Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1

Following a temporary injunction on the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Australia, retailers say they aren’t prepared to back down despite legal threats from Apple and will continue selling the device by setting up new entities outside the “jurisdiction of Australian courts”, according to a report from The Sydney Morning Herald.

One retailer, dMavo, is even reorganizing their online operations and setting up an entirely new entity elsewhere in Europe to push the tablets, saying they’re ready for a “cat and mouse game” with Apple:

“We have a new entity established and a separate server – just to deal with the tablet orders – that is undergoing testing as of last Saturday…Was Apple just bluffing or do they really want to play the cat and mouse game?- dMavo managing director Wojtek Czarnocki.

It appears the move is paying off for the retailer on the short term with Czarnocki noting their  servers were “almost collapsing on a number of occasions” as demand for the tablet and press from the retailer’s stance against Apple starts to receive attention.

Mark Summerfield, senior associate and patent specialist at a Melbourne law firm, told SMH he is unsure if the move to restructure the online sales of the device will protect the retailer from any wrongdoing related to patent infringement and the pending litigation between Apple and Samsung in Australia:

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During their earnings call Thursday, Google announced that there have been 190 million Android handsets activated. Interestingly, if you look at the numbers on Android’s Developer page, 1.5% of all devices that accessed the market within the last 30 days are running Honeycomb — the almost exclusive OS for Android tablets (well, excluding a few million Samsung Galaxy Tab 7s and other tablets running 2.x Android). So, if all 190 million of those devices accessed the market in the last 30 days, that leaves only 3.4 million Honeycomb tablets on the market if you do the math. Ouch..

With all of the numbers added up, it’s indicating that Android still has some catch up to do against the big Apple when it comes to tablets. Perhaps Ice Cream Sandwich will help with that.
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Claiming Samsung copied the iPad’s design, Apple has successfully achieved their mission in getting an Australian judge to block Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 from being sold in Australia, reports Sydney Morning Herald. Apple says that Samsung is infringing on two patents, and the judge ruled until changes are made the Galaxy Tab 10.1 can’t be sold from this point on.

Apple and Samsung have current litigation continuing over in Europe and the United States. Apple has already successfully blocked the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Germany and hopes to do so elsewhere.

Samsung won’t start addressing the core patent issue (screen patent) with the Galaxy Tab 10.1 quite yet. They want to prepare a proper defense against Apple.  The fight continues.

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Apple today before a Sydney court rejected Samsung’s seemingly practical proposal calling for the removal of certain Galaxy Tab 10.1 capabilities in exchange for a smooth tablet launch in Australia. Samsung reportedly agreed to take out the feature which ignores unintended touches on the home screen to prevent apps from being launched accidentally. Apple, it appears, instead wants a definite ruling on a temporary Galaxy Tab 10.1 injunction, which should be expected later this week.

If the court sides with Samsung, it gets to launch its iPad rival in Australia in time for Christmas. If not, the case drags out into another year, possibly without a clear winner in sight. Remember, Samsung threatened to ban sales of the new iPhone in Korea the instant it launches. Apple is scheduled to unveil their next iPhone at a media event today in the Cupertino headquarters at 1pm ET, 10am PT. The event is headlined under the “Let’s talk iPhone” tagline, suggesting that the rumored Assistant feature will be in the focus, among other things.

Lawyers for the Cupertino, California-based Apple insist the Galaxy Tab 10.1 “is vastly the one that is going to be targeting the iPad 2”. According to Reuters, Apple lawyer Steven Burley made it clear that “the main reason we are here is to prevent the launch and maintain the status quo”. Note: The Wall Street Journal provides a live blog of today’s court hearing. Such a legal maneuvering on the part of the iPhone maker suggests that Apple isn’t interested in settling its dispute with Samsung out of the court unless, of course, unexpected legal setbacks arise.

This is the second blow in two weeks to Samsung’s efforts to make peace with Apple, its largest buyer of components such as NAND flash chips, custom-designed iPhone processors and displays.

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Apple has made its concerns official. The iPhone maker fears Samsung tablet will lure consumers away from the powerful iTunes ecosystem. Apple’s been successfully leveraging iTunes to tie people to the platform through app and entertainment content sales.

