Sign up for our Technology Newsletter 
Was Apple’s Victory, Really A Victory?
September 2, 2011 by admin
Filed under Smartphones
Comments Off on Was Apple’s Victory, Really A Victory?
As we heard this week Apple had won an injunction barring Samsung from selling some of its Galaxy smartphones in Europe.
However, it is likely that an update from Android 2.x to Android 3.0 will resolve the patent issue, which concerns the way photos are viewed on a touchscreen.
According to OS news, only the Gallery application infringes the patent in question, and Samsung has confirmed it will update the software to get around the problem.
“The injunction has been granted due to the method of scrolling in the Gallery. If that’s replaced, there is no more reason to uphold the injunction,” said Bas Berghuis van Woortman, one of Samsung’s lawyers.
The injunction doesn’t come into effect until mid-October, giving the Korean phone maker plenty of time to change the software. OS news points to evidence showing that although Apple entered into battle with three patents and a community design, all but the Gallery patent were thrown out by the judge.
The swipe-to-unlock patent will likely be declared invalid, the judge wrote, specifically referring to the Neonode N1m mobile phone as prior art, which has the exact same unlock method as the Iphone.
Apple’s complaint about the design of Galaxy smartphones was also thrown out, with the judge citing numerous cases of prior art, including the LG Prada. And in the case of the Android GUI patent, the judge cited the Nokia 7710 as prior art.
Although Samsung’s PR firm in the UK hadn’t heard anything about an Android update, Samsung said that it expects only the Netherlands to be affected by the ruling. It said, “[The] ruling is an affirmation that the GALAXY range of products is innovative and distinctive. With regard to the single infringement cited in the ruling, we will take all possible measures including legal action to ensure that there is no disruption in the availability of our GALAXY smartphones to Dutch consumers.
“This ruling is not expected to affect sales in other European markets. We will continue our plans to introduce new products and technologies that meet and exceed consumer expectations. And we will defend our intellectual property rights through the ongoing legal proceedings around the world.”
iPad Expected To Dominate Until 2013
September 1, 2011 by admin
Filed under Consumer Electronics
Comments Off on iPad Expected To Dominate Until 2013
Apple’s iPad will maintain its dominance of the tablet market through at least 2013, research firm IHS iSuppli said today.
El Segundo, Calif.-based iSuppli bumped up its iPad sales forecast for 2011 from an earlier estimate of 43.7 million to 44.2 million, citing Apple’s ability to solve its supply issues and the blunders by rivals, including Hewlett-Packard.
“Apple has resolved the iPad supply issues,” said Rhoda Alexander, senior manager of tablet and monitor research in an interview today. “It was never a demand problem.”
Earlier this year, Apple struggled to produce enough iPad 2 tablets to meet a surging demand for the new device. Those problems have been addressed, and Alexander said that Apple is in the cat bird’s seat for the second half of the year.
“All the momentum in the media tablet market is with Apple right now,” she said. “The competition can’t seem to field a product with the right combination of hardware, marketing, applications and content to match the iPad.”
iSuppli also boosted its forecast for overall tablet sales this year from 58.9 million to 60 million units, meaning the iPad will account for nearly three-fourths of all tablets sold in 2011.
That dominance will continue through 2013, said Alexander, noting that iSuppli previously expected Apple to fall under the 50% share mark in 2012.
“They’ve taken every lesson they’ve learned with previous products and applied them to the iPad,” said Alexander. “Their whole production process is a marvel to watch.”
Lenovo Tablet Hits The Market
Lenovo’s business-oriented tablet, the ThinkPad Tablet, is now available for purchase and should start shipping within a week. The 10-inch Android device, which Lenovo officially announced a little more than a month ago, boasts an impressive mix of consumer and business-friendly features that might please both the user and their IT department.
Like other Android 3.1 Honeycomb tablets on the market, the ThinkPad Tablet has a 1280 x 800 multitouch display, 1GB of memory, front- and rear-facing cameras and a NVIDIA Tegra 2 dual core processor. It comes in a 16GB model for $499, a 32GB version for $569 and a 64GB option for $669. Basic specs and price-wise, the ThinkPad Tablet is on par with the competition.
