Samsung to appeal after $1bn Apple award in US case

Samsung says it will appeal against a US court ruling that the South Korean giant stole designs from Apple to make smartphones and computer tablets.

The jury in San Jose, California ordered Samsung to pay Apple $1.05bn (£665m) in damages.

In response, Samsung accused Apple of using US patent laws to try to dominate the smartphone market.

Analysts say the ruling is one of the most significant in a global battle over intellectual property.

In recent weeks, a court in South Korea ruled that both technology firms had copied each other, while a British court threw out claims by the US company that Samsung had infringed its copyright.

But the year-long US case has involved some of the biggest damages claims.

'Monopoly'

Samsung described Friday's decision as "a loss for the American consumer".

"It will lead to fewer choices, less innovation, and potentially higher prices," the firm said.

The statement added that it was "unfortunate that patent law can be manipulated to give one company a monopoly over rectangles with rounded corners".

Apple, however, said it applauded the court "for finding Samsung's behaviour wilful and for sending a loud and clear message that stealing isn't right".

It said it intended to seek injunctions to block US sales of Samsung products at a follow-up hearing on 20 September

The two firms account for more than half of global smartphone and tablet computer sales.

The nine-person jury at the federal court in San Jose, California had to consider 700 questions about each side's claim that its rival had infringed its intellectual property.

It deliberated for less than three days before coming to a unanimous decision, rejecting all of Samsung's claims and upholding five of Apple's allegations, including:

• Some of Samsung's handsets, including its Galaxy S 4G model, infringed Apple's design patents for the look of its iPhone including the system it uses to display text and icons
• All the disputed Samsung devices had copied Apple's "bounce-back response", which makes lists jump back as if yanked by a rubber band
• Several Samsung devices incorporated Apple's facility allowing users to zoom into text with a tap of a finger

Apple had wanted $2.5bn in damages. Samsung had sought $519m.

It may also seek to use this ruling to block other devices powered by Google's Android software that it believes replicate elements of its user-interface, including current models by Samsung as well as other firms.

Typhoon Bolaven heads to S Korea after lashing Okinawa

Powerful waves lashed a sea wall in Okinawa prefecture

A powerful typhoon is heading towards South Korea after lashing the Japanese island of Okinawa, causing power cuts and paralysing transport.

Typhoon Bolaven was 300km (186 miles) north of Naha, Okinawa at 11:00 am local time (02:00 GMT), Japanese media reported.

In Seoul, President Lee Myung-bak has called for thorough preparations, Yonhap news agency said.

It could be the strongest storm to hit the area in a decade, the agency said.

However, it is expected to weaken to a Category 1 storm by Tuesday when it hits the Korean peninsula. Parts of China will also experience heavy rainfall and strong winds, a forecast report said.

Flights may resume

About 75,000 households in Okinawa and the southern Japanese city of Kagoshima have been left without power after the typhoon struck on Sunday, Japanese media reported.

On Monday morning, flights to and from Naha airport remained cancelled.

"But if the weather permits, airlines may be able to resume flights in the afternoon," an airport official was reported as saying by AFP news agency.

Ships and ferries linking the island chain in the area were also cancelled.

At least four people were injured but reported wind speeds on Okinawa and nearby Amami were lower than forecast.

Japan's meteorological agency had estimated wind speeds near the storm's centre at around 180km/h (112 mph), with extremely strong gusts reaching 252 km/h.

But NHK reported early Monday morning that the strongest gusts measured on the islands - on Amami, north of Okinawa - reached just 140km/h, according to the AP news agency.

"The winds weren't as strong as expected. We're glad there's no major damage so far," crisis management official Yoshimitsu Matsusaki was quoted as saying by AP.

Trees 'bending'

Hannah Bryan, who is visiting her sister in Okinawa from Britain, told the BBC that she and several others would try to weather the storm in her sister's house.

