Samsung

TOKYO — While electronics giants Apple and Samsung fight each other for market dominance, with hotly competitive product releases and tit-for-tat patent lawsuits , Japan's consumer electronics makers find themselves in an increasingly perilous fight for relevance and, in some cases, survival. Companies such as Sony, Panasonic and Sharp once controlled the industry, outclassing and outselling their U.S. rivals. But now they represent the most alarming telltale of corporate Japan's ­two-decade...

NEW YORK — Jay-Z is teaming up with Samsung to release his new album, unveiling a three-minute commercial during the NBA Finals on Sunday and announcing a deal that will give the music to 1 million users of Galaxy mobile phones. The new album, called "Magna Carta Holy Grail," will be free for the first 1 million android phone owners who download an app for the album. Those who do so will get the album on July 4, three days before its official release, according to a Sunday statement.

Samsung's aiming to make smartphone tech a little less rigid with the introduction of new, flexible screens that can be used in smartphones and tablets to make them more resilient. In the keynote presentation at the tConsumer Electronics Show, Samsung device head Stephen Woo and lab lead Brian Berkeley showed off bendable, rollable, foldable displays with several concept devices. The flexible screens, which Samsung has branded as Youm, are designed to have displays as rich and crisp as...

Apple lost a battle Tuesday in its global legal war with Samsung over intellectual property rights. The International Trade Commission, a U.S. agency, banned sales of several older models of Apple's iPhone and iPad for infringement of Samsung's patents, Cecilia Kang reports. The two companies have been at odds in courts in Europe, Australia and Asia as well, and Apple, so far, has won more of the battles. Judges in Germany and Japan awarded victories to Apple earlier this year.

One gadget showcased almost everywhere at the Mobile World Congress has been Samsung's Galaxy Note 10.1. The Verge reports takes a look at some of the new tablet's features : Software-wise, the Note 10.1 runs Android 4.0 with TouchWiz and a number of optimizations for the Wacom-based S-Pen, including the quick shortcut to bring up the S-Notes app by tapping twice on the screen while holding the pen button down. Samsung's also pre-loading versions of Adobe Photoshop Touch and Adobe Ideas that have been optimized for the stylus with...

Samsung unveiled its new Galaxy Grand smartphone Tuesday, and yes, it is a phone with a massive 5″ screen. Unfortunately, while the size of the screen may be grand, its quality certainly isn't. The Grand will run Android 4.1.2 — Jelly Bean, the latest and greatest from Google — and sports an unnamed 1.2 GHz dual-core processor. Samsung says the 8-megapixel rear camera has "zero shutter-lag," which is impressive if true, "ultra-quick" camera startup, and can handle full HD video recording.

For sheer wow factor in a compact camera, the TL225 is hard to beat. Besides including dual LCD screens (the one on the front is designed for self-portraits), Samsung provides a touchscreen-only, gesture-sensitive interface. On the downside, the TL225 supports only MicroSD/MicroSDHC cards, and its image quality isn't great. ($330) More info | Check prices

I'm going to lay this out to you straight: The Samsung N110 is, at its core, a slightly revamped take on the company's NC10 . A bit of streamlining (better plastics and a slimmer profile) here and a couple tweaks (immense improvement on the mouse button) there...it all adds up to polishing away blemishes found on the original version. So if you find some echoes between the two reviews, they're entirely intentional. Samsung has made an interesting decision to switch from the matte screen on the NC10 to the glossy side of the force.

The first thing you'll notice about Samsung's newest messaging phone, the Comeback ($130 with a two-year T-Mobile contract; as of August 19, 2009) is its amazing color scheme, which makes it look like a prop from a futuristic 1970s flick. Though the Comeback is far from sleek, it's a solid messaging phone with stereo Bluetooth support, a 2-megapixel camera (with 2.5X digital zoom), e-mail and IM support, and a full HTML browser. The Comeback is a bit clunky, at 2.2 inches wide by 4.3 inches tall by 0.7 inch thick,...

