Samsung Galaxy S4 edges out iPhone 5 in camera test

DxO Labs has named Samsung's Galaxy S4 a new winner in its mobile-phone camera tests.

The French firm, which specializes in camera optics and image sensor analysis, gave the newAndroid phone a score of 75 this week, edging out the iPhone 5 at 72. The top scorer is the Nokia 808 Pureview at 77, but that model is hobbled by its Symbian operating system, a commercial failure compared to Apple's iOS in the iPhone and Google's Android in the Galaxy S4.

Cameras have become a crucial part of smartphone performance as people shift away from dedicated cameras to a device that they're likely to have at all times and that comes equipped with a network connection for immediate sharing.Perhaps Nokia will have better commercial success with its rumored "Eos" phone, which could incorporate the relatively large image sensor and high-end Zeiss lens of the 808 Pureview into a Windows Phone model. And of course the iPhone 5 isn't the last word from Apple.

The Samsung flagship phone outdid its iPhone rival in most categories for still photos and videos, DxO concluded, but it wasn't a clean sweep. The iPhone 5 suffered fewer image-processing artifacts and its video stabilization worked better.

The Galaxy S4 showed "impressive detail preservation in bright light conditions," DxO said. "The 13-megapixel sensor shows a significant improvement compared to the best 8-megapixel smartphone cameras."

In low light, though, the Galaxy S4 suffered from noise, and in general the camera oversharpened images so that edges suffered from halos.

DxO Labs breaks down the photo and video scores for the Samsung Galaxy S4.

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Apple's iOS 7 overhaul said taking a black-and-white tack

Jonathan Ive, Apple's senior vice president of industrial design and the new design chief for iOS, has one idea in mind for the mobile operating system: out with the old and in with the new.

According to 9to5Mac, which cited unidentified sources who claim to have knowledge of the major changes intended for the upcoming iOS 7, Ive's new design ideas boil down to "black, white, and flat all over." What that means, the sources told 9to5Mac, is that Ive has decided to drop the textures, the shiny icons, and the lifelike design features in favor of a simpler interface.

Rumors have been circulating for some time that Apple would be changing the look of iOS,making it "very flat" compared with earlier versions.The sources told 9to5Mac that Ive doesn't believe software designs that mimic their real-life counterparts will hold up over time. For that reason, he decided to dramatically alter built-in iOS apps, like Notes, which look like real-life counterparts, to follow a single software design theme. Ive also wants to make Apple's many built-in apps, including Mail and Maps, look more alike than they do now.

Here's a brief list of what Ive has in store for iOS 7, according to 9to5Mac:

• The lock screen in iOS 7 will look quite different, with a new design for the passcode-entry feature and a new, shine-free black look where the time is displayed towards the top.
• The Notifications pane is losing its textured look and will be replaced with simple black and white coloring, according to 9to5Mac.
• The Home Screen won't change all that much, but Apple's icons will lose their current shiny look.

Apple is expected to show off iOS 7 at the Worldwide Developers Conference next month. The company's keynote address, when new products and updated features typically are unveiled, isscheduled for June 10.

This story has been updated throughout the morning.

iOS through the years (pictures)

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Ireland reportedly considering corporate tax reforms

Ireland is reportedly considering tax reforms that would close a loophole allegedly exploited by several multinational corporations -- most notably Apple -- to reduce their tax bills.

In the face of mounting international criticism, the Irish government is considering ways to phase out the Double Irish taxation arrangement, according to a report this weekend in the financial newspaper Sunday Business Post. The technique dramatically reduces a company's tax debt by funneling profits through two linked Irish subsidiaries.

The report did not indicate what specific changes might be under consideration. 

The Senate report noted that Apple's Irish subsidiary earned $22 billion in 2011. However, it wound up paying $10 million in taxes.The technique has led to criticism by U.S. lawmakers who recently labeled Ireland a tax haven for U.S. companies seeking to avoid taxes in their home country. A recent report prepared by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations described how Apple has used corporate structures set up in myriad countries that allow it to exist as a resident of nowhere so that it pays very little corporate tax on its international revenue.

