Boot up: Samsung + Google, Google - MMI, China OS woes, and more

The launch of the Moto X will be the culmination of two years' work following Google's purchase of Motorola in 2011. Now Google has sold it.

A burst of 7 links for you to chew over, as picked by the Technology team

Heavy users of streaming video love Roku, which makes puck-size boxes used to view Internet-streamed video on television sets. Since it began piping Netflix from broadband connections into viewers' living rooms in 2008, Roku has become the favorite device among 37% of U.S. households with streaming players, compared with 24% for Apple TV, according to researcher Park Associates. On Sept. 25, Roku released new versions of its devices, making minor improvements to its cheaper models and adding content from M-Go, a video rental and purchase service owned by MediaNaviCo.

With hundreds of channel-like apps, the company already has much more content than Apple TV, although the absence of iTunes and YouTube are big gaps. Despite its early-mover advantage and coterie of hard-core users, Roku is struggling to expand beyond its niche and has been forced to find other sources of revenue besides hardware sales.

Chromecast is in the picture too, though the other 39% of so of streaming is more likely PlayStations and Xboxes.

Naoki Hiroshima says that PayPal gave out credit card data about him to a faked call (PayPal denies this) and was extorted, at the risk of losing his websites, into handing over control of @N on Twitter. Twitter said it was "investigating"; the account went from being out of use to "gone" overnight. Watch this space..

Developers!

Under attack by patent troll Lodsys? Help us with important research.

The App Developers Alliance is working to fight patent trolls like Lodsys. Will you help us by completing this survey?

Terrific reporting by Liz Gannes:

This week, Samsung and Google announced a wide-ranging deal to cross-license patents that cover mobile devices and other undisclosed categories. But there's more.

Although the exact details of those meetings could not yet be learned, sources familiar with the discussions say not only will Samsung consider dumping or altering the Magazine UX interface in future devices, but, more importantly, new Samsung devices will spotlight Google's suite of apps to get movies, music and other content at the expense of its in-house-developed software, which was once a proud showcase of Samsung's evolution as a mobile industry leader.

It's unclear what concessions Google may have made on its part. The company could have, for example, agreed to work with Samsung on a Nexus device or offered other cooperation.

Her piece appeared hours before Google announced it was selling the Motorola handset division (but not its patents) to Lenovo.

From August 2011, after Google said it would buy Motorola Mobility for $12.5bn, Motorola published an SEC filing with the "background to the merger":

In early July 2011, Andrew Rubin, Senior Vice President of Mobile at Google, contacted Dr. Jha, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Motorola Mobility, to request a meeting to discuss the purchase by some of Google's competitors of the patent portfolio of Nortel Networks Corporation and its subsidiaries (which we refer to in this proxy statement as "Nortel") in an auction conducted by Nortel in June 2011, and the possible impact of and potential responses to the purchase.

Buying Motorola was never about the hardware.

As China believes it can manufacture a global pop star to challenge the likes of Rihanna and Beyonce, it should come as no surprise that it has also developed a device operating system that, it hopes, can challenge Android and iOS.

But the release of the government-backed COS (China Operating System) hasn't exactly gone to plan.

The cross-platform OS has come in for such a public mauling that the state press has had to come to its defence.

Newspapers and social media have queried the similarities between COS and an implementation of Android by HTC, as well as the number of apps available and the level of government support.

Official Communist Party mouthpiece, People's Daily, has published a Q&A article answering what it called "seven major suspicions" concerning the COS.

Ari Juels, an independent researcher who was previously chief scientist at computer security company RSA, thinks something important is missing from the cryptography protecting our sensitive data: trickery.

"Decoys and deception are really underexploited tools in fundamental computer security," Juels says. Together with Thomas Ristenpart of the University of Wisconsin, he has developed a new encryption system with a devious streak. It gives encrypted data an additional layer of protection by serving up fake data in response to every incorrect guess of the password or encryption key.

Wouldn't it be smart to fill stores' credit card databases with fake entries too? That would cause real problems if they were stolen. (Problem is how you avoid using them for marketing.)

You can follow Guardian Technology's linkbucket on Pinboard

To suggest a link, either add it below or tag it with @gdntech on the free Delicious service.

View the original article here

Boot up: Samsung + Google, Google - MMI, China OS woes, and more

The launch of the Moto X will be the culmination of two years' work following Google's purchase of Motorola in 2011. Now Google has sold it.

A burst of 7 links for you to chew over, as picked by the Technology team

Heavy users of streaming video love Roku, which makes puck-size boxes used to view Internet-streamed video on television sets. Since it began piping Netflix from broadband connections into viewers' living rooms in 2008, Roku has become the favorite device among 37% of U.S. households with streaming players, compared with 24% for Apple TV, according to researcher Park Associates. On Sept. 25, Roku released new versions of its devices, making minor improvements to its cheaper models and adding content from M-Go, a video rental and purchase service owned by MediaNaviCo.

With hundreds of channel-like apps, the company already has much more content than Apple TV, although the absence of iTunes and YouTube are big gaps. Despite its early-mover advantage and coterie of hard-core users, Roku is struggling to expand beyond its niche and has been forced to find other sources of revenue besides hardware sales.

Chromecast is in the picture too, though the other 39% of so of streaming is more likely PlayStations and Xboxes.