Samsung is set to make a big splash Thursday evening with the launch of its next Galaxy smartphone, which the company has dropped heavy hints will be called the Galaxy S4. Here's a catchup for those wondering what rumors are out about Samsung's new flagship so far, before the event starts at 7 p.m. tonight. Big screen, plastic body: Samsung is expected to continue its trend toward bigger screens with the Galaxy S4, with Bloomberg reporting that the phone will measure 5 inches on the...

NEW YORK — A U.S. trade agency on Tuesday issued a ban on imports of Apple's iPhone 4 and a variant of the iPad 2 after finding the devices violate a patent held by South Korean rival Samsung Electronics. Because the devices are assembled in China, the import ban would end Apple's ability to sell them in the U.S. However, President Barack Obama has 60 days to invalidate Tuesday's order from the U.S. International Trade Commission in Washington. Obama is against import bans on the...

A U.S. trade agency on Tuesday banned the sale of several iPhone and iPad models for infringing a Samsung patent, dealing a high-profile setback to Apple's crusade against copycats. If upheld, the ruling would show that at least some of Apple's iconic technology duplicated that of its primary competitor in the mobile-device market, an embarrassment for a company that has held itself up as the source of Silicon Valley's most groundbreaking innovations. Samsung, once a bit player...

BlackBerry's last stronghold in the smartphone market may be under siege. A review of Apple and Samsung's software for use on the Defense Department's secure classified and unclassified networks is expected to be completed within two weeks and could further curtail BlackBerry's once dominant position among the security-conscious government employees. The Defense Department may allow its employees to choose among Samsung and Apple smartphones and tablets for the office, according to a statement...

Samsung will be adding a new device to its Galaxy Tab line — a 7-inch tablet set to hit stores in late spring or early summer. The Galaxy Tab 3, with its smaller form, will be another competitor in the mini-tablet market, which includes the iPad mini, Nexus 7, Kindle Fire, Samsung's own Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 and, to a lesser extent, its higher-end Galaxy Tab 2 7.7. Samsung did not announce a price for the tablet. But the specifications on the tablet sound mid-range, and indicate that Samsung could be aiming for the...

Apple released its quarterly earnings report Tuesday as many investors and analysts turn increasingly skeptical about the company's prospects. Profits at Apple declined for the first time in a decade : The company's net income fell 18 percent, to $9.5 billion, in the first quarter, compared with the corresponding period last year. That beat analysts expectations, and revenue increased 11 percent, to $43.6 billion. But the combination of slower revenue growth and tighter profit margins was...

Samsung has high expectations to meet with the Galaxy S4, its latest flagship phone and main competitor for Apple's iPhone. In an increasingly crowded smartphone market, Samsung has tried to set its phones apart by adding stronger software features to its already impressive hardware. With the S4, Samsung has taken that strategy and run with it, by offering a wide variety of new features meant to appeal to tech enthusiasts and novices alike. The result is a solid phone that still lacks a killer...

Two of the most-watched names in the smartphone business, Samsung and BlackBerry, are upping their game with new models this spring — but neither offers a game-changer. Both Samsung's Galaxy S4 and BlackBerry's Q10 are strong upgrades that should please their fans, but neither device offers a killer feature that shifts the paradigm of the highly competitive market. That's less of a problem for market leader Samsung than for BlackBerry, which is trying to claw back into contention with a line of new smartphones.

Apple reported its first profit decline in 10 years Tuesday and cautioned that sales could fall more than analysts expect over the summer. Chief executive Tim Cook asked investors to think about the long-term success of the company — not short-term hiccups. Apple has exciting products "in our pipeline" that could come "in the fall" and throughout 2014, Cook said. But Cook didn't offer any specifics, and Apple's cautious posture comes amid growing investor concerns that the tech giant isn't keeping up with...