Gadgetory

the Galaxy camera Samsung's newest big experiment in the mobile space we spent some time with one at Aoife at its announcement we had some hands-on time in New York City and now we've got one in the Boston testing chamber and we thought you'd like to see a brief glimpse of the custom Android software build powering this device I'm Michael Fisher this is PocketNow and this is your guided tour of Android on the Samsung Galaxy camera we've seen plenty of coverage on the Galaxy camera already discussing everything from its 16 megapixel sensor with 21 X optical zoom to its onboard Wi-Fi and 3G and 4G radios but for this quick look we want to take a gander at the Galaxy cameras software our device a samsung EK GC 100 running the latest updates arrived with android version 4.1.10 s version most Android devices are running today including the carrier branded galaxy s3 and galaxy note 2 we have here in the office everything from the TouchWiz UI to the project butter improvements to jellybean feels very very familiar here there's a notification shade with the familiar shortcut toggles up top an app launcher and the usual suite of stock apps and widgets with the ability to buy more through the Google Play Store of course you can even run Android in portrait mode if you're so inclined in those respects the Galaxy camera is very much like many other Android smartphones especially the Galaxy s3 with which it appears to share a display but the Galaxy cameras specialized software does differ predictably from its smartphone siblings in a few key areas the most obvious distinction up front is the permanent camera shortcut in the lower left hand corner of the screen here which conveniently sticks around on all home screens it only disappears if you hop into the application launcher or drop down the notification shade or of course if you are inside an app but on all the home screens it is persistent you can also jump into the camera app from anywhere in the UI by pressing the shutter release key which is nice there's also been a change to the Android home key row the software now including home back and menu instead of home back and multitasking which makes up for the lack of Samsung's traditional hardware menu button multitasking can still be achieved by pressing and holding the home button the behavior of the power standby key located up top adjacent to the shutter release is the same as on other devices but it doesn't appear to be at first locking the camera is done normally and unlocking it will restore the device to its previous state that's normal and it's handy but locking the camera with the lens deployed will stow the lens and then unlocking it while the camera was the last app opened will re extend it that's not the case if the last app open was say Facebook or just the home screen it takes a second to get used to but it's logical and very very convenient once you do speaking of the camera the biggest difference is of course that camera app when we're talking about differences in this Android version Samsung has ditched its standard layout for an entirely new and much more graphically intense UI a tile or ribbon layout with smart shooting options is available over here to the right with preset modes for everything from burst shot to long exposures to macro to backlight and many more additionally expert mode allows manual tweaking of ISO f-stop shutter speed and exposure in a pretty if convoluted simulation of physical lens controls also half pressing to focus prompts a pop-up in the viewfinder with ISO f-stop exposure info and more finally the smart shooting modes can also be accessed more quickly via a home screen widget allowing users to jump right into the camera with a specific shooting mode already selected the camera defaults to five megapixel shots but you can take it all the way up to 16 if you want as long as you're willing to do some hunting the camera settings are hidden behind a very inconspicuous arrow icon next to the home shortcut here in the upper left which took us longer to find than we'd like to a met the settings menu also lets you control the video cameras resolution and framerate from lower res video at 120 fps for slow-mo all the way up to 1080p to cut that video to your liking there's a new video editing app that offers a pretty robust selection of transitions and effects as well as a fairly straightforward interface for editing stills the bundled photo wizard app provides the usual array of options for tweaking contrast saturation and so on as well as a bundle of filters if neither of those suit your liking the whole Google Play Store is of course there for you in all the galaxy cameras Android build is a specialized platform that runs the camera hardware very nicely but offers the full suite of Android functionality except voice calls alongside it whether that makes it worth buying for you will depend on your individual needs but for shutter bugs looking for a connectivity and customizability via apps it doesn't get much better than the Galaxy camera everyone thanks for watching we hope you enjoyed the guided tour of the software and the Samsung Galaxy camera stay tuned for more coverage on this device this isn't the end of the road we have another video coming tomorrow and a very special one coming next week so stay tuned for that follow us on Twitter so you don't miss at pocket now is the official account you can follow me I'm at captain two phones that's captained the number two phones visit us at pocketnow.com for coverage on this device other special Android devices smartphones and tablets of all kinds everything in the mobile space once again pocketnow.com thank you for watching as always and we'll see you next time