Samsung 2012 HDTV range priced and detailed

The high definition 2012 line of LED TVs from Samsung have been revealed, and everything from the massive 65-inch ES8000 all the way down to the 26-inch EH4000 are up for grabs throughout the year. With only 6 out of a vast list of new models being TBA for availability time, we’ve got so many features to look forward to with Smart TV integration with LED brightness that your head will spin. Prices on this giant line of televisions ranges from $329.99 all the way up to $5,099.99, and that again is for the 65-inch model without an availability estimation.


Though features to vary by model, Samsung has presented an impressive lineup for these televisions for the 2012 season of Smart TV and LED technology integration. Starting with improved picture quality, these televisions will have both Micro Dimming Ultimate and Real Black Pro up their sleeves controlled with a handful of new control abilities. You’ll be able to use your new Smart Touch Remote, your Smart Wireless Keyboard, or voice and gesture control as well as facial recognition. You’ll basically not be able to walk by your television without wanting to wave your hand in front of it to change the channel or have it tell you how nice you look today with name included with its recognizer tech.

Inside each of these televisions you’ll find a dual-core CPU able to have you switching between integrated apps and tasks with ease. Inside you’ll also see AllShare Play, this feature allowing you to seamlessly connect with devices throughout your home for interaction like you’ve never seen before as well as for cloud storage should you enjoy doing such things.

You’ve got the Smart Evolution project working inside each of these televisions to let you know what’s awesome about your TV day to day, there’s an integrated camera with noise-canceling microphone in each unit, and there’s a brand new Webkit-based web browser for your web browsing experience to only get better here on the TV screen. Have a peek at the full line of televisions here and let us know which one you’ll be eyeing this season!

Of course don’t forget to look back at the televisions we’ve seen already, most of them having popped up over the past few weeks, CES ahoy! It’s looking like 2012 is shaping up to be the real Year of the Smart TV, doesn’t it?

Late-night poll: Who should make the next Nexus phone?

There's been rumors running rampant lately about the next Nexus phone, and just who might be making it. While it's a bit early to guess, we all have a preference, and it's always OK to wish -- just don't expect any predictions. OEMs showed us a lot to like during MWC 2012, and some of the new designs surely turned some heads (that HTC One S looks like a real winner to this blogger) and we can't help but wish for a Nexus phone with some of the style we've seen so far in 2012.

So what say you, savvy Android users that you are? Do you want a throwback to the original Nexus with a unibody design from HTC? Or want a Motorola unit with bulletproof cell radio and voice quality? Personally, I've always wanted to see some LG hardware with stock Android right from Google on-board, but I'd be just as happy to see another Super AMOLED model from Samsung -- I'm a sucker for a pretty face.

Amazon App Store hits v2.2.0 with new notification settings, improved app compatibility checks

It's been a while since the last Amazon App Store update was pushed out and it seems Amazon has been working on some improvements in that time. The latest update pushes the Amazon App Store into v2.2.0 and brings some welcomed changes with it aside from the usual bug fixes and stability improvements:

• New notifications settings: Enable or disable notifications for - Download and Installation, App updates, Status Bar.
• Improved messaging regarding payment options.
• Improved app compatibility checks.

Overall a decent update, especially to the notification system that more or less harassed you each and every second until you attended to them. Plus, app compatibility checks will hopefully help against wasting your time in downloading an app that simply won't work for your device. The update is live now, so go ahead and check for updates or hit the source link to head on over to Amazon and grab the download.

