Waiting anxiously for ‘real’ news about the Samsung Galaxy S4, beyond what the rumor mill is churning? Your chance is coming. Samsung has now confirmed that the rumored March 14th launch event for the Galaxy S4 is a go.

“We introduced the Galaxy S III in London last year,” says JK Shin of Samsung. “This time we changed the venue (now to New York)… as we were bombarded with requests from mobile carriers to unveil the Galaxy S IV in the country”.

While the existing rumors give us quite a bit of details about what we might expect from the Samsung Galaxy S4, we really officially know little about the upcoming handset. Still, it’s hard not to get excited, especially if you are a Samsung and Android fan.

What do you most want out of the next generation Samsung Galaxy S?

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The Samsung and Apple patent war has certainly had some interesting ups and downs so far, with recent events including the extension of the Galaxy Tab 7.7 ban in Germany and other parts of the EU and, in contrast, a decision in the UK that requires Apple to post notifications online and in newspapers stating that the Galaxy Tab line didn’t copy Apple. As you can tell, the battle is not only heated but the results of the legal war vary considerably depending on where they are fighting at in this globally-reaching dispute.

Regardless of whether you feel that Apple’s stance against Samsung is right or wrong, it seems that a new damning piece of evidence has now reached Apple’s hands. A set of documents have leaked out that Apple plans to use in court, in which Google warned Samsung that the design for the Galaxy Tab and  Galaxy Tab 10.1 were too similar and even famous designers apparently cautioned Samsung that the Galaxy S looked too much like the iPhone because of its shape and overall design elements. Apple hopes to use these internal memos to help prove that Samsung intentionally designed their products to look as close to the iPhone and iPad as they possibly could. It’ll be interesting to see what a Judge makes of all this. Supposedly, according to All Things D, Samsung has soon internal design presentations from 2006 that show a UI very similar to that in the iPhone and might use that as part of the argument, or even that Samsung may make mention of how many of Apple’s designs even seem to mimic early Sony designs.

It’s hard to say where the next chapter in this war will lead, but it’s clear that we have yet to see anything yet and a rocky road of legal proceedings still lie ahead.

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The current reports say that the various marketing companies that Samsung uses in countries around the world are “gearing up” for an event in March, and then the Galaxy S III superphone itself will become available through retailers and carriers in April. As with the first Galaxy S and its Galaxy S II successor, we imagine there will be a few different versions of the S III floating around.

Samsung apparently hopes to capitalize on the Summer Olympic Games in London, using the event as a platform to market the Galaxy S III to an international audience. By launching a couple months ahead of time, they can hit the ground running when the torch is lit and the games commence. We’ve got all kinds of rumors about the S III, from edge-to-edge displays to quad core processors, and it all sounds good.

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First off, we’re looking at a launch window right around March of this year, though the exact date with each carrier will likely vary somewhat. The processor sounds like it could be the dual-core Exynos 5250. While it’s not quad core like Tegra 3, it does have a crazy clock speed of 2GHz, boasting enough grunt to power stereoscopic 3D on what will likely be a display in the Super AMOLED Plus HD family.

Given Samsung’s recent push toward bigger screens (the Galaxy Nexus has a 4.65-incher and the Note has a 5.3-incher), it’s safe to assume that the Galaxy S3 will be a little bigger too. I’m guessing it’ll be the same as the Galaxy Nexus, since it will likely launch with ICS too. The camera will probably get a notable bump too, possibly getting that 16MP unit that Samsung announced in October.

But these are all just rumors. What do you want to see in a Galaxy S3? Thinner? Brighter? How about some better battery life? Ice Cream Sandwich is a no brainer.

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I use a Galaxy S Captivate as my primary smartphone these days and I’m reasonably happy with it. That said, it’d be awesome to feel like I got a brand new phone by introducing Android 4.0 to the mix. Samsung originally said they weren’t going to try and port it over, but it couldn’t be a hardware issue since the Nexus S (with mostly the same guts as the SGS) is getting ICS. Apparently, TouchWiz could be bloating up the device so that it can’t handle the newer version of Android.

Presumaby, the same issue must be affecting the port of Ice Cream Sandwich to the original 7-inch Samsung Galaxy Tab. That shipped with Android 2.2 Froyo last year. The assumption is the elimination (or shrinkage) of TouchWiz would enable ICS to get onto both devices a little more easiliy. Samsung isn’t guaranteeing an ICS port to the SGS and Gtab, so you might have more luck waiting for an unofficial port via the folks at XDA or elsewhere on the web.

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The Galaxy Nexus is expected to be release very soon, it’s even now listed in the VZW’s Device Management system as “Samsung Galaxy Nexus”, confirming the “G-Nex” nickname. According to the listing, the new phone will have a 4G LTE radio to take advantage of the fastest network out there.

We also know that the device will not hit the global market just yet, as it shows an “N” for “No” in that category. This could turn up to be frustrating for a lot of people, considering the GSM version will be able to travel the globe.

