Sweden-based Three announced a new phone from Samsung that was unseen or unheard till now. It’s called as Galaxy Z and is touted as a lower-spec’d smaller sibling of Samsung’s powerhouse Galaxy S II. The processor, display and the camera are the things that sets both the devices apart.

Galaxy Z runs Android 2.3 OS and comes with a lower clocked 1GHz dual-core processor, which we suspect to be Tegra 2, 4.2-inch WVGA Super Clear LCD, 5MP camera with LED flash and 720p HD video recording, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 3.0, GPS, 8GB internal memory and microSD card slot.

Galaxy Z will go for 3995 SEK and I think it will be a good buy for those looking for an affordable alternative to Galaxy S II.

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[Via Samsung Hub]

Samsung’s second larger-sized iteration of Galaxy Tab is now available across United States. The Galaxy Tab 10.1 comes in two variations – 16GB Wi-Fi and 32GB Wi-Fi and are priced at $499 and $599 respectively. Meanwhile, Samsung also announced pricing and availability details for few European countries like Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Norway.

All the aforementioned Nordic countries will get both the tablets – 8.9 and 10.1 in Wi-Fi and 3G variants. The Galaxy Tab 10.1 and Galaxy Tab 8.9 is expected in August and September respectively with Telia Sweden being the only one that will sell the 10.1 tablet from June 29.

The prices according to the region are as follows:

Sweden
Galaxy Tab 10.1 Wi-Fi: 4400 SEK
Galaxy Tab 10.1 3G: 5300 SEK
Galaxy Tab 8.9 Wi-Fi: 4300 SEK
Galaxy Tab 8.9 3G: 5000 SEK

Finland
Galaxy Tab 10.1 Wi-Fi: 549 Euros
Galaxy Tab 10.1 3G: 699 Euros
Galaxy Tab 8.9 Wi-Fi: 499 Euros
Galaxy Tab 8.9 3G: 649 Euros

Norway
Galaxy Tab 10.1 Wi-Fi: 4000 NOK
Galaxy Tab 10.1 3G: 5000 NOK
Galaxy Tab 8.9 Wi-Fi: 3800 NOK
Galaxy Tab 8.9 3G: 4700 NOK

Denmark
Galaxy Tab 10.1 Wi-Fi: 3700 DKK
Galaxy Tab 10.1 3G: 4600 DKK
Galaxy Tab 8.9 Wi-Fi: 3500 DKK
Galaxy Tab 8.9 3G: 4400 DKK

[Via Samsung Hub]

We have seen NFC-equipped phones and devices to make contactless payments but companies are now exploring to leverage the technology in other areas. Clarion Hotel Stockholm in Sweden has initiated a pilot project that will allow guests to check in to the hotel and even open their room door with the phone.

The project as mentioned is in pilot stages and is being carried out to gather feedback for NFC-related services. Few selected guests were handed out Samsung’s NFC-enabled Star S5230N pre-loaded with the required software. Guests can then check in to the hotel via their phone and directly head to their rooms to open the doors with the digital door keys.

One advantage digital door keys have as compared to a conventional key is that the hotel can reissue the access credentials to the guest, in case the phone is lost or stolen.

Check out the video to see how does this work.

Samsung’s B7722 that was leaked couple of weeks back has got the official treatment. The B7722 is a dual-SIM device that not only supports dual standby but also integrates 3G. The phone’s first SIM will support 3G bands (900/2100Hz) whereas the second number will be restricted to GPRS/EDGE speeds.

In addition to its dual-SIM capabilities, the phone features a 3.2-inch touchscreen display, TouchWiz UI, 5MP camera with LED flas, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1, FM Radio, DNSe technology, music player, 200MB internal memory, microSD card slot (up to 16GB), social networking site support and a 1200mAh battery.

The phone will arrive in Sweden this month for SEK4000 or roughly USD510.

Note: This post has been republished from Samsung Hub. For more Samsung news, head over to Samsung Hub.

Google might have an alliance to make their version of Google TV but it’s the People of Lava from Sweden who has clinched the world’s first title with their Scandinavia LED TVs. Coming in sizes of 42-, 47- and 55-inches, the LED backlit televisions not only support full HD resolution playback and other features that you find in a LED LCD TV but also comes with Android OS.

