Samsung Electronics, Smartphone | featured news

Samsung's new flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S III, will be launched by all of the Big 4 national U.S. wireless carriers this month, starting at $199, the phone maker said Monday.

Samsung design VP Chang Dong-hoon has refuted accusations that the Galaxy S III was designed "by lawyers." Responding to the reports that stated the new handset was tweaked to circumvent deliberate trade dress claims made by Cupertino in its lawsuit, he said that the redesign is part of the company's five-year plan rather than a sudden change. He went on to say that the flagship went through hundreds of iterations before the team alighted upon the model that will shortly make its way into sweaty palms all over the world.

The Samsung Galaxy S III's plastic build may not be to everyone's liking, but the quad-core processor and improved voice control feature show that Samsung's flagship Android line has staying power.

Soaring sales of smartphones lifted Samsung Electronics's profit to a record and apparently pushed the South Korean company past Nokia as the world's biggest cellphone seller—and perhaps past Apple as No. 1 in smartphones.

Samsung has decided to pour some fuel on the fire and release a Web site teasing its “next galaxy,” which is likely the update to the Galaxy S II. Most people have been calling this phone the Galaxy S III, though that name is not confirmed. All we know about the next Galaxy is that it will be unveiled at Samsung Unpacked in London on May 3.

Taiwan's HTC, the world's No. 5 smartphone maker, launched a new range of smartphone models on Sunday, hoping the fresh designs will help it to recover some of the lost market share. The new smartphones are crucial for HTC in a cut-throat market place -- dominated by Samsung Electronics and Apple Inc -- as lack of new, outstanding models has sent its sales sinking over the last months.

Samsung Electronics Co said on Wednesday it was not interested in buying ailing Blackberry maker Research In Motion or licensing its operating system, refuting a tech blog report that RIM was seeking to sell itself to the South Korean technology giant.

As far as years in technology go, 2011 was one for the record books. It wasn’t just about big battles like Apple vs. Samsung, Microsoft vs. Google, AT&T vs. the world, or Hewlett-Packard vs. itself. It wasn’t just about the growth of apps and the ever-increasing pervasiveness of the Web in our daily lives, though there were plenty of amazing developments both these realms. It wasn’t just about hardware or software. And it wasn’t just about towing the line or trying to hold onto it.

Verizon Wireless is blocking Google's new flagship phone from supporting Google's attempt to make the smartphone the credit card of the future. In blocking the Google Wallet software from running on the new Samsung Galaxy Nexus, Verizon Wireless said Tuesday that it was waiting to provide a wallet application until it can offer "the best security and user experience." Verizon and rivals AT&T Inc. and T-Mobile USA are part of a consortium called ISIS that is planning its own payment system.