Search Results for: samsung

The Samsung Galaxy S III for Verizon Wireless comes with a locked bootloader, which is a no-go for installing custom ROMs. To aid modders the South Korean smartphone manufacturer released the Galaxy S III Developer Edition, which is still locked on the same United States carrier but has an unlocked bootloader.

The Galaxy S III Developer Edition for Verizon Wireless is available directly from Samsung for $599.99 or $649.99 in 16GB or 32GB capacities, respectively, in Pebble Blue; both sell for $400 more than the models Verizon currently lists and have 30-day parts & labor warranty. The only problem is that the bootloader of the Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III can already be unlocked without purchasing a new smartphone at a premium, that is still locked on Verizon Wireless.

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Sprint has (once again) announced the elusive Android 4.1 Jelly Bean is coming to its Samsung Galaxy Nexus variant. But when will you get it is the question. According to a Sprint employee, the update will slowly be rolled-out to the Samsung Galaxy Nexus S as well and it should take "little over a week" for all Nexus S owners to receive Jelly Bean.

Sprint surpassed Verizon in the "race" to deliver Android 4.1 that was nowhere to be seen on the LTE models at least until Sprint announced it. Sprint is rolling out Android 4.1.1 Jelly Bean JRO03R, with a newer build number than the factory images posted by Google on its Developers page.

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Confession is good for the soul, if nothing more than peace of mind. What better place than before the entire Internet? So we invite you to make your Galaxy S III confession. Yeah, your friends have iPhones and perhaps you feel sheepish about being different -- that you won't fit in for wanting something more, or at least something else. There's no longer reason to hide, or to look at your Samsung smartphone and feel guilty. You're not alone. Today the South Korean electronics giant says Galaxy S III sales topped 20 million in the first 100 days.

Sure, 20,000,000 is a heap big many, but not near the number of iPhones sold -- 28.9 million in just the last quarter, according to Gartner. But don't worry. You're in large enough company to stand out, to confess your S3 love. In May, I posted a buying poll, to which 4,959 of you responded; 63 percent say they will buy (or by now have purchased) Galaxy S III.

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Jurisprudence demands that US District Judge Lucy Koh right a terrible miscarriage of justice occurring in her courtroom. The Apple-Samsung patent dispute is nothing but a mock trial. The jury ignored key instructions, failed to complete a crucial checklist, made egregious errors on the final verdict form and reached a verdict after 21 hours of deliberations. The foreman misunderstood one of the concepts fundamental to the case -- prior art -- leading the jury astray. Then there is Judge Koh, who prevented Samsung from presenting key evidence or witnesses that could have made its defense and case against Apple more credible.

Apple claims that Samsung copying iOS device designs and patents causes irreparable harm. But the greater injustice is against the South Korean manufacturer, which is branded a copycat and thief -- all while the victim of terrible misreporting by analysts, bloggers, journalists and other writers. Samsung suffers irreparable harm here, not Apple. Judge Koh let this travesty occur on her watch. She should be ashamed and do what this malfeasance demands: Set aside the verdict. Best scenario: She should deny all claims by both parties, and let them sort it all out on appeal. Acceptable: Order a new trial. She let the case get out of control. Time is long past to reel it in.

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It sounded like quite the road trip. Stuck in Germany, with their host threatening to strand them there unless they engaged in what amounted to slave labor, those poor bloggers from India must have been terrified. What should have been an all expense paid junket to cover the IFA conference turned into a kind of Orwellian nightmare scenario complete with heavy-handed scare tactics, logo'd polo shirts and healthy dose of international intrigue.

Frankly, I'm not at all surprised. As a 25 year veteran of the IT press, I've seen all sides of the vendor/media dichotomy. And one of the earliest lessons I learned was that there is no free lunch. When a vendor splurges on an analyst, reporter or blogger, they are expecting to get something in return. Typically, this means positive coverage. They want you to write a glowing review of their product/event/announcement, and if you don't, you'll quickly end up on their blacklist.

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A soap opera. That's how I would describe this week's revelation that Samsung is cozying up to Microsoft and the forthcoming Windows Phone 8. Still stinging from its recent court loss to Apple, the South Korean juggernaut appears to be hedging its Android bets by embracing one of the two remaining underdogs in the mobile OS race (the other being Research in Motion).

No matter how you slice it, Samsung's executives are running scared. And who can blame them? Apple will do whatever it takes to crush the little green man from Mountain View (it's a Jobsian legacy thing). And the fact that its chief hardware rival is getting squeezed in the process is simply gravy.

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Well, I must agree with the jury in the Apple-Samsung patent trial, after seeing the shocking look-a-likes the South Korean electronics giant announced yesterday during IFA Berlin. Have you seen these Apple rip-offs? Samsung simply is shameless in its copying.

For example, there's a new phone with large screen and stylus, as well as another with big zoom lens. The audacity of Samsung to take features from iPhone or iPad and offer them on its devices. The company just thumbs its nose -- or whatever gesture they use on the Asian peninsula -- at the American jury and US District Judge Lucy Koh.

