Most of the users of iphone are from the first world country. So there are the some lows that makes little difficult to hire iphone app developer. So for them its vital to offshore iphone app development, and the other thing is the manpower to develop the center they have to hire more people and by that cost will be too high for them and they can get the same thing by doing outsource the iphone projects.

When its comes to outsourcing your iphone app development project then third world country will be the best option and india is one of the favorite place when you can hire experienced iphone app developers at very affordable price. The other advantage of india is there are lots of educated people and technically well-know people are their and infrastructure is also very good and in the major city electricity supply is also sufficient, and good internet connection is also there like brodband. Low price real estate and super internet connectivity and other good supply addes fire in the application development process. In india lows are also favorable in india for offshore works. You can hire iphone developers at very cheap rate and their services are already admirable. So india is the best place to hire iphone developers.

If your business is about long to medium projects you have to search a reputed outsourcing company that have good experienced iphone developers, who can fulfill all your projects needs. There are lots of option to hire iphone developers like you can hire developers on hourly basis, daily, weekly or permanently means as per your projects needs you can hire iphone developers, in india most of the company provides support like telephonic talk, video conferences, chatting and other required things. And these company also offers 24X7 working support so your project will be completed while you sleeping isn’t it sound amazing.

Fusion Informatics is one of the leading iphone application development provider company and their developer have proper knowledge to provide cutting edge solution for all your iphone app development requirement, contact fusion informatics and get the quote for your iphone application development project now. we also provide android app development, software development at affordable price.

The good thing about asp.net is that the framwork and programming language allow the developers to develop power full dynamic websites, you can make different usefull applications and web apps by using asp.net. Because of this well known programming language the demand is also increasing for asp.net web developer. So the demand of developers has been increased all over the world.

Today asp.net has covered most of the area of in website development, bellow are some of the advantageous and features.
Its based on common language run time, so the asp.net developers can use any .net language that are compatible with it.
Web forms are the main area for the web development of an applications.
Dynamic codes could run in website from that runs on the web server.

So above all different advantages allow developers to create dynamic website. It helps asp.net developers to make world best and attractive websites and different web pages. Asp.net developers have all knowledge of the scripting and coding language, and they people know the how to do the best use of it. By that visitors would like to view your website deeply and visit different pages of website. You can hire web application developers at lower cost or as per your projects needs. So all you have to do is just hire expert asp.net developers to make your project done quickly.
To increase your online business and website development, everybody needs asp.net dvelopers to survive in this competition that is increasing all over the world. The people who needs an expert developers for their website projects, they must consider few things that is mentioned bellow.
Asp.net Developers should have the complete knowledge of it.
Programmer must understand your requirements and work as per you needs.
Technical Work Environment
Experience in making website with different industrial.
Developer should be expert in making web application development.
Should have the knowledge of coding and designing and also site analytics will be the advantage knowledge.
Company should providing that service at affordable price.

So before you select company you must consider above important things as there are lots of companies around the web that providing asp.net services, so before you select the company you must make sure that company will be able to fulfill your needs and be loyal to you.

Fusion Informatics is one of the leading asp.net development company that offers complete solution for asp.net development, their developers have proper knowledge to provide you web development service as per your project needs.

The mobile apps development business is booming these days, smartphone is an totally advanced device. New technologies and new latest features makes it different among other mobiles, the most important features of smartphone is you can use internet, email and you can also stay updated with current news and can read e-book as well.

There are three different kind of smartphones are currently booming in the market iphone, android base mobile, and blackberry. If you want to reach to more then you applications must be support in above devices, but at the same time its not that easy to offer it, for developing application for all devices you have to build applications separately for all devices.

Some of the most popular smartphone like iphone, android, blackberry it has completely change the smartphone market, the mini tablet pc also allows users to use fast internet, applications, and much more thing you can do in these devices,  that will make your device a complete useful device. That make your all applications and user interface more dynamic.

It is very important task to choose the correct smartphone app development company as there are lots of companies are in the market that offers that services but the key vital thing is developers must have the proper knowledge of creating applications as per client needs. And must consider user of it while making applications. Its very important to provide applications on very cheap price. It should be useful for the users, for successful application creating it is very important to provide quality applications that is worth and make great impression on user mind. So it is very important that you provide applications at very low price that is very important to your company website.

Whenever you start working on it you have to keep in mind that smartphone developers should have the proper knowledge of your field business and should have well experience of creating application for different business, developers should have knowledge to put the client idea in codes and provides great applications.

If you are looking for the same service then here is the solution for it fusion informatics is a well known company for providing great smartphone applications, they have experience in providing android apps, smartphone apps, blackberry apps, iphone apps, their developers providing great applications at very affordable price. Check out our smart phone application development portfolio from our website and know more about our services, hire iphone developers at very low price.

Smartphone has completely change the mobile market, its become more popular this days because smartphone application development is offering lots of new applications, games, unique applications according to your businesses, smartphone users always looking for some amazing applications and indian smartphone app developer are ready to fulfill that needs. Now a days there are lots of businesses are making smartphone application for their businesses as the demand of smartphone users are increasing rapid way. Your business application will help you on every platforms to get more customers.

The mobile apps development business is booming these days, smartphone is an totally advanced device. New technologies and new latest features makes it different among other mobiles, the most important features of smartphone is you can use internet, email and you can also stay updated with current news and can read e-book as well.

There are three different kind of smartphones are currently booming in the market iphone, android base mobile, and blackberry. If you want to reach to more then you applications must be support in above devices, but at the same time its not that easy to offer it, for developing application for all devices you have to build applications separately for all devices.

Some of the most popular smartphone like iphone, android, blackberry it has completely change the smartphone market, the mini tablet pc also allows users to use fast internet, applications, and much more thing you can do in these devices,  that will make your device a complete useful device. That make your all applications and user interface more dynamic.

It is very important task to choose the correct smartphone app development company as there are lots of companies are in the market that offers that services but the key vital thing is developers must have the proper knowledge of creating applications as per client needs. And must consider user of it while making applications. Its very important to provide applications on very cheap price. It should be useful for the users, for successful application creating it is very important to provide quality applications that is worth and make great impression on user mind. So it is very important that you provide applications at very low price that is very important to your company website.

Whenever you start working on it you have to keep in mind that smartphone developers should have the proper knowledge of your field business and should have well experience of creating application for different business, developers should have knowledge to put the client idea in codes and provides great applications.

If you are looking for the same service then here is the solution for it fusion informatics is a well known company for providing great smartphone applications, they have experience in providing android apps, smartphone apps, blackberry apps, iphone apps, their developers providing great applications at very affordable price. Check out our smart phone application development portfolio from our website and know more about our services, hire iphone developers at very low price.

The biggest reason of booming the demand of iphone is it contain wi-fi facility, multimedia enabled, latest and newly updated dynamic features makes it different among other samrtphones, and the recent release of iphone 4 is the latest release of apple. That has make its own market all over the world. Iphone has created dynamic apps and newly business apps that makes the extream feeling in user mind.

Today, lots of iphone users downloading new apps as per their needs, and there are lots of different bussiness apps and useful apps are available in the market. If you want to create app than you must hire iphone apps development company.

Here are many iphone app are in high demand, here are list bellow.

• Ecommerce application
• Entertainment application
• Travel application
• GPS Navigation Application
• Utility Application
• Sport Application

There are lots of mobile application development company offering iphone app development services, so for hiring iphone app developers india is the best place, you can hire their experience iphone app developers at very affordable price. There are also apps available for small business to the large corporate business.

Fusion Informatics is a leading iphone app development company their iphone apps developers have wild experience in providing iphone app development, you can hire developers as per your project needs.

There are big demand of creating unique iphone application development and there are lots of iphone app companines providing that service but here are some of the vital things that you should consider while selecting iphone app development company for your business need.

 Selecting a Developer

The first important step should be select a experience developers for your project who has good experience in creating unique iphone app with different business module, so that will help you create your perfect app needs. There are lots of iphone developers are in the market who has just join that field so they have created different apps for other so you must try to get good references and just check what they have created as per your expectation or not. Just check out the interface of the application, look and feel and a sophisticated good looking app is the sign of good programming capabilities, if you don’t found such thing in the application that means its a poor programming so don’t select them for your business.

Whenever you are selecting a developer for your project you must check out the skill of developers, like no matter how much experience developers have but if you communicate with the developers and if he understand your requirement and if he say that he can put that ideas in to app than we can exact to get the excellent result if he deny then we should find the other company to work on our iphone app needs.

Fusion informatics is one of the leading iphone application development company their iphone app developers have wild experience in providing apps as per client requirement, so start thinking about new investment for your business and start earning benefits for your online business to execute well in the iphone app world.

The main thing is after the announcement of this news is spreading like a wind all over the internet and people are looking to buy it. And google also says that by this latest version they will try to make the operating system that can run everywhere and so android 4.0 was urbanized. After the booming in android based device the requirement of android app developeris also booming on rapid way, there are lots of companies provide android application developmentservice at really affordable rate.

The key benefits of gingerbread is its help to improves the copy-paste features and also the soft keyboard key, user get innovative experience, and a great tech support is always there with it. And the honeycomb also support the processors that is multicore, and graphic hardware hastening, and launch the latest interface features.

Here are some great benefits of using android 4.0 ice cream sandwich

Multi-tasking Button

Android 4.0 has a virtual click that make use of browse and quickly switch to app you have just used. The thumbnail images of app-instead of just an icons, so you can see that which part is working in backdrop.

Instant Screenshots with one click

There are many quick share button that you would like to share and displayed on your mobile screen, there are also time when you have to save a screenshot for later use. In last version of android, you can also take a screenshots by installing app for that reason.

Enhanced Notification Bar

There are also some improvements that google has done to the announcement bar in android 4.0 for case. It could now be pulled down from the lock display. You can also discard items from the list of notification by just flick a piece to the right.

Enhanced Text and Voice key

The stock keyboard in android 4.0 has given some more. It is smarter and faster and much responsive in compare to last version of android. It has also a great feature of spell checker. With one click you can choose suggested words.

Face Unlock

Now forget to remember password, pin codes, and patterns. Android 4.0 ice cream sandwich has personalized phone unlocking much easier, with latest feature on unlocking the device, now your android tablet can identify the owner face and by that it will unlock.

The big reason is it is a multi function device; it’s not a device to communicate its really much more. There are lots of application are their just like business app, games, entertainment, enterprise app, real estate related app etc. so by that people are moving to iphone for buying products any different people have its own purpose to use iphone.

The iphone application development tool supports well to the iphone app developer. That gives the freedom to developer to create a application with more liberty. There are lots of companies putting their application on apple store but it’s not guarantee that every app will generate a sell. So to get the people attention developer try to development mainly business iphone app.

Here are the benefits you will get with the business iphone app development.

Normally, the apps that is unique and creative that will get the more public attention. You must keep in mind that, if your iphone app development company builds business apps then they will defiantly get more sell in the apple store, as there are a big demand of mobile app development now a days, and the company that have developed more innovative apps will get the more publicity and earn money.

Visitors can easily access the business iphone app then any other applications, business apps must be unique and user friendly as it’s a business apps so more client will use it. So your apps must be very user friendly.

The company will defiantly get more traffic if they have business iphone app. You can also generate revenue by business apps. So the big benefit is you will get all your business people attention from all over the globe.

So if you want to create a world best business oriented iphone apps than Fusion Informatics is a leading iphone app development provider company that understand your business requirement and create a best iphone app to fulfill your business needs.

Because of that booming the mobile app development demanding is also increasing on rapid way. And there are lots of businesses achieved a remarkable success by using latest mobile technology- with that both industrial and commercial market place. Deploying apps to mobile users involves a great and unique set of challenges and selection.

Internet and Mobile Applications Make Smart Phones a Must Have Device

By using smart phone internet users are also increasing as well. Once your mobile is connected to the internet, you can have access any website or any application you want, so the businesses require optimizing their apps for various kinds of smart phones that is invest in mobile application development to get the prospective visit of smart phone users. So because of that smart phones are so incredibly expedient to use that most of the mobile users hardly ever use any other device to right of entry various websites. So if your business web apps are not designed to utility on mobile phones, you are going to losing a huge prospective customer base and by that your competitors will get the full advantage of it. So for you its highly require that your application should not only support the web but should also support the all smart phones such as android, blackberry, window, iphone, etc.

Faster communication, better Reach

When you buy smart phone in today time from the stores you will get the big number of apps that are embedded in to the mobile, like android applications, mobile apps, games and more, now we want every thing to be fast so apps that faster working and the phone call are the entire wrath. The Business that understands the app requirement and the performance of mobile apps users can further expand apps to magnetize potential client and gain a winning rim over competitors. Mobile application development plays a big role in the sum of wages a company can earn.

So if you are professional business person than you should not ignore that vital tool to increase your business. and fusion informatics company based in india provide you the exact solution for the same their expert mobile app developer are capable to provide you different apps requirement for various device such as android app development, blackberry app development, iphone app development and so on.

So here are some good tips that will help you to select the expert android developers

Wide Understanding of Android app

Because of the booming demand of android app there are big demand of android developers also you will find lots of well experienced android developer who have the perfect knowledge of latest OS of android and there are also other developers who don’t have much skill about it. They are just come in to this business to make some easy money. Developing android apps is becoming a profitable business and some people have just basic knowledge of java and become an android app developer. So for you it’s very important to choose the expert for android app development.

Excellence quality work

To get you work accurately developer must have focus on its work, always choose a person who understands the value of quality app. That will helps you make sure that your android app development company will concentrate on basics like presentation and good performance, interactivity, delivery on time, loading time of app, user experience etc. if your app has no above vital things than your app will not be successful app.

Capability to develop various Apps

Never choose a app developer have only experienced about some specific app development like if some developer have only experience about real estate app or only have experience about health related app. You should select developers who have worked on different category area by that you will get the perfect solution for your apps.

The reality is that Flash was everlastingly an awkward technology and was for eternity going to be replaced. In order to converse the profit of HTML5 Lets first talk about the drawback of web design in the unlucky stand of Flash.

Compatibility difficulty:

One more main drawback is the compatibility issue that comes up. While it is true you can simply have compatibility problems with usual websites, with Flash adds an extra layer of harms. In web design, developers purely fix to standards and rather often they are totally fine. In other gear they are options to make sites backwards well-matched using browser recognition on the wing.

Lack of Search Engine Optimization

Imagine Flash as exactly a video file where the software then runs the streaming of information in that video. To Search Engines they accurately see not anything apart from possibly a few keywords within the Flash file. This is bad for two reasons: first, none of your inner navigation or text can be recognized in order to construct a full image of your website. It is also as you have the skill to fake the accurate content of the file. For Search Engines this will not gain you any points, particularly after the dramas of the early years of mimicking age rated contented as a wide-ranging age pleasant website.

So now the question is what is the advantage of it?

HTML is created from the land up to be as easy as probable. Now each part in an HTML5 organization has its in title, content and footer tags. As an effect, code is spotless, easy to read and most prominently is very SEO friendly that search engine like very much.

For animated content, low overhead is something that HTML5 prides itself in. Now HTML for the first time ever can bind the power of your graphics card on your PC.

In short future we’re going to see a big merger in web design hub between desktop, tablet and mobile platforms. Each one will be measured alike as the market share spreads. HTML5 in adding to its settlement in layout thinks about all these strategy as a total.

Fusion Informatics is leading mobile app development company that offers android app development, iphone app development, blackberry app development and Kindle app development too.

Fusion expert offers Kindle book development, quiz app development, contest app development and other business application development for Kindle devices.

The freshest development in this domain is the Kindle blaze that is already launched in 16 November 2011. This tablet is very reader friendly. As well being a hot topic of discussion, it has a high volume of media including over 120,000 movies and TV shows, 16 million songs, and lots of app game favorites. According to a few recent articles, the Fire may steal a little bit of Apple’s Christmas. The cost is set to be approximately $180 to 200. It is vital to keep in mind that when the Amazon Kindle was invented, it was exactingly for reading purpose.

The Touchpad was a vast improvement for kindle. Since touch screens were the latest trend, Amazon stepped up to the cover with this. Not only did they build a touch screen tool, but they also did one enhanced with the pricing. Their prices are always reasonable. With the increased reputation of applications, Amazon Kindle app was developed for those people who didn’t have one. The Kindle Cloud Reader is a web app that allows people to read their books right away. Many other apps can be purchased and or downloaded.

Fusion Informatics is leading mobile app development company that offers android app development, iphone app development, blackberry app development and Kindle app development too.

Fusion expert offers Kindle book development, quiz app development, contest app development and other business application development for Kindle devices.

It can be carefully said that Facebook app developers are between the busiest professionals you will come across these days. They are occupied in all sorts of campaigns and software development projects; many of them are totally tied up with rising social network apps, as this is where a marvelous amount of concentration is being devoted. Now people want to access their facebook account with their smartphone. But the question is Can we develop facebook app that is compatible with every smartphone?

Here is the answer the complications of it have been overcomes by the iphone application developers. Iphone developers have joined the features of facebook and iphone and make an amazing iphone facebook app. And iphone is the leading smartphone. Iphone pas very high speed connection and wonderful browsing features and the customized facebook application development work smoothly on your smartphone. There are many different types of app that can be developed by using iphone but the facebook app is one of the unique and very useful apps.

Facebook Connect and Facebook apps are gradually becoming must-have advertising and social-networking tools. Fusion Informatics team of software development will help you to avoid mistakes and provide you the world best facebook app.

Google’s Android 4.0 operating system, better recognized by its delicious nickname “Ice Cream Sandwich,” or ICS, is far from a simple mobile OS update. Ice Cream Sandwich is a complete OS fix that includes tweaks ranging from the inelegantly mysterious to the most surface-level of border improvements. It’s also meant for both Android smartphones and tablets unify Google’s mobile OS platform for the earliest instance.

Android 4.0 OS brings mutually the software of tablets and smart phones that are Android 3.0 OS for tablets and Android 2.3 OS for smart phones. This will be an only adaptation that will run on both – mobile phones and tablets.

Google’s Ice cream Sandwich release is getting more enhancement and new features reasonably. Google is launching this update of OS at the time when so many updates are happening in the marketplace. RIM just launched its next creation series of smartphone with new OS, and Apple also launched its new software – iOS 5.

After all this hassle android application development market will see a change too slowly. Android application developers are waiting for the release as they will get a chance to establish themselves by designing startling apps for mobile devices and tablets. Fusion Informatics has experienced Android developers to deliver striking solutions to our consumers.

Geographic location data may be obtained via a wide variety of methods and technologies. A consumer can directly provide a Postal Code, Zip Code, or City; or the precise location2 of the consumer and their device can be automatically determined using services provided by mobile operators or automatic detection of location as determined by the hardware, i.e., GPS-enabled or, Wi-Fi-enabled devices.

Marketers can use this geographic location as a means to deliver a more relevant, targeted advertisement and/or a service, to the user.

Here are some of the Types of Location Based Marketing

• Embedded Icons: (Sponsored embedded advertising) the sponsorship deals can be map embedded or on-the-page/in-app. Sponsored embedded advertising that displays without a search term but is based on end-user’s interests and / or brand affinity. Icons or logos displayed in maps or augmented reality to help user determine relevant proximity/location.

• Search (aka: Local Directory Advertising): Advertising for listings of local merchant retailers. For example, CitySearch, Dex, Yellow Pages all fit in this category. Generally these campaigns will include some form of user targeting to show listings only to users in a relevant geographic area.

• Location Triggered Notifications: Uses proximity information (Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS or Network-based) to provide App Alerts or Messaging based on user preferences and opt-ins. These services can be automated (vs. requiring a check-in or app) and can run on both smart and feature phones. Once opted-in, alerts are delivered whenever a consumer is nearby a store, and can be tailored to a specific location (e.g. incorporating address or directions) and an offer specific to that nearby store.

• Location Branded Application: The usage of LBS technology to enhance brand-owned mobile media services. Media brands are the most ardent supporters of these apps.

• Check-in Based Contests and Games: Reward the user (typically with discounts or coupons) for visiting retailer locations and “checking in”. LBS are used to verify that the consumer was at or near the retailer location at the time the consumer is checking in.

• Click-to-X Routing: Routing either calls, data from broad campaigns to local call centers or localized information. For example a nationwide auto dealer might use LBS to route calls from a nationwide click-to-call campaign to the nearest local auto dealer based upon the consumer’s precise location.

Fusion Informatics provides complete mobile application development solution we offer iphone application development, android application development, blackberry application development, window mobile application development, ipad application development, location based mobile applications at most affordable price.

Important Benefits of Android Application Development

Open Source and Affordable Cost:

Android apps development is an open source stand where you don’t need any license to work on it, the royalty is free and so there is no constraint. And since the basic SDK organization is open source the updates are all accessible to anybody and you can also give the feedback on it. The whole platform is existing for customization and therefore you can monetize your apps and it’s awfully good for handset manufacturers.

Open distribution system:

Android apps development market helps publishers to endorse apps openly to the user very quickly and you can start earning quickly.

Multiple Technologies:

One of the main advantages contains multiple technologies like GSM, EDGE, CDMA, Wi-Fi technologies to move data via mobile networks. High-resolution Video camera, Touch screen, accelerometer and GPS system.

Latest Functionalities:

Some of the latest functionalities in Android app development lately that have become admired include Location based services where companies can get a LBS apps on Android where in the applications can locate out the location of the consumer via GPS and give them the thorough information they are looking for, Cloud based service addition which enables the companies to professionally run IT and also make longer its achieve using mobile apps. Experts are also axiom that android phones will become credit cards in near future. People will be able to purchase things with the help of the android mobile applications as a result of which the e-commerce companies will be able to expand themselves on the mobile stand which will build shopping simple and fun for the consumer. A good model of which is NFC, it will be the next big signal in creating a USP for Smartphone.

High Returns:

Android is a least investment platform with no exclusive licensing fees and you can get down for Android apps development with minimum expenses. The basic estimate can be separated into development and testing knowledge, royalty fees.

You can get above all benefits from Fusion Informatics our android application developer have proper knowledge of making different useful android applications, our android apps developers are dedicated and well experienced to development any kinds of applications as per your instruction and your best requirements, you can also out source your android apps development projects to us or you can hire android apps developer contact us for more information. Choose our android apps development services and be a part of latest technology.

ASP.NET is well-known coding language and web apps framework. ASP.NET developers are in full insist as of their reward in the website development. It is clear that the requirement for them is rising which is upper than other. It is used to develop dynamic and specialized websites which are of good quality and striking towards the visitors. It can also be used for the development of special web apps and web associated services that are in huge insist. ASP.NET programming language is known for its great features of it such as .NET development, communication of network, numeric algorithms, and connectivity of database; support all browsers, and many others for the development of great quality web applications, web pages and many other web designing and development services.

Microsoft ASP.NET has formed a muscular grip on the ASP.net web development market. This program gives permission to the asp.net web developer to make web applications that are active in nature. This technology has been planned in a fashion to link staff, clients and business all jointly. The basic idea is to make up a strong system and allow better business monitoring. ASP.NET also provides better security services, which is one of the main requirements of all developers. The Microsoft.NET Framework enables the development of stylish application development, which has huge value in the spread surroundings across the World Wide Web. This framework is prepared to develop applications that have very less bugs.

Well-known Indian company working with Asp.net Technology

There are a huge number of companies that are presently using this free technology for some of reasons. This application runs on a range of technology and hardware. This framework supports a big number of languages and therefore companies can provide clients with wide-ranging interest.

In India this is recognized to be one of the most satisfactory technologies and therefore companies are fast adapting it. And Indian asp.net developers are very highly enthusiastic and dedicated that will provide you complete asp.net solution and make you satisfied by their work. In India, ASP.NET is used broadly as the pages developed during these are usually well-known as Web Forms. These Web Forms are stored in the server, which provide prosperous presentation. Web Forms, which is a exclusive feature of this structure, that gives you flexible and user friendly website page.

Below are some advantages to hire ASP.NET developers from India:

• If you hire developer it saves your time and development cost and your resource also
• Indian developers have right knowledge of coding so they will develop your website as per your instruction
• They offer total key solution for the website and apps development and provide you pleasure by their work
• You can get your project done in agreed time and in your plan
• You can outsource your project easily
• There is no requirement to arrange infrastructure and that will defiantly save your time and money both
• You will get very high experience developer that will work on your project at very effective cost

Here are some of the figures that indicate the booming demand of android phones, in this year android phones shipment reach close to 51% of the smartphone OS market share. And 52 million new android phones have been added in to the stores user base. If the scenario will continue the same then android definitely reach top that of apple.

• In second quarter of 2011 android holds 47% of smartphone shipments.
• Android holds 27% of total smartphone app users that is very good in this short time.
• At the end of this year there will be lots of possible android app users will catch up with apple’s app user base.
• Android market contained 256400 applications in the end of june 2011, and its expected the demand of android application development will increase more and more.
• From the last few months every week 3% per week number of different apps in store grows.

Above figures shows that at the end of this year android market will probably have very large user base like apple app store, for most android application developers one of the key criteria in choice of a stage is the possible reach of an apps. Before Apple was the absolute leader, with the major app store user base. But from the past few quarters android take over the smartphone market with unbelievable device shipments, in second quarter android gained 47% of total smartphone shipments, and its indicates extremely successful quarter, that can become a biggest device company.

Yet however Android exceeded Apple in terms of smartphones shipped, still apple is leader due to major success of other handheld devices like ipod and ipad touch, apple has shipped over 235 million smart devices leaving android behind with 165 million growing device shipments, some of the other relevant factor, replacement cycles and potential user bases apple still wins the race. But one thing clearly shows that android becomes a good competitor of apple.

Still some people argue that android user base is not comparable to apple’s due to unbelievable success while apple has launched seven different handheld devices so far and android today is preloaded on to at least 310 special smartphone models with potential customizations in Operating system, With different android app development still, it is quickly catching up the earlier largest smartphone OS, in terms of prospective app store‘s arrive at. The tightening gap is yet clearer if we look into the share of each stage of the total smartphone apps consumer base.

If that scenario continues then by the end this year Android will have just as many possible app users as Apple. And complete reach will no longer be a deciding factor for programmers on which stage to decide for an app.

Apple have tried for years to marry the TV to the Internet, providing a more interactive occurrence and a possibility to tap into a chief new returns sources such as advertise. But it’s been hard: customers often favor a more inactive experience, companies that make and distribute content have frequently been unwilling partners at best, and Google TV hasn’t fixed on it yet.

Android apps make browsing much easier on your Android gadget. In some cases, the app really provides a much improved experience than the Web-based interface–from a visual standpoint that is. The app shows image previews within the list of products by default, whereas the website does not. The app also has a very nice color subject and is efficient. The simply downside to the application is the truth that the search settings don’t modify to accommodate the specified group you select to search during. Separately from that, I have to give credit to the programmers of this app for doing a unbelievable job. Generally experience of these apps is wonderful.

Here are some of the main benefits of using android application development

• Android is based on Linux. This facilitates simple convenience to rich advance surroundings and core functionality of the cell phone device.
• The development tools are simple to use.
• All the information and services are provided to the programmers without any business.
• It allows fast information assembly. It also provides the exact information required.
• It provides rich browser facilities as well. This facilitates the developer to provide improved services.
• The sequence is significantly abridged.

It is constantly recommended to benefit the services of an expert Android application Developer and gather the advantages of Android App Development because doing it without any specialized support can risk time and money.

As the users are rising in numbers and realize it’s prospective, there are more and more iPad applications being launched in the market. iPad apps development is become an industry in itself users are getting modified iPad applications to better suit their requirements. Apple being the leader in the technology world already has outdone itself with the iPad. iPad allows a mind boggling gaming experience with its heavy machinery, 9.7 in multi touch screen and liquid crystal high resolution display is just what the doctor ordered for anybody who wishes to use the iPad for entertainment.

With iPad app development your products and services are even closer to the clients. Customers can accesses your products and services through the iPad and order them through iPad applications developed for this reason only. This way you are not only making products more reachable through iPad but you are doing this in a way that is more appealing and attractive.

Because of the booming in ipad and iphone the requirement of using different kind of application has also increasing, people like to use useful apps on their own device, for providing that needs, lots of software development companies offering ipad apps development, iphone mobile application development, blackberry mobile application development, mobile apps development, ipad apps development, mobile application development, and you can also hire iphone app developers, web application developer, blackberry application developer, mobile application developer, ipad apps developer as per your project requirement.

Web and graphic design are symbiotic entity, two different processes with differing approaches that are vital element of a fresh company’s construction, no matter how many are employed within its organization. A “corporate look,” including logos, stationery, brochures and other marketing materials, and a website, are some of the first things people see that represent your company. Uniformity, artistic know-how, and careful planning are the keys to creating a “trademark” that plants an optimistic start in your potential clients’ minds, impelling them to support your business.

When you choose a web designing company, first look at the company’s own website. Its website will visibly show you the company’s level of proficiency, vision and ability. Hence if a company’s own website does not make an impression you in the least, do not be deluded by what they speak.

Fusion Informatics offer professional web 2.0 and xhtml, w3C compliance and SEO friendly Web Design and Development Services and website redesigning services for internet and mobile technologies, we have understood the priceless value of Graphic Design, and we have a well experienced offshore team of young website designing professionals to develop out of the world website.

Fusion Informatics offers following service:

• Web Designing Services
• Website Redesigning Services
• Logo Designing Services
• Custom Website Design
• Professional Website Design
• Website Design and Development
• WAP and Mobile Compatible Website Design
• eCommerce Website design & Development
• Search Engine Optimization friendly website design
• Web 2.0 , XHTML, W3C compliance website designing
• Table less (DIV Based) HTML/CSS designing

Do Contact us for complete website designing solution.

android application development

Android App Development a dominant and accepted Platform

Android application development is one of the leading trends in the mobile app development industry. Android app development helps you to develop new applications for mobile users.

Android Application Development is the best appropriate choice for them as Android is a great and accepted stands to develop mobile applications. Android apps can really change the appear and believe of your mobile phone and more over your ‘lifestyle’.

Thme complete mobile apps development solution provider company

Here are some of the major benefits of Android Application Development are:

1. Development cycle is abridged, which provide easy to use development tools.
2. You can obtain information in a speedy and make correct user request in turn.
3. Gives rich browser facilities to give better services.
4. Android is Linux based so it gives easy contact to core mobile tool functionality.

Android app development is a set of necessary applications. All the program code to be executed and stop the procedure at the time Android will begin the development, this method required by other programs.

Types of offshore Android App Development:

• • Business
• • Enterprise businesses
• • Utility based application
• • Games development
• • Applications for children
• • E-commerce development
• • Finances
• • News
• • Location based application

The new Android mobile phones are accessible and created by Google. It enclosed the smart phone marketplace. Android SDK provide the development utensils and APIs to expand applications.

Here is the major benefit of the android application development

• It allow fast information get-together. It also provides the exact information required.

• The cycle is significantly concentrated.

• The enlargement tools are simple to utilize.

• Every the information and services are provided to the developers without any business.

• It provides rich browser services as well. This facilitates the developer to provide improved services.

• Android is based on Linux. This facilitates effortless convenience to rich development surroundings and middle functionality of the mobile tool.

It is constantly suggested to advantage the services of a qualified Android application developer and pick the reward of Android App. Development.

To download the Android Software Development Kit, you should log on to the website of Android app developer, SDK is very much like the iPhone SDK but at the same time one who does not basic computer programming might locate it a bit hard to use. The Android SDK has a Droid emulator. These emulators allow the software developers to experiment the process and functionality of the Android application. This facilitates the developer with not having to load, unload, and reload a part of software frequently.

The Google Android App. can be worked out either with or without the help of a expert Android app. development service supplier. The earlier choice is possible if the user is well versed with the technology for Mobile App Development. On the other hand if the application developer is not expert at using the SDK tools provided by Android, the same alternative can backfire and lead to loss of time, money and property. Most of the people prefer the later on option and avail the services of a skilled And. Application Developer.

The main use of android is not just for better communication but this device its just like a office computer, you will get all the extra features that you need. So one should just grab the opportunity to use this amazing device.

iPhone Application Developers utilize the iPhone SDK  to generate exclusive and modified applications for the iPhone. The iPhone software development kit, also known as the tool succession, includes all the tools and technologies necessary to develop iPhone Applications. With the iPhone SDK programmers can make your thoughts a certainty, yet if you don’t know the variation between a C-pointer and a SQLite database! It’s really taught to design and code an iPhone application as it can be to design and develop a Web site, but the advantage of make an iPhone application is that you can find paid all time somebody downloads it.

Here is the most important step to continue in mind while hiring iPhone  application developers is that they should know the application marketplace well sufficient to stay alive in it. And must be capable to build applications for ipad, Andriod, BlackBerry, etc. Make definite that the company you appoint has previously developed iPhone applications and have sell them on Apple’s App Store. If yes, then check out the associations and screen shots as fit. Watch the approach of the company’s arrangement of application ideas. Do they get up the same old unexciting type of thoughts or are they open to suggestion, new ideas, and ready to research? If the case is the previous one then forget it. If your choice is the latter one, then you can do some research on that company if all looks perfect according to your needs then you can go ahead.

The company you approach ought to be in this sector for a least of two years. As the iPhone itself is not old than this so it make sense that the business must be well versed about this empire.

So fusioninformatics is in this sector for quite long period of time. And have excelled to huge heights in iPhone Application Development, blackberry app development, ipad app development, android app development, They are experienced in integrating applications on new platform as well. Their competently talented team of developers appears up with amazing thoughts and application.

In offshore iphone app development india is the most booming country among other developing countries, So you have a immense alternative way to decide an offshore iPhone web application development Company to hire iPhone application developers from India as per your requirement, We propose you to hire iphone application developer who are fully occupied in this service for long times providing wonderful service. Such choice gives you very good profit from the preliminary of your task cultivate the end.

In this competitive world its become very difficult to find out the best iphone application developer, here are some tips to find out the most excellent iphone application developer.

Preparation of your project and requirement:

In due path of explain your ideas you also do some preparation for your developer. Gather the required material needed in advance. Prepare textual content in advance. Assemble the similes needed in project and show it when needed. Set up essential files in move on. Prepare for agreement in iTunes store right away when your app is ready for the market. React properly and appropriate way to each inquiry of your iPhone app developer. This way you will ease the work of your developer and save your precious time to close the project in time frame.

Choose experience developer:

In any field you need to have proper experience, and when it comes for iPhone application development its extremely required some experience for the developer. Try to find out a developer who has enough experience and try to find the developer whose portfolio matches your idea so you will countenance less hurdles in development. Experienced iPhone app developer will lead you to a successful achievement of the task.

Explain your ideas and be clear:

If you have thoughts make clear and re-clarify it and observe that your developer understands it accurately or not? Create a link of communication among you and your developer so developer can ask about any uncertainty or can suggest you something else if it is virtually impossible to do. Keep your mind open and believe the suggestion of your iPhone app developer and assume over it carefully.

Project Maintenance:

Creating an application is not sufficient to earn in the market. You need to successfully run the application as long as achievable. So, you need support of your iPhone app developer in bug setting up and other technical problems creating with your apps so reassure this matter with your developer past to start of the project.

With the development of iphone Mobile Application Development, there is a steady rise of iphone application developer canada too. This iphone apps developer canada design and develop iphone applications as per the client’s requirements. It is actually incredible that using our thoughts they can assist us to make %25 run applications on our phone. In iphone Mobile Application Development are build for news, fun and entertainment, withstand, business solutions etc. These applications facilitate you make your workflow smoother and easier as they can be modified to individual needs, designed to custom the accurate necessity. So it’s really useful for us, as we can entrance special amazing applications in a particular handy gadget.

iPhone apps development has turn into a very profitable business these days, so is the run for outsource iPhone application development. Many application development companies that develop software for a range of industries are making huge income by developing the applications and software for iPhone. It has been realized that there is a wonderful development vision for developing iPhone applications. Some developers occupied in iPhone website development, outsource their application development ability to go well with the needs of clients operating their businesses from Canada.

An iPhone Application Developer job involves conception, distributing, and debugging of applications able to run with an iPhone line. Included with real-world test, supply on the application store, and development capital, iPhone has all the features you require most in today’s time.

It should be reserved in mind that iPhone is neither a desktop computer nor a laptop. As it is base on special establishment, a divide design draw near is mandatory. This come close to require to gather the advantages of the strength of iPhone OS; failing to incorporate these skin will make it unsuitable or not practical to your cell phone. Thus, you may think looking for help of a expert iPhone app developer canada, USA, Europe.

Fusion Informatics offers you

iPhone application development uk

iPhone Application Developer

iPhone software development uk

iPhone porting services uk

iPhone SDK uk

iPhone game developer uk

Fusion Informatics Company from uk has well set developers team to work on iPhone Application Development Project using simulator and iMac. We are specializing in all iPhone Content and iPhone compatible website design and development.

If you love it or hate it, the iPad is a hit, the sales of Apple’s iPad has rising very fast in US. While most analysts have been trying to calculate approximately the number of iPads sold by including preorders of 3G iPads in their numbers, and the answer is more than 600,000; 603,500 at the time of this writing, to be more specific.

Our dedicated team of iPad application developers has vast experience on iPad as well as more than 4 years of experience of working on iPad application development in addition our developers have the right knowledge to work on any kinds of projects irrespective of its length and difficulty.

Various Services in ipad application development by Fusion informatics:

•         iPad App development for entertainment

•             iPad App development for news

•             iPad App development for social networking

•             iPad App development for travel

•             iPad 3G/4G Application Development

•             iPad Business Application Development

•             iPad Enterprise Application Development

•             iPad Social Networking Application Development

•             GPS / LBS based Application Development

•             iPad Push  / Google Map based Application Development

•             iPad App Developer

•             Hire iPad Application Developer

Apple has created quite a storm in the mobile market in the past 2 years and with the introduction of the iPad, its popularity is only expected to go up. However, users need to make full use of the capabilities of their iPhones and iPads, and the best method is to get Fusion Informatics, that have specialized skills in iPhone/iPad application  development to design and execute customized applications that can give business an edge over their competitors.

Fusion informatics windows mobile application development team can develop specialized software for discerning business clients, as businesses form a major bulk of clients. While some businesses might be happy with the standard applications that are available with each Windows Mobile phone, most would wish that they had customized windows mobile software to factor in their specific requirements that could result in fewer misunderstandings and an improved level of communication amongst staff and with clients or suppliers.

Windows Mobile has been developed by Microsoft by using software codes including Visual C++, Microsoft Mobile CE, Visual C# and .NET. The software runs various phones and PDAs compatible with the Windows Mobile platform. As most users are familiar with Windows, they find it a bit easier to adjust to Windows Mobile on their phones. Several major brands of mobile phone manufacturers have many medium to high-end handset models that run on the Windows Mobile platform. Windows offers Windows Mobile Software Development Kits or SDK’s to development companies and individuals that want to create customized software for their clients.

Various Services in Window Mobile by Fusion Informatics :

• Window Mobile 5.0 / 6.0 / 7.0 Application Development
• Window Business  Application Development
• Window Enterprise  Application Development
• Window Social Networking Application Development
• GPS / LBS based Application Development
• Window Push  / Google Map based Application Development
• Window App Developer
• Window Mobile Application Development

Hire Window Mobile Application Developer

With mobiles now like mini-computers, it was but natural for Microsoft to enter the ever-growing mobile market. Fusioninformatics windows mobile application development programmers offer an extension of services that help customize and create applications that can boost the efficiency of a business.

for more information about windows mobile application development contact.

Our dedicated team of highly efficient graphic designers is ever ready to blend their creative expressions to produce a shiny, eye catching, design for your application.

Thе digit οf Facebook users іѕ shooting up thе count within millions, whісh proves аѕ furbished platform tο thе developers thаt gеt ever more more potential users еνеrу single day. Due tο Facebook’s rapid evolution tools fοr thе application development – Facebook API (Application Programming Interface), аrе altered quite οftеn аѕ well. Thе developers аt Thе fusioninformatics keep thе track οf such nеw features tο рlасе mοѕt recent аnd updated effects, appearance, functionality, аnd operability іn уουr application.

We understand your need to promote your product. Our established and experienced team of marketing experts goes through in-depth study and come up with the best possible marketing solution that will definitely make your application hugely popular among the targeted demographics in less time.

iPhone application development services provider company that can convert your desired applications into reality. At fusioninformatics, you can even hire iPhone application developers for custom ipad application development, android apps development, mobile apps development.

Blackberry supports MIDP 1.0, WAP 1.2, and the current version of the Blackberry OS contains rich multimedia and graphic features, allows synchronization with Exchange’s e-mail, tasks, and contacts. Our Blackberry applications Developers have wide-ranging expertise in developing mobile business solutions. So Fusioninformatics can be the right choice for your Blackberry Application Solutions. Our team always focuses on technical excellence with the purpose of delivers business importance. We make certain excellent skill pool so that you can complete cost effectual and flexible services for your business.

Fusion Informatics has an expert team to Blackberry applications Development. It has established themselves as one of the break new ground blackberry application development company in India, catering to a diverse client base in US, Canada, France and India with Others. Blackberry Business Solutions allow you to connect and pool resources wherever you are. Not just through email, personal information management and voice, but with Customer Relationship Management (CRM), field service, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Internet access, instant messaging tools and applications required for you to make important fast decision. Application from your Blackberry is to make sure you have the Blackberry Desktop Manager installed on your computer. This program has many features and also allows you to completely customize your Blackberry, so if you do not necessarily need it to remove or add any applications it is still great to have. The software can be downloaded directly from the Blackberry website.

In these times of tight competition no business would like to lose even a single prospective buyer. The websites and other applications are being designed not for just display but to sell and generate revenue. This is one of the main reasons for developing the android application development.

Seeing to the raise in demand of Android Applications development the number of Android application developers has suddenly grown exponentially. Now, if any business wants to get the Android application developed then the person needs to first check the experience of the developer. The application developer should be able to develop the application in such a way that it is easy for the user or visitor. The application needs to be buyer oriented to be saleable. At the end of the day if the application is hardly of any use to the user then the user is not going to buy it. Before developing any application, its utility and costing needs to be calculated in detail.

Fusioninformatics offers you

• iPhone application development Deutschland

• Hire iPhone developer Deutschland

• iPhone software development Deutschland

• iPhone porting services Deutschland

• iPhone SDK Deutschland

• iPhone game developer Deutschland

Fusioninformatics company from Deutschland has well set developers team to work on iPhone Application Development Project using simulator and iMac. We are specializing in all iPhone Content and iPhone compatible website design and development.
We have developed iPhone applications of the following categories:

* Social Networking software

* Travel Booking software

* GPS Tracking software

* Utility software

* Productivity software

* Touch screen application

* Entertainment industry related software

We have developed custom-made mobile application development for our clients worldwide across various categories and are also ready to give a hand you in providing services to bring your favorite applications from other Smartphone devices to the Apple iPhone 3GS.

The newly launched 7 inch Google Android Tablet PC is really a attractive tablet which has received people’s praise. The reason why it can increase so many attentions is that it has features that other mobile pc does not have.

What we know about google android tablet

The Google Android tablet news comes by way of a fairy-tale published in The New York Times on Sunday. The story, a piece about upcoming competition to Apple’s iPad, states that Google is currently exploring the idea of creating its own tablet computing device. The gadget is described as “an e-reader that would function like a computer.

Its fun to visualize what a Google Android tablet could do, but don’t let some of the headlines out there fool you: From what we know so far, there’s no reason to believe a Google-made Android tablet is an even a certain thing

Google is exploring the idea of building a tablet device. It is “experimenting” with possibilities. in spite of some bloggers’ tendencies to fill in the blanks with big expressions, there’s no indication that this is a complete deal. Because of that android application development market is also booming.

The Android focus needs great thoughts and continual knowledge, that is a categorical reason that one should be employing Android focus programmer developer for a Android mobile focus development.

Android has started rule the smart phone market. Its growth is phenomenal 20 points jump in just 3 months. No other hand phone device has shown such marvelous increase within such a short time.

Fusion informatics has a huge developer group of people. Being an open source development you can take benefits from this big community. You can take help of debugging your applications.

Fusioninformatics has high experienced team of android application developer to develop high quality applications.

Smarter devices are continually being developed by leading mobile phone manufacturers such as Apple, Nokia, BlackBerry Samsung, etc. These devices come with better memory and more powerful processors. The features and functionalities of these mobile phones are many and can be further expanded by installing various mobile applications development to these devices. A range of mobile applications development counting web and business applications, entertainment applications, music and video applications and a host of other efficacy applications are being developed for these phones on a global range.

Fusioninformatics is well recognized offshore outsourcing firm offering custom IT solutions since 1997.we have high experienced professionals developer experts in developing mobile application like business and office software, multimedia applications, our mobile application developer can develop custom iphone application, blackberry application, windows mobile and symbian applications for you.

Fusion Informatics has high experienced iPad application developer to develop extra ordinary ipad application development; fusion informatics has expertise in development of all types of smart phones like iPhone, ipad, Android, Black Berry, Symbian and Windows Mobile.

All good things in life don’t come for free always. But costs a few dollars, you can easily enjoy the best of services, at least in terms of applications download for the Apple iPhone.

iPhone Application Developers has proven success rate at Apple App store. Fusion informatics offers its services at affordable rates. It has highly affordable hiring schemes. you can hire a developer as full time, part time or on hourly rates. iPhone Application Developers delivers iPhone application development, ipad application development, mobile application development, android application development, blackberry application development services under one roof

And the second requirement of ipad will become using different ipad application and the market of ipad application development is growing at a rapid rate and ipad is providing remarkable opportunities for providing the right business solution. To develop in the right direction with the help of different kinds of applications, to catering these needs fusion informatics ipad application developer has brought out number schemes to hire dedicated ipad application developers that are designed to suit your needs and individual project necessities.

Our dedicated team of iPad application developers has vast experience on iPad as well as more than 4 years of experience of working on iPhone application development in addition our developers have the right knowledge to work on any kinds of projects irrespective of its length and difficulty.

iPhone apps development is so useful and in demand because it makes the operation of your needs very simple. It can develop applications that can be customized to your individual needs catering especially and specifically to what you want. The need could be as simple and small as developing a simple game to the development of a complex project level application, iPhone apps development can gratify it. Be it business or personal life, it has its own effect and it has made things far easier to operate than they were ever before.

A few weeks ago Apple released a new draft of their iPhone developer program license which contained the following section

Iphone application development may use documented APIs in the manner prescribed by Apple and not to use private call APIs, and Applications must be initially written in Objective-C, C, C++, or JavaScript as executed by the iPhone OS Web Kit engine. This has the effect of restricting applications built with a number of technologies, including Unity, Titanium, MonoTouch, and Flash CS5. While it appears that Apple may selectively enforce the terms, it is our belief that Apple will enforce those terms as they apply to content created with Flash CS5. Developers should be prepared for Apple to remove existing content and applications (100+ on the store today) created with Flash CS5.

