Amazon is so confident about its new Kindle Fire HDX tablet that it’s giving “VIP customers” 30 days to try the device before they have to hand over any cash. If those customers then decide they don’t want the device, they can simply hand it back.
Can you ever see Google or Apple offering this type of service? I think not.
Carphone Warehouse recently made the news with its £49 android tablet.
Except, Google apps on the £49 ‘Avoca’ tablet were not properly licensed, meaning Carphone Warehouse had to remove the tablet from sale. Whoops.
It is often difficult to find the reviews of devices and accessories I have written about, so below is a quick way to find all the articles for the key reviews. Or use the top right search box to search for anything on my blog.
Netatmo Urban Weather Station Review
Audio Technica ATH-AD900x Headphone review
Olloclip 3 in 1 Lens review for iPhone 5
Samsung will be paying an additional $290 million in damages to Apple. A jury in California on Thursday said that the Korean smartphone manufacturer owed Apple $290 million for infringing upon its intellectual property. Apple had asked for $380 million in damages, so the jury’s reward is a good outcome.
Samsung had said that it should only pay an additional $52 million to Apple, so the jury’s verdict is a success for a Apple. Samsung has already paid $600 million to Apple after a jury found it guilty of patent infringement in 2012, which means that the total damages the company will have to pay to Apple will be $890 million for this patent case alone.
But will it matter to Samsung who makes a huge amount of money every day and now has market share.
Samsung has recently released android 4.3 update for international handsets. But users have been reporting poor stability since upgrading and other issues.
Consequently Samsung has temporarily pulled the android 4.3 software update. So, if you see the update on your S3, it might be an idea to hold fire.
Yesterday I reported that the Samsung Galaxy Gear had only sold 50,000 units. However, Gavin’s Gadgets reader Lee Jones added a comment that Yahoo were reporting sales were actually 800,000. That is a vast difference. And then reader Jah added additional commentary that 50,000 in itself is still a remarkable number considering it has only been on sale for a limited amount of time and has been compatible with only one phone.
So what are the true figures and where did the initial sales estimate come from.
Firstly, BusinessKorea reported that Samsung had sold less than 50,000 units to date. This seemed a fairly reliable source and based in Samsung’s home territory. Then the story developed further.
Samsung quickly tried to spin the bad news by saying that it had in fact sold 800,000 units, making it the “most sold wearable watch available in the market place.” And if you are being honest, any company would want a more positive news story than the first version.
However, let’s pause for a moment. The only problem is that Samsung later confirmed that the 800,000 number was actually for units shipped, not sold, which is a big difference, and being unbiased in the only figure Samsung can report as it doesn’t sell the watch direct to the public.
So exploring the numbers further, BusinessKorea’s sources said that the Galaxy Gear’s daily sales are under 800-900 units. On top of that, a leaked internal memo from Best Buy revealed that around a third of buyers are actually returning the Gear which means a lot of unopened Gears sitting on store shelves.
The £299 smartwatch received overwhelming negative reviews when it launched last month from many top news sites including Engadget and New York Times. One has to realise this was the first generation watch from Samsung and it did try and offer an awful lot on a wrist.
So what are the actual sales figures. I would estimate that if 800,000 got shipped and there is a 30% approximate return rate! that leave just over 500,000 actually sold. That is very impressive. But what if the returns are higher and 50,000 is the correct figure. Well, let’s put 50,000 in perspective. That’s 50,000 watches for just one Samsung phone the Note 3. Samsung will be making the device compatible with more of its phones so expect to see sales increasing. And 50,000 has been achieved in just over a month. As a comparison, Pebble Smart Watch which sold 250,000 units in a year, but is compatible with iPhones and multiple android smartphones.
So you decide. Is the Samsung Galaxy Gear a success or the start of the new era of tech wearables?
Nokia is potentially looking to roll out its Nokia Music application to iOS, Android, according to a leaked internal document reported by Phone Arena.
The radio streaming service offers Nokia Lumia users free access to genre-themed stations and specially-curated playlists, while for a monthly fee users can also save tracks for offline playback. So will Nokia charge the same fee as it does on its windows phones.
And do you think it will undercut the competition or even release it’s service ? I think it will release it, and I hope is cheaper than Google and Apple.
Apparently Samsung’s Galaxy Gear Smartwatch has only sold 50,000 units, despite a huge marketing campaign.
But why the surprise? It was only compatible at launch with the Samsung Note 3 and no other phones. This is changing with compatibility with some other Samsung smartphones. But it won’t work with other brands. Therefore initial sales would always be constricted. And then there was the price. £299. Total ripoff. And the battery life was poor. Charging daily or every other day.
Compare this with Pebble smartwatch. This works on most android phones and iPhones. The battery lasts a week. And it costs $150. Less than half the price of the Samsung Galaxy Gear.
And then there is the bigger issue. Who wears a watch anymore. If you want to know the time or see your missed notifications you look at your phone. It’s instinctive.
Update – Reuters has gone on record saying Samsung sold 800,000. The press were way off the mark. 800,000 is a staggering and amazing achievement.
Qualcomm announces that their Toq Smartwatch will go on sale on December 2nd aka Cyber Monday. The device will sell for $349.99 and will only be sold directly by Qualcomm. The Toq features a Mirasol low power display that will be capable of running for several days between charges despite being always on. The device can be paired with an Android device running at least Android 4.0.3, although 4.3 Jelly Bean will work better. The Toq will come loaded with weather and stock apps from AccuWeather and E*TRADE respectively to go along with the apps providing the ability to accept/reject calls, view text messages, get meeting alerts and receive other notifications.
For more information, head over to toq.qualcomm.com to sign up.
When the Galaxy Note 3 launched, many people were up in arms over a SIM Regional Lock policy that Samsung implemented, which made it difficult for people to import the global version. At first, it appeared the Note 3 would only work with the SIM for the country that the particular model was intended for. Then it was later clarified that if you powered on the phone with the proper SIM (from the country it was intended for), then it would be unlocked and could be used anywhere. However, many people found this wasn’t the case.
Now Samsung has added more clarification on how it works. There is one more step that needed in order to free the phone of the Regional Lock: Once the phone is powered on with the proper SIM, you will need to make or received calls for a total of 5 minutes. Once that is completed, the Regional Lock will be removed. Now if you have no way of doing this because you’re in the U.S. with a European model, you can still go to a Samsung Care Center, and they will unlock it for you.
It is also worth noting this new “feature” is tied to Android 4.3, which means all phones that get the 4.3 update will get the Regional Lock. This includes the Galaxy S 4, the Galaxy S III, and the Galaxy Note II. It’s very possible that if you imported one of these models, you phone could very well be locked after the update.
But in all honesty, this was a lot of hot wind over nothing. However, Samsung should have been clearer from the start.
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