Galaxy Note Pro 12.2 deep-dive review: Almost a laptop replacement

Samsung's big Galaxy Note Pro 12.2 tablet offers a desktop or laptop computer experience -- almost.

The new Note Pro has a crystal-clear 12.2-in. diagonal LCD display at 2560 x 1600 pixels, which provides 30% more screen real estate than on a 10-in. tablet. The viewing experience is complemented by a stunning sound system that makes playing videos truly immersive.

With a 9,500mAh battery, a Samsung Exynos 5 Octa Processor and 3GB of memory, I was able to get more than 13 hours of battery life with intensive use (including streaming much of the original 1990 BBC trilogy of House of Cards), impressive by any standard.


There are many other hardware plusses, including Samsung's customary micro SD slot that lets you add up to 64GB of internal storage. An 8-megapixel rear camera comes with a super quick shutter speed (rated at zero by Samsung) and full HD video at 60fps; there's also a 2-megapixel front camera.


My Wi-Fi-only review unit came in black with a faux leather back and a glass screen that, unfortunately, did little to reduce outdoor glare. A white version is also available, and Verizon Wireless now offers a 4G LTE version.

Samsung is pitching this tablet mainly as a productivity machine for writers, artists, executives and students who are mobile and need a way to create content as much as they consume it. So I decided to give it a try for 10 days -- first, at Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona and afterward in my home office.


At 1.7 lb., the tablet felt heavy. It weighs more than the Microsoft Surface 2 (1.5 lb.) and the iPad Air (1 lb.) -- and at 11.6 x 8 x 0.32 in., it's noticeably larger as well. Still, it is much lighter than the 4.5 lb. MacBook Pro that I regularly use for work.

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Samsung unveils four smart cameras in WB series with NFC, Wi-Fi

Samsung Electronics has announced WB35F, WB50F, WB350F and WB1100F, four new Smart cameras in the WB series for the Indian market.

The new WB family will have the latest connectivity features and is equipped with NFC and Wi-Fi capabilities to make image sharing easy. The camera have the new Tag & Go feature that uses NFC to mke sharing as easy as touching the two devices together.

Other features include Photo Beam, which immediately transfers the image being viewed on the camera to a smartphone or tablet, and AutoShare that saves images straight to the device in real time. Remote Viewfinder offers greater flexibility when setting up shots, as the camera can be controlled via a smartphone to act as a viewfinder.

SMART Camera WB35F : This camera is for ambitious photography enthusiasts and has a 2.7-inch QVGA LCD screen, 12X optical zoom and 16MP CCD sensor.
Rs 12,490


SMART Camera WB50F : The WB50F is for the family and has a 12x optical zoom, a 16MP CCD sensor and bouncing soft flash as well as a 3-inch HVGA LCD screen.
Rs. 14,990

SMART Camera WB350F : This state of the art compact zoom camera comes with 21x optical zoom, a 23mm Wide Angle lens and 16MP BSI CMOS sensor. It is also capable of capturing Full HD video at 30 frames a second.

Rs.21,490

SMART Camera WB1100F : The WB1100F has 35x Optical zoom capabilities coupled with 25mm wide angle lens. It has a Speed Control Key that allows users to move through various levels of zoom with speed and ease.

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Samsung introduces new gadgets

Korean electronic device manufacturer, Samsung, introduced two new gadgets that it said would maintain the company’s high market share in each of the device’s respective markets this year.

Samsung Indonesia on Tuesday and Wednesday revealed its third generation NX30 Smart Camera and Galaxy NotePRO, two high-end gadgets.


The NX30, which is a mirrorless interchangable-lens camera, shows Samsung’s continuing trend to innovate user-friendly smart cameras that are “connected”.

The device is embedded with the Tag & Go application that allows users to easily upload images to Dropbox or Flickr via a WiFi connection. The camera also features the ability to use a Photo Beam feature to transfer images to a smartphone or tablet by touching the two devices together, thanks to the NFC connectivity.


The NX30 is geared with a 20.3-megapixel-resolution sensor and nine frames per second (fps) feature that allows even newbies to capture fast-moving scenes with style, like a pro using a DSLR camera.

