On Monday The Wall Street Journal reported that Apple filed suit against Samsung for intellectual property violations in its Galaxy S, Galaxy Tab, Nexus S, and Epic 4G devices, and now, Samsung is fighting back. “Samsung will respond actively to this legal action taken against us through appropriate legal measures to protect our intellectual property,” the company said in a statement obtained by Korea’s AFP. “Apple is one of our key buyers of semiconductors and display panels. However, we have no choice but respond strongly this time,” one Samsung official explained. Furthermore, the Korea-based firm may file a lawsuit of its own. “We think Apple has violated our patents in communications standards,” Chung Jae-woong, a spokesperson at Samsung Electronics, told Yonhap News. “We are considering a counterclaim.” Apple said on Monday that Samsung’s aforementioned Galaxy family of products copied its user interface and “innovative style.”

[Via AFP]

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The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Cupertino-based iDevice manufacturer Apple, Inc. has filed a lawsuit against Korea’s Samsung Electronics for intellectual property violations on a host of devices. “Rather than innovate and develop its own technology and a unique Samsung style for its smart phone products and computer tablets, Samsung chose to copy Apple’s technology, user interface and innovative style in these infringing products,” reads the complaint. Apple has taken exception to the technologies used by Samsung’s popular Galaxy S, Nexus S, and Epic 4G smartphones as well as the Galaxy Tab tablet. Neither Apple nor Samsung has publicly commented on the freshly filed suit, but we’re sure this isn’t the last you’ll be hearing about this particular case.

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In a statement to blog SlashGear, HTC let it be known that it intends to bring four European handsets up to Gingerbread (Android 2.3) in Q2 of this year. Three Desire models — the Desire, Desire HD, and Desire Z — along with the recently announced Incredible S will be getting Google’s latest and greatest mobile code. It’s nice to see HTC pushing out updates to some new, and more importantly old, handsets. Here is the company’s official statement.

“We are excited to announce that the Desire HD, Desire Z, Desire and Incredible S will receive the Gingerbread update in Q2.”

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We’ve received a handful of tips from frustrated Nexus S owners claiming that the recently released Android 2.3.3 update has an unwelcome side effect, screen discoloration. Reports indicate that after the Gingerbread update, the Super AMOLED screen on the Nexus S becomes yellowish and washed out. We’re not sure if Google messed with Android’s color settings, but the difference — as you can see from the picture above — is quite noticeable. Any Nexus S owners out there seeing the same thing?

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This is definitely the advantage to owning Google’s anointed developer phone. Via a tweet, the Android maker announced that it has begun pushing out Gingerbread — Android 2.3.3 — to Nexus S and Nexus One handsets via an over-the-air update. The Big G does caution that the rollout may take a “few weeks,” but knowing the Android community, a link for a manual download will surface in the next 24 to 48 hours. Go ahead, hit that “Check for Updates” button a few times… you know you want to.

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On our second spin through the Samsung booth, we noticed something we — in our excitement to see the Galaxy S II and Tab 10.1 — missed yesterday: two Wi-Fi only Galaxy S devices. Dubbed the Galaxy S 4.0 and 5.0, Samsung has set it sights on a popular smaller tablet-alternative, Apple’s iPod touch. Let’s go over the specs…

The smaller of the two, non-cellular Galaxy S models — the 4.0 — sports a 4-inch LCD TFT display, 1GHz Hummingbird processor, front-facing VGA camera, 3.2 megapixel rear-facing camera with 720p video recording (no flash), Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, 1200 mAh battery, micro-SD card slot (with support for up to a 32 GB card), and Android 2.2.

The 4.0′s big brother — the 5.0 — boasts a 5-inch WVGA display with an 800 x 480-pixel resolution, 1GHz Humming bird processor, front-facing VGA camera, rear-facing 5 megapixel camera with 720p video recording, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, 2,500mAh battery, micro-SD card slot (support for 32GB cards), and Android 2.2.

Sammy was pretty cheeky when we asked about a price point for the new devices, but company reps were not shy about saying that it would be extremely competitive with the iPod touch. Expect to see the Galaxy S 4.0 and 5.0 in the coming months; until then, have a look at our hands on gallery and let us know what you think.

Early this morning at Mobile World Congress, HTC announced six new and updated mobile devices that will be coming to market in the next few months. Three of the six devices are the Incredible S, Desire S, and Wildfire S.

The HTC Desire S has a complete aluminum design paired with 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor and 3.7-SLCD screen. The Desire S also packs a 5 megapixel rear-facing camera, 1.3 megapixel front-facing camera, Bluetooth 2.0, Wi-Fi b/g/n, 768MB of RAM, and 1450mAh battery. Oh yeah, and Android 2.3.

The Wildfire S is HTC’s lower-end Android set and will sport a 600MHz Qualcomm processor, 3.2-inch TFT display, 512MB ROM, Wi-Fi b/g/n, Bluetooth 2.0, 1230mAh battery, and Android 2.3.