The heated Apple vs. Samsung legal battle over who’s copying who is really about the ecosystem rather than the hardware or the patents. That’s the gist of today’s hearing before the Federal Court in Sydney related to an Apple-requested ban on sales of Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet in Australia. According to Smh.com.au, lawyers for Apple argued that the launch of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 could take away iPad 2 sales so quickly that buyers may be “seduced” from the iOS platform.

It’s all about the apps and the broader ecosystem, Apple’s legal team told Justice Annabelle Bennett, arguing the Galaxy Tab 10.1 “is vastly the one that is going to be targeting the iPad 2”. IDC numbers released today suggest that that tablet shipments to Australia and New Zealand doubled sequentially in the June quarter, which the research firm attributed to an influx of Android tablets recently released into those markets.

Apple’s lawyers then resorted to the “fire hose” metaphor to make their case:

This is going to be launched on the market with the velocity of a fire hose and it is going to just come in and take away iPad 2 sales so quickly that by the time we get to final hearing the full impact of the patent infringement will be to the detriment of Apple and to the benefit of Samsung.

And this bit about the battle of ecosystems:

They’ll then be Android people and the investment in the apps that they make to purchase on their Galaxy Tab will be something they can’t use on an Apple product.

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Apple in August secured a temporary ban on Samsung’s planned Galaxy Tab 10.1 release in Australia. Today is the first day of a two-day hearing over the matter and Federal Court Justice Annabelle Bennett said she needed more time to dive into Apple’s claims before she ruled on Apple’s request for an injunction.

Bennet observed that “technology moves very quickly”, adding that “it would be in both sides’ interest to have this matter finalized quickly”. The development could further push the launch of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in the country. Per Bloomberg:

At today’s hearing, Apple focused on one alleged patent infringement, relating to the touch screen technology of the iPads. Samsung had agreed not to fight Apple’s claim that the Galaxy 10.1 uses zoom technology that infringes its patent.

Meanwhile, it’s business as usual for Apple’s fierce competitor from Korea, which counts the Mac maker as its biggest customer. Just as they announced channel shipments of ten million Galaxy S II smartphones worldwide (and expecting to ship as much tablets in 2011), Samsung in Korea took the wraps off the Galaxy S II HD LTE which features a native 720p display and fourth-generation LTE radio technology. Samsung also raised stakes in the legal spat with Apple by threatening to go after the yet unannounced iPhone 5 in both Korea and Europe as soon as Apple put the handset on sale. More importantly, the company has made an important ally in Verizon Wireless in the United States which voiced support for Samsung in the Apple case. Also…

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This is a Samsung-branded Windows 8 tablet Microsoft is giving away to BUILD attendees today. Wanna take bets on possible actions from Apple? Go past the break for unboxing clips. Image courtesy of MobileTechWorld

The latest in the ongoing patent saga involving Apple, Google, Motorola and Samsung includes an unexpected twist as Samsung goes after iPhone and iPad with a complaint filed before a Paris district court in July. The filing alleges infringement of Samsung’s three technology patents, reports AFP. The first hearing is expected in December of this year.

Meanwhile, patent expert Florian Müller notes on his blog FOSSPatents that Apple has filed motions to temporarily halt two Motorola lawsuits until Google completes its $12.5 billion acquisition, which shook the technology world last month. Put simply, Apple argues Motorola waived its rights to sue when it transferred patents to Google. Apple wrote:

To further its pending acquisition by Google, Motorola has surrendered critical rights in the patents-in-suit, such that Motorola no longer has prudential standing to pursue this action. According to the publicly-filed Merger Agreement, Motorola has ceded control of the most basic rights regarding the patents-in-suit

As you know, Google has transferred some of the Motorola patents to HTC, in addition to the ones acquired from Palm and Openwave Systems. HTC then used those patents to counter-sue Apple. Back to Apple vs. Samsung…

Financial Times today opined that Samsung needs to hit the reset button, predicting a licensing agreement of sorts provided Apple succeeds in blocking Galaxy products in the U.S. next month. Contrary to the reports, the publication thinks “Apple is restricted from taking its chip business to Samsung’s rivals in Taiwan because Samsung offers a complete package of components that other firms cannot match”. However, there are indications that Apple’s been lowering Samsung orders for some time and it’s widely believed the company is eager to take its silicon business to TSMC beginning next year.

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Anandtech has published some interesting findings based on their extensive Samsung Galaxy S II review. It’s the first smartphone to use the graphics processing unit based on the Mali-400 core from ARM Holdings, a fables chip maker from the UK. In fact, Samsung has engineered and manufactured its own system-on-a-chip solution for the handset.

