Samsung Electronics Co., the biggest rival to Apple Inc. in the mobile devices and which is involved in a number of expensive courtroom battles with the Steve Jobs-founded company, scheduled an Oct. 11 launch for the Samsung Nexus Prime, the first smartphone powered by the Android Ice Cream Sandwich.

The launch of the Nexus Prime, also known as Galaxy Nexus, would have been just days after Apple's iPhone 4S was shown to the public. The iPhone 4S, the successor to Apple's best-selling smartphone ever, the iPhone 4, has an upgraded processor, camera, and software, and features a virtual assistant.

Oct. 4.

Jobs-less iPhone 4 event has lukewarm reviews. New CEO Tim Cook opened the Let's Talk iPhone event and unveiled the iPhone 4S, which prior to the event was thought to be a low priced, for-emerging-markets version of the iPhone 4. But Cook closed the event without an iPhone 5 leaving fans and critics disappointed. The new iPhone didn't have the external changes, including a bigger screen, that tech sites reported (or predicted) would be unveiled at the event.

"Don't be deceived because inside it's all new," says Apple's Philip Schiller. The iPhone 4S sports a 3.5-inch screen; an 8-megapixel, 1080p high-definition camera; an A5 dual-core chip processor that is seven times faster than the graphics processor in the iPhone 4; 512 MB of RAM; two antennae to transmit and receive data; CDMA and GSM connectivity; 8 hours of 3G talk-time, and new applications like Siri and Find My Friends. Siri is a voice-recognition system Siri that turns the device into a hands-free personal assistant.

Apple will start taking pre-orders for the iPhone 4S at the end of the week. The device will be available in the U.S, Australia and other countries starting Oct. 14.

Galaxy S2 even better than iPhone 4S, says Samsung. Samsung PR's team sent notes comparing the Samsung Galaxy S II to the iPhone 4S.

According to wireless and mobile news, here are highlights of the comparison from Samsung:

* Screen size benefits scale by AREA (length x width), not just diagonal; the AT&T version of the Samsung Galaxy S II has 42% more screen area and Sprint / T-Mobile versions of Galaxy S II have 58% more screen area than the iPhone 4S.

* The Galaxy S II HSPA+ network speeds are at least 50% faster with AT&T 21 MBPS and three times faster with T-Mobile's 42 MBPS than the iPhone 4S's 14 MBPS HSPA network.

* Galaxy S II continues to have the thinnest smartphone design with the fastest network speed on each of the networks carrying the smartphone (AT&T, Sprint & T-Mobile) including announcement of the iPhone 4S specs for AT&T, Sprint and Verizon.

* Open Ecosystem - Consumers can use the Galaxy S II to buy music from Amazon, Rhapsody, or a variety of other music services, as well as multiple cloud music services supported such as Amazon, Google Music and multiple video chat clients available for use including Google Chat and Skype. The Samsung Galaxy S II is not limited to a single manufacturer's storefront or app store

Samsung also released a teaser video for the Nexus Prime

Oct. 5.

Samsung tries to ban iPhone 4S. Just hours after Apple's 'Lets Talk iPhone' event, Samsung Electronics announced it will file pleadings in courts in Paris, France and Milano, Italy, accusing Apple of two patent infringements related to wireless telecommunications technology, specifically Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) standards for 3G mobile handsets. Samsung is requesting the courts in Italy and France to enter a preliminary injunction, requesting to block the sale of the iPhone 4S. Samsung plans to file preliminary injunctions in other countries after further review.

Steve Job, 56, dies. Laurene Powell Jobs, to whom Jobs was married for 20 years, and their three children shook the world when they announced that one of America's greatest CEOs died peacefully at 56 after a long battle of pancreatic cancer. Here's a video on Jobs, who never graduated college, giving his Stanford University commencement speech in 2005:

Tributes break records. Tributes for Apple's creative genius broke internet records -- according to SR7, Twitter registered 10,000 tweets per second as news broke of Jobs' death at age 56. Twitter trends and Google trends were overtaken by people running searches on Steve Jobs and the news surrounding his death.

Oct. 6.

Samsung Galaxy Nexus specs released. Google and Samsung have been mum about the specs and features -- even the name -- of the new smartphone.

A. Boy Genius Report, citing a trusted source, said the Galaxy Nexus will have these specs:

* Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich operating system

* 9mm thin

* 4.65-inch 1280 x 720-pixel Super AMOLED HD with curved glass

* TI OMAP 4460 dual-core Cortex A9 processor clocked at 1.2GHz

* 1GB of RAM

* 32GB of built-in storage

* 5-megapixel camera on the back, 1.3-megapixel in the front

* 1080p HD video capture support

* LTE/HSPA depending on carrier

* Wi-Fi a/b/g/n

* NFC

* 1,750 mAh battery

PCMag's David Murphy claims that the specs provided by BGR do line up with a number of the rumors that we've culled together from various sources.

