Fire at Samsung Backup Data Center Takes Services Offline!

A fire at a Samsung datacenter in Gwacheon, South Korea temporarily knocked out access to Samsung.com this morning. That's not that big of a deal, except for that the fire also knocked out the connectivity of a number of Samsung devices: Samsung's Smart TV with SmartHub, Samsung phones, and Samsung Blu-ray players, to name a few.

Basically, any Samsung device that requires Samsung servers to operate — or uses Samsung servers for some selection of its features, like Samsung's "Apps Mobile" store — were rendered inoperable this morning as a result of the fire.

The good news is that service appears to be restored for most devices as of this article's writing. The fire itself, which took place on the building's fourth floor, didn't have any associated fatalities either. The fire affected the building that houses Samsung's backup data center for Samsung's primary datacenter in Suwon, South Korea.

The PCBs for the new flagship smartphones were damaged by the fire, just like manufacturing equipment, according to a media report.

The fire was first reported at around 7AM on Sunday, the 9th of March, 2014. Asia News Agency reports that it took approximately 280 firefighters about six hours to stop the fire at the fab. Numerous fire trucks, helicopters and other machines were used to cease the fire, which destroyed production and equipment worth about $1 billion (€721 million, £601 million). Around 15 people were evacuated from the factory, there are no reports about injuries of casualties.

Samsung posted an official notice about the incident to its ICT Story website — in Korean, we note. The company did apologize for the issue, though it's unclear just how a fire at the company's backup datacenter managed to so significantly affect Samsung's primary services.

Additionally, there's no indication that Samsung plans to alter how its services operate in order to prevent such an issue going forward. According to some reports, users were unable to access third-party apps on their Samsung Smart TVs, as the TVs allegedly seem to require a connection to Samsung's servers before non-Samsung apps can even be launched. As Twitter complaints indicated, it appeared to be a frustrating situation for some users:

"NOTHING on Samsung TV Smart Hub works today because Samsung's main website is down! Very poor show @samsunguk," wrote Twitter user @timtj early this morning.

CpG,

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අද චීනයේ smartphone වෙලදපොලේ xiaomi පන්ගුව 5කි, Iphone පන්ගුව 4.8කි.

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  Xiaomi ලාභ පන්නයේ චීන smartphoneයක් නොවේ, එය ඉතා උසස් මට්ටමේ hardaware ඇති නූතන එකකි.
 එහි ප්‍රචලිතම මෝස්තරය වන Red rice හි ඇත්තේ Mediatek Quadcore processor කි , 4.7" 720p Display/ 1GB Ram තිබේ.
Xiaomi තුල ඇත්තේ Android වුවද එය විශේශ එකකි.එහි ඇති MIUI android interface  එක සෑම සතියක් පාසාම අලුත් කෙරේ.ඒ xiaomi smartphone පාවිච්චි කරන්නන්ගේ යෝජනා අනුවය.ඒ අනුව දැන් xiaomi smartphone වලින් දුරකතන සන්වාද පටිගත කිරීමටද හැක.

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NOKIA සමාගම Android දුරකතනයක් එලිදැක්වීමට සැරසේ...

Even though Microsoft has received approval to purchase Nokia from its shareholders and various regulators, the Finnish company is apparently working on a device that many Android fans would love to see in stores – an actual Nokia Android handset.

Codenamed Normandy – although apparently it has other internal names – the device is reportedly still in development according to people in the know that talked to The Verge. The phone is apparently set for a 2014 launch, although it’s unclear whether this will still happen, in light of the Microsoft purchase, even if the work on the device is currently described at “full steam ahead.”

Interestingly, the Normandy has not been developed as a flagship device to take on the Galaxy S4 and HTC One models. Instead, it’s an equivalent to Nokia’s Asha family of phones that would target budget-oriented Android shoppers. More importantly, the Normandy runs a custom Android fork, as it looks like Nokia has decided to go the Amazon way with its Android plans. The phone apparently runs Android applications.

Finally, The Verge says that the image above, first published online by trusted leaker @evleaks,actually shows the Nokia Normandy. On November 25 when he posted the image, @evleaks was not sure what the device was – a real Asha or a Lumia – although it gave its name, the Nokia Normandy.

The publication also notes that the phone lacks capacitive buttons for navigation, although the image seems to indicate that at least one such button is present.

Android 4.4 is finally official!

Google has officially taken the wrapper off
the newest version of their operating
system, Android 4.4 KitKat. The first device
to get KitKat will be the Nexus 5 announced
today by Google with owners of all Nexus 4,
Nexus 7 and Nexus 10 devices getting the
update over the next several weeks.
Google also indicates owners of the Google Play
Edition versions of the Samsung Galaxy S4
and the HTC One will receive KitKat as well.
One of the key benefits of KitKat we have
been hearing about is the attempt to make
the latest version of Android run on lower
and middle tier devices. Google confirmed
this effort is part of the release of KitKat
and is called Project Svelte. The memory
footprint and management of several
components of the operating system, all the
way down to the kernel, have been
optimized to be able to run “comfortably”
on as little as 512MB of RAM. These
optimizations even extend to specific apps
like Chrome and YouTube.
Some of the other benefits of Android 4.4
KitKat targeted at helping developers
produce better apps include:
a full-screen immersive mode that
will enable developers to make use of
the entire screen when creating apps;
a new transitions framework for
easier animations between user
interface states and a new web
content implementation based on
Webview built on Chromium;
a new, easier to use printing
framework;
a new storage access framework that
will work better with cloud-based
storage services;
access to new, low-power hardware-
integrated sensors like a step detector
and step counter that will work even
when the screen is off;
a new screen recorder utility that will enable the capture of high-quality
video directly from an Android device,
which can be combined with an
adaptive playback offering for better
streaming video;
Renderscript in the NDK for use in
native code;
and a new system-wide captioning
system.
Google is also releasing a new version of the Android NDK, r9b, for the use of
developers. They also updated the support package to r19.
Check back for more details about Android
4.4 KitKat and what it offers for both
developers and users.
[C#]

