Samsung Galaxy S4 eight-core chip production delay reported

Only a handful of new Samsung Galaxy S4 smart phones could boast eight-core power when it goes on sale this month. And the UK's phones will be among a reported 70 per cent of the first S4s to be quad-core instead.

It was revealed this week that the S4 will be quad-core in the UK and not eight-core as anticipated. Korean source ETNews reports Samsung simply hasn't been able to make enough Exynos chips to fill the millions of S4 phones it's expecting to sell.

According to ETNews' unconfirmed sources, Samsung has enough of its new Exynos 5 Octa chips for just 30 per cent of phones in the first batch to go on sale, thanks to purported hitches in the production process.

The other 70 per cent are set to be powered by Qualcomm-built quad-core chips. The quad-core version contains a Snapdragon 600 CPU, still a muscular processor... but four ain't eight by anybody's maths, and it certainly isn't the promised next generation smart phone Samsung promised.

The eight-core Exynos processor contains a Cortex-A7 with four cores clocked at 1.2GHz, drawing less power for everyday tasks. Then when things get hectic with intensive tasks such as fast-paced 3D gaming or videos, the S4 rolls up its sleeves and seamlessly switches to a second Cortex-A15 chip with four cores clocked at a faster speed.

The S4 goes on sale on 26 April. What isn't clear is how Samsung will highlight whether each S4 is quad-core or octo-core, or indeed whether there'll be any demarcation at all. But for the moment it appears to be academic, as Samsung hasn't revealed when -- or, whisper it, if -- the UK will get all eight cores. If these reports are correct, it could be a while before we see an eight-core S4, if at all.

[Source: CNET]

CyanogenMod Founder Leaves Gig at Samsung

CyanogenMod founder Steve Kondik recently decided to leave Samsung after just a few years at the South Korean company. The modding community was generally happy when Kondik left to work for the firm since it seemed like his input would add a lot of value to the phone maker’s software. Kondik didn’t say exactly why he decided to leave the company.

“Samsung was great,” he told AndroidPolice. “Just decided to do something new.”

Kondik also added that he’s a huge fan of Samsung’s Galaxy S III and that he’s “quite pleased with the S4.” As a man with software expertise, we were compelled to hear his thoughts on Samsung’s TouchWiz UI.

“TouchWiz has become a bit more consistent with the latest upgrade,” he noted on his Google+ page. “There are no more jarring mismatches in different parts of the OS, and it’s been lightened up a bit and has a clean “flat” feel. Unfortunately, it feels like it has been sent a few years back in time to the Froyo days. Say goodbye to all of the nice touch-friendly ViewPagers and say hello again to a fully tabbed UI. You’ll also enjoy the seemingly endless onslaught of popup windows and modal “Loading…” dialogs.”

We’re excited to hear where Kondik’s next gig lands him.

[Source: TechnoBuffalo]

Galaxy S4 most pre-registered phone ever, UK retailer boasts

The Samsung Galaxy S4 has seen the highest number of pre-registrations ever, according to phone retailer Carphone Warehouse.

A tingling sensation in our spines told us that the Samsung Galaxy S4 would prove popular, but Carphone Warehouse's claims of a record-shattering pre-registration period lend credence to our vertebral intuition.

Pre-registration means sticking your details into Carphone Warehouse's online form, which puts you on a list to receive news on when the Galaxy S4 becomes available to order. The high-street phone-flogger says the Galaxy S4 has received four times as many registrations as theGalaxy S3 did last year -- a 446 per cent increase.

Registrations were counted in the four days following the S4's official unveiling. I've asked for specific numbers, and how those figures compare with pre-release interest in last year's iPhone 5, and I'll update this story if I hear anything.

The Galaxy S4 has a 5-inch, 1080p display and a thinner, lighter casing than its predecessor. It's jam-packed with new software features, though its similarity to the Galaxy S3 hasn't been well received by everyone. You can see exactly how the S4 compares with its forebear in the video embedded below, and be sure to check out our S4 comparison, featuring rival phones from Apple, Nokia, HTC and Google.

[Source: CNET]

HP and Samsung offer setup-free printing on the Galaxy S 4, with others to follow

As ubiquitous as wireless printing has become, there remains the occasional hoop to jump through for printing from mobile devices if you don't happen to have either a special app or iOS gear that supports AirPrint. HP and Samsung are teaming up to remove many of the headaches for the Galaxy S 4: when the phone launches in April, it should have setup-free WiFi printing to almost 200 HP inkjets and LaserJets, as long as any given printer is either on the same network or is otherwise accessible through direct printing. Don't expect ubiquitous support, though. Beyond being limited to the one phone, you'll have to stick to some of its preloaded apps, including the browser, contacts, email client, photo gallery, Polaris Office and S Note. It's far from a truly universal solution, then, but the two partners are at least promising zero-setup printing on both the Galaxy S III and the Galaxy Note II through firmware updates coming later in 2013. We'll take the approach if it saves time snagging an old-fashioned boarding pass or someconcert tickets.

[Source: Engadget]

Samsung Galaxy S4 second teaser video lands

Squee-bloop wheee-eee! Parp the Samsung Galaxy 4 teaser bagpipes, because there's a new official video heralding the coming of the year's most eagerly awaited new smart phone.

Continuing on from the first teaser, there's no sign of the phone itself, as a moppet bafflingly chosen to see the phone first attempts to hide it from prying eyes.

In the first episode, mop-topped Richie Rich-type rich kid Jeremy Maxwell was inexplicably handed the S4, peeking into a box that glowed with an eerie light.

Heading home, Jezzer encounters a curious ladychild and hides in his room for a closer look at the new device. "It's my favourite colour... it's unreal. Totally amazing!" coos the precocious phone-fondler. Are the Oreos a clue that the phone will come in black and white, as rumoured?

