Samsung unveils new Galaxy S4 smartphone: Guardian live blog

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2013/mar/14/samsung-galaxy-s4-launch-live

Some specs (from Guardian) :

• It's a 4G LTE device : It'll download at 100mps and upload at 50 megabits/sec. (alas not with my chip :-( )
• Smart Pause will automatically pause any video when you look away from the Galaxy S4 display, while the Smart Scroll feature will be able to automatically adjust scrolling by simply tracking the area that you?re looking at. You will be impressed only after getting your hands on the device as these features cannot simply be explained that well until you personally experience them
• The Air Gesture and Air View features will allow uses to simply hover their finger to pop up previews and move through screens easier than ever. You can simply wave over the display and you will answer a phone call. These features will be great for those who aren?t fans of physically interacting with their phone?s display that much
• It has an infrared LED, which can function as a TV remote.
• 13 megapixel camera on front, 2 megapix camera on back.
• Equipped with standard memory options and room for an SD card.
• The camera has a feature whereby, if something unexpected happens in a shot, you can rapid-fire a ton of photos, and then as long as the obstruction at some point moves out of the frame, the phone edits together the best shot, omitting the unwanted party. There's a dual camera that allows the shooter to appear in a small window in the video he/she is shooting. The phone tracks your eye movements for pausing films you stop watching midway. It scrolls by tilting. The phone reads texts to you.
• The Galaxy S4 has a translation feature. You can type a question in English, for example, and the phone can speak it in Chinese. Or the phone can listen to Chinese and then type it out in English.The phone understands 9 languages.
• Group Play: It can turn any group of S4 phones into a group sound system.
  Each phone acts as a speaker. You touch the phones to each other and the sound spreads out. A big group of them creates surround sound.
• The phone can tell you how many calories you've burned by walking throughout the day.

All of these are nice,  but some do show true progression in what a phone can do, not just making faster, smaller (or bigger). Eye control and touch control mark a new way of interacting with the device, which is perhaps the most significant (after all, think what changes touchscreens and accelerometers ushered in to the world of smartphones). One area that it sounds particularly useful for is cooking from a menu on the phone - no more gingerly touching phone with food caked fingers, just scroll with the eye or wave to the next page. I am a sceptical about voice control and translator software until have tried, but if it works, as is indicated, then would be incredibly useful. Finally i like the infra red LED which can interface with a TV - one less device!