We like STM. They generally make stuff that’s inexpensive,and a little unusual — and also with lots of useful pockets, which probably has something to do with kangaroos.

STM’s latest offerings are the Skinny series cases for the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 and the Tab 2 10.1, both of which ditch pockets in favor of svelteness.

Samsung has surpassed Apple as the world’s biggest buyer of semiconductors, according to Gartner. The Korean company’s hugely popular smartphones, such as the Galaxy S III and the Galaxy Note II, led to a 29% surge in chip purchases in 2012, taking its semiconductor spending past that of any other company.

Speculation surrounding the Galaxy S IV, Samsung’s next flagship smartphone, traditionally ramps up around this time of the year. Everyone’s itching to know what the device will offer when it comes to features and specifications, and what it’ll look like. We’ve seen the rumors that offer questionable information from sources, but this picture, which was uploaded to Picasa almost a month ago, could be the Galaxy S IV’s first press shot.

Just a few weeks ago, we reported that Samsung and Apple were the only two smartphone manufacturers seeing growth in the United States, and that the pair were slowly eating away at their rivals’ market share. But when you take old-fashioned feature phones into account, the situation looks a little different.

New data from Counterpoint Research suggests that strong December sales have helped LG overtake Apple to claim the second-largest stake of the U.S. phone market. As you might expect, Samsung is still way ahead in first.

The Galaxy Note 10.1 is about to get a little brother.

Samsung Mobile vice president JK Shin has confirmed to a Korean news outlet that the company will unveil the Galaxy Tab 8.0 at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona next month. The device, which is believed to be an iPad mini competitor, is expected to offer an 8-inch display with a 1280×800 resolution, coupled with a 1.6GHz quad-core processor.