Samsung Slashes HDTV Prices For Black Friday Week

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Today Samsung announced that they will be offering special deals on select Samsung HDTVs starting Sunday November 22nd through November 30th.
For each TV listed below I tried to find an online offer. Amazon has a big Samsung HDTV selection, but most of the five HDTVs Samsung features are not listed. The featured Plasma models are not showing up in price comparison services either. This does not mean these are bad TVs, but definitely not the latest generation. The specifications of some of the Samsungs are good especially with the price associated with it.

The Samsung HDTV promotion is also not featuring any LED HDTVs. See the list of Samsung TVs on sale next week below.
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Posted on Fri, 20 Nov 2009 13:00:00 CST | by Luigi Lugmayr

Samsung's Diva Phones Are Really, Really Girly

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Two new Samsung phones have just been snapped by Samsung Hub. The first mobile is the S5150 Olivia, and the second is the S7070 smartphone. Both of these new devices are seriously girly. I can't tell if this is brilliant or foolish marketing.

The Olivia is a clamshell feature phone with a silver body that looks almost rhine-stoned. It has a 2.2" QVGA display, a 3 MP camera, and appears to be composed of about 60% estrogen. The S7070 is a standard touchscreen smartphone with a 5 MP camera, 3" WQVGA resistive touchscreen, Bluetooth, microSD slot, and FM radio. It's got a checkered, pearl-colored back and what looks like a gemstone for a 'home' key.

Posted on Fri, 20 Nov 2009 10:58:37 CST | by Robert Evans

AT&T and Samsung Unveil Go Netbook

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Samsung and AT&T have announced that the Samsung Go will be hitting the AT&T mobile broadband network. The Go is a netbook that will carry a subsidized price in exchange for a monthly mobile broadband contract.

The data plan with the machine will be offered in a 200MB plan for $35 per month and a 5GB monthly plan for $60. The little machine has a 4-cell battery good for four hours of run time per charge. Storage is to a 160GB HDD and the machine has 1GB of RAM. Read more

Posted on Tue, 17 Nov 2009 09:00:00 CST | by Shane McGlaun

Samsung Galaxy Spica I5700 Android Smartphone Now Official

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Samsung officially introduced its new Galaxy Spica I5700 smartphone. The handset offers powerful Android features with lots of connectivity and access to Google mobile services. The Spica can access Facebook and MySpace.

The Spica has an 800MHz processor and operates on the HSDPA 3.6Mbps networks and on EDGE/GPRS networks. The handset runs Android 1.5 and has a 3.2-inch HVGA 320 x 480 screen and a 3MP camera. Read more

Posted on Mon, 16 Nov 2009 09:00:00 CST | by Shane McGlaun

Samsung Behold II OLED Android Phone Launches Nov. 18th on T-Mobile

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Samsung and T-Mobile unveiled the Behold II OLED Android phone in early October. Today T-Mobile announced that the Samsung Behold II will be available on November 18th in U.S. T-Mobile retail stores.

Available exclusively from T-Mobile USA, the Behold II SGH-t939 is the first phone from T-Mobile to feature a 3.2-inch AMOLED screen for crisper colors and wider viewing angles, which is paired with a 5MP camera with autofocus, zoom, flash, five shooting modes and video capabilities. The Behold II features Samsung's 3D cube menu providing access to six multimedia features: music, photos, videos, the Web, YouTube and Amazon MP3 for music downloads.
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Posted on Fri, 13 Nov 2009 02:30:45 CST | by Luigi Lugmayr

Samsung Not Dropping Symbian After All?

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Yesterday we reported on news that Samsung was dropping Symbian in order to focus more development time on their new bada operating system. Despite the fact that this information came from Samsung senior VP Don Joo, it does not appear to have been accurate. Mobile Burn reports that they contacted Samsung's Seoul headquarters, who denied this comment.

Samsung HQ stated that the original Digitimes rumor was "not in line with Samsung's smartphone strategy". They went onto reassert their membership in the Symbian foundation, and that they plan to continue their 'multi-OS' strategy. I think this will probably turn out to be a good idea. I don't have particularly high hopes for bada.

Posted on Thu, 12 Nov 2009 11:49:20 CST | by Robert Evans

No More Symbian Phones for Samsung

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Sorry Nokia, Samsung is going to be too busy with their new baby bada to deal with Symbian anymore. Samsung Hub reports that Samsung senior VP, Don Joo Lee, has confirmed that Samsung will no longer develop handsets for the Symbian platform. To be fair, Sammy has never exactly given Symbian handsets a huge priority.