"We are planning on putting lots of duvets in the middle of the living room and staying together, away from the windows," she said

"It is really windy at the moment and it is getting stronger and stronger. The trees are bending outside."

British tourist Paul Graham, whose flight out of Okinawa had been cancelled, said the streets in Naha were deserted on Sunday.

"It is quite stormy at the moment, very windy and very wet. There is a canal nearby here, and there is concern about its levels in this weather," he told the BBC.

Typhoon Bolaven comes just after Typhoon Temblin, which has caused widespread damage in Taiwan.

The latest typhoon is the 15th destructive storm of the season in East Asia.

The Ultrabook Revolution

Laptops are undergoing radical change, with the latest crop of Ultrabooks leading the way.

Photograph by Robert CardinThe PC is undergoing its most radical makeover since the advent of the IBM PC three decades ago. Ultrabooks and Windows 8 are leading the charge. Slim Ultrabook designs succeed where netbooks failed, delivering performance, battery life, and a full-featured computing experience. Ultrabooks, once seen as mere copies of Apple’s MacBook Air, are now extending its concept. Experiments such as Toshiba’s Satellite U845W, with its cinematic widescreen aspect ratio, are expanding the definition of what a PC is.

Revolutions are chaotic. They upset the status quo and leave old ways of doing things behind. The PC, once the spearhead of the personal digital revolution, may seem antiquated alongside sexy new tablets and smartphones de­­signed for an always-connected world. In reality, the PC is an intimate participant in the current revolution, changing its own nature to respond to new usage models and a new generation of users. Microsoft’s recent announcement of the Surface—a Windows 8 PC posing as a tablet—shows the PC’s flexibility and relevance in the modern digital era.

Today’s Ultrabooks—skinny, light laptops that Intel is pushing PC makers to build—represent the future of the PC. Tablets are great for browsing the Web and consuming media, but users need keyboards and expandability for better productivity. Ultrabook manufacturers are adopting some of tablets’ best features, like multitouch and long battery life, while retaining the essence of the PC as the ultimate digital productivity tool.

The new computing revolution is upon us thanks to a legion of users and de­­velopers who are creating new ways of interacting with data and with each other in a connected society. These are not incremental changes, but the first salvo from users and app builders who have never known a world without the Internet. And the new PC is taking a primary role in addressing those needs. Apple and Microsoft are creating uniform operating environments, enabling a seamless transition from mobile phone to PC or Mac, all connected via cloud services. Windows 8 is at the forefront, with the same OS core at the heart of Windows 8 Phone, Windows RT for tablets, and Windows 8 on the PC.

The New Revolution

Best Buy: Vizio C14-A2.Always-on connectivity, the cloud, and easy mobility define this personal technology revolution. Users have had a role in the revolution as well, embracing digital media consumption instead of viewing digital devices as mere hardware. Smartphone and tablet users—in particular, iPhone and iPad owners—have led the way. As in the early days of the personal computer (before the IBM PC), originally the smartphone market was highly fragmented, with diverging views of what users wanted. After the iPhone, almost all phones look startlingly similar, and having a data plan with your phone is now mainstream.

After a slow start, PC makers are embracing the change. Intel’s Ultrabook program is driving mainstream adoption of ultrathin, ultraportable computers that offer far fewer compromises than the netbooks of recent memory. Most of these designs—including Apple’s—are based on Intel hardware.

However, the new generation of Ultrabooks—including even top models such as the Vizio C14-A2—has been relatively slow to adopt the always-connected model, with surprisingly few units shipping with built-in cellular broadband. Even Apple, which has led in other design areas, has yet to build cellular broadband capability into its MacBook Pro and MacBook Air lines.

As true 4G networks become more widespread, this situation might change, especially as cloud storage becomes virtually a part of the operating system. Apple is already going in this direction with iCloud, and Microsoft will be integrating its own SkyDrive cloud storage service into Windows 8.