comScore: Android building on its lead, Samsung still top manufacturer

comScore today released its latest MobiLens report, which shows that Samsung is maintaining its lead among mobile phone manufacturers, while Android is continuing to grow at the top of the mobile OS heap. The data, representing the total U.S. mobile phone marketshare for November, December and January, shows that Samsung, despite a tenth of a point drop from its October score, remains the number one manufactuer with 25.4% of the total marketshare. LG and Motorola also saw slight drops, down to 19.7% and 13.2% respectively. Apple, reaping the benefits of its iPhone 4S release, saw a 2% gain in the market, now maintaining a 12.8% share, while RIM stayed dead even with 6.6%.
Among all mobile operating systems, Android remains top dog with 48.6% of total marketshare, up 2.3% from the last quarter. Number two iOS also saw a gain with 29.5% of the market. RIM, Windows, and Symbian all saw losses, coming in at third, fourth, and fifth respectively.
Mobile content usage is up across the board, with 74.6% of all mobile phone owners using their device to text message. 48.6% of the market use apps on their device, while 48.5% use their device's mobile browser. Social networking, playing games, and listening to music are up as well at 35.7%, 31.8%, and 24.5% respectively. comScore's full report can be found at the source link.

Galaxy Note 'premium suite' coming soon (and so is that Ice Cream Sandwich update, by the way)

Oh, Internet. How you love to make something out of nothing. A new trailer for Rovio's Angry Birds Space appeared today, indicating that the game would launch first on the Samsung Galaxy Note. At the end of the trailer, Samsung teased that a "galactic update" would soon land on the Note, along with a "premium suite." That, for some reason, has lead some people to believe (and write on the Internet) that the promised Ice Cream Sandwich update for the Galaxy Note may have been canceled.
Confused? The (warped) logic goes something like this -- Samsung reportedly once planned a "value pack" for the original Galaxy S (a phone which launched in 2010 with Eclair), in lieu of a full update to ICS. Therefore, because Samsung is using similar language here, it must also have dropped ICS for the Galaxy Note. Only, that "value pack" thing was bull, too.
So, yeah. In essence, it's nothing more than FUD. The idea that Samsung would leave the Galaxy Note, a flagship device that is barely four months old, on Gingerbread, is ridiculous. And to suggest it based on such flimsy evidence is irresponsible. The Galaxy Note, along with the Galaxy S II, was one of the first Samsung devices to be confirmed for an ICS update. The official line from Samsung has always been that it's on the way, and we've even seen fairly stable leaked builds for the GT-N7000 and GT-i9220 variants surface online in recent weeks.
So calm down, folks, we've seen absolutely nothing to suggest that the Galaxy Note ICS update is in any danger of not materializing. (When it gets it is another matter.)
If you want to check out that Angry Birds Space trailer for yourself, we've got it embedded after the break.

Samsung reaches into the low end with 2.8-inch Galaxy Pocket

Ever wonder what smooshing Android into something the size of a traditional “feature” phone would look like? Gaze upon the Galaxy Pocket, and wonder no more. Samsung’s latest budget smartphone features a tiny 2.8-inch screen running (almost surprisingly) Android 2.3 Gingerbread and TouchWiz. The unlocked international phone doesn’t have a price or release date yet, but Samsung says that it’ll be available in the UK sometime later this year.

The screen is QVGA, or 320×240 – certainly not great, but at least as good as some slightly larger 3.2-inch phones, like the ignominious Samsung Dart. Surprisingly, the Galaxy Pocket includes an 832mhz CPU – positively screaming for a budget phone. Just 3GB of storage is included, but you can add your own via the empty MicroSD card slot. Camera options are limited to a single 2 megapixel shooter on the back, with no front-facing camera.
While the Galaxy Pocket has the standard WiFi and Bluetooth connections, its wireless data is limited to HSPA – in other words, basic 3G speeds are as good as it gets. This one might be good for parents who don’t trust their teenagers with an expensive Galaxy S II, or someone who makes calls exclusively and only occasionally needs to check their email or the odd website. (Hey, those people are out there!) By our count, this gives Samsung no fewer than ten screen sizes to choose from in Android smartphones alone.

Deal of the Day: 16% Off Seidio Innocell 3800mAh Extended NFC Battery for Verizon Galaxy Nexus

Grab the Verizon Galaxy Nexus Innocell 3800mAh Super Extended NFC Battery for $62.95 today only.  That's $12 off the list price!

