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[duaneharrison]

Before and now

Apologies for not blogging in a while, things have been somewhat busy. The usual suspects; work and university, but in addition to all of that, I have been lucky to travel around the world and go on exchange to Chiba University in Japan in the middle of all of it.

It has an exciting journey! I have many people to thank for making it worthwhile, making it possible and making it truly brilliant.

Although I'd like to write more detailed accounts later this summer, below is a snapshot of my journey and some of my highlights:

My itinerary 

Spending the last week of my internship at the Mountain View offices

Top of Yokohama

Among all the wonderful people I met in Japan is Kenya Hara!

Sunrise at the top of Mt Fuji

Now in India: noticed London Underground influence even in the foothills of the Himalayas 

Shimla, the summer capital when India was under British Control

Short visit in the Philippines

Ventured back to the UK via Siberia

Because of permafrost, most houses in Yakutsk are built on concrete stilts

Frozen rivers, lakes and houses

Temperature on my last day in Russia

Amazing views on the way back to the UK!

Thanks everyone for a great time! I'll be in London for this summer and it will be nice to stay in one place. However, I really hope I'll get the chance to visit the friends I met during my journey in the near future. Hope you have a good summer.

[duaneharrison]

Spring cleaning

Before I restart this blog, I've decided to clean things up and keep separate channels for my tech thoughts, any work and any experiences I post about.  

Any tech-related thoughts or posts about my involvement with Samsung Mob!lers will now be found on my new tech blog, duaneharrisontech.tumblr.com, where I will shortly be reviewing the new Galaxy S III.  

Any finished work will be posted on my website as always, at duaneharrison.co.uk.  

Any experiences, thoughts and work in progress will be posted right here on blog.duaneharrison.co.uk. I have many things to write about and am excited to share my views on things!

[duaneharrison]

Samsung Galaxy S II ad concept

For our final Galaxy S II mission we were asked to create an advert for the phone. We had to focus on what the Galaxy S II means to us.

To me the Galaxy S II's extreme speed and slimness are some of the most appealing aspects of the phone.

But what really sets this phone apart from others is the 4.3" SUPER AMOLED screen which enhances the whole experience of the phone, from viewing movies, writing emails, browsing and photos. The experience is almost surprising from such a thin phone.

[duaneharrison]

Samsung Galaxy S II

It has been many months since Samsung launched the Mob!lers program. I'm very happy it's back.

Whats in the box?

  A brand new Galaxy S II. Perhaps before Samsung decided on the graphics for the packaging.

Beautifully simple. Best thing about it: 4.3in Super AMOLED Plus display.  

An improvement on an already great phone - the Galaxy S.

  But with two processors (1.2GHz dual-core processor), a bigger screen and much slimmer. 

The Samsung Galaxy S II is less rounded, perhaps resulting in a more masculine look.  

It probably is the thinest phone on the market at the moment. 8.49mm thick.

Crazy to think it has slimmed down this much in a few years.

Now with a carbon-like finish on the back. It feels a bit more study than it the predecessor.

The interface is a lot cleaner. Extremely smooth dragging animation. The Galaxy S was quite a stable Android phone, but the Galaxy S II seems incredibly stable. 

[duaneharrison]

Interning at Google

After a few months and a few interviews, the last of which held in the beach houses above - I am happy to announce I will be interning at Google this summer. Why beach houses? I later found out this London office is Brighton themed!

I will be interning with the GoogleEDU team in the EU Headquarters in Dublin. The GoogleEDU team designs and implements innovative learning programs that support and develop the company's talent and I'm extremely pleased to intern with such a team. 

Looking forward to Ireland. Although so close, I've never been.

As a Graphic Designer Intern and being part of the GoogleEDU team, I will help design and produce learning solutions. I am extremely excited to apply my design methods and graphic skills to these solutions. I'm greatly inspired by the vision of the Head of Google Learning Labs to develop a learning ecosystem. I'm a believer in asking questions and I do believe Google are constantly doing this by introducing innovative products.

Personally I find, in recent years a large percentage of what I learn is actually from the internet -and quite a big portion is from user-generated content. It's inspiring to see new ways of learning happening and I'm excited that I'll get a chance to explore it. I hope to have my dates confirmed soon, but hopefully I will be interning all summer right up until my exchange (to Japan hopefully!).

