This is kind of interesting. Ahead of the 2014 Winter Olympics, which is scheduled to begin in two days, Samsung has requested that athletes participating in the Games hide the Apple logos on their iPhones while taking photos and recording video.
It appears that Samsung, a major sponsor of this year's Olympics, is particularly concerned with the opening ceremony. And it's asked that any athlete who plans to use Apple's handset to record the widely-broadcasted event to keep the logo hidden...
As Apple continues to build up its team of world-class sleep researchers, medical device experts and biosensing ace engineers for the iWatch team, the rumor-mill is in full swing with related chatter originating from the company's vast network of Taiwanese suppliers and contract manufacturers.
The latest rumor: the company is tackling battery challenges said to plague the project by using so-called stepped batteries, a technology offering better longevity and enhanced energy density versus the traditional solutions.
Stepped batteries can be applied to different shapes and, as a bonus, boost capacity by as much as sixteen percent. Conveniently, Apple recently filed for a patent detailing a flexible battery design that specifically mentions wearable devices...
Ahead of their high-profile trial, scheduled to start in March, Apple and Samsung have submitted a list of all of the patents they are accusing each other of infringing, and applicable devices. Well this is a pared down list, trimmed by each side at Judge Koh's orders.
This is the second time the two will meet in Koh's northern California courtroom. The first time around, Samsung was found guilty of infringing on a few Apple patents and was forced to pay close to $1 billion in damages. This time, there may be even more at stake...
When news hit earlier this week that Google had agreed to sell its Motorola Mobility unit to Lenovo for $2.9 billion, it surprised a lot of people. Not only was the sale price some $10 billion below what Google paid for Motorola 3 years ago, but Lenovo? Where'd that come from?
According to a recent Fortune interview with Lenovo CEO Yuanqing Yan, that was the plan all along. Yan says that his company has been eyeing Motorola since before Google came along , and it has major plans for it. Lenovo wants to become the #1 smartphone-maker in the world...
The Korea Times is reporting that the South Korean conglomerate Samsung is readying its own Google Glass-like eyewear, with an unnamed Samsung official stating that the tentatively named 'Galaxy Glass' device will debut at the annual IFA trade show in Berlin, Germany this September.
Sony is also working on a smart glasses model of its own, by the way.
Samsung already sells the Galaxy Gear smartwatch and we previously reported that a brand new lineup of Galaxy Band health/fitness wearable devices is in the pipeline as well. Google currently sells the Explorer Edition of Glass to testers and developers in the United States for $1,500.
The search giant said that a consumer version would be available some time in 2014 for "significantly less" than the Explorer Edition, but the company wouldn't commit to a specific pricing or release date...
Things are not happy and beautiful any longer for Samsung, the world's number one smartphones manufacturer. As reported by Bloomberg, the Korean giant has posted its slowest growth since 2011.
Who's to blame for the slow growth pace? For one, there is Lenovo, Huawei and other makers of cheap smartphones who've been flooding the markets in many areas, especially in Asia, a strong ground for Samsung. Apple is also partly responsible from Samsung's decline as the fruity company has been luring high-end customers away from the Galaxy line maker...
Apple and Samsung are gearing up for round 2 of their landmark US patent trial. The first round ended in Samsung paying nearly $1 billion in damages for infringing on some of Apple's patents, and this new trial will look for similar infringement in newer devices.
The court proceedings don't start for another two months, but Samsung has already suffered two big blows. This week, Judge Lucy Koh found the company's multimedia synchronization patent to be invalid, and found it to infringe on an Apple autocorrect patent...
Although we won't get to see some cold, hard numbers in terms of the iPhone's market performance until January 27, when Apple is scheduled to deliver its earnings results for the calendar 2013 holiday quarter, it already looks like the "disappointing" dual-iPhone launch has altered the landscape in the United States in Apple's favor.
Research firm NPD on Thursday published its survey of U.S. smartphone ownership, showing the Apple handset growing its share of domestic customers to 42 percent, a notable jump from the 35 percent share in the year-ago quarter...
You may remember that back in June 2011 Apple lost a patent infringement case that the Finnish handset maker Nokia had filed against the Cupertino company, resulting in an undisclosed one-time payment and ongoing royalties to Nokia for use of their patents. The Nokia CEO Stephen Elop was “very pleased” to have Apple join Nokia licensees.
However, the essentials of the contract have for the most part remained confidential. Today, we get to learn more about the terms of the deal as Samsung told a U.S. court that the patent pact is expiring on December 31, 2016...
Yesterday, I told you that Dennis Miloseski, head of studio for Samsung Design America, basically confirmed that the Galaxy maker will be adding new wearable devices to its Galaxy Gear smartwatch lineup in 2014. He also noted that the South Korean company tends to have two major launches.
One is for its Galaxy S flagship handset in the Spring and the other tends to be for the Note phablet in the Fall. Speaking to Bloomberg today, a Samsung executive vice president has now officially confirmed that the Galaxy S5, a successor to the current S4, is coming by the end of April.
It will feature a brand new design and may or may not take on Apple's Touch ID with an iris scanning technology. Hardware-wise, Samsung shouldn't disappoint as the S5 is shaping up to be quite a beast of the phone.
With the upcoming iPhone 6 in the pipeline, I thought we should compile everything we "know" about Samsung's next big thing that'll take on the iPhone in a few months time, all over again...
According to new paperwork filed earlier this afternoon, Apple and Samsung have agreed to attend a mediation session next month ahead of their second major US patent trial, which is slated to begin on March 31.
The meeting is to take place on or before February 19, and is to be attended by Tim Cook, Samsung's Oh-Hyun Kwon and their respective in-house lawyers. And they will attempt to discuss settlement opportunities...
You have to admire Samsung's persistence. Unfazed by lukewarm reception from fans and critics alike who aren't rushing out to buy its Galaxy Gear smartwatch in droves, the undeterred South Korean conglomerate is planning to release new wearable gadgets for the upcoming launch of the next Galaxy S smartphone in May and a Galaxy Note successor in Fall.
Dennis Miloseski, head of studio for Samsung Design America, told Re/code that 2014 is going to be “a really big year” for Samsung wearables, hinting at “some products around the launch of our flagship devices”...