AT&T has announced that it will be the first US wireless carrier to offer the Samsung Galaxy Camera. That’s Samsung’s new 16 megapixel point-and-shoot camera that runs Google Android 4.1 software.
You won’t be able to make phone calls from the camera, but you can use 4G to share photos instantly to Facebook, Twitter, or other services. You should also be able to surf the web and run other apps, since the Galaxy Camera runs Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and comes with the Google Play Store for third party apps.
Unfortunately AT&T’s press release is a bit light on details. We still don’t know how much the camera will cost or when it will go on sale in the US.
The camera has a 21x optical zoom lens, a 4.8 inch Super LCD display, and a quad-core processor. It features 8GB of built-in storage and a microSD card slot or removeable storage. The device has a 1650mAh rechargeable battery.
via Gizmodo
Carrier exclusive CAMERA? This is fucking stupid.
I’m sure there will be an unlocked version too eventually. This is just an announcement for one carrier. In any case watch your language- it isn’t necessary.
I don’t think this is necessarily an exclusive deal. AT&T is just announcing that they’ll carry the camera and offer 4G plans for it. That doesn’t mean you won’t be able to buy one and use it over WiFi without a monthly plan… and it doesn’t mean there won’t be versions for use on other carriers’ networks.
I’m with you. But even if it’s not carrier exclusive, it’s still pretty stupid.
It seems like the carriers really WANT to go to a model where consumers would have a handful of different 4G devices (tablet, phone, camera) that would leverage their networks.
But then they make it INSANELY cost prohibitive (and I’m looking squarely at YOU AT&T) to add the extra data plans you’d need. An AT&T 4GB “Shared Data” plan with two cellphones on it costs $150, and that DOESN’T include the phone service. Tack on a tablet and a camera, and you’re looking at another $20.
All told, you can figure on around $250, for a measly 4GB of data per month, shared between 4 devices.