Vizio’s Q3 sales accounted for only 15.7% of the US’s total, while Samsung managed to move 16.8%. iSuppli credited Samsung’s LED backlighting push for the higher sales. LED backlight means thinner TVs. The rest of the manufacturers, LG, Toshiba, and Sony only managed a 8.1%, 7.8%, and 7.8% respective market share.

But here’s the thing, only LG saw its numbers actually increase from the second quarter of 2009. Everyone else, including the top dogs, watched less TVs ship out. Of course that shouldn’t be a problem for the fourth quarter of the year as people pick up TV sets as household holiday gifts.

Samsung really wants you to like this camera, as evidenced by the massive media campaign that they’ve been running (smiling monkeys, anyone?) but it seems to have been for naught. Wired reviewed the camera today and they’ve rated this one a 4/10. In addition to the laundry list of problems listed above, the image quality is also poor, much less then you would expect from a 12.2 megapixel camera.

Samsung has just announced a pair of LCD monitors with built-in TV features that promise to “eliminate the line between work productivity and HD entertainment,” according to the press release. And speaking of that press release, it appears that Samsung has also eliminated the most basic and important spec from the products’ list of features.

Price? Nope, that’s there — $250 for the 933HD+ and $330 for the 2333HD. Resolution? 1360×768 for the 933HD+ and 1920×1080 for the 2333HD. Response time, contrast ratio, that stuff is all there too.

It’s a little known fact that for every one person that writes about technology products, there are 50 public relations people. Maybe 100. It might even be 1000. I don’t know the exact number except to say that they’re everywhere and they all somehow have my phone number and they all somehow know where I live, so I certainly don’t want to brass anyone off but see if you can tell me what’s missing from this press release:

Samsung HDTV Monitors Eliminate Line between Work Productivity and HD Entertainment

Samsung’s 933HD+ and 2333HD LCD Monitors Offer Extensive Range of Entertainment Options

RIDGEFIELD PARK, N.J.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Samsung Electronics America Inc., a subsidiary of Samsung Electronics Corporation, the number one worldwide brand of LCD display products, today announced the debut of its entertainment-centric monitors, the 933HD+ and 2333HD. At an estimated street price of $249.99 and $329.99, respectively, both monitors produce picture perfect HD quality in a sleek design and are now available from Samsung resellers and retailers.

“With more homes having multiple entertainment centers, the 933HD+ and 2333HD are the perfect companions for users who want integrated HDTV functionality from a desktop monitor. The added bonus is that both these monitors are self-contained and functional right out of the box, and can quickly connect to any entertainment device,” said Doug Albregts, vice president, Information Technology Division, Samsung Electronics America Inc.

COMPACT TV WITH CONNECTIVITY

The 933HD+ and 2333HD have all the benefits of a compact television including a digital TV tuner with an optional cable or satellite connection and up to two HDMI connections, depending on model, to connect digital devices such as a Blu-Ray player and gaming system. The integrated stereo sound system offers great sound and includes Dolby Digital (2333HD). The 933HD+ and 2333HD’s slick glossy black finish features a rounded bottom edge with matching crystal-like acrylic bar.

MULTI-PERFORMANCE

Whether watching movies, sports or a PowerPoint presentation, the 933HD+ and 2333HD offer Samsung’s quality performance with a dynamic contrast ratio of 10,000:1 and 5 millisecond response rate. Movies can be fully appreciated in 16:9 widescreen formats without distortion or stretching and there is ample space to run multiple applications simultaneously. Settings, such as brightness, backlight and color effects, can be quickly customized with a touch of a key using the MagicColor, MagicBright, Color Effect and Image Size functions.

“With more users viewing HD broadcast, watching Blu-ray movies and playing video games on their monitors, the 933HD+ and 2333HD are space savers for those looking for a multi-purpose monitor to place in a tight space, like a studio apartment or dorm room,” said Young Bae, director, Information Technology Division, Samsung Electronics America Inc.

