Samsung needs a hit with Galaxy Note 4 as Apple preps its own phablet

Samsung will introduce the successor to the Galaxy Note 3, pictured here, during events in Beijing, Berlin and New York. CNET

The stakes have never been higher for Samsung's oversize Galaxy Note 4.

While Apple's iPhone and Samsung's Galaxy S smartphone franchises have duked it out for flagship supremacy, Samsung's other marquee smartphone line, the Galaxy Note, has enjoyed the lack of opposition in serving power users willing to pay up for a much larger display -- a market it essentially created. But the Galaxy Note 4, which will be unveiled at Samsung's "Unpacked" event Wednesday, may no longer be the only legitimate jumbo phone in the market -- Apple is expected to unveil two larger iPhones next week.

The Unpacked event comes at a critical time for Samsung. While the Galaxy Note line has always played second fiddle to the Galaxy S line, the Note 4 arrives as more consumers are willing to tolerate the bulkiness of a larger display for an improved video, gaming, and Internet-browsing experience. Interest in the product is high. And the company badly needs a hit after the disappointing sales of the Galaxy S5 and mounting competition from Chinese vendors for budget smartphones and from Apple on the high end. Apple potentially offering two larger iPhones doesn't help.

"Samsung's in trouble right now," Gartner analyst Van Baker said. "I don't know what they've got in their arsenal that can

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Lavabit founder's DarkMail needs help to cross finish line

Ladar Levison gave a standing room-only crowd of around 2,000 people an update on his DarkMail encrypted email project. Seth Rosenblatt/CNET

LAS VEGAS -- Email was not originally intended to be cryptographically hidden from prying eyes, but one-click, end-to-end email encryption is just what Ladar Levison is within six months of achieving.

Or it will be, he told a standing room-only audience of around 2,000 hackers and security experts at DefCon on Friday evening, if all goes according to plan.

Levison is the founder of the webmail service Lavabit that is widely believed to have been used by Edward Snowden. Levison shuttered it rather than hand over Lavabit's encryption keys and source code to the US government.

He told the enthusiastic crowd that his DarkMail project has expanded.

Now called the Dark Internet Mail Environment, or DIME, it's an ecosystem comprised of email transfer protocols DMAP and DMTP, the email server Magma, and a Mozilla Thunderbird-based desktop email client called Volcano.

"DarkMail combines all my knowledge of security and email into one last hurrah," Levison said in a conversation with CNET following his DefCon presentation where he used DarkMail and DIME interchangeably.

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