A TECHNICAL

Quoting from the site techcrunch Posted by:Dr Ahmed.M.Shaban Basics sAMOLED display 720p still and video camera Replaceable straps MSRP: $299.99 Product info page Pros Great health features Nice interface Cons Battery life is around three days Camera is a bit spurious If I’ve noticed any sort of trend in the wearables space it’s that watches now look like watches. Runners will remember early Garmin GPS watches that looked like bulbous alien egg sacs on your wrists while even the  Omate  wrist computer still looks like an unlanced polyp. But almost everyone else –  Pebble , Basis, and the like – have created devices that are one step above the thinness and usability of an old Casio calculator watch. And that’s a compliment. Now, I dare say, Samsung has upped the game. The  Samsung Gear 2  is the company’s latest smart watch and it works with a number of Galaxy smartphones. It is a Jack-of-all-trades and features a bright AMOLED ...

Quoting from the site techcrunch Posted by:Dr Ahmed.M.Shaban Samsung Electronics  issued an official apology for the first time and promised today to compensate the families of semiconductor workers who suffered illnesses that may have been related to factory conditions. “Several workers at our production facilities suffered from leukemia and other incurable diseases, which also led to some deaths,” Samsung Electronics CEO Kwon Oh-hyun said in a press conference,  reported Yonhap News Agency . “We should have settled the issue earlier, and we are deeply heartbroken that we failed to do so and express our deep apology.” “We hope to resolve the issue with sincerity and earnestness. We will make due compensation to the victims and the families,” he added. It’s important to note that while Samsung Electronics said it will determine compensation using a third-party agency, the company did not acknowledge that working conditions in its factories directly caused illne...

Quoting from the site techcrunch Posted by:Dr Ahmed.M.Shaban Samsung is  prepping an Oculus Rift competitor of its own , according to a new report by Engadget. The Korean electronics giant is no stranger to stepping into emerging market categories, and virtual reality appears to be next on the docket, as Samsung is said to be currently building a VR headset with a planned announcement date of this year. The hardware is already with a group of early developer partners, Engadget notes, and it’s being powered by current generation Galaxy smartphones like the GS5 and Note 3. The version that Samsung is targeting for consumer launch will require more horsepower, however, and is said to be intended as an exclusive accessory for next-generation Galaxy smartphones and tablets. In terms of hardware, it supposedly packs an OLED screen that’s at least on par with the  DK2 version of Oculus Rift , and that’s about all that’s known for sure – the connection to devices is susp...

Quoting from the site techcrunch Posted by:Dr Ahmed.M.Shaban The new Samsung Gear 2 smartwatch closely resembles its predecessor, the Galaxy Gear, and in fact most users might not be aware from its UI that it’s actually running a different OS than the older gadget – Tizen, vs. Android. Samsung previously revealed that it would be bringing Tizen to the older Gear, too, and today it has begun that rollout (via  SamMobile ), offering old device owners the option to download and install Tizen on their devices. As mentioned, most users probably won’t notice any glaring outward signs that everything has changed; Samsung has managed to keep the icons and display screens pretty much the same through the transition. But Tizen should offer up battery improvements for the older hardware, and it also introduces a standalone music player to the watch, along with voice commands for the built-in camera and more. Originally, many saw Tizen as Samsung’s future bet on solo smartphone ...

Quoting from the site techcrunch Posted by:Dr Ahmed.M.Shaban Samsung is making its own portable Bluetooth speaker as part of its new Level line of audio accessories, and the product goes on sale today online at its official store for $199. The device is definitely compact, and it’s an all-metal product, which is unusual for a Samsung piece of kit, but can it hold its own with the plethora of existing products on the market, including those just acquired by Apple in the form of the Beats Pill? Basics MSRP: $199 Battery life of 15 hours Bluetooth, NFC Built-in speaker phone Product info page Pros Attractive, compact, high-quality design Speakerphone interrupts line-in Cons Sound is just good, not great Design The Samsung Level Box is a well-designed piece of hardware. It features an all-metal enclosure with a metal grille to protect the speaker components too. Even the buttons are metal, which bets the question: why so much plastic on the phone...

Quoting from the site techcrunch Posted by:Dr Ahmed.M.Shaban Samsung’s “Voice of the Body” event held earlier today had seemingly everything Samsung could squeeze out the door before Apple’s  Healthbook’s big WWDC reveal . A cool-looking watch that can collect multiple data points on your health? Check. Software for storing that data? Check. Promises that partners will do all kinds of innovative stuff with said hardware/software? Check. Beyond Samsung’s hype though, there’s nothing for consumers to actually get excited about. The SIMBand is a reference device, a proof of concept. Maybe they were fibbing a bit, and plan on bringing the device to market themselves at a later date — the company already has multiple smartwatch platforms competing with each other on the market, so they could just be waiting for one or two of them to fail. But wait! Wasn’t that live demo of the watch awesome? You could see several pieces of data instantly collected and presented in a pre...

Quoting from the site techcrunch Posted by:Dr Ahmed.M.Shaban Some more closure in the ongoing, foot-dragging world of patent infringement, at a very lucrative price:  Samsung  and  InterDigital  have signed a patent license agreement and dropped all litigation, active and pending, against each other. They have not released the terms of the deal but from what I understand the deal is worth just under $500 million (I’ll explain some of the math below). InterDigital, you may recall, filed a suit  in January 2013  against Samsung, along with Huawei, Nokia and ZTE in the U.S., at the International Trade Commission, asking for import bans on products that InterDigital claimed violated its patents. That suit came in the wake of a previous agreement with Samsung expiring the month before, in December 2012. Samsung, the world’s biggest handset maker in terms of volumes both of basic phones and smartphones, was the key fish for InterDigital to lan...