“The ongoing battle between Apple and Samsung may be more commonly fought in the courtroom than on social media, but Apple on Tuesday apparently made an exception following the publication of a report suggesting that Samsung may be artificially boosting the benchmark scores of its new Galaxy Note 3,” Erika Morphy reports for MacNewsWorld. “‘Shenanigans’ tweeted Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of marketing, along with a link to the story in question on Ars Technica.”
“Samsung appears to be artificially boosting the benchmark scores with ‘a special, high-power CPU mode that kicks in when the device runs a large number of popular benchmarking apps,’ [Ars Technica] author Ron Amadeo explained,” Morphy reports. “Essentially, the CPU treats the benchmarking app differently than it does a normal app, locking into the fastest speed possible, Ars charged, for scores that are inflated by as much as 20 percent.”
Morphy reports, “‘Make no mistake,’ Rob Walch, host of Today in iOS, told MacNewsWorld. ‘This is not an ‘oops’ event for Samsung; this is not something that can happen by accident. This is Samsung deliberately rigging its devices to perform differently when they sense a benchmarking app. This is them saying, ‘hey, let’s put in code to make our unit look better when it is running a benchmark app.””
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: They’re not called “Samscum” for nothing.
I don’t know which is worse: Samsung’s slavish copying or that there are tens of millions of dullards and/or morally-crippled consumers who would buy such obvious knockoffs. What kind of person rewards thieves, especially such obvious ones? What kind of person hands over their money to make sure that crime pays? What’s wrong with you people, exactly?
It makes me sad that there are outfits like Samsung Electronics on the planet, as I was with Microsoft before them. People who work for Samsung Electronics should be ashamed. It makes me even sadder to see people supporting blatant criminals, whether it be blindly or, worse, knowingly. To those people I say: Get some morals, will you, or how about at least acquiring a modicum of taste?
What you’re doing is supporting criminal activity. It’s like you’re buying knockoff Coach handbags, but you’re paying pretty much the Coach price! Not too smart, eh? Oh, sure, you might have “saved” a bit upfront on your fake iPhone (maybe you got one of those Buy One Get One or More Free deals), but you’re paying the same data rates – after a couple years, you’ve pretty much paid the same anyway! So, in the end, you’re saving little or nothing while:
a) depriving the company who basically inspired your inferior, fragmented product;
b) depriving yourself of the real deal and the real experience, and;
c) rewarding the criminal, encouraging them to steal even more.Not a lot of sense being made in any aspect of your toting around that Android phone, is there? Oh, right it’s “open.” Smirk. And, yes, every one of us with the real thing knows that you’re carrying around a half-assed fake, you tasteless wonder.
Didn’t you people have parents? If so, what did they teach you, if anything? Sheesh.
Related articles:
Samsung shenanigans inflate Note 3’s benchmarking scores by up to 20% – October 1, 2013
Samsung caught doping Galaxy S 4 benchmarks – July 30, 2013
Oh man I hope this is true. Frackin’ ‘Droid people are going to get a hammerin’. I will reserve space on CNET for my relentless bashfest once this is confirmed. I despise Samesung more than any company in history – even MS.
Read the Ars article. It’s irrefutable.
Will do. Oh the joy.
IMO, what really needs to happen is for the author of the Benchmark App to sue for fraud and for the damage now done to the good reputation of his Benchmarking-based company.
-hh
I also hate Samesung more than any other company. They are an abomination and need to be punished relentlessly by consumers for their deplorable business practices.
Oh I don’t know, the company behind the Bhopal disaster, Union Carbide is far more deserving of you wrath especially considering the number of innocent men, women and children killed and maimed and the company still fighting against compensation claims by the victims.
From Wiki.
“The Bhopal disaster, also referred to as the Bhopal gas tragedy, was a gas leak incident in India, considered the world’s worst industrial disaster.[1] It occurred on the night of 2–3 December 1984 at the Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) pesticide plant in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh. Over 500,000 people were exposed to methyl isocyanate gas and other chemicals. The toxic substance made its way in and around the shantytowns located near the plant.[2] Estimates vary on the death toll. The official immediate death toll was 2,259.”
Likely multiples of that number died as a result of this disaster. That the company is fighting repaying for its responsibility in this disaster is beyond reprehensible.
Stuart: Yes!
Thank you! I have to admit that I obsess over tech news (my job is in tech), but I feel a bit embarrassed getting so indignant over a big tech company cheating or being unfair to another big tech company when I also know about the following:
– banks destroying the world economy then using their corrupt bought-and-sold politicians to bail them out with taxpayer money;
– oil companies poisoning people and devastating their land then avoiding paying for cleanup;
– private prison companies who get contracts with government that guarantee a minimum number of prisoners;
When there are so many evil corporations (and people!) that profit off of the suffering of actual human beings, it really puts into perspective all this tech stuff. I’m not saying that big corporations cheating against each other isn’t a problem, I’m just saying it doesn’t make sense to spend too much outrage on them if you’re not going after the real monsters.
