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Samsung Android Phone Downloads Movies, Books

Las Vegas – Samsung plans a
summertime U.S. launch of an
Android smartphone that 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.

The
full-touchscreen 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 here at CTIA Wireless 2010.

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.

 Movies and TV shows would be downloaded by the
phone’s built-in Wi-Fi, and Skiff content would be downloadable via Wi-Fi and
3G.

Other
key 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 Galaxy S is one of a small but growing
number of U.S.
phones with HD camcorder and Android 2.1 OS. Only one other U.S. phone, the HTC-made HD2 for
T-Mobile becoming available March 24, comes with a movie-download service
(Blockbuster’s), and e-reader capability, this one compatible with the Barnes
& Noble’s online store.

   The Galaxy’s super-AMOLED display is said to
be 20 percent brighter, 80 percent less reflective in direct sunlight, 20
percent more battery-efficient and very thin compared with traditional AMOLED
displays, Samsung said. The display also delivers better graphics and video
than traditional AMOLED, Samsung said, and it’s more responsive to touch.

   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 camera-connected 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.

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