What sets the ThinkPad apart, however, are the enterprise-oriented tools like remote administration in case the tablet gets lost or stolen, support for Cisco VPN, and full device encryption. Free apps included like Documents to Go, PrinterShare, and Computrace underscore the tablets professional target audience.
Read More….
Prank Website Offers $49 HP TouchPads
August 28, 2011 by admin
Filed under Consumer Electronics
Comments Off on Prank Website Offers $49 HP TouchPads
With technophiles still scrambling to get their hands on the remaining Hewlett-Packard’s $99 TouchPads, a $49 deal just seems too good to be true.
And, as the thousand or so people who tried to buy cheap TouchPads on an HP look-alike website Tuesday learned, one should think twice about seemingly unbelievable deals.
The prank site — registered Tuesday as Hewlett-packard.org.uk — looks legitimate. In fact, many of the links on the site go to real HP addresses.
But anyone who tries to purchase the $49 TouchPad gets Rickrolled. It’s a popular type of Internet prank where the victim clicks on a seemingly irresistible link — a $49 TouchPad, or a sneak copy of a Kim Kardashian wedding video — and ends up instead sitting through a YouTube clip of schmaltzy soul singer Rick Astley singing his 1987 hit, “Never Gonna Give You Up.”
RIM To Launch Music Service
August 26, 2011 by admin
Filed under Smartphones
Comments Off on RIM To Launch Music Service
BlackBerry maker Research In Motion is making plans to roll out its own music streaming service that will work across its mobile devices, according to people familiar with the plans.
The new service is likely part of an attempt by RIM to improve its BlackBerry Messenger service as it competes with the mobile media platform strengths of rival Apple Inc and Google Inc’s Android.
RIM is in late-stage negotiations with major labels, including Vivendi SA’s Universal Music Group, Sony Corp’s Sony Music, Warner Music Group and EMI Group. The new service is expected to be announced by Labor Day in the United States, September 5.
RIM has been enhancing its BlackBerry Messenger offering, popularly known as BBM, since announcing its “social platform” at last September’s DevCon event where it unveiled the PlayBook tablet computer.
A RIM spokeswoman declined comment on the report but said BBM is one of the largest mobile social networks in the world.
RIM’s BlackBerry smartphones have been hit by a sharply declining market share in the United States, even as the company has expanded sales in other parts of the world, partly because of BBM’s popularity.
Analyst Matthew Thornton at Avian Securities said he doubted the music service would attract new users but might help the company keep its existing BlackBerry customers interested.
“I just don’t think trying to replicate Apple is really going to change their situation near term,” he said.
“For RIM it’s going to be the new OS 7 product first and foremost … and then it’s about QNX and making that transition.”
RIM has just launched an updated operating system on three new touchscreen devices intended to catch up with the technical specifications of Android and other rivals. The company plans to launch the first BlackBerrys using the QNX software, used on its PlayBook tablet, early next year.
August 23, 2011 by admin
Filed under Consumer Electronics
Comments Off on
Beetel Teletech, part of India’s Bharti Enterprises that controls top mobile carrier Bharti Airtel (BRTI.NS), unveiled a tablet computer priced at 9,999 rupees ($220) on Wednesday.
The 7-inch tablet, branded Beetel Magiq, uses Google’s (GOOG.O) Android operating system and supports both 3G and Wi-Fi networks, Beetel said in a statement.
Beetel is one of the largest makers of fixed-line phones in India. A company spokesman said China’s Huawei HWT.UL was their manufacturing partner for the tablet.
India is the world’s second-biggest and the fastest-growing market for mobile phones, although computer penetration is still low.
Apple Inc (AAPL.O) began iPad sales in India in January this year, while Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) launched its Galaxy Tab in India in November last year.
Best Buy Stuck With TouchPads
Best Buy is sitting on a boatload of 200,000 HP Touchpads and wants to send them back to HP.
According to Allthingsd, Best Buy stocked its warehouses with around 270,000 HP Touchpad tablets. However, the retailer has been unable to sell the tablets and has only sold at most 25,000, even with a $100 discount, so Best Buy is requesting that HP take back all of the unsold devices.