Andreas Rompis, Samsung Indonesia IT and mobile business vice president, said the decision to introduce more mirrorless cameras was based on increasing market demand.


He said the mirrorless camera market rose by 22.3 percent in 2013 in Indonesia, while compact digital camera shipments dropped by 2.8 percent.


“We innovate more than just cell phones because smart life will require various gadgets,” Andreas said Tuesday during the launch at Rimba Hotel in Jimbaran, Badung.

The NX30 boasts some powerful photo-centric features often found in only more advanced and more expensive cameras, such as a maximum 1/8000 shutter speed, and the ability to capture 1080/60p high definition (HD) video.


Although claimed as a compact, the NX30 is actually relatively larger than other mirrorless cameras, but still more compact than DSLRs.

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Samsung, LG may set up chip-making units in India

South Korean multinational conglomerates Samsung and LG are considering setting up units to manufacture electronic chips in India, following the government's clearance to build two such semiconductor units.

Republic of Korea's Ambassador to India Joon-gyu Lee at a recent event said the Indian government wants to get companies like Samsung and LG, which manufacture semiconductors, to start this operation here as well.

"The companies (LG and Samsung) are considering the Indian request. The problem is Indian style of slow processes," Lee said.


No comments were received from the companies. Last week, the Cabinet approved setting up of two semiconductor units entailing total investments of Rs 63,410 crore. One unit would be set up by a consortium led by Jaiprakash Associates and the other by Hindustan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation (HSMC).

In September, the Cabinet had given in-principle nod to the projects.

India does not have a semiconductor plant yet. Semiconductor, or electronic chip, is the main hardware component that is key to the functioning of devices such as mobiles and computers as well as hi-tech defence equipment.


These components are vital for cybersecurity too as they can used to manipulate functions in a product or for spying purposes.

China already has a wide lead over India as it has about 100 facilities. Demand for electronic products in India is expected to rise about 10 times to reach $400 billion by 2020.

As per market research firm Gartner, Samsung was among top 5 semiconductor companies in terms of revenue in 2012.


The worldwide semiconductor foundry market totaled $34.6 billion in 2012. Samsung was ranked 5th with market share of 3.7% at revenue of $1,295 million.

Israel-based Tower Jazz and US-based IBM, which are investing in India as part of the Jaiprakash Associates led consortium, were ranked 6th and 7th in terms of revenue in global market, as per Gartner.

The consortium led by HSMC has ST Microelectronics and Silterra as partners.

Details pertaining to LG's semiconductor business could not be ascertained.

India has announced it would provide 25% subsidy on capital expenditure and tax reimbursement under Modified Special Incentive Package Scheme Policy and exemption of basic customs duty for non-covered capital items for companies setting up semiconductor plant(s).

In addition, investing companies will be eligible for 200% deduction on expenditure on research and development under Section 35 (2AB) of the Income Tax (IT) Act and investment-linked deductions under Section 35AD of the IT Act.

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Samsung begins move away from Android? Next Galaxy Gear smartwatch to run on Tizen

Despite the poor show put up by the Galaxy Gear, Samsung hasn’t given up hope on its smartwatch offerings, and is all set to launch a new version of the device.

While the original Gear is an Android-based smartwatch, the Gear 2, which will also be known as the Galaxy Band, is likely to run on Samsung’s own Tizen OS. People familiar with the matter told CNet that Samsung would unveil the new Gear smartwatch at the Mobile World Congress and it will run company’s Tizen software.

We’ve been hearing about Samsung’s Tizen-based devices for some time now. The smartphone was initially slated for launch in 2013, but later reports claimed that Samsung has pushed the launch to 2014. Now, news has it that the company will be unveiling the Tizen-based smartwatch along with some other Tizen products, most probably a phone and camera.

According to the report the company is also developing fitness bands. This could also mean there is a possibility that the Galaxy Band could be a new device altogether and run on Android, while the Tizen-based Gear 2 could be an improved version of Gear. Samsung refused to respond to the rumours about the Tizen-based smartwatch by stating it doesn’t want to comment on rumours and speculations.