Recently HTML5‘s video features have gotten a lot of attention, but it’s three other HTML5 features that we’ve found most useful for mobile web development.

1. Prefetching using Local Storage: It’s no secret that mobile data networks are slow but by putting a bit of thought into what users will tap on next, and prefetching that data in the background you can build a spectacularly quicker user experience. It’s possible to do limited forms of prefetching using plain old JavaScript, but using the local Storage key/value storage built into HTML5, we’re able to store much more data and therefore prefetch more assertively.

If you’re using a recent version of Chrome or Safari or on an iPhone 3 or Android 2 phone and want a sense of what prefetching feels like, try clicking the left and right arrows here (you can ignore the warning you will see in Chrome and Safari).

2. Geolocation: Using the geo location features built into HTML5 (available on iPhone 3 and Android 2), we’re able to connect you with local information based on the GPS in your phone, so all you have to do is launch the app to see nearby recommendations. I wish it were a bit faster, but it sure beats entering an address or zip code — and it’s very easy to catch into as a developer.

3. App Caching: The last HTML5 feature that we greatly rely on is the application cache. If a cache obvious file is specified, the browser won’t re-download files unless the content of the manifest file has been updated. This may not sound like a big deal, but the latency of cellular networks can be long enough that requesting multiple files at startup can slow down your application by 10 or 20 seconds. Ideally, you’d put all your static JavaScript, CSS, and image files in the manifest file, so users never have to wait for them to be downloaded more than once.

As thrilled as we are about HTML5, things get even more interesting when you combine these technologies with Google APIs.

Things like plugins, jQuery formatting techniques, and design trends change very quickly throughout the Web community. And for the most part we’ve all received that some of the things we learn today can be out-of-date tomorrow, but that’s the nature of our industry.

HTML 5 introduces a complete set of new fundamentals that make it much easier to structure pages. Most HTML 4 pages contain a variety of common structures, such as headers, footers and columns. it is fairly common to mark them up using div elements, giving each a descriptive id or class.

To give authors more flexibility, and allow more interactive and exciting websites and applications, HTML 5 introduces and enhances a wide range of features including form controls, APIs, multimedia, structure, and semantics. Now on blogging chatter surrounding the “new hotness” that’s HTML5. Its coming and we should know everything about it before it’s become old news.

ASP.NET has been planned to work flawlessly with HTML editors and other programming tools, including Microsoft Visual Studio .NET. This makes the process of asp.net easier plus it gives the profit that these tools have. The method of ASP.NET programming becomes further easy. ASP, ASP.NET has been made more object-oriented and structured. And if you have idea about ASP.NET development then you will find it more and more familiar to understand. So the conclusion is ASP.NET programming gives the better control to the site.

The latest product that has created a revolution in the market is iPad. A neat look, smooth and sophisticated tablet looks like an absolute gem of a device. Its ultimate features like the 9.7-inch fully touch sensitive screen, virtual keyboard, multimedia, wide screen and visually appealing graphics can create a browsing experience that’s outstanding.

There are plenty of features that make for a sure success:

• Multitasking
• High-resolution screen
• Battery back up capability
• Contacts applications are quicker and easier
• High resolution Camera
• High-Definition Prowess
• Easy to see and navigate
• e-Magazine Reader

iPad Application development is yet another feature that is sure to make a vast difference in how the iPad performs. The big Advantage of ipad is it can easily run iPhone and iPod applications. iPad Application development can bring in a complete new set of features that can make your iPad comfortable and more functional that before.

There are various options for iPad Application development

You can get applications for:

• Movies & Music
• Finance
• Sports
• Business
• Messaging
• Business
• Messaging
• Social Networking
• Education
• Entertainment
• Navigation and Maps
• Books & Directories

iPad Application Development is similar to  iPhone but the big different is it’s carrying out  the features. iPad application can be used to fulfill the fundamentals in a variety of fields such as business,  web, email, entertainment, connectivity, games, eBooks, publishing, videos, etc.

The main thing is that there is no doubt about that iPad has changed the way people have been using the laptop, computer and even the mobile devices, It has created a complete new variety of devices where it stands alone as a champion.

Fusion Informatics Pvt.Ltd – a leading iPad Application development firm present worth and cost effective iPad application development, iPhone/iPad web apps development services across the world.

You can pinch-to-zoom on images and type using the touch screen. Plus, the web browser will support tabs, multi-touch navigation, including the photo viewer and the browser. users can now also switch between multiple pages of application icons.

All these changes should give BlackBerry devices a much better grip on plain old HTML pages – especially in conjunction with multitouch. Good news for digital editions and any kind of visual content.

The new OS 6.0 brings a cleaner and more visual interface, which offers a “web 2.0” look, especially in BlackBerry’s e-mail client.

As we know iPhone has brought about a new flourish in the market, the vogue for this device is growing by the hour, the demand in the market are on the climb, our iPhone application are very useful and our application will provide some functionality by that users can save theirs time and resources and users will also feel some enjoyable experience. If you also want to experience such things keep an eye on latest iPhone updates.

As we know iPhone and the iPod application development have revolutionized the way consumers experience mobile media. There are 60 million users under your own steam around with iPhones and iPod devices in their hands. This massive user base requires the best apps to make their lives easier. We build such relations by developing amazingly useful Offshore iPhone applications as well as iPod touch applications development.

As we know that Android is a product of Open phone pact which allows Android application Developers to build applications using Java programming language. Also the rich audio / video support available in this platform has taken Android application development to the next level.

Android Development Talk attempts to bring the latest news and updates in Android developmentand promise to be a helpful supply for all Android developers and users.

We have skilled and vastly expert ipad application developers to fulfill all the needs of our world wide potential client. Our specialist ipad apps developer team who has successfully made the iphone applications for new features in Apple iPad Tablet.

iPad application developer team is ready to achieve any challenges from various ipad application development projects. We have following spectrum:

• iPad Game Development
• iPad Books Development
• iPad Social Networking Application Integration & Development
• Offshore Custom iPad Applications Development
• Offshore iPhone Apps Development
• Apple iPad games development

iPad application development is a modern and well multi featured device that allow us to browsing the internet, sending and reading emails, playing games, watching videos, map-based navigation, enjoying photos, listening music, reading e-books and much more.

If you are looking for high quality and cost effective iPad application solution then you are in right place. Fusion Informatics Pvt.Ltd is well known and trusted organization, provides 99.98% accuracy in iPad application programming services.

Over 1 million people now have an Apple iPad, and that means the full range of experience it offers are being explore. In the fields of art and music, the iPad is opening up new opportunity to be creative.

While some people aren’t convinced at the worth of touch screen tablets, many of us see the nonstop possibilities this new form factor brings us. Bigger than a smart Phone, more portable than a laptop, more entertaining than almost any other gadget.

At this point analysts predict that android may overtake iPone and become second most popular Smartphone stands, and Nokia’s Symbian OS, are popular outside US. As market research iPhone would remain in 3rd place and blackberry could fall from 2nd to 5th place and window mobile would remain in 4th place.

Now with all this thrill behind Android application development fusion informatics offer wide range of android application development services our android apps developers have experience to develop a custom android application for you, our android apps develop broad mobile application development and world best java background with lots of various rang.

Twitter has announced the release of a set of business tools for corporate users. The tools are currently being tested by selected users but will be available to all in the near future.

Microsoft will challenge Google’s dominance of the web apps domain with the release of its Microsoft Office 2010 productivity suite.

Matousec.com have discovered a serious flaw in Windows’ security software that leaves it vulnerable to an ‘argument-switch-attack’.

UK-based charity DePaul and advertising firm Publicis have released the iHobo application for the iPhone, allowing users to download a homeless person onto their iPhone.

Resource:

http://www.itproportal.com/portal/news/article/2010/5/11/news5-twitter-microsoft-and-iphone/

According to MacWorld Australia, an individual claming to have reliable Apple intel says that an update to the thinnest Apple portable could be on the way. The source says that a new product number recently surfaced in an internal Apple database, sparking an expected curiosity. However, although the listed product number (MC516LL/A K87 BETTER BTR-USA) does not explicitly outline that an updated Air is on the way, the source believes that low supply levels means that a refreshed MacBook Air is in the cards..

Apple first announced the MacBook Air at Macworld Expo in 2008. Since then the portable has seen a small number of revisions – The last of these was made available during the summer of 2009. So with an update long overdue, what would an updated MacBook Air offer? Electronista speculates that an updated MacBook Air could include RAM upgrades, new low-voltage Core i5 or i7 processors, new SSD options, and an upgraded graphics chipset.

MacBook Air’s Future?

But if an update to the MacBook Air is on the way, a more pressing question needs to be asked: How many people still care about the Air? Back in 2008 a Apple’s ultra-thin laptop,was something of a desirable product for those looking for a lightweight mobile companion. But now in a world where smartphones are commonplace, netbook growth appears to be cooling off, and the tablet is starting to catch on, does the MacBook Air still have a place in the market? I find it hard to see where the MacBook Air is going, and beyond a massive price cut, Apple can do very little to make the slimline laptop attractive to the masses.

Do you have a MacBook Air? Would you like to see an upgrade to the slim laptop? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!

Resource:

http://www.pcworld.com/article/195946/macbook_air_updates_may_be_on_the_waybut_does_anyone_still_care.html

The work is part of a deepening relationship between the largest U.S. wireless carrier by subscribers and Google, which has carved out a space in mobile devices with its Android operating system. Verizon Wireless last year heavily promoted the Motorola Droid, which runs Google’s software.

“What do we think the next big wave of opportunities are?” Mr. McAdam said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. “We’re working on tablets together, for example. We’re looking at all the things Google has in its archives that we could put on a tablet to make it a great experience.”

Verizon Wireless declined to discuss details on the timing or the manufacturer of a such a tablet. Google’s role in the tablet wasn’t immediately clear, though Mr. McAdam mentioned it in the context of the discussions the two companies have about bringing new smartphones to market.

A Google spokesman declined to comment on the Verizon tablet, but said anyone can use the company’s mobile software to create phones and other devices.

Google has said it is working with hardware makers and carriers to create lightweight computers that run its software. As rivals such as Apple Inc. introduce tablets like the iPad, the Internet giant is seeking to spur the adoption of its online software and advertising system through its own partnerships.

The wireless business is still largely about phones. But devices such as tablet computers, netbooks and e-readers are a fast-growing, if tiny, part of carriers’ operations.

Consumers are increasingly interested in wireless devices that can surf the Internet or run software applications, and carriers are trying to tap that interest to offset falling revenue from phone calls.

Mr. McAdam acknowledged that Verizon has some catching up to do in the field. AT&T is the carrier for Amazon.com Inc.’s popular Kindle and the new iPad.

“They were able to get out of the box faster,” Mr. McAdam said. Verizon has been handicapped by its CDMA network technology, less common than AT&T’s GSM, but the executive said his company will have devices ready to show early next year once its new network is in place.

That new network promises much higher speeds for transferring video, for example. Verizon says it will be running in 25 to 30 cities by the end of the year.

The new network will likely bring a shift from current unlimited-use pricing plans.

“The old model of one price plan per device is going to fall away,” Mr. McAdam said, adding that he expects carriers to take an approach that targets a “bucket of megabytes.”

With multiple devices, customers are likely to end up paying more for connecting their gadgets to the next-generation network than they do today, he said. “It’s not out of the question,” he said.

Resource:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704250104575238680540806288.html

When users search for a place on Google Maps, whether it’s a specific address, cross-street, or restaurant name, there’s a new button called “share this place” that posts the location info to Google Buzz, Facebook, Twitter, or via e-mail or SMS. Users can also send a snapshot of Google Maps indicating their current location. Google is stepping up to the new trend of location-sharing, in a way that’s simple and appealing to users who no longer have to download a third-party app to do the same thing. Additionally, the update adds biking directions to the list of driving, walking, and public transit info. Biking directions are similar to walking directions but it also includes topography information and calculates routes with specialized bike lanes where applicable. And finally, Google has pulled out its “Navigation” (GPS directions) feature from Google Maps and turned it into its own app. The new Navigation app lets users create “starred” destinations, allows them to easily get directions to contacts stored in the phone, and offers a voice command option to speak the address or name of the destination.

Resource:

http://www.tgdaily.com/mobility-brief/49730-google-maps-android-update-adds-location-sharing-bike-routes

Apple has confirmed that it will issue a software patch to resolve ongoing issues with Wi-Fi connectivity on the iPad. Hundreds of iPad owners in the United States have complained about weak Wi-Fi signals and dropped connections, and reported that the iPad sometimes refuses to automatically rejoin authorised networks.

Apple said that the problems affected “a very small number of iPad users”, but has pledged to issue a software update to deal with the problem, although a release date has not yet been given.

In the meantime, Apple has updated a support article, suggesting that iPad users who are experiencing Wi-Fi issues update the firmware on their router, switch to WPA or WPA2 encryption, or try renewing their IP address.

Meanwhile, Steve Jobs, Apple’s chief executive, is “fully operational” and “working at full tilt” just a year after a life-saving liver transplant, according to Business Week.

“Except for the fact that he’s lost a lot of weight, he’s the Steve Jobs of old,” Tim Bajarin, technology consultant and respected Apple-watcher, told the magazine. “At the visionary level, technology and design level, he seems to be working at the same level as he was before he was sick. If I was an investor, I’d be thrilled.”

Jobs was absent from Apple for much of last year. In January 2009, he announced that he would be taking time off to recover from a “hormone imbalance” that was “robbing” of the proteins needed to stay healthy. But it emerged last March that he had undergone a liver transplant in Memphis.

Jobs made his first public appearance since the operation last September, to unveil the new iPod line-up. He has since gone on to launch the iPad, which will be available in the UK on May 28, and has already sold more than a million units in the United States.

Resource:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/apple/7713936/Apple-to-issue-iPad-fix.html

According to data gathered by NPD Group, Android phones are now the second most popular handsets behind Research in Motion’s BlackBerry range. RIM’s devices accounted for 36 per cent of the US smartphone market in the first quarter of this year, says NPD Group, followed by Android-based phones with 28 per cent, and Apple’s iPhone with 21 per cent.

However, experts have pointed out that there are more than 30 phones available in the United State that run Android, the open-source mobile operating system backed by Google and a consortium of partners in the Open Handset Alliance. These include handsets from Motorola, HTC and Samsung.

By contrast, Apple’s current iPhone, the iPhone 3GS, is believed to be coming to the end of its life cycle, with Apple poised to unveil the so-called iPhone 4G at the Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco next month. Apple said it had sold more than 50 million iPhones worldwide since the device first went on sale in July 2007.

Mobile devices are a key battleground for consumer electronics companies, with many traditional “computer” manufacturers diversifying in to the market. HP recently acquired Palm, while Dell is launching a range of Android-based handsets.

“As in the past, carrier distribution and promotion have played a crucial role in determining smartphone market share,” said Ross Rubin, executive director of industry analysis for NPD.

“Recent previews of BlackBerry 6, the recently announced acquisition of Palm by HP, and the pending release of Windows Phone 7 demonstrates the industry’s willingness to make investments to address consumer demand for smartphones and other mobile devices. Carriers continue to offer attractive pricing for devices, but will need to present other data-plan options to attract more customers in the future.”

Resource:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/mobile-phones/7711113/Android-phones-outsell-iPhone.html

A storefront in one of the busiest shopping districts in downtown Portland, Ore., is painted black, with “Droid Does” in large letters over the doors.

Orchestrated by carrier Verizon Wireless, aggressive promotions such as this one for Motorola’s (MOT) Droid smartphone, plus a blitz of direct mail, newspaper, and TV ads, and two-for-one deals on Android-powered handsets, lifted first-quarter sales of smartphones based on Google’s (GOOG) Android operating system above sales of Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone for the first time, market researcher NPD Group reported on May 10.

Android-powered phones accounted for 28 percent of all smartphones sold in the U.S., exceeding Apple’s 21 percent share during the quarter, NPD said. Research in Motion’s (RIMM) BlackBerry models led the category with a 36 percent share.

Leapfrogging Apple is an important milestone—and not just for Android, an open-source software developed by a consortium of companies led by Google. NPD’s report also shows how quickly Verizon Wireless has become a central player in the fast-growing market for the pocket computers known as smartphones. In the first quarter, Verizon customers bought 30 percent of all smartphones sold in the U.S., nearly equaling the 32 percent share of AT&T (T), which has an exclusive contract to sell the iPhone, according to the report. AT&T also sells an Android handset from Motorola and plans to carry an upcoming Android smartphone from Dell (DELL).

Verizon no longer seen as desperate

Until recently, Verizon was an also-ran in the smartphone market. It carried the BlackBerry, but didn’t have a breakthrough consumer-oriented smartphone to compete with the iPhone. Analysts were calling for Verizon to strike a deal with Apple to distribute the iPhone. Last December, Verizon said it had effected network upgrades that would enable its network to handle extra traffic should Apple decide to expand the number of carriers authorized to sell iPhones.

Last November’s launch of the Android-powered Droid improved Verizon’s fortunes in the smartphone market. The Droid, with its sleek design and ability to run many downloadable apps—and backed by a highly visible marketing campaign—is helping Verizon catch up. In the past several months, Verizon Wireless has proven that if it does get the iPhone, “it won’t be out of some pressing need,” says Tavis McCourt, an analyst at Morgan Keegan & Co. (RF), who has an “outperform” rating on Apple shares.

Rising shipments of Android phones could also spur developers to create additional apps for the platform. “Market share is a contributing factor to which operating system developers want to support,” says Ross Rubin, executive director of industry analysis at NPD. On Apr. 15, the Android Market app store carried 38,000 applications such as games, calendars, and e-books. Apple’s App Store has more than 200,000 apps, the company says.

Android taking share from most

The smartphone market is experiencing a flurry of activity. Apple is expected to introduce a new version of the iPhone this summer. Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) on Apr. 28 announced it would buy Palm (PALM) for $1.2 billion. And Microsoft (MSFT) is expected to release a new smartphone operating system called Windows Phone 7 in the second half of the year. NPD analyst Rubin says consumers aren’t likely to hold off on buying iPhones in anticipation of the new model. “We don’t tend to see a lot of purchase delay,” he says.

In the third quarter of 2009, Android phones claimed only 3 percent of the U.S. smartphone market. In the first quarter, Android phones have taken market share away from Apple, RIM, Microsoft, and Palm, according to NPD. RIM’s unit share of U.S. smartphone sales slipped a bit from 37 percent in the fourth quarter, when the Droid and several other Android phones went on sale, to 36 percent in the first quarter, according to NPD. Microsoft Windows’ share dropped from 13 percent in the fourth quarter, to 10 percent in the first quarter.

Verizon’s Android line up includes Motorola Droid and Devour phones, plus the new Droid Incredible from HTC. “There’s no question Apple’s done a great job with the iPhone,” Verizon Chief Financial Officer John Killian said during the company’s first-quarter call with investors on Apr. 22. “But look at our results.”

Resource:

http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/may2010/tc20100510_027179.htm

Telstra and Optus revealed generous, pay-as-you-go internet plans for the Apple iPad this week that cut the price of mobile internet use by more than 90 per cent.

The announcements came before Apple began accepting pre-orders for the delayed and highly anticipated tablet computer yesterday.

Telstra’s iPad plans cut the price of mobile internet by as much as 92 per cent, while Optus bettered Telstra’s bid by offering twice the data allowance for the same price.

Under the iPad plans, 2GB of mobile downloads will cost as little as $20.

By comparison, Telstra currently offers a 1GB mobile phone internet pack for $39.

Also, both companies are offering iPad internet access on pay-as-you-go plans rather than in a 12 or 24-month contract.

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The price cuts mean using an Apple iPad (priced from $629 to $1049) will be cheaper than using the smaller Apple iPhone.

Gartner research director Robin Simpson said he was surprised and mystified at the “aggressive pricing” from both leading phone carriers, but said it could be an attempt to be associated with Apple and the iPad.

“There’s no doubt it will be another iconic device like the iPhone, so maybe the thinking is that they’d like to have their brand associated with such a successful product and it’s simply a marketing exercise,” Mr Simpson said.

“Also, because it’s a data-only product, and has no voice component, this will represent getting new subscribers that they can report to their shareholders.”

While users will not be able to use the smaller Apple iPad SIM cards in other gadgets, Mr Simpson said the discounted internet plans could trickle down for use with other gadgets such as phones and laptop connections.

“It should put some downward pressure on other mobile internet plans and it certainly represents a good deal if you’re in the market for a mobile internet plan,” he said.

An Optus spokeswoman said the company would reveal more details of its iPad data plans this week, and Vodafone Hutchison spokeswoman Tess Mion said Vodafone and 3 Mobile would reveal iPad internet plans “soon”.

Apple has sold more than a million iPads since its April 3 US launch and will launch wi-fi and 3G models of the touchscreen tablet computer in Australia on May 28.

Resource:

http://www.news.com.au/technology/ipad-could-spark-mobile-net-price-war/story-e6frfro0-1225864843995

The SDK is an invitation to software developers to start building applications for the Bada OS before the release of Samsung’s flagship phone, the Samsung Wave.

Revealed on the Bada Developers blog, the SDK will come with APIs, compilers, debuggers, important codes and several tutorials and documents that give a step by step break down on how to start developing for the platform.

Samsung has not yet given details on the revenue sharing deal it will have with developers but many tech pundits believe that they will be offering around 70 per cent of the revenue gained per development.

The Bada OS will thrust Samsung into the middle of the smartphone war, currently dominated by Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android based smartphones.

Samsung, which has struggled with sales ever since the iPhone entered the market, is also the member of the Wholesale Application Community and has phones based on both Android and Symbian OS.

Developers can download the first version of the Bada SDK by registering themselves on the Bada Developers website.

Resource:

http://www.itproportal.com/portal/news/article/2010/5/10/samsung-bada-gets-first-sdk/

There are a variety of tablet-like computing devices in the works. But, assuming that the hardware form factor is similar to the deceased HP Slate, but with WebOS as the platform–here are five reasons that the HP Hurricane tablet will make a formidable competitor for the Apple iPad.

1. Adobe Flash: While Apple continues its public jihad against Adobe Flash–and draws the regulatory scrutiny of the DOJ and the GTC–other platforms such as Android and WebOS are working with Adobe to develop Flash software compatible with their mobile platforms. HTML5 may be the future, but there is no denying that Adobe Flash is a ubiquitous standard regardless of any flaws it might have–real or perceived.
2. Dual Cameras A tablet device may be a tad bulky or cumbersome to use for taking snapshots, but the option would certainly come in handy. Granted, I can take a picture with my smartphone instead–and through some convoluted combination of tasks manage to get them to the iPad so I can draw moustaches on the photos with Adobe Ideas (see- Apple didn’t ban everything Adobe makes from the iPad).

   More importantly for mobile business professionals, a front-facing camera allows the tablet to be used for Skype video calls, and other face-to-face video conferencing solutions.

3. Expandability The iPad is intentionally a closed environment. The lack of USB ports or SD memory card slots fits with the basic culture of the iPad as a Web-enabled mobile media platform, but business professionals need to be able to simply plug in a USB thumb drive and read or copy files.

   While not explicitly prescribed, the iPad camera connection kit apparently offers an alternative to enable some USB capabilities, but an HP Hurricane with a USB port and/or SD memory card slot would be a huge advantage.

4. Distribution channels. Then we get down to the nitty gritty. Forget the features of the hardware or the capabilities of the platform. An HP Hurricane tablet can crush an Apple iPad just by virtue of HP’s massive global enterprise distribution channels. HP has an existing vendor relationship with most major corporations. As long as HP can demonstrate the benefits and value of the Hurricane tablet it will be able to leverage those relationships to distribute the device en masse.
5. HP brand Apple has its dedicated and loyal following. I wouldn’t dare imply that HP has anywhere near the dedication from its customers. But, as the largest computer manufacturer in the world it does have a respected reputation–especially in the business world where Apple often struggles.

   I think it was a wise decision by HP to shift gears from the Windows 7-based Slate to the WebOS-based Hurricane. The tablet–at least the way Apple has envisioned it with the iPad–is a culture shift, not just a new form factor.

   HP is in a strong position, though, to combine its brand prowess and understanding of the needs of mobile business professionals, with the WebOS platform, and lessons learned from the iPad, and create a tablet device capable of challenging the iPad, and with an edge on the iPad when it comes to the business professional audience.

Resource:

http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/195993/five_reasons_hp_hurricane_can_compete_with_ipad.html

But Google’s success in becoming a leading mobile software player was tempered by the news on Monday that Google lost a key partner in a related effort to redefine the cell phone industry by selling phones directly to consumers through its website.

A Sprint representative said on Monday the company would no longer support the Nexus One, the sleek touchscreen smartphone developed by Google and HTC and sold directly on the Google website.

Smartphones featuring Google’s Android operating system accounted for 28 percent of U.S. smartphone unit sales in the first quarter, according to NPD Group, behind top-ranked Research in Motion Ltd, maker of the Blackberry phone, which had a 36 percent share of the market.

Smartphones, which allow consumers to surf the Web, send email and run specialized applications on wide, color screens, are increasingly replacing no-frills cell phones for many U.S. consumers.

The devices have become a prime battleground for a variety of technology companies seeking to ensure a good position in the evolving market.

Last month, Hewlett-Packard Co said it would pay $1.2 billion to acquire Palm Inc, which sells two smartphone models based on its WebOS operating system. Microsoft Corp, whose Windows operating system is used in the majority of the world’s PCs, unveiled a pair of smartphones last month and recently launched a revamped version of its mobile operating system.

Apple has sold more than 51 million iPhones since it launched the device to wide acclaim in 2007 and the company says more than 200,000 apps are available for the phone.

In the first quarter, Apple’s iPhone, which is available exclusively on the AT&T wireless network in the United States, dropped to third place as its share of the smartphone operating system market remained flat quarter-over-quarter at 21 percent.

Unlike Apple, Google offers its Android software to other phone-makers. In April, Google said a dozen vendors currently offer 34 different devices that feature the Android software.

NPD analyst Ross Rubin said the strong showing of Android phones during the first quarter owed to promotions by Verizon Wireless, which he said has expanded its buy-one-get-one offer. Verizon Wireless is a venture of Verizon Communications Inc and Vodafone Group Plc.

“As in the past, carrier distribution and promotion have played a crucial role in determining smartphone market share,” Rubin said in a statement.

While the Android operating system is gaining momentum in the market, Google has had less luck with its Nexus One phone, the Android-based device it designed in close collaboration with HTC. Google sells directly to consumers from its website.

Sprint said the Nexus One would not be available on its wireless network because of the upcoming availability of the HTC EVO 4G phone, which also runs Google’s Android software and is compatible with the next-generation high-speed networks Sprint offers in certain markets.

Sprint’s decision to drop support for the Nexus One comes a few weeks after Google acknowledged a version of the phone that runs on the Verizon Wireless network was being scrapped. Google initially promised a version of the Nexus One for Verizon Wireless in the Spring.

In a report earlier this year, analytics firm Flurry estimated Google sold roughly 135,000 Nexus One phones in its first 74 days on the market, compared with the 1 million iPhones Apple sold in the same time frame when it released the device in 2007.

Resource:
Yahoo News

Android-powered smartphones accounted for 28 percent of US consumer sales in the first three months of the year compared with 21 percent for the iPhone, NPD said.

Canada’s Research in Motion, maker of the popular Blackberry, retained the top spot with 36 percent of US smartphone sales in the quarter, NPD said.

Strong sales of Motorola’s Android-powered Droid and HTC’s Android-based Droid Eris were cited as among the reasons for Android’s surge past Apple.

Google makes its open-source Android software available to handset manufacturers and also sells its own smartphone, the Nexus One.

“As in the past, carrier distribution and promotion have played a crucial role in determining smartphone market share,” said Ross Rubin, NPD’s executive director of industry analysis.

According to NPD, smartphone sales at AT&T, the exclusive US carrier for the iPhone, comprised 32 percent of the smartphone market in the quarter, followed by Verizon Wireless (30 percent), T-Mobile (17 percent) and Sprint (15 percent).

NPD also said the average selling price for all mobile phones was 88 dollars in the first quarter, five percent higher than a year ago. Smartphone prices on the other hand decreased three percent over the previous year to 151 dollars.

The NPD findings are based on the results of online consumer research surveys conducted each month. The sales figures do not include corporate or enterprise mobile phone sales.

Apple has sold more than 50 million iPhones since introducing the device in 2007.

Resource:
Yahoo News

Engadget dug into the court documents and on Monday confirmed that Apple and AT&T’s deal was intended to last until 2012, although the blog noted that the two companies may have renegotiated the deal since then, so it may not still be in effect.

USA Today broke the news of the five-year exclusivity deal prior to the iPhone’s launch in May 2007, but the report was never confirmed and no one paid much attention to it. But as reported by Engadget, Apple and AT&T were targeted in a 2007 class action in part for not revealing the length of their exclusivity deal.

In defending itself, Apple cited the USA Today report as evidence that the five-year exclusivity deal was public knowledge, according to Engadget.

No one knows if the original exclusivity deal is still in effect, and it’s definitely possible that Apple, in the meantime, has grown tired of the constant drumbeat of negativity surrounding AT&T’s iPhone service and negotiated a change of terms.

Meanwhile, Verizon (NYSE:VZ) CEO Ivan Seidenberg hasn’t been shy about his desire to add the iPhone to his smartphone roster. At a conference in New York last month, Seidenberg almost sounded like he was actually campaigning for Apple to grant Verizon such an honor.

“We’re open to getting the device,” Seidenberg said at the conference. “Our network is capable of handling it.”

There has been plenty of other speculation about AT&T maneuvering to maintain its iPhone exclusivity. Last week, Brian Marshall, an analyst at BroadPoint AmTech told Computerworld he believes AT&T cut a deal with Apple to offer deeply discounted iPad data plans in exchange for a six-month extension of iPhone exclusivity.

AT&T isn’t requiring a service contract with the 3G iPad, a puzzling move given the early runway sales of the device. The iPad isn’t designed for voice, but it would seem that AT&T would be trying to maximize its profit on data plans for the device.

For now, only Apple and AT&T know whether their original five-year iPhone exclusivity deal is still in effect, although countless frustrated iPhone subscribers are hoping upon hope that it’s not.

Resource:

http://www.crn.com/mobile/224701464

Steam, for the uninitiated, is essentially an iTunes Store for games, except with more socializing and actual demos of many games (*ahem*, Apple). It’s the creation of game developer Valve, the company behind games like Team Fortress, Left for Dead, and one of gaming’s most beloved and legendary series: Half Life. Over the years, Steam has become the go-to place for Windows gamers to shop for and try out everything from blockbuster releases to indie hits, find new friends to frag with, and stay up to date with the latest patches. A Steam buddy list lets you see which of your friends are online, what games they’re playing, as well as invite friends into your game or quickly join them on a campaign already in progress—all with a click or two.

Fortunately, Valve spared no expense in bringing Steam to the Mac. This isn’t some duct-taped Java port that limps along with a fraction of its Windows counterpart’s features. Valve used native Cocoa tools, even going so far as to re-engineer the Steam client and store on Windows to use Apple’s WebKit rendering engine—which, in turn, was one of the original hints that a Mac version was in the works.

Steam for Mac is very much a doppelgänger of the Windows version, so some elements certainly don’t feel very Mac-like. The navigation toolbar, for example, contains large text links for things like the Steam Store and your Library, instead of colorful, intuitive icons like Apple and third-party Mac developers favor (this navigation design actually feels heavily inspired by Microsoft’s Zune). If you’ve used Steam before, however, you’ll feel right at home. As a long-time Windows gamer via Boot Camp, there was no learning curve; I instantly started adjusting options for microphone input and downloading my library.

In fact, Valve even brought its Steam Cloud feature to the Mac client. This is a useful service of the Steam APIs that allows developers to synchronize your game settings between each of the computers on which you install your games. If games are compatible with Steam Cloud (Portal and Team Fortress 2 are), your settings will synchronize between the Mac and Windows versions. Customize a game’s default keyboard shortcuts, for example, and they get synced back up to your Steam account, then back down to any other computers (Mac or PC) that you install the game on.

Just like installing Steam on a new Windows computer, the Mac client allows users to see the full library of games that they’ve purchased from the store. Since Steam allows users to load their games on an unlimited number of computers, I could begin installing my games with just two clicks. The music, TV, and film industries could learn a lot from this very appreciated 21st-century convenience.

As Steam for Mac is still in private beta, only two Valve games are currently available: Portal and Team Fortress 2. Now, Valve has promised that more (and more recent) games like Left 4 Dead 2 will be available soon after the beta goes public, and the upcoming Portal 2 sequel will arrive simultaneously on both Mac and PC this fall. The company has also said that third parties are working hard on bringing their titles to the Mac. So far, Ruinic, a company of ex-Blizzard employees, announced its Diablo-esque Torchlight is coming (though its level editor probably isn’t), and Tripwire has announced it’s working on a couple titles.

As far as the games available in the private beta now are concern, I’m happy to report that Portal and Team Fortress 2 feel right at home on the Mac. Admittedly, I got a slight chill the first time I started Portal: no Windows, no emulators, no tricks—just one of the greatest games in recent memory, running natively on my 27-inch 2.66GHz iMac. Startup took a little longer than I’d like, but again it’s a beta, so I’ll reserve judgement until Valve drops that label. But the game itself runs well, and I noticed no stuttering, even after bumping my resolution up from the default to 1600 by 1200.

The Steam for Mac beta is expected to go public on May 12. The client itself is free, and Mac versions of PC games will cost the same as their counterparts. In fact, Valve has created a new Steam Play license and badge in the store to denote games for which you can purchase one license and run the game on both Mac and Windows computers. If you have already purchased Portal, Team Fortress 2, Half Life 2, or Left for Dead 2 on a Windows PC (sorry, Xbox 360 or PS3 owners), you won’t have to spend another dime to play them on your Mac.

Given Steam’s beta status, there’s little else to report for now. Portal ran well, and I’m anticipating Steam going official and the arrival of more games. The only reason I’ve bought Windows XP, Vista, and 7 licenses since switching to the Mac is so that I can play the games I love. But those days might finally—finally—be coming to an end. Considering how well Valve has done with this initial beta of Steam for Mac, those days can’t end soon enough.

Resource:
Yahoo News

The smallest independent mobile network operator in the UK is the only one in the business to sell a “starter kit”, one which offers a USB modem pre-loaded with data that can last for a significant amount of time.

For example, you can get a 12GB pack, which is basically 12 months at 1GB, for a mere £80 from Argos, Maplin and Very (part of Littlewoods), a price that includes a 3G modem that can be used as a memory stick and the knowledge that you won’t need to sign for an expensive contract.

What’s more, Very has a “£30 off £60″ promotional code (ZZ450), valid for first time customers, that brings the price of the dongle to a mere £49 excluding delivery.

Get two for £128 and type XV188 in the code section at checkout to delay the payment till May 2011.

Therefore, you get 24 months worth of 1GB broadband for £128 at £5.33 a month; that’s roughly half what you’d pay at O2 for the same data allowance although you get unlimited WiFi from the latter.

That said, you won’t be charged extra if you go over the 1GB limit per month and you can carry forward anything what you haven’t consumed in the past month; just bear in mind that there’s a one-year limit on the package.

Resource:

http://www.itproportal.com/portal/news/article/2010/5/10/forget-o2-vodafone-3-uk-offers-best-ipad-data-plan/

According to figures that NPD released Monday, handhelds running on the BlackBerry OS still rule the roost, accounting for 38 percent of the U.S. smartphone market. In second place with a bullet: Android, which snagged 28 percent of the national smartphone market last quarter, leapfrogging the iPhone and its 21 percent share.

Come again?

NPD’s numbers are estimates based on customer surveys — so yes, if you wanted to question the figures, there’s certainly room to do so.

Another important point: Even assuming Android handsets did manage to outsell the iPhone last quarter, Android still has a way to go before it can overtake the iPhone in terms of overall users. A recent ComScore survey found that as of February, the Phone had 25.4 percent of the U.S. smartphone market, versus 3.8 percent for Android. (RIM is way ahead of everyone else — at 40.8 percent, according to ComScore.)

Still, NPD’s first-quarter numbers are eye-openers. Analyst Ross Rubin says “carrier distribution and promotion have played a crucial role” in market share. And indeed, while the iPhone continues to be a hit for AT&T, you can now buy several different Android handsets from any of the big U.S. carriers, while Verizon Wireless has been giving Android phones like the Motorola Droid and the HTC Droid Eris the full-court press.

The news bolsters the feeling that Google’s Android OS is on a roll right now, although I’m curious to see whether other wireless analysts fall in line with the NPD’s conclusions — as well as whether Android keeps its head of steam through the second quarter and beyond.

Resource:
Yahoo News

A spokesperson for the company told the Inquirer that the Archos 8 will be coming out this year, very soon after the release of the 7.

The device is set to have an 8-inch screen capable of showing 800×480 pixels, be less than a half-inch thick, weigh 400g and come with 4GB internal storage.

It is not yet known whether there will be expansion slots like a USB port or a card reader.

According to French website ArchosLounge, the Archos 8 will be part of Archos’s new lineup consisting of six tablets with a screen size ranging from 3-inches to 10-inches.

The device will be priced significantly cheaper than its competition, Apple’s iPad, with the cheapest costing $100 and the most expensive $350.

A prospective Archos 10 is likely to have an ARM Cortex 1GHz, Multitouch and 3G Open GL capabilities.

Given that we already know there are 3, 7, 8 and 10-inch tablets, we are left with only one remaining unknown model. As for the Archos 8 Tablet, it should be with us within the next few months.

Resource:

http://www.itproportal.com/portal/news/article/2010/5/10/archos-preparing-new-archos-8-tablet/

In the new Android handsets accounted for 28 per cent of the market, beating Apple’s 21 per cent but still below market leader Research in Motion (RIM), which holds 36 per cent. NPD attributes the increase to the number of vendors using the operating system, marketing campaigns and new investment in the sector.

“Recent previews of BlackBerry 6, the recently announced acquisition of Palm by HP, and the pending release of Windows Phone 7 demonstrates the industry’s willingness to make investments to address consumer demand for smartphones and other mobile devices,” said Ross Rubin, executive director of industry analysis for NPD.

“Carriers continue to offer attractive pricing for devices, but will need to present other data-plan options to attract more customers in the future.”

Of the major carriers AT&T had the largest slice of the smartphone market, with almost a third of its customers using advanced handsets. Verizon’s share stands at 30 per cent, with T-Mobile and Sprint at 17 and 15 per cent respectively.

Android may have problems in the future however. Apple is widely expected to unveil a new generation of iPhone next month and, if the leaks are accurate, it could well prove to be a huge hit.

Resource:

http://www.v3.co.uk/v3/news/2262773/android-handsets-outsell-iphone

Sales for iPhone on the rise, but Android OS tops in share

Apple’s share in the smartphone market continues to rise, as the iPhone maker now ranks third in the world in terms of sales, according to first-quarter data released recently by IDC. The iPhone’s share rose 5.2 percent, hitting 16.1 percent for the first quarter compared to the same time last year. The world’s top smartphone maker remains Nokia, even though the Finnish carrier has minimal influence in the U.S. It hopes to change that with the recently announced Nokia N8, which is getting mixed reviews while offering Apple-like controversy. Research in Motion’s BlackBerry line-up is second in terms of hardware sales.

But the story is different when it comes to share of operating systems in the U.S. BlackBerry is on top, but the Android operating system moved into second place in the first quarter, according to data released Monday by NPD Group. Here are the top three smartphone operating systems, in terms of first-quarter 2010 market share:

1. RIM — 36 percent
2. Android — 28 percent
3. Apple — 21 percent

Android’s rapid growth can largely be attributed to the fact that the OS is now available on phones at all four major U.S. wireless carriers. Meanwhile, the iPhone remains available only through AT&T. Yet AT&T’s footprint, thanks to the iPhone, is substantial. According to NPD’s press release, smartphone sales at AT&T comprised nearly a third of the entire U.S. smartphone market (32 percent), followed by Verizon Wireless (30 percent), T-Mobile (17 percent) and Sprint (15 percent).

Mouse, meet iPad. You don’t have to be pals

People, if you keep adding accessories to your iPad, why did you buy it? Yes, there are times when having a keyboard attachment could be useful, but it raises the question of why. Such as, why do you want to use your iPad like a laptop when it was designed to be operated with your fingers? Now comes word that you can use Apple’s Magic Mouse to control the iPad. Again, why do this?

Adding tools to control the iPad is completely missing the point. If you’re the first kid on the block to figure out how to use a mouse with your iPad, good for you. You’ve earned extra credit today in your uber-geek class. But let’s be clear: If you drop $500 for the iPad — and that’s the low-end model, of course — stop adding the accoutrements. You’ll start looking like an Apple fanboy with an uncontrollable habit to buy everything Apple just so you can make it work together.

You want a keyboard with that? Buy a MacBook. You want a mouse, try an iMac. If you love to use your fingers, get an iPad.

Got it?

Can we finally cut the cords?

The Wi-Fi Alliance announced new standards for transmitting data over the air. But the twist here is that these standards pertain mostly to video transfer issues, so that the jumble of cords that sit behind our home entertainment centers could vanish.

It may take two years for these new standards to appear in products, Wi-Fi Alliance marketing director Kelly Davis-Felner told the Associated Press, with Blu-ray players likely the first. The Wi-Fi Alliance has partnered with the WiGig Alliance to promote the standards, and that group is made up of tech heavyweights like Cisco and Intel.

This push could be bad news for start-ups in the field of wirelessly moving HD video files across the house, according to this GigaOm story. Still, the opportunity to seamlessly move high-def video content from devices like the iPad to a television, or from a computer and cable box to the TV, would be a lovely development for geeks and interior decorators.

Resource:

http://www.appolicious.com/finance-aapl/articles/1862-app-industry-roundup-android-overtakes-iphone-in-key-measure

Developers desperate to start creating applications for Samsung’s Bada platform can now start coding, though it will be few more weeks before there’s a handset to run them on.

The Software Developer’s Kit version 1 is available from the Bada Developers’ portal, which promises that the Bada-based Wave phone (which should be shipping by the end of the month) will be followed by “successive promising handsets”, and that Bada phones will be available globally later this year.

Bada is Samsung’s answer to Apple’s iPhone/iTunes combination – the platform is entirely owned by Samsung, which will approve and distribute all the applications. That might seem strange given that Samsung also supports both Android and Symbian and is a member of the widget-obsessed Wholesale Application Community, but never let it be said that Samsung left a base uncovered.

The Wave is an attractive enough handset, but at almost £400 it’s priced more like a smartphone than the mid-range feature phones that the Bada platform is supposed to enable applications for.

But the Wave is intended as a flagship phone for Bada, the one that developers use to show off their applications before selling them to punters equipped with lesser handsets.

How much lesser we don’t know, and until Samsung tells us it’s hard to imagine many developers rushing to create applications for a phone that promises all the expense of a smartphone without the features.

Resource:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/05/07/bada_sdk/

The war of words between Apple and Adobe over the former’s resolve to never to let Flash on its devices has taken a new turn now. Apple is all set to launch Gianduia, which is a substitute for Adobe Flash and Microsoft Silverlight platforms, on its mobile devices. Apple had stated earlier that it would rather go for HTML5, JavaScript and CSS. Apple unveiled Gianduia at World of WebObjects Developer Conference, describing it as a client-side, standards-based framework for Rich Internet Apps to create quality online apps for its retail users.

If you think that Gianduia is a new thing, you are in for a surprise as this technology is already in use in its retail support applications such as One to One program, iPhone reservation system and Concierge program for Genius Bar and Personal Shopping reservations.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs had stated his opposition for Flash on Apple devices because it is “a closed system” and that Apple would support only open web standards. He further stated, “We know from painful experience that letting a third-party layer of software come between the platform and the developer ultimately results in substandard apps, and hinders the enhancement and progress of the platform.” Will Gianduia will be a Flash-killer? Only time will tell.

Resource:

http://www.techtree.com/India/News/Apple_Gianduia_to_Substitute_Flash/551-111098-580.html

Much like the open platform Windows invaded the traditionally closed hardware platform of Apple’s Macs — first unofficially, and then later officially condoned — Android is now establishing a beach head on Apple’s coveted iPhone.

Hacker David Wang, better known as “planetbeing” on the internet, made waves a few weeks ago when he showed off a first generation (2G) iPhone that he got running a modified Android OS kernel. Wang is well know in the hacking community for being one of the key contributors to the iPhone 3GS jailbreak. This week he showed off Android running on the iPhone 3G, or the version with the “nasty plastic, easily scratched back”, as Wang puts it.

Wang’s solution is dual booting. You can only run one OS at a time. Wang is using the OpeniBoot tool to manage the multiboot. Rebooting takes a while because the NAND and FTL (flash translation layer) drivers aren’t optimized yet, though Wang feels this will soon change.

Wang had to port UltraSn0w (from the iPhone Dev Team) into OpeniBoot to get the radio working. It starts running during the boot process — this is one of the slowest steps.

Currently almost everything — including Wi-Fi, internet, SMS, and MMS — is working in the Android port. The only thing not working is sound, which is a disappointment as you can’t make or receive phone calls. Don’t worry, though — Wang is promising that he’s make major progress in getting the sound fully working and ready for primetime.

There are now several new developers working on this exciting project. Wang states, “With their help I’m sure we’ll be able to bring the system to production quality before too long.”

Currently the code has not been published, but Wang plans to release a polished version within the next couple days for public consumption. Keep checking Wang’s website here.

Apple surely won’t be happy when they discover what Wang has been up to. It wouldn’t be surprising even, if they try to sue to stop the spread of Android on the iPhone. Apple has already stated that it believes jailbreaking and unlocking the iPhone to be illegal. Ultimately, though, it’s just one more sign that Android is threatening to do to the iPhone’s version of OS X what Windows did to MacOS/OS X on the personal computer.

Resource:

http://www.dailytech.com/Hacker+Brings+Android+to+the+IPhone+3G+IPhone+3GS+Up+Next/article18331.htm

Owners of the 3G iPad in Britain will be able to buy mobile broadband access from Orange on a pay as you go, daily, weekly and monthly basis, the mobile phone network said today.

Prices start at £2 for one day’s 3G access and extend to £25 a month for 10GB of 3G browsing and 750MB of wi-fi usage, through BT Openzone hotspots. Vodafone and O2, who announced last month that they had also signed deals with Apple, are due to set out their pricing plans shortly.

Earlier today, Apple said it will start selling the iPad in the UK on 28 May with prices starting at £429. The cheapest 3G-enabled iPad, which also has wi-fi, will be a 16GB version at £529 including VAT; the 32GB 3G device will be £599 and the 64GB £699.