Naoki Hiroshima says that PayPal gave out credit card data about him to a faked call (PayPal denies this) and was extorted, at the risk of losing his websites, into handing over control of @N on Twitter. Twitter said it was "investigating"; the account went from being out of use to "gone" overnight. Watch this space..

Developers!

Under attack by patent troll Lodsys? Help us with important research.

The App Developers Alliance is working to fight patent trolls like Lodsys. Will you help us by completing this survey?

Terrific reporting by Liz Gannes:

This week, Samsung and Google announced a wide-ranging deal to cross-license patents that cover mobile devices and other undisclosed categories. But there's more.

Although the exact details of those meetings could not yet be learned, sources familiar with the discussions say not only will Samsung consider dumping or altering the Magazine UX interface in future devices, but, more importantly, new Samsung devices will spotlight Google's suite of apps to get movies, music and other content at the expense of its in-house-developed software, which was once a proud showcase of Samsung's evolution as a mobile industry leader.

It's unclear what concessions Google may have made on its part. The company could have, for example, agreed to work with Samsung on a Nexus device or offered other cooperation.

Her piece appeared hours before Google announced it was selling the Motorola handset division (but not its patents) to Lenovo.

From August 2011, after Google said it would buy Motorola Mobility for $12.5bn, Motorola published an SEC filing with the "background to the merger":

In early July 2011, Andrew Rubin, Senior Vice President of Mobile at Google, contacted Dr. Jha, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Motorola Mobility, to request a meeting to discuss the purchase by some of Google's competitors of the patent portfolio of Nortel Networks Corporation and its subsidiaries (which we refer to in this proxy statement as "Nortel") in an auction conducted by Nortel in June 2011, and the possible impact of and potential responses to the purchase.

Buying Motorola was never about the hardware.

As China believes it can manufacture a global pop star to challenge the likes of Rihanna and Beyonce, it should come as no surprise that it has also developed a device operating system that, it hopes, can challenge Android and iOS.

But the release of the government-backed COS (China Operating System) hasn't exactly gone to plan.

The cross-platform OS has come in for such a public mauling that the state press has had to come to its defence.

Newspapers and social media have queried the similarities between COS and an implementation of Android by HTC, as well as the number of apps available and the level of government support.

Official Communist Party mouthpiece, People's Daily, has published a Q&A article answering what it called "seven major suspicions" concerning the COS.

Ari Juels, an independent researcher who was previously chief scientist at computer security company RSA, thinks something important is missing from the cryptography protecting our sensitive data: trickery.

"Decoys and deception are really underexploited tools in fundamental computer security," Juels says. Together with Thomas Ristenpart of the University of Wisconsin, he has developed a new encryption system with a devious streak. It gives encrypted data an additional layer of protection by serving up fake data in response to every incorrect guess of the password or encryption key.

Wouldn't it be smart to fill stores' credit card databases with fake entries too? That would cause real problems if they were stolen. (Problem is how you avoid using them for marketing.)

You can follow Guardian Technology's linkbucket on Pinboard

To suggest a link, either add it below or tag it with @gdntech on the free Delicious service.

View the original article here

Boot up: Samsung + Google, Google - MMI, China OS woes, and more

The launch of the Moto X will be the culmination of two years' work following Google's purchase of Motorola in 2011. Now Google has sold it.

A burst of 7 links for you to chew over, as picked by the Technology team

Heavy users of streaming video love Roku, which makes puck-size boxes used to view Internet-streamed video on television sets. Since it began piping Netflix from broadband connections into viewers' living rooms in 2008, Roku has become the favorite device among 37% of U.S. households with streaming players, compared with 24% for Apple TV, according to researcher Park Associates. On Sept. 25, Roku released new versions of its devices, making minor improvements to its cheaper models and adding content from M-Go, a video rental and purchase service owned by MediaNaviCo.

With hundreds of channel-like apps, the company already has much more content than Apple TV, although the absence of iTunes and YouTube are big gaps. Despite its early-mover advantage and coterie of hard-core users, Roku is struggling to expand beyond its niche and has been forced to find other sources of revenue besides hardware sales.

Chromecast is in the picture too, though the other 39% of so of streaming is more likely PlayStations and Xboxes.

Naoki Hiroshima says that PayPal gave out credit card data about him to a faked call (PayPal denies this) and was extorted, at the risk of losing his websites, into handing over control of @N on Twitter. Twitter said it was "investigating"; the account went from being out of use to "gone" overnight. Watch this space..

Developers!

Under attack by patent troll Lodsys? Help us with important research.

The App Developers Alliance is working to fight patent trolls like Lodsys. Will you help us by completing this survey?

Terrific reporting by Liz Gannes:

This week, Samsung and Google announced a wide-ranging deal to cross-license patents that cover mobile devices and other undisclosed categories. But there's more.

Although the exact details of those meetings could not yet be learned, sources familiar with the discussions say not only will Samsung consider dumping or altering the Magazine UX interface in future devices, but, more importantly, new Samsung devices will spotlight Google's suite of apps to get movies, music and other content at the expense of its in-house-developed software, which was once a proud showcase of Samsung's evolution as a mobile industry leader.

It's unclear what concessions Google may have made on its part. The company could have, for example, agreed to work with Samsung on a Nexus device or offered other cooperation.