Huawei is now third in global smartphone market share for Q3

Samsung and Apple continue to be at the
top of global smartphone market share, but
there’s a new number 3. Huawei has
overtaken LG, according to estimates
from Strategy Analytics. Huawei now owns
5.1% of sales, while LG is at 4.8%, a switch
in positions from Quarter 2. This isn’t the
first time Huawei has appeared at this
position, but while LG continued to grow
during Q2, Huawei grew even faster.
Researchers attribute the rise to the Ascend
P6 and the mainstream G610, particularly in
China.

Otherwise, Samsung still leads the world
with a 35.2% share, with Apple still in
second place with 13.4%. Click through the
break to read the full official press release
from Strategy Analytics.

Samsung & Huawei Outperform as Global Smartphone Shipments Reach Quarter- Billion Units in Q3 2013

According to the latest research from our
Wireless Smartphone Strategies (WSS)
service, global smartphone shipments grew
45 percent annually to reach a record 251
million units in the third quarter of 2013.
Samsung captured a record 35 percent
share of all smartphone volumes worldwide,
while Huawei jumped into third place in the
rankings.
Global smartphone shipments grew 45
percent annually from 172.8 million units in
Q3 2012 to 251.4 million in Q3 2013.
This (was the first time ever that smartphone
shipments exceeded a quarter-billion units
in a single quarter. Smartphones accounted
for 6 in 10 of all mobile phones shipped
worldwide. The smartphone industry’s
robust growth is being driven by strong
demand for LTE models in developed
regions like the US and 3G devices in
emerging markets such as China.
Samsung grew 55 percent annually and
shipped a record 88.4 million smartphones
worldwide, capturing a record 35 percent
marketshare in Q3 2013.

Samsung shipped over two times more smartphones than
Apple during the quarter. While shipments
of the flagship Galaxy S4 model softened,
solid demand for the new Note 3 phablet
and for mass-market devices like the Galaxy
Y helped to lift Samsung’s volumes.
Apple shipped 33.8 million iPhones
worldwide in Q3 2013, up from 26.9 million
a year earlier. Apple grew just 26 percent
annually during Q3 2013, which is around
half the overall smartphone industry
average of 45 percent. Apple’s global
smartphone marketshare has dipped
noticeably from 16 percent to 13 percent
during the past year. Nonetheless, we
expect Apple to rebound sharply and regain
share in the upcoming fourth quarter of
2013 due to high demand for its new
iPhone 5s model. Huawei was a star performer as global
shipments grew 67 percent annually to 12.7
million units in Q3 2013. Huawei captured 5
percent marketshare and became the
world’s third largest smartphone vendor.
The popular P6 and G610 models have been
among the main drivers of Huawei’s
success. Huawei remains very strong at
home in China, but its position is less robust
in other major markets like the US and
Europe.
Huawei will need to expand
aggressively in the American and European
markets if it wants to seriously challenge the
big two of Samsung and Apple next year.

Other findings from research include:

* LG shipped 12.0 million smartphones
worldwide for 5 percent marketshare in Q3
2013. LG grew 71 percent annually, making
it the fastest-growing vendor among the top
five brands. LG has been expanding rapidly
in Europe, but China and India remain weak
spots;

* Lenovo shipped 10.8 million smartphones
worldwide for 4 percent marketshare and
fifth position in Q3 2013. Lenovo is popular
among mass-market consumers in China and it is expanding internationally. Two of the world’s top five smartphone vendors came from China — Lenovo and Huawei.
.

World's top 5 smartphone vendors..

1-  Samsung
2-   Apple
3-  Huawei
4-  LG
5-  Lenovo
Source- talk android

The Nexus 5 pricing leaked!

The Nexus 5 pictures were just leaked
and now the most important part, the
pricing of the device have been leaked
and it shows that the battery depends
on the storage of the device. Each
model of the device has got a different
battery capacity. Here’s the details:
16GB LG Nexus 5 – 2300 mAh
battery – $299
32GB LG Nexus 5 – 3000 mAh
battery – $399
It is interesting to see that the battery
is different in both, but that could
disappoint the users who are
considering to purchase the 16GB
model, because the other internal specs
are still the same. Last year, the Nexus
4 came with the 8GB and 16GB models,
and both of them had the same 2100
mAh battery in them, and the pricing
was $299 and $349 respectively.   

Samsung Galaxy Round could be announced this week,

Korean media is reporting that Samsung might announce its curved display smartphone as soon as this week, with the tentative name Galaxy Round, beating LG the punch . It is aimed to be the first commercially available phone with a plastic, instead of glass substrate, meaning the panel is much more durable, and will, ultimately, be cheaper to produce. For more information on this type of screens you can read our interview on flexible display technologies . The specs are expected to be close to what we have on the Galaxy Note 3, which explains why there were so many rumors we will get different versions of Samsung's phablet , including one with plastic display. Our Korean is pretty rusty and the automatic translations don't make it very clear how much the Galaxy Round will cost. From what we've grasped they have been mulling a steep price, since it will be produced in limited quantities, although if the screen didn't support Samsung's S-Pen functionality there is a possibility for the tag to be much lower. In any case, if this report is correct, we will be seeing the Galaxy Round officially very soon, likely heading to Samsung's domestic market at first.