933HD+ and 2333HD

• 1360 x768 or 1920×1080 (2333HD only) resolution
• Dynamic contrast ratio of 10,000:1
• 16:9 aspect ratio
• 5ms response time
• Remote control

Monitors are available through Samsung resellers and distribution channels, which can be located by calling 1-800-SAMSUNG or by visiting www.samsung.com. Samsung Power Partners receive special promotions, lead referrals, training and technical support, as well as collateral and marketing materials. Samsung also recycles all monitors through its RECYCLING DIRECT^SM Program. To find out more about becoming a Samsung Power Partner or the RECYCLING DIRECT^SM Program, visit www.samsungpartner.com.

Here’s the live copy, which will hopefully be updated by the time you read this (it’s been over two hours already, though).

UPDATE/SPOILER: Samsung e-mailed saying that the 933HD+ and 2333HD displays are 19 and 23 inches, respectively. So there you have it. Sweet, sweet closure.

If you think about it, you’ll probably only need to hang your flat panel TV on the wall once. Maybe twice. Maybe three times if you really move around a lot, like in the middle of the night when you hear a knock on your door and thank god you slept in your clothes because there’s only enough time to put on a pair of Velcro shoes and grab your 40-inch TV.

Basically what I’m saying is if you want your one-time TV hanging experience to be as smooth as possible or if you have a habit of bolting down fire escapes in the middle of the night, then Samsung’s recently-unveiled 3.3 millimeter thick 40-inch LED TV might be right up your alley.

There’s not a whole lot of info other than that the TV contains a 40-inch, 120Hz panel, a total thickness of just 3.3 millimeters, and a contrast ratio of 5000:1 – pricing and availability (and weight) are unknown, although Akihabara reports that Samsung is looking to get the TV on the market as soon as possible.

[via Akihabara]

Samsung has a tiny solid state drive that might make its way into future notebooks and netbooks. Based on the mSATA (mini-SATA) interface, the drive would require no external housing and “would plug directly into an internal PCI Express (PCIe) slot in a desktop, laptop or netbook,” according to Computerworld.

The main hurdle is that the PCIe slot isn’t integrated into most current motherboard designs, so it’d have to become a standard present in future products. As for the drive itself, capacities reach 64GB and it uses the serial ATA interface to transfer data.

For use in netbooks or notebooks, 64GB may be enough storage for everyday use but in desktops and more fully-featured portable computers, the mSATA drives could house the operating system and programs while a standard high-capacity hard drive would be used in tandem to store other files like photos, videos, and music.

It’s unknown how much additional cost the mSATA drives would add to a computer’s bottom line but the draw would be that we’d theoretically see much thinner and lighter systems since the drive itself is about a third of the size of a business card.

[via Computerworld]

It seems that Apple has such of thirst for flash memory (for use in its iPods, iPhones, maybe tablets, etc.) that it’s having a profound effect on the flash suppliers. Tighter supplies, uncertainty about where to go for more flash, etc. Apple gets most of its flash memory from Samsung, but other people get flash from Samsung, too, and now they’re all, “Um, hey Samsung, do you have any flash for us?” Then Samsung shrugs its shoulders, “Yeah, man, Apple just paid us $80 zillion for the lot of it. You’ll have to go somewhere else. Sorry.”

With Samsung so busy filling Apple orders, other companies have stepped in to fill the void. The biggest one is called IM Flash, based in Utah (of all places!).

How does affect you? I’m going to guess that it won’t affect you in the least. Where Apple (or Microsoft, or Dell, or YourFavoriteCompany) buys its flash should never cross your mind. I just found it interesting that Apple needs flash oh so bad that it’s freaking out other companies, and directly impacting their behavior. Oh, Apple. I like you better when you were the underdog.

via 9 to 5 Mac

Boy, are you in luck. Samsung just released this “viral video” (is it viral if it is willingly introduced into the bloodstream of the Internet? Wouldn’t this be an “intravenous video” or a “infection through self-abuse video?) for the Samsung Galaxy.

