Posted 11/10/09 at 05:50:32 PM by Jason Barry

Samsung announced today that it would throw its hat into the mobile OS ring with “Bada.” Samsung’s new OS's name is based on the Korean word for “ocean” and will support fully open standards.

Samsung was skimpy on the details, but it sounds very similar to the iPhone and Android operating systems. It will feature a central application store and provide developers with a framework to build applications for the device. In stark contrast to the iPhone, Samsung claims that every aspect of the OS will be customizable, including dialer, contacts and other built in utilities.

Samsung anticipates the first “Bada” powered device to be released in the first half of 2010 along with the application store. Adding another OS into the mix might make gaining market share difficult against Google and Apple. However, this likely means Samsung won’t be sporting a new Windows Mobile OS.

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Posted 11/09/09 at 05:23:11 PM by Michael Brown

Samsung’s heritage as a consumer-electronics manufacturer is readily apparent in its P2370HD monitor. This is the only display we looked at that included not only an integrated HDTV (ATSC) tuner, but also composite and component video inputs, S/PDIF audio output, and support for Dolby Digital Plus.

The P2370HD was also the easiest display to set up and configure, thanks to a very useful remote control, a built-in graphical user interface that steps you through the process, and input ports that are set at right angles, instead of parallel, to its back. The port configuration lets you see how the DVI and HDMI ports are oriented without having to turn the entire monitor upside down.

Continue reading this review after the jump.

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Posted 11/06/09 at 06:23:03 PM by Pulkit Chandna

Samsung has announced a new breakthrough that could lead to  mobile devices with greater storage space than before. The company says it has developed a new multi-chip memory package that is 40% thinner and lighter than a normal memory package. The 0.6mm-thick package is said to contain eight 30-nanometer NAND Flash chips.

The new package owes its lean figure to a “bare” die that is just half as thick as a conventional die. The ultra-thin package contains a “bare” die that is only 15 micrometers thick. This is quite an achievement on Samsung’s part as it has managed to overcome “the conventional technology limits of a chip's resistance to external pressure when under 30um in height.” Chips based on this new technology seem tailor-made for SSDs and mobile devices.

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Posted 11/03/09 at 09:00:54 AM by Paul Lilly

Want to get in Mother Nature's good graces and maybe save a buck or two while doing so? Combine Samsung's memory chips with Microsoft's operating system. That's the message in a nutshell the two companies will work together to promote.

"There is not doubt that the combination of Windows 7 and 40nm DDR3 in new PCs will make users very happy," said Dong-Soo Jun, executive senior vice president of memory marketing at Samsung Electronics. "If you opt for 4GB of memory in a Windows 7-based system, over typical 2GB-based systems used today, you'll see an increase in performance, while using less power thanks to the efficiency of Samsung's 40nm DDR3 DRAM."

If this all sounds a little bit hokey, you may just have to get used to it. Depending on how this marketing campaign plays out, Samsung suggested it might further collaborate with Microsoft on more green IT efforts on a global scale.

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Posted 10/26/09 at 02:00:12 PM by Paul Lilly

There's slender, and then there's Samsung's disgustingly thin 40-inch LED TV panel measuring just 3.9mm thick, or a third the size of the company's previous panel. We say "disgusting" only because some of us are still bitter over dropping a couple grand on a bulky rear-projection earlier in the decade.

The super-slim backlit LED display boasts a 120Hz refresh rate, full HD resolution support, and a 5000:1 contrast ratio. It's also the world's thinnest LCD panel, measuring 7mm slimmer than Samsung's full production LED TV panel and about 45mm thinner than conventional LCD displays. Prior to today, LG held the title with its 5.9mm LED TV.

So when and where can you buy one? Good question - Samsung hasn't released the 3.9mm panel yet, but according to Akihabaranews.com, the company hopes to do so very soon.

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Posted 10/22/09 at 08:13:17 PM by Paul Lilly

AT&T has a bone to pick with several big-name LCD makers, and it will do it in court. The telco has sued a number of display manufacturers over allegedly fixing the price of more than 300 million mobile LCD screens.

Those on the receiving end of the lawsuit include Samsung, LG Display, Optronics, Sharp, and Chungwa. According to the lawsuit, the display makers "formed an international cartel illegally to restrict competition in the United States in the market for LCD panels."

AT&T called the whole situation a "conspiracy," accusing the defendants of agreeing to eliminate competition and fix LCD panel prices that they knew would be incorporated in LCD products and sold in the U.S.

This isn't the first price fixing scandal to hit the LCD industry, nor is it the first time LG, Chunghwa, and Sharp have been tied to price fixing allegations. All three agreed to plead guilty to similar charges in November 2008 and to pay $585 million in criminal fines.

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Posted 10/16/09 at 04:54:00 PM by Bart Salisbury

Display technology seems to be reading for some pretty amazing leaps if the flexible display prototypes from Hewlett-Packard, Philips and Samsung pan out. Besides being incredibly thin, these displays can be bent, stretched, even folded. But just how durable are they?

In an interesting twist on the game whack-a-mole, a video posted by luxury1004 on YouTube suggests pretty darn durable. The video shows a hammer being taken to a Samsung AMOLED display. The 2.8-inch, 20 micrometer thin display, playing a clip from Gran Turismo 5, comes out unscathed.

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Posted 10/16/09 at 09:00:20 AM by Paul Lilly

Proof positive that laser printing is alive and well, Samsung on Thursday announced half a dozen new laser printer models for immediate availability in Taiwan.

Included in the lineup are two monochrome laser printers, the ML-1915 and ML-2580N, and four monochrome laser MFPs (multi-function peripherals), the SCX-4600, SCX-4623F, SF-650, and SF-650P. All six units boast Samsung's AnyWeb and Print Screen Button technologies, the company said.

The new models fit in with Samsung's plan to compete with Hewlett-Packard to become the largest laser MFP vendor in Taiwan, and to become the third largest vendor overall, DigiTimes reports.

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