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Samsung’s road to global domination — South Korea’s Samsung is trampling rivals and gunning for Apple. Can its hot streak last? — FORTUNE — To understand how Samsung — yes, Samsung — became America’s No. 1 mobile phonemaker and thorn in Apple’s side, it’s helpful to rewind to last fall.
via Techmeme
South Korea’s LG Display Co said yesterday it had asked a Seoul court to ban the domestic sale of Samsung Electronics Co’s Galaxy Note 10.1 tablet computer, citing alleged patent infringements.
In the injunction filed on Wednesday, LG Display accused Samsung of infringing three of its patents on LCD panels used in the Galaxy Note.
“Through this action, LG Display seeks to completely stop the sale, manufacture and importation of the infringing Samsung product,” the firm said in a press release.
The company also said it would request compensation amounting to 1 billion won (US$933,000) per day in the event of continued non-compliance.
The two companies have been in a patent row since September when LG Display — one of the world’s top flat-screen TV makers — filed suits against Samsung Electronics and Samsung Display for allegedly infringing patents on seven organic light-emitting diode (OLED)-related technologies.
LG Display said that five of Samsung’s products, including its global hit Galaxy S smartphones and Galaxy Tab tablet computer, infringed its patents.
Later the same month, Samsung filed a court complaint accusing LG of luring away senior Samsung OLED researchers even though they had signed contracts preventing them working for a rival.
Samsung is no stranger to patent battles. The company and its rival Apple Inc have filed lawsuits against each other in around a dozen countries for alleged patent violations over competing products, in particular the iPhone and Galaxy S smartphones.
Earlier this month, a US judge denied Apple’s request to ban a set of Samsung smartphones from the US market after a jury found the South Korean electronics giant guilty of patent infringement.
Samsung was ordered by a US jury in August to pay Apple US$1.05 billion in damages for illegally copying iPhone and iPad features for its flagship Galaxy S smartphones.
Samsung has appealed the ruling. Since then, two separate rulings by courts in Japan and the Netherlands have dismissed Apple’s claims of patent infringement.
The Next Big Thing is Already Here — Samsung Galaxy S III
via YouTube.
Apple has once again called Samsung into court. This time it’s about the Galaxy Nexus and four patents that Apple says it infringes. The patents in question are:
U.S. Patent No. 5,946,647: a patent for data being used as a hyperlink
U.S. Patent No. 8,086,604: a unified search patent
U.S. Patent No. 8,046,721: a slide-to-unlock patent
U.S. Patent No. 8,074,172: a word completion patent
Apple is requesting that the Samsung Galaxy Nexus be blocked from sale in the United States because it violates these patents. Should the court find in favor of Apple, a ban against the Galaxy Nexus would be put in effect until the final court decision.
Could it happen? Certainly. But if it does, it won’t go into effect any time soon, it would only affect stores inside the U.S. selling these products, and no jack-booted thugs from Cupertino will come pry your Nexus from your hands. We can’t be sure how the courts will act, but all of these are pretty shaky patents, and once again Apple is not going after Google directly — even though the Galaxy Nexus has a pure vanilla version of Android. The only certainty here is that the patent system is broken and only serves the company willing to spend the most in the courts.
It’s time for Google to step in and put a stop to this bullshit. The first patent in question is the same one that was upheld against HTC in a move that shocked the tech community at large, essentially giving Apple the rights to the hyperlink — something invented over 20 years ago by numerous companies that aren’t Apple.
The other three are just as laughable, or would be if not for the fact that Apple was allowed to secure the patents at all. Every single one of them has existed as prior art long before Apple became relevant, yet a patent was granted each and every time. This is the core of the problem. You can’t blame Apple for trying, it’s cheaper to litigate away your competition than it is to out-innovate them. And make no mistake — that’s exactly what’s going on here. Apple wants Android to go away, and a look at any chart that shows market share will tell you why. It’s a shitty way to get ahead, but it’s too easy not to try. It’s going to take a tech giant to change the way this all works, and we know nobody can count on Apple or Microsoft to do it, because this is their system, created the way they like it, and making them rich. If Apple is afraid to go after Google, Google needs to go after Apple instead of sitting on their laurels waiting to ride in and save the day at the last minute.
via Android Central.
The latest installment of Apple vs. Samsung saga sees Cupertino taking offense with the lockscreen on the Galaxy Nexus. The complaint, filed once again in Germany, is the first directed towards the Android 4.0 flagship device. The claim made is that the Galaxy Nexus infringes upon Apple’s own slide-to-unlock utility model.
FOSS Patent’s blogger Florian Mueller describes this utility model as a limited fast-track patent that companies are allowed to file for alongside traditional patents. Apple has done just this with slide-to-unlock in Germany. Samsung’s defense points to a device from Sweden known as the Neonode, which managed to persuade a court in the Netherlands in 2011 to question the validity of the Apple’s slide-to-unlock filing.