The Incredible S’ spec sheet is as follows: 1GHz Qualcomm processor, 768MB of RAM, 4-inch SLCD WVGA display, Wi-Fi b/g/n, Bluetooth 2.0, 8 megapixel rear-facing camera, 1.3 megapixel front facing camera and Android 2.2.

All three devices will be will be available in Europe and Asia in Q2 of 2011 and ship with HTC’s Sense UI. Hit the jump to check out the full press release and a few more images.

UPDATE: HTC’s initial press release indicated that the Wildfire S and Desire S would ship with Android 2.4; that is not the case. The Desire and Wildfire will ship with Android 2.3.3 and the Incredible S will ship with 2.2 (to be updated to 2.3 in the near future).

HTC LAUNCHES THREE NEW SMARTPHONES WITH HTC SENSE™

HTC Desire S, HTC Wildfire S™ and HTC Incredible S™ deliver premium style, power and speed

BARCELONA, SPAIN – Mobile World Congress – February 15, 2011 – HTC Corporation, a global leader in mobile innovation and design, today unveiled three new versions of its most popular and advanced smartphones – HTC Desire S, HTC Wildfire S and HTC Incredible S. The new smartphones continue HTC’s commitment to expanding the market for advanced smartphones while providing distinct choices in design, power and value. Each phone also includes HTC Sense, HTC’s unique customer-focused user experience that puts people at the center by making phones work in a more simple and natural way.
“HTC developed the HTC Sense experience to bring cutting-edge innovation to our customers in simple and natural ways that just make sense – this is what HTC Desire S, HTC Wildfire S and HTC Incredible S represent best,” said Peter Chou, CEO of HTC Corporation. “These new phones offer an exhilarating mix of style, innovation and features that extend people’s mobile experience in ways that feel personal and completely original.”

HTC Desire S
As a successor to the popular and award-winning HTC Desire, the new HTC Desire S blends stunning design with power and speed. Inspired by the HTC Legend™ smartphone’s aluminium design, the HTC Desire S is sculpted out of a single block of aluminum making it feel solid and natural in your hand. With Qualcomm’s new 1GHz Snapdragon™ MSM8255 processor, the HTC Desire S offers snappy performance and power. It offers dual front and back cameras, High-Definition video recording and the 3.7-inch WVGA display presents multimedia content brilliantly.

HTC Wildfire S
Building on the popularity of the HTC Wildfire™ smartphone, the HTC Wildfire S smartphone is an affordable, compact and playful device that packs a powerful smartphone experience. It enables people to maintain and build connections and friendships through popular sites like Facebook®, as well as through voice and text messaging. You can instantly tag your friends in photos before posting them on Facebook, or share your latest discoveries from the Android™ Market at the touch of a button.

HTC Wildfire S is one of HTC’s smallest phones ever – measuring just 10.13cm long and 5.94cm wide – and boasts a distinctive 3.2 inch, HVGA display.

Celebrate your individuality and choose from a wide variety of colors including black, purple and white. The phone’s home screen is fully customizable with your favorite apps, widgets and content, while a 5-megapixel color camera with auto focus, expandable microSD™ memory and support for a variety of audio and video formats make a great all-around multimedia device that slips easily into any pocket.

HTC Incredible S
The alluring HTC Incredible S smartphone combines cutting-edge design with a premium mobile experience for those who dare to be different. Showing what can be achieved when engineers and designers work together to raise the bar for mobile phone design, the HTC Incredible S smartphone features a stunning, contoured body that highlights the internal hardware components of the device. Capturing and viewing video in crystal clear High-Definition has never been so easy and a bright 4-inch WVGA Super LCD display and stereo surround sound bring a vibrant cinematic experience to the palm of your hand.

HTC Incredible S also takes high quality pictures with its 8-megapixel camera with dual flash, and it easily enables videos, photos and music to be shared from the handset direct to a TV using DLNA® technology. Thanks to the HTC Incredible S’s front facing camera and video call functionality, users will constantly be able to chat with their friends face-to-face.

Availability
The HTC Desire S, HTC Wildfire S and HTC Incredible S smartphones, will be broadly available to customers across major European and Asian markets during Q2 2011.

You may have been following our live blog of Samsung’s “Unpacked: Part I” event at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. If you did you would know that, much to the chagrin of most of the event’s attendants, it sort of dragged; we heard the same things repeated over and over again by various members of Samsung’s team. However, after we’ve had some hands-on time with the star of the show, the Galaxy S II, we think we know why it got such and exhaustive introduction: it’s a really, really great smartphone. Sammy has obviously invested a large amount of time and energy into the next Galaxy S, and you can really feel all that effort and energy when you pick up the device. It’s incredibly light, incredibly thin, and incredibly responsive. The TouchWiz UI has gotten a serious makeover that makes it much more appealing than its previous iteration. Customization options, social networking hook-ins, it’s all there. Not to mention some of those high-end specs: dual-core processor, Wi-Fi direct support, HSPA +21 Mbps radio, 1080p HD recording and playback at 30fps, and hardware accelerated encryption — just to name a few. Oh, and who could forget that 4.3-inch Super AMOLED Plus screen… you really have to see it to appreciate it. In short: the phone is gorgeous, feels solid, and responds just like you want it to. Will the Galaxy S II make its way to the U.S. in a non carrier-bastardized form? That’s the $1,000,000 question. Sammy is hosting another event tomorrow evening where it may reveal more details about its strategy for the United States — if we’re lucky we may even get a timetable. Until then, hit up our hands-on gallery and let us know what you think!