Her piece appeared hours before Google announced it was selling the Motorola handset division (but not its patents) to Lenovo.

From August 2011, after Google said it would buy Motorola Mobility for $12.5bn, Motorola published an SEC filing with the "background to the merger":

In early July 2011, Andrew Rubin, Senior Vice President of Mobile at Google, contacted Dr. Jha, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Motorola Mobility, to request a meeting to discuss the purchase by some of Google's competitors of the patent portfolio of Nortel Networks Corporation and its subsidiaries (which we refer to in this proxy statement as "Nortel") in an auction conducted by Nortel in June 2011, and the possible impact of and potential responses to the purchase.

Buying Motorola was never about the hardware.

As China believes it can manufacture a global pop star to challenge the likes of Rihanna and Beyonce, it should come as no surprise that it has also developed a device operating system that, it hopes, can challenge Android and iOS.

But the release of the government-backed COS (China Operating System) hasn't exactly gone to plan.

The cross-platform OS has come in for such a public mauling that the state press has had to come to its defence.

Newspapers and social media have queried the similarities between COS and an implementation of Android by HTC, as well as the number of apps available and the level of government support.

Official Communist Party mouthpiece, People's Daily, has published a Q&A article answering what it called "seven major suspicions" concerning the COS.

Ari Juels, an independent researcher who was previously chief scientist at computer security company RSA, thinks something important is missing from the cryptography protecting our sensitive data: trickery.

"Decoys and deception are really underexploited tools in fundamental computer security," Juels says. Together with Thomas Ristenpart of the University of Wisconsin, he has developed a new encryption system with a devious streak. It gives encrypted data an additional layer of protection by serving up fake data in response to every incorrect guess of the password or encryption key.

Wouldn't it be smart to fill stores' credit card databases with fake entries too? That would cause real problems if they were stolen. (Problem is how you avoid using them for marketing.)

You can follow Guardian Technology's linkbucket on Pinboard

To suggest a link, either add it below or tag it with @gdntech on the free Delicious service.

View the original article here

Samsung Report on Earnings Reveals Challenges Ahead

TOKYO — No wonder Samsung Electronics is so busy looking for a new hit product. Its signature device, the high-end smartphone, seems to be facing unanticipated challenges.

Samsung, the world’s largest maker of smartphones, said on Tuesday that its operating profit in the fourth quarter had declined from the previous quarter, and also when compared with the fourth quarter of 2012.

As usual, the company, based in Suwon, South Korea, released only a bare-bones forecast in advance of a full quarterly earnings report later this month. It provided no reasons for the expected decline. But analysts said softness in smartphones, which account for more than half of Samsung’s earnings, was probably a big reason.

“One by one, players in the premium price band have been squeezed out, and now it looks like Samsung may be squeezed out as well,” said Thomas Kang, an analyst at Counterpoint Technology Market Research.

Samsung still has about a third of global smartphone sales, but there are multiple challenges to its dominance. At the low end, several Chinese companies are offering phones with similar features at a lower price. But more worrying for investors are new signs of vulnerability in premium-price phones, which account for the vast majority of the profit in the business.

For several years, Samsung and Apple have been battling for leadership in high-end phones. Now Apple is making new gains. In November, it sold 65 percent of the smartphones priced at $400 or more worldwide, up from 35 percent a year earlier, according to Counterpoint. And that was before Apple added China Mobile, the world’s largest network operator, as an iPhone partner, with sales set to begin this month.

In the same period, Samsung’s share of the premium market fell to 21 percent from 40 percent, according to Counterpoint.

A year ago, Samsung had two strong entrants in the high-end category, the Galaxy S3 smartphone and the Note 2, a so-called phablet, or cross between a phone and a tablet computer. But the current flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S4, has been a relative disappointment, leaving a new phablet, the Note 3, to carry the load.

Faced with sluggish sales, Samsung resorted to price cuts in the fourth quarter in an effort to clear inventories, analysts said. The average selling price of the company’s smartphones was $290, down from $320 a year earlier, according to analysts at Sanford C. Bernstein.

Bernstein estimated that overall sales of Samsung handsets, including smartphones and old-fashioned feature phones, slipped to 119 million in the fourth quarter from 120 million in the third quarter. Normally, the fourth quarter is a strong period because of holiday sales.

Samsung is expected to introduce a new flagship phone to succeed the Galaxy S4 this winter. It is experimenting with new kinds of handsets, including ones with curved screens, and the company is doing research on devices with flexible displays.

Last fall, the company introduced a so-called smartwatch called the Galaxy Gear, which works as a companion to certain smartphones. At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week, Samsung has introduced or shown off a flurry of new products, including high-end home appliances, tablet computers and televisions. One of the new TVs features a screen that can be flat or curved, according to the viewer’s preference; another has a giant 105-inch, ultra-high-definition display.

But smartphones are Samsung’s cash cow, and the new challenges in that business have raised concerns among some investors. The forecast Tuesday was below most analysts’ estimates.

The company predicted operating income of about 8.3 trillion won ($7.8 billion) for the final three months of the year, down from 10.2 trillion won in the third quarter and 8.84 trillion won in the fourth quarter of 2012. Revenue is expected to total about 59 trillion won, roughly even with the third quarter.

