Samsung Reveals Galaxy S5 With Home Button Fingerprint Sensor, Accompanying 'Gear Fit' Band

[100mileshigh]

Water resistant no thank you! my life proof case makes it waterproof.
Childproof straight up gimmick just lock your phone or teach your kids to behave.

You prefer having to bulk up your phone with an £80 case to make it waterproof rather than have it be so straight out of the box?

Childproof is a straight up gimmick? Apple could have done with this straight up gimmick so that they didn't have to refund $32.5million after the FTC upheld complaints from iPhone and iPad owners that many apps aimed at children contained in-app purchases that did not require consent......

 

[osofast240sx]

Sound and Shot. I've always wanted to record a photo with sound. How else am I going to be able to hear what's going on at the time the photo was taken? I wish there was another way.

Cute video trumps sound. Just take a video. Leave the gimmicks alone

 

[RMXO]

Samsung Gear Fit might be what've been looking for & hopefully it doesn't cost an arm and leg. Hopefully it will be under $200-250 and I would defiantly buy but if at $300+ then I will most likely look for a cheaper alternative.

 

[Brittany246]

Cute video trumps sound. Just take a video. Leave the gimmicks alone

Yeah, I know that. I was being sarcastic............................................................................ ...

 

[osofast240sx]

You prefer having to bulk up your phone with an £80 case to make it waterproof rather than have it be so straight out of the box?

Childproof is a straight up gimmick? Apple could have done with this straight up gimmick so that they didn't have to refund $32.5million after the FTC upheld complaints from iPhone and iPad owners that many apps aimed at children contained in-app purchases that did not require consent......

Samsung half-assed it should've made it l waterproof like the sony Z2.

 

[samcraig]

Yeah, I know that. I was being sarcastic............................................................................

On the flip side - the .3 second AF is nice to have on the camera. A very worthwhile improvement.

 

[osofast240sx]

Yeah, I know that. I was being sarcastic............................................................................ ...

Lol there should be a rule on the Internet that sarcasm should be printed in a different font or color lol

----------

On the flip side - the .3 second AF is nice to have on the camera. A very worthwhile improvement.

I agree. Try shooting a 4K video on a note 3 Without a tripod see how that works out

 

[kis]

The way I see it:

- awesome camera (Phase Detect AF won't mean anything to many here, but believe me, it's the holy grail of autofocus - if you've switched from an X-Pro1 to an X-T1, you'll know what I mean)
- USB 3.0 for fast file transfers
- water-resistant (1m for 30 minutes - better than nothing and exactly the same as the Z2)
- gorgeous screen with some intelligent new features (like minimal-brightness for reading in bed, automatic adaptation to light conditions - not just brightness, but also color temperature / tone etc.)
- improved build (the S4 was pure polycarbonate, the S5 has fiber glass woven into it)
- some useful software features (fitness coach etc.)
- fingerprint reader (probably not as good as Apple's version) that can be used by apps as well

Overall it's a considerably bigger upgrade than the 5S was from the 5. Plus it makes a pretty nice package that's going to sell really well. Whether it'll be able to compete against the iPhone 6 remains to be seen. However, I have the feeling that Apple's going to pull of another one of those half-a***d stunts and will only release a 4.7" version - which many people coming from Android will find too small again. I have nothing against 4.7", as long as they also release a phablet-sized version.

 

[samcraig]

Interesting. Just read that the Gear Fit does not run Android OR Tizen...

It's it's "own" OS - which means there will be no 3rd party apps or SDK...

 

[wovel]

Oh really? Which 10-20 percent and then tell me which 80-90 percent it's not hitting on. PS - don't include "it's not Apple" as any percentage



I don't claim to know more than what I read and hear today. I never claimed it was better or worse than Apple's implementation. Both in security or rate of success of the scanning.

Well The Verge said it was much, much worse in regards to rate of success. It also only stores 3 fingers.

 

[samcraig]

Well The Verge said it was much, much worse in regards to rate of success. It also only stores 3 fingers.

How many fingers need or should be stored? I am the primary user of my phone. My wife MAY pick it up to take a picture. But that's about it. I'd be more concerned over quantity of storage on a tablet.

 

[derek4484]

What on earth are you doing with you iPhone that it gets wet? You go and swim with it? How on earth can somebody let their 600 plus dollar phone fall into water? Or do you throw your clothing in the waching machine with your iPhone still in it?

Well, its happened twice. First time was tailgating at a football game and I was on the phone and somebody, thinking they're funny, dumped a pitcher of water on several of us. Phone got wet, and never came back on. Second time was my fault. Was at a pool party and having some drinks, went to jump in the pool to cool off since it was 100 degrees outside. I had my phone in my pocket. As soon as I hit the water I knew I was screwed. I immediately pulled the phone out and the screen was still on...only for a second.

