Samsung - page 49

BARCELONA, MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS — During a Samsung developer conference here at Mobile World Congress this morning, the Korean company unveiled a new service called Samsung Wallet, which lets Samsung smartphone owners turn tickets, coupons, membership cards, boarding passes, and more into digital cards that they can store in a virtual wallet.

The service probably sounds familiar, and it is — Samsung Wallet is basically Apple’s Passbook, but for Samsung phones. It works in almost exactly the same way, and looks very similar, too.

BARCELONA, MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS — Here at MWC in Barcelona, Krussell is showing off its latest lineup of waterproof smartphones cases called Sealabox, which let you take your smartphone swimming to snap pictures of the fishes. Available for almost all common smartphones, the Sealabox is IPX7 certified for water resistance up to one meter, and it’s been carefully designed to allow you to make the most of your smartphone in almost any environment.

BARCELONA, MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS — As I was walking around the show floor at MWC today, I noticed a number of smartphones that looked very familiar — yet they were being paraded by Chinese companies I’d never heard of. I saw what looked like a large iPhone 5, an entire range of Samsung Galaxy devices, and a number of high-end HTC handsets.

Except they weren’t really Apple, Samsung, or HTC devices at all; they were actually cheap clones that were trying their best to look like the real thing. They even had fake accessories that were identical to the originals.

Apple and Samsung have been exchanging blows with each other in the Australian courtroom for the past two years. Neither side has emerged as a clear favorite to win, but the case is already breaking records.

Because of the enormity of the case, Australia’s Federal Court has appointed two judges to hear the case together. It’s the first time Australia’s Federal Court has ever needed to have two judges hear a case together.

If you were expecting Samsung to unveil the Galaxy S4 at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this week, prepare to be disappointed: Samsung has instead sent out invitations to a press event in New York on March 14, where they will debut their much-anticipated (and iPhone 5 challenging) new smartphone.

BARCELONA, MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS -Mobile World Congress 2013 is now underway here in Barcelona, and there’s one device we couldn’t wait to get our hands on: the Galaxy Note 8.0 — Samsung’s answer to the iPad mini. In addition to its 8-inch display, the device boasts a 1.6GHz quad-core processor, 2GB of RAM, and of course, the Note’s trademark S Pen.

But can it give the iPad mini a run for its money?

Why should you buy an iPhone 5 over a Samsung Galaxy S III? Well, besides the fact that the S III is for jerkfaces, the iPhone 5 is nearly 300% more reliable and less likely to break than your average Samsung phone. Ouch!

Cult of Android will soon be on its way to Barcelona for this year’s Mobile World Congress — which kicks off Sunday, February 24 — where we’re expecting a whole host of announcements regarding new smartphones, tablets, apps, and accessories. More than 65,000 people will attend the event, and they’re all there for one thing: to see what’s on the horizon in the world of mobile for 2013.

We’re expecting new devices from Samsung, LG, ZTE, Huawei, Nokia, Asus, and more — and you can follow all of our coverage from here. In the meantime, here’s what you can look forward to.

Throughout the Samsung vs. Apple patent trial, Judge Lucy Koh has been a stern and sardonic overseer that has more often than not resembled a fight between children than an actual lawsuit. Now Koh is speaking up again, telling Samsung and Apple that, once again, they are wasting everyone’s time throwing a million and one allegations at one another, and that they need to “focus and streamline” their cases against one another.

With analysts openly chattering about how Cupertino needs to take a few lessons from Samsung on how to innovate in the smartphone market, a reality check: during the last quarter of 2012, the iPhone 5 was the best selling smartphone in the world. And the second best-selling smartphone? The iPhone 4S, edging the Galaxy S3 out by over 2 million units.

HTC’s much-leaked flagship phone, the HTC One, has just become official in New York and London, but you’ve got to be wondering how the new 4.7-inch Android superphone stacks up against the competition. Wonder no more, we’ve got a spec-by-spec breakdown on how it does compared to the BlackBerry Z10, iPhone 5, Nokia Lumia 920, Samsung Galaxy SIII and Motorola Droid Razr Maxx HD, and the answer to that question is: damn well, all specs considered.

Bump, the free, easy file sharing app for Android and iOS, has just updated to version 3.5.6 on both the Apple iTunes App Store and the Google Play Store. The new version of the app will let users share any files on their smartphone or tablet with a computer. Previously, Bump users were only able to share files from mobile device to mobile device.

When it comes to smartphones, there are really only two companies that matter right now – Apple and Samsung. They’re both championing different mobile operating systems, but the two companies are absolutely dominating the worldwide smartphone market.

Earlier today, Gartner reported that Apple and Samsung now control 52 percent of the worldwide smartphone market, even though mobile phone sales declined 1.7 percent in 2012. 

