The injunction banning the sale of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus in the United States has been reversed by US appeals court. According to the decision, Apple could not present sufficient evidence, relating consumer demand for the Android smartphone to its universal search patent.
The injunction, banning the sale of the device was awarded to Apple back in June. The patent case itself was initiated in February.
Here goes Samsung's official statement on the matter:
"We welcome this reversal by the Federal Circuit, finding that the District Court abused its discretion in ordering a preliminary injunction against the Galaxy Nexus. Today's decision confirms that the role of patent law is to protect innovation and not to unreasonably stifle competition and restrict consumer choice. We will continue to take all appropriate measures to ensure the availability of our innovative products."
A woman in France got the shock of her life when she received her cell phone bill recently. Although the $15 quadrillion was obviously wrong, she had a hard time trying to convince workers at the telecoms company of the fact.
Sometimes you get your cell phone bill through and it might seem a little more than what you’d been expecting, but what the heck, you pay it.
However, Solenne San Jose, from the French city of Bordeaux, would’ve been hard pressed to do such a thing as her bill was a lot, lot more than she’d been expecting. In fact, it had so many zeros on it that she didn’t even know how to say it.
San Jose had decided to pull out of her phone contract early and as a result was told by her carrier she’d have to pay a termination fee that would be included in her final bill which would be sent in the mail.
Upon opening the bill and seeing the final fee, San Jose said she “nearly had a heart attack.” Why? Because it was for €11,721,000,000,000,000 (about $15 quadrillion), that’s why.
Receiving a phone bill more than 5,000 times greater than the gross domestic product of the country in which you live is really no way to start the day, so San Jose called the company, Bouygues Telecom, to suggest there’d been some kind of mistake in an effort to get it to cancel the charge made to her bank account.
But this is where things got really absurd. On her first attempt to sort the problem out, she was reportedly told that nothing could be done, and informed that “it’s calculated automatically.”
Another person at the company said someone would be in touch to sort out paying the amount in instalments. Eventually, an employee with some common sense realized a mistake had been made. The real bill? €117 ($151).
The company have reportedly said sorry for the error and told San Jose she won’t have to pay anything at all. With the stress and hassle it must have caused, however, you might think it could’ve offered a more generous apology – a mistakenly written check for a couple of quadrillion dollars would’ve been nice.
Google chairman Eric Schmidt thinks that Android activations could top a billion by next year, as the operating system continues to reign over more than half of the mobile marketplace.
"We just announced 1.3 million activations of Android phones per day globally - per day," he underlined during a recent interview with AllThingsD.
"Do a little math with me," Schmidt asked. "If you're at 1.3 [million activations per day], times 365 [days a year], and of course that number doubling every six months or something like this."
"This is well more than a billion devices globally perhaps within a year."
Android vs Apple defining platform fight
Schmidt defined what 1 billion Android activations means in his company's constant tug-of-war with Apple.
"I believe that the Android-Apple platform fight is the defining fight in the industry today," Schmidt said, before noting Android's progress. "And I didn't say that two years ago."
As with any good fight, there's always a little smack talk and a good backhanded compliment.
"[Apple's has] an enormously large platform for developers, knowledge, cloud services, scale, and so forth." Schmidt went on to laud how many talented engineers Apple has, along with his rival's apps, content, and partnerships.
But that just set him up to say, "The Google platform, Android, is even larger."
"Surveys that we've seen of unit volume indicate that there are four times as many Android phones as there are iPhones."
"We have not seen in our industry platform-network fights of this scale."
With lower-cost devices and more innovative hardware teased by the Google chairman, Schmidt concluded, "And I go back to who's the beneficiary. And the beneficiary is you all - globally."
Other US tech companies are reportedly suspicious of Huawei, ZTE
Cisco Systems, among others, may have nudged Congress into investigating Chinese companies Huawei and ZTE for security concerns, according to a new report from the Washington Post.
China's two largest telecommunications companies have taken a beating from U.S. Congressmen as they tried to enter the States' technology market.
Politicians are concerned the tech giants will use their systems to help expand the Chinese government's spying networks into the US.
Earlier this week, the US Intelligence Committee said the duo shouldn't be allowed to operate in the U.S. But the only proof of those claims are held secret in classified reports.
Cisco in the captain's chair
Cisco and other U.S. tech companies urged Congress to investigate Huawei and ZTE, according to an unnamed senior Hill staffer.
The staffer said politicians were already concerned about the two companies, and major players in the U.S. tech industry just fanned the flames of their suspension.
"What happens is you get competitors who are able to gin up lawmakers who are already wound up about China," the anonymous staffer said to the Post. "What they do is pull the string and see where the top spins."
The Post even found a seven-page sales presentation called "Huawei's & National Security," which is meant to give ammo to Cisco representatives on why clients should avoid Chinese competitors and go with American companies.
"Fear of Huawei spreads globally," according to the presentation. "Despite denials, Huawei has struggled to de-link itself from China's People's Liberation Army and the Chinese government."
The vitriol is no surprise in the cutthroat world of telecommunications. Cisco CEO, John Chambers, has repeatedly criticized Huawei for "not playing by the rules" and declared the company a "long-term threat."
