OnlyGizmos Bada

Bada

Mehul Ved — Tue, 24 May 2011 08:51:16 +0000

Samsung To Release bada 2.0 In July. India Top Priority

Rahul Srinivas — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 04:17:30 +0000

Samsung’s homegrown smartphone OS, the bada would be getting an update to version 2.0 in the next few months (July, to be precise). Bada, OS had made its debut 10 months ago with the Samsung Wave S8500 and has been through one major update already. That was when the version number had changed from 10 to 1.1. The successor to the Wave S8500 was also launched recently with the updated OS and slightly better specs. Currently there are five devices on sale that run bada.

The next iteration of bada is likely to feature support for NFC as well as a revamped home screen set up. It would also open up support for 3^rd party social networking clients. On the developers’ front, Samsung will also offer the bada SDK for Mac and Linux users. Until now, only PC users had that privilege.

Another interesting thing is the fact that bada 2.0 is likely to hit India before any other country because it is here that bada based phones have done exceedingly well. In other markets, it was an all Android affair almost the entire course of 2010. In fact, Samsung claims a market share of 10-15% in the smartphone segment in India already. They are aiming for 30% share this year.

It is unclear if there would be new devices running bada or if the existing devices can be updated to the new version. Time will tell! Till then, keep your bada laden Waves’ ready for an update!

[Via Mobileburn]

We Are Live From Vegas, CES 2011

Luke Abell — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 06:48:17 +0000

The OnlyGizmos team is at CES 2011 and we are gearing up for our first experience of the gadget madness @ Las Vegas. You can expect live coverage of CES 2011 on OnlyGizmos over the next 3 days, we are here until 8th Jan. This includes Live blog from press events, Tweets / Twitpics (follow us on Twitter), Facebook updates and Videos on our YouTube channel.

We believe in hands-on, so you may expect us to make fewer updates this year (also partly due to the fact that we are only a 2 member team here) but we are inclined to do writeups on things we have experienced here, no point pushing spec sheets to you that come in via press releases. This is the time to experience it and share more than just specs

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Samsung updates its desktop sync software Kies 2 (Beta)

Annkur P Agarwal — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 16:25:09 +0000

Samsung has been heavily criticized for the poor performance of its desktop syncing software Kies (pronunciation as ‘Keys’). Kies is the life line for Samsung BADA OS users and the new version, though still in beta promises several upgrades. Kies 2 comes in with faster performance, iTunes / Windows Media Player Sync along with its own music store, faster syncing, firmware upgrades etc.

We would assume that Samsung is working hard to get Kies updated to support more handsets and we still wait to hear the news of sms backup support for BADA OS

Via Samsung Hub

Samsung Wave 2 lands in India for Rs 18,999, with updated Bada OS but minus super AMOLED screen

Nimish Dubey — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 15:50:44 +0000

Samsung has released the successor of its first Bada OS flagship device in India. The Samsung S8530 or the Wave 2, has not been launched with the fanfare that preceded the original Wave. In fact, we have not even received a press release about it, and discovered it was available while browsing Flipkart, where it is available (although out of stock at the moment of writing) for Rs 18,999. It features a larger touchscreen than the original Wave – 3.7 inches against 3.3 inches – and has an updated version (1.2) of Samsung’s Bada OS, but those two factors apart, seems very similar to the first Wave.

Just like the 8500, the 8530 too has a 5.0 megapixel camera with touchfocus, runs the Samsung 3.0 TouchWiz interface, and a 1GHz processor purring under the hood. The larger touchscreen means that the new Wave is larger than the previous one, but the increase in screen real estate comes at the cost of perhaps the original Wave’s most spectacular feature – the dazzling Super AMOLED screen. The new Wave 2 comes with a Super Clear LCD (SLCD), which looks pretty good but is not really in the league of its predecessor, notwithstanding a similar 480 x 800 resolution. The internal storage remains 2GB and the connectivity options pretty much the same as the first Wave.

