Product Reviews Net » Samsung Bada OS

Customization enhancements for new Samsung Apps

Peter Chubb — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 12:19:00 +0000

There is now a new version of Samsung Apps, and from what we have been told there are a number of enhancements that will make customization much easier than before. Before we get down to the good stuff of what new features there are, we need to tell you that there will only be support for Wave and Bada 2.0 smartphones. We do not have a specific date, but are informed that the global release of the new service will be towards the end of the year.

There are many updates that will make the user experience easier and better, such as an updated purchase option, improved UI, and more, which we will get to in a moment. Samsung Apps is now two years old, so now is the time that the South Korean company needs to step things up and show rivals that they are serious with their app program.

There are five key features that need to be pointed out; the first is that new user interface. The overall look has seen a number of improvements, as well as some new features as well. For those of you who use Bada 2.0, you will notice just how similar the UI now is. The new purchasing options that we mentioned above comes with two new choices, these are Try’n Play and Rent’n Play.

Thirdly we have the new app recommendation service called Smart Mode. You need to activate this feature before you get going, only then will you be able to recommend an app to a friend. Next up we have Wish List. This is a little like what you would see on an online store, where you are browsing and then save something that you might want to visit again later, in this case an app. The final feature that needs to be pointed out has to be the new marketing enhancements, as this now gives developers and publishers added benefits, such as promoting their applications. In other Samsung news, they now plan to fully back their Bada OS, which you can read more on here.

More About: samsung, Samsung Bada OS

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Open Source Bada, Samsung faces problems

Peter Chubb — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 10:54:41 +0000

One would have thought that Samsung would have given up on Bada by now, but it seems as though they want to invest even further into its future. There is news that the South Korean phone maker wants to make its own mobile operating system open source from next year. The aim is to slowly reduce the reliance on Google, which as we know has played a huge part in the growth of Samsung thanks to a range of Android handsets. However, there are a few problems to face along the way.

The first issue that Samsung has is with Google and Motorola, as the former is to buy the latter out for $12.5 billion. Once this happens then Motorola will have the full backing of Google, and you can be sure that they will take no prisoners on their way to making Moto the great company that it once was. The likes of LG will suffer badly through this deal, but at least Samsung does have Bada and its huge cash pile to fall back on.

We do fear that the phone maker will be throwing money away, WSJ makes a point of reminding us that Samsung already wasted a lot of time and money on Bada before, so why will this time be any different? Well making it open source is certainly a good starting point. So could Bada be the new Android, well rumors of it being incorporated into Smart TVs is a step in the right direction?

The reason we say this is because Samsung is the biggest TV maker, and putting it into their range of televisions will likely make it more popular than Google TV. However, we are still uncertain how Bada will port over to a larger screen? The biggest obstacle that Samsung faces is in the US is that they need to be able to not only convince consumers but developers as well.

More About: samsung, Samsung Bada OS

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Samsung Bada 2 Release Date July 2011?

Jamie Pert — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 14:00:00 +0000

Last year Samsung released the Samsung Wave S8500, this smartphone was pretty unique as it was the first-ever bada-based handset to hit the shelves, now we are hearing that bada 2.0 could be on its way.

Nothing has been officially confirmed, however a recent article posted on SamsungHub (who sourced their information from Financial Express) suggests that bada 2.0 could arrive in July. We don’t doubt this as developers released the bada 2 alpha back in February.

Most recent Samsung smartphones have either ran Android or Windows Phone 7, therefore many thought that the bada operating system’s days were numbered, however sales in India are said to be pretty impressive.

You can see a video here which appears to show the Samsung Wave II running bada 2.0, on the whole the OS looks pretty good, however you can tell that it is in its early stages. Comments on YouTube suggest that bada 2.0 may be compatible with the original Wave, however we cannot officially confirm this just yet.

With release information finally being revealed we would love to hear what you expect from bada 2.0, we must confess we have no hands-on time with any bada-based devices, however hands-on videos look pretty neat. What features and improvements would you like to see when Samsung release bada 2.0?

More About: bada 2.0, samsung, Samsung Bada OS

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Samsung Wave II (GT-S8530) Comes to UK Carriers

Tina Chubb — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 18:42:17 +0000

We have some rather exciting news now for those of you that live in the UK and are maybe looking to buy yourself a new smartphone. It appears that the Samsung Wave II – also known as the GT-S5830 – has recently arrived in UK stores.

As Michelle Ruhfass over on the mobileburn.com website recently reported, the Wave II can now be picked up for free from both Phones4U (on various carriers) and O2, as long as customers sign up to a contract. The GT-S8530 runs on Samsung’s Bada 1.2 Operating System.

The Samsung Wave II is powered by a 1GHz processor, and features a 5-megapixel autofocus camera with flash and 720p HD video recording, Wi-Fi (b/g/n), HSDPA, Bluetooth 3.0 and a 3.7-inch Super-Clear LCD touchscreen display, which is slightly larger than that of its predecessor.

According to Paul Lamkin over at pocket-lint.com, Samsung is also offering a free entertainment package for those who pick up the handset before March 31st. The bundle includes Assassin’s Creed: Altair’s Chronicles, Tetris, FIFA 10, Monopoly and Need for Speed: Shift.

More About: Samsung Bada OS, Samsung Wave II

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Samsung Developing Smartphone and TV Platform: Android or Bada?

Jamie Pert — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 14:52:24 +0000

Earlier this year Samsung released the Samsung Wave, this smartphone was pretty unique as it ran their bada operating system, now we are hearing that Samsung are working on a new platform for both mobile phones and TVs.

As you would expect details are scarce, there are some people suggesting that it could be bada based, whilst others think that it may be Android-based so that it can tie in the devices such as the Samsung Galaxy Tab and the Samsung Galaxy S and also tie in with Google TV.

Personally I would much prefer if Samsung developed a platform which allowed you to seamlessly link your Android-based device with your TV, imagine just being able to click a button on your remote to watch video recordings, view photos and even listen to audio from your tablet/smartphone.

The content sharing could work both ways, we could perhaps link your Google TV with your smartphone so that content could be watched from your TV on your tablet/smartphone wirelessly.

Now that TVs are becoming so advanced I really do feel that they need an intelligent OS to handle the wide-range of multimedia and connectivity options they offer, surely a version of bada/Android would be the perfect candidate?

Would you like Samsung’s new smartphone and TV platform to be based on bada or Android? We would love to hear your opinions.

Source: IntoMobile

More About: Google Android, samsung, Samsung Bada OS

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Samsung Wave 2 / II Announced: Brief Look at Specs and Price

Jamie Pert — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 14:33:40 +0000

Samsung has recently announced the successor to the Samsung Wave, they have called this the Samsung Wave 2 and to be honest it doesn’t look all that exciting.

The Samsung Wave 2 will also be known as the Wave 525, it runs Samsung’s Bada operating system, in fact it is identical to its predecessor in terms of specs, apart from its display.

The Wave 2 will feature a 3.7 inch super clear LCD screen, whereas the original Wave features a 3.3 inch Super AMOLED display, everything else is the same including the 5 megapixel camera, 1GHz processor, WiFi b/g/n Connecticut and 2GB of internal storage.

In terms of features we can confirm that the Wave 2 will feature something called T9 Trace input, from what we can see this will be quite similar to Swype, which has proven to be popular on competing devices.

We have no solid release date or carrier info, however we are reliably informed that it will be available in Germany for €429, which equates to roughly $588.