Battle of the OLED displays: Samsung slaps LG Display with lawsuit as the patent wars continue

Samsung is suing LG Display for infringements on its OLED patents on seven accounts, company officials said Monday.

Samsung appears to be right smack in the middle of yet another patent-related lawsuit. If its ongoing legal debacles with Apple weren’t enough, the Korea-based company is now taking LG Display Co. to court to invalidate a number of the company’s patents related to OLED display, company officials said on Monday.

LG Display, like Samsung, is one of the leading manufacturers when it comes to producing OLED displays for electronic devices. LG Display, however, excels in the TV manufacturing business while Samsung’s strength lies in creating smartphone displays.

This new lawsuit from Samsung could be a move to fire back at its rival touch screen maker, which smacked the Galaxy-brand creator with charges back in September. LG claimed that Samsung infringed on its OLED patents and has included products such as Samsung’s flagship Galaxy S lineup and its Galaxy Tab devices in the lawsuit.

Samsung, in turn, wants a total of seven patents from LG to be invalidated, according to Korean news source Yonhap News Agency. Samsung is arguing that LG’s patents are not actually innovative and therefore shouldn’t exist.

As opposed to standard crystal liquid displays, OLED screens do not require a backlight. This allows for thinner, sleeker designs and clearer images, which has prompted TV manufactures such as LG Display to utilize this technology. LG Display is an affiliate of LG Electronics Inc., one of the leading mobile phone manufacturers in the country, coming in second to none other than Samsung Electronics.

As Samsung begins to spark legal activity with LG, its seemingly endless case against Apple continues to progress. Just last week it was reported that a California court has allowed the company to add Apple’s iPhone 5 to its list of products that have infringed on Samsung patents. At the same time, this judge also allowed Apple to add Android’s Jelly Bean operating system and devices such as the Galaxy Note 10.1 and US edition of the Galaxy S3 to its lawsuit.

Only time will tell how these lawsuits play out, but Samsung now has two major competitors ganging up on its Galaxy smartphones and tablets, just in time for the holiday season. 

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Section of Nokia Lumia manuals display all the outside bits and bobs

Don't go plugging your lead into the wrong port now!

While many may write this off as 'common sense', some believe that sense really isn't all that common, especially when it comes to technology. Parts of the manuals that will be accompanying the Lumia 920 and Lumia 820 have been published by WindowsMania.pl. We previously took a look at how the insides look when both Lumias have been taken apart, now we get to see both back in one piece.

As well as showing how to insert the SIM card, connect the device to a power source (when not making use of the wireless charging functionality) and how not to damage your Nokia Windows Phone (Lumia 900 in the pics), we're also able to see both handsets together with a list of features and buttons, informing the viewer where everything is located.

While nothing new is detailed in the images, it's good to see more material come to light as we reach ever closer to the release of both the Lumia 920 and Lumia 820 Windows Phones.

via: WindowsMania.pl; thanks, djtonka, for the tip!

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Android-powered Cube U9GT5 tablet boasts Retina-quality display

A new tablet is launching soon in China that not only claims to match the resolution of the new iPad's Retina display, but it might be able to do it for under 200 euros (though no price or release date was announced). The Cube U9GT5 runs Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and is powered by a dual-core 1.6 GHz Cortex A9 processor with 1 GB of RAM. The 9.7-inch display clocks in at 2048 x 1536, or 264 pixels per inch, which is identical to Apple's latest tablet. Of course, there's a lot more than pixel density to take into account, but sure gives this tablet a solid selling point to lean on. 

It's hard to really tell how much better these displays are than what we're used to, but that didn't stop the manufacturer from posting a few comparison videos and images.

While we may never see the Cube U9GT much further beyond China, it does go to show that an Android tablet can compete in displays with what Apple's offering. The real trick will be if this thing can pull it off while maintaining solid battery life and not being too thick. How high of a priority is display sharpness to you? Is there really any point until there's a lot of apps and content that's been optimized for that resolution, or will the availability of that hardware naturally push content creators to upscale?

Via: ChiniTech

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From the Forums: Competitive Windows Phone market and Tim Cook's iPhone display lie

It's time for another From the Forums roundup and since it's a Saturday we thought we'd add a slightly humorous twist to this edition - so be sure to check out the miscellaneous section at the end for the feel-good call out. While not much has occurred during the week in the aftermath of the HTC event, we've been able locate popular threads over on our forums for inclusion.

The somewhat competitive Windows Phone market

The Windows Phone market is surely heating up with Nokia lashing out against Samsung and HTC, it's similar to three kids in Toys"R"us who are fighting over who's getting the latest toy. It's good to see more options available to consumers and manufacturers pouring effort into the platform, but some may be put off with the attacks and jabs that are taking place.

Forum member Winterfang created a thread to discuss the latest HTC hardware against what Nokia has to offer with its Lumia family, but of course the party crashing and tweets from Nokia were eventually debated.

"Talk about beautiful design that feels like it's made with Windows Phone in mind. Something new, something fresh, something that represent the very best on the company. What is Nokia going to do now? The 8X is basically a better looking, much lighter Lumia 920 that's available on all major carriers. Maybe if it had real pureview it might differentiate themselves but they blow it hard."

What do you make of the hardware released by the three manufacturers? Do you believe there's a need for Nokia to be jabbing HTC and Samsung? Head on over to the "HTC beat Nokia at it's own game." to voice your opinion.

High-end HTC Apollo device on the way?

Before the 8X and 8S were announced we were speculating that the company would sport three new Windows Phones. The 8X isn't high-end by any means (though it's certainly no slouch), so could we still see the likes of the 'Zenith' to more effectively combat the Lumia 920? Forum user stevovr seems to believe so:

"While looking at all the threads comparing the various new phones and thinking where is the Zenith/Titan i started to wonder about whats coming soon. Eveyone has opinions about wither HTC is holding back but i thought to myself that what is coming is not ready yet. HTC was keen to bring up the long term relationship with Microsoft."

It's definitely a possibility, and one we'd like to believe. But what do you think? Should HTC stay in the high-end business? Provide your $0.02 in the "Here's a HTC thought" thread.

Miscellaneous: The Tim Cook iPhone 5 lie

Forum user Gaichuke decided to create a comparison chart that puts the Lumia 920's PureMotion HD+ display up against Apple's claim that the iPhone 5 has the "most advanced display in the world." Unlike picture edits like the one above, the comparison chart uses specifications of both the iPhone 5 and Lumi 920 to come to the conclusion that Tim Cook is wrong and the iPhone 5 does not sport the most advanced display.

Head on over to the "Display comparison between iPhone 5 and Lumia 920" thread to leave your feedback. And now we leave you with said Phone 5 display comparison image. Enjoy!

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RAZR M 4G LTE leaks out full details, has 4.3-inch qHD display

What we're seeing above are leaked images of the latest offering from Motorola and Verizon, the RAZR M 4G LTE. Coming out just ahead of Motorola's Sept. 5 event, the device seems like a logical progression from the original RAZR on Verizon, with a less distinguished camera hump and some familiar design features -- like on-screen buttons -- of recent Motorola devices. Other specs are as follows:

4.3-inch 540x960 (qHD) Super AMOLED displaydual-core Snapdragon S4 processor1GB of RAM8MP rear camera, 3MP front cameraAndroid 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich

We'll be following the story and let you know when we get more information, such as pricing and release dates, as soon as they become available. 

Source: Engadget

"Forever tinkering with gadgets."

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