Samsung Races To Develop A Smartwatch Because It Can

 

Smartwatches are now like an upcoming boy band. They're increasingly becoming insanely popular, whilst grabbing the attention of some of the world's largest and notable tech companies. Lately, rumors are pointing that Samsung is also working on a smartwatch of its own that'll compete with what else? Apple's rumored, and highly anticipated iWatch. Samsung's rumored touchscreen smartwatch is dubbed the Galaxy Altius, and from what we can tell, it looks pretty slick. That is if this so called concept will see the light of day.

Other than displaying some typical "smart" features along with modern digital watch face, the concept image above may very well share a similar design language with that of the purported Altius smartwatch - in that it'll have a removable module which will fit into various interchangeable wrist bands, and presumably other accessories similar to that of Motorola's MotoACTV. Apparently, someone has also leaked a few screenshots of the Galaxy Altius' OS and user interface, but those were quickly called out as fakes. Judging by Samsung's push for new products, we can only assume the Galaxy Altius will officially be revealed sooner rather than later.

Samsung Isn't Bothering With Windows 8 Tablets

 

You may have seen reports on how underwhelming the Windows RT tablet has done on the market as of late. However, as of CES 2013, the Windows Surface Pro is on its way and may be what consumers are looking for, if their wallet is deep enough. Alongside Windows are other companies looking to make Windows 8 tablets, but as for Samsung, they've decided to not join in the fight. 

Mike Abary, Samsung's senior vice president has given Windows 8 the cold shoulder as far as tablets go. He says that Windows 8 doesn't interest enough US consumers, leaving not much demand for them. 

With his interview with CNET, he states: 

There wasn’t really a very clear positioning of what Windows RT meant in the marketplace, what it stood for relative to Windows 8, that was being done in an effective manner to the consumer. When we did some tests and studies on how we could go to market with a Windows RT device, we determined there was a lot of heavy lifting we still needed to do to educate the customer on what Windows RT was. And that heavy lifting was going to require pretty heavy investment. When we added those two things up, the investments necessary to educate the consumer on the difference between RT and Windows 8, plus the modest feedback that we got regarding how successful could this be at retail from our retail partners, we decided maybe we ought to wait.

Samsung Flexs Its Big 85-inch TV Muscles

It's big. 85-inches of HDTV is about to come your way and knock you down. This Ultra High Definition TV is what Samsung is showing the world today at CES. With an unique industrial design that reminds one of a drawing board, it is suspended off the ground and can tilt up and down, is the UN85S9. While it may have an ugly name, let me reassure you that the ugly stops there. 

As if it is floating in the midair, Samsung's behemoth will be one heck of a display to have in your living room, granted your living room is even big enough to house this beast. Along with the TV comes a 2.2 speaker system that borders the display itself. Unfortunately, 4K resolution will not be coming with Samsung. Instead, they will be focusing on upscaling 1080p content to fit the Ultra HD standards. For the UN85S9, this is done through a 1.35 GHz quad-core A15 processor. There is yet to be any information on pricing but Samsung plans to release the UN85S9 sometime in March. 

Mophie Juice Pack Plays Well With Samsung's Galaxy S III Too

More so now then ever, we are using our mobile devices constantly and pushing it to its last drops of power. Whether you have an iPhone or an Android phone, you can never have too much battery life. We've seen Mophie's battery cases for the iPhone, but now, after seeing Samsung's sales figures for the S III of a whopping 30 million units sold, Mophie's got a Juice Pack for the Galaxy S III. 

This ulta-thin and durable case is similar to that of the iPhone version. Housed in the back is a rechargeable battery that will theoretically double the life of your Galaxy S III. This means you'll get an extra 32 hours of music playback or 9 hours of consistent web browsing without having to worry about a thing. So if you do the math, this should last you an entire day without a problem. If you were worried about NFC or Android beam, the Juice Pack is compatible with them. On the backside, there is an LED display that informs you of the battery life as well. 

Coming in at $99.95, you can grab yourselves a Mophie Juice Pack today from their website and give your Galaxy S III the power it's been dreaming about. 

Apple Posts Samsung Judgement Notice In The UK

While Apple won a battle against Samsung on its home turf, the company lost the same case against Samsung in the UK where it accused Samsung of copying the iPad's design. As a result, Apple was ordered by the UK high court to inform consumers that Samsung did not infringe on its iPad design patents. Apple has put a footer link on its UK site that directs consumers to a page where they can read the final judgment made by the UK high court in which the judge points out Apple's sophisticated design calling the iPad a cool tablet compared to Samsung's Galaxy tablets which bare an unusual, cluttered design and are simply not as cool.

The extreme simplicity of the Apple design is striking. Overall it has undecorated flat surfaces with a plate of glass on the front all the way out to a very thin rim and a blank back. There is a crisp edge around the rim and a combination of curves, both at the corners and the sides. The design looks like an object the informed user would want to pick up and hold. It is an understated, smooth and simple product. It is a cool design."

"The informed user's overall impression of each of the Samsung Galaxy Tablets is the following. From the front they belong to the family which includes the Apple design; but the Samsung products are very thin, almost insubstantial members of that family with unusual details on the back. They do not have the same understated and extreme simplicity which is possessed by the Apple design. They are not as cool.

Contrary to the UK judgement, in Germany, Apple points out that it has won the same case against Samsung which was found guilty of infringing on Apple's design and utility patents.

Google Tries Again With The New Samsung Chromebook

Perhaps we can look back to when Google announced their innovative Chromebook that caused maybe a rustle, if you'd call it that? Yeah, fine, it was a flop. The specs were weak, and the price point was too high. The idea of having a completely Cloud-powered laptop was appealing when the Internet was all abuzz with excitement, but once they arrived at your doorstep and you set it all up, it was simply underwhelming. 

Now, Google and Samsung recollected themselves and decided to try their hand again with their brand new ARM-based processor Chromebook. You guys said the price just didn't justify the purchase? How about now? They're coming in at a much easier-to-swallow $249. 

Don't let this ARM processor turn you off though. Not only does it significantly drop the price tag, but it is supposedly a much better ARM chip than we've seen before. They call it the Exynos 5 Dual processor that will utilize ARM's brand new Cortex-A15 architecture. Lowered the price and stuffed in more power, Google just might have something going for them. 

Features an 11.6-inch screen, 16GB of on-board storage and 2GB of RAM, there really isn't any significant upgrades here. However, Google is throwing in 100GB of Google Drive storage for two years with the purchase of any Chromebook. 

With all the latest tech announcements and releases, I don't even know what to buy anymore. If you just want everything to be the latest and greatest, you can head on over to official Chromebook preorder page here or just wait until Monday for them to get to your local retailer.