The court is expected to reveal its decision on Mar. 16. What’s clear already, though, is that we’re sure to see more of these patent lawsuits as the year continues.
via Android Central.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4VHzNEWIqA&feature=colike
Unlocking the bootloader and rooting your Galaxy Nexus is really only half the battle. There may come a time when you need need to lock everything back up, including that bootloader. Thanks to the Android team, we have the factory images that can not only fix a bootlooping or soft-bricked device, but make it look like you just pulled it out of the box.
Instructions:
1. Download the Android 4.0.2 factory images to your PC. [Download]
2. Unzip the file and its contents into your SDK/Tools folder (wherever your adb.exe and fastboot.exe files are).
*Make sure they are not in their own folder, but have all been extracted to Tools.
3. From within your Tools folder, open a command prompt (SHIFT + right click – “open command prompt here”):
4. Type the following commands, allowing each to finish before moving onto the next:
adb reboot bootloader
fastboot flash bootloader bootloader-toro-primekk15.img
fastboot reboot-bootloader
fastboot flash radio radio-toro-i515.ek02.img
fastboot reboot-bootloader
fastboot flash radio-cdma radio-cdma-toro-i515.ek05.img
fastboot reboot-bootloader
fastboot -w update image-mysid-icl53f.zip
fastboot reboot-bootloader
fastboot oem lock
5. Reboot your phone by highlighting “Start” and pressing the lock switch.
6. It really is as simple as that. Your phone is now back to a 100% stock, unrooted and locked state.
via Droid Life.
Time to root your Galaxy Nexus now that @Koush has released official Clockworkmod Recovery for the LTE version. We have gone ahead and posted the manual instructions for you, because well, if you have a Nexus you should probably know most of these standard adb and fastboot commands. It’s not hard by any means, especially knowing that you all have the SDK set up after unlocking your bootloader. Should take all of 5 minutes, maybe less.
Ready?
Rooting and flashing a custom recovery:
*Unlock your bootloader first. [Instructions]
1. Download ClockworkMod Recovery for the G-Nex. [Download]
2. Place that file in your SDK/Tools folder (same place as your adb.exe).
3. Download the superuser file aka the root file. [Download]
4. Place that file in your SDK/Tools folder.
5. Open a command prompt from within your Tools folder and type the following:
adb push su.zip /sdcard/
6. Then reboot into the bootloader:
adb reboot bootloader
7. When the boot menu loads, flash the new recovery image:
fastboot flash recovery recovery-clockwork-5.5.0.4-toro.img
8. When that finishes, use the volume keys to highlight “Recovery mode,” press power to select it.
9. From recovery, scroll to “Install zip from sdcard.”
10. Then “choose zip from sdcard.”
11. Choose the “su.zip” file and install it.
12. When that finishes, back out of recovery and reboot the system.
13. Enjoy being rooted with a temporary recovery. (Permanent instructions below)
Afterwards, you will want to install ROM Manager from the market and have it re-flash recovery for you.
Make your first backup:
1. Now that you are rooted and have a custom recovery, it’s time to make your first clean backup.
2. In ROM Manager, flash Clockwork recovery again (it’s the first option up top).
3. Then tap the option to reboot into recovery just below that.
4. Once in recovery, scroll down to “backup and restore.”
5. Choose “backup” and let your phone create a backup.
6. When finished, back out of recovery and reboot the system.
If you want permanent Clockwork Recovery (via XDA):
1. Install Root Explorer from the market and delete /system/reboot-from-recovery.p – *Mount as R/W first*
2. Reboot into Fastboot Mode: Power off your device and (Power + Volume Up and Down)
3. Flash CWM (fastboot flash recovery recovery-clockwork-5.5.0.4-toro.img)
4. Reboot into OS (fastboot reboot)
5. You now have CWM recovery permanently installed
via Droid Life.
If your Galaxy Nexus future includes custom ROMs and kernels, you should stop what you are doing and unlock the bootloader of the device first. With an unlocked bootloader, your phone is opened up for you to essentially do as you please. Not only that, but you get that sweet little unlock icon on the boot screen.
To help you with this process, we tossed together this quick video. For the full written instructions, you will want to check out this post.
via Droid Life.
Say bye, bye to Android 4.0.2. In the coming weeks, the Android team will roll out the next version better known as Android 4.0.3. Through the new API that has also arrived, developers will have the ability to integrate their social apps into contacts like Google has done with G+ and Google Talk. You can imagine that this likely means Facebook and Twitter updates showing in you friends’ contact pages as well. In other goodies, apps will now be able to access more camera and calendar capabilities while additional polish was added to graphics, the database, spell-checking, etc.Social stream API in Contacts provider: Applications that use social stream data such as status updates and check-ins can now sync that data with each of the user’s contacts, providing items in a stream along with photos for each. This new API lets apps show users what the people they know are doing or saying, in addition to their photos and contact information.Calendar provider enhancements. Apps can now add color to events, for easier tracking, and new attendee types and states are now available.New camera capabilities. Apps can now check and manage video stabilization and use QVGA resolution profiles where needed.Accessibility refinements. Improved content access for screen readers and new status and error reporting for text-to-speech engines.Incremental improvements in graphics, database, spell-checking, Bluetooth, and more.
via Droid Life.
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