Orange is launching the device in Britain, France, Spain and Switzerland. In the UK it is offering a pay-as-you-go option that costs 5p per MB. Users of this tariff – which entails registering a credit card with Orange – will be charged a maximum of £40 a month, but can carry on browsing after using £40 worth of capacity (800MB).

Large data users, however, would be better off signing up to one of Orange’s four individual pricing plans, which all require payment up front.

For £2, customers can get a day’s worth of browsing – capped at 200MB. For £7.50, customers can get a week’s worth of browsing – up to 1GB. Beyond those usage caps, browsing is charged at 5p per MB.

There are also two contract options. Both are monthly contracts but can be cancelled at any time. For £15 a month, users get 3GB of 3G access plus up to 750MB of wi-fi browsing through BT Openzone hotspots. For £25 a month, users get 10GB of 3G access and 750MB of wi-fi through BT Openzone.

Consumers who want to use their iPad on a 3G network can pre-register for one of the micro-SIMs they will need in order to get online on the Orange website from Monday next week. The micro-SIMs can be obtained from Orange shops as well as directly from Apple.

The mobile phone companies had hoped to be able to tie their iPad pricing plans in with existing mobile phone subscriptions – so that, for instance, an iPhone customer could get unlimited iPad browsing for a few extra pounds per month. But Apple is understood to have made it plain that it wanted iPad mobile phone pricing plans to stand alone.

In the US, Apple’s wireless partner AT&T offers two contract-free options: $14.99 for 250MB per month and $29.99 for what it terms a month’s worth of “unlimited” 3G access. Customers can sign up directly through their iPad and check how much of their allowance they have used.

Resource:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/may/07/orange-ipad-price-plans

Nokia claims the infringements involve technology used to enhance speech and data transmission and antenna innovations for compact devices.

This is the latest salvo in a long-running legal battle between the two companies.

Nokia and Apple are embroiled in another dispute concerning the iPhone.

“We’ve taken this step to protect the results of our pioneering development and to put an end to continued unlawful use of Nokia’s innovation,” said Paul Melin, general manager of patent licensing at Nokia.

In a statement, the company said that during the past two decades Nokia has invested about $51bn (£34bn) in research and development and has rounded up 11,000 patents.

Last year Nokia filed a similar lawsuit which claimed that various Apple products infringed Nokia patents. Apple responded with a countersuit against Nokia for infringing Apple patents with its smartphones.

Meanwhile, Apple is also involved in another legal row with Taiwan’s HTC, maker of Google’s Nexus One phone, which it says has infringed patented technology.

Patent disputes are common in the technology industry and often end with some kind of licensing agreement, correspondents say.

The Nokia lawsuit came on the day Apple announced that its iPad tablet computer will go on sale in nine countries outside the US on 28 May.

Resource:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8669529.stm

But T-Mobile wants you to keep an eye out for its myTouch line, which gets a robust update in the myTouch 3G Slide. This new landscape slider, which comes out in June, takes a lot of the best attributes of HTC’s Sense user interface and builds another layer on top.

It creates an even more polished experience, with added touches from T-Mobile that make the phone more social and helpful for users than its predecessor.

The main improvements include a Faves Gallery for up to 20 of your favorite people. This specialized contacts application lets you see all your communications with your favorite people and prioritizes your updates from those people. For instance, your phone will flash a green light when one of your Faves contacts communicates with you.

There’s a Genius Button that lets you activate voice commands for making calls, composing texts and e-mails, conducting Web searches or launching applications. The feature will also read incoming text messages.

And finally, there’s myModes, which builds off the Sense interface themes. Themes allow you to customize your interface for different occasions, say for work, evenings and weekends. MyModes automates the switching between themes based on the time of day or your location. So it can switch from work mode to home mode when you leave the office or hit a certain point in the day.

MyTouch 3G Slide also has full Microsoft Exchange support as well as the ability to run seven panes from the home screen.

The phone also boasts a full slide-out keyboard without adding much bulk to the body. The camera gets an upgrade to 5 megapixels and the screen is bumped up to 3.4 inches. It will run Android 2.1, which includes free turn-by-turn navigation.

This adds momentum to the fast-growing Android platform. We’re still waiting for Apple’s fourth-generation iPhone, expected to be released in June, but the well of Android competition keeps getting deeper.

Resource:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/05/04/BU051D9034.DTL

The design of the Joojoo isn’t bad by any means, with nice design touches all over. Set against the benchmark of style over substance, the Ipad, the Joojoo does well, with Apple-esque touches such as a logo that alters its position depending on the device’s orientation and a tapered edge that makes it more comfortable to hold than Apple’s tablet.

While it is more comfortable to hold, we don’t recommend you hoist the device with its 12.1-inch screen for too long. The Joojoo tips the scales at 1.1kg and its weight, combined with its large screen, means you’ll want to lay it on a table or your lap. Even the firm’s CEO, Chandra Rathakrishanan, says that the Joojoo is for “couch computing.”

The screen itself is a twisted nematic (TN) panel, meaning it doesn’t have the impressive wide viewing angles of the Ipad’s in-plane switching (IPS) display. In a refreshing show of humility, Rathakrishanan admits that the Ipad’s screen is technically superior but argues that most won’t hold a tablet at angles that make the TN screen unreadable. We could easily see the difference in both colour rendition and viewing angles. However given that most laptop screens including that of Apple’s Macbook Pro are similar, the Joojoo’s screen is far from inferior, rather just falling short of the Ipad’s lofty standards in colour brightness and pixel density.

The display’s widescreen 1366×768 resolution is handy for watching videos and in portrait orientation it does reduce the amount of vertical scrolling that needs to be done. Videos encoded in widescreen aspect ratios display properly unlike on the Ipad. Thanks to Nvidia’s Ion chip high definition playback works without any problems.

As the Joojoo supports Adobe’s Flash, Youtube simply works. Joojoo has a version of the YouTube player that enables certain videos on the site to be accelerated by the device’s Ion graphics chip. We were told that in the coming months all videos on Youtube, regardless of their encoding format, will be decoded by the Ion chip, in effect rubbishing Steve Jobs’ claim that only Flash video encoded with the H.264 codec can be hardware accelerated.

Thanks to Intel’s 1.6Ghz Atom processor and Nvidia’s Ion chip the Joojoo has active cooling. During high definition video playback the fans did whirr up. Given the nature of the device and where it likely will be used, the fan noise, though not excessive, is highly undesirable. That said, the fans do a good job as the device didn’t get particularly hot.

Where the Joojoo is let down is by the apparent ‘beta’ quality of its software. The problem isn’t with its appearance, but rather speed. Transitions seemed slow and many screen presses seemed not to be recognised. Transition between portrait and landscape mode was often somewhat slow. The firm has said that it will be employing an aggressive update strategy and at this point such a policy seems like a good idea.

Fusion Garage uses the term “app store” somewhat liberally, with each “application” being a web site bookmark. One can argue whether some ‘Web 2.0′ sites such as Google Docs offer the same functionality as installed applications but the reliance on the web could be a problem given the patchy connectivity found outside of urban areas.

Having a USB port does make the device a whole lot more attractive than Apple’s Ipad. While the software may be below the fit and finish consumers have come to expect, the Joojoo can be loaded with other operating systems, as Rathakrishanan confirmed to The INQUIRER.

The Joojoo certainly has potential on many fronts. Hardware wise, the device has commodity hardware that makes it easy to develop for. While the screen isn’t as good as Apple’s Ipad, it’s hardly bad and during use there’s little perceptable difference. Rathakrishanan’s design displays a blend of honesty and understanding what hardware enthusiasts actually want. This gives the Joojoo good potential beyond just what’s underneath the screen.

The ability to connect drives and load your choice of operating system is a boon for functionality and should endear the device to those who care about technology rather than fashion. If Fusion Garage can tap into this then the Joojoo could become the technology enthusiasts’ device.

The most pressing matter for Fusion Garage is to bring the Joojoo’s shipped software up to scratch. It isn’t lacking functionality but just the final two per cent and a bit more polish that will make the Joojoo a complete and enjoyably useful package that might be able to give Apple’s Ipad some stiff competition.

Resource:

http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/review/1603965/joojoo-tablet

The iPhone Dev Team has released the jailbreak for iPad (both Wi-Fi and 3G versions) as well as for new firmware on iPod Touch and iPhones. This first jailbreak for iPad and other iPhone OS devices is called Spirit. At the moment, this tool doesn’t support carrier unlock.

The Spirit jailbreak is untethered for iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch with latest firmwares and works smoothly with most recent iTunes 9.1.1 update. Spirit jailbreak tool is available for both Mac and Windows platforms. On the latter, in case you get “c0000005″ error, then use the tool in Windows 98 or 95 compatibility mode setting.

More details about the jailbreak can be found at its website – http://spiritjb.com.

Let’s wait and see how fast Apple blocks the holes exploited in the Spirit Jailbreak too.

Resource:

http://www.techtree.com/India/News/Spirit_Jailbreak_for_iPad_iPhone_Released/551-110954-580.html

Samsung has announced its forthcoming smartphones will be mostly based on Android over the next year.

It has stated that 50% of future smartphone releases will be using Google Android, despite it only having two phones in the UK using the OS.

Samsung has recently unveiled its own smartphone OS, Bada, and the expectation was that the Korean firm would be using it in a majority of its smartphones.

Bada-boo

However, according to Reuters this proportion will only be 33%, meaning it could be a slower start than anticipated for the new proprietary OS.

Samsung hasn’t commented on what the remaining 16.3% of its smartphones will run, but its likely the majority will be Windows Phone 7, given the Korean firms close ties with Microsoft in the mobile space up until now.

Samsung has already announced the Wave, its first Bada-based phone, which will be arriving later in the year, and the new Galaxy S, its latest Android phone to join the Galaxy and Galaxy Portal in the UK.

Resource:

http://www.techradar.com/news/phone-and-communications/mobile-phones/samsung-placing-weight-behind-android-over-bada-687207

Shares of Apple were down sharply in late afternoon trading Tuesday, one day after posting a modest gain on news the company has sold more than one million iPads in the device’s first month on the market.

Apple shares were off 3.21%, to $257.79, with less than an hour until the closing bell.

Analysts cited concerns that the stock may be overvalued, as well as broader market fears that Greece’s economic woes could spread elsewhere, as the reasons for the selloff.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs on Monday said iPad sales were significantly outpacing those of another hot seller from Cupertino—the iPhone.

“One million iPads in 28 days—that’s less than half of the 74 days it took to achieve this milestone with iPhone,” said Jobs, in a statement.

Apple also revealed that iPad customers have downloaded more than 12 million apps from the App Store, and more than 1.5 million e-books from Apple’s new iBookstore.

Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster, meanwhile, estimated that Apple sold about 300,000 iPad 3Gs over the weekend.

The iPad 3G, which features cellular connectivity through AT&T as well as built-in WiFi support, hit stores on Friday. Jobs conceded the iPad craze is creating some logistical problems for Apple.

“Demand continues to exceed supply and we’re working hard to get this magical product into the hands of even more customers,” said Jobs. The wait time for those who order an iPad from the online Apple Store is five to seven days, according to a note on the store’s Web site.

For less patient shoppers, numerous eBay merchants claim to have iPads on hand and ready for sale—at prices well above Apple’s official list price.

Pricing for the Wi-Fi only version, which features 802.11 connectivity, starts at $499 for the 16GB model, $599 for the 32GB model, and $699 for the 64GB version. The Wi-Fi + 3G versions are priced higher. The 16GB model is $629, the 32GB model is $729, and the 64GB version is priced at $829.

Resource:

http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/mac/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=224700595

Like other software releases, the new “Spirit” jailbreak can be applied to any iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch running firmware 3.1.2, 3.1.3 or 3.2, enabling users to break into their own devices and run programs not otherwise approved by Apple.

The jailbreak hack was first discovered by Dev Team member “Comex,” who Tweeted that the “Spirit” jailbreak wasn’t based on a browser exploit in April. The jailbreak was also posted on YouTube, showing that the hack provides a root shell with full access to the iPad file system.

The Dev Team is notorious for breaking into the iPhone OS, and subsequently making the exploits public.

Apple has its Apple’s iTunes and App Store under lock and key, enabling users to only access “company approved” applications. Jailbreaking occurs when users unlock their mobile devices, allowing them to access and run hundreds more applications, while giving them greater control and freedom to install more features and functions onto their iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch.

The latest jailbreak hack was first demonstrated on the iPad in early April, just three days after the release of the popular Apple tablet computer. Specifically, the latest jailbreaking program enables users to install an unauthorized digital equivalent to the Apple App Store called Cydia, which allows users to access unauthorized software such as “Backgrounder” — a program that gives users the ability to run more than one application at once. Cydia software was initially used in iPhone jailbreaks, but can be updated to run on the larger iPad.

Unlike previous exploits, the “Spirit” jailbreak is one that is untethered, meaning that users are not required to plug their devices into their computer every time they reboot. Up until now, hackers attempting to jailbreak the iPhone 3GS and latest iPod Touch could only apply a “tethered” jailbreak, which prohibited them from performing a hardware reset without connecting it to their computers via a USB cable.

There are some drawbacks for those who choose to go the jailbreaking route. For one, the warranties are voided once an Apple device is jailbroken. And users also eliminate any chance of receiving updates, patches or technical support from Cupertino.

However, this latest jailbreak release represents a big leg up for hackers in the continual volley between Apple and the jailbreaking community. But Apple will likely find other ways to thwart the Dev Team hacker community in their quest to fight piracy. In addition to running unauthorized third-party apps, jailbreaking can be used by hackers to steal software from the Apple App Store.

Resource:

http://www.crn.com/security/224700496

Due to the way the WSJ anonymizes sources, it wasn’t clear whether the contact was from Apple, hinting at possible reciprocation, the FTC, or another organization altogether. Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ criticism of third-party tools makes it unlikely that his company has changed opinions in a short space of time.

The new update as well as companionstories have also reinforced the one-time rumor and now have both the FTC and the Department of Justice potentially launching investigations. Procedures are reportedly at such an early stage that neither agency is certain which should lead or when one of them can commit to any investigation.

Government pressure may be opposed by Apple, which believes that third-party development tools have often held back advancement of the Mac and could do the same for the iPhone. However, developers have criticized Apple for not only restricting the software they can use to write apps but for artificially inflating the cost of supporting more than one platform. Mobile advertiser Greystripe’s CEO Michael Chang has explained that writing an app using Flash CS5 for the iPhone could cost $75,000 initially but would cost just a few thousand dollars more to port to Android. Without Adobe’s tool, however, developers could be forced to rewrite from scratch and spend as much as they did before. The sheer expense could be considered anti-competitive as it would make writing for more than one platform cost-prohibitive for smaller studios.

Adobe has tried to sidestep technical questions and has accused Apple of political maneuvering to attack Flash. It has said it plans to stop supporting the iPhone in cross-platform development after Flash CS5 and may be giving employees Nexus Ones to promote a personal switch to the more Flash-friendly Android platform.

Resource:

http://www.electronista.com/articles/10/05/03/apple.could.dodge.ftc.complaints.with.sdk.change/

Back in May 2009, before I took the dive to purchase a Kindle 2, I first tried to see how well I might adapt to digital reading. I purchased a few books with the Kindle app for iPhone and read them.

My opinion was mixed: I liked that my current book was always in my pocket on the iPhone, I liked that it was easy to read one-handed in bed, and I liked that I was undeniably reading more books than I had when I stuck to the tree-killing kind. I didn’t love reading on the iPhone’s backlit screen, but I assumed the Kindle’s e-ink screen would resolve that issue, so I finally bought one with confidence. Less than a year later, of course, Steve Jobs unveiled the iPad.

I wondered then whether the iPad could truly compete as an e-book reader, and became cautiously optimistic about its chances when further details were released. Now, after more than a month with the device, I’m confident in declaring that it makes a very compelling e-reader—although it does exhibit a few obvious and not-so-obvious weaknesses.

The hardware

The most immediately apparent knock against the iPad as a device for reading is its weight. Now, 1.5 pounds (or 1.6 for the 3G-enabled version) doesn’t sound like much. But given that the iPad’s almost all screen, you’re forced to hold it by the edges, and that pound and a half can start to put a lot of strain on your fingertips.

The Kindle, on the other hand, weighs just 10.2 ounces: I can comfortably hold it with one hand for hours. I can hold the iPad with one hand—usually with my thumb on the lower side edge, and my pinky on the bottom, with the middle three fingers providing its back support—but my hands definitely start to “feel it” much more than they do with the Kindle. Generally, for extended reading time, I’ll prop the iPad up somehow—whether on my folded-over leg, a tabletop, or the side of my pillow.

Pillow time, of course, is one area where the iPad (quite literally) shines. The Kindle’s e-ink display, like the paper books it replicates, requires a book light for bedtime reading. The iPad’s backlit display means never needing to own another book light again. But one of e-ink’s key selling points is precisely its lack of a bright, backlit display. Indeed, I feared the eye-fatigue ramifications of reading on the iPad before mine arrived.

While I wish the iPad’s display packed a few more pixels per inch (it boasts 132 ppi, compared to the iPhone’s 163 ppi), I find that—just as the Kindle does—the device really fades away after a few pages. Most notably, I’m not experiencing the eye-fatigue I expected, and which I actually felt when I read those first e-books on my iPhone. I now believe that was more the fault of the tinier text on the iPhone’s smaller screen, rather than its backlighting.

One weakness that’s not initially apparent is the iPad’s infamous proclivity for attracting fingerprints. Those smudges, which I normally don’t even notice unless the iPad is asleep, become more apparent (and annoying) when they consistently overlap the lines of text you’re reading in a digital book. Luckily, a quick wipe with any nearby fabric resolves that issue pretty quickly.

The software

Once you’ve found a comfortable position to hold the iPad, and you’ve confirmed that the screen isn’t bothersome to your eyes during extended reading jags, it’s time to curl up with your e-book.

Given the iPad’s access to the App Store, it’s nice that users aren’t limited to just Apple’s own iBooks app for reading. There are a handful of other options, but iBooks and Amazon’s Kindle app are probably the two most prominent. Since my iPad arrived, I’ve read ten books between the two apps.

I found the book-reading experience within iBooks decent, but not exceptional. iBooks does some things far better than the Kindle app—but it also includes some simply egregious flaws.

While both iBooks and the Kindle app let you turn pages quickly by tapping on the edge of the screen, each also also offers a virtual page-turning animation. Though I tend to leave the Kindle app’s preference for that animation turned off, I find the iBooks page turn smooth and natural—though it’s entirely superfluous, I enjoy the visual effect. With paper books, I tend to curl my finger under the next page and I end up recreating that gesture in iBooks; since the page curls precisely where you “grab” it, the effect is pretty slick. In both apps, you can also turn back a page from anywhere on the screen just by swiping to the right, which is a nice touch.

Although some find iBooks’s font options too limited, I like the selection offered—particularly Palatino. Amazon’s Kindle app doesn’t let you customize anything but font-size; the publisher chooses the font itself. Another iBooks perk is its in-app ability to look up words with a built-in dictionary; the Kindle itself offers that feature (albeit with clumsier cursor navigation), but oddly the Kindle app for the iPad does not.

However, there are places where the Kindle app really outshines iBooks. The Kindle app gets nighttime reading right, with brightness controls that cater to reading in dark rooms: You can toggle between black text on a white background, dark text on a sepia background, or white text on a black background. By day, I go the sepia route, and my nighttime reading is exclusively white-on-black. The Kindle app also offers a brightness slider; I drag the brightness way down at night. That way, there’s no bright background or bright text burning my retinas in the dark.

iBooks doesn’t handle night reading nearly as well. While the app offers a brightness slider, there’s no option to change the text or background colors. Drag that slider to its darkest setting, and indeed the background approaches black—but the text remains unchanged. That is, iBooks expects you to read very, very dark on text on a very, very dark background.

That makes no sense.

When you make the background dark, you need contrast with the text. The print needn’t be neon sign bright (in fact, it shouldn’t be), but it should stand out against the background, in user-configurable ways. To wit, it should behave exactly like the Kindle app already does.

You may be familiar with the configurable shortcut to invert the iPad’s colors with a triple-tap of the Home button, but it doesn’t work well in iBooks. It leaves either the text or the background too bright, no matter how you adjust the slider.

To make matters worse, iBooks seems to have a glitch where it doesn’t remember your brightness settings if you put the iPad to sleep and wake it up again. If I need to take a quick break to escort my three-year-old to the bathroom, I put the iPad to sleep. I wake it up, and iBooks immediately blasts my eyes with its brightest white background again.

Both apps offer a better reading experience in portrait mode. iBooks tries harder than the Kindle app in landscape, offering facing pages of text, but the columns are a bit too narrow for my taste. The Kindle app, on the other hand, stretches the text out into a single, way-too-wide column in landscape mode.

If you want to offer an uncluttered reading experience on the iPad, landscape mode is apparently a tough nut to crack. Other reading-centric apps, like the superb Instapaper Pro (for queuing Web-based articles in more reading-friendly formats), suffer similarly in landscape mode. Apps like PDF-reader GoodReader avoid the landscape issue by keeping the reading area narrower even when more real estate could conceivably be devoted to the text. (And, of course, apps like Mail and NetNewsWire solve the issue with their two-column interfaces in landscape mode, which force the reading pane to a narrower width.)

Conclusion

The iPad works very, very well as a reading device. It’s a little heavy, but the screen is really lovely, and shows crisp, eminently readable text. The most important feature of any reading device, whether it’s a book, a Kindle, or the iPad, is whether it disappears when you’re engrossed in the text, letting you focus entirely on the words. The iPad certainly succeeds at that.

Perhaps the device’s biggest weakness as a reading device is that it does so many other things: it’s hard to resist the lure of temptation that your e-mail—and the baseball game, and Netflix movies, and Flight Control HD, and Twitter—are all just a couple taps away. But in that case, to paraphrase the great playwright, the fault lies not in our devices, but in ourselves.

Resource:

http://www.macworld.com/article/150955/2010/05/ipad_reader.html

On the same day that Apple launched its newest iPad tablet, the company also sold its 1 millionth iPad, less than a month after the device’s debut.

Apple officials announced May 3 that the company sold its millionth iPad April 30, and that iPad users had to that point downloaded more than 12 million applications from the App Store and more than 1.5 million ebooks from Apples new iBookstore.

“One million iPads in 28 days — that’s less than half the 74 days it took to achieve this mileston with the iPhone,” Apple CEO Steve Jobs said in a statement. “Demand continues to exceed supply and we’re working hard to get this magical product into the hands of even more customers.”

That demand was highlighted April 30, when Apple launched the newest iPad tablet with both WiFi access and 3G connectivity via AT&T. Officials with Apple retail locations in major cities said they sold out of the iPad 3G models by May 2.

In a May 2 research note, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster estimated that Apple sold about 300,000 iPad 3Gs over the weekend, including preordered units and online sales.

With estimates based on checks with 50 Apple stores—49 of which reported being out of stock of 3G models by Sunday—Munster believes Apple has likely now sold more than 1 million iPads in total.

In May 2009, Munster was among the very first to report that Apple was at work on a slatelike device, which at the time he estimated would run between $500 and $700. Today, Apple sells six versions of the iPad—three with WiFi only and three with WiFi and 3G—with pricing from $499 to $829. On May 3, all six were listed on the Apple site as shipping not within 24 hours but “within 5 – 7 business days.”

Customers on the Apple site are limited to purchases of just two devices.

Just as Apple is known for modest financial projections—enjoying a wow factor on a then expectation-exceeding delivery—it’s unclear just how well it stocked its stores.

The newest iPad went on sale April 30 at 5 p.m. at the New York flagship store, and a spokeswoman for Best Buy said the store had “very limited inventory” for sale that afternoon, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Munster, however, wrote that the sold-out supplies were likely due to strong demand coupled with lower-than-intended supply.

“Near-term, this may put downward pressure on launch day/weekend statistics, but long-term we see it as a positive, as consumers are definitely interested in the iPad as a new category,” wrote Munster. “In the first several quarters, we believe Apple will sell about 60 percent WiFi-only iPads and 40 percent 3G models.”

At eBay.com, a May 3 search for iPads turned up more than 1,800 matched listings, more than 1,200 of which were WiFi-only models—which suggests that the same early supporters who rushed to buy the WiFi-only model may be ready to pass on their iPad and be amongst the first Apple fans with an iPad 3G.

Broadpoint AmTech analyst Brian Marshall, who headlined an April 22 report “Money Doesn’t Grow on Trees? Try the Apple Tree,” raised his calendar year 2010 revenue estimates for Apple to $62.6 billion, up from $57.9 billion.

“Once again, we highlight our view that Apple remains the best technology company on the planet with numerous catalysts on the horizon—e.g., international iPhone ramp, iPad ramp, emerging recurring revenue stream, etc.—and no business model issues,” Marshall wrote.

The firm has noted the potential for swift iPad sales from the start, with Marshall writing in a March research note, before the WiFi-only iPad’s launch, that early consensus of the device was “overly pessimistic,” and that, were the iPad to “live up to its potential, we believe actual unit shipments could approach 7 million-plus units in [2010].”

Resource:

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Mobile-and-Wireless/Apple-iPad-Sales-Reach-1-Million-814397/

According to a report in The New York Post, the US Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission have entered negotiations over which of the two will handle the probe into the IT giant’s attempt to force developers to use only Apple programming tools.

Sources say authorities are only days away from launching an inquiry.

Apple’s move came after Adobe was forced to issue an embarrassing apology for not having fixed known, long-term bugs in the software.

Writing in his personal blog at the end of April, Adobe’s Mike Chambers took a swipe at Apple for a recent update to the iPhone developers’ licence that sees app designers barred from using Flash CS5, along with a number of other third-party APIs.

The war of words escalated, and Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ eye-watering response to Adobe’s protests led the Flash creator to announce it had given up on Apple. In future, the company said, it would concentrate on developing Flash tools that would work on all rival devices.

Jobs had already sparked controversy for telling journalists from the Wall Street Journal that Flash would reduce the phone’s battery life from ten hours down to just an hour and a half.

The inquiry will focus on whether Apple’s policy, which came into effect last month, hampers competition by forcing programmers to choose between developing apps that can run only on Apple devices, and creating ones that are platform-neutral, also running on devices using rival operating systems such as Google’s Android.

Resource:

http://www.thinq.co.uk/news/2010/5/4/antitrust-probe-over-apple-flash-stance/

Adobe confirmed Thursday that it plans to demonstrate a version of Flash for Google’s Android software in May at the Google I/O conference, in responding to Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ criticism of Flash in an open letter. And the company wants to make sure its employees use those phones: it’s preparing to give away Android phones running Flash to employees, according to three sources familiar with the plan.

It’s not clear which phone employees will receive (various HTC phones and the Nexus One were mentioned) and it will not be a mandatory shift. But in the time-honored technology industry practice of “dog-fooding” one’s own products, Adobe and Google want to encourage Adobe employees to spend as much time using Android and the Flash Player 10.1 as possible.

Google gives away Android phones like they are party favors: it’s planning to give every Google I/O attendee their choice of a Motorola Droid or Nexus One, and it gave away Nexus Ones to an audience of CIOs earlier this month at an event for Google Apps.

It’s also not clear if this will be a perk just for developers or for the entire company: Adobe had about 8,600 employees worldwide at the end of last November. The company did not respond to a request for comment about its plans

Resource:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-20003922-94.html

The company began selling the iPad 3G in the U.S. late Friday afternoon. The starting prices for the 3G mode were $629 (with 16 gigabytes of memory), compared to $499 starting price for the Wi-Fi only version that started selling a month ago. The reports are a good sign for Apple, which may or may not snag mainstream consumers with the iPad. Another good sign is that Apple has delayed its overseas launch of the iPad as it tries to meet demand in the U.S.

The 3G version sold an estimated 300,000 units over the weekend, according to Gene Munster, an analyst at Piper Jaffray & Co. (The analyst made a more conservative estimate this time, as his estimate for the Wi-Fi only version was off the market by a few hundred thousand). Apple hasn’t provided its own sales figures, but Best Buy said it sold out of its limited inventory of models as of Sunday.

The Wi-Fi only iPad sold about 300,000 units during its opening weekend, although that device went on sale on a Saturday. Munster estimates that Apple has sold more than a million iPads altogether. While that’s a lot less than other big product launches (game consoles, for instance), it is a very respectable number for a tablet computer, which is a new category of device that consumers aren’t familiar with yet.

It will be very interesting to see if Apple can sustain sales of the iPad as rival tablet computers come on the market. Amazon has been beefing up its Kindle e-book reader, but models from players such as Dell and Hewlett-Packard (which just bought Palm in part so it can use its WebOS operating system in tablet computers and phones), aren’t hitting the market immediately.

Apple thus has a chance to grab a lot of the early adopter market for itself. If it really wants to sell a lot of units, it will probably have to consider cutting prices. The most expensive 3G model with 64 gigabytes of memory sells for $829. You can bet that clone makers will launch tablets that come in well under that price. Forrester Research estimates that Apple will sell 3 million iPads this year. Customers for the iPad 3G version will likely shell out extra money to get a data plan with AT&T, but the terms aren’t that tough, as no contract is required. AT&T is charging $14.99 a month for 250 megabytes of data and $29.99 a month for unlimited data.

Resource:

http://mobile.venturebeat.com/2010/05/02/apples-ipad-3g-model-gets-off-to-a-good-start/

HTC Droid Incredible

The good: The HTC Droid Incredible is blazingly fast, thanks to Verizon’s 3G network. HTC Sense enhances the features of Android 2.1, and the smartphone features an 8-megapixel camera and 8GB of internal memory. Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS and 3G are all onboard.

The bad: You can’t use voice and data at the same time. The multimedia experience is adequate but still behind the competition.

The bottom line: With its polished design and user interface and blazing-fast speeds, the HTC Droid Incredible takes pole position as Verizon’s top smartphone and is now the Android device to beat.

Motorola Droid

The good: The Motorola Droid boasts a gorgeous display and the benefits of Android 2.0, including a faster Web browser, Google Maps Navigation app, and better messaging and contact management. It also offers excellent call quality, long talk time and improved speed over previous Android devices.

The bad: The QWERTY keyboard feels flat and the dial pad control is restricted to the home screen. Music and video capabilities still trail behind the competition. The Droid does not support Bluetooth voice dialing.

The bottom line: The Motorola Droid is the most powerful and fastest Google Android device to date. It embraces the openness of the Android platform and offers customers a smartphone that rivals other touch-screen devices on the market.

HTC Nexus One by Google (unlocked)

The good: The Nexus One has a gorgeous display, a lightning-fast processor and a loaded feature set. The enhanced voice capabilities worked flawlessly, and the phone delivers solid performance.

The bad: Like other Android phones, the Nexus One forces you to store apps on the internal memory. The media player remains average, and it’s missing some wanted features like hands-free Bluetooth dialing. Currently, Outlook Calendar syncing is not available.

The bottom line: It doesn’t have all the features we’d like, but the Nexus One greatly enhances the Google Android family with a fast processor, good call quality and improved voice control features. What’s more, we love that all versions of the phone will be unlocked.

Resource:

http://www.mercurynews.com/business-headlines/ci_14985823

The hacker has written a piece of driver code for Zephyr2. It basically brings multi-touch feature on the iPhone. Apparently, Apple also uses this driver on their iDevices, which mainly includes iPhone, iPod Touch and newly launched iPad.

Android OS is now almost ready to run on iPhone 3G, but there are some major issues that need to be solved before moving ahead in the process. If Android OS runs appropriately on iPhone 3G, it’s quite possible to run it on iPad tablet. However, it will require much time and development to get full featured Android OS for iPad models.

For time being, watch the following status update video of Android on iPhone 3G.

Resource:

http://www.tech-exclusive.com/2010/05/02/multi-touch-support-for-android-on-iphone-3g/

The increase in sales is due to a slew of new Android devices which have hit the market in recent months, not least the HTC Desire – which, over the past few weeks, has been added to the range of most major mobile operators and been well received by critics. Vodafone, meanwhile, started selling the HTC Legend at the start of April, adding it to a list of Android devices available in the UK which includes the HTC Hero and Xperia X10 from Sony Ericsson.

GfK, whose pronouncements about the retail industry are pored over by City analysts, said that Android handsets accounted for 12.3% of all phones sold to customers signing up for a long-term mobile phone contract in week 15 of 2010 – the week ending on April 18 – compared with just 3% of the market in week 12, the last week of March. In terms of the total market, Android’s share grew from 1.6% to 6.7% during the period.

As for smartphone devices – which GfK defines as the market for phones that can download applications from third party providers, so it includes the iPhone – they now account for 37.6% of the total mobile handset market and 63.9% of the contract market. GfK said the figure has remained relatively stable so Android is gaining market share from rival platforms, rather than merely benefitting from an overall increase in smartphone uptake. GfK refused to give details of the market share of other operating systems.

“It’s not down to one particular handset,” said a spokesman for GfK. “More and more of the major handset manufacturers are viewing Android as a useful solution and using it in their smartphones”.

More Android devices will become available in the UK over the coming weeks. Google’s Nexus One, for instance, went on sale through Vodafone’s stores and website today, a new Android phone from LG – the Optimus GT540 – is due out next month, while Samsung is due to add the Galaxy S to the current Galaxy Portal (i5700) which is already available in the UK.

Vodafone, meanwhile, will next month launch an Android phone designed for the mass-market as part of a “refresh” of its portfolio of own-branded devices. Vodafone has turned to Chinese manufacturers Huawei, ZTE and TCL as the mobile phone network looks to push smartphones into the mass market.

The company announced nine new handsets in its own-brand range on Wednesday. Alongside some basic feature phones aimed at developing countries – including one called the Vodafone 247, which has a built-in solar panel that could find its way to the UK as an “eco-phone” – Vodafone announced new smartphones including the Vodafone 845.

The 2.8in touchscreen device is the first Vodafone branded phone that uses Google’s Android operating system and has been manufactured by Huawei, which until recently was best known in the mobile phone industry as the maker of 3G mobile broadband dongles. The Vodafone 845 runs on Éclair, the latest version of the Android platform and as well as being able to access thousands of applications it come pre-loaded with the Vodafone 360 service.

Fellow Chinese dongle manufacturer ZTE, meanwhile, is responsible for another smartphone in the new Vodafone range. The 546 has a qwerty keyboard and is aimed at developing countries which have not yet installed 3G networks. ZTE also produced the 247 for Vodafone.

Another Chinese manufacturer, TCL – which has a mobile phone joint venture with Alcatel – has produced a new touchscreen device for Vodafone called the 543, which is also aimed at the mass market.

Resource:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/apr/30/android-google-uk-market-share

1. At Bat 2010 for iPad

As the original iPad arrived to consumers the same weekend as the 2010 Major League Baseball season, it’s easy to think of Apple’s tablet computer and America’s Pastime as a great double play combination. While it is nice to have video access to virtually every Major League Baseball game on the iPad, the real utility comes when you take your device outside of a wireless Internet connection.

With this $14.99 application (note, a separate download fee is required if you already own this app on your iPhone), you can tap into games wherever you go. Additionally, the app provides audio feeds from every team’s home broadcast as well as an innovative array of stats and video clips.

The only thing this magical application cannot do is turn the Chicago Cubs into a contender. Alas, there is not an app for everything.

2. Topo Maps for iPad

During those precious times in life when you are hiking around Colorado’s Front Range or looking for the right cove to spot turtles off the coast of Maui, chances are, you won’t be near a wireless hot spot. Fear not with this $7.99 application that was seemingly made for the iPad 3G.

Similar to the $7.99 Topo Maps iPhone app, the iPad version provides access to more than 70,000 topographical maps across North America. Maps can be downloaded individually for free with a wireless Internet or 3G connection.

3. Zinio Magazine Newsstand & Reader for iPad

While the iPad is a superior eReading device to the Kindle on so many levels, up until now a wireless Internet connection is required to download new things to read (the Kindle offers quick data connections when downloading new paid content). With a 3G iPad and the free Zinio Newsstand app, you can now tap into thousands of magazine titles wherever you travel.

Rolling Stone, BusinessWeek and the Sporting News are among the iconic magazines that market individual magazines and longer-term subscriptions via Zinio. The app also has a number of niche and special-interest publications.

4. Twitterrific for iPad

Until the official Twitter app for the iPhone and iPad becomes available, this free application is the best way to tweet on the tablet. Like the scores of Twitter apps already available on the iPad, Twitterrific is only effective with a network connection. Those 140 characters need to be transmitted through something.

5. Zagat to Go

For more than a decade, this pioneering restaurant guide has reinvented itself on multiple mobile platforms. From primitive Palm devices, to the iPhone and Android platforms and now on the iPhone, Zagat’s is an easy an elegant way to find good food near you.

While this $9.99 application offers foodie and travel guides in 45 markets across North America, new listings are updated each weekday. You never want to be in your own neighborhood or halfway across the world and not have access to the latest restaurant information on the fly. Another added bonus is that only one purchase is required for the iPhone and iPad.

Resource:

http://www.appolicious.com/tech/articles/1798-five-apps-to-download-immediately-for-your-new-3g-enabled-ipad

The fixes, however, are subtle. The most significant one rights a network issue that caused Opera Mini to freeze at start-up. This release also set the app’s fallback language to English rather than Arabic, as it previously was (in other words, an error with a language pack will now revert back to English.) Opera Mini is now also available in Hungarian, and the company says it has fixed backend bugs and stability soft spots.

However, Opera’s mini update may disappoint some users who are on the lookout for Opera Mini to adopt multitouch pinch-to-zoom capabilities, finer-detail zoom levels, improved page rendering, and support for iPhone-optimized Web pages.

The fact that Opera Mini is a proxy browser that more or less beams an image of a Web page to your screen courtesy of Opera’s servers, can account for some of the user grievances. For instance, Opera Mini isn’t a native iPhone app, and therefore doesn’t have access to the pinch-to-zoom technology of iPhone’s Safari browser.

In the meantime, a brand-new entrant into the mobile browser space should have Opera reconsidering its position.

Skyfire, a previous Opera Mobile competitor on Windows Mobile and Symbian phones, has also on Thursday introduced Skyfire beta browser for Android. Skyfire’s browser is based on the same open-source WebKit engine used to build Safari–as such, it already employs pinch-and-zoom. Skyfire definitely has its sights set on a version for iPhone, which would bring it into direct opposition with its Opera Mini rival.

While Opera has gone on record boasting that it’s found a way around Apple’s browser restrictions using its own software code, the company’s stubbornness could lose users who care more about pinching the screen than they do about how quickly pages load.

It’s also worth noting competitor Skyfire’s buzzed-about ability to transcode and stream Flash video through the company’s servers. That, combined with multitouch support, could give Skyfire, and not Opera Mini, the next iPhone edge. Flash video has been the hot topic in mobile of late, with Google affirming that its Android OS update 2.2 will carry it, and Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ going on record to bestow his kiss of death for Adobe Flash on iPhone.

Opera may yet have a little breathing room to rethink its strategy before Skyfire and others make their iPhone move. Skyfire’s CEO Jeff Glueck told CNET in an interview that while an iPhone version of their native/proxy browser hybrid is certainly in the works, the company wants to make sure it can handle server hits comparable to a million new users in one day, assuming their success were to follow Opera’s in the first full day of its iPhone release.

Resource:

http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-19512_7-20003802-233.html

Siri, a start-up based in San Jose, Calif., describes itself as a virtual personal assistant for the iPhone and the iPod Touch. For example, Siri users can speak commands like “find a table for two at 9 tonight” or “send a taxi to my house”; using GPS and speech-recognition technology, the application translates the commands and uses search algorithms to find answers. For results, Siri worked with several companies, including Citysearch, OpenTable and Taxi Magic.

An Apple spokesman, Steve Dowling, declined to comment on the specifics of the Siri deal. “Apple buys smaller companies from time to time but doesn’t comment on products or plans,” he said.

Norman Winarsky, vice president of licensing and strategic programs at SRI International, a research lab that helped develop the application, confirmed the sale but declined to disclose any financial details of the transaction. Mr. Winarsky described the sale of Siri, which was released as a mobile app in February, as “a great event for us in terms of our impact on the world.”

Before its sale to Apple, Siri raised a total of $24 million from investors, including Menlo Ventures and Li Ka-Shing, a Chinese billionaire who has also invested in Facebook.

Apple may eventually hope to offer an alternative to Google’s search service on the iPhone, the iPod Touch and the iPad, said Charles S. Golvin, an analyst with Forrester Research. Google has made large investments in voice command search, location-based search and advertising and in visual recognition search.

“Apple is trying to break ties to Google,” Mr. Golvin said. “Rather than have search in the browser, users would have a more relevant search application to use.”

Apple has acquired several smaller companies over the last few months as part of a larger effort to gain an edge on rival mobile companies. Most recently, Apple bought Intrinsity, a company that makes a speedy computer chip for mobile devices that uses very little battery power while processing graphics, video and other images. In January, Apple acquired Quattro Wireless, a mobile advertising company.

“This is as much about keeping this good technology away from Google as it is about wanting it for themselves,” Mr. Golvin said.

Resource:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/29/technology/29apple.html?src=busln

Apple is hitting the road to showcase its new mobile-device advertising capability, dubbed iAd, and has indicated it could charge as much as $10 million to be part of a handful of marketers at the launch, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Ad executives say they are used to paying between $100,000 and $200,000 for similar mobile deals.

Earlier this month, Apple unveiled iAd, a software system to offer ads in the applications available in its App Store. Ads are likely to start appearing in applications on its iPhone and iPod Touch devices in June, and its iPad later in the year, according to the person familiar with the matter.

Apple is making waves on Madison Avenue with its price tag, which comes with initial demands for greater control over advertisers’ marketing campaigns.

“It’s a hefty sum,” says Phuc Truong, managing director at Mobext, a mobile marketing business owned by Havas SA whose clients include Sears, Choice Hotels, Amtrak and Volvo. “What Apple is trying to do is certainly above and beyond what’s been done in the past.”

An Apple spokeswoman said the company will sell and serve the ads and declined further comment, except to reiterate that app developers will receive 60% of the revenue. Apple gets the other 40%.

Apple on Wednesday said it has scheduled a developers’ conference for June 7-11, where it is expected to unveil its next iPhone. It would be up to developers whether they want to include ads in their apps, although the financial incentive is there.

A handful of other companies sell ads that appear in Apple device applications, including AdMob Inc., which Google Inc. announced it would acquire last year for $750 million. AdMob says Apple’s entry into ad selling is going to boost competition and development in the space, says Jason Spero, vice president of AdMob North America.

Zaw Thet, chief executive of mobile ad firm 4INFO Inc., said Apple’s move is likely to spur other mobile ad startups to shift the focus of their developments away from the iPhone to other mobile systems, such as Google’s Android.

Despite the high price, ad executives at agencies from Boston to New York and San Francisco to Los Angeles have crowded into conference rooms in recent weeks to listen to the tech company’s pitch for iAd.

Discussions over possible deals are ongoing but several ad executives said they are beginning to prepare creative ideas for campaigns.

One example Apple has been showing advertisers is an ad for Nike’s Air Jordan basketball shoe, says Baba Shetty, chief media officer at Boston-based ad agency Hill Holiday, owned by Interpublic Group. When a user is in an application, an animated banner ad appears on the border of the screen, along with an iAd logo. If the user taps on the ad, it expands across the screen, displaying a video, an interactive store locator and exclusive offers at local stores, among other features.

“It was very easy to think about the several minutes of interaction time consumers can spend with the ad. It’s incredibly attractive,” Mr. Shetty says.

Apple is planning to charge advertisers a penny each time a consumer sees a banner ad, ad executives say. When a user taps on the banner and the ad pops up, Apple will charge $2. Under large ad buys, such as the $1 million package, costs would rack up to reach $1 million with the various views and taps.

The audience is sizable: Apple has sold 85 million iPhone and iPod Touches so far and estimates that users spend about 30 minutes a day using applications.

Marketers will be able to target ads to groups of users based on consumers’ download preferences from its iTunes store, according to ad executives. For instance, a marketer could choose to show its ads to people who have downloaded financial applications or reggaeton music, horror movies or comedy TV shows.

Marketers also will be able to target ads to users in a general location like a city, although they cannot target ads to individual consumers or access personal details.

Apple is seeking high quality ads from big-name marketers for the launch, ad executives say. The ads will go through an approval process, and Apple will build the ads itself during the first couple of months to make sure they work well and attain a certain aesthetic and functionality, ad executives say. Eventually, Apple plans to create a developer kit so that agencies will be able to design and create the ads themselves.

The process is causing tension among some ad directors, who are hesitant to give up control.

“As a creative director, I can completely understand that they created this new baby and they want to make sure it gets born looking gorgeous. But as a creative director, I don’t feel completely comfortable letting Apple do the creative,” says Lars Bastholm, chief digital creative officer at WPP’s Ogilvy.

Marketers have been much slower to buy mobile ads than expected, largely because consumers had yet to visit mobile Web sites in meaningful numbers and the process of creating mobile ad campaigns was a technical and logistical feat.

Apple isn’t making that any easier, with requirements that advertisers use special technologies for its system, says Jordan Rohan, an Internet analyst with Thomas Weisel Partners.

But, ad executives say that if Apple nails its pitch, it could open up the gates for mobile advertising.

“I think the tipping point has come,” says Mark Read, chief executive of WPP Digital. “The absolute revenues now are tiny, but you can see how these things are starting to fit together.”

Resource:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703648304575212411500983040.html?mod=rss_Today%27s_Most_Popular

After hearing rumors that the oft-discussed-but-never-acknowledged two-display folding tablet had been axed, Gizmodo asked Microsoft for confirmation and received this reply from Redmond’s communications veep, Frank Shaw:

At any given time, we’re looking at new ideas, investigating, testing, incubating them. It’s in our DNA to develop new form factors and natural user interfaces to foster productivity and creativity. The Courier project is an example of this type of effort. It will be evaluated for use in future offerings, but we have no plans to build such a device at this time.

Leaving aside his statement that Microsoft’s DNA includes the development of new form factors and natural user interfaces, Shaw does acknowledges the existence of the Courier project, but he doesn’t specifically hammer the final nails into the concept’s coffin.

It appears that Courier was an investigative effort, elements of which may surface in future Microsoft products, but which won’t – to use an industry buzzword – be “productized” in the foreseeable future.

And although we’re loathe to kick a website when it’s reeling from public approbation, Gizmodo made a curious omission when it wrote: “It makes sense for Microsoft to continue to trim away splinter versions of its core operating systems and focus on Windows 7 and Windows Phone 7 unity across all its devices.”

There’s a third Windows OS that they neglected to mention, and one that may be more appropriate for a tablet form factor such as the one used in the Courier project: Windows Embedded Standard 7, the RTM version of which was announced just this Tuesday at the Embedded Systems Conference (ESC) in San José, California.