Posted on Wed, 11 Nov 2009 12:02:02 CST | by Robert Evans

Samsung To Release New Smartphone OS 'Bada'

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Samsung's mobile division has been going through some tough times lately. Profits are down, and they're watching companies like Apple devour their market share. It's clear that something needs to be done if Samsung is going to survive as a major handset player. They got into the smartphone game too late, and they've yet to put out a release that's grabbed consumer interest in the same way as the iPhone or Droid.

In order to try and gobble up some hype for themselves, Samsung's decided to take a page out of Google's book. They're creating their own open mobile operating system. (Fierce Wireless) This new platform will be called "bada", which means ocean in Korean. Bada is being built to make it simple for developers to create apps for. While the OS will only work on Samsung phones, it will be heavily customizable for carriers.

Posted on Wed, 11 Nov 2009 11:51:05 CST | by Robert Evans

Apple Tops Handset Profits, Samsung & Nokia Struggle To Keep Up

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Despite being in the smartphone business for just two years, Apple is already kicking the pants off of their biggest rivals. Reuters reports today that Apple is now officially the top profit generator in the entire mobile device industry. Analysts estimate Apple's total operating profit at around $1.6 billion in the third quarter. Nokia, the second place manufacturer, only made $1.1 billion over the same period.

It's not hard to see why. The iPhone sells in high volume, has a very solid profit margin for Apple, and generates extremely high loyalty among customers. People who buy an iPhone tend to replace it with another iPhone. There are comparatively few cases of iPhone users dropping their smartphone for another manufacturer's gadget. It does happen, but users of other platforms jumping ship to go Apple is much more common.

Posted on Wed, 11 Nov 2009 11:07:06 CST | by Robert Evans

Samsung Mythic & Flight Smartphones Launch

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Smartphones, smartphones everywhere. Today Samsung announced the availability of two new TouchWiz packin' smartphones. The Mythic has a 3.3" touchscreen, 3.2 MP camera, AT&T Navigator and stereo Bluetooth capabilities. The Flight has a sliding QWERTY keyboard, touchscreen, 2 MP camera, AT&T Navigator and stereo Bluetooth.

In terms of price, the Mythic costs a baffling $249.99 before a $50 mail-in rebate (if you get a 2 year contract). Warning; this rebate takes the form of a "$50 AT&T Promotional Card". To be entirely honest, you'll get a lot more bang for your buck if you just spend an equal amount of cash on an iPhone.

Posted on Thu, 5 Nov 2009 08:12:03 CST | by Robert Evans

Samsung Makes Crazy-Thin 32 GB Flash Memory

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Flash memory just got a little flashier. As Electronista reports Samsung has just revealed yet another advance in NAND flash memory. Their new chip fits 32 GB onto a single .02” thick chip. According to the Korean-based company, this new advance was managed by using a new “bare” package that is half as thick, but apparently as sturdy, as the old one.

Posted on Wed, 4 Nov 2009 08:30:46 CST | by Robert Evans

Sprint Launches Samsung Moment

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The Droid launch has been so big and heavily publicized that it's easy to forget there are other Android smartphones out there. Take the Samsung Moment (via Engadget Mobile), It launched yesterday on Sprint's network to very little fanfare. While the Moment may not be the powerhouse that the Droid is, it still has a few cool features you might be interested in.

For one thing, the Moment has a 3.2” AMOLED screen. I'm always in favor of more OLEDs and more Android smartphones, so both in one is just an extra slice of awesome. The Moment also has a solid 256 MB of RAM and an 800 MHz processor, along with a sliding QWERTY keyboard. It costs $179.99 after a $100 mail in rebate.

Posted on Mon, 2 Nov 2009 10:44:04 CST | by Robert Evans

Samsung UN55B7100 LED HDTV Review

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The 55-inch Samsung is the top LED TV in the Samsung 7 series. Compared to the UN55B7000 the UN55B7100 features 3,000,000:1 Mega Contrast. Besides that I could not find a difference besides the difference in the frame color.
Of course the Samsung UN55B7100 (MSRP $3,599.99) is not as advanced as the current ultimate LED HDTV from Samsung. The Samsung UN55B8500 (MSRP $4,499.99) has a 7,000,000:1 Mega Contrast and 240Hz instead of 120Hz.
To see if the Samsung UN55B7100 is still a great choice for an LED TV consult this review just posted by HardwareCanucks.
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Posted on Mon, 2 Nov 2009 03:00:00 CST | by Luigi Lugmayr