Microsoft’s upcoming Surface tablets show how PCs are evolving in other directions. The Surface RT model, based on ARM processor technology, is locked into Microsoft’s app store, much as Apple’s iPad is locked into iTunes. But the Surface Pro is going to be an ultrathin PC­—a kind of Ultrabook—in a tablet skin, with a fully functional Windows desktop and the ability to run most Windows applications.

Windows 8: Extending Windows to the Cloud

The Surface and Windows 8 herald a change in how Microsoft views the PC: The cloud, once an accessory, is now one of the centerpieces of Windows.

SkyDrive is integral to Windows 8, letting applications such as Microsoft Office 2013 use cloud storage natively. SkyDrive enables Microsoft to extend its ecosystem to tablets and mobile phones, too, as users can easily access their SkyDrive data from their cell phones, tablets, or PCs. (Since most current Ultrabooks don’t offer built-in cellular broadband, however, Ultrabook users on the go still need to find Wi-Fi hotspots, or carry portable cellular hot­spots, to take advantage of the cloud.)

In addition, with Office 2013 and Windows 8, Microsoft hopes to make multitouch interfaces mainstream. That doesn’t necessarily mean touchscreens: Larger, enhanced touchpads with edge detection will make Windows 8 much more navigable than previous kinds of built-in pointing devices could have.

The Apple Factor

Apple’s huge success with the iPad, iPhone, and MacBook Air has prodded traditional PC manufacturers into exploring new hardware designs. While Apple hasn’t significantly eroded Windows’ market share on the desktop, Apple’s laptop sales are gaining ground.

The MacBook Air became the poster child for ultrathin mobile computers. The Air’s success likely spawned the Ultrabook, and dozens of Ultrabook models are now flooding the market.

The new MacBook Pro with its Retina display brings 2880-by-1800-pixel resolution to Apple’s premium laptop line. That translates to a pixel density of 220 pixels per inch. PC manufacturers are not far behind, though: The new crop of 13-inch Ultrabooks with 1080p displays have a pixel density of 160 ppi. A bar has been set, and users will consider high-quality displays to be essential.

The Laptop Landscape

Intel’s Ivy Bridge processor delivers mainstream x86 CPU performance on a much lower power budget than previous generations.

Intel’s Ivy Bridge.Although Ultrabooks debuted with the earlier Sandy Bridge CPUs, it is Ivy Bridge that truly delivers on the promise of longer battery life and new system shapes and sizes, most of them sleeker, lighter, and more efficient than past designs. At the Computex trade show in June, laptop makers showed a plethora of PC prototypes—some radical, others minor design tweaks. The Asus Taichi, for example, is a laptop with a detachable touchscreen that becomes a stand-alone tablet.

Companies are also experimenting with exotic materials to reduce weight. Lenovo’s ThinkPad X1 Carbon and Gigabyte’s X11 both use carbon fiber as the main chassis material. And as mentioned near the beginning, Toshiba’s U845W offers a 21:9-aspect-ratio display with a native resolution of 1792 by 768 pixels, which can deliver widescreen movies in their native format.

It’s unclear which designs will ultimately win consumers’ hearts. What is clear is that the era of blah-looking, 15.6-inch clones housed in bulky plastic is coming to an end. That can only be a good thing.

Postscript: The Evolving Ultrabook

Originally Ultrabooks had to have a few baseline features—such as a battery life exceeding 5 hours, fast resume from sleep, and a “sleek, stylish design”—to qualify for use of the Ultrabook logo.

Its new Ivy Bridge CPU gave Intel the impetus to enhance the definition of an Ultrabook. Intel now requires these new features:

• Fast file transfer via USB 3.0, the Thunderbolt interface, or both.

• Better responsiveness, from using solid-state drives, or via Intel’s Smart Response Technology (this uses small SSDs as massive, fast caches for hard drives).

• Built-in hardware security, including identity protection and antitheft technology.