Working with the team will be such a great learning experience for myself and hopefully I will be able to contribute something to the team as well.

As a designer, of course visuals get me excited too. This really has got me excited: https://picasaweb.google.com/photos.jobs/DublinOfficePhotos02#

Quite big perks to interning at Google, some of which I didn't know about before. Free breakfast, lunch and dinner! with free access to the Gym and Google's other facilities! 

A few photos from the link above:

I still can't believe I will work at such a place!

Summer + Unlimited Coke! I'm going to have to watch this.

Still need to sort out accommodation and travel. Hope to do this soon! I will keep my blog updated about my experience before/during the internship.

[duaneharrison]

Seth Godin and Poking the Box

I have been a fan of Seth Godin for quite a time now; A best-selling author, a marketing maverick, an entrepreneur and an "agent of change". Recently he has "Poked the Box" by reinventing the way publishing works with "The Domino Project". 

A book by Seth himself has just been released from the project and is called "Poke the Box", which I think is best explained by a Q&A by Seth himself on Amazon:

Poke the Box is about the spark that brings things to life. We need to be nudged away from conformity and toward ingenuity, toward answering unknown questions for ourselves. Even if we fail, as I have done many times in my life, we learn what not to do by experience and doing the new.

This isn’t the same thing as taking a risk. In fact, the riskiest thing we can do right now is nothing.

His advice is always inspiring and I agree -it seems the risky option is to be normal and average. It is less risky to be actually be "risky".

In publishing, Borders is a great example of a company who failed to embrace the digital revolution. Apple is poking the box with its new subscription model, which gives the company a 30 percent cut of all subscriptions sold on iOS devices.

I aim to poke the box by asking and collecting unanswered questions and then to one day answer them.

Seth is poking the publishing industry box.

What are you doing to "Poke the box"?

NOTE: Seth recently did a Q&A session on twitter about the book which can be viewed here thanks to Clay Herbert. On the page Seth gives a tonne of advice out! It is definitely worth a look.

Examples taken from Forbes blog.

[duaneharrison]

Projects and the Tyre Swing example

What can this comic strip tell us about project work?

It tells us everyone has a different outlook and a different approach. This comic strip brilliantly communicates this and is somewhat true.

In my opinion it brings up many points about any project's process;

1. The customer/target user doesn't explain what they want well. And in some cases, they may not even know what they want.

2. Due to poor communication, what the customer wants has been misunderstood, and misunderstood by staff/project members or even the individual differently. Therefore the implementation is not uniform and ends up in different forms - none are relevant to the customer.

3. And in the end, the customer/target user really wanted something else.

To build on these points I guess we can improve and do the following things:

- Good, clear communication is important, a whole project can get disorientated due to poor communication. And even when the project, the final product is brilliant, due to poor communication, the users may not understand it or buy it. An example of this might be Tivo. This communication includes the presentation, graphics, but most importantly, the message.

- We always need to find out what is really needed. Asking them is not enough, we need to know them. Not just their lifestyle, but life - any of this infomation may bring up something vital.

- The project members must work closely together to make sure everything works together. (This I think applies to giant companies - when subdivisions of the same company produce two products that are similar and compete with each other).

- Documentation of any project is useful and much easier to do as it happens.

- If we keep prototyping and testing (showing the idea to the target users, asking opinions from the professionals in a variety of fields) the chance of producing something irrelevant is greatly reduced.

My course leader raised an interesting point while discussing bringing social sciences into our course. It was not just about interviewing people to find out what they want, as people lie because of their friends, who they are with, because they are embarrassed, because of who they are talking to and so on - but rather how to carry out this research in a more reliable way. It's something to look into.

I guess I'll try to work on these points in future projects.

image via Alex Andre's blog.

[duaneharrison]

DBA Products

I came across the brilliant DBA Products recently.

A New York based company with a goal of producing products that combine aesthetic strength, ecologic principles, technical innovation and honest simplicity with sensitivity to the users needs.

An example of their work is this brilliant Endless Notebook.

The company's portfolio somewhat reminds me of MUJI and Dieter Rams (without the consumer electronics unfortunately).

