Samsung already thinking about Galaxy S6 and Galaxy Note 5, plans new factory for flexible displays

Slow down Samsung - the Galaxy S5 has only been on sale for a few weeks and we're still at least five months away from an official reveal of the Galaxy Note 4, but that hasn't stopped the company from thinking about their eventual successors. According to a new report, it is preparing to build a factory specifically to produce flexible displays for the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy Note 5.

The report, from Chinese website LEDWN, suggests Samsung is looking to get the new factory up and running as soon as possible to start manufacturing flexible screens ready for its 2015 smartphones, including the expected Galaxy S6 and Galaxy Note 5.

With the Galaxy S5 arriving with a regular flat OLED display and the Galaxy Roundcurved smartphone on limited sale in Samsung's native Korea, it was widely expected that Samsung would be delaying the global rollout of curved or flexible screen handsets until 2015 - despite Samsung's senior VP of product strategy Yoon Han-kil suggesting the company would be revealing "new form factors" when it launches the Galaxy Note 4 later this year.

Samsung's fourth phablet is now rumoured to have a three-sided display, which would put notifications and shortcuts on the sides of the device using a screen which curves around the edges. It isn't, however, expected to be flexible.

That technology could instead be reserved for products launched next year, once Samsung has had time to perfect the technology - or make it cost effective to mass produce. According to Sammobile this latest report matches Samsung's roadmap for 2015, but should still be taken with a pinch of salt. Flexible screen technology is still very much in its infancy, despite being shown off as a working prototype at last year's CES show in Las Vegas.

Sony's online store will be the only place to buy its best phone in the US

Sony's Xperia Z2 may be a big, powerful slab of a phone, but fans in the United States hoping to snag one in-person or with a contract are out of luck... for now, at least. The company just confirmed that neither it nor its tiny cousin the Z1 Compact will make their way to US store shelves "in the near future." The news comes as sort of bummer considering that Sony's Z2 has received pretty consistent acclaim so far, but hey -- at least Sony isn't completely full of bad news. An unlocked version of the Z2 will be available in the company's online store come the summer, though anyone hoping to nab one a pint-sized Z1 (which is no slouch either) will have to ferret out some alternate sources. At least Xperia fans in need of a fix have at least one option: the Xperia Z2 tablet will be available here soon, and it's easily one of the best 10.1 Android tabs coming to market.

Microsoft completes Nokia acquisition, gains Lumia and Asha brands

Microsoft's deal to buy Nokia's devices divisionhas finally been completed, six months after it was initially announced, giving the Windows Phone software developer control over 90% of all Windows Phone devices currently on the market - as well as Nokia's entry-level Asha and Nokia X Android smartphones.

The deal, worth a reported €3.79 billion for the company itself plus €1.65 billion for Nokia's patent portfolio, will see up to 32,000 Nokia employees move over to Microsoft as the company moves from a focus on software to mobile hardware for the first time, with the potential to ship 200 million handsets per year.

According to The Verge, Microsoft is planning to use the brand "Microsoft Mobile" for the Nokia phone business, which will be run as a separate subsidiary of the main Microsoft company. The majority of Nokia's employees won't be relocating to Redmond, but instead staying put at Nokia's existing offices and factories.

Until today, it was unclear which company would own the rights to which brand and product names, but the closing of the deal has revealed all: Microsoft will own the rights to the "Lumia" and "Asha" brands, while Nokia will retain ownership of the "Nokia" brand - which can only be used on featurephones, not smartphones, for the next ten years.

Otherwise, the company will now be downsizing to concentrate on three key areas. Here maps and location-based services, NSN network infrastructure and Advanced Technologies licensing and development will remain Nokia controlled, but in a much smaller capacity than before the deal.

Former Nokia CEO Stephen Elop will now return to Microsoft, taking control of all hardware projects including Lumia, Surface and Xbox. Whether he will have more success than at Nokia, which went from one of the biggest telecoms companies in the world to a shadow of its former self under his control, remains to be seen.

LG Lucid 3 VS876

For Verizon

This is not a GSM device, it will not work on any GSM network worldwide.

GENERAL	2G Network	CDMA 800 / 1900
	3G Network	CDMA2000 1xEV-DO
	4G Network	LTE 700 MHz Class 13 / 1700 / 2100
	SIM	Micro-SIM
	Announced	2014, April
	Status	Available. Released 2014, April

BODY	Dimensions	131.6 x 66 x 9.9 mm (5.18 x 2.60 x 0.39 in)
	Weight	123.9 g (4.37 oz)

DISPLAY	Type	IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors
	Size	540 x 960 pixels, 4.7 inches (~234 ppi pixel density)
	Multitouch	Yes
	Protection	Corning Gorilla Glass 3

SOUND	Alert types	Vibration, MP3, WAV ringtones
	Loudspeaker	Yes
	3.5mm jack	Yes

MEMORY	Card slot	microSD, up to 64 GB
	Internal	8 GB storage, 1 GB RAM

DATA	GPRS	No
	EDGE	No
	Speed	EV-DO Rev. A, up to 3.1 Mbps, LTE
	WLAN	Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct, Wi-Fi hotspot, DLNA
	Bluetooth	Yes, v4.0 with A2DP, LE, EDR
	NFC	Yes
	USB	Yes, microUSB v2.0

