The Galaxy Mini from Samsung may soon get a successor in the form of the leaked Galaxy mini 2 S6500. GSM Arena was sent an image of the device from a source, together with some basic specs. The touchscreen has grown to 3.3 inches and has a higher resolution, while the processor is 200MHz faster, now at 800MHz. The internal storage space got the biggest bump, to 3GB.
Samsung may apply its Galaxy smartphone branding to a dedicated camera if a recent trademark filing with the USPTO is any indication. The "Galaxy Camera" name it's seeking would likely involve an Android-powered compact digital camera with a significantly larger lens, perhaps similar to the Polaroid SC1630 we had a chance to check out at CES. The filing falls under the "Cameras and Camcorders" section of the patent office and therefore wouldn't be a phone.
Samsung has hinted that any products shown at Mobile World Congress may be low-profile after it stated Wednesday that it had no plans for a special event at the Barcelona show. The company didn't rule out any "exciting new products" in a response to PCMag inquiries, but it hinted that it not only would miss the Galaxy S III but that any other major unveilings would wait until later as well. No clues exist as to when special events might take place later.
Telus' Optik IPTV service got much more control over non-traditional viewing on Tuesday. Optik TV for Xbox 360 takes advantage of the fall Xbox 360 Dashboard update to use the console as the set-top box, including for remote DVR viewing if there's a traditional DVR on the same network. The support includes full Kinect motion control.
Samsung in a response Tuesday quickly dampened rumors that it had already picked a special event date for the postponed Galaxy S III. A French invitation to a March 22 event was just a biannual open house event, Samsung told The Next Web. The Korean company had promised a separate event later than Mobile World Congress in late February, but hadn't said when.
The iPhone is now the top-selling cellphone of any kind in the US, the NPD Group determined on Monday. As of the fall, the iPhone 4S was the bestselling device in the field. Apple also managed a clean sweep of the top three, with the iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS at second and third places.
A new rumor has fueled speculation surrounding the Galaxy S III. The hardware will reportedly squeeze down to as little as 7mm (0.28in) thick by eking every amount of thinness from the internal components, ETNews claimed. The mainboard, chips, and connectors would all be about 10 to 20 percent thinner than usual.
Both Americans and Canadians alike got the opportunity to preorder the Samsung Galaxy Note on Sunday. An AT&T listing lets Americans pick the 4G device and a matching plan ahead of the February 19 release. Contract-free purchases aren't available ahead of time on the $300 Android phone, although both the very dark carbon blue and ceramic white colors are options.
Metrics from ad tracking agencies has hinted that Samsung's TV ad campaign has lost momentum. YouGov BrandIndex has posted updated ad effectiveness tracking that suggests the buzz, or conversation around the brands, has leveled off. Its score has climbed since October, from 18 to 26, but Apple has also grown in the same space of time to get a comfortable lead at 34.
MetroPCS this week brought back its Unlimited $40 per month plan for 4G handsets. It's available on the Samsung Galaxy Attain 4G, LG Esteem, and Samsung Galaxy Indulge smartphones, which were only previously available with the $50 or $60 LTE plans. The same unlimited web browsing and YouTube access in addition to the same unlimited talk and text as before is included.
Benchmark results from An3DBenchXL indicate the existence of a new smartphone from Samsung, dubbed the 'Galaxy S 2+.' Compared to the Galaxy S II it's based on, the listed specs of the tested device include a 1.5GHz CPU (versus 1.2GHz in some S II models), an 800x480 display, and Android 2.3.4 preloaded.
US Cellular acted on promises and detailed its first LTE devices. Both would be slight tweaks of existing Samsung devices and would include the Galaxy S Aviator, an adaptation of the Droid Charge from Verizon, and the Galaxy Tab 10.1 LTE. The two should arrive in April and March respectively.
Samsung on Wednesday confirmed rumors that its flagship phone for the year, unofficially known as the Galaxy S III, will miss Mobile World Congress. Stopping a relatively brief tradition of launching its flagship smartphone at the Barcelona event, the company told TechRadar it would replace the Galaxy S II at a "separate Samsung-hosted event" closer to when the hardware would actually ship. There would be new devices at Mobile World Congress, the Korean firm said, but not its halo device for the year.
