Leaks about the new HTC One, Samsung Galaxy S6, Sony announcements, LG, Lenovo, Meizu and other news from various companies.
Foreword
What is time? There are countless answers to this question, but none of them really explains anything. Moreover, they often contradict each other. Time from the point of view of physics and time from the point of view of philosophy are fundamentally different entities, which have one common name. And time in the everyday sense of the word is a completely different thing, which is many times simpler and clearer than the first two.
So, in classical physics, time is a continuous quantity, an a priori characteristic of the world, not determined by anything. But measured – in a certain periodic sequence of events. For example, in falling grains of sand. Or the number of sunsets. People generally love to measure everything, and what they cannot understand – especially.
And then there is a popular theory (from classical physics, however, very distant) that time is the fourth dimension. The existence of which is easier to accept than to explain.
A new dimension
Can a two-dimensional man, drawn on the asphalt with colored chalk, guess about the existence of a third dimension? Can he realize the frightening plane of his world, understand that there are a lot of three-dimensional creatures around, who at any moment can invade his reality by stepping on a drawing or wetting the asphalt with water?
If such a person turns out to be smart enough, he will be able to prove the existence of the third dimension in a scientific way. And maybe even understand how exactly a three-dimensional something can affect his world. Maybe he will even calculate the approximate time after which it will be finally erased from the asphalt by the feet of passers-by. But he will never be able to understand and realize the third dimension – this is inherent in his two-dimensional nature.
Nevertheless, if the drawn little people turn out to be quite similar to you and me, then this will not stop them. Some of them will try to study the third dimension, someone will believe in the Holy Height, and someone will compose poems about unknown volumetric creatures and compose fairy tales about an amazing three-dimensional world, where the road is open only to the elect.
But even if the best two-dimensional philosophers, scientists and science fiction writers try for billions of years to understand what it is – three-dimensional life, they will not come to anything worthwhile. You can only imagine what does not fall outside the boundaries of existing life experience. And flat people have no experience of three-dimensional life. Therefore, even their wildest and most impossible fantasies will always be two-dimensional.
Perhaps you think that the difference between a person and his two-dimensional photograph is not so great and that two-dimensional creatures should represent us more or less correctly? Not at all. A three-dimensional person in a two-dimensional world is a footprint on the asphalt. Or a wet spit stain. These are our only visible manifestations in the flat world. And no one can imagine the three-dimensional creature that gave birth to them. But even such proofs of our existence will rarely go to the drawn people. Basically, they will just slowly fade under the feet of the noisy crowd, sadly watching the particles of chalk that make up their bodies, sticking to the soles, disappear into three-dimensional nowhere.
Fighting the impossible
Someone will say that since it is impossible to understand and resist the three-dimensionality that destroys their world in any case, then there is no need to waste time and energy trying to imagine three-dimensional beings. And it will be fundamentally wrong. Those crazy 2D dreamers who will still try to explain to themselves the phenomenon of fading, building their ridiculous theories about the third dimension of 2D traces, one day they may guess to crawl from the center of the road to the side of the road. And over time, they will even learn to shorten themselves from the feet of passers-by, predicting the place of the next deformation of their drawn world by the barely noticeable shadow from the raised leg. Probably in a two-dimensional world it will be called luck or intuition.
Someone is trying to understand what time is. Someone just takes it as it is. And someone does not even think about such things. Nevertheless, the first, second and third have to take into account the influence of time on our world. Plan your daily routine. Remember that nothing is eternal and everything changes over time. Set some long-term goals for a particular period of time. Try to prepare in advance for the coming changes.
Companies are no different from people in this respect. And no less depend on the passage of time. And the best of them even try to manage time. For example, by speeding up its progress, because of which the devices become obsolete twice as fast as they should logically. Or trying to look into tomorrow and start developing devices in advance that will become popular in the distant future.
The nature of time
You see, in the end it turns out that a person doesn't need to know much. Most of the so-called knowledge is useless – except perhaps as an occupation for a restless mind, so that it is always in business … But it is absolutely necessary to know that such time is the only element that is difficult, almost impossible to resist!