Enhanced Ultrabooks might also add multitouch; more robust sensors, including accelerometers; and Intel WiDi for streaming data to HDTVs.

However, this won’t be the final chapter in the evolution of the definition of an Ultrabook. Intel’s next-generation CPU architecture, code-named Haswell, will bring substantial improvements to 3D graphics, greater power efficiency, and more performance. Intel sees Haswell as a disruptive CPU technology, enabling a larger variety of designs and longer battery life without sacrificing performance.

Android Phones Will Power NASA's New Fleet of Mini-Satellites

Hoping to inject new life into low-cost space exploration, NASA's 'PhoneSat' program will launch a series of Google Nexus One–controlled mini-satellites into space later this year.

PhoneSat 1.0 during high-altitude balloon test. Photo courtesy of NASA Ames Research Center, 2011.While most of the recent media attention on NASA has understandably focused on the Curiosity rover on Mars, that’s not the only experiment that the space and aeronautics research agency has in the works. A team at NASA’s Ames Research center in Moffett Field, California, is working on the future launch of miniature satellites constructed with Android-powered Nexus One smartphones at the helm. Dubbed “PhoneSat,” this project is part of a larger experiment called the Small Spacecraft Technology Program that incorporates small consumer electronics into working nanosatellites.

The PhoneSat launch has no firm date, but three PhoneSat units will be rocket-bound sometime in late 2012. (Hopefully, we’ll start seeing Tweets from PhoneSat’s currently quiet Twitter account.) However, there’s much to be excited about with the launch fast approaching. Here’s what we know so far.

PhoneSat’s Two-Design Plan

According to information provided by NASA’s Space Technology Program, the team has built two nanosatellite prototype models, which were originally going to be launched at different times. The first model, PhoneSat 1.0, has minimal functionality—the team wants to see if a mini-satellite with a smartphone can survive a short stint in space. A major gauge of success will be whether the satellite can send back operational health and picture data while in space. Besides a Nexus One, the main pieces of the satellite will include external batteries and an external radio beacon. A watchdog circuit will monitor the system and reboot the Nexus if necessary.

Assembly of PhoneSat 1.0. Photo courtesy of NASA Ames Research Center, 2011.All of this will be packaged in a 10-by-10-by-10-cm CubeSat shell—not much bigger than a coffee cup—and three of these units will be manufactured. Each unit clocks in at an impressively low 4 pounds. And what chariot will carry this mini-sat? An Antares rocket, a low-Earth-orbiting rocket that can carry up to 15,000 pounds.

A more advanced model, the PhoneSat 2.0, will improve on the capabilities of PhoneSat 1.0 by using a newer Samsung Nexus S; the satellite’s design will also include a two-way S-band radio, solar arrays, and a GPS receiver. The radio will command the satellite from the ground, while the solar panels will enable the unit to embark on a mission with a long duration. Also built into the PhoneSat 2.0 design are magnetorquer coils (electromagnets that interact with Earth’s magnetic field) and reaction wheels to control the unit’s orientation in space.

According to a NASA public relations representative, two PhoneSat 1.0 models and one PhoneSat 2.0 are scheduled to launch aboard the maiden flight of Orbital Sciences Corporation’s Antares rocket later this year.

Strides So Far

The PhoneSat team has been preparing for this mission for a few years now by running tests to push the Nexus One’s limits. In July 2010, two Nexus Ones were launched on rockets as a preliminary test of how the phones will handle high speeds and high altitude. One rocket crashed and destroyed the smartphone; the other landed with the Nexus One perfectly intact. PhoneSat 1.0 has also been tested in a thermal-vacuum chamber, on vibration and shock tables, and on high-altitude balloons, all with great success.

The philosophy behind these launches is quite similar to the Silicon Valley entrepreneurial mindset—to “launch the lowest-cost and easiest to build satellites ever flown in space,” as stated in aPhoneSat flight demonstration document. Each PhoneSat prototype costs about $3500 to build, and the NASA engineers use commercial off-the-shelf hardware in their designs, none of which have been modified. The engineers have not created any new technologies for this mission—they’re working entirely with widely available products.