Samsung's Galaxy S III may have already passed testing by the Wi-Fi Alliance for approval. Documents posted by the trade group point to an unannounced handset referred to by the model number GT-i9300, corroborating an earlier leak from Samsung's support pages for the UAE.
Samsung continues to send out conflicting signals about when its future flagship phone, the Galaxy S III might be released. Earlier today, Samsung's Senior marketing VP, Younghee Lee, said that the company was "still reviewing" options. At the same time, a probable reference to the phone has since shown up on Samsung's UAE support page as the GT-i9300.
A unique variant of the Samsung Galaxy S II has now shown up undergoing FCC testing. The device, only known so far as the GT-i9070, will have GSM/EDGE 850MHz and 1,900MHz support, along with WCDMA 3G bands II and IV used in the US. It's believed focused on China.
Samsung as part of the call discussing its record fall results still left open concerns about a late Galaxy S III introduction. Senior marketing VP Younghee Lee said that the company was "still reviewing" some options as to when to release a new Galaxy flagship. No exact date had been set, she said.
Separate IHS iSuppli and Strategy Analytics studies Friday have backed Apple's rapid return to the top of the smartphone space in the fall. Determining that Samsung had shipped 36 million smartphones, slightly higher than Samsung's preliminary estimates, IHS iSuppli put Apple's 37 million iPhones just on top. Although Samsung nearly quadrupled the amount of smartphones it shipped and moved more year-long, Apple's higher starting point meant it could just double its yearly shipments to stay competitive.
Samsung has detailed its full results following a brief preview earlier in the month. The Korean electronics giant mustered the equivalent of $42 billion in revenue, but owed much of this and its profit to a 30 percent increase in its cellphone business. Almost half of its working profit, $2.3 billion out of $4.7 billion, came from its mobile group; profit as a whole was up 17 percent.
As part of its promise to back away from Carrier IQ on its handsets, Sprint's latest software update for its Samsung Epic 4G Touch removes it. The EL29 update is also said to bring with it a number of other changes, such as a security update, the activation of the Commercial Alert System, and dismissing multiple calendar alerts.
Samsung's defining 2012 phone, the Galaxy S III, could be missing its expected Mobile World Congress debut to time it around the US, a pair of sources claimed Wednesday. Although the phone would be ready "before summer," both BestBoyZ and The Verge understood from contacts that Samsung wanted to wait until the Android phone was closer to its US release to make it public. There would still be "interesting stuff," such as a possible Galaxy Tab 11.6, but there would be no repeat of the 2010 and 2011 device launches.
More details from AT&T's escaped roadmap have shown in two leaks Wednesday afternoon. The new BGR tips point to a new, $410 Sony tablet known as the Crystal. While it could be something new, it's most likely to be the long-delayed Tablet P (S2), a dual-screened Android tablet with HSPA+ 3G.
Apple in its fall quarterly results retook the crown as the world's largest smartphone maker. Its 37.04 million iPhones shipped were enough to pass Samsung's 35 million and ran significantly above most estimates. The American company had not just the advantage of the iPhone 4S launch during a holiday season but widened carrier access and its fastest international rollout to date.
Samsung in the space of a day has already posted a new ad (below) in its Galaxy S II campaign run-up to the Super Bowl. The new spot returns to the infamous barista of the first ad and mocks him for being 'creative' through latte art. His friends come in to get ready for what the Samsung owners think is real camping; they find a campsite quickly on 4G, only to learn that the others meant the iPhone line.
Samsung has run another ad for the Galaxy S II that this time deliberately omits an iPhone feature that negates its advantage. One of those waiting in line for an iPhone ducks into a store and is impressed when he sees a clerk use Android's built-in Voice Actions to send a text. In a first for the ad campaign, the S II actually catches a buyer, who raises concerns among his iPhone queue friends when he doesn't come back.
HTC and IBM together said in an interview Friday that they were working together to get Android into the workplace. IBM's business apps were running on HTC's phones and tablets, HTC's Global Enterprise and Services director David Jaeger told eWeek. On its side, HTC was making sure both that the devices took full advantage of the IBM apps and that they "focused extensively" on security.
