Surprise! The Samsung Galaxy S4 Isn’t Going to Be Cheap

Despite sticking with cheapo-plastic, and basically doing no real redesign, other than a slightly bigger screen, Samsung’s latest flagship isn’t going to come cheap. Although we don’t have an official price just yet, various retailers have it running you around £530; must be all those cores
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Samsung Just Gave Sharp £73 Million to Guarantee LCD Supply

 

Sharp has just announced that it’s getting a £73 million shot in the arm from Samsung. In turn, that will help guarantee Sammy as many LCD panels as it can use.

The sum actually buys Samsung a three-per cent stake in Sharp — which sounds small but in fact makes it the biggest shareholder that isn’t a financial institution (and the fifth-largest stakeholder overall!). In other words, that buys it power — and, crucially, access to Sharp’s LCD supply. It’s expected that Samsung will lap up its 32-inch television screens, in particular.

Sharp had previously been in talks with Taiwanese Hon Hai Precision to strike a similar deal, which fell through when Sharp’s share price faltered. Sammy’s gain, it seems.

Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 Tablet Gets Official.

We’ve had a good month of leaks and rumors and now Samsung is making the Galaxy Note 8.0 tablet official. We already knew what it looked like, but now we know many of the details about this tablet.

The Galaxy Note 8.0 has been designed to maximize the pen experience, while still being a one-hand device. A larger display surface does help with drawing and writing, so hopefully in the real-world this is a usable tablet at both ends of the spectrum.

Some specs include a quad-core processor and 2GB of RAM. The display is an 8-inch 1280×800 (189 ppi or pixels-per-inch), which is the same resolution as the Galaxy Note 10.1.android 4.1.2 is on board. The Note 8.0 will come in WiFi-only (A/B/G/N) or WiFi/HSPA+ versions This S-Pen supports 1024 levels of pressure sensitivity, just like the Galaxy Note 10.1.