Hasta La Gadget!

As you might have heard, Nokia has recently won a series of legal battles against HTC in which several of HTC’s products have since been banned from being sold and had to be taken off the shelves of retailers. Nokia has never been shy about making jibes about their competitors, as we have seen in the past from several of Nokia’s advertisements, and this time it is no different. In a statement released by the Finnish company over their latest win in Germany, Nokia was pretty much all business about how they were pleased with the results of the courts which basically ruled in their favor, only to end with a humored jab at HTC, stating, “HTC’s first New Year’s resolution for 2014 should be to stop this free riding and compete fairly in the market.”

Over the past couple of months and years, we have seen huge tech companies battle it out against one another in the courtrooms. The notable is probably the Apple vs. Samsung case which is still ongoing. We had also recently heard how Google had filed a complaint against the Rockstar patent consortium (owned by companies such as Apple and Microsoft) essentially likening them to the patent trolls that we have seen in the past. Will 2014 be any different in terms of legal battles? We doubt it, if anything the competition is just getting stiffer and we would be surprised if it were anything less.

Nokia Thinks HTC’s New Year Resolution Should Be To Stop Infringing On Patents original content from Ubergizmo.

One of the perks of Snapchat is how the media you send over gets deleted after a short period of time, meaning that you can rest assured that anything private you send will not be permanent. Unfortunately it seems that it was recently that Snapchat has experienced a security breach whereby they have managed to get ahold of Snapchat’s 4.6 million usernames and phone numbers and have posted it as a downloadable database a few days ago, although at this time of posting the website appears to have been suspended. Ironically enough Snapchat was alerted to several exploits by a security group called Gibson Security, but released a statement in which they claimed to have safeguards in place.

As it stands the hackers have blurred out the last two digits of each user’s phone number and have indicated that they might be willing to turn the data over to the right party, although it seems that their motives were just to let raise public awareness. According to the anonymous group of hackers, “Our motivation behind the release was to raise the public awareness around the issue, and also put public pressure on Snapchat to get this exploit fixed. It is understandable that tech startups have limited resources but security and privacy should not be a secondary goal. Security matters as much as user experience does. The company was too reluctant at patching the exploit until they knew it was too late and companies that we trust with our information should be more careful when dealing with it.”

Snapchat Hacked: 4.6 Million User Names And Phone Numbers Stolen original content from Ubergizmo.

There might be strong demand for TFT LCD technology in the market right now, but apparently Samsung is of the view that OLED will continue to tout the advantages of its technology in the market despite rising demand for TFT LCD technology. The latest from Taiwanese trade publication Digitimes suggests that Samsung Display is going to increase the OLED panel production capacity by 33 percent in 2014. Market observers cited in the report believe that the OLED market is going to be worth upwards of $450 million in 2014, up nearly $100 million from $350 million in 2014.

The report also claims that Samsung is planning to extend the use of OLED panels in its smartphones and TV, this might be true after all. It was reported a few weeks back that the company wants to bring back OLED tablets. Samsung is rumored to launch multiple OLED tablets in 2014, with display size as large as 10.5 inches. Market observers still expect demand for OLED TVs to be weak in the new year, they hold the view that Ultra HD LCD TVs will take charge of the high-end TV market instead. The 33 percent increase in OLED panel production capacity is expected to increase output from 140,000 substrates in Q4, 2013 to 177,000 substrates in Q4, 2014.

Samsung Rumored To Increase OLED Panel Production Capacity By 33% In 2014 original content from Ubergizmo.

Sony is known for its Android powered smartphones, and it released a number of devices in 2013 that received rave reviews. The company hasn’t said anything about its smartphone plans for 2014 but rumor has it that Sony might release a Windows Phone powered smartphone in 2014. The device is expected around mid-2014, no technical specifications have been leaked as yet.

This rumor comes from The Information which claims to have heard from a person that has knowledge of Sony’s plans. It also claims that in order to bring more manufacturers on board, Microsoft is reaching out to potential OEMs and even thinking of cutting licensing costs to sweeten the deal. Sony’s entrance in the Windows Phone market might serve the platform well as it looks to increase its global market share to close up to Android and iOS, the company has only made Android devices for quite some time now. With Nokia’s hardware business almost under its belt, Microsoft effectively bought the largest WP vendor, a deal that was rumored have caused concerns for other OEMs that currently manufacture WP devices. However the company clearly wants to keep working with other OEMs as well, China’s ZTE and India’s XOLO have already hopped onboard to develop their own WP smartphones which will also be released in 2014.

Sony Expected To Launch Windows Phone Smartphone In 2014 original content from Ubergizmo.

Time and again it has been rumored that Samsung is working on a smartphone that will tout a metal body. Initially it was believed that the Galaxy S5 will have a metal body, but rumor has it that Samsung is going to stick with plastic this time around as well. It is believed that the company is developing a premium line of smartphones under the Galaxy F branding which will feature a metal build. As per the latest reports coming in from Korea, it is likely that the company might launch two smartphones together in 2014, the Galaxy S5 as well as the premium Galaxy F smartphone.

There’s obviously no confirmation from Samsung at this point in time, so these rumors should still be taken with a grain of salt. It is claimed that Samsung expanded its manufacturing operations to Vietnam just to build metal smartphones, which is why some believe none of the company’s usual partners are involved in this project. It isn’t known when the Galaxy S5 is due, rumor has it that the smartphone might be released earlier than originally planned. This is certainly not the last time we will be hearing about Samsung’s metal smartphone, but right now its too soon to be absolutely sure that its on the cards for 2014.

Samsung’s Metal Smartphone Rumored To Launch With Galaxy S5 original content from Ubergizmo.