Samsung no longer asking for European injunction against Apple

One day after Judge Lucy Koh ruled Samsung's phones wouldn't be banned in the U.S., the South Korean manufacturer has decided to stop seeking a sales ban on Apple products in Europe.

On Tuesday, Samsung announced it would cease injunction attempts against Apple in the U.K., Germany, France, Italy and the Netherlands.

"[We] strongly believe it is better when companies compete fairly in the marketplace, rather than in court," Samsung said in a statement released to The Verge, echoing a criticism it's brought up about Apple's litigation habits before.

"In this spirit, Samsung has decided to withdraw our injunction requests against Apple on the basis of our standard essential patents pending in European courts, in the interest of protecting consumer choice."

Round and round

However, even though Samsung won't be trying to convince the European courts to ban sales of Apple's products, the company will still continue seeking damages for patent infringements.

The ongoing legal drama between Samsung and Apple seems destined to continue, as until this point, neither party has budged without some motivation from the court system.

Though Samsung is dropping its injunctions against Apple based on the standard essential patents, it's still under investigation by the European Commission for potentially breaking anti-trust laws related to those same patents.

Apple was awarded $1 billion in damages from the U.S. ITC, but is still seeking even more, with the hope to gain more than an additional $700 million from Samsung.

These proceedings continue to happen, despite Samsung and Apple actually being partners in manufacturing the iPhone.

Both parties claim that the working relationship shared by the companies won't be affected by the trial, but there are rumblings Apple is looking elsewhere for aid in future phone development.

More progress is expected to be made in both Apple's case against Samsung and Samsung's case against Apple in the new year, and, hopefully there will be an end to this endless courtroom drama.

Via The Verge

Brazilian company launches 'iphone' Android handset

The tech firm that owns the rights to the word 'iphone' in Brazil has launched an Android phone under the illustrious moniker.

The Gradiente iphone Neo One is a low-powered device running Android 2.3 Gingerbread and only features a single core 700MHz processor and a low-res 320 x 480, 3.7-inch display.

There's a 5-megapixel camera and a 0.3-megapixel front-facing offering, along with 3G connectivity, 2GB of storage and dual-SIM capabilities.

Although, specs wise, the handset is virtually incomparable with the all-conquering iPhone, it's unlikely that Apple will be taking this 'iphone' launch lightly.

All guns blazing

The brazen Brazilians won exclusive rights to the word 'IPHONE' in 2008, just one year after Apple launched the original iPhone handset in 2007, but this is the first time have used the name.

Even though Apple does not own the word in Brazil, it is likely to go after the iphone Neo One all guns blazing as it is, unquestionably, a competing product.

For now, the device is on sale in the country for 599 Brazilian real, which works out at about £176 (USD$286, AUD$272).

Via SlashGear

Samsung no longer asking for European injunction against Apple

One day after Judge Lucy Koh ruled Samsung's phones wouldn't be banned in the U.S., the South Korean manufacturer has decided to stop seeking a sales ban on Apple products in Europe.

On Tuesday, Samsung announced it would cease injunction attempts against Apple in the U.K., Germany, France, Italy and the Netherlands.

"[We] strongly believe it is better when companies compete fairly in the marketplace, rather than in court," Samsung said in a statement released to The Verge, echoing a criticism it's brought up about Apple's litigation habits before.

"In this spirit, Samsung has decided to withdraw our injunction requests against Apple on the basis of our standard essential patents pending in European courts, in the interest of protecting consumer choice."

Round and round

However, even though Samsung won't be trying to convince the European courts to ban sales of Apple's products, the company will still continue seeking damages for patent infringements.

The ongoing legal drama between Samsung and Apple seems destined to continue, as until this point, neither party has budged without some motivation from the court system.

Though Samsung is dropping its injunctions against Apple based on the standard essential patents, it's still under investigation by the European Commission for potentially breaking anti-trust laws related to those same patents.

Apple was awarded $1 billion in damages from the U.S. ITC, but is still seeking even more, with the hope to gain more than an additional $700 million from Samsung.

These proceedings continue to happen, despite Samsung and Apple actually being partners in manufacturing the iPhone.

Both parties claim that the working relationship shared by the companies won't be affected by the trial, but there are rumblings Apple is looking elsewhere for aid in future phone development.