Perhaps – just perhaps – the Courier project was eliminated because its raison d’être had run its course with the graduation of Windows Embedded 7 Standard from beta to RTM. Of course, Windows Embedded Standard 7 is an OS designed for, well, embedded devices that range – in Microsoft’s own listing – from multimedia internet devices to networked media devices to thin clients to fuel pumps (yes, fuel pumps) and more. But that’s in its RTM form. Perhaps – just perhaps – one variant of it was given a spin as a tablet OS in the Courier Project.

More likely, Windows Embedded Standard 7′s graduation and the Courier project’s demise occurring within two days of each other is merely a coincidence. In any case, the rumored spate of challengers to Apple’s iPad has just been reduced by one.

And if you believe a report from Wednesday’s Business Insider, you can add HP’s Slate to the drop-out list – which makes sense, seeing as how HP acquired Palm in part because: “We see further opportunities beyond smartphones into additional connected mobile form factors.”

In other words, why build a tablet based on a non-mobile operating system such as Windows 7, when a leaner, more communications-integrated operating system such as webOS just dropped into your lap?

Resource:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/04/30/microsoft_kills_courier/

Let’s take a closer look at each of the six points–not necessarily in the order Jobs lists them–from the letter and dig deeper to see if the arguments and justifications actually hold water.

The war of words between Apple and Adobe over Flash on the iPhone and iPad continues.

Full Web

Jobs states in his letter “Adobe has repeatedly said that Apple mobile devices cannot access “the full Web” because 75 percent of video on the Web is in Flash. What they don’t say is that almost all this video is also available in a more modern format, H.264, and viewable on iPhones, iPods and iPads.”

As a user of both the iPhone and iPad, I have to side with Jobs on this one. I won’t say that the lack of Flash is never an issue–I’d like to be able to track my Dominos Pizza order in real-time from the iPad–but it in the years I have been using the iPhone it has really never even occurred to me as an issue. Most of the sites that “rely” on Flash are really only using it to deliver ads that I don’t want to see anyway.

The reality, as Jobs points out, is that YouTube–the largest single purveyor of online video content–has an iPhone and iPad app to deliver video, and most major online outlets have adopted iPhone and iPad compatible video standards. For those that still depend on Flash, there are emerging Band-Aid solutions to deliver alternate streams to iPhones and iPads.

Reliability, Security, and Performance

Jobs says “Symantec recently highlighted Flash for having one of the worst security records in 2009. We also know first hand that Flash is the number one reason Macs crash,” adding “We don’t want to reduce the reliability and security of our iPhones, iPods and iPads by adding Flash.”

I am not sure about reliability or performance issues, but Symantec is not alone in citing security concerns with Adobe software. Microsoft has stepped up its game and offers a more formidable challenge for malware developers. Adobe products–especially Flash and Acrobat Reader–are ubiquitous on virtually every platform, and represent the low-hanging fruit for attackers to target.

However, the lack of true multitasking support on the iPhone and iPad provide the devices with protection against malware attacks. Adobe software may be the weakest link on other platforms, but probably wouldn’t fundamentally impair the security of the iPhone or iPad.

Battery Life

In the letter, Jobs explains that H.264 standard is the video codec of choice for the iPhone and iPad. The fact that H.264 decoding is built-in at the hardware level is one of the reasons that Apple embraces it. Jobs explains that decoding H.264 in software apparently consumes about twice as much battery power.

The letter says “Although Flash has recently added support for H.264, the video on almost all Flash websites currently requires an older generation decoder that is not implemented in mobile chips and must be run in software.”

Fair enough. I understand that Apple feels like any third-party software that cuts battery life in half will ultimately reflect poorly on the platform, or on Apple itself. However, I don’t really see the harm in allowing Flash as an option. Put the choice in the hands of the users and let them decide for themselves if cutting the battery life in half is a worthwhile tradeoff for using Flash.

Touch

This, in my opinion, is actually the strongest of the six points. Jobs clarifies “Many Flash websites rely on “rollovers”, which pop up menus or other elements when the mouse arrow hovers over a specific spot. Apple’s revolutionary multi-touch interface doesn’t use a mouse, and there is no concept of a rollover. Most Flash websites will need to be rewritten to support touch-based devices. If developers need to rewrite their Flash websites, why not use modern technologies like HTML5, CSS and JavaScript?”

When it comes to Flash-based video, the question of the touch vs. mouse-based interface may not be as important, but for Flash-based ads and apps, the mouse pointer is a fairly critical element for interacting with Flash.

Open

Here is where the train starts to leave the tracks. I have to wonder if Jobs could even type this part with a straight face. “Adobe’s Flash products are 100 percent proprietary. They are only available from Adobe, and Adobe has sole authority as to their future enhancement, pricing, etc. While Adobe’s Flash products are widely available, this does not mean they are open, since they are controlled entirely by Adobe and available only from Adobe. By almost any definition, Flash is a closed system.”

Um, isn’t that Apple’s entire business model? Is it me, or is it more than just a little ironic for Steve Jobs and Apple to penalize another vendor for developing a closed, proprietary platform? Apple prides itself on its ability to deliver higher quality products and an exceptional user experience because of its tight control of its proprietary platforms, yet cites those same attributes as weaknesses for Adobe.

It is also ironic for Jobs to champion H.264–a patented, proprietary platform requiring licensing fees–over Flash video in the same letter that he claims to reject Adobe Flash because it’s not open.

Jobs does acknowledge Apple’s proprietary nature, but claims that Web-based technologies should not be proprietary. I agree. I have said as much in debating the whole issue of depending on Flash. However, I’m not Apple so I can make that distinction without seeming like a complete hypocrite.

Platform Dependence

Then, we get to the crux of the matter–what Jobs claims is “the most important reason.” In the ultimate ironic twist, Jobs explains that the most important reason for rejecting Adobe Flash on the iPhone and iPad is that it takes control out of Apple’s hands.

Jobs states “If developers grow dependent on third-party development libraries and tools, they can only take advantage of platform enhancements if and when the third party chooses to adopt the new features. We cannot be at the mercy of a third party deciding if and when they will make our enhancements available to our developers.”

Aye, there’s the rub. I agree with Jobs assessment that “Flash is a cross platform development tool. It is not Adobe’s goal to help developers write the best iPhone, iPod and iPad apps. It is their goal to help developers write cross platform apps.”

So, Apple doesn’t want to allow Flash as a development platform because it doesn’t want the advancement and innovation of the iPhone or iPad platforms to be at the mercy of Adobe. That seems fairly reasonable, but it doesn’t fully explain why Apple took the extra–seemingly petty–measure of banning iPhone and iPad apps that are ported from Flash.

I’ll give Jobs points for the Full Web, Security, and Touch points. The Battery Life argument, in my opinion is a draw–I could go either way. But, when it comes to the Open, and Platform Dependence arguments, I have to cry foul.

It boils down to Apple wanting to maintain tight, proprietary control over app development for the iPhone and iPad, and not wanting to share the pie. It also seems suspicious given Apple’s foray into mobile advertising with the iAd platform–competing directly with the fairly ubiquitous Flash-based ads.

Resource:

http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/195313/apple_v_adobe_something_just_doesnt_add_up.html

Microsoft said Wednesday that it has reached an agreement that will give HTC Corp., a Taiwanese company that is a major maker of Android phones, the rights to use technology covered by Microsoft’s patents in those phone. Financial terms were not disclosed.

The deal comes a month after Apple sued HTC and accused the company of violating patents related to the iPhone.

HTC, which has said it will defend itself against Apple’s claims, is a key partner for Google in its expansion into mobile services. Android has intensified the competition between Google and companies such as Apple and Microsoft.

But Apple and Microsoft are dealing with HTC, not Google, because the device maker, not the maker of software that runs on it, historically has been the focus for settling intellectual-property disputes.

HTC started out as a maker of phones based on Microsoft’s Windows Mobile software, but as that operating system has lost favor among buyers, it’s focused more efforts on Android.

Microsoft did not say what technology is covered in the licensing agreement with HTC. Technology analyst Rob Enderle of Enderle Group said it is unlikely there’s any overlap with the patents Apple is suing over. Microsoft and Apple have licensed each other’s patents, and Enderle said if there were any question of overlapping patents around “multitouch” or other smart phone technologies, it would have been hashed out already.

That means the deal between Microsoft and HTC for Android phones wouldn’t likely give HTC any extra protection against the lawsuit Apple filed. But HTC is also expected to produce phones for Microsoft’s next mobile system, Windows Phone 7, which is set to reach consumers before the holidays. Wednesday’s licensing deal with Microsoft would protect HTC against another Apple lawsuit over a Windows phone, Enderle said.

Both the Apple lawsuit and HTC’s deal with Microsoft may make Android less attractive to other device makers. Part of Android’s appeal to companies such as Motorola Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. was its price: free. Enderle called the legal battle and the licensing fees “hidden costs” to choosing to make Android phones.

“The Apple suit was the first wake-up call,” Enderle said.

Apple’s lawsuit claims HTC infringes on 20 iPhone patents. It’s not clear whether Apple approached HTC with a licensing offer before filing its lawsuit. Apple spokesman Steve Dowling said he had no further details.

Resource:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100428/ap_on_hi_te/us_microsoft_htc_patents

Searching for information on the web is the most popular activity for the new generation of tech-savvy phone owners, research into the mobile phone habits of Australians has revealed.

More than three-quarters of people with internet connected phones use them to hunt for information online while on the move – up from just 30 per cent a year ago.

Popular online activities for mobile phone users include:

CHECKING news and weather (59 per cent).

EMAIL (58 per cent).

MAPS or directions (56 per cent).

SOCIAL networking (39 per cent).

Facebook is by far the most popular social networking site accessed via the mobile Web, snaring 98 per cent of visitors, followed by Twitter and MySpace.

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The Nielsen internet and technology report shows new activities, such as buying items online, jumped 10 per cent to 17 per cent.

The previously popular pastime of downloading ringtones dropped 9 per cent to 21 per cent.

The survey comes as new social networking-oriented phones hit the market. They boast iPhone-style touch screens, Qwerty keyboards and the ability to snap and instantly upload photos to sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

Samsung spokesman Tyler McGee said manufacturers were responding to the demands of consumers.

“Research shows that three out of five Australians under the age of 35 who access the internet claim to use social networking on their mobile phones,” he said.

Samsung has just released four internet-friendly phone models.

The survey said Nokia still leads the internet-capable mobile phone pack, controlling more than 35 per cent of the market. Apple’s iPhone has more than doubled its share to 28 per cent and is growing quickly.

About 13 per cent of Australians who have not yet used their mobile to go online plan to do so over the next 12 months.

“We’ve seen a big shift in the levels of activity among those who are using mobile internet,” Nielsen online spokesman Matt Bruce said.

Resource:

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/national/mobile-phone-users-hungry-for-accessing-online-including-facebook/story-e6frf7l6-1225860323408

10. T-Mobile G2 Touch

The G1 was the first of all the Google Android handsets, and with its slide-out keyboard and bricklike design, it was hard to see that the phone would ever challenge Apple. This second generation model is a lot better, having ditched the keyboard for a straightforward touch screen. There’s a five megapixel camera and eight hours of talk time – but beware: as this is simply a rebadged HTC Hero, buying one on T-Mobile limits your options.

9. LG InTouch Max GW620

The GW620 is very nearly a fantastic Android phone. But there are too many niggles for it to be perfect. On a petty note; what’s the point of a camera timer if the phone’s sides are curved so you can’t stand the phone up on its own? Sony Ericcson is much better at camera phone design. And when it comes to interface design, HTC are much better. Again, it’s got a five megapixel camera and eight hours of talktime. So there’s not much to complain about, but consumers can do better than this for the money.

8. Motorola Milestone

When it was launched in America, as the Droid, the Milestone sold almost as many units in its first two and half months as the iPhone. It did not – quite – live up to the expectations, but this is an impressive phone. It’s got a slide out keyboard, which for once feels genuinely useful without being clunky. And it has also got Motorola’s navigation built-in. Add in the car holder, and this is a pretty compelling handset, and probably one of your best options if you want an inexpensive Android phone with a keyboard.

7. Samsung Galaxy Portal

As a budget handset, the Galaxy Portal is impressive – a three-megapixel camera is a small fly in the ointment, but it produces adequate images. It offers all the usual video-recording, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth capabilities and claims up to about seven hours of talk time. The build quality simply isn’t as high as some of HTC’s premium products, but considering that it’s available from free on some very inexpensive tariffs, the Galaxy Portal is impressive.

6. HTC Hero

The Hero was, when it was first launched, heralded as the first breakthrough handset for Android. Forgive this device the ridiculous chin that makes any man carrying it in a suit’s breast pocket appear to be either packing a holster or wearing a truss. This is a slick handset with a decent interface. It’s only unfortunate because it has not yet been upgraded to the version of Android that will allow it to run satnav-style navigation in Google Maps.

5. Xperia X10

Sony Ericsson’s flagship Android handset is a fine phone – with an eight megapixel camera and a 10 hours battery life, the Sony Ericsson interface adds a level of depth to the Google experience that rivals HTC’s Sense skin.

4. HTC Legend

Perhaps the most stylish Android handset on the market at the moment, the HTC Legend is made from a single piece of aluminium. Similar in shape to the HTC Hero, it uses the same kind of manufacturing process used by Apple to make its unibody Mac computers. The Legend has a 3.2in AMOLED screen, which produces pin-sharp images and bright, crisp colours, and combines a touch-screen interface with an optical trackpad for easier menu navigation.

3. Xperia X10 Mini Pro

The startling thing about the X10 Mini Pro is simply how mini it is – this is a phone that is almost too small to be a convincing handset. But with a slide out keyboard, it’s usable even for those with fairly podgy fingers. There’s a five-megapixel camera, a built-in radio – and room for plenty more space in even the smallest handbag.

2. Nexus One

The first phone designed by Google (in association with HTC) was, on its release, a superb handset – its only weakness is that it has now been overtaken by others. It is, however, still a satisfying thing to hold, well-weighted and very small. It’s also one of a few phones that is, in conjunction with, for instance the Amazon MP3 Store, an acceptable replacement for an iPhone. It’s got a perfectly adequate five megapixel camera, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi of course, and it’s fast enough to run a decent number of apps or Google’s navigation at a usable speed.

1. HTC Desire

The HTC Desire is the best Google phone yet made, and one of the first handsets that is not only better on paper than an iPhone but also as good to use. A range of widgets that fix on the devices various homescreens make multitasking really easy, and Google’s mapping software is superb because of the phone’s impressive hardware, too. The only downside is that the battery life has yet to catch up with the processor’s capacity to run software.

Resource:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/mobile-phones/7639362/The-10-best-Google-Android-phones.html

Earlier, it migrated a better search result for business listings from Google.com for the desktop to Google.com from the phones. On Wednesday, the team rolled out changes to the way it shows image results when you search from some of those two smartphones.

The redesign’s objective is to squeeze more thumbnail images onto the page. To do this, Google has made thumbnails square instead of rectangular.

Swiping left and right keeps the header static while advancing through multiple pages of image results. You can also swipe through individual images if you’d rather view them one at a time.

Interestingly, Google has added an intermediate step for viewing image results. Tapping a photo pulls it up on a black backdrop and briefly flashes options to head back to the results page or to view the full-size image, along with a title and source information. The words fade after a few seconds, but be careful: tap the screen in the wrong place and instead of getting your options once again, you may find yourself directed to the source site.

Google’s redone mobile image results are available in 38 languages from Google.com on iPhone 3.0 and Android 2.1 smartphones.

Resource:

http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-19512_7-20003709-233.html

Google’s first foray into mobile phones was an upsetting affair. The company whose search engine changed the world had been rumoured to be planning something equally revolutionary in a sphere dominated by the iPhone. Rumours had swirled of a phone that was free – one that would be, like most other Google products, supported by advertising.

What we got was a slightly clunky new operating system, a regular contract and a brick-like phone, the G1, that sported a slide-out keyboard that was more Red Dwarf than Star Trek. Commentators at the time, including myself in this newspaper, said that it was, if anything, the very gentle lappings of the water at the beginning of a new wave.

Tomorrow, however, Vodafone launches the Nexus One in Britain. It’s the first handset that Google has designed, and it’s the first that genuinely begins to realise the potential of the company’s operating system, Android. The device offers total integration with email, the web and third-party applications in a way that even the iPhone has yet to offer, especially at this price.

Indeed, while the iPhone dominates media coverage, it’s only 2 per cent of the market. Just 20 per cent of it has anything that could be called a smartphone, the devices that are basically mini-computers that make phone calls. BlackBerries and iPhones are cutting edge, not mass market.

Google’s Android, however, is likely to change that. There are around 20 handsets running the system on the market and because the system can be used and adapted freely by any manufacturer, it’s available from Samsung, Sony Ericsson and soon even budget manufacturers such as Alcatel.

At some point in the next few years, it won’t be a surprise if the majority of all handsets are running a version of Google’s operating system, just as the vast majority of British web searches use Google’s search engine. It’s simply the market at work – free and effective, Android offers a compelling option for both manufacturers and consumers. It will probably also kill of the satnav market because every phone offers a free Google Maps navigation and turn-by-turn directions.

There is, however, a problem for the Nexus One – although Google and the first operator to have it, Vodafone, will give the device an almighty marketing push, Google’s handset is not the best device available with Android. HTC, which has been at the forefront of Android hardware, has already produced the Desire. Essentially, it’s a souped-up Nexus One, offering a nicer screen, a better trackball and a faster processor. That means everything works faster. The Desire is free on a two-year contract at about £30 per month. The Nexus One is only on Vodafone at a similar price.

So Google’s tanks are on Apple’s lawn. The search giant doesn’t yet offer the eco-system of products and services that makes Apple’s iPhone so ubiquitous because there are too many Android handsets of different shapes and sizes. But make no mistake – Google will change the bulk of the market, will put the web and music in the majority of people’s pockets, and will probably not charge you a penny for it. There are few products that really make life both easier and cheaper – but Android is one of them.

Resource:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/google/7647230/Will-Android-eat-Apple.html

The Linux-based tablet has a 12.1-inch screen, making it slightly larger than Apple’s rival device, the iPad, which will only go on sale in the UK at the end of May. The JooJoo has a resolution of 1,366×768 pixels and uses an Intel Atom processor with Nvidia Ion graphics processing. It has a 4GB solid-state drive and 1GB of RAM.

Like the iPad, the JooJoo has an onscreen virtual keyboard. Unlike the Apple slate, it runs Flash content and has a USB connection and a webcam.

The JooJoo has a nine-second boot-up time and a browser-based operating system. On Fusion Garage’s website, the company addresses the issue of an application store — the distribution method favoured by Apple for its iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad — by saying JooJoo “has the largest app store in the world… it’s called the internet”.

The JooJoo began its life as the CrunchPad, a collaboration between Fusion Garage and Michael Arrington, the entrepreneur behind the TechCrunch website. Arrington launched a lawsuit against Fusion Garage in December last year, after the company decided to release the device without his input.

The device is now shipping to US customers, after an initial delay. In a blog post on Monday, Fusion Garage chief Chandrasekar Rathakrishnan said the company had been overly optimistic in its delivery date estimates. He also conceded that the JooJoo’s software had needed major revisions since the first review samples were sent out to a generally tepid reception.

“We are in the midst of ‘bad JooJoo’ for a very simple reason: we were aggressive in our product delivery commitments, decided to completely revise our UI as we were readying the product for release, and our initial units shipped with software that proved to be problematic when put to the test in the real world,” Rathakrishnan wrote. “Embarrassing? Yes. Correctable? Absolutely. And we will.

“We will have a robust software update available shortly that we fully expect to eliminate many of the problems that were widely reported in our initial product review cycle. We will also be able to play full-screen HD video as promised via our Fusion Garage player,” he added.

According to Fusion Garage, the JooJoo receives over-the-air software updates to add new functionality as it is developed.

UK customers can order the JooJoo through the Fusion Garage website at a cost of £319 plus tax and shipping. An optional stand for the device is available for £30 plus tax and shipping.

Resource:

http://www.zdnet.co.uk/news/mobile-devices/2010/04/28/fusion-garage-launches-joojoo-web-tablet-in-uk-40088789/

Mozilla released an early build of its mobile browser, codenamed Fennec, for Android phones this week. The browser is described as a pre-alpha build, meaning it’s still heavily under development and far from being a final product.

The app, as such, isn’t a complete representation of what’ll eventually hit Android’s App Market. But it is an interesting glimpse into what Mozilla has on the way for Google’s Android platform. Here’s a sneak peek at what you can expect.

The Android Firefox Experience

If I were to describe the early edition of the Firefox Android app in three words, I’d call it “rough but promising.” This pre-alpha build, just announced on Tuesday, is missing a great deal of functionality. The on-screen keyboard doesn’t pop up automatically when you tap on a text field, for example, and the app doesn’t seem to recognize the phone’s hardware “Back” button (pressing it while browsing a Web page didn’t do anything at all for me).

But that kind of thing is to be expected in a piece of software that’s not even at the beta, let alone alpha, level of development. So from here on out, I’ll focus on what the Firefox Android app does have, and what potential it shows for the future of Android Web browsing.

Firefox typically handles multiple tabs with ease, and its Android edition looks like it’ll be no exception. Scrolling to the far left of a page while browsing on Firefox Android brings up a vertical tab panel. The column shows tiny thumbnails of every page you currently have open; tapping on any thumbnail takes you to that page within a second. At the bottom of the panel sits an icon that allows you to start a new tab.

Scrolling all the way to the right brings up another panel, this one featuring options to mark a page as a favorite, navigate forward or backward, and open a preferences menu. The basic preferences themselves are pretty straight-forward: You can set your start page, enable or disable JavaScript, and manage your privacy settings. The most impressive part of Mozilla’s Android browser, though, comes in via a secondary preferences menu — one entitled “Add-ons.”

Android Browsing Add-Ons

Like the Firefox desktop edition, the Firefox Android app appears to be primed for expansion and customization. Nearly a hundred mobile-specific add-ons are already available for download, and that number is likely to grow exponentially as the browser starts reaching more and more users.

The most exciting add-on available for the Android edition so far is undoubtedly Mozilla’s own Weave Browser Sync. It lets you sync your bookmarks, saved passwords, and browsing history between your desktop and your Android phone. It can even sync your current set of active tabs, meaning you could open the app on your phone and see the same exact pages you had open when you left your computer. Pretty sweet, eh?

Other add-ons I found in the Firefox Android pre-alpha pool included a YouTube Enabler tool that lets you watch Flash-based YouTube video directly in the browser; a Near Me utility that puts location-based searching into the program; and a TwitterBar plugin that allows you to send tweets by typing into the browser’s address bar.

Some familiar Firefox add-ons are already available for the mobile edition, too, including GreaseMonkey, IETab, and Adblock Plus. You can browse the full list for yourself at Mozilla’s mobile add-ons page.

Firefox on Android: Final Thoughts

It’s hard to say much about the actual browsing experience with Firefox’s first semipublic Android offering; aside from the missing elements I mentioned early on, Mozilla’s developers are upfront about the fact that this pre-alpha version hasn’t been optimized for memory usage just yet. Not surprisingly, then, pages are slightly slow to load, and things aren’t always working quite perfectly.

The promise, however, is definitely there. One thing that remains to be seen is whether multitouch pinch-to-zoom functionality will be added in before the browser’s final release; as of now, you’re stuck using the old tap-tap method of zooming in and out of pages. If pinch-to-zoom is ultimately supported, I could see this becoming a very compelling option for the Android platform.

For now, though, I wouldn’t recommend installing this build for any kind of regular use; it’s simply too rough to be useful on a practical level. If you’re curious to see it first-hand, though — and willing to bear the occasional system crash — you can find a link to download it here. Android 2.0 or higher is required. And be sure to read the warnings on the page before proceeding; as with any pre-release build, some minor risks are involved.

While it may not be quite ready for primetime, Mozilla’s Firefox Android browser is certainly an app to keep an eye on. For now, the Dolphin Browser will remain the default on my personal Android phone — but once Mozilla’s Android offering is finalized, I suspect I’ll have a difficult decision on my hands.

Resource:

http://www.pcworld.com/article/195180/firefox_for_google_android_a_handson_tour.html

It appears that earlier this month, Google presented the owners of soon-to-be-launched Australian liquor price comparison website, Groggle.com.au, with a cease and desist letter demanding it stop using the Groggle brand.

According to the letter, sighted by Delimiter, Google is alleging that “The mark is is substantially identical with and deceptively familiar to the Google trademarks which are extremely well known in Australia.” The search giant is represented by law firm Middletons.

Groggle Pty Ltd is a startup based in Brisbane founded by Cameron Collie and Alec Doughty and is planning to offer a location-driven alcohol price comparison service online. Currently in beta, the Groggle project is over two years in the making and the founders had hoped to launch in a few months, with a look at launching a similar website in the US within the year.

Google’s letter alleged the Groggle name was “likely to mislead and deceive consumers into believing that Groggle has a sponsorship, affiliation or approval with Google, when this is not the case”.

Collie said in response to the C&D letter: “We are a legitimate business that is just trying to launch a startup and now we are facing the wrath of Google’s lawyers because Google thinks it owns any word that ends in ‘gle’ and cannot see that our domain is a play on the word ‘Grog’ and has nothing to do with their name.”

Collie also mention that the URL “Groggle.com” is not a typo of Google.com and could not be considered for typo-squatting, a practise of URL hijacking when surfers type an Internet address in the address bar and are then taken to another website not of their choosing.

The directors of Groggle Pty Ltd had until the 14th April to meet Google’s demands as stated in the C&D, including withdrawal of the trademark application and transfer of all domain names to Google. Groggle Pty Ltd has eight different variations of Groggle domains registered.

The C&D is riddled with mistakes and refers to “Groggle” as “Groogle”, such as “change its company name to a name that does not include the word “GROOGLE” or “GOOGLE” and provide a written acknowledgement that Groogle has infringed upon the Google trademarks.

A follow up letter was sent to Groggle Pty Ltd on the 20th April notifying Collie and Doughty that they have until 4pm on Thursday 29 April to comply with the C&D.

The way the website operates is when consumers search for their poison of choice, for example “Boag’s Classic Blonde” on the Groggle site and enter their postcode. The results displays the retailer with the cheapest price for the product, within the consumers district.

Retailers have to register with the website in order to be included in the results, they can then update prices and products as needed.

Collie and Doughty had registered Groggle.com using Google Apps Premier Edition and paid Google the annual fee of $50 per user account, totalling $100 for 2 user accounts.

Google didn’t have a response at the time of writing this article.

Resource:

http://www.itwire.com/it-industry-news/strategy/38635-google-growls-at-groggle

Developers will have their revenue split decreased by 10 per cent, matching Apple’s structure for applications and games sold on iTunes.

Free apps debuted on App World Australia in December and local developers have been waiting with bated breath for the paid version.

But since then RIM executives have consistently said the paid offering would be unveiled “soon”, without revealing further details.

BlackBerry users in 13 countries have been able to buy applications since April 2009 while 42 countries are with the free-only version.

PayPal was the sole payment method but the paid store will also accept credit cards and carrier billing.

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With carrier billing, purchases would appear on the buyer’s telco bill.

Telstra, Optus and other local telcos are in talks with RIM to provide carrier billing services, said Tyler Lessard, RIM global alliances and developer relations vice-president.

“We’re talking to all our carrier partners in Australia for paid apps,” Mr Lessard said during RIM’s Wireless Enterprise Symposium (WES) in Orlando, Florida.

He refused to say more when pressed for a specific month or quarter, but said paid apps would be available “later this year”.

RIM would still proceed to launch with PayPal and credit card billing if telcos don’t come to the party in time, he said.

The current revenue split of 80:20 will change to 70:30 later this year.

The move will help RIM expand App World’s payment options and enter new markets.

“This changed about a week ago and we’ve briefed our developers,” Mr Lessard said.

BigTinCan CEO David Keane welcomed the move despite the 10 per cent cut.

“It takes the headache out of billing for developers … this is a pretty fair move,” Mr Keane said.

The Sydney-based mobile application development firm already has several apps for sale on the US App World site such as BuzzMe.

Resource:

http://www.itwire.com/it-industry-news/strategy/38635-google-growls-at-groggle

HTC Corp., which makes Google’s Nexus One mobile phone, has agreed to pay under a patent licensing agreement, Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft said in a statement today without disclosing the amount. Motorola Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. also make mobile devices that use Android.

Microsoft has been talking “with several device manufacturers to address our concerns relative to the Android mobile platform,” Horacio Gutierrez, the company’s deputy general counsel for intellectual property and licensing, said in an e-mailed statement without naming the companies involved.

Google, owner of the world’s most popular search engine, offers Android for free to handset companies, and seeks to make money instead from selling advertising tied to Android users’ searches and application uses. Microsoft’s demands expand the legal issues around Android and raise the possibility of more companies seeking royalties, said Michael Gartenberg, a partner at research firm Altimeter Group.

“The message is so not subtle — Android is not free and not only is not free, it can start being quite expensive over time,” Gartenberg said. “The irony of the fact is that for every HTC Android phone that ships, Microsoft will get a check.”

Dealing With Microsoft

Rob Enderle, principal analyst for the Enderle Group in San Jose, California, estimates that HTC and most other handset manufacturers would have to pay Microsoft $20 to $40 per phone to license the intellectual property required for Android.

Unless Google somehow figures out how to ax this cost, “Android is going to fall off as an expensive and risky platform,” he said. “Nobody wants to deal with Microsoft.”

Apple Inc. already has a patent-infringement complaint pending against HTC over phones that run on Android. Research In Motion Ltd., Nokia Oyj and Palm Inc. are among the device makers that might claim to have patent rights to Android, Gartenberg said.

HTC, based in Taoyuan, Taiwan, also makes phones that run on Microsoft’s Windows Mobile operating system.

Anthony House, a spokesman for Mountain View, California- based Google, said the company isn’t ready to comment on the matter.

Apple Case

Apple, maker of the iPhone, is seeking to block U.S. imports of HTC phones that run on Android. That case is pending before the U.S. International Trade Commission in Washington.

In a March 15 blog posting, Gutierrez said the Apple case is proof that the mobile phone industry “is in the process of sorting out what royalties will be” for the software that adds the features such as Internet access and downloading capabilities.

He said Microsoft has “consistently taken a proactive approach to licensing.” The company, which is typically defending itself against four dozen patent-infringement suits at any given time, isn’t known for filing lawsuits over its own patents. Since 2007, the company has filed two patent lawsuits against companies that didn’t sue it first, according to Bloomberg data.

Resource:

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-04-29/microsoft-says-google-s-android-may-infringe-patents-correct-.html

Symbian might currently be the world’s most popular mobile OS, but the Finnish manufacturer is clearly concerned about the onward march of Google’s Android platform. The launch of the open source Symbian 3 is a direct retaliation and will present programmers and developers with a potentially lucrative new market.

Symbian aside, the N8 has a specification to impress. The real headline grabber is its built-in 12MP camera and the quality of Facebook snaps should improve, particularly with the addition of the Carl Zeiss optics and Xenon flash.

Even more impressively, the N8 supports high-definition (HD) video capture which can be played back on HD TV sets thanks to its HDMI support.

The sturdy 135g N8, braced by an aluminium frame, was shown off in five colour options – including fun lime green, orange and blue schemes.

However, despite its promising credentials, the N8 won’t arrive in shops until the third quarter of this year which is – crucially – after the next generation iPhone is expected to launch.

Ernest Doku, mobile phone expert at Omio.com, reckons Nokia is on to a winner.

He said: “The Finnish manufacturer has finally weighed in with their bid for smartphone supremacy and it’s looking good.

“Introducing a host of features and functionality that Nokia’s handsets have been sorely lacking for some time. Multi-touch and gesture support for pinch-to-zoom makes the N8 more finger friendly than ever before, with a 3.5-inch capacitive display proving the perfect home to prodding and poking.”

Nokia has quoted a retail price of around £320 and Omio.com is predicting the handset will be available on £35 a month contracts.

Resource:

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/

Deals

Analysts say 2010′s third-largest U.S. tech acquisition grants Palm’s devices global production and distribution reach while launching the world’s top PC maker into a tech arena experiencing blistering growth.

The news on Wednesday surprised many on Wall Street, since much of the long-running takeover speculation surrounding Palm had shifted in recent weeks to focus on potential Asian bidders, such as China’s Lenovo (0992.HK).

An early pioneer in handheld devices, Palm once dominated the market but has since been surpassed by Apple’s iPhone and Research in Motion’s (RIM.TO) BlackBerry. Palm put out a new mobile operating system, the well-reviewed webOS, last year but even that has been overshadowed by Google Inc’s (GOOG.O) Android software.

In a sign of Palm’s struggles, the money-losing company headed by Jon Rubinstein — an ex-Apple executive famous for developing the iPod — slashed revenue expectations for the current quarter. It said slow product sales have led to low order volumes from carriers.

“If you saw the guidance Palm just put out, it was clear they had to sell,” said Phil Cusick, analyst at Macquarie Research. “Given how quickly Palm’s business was falling off and how fast their cash was going out the door, they’re lucky to get what they got.

Palm reported losses for each of its last two fiscal years.

Shares of Palm, 30 percent owned by Elevation Partners, jumped 27 percent to $5.88, above HP’s $5.70 cash offer. Some investors could be betting on a higher bid, while others could be covering short positions on the heavily shorted stock, analysts said..

HP said the deal for Palm, which both boards have approved, valued the company at $1.2 billion including debt. Based on Palm’s latest filing, the deal values Palm’s 167.892 million shares outstanding at $957 million.

Analysts said HP has deep pockets to invest in Palm, can expand its carrier relationships and negotiate better component pricing from existing suppliers.

“PC companies don’t need cellphone-type margins to make the model work; they can be much more price-aggressive in capturing share and will certainly drive margins down for everyone else,” said Avi Cohen at Avian Securities.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch advised HP, while Goldman Sachs advised Palm.

GOOD DEAL OR NOT?

HP’s foray into the fiercely contested smartphone arena, while it may not immediately threaten Apple, and Research in Motion’s BlackBerry, may increase pressure on Nokia (NOK1V.HE), Motorola (MOT.N) and other device manufacturers now battling to expand their market share.

“Nokia will be one of the most affected players,” said IDC analyst Francisco Jeronimo. Because of a “wrong portfolio and lack of carrier support, Nokia never moved from its eighth position…in the smartphone segment. This deal puts also pressure on Motorola and HTC.”

Others, however, were more skeptical about HP’s ability to turn around Palm, whose Pre and Pixi phones have withered in the face of fierce competition.

“If HP wants to have a global role in the mobile space, spending $1.2 billion in Palm is not the way. Palm has no brand outside the U.S., and it has no distribution outside the U.S.” said John Strand, chief executive of Strand Consult.

“To pay $1.2 billion for a U.S.-centric mobile player that’s not successful is a first-class way to destroy shareholder value. Palm has tried to move from the PDA world into the mobile world for eight years without success,” Strand said.

According to Gartner, Palm held 1.2 percent of the global smartphone market in 2009, compared with Nokia’s (NOK1V.HE) 41.1 percent, RIM’s 19.9 percent and Apple’s 14.4 percent.

Despite Palm’s shortcomings, persistent takeover rumors have attracted many investors to the heavily shorted stock. For example, Philip Falcone’s hedge fund Harbinger Capital Partners LLC bought Palm shares on April 12, when they were trading between $5.43 and $6.29, and had a 9.48 percent stake.

The deal may mark the culmination of a long-running effort by private equity firm Elevation Partners, the private equity firm that boasts U2 frontman Bono among its partners.

Elevation — which bought a quarter of Palm for $325 million in 2007 — had brought in numerous ex-Apple executives over the years in hopes of turning the company around, including Rubinstein.

It was unclear how much Elevation, which has invested about $460 million in Palm, made or lost.

Some investment banking sources had thought that Lenovo (0992.HK) was the leading candidate to buy Palm after the U.S. company was rebuffed by other potential Asian buyers including HTC Corp (2498.TW) and Huawei HWT.UL.

Palm now expects fiscal fourth quarter revenue in the range of $90 million to $100 million, compared with its mid-March forecast that revenue would be less than $150 million.

Todd Bradley, executive vice president of HP’s computer division, said the company plans to “invest heavily” in Palm, increasing spending on sales and marketing and research and development in the hope of spurring the developer community into writing more applications for the platform.

Palm’s app universe now has more than 2,000 applications, dwarfed by Apple’s App store with closer to 200,000 apps.

Bradley also said Palm’s platform is attractive for an entire ecosystem of mobile devices, from smartphones to slate devices to netbooks.

HP Executives expected a few cents” dilution for from the deal in the second half of fiscal 2010 and “mild” impact in 2011 — for a company that in the fiscal first quarter reported non-GAAP earnings of $1.07 per share.

“Coupled with our scale, global reach and investments in the ecosystem, we expect we will see solid growth,” he said.

HP already has a smartphone, the iPaq, which runs on Microsoft’s (MSFT.O) Windows mobile platform. But the device has gained little traction in a crowded market.

Rubinstein is expected to remain with the company, HP said in a statement, adding that the acquisition would likely close during its third fiscal quarter ending July 31.

Shares of HP fell 1 percent to $52.75 in extended trading from their New York Stock Exchange close of $53.28.

HP “would be one of the few companies that I think could successfully turn Palm around. The company has great brand, great international distribution,” said C.L. King Associates’ analyst Lawrence Harris. “That will open a lot of doors.”

Resource:

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63R5HO20100429

Apple will hold the WWDC from June 7 through June 11 in San Francisco at the Moscone West conference center, a popular venue for local technology conferences.

Naturally, Apple did not make any statements about whether it would launch new hardware at the show, but did make it clear that iPhone OS 4 would be in the spotlight. Apple announced a developer preview of the OS on April 8.

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Not surprisingly, an Apple announcement of a new iPhone will be eagerly anticipated. However, the saga of the lost or stolen prototype iPhone has overshadowed the launch, as Gizmodo has already printed a hands-on evaluation of the new prototype. Consumers, of course, will be interested to see whether the site was indeed right.

That iPhone prototype issue is currently being treated as a potential criminal investigation by the San Mateo Country District Attorney’s office, although no charges have been filed. Police seized computers and servers belonging to Jason Chen, a Gizmodo editor, and reports now say that police know and have interviewed the individual who found the prototype at a Redwood City, Calif. cafe.

Apple said sessions would be concentrated in five areas: application frameworks, the Internet and Web, graphics and media, developer tools and the core OS. Apple will almost certainly encourage and assist developers into implementing HTML 5 technologies into their applications, as Apple has rather vocally criticized Flash and has banned it from even content creation. However, a press release announcing the WWDC show listed just one, “Using HTML5 Local Data Storage”.

Additionally, there will be five iPad and five iPhone Apple Design Award winners announced at WWDC 2010, Apple said. “There is no requirement to enter and winners will be selected from the App Store based on criteria that includes design, technical excellence, innovation, quality, technology adoption and performance,” the company said. Apple has also listed sessions on iAds, its new integrated mobile ad platform, which have already been criticized for misreading customer preferences.

Resource:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2363173,00.asp

The Vodafone 845, the mobile phone operator’s first Android smartphone, could be a precursor of things to come as it is the first 360 smartphone to come out since Vodafone launched the Samsung H1 and M1.

There are currently only four other quasi obsolete Nokia phones that come preloaded with the full set of 360. The M1 and the H1 were based on the LiMo platform rather than any more common mobile environment.

Switching to Android platform makes more sense because it is much widely supported and benefits from regular updates and overwhelming support from thousands of developers worldwide.

Not surprisingly, there are more than 50,000 apps for Android significantly more than LiMo and second only to Apple’s iPhone. So what might have happened? Sales of the M1 and the H1 could have been disappointing.

Vodafone currently has five Android smartphones in its lineup and appears to be willing to embrace the platform by adopting it for its own brand phones.

The 845 is its most ambitious phone yet; the M1 and the H1 had Samsung’s name on them, not this one. Furthermore, with an initial launch in 12 Vodafone market, the 845 could quickly become a very popular model.

Resource:

http://www.itproportal.com/portal/news/article/2010/4/28/will-vodafone-radically-change-360-platform-android-smartphones/

RIM, whose low-key public relations style is the polar opposite of Apple’s iPhone hype, still hasn’t made a formal announcement about the new OS, but RIM co-chief executive Mike Lazaridis showed a brief video about it at the company’s annual Wireless Enterprise Symposium in Florida. Lazaridis said the new OS represents one of RIM’s biggest upgrades in years.

Stock analysts at the meeting were favorably impressed and gave a round of spontaneous applause when they were shown the video, according to reports.

Particularly good news for BlackBerry users is Lazaridis’ comment that the firm is working to ensure that the new OS will accommodate existing BlackBerrys. “We are going to try and do our best to allow people to upgrade to 6.0,” he said.

RIM’s other co-chief executive, Jim Balsillie, said that more powerful phone cameras and easy-to-navigate displays will appear in BlackBerry models soon. “You are going to see very powerful extensions on our part,” said Balsillie. “I don’t think you have to be too patient either.”

In recent months Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android phones have stolen much of the publicity thunder from RIM, but the BlackBerry maker still leads in smartphone deliveries. A new OS with a fast browser along with an improved touchscreen would help the firm’s image.

Earlier this week, RIM announced new phones for carriers and users on GSM and CDMA networks.

Resource:

http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/handheld/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=224700089

Australians’ ownership of internet phones now sits at 43 per cent, with 29 per cent regularly using it to search, email, find maps and to share their lives on Facebook, Twitter and MySpace.

Even though people have an internet-enabled handset, some people aren’t necessarily using it. According to Nielsen’s online business managing director Matt Bruce some still own older 2G smartphone models, while others are afraid of bill shock.

“The older models are not as easy to use. You have to find your way through the phone to find the browser, then go from there. The iPhone makes it easier,” he said.

Internet searches are the most popular online activity on the phones. Some 73 per cent of users conduct online searches by mobile now, compared with 30 per cent a year ago.

Other common uses include checking news and weather (59 per cent, up 18 points), email (58 per cent, up 20 points), maps and directions (56 per cent, up 24 points) and social networking (39 per cent, up 25 points).

The adoption of internet phones has been growing steadily since the introduction of mobile data cap plans in Australia, which go some way to reducing the risk of bill shock for users. People’s infatuation with the iPhone has also driven mobile internet adoption worldwide.

Nokia still maintains a solid lead on internet phones in Australia with a 35 per cent market share, however, the iPhone has made significant gains in the past year, more than doubling from just 13 per cent to 28 per cent market share. Intention to purchase an iPhone also remains high, with Apple set to triple its share this year, Bruce said.

With an overwhelming majority of the share of mobile social networking, Facebook is by far the most common social networking site accessed via mobile (98 per cent), followed by Twitter (20 per cent) and MySpace (17 per cent), the report said.

According to Nielsen, Telstra has seen mobile data traffic on its Next G™ network double every eight months for the past two years.

Resource:

http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/mobiles/australians-take-to-mobile-internet-20100429-tszn.html

The new OS will be launched in the next calendar quarter. Some existing devices can also upgrade to 6.0 although the exact details are not yet known. Blackberry 6.0 also has a new web browser, which is capable of multiple sessions and tabbed browsing, and is based on the open source WebKit engine, which is used in iPhone, Android, and Symbian handsets.

The WebKit engine is capable of rendering HTML5, and CSS, and can be used to create applications and widgets for BlackBerry handsets.

Blackberry Bold 9650 and Blackberry pearl 3G

RIM announced two new handsets on Tuesday — the BlackBerry Bold 9650 and the BlackBerry Pearl 3G. RIM doesn’t like to play the spec-to-spec game against Android and iPhone offerings, which have higher resolution screens and faster processors. Compared to the iPhone 4G, whose specs have been leaked by Gizmodo, the difference is quite marked.

The Bold 9650 is the first Bold series handset for CDMA networks. It has a 3.2 MP camera, Wi-Fi, GPS, and Bluetooth, an integrated optical trackpad, QWERTY keyboard, and a 480W360 resolution display. The Pearl 3G is an update of the Pearl series, and touted as the smallest BlackBerry yet. The new Pearl series supports 802.11n, and is the first handset to incorporate it.

Sleek, small and fast, RIM considers it to be the sports car of BlackBerry smartphones. The phone will be available in two keyboard versions — the Pearl 9100 which has a 20-key condensed QWERTY keypad and the 9105 one with a traditional phone keyboard with 14 keys.

Superapps

BlackBerry App World, RIM’s app marketplace for BlackBerry smartphones, was launched in March last year. It currently has 6,500 applications, and is available in six languages in 52 countries.

“We’re looking at a high level of integration and sophistication. Instead of hundreds of apps that you use once, we’re looking at creating ten applications you can’t live without,” said Mike Kirkup, director of Developer Relations, RIM, in an interview with ET.

While Blackberry’s App World is a channel for apps, it’s not the only channel. “There are non-RIM BlackBerry stores, and many ways to get in beside BlackBerry’s App World. This is a big benefit for developers,” said Mike. For example, BlackBerry apps can be downloaded from GetJar.com, which now has a solution for Reliance Communications.”

Updated mobile voice system

Blackberry also announced an update to the BlackBerry Mobile Voice System (MVS), which provides business users the ability to use their regular desk phone number and extension from their BlackBerry smartphone over cellular networks.

Expected to be available later this year, MVS version 5 will let employees make and receive enterprise calls on their BlackBerry smartphone over a Wi-Fi connection. “The interest for this solution has been incredible.

We’ve started taking steps to test MVS with a particular company in India,” said Frenny Bawa, vice-president, India, RIM.

Resource:

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/infotech/hardware/RIMs-evolutionary-OS-Phone-Update/articleshow/5870374.cms

In an interview with the New York Times, VP of Engineering at Google Andy Rubin confirmed that Android 2.2 (or Froyo to its friends) will be packing the extra support.

What’s not clear is whether this will be the Flash 10.1 we’ve been hearing so much about for Android – which would mean a delay for the upgrade

Waiting, waiting…

We’re still waiting to hear about a release date for the new Froyo upgrade (which we still know very little about) but given Adobe has said that Flash 10.1 won’t be coming until later in the year, if it was part of Android 2.2 then we’re in for a bit of a wait.

Of course, there’s always the argument that constant updates are fragmenting the market, with issues like HTC Hero owners being forced to wait a year to be brought up to speed with latest Android version.

So perhaps leaving Froyo in the wilderness will help the market catch up – or at least give us long enough to get bored of playing with Live Wallpapers and want to find something else to waste time on.

Resource:

http://www.techradar.com/news/phone-and-communications/mobile-phones/android-2-2-coming-with-flash-as-standard-686083

Technology blog Gizmodo is in a difficult position. The site’s editor, Jason Chen, recently had his home searched and electronics equipment seized to see if he committed a crime at any point over the past few weeks when he paid $5,000 for a lost iPhone 4G.