The new McCarthyism
Huawei has been repeatedly denied entry into the U.S. tech game by the Treasury Department's Committee on Foreign Investments for years. All based on security concerns.
The two Chinese companies and their government have all denied the allegations of spying.
Last month, Huawei published a 81-page document when its top brass was being grilled by the House Intelligence Committee.
The report made the case for the benefits of Huawei entering the U.S. tech market, but said the investigation was "allegations based on allegations" and likened its treatment to McCarthyism.
Even though the barriers to entering the U.S. market seem pretty high, Huawei and ZTE still seems pretty determined to take a slice of that American telecom pie.
It doesn't take turn-by-turn directions to figure out that Google Maps is one of the biggest advantages that Androids now have over the iPhone 5 and Apple devices upgraded to iOS 6.
Former Google CEO and current chairman Eric Schmidt clearly agreed at an on-stage interview with AllThingsD.
"Apple should have kept with our maps," Schmidt said bluntly to some crowd laughter.
When asked if Apple's decision stemmed from Google not maintaining feature parity - specifically not allowing iOS to use and turn-by-turn directions and voice prompts with Google Maps - Schmidt deflected the question.
"We negotiated all of these details with Apple, and the fact of the matter is they had decided a long time ago to do their own maps," said Schmidt, neither confirming or denying turn-by-turn directions were on the table.
The lesson that Apple learned
"What Apple has learned is that maps are really hard," said Schmidt.
"We invested hundreds of millions of dollars in satellite work, airplane work, drive-by work to get the maps accurate. And we think we have the best product in the industry."
"Apple has done extremely well during the last five years," said Schmidt, before amending his statement to say Google played some part in that.
"Actually, Apple has done very well using our maps."
It would be up to Apple to approve a Google Maps app
Microsoft drags Motorola back into German courts today
Microsoft is readying itself for the next round of court battles, as it fires off another patent lawsuit aimed at Motorola and its owner, Google.
This marks a return to German courts today, where Microsoft now claims Motorola infringed on patents involving Google Maps overlaying multiple map data.
The case could not only affect Motorola's phones in Germany, but how its people use Google Maps as well.
The lawsuit claims the Razr maker violated a patent for taking one set of map data and overlaying it with another set of map information. For example, overlaying data of street geography with information about what businesses are on that street.
Tough case for Motorola?
All digital maps overlay multiple sets of data now-a-days, so Google and Motorola will have a hard time circumventing the patent if they lose.
However, the beginning rounds of this court case did produce a bit of surprise. At today's hearing, Microsoft announced it will add Google to the list of defendants in the case. This is the first time Google is directly involved in the Microsoft/Motorola matter.
Microsoft usually fights its patent battles with proxy companies like Motorola. So the case presents a unique opportunity to watch the two tech giants duke it out in the same patent lawsuit.
Wheels, deals and court battles
Motorola is one of the few Android makers who doesn't pay a licensing fee to Microsoft for the mobile OS, unlike HTC and Samsung. Meanwhile, Microsoft takes a cut on half of all Android phones sold.
This is just the latest round of court skirmishes between the two companies. Microsoft has won three cases resulting in German sales bans of Motorola smartphones including the Droid Razr, Droid Razr Maxx and the Motorola Atrix.
What's more, the German court ruled Motorola infringed on patents involving a FAT file system, a SMS patent and one that described a method of handling communication between the keyboard and applications.
MobileCon 2012 is the U.S. convention formerly known as CTIA MobileCon 2012. This isn't just a fall session of the CTIA convention in New Orleans.
It's a San Diego gathering of movers and shakers in the mobile computing scene, as well as tons of journalists and IT professionals looking to be moved and shook by the latest ideas and innovations in the field.
MobileCon 2012 will feature keynote speeches from industry leaders and demonstrations of the latest tech about to deploy in the enterprise workspace. Topics range from BYOD (bring your own device) security, cloud computing and peer-to-learning, to name a few.
MobileCon 2012 will be the convention for IT professionals and anyone whose lifestyle makes them a frequent telecommuter.
Huawei's growing pains
No, it's not "Hawai'i." Huawei's U.S. mobile device division has been in the country for more than five years, yet the company is still struggling to gain name and brand recognition.
Though phones like the Mercury help, deals that are "happening" with major carriers like Verizon will help elevate Huawei where it needs to be.
A panel of five executives took the MobileCon 2012 keynote stage to engage in a discussion as to what mobile commerce looks like and where it's going.
Success, to one exec, looks like one out of four Americans using a mobile wallet in 5-8 years. The issue of adoption, some said, lies in educating consumers on the need to actually chuck traditional payment modes.
It's hard not to like OtterBox, the plucky protective case company that's taken off thanks to its durable covers. The company had its paws at MobileCon 2012, showing off its new iPhone 5 cases as well as sleek tablet covers.
Look for a water proof case next year plus a host of other innovative devices, an Otter rep said.
Do you miss the days of full QWERTY keyboard phones? Well, the folks at Sprint must. They'll be the exclusive carrier for the LG Mach, which combines a touch screen and slide-out keyboard for real texting power.
While the Optimus G has gotten a lot of attention lately, LG isn't neglecting other sectors of the market. The T-Mobile exclusive Optimus L9 got to shine at MobileCon 2012, as did the LG Venice.