The company’s shares have fallen nearly 15 percent in the last year, and nearly 9 percent in the last month. On Tuesday, the shares fell 0.2 percent, to 1.3 million won, or $1,220.

Analysts say Samsung’s earnings were reduced by a special bonus to employees to celebrate the 20th anniversary of what the company calls its new management initiative. In 1993, the Samsung group patriarch, Lee Kun-hee, began a drive to raise the quality of the company’s products, telling managers to “change everything except your wife and children.”

Byun Han-joon, an analyst at KB Investment and Securities, estimated that the special bonus cost Samsung 800 billion won. Other analysts said the recent strength of the South Korean currency might have lowered earnings by reducing the amount of won received for exports.

“I don’t think that today’s results show any fundamental problem in Samsung Electronics,” Mr. Byun said. But he added that the new forecast raised the possibility of a faster-than-expected swing from high-end to lower-priced smartphones, which would continue to put pressure on the company’s earnings in future quarters, unless Samsung comes up with some new, must-have products.

“This now gets worth thinking about in depth,” Mr. Byun said.

Bits Blog: Samsung Electronics Goes Big on Tablets

Samsung Forecasts Greater Earnings Decline Than Expected for the End of 2013

TOKYO — Samsung Electronics, the world’s biggest maker of smartphones, said Tuesday that its earnings in the last quarter of 2013 fell from the previous three-month period as well as from the same period a year ago, heightening investors’ concerns about competitive pressures in the industry.

As usual, the company, based in South Korea, released only a bare-bones forecast of its quarterly earnings, in advance of a full report later in the month, and provided no reasons for the expected decline in operating income. Analysts have said the company faced tighter profit margins on smartphones, along with higher employee bonus costs, during the quarter.

While the drop was expected, the earnings forecast was below analysts’ estimates. The company predicted operating income of about 8.3 trillion won ($7.8 billion) for the final three months of the year, down from 10.2 trillion won in the third quarter. In the fourth quarter of 2012, the company had  8.84 trillion won in operating income.

Revenue is expected to total about 59 trillion won, roughly even with the third quarter.

While Samsung controls more than one-third of the global smartphone market, it faces renewed competition from Apple, which recently added leading network operators like China Mobile and NTT DoCoMo of Japan to its roster of iPhone vendors.

Samsung also faces increased competition from low-cost manufacturers in China, some of which hope to challenge Samsung and Apple in developed markets.

Analysts say Samsung’s costs in the fourth quarter were lifted by a special bonus to some employees to mark the 20th anniversary of what the company calls its new management initiative. In 1993, the Samsung group patriarch, Lee Kun-hee, began a drive to raise the quality of the company’s products, telling managers to “change everything except your wife and children.”

Samsung will issue a detailed earnings report on Jan. 24.

No wonder Samsung Electronics is so busy looking for a new hit gadget. Its signature product, the smartphone, is facing unanticipated challenges.

Samsung, the world’s largest maker of smartphones, said Tuesday that its operating profit in the fourth quarter had declined from the third quarter of  2013, and also compared with the fourth  quarter of 2012. 

As usual, the company, based in  Suwon, South Korea, released only a bare-bones forecast in advance of a full quarterly earnings report later in the month. It provided no reasons for the expected decline. But analysts said softness in smartphones, which account for more than half of Samsung’s earnings, was probably a big reason.

Samsung still has a roughly one-third share of global smartphone sales, but it faces new challenges to its dominance. At the low end, a number of Chinese companies are offering phones with similar features at a lower price. More worrying for investors are new signs of vulnerability in premium-price phones, which account for the vast majority of the profit in the business. 

For several years, Samsung and Apple have been battling for leadership in high-end phones. Now Apple is making new gains. In November, it sold 65 percent of the smartphones priced at $400 or more worldwide, up from 35 percent a year earlier, according to Counterpoint Technology Market Research.  And that was before Apple added China  Mobile, the world’s largest network operator, as an iPhone partner, with sales set to begin this month.

In the same period, Samsung’s share of the premium market fell to 21 percent from 40 percent, according to Counterpoint.

‘‘One by one, players in the premium  price band have been squeezed out, and now it looks like Samsung may be  squeezed out as well,’’ said Tom Kang, an analyst at Counterpoint.

A year ago, Samsung had two strong entrants in this category, the Galaxy S3  smartphone and the Note 2, a so-called  phablet, or cross between a phone and a  tablet computer. But the current flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S4, has been a relative disappointment, leaving a new phablet, the Note 3, to carry the load.

Samsung Stock Falls 5% as Won Gains Strength

SEOUL, South Korea — The stock of Samsung Electronics fell more than 5 percent Thursday to its lowest point in over four months. Analysts had forecasted lower quarterly earnings due to the strong won and weaker margins in the company’s display business.

Shares fell as much as 5.1 percent on Thursday to 1.302 million won, the lowest since late August. The stock was down 4.6 percent at closing, its fifth consecutive session of decline, a trend that has wiped nearly $18 billion off the market value of Asia’s most valuable company.

Samsung, the world’s largest maker of smartphones, memory chips and televisions, is scheduled to report its October-December quarter earnings estimate on Tuesday.

The company is forecast to report a record 10.3-trillion-won operating profit in the October-December quarter, a 1 percent increase from the previous quarter, according to an average estimate of 40 analysts.

