Samsung Galaxy 5, Flagship Done- Sales Have Gone Worldwide

The latest version of Samsung’s flagship Galaxy smartphone series went on sale worldwide Friday, days after the electronics giant announced it was facing a second consecutive quarter of profit decline.
The Galaxy S5 has a lot riding on it to steer the South Korean firm’s profit-making machine back on track as growth in smartphone sales slows, with mature markets like North America and Europe near saturation.
Reviews of the S5 have mostly concluded that it is one of the best high-end smartphones on the market, but there is also a general consensus that it lacks the “wow” factor to differentiate it from its predecessors and competitors
“It can swim, but it won’t make any waves,” was the verdict of the Wall Street Journal, referring to one innovation in the S5′s waterproof covering.

Samsung’s mobile unit has been the driving force behind the record profits of recent years, and it needs the S5 to perform well as a retort to the doom-mongers who say the company lacks a clear strategy to flourish in an increasingly competitive, saturated market.
Samsung made more than 30 percent of all smartphones sold in the world last year, nearly twice the share of its arch-rival Apple. But on Tuesday, the company estimated its first quarter operating profit at 8.4 trillion won ($7.96 billion), marking a second straight year-on-year decline.
In a sign of the challenge the company faces, the S5 was priced lower at its commercial launch Friday than the previous S4 model.
Research firm IDC estimated the average selling price of smartphones will fall to $265 globally by 2017 from $337 in 2013 and $387 in 2012.

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Google’s new car: No steering wheel, no brake pads, no gas pedals

Google hopes to have 100 prototypes of its car on the streets by early next year.

LOS ANGELES—Google will build a car without a steering wheel.
It doesn’t need one because it drives itself.
The two-seater won’t be sold publicly, but Google said Tuesday it hopes by this time next year, 100 prototypes will be on public roads. They won’t be driving fast, though — the top speed would be 40 km/h.
The cars are a natural next step for Google, which already has driven hundreds of thousands of miles in California with Lexus SUVs and Toyota Priuses outfitted with a combination of sensors and computers.
Those cars have Google-employed “safety drivers” behind the wheel in case of emergency. The new cars would eliminate the driver from the task of driving.
No steering wheel, no brake and gas pedals. Instead, buttons for go and stop.

“It reminded me of catching a chairlift by yourself, a bit of solitude I found really enjoyable,” Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google, told a Southern California tech conference Tuesday evening of his first ride, according to a transcript. The electric-powered car is compact and bubble-shaped — something that might move people around a corporate campus or congested downtown.
Google is unlikely to go deeply into auto manufacturing. In unveiling the prototype, the company emphasized partnering with other firms.
The biggest obstacle could be the law.
Test versions will have a wheel and pedals, because they must under California regulations.
Google hopes to build the 100 prototypes late this year or early next and use them in a to-be-determined “pilot program,” spokeswoman Courtney Hohne said. Meanwhile, by the end of this year, California’s Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) must write regulations for the “operational” use of truly driverless cars.
The DMV had thought that reality was several years away, so it would have time to perfect the rules.
That clock just sped up, said the head of the DMV’s driverless car program, Bernard Soriano.
“Because of what is potentially out there soon, we need to make sure that the regulations are in place that would keep the public safe but would not impede progress,” Soriano said.

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