But more importantly, it's great to see another company, just as MUJI, with it's own belief and concept. One which has an ethos to be "true" to aesthetics and/or have good principles. I imagine there will be many more companies like this in the future - and if not, there should be.

Originally spotted via swissmiss.

[duaneharrison]

Samsung Mob!ler Final Mission (Part 2)

Around a month and a half ago I entered and won a Samsung Mobile competition to become 1 of 20 “Samsung Mob!lers”! Sadly today, this journey has come to a close.

Being a Mob!ler has been very insightful and successful. From traveling and meeting a range of people and staff to receiving products from Samsung- carrying out the missions and visiting the HQ - it has all been brilliant.

(original photo outside Samsung UK HQ)

(plane down to London for the last meet-up!)

This experience has been extremely enjoyable. Especially going to the meet-ups in London and talking to the other Mob!lers and the team. There were many highlights, the Samsung UK HQ (with the trees inside of course!) and meeting a lot of the team at the 2nd meet-up a week ago.

As I study design (Product Design @ Glasgow School of Art), my favourite mission had to be the one where we had to show our "ideal app", which can be seen in the previous blog post. I thoroughly enjoyed trying to come up with new ideas and playing about with them. I also enjoyed reviewing the OS on the Galaxy S - probably because it has become my companion and my favourite phone of all time!

Having the Galaxy Tab for about two weeks now has been great. Many, different uses (and this is without actually getting a separate sim card for it YET). It's been to the gym to watch videos whilst on the rowing machine, it has been used in my university course to show concepts of future workspaces in my friends presentation (shown below) and also used in my own presentation to show visual semantics of the product I produced (as I didn't have enough time to print it before hand!). It has been used on my travels - on the train to check my emails and browse the web while looking out at the Lake District. Instead of switching my laptop on, I just use the tab, and it's pretty much instantly on to check emails and other things.

(friend's concept for the future use of leather and tele-working)

We have been asked by Samsung - "Why do you really, really want to go to Korea?". And I would really love to go if I had the chance! It looks like a buzzing city with fast consumption, very different to the UK! But after much thought, a huge IF - IF I was one of the lucky three to go, I would perhaps miss one of our (few) biggest projects at university this year. Furthermore, I believe there might be another chance to go in the near future - as my girlfriend is Korean, I'd love her to show me around when I visit at some point. However, I would love any opportunity to continue in any Samsung and Jam program and I would always be interested in any opportunities in learning about design from Samsung in the future.

I wish everyone good luck for visiting Korea and I really appreciate the time given and great kindness of everyone at Samsung and the Jam team.

[duaneharrison]

Samsung Mob!ler Final Mission (Part 1)

Our final task was to let Samsung know about our ideas for new apps. Our ideal app. To explore apps which could make life better or revolutionise the app world.

My idea focuses on a user that can light paint (tag) many different locations using a phone. They can also see other tags their friends have made, or even tags made by museums or shops using augmented reality. Check out the video explaining it below:

The Galaxy S proved the perfect phone for this app as the screen is extremely bright, allowing me to create great "light paints". Unfortunately, this is my last mission (mission 7) as a Samsung Mob!ler unfortunately. But it really has been a great experience! The next post will briefly explain my journey being a Samsung Mob!ler.

[duaneharrison]

NOVA on the Galaxy Tab

For mission 5 as a Samsung Mob!ler we had to review one of the many games availible for the Galaxy Tab. I decided to review NOVA. Nova is a FPS (First Person Shooting Game) set in future space. 

(a little of a wait for the game to download content - a bit frustrating!)

The player goes through a brief training before the actual battles. Battles are between the player and aliens that have taken over a space ship. The training is very brief, yet the game itself is intuitive enough for the player to self-learn. During training, the player learns to move, to pick up items, to shoot, and to use the mini map. 

Then the player is taken to the the space ship, where the real battles take place. One must use the mini-map to find their way around in the space ship. During the journey, the player encounters different types of aliens which can easily be shot down. These aliens drop items such as ammo. A shield gauge decreases when the player is attacked by the aliens, and recharges whenever the player is not being attacked. 

