Search Results for: samsung

I'm feeling kind of cranky today and having bad flashbacks to the 1990s, when the honking PC bought one day seemed oh-so last year weeks later. On October 2, I bought the Galaxy S II from AT&T. Problem: On November 6, the carrier will launch its first two LTE phones -- and service in four new markets -- the HTC Vivid and Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket. I so want the Skyrocket. It's an investment for the future, because of LTE. But AT&T probably won't let me have it, because the new S2 releases a couple days outside the 30-day return period for the older model. Not hopeful, I will nevertheless try.

What about you? Would you buy either phone, and would the main reason be LTE -- that is, if an AT&T subscriber? Verizon's LTE rollout already is farther along and reaches many more people, and the carrier offers six LTE phones (seven with the forthcoming Droid Razr) and two tablets. Have you bought a Verizon LTE phone, with faster data being a reason? Please answer in comments below.

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After years of promises and demos both from Samsung and a host of other companies, the flexible screen is set to finally become a reality in 2012. Samsung confirmed plans during its quarterly conference call.

"The flexible display, we are looking to introduce sometime in 2012", company spokesperson Robert Yi says. The company aims to introduce the first flexible screen device in the early part of the year. He adds that it would "probably start from the handset side".

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Following a brief leak onto Amazon yesterday, Samsung on Friday officially announced the availability of its second generation 7" Galaxy Tab in the United States, The Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus.

With its 1.2GHz dual core processor, 16GB of built-in storage, Android Honeycomb, a 7" screen and a 9.96mm profile, the Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus offers a considerable jump in power over its predecessor.

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To celebrate the introduction of the newest version of Android, called Ice Cream Sandwich, Google and Samsung introduced the flagship Ice Cream Sandwich phone Tuesday evening, the Galaxy Nexus.

Continuing Google's naming culture where "Nexus" represents the most cutting-edge Android phones, the Galaxy Nexus offers impressive hardware to back up the impressive Android software update.

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Apple offers a pretty good protection plan for iPhone 4S. AppleCare+ adds a second year of standard warranty coverage and phone replacement for $49 -- all for $99 at point of purchase. Do you need it? For that matter, if you like me chose Galaxy S II instead, do you need AT&T's $9.99/month insurance, which offers phone replacement for $125? Or if on another carrier, the insurance they offer? I've wondered. Haven't you?

Warranty/insurance provider SquareTrade offers some real insight in video: "iPhone 4S vs. Samsung Galaxy S II Drop Test". It's amazing how much tension watching someone nonchalantly drop a cell phone creates. Perhaps it's that sickening feeling this could happen to you or the anticipation that your phone will do better than the other.

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It's a rare occurrence these days: neither Apple nor Samsung can claim victory in their ongoing legal battle, as courts in two separate countries pushed back on their efforts to bury each other in injunction hell.

Samsung was denied an injunction against Apple products in the Netherlands, while a court in Australia refused to issue an injunction preventing Samsung from releasing any future tablet devices before the current infringement case goes to court there.

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Samsung can breathe a small sigh of relief. While a US District Judge says that Galaxy Tab 10.1 infringes on patents held by Apple, she refused to award the preliminary injunction the Cupertino, Calif.-based company seeks.

Lawyers for both companies appeared before US District Judge Lucy Koh in a long-anticipated court hearing yesterday. Samsung can continue selling Tab 10.1 as well as the Droid Charge, Galaxy S 4G, and Infuse 4G in the United States. For how much longer, with the holidays fast approaching, is uncertain.

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What do you do if you're Samsung, and want to stick it to one of your biggest rivals in the mobile space during what will be their biggest sales weekend of the year? You set up shop right down the street.

That's exactly what Samsung has done to Apple in downtown Sydney, setting up a pop-up store two doors down from the Cupertino company's sole location in the city. The Samsung shop opened its doors on Monday and will be open through this Sunday, overlapping the launch weekend of the iPhone 4S.

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Yesterday, after having raised anticipation with event invite, video and other teasers, Google and Samsung delayed the presumed launch of Android 4.0 (aka Ice Cream Sandwich) and Nexus Prime (or whatever the smartphone is called). The announcement is hugely important to both companies -- really more than iPhone 4S is to Apple -- because Ice Cream Sandwich closes the fork between Android 2.x for phones and 3.x for tablets. Reason for cancelling the October 11 event: "We believe this is not the right time to announce a new product as the world expresses tribute to Steve Jobs's passing". So what? Google and Samsung show respect for Jobs, but Apple doesn't?

