Samsung -- Engadget

samsung posts

ITC rules Samsung infringed on four Sharp patents, bans import of some LCDs

by Donald Melanson posted Nov 10th 2009 at 11:52AM

The US International Trade Commission already ruled in June of this year that Sharp had infringed on one patent held by Samsung, but it's now back with another ruling that finds Samsung violated no less than four LCD-related patents held by Sharp. Once again, the ITC has also barred Samsung from selling the infringing LCDs in the US (still not clear on exactly what's affected), but Samsung seems more than ready to comply with the ruling, saying that there will be "no impact on our business and our ability to meet market demand." For its part, Sharp simply says that the ruling has "made it clear that ITC has consistently supported Sharp's claim that LCD products of Samsung violated Sharp's patents" -- Samsung, meanwhile, says it has no plans to negotiate with Sharp on the issue, so let's just hope its workaround is more than a quick fix.

Samsung announces Bada mobile OS, SDK sets sail in December

by Ross Miller posted Nov 10th 2009 at 12:21AM

Because what the world needs now is yet another mobile operating system, Samsung has announced its foray into the field with Bada. Not much to reveal at this point other than some key PR speak: the name means "ocean" in Korean, the company's committed to "a variety of open platforms" in mobile industry and it plans this to be easy to integrate / customize based on carrier's experience. All real news should be coming sometime in December, when Sammy is saying it'll have a London launch event and reveal the SDK. Full presser after the break.

Continue reading Samsung announces Bada mobile OS, SDK sets sail in December

LG's 15-inch OLED TV now blowing minds in South Korea

by Darren Murph posted Nov 9th 2009 at 9:33AM

Call Daegu home? Just over in South Korea to visit and / or infiltrate the DMZ? Regardless of why you're there, you're probably interested in picking up LG's latest, which has been tempting our retinas since IFA. Just as we'd heard back in late August, the aforesaid firm's 15-inch OLED TV is reportedly now on sale in South Korea, and it's packing a price tag of around ₩3 million ($2,598). By our count, this is just the second major, mass-produced OLED TV to hit store shelves anywhere in the world, but we're hoping to see a lot more action in this space come CES. You TV makers are listening to our ~~requests~~ demands, right?

[Via OLED-Display]

Samsung pays Qualcomm $1.3 billion to secure wireless licenses

by Vladislav Savov posted Nov 9th 2009 at 6:11AM

Samsung and Qualcomm have wrapped up a cross-licensing deal with ten figures of US currency in it, which will permit the Korean giant to continue producing 3G- and 4G-enabled wireless devices for the next 15 years. In exchange, Samsung is letting Qualcomm make use of its own 57 patents on mobile technology and splashing out a further $1.3 billion as a down payment. Further royalty payments are involved, but not detailed, but just as a reference point, that's more than the new Dallas Cowboys stadium and its ultra-huge scoreboard cost to build. The move is a renewal of the two companies' current arrangement and Samsung has boldly claimed the terms of the new contract are more favorable to it, but we get the feeling the champagne will be flowing in San Diego this week.

[Via MobileTechWorld]

Samsung slims down NAND memory packaging, wafer-thin gadgets to follow

by Vladislav Savov posted Nov 6th 2009 at 8:19AM

Good old Samsung and its obsession with thinness. After finally letting its 30nm 32Gb NAND chips out of the bag in May, the Korean memory maker has now successfully halved the thickness of its octa-die memory package to a shockingly thin 0.6mm (or 0.02 inches). The new stacks will start out at a 32GB size, though the real benefits are likelier to be felt down the line when the ability to pack bits more densely pays off in even higher storage capacities. Cellphones, media players and digital cameras will inevitably take the lion's share, but we're hopeful -- eternal optimists that we are -- that this could accelerate the decline of SSD prices to a borderline affordable level. Intel and Micron promised us as much, how about Samsung delivering it?

[Via Information Week]

Verizon launches BlackBerry 8530, LG Chocolate Touch, Samsung Convoy, and prepaid data

by Chris Ziegler posted Nov 5th 2009 at 9:45AM

HTC's DROID ERIS is arguably the biggest announcement out of Verizon today, but that's not the only thing getting real this morning -- far from it, in fact. If BlackBerrys, music-centric dumbphones, rugged flips, or commitment-free data are your bag, head on over to Engadget Mobile where we've covered the rest of the action!

