As CES 2017 winds down, Samsung today made one more announcement, this time for iOS users. The company has announced that it expanding support for iOS with its latest Gear-branded wearables.
Specially, the Gear S2, Gear S3, and Gear Fit2 are now compatible with iOS thanks to new accompanying apps…
We’re still several months away from the next major iPhone launch so the rumors don’t paint a particularly clear picture of what to expect just yet. Digitimes points to a new supply chain report, however, that continues to believe a new 5.8-inch iPhone with an AMOLED panel supplied exclusively by Samsung is in the works…
Analysts say that device activations show that Apple wasn’t able to capitalise on the dramatic recall of Samsung’s Note 7. Despite the damage done to Samsung’s reputation, and the opportunity that created for Apple to persuade owners to switch platform, most Note 7 buyers ended up replacing it with another high-end Galaxy phone, said Stephen Baker, primary hardware analyst at tech industry research firm NPD.
Samsung was able to fend off other Android competition, and Apple, too, thanks to Apple’s own lack of a wowing product this year.
Mobile industry consultant Chetan Sharma agreed with NPD’s assessment …
In a new report released today by Flurry Analytics, Apple has again once topped the charts this holiday season. Using a mix of phone and app activations, Flurry discovered that Apple saw more than double the number of smartphone activations as Samsung, and a noticeable increase in phablet device activations.
Samsung is said to be considering spinning off its chipmaking division in response to losing Apple’s A-Series chip business.
Apple’s A-series chip orders for iPhones and iPads used to be split between Samsung and TSMC, but Apple dropped Samsung for the A10 chip in the iPhone 7 and is reported to be doing the same for the A11 chip in next year’s iPhone …
[UPDATE: Apple has responded to the news: “The question before the Supreme Court was how to calculate the amount Samsung should pay for their copying. Our case has always been about Samsung’s blatant copying of our ideas, and that was never in dispute. We will continue to protect the years of hard work that has made iPhone the world’s most innovative and beloved product. We remain optimistic that the lower courts will again send a powerful signal that stealing isn’t right.”]
The Supreme Court has ruled in favor of Samsung over Apple in the latest chapter of the years-long dispute over iPhone design patents. The decision isn’t totally surprising given some tell-tale signs ahead of today’s announcement, but it does mean that the case will once again continue in a lower court where a new sum for damages owed will be decided.
It seems that the iPhone 7 won’t be the only flagship smartphone to ditch the 3.5mm headphone socket: SamMobile is reporting ‘confirmation’ of an earlier rumor that Samsung’s Galaxy S8 – set to be unveiled in February – will follow Apple’s lead.
With both smartphone and PC sales plateauing, tech giants like Apple and Samsung are always looking for new markets. Apple of course made a big bet on music with its $3B acquisition of Beats, and Samsung is now making an even bigger play by announcing plans to buy U.S. automotive component maker Harman International.
The WSJ reports that the $8B deal will be the biggest one Samsung has ever struck, and it has more than a little in common with Apple’s purchase of Beats …
An Australian surfing instructor has told 7 News that an iPhone 7 left in a car caught fire, destroying the vehicle.
Mat Jones says he had left the phone under clothes in his car while taking a surf lesson. When he returned, he was shocked to discover the vehicle filled with smoke.
It hasn’t yet been confirmed that the phone was the cause of the fire: Apple says that it is aware of the incident and is investigating.
Some commentators are drawing the inevitable but spurious comparisons with Samsung’s Note 7 fires …
You know how it is, you love your iPhone, but sometimes another manufacturer comes out with a phone that just seems a little … hotter.
The never-ending court battle between Apple and Samsung over three iPhone design patents finally reached the Supreme Court yesterday. It had earlier been found that a total of 11 Samsung phones copied three design elements patented by Apple – including the famous ‘black rectangle with rounded corners.’ Lower courts ruled that Samsung should have to pay 100% of the profits earned from those phones, while Samsung thinks it should pay less.
Remarks by two of the Justices seem to indicate that they are leaning heavily towards Samsung’s side of the argument. Samsung’s position is that the patented features represent only part of the reason for purchase, and that they should accordingly have to hand over only part of the profits earned from them …
The BBC has an interesting take on the Apple versus Samsung patent case that is finally heading to the Supreme Court today, arguing that a definitive ruling is needed in order to bring a 19th Century law into the 21st Century. It also explains why the legal battle probably won’t end with the Supreme Court’s ruling.
A one-paragraph recap for anyone who hasn’t been following the case closely. Samsung infringed several of Apple’s design patents – that is, patents concerned with how things look (in either hardware or software) rather than what they do. Samsung is no longer denying that. The lower courts ruled that Samsung must pay all of the profits made by infringing these patents. That’s the bit Samsung is fighting, arguing that it should pay a much smaller sum.
And it is this element of patent law which the BBC’s Dave Lee suggests needs to advance a century or two …
Samsung has officially ceased worldwide production of its Galaxy Note 7 after multiple reports of replacement models, like the original ones, catching fire.
I argued yesterday that the company ‘might as well write-off this year’s flagship phone as a lost cause,’ and there are today multiple reports (The Verge, Bloomberg and the BBC) that it has now done so.