Luckily my company purchases the insurance for the phones. Cost me $169 each time for a brand new iphone 5.

 

[stroked]

In thinking about Samsung's features, do people actually use Samsung's eye detection/movement technology to scroll in every day use or was it just a gimmick? Not trying to troll, just genuinely curious.

That was the first thing I shut off on my S4. It was very irritating. It worked when I didn't want it to, and vice versa. I'm hoping they improve it in future versions. Apple doesn't always get it right, the first time either.

 

[seecoolguy]

You prefer having to bulk up your phone with an £80 case to make it waterproof rather than have it be so straight out of the box?

Childproof is a straight up gimmick? Apple could have done with this straight up gimmick so that they didn't have to refund $32.5million after the FTC upheld complaints from iPhone and iPad owners that many apps aimed at children contained in-app purchases that did not require consent......

WaterProof: I did the Liquapel option for my 5S, it works nicely. no worries with water anymore, I don't go out of my way to get my phone in the water but I'm not afraid to use it in the rain, or needing to overreact because it got wet.

childproof: Each parent has their own parenting style, but if you use Amazon and 1-Click Shopping, this is an all too common problem. you share your pc/mac with them and they run you up a bill totaling thousands of $ in toys or movies they want. "How about enabling password protection"

I paid full price for my iPhone, so I never felt compelled to loan my $700 phone to a 4yr child. Digital baby sitters are so much cheaper and built for their little hands say a Nintendo DS < $200 and it's relatively drop proof.

 

[wovel]

Except once again - you're assuming the phone has to be locked via fingerprint or code. You don't have to enable that.

Not that it negates the rest of your use case. It's possible that even though they marketed the scanner in regards to fitness - the bigger use case would be in other scenarios.

Personally - I would have put the sensor on the home button if that was technologically possible. The reason is - there's no screen on the back. It would be easy enough to have the phone faced away and use the HR monitor when using equipment - but the screen is faced away. It's not impossible - and not having used it - I don't know whether it would be awkward or not.

Regardless - although brought up in marketing and the keynote - I don't believe there's a huge percentage of people who are going to buy a phone given that one hardware option. Other things (screen size, speed, OS, camera, etc) are more deciding factors.

Why have it if your not going to use it? Why put the feature in if your not going to implement it in a way that makes people want to use it.

The fingerprint scanner on the 5s is easier and faster to use than a 0000 pin code. Apple added a fingerprint scanner because they could do it in a way that made it easier for people to lock and unlock their phones. Samsung added a fingerprint scanner because Apple did. So, in a way you are right. You don't have to use it. Samsung doesn't even care if you use it. They have already moved on to the next bullet item for the feature list.

 

[Statusnone88]

Yeah, I know that. I was being sarcastic............................................................................ ...

Derp

Cute video trumps sound. Just take a video. Leave the gimmicks alone

How did you NOT catch the sarcasm of this post?

 

[KdParker]

You're right. Buying a lifeproof or some other waterproof case wouldve been cheaper than the deductible on getting a replacement from the phone insurance company. But those cases are freaking huge and ungainly. That's why I didnt have one. But, more phones are adding the water resistance feature to them. unfortunately they're all Android models. I would love it if apple would add conformance to IP67 as a feature. That would allow the phone to get submerged for a few seconds without ruining it.

That would be awesome, so you can continue to be irressponsible with your phone and is doesn't cost you anything to replace.

Dude just work to keep your phone from getting wet.

 

[wovel]

Well, its happened twice. First time was tailgating at a football game and I was on the phone and somebody, thinking they're funny, dumped a pitcher of water on several of us. Phone got wet, and never came back on. Second time was my fault. Was at a pool party and having some drinks, went to jump in the pool to cool off since it was 100 degrees outside. I had my phone in my pocket. As soon as I hit the water I knew I was screwed. I immediately pulled the phone out and the screen was still on...only for a second.

Luckily my company purchases the insurance for the phones. Cost me $169 each time for a brand new iphone 5.

My iPhone 3G slid of the passenger seat into a cup of water when I was turning a corner. It actually started working again about a year later. Good times.

 

[kdarling]

It is called security. Want your print stolen from a malicious Android developer? Be my guest.

It's highly unlikely that Samsung would give direct sensor access. There's no need to.

That's not how biometric APIs work. A user program can only check whether or not it matches a previous enrollment, not what the print itself looks like.

It's just like how the iPhone 2g had no cut/paste, no SDK and no 3G on release day. Apple have restricted it's touchID for a reason. Maybe in the future it'll be open to developers if it can be kept secure.