More progress is expected to be made in both Apple's case against Samsung and Samsung's case against Apple in the new year, and, hopefully there will be an end to this endless courtroom drama.

Via The Verge

Samsung no longer seeking injunction against Apple in Europe

One day after Judge Lucy Koh ruled Samsung's phones wouldn't be banned in the U.S., the South Korean manufacturer has decided to stop seeking a sales ban on Apple products in Europe.

On Tuesday, Samsung announced it would cease injunction attempts against Apple in the U.K., Germany, France, Italy, and the Netherlands.

"[We] strongly believe it is better when companies compete fairly in the marketplace, rather than in court," Samsung said in a statement released to the Verge.

"In this spirit, Samsung has decided to withdraw our injunction requests against Apple on the basis of our standard essential patents pending in European courts, in the interest of protecting consumer choice."

However, even though Samsung won't be trying to convince the European courts to ban sales of Apple's products, the company will still continue seeking damages for patent infringements.

Round and round

The ongoing legal drama between Samsung and Apple seems destined to continue, as until this point, neither party has budged without some motivation from the court system.

Though Samsung is dropping its injunctions against Apple based on the standard essential patents, the company is still under investigation by the European Commission for potentially breaking anti-trust laws related to those same patents.

Apple was awarded $1 billion in damages from the U.S. ITC, but is still seeking even more, with the hope to gain more than an additional $700 million from Samsung.

These proceedings continue to happen, despite Samsung and Apple actually being partners in manufacturing the iPhone.

Both parties claim that working relationship won't be affected by the trial, however there are rumblings Apple is looking elsewhere for aid in future phone development.

More progress is expected to be made in both Apple's case against Samsung and Samsung's case against Apple in the new year.

Via The Verge

Leaked slide touts Nvidia Tegra 4 specs, including 6x graphics power

Mobile users curious about which chip might power their favorite gadget next year will want to get a sneak peek at the specs for Nvidia's Tegra 4 processor, promising six times the graphics power of the current Tegra 3.

Engadget reported Tuesday that a Nvidia presentation slide leaked in China appears to reveal the company's plans for its forthcoming Tegra 4 processor, codenamed "Wayne."

Featuring the same 28nm process found on the current (and very power efficient) Tegra 3 processor, the slide describes the Tegra 4 as packing 72 cores - six times the power of the Tegra 3, and a whopping 20x boost from the Tegra 2.

With all that graphics power, Tegra 4 cores will be capable of powering a display up to 2560 x 1600, 1080p at 120Hz and there's also a rather brief mention of 4K, should you have sufficient HD content to throw at it.

CES 2013 reveal?

Despite the huge leap in graphics processing, the leaked slide shows no bump for the actual CPU cores, although Nvidia does appear to be moving the Tegra 4 to ARM's latest Cortex-A15 design.

Judging from the specs, the Tegra 4 might also be Nvidia's first mobile processor to come packing USB 3.0 along with dual-channel DDR3L memory.

The report appears confident that the chipmaker may use the upcoming Consumer Electronics Show 2013 in early January to officially debut the Tegra 4, where they'll likely be duking it out with Samsung and Qualcomm's latest and greatest.

Via Engadget

Leaked slide touts NVIDIA Tegra 4 processor specs

Mobile users curious about which chip might power their favorite gadget next year will want to get a sneak peek at the specs for NVIDIA's Tegra 4 processor, promising six times the graphics power of the current Tegra 3.

Engadget reported Monday that a NVIDIA presentation slide leaked in China appears to reveal the company's plans for its forthcoming Tegra 4 processor, codenamed "Wayne."

Featuring the same 28nm process found on the current (and very power efficient) Tegra 3 processor, the slide describes the Tegra 4 as packing 72 cores - six times the power of the Tegra 3, and a whopping 20x boost from the Tegra 2.

With all that graphics power, Tegra 4 cores will be capable of powering a display up to 2560 x 1600, 1080p at 120Hz and there's also a rather brief mention of 4K, should you have sufficient HD content to throw at it.

CES 2013 reveal?

Despite the huge leap in graphics processing, the leaked slide shows no bump for the actual CPU cores, although NVIDIA does appear to be moving the Tegra 4 to ARM's latest Cortex-A15 design.

Judging from the specs, the Tegra 4 might also be NVIDIA's first mobile processor to come packing USB 3.0 along with dual-channel DDR3L memory.

