Hasta La Gadget!

While we’ve been hearing a lot about Samsung‘s rumored Galaxy S IV lately, we’ve also been hearing quite a bit about the supposedly upcoming Galaxy Note III. The follow up to 2012′s successful Galaxy Note II should be coming sometime later this year, and The Korea Times has apparently spoken to an anonymous Samsung official who claims the phablet will come equipped with a 6.3-inch screen. That’s absolutely massive for a smartphone, in case you were wondering.

With a 6.3-inch screen, we’re inching toward the realm of the Nexus 7, and indeed, a screen of that size would outshine the displays of Galaxy Notes past. The original Galaxy Note, as many of you will remember, had a 5.3-inch display, while the Galaxy Note II’s screen came in just a little bit bigger at 5.5-inches. With the Galaxy Note III, we could potentially see Samsung bring the screen size up by nearly an inch, which of course means even more screen real estate for users. To put things in perspective, the phone would probably be similar in size to the massive Huawei Ascend Mate, which features a 6.1-inch screen, but even then, the Note III would boast a bigger screen size.

We’re also hearing that Samsung’s freshly revealed Exynos 5 Octa CPU will be front and center in this device, which was essentially a given. Samsung will naturally want to use the new processor in all of its upcoming high-end phones, so the Note III probably won’t be any different. This Samsung source says the Note III should be debuting later this year, and taking that a step further, it seems safe to assume that it will enjoy an autumn launch, just like its predecessor.

Interestingly enough, the specs of the Note III were just a footnote in The Korea Times‘ larger write-up, which is about what Samsung is doing to secure new customers for its chip business. We’ve been hearing that the relationship between Apple and Samsung is deteriorating, so Samsung wants to secure more customers in an effort to keep profits up once Apple begins looking elsewhere for chips. Potential business partners include ZTE and Huawei, which were both supposedly approached by Samsung during CES. It would seem that Samsung is turning its eye to the emerging smartphone market in China, and if it can secure chip buyers there, then it should be fine despite the fact that its biggest customer is going elsewhere for chips. Stay tuned.

[via Unwired View]

Samsung Galaxy Note III said to use Exynos 5 Octa CPU is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

CES 2013 has already brought some very exciting news about mobile processors, with NVIDIA revealing its Tegra 4 processor during its press conference earlier in the week. Not one to be outdone, Samsung today officially pulled the veil off its 8-core Exynos 5 Octa chip. Comprised of two sets of four cores, the Exynos 5 Octa is obviously geared toward keeping things moving fast and fluid, even when multiple applications are running on your mobile device.

As such, don’t expect to see the Exynos 5 Octa present in anything but high-end smartphones and tablets. The upshot to this is, obviously, a better experience when doing things like watching video or using multiple tabs in your mobile browser. In fact, Samsung CEO Stephen Woo says that there won’t be any stutter during HD video playback, which, as many of you likely know, can be something of an issue on slower processors.

In addition to trying to knock multitasking out of the park, the Exynos 5 Octa is also sporting 3D capabilities. That, of course, means better 3D gaming, so expect to see mobile games take a step up after the Octa starts showing up in devices. This processor also has the distinction of being the first mobile CPU to implement the ARM big.LITTLE technology, something we’ve described at length in the past.

Of course, all the power in the world isn’t worth anything if your battery can’t last long enough to take full advantage of it, which is why Samsung is also focusing on efficiency with this release. By packing together four Cortex A15 processors to do the heavy lifting and four A7 cores for lighter work, users should have the power they need while also saving on battery power when they can.

It’ll probably be a little while before we see the latest in the Exynos line begin making an appearance in a significant number of devices, but it should be making a splash in the mobile world before long. It’s been an incredibly exciting CES for mobile computing, so be sure to have a look at our CES portal for news you may have missed. As always, keep it here at SlashGear for even more from the show.

Samsung goes big with 8-core Exynos 5 Octa chip reveal is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Samsung’s Exynos processors have powered a lot of the faster devices out there, from the Galaxy S II, which was way ahead of everyone in terms of speed, to the newer Nexus 10. Now the Exynos 5 Octa Processor is here. Wait, octa? As in eight cores? More »

The next-generation Samsung Galaxy S IV has been tipped with a photo of a rendering that, while it may look professionally done, is simple enough in its aesthetic quality that it could have been mocked up rather easily. That said, this SamMobile release’s attached details present an interesting prospect for the future, starting with no on-screen buttons, much like the last two Google Nexus devices and the Motorola lineup of late. After that it’s all big-time upgrades.

This device leak notes a Exynos 5450 Quad-Core CPU clocked at 2.0GHz, this making the Galaxy S IV a beast, especially with the now-standard 2GB of RAM it’ll be coming with. You’ll be blasting out the graphics with a Mali-T658 GPU, all this across a beastly screen with a size we’ve never seen before: 4.99-inches. This machine works with a 4.99-inch Super AMOLED FULL HD 1080 × 1920 pixel resolution display – that’s a beast in and of itself, mind you.

The source that claimed this photo of a render is real has noted that they’ve got more photos on the way – this mixed with the notion that it could simply be a mix-up of the Galaxy S III and the Samsung Galaxy Permier makes it a slight bit salt-coated. This means you’ll want to make sure you keep your suspicions high, but that you can feel free to get excited either way.

Have a peek at our timeline of Samsung Galaxy S IV posts below and make sure you get pumped up for the release. The release of this device is a mystery and will remain a mystery until we either get a hot tip on a Samsung event or we see one magically at CES 2013 or MWC 2013. We’re expecting this machine to be revealed in its very own event this Spring – seeya then!

Samsung Galaxy S IV render leaks with no on-screen buttons is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

IF you’re a Galaxy S III user, then we hope you heard about the Exynos 4 security hole that was discovered a few weeks back. While this flaw allows users to root their device with a single click, it also could potentially let malicious apps take full control of those devices, as it grants access to all of the phone’s physical memory. So, there was a plus side, but the negatives to this security issue far outweighed that little perk.

Obviously, we can’t have a slew of Galaxy S III users roaming around out there with very vulnerable devices, so Samsung got to work on a fix for the issue shortly after finding out about it. Today the company has started delivering a software update that kills the problem, SamMobile reports, though at the moment it seems this update is only available to consumers in the United Kingdom. We imagine this update will follow for other regions shortly, so in the meantime, keep an eye on the apps you download if you’re living outside of the UK (but you should be doing that anyway).

Of course, there are plenty of other devices out there that are using an Exynos processor and are still at risk, so we’ll be waiting for updates to those devices for at least a little while longer. The software update being pushed out today also apparently fixes the sudden death issue we heard about back at the end of December. This issue sees the mainboard failing entirely, which means the phone is more or less dead after that happens, so it’s good that Samsung was able to get a fix out so quickly.

Keep in mind that Samsung hasn’t confirmed whether or not the sudden death issue is being fixed with this patch, but we know that the Exynos kernel issue is going the way of the Dodo, at least as far as the Galaxy S III is concerned. Other than these two major fixes, there are also a handful of minor patches as well. Galaxy S III living in the UK can nab the update now from Samsung Kies or check for the OTA update from their phone to initiate the download.

[via Android Community]

Samsung fixes Exynos security hole in latest Galaxy S III software update is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.