Upset! iPhone 4S surrenders U.S. crown to Galaxy S3

Samsung Electronics' Galaxy S3 surpassed the iPhone 4S as the top-selling U.S. smartphone in August, the first time that Apple's flagship phone has relinquished its position atop the smartphone food chain.

That's according to Canaccord Genuity analyst T. Michael Walkley, who checks in with retailers to see how each phone is doing.

The iPhone 4S, which initially launched with AT&T, Verizon Wireless, and Sprint Nextel, and then expanded to a number of other carriers, has held the top spot as the single best-selling phone ever since it launched in October. To have held on to that spot would have been impressive for any device, but has been par for the course for previous iPhones.

"We believe this is the first month since the iPhone 4S launched in October 2011 that it was not the top-selling smartphone in the U.S. market," Walkley said.

The weaker iPhone 4S sales likely aren't an indictment on the demand for Apple products, but merely a pause as consumers wait for the next iteration, commonly referred to as the iPhone 5. Apple is expected to unveil the phone next week, and pictures and videos have already leaked.

As a result, Apple should return to the top spot once the next iPhone launches.

While the iPhone 4S sales weakened, the Galaxy S3 numbers continue to look strong, further solidifying Samsung's position as the world's largest smartphone vendor and top Android partner.

Meanwhile, Walkley said his retail checks indicate continue weakness with Nokia, HTC, and BlackBerry maker Research In Motion.

Apple and Samsung remain locked in a number of courtroom battles over smartphone designs around the world. Apple last month won a decisive victory in a case in California, in which a jury found Samsung violated a number of Apple patents and ordered the Korean company topay $1.05 billion in damages. On Friday, in a separate case, Apple added the Galaxy S3 and the Galaxy Note to the list of Samsung devices it says infringe its intellectual property.

CNET

It's the Samsung Note 10.1

The GALAXY Note 10.1 is outfitted with the functionality and precision of a pen and paper on a 10.1-inch-large-display.

Featuring an intuitive user experience and armed with superior hardware performance, GALAXY Note 10.1 is designed to simplify idea capturing, information access, and multi-tasking, making each easier and faster.

From Samsung:

Multiscreen. Real multitasking on the portable 10.1” screen

Now, you can do 2 things at the same time as you usually do on the PC.
For example, what if you want to see the actor’s profile while watching a movie you recently downloaded? or if you find a nice restaurant which want to scrap on the Note?
Just use the “Multiscreen” button and open the internet browser or the S Note. You don’t need to stop the movie or the browser so that you surf web or make a note. Do you want to scrap the image on the Note? Just capture and drag it to the S Note opened right next to the web page.

Embedded S Pen: Real Pen-like feeling for natural writing experience

Precise versatile S Pen enables you to get a premium experience for note-taking, sketching, drawing, and other forms of creative expression

S Note : The easy-to-use creation tool

7 Templates to express life’s every detail
Make your own story once selecting one of the S Note templates. S Note makes your note-taking and creation rich and neat.

* 7 templates : Note / Idea note / Meeting Note / Magazine / Diary / Recipe / Travel.

Shape Match

Visualize your ideas better by turning squiggly shapes
into neat organized figures.
The Shape Match will automatically corrects the lines
and shapes.

Adobe® Photoshop® Touch : Give photos the magic touch

Now, everyone can create dazzling multilayered images, apply professional effects,
and share the results through Facebook, and more – all from the convenience of your touchscreen tablet

Features:

• 10.1-inch LCD display running at 1280 by 720
• Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich with Samsung’s custom UI (Jelly Bean coming later this year)
• 1.4GHz quad-core Samsung Exynos processor
• 2GB of RAM
• 16 or 32GB of internal storage, accepts microSD cards as large as 64GB
• 5MP rear camera, 1.9MP front-facing camera
• Wi-Fi only
• MSRP: $499 for the 16GB model, $549 for the 32GB model, available on August 16

Pros:

• The S-Pen is a joy to use on a big screen
• Strong spec sheet means great performance
• Split-screen multitasking!

Cons:

• Build quality doesn’t inspire confidence
• The cameras are underwhelming
• Samsung’s UI can be a bit overbearing