don’t even know what that is and that it can be changed. The usual customer must like the device out-of-the-box and TouchWiz is a really confusing launcher.

Flexible Display

Everybody’s talking about it and they all want it. And i believe Samsung is most capable of doing it, considering that they have been the kings of displays for the last decade. The Galaxy S5 could actually come with a flexible display, as we’ve seen them showcased at CES 2013, but they surely won’t be as we expected. When people read about flexible displays, they imagine bending the phone, though it’s not true at all. A flexible display is curved so it can bring more functionality.
As we’ve seen a CES, a smartphone could have a cover on, while you can still read some information on the side thanks to the flexible screen. Though I’m not sure how much would that cover help you in case of a fall. But I hope Samsung can find a way of making them stronger and the Galaxy S5 will surpass every other smartphone’s success for sure.

Conclusion

We’re really expecting the Samsung Galaxy S5 to be an amazing device and we believe the Korean maker will stop offering us just some software features and do something new.
How do you think the new Galaxy S5 will be ?

Merits of Android Smartphones over iPhone ??? What u say guys???

Apple’s iOS is, sorry was the best mobile operating system. It is the growth of its competitor Android which led me to use the verb ‘was’ here. Android is no.1 mobile operating system now. It has stolen this tag from Apple and now not going to leave this tag at all. Apple’s iPhone is always rich in features and they get the good sales as well, but they are not able to reach the brand power of Android smartphones. What are the features that all other smart phones lack as compare to Android. Well, I took the time to write on some basic reasons for this. So let’s have a look on it.


1. Desktop
The first problem starts right from the desktop. Apple’s iPhone don’t allow you to add the app icons on your home screen. But in Android you are free to use any icon on home screen to have fast and single touch access to the apps, you mostly use.


2. App Store
Both the OS have their own app stores. Apple had its own store to get the apps names iTunes while Android has with the name of Google Play. Both the app stores are having millions of apps in different categories. Still the Android app store is better than that of iTunes. The reason behind this is mobile user behavior. Most mobile users are not in the mood to spend money on apps and they want only free apps. iTunes has less no. of free apps as compared to Google Play. This thing makes the Google Play a better place to get apps and make their product, Android, better than others.


3. Browsing Experience
Now all mobile users buy mobiles by giving preference to this feature. The Android browser is far better than the browsers that you get with iPhone of Window mobile. The good in built browser of Android saves the time of its users to search of any other third party browser.


4. Open Source
Yes this is something creates a big margin between Android and other smart phones. The Android is best due to versatility of apps. The apps are not created by Android employees only. It is open source platform and even you are welcome to create apps for Android. Not any other OS provides this service. They believe in their own team of specialists. This makes their system to stay behind from down earth Google mobile OS, Google Play.


5. PC Connections
Having a smart phone with you, many times you need to connect it with PC. Android is the king in this field as well. Just connect the USB cable of your Android to the PC and you are ready to access the sdCard of your smart phone. But for other operating systems you need to have special software installed on your system. It becomes irritating when you are on your friend’s system and he/she does not have that particular software installed on their system.

Microsoft responds to 'extreme' Windows 8 criticism

Microsoft appreciates the feedback on Windows 8. Up to a point.
"There is a trend to the extreme," Frank X. Shaw, corporate vice president of corporate communications at Microsoft, wrote on The Official Microsoft Blog on Friday, addressing some of the harsher attacks.
Here's a fuller quote:

"In this world where everyone is a publisher, there is a trend to the extreme -- where those who want to stand out opt for sensationalism and hyperbole over nuanced analysis. In this world where page views are currency, heat is often more valued than light. Stark black-and-white caricatures are sometimes more valued than shades-of-gray reality.
So let's pause for a moment and consider the center. In the center, selling 100 million copies of a product is a good thing. In the center, listening to feedback and improving a product is a good thing."

So how "extreme" has the criticism been? Well, the Financial Times said the upcoming changes to Windows 8 mark one of the most prominent admissions of failure for a new mass-market consumer product since Coca-Cola's New Coke fiasco nearly 30 years ago."

And the Economist attacked Microsoft the company, saying "restoring the Start button will not restore Microsoft to its former glory."

