First let’s take a sneak peek at the smartphone market:
- the LG G2 which should be the base for the next Google Nexus (5?).
- the Samsung Galaxy Note 3, the latest iteration of the well known Phablet.
- the Sony Xperia Z1, the latest flagship from Sony with a massive camera (20,1 mégapixels F 2.0).
- Apple’s iPhone 5C, a colorful iPhone 5 with a plastic shell.
- Apple’s iPhone 5s, the first phone with a 64bit processor.
- the Oppo N1, a Chinese smartphone that officially supports CyanogenMod, the popular Android alternative Rom.
Talking about the iPhone 5s (and not 5S) there is something quite interesting to notice, it’s the M7 co-processor. Like what Motorola is using in its latest phones: X8 Mobile Computing System, the M7 is a low consumption contextual co-processor that will listen to all the captors (Gyroscope, Compass, Accelerometer, WiFi antenna, etc) to either provide you with contextual information (like showing the latest notification when you take your phone out of your pocket) or to log your activity (how long you run, how much you sleep, etc). Now that your phone knows exactly what you are doing, I’m looking forward to see how it will be used.
On the market of wearable device Samsung unveiled the Galaxy Gear, an extremely powerful smartwatch with a camera, an integrated speaker and microphone, allowing you to place phone calls with the palm of your hand (welcome to the future). On the bad side, the battery only lasts for 25 hours…
On the gaming side, Sony also decided to join the battle of the small game console with its PS Vita TV (only available in Japan for now), a small device connected to a TV that plays most PS Vita games, PS1/PSP classics and even PS3 games through cloud gaming. Moreover, if you own a PS4, you can also stream games to it. Finally you can use this small gadget to watch content from streaming platform like Netflix, Hulu or PlayStation Store.
Talking about gaming, Steam announced that they have been working on an Open Source gaming Operating System based on Linux: SteamOS. This OS is supposed to be optimized for the living room and used with a gamepad instead of a keyboard and mouse. It will be free to download and will be shipped with the upcoming SteamBox and Steam Machines.
Charles Bonneau
Twitter: @charlesbonneau
Blog: http://blog.cbonneau.me