I just wonder how much they spend on this stuff? And does it actually work? Would you buy a cellphone based on this? Right now I’m more interested in buying puppetry lessons.

Following the success of its predecessor, the Samsung Behold®, the Behold II will be available exclusively from T-Mobile and is currently scheduled to launch before the start of the holidays. The sleek touch-screen phone is the first from T-Mobile USA to feature a 3.2-inch AMOLED screen, which provides crisper colors and wider viewing angles. In addition, the Behold II is equipped with Samsung’s innovative TouchWiz user interface, allowing easy customization with widgets located in a slide out tray on the left side of the home screen and providing one-touch access to a customer’s favorite and most commonly used features and applications. The Behold II offers three different home screens to drag and drop widgets onto the screen and organize the different workspaces with favorite widgets and application shortcuts. Samsung’s intuitive cube menu also provides quick access to six top multimedia features, including music, photos, videos, the Web, YouTube™ and Amazon MP3 for music downloads.

The HDD spins at 5,400 rpm, has an 8MB cache memory, and a 3.0Gbps SATA interface. Samsung says the Spinpoint boasts a very low level of power consumption and comes with a shock resistance level of 400G (2ms) when it’s in use and 900G (1ms) when it’s off.

There will also be Spinpoint HDDs with 160, 250, 320 and 500GB on board. Samsung will start shipping the 640GB model in Europe and the USA starting mid-September, with the rest of the world following late September (MSRP: $149.99).

This is an experimental Samsung system for ad targeting. You walk up to a sign and it can tell if you’re a man or a woman and, potentially, replace the ad on the sign with something you’d be interested in. It will also keep track of people walking through your mall who stop at the sign. The system can also figure out how many of each sex are in the herd and act accordingly.

While it seems like a great way to target advertising, I find it really creepy. You?

“We are no longer planning to pursue the acquisition as there has been no progress since we withdrew our offer as of Oct. 22, 2008,” said Samsung, the world’s top maker of memory chips, in a filing with the Korea Exchange.

Well done, Samsung. While Sony wants us to believe that the Atom CPU is good enough in its latest upscale netbook, Samsung had the right idea and installed a dual-core CULV processor in the latest X Series notebook. Yeah, the Sammy isn’t constructed out of carbon fiber and is quite thick in comparison at 0.95-inches, but at least users will be able to preform all but the utmost intensive tasks with ease. And that’s more important than 0.44-inches.

Besides the unannounced CULV CPU, the notebook has the standard fare: Bluetooth, SD card reader, WiFi, HDMI out, and a 6 cell battery that Samsung claims will rock-out for 9 hours. Prices start at 699 Euros for X120 11-inch and will rise modestly for the X420 14-inch and X520 15.6-inch.

There are rumors that these will be Russia-only, which sounds ridonkulous. It’s also supposed to have 11 hours of battery life, which is ridonkulouser.

When I look at this I hear the adults from Peanuts – waah waah wahwahwah – but whatever. It’s a 24x ultrazoom with 720p video output and 12.5-megapixels. No US pricing but whatever.

To recap: When you hit the stores just as for the WB5000 by Samsung. You’ll be mildly glad you did.

The “anybody but iPod” crowd has another portable media player to choose from, and it’s from Samsung. It’s called the R1, and it’s your standard issue touchscreen PMP. It does play Divx-encoded video, which should be a benefit to those of you who haven’t moved onto Blu-ray rips, or who enjoy watching standard-def rips of TV shows on the subway.

It’s small, yeah, with its screen coming in at 2.6-inches, and being only 8.9mm (0.89 cm). You know Samsung worked damn hard to get that under 9.0mm.

There’s not much else here: it’s a PMP, for Pete’s sake. These things have been the same for four years now.

The R1 will come in 8GB an 16GB flavors when it comes out this fall. A specific release date? Nowhere to be found. But you knew that already, didn’t you?