A Samsung innovation fund of $1.1 billion was revealed yesterday; it's purpose to help find the ‘next big thing in tech’. How very exciting. At the same time the company also unveiled its new Silicon Valley ‘Samsung Strategy and Innovation Center’ located on the same road as Facebook’s HQ. That sounds like some business-park.
The Korean electronics giant has set up the 'Samsung Catalyst Fund' with the wider aim of enhancing its US presence and to spur innovation. The areas in which the company will focus on will be the cloud infrastructure, mobile privacy, the Internet of Things, human interface and mobile health. In addition to innovation projects, the money will also fund companies working on components and subsystems. Sounds like gibberish, I know, but basically it means better phones - hurrah!
"We see tremendous opportunities and transformations over the next five years driven by Big Data and Samsung will be a significant part of this revolution," Young Sohn, President and Chief Strategy Officer of Device Solutions at Samsung Electronics said in a statement.
The fund will also go towards the SamsungCreate Challenge which will take place later in the year. During this challenge the company will call on innovators of all kinds: from artists to engineers and entrepreneurs and will ask them to pitch their most creative ideas as to how technology can improve lives. The winners will be rewarded with the $10 million set aside for the contest. "This is an exciting opportunity for us to engage with entrepreneurs and innovators and empower them to leverage Samsung's technology and global brand presence to bring our collective visions to market." Sohn went on to say.
New Samsung Smartphones Announced
This unveiling comes on the same day as Samsung announces two new Android smartphones which are aimed at the lower to mid-range end of the smartphone market. The Galaxy Young and the Galaxy Fame are aimed specifically at people who are watching the pennies but who don’t want to sacrifice decent hardware.
Both feature the same, familiar Galaxy style and are available in white, red, blue or metallic silver. Oh snazzy. The Galaxy Young has a 3.7 inch, 480x320 resolution LCD display while the Fame has a slightly larger one at 3.5 inches. Despite the difference in screen size the specs are basically the same. They have a 1CHz processer with 4GB worth of storage, 1,300mAh battery with an internal memory microSD card slot, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and they run on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. The Fame has a slightly better camera at 5 megapixels with auto-focus (compared to the Young’s 3 megapixel camera) but the Young has 768MB of RAM compared to the Fame's 512MB. Both are also going to be pre-loaded with Google apps including YouTube, Gmail, Maps and more.
All in all they seem pretty similar, it just depends what your preferences are. But you'll have to hold fire for the moment as there is currently no information on availability or pricing and you might want to wait until the two other Samsung smartphones which are planned for release, the Galaxy Pocket 2 and the Galaxy Star, have been announced. If you are planning on getting one of these then don't forget to sell your mobile with us here at OnRecycle to fund your buy. And fon't forget to ‘like’ us on Facebook or ‘follow’ us on Twitter for all the latest information on the latest phone releases and gossip if you are happy with your service.
