Apple, Samsung CEOs agree to mediation ahead of patent trial

According to new paperwork filed earlier this afternoon, Apple and Samsung have agreed to attend a mediation session next month ahead of their second major US patent trial, which is slated to begin on March 31.

The meeting is to take place on or before February 19, and is to be attended by Tim Cook, Samsung’s Oh-Hyun Kwon and their respective in-house lawyers. And they will attempt to discuss settlement opportunities…

From Reuters’ Edwin Chan and Andrew Longstreth:

“Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics have agreed to attend a mediation session to be held on or before February 19, as they prepare to clash in court in March over smartphone patents.

Apple CEO Tim Cook and Samsung CEO Oh-Hyun Kwon will attend the session with in-house lawyers only, according to a Wednesday court filing. Their legal teams had met on January 6 to “discuss settlement opportunities,” the filing read.”

This won’t be the first time the two sides have met to try and reach a settlement. Cook has held similar mediation sessions with Samsung Vice Chairman Choi Gee-sung and mobile head Shin Jong-Kyun, but to no avail.

In the past 3 years, Apple and Samsung have been involved in numerous patent battlesaround the globe. They’ve met twice in San Jose, California federal court, where Apple has been awarded roughly $930 million in damages.

Apple moves to recover $15 million in legal fees from Samsung

Just a day following the mid-November Appeals court ruling which gave Apple another chance to ban Samsung’s infringing devices, the iPhone maker made its case on why it’s entitled to an additional $379 million in pending damages over patent infringement and lost sales in the Apple vs Samsung lawsuit.

Following a short period of deliberation, a jury of six women and two men reached a conclusion for the retrial between Apple and Samsung over damages, ruling the Galaxy maker must pay Apple an additional $290 million on top of more than the $500 million in damages already awarded last year.

But Tim Cook & Co. aren’t stopping there. As reported by an expert patent blogger, Apple is now demanding a cool $15 million in legal fees from Samsung, or one third of Apple attorneys’ fees that total over $60 million…

Patent blogger Florian Müeller cites on his blog, FOSS Patents, Apple’s filing with the Northern District of California which argues that Samsung’s copying of iPhone technology made this litigation “an exceptional case in which an award of attorneys’ fees is warranted”.

Apple is seeking to recover from Samsung $15,736,992 ($15.7 million) out of more than $60 million spent in attorneys’ fees on the first California case.

The $15.7 million portion represents one third of Apple’s attorneys’ fees from the outset of this dispute through March 1, 2013 – the day on which Judge Lucy Koh entered a damages ruling, her last post-trial decision with respect to the first trial.

This means Apple does not seek recovery with respect to the costs of the retrial. Also, Apple only lists fees of timekeepers who billed more than $100,000.

The filing goes on to note that “no fees from Apple’s successful defense against Samsung’s claims are included”. Under the current United States legal system rules, courts rarely award attorneys’ fees.

As a rule of thumb, such fees are granted only in “exceptional” cases. That Apple sought to collect attorney fees reflects a growing disconnect and animosity between Apple, Samsung’s top client, and Samsung, Apple’s key supplier.

The company listed a few such exceptional cases where similar amounts were awarded.

In one example, Apple cited a whopping $105.7 million award in a copyright case that was upheld on appeal. Other cases include Mattel, Inc. vs MGA Entertainment, Inc. where the Federal Circuit upheld an award of $16.8 million for attorney fees and Takeda Chemical Industries vs Mylan Labs that saw a $19 million award in legal fees.

The two Apple vs Samsung cases – the original August 2012 trial and a retrial in November 2013, resulted in a total damages award of about $929 million, or a little over a hundred million bucks short of the original $1.05 billion ruling over patent infringement.

The verdict is in: Samsung must pay Apple an additional $290 million

The verdict is in folks. After just a few days of deliberation, a jury of six women and two men reached a conclusion for the retrial between Apple and Samsung over damages, and it’s ruled in favor of the iPad-maker. Samsung must pay Apple $290 million.

This is in addition to the damages awarded in the original trial last fall, bringing the total amount Samsung owes up to $890 million. So essentially, Apple won back most of the damages that Judge Koh cut in March after finding the initial verdict flawed…

Here’s Bloomberg with the report:

“Apple Inc. won more than $290 million in damages from Samsung Electronics Co. for patent infringement in a do-over trial that restored most of the amount cut from the iPhone maker’s jury victory in 2012.

