Search Results for: samsung

Samsung's Galaxy Note 3 was the tech star of this year's Academy Awards, as the phablet was used by both Bradley Cooper and Ellen DeGeneres to snap two of the most popular pics at the event. Ironically, both photos are blurry (and, might I add, appear to be part of heavily staged acts).

Quick to take advantage of the free publicity, arch rival Nokia has subtly taken a stab at Samsung for the terrible quality of one of the photos, namely DeGeneres' selfie on the stage.

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The Galaxy S5 is Samsung's latest Android flagship, launching in April in 150 countries across the globe. Even though we are more than a month away from the official release, some mobile operators are already giving prospective buyers the option to register their interest in the new smartphone.

US mobile operator T-Mobile is among them. Its landing page for the Galaxy S5 gives folks the possibility to be among the first to find out "all the amazing details" on Samsung's new device, and, each day, the chance to win a Galaxy S5 with the S-View Flip Cover. The prize definitely adds to the appeal of filling those boxes, with T-Mobile announcing record pre-registrations.

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The amount of storage that is advertised in a product's specifications sheet never matches the user-available capacity when software is preinstalled on the device. That is to be expected, but there comes a point when customers may be getting too little space to store some content and install a few apps. With just a couple of games, that are growing in size nowadays, there might be nothing left available.

That is what upcoming Galaxy S5 buyers will have to deal with, as the preinstalled software on Samsung's new flagship takes up more than half of the advertised storage on the 16 GB model. Yes, that is roughly 8 GB occupied out-of-the-box.

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In keeping up with tradition, there will be two processors available in the Samsung Galaxy S5. The international version gets Qualcomm's quad-core Snapdragon 801, while another model -- that will most likely be available in non-LTE markets -- ships with the company's own octa-core Exynos chip, that Samsung just unveiled at MWC 2014.

Samsung is increasingly reliant on Qualcomm processors for its flagship Android devices, like the Galaxy S4, Galaxy Note 3 and, most recently, Galaxy S5, as the Exynos chips that arrived in 2013 have failed to live up to expectations. Even though those were octa-core designs, the Qualcomm-made, quad-core, solutions performed similarly and came with a very competent LTE modem as well. Samsung is not giving up (yet), as the new Exynos 5422 still aims to turn the tables in the company's favor.

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BYOD is in full swing, but most businesses are not prepared for it. In order to maintain a high level of security, companies that embrace the movement, or want to, have to change, or adapt, their existing policies to accommodate the wave of devices their employees are bringing in, which is not what 55 percent of them are doing, according to a study issued last week.

Samsung is among the few mobile devices manufacturers to take an active role in ensuring its products are BYOD-ready and enabled straight off the bat. Its response to the movement is Knox, a solution the company released one year ago, to augment the Samsung for Enterprise program. And, now, the successor arrives to beef up Knox even further.

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So Samsung has taken the wraps off its new flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S5. It's a good looking device, that refines and improves on last year's model and borrows elements from Apple's similarly named device, most notably the fingerprint scanner used to unlock the phone and make mobile purchases. Even the choice of colors on offer is similar -- there's black, white and gold available, although Samsung includes a smart "electric" blue shade too.

It doesn't just copy from Apple though, it has some welcome additions of its own. Highlights include dust and water resistance, a Download Booster, which speeds up downloads by bonding Wi-Fi and LTE simultaneously, a built-in heart rate monitor, an improved 16 megapixel camera, and an Ultra Power Saving Mode that shuts down all non-essential features to allow you to eke out the last remaining drops of battery life.

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Today at the Unpacked 2014 event at Mobile World Congress, Barcelona, Samsung introduces the latest iteration of its flagship smartphone. The Galaxy S5 is, as you’d probably expect, evolution not revolution. The smartphone looks like a more polished update of last year’s S4 and comes with Android 4.4.2 KitKat and Samsung’s user interface and S-branded apps.

The device is slightly larger than the S4, at 5.1 inches, with a 1080p Super AMOLED panel. It sports the same plastic surround, but with a new perforated look, and is IP67-rated for water and dust resistance, and so can survive being submerged in 3 feet of water for up to 30 minutes. There's a new home key below the screen with an integrated fingerprint scanner that can be used to unlock the phone and authenticate mobile payment purchases online.

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There’s already been a lot of big announcements pouring out of the Mobile World Congress, Barcelona, but the really big one is still to come. Samsung is set to introduce its Galaxy S5 smartphone today, and thanks to the usual round of photo leaks we already have a good idea of what to expect.

According to images which found their way on to the web earlier today, the device will have a larger 5 inch diagonal display, dimpled plastic back, and include a 16 megapixel camera on the rear, fingerprint scanning app, and a download booster that will make use of both LTE and Wi-Fi to speed up larger downloads.