"Apple's three primary Irish entities hold 60 percent of the company's profits but claim to be tax residents nowhere in the world," Arizona Sen. John McCain said, adding that it was "completely outrageous" that Apple has managed to avoid paying taxes at home and abroad.

Apple is just one of several companies being investigated by the subcommittee. Last September, the group spoke with Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard.

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EU regulators reportedly probing Apple's iPhone sales tactics

The European Commission is reportedly investigating whether Apple is using anticompetitive sales tactics to muscle out rival handset makers.

While no formal investigation has been announced, European regulators sent a nine-page questionnaire to several European wireless carriers last week to determine whether Apple's distribution terms ensure that competitors can't secure better sales deals, according to documents obtained by the Financial Times. The interest was reportedly spurred by wireless carriers' private complaints that Apple's agreements squelched competition.

The questionnaire focuses on whether Apple's terms mandate a minimum iPhone purchases and whether technical restrictions prevent the iPhone 5 from being used on high-speed 4G networks in Europe, according to the newspaper.

"There are also indications that certain technical functions are disabled on certain Apple products in certain countries in the EU/EEA. If the existence of such behaviour were to be confirmed, it might constitute an infringement of [antitrust law]," it says."The Commission has information indicating that Apple and Mobile Network Operators ("MNOs") have concluded distribution agreements which may potentially lead to the foreclosure of other smartphone manufacturers from the markets," the questionnaire states.

The European Commission previously confirmed that it was examining the deals but cautioned that it has not begun an official antitrust investigation.

People with knowledge of Apple's contracts with the carriers say the terms they must accept are unusually strict, especially for smaller carriers, making it difficult for other handset makers to compete. Apple typically sets quotas for how many iPhones its carriers must sell over a certain period.

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Samsung to unveil new Galaxy, Ativ devices on June 20

Just a few months after unveiling its Galaxy S4 smartphone, Samsung is getting ready to unveil new mobile devices.

The South Korean electronics giant announced Monday that it will hold a press event in London on June 20 that will presumably highlight additions to its Galaxy and Ativ lineups. The terse announcement includes close-up images of three devices, suggesting that at least three new gadgets will be unveiled at next month's event.

The event, which will be livestreamed onSamsung's mobile YouTube page, will come a week before Microsoft's Build developer conference and 10 days after Apple kicks off its Worldwide Developers conference.Ativ -- Vita spelled backward -- previously applied largely to just the Ativ Smart PC and Smart PC Pro, both Windows 8 tablets, but was recently expanded to include Windows PCs. The company has also applied the brand to the Ativ S Windows Phone, which was released to lackluster fanfare, as well as planned but canceled the Ativ Tab, a Windows RT slate.

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If Earth had rings like Saturn, the sky would look like this

The sunsets would be impossibly beautiful. The evening sky would glitter with a thousand silver arcs. If Earth had rings like Saturn, you'd only have to look up to get a spectacular show.

Veteran astronomy artist Ron Miller has created some stunning views of what our skies would look like if Earth were a ringed planet, and they make me want to launch a Kickstarter campaign to make it happen.

In a recent article for sci-fi blog io9, Miller presented his wild visions of a ringed Earth and what the sky would look like from various places on our planet.

He notes that Earth did have a ring long ago. It was the result of a cataclysmic planetary crashthat precipitated the formation of the moon.

Earth: If you like it, put a ring on it (pictures)

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Saturn's existing rings did not form moons because the material lies within its Roche limit. That's the radius within which orbiting bodies will generally disintegrate under gravitational stress. What if the material that went into our moon had been within Earth's Roche limit? Miller's visions are a possible answer.

Miller, a former art director at the National Air & Space Museum's Albert Einstein Planetarium, has produced illustrations that have graced nearly every publication with cool science ideas, from Scientific American to Starlog. He has also designed U.S. postage stamps, translated works by Jules Verne, and worked as a production illustrator on "Dune" and "Total Recall."