A jury of six women and two men decided the damages amount today after a week-long trial in federal court in San Jose, California, where Apple won a $1.05 billion verdict against Samsung last year over copying of technology used in smartphones. 

U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh cut $410.5 million in March after finding the original verdict was flawed because jurors miscalculated the period that the infringement occurred for 13 Samsung devices. In the retrial, Apple sought to restore $380 million of the amount cut, while Samsung recommended that the jury award $52 million.”

Although the jury didn’t award Apple the entire $380 million it was looking for, this is still a big win for the company. Not only has it won almost $1 billion from Samsung, but it also has the possibility of winning an injunction against the infringing devices.

Here’s Apple’s statement to AllThingsD on today’s decision:

“For Apple, this case has always been about more than patents and money,” Apple said in a statement to AllThingsD. “It has been about innovation and the hard work that goes into inventing products that people love. While it’s impossible to put a price tag on those values, we are grateful to the jury for showing Samsung that copying has a cost.”

At the time of writing, Samsung had not yet responded to requests for comment.

Samsung Galaxy Note II for Verizon goes on sale tomorrow

Verizon raised a few eyebrows when it put its logo on the Home button of the Samsung Galaxy Note II, but if you can live with that, you should know that the phablet goes on sale tomorrow, November 29.
The price is the same as it was during pre-orders - $300 if you sign a 2-year contract, or $700 if you prefer to go off-contract. The Note II for Verizon is available in Marble White and Titanium Gray.

By the way, if you've already pre-ordered Samsung's fast-selling phablet, you should have a shipping confirmation email in your inbox.
Verizon's Samsung Galaxy Note II is the same 5.5" Super AMOLED-packing, Jelly Bean-running, Exynos-powered device as the international version, but also gets support for Verizon's CDMA and 4G LTE networks.

Gartner: Lenovo will overtake Samsung in China next year

Samsung managed to snag the top smartphone maker spot in China, but Gartner is predicting it will soon lose it to Lenovo. As of Q3, Samsung held 16.7% of the market while Lenovo was close behind with 14.8% (Canalys reports slightly different numbers – 14% for Samsung and 13% for Lenovo).
Lenovo’s growth hasn’t been slow – during the same period last year they held only 1.7% of the market. “The brand is positioned at the mid-to-lower end which will drive much of its future growth, and this is where global brands are less competitive,” says Gartner.
The analyst company believes that the established PC maker is the only brand that can capable of competing with global brands in the local Chinese market (though according to Canalys, the other three companies in the Top 5 smartphone maker list are Chinese). Apple had a 6.9% share in Q3.

Samsung to show an 8-core big.LITTLE chipset next year

Samsung is rumored to put a quad Cortex-A15 CPU inside the Galaxy S IV with the Exynos 5450 chipset, but EETimes is reporting that the Korean company has a more interesting chipset in the works - the first one to use ARM's big.LITTLE technology.
This tech pairs a number of powerful Cortex-A15 cores with the same number of low-power Cortex-A7 cores (similar to NVIDIA's fifth core in Tegra 3). The chipset seamlessly switches between the high and low power cores depending on the load (but it can't run all at the same time).
The chipset in particular will pack four A15s clocked at 1.8GHz and four A7s clocked at 1.2GHz. The A7s will reportedly match a quad-core Cortex-A8 CPU (not that such exist), while the four A15s should offer a big increase over the already powerful A15 duo that powers the Nexus 10. The chip will be built on a 28nm process and pack 2MB of cache.
We're sure that there will be plenty of rumors that this will be the chipset in the Galaxy S IV, but it's more likely to see it in a tablet first.

La Fleur Galaxy S III, S Duos, Ace 2 and Ace Duos on the way

The La Fleur brand is no news for Samsung. It’s been doing those editions since the end of 2009. The limited-edition phones are not quite widespread or famous, but they've usually enjoyed good reception from the ladies out there.
So here come the new La Fleur phones, all of them running on Android OS – the Galaxy S III, Galaxy S Duos, Galaxy Ace Duos and Galaxy Ace 2.


All of them will come in the usual colors – white or pink with some additional flower decoration on both sides of the phone.
In case you are eyeing one of those, you’ll be happy to learn they’ll be released by the end of January just in time for the Valentine's day shopping decisions.