They call it the Exynos 4210 and it combines a dual-core Cortex-A9 CPU core and the aforementioned Mali-400 GPU sporting four cores. The resulting performance, says Anandtech, is comparable to Texas Instruments OMAP 4 chip that incorporates Imagination Technologies’ PowerVR SGX540 GPU core. However, the quad-core 1.2GHz Exynos 4210 probably won’t hold a candle to iPhone 5, which will likely carry the same dual-core processor-GPU combo as the iPad 2’s 1GHz A5 chip:

Samsung implemented a 4-core version of the Mali-400 in the 4210 and its resulting performance is staggering as you can see above. Although it’s still not as fast as the PowerVR SGX 543MP2 found in the iPad 2, it’s anywhere from 1.7 – 4x faster than anything that’s shipping in a smartphone today.

Interestingly, and per the GL Benchmark seen in the above image, the Exynos 4210 is more than twice as fast compared to the Galaxy Tab 10.1 that runs Nvidia’s Tegra 2 chi. It’s also nearly four times speedier than iPhone 4’s 800 MHz A4 chip which has the PowerVT SGX535 GPU core. However, the 4210 falls short in the triangle throughput department.

The publication this this could be a big disadvantage over the iPad 2’s A5 processor that clocks nine times the graphics performance of the original iPad’s A4 chip. Triangle throughput is important in graphics-intensive games and will become key in “future games that may scale along that vector rather than simply increasing pixel shader complexity”. The video of Anandtech’s Samsung Galaxy S II review is right after the break.

Cross-posted on 9to5Mac.com.

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The latest in the ongoing legal dispute between Apple and its key components supplier, Samsung, comes via Bloomberg which reported this morning that Apple may be pushed into revealing iPad 2 sales numbers in England and America if the company is to increase chances of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 blockage in Australia:

Apple Inc. may have to reveal iPad and iPad 2 sales figures in the U.K. and U.S. to improve its chances of barring Samsung Electronics Co. from selling the Galaxy 10.1 tablet computer in Australia, a judge said. Apple’s claim that the Samsung tablet’s release in Australia will hurt iPad sales may carry little weight if it doesn’t provide the numbers, Federal Court Justice Annabelle Bennett said in Sydney Federal Court today. ‘Unless Apple puts on evidence showing the impact in the U.S. or U.K., I can’t draw any positive assumptions,’ Bennett said.

Apple sought an injunction on Samsung’s tablet in Australia until the patent spat is resolved. Apple is claiming that the obvious similarities between Samsung’s family of Galaxy smartphones and tablets are hurting their sales. Apple in prior court documents referred to Samsung as the “copyist”. Recently, Samsung in America asserted Apple ripped off the iPad design from the Stanley Kubrick 1969 film “2001: A Space Odyssey” to argue Apple’s patents should be invalidated under prior art. Judge Bennett would leave it up to Apple to determine whether or not it would be willing to provide court with sales figures. Whichever way you look at it, that’s an interesting twist in this litigation…

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Samsung on Monday promised to challenge Apple’s copyright infringement claims  in Australia. Specifically, news agencies report, the Korean consumer electronics maker said today it “will continue to actively defend its right to launch the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Australia”. Reuters reports that the company confirmed plans to delay the Galaxy Tab 10.1 launch in Australia until after  a court ruling in late September on its ongoing legal spat with Apple. Furthermore, Samsung will file a counterclaim with the Australian court in the coming days, seeking to invalidate Apple’s patents plus another one asserting a patent infringement on Apple’s part:

Today, Samsung informed the Federal Court of Australia it intends to file a cross claim against Apple Australia and Apple Inc regarding the invalidity of the patents previously asserted by Apple and also a cross claim against Apple regarding violation of patents held by Samsung by selling its iPhones and iPads

According to The Sydney Morning Herald, a hearing before the Australian court is due September 26 and 29 and Samsung agreed “not to sell or advertise” the tablet before September 30. The article also mentions the possibility of a high-profile testimony by both parties:

Apple and Samsung returned to court this afternoon, with Samsung agreeing not to sell or advertise the Galaxy Tab 10.1 before September 30. Apple will detail the specific patents involved in the case by this Friday and will provide a more comprehensive statement of facts by September 5. Samsung will provide points in answer by September 16, with the case going to a formal hearing on September 26 and 29. It was indicated today that top executives and inventors from both Apple and Samsung may appear in person or over video link to explain their patents.