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At IFA in Berlin, Germany yesterday, Samsung officially took the wraps off of its new Windows-powered slate PCs, the Series 5 and Series 7, which, like Samsung's Android tablets, incorporate a lot of modifications directly from the South Korean consumer electronics leader.

The Samsung Series 7 Slate is configured with an Intel Core i5 processor and 4 GB of RAM, with a 128GB SSD and has a suggested retail price of $1,199.

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Samsung made a string of new product announcements at IFA in Berlin, including of course the much anticipated Galaxy Note II. But just when we thought we knew everything the South Korean company had in store for us, it surprised the gathered watchers by unveiling the ATIV S, the first handset to run Microsoft’s new mobile operating system.

The ATIV (VITA - "Life" in Latin - backwards) is the first in a whole range of Samsung products based on Microsoft’s software, and boasts a 1.5 GHz dual-core processor and 4.8in (121.9mm) HD Super AMOLED display. It also has an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera and 1.9MP-megapixel front-facing camera, making it competitive, but not ground-breaking. The smartphone will be for sale at some point between October and November, in time for Christmas.

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If you loved the original Galaxy Note, you're going to love this even more -- Samsung's new Galaxy Note II, which was announced at IFA in Germany today. It is packing even more processing power than the mighty Samsung Galaxy S III and it brings some beans along with it...

The Samsung Galaxy Note II will ship with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and Samsung's TouchWiz UX out of the box. A 5.5-inch 720p Super AMOLED display sporting a 1280x720 resolution dominates the front of the new smartphone. It is packing a 1.6 GHz quad-core processor and 2GB of RAM. It comes with a 1.9 megapixel front-facing camera while on the back there is an 8 megapixel camera with LED flash. Bluetooth 4.0, USB 2.0, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, Wi-Fi Direct, MHL and NFC take care of connectivity with A-GPS and Glonass support added as well. The usual array of sensors including an accelerometer and digital compass are included along with a 3,100mAh battery that powers the device. It comes in 16/32/64GB versions while a microSD card slot will accommodate up to 64GB of additional storage.

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The outcome of the recent Apple vs Samsung trial isn’t particularly surprising -- the American company was always going to benefit from home-court advantage -- but the comprehensiveness of the victory shocked a lot of people, and at a stroke changed the smart devices industry for good. Yes, Samsung will appeal, and might succeed in overturning some of the findings or reduce the amount owed Apple (although, equally, the South Korean company might end up paying even more as the wilfull infringement finding is very damning). But there’s no question the result, as it stands, has repercussions not just for Samsung but for several of Apple’s other rivals.

My colleague Mihaita Bamburic claims that the ruling is bad for everyone, and while his position has merit, I view things differently. I see the result as having a positive impact in the long term, and here’s why.

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Apple v. Samsung is a game of thrones. Their latest episode is far from any quarrels the two have had in the past, which now look like child's play compared to what happened in San Jose, California. If the outcome of the trial is of any indication what we're looking at is a major game changer in the smartphone and tablet industry, and not for the better.

iOS won, and Android lost. That's one simple way to look at it, and that's only the tip of the iceberg. Sadly what we're looking at is a much deeper influence that will be felt in the near future. Here are five reasons why the ruling is BAD for the industry. (Editor: See Wayne Williams' response "5 reasons the Apple-Samsung ruling is GOOD for everyone".)

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Just yesterday I reported that a South Korean court had found Apple and Samsung both guilty of infringing each other’s patents, and claimed that in a good patent war no one wins. Turns out I was wrong. Big time. A few hours after that story posted, news reached us that the jury in the American leg of the global Apple vs. Samsung battle returned a verdict, and a damning one for Samsung.

After taking less than three days to deliberate the case, the jury found that Samsung copied from Apple, rejected all of Samsung’s own counter claims, and awarded the American company $1.05 billion in damages.

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In the 1983 classic movie WarGames, Matthew Broderick hacks into a top secret super-computer and comes close to initiating World War III. The global catastrophe is only avoided when the computer, "Joshua", starts playing Tic Tac Toe against itself and discovers it can’t win, coming to the inevitable conclusion that "the only winning move is not to play."

It’s a film that maybe Apple and Samsung should sit down and watch together. While the jury is still out in their current big Californian patent case, in South Korea, Samsung’s home and just one of several countries where the global lawsuit is being fought, the court has just ruled simultaneously that both firms infringed each other’s patents. And, as a result, ordered them to both pay damages, and imposed sales bans on all related products (none of which are the latest models).

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For Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III users feeling locked in, there's freedom ahead. Thanks to the effort of an "African-Canadian Sock Monkey" bootloader, the S3 can now be unlocked. Modding fans get a green light to… mod.

Stock ROMs can be replaced with modded Android versions, making custom Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and Android 4.1 Jelly Bean ROMs a possibility on the Galaxy S III. Samsung has yet to release an upgrade to Jelly Bean from the stock version installed, Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich, but it's likely that the upgrade is in the pipeline by now. If you're not a big fan of waiting for official upgrades, the modding community already has a solution for the International Samsung Galaxy S III, through a CyanogenMod 10 custom ROM.

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