Chen says he’s innocent and Gizmodo’s legal counsel has publicly said that Chen was acting well within journalistic standards. The legal counsel says that he cannot be charged with any crime for acquiring the iPhone 4G.

But determining exactly what happened and whether laws or journalistic ethics were violated might be more difficult that it seems on face value. Gizmodo has been forthright about its contention that it acted within its rights as a news service in sharing information about the Apple iPhone prototype with the public. If its account is true, it appears that Gizmodo tried to perform journalistic due diligence before it started the process of acquiring the iPhone 4G and posting details about the device on its site.

But that doesn’t mean that Gizmodo was necessarily entirely right in this scenario. It also doesn’t mean that law enforcement has made the right moves. It seems that there is adequate blame to go around. And it’s incumbent upon us as the spectators to be as informed as possible before we pass judgment.

So, let’s take a look at 10 things to know about Gizmodo’s iPhone 4G saga.

1. An Apple employee lost it

   Although some have said that Apple secretly leaked the iPhone 4G to Gizmodo, it reportedly didn’t happen that way. An Apple employee lost the iPhone 4G in a bar, which was eventually recovered by another patron. After unsuccessful attempts at getting the iPhone back into Apple’s hands, the person offered it up to Gizmodo. According to Gizmodo, the person held onto the iPhone for weeks before giving it to the tech blog. That’s an important factor in all of this. Considering the person tried hard to give the device back to Apple, some fault might need to be placed on the hardware company for not performing its own due diligence.

2. Gizmodo paid $5,000 for it

   Gizmodo reported recently that it paid $5,000 for the lost iPhone. That figure might not mean much to some, but under California law, that puts the transaction into felony territory. That’s not a good thing. But it also speaks to whether or not Gizmodo should have paid for the product and if it acted ethically by doing so. It’s difficult to say what any publication or editor would do in a similar situation, but a spectator’s individual ethics must come into play when deciding where the fault should be placed.

3. Apple had ample time to recover it

   As mentioned above, Apple had about three weeks to find and retrieve the lost iPhone, according to Gizmodo. The tech blog said that the person who recovered the iPhone from the bar attempted to contact the company to no avail. Rather than hold on to it, he decided to sell it off for a handsome sum. It makes sense. But it also begs the question of whether or not Apple truly cares. Steve Jobs has a proven track record of being secretive and unbending in his distaste for those who leak company secrets. If he was really that upset about what was lost, wouldn’t he have attempted to more proactively seek it out? One would think so.

4. There’s still no telling if it’s really the iPhone 4G

   Try as it might to say that the phone it found is in fact the iPhone 4G, Gizmodo, like the rest of us, cannot confirm it. Apple has yet to say whether or not the lost device was actually the new version of the iPhone and it’s entirely possible that the device is one of many prototypes the company is working on. As appealing as it might be to seemingly look at the next version of the iPhone that Apple doesn’t want us to see, there’s no way to know if it’s what we’ll be using in the coming months. Gizmodo recovered an iPhone prototype, but not necessarily the iPhone 4G.

5. Apple finally got it back

   After the news broke that Gizmodo had acquired the iPhone and it discussed its features, Apple’s legal counsel sent a memo to Gizmodo requesting the device back. The tech blog used that request as proof that it was in fact an authentic Apple product. Upon receiving the iPhone, Apple has said nothing about the device and has yet to confirm it was really the iPhone 4G. Nonetheless, the iPhone is back in Apple’s hands and we won’t learn anymore about it until Apple finally confirms its existence.

6. Chen could be charged with a felony

   Until Apple recovered the iPhone, it was all fun and games for Gizmodo and those that wanted to learn more about the new iPhone. But it quickly turned serious when reports started surfacing claiming Chen could be charged with a felony because of the way he acquired the device. Since then, his home has been searched and computers and other electronics have been seized by local police in an attempt to determine if a crime was actually committed. For his part, Chen says he is innocent. But whether or not the district attorney will agree remains to be seen.

7. He could also be covered under media shield laws

   Chen might have a valid defense if he is in fact, charged with a crime. Gizmodo’s chief legal counsel sent a letter to local police, which was subsequently posted on the tech blog, saying that Chen is a journalist and thus, under California (and Federal) law, a warrant cannot be issued to search his home and seize property that could have been used for the purposes of a news story. Court decisions in the past provide Gizmodo and Chen with the precedent they need to show that online journalists are, in fact, covered under the same protections as traditional journalists. Assuming the district attorney interprets the laws the same way Gizmodo’s legal counsel does, Chen might not be charged with a crime.

8. Apple hasn’t chimed in

   As the drama continues at Gizmodo, Cupertino has been silent. Steve Jobs, his executives, and even his PR team have been mum on whether or not they have any opinion about what’s happening to Chen or Gizmodo. It’s rather typical from Apple. The company has imposed its will by acquiring the lost iPhone and now that its work is done, it has decided to say nothing about the issues Gizmodo is facing. Depending on where the law-enforcement effort goes, though, at least one Apple employee—the man who lost the iPhone—might need to chime in.

9. Gizmodo maintains its journalistic standards

   Some journalists have contended that Chen’s decision to buy the iPhone for $5,000 breaks journalistic ethics and standards that have been in place for years. They contend that from an ethical perspective, Chen shouldn’t have paid for the story and instead should have reported on the news that the iPhone was lost. Gizmodo and Chen don’t agree. They contend that they were doing what they were supposed to do: inform the public on Apple’s upcoming products. Either side of the debate can make a valid argument, but it’s tough to say which is right.

10. It’ll probably blow over

    In the end, the chances of Chen being charged with a crime and Apple taking issue with Gizmodo seem relatively slight. Gizmodo could potentially have its trump card, thanks to journalistic protection. And Apple, realizing that Gizmodo was only doing its job, likely won’t press the issue more than it already has. In a couple weeks, Gizmodo’s ordeal with the iPhone 4G will blow over and the story will be just another interesting saga to discuss in end-of-the-year roundups. But it’s certainly fun to watch while it lasts.

Resource:

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Mobile-and-Wireless/10-Things-You-Should-Know-about-the-Gizmodo-iPhone-4G-Probe-313161/

Opera 10.52 boasts a more Mac-like interface, but this new beauty is not just skin deep. More of the browser has gone Cocoa for better integration with Mac OS X and other apps, which means it now supports Growl and multi-touch gestures. As with Safari on recent MacBooks, Opera 10.52 users can pinch-to-zoom, use two fingers to scroll, and three fingers to navigate back and forth through pages.

Opera 10.52 also gained Firefox’s “Awesome Bar” feature of searching from the address bar. Other additions include customizable search engines, private browsing per window or tab, and dialog boxes that are displayed as page overlays instead of dialog boxes so you can still switch tabs or windows to do something else.

Opera 10.52 for Mac is a free download that requires Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger or later on an Intel Mac.

Resource:

http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/195077/opera_1052_brings_new_mac_interface_other_enhancements.html

A new report by mobile ad company AdMob measures the amount of ad traffic sent from different smartphones in March — and the Droid’s blinking red eye is going to be very pleased with what it found.

AdMob and the Android Lineup

First up, let’s be clear about what exactly we’re discussing here: AdMob measures the number of ad impressions served by applications and mobile Web sites using its platform. In nondipstick speak, that means it’s counting the number of times its little ads show up on apps — you know, the ones that are free and thus ad-supported — as well the number of times they pop up on smartphone-specific versions of Web pages.

That said, here’s what AdMob discovered: The Motorola Droid accounted for nearly a third of all the company’s Android-oriented traffic during the month of March. No other handset even came close to matching the Droid’s 32 percent stronghold: The HTC Hero came in second place, with 19 percent of the traffic. The HTC Dream (T-Mobile G1) and HTC Magic (myTouch 3G) tied for third, with 11 percent each.

Next came the Motorola Cliq, with 10 percent of the total March traffic. Then you have the Samsung Moment, at 6 percent; the Samsung Behold 2, at 2 percent, and the Nexus One, also accounting for only 2 percent of all Android-based AdMob traffic.

Android’s Expanding Options

What’s interesting about this data is how it shows the increasing spread of popular options within the Android ecosystem. Just seven months ago, two handsets were responsible for nearly all of AdMob’s Android-based traffic. Now that same traffic is divided among nearly a dozen different options.

This is truly the key to Android’s inevitable mobile market dominance: choice. I’m not talking about the choice to customize a device and use it the way you see fit (though that’s certainly relevant, too). What I’m talking about here is choice in hardware: Whereas certain unnamed platforms present you with only one basic form, Android devices come in all shapes, sizes, and flavors; there’s something to meet practically any desire.

Case in point: keyboards. Turns out more than half of AdMob’s March Android traffic came from devices with physical QWERTY keyboards — namely the Motorola Droid, Motorola Cliq, and T-Mobile G1. The physical QWERTY keyboard is one reason why I personally prefer using the Droid over newer and more technically impressive handsets such as the HTC Incredible. It’s all about the options.

The Android-iPhone Comparisons

Now, I like a good Android-iPhone smackdown as much as the next guy — but one thing AdMob’s data doesn’t do, contrary to what some reports floating around the blogosphere suggest, is imply that Android has now surpassed the iPhone in overall Web traffic.

In addition to the Android-specific data, you see, the AdMob report breaks down March ad impressions based on mobile operating systems. For the first time, Android does come out ahead of the iPhone, with 46 percent of all U.S.-based traffic compared to the iPhone’s 39 percent. But let’s consider what that really means.

AdMob, as I pointed out early on, measures the number of ad impressions served by applications and mobile Web sites using its platform. The important phrase to take away from that: “using its platform.” When you’re looking within a single operating system like Android, you can draw some general conclusions by treating the data as a broad sample. But when you’re looking from one platform to another, it’s just not a consistent comparison.

AdMob, after all, very well could serve far more apps on Android than it does on iPhone. Developers have options as to whether to include ads and — if they do go the ad-supported route — which mobile ad provider they want to use. Differences in the number of and popularity of AdMob-using apps on each platform would clearly skew any meaning a cross-platform comparison would have.

So, sorry to disappoint, but there’ll be no crown-changing bragging rights awarded here today. That doesn’t mean Android and Apple fanboys can’t still call each other names, though, and mock each others’ platform limitations. Just don’t do it in Apple’s App Store; I hear uttering the word “Android” there can get you banned.

Resource:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/04/27/google_backtracks_on_nexus_one/

Security experts have warned that Apple iPad users are being targeted by cyber criminals. Hackers are trying to dupe iPad owners in to downloading a fake iTunes update on their Windows computer, which, when installed, creates a backdoor for cyber criminals, allowing them to remotely access the machine or even use the computer to send spam messages.

A dialog box pops up telling the user that a recent iTunes update has been released for the iPad. Users who click on a link are taken to a site that looks exactly like the iTunes download web page, but the file the user downloads is actually a Trojan that installs malicious code on the machine. The Backdoor. Bifrose. AADY virus tries to steal passwords and login details for email accounts and instant-messaging services.

“The trick is pretty simple,” said Catalin Cosoi, a senior researcher for BitDefender, which uncovered the scam. “They’re clever to do it this way. If they were able to target Mac customers, it would have spread like wildfire, but because most antivirus companies detect this Trojan, it’s aimed at Windows users who have bought an iPad and who also don’t run a security product.”

BitDefender has advised iPad owners not to click on any links that appear in dialog boxes or alerts, and to download iTunes directly from the Apple website. The company also emphasised that the iPad itself remained unaffected by the Trojan.

Resource:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/apple/7638376/iPad-users-targeted-by-hackers.html?utm_source=tmg&utm_medium=TD_ipad&utm_campaign=tech2804am

The Synaptics Gesture Suite for Linux can also be applied to Google Chrome OS in devices that range from small remote controls, through netbooks to notebook PCs and other custom OEM devices. Other supported Linux-based operating systems include Fedora, Millos Linpus, Red Flag, SuSE, Ubuntu and Xandros.

Resource:

http://www.siliconindia.com/shownews/Synaptics_bring_multitouch_to_open_source_operating_system-nid-67477.html

The company reported on its official blog that several iPad users who also owned a Windows PC had received an email with the subject line ‘iTunes Software Update’.

The email contained a link that led users to a fake download page, designed to precisely resemble the real iTunes page. BitDefender identifies the malware as Backdoor.Bifrose.AADY.

It’s the first piece of malicious software aimed at taking advantage of the current buzz surrounding Apple’s new tablet computer, which has seen record sales since it was launched on 3 April.

Sabina Datcu of BitDefender wrote on the company’s Malware City blog that “The figures make it clear as daylight why malware creators were so keen on crashing this promising party. To carry conviction, the e-mail emphasizes that users should keep their iPad software updated ‘for best performance, newer features and security’.”

Resource:

http://www.itproportal.com/security/news/article/2010/4/27/malware-targets-ipad-users-windows-platform/

On Monday, Google not only said it will sell the Nexus One through partner retail shops in Europe, it also indicated it no longer intends to launch a version of the phone for Verizon’s American wireless network.

The day the Nexus One arrived, the scuttlebutt was that Verizon – like Motorola – was less than pleased with Google’s decision to sell its own handset, and now, we can only assume that Verizon and Vodafone, Verizon’s part owner, have forced the web giant to eat some crow.

This may have something do with the fact that the Nexus One isn’t what you’d call a top seller. Estimates indicate Google has unloaded a mere 500,000 devices since the launch on January 5. But on launch day, Google said it would be “would be happy to sell about 150,000″ devices.

The idea, the company said at the time, was to create a “revolutionary” new channel that would make it easier for the world to buy smartphones – regardless of how many devices it sold in the short term. But less than four months later, the company is reading from a very different script.

“Our partners have played an amazing role in making Android successful, and the Android ecosystem has grown faster than our most optimistic expectations of even just a few months ago,” the company tells us. “By working with Vodafone and other operators in Europe, we’ll be able to get more Nexus One phones to more people more quickly.”

In January, Google wasn’t concerned about the health of the Android “ecosystem.” At least, it didn’t claim to be. It painted its online store as something that would operate alongside existing channels, not just in the short term but for many handsets to come. “Nexus One belongs in a class of device, which we call, superphones,” vice president of product management Mario Queiroz said that January morning.

“It’s the first device, the first phone, which we will bring to market with our operator and hardware partners from a series of devices…You might be asking how are we going to bring this product to market. Well, today, we’re also pleased to announce a new way for consumers to purchase a mobile phone through a Google-hosted webstore.”

Android project lead Andy Rubin said that existing partners like Verizon were willing to join this webstore for certain “efficiencies.” Google’s direct model would cut out all sorts of overhead wireless operators are just dying to cutout. “[Operators] just want to sell service plans,” he said. “This [web store] enables them to reach consumers very efficiently.”

Well, now even Google is awful close to acknowledging that this was just talk. “We have decided that the best and fastest way to get Nexus One into the hands of European consumers is through our partners,” the company said today. Note the word “best.”

And this admission is born out by that fact that in addition to offering the Nexus One through Vodafone shops and other retail stores in Europe, the company is not selling to the Continent through its webstore – and it has apparently reversed plans to offer a CDMA-based Nexus One on Verizon, the largest US carrier in the US, with roughly 90 million subscribers.

Under pressure

At launch, Google said that both Verizon and Vodafone would offer service plans in tandem with the Nexus One from its webstore. And it gave each a placeholder in the store indicating their phones would arrive this spring. But the Vodafone name has vanished from the store, and Verizon users are now pointed to the carrier’s website, where they can pre-order the upcoming Droid Incredible, another HTC-manufactured Android phone.

Google is still selling an unlocked phone to customers in the UK, Singapore, and Hong Kong as well as the US – as it has done since the Nexus One debuted. But the company has not expanded the store to other countries as it indicated it would. “Consumers in Europe will be able to buy Nexus one from mobile operators, beginning with Vodafone. We don’t have anything further to announce about Google’s web store at this time,” the company told us on Monday.

You might argue that Google has simply realized it’s rubbish at selling phones. For all Rubin’s talk of efficiencies, Google simply isn’t equipped to sell phones. Even if large numbers of people are inclined to buy a phone straight from an online search engine without the traditional marketing and hand-holding traditionally provided by the carriers – and we’re not sure they are – Mountain View is woefully unprepared to deal with support after the phone is sold.

But again, in January, Google said this was a long term endeavor. We would argue the company has backpedalled under pressure from its partners, whom the company very much relies on to sell Android phones through existing channels.

When we asked Google whether it had indeed nixed plans to offer the Nexus One on Verizon, it didn’t respond. But the company tells CNET that it “won’t be selling a Nexus One with Verizon” – an unusually unequivocal statement from the Mountain View Chocolate Factory. This couldn’t be further from what it – and Motorola – were saying on January 5.

“I see [Google's Nexus One store] as another way to get to consumers, another way for them to buy devices,” said Motorola co-chief exec Sanjay Jha, who was trotted out during Google’s Nexus One press conference alongside Rubin and Queiroz.

Motorola and Verizon had just spent a reported $100 million promoting the new Android-based Droid phone. “I don’t see this as a threat [to Motorola]. I just see it as potentially an expansion of the marketplace.”

If it was just an expansion of the marketplace, Google would still be prepping a Verizon Nexus One.

It was Andy Rubin who, in the run-up to the introduction of the Nexus One, deflected questions about the phone’s existence by saying that Google would never build its own hardware or “compete with its customers” – meaning the likes of Motorala and Verizon.

Resource:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/04/27/google_backtracks_on_nexus_one/

ORLANDO, Fla.—Research In Motion President and Co-CEO Mike Lazaridis met analysts’ expectations April 27 by unveiling the BlackBerry 6 operating system and a new Web browser fueled by WebKit, the same open-source platform on which Google’s Android OS is based.

The executive, speaking at RIM’s Wireless Enterprise Symposium here, also said there are more than 41 million BlackBerry users, and vowed to double that number and eventually reach 100 million. The company plans to make this happen partially through the new user experience afforded by BlackBerry 6 and the new browser.

Calling BlackBerry 6 the “biggest step forward for the BlackBerry experience in our history,” Lazaridis told the packed crowd that the user experience will feel fresh but familiar.

In other words, BlackBerry 6 offers some of the functionality popularized by Apple’s iPhone, which was in turn imitated by smartphones running Android.

Multitouch functionality such as pinch-to-zoom browsing is one of the features users can expect when BlackBerry 6 appears between July and September. It is not yet clear what devices the new operating system will run on, but RIM confirmed that it will run on some existing BlackBerry models.

During the demo, which users can watch on YouTube here, Lazaridis showed off a media-intensive user experience, highlighted by crisp graphics and easy, pan-and-zoom scrolling from screen to screen. Applications highlighted included Twitter, YouTube and several other social media, instant messaging and e-mail tools.

The OS will allow users to access more than one Web page at a time. Users will be able to search right from the homescreen and see bookmarks and other info in different views. All of the core applications have been redesigned, such as messaging, calendar and contacts. BlackBerry 0S 6 adds a new application for managing social networking tools and RSS feeds.

The new browser appeared to load Websites such as that of The New York Times quite quickly and sported a bigger font size for better reading. This is a testament to the new rendering engine, developed by programmers who joined RIM in the company’s August 2009 purchase of Torch Mobile.

Sensitive about the criticism that RIM’s BlackBerry App World store only has 6,500 applications (compared with almost 200,000 in the iPhone App Store and 50,000 in Android Market), Lazaridis claimed: “Success in wireless will depend on who has the best apps, not the most apps.”

As evidence of quality, he said BlackBerry App World has 20 million users and logs 1 million downloads each day.

In case anyone missed the fact that RIM was trying to make the BlackBerry, traditionally a device designed for corporate road warriors with major e-mail requirements, look cool, Lazaridis turned the stage over to Will.i.am, frontman for the Black Eyed Peas hip hop collective. Will.i.am professed his love of using the BlackBerry for both work and play.

“If I make music, I shouldn’t send it to someone that’s going to take it to a pressing plant, I should just send it from my BlackBerry to all of the millions of fans that the Black Eyed Peas have,” Will.i.am said.

Such street cred gives BlackBerry a boost, but the proof will come later this summer when the OS appears on smartphones.

Broadpoint AmTech analyst Mark McKechnie predicted in an April 27 research note that BlackBerry 6 will close the gap between BlackBerry and other operating systems, including the iPhone OS, Android and Palm OS, albeit with the advantage of three to five times the bandwidth efficiency.

“We think the UI [user interface] will improve access to the BlackBerry apps store,” McKechnie wrote. “The new OS will come with a browser that includes multitouch, kinetic scrolling and pinch to zoom. Further checks suggest the OS and browser will be ported to recently shipping models, including the Bold 2, pending technical hurdles.”

Resource:

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Mobile-and-Wireless/RIM-Expects-to-Top-100M-Users-With-Blackberry-6-OS-WebKit-Browser-798207/

The N8 phone has a 12 megapixel camera and allows people to record and edit High Definition video clips, as well as watch web TV services.

Analysts said the phone was a “pivotal device” in efforts “to make Nokia’s high end phones credible again”.

It is also a chance for Symbian to prove itself alongside Google’s Android operating system and Apple’s iPhone.

Despite being the world’s most popular smart phone software, Symbian has lost “mindshare” against more high-profile software, according to industry experts.

Analysts at CCS Insight described the Symbian 3 software as “evolutionary not revolutionary” but said it was a “key first step if it proves reliable”.

Cinema support

It is the first version of the software since the Symbian foundation announced that it had made its code open source in February.

The Foundation – which includes Nokia, Motorola and Samsung amongst others – gave away the code to developers for free in the hope that it would help speed up the pace of improvements. Any organisation or individual can now use and modify it.

The software in the N8 allows the phone to have multi-touch and multi-tasking, meaning more than one application can be open at any one time.

The device will be Nokia’s flagship smartphone. It can be plugged into home theatres and supports surround sound as well as high-quality video.

Social networks, such as Twitter and Facebook, can be displayed on the home screen in a single application.

Lee Williams, executive director of the Symbian Foundation, said he was “stoked” that Nokia had chosen to use the operating system on its phone.

The phone will ship in the third quarter of 2010, following delays.

Resource:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8646715.stm

1. What does “4G” mean, anyway?

   4G is a marketing term that service providers are using to describe the “fourth generation” of wireless services. Such services may use different underlying technologies, depending on the provider, but they typically offer between four and ten times the performance of “3G” networks.

2. What are the technologies behind 4G services?

   The two main technologies are WiMax and Long Term Evolution (LTE). WiMax is a standard developed by the IEEE, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers; Development of the LTE standard is led by the 3GPP, an industry body for providers that use GSM, the current leading technology for cellular communications. Both WiMax and LTE use advanced antenna technology to improve reception and performance. However, the technologies rely on different types of wireless spectrum.

3. How fast is 4G compared to 3G?

   WiMax providers today are offering contracts that advertise download speeds of between 2 megabits per second and 6 mbps, with peak speeds of 10 mbps and more. Verizon, which will launch LTE networks in the United States later this year, is expecting to offer services with download speeds in the 5 mbps to 12 mbps range. Most 3G data systems today deliver speeds of between 400 kilobits per second (that is, 0.4 mbps) and 1.5 mbps.

4. Why should I want 4G?

   4G’s faster download speeds and better overall data performance will significantly improve the performance of demanding applications such as streaming video, videoconferencing, and networked gaming. You may also be able to replace your home DSL or cable modem service with a 4G service that you can use both at home and on the road.

5. Are 4G services available now?

   Yes, in some places. In the United States, the partnership of Clearwire and Sprint currently offers WiMax-based services in 28 cities–among them, Atlanta, Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, Portland (Oregon), and Seattle. Clearwire and Sprint plan to add Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco to this list in 2010.

   On the LTE side, Verizon is the most aggressive of the U.S. providers, with plans to launch commercial services in 25 to 30 as-yet unnamed markets before the end of 2010; AT&T plans to follow with LTE in 2011. Internationally, WiMax services are already in use in many countries, including Japan, Korea, and Russia; and one commercial LTE network is running in Sweden.

6. What providers other than Verizon and AT&T plan to offer LTE in the United States?

   In March, MetroPCS announced plans to launch LTE services in Las Vegas before the end of this year, using a dual-mode 3G/LTE phone made by Samsung. T-Mobile is expected to launch LTE services sometime in the future, but it has not specified a timeframe for deployment.

7. What are the cost advantages of 4G versus 3G?

   Right now, the Clearwire/Sprint plans typically provide true “unlimited” data usage, whereas virtually all 3G cellular plans impose extra charges for downloading more than 5 gigabytes of data per month. Plans from Clearwire and its reseller partners (which include Comcast and Time-Warner Cable) are typically $10 to $20 per month cheaper than the standard $60 per month 3G cellular data plan, too. Verizon has not announced LTE pricing.

8. Can I get 4G on the 3G phone or USB modem that I have now?

   No. The 4G networks are designed to run at different frequencies than the ones current cellular services use, so you’ll need new radio chips tuned to the 4G frequencies.

9. Does 4G support voice calls?

   Not in any current implementation, other than Voice over IP applications like Skype or Vonage. Most early 4G phones will be “hybrid” devices that include a 3G chip to handle voice calls.

10. Are any 4G phones available now?

    As of April 2010, the only 4G phone announced for U.S. markets is Sprint’s HTC EVO 4G, which was unveiled in March and is expected to be available by this summer. (Earlier, HTC shipped a WiMax phone for a network in Russia.) Verizon has said that it expects LTE phones to ship by mid-2011.

    iPhone in the United States under an exclusive contract with AT&T, it has manufactured the phone with chips that connect to AT&T’s 3G cellular network. Many people hope that Verizon, which has more-immediate 4G plans for its network than AT&T does, will begin selling a CDMA version of the iPhone later this year.

11. Can I use 4G while I’m on the road, as with a cell phone?

    Yes. The whole idea behind 4G is that it’s not just broadband, but mobile broadband.

12. Can I use 4G services in different cities, similarly to roaming with a cell phone?

    Yes, sort of. Roaming is supported between different cities covered by the same service, so a Clearwire or Sprint device you buy in Portland should work fine in Las Vegas or Chicago. LTE proponents say that they will support cross-provider roaming, but we’ll have to wait a couple years to see whether that works. And while chip vendors have announced silicon that could link to either a WiMax or an LTE network, no as-yet-announced device can accomplish that trick.

13. Will 4G be offered in rural communities?

    Smaller providers such as DigitalBridge Communications–which has services in Jackson Hole, Wyoming–already offer mobile WiMax similar to Clearwire’s. A company called Open Range Communications has just started offering WiMax services in rural Colorado, and it plans to cover more than 500 rural communities over the next several years.

14. Can 4G services replace my home DSL or cable modem?

    Yes, unless you’re looking for extra-high-speed services for extremely demanding broadband usage. Clearwire’s WiMax service already offers faster speeds than the lower-end DSL plans, and it can match some cable modem offerings. For users who want both home and mobile service, WiMax 4G may be a better deal than the combined price of a stationary service and a 3G data plan.

15. What is a portable Wi-Fi router, and how does it use 4G?

    Clearwire and Sprint sell two versions of a portable Wi-Fi/WiMax router, which uses a link to WiMax on the back end to support a “personal hotspot” capable of broadcasting a Wi-Fi signal that several devices can share. Sprint’s forthcoming HTC EVO 4G phone will be able to act as a portable router, too, sharing its WiMax connection with up to eight other devices via Wi-Fi.

16. I’ve been hearing recently about “HSPA+” or “3.5G” service. What is it?

    T-Mobile USA is in the process of launching a mobile data network based on a more-advanced version of the 3G protocols in use today. Theoretically the network can support speeds of up to 21 mbps, but in tests so far it is only marginally faster than most 3G data services. T-Mobile hopes to have the service available in 100 U.S. cities by the end of 2010.

17. Why do some people say that current 4G services are not “true” 4G?

    Standards bodies have set higher speed goals for what they would like to define as “official” 4G services, performance marks that likely won’t be met for another couple years at the earliest. But marketers think that what’s available now is a big enough leap to justify the “next-generation” label–and they’re the ones who buy the ads.

18. Will “real” 4G services ever be available?

    Both WiMax and LTE backers are working on versions of the technology that will support “true” 4G speeds of more than 100 mbps for downloads, but real products using those versions probably won’t appear for several years.

19. When will this great service be available in my town?

    It all depends on when providers decide that your metro area is worthy! Clearwire and Sprint both have interactive maps on their Websites showing where and when services are likely to be available. Verizon is expected to announce its first LTE cities later this summer or early next fall.

Paul Kapustka is editor and founder of Sidecut Reports, an independent research firm that specializes in wireless technologies.

Resource:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/pcworld/20100427/tc_pcworld/4gwireless20questionsaskedanswered

The latest such scam involves spam e-mail messages addressed to iPad users. The messages direct recipients — who may or may not be iPad users — to click on a Web link that appears to host an iTunes update and to install the update

The text isn’t so poorly written as to be farcical. Even so, the use of the passive voice in the first sentence and the awkward wording suggests that the note’s author doesn’t work as a marketing professional at Apple or anywhere else.

“There were released updates for software installed on your iPad device,” the message begins. “It is very important to keep the software on your iPad updated for best performance, newer features and security.”

Recipients who happen to open this message on a Windows PC and comply with “update” instructions do not actually receive an update.

“Unfortunately for these users, following the malicious link means opening up a direct line to their sensitive data as instead of the promised iTunes update they get malware on their systems,” said Sabina Datcu, security researcher for BitDefender, in a blog post.

BidDefender identifies the malicious code as Backdoor.Bifrose.AADY, which attempts to infect Internet Explorer to open a back door in the victim’s system. It’s designed to scour infected systems for software serial numbers and to capture login and password information.

Mac users, not to mention those reading their e-mail on their iPads, don’t have to worry about this particularly malware.

In reporting its fiscal second quarter results last week, Apple did not disclose the number of iPads it had sold, but company executives said they were happy with iPad sales.

Apple previously said it had sold 300,000 iPads on April 3, the day it began selling the devices and delivering them to customers who had pre-ordered.

Web 2.0 Expo San Francisco brings together the designers, developers, entrepreneurs, VCs, marketing professionals, product managers, and business strategists building the next-generation Web.

Resource:

http://www.informationweek.com/news/security/vulnerabilities/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=224600439

Similarly, Nokia new messaging service aggregates multiple e-mail accounts through one client and can support and mobilise up to 10 e-mail accounts.

This service will be available through all leading operators and consumers will only have to pay the basic data download charges. And as part of the Nokia Messaging Service (NMS) portfolio, it will also offer free Instant Messaging (IM) services, preloaded on select devices.

“Nokia’s e-mail proposition offers different kinds of e-mail options depending on the need of the user. The service is already in use by over 30-lakh people in more than 100 countries.

“India is among the top five countries for the service and we are confident that with our decision to offer it for free, we will see a significant surge in adoption of e-mail and messaging services in the country,” said Nokia’s Executive Vice-President (Markets) Anssi Vanjoki.

According to Nokia India Managing Director and Vice-President D. Shivakumar, “People are looking at messaging services as an enhanced business tool. There are 30-lakh mail users on mobile in India.

“The number is expected to touch 13-crore in 2014. Interestingly, 78 per cent of web e-mail users want to browse their e-mails on their mobile phones, while mobile e-mail users are growing at 96 per cent.”

Resource:

http://beta.thehindu.com/sci-tech/gadgets/article411001.ece

Aside from checking and composing e-mail, Apple also offers an edition of its iWorks software for the iPad, which bundles versions of Pages, Numbers and Keynote. And if business users plan on using Keynote for presentations, Apple is selling a $29 VGA adaptor that can connect the iPad to a conference room display (as long as the display has VGA). Dataviz has also announced an iPad version of its Documents To Go software, bringing editing and formatting functionalities to Microsoft Office apps such as Word and Excel.

Using the iPad as a phone is not out of the question either, since it does have an audio jack and support for Bluetooth headsets. An app like Line2 will let you create a separate line and voicemail for your business. It even supports up to 20-person conferencing, if you’re unable to gather everyone in one room. And because Line2 is a VoIP application, meaning it uses the internet to make calls, finding a connection using the iPad’s built-in Wi-Fi and 3G cards is as easy as finding a cell phone signal. Traditional VoIP apps like Skype will be available for the iPad as well, so there’s more than one option for turning your iPad into a phone (the iPad has a built-in mic you can use in conjunction with headphones or a Bluetooth headset for making VoIP calls).

Key verticals like the healthcare industry, which have long been the biggest proponents of tablets, will be considering the iPad for a variety of tasks, including filling orders, tracking patients, and studying X-rays and MRI. Unlike traditional Windows-based tablets, installing security suites to fight malicious software isn’t necessary, and administrators won’t have to configure the iPad for a domain (well, because it can’t be done). Developers like OmniGroup are aware that there might not be enough apps that cater to the medical profession, which is why it’s focusing much of its efforts on porting its core apps to the iPad.

And for every other profession that’s worried about a shortage of iPad apps; don’t despair, hundreds of apps are being submitted to and reviewed by Apple as we speak.

While the majority of those who pre-ordered an iPad are itching to play games, update their Facebook accounts, and watch videos, businesses business are betting the iPad will change the way they work. Businessweek has reported that several firms have pre-ordered iPads in large quantities, one of which plans to simply use them for checking corporate e-mail and taking notes. The fact that the iPad supports corporate Microsoft Exchange account, multiple POP accounts, and VPN protocols makes it a viable tool for those who aren’t in the office all the time.

Resource:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2363075,00.asp

Once derided for being too precious and fragile, the phone is making inroads into not-so-gentle environments thanks to a myriad of rugged covers and young labourers’ obsessions with the device.

Now David Campbell, owner of David Campbell Building, is banking on an app to help other builders become more efficient on and off the building site. He has commissioned the development of the Tradie’s App ($52.99 from iTunes) – an extensive collection of site diaries, purchase orders, pricing and subcontractor agreements to be used by foremen and licensed builders.

This saves tradesmen having to wait to get home after a day’s slog to record what happened on the job.

Campbell promises it gives builders everything they need to run a project on time and on budget, even down to making clients sign for agreed variations on the spot. He should know; he has been trialling it on his luxury home projects for the past six months. Seven of his staff have an iPhone with the app, which they use constantly to manage jobs and send reports back to the boss in the office.

“Without even being on site all day, I know the concreter was there, the brickies were there and built the wall they were meant to build and the client was on site and asked for the toilet to be moved. It saves the guys having to go back to the office to do their paperwork,” he says.

Campbell is no stranger to technology. His website makes use of videos, slideshows and podcast subscriptions to showcase some of his company’s work. The app is his new way to try to capitalise on it. It’s available on iTunes but was down at time of writing, given technical difficulties with an update download, he says.

Campbell says it’s been downloaded by builders in Australia, some in the United Arab Emirates, Canada and five in the US. “We’ve only had 72 downloads but it’s only been five weeks. Some builders have given me comments to say it saves them $50 a day,” he says.

An app for large sites

Another construction company is selling its own construction app, this time for foremen on large and multiple building sites.

Foreman’s Mate was built by All Over Geo for Kell & Rigby, a 100-year-old Australian construction company specialising in large projects. It’s available on the iPhone and will be available on the iPad when it is released in Australia. It costs $200 per month to subscribe from the iTunes store, although there’s currently a 30-day free trial.

“Builders would have to be one of the biggest users of phones. On site you’d rarely see a foreman without a phone glued to their ear. Now they can use a technology they’re already comfortable with to complete a job they might not like, but must be done,” Kell & Rigby chief executive James Kell said.

The company counts Qantas, Vodafone and Apple – including the Apple Store on Sydney’s George St – among its completed projects.

Resource:

http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/building-an-app-for-builders-20100427-tnqz.html

Screen shine

The screen will completely capture the user’s attention. Sitting in front of a 27-inch iMac fills up a large part of your vision, and it’s almost difficult to focus on the entire thing at once. You’ll have to lower the brightness a bit compared to most other monitors since it’s shining in your face! Apple uses high-quality IPS panels and LED backlighting, and the colours are amazing.

The resolution, at 2650 x 1440, is comfortably larger than today’s HD panels. Viewing angles are also spectacular, with no colour distortion till you’re staring at it sideways. This is also the first time Apple has used a 16:9 panel in the iMac line. Photographs jump to life, movies are a treat, and Apple’s wallpaper images really shine. If you use professional applications such as Photoshop and Aperture, or if you work with design and content creation, you’ll never want to go back to anything else.

Initial concerns about cost and practicality are soon replaced with joy.

Looks

The black glass around the screen is now edge to edge, but it’s still reflective – you’ll need to twist around and tilt the iMac to get comfortable under fluorescent lights. Apart from its screen, the iMac looks only slightly different from the previous generation. The entire body is now aluminum, and the metallic “chin” in front is less obtrusive than before.

The DVD drive on the right edge now has an SD card slot for company, while all ports are still at the back. We would have loved to see at least the headphones socket and a couple of USB ports on the side for convenience now that the ones on the keyboard are gone. Features Our review model came with a 3.06 GHz Core 2 Duo CPU, 4 GB of RAM, a 1 TB hard drive, 8x DVD RW drive, and an ATI Radeon 4670 graphics card with 256 MB of RAM.

A 21.5-inch model with the same specs had the same configuration, while the lowest-end one has an onboard Nvidia 9400M graphics and half the hard drive space. Interestingly, you can custom-order a 27-inch model with Intel’s new Core i5 or i7 CPU, giving you high-performance quad-core options for the first time – for hefty premiums though. All models come with Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, WiFi N, a 1.3-megapixel webcam, inbuilt speakers and a microphone.

However, Blu-ray drives are absent from all models, which is a massive letdown when you have the huge 27-inch screen at your disposal. With no official online source of HD material in India, it’s a huge waste of this device’s potential. The selection of ports is interesting: audio in and out (analog/optical combo), four USB ports, FireWire 800, Gigabit Ethernet, and a mini DisplayPort video output.

Mini DisplayPort will require an adapter for pretty much every TV or projector out there, which you’ll have to buy separately. But there’s a hidden trick: on the 27-inch model that we reviewed, this port can also be used as an input! The required cable isn’t on the market yet, but once available, you’ll be able to connect a DVD or Blu-ray player, game console, or any other video source to make even better use of the panel.

For those worried about the environment, the new iMac claims to be energy efficient, highly recyclable, and free of toxic chemicals including arsenic, mercury, and lead.

Usability

Probably the only sore spots are the bundled keyboard and mouse. The keyboard is totally wireless and uses Bluetooth to communicate. It’s meant to be used from across a room, but it’s quite uncomfortable that way.

For starters, it’s just too small and dumps not only the number pad but also the nagivation keys (Page Up/Dn, Home, End, Ins, Del) that most laptops pack in. You can choose the older style wired keyboard at the time of purchase, but bundling this shrunken keyboard by default is a very strange decision indeed.

The mouse is Apple’s new Bluetooth Magic Mouse, claimed to be the first one in the world with a multitouch surface. Again, it’s too flat and narrow to be comfortable in the palm; Apple envisions that people will push it around with only their fingers on the surface.

The gestures are also limited to flicks for scrolling and two-finger swipes for page navigation, not the full range that’s available on the current Macbook’s glass trackpad. Mac OS X looks wonderful, but it’s actually easy to lose the mouse cursor from time to time on such a high-definition screen. The iLife apps, especially Garage Band, are good fun, and using Photoshop and Illustrator was never more pleasurable.

However, for Windows 7 users, the new iMac doesn’t play nice without a few extra driver downloads. Your iMac screen will simply go blank midway through the installation. We spent a fair amount of time diagnosing the fault, which turned out to be a missing video driver. Driver disorder Further investigation revealed that we had to download the correct driver (100 MB approximately) from Apple’s website and unzip it to a USB pen drive, which has to be left plugged in during installation.

Windows will search through all available devices and then install the driver, after which you’ll be good to go. After installation, you’ll also need to install an update to the Windows Boot Camp utility (another 380 MB download) even though official instructions say nothing of the sort. Without the new version, you won’t be able to use the Magic Mouse. However, the update caused severe colour banding on screen as the colour depth dropped from 32 bit to 16 bit. So we had to roll back the graphics driver.

This is quite a hassle considering Boot Camp has worked so smoothly on previous Apple machines. All we’re unhappy about is the absence of instructions that might have prepared us for this ordeal. The new iMac is not ready for Windows 7, but if this is not what you’re buying a Mac for, there’s no need to worry.

Performance

Similarly, our audio and video compression tasks took 1 min 7 sec and 47 sec respectively, which are pretty respectable scores. You’ll be able to play even fairly recent games at low settings, but don’t expect earth-shattering frames at the screen’s native 2560 x 1440 with the default graphics card.

Resource:

http://in.news.yahoo.com/32/20100223/1065/ttc-apple-s-imac-is-a-sight-to-behold_1.html

The company Monday updated its Web site to tell customers waiting for the device that they should instead buy another smartphone running Google’s software.

Google previously indicated the Nexus One, which the company designed and sold directly to consumers, would be available for Verizon’s customers in the spring. A Google spokesman declined to comment on why discussions with Verizon fell apart.

After lackluster sales, it was Google that decided to pull the plug on a CDMA version of the Nexus One that would have worked on Verizon’s network, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Google hasn’t disclosed how many Nexus One phones it has sold since launching in January. Google executives have defended the phone, noting it is part of the company’s long-term mobile strategy and saying they are pleased with initial demand.

The announcement is a blow to Google’s only branded phone, as it won’t be available to Verizon’s more than 90 million subscribers any time soon. Verizon Wireless is owned by Verizon Communications Inc. and Vodafone Group Plc.

Vodafone Monday said it will start giving Nexus One phones free to U.K. customers who sign up for service plans and that the phone would be available in stores—a departure from the online-only approach Google has taken in the U.S. The Google spokesman said it has no plans to offer the phone in U.S. stores.

Verizon Monday distanced itself from Google’s phone. “Verizon had never made a comment or statement about the product coming to our network,” said a Verizon Wireless spokesman.

Google broke with convention when it launched its phone, saying it would sell it on a Web store with or without a cellphone contract. Google said its aim was to drive its Android operating system, the company’s response to Apple Inc.’s iPhone.

The Nexus One sells for $529 without wireless service. U.S. customers can also buy the phone for $179 if they commit to a two-year contract with Deutsche Telekom AG’s T-Mobile USA, the only U.S. carrier.

Resource:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703465204575208283988502188.html?mod=wsj_india_main

Tablet computers generated excitement, although hardware makers promoted modest variations rather than new concepts that would take on Apple’s iPad.

Resource:

http://in.news.yahoo.com/32/20100219/1065/ttc-milestones-missing-at-mobile-fair_1.html

Apple recently delayed the iPad’s international launch after huge demand in the United States caught the maker of trendy iPhones and MacBooks off guard. But Chinese consumers looking for knock-offs of the company’s latest must-have product need look no further than this teeming electronics mall in Shenzhen, the southern Chinese boomtown near the border with Hong Kong.

Here, tiny shops are stuffed with pirated versions of everything: from Microsoft’s newest Windows 7 operating system, a steal at $2 each, to a range of Apple products, from iPhones to MacBooks and the lightweight MacBook Air.

After extensive queries with multiple shopkeepers, one surnamed Lin offered the sought-after item in a dark backroom on the market’s fifth floor away from the hustle and bustle.

Hefty and thickset with three USB ports and a more rectangular shape than the original, this knock-off with iPad aspirations, which runs a Windows operating system, looks more like a giant iPhone. It costs 2,800 yuan ($410), making it slightly cheaper than the iPad’s $499-$699 price tag.

“This is just the first rough version,” says Lin a crew-cut agent speaking in bursts of quick-fire Cantonese.

“While the shape isn’t quite the same, the external appearance is very similar to the iPad, so we don’t think it will affect our sales that much,” he added, explaining the difference was due to the difficulty sourcing matching parts because of the quick two-month turnaround time for the first version’s development.

Hard-working Chinese bootleggers are rushing to fill a vacuum that won’t last for long, created by unexpectedly strong demand for the iPad in its first weeks on the market.

The 10-inch entertainment device, on which one can read books, play music and videos and surf the Internet, sold more than 500,000 in its first week alone, and continued strong U.S. demand has led Apple to delay the product’s international launch to the end of April.

Chinese counterfeiters have rushed to fill the iPad gap.

Taobao, China’s largest online marketplace, contains hundreds of listings for the coveted product, many real but some dubiously labeled as “China goods,” with claims to have even better features than the real deal.

Like the models in the Shenzhen market, these fake iPads also retail for around 2800 yuan each, compared with 4,000-6,000 yuan for those marketed as real.

Analysts and gadget fanatics expect the iPad to do well in Asia given Apple’s strong branding and the rising number of affluent middle class consumers. But few are surprised by the quick appearance of a counterfeit version in a country where pirated movies often appear in markets in the same week of their theatrical release.

“China is basically a market that has the ability to clone everything, so it’s really not surprising,” said Edward Yu, chief executive of Beijing-based researcher Analysys International.

“I don’t think piracy is a bad thing for the iPad given that China has a huge population, maybe the clone iPads will give more of the potential users a look and feel.”

Back in Shenzhen, Lin said factories around China’s Pearl River Delta — the country’s biggest export manufacturing hub — were working hard on an updated version of the pirated iPads to feed strong demand.

“This is just the first rough version,” Lin said. “Eventually, the factories will be able to make a much better copy.”

Resource:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/26/AR2010042602980.html

The company also unveiled the new BlackBerry Pearl 3G, its smallest smartphone yet.

“The new BlackBerry Bold 9650 is an extraordinary smartphone that we think customers will love,” said RIM president and co-CEO Mike Lazaridis. “Whether at work or at play, the new BlackBerry Bold 9650 offers a truly impressive communications, multimedia and connectivity experience,” he said at the launch of the latest smartphones.

About the new BlackBerry Pearl 3G, he said, “The BlackBerry Pearl 3G is unlike any other smartphone in the world and we expect a broad range of new and existing customers will be drawn to its powerful features and compact design.”

Beside a keyboard, optical trackpad and built-in Wi-Fi, the new smartphone also allows users to talk on the phone while browsing the web or sending and receiving email.

Loaded with 512 MB Flash memory and an expandable memory card slot that supports up to 32 GB microSDHC cards, the BlackBerry Bold 9650 smartphone supports 3G networks.

Built in stylish design with glossy black finish and chrome highlights, the new device features large high-resolution display which allows pictures, videos and web pages with great contrast and detail, the RIM statement said.

Apart from a 3.2 megapixel camera with flash, zoom, image stabilization, autofocus and video recording, the new BlackBerry Bold also features advanced media player for videos, pictures and music, a 3.5 mm stereo headset jack and support for Bluetooth.