It’s an interesting strategy on Samsung’s part…

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An.droid Life has exclusively leaked the first images of the new Galaxy Tab 7.7, which is expected to be announced at IFA next week. There aren’t many details on the new device, except the fact it uses a 30-pin connector to charge like the Galaxy Tab 1o.1. How can we tell the difference between this and the 10.1? The 7.7 is charging on the side/small panel, while the 10.1 is on the bottom. Also, the device is rumored to be packing a Super AMOLED screen. Only time will tell, so stick with us next week as we cover IFA. Yeah, we’ll be there!

Check out the other shot after the break:

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WSJ is reporting that a German court is now partially lifting the injunction of the Galaxy Tab 1o.1 placed over most of the European content last week. Apple’s lawyers say the Tab matches too closely to the iPad.

Since it is in dispute whether a German court has authority to prevent a company based in South Korea from selling goods beyond Germany with a preliminary injunction, the court decided to lift the order for countries outside Germany for the time being, a spokesman for the regional court in Düsseldorf, Germany, said Tuesday.

Does the German court’s decision come after seeing yesterday’s misleading evidence provided by Apple?

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In their case against Samsung in many European countries, Apple may have provided wrong evidence to the judge. As found by a Dutch IDG publication called Webwereld.nl, Apple has provided photoshopped images of a Galaxy Tab side-by-side an Apple iPad 2.

The image above was found on Page 28 of the German legal documents, showing the Galaxy Tab and iPad 2, and Apple saying that the “overall appearance” of two products is “practically identical.” But what’s funny is that’s not really what the Galaxy Tab looks like..

The image that Apple’s lawyers provided is cropped and the aspect ratio is distorted. Samsung’s official measurement for the aspect ratio is 1.46, but in the image above it is 1.36. This leaves the bottom actually 8% wider than it really is. This photoshop maneuver made the Galaxy Tab appear more like the iPad, Apple’s actual argument, than it really is. The iPad’s aspect ratio is 1.30. Now, it’s up in the air if Apple’s lawyers did this on purpose or not. (via Computerworld)

Check out an image with measurements after the break:

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyJIbTVEkp8]

Samsung is showing no signs of downplaying their tablet marketing amid the ugly patent spat with Apple. On Thursday the company aired a trio of new adverts that pitch its Galaxy Tab tablet as being “thinner”, “lighter” and “faster”, presumably compared to the market-leading iPad. The “Lighter” commercial brags about the Galaxy Tab weighing in “at a dainty 565 grams – as light and portable as they come“. iPad 2 weighs in at 601 grams.

The “Thinner” advert says their tablet “does what other tablets can only dream of”, underscoring “the sleek design you’ve come to expect of all Samsung Galaxy Tabs”. iPad 2’s profile measures 8.8mm versus 8.6mm for Samsung’s device. Interestingly, design is one of the treats Apple said Samsung “slavishly copied” from them.

The “Faster” commercial touts Galaxy Tab’s processors capable of “handling even the largest of video files with ease” and making “buffering a relic of the past”. Go past the fold to check out the remaining two Galaxy Tab commercials.

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Along with announcing the new Touchwiz software today at their media event, Samsung has announced a handful of new accessories for the Galaxy Tab 10.1. This is a long list, so bear with us..The $50 Multimedia Dock props the Tab in landscape mode for charging and HDMI-out. The $80 Ultra Productivity Tool features a full-sized keyboard with Android shortcuts and charging capabilities. The $150 Premium Protective case turns the Tab into a notebook with a Bluetooth keyboard and a hinge.

The $40 HDTV adapter offers 1080p out. The $40 SD/USB adapter for accessory input. The $60 Premium Book Cover allows you to prop up the device for web browsing or viewing movies. And finally, the $20 pen tip is a stylus with a silicon tip. (More coverage at Engadget)

Samsung today issued the following statement announcing its planned Galaxy Tab 10.1 launch event in Australia has been postponed, citing legal spat with Apple (via Gizmodo):

In light of the current legal proceedings by Apple Inc. against Samsung Electronics Australia, Samsung regrets to announce it will be postponing its media launch event, scheduled for 11th August 2011, for the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1.