On CNET, IDC's Bob O'Donnell spoke to me in March. At that time he said: "There were certain decisions that Microsoft made that were in retrospect flawed. Notably not allowing people to boot into desktop mode and taking away the Start button. Those two things have come up consistently.

We've done some research and people miss that."

And IDC continued over the following months to be critical as PC sales stalled. Especially when first-quarter global computer shipments dropped 14 percent from the previous year, much worse than IDC's forecast for a 7.7 percent decline.

So, what do you think? Has Microsoft and Windows 8 been unfairly attacked?

Note: It's not like a Start button function is completely absent in Windows 8. For example, the Windows key plus "x" brings up a menu similar to the Start button, replete with a search option. And getting to the Windows 8 desktop is only a matter of clicking "Desktop" on the Metro screen.

Smartphones vs Laptops

So, whom do you favor?? Smartphones or Laptops??

This one may look like something right out of the blue - but it's actually been a long time coming. It's not about smartphones and tablets making more and more sense than laptops on a long commute or a trip. It's not about just web browsing, chatting and watching videos. Smartphones are increasingly able to match the processing power of laptops - and maybe the time isn't far away when they'll go after them in terms of productivity too.

It's easier and cheaper to make better, faster chipsets the size that goes into a laptop. It's easier and cheaper too to cool those better and faster chipsets at that size too. So, why is it that smartphone chipsets have been getting better faster than those for laptops?

Reasons may vary why smartphones have been pushing laptops into a corner, but two of them stand out: human nature and profitability. Mobile phones are darn good at making money. Samsung, for example, is making more money off mobile phones than the entire home appliance division (TVs, washing machines, the lot). Well, money's in smartphones, and R&D is where the money is.

So, there we go. A smartphone and a laptop will compete against each other in different tasks but the point of the exercise is not to declare a winner. Far from it. We'll try instead to look at how the two species have evolved and what kind of productivity you can get out of each size.

We'll be trying to get the big picture but, of course, a story is only as good as its characters. It seems there's little to worry about on that end. Let's just say we could've done a lot worse in terms of the cast. Defending the honor of smartphones is the Samsung Galaxy S4 - the pinnacle of mobile phone evolution right now. In the opposing corner stands the Lenovo Yoga 13.3" ultra-book. We chose it because of its excellent specs and really cool rotating screen. Sorry touchscreen.

The early days

Before we go on with the testing and see just how smartphones are catching up with notebooks, a bit of history is due. We promise, we'll keep it short and interesting for you.

The 1970s saw the birth of both mobile phones and laptops. IBM had the first commercially available notebook in 1973, less than aptly called SCAMP (Special Computer APL Machine Portable). As you would imagine, it had the weight - but nor the firepower - of a tank.

Mobile phones didn't quite start on the right foot either. The first glimpse of a smartphone was born in the early 1970s, buck back then it was just a patent. The device imagined by Theodore Paraskevakos would help you easily pay utility bills via a bank transfer. When it wasn't doing this, it could also do data processing and visualize stuff on its display.

The IBM Simon Personal Communicator

The cool idea became reality nearly two decades later, in 1992, when IBM (again) developed a prototype cellular phone with PDA features. Dubbed the IBM Simon Personal Communicator, it wasn't able to hit retail until 1994. It weighed half a kilo and carried a price tag of $1099.

Two years down the road Nokia enjoyed an unseen success with the introduction of the 9000. Slightly lighter than the IBM Simon, the Nokia clamshell sported a QWERTY keyboard and a big 640×200 pixel display (which was pretty high resolution at the time). As people started embracing the smartphone as a handy mobile tool, which could do more than mere phone calls and text messages, mobile phone manufacturers started to get serious about the product, investing in platform and hardware R&D.

Custom and proprietary software was in the heart of each and every smartphone back in the day, but many companies began to understand that this isn't going to end up well - a standardized mobile operating system was needed that could run on a myriad of the devices. This way companies could focus their effort on a single piece of software and not on one for each new smartphone.

At that point laptops had a huge advantage in all important areas - processing power, available software, and in turn sales. The gap was measured in tens of times and it was getting bigger by the day, as that industry was were all the money were going.

