SK Telecom will begin building out Wave 2 of the WiBro network in Seoul after successfully sending HD video across the network in real time. Under optimal conditions this new Wave could download at 37.44Mbps while uploading at 10.08Mbps. That’s insanely fast! That means you could download a SD video that’s 700MB in about two and a half minutes. The build out should be finished by… → Read More
Turn down the audio. They’re just talking about the new Halloween movie Is it possible to go a day without Samsung announcing a world’s first? Not likely. During my recent trip to Korea, I pulled a little face time with the G800, which is the world’s first 5-megapixel camera phone with 3x optical zoom. It may be launching in Europe, but that doesn’t mean we’re going to let it pass on… → Read More
This banner is splashed across every LG building in Gumi. If you’ve been to Seoul or if you haven’t then let me tell you how big Samsung’s presence is in the country. They’re everywhere. From construction to insurance to phones to cars and HDTVs all over the airport in Incheon. Once you step foot into the country, you know who the big dog is. I very rarely saw LG except for… → Read More
During my stay in Korea, I was privy to visit one of Samsung’s manufacturing plants in Gumi, which is referred to as the Gumi complex (the largest mobile phone manufacturer in the world) and ranks as the sixth largest company if it were its own entity. The Gumi Complex is large, I don’t remember the exact acreage, but it’s massive. There are onsite apartment buildings for employees in… → Read More
The Anycall Studio in Seoul is the place to go and check out all the latest phones Samsung has to offer. It’s a no pressure situation because they don’t sell any products there. It’s just meant to be a hands-on store so you can see each model is capable of. Head on over to play the claw machine and attempt to win free prizes or get help with your phone should you have any issues and… → Read More
Here they are. Nothing new and nothing we haven’t already covered, but I thought I’d snap a few pictures of them anyway. → Read More
When I first posted about the B710 there wasn’t a whole lot about it that made me think it was worth mentioning other than a quick blurb. I mean, sure, the PIP is cool, but I didn’t think it was THAT cool. After seeing it in person yesterday (and unknowingly a few days before since it’s my Uncle’s phone), I’ve certainly changed my mind. The ability to watch a terrestrial channel and… → Read More
a Cyber Soldier? The kids and even some adults (those over 21, though, they’re still punk kids) are obsessed with Starcraft. I don’t understand it. Walk into any PC cafe/room whatever you want to call it and everyone is playing that damn game. They should be out trying to score with chicks or something fun. Not sitting in front of a monitor for 10+ hours and dying from exhaustion. → Read More
I can’t really understand anyone’s fascination with the E-mart in Yongsan. It’s not like you’re going to find super cool gadgets or anything. The reason this place is so famous is because of the sheer volume of crap that’s available for purchase. It’s just a bunch of counters crammed together with the brightest fluorescent lights known to man. They’re… → Read More
The Samsung i550 is the first GPS-enabled device from the Korean giant and it’s a great start. The quad band HSDPA/UMTS/EDGE S60 device features a 3.2-megapixel camera (AF w/ image & video editor), 150MB of internal memory, charging via microUSB, 2.6-inch screen, 128MB of RAM, dedicated hot keys, and a trackball ala Sidekick/BlackBerry. Something is going on with Google on this one, but… → Read More
Remember when I said I had my eye on the i450? Yeah, well, my mind hasn’t changed one bit. See the red scroll-wheel dealie on the left side? It doesn’t move, rather, it’s a touch sensitive ridge. When you get where you want to go (if you wanted to see all the artists or albums), you simply press down in the center of the arc and it jumps to that particular screen. The OS being… → Read More
Here we have the lovechild of Samsung and Bang & Olufsen. It’s a quirky looking phone that most would think is upside down. We typically see scroll-wheels set at the bottom of the handset rather than the top. Sound quality on the Serenata is superb. It definitely improves on the Serene. The UI is all done from the scroll-wheel or on the touch screen, which is limited to firing up the music… → Read More
The Armani phone from Samsung was revealed weeks ago, but today we had a chance for some hands on and I’m very impressed. It’s small form factor, 3.44×2.14×0.41-inch, and touch screen UI are quite intuitive and easy to use. The 2.6-inch QVGA touch screen has haptic feedback for everything, but it shuts off when you’re dialing a number, which is something I found rather… → Read More
Hello from Seoul, South Korea. Well, I landed in Seoul’s Incheon airport last night and throughout this week I’ll be bringing you some exclusive Samsung news as well as everything else the motherland has to offer. Bet you didn’t know Samsung made cars. If you’re in or around Seoul then feel free to shoot me an e-mail, peterha at crunch gear dot com. Stay tuned for some… → Read More
Just landed an hour ago. I’m here with Samsung suckling on the sweet teat of junket whoredom. In all honesty, this should be a pretty cool trip as we’re going to see WiMAX in action, their Mobile TV solutions, and visit KES 2006, which is kind of like CES but Korean. To whet your appetites, I’ve got some pictures of the R-MCA-05-0038 phone – the June? – with built-in… → Read More
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