Review: Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 7.0

What a difference a year makes. Last May we reviewed the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 at a time when the compact tablet market remained in the shadow of the iPad and a legion of 10-inch imitators.

There was no Google Nexus 7, no iPad mini, and no Amazon Kindle Fire HD. In such an environment, the keenly priced if modestly specced Samsung 7-incher was a respectable choice.

Since then the aforementioned devices have sent the compact tablet market into the stratosphere, offering potent combinations of price, performance and unique features. As such, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 7.0 needs to do a heck of a lot more to impress us here in 2013.

Samsung has once again hit a pretty sweet sub-$200/£200 price point. At the time of writing you can pick this unassuming 7-inch tablet up for $179.99 (£180) - that's less than the Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 hit the market for, and more pertinently it's slightly less than a brand new second generation Google Nexus 7.

The trouble is, when it comes down to it, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 7.0 isn't even in the same league as the first generation Google Nexus 7 in terms of specs and performance. But we'll come onto that later.

We'll start with a typical piece of Samsung design. The Galaxy Tab 3 7.0 follows the same visual template as the Samsung Galaxy S3 and, by extension, the Samsung Galaxy S4. This means it's a functional, solid, yet plasticy piece of kit.

It lacks the understated class of the latest Nexus 7 and the sheer premium feel of the iPad mini, with details such as a glossy white plastic back panel and silver plastic rim feeling dated and unappealing.

As ever with Samsung's designs, though, the Galaxy Tab 3 7.0 somehow feels sturdy and well built despite its cheap appearance. You can imagine it surviving a fair few drops with scarcely a scratch to show for it - though we didn't put this to the test.

This 7-inch tablet is clearly intended to be held and used in portrait mode first and foremost. The orientation of the Samsung branding and of its two capacitive hardware buttons tells you as much, as does the way the tablet sits comfortably in a single handed grips when aligned this way.

At 300 grams the Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 7.0 is 44g lighter than the Galaxy Tab 2 7.0, 8g lighter than the iPad mini and just 10g heavier than the 2013 Nexus 7. It's pretty much average for the modern 7-inch tablet, in other words, and while it doesn't exactly feel light in the hand it was undoubtedly comfortable to hold for extended web browsing and gaming sessions throughout our test period.

As mentioned, the Galaxy Tab 3 7.0 adheres to the established Samsung design manual, which extends to its hardware controls. Whilst other manufacturers are ditching or stripping back this element in keeping with Google's reference Nexus designs, Samsung continues to supply its devices with three core controls.

Central to these is a physical lozenge-shaped home button, which is also used for bringing up the multitasking menu (through a long press) and Samsung's Siri-like S Voice feature (through a double press).

Either side of this you have two capacitive buttons. On the left is a contextual menu button, whilst on the right is a back button. Whether you prefer this approach to the virtual commands included in stock Android is a matter of personal preference, but there's certainly something to be said for the consistency and familiarity of Samsung's approach.

On the right of the device you have some reliably clicky buttons for power and volume, which are ideally placed for that aforementioned single-handed grip, and up top you have a standard 3.5mm headphone port.

Flip over to the bottom of the device and you'll find the expected microUSB slot and two small speaker grilles, emphasizing that this is device that's meant to be operated in portrait. Movie watchers and landscape gamers will need to employ a set of headphones to get proper stereo sound, but we'd always recommend that anyway.

Our issues really begin with the Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 7.0 when you move beyond its conservative external design, though. Powering the tablet is a dual-core 1.2GHz Marvell Armada PXA986 CPU. Hardly a cutting edge component, and certainly well off the pace of the quad-core chips found in both generations of Nexus 7.

1GB of RAM is respectable, but again half that found in the new Nexus 7 and other modern Android devices.

There's a choice of 8GB or 16GB of internal storage, and once again you can opt to expand this by up to 32GB via a welcome microSD slot, which is readily accessible behind a somewhat flimsy plastic door on the lower left-hand side.

If the Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 7.0's internal specs are underwhelming, wait until you lay your eyes on its 7-inch LCD display. Viewing angles are good thanks to IPS technology, but its 1024 x 600 resolution feels woefully out of date next to the 1280 x 800 offered by last year's Nexus 7, let alone the 1920 x 1200 display featured in this year's model.