Then more capable platforms were born the momentum started to swing. Symbian, BlackBerry, Palm, and Windows Phone came to show the way. At that point they were trying to emulate the laptop experience and used Windows as their main inspiration for adding new features.

And that could never work out too well as at the time smartphones had so limited processing power that they could never quite measure up to the bigger devices. By the time when the first dual-core laptop came into existence, smartphones were still at 100MHz single-cores - optimizations or not that's too huge a difference to overcome. The app availability was also pretty limited as there wasn't a good centralized repository and besides few were really willing to pay for something that runs on a phone.

Then Apple took the stage and things went mental. The iPhone showed that smartphones don't need to try and emulate laptops - they should play to their own strengths instead. After enjoying the comfort of more precise input through mice and keyboards for ages, laptop owners finally had their own reasons to feel jealous - the cool gesture navigation, the nice transition effect and the eye-candy a platform not obsessed with features could offer started the touchscreen craze.

Then there came the App Store and suddenly mobile apps were all the rage. Developers who previously couldn't care less about smartphones were now making them their primary revenue streams, giving laptop and desktop platforms the cold shoulder.

Then the chipsets started to evolve at an unbelievable rate. Less than six years after the first iPhone was launched, we have smartphones with chipsets that have 30 times its processing prowess. Take that Moore's law!

As smartphone vendors got more oomph to work with, they started to build up a feature set that is now pretty close to that of laptops. The strong foundation of platforms that are designed from the ground up for touchscreen smartphones, combined with the lack of obligation to support legacy hardware and software (since people change smartphones way more often than laptops) yielded amazing results.

Don't get us wrong, laptops too were evolving - getting thinner, lighter and various in screen sizes. It's just that they were obviously caught off guard by the rapid progress their pocket able friends achieved. Tables have turned and now it's laptops that look to smartphones for inspiration - just look at Windows 8.

According to reports by IDC, a reputable market research and analysis company, in the first quarter of 2013 alone smartphone sales amounted to over 216 million units. An impressive figure, which incidentally also marks the first time smartphones out-shipped feature phones, at 202 million. This rounds up to a total of 418 million mobile phones sold in just a quarter. And not one of high consumer activity at that.

On the notebook market things aren't as rosy. In fact, sales have been steadily declining, taking a 14% year-on-year dip to 76.2 million units in Q1 2013. In fact, this is the biggest recorded drop since IDC started watching the market.

The company's analysts can see the gap between mobile phones and laptops widening with an expected 919 million smartphones sold in 2013, against around 350 million laptops and personal computers.

Screen comparison

One of the areas to benefit the most from the turbo-powered smartphone evolution lately is undoubtedly display quality. While the the early day smartphones had screens of similar quality to those of their laptop peers, now the two are usually miles apart.

It's telling that at this moment there are probably more 1080p smartphones in the market than there are laptops (not counting the huge 17+ inch work stations). Smartphones have also been enjoying the unrivaled contrast and punchy colors of AMOLED screens for a while now, while laptops are still waiting on the sidelines.

So even though the Lenovo Yoga 13's IPS capacitive touchscreen of 1600x900 is pretty good for a laptop, it's no match for the 441 ppi AMOLED of the Galaxy S4 or the 469 Super LCD3 of the HTC One. Of course the Yoga trumps them both with its sheer size, but its image quality is simply no match for those beasts.

Neither the contrast, nor the viewing angles or the 133ppi of the Yoga can hold a candle to what are certainly the two best screens in the smartphone market. There's just none of that high-end vibe and the paper-like look to be found in the laptop world at that point.

Of course we should keep in mind that the user interface of the Windows 8 OS doesn't scale very nicely at densities beyond that of the Yoga, so it's not all about investing more money in the hardware here. 1080p on a 13" Windows machine is okay, when you're in Modern UI or the apps designed specifically for it, but it can be a problem for productive tasks in Desktop mode. Once again it's the legacy software that's holding the laptops back.