Max Fry
Its life often depends on how accurately a particular company estimates the passage of time. More than once or twice there have been cases when an inventor presented to the world a brilliant idea for which people were simply not ready. And which became popular only a dozen years later, and completely different people received all the benefits from its implementation. And the cases when the development of this or that device went on for too long and by the time it entered the market no one needed it, and do happen all the time. All of this is not only wasted time and money, but also serious damage to reputation. Those companies that do not know how to use time for their own purposes will never achieve really great success and will not become major players in the market. To fully understand what time is, no one is given. But in such a case, even the smallest can be of great benefit.
Water
There are people for whom time is like water; depending on temperament and personal circumstances, they imagine it in the form of a stormy stream, destroying everything in its path, or an affectionate stream, swift and cool. It was they who invented clepsydra – a water clock similar to a dropper; in a sense, each of them is a stone that wears away water; therefore they live a long time, and grow old imperceptibly, but irreversibly.
Max Fry
A swift mountain stream and a leisurely wide river are similar in one thing – their waters always flow only in one direction. A traveler who decides to trust their current always more or less imagines where it will take him. There are no special surprises in such a trip – the landscape changes slowly but inexorably. And the traveler is not given to turn from the once chosen path or go back. The only thing he can do is finish his journey and go ashore.
Samsung
This is how Samsung perceives time. This company always has a development plan for the years ahead, in which it invests huge amounts of money in advance. Day after day, she builds up her advantage, stubbornly swimming forward.
Samsung recently published an infographic that makes it easy to trace the entire journey that the company has traveled along its river of time. From the first mobile phones to modern smartphones.
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The company's flagships can rarely shake the imagination – each time this is an improved and modified version of last year's model. Its logical continuation, in which all the disadvantages are gradually reduced to nothing, and all the strengths continue to develop further. If you look at sales or market share, then there is no surprise here either – from year to year they are gradually growing, while there are no rapid ups or dizzying falls. Sooner or later, the popularity of the company will decline, but even here everything will happen slowly and smoothly. Even after it is finally clear that Samsung's golden years are over, this Korean manufacturer will in any case remain a significant player in the market for many, many years to come.
What should we expect from the new Samsung Galaxy 6? There are a lot of rumors about the flagship now, but which of them is true and which is fiction, it is still difficult to say. But we can assume that the company will remain true to its approach. Most likely, the body of the smartphone will use metal, because Samsung is gradually beginning to accustom its users to the fact that a metal body is cool. Perhaps the display diagonal will slightly increase – this is also an old tradition, even if there is no longer any practical sense in it. Almost definitely, along with the main flagship, its version with a curved screen will be presented – this will be the third such smartphone in a row.
There is not much time left until March 1. But if it's boring to wait for the announcement just like that, then you can try to guess the capabilities and characteristics of the upcoming flagship from the official teaser video.
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By tradition, the presentation of the flagship will be broadcast online. You can see it here at this address
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LG
LG is another Korean company for which time is like a river. But if Samsung goes with the stream slowly and unhurriedly, then LG has chosen a mountain stream rushing forward, where there is always a chance both to overtake a leisurely sailing neighbor, and to crash on sharp stones.
The company's path follows the path of Samsung in many ways. Only the stakes are higher on this journey, the speed is higher, and the turns are sharper. And it is much more interesting to observe the company from the outside – although the ideas of LG themselves are quite predictable, their implementation can sometimes be surprising.
And sometimes this approach bears fruit. For example, smartphones of the LG G Flex series, in my subjective opinion, turned out to be much more interesting than the 'curved' series of devices from Samsung. At the same time, it is curious that according to the director of corporate communications of the company LG Ken Honda, the variety of form factors of smartphones has reached its peak, it is simply physically impossible to surprise buyers with something fundamentally new. But the company assures that they will still try to make a revolution by inventing something that recently we could not even dream of.
By the way, below we will talk about Japanese companies, which have the opposite opinion on this matter. Which once again underlines the difference in approaches.
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In the meantime, without even waiting for the start of MWC, the company LG presented a new line of mid-price smartphones. It currently consists of four models: Magna, Spirit, Leon and Joy.
You can get more detailed information about them in the newsletter.