Microsoft And Samsung Partner On Green Computers

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Samsung and Microsoft announced plans to collaborate on efficient energy usage in computers.
Microsoft and Samsung aim to encourage PC users to purchase more environmentally friendly PC systems.
Samsung expects substantial energy savings when Microsoft's Windows 7 operating system and Samsung's 40nm class DDR3 DRAM are used together.
At the beginning of September, Samsung initiated its own global marketing campaign centered around 'Less Energy, More Speed', initially focused on its energy-efficient, 40nm-class, 2Gb DDR3 DRAM. Read more

Posted on Mon, 2 Nov 2009 01:00:00 CST | by Luigi Lugmayr

Samsung's Profit Tripled, Sony Still Makes Losses

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Sony once again reported a loss for the last quarter. The loss was less ($287.5m) than the predictions of analysts though. The issues for Sony are still the high yen, bad economy, but also weak demand for Sony electronics.
In contrast Korean Samsung soars, tripling its net income to 3.72 trillion won for the quarter compared to last year.
Samsung is doing very well in chips and mobile phones, but also its LCD panel and TV business is thriving. Samsung also mentions that their bottom line was improved by increased sales of premium LED and 240Hz TV panels. Read more

Posted on Fri, 30 Oct 2009 04:35:40 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Samsung Says OLED To Compete With LCD In 40 to 50-inch TV Segment in 4-5 Years

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OLED TVs are still far from being widely available. Samsung's President Kim predicts though that OLED TVs will be able to compete with LCD technology in 40 and 50-inch sizes in 4-5 years.

Today OLED only thrives in small screen devices like mobile phones. Read more

Posted on Thu, 29 Oct 2009 16:00:00 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Samsung UN55B8500 LED HDTV Is The New Ultimate LED TV

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In May we highlighted the top of the line Samsung LED HDTV. Back then the Samsung UN55B8000 was the ultimate LED TV from Samsung. Now a new model in the Samsung 8 Series LED TVs is the top dog: The Samsung UN55B8500.
The Samsung 55-inch UN55B8500 (46-inch UN46B8500 is also available) offers a higher Dynamic contrast ratio of 7,000,000:1 compared to the 5,000,000:1 the UN55B8000 series offers.
Read more

Posted on Thu, 29 Oct 2009 13:00:00 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Samsung UN55B8000 LED HDTV Review

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We reported about the top of the line Samsung LED HDTV UN55B8000 already a couple of times. Now there is also the new Samsung UN55B8500 which is actually the new Ultimate LED TV, featuring a higher contrast ratio of 7,000,000:1.
Last week we looked at the huge discounts that are already offered on the Samsung UN55B8000 LED HDTV. Tweaknews has tested the 55-inch Samsung LED HDTV UN55B8000 and published this in-depth review.

Quote from the review: "After over a month and a half of daily use, the Samsung UN55B8000 can be summed up as a mixed bag of great and not so great characteristics. The first thing to mention and the distinguishing feature is the 1.2 inch depth profile. There is no consumer grade TV this side of perhaps an OLED display that at the time of this review is as thin as this model. Read more

Posted on Thu, 29 Oct 2009 11:04:42 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Samsung H1 And M1 With Vodafone 360 Launch This Week

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We first reported about the new Samsung H1 and Samsung M1 back in September. Back then it was not clear that these Linux phones (LiMo) would already be launching this fall.
The new Samsung H1 and Samsung M1 phones will come with the new Vodafone 360 service, which includes a universal contact list that integrates information from address books within various services, and a 3D zoom feature that enables users to browse through their latest interaction in chronological order. Read more

Posted on Thu, 29 Oct 2009 07:29:10 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Samsung PN50B550 Plasma Full HDTV Review

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The 50-inch Samsung PN50B550 Plasma Full HDTV was introduced this year and it is definitely going to be a hot TV to watch for as a Black Friday deal. Currently the Samsung PN50B550 is already on sale on Amazon.com for close to $1,000. There is a chance that you'll find this 50-inch Samsung Plasma HDTV for under $1,000 during the Black Friday and Thanksgiving sales.

Bcchardware has just published this review of the Samsung PN50B550.
Read more

Posted on Thu, 29 Oct 2009 01:42:38 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Samsung Launches New Line of HDTV monitors

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Samsung has unveiled its new line of HD monitors that include the 933HD+ and the 2333HD LCD monitors. The screens sell for $249.99 and $329.99 respectively. The 933HS is a 19-inch LCD and the 2333HD is a 23-inch unit.

Both screens have the features of TV sets with integrated digital tuners, connectivity for cable and satellite boxes and two HDMI connections depending on the model. Both screens have similar specs including 10000:1 contrast ratio and 16:9 widescreen formats. Response time for both screens is 5ms. Read more

Posted on Wed, 28 Oct 2009 07:00:00 CDT | by Shane McGlaun