A cool feat of the Samsung Galaxy S4 screen is that even if you are not a fan of the oversaturated look of AMOLEDs, you have the option to tune the saturation down for a natural look and enjoy the best of both worlds. There's a dedicated Adobe RGB setting that sees to it. Laptops are no strangers to color profiles but their screens more often than not simply lack the kind of quality hardware to be able to perform well in both scenarios.

We ran our traditional contrast ratio test on the Lenovo Yoga 13 and here are the results.

Display test	50% brightness			100% brightness
	Black, cd/m2	White, cd/m2	Contrast ratio	Black, cd/m2	White, cd/m2	Contrast ratio
Samsung I9505 Galaxy S4	0	201	∞	0	404	∞
HTC One	0.13	205	1580	0.42	647	1541
Lenovo Yoga 13	-			0.32	352	1092

There's also the matter of sunlight legibility, where the smartphones score another point. The Galaxy S4 does greatly in bright sunlight and HTC One is not half bad either. The Yoga is good for the ultra-book class, but can't quite match the low reflectivity of those two and its inferior brightness certainly doesn't help either. 

Performance

In general, laptops and smartphones have very different platforms and hardware, so evaluating their performance can be a bit tricky. Still we found a few cross-platform benchmarks that should give us a good idea of their relative standing.

As luck would have it the first two of those coincide with the most use case for both personal computers and smartphones - web browsing.

First is Sun Spider, which measures JavaScript performance. The Lenovo Yoga 13 running Internet Explorer 10 monstered the Galaxy S4 scoring much better here, although we have to mention that JavaScript is single-threaded, which means the two extra cores of the Samsung flagship don't help it at all here.

Sun Spider

Lower is better

• Lenovo Yoga 13 163
• Samsung Galaxy S4 (Octa)   804
• Samsung Galaxy S4 (S600)   810

Moving on to Browser Mark 2, which is a suite of tests including JavaScript and HTML5-rendering. Here, the gap between the Yoga 13 and Galaxy S4 was much smaller to the point of being hard to notice in real life.

Browser Mark 2

Higher is better

• Lenovo Yoga 13 3410
• Samsung Galaxy S4 (Octa) 2710
• Samsung Galaxy S4 (S600) 2580

Of course speed isn't everything when it comes to web browsing as things like a larger screen and full Flash support still count in favor of the Yoga. Still, that's hardly the point here.

Lastly, we ran Geek Bench 2, which is a cross-platform benchmark, which allows us to compare the overall Galaxy Samsung Galaxy S4 performance (CPU, GPU and memory) against the Lenovo Yoga 13. The powerful Intel Core i5 naturally came out on top here, but the difference is less than two-fold.

Geek bench 2
Higher is better

• Lenovo Yoga 13 5001
• Samsung Galaxy S4 (Octa) 3324
• Samsung Galaxy S4 (S600) 3227

The ultra-book beat the smartphone in all tests and we wouldn't expect anything less, but the margin of its victory is way smaller than we though. The JavaScript test aside (which favors per-core performance over number of cores and where devices are often to perform by their manufacturers), the other two produced a difference of under two times and we'd certainly call that a win for the smartphone camp. 

Battery life

Some less than encouraging stats there, and we are now to see to what extent has the gap been closed. Handheld chip makers have caught up and even surpassed laptops in terms of number of CPU cores and occasionally even clock speed.

The Lenovo Yoga 13 is powered by a 2.6GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 processor of the Ivy Bridge variety, while the Galaxy S4 we're basing this comparison on features either a 1.6GHz octa-core CPU or a quartet of Krait 300 cores running at up to 1.9GHz in the Snapdragon 600 chipset.

It's not a fair fight whichever way you look at it, due to the major architectural differences between Intel and ARM. They both have differing instruction sets, cache methods, memory management and bandwidth, among other things.

Having said that, both platforms have something in common - video playback and web browsing. As such, we've let them deal with one another in our battery test to see just how efficiently each one manages its resources.

We need to make a necessary disclaimer that we set the screen of both devices to about 150lm to have them on equal footing.

Additionally, since Windows 8 offers different power management setups, we've set the Lenovo ultra-book on High performance to let it unleash its full potential and manage the available CPU and GPU resources itself.

