Samsung has launched its highly anticipated Galaxy S3 smartphone. It runs Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich but Samsung has added its own clever features, or ‘easter eggs’, which are scattered around the operating system. See also: Group test: What's the best smartphone?
Discover all the nifty things the Galaxy S3 can do
We’ve put together this list of 10 neat tricks that the Galaxy S3 has up its sleeve which you might not know about.
See also: Samsung Galaxy S3 vs HTC One X comparison review.
Samsung Galaxy S3: S Voice
The voice recognition software that comes with the Galaxy S3 is called S Voice. To access it while using the phone simply double tap the Home button. You can also access it from the lock screen by saying "Hi Galaxy" or a customised command. Four additional voice commands can then be set each with its own task like opening the camera app for example.
Samsung Galaxy S3: Smart Stay
Samsung has added a lot of extra software features to the Galaxy S3. One of the main ones is called Smart Stay. This uses eye-tracking technology to recognise when you are looking at the screen. If you are then it automatically disables the screen timeout. Smart Stay can be switched on and off from the Display settings menu.
Samsung Galaxy S3: Multi-tasking
The Samsung Galaxy S3 runs Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich which has a multi-tasking function called 'recent apps'. While most smartphones running this version have a dedicated key for this, the Galaxy S3 just has Home, Menu and Back.
You can still access the recent apps part of the operating system by holding down the Home button – for about 2 second. You can then switch between open apps or close them by swiping them off the screen to the left or right.
Samsung Galaxy S3: Direct Call
The Galaxy S3 has a number of features which are activated by motion. Direct Call will automatically call a contact if their log, contact, or message details are on the screen and you move the handset to your ear. Direct Call can be switched on and off in the Motion section of the settings menu.
Samsung Galaxy S3: Tap to top
Give the Galaxy S3 a double tap on the top, next to the headphone socket, with your finger to scroll to the top of your contact list, email list or email messages. Tap to top can be switched on and off in the Motion section of the settings menu.
See also: Samsung Galaxy S3 vs Apple iPhone 4S comparison review.
Samsung Galaxy S3: Smart alerts
The aim of Smart alerts is to notify you of any missed messages or calls you receives while your Galaxy S3 was not is use – sitting on a desk for example. The next time you pick it up it will vibrate to alert you to any missed calls of messages. Smart alerts can be switched on and off in the Motion section of the settings menu.
Samsung Galaxy S3: Camera quick launch
You can also use the motion control to quickly open the camera app. From the lock screen you just have to tap and hold the screen with one finger, then rotate the handset into landscape mode and the camera app with open.
Samsung Galaxy S3: Take a screenshot
If you want to take a screenshot on the Galaxy S3 you have to turn on 'Palm swipe to capture' in the Motion settings menu. Swipe the screen from left to right or vice versa with the side of your hand to take a screen shot.
Samsung Galaxy S3: Palm touch to pause
If you're listening to music or watching a video and need to pause it then you can do this by simply covering the Galaxy S3 with the palm of your hand. This can be switched on and off in the Motion section of the settings menu.
Samsung Galaxy S3: Pop-out video player
If you feel the burning desire to do something on the Galaxy S3 while watching a video simultaneously, you can. When using the video player app there is an icon in the bottom right corner to make the video play in a pop-out window. You can move it around the screen by dragging it and carry on with other tasks. Just tap the video to go full screen again.
Telecom companies back to tariff-cutting as competition hots up - Daily News and Analysis
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Telecom subscribers are in for good times. It’s not just free roaming but even tariffs seem to be easing. And it’s not just a few paise dip, but a massive drop of over 50 paise per second that has come along over the last 45 days. Sunil Tirumalai ...Telecom Companies May Struggle to Maintain High Dividend Pay-Outs - Yahoo Finance
NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwire -06/01/12)- Dividends have been gaining popularity among investors as treasury yields and interest rates are at record lows. The telecom industry is highly regarded among dividend investors, as several domestic telecom operators have dividend yields exceeding 5 percent. Five Star Equities examines the outlook for companies in the Telecom Industry and provides equity research on CenturyLink, Inc. (CTL) and Windstream Corporation (WIN).
Access to the full company reports can be found at:
www.FiveStarEquities.com/CTL
www.FiveStarEquities.com/WIN
But a recent report released by Standard & Poor's states that telecom companies may have hard time maintaining their high yields. "Returning cash to shareholders through dividends and share buybacks and the pressure to satisfy equity investors lessens their ability to pay back debt and maintain or reduce leverage," said Standard & Poor's credit analyst Allyn Arden in the report. "These companies may need to adopt more conservative financial policies and reduce leverage to be able to maintain their current ratings down the line," added Mr. Arden.