Samsung Galaxy Camera and Galaxy S III mini hit UK

Various retailers in the UK already have already received the first stocks of the Samsung’s Galaxy S III mini and the Galaxy Camera.
You can buy the Galaxy S III mini for about £300 free of contract. It’s available in both black and white colors.
The Galaxy S III mini is also available for free with a 2-year contract on all major UK carriers with tariffs starting as low as £20.5 per month.



The Jelly Bean-running Galaxy Camera was announced in August and arrives this month just as promised. Clove UK already got its first shipment and is selling it for £400. Other retailers are also listing the Galaxy Camera on similar prices but require you to wait 10 more days to get your unit.

Samsung Galaxy Express to hit shelves November 16

The Samsung Galaxy Express midrange LTE-powered droid exclusive to AT&T is expected to become available for $99.99 with a two year contract starting Nov. 16.
The Samsung Galaxy Express will feature a 4.5 inch Super AMOLED Plus screen of 480 x 800 pixel resolution, dual-core 1.5 GHz processor, 5MP camera all powered by a 2000 mAh battery. It will ship with Android 4.0 ICS out of box.


If you'd like a closer look at the Samsung Galaxy Express, check out our hands-on from last month's release event in New York.
No word yet on when its (also AT&T exclusive) LTE sibling, the Galaxy Rugby Pro, will hit shelves, but we expect it to be sooner rather than later.

Jelly Bean update for Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 rolling out now

The Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 tablet launched with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich (unlike its smaller Note II sibling), but its Jelly Bean update has now started its rollout. It's the 4.1 version of Jelly Bean and not 4.2, but the differences between the two aren't major anyway.
The rollout is rather limited as of now - just in Germany as an OTA update that weighs in at 300MB.


The guys from AllAboutSamsung.de, who have already installed the update, report that it improves performance, adds the same S Pen functionality as the Note II has (e.g. the new Quick commands), adds Pop Up Play and new Mini Apps. Paper Artist is also pre-installed.

Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 gets Android 4.1 Jelly Bean update in Germany
If you don't live in Germany and you just can’t wait to try out Jelly Bean on your Galaxy Note 10.1, you can grab the ROM from SamFirmware. The update brings the S Pen-enabled tablet to Android version 4.1.1 (PDA N8000XXBLJ9, CSC N8000OXABLJ9).
Keep in mind that flashing the ROM manually will void your warranty and you might brick your tablet, so proceed at your own risk.

Samsung posts record profit, Galaxy S III to hit 19M sales in Q3

Samsung hasn’t released its full Q2 financial report yet, but it unveiled some salient details on its performance. Largely thanks to the Galaxy line of Android smartphones, Samsung's profit reached a record $5.9 billion (up 79% year on year). Executives expect it to grow even further, 36% quarter-on-quarter for Q3.
Samsung's mobile division is responsible for over 70% of the company's earnings. In the second quarter of this year, the Korean giant sold around 50 million smartphones and expects profits to have doubled, reaching $3.87 billion.
One Samsung exec predicts that sales of Galaxy S III flagship will hit the 19 million mark in Q3, growing in the absence of a new iPhone.
When the new Apple smartphone inevitably comes, the growth of the Samsung's mobile division is expected to slow down, but the Korean company's semiconductor business will benefit from the launch as Samsung provides screens and chips for Apple's gadgets (and maybe even an Exynos-based quad-core chipset for the next iPhone).
Samsung's biggest worry at the moment is the Euro crisis - Europe is the biggest market for Samsung electronics and the fall of the euro compared to the Korean won cuts into its profits

Samsung I9300 live photo surface, might be a disappointing S III

Another day, another Samsung Galaxy S III leak. Today we've got a live photo that's allegedly depicting the Samsung I9300 Android smartphone. The model number has previously been associated with the next Samsung flagship, though there's no confirmation that this is in fact the Galaxy S III.

With the Samsung Galaxy S lineup carrying I90xx model numbers, the S II series getting I91xx model numbers and the Galaxy Nexus leading the I92xx smartphones, it would make a lot of sense for the international Galaxy S III to get I9300. However, the pictured device looks nothing like those renders we saw over the previous few days.

The screen bezel seems quite wide, so if the pictured smartphone really does have a 4.7" screen it will be quite large and hard to handle. Plus, the alleged I9300 obviously lacks the design sophistication that would befit a successor of the very successful Galaxy S II.

