Samsung plans to unveil its next Galaxy device at a May 3 event in London thats so top-secret that invitations to the event neither confirm that it will unveil a smartphone nor that it will be called the Galaxy S III, as is widely suspected.
Gizmodo Brasil excitedly posted photos on April 18 of what the site said was the Galaxy III that it claimed it found in the wild.
But, other sources are denying their authenticity.
Someone familiar with Samsungs plans has confirmed to The Verge that the photos arent of the newest Galaxy. Or, not exactly. Samsung, according to the report, is using generic test boxesgeneric phone cases, in other wordsto test the new devices internal electronics. What Gizmodo Brasil snapped, then, was the Galaxy III (or whatever theyll call it) wearing a fat suit.
Thats not even close to the final design, the source told The Verge. No leaks of the final design have been accurate.
With the Samsung invite showing only slick blue and white blobs of what appear to be hardened paint or acrylic, yet another rumor is that the newest galaxy features a ceramic chassis. Still more rumors have arisen that Samsung will also introduce a new tablet to share.
Cnet, citing its own source, reports that the Korean chaebol will be lining up a new 10.1 Galaxy Tab to complement the handset launch, though its not the Galaxy Tab 2 10.1, which is supposedly getting a quad-core processor.
If your first question, like mine, is what the heck a chaebol is, the answer is that its a conglomerate of businesses, usually owned by one familyas in Samsung. If youre instead wondering what Samsung says about all this, it tells Cnet that it hasnt heard anything about a tablet launching in London (tablet? what tablet?).
As for the iCloud wannabe rumor, the word is that Samsung wants to not only compete with Apples iPhone and iPad but also its iCloud offering. According to The Washington Post, which cites the South Korean newspaper Maeil Business, Samsung plans to introduce a cloud service called S-Cloud at the London event. According to the report, its similar to iCloud but doesnt limit the types of content that can be uploaded.
It is also expected to ship with access to popular TV shows, movies, and music with free and paid content that will be available across a range of Samsung devices, including laptops, tablets and smartphones, wrote The Post. Storage is rumored to be more than 5GB, but it’s not clear whether that’s down to paid offerings. To ensure the service is available globally, the report adds that Microsoft is on board as a partner.
How true are any of these rumors or source-related leaks? Probably the one to bank on is the source who told The Verge that security surrounding the preparation and launch of the event is tighter than it has ever been for any product in the companys history.
In other words, on the evening of May 3the event starts at 7 p.m. London timebut probably not sooner, well finally learn which of these rumors were actually true.