Samsung to run a national media campaign against Apple beginning Sunday | Hacker News Reader

Samsung to run a national media campaign against Apple beginning Sunday

sfgate.com

39 pointsheadShrinker49 comments

"Galaxy S III can't do like Facebook and Twitter integration, AirPlay"

What does this mean? That Android doesn't have Facebook and Twitter integration? Their apps are not baked in the OS, but Android intents take care of the rest, and you can easily add your accounts to it. Am I missing something?

It's true that it doesn't have AirPlay, but it has a lot of similar capabilities with different names, whereas the iPhone 5 doesn't have the possibility of any of the characteristics of Samsung marketing terms in the ad (like S-Beam or Smart Stay).

What the heck are S-Beam and Smart Stay?

S-Beam uses NFC to initiate a Wi-fi Direct connection between devices to transfer files/pics/links etc.

Smart Stay is a feature which uses the front facing camera to check if the users eyes are looking at the display and won't time out the display when the timeout threshold is reached.

smart stay works really well btw as long as you are in a well lit room.

When is it actually useful? I can't recall the last time my iPhone locked the screen while I was using it. In most cases I'm periodically interacting with the device. When I'm not interacting with it but I'm using it, that typically means there's some video content on the screen, which prevents lockouts implicitly, or some app is displaying changing data, and apps can also disable the lockout when appropriate.

I'm not trying to say here that "omg iOS is better", I'm genuinely curious as to when this feature actually makes a difference. Seems to me all it's going to do is suck up power running a camera. And the idea of having the front-facing camera on at all times is also a bit sketchy. It'd be like having my computer's webcam on at all times.

it is useful - I do read a lot of text on my phone - books / and web.

its one of those features you don't advertise though. I mean I wouldn't buy a device just for this but small things like this make people miss them when using another phone / platform. I guess its not the big stuff that build the brand loyalty but these subtle details.

If you're reading text, don't you have to interact with the device to scroll/page the text? Or do Samsung phones have some sort of absurdly low timeout? I could imagine this feature being useful if the screen typically locked itself after, say, 20 seconds of inactivity, but a much better solution is to simply increase the lockout time to something reasonable.

Facebook and Twitter (and Dropbox, and WhatsApp, and you mention it) 'integration' works so much better on Android than iOS, I don't even know why they mention it.

Try sharing a picture from your camera roll to any other service than the ones baked in the OS on iOS, tough luck.

This headline made me expect a campaign blitz against Apple Inc itself (presumably related to the recent lawsuit). I never would've clicked if I'd known it was just a comparison ad between a couple of particular devices.

That would've been an interesting campaign. I'm sure there's a lot of people who don't actually know what Apple are doing to innovation around the world.

Though I wonder if you could do it without actually coming off as a whining loser...

> I'm sure there's a lot of people who don't actually know what Apple are doing to innovation around the world.

Sigh.

As has been reported many, many times, Apple are not doing anything to innovation. They are trying to stop people copying their ideas. They've given plenty of examples of smart phones and tablets that are great and not copying. They just don't like the copies.

Go sell cola in a certain shape bottle, or a car with the same profile as a BMW, or a baseball cap with a certain shape logo on it and see what happens to you. It's not that those companies are trying to stop competition and innovation, they are trying to stop people copying their products.

As has been reported many, many times, Apple are not doing anything to innovation.

Certainly a matter of opinion. I'm seeing a lot more resentment towards Apple from previous fans than I can ever remember over this.

It really is amazing to me how even in 2012 a company, one competing with Apple, mind you, can be so transparently clueless when it comes to marketing.

I hate to say this, but bullet points are not how you sell consumer devices. This ad looks like the result of a meeting with too many attendees that was too long. You're selling to average people who just want a cool phone, you're not bidding on a government contract. Adjust the style accordingly.

I don't really like Apple's ads, but they seem to work.

In any case, they lost me at S-Voice. Samsung is going to compare Siri to S-Voice instead of upgrading to Android 4.1 (JellyBean) first and then boasting about Google Now? Really? They are simply delusional.

Also, what are all those terms after NFC which are simply meaningless to most customers?

On first look I thought ok, well, of course Android phones have more features on paper. Then I saw those bullet points after NFC you were talking about. Really? Really? They couldn't find anything better?

Removable battery is a really good feature, actually.

The other day I was discussing long flights with a colleague. He said he is always weighted down by the number of adaptors he has to carry to be able to charge his laptop anywhere. I asked "why not just get an extra battery, they're in the supply closet for free."

Then I realized he was a Mac user.