Five Star Equities releases regular market updates on the Telecom Industry so investors can stay ahead of the crowd and make the best investment decisions to maximize their returns. Take a few minutes to register with us free at www.FiveStarEquities.com and get exclusive access to our numerous stock reports and industry newsletters.
CenturyLink is the third largest telecommunications company in the United States. The company provides broadband, voice, wireless and managed services to consumers and businesses across the country. It also offers advanced entertainment services under the CenturyLink Prism TV and DIRECTV brands. The company currently offers investors an annual dividend of $2.90 per share for a yield of 7.39 percent.
Windstream is a leading provider of advanced network communications, including cloud computing and managed services, to businesses nationwide. The company also offers broadband, phone and digital TV services to consumers primarily in rural areas. Windstream has more than $6 billion in annual revenues. The company currently offers investors an annual dividend of $1.00 per share for a yield of 10.73 percent.
Five Star Equities provides Market Research focused on equities that offer growth opportunities, value, and strong potential return. We strive to provide the most up-to-date market activities. We constantly create research reports and newsletters for our members. Five Star Equities has not been compensated by any of the above-mentioned companies. We act as an independent research portal and are aware that all investment entails inherent risks.
Please view the full disclaimer at: www.FiveStarEquities.com/disclaimer
KPN Said to Weigh German Wireless Merger With Telefonica - Bloomberg
Royal KPN NV (KPN) and Telefonica SA (TEF) are considering ways to merge their German units, a move that would create the country’s top mobile-phone operator by customers.
The companies are evaluating a variety of options, including a combination of Telefonica’s O2 Germany unit and KPN’s E-Plus, the two smaller of the nation’s four operators, said two people with knowledge of the matter, declining to be identified as the discussions are private. The companies are considering selling a stake in a German entity as part of an initial public offering, one of the people said.
A merger could help KPN, which said today it had begun a strategy review of E-Plus, to fend off an unsolicited 2.6 billion-euro ($3.2 billion) offer for a stake by Carlos Slim’s America Movil SAB. (AMXL) Telefonica this week received approval from its board to hold an initial share sale for O2 Germany as the Madrid-based company speeds up attempts to cut its net debt of more than 57 billion euros.
“The combination would create significant synergies,” said Henri Alexaline, a fixed-income investor who helps manage $1 billion at London-based FM Capital Partners Ltd. “The key hurdle would be how to remedy antitrust concerns but looking at Vodafone’s current reach it does not look like a deal breaker.”
Synergies
O2 Germany and E-Plus would have a combined mobile-phone client base of 41.7 million in the country, based on information from the company’s websites. That compares with Vodafone Group Plc (VOD)’s 36.5 million local mobile customers and Deutsche Telekom AG (DTE)’s 35.1 million wireless clients in Germany.
KPN acting Chief Financial Officer Eric Hageman said today that consolidation in the German market could generate 4 billion euros in synergies. Chief Executive Officer Eelco Blok said as recently as in November that Telefonica was “not willing” to sell. He declined to comment today on whether KPN is in talks with Telefonica.
“A combination of businesses of some kind would make a lot of sense,” said Francisco Salvador, a Madrid-based strategist at FGA/MG Valores. “It would boost the operators’ market share and would allow them to obtain significant synergies while ruling out any potential problems with licenses to offer services in the country.”
Telefonica, whose stock is down 33 percent this year, last week had it debt rating cut by Standard & Poor’s as the Spanish banking crisis accelerated the company’s loss of phone customers to discounters.
Debt Rating
KPN rose 0.1 percent to 7.65 euros in Amsterdam after earlier surging as much as 2.1 percent. Telefonica rose 0.8 percent to 9 euros in Madrid. The Spanish operator has a market value of 41.4 billion euros, compared with 110 billion euros in 2007.
A spokesman for Telefonica declined to comment on whether the companies are considering combining their German businesses.
America Movil this week began a 2.6 billion-euro offer to increase its stake in The Hague, Netherlands-based KPN. Telefonica’s finance chief, Angel Vila, told an investor conference in London yesterday that Telefonica has no plan to make a counter bid for KPN, according to two people who attended the meeting, who asked not to be identified because the meeting is private.
Telefonica CEO Cesar Alierta, with his company’s net debt greater than its market value, is turning to some of Telefonica’s most valuable assets for cash.
Slim’s Offer
Alierta bought mobile-phone operator O2 Plc for $31.5 billion in 2006 to add wireless units in the U.K., Ireland and Germany in his biggest acquisition. Germany is now Telefonica’s second-largest market in Europe and may be valued at as much as 9 billion euros, according to Citigroup Inc. (C)
KPN had 23 million mobile customers in Germany at the end of the first quarter. Frank Claassen, an analyst at Rabobank International, estimates E-Plus is worth about 8.5 billion euros, though with cost savings through a merger, that could rise to 10 billion euros.
