Samsung Galaxy Note Pro and Tab Pro tablets up for preorder, ship out Feb 13

Tab Pro 12.2 available worldwide in March 2014, LTE versions coming to Verizon this quarter

These big tablets with a big price tag from Samsung look like they pack quite the punch. Unparalleled screens, 3GB of RAM, Samsung's new user interface and more grace the 12.2-inch Note Pro as well as it's Tab pro counterparts.

What we have been wondering, up until now that is, was when we could get one and what it would cost us. The when part is great news — the Note Pro, Tab Pro 10.1 and Tab Pro 8.4 are up for preorder today at Samsung.com, Best Buy, Walmart, Amazon, Tiger Direct, PC Richard and Sons, Fry’s, and Newegg. Availability dates are set for February 13 —  a scant 10 days or so away.

The Tab Pro 12.2 will be coming sometime later in March, and Samsung tells us the LTE version will be coming to Verizon later in the first quarter.

What may not be such good news to many is the price. As imagined, these aren't cheap. The pricing for the new slates is as follows:

• Note Pro 12.2: $749.99 (32 GB), $849.99 (64 GB)
• Tab Pro 12.1: $649.99 (32 GB)
• Tab Pro 10.1: $499.99 (16 GB)
• Tab Pro 8.4: $399.99 (16 GB)

Sometimes, you have to pay to play. See the full press release after the break.

Samsung Launches World’s First 12.2-inch Widescreen Tablets in U.S.: Galaxy Note Pro and Tab Pro Series Available Feb. 13

Stunning Display Combines with Business Essentials to Deliver Ultimate Entertainment and Productivity Tablet Experience

RIDGEFIELD PARK, N.J. – Feb. 4, 2014 – Samsung Electronics America, Inc. today announced that the Wi-Fi enabled Galaxy Note® Pro 12.2 and Tab® Pro 10.1 and 8.4 will be available in the U.S. beginning Feb. 13. Pre-orders will start at midnight ET, Feb. 4 from Samsung.com, Best Buy, Walmart, Amazon, Tiger Direct, PC Richard and Sons, Fry’s, and Newegg. The Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 12.2 will be available in March 2014. Verizon Wireless will be the first to offer the Galaxy Note Pro 12.2 with 4G LTE connectivity later this quarter. For more information, visit www.samsung.com/us/protablets.

Samsung’s new Galaxy Note Pro and Tab Pro series includes four models – Note Pro 12.2 and Tab Pro 12.2, 10.1 and 8.4. The new tablet lineup features premium materials, a suite of applications and services, unparalleled displays, a unique interface designed to simplify access and discovery of content, and many new productivity tools.

“The Note Pro and Tab Pro create a more meaningful user experience at the intersection of work and play,” said Nanda Ramachandran, vice president of emerging business at Samsung Telecommunications America. “With four completely revamped models featuring unique software innovations and impressive displays, these tablets offer users a premium Galaxy experience.”

The Galaxy Note Pro and Tab Pro series tablets will be available in two color options, black and white.

“The Galaxy Note Pro and Tab Pro series deliver an unparalleled tablet experience,” said Travis Merrill, vice president of tablet marketing at Samsung Electronics America. “As mobile usage habits have evolved, so have our tablet offerings. This Pro series is designed to meet the distinctive needs of today’s mobile consumer, whether at home, on-the-go or at work.”

Vibrant, Large Displays

Samsung’s Galaxy Note Pro and Tab Pro 12.2 are the world’s first 12.2-inch tablets with high-resolution WQXGA (2560 x 1600) Super Clear LCDs and widescreen aspect ratios of 16:10, with more than 4 million pixels. Engineered with 3GB of RAM and a larger screen for optimal viewing, the Galaxy Note Pro and Tab Pro 12.2 give consumers the power and screen real estate to view full HD videos and perform various tasks on a dazzling and vibrant display.
Developed and designed specifically for the 12.2-inch Note Pro and Tab Pro, Multi Window lets users view up to four applications simultaneously, offering improved multitasking. The Multi Window feature enhances productivity with impressive quick controls, like drag and drop for easy cut and paste and one- touch presets, to quickly launch commonly used Multi Window app configurations.

The Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4 display is the most pixel dense tablet on the market. HD video, images and games take full advantage of the high pixel count, giving users a display quality not found on any other tablets in its class. With a Snapdragon 800 2.3 GHz quad core processor, the Tab Pro 8.4 is built to handle high-powered games and video.

Pro Series Amps Up Productivity

All tablets in the Note Pro and Tab Pro series are outfitted with Magazine UX, Samsung’s innovative new user interface that’s built right into the home screen layout. This customizable layout brings users’ favorite and most-frequented content—games, notes, apps, e-mail and more—to the forefront, offering direct access to content with a single touch.
To enhance productivity and give users a more effective typing medium, Note Pro, Tab Pro 12.2 and Tab Pro 10.1 feature a virtual keyboard that mimics the size and appearance of a physical keyboard, leveraging haptic feedback and hotkeys to offer users a more accurate and familiar typing experience. It includes directional keys and copy/paste functionality built right into the keyboard which allows you to create and edit documents more efficiently.
The Note Pro also includes Samsung’s S Pen, offering the precision and responsiveness that customers love, as well as features such as handwriting-to-text, Air Command, and Pen Window.

Both the Note Pro and Tab Pro come equipped with applications designed for optimal professional performance and mobile productivity. Remote PC allows easy access and control of a home or office computer directly through a Pro tablet, while a downloadable and touch optimized version of Hancom Office gives users the ability to create, edit and save documents, spreadsheets and presentations with the same functionality you would find on a PC. Samsung e-Meeting provides collaboration capabilities by giving users the ability to share content during a meeting without having to access a central server or network.

These devices come with a powerful and productive Samsung accessory ecosystem that includes keyboard covers, the S Action Mouse and USB LAN Hub adapters along with a variety of third party accessories including Bluetooth keyboards from ZAGG, Belkin and Logitech.

Extensive and Immersive Content and Services

Samsung continues to partner with leading entertainment, productivity and news sources to provide over $800 in premium bundled content for the Galaxy Note Pro and Tab Pro tablets through Galaxy Perks. With Galaxy Perks, consumers have access to popular and best-selling news, social media, and cloud storage applications including: $25 Google Play credit, three-month trial Hulu Plus membership, one-year Bloomberg Businessweek+ subscription, six months of Cisco WebEx Premium 8 package, and 50 GB of Dropbox space for two years. In the future, customers will have access to one year of Gogo inflight internet access (up to 36 flights). For more information on Galaxy Perks, please visit www.samsung.com/us/galaxyperks.

Pricing for the tablets are as follows:
Note Pro 12.2: $749.99 (32 GB), $849.99 (64 GB) Tab Pro 12.1: $649.99 (32 GB)
Tab Pro 10.1: $499.99 (16 GB)
Tab Pro 8.4: $399.99 (16 GB)

For multimedia content and more information, please visit www.samsungmobileuspress.com.

About Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. is a global leader in technology, opening new possibilities for people everywhere. Through relentless innovation and discovery, we are transforming the worlds of televisions, smartphones, personal computers, printers, cameras, home appliances, LTE systems, medical devices, semiconductors and LED solutions. We employ 236,000 people across 79 countries with annual sales of US$187.8 billion.
About Samsung Electronics America, Inc.

Headquartered in Ridgefield Park, NJ, Samsung Electronics America, Inc. (SEA), is a recognized innovation leader in consumer electronics design and technology. A wholly owned subsidiary of Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., SEA delivers a broad range of digital consumer electronics, IT and home appliance products. Samsung is the market leader for HDTVs in the U.S and America’s fastest growing home appliance brand. To discover more of the award-winning products you love with Samsung, please visit www.samsung.com.

