s3

Android, Apple capture still more U.S. smartphone users

Android and Apple continue to bite bigger hunks out of the U.S. smartphone market.

As of the three months ended July, Google's mobile OS held a 52.2 percent share of the market, a gain of 1.4 points from the prior three months, ComScore said today. In second place, Apple's iOS grabbed 33.4 percent of the market, up 2 points from the prior period.

That left the rest of the top five platforms still spinning down the drain.

RIM's BlackBerry OS took third place with a 9.5 percent share, down 2.1 points … Read more

Samsung: Galaxy S3 inspired by 'sparkling' pebbles, forest stroll

Samsung's Galaxy S3 is a high-tech product, but its design was meant to reflect the simplicity of nature, at least according to the company.

"We wanted a more emotional, and stronger connection with our customers," Jacob Lee, Samsung VP for mobile design, said in a company video highlighting the phone (English translation).

As such, the various designers behind the phone claim they were inspired by different forces found in nature.

"I happened to witness the pebbles in a stream sparkling under the sunlight," product designer Hangil Song revealed. "And I tried to capture those … Read more

Video shows purported iPhone 5 internals, front plate

So much for post-product-release teardowns. The iPhone 5 is being torn down piece by piece already.

Just after alleged photos of the iPhone 5's main circuit board appeared, we now have a video of not only the front plate but items as small as the "flex cable," replete with the sleep-wake button and volume switch, according to SmartPhone Medic, a smartphone repair service based in Columbia, S.C.

"We just got some new iPhone 5 parts in," the video begins. The SmartPhone Medic guy then goes to show the alleged iPhone 5's front plate … Read more

LG starts making 4-inch display maybe destined for iPhone 5

LG Display has begun to make a display that could be slated for the iPhone 5, according to a Reuters report.

"We just began mass production and we don't expect any disruption in supplies," Han Sang-beom, chief executive of LG Display, told reporters Wednesday, according to Reuters.

LGD, along with Samsung, are the two principal display suppliers for Apple's marquee products, such as the iPhone and iPad.

Other reports, however, have Sharp making the displays for the iPhone 5. And Toshiba has also been rumored as a display supplier for the iPhone 5.

It's not … Read more

A 3D rendering of Apple's next iPhone?

Rumors have abounded, images have been leaked, and today a video was released that showed all the speculative features and components of the upcoming iPhone 5.

The video, found by RazorianFly, based the iPhone design on various leaks from Asian site iLab Factory. The iPhone shows a longer and thinner screen, far fewer pin dock connector, and what looks to be a "unibody." Samsung's recently released Galaxy S3 is shown floating next to the iPhone for comparison.

It's not clear which, if any, of the supposed iPhone features will be on the new smartphone when it … Read more

Samsung: Give home-grown phone, tablet apps more love

At an event in New York today, Samsung launched its new flagship tablet, the quad-core Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 with Android 4.0 and a stylus capable of performing a long list of tasks.

The Note 10.1 is Samsung's best tablet yet, and the S Pen stylus gives it a boost. There's just one problem: while the S Pen's touch-pad tricks look impressive on any canvas, once digital pen hits digital pad, the experience becomes riddled with an inflexible learning curve, logical skips, and interruptions in execution. Most of these accumulate around Samsung's home-grown … Read more

Samsung's mSpot Music Hub looks clean, falls flat

Samsung's Music Hub app launched on the Samsung Galaxy S3 in Europe back in May, but it's taken until now for the subscription music service to hit our shores. CNET got an eyeful (and an earful) of the Music Hub app on several GS3 devices ahead of launch. Since the software was preproduction, there may be some slight differences between what we saw and the final product.

What it is The most important thing to know is that even if it comes preloaded on your phone, the Music Hub isn't free. Fueled by Samsung-owned mSpot, the mobile … Read more

Samsung to reinstate the Galaxy S3's search function

Never fear, a fix is supposedly near. Samsung confirmed today that the recent "stability update" on the Galaxy S3 that rendered the on-device search function useless was going to be repaired immediately, according to the BBC.

"The most recent software upgrade for the Galaxy S3 in the UK included the inadvertent removal of the universal search function," the company said in a statement, according to the BBC. "Samsung will provide the correct software upgrade within the next few days."

Reports of the bunk update surfaced earlier this month when S3 owners found out that … Read more

Smartphone sales drive record Samsung quarterly profits

Samsung Electronics, the world's largest consumer electronics maker, reported a record second-quarter net profit Friday on the continued strong sales of its smartphones.

The South Korea-based company said net profits for the three months ending June 30 rose to $4.5 billion, an increase of 48 percent over the year-ago period, in line with guidance the company gave earlier this month. Earnings rose 3 percent from the previous quarter but was lower than a market consensus of $4.8 billion.

"Despite a difficult business environment, we achieved stable profits in the second quarter through our differentiated products and … Read more

Best Samsung Galaxy S3 cases

Editors' note: This post was updated December 21, 2012, with five new products, including cases from Aduro, Covert, Samsung, Sena, and Urban Armor Gear.

The Samsung Galaxy S3 has quickly become one of the most popular Android smartphones, and like the iPhone, has spurred a cottage industry of cases and covers.

In boiling down the best of what's currently out there, I tried to provide a good mix of well-designed, affordable cases with more expensive models that offer some unique attributes.

One thing to watch for when buying cases these days is that you can come across pricier products … Read more