Telefonica said this week it will explore share sales for O2 Germany and its Latin American businesses. The prospect of owning a minority stake in the No. 3 of four mobile operators in Germany, a market with more handsets than people, has left investors unconvinced.
Boris Boehm, who helps manage 1.1 billion euros including Telefonica shares at Aramea Asset Management in Hamburg, says the IPO plans aren’t helped by the fact that the operator’s need for cash is too obvious.
Poker Game
“If everyone knows that Telefonica needs money out of the IPO, I would say it’s not a wise idea,” he said, adding that he wouldn’t be interested in buying O2 Germany’s stock. “It’s like in a poker game, if everyone knows what your cards are, it’s not a good game to play.”
German mobile-phone subscriptions rose 4.8 percent in 2011, compared with growth of 5.6 percent in all of Europe, according to data compiled by Bloomberg Industries. Wireless penetration reached 139 percent in 2011 compared with 130.3 percent for the region.
Heinrich Ey, a fund manager at Allianz Global Investors in Frankfurt, which manages about 300 billion euros including Telefonica and Deutsche Telekom shares, said the Spanish company had to “rush and react” after S&P’s cut and Slim’s KPN bid.
“The big question down the road is on consolidation,” he said.
To contact the reporters on this story: Jacqueline Simmons at jackiem@bloomberg.net Manuel Baigorri in Madrid at mbaigorri@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Kenneth Wong at kwong11@bloomberg.net
KPN, Telefonica Said to Weigh German Merger as Slim Prowls
Jock Fistick/Bloomberg
A selection of smartphones sit on display inside a Royal KPN NV store.
A selection of smartphones sit on display inside a Royal KPN NV store. Photographer: Jock Fistick/Bloomberg
9,000 O2 customers face porn company money shot - Crave
If you've been a naughty boy, something's about to fill your slot that'll leave you moaning. A letter, that is, from porn-peddler Ben Dover, demanding compensation if you're suspected of pirating adult movies.
British adult entertainment company Ben Dover Productions, also known as Golden Eye International, is tossing off letters to the users of 9,124 IP addresses on O2, accusing them of illegally downloading blue movies and begging to be satisfied.
The porn company won a court order in March that forced O2 to shoot over the details of customers who may have downloaded pirated copies of its films.
The smut-mongers will now write to the people associated with those IP addresses, after the High Court has approved the intended text of the letter. A judge toned down the language of the first letter, which the company says will "seek to find out more information regarding evidence of an infringement of our copyright."
The judge blocked the company from threatening users that O2 would "slow down or terminate your internet connection." Golden Eye was also banned from demanding a £700 money shot from each user. Instead, each user has the opportunity to dispute the claim, as the court acknowledges that an IP address cannot necessarily be tied to a person.
If they admit it, users must individually negotiate a settlement. And if they do not respond within 28 days, they could be found liable, which would be quite a blow.
The company claims it's been pounded hard by piracy -- harder even than mainstream movies, because pirates cannot replicate the cinematic experience. The company is also chasing websites that it argues encourage online piracy, as well as pirates of physical DVDs.
Is this the right way to address piracy, whether of porn or any other types of movie and media? Go down in the comments and tell me your thoughts, or come hither to our Facebook page.
O2 Porn Sharers Set For Legal Rogering From Ben Dover - techweekeurope.co.uk
Porn pusher Ben Dover has won a court case that will see suspected illegal downloaders of his films threatened with legal action.
The High Court has approved the text of a letter which will be sent out to over 9,000 O2 broadband customers who might have illegally shared adult films made by Ben Dover Productions.
The pornographers won a court order in March, forcing the ISP to disclose details of IP addresses linked to alleged copyright infringement. The company is planning to send the O2 customers letters threatening court action unless a settlement is reached.
However, because of the particularities of the case and the company’s previous experience in “speculative invoicing”, the text of the letters had to be agreed in court.
Deny everything
Ben Dover Productions, owned by Golden Eye International, was founded by British adult actor, director and producer Ben Dover, also known as Lindsay Honey. This is not the first time his company has cracked down on alleged copyright infringement.
It was later alleged that the campaign was targeting innocent individuals and that the speculative invoicing relied on the embarrassment of those targeted agreeing to the fine to avoid the threatened court action, regardless of whether they were guilty or not.
In March, Golden Eye went to court in an attempt to obtain the details of over 9,124 IP addresses from internet service provider O2. The High Court ruled that the ISP must hand over their details, but threw out another 12 claims.
