With Samsung's Galaxy S5 now available to buy for many, much of the talk in reviews has been about how the company's decision to stick with the tried and tested formula of its existing handsets has left the fifth generation Galaxy S lacking anything to get the pulse racing. That hasn't stopped people flocking to buy the new handset though, with reports coming out of Korea stating that the Galaxy S5 has seen strong sales in the region.
Over a month ago at Mobile World Congress, Samsung took to the stage to make the highly anticipated announcement of their newest flagship for 2014. No surprises were presented when they officially revealed the Galaxy S5, successor to the popular Galaxy S4 and king of the most successful Android flagship series, the Galaxy S line. With the release of the new HTC One M8 - which has continued to boost HTC's reputation amongst the tech community - Samsung has got a lot to accomplish with this phone.
Samsung is not a company that you'd say is unfamiliar with litigation, but while the Korean outfit tends to find itself in court accused by Apple of patent infringement, the Galaxy S5 maker has reportedly sued a newspaper of its native tongue for posting some unflattering coverage of its upcoming flagship. Given that the Galaxy S4 didn't sell as well as the company had hoped, there's added pressure on its successor to make amends, but while negative reviews certainly don't help matters, Samsung's decision to respond by means of a lawsuit does seem a tad extreme.
Apple and Samsung are two of the mobile industry's biggest names, and as such, are the fiercest of rivals. But whereas competition is healthy in the ongoing battle for supremacy, the story of this particular pairing is marred by ill feeling and bad taste. If you've been following the goings-on of the digital world over the past couple of years, you'll know that these two have had their fair share of court battles and patent disputes, and in the latest, Apple is seeking damages over five specific iOS-related infringements. Thanks to a neat compilation, here's a concise look at what exactly has got the Cupertino's back up.
Apple-bashing from Samsung is nothing new, particularly given the ongoing court hearings between the two relating to supposed theft of patented technologies, but in a rare treat, the Korean outfit has taken a swipe at Apple, Microsoft and Amazon in one fell swoop with its latest Galaxy Pro Series Ad. The Galaxy Tab Pro and Galaxy Note Pro, which Samsung was heavily pushing at Mobile World last month, offer quite a few features built with the power user in mind, and with the advertising machine in full flow, the company has wasted no time in having a swipe at the Apple iPad, Amazon Kindle Fire and Microsoft Surface for their respective shortcomings.
Samsung has announced a series of "specialized usability accessories" designed for its Galaxy Core Advance smartphone - a device that the company recently released for those with special usability requirements. The new roster of add-ons, which includes a cover that can help visually-impaired users to navigate without hitting obstacles, is part of a concerted push from Samsung and other vendors to focus on accessibility, and with more devices and peripherals planned beyond the current low-end Galaxy Core Advance, the range looks set to expand in the coming months.
It's not the first time that it has happened, but that doesn't make it any less humorous when a celebrity's smartphone endorsement backfires. After all, we all like it when giants fall, do we not?
In the ongoing patent dispute between Apple and Samsung, it has now emerged that the Cupertino-based company has demanded, in front of a jury, that its Korean competitor stumps up the almighty sum of $40 per infringing device. The total, which Apple has arrived at by highlighting five separate patents per device (around $8 a pop), would equate to an eye-watering total sum, and even FOSS Patents' Florian Mueller - a guy that tends to see these matters from Apple's side - seems to think this is a step too far.
So after all the talk, all the leaks and a healthy dose of speculation, it's finally been announced. The leaks might have left us with less of a surprise than Samsung would have liked, but the Galaxy S5 is now official, and everyone's talking about it.
The wait is officially over! Samsung has finally announced The Next Big Thing, the Galaxy S5. It’s packed with some new features which are sure to entice a lot of people in the year to come, and as ever, we have all the details, including specs, pricing and release date.