Ok I give you that. To be honest I stopped reading right at about Palm Touch Mute Pause.

Full image of Samsung ad: http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/5054b1bdecad04ba780...

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/samsung-galaxy-s-iii-anti-iph...

Wow, what utterly clueless marketing. Rather than headline with a real user advantage – say, a thoughtful feature like flip to mute – they pile on a boardroom-approved list of bullet points that begins with the most meaningless tech specs and doesn't even get to practical features (assuming you know what any of them are) until way down the list.

Samsung should fire their agency. Alas, whoever hired them probably doesn't even get what's wrong.

Unfortunately, this IS how people differentiate between Android phones/iPhones. It's not good by any means, but there's a reason they do it.

Including "turn over to mute" feels like they were grasping at straws by the end of the list.

Why? This is actually a great feature. I just leave my s3 face down when I sleep and don't have to manually switch off the sound.

(1) The effort it takes to click a mute switch is little different from that to turn over my phone (and probably less).

(2) Phones turn over accidentally. Having other effects like the ability to hear incoming calls/messages tied to that might not be universally viewed as a "great feature".

You can turn it off if you don't like it. I can't count how many times I've accidentally flipped the mute on or off on my iPhone just having it in my pocket.

My 1st gen iphone had a terribly flimsy volume switch that completely wore out just over a year after I got it. I don't think my 4S has ever toggled unintentionally and seems more solidly built but I haven't had it for close to a year yet. The mute switch on my old 3GS (now wife's) is also still working fine (volume up/down broke off awhile backthough).

The other thing I like about flip to mute is that it's an easier gesture to execute than toggling a switch or a two or three step mute on some other phones. I can never remember which way is off on the iPhone so I always flip the switch twice until it vibrates.

It's not a game-changing feature, but there are lots of little details like that on the S3 that make it feel like something Samsung really put a lot of thought into.

I can't help but think that if this was an iPhone feature you'd love it. It's great. It's easy to see at a glance which way up the phone is, much easier than locating and then checking the position of a small switch.

I would probably turn it off because I'm always dozing off on the couch with my phone going any which way. I'm sure some people make good use of it and there's plenty of iOS features that are irrelevant to me as well. But there are probably 100 more attractive things to me for the Galaxy S3 than this so I'm kind of stumped why they'd list 7 relatively different minor gesture ux and yet they fail to include major advantages like homescreen widgets and app integration (intents).

To me it seems bizarre to put an expensive piece of electronics shiny side down. Are you not afraid of scratching the screen?

If you're afraid of scratching the screen, you should already have on a screen protector.

The screen seems totally scratch proof so far, although when I do this for the night I put it on a book or something instead of really hard or scratchy surface.

The other gesture I really like is the tap on the physical top of the phone to go to the top of a long list of items. Unfortunately it only works in Samsung's own apps. Would be nice to see this rolled back into mainline Android.

The galaxy S3 screen is slightly concave

Well Apple spent years doing a great job of comparing themselves to "PC". Kind of thought Samsung lacked any creativity here.

I wonder how many of regular people know what Smart Stay, S-Beam, ShareShot (well this one kinda deducible),Group Cast, Smart Alert (how smart is it?), Tilt To Zoom (how do you tilt it, where?), Picture In Picture (where, what app, what for?) are.

Although I can understand that the same people can go for a bigger, longer list of features because of just that.

I'm a 30 year old Software Engineer, and I have no idea what any of those things are, other than complete guesses.

Why are they advertising the iPhone?

Hah, absolutely!

This is a very stereotypically asian way of comparing phones. For a long time, Japanese manufacturers fought it out with spec lists showing the most features or the greatest spec.

Not really related to the mobiles in question, but an interesting lack of marketing talent.

Build a better product then advertise that. The problem is everyone is trying to build the iphone and they think that advertising is going to bring market share.

They actually have built a better phone but this isn't a very effective way of making that point to the average consumer.

I'm surprised they were able to spec out the iPhone 5 since, to my knowledge, Apple hasn't stated some of the specs they list (like RAM).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZKzkEu2dKw

Always tricky to compare yourself to your competitors so directly. You go into almost under the assumption most people don't want your product. I don't think that's really true of Samsung's products anymore. In the wake of the Samsung/Apple trial, which got some mainstream coverage, it's probably even more of a mixed message to send.

This is dangerous territory - if they make even a minor misstatement about the iPhone, the Apple legal team will come down on them with false advertising / libel lawsuits.

Also, "iOS6 OS" sounds awkward.

First the phones and now the ads. What's the Korean for infinite loop?

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