Android is an operating system originally developed by Android Inc, but soon purchased by internet giants Google. It's an open source OS based up on a modified version of the Linux Kernel.The Galaxy S runs a version of android which has been heavily customised by Samsung. Yawn. That's all pretty interesting to someone I'm sure, but what does this mean to the end consumer, you and I?
The Galaxy S runs using the TouchWiz 3.0 interface making it ever so simple to use yet adds advanced features such as the ever so good task manager and video calling, not found on other android devices .
The interface is smooth, fast and contains enough fancy transitions to hold its own against that one particular iPhone wielding yuppie, in a game of office "Mobile Phone Top Trumps".
Googles integration with the phone is fantastic. Contacts, E-mail's, notes and calendars all synchronise wirelessly and most importantly, effortlessly with the desktop and web based counterparts. Samsung goes one step further and adds Social network integration with both your contacts and calendar. They call this the "Social Hub". This means that when a call comes in, a Facebook or Twitter profile picture will pop up on the screen letting you know in an instant, without reading the name, whether to accept or reject the call depending on how the night before went. It also makes missing that awkward moment when you realise that you've missed your loved-ones birthday a little less frequent, as birthdays along with any other information on social network sites are sent directly to your phone. Making calls and sending texts from the contacts screen is easy too, requiring only a sweep across the name either left or right to send a text or make a call respectively.
Applications are easily accessible from both the Samsung App store and the Google Marketplace. Both are very simple to use and will have you effortlessly wasting hours of your time searching for applications which once downloaded make it too easy to waste yet more hours firing birds into poorly constructed wooden structures or driving tanks around barren battlefields. There are some very good applications on the app store and marketplace such as Google Goggles in which you take a photograph of pretty much anything; be it a landmark you should know the name of but don't or the barcode of a product you want to compare prices of. It will come back with a description of what it was you took the photo of, compare prices (unless it's the Eiffel tower) and give your a plethora of options to do with what you just searched. All of your applications are managed with the help of another of Samsung's android additions, the task manager, which in my opinion is the best android task manager around.
The one addition by Samsung to the operating system I found the most useful is called Swype. Swype allows you to input text at phenomenal speed, be that text messages or E-mails. Pretty much anywhere you are supposed to input text, you can use Swype. It allows you to just drag your thumb across the onscreen keyboard in one sweeping motion, and so long as you vaguely hit the letters you want in your word, Swype will guess what it is and input it. Witchcraft is the only explanation I can give as to how it works. I am so convinced of this that I sleep in a different room to my phone. I don't want it reading my mind whilst I sleep too. You can really make this phone your own. If you don't like the font, change it. If you don't like the wallpaper, change it to one which changes with the weather. If you don't like swype, choose to input text from a keypad. You can customise pretty much any part of the phone you don't like, it's no longer restricted to the ringtone as it was just a few years ago.
Sorry Samsung. 5 days isn't really long enough to discover the sheer number of features on this amazing phone, let alone write about them. I will keep updating this post as I come across new features. =)
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