Read - BlackBerry Curve 8530 brings optical trackpad to Verizon
Read - Verizon's LG Chocolate Touch skips on the BL40 influence
Read - Samsung Convoy is a rugged push-to-talker for Verizon
Read - Verizon broadband data goes prepaid

Samsung's Tango robot vacuum uses cameras to clean your floors, duvet covers

by Tim Stevens posted Nov 5th 2009 at 8:14AM

Just because a Samsung vacbot never cleaned your floors doesn't mean they're not out there somewhere, attacking dust on hardwood and carpet -- and apparently Egyptian cotton too if the above picture is anything to go by. This Tango is the latest from the company, following in the tracks of the Furot and Hauzen and sharing their dual spinny brush design. Tango is said to use a 30fps camera to tell where he's going, a gyro to keep a sense of direction, and crash sensors that now can detect furniture and feet from up to 2cm away. Prices will range from ₩500,000 to ₩700,000 and, though that equates to between $425 and $600 American, the stores these will be available in probably won't take dollars.

Sprint launches Samsung Moment, Android empire expands by one

by Vladislav Savov posted Nov 2nd 2009 at 5:22AM

And here comes more trouble for your wallet. Mixing up that unholy trifecta of a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, AMOLED screen and Android inside, Samsung's Moment -- in spite of its quirks and niggles -- is likely to lighten the load for quite a few Sprint customers today. Pricing is as expected, with a $279.99 initial outlay that gets reduced to $179.99 after rebates, but you'll also have to agree to a two-year contractual commitment. Unless you're locked in to Sprint for whatever reason, we might advise holding out for a couple of days and seeing if the DROID takes your fancy, but don't take our word for it -- check out what your fellow readers think right here.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Sears Black Friday ad revealed, we'll be sleeping off our tryptophan hangovers

by Tim Stevens posted Oct 30th 2009 at 8:36AM

Woe betide the Black Friday bargain hunter; where once there were stellar deals on giant televisions and hard disk drives now there are slight discounts on underwear and handbags. Sears' ad for this year has been unearthed and, while it naturally has an eclectic selection of goodies on sale ranging from power tools to KitchenAid mixers (and that's just on the front page), from a gadgety perspective we're not finding anything quite worth lining up at 3:00am in November for. There's a 40-inch Samsung 1080p LCD for $599, about $50 cheaper than we can find it for online, and a similar Sony model for $664 -- a whole $10 less than Amazon is asking for a comparable model with free shipping and no uncomfortable small talk with other half-frozen shopaholics. A raft of cheap but mediocre games and movies will be available, some soon to be obsolete GPS devices, and lots of other random things stuffed into the PDF scan linked below. Not into the whole hunting for deals thing? The other link has everything listed out, making for easy text searching -- and for guilt-free snoozing the day after Turkey Day.

Read - PDF scan of Sears 2009 Black Friday ad
Read - Listing of Sears 2009 Black Friday deals

Ask Engadget: Which Android phone should I get?

by Darren Murph posted Oct 29th 2009 at 9:02PM

We know you've got questions, and if you're brave enough to ask the world for answers, here's the outlet to do so. This week's Ask Engadget question is coming to us from Chris, who is deathly afraid that making the wrong choice on an Android phone will ruin his life completely.

"Listen, I am an obsessed gadget hound who needs some real help. I just switched to Sprint from Verizon about three months ago for the Pre. Mostly because they said that they weren't getting an Android anytime soon (ha!). Anyways, I like the Pre but Sprint in my area is spotty at best. I have been intrigued with Android and have had HTC in the past with some good success, so I went for the Hero about a week ago. Now, I miss my hardware keyboard and am thinking about switching to the Moment. After Chris's pithy review of the Moment it seems that may not be the correct choice either. So, I am still able to switch back to Verizon if I want and get the Droid when it arrives. Should I just trade up to the Moment when it comes out, see if I like it, and if not switch to the Droid? Or something else entirely? Help!"

Wow Chris, that's a pretty compelling story. Really engrossing. So much so, in fact, that we're sure you'll have no issue getting all sorts of helpful replies in comments below. Right, Android lovers? Right?