With a deeply unimpressive pixel density of 169ppi, text and images have that fuzzy non-descript appearance that we thought we'd left behind with the advent of HD displays.

Testing Ubisoft's vibrant Rayman Jungle Run game on the device resulted in decent performance and a clear enough picture, but those luscious 2D worlds that burst with so much color and detail on other modern devices simply felt muted and indistinct.

Frankly, we can't see any meaningful improvement over the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 screen - and even that felt below par more than a year ago.

On the plus side, while we wouldn't call it razor-sharp we didn't notice any of the outstanding responsiveness issues that we found with last year's model, and we had little problem hitting links and other small command prompts on the Galaxy Tab 3 7.0's 7-inch display. Thank goodness for small mercies.

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Best Apps of the Week: Tapatalk, Mr. Ludo, Batman, and more

What’s a phone without apps? We’d look ridiculous walking around with slabs of plastic and glass, holding it up to our faces. Luckily, there’s tons of apps out there to keep us from looking like fools – and a few that will make us look more foolish than ever. Here are our favorite apps, games, and updates out this week.

Who says you can’t be on your phone all day and end up with six pack abs? Runtastic Six Pack promises to help you get that fully formed abdominal area that you’ve always wanted. With over fifty different belly-focused workouts, all organized for you in custom workouts that you can tackle in as little or as big of increments as you want, you can give yourself a form other than round. And if that doesn’t work, just draw that six pack on with a sharpie.

There are a lot of places to talk on the internet. We usually think of social media sites like Facebook and Twitter but there’s still plenty of message boards and forums out there pulsing with conversation. Now you can join in on all the water cooler talk taking place online from your Windows device with Tapatalk. Get involved with online communities of all sorts – there are over 60,000 available from Tapatalk – and share your opinions and passions with the people that you most want to engage with outside your social network.

Despite the many safety precautions that have started to be implemented and actions taken to prevent malicious software from entering Android devices, it’s still possible to get infected. The odds lower if you have Malwarebytes Anti-Malware installed on your device. It detects and eliminates any threat that may be present or try to make its way onto your phone or tablet. It also guards your personal identity and data to make sure no app or person is accessing anything you wouldn’t want it to.

Streaming services don’t get much better than Netflix, but some Android users weren’t satisfied with the experience they were getting from the mobile app. Netflix hopes those complaints have been squashed with the latest update, which brings stabilization and upgrades alike. The tablet layout has been updated to better fit the bigger screens and navigation has been changed to a button-style layout to improve user’s ability to scroll through their potential selections, eliminating the lag that was present before as well. If you were getting impatient trying to find a movie on the app before, this is the fix you’ve been waiting for.

What happens when you take a Web browser and a language reference books and mash them into one? You get Terminology, which recently updated to version 3.0. When you’re connected to the Web, you can get web resources like Wikipedia and Google integrated into your searches, pulling information about the word in question. When you’re offline, you still have full access to dictionary and thesaurus services you need. Rebuilt for iOS 7, it’s sure to fit right in to your iOS ecosystem and provide you with the words to look way smarter than you are as you look up synonyms to use in iMessage conversations.

Netflix got an update for Android, so it’s only right that Netflix rival Amazon Instant Video updates for Android rival iOS. The power struggle continues. For Amazon Instant Video, the latest version of its app adds the ability to multitask with other apps while video from the service is playing via AirPlay. As with every iOS update coming through the App Store these days, Amazon Instant Video also gets the iOS 7 treatment with some bug fixes and compatibility improvements. 

Would there be anything better than being Batman? Yes, as it turns out: Being able to pretend to be Batman without actually having to take fists to the face on a regular basis. That’s what makes Batman: Arkham Origins so great. Don the mask of the Dark Knight and take to the streets of Gotham as you fight your way out of the city’s darkest corners. Controls are simple and intuitive, requiring you only to swipe and tap to play, but the gameplay is still rewarding because you’re the Batman, rocking any of 15 different Bat suits and using a plethora of Bat-centric weaponry. 

