Samsung drops $6 billion hostile bid for Sandisk
A year ago, South Korean disk drive and flash memory chip maker Samsung gave up on months of negotiations to buy rival SanDisk, and made an unsolicited, hostile bid for the company valued at just short of six billion dollars. Observers suggested motives ranging from simple bargain-hunting in an economic downturn, to an attempt to create a flash memory company large enough to swat back Apple’s notoriously tough demands on price and exclusivity for the… Continue Reading
Samsung I7500 has iPhone-like keyboard, Android software
An Android phone without a hardware keyboard, Samsung’s I75500 also sports a five megapixel camera. Yet its winning feature may not be the keyboard, but Android’s live folders, which let phone apps fill your phone with data in the background so you can access it later, even without a connection. Yes, this is a Twitter phone.
Samsung’s design isn’t just plain, it’s boring. Powered off, it has none of the sexiness of a Blackberry or iPhone…. Continue Reading
LED TVs hit the market, but will they sell?
With Samsung leading the charge, several television makers are turning to light-emitting diode technology to build thinner, crisper and more energy efficient products, VentureWire points out today. The catch is that the LEDs take price tags up a few notches — so will consumers go for it?
So far, the strategy employed by Samsung, LG and Sony — which all have LED models of their own on the market — has been to emphasize energy savings…. Continue Reading
Roundup: Facebook’s election, Google’s new toolbar, and more
Facebook users vote on site’s governing documents — An overwhelming majority of votes supported the new terms of use (which were rather controversial) over the old ones.
Google adds new features to Toolbar — New features include a search using your current location and a simplified Chinese toolbar.
Amazon earnings jump – The online retailer handily beat analysts estimates during the first quarter of the year.
Twitter gets 19 million global users – That’s according to comScore, a firm whose… Continue Reading
WiMax chip provider Beceem raises $20M
Beceem Communications, one of the top providers of WiMax chipsets, announced that it’s brought in $20 million in a fifth round of funding to scale its manufacturing operations.
The round was led by Motorola and included Global Catalyst Partners, Khosla Ventures, KTB Ventures, Walden International, Intel Capital, NEC, Mitsui and Samsung. Beceem, based in Santa Clara, Calif., has raised $110 million to date.
Samsung starts making new kind of indoor displays
Samsung Electronics said today it has begun producing a more economical breed of digital displays for indoor applications where round-the-clock use isn’t needed.
The so-called Basic Digital Information Displays, (B-DID), will widen the market for digital displays, the South Korean company said. The displays can be used in stores, restaurants, schools, museums and other places.
These displays are cheaper to use as digital signs than liquid-crystal displays that consume power 24 hours a day. These B-DID displays… Continue Reading
Samsung to use Sandbridge Technologies wireless chips
Moving ahead on its next-generation wireless chips, Sandbridge Technologies said today that it has cut a deal with Samsung Electronics, which plans to use Sandbridge’s chips in next-generation cell phones featuring high-speed data connectivity.
Tarrytown, N.Y.-based Sandbridge has pioneered a series of SB3500 baseband processors that do software defined radio. That is, the chips can adapt on the fly to handling a variety of different radio signals. Hence, a single chip is all you need to… Continue Reading
Samsung builds a super-dense memory chip
These chips don’t look like much. The black things are individual dynamic random access memory chips that are attached to modules that snap into the main circuit board of a computer.
But these chips from Samsung Electronics are made with one of the most advanced manufacturing processes in the world. The company said it has made the world’s first four-gigabit DDR3 DRAM chips using a 50-nanometer manufacturing technology. The 50 nanometers, or 50 billionths of a… Continue Reading
Roundup: The Jobs saga continues, Circuit City razed, Hulu apologizes and more
Here’s the latest action:
The Steve Jobs saga continues — Talk about the Apple chief executive and his health issues remain everywhere you look. Newsweek columnist Dan Lyons says the media’s coverage of Apple “bites.” As you might expect after their heated exchange the other day, Lyons focuses on CNBC’s Jim Goldman. Meanwhile, the blog which Goldman criticized for its reporting on Jobs’ failing health initially, Gizmodo, featured a profanity-laced post from its editorial director, Brian Lam,… Continue Reading
CES: Are 3-D glasses moving beyond the gimmick stage? Nah
Before my trip to the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last week, I predicted that TV and computer makers would be hawking 3-D options in order to differentiate themselves. Hollywood’s been trying to use 3-D glasses in theaters in an effort to make an experience not available at home, and I expected TV makers would probably be playing catch-up. And I was right. I saw LG, Samsung, Sony, Nvidia, Viewsonic, iZ3D and others pushing… Continue Reading
Samsung and Chumby team up to create better chips and services for connected digital photo frames
Digital photo frame makers are a dime a dozen, with prices for many low-end frames falling under $100. But this fast-growing category is getting an upgrade with the advent of internet-connected frames, which are harder to do right and can come with services that consumers may pay for.
