Android Authority |
- Meizu tablet with Flyme 3.0 OS concept shown off through fan-made video
- Rogers sqeezes in last minute smartphone price increase, three months free service offer before year-end
- Samsung to be “unaffected” by the loss of Apple’s processor orders, says Digitimes
- Samsung announces planned facilities expansion in San Jose area
- U.S. Cellular rolls out multi-window feature update to Samsung Galaxy Note 2
- Sony Xperia X (Odin) to be a dual-SIM version of Xperia Z (Yuga)?
- Sony Xperia Z release date reportedly set for January, to beat Galaxy S4 and iPhone 5S to market
- Apple vs Samsung ITC case sanctions could include 88% smartphone value bond paid by Android maker
- $15 billion fine could be Samsung’s ‘reward’ for European lawsuits against Apple
- Android Authority On Air – Episode 44 – Holiday Recap
| Meizu tablet with Flyme 3.0 OS concept shown off through fan-made video Posted: 29 Dec 2012 11:01 PM PST
And what does this one guy have to show for it? A really cool concept video that shows off a very interesting device, that’s what. The concept video introduces a Flyme 3.0 OS-powered tablet that is mind-bendingly thin and features a 13-megapixel camera as well as a 10-inch 2560×1600 pixel resolution touchscreen display. The design, which might present problems with ergonomics and heat dissipation, could be described as daring; the user-interface, compared with iOS and Android, certainly looks new and refreshing. Being the mere product of a devoted fan’s imagination, there’s no guarantee that this particular Meizu tablet will see the light of day at some point in the future. But at least it offers a glimpse at what’s in store for those who believe that Meizu should take a shot at the rapidly expanding world tablet market, and introduce stuff that aren’t smartphones like the Meizu MX2. If you’re curious to find out what all of this is about, then check out the Meizu tablet concept video below. Related Posts |
| Posted: 29 Dec 2012 10:42 PM PST
Based on an internal document that recently fell into the hands of the guys from Mobile Syrup, Rogers Dealers and Rogers Corporate Stores are apparently following a new advisory regarding hardware price changes (read: price increase) and the carrier’s free service offer. Rogers thought to increase unit prices for the Samsung Galaxy S3, Samsung Galaxy Note 2, and Apple iPhone 5 starting December 28th. And from that day on, all new and existing customers started getting three months free service on their wireless subscriptions. The price of the Samsung Galaxy S3 went up from $29.99 to $49.99, while the prices of both the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 and Apple iPhone 5 have increased to $149.99 — up from $99.99 and $79.99, respectively. As for the bit about the free service offer, Rogers now gives all new and existing Consumer and Small Business customers three months of free service in exchange for new activation or hardware upgrades. The free service offer is only available until midnight of December 31st. Why Rogers felt the need to offer the time-limited free service offer before the end of the year is pretty clear: it wants to sign more new customers as wireless subscribers while keeping its current ones at the same time. But the reason for the price increase is uncertain. It is perhaps tangentially related to the upcoming South Korean carrier ban on signing new customers because of absurdly high carrier subsidies for smartphones. Related Posts |
| Samsung to be “unaffected” by the loss of Apple’s processor orders, says Digitimes Posted: 29 Dec 2012 10:27 PM PST
Apple and Samsung's long-time battles have caused a lot of question as to whether or not they will continue their somewhat friendly chip partnership. Now, the questions seem to be answered as Apple is reportedly expected to discontinue or at least decrease their relationship with Samsung. They are beginning the process by decreasing the number of chip orders placed to Samsung, undoubtedly attempting to make the transition as seamless as possible. It is currently unclear as to whether or not they aim to be completely independant of Samsung's chips, or just decrease their overall dependence on the company. While this may seem like bad news for Samsung, the company does not appear to be worried. Digitimes reports, "The potential loss of Apple’s application processor (AP) orders, however, is unlikely to have a significant impact on Samsung’s logic IC operation." Samsung's logic IC operation is instead expected to be fully preserved and elevated through the company's well-established smartphone business. A rather interesting piece of information also provided by Digitimes is that currently, Samsung is only able to produce about 30% of the APs required for Samsung's own smartphone devices. With Apple no longer sucking up the majority of Samsung's production capacity, then perhaps it will allow the company for focus more intensely on their own devices. As it stands, the only devices lucky enough to actually receive Samsung's own chips are high-end devices such as the Galaxy S3 and the Note 2. The rest of the devices' APs are imported by manufacturers such as Qualcomm, Nvidia, Broadcom, ST-Ericsson and Marvell. This is likely to change as the report predicts that by the end of 2013, Samsung will provide the chips for about 50% of their devices. Related Posts |