LG confirms G Pro 2 will have 'OIS Plus' camera, slow motion and UHD video

Software stabilization to build on OIS that made the LG G2 camera great

After preemptively announcing that it will indeed unveil the G Pro 2 at MWC later this month, LG has just released some details on the imaging capabilities of the device. This time around it's just covering the upcoming camera features, focusing on four points. For stills, the phone will have so-called "OIS Plus" technology, which builds on what launched in the LG G2's camera and adds software-based image stabilization as well to create even clearer shots. There will also be a new 20-shot burst mode, which combines all shots into a single photo for new effects.

On the video front, LG sets the expectation that the G Pro 2 will have both 1.4 times slow motion video and UHD (Ultra High Definition, often referred to as "4K") capture. UHD captures at 3840x2160 resolution, and while it isn't the first time we've seen the capability it's still something that some folks are looking for in upcoming devices.

We still don't know a whole lot more about the LG G Pro 2 — aside from purported photo leaks — outside of what LG has told us thus far, but it seems like we're in for a treat come the end of February.

Source: LG (Translated)

T-Mobile, this is the wrong way to try to gain customers

Instead of focusing on the great things it already does, T-Mobile continues to waste its time poking fun at AT&T.

When T-Mobile sent out its intentionally odd and misquoting press release Tuesday to drive home the point that it really, really doesn’t like AT&T, it may have taken things a bit too far. There's a thin line between poking the bear and putting off potential customers. Making up quotes from a rival company's CEO might well have crossed that line — even more so when you're criticizing a company with over three times the customers and dozens of times the earnings.

But it's not just this one-off situation that is a cause for concern ... I'm worried that T-Mobile may not know when it's the right time to tone down the language and scale back the stunts.

You see, T-Mobile — mostly lead by the antics of CEO John Legere — has been doing its best to mix things up in the U.S. wireless industry. That's been a very good thing. What started as simply beating the other carriers by announcing genuinely consumer-friendly prices, service terms and network performance has been cast in the shadow of rude ads, foul language and now a pointless low-blow press release.

These actions certainly get attention, but do they translate into long-term customer growth and improved public opinion of the T-Mobile brand? I'm not so sure they do.

Building brand awareness by any means necessary

When AT&T's acquisition of T-Mobile finally fell through, the carrier pivoted quickly in the next year to capitalize on the new influx of cash and spectrum it was due after the failed deal. At the same time, T-Mobile was ready to kick off a branding renaissance, led by the newly-appointed CEO Legere.

There's no doubt about it, Legere is a savvy businessman who knows his way around the wireless industry — even holding high-ranking positions at AT&T in the past. He's plenty qualified to run T-Mobile from a boardroom and business operations point-of-view.

LEGERE'S JOB IS TO GET THE T-MOBILE NAME OUT THERE AND GET FOLKS EXCITED TO WALK INTO STORES.

So why does Legere feel the need to make a scene on stage, in papers, on TV, with press releases and tweets specifically to make fun of the other carriers for their branding or their CEOs physical appearance? His biggest job at the moment is to bring attention to the new "Uncarrier" brand by any means necessary.

And to be fair, this approach is working right now. T-Mobile is on the tip of everyone's tongues — not just the mobile enthusiasts, but average people who are potential customers for the carrier. Legere is on the evening news when he does a press conference, interview or starts going after folks on Twitter. Right now, his job is to get the T-Mobile name out there and get people curious enough to walk into stores — the process of converting those people into paying customers is secondary.

But at what cost?

The problem with this is that the average wireless customer in the U.S. really doesn't give a damn what your company thinks of AT&T, Verizon and Sprint or their respective CEOs. People care about the size of their bill at the end of the month, what phones and tablets they can buy and the size and speed of the cellular network.

