Amazon recently announces its plan to improve its customer base and introduce its App Store and Kindle Fire outside the US to a total of 200 countries.  The Company will directly compete with Google Play and it will be interesting to see if people will take to Amazon's application store and give Google a good run for its money.  On the other hand, Kindle Fire will be introduced to 170 countries outside US and this is expected to draw in more customers for the said app store. Also, Kindle Fire is more affordable than other Android devices and this could potentially pull sales away from from these popular OEM's, given that Amazon is also a formidable brand to reckon with.  Let's wait and see if this will already push through in June.  It is also important to ... Read more

    Samsung Galaxy S 4 officially hits 10 million sales just weeks after it was shipped to different distribution channels.  Samsung CEO JK Shin released a statement thanking people for this incredible feat and promises to be more innovative products and services for their loyal customers.  Despite the criticisms that the smartphone got from those who dislike the design and the materials used to build it, the Galaxy S 4 delivered quite well performance-wise. Selling 10M units in just a few weeks greatly cements this smartphone's prowess and popularity.  With good specs as the S 4 has, people will be oblivious to small design flaws and those that don't really affect the device's performance.  However, in the future, Samsung might want to spend more time ... Read more

    Samsung Wallet is already available on beta in the US and just like Apple's and Google's versions, Passbook and Wallet, the application will partner with thousands of institutions and allow mobile transactions to be carried out more conveniently.  Consumers and retailers will benefit from this feature. According to the Company, the Samsung Wallet is already operational in South Korea, where 30,000 partner institutions are participating.  The network is still expected to get bigger as more and more people prefer using their mobile devices to shop.    Furthermore, Samsung is the number one OEM manufacturer at present, and we're talking of millions of people and business establishments that are likely to use this app for their transactions.   ... Read more

  Despite successive setbacks on Apple's performance compared to other popular consumer brands, reports say that it is still the most valuable brand in the land.  Analysts say that the reason for this is that the Company is very profitable due to Apple products having high mark-up and also that its customers can be quite loyal to the brand.  In addition, it still remains widely-popular globally in terms of music player, tablet and smartphone as well as applications sales. Coming in closely on second place is Google.  The company credits its steam on the success of Android and because of a slew of tech products such as Chromebooks and more recently, the introduction of the Google Glass.  This should make Apple quite nervous as we might see a shift in the leade... Read more

  According to rumors, Samsung is already testing new security features for their devices, which includes fingerprint protection to curb smartphone and tablet theft.  This should not be surprising anymore because most OEMs are already developing similar security features with their devices.  We are yet to see a smartphone or tablet (of any brand for that matter) that uses this technology.  This will really help prevent or at least make it difficult for thieves to prey on these expensive gadgets.  However, let's also hope that the security feature that Samsung will add to its products will be impossible to disable, since gadget thieves are known to be very persistent, otherwise, it won't do much if they can easily circumvent such security features, fingerprin... Read more

Samsung has introduced a new color for its widely-popular smartphone, the Galaxy S 4.  You can now avail of a bronze-brown S 4, if you want to be a bit different from the millions of users who carry either a white or a black S 4.  In a promotional video spotted by someone from SamMobile, a brown and the recently-introduced blue Galaxy S 4 are clearly present along with other colors of the Galaxy S 4. No need to go over the awesome features of the S 4, people will now have four different color choices:  White Frost, Black Mist, Arctic Blue, Gold and ___ Brown, should they decide to get what is touted by many to be the smartphone of the year.    Source:  SamMobile... Read more

    According to data compiled by Digitimes, Samsung shipped 17.3% of the total smartphones sold in China in first quarter this year.  That number amounts to at least 13 million units out of the total of 75.28 million.  This greatly puts behind Samsung's most prominent competitor, Apple at 6th place with only 4.8 million units sold in the first quarter. Other brands that did well in the Chinese market are Lenovo, Coolpad, Huawei and ZTE.  This is not surprising because these brands/companies are based in China.  Furthermore, they are known to offer more affordable options compared to Apple and Samsung. It can also be inferred from this table by Digitimes that Android dominates the smartphone market in China and the country is a major source of growth... Read more