Have you (or do you currently) worked in an office that only inspired you to want to race out of it the first chance you got? Well, don’t do that because you’ll end up getting fired. Instead, just stay at your desk and live the fantasy with Mr. Ludo. This interactive board game draws its inspiration from Ludo and Parcheesi and presents players with the opportunity to relive favorite childhood games in a whole new way. Take a roll of virtual die as you work your way around the digitized game board and try to escape from your office cage before your opponents – computer or human – beat you to the door.

Fantasy football is one of the biggest games around, but it seems like at least half of the people who play show up for the draft and then never set their lineup all season. If you know those people (or are one of them), then RotoPop is a solid solution for you. Instead of picking a team for a whole season, you pick just for one game. You can even make adjustments during halftime like a real coach. It’s less of a commitment but no less fun.

AJ Dellinger is a freelance writer from Madison, Wisconsin with an affinity for all things tech. Find him on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, and whatever wacky social network is popular tomorrow.

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Sony vs. Samsung: Whose TV belongs in your living room?

Who makes the best HDTV: LG or Samsung? Samsung or Sony? Toshiba or Panasonic? We hear these questions all the time. So, if those questions are so common, why are the answers so uncommon? Well, the trouble is that such queries are extremely broad. Answer one way or the other and you can count on getting branded as a fanboy.  You can’t just say “brand X is the best.” That’s ridiculous. The best at what? Everything? We don’t think so.

But we recognize that anyone asking these questions clearly needs some kind of nudge in one direction or the other, or maybe just some guidance with their research. With that in mind, we’ve decided to pit one brand against another in an ongoing series until we’ve exhausted as many variations as possible; because the truth is, different brands do exhibit distinct characteristics and understanding those characteristics can help make a buying decision easier. Here we go.

Sony was once the undisputed king of televisions; its older Trinitron and newer Bravia series are often regarded as synonymous with the concept of a premium TV. But then along came a little South Korean company called Samsung, which has worked its way up to become the number one TV manufacturer in the world, snatching a little over 26 percent market share.

Just because you’re the biggest doesn’t necessarily make you the best, though. While Samsung may be a TV titan, Sony hasn’t lost its chops, and over the past few years, its prices have come down a little. Aside from all that, these two companies make very different products. Let’s take a closer look at what differentiates the two.

Samsung has a sort of obsession with making the thinnest possible TVs with the thinnest possible bezels. The company’s F8000 LED/LCD televisions are virtually bezel-free, and, with an average depth of just 5/8-inch, they are about as thin as you can get. This changes some as you move down Samsung’s line-up, but you can usually count on Samsung to deliver a smallest-in-class bezel and cabinet depth. That doesn’t always play to Samsung’s advantage, however. We’ve seen some of the company’s mid-level televisions showing more edge light bloom because of their skimpy bezels. 

Sony makes a sexy TV, but it tends to show a lot less skin than Samsung does. Put another way: If Sony’s top-level TV’s wear miniskirts, then Samsung’s wear microskirts. Take a look at Sony’s W900, for example. Some might argue that a half-inch of difference in bezel width is splitting hairs, and we might tend to agree. For most, the bezel on Sony’s is plenty slim, and we’ve found that as you move down Sony’s line, the small amount of additional bezel can help hide some edge-light blooming.

When it comes to the TV’s stands, we’ve become indifferent. It used to be that we preferred Sony’s to Samsung’s considerably because Sony supplied higher-quality glass stands with its top-tier models. Now, both companies tend to use chromed-up plastic stands in various swooping shapes. Meh. 

For LED LCD televisions:

This would be so much easier if we were only comparing the aforementioned top-of-the-line models from the two manufacturers. In that sort of head-to-head, we would praise Sony for its outstanding color accuracy, but give a nod to Samsung for its above-par black levels. The thing is, the outstanding black level the F8000 achieves is thanks to an advanced local dimming technology that you don’t get with lesser models. And although Samsung’s black levels tend to be very good from model to model, the difference between it and Sony is much less stark without the local dimming involved. 

