Apple loses appeal over tablets in UK courtroom, must publicly apologize to Samsung

Apple and Samsung’s legal fight continued on the world stage this morning, where the Britain Court of Appeal upheld a previous ruling that Samsung’s Galaxy Tab does not infringe on the iPad’s patents because it is not “as cool.” Reuters reported that after losing the appeal this morning, Apple has been instructed by the court to apologize to Samsung by running ads on its website and in newspapers saying Samsung did not infringe on patents in at least Arial 14 font.

[Source: 9to5Mac - Click here to read the full story]

Listing reveals 3G Samsung Chromebook is on its way for $329.99

Well, this has got us scratching our collective heads. Yesterday, Samsung was fairly certain that its latest and greatest Chromebook would be a WiFi-only affair. Today, however, and a listing has appeared on the company's official website and Amazon that shows a 3G-enabled option is available for $329.99. Neither site mentions network options, so presumably you get the same 100MB a month for two years Verizon data that its brethren receive -- and given that we described it as being "80 percent of the MacBook Air experience for a quarter of the price," the 3G version seems well worth the extra $80.

[Source: Engadget]

Samsung will update US Galaxy S III devices to Jelly Bean 'in the coming months'

The about screen on your US Samsung Galaxy S III may look a lot like the one above in the near future (albeit in English). Samsung has officially announced its intention to make an upgrade to Jelly Bean available to stateside versions of the company's flagship, though it left out one very important detail: the actual date. Instead, all we know at this point is that an upgrade to Android 4.1 will be offered OTA and via Kies sometime in the coming months. Why so vague? It's likely because Samsung is now at the mercy of each individual carrier to finish testing the new version of Android on the GS3 before unleashing it to the public. The refresh will deliver some TouchWiz-based enhancements like Blocking Mode, Easy Mode and a few new camera settings, as well as the usual suite of Jelly Bean improvements like Google Now and expandable notifications. Head below to check out the press release, which offers a more detailed list of what to expect.

[Source: Engadget]

Apple Hires Key Chip Designer from Samsung

The Wall Street Journal reports that former AMD chip designer and executive Jim Mergard has now moved to Apple after a brief stint at Samsung, marking a significant talent win for Apple in its efforts to build its own chips.

The gadget maker has hired Jim Mergard, a 16-year veteran of Advanced Micro Devices who was a vice president and chief engineer there before he left for Samsung. He is known for playing a leading role in the development of a high-profile AMD chip that carried the code name Brazos and was designed for low-end portable computers. [...] 

It is not clear whether Mergard will work at Apple’s Cupertino, Calif., headquarters or remain in Austin, where he worked for AMD and Samsung. Apple has long operated a customer support center in the Texas capitol, but the company has had a local presence in chip design as well since its 2010 purchase of the startup Intrinsity.

The report quotes former AMD executive Patrick Moorhead as saying that Mergard has expertise in both PC chip design and system-on-a-chip design such as that used for Apple's iOS devices. The company uses ARM-based designs for its A-series chips that power its iOS devices, and the new A6 chip found in the iPhone 5 appears to be Apple's first custom design. 

Apple and Samsung of course have a complicated relationship, with the two rivals competing fiercely in the marketplace and the courtroom even as Samsung is one of Apple's primary suppliers. Apple's ARM-based chips are key components that are currently manufactured by Samsung.

[Source: MacRumors]

Samsung announces Galaxy S III mini: 4-inch Super AMOLED display, 1GHz dual-core CPU, NFC

Samsung has just announced the Galaxy S III mini, a 4-inch David version of its Goliath big brother -- will it be worthy of its name? The rumor mill churned out that it might be a dumbed down version, but an oblique comment by mobile head JK Shin suggests otherwise -- either way, we're on the scene in Frankfurt, Germany to give you the long (and short) of it. According to the spec sheet we just received, this Android 4.1 phone features a dual-core 1GHz chip (which is good news for the 1,500mAh battery), 1GB RAM, 8 or 16GB of internal storage plus an extra 32GB maximum via microSD. The 4-inch Super AMOLED screen comes with a WVGA resolution, while the main camera takes five-megapixel photos plus 720p video, and there's a VGA front-facing camera as well for fans of video chats. There's obviously the usual bundle of radios as well, including 802.11a/b/g/n WiFi, GPS, GLONASS, FM radio, Bluetooth 4.0 (LE) and even NFC, but for now, this 111.5-gram TouchWiz device will only support HSPA 900/1900/2100 networks along with EDGE 850/900/1800/1900.