But Starmine SmartEstimate, the average of the most accurate analysts’ estimates, forecasts a 3.6 percent quarter-on-quarter drop in Samsung’s operating profit to 9.9 trillion won.

“We expect Samsung’s performance to be about 9.5 trillion won, lower than the market consensus of around 10.2 trillion won,” said Lee Seung-woo, tech analyst at I.B.K. Investment & Securities.

A stronger won is particularly bad for the profitability of Samsung’s component business as the unit mainly uses the dollar for settlement, analysts said.

The won jumped to its highest since mid-2008 on Thursday, and market participants expect more gains as data pointed toward a firm economic recovery.

Peter Yu, a BNP Paribas analyst and one of the more bearish about Samsung’s earnings, estimated the operating profit of the component business to change 4 percent for every 1 percent change in the won-dollar rate.

He also estimated Samsung’s fourth-quarter profit to fall by 14 percent from the previous quarter to 8.8 trillion won due to a stronger won, a one-off special bonus payment and weaker sales of smartphone components.

Jury Tells Samsung to Pay Apple $290 Million

The six-woman, two-man jury calculated the damages based on 13 products that infringed Apple’s patents. They determined that two smartphones incurred the heftiest damages: Samsung’s Infuse 4G, at about $100 million, and the Droid Charge, at $60 million.

While the price tag will not significantly affect either company’s pocketbooks — they are two of the most profitable companies in the technology industry — the ruling did give Apple another victory in the companies’ continuing legal fight.

In August last year, a California jury determined that Samsung had infringed on a series of Apple patents and needed to pay more than $1 billion in damages. But the judge, Lucy H. Koh of the Federal District Court for Northern California, later vacated $450 million of the original award, saying it was unclear how the jury had calculated that portion, but said Samsung owed the remaining $600 million.

The latest trial, also overseen by Judge Koh, was to determine whether Samsung needed to pay more or less than the $450 million that was vacated. In the trial, which ran for about a week in San Jose, Calif., lawyers for Apple and Samsung focused on how to calculate the damages: in lost profits or in royalties. The trial covered five patents and 13 products.

Apple said in a statement that the case “has been about innovation and the hard work that goes into inventing products that people love.” It added, “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.”

Lauren Restuccia, a Samsung spokeswoman, said, “We are disappointed by today’s decision.” She added, “While we move forward with our post-trial motions and appeals, we will continue to innovate with groundbreaking technologies and great products that are loved by our many customers all around the world.”

Apple argued in the most recent trial that it deserved $379.8 million because it missed out on large amounts of profit after Samsung’s smartphones entered the market. Samsung contended that Apple should get much less, $52 million.

Legal experts said Samsung was most likely trying to minimize the damages to safeguard itself in future fights. The final award could influence another jury to make similar damage calculations.

This time, the process for calculating the amount Samsung owed was simpler than in the previous trial. The jurors had to fill out a one-page form assessing the damages for each infringed patent, unlike last time, when jurors filled out a complex 20-page form.

Still, the new jury appeared to have some trouble crunching the numbers, taking parts of three days to reach a conclusion. On Wednesday afternoon, the judge called a meeting to answer questions from the jury about how to decide whether Apple was entitled to lost profit, and if so, how to calculate it.

Apple’s lawyer, Harold J. McElhinny, showed an internal Samsung document to highlight that employees had acknowledged that the battle in the mobile industry was a “two-horse race” between Apple and Samsung. Therefore, he said, many sales made to Samsung most likely could have gone to Apple.

Samsung, however, said that it should pay a much smaller amount in the form of royalties for each device it sold that carried the infringing features. Its lawyer, Bill Price, said that Apple was not entitled to lost profits because people had bought Samsung phones for reasons unrelated to the features covered by patents, like the fact that some Samsung phones had bigger screens and that Samsung’s phones and tablets were generally cheaper than Apple’s.

Also on Wednesday, Samsung tried to delay the entire trial. The company argued that a patent involved in the trial, which covered touch-screen mechanics, might be deemed invalid by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. In light of that, reaching a verdict now would be wasteful, Samsung said.

But Apple said in a response late Wednesday that Samsung’s motion to delay the trial had “crossed the bounds of reason.”

Apple and Samsung continue to fight in courts around the world. In the United States, the tide has shifted in Apple’s favor. Both companies persuaded the United States International Trade Commission that the other had violated patents, resulting in bans on each other’s products. The Obama administration ultimately vetoed the ban on Apple products, while upholding the ban on Samsung products.

The two companies are scheduled for another trial in March 2014. That trial will involve a different set of Apple patents and some newer products, including Samsung’s popular Galaxy S III — a smartphone that at one point surpassed the iPhone in sales. Judge Koh is expected to also oversee that case.

Bits Blog: Samsung Electronics Fined for Fake Online Comments

Chip Sales Help Push Profit Up at Samsung

The players’ strike brought attention to budget cuts that have hurt the entire university.

Room for Debate asks whether Brazil, France and Germany may see American surveillance and wonder whether they are still U.S. allies.

After 25 years of performing with a stage name, I’ve finally reclaimed my own.

Bits Blog: Trade Commission Orders Ban on Some Samsung Products

Gadgetwise: A Waterproof Cover for the Samsung Galaxy S III

Now your Samsung Galaxy S III can go swimming with your iPhone 5.

