Apple loses UK Galaxy Tab design appeal

It seems that Samsung has got some relief in case of Suit for Galaxy Tab by Apple. 

Apple has lost its appeal in the UK regarding the High Court of Justice’s ruling that Samsung’s tablets did not infringe the iPad. The smartphone maker has now been ordered by Judge Kitchin to run a public apology stating that Samsung did not infringe its design. In an amusing twist, Reuters reports that the font size for the acknowledgement must be "no smaller than Arial 14."

Judge Colin Birss noted in July that Samsung’s tablets "were not as cool," stating that the designs didn't have "the same understated and extreme simplicity." The judge in the case also ruled that Apple would have to run advertisements on its website and in UK newspapers declaring that Samsung did not copy its designs. That motion was stayed, however, following today’s appeal.

Courtesy: The Verge

500 Million Android Activations

Google’s Director of Product Management for Android, Hugo Barra, has posted on Google+ this morning to announce that 500 million Android devices have now been activated globally.

It’s a huge milestone for the company, but it’s one that will quickly be surpassed. Barra also reaffirmed that a whopping 1.3 million Android devices are now being activated every single day. That means that by the end of the year, that total figure should look a lot more like 600 million — especially with the lucrative holiday season coming up.

Barra also announced on Google+ that the company’s Jelly Bean statue (above) is now sat outside of its Mountain View headquarters again. The figure was removed after its plastic head melted in the Californian sun over the summer, but it’s now been fixed.

The milestone is a steady improvement from the announcement of 300 million Android activations back in February and 400 million at June's Google I/O conference. 

Apple used to take part in this game, regularly announcing daily iOS device activations up until 2010, which may or may not have something to do with the fact that Android surpassed iOS in 2011.

Galaxy Cam: Android powered Camera

On Wednesday during the 2012 IFA conference in Berlin, Samsung unveiled an Android-powered Galaxy Camera you can partially control with your voice.

The new device, which looks like a camera in the front and a smartphone in the back, runs on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, and allows users to shoot, edit and share pictures with their social networks. But perhaps one of the most innovative features of the Galaxy Camera is its voice-control capabilities. You can tell the device to “zoom in” and “shoot” while snapping pictures.

Specs include a 21x optical touch zoom lens, a 4.8-inch HD Super Clear LCD display and a bright 16M BSI CMOS sensor and a quad-core processor. The Galaxy Camera also enables connectivity through 3G and 4G.

Icing on the cake is "Auto Cloud Backup", which automatically saves photos into Samsung’s AllShare cloud service. 

Gallery (Click on images to get full view)

Galaxy Note II unveiled

Samsung has just unveiled the Samsung Galaxy Note II smartphone at its event at the IFA trade show in Berlin. The new Note is narrower and taller than the old version, with a 5.5-inch HD Super AMOLED screen — slightly larger than the previous Note‘s 5.3-incher. Samsung managed to narrow the form factor by changing the aspect ratio to a 16:9 widescreen display.

The new Note is powered by Android 4.1 “Jelly Bean.” It packs a 1.6GHz processor with 2GB of RAM.

Of course, it also has the S Pen stylus, boasting some new abilities that weren’t in the old Note. First is Air View, which lets you preview content by hovering the stylus over icons. For example, you could hold the S Pen over a day on a calendar, and a preview window of that day’s appointments will appear.

There’s also Quick Command: Just sweep the S Pen up and a blank square pops up where you can write customized commands that will instantly do things such as send an email to a specific person.

[Courtesy: Mashable]

Galaxy S3 Jellybean: 29 August

Samsung Galaxy S3, meet Jelly Bean. Jelly Bean, meet the Samsung Galaxy S3. The hottest update for the hottest phone around is rumored to be taking place this month, as the popular Galaxy S3 is upgraded to the latest version of Android.

The Samsung fans at Sam Mobile report that the S3's Jelly Bean update is in the final stages of testing, and will be revealed on 29 August. That's the start of IFA, the annual European trade show where the world's tech manufacturers, distributors, press and general hangers-on gather in Berlin to eat sausages, quaff from steins, and fondle the best kit hitting shops for the rest of the year and beyond. Samsung is expected to unveil a new Galaxy Note at IFA. 

