Samsung Galaxy S To Offer Movie, Book Downloads, HD Video

By Joseph Palenchar On Apr 5 2010 - 4:01am

 LAS VEGAS — An Android smartphone due in the U.S. during the summer will download movies and TV shows from Paramount and books and periodicals from Skiff ’s planned online store.

Additional content partners will also provide content for the phone, the company said here during CTIA Wireless 2010. The full-touchscreen Galaxy S is one of a small but growing number of U.S. phones with HD camcorder and the latest version of the Android OS, version 2.1. And only one other U.S. phone announced to date, the HTC-made HD2 available since March 24 through T-Mobile, comes with a movie-download service (Blockbuster’s), and e-reader capability, this one compatible with Barnes & Noble’s online store.

The Galaxy S will be Samsung’s first Android smartphone to use the latest 2.1 version of the Android OS, Samsung’s first U.S.-market phone with 1GHz processor, and the company’s first U.S. phone with brighter and less-reflective proprietary Super- AMOLED display, executives said.

The company didn’t say whether the Galaxy S would operate on 3G HSPA or CDMA 1x EV-DO networks, but it claimed the device would be the thinnest smartphone on the market, at 9.9mm in depth. Samsung also said the phone would offer its largest Super-AMOLED display to date, at 4 inches, having launched a 3.3- inch model for foreign markets in 2009.

As with the HTC HD2, movies could be downloaded by the phone’s builtin Wi-Fi, and books content would be downloadable via Wi-Fi and 3G.

Other key Galaxy S features include 720p high-definition video capture and playback; DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance) certification to stream stored audio, pictures and HD video to other home electronics products; wireless Wi-Fi tethering to a single laptop to double as a 3G modem; and 16GB of embedded memory, said to be the most of any Android phone. A MicroSD slot is included to expand memory.

The Galaxy S also doubles as a remote control for Samsung TVs, presumably through a connection to a home network. The phone will expand Samsung’s selection of U.S. phones with HD video capture, a spokesman said.

Because the Galaxy S uses the Android 2.1 OS, it supports Google Maps Navigation service and the Google Goggles application. The latter lets users take a picture of a landmark, logo, wine-bottle label, book cover and the like, then automatically search for information about the object through Google’s search engine.

The phone also supports Android 2.1’s Layar Reality Browser, a cameraconnected points-of-interest Internet search function that lets users view their outdoor environs through the phone’s camera lens and see written information about businesses inside the buildings.