US not on Samsung's map for Tizen any time soon:

Samsung had kickstarted the year by teasing us about its upcoming Gear successor. Later rumours pointed at a fitness-focused smartwatch dubbed the Galaxy Band, which could be a differentiator from the defamed Gear series. The Galaxy Band is expected to be loaded with sensors for capturing data on motion, pressure and temperature, all of which are essential for fitness trackers. The device will connect with Samsung Galaxy devices (and presumably other phones) via Bluetooth LE.

A previous report had also claimed that the final public release of the Tizen and smartphones running the OS will only be in Q3 of 2014. But now it seems that the company won’t wait that long. This could be prompted in part, by the not-so-satisfactory sales of the Galaxy S4, which has caused the company to push forward with the Galaxy S5, which is also likely to launch at its  “Unpacked 5″ event this week.

Is Samsung Trying To Dump Google?

After Google acquired Motorola, Samsung may have been pushed to believing in building its own ecosystem.  However, the twist in the tale came this year when Google sold Motorola to Lenovo.

Last year J.K. Shin, Samsung CEO had said how he plans Tizen to be everywhere, and looks like this is just the beginning. However, at the Unpacked event, Android could still take centre-stage if the company unveils the Galaxy S5.

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Samsung's Context service will collect user data to share with developers

KOREAN PHONE MAKER Samsung reportedly is working on a service called Context that will collect more data from its smartphone users which it then will share with app developers.

That's according to The Information, which has heard that Samsung is developing a service called Context that will collect data such as what a person types, what apps they use, and what data their smartphone's sensors pick up. Samsung will then share this user data with developers to help them "enrich their applications".

For example, the report said that a video service could automatically display sports videos for somebody that often searches for sports, or who often types messages relating to football.


The feature is unlikely to debut on Samsung's Galaxy S5 smartphone, though, as The Information added that due to internal disputes regarding whether such a feature would actually boost sales of Galaxy smartphones, it's unclear whether the feature will see a launch. It probably would be good for the firm to drop the feature, with recent surveillance revelations having made consumers more privacy aware.

Beyond chatter about Samsung's Context service, The Information backed up a recent report that the firm met with Google to discuss the future of Android, which could lead to Samsung scaling back its custom Touchwiz and Magazine UX Android skins. Interestingly, the report added that the meeting was held just one day before Google's sale of Motorola.


These talks see Google trying to put an end to Android fragmentation and tighten its loose grip on the mobile operating system. This was supported further yesterday by a report claiming that Google will force OEMs to use the latest version of Android in order to offer access to Google Play.

These rumours come despite Samsung having dropped hints that the Galaxy S5 will feature a greater focus on user privacy when it debuts on 24 February at Mobile World Congress.

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Samsung's Apple damages equivalent to 16 days' profit

The $930 million in damages Samsung was ordered to pay Apple last year for infringing its smartphone patents is more than some device makers earn in a year, but for Samsung it’s equal to just over 16 days’ worth of profit.

The Seoul-based company reported its financial results Friday and said quarterly operating profit from its IT and mobile communications division, which sells primarily phones and tablets, came to $5.1 billion.

That works out to roughly $56.6 million per day, so the damages it was ordered to pay Apple in one of their California lawsuits amounts to just over two weeks of profit.

For Apple, it’s not much different. The California company is due to report its earnings Monday, but based on its July-to-September quarter, the money it was awarded from Samsung is equivalent to eight days of company operating profit. (Unlike Samsung, Apple doesn’t break out its profits from mobile.)

That might illustrate why the huge damages award hasn’t stopped the two companies from continuing their court battle. 


Years of litigation : Apple is often credited with creating the modern smartphone market when it launched the iPhone in 2007. The handset is still the best-seller in many countries, but Samsung has become a more popular brand thanks to the multitude of phones it sells.


Apple cried foul in 2011, accusing Samsung of copying essential elements of its iPhone design, and filed its lawsuit. It was followed by a countersuit from Samsung and parallel lawsuits by both companies in the U.S. and elsewhere. Samsung appealed the California award.


