Samsung show off a whole range of Galaxy S III accessories

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Everyone likes accessories, right? At tonight's Unpacked event in London, Samsung unveiled a whole heap of official accessories for the Galaxy S III. From cases, to docks and even a "Pebble." 

So the Pebble isn't just a Pebble. It's basically an updated version of the old Pebble MP3 players Samsung used to sell. Covered in the "Hyperglaze" finish as with the phone, it's designed purely as an accessory to the Galaxy S III. It has 4GB of internal storage, and one use case is taking it out on a run to listen to your music, without the need to take your new, expensive Galaxy S III with you. 

Cases are cases, and it's hard to get excited about them. But we've got them nonetheless. There's a selection of hard shell and leather flip cases available to protect your shiny new Galaxy. 

There's a few different docks available too. As you would expect, there's an official Car Dock which is basically an official Samsung branded cradle. No contact less charging on the Galaxy S III. The desktop is also taken care of, with a Desktop Dock and a simple battery charging stand. 

Samsung are also offering up their own, branded HDTV adaptor which is pretty much a standard MHL adaptor. There's also a pretty cool sounding wireless charger, which didn't seem to be out on show. 

We've got a few shots of what was out on show for you after the break.

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Stock Talk: Google's earnings call, stock split and not a whole lot of Android

Today Google announced its latest set of financial results.  Not too shabby, either. Google's also splitting its stock by way of introducing a new class of shares. It sounds all complicated and stuff, but it’s really no big deal.  I’ll do my best to explain it in plain English for everyone.

First let’s look at Google’s results:

Google generated $10.65 billion in revenue for the first three months of 2012. That’s a mighty healthy 24 percent growth from the year-ago period. Operating income was up 32 percent.  Earnings per share (EPS) was $10.08, compared to $8.08 last year. In case you see headlines highlighting different earnings per share, keep in mind Wall Street usually cares about the “non GAAP” earnings, which is what we're talking about here.

The financials tell us that Google is growing at a good clip, and earnings are keeping pace with revenue growth. All of that is good news. Considering how dominant Google is in search and content advertising, it’s not like we were expecting profit margins to shrink. 

The stock market likes the numbers so far. The $10.08 in EPS compares to Wall Street expectations of $9.64. Google stock was trading up about 3 percent in after-hours trading.

Stock Talk: Google's earnings call, stock split and not a whole lot of Android

Today Google announced its latest set of financial results.  Not too shabby, either. Google's also splitting its stock by way of introducing a new class of shares. It sounds all complicated and stuff, but it’s really no big deal.  I’ll do my best to explain it in plain English for everyone.

First let’s look at Google’s results:

Google generated $10.65 billion in revenue for the first three months of 2012. That’s a mighty healthy 24 percent growth from the year-ago period. Operating income was up 32 percent.  Earnings per share (EPS) was $10.08, compared to $8.08 last year. In case you see headlines highlighting different earnings per share, keep in mind Wall Street usually cares about the “non GAAP” earnings, which is what we're talking about here.

The financials tell us that Google is growing at a good clip, and earnings are keeping pace with revenue growth. All of that is good news. Considering how dominant Google is in search and content advertising, it’s not like we were expecting profit margins to shrink. 

The stock market likes the numbers so far. The $10.08 in EPS compares to Wall Street expectations of $9.64. Google stock was trading up about 3 percent in after-hours trading.

Not your usual stock split

Google is an “expensive” stock at over $650 per hare. So it's splitting the shares 2 for 1. Keep in mind that the price of a share has absolutely nothing at all to do with making it expensive or cheap.  The price of one share tells you nothing unless you know how much of the company it represents. 

A stock split means a single share becomes two shares. The price of the stock will drop in half as a result. It’s the equivalent of cutting your piece of pizza into two. You still have the same amount of pie. No biggie. It just looks less expensive to retail investors who want to feel they’re getting a deal.

Google actually is creating a new class of shares, too. So if you have a share of Class A stock (with voting rights), you’ll now get one new share of Class C stock.  The new class of shares has no voting rights. Sergey, Larry and Eric don’t end up with any more voting control as a result of this.  Unless I’m missing something, I don’t see how this new share structure changes anything. (We'll learn more when the full proxy documentation is released.) So for now, let’s move on.

Very little Android info on the conference call?

Google didn’t throw any new metrics at us. CEO Larry Page reminded us of Android’s 850,000 daily activations number. But that’s from late February. Some might consider it a mild disappointment that the number isn’t higher after another month and a half of time to grow. But it's hard to argue that Android activations make Google the clear leader in the smartphone OS. Page commented about how the OS is “pretty important,” and there have only been a few leading OS developments in his lifetime. I completely agree. There also were several reminders about how Google's leadership runs the company with long-term goals in mind, and not necessarily quarter by quarter.

Especially from Google’s perspective, I think winning the OS battle matters a lot. Other operating systems don’t need to bake in Google apps, and therefore don’t need to bake in Google advertising.  Even an alternative OS that does bake in Google apps may strike a deal to be treated much like an AdSense publisher. The OS maker expects a cut of the revenue.

So, Google’s interest in controlling the OS helps it keep a larger chunk of the revenue pie. This is important as more and more mobile advertising will take place outside of the browser.

Oh, and finally ... there no new info on a Google branded tablet. 

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Chris Umiastowski is a former sell-side equity analyst at Orion Securities and TD Securities. Before that, he was an engineer for Nortel Networks. Chris is co-host of the Mobile Nations Stock Talk podcast.

Samsung patent filing: Convert your whole device into screen real estate

Samsung has been getting creative lately. As if devices with flexible displays weren’t innovating enough for 2012, Sammy has just filed for another cool new patent. The concept revolves around “smart device skins,” a technology that will extend your display to the bezel, sides and back of the device.

Virtually converting devices into displays, this technology could bring a whole new definition to customization and screen real estate. It would break multiple limitations that we currently experience. For example, one would be able to change the design of the device at will. It would also be possible to extend images to a larger size, taking advantage of all available space.

The good news is that this will not only be implemented to Samsung’s future line-up. According to the patent filing, the manufacturer also plans to sell this technology as an accessory. The product is described as a “film layer” that one can install in the device, leaving holes for important hardware (display, cameras, etc.). Much like a regular smartphone case.

This film layer will somehow be connected to the main display. We are not sure how that works exactly, but it raises one concern – battery life. This issue has been haunting Android users since the operating system’s release (not to mention other platforms). And while we do not yet know how power efficient this technology will be, it is something to keep in mind.

Regardless of how exciting the concept sounds, it may come with some downsides. We will simply have to wait until more details are released. That is, if this project ever sees the light of day; we have seen many patent filings never been carried out. Is this something you guys would even want if it did came out? Would you enjoy extending your display to the whole device?

Here is a concept video of something similar Nokia has been considering. It is taken a step further, though. Nokia displays a much more integrated extended display. Check it out and hit the comments section to share your opinions.