The TV will run Android 1.5 on ARM’s Cortex A8 833MHz CPU and will enable users to watch online videos, pictures, surf the internet or even download apps from its App Store. The few applications that will be available on the App Store initially are Facebook, Twitter and Mail. People of Lava promises to add more apps in coming months.

The HDTV pricing starts from $2500.

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[Via Slashgear]

TeliaSonera have struck a deal with Samsung that will mostly make the European operator, the first ones to sell 4G/LTE modems. The modem (GT-B3710) is USB-based and will be available commercially in Sweden and Norway in 2010 with a promise of up to 10 times higher speed than available today.

The chip inside the LTE device provided by Samsung is known as Kalmia, which they’d developed to integrate in mobile devices. The modem supports 2.6GHz band and complies with the latest 3GPP standard.

Note: This post has been republished from Samsung Hub. For more Samsung news, head over to Samsung Hub.

Samsung had promised to launch its environmental friendly Blue Earth device this month and here it is. Blue Earth’s name and design inspiration is derived by our planet’s clean and pure look from the space, just like a blue marble. For nature caring consumers, Samsung has not only used environmental friendly materials for the phone, the phone’s charger and packaging also support the environment caring concern. Blue Earth is made from Post Consumer Material (PCM), which is extracted from water bottles and is free from materials like Brominated Flame Retardants (BFR), Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) and Phthalate.

There’s an Eco Mode inside the phone, which when activated adjusts the screen brightness, backlight duration and Bluetooth settings to maintain energy efficiency. Eco Walk is nothing but a built-in pedometer that counts the user steps and calculates the reduction in CO2 emission realized by walking.

Other eco-friendly things you’ll find are a solar panel capable to charge via sunlight, a 5 star energy efficiency charger using only 0.03W power during standby mode and the box created out of recycled paper and printed in soy ink that can be later transformed into a photo frame or pencil box.

Internal features are quite good compared to other eco-friendly phones. Blue Earth features a 3-inch capacitive touchscreen, 3.6Mbps HSDPA, 3.2MP camera, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and microSD card slot (up to 16GB).

Samsung will launch the Blue Earth in Sweden this month followed later by France, Germany, Austria, Italy, Portugal and other European and Asian countries.

Full Specifications:

Network: HSDPA 3.6 Mbps 900/2100, EDGE/GPRS850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
Display: 16M WQVGA TFT LCD (3.0”) Capacitive Touch Screen
Camera: 3.2 Megapixel CMOS, Face Detection / Smile Shot / Photo Editor
Audio: Audio Format Support (MP3, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, WMA) / WMDRM, OMA DRM, Find Music (Music Recognition) / Music Equalizer, Stereo FM Radio with RDS, Bluetooth Stereo Headset (A2DP)
Video: Video Format Support (H.263, WMV, MPEG4), QVGA @ 15 fps Video Recording & Playing
Eco Friendly Features: Solar Charging Panel, PCM from used water bottles, BFR, PVC, Phthalate Free, Eco-Mode, Eco-Walk, Eco- Calendar, Eco-Tips, 5 star eco charger / Charger reminder, Eco-friendly and reusable Packaging
Connectivity: Bluetoothv 2.1 / USB 2.0 HS / Wi-Fi
Internal Memory : 130MB
External Memory : microSDHC (up to 16GB)
Dimension: 108 x 53.6 x 14.2 mm
Weight: 119 g
Battery: 1080 mAh

Note: This post has been republished from Samsung Hub. For more Samsung news, head over to Samsung Hub.

UPDATE: TBP will be closing down its BitTorrent tracker and encourage to use third party tracker. Also, the torrents hosted on their site will be removed and moved to a new torrent hosting site. [via TF]

The Pirate Bay has confirmed that they’ll sell their site to another Swedish company called Global Gaming Factory X. GGF will take over all the assets, liabilities of TBP for a sum of 60m Swedish Kronors (around $7.8m). You’re not wrong if you’re surprised that the 100th most visited site on the internet is going for a paltry amount but with the legal, copyright issues etc. could have played a role in keeping the price on the lower side.

Though the current TBP team says that there’s nothing to worry with the new owners, there’s a high probability that the copyrighted content will be clamped down in order to save themselves from future lawsuits.

In fact, GGF CEO has already confirmed that the copyrighted material found on TBP will be monetized. “We would like to introduce models which entail that content providers and copyright owners get paid for content that is downloaded via the site.”

The deal is expected to be closed by August this year.

Press Release

[Via Mashable|Soldimg]