Tilting the tab is equivalent to moving the player's head. Moving the line of sight is very convenient. However, many battle situations require the player to battle while facing a direction which is not immediately forward; the player spends a considerable amount of time in an awkward position. After having battled, the player often needs to move their line of sight and fix it. This function is one of the functions that are not taught in the training session, and is not intuitive enough for the player to comfortably figure out themselves. 

In person, I felt that the loading time when the game starts up is a bit of an awkward moment. It is long, and it does not inform you that it is loading - easily mistaken for malfunction of the tab. This feels like a chore to me, and it often prevents me from going straight for Nova when I am bored. However when the actual game starts, I was startled by the extravegant graphics, and the smart use of the functions of the tab eg. tilting the tab to look around. Also as a beginner of FPS games, the recharging shield and the stunning skill really boosted my confidence. This would possibly even attract female users whom generally are not the fondest of FPS games to have a go Nova. On the other hand, the lack of explanation of the difference between the pros and cons of the machine gun vs. pistol caused confusion.

Overall- Nova to me is an impressive game with immaculate graphics which is a great factor, and on top of that, greatly contributes to building the suspension during battle situations. It smartly utilises the unique features of the Galaxy Tab - very well worthy of being a pre-loaded game.

[duaneharrison]

Celebrity endorsement part 2, Interscope, Vevo, Dr Dre and Lady Gaga

As promised here is part 2 of my blog post "Celebrity endorsement". Part one can be read here.

This example is much more elaborate. It's not just about celebrity endorsement, but also about product placement and how a machine can endorse things (not actually a machine as such, but how persuasive a digital media platform can be).

Example 2: Intro

Chairman of Interscope-Geffen-A&M - Jimmy Iovine put the first ever iPod in a music video. Specifically 50 Cent's P.I.M.P. video. This was right after 50 Cent dominated the charts and had his biggest record - In Da Club. It was one of the biggest videos of the year. A huge success.

Like Steve Jobs wanting to push his new product out, Jimmy Iovine wanted a new way to push out his artists. MTV used to push out their artists for them. This just did not happen like it used to in the digital age.

Lady Gaga is one of the biggest artist in the world right now. Prior to this, Interscope wanted to push her out. They didn't want to be used by other media, but to be the media themselves. In Jimmy's words they wanted "To take this powerful content that we create, and influence the culture in a way that benefits them, that presents us to the culture in the right way."

The Digital Media Platform (Vevo)

Interscope present all their videos on youtube via Vevo. It's the first time in history a record industry owned and operated a channel in which they can push out their content. In the past MTV did this for them.

They tested how much they could do with this digital media platform (Vevo) with Lady Gaga. Before Lady Gaga's big debut, many radio stations wouldn't play "four on the floor" beats (dance music). No one was playing "Lady Gaga's first single "Just Dance" as it was a dance beat. So Jimmy Iovine ordered to put 10 seconds of the hook of "Just Dance" at the beginning of every single video and put the Lady Gaga video at the end of every song. Youtube did not allow it, so Jimmy ordered any new content to be send in like that. As a result all new Vevo videos (plus any added older videos) had Lady Gaga embedded into them. Lady Gaga quickly rose to number 40 on itunes because of the power of youtube and is now one of the best selling singles of all time.

How Powerful This Digital Platform Really Is

Jimmy said "if we want to put a HP product in the culture, we have now built a program that can do that. Not around the culture, not under the culture, not over the culture but in the culture" and I believe this is true and that's exactly what they did with Beats by Dr Dre.

Beats by Dr Dre

A few years after the first iPod appeared in a music video happened, Jimmy Iovine talked to Dr Dre. As 50 Cent was selling millions of sneakers, they both decided to sell something. They decided on sound instead. They worked with Robert Brunner of Ammunition Design Group (ex-apple designer) and monster cable to develop a new product. Research showed younger people didn't know the difference in sound quality because of two reasons: the earbuds that come with iPods and using laptops as the home entertainment system.

The idea was simple: emotion of the music disappears. For Iovine, Interscope record label was a petri dish. They built the headphones. Pushed it out for attention. Gave them to all their artists. Put adverts on the side of all the videos on Vevo and pretty much put them in all music videos on Vevo. Kobe and LeBron James wore them during the playoffs- wearing them in all their interviews. This was very powerful.