Could we see some Jelly Bean action too? Word on the street is that the code for the Jelly Bean update is fully baked and has been submitted to Google for certification. When the big G gives the thumbs up, Samsung can start to push the update out to you and your S3.

It's unusual that no code has leaked yet, but we already know that security around the S3 is intense. One engineer who worked on designing the phone described the security as "torture" -- so that could extend to the Jelly Bean update too.

It's unusual that no code has leaked yet, but we already know that security around the S3 is intense. One engineer who worked on designing the phone described the security as "torture" -- so that could extend to the Jelly Bean update too. Let's hope the Jelly Bean update goes rather more smoothly than the last upgrade.

[Thanks to: CNET]

Galaxy S3 photogallery

Samsung Galaxy SIII has been launched in 145 countries, on 296 mobile operators around the world making it the biggest launch in Samsung history. Here is the Photo gallery. You can view the entire album here.

GALAXY S3 Official video

Read entire Samsung Galaxy S3 news here. Galaxy S3 photo gallery can be found here

GALAXY S3 Finally Unveiled

Finally, Samsung has released the most awaited Galaxy S3.

We’ve been hearing the rumors for months, and now Samsung has gotten official with the newest member of its Galaxy line of smartphones, the Galaxy S III.

Samsung announced the most anticipated Android handset of the year Thursday at an event in London. The phone is the third-generation in a line of popular smartphones created by Samsung.

The phone has a 4.8-inch touchscreen, 8-megapixel rear-facing and 1.9-megapixel forward-facing camera, and comes running the latest version of Android — Ice Cream Sandwich. Much like the HTC One X, the camera has zero shutter lag so you can capture photos instantly. The camera is also capable of taking 20 photos at once in burst mode, and a feature called “Best Photo” will pick the best shot out of a group of eight.

The NFC-capable Galaxy S III has a Super AMOLED HD (1280×720) screen, offering more subpixels than other screens, resulting in improved colors as well as better visibility in bright situations.

New Features

A new feature called ‘Smart Stay’ on the phone detects your voice and motions, and recognizes how you are using the phone –for instance reading an e-book or browsing the web –and keeps the phone on while you’re using it. So, if you’re reading a book you don’t have to worry about having to constantly wake the screen up.

If you’re texting someone and decide to call them instead, a feature called ‘Direct Call’ will call that person as soon as you lift your phone to your ear.

A new feature called 'S Voice’ enables the phone to listen an respond to your words, and provides Siri-like search and voice control. You can ask the phone to “snooze” when your alarm goes off in the morning and you need a few more Zs, can be used to play your favorite songs, turn the volume up or down, send text messages and emails, organize your schedules, or automatically launch the camera and capture a photo.

A feature called 'Buddy Photo' Share will recognize your friends faces in a photo, and offer to send them the photo automatically.

With the Galaxy S III Samsung is unveiling a new ‘S Beam’ which expands on Android Beam, allowing you to share a 1GB mobile file with a friend in just 3 minutes, or transfer a 10MB music file in just 2 seconds—without using WiFi or a cellular signal – by tapping your phone together with another Galaxy S III.

A feature called “AllShare Cast” lets you connect your Galaxy S III wirelessly to your television to view content. The service can also be used to share files between your galaxy S II and your tablet, PC, and televisions regardless of the distance between the devices.

The Galaxy S III will be available in 145 countries, on 296 mobile operators around the world., making it the most largest launch in Samsung history. Available in ‘Pebble Blue’ and ‘Marble White,’ the phone will be available from the end of May in Europe before rolling out to other markets globally this summer.

Read specs and review on GSMArena [direct link]

[Source: Mashable]

Samsung will unveil new Galaxy on May 3

Samsung has started sending out invites for the launch of the next Galaxy smartphone, which is slated for May 3 in London.The invite doesn't give any details about the upcoming device(s) — it merely says “come and meet the next Galaxy.”

However, we know that the company plans to reveal Samsung Galaxy S III, which was rumored to be launched at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, but Samsung decided to move the launch to a later date.

In any case, Samsung will have to show something truly spectacular if it wants to top the Tegra 3 powerhouses from HTC.

[Source: Mashable]