Tag: samsung
Why Samsung’s Harman purchase is not an Apple blunder
Larry Dignan reported on ZDNet about Why Samsung’s Harman purchase will be seen as Apple blunder decades from now. Samsung’s purchase of Harman is strategically sound, worth the $8 billion, and positions Samsung well in the connected car market. Meanwhile, Samsung diversifies from a saturated smartphone market. How is diversification good if Samsung’s whole operations…
Samsung decides not to patch kernel vulnerabilities in non-Lollipop S4 devices
Softpedia reported on Samsung not patching kernel vulnerabilities in non-Lollipop S4 phones. According to Jonathan Salwan, one of QuarksLAB’s junior security researchers, Samsung took 3 months to acknowledge the bugs (November 2014), and only responded to QuarksLAB’s emails after the company went public with their research on September 21, 2015. “They just acknowledged the issues,…
Samsung accused of programming TVs to cheat energy efficiency ratings
Boing Boing reported on Samsung being accused of programming TVs to cheat energy efficiency ratings. Samsung admits that its TVs radically changed their power-consumption during testing, but say that the low-power mode was inadvertently triggered by the tests, and was meant to be an automatic power-saving feature. If it’s a power saving feature, why is…
Samsung TVs appear less energy efficient in real life than in tests
The Guardian reported on Samsung TVs appearing less energy efficient in real life than in tests. Independent lab tests have found that some Samsung TVs in Europe appear to use less energy during official testing conditions than they do during real-world use, raising questions about whether they are set up to game energy efficiency tests.
Premium Android hits the wall
Charles Arthur wrote about Premium Android hitting the wall. “Premium” Android is getting torn apart, piranha-style. Cheaper phones from Chinese companies such as Xiaomi, Huawei, OnePlus, and Oppo are taking away their high-end Chinese business. Slowdowns in developing countries (notably south America) are killing sales there. And in the west, there isn’t the same appetite…
A backwards S-Pen can permanently damage the Galaxy Note 5
Ars Technica reported on how a backwards S-Pen can permanently damage the Galaxy Note 5. The right way to dock the S-Pen into the device is to slide the pointy end in first, but if you slide the blunt end in first, the S-Pen will get jammed in the device. The spring mechanism that holds the…
Hackers can remotely steal fingerprints from Android phones
ZDNet reported on how hackers can remotely steal fingerprints from Android phones. The attack, which was confirmed on the HTC One Max and Samsung’s Galaxy S5, allows a hacker to stealthily acquire a fingerprint image from an affected device because device makers don’t fully lock down the sensor. Making matters worse, the sensor on some…
Samsung glamour days over as it fights to save mobile market share
Reuters reported on Samsung’s fight to save mobile market share. Behind Samsung’s reality-check is the fact it is stuck with the same Android operating system used by its low-cost competitors, who are producing increasingly-capable phones of their own. “The writing has long been on the wall for any premium Android maker: as soon as low…
Trevor Bauer tweets from his iPhone in a Samsung PR move
Dave Mark wrote on The Loop about Trevor Bauer in a Samsung prank. Enter Samsung fan (maybe) Trevor Bauer, pitcher for those same Cleveland Indians. He got hold of another milestone ball, the first hit for rookie Francisco Lindor. Bauer squirreled away the ball and sent out this ransom tweet: Hey @Lindor12BC we have your…
How NSA and allies exploit Google and Samsung app stores
Ars Technica reported on how the NSA and allies exploited Google and Samsung’s app stores. In 2011 and 2012, the NSA and the communications intelligence agencies of its “Five Eyes” allies developed and tested a set of add-ons to their shared Internet surveillance capability that could identify and target communications between mobile devices and popular…