Samsung

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Samsung Teases Apple With Cleaning Cloth Offer

Charlotte Henry ·

Samsung is never one to avoid teasing Apple, and they’ve done so again regarding the infamous US$20 cleaning cloth. iMore 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.

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Samsung’s ‘iTest’ Puts Android on Your iPhone

Andrew Orr ·

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.

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Samsung Unveils Insane DDR5 512GB Memory

Andrew Orr ·

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.

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

Charlotte Henry ·

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
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Samsung T7 SSD Drive Out Today Starting at $109

Andrew Orr ·

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.

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Over 90% of Postpaid Phones Sold are Apple and Samsung

Andrew Orr ·

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.

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Samsung Galaxy S10's Finger Print Sensor Easily Bypassed

Bryan Chaffin ·

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.

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Apple's ASMR Venture, LOL Samsung, AAPL Buybacks with Charlotte Henry - ACM 520

Bryan Chaffin · · 2 Comments

Apple has posted plenty of “Shot on iPhone”: videos, but four new ASMR videos mark the first time where the content is more about the experience than it is about the device that made it. Bryan Chaffin is joined by guest-host Charlotte Henry to discuss it. They also talk about Samsun’s lame decision to pull an old ad from its YouTube channel that mocked an Apple move that Samsung is following today. So lame. They also look at Apple’s gargantuan effort to buy $24 billion of its own stock in just the June quarter.

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After Bashing Apple, Samsung Caves, Deletes Headphone Jack

John Martellaro ·

The Verge writes:

… today’s just-announced Samsung Galaxy Note 10 doesn’t include the 3.5mm socket, even though it’s the phone that would have been most likely to keep it around….

Now, like some of its competitors, Samsung just has to pretend it never made fun of Apple for doing the same damn thing. Because even if you try to delete these videos, Samsung, the internet has a long memory.

The excuses  explanations Samsung makes are hilarious.

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Robots, Apple Robots, Autonomous Vehicle Robots, and Foldable Phones with John Martellaro - ACM 503

Bryan Chaffin · · 2 Comments

This episode is all about robots! Apple robots, military robots, delivery repots, preacher robots, manufacturing robots, and self driving car robots! Bryan Chaffin is joined by guest host John Martellaro to deep into what’s happening with robots today and what they expect for robots in the future. Put your SciFi futurist cap on for this one. They also talk about foldable phones, or as they like to think of it, the netbook of 2019.

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What's the Difference Between QLED and OLED TVs?

John Martellaro ·

In the process of writing about Samsung’s 2019 TVs, sizes and prices, CNET’s David Katzmaier also explains the difference between Samsung’s QLED TVs and the OLED technology from other makers. It’s an important distinction. The key is the ever so geeky Quantum Dots. (Image credit: Samsung.)