The Venice, priced at $219.99, hit Boost Mobile Wednesday, bringing an Ice Cream Sandwich Android to consumers looking for a deal.
When will we finally get to play with Windows 8 on a smartphone? Nokia's Lumia 810 was on the show floor, but we weren't allowed to turn it on and experience the OS goodness inside.
The Lumia 810 will be exclusive to T-Mobile's network in the U.S. The carrier hasn't yet started talking about release date or price, but has released the full hardware specs for the phone.
RIM CIO Robin Bienfait and Jeff Gadway, senior brand and marketing communications manager at RIM, talked up the company's upcoming OS, pointing to how it will revolutionize not just devices and OS's, but how users interact with their mobile machines.
It's inching closer to completion and final functionality, so look for it early next year.
On the show floor, LG unveiled the latest addition to its L-series of smartphones, the LG Optimus L9. This 4G capable phone will launch exclusively with T-Mobile.
The LG Optimus L9 packs a 1GHz dual-core processor and 1GB of RAM. Those specs put it heads and tails above its predecessor, the LG Optimus L7.
After the release of the awesome HTC One X, HTC is already refreshing its smartphone lineup. We got our hands on the HTC One VX, the budget minded but peppy handset with a 4.5 inch screen.
In the US, HTC's new line of mobile phones will be exclusive to AT&T. That's not just the One X+ and One VX, but also the Windows Phone 8X. They're all stylish devices with impressive specs.
Oct. 18 is a day of celebration for Verizon as it rolls out its 400th (and then some) 4G LTE market, the carrier announced at MobileCon 2012 Tuesday.
Expect to see AWS devices and Voice over LTE in the coming year, too, while 4G LTE looks to take up as much spectrum space as 3G, the company's CTO said.
Before the kickoff of MobileCon 2012, TechRadar created a list of products and news that we hoped to see at the CTIA-powered conference. Take a look at the 10 things we wanted to see at MobileCon.
1. Keeping up with the iPhone 5
The elephant on the exhibit floor and in the conference rooms will be how to compete with the iPhone 5. Apple, which won't be at MobileCon 2012, released the phone of the year (at least from a consumer perspective) and companies at this conference, like RIM, LG, Motorola, and HTC, need to lay the groundwork for a fruitful future moving forward.
The phone to beat in 2012
Will introducing devices with features like NFC (which the iPhone 5 lacks), better maps (for which iOS 6 have been universally panned), and better coverage (we'll get to 4G LTE later on) be the ways these manufacturers at least stay in the same waters as Apple's latest offering?
We'll keep our eyes peeled for how carriers who don't have the iPhone 5 (here's looking at you, T-Mobile and Boost Mobile) and makers who don't produce iPhones can keep up with the hottest device to land in a very long time.
2. The future of NFC
The iPhone 5 is here, sans NFC. A bit of a surprise, considering those early reports that swore up and down that the chip had been spotted in Apple's new baby. It's even more surprising since iOS 6 introduced Passbook, an app that seemed perfect for near field communication. Perhaps Apple's distribution of the new OS to so many old iDevices made reliance on NFC impossible?
Can Google Wallet take on Passbook?
Does Apple's choice not to embrace NFC spell trouble for the technology, or does it create an opportunity for its competitors? With Google Wallet, Android may have the chance to lay down an infrastructure before its Cupertino competitors. With the show's focus on enterprise-level mobile solutions, MobileCon 2012 could be the place to unveil the beginnings of such an ecosystem.
3. 4G LTE, moving forward
Now that the aforementioned iPhone 5 has 4G LTE connectivity (Apple's first iPhone with the 4G force) and U.S. carriers are turning more and more of the country into an LTE zone, we want to know where carriers and manufacturers are taking the coverage moving forward.
During Pepcom's MobileFocus press event, we want to get our hands on what's next in the mobile and wireless space. With phones like the LG Optimus G, Motorola Droid Razr HD, and even the ZTE Anthem 4G by MetroPCS sporting quad-G capabilities, it's time to see where the industry is ready and willing to take it.
With a lot of catch-up left to do with Apple, how companies plan to compete connectivity-wise with the unofficial leader in mobile communications will be a huge part of this conference.
The iPhone 5 has a letter of feathers in its cap: it's new, it's tall, it's thin and it's made by Apple. The S3, however, has NFC capabilities, a quad-core processor and a maps app that isn't struggling in its infancy. This is the showdown we want to see, and we're hoping Samsung will launch its a plan of attack at Mobile Con 2012 (one that will take place outside of a courtroom, preferably).
5 . PC relevancy
In a world where the portability and speed of tablets and smartphones have users turning to those devices before booting up a desktop or even opening a laptop, what is the future of dedicated computing devices? Will they morph into combination tablet/laptop machines like the Asus Vivo Tab or the HP ENVY x2? And what about desktops? Will they be for hardcore users only until they go the way of the dodo?
The versatile HP Envy X2
Are these the kind of questions IBM will address with its keynote at MobileCon 2012? Or will it confirm a headlong dive into the mobile space? In August we saw the IT giant sniffing around BlackBerry-maker Research in Motion with a possible acquisition in the air. IBM has been steadily expanding its cloud-based services like IBM SmartCloud for years now.
