samsung

Blue Wave updates complete the Samsung P2

When Samsung launched the P2 late last year, it was already a pretty cool device. It impressed me with a super slick interface (albeit touch screen), plentiful features (including stereo Bluetooth-streaming ability), and some of the sweetest sound to hit my ears in the history of MP3 players. Who knew then that the P2 was only three-quarters baked? Actually, it wasn't too tough to figure that out--the inclusion of a built-in mic with absolutely no usability was a dead giveaway.

Fast forward 10 months later, and Samsung finally has a complete P2 on its hands. The company issued update … Read more

Samsung adds SGH-A137

Though AT&T has yet to concur, Samsung has added a new AT&T cell phone to its Web site. Samsung originally told us about the new phone earlier this week, but we were expecting that they wouldn't actually launch it for a few days. But in any case, the SGH-A137 isn't too much to get excited about. The simple flip phone is so basic that it doesn't even offer an external display. The feature set is centered squarely on making calls and messaging but it offers a couple of extras including a music player … Read more

Samsung agrees to sell Symbian stake to Nokia

Samsung Electronics has agreed to sell its investment stake in Symbian to mobile phone maker Nokia, according to a Reuters report.

In June, Nokia announced plans to acquire the remaining stake in smartphone software developer Symbian that it didn't already own. Nokia, by having full ownership of Symbian, wants to beat back the competition from Apple's iPhone and other competitors by accelerating its product development and serve as an open-source operating system platform for other handset makers, wireless carriers, and software developers.

Nokia, according to the Reuters report on Tuesday, will pay $410 million for its Symbian stake. … Read more

Samsung has the Knack for Verizon

Just a day after it launched three low-end cell phones, Samsung extended the basic handset love to Verizon Wireless on Wednesday. The new Samsung Knack, aka the SCH-U310, offers a simple flip-phone design in silver and gray. Features include messaging, voice commands, personal organizer options, a 2.5mm headset jack, and a 65,000-color display. The Knack (we're scratching our heads at the nickname as well) is $39.99 with service. We'll have a full review by next week.

Samsung launches A237, M220, M320

As soon as Labor Day passes, the autumn onslaught of new cell phones begins. Sure, the holiday season may still be far off, but manufacturers such as Motorola and Samsung waste no time in rolling out their new handsets. On Tuesday, Samsung debuted three new models, the SGH-A237 for AT&T and the SPH-M220 and SPH-M320 for Sprint. Though none of the models will send shivers up your spine, Samsung is as eager as ever to prove that not all if its cell phones need to be fancy and pricey. And on that front, the company usually succeeds.

The … Read more

Samsung outs its Micro Four Thirds competitor: Let the games begin

The bits have barely dried on the press release for Olympus and Panasonic's Micro Four Thirds standard for interchangeable lens point-and-shoot cameras and a competing announcement has already emerged from an unexpected source: Samsung. In an interview with the U.K.'s Amateur Photographer magazine, Samsung Techwin Executive Vice President Byung Woo Lee revealed that company's plans for a similar standard based on APS-C-size sensors--albeit not until 2009.

I suppose it's not that surprising that the announcement comes from Samsung. It certainly wasn't going to come from any Canon- or Nikon-driven initiative, since both of those … Read more

Samsung takes on the MacBook Air

For years now, Samsung has made laptops for pretty much every market except the US, and generally, we've been pretty fine with that arrangement (the Q1 Ultra UMPCis as close as they've gotten here).

But now, we're eager to get our hands on the just-announced Samsung X360. This 13-incher apes the super-slim look and feel of the MacBook Air, but adds a lot of the ports and connections missing from Apple's system. The X360 has a multi-card reader, three USB ports, an ExpressCard/34 slot, Ethernet jack, and HDMI and VGA outputs. And it still manages … Read more

Samsung's 50-inch plasma is red all over

Trust us when we say that Samsung makes waaaaay too many different varieties of flat-panel televisions for one self-respecting reviewer to keep up with. Case in point is the PN50A650, a red-tinted 50-inch plasma released in May that we're just getting to now. Call us slackers, but having already reviewed the PN50A550, which is basically the same but with a black frame in place of the 650's red, we felt that base was already covered. But the 650 surprised us with a somewhat better anti-reflective screen than we saw on the 550. More details are available if you … Read more

Picture this: Four new Samsung digital photo frames

Digital photo frames. You love 'em, I love 'em. Well, actually I've only ever seen one in use before and that one was broken. Call me old-fashioned (or just old) but I guess I'm just not at the point financially where I can justify the price.

Actually, I don't think I'm at the point morally. I mean come on, I don't think I could sleep at night after spending $200 on a picture frame. Digital or not.

Apparently I'm slowly moving into the minority on this. On Wednesday, Samsung announced four new digital photo frames.

Samsung SPF-85H

8-inch screen 800x600 resolution 1GB internal memory Auto on/off function Auto photo resize SD/MMC/MS/XD card reader, USB memory slot

Samsung SPF-85V

8-inch screen Built-in wireless feature optimized for use with Windows Live 800x600 high resolution 64MB internal memory Auto-rotation function 802.11b/g wireless photo frame Rechargeable battery SD/MMC/MS/XD card reader, USB memory slot InfoLink free information service (news, weather, stocks, USA Today) Frame Channel service that gets more than 400 channels of news, sports, cartoons, and more… Read more