We will say this: Sony’s televisions have always had a certain look to them that is distinctly Sony, and a lot of folks love that look. If you’re one of those people that’s always loved the look of a Sony TV, then you should know that Sony’s still got it. 

On the other hand, Samsung makes TVs that can get exceptionally bright, and sometimes that brightness is necessary to combat lots of ambient sunlight. If you need an eyeball-scorching TV, Samsung’s LED backlit sets will usually do the trick. 

For plasma televisions:

Sony does not make a plasma TV anymore; it quit the plasma biz in 2006. That being the case, Samsung wins this battle by default. In terms of picture quality, plasma absolutely dominates LED/LCD technology. As a bonus, it’s less expensive, too. Side note: Samsung’s F8500 plasma is one of the five best TVs you can buy this year. 

We’re going to give this category to Samsung. Sony’s smart TV interface is mostly centered around the Sony Entertainment Network interface. You can access some more popular VOD apps such as Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Instant from a more simplified app menu, but actually using these apps will require that you register your device with Sony, and that means a trip to Sony’s website. It may sound like a little thing, but we’ve always found it to be a hassle. Also, Sony’s smart TV’s don’t support some key apps, such as VUDU. Oddly enough, Sony’s Blu-ray players support apps that its TVs do not – VUDU being one of them.

Samsung, on the other hand, has put a ton of effort into its smart TV interface, and it shows. Year after year, the visual aspect of the interface gets better, as do its app offerings (even though you won’t use half of them…ever). Also, Samsung offers a universal search option to help you find content across all available VOD apps (the downside is that you must use voice search) and it includes a recommendation engine which some find helpful in discovering new content. 

Not only does the user interface vary from tier to tier within each manufacturer’s line-up, but the term user interface is itself very broad. So, for the sake of this piece, let’s say the user interface has to do with the experience of navigating through a TV’s various menus in order to make changes to the settings. In that regard, the contest is a draw. Both companies provide a menu navigation experience that is intuitive enough to get through, and both leave something to be desired in terms of explaining what certain menu options actually do. Neither has reached perfection, but considering how complex these TVs can get, we’d have to say both brands have done a decent job. There are some manufacturers with pretty lame user interfaces, and we’ll be getting to them later in this series.

Unfortunately, this category gets decided on which remote we dislike the least. That’s right, if we’re to pick the lesser of two evils, we’re going to pick Sony and its remote controls. To be fair, this would be a draw, but Samsung decided go with this whole trackpad remote approach for its upper-tier televisions. And while we acknowledge it as being a very forward-thinking idea, it doesn’t work for us in practice.

The remote is also light on buttons, leaving most of the TV’s functions to be accessed with a virtual remote pad on the TV. Maybe we’re just old school, but we’ll take a wand loaded with buttons any day. And while we’re expressing our preferences, let us once again state for the record that all remote controls should be backlit. This is the 21st century; there are no excuses. 

At this point, both Ethernet and Wi-Fi connections are standard on both Sony and Samsung Smart TVs. This really shouldn’t be a consideration.

We hope you’ll walk away from reading this with some sense of how Sony and Samsung compare with each other. But we think the most valuable takeaway here is that you get out there and go put your hands on a TV and its remote for a while to get the feel of things. In our home-theater crash course, we suggest you forget about the sales guys on the floor and just start playing around. That’s what those TV displays are for. And if you want a more complete guide to buying a TV, be sure to check out our comprehensive TV buying guide. Have fun!

Caleb is a professional musician, amateur chef and A/V electronics guru. Growing up, Caleb was the guy you would find in the garage tearing apart vintage electronics while other kids rode bikes or played football. His early immersion in consumer electronics has led to countless car stereo, home theater and live audio installations which laid down the foundation for his current work as A/V Editor and reviewer at Digital Trends. Contact him on twitter (@caleb_denison) or via email (cdenison@digitaltrends.com).

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Apple says it couldn't read your iMessages even if it wanted to

Could Apple really read your iMessages - or hand them to authorities?

Research firms QuarksLab claimed on Thursday that Apple can theoretically intercept users' iMessages and read them or hand them over to authorities, but Apple responded that that's simply not true.