As a true force in the enterprise space, we're excited to see IBM's thoughts on the future of mobile and business, and how it plans to move forward and "build a smarter world," as the company likes to say.
6. The future of Blackberry
Blackberry was one of the companies that ushered in the smartphone revolution, introducing Internet-capable phones with full keyboards and color displays. Best of all, they could still make a decent call connection, something other phones struggled with for a long time.
However, just as quickly as they helped make sweeping changes to mobile devices, the company's market share began to shrink due to massive competition, and a network outage that damaged its reputation for reliability.
While it seems to be courting consumers with its new tiled interface, business-level users have always been BlackBerry's bread and butter.
Robin Bienfait from Research in Motion (BlackBerry's parent company) will give a keynote speech at MobileCon 2012. This could be the perfect opportunity to win back some IT users.
7. Borderless Networks
Borderless Networks, according to Cisco they'll be what connect companies across continents, allowing them to share information and resources no matter where they are. However, with cloud services and Google hangouts already connecting teams world-wide, how can Cisco, or another company, further unify the experience?
And how can they remain safe and reliable? Splitting resources across the globe can be an IT nightmare, and we're interested to see if any other companies will have something to add to Cisco's Borderless Network solution, or perhaps launch something of their own.
8. Keeping our data secure
As more and more financial information makes its way onto our smartphones and into the digital space, security becomes a growing concern. After the recent Apple ID leak and the threat of Android malware, security across mobile devices has never been a higher priority, on both the customer and provider side.
The struggle for mobility and security
MobileCon 2012 will be hosting a series of talks on cybersecurity. Speakers range from representatives of sectors both public and private, including the US Department of Homeland Security, the National Institute of Standards & Technology, the US National Security Agency, the Defense Information & Systems Agency, as well as security software giant Symantec. We're curious to see what this panel will have to say about data security in a world of borderless mobile networks.
9. iPhone 5 accessories and apps
With the iPhone 5 in the process of boosting the US GDP (hopefully), accessories and apps for Apple's new phone are set to become an industry unto themselves. Cases are already here, and third-party Lightning adapters are on the way.
The iPhone 5 accessory industry
The shortcomings of Apple's new iOS 6 are also creating plenty of opportunities for app makers and competitors alike. For example, Apple's new Maps app doesn't do public transit, which has many bus and train riders looking to third parties to calculate their commute. We're curious to see what will be unveiled at MobileCon 2012 to capitalize on the strengths and weaknesses of Apple's latest toy.
10. More companies with Passbook support
Apple touted its Passbook feature as just as good if not better than NFC, but so far few companies have joined the movement. We'd like this to change.
Pass Passbook some more passes, please
As MobileCon 2012 is an enterprise meeting space, we want some of these businesses to jump aboard the Passbook boat. One analyst projected Passbook could help bring Apple App Store revenue to $4.9 billion by the end of the year, but for now the application is very much a fledgling service.
While we're sure it will grow in time, we want MobileCon to provide a glimpse at the real potential Apple says its native service offers.
Our hands-on impressions of the Samsung Galaxy Cam, which we liked a lot more than we thought we'd ever like a point-and-shoot camera with Android and a touchscreen.
When Samsung first unveiled its Galaxy Camera, I was more than skeptical. Samsung isn’t the first company to try this (Nikon’s Coolpix hybrid isn’t impressing anyone) and, as a general rule of thumb, things that seem too good to believe usually are. It’s often a perilous mission to jam two popular, expensive devices together. Somewhere, compromises have to be made and they’re usually crippling. Somehow, Samsung may have bucked the trend. The Galaxy Cam appears to be both a solid digital camera and a great touchscreen phone (minus voice service).
Tape a point-and-shoot camera to a Galaxy S3
If you want to know what it’s like to use the Galaxy Cam, try taping a Galaxy S3 to a digital camera. Now, imagine these two devices actually communicated. The Galaxy Cam has a 4.8-inch screen and internal processing power and specs that nearly match Samsung’s flagship phone. Only with a 21x optical zoom built into the front and other camera requirements like a 21x zoom.
It’s a great phone
The Galaxy Cam looks like a camera on the front, but it’s all touchscreen-operated Android joy in the back. I was pleasantly surprised how well the Android interface worked. It looks just like the Galaxy S3′s TouchWiz interface, but runs slightly smoother (my opinion), which may be due to Samsung upgrading the operating system to Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean), Google’s newest, slickest OS. The Cam packs a full 1.4GHz quad-core Samsung Exynos processor with 1GB of RAM and the 4.8-inch touchscreen is 1280 x 720 pixels and runs on a very nice “Super Clear” LCD technology. It can also connect up to 4G LTE networks. I lay out those hardware specifications not to bore you, but to illustrate that the Galaxy Cam is running on hardware that is as fast as what we’re seeing on top-of-the-line smartphones right now. As a phone (if it actually was a phone), it’s already very nice. We used several downloaded apps and poured through the menus like any other phone.
Really, the only thing a Galaxy Cam can’t do that a phone can is make calls, but it can do Skype, so if you were really hell-bent on using it as your only device, you probably could. Chatting can be accomplished with any client.