Samsung has resumed its ads jabbing iPhone 4S waiters with a new spot as part of what should ultimately lead to a Super Bowl promo. The 30-second clip shows more iPhone queues, this time at night, and touts the Galaxy S II's advantage of having Google Maps Navigation. When asked how much he paid for the app, the Android phone owner says he "just has it" for free.
Samsung on Thursday said it had reached a local milestone at over five million Galaxy S II phones shipped to South Korea. The figure came nine months after its release and helped give Samsung 53 percent share of the smartphone market in its home country. With a total population of nearly 49 million as of a 2010 estimate, the tally would theoretically put the dual-core Android phone in the hands of a tenth of the entire South Korean population.
Samsung product innovation VP Kevin Packingham in an interview from CES claimed his company had a goal of true all-day battery life on smartphones this year. Along with getting higher battery capacities, Samsung would optimize the wireless activity on cellular and Wi-Fi, as well as tune other components, he told CNET. He admitted that phones like the Droid Charge weren't ideal, in part because of the use of new technologies like LTE that still had young chipssets.
Apple has updated its attack on Samsung with a new lawsuit in Germany. The Dusseldorf complaint accuses Samsung of violating design rights with ten smartphones, headlined by the Galaxy S II but also including the Galaxy S Plus. An additional suit targets five extra Samsung tablets, which aren't yet known but likely include those that haven't been changed to skirt design patents, such as the original Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus and Galaxy Tab 8.9.
The Samsung Galaxy S II HD may soon be hitting the UK. MoDaCo posted an image of the smartphone, which features a 4.65-inch 1280x720 screen, comingon UK online phone retailer MobiCity's homepage. While the teaser has now disappeared from MobiCity's UK site, its sibling in Australia is taking orders for immediate shipment of the device.
Samsung disclosed Monday that its new Austin plant might require that it sell $1 billion in debt for funding. It expects to sell a five-year bond and has been talking to banks to help orchestrate the deal. The arrangement would be its first significant sale of the kind in over a decade.
Samsung has announced that its Galaxy S II smartphone, Galaxy Tab 10.1 Wi-Fi edition and Galaxy Tab 10.1 4G LTE have received Federal Information Processing Standard 140-2 (FIPS) certification from the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The certification means that government agencies and regulated industries, such as financial and health care institutions, can use the global version of the devices to handle certain types of secure data. Samsung has also given the devices its own proprietary SAFE (Samsung Approved for Enterprise) enterprise security certification.
T-Mobile in a surprise step has teased another variant on the Galaxy line. The Samsung Galaxy S Blaze 4G will have the dual-core, 1.5GHz Snapdragon S3 of the current version, but it will build on the Galaxy S II to bring 42Mbps HSPA+ speeds. Android 2.3 looks to still be standard.
The iPhone 4S held off the Galaxy Nexus for the top spot in smartphones on Verizon, Canaccord Genuity analyst T. Michael Walkley found through channel checks. Apple's newest phone still had the top sales spot on every major US carrier that sells it in December, keeping the first Android 4.0 phone at second place. As before, the only carrier where Apple didn't lead was T-Mobile, where it doesn't participate.
Samsung late Thursday gave preliminary estimates that anticipated a record-setting fall. Its last quarter of 2011 would see its profit jump 73 percent to $4.5 billion based on money from selling its storage to Seagate, royalty payments, and a rapid rise in smartphone sales. It anticipated having shipped 35 million smartphones, or about 25 percent more than it did in the summer.
Sprint made a minor contribution to the CES run-up with two special phone variants. The provider confirmed a white Epic 4G Touch and plans to have the special version in stores on January 8 for $200 on a contract. It keeps the 4.5-inch Super AMOLED Plus screen, dual-core 1.2GHz Exynos processor, WiMAX 4G, and Android 2.3 as its black cousin.
Samsung brought out one more phone ahead of CES on Wednesday. The Galaxy M Style is its lowest-cost phone ever to carry a Super AMOLED screen and brings the four-inch, 480x800 organic screen to a smartphone that will cost under $500 US unlocked. Its construction is just as high-end for the category, carrying a metal body that's 0.39 inches thick and with a similar front face to the more upscale Galaxy S II.
