Samsung I300 Smartphone Available Now?

Posted By: Ed Thursday, September 27, 2001 8:12:56 AM

One of the most eagerly awaited new handhelds is the Samsung I300 smartphone, which runs the Palm OS. The company has recently posted some more information on this device, including the user's manual. This answers several questions people have been asking.

However, it can't answer the most important question, when the I300 will be available. It was originally scheduled to be released in August, and later bumped back to September. Late yesterday, the company's web site began listing the smartphone as being available now. However, it doesn't yet appear on the Sprint PCS webstore that Samsung lists as the place to buy it.

Update: According to someone from Samsung's Wireless Technical Support Group, the I300 would be available the first week of October.

The I300 is the first PalmOS smartphone to have a 256-color screen, which has a resolution of 240 by 160. The Graffiti area is virtual. Initially, the only application to take advantage of this resolution is the on-screen phone keypad. It has a smaller screen on its top which allows the user to check the status of the phone while using the main screen to run applications.

The I300 is 4.9 by 2.3 by 0.8 inches and weighs 6 oz. There will be an extended battery available that will change it to 4.3 by 2.3 by 1.1 inches and 7.5 oz.

Inside, it has 8 MB of memory. The company doesn't say what version of the Palm OS it is running but one reviewer reported it has 3.5.

It is a dual band phone: CDMA PCS 1900 MHz and analog 800 MHz. It supports both voice and data. Both Web clipping and true Web browsing are supported.

The user manual only talks about using Sprint PCS as a service provider. No other wireless carrier is mentioned and Sprint and its services are covered extensively.

The company specifically states that the mobile phone portion can be turned off while still using the device as a regular Palm handheld. This is necessary to let it be used on a plane.

Users can call people by saying their name, record 10 one-minute voice memos or conversations, establish 3-way calls, use call waiting/forwarding, and dial directly from the address book with one hand using hot keys.

According to the manual, the charging/docking cradle uses a serial connector and not USB.

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I-300 Samsung = OCTOBER 1

I.M. Anonymous @ 9/27/2001 8:24:33 AM #
I had Fred McIntire, "Nation Acount Manager Wireless Terminals Division" for Samsung in my office giving me a demo of the I-300. The meeting took place late August. He told me that they manufacturered 60,000 of these units for release on October 1. I know that many customers are ordering them by the THOUSANDS. I was told that G.E. will be taking 5000 units. The demand is amazing, I placed an order for out company and asked for some in October and the remainder in November. I was told that I could get all of them in October, but they would not guarantee any units would be available in November because of the demand backlog. Also, Sprint is the EXCLUSIVE source for these units right now. Don't look for these units in stores until Samsung meets the demand of their corporate users. By the way, we are paying the full price for our units, $500 a pop, so I don't expect them to be any cheaper when they hit retail stores. Sprint may bundle a rebate with it for new customers who sign contracts???

RE: I-300 Samsung = OCTOBER 1
I.M. Anonymous @ 9/27/2001 8:41:52 AM #
Dear I.M. Anonymous,

Thanks for throwing me under the bus. You left out my mobile number. Could you post that as well?
Sincerely,

Fred McIntire
Nation Acount Manager,
Wireless Terminals Division
Samsung

Of course Terminating Nations using wireless is quite fun. Acount?
or did you mean, "National Account"?

RE: I-300 Samsung = OCTOBER 1
I.M. Anonymous @ 9/27/2001 9:50:19 AM #
Person 1: Thank you for this information.

Person 2: Your followup was a waste of everyone's time.

RE: I-300 Samsung = OCTOBER 1
I.M. Anonymous @ 9/27/2001 10:08:07 AM #
I hate to point out the obvious but its funny that both of them spelled account wrong and that his title is "Nation Acount Manager" instead of "National Account Manager". The poor spelling and grammer marks the response for what it is: BS!

RE: I-300 Samsung = OCTOBER 1
I.M. Anonymous @ 9/27/2001 10:22:41 AM #
In your first sentence, you used the word "its" when the correct usage is actually "it's". Does that mean your comment is BS? Just because someone makes a grammatical/spelling error or two doesn't mean that what they are saying isn't true. Not everyone is an English major. Let's not flame people who are trying to help.

