Many people complain about Samsung smartphones being built out of cheap plastic with poor build quality. But that cannot be said about Samsung’s latest smartphone. The global smartphone leader has announced the Galaxy Xcover 2, the ruggedized, water resistant smartphone for the adventurous.

The Samsung Galaxy Xcover 2 has everything to qualify as a rugged device. The smartphone is dust proof, sand proof, drop resistant and water resistant. The Galaxy Cover 2 can withstand water pressure up to a depth of one meter and can last up to 30 minutes submerged ((IP67 Certified). Naturally, the Xcover 2 can be used as an underwater camera.

The Galaxy Xcover 2 will also serve as a good companion device for those who like to explore. The smartphone comes with Google map data, an enhanced GPS + GLONASS for a more accurate location triangulation. Meanwhile, the LED flash at the back is bright enough to serve as a flashlight. Also, the Xcover 2 comes with a 1,700 mAh battery that Samsung claims, will last 570 hours, in case your exploration gets serious. With Cardio Trainer Pro application pre-installed, the Xcover 2 can even serve as a fitness device, helping you keep track of your progress.

While the Galaxy Xcover 2 might perform excellently at its task as a rugged device, it’s not the most high-tech smartphone in terms of specifications. The 4 inch display on the Xcover 2 is a WVGA in the age of 4K resolution. The rear camera has a 5 MP sensor while the front one is a VGA unit. The smartphone does, however, come with Bluetooth 4.0.

The processor is a 1GHz dual core unit of unknown origin and operates Android 4.1 (Jelly bean). The Xover 2 does, however, sport many of the Samsung UI features found in its flagship smartphones, such as turn over to mute, S Voice, S-Cloud, Smart Stay, best Shot and more. Samsung has also pre installed the Xcover 2 with the latest version of Readers Hub, Video Hub, Game Hub and Music Hub applications.

If you live in Canada and have been waiting for a worthy Windows Phone 8 device, Rogers will be your choice of wireless carrier as the company has some really cool Windows Phone 8 devices up its sleeve. We are sure of two of the Windows Phone 8 smart phones that the company is offering, the Nokia Lumia 920, which is an exclusive in Canada, and the awesome HTC 8X, another awesome device from the Taiwanese smart phone manufacturer.

Today, an anonymous source has tipped Mobile Syrup, that the wireless carrier, Rogers, is going to offer another awesome Windows Phone 8 smart phone, the Samsung ATIV S. If you are not sure of the smart phone, the Samsung ATIV S features a massive 4.8 inch Super AMOLED capacitive touch screen with a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels which is covered by a Corning Gorilla Glass 2. The smart phone runs on a 1.5 GHz dual core Qualcomm MSM8960 Snapdragon Krait processor.

If you are a person who likes to put a lot of media content on your smart phone, the Samsung ATIV S comes in both 16 GB and 32 GB variants, but if that is not enough storage for you, you can always expand the memory by another 32 GB with an external microSD card. The RAM on this device is a standard 1 GB.

The smart phone has an 8 mega pixel rear facing camera which takes images with resolution of 3264 x 2448 pixels with features such as auto focus, LED flash, geo tagging, and image stabilization. The shooter is also capable of recording full 1080p HD videos. For video calling, the smart phone features a 1.9 mega pixel front facing camera.

On the connectivity front, the smart phone offers features such as Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct, DLNA, Wi-Fi hotspot, and Bluetooth v 3.0 with the A2DP profile. Is this good enough for you? I hope so. There are no news about the pricing of the device in the current rumor. So let’s just wait for the official announcement.

Source: WP Central

According to the Korean Times, Apple’s attorneys plan to ask U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh to order Samsung to pay $3 billion after losing the recent patent suit between the two tech giants. A hearing is set for this Friday where Apple’s attorneys will argue its case with the court.

In order to be awarded $3 billion from Samsung, Apple would likely rely on a jury decision, which found Samsung guilty of willful infringement on the five patents out of six in question. According to the jury’s decision, Samsung knowingly violated 5 of Apple’s patents.

“By using that condition, Apple has decided to request the judge to order Samsung to pay more than $3 billion in the hearing on the San Jose verdict on Sept. 21 in California,” a legal source told the Korea Times.

Judge Koh does holds the power to triple the damages amount payable by Samsung, based on the ruling that found Samsung willfully infringed on 5 of Apple’s patents.

The jury verdict of August 24 was ruled in favor of Apple in virtually all the decisions and also awarded Apple $1.05 billion in damages and Samsung still continues to face other challenges along with the recent ones.

On Monday, Judge Koh denied Samsung’s request to overturn a three month old ban on its Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet. However, Judge Koh cited a lack of jurisdiction in her ruling, so a permanent decision about this matter is still up in the air.

The Galaxy Tab 10.1 faced a sales ban in June after a stipulation was added that the ban could be reversed. However, for that, the jury has to come to the verdict that Samsung did not infringe on Apple’s D’889 tablet design patent, which is what the jury found last month.

Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-57515675-37/apple-wants-$3b-in-damages-from-samsung-says-report/

So, you ask, how do all these smart phones come on the same level? Well then let’s compare the specs of all these phones. The iPhone 5 comes with pretty much the same specs as its competitors with a smaller screen and resolution of the screen as compared to its rivals the Samsung Galaxy S3 and the Nokia Lumia 90. The price of the iPhone is also relatively higher then those of its rival since the 16GB costs about $199.99, the 32GB about $299.99 and the 64GB about $399.99, whereas, the Samsung Galaxy S3 costs from $199.99 to $329.99, depending on the carrier. The price of the Lumia 920 has yet to be decided. The back cameras of the 3 phones have pretty much the same standard 8 megapixel; whereas, the front camera’s of the Nokia Lumia 920 and the Samsung Galaxy S3 have higher resolutions.

For now you’ve seen the iPhone almost at the same level as its competitors, however, there is one thing which beats both the Samsung Galaxy S3 and the Nokia Lumia 920 which is the processor of the iPhone 5 developed by Apple itself. The processor is the Proprietary A6 CPU which is pretty faster than the processor of the Samsung Galaxy S3 and the Nokia Lumia 920.

So what do you guys think? Who’ll be the ultimate victor of this battle? Is it going to be the new and flashy iPhone with a bunch of new colors or the Samsung Galaxy S3 with its large screen? Or will it be the dark horse Nokia Lumia which is yet to be released and might just blow everyone’s mind away? Only time will tell.

The latest iPhone 5 features a faster 4G wireless networking, for which, Samsung holds numerous patents. However, Samsung has already made its claims clear to the iPhone maker. Not so long ago, Samsung threatened to sue the iPhone maker it was to release any product that has LTE enabled.

After reports on Monday about the LTE capability of the iPhone 5, the South Korean electronics giant “has decided to take immediate legal action,” according to an industry source who told this to the Korea Times. The source further added that the Europe and United States are the primary targets.

There is no official news about this upcoming patent war between these two tech giants, as both have not yet officially commented on this matter.

A pair of HTC patents related to 4G LTE technology that could be invalidated in a case, which could lead to an import ban on the latest iPad and the iPhone 5 as well. U.S. International Trade Commission Judge Thomas Pender said Thursday that “clear and convincing means something to me,” addressing the guidelines for determining whether a patent should have been issued. “I have to be pretty darn certain a U.S. patent is invalid.”

However, iPhone 5 is the first time for Apple to be using LTE technology in its handsets, since it chose HSPA+ over LTE in the previous iPhone model. HSPA+ is a slightly faster 3G technology, but it is nothing compared to the 4G LTE spec. The 4G LTE technology is 10 times faster than the HSPA+ and considering the growing user’s need for faster data speeds, Apple had to bring this technology to their latest handset. We will have to wait and see Samsung’s official reaction in this regard.

Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-57510080-37/samsung-will-reportedly-sue-apple-over-lte-use-on-iphone-5/

But how to activate it? That is simple! All you need to do is to alter a few of the phone settings in the Language and Input Category and then turn on the Voice Command for Apps. Once you’re done with this, you’re all set to experience the voice command feature in a completely different way!Yes that’s true! You can now take your pictures in your new Samsung Galaxy S III simply by saying ‘Cheese!’ or ‘Capture’ or ‘Shoot’ or anything else! The S voice application in the phone enables you to interact with your Samsung Galaxy S III verbally and also to perform different actions and run programs. When you say “Hi Galaxy,” or any other set command, the phone wakes up automatically. Not only that but you can also put your alarm on Snooze, attend calls, send texts, play songs and God knows what more. But our interest in particular is the voice command in taking pictures, because that is something unique and innovative. The S voice feature is very much like the Siri in Apple iPhones but the voice controlled camera differentiates the former with the latter.

The auto focus coupled with the voice command will allow a great deal of ease in taking pictures. Looks like there is no doubt in the statement that Samsung Galaxy S III is the most hyped Android phone this year!

Source: http://howto.cnet.com/8301-11310_39-57508671-285/use-your-voice-to-take-pictures-with-the-samsung-galaxy-s-iii/

We know that Samsung had already sold 20 million Galaxy S III terminals; it seems that the South Korean manufacturer is very well seen on the mobile platforms market. Verizon’s CEO made an interesting statement recently, saying that Samsung’s own mobile operating system would be successful.

If you want background, know that Verizon is the largest mobile operator in the United States, and his boss knows what he is saying. Lowel McAdam, CEO, has found probably the cause of massive sales of Samsung’s models made by the operator they lead. Seeing what came out of Bada OS and how Tizen is evolving, we see that Samsung has potential here. At one point Samsung’s Bada OS was over the Windows Phone regarding market shares and that was possible with fewer terminals than Microsoft. You have to admit that there is a need for a third competitor in the mobile software market.

