Hasta La Gadget!

Oh yes, things are really starting to kick off in the arcane world of smartphone benchmarking. First, there came clear evidence of phone makers manipulating scores in apps like AnTuTu and GFXBench, and now a more mainstream benchmarking company, Futuremark, has publicly delisted specific Samsung and HTC phones that it suspects of cheating. Futuremark says that the devices in question — including the Galaxy Note 3, HTC One and HTC One Mini — fail to adhere to the fairness policy, which requires that a device treats its 3DMark app just as it would treat any other app, with no tailor-made bursts of performance designed to achieve artificially high scores. Clearly, this bad behavior is just as endemic as we originally feared, so benchmark apps either need to toughen up, as Futuremark appears to be doing, or they need to find entirely new ways of measuring performance.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Samsung, HTC

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Via: HotHardware, The Register

Source: Futuremark

If you’re ready to party like it’s 2014 but you can’t wait a couple months to celebrate the new year, Samsung is ready to push out its latest version of the Galaxy Note 10.1 — aptly named the 2014 edition — to buyers in the US. We haven’t heard if any carriers will officially take the tablet under their wings, but the WiFi-only model will at least be making its way to a full litany of online and brick-and-mortar electronics retailers starting October 10th, with a few outlets offering pre-orders starting tomorrow at midnight. You’ll be able to pick one up in your choice of jet black and classic white, with the 16GB unit retailing for $550 and 32GB going for $600. If it’s any consolation, you’ll also get a few perks along with the tablet, such as three months of Hulu Plus, a year subscription to Boingo hotspots, as well as 50GB extra Dropbox storage, a 12-week subscription to the New York Times and a full year of Bloomberg Businessweek. If you like what 2014 has to offer so far, you know what to do.

Filed under: Tablets, Wireless, Samsung, Google

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We’ve seen a few international Galaxy Note 3 models pass through the FCC for approval; now, it’s time for two American versions. The first variant, the SM-N900A, has just cleared the US agency with support for AT&T’s GSM, HSPA and LTE frequencies — most likely, it’s a peek at what we’ll see on October 1st. A second model, the SM-N900R4, appears destined for LTE-capable CDMA carriers such as Sprint, US Cellular and numerous regional US providers. While there are no surprises in the FCC filings, it’s evident that Samsung’s giant Android smartphone will soon be ubiquitous in the States.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Samsung, Sprint, AT&T

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Source: FCC (1), (2)

The Big Four (that’d be Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile and AT&T) have all confirmed that they’ll be stocking Samsung’s newly-introduced Galaxy Gear and Galaxy Note 3, but none of ’em have been bold enough as to give us two precious details: pricing and availability. We’re still waiting for the damage, but VZW has come forward and alerted its customers that pre-orders will open up on September 6th. Given that the Note 3 just sailed through the FCC (and that the Gear is due to land in October), we’re guessing that you’ll have to wait anywhere from one to eight weeks for shipment. We’ll keep you posted if we hear anything more concrete.

Filed under: Cellphones, Wearables, Mobile, Samsung, Verizon

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Via: Droid-Life

Source: Verizon Wireless

The second installment of Samsung’s 2013 “Unpacked” event series is scheduled for the first Wednesday in September, just before the annual IFA consumer electronics show kicks off in Berlin. As the sketched invite above confirms, the Galaxy Note III will undoubtedly be the star of this show, which is set to begin at 7PM local time (1PM ET) on September 4th. We’ll of course be there to cover the festivities live from the German capital, and Samsung’s promised to provide a YouTube livestream feed that you can follow along with as well.

Filed under: Cellphones, Samsung

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