Furthermore, it is being said that things are so bad that HP EVP Todd Bradley might have to go to Best Buy’s headquarters and plead with executives to exercise patience. It appears that the Touchpad is suffering from poor sales in many stores across the country, with Wal-Mart also said to be an unhappy camper.
Update…HP will stop making the HP Touchpads…….
AMD Not Chasing Smartphone Market
August 15, 2011 by admin
Filed under Smartphones
Comments Off on AMD Not Chasing Smartphone Market
Advanced Micro Devices is not immediately pursuing opportunities within the smartphone markets as it does not align with the company’s strength in technologies like graphics, an executive said on Monday.
Smartphones are constrained on battery, pixels and screen space, and AMD has other areas it can focus on in order to grow, said Rick Bergman, senior vice president and general manager for AMD’s product group during the Pacific Crest Securities Technology Leadership Forum in Vail, Colorado. The company sees an opportunity to apply its graphics and chip technologies to tablets, where customers are demanding better video and battery life.
“We haven’t announced any plans to go in that handheld space. We’ve got plenty of opportunities… in server, notebook and now tablets, that’s our immediate focus. But if the right circumstances come up and we can see a way to impact the market, we’ll obviously continue to look,” Bergman said.
AMD has faced criticism for not aggressively pursuing the booming smartphone or tablet markets. The company in June rushed to release its first dedicated tablet chip, called the Z-series. The chip is a low-power variant of PC chips based on the Fusion microarchitecture, which includes a graphics processor and CPU on a single chip. Based on the x86 architecture, the chip can help tablets deliver a full PC and graphics experience, the company has said.
iPad Rivals Have Better Chance In Europe
Comments Off on iPad Rivals Have Better Chance In Europe
Would-be rivals to Apple’s iPad have a better chance in Europe than they do in the United States, but they need to drop prices fast to grasp the opportunity, IT research firm Forrester said on Tuesday.
Apple’s relatively small retail presence in Europe — with 52 stores compared with 238 in the United States — offers a chance to the likes of Samsung, Acer and Research in Motion, Forrester said.
But their prices cannot yet compete with Apple, which has far larger scale in the tablet market and an efficient supply chain. Forrester said emerging challengers from China and Taiwan would likely step in soon with cheaper offerings.
“There is this opportunity for iPad challengers, but the competition is very fragmented. Competing with Apple will require a different approach from what we’ve seen so far,” said analyst Sarah Rotman Epps, the author of the Forrester report.
Apple still has the tablet-computer market almost to itself after launching the iPad a year and a half ago. It has sold close to 30 million iPads, whose prices start at about $500.
Forrester expects Apple to sell 80 percent of all consumer tablets in the United States and 70 percent in Europe this year.
It expects 2011 worldwide tablet sales to reach 48 million units, with half of those sold in the United States, 30 percent in Europe, 15 percent in Asia and 5 percent in Latin America.
Forrester surveyed almost 14,000 online adult consumers in France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and Britain, and also interviewed product strategists from manufacturers, telecommunications operators and retailers.
RIM Unveils New BlackBerry Torch Phones
August 8, 2011 by admin
Filed under Smartphones
Comments Off on RIM Unveils New BlackBerry Torch Phones
Research In Motion on Wednesday unveiled two more powerful versions of its touchscreen BlackBerry Torch, hoping to buy time until it can introduce a radically new software package in its smartphones.
The new smartphones, along with a Bold upgrade unveiled earlier, are part of what the Canadian company called its biggest global launch ever as it seeks to claw back North American market share losses from Apple’s iconic iPhone and a slew of devices running on Google’s Android software.
The three touchscreen phones, running on the new BlackBerry OS 7, each boast an improved screen display and pack a 1.2 GHz processor from Qualcomm, the most powerful ever for a BlackBerry phone. All three devices will launch with carriers globally by the end of August, RIM said.
The browser for the new phones is 40 percent faster than the original Torch, RIM’s last major phone launch which hit shelves almost a year ago.
But since co-chief executive Mike Lazaridis has already promised “superphones” next year using the QNX-based operating system running RIM’s PlayBook tablet
computer, analysts are looking beyond the launch.
“This is a necessary product refresh in advance of the big bang that we hope and expect will happen with QNX-based phones,” said CCS Insight vice-president of research John Jackson.