Samsung Teases Apple With Cleaning Cloth Offer

Samsung is never one to avoid teasing Apple, and they’ve done so again regarding the infamous US$20 cleaning clothiMore reported on its latest offer.

In a move that seems to be part of the German Galaxy Club, Samsung customers can apply to get their very own cleaning cloth sent through the mail and they won’t have to spend a penny. They’ll need to be quick, though — there are only so many freebies to go around. First spotted by Galaxy Club, the offer is presumably taking aim at Apple and its own Polishing Cloth. No surprises there — Samsung is never shy when poking fun at Apple, whether it has a point or not.

Samsung’s ‘iTest’ Puts Android on Your iPhone

Samsung has created a web app called iTest that puts a simulation of Android on your iPhone to convince you to switch.

When you’re in the Samsung iTest app on your iPhone, you’ll even receive a variety of simulated text notifications and phone calls highlighting different things to try out and different ways of communicating with friends. And of course, Samsung is also using this as an opportunity to promote its other Galaxy products, such as Galaxy Buds Pro, Galaxy Watch3, and Galaxy Buds Live.

I think it’s really cool and creative.

Samsung Unveils Insane DDR5 512GB Memory

On Thursday Samsung revealed an industry-first 512GB DDR5 memory running up to 7,300Mbps.

Samsung’s DDR5 will utilize highly advanced HKMG technology that has been traditionally used in logic semiconductors. With continued scaling down of DRAM structures, the insulation layer has thinned, leading to a higher leakage current. By replacing the insulator with HKMG material, Samsung’s DDR5 will be able to reduce the leakage and reach new heights in performance. This new memory will also use approximately 13% less power, making it especially suitable for datacenters where energy efficiency is becoming increasingly critical.

Samsung Takes Bigger Chunk of U.S. Marketshare Than Apple For First Time Since 2017

Samsung grabbed a bigger chunk of the U.S. smartphone market than Apple in the third quarter of 2020, according to data from Strategy Analytics, picked up on by Cult of Mac. That the first time since 2017 that Samsung has beaten Apple.

Apple accounted for a 30.2 percent market share of the U.S. smartphone market in Q3 2020. However, it lost out slightly to Samsung which made up 33.7 percent of the marketshare. The last time Samsung beat Apple in Apple’s home country market was Q2 2017. In third place was LG Electronics, which accounted for just a 14.7 percent share of the market. The reason for Samsung’s victory over Apple in the quarter likely involves the delayed launch of the iPhone 12. New model iPhones don’t usually make a significant impact until calendar Q4. However, their appearance in September does give the July through September quarter a boost for Apple. This year, the iPhone 12 handsets weren’t even shown off until October. This was due to manufacturing challenges related to coronavirus. Meanwhile, Samsung launched new flagship devices such as the Galaxy Note 20 and Galaxy Z Fold 2 during the quarter.

Samsung T7 SSD Drive Out Today Starting at $109

Samsung announced the release of its T7 SSD drive. It gives you read speeds up to 1,050 MB/s and write speeds of up to 1,000 MB/s. This is almost twice as fast as the older T5 model. It comes in 500 GB, 1TB, and 2TB sizes in red, blue, and gray. “Roughly the size of a few stacked credit cards, the T7 is equipped with 256-bit AES encryption and password protection, so users can rest assured knowing their data is safe. Moreover, with PCIe NVMe technology, the T7 offers users quick performance and little downtime with read and write speeds of up to 1050 MB/s and 1000 MB/s respectively. With a USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-C port, it’s also backward compatible with USB 3.0 and Type-A devices with an appropriate cable.”

One retailer offering it for preorder is B&H Photo Video.

Over 90% of Postpaid Phones Sold are Apple and Samsung

Over 90% of the postpaid phones sold at the Big Four carrier stores in the U.S. are either iPhones or Samsung phones.

Apple and Samsung together sold 94 percent of phones at Verizon stores, 95 percent at AT&T stores, 94 percent at Sprint stores, and 91 percent at T-Mobile stores, according to the report. The most popular phone at all four carriers in December was the iPhone 11, the firm says. The top-selling Samsung Phone was the Galaxy S10.

I’d say it’s probably because the price of most iPhones and Samsungs are high enough to where the stores can make money off them.

Samsung Galaxy S10's Finger Print Sensor Easily Bypassed

So it turns out the fingerprint sensor on the Samsung Galaxy S10 can be circumvented by a $3.47 screen protector. The BBC had that report, but it was John Gruber’s commentary I thought was spot on:

When the iPhone 5S debuted with Touch ID, we were inundated with news stories about “easy” ways to spoof it that were, in fact, not easy at all. Now we learn that Samsung’s flagship phone’s fingerprint sensor can in fact be spoofed trivially — and… crickets.

In a word, yup.