The battle isn’t over yet. The two companies will face off for a second lawsuit in California in late March, over patents on a different selection of phones.


Ahead of that case, an exasperated Judge Lucy Koh ordered the companies to sit down and see if they can work out their differences. They have until February 19 to convene a meeting between the CEOs of both companies and a mediator to attempt to avoid a further trial.

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Samsung launches curved OLED TVs at $13,000

Samsung Electronics slapped a $13,000 price tag on its first curved, super-thin OLED television to go on sale, the same price as rival LG Electronics and one that underscores the high costs of the technology. 

Samsung is hoping that its success with OLED screens in smartphones such as its Galaxy S4 will also pay off in TVs, but consumers interested its 55-inch screen television must be willing to pay some five times more than popular flat-screen equivalents. 

At the moment, OLED televisions are still very much a niche market and Samsung warned that industry forecasts for sales growth were a bit too optimistic. 

"We have just introduced our first OLED TV and have to see consumer response to gauge overall market demand," Kim Hyunsuk, a Samsung executive vice president, told reporters. 

Research firm DisplaySearch has forecast global industry-wide sales of OLED televisions at 50,000 this year, at 600,000 next year and rapid growth thereafter to reach 7 million in 2016. 

LG, which currently offers both curved and non-curved 55-inch screens, is estimated to have only sold a few hundred screens so far after starting sales earlier this year. 

Samsung said it will begin selling its curved OLED television outside South Korea from July but did not specify which countries. It has no plans to offer a non-curved one this year. 

Organic light-emitting diode technology has long been touted as the future of consumer electronics displays, offering crisper picture resolution, a faster response time and high contrast images. It also allows for curved televisions, which manufacturers say offer a more immersive TV experience. 

Both Samsung and rival LG Display, a unit of LG Electronics, have invested heavily in OLED, seeking to emulate the success they had with LCDs, which helped them squash Japanese rivals such as Sony and allowed them to capture coveted roles as suppliers for Apple. 

Samsung is now the world's biggest TV manufacturer, and the South Korean duo now sell almost half of all TVs worldwide. 

Not one to put all its eggs in one basket, Samsung also unveiled on 55-inch and 65-inch ultra-high definition (UHD) TV sets, which offer crisper LCD picture resolution.

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Samsung to launch 20.3 MP interchangeable-lens Android camera soon

 

Samsung is currently readying a 20.3 megapixel interchangeable-lens Android camera which might see the daylight on 20th of this month.

According to Vietnamese website tinhte.vn Samsung's mobile chief JK Shin hinted that the company would soon be announcing an Android-powered mirrorless interchangeable-lens camera. Press shots of this camera called Galaxy NX, have emerged on the website.

The device comes with a mirrorless mount and a three NX lenses. The backside of the camera features a touchscreen smartphone display. It is likely to be closer in size to a DSLR than Samsung's existing CSC lineup.

Hardware controls are few and far between, and may be limited to a shutter release, video capture button, top-mounted dial and a pop-up flash release, along with the compulsory lens release to the left of the swappable optic, reports Engadget.

The camera will run Android 4.2 operating system and will sport 20.3 megapixel APS-C sensor, dual-core processors or quad-core Samsung Exynos, 4.3 touchsereen. It will feature ISO sensitivity through 25600.

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Seoul shares fall most in 11 months; Samsung Electronics dives 6 pc

South Korea's benchmark index fell the most in nearly 11 months on Friday, hit by heavyweight Samsung Electronics which tumbled 6 per cent on jitters about its slowing smartphone growth.

The Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) ended down 1.8 per cent at 1,923.85 points, making its biggest daily per centage drop since July 23 last year.


Shares of Samsung Electronics, which account for about one-fifth of the KOSPI's value, ended down 6.2 per cent, sparked by brokerages' downgrades and marking their biggest daily per centage loss since August last year when the South Korean smartphone giant lost a US patent lawsuit to Apple Inc.

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Price war breaks out between Apple and Samsung in India

 

Apple and Samsung are locked in a price war in India, with each company handing out discounts on its smartphones in a bid to draw customers in one of the world's largest developing smartphone markets.