B. GSMArena said it has obtained the specs from a tipster inside Google:

* 4.65-inch touchscreen display with 1,280 x 720 resolution

* 1.5GHz dual-core Exynos processor

* PowerVR SGX543MP2 dual-core GPU from Imagination

* 8-megapixel camera with new improved sensor and 1,080p HD video recording

* 2050 mAh battery

* LTE with dual-mode CDMA/GSM radios

Ice Cream Sandwich is the platform that will unify the user interface between Android phones and tablets.

Oct. 7.

iPhone 4S pre-orders reach 1-mil. in 24 hours. Pre-order figures signal that this would be the biggest iPhone launch ever. Outpouring of emotion for Jobs and the 15-month wait for a new iPhone have spurred sales. Apple confirmed that pre-orders for the iPhone 4S topped 1 million in the first 24 hours. Pre-orders for the iPhone 4 totaled 600,000 in 24 hours.

Nexus Prime launch postponed. The South Korean company announced, "Samsung and Google decided to postpone the new product announcement at CTIA Fall. We agree that it is just not the right time to announce a new product. New date and venue will be shortly announced." The postponement of the Samsung Mobile Unpacked 2011 at the CTIA is not related to hardware or software problems around the phone. Samsung confirmed that it didn't want to launch the new product so close to Jobs' death. "Samsung has made some faux pas that are in bad taste which may have contributed to their decision," says wireless and mobile news. It points out that the comparison chart between the iPhone 4S and the Galaxy S 2 wound up being published in many news outlets on the day of Steve Jobs' death. So while the world was grieving on the death of the great visionary, Samsung was business as usual. Another bad PR for Samsung was that its decision to stop sales of the iPhone 4S also came at the time when Jobs' death was just announced.

"We decided it was not the right time to announce a new product while the world was expressing tribute to Steve Jobs's passing," Samsung spokesman Kim Titus said in a telephone interview with Bloomberg News. "The industry has never lost such an iconic figure. Obviously we were well down the path but decided this was the right thing to do."

Samsung's profits beat estimates. Samsung announced that operating profit in the three months ended September was 4.2 trillion won ($3.6 billion), more than the 3.7 trillion won average of 28 analysts' estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Sales rose 1.9 percent to 41 trillion won. Sale of mobile devices offset poor sales of displays and semiconductors. The figures indicate that despite accusations by Apple that Samsung devices are slavishly imitating the iPhone and iPad and injunctions obtained by Apple in Australia, the Netherlands and Germany, Samsung continues to gain ground in the mobile devices market.

Oct. 9.

Nexus Prime superior to iPhone 4S? According to Techie Insider, the Nexus Prime looks to have a number of things that the iPhone 4S does not and with that, it is going to cause some problems with sales for Apple. It may not be the only phone that has more features than the iPhone 4S, but it is the latest and has a number great features that people want which Apple is not providing. Among others, the Nexus has a screen of 4.5 inches, an inch larger than the iPhone. The Nexus Prime also sports a curved screen. Rumors on the next iPhone having a curved screen never materialized with the iPhone 4S. The Nexus Prime also has additional features that the iPhone 4S doesn't have: LTE coverage and NCF capability.

Nexus Prime available in SIM-loving GSM. According to a report posted by TmoNews, Google Samsung's Nexus Prime or Galaxy Nexus phone has passed through the FCC, but the document revealed that the phone is GSM with AWS, indirectly suggesting that aside from the rumored Verizon Wireless LTE version, Nexus 2011 will also offer a variant that will support traditional SIM cards.

Oct. 10.

Samsung won't delay IP cases vs. Apple. A California court is expected to issue a ruling on Thursday Oct. 12 that could affect Samsung's mobile device sales in the U.S., according to Reuters. Samsung and Apple are suing each other in 20 cases filed in 10 countries since April. Samsung said it has no plan to delay scheduled hearing dates due to Jobs' death, according to an Oct. 10 report by Reuters. Last week, Apple rejected an offer from Samsung to settle a lawsuit against the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Australia, extending the injunction against the sale of the tablet in the country.

Oct. 27.

Nexus Prime release date when? After a three-week postponement, Samsung will reportedly release the Nexus Prime on Oct. 27 in London. Samsung has denied the existence of such event and said it has yet to decide on a new date.

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