Search Results for: samsung

Two days ago IDC released its latest Worldwide Mobile Phone Tracker report, showing growth for both Android and Windows Phone and drops for iOS and BlackBerry.

Today Gartner provides details on worldwide mobile phone sales to end users, with the big news being that smartphones accounted for 55 percent of all mobile phone sales in the third quarter of 2013.

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Launched earlier this year in Barcelona, KNOX, as we reported at the time, is a secure Android platform powering Samsung Galaxy devices. It's designed to strengthen Android by using hardware features to provide the highest level of protection. KNOX is aimed at offering security whilst remaining manageable and addresses the need to separate work and play on the same device.

With the launch of a partner program, Samsung is helping resellers and independent software vendors to provide extra value for their customers and extend the benefits of KNOX to the enterprise market. It provides partners with assets, resources and training to help them provide support for Samsung devices. Compatibility is included for existing master data management (MDM) solutions to allow resellers to offer a complete solution or work with existing installations.

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According to new quarterly reports from IDC and Strategy Analytics, Samsung has increased its lead on the smartphone market in Q3 2013. The South Korean maker's shipments were higher than those of the next four-largest vendors, combined, according to the IDC data.

Samsung's smartphone shipments surpassed 80 million units (IDC -- 81.2 million; SA --88.4 million), leading to a market share above 30 percent (IDC -- 31.4 percent; SA -- 35.2 percent). Once again, the two research firms, both of which count shipments, provide different data sets for both shipments and market share. However, both reports say that in Q3 2013 smartphone shipments reached record levels (IDC -- 258.4 million; SA -- 251.4 million).

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Flat screens are so yesterday; curves are where it is at these days. Not content with constantly increasing the size of phone displays, handset manufacturers are now looking for a new twist. Both LG and Samsung have decided that curves are the way ahead. LG has officially announced the G Flex following on from the Galaxy Round that was revealed by Samsung just a few weeks ago, but it is the Samsung handset that is highlighted in a new ad.

As the Galaxy Round is destined for the Korean market, it should come as no surprise that the commercial is in Korean. This matters little as the looks of the phone speak for themselves. The advertisement demonstrates various curved objects that sit neatly in the hand to highlight that a great design decision has been made. Oddly, most of the objects shown -- an egg, a hand, a lemon, a glass -- are convex in curvature, so it's not really a direct comparison with how the handset will sit in the palm.

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When Samsung announced the Galaxy Round, the company's first smartphone with a curved display, many folks (myself included) struggled to see the real-life benefit that such a form factor would allegedly bring. The natural direction for the curve is considered to be on the long side, and not on the short one as the Galaxy Round has it. The rather gimmicky Roll Effect feature, that shows users some information when tilting the device, did not add more credibility to the touted benefits of the Galaxy Round either.

Rival Android maker LG has also announced its first smartphone with a curved display, that is called G Flex. The company markets it as the "world's first 'real' curved smartphone", in a (clever) attempt to take advantage of the negative feedback that the Galaxy Round has received so far.

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According to a new survey conducted by J.D. Power among US mobile operator subscribers, Apple and Samsung lead the pack on "overall satisfaction performance". The iPhone maker ranks first for AT&T and Verizon customers while Samsung takes the top spot for Sprint and T-Mobile subscribers.

The J.D. Power survey identifies Apple and Samsung as the sole smartphone vendors to rank above the average value on all four counts -- performance, exterior design, features and ease of use. The findings of the survey are based, according to J.D. Power, on the experiences of 16,421 users who are customers of the aforementioned four-largest local mobile operators and have had their current smartphone for less than a year.

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While Google+ is my social network of choice, Twitter is a close second. My favorite thing about the blue-bird-logo social network is that it is platform agnostic. You see, a great experience can be had whether you are on Windows Phone, Android, Windows 8 (including RT), OS X or iOS. Heck, it can even be used on a dumbphone with SMS. However, the Android app, while functional, was never optimized for a tablet experiene.

Today, the company releases a tablet version but it is only available for Samsung variants -- starting with the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 edition. In other words, Twitter has managed to alienate the majority of Android tablet owners.