The pricing struggle between the two tech giants is said to have kicked off with Apple's decision in early April to give a discount to any customers trading in an older smartphone for Apple's iPhone 4. Trade-in customers now receive a cash discount of at least 7,000 rupees ($128) toward the purchase of an iPhone 4, according to The Wall Street Journal.


Samsung soon countered Apple's move, offering 15 percent cash back for consumers buying a Galaxy Note II, Galaxy S III, Galaxy Grand, or Galaxy tablet. That offer was in conjunction with a prior offer allowing customers to buy those devices on a 12-month, interest-free installment plan.

As the world's second-most populous country, India represents a tremendous market opportunity for both companies. Apple's standard premium pricing structure, though, has presented some obstacles to wider adoption of the company's wares.

To address the issue, Apple recently introduced payment plans for Indian consumers, a decision that led to a threefold increase in the company's sales in the country. Apple is also said to be planning to triple its operations in India by 2015 in recognition of the importance of the market.

Apple's iPhone has moved into second place in the Indian smartphone market, holding a 15.6 percent revenue share. That's a distant second, though, to Samsung's hold on the market. Offering a wide range of handsets at an array of price points has allowed Samsung to grab 38.8 percent of the revenue in India's growing smartphone market.

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Samsung and Apple one-brand manufacturing puts competition on notice

This week it’s been made clear – or perhaps just clearer than ever before – that a company able to manufacture its own device components is a company that will thrive. According to the readouts from Gartner showing 2012′s top consumers in the semiconductor universe specifically, Samsung and Apple are out in front of the pack – by a significant margin. Semiconductors, mobile processors, and hardware from displays to memory cards are all a part of this puzzle, and as the two next entries on that list show with double-digit percentage drops show, it’s not just Apple and Samsung that are floating upward here coming into 2013, it’s mobile smart devices as a whole (and all their little bits and pieces).

Samsung is a company that has the ability to create each of the most vital bits, (like their Exynos processor for mobile devices), for each smartphone and tablet it puts on the market. They are the company that went through the most semiconductors in the market in the world in 2012, and they’re making these components themselves. While companies like LG and Lenovo create devices and need billions of dollars worth of semiconductors too, they need groups like Qualcomm and NVIDIA to manufacture those pieces of hardware for them.


So while Samsung is indeed made up of several different businesses, one that makes displays, another that makes processors, another that designs smartphones, it’s still the brand Samsung that profits from one part consuming products from another. So when you see Samsung at the top of the global semiconductor customers list in 2012, a big chunk of that change is being kept in the family. Meanwhile even the third place company HP must rely on groups like Intel in a large way for the architecture in their machines.

Groups like Qualcomm and NVIDIA rely on the companies that do not manufacture their own device innards, on the other hand, so it’s not as if there’s only one perfect model here created by these top companies with their own supplies. Qualcomm creates mobile modems that sit in a large cross-section of the smartphones you see on the market today, while NVIDIA’s Tegra line of processors all but dominated the first wave of Android tablets and Super Phones that came out across 2011.

You’ll find the Qualcomm Snapdragon line of processors coming out in some of the most popular smartphones over the past year, too, including none other than Samsung’s Galaxy S III. What we’re going to be seeing here through 2013 – and what we’ve begun to see already – is Samsung sticking with their own Exynos processor lineup as much as they can muster. Meanwhile groups like ViewSonic, Toshiba, and ASUS will continue to work with NVIDIA and HTC, LG, and Nokia will opt for Qualcomm. Of course those partnerships aren’t definitive by any means, and several of the companies have gone between Qualcomm, NVIDIA, Texas Instruments (now out of the mobile processor business), and others in the past.

There’s also a cross-over happening on the part of NVIDIA with their first production device by the name of Project SHIELD. This is a mobile gaming handheld that’s branded by NVIDIA and includes both the Tegra 4 processor and their own Icera modem. we’ll just have to wait and see who they worked with to create the rest of the components in the final build, but for now, the point is clear: it seems clear that creating your own device, top to bottom, is becoming more and more preferable by companies with the ability to work with such a process.