One possible scenario is that earlier rumors had it right and the Galaxy S III will come with a model number I9500, while this one here is going to be its sidekick. We can also be looking at a prototype unit, which has a different design to the final version.

So, while we see no obvious reason to doubt the authenticity of the photo, we suspect it might not be the Galaxy S III that stars in it. Either that, or there will be plenty of disappointed Samsung fans, come the next Unpacked event.

Galaxy Note Android 4.0 update to include special content

Earlier this year, Samsung had promised a Q1, 2012 time period for the roll out of the Android 4.0 update for the Galaxy S II and the Galaxy Note. But while its younger brother has started receiving the update, the Galaxy Note users are still munching on Gingerbread that is well past its expiry date.

Samsung recently announced that the Android 4.0 update for the Galaxy Note has been pushed to Q2, 2012. This means it could be coming as soon as April or as late as June.

But to make sure that the wait is worth the while, Samsung has announced that the update will come with some extra goodies exclusive to the Galaxy Note. This includes a Premium Suite of applications and extra multimedia features.

The Premium Suite includes the S-Pen application, which allows you to scribble with the provided capacitive stylus, as well as draw tables and grids that are automatically digitized, along with solving hand-drawn numeric formulas. The Premium Suite also includes My Story app, which lets you create personalized digital cards for friends and family.

Along with this, you will also get a special version of Angry Birds Space. This version will include 30 extra Danger Zone levels, not found on any other platform.

And then of course, it's Android 4.0 itself, which will bring new features like Face Unlock, redesigned multitasking view, GPU accelerated UI, etc.

Samsung Galaxy S II ICS update to hit UK next week

Some lucky fellas have been enjoying the official Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich update on their Galaxy S II units since this morning, but those based in the UK will have to wait another week.

Poland, Hungary, Sweden and Korea are the markets in the first wave of the update roll-out, with UK (among others) to follow shortly. The exact quote that Pocket-lint.com managed to get from Samsung is that the update will start seeding in Britain in the week commencing March 19, which is exactly 6 days from now.

And with the Galaxy S II update already rolling out, the Samsung R&D center is already shifting its attention towards the Galaxy Note, Galaxy S II LTE and the Galaxy Tab 8.9 and 10.1 duo. Those should be the next devices in the company's lineup to get official Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich updates.

Finally, Samsung confirmed that it will be delivering Android 2.3 Gingerbread Value Pack updates for the original Galaxy S, the Galaxy Tab 7", the Galaxy S Plus, the Galaxy W and the Galaxy from the end of March. The update will be bringing Face Unlock and other ICS features to the smart devices that won't be getting to taste Android ICS officially.

Android 4.0 ICS update is now seeding for Samsung Galaxy S II

yes, yes - we know you've heard this a few times too many in the past couple of weeks, but this time it is for real, folks. Samsung Mobile's official Facebook page broke the news that Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich has officially made its way to Samsung I9100 Galaxy S II.

As you can notice in the screenshot above, the update is currently seeding to devices in Europe, as well as Korea. The rest of the world will follow in the nearest future.

Samsung Galaxy Note, Galaxy S II LTE, and Galaxy Tab Tab 8.9 and 10.1 are noted as next in line for the major update. The older members of the Galaxy family on the other hand, will receive updates to their Gingerbread firmware, which will bring some ICS functionality to it.

In case you have already updated your I9100, drop us a line with your impressions of the new firmware in the comments section below. We will be sure to tell you about our own shortly.

Samsung Galaxy Ace Duos surfaces

Samsung keeps extending its Duos lineup and today we learned the popular Galaxy Ace is the next smartphone to grow an extra radio. The Samsung Galaxy Ace Duos went official for the Indian market.

You should keep in mind that the Duos part here doesn't mean a second SIM slot as it does on most other Samsung devices. Instead, the Samsung Galaxy Ace Duos will come with GSM and CDMA support, making it a truly global phone. You can still have two subscription plans with this one, but only if your country has both CDMA and GSM carriers.

The Samsung Galaxy Ace Duos will be mostly identical to the original Galaxy Ace, but it will get a larger battery to make up for the second radio. Instead of the 1350 mAh unit found in the original Galaxy Ace, the Galaxy Ace Duos will have a 1650 mAh Li-Ion battery. It's unclear if the new battery will be compatible with the original smartphone, though.

