Two Boobs Good, Four Boobs Better!

I was in an Expert shop last week doing a bit of Christmas shopping and I spied a couple of little devices that I hadn’t seen outside of the internet.

The Samsung Galaxy Tablet 10.1 and the 7.0.

To be very honest if I hadn’t bought an iPad during the summer and had the chance to play around with one of these, I’d have gotten one over the Apple.  The biggest selling point for me is the Android OS, but the Samsung Galaxy s II far outweighs the iPhone, so I’m reckoning that the Galaxy tab does that to the iPad.

Apple must be thinking that too.

For any gadget follower will know that Apple and Samsung have been locked in a legal battle over the Galaxy tablet, with Apple saying Samsung are infringing on their patents.

For all the trouble Apple’s aggressive litigation strategy has caused Samsung, the South Korea-based electronics giant has finally found a way to make the pricey patent war work to its advantage. Samsung’s devices are gaining huge exposure as a result of Apple’s ongoing lawsuits, positioning Samsung’s Galaxy range of Android tablets and smartphones as the underdog alternative to Apple’s iOS lineup.

Samsung launched a new advertising campaign late last month that just started to scratch the surface. The commercials showed Apple fans lining up in droves for a new smartphone that looked exactly like their old smartphone. It also portrayed iPhone users as mindless hipster sheep, while young sophisticated professionals opted for a more capable smartphone with a gorgeous display and 4G speeds: the Samsung Galaxy S II.

Now Samsung is taking its marketing a step further, directly addressing Apple’s aggressive legal strategy in an effort to draw consumers to its side of the fight.

In Sunday’s edition of Australian paper The Sun-Herald, Samsung ran a full-page advertisement headed with “The tablet Apple tried to stop.” The quip refers of course to the company’s ongoing legal battles with Apple over patents and a design identity that Apple feels are being infringed by Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet. Samsung recently scored a major victory in Australia, however, when a sales ban on the Android tablet was overturned by an Australian High Court.

Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 features a 10.1-inch display, a dual-core processor and Google’s Android Honeycomb operating system. According to Apple, the slate also features a design that “slavishly” copies its popular iPad tablet and technology that infringes on multiple Apple-owned patents.

Defending its products against Apple’s numerous lawsuits continues to cost Samsung a tremendous amount of money, but it also appears to be opening some doors. ”Samsung has just edged past the iPhone in consumer perception (adults 18+), likely powered by their new set of ads bashing the Apple fanboys who camp out for hours to buy the new iPhone,” market research firm YouGov wrote recently in a report on brand perception.

Samsung appears ready to take Apple on both in the courtroom and in the eyes of consumers, and the company is making progress on both fronts.

Brilliant, just when I ditch my PC for a MAC and get an iPad, someone else comes along to claim the cool.

Still, anything’s better than Windows.  Briefly…

Microsoft’s senior director of Windows Phone communications Bill Cox said yesterday that more than 3,200 people replied to Microsoft’s request for stories about malware-infected Android smartphones. Microsoft had asked Android users to send in their malware horror stories and said it would provide free Windows Phone devices to those with the best tales. It isn’t clear if the number of responses actually represents Android users with malware troubles, or if the number of submissions was padded by people looking to get lucky and score a free phone. It’s no secret there are a number of malicious Android applications in the market; mobile security firm Lookout Mobile Security recently reported that more than $1 million was stolen from Android users in 2011 through the use of malicious apps. Still, Windows Phone isn’t exactly a post child for security, either. A flaw was recently discovered that allows a simple text message sent to a Windows Phone to render its messaging hub completely useless.

Given the troubles that come with owning a Microsoft product (and I include my beloved Xbox360 in that) I don’t know why any sane person would think that a Windows phone would be a smart purchase.

Ah well.