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Samsung's new Exynos 5 Octa will sport 8 processor cores

It looks like the battle for the fastest and most efficient mobile processors is heating up nicely at this year's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. With Nvidia's CEO claiming the Tegra 4 as the "world's fastest mobile processor", and Qualcomm saying that its quad-core 800 series "will be the only product in its class for some time", Samsung sure stole the thunder this round with the announcement of its latest Exynos 5 Octa mobile processor.

Each Exynos 5 Octa processor houses one set of quad-core Cortex-A15 CPUs and one set of quad-core Cortex-A7 CPUs. Based on the ARM big.LITTLE concept, Octa works by activating the Cortex-A15 cores for the processing-intensive applications, while switching to the Cortex-A7 cores for lighter tasks. This, according to ARM's CEO, Warren East, offers "maximum performance and up to 70 percent higher energy efficiency compared to the previous quad-core Exynos". 

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Samsung unveils a range of new Smart Cameras

Samsung announced the launch of new Smart Cameras, which include the WB250F/WB200F, theWB800F, WB30F, DV150F and ST150F.

As new additions to the WB series of long-zoom models, DV series of Dual View cameras and ST series of Style Feature cameras, the new devices are said to combine high optical performance and classic style with the enhanced connectivity of Smart Camera.


Samsung has evolved its Wi-Fi technology to enhance its Smart Camera, originally announced at CES 2012, by creating Smart Camera 2.0. New functionalities and upgrades allow users to shoot and share their photographs instantly. 


The 'One Click, Simplify' concept is touted to enable connected devices to seamlessly connect so images can be shared flawlessly in one motion through the striking interface.


AutoShare allows images to simultaneously be sent and saved straight to a smartphone, via a Wi-Fi connection, as soon as the photo is taken on a camera.

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Samsung plans to launch Tizen-based handsets backed by Intel

Samsung Electronics Co, the world's largest seller of mobile phones, said it will start selling smartphones this year featuring the Tizen operating system backed by Intel Corp.

"We plan to release new, competitive Tizen devices within this year and will keep expanding the line-up depending on market conditions," Suwon, South Korea-based Samsung said in an e-mailed statement on Thursday.

The company didn't elaborate on model specifications , prices or timeframe for their debut. The new handsets will come as Samsung looks to reduce its reliance on Google Inc's Android operating system after the Internet search company acquired handset maker Motorola Mobility Holdings for $12.5 billion in May.

Executives from Intel, Samsung, NTT DoCoMo (9437) and Vodafone Group formed the Tizen Association last year to support the open-source software.

"The Tizen was born as Samsung hoped to lighten its growing dependence on Google on concerns that its top position in the smartphone market may weaken following the Google-Motorola tie-up," Byun Han Joon, an analyst at KB Investment & Securities in Seoul, said by phone on Thursday.

"Intel always wanted to boost its presence in the mobile CPU market." Japan's Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper reported on December 31 that Samsung will release a Tizenbased smartphone through wireless carrier NTT Docomo later this year.

The newspaper cited sources it didn't identify. Google, operator of the world's most-popular search engine, plans to devote more attention to mobile devices as its rivalry with Apple accelerates.

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US sales ban on Samsung Tab 10.1 to continue

A federal judge has refused to rescind a court order banning Samsung Electronics from selling its Galaxy Tab 10.1 computer in the US.

The denial issued this week in San Jose federal court is part of a bitter battle pitting Samsung Electronics against Apple Inc. in a dispute over the mobile devices made by the two companies.


A jury last month awarded Apple $1.05 billion after concluding several Samsung smartphones infringed on Apple’s iPhone patents.

But the jury rejected Apple’s allegations that the Galaxy Tab 10.1 illegally copied the iPad.


That prompted Samsung to ask US District Judge Lucy Koh to dissolve the ban imposed on the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in June. In a Monday ruling, Koh refused because a Samsung appeal of her original order is still pending.

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Samsung launches 2nd generation 9 series notebook

New Delhi: Samsung Electronics today introduced the second generation of notebook under Series 9 in the Indian market.

