Hasta La Gadget!

According to a leaked roadmap on TMoNews, the magenta carrier appears to have a few tantalizing offerings coming its way this holiday season. A curious BlackBerry handheld dubbed the Armstrong, a color refresh of the Samsung Galaxy S II, a possibly Android-flavored Huawei Summit and the LG Optimus L9 are all slated to launch just on or before Halloween. Going into the next month, we see the HTC Windows Phone 8X making the pre-Thanksgiving cut with a potential debut of November 14th. Notably absent are the Samsung Galaxy Note II and the Nokia Lumia 810, but that doesn’t mean they won’t be there when December rolls around. Of course, this info didn’t come through official channels, so we wouldn’t bank on any of the handsets as holiday gifts just yet. Still, its nice to know they’re coming, and you can get the full details on these and other devices at the source.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Samsung, HTC, LG, RIM, T-Mobile

T-Mobile’s holiday roadmap leaked: LG Optimus L9, HTC Windows Phone 8X spotted originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Oct 2012 23:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A good chunk of Samsung’s recent smartphone releases seemed intent on stretching people’s hands beyond their limits, but it seems like the company may be ready to buck that trend very soon. According to a recently released press invitation, Samsung will be pulling back the curtains on a smaller-than-usual smartphone at its Mobile Store in Frankfurt on October 11.

“So big can be small,” the invitation reads. “And so small can be big.” Cryptic, no?

Anyway, more than a few people have latched onto the idea that this mystery smartphone is in fact a tinier, more pocketable version of Samsung’s Galaxy S III. German gadget site MobiFlip (who first published the images of the interview) claims that anything other than a miniature Galaxy S III wouldn’t make sense at this point, an assertion that happens to jibe nicely with earlier whispers of a tiny Galaxy S III. Alright, maybe “tiny” isn’t the right word — the GSIII Mini’s purported spec sheet pegs it as having a 4-inch Super AMOLED panel and a 5-megapixel camera, in addition to running the “latest” version of Android.

The rest of the image doesn’t really give us much to work more with — as with most event invitations, it seems to revel in its vagueness — but there’s a conspicuous S logo nestled behind the text that indicates that whatever we’re going to see is part of Samsung’s Galaxy S family. That’s actually an important distinction to make here too, because the company is more than happy to push out lower-end and niche devices under the Galaxy banner, but the S line has been the company’s flagship line of Android handsets for years now, so whatever happens to take the proverbial stage next week should be worth keeping an eye on.

We knew it was arriving soon, but until now, we weren’t exactly sure what T-Mobile meant when it said the Relay 4G was hitting in the “coming weeks.” Now the magenta carrier is putting the release of the QWERTY handset formerly known as the also verbose Galaxy S Blaze Q at September 19th. The slider will run you and your thumbs $150 with a two-year contract, after a $50 mail-in rebate.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile

Samsung Galaxy S Relay 4G bringing keyboard, longwinded name to T-Mobile September 19th originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 10 Sep 2012 14:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Samsung may have lost a billion dollar round here in the US, but it appears to have scored a victory in its patent battle against Apple in Japan today. Reuters and Bloomberg report a judge there decided its Galaxy smartphones and tablets did not infringe on an Apple patent. Apple sued Samsung there in September of last year, however the Tokyo District Court has ruled Samsung did not violate a patent that covered syncing music and video data with a PC. According to The Yomiuri Shinbun, presiding judge Tamotsu Shoji dismissed the claim, saying Samsung’s implementation of this specific technology was not covered by the scope of Apple’s patent and, Bloomberg reports, ordered Apple to pay the costs of the lawsuit. Just as we’re seeing in US District Court in California however, one judgement doesn’t mean the seemingly never-ending battle is over however because Apple may be able to appeal this decision to a higher court. There are also other cases ongoing, which The Sankei Shimbun reports includes one focusing on the infamous bounce-back patent, so as usual, stay tuned for further updates.

Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, Mobile

Japan court rules Samsung’s Galaxy phones, tablet do not infringe on an Apple patent originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 31 Aug 2012 00:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This week the folks at Apple are continuing their assault on Samsung in the courtroom with further legal action against the manufacturer, attempting here early in the week to have 8 Android devices banned from the USA. These devices are all smartphones and the majority of them come from the Samsung Galaxy S II generation of Samsung smartphones. Along with that set of devices there’s also a 4G iteration of the original Samsung Galaxy S as well as a few other oddities.

The full list includes the Galaxy S 4G, each of the Galaxy S II devices that’ve been released in the USA over the past year, and the Droid Charge, Galaxy Prevail, and Galaxy S Showcase. These devices were each found “guilty” so to speak of patent infringement in one way or another in the 3-week court case that had its verdict read at the end of last week. This Apple vs Samsung trial has been what many have labeled the most important technology-related legal trial of the year as both sides of the battle are major players in the ever-growing mobile gadget market.

• Galaxy S 4G
• AT&T Galaxy S II (AT&T)
• Galaxy S2 Skyrocket
• T-Mobile Galaxy S II
• Galaxy S2 II Epic 4G
• Galaxy S Showcase
• Droid Charge
• Galaxy Prevail

We’ve had hands-on looks and reviews done of many of the devices you see above, each of their linked names leading to a post containing said material. These devices appeared in the full Amended verdict that was released over the weekend as well. The Samsung Galaxy S II line has been on the market for over a year with the international version of the original device not appearing here as it’s not sold inside the states. Similar trials are happening currently in several countries around the world.

A similar case in Korea recently results in not only Samsung smartphone bans, but the banning of Apple products as well. This South Korean case banned the iPhone, the iPad, and the Samsung Galaxy S II from being sold inside the country until further notice. Back in the USA, only one device is currently banned from Samsung’s sales lineup, and it’s about to be on appeal since it was not found to infringe on Apple’s patents in the case at hand: the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1.

Have a peek at our timeline below to see other key points in this trial and stay tuned to the main news feed to see if Apple does indeed get a court order on Samsung to stop the sales of their best-selling smartphones. Note also that the Galaxy S II lineup is still in stores as the Galaxy S III is now Samsung’s hero lineup – also available in stores across the USA right this minute.

Apple orders ban on 8 Galaxy smartphones in USA is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
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