| Samsung announces planned facilities expansion in San Jose area Posted: 29 Dec 2012 10:10 PM PST
The new Samsung Semiconductor sales and R&D headquarters will be built on the site of Samsung’s current semiconductor and display panel businesses, which are located north of downtown San Jose. The official press release says that it will be comprised of a 10-story tower, a curious amenity pavilion, and a parking garage. Meanwhile, the SISA R&R center’s new location features two new 6-story class-A office buildings and two 5-6 story parking structures. Samsung aims to further enhance its “soft” capabilities through this new undertaking and also establish new innovation centers. Speaking of which, the company has also announced work on expanding its Open Innovation efforts to make way for better interactions with new technologies and early stage companies. Check out the details in the official press release below. Samsung Continues to Expand Operations in the Bay Area Adding to its effort to build state-of-the-art, energy-efficient campuses, the company is expanding into innovation centers to enhance its 'soft' capabilities SAN JOSE, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd, a global leader in digital media, digital convergence technologies and advanced semiconductor solutions, continues to expand its operations in Silicon Valley by investing more resources in its existing R&D centers and establishing new innovation centers. Samsung Semiconductor, Inc. (SSI) announced plans to build a 1.1 million square foot sales and R&D headquarters on the current site of its semiconductor and display panel businesses, north of downtown San Jose. The building, designed by global architecture firm NBBJ, will be comprised of a 10-story tower, an amenity pavilion and parking garage. The design seeks to encourage interaction among staff, foster connections with the community and provide a space to attract employment in the highly competitive tech market, which is growing at a faster pace than overall employment. Samsung Information Systems America Inc. (SISA), will relocate its R&D Center from its current facility in North San Jose to an 8.5-acre site and expand to two new 6-story class-A office buildings totaling approximately 385,000 square foot. (each 192,500 sq. ft.) with two 5-6 story parking structures. The new facility will be oriented around a central plaza with views overlooking the adjacent Sunnyvale golf course and will be constructed to LEED Gold standards. The 15-year build-to-suit lease will be located at Cypress Business Park, 625-685 Clyde Avenue in Mountain View, California. Entitlements are in process and anticipated for completion in second quarter of 2013, with targeted occupancy in fourth quarter of 2014. In addition to these two major planned campuses, Samsung Electronics is expanding its Open Innovation efforts with additional space that will allow for incubating and acquiring new technologies and working with early stage companies. Samsung Strategy & Innovation Center, located in Menlo Park, a core area in Silicon Valley, was recently established to strengthen Samsung's ecosystem and promote synergy between the company's various products and services. Samsung Open Innovation Center, located in Palo Alto, will be a core entity to discover innovative startups in Silicon Valley, provide space, funds and effectively leverage them for innovation of Samsung's products through equity investments, acquisition and strategic partnership. Following the establishment of both the Samsung Strategy & Innovation Center and the Open Innovation Center in Silicon Valley, Samsung Electronics plans to set up corresponding organizations at R&D Centers and the Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology at its Korean headquarters to strengthen its global cooperative network. Related Posts |
| U.S. Cellular rolls out multi-window feature update to Samsung Galaxy Note 2 Posted: 29 Dec 2012 06:02 PM PST