The new BlackBerry Pearl 3G measures less than two inches wide and weighs only 93g. It also features an optical trackpad for smooth navigation, a 3.2 MP camera with flash for quality pictures, and support for up to 32 GB of personal content.

Both the new devices will support mobile applications built by third parties for RIM and carry built-in GPS with support for geo-tagging, BlackBerry Maps and other mapping applications.

“The BlackBerry Bold 9650 fuses form and function in a striking design and, in addition to providing premium phone and multimedia features, it of course delivers the industry’s leading mobile solution for email, messaging (IM, SMS, MMS) and social networking,” the company said in its statement.

Resource:

http://beta.thehindu.com/sci-tech/gadgets/article411227.ece

Skin doctor Dr Greg Pearson claims that the revolutionary app can improve people’s skin by shining a special light on to the owner’s face while they chat on the phone, reports The Sun.

The light kills off bacteria and promotes collagen growth, claims the medic.

Dr Pearson said: “This would have to go through a lot more clinical study before I could quantify its efficiency.

“I am fascinated by the concept that users would potentially be able to treat their acne while talking on the phone.”

Resource:

http://in.news.yahoo.com/139/20100209/868/ttc-now-iphone-app-that-can-cure-acne_1.html

The problem is that while the iTunes Store provides a convenient button for browsing either just iPhone or just iPad apps, the rest of iTunes appears to be ignorant of this distinction. The Apps view, listing all downloaded apps, doesn’t differentiate by default, and when your iPad is connected, the Apps tab for your iPad provides no way to view just the iPad apps.

There are a couple ways to ferret out your iPad and hybrid apps, however. Click on the Apps item in iTunes’s sidebar–your iPad doesn’t need to be connected–to view all downloaded apps. Then choose View -> As List to view those apps in a sortable text list. Next choose View -> View Options and check the box next to Kind (or right-click any column header in the Apps view and choose Kind to enable it); this action adds the Kind column to the list.

Click this new Kind column and your apps are now sorted by app type: iPad app, iPhone/iPod touch app, or iPhone/iPod touch/iPad app (click again to invert the sort order). Unfortunately, iPhone/iPod touch apps end up between the two types of iPad-optimized apps, so it’s a bit of a hassle to view all apps with an iPad interface. But it’s better than nothing, right?

The other way to view apps in such groups is to choose View -> as Grid and then choose View -> Grid View -> Applications. This shows you a graphical view of all your downloaded apps, grouped by app type. I don’t find grid view to be as useful as list view, however, especially if you have lots of apps. (It also sorts the same way as list view, with iPhone/iPod touch apps between the two types of iPad apps.)

Of course, these options don’t help you while you’re deciding exactly which apps to sync to your iPad (in other words, when you select your iPad in the sidebar and view the Apps tab). But it at least makes it easier to see how many of your apps will take advantage of the iPad’s larger screen and other unique features. Here’s hoping Apple fixes this omission, and makes it easier to automatically sync just iPad-optimized apps to your iPad, in an update to iTunes.

Resource:

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9176021/View_iPad_optimized_apps_in_iTunes?taxonomyId=76

The milestone still leaves Android significantly behind the iPhone’s official 185,000 but has it catching up at a rapid date. Android Market has accelerated to a rate of almost 8,800 new apps per month and could reach the 100,000 mark sometime in September if its current rate stays the same. An increase is more likely as a greater number of Android 2.1 smartphones and wider market share could feed into development.

Resource:

http://www.electronista.com/articles/10/04/23/android.already.at.50k.app.milestone/

Though Safari and other Apple software, such as Mac OS X, will continue to support Flash technology, developers which create Flash content will not be able to port it to the newly released iPad, and existing or future iPhone’s.

The iPad lacked Flash when it was initially released, but it was hoped and expected that Adobe would throw its cards on the table and attempt, at best, to release a version of Flash for these devices.

As the BBC point out, Creative Suite 5 released last month enabled developers to convert Flash code into iPhone applications. However Apple’s developer terms and conditions change caused controversy amongst developers by limiting their scope of application function, and effectively banning them from using code translators such as CS5.

When considering mobile entrepreneurs and Generation Y developers a month and a bit ago, I knew and still know how powerful the mobile market is. Yet as Flash technology is an integral part of the Web and application power, regardless of whether HTML5 will negate the need for using the plug-in, it is also a major part of modern technology and creative design degree programmes.

All students from various countries and institutions who study programmes in multimedia design, electronics and computer science engage with Flash and Adobe technology, and passing code and design implementation is vital to their expansion of knowledge and portfolio building.

Not only will this move damage the reputation of Apple and developers as such, but harm the potential of younger developers exploiting the easy-to-use platform and knowledge base to generate revenue and self publicity.

Silverlight is thought to be released for the iPad, and therefore presumably the iPhone and iPod touch devices too; though at this point it is not clear when or whether the negotiations will yield any result.

Will this have a significant knock-on effect to not only Apple developers but consumers also? Could this signal a shift from the almighty iPhone to Android or BlackBerry devices? Or will HTML5 completely trump all arguments and be a much needed shift from Apple and Adobe dominance on the web ?

Resource:

http://blogs.zdnet.com/igeneration/?p=4740

Still in Beta, it works on any Android handset with version 1.6 and above, which will be music to the ears of Sony Ericsson X10 owners.

It’s only just launched and is perfect with its large touch screen for navigating your way around the country.

Using your internet connection to track your position, it lets you search for where you want to go by voice, or talk to the maps to find the nearest businesses, cash points, restaurants or Starbucks.

There’s also live traffic information using a red, yellow and green solution to tell you whether to avoid certain roads clogged up through jams.

The key functionality though here has to be the compatibility with Google Street View. There can’t be anything much better than driving down a road, and seeing it on screen in front of you.

That enables you to instantly check exactly how far you’re away from the destination with real-life pictures of the houses or shops around you.

It’s simple to download, and free – which makes it a must-have for any Android fan. Just update to the newest release of Google Maps from the Market.

And then get driving in this sunny weather and take advantage.

Resource:

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/fun/gizmo/2945548/Google-Maps-Navigation-launched-in-UK-and-Ireland.html

Flash may be closed and proprietary, but Apple is hardly the patron saint of openness. Nor has it ever seemed to care much about pretending to be anything other than religiously devoted to a beautiful consumer experience, regardless of open standards, open source, open anything.

What has changed? Developers. Lots of them.

Apple is seeing the “light of openness” now that it increasingly must cater to external developers. For years Apple was able to live within its shell, serving a narrow world of devoted consumers and a very limited circle of developers.

No more. With the iPhone, Apple hit the developer mainstream, and has had some growing pains getting comfortable with that audience, most recently with its increasingly restrictive developer agreement.

Apple has a tough sell for developers over the long term, particularly as it faces open alternatives in its various markets, including Google Android. Developers are attracted to the iPhone’s sales volume, but the trajectory of the company may make it increasingly harder to work with the company, a proprietary trajectory ZDNet’s Tom Foremski describes well:

Since the introduction of the iPod, iPhone, and now the iPad, Apple is becoming less and less open, is using fewer standard components and chips, and far fewer Internet technologies common to Mac/PC desktop and laptop systems.

The iPhone and iPad, for example, don’t support common Internet platforms such as Adobe Flash or Microsoft Silverlight. That means you cannot watch streaming video from Hulu, or Netflix.

And while iPhone chips are available from other manufacturers, the iPad runs only on the A4 processor–an Apple designed chip that no one else can buy.

This was OK when Apple was the most open smartphone game in town (RIM’s BlackBerry was hardly a paragon of openness), but it’s a tough sell with Google on the scene. Google Android, for all its problems and criticisms, has successfully attracted a host of applications recently through a more open approach, jumping from 6,000 to 25,000 applications in 2010 alone.

Apple may be its own best friend…and worst enemy.

Or, as Redmonk analyst James Governor puts it, “[The] company doing [the] most to grow the Android app base is Apple. The new terms of service are AWESOME for the Android team….”

It’s not that Apple needs to open everything up to compete. But it does need to present a more credible argument than random smears against competitors for being proprietary. After all, let’s be clear: None of these companies is open. Or closed. Not Apple. Not Adobe. Not Google. Each employs a hybrid approach, as CNET’s Stephen Shankland points out. Each includes plenty of openness, and plenty of “closed and proprietary” technology and business practices.

That’s the world we live in.

That’s why, as Shankland writes, we (and particularly developers) should be wary of any vendor bearing gifts of openness:

In general, be very cautious when you hear any computing company wrapping itself in the flag of openness as it promotes its products. There are different kinds–open interfaces, open source, and open standards, for example.

Apple’s reality distortion field afflicts us all at some point: it just makes beautiful technology. But developers aren’t so easily swayed, including Apple’s pot-calling-the-kettle-black moment with Adobe. Some won’t care. Others, like Mozilla’s Chris Blizzard, will.

Apple needs to figure out its developer story, one complicated by Google’s surge into the smartphone market. I doubt we’ll see Steve Jobs sweating to the Steve Ballmer beat, but Apple does need to up the openness quotient in its developer outreach, and soon.

Resource:

http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2010/04/22/google_the_server_chip_designer/

The decision reverses an earlier pledge in which it said it would help get Flash working on the gadgets.

Flash is very widely used on the web and many sites use it to power animations, media players and other multimedia elements.

Despite this, Apple’s products do not support Flash and it has made public statements criticising the technology.

Closed tools

In mid-April, Adobe released software called Creative Suite 5 that contained translation tools that automatically turn Flash code into programs that run on the iPhone.

Shortly before the release, Apple updated the terms and conditions of the license software developers must sign to create iPhone and iPad applications. The revisions prompted a lot of criticism from many iPhone developers.

The revised terms placed strict restrictions on what developers can use to create these applications and effectively banned them from using code translators such as Creative Suite 5.

At the time Adobe wrote that it still intended to deliver the translation tools. Now it has said it will halt development of future translation tools for Creative Suite.

“We will still be shipping the ability to target the iPhone and iPad in Flash CS5,” wrote Mike Chambers, Adobe’s principal product manager for developer relations, on his blog. “However, we are not currently planning any additional investments in that feature.”

Mr Chambers also commented on Apple’s revision of its terms and conditions. He wrote: “…as developers for the iPhone have learned, if you want to develop for the iPhone you have to be prepared for Apple to reject or restrict your development at any time.”

Apple responded in a statement to technology news site CNet in which it described Flash as “closed and proprietary”. Apple preferred to support more open standards which replicate everything Flash can do, added the statement.

Mr Chambers wrote that now Adobe will concentrate on Google’s Android smartphone software and ensure that its Flash technology works well with that.

“Fortunately,” he wrote, “the iPhone isn’t the only game in town.”

Resource:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8639240.stm

According to a New York Times source “familiar with the deal,” Google acquired San José chip designer Agnilux not to build chips but to port its Chrome OS and Android operating systems to things like tablets and TV set-top boxes. And on one level, this makes sense. Agnilux was formed by ex-PA Semi employees once pulled into Apple to build SoCs for the iPod, the iPhone, and apparently the iPad, and it’s no secret Google is exploring consumer devices well beyond its Nexus One phone.

But an earlier Times story indicated that Agnilux was brewing “some kind of server.” The company apparently had a partnership with Cisco. And its roots can be traced back to server chips like the DEC Alpha and the AMD Opteron. It’s been rumored for years that Google is interested in building server chips of its own, and if it hasn’t already, you can bet that one day it will – with or without Agnilux engineers.

Google likes to say it’s not a hardware company. When the ad broker launched the Nexus One, it went to unusual lengths to convince the world it played no part in the design of the physical device. But at the same time, it builds hardware on an epic scale for use across the Googlenet, a private infrastructure that handles more traffic than all but a pair of tier one ISPs.

It was recently estimated that Google runs 2 per cent of the world’s servers, and it would seem that all of them are custom-built. Reports also indicate that Google builds its own routers, and it’s no secret the company fashions its own data centers, piecing them together with hardware-packed shipping containers.

Last fall, Google released a brief video of a data center it built in 2005. The facility held 45 shipping containers, each housing 1,160 servers. Google is now operating about 35 data centers across the globe, and if you extrapolate, its total server count – server consolidation aside – is around 1,827,200. That figure is well above recent press estimates. And it may be low. After all, that data center was built in 2005.

According to a recent public presentation from the company, Google is intent on scaling its worldwide infrastructure to between one million and 10 million servers, encompassing 10 trillion directories and a quintillion bytes of storage. And this would span “100s to 1000s” of locations around the globe.

All these servers need chips. But the thing to remember about the ever-expanding Googlenet is that it’s designed to process tasks that are broken into tiny little pieces. Google isn’t interested in running the fastest processors on the planet. It’s interested in running efficient chips that suit its pathological obsession with distributed computing.

When it released that data center video, Google also gave the world a peek at the battery-backed, two-socket server nodes it packs into at least some of its data centers. Based on a Gigabyte motherboard, each node included two disks, eight memory slots, and a 12-volt DC power supply. These nodes use both Intel and AMD chips, and it would seem that the company stops short of the bleeding x64 edge, choosing processors that provide the best performance per watt.

Plus, it wants chips that can run hot. To save costs – and, um, the planet – Google operates its data centers at temperatures above the norm. According to a former employee, at one point Google was buying chips from Intel guaranteed to operate at temperatures five degrees centigrade higher than their standard qualification.

What a Google needs

With an estimated 35 data centers and 1.8 million servers backing its search engine, advertising systems, and online applications, Google has power, cooling, and real estate problems that no other company in the world can appreciate. And with its custom designed GFS distributed file system and its MapReduce distributed number-crunching platform spreading tiny pieces of data across all those servers, its performance needs are outside the norm as well.

The PA Semi folks that founded Agnilux after leaving Apple have plenty of experience with chips and instruction sets of all sorts, and before Google acquired them, they could have been up to almost anything. All we really know the company is that it’s based in San Jose and that its name is a mix of Sanskrit and Latin. Agni is the Sanskrit word for fire, lux the Latin word for light.

The assumption is that Agnilux was working on a variant of the ARM processor for use in servers, and given the thermal properties of ARM chips, this is a fair guess. But for all we know, Agnilux was building a variant of the Power chip – not the ARM. PA Semi was designing super-efficient Power clones when it was founded in 2003 by Dan Dobberpuhl, the lead designer on Digital Equipment’s Alpha 64-bit chip, and Jim Keller, who worked on the Alpha and then the Opteron at AMD. Chip designers move from companies to startups and back again, and more times than not, they have great ideas that can’t be commercialized. Think of the Transmeta chips that HP put into its first blade servers.

But with Google, building servers isn’t a commercial undertaking – at least not directly. The Chocolate Factory can afford to indulge its whims, and it might as well build its own chips rather than waiting for Intel and VIA to tweak their Atom and Nano processors to handle Big Data applications on a small power budget. In this regard, Google would be acting more like a government-sponsored supercomputing lab, fashioning exotic hardware aimed at exotic problems.

And we might add that using low-power chips to take on high-power tasks is hardly a new idea. Witness the Atom servers from SuperMicro and SGI.

If this is indeed what Google is after, then the possibilities are intriguing indeed. It’s easy to become a licensee of the ARM designs – it’s quite possible that Agnilux already had the license – and parent company ARM Holdings would love nothing better than to have Google endorse its product over the x64 architecture. It would be the coup of the decade, and it will no doubt get other people looking at the ARM architecture for servers and desktops running Linux.

Because Google’s workloads are based on Linux, presumably it’s easy to port them over to ARM or Power or any other architecture that supports the open source OS. We don’t know how tightly Google has compiled its applications down to the various x64 processors it uses. But, well, it just acquired a bunch of chip engineers and has plenty of software engineers to do a port to a new architecture if it thinks the benefits outweigh the hassle.

You can buy the GPad story if you like. But just for argument’s sake, we point you to recent graphic from webhost Intac. It seeks to show – with big, bright colors – how many servers Google is running relative to the world’s other tech giants (though it leaves out the likes of Yahoo!, Amazon, and Microsoft). Google is the one at the bottom. You can’t miss it:

Resource:

http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2010/04/22/google_the_server_chip_designer/

Garmin plans to release through T-Mobile this year a navigation-focused smartphone that would be the successor to the long-delayed Nuvifone A50 that shipped late last year.

The new Garminfone, like its predecessor, would run Google’s Android operating system. Layered on top of the OS is Garmin’s navigation user interface.

The latest phone would offer voice-guided and on-screen directions with automatic rerouting. The device, which has a 3.5-inch display, can be mounted on a dashboard to provide directions to motorists. In addition, Garmin also offers maps and navigation to people on foot.

Other features offered through Garminfone’s UI include real-time traffic, weather, and gas prices. The Garminfone also has a 3-megapixel camera, built-in support for 3G and Wi-Fi networks, and some internal storage, although Garmin has not said how much.

The smartphone will be available through T-Mobile, which could release the device as early as this spring, according to reports. Pricing has not been disclosed.

Garmin is hoping for a smoother launch of its latest Android phone than its Nuvifone predecessor. Garmin introduced the device in January 2008, expecting to release the smartphone in the third quarter of the year. Instead, the Nuvifone didn’t hit the market until late last year.

The device was Garmin’s first attempt to combine its personal navigation service with a cellular phone and mobile Web browser. At the time, the strongest features were the personal navigation capabilities, such as turn-by-turn directions that weren’t available on Apple’s popular iPhone.

Since then, similar navigation capabilities have been made available on the iPhone using Apple’s GPS technology and applications built by third-party developers offering iPhone applications through Apple’s App Store.

Garmin has partnered with computer maker Asus for manufacturing the Nuvifone, Garminfone, and Windows Mobile-based smartphones.

Resource:

http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2010/04/22/google_the_server_chip_designer/

The service, which could mark the slow decline of the stand alone satellite navigation industry, will be released as part of Google maps on any device (phone or others) running Android 1.6 or others.

The guy in charge of Google mobile maps, Steve Lee, attributed the delay in the launch of the UK version of the service to the fact that road layouts here are significantly different to the US with many more roundabouts.

Interestingly, the service will calculate and download an entire route and variations for the journey which means that it doesn’t need to connect continuously to its data source.

ZDNet reports that people with strong accents might find it tricky to get their orders to their Satnav through. There’s also the possibility of providing with the option to load regional maps which saves the cost of having to access data networks when abroad.

The announcement by Google that it was essentially giving away a satellite navigation solution capable of rivalling with entry level stand alone devices prompted Nokia to offer its own Ovi Maps service for free recently.

Resource:

http://www.itproportal.com/portal/news/article/2010/4/22/google-brings-free-satnav-uk-android-users/

Responding to my email asking for confirmation of the new devices, a Dell spokesman said: “Dell continually develops and tests new products that extend the mobile experience. We have not made any product announcements and do not comment on speculation, rumor or unannounced products.”

Specs and design-wise the Lightning device that Engadget is showing looks rather sweet, as least on paper. According to Engadget it’s a “portrait slider” device that houses a robust Snapdragon processor and a 4.1-inch display based on thin and bright OLED technology. It has a five megapixel autofocus camera, 1GB of flash with 512MB RAM, plus 8GB of storage on a MicroSD card. It also has GPS, an accelerometer, compass, FM radio, and full Flash support including video playback.

Though the phone will apparently will tap into AT&T and T-Mobile 3G networks when it arrives later this year, Engadget says Lightning could also receive an upgrade that would let it run on faster emerging 4G so-called “LTE” networks, shorthand for Long Term Evolution.

The Thunder handset carries similar specs.

Resource:

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/technologylive/post/2010/04/tech-site-dell-to-produce-slick-windows-and-android-smartphone/1

Besides declining to work with Adobe to bring Flash to the iPhone OS, Apple has recently changed the Terms of Service for the iPhone SDK to disallow development with unauthorized tools like Adobe’s new Creative Studio 5.

Earlier this week Adobe’s Mike Chambers indicated that due to the new restrictions in the iPhone SDK TOS, Adobe won’t contine development of tools to create iPhone apps in Flash CS5. Chambers wrote that Apple wants to “make it difficult for developers to target other platforms.”

Apple spokeswoman Trudy Muller shot back in a statement pointing out that the iPhone OS supports common open standards like HTML5, CSS, Javascript and H.264, calling Flash “closed and proprietary.”

But does support for open standards actually make the iPhone OS itself open? After all, Flash also supports H.264, but as Muller correctly points out that doesn’t stop it from being closed.

Does Apple’s decision to restrict development tools and methods really have anything to do with openness? It seems unlikely.

Apple’s own approach, the iPhone SDK, is proprietary and closed as well and gives Apple control all the way through distribution to consumers.

In response to an email from an OS X developer critical of the new SDK TOS, Steve Jobs recently outlined a more believable, if not entirely accurate, rationale.

Jobs wrote, “intermediate layers between the platform and the developer ultimately produces sub-standard apps and hinders the progress of the platform.”

The problem with this argument is that using non-Apple sanctioned (ie controlled) development tools isn’t an indication of poor quality any more than using the official tools improves it. Ultimately quality is in the developer’s hands.

As to hindering progress, that’s only true if you define platform as the iPhone SDK, rather than the iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad or even iPhone OS itself. In reality app development on these platform is limited by the iPhone SDK

Their capabilities could be exploited to come up with even more innovative apps by third parties if not for Apple’s obstruction.

It’s hard to believe that Apple’s reliance on DMCA anti-circumvention language and restrictive language in SDK agreements with developers is either open or conducive to progress. Both are artificial barriers to the creative process of developing software.

Even harder to believe is that Apple is oblivious to the growing government interest in various aspects of the iPhone business, including the app approval process.

Apple is already involved in various iPhone related patent lawuits against companies including prominent Android phone vendor HTC and worldwide mobile phone (and smartphone) industry leader Nokia. Federal investigators have already gotten involved in the Nokia dispute.

If Adobe ends up filing a lawsuit against Apple, which seems to be the rumor or speculation du jour every day, it would certainly lead to more pressure on Congress and federal regulators.

There’s no doubt Apple’s decision to outlaw converted Flash apps from the App Store will have a negative impact on Adobe, particularly with their new CS5 software having just been released. Some have argued that the reason for Apple’s oddly timed introduction of the next iPhone OS to developers was intended to coincide with Adobe’s CS5 launch.

The ability to convert Flash projects to iPhone apps has been touted as a major selling point for months, and with good reason given the number of App Store downloads. However that doesn’t automatically make what Apple is doing illegal.

Which may explain why there’s been no lawsuit from Adobe yet. The only grounds for forcing Apple to open the iPhone OS to third party application frameworks would seem to be an antitrust claim.

The iPhone, successful as it has been, hasn’t made Apple the number 1 mobile phone or even smartphone vendor in the US. Those titles belong to Motorola and Research In Motion (RIM) respectively.

Without a dominant market position Apple certainly can’t hold a monopoly so any antitrust complaint seems doomed.

However there still might be an alternative solution for Adobe and other companies who want to develop software for the iPhone without Apple’s blessing. They could throw support behind the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) effort to get a DMCA exemption for smartphone jailbreaking.

Such an exemption would allow Adobe, Microsoft, Sun or any other application framework provider the chance to extend their architecture to the iPhone by piggybacking on consumer rights.

Resource:

http://www.afterdawn.com/news/article.cfm/2010/04/23/apple_rep_says_iphone_os_is_open_while_flash_is_closed_and_proprietary

The study based on the survey of more than 1500 women claimed that more than 50 percent of the women surveyed are interested in men who own iPhones, and referred to them as more reliable, humorous, intelligent and well-groomed than the men who do not have Apple’s signature phone.

However, in a press statement issued later in the day, the company denied to have conducted any such survey and called it absolutely fake, directing the sites to drop the it.

Later, it came out that the survey was published by Sticky Eyes, its digital marketing agency, which conducted it through a third party, without a prior permission from Phones 4U, leaving the press deceived.

Apple’s smartphone alone has led the Cupertino-based to surpass all estimated targets of its earnings, by increasing its second-quarter income of the last fiscal by almost double

Resource:

http://www.itproportal.com/portal/news/article/2010/4/22/phones-4u-denies-commissioning-iphone-survey/

The original source for this story appears to have come from Sudeep Bharati, Director of Developer Tools for Microsoft India’s Visual Studio Team. According to The Economic Times Mr. Bharati said “The low-cost version of the phone will have a different chassis than version 1 to be launched by 2010 end.” This lower end device would have a smaller screen which is one of the more expensive items in the parts that make up the phone. Things like lower RAM or lower resolution camera may be part of the cost cutting.

However, The Register got in touch with Microsoft about this entry level device and they flat out denied it.

Microsoft is working with OEM and MO partners to provide customers and developers with a consistent hardware experience across all devices. As part of this, there is a single Windows Phone 7 hardware specification that includes guidelines around screen options, storage, camera functionality, and processing.

Right now, Microsoft has to build a world class phone, market the heck out of it and get developers on board in a big way to have any chance of competing with the iPhone or Android platform. To do this they need to focus on a single product to make everyone’s life easier. This will allow developers to target one device basically, regardless of who makes it, and know that their app will work without having to worry about the screen size or amount of onboard RAM. From the consumer standpoint, they will know there is a base set of specifications and a certain performance level they can expect when they buy the device.

Microsoft still has to worry about developing countries that might not be able to handle WinPho 7′s pricing, but maybe that is where either the Kin comes into play or Windows Mobile 6.5. That platform will be around for a while yet meeting specific needs like ruggedized devices for industry and low cost options for OEM’s that want to build a low end smartphone.

Resource:

http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2010/04/cheaper_windows.html

You see, it finally happened: I’m the proud owner of Apple’s much-ballyhooed tablet. No, I didn’t win a contest or rip one out of some poor guy’s hand. I actually plunked down some cold, hard cash.

As readers of my Cheapskate blog know, that’s something I’m loathe to do. But for me it was a legitimate business expense, and dang if my curiosity didn’t get the better of me. Would the iPad live up to the hype? Would I find new and unexpected uses for it?

I’m about a week away from finding out. My local Apple Store was out of stock, so I had to order it online.

When it finally arrives, I’ll no doubt go spelunking in iTunes for interesting apps. And needless to say, there are several I’m already keen to check out. The new Marvel Comics app, for example, is a favorite on my iPhone, and I imagine it must be ever more spectacular on the iPad’s spacious screen.

But, let’s face it, I’m an iPad newbie. I have no idea which apps will rock my world, make me the envy of the neighbors, and convince the missus I was right to buy now instead of waiting for the inevitable price drop. (Mark my words: Apple will cut iPad prices before 2010 is out.)

So it’s over to you, faithful readers. You already have weeks’ worth of screen testing under your belts, so you tell me (and other folks late to the iPad party): what are the must-have apps for a new iPad owner? Hit the comments and list your picks. (While I’m waiting, I’ll sift through CNET’s recent roundup of the 20 best free iPad apps.)

Oh, and if you have any case recommendations, I’d love to hear those, too.

Resource:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-20003145-1.html

The iPhone HD is coming at the end of June. When Gizmodo got hold of a lost or stolen iPhone this week, they only cemented what insiders like Daring Fireball’s John Gruber have been speculating for weeks: that the next iPhone will be a video-centric device.

According to Gizmodo and Gruber, the new iPhone has front and back cameras and a super-high-res, 960-by-640 display. The rear camera has been greatly improved over the iPhone’s camera, with a bigger lens and a flash. There’s a second microphone, which might be for noise cancellation, and a larger battery.

The new phone will not be called the “iPhone 4G,” as it probably won’t run on 4G mobile networks, and otherwise the name would be really confusing. Along with Gruber, I’m betting Apple will call it “the iPhone HD,” with high-def video recording, iChat video calling and amazingly lifelike video playback.

Needless to say, Apple refuses to comment on the leaked phone, or acknowledge plans for a launch event in June.

Mobile video has existed for a decade; I reviewed phones that did two-way video calls back in 2004. But video calling never became mainstream because it was expensive, unreliable, and didn’t work on enough phones. (Did you know that AT&T sells a one-way mobile video calling service even today? Yup.) Recording and sharing mobile videos is more popular, but not enough people understand how to share the videos on their phones. And mobile video streaming services such as MobiTV have had trouble sweeping the market with their tiered pricing plans and complex menu systems

Apple’s recent strength has been in taking existing technologies like the MP3 or the smartphone, and mainstreaming them by adding terrific user interfaces. If it offers a truly awesome experience, the iPhone HD could do for mobile video recording and sharing what the iPod did for music and the iPhone did for mobile apps.

Apple has wanted to rule the video world for years, but they’ve never fit all of the pieces together. They sell movies and TV shows through iTunes, but they haven’t changed the economics and politics of the video world the way the iTunes Store changed music. The AppleTV remains only a “hobby,” but Apple hasn’t discontinued it. They’re just trying to find the right timing and angles for a market-dominating move.

The iPhone HD would be another attempt to jump-start the digital video market and get it under Apple’s control. Apple will probably offer a slick, easy way to upload and share high-def videos, and their video recording and sharing abilities will strive to make Cisco’s little Flip cameras irrelevant. A powerful processor could enable full-scale video editing on the device. The high-res screen will be great to watch TV shows on through Netflix, CBS, or even a rumored upcoming Hulu app. The iPad is, in part, about video consumption; the new iPhone will be about video creation and communication.

I’m not convinced video calling has mass appeal no matter how well you do it, but that’s not going to stop Apple from trying. They have an unparalleled ability to make people want their latest feature, and I know I’m not as smart as their product designers.

Video calling has another missing piece, though, and that’s the network. The iPhone prototype that Gizmodo got is almost certainly an AT&T phone — it uses GSM MicroSIM cards, just like the iPad. Video calling is a network-intensive use, and it’s hard to see how AT&T would be happy with another major assault on their network.

That said, I still think the iPhone will remain an AT&T exclusive through 2010. I’m convinced that any rumored CDMA iPhone model is probably for China, not the U.S.

I think that in the last ten days of June, we’re going to be welcoming the video-centric iPhone HD, exclusively with AT&T. We’ll see if I’m wrong.

Resource:

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/04/21/future-forecasting-iphone-hd-june/

The launch of Apple’s (AAPL) iPad has been one of the most heralded in techdom, and the early consumer enthusiasm over the tablet computer that surfs the Web, features e-books, and plays music and videos is powering sales. Yet Apple’s image as a flawless marketing machine aside, this has hardly been a smooth product debut. Glitches ranging from a bizarre product ban in Israel to supply management issues in Asia have created challenges for the Cupertino (Calif.)-based company.

The iPad is certainly on a steep sales trajectory. Apple sold 500,000 iPads the first week after its early April debut. “It has shocked us, the levels of demand, at least initially,” Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook told analysts during an Apr. 20 conference call after the company reported a 90% jump in quarterly earnings, to $3.1 billion, on revenues of $13.5 billion.

In markets outside the U.S., however, Apple has pushed back the iPad’s release by a month until the end of May. It blames the delay on unexpectedly high demand, but analysts think Apple is having a hard time managing the production flow of the tablet computer’s 9.7-inch (25-centimeter) touch-sensitive liquid-crystal display.

The big screen is far trickier to produce on a mass scale than the 3.5-inch display used on Apple’s popular iPhone, says Andrew Rassweiler, an analyst with market research company iSuppli in El Segundo, Calif. “We understand that the yields on the display have been low and that they’re creating a production bottleneck,” Rassweiler says. Neither Apple nor touch screen manufacturers such as South Korea’s LG Display and Samsung Electronics or Japan’s Seiko Epson would comment on supply-chain issues.

Apple is having a different kind of problem in Israel. Customs officials in Tel Aviv this week have been seizing iPads from airline passengers entering the country. The device doesn’t comply with Israeli wireless standards, according to an Israeli Communications Ministry spokesman. Apple maintains that the iPad complies with the international standards for Wi-Fi frequency specifications.

You may not find many iPads on at least two American university campuses. Princeton University won’t allow its students to use the device on campus Wi-Fi networks because of data security worries. George Washington University says the iPad won’t work on its wireless network until an Apple software upgrade arrives in the fall.

Apple has run into manufacturing problems on some of its products before, including its MacBook notebook computers and iMac desktops, says Shaw Wu, an industry analyst with Kaufman Brothers in San Francisco. It looks like Apple will need to make some early-course production adjustments this time around as well.

Resource:

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/10_18/b4176048943435.htm

Adobe on Tuesday evening said it is ceasing investment in a software tool that enables Flash developers to port software into native iPhone and iPad apps, according to Mike Chambers, Adobe’s principal product manager for Flash developer relations.

“The primary goal of Flash has always been to enable cross-browser, platform and device development,” Chambers wrote in a blog post. “This is the exact opposite of what Apple wants. They want to tie developers down to their platform, and restrict their options to make it difficult for developers to target other platforms.”

Adobe is reacting to a new rule in the iPhone developer agreement, which stipulates that iPhone and iPad apps must be coded with Apple-approved programming languages, such as C++ or Objective C. If enforced, the rule would effectively ban any apps coded with Adobe’s Packager for iPhone, a tool enabling Flash-coded software to be easily converted into native iPhone apps, released last week with Adobe CS5.

Faced with Apple’s new rule, Adobe pulled the plug on Packager for iPhone. That ends, for now, any hope that Flash apps (or apps that incorporate Flash) will ever be able to run on the iPad or iPhone.

Apple’s new app policy has been met with furious debate. Critics say Apple is depriving consumers of choice, because Flash apps that could have been on the iPhone will never see the light of day. Supporters of Apple’s decision, including Steve Jobs, say the move was necessary to retain quality of apps in the App Store and nimbleness of updating the platform.

Apple has been steadfast with its lack of support for Flash on the iPhone OS. Some customers have complained that without Flash, iPhone and iPad users are missing out on a big chunk of the internet. Jobs said during a staff meeting that Flash was not supported because it is “buggy” and frequently causes crashes on the Mac OS, according to a secondhand account first reported by Wired.com.

Rather than supporting Flash, Apple has reportedly pushed website creators to use alternative web standards, including HTML5, CSS and JavaScript, which are all supported by the iPhone and iPad browser.

Apple said Adobe was incorrect to accuse Apple of locking in developers by not supporting Flash.

“Someone has it backwards — it is HTML5, CSS, JavaScript and H.264 (all supported by the iPhone and iPad) that are open and standard, while Adobe’s Flash is closed and proprietary,” an Apple representative said in a statement provided to CNET.

However, as simple as it may sound for web developers to switch to different standards, Wired.com’s Webmonkey editor Mike Calore said the transition to HTML5 for video playback would be complex. He explained that there’s no agreed upon video format for HTML5, and support varies greatly from browser to browser.

“Not to be overly critical of Apple — anyone pushing for open web standards deserves kudos — but the company seems more deeply concerned with digging Flash’s grave than it does with promoting semantic markup,” Calore wrote.

Resource:

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/04/adobe-flash-iphone/

The questions about whether or not Apple could produce a compelling tablet have been answered. PCMag gave it an Editors’ Choice award, and most other reviews have been positive to glowing. Yes, there are still some big questions about the iPad. Will consumers embrace it after the initial rush? Will publishers’ dreams of the “iPad as industry savior” be realized? I’d say we’re 6 to 12-months away from being able to answer those questions. Even so, Apple’s iPad is a tablet done right, and I think Apple’s plan of using and extending its mobile OS in ever-larger devices is pure genius and one that Microsoft would do well to mimic.

Right now, we’re all waiting for Windows 7-based tablets, such as the HP Slate, to arrive. There will be others, of course, but HP’s is the one Microsoft is touting. It appears to have the most potential for rebooting Microsoft’s tablet PC efforts. It’s built on the Windows 7 platform—a desktop and laptop OS that I use every day. It’s the best version of Windows since, perhaps, Windows 95. By that I mean that it’s new, fresh, smart, and light enough and intuitive enough to not get in your way.

All that said, it’s still a desktop OS. It carries with it all of the complications that are typically associated with running a relatively complex piece of technology. For what it’s worth, Apple’s desktop OS, Mac OS X, is only marginally less complex. This has relatively little to do with the hardware. We’ve proven in PC Labs that netbooks (which have hardware specs that are roughly equivalent to the upcoming Windows tablets), can run Windows 7, but Windows still shows you too much about the guts of your system. You still install drivers, there’s still a Control Panel, and even the nifty new Device Stage leads you to a hardware setup or configuration screen eventually. Windows Phone 7, like the iPhone OS, shields the end user from those complications. If Microsoft and its partners put Windows Phone 7 on these tablets, an end user might never have to see any of them. Yet, with access to the new Microsoft Marketplace, they’ll still be able to install whatever apps they need—all from one central place. Clearly, Microsoft has a lot of ground to make up in the Marketplace—it’ll have to get much richer and faster if Microsoft wants people to rely on it for their Win Phone 7 app needs. Web-based offerings could help here. Microsoft’s Office Web Apps, for example, could be the perfect tools for these Windows Phone 7-based tablets.

Before someone goes for my throat, let’s define some terms. Tablets is, admittedly, a broad term, and there’s a lot of confusion about what is and isn’t a tablet computer. For the sake of my argument, I do not consider products like the Apple iPad and HP Slate full-blown computers, and, while versatile, they’re not suited for all computing tasks. I don’t think video editing, intensive photo editing, and CAD work are what you want to do with them. Laptops that convert into tablets are, essentially, full-blown PCs stuffed with powerful, near-desktop-level (sometimes desktop-level) components. They’re ready to do virtually anything. All-in-one touch-screen desktops, such as the HP TouchSmart, are not tablets.

If you accept my argument—that true tablets need to work more like mobile phones and less like desktop computers—then Apple’s iPad strategy makes perfect sense. The astounding market success of netbooks helped Apple realize that most people only want to do a limited number of things with their computers. But Apple CEO Steve Jobs was loath to deliver a low-end portable computer to the market. Obviously, he figured out that Apple could serve the netbook market, with a product that’s sexier, simpler, and yet more powerful than many low-end netbooks. The iPhone and iPod touch are incredibly human devices that respond to your actions in an almost instinctive way. It’s not much of a leap to surmise that this think/do interface metaphor could also work in a form factor just shy of a full-blown laptop. There are more facets to the iPad than simplicity, but the choice of the iPhone OS as the iPad platform is probably the most important decision Apple made in the entire product development process.

Putting what is, essentially, a mobile OS into, for example, the HP Slate should be easy to do. It would allow Microsoft to replicate the Apple ecosystem’s success (i.e. the iPad, iPhone OS 4, iTunes, the App Store, and individual apps). Obviously, Microsoft doesn’t manufacture and control Windows Phone 7-based hardware the way Apple does its own hardware. That said, Microsoft is requiring certain key features in all Windows phones: GPS, touch screen capabilities, and an accelerometer. Now, Microsoft should extend that concept to tablets running its software (if it doesn’t already).

One company that may agree with my strategy is Google. I’ve heard more than a few rumors that the company is working on a tablet with its Android mobile platform—not its Google Chrome OS. This isn’t exactly a surprise. Other companies, including Dell, are thinking the very same thing.

I know this is a radical idea, but if Microsoft and its partners hinder these new tablets with a full-blown OS and the standard world of ad-hoc Windows applications and utilities bought from non-homogenous sources, Apple and the iPad will win.

Resource:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2362882,00.asp

The series is traditionally black with a chrome finish, but the new version will feature an all-white faceplate and leatherette backplate.

But the change is entirely cosmetic, with other features such as the 256MB of flash memory, 624MHz processor and 3.2MP camera remaining the same.

According to RIM, the new phone will be available in Australia from mid May onwards. Major carriers will be the only sellers of the product.

Resource:

http://www.arnnet.com.au/article/344045/white_blackberry_smartphone_hits_australia/

According to Sudeep Bharati, director, developer tools for Microsoft India’s Visual Studio Team, the company is working with manufacturers to come up with lower-end phones for the Indian market.

‘Windows Phone 7’ is Microsoft’s upcoming mobile operating system and series of phones that Microsoft hopes will revive its presence in the mobile market, which is dominated by Apple and BlackBerry in the US and by Nokia in developing countries. In India, this means generating phones that offer a cost-advantage to the competitively priced Nokia phones.

“We are working on phones with 2 chassis, one with a screen resolution of 800*480 and the other with a lower resolution of 480*320. Phones with chassis 1 will be available by the end of 2010,” says Bharati.

The lower-end models will have at least 128 MB RAM, a lower-end processor and a 5 megapixel camera, unlike the higher-end models that need to have 1Ghz CPU GPS chip and 1GB of RAM.

The company is still in talks with hardware manufacturers on the feasibility of the plan and the pricing of these phones.

The higher-end models are expected to be priced similar to the Nexus One, which is available for $529 in the US. It is expected that the lower-end phones would be priced lower than Rs20,000.

Google too had earlier mentioned plans to release a stripped- down version of Nexus One in India this year.

Microsoft has laid special emphasis on the graphical component of the phone as games will come with Xbox Live support, which will allow users to play a game on their mobile, save it, continue the same game on their PCs and finish it on their Xbox 360.

Bharati also said that he’s expecting developers to release Live games which can be played on all three platforms as a package.

The tools that developers can use to make these games – Visual Studio 2010, Expression Blend – were developed under him at the Hyderabad centre of Microsoft. “Developers can make their games compatible for all the platforms using the same code. They don’t have to write separate applications for each platform. Also, games can be written for the phone using Silverlight as well,” he added.

Silverlight, Microsoft’s competitor to Adobe’s Flash, has seen a lot of developments with version 4 to be released later this year. At Microsoft Tech Ed, which was organised in Bangalore last week, a few of the developers demonstrated a way to make a fully interactive 3D object using Silverlight. The 3D capabilities of Silverlight will come in handy when developing games as well.

Resource:

http://www.dnaindia.com/scitech/report_microsoft-s-special-india-plans_1374157

Though these sites have been popular with some die-hard users, it is internet giant Google’s social networking site Orkut that has constantly topped the popularity charts. In 2007, HT Media’s online subsidiary Firefly eVentures too entered the fray and paid around US $10 million or roughly Rs 39 crore to acquire Desimartini from Vivek Pahwa, an alum of Indian School of Business, Hyderabad.

The deal brought the social networking sites again in the spotlight, but experts commented that the company was paying too high a price for a business that’s yet to develop a revenue model! In 2008, Facebook started growing its base in India. And in a matter of one and half year, its user base started to rival that of Orkut.

Today, as per audience measurement website Vizisense.com data, Orkut is India’s number one SNS with a 33% reach and 15.3 million unique users. It is followed by Facebook, with a 27% reach and 12.6 million unique users. The only two Indian websites that make it to the top 10 list are Ibibo.com and Bharatstudent.com, with 6% and 3% reach, respectively.

The data itself says a lot about the social networking sites in

India. In fact, some of the sites seem to have upset their loyal users. Take for example, Yaari.com. The website which was started by Stanford University graduates Prerna Gupta and Parag Chordia, is the subject of scores of spamming related complaints in the web world.

Minglebox, one of the early entrants to the scene today is no longer a social networking site. “It was clear to us that a generic social networking will not be sustainable with global players dominating the market. We started as a social networking site but we noticed a lot of activity on the site regarding education. And when we moved to a pure education site, the student community stuck with us,” says Kavita Iyer, founder and CEO of MingleBox. Today the site has over 3 million registered users. The owners perhaps understood the game and morphed into a pure education website.

The challenges

SNS have arrived in numbers, but not in terms of cash, says Vikram Bhardwaj, CEO, eStatsIndia.com, a information and business research consulting firm. One of the major barriers to the growth of Indian SNS is language. The huge English speaking population has propelled the growth of IT enabled services in India, but this very advantage forces Indian companies to compete with global players in the SNS space. “The moment an individual here logs on to the net, his preferred language becomes English. This is not the case in other countries,” says a top executive of one of the companies who did not want to be named.

For example, Japanese SNS Mixi has more than 80% of the SNS market in Japan. There are similar examples of SNS sites in other languages across the world�Russian, French, Chinese, Korean, etc. In India, that is not the case. In addition, while the cost for developing and maintaining the site is same for any player, the economic values of user is far lower in India (the per user revenue is far lower in India). “On an average, the pay per page view is anywhere between 4 to 10 paise,” says the executive.

The rise of social media

With just 47 million internet users in a country with a billion-plus people, the internet is still small compared to the traditional media�TV, print and radio. But the profile of the users, the ease of measurability of audience over the net coupled with the growth potential over the next decade has generated enough interest among marketers.

In 2010, the total advertising spend on the digital space in India is likely to cross Rs1000 crore. While the tradition forms of engaging customers on the digital platform–websites, display ads, etc., remain, Indian companies today are also incorporating social media into their marketing strategy.

Take for example, India’s aviation sector. Private airlines such as SpiceJet are focusing on the social networking sites to create content and interact and engage with the customers. The company says it has more than a 1000 followers on sites like Facebook and Twitter. Through the groups, the users are told about the promotional offers, and in turn, they can share their experiences and give feedback.

“Our focus has been to leverage these outlets and engage consumers, and, get them to interact with the brand. This is strongly supported by our belief that customers don’t want to be mere consumers anymore,” says Anish Srikrishna, senior vice-president-marketing, SpiceJet.

This is a strategy that has been enthusiastically adopted not just by other airline companies such as Jet Airways and Kingfisher Airlines, but companies in other sectors too. But the point is that their presence is largely limited to Facebook, Orkut and Twitter.

“Reach is the singular factor that drives this decision. You will be able to see Alexa’s tables of top sites in India which drive this decision. As a secondary is functionality, if there is something special on the platform that is not available on a broad reaching platform we will still consider it if the proposition is unique enough,” says James Sandberg, social media strategist for Diageo India, the Indian subsidiary of global liquor major Diageo.

Down but not out

The players in the SNS space are not giving up so easily. “As broadband grows, local social is a bigger opportunity,” says Ashish Kashyap, CEO, Ibibo. The social networking site which started in 2007 has launched social gaming which has given the company good traction. Besides online ads, value-added service and e-commerce are also revenue generators for the company.

Another player in the space, Reliance ADAG owned BigAdda, offers rich media content and blogging opportunities to its users. It created a lot of interest by roping in Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachhan to write a blog on its site. “We started to look at differentiation. In addition to blogs and rich media, we started the first online reality show,” says Shivanandan Pare, CEO, Big Adda. It expects to garner not just more users but also revenues from its reality shows.

Indyarocks too says it offered user and premium content to its members. The company says the growth of Facebook and Orkut has not hurt it but rather helped it grow. “We have recently opened up our site for cross platform interactivity due to which users on our site can seamlessly share content with their friends on Facebook and vice-versa,” says Kalyan Manyam, CEO, Indyarocks. The company claims to be profitable.

While these companies are putting up a brave front, and tweaking their business models to survive, with Facebook setting up its office in India it will not be an easy ride. The team that has been set up in Hyderabad will focus on advertiser, user and developer operations. “India’s innovative and tech-savvy environment inspires us to invest heavily here, from working closely with mobile carriers to create streamlined Facebook applications, to sponsoring a Developer Contest in 2009, which rewarded Indian developers for their creativity in creating applications and Connect integrations”, says Meenal Balar, international growth manager, Facebook.

