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Google’s Search Engine Deals with Samsung, Apple: A Monopoly in the Making?

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In 2021, Google had to spend a whopping $26.3 billion to maintain its position as the default search engine on phones and other browsers, according to the evidence provided by the company’s antitrust trial. The Justice Department contended that Google ensures the market isn’t competitive with other search engines by paying a hefty sum of money to maintain its default status. In transactions that have been mainly murky for more than 10 years, Google is paying Apple and Samsung Electronics billions of dollars for setting its own search engine as the default one on their smartphones.

All of this started when the US Department of Justice filed a civil antitrust trial pertaining to Google’s intellectual property supply agreements with the two largest smartphone manufacturers globally. At a Monday testimony in front of a federal court in Washington, D.C.,  Google CEO Sundar Pichai defended what the company refers to as search distribution agreements, which help the partners’ easy access to its search engine. Analyzing the earlier reports, Google paid Apple around $18 billion in 2021 to maintain Chrome as the default browser on Macs, iPads, and iPhones.

The corporation has now paid Apple to make its search engine the default one. According to the study that was sent to the register, between 14% and 16% of Apple’s yearly operating earnings can be attributed to Google’s payout.

Samsung’s Future Galaxy Phones May Charge Faster

On the questions about the specifics of the Google contract, Samsung Electronics, however, chose not to respond. Samsung is planning to replace Google as the default search engine in its mobile web browser with Bing, status back in April by the New York Times. This move brought the contract to the attention of the general public. Google’s ongoing Magi project intends to enhance its search engine service with better personalization capabilities in the midst of the rapidly developing global AI race. The corporation plans to offer this functionality to around 30 million customers, but the actual time frame when it will be available is not mentioned.

Coming to Samsung it has always selected Google as default since 2009 and Google’s operating system since 2010 after launching the Galaxy smartphones. 

“As we’ve said from the beginning, this lawsuit is deeply flawed, and we’re pleased that the court has significantly narrowed it, dismissing claims regarding the design of Google Search,” said Kent Walker, president of global affairs at Google and its parent company Alphabet, in a statement.

“We plan to demonstrate at trial that our search distribution agreements reflect choices by browsers and device makers based on the quality of our services and the preferences of consumers,” the statement read.

Google Maps Embraces AI with Immersive View, Lens and More

“As alleged in the complaint, over the past 15 years, Google has engaged in a course of anticompetitive and exclusionary conduct that consisted of neutralizing or eliminating ad tech competitors through acquisitions; wielding its dominance across digital advertising markets to force more publishers and advertisers to use its products; and thwarting the ability to use competing products,” the department said in a statement released in January.


Aastha is a Author of Samlover.com. With a degree in Engineering with IT, Aastha is deeply immersed in the realm of technology. Specializing in Android and Hardware. She is Passionate about technology at the service of digital entertainment that can be used through any platform. Music, movies and video games have always taken up a good part of his free time, but he doesn't give up outdoor activities, from simple walks to cycling and skiing. He has been producing editorial content for SamLover since 2022 and has run a computer and telephony store for 3 decades.

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New Galaxy Phone In Existence: Samsung Galaxy M35 5G Spots On Geekbench 

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The Korean brand – Samsung has recently announced its two mid-range Galaxy smartphones – Galaxy A55 5G and Galaxy A35 5G. A new benchmark listing has a spot for Samsung’s affordable smartphone, Galaxy35 5G.  

Samsung is now gearing up for its next affordable Galaxy smartphone, the M35 5G, as the  reports are unvunveilhey have found a new benchmark listing for Samsung the Galaxy M35 5G. 

The smartphone has been spotted with the model number as an identification code – SM-M356B on the Geekbench 6.2.2 database. Not only this, but it also confirmed the presence of 6GB of RAM and Android 14 OS. The chipset also came to know which is the latest Exynos 1380. 

The codename for the motherboard is also mentioned, which is ‘s5e8835.’ The reports say that it has scored 656 and 1967 points in performance scores on the benchmarking platform. Exynos 1380 is the latest chipset of the Korean brand, which is a 5 nm processor. It consists of 4 Cortex A78 cores, which clock at 2.4GHz, and 4 Cortex A55 cores, which clock at 2.0GHz. It is coupled with a Mali g68 MP5 GPU. It also has an AI Engine. 

This also offers connectivity options, which include the latest Bluetooth version 5.3 and Wi-Fi 802.11 ax with three bands. It supports a camera resolution of at least 200MP for capturing images, and for video recording, there is support for up to 30fps 4K recording. The storage supported is UFS v3.1, and RAM will be of the LPDDR4x/5 type. 

Samsung has recently debuted its two smartphones, Galaxy A55, and Galaxy A35; the Galaxy A35 5G smartphone is powered by Exynos 1380 chipset. From this perspective, Galaxy M35 5G could be a variant of Galaxy A35. 

At the moment, no specs and features of the device have been revealed or leaked. Still, since Galaxy M series smartphones usually have a bit higher battery power of at least 6000mAh, the forthcoming Galaxy M35 5G smartphone also arrives with the same battery power. 


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Verizon rolls out the March 2024 security patch update for the Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Galaxy Z Flip 3 devices 

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Verizon has rolled out the March 2024 security patch update for the Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Galaxy Z Flip 3 devices. Earlier, these devices had received the same update outside the US, but now they are gradually expanding to the US.

The Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Galaxy Z Flip 3 are spotted getting new updates with the firmware version numbers F926USQS5HXBD and F711USQS6HXBD, respectively. It is worth noticing the update is currently available for the devices locked to Verizon, but it will soon be available on more carriers. 

For your information, the latest update for Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Galaxy Z Flip 3 doesn’t bring any significant changes, but as it is the latest security patch, it will provide some internal fixes to maintain the security of the devices.

If you are getting some other issues from the last update, you should also update the device to the latest update, as it may also address some issues. Along with the update, other improvements may also be made to enhance the overall performance of the devices.

Suppose you use the Galaxy Z Fold 3 or Flip 3 device in the US. In that case, you can update the device to the latest version by simply going to the system settings and then to the software update. If you haven’t received the update, you should wait for some time, as it may arrive in the next few days.


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Samsung rolls out the March 2024 security patch update for the Galaxy S23 FE devices in the US

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Samsung has rolled out the March 2024 security patch to almost all devices but still needs to complete the update distribution to all eligible devices. So, gradually expanding the update to remaining devices, the company has started rolling out the update for the Galaxy S23 FE in the US.

Notably, the Galaxy S23 FE devices are getting a new update in the carrier-unlocked version with the firmware version number S711U1UES2BXBF. The update has already been rolled out to almost all carriers, including AT&T, Bluegrass Cellular, C-Spire, Cellular South, Comcast, Cricket, DISH, MetroPCS, T-Mobile, Tracfone, US Cellular, Verizon, and Xfinity Mobile.

According to the official changelog, the March 2024 security patch is one of the standard maintenance updates that provides some internal improvements for the device, and there will be no visible changes available. In other words, users may experience some improvement in the functioning of devices, but it doesn’t particularly bring any specific changes for the device.

Going to the details, the March 2024 security patch includes more than 40 fixes, 37 of which are provided by Google and address the issues found in the Android OS, while 9 more features are introduced by Samsung that enhance the performance of Galaxy devices exclusively.

Suppose you are using the Galaxy S23 FE in the US. In that case, you can update the devices to the latest version by following the simple steps: first, go to the system settings, tap on the software update, and tap on the download and install button; if it shows a new update available, tap on the download button.


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