T-MOBILE HAS PLENTY OF AMMUNITION, ON SUBJECTS CONSUMERS ACTUALLY CARE ABOUT, TO HIT THE OTHERS WITH.

T-Mobile's new Simple Choice plans really are cheaper for most U.S. consumers that currently shovel money to the other big three carriers. Its device portfolio closely matches (or even beats) the other carriers as well. T-Mo will pay you to leave your current carrier, and at the same time won't force you to stay with it for more than a month at a time after you switch. These are the pillars of the Uncarrier transition, and they're all things consumers love to see.

Taking into consideration that T-Mobile has so many tangible differentiators between it and the other carriers, it makes little sense to me why Legere and the company as a whole need to take the low road. It simply reeks of desperation and grasping at straws, especially when T-Mobile has plenty of ammunition — on subjects that consumers actually care about — to hit the other carriers with.

Keep making your plans and pricing simple and understandable, continue expanding your LTE network to even more people and above all do right by your customers. That's how you add 1.6 million customers in a single quarter, grow your earnings and most importantly become the one major U.S. carrier that people don't just need, but want to use.

'Stop the bullshit'

I like most of what T-Mobile is doing in terms of changing the wireless industry. I'd just like John Legere to take one tip from his own playbook and "stop the bullshit." Focus on making T-Mobile the best damn wireless carrier in the U.S. and leave the other guys in your rear view mirror, right where you postulate they belong every single day.

Beats Music review: Yet another music service, and one that still needs some work

Beats is trying something new, for sure, but it's got room to improve

Beats is a name that is synonymous with hip-hop music and iconic (and expensive) audio gear (and, at one time, HTC smartphones), but not exactly with streaming music. The company showed its intention of getting into the space in 2012 when it purchased MOG Music, and finally killed that service when it launched its self-branded Beats Music streaming offering.

On the surface, Beats Music checks all the boxes ​— unlimited streaming music for a flat monthly fee, a seven-day free trial for signing up, and a compliment of mobile apps and web interface. It also brings to the table something other streaming music services don't — a group of knowledgeable and popular curators to help you choose what to listen to. And that's Beats' main selling point — a human element instead of algorithms.

But with lots of features to market and a competition-matching price, will Beats Music be your choice for listening going forward? Hit the break and find out.

The Beats Music app experience

It's tough to launch an much-hyped app and have it hold up to the scrutiny of a half-million users — Beats Music found this out the hard way. The first release of the app on Android was riddled with bugs — music randomly paused, it wouldn't remember your track position, lockscreen cover art didn't work, the app would randomly launch when you didn't want and it was generally a little clunky.

NO, I DON'T WANT BEATS MUSIC TO OPEN EVERY TIME I HANG UP A PHONE CALL.

We're happy to report that a week and several updates later, the app has fixed many of its big flaws. Unfortunately, several still remain. The app regularly forgets your login credentials, requiring you to log back in. It's still up in the air whether the app will pause music playback when you remove your headphones, and it still chooses to launch every time we end a phone call, for some reason.

Luckily, the interface and experience once you're inside the app is very good. Beats Music has an interface that distinctly sets it apart — in terms of style and colors — from other offerings out there, building strongly on its existing brand messaging. The app is primarily black and white, with strong pops of colors to make it seem lively.

The main layout of the app is separated into four panels — Just For You, The Sentence, Highlights and Find It — to break down your listening. Just For You gives recommendations based on your listening habits, as well as genres and artists you picked when first setting up your account. The Sentence is a unique system that lets you pick out words that describe where you are, what you're doing and who you're with to help find just the right playlist. Highlights are, well, highlights, while Find It is a broad search by genres, activities and curators.

There's a limited but functional web interface as well at http://www.beatsmusic.com where you can make use of the Just for You, Highlights and music search. It works well, but it's not a perfect mirror of the functionality in the app.