As you may already know, the multi-window feature is a nice little perk that’s available exclusively to devices in Samsung’s Galaxy range of mobile devices — on select tablets and smartphones — that lets users run different apps through multiple windows all on the same screen. It’s been delivered to a number of different Galaxy Note 2 variants available in the U.S., such as those from T-Mobile and Sprint. U.S. Cellular is the latest to join in on the fun. As mentioned earlier, this software update also brings much-needed bug fixes to the Galaxy Note 2. The “Burst” mode bug in the camera app that is said to be the culprit for random black images and the faulty Search feature in the My Files app are among those that are supposed to be fixed by the update. There are also a couple of UI changes present in the update, though these are not likely to have a huge impact on the overall user experience. Here’s a copy of the full changelog:
This software update is available as an over-the-air (OTA) download, so for Galaxy Note 2 users under U.S. Cellular, all that needs to be done is to go to the Settings menu and check for the software update under About Device. Related Posts |
| Sony Xperia X (Odin) to be a dual-SIM version of Xperia Z (Yuga)? Posted: 29 Dec 2012 05:05 PM PST
Earlier today we told you that the Xperia Z – formerly known as the Yuga – could be launched in mid-January after being unveiled at CES 2013, if one rumor is to be believed. But it looks like we also have more news concerning the Xperia Z's brother, the Xperia X (Odin), a handset that should also be unveiled early next year. Xperia Blog via Vietnamese site SE-Cafe reports that the Xperia X is basically the dual-SIM version of the Xperia Z, and we wouldn't be surprised if that were the case. After all, we've seen plenty of high-end Android handsets come with dual-SIM capabilities this year, so we should expect to see the same trend follow next year. Here's what the Xperia X will have to offer, according to SE-Cafe, which was allowed to play with the device but not photograph it:
Obviously, nothing is official yet, and we'll just have to wait for CES 2013 to get underway to find out more details about the Yuga and Odin flagship handsets. Related Posts |
| Sony Xperia Z release date reportedly set for January, to beat Galaxy S4 and iPhone 5S to market Posted: 29 Dec 2012 04:25 PM PST
We have recently learned that the Sony Yuga, one of the company's 2013 flagship devices, will be known to the crowds as the Xperia Z and now we hear that the phone will be launched one week after CES 2013, where the device will be unveiled. Next year's Consumer Electronics Show edition will take place between 8-11 January in Las Vegas, so if this new rumor is correct, the Xperia Z will be launched sometime between 15-17 January. The new report comes from ePrice, a Chinese website, that says the Android smartphone will be launched on January 15, which would make the Yuga the first flagship handset of the new year. Sony is obviously interested in grabbing more smartphone market share and what better way to do it than by launching at least one new flagship device as early as possible next year. By having the Xperia Z out and about from mid-January, Sony would be able to beat to market rivals like Samsung and Apple, which are expected to reveal their flagship devices only later next year. Samsung's Galaxy S4 is rumored to launch in April, if not later, while Apple's seventh-generation iPhone (iPhone 5S?) is said to launch either in summer or fall of next year. The Sony Yuga is already said to sport some interesting hardware including a 5-inch display with 1080p resolution, a quad-core Qualcomm Snadragon S4 processor with Adreno 320 GPU, 2GB of RAM, 13-megapixel camera and microSD support, but we’ll tell you more about it in the following weeks. Anyone buying the Xperia Z as soon as it’s out in stores, or are you waiting for other Android OEMs to unveil their first 2013 flagship devices? Related Posts |
| Apple vs Samsung ITC case sanctions could include 88% smartphone value bond paid by Android maker Posted: 29 Dec 2012 03:58 PM PST
Earlier today we told you that Samsung faces a fine of up to $15 billion in Europe where the European Commission is investigating its standard essential patent use against Apple in several lawsuits in the region, and now we hear there's even more bad news for the South Korean Android maker. This time around we're looking at an Apple vs Samsung case before the U.S. International Trade Commission, which is won by Apple so far, at least in preliminary rulings – a judge recently found Samsung devices to infringe on Apple's iPhone design patents and three software feature patents. But what's interesting is that a "partially censored version of the presiding judge's initial determination" has been made public, with the recommended sanctions for Samsung being published. According to the document, Samsung faces "the following draconian combination of sanctions," as FOSS Patents puts it:
