Friday Tech Roundup: Samsung Release Your Qi

Samsung Qi

New rumors point to Samsung employing the near industry standard for wireless charging, Qi, in their upcoming flagship the Galaxy S4. It supposedly won’t come built-in but can be added by purchasing a Qi-enabled back cover. For Samsung this is most definitely a decision based on scale and cost. They have recently stated their preference for plastic materials over CNC machined-body devices because that allows them to produce with the scale and speed necessary to deal with demand. That makes total sense to me even if it angers a few folks.

If Samsung supports the Qi wireless in the Galaxy S4 I think we’ll see more wireless chargers regardless. Samsung has become a huge brand and their Galaxy S phones are now selling in big enough numbers that accessory manufacturers can justify making accessories for them. Since Samsung will be using Qi technology any other phones using the same wireless tech should be able to use the accessories as well.

As far as Apple is concerned nobody should be surprised as Apple likes to pretend they know better than everyone. It has worked for the past half decade until recently people started to realize they had a say in the matter.

Apps That Really Matter

We have discussed ad nauseam what apps make a platform viable and appealing. We tend to focus on the hottest apps like Instagram, Angry Birds, Draw Something, Words With Friends before that. This is all a bunch of crock. A platform isn’t adopted by flash in the pan apps that go through the 15 minutes of fame cycle. Platforms are built on things that make up the infrastructure of your productive life. Category of apps that meets this criteria are airline, banking, social, and weather apps. The support of major brands in these categories and excellent first-party apps drive the user experience through the roof. I’ve said in a recent article that until every phone gets battery life on par with the Droid Razr Maxx HD I won’t be spending a ton of time playing games on my phone. I travel a lot and have quite a good amount of time on my hands during layovers. Every time I pull out my phone and think of playing a game the thought is followed by an equally important one “What will this do to my battery?”. I promptly end up changing course and checking Twitter and reading the latest news.

Spec Race Jumps The Shark. Leaves Battery Behind

In an era where there has been a spec race in every major way sadly the battery has been an afterthought. You want my money when it comes time to purchase my next phone its really simple. Deliver me an excellent first-party app, camera and battery experience. The look of the phone is far down the list of things I consider. The argument that iPhones are sold because they are beautiful to look at is stupid. It is a rare sight to see an iPhone owner not using a phone case. We keep getting glimpses of the promise of super phones that do 90% if what we need in a device but the battery situation leaves us hung out to dry. OEMs please fix this!

Mobile Maturation Is Close

Major smartphone platforms have reached the point where regardless which OS your phone is running the features you really need are present. Now the focus should be on improving the quality of apps. Gone should be the days where a developer can release an app and let it sit and rot. This starts with first-party apps and should be examples for third-party app developers. There are hundreds of thousands of apps that never get updated because the developer didn’t get the initial support they were expecting and just gave up. Keep up the good fight developers we want you to succeed. We just don’t want you to succeed based off a poorly implemented idea. Take feedback and try again and try again after that. Our phones have become extensions of ourselves and don’t we all like to imagine ourselves as the best possible versions of ourselves?

As always drop a comment and let me know what you think. Happy Friday folks!