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Motorola
Another company, this time American, should be included in the same category. It's about Motorola. This company is a seasoned traveler on the river of time. Once upon a time dizzying adventures fell to her share, followed by the whole world with bated breath. But gradually the speed of the river slowed down, the water began to give off mud, and in the end it turned into a swamp.
I don't know if this company decided to stubbornly swim to the end, hoping to find running water again. Or she simply got lost in the swamp fog, not being able to get ashore in time and finish her journey with dignity. But now almost no one remembers the once great traveler, and few people are interested in all his heroic struggle against the bog. Some of the more successful sailors do not hesitate to laugh at the failure of their colleague, which, however, also few people pay attention to.
Recently, Jonathan Ive did not miss the opportunity to kick the defeated lion. Companies that allow users to choose the design of their product are simply too lazy to spend time developing it, he said. Although the name Motorola was not named, it is not difficult to guess that it was about Moto Maker.
To which Motorola they replied that a real smartphone should not cost an exorbitant amount, but should allow the buyer to get all the best for adequate money.
In my opinion, the answer turned out to be a little off topic. But what can you do, now the company is not up to verbal duels.
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The company continues to row with all its strength, remembering all the tricks and techniques that it has learned over the long voyage. Despite the difficult situation, smartphones Motorola are a real hello from the past, in which the grass was greener, the sun is brighter, and the design is more interesting. And Motorola still has a chance to prove that all this invisible struggle to the general public was not in vain. Again, albeit with someone else's help, go out to clean water. And to prove to self-confident competitors that the experience of a seasoned traveler is priceless.
Sand
There are those for whom time is like earth, or rather sand or dust: it seems to them both fluid and unchanging. They have the honor of inventing the hourglass; on their conscience thousands of poetic experiments, the authors of which try to compare the passage of time with the inaudible rustle of sand dunes. Among them there are many who look older than their years in youth, and younger in old age; they often die with an expression of naive surprise on their face, because from childhood it seemed to them that at the last moment the clock could be turned over.
Max Fry
Sand is a strange thing. Usually it is either too much or too little. It is always lacking in an hourglass – grains of sand are pouring down too quickly, ruthlessly counting the inexorable passage of time and not allowing half of the planned cases to be completed in time. In the desert, on the other hand, there is nothing but sand. But few are happy with him there. And in whatever direction the traveler lost in time goes, his end will always be the same.
Microsoft
Microsoft is one of those companies that just loves to flip the hourglass. Maybe she feels that having access to the hourglass, she becomes the master of time. In fact, she is his slave – no matter how many times the company turns the watch, over and over again starting everything from a clean sheet, measured by someone's hand, the sand does not grow in them. Taking a closer look at this cycle, it will be possible to predict with an accuracy of a second when the sand in the bowl of the clock will run out again and the next revolution will follow.
Again and again, the company is doomed to present us with the same product, because nothing else can be done from the handful of sand at its disposal. Windows Phone 7, Windows Phone 8, Windows 10. It's all the same OS that is restarted and reinvented over and over again. The company's development plan for the next year is always known in advance. Loud promises accompanied by the dry rustle of falling grains of sand, another failure, the flip of the clock. Again promises, again failure, again a coup. Instead of breaking this vicious circle, Microsoft gets bogged down in the sand of time more and more. And now even the long-obsolete smartphones get their improved version and appear on the market with the same name and design for the second time …
In any case, the PhoneAreana portal warns us about such a development of events. According to his sources, in Microsoft they plan to release to the market an updated version of the budget smartphone Lumia 635. It will differ from the original model by an increased amount of RAM – 1 GB instead of 512 MB.
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Sony
The Japanese company Sony also trusts the hourglass the most. But only she has them completely different – the bowls of sand are so huge that you can't wrap your hands around them, and there is so much sand itself that there is enough for a small beach. You can mold anything from this sand – even simple Easter cakes, even a magic castle. But sooner or later, the sand in the bowl will run out anyway and they will have to be turned over. And even if only memories remain from past creations, new sand sculptures will not keep themselves waiting long.
One misfortune – even in time immemorial, the clock was leaking. Maybe they were full of holes initially, or maybe the company broke them itself. trying to open the sealed bowl and add more sand there. The fact of the matter is, with each turn, there is less and less sand in the watch.