In terms of web browsing, the Galaxy S4 rather predictably beat the Lenovo Yoga 13, by over 2 hours. The Galaxy S4 finished the test in 7 hours and 24 minutes of continuous web browsing, whereas the Yoga managed 5 hours and 7 minutes.

Here, the smaller screen and less powerful, but more efficient CPU take the credit. Had we compared the Yoga ultra-book with one of the Web browsing battery test champions (HTC One), the difference in score would've been close to double.

Web browsing

Higher is better

• Lenovo Yoga 13 5:07
• Samsung Galaxy S4 (S600) 7:01

In the video component of our traditional battery test, we play a movie at SD quality. This is so that we can give equal chance to low- and mid-range devices against the premium offerings on the smartphone market.

But since this isn't a usual test, we chose to play a more demanding 720p .MKV file with x264 encoding. As you can see in the results below, the Galaxy S4 posts more than double the time of the Yoga 13, at nearly 9 hours of continuous 720p video playback (8:56h to be exact).

The Lenovo Yoga on the other hand did rather poorly in comparison getting the measly 3:52 hours.

720p video playback

Higher is better

• Lenovo Yoga 13 3:52
• Samsung Galaxy S4 (S600) 8:56

So as far as consuming content on the go is concerned, smartphones have an advantage and a pretty big one at that. It has always been this way and that's hardly surprising, but there's a change in the big picture you should consider. While previously laptops could take consolation in the fact that they could at least support more content (video codes, more complex web pages etc.), devices like the Samsung Galaxy S4 have eradicated much of that advantage.

And don't get fooled to think that the endurance difference is entirely down to the difference in screen sizes. After all laptops have a lot more room to fit larger batteries and, in this case at least, they don't even have as many pixels to worry about.

Loudspeaker

We also ran our traditional loudspeaker test on the Yoga 13 for a good measure. It scored a below average result, which is strange considering that laptops have enough space to house much larger speakers than those found on smartphones. 

However, it's very important to note that the Lenovo offers far clearer sound, which is going to be far more important to many. 

Speakerphone test	Voice, dB	Pink noise/ Music, dB	Ringing phone, dB	Overall score
Lenovo Yoga 13	64.2	61.7	62.3	Below average
Samsung I9505 Galaxy S4	70.6	66.2	77.3	Good

Conclusion
 

So, evolution can be cruel. But there's nothing wrong with how laptops have been handling it. They have been getting better as fast as ever, if not even faster recently. It's the smartphone revolution and the money it's making that changed the scene.

Phones are far easier to carry around and, once technology evolved enough to let them do more than calling, they were always likely to get more attention. They have obviously been busy closing in on laptops and, with HDMI and wireless connectivity constantly evolving, are becoming more and more of perfectly good alternatives of laptops as the media player bit in a home theater setup. Also, with Bluetooth and USB OTG, smartphones can have the full set of peripherals to match laptops: keyboards, mice, and the lot. 

Still we can't see that gap disappearing altogether - the screen size, a proper keyboard and the productivity of desktop software can't be compensated for just yet.

While it might seem that the smartphones and tablets are hurting laptop sales, we actually believe that at this point the two products are doing more of completing each other than actually competing. Even tablets are still unable to properly replace a laptop for even the most casual users, but at this rate we can't really say that day won't come.

Software is the tricky bit, and it goes both ways. Desktop software is still way ahead in terms of flexibility or real productivity: it will be a while before writers, accountants, architects, designers, software developers, photographers will be able to their job on a phone or tablet. Maybe never. On the other hand, laptops are being dragged down by the weight of an OS and apps invented years ago (redesigns and updates cannot quite hide that fact) and software that’s been designed with a one-size-fit-all mentality.

Like chipset design, software development is favoring smartphones over desktop Operating Systems. There’s probably more profit in a simple touch-based game for handheld than the most impressively elaborate PC game that takes a monster GPU to run and a multiple-screen setup to appreciate.

And it's not the size, the touchscreen or the convenience, backed by the quickly advancing technology that will continue to fuel the smartphones' drive forward. What we're watching evolve here is the very concept of personal.

 Ironically, the evolution started with the personal computer, and laptops were nothing short of a quantum leap. But it just doesn't get any more personal than something you can carry with you at all times and hold in hand.