The LifeProof Nuud cases, previously available for Apple products only, are now available for the S III and the iPhone 5.

What makes the cases unusual is that they are waterproof but have no membrane covering the phone’s glass. Instead the cases have a gasket that forms a seal against the phone’s glass to keep water from seeping past the screen, which is itself waterproof.

This design makes the Nuud line among the thinnest, most rugged cases available for these phones and for the iPad as well.

While the case promises to be waterproof, snowproof, dirtproof and shockproof, the phones cannot be used underwater. (There are cases, like the one from DriSuit Technologies, that allow the phone to be used while submerged). Water on the screen can make it impossible for the phone to detect your touch.

The case requires careful assembly to seal the bead around the screen. I found it best to assemble it on a hard surface and work my way around the phone, pressing down along the edges from the top to the bottom.

At the base of the case is a hatch that opens to the charger, so you don’t have to remove the case to update the phone or top off the battery. Microphone and speaker ports are covered with a membrane that keeps water out (up to six feet down) but lets sound pass.

The Nuud is $90 for the S III and the iPhone 5.

Bits Blog: Samsung Electronics Acquires Boxee, a Video Start-Up

Boxee’s set-top box.

Samsung Electronics confirmed on Wednesday that it had acquired assets and talent from Boxee, a video start-up. The acquisition should help Samsung improve its software for its Internet-connected televisions.

An earlier report by The Marker, an Israeli Web site, said that Samsung purchased the start-up for $30 million. In a statement, a Samsung spokeswoman would confirm only that Samsung had acquired some employees and assets of Boxee but did not disclose how much it had paid.

“Samsung has acquired key talent and assets from Boxee,” the spokeswoman said in a statement. “This will help us continue to improve the overall user experience across our connected devices.”

Samsung has made a hard push into Internet-connected televisions, called smart TVs. Earlier this year, it said that the majority of sets it sells would be smart TVs. But, similar to Samsung’s smartphone software, its smart TV software has often been criticized as being impractical and difficult to use.

That’s where Boxee could come in handy. For a few years now, Boxee has been a hot start-up at the Consumer Electronics Show, one of the biggest technology trade shows in the world. Boxee originally offered computer software for watching any format of digital video. It later shifted to selling a set-top box that runs its software.

Bits: Samsung May Have Passed Apple in U.S. — for Now

Richard Perry/The New York Times Samsung’s Galaxy S4, which was the top-selling phone for Verizon, T-Mobile and Sprint last month.

Samsung Electronics may have surpassed Apple to become the top smartphone maker in the United States in May, according to an analyst’s report. Sales of Samsung’s new flagship phone, the Galaxy S4, combined with its bigger-screen Galaxy Note II and the older Galaxy S III, lifted Samsung’s sales above Apple’s last month, the report said.

Canaccord Genuity, an investment research firm, said it surveyed the retail stores of carriers including AT&T, Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile USA and Sprint. The Galaxy S4 was the top-selling phone for Verizon, T-Mobile and Sprint last month. But at AT&T, the Galaxy S4 was the second best-selling phone after the iPhone 5, the report said.

“We believe Samsung on the strength of strong Galaxy S4, S III, and Note II sales surpassed Apple to gain top share of the U.S. smartphone market for the first time since the iPhone 5 launch,” said Michael Walkley, the Canaccord Genuity analyst who conducted the survey.

That may look like a milestone, but the report should be taken with a grain of salt. The survey doesn’t include Apple’s retail stores, where many iPhones are sold. And it remains to be seen whether Samsung can beat Apple in sales after Apple releases a new iPhone (or even a cheaper iPhone, as rumors suggest). At one point, Samsung’s Galaxy S III surpassed the iPhone 4S to become the best-selling phone in the world, but when sales numbers for the new iPhone 5 came in later, the iPhone was No. 1 again.

Also, strong performance in May alone doesn’t mean Samsung has crushed Apple in the United States over all. ComScore, the Internet analytics company, issued a report on Tuesday that estimated that Apple had 39.2 percent of smartphone subscribers in the first three months of 2013 and Samsung, in second place, had 22 percent. That includes all models of iPhones and Samsung phones in the United States.

What Samsung’s strong performance in May reveals is that the South Korean manufacturer has figured out how to make good use of the months between iPhone upgrades, when the current iPhone is getting old and its sales are slowing. Samsung is releasing its new phones during these months. And some Apple customers who are waiting for the next iPhone may be caving in and buying Samsung phones instead.

In other words, Samsung has taken advantage of the predictability of the iPhone release cycle — Apple’s pattern has been to upgrade the iPhone once a year in the fall to target the holiday season. Will Apple switch up its next move?

Tensions between Apple and Samsung, meanwhile, are heating up as their patent battle continues. On Tuesday, the United States International Trade Commission issued a ban on a handful of older Apple devices, including the iPhone 4 for AT&T’s network. Apple intends to appeal the decision.

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Bits: Accessories Market Is Expanding for Samsung Phones

Incase Incase cases for the Galaxy S4.

Here’s a sign that Samsung Electronics continues to rise as a challenger to Apple in the handset market: the proliferation of third-party accessories supporting its Galaxy phones.