Concerns about battery life come especially since 4G is listed as one of the features of the new device, but most importantly because it might join the rest of the Verizon LTE devices, who have been having battery problems lately.  Samsung is definitely on the right track, they have announced on Monday that over 30 million Galaxy S/Galaxy S II smartphones have been sold globally. This is a good jump since their 10 million Galaxy S II units sold since late September.  The Galaxy S II is the companies fastest selling handset, it sold 3 million units in 55 days. “Since its launch only five months ago, Galaxy S II has seen tremendous sales success and garnered enthusiastic reviews from consumers and mobile industry watchers across the globe,” president and head of Samsung’s mobile business JK Shin said. “This is in addition to the continued sales momentum behind Galaxy S, which we launched at Mobile World Congress 2010 as continues to be a run-away success with consumers.”

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Nokia had long since held that crown, but the Finnish firm has come into some serious woes in the last year, getting trounced left and right by Android and iOS. In the second quarter of 2010, Nokia shipped 23.8 million smartphones. In Q2 2011, it only shipped 16.7 million. By contrast, Apple jumped from 8.4 million to 20.3 million over the same time period.

Apple isn’t the only one showing significant growth either. Fueled largely by its Galaxy S and now its Galaxy S II lines of smartphones, Samsung saw a quantum leap from 3.1 million in Q2 ’10 to a whopping 19.2 million units in Q2 ’11. Based on this trend, Samsung could jump ahead of Apple some time in the next year or so.

Nokia is still tops in terms of total cell phones, probably because of its strong presence with cheaper phones for emerging markets, but I’m thinking the guys in Helsinki aren’t exactly dancing for joy at this point. Interestingly, despite only selling iPhones, Apple is fourth in overall cell phone shipments too.  

But get this,  Apple has more cash reserves than the U.S. Government.  The U.S. Treasury Department shows a total cash reserve for the U.S. government at $73.768 billion. Apple’s total cash reserves? $75.876 billion.

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Let’s put this into perspective. The first Galaxy S sold over 10 million units last year. That’s a pretty huge success. If you consider that there are already three million pre-orders on the Galaxy S II you’ve got to wonder how many sales will happen that aren’t pre-orders.  I think the whole Super AMOLED display is a huge factor for setting Samsung’s Android offerings apart from the HTCs and Motorolas of the world.

As a quick refresher, the Samsung Galaxy S II gets a pretty significant spec bump over its predecessor. The single-core 1GHz Hummingbird processor gets replaced with a 1.2GHz dual-core Orion processor. They’ve also included TouchWiz 4.0, Android 2.3.3 Gingerbread, and an 8MP camera with 1080p HD video support. The Super AMOLED screen is a little bigger too at 4.27-inches versus the old 4.0-inch display.

If it were not for the recent push towards dual core processors, I’d recommend the Samsung Nexus S. As it stands, the Galaxy S II will truly be a sight to behold and I’m pretty stoked about it all. Apparently, I’m not alone.

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Apple has the iPhone and the iPod touch. Samsung tried that with the Galaxy Player and now it’s updating the line with a couple new phone-less multimedia devices. The Samsung Galaxy S WiFi 4.0 and Galaxy S WiFi 5.0 are exactly what you think they are.

They’re basically the Galaxy S smartphone, but without the phone part of the equation. They both run on Android 2.2 Froyo and come powered by a 1GHz processor. As their names imply, the WiFi 4.0 has a 4-inch WVGA Super Clear LCD, while the WiFi 5.0 has a 5-inch WVGA TFT LCD. Sorry, no AMOLED action here.

The rest of the specs include a 3.2MP camera, VGA front cam, stereo FM radio, GPS, microSD expansion, accelerometer, digital compass. The Galaxy S WiFi 4.0 has a smaller 1200mAh battery, while the 5.0 goes much bigger with its 2500mAh battery.

There isn’t too much that’s terribly exciting here, but they could make for useful Android handhelds if you’re not so inclined to get the phone and 3G part of the equation. Expect the 4.0 to hit Russia and 5.0 to hit Switzerland first, with the rest of the world slowly following in the coming months.

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Apple isn’t exactly a stranger to the whole litigation thing. Steve Jobs and his legal team have been dishing out lawsuits like they were going out of style for years and now the latest target happens to be Samsung. The grounds for the suit? Galaxy S devices look too much like the iPhone.

In the lawsuit, Apple is claiming that Samsung Electronics is copying the “look and feel” of the iPhone and iPad, saying that the Nexus S, Galaxy S 4G, Epic 4G, and Galaxy Tab don’t really bring anything new to the table. They’re saying they’re just rehashes of the iPhone and iPad, under a Korean-flavored Android guise.

This goes beyond just the look of the hardware too. They say that the app icons are too similar too, infringing on Apple’s trademarks. I’ve always said that the TouchWiz interface was similar to iOS, but it’s different enough to dodge a lawsuit, isn’t it?

“Rather than innovate and develop its own technology and a unique Samsung style for its smart phone products and computer tablets,” goes the lawsuit, “Samsung chose to copy Apple’s technology, user interface and innovative style in these infringing products.”

What makes this lawsuit a little more compelling than the others that Apple may pursue is that Samsung is one of Apple’s biggest suppliers. Under the hood of the iPhone, iPad, and iPod (as well as the MacBook Air) are Samsung goodies like RAM, display, and even the A4/A5 processor. If this suit goes sour, does this mean Apple could be shopping for a new supplier too?

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