Apple announced iPhone 4S on October 4. A day later, the company revealed that Jobs, Apple's chairman and until late-August its CEO, had died. The world is mourning the loss of one of the rarest of humans -- a true visionary who compelled loyalty among the people closest to him and those who used Apple's products, in part by aspiring for something better. How does Apple remember Jobs? By keeping business as usual.

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Sharpen your conspiracy theories, Batman. Google and Samsung have cancelled the October 11 event that promised something really special and sent many gadget geeks into near convulsive states of anticipation for the Nexus Prime (or whatever it's called) and Ice Cream Sandwich. The question everyone should ask is "Why?"

Samsung has fanned the rumor fires with the original invite and clever video that promised not just a new smartphone but tablet, too. Given that Ice Cream Sandwich brings together Android 2.x for phones and 3.x for tablets, the tease is almost overwhelming. Surely there is mass disappointment -- it's a wicked day to be a gadget geek if iPhone 4S preordering wasn't on plan.

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Samsung is using Apple's release of the iPhone 4S on Tuesday as a way to gain increased leverage in the heated patent battle underway between the two companies. On Wednesday, it filed requests for an injunction banning the sale of the device in both France and Italy.

The choice of these two countries is not by accident: patent laws in both allow for an affected company to request injunctive relief before an infringing product is officially released. That said, it's not unreasonable to believe that Samsung may look for injunctions elsewhere once the iPhone 4S ships.

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I suspected for some time that rumors of iPhone 4S were correct. That meant, based on past Apple release schedules, the new handset would be more evolutionary than revolutionary and likely nothing more than catch-up to newer Android models from HTC and Samsung. So on Sunday, while the InterWeb filled with excitement and speculation about iPhone 5, I trucked over to AT&T and bought Samsung Galaxy S II, which went on sale that day.

Apple announced iPhone 4S yesterday, and I have no regrets choosing the S2. I have absolutely no interest in Apple's new handset and wouldn't if I still owned iPhone 4. For Android users tempted by Apple marketing, don't be. Nexus Prime is coming, and Galaxy S II is here now. It's an exceptional smartphone by most every measure. With iPhone 4S, Apple is the innovation follower, not leader here.

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With Apple's battle against Samsung heating up, T-Mobile is doing its best not to get burned. If Apple is successful in getting a preliminary injunction against Samsung, the nation's fourth biggest carrier could find itself in a bad spot. Verizon has iPhone to fall back on. T-Mobile mostly offers Android smartphones, and Samsung makes the flagship models.

On Wednesday, T-Mobile filed a legal brief with the United District Court for the Northern District of California asking a federal judge to reject Apple's request for preliminary injunction against four Samsung devices: Droid Charge, Galaxy S 4G, Infuse 4G and Galaxy Tab 10.1. A hearing is scheduled for October 13. If granted, Samsung would be barred from offering these Android devices in the United States.

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At Samsung's Mobile Solutions Forum 2011 in Taiwan, the South Korean consumer electronics leader revealed some major new components that it will use in its next generation of smartphones and mobile tablets: a new dual-core applications processor, and a new 16 Megapixel CMOS sensor and new forward-facing camera sensor, a new 64 GB flash memory module. and a new 4 Gigabit low power DDR3 DRAM memory unit.

These components find their way into all types of mobile devices, and not just those with the Samsung brand stamped on them; so here is what will be going into new devices next year...

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What's that saying about my enemy being my ally?

Samsung has finally agreed to pay licensing fees to Microsoft for patents allegedly infringed by Android. I say, allegedly, since Microsoft accomplished this feat without firing one legal shot. It's a diplomatic agreement, of sorts, although the threat of patent warfare was always there. Perhaps Samsung has had enough fighting Apple patent and other intellectual property violation claims and didn't want to open yet another front on the battlefield. Or perhaps Samsung saw how many other phone manufacturers were cutting similar deals with Microsoft. Bottom line: Samsung will now essentially pay a licensing fee for Android, not to Google, but to Microsoft.

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