Catching A Wave With Samsung

Samsung’s Wave smartphone the first handset available in Australia to feature the Samsung Bada operating system, which allows users to download a range of both free and paid for applications from the Samsung Apps store.


Samsung’s Wave smartphone the first handset available in Australia to feature the Samsung Bada operating system, which allows users to download a range of both free and paid for applications from the Samsung Apps store.

The new, integrated application store is accessible from both the Samsung Wave or via the PC client; Kies. Users can use a selection of apps that are designed to suit their lifestyle – from games to navigation, social networking to eBooks and health and lifestyle apps. Over 1,000 apps will be available at launch, with a projected growth to over 7,000 apps by the end of the year. Developers will play an important role in delivering applications to consumers with Samsung encouraging the local creation of apps that are relevant for Australian needs and lifestyles. With more Bada handsets scheduled for launch soon, these applications will be immediately exposed to a newer and wider consumer audience than ever before.

Content on the Samsung Wave comes alive through a 3.3-inch Super AMOLED display, which is claimed to have less reflection and wide viewing angles than some other units available on the market., creating the perfect environment indoors or outdoors to record, edit and play HD video, browse the internet, play games and email.

The Samsung Wave benefits from a 1GHz application processor to deliver fast graphics performance and seamless multitasking. The handset’s speed makes the touchscreen user interface responsive and intuitive, claims the manufacturer, whilst the 3D graphics and video performance are smooth.

Multi-codec support for DivX and Xvid and support for 5.1 surround sound delivery transforms the Samsung Wave into a personal entertainment system. Additionally, HD video decoding and recording means the Wave is capable of capturing, sharing and viewing video. The latest standards in Bluetooth and Wi-Fi technology are also supported with both Bluetooth 3.0 and Wi-Fi 802.11n featured in the handset.

This handset is claimed to make choosing your own menus, home page and other content easy with TouchWiz 3.0 UI. For social media fanatics there is a range of Samsung Widgets to keep you in the know. The Feeds & Updates widget draws information from your social networking sites (SNS), including Facebook and Twitter, so you receive constant updates on your phone from these sites with no need to log in and check each site. For example, the Birthday Calendar widget will display up and coming birthdays according to Facebook profiles, to ensure no friends’ birthdays are missed.

The Buddies Now widget displays contacts you’ve classified as your favourites for access to all of the information stored in their contact list, inclusive of photo albums, recent activities and conversation history. You can also call, text or email them directly from the home screen.

The unit features Samsung Social Hub, a push integrated messaging solution which brings all your contacts, calendars and social networks together in one place. This hub integrates contact information and activities across Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, email and instant messaging, allowing you to see your friends’ recent history, status updates or posts and even access their latest photo albums, all from your contacts list. Samsung Social Hub also integrates your calendars from applications such as Facebook, MSN, Yahoo and Gmail, colour coded to help you distinguish work from play. With the ability to push messaging and data compression, users will be notified every time there are new updates across their social networks.

The Samsung Wave will be available from July 1st 2010 starting with Optus, Virgin and Vodafone, and with a Telstra Next G network version launching in August.