samsung

In a legal victory for Google and Samsung, a German court has reportedly invalidated all patent claims related to Apple's "slide to unlock" user interface.

Today's ruling by Bundespatentgericht, Germany's federal patent court, is a setback for Apple, which has pressed the patent against Google's Motorola and Samsung in courts across Europe in attempts to secure injunctions preventing the companies' devices from being sold. However, the decision is appealable, according to Foss Patents blogger Florian Mueller, a paid consultant for several tech companies who was first to report on today's ruling.

The ruling, … Read more

Hard-core Facebook devotees may find Home to be the smartphone experience they've been looking for.

For everyone else, Facebook's new Android skin may be little better than bloatware (although, to be fair, it's not forced on people). In particular, Android purists will want to stay clear.

Facebook took a major step today toward staking its claim in the mobile field with Home, which is a family of apps wrapped up in a custom user interface. It's an ambitious step, and likely a smart one, given that the alternative would have been the boneheaded move of building … Read more

Facebook Home will be available for download on April 12, but only on select phones to start with.

Facebook today launched Home, a family of apps and a skin that runs over Android. The company said users will be able to download the user interface from the Google Play store, and that links would be found in its Facebook and messenger apps.

The HTC phones that will initially get access to the app are the upcoming HTC One and the One X and One X+.

On the Samsung side, the Galaxy S3, Galaxy Note 2, and upcoming Galaxy S4 will … Read more

When it comes to smartphones in the U.S., Apple remains on top, a new study from ComScore says.

During the three months ended in February, Apple held onto its title as the No. 1 smartphone vendor in the U.S. the market tracker said. The Cupertino, Calif., company controlled 39 percent of the market, up 3.9 percentage points from the three months ended in November. Samsung, in the No. 2 spot, held 21 percent of the market, up 1 percent point.

There's some bad news for the other Android rivals, however. HTC, Motorola, and LG all saw … Read more

Nokia has closed its flagship store in China, once touted as its largest worldwide.

Nokia told ZDNet that the Shanghai store, which opened in 2007, shut down at the end of March. CNET also confirmed the closure.

"For a while now, Nokia has been focusing on growing its presence in operator and third-party retail outlets, rather than through our own physical stores," according to a company representative. "We are, of course, also continuously beefing up our online presence."

Nokia is shuttering the store even as it presses further to regain lost ground in China, considered one … Read more

Last year, nearly as many people visited Apple's retail stores as went to Disneyland parks. That's something to marvel considering Disney has been in the amusement park business since 1955, and Apple's gadget stores are barely 12 years old. Apple's stores are also light on the cotton candy, fireworks, and bathrooms.

While there are plenty more differences between the two, one major similarity is that both companies have relied on these institutions as the ideal experience for interacting with their products.

In that same vein comes Samsung's latest foray into the retail business. Today, the company announced plans … Read more

DALLAS -- Samsung has opened a new front in its battle for smartphone supremacy: the storefront.

The Korean electronics giant plans to set up mini Samsung stores inside all U.S. Best Buy and Best Buy Mobile venues within the next couple of months -- just in time for the Galaxy S4 launch. The "Samsung Experience Shops," which start rolling out Monday, will be in 500 big-box Best Buy stores and all 410 Best Buy Mobile locations by early May. Best Buy's remaining 550 large-format Best Buy stores will feature the shops by early June.

A larger … Read more

AT&T clarified the pricing on the Samsung Galaxy S4, adding that it would start as low as $199.99 with a two-year contract.

On its Web site, AT&T notes now that the 16-gigabyte version of the Galaxy S4 will cost $199.99, while the 32GB version will cost $249.99.

The company will begin taking preorders for the phone on April 16. The company hasn't provided a launch date yet.

AT&T previously told CNET that the $249.99 price tag was for the base model of the Galaxy S4.

Still, at $199.99, … Read more

Mozilla's goals seemed quixotic at best when its research arm decided last year to put its brain power behind a new programming language called Rust.

However, Rust and its Servo testbed on GitHub apparently are now far enough along that no less than Samsung has committed some engineering know-how to its success, the companies announced today. Rust also has reached version 0.6.

Rust is an attempt to create a programming language to replace C++ with one that can handle today's heterogeneous, multicore hardware better while also being more secure. According to Mozilla Research's FAQ on Rust and Servo … Read more