As CNET explains, this particular case concerns "older Samsung phones and tablets," not 2012 devices such as the Galaxy S3 and Galaxy Note 2 best-sellers, although these ones are part of a second ITC case between the two tech giants. And while the initial determination and sanctions recommendation sounds pretty bad for Samsung, the company can still use "designarounds" to prevent any patent infringements for the affected devices. Not to mention that the full six-member ITC commission may rule differently next year – that final ruling is scheduled for February 19, so we'll have to wait almost two more months to see what will happen. Related Posts |
| $15 billion fine could be Samsung’s ‘reward’ for European lawsuits against Apple Posted: 29 Dec 2012 03:27 PM PST
A few days ago we learned that Samsung has withdrawn its FRAND patent-based cases against Apple in Europe, but also that the European commission will still investigate the company's use of standard essential 3G patents in such lawsuits against competitors. Meanwhile, The Guardian has learned that Samsung faces a hefty fine following this investigation, which would be quite a price to pay for attacking Apple in several European markets using such patents. Apparently the commission can ask Samsung to pay fines up to 10% of the company's worldwide turnover for 2011. That translates into almost $15 billion, as Samsung's 2011 revenues amounted to $148.9 billion. That would be a huge blow for the South Korean giant, significantly more important than Apple’s $1.05 billion win from late August, which was recently upheld by a U.S. court. That doesn’t mean Samsung will necessarily pay a maximum fine, not to mention that we don't know exactly what the status of the investigation is. But it certainly sounds like a serious thing and it does explain why Samsung decided its best not to follow on its European injunction requests targeting Apple iOS products. Moreover, we will remind you that Google's Motorola faces similar fines following a similar approach to suing the competition – in this case both Apple and Microsoft – for infringing its own set of FRAND patents. We're already looking forward to see various interesting mobile gadgets next year, but unfortunately the patent wars won't disappear from our radar. In fact, Android device makers have begun fighting among themselves as well, with Samsung and LG attacking each other’s Android devices via display-related patents. Related Posts |
| Android Authority On Air – Episode 44 – Holiday Recap Posted: 29 Dec 2012 12:29 PM PST
From all of us here at Android Authority, we hope you’re having a wonderful holiday season. Being the time of year that it is, we have just a short, roughly 30 minute show for you this week, covering a few top topics from the past few days. On the Google Ecosystem front, Google Play released their top apps of 2012. According to Google, these apps really make Android shine. They are the best apps available for your favorite Android tablet or smartphone. While some some launched this past year, others received updates offered great utility, beauty and accessibility. Next up is Google Music. Users are reporting that their explicit lyric song versions are being replaced by the new music match feature with radio edits or non-explicit lyric versions of their songs. There is a quick and easy work around while we wait for Google to resolve this, tune into the show to find out how. We hit up a few rumors this week. Will we see a 7 inch Galaxy Note tablet? Possibly. The Samsung Galaxy Note line of Android devices keeps growing. First we had the 5 inch smartphone Note, then we saw the 10.1 Note in full tablet form, recently Note 2 arrived in 5.5 inch glory and now it seems we might be on the path for a 7 inch tablet in the very near future. According to the WSJ, Google and Motorola are working on an X phone and X tablet. The new X Android devices are said to not replace the Motorola Droid line but in fact a different product altogether. Google and Motorola have reportedly explored some interesting avenues with these devices and we went over them briefly on the show. The Verizon Droid RAZR and RAZR MAXX received over the air updates to Android Jelly Bean 4.1 on Christmas Eve. This so called Christmas miracle quickly changed from something awesome to something saddening when Verizon pulled the update shortly after releasing it. Was this a mistake? Most likely. Now Verizon is offering replacement phones for users whose phones are malfunctioning after the update. We didn’t have any patent wars topics this week, but we do have some rootin’ and ROMin’ news. If you’ve always wanted to be a dev, now you can with XDA University. Learn how to use git, build ROMs and kernels and even port ClockworkMod. Miss the show? Tune in or watch below: YouTube Happy Holidays! Related Posts |
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