And, if you didn’t notice, I’m at least partially preaching to myself. The stuff that cheaters get away with in tech really pisses me off. Then I get involved in activism about some of this other (more important) stuff and feel sheepish if the tech stuff comes up. Someone will talk about Android/iOS at an activist group about stopping polluters and I’ll start to explain how unfair something in tech is, then trail off as I realize that people there probably will be thinking “Really? You’re mad about that?” 🙂
Well Said! Shameshit is lower than whale shit and it’s LONG overdue that they get their ass handed to them! Please let this be true!
Just a test
On the bright side, this means that if you own a Note, and you want to run a particular app at full power, all that is needed is to rename the app to the same name as any benchmark app.
so then, you could rename the benchmark test app and get real results. maybe?
it never ceases to amaze me the dishonor that people are often willing to carry with them to the highest levels of leadership …or government …or whatever the ascendency.
If you read the article, that is exactly what they did. But it is not as easy as renaming a file. And all of the details are not clear, such as how the benchmarks “optimizations” affected GPU, not just CPU operations.
Based on the article, it is clear that the Samsung devices could not continuously operate in this boosted mode for long periods. In addition to eventually causing the device to fail, battery life would suck. This is an underhanded, deceptive, and intentional act on the part of Samsung, and a formal investigation is warranted.
Boycott Samsung if you value innovation and truth!
ARS did just that, it’s a little bit more involved that just changing the name of the app but ARS did that and verified that the renamed app ran 20% slower than the same app with it’s original name.
Well yes but…
As they raise the thermal limits and clock speed and enable all cores when they detect a benchmark app, If you renamed an app it would do the same. However your batteries would be sucked dry in short order, plus raising the thermal limits could have serious effects on reliability and lifetime.
s/
Of course the case could be made that anyone buying a samsung product EXPECTS their batteries to be quickly sucked dry and also expect the piece of crap to be dead before their contract is up.
/s
“This is them saying, ‘hey, let’s put in code to make our unit look better when it is running a benchmark app.”
No, this them saying, “Let’s put in code to deliberately deceive our customers.”
“Hey, Mr. Developer of my new android app, how come your app is so slow on a device that benchmarks so great? Aren’t you any good at coding? I’m going to look for alternatives to your app!”
Let’s split the difference and say it’s both! 😀
Looks like Samedung isn’t the only snake in the grass.
http://www.macrumors.com/2013/10/02/nearly-all-mobile-device-makers-cheat-on-benchmarks-except-apple-and-motorola/
Moral indignation, is wasted on a company devoid of any decency and or self respect. The reality is that the ‘cheat’ and ‘slavish copier’ will continue to prosper whilst there exists an uncaring consumer who knowingly or otherwise continues to support a product which they perceive to have the same inherent quality at a more competitive price.
MDN – nicely said!
Nothing about this article snippet suggest that “Apple slams Samsung’s serial benchmark deceptions.” Is that heading a mistake?
Did you NOT read…
“‘Shenanigans’ tweeted Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of marketing, along with a link to the story in question on Ars Technica.”
I would call that a slam. A fully justified slam, but a slam none the less.
Ahh. I guess as I skimmed the article I expected more than one word. Thanks for the catch.
Yea, I thought the same thing at first, your not the only one.
Like if Android users care. They live a lie and they know it.
Each Android manufacturer is in a spec race with one another. It’s certainly understandable that they need some edge to show their product is better than the next guy’s product. They’re basically all running the same hardware so there’s not much else they can do to claim leadership.
Blame the tech-heads that are heavily into benchmarking everything to see who claims bragging rights. They really should be focusing on other things when it comes to ordinary consumers who don’t even care how fast some processor is running. Unless that user is going to be pushing their smartphone to the max constantly, it really shouldn’t matter at all.
I’m willing to bet that most high-end Android smartphones perform satisfactorily for their users as long as they’re not constantly crashing or freezing or running down the battery too quickly.
Samesucks
Samesung
Shamesung
Scamsung
Scarysumg
Scarfacesung
And counting…add or quote your favorite!
You forgot Samdung
Oh, Samescum
Don’t get me started, Phil Schiller’s Ass!
I’ll simply say that the favorite of those I have personally perpetrated remains “ScamScum“. It’s both humorous AND factual. Two verifiable insults in one!
Then again… No! Not gonna do it! 😉
Oh OK. In honor of the Samsung troll who’s dinging this sub-thread with single stars, I’ll create one more, final, utterly ridiculous, sarcastic insulting name revamp:
SmarmySmegma
Let’s file class action against them…
??
WTFN… They do it against apple..
Let’s reciprocate
How else are they suppose to beat Apple, They tried copying everyone made a big noise about it. Now they are not coupying are they now. 😉
Fandroids only have themselves to blame. They’re the ones that have fostered this endless worship of benchmarks over experience, so why should anyone be surprised that the companies making Android handsets are exploiting that?
Interestingly, Motorola are the only Android handsets tested that don’t play these deceptions. I hope the spread of tested handsets continues. Customers should have the full picture about who is willing to take them for fools.
They are really getting Korea and Koreans a bad reputation… Not just in the US, all over the world.