[Source: Engadget]

Samsung partners with Spotify, brings streaming music to its 2012 Smart TVs in Europe

Europeans who have been pining for a (nother) way to bring Spotify into their living rooms can rest easy, now that Samsung is on the case. The pair have teamed up to bring 18 million tracks to Sammy's 2012 E-Series Smart TVs with a new app designed for the platform. The software will arrive later this year, with existing Premium users finding their playlists already syncing, while those new to the service will be offered a short free trial to coax them into signing up. If you've yet to make an investment in one of the displays, the company is also planning to add the functionality onto its Blu-Ray players and Home Theater systems in short order.

[Source: Engadget]

Samsung asks us to witness 'The Next Big Thing' at an October 24th event in New York City

We're starting to suspect that Samsung has a thing for special events. The company just asked us to clear our calendars for an evening presentation in New York City on October 24th, teasing that the "Next Big Thing" has arrived. It's easy to make the connection to the Galaxy Note line with a stylus front and center in the teaser, although just what's entailed is left to the imagination: is it a more formal launch for American Galaxy Note II variants? A new tablet beyond the Galaxy Note 10.1? All we know is that we plan to be there to find out.

[Source: Engadget]

Samsung has BIG dig at iPhone 5 Queuers

Even though I love Apple products, the Samsung Galaxy S3 is with no doubt an awesome phone. Samsung seem to think so too, they also think iPhone 5 queues are funny. Check out their new advert below.

Samsung starts producing faster 2GB LPDDR3 memory for mobile devices, 128GB flash storage too

While the scales may be steadily tipping towards mobile in the world of DRAM production, there's still plenty of room for technological enhancements. To prove the point, Samsung has just started mass production of what it claims to be the first 2GB LPDDR3 DRAM chip for mobile, which can shuffle information in and out 1,600 Mbps (compared to its 1,066 Mbps LPDDR2 predecessor), with up to 12.8 GB/s of bandwidth. In addition, the manufacturer has also started mass production of a place to hold all of that lovely data, in the form of a 128GB mobile flash storage chip. When will you be able to buy a superphone sporting 2GB of RAM and 128GB of storage? We don't know for sure, but even in the face of adversity all of the components seem to be falling into place.

[Source: Engadget]

Samsung Running an iPhone 5 Attack Ad in Newspapers on Sunday

CNet and Businessinsider have published a new print ad that Samsung will be running in national newspapers tomorrow.

And so Samsung is greeting the arrival of the iPhone 5 with an ad that will run tomorrow in certain national and local newspapers (how modern). It is not a flattering ad. It suggests that the iPhone 5 isn't even good enough to be, well, a copy of the Galaxy S3.

The ad is titled "It doesn't take a genius." which serves as a dig against Apple Retail's genius bars. The rest of the ad shows the iPhone 5 alongside the Samsung Galaxy S III and lists a number of system specifications as well as features. The list is obviously heavily weighted towards Samsung where many of their software features are preferentially listed. At the end is the line "The Next Big Thing Is Already Here". 

Apple and Samsung have been competing head to head in the smartphone market and in the courtroom. Apple won a massive victory in their U.S. patent trial against Samsung with a $1.05 billion verdict. 

[Source: MacRumors]

Oh Samsung Will You Ever Learn ?!

Searching the internetz the other day I turned up this video about the "Samsung Spider Laptop" from MiniPCPro on YouTube. This is a new laptop that you can connect your Samsung Galaxy S3 to. About half way through the video, which you can watch below, we see a mouse that accompanies the laptop. Even the presenter comments that there ay be another lawsuit coming and they are right.

It doesn't just have a slight resemblence to the Magic Mouse from Apple. Instead, if you take a good look at the mouse, it really does look almost identical. After Apple being awarded $1 Billion in the last round, I thought that Samsung would be a bit more careful. I can see it now … internal document leak from engineers … "How can we make our mouse like the Magic Mouse, but improve on it, without seeming to have copied it?" … well you have managed to make a superb looking mouse, yes, but it is an IN YOUR FACE copy that will surely gain more than my attention.

What do you think? Leave your comments below.

Apple reducing component orders from Samsung for iPhone 5, reportedly not mainly because of patent disputes

It seems that Apple’s latest supply chain move is an effort to widen its supply chain as the Reuters report denies that the move is not in response to Apple and Samsung’s global patent disputes.

The Korea Economic Daily first reported that Samsung component orders would be down for the new iPhone. According to the newspaper, Samsung displays, memory chips, and batteries are excluded from the iPhone 5′s initial production run. LG Display, and other Japanese and Chinese companies (including Sanyo) are said to be the suppliers of those critical iPhone elements.

[Source: 9to5Mac]