Not so long ago, the company once again turned over its hourglass, destroying its outdated Sony-Ericsson and starting the game with sand from scratch. And now, the sand in the bowl is over again. And it is not a fact that the remaining grains of sand will be enough for another coup.
In the meantime, the company is trying to mold an interesting and attractive product from the last batch of sand, trying to keep risky experiments to a minimum and not waste a single precious grain of sand.
It is assumed that at MWC Sony will showcase a new mid-range smartphone – Xperia E2303. It is rumored to be powered by a 64-bit Snapdragon 615 processor and a 5.2-inch HD display.
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Perhaps, in addition to him, the Japanese company also announces a new tablet – Xperia Z4 Tablet with a 2K screen and a powerful processor. But it is not yet known whether this is true or not.
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But we will definitely not see the company's flagship at MWC. But now we can admire the screenshots of its interface.
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HTC
For HTC, time is also sand, with which the company has been in a hopeless struggle for several years. But the struggle is fundamentally different. HTC – a fabulous knight in shined armor and a white cloak with the HTC Sense coat of arms. The knight's smart clothes have captivated the gaze of the stands for many years, and his brilliant victories in the sand-covered arena will forever remain in the memory of fans.
But every year the sand on the arena became more and more. And now every step is given to the knight with great difficulty. The iron helmet warmed up under the scorching rays of the sun, heavy armor makes you sink deeper and deeper into the quicksand with each step, and the once white cloak has turned gray with sand dust.
But taking off the interfering armor with the family crest HTC Sense is a shame. And for a noble but very naive knight, this is worse than death. He will stubbornly walk forward with his head held high and polish the iron armor that hinders the desert day after day to shine.
An incredible amount of renders, photos and videos of the new HTC One has flown under the bridge in recent days. Here are some of them:
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It seems that the stubborn knight has truly remained true to his principles. Outside – the same familiar shine of the metal case, inside – the familiar HTC Sense. Although there are certain changes in the appearance of the smartphone. For example, there is clearly no dual camera.
The estimated characteristics of the smartphone are as follows:
- 5-inch screen with a resolution of 1920 x 1080
- Processor – 64-bit Snapdragon 810
- 3 GB of RAM
- Main camera 20.7 MP (UltraPixel)
- Battery 2 840 mAh
- OS Android 5.0, Sense 7.0
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the fire
There are those for whom time is fire, a merciless element that burns all living things in order to feed themselves. None of them will bother to invent watches, but it is among them that mystics, alchemists, sorcerers and other hunters for immortality are recruited. Since time for such people is a killer, whose dance bewitches, and the touch sobering, the life expectancy of each of them depends on his belligerence and resistance.
Max Fry
For Chinese companies, time is fire. The fire does not reason or plan – it just burns as brightly as it can. All he can reach is his legal prey and the only food available to him. It is foolish to reproach the fire that he has coveted someone else's, sentiment is alien to him. It goes out only once – forever.
Meizu
One of the interesting Chinese companies, which, like a flaring fire, is getting brighter and brighter every year.
There is practically no reliable information about the new flagship of the company, but there are a lot of rumors. The Meizu MX5 is expected to receive a 2K display, 4GB of RAM, a 41MP Nokia camera, a new processor and a range of biometric sensors.
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Lenovo
And this company has long been thinking that the power of fire also has limits. And in order to conquer the world, you need not rush forward headlong, sweeping away everything in your path, but clearly think over each step, try not to step on the old rake and learn from other people's mistakes. This is why this Chinese company needed Motorola. Someone might say that it's just a famous brand. But this is not entirely true – the point is also in a completely different approach, a different understanding of time, which Lenovo will try to adopt.
Taking someone else's idea, studying it carefully, and then applying it to your products is a typical Chinese approach.
However, the company is not going to sit still all this time. And already at MWC will present several different devices at once. According to preliminary data, among them there will be a place for a smartphone with a 'smart' stylus, and a cameraphone, and a smartphone with a Hi-Fi audio system.