The juge also deemed the proposed £700 fine to be “unsupported and unsupportable”, telling the company to individually negotiate a settlement sum with each defendant.
Because IP addresses can be shared, faked and hijacked, they cannot serve as reliable evidence. Hence, the bill payer cannot automatically be assumed to be guilty of any alleged copyright violation, and therefore any claim made by Ben Dover Productions couldn’t move forward unless the recipient of the company’s spectulative invoicing letters admitted their own guilt.
This is why “precise wording of the order and of the letter of claim” had to be decided at a court hearing. Suspected sharers of the X-rated material will be given 28 days to reply after the judge called a 14-day limit requested by Ben Dover “unreasonable”.
“In our first letter we seek to find out more information regarding evidence of an infringement of our copyright,” spokesman Julian Becker told the BBC. “Depending on the response to our letters we will then decide our next action.”
A statement from O2 said: “We are pleased that the court has taken a robust approach and controlled the tone and content of the letter Golden Eye proposes to send to our customers. We are also pleased that the judge acknowledged the unique position we are in, and agreed that we have approached this issue in a reasonable way.”
Arrgh! How much do you know about online piracy? Take our quiz!
Jasper Wireless scores O2 UK M2M platform deal - FierceWireless
Telefónica's O2 UK partnered with Jasper Wireless to build and deploy a machine-to-machine platform that will automate the device connections to the operator's cellular network.
The company said that Jasper's cloud-based management platform will enable its M2M customers to quickly roll out connected devices and then manage them in real time.
"We are witnessing a myriad of new connected devices from vendors and partners across every industry," Gilli Coston, head of M2M for O2 UK, said in a statement. "With Jasper's platform we can capitalise on this growth, providing our customers with enhanced services, such as instant activation, real-time diagnostics tools, and detailed billing and usage reports, which in turn allows us to guarantee exceptional customer support."
Cindy Patterson, executive vice president of worldwide sales at Jasper Wireless, said: "This agreement sees Jasper expand its existing relationship with O2 UK, and allows it to provide device partners with highly configurable M2M management."
This move was not, according to Coston, to use the Jasper M2M platform to gain additional revenues from its customers. "It's really about improving and giving a great customer experience and therefore enabling this market to grow more, and enable our business and customer business to have confidence to keep growing," she told Mobile Europe.
Coston added that the decision to automate M2M using the Jasper Wireless system was spurred, in part, by one customer who had previously felt the ability to scale O2 UK's existing M2M service had been limited by the technology then in use. "That customer actually said to me, 'This is the holy grail that we've been looking for, and have scoured the market for.'"
For more:
- see this O2UK release
- see this Mobile Europe article
Special Report: M2M gains traction as business model matures
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Report: M2M connections to soar to 359M in 2016
Telefónica inks M2M alliance with Turkey's Avea
The future of M2M? Touring the GSMA's Connected House
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Telecom sector to come under new licence system - Himalayan Times
HIMALAYAN NEWS SERVICE
KATHMANDU: The government has decided not to allow telecom service providers to upgrade their services, if they do not come under the unified licence system.
The information published in a gazette on May 15 said that no telecom service provider can upgrade its service without obtaining a licence under the unified licence system. The government wants to make the unified licence system mandatory, said spokesperson at Nepal Telecommunications Authority Kailash Prasad Neupane, adding that the enactment of the unified licence system will bring uniformity in the policy.
The gazette notification has clearly said that no rural telecom service provider and limited mobility operator will be allowed to expand their service areas or even upgrade their technology, he said. “Telecom service providers who refuse to take licence according to the provision of unified licence system will not get permission to operate third generation (3G) and fourth generation (4G) services,” said Neupane.
The unified licence system aims at collecting more revenue from the telecom sector, according to the authority.
“The notification has said that a telecom service provider will have to pay Rs 357.5 million as licence fee and Rs 20.13 billion licence renewal fee,” he said. Telecom service providers must renew their licence every 10 years according to the gazette notification, informed Neupane.
Similarly, the new provision has also stated that telecom service providers should pay two per cent of their income for Rural Telecom Development Fund and four per cent royalty every year.
Currently, there are six telecom service providers in the country. Among them, three –– Nepal Satellite, STM and Smart –– have acquired a licence as rural telecom service providers. Similarly, UTL is operating limited mobility service. Nepal Telecom and Ncell are operating services throughout the country.
However, the licence condition and licence renewal fee and royalty structure varies from one service provider to other. NTA claims the new provision will end the ambiguity in the policy of telecom services. On the other hand, critics said that the new provision is not pragmatic and will bring in more ambiguity in the telecom industry. “The main bone of contention is whether or not the authority will be able to collect billions of rupees from Ncell and Nepal Telecom,” a source at the authority said.
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