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After what was possibly the shortest-lived leak in history, Samsung announces the Galaxy Round, a smartphone with a curved screen. Just days after LG announced mass production of the first flexible display, images started to leak online that depicted a curved Samsung device.

This was followed almost immediately by a Samsung announcement, complete with the news that the phone will be available in Korea from 10 October.

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Benchmarks are important. The quoted figures for any piece of hardware are all well and good, but potential buyers need to know how a hard drive, processors, computer, tablet or smartphone really performs. After all, two processors with a clock speed of 3GHz do not necessarily perform equally well, and it is only through testing that it is possible to determine which one comes out on top. Few people have the means to go out and compare two similar pieces of hardware, so this is where benchmarks prove useful.

People use smartphones and tablets for different things. One person might be happy being able to take notes and make phone calls, while someone else might be looking for a 60fps hi-def gaming experience. Here benchmarks matter. It is important to be able to accurately compare devices using reliable figures. If you want to know how quickly phone A shifts pixels around the screen compared to phone B, it is important that the tests are performed in the same way, and are carried out fairly.

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We are now just days away from the launch of the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 and Galaxy Gear. If you're yet to be caught up in the hype and excitement, Samsung's first commercial for the two devices could help to whip you into a frenzy. There's a slight cinematic quality to the ad which is… well… take a look for yourself. "Different" is perhaps the word.

The advertisement finds us following an artist as she uses the two devices to help her prepare for a dance performance in the evening. We see the star of the ad flick through My Magazine whilst getting ready to leave the house before showing off the Air Command and Action Memo feature when making a note of an interesting event advertised on a poster in town.

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Half of all tablet device screen time is spent on entertainment activities, such as playing games, reading books, watching live TV or listening to music and radio, according to a recent end-user survey by research group Gartner.

The other half is divided between communication (26 percent), such as sending emails and visiting social media sites; production activities (15 percent), such as editing videos and writing blogs; and finding information (9 percent), including checking the news and weather and researching products and services.

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Shortly after South Korean maker Samsung revealed the Galaxy Note 3, US mobile operators AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon have announced important details related to the availability of the new smartphone in their respective portfolios.

The Galaxy Note 3 will first reach AT&T, where the smartphone is now available to pre-order, in Classic White and Jet Black color trims, for $299.99, alongside a two-year contract. The orders are expected to ship starting October 1. Alternatively, subscribers can also get the handset for $35 per month, through the AT&T Next program (it allows folks to switch to a new smartphone every year, instead of waiting the usual 24 months, by trading in the old one).

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When I was in elementary school, I thought I was pretty cool. You see, I wore the Nintendo Tetris watch. Sadly, I have not been cool since. I have patiently waited over 20 years for a watch to match the epic-awesomeness of that game watch. The rumor-mill has been churning out a lot of smart-watch news this year, pointing to Apple and Google.

Today, Samsung beats both of those companies to market and announces the Galaxy Gear smart-watch. The company describes this new watch as "a perfect companion device that further integrates the Samsung Galaxy experience into everyday life. Samsung Galaxy Gear combines smart device connectivity, tailored technological features, and stylish design as a single premium accessory".

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At IFA in Berlin, Samsung takes the lid off its giant screened smartphone -- the Galaxy Note 3. It use to be the case that as technology developed, devices became smaller -- colossal Walkmans were replaced by more svelte models, chunky Discmans by portable players barely bigger than the disc they were playing. There was a time when the fashion for cell phones took a similar route, but the current propensity for larger screens shows that this no longer rings true.

Samsung's Note range has long taken the idea of a large screened smartphone to the extreme, but the third generation pushes things even further. Equipped with a whopping 5.7 inch screen, the third iteration of the phone is thinner than its predecessor at just 8.3 millimeters, and also lighter at a mere 168g. The Super AMOLED display, boasting a resolution of 1920 x 1080 risks being something of a power sucker, but it's backed up by a 3,200mAh battery.

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The American consumer is very indecisive when it comes to cell phone size. From the iconic "Zack Morris Phone" to Samsung's diminutive "Juke", the trend in size runs the gamut.

This continues with the smartphone craze as two new Android devices are announced for the USA -- the HTC One Mini and the Samsung Galaxy Mega. Both devices aim to fill a need and are defined by their size.

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