This extended life battery is for the power user who needs enough juice to last through long trips without having to keep charging the Verizon Galaxy Nexus. The Innocell Super Extended Battery comes with a black replacement door that features a soft-touch coating for added grip, along with Near Field Communication in the battery itself. Take advantage of this limited time deal while supplies last!
List Price: $74.95          Today: $62.95

Samsung attacks Apple again in a Seoul court

Samsung Electronics has filed a new lawsuit against Apple in a Seoul, Korea court. The new lawsuit is again over patents. The patents in this case allege Apple is violating three more Samsung patents. The suit also covers utility patents that relate to specific functions of smartphones and tablet PCs. This is an expansion to the accusations Samsung levied against Apple last year of violating five patents related to technical standards governing the way data is transmitted by mobile devices.


The most recent suit by Samsung was filed this Tuesday in a Seoul Central District Court and Samsung announced the suit today. It seems Samsung is trying to steal some of Apple’s thunder from the iPad event going on today with the announcement of the suit. Samsung says Apple violated patents it holds covering a way data is displayed on a mobile phone, “mobile terminal” and “method for outputting a short message on a mobile communication terminal.”
The Apple iPhone 4S and iPad are covered in the suit. So far, legal suits by Samsung have not resulted in legal wins. Recently, Apple offered proposals for Motorola Mobility and Samsung to settle some of the patent litigation Apple is pressing against them. Apple suggested royalty payments to license the patents it alleges Motorola and Samsung are violating in the range of $5-$15 per device.

Samsung flexible display patent reveals potential new form factors

Samsung confirmed last week that it was planning to mass produce flexible OLED displays to be used in forthcoming products either later this year or early next, and now new patent filings have emerged which show off the potential applications of the technology. On the horizon: rollable screens that pull out of a pen-style casing, folding digital books and more.

Patent Bolt uncovered Samsung’s flexible display patent, designed to be used in products coming in 2013. It shows several uses for the technology, most notably indicating that it could be worked into smaller gadgets. One example shows a display that could be rolled up like a papyrus scroll, while another suggests screens that could be folded to the point where they mimic books.

In terms of material used, the screens are expected to use a plastic substrate, or extremely thin glass, depending on the intended gadget. It can also be applied to a wide variety of different screen technologies, included AMOLED and traditional LCDs. The intended gadget recipients range from smartphones (naturally), MP3 players, PC monitors, as well as laptops.
Samsung have demoed the tech in action in the past, which included a foldable AMOLED screen concept which had no seam. Nokia have also shown off a variant of the technology with their Kinect Labs concept phone back at Nokia World in October.

Click here to find out more! Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 Verizon LTE Review

Meet the latest tablet from team Samsung and Verizon complete with 4G LTE and a 7.7″ AMOLED HD display. The Galaxy Tab 7.7 LTE is the newest member of the ever-growing range of Samsung tablets and fits in between all the other sizes they’ve released as of late. The Galaxy Tab 7.7 LTE has a dual-core processor and one of the best displays we’ve seen on a tablet — and has us very impressed. Read on for our full thoughts and plenty of pictures.


To start we’ll jump right into the hardware, which is excellent by the way. Being portable, thin, lightweight, powered by 4G LTE, and the perfect size makes this probably one of my favorite tablets. Start by checking out our hands-on here and the hands-on unboxing video.
Galaxy Tab 7.7 LTE unboxing
Hardware
I wont make you all wait til the very end to get the full verdict here. This tablet is my favorite Samsung table to date — and once it gets Ice Cream Sandwich it will simply be awesome. Complete with a 7.7″ AMOLED HD display with a 1280 x 800 resolution and exquisite colors this thing really shines during daily use, gaming, and watching Netflix. Under the hood is the Samsung Exynos 1.4 GHz dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM, 16GB of internal storage and it even has a micro-SD slot to add more if/when needed.

Being 7.7″ I’d still say this is a bit too large to fit in your pocket unless you have larger than normal pockets, but it is still extremely portable and having Verizon 4G LTE really helps out. The Galaxy Tab 10.1 is too large to be what I myself would call “portable” and the Galaxy Note might to too small for those still wanting a tablet experience.