Samsung EVP David Eun, who is currently part of the company’s Open Innovation Center, believes the ongoing litigation between Apple and Samsung is “a loss” to innovation. Eun was probed for his opinion on the subject during an interview today at the D:Dive Into Media conference in Dana Point, California, and although he wouldn’t say much about the ongoing battles between the two consumer tech giants, he made it clear that he didn’t approve of it.

How happy are you with your smartphone? According to a survey of 92,825 smartphone user in the United States, the Motorola Atrix HD delivers the most satisfaction with an impressive 8.57 out of ten. Another Motorola device, the Droid RAZR M, is ranked second with 8.5 out of ten, while the iPhone 5 is ranked fifth with just 8.23 out of ten.

Many analysts believe Apple needs to think of new ways to improve its chances of beating Samsung in the ongoing battle for smartphone market share, and according to new research from King Saud University, Saudi Arabia, one approach could be to make the iPhone “more user friendly” to international users who don’t speak English.

Although you probably wouldn’t usually call it a PC, the iPad is a personal computer. And it’s currently dominating the PC market. During the fourth quarter of 2012, every one in six PCs sold was an iPad, according to research firm Canalys. When you include the Mac as well, more than a third of worldwide PC shipments during the holiday quarter were from Apple.

When it comes to smartphone manufacturers, right now there are really only two companies that really matter – Apple and Samsung. Not only do they both have the most marketshare, but they’re making a ton of profit. In fact, they’re making so much money that the two companies combined account for 103% of the total cellphone profits of 2012.

Wait, isn’t it impossible to account for 103% of the profit? Well, no. Because operators like BlackBerry, Motorola, and Nokia operated at a loss last year, Apple and Samsung were able to make more than 100% of the profit, which is pretty insane.

Apple has overtaken Samsung to become the largest mobile phone vendor in the United States for the first time. The Cupertino company captured a record 34% market share during the fourth quarter of 2012 with around 17.7 million devices sold, while Samsung captured 32% with around 16.8 million devices sold.

No, that headline isn’t wrong — Samsung has actually made a Galaxy commercial for the Super Bowl that doesn’t such. It features Knocked Up stars Seth Rogen and Paul Rudd, who play two writers pitching ideas for Samsung’s next commercial to Breaking Bad’s Bob Odenkirk.

It doesn’t mock other companies or rival devices, and it’s actually pretty hilarious. Check it out below.

The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit rejected a bid from Apple today to review and reconsider the sales ban, originally granted and then reversed, on Samsung’s Galaxy Nexus phones. While this type of reconsideration, called an en banc review, is rare, it makes sense that Apple (as well as Samsung) would ask for everything it possibly could in this still-hot case.

The three judge panel today rejected Apple’s request to reinstate a sales ban on Samsung’s Galaxy Nexus smartphone until the later trial, set for March of 2014.

It’s official: the BlackBerry Z10, the first smartphone to ship with the new BlackBerry 10 operating system, and what many believe is the last chance for BlackBerry (formerly RIM) to save itself from complete irrelevance.

The early reviews of the Z10 aren’t bad, but aren’t great, pretty much agreeing that the smartphone is just good enough to buy BlackBerry some time. But how does it stack up, spec-for-spec, against the iPhone 5 and some of Android’s top phones? We’ve put together a chart for you to see for yourself.

Last summer, Apple won the biggest patent lawsuit in history against Samsung. After a long and tedious hearing, a California court ruled that Samsung had infringed on seven of Apple’s design patents. The jury for the trial decided that Samsung had willfully infringed five of the patents, which basically means that Samsung knew what it was doing when it tried to steal Apple’s mojo.

Samsung challenged the verdict, and Judge Lucy Koh has now ruled that Apple’s patents weren’t willfully infringed upon. This will save Samsung from having to pay Apple up to triple in damages on top of the $1+ billion it already owes.

This doesn’t mean that the case is over. There are still plenty of appeals to be made, and “Apple will presumably move at some point for an award of ongoing royalties for future use of its patents by Samsung,” according to FOSS Patents.

Source: FOSS Patents

People don’t trust Apple with all their personal data as much as they used to. That’s what the latest survey on privacy data claims, after ranking the top 20 companies that U.S. consumers trust the most with their private information.

Ponemon Institute has conducted its annual privacy survey for the past seven years that asks U.S. consumers to rate organizations that they feel are most likely going to keep their information private. Apple was ranked 14th on last years list, but didn’t make the cut this time.

Samsung has gone before the Seoul Central District Court to ask to see Apple’s iOS source code. The goal of seeing the source code is to confirm whether Apple’s iOS 6 infringes on any of Samsung’s software patents. Yes, this is the same Samsung that Apple won $1 billion+ in damages against for patent infringement in U.S. court last year.

Since the innards of iOS are full of valuable company secrets, Apple has of course declined Samsung’s request, “calling it ridiculous.”