"iMessage is not architected to allow Apple to read messages," an Apple spokesperson told AllThingsD.

"The research discussed theoretical vulnerabilities that would require Apple to re-engineer the iMessage system to exploit it, and Apple has no plans or intentions to do so," the spokesperson continued.

QuarksLab presented its findings at the Hack in the Box conference that took place this week in Malaysia.

The group said that while Apple's end-to-end encryption is secure, Apple "can change a key any time they want, thus read [sic] the content of our iMessages."

The security and hacking community so far has reportedly found few faults with QuarksLab's theory, which is apparently quite complex.

However, the researchers emphasized that they're not claiming Apple does read your iMessages; only that it can if it chooses to.

iMessages are messages sent between iOS devices that Apple has long claimed are more secure than standard SMS messaging.

The iMessaging service supposedly even thwarts U.S. law enforcement agencies like the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Then again, the service clearly isn't foolproof.

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Google Hangouts for iOS approaches potential with major update

Google Hangouts has folded in Google Voice in the US

The Google Hangouts app for iOS just got a lot better, especially for those in the US who can now make free phone calls with the all-encompassing, multi-platform messaging and video chat application.

A new update arrived on Friday, essentially folding in Google Voice functionality and thus allowing users to make free calls to anyone in the US and Canada, and cheap calls internationally.

Outgoing calls will come from the user's Google Voice number and incoming calls will be received through the Hangouts app. That feature isn't even available within the Android version of the app yet.

Unfortunately for Brits Google Voice has never made its way across the pond, but fear not there are a few other improvements for users to enjoy.

Namely, Hangouts will no longer halt music when incoming messages are received, which had proved a serious annoyance for some users.

"Incoming messages will no longer stop your music. Instead of interrupting your groove, Google+ Hangouts will now temporarily duck your music, then crank the volume back up," wrote Kate Cushing on her Google+ page.

The app update also sees the return of the green, orange and grey circles next to contacts to indicate who's available and who is idle or offline.

And, perhaps most importantly, animated .gif files will now play in-line within conversations. Thank heavens for that.

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Google Play to finally add newspaper subscriptions with Newsstand feature?

Newspapers coming to devices like Nexus 7 soon?

The Google Play store offers everything from TV shows to magazines, but thus far Android tablet owners have been unable to have their favourite newspapers delivered to their digital doorstep.

That might all be about to change, according to AndroidPolice, which has spotted code for the long-rumoured Newsstand app within an upcoming revamp of the Google Play Store.

After delving inside the APK for Google Play 4.4, the site reckons Google may be close to launching the feature, which may take the place of Google Play Magazines to form one all-encompassing apps.

Like the Magazines app, it also appears from the code that free newspaper trials will be offered to users.

"Your favourite magazines and news are right here on Google Play. Pick up the latest issues or try out a free trial subscription. Read instantly with the Play Newsstandapp, even offline," reads the introduction text.

With the Nexus 5 and Android KitKat announcements seemingly just around the corner, this is probably as good a time as any for Google to roll out the feature which has been available to iPad owners for quite some time.

The company has also scheduled a 'Play' themed event in New York on October 24. Watch this space.

Via Engadget

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Apple recalling MacBook Air laptops with faulty flash drives

Apple promising to replace faulty drives in a flash

Apple has admitted a fault with the flash drives in some Macbook Air notebooks purchased between June 2012 and June 2013 and is offering free replacements to affected users.

The company has issued a product recall for 64GB and 128GB models experiencing hard drive problems and has released a firmware update allowing owners to check if their storage space is on the blink.

If after running MacBook Air Flash Storage Firmware Update 1.1 (available to download from the Mac App Store), users will be redirected to the replacement program website if a problem exists.

They can then use the webpage to schedule an appointment at their local Apple Store or with an authorised service provider for a free drive replacement.

"If your drive is affected, we strongly recommend that you do not install any operating system updates or new applications. We also recommend backing up your data on a regular basis until you receive a replacement drive," read a post on the Apple support website."

The company says if users have paid for a refund relating to the issue they can get in touch regarding a refund.

Via Mashable

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