Experts vs. algorithms

Beats Music puts heavy emphasis on its suggestions, highlights and curated playlists. While you have the option to search for specific artists or songs and manage your library, those actions are relatively hidden inside the slide-in panel on the left and aren't part of the main interface. Unlike other apps that highlight your library, Beats wants you to see its suggestions first.

The proposition of Beats Music is that it has a system for bringing great music to your attention, backed up by real people who are picking artists to spotlight and popular playlists to check out. Under the Find It section you can browse suggestions from a list of curators who you can "follow" and see their specific choices. It's very much like a social network centered around music (anyone remember Ping?), but one that's still in its infancy with few features.

WANT TO FIND NEW MUSIC? FOLLOW SPECIFIC ARTISTS AND GROUPS TO SEE WHAT THEY THINK IS POPULAR.

Curators include groups like the Academy of Country Music, Friends of Beats, Pitchfork, Rap Radar, Rolling Stone and more (Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails fame is another big name and a creative director for Beats Music), with the list presumably getting longer going forward. You can tap in and see what each one of these curators has picked for their playlists, and if you enjoy it share it out on Twitter or Facebook as well as add to your own library. There's also a list of 30 different genres to browse, as well as hundreds of different activities — think cooking, working, partying — to look at, each of which has dozens of playlists in it.

This is all relatively foreign to anyone who uses the likes of Pandora or Google Play Music All Access, where you're used to a music algorithm picking out suggested music simply based on what you've listened to recently and what you have in your own collection. While we're sure the Beats Music model of curators serving up new and interesting things is appealing to some people, we're not so sure it scales to be applicable to a majority of people looking for a streaming music service.

The value proposition

Even with the extra costs associated with having a group of people curating playlists and genres, Beats Music charges the industry-standard $9.99 per month (or $119.88 per year, what a deal!). That gives you unlimited access to all of the features in the app and web player, along with offline music downloads and a personal library that can be filled with your choice of 20 million songs.

BEING THE SAME PRICE AS ITS COMPETITORS, WE JUST DON'T SEE THE VALUE PROPOSITION THAT MAKES IT WORTH CHOOSING.

An interesting wrinkle here is that AT&T customers can get three months free when they sign up if they have a qualifying plan, and those with Mobile Share plans can get a "family" pack for $15 per month that covers up to five people on a single plan. That's a pretty darn good deal if you have a few music lovers in the house, and one of the only things that truly makes Beats Music a good value.

Since the monthly service costs are the same and the music catalogs are basically comparable at this point among all streaming services, the choice of which one's for you comes down to the app and its features. At this point, we can't really say that the Beats Music app is on the same level as the current stable of proven music apps. With the number of bugs and issues still plaguing the experience, it just honestly isn't worth paying $9.99 per month for.

In terms of the curation and music offerings, we're still not sold on its highlighted picks enough to have them take complete priority over our own library and artists. Sometimes you just want to open the app and listen to a specific album or artist, and on Beats Music that ranges from inconvenient to frustrating. Further, it just doesn't offer the same intelligent radio or music queue system that makes Google Play Music All Access so great.

As i said before, Beats Music will likely appeal to the music lover that wants to constantly discover new music and follow popular artists and groups, but for the average listener, your money can be better spent elsewhere.

Google Chromecast SDK released to developers

Devs now able to start making 'Google Cast-ready' applications on Android and iOS

Google has announced the availability of the Google Cast SDK for all developers, opening the floodgates to devs wanting to incorporate Chromecast support into their Android and iOS apps, or web content through Chrome. While the Google Cast SDK has been available since last year as a developer preview with certain restrictions attached, today's launch represents the first "finished" version of the SDK. On the device side, Google Cast SDK support is rolling out as part of Google Play Services version 4.2 starting today.

Google's developers guide page for the SDK notes that it's "undergone a thorough overhaul since the developer preview release," advising developers to review its documentation before getting started. 

So now that the Google Cast SDK is out in the open, what apps would you like to see get Chromecast support?