The headphones became a huge success. Interscope's content was now media. People wanted these high-end headphones. Instead of white earbuds, they are wearing Beats. Sound does matter. It was also a status thing - perhaps as many celebrities wore the headphones. Beats by Dr Dre are now a quite established headphone brand by themselves with a growing product range and more recently there now is a Beats by Dr Dre laptop made by them and HP.   Widespread

Interscope injected their products into "the culture" and it has been pretty widespread. A great example of this is below with Korean recording artist G-Dragon even wearing Beats By Dr Dre headphones as a fashion accessory. 

Essentially Dr Dre is famous for making G-funk famous. G-funk is a genre of music deeply rooted in West Coast gangsta rap. So to see how far a product by Dr Dre has gone, from the west coast (california) to influence K-Pop fashion is quite something.

Old examples (Braun Desk Fan and Wedgewood)

I guess product placement and celebrity endorsement is nothing new. The braun desk fan shown below was on the lectern when John F. Kennedy delivered a speech in Frankfurt in 1963. The photo went around the world and so did Braun's reputation.

Another example pointed out to me by a recent graduate of my school was about Josiah Wedgewood. Wedgewood was 18th century's most famous potter through innovative, artistic products and a lean production system. But he also understood the value of celebrity endorsements. He saw his wares were being used by Queen Charlotte, and exploited his status as "Potter to Her Majesty" by increasing prices of certain ranges.

My Thoughts On The New

However, although product placement and celebrity endorsement are nothing new, I think today's examples are a different kettle of fish. It's no longer about influencing products, but as Jimmy Iovine says himself, influencing the culture. And instead of physical products + a celebrity = sales, it's much more complex. For example, it may be (successful video which has celebrities + product , then put through the digital media platform = culture, which then in turn = sales).

Or even culture are the sales. Could culture be even bigger than sales, as people buy into the music, the fashion, the whole lifestyle? Another question might be, how could these influential digital media systems be used in more productive/positive way. What if a charity signed a deal with Vevo to raise awareness. A small message at the start of every single music video would be quite a big thing. 

Beats by Dr Dre and the music industry via HP Leadership Conference on Youtube Dieter's Desk Fan via Treehugger

[duaneharrison]

A quick look at the Samsung Galaxy Tab

Mission 4 as a Samsung Mob!ler was to take a look at the Samsung Galaxy Tab- which was released earlier this week.

(photo of the Galaxy Tab at Samsung UK HQ)

I was lucky enough to encounter the Tab about a month ago at the Samsung UK HQ. So from both hands on usage of the Galaxy Tab from then and recently, I have composed a short review below in the form of short points:

:

(photo of the Galaxy Tab at Carphonewarehouse)

What is it?

-Above is the Samsung Galaxy Tab.

- It is probably the biggest competitor to the iPad and one of the best Android tablets and could be one of the best tablets so far.

-A tablet which uses android, can play flash and can also function as a mobile phone.

Feel

- It feels study, something Samsung can be proud of (and probably are, evident by the detail at the back "Made in Korea by Samsung").

- I'm very happy with the weight and size, it's very light. The size is perfect for the pocket and to hold with one hand. If it were any bigger I couldn't do this.

Speed

-Very quick, responsive, feels powerful.

Screen

- A beautiful 7 inch screen, looks almost like a super AMOLED screen -but it isn't. Nonetheless the screen appears well in sunlight!

Apps

- Uses touchwiz so it's quick to get info from widgets, unlike the iPad where you'd have to go into separate apps.

- Home screen looks appealing, nice graphics.

- Apps nicely tweaked for the tab, gmail looks perfect.

- Can multitask with different apps open at one time.

Storage and Connectivity

-Lower end version comes with 16GB, higher end comes with 32GB. Both have a slot which can bump it by an extra 32GB. A lot of storage!

Battery

- Battery is impressive, 7 hours of video, although the iPad apparently can do 10. But do remember the Tab is a phone too.

Media

- Comes with many games, highlights include NOVA, a first person shooter game. Extremely good 3D graphics, like it should be on a TV, not a tablet!

- Video playback is in HD! First DivX certified tablet, the Galaxy Tab can play DivX HD video.

-Camera is useful (it's on both sides so you can video call), it's very good but not amazing.

