Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini and Apple IPad Mini

1. Apple plans to unveil the “iPad mini” on Oct. 23 at an invitation-only event.

The Apple iPad Mini will feature a 7.85-inch liquid-crystal display and a Lightning connector. It will also probably be thinner.

2. Today Samsung globally launched the rumored Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini, a smaller version of the Samsung Galaxy S3 that has its initial debut in May, and arrived in the U.S. this summer on five separate carriers.

From the outside, the S3 Mini looks much look its larger sibling, but that’s largely where the similarities end. It’s not just that it has a more petite 4-inch screen and build, the S3 Mini also scales back the specs — most notably, it packs a slower CPU and it lacks 4G LTE capability. And that makes its connection to Samsung’s flagship model tenuous at best.

3. The Appeals courts are lifting the bans on various Samsung phones and tablets in the US

We hold that the district court abused its discretion in enjoining the sales of the Galaxy Nexus”. More: “Reversed and remanded”.

4. Gotta be mobile – Samsung has an event scheduled for October 24th where it will launch the Galaxy Note 2 in the United States and given that U.S. Cellular has a pre-order up for the Galaxy Note 2 right now with an estimated release coming in October and the fact that Canada is getting the Galaxy Note 2 in October, it’s possible that we could see at least one U.S. carrier launch the device in October if not all of them.

5. Bloomberg – Japanese wireless service provider Softbank is in the process of arranging $23 billion in financing for a deal with Sprint, in which Softbank would get a 70 percent stake in the American carrier

Standard and Poor’s put its “BBB” long-term rating on Softbank on credit watch with negative implications, saying the deal “may undermine Softbank’s financial risk profile.”

Investors dumped Softbank shares in Tokyo on Friday, pushing the stock down as much as 17 percent in its biggest one-day decline and knocking close to $7 billion off its market value.

“The strong yen is probably one of the reasons for Softbank to acquire overseas assets, but I don’t think this deal will be good for Softbank,” said Yasuo Sakuma, portfolio manager at Bayview Asset Management in Tokyo.

“For Sprint, this seems a must-do deal, while it’s not for Softbank. The U.S. mobile telecom market is already mature,” he said. “It’s going to be very difficult to turn Sprint around.”

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