The week in Tech: 5 must-know things
- Samsung S4 smartphone comes with %27touchless%27 features
- BlackBerry Q10 brings the smartphone keyboard back
- Hubble gives sneak peek of nearby comet
This week, we checked out two new smartphones, celebrated 10 years of iTunes and took a new look at an old favorite children's TV show. Here's what you need to know about the week in Tech:
1) Samsung Galaxy S4 is loaded with gee-whiz features
Hands-free control of gadgets is not just a CGI trick in sci-fi movies anymore. USA TODAY's Ed Baig took a look at the new Samsung Galaxy S4 earlier this week, which offers up a grab bag of fresh features. A user can answer calls or skip songs with the wave of a hand, pause a video by looking away from the screen, eliminate unwanted people or objects from photos and use the phone as a TV remote.
Sounds cool, right? Not so fast. Baig was impressed with the camera tools, but says the touchless features were sometimes "gimmicky" and "not particularly functional." The "smart pause" feature for videos and the "smart scroll" feature that promised to scroll the screen according to the way you tilt your head didn't always work. However, Baig says, the phone is worthwhile if you "stick to the basics on what is a very appealing phone."
Apple's hugely popular music store will celebrate its 10th anniversary on Sunday. iTunes has sold a very impressive 25 billion songs since 2003.
Then: iTunes launched with 200,000 songs. Record stores were on the decline and music downloading was largely illegal.
Now: iTunes has sold over 25 billion songs and $4.1 billion worth of media overall.
The future: Experts told USA TODAY's Jefferson Graham that "the iTunes store dominated by downloads is on its last gasp." YouTube and online streaming services such as Spotify and Pandora offer a huge selection of music for free or for low monthly fees.
Apple is expected to try its hand at its own online streaming service, nicknamed 'iRadio' by industry analysts. The company's pay-per-song download model still dominates the music world, but former music industry lawyer Bob Lefsetz told Graham that this might not be the case in five years: "When iTunes turns 15 years old, we won't be talking about downloads, because Apple won't be selling them."
3) BlackBerry lovers will give Q10 a thumbs up
The BlackBerry keyboard is finally back, on the new Q10 smartphone. So how is it?
Ed Baig says if you are a longtime BlackBerry user and a devoted fan of the keyboard, you'll welcome the Q10. But it won't help bring in new users: "The phone still seems destined to remain a niche product." New features include a removable battery, bigger keys on the keyboard, and a "BlackBerry Balance" feature that separates work content from personal content.
4) 'Good Morning, Y'all,' tweets @levarburton every day
Beloved children's show Reading Rainbow is back, thanks to its former host, LeVar Burton. His RRKidz company bought the rights to the show from PBS to rework it as an app for the iPad. The Reading Rainbow app gives kids access to a wide selection of books for a monthly fee of $9.99. Over 1.5 million books and videos have been read or watched on the app so far. You can also find LeVar Burton on Twitter at @levarburton. Burton has over 1.7 million followers, whom he greets with a "Good Morning Y'all" every day.
5) Hubble captures preview of comet that could upstage moon
Amateur astronomers, rejoice! NASA says its Hubble telescope got a sneak peek of a comet heading for a close encounter with the sun sometime soon. The space agency says the comet is currently traveling toward the sun at 47,000 mph and will grace the nighttime sky with its presence sometime later this year.