Price

-Various price plans, if you want the device only it is around £499. And the cheapest data plan; £5 per month. There are other price plans were you can get the tab for £90s and pay higher per month for a set length contract.

(photo of the Galaxy Tab running the game NOVA)

Final Thoughts

As the first picture (the front page ad on a newspaper) and the last picture show (the specific stand for the Galaxy Tab) Samsung are pushing this product quite well. And so they should be, they can be proud of this device! It's one device that can do almost everything and considering it is a similar price to the iPad - it's impressive.

However one could argue it's lacking the simpleness the iPad may have. Since the Tab is a phone too, it has contracts and data plans and this may be a bit confusing for users who will spend around £400 pounds on a tablet and then have to consider data plans.

Overall it's a very tempting product and I don't think it should be compared to the iPad too much as it's in a different and perhaps better category. It is also a phone (always connected), you can make video calls and it is also much more portable (you can fit it in a blazer pocket). It will be interesting how well this will do, but it is a very good product, hopefully the plans and options and defining the device itself will not be too confusing for the consumer.

[duaneharrison]

Samsung Apps- Krazy Kart Racing

My next mission as a Samsung Mob!ler was to choose any of the 20-something Samsung Apps available for free downloads and review it.

Having downloaded many of them already I can say they are very useful and impressive, although there aren't many of them. This includes an English Dictionary, as well as a German one - both which I regularly use now. I also like RoadSMS - an app that lets you see the road while you text, as well as dedicated twitter and facebook applications.

Krazy Kart Racing

Krazy Kart Racing is a racing game made for smartphones by Konami. It is available for free with Samsung android smartphones and is usually around $2.99 for other phones such as the iphone.

In short - the game is a great pass time and is very enjoyable. To control the Kart you simply tilt the phone left or right. I've been playing around with it and it's very simple, but fun. Multiplayer makes the game so much better too! 

You can choose from 16 different race tacks with 5 different singleplayer modes (with 10 different konami characters). As for multiplayer, with wifi you can play against up to 6 other people.

My favourite part of this game are the extras you can pick up while racing. Red bells give you random weapons while blue bells always give you a nitro boost. You can activate them while playing by tapping the box in the right corner. 

Below is a short video of the gameplay of Krazy Kart Racing:    

Conclusion: Overall a great game! Easy to learn but remains fun. I just wish there were more free from Samsung Apps!

One thing I could say is that both games provided free by Samsung are both racing games, I wonder what else they could have provided.

[duaneharrison]

Brother's Graduation!

Congratulations to my brother for graduating this week from Imperial College London with a MEng in Computing. Below is a video and a few photos of the moment!

Of course all photos are taken with my Samsung Galaxy S!

Wish him the best of luck at his job next week!

[duaneharrison]

Samsung Galaxy S and Android Review

Samsung Galaxy S gets Interviewed.

Travelling to the interview:

Interview: Part 1 (communication and entertainment)

Interview: Part 2 (apps and other operating systems)

So what are my thoughts on the Galaxy S' operating system: Android.

From the interview above - I was mostly impressed the Galaxy S' performance. Let me explain why:

Android as an Operating System

I tried to highlight how powerful Android is in the videos above. Using GPS to get to the interview location; the use of augmented reality; the discussion of how many apps there are - and how many great apps there are, such as swype. Even a choice of ebook readers and mention of great games. But also what's more to come with the new version of Android such as flash and GPS with voice navigation guidance. Android is a very powerful operating system for a phone and it's hugely impressive.

I think the integration with Google's products are a winning characteristic; with google search, google mail, calendar, documents, maps, even youtube and chrome. It's a seamless experience which you can use to send and receive emails and find calendar events and documents with ease.

Samsung's TouchWiz 3.0 and own apps

Although TouchWiz 3.0 is an addition to Android, in my opinion it actually adds to Android, rather than just tweaking it. It makes connectivity options pleasantly simple, with a pulldown menu at the top to toogle wifi and bluetooth as well as switching to silent and vibration modes and viewing other notifications. The icons also look big on this phone too. It's a pleasure to use. This may be partly due to the large 4 inch screen, but I also think it's Samsung's TouchWiz menu using a simple 4x4 grid. One might say it looks too much like the iPhone - it does look similar - but it is great to use. An improvement on Android's default interface.

