Samsung to reportedly debut S Orb panorama software with Galaxy Note 3

The biggest subject of rumours these days is Samsung's next-gen phablet. Dubbed the Note 3, it has been the subject of many speculations, and the latest one is that it will have new software for a complete 360 degree-panorama photo. According to AndroidGeeks, reports state that the phone will have the S Orb software pre-installed on it. Much like Android's default Photo Sphere, the S Orb will let users take pictures of everything around them and stitch them up into one big spherical panorama.

Once it makes its debut on the Note 3, it is also rumoured that Samsung will bring S Orb to its other devices, especially the S4. It might even make its way to older devices from 2012 like the Note II or the S3.

S Orb was originally speculated to make its debut alongside the S4 announcement, but Samsung made no mention of it. It is likely that the feature is still under development and the company hasn't managed to fix all of its bugs yet. As with all rumours, it is also likely that none of this may actually be true.

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A glass-backed concept of the Galaxy Note 3 (Image credit: Twrix)

Many rumours have so far suggested that Samsung will go with a 5.9-inch OLED display with a full HD resolution. The company was in the process of mass producing 5-inch OLED displays for the Galaxy S4 as well, but faced some difficulties with that particular panel. However, by the time the Galaxy Note 3 is ready to be announced, the issues are expected to be smoothed over. Speculation is that the Galaxy Note 3 will make an entry by late 2013, in time for the IFA show in Berlin.

As far as other hardware is concerned, Samsung will likely bring an improved S-Pen stylus with the Note 3. The Galaxy Note 8.0, which was announced at February’s MWC, has a pen that can also operate the capacitive buttons on the tablet. This will most likely be carried over for the next Note smartphone as well.

Just like the Galaxy S4, we expect the Note 3 to have a Exynos 5 Octa SoC. This particular CPU is based on the big.LITTLE architecture, developed by British chipset designer ARM. It features four ARM Cortex-A7 cores and four Cortex-A15 cores, which alternate processing duties depending on the task at hand. This arrangement is said to provide high performance without adversely affecting battery life. Besides this, the Note 3 could also have Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 600 or 800 CPUs, which have integrated LTE support.

The Note series can be largely credited for making phablets a feasible proposition. The first Note was an unusually big handset for its time, but now phones with displays measuring 5 inches and even larger ones have become ubiquitous. The Note 2 perfected some of the tricks that the Note could perform and the S-Pen became an even more powerful navigational tool. The company also expanded the Note portfolio by launching two tablets, the Galaxy Note 10.1 (Note 810 in India) and the Note 8.0 (Note 510 in India).