[Source: CNET - Click here to read more]

Samsung Galaxy S4 revealed in first official image

This is it, folks: the first actual, official, honest-to-goodness glimpse of theSamsung Galaxy S4 -- albeit in tantalising moody backlighting.

This is the first teaser to actually show the phone, after a series of videos featured only ablonde-mopped tyke and a glowing box. And it seems the leaked photos spotted yesterday could be closer to reality than we thought, as the teaser shows the S4 sporting curved corners and a slim bezel. It would be fair to say that it looks almost identical to the S3 -- from what we can see at least.

"The countdown for #TheNextBigThing has begun," declares Samsung from its US Twitter account. "Who's ready for the Global Unpacked Event on March 14?"

Unpacked takes place late on Thursday in UK time, and there's no UK press event. Coupled with the use of the American Twitter account, the S4 launch is clearly focused on the US market -- which suggests our colonial cousins will be the first to get the new phone. Fingers crossed we won't have to wait too long for the S4 to cross the pond.

Fortunately, we're not going to let a little thing like an ocean come between us and the hottest phone of the year, so we've dispatched our buddies at CNET's American starbase to the New York launch event. Keep it CNET.com for the first news, previews and videos of the Galaxy S4.

[Source: CNET]

Latest Apple TV reveals smaller A5 chip, adds to rumors of split with Samsung

Quiet, mid-cycle component upgrades are a thing with Apple, and they're sometimes worth watching out for. The iPad 2 got a chip update last year, for example, which significantly extended its battery life by using a 32nm A5 SoC instead of a 45nm one. Well, much as expected, a very similar processor update has just come to the Apple TV. MacRumors popped open the latest version, known as "AppleTV3,2", and found good evidence of a further die shrink: the central block of silicon is just 6 mm x 6 mm, which is even smaller than the 8 mm x 8 mm chip in the newest iPad 2. This inevitably leads to speculation that Apple has shifted to a 28nm fabrication process, possibly snubbing Samsung's 32nm foundries, but we'd need a proper silicon-level analysis to be certain. In the meantime, though, we'd guess that this update may not be worth hunting down to the degree that the new iPad 2 was -- the level of shrinkage here doesn't seem enough to have a huge impact on power draw, and in any case that's less of an issue for a device that's fed from the wall.

[Source: Engadget]

Apple Lawsuit Over Siri With Samsung to Move Forward

A California judge has ordered that Apple’s case against Samsung over search patents used in the Siri voice assistant can move forward.

Judge Lucy Koh is once again presiding over a lawsuit between Apple and Samsung. This is the same judge who has been presiding over the case where Apple won a billion dollar settlement, but it’s doubtful she is happy to see the two companies in her courtroom yet again as in Dec. of last year she told them she was not “joking” and it was time for “peace” between the two firms.

The latest case is a separate matter from the other trial and deal with Apple suing Samsung over violation of patents in regards to search functionality in Siri. According to Reuters, Judge Koh tried to convince the two companies to delay the case until the appeal in the other one is settled, but neither was interested in that course of action. Koh has now ruled the case can move forward with a March 2014 trial date, but she has asked both companies to cut down on the number of issues and expert witnesses both want to address in an attempt to ”significantly” streamline the case. If that sounds familiar, it’s because she asked them to do the same in the other case in Feb.

It is doubtful either company is going to want to cut the case very much, but this is the same Judge that last year told Apple’s lawyers that they were “smoking crack,” so we’re pretty sure she will be telling them again how she expects this to move forward.

[Source: TechnoBuffalo]

Leaked image shows Charcoal Black version of Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0

When we first saw the Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 in Barcelona, it came in one color. Marble White. While white is very much Samsung's thing these days -- all recent big name devices have launched in white -- it doesn't necessarily mean it's for everyone. So then, how about this? This press image sent to the team over at PhoneArena shows a sleek black colored Note 8.0, reportedly termed as Charcoal Black. 

The usual caveats apply here though, folks. Until it's official, it's not official, so park this one in the rumor basket for the time being. But, it's not all that unreasonable to expect there to be other color variants of the Note 8.0 when it goes on sale. Nor is that unreasonable to expect black to be one of those colors. How about you guys though? Jump into the comments below and let us know which you prefer. 

[Source: AndroidCentral]

Visa Partners With Samsung to Bring PayWave to Next Generation Samsung Devices

PayWave, Visa’s mobile wallet app, will be preinstalled on the “next generation” of Samsungdevices, Visa confirmed on Monday. The platform is part of the “Visa Ready Program,” which allows companies (banks, carriers, manufacturers) to connect to Visa’s network. To that end, future Samsung owners will be able to use NFC to take advantage of the system for mobile payments.

Unfortunately, The Verge suggests PayWave likely isn’t coming to the states, though Visa didn’t outright say so in as many words. Visa said it’s more focused on markets that have less “heavily operator subsidized models,” so take that for what it’s worth. We can certainly expect Verizon to skip out—if it does come to the U.S.—as the company has its own solution and has previously shunned Google Wallet.

Seeing as the next generation of Samsung devices will receive the PayWave treatment, perhaps we’ll see it first on the Galaxy S IV. That we won’t know until March 14.

[Source: TechnoBuffalo]

Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 spotted at MWC, almost hides your entire hand

At last, here's what we've been promised: an 8-inch flavor of Samsung's Galaxy Note lineup. Spotted by an anonymous tipster on the MWC show floor earlier today, the booth shows off said tablet designed with portrait usage in mind, meaning it'll pretty much cover up most of whichever hand you'll be holding it with. And obviously, the Note 8.0 comes with a stylus as well. There's not much more to share at this point, but we'll be seeing this new device in its full glory very soon, so stay tuned. One more shot after the break.

[Source: Engadget]