The battles between Apple and Samsung have taken up a large chunk of blog-space this year, but whilst the Cupertino company may have recently prevailed in the courtroom over its bitter rival, back in the mobile market, it appears the Korean company is making very good headway.
Although the Samsung Galaxy Note came in for a little bit of ridicule when it was first announced to the world due to its sheer physical size, and the fact that it came bundled with a stylus, it actually turned out to be a great commercial success for the company and is certainly one of their most popular creations in recent times. That marketplace success is more than likely one of the main reasons why the Korean electronics giants have recently announced the launch of its successor, the Galaxy Note II, which as you might expect is once again a fairly sizeable creation, also coming packaged with the Samsung S Pen.
Two days ago we discussed a report from Bloomberg which claimed that Motorola’s next smartphone - to be announced on September 5th at a joint event with Verizon Wireless - would have one very distinctive design feature: an edge to edge, bezel-less display. Later in our post, we provided two pieces of evidence that strongly suggest that Bloomberg’s claim would turn out to be true.
Samsung may have been shrouded in a little bit of controversy over the last few weeks and had their public reputation somewhat tarnished, but that doesn't detract from the fact that they produce some fantastic and popular devices, that are in some cases, ahead of the competition in the industry. I am willing to go out on a limb and suggest that their legal wrangling's with Apple are far from over, with more to come surrounding Apple's request to have specific devices banned in the United States, but until that day in court comes upon us, there is some good news on the horizon for Samsung Galaxy S III owners.
If you were one of the many people around the world who took the plunge and purchased the Google Nexus 7 when it was first announced during the annual I/O conference back in June, then congratulations on making a great decision. Google has managed to work together with ASUS to design and develop a rather fantastic little tablet that really manages to sit in a class of its own within its size category. Google may not be everyone's company of choice, but they have managed to release a product that has immediately become one of the best tablets on the market for the price point it sits at.
Microsoft has been unusually quiet since the original announcement of their Windows 8 powered Surface tablet back in June. We have heard no new details regarding its most important aspect: pricing. While Microsoft ponders over the final price of the Surface, a company by the name of FVIEW is prepping to launch a tablet that looks almost exactly like Surface, but runs on Android! Check out the details after the jump.
The TabletSMS application that is available from the Google Play Store is an extension to the extremely popular DeskSMS service that users have been enjoying on their Android devices for quite some time. For those that may not be familiar with what DeskSMS brings to the table, it is basically an installation that allows users of Android smartphones to send and intercept messages from a variety of services such as network texting, Google Talk or GMail. The app has been extremely popular due to the fact that it essentially allows users to send text messages that originate from their number, using popular messaging browsers or chat clients like Trillian or Beejive.
Samsung's UK arm is offering a free Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 to anyone who trades in one of a selection of smartphones, and upgrades to a Galaxy S III or Galaxy Note in the process. Free tablets? You betcha!
This may start a flame war, but in my opinion there is no doubt that smartphones released after 2007 have a design that is, in one way or another, inspired and influenced by the design of the original iPhone. Physical keyboards are almost completely dead, front side of smartphones are quite often dominated by their display etc. etc.
It is becoming increasingly difficult to keep up with what is going on with Apple and Samsung as they continue to battle it out with each other over the alleged infringement of various patents. We've already had the major trial and verdict in San Jose, with Samsung being told they are liable to the tune of $1.05 billion for breaching a number of Apple patents, as well as a Japanese court ruling in Samsung's favor in a separate case regarding a utility patent that centers around transferring data between two devices. Court rulings and alleged infringements in different markets all over the world make this a difficult one to get your head around.