Samsung and Chumby are teaming up to create the hardware, software and services for connected digital photo frames. They are announcing the alliance today at the International Consumer… Continue Reading
Samsung launches a new chip to liven up digital photo frames
At the Las Vegas Consumer Electronics Show in January, there will be lots of new digital photo frame models capable of receiving updated photos via Wi-Fi wireless network connections.
Some of these smart picture frames will be powered by a new chip from Samsung Electronics. The Korean electronics giant is announcing today that it has designed a series of media processors for the digital photo frame market. The S5L2010 series of processors will be the brains… Continue Reading
Samsung promises more power efficient big-screen TVs
Flat-panel TVs are the power hogs of electronics. A 52-inch liquid crystal display consumes about 300 watts of power today. A 32-inch display consumes about 150 watts. Samsung said today that it will cut that number by 50 percent on its newest TVs next year.
HyunSuk Kim, vice president of research and development at Samsung, said at an event in San Francisco today that the company will be able to create a 55-inch LCD TV next… Continue Reading
Samsung paints bleak picture for tech sales
Samsung Electronics offered a bleak sales outlook today for the fourth quarter and 2009 for a variety of electronics products. The Korean electronics giant said demand was weak for a wide range of memory chip products, TVs, computer monitors, and other goods.
Overall demand for tech products is sluggish in the fourth quarter and is expected to declined in 2009, said executive vice president Woosik Chu, speaking at a company event in San Francisco. The company… Continue Reading
Panasonic and Samsung invest in SiBEAM to promote WirelessHD
In an endorsement for wireless video networking, Panasonic and Samsung said today they have invested an undisclosed amount into SiBEAM, the maker of high-speed networking chips.
Sunnyvale, Calif.-based SiBEAM makes WirelessHD chips that can wirelessly transfer video from one device to another in a living room. The SiBEAM chip sets operate in the 60 gigahertz band of the wireless spectrum. It’s difficult to make radio chips that operate at that frequency, but there is very little… Continue Reading
Updated: SanDisk may escape Samsung hostile takeover through a deal with Toshiba
Looks like SanDisk has figured out a way to avoid Samsung’s hostile takeover offer. Toshiba and SanDisk said today that Toshiba will pay $1 billion to gain a larger stake in their joint venture in flash memory chip manufacturing.
Under the deal, Milpitas, Calif.-based SanDisk has agreed to sell 30 percent of the manufacturing capacity of the joint venture to Toshiba, reducing SanDisk’s own capital spending costs. The venture currently operates two chip factories. The extra… Continue Reading
Roundup: First signs of a credit thaw, Google’s search share down, Jive Software layoffs and more
Here’s the latest action:
Credit beginning to thaw? — Bank borrowing costs fell slightly on Tuesday, a possible first sign that credit is beginning to flow between institutions again. Analysis at Calculated Risk.
Google’s search market share dips — The latest ComScore numbers show that Google gained more users in September, but lost percentage market share to Yahoo, Microsoft and Ask. AOL was the only other of the top five search engines to see its market share drop.
Jive Software… Continue Reading
Samsung makes a hostile $5.8 billion offer for SanDisk
If I got a $5.8 billion acquisition offer, I’d take it. But some people think that’s small beans. Samsung Electronics said today it was going public with a hostile bid for SanDisk after four months of talks failed to result in an agreement.
Samsung said in a letter that it has offered $26 a share in cash for SanDisk. That’s a 96 percent premium over the price of SanDisk shares on Sept. 4, a day before… Continue Reading
Verizon shows you Visual Voice Mail — if you show them the money
Talk of Apple’s iPhone forcing competitors in the mobile industry to adapt has largely been focused on its large multi-touch display and more recently, the App Store. But there’s another, small feature that never ceases to wow new iPhone owners: Visual Voice Mail.
It’s been around since the launch of the initial iPhone last year, but now competitors are starting to figure out that customers like it. First, Sprint licensed the feature for its Samsung Instinct… Continue Reading
Roundup: AOL shutting businesses, First Solar building factory, and Microsoft’s robot receptionist
AOL plans to shutter a bunch of businesses: Among the businesses on the chopping block are Bluestring, Xdrive, and AOL Pictures.
Apple is testing update for iPhone software: Apple is testing version 2.1 of its iPhone firmware. It includes improved location features.
Vonage getting new CEO? The Wall Street Journal reported that Vonage Holdings Corp. CEO Jeffrey Citron will step down next week and appoint a new CEO. The VoIP phone service company also said it… Continue Reading