Even after so many rounds of patent disputes in court, and many wins and losses, Samsung and Apple always manage to make the headline from time to time, one way or the other. Everyone involved in this dispute knows that things can't continue down that path all the time, which is why the CEOs of Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics have agreed to meet as part of a mediated session on February 19th.
CES is officially now in top gear and we can say that with supreme confidence now that we've had the obligatory onslaught of new tablets. What we perhaps didn't quite expect though was that so many of those new slate machines would happen to all have the same manufacturer's logo on the back. Introducing Samsung's four (4!) new tablets.
Famous faces make for great advertisement fodder when the right celebrity is used to promote a product, and with Samsung's strange, enigmatic promotion of Galaxy devices through a lengthy football (soccer)-themed campaign, picking a star like the legendary German forward Franz Beckenbauer to be head coach of the so-called 'Galaxy 11' seemed an informed decision.
By the exceedingly high standards Samsung sets itself, the release of the Galaxy S4 and Galaxy Note 3 this year haven't quite lived up to standards for some people. Both devices remain two of Android's most celebrated handsets, but with competitors stepping their games up and the Korean giant seeming to coast in the eyes of many, we've already heard some big promises of next year's marquee Sammy handsets pushing the envelope. Following on from some recent nuggets of info, it looks as though there could be a vastly improved 20-megapixel camera on the way with the forthcoming Galaxy smartphones, and although the number of megapixels is just a footnote in the story of a camera, Samsung's desire to impress would suggest it's more than just bluster.
Just when you thought the patent litigation saga between Apple and Samsung was beginning to dwindle into obscurity it has returned with a vengeance. The discontent between the two companies may not have been hitting public headlines as much in recent months, but it has still been simmering away nicely in the background with legal teams from both entities doing their best to represent their sides. In a ruling that has been passed down today, the United States Court of Appeals has ruled that Apple can have yet another stab at trying to get certain offending Samsung smartphones banned from sale.
Whether you love or loathe the Korean electronics outfit's products, it's a fair assessment that the mobile world wouldn't be the same without Samsung. Tenacious and audacious in equal measure, the company seems to know no limits when it comes to experimenting with new technologies and ideas, and now Bloomberg is reporting that Samsung plans to release a smartphone with a wraparound display in 2014.
The recent speculation surrounding South Korean based Samsung and the potential for a Galaxy S5 release date for January 2014 may prove to be nothing more than chit-chat, but one thing is for sure - the current Galaxy S4 model isn't selling as well as Samsung would have hoped.
The fierce competition in the mobile industry is a definite win for the consumer, however, it is particularly annoying that choice of product is almost always defined by the region in which one resides. Some nations seem to have all the luck at times (looks at the United States), but with the Asian OEMs continuing to command large chunks of the smartphone market, more and more devices are built with exclusivity for the likes of Japan, Korea and China. The Samsung Galaxy J, which has just made an appearance in Japan, is like the Galaxy S4, in that it has been given a spectacular spec upgrade on what was supposed to be, or at least what we all thought was the "new" flagship.
It's becoming a very common occurrence that prominent revealer of tech goodies Evleaks keeps coming up with legit shots of new devices before they're launched, and with the blogosphere abuzz pertaining Samsung's curved "Galaxy Round" device, that same Twitter handle has come through with the first renders of the elusive device. Set to become the first smartphone with a flexible panel, it will not only be more comfortable when held beside the face for calls, but gaming and watching video clips should also be enhanced. More details, as well as those renders, can be seen after the jump.
Here's our full video comparison of Apple iPhone 5S vs Samsung Galaxy S4. It seems fit to put iPhone 5s and Galaxy S4 through a rigorous comparison to see which one actually comes out on top.