Somehow, it’s a great camera too
Open up the camera app on the Galaxy Cam or press the shutter button, and you’re now using the best camera phone… possibly ever. The Galaxy Cam has 21x optical zoom, a pop-out flash for shooting in the dark, microSD card support, an easily removable battery, and Micro HDMI and USB slots for charging. But the real impressive part was the camera app itself. I fully expected Samsung to skimp on the software, but it has developed what appears to be a pretty thorough camera app that takes good advantage of the Cam’s abilities.
If you press the big silver onscreen button when in camera mode, you can enter four modes. You can set it on Auto, Casual, Smart Pro, or Expert mode. Auto and Casual are pretty basic, as is Smart Pro mode, which has some basic settings for camera novices looking to kick it up a notch. If you want to, say, take a macro shot, a silhouette a night shot, or an action shot, this mode lets you select between these types of environments with simple labels and pictures. Expert mode is where it’s at, though.
This is not a DSLR, but in Expert mode, Samsung has really given advanced users a lot of the settings they need. Using an onscreen camera lens with wheels for each setting, you can adjust your shutter speed, aperture, ISO and other settings. You can also set it to Manual, Auto, Aperture, or Shutter mode to help focus on the settings you need. I’m no camera expert, but I haven’t seen an expert touch menu this easy to use before. Samsung has made really good use of the touchscreen to simplify these settings.
I didn’t get a chance to try it out, but the Galaxy Cam can record video at up to 120 frames per second, which should excite those of you who love to play around with slow motion video.
Possible downsides
There are a lot of ways this device could still go wrong. Most importantly is price. I do not know how this device won’t cost at least $600, and at that price, it has a lot of competition. Then there’s the issue of sharing photos. Samsung has included some of its own sharing services, but not everyone is going to want to use them. Luckily, since it can download apps from the Google Play store, you can likely use other apps like Google Plus or Dropbox to upload photos automatically. Finally, connecting a camera to AT&T’s 4G LTE network might be expensive. Even if you have one of the company’s new Mobile Share plans, it will likely cost you $20 a month to just connect the Galaxy Cam to the network, and that’s before you start using data (which is shared between devices). You’ll need to upload your videos over Wi-Fi no matter what you do.
I must admit again that though the photos I took looked impressive, given the lighting conditions, I am not a camera reviewer. I can tell you that its capabilities are leagues above any cell phone, but looking at it, you would already expect that. The camera may fail to impress experts. Still, as someone who must routinely photograph gadgets in poor lighting conditions, it’s a device that seemed to mostly match the quality of photos I get out of my Olympus Pen E-PL2, which is a Micro Four Thirds device, and most definitely not a full-fledged DSLR. The Galaxy Cam doesn’t even have swappable lenses.
It’s looking good
Assuming Samsung doesn’t price it too high for the casual market and the final unit lives up to the experiences I had with it last week, the Galaxy Cam may be a really cool option for someone looking to merge more aspects of their gadget lives. It sounds bad, but I almost wish that this giant thing actually had phone functionality built into it. At least then it could actually eliminate the need to carry around two devices. As it stands, Galaxy Cam buyers will likely still have a smartphone and a really nice point-and-shoot camera. The big question is, are point-and-shoot camera buyers enthusiastic enough to buy a device like this, or will they just use the camera already on their iPhone or Galaxy S3? What I do know is that Samsung has made real progress here, whether the Galaxy Cam is a massive success or not. This is a device that will make a lot of camera owners jealous.
Verizon Wireless announced that the Motorola DROID RAZR HD and RAZR MAXX HD duo will land on its shelves on October 18. The DROID RAZR HD will be priced at $199.99, while the 3300mAh sporting RAZR MAXX HD will set potential users back with $299.99.
There is no difference between the specs of the two smartphones, save for the battery and internal memory size. Both handsets feature dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 silicon, 4.7" HD screen, 8MP, and Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. An update to Jelly Bean is in the pipeline for the duo before the year's end. You can see our first look at the two smartphones over here.
Heck, the parties haven't even reached the epilogue yet.
In a new development, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit decided on Thursday to permanently reverse a California court's previous decision to grant Apple a preliminary injunction on Samsung's Galaxy Nexus smartphone.
The injunction, which was hard-won by Apple, prevented the phone from being sold in the U.S., but the federal appeals court's panel of judges determined that the California court "abused its discretion" in granting the ban.
What does it mean for consumers?
With the sales ban on the Galaxy Nexus officially lifted, Samsung is free to sell the flagship Android phone in the U.S. as soon as it can get the device to shelves and doorsteps.
TechRadar has reached out to Samsung to determine when it plans to do so, but so far the Korean company has yet to respond.
The reversal of the injunction is certainly a victory for Samsung, though its war with Apple rages ever onward regardless.
At the time, Koh determined that mounting pre-trial evidence against Samsung, in particular related to Apple patents concerning Siri-like search features, justified the injunction.
"Although some consumers may be disappointed that they cannot purchase the Galaxy Nexus, the Galaxy Nexus, as Samsung itself has repeatedly insisted, is not Samsung's only smartphone product on the market," Koh wrote in a July 5 ruling.
Samsung promised to pursue the matter with the federal circuit appeals court, and it seems that move has finally paid off.