People Group, which owns Fropper.com, while “pleasantly surprised” at the growth of Facebook, does not really see it as a negative thing. “Our research indicates that our members have become adept at managing multiple networks simultaneously, and we see this trend continuing to grow as connectivity across multiple networks increases,” says Gorav Rakshit, group head, digital media, People Group.

“It is difficult to make money in the social networking space,” admits an executive from an Indian SNS who did not wish to be identified. But then the players are still optimistic. “Internet is an evolving and dynamic space. It is not easy as the target is moving continuously. If one can evolve fast then one can succeed,” says Pare.

Resource:
yahoo News

Little is known about the stealth company, whose founders created the A4 chip Apple uses in its iPad, before leaving for smaller pastures. These founders, according to the New York Times, joined Apple by way of PA Semi and left unhappy.

The Times and others believed Agnilux made servers, server chips, or at least something to do with computing for the love of all things high-tech.

In trying to divine what Google would want with the company, I suggested that perhaps Google wanted to plumb the minds of the engineers to build a chip for its alleged Android tablet:

Perhaps Agnilux has made a technological breakthrough in server processing, something major along the lines of what PeakStream provided for Google when the company acquired it to boost its application processing.

It could be that Google will take the chip work Agnilux has done and use it as the processing engine for a possible tablet. Remember, these Agnilux engineers did make the A4 powering the iPad and possibly the forthcoming iPhone 4 chip.

It seems I was right about the tablet connection between Google and Agnilux, but off base on the methodology, which I thought was hardware-based.

I believed Google bought Agnilux so its programmers could make a special chip for the Google tablet, allegedly based on Android and not Chrome Operating System.

The Times, advancing its original coverage of Agnilux April 21, cited a source who claimed: “It’s not chip design. It’s getting software platforms to work on different kinds of hardware with lots of obscure back-end technologies.” .

Specifically, this source told the Times Google “acquired the firm not for silicon expertise or to build actual hardware, but for help with porting Google platforms like its Chrome and Android operating systems onto other devices – like tablets, or possibly even television set-top boxes.

The set-top box angle is intriguing because it points to another rumored play, Google TV, in which the company is trying to make our plasmas another computer from which to surf the Web and watch YouTube.

Another source told the Times Agnilux’ technology could help Google run its software platforms on tablets “without draining the battery,” which is pretty much what these guys did for the iPad with the A4 chip.

This seems completely plausible and that’s why the Agnilux buy lends credence to the notion that a Google tablet is in the works.

Agnilux could be one of those foundational technologies on which Google rests its mobile Web device and platform strategy versus Apple, whose iPhone is entrenched and whose new iPad is strong and growing stronger.

Maybe we’ll look back at this quiet, innocuous-seeming buy and say Agnilux did for Google what its engineers did for Apple as employees of PA Semi.

Resource:

http://googlewatch.eweek.com/content/google_ma/googles_agnilux_play_is_about_the_google_tablet_after_all.html

Nick Volosin, director of technical services at Kaweah Health Care District in Visalia, Calif., told Network World that he bought three iPads for testing, and plans to implement more than 100 at the facility in the next two months. Various patient monitoring programs will be accessed through Citrix virtual desktop and application delivery software. Using the Citrix Receiver, the hospital will be able to have its workers access desktop applications without writing proprietary software for the iPad.

The iPads will be distributed to home health care and hospice workers, nurses, dietitians and pharmacists. Because tight supply has forced Apple to turn down volume orders, the hospital had to work with Apple directly to make such a large purchase.

Volosin told author Jon Brodkin that the iPad and its 10-hour battery life will replace a laptop for many employees, particularly because it will eliminate the need to charge multiple times throughout the day, and it doesn’t need to be turned on and off. In addition to patient-related services, employees will also be able to use the device to do traditional office tasks like check their e-mail.

Another selling point for the iPad: the price. Starting at $500 for the 16GB Wi-Fi model, Volosin reportedly said that it is a more affordable option when compared to a traditional touchscreen tablet, which can cost as much as $3,000.

In addition to Volosin’s three test units, about 20 doctors have purchased their own iPads to use at the office. One kidney specialist said the device has made him more efficient and also improved patient safety.

Many hospitals have eyed Apple’s iPad since the device was first announced earlier this year. Some health care workers believe tablet computers help doctors and nurses spend more time with patients. One San Francisco program dubbed “Destination Bedside” uses tablet computers to provide X-rays, charts, prescriptions and notes.

In February, one study found that one in five physicians intended to buy an iPad, just days after it was announced. Epocrates Inc.’s survey of more than 350 clinicians found that 9 percent would buy an iPad when it became available, while another 13 percent intend to buy one in the first year. Another 38 percent said they were interested in the iPad, but wanted more information before they would decide whether or not to purchase.

Resource:

http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/10/04/21/california_hospital_plans_to_utilize_100_apple_ipads.html

Boy Genius Report said it got its hands on a BlackBerry smartphone running the OS 6.0 from a secret source at AT&T and wasted little time detailing some of the features within. When asked, RIM’s representatives declined to comment on the disclosed information.

The OS 6.0 prototyped home screen (pictured right) looks similar to the touch-screen BlackBerry Storm interface with a prominent digital clock, centralized wallpaper, and two rows of touch-friendly icons. Beyond a refreshed design, some UI changes we noticed right away include the e-mail and search shortcuts front and center above the wallpaper, and a sliding bar just below the wallpaper for filtering home screen icons by all and favorites.

The uncovered images also highlight a new browser–long RIM’s weak point–which is reported to finally make use of tabs and multitouch, and will be based on the open-source WebKit engine that drives the iPhone’s Safari browser

A refurbished music player dumps the bland-looking skin we see on our Bold 9700 running OS 5.0 in favor of a more sophisticated view that makes use of album art in a pyramidal, tiled design. We took one look and immediately equated the visuals to Slacker Radio’s BlackBerry interface, just minus the onscreen elements to mark favorites and block songs.

There are plenty more details to read from Boy Genius Report. Descriptions of the e-mail in-box, kinetic scrolling, and new mechanisms for tapping and holding the screen to surface a menu option caught our eye. The latter sounded much like the long press functionality found in Google’s Android platform. We’re pretty interested in seeing the OS for ourselves, just in case any errant engineers out there accidentally drop a newly decked-out BlackBerry in the bar…(oh, we kid, we kid.)

Resource:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-20003055-1.html

IPhone frenzy quickly spread on the Web Monday, after Gawker Media’s Gizmodo technology Web site posted photos of a similar-looking phone that it said someone found at a bar in Redwood City, north of San Jose. In response to suggestions that Gizmodo paid for the phone, Gawker chief Nick Denton tweeted, “Yes, we’re proud practitioners of checkbook journalism. Anything for the story.”

Late on Monday, Gizmodo provided a full account about how its source got ahold of the phone. It said an Apple software engineer mistakenly left it behind at the Gourmet Haus Staudt, a German beer garden in Redwood City, on March 18. The blog identified the man by name, and published what it said were photos of him as well as links to a page on the photo-sharing site Flickr that it said belonged to him.

A spokeswoman for Apple didn’t respond to a request for comment. In an email, Jason Chen, the Gizmodo editor who wrote the first entry describing the phone, said he received the phone a little less than a week ago. “We were not the people who found it originally,” he said.

Joshua Topolsky, editor-in-chief of Engadget, which is owned by AOL Inc., said that the site was contacted April 17 by people who claimed to have found the device in a bar. These people asked Engadget to pay for access to the device, but it declined to do so after consulting with its attorneys. “We believe it’s the same device,” said Mr. Topolsky.

The device could prove a hoax, but if the phone is an authentic prototype, it could take a bite out of marketing plans at Apple, which goes to great lengths to keep new products a surprise until Chief Executive Steve Jobs can unveil them.

Apple has been working on a new iPhone that is thinner and will have a faster processor than the current model, The Wall Street Journal previously reported, citing people familiar with the device. Apple watchers have expected the company to unveil it sometime in June.

The photos–and Gizmodo’s claim that it has the actual device–had fueled speculation about how an iPhone prototype could turn up at a bar given how carefully Apple controls who can take prototypes out of its offices. John Gruber, who runs a technology site called Daring Fireball, said in a blog entry that Apple considers the phone “stolen, not lost.”

Another theory that had been going around: Someone left it behind deliberately to create buzz.

Gizmodo reported that its device has features that would be new to the iPhone, such as a front-facing camera for video-chatting, a bigger lens, a flash on the back camera, an improved display and split buttons for volume control. The Web site released a video of its editor holding a device that was not functioning.

The screen was slightly smaller than that on the current 3GS model, Gizmodo said, but the phone included a 16% larger battery and is three grams heavier. Unlike past iPhones with curved corners, the Gizomodo find was completely flat in the back, with corners that are more squared off and surrounded by an aluminum border.

Gizmodo said it believes the phone, which was found in a protective case made to look like an iPhone 3GS, is authentic because it had behaved like an iPhone when connected to a computer and the person who found it said it was running the latest operating system that was just announced before “Apple remotely killed the phone.”

Resource:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703757504575194691720059102.html

Resource:

http://www.hanvon.com/en/products/touchpad/touchpad_F10.html

Apple plans to release the iPad 3G on April 30 to those who have preordered the device and shoppers who plan to pick one up at the company’s retail locations. Now that a launch date has finally been confirmed, it’s time for consumers who have yet to order an iPad to consider which version of Apple’s tablet they really want. Admittedly, it’s a difficult decision. Both devices have advantages and, depending on a how a consumer plans to use the tablet, opting for the cheaper WiFi-only version might be a good bet.

But for potential iPad owners who are still on the fence and can’t quite decide which version to pick up, we’re going to make it really easy for you: the iPad 3G. As nice as the WiFi-only version of the iPad is, it will look like the hobbled cousin of the 3G version once that’s released next week. Owners should be able to get much more out of the 3G version than the WiFi-only model. It might be more expensive, but the iPad 3G is the best bet both for consumers and for enterprise customers.

Here’s why:

1. It’s 3G

   Let’s just get the obvious point out of the way: The iPad 3G allows users to connect to a high-speed Web connection wherever 3G networking from AT&T is available. That’s important. Currently, owners of the WiFi-only iPad can only connect to the Web whenever they’re within range of a wireless hot spot. That means no checking e-mail in the car or surfing the Web at a park. If nothing else, 3G connectivity provides users with options that the WiFi-only version doesn’t. That’s a major selling point for many consumers.

2. Look toward the future

   Although Apple will support both versions of the iPad, the 3G model future-proofs consumers. What Apple and developers have planned for the iPad is unknown. They could offer new features or interesting new applications that would accommodate owners of both versions of the tablet. But there’s a stronger possibility that as time goes on, Apple will only offer improvements to 3G owners. It followed a similar strategy with the iPhone in an attempt to move consumers to the newest version of the mobile phone. What would stop it from doing the same thing with the iPad?

3. Productivity

   If a consumer plans to use the iPad as more than just a Web-surfing tool, the 3G version is the best choice. As Apple has said time and again, it wants to make the iPad an alternative to current mobile computers, like netbooks or lightweight laptops. Users can type up documents, create spreadsheets and perform several other tasks. But having the option of connecting to the Web wherever a 3G connection is available will increase the user’s productivity. Sure, a WiFi-only model would be similar to using a desktop or a standard laptop, but 3G increases productivity beyond that.

4. You’re an enterprise customer

   Although the iPad looks like a consumer-focused device, it has some uses for company employees. The device is readily mobile, its virtual keyboard works well enough to get work done and, thanks to 3G, employees can be online at any point in the day. The corporate world will find a lot to gripe about when it comes to the iPad, but it might also like what it sees in some cases. If an enterprise customer is looking to use the iPad at work, the 3G version is the only option.

5. More app possibilities

   Part of the value of owning an iPad is the access to Apple’s App Store. Since the iPad comes without several apps users might want, the App Store quickly becomes the go-to place to find all the functionality that Apple doesn’t bundle with its device. In many cases, that means needing a connection to the Web for the app to work as described. When a user is home, connecting to the Web via WiFi isn’t any trouble and using such apps is a cinch. But when away from WiFi, only a 3G connection will be able to keep the iPad as functional as a user wants.

6. More GPS ability

   Unlike the WiFi-only version of the iPad, the 3G model comes with full GPS functionality. As soon as a user boots up the iPad 3G and works on it away from a WiFi hot spot, GPS satellites will be able to pinpoint its location. The WiFi-only model, on the other hand, uses known WiFi hot spots to find a user’s location. Although that’s better than nothing, it doesn’t truly pinpoint the exact spot at any given time for use with location-based apps. That might not be a deal breaker, but given the recent popularity of location-based services, more users than we think might want to have their exact locations broadcast to the rest of the world.

7. 3G coverage is optional

   The beauty of the iPad 3G is that users aren’t forced to enter into a contract when they buy the device. So, if users decide that 3G might be useful down the road, but for now they will be content with WiFi only, they can still buy an iPad 3G. If or when they decide they want to connect to the Web via 3G, they need only pay $15 per month for up to 250MB of data or $30 per month for unlimited data. And they can cancel that service at any time. Not bad.

8. The WiFi-only version won’t be supported for long

   If we consider Apple’s history with mobile products, it becomes clear that the underpowered, old models that it once offered are quickly phased out in favor of new, capable versions of the respective device. Remember the iPhone 2G? Yeah, it’s history. And since multitasking will only make its way to the iPhone 3GS, it looks like Apple is trying to push users to the newer version of its mobile phone. Apple has a long history of doing that. The iPad won’t be any different.

9. The time factor

   The iPad 3G has been in the cooker a month longer than the WiFi-only version of the tablet. That’s important. Lest we forget, the WiFi iPad suffered from connectivity issues that Apple is still attempting to address. That doesn’t necessarily mean that the 3G model won’t suffer from those problems too, but given the fact that Apple has known about it for a month, it’s entirely possible that a fix has already been implemented in the 3G model. The same can be said for any other quirks Apple might have found along the way. The WiFi-only iPad might be a robust offering, but the 3G version will likely be a little better.

10. This is Apple we’re talking about

    If Microsoft was offering two versions of the same product, getting the hobbled model probably wouldn’t be a bad idea. That company has a long history of supporting products until it really shouldn’t. But Apple doesn’t. Steve Jobs has made it clear with every product his company offers that the most expensive versions of that device will get preferential treatment over the cheaper versions. It makes sense. Apple can make much more off the more expensive models. Plus, by only giving desired features to the more capable versions, Apple is softly prodding customers to move to the new product. Apple doesn’t like less capable products. That will quickly become clear with the WiFi-only version of the iPad.

Resource:

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Mobile-and-Wireless/10-Reasons-to-Go-for-iPad-3G-Instead-of-WiFi-132985/

Research in Motion is another major player in the market which is finding it hard to compete against these two players in the smartphone markets.

Like Nokia, RIM has been working hard on improving their software platform to better support touchscreen devices.

And the company is likely to launch the latest edition of their Blackberry OS in the near future.

BlackBerry OS 6 is said to be optimized for the latest demands in the market like touchscreens and social networking integration.

The company is also expected to massively improve the web browser on the device to support newer web technologies.

It remains to be see how it would compare against Windows Phone 7 platform which is also expected to arrive later this year.

Resource:

http://stuff.techwhack.com/8676-blackberry-os-6

Apple announced on Tuesday that the 3G-enabled iPad would arrive for those who have pre-ordered it on Friday April 30, the same day that it will make its appearance in stores.

The rush will begin at 5 p.m. at Apple Stores, most Best Buy locations, some Apple Authorized Resellers, and campus bookstores. As with the Wi-Fi models, you’ll be able to set up your iPad in the store for free with the help of an Apple employee.

The 3G model weighs just slightly more than its Wi-Fi-only sibling, coming in at 1.6 pounds to the other model’s 1.5. That and a small black plastic antenna window along the top of the unit are the only real hardware differences between the two. However, for those minor differences you’ll pay an additional $130. The 3G iPads come in 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB models and sell for $629, $729, and $829 respectively.

While some have wondered about the impact the 3G capability will have on the iPad’s otherwise stellar battery life, Apple is promising nine hours of battery life while browsing the Web on 3G.

As previously discussed, you’ll be able to subscribe to and manage 3G service from the device itself, with your choice of two plans from AT&T: a $15 per month plan limiting you to 250MB of data and a $30 per month plan of unlimited usage. Unlike the iPhone, you can subscribe to and cancel 3G service whenever you like.

Resource:

http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/194583/3genabled_ipad_arrives_april_30.html

The Sync in-car communications and infotainment system is currently standard on all 2010 Lincoln models and available on select 2010 Ford and Mercury models. The service allows drivers to operate most MP3 players, Bluetooth-enabled phones and USB drives using voice commands–additional features include turn-by-turn navigation, realtime traffic updates and business search tools

Resource:

http://www.fiercemobilecontent.com/story/android-blackberry-apps-drive-fords-sync-applink/2010-04-20

The victim, Bill Jordan told FOX31 News that he bought the device to give as a business gift last week and that he was attacked by two thugs shortly after purchasing the device at a Denver shopping mall.

“The next thing I know, I’m spun around. I see this kid…and he’s pulling (the iPad) out of my hand,” said Jordan, who said he had the device’s cord wrapped around his finger and couldn’t let go.

“I never heard it coming, I never saw it coming. I just remember this kid pulling and pulling and pulling and it got caught and took the flesh right off, the tendons and everything. There was nothing but bone.”

Jordan was rushed to hospital where doctors recommended amputation of the finger.

Resource:

http://www.ndtv.com/news/world/ipad-thieves-rip-off-mans-finger-20500.php

You know the story by now. Some Apple guy leaves his iPhone prototype in a bar. Some guy finds it. A few weeks go by. He then leaks photos of the thing to both Engadget and Gizmodo. Then he sells Gizmodo access to it for $5,000.

It’s a good story, with a lot of ins, outs, and what have-yous, as Jeff “The Dude” Lebowski would say. But while a lot of attention has been focused on whether it was, like, cool, for Gizmodo to have paid for information, man, the real question is what would you have done if you’d been the one to find the prototype?

We’ve got an official poll with a few choices, but if you want to get more creative, let us know how you would have played it.

Would you have sold the device and risked possible legal action? Written Steve Jobs an e-mail telling him you had one of his new phones? Held out for more than $5,000?

What was the right move here?

Resource:

http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-18438_7-20002983-82.html

Bluetooth is the less-capable, but still ubiquitous cousin of Wi-Fi. It is an open wireless technology standard used for transmitting data over short distances using short-length radio waves. It is the technology responsible for elevators full of business professionals with little device plugged into their ears appearing to talk to themselves, and the technology found in many vehicles to pair with mobile phones and provide hands-free communications.

Many wireless computer peripherals rely on Bluetooth as well. Wireless keyboards, mice, and headsets enable users to be comfortable and productive at the same time–untethered by oppressive cords getting tangled and restricting movement.

“Bluetooth v4.0 throws open the doors to a host of new markets for Bluetooth manufacturers and products such as watches, remote controls, and a variety of medical and in-home sensors. Many of these products run on button-cell batteries that must last for years versus hours and will also benefit from the longer range enabled by this new version of the Bluetooth specification,” said Michael Foley, Ph.D., executive director of the Bluetooth SIG in a press release.

Bluetooth v4.0 is described by the Bluetooth SIG as a versatile combination of three different Bluetooth protocols–the classic Bluetooth we know and love, the low-energy Bluetooth, and the high-speed Bluetooth. The three faces of Bluetooth v4.0 can be implemented individually or in combination with each other.

One of the defining characteristics of Bluetooth–especially compared with Wi-Fi–is the short range. Standard Bluetooth devices are generally restricted to about a 30 foot range in order to maintain the wireless connection. With Bluetooth v4.0, it’s possible to optimize the range of Bluetooth devices up to 200 feet or more.

Resource:

http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/194648/bluetooth_v40_enables_lowpower_highspeed_wireless_devices.html

Placing Internet ads on websites easier and more profitable in the future as the latest technology allows ads to be resized to fit any available website space.

Internet ads are currently only available in three or four specific sizes, meaning websites must be designed around the ads. The size restrictions greatly limit ad placement options and affect the way ads look on devices such as the iPhone and iPad.

However, the new technology, developed by UofT Electrical and Computer Engineering associate professor Parham Aarabi, enables ads to be resized automatically to conform to any web space.

“Currently, a significant portion of usable website spaces are not used for advertising because the standard size ads don’t fit,” said Aarabi.

“Our technology is the first ever to conform ads to any available website space in an automated and practical way. Essentially, advertisers provide a single ad at a preset size, and our technology can, automatically and dynamically, regenerate the ad at any size, resolution, or aspect ratio by taking into account the contents of the ad, relevant text, and other information,” Aarabi added.

He added that the technology would translate into profit because formerly wasted web space can be used for advertising.

“Given an online advertising market worth billions of dollars, this technology could significantly increase revenues for publishers, and create new opportunities for advertisers,” Aarabi said.

The concept will be presented at the World Wide Web 2010 Conference in late April in Raleigh, North Carolina. (ANI)

Resource:

http://news.oneindia.in/2010/04/20/newtechnology-to-give-internet-advertising-aboost.html

• Does the inclusion of the front camera mean that Apple will finally unveil a native iChat application for the iPhone? (Why yes. Yes it does.)
• Will it include video conferencing? (Of course, but only on the iPhone HD.)
• Will third-party VOIP apps (like Skype, Fring, iCall, Line2, etc.) also be allowed to stream video? (Probably, but it might take a while for their updated apps to get approved.)
• How will AT&T/Verizon handle the billing? (By charging a lot, that’s how.)
• Will video conferencing be included in the unlimited (*cough* 5GB) data plan? (You’re kidding, right?!)
• Will the crush of video data bring the creaky AT&T network to its knees? (Yes. Yes it will)
• How will the Verizon network prevail? (It will prevail)

Resource:

http://blogs.zdnet.com/Apple/?p=6668

Apple apparently chose a rectangular “boxy” form factor with lots of hard lines to maximise volume and pack as much electronics as possible. Gizmodo promised to provide with more details in a future article.

Jason Chen, the reviewer, said that the back was entirely flat made either of glass or ceramic or shiny plastic but later said that Apple apparently opted for a black plastic back instead.

This reminded us of an article by John Gruber of Daring Fireball about a patent filed by Apple back in 2006 which covered high durability ceramic enclosures which ressemble glass but are far more resistant and stronger.

Shedding Aluminium will possibly to improve reception yet Gizmodo says that it feels much less plasticky than the iPhone 3GS. That said, either glass or ceramic have lower density than Aluminium

Gizmodo says that the new iPhone 4G design is back to basics and the shape actually reminds us of the iPod 5G. There’s also an aluminium border going all around the phone and interrupted only by the various holes for microphone, volume buttons, connectors etc.

The iphone 4G prototype dimensions are 4.50 by 2.31 by 0.37 inches while the old ones were 4.5 by 2.4 by 0.48 inches; so slightly thicker and wider.

Finally, the iPhone 4G is a tad heavier than the previous version as well at 140g vs 135g for the iPhone 3GS and iPhone 3G. Note though that this could well be a prototype rather than the final version of the iPhone 4G so things may change.

Resource:

http://www.itproportal.com/portal/news/article/2010/4/20/apple-iphone-4g-behind-new-design/

The Garminfone will come packed with tons of navigation features, including a brand new app called Garmin Voice Studio that allows users to send and share custom directions to friends and family

Android already offers its own built-in GPS app through Google Maps’ “Navigation” service, but Google warns that it is in beta form and the company certainly doesn’t have the expertise in the field that Garmin does.

Expanded functionality for the Garminfone will also include automatically hyperlinking street addresses (from texts, e-mails, Web sites, etc) on the device to bring up direction information. Users can also geo-tag pictures with the built-in 3-megapixel camera and Garmin will introduce a suite of location-based services like movie listings and local gas station prices.

Garmin’s full navigation suite that is used on its GPS devices will also be transferred over, allowing complete voice-based navigation information and guaranteed functionality even if the cell signal is lost.

The phone will also come with a mount that makes it easy to stick it to a dashboard or window. Other specs of the Garminfone were not specifically detailed, though it does include support for Microsoft Exchange e-mail, native social networking functionality, and a 3.5-inch touch screen.

The Garminfone will be available later this spring.

Resource:

http://www.tgdaily.com/mobility-brief/49449-garmin-intros-navigation-centric-garminfone-on-android

The vast majority of Internet sites use it to display Flash video and other multimedia content. In addition, Flash is a convenient platform for application development. The main trouble for it today is to dislike Apple chief Steve Jobs, for which the technology is not supported by Adobe nor the iPhone, nor the iPad – and this is a significant part of the market.

A couple of years ago make sense to implement support for Flash in the smartphone was not – the majority of power devices for normal mapping would not be enough. But today the situation is quite different, smartphones and Internet tablets with gigahertz processors and graphics accelerators, the individual coping with Flash-graphics with a bang.

The fact that the development of Flash for Android entered the stage of debugging, and is about to be declared a set of all comers in a series of beta testers, said the chief ideologist of the platform from Adobe Li Braymelou. According to him, users Android-smartphone after the implementation of them is waiting for Flash support “a lot of exciting, the possibility of devices markedly improved.

Register to participate in a public beta Flash-player for Android can be on the official website of the company.

Resource:

http://it-chuiko.com/internet/3416-adobe-is-tesing-flash-for-android.html

According to Engadget, the Android-powered Mini 5 just showed up in the FCC database with the WCDMA Band IV radios. Those radios only are used on one US network: T-Mobile’s (DT).

The Mini 5 is just a bit bigger than a big smartphone (HTC’s Evo will be 4.3 inches vs. the Mini’s 5 inches) but is being marketed more like a mini tablet — but one with significantly more screen size than the market leading iPod touch from Apple (AAPL). It is powered by the same Qualcomm (QCOM) Snapdragon processor that powers HTC’s latest Android phones as well. Unfortunately for Dell, it’s been only show running an older version of the Android OS, version 1.6 (vs. 2.1 on the latest Android phones).

Perhaps most importantly however, the Mini 5 will launch with a big content partnership from Amazon (AMZN) which will provide the device with music, Video-on-Demand, eBooks and anything else Amazon sells.

The questions that remain are: When will this device be sold and for how much ?

• Dell (DELL) could sell this through the carriers (T-Mobile in this case) like most phones and some Netbooks are sold
• Google (GOOG) could sell it ad-hoc like it sells the Nexus One (also on T-Mobile) on its website?
• Dell could sell this like Apple sells the iPad — With specialized unlocked data-only plans (though the Mini 5 can make phone calls)
• Dell could just sell this outright on Dell.com and let customers find their own SIM / plan options.
• Any combination of the above.

The device itself is probably going to cost south of $500 (if it wants to have any chance vs. the iPad and iPod touch) and any carrier deals will just bring that down further.

The Mini 5 is a big deal for Dell, which is coming to the US with its first Android devices and first portable devices since it killed the Axiom and Dell DJ lines years ago. Dell also sells a smaller Mini 3 in Brazil and China.

The Dell Mini’ 5′s size might be a good differentiator vs. Apple and HP which both make significantly smaller phones and larger tablets.

Speaking of larger tablets, Dell is slated to have a 7-inch version of its Mini Tablet at the end of the year and a 10-inch variety at the beginning of 2011.

Resource:

http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2010/04/19/fcc-database-reveals-dells-mini-5-to-come-to-t-mobile/

Our iPad application developers understand the technical tweaks that would be required to an iPhone application to make it work well on the iPad and could utilize the unique features of the iPad that would give the entire application an absolutely different feel and make it iPad-compatible. iPod / iPhone Application Migration to iPad would bring a new delight to your tablet device with development of customized iPad apps from from existing iPhone/iPod apps.

Now, that the Apple iPad has already hit the stores and is believed to be a huge success, our iPad developers stand ready for migrating iPhone/iPod applications to the iPad. Most of the iPhone and iPod apps would run unchanged on the iPad but our dedicated iPad experts work dexterously at creating wonders even when an existing iPhone app is migrated on to an iPad.

If you wish to bring an extra fun to your iPad tablet by iPod / iPhone Application Migration to iPad, look no further. We are able to bring almost any category of existing iPhone application, from entertainment to music, from books to lifestyle, to the iPad.

Resource:

http://www.unlock-iphone.org/blog/2010/04/iphone-application-migration-to-ipad/

Apple is said to be planning to include an OLED screen in the next version of its iPad.

The first version of the tablet PC only hit US shelves at the beginning of this month and won’t be available to Brits until the end of May.

However, technology website Digitimes is claiming that sources in the component industry suggest the second version of the device will use “the same design concept as for the iPhone 4G” and come with an OLED panel.

Samsung, LG and Kodak are all currently producing OLED screens and Digitimes’s source claims OLED panel prices are expected to drop in the coming months making the technology “more price friendly”.

However, Mingchi Kuo, a senior research analyst at Digitimes believes the use of OLED screens will cause a problem for the iPad 2.

Kuo said that the current price of the 9.7in LCD panel for iPad is between $60 and $70 (£39 and £45). However, a 9.7in OLED panel costs around $500 (£325).

Kuo said the price gap is unlikely decrease significantly in 2010 or 2011.

The iPhone 4G is expected to be unveiled in June this year. However, tech enthusiast site Gizmodo claims to have got hold of the smartphone in advance. The website disassembled the handset and published a detailed blog entry saying it is “the real thing”.

Resource:

http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/news/index.cfm?newsid=3220967

The prototype version was found on the floor of a bar, we understood, although it was actually on a bar stool, according to tech site Gizmodo. It was apparently lost by a twenty-something Apple software engineer.

But it is indeed real, as now Gizmodo actually has the iPhone in its possession. Though Apple has remote wiped it, so there isn’t much they can do with it, save pry away at the hardware.

Gizmodo has “disassembled” it – it was disguised as a normal 3GS originally – and reported their findings.

These include the fact that the next iPhone will have a front facing video chat camera, as well as an improved camera on the back.

It has an “improved display”, with a higher resolution than the 3GS, but, oddly, a slightly smaller screen.

Aesthetically, it has a completely flat back, and is a more square edged unit. And it has a slightly larger battery, plus the phone uses a Micro-Sim like the iPad.

It’s quite the exclusive, and Gizmodo is absolutely convinced this is the real deal fourth version of the iPhone.

The site comments: “There is so much evidence stacked in its favour, that there’s very little possibility that it’s a fake. In fact, the possibility is almost none.”

Various parties have condemned Gizmodo’s actions on several fronts. Firstly, for naming the Apple employee involved, although the site says that this was done in an effort to help him keep his job, not get him fired (presumably because he’s now in the public eye, Apple would have to fire him in the public eye).

Secondly, many think Gizmodo could be in legal hot water for going ahead with this expose (presumably) without Apple’s permission.

Unless the handset isn’t the fourth-gen iPhone, of course. Either that, or as some computer conspiracy theorists have it, this whole episode has been set up by Apple as a publicity stunt.

We guess we’ll find out soon enough, when the official reaction from Apple comes.

Resource:

http://www.techwatch.co.uk/2010/04/20/apple-iphone-4-details-confirmed-as-no-hoax/

After all, the two devices seem hardly comparable. The Kindle uses a black-and-white screen and is designed primarily for reading books. The iPad, by contrast, is a full-on portable computing device capable of reading, watching video and playing games as well as sending e-mails and typing up documents — all from a high-definition, 9.7-inch LCD touch-screen.

On top of that, Apple /quotes/comstock/15*!aapl/quotes/nls/aapl (AAPL 247.07, -0.33, -0.13%) managed to surprise the market by bringing in the iPad at a starting price of $499 — well below most estimations before the product was announced in late January.

“The iPad makes things much more difficult for e-reader devices,” said Colin Sebastian, an analyst with Lazard Capital Markets who has followed the e-reader market. “Especially when you’re a higher-priced e-reader, then the value proposition becomes less clear.”

Still, many companies are making bets on the e-reader business. And analysts say those bets could still pay off, depending on how they are executed. IDC estimates that about 2.5 million e-readers were sold in 2009, and that number is expected to double to 5.1 million this year

Those estimates have attracted several players to the market, with more coming. This year’s Consumer Electronics Show, which took place in January, showcased several such devices, which targeted market niches that ranged from book readers to newspapers to devices that are designed primarily for business uses. See full story on e-readers making a big splash at CES.

Still, the Kindle from Amazon.com (AMZN 142.43, +0.26, +0.18%) rules the e-reader market with an estimated 60% share, according to estimates from Forrester Research. Sony Corp. (SNE 36.11, +0.55, +1.55%) is believed to have accounted for another 35% of the e-readers sold last year, with other vendors splitting the rest.

Worries about the iPad’s effect on the Kindle have helped weighed down Amazon’s stock this year. The shares are up 4% since the first of the year — an under-performance compared to the Nasdaq Composite, which has gained more than 8% in the same period.

“The market fears that the iPad will materially undermine the value proposition and growth prospects for the Kindle,” Mark Mahaney of Citigroup wrote in a note to clients on March 25.

Staying alive — and cheap

Many analysts still see a strong future for dedicated e-readers — depending on price, content and other factors that could help them stand out to consumers.

First and foremost, most e-readers are still priced at a sharp discount to the iPad. The Kindle and its rival device called the Nook — sold by Barnes & Noble (BKS 22.14, -0.52, -2.29%) — both start at $259. Sony sells a model for $199 called the Pocket Edition, with another touch-screen version priced at $299.

But others have little space from the iPad. IRex, a reader that went on sale at Best Buy earlier this year, sells for $399. Plastic Logic, a venture-backed startup, introduced an e-reader at CES that it planned to start at $650 for a model that only offers WiFi connectivity, and $800 for one that can access a 3G wireless network.

The Plastic Logic Que was originally planned to launch this month, but the company delayed the release until June 24 “in order to fine-tune the features and enhance the overall product experience.” See Tech Tales commentary on Plastic Logic.

Forrester analyst Sarah Rotman Epps says e-readers will have to compete with the iPad mainly on price, since there is no way for them to offer the same capabilities.

“We do see a role for a stand-alone e-reader, but it’s not going to be a premium price point,” Epps said in an interview. “They will have to get under $99 to get the mainstream market.”

Ross Rubin of the NPD Group agrees, adding that markets such as textbooks remain largely untouched by e-readers, and have a lot of potential.

“We are still very early in this market, which is still expanding,” Rubin said.

Setting apart

Besides price, analysts believe e-readers can set themselves apart from the iPad in other ways.

Product design is one area. While the iPad is widely hailed for its sharp design, one disadvantage is its 1.5-pound weight, which is more than double the weight of the 10.2-ounce Kindle. This would be a serious issue for those looking to use a Kindle or iPad for long-form reading.

“Weight is an attribute that’s easy to overlook,” said Rubin. “If you have an extra pound on your laptop, you won’t be feeling it most of the time. But if you have an extra pound on a tablet device, you will certainly feel that.”

Adding a color screen is another. While fine for book reading, devices with black-and-white screens are unlikely to be a draw for readers — and publishers of — newspapers and magazines, who are all gravitating towards the iPad. Color screens using E-Ink technology are not available yet, but are in development.

“In this market, we don’t think it’s sufficient for Amazon to go with only a black-and-white Kindle,” said IDG analyst Susan Kevorkian.

E-readers such as the Kindle, Nook and Alex from Spring Design will have another advantage through ties to big retailers. The Alex will be sold through retail chain Borders (BGP 2.93, +0.19, +6.93%) later this year. The iRex and Sony e-readers are currently sold through Best Buy.

Amazon’s different avenues

Gauging the performance of the iPad compared to the Kindle in the market will be difficult, given Amazon’s long-standing policy of not disclosing sales figures for the device.

Amazon, which reports first-quarter results on Thursday, still refers to the Kindle as the top-selling product on its Web site. Mahaney of Citigroup estimates that the company sold 2.4 million units of the device last year and will sell 3.5 million units this year. He also expects e-book revenue to reach $760 million this year — or about 2.3% of total estimated revenue for the company.

“The strength and relatively low price points of the iPad increase the pressure on Amazon to deliver an improved product (perhaps with touch screen capability) at a lower price point (probably sub $200) in 2010,” Mahaney wrote. “But we believe this is a likely scenario.”

Kevorkian of IDC believes Amazon will also benefit from having its Kindle app available on the iPad – especially since its own e-reader does not have a color display. “The Kindle app lets the company get into the business of selling color content,” she said.

Still, few analysts believe the current number of e-reader devices on the mark is sustainable, especially with more tablet devices on the way. Hewlett-Packard (HPQ 53.64, -0.11, -0.20%) , Dell (DELL 16.90, +0.14, +0.82%) and Google (GOOG 550.10, -0.05, -0.01%) are all developing competitor devices to the iPad, which will likely put more pressure on the e-reader market.

“We’re not going to have a market where 30 different e-readers survive,” Sebastian said.

Resource:

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/can-e-readers-still-compete-with-the-ipad-2010-04-20?pagenumber=2

Adobe has announced that its Flash 10.1 player will not arrive for Android, WebOS and BlackBerry devices until the second half of 2010.

Revealed In an interview with Fox Business News to talk up Creative Suite 5, Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen confirmed that the latest Flash update would now be moved to later in the year having initially been pencilled in for a release in the first half of 2010.

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That means that Android tablet devices such as the WePad which are expected to support Flash, will now receive a launch date nearer to the arrival of the Flash 10.1 Player.

One possible reason for delay arrives courtesy of The Flash Blog where Adobe’s Lee Brimelow revealed that private beta versions of Flash Player 10.1 for Android were now available. Developers can now also sign up to be notifed when the public version is available.

In the continuing Adobe versus Apple debate Nayaren also commented on Apple’s decision not to include Flash on the iPad saying that a flash-less iPad, “hurts consumers” and will ultimately be judged by people voting “for the experience that they want through their wallet.” We fully anticipate an Apple response in the not so distant future.

Resource:

http://www.t3.com/news/flash-10-1-player-delay-for-android-tablets?=44799

U.S. buyers who ordered one of three 3G versions before yesterday will still get their iPad by the end of April, as originally promised, Apple spokeswoman Natalie Kerris said. The 3G model connects to the Internet using mobile-phone carriers’ third-generation service, in addition to Wi-Fi networks.

Apple said last week that demand for the iPad was “far higher” than predicted, leading the company to delay international sales of the device by one month, until the end of May. Cupertino, California-based Apple sold more than 500,000 iPads in the first week after its U.S. debut on April 3.

“There’s a learning curve at play here,” said Shaw Wu, an analyst with Kaufman Bros. in San Francisco. “This is the reality of manufacturing.”

The iPad’s initial release only included models that run on Wi-Fi networks, starting at $499. The newer versions will cost at least $629. Both types let users surf the Web, watch videos, listen to music and play games on a touch screen.

Apple fell 33 cents to $247.07 in Nasdaq Stock Market trading yesterday. The shares have doubled in the past year.

‘Production Bottleneck’

The company, which said on April 14 that demand will outpace supply for the next several weeks, may be struggling to get enough touch screens produced, according to ISuppli Corp.

Suppliers, challenged by the size of the display, may be unable to make usable screens in the quantities Apple needs, said Andrew Rassweiler, an ISuppli analyst in El Segundo, California. The 9.7-inch (25-centimeter) screen is made by LG Display Co., Samsung Electronics Co. and Seiko Epson Corp., according to ISuppli.

The iPad’s LED-backlit display is about 6 inches larger than the screen used in Apple’s iPhone. For the iPad, Apple opted for a screen technology called IPS, or in-plane switching, that the company says provides “crisp, clear images and consistent color with an ultra-wide” viewing angle.

“We understand that the yields on the display have been low and that they’re creating a production bottleneck,” Rassweiler said. “That they have been doing it for the iPhone for some time is great, but once you go to 9.7 inches, it is a much more complicated process.”

Resource:

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-04-20/apple-says-new-orders-of-the-ipad-3g-won-t-arrive-until-may-7.html

For the people at Apple, it must be like a bad version of the guy walks into a bar joke.

The company is known as the most secretive in Silicon Valley, and leaks are rare. But after the phone prototype was left in a bar in the Silicon Valley town of Redwood City, photos of the device began appearing over the weekend in technology blogs, sparking a frenzy of hype among the Apple-obsessed.

Before long, pictures of the product appeared on Gizmodo, a technology news site, whose editors ripped it apart — as if it were an alien from another planet — to dissect its features. The Web site said late Monday that the phone belonged to an Apple engineer.

The phone’s authenticity was hotly debated, but most bloggers concluded it was real. And a person with knowledge of Apple’s hardware plans who was not authorized to speak on behalf of the company confirmed to The New York Times that it was real.

Apple declined to comment.

“It is very stunning,” said Tim Bajarin, president of Creative Strategies, who has been following Apple for nearly three decades. “Apple has such tight control on new products, and they are kept under wraps diligently and religiously until the day of their release. If it is true, it is really a first.”

Some wondered whether the phone was planted by Apple’s formidable publicity machine.

“For the sake of the person who dropped it, I hope this is a devious marketing scheme,” said Paul Saffo, a veteran Silicon Valley forecaster. “But I think it is unlikely. There is no one else on the planet whose shoes I would less like to be in it at the moment.”

In a blog post on Monday detailing how it obtained the phone, Gizmodo said it was left by an iPhone software engineer at Gourmet Haus Staudt, a German specialty store and beer garden in Redwood City.

The person who found the phone peddled it to Gizmodo, which bought it for $5,000, Nick Denton, chief executive of Gawker Media, which owns Gizmodo, said by instant message.

His company’s sites have had a longstanding practice of paying for scoops, and the windfall was tangible. Traffic spiked on Monday, and at midday more than one million visitors stopped by the site in one hour to see pictures of the coveted gadget.

By late in the day, reports began to surface on the Internet that Apple’s chief executive, Steven P. Jobs, had called Gizmodo to get the device back. Mr. Denton declined to comment, saying any conversation between Mr. Jobs and Gizmodo would most likely have been off the record.

“We haven’t had any formal communication with Apple,” he said. Brian Lam, the editor in chief of Gizmodo, said his publication would “probably” return the device to Apple.

From the front, it looks similar to the current iPhone, but it has sharper edges and is a little thinner. The volume and power buttons are stylistically different, and the back of the phone appears to be a ceramic glass, which would enable better reception. That would address a persistent problem that has plagued the iPhone since its inception three years ago.

Late Monday night, Gizmodo said that it received a letter from Bruce Sewell, Apple’s senior vice president and general counsel, requesting the phone back. “It has come to our attention that Gizmodo is currently in possession of a device that belongs to Apple,” Mr. Sewell wrote in a letter that Gizmodo published.

“This letter constitutes a formal request that your return the device to Apple,” the letter said.

Resource:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/20/technology/companies/20apple.html?src=busln

According to Nokia, the cash prizes will be given for the best Puzzle or Brain Teaser application and the top Mobile Forms application in the competition’s Entertainment and Productivity categories. Optus will also be offering mobile and web advertising support to promote the winning apps on the Ovi Store.

In addition to the local incentives, Aussie developers have the opportunity to share in an even bigger prize pool. The top three global submissions in each application category will receive the following cash prizes:

1st Prize: USD$30,000
2nd Prize: USD$15,000
3rd Prize: USD$5,000

Above and beyond the category prizes, all application submissions – whether they are finalists or not – will be eligible to win special cash prizes that span across the four categories. These special prizes are based on the type of technology used to create the app, or other award criteria, as noted below:

Best application for the Nokia N900: USD$50,000

Best cross-platform application using Qt: USD$50,000

Best mobile computing application: USD$50,000, plus be included in a multi-million dollar global marketing campaign that will be used to help promote the winning app

Resource:

http://smarthouse.com.au/Phones/Industry/C9H5H4X5

That seems to be the message being sent by Cupertino this week in a very public iPhone app rejection fiasco. Word broke on Thursday that Apple had rejected a cartoon app created by Mark Fiore, a cartoonist who recently made history by becoming the first online-only journalist to win a Pulitzer. Fiore received the award for animations he’d published at the Web site of the San Francisco Chronicle.

Fiore’s iPhone app, however, was reportedly shot down by Apple because it “ridicule[d] public figures” — you know, as most satirical political cartoons tend to do. But the story didn’t end there: The general silliness of a ban on political satire, coupled with Fiore’s high-profile honor for that same genre of work, led to a public outcry over Apple’s actions.

And that public outcry has seemingly now led to Apple rethinking its ban.

Apple’s Pulitzer Rejection Reversal

Fiore, according to an interview published in The Wall Street Journal on Friday, received a call from Apple shortly after his story started receiving widespread attention online. The Apple representative, Fiore says, suggested he resubmit his app.

“I feel kind of guilty,” Fiore tells The Journal. “I’m getting preferential treatment because I got the Pulitzer.”

To be fair to Fiore, it’s probably more directly the public attention than the Pulitzer itself that caught Apple’s eye. But the honor, no doubt, illustrated the validity of satirical work in the eyes of the real world — the eyes, that is, outside of Apple’s carefully guarded walls.

Apple’s App Store and Political Cartoons

This wasn’t Apple’s first clash with politically charged App Store content. The Cupertino team put the kibosh on an app featuring the work of Mad Magazine cartoonist Tom Richmond last fall. Richmond’s app, entitled “Bobble Rep,” featured bobblehead-like caricatures of U.S. senators and representatives. Apple eventually reconsidered its rejection following a similar wave of online outrage.

Other authors have faced struggles, too, ranging from a guy who made a caricature-driven election game to a developer who created a cartoony countdown clock for the end of the Bush administration. But with the advent of the iPad and its focus on redefining the way we receive information, the concept of content-based censorship — particularly when the guidelines are so murky and inconsistent — is more troubling than ever.

“Suddenly Apple’s control freak approach threatens the development of the very technology it is supposed to be innovating, by placing restrictions and outright rejections upon the content that would be consumed via [its] devices,” Richmond writes on his blog. “Apps for publications and newspaper content won’t be very useful if [the iPad] only lets us see stuff that Apple and Steve Jobs thinks we should see.”

For now, it appears satire and politics will remain a wishy-washy, gray area within Apple’s app world. Not to fret, though: Bodily functions are still A-OK.

Resource:
Yahoo News

CNET reader Carey Hildebrand brought the issue to our attention after discovering an issue with his Nexus One. The Web site for the Nexus One says that Google’s “superphone” should be compatible with microSD cards with up to 32 gigabytes of storage, but there’s a catch: a flaw in Android makes it unable to format 32GB cards.

Google confirmed the problem. “This issue has been fixed, and will be part of our next over-the-air update. We don’t have a specific timeframe to share at this time,” a Google representative said. The flaw applies to all Android phones.