Great news Google Drive users, Google Drive for Androud App is getting several improvements to make creating and accessing your stuff on-the-go even easier, specifically  card UI and refined scanner function. To help you find the content you care about, Drive files will now be displayed in a clean, simple card-style. You can swipe between files to see large previews that let you quickly review and discover the information you're looking for. And if you want to keep some Drive files on your Android device, you'll now be able to "download a copy" from the actions menu inside settings. What's in this version: - New grid view makes it easier to find your files- New quick preview lets you view photos and other files from within the app- Scan documents, receipts and letter... Read more

Samsung Electronics Co., the world'slargest smartphone maker, said Wednesday that it has decided to buy a 10 percent stake in Pantech Corp., South Korea's third-largest handset maker. The deal, valued at around US$47.6 million, will help further solidify bilateral cooperation in smartphone and other business areas, it said. Samsung has confirmed the deal, providing a statement to TNW that explains it will be a passive investor with no input into Pantech's management decisions - presumably to offset any anti-competitive concerns: Samsung Electronics has agreed to acquire a 10-percent stake in Pantech, valued at approximately KRW 53 billion. The investment is aimed at solidifying our relationship with Pantech, a key component customer of Samsung. Samsung will have no involvement... Read more

Cricket Communications today announced the upcoming availability of the Samsung Galaxy S4. The Samsung Galaxy S4 smartphone builds on the success and innovation of its predecessor, the Samsung Galaxy S3, and provides a suite of new innovations that will change how customers interact with a smartphone. The Galaxy S4 uniquely makes advanced technologies and features easy to use by integrating them into the way individuals use their phones every day. Cricket's version of the Galaxy S4 includes the same high-end hardware specs you'll find on any carrier, like a 5-inch HD screen, 13-megapixel camera, and a TV remote control. However, it'll also carry Cricket's Muve Music service, which gives you unlimited access to downloadable songs and ringtones as part of the monthly Android rate plan... Read more

  Samsung's promise to bring S 4 features to the Galaxy S 3 is bound to happen soon as leaked reports on what the upgrade can do to your S 3 has surfaced the net.  A video showing an S 3 running on Android 4.2.2 can be found below. The I9300XXUFME3 build has been brought to us by people from SamMobile and confirmed that this was a test firmware for the S 3 using the 4.2.2 Android Jelly Bean version. Among the features that you can expect are better lockscreen, additional effects for unlocking, driving mode, use of multiple widgets and a user interface similar to the S 4.  Also, for those of you who want to flash your S 3 [at your own risk] with the UNOFFICIAL/PILOT firmware, you may download it here and read before you do.   Source:  SamMobile... Read more

    Samsung has recently been awarded patents for a tablet design with a flexible display and another for a tablet carrier case.  The patents were filed July last year.  The first patent of note is a tablet design that allows the unit to bend in the middle and stand on its own and another patent shows a carrier that folds up like a brief case with a small handle on the side.   Although Samsung was granted the patent to these designs, it is not yet sure when they will come out on actual products or if there are already plans in the immediate future to use them.  Only time will tell if they will materialize.  Other patents for Samsung's small appliances and other tech devices have been granted as well.   Sources: Android Authority  Samsung... Read more

  Who would have thought a battery that charges in 30 seconds was possible? Eesha Khare, a student, won second-place in the Intel Science and Engineering Fair and won $50,000 that she can use to pursue her studies.  I wonder WHAT project won the first place?  Anyway, it has been reported that a number of companies have expressed interest in the technology that the teen has invented and one of these is Google. We might really see smartphones and other devices charging under one minute in the near future.  Let's hope that the proponent gets to keep the patent to the technology first and that she carries on with the project to finally see the day that devices that have super specifications do not drain the battery even with all the applications simultaneously running... Read more