"I am an astronomical illustrator by profession and have always had a special fondness for Saturn," .He has authored numerous books, including "The Dream Machines," a comprehensive history of manned spacecraft, and has illustrated dozens of covers for fantasy and science fiction books.

"I was looking through some of my old space books and ran across an illustration of what Saturn's rings might look like from London if the earth possessed the rings, which had been done in the late 1920s.

"It started me thinking that this might make an interesting series of pictures, showing what the rings would look like from different latitudes."

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Teen's science project could charge phones in 20 seconds

My high school science project looked at how row covers could help plants grow in cold weather. Not a bad idea, but not nearly as cool as high school student Eesha Khare's science project, the creation of a supercapacitor that could potentially be used to fully charge a cell phone within 20 to 30 seconds.

Khare, an 18-year-old from California, won the Intel Foundation Young Scientist Award and $50,000 for her participation in the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair run by the Society for Science & the Public. Think of it as the world's largest science fair. Khare took home one of the top prizes for "a tiny device that fits inside cell phone batteries, allowing them to fully charge within 20-30 seconds."

The official title of Khare's project is "Design and Synthesis of Hydrogenated TiO2-Polyaniline Nanorods for Flexible High-Performance Supercapacitors." 

With the rapid growth of portable electronics, it has become necessary to develop efficient energy-storage technology to match this development. While batteries are currently used for energy-storage, they suffer from long charging times and short cycle life. Electrochemical supercapacitors have attracted attention as energy-storage devices because they bridge the gap between current alternatives of conventional capacitors and batteries, offering higher energy density than conventional capacitors and higher power density than batteries. Despite these advantages, supercapacitor energy density is much lower than batteries and increasing energy density remains a key challenge in supercapacitor research. The goal of this work was to design and synthesize a supercapacitor with increased energy density while maintaining power density and long cycle life.

Khare's supercapacitor can last for 10,000 charge and recharge cycles. She has used it to power an LED as a proof of concept, but envisions its future use in phones, portable electronic devices, and even car batteries.

Curious about how she did it? Put your science hat on. "To improve supercapacitor energy density, I designed, synthesized, and characterized a novel core-shell nanorod electrode with hydrogenated TiO2 (H-TiO2) core and polyaniline shell," she writes. Essentially, that translates to a much improved supercapacitor.

Khare's work is of particular interest to the geek world. The idea of a super-fast smartphone charge is enough to make most phone owners jump for joy. Let's hope this tech gets on the fast track to commercialization.The 1,600 participants were whittled down to 3 top winners. Besides Khare, Romanian student Ionut Budisteanu came in first by using artificial intelligence to create a model for a low-cost, self-driving car. Henry Lin, a 17-year-old from Louisiana, received the same award as Khare for his project that simulated thousands of clusters of galaxies.

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Beware the coming of the Google Glass photographer

As you head off to your Memorial Day weekend getaway with smartphone or digital camera in hand, keep in mind that by this time next year, there could be a whole new breed of technophile attending the holiday festivities: the dreaded Google Glass photographer.

I'd love to say this is all just hyperbole for the sake of getting a laugh, but then I think of the guy shouting at a person on speakerphone in the library, or the number of phone conversations had by people in public bathroom stalls that I've overheard against my will.In the chuckle-worthy video below, the folks at online app training company Grovo offer a glimpse into a horrifying future. An obnoxious, photo-obsessed Glass owner gets all up in everyone's grill to record everything with many, many blinks of the eye.

Give it a watch and enjoy the world as it is now, before the invasion of Glassholes like the one in the video below. Let us know about your own Glass-inspired fears in the comments.

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'Star Trek II' producer talks Ceti Eel, J.J. Abrams, and more (Q&A)

The release of "Star Trek Into Darkness" has not only spurred interest in the "Trek" world in general, but especially in its film daddy, the original Khan-as-villain movie "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan." While the new film takes quite a few detours, it is full of homages to the earlier work.