Incase, a popular case maker in San Francisco, on Thursday started selling its first protective cases for the new Galaxy S4 phone, adding to the hundreds of thousands of accessories in the market made for Samsung products. Before, it had sold a case for the earlier model, the Galaxy S3.

Various accessory makers like Mophie, OtterBox, Tech Armor and Aduro also sell gear for Samsung phones. A quick search in Amazon.com’s cellphone accessories category for “Samsung Galaxy accessories” turns up over 537,000 results. A search for “iPhone accessories” turns up about 1 million results.  By contrast, a search for “Lumia accessories” — products made for Nokia’s less-popular Windows phones — gets about 52,000 results.

A similar search on BestBuy.com turns up about 2,200 results for “iPhone accessories,” about 1,600 results for “Samsung Galaxy accessories” and 51 results for “Lumia accessories.”

These are hardly scientific surveys. But they give an idea of just how big a rival the Samsung Galaxy phones have become — not just in terms of sales, but also in terms of the number of third-party companies backing them.

Why care about support from accessory makers? If consumers buy extras for their phones, they’re likely to keep buying phones from the same company so they can keep using those accessories. Accessory makers must be confident in Samsung’s products in order to be devoting manufacturing for them.

It used to be the case that “case maker” was synonymous with “iPhone case maker.” But as Nick Wingfield and I reported this week, the accessories market has substantially broadened to support devices other than Apple’s.

When and How to Get the Samsung Galaxy S4

Samsung's Galaxy S4 is the latest device in the company's successful line of flagship smartphones, and it's coming soon. Featuring a 4.9-inch 1920 x 1080 display, a 1.9GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 processor and 2GB of RAM, a 13-megapixel camera, and Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean, the Galaxy S4 is one of the most high-powered and full-featured smartphones to ever hit the market. If you'd like to get your hands on the successor to the popular Galaxy S3, here's where, when, and how you can pick up Samsung's upcoming handset.

Check out our Samsung Galaxy S4 Hands-On

AT&T

Pre-order: Available now.Availability: In stores and online starting April 27th.Price: $199.99 on contract for the 16GB version.

Verizon Wireless:

Pre-order: Starting tomorrow, April 25th.Availability: In stores starting May 30th. Online availability not yet announced.Price: $249.99 on contract for the 16GB version, plus $50 mail-in rebate.

Sprint:

Pre-order: Available now.Availability: Shipping online orders April 27th, although availability through retail stores will be sparse.Price: $249.99 on contract. Additional $100 credit for new customers switching from another provider.

T-Mobile:

Pre-order: Not yet available.Availability: Shipping online orders April 29th. In-store availability not yet announced.Price: $149.99 with monthly device payments through the Simple Choice Plan.

Best Buy is currently taking pre-orders for the Sprint and AT&T models, both with the same pricing and availability of their respective carriers. Radio Shack has begun advertising the Sprint and AT&T versions, although there is no mention of availability and no option to pre-order the device at this time. Amazon has started taking pre-orders for the Sprint Galaxy S4 for an unsubsidized price of $699.99, and states that availability from AT&T and Verizon will be coming soon.

Justin owns more gadgets and eats more chili cheese fries than he probably should. Follow him on MyIGN or on Twitter at @ItsTheLingo.

Samsung Reports 42% Jump in Profit

The world’s largest smartphone maker said its net income reached 7.2 trillion won ($6.5 billion) in the first three months of 2013, compared with 5 trillion won a year earlier.

The figure was a surprising 2 percent increase from the previous quarter. Analysts had expected Samsung to report lower profit than the fourth quarter because demand typically slows.

But sales of Samsung’s flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S III, and the oversize handset device called the Galaxy Note remained strong and shored up profit, Samsung said. The company also spent less on marketing its mobile devices than it had in the previous quarter, when competition heated up with rivals.

Sales rose 17 percent to 52.9 trillion won ($47.5 billion). Operating profit was up 54 percent to 8.8 trillion won ($7.9 billion), in line with its preliminary results released earlier this month.

Samsung successfully capitalized on global demand for smartphones with a wide range of mobile devices that come in a variety of screen sizes and a diverse price range, outpacing rivals including Apple and Nokia.

Analysts expect Samsung to report a stronger profit during the April-June quarter as the Galaxy S4, the latest iteration of the Galaxy S smartphone, goes on sales worldwide, months before Apple introduces a new version of the iPhone. The Galaxy S4 was introduced in South Korea Friday before its release in the United States starts on Saturday.

Samsung said initial orders for the Galaxy S4 were higher than expected, making it difficult to meet demand. Lee Don-joo, head of sales and marketing at Samsung’s mobile division, said sales of the S4 would be higher than its predecessor.

Samsung’s I.T. and mobile communications division, which makes smartphones, tablets, PCs and cameras, reported 6.5 trillion won ($5.8 billion) in operating income for the first quarter, a 56 percent growth from the previous year and its highest since Samsung reorganized the division to merge its PC and handset departments.

The company’s outperformance in the mobile market helped offset sluggish demand in the TV market and a still-weak recovery in display panel sales.

Samsung Sets Record-High Profit on Mobile Momentum

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Samsung Electronics Co. said Friday its first quarter profit jumped to a record high as smartphone sales remained strong despite the April launch of an updated version of its flagship Galaxy phone.

