This whole thing is starting to play out like a giant game of patent Risk. As it did in Australia, Samsung is hitting back against Apple in the Netherlands, asking for a preliminary injunction aimed at Apple’s mobile line, including the iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPad and iPad 2, claiming that the products infringe on 3G patents held by the Korean electronics giant. The proposed ban would prohibit importing the products into the country and would recall them from Dutch retail stores.

Samsung asks Dutch courts to block iPad, iPhone sales originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 23 Sep 2011 12:25:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sorry folks, this colorful Series 3 lappy from Sammy is for the fine citizens of Korea only, at least for the moment. The 350U weighs in at just under three pounds and 0.8-inches thick, while housing a Core i5, up to a 640GB HD, a 12.5-inch anti-reflective screen, and a battery large enough to keep it chugging along for over eight hours. Really, the big difference between this notebook and the same-sized Series 3 shipping here in the states are the color options. While Americans all get the same gun-metal gray, our friends across the pacific can pick black, silver or pink (you know, for the ladies). The 350U is priced starting at 1,090,000 won, just over $1,000. Check out the gallery below.

Samsung Series 3 350U laptop delivers colorful ultraportable computing to the Korean masses originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 16 Sep 2011 13:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Just a few days after suffering a legal setback in Dutch court, Samsung has now decided to delay the launch of its Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Australia, amid its heightening patent infringement battle with Apple. In a hearing today, the Korean manufacturer announced that it would refrain from selling or marketing its new tablet within Australia, before September 30th. Samsung made a similar concession earlier this month, agreeing to halt sales of its slates until today’s hearing and to provide Apple with product samples at least seven days prior to its Australian launch. The company says it presented the samples on Thursday, but Cupertino’s lawyers insisted that the Australian version of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 still infringes upon its patents. Samsung, meanwhile, said in a statement that it’s preparing to launch a counter-attack down under, telling reporters that it “intends to file a cross claim against Apple Australia and Apple Inc regarding the invalidity of the patents previously asserted by Apple and also a cross claim against Apple regarding violation of patents held by Samsung by selling its iPhones and iPads.” The next formal court hearings are scheduled for September 26th and 29th. Stay tuned.

[Thanks, Geoff]

Samsung delays Galaxy Tab 10.1 launch in Australia amid patent battle with Apple originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 29 Aug 2011 04:18:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We prefer our robots stick to the household cleaning chores, a little DJing action even, and then go right back to the closet. But, when we first glimpsed this emoting automaton from Korea’s Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute, our fears of the day of robot reckoning subsided slightly. The ETRI-built robot (or ETRO for short) is currently “employed” as an ambassador for human-robot relations at Daejon’s National Science Museum, treating amused passersby to outspoken professions of love backed by its LED-lit facial expressions. Originally designed as a reading robot back in 2003, version 2.0 of this humanoid helper was created with a greater cause in mind — showcasing robotics as promising Korean growth industry. Rather than let those economic concerns muddle our whimsy, let’s just focus on the AI-assisted cuteness in the video below.

Continue reading ETRO robot wears its heart on its face, promises to love you

ETRO robot wears its heart on its face, promises to love you originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 26 Aug 2011 08:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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South Korea brings the big guns to the mobile OS knife fight originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 23 Aug 2011 13:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ripple updates its Look nettop with Fusion E-Series chip, leaves its handsome design alone originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 25 Jul 2011 19:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Remember that iRiver MX100 we spotted a few weeks ago? Yeah, well it’s about to hit Korean retail shelves soon with a new name, more specs and a smaller Android-based smartphone stablemate. The marketing snapshots taken by Cetizen show off both the wildly titled Tab (really?) and little brother Vanilla (really?) rocking Android 2.2 like it’s still 2010. Clearly iRiver’s not employing the best in branding here, opting instead for a middle-of-the-tech-road, “Clear Glass Look” me-too approach. Just look at these specs: the 3G, Flash-ready, 7-inch LCD tablet’s running a rumored 1GHz Hummingbird processor with a 5 megapixel camera, up to 32GB of expandable storage and Bluetooth. While its handset bretheren putters in with a 3.5-inch WVGA LCD display, WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth, 4GB of storage and unknown processor. These new additions to the Google mobile army won’t be topping nerds’ must-have wish lists, but they should do for Moms and other less tech-obsessed denizens of our free world. Hit the source for additional shots of these white-washed beauties.

iRiver’s Vanilla Android phone and tablet leak out, a few cubes short of 80s infamy originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 14 Jul 2011 12:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Look closely at that photo above. Those, friends, are digital cameras from Samsung. That’s right, even that boxy one that looks quite a bit like an old-school medium format film shooter. This photo was quietly inserted into a blog post from Sammy about lens design, without so much as a caption to clarify what our curious eyes were seeing. Might this be a future model meant to compete in the highest-ends of the digital camera market? Or is it something cooked up in the lab and abandoned for a more practical and mainstream design? There was a rumor kicking around last summer that Samsung was working on a medium format CMOS sensor and this could be a test rig for just such a slice of silicon. Whatever it is, we’re intrigued and we’ll be keeping an ear out for more info on what the Korean company has brewing.

Is this Samsung’s first medium format digital camera? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 20 May 2011 15:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you’ve been on the hunt for a USB 3.0 drive to pair with your newly minted notebook, the list of options just keeps on growing. LG just released the XE1 and XE2, a pair of 2.5-inch HDDs available in 500GB, 750GB, and 1TB sizes. The only difference: the XE1 has a glossy finish and its sibling, a matte one — both more conservative-looking than what Samsung’s been peddling. If you’re in Korea, you’ll soon be able to snag one in the size and style of your choice for somewhere between ₩100,000 and ₩160,000 ($92 to $147).

LG trots out XE1 and XE2 USB 3.0 drives for the Korean market originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 06 May 2011 13:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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LG, you big tease! T-Mobile must be feeling a tinge of regret for hooking up with the Korean hardware manufacturer lately, as TmoNews reports both the G-Slate tablet and a new G2X smartphone (believed to be the US moniker for the Optimus 2X) won’t be coming Stateside for at least another month. Neither will be exactly late, mind you, since both feature dual-core Tegra 2 chips and the G-Slate runs Google’s freshest Honeycomb software, however a launch date of April 20th does put LG a step behind its direct competitors. Motorola has already rolled out its own Xoom and Atrix alternatives, while Samsung is making noise about its new Galaxy devices, which might well beat LG’s wares to the market. Rumor is we’ll get an official date out of T-Mobile at CTIA next week, so keep your eyes peeled for that one.

T-Mobile G-Slate and G2X dual-core smartphone coming on April 20th? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 18 Mar 2011 05:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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