Let's look back to 1982. "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" had been released in 1979 and faced a poor critical reception. Paramount, the film's studio, was gun-shy after the movie nearly doubled its original budget, ending up with a $46 million price tag. Nonetheless, plans for a second movie plodded along.

It's 30, 40 years later and we have new audiences. You can't keep dwelling on the old guys and the old things. It has to move ahead.
--Robert Sallin, producer of "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan"

Into this mix of wariness and hope stepped Robert Sallin. With 2,000 commercials to his name, he was primarily a director, but he signed a deal with Paramount to take on producer duties for "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan." With no script ready, no director on-board, and Paramount keeping a tight clamp on the budget, Sallin had his hands full with steering the film into and through production.

All those trials somehow came out OK in the end. "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan" is now often viewed among fans as one of the greatest films (if not the greatest) the franchise ever turned out. Crave caught up with Sallin to get a behind-the-scenes view on this iconic movie.

Q: How did you get involved with "Star Trek II?"

Sallin: I went to UCLA film school back before it was fashionable. One of the people with whom I became friendly was a guy named Harve Bennett. Our paths diverged. I eventually started my own production company, producing and directing about 2,000 commercials for clients all over the world. In the late '70s, I decided to close my company. I was tired of the 30-second format and really wanted the opportunity to expand creatively. Harve had just signed a deal with Paramount to be involved with three projects. One was "Star Trek." I decided to come aboard, so Paramount signed me up to be the producer of "Star Trek II." Harve was busy working on the other things.

Crave: What were your duties as producer?

Sallin: I was a director. I had never produced anything per se, but I ran a commercial company and we were very focused on costs and managing costs. My primary responsibility was mounting the whole production. That meant everything, including selecting all the key department and crew personnel. I was also tasked with supervising the day-to-day production, keeping it on budget, and creating and supervising the visual effects, which involved a lot of going back and forth between ILM (Industrial Light & Magic) and Hollywood.

"Star Trek II" poster. 

Crave: How did you find a director?

Sallin: I created a list of 40-plus directors I thought might be interesting, but it turned out nobody wanted to do it. Some people didn't want to do "Star Trek." Some people didn't want to do science fiction. Some people didn't want to do a sequel. I would have thought people would be dying to do it. I was really astounded. Then, my secretary suggested Nick Meyer and I had liked his film "Time After Time" and admired his script, "The Seven-Per-Cent Solution."

Nick came on-board well after the visual effects were already in production and dived right in. I have to give Nick substantial credit for rewriting the script in about 10 days. It was his rewrite, uncredited, that we actually shot. He took the disparate elements that Harve was struggling with and he just made it work.

Crave: What were the actors like to work with?

Sallin: Casting Ricardo Montalban as Khan was a major stroke of good luck. He was a consummate gentleman, consummate professional, and one of the nicest people I've ever run into. Bill Shatner and Leonard [Nimoy] are top-of-the-line professional actors, they are so talented. But they had been playing their roles for so long, there was a bit of nonchalance as they approached shooting. They knew what they were doing, but there was kind of a casual atmosphere, which is fine. Then, Ricardo arrives on the set and the first thing he does is a 10-minute master shot without a break... and it was perfect! Boy, the next day, suddenly Bill and Leonard are there promptly, and they've got their lines learned. It's not that Ricardo was a better actor, it's that his whole attitude was so professional, so suddenly the boys had to ratchet it up.

Crave: How were the special effects handled?

Sallin: In "Star Trek I," all the monitors and all the displays were Super 8 or 16mm filmprojectors. They made noise. When it came time to do coverage, you couldn't sync them to match. I said, that's going. We're going to do it with computers. There was a lot of that kind of stuff.

I also pushed ILM to create the very first computer-generated graphics visual effects they or anyone had ever done for a major film at that time. It was the creation of the Genesis planet video report. ILM really got excited and gave the idea full support, even though that short sequence cost nearly a quarter of a million dollars and it came out of their end of the budget.

