Samsung is rapidly becoming its own lifestyle brand, with households owning two, three or even more devices made by the Korean giant — from smartphones to cameras to TVs. The company aims to serve those customers with a new product called HomeSync, which enables easy sharing of media between multiple Samsung device users as well as providing a bridge to your TV.
HomeSync is a small box that connects to your TV via HDMI. Powered by a "powerful" processor, the device can sync photos, music and videos from up to eight Samsung accounts thanks to a 1TB hard disk. That means anything you capture or store on a Samsung phone or tablet becomes instantly shareable with other accounts syncing with the HomeSync. And yes, you can pick which media to keep private.
See also: 18 Best Free Apps for the Samsung Galaxy S3
The box also makes your TV "smart" by bringing an Android Media Center to the set. In addition to running Android apps (especially games), it can function as a media streamer: Google Play and YouTube are on board as well as Samsung's media hubs. Users control HomeSync via an app available for smartphones and tablets, but the box also supports wired or wireless mice and keyboards, similar to Google TV devices.
It appears Samsung wants HomeSync to act as an "everything" device for Galaxy phone users , letting them back up content and share it with family members while bringing that content (and apps) to the TV. Samsung is also opening the product to developers who want to make their Android apps HomeSync-ready.
The device is powered by Android 4.2 "Jelly Bean" running on a 1.7GHz processor (ARM Cortex-15) with 2GB of RAM. It supports dual-band Wi-Fi (802.11n) and there's a USB 3.0 connector for attaching additional storage.
For syncing, it supports several Samsung devices, including the Galaxy S4, Galaxy Note 3, Galaxy S III, Galaxy Note II, Galaxy Note 8.0, Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 Edition, Galaxy Camera and other devices that support Samsung Link.
HomeSync costs $299, though Samsung offers a $50 voucher for buying various media from the company's hubs.
The Samsung Galaxy Note 3 takes the Note line to full HD with a 1,920 x 1,080 Super AMOLED display. Its best feature, however, is the stylus, which is enhanced by a new menu system called Air Command.
The full HD screen looks beautiful, although the 5.7-inch size isn't for everyone.
The Note line's trademark stylus, the S Pen, slips out of a slot on the right.
Clicking the stylus button while hovering over the screen causes Air Command to appear -- a circular menu the serves as a reminder of what you can do with the S Pen.
Action memos let you turn handwriting into actionable commands.
S Note gets an upgrade in the Note 3 with a redesign and Evernote integration.
The S Pen is improved from previous generations: It's reversible, and it has grooves that improve the grip slightly.
The Galaxy Note 3 is the first mainstream phone to have a USB 3.0 port, which is larger than the standard microUSB connector. However, the new jack is capable of faster transfers and charging.
The phone's speaker and a microphone port are on the bottom as well.
The only thing on the right side is the power button.
Like previous Samsung phones, volume controls are on the left.
The back of the phone is still plastic, but a faux-leather design and soft-touch texture gives it a more chic feel.
The Galaxy Note 3 is the first phone to work with the Galaxy Gear smartwatch.
Samsung's text recognition is much improved, translating these notes on the Galaxy Note 3 almost flawlessly.
Pen Window calls up a small window where you can put some specific apps, and it even works in multi-window mode. Here there are two YouTube windows running, each with videos playing in smaller windows in the bottom right. Pen Window has called up Google Hangouts.
Here, an action memo is translated into an email address.
With the stylus, you can clip websites, photos -- pretty much anything that's onscreen.
Magazine mode, designed by Flipboard, aggregates content from various sources depending on what page you're on.
Similar to other Samsung devices, the Note 3 lets you run two apps on the screen at the same time.
Samsung consolidates its pre-installed apps into a folder, and there are a lot. Few are of any real use.
If you have a Samsung Galaxy Gear, you can manage it from your Note 3.
Image: Samsung