After a tough last week, here’s some good news for Samsung. Federal court in California has dismissed some of Apple’s antitrust claims against Samsung. Apple claimed “Samsung misrepresented its intent to license certain patents on fair terms” but judge, Lucy Koh thought otherwise. However, Apple can still reclaim it by revising their complaint.

Bloomberg further notes that Koh didn’t rule to block Samsung against selling their Galaxy devices in United States despite Apple claiming patent infringements.

Not the best of days if you’re a part of Samsung’s legal counsel. The court in Hague has rejected Samsung’s claim of patent infringement by Apple and thus, rejecting the appeal to ban on sales of Apple iPhone and iPad.

Judge was of the opinion that Samsung’s 3G patents were a part of essential standards and both companies should negotiate licensing under FRAND.

Meanwhile in United States, U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh said that Galaxy Tab infringed iPad related patents but the injunction will depend on Apple to prove the patents are valid.

Considering how important United States market is for Samsung, this piece of news comes as a surprise. According to a report on Gotta Be Mobile Samsung will not release the recently announced Galaxy Tab 7.7 and Galaxy Note in the US. The exact reason is unknown but the site got the confirmation from a Samsung spokesperson at the IFA expo.

Samsung announced the Galaxy Tab 7.7 and Galaxy Note in Berlin yesterday that runs the latest Android OS and comes with an OLED display supporting HD resolution.

After a series of leaks and speculation, Samsung has officially unveiled the Galaxy S II variants for US consumers. All the variants are designed differently so as to distinguish it from one another and runs Android 2.3.4 OS. Sprint’s variant is known as Epic 4G Touch and features a large 4.52-inch Super AMOLED Plus display, 1.2GHz dual-core processor, TouchWiz UI, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 3.0, 8MP rear-facing camera with full HD recording support, 2MP front-facing camera, microSD card slot and GPS. Sprint will start selling Epic 4G Touch from September 16 for $199.99 on contract but users can start pre-ordering the device by purchasing a $50 Sprint gift card.

AT&T’s Galaxy S II is spec’d similarly to the international version whereas the T-Mobile version will sport a 4.52-inch display with other features expected to be on the lines of other variants.

We won’t have any new details until the official unveiling but you can check out the different variants for different US carriers. The image shows Galaxy S II variants for Sprint, AT&T and T-Mobile and also confirms the yesterday’s report of Verizon missing out on Galaxy S II. Just like the carriers did for Galaxy S, its successor too has got subtle design changes that try to distinguish them from other operator’s offering.

Samsung will announce the Galaxy S II for US on August 29.

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Verizon subscribers waiting for the Galaxy S II might have to face some disappointment. According to a report on Wall Street Journal, the Galaxy S II won’t be released on US’ biggest operator. The Verizon spokesperson failed to divulge the reason but did emphasize on Verizon’s “extensive portfolio, including the Samsung Droid Charge.”

Samsung will announce the Galaxy S II for United States on August 29 for AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile.

Walmart and TracFone will soon launch an entry-level Android-based Samsung smartphone in United States. Little is known about the upcoming Galaxy Precedent (SCH-M828C) but is said to be similar to (or just a rebadged) Galaxy Prevail. Amongst the confirmed features, the phone has Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 3.0, GPS, Swype text input support and a microSD card slot.

The phone will cost $150 to own without any contract.

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Looks like Samsung will deliver on its promise of unveiling Galaxy S II in August in United States. Samsung has started sending invitations to journalists and bloggers for an event scheduled for August 29. Although the invite doesn’t explicitly mention Galaxy S II, the invite does have a large Roman number 2 in the invite that strongly suggests Galaxy S II is in the offing.

Samsung is expected to reveal all the operator-specific variants of Galaxy S II at the event.

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Samsung will launch a new touchscreen-enabled QWERTY feature phone for American consumers. The phone is identified as Character (SCH-R640) and features a 2.8-inch touchscreen display, horizontal sliding QWERTY keyboard, 1.3MP camera, music player, microSD card slot, quick access to social networks and TouchWiz Lite UI.

There’s no info on the price but going by the feature set, expect it to be really affordable.

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Mobile Communications head JK Shin at the Galaxy Tab 10.1 launch event in South Korea confirmed the release of Galaxy S II for consumers in United States. Samsung’s top of the line phone is set to hit the US shores next month.

Needless to say, its good news for US consumers and the confirmation from Shin undermines the recent rumor claiming the launch of the Galaxy S II was delayed in US as carrier negotiations was taking some time.

We don’t have any other details but going by Galaxy S’ track record, we might see different Galaxy S II variants for different operators as well as integration of NFC.

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