As noted above, Apple could easily let other apps use Touch ID to control access without compromising user biometric data. So they must have other reasons to prevent it. Who knows, could be good ones like not wanting to be liable if it passes the wrong person.

As for the first iPhone, it was missing those things because they weren't ready, cost too much, or Jobs saw no need for them yet.

 

[melendezest]

While the implementation of the scanner is inferior to Apple's (in my opinion), it is still a welcome addition and looks simple enough (in the video at least).

I like it and beats my swipe gesture on my S4, which more often than not requires two hands to do. Not a deal breaker for me.

The design of the back is ugly; not a fan of the holes. But the beauty of the S series is that while the back is (cheap) plastic, it is easily replaceable, which opens up a bunch of customization options that keep in line with the reason why you'd get an Android device in the first place.

Until Apple provides a large-screen phone like this, and opens up iOS for a bit of UI customization, devices like this one will continue to appeal to many, myself included. I cannot go back, even if Apple's experience is smoother in many areas. Everything else is just apps that are comparable in both devices.

That huge, beautiful screen, plus the tweaking, equals I'd get this over an iPhone any day.

 

[KdParker]

You prefer having to bulk up your phone with an £80 case to make it waterproof rather than have it be so straight out of the box?

Childproof is a straight up gimmick? Apple could have done with this straight up gimmick so that they didn't have to refund $32.5million after the FTC upheld complaints from iPhone and iPad owners that many apps aimed at children contained in-app purchases that did not require consent......

hey...my porsche doesn't work so well in the snow. So I choose not to drive it in the winter.

As far as childproof. Not sure when this ruling you are talking about came down, but I have been able to remove some in app purchases that my kid made just by calling Apple.

 

[Dave532]

Apple was not the first to add a fingerprint scanner or use the colour gold and certainly wont be the last.

In fact, Samsung released a gold galaxy phone before Apple.
http://news.yahoo.com/forget-iphone-5s-samsung-beats-apple-punch-gold-141539700.html

I like that article you posted. It was a gold phone released AFTER the rumours that Apple was making one - it looks like a flip phone too. As it's Samsung it looks like it was just any crap rushed out to beat Apple

Any other company I'd give them the benefit of the doubt. But that just shows how Samsung have this amazing ability to rush out things based on Apple rumours!

So a setting which say was activated when your phone is at just 10% battery, would give you 24 hours phone and text capability is just a gimmick?

Cant please some people unless its Apple that releases it!

If this is configurable this might be good.

I'd never want my phone to switch to black and white and turn off all features except calls and texts just to get an extra 24 hours when it hits 10%.

When the phone is at 10% I might still want to do some browsing, look up info or send an email.

So if it's fixed at 10% I can see most people turning the feature off, because who wants their phone to turn into a 90's cellphone as soon as 10% is hit?

Much more useful would be if this kicks in at 3% and gives an extra three hours. Once the battery gets that low is when you start to worry about the phone dying. But when the phone is at 10% I still want to be able to use it properly.

There's also the use case where some may want to enable it at 100% for example if they're on a camping trip with no access to power so want to keep the phone alive as long as possible. Particularly with the water resistance people may be keen to take this camping.

 

[Nickerbocker]

Shamefully copying. Shamelessly Samsung.

 

[vomhorizon]

Except once again - you're assuming the phone has to be locked via fingerprint or code. You don't have to enable that.

Yeah, I guess one could always go into settings, turn off fingerprint feature and then begin to workout so that you can periodically use your giant smartphone to tell your heart rate..

 

[Piggie]

Just for a moment, let's consider the fingerprint scanner from another point of view, to be realistic.

1: You make a phone, and some people like your brand, for whatever reason. Happy customers that like your product. All good.

2: A competitor brings out a phone with a new feature, in this case a finger print scanner, but could be anything.

3: Your current customers don't have this feature as your current model does not offer it.

4: Perhaps this is something your customers would like, but they still wish to stay with your brand, and of course, you wish to offer your customers things they would like to make them happy.

5: You decide your next model will have this new feature, functionally similar to please your customers.

Just what on earth is wrong with this?
It is what any company may do for it's customers.

That would be like Ford fitting a radio to a car, then Vauxhall saying, sorry folks, we know you would love a radio in our next car, but we feel we would be copying ford if we fitted one, so we'll leave that out.

That's crazy, you would not do it. You would ass features customers liked or wanted, and if someone else with a similar product brings out some new addition that proved successful then of course you would wish to give YOUR customers something similar.

It seems crazy than anyone who liked Apple, to think anyone would do otherwise.