RE: I-300 Samsung = OCTOBER 1
I.M. Anonymous @ 9/27/2001 11:02:59 AM #
And who would you presume that they are trying to help?

RE: I-300 Samsung = OCTOBER 1
Ed @ 9/27/2001 11:11:02 AM #
I just received an email from someone at Samsung's Wireless Technical Support Group that said the I300 would be available the first week of October.

---
News Editor
RE: I-300 Samsung = OCTOBER 1
I.M. Anonymous @ 9/29/2001 11:59:40 AM #
SCREW THIS. I posted the first comment regarding the information directly from Samsung's NATIONAL ACCOUNT manager. So fine, I had a couple typographical errors in my post. The information I posted is/was accurate when I posted it. For those who think a spelling or gramatical error equals "BS" then SCREW YOU. The phone is due for commercial release October 1. It will probably hit commercial accounts by the end of the first week of October. Retail accounts will wait in line behind commercial orders on a supply vs. demand basis.

RE: I-300 Samsung = OCTOBER 1
I.M. Anonymous @ 10/2/2001 10:59:35 AM #
10/1 came and went, with no I300. Suffice it to say we'll see this thing when we see it. Sprint an Samsung seem to have taken the Gary Condit course on public relations.

RE: I-300 Samsung = OCTOBER 1
I.M. Anonymous @ 10/2/2001 11:46:09 AM #
I agree. I called Samsung and they said they are no longer in control of the I300 because they released them to Sprint over a month ago. Sprint has told me everything from "we haven't heard of that phone" to "It's going to be released in January" to "Give us until the last week in October" No one seems to have any consistent answers.

RE: I-300 Samsung = OCTOBER 1
I.M. Anonymous @ 10/2/2001 12:39:41 PM #
Interestingly enough, Samsung did have a full page color ad for the I300 in this past Sunday's New York Times magazine (9/31). I doubt they would spend the money if the phone wasn't due out soon.

retail availability not the first week of October
I.M. Anonymous @ 10/5/2001 2:10:40 PM #
The first week of October is almost over, and there is no sign of it being in the retail stores, at least.

RE: I-300 Samsung = OCTOBER 1
I.M. Anonymous @ 11/12/2001 3:32:36 PM #
I actually saw one at a Best Buy in Roanoke.

Good GOD!

I.M. Anonymous @ 9/27/2001 9:37:25 AM #
How many different screen resolutions can we expect our developers to support?!?!?!?!? Currently we have 320x320, 240x320, and now 160x240!!!! AHHHHH! STOP IT! Pick one, stick with it, and MAYBE we'll get some programs that support hi-res!!!!

-bob

RE: Good GOD!
I.M. Anonymous @ 9/27/2001 10:45:37 AM #
Wow! chill! of all the competing standards, this one should cause the least compatibility problems... it's just a standard 160x160 screen with a soft graffiti area.

RE: Good GOD!
I.M. Anonymous @ 9/27/2001 11:34:52 AM #
The resolution hasn't change, bonehead, the screen area has.

RE: Good GOD!
I.M. Anonymous @ 9/27/2001 11:41:31 AM #
Actually the resolution has changed. The resolution is now 160x240. Perhaps you mean the dpi hasn't changed.
It's true that it won't cause compatibility problems because it's just a 160x160 screen with a virtual graffiti area, but that's not what the original poster was saying. That complaint was that there are too many different sizes of hi-res screens for developers to keep up with, and in that case it is probably the Clie that causes the least problems.

RE: Good GOD!
Token @ 9/27/2001 12:28:25 PM #
... somehow it always returns to being about the Clie.

This looks like a solid enough product to stand on it's (possesive apostrophe) own. In this market, I think the battle is not between the Clie and the Samsung, but betwen the Kyocera 6035a, Samsung I-300, and Handspring Treo units (honourable mention to VisorPhone).

From a cellphone perspective, developers have always had to contend with different screen resolutions, and in the PC world there are a multitude of resolutions that developers need to cope with - so how is this different?

RE: Good GOD!
I.M. Anonymous @ 9/27/2001 12:43:10 PM #
If Palm picks a single resolution and sticks with that, the Palm OS is dead, and I'll be moving on. Palm needs to pick an API that can handle various resolutions and/or virtual graffiti. Then developers know what APIs to use and Palm OS device makers can support those APIs on their devices.