We know the next generation of Samsung’s Galaxy S handset, being referred to as the Galaxy S2, is due to drop at Mobile World Congress in just two weeks. We assume the device will sport Samsung’s new Super AMOLED Plus display and a more current processor offering. What we don’t know is exactly what the device will look like… until now. In a short teaser video, Sammy gives us a quick look at the profile of the next generation Gally S. What can we surmise from the video? Not much, other than the device is going to be incredibly thin… like really thin. You don’t have to take our word for it, the clip is waiting for you after the break. Enjoy.

It looks like T-Mobile’s planned release of Android 2.2 for the Samsung Vibrant has other carriers attention. Via its official Twitter account, Sprint has felt the need to remind you that it is “working to release Froyo for the Epic,”and that this update is coming “ASAP,” but has to meet “rigorous testing criteria.” T-Mobile may be the fourth largest carrier in the U.S., but they were, to their credit, the first to market with this major update. AT&T, Sprint, Verizon: your move.

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The Samsung hardware ship has been leaking like a sieve over the last several days. Following yesterday’s outing of the Forte LTE handset destined for MetroPCS, images of a new device, the S5830, have popped up on the web. Being referred to as the “Galaxy S Mini” by some, the device does look like a stout version of Sammy’s European Gally S and bears an iPhone-4-esque chrome bezel. Samfirmware, the site that published the photographs, also lists some of the device’s purported specs: Android 2.2.1, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, 3.5mm audio jack, micro-SD card slot, micro USB slot, and 5 megapixel camera with LED flash and 720p video recording. Thanks to public comments made by the company’s CEO, we know Samsung will be showing off some new hardware at Mobile World Congress next month. Will this little guy make an appearance? We’ll find out.

[Via Samsung Hub]

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You know what is sitting inside the Nexus S, but have you seen it? If you’re one of those people who prefer to go eyes-on (pics or it didn’t happen) then listen up. The gang over at iFixit have given the newly released Samsung Nexus S a proper tear down. While no real surprises were found under the hood, the brood does offer this warning about the 1500mAh pack found in the device:

Don’t feed this battery to a baby.

Oh, humor. Hit the read link to check out the Nexus S… inside and out.

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Hey, hey, hey! You thought we were going to let the latest (and arguable best) Android handset slip away from your potential grasp? Not a chance. We have a brand new Google Nexus S to giveaway to our fine readers, and here is all you have to do to win one. Ready? Official rules are below!

• We just soft launched a Buying Guide on BGR — it’s a great resource where we choose our favorite winners for different phone/gadget topics. Check it out and let us know what you think, ok? Feedback is appreciated, so hit us with some comments below!
• We’ll run the contest for a week, until December 19th at 11:59PM
• The contest is open worldwide, but you must be at least 18 years or older.
• The phone is unlocked and supports the 900/1700/2100MHz UMTS bands. This means it’s 3G compatible with T-Mobile in the US, a few Canadian providers, and most European/Asian providers.
• Follow us on Twitter and Facebook if you’d like!

That’s it! Good luck

P.S. Google tells us that the packaging our Nexus S came in will slightly differ from the retail packaging. The unit you will receive if you win will be a retail unit in retail packaging.

Well that didn’t take long. Hours after the Best Buy snafu, Engadget managed to get their hands on a half-dozen images of the next “Google phone.” So here’s what we know. The device will carry the model name GT-I9020 (the unbranded Galaxy S is the GT-I9000) have a front-facing video camera, Wi-Fi b/g/n, and — according to a model that recently crossed the FCC’s desk — T-Mobile’s AWS 3G bands. All that’s left is for the official unveiling from Google and or Samsung. Hit the read link to check out the other images.

UPDATE: AndroidPolice have acquired a document from Best Buy that indicates Nexus S floor displays could go live in-stores by November 14th. [Read]

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Remember that Nexus Two rumor? Well, Samsung publicly stated that the Nexus Two fodder was “simply not true,” but they didn’t say anything about the Nexus S! Earlier this morning, blog Phandroid noticed Best Buy’s website advertising the Nexus S handset; it has since been removed. The exact verbiage of the ad, which did not have an accompanying image, was:

The Nexus S. Available only at Best Buy this holiday season.

As you may also notice, the name of the missing image is “Nexus S for T Mobile.” Alright, let’s hear your best conspiracy theory. Will the Nexus S be a Galaxy S set with Android 2.3? Will it be T-Mobile only or will just the T-Mobile variant be a Best Buy exclusive? Pandora’s Box is officially open for business. Go nuts.

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