Crave: Spock's death started a huge controversy. How did it come about?

Sallin: This is contrary to what everyone says. Harve had a discussion with the major cast members about returning for their roles. Everybody agreed, except for Leonard. Leonard didn't want to do it. Leonard is one of the most intelligent people I've ever run across. To quote him, he didn't want to put on the ears anymore. I wasn't a Trekkie and Harve wasn't a Trekkie, so we said, "Let's kill him off." Done. But, despite my attempts to keep the scripts logged in and under tight security, the word got out and the uproar was substantial. Then we had to figure out a way that he wouldn't really be killed off. That's when the idea came that he should be shot to the Genesis planet and we could play the rebirth-of-life concept. But, up until that moment, he was really going to be a goner. During that, I got a telephone call on my home phone saying, "If you kill Spock, we'll kill you." I had two small children and a wife, so we had enhanced security around our home, though nothing ever happened.

This Ceti Eel concept wasn't chosen for the final film. (Click to enlarge.)

Crave: Let's talk about the Ceti Eel. It gave me nightmares as a 6-year-old child.

Sallin: I didn't mean to traumatize you. The way that came about, the writer suggested a creature that would take control of Chekov and the Paul Winfield character by attaching itself to their necks. I said that it had been done before in a TV episode and was immediately challenged to come up with something better.

Well, the next morning, I went out to pick up my newspaper and there was a slug on the pathway. I thought, what if that slimy thing was able to go into the ear? We had an adviser from the Jet Propulsion Lab, a space guy. He said, sure, we can justify that. I called ILM and asked Ken Ralston to design some creature sketches. He did 15 sketches, I picked one, and that's what we used. I loved sitting in the theaters when everybody cringed.

It was great fun bringing the Ceti Eel to life. Up at ILM, they engineered a piece of monofilament which moved a little plastic worm covered with slime. You pull one end and it would stretch the little creature and move across Chekov's face. We also had a huge, oversized model of an ear for the actual insertion. We just tried to make it as gross as possible.

Crave: Was that Montalban's real chest?

Sallin: Yes. He was in amazing shape. His pectoral muscles and his whole upper body [were] very strong and they emphasized that with the costume. That was real Ricardo.

Crave: Have you seen "Star Trek Into Darkness?"

Sallin: I was invited to a screening, but I didn't go. There's part of me that has been there and done that. On the other hand, I'm a huge fan of J.J. Abrams. The guy is so talented and is such a fresh, creative force to take this on and do what he's done. I'm full of admiration. I've seen bits and pieces of the other one and I think he is truly taking "Star Trek" where no man has gone before.

'Star Trek II' behind the scenes (pictures)

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Crave: Why didn't you stay with the "Star Trek" 

franchise?

Sallin: When I finished "Star Trek II," I was called up to the executive offices at Paramount and I was asked if I would stay on and produce more "Star Trek" features. I thought about it and I didn't do it. Part of it had to do with the fact that the man who had brought me into Paramount was Harve Bennett and that would mean taking the franchise away from him. Even though the reality is that I produced "Star Trek II" and he worked on the script, I felt a sense of obligation that I couldn't do that to him. I should have stayed on, but I didn't. Over the years, a lot of fans have noticed that the later "Trek" films were inconsistent in creativity and production quality after "Trek II." I took that as the highest sort of compliment.

Crave: What do you see for the future of "Star Trek?"

Sallin: Most of the fans of the previous films have accepted J.J. Abrams' new direction and appreciate it. It's a different time. It's 30, 40 years later and we have new audiences. You can't keep dwelling on the old guys and the old things. It has to move ahead. It has been energized through J.J.'s creative vision. I feel that with him in the captain's chair, the future is truly unlimited. Previous "Star Treks" found their audiences. It will go on for who knows how long. It's a combination of new blood, younger blood, an enormous amount of talent, and Gene Roddenberry's core belief that there is always hope.

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