The Samsung Galaxy Ace Duos will retail for INR16,900, which translates to about €260 or $340. We don't know if Samsung has any plans of bringing the smartphone to Europe or America, but we should learn more about the company's plans soon enough.

Samsung Star 3 hits UK in March as Tocco Lite 2

he Samsung Tocco brand is still enjoying pretty good reputation in the UK and Samsung is doing all it can to squeeze every possible penny out of it. The company just introduced the Samsung Tocco Lite 2 feature phone for the British market.

The Tocco Lite 2 is basically a rebranded Samsung Star 3, featuring an identical 3" QVGA LCD, a 3.2 megapixel fixed focus camera and fitting in a compact 102 x 58 x 11.5 mm body. There's also Wi-Fi b/g/n support, a 3.5 mm audio jack, Bluetooth 3.0 and an FM radio on board the TouchWiz-powered handset.

The Samsung Tocco Lite 2 offers just 20MB of internal storage, but the microSD card slot lets you expand that by up to 16GB, so there will be plenty of space for your tracks and photos.

The Tocco Lite 2 will be available across a range of the UK’s major networks and retailers from early March 2012. There's information about its pricing, but we bet it won't cost too dearly and if contracts are your thing you'll certainly be able to get it for free.

Samsung Galaxy S III to be 7mm thin, rumors say

It seems that thinness is the new race to the moon for smartphone makers, and Samsung, not to be outdone by Motorola's RAZR XT910 7.1mm waistline, is reportedly aiming at the 7mm milestone with the new Galaxy S III. Surprisingly, Huawei is also in the race with the upcoming Ascend P1 S, which comes in at 6.7mm, and should see a global release in Q2 of this year.

Rumors continue that the S III thickness won't be uniform, and it will allegedly have the same camera 'hump' found on the S II. This new generation should also feature LTE support, although that's almost expected considering the growing list of Galaxy models already released with LTE.

The S III will also supposedly launch an entire lineup of S III models, just like the previous Galaxy flagship, and we may see as many as seven S III variants this year, sporting various specifications with nomenclature ranging from '3D display' to 'stylus'. We can add these to the list of recent Galaxy S III rumors we've heard, which include a quad-core processor, 8MP camera, and of course, Android 4.0.

While manufacturing has supposedly been underway since October of last year, we may have to wait until May to see the new S III. And while it's confirmed that we will not hear an announcement regarding the S III at MWC, numerous rumors about a March announcement are floating about, including this latest one from French website Frandroid.com, where they claim they already have an invitation for a mysterious Samsung event that's to be held on March 22.

The Samsung Galaxy Ace Plus gets UK pricing

As we expected, the new Samsung Galaxy Ace Plus comes in at a reasonable £249.99 in the UK according to mobile retailer, Expansys. As such we're anticipating a free device on contracts around the £15-per-month mark and upwards once carriers release their plans for the Plus.

Vodafone UK currently appear to be the only carrier to have confirmed that they will offer the Galaxy Ace Plus, but we will no doubt see its compact proportions crop up amidst the catalogs of the other leading UK carriers not to far down the line.

We've already spent some time with the Galaxy Ace Plus and we decided it would be a device well suited to those either taking their first steps into smartphone territory, or for those who want the features, without the cost.

The beefed-up Ace Plus comes running Android Gingerbread 2.3 with Samsung's TouchWiz UI on top. Hardware sees a 3.65" HVGA display, WiFi, Bluetooth, HSDPA support and all the usual connectivity options we've come to expect from a mid-range droid. The Ace Plus is powered by a 1GHz S1 Snapdragon processor and an Adreno 200 GPU, there's also a 1300mAh battery and a usable 5MP snapper on the back.

AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note launches on February 19

AT&T announced it plans to offer the Samsung Galaxy Note back on CES. The AT&T version looks much like the international one, but is based on a completely different chipset.

The AT&T's Note is powered by the Qualcomm's MSM8660 Snapdragon platform featuring a 1.5GHz dual-core Scorpion processor, Adreno 220 graphics and 1GB RAM. For a comparison, the international Note is running on Samsung's own Exynos chipset (1.4GHz dual-core Cortex-A9, Mali-400MP GPU, 1GB RAM).