Android and iOS fights for 1st place, with Android still on top, while the 3rd place can be occupied by the new favorites, Windows Phone and maybe the new BlackBerry OS. It would not hurt another rival, because it would encourage competition in the future. Samsung already has the Android, Windows Phone, Bada and Tizen experience, so it may take a little from each and compile a fantastic OS, although I do not know how much their partners, Google or Microsoft, will appreciate this.

It is a common fact that lawyers know everything and an equally common fact that two lawyers can almost never agree with one another. We have tried to get our hands on opinions of other people from the law community and what they think about the Samsung and Apple case, so when we questioned them some interesting facts came to us. Groklaw is a place where many lawyers come together and share their views. When we searched through the site we came across a very interesting topic indeed, it was about the Apple and Samsung verdict and the jury.

Groklaw has pointed out to some very simple facts which makes us question the decision of the court altogether. For example the jury has found out that Samsung didn’t infringe Apple’s one patent but still they were awarded with $2 million over it. Well we are no law makers ourselves but it is quite odd on fining someone over something illegal when in fact it isn’t illegal at all in the first place. Then another shocking fact came when it was mentioned by Velvin Hogan, a retired engineer and patent holder about how the jurors were asked to fill out about 700 question forms without having to read out any jury instructions. This makes us more suspicious, indeed a blog called, “Above the law” had a post saying, “Here’s the thing, Ladies and Gentlemen of the Apple v. Samsung jury: it would take me more than three days to understand all the terms in the verdict! Much less come to a legally binding decision on all of these separate issues. Did you guys just flip a coin?” Well it indeed looks like they flipped a coin and how honest and unbiased this verdict is; only time will tell.

Believe it or not, Samsung officials have told the Korea Times that they would be diversifying into other products running Windows in order to reduce their reliance on Android. This may have come as a surprise, but Google was distancing itself from Samsung as well.

Samsung was “closely partnering with Microsoft (MS) to cut its dependency on Google Android, according to officials Wednesday” said the Korea Times.

However, Google’s distancing from Samsung has nothing to do with Samsung’s infringements, as it did not involve any of their technology in the infringing devices. So what is the real reason Google was doing so before the Apple vs. Samsung case started. The details of this situation remain unclear at the moment, but be assured to hear something really interesting when this story unravels itself. We can only hope about it because such corporate actions really see the light of the day.

What was really unexpected during the IFA 2012 was the Samsung’s announcement of ATIV S, which no one knew would be shown at the IFA 2012 and on the same stage as the Samsung Galaxy Note 2. This just might be a sign of Samsung’s movement towards Microsoft. Thought, it shows that Samsung has already started its movement towards Microsoft, but if a device was announced at the IFA 2012, then it means that it was a running project that started at least from the start of this year. We will dig more into this matter and recall the matters between Samsung and Google in order to guess what really happened that started this distancing in the first place. But, there are also possibilities that both companies might have had disagreements on some matters long before anyone noticed them.

This new announcement also pointed out to that, if Samsung really is moving towards Microsoft devices, then Android based devices will start to disappear from Samsung’s marketing emphasis and more emphasis will now be given to Windows Phones.

“Samsung has been in talks with major U.S. carriers to jointly develop modified design technology. This will be effective, though we can’t unveil more details for the time being,” said an official from the company’s telecommunications division.

This would come as a surprise, but it does seem as if Samsung has not taken its defeat lightly and is now putting in more effort towards making its devices better and more reliable. Moreover, this would also validate the news that Samsung is already in talks with Microsoft in making it devices better and making them compatible to Windows OS. More details about this matter, as soon as we hear something.

Source: http://wmpoweruser.com/samsung-partnering-with-microsoft-to-cut-its-dependency-on-google-android/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+WmPowerUser+%28WMPowerUser%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

This blow on Samsung is not just a blow on the company itself, but as a whole strong push to Google and the android community. So in the end Microsoft walks out as a hero and a very good third option which has no legal strings attached.

Microsoft has not exactly increased its market share or brought any drastic changes to itself but if they play the game right they might just be the next big threat to Apple. Microsoft can play the dirty cards and also have the android support against Apple making an invisible force which would really knock Apple off.

Microsoft has a number of options as to what kind of strategy it really wants to work on it can easily develop the Windows Phone OS as the phone of the future which could tackle the iPhone easily. With the android being eyed suspiciously by all the developers many might just turn towards the Windows Phone as a way to reduce their risks and putting all their money in one bag.

The marketing executive from Microsoft recently tweeted saying, “Windows Phone is looking good right now” so whether Microsoft has actually achieved a breakthrough here can only be told in the future, however, we think if Microsoft has played its cards right they might just be able to be an inevitable force against Apple. So in the end we say best of luck Microsoft may the odds be ever in your favor.

Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-57500285-94/samsung-and-androids-loss-could-be-microsofts-gain/