‘Disappointed’ Samsung Fights Apple Today In Dutch Court

Samsung and Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) were set to square off in a court in the Netherlands on Wednesday, after a German court on Tuesday prevented the former from selling its newest Galaxy Tab everywhere else in Europe.

Samsung has given us a formal response to the German ruling. Unsurprisingly, it will be appealing the injunction decision:

The Dusseldorf court had slapped an injunction on Samsung while it works through the details of Apple’s iPad copycat lawsuit against the Korean consumer electronics giant.

“Samsung is disappointed with the court’s decision and we intend to act immediately to defend our intellectual property rights through the ongoing legal proceedings in Germany and will continue to actively defend these rights throughout the world.

“We will take all necessary measures to ensure Samsung’s innovative mobile communications devices are available to customers in Europe and around the world.

“This decision by the court in Germany in no way influences other legal proceedings filed with the courts in Europe and elsewhere.”

For now, the 10.1-inch Galaxy Tab continues to be sold in The Netherlands, but that could change fast. A decision could be published within a matter of days, or a couple of weeks at the most, notes the Dutch blog tweakers.net.

As we noted yesterday, this decision in Europe concerns design intellectual property, rather than patents. That will likely mean no kind of pricey licensing arrangement between the two companies can be reached, but even so, if things continue this way for Samsung it could end up costing the company greatly.

Ironically for Samsung, Europe is one region where it may have had a fighting chance for some good tablet marketshare, according to the analysts at Forrester. Yesterday, the company released a report that indicated that Apple’s iPad tablet may only end up with a 70 percent market share in Europe this year, compared to 80 percent in its home market of the U.S..

Would you trust Google with your wallet?

Google has thrown in with near field communication (NFC) mobile payments in a big way, as evidenced by its Android manufacturer partnerships and the test run of the Google Wallet app. But while Google may be buying into NFC in a big way, consumers may not be loving the idea of the Goog having that much control over their virtual wallets.

This idea is suggested by a study conducted into mobile shopping habits by Ogilvy & Mather, which was reported in turn by Ad Age.

The research firm asked 500 online survey takers “Who do you trust with mobile payments?” and gave a list of eleven providers that could be chosen without limit. The traditional credit card companies (Visa, MasterCard, American Express, even PayPal) dominated the list, with Google all the way down at number eight.

Just under twenty percent of respondents said that Google had their trust in this arena. For comparison, Visa topped the list with forty percent or so, while Facebook took the bottom with twelve percent. Apple was the leading consumer technology company on the chart, beating Google with a 23% trust rating. And above Apple was the United States Postal Service, at 25%.

It really strikes me as odd that not a single company listed scored above that forty percent mark. Is there really no single company that customers trust with their mobile device transactions?

An obvious solution is for Google to partner up with more trusted companies and reap the combined boost in reputation. And in fact, Google Wallet is already provided in partnership with both Citibank and MasterCard, even during the current limited trial.

Meanwhile, Visa is throwing its weight around to bolster the overall NFC infrastructure here in the United States, which can only help perception of mobile payment providers across the board.

But at the end of the day, there are really only two questions to ask. First, do you trust Google with your mobile payments? And second, do you trust mobile payments at all?

Dell's Latitude XT3 updates the laptop-tablet combo, $1957 and up

Before the iPad, there were Windows-based tablet PCs that are essentially laptops with displays on twist-able hinges that recognize touch controls by styli. They used to be coveted Back-to-School computers for students in math and engineering or any other discipline with lots of diagrams and formulas to jot down, but they have basically disappeared from retail store shelves with the proliferation of iOS and Android tablets. Dell apparently still sees an enterprise market for tablet PCs, as the company just refreshed its Latitude XT3 with a larger 13.3″ touchscreen display, a bi-directional hinge, and Intel’s ‘Sandy Bridge’ Core i-processors.

Rather than create a tablet with a laptop dock that is sold separately like the Asus Transformer, Dell’s XT3 is a full-sized laptop with out-of-box tablet functionality. But the convenience of having two machines in one is quite costly at $1957 for the base model, which sports an Intel Core i3 (2310M at 2.1 GHz) processor. A 16 GB, Wi-Fi only Transformer and dock is only $550, while a 13.3″ Dell Vostro 3350 with a similar CPU starts at just $519. So why would you pay significantly more for a laptop-tablet in a beefier form factor, than a tablet that can transform into a laptop with accessories?