As expected, Samsung has announced the Galaxy S3 Mini, a mid-range Android 4.1 smartphone that has a similar design to its big brother.
Samsung has announced the Galaxy S3 Mini, just as promised by the company’s mobile communications boss yesterday, but can it live up to our expectations, especially as it shares the same name as one of the very best Android smartphones on the market?
The answer to that question very much depends on your expectations, and if they’ve been kept in check. Let’s put it this way, it’s not a Galaxy S3 in a slightly smaller body, but a small phone aimed at a different buyer. Here’s what it’s all about.
Design-wise, it’s very close to its big brother, with the same “natural” flowing edges, rounded corners and smooth rear panel. No lawsuit over the design of this one, then. So how mini is the Mini? It measures 121 x 63 x 9.8mm and weighs 111 grams, so it’s a touch larger than an iPhone 4S, but noticeably smaller than the full-size S3’s 136 x 70 x 8.6mm dimensions and 133 gram weight.
Inside is a dual-core, 1Ghz ST-Ericsson NovaThor processor, with 1GB of RAM and either 8GB or 16GB of internal storage memory. As expected, the Super AMOLED screen measures 4-inches and has a 480 x 800 pixel resolution, while the camera has 5-megapixels, 720p video recording and an LED flash. There’s also a VGA video call camera above the screen.
Android 4.1 onboard
The good news is the phone will come with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, so there won’t be any waiting around for Samsung to issue an update, plus there’s the TouchWiz user interface and some of the cool software features from more expensive Galaxy hardware, such as S Voice, Direct Call and Smart Stay. Other features include NFC, DLNA, GPS, a microSD card slot and a 1500mAh battery.
So, the Galaxy S3 Mini is a concoction of the Galaxy S3 and the Galaxy S Advance. Many will bemoan the lack of 4G — although it does support HSDPA and HSUPA — and the processor missing two more cores, but those are features for upper range phones, not a solid mid-ranger like the S3 Mini.
Using the S3 title is certainly a win for the marketing team, but the S3 Mini is far from being an embarrassment to its good name; after all, the design was, and still is, a winner. Plus, Samsung isn’t wrong, in stature it is a miniature S3.
The more sensible spec also means a more sensible price tag. While Samsung hasn’t talked about the cost just yet, Clove Technology has put a SIM-free S3 Mini up for pre-order in the UK for £298, or $477, which is about £120/$192 less than the full-size S3.
Samsung has remained quiet on availability too, but Vodafone UK has tweeted that the device is coming soon to its network. There’s no word on a US release at this time.
Yes, it looks like a Galaxy S3, but what's the point?
The Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini has been officially announced by the South Korean firm at an event in Germany, which showed off the 4-inch, Android toting handset.
The Galaxy S3 Mini sports a 4-inch, 480 x 800 display Super AMOLED display, 1GHz dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM, 16GB of internal memory, 5MP rear camera with LED flash, front-facing VGA snapper, NFC, microSD card slot and a 1,500mAh battery.
Less than SPEC-tacular
JK Shin, Samsung's head of communications said yesterday that the Galaxy S3 Mini won't be found wanting in terms of specifications when compared to its big brother, and while the slimmed down offering may ship with Android 4.1 out the box, some fans may be disappointed by what's inside.
Gone is the quad-core grunt and HD display of the Galaxy S3, and the 5MP camera is on a mediocre par with the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, and below what you find on the Galaxy S2.
Obviously the Galaxy S3 Mini is kinder to your pocket and easier to hold in the hand, with it measuring 121.55 x 63 x 9.85mm and weighing 111.5g – it's smaller and lighter than the original S3, although it is slightly thicker.
Currently the Samsung Galaxy S3 release date and price are unknown, but we'd expect it to arrive in time for the lucrative Christmas market.
SoftBank of Japan could potentially have a new market to try to conquer. Reports say the Japanese provider is looking to take control of Sprint and enter the U.S. market.
Apparently bored by its meteoric rise through the ranks of Japan’s telecom market, SoftBank is now ready to make a major play for a piece of the American pie. According to the New York Times, Japan’s second largest wireless service provider is close to taking controlling interest in Sprint, America’s third largest mobile carrier.
SoftBank is no stranger to growth through acquisition, as it has made its way toward the top of the Japanese market by buying up other competition. This includes the purchase of eAccess, which occurred earlier this month and bumped SoftBank into the second slot for service providers in Japan. It has yet to make a move as sizable as the proposed Sprint purchase, though. While details are still hazy, a report from Reuters set the cost for controlling stake at 1 trillion Yen, or about $15.9 billion. Other sources the cost to be as high as $30 billion. It’s a sizable price tag, but it also introduces one of the shrewdest of companies to the huge American market that is ripe for competition.
For Sprint, the would deal finally give it the deep pocket backing it so desperately needs. The carrier has struggled to gain its footing after royally screwing up its Nextel merger years back. It has since attempted to expand its infrastructure in hopes of offering a competitive LTE network, but the $21 billion debt and consistent money loss since 2007 has hindered any chance at growth. A recent attempt to buy MetroPCS and block the merger between the regional provider and the Deutsche Telekom owned T-Mobile is the latest in Sprint’s seemingly futile attempts to retain its share of the U.S. market. SoftBank could be the boost it needs to get back in the fight.