Samsung preceded CES with a pair of audio docks aimed both at its Galaxy S smartphones and, ironically, iOS devices. The Audio Dock with Vacuum Tube Amplifier, or the DA-E750, mixes both a digital amp and a vacuum tube pre-amp for what it hopes is a mix of accurate sound with warm tones. Samsung is also promising full wireless support for its own Android devices as well as iOS, including Apple's AirPlay, Samsung's AllShare (DLNA), and Bluetooth.
South Korea's KT on Tuesday became the third carrier in the country to launch LTE-based 4G. Its Olleh 4G LTE service is starting up first with four phones, including the Pantech Vega and Samsung's Galaxy S II LTE, Galaxy S II HD LTE, and Galaxy Note LTE. A unique trick of the new network is an adapative system known as Warp: KT can tie as many as 144 cell sites into one virtual station and dynamically put bandwidth where it's needed, potentially avoiding bottlenecks.
Samsung in a prelude to CES upgraded its most important budget smartphone. The Galaxy Ace Plus keeps the 320x480 resolution but bumps up from a 3.5-inch to a 3.65-inch screen. A faster 1GHz processor (up from 800MHz) and an extra 1GB of internal storage, for 3GB total, keep it fresh relative to others in its class.
The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 and Galaxy S II may soon be available at US Cellular, according to a screen capture from the carrier's system shared by Android Central. The regional carrier has yet to officially announce either device, however, so ship dates and prices remain unknown. Both would be late entries after most major carriers had one device or both.
A new discovery Tuesday has shown that Intel's Medfield chip for smartphones and tablets could temporarily claim the performance lead when it ships. Benchmarks at VR-Zone of a 1.6GHz example of the new Atom had it reach a score of 10,500 in Caffeinemark 3, an Android test for Java. The best ARM chip in the test, the 1.2GHz Exynos from the Samsung Galaxy S II, scored 8,500 points and let Intel take a roughly 24 percent lead.
Samsung hopes to grow its entire cellphone base by 15 percent next year. Industry insiders reportedly talking to the Korea Economic Daily saw shipments growing from an estimated 325 million this year to 374 million in 2012. Most of that would come on the back of smartphone shipments, which would amount to 150 million of that group.
Samsung has said it's reconsidering plans to skip Android 4.0 on the original Galaxy S and Galaxy Tab. In a pair of responses to AJ News and MSN, the Korean company said it was "discussing ways to support" the new OS on the earlier hardware. The over 20 million original Galaxy S owners and the vocal opposition to Samsung's current plans were considered important factors.
Japanese site Blog of Mobile has just dug up a Wi-Fi Alliance listing for a portable gadget from Samsung called the GT-N8010. It passed the certification process on December 21 and is suspected of being a successor to the Galaxy Note. It will handle 2.4GHz and 5GHz Wi-Fi bands.
Samsung has announced two smartphones with dual-SIM capabilities. The new Galaxy Y Duos and Galaxy Y Pro Duos will be the company's first Android-based devices to support two SIMs to enable users either to consolidate their business and personal lines on one phone, or to wield multiple phone plans on one device. Many of those in Asia and Europe, the phone's main targets, often thrive on multiple plans to save money.
The iPhone made dramatic share gains in the fall, but only in some countries, Kantar Worldpanel found Thursday. In the more recently Android-friendly US, Apple's share of smartphones between September and November was up from 25 percent a year earlier to 36 percent. The UK saw a similar turn, up from 21 percent to 31 percent, while Australia was also positive.
Nuance shook up the smartphone field Tuesday by acquiring Vlingo. The deal gives it a natural language voice command system available both after the fact and preloaded on phones like the iPhone 4S, which itself uses Nuance as part of its recognition.
Samsung has officially announced that it will give its Galaxy S II and Galaxy Note an update to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich as soon as the first quarter of 2012. “The platform update for Galaxy S II and Galaxy Note will start in the first quarter 2012, and other Galaxy devices will soon follow,” reads a statement from the company. A notable absence from the list of handsets to get the Ice Cream Sandwich update, however, is the original Galaxy S, which is apparently incapable of being upgraded.
