Emma Roth
Remember that iPhone that fell out of Alaska Airlines Flight 1282?
The WSJ’s Joanna Stern wanted to find out just how it survived the fall — by dropping phones from a drone, of course.
Samsung Archive
Archives for April 2024
Emilia David
Samsung and Google tease “exciting things” for AI on Android and Galaxy hardware.
The two companies say their partnership “has never been stronger,” possibly calming any fears after Google merged its Android and hardware teams. It sure looks like we’re going to see more AI in both Samsung and Google devices soon beyond Circle to Search, which is something to watch for as more AI-powered devices like the Rabbit R1 come to market.
Thomas Ricker
The race to ultra-advanced 1-nm chips is on.
TSMC says it’ll start production of 1.6-nm chips by 2026 in a move that should “greatly improve logic [chip] density and performance,” according to Nikkei. Meanwhile Intel is targeting 2-nm and 1.8-nm technologies by 2025, with Samsung targeting 1.4-nm in 2027.
Allison Johnson
When they go high, we go low.
Rumors suggest that Google’s midrange Pixel is getting a price bump this year. Samsung, on the other hand, is only bringing its lower priced Galaxy A35 midrange phone to the US this year — not the A55.
The A35 goes on sale in the states today with a hardy IP67 rating, stabilized main camera, and a 120Hz OLED for $399 — sounds like it could be a decent deal.
Thomas Ricker
iPhone sales plummet allowing Samsung to retake top spot.
According to IDC, iPhone sales fell by nearly 10 percent globally compared to the same Q1 last year as Chinese companies like Huawei, Xiaomi, and budget maker Transsion surged.
While Samsung won the quarter (after Apple took the lead for all of 2023), it’s still down slightly YoY and not keeping up with the 7.8 percent increase in smartphone demand.
Image: IDC
Allison Johnson
Galaxy AI is learning some new languages.
Samsung is adding three new languages to Galaxy AI this spring: Arabic, Indonesian, and Russian. That’s a total of 16 languages supported across AI features like live translation and interpreter.
Samsung’s adding a few new dialects too: Cantonese, Canadian French, and Australian English. That’s really going to clear up some confusion when I tell the S24 Ultra I want to “throw a shrimp on the barbie.”
Galaxy AI Now Supports More Languages with Latest Update
[Samsung US Newsroom]
David Pierce
Jess Weatherbed
Samsung is more than doubling its Texas chip investment.
Its initial $17 billion investment in Taylor, Texas will swell to about $44 billion, according to the Wall Street Journal, as Samsung plans to build a second chip factory and a new facility for advanced packaging and R&D.
An official announcement is expected on April 15th. Samsung’s first Texas-based factory was expected to start production this year, though this has reportedly been delayed till 2025.