While most reports claim the deal to be nearing its final stages and are expecting an announcement soon, Sprint and SoftBank appear to be completely shocked by the news leaking out. Sprint has declined any comment and SoftBank issued a statement that staunchly said, “The story about SoftBank and Sprint Nextel Corporation being reported is based on speculation. We have not announced anything. We do not comment on speculation.”
No, we didn’t scale the images wrong, it's the new Samsung I8190 Galaxy S III mini that was just announced in Germany. Brought on by an increasing demand for 4" droids with good specs, the S III mini wants to please people who find the 4.8" screen of its big brother to be just too big.
Bearing the S III title, the mini has the same nature-inspired design as the big S III and the Galaxy Note II. And it will be running Android 4.1 Jelly Bean at launch with the same TouchWiz customizations that its bigger siblings enjoy, like S Voice and Smart Stay.
Looks aside, the specs of the I8190 Galaxy S III mini doesn’t quite live up to its name. It has a 4" Super AMOLED screen of WVGA resolution (and a PenTile matrix). Inside is a ST-Ericsson NovaThor chipset with two Cortex-A9 cores, ticking at 1GHz, 1GB of RAM and a Mali-400 GPU.
The main camera has a 5MP sensor and an LED flash and it's capable of shooting 720p video. There's a VGA front-facing camera too.
The Samsung Galaxy S III mini offers quad-band 2G and tri-band 3G connectivity (with 14.4Mbps HSDPA and 5.76Mbps HSUPA), dual-band Wi-Fi a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0 and NFC. The internal storage comes in 8GB or 16GB versions and there's a microSD card slot if you need more.
Basically, the whole Samsung I8190 Galaxy S III mini is a Galaxy S/Galaxy S II hybrid (with almost the exact same specs as the I9070 Galaxy S Advance) that was styled to look like a Galaxy S III.
The dimensions of the phone are 121.6 x 63 x 9.9 mm and it weighs 111.5g and the battery has 1500mAh capacity.
We're still waiting on the launch date and pricing info to come in.
In light of reports from the US Intelligence Committee saying Huawei and ZTE should be banned, the UK government has revealed it has no issue with the Chinese manufacturers.
TechRadar spent some time chatting to Derek Smith, a spokesperson for the Cabinet Office, who explained that the UK government has no concerns about Huawei and ZTE.
Smith told us: "Comparisons with the US don't hold up with what we're doing here. We have a very strict evaluation process for products from any country, not just China, coming into the UK."
Huawei Evaluation Centre
More specifically in the case of Huawei, there is an additional level of security which all of its devices pass through before being allowed into the British market, and this process has been running for a number of years now.
Several years ago Huawei approached the UK government to discuss the standards and requirements for products to be allowed into the country, and in 2010 the Huawei Evaluation Centre was opened in Basingstoke.
At the centre, government security experts and Hauwei staff work together to ensure the Chinese firm's products meet the strict security standards the UK has put in place.
Standards continually met
Talking about the Evaluation Centre Smith said: "It ensures our standards are continually met.
"Huawei is a major company in the UK, with a growing footprint and it works very closely with other telecommunication firms as well as government."
The long standing relationship the UK government has with Huawei, and the continued work between the two parties, means the Cabinet Office is confident that there are no security concerns.
What about ZTE?
ZTE doesn't have an evaluation centre like Huawei's here in the UK, however this doesn't mean the government turns a blind eye to its activities.
Smith noted: "The government's responsibility is to identify, mitigate and defend, and the evaluation process for all products entering the country is very strict."
ZTE has already said: "Our equipment is safe and poses no threat to the US", and has provided a whole raft of evidence documenting the reasons why.
So while it looks like the United States is getting its knickers in a twist about products it potentially hasn't screened – for whatever reason – we're sitting pretty here in the UK, safe in the knowledge that the government has our back. That is, of course, if you trust the government…
Today NTT DoCoMo announced the upcoming availability of a few smartphones including Samsung’s Galaxy S III and Galaxy Note II.
You’ve probably heard all there is to know about those two, but NTT DoCoMo’s version of the Galaxy S III, called Alpha, will be slightly different. Its chipset is pretty much the same as the international version of the Galaxy Note II - with the quad-core processor has been clocked on 1.6GHz instead of 1.4GHz and 2GB of RAM.
The faster CPU speed should help turn an already impressively fast smartphone into a real beast. What's even better, the Japanese Galaxy S III will run Android 4.1 Jelly Bean at launch.
Samsung Galaxy S III Alpha will be sold in Titanium Gray and Sapphire Black and will launch in December.
The first pre-order page for the Samsung Ativ S has popped up in the UK, with the online retailer asking for £479.99 (around $770/AU$750) in return for the Korean firm's flagship Windows Phone 8 smartphone.
Unveiled at IFA 2012 in Berlin, the Ativ S joins the likes of the HTC Windows Phone 8X and Nokia Lumia 920 at the top of Microsoft's new pile of handsets.
Online retailer Handtec has the Ativ S listed on its site for pre-order, and as well as being upfront about the potential price of Samsung's handset, it also reckons stock will arrive in the first week of November.