Around back is a 3.2 megapixel camera and 2 megapixel up front for video chat. The power and volume buttons have been redesigned compared to all other Samsung tablets and I love the new shape. Being slightly squared and they actually feel different than each other so you wont accidentally turn the screen off while trying to increase the volume. The power button feels slightly lower than the volume rocker so that helps too.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7″ is shown above with the 10″ Verizon LTE Tab and the Galaxy Note for a comparison of the size. It also comes in around 7.89mm thin and is the thinnest tablet available from Samsung — but only by a hair. The brushed aluminum on back is a step up from the cheap plastic feel of the larger 10 and 8.9″ models and a welcomed change. It seems to resist scratching quite well too.
Larger tablets like the 8.9 and 10.1 from Samsung didn’t have a micro-SD port for extra storage, but the smaller 7.0 Plus did although no 4G LTE. Giving the Verizon Tab 7.7″ the best of both, or all I should say, makes it truly the best Samsung Galaxy Tab available in my opinion. The only bad part is no Ice Cream Sandwich, and that brings me to my next topic.
Software
Running on Android 3.2 Honeycomb is the only downfall of this tablet for me. Previously we docked points for tablets not having Honeycomb but now that Ice Cream Sandwich is here, and readily available we want it on our tablets. That aside this is the same experience we’ve had across all Samsung devices with the TouchWiz UX. Things are smooth, they’ve updated a few apps and widgets to use the larger screen, and the built-in screen capture feature is nice. I just wish it wasn’t next to the multitasking button as I always hit the wrong one.
Out of the box Verizon has bundled some decent apps along with the usual bloatware. Using things like Blockbuster and Netflix is awesome with the screen size and vivid colors. The usual V CAST apps and My Verizon are here, but we also have a photo editor, quick office, Smart Remote (Peel) for the included Infrared port on the side, UNO, Dead Space by EA Games, and an app called The Daily for news. We also have Swype for tablets pre-installed and it works pretty well for the screen size, swpying on a 10″ device wasn’t ideal if you ask me but is far more manageable on this 7.7″ of real estate.
Performance & Benchmarks
As usual we’ve ran a quick couple of benchmarks to see how fast things are. As we mentioned above this has the Samsung 1.4 GHz dual-core processor like the international Galaxy Note, not the 1.5 GHz Qualcomm the AT&T model comes with. Performance seems to be about on par if not a little better though. See the results below for a better idea.

Slowly I’m realizing even though Quadrant is the standard in benchmarking that many people use, I’ve also ran AnTuTu as many feel it is more accurate with dual-core devices. Either way benchmarks only play a small roll in actual real-life performance. The only slowdowns are the few bugs in 3.2 Honeycomb and they are few and far between.

We did however get upgraded to the brand new Google Play and Play Store for Android that is replacing the Android Market, this was my first device with the update. Again you can really see from the screenshot below just how impressive the colors are on this 1280 x 800 AMOLED HD panel Samsung’s equipped this slate with.

4G LTE Speedtest
Of course having connectivity in the form of Verizon Wireless and their blazing fast 4G LTE we had to run some speedtests. Here in Vegas we achieved average results with speeds reaching around 9-11 MB/s in download speeds and upload wasn’t that great. We did however have a solid 4G LTE connection throughout town. Better than my Galaxy Nexus actually.


Camera / Battery Life
The camera around back is 3.2 megapixels, like most tablets from Samsung. While it isn’t the best being only 3.2 MP it’s actually better than many higher rated smartphone cameras. As long as you have mildly decent lighting we captured good pictures but usually a little grainy. Here’s a image taken with the Tab 7.7 and more are in the gallery below.

Battery life remains another strong point for Samsung here too. While we don’t have a quad-core or anything on board I did manage to get 3 days on a single charge with light light usage and 4G LTE enabled. Using the device more heavily will see substantial drops as you’d expect — especially with LTE sucking down power. However, the 5100 mAh battery was big enough to last for almost 26 hours of heavy usage throughout the day and all night gaming on the couch. Running video non-stop while streaming Netflix you’ll probably only get about 8-9 though.
Wrap Up
The screen is awesome, the dual-core is fast, the size is perfect and so is everything else. The only downfall here is the lack of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich but that is coming soon. After using this for about a week I can safely say this is the sweet spot for me in regards to Android tablets. Yes a 10″ slate is nice but the tiny additional screen space ruins portability and I have a hard time carrying around something that large out of the house.
If you’ve wanted a tablet but didn’t like the idea of a 10″ device this should be your first choice. Well, this or the Samsung Galaxy Note because it’s awesome too. Once Samsung updates this to Android 4.0 ICS this will be my favorite 3G/4G tablet available. Get it now from Verizon for $499 and a new 2-year contract.

