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Being the official handset of the Olympics, you’d have expected to see the Samsung Galaxy S3 at last night’s opening ceremony. There’s even an Olympics-themed version, for crying out loud. But what Samsung didn’t bank on was almost every athlete walking into the stadium recording everything on their own phone, be it a Samsung, iPhone, Sony Xperia, HTC…
What was that rule about barring rivals to official sponsors?
Samsung did get its money’s worth in the opening ceremony though. During the stint about social media (which culminated in the inventor of the World Wide Web, Tim Berners-Lee, tweeting live from the stage, the hero), a love story played out about a girl who’d lost her phone. No surprises for guessing which mobile it was. A young man found it, returned it, and they kissed. Altogether now: ahh.
Apparently the Galaxy Note put in an appearance as well, though I must’ve nipped out for a wee at that point.
But then as soon as the athletes started coming into the stadium, country by country, they were recording every second of it on all manner of gadgets, including compact cameras, iPhones, camcorders, and SLRs. Which was surprising, considering all the hoo-ha about not even being allowed to mention the names of rivals to the main sponsors within five miles of the Olympic Village.
Then again, I suppose you can’t stop the athletes from using their phones. It was strange to see so many of them experiencing their moment of glory through an LCD rather than lapping up the occasion, but then I guess they wanted it for posterity.
Other highlights include James Bond and the Queen parachuting out of a helicopter — for which Danny Boyle deserves a knighthood, in my opinion — and Paul McCartney closing things with a rendition of Hey Jude. Which hopefully cheered up any Samsung bods upset by all the other gadgets on show.
What did you make of the ceremony? Let me know in the comments, or on our Facebook page.