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Air
And finally, for many, time is akin to air: an abstract, invisible element. Those deprived of fantasy treat him condescendingly; for those who are burdened with an excess of imagination, time is terrifying. The first invented mechanical and then electronic watches; it seems to them that the possession of a clock, the principle of which is almost as abstract as the passage of time itself, allows them to take time captive and dispose of it at their own discretion. The latter, on the other hand, realize with horror that a device that measures time makes its owner a slave. They also own the assertion that only those who manage to identify time with some other element unfamiliar to a person have a chance to get free …
Max Fry
A river may have a beginning or an end, but the wind has no end or beginning. Where he came from, what smell he brought with him and where he will fly away – that only the wind itself knows. Today it smells like the sea, tomorrow – freshly baked bread, and a couple of hours later – tropical flowers. And do not even try to track its flight – the wind has its own paths.
Apple
For Apple there is no concept of 'yesterday' or 'tomorrow'. There is only 'today', only 'now'. This is almost the only company that can ignore the passage of time to certain extent. When everyone was competing with each other in screen size, iPhone kept the same familiar display year after year. When the race of screens almost came to an end and it seemed to everyone that the size of the screen would not surprise anyone, Apple presented a new iPhone, which, no matter what, could again shake the imagination of users .
Not long ago, fans of the company doubted that the iPhone 6 would receive a 4.7-inch display. Meanwhile, the first prototypes of this smartphone had a display measuring as much as 5.7 inches. It was only after extensive testing that Jonathan Ive decided to reduce the screen size by one inch.
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Only this company can rediscover technology that has already been invented. And surprise everyone with a fingerprint scanner, voice assistant and video calls. Or, contrary to all logic, imagine a completely unthinkable and impossible device, which seemed to have spied on in the distant future. One day, the company may declare that the ideal tablet screen size is exactly 9.7 inches. And the next, pretend that yesterday's conversation has not happened yet, and release iPad mini with a diagonal of 7.9
For many, such inconsistency and unpredictability of the company is very annoying. And sometimes it even makes you feel like a fool. Apple is called an arrogant, a madman who does not care about logic and even a mediocre, but very lucky, half-educated artist. In fact, there is no special malicious intent in the company's actions – it simply cannot live otherwise Apple. Just like a butterfly cannot learn to dive.
No sooner had opponents of the brand moved away from the presentation of new ones iPhone, when the company was ready to once again change the rules of the game. After iWatch a real 'apple' car can be waiting for us. Moreover, its sales can begin as early as 2020, which now sounds like outright fantasy. Nevertheless, there is every reason to believe that the company has more than serious plans. And she's not going to waste time on trifles – only recently Apple she managed to change several former Tesla Motors employees and Mercedes.
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Japanese companies
Many Japanese smartphone manufacturers are looking at the timing of the converge. Although the era of clamshells has irrevocably passed for the whole world, in Japan they are even more popular than before. Let it be considered that it is not profitable for companies to develop a unique design for each smartphone – in Japan, a riot of shapes, colors and sizes can amaze even a 'geek' who has long forgotten how to be surprised. And let all companies strive to enter the markets of as many countries as possible – for Japanese companies, the laws of the 21st century still (or 'already'?) Do not matter.
For example, how do you like the news that in 2014 in Japan sales of smartphones began to decline, while sales of conventional mobile phones increased? And they are produced not by the usual Chinese B-brands, but by eminent companies like Panasonic, NEC, Fujitsu and Sharp.
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Instead of an afterword
Immortality is not a jewel that you can get and keep with you forever, but just a game of hide and seek with death in the alleys of time. Anyone who wants to become a good player should examine the scene like the palm of his hand. I drew the first map for you – rough and schematic, of course. You will have to draw the rest of the cards yourself. Study the time. Try to perceive it in all the ways that I told you about – one by one. Then you will have to invent new ways, unknown to anyone but you. Then … However, how do I know what will happen next? Perhaps you will turn out to be a good hide and seek player.
Max Fry
For companies, as well as for people, immortality in the usual sense of the word does not exist. All they can do is try to outwit time over and over again, avoiding its treacherous traps. But all these manufacturers of mobile equipment have already accurately entered their names on the pages of history textbooks and in any case they will never be forgotten. Isn't this a real victory over time?
Links to past issues:
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News digest №40. Mad Tea Party |
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News digest №39. The right to dream |
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News digest №38. Plato's philosophy: ancient theory and modern practice |