What’s Next for PhoneSat?

Not only do these low-cost units show off how run-of-the-mill consumer devices can be used in larger space exploration experiments, they also will decrease development costs for future NASA small-spacecraft projects. The team plans to use the PhoneSats in future missions involving moon exploration, low-cost Earth observations, and testing of new technologies and components for space flight. Another mission scheduled for 2013 plans to use the PhoneSat 2.0 to conduct heliophysics measurements.

Technology's Dark Side: Devious Devices Designed to Harm You

From ATM skimmers that steal your money to hackable insulin pumps, technology does have a dark side. And the various forms of sneaky tech can have frightening consequences.

We're accustomed to the idea of hackers' trying to crack our computers,   but today our TVs, cars, phones, and appliances are becoming increasingly vulnerable as we use technologies such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, RFID, cellular, and GPS to connect them.

Though increased connectedness has been a boon to convenience and communication, a sinister flipside has emerged: More and more real-world objects are hackable, some with potentially frightening real-world consequences.

Hackers can unlock your car and even start the engine. They can steal your credit card just by walking past you—without touching your wallet. They can hijack a lifesaving insulin pump and turn it against the user. Here's a roundup of some of the technology that bad guys can use to hack you and everything around you.

ATM Skimmers

ATM skimmers are rogue devices surreptitiously attached to automatic teller machines and programmed to read and record your bank card's magnetic strip, and then pass the data on to criminals.

Examples of a new thin ATM skimmer.Older ATM skimmers commonly made the card slot look unusually bulky or otherwise tampered-with, but detecting the new skimmers is much harder. They are so thin now that a crook can now insert the skimmer directly inside the card slot at your local ATM, grocery self-checkout, or gas pump, and still leave room for your card to pass through, thus ensuring that only an expert is likely to notice the skimmer's intrusion.

The information on your credit or debit card's magnetic strip is useless without the card's PIN code, and even the most sophisticated in-slot skimmer can't retrieve PIN codes. However, criminals have developed transparent rubber overlays that they place over the ATM's keypad, to record the victim's PIN code. ATM skimmers and PIN code recorders can be very difficult to detect before money goes missing from customers' bank accounts.

War Texting

The term war texting may sound like something that an easily distracted soldier might pause to perform during a lull on the battlefield, it actually refers to the process of hijacking hardware connected to ubiquitous GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) mobile phone networks.

Surveillance cameras, home automation systems, and cars often depend on GSM telephony for over-the-air firmware updates. Though GSM makes updating these systems far more convenient, it also leaves them vulnerable to outside attack.

Last year at the Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas, iSec Partners security consultants Don Bailey and Matthew Solnik demonstrated the threat of war texting by unlocking the doors of a Subaru Outback and then starting its engine—all remotely.

Bailey said that he and Solnik took about 2 hours to figure out how to intercept wireless messages between the car and the network, and then re-create the messages from his laptop.

Power Pwn

Another looming threat involves rogue chameleon devices—treacherous gear that victims fail to spot because it doesn't look odd or out of place.

Pwnie Express's Power Pwn incorporates covert wireless transfer capabilities in what looks like a simple surge protector.The Power Pwn, for example, masquerades as a typical office surge protector, but it conceals some crafty tech. The Power Pwn was developed by Pwnie Express with funding from DARPA, the Department of Defense's secretive and experimental research and development wing.

High-gain, extended-range Wi-Fi, 1000-foot-range Bluetooth, and 3G are built into the Power Pwn, which is designed to bypass your network security and firewalls, while maintaining a constant covert connection with the attacker.

The product's makers, Pwnie Express, say that the Power Pwn is intended as an enterprise test tool for network vulnerabilities, but anyone with $1300 can buy one. Considering the high value of information on business networks, the Power Pwn's price hardly guarantees that criminals won't be able to get their hands on one.