The resolution has NOT changed.
I.M. Anonymous @ 9/27/2001 1:13:33 PM #
Resolution is:

The fineness of detail that can be distinguished in an image, as on a video display terminal.

DPI is a measure of resolution. In this case, the resolution has NOT changed; the screen has been made larger in the vertical. There are more pixels, but they are over a larger area. Resolution changes when you have more pixels over the same size area, which is not the case here.

RE: Res no change
I.M. Anonymous @ 9/27/2001 1:26:17 PM #
I don't think that was the original consern here...

RE: Good GOD!
I.M. Anonymous @ 9/27/2001 1:53:44 PM #
Dear Token:

It's incorrect to use a possessive apostrophe in your use of the word "its." I was not an English major but am gratified to see that some people still care about these things even if they don't understand them well.

RE: Good GOD!
I.M. Anonymous @ 9/27/2001 2:15:35 PM #
There has been a great deal of talk about grammar for a Palm fan site. Let's see if I can add to the confusion.

It's is only used for the contraction of "it is". If you can't replace the word you are using with "it is", then you should use its.

English is a language constantly in transition. It is actually defined by the people using it, not by the dictionary. A search of handheld-related sites will find that many people commonly refer to the Palm m505's screen as having a 160 x 160 screen resolution or the Sony CLIE having a 320 x 320 resolution. They aren't all wrong. If the dictionary disagrees with the common usage, then the dictionary is incorrect.

I'm willing to listen to the other side of the argument though. If resolution isn't correct, what is?

RE: Good GOD!
Token @ 9/27/2001 2:40:34 PM #
Quite right - "its" is already a possessive pronoun (like his, her, ours yours, etc). "It's" is a contraction for "it is".

But you know what ... I don't particularly care. I put the comment in as a subtle dig at the grammer police message further up the list.

As for the resolution vs DPI debate ... what we are really referring to is screen area - the number of pixels across a screen. Is this resolution? Only by coincidence, since (until Clie's 320x320 display) Palms only displayed pixels in a one for one fashion. DPI is another story - varying the DPI on a Palm has only had the effect of allowing screens to be smaller (III series vs m1xx series), but the pixels across the screen has remained the same.

As the previous poster said, it is common usage that drives language, not a dictionary, and this is especially true in the technology sector. I guess that's why English is a living language.

But do grammer discussion REALLY belong in this type of forum? I don't think so --- if poster tooks some care in their posting, and the readers were focused on content rather than nitpicking the grammatical errors, these forums (fora??) would have a better signalto noise ratio. (sorry for the extra noise).

Spelling police
I.M. Anonymous @ 9/27/2001 3:01:43 PM #
Spelling police here.

It should be grammar, not grammer.

RE: Good GOD!
I.M. Anonymous @ 9/27/2001 3:38:15 PM #
When people talk about 160x160 resolution and 320x320 resolution, there is an assumption of a fixed screen size. Same goes with a PC CRT: VGA, SVGA, XGA "resolution" is meaningful because the physical display size doesn't change as the number of pixels does. Saying the new Samsung has a new resolution is plainly incorrect. It has a new screen size, with a group of pixels of the same resolution added to take up the space.

This is not nit-picking. It is misleading to express the new screen size as a change in resolution. No amount of descriptive linguistics changes that.

Wasted energy
I.M. Anonymous @ 9/27/2001 5:15:11 PM #
How does anyone know if the screen has a higher or lower resolution? The physical size of the display area is not listed. So how can you calculate the pixels-per-inch? For all we know the original posters were right when they said "higher resolution". Did they mean it? Who knows, but you can’t say they were wrong until you have all the facts and I don’t see them here.

I love these tangent arguments (especially when they spin off into grammar attacks). Awesome stuff.

2c

RE: Good GOD!
I.M. Anonymous @ 9/27/2001 6:54:03 PM #
It's possible that Palm Os 5.xx will support several screen resolutions: 160x160, 160x240, 320x320 and 320x480 (Cliè with soft graffiti). But, in this case, could be a problem for the intermidiate Handera's resolution (240x320).

RE: Good GOD!
I.M. Anonymous @ 9/27/2001 7:08:17 PM #
It would take a real idiot to interpret the original poster's point to be that since the physical screen has changed, so has the resolution. Talk about tangential arguments.

