South Korea ministry today announced that they’ll develop their own open-source smartphone OS to give local smartphone makers “competitiveness” against foreign smartphone OS makers. The details on how and what the OS will be are unknown but the Korean ministry said such a move will help manufacturers like Samsung, LG to compete against Apple’s iOS and even Google’s Android OS. Samsung was hesitant at first to co-develop the open-source platform but changed their decision after Google announced the acquisition of Motorola.

The government plans to infuse some capital and start the joint project before the end of this year.

A week back, Samsung’s Lee Kun-hee had emphasized on software competitiveness in order to succeed in the Electronics business.

UPDATE: Samsung has apparently denied their association for the development of the smartphone OS. Thanks, MovePlayer!

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LG U+, formerly known as LG Telecom has confirmed the oft-leaked Galaxy U (SHW-M130L). They’ve announced that they are training their sales rep so that they can disseminate proper info of the high-end device, scheduled to launch in mid-August (sometime next week).

Some of Galaxy U’s specs have also been confirmed, like the 1GHz CPU, 3.7-inches AMOLED display (no mention of Super AMOLED or AMOLED Plus), Android 2.1 OS, access to Google market and LG’s OZ store.

Samsung has entered into a cross-industry alliance that has the basic aim to simplify how we consume HD content. Samsung along with LG, Sony Pictures and Valens Semiconductor have created HDBaseT, a new standard that sends uncompressed video, audio to HDTVs over a regular Ethernet cable. The HDBaseT technology also allows for internet surfing simultaneously while you’re watching a movie.

As the demand for high-quality HD content distribution in the entire home is already huge, we are hoping that HDBaseT will play the trigger role in advancing this market, since HDBaseT enables simultaneous multi-room distribution of uncompressed HD Multimedia as well as data, control and power over a single CAT5e cable.

Since Samsung is one of the founding partners, it wouldn’t be surprising to see HDBaseT being adopted in future Samsung televisions, blu-ray players etc.

HDBaseT Alliance will be exhibiting their technology at the CES next month.

HDBaseT

Samsung and LG will make global digital TV receiver chips where LG will design the chip while Samsung will manufacture and test them. On the other hand, SKT will look after to develop System on Chip (SoC) for smartphones.

If successful, such an alliance could save hundreds of billion Won in imports and create investment opportunities and job employment.

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There’s no doubt that Samsung launched its S9110 to outdo LG’s GD910. But will this entry spoil LG’s party? We take a quick look by comparing each of its specifications and give you our say as to which one you should go for.

Network:
S9110 – GSM 900 / 1800
GD910 – GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900; HSDPA – 2100
Result: GD910 has an upper hand here with a global GSM coverage and support for 3G.

Dimensions and Weight:
S9110 – 57.5 x 41.1 x 11.98 mm; 91g
GD910 – 61 x 39 x 13.9 mm; 84g
Result: 2mm is in no way thick and is hardly noticeable but you know, if slimness is what you crave for, S9110 is the way to go. Oh and as you can see, it’s a bit heavier too.

Display:
S9110 – 1.76-inch 256K colors capacitive touchscreen (176×220)
GD910 – 1.43-inch 256K colors capacitive touchscreen (176×220)
Result: Pretty much the same but a bigger screen like on S9110 is always welcome.

Camera:
S9110 – No
GD910 – Yes, CIF resolution
Result: S9110 does not have a camera and even a camera supporting CIF resolution in GD910 is a big plus. To top it, it can be used to carry out video calls.

Memory:
S9110 – 40MB internal
GD910 – No mention 2GB internal [via Intomobile]
Result: LG’s GD910 is a clear winner over here. This could be an area of concern for Samsung. 2GB seems more than enough to store songs, pictures but 40MB on S9110…forget it!

Bluetooth:
S9110 – v2.1 with A2DP
GD910 – v2.0 with A2DP
Result: S9110 one ups GD910 on the Bluetooth front. v2.1 gives advantages like simple pairing, enhanced security and power efficiency.

Other features:
S9110 – E-mail (Outlook Sync), Voice recognition, Voice memo, MP3 player, Organizer, T9
GD910 – Waterproof, Voice recognition, Text to Speech (TTS), MP3 Player, Organizer, T9
Result: Both the devices offer on par features but S9110 gives e-mail support while GD910 trades in for its waterproof capability and TTS.

Battery:
S9110 – Li-ion 630mAh, no word on expected talk and standby time
GD910 – Li-ion, up to 2 hours of talk time and 247 hours of standby time
Result: We can’t really compare on this front since the data is inadequate but we expect Samsung’s watchphone to be in the same range.

Price:
S9110 – Around $640
GD910 – Around $1290 (with selected plans or $1434)
Result: Need we say more? If the rumored price turns out to be true for GD910, Samsung will easily be beat LG hands down.

Summing it up, we think price is going to be a crucial factor. Even though GD910 is superior in some areas, shelling out 1000 more than 600 bucks doesn’t justify it.

Thought we missed out anything? Do let us know in the comments.

Specifications sourced from GSMArena.

Two Korean giants have agreed to come together to jointly research and develop LCD panel equipments. The Korean Display Industry announced that both Samsung and LG will co-develop OLED equipment, which marks an important role in making LCD panels. They’ll also invest in a next-gen display for which they’ll source the core materials.

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