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)

An RFID chip.RFID chips are tiny devices that contain information about the object they are attached to, which may range from an ID card containing personal medical information, to a car-key fob, to your U.S. passport, to a pet, to an electronic door lock, and to a credit card.

The primary purpose of an RFID chip is to embed digital information in something nondigital, making the object easier to keep track of and communicate with.

Some RFID chips don't even require a battery; instead, they are powered electromagnetically by a nearby receiver.

But anything that has an associated RFID chip is potentially hackable—and with such chips priced as low as $0.07 each, RFIDs are sure to show up in more and more things inthe future.

Earlier this year at the ShmooCon hacker-centric security conference, security researcher Kirstin Paget demonstrated just how easy RFID-equipped credit cards are to hack. Using about $350 worth of equipment, Padget wirelessly copied her credit card's RFID data, cloned it onto a blank card, and then easily made a payment to herself using a Square card reader. Padget described the hack as "embarrassingly simple."

The ability of a knowledgable person to clone RFID with ease should raise red flags for anyone using the technology for personal data, door locks, or any other form of security.

Global Positioning System (GPS)

What users of the Girls Around Me app saw.GPS in and of itself is a benign technology, but the GPS built into smartphones can be problematic. App developers use GPS in all kinds of ways beyond simply establishing latitude and longitude coordinates. For example, apps such as FourSquare rely on GPS to track their users' social habits and spending habits, and let users share where they are hanging out by "checking in" on the app.

However, location-based app developers often provide their APIs (application programming interfaces) to third parties, increasing the danger of misuse by interested outsiders.

This is precisely what happened in April, with an app called Girls Around Me. Using a combination of FourSquare's and Facebook's APIs, the Girls Around Me app displayed for anybody to see the location, pictures, and even names of nearby women.

Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of this situation is that, under existing law, everything the developers of Girls Around Me did in making individual people's information available to its users was strictly legal. A level of intrusive data gathering that might raise concerns of stalking if pursued in person in the real world amounted to nothing more than the cleverly directed collection of readily available digital information.

Hackable Insulin Pumps

Jay Radcliffe, director of the Smart Device Threat Intelligence Center—and a type 1 diabetic who is always connected to an insulin pump—discovered that his Medtronic wireless insulin pump could be hacked and taken over by a rogue signal.

An insulin pump.From up to half a mile away, a hacker could assume control of the pump and deliver a deadly dose of insulin to an unsuspecting diabetic. The chances of such a thing happening are exceedingly small, but the potential consequences are dire. If nothing else, the scenario suggests a plot device in a James Bond movie featuring a ruthless criminal mastermind and an otherwise well-guarded diabetic target.

Though technology does far more good than bad in our lives, it has a dangerous side. Given that more and more of our world is connected through technology, criminals and hackers are virtually certain to find more ways to exploit the technology we depend on in our daily lives.

The best advice is to be aware of your devices' behavior. If you notice a change, it could be due to hacking. Often, this is how banks discover skimming and credit card fraud. You can also consult resources such as the FBI's Scams & Safety website to stay informed and safe from various threats, online and off.

Zooka's Bar-Shaped Speakers Crank up Gadgets' Sound

The Zooka wireless sound bar has a small footprint but its audio packs a powerful kick. What's more, it can also serve as a microphone for Bluetooth devices.

The Zooka ($99), a Kickstarter project by Carbon Audio that started selling at retail last week, combines a pair of powerful speakers and a microphone in a rounded medical-grade silicone bar that's colorful and measures only 9-by-2-inches.

Although being marketed as an iPad and iPod accessory, it works with any device with Bluetooth wireless support.

Meet Zooka

The Zooka is a rounded silicone bar with a speaker at each end. One side of the unit is slotted so you can slip an iPad or iPod Touch into the device. There's also a notch in the slot so front-facing cameras won't be obscured by the unit.