CAMERA	Primary	5 MP, 2592 х 1944 pixels, autofocus, LED flash
	Features	Geo-tagging, face and smile detection, panorama, HDR
	Video	Yes, 1080p@30fps
	Secondary	Yes, VGA

FEATURES	OS	Android OS, v4.4.2 (KitKat)
	CPU	Quad-core 1.2 GHz
	Sensors	Accelerometer, proximity, compass
	Messaging	SMS (threaded view), MMS, Email, Push Email, IM
	Browser	HTML
	Radio	No
	GPS	Yes, with A-GPS support
	Java	Yes, via Java MIDP emulator
	Colors	Black
		- SNS integration - Google Search, Maps, Gmail - YouTube, Google Talk - MP4/DivX/Xvid/H.264/H.263/WMV player - MP3/WAV/WMA/eAAC+ player - Document viewer - Photo/video editor - Organizer - Voice memo/dial/commands - Predictive text input (Swype)

BATTERY		Li-Ion 2440 mAh battery
	Stand-by	Up to 360 h
	Talk time	Up to 12 h 30 min

MISC	SAR US	0.78 W/kg (head)     1.09 W/kg (body)
	Price group

US customer satisfaction led by Apple, Samsung close second

J.D. Powers ran a customer satisfaction study in the US and results revealed interesting changes since the previous edition from 2011. Apple topped the charts across the board, beating Samsung on all major US carriers.That said, Samsung stayed close behind Apple and above average for AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile. HTC managed to beat the average only on Verizon, but lost to BlackBerry on AT&T. Motorola was disappointingly low, at the bottom on two out of four carriers. LG and Nokia didn't do too hot either.Unfortunately, there's no breakdown by device - it's probably the iPhone 5s driving Apple customers' satisfaction, but where does Samsung's multitude of Galaxy phones stand?AT&T scored the highest in customer satisfaction (844/1000), while its main rival Verizon came in forth (829/1000) with Sprint (839/1000) and T-Mobile (835/1000) slotting in between.

    

J.D. Power scores for several maker on each of the four major US carriers

Price became an increasingly important factor of why a customer bought their device. 21% of surveyed users claimed price was the main reason for picking the device they did, up from 13% in 2011. Surprisingly, however, the average purchase price went up to $202 from $174 over the last three years. Fewer people received a discount too, 52% down from 60%.Features were still the most important factor for picking a device, but it was well down from what it was before – 35% now, 57% then. However, those that picked a phone for its features were more satisfied (860/1000) than those who picked it for its price (808/1000).As for what features the users actually want, voice control and built-in sensors (temperature, noise and mood) both scored just over a third. Facial recognition and biometric security (i.e. a fingerprint sensor) claimed the remaining piece of the pie.

Samsung begins seeding Android 4.4 KitKat for Galaxy Note II

Here are some good news for the Galaxy Note II owners across the globe - Samsung has just started to rollout the Android 4.4 KitKat update for the international model.

The firmware update brings the latest Android KitKat 4.4.2 version, which will make your system even faster and snappier, it will also bring fullscreen album art and camera shortcut on the lockscreen, transparent status bar, wireless printing capabilities among others.

Naturally, Samsung's latest TouchWiz features are also on board - you get Samsung KNOX and Samsung Wallet plus some other minor goodies we've met across other devices. The update won't bring you the Galaxy S5 UI and icons though, in case you were hoping for them.

The first country to get the new update is France, but more markets should be following suit very soon. It is available over-the-air, so you should start keeping an eye on the Settings->About->Software Update menu.

4.5" Samsung Galaxy Core 2 leaks with quad-core CPU

The Samsung Galaxy Core 2 has leaked in dual-SIM form over in Russia and carries the product codeSM-G355H. We got two images that show the device with a physical home button along with a capacitive recent apps and back buttons.

According to the leak the Galaxy Core 2 Dual SIM has a 4.5" WVGA (480 x 800 pixels) display on the front, quad-core 1.2 GHz processor, a lowly 512 MB of RAM, 4 GB of internal storage and a microSD card option.

 

Samsung Galaxy Core 2

The phone comes as heir to the Galaxy Core, Galaxy Core Plus and Galaxy Core Advance lineup. It measures 129.7 x 67.9 x 9.8 mm - around the same as the 4.3" Galaxy Core and Core Plus - and weighs in at 138 g. The camera is a 5 MP unit at the back and a front-facing 0.3 MP.

The battery is a 2,000 mAh unit and the device comes with Samsung's TouchWiz atop Android 4.4 KitKat. There's no LTE on board but there is HSPA+ so we should expect download speeds above 21 Mbps.

The Galaxy Core 2 Dual-SIM is expected to hit the shelves in Russia on May 20 with a price of RUR9,990 (around €200 and $277).