It's a benefit to have Samsung's own apps on the phone too. Layar's impressive augmented reality is very useful with Samsung's own layer to help find the nearest ATM machine. It's great to have a choice between Samsung's own apps like social hub and daily briefing but also have the wide range of Android apps. 

Social/Contacts

Another big Android feature that I didn't cover in my interview was the fact that contacts can be grouped. Google mail contacts and facebook contacts as well as phonebook contacts can be linked together. From this you can see your history with the contact and discover what they have been up to, their photos and so on. A very nice touch.

My problems with the OS

I still feel there is some room for improvement in Android. It seems Mac OS X users are ignored. Updating the Galaxy S to Android 2.2 requires Samsung's own software which is only for Windows. Another problem with Android is that it seems it's for more advanced users. For example, changing the phone's ringtone requires some effort and exploration. My other (small) issue is about Samsung's own daily briefing feature. I wish it was customisable. I love having the alarm give me the weather and news, but I want to pick which news and which weather it receives. But then again, the nice thing with Android is that you have the freedom to choose from over 100,000 other apps.

Conclusion

I tried to highlight in my video that Android is flexible and great to use and it's getting better and better. And as Android gets better, so can the Galaxy S. Improvements such as flash and performance that are featured in Android 2.2 will make the Galaxy S an even more enjoyable phone. The increasing number of apps made for Android is also a very positive feature. The operating system is very powerful, and in my opinion, it will only get better. It's not perfect, but it offers a lot of freedom - and even though it will get better, it is already great. Overall I would give the interview performance and the operating system itself a high 9/10.

Interview by Duane Harrison (Samsung Mob!lers)

[duaneharrison]

Samsung Mob!ler + Samsung Galaxy S review

A few weeks ago I entered and won a Samsung Mobile competition to become 1 of 20 "Samsung Mob!lers"! As a big enthusiast of consumer electronics and being a design student, I entered as I thought this would be a great experience. I am delighted to be a part of it.

As a Samsung Mob!ler, we would be given a new smartphone and help review and promote Samsung mobile products - as well as a chance to visit the Samsung HQ in Korea. Last week we visited the Samsung UK HQ just outside of London:

It was a great experience! Note the trees inside the reception of the Samsung headquarters. The building was pleasantly welcoming, especially with these real trees, and even a few fallen leaves in the main foyer area. The headquarters had their own Samsung display room showcasing technologic marvels including Samsung's 3D TV and a beautiful superthin TV.

We were given our smartphones- mine was a new Galaxy S! We met people from Jam (a social media agency working with Samsung) and many of Samsung's own staff from UK and Korea-  including Head of Digital and Head of Mobile in the UK. We even got a chance to play with the Galaxy Tab - an amazing product.

Prior to becoming a Samsung Mob!ler, I was shortlisted and had to write a review of the Galaxy S which I decided to do in the form of tweets for an easy read;

My review of the Samsung Galaxy S

The Samsung Galaxy S screen is amazing –even in sunlight!4” Super AMOLED = superb clarity #Samsung #GalaxyS

Ultrathin- 9.9mm offering impressive features; HD video recording and playback. 16GB of memory & Micro SD. Powerful 1GHZ processor. #GalaxyS

Built-in social hub app is very useful. One place for anysocial networking; a constant connection with my interests. #Samsung #GalaxyS

Daily Briefing app provides a simple wrap up of today’scalendar, weather and news alerts. Great user experience. #Samsung #GalaxyS

Another pleasant touch on the Galaxy S. Write and Go. Jot any thoughts quickly, then decide whether to txt, email orupdate status. #GalaxyS It’s perhaps too much. It’s for users who are after more ofa mobile experience rather than a phone. #Samsung #GalaxyS

The only downfall I find is the plastic casing feels a bit cheap.However, metal = no signal though ;) #Samsung #GalaxyS #iphone4fail

Overall the powerful yet sleek Galaxy S creates a seamlessand enjoyable experience for it’s users. Highly recommended! #Samsung #GalaxyS

I've had the Galaxy S for a week now and I'm honestly very impressed by it. My next mission is to review the phone's operating system - which will give much more of a detailed review of the phone. This will be posted very soon! I look forward to the next London meet-up and more missions.