The other side of the bar contains controls for power, volume, and Bluetooth connectivity. There's also a line-in/aux jack, mic, and mini-USB port. Zooka automatically switches from Bluetooth to aux input when a device is connected to the aux jack.

The USB port is used for charging Zooka. Battery life on a single charge is about eight hours, although the bar can be used as it's recharging.

Zooka's mic allows the unit to be used as a speaker phone. When paired with a handset, you can answer a phone by pressing Zooka's Bluetooth button. To disconnect from a call, you simply press the button again.

You can reject a call by holding the button in for two to three seconds. Its sound quality as a speakerphone is the equivalent of that produced by a desktop or mobile handset—it's not exceptional, but serviceable. 

A 2.5-inch metal rod that slips conveniently into one end of the unit can be screwed into Zooka's back. That "kick stand" allows devices slotted into the unit to be used in an upright position. The problem with that arrangement, though, is you can't access Zooka's controls, as the edge they're on becomes the bottom of the unit.

With output five times that of an iPad, the Zooka is loud. But its sound is more than that. Its quality is very good, too. Anyone with a diminutive mobile device looking for some ear candy will be pleased with this sound bar. 

Set-up is a Treasure Hunt

Setting up the Zooka, which comes in eight colors, would have been a lot simpler if better documentation had been included with the unit.

The quick start card packaged with Zooka leaves something to be desired. For example, it lacks a reminder that you have to charge the unit before you start using it.

It doesn't explain that a blue LED light at the front of the unit blinks blue when charging and is solid blue when charged.

To power on Zooka, you have to hold the power button in for about a second—another missing fact from the card.

The card does show you have to hold the Bluetooth button in for three seconds to activate it. Zooka will emit a tone at the end of that time to confirm Bluetooth activation.

Also absent from any documentation in the box is the passcode needed to pair Zooka with a Bluetooth device. It's 0000.

All the information missing from the card can be found in an excellent quick start guide for the device prepared by Carbon Audio. All you have to do is go online and get it, not a route taken by many enthusiastic purchasers until forced to resort to it.

Samsung's Galaxy Note 10.1 is More Profitable Than iPad

Samsung makes $56 more selling each new $499.99 Wi-Fi-only Galaxy Note 10.1 tablet than Apple gets by selling the iPad for the same price. That's because Samsung's cost for materials is just about $260, while Apple's costs were $316 when its iPad with Wi-Fi and 16GB was first released, according to an IHS teardown report released Friday. Andrew Rassweiler, senior director of teardown services at IHS, said some recent tablets have made little or no hardware profit. But the Galaxy Note 10.1 "could turn a decent per-unit margin for Samsung and stands to be a money maker -- if the company can extend the recent success of the Samsung Galaxy Note smartphone to its tablet line." The new tablet, announced August 16, runs Android 4.0 and features a digital stylus. IHS said that the Google Nexus 7, released in July, and the Amazon Kindle Fire, released in 2011, generated little or no hardware profit, relying instead on online content and services to make money. Both sold initially for $199. No Apple iPad rival has yet been able to sell large numbers of tablets at $499, with competitors resorting to price cuts to drive sales, said Rhoda Alexander, director of tablet research at IHS. Samsung can rely on its own internal supplies for a large percentage of the tablet components, unlike Apple, IHS said. Samsung supplies both the flash and DRAM memory, the core processor, battery, and other components in the Galaxy Note 10.1.

The processor is a 1.4 GHz quad-core Samsung Exynos, the same found in the Galaxy S III handset, which IHS estimated costs $18.80. The display and touchscreen make up the priciest parts, as with other devices, at an estimated cost of $100 of the $260 total. Samsung also sells an HSPA+ wireless version of the Galaxy Note 10.1 for about $640 in various countries; IHS estimated the materials in that model cost $283. Samsung has promised an LTE version of the tablet later in 2012.