Priced at Rs 1,02,990, the new notebook features a 13-inch screen, weighs 1.16 kgs and is powered by Intel's i7 processor.


The company also launched Series 5 550P (15-inch screen) and Series 3 350 priced at Rs 62,990 and Rs 48,490, respectively. Both devices feature third-generation Intel i7 processors.

"With the launch of the Samsung Note PCs, we now have a range of 32 models priced between Rs 21,990 and Rs 1.02 lakh. Based on our new launches and retail expansion, we are confident of doubling our note PC business this year," Samsung India Head (Mobile and IT) Ranjit Yadav said.

Samsung is aiming to capture a larger share of the consumer segment for IT products like laptops and printers as it expands its retail presence across the country to over 1,000 outlets.


The company, which has about nine per cent share in the consumer notebook segment, is aiming to expand it to about 12 per cent by the end of this year, Yadav added.


Similarly, it is looking at a 40 per cent share of the Indian multi-function printer segment by December 2013 from its current share of about 22 per cent, he said.

The company is also looking at maintaining its leadership position in the monitor segment, he said adding that Samsung has a 27 per cent share in the segment.

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Tokyo court rules that Samsung did not infringe on Apple patent

TOKYO — A Tokyo court has ruled that Samsung did not infringe on an Apple patent, in the latest development in the legal battle between the two technology titans.

The Tokyo District Court ruled Friday that the technology used in the South Korean company’s smartphones and tablet to synchronize with computers did not infringe on an Apple patent.


This is a separate case from a U.S. lawsuit between the two companies.


Last week, a jury in California ruled that some of Samsung Electronics Co.’s smartphones violated Apple patents. The jury awarded Apple Inc. $1 billion in damages.


Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Google Asked Samsung to Change Device Designs, E-Mails Show

Google Inc. (GOOG) asked Samsung Electronics Co. (005930) to change the design of its phones and tablets to look less like Apple Inc.’s devices, according to e-mails shown to a jury today at a trial between Apple and Samsung.

Harold McElhinny, a lawyer representing Apple, asked Samsung designer Kim Jin Soo today if he recalled two e-mail exchanges in 2010 at Samsung about Google’s request. The e-mails were introduced as evidence in the third week of the multibillion-dollar intellectual-property trial in federal court in San Jose, California.

Kim, speaking through an interpreter, denied he was aware of Google’s request.


“Whether that is a fact or not, I cannot confirm that for you, and whether such statement was made, if it was the official position of Google, or by someone made” at a different level of the company, “I don’t know such things,” Kim said.

Samsung has used Google’s Android free operating system to build phones that propelled it to the number one spot in the phone market.

Apple sued Samsung in April 2011, accusing it of copying patented designs for mobile devices, and Samsung countersued. The case is the first to go before a federal jury in a battle being waged on four continents for dominance in a smartphone market valued by Bloomberg Industries at $219.1 billion. 

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Samsung strengthens home app biz

Chandigarh: Samsung Electronics, a global leader in digital media and digital convergence technologies, today announced its plans to strengthen its Home Appliance business by announcing the launch of its new Direct Cool refrigerator and Semi automatic washing machine range in the country.

Announcing the launch of the new product range, Mahesh Krishnan, Vice-President, Samsung India, said, “We expect atleast 25 per cent growth in business this year. The emerging towns and rural markets to drive the growth in Home Appliances and that is the reason, we have launched our new range of direct cool refrigerators and semi automatic washing machines in the Indian market. We have enriched the new product ranges with features that have been developed keeping in mind the needs of the Indian consumers like the Cool pack feature in Direct Cool refrigerators and the versatile Wash Tray in our semi automatic washing machines.”

In keeping with the requirements of theIndian market, the new range is equipped with the innovative ‘Coolpack’ feature that delays the rise in temperature even when the power is off and prevents food from spoiling quickly even during a blackout. Another special feature is the Freshkit that absorbs bad odours in the refrigerator and keeps the fruits and vegetables fresher for a longer time. The range also offers a differentiated design with soft, unique round shape and is available with floral colour patterns in Red, Silver, Pink, Ultra Inox, Black and Wine.

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