Bang for you buck?
Now that's a pretty safe bet, as we expect all the Windows Phone 8 smartphones to go on sale around this time, but back to that £479.99 price tag – is it worth it?
Well for your money you'll be getting a huge 4.8-inch, 720p Super AMOLED HD – which is the same size as you find on the Samsung Galaxy S3.
Under the hood you'll find a 1.5GHz dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM, 16GB of internal storage plus a couple of cameras - an 8MP offering round the back, while the front sports a 2MP sensor.
So while the Samsung Ativ S is by no means cheap, it's pretty much the Windows Phone 8 equivalent to the Android-toting Galaxy S3 - so perhaps the claimed price is not all that shocking.
Research indicates Lenovo has become the world's number one PC manufacturer, as the company announces plans to expand its smartphone range.
Lenovo is riding a wave of success at the moment, after announcing some exciting Windows 8 tablets, and now it appears the company has become the world’s number one PC manufacturer, and is preparing to release its smartphone range internationally too.
Research firm Gartner has released data that shows Lenovo has pushed past Hewlett-Packard to take the number one spot, and the figures read like this: HP can claim a 15.5-percent global market share, with 13.55 million units shipped, while Lenovo has a 15.7-percent market share with 13.77 million units heading out the door this quarter.
Perhaps more importantly, Gartner shows HP’s sales as down 16.4-percent on last year, while Lenovo is up by just under 10-percent. If you had to choose a direction as a company, you’d want to be the one going up.
According to Reuters, researchers from IDC still put Lenovo ahead of HP, with market shares of 15.7 and 15.9-percent respectively. HP told them that IDC’s report was “more expansive,” but then, they would say that. Almost regardless of who’s right today, the trend certainly indicates the position swap will happen soon.
HP’s CEO Meg Whitman has been quoted as saying the company is in the first year of a five-year restructuring plan, but despite the much-publicized downturn in PC sales — IDC says global sales have dropped by 8.6-percent since July — it still hasn’t made up its mind about re-entering the smartphone and tablet market. Recent reports seem to indicate confusion regarding this market segment within HP.
Lenovo to enter international smartphone market
Lenovo feels rather differently. It already produces smartphones for a variety of Eastern markets and in June this year, overtook both Nokia and Huawei to take second place in the Chinese market. Perhaps most tellingly — and a point HP needs to hear — is that its phone sales surpassed that of its PC sales for the first time there too.
It’s not just low-end hardware the company produces either, as it introduced the LePhone K860 in August, which has a 5-inch display with a 720p resolution, a quad-core processor (actually Samsung’s Exynos 4 Quad, also seen in the Galaxy S3), Android 4.0 and an 8-megapixel camera. It’s destined for Japan sometime later this year.
The momentum is there for Lenovo, and it’s already producing some interesting hardware, so it’s no surprise to see the following message posted on its Facebook page: “We won’t stop at laptops and tablets. For the first time, Lenovo is making plans to sell smartphones outside China.”
Introducing new hardware into the already massively competitive US and European markets isn’t going to be easy, but Lenovo knows it has little choice. Besides, it can always look at the lucrative African, Russian and South American markets initially, before hitting the rest of Europe and the US with devices such as the K860.
Lenovo hasn’t provided any further details, and we’d be surprised to see any releases this year, but it’s still a very positive step from a highly motivated company. Whether HP will respond remains to be seen.
If there was any doubt that LG was behind the next Nexus phone, it's well and truly abated after seeing these clearest spy shots to date.
A Russian site got its hands on a prototype device and shared the visual love – it looks as though the LG Optimus Nexus phone has a lovely back.
On the inside, the site says there's a 1.5GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, 2GB of RAM and a disappointing 8GB of storage.
Spectacle
The display is an intimidating 4.7-inches, with resolution apparently coming in at 1280 x 768.
Onliner, the site with the handset in hand, says the LG Optimus Nexus it's using comes with Android 4.1 but we're hoping for it to launch a new version of Android, probably 4.2.
We're not sure exactly when the new LG Optimus Nexus phone will launch but we're expecting a Google invite to drop into our inboxes any day now. Stay tuned.
Beside the high-quality photos there is not much new information about the LG Nexus phone. Still, we get its model name - the LG E960 - and a codename - the Mako.
We'd say that if it really turns out to be this year's Nexus device (something our fellow tech journalists are not quite sure), it makes all the sense in the world to be called the Google Optimus Nexus, right?
The pre-production phone these guys have runs currently the latest Android Jelly Bean 4.1.2.
On the front, there's a 4.7-inch screen with a resolution of 768x1280px. On the back, there's a 8 megapixel camera.
The LG (Optimus) Nexus phone
The real disappointment is on the inside. Despite the presence of the powerful quad-core Qualcomm chipset with 2GB of RAM, the built-in storage is only 8GB and there's no card slot for expansion.
Judging on the limited storage, LG wouldn't like it for their Optimus Nexus phone to compete with their other flagships. It's much like how Samsung supplied a measly 5 megapixel camera on their Galaxy Nexus.
As things are shaping right now, the Optimus Nexus won't be a customer-oriented multimedia consumption device.
Anyway, check out some more shots at the source link below.