RE: Good GOD!
I.M. Anonymous @ 9/27/2001 9:12:49 PM #
The screen is physically smaller than a Palm V's, yet has the same number of horizontal pixels. This translates to a slightly higher dpi. I've read that it will be similar to the dpi of the low end consumer Palm.

RE: Good GOD!
I.M. Anonymous @ 9/27/2001 9:27:14 PM #
That's inconsequential and not what we're talking about.

Writing police say:
I.M. Anonymous @ 9/27/2001 9:30:30 PM #
"But do grammer discussion REALLY belong in this type of forum? I don't think so --- if poster tooks some care in their posting, and the readers were focused on content rather than nitpicking the grammatical errors, these forums (fora??) would have a better signalto noise ratio. (sorry for the extra noise).


GRAMMAR

POSTERS

SIGNAL TO NOISE

Capitalize SORRY

(AND THAT'S ONLY FUR STARTERZ!)


RE: Good GOD!
Token @ 9/27/2001 10:35:54 PM #
Looks like you missed the obvious ones I left in there :
1. But. Never start a sentence with “but”.
2. Do. Should be “does”.
3. Grammar. Spelling error. Picked up by many, and a word I commonly mispell.
4. REALLY. Capitalisation used for emphasis. Common technique utilised in electronic forms of communication. Other old school techniques include _underscores_ and *asterisks*. These predate the web and were common on teletype displays.
5. ---. Incorrect punctuation, but again while not correct for formal/business communications, along with the ellipse (…) it is accepted in electronic communications as a pause.
6. poster tooks. Poor typing and edit checking.
7. Forums. Technically, this should be fora, as the plural of forums, but equally acceptable.
8. signalto. Missing space.
9. sorry. Sorry should be capitalized.
10. (). The sentence should not have been enclosed in parentheses anyway.

And what does this have to do with the PalmOS platform? Absolutely nothing. Get over it. Talk about the devices, not the editting of the posts.

Oh, and register before commenting - "I.M. Anonymous" is proving to be a complete PITA.

RE: Good GOD!
I.M. Anonymous @ 9/27/2001 11:42:20 PM #
"Ellipsis" is the singular. Ellipses is plural.

RE: Good GOD!
I.M. Anonymous @ 9/28/2001 12:47:52 AM #
Yous kin all licka me wares da sun ain't shining.

RE: Good GOD! More Grammar!
He||Raiser @ 9/28/2001 1:18:59 AM #
LOL, I'm going to run with the joke. Token, you can start a sentence with "but". One can use "but" as the beginning of a subjunctive clause as long as that subjunctive clause is attached to an independent clause. That subjunctive clause can be ahead of the independent clause, therefore making "but" the beginning word of the sentence. You were only told that you couldn't use "but" at the beginning of a sentence by your elementary school teachers because you were too young to understand the relationship between a subjunctive and an independent clause. If you weren't told to not start a sentence with "but” you would have ended up writing subjunctive clauses, which on their own are incomplete sentences, for your entire life.

I hope by giving that lecture that you all will hate your English teachers whenever you see them or look back. Don't shoot me; I'm just the messenger! =)

RE: Good GOD!
I.M. Anonymous @ 9/28/2001 4:59:30 AM #
Given all these grammatical anylyses, spelling rules, and other rules, someone please explain to me how it's supposed to be EASIER to program in languages closer to English.

RE: Good GOD!
I.M. Anonymous @ 9/28/2001 10:41:23 AM #
Token, point six reads:

"Incorrect punctuation, but again while not correct for formal/business communications, along with the ellipse (…) it is accepted in electronic communications as a pause."

I would suggest adding a comma (",") after the right parenthesis (")"), as you have apparently written a transient phrase.

I would further advise you to add quotation marks for your reference to ellipse, or "ellipsis" if accuracy were to be a priority. You could use an inverted comma for single-character references (e.g., ')') as long as you are a C/C++/Java programmer.

I must say I am enjoying this illuminating discussion on the pocket-pc whatsit with the funky thingamajig.


RE: Good GOD!
Altema @ 9/28/2001 9:59:43 PM #
Do anyone know where i can get a chell-specker?

RE: Good GOD!
I.M. Anonymous @ 9/29/2001 2:45:56 AM #
have you seen. my base-ball! it's lost

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