One look at the specs of the XT3 and it’s clear the machine is first and foremost a laptop, which makes it unfair to compare to a tablet, performance-wise: (this is what $1957 will get you)

• CPU: Intel Core i3 (2310M)
• OS: Windows 7 Professional, 64-bit
• Display: 13.3″ HD (1366×768) with Camera and Microphone; touchscreen recognizes 4-finger controls, and stylus/trackstick
• RAM: 2.0GB, DDR3-1333MHz SDRAM, 2 DIMMS
• Keyboard: Internal English Dual Pointing Keyboard with touchpad
• Enterprise features: No Out-of-Band Systems Management; Remote Data Delete and Free Fall Sensor
• Primary Hard Drive: 250GB 5400rpm Hard Drive (solid state drive also available, as is a second HDD)
• Optical Drive: External 8X DVD with Cyberlink Power DVD, no media
• Battery: 6 cell
• Connectivity: Intel Centrino® Advanced-N 6205 802.11a/b/g/n Half Mini Card
• Ports: Network connector (RJ-45); USB 2.0 (3) - 1 USB/eSATA combo, Stereo headphone/Microphone combo jack, IEEE 1394, Memory card reader, 34 mm ExpressCard, Docking Connector, VGA, HDMI, 1 Full and 2 Half Mini Card Slots, SmartCard Reader and optional Fingerprint Reader
• Dimensions & Weight:
  Width: 12.7″ / 323.0mm
  Height: 1.2″ / 30.9mm
  Depth: 8.7″ / 221.7mm
  Target Starting weight: 4.46lbs / 2.02kg (with 6-cell battery)

Dell is betting that its enterprise security features and greater computing power in the XT3 will appeal to healthcare professionals, animators and professionals who work outdoors (for example, architects checking on a construction site). For business users who require a lot of precision and computing power in their work, a device that can render large graphic files like an X-ray or AutoCAD could make the XT3 worth the money. For the average consumer watching YouTube clips on a mobile device, a Transformer would be just fine. For those professionals who would benefit from this tablet pc design though, does this setup work for you?

Source : Dell

250GB Android tablet coming - Do you interested?

Here's something you can't get with an iPad: 250GB of internal storage. Archos' upcoming Android "Honeycomb" 3.2 tablet will pack a 250GB hard disk drive that's been tweaked to perform more like a flash drive.

Archos G9 combines a 250GB hard disk drive with a 4GB flash drive.

(Credit: Archos)

The Archos G9 will sport a 250GB Seagate Momentus Thin 2.5-inch hard drive--a mere 7 millimeters thick. Though not as compact as a 1.8-inch HDD (like Apple once used in its MacBook Air and iPod), it's not as expensive either.

And Archos has tweaked the Seagate drive a bit to allow it to perform more like the flash drives found in practically all tablets today. 4GB of flash storage sits on top of the HDD, according to Craig TerBlanche, director of marketing for Archos in North America. Often-used data is stored in the flash component, allowing faster access than a standard 2.5-inch HDD, TerBlanche said.

All of this results in bigger bang for the buck. "You get 250GB for the same cost as a 32GB flash drive," he said.

Another marquee feature is the 1.5GHz Texas Instruments OMAP 4460 dual-core processor. This is the same processor that Google has approved for upcoming Android Ice Cream Sandwich devices. That means consumers can expect to see a new wave of tablets and smartphones built around the TI 4460. But Archos will likely be one of the first, as those devices aren't expected until late in the year.

The 8-inch 250GB Archos G9 will be $369.99 and the 10-inch 250GB model, $469.99. Both are due in September

Source : cnet

A 'stone-like' optical disc that lasts for millennia

Start-up Millenniata and Hitachi-LG have teamed up to create a new optical disc along with a read/write player that will store any data — movies, photos, and music — forever. The disc is compatible with any current DVD or Blu-ray player.

Millenniata calls the product the M-Disc, and claims that it “cannot be overwritten, erased, or corrupted by natural processes.” In fact, if you were so inclined, you can dip it in liquid nitrogen and then boiling water without harming it (See video).

The M-Disc platters resemble typical DVDs and Blu-ray discs in that they are made up of multiple layers of material sans a reflective or die layer. During the recording process, a laser “etches” permanent pits onto a proprietary rock-like data layer using higher temperatures and as much as five times more energy than ordinary optical discs.

Credit: Millenniata, Inc.

A U.S. Department of Defense study found the resiliency of the product to be greater as compared to other leading optical disc competitors.

The platters can be read on any machine that can read a DVD, however, Millenniata’s machine is required to write it.  Currently, the discs can store about the same amount of data as a DVD (4.7GB) but only write at 4x or roughly half the speed of today’s DVD players. Plans to ramp up recording speed are underway.

Millenniata will target consumers first when it launches the M-Disc read-write player in early October. After that, the company plans to make a foothold in the long-term data archive market as an alternative to cloud and other storage and backup technologies.