South Korean tech giant Samsung has permanently ceased production of its high-end Galaxy Note 7 smartphones after reports of devices it had deemed safe catching fire.
“We recently readjusted the production volume for thorough investigation and quality control, but putting consumer safety as top priority, we have reached a final decision to halt production of Galaxy Note 7s,” the company said. “For the benefit of consumers’ safety, we stopped sales and exchanges of the Galaxy Note 7 and have consequently decided to stop production.”
The announcement was made in response to growing pressure …
You might have thought things couldn’t get any worse for Samsung after a series of fires and explosions forced it to recall its flagship Galaxy Note 7. It had already been forced to recall almost 2.5 million devices at an estimated cost of a billion dollars, with all U.S. major carriers offering customers the option to return replacement devices also.
But things have now gotten worse. Much worse. The Verge has found that no fewer than five replacement devices have caught fire in the U.S. alone.
When it was just one case, I cautioned against jumping to conclusions, but with five separate fires in such a short time, we’re well beyond the point of being able to ascribe this to the simple statistics of lithium battery failures. All four major U.S. carriers have now pulled the Note 7 altogether, and Samsung has ‘temporarily’ halted production of replacement Note 7s …
Bloomberg reports that Apple this week won an appeal in its long-running case against Samsung over its slide-to-unlock patent.
The decision reinstates an original $119.6 million verdict owed to Apple that a U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled was wrongly thrown out in a previous decision back in February.
Over the last year, the artificial intelligence assistant “Viv” has garnered a lot of attention. Viv was cofounded by Dag Kittlaus, Adam Cheyer and Chris Brigham, the original creaters of Siri, and has been billed as a more powerful and more capable personal assistant than Siri. Now, TechCrunch reports that Samsung has acquired Viv and plans to implement it into its devices.
Update: Apple is also showing the October 14 date for Macao, Macedonia, Malaysia, Montenegro and Turkey, and it’s likely we’ll see more countries added soon.
Apple Premium Reseller iStore has tweeted that the iPhone 7 is coming to South Africa on October 14, with the information confirmed on both its website, above, and now Apple’s site too. We heard a week ago that it will be hitting India on October 7.
ET News is also reporting that Apple’s new iPhone is expected to be launched in Samsung’s home market of South Korea a week later, on October 21 – though it notes that this is not yet certain.
Through discussion that took place [yesterday], Apple Korea and three mobile network providers have decided to release the iPhone 7 on the 21st of October, based on final approval from Apple Headquarters.
Apple products are currently sold in South Korea only by third parties, but it appears that Apple has plans to take on Samsung directly on its home turf …
The rivalry between Apple and Samsung may be about to intensify: the WSJ reports that the iPhone maker is considering opening up an Apple Store very close to Samsung’s HQ in Seoul, South Korea. Perhaps very close indeed!
Apple looked at sites across the street from the Samsung ’s longtime headquarters in Seoul, according to people familiar with the matter.
The move could be a very smart one for Apple …
Earlier today Samsung revealed its latest generation of Tizen-based smartwatches, the Gear S3 Classic and Gear S3 Frontier, and 9to5Google was on hand to test the device. While these two new devices don’t look much different compared to last year’s Gear S2 lineup, they do make some major improvements.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynTB211p1PQ
Obviously, the first thought with a Samsung wearable is that it is designed to go with their Andoid-based smartphones even though this one has LTE, GPS and a reported 4-day battery life.
But this time, they work with iOS…
The never-ending patent battle between Apple and Samsung may have the design world on Apple’s side, but that doesn’t seem to be deterring Samsung from seeking to copy more Apple products. Patently Apple spotted what looks to be exact drawings of the Apple Watch in a patent application for a ‘wearable device’ filed by Samsung just yesterday.
The United States Supreme Court is set to take on Samsung’s appeal over Apple’s design patent case in two months, and today Apple has submitted an amicus brief with support from 111 famed designers ahead of the trial. Prominent names featured in the amicus brief supporting Apple include Dieter Rams, Calvin Klein, and Lord Norman Foster who is the designer behind Apple’s Campus 2 project. The Supreme Court is scheduled to take on Samsung’s appeal of the ruling in favor of Apple on October 11th.
Back in March, the Supreme Court stated that it would hear Samsung’s appeal in the company’s never-ending design patent battle with Apple. While Apple had urged the Supreme Court not to hear the case, saying that Samsung “had its day in court,” it was revealed on the court’s website today that the case will be heard on October 11th. The Supreme Court had initially announced its decision to hear the case in March, but a date was unknown until tonight.
Samsung may think that running ads mocking Apple was the right thing to do, but it appears it isn’t above copying one of Apple’s most successful ad campaigns.
As CNET noticed, Samsung’s latest video ad – showing off the 4K video recording capabilities of its latest devices – is titled ‘Captured on Samsung Galaxy S7.’ Not quite as catchy as ‘Shot on iPhone,’ admittedly, but clearly inspired by the latter …
Samsung’s executive VP for global marketing Younghee Lee has told AdWeek that its ad campaigns mocking Apple products were ‘relevant, bold and right.’