Considering the success of the original Wave (we still hear people asking for it), we must confess to being a little intrigued by the low-profile release of its successor. We are also interested in the tweaks made to the Bada OS and in any new apps on the handset. More when we get our mitts on the device.

Samsung Wave (S8500) Bayern Munchen Limited Edition Launched

Annkur P Agarwal — Sat, 18 Dec 2010 06:56:24 +0000

What do you do when a product faces shortage in the market due to low supply of super AMOLED displays? Well if its Samsung, throw out a limited edition! Samsung has unveiled a limited edition model of its first BADA OS device, the Wave (S8500). Soccer fans, specially the ones supporting FC Bayern Munchen fans can cheer with this new limited edition version of the Wave.

Apart from the changed design on the box packing, it doesn’t seem that the handset has got any new colours or logos. This limited edition Wave would cost you €429 and comes with free subscriptions to T-mobile’s TV service LIGA total! and an €65 vouchers to let you purchase merchandise from Bayern Munchen’s online shop.

Via Gadget Folder

Syncing your contacts on Samsung Wave / Bada OS using Google Sync

Anupama Sushil — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 18:33:18 +0000

One of the biggest fears we used to have while purchasing a new handset was about how to get our contacts from our old handset to the new one. Google took some of the pain out of that with its Google Sync service that lets you synchronise your Gmail contacts across various smartphone platforms and even some multimedia devices. But what about new operating systems like Samsung’s Bada OS?

Well, Bada OS is not officially supported by Google Sync but after a bit of investigating and tweaking we were delighted to discover that it worked perfectly well on our Samsung Wave. Logically that means that it should work on other Bada OS devices too, but the steps we have outlined apply mainly to the Wave.

This is how we went about matters:

Begin by pressing the home button that will take you to phone’s main menu

Go to the Email option and select Exchange ActiveSync (for new account)

Enter your email address, username, password, but leave the domain name empty. Press Next

The phone will go into checking and verifying mode after which it will ask for the server url, type in m.google.com and opt for SSL

Select contact and task sync

The phone will now start syncing your data instantly. The process will not take more than a few minutes depending of course, on just how many contacts and tasks you have on your Gmail Contacts and Calendar

That’s it. You now have all your Gmail contacts on your Bada OS device. Simple, isn’t it?

Hands-on with Samsung Wave 533 / 525 & 723

Annkur P Agarwal — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 09:35:50 +0000

Samsung has its new Wave lineup out in the market and we have got our hands on it for good. The original Wave S8500 was the first Bada OS powered handset out in the market and we have a few more devices coming out which cost significantly lower and thus bringing a somewhat smartphone OS to a sub $200 phone. I always hoped to see a Corby like device with a good operating system and it seems like Samsung is now delivering on its promise during the original Wave launch.

The Wave 525 (GT-S5250) is the cheapest of the lot, costing just Rs 7400 in Mumbai (India). Add to it a physical QWERTY and you get the Wave 533 (GT-S5330)that costs a little below Rs 10000 and the Wave 723 packs in a better camera with a metal finish design costing around Rs 12000.

Thats a pretty good lineup to take on the cheap Android phones that are coming out but to us its clear – the Wave 525 gives real value for money at the price it sells for. The 723 and 533 have their own selling points, but they would face competition from a bunch of Android releases.

Wave 525 and 533 are all plastic finish and good light weight devices. The only spec difference between the two being the missing physical qwerty on the 525. Speaking about the physical qwerty, we are quite impressed with the same on the Wave 533.

The Wave 723 brings in a somewhat better design, a upgraded 5MP camera with LED light and thats pretty much it. We believe this one would face tough competition from the Androids like the LG Optimus One.

All the three Wave models feature GPS, WiFi ‘n’, Samsung Apps, Bluetooth 3.0 and a 3.2″ WQVGA display (Capacitive). The 525 and a 533 have a 3.2MP camera with no Flash light.

Here is a quick video looking at all 4 Bada OS handsets:

We shall go live with the unboxing videos and reviews shortly!