Samsung shows off color e-paper prototype, PVI might beat it to market in 2010

by Vladislav Savov posted Oct 29th 2009 at 7:55AM

Now here's some yummy news to wrap our minds around. Samsung, a company with a manufacturing portfolio so wide that you wouldn't be surprised to see it selling toothbrushes and perfume, clearly also wants a slice of that growing ebook market and has now unveiled a 10.1-inch color display with that purpose in mind. It's still very early days, with a measly 10:1 contrast ratio and the ability to display only 7% of the NTSC color gamut, but baby steps are better than no steps, right? While Sammy is shooting at delivering this within two years, PVI -- the maker of displays for Kindles and Sony Readers -- is expected to ramp up production of its own color screens in the second half of 2010. Add these two heavyweights to the color e-readers already expected from Plastic Logic (spring 2010) and Bridgestone, and what you get is one hell of a thriving marketplace -- as long as Pixel Qi doesn't render them all useless when it launches later this year.

Read - Samsung Exhibits 10.1-inch Color E-paper
Read - PVI to ramp up flexible and color EPD in 2010

Samsung's 30-inch 3D AMOLED TV won't make you dizzy, will leave you poor and silly

by Thomas Ricker posted Oct 28th 2009 at 4:34AM

Feeling that 3D craze yet? No? Well what if we told you that Samsung was bringing stereoscopic 3D to its magnificent AMOLED panels touting a million-to-1 contrast? Today in Japan it's showing off its 30-inch AMOLED 3D television with Full HD panel measuring just 2.5-mm thick. Although much is lost in the Korean language press release, Sammy is claiming that itd panel plus shutter-glasses technology helps to reduce the dizziness felt by some 3D viewers. The set's just a prototype at the moment but its price will certainly invoke financial vertigo whenever it might hit the manufacturing lines. One more very serious picture after the break.

Continue reading Samsung's 30-inch 3D AMOLED TV won't make you dizzy, will leave you poor and silly

Samsung Omnia II gets broken down, screenshot by screenshot

by Chris Ziegler posted Oct 27th 2009 at 6:51PM

The overwhelming mediocrity of Windows Mobile 6.5 gives us pause before saying something sensational like "it's a great time to be a WinMo fan," but we've got to admit, manufacturers are really stepping up their game to deliver these days -- one need look no further than the mighty HD2 to see that. The Omnia II's looking pretty solid, too, especially if you like your phones served up keyboard-free, and ai.rs blog has compiled a comprehensive screenshot gallery showing just how deep the TouchWiz integration really goes. Build quality is said to be top-notch, and it's pretty hard to argue with a 3.7-inch WVGA AMOLED display -- so as we go into 2010, it looks like we might be gearing up for an epic TouchFLO / TouchWiz showdown in the WinMo octagon. Who doesn't like a good fight?

[Thanks, msav]

Hitachi and Toshiba subpoenaed in DOJ optical drive price fixing probe

by Vladislav Savov posted Oct 27th 2009 at 5:31AM

We kinda knew that there couldn't be any antitrust smoke without the fire of market collusion, and sure enough, Sony Optiarc has been joined on the naughty step by Hitachi-LG Data Storage and Toshiba Samsung Storage Technology Corp. As the names should tell you, these are joint ventures involving some of the world's biggest electronics manufacturers, whose American optical drive divisions appear to be under suspicion of fixing prices. We'd have expected Hitachi and LG to wise up after paying out fines for LCD price fixing recently, but when you look at Hitachi's stock trading up after this news -- with traders confident any forthcoming fines will be too small to dent the company's bottom line -- maybe "by hook or by crook" is actually a viable business plan?

HTC confirms it has Android 2.0 handsets in the works

by Paul Miller posted Oct 26th 2009 at 7:18PM

Of course nobody expects Motorola and Verizon to be the sole benefactors of Android 2.0's Donut-ey goodness in the long run, but in an age of increasing Android ubiquity it seemed odd to see them as the only ones with a more-or-less-confirmed Android 2.0 handset on the way. Well, Sascha Segan over at Gearlog did some digging and while Samsung wouldn't confirm any Android 2.0 work, HTC was forthcoming in saying that it's had Android 2.0 around for a while, and is working on it for future phones. Perhaps the HTC Desire (dubbed Droid Eris) or the Passion will be one of those phones? It would be odd to see Verizon introduce a 2.0 handset from Motorola and only 1.5 or 1.6 handsets from HTC, but we'll just have to see how it all goes down next month -- Motorola sure seems buddy buddy with Google on this one. But if Dell could track down a copy, we don't see how far behind HTC could be on this one.

[Via SlashGear]