Device Specifications and Information

Device Info

Device Name : Galaxy Tab 7.7

Manufactuer : Samsung

Carrier : NA

Announced Date : September 01, 2011

Release Date : March 01, 2012

Also Known As : Verizon Galaxy Tab 7.7 LTE

Display

• Screen Size : 7.70 Inch
• Resolution : 1280x800
• Screen Type : Super AMOLED Plus

Dimension & Weight

• Height : 7.74 Inch
• Width : 5.24 Inch
• Depth : 0.31 Inch
• Weight : 335 Grams

Battery & Power

Battery Type:
• Lithium Polymer

• Battery Capacity : 5100 mAh
• Talk Time : NA
• Stand By Time : NA

Software

Android OS:
• 3.2.x

Hardware

CPU : Exynos

CPU Clock Speed : 1400 Mhz

Core : 2

Ram : 1024 MB

Internal Storage : 16GB GB

Front Facing Camera :

Samsung Galaxy S Advance gets priced and dated in the UK

Do you need something more powerful than the original Samsung Galaxy S, but you’re not ready for the big screen of the Galaxy S II? Then you’re part of an extremely specific market that Samsung nonetheless hopes to target with the Galaxy S Advance, an upgrade on the original that delivers a faster processor and more contemporary styling. After a few delays, the phone has popped up on UK retailer Clove with an expected ship date of March 26th. The price is £354.00 with taxes for an unlocked phone, making it about $550 USD.

That’s a lot to ask for a phone that’s using a lot of older tech. The biggest improvement over the Galaxy S (now almost two years old) is a dual-core 1.0Ghz processor, while the 4-inch screen, 1GB of RAM, and 5 megapixel camera stay the same. The phone uses Samsung’s standard Gingerbread-TouchWiz combination, which should run fine on 768MB of RAM. The 800×480 Super AMOLED screen gets something of a refresh, since it’s got a Galaxy Nexus-style concave curved glass panel. The connection is HSPA, not HSPA+.
We haven’t heard of the Galaxy S Advance making the jump to the Americas yet, though it’s certainly not impossible: it’s already made the rounds at the FCC. To be honest, a mild refresh of the Galaxy S isn’t really necessary with the US’ love affair with subsidized phones: the reduced price that the Advance would get wouldn’t be significantly lower than the Galaxy S II or other similarly-equipped high end phones. Even so, we’ll be waiting to see if it graces our fair shores.

Samsung hosts Galaxy Note Studio Mall Tour

Samsung is offering a chance for you to experience the many features of the Galaxy Note at select malls across the US. Most are located in California, but there are a few others scattered across the country. After visiting the Samsung booth, someone will draw a complementary caricature of you directly from a Galaxy Note. You’ll receive a printout, and then be eligible to win a Galaxy Note Accessory Pack upon entry!


The booth will only be open on weekends, and until March 25. You can also ‘Like’ Samsung Mobile’s Facebook page for an extra chance to win a Galaxy Note and then a chance to attend the London 2012 Olympic Games. As a refresher, we have a full blown review of AT&T’s newly released Note – so be sure to check it out. It’s not too different than the original Note, other than the variation of capacitive softkeys.

As a recap, specifications of the Note include a vibrant 5.3″ Super AMOLED HD display with a 1280 x 800 resolution, 1.5GHz dual core processor, 1GB of RAM, and stylus S-Pen. After using the Note, you realize how grateful Samsung was to include the stylus. Some applications and even taking quick notes become easier than ever to use. For those of you fortunate enough to take advantage of a free caricature, we wish you luck in their other promotions as well.