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For years, many consumers have wanted a futuristic watch like Dick Tracy -- a computer on their wrist. Sadly, the watch we all desire has yet to come to fruition. Sure, the Pebble series are cool and affordable, but arguably, very basic too. Last year, Samsung released the Android-based Galaxy Gear, which on paper looked great, but failed to light the world on fire.

Even though Samsung's first stab at a smartwatch was lackluster, it was assumed by many that a sequel would still be delivered. Today, Samsung announces that sequel, named the Gear 2, which has shocked the technology world. You see, the manufacturer has ditched both Android and the Galaxy moniker, its bread and butter, for this device. Instead, Samsung has opted for the newer and less-known, Linux-based, Tizen operating system. Will this finally be the smartwatch of which consumers have dreamed?

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Smartphones without LTE cellular connectivity are becoming increasingly rare nowadays in 4G-enabled markets, as consumers are looking towards faster data speeds to get more out of their handsets. It is no surprise then that research firm Strategy Analytics predicts that sales of LTE smartphones will grow by a whopping 547 percent year-over-year in China, the largest market worldwide.

Samsung is no stranger to 4G LTE, as many of its smartphones offer this cellular capability. To tap further into the growing entry-level market, the South Korean company has announced the Galaxy Core LTE, which touts a premium look coupled with decent specs and fast connectivity speeds on mobile networks.

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It is no secret that Samsung will unveil "The Next Big Thing" at its first Unpacked event of the year (odds are it will be the successor of the popular Galaxy S4). The company has told us so. But what we do not know is the direction that the South Korean maker wants to take with its upcoming flagship. Will there be something new or will it stick to the previous theme?

A new image released for Unpacked Episode 1 (where almost everything is at the power of five -- which gives Galaxy S5 rumors credence) shows nine key areas of focus for The Next Big Thing, some of which we have seen the company focusing on starting with the Galaxy S4 release almost a year ago. There are, however, clear signs that Samsung is looking to shake things up a bit as well.

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The Galaxy S4 is approaching its one-year anniversary and, to keep things interesting before its successor arrives to take the helm, Samsung has announced a new Black Edition version of the popular Android smartphone. Not to leave the smaller mini out of the equation, the South Korean maker is also giving it the same makeover.

Black Edition makes me think of hardcore variants of Mercedes AMG cars, which usually offer more power on tap than the base models. However, this is not the case when it comes to the two new Galaxy S4 and Galaxy S4 mini trims that come without beefed up internals. Basically, what we are looking at here folks is smartphone plastic surgery.

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Samsung has announced that its first Unpacked event of the year will be held on February 24, in Barcelona, which coincides with the MWC 2014 opening day. The South Korean maker has also hinted at a possible unveiling of "The Next Big Thing". You did not see this one coming, did you?

Samsung has previously used the term The Next Big Thing prior to taking the wraps off new versions of its popular high-end smartphones, like the Galaxy S4 and Galaxy Note 3, and the Galaxy Gear smartwatch, all of which were also announced at the Unpacked events it held last year.

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Like lots of other people, overnight I pondered Google's surprise sale of Motorola to Lenovo. The timing sure seems odd. Conspiracy theories abound. Among tech bloggers, Samsung ranks as top reason, given the timing, just days after the American and South Korean companies cut a lofty cross-patent deal that also turns way down the extent of Android customization. Certainly the latter agreement is important to Google, for reasons I laid out two years ago in post "Google has lost control of Android".

Some conspiracy theorists contend that Google always planned to sell Motorola and rebuilt the brand only to gain leverage against Samsung, which arguably exercises more direct influence over Android than does Google -- at least from a user experience perspective. But I disagree. The Motorola unloading is a lot more about the search and information giant's acquisition of Nest than anything Samsung does. My reasoning follows.

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In 2013, for the first time, yearly smartphone shipments topped one billion units, according to IDC. Rival firm Strategy Analytics, though, begs to differ and says the milestone has yet to be reached in the past year, with only 990 million units being shipped. Regardless of the number, this market continues to show strong gains year-over-year, as shipments increased by over 34 percent (according to SA; IDC says 38.4 percent) compared to the previous year (for 2012, IDC says 725.3 million units, while SA estimates 700.1 million units).

Apple and Samsung remain the market leaders, according to both firms. The South Korean maker continues to be the largest smartphone vendor, shipping in excess of 310 million units in 2013 (IDC -- 313.9 million units, SA -- 319.8 million units), which represents a healthy increase over the 2012 results (IDC -- 219.7 million units, SA -- 213 million units). Its share of the market also increased, slightly, to 31.3 percent from 30.3 percent, according to IDC, or to 32.3 percent from 30.4 percent, according to SA.

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