Galaxy SIII gets new 30 second commercial, isn't taking pot shots at Apple

Samsung developed a well-earned reputation over the course of the last year for producing ads that tend to criticize Apple fans rather than emphasize how their products will improve your life. Samsung was hardly alone in this; it seemed like the beginning of the year was a time when everyone wanted to take potshots at competitors – for example Microsoft and Nokia spearheaded the Smoked by Windows campaign during the same timeframe.

While Samsung’s artistic barista ads were amusing (at least to non-Apple fans), they also failed to demonstrate why their products were better. So far Samsung has chosen to eschew their inner pitbull for their Galaxy SIII commercials, opting instead to carry on the “Designed for Humans” they began at their product launch. The new 30 second spot shows people using their Galaxy SIII to celebrate a wedding, propose to a girlfriend, and a parent and daughter falling asleep while reading a "book" on the handset.

This kinder and gentler take on self-promotion is one we think is more sustainable in the long run – everyone likes a good chuckle at a competitors expense once in a while, but sooner or later you have to make the case that your product will make consumers’ lives better. Check out the ad below to to decide if they have succeeded:

souce: Droid-Life

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Apple to make Baidu the default search engine on Chinese iPhones

As Apple and Google continue to remove the “fr” from the word “frenemies”, Apple has taken another step to help themselves at the expense of their main former ally and biggest competitor; according to Bloomberg, Apple is set to announce that they will drop Google as the main default search engine in China, switching to the more popular home-grown Baidu.

Baidu is already the most popular web search engine in China, having gained market share hand over fist after Google decided to abandon the Chinese mainland and move its search servers to Hong Kong. Apple most likely sees this as a way to try and increase their popularity in the Chinese mobile phone market, where they have lagged far behind the many forms of Android (both forked and official). The fact that it will not provide Google with a way to grow its market share of Chinese mobile search is in all probability just a bonus.

Despite having smaller market share in China than elsewhere, the sheer size of the Chinese user base lead to the territory growing to become Apple’s second largest market last quarter, behind only the United States; as such Apple and Google undoubtedly view China as an extremely important battle field in the ongoing war over mobile market share.

According to Bloomberg’s sources the announcement could come as soon as next week, perhaps during WWDC. As an interesting quirk of history, way back in 2010 none other than Motorola chose to replace Google with Baidu as its default search engine on its Android smartphones; presumably they reversed course at some point!

As you might expect, no one at Apple, Baidu, or Google wished to comment on the story.

source: Bloomberg

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Two versions of the Apple iPhone being tested says report, both with 3.999 inch screen

According to 9to5Mac, at Apple HQ, testing is taking place on a couple of prototype handsets, one of which will probably become the next Apple iPhone 5. The prototypes are disguised by being put in thick black shells which are designed to hide the true identity of the phone inside. Two of the models being tested have larger screens than the current 3.5 inches that used to be considered generously sized when the first Apple iPhone was launched in 2007. Since then, we have seen the envelope widen from the 4.3 inches that seemed so large on the HTC HD2 to the 5.3 inches on the Samsung GALAXY Note. The two Apple iPhone prototypes with the larger screen are internally called the iPhone 5,1 and the iPhone 5,2. Both the iPhone 5,1 and the iPhone 5,2 are in the PreEVT stage of testing and go by the code names N41AP  and N42AP respectively. The pair both sport a 3.999 inch screen, measured diagonally. Besides increasing the size of the display, Apple is also adding pixels to the screen as the new models have a resolution of 640 x 1136. That's an extra 176 pixels added down. The width of the screen will remain 1.9632 but will now be 3.484 inches tall and the aspect ratio will be close to 16:9.

There is also speculation that Apple will be working to maximize the extra real estate on iOS 6 by adding a fifth row of icons (not including the stationary icons, of course) and this is where the extra pixels come in to keep the screen a Retina display. Both of these models are said to have a home button and a smaller dock connector. The new dock connector is said to be a smaller version of the current 30-pin one and is said to be in between a micro USB connector and a mini one.

Considering that the last two Apple iPhone models ended up on the floor of a bar, we would imagine that the Cupertino based firm has tightened up security in terms of who can test a unit off-campus and who gets to take a prototype home.

source: 9to5Mac via Forbes

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Apple, Samsung CEO-level talks fail to produce any agreements

When Judge Lucy Koh of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California ordered that Samsung and Apple sit down to negotiate a settlement of their patent war, she might have held some hope that getting the CEO's of both firms together would result in some give and take. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case. An unnamed Samsung executive told the Korea Times that during the talks, both sides held firm to their arguments. Apple says that Korean based Samsung copied its designs while Samsung feels that Apple should license its wireless patents. On both Monday and Tuesday, both Apple CEO Tim Cook and Samsung CEO  sat down along with U.S. Magistrate Judge Joseph C. Spero.  The two sides met on Monday and Tuesday and Judge Spero filed the minutes of the meetings with the court. Monday's filing had noted the meeting for Tuesday but yesterday's minutes made no mention of further talks.

What happens now? It's back to court. On June 7th, the court will hear Apple's request for a preliminary injunction against the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1. If both sides can't reach an agreement on the patent issues, a trial will start June 27th . Ironically, Apple CEO Cook has said that he hates litigation. Samsung's mobile chief J.K. Shin, who accompanied Gee-Sung to the talks, had told reporters Sunday at Gimpo Inmternational Airoport that Apple's claims were "preposterous". And while Samsung had previously said that it was not interested in cross-licensing deals with Apple, Shin did bring it up as one solution to the legal mess that both companies find themselves in.

Frankly, we would like to see both Samsung and Apple go in front of Judge Judy. That would probably solve the whole patent issue in 15 minutes.

source: KoreaTimes, via FOSSPatents

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