Sales of consumer electronics usually slow in the first three months of the year after the holiday shopping season, an effect that analysts thought would be compounded by this month's release of the Galaxy S4 smartphone since many delay buying until the newest model is available. Apple Inc. has cited the upcoming release of a new iPhone as a reason for a slowdown in sales of older models.

Samsung began sales of the S4 in its home South Korean market Friday and starts U.S. sales on Saturday. Analysts expect Samsung's profits to reach new highs in the second and third quarters if S4 sales are strong. Lee Don-Joo, head of sales and marketing at Samsung's mobile division, said sales of the S4 will outdo its predecessor, the Galaxy S III.

Samsung said January-March net profit surged 42 percent to 7.2 trillion won ($6.5 billion) from 5 trillion won a year earlier. That increase was despite booking a one-time charge against earnings related to settlement of its intellectual property battle with Apple. Analysts estimated the charge at $600 million.

Sales rose 17 percent to 52.9 trillion won. Operating profit was up 54 percent to 8.8 trillion won, in line with its preliminary results released earlier this month.

Profit was up 2 percent from the previous quarter's result, beating market expectations for a fall. Sales of the S III smartphone and the oversized handset called the Galaxy Note remained strong and shored up profit, Samsung said. It also spent less on marketing its mobile devices than it did in the previous quarter when competition heated up.

Samsung's IT and Mobile Communications division that makes smartphones, tablets, PCs and cameras reported 6.51 trillion won in operating income for the first quarter, up 56 percent from a year earlier and its highest since Samsung reorganized the division to merge PC and handset departments.

Samsung capitalized on global demand for smartphones with a range of mobile devices that come in a variety of screen sizes and prices, outpacing rivals including Apple Inc. and Nokia Corp.

As the S4 goes on sales several months before rival Apple introduces a new version of iPhone, analysts said Samsung's streak of record-setting profit will not stop any time soon.

"You can say it is like a snowball is rolling," said James Song, head of technology at Daewoo Securities. Song forecast Samsung's second quarter operating income to surpass 10 trillion won ($9 billion).

Market research firm IDC estimated that Samsung shipped 70.7 million smartphones during the first quarter, up 61 percent over a year earlier and capturing 33 percent market share. Apple, the second-largest smartphone maker, sold 37.4 million iPhones. Its market share fell to 17 percent from 23 percent a year earlier, IDC said.

Samsung, based in Suwon, South Korea, is also the world's largest maker of memory chips, televisions, mobile handsets and liquid crystal display panels.

The company's strong performance in the mobile market helped offset sluggish demand for TVs and a still weak recovery in display panel sales.

For the first time in recent years, Samsung refrained from increasing its annual capital expenditure on semiconductor and display panel production lines, a sign that it sees slower growth in demand for memory chips and display panels. Its annual capital expenditure for 2013 will be capped at 22.9 trillion won ($20.5 billion).

But Samsung said it will boost its spending on research and development even though it is already one of the largest R&D spenders. Its R&D expense was $2.97 billion during the first three months of this year, nearly three times more than Apple's $1.12 billion, according to financial information provider FactSet.

"Although market uncertainties from the European crisis and the slow global economic recovery are still lingering, we expect to increase R&D spending for strengthening our competitiveness ahead of planned new product launches," said Robert Yi, head of investor relations at Samsung.

Seo Won-seok, an analyst at Korea Investment & Securities, said Samsung's businesses require heavy spending on research and development for future products, especially divisions that make electronic components.

At a Las Vegas trade show in January, Samsung showcased mobile handsets that use curved glasses, a first stage in what would eventually become flexible displays. Adopting more advanced technology is also crucial to lowering memory chip manufacturing costs.

Samsung Reports 42 Percent Jump in Profit

In an earnings report, Samsung said its net profit from January through March had soared 42 percent to 7.2 trillion won, or $6.5 billion, from 5 trillion won a year earlier.

Sales rose 17 percent to 52.9 trillion won. Operating profit was up 54 percent to 8.8 trillion won. Profit from the division that makes smartphones, tablets, personal computers and cameras accounted for nearly three-quarters of the company’s entire profit.

Samsung is the world’s largest maker of computer memory chips, televisions, mobile handsets and LCD panels. It does not provide smartphone sales figures, but it has increasingly relied on smartphones as its main profit generator — a strategy that has brought the company into patent and marketing clashes with Apple.

Samsung began sales of its latest Galaxy S4 smartphone in South Korea on Friday. It planned to introduce it in the United States on Saturday.

Samsung’s rivalry with Apple on the Apple’s home turf intensified as Apple reported its first profit decline in more than a decade. Apple also indicated it planned no major product releases until the autumn.

Samsung has challenged Apple’s once dominant place in the world’s smartphone market by flooding it with a range of models with a variety of screen sizes and prices and updating its versions faster than Apple ever has.

Samsung captured a third of the global smartphone market in the first quarter, according to data released by Strategy Analytics. Shipments of Samsung smartphones surged 56 percent to 69.4 million units in the quarter, it said. Apple iPhone shipments rose 6.6 percent to 37.4 million units.

“Although market uncertainties from the European crisis and the slow global economic recovery are still lingering, we expect to increase” spending on research and development “for strengthening our competitiveness ahead of planned new product launches,” Robert Yi, Samsung’s head of investor relations, said in a statement.