The report appears confident that NVIDIA may use the upcoming Consumer Electronics Show 2013 in early January to officially debut the Tegra 4, where they'll likely be duking it out with Samsung and Qualcomm's latest and greatest.

Via Engadget

Huawei Ascend D2 smartphone outed in photos revealing 5-inch display

Images have now appeared online claiming to show the much talked about Huawei Ascend D2 in all its 5-inch glory.

Just this morning we reported that a Huawei executive confirmed the Ascend D2 would be arriving at CES 2013, alongside the Windows Phone 8 touting Ascend W1.

The photos come courtesy of China's version of the FCC, which posted three snaps of the device on its website, showing a minimalist white handset with no buttons on the front and an HTC One X style camera on the rear.

Full HD, 1080p

The key feature on the Ascend D2 is its full HD, 5-inch display which will see the handset go up against the likes of the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 and HTC Butterfly/Droid DNA in the super-sized phone market.

Some specifications accompanied the photos, which apparently shows the Ascend D2 weighing in at a hefty 170g, measuring 140x71x9.9mm and packing a decent 2,900mAh battery.

We're yet to hear anything official directly from Huawei, so we are not getting carried away with these latest reports, but it's all looking pretty good at the moment for the Chinese firm.

From Tenaa via Android Authority

Samsung's phones won't be banned in US after Apple trial

Apple may have won $1 billion from Samsung in its patent infringement case, but it's failed in its bid to have the Korean company's devices banned from sale.

Judge Lucy Koh ruled Samsung's smartphones and tablets will stay on US shelves. But it wasn't all good news for Samsung. Koh threw out the company's complaint that the jury foreman was biased against it because of his previous dealings with one of its partner companies.

Koh ruled the patent infringement wasn't a big enough threat to Apple to warrant a sales ban.

"Samsung may have cut into Apple's customer base somewhat, but there is no suggestion that Samsung will wipe out Apple's customer base, or force Apple out of the business of making smartphones," Koh said in her ruling. "The present case involves lost sales - not a lost ability to be a viable market participant."

In other words, even though Samsung may have made devices very similar to Apple's, and it's a bigger company, Apple can still more than hold its own.

Samsung's Galaxy Nexus could still be banned in a separate case, though.

"Unprecedented"

Experts hailed the decision not to ban Samsung's devices as "unprecedented", considering the number of injunctions found, and the amount of money Samsung was made to cough up.

Apple wanted 26 Samsung devices banned. Koh ruled that in order to win a ban, Apple would have to show it'd "lost these sales because Samsung infringed Apple's patents. Apple has simply not been able to make this showing."

Samsung was hoping that jury foreman Velvin Hogan's previous dealing with Seagate could prompt a retrial. Hogan was bankrupted after trying to sue Seagate for fraud in 1993, and seeing as Seagate has dealings with Samsung, the Korean company thought this would prejudice him.

But Koh ruled that Samsung couldn't complain about Hogan because it had carried out pretrial interviews with him. "Parties [in the trial] waive their right to challenge the jury's impartiality if they are aware of the evidence giving rise to the motion for a new trial or fail to exercise reasonable diligence in discovering that evidence," Koh said in her ruling.

Via Guardian

Samsung Galaxy Grand is just a repackaged, cheaper Galaxy Note

That's right folks there's another new handset from everyone's favourite Korean manufacturer, say hello to the Samsung Galaxy Grand.

The Grand name gives you a hint that this isn't a run of the mill mid-range blower, oh no this is a 5-inch handset which brings the real estate of the Galaxy Note 2 to the more budget-centric market.

While the screen may be expansive, its quality is less impressive boasting a mediocre WVGA 480x800 resolution which will appear poorer simply due to the sheer size of the display.

Mediocre

Under the hood there's a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM, 8GB of internal memory, Android Jelly Bean, while round the back everything looks a bit Samsung Galaxy S3 with a centralised 8MP camera flanked by a single LED flash and speaker grill.

There's also a front facing 2MP camera and all the usual connectivity options including Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, A-GPS, USB and DLNA, but there's no sign of NFC.

In short the Galaxy Grand is a slightly less well equipped Samsung Galaxy Note, but sporting the style of the current crop of Galaxy handsets.

There's currently no word on the Samsung Galaxy Grand release date or price, although we'd expect it to arrive in the major markets, with two models (single and dual-SIM) being made.

From Samsung