The company will announce a new date for the Galaxy Tab 10.1 media launch event “as soon as practicable”. It’s another PR blow for Samsung Mobile which has thus far confused the press with inconsistent messages about the Australia situation…

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Update: Samsung issued a statement and a “workaround”

In a surprising turn of events to anyone following the ongoing Apple vs. Samsung spat, Bloomberg reported this morning that Samsung has agreed to temporarily cease sales of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet until their legal dispute with Apple is settled or they win court approval:

Apple Inc. escalated a patent dispute against Samsung Electronics Co. and won an agreement that the South Korean company won’t sell the newest version of its tablet computer in Australia until a lawsuit is resolved. Samsung, based in Suwon, South Korea, agreed to stop advertising the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Australia and not to sell the device until it wins court approval or the lawsuit is resolved.

It’s interesting because Samsung was advertising the Galaxy Tab 10.1 launch in the country since July 20. Still, carriers Vodafone and Optus both hinted at plans to offer the device to their Australian customers “soon”. Samsung’s decision came as a lawyer for Apple sought an injunction before Federal Court Justice Annabelle Bennett in Sydney, claiming Samsung’s tablet infringes ten Apple patents. With that in mind, Samsung’s clearly on the defensive here. Apple also wants wants to “stop Samsung from selling the tablet in other countries” and Samsung’s conceding to Apple may have set an important precedence for other countries. Of course…

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlLP3RXkmUQ]

On Monday, 9to5Google told you about some of the new features of the forthcoming software update for Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet. Following-up, Samsung yesterday released a twelve-minute promotional footage laying out the new stuff in greater detail. If you don’t have the time to sit through the entire clip, here’s what you need to know. First, you’ll notice subtle user interface tweaks that streamline the user experience and tone down a bit Honeycomb’s appearance with the larger and easier-to-grasp pictograms for the back, menu and home buttons. The calendar app has gotten a face-lift and the clock app also sports a cleaner look with crisper fonts.

The biggie is the resizeable widget capability, courtesy of Honeycomb 3.1). You can now resize clock, calendar, weather and picture widgets, which is nice. Samsung has built on top of stock Honeycomb 3.1 experience with custom apps – such as their own contact manager – plus a new version of TouchWiz with Quick Panel access to device settings, wireless and cellular networks, brightness and volume adjustments and so forth. You can also invoke a pull-up gesture from the bottom of the screen to display a list of the commonly used apps. You can also run some apps in multiple windows, usually the ones that don’t require the whole screen, which is a first for Android. Liliputing has the full breakdown of other interesting tidbits and nice-to-haves.

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The Galaxy Tab has made its official debut a month ago in New York, giving Samsung will a litmus test of the tablet’s potential in one of the world’s greatest shopping meccas. The well-received device is raved for its attractive design, thinness and a variety of hardware and software features that outdo Apple’s tablet. However, it also has some teething problems stemming from Honeycomb, which is understandable knowing it’s powered by Google’s inaugural tablet software.

If you’ve been eyeing Samsung’s device, rest assured you’ll soon be able to run the upcoming new software which brings a host of Honeycomb 3.1 features provided by Google, such as support for HDMI dongles and compatibility with SD Cards and a range of USB peripherals. On top of that, Samsung is providing their own custom-designed features. The Korean company wrote on the firmware update page that you’ll be able to purchase and rent premium movies as well as purchase next-day television shows using the Samsung Media Hub app, with content sharing across five Media Hub-enabled devices, including tablets and smartphones. The latest version of Swype keyboard input is also included, as is the new ability to remotely locate and wipe lost or stolen devices (they call it FindMyMobile). And now, the most important feature from Samsung.

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Following Delta Airlines and Alaska Airlines pilots testing in-flight use of iPads, Samsung today announced that American Airlines will feature the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 in their premium cabins. American Airlines will deploy six thousand Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 units onboard select flights beginning later this year which will

replace the airline’s current personal entertainment device in American’s premium cabins on transcontinental flights between New York’s JFK and Los Angeles, JFK and San Francisco, and Miami and Los Angeles served with 767-200 and 767-300 aircraft; international flights to and from Europe and South America served with 767-300 aircraft; and transcontinental flights departing from Boston to Los Angeles served with 757 aircraft.

Although American Airlines has a flight-checking app on the App Store and offers an in-flight video streaming service to its iPad-using customers, they have not rolled out Apple’s device on commercial flights yet.

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