MicroSD cards often require a quick format before they can be used in a new device. But for some reason Android is only able to format microSD cards with 16GB or less of storage. That means anyone who wants to use a 32GB microSD card needs to format that card from their PC, which also means they will need to acquire a microSD card reader unless they have a system with a built-in reader.

Google’s product guide for the Nexus One provides instructions on how to format microSD cards using the phone’s software, but does not yet acknowledge that this can’t be done with 32GB cards. Other devices such as digital cameras can also format the cards, and once they are formatted, the cards should work.

Resource:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-30684_3-20002729-265.html

Apple has refused to confirm whether the device in the images is a prototype of its new device. Gadget fans are well known for creating “mock ups” of supposed Apple devices, and then seeding them around the internet.

There are rumours that the new iPhone will be unveiled in June, and will feature an eight megapixel camera with flash, more storage and a front-mounted camera. The iPhone 4.0 software update, which was revealed by Apple last week, will also add multi-touch capabilities to the device.

A return to the aluminium form factor would make sense for Apple. Its very first iPhone, launched in July 2007, had an aluminium back, as does its latest gadget, the iPad, which went on sale in the United States earlier this month. Shoppers in the UK will have to wait until late May to get their hands on the touch-screen, tablet style computer, after Apple pushed back the launch date, citing “overwhelming” demand.

In February, rival phone maker HTC unveiled a handset made from a single piece of aluminium, using a manufacturing technique similar to the one used by Apple to make its unibody Macs. The HTC Legend has been widely praised for its cutting edge design and ease of use, and for the software laid over the Google Android operating system that makes it easier for people to communicate across social-networking sites.

Resource:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/apple/7598828/Leaked-photos-show-iPhone-4G.html

The tablet, lauded by many as the next wave in education technology, is having difficulty being accepted at George Washington University and Princeton University because of network stability issues. Cornell University also says it is seeing connectivity problems with the device and is concerned about bandwidth overload.

Such issues could be a blow to Apple, which has gone after the higher education market by highlighting the iPad’s portability and availability of electronic books. But students may not be willing to pay $499—or more, depending on the type of iPad—if they still need a desktop or laptop computer to check course assignments or email. Some higher education insiders also worry there isn’t enough educational content available via the iBookstore application to eliminate expensive physical textbooks.

George Washington said earlier this month its wireless network’s security features don’t support the iPad—or iPhone and iPod Touch, for that matter. Princeton on Wednesday said it has proactively blocked about 20% of the devices from its network after noticing malfunctions that can affect the entire school’s computer system. Princeton is working with Apple to resolve the issue, according to a statement on the school’s Web site.

Cornell’s information-technology director Steve Schuster said via email last week that the school is seeing networking and connectivity issues and is “working to ensure the iPad does not have devastating consequences to our network.” Mr. Schuster added that when the iPhone arrived on campus it overwhelmed the network’s bandwidth capabilities.

The colleges all say they are trying to find fixes to the problems. George Washington has said it could take until next spring before the iPad operating system is fully supported on its network.

Apple spokeswoman Teresa Brewer said she wasn’t familiar with the schools’ problems. The company sold more than 500,000 iPads the first week the product was in stores.

To be sure, many school networks are accepting iPads without problem. And some universities are even embracing the device. Seton Hill University in Greensburg, Pa., has promised free iPads and MacBooks to all incoming freshmen next fall, and Newberg, Ore.-based George Fox University will give students a choice between the two.

But even those schools acknowledge the device has its drawbacks. Most of Seton Hill’s 2,145 students will have to pay up to $800 a year in additional technology fees for an expanded wireless network and support system.

And Seton Hill says students may still need to buy textbooks. “We believe the iPad will make e-textbooks more viable to assign and use,” said Kary Coleman, media relations director for the school, in an emailed statement. Seventy faculty members are in training to learn how to incorporate the computer and tablet into the classroom, she said, but “some faculty may choose to continue to use physical textbooks for their courses.”

Industry analysts and professors say schools won’t fully embrace iPads until textbook publishers offer more digital resources that go beyond electronic versions of hard copy books. Educational books can be more difficult than trade paperbacks to translate into e-books because they often include graphs, mathematical formulas and other non-standard-text material.

A Princeton pilot study last fall found that students were frustrated by the lack of a note-taking or highlighting function on Amazon.com Inc.’s Kindle e-reader. Apple’s iBookstore now offers books in a similar format, though third-party companies are working on alternatives.

Houghton Mifflin Co.’s Harcourt, Pearson PLC and McGraw-Hill Cos., among others, have formed partnerships with application developer ScrollMotion for interactive digital texts. But ScrollMotion has only one set of texts available for the iPhone so far: medical school entrance exam and licensing test study guides from Washington Post Co.’s Kaplan Publishing. It doesn’t yet provide any textbooks for the iPad.

ScrollMotion co-founder Josh Koppel says iPad offerings will be available within “several months” but wouldn’t provide further details, citing continuing talks with publishers. He said the products would allow for notations, audio notes and an interactive glossary. “We’re not just turning a book into a PDF,” Mr. Koppel said.

Resource:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703594404575192330930646778.html?mod=rss_Today%27s_Most_Popular

We know little about the new models other than we won’t get the 7 incher before late 2010 and the 10in could be as far off as 2011 which will have Apple laughing its socks off. Naturally enough Dell has refused to confirm the products saying to engadget “Dell continually develops and tests new products that extend the mobile experience. We have not made any product announcements and do not comment on speculation, rumor or unannounced products.” Which is about as useful as a chocolate fireguard. That said Dell also has security about as effective as a chocolate fireguard so I’d suggest the leak is bang on the money.

Consequently I’ll make a few well educated guesses: multi-touch, Android – possibly Windows 7, optional 3G and SSDs. By which time we’ll be saying “nice, but it might be worth waiting to see what Apple does with its second generation iPad”…

And so the endless upgrade cycle begins again..

Resource:

http://www.trustedreviews.com/laptops/news/2010/04/19/New-Dell-7in—10in-Tablet-Photos-Reveal-iPad-Influence/p1

Many observers expect Apple to release a new model in late spring or early summer. CEO Steve Jobs said recently that an updated mobile OS would be ready this summer–a perfect opportunity to release new iPhone hardware. Fueling speculation that a June launch is imminent is a report from Boy Genius Report that it has “confirmed with multiple AT&T sources that the carrier has now put a block on employees taking vacations in June.”

Engadget is fanning the flames with photographs it says contain images of the forthcoming phone. Here’s Engadget’s explanation on how the images surfaced:

Apparently the phone was found on the floor of a San Jose bar inside of an iPhone 3G case. Right now we don’t have a ton of info on the device in question, but we can tell you that it apparently has a front facing camera (!), 80GB of storage (weird, right?), and isn’t booting at this point (though it was previously, and running an OS that was decidedly new). It’s not clear if this is definitely a production model, or just a prototype that found its way into the world, but it’s certainly a compelling design, no matter how you look at it.

Perhaps bolstering Engadget’s report is a Twitpic posted in February that bears a striking resemblance to Engadget’s images. However, other blogs reported that the images were actually of a Japanese iPhone counterfeit. As “proof” of the validity its report, Engadget reposted a grainy, heavily redacted photo it posted with a January iPad prototype story it now says shows the forthcoming iPhone sitting next to the then-yet-to-be released iPad.

Additionally, a MacRumors reader posted these images–purportedly from a Chinese Web site–that appear similar to those posted earlier by Engadget, although some readers suggest these are really images of the what was described as a Japanese counterfeit.

Of course, one has to wonder whether a company that guards the secrecy of its unreleased products as fiercely as Apple would actually allow an employee to take a prototype out to mingle with pretzels and spilled beer.

Resource:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-20002771-37.html

Revealing the significant development, Intel’s software and services group general manager, Renee James, said “Intel is enabling all OSes for Atom phones.” Adding that Atom’s were already running Android in several instances, Mr James said that a number of companies had already shown interest in applying the development.

In particular the announcement is likely to spell positive news for Google, who have been attempting to entice Apple into using their Android system on devices such as the new iPad. In addition, whilst the system is currently mainly used in smartphones, Intel’s development will almost certainly allow Google to push the boundaries of the products that they can take a stake in, allowing both firms to push beyond their current technological boundaries.

Intel is not however the first firm to have managed to get the Android OS working on such a chip. Acer has already proved the capabilities, incorporating such components into their netbooks, whilst the chip company MIPS has utilised the technology in media players, set-top boxes and digital picture frames. It does however bring the developments into the hands of technology giants, creating possible great success if the phenomenon of netbooks and tablet PCs proceeds as industry experts believe.

Resource:

http://www.newsintech.com/2010/04/android-to-run-on-intel%E2%80%99s-atom-chips/1981

The company announced the development of the application in April. Although no timetable for its release has been set, the company did release its open source code when it made the announcement. The company cites the lagging wireless printing technology and its overall desire to make life in the cloud easier as the reason for the application’s development.

“Using the one component all major devices and operating systems have in common – access to the cloud – today we’re introducing some preliminary designs for a project called Google Cloud Print, a service that enables any application [web, desktop or mobile] on any device to print to any printer,” Google product manager Mike Jazayeri wrote on a company blog.

Following the hacking attack that the company traced to a pair of Chinese schools in January, it has focused tirelessly on improving customer services and security. An email glitch that affected messages sent from Gmail to Microsoft Outlook was addressed after several customer complaints in late March.

Resource:

http://www.edlconsulting.com/newsdetail.php?id=752&headline=Google_adds_remote_printing_to_cloud_computing_features

Sporting a 5-inch screen, Dell’s Streak practically defines medium-scale, falling somewhere between an Archos 5 and a myTouch 3G in terms of size, and as Gizmodo puts it, looking like a large iPod touch. While the device isn’t a phone, the inclusion of a SIM-card slot leads me to believe that you’ll be using a cell provider’s data plan for network service, in a fashion similar to the Nook’s AT&T 3G.

Resource:

http://www.androidguys.com/2010/01/08/dell-announces-an-android-powered-tablet-device/

Ovum Principal Analyst Tony Cripps was quoted in a blog entry as saying that “while all five major smartphone platforms score well, it is BlackBerry OS and Windows Mobile that currently lead the opposition, rather than Android or Symbian.”

By “opposition,” Cripps means non-iPhone (and now iPad) development. Ovum surveyed 217 mobile application developers and found that 81 percent are working on iPhone apps — or planning to do so. That continues to be where the money is, but developers know it’s not the only game in town.

RIM’s BlackBerry OS and Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 OS take second and third place, respectively, with 74 percent and 66 percent of shops building apps for them. Android comes next, at 64 percent, and Symbian, the OS for Nokia phones, brings up the rear of the “big five” at 56 percent. Symbian’s last-place finish is also a surprise, given that it has the largest installed base and highest shipments of any smartphone platform, according to Ovum.

“Over the last year or so, it’s been perceived that Microsoft and Symbian had been a little bit left behind in public perception of those platforms,” Cripps says, “and [there is] linkage between consumer acceptance of a platform and developer acceptance of that platform. The iPhone shows that.” But even though the iPhone remains king, the other major platforms are still thriving. That’s one indication of how big the market is.

One interesting finding of the survey, Cripps says, is that application development companies tend to develop around similar groups of platforms. The majority that develop for iPhone, for example, also tend to develop applications for both Google’s Android and BlackBerry. A smaller number of companies develop for four or more platforms, and very few have the financial and manpower resources to develop for as many as six platforms, according to Cripps.

That’s been a big help for BlackBerry, Cripps says. “It’s piggybacking on the success of the iPhone. If developers are writing for one [platform], chances are they’re writing for Android and BlackBerry as well.”

BlackBerry’s success hasn’t been all about riding iPhone’s coattails, however. Cripps says he was surprised at “How well BlackBerry came out of this. It’s not just enterprise apps it’s being used for.” RIM’s recently-stated goal of being more consumer-friendly and not just a business phone has “come true,” Cripps says. “RIM deserves credit here. Its showing is surprisingly good.”

Things aren’t so rosy for platforms out of the top five. For instance, Palm can’t seem to get much traction around its Pre smartphone. “It doesn’t look great either for palm or any other smartphone beyond the top five as things stand,” Cripps says. “To rise above will require significant investment in developing products and convincing developers to build an ecosystem around it.”

Resource:

http://adtmag.com/articles/2010/04/16/smartphone-development-is-more-than-just-iphone.aspx

That’s hardly a surprise, even if the ongoing controversy about Apple’s beta iPhone OS 4.0 developer agreement suggests some discontent among those creating iPhone apps.

What is a surprise is that Android did not place second in the development platform race.

Of the 217 mobile application developers surveyed by Ovum:

81% said they were developing for iPhone or planning to do so.

Among the other top smartphone platforms, the figures were:

74% for RIM’s BlackBerry OS.

66% for Microsoft’s Windows Phone OS (formerly Windows Mobile).

64% for Android.

56% for Symbian.

However, expect Android to become more popular among developers.

Android, after all, is the newest of the top five platforms and various research firms like Gartner expect the number of Android devices shipped will surpass the number of iPhones shipped in the next two to three years.

But more significantly, Android’s openness should make development easier, once developers become acquainted with the system.

One particularly intriguing feature that Android developers have yet to fully exploit is called Intent.

Android’s developer documentation defines it thus: “An Intent provides a facility for performing late runtime binding between the code in different applications. Its most significant use is in the launching of activities, where it can be thought of as the glue between activities. It is basically a passive data structure holding an abstract description of an action to be performed.”

What that means is that applications can call functions that exist in different applications on the user’s Android device.

Steve Brown, CEO of Snaptic, likens the technology to Web mashups, in which different Web services can be easily combined.

Snaptic makes a note taking application, 3banana for Android and the iPhone, that syncs with the Web. Android developers, using Intent, have the option to include a call to Snaptic’s note taking code in 3banana so it can be used in their own application.

Android Intent means that developers don’t have to reinvent the wheel, so to speak, in every program. If they want to implement bar code reading, for example, all they need to do is call another app that has exposed its bar reading functionality through Intent.

“It’s like a little eco-system of developers working together,” said Brown in a phone interview. “That’s what’s different. What it allows is for developers to be specialists and do something really well rather than each doing everything themselves.”

It’s hard to imagine a similar technology on the iPhone, given Apple’s tight code controls.

But it might come to pass nevertheless. “If people are doing better stuff faster because of the openness of Android, the iPhone is going to have to respond to that,” said Brown.

All that remains is for Android developers to prove that openness really is better.

Resource:

http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2010/04/advantage_andro.html

We are hearing now that certain US Universities are banning the iPad also. Namely Cornell University, George Washington University and Princeton University. The reasons given are similar in some cases to Israel’s reasoning.

Some of the universities refer simply to Wi-Fi network load problems, while others are citing “security issues”. It’s all a little vague at the moment, but reports state that at George Washington University iPad, iPhones, and iPods have all been blocked from their networks.

This is something of a blow to Apple who are touting the iPad as a must-have device for students. My first reaction to this news is that Apple is a victim of its own success. iPhone, iPods and iPads don’t do anything that differently from other similar mobile devices. But there are a lot more of them out there in students’ hands these days. Hence iPad, iPhone, and iPod touches are likely to become the focus of attention as networks become log jammed in these institutions.

Therefore it seems to me that this is more an issue of University network infrastructure not being able to keep up with the increasing number of mobile devices that students carry and use on a day to day basis (and the growing bandwidth that they require).

Perhaps Universities should insist that students download Opera Mini and use that for web surfing from their iDevices instead of Mobile Safari? But then Opera Mini allegedly has it’s own issues with security due to the cached nature of its compressed web pages. But that is a story for another day.

Resource:

http://touchreviews.net/apple-ipad-us-universities-ban/

“The openness rhetoric and the Google aura has attracted thousands of developers on the platform, at a time when the money equation is sub-par; consider that – compared to the Apple devices – Android handsets are around 9x less in volume and paid-for apps are available in 6x fewer countries,” Constantinou writes. “What’s even more fascinating is how closed Android is, despite Google’s do-no-evil mantra and the permissive Apache 2 license which Android SDK is under. Paraphrasing a famous line from Henry Ford’s book on the Model-T, anyone can have Android in their own colour as long as it’s black. Android is the best example of how a company can use open source to build up interest and community participation, while running a very tight commercial model.”

Google uses 8 control points to manage the make-up of Android handsets:

1. Private branches
2. Closed review process
3. Speed of evolution
4. Incomplete software
5. Gated developer community
6. Anti-fragmentation agreement
7. Private roadmap
8. Android trademark

Constantinou writes, “The Open Handset Alliance is another myth; since Google managed to attract sufficient industry interest in 2008, the OHA is simply a set of signatures with membership serving only as a VIP Club badge… With Android, Google aims to deliver a consistent platform to its own revenue-generating services. For now, this is the ad business. But in the future, Google is aiming at voice (reaching the billions who don’t have a data connection) and Checkout (i.e. becoming the Visa of mobile). Yet whatever the endgame, it’s worth realising that Android is no more open – and no less closed – than Windows Mobile, Apple OSX or PalmOS; it’s the smartest implementation of open source aimed at driving commercial agendas. Android is much less about the do-no-evil rhetoric that the PR spinners in Mountain View would like us to think.”

Resource:

http://macdailynews.com/index.php/weblog/comments/24844/

On Monday evening, Opera Software announced that Apple had approved Opera Mini, the first alternative Web browser for its iPhone. After 24 hours, the free app was downloaded to 1,023,380 Apple devices, the company reported.

To get approval from Apple, however, Opera Mini could not be a true browser because Apple’s developer agreement forbids alternative JavaScript engines, and possibly Web rendering engines, from being released for the iPhone. But as Daring Fireball’s John Gruber pointed out, Opera Mini doesn’t actually render Web pages; it renders a compressed markup language called OBML, making Opera Mini more like a PDF reader than a Web browser.

Nonetheless, Opera said that iPhone users now “have a choice, and, as the numbers show, they are eager to explore new and faster ways to surf the Web on the iPhone – especially during heavy Web traffic,” according to Lars Boilesen, chief executive of Opera.

Resource:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2362734,00.asp

This jailbreak will only work for iPhone 3G users on a Mac. It’s still in beta, so it’s very buggy. If you plan to jailbreak, know that your unlock will be compromised since Apple updated the baseband in the iPhone 4.0 beta firmware.

Resource:

http://www.iphonestalk.com/jailbreak-for-iphone-4-0-beta-1-available-now/

Fiore irked Apple’s censorious staffers with his cartoons making fun of the Balloon Boy hoax and the pair that famously crashed a White House party, according to Laura McGann at the Neiman Journalism Lab.

Fiore won a Pulitzer Monday for animations he made for the SFGate, the online home of the San Francisco Chronicle. But Fiore, who is a freelancer who runs a syndication business, was rejected by Apple in December for an app called NewToons that features his work.

According to a Dec. 21 e-mail reprinted by Neiman, Apple rejected his app because it “contains content that ridicules public figures and is in violation of Section 3.3.14 from the iPhone Developer Program License Agreement which states: Applications may be rejected if they contain content or materials of any kind (text, graphics, images, photographs, sounds, etc.) that in Apple’s reasonable judgment may be found objectionable, for example, materials that may be considered obscene, pornographic, or defamatory.”

Neither Fiore nor Apple responded to requests for comment.

The news of the rejection comes not long after Apple decided to purge its App store of content that included nudity, a retroactive ban that included apps from respected German publications such as Bild and Der Spiegel.

Fiore’s rejection may be especially disconcerting to news and media organizations, many of which are betting heavily on iPad apps as a way to get users to pay to read magazines and newspapers, and to get advertisers to pay print-ad prices for online content. (Online ads cost a small percentage of what ads in glossy magazines cost, in no small part because the net has almost infinite advertising space.)

Apple has built a little slab of Disneyland with its iPad, which is meant to be an experience unsullied by provocative or crude material. It’s beautiful and enticing — the company has already sold more than a half million of them in the first two weeks it’s been available — but it’s not the real world.

Publishers, including such august organizations such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and Wired.com’s parent company Condé Nast, see a solution to their declining dead-tree ad sales in building a pay-to-play attraction in that park. But they need to understand that to do so, they have to play by Mickey Mouse’s rules.

The signs have been there from the start, as Wired.com’s Brian Chen pointed out in February. Apple banned an e-book reading application once because it figured out that iPhone users could use it to read a free version of the Kama Sutra. Then last week, Apple abruptly banned apps developed using programs that translate apps into multiple platforms.

Adding the news of Fiore’s ban to that, the publishing world is now officially on notice that the iPad is Apple’s, and unlike with their print and web editions, they don’t have the final say when it comes to their own content on an Apple device.

Screenshot: Mark Fiore cartoon lampooning the nation’s telecoms for helping the Bush Administration illegally spy on their customers.

Resource:

http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/04/apple-bans-satire/

The move apparently comes after the ministry’s engineering staff could not agree on a means to test the iPad’s compatibility with Israel’s wireless networks.

“The iPad device sold exclusively today in the United States operates at broadcast power levels [over its WiFi modem] compatible with American standards,” according to statement published by the Monitor. “As the Israeli regulations in the area of WiFi are similar to European standards, which are different from American standards, which permit broadcasting at lower power, therefore the broadcast levels of the device prevent approving its use in Israel.”

One man had his iPad taken away and placed in a customs warehouse. He will have to apply to the Israeli government to have it shipped back to the U.S.

Apple announced yesterday that it has sold 500,000 of the tablets since its April 3 debut, but increased demand has prompted the company to delay international sales for one month, until the end of May.

Resource:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2362697,00.asp

Someone from O2 UK tipped the site on the fact that the new N8 will be available but not for a foreseeable future. Mid-July was quoted as the most probable launch window instead of the initial April ETA.

The phone, which is also known as the N8-00, will comes with a 12-megapixel camera with Flash and will be capable of recording in HD 720p, something that others already offer.

It will offer HDMI out and we expect a 1Ghz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor plus the Symbian^3 platform but minus the keyboard. The phone will be a direct replacement for the ageing N97 model which has already been superseded by competitors.

O2 did not offer the N97 previously so this will be a new addition to its range. However the success of the N8-00 will depend on how well the HTC Evo, Incredible and Desire, the Sony Ericsson X10 and Apple’s own iPhone 4G perform over the next few months.

Furthermore, Nokia doesn’t normally ship phones immediately after being announced, which means that the N8-00 might appear in shops only towards the end of the third quarter.

The N8 may be one of the last high end Nokia handsets to come with an ARM processor and a Symbian operating system as the phone manufacturer embraces Intel’s x86 platform wholeheartedly for better and for worse.

Resource:

http://www.itproportal.com/portal/news/article/2010/4/15/nokia-n8-uk-launch-pushed-till-july/

The bank is aiming the application at merchants with iPhones who are highly mobile and want to take payments quickly and securely, instead of lugging around portable EFTPOS machines.

Dubbed ANZ ePOS Mobile, the application can process on-the-spot credit and debit card transactions at a customer location.

Credit card details such as expiry date and card verification code are encrypted and no customer data is stored on the iPhone.

Authorisation does not require a signature or PIN as it is treated as a “card not present activity” — a form predominantly used to buy goods and services on the internet.

After payment is made an email bearing the receipt will be sent to the customer, who doesn’t incur any fees. Merchants, however, pay their standard rates to ANZ.

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Three merchants, including Fisher & Paykel Australia, are currently involved in a pilot to trial the software, ANZ head of innovation Peter Dalton told reporters in Sydney.

ePOS Mobile accepts credit cards from all financial institutions but during the trials a limit of $1000 was set, Mr Dalton said.

Spruiking the security features of the application Mr Dalton said if an iPhone is stolen the bank can remotely cancel a transaction.

The pilot, which commenced in mid-March, will scale to 20 merchants until May, he said. The bank hopes to make ePOS Mobile available on iTunes in Australia by June, Mr Dalton said.

“We’re trying to deliver banking solutions that make things faster and simpler for our customers,” he said.

According to Fisher & Paykel customer care financial controller Rudolph Khoury, the application was easy to use and convenient. “I haven’t had to call anyone from ANZ about this during the trial.”

A mobile suit tailor and mobile car detailer are also testing ePOS Mobile .

The idea for the solution was conceived in August 2009 by Mr Dalton’s team and developed with help from Deloitte Digital. The total project cost was “in the vicinity of a couple of hundred thousand dollars”, he said.

“We chose to do this on the iPhone because of its growing market share. Also, the (iTunes) apps store makes it easy for people to download the application,” Mr Dalton said.

Mr Dalton’s 22-person team is also working to enhance products for internet banking and other platforms such as the Apple iPad.

Resource:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/australian-it/anz-bank-trials-mobile-pos/story-e6frgakx-1225854534900

Silverlight 4 provides media and enterprise application and media capabilities, out-of-browser flexibility and tools support via Visual Studio and Expression Blend with Sketchflow to enable robust application development and rich interactive experiences, Microsoft said. At Microsoft’s MIX 2010 conference in March, Scott Guthrie, corporate vice president of Microsoft’s .NET Developer Platform, said Silverlight adoption has continued at a rapid pace with installations approaching 60 percent of all Internet devices worldwide — an increase of nearly 15 percentage points in just four months. Enterprise customers such as Major League Soccer, BBC, eBay Inc., Netflix Inc., NBCOlympics.com and CT Corp., a Wolters Kluwer business, are using Silverlight. Also, customers such as Associated Press and eBay, and partners such as 352 Media and Planview have announced their commitment to Silverlight 4.

Indeed, in just five months, Microsoft has gone from beta to the full release of Silverlight 4, with several milestones along the way, including: The release of Silverlight 4 beta at the Professional Developers Conference in November 2009 which included enhancements for enterprise application developers; as well as the release of Silverlight, Visual Studio and XNA Framework developer toolkits for Windows Phone 7 at MIX. Also at MIX, Microsoft released a release candidate of Silverlight 4.

And at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) show earlier in April, Microsoft announced that is working with Intel and Broadcom to deliver the Silverlight platform to set-top boxes, connected TVs, Blu-ray players and other devices . At NAB Microsoft also launched Internet Information Services (IIS) Media Services 4 and the delivery of the Silverlight Media Framework 2.0.

Resource:

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Application-Development/Microsoft-Ships-Silverlight-4-546735/

Now the picture is grainy, and according to IntoMobile Adobe Photoshop CS 4 was used on this image so I wouldn’t trust it one bit. It doesn’t make sense for Apple to make the iPhone with an aluminum case because it hinders the cellular reception.

Resource:

http://www.iphonestalk.com/4g-verizon-iphone-caught-on-camera/

The unnamed customer – who had been with 3 UK for several years – was apparently part of a test programme, possibly for an iPhone roll out, and paid the usual £25 a month to get 700 minutes mix and match package with unlimited internet on top.

Interestingly, he was provided with the iPhone option after he threatened to leave the network but didn’t have to speak to a supervisor or ask for the PAC beforehand.

There’s also the fact that the length of the contract is only 18 months which means that in any case, the maximum amount paid would be £450 which makes it a tantalizing offer.

We know that T-Mobile did offer iPhones to selected, so called premium high value customers. The network had to import unlocked phones from mainland Europe and 3 UK also reportedly did the same back in October 2009

There had been anecdotal evidence over the past two years that 3 UK was resorting to selling Apple’s smartphone to selected customers in order to prevent them from going elsewhere.

3 UK is, with T-Mobile and Virgin Mobile, one of the three mobile phone operators not to sell the iPhone. Its CEO declared at the end of last year that the network would offer the smartphone to its users in 2010

Resource:

http://www.itproportal.com/portal/news/article/2010/4/14/exclusive-3-uk-introduce-iphone-soon/

According to the Skyfire blog post, “Everyone at Skyfire was heartened by this decision by Apple, to open up their platform and believe this sets a solid precedent for additional innovation in mobile browsing from other companies. Skyfire believes this approval is a solid first step and there’s still major consumer demand for great rich media and video browsing on these devices”.

They did of course halt before confirming that the Skyfire mobile browser will at some point come to the iPhone but did say…”The Skyfire team has been watching the Opera submission and the iPhone/iPad market closely, and this will certainly accelerate our strategy on iDevices. Nothing to announce now, but stay tuned for news”.

So it does appear that they are at least looking ahead to possibly taking the same route as Opera Mini for iPhone, although just when that may happen is still a mystery, but who knows, Opera’s success may lead to others breaking into the App Store.

Share a comment or problems with phones and networks.

Resource:

http://www.phonesreview.co.uk/2010/04/15/skyfire-to-follow-opera-with-iphone-browser/

MacBook Pro 2010 Release

The new operating system comes with a few caveats, such as the iPhone 3g won’t support the new multitasking feature – only the 3gs will. Because of this, many wonder if a new iPhone 4.0 4g HD will be released.

Apple iPad Release in UK Delayed

The iPhone 4.0 OS brings the iPhone more in line with other business phones, such as Blackberry. It allows for VPN access, and will even support Lotus Notes email applications. In addition, there are a variety of features available to corporate fleets wishing to turn in their tired RIM handsets for shiny new iPhones.

There are applications you can download that allow you to read any attachment you get on your iPhone, such as a PDF or Office file. It’s a big step for computing and many in the IT industry may find themselves leaning more towards an iPhone.

Still yet, the iPhone is only available on the AT&T network. That’s rumored to change, but we have yet to see the changes thus far. Currently, the new 4.0 OS is all we have to go by, and by the looks of it, business and enterprise users are going to win big with the update.

Resource:

http://cnmnewsnetwork.com/17698/iphone-4-0-4g-hd-%E2%80%93-apple-4-0-os-business-user-improvements/

Apple has had a history of releasing their iPhones in the month of June. Hence, it was only logical that this June too shouldn’t be any different. However, on previous occasions, the launch usually happened in the second week of June and on Mondays. This time though, Apple has booked the the Yerba Buena Center for Arts (pretty close to the venue of the launch on previous occasions at Moscone Center) for June 22 which also happens to be a Tuesday. This is why there is this speculation and rumour that the latest iteration of the iPhone could be revealed on June 22. Now, it would be interesting to see if Apple actually reveals the new iPhone on the day or goes on to reveal something else and turns this entire thing in to a damp squib.

The iPhone 4G is anticipated very keenly partly owing to the release of iPhone OS 4recently. As you might already be aware, the iPhone incorporates multitasking abilities and a host of other new improvements in the OS. The hardware too is expected to be upgraded significantly. Till June 22nd, we wait in anticipation!

Resource:

http://www.techtree.com/India/News/iPhone_4G_Might_Be_Announced_on_June_22/551-110590-893.html

The minor changes alter how senders are added to messages, and do not affect the native Gmail apps that most users of Android phones send email through.

The move builds on Google’s decision to rewrite the code on which the web app is based so that it is easier to adjust in future.

This stage of enhancements allows users to simply type a fellow Gmail adopter’s username and the programme will now automatically fill in the rest of the address. Other changes reveals the list of recipients of a message more completely, so that individual addresses are easier to remove even if they are towards the beginning of a long list. Contacts that have been entered into a Gmail field are now also clickable boxes, allowing users to inspect their details more closely.

A list of top contacts has also been added, and the app now fills the entire screen. These features are likely to be particularly relevant to iPad users, who have significantly larger screens at their disposal.

The moves mean that the official Google Mail app now has considerably fewer features than the web-based version. Google has previously said that a new release, however, is in production.

Resource:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/google/7593108/Google-updates-Gmail-for-iPad-Android-and-iPhone.html

Apple said April 14 that it had delivered more than 500,000 iPads during the tablet PC’s first week of general release, exceeding the company’s internal predictions. The demand reflected by those sales, coupled with “a large number of preorders for iPad 3G models for delivery by the end of April,” has led to a postponement in the iPad’s international launch.

“We know that many international customers waiting to buy an iPad will be disappointed by this news,” read a statement posted on Apple’s Website, “but we hope they will be pleased to learn the reason—the iPad is a runaway success in the United States thus far.”

Apple had previously announced, during an April 8 news conference at the company’s Cupertino, Calif., headquarters, that about 450,000 iPads were sold in the first five days. During that conference, Apple CEO Steve Jobs also said about 600,000 iBooks and 3.5 million applications had been downloaded by new iPad owners. Those 450,000 iPads included the 300,000 units sold by midnight on April 3, the device’s first day of general release.

According to a March 29 research note from Morgan Stanley, Apple could ship as many as 8 million to 10 million iPads in 2010, and sell around 2 million of those. “Near-term, we believe the iPad will target the sizable sub-$800 consumer notebook market, which equates to 30 million units in the United States and 120 million units globally,” analyst Katy Huberty wrote. A robust application ecosystem, paired with strong interest in TV shows and e-books offered specifically for the iPad, could potentially increase the device’s sales momentum.

Research company iSuppli has also suggested that Apple could sell as many as 7.1 million iPads in 2010.

Blogger and analyst Daniel Tello, in conjunction with members of InvestorVillage’s AAPL Sanity forum, calculated in early March that Apple might have sold 120,000 iPads during the device’s first day of preorder availability, March 12, and that 69 percent of preorder customers were gravitating toward the WiFi-only version of the device.

Apple will face a wide variety of tablet PC competitors later in the year, including a device by Hewlett-Packard that features a combination of inward-facing VGA Webcam and outward-facing 3-megapixel camera for video conferencing and image-taking. The HP Slate will retail for between $549 and $599, and will run Windows 7. Similar devices, including a much-rumored Google Android tablet, may also try to make a competitive differentiator out of featuring a camera module, which is not included in the current version of the iPad.

The iPad may also run the risk of breakability. In an April 9 e-mail to eWEEK, Aaron Vronko, co-founder and service manager of Michigan-based Rapid Repair, predicted that 5 to 10 percent of the devices would fail due to “accident-related causes” each year.

“Physics are not in the tablet’s favor,” Vronko wrote. “While the fragile parts of the iPad are no less durable than their iPhone counterparts, a 10-inch and 24-ounce device is just a much bigger target for accidental collisions and generates many times more force in a fall.” Competing device manufacturers, however, do not have access to the voluminous life-cycle data from the iPhone and iPod Touch that Apple could use to make the iPad more durable.

Resource:

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Mobile-and-Wireless/Apple-Delivered-500000-iPads-In-First-Week-Pressuring-Supply-402820/

Eager fans hoping to get their hands on the hyped-up device had a rude shock today when Apple pushed the original April launch to the end of May.

VHA will offer the 3G and Wi-Fi iPad to Vodafone and 3 Mobile customers with a range of dedicated price plans for all models of the touchscreen tablet. But the telco is keeping mum on what the actual price plans will entail or whether they will be available in post or pre-paid options.

Telstra has also said it will offer dedicated iPad price plans but it is unclear if the telco will have all versions of the device for sale.

Optus is yet to reveal if it will stock the iPad.

The iPad was scheduled to hit local shores at the end of this month but Apple has been forced to delay its arrival due to the overwhelming demand for the device in the US.

This is the second time Apple has had to put back an iPad launch: in January, its US debut was rescheduled to April after analysts reported that production delays and difficulties with suppliers would limit the number of units available.

Apple has sold more than 500,000 iPads since it first went on sale at the start of April, but a glut of complaints about poor Wi-Fi connections and problems with charging the device have marred its launch.

Only the Wi-Fi version of the iPad has been released in the US but a 3G version is expected to be available later this month. iPad prices range from $US499 ($534) to $US829.

Resource:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/australian-it/vodafone-3-mobile-first-with-ipad/story-e6frgakx-1225854030536

The PC industry shrugged off the recession last year to post a surprising rise in worldwide computer sales. In a sign of the vibrancy of the market, companies like Google and Nokia — not traditionally makers of PCs — have jumped into the competition; Google is developing an operating system to compete with Microsoft’s Windows, and Nokia now sells a laptop.

Meanwhile, the early indicators for this year show PC sales surging. On Tuesday, Intel, the world’s largest PC chip maker, reported the highest first-quarter sales, $10.3 billion, and profit, $2.4 billion, in its history. After digesting Intel’s results, a number of Wall Street analysts said on Wednesday that the PC market could grow as much as 25 percent this year.

Also on Wednesday, the research firm Gartner said worldwide PC shipments climbed by 27.4 percent in the first quarter compared with a year earlier, surpassing expectations by more than 5 percent.

While experts engage in a fierce debate about the health of the overall economy, the technology sector has marched on in recovery mode. Intel, as a major supplier, tends to provide an early glimpse into the overall health of the sector and with its latest results has posted sales figures that surpass pre-recession levels.

Consumers have led the PC charge through their fondness for netbooks, the cheap, tiny laptops that were introduced about three years ago. Rather than eating into laptop sales, these devices have attracted consumers to a new category of complementary computers. And now Apple, with its iPad, and other companies are seeking to lure even more buyers with their interpretations on a thinner, lighter computer.

Intel officials attributed the first-quarter results to record purchases of laptop chips and of more expensive, faster chips. At the same time, they said, large corporations, many of which have four-year-old computers, have finally started upgrading their aging machines.

“We are seeing signs of life in the corporate market,” said Stacy J. Smith, the chief financial officer at Intel, during an interview.

Last April, Paul S. Otellini, the chief executive at Intel, proclaimed that the PC industry had hit bottom in early 2009, and would recover throughout the year. With sales across the technology sector at record lows and the worldwide economy mired in a slump, Mr. Otellini’s optimism was questioned as premature.

Just one month earlier, Gartner had forecast that PC sales would fall by 12 percent in 2009, which would have been their steepest decline in history.

Ultimately, global PC sales rose more than 5 percent in 2009. The PC market’s relative health stood in contrast to depressed markets for cars, cellphones, televisions and other goods used by people on a daily basis.

Even on tight budgets, consumers continued to buy laptops in large quantities and flocked to netbooks, which accounted for more than one-fifth of laptop sales in regions like Europe. Companies like Intel, Hewlett-Packard and Microsoft make less money from the low-cost netbooks, but the devices have kept shipment numbers high by creating a new niche for computers. About 95 percent of people buy netbooks as an additional computer rather than as a laptop replacement, according to Intel’s surveys of its customers.

Companies like Apple, H.P. and Nokia want to use trimmed-down, specialized versions of laptops as a way to offer people access to their content and software services, creating a deeper customer relationships.

“The hardware is a type of Trojan horse to give these companies access to consumers and their wallets,” said Ashok Kumar, a technology analyst with Rodman & Renshaw.

In addition to Google’s expected release of its PC operating system and Nokia’s laptop, both companies are also preparing competitors to the iPad, according to people who have been briefed on the companies’ plans but are not authorized to speak publicly about them.

It remains difficult, however, to draw any conclusions about the vibrancy of the PC market and the overall economy, some analysts say.

Roger L. Kay, a longtime PC industry analyst, said that in the 1990s, computers were often viewed as a leading indicator for the economy’s behavior. “Corporations would buy them to invest in higher productivity in the future,” he said.

But he warned that it was difficult in the previous decade to connect the health of the PC market to the health of the broader economy. PC sales, he said, “have slipped from leading to concurrent indicators.”

Mr. Smith from Intel said PCs had become such crucial devices to everyday life that they could withstand the gyrations of the economy better than most products and seemed to recover early.

“The telling data point is one from last year when the PC market bottomed out and then recovered quickly in comparison to things like TVs, cars and washing machines,” Mr. Smith said. “I can only take away that at least in this downturn, PCs were a leading indicator.”

Mr. Smith’s son learned about his father’s lofty view of the PC’s importance the hard way.

“Over the last decade, the PC has gone from an interesting device to a necessary device,” he said. “When I want to ground my son, I take away his PC for the night, not his TV.”

Resource:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/15/technology/15computer.html

There’s been much debate and hype over the iPad’s next-big-thing status. Instead of jumping into that particular mosh pit, we’ve been closely watching as the applications have started rolling out, anticipating which tools will organize, simplify and entertain. Here, our picks for the top apps for any business professional.

In Pictures: 10 Must-Have iPad Apps For Every Professional

In Pictures: iPad Debut’s Fan Fenzy

In Pictures: What Your iPhone Apps Know About You

In Pictures: Apple’s Ecosystem

In Pictures: Steve Jobs’ Frenemies

Air Sharing Pro The Air Sharing Pro app turns your iPad into a portable hard drive, and the upgrade from the iPhone version puts the larger screen to good use. Wirelessly mount your iPad as a drive on your computer so you can load any files you need on-the-go. The iPad now can open, view or e-mail files in any format–Excel docs, movie files, pdfs, you name it. Air Sharing also allows your iPad to locate any printers available on a wireless network, which will surely come in handy. $9.99.

Big Oven Ever find yourself roaming the grocery store aisles with little or no clue what to make for dinner. BigOven, a recipe-centric social-networking site with over 170,000 recipes, has built an app just for you. Browse for recipe suggestions and create grocery lists right on the iPad; you’ll be eating better and shopping smarter in no time. $4.99.

Cube Forgetting a taxi receipt or business lunch can get you into trouble when it comes time to fill out your montly T&E report. Cube, which works with your existing Google or Gmail accounts just might be your saving grace. This minimalist app (no fussy design elements here) is an easy way to keep track of time, travel and money. Freelancers, especially, can benefit from Cube’s feature that tracks different projects, tasks and clients with color-coding. Free.

Dragon Dictation Typing on the iPad has mixed reviews from early users, many saying that pecking away at the screen when placed flat is awkward, and propping the tablet on an angle is problematic when you’re on-the-move. Enter Dragon Dictation–a voice dictation app from the well-known software maker that translates your voice into text.

A reviewer from USA Today says his tests were a whopping 98% accurate–a serious step up from most other voice dictation software and far faster than the earlier app developed for the iPhone. Click a tab and your voice note becomes email-ready. Free.

Instapaper Pro Instantly makes a newspaper out of the many articles and blog posts you come across during the day–but never the time to read. Instapaper lets you cache Web pages right to your iPad to read later on. Bonus from Instapaper: The app is universal. You only have to pay for it once, and it will work on any iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch. $4.99

Kayak Flights Kayak is the best place on the Web to find the cheapest flights out of town–or out of a dreadful conference weekend in the middle of nowhere. The iPad app makes browsing for flights simple and easy-to-use, and early reviews say the bigger screen of the iPad upgrades the existing iPhone app a million-to-one. Free.

LinkedIn Read the ForbesWoman group on LinkedIn, and you will find evidence of why it works: It’s a great way to talk about things that matter and to stay connected to past, present and future colleagues and business contacts. The newest version of LinkedIn for iPad promises to allow you to update your status right from your profile, even when you’re on the go–which we can already see coming in handy when iPadding from conferences or events. Free.

NPR The NPR app for iPhone is great–but the public broadcaster has so much content on the page that it’s better used on the iPad’s bigger screen. The news source has three main categories to choose from: news, arts and life and music. A multitasking plus is the app lets users listen to full episodes of favorite NPR programs like “All Things Considered” while browsing the rest of the site for other content. Here’s to tapping into local NPR affiliates from around the world. Free.

Pocket Yoga De-stress at your desk, or wherever you are. Pocket Yoga offers an instructor at your fingertips: three practices, three difficulty levels and three duration times to give you 27 different Flow Yoga combination routines. The “instructor” uses both illustrations on iPad’s large screen and voice commands to help with your poses and breathing while the iPad’s memory can store a log of your training. Multitasking bonus: Pocket Yoga works with iTunes simultaneously so you can work out to our own music. $2.99.

Scrabble For word people, Scrabble has always been a favorite downtime distraction not to feel guilty about. Scrabble for iPad looks great on the big display and includes options for playing against the computer, online opponents or friends–just passing the iPad back and forth. Or by adding an additional (free) app, synche iPhones or iPod touches to use the smaller screens as letter racks. This is another app that works with iTunes to let you control the soundtrack to your game. $9.99.

Resource:
Yahoo News

Vodafone, O2 and Orange have made virtually identical (and therefore clearly Apple founded) statements confirming: “Vodafone/Orange/O2 today announced that it will offer dedicated iPad price plans for all models from the end of May”. This is in line with the iPad delay Apple confirmed yesterday.

To this generic statement Vodafone added “…in Australia, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK”, Orange tacked on “…in the UK” and O2 added “…(in France, UK, Spain and Switzerland).” Furthermore T-Mobile is known to be in talks with Apple leaving 3 as the only major telco whose position is unclear. That said, given the iPad will be available unlocked it could be argued any network which is prepared to burden itself with the micro SIM format can get in on the act.

Sadly none of the networks provided a breakdown of the tariffs they will offer, but we should find out subsidised and unsubsidised details soon enough. That said, this open network approach from Apple bodes well for the next generation of iPhone which is traditionally unveiled each June. Open across all networks? Yes please !

Resource:

http://www.trustedreviews.com/laptops/news/2010/04/15/O2–Orange—Vodafone-Announce-iPad-Tariffs/p1

But it’s still early days yet. Apple gave only a chosen few developers early access to the iPad — everybody else had to make do with software simulators and homemade cardboard mockups. They rushed their apps to market, and it shows. Many of the early apps are buggy and missing features.

These are the best apps I’ve found so far. They are all iPad-optimized, not iPhone apps stretched to fit the iPad. They get the job done, they’re fun to use, and several of them are free.

1Password for iPad

1Password encrypts, stores and organizes your passwords and other private information, and it automates log-ins for Web sites and other Internet services. You can also use it to store credit card numbers, bank account numbers, ATM PINs and more. 1Password is an extremely useful app for both the Mac and the iPhone, and now it’s available for the iPad too.

The iPad version is more like a grownup application than its iPhone counterpart, although it’s still missing some of the capabilities of the Mac product. In landscape mode, you get an easy-to-navigate three-pane view of your information and you can browse through entries alphabetically or using the search function.

You can store any information you want using 1Password’s preconfigured templates and categories. For example, Logins is where (obviously) you store your Web usernames and passwords, Wallet is for credit card numbers, and Identities is where you can store separate e-mail addresses, phone numbers, street addresses, etc. for work, your personal life, your secret spy identity or whatever.

1Password for iPhone includes a very handy bookmarklet that installs in Mobile Safari. If you’re browsing a site that requires a log-in, tapping the bookmarklet will automatically shut Safari, switch to 1Password and call up the correct username and password for the site you’re browsing. Unfortunately, that bookmarklet doesn’t work on the iPad version. Vendor Agile Web Solutions says it’s working on adding it to a future version. Until then, 1Password has its own built-in minibrowser that you can use to automatically log in to password-protected sites.

The latest release of 1Password Pro contains both the iPad and iPhone versions. It’s priced at $14.99 and is available as a free upgrade for existing users of 1Password Pro on the iPhone. For iPad owners who don’t have an iPhone, 1Password is a $6.99 stand-alone program.

Instapaper Pro

Instapaper is simple and highly addictive. If you’re browsing the Web and you find a long, meaty article that you don’t have time to read right away, you simply click a bookmarklet in your browser, and that article is instantly saved to a queue of articles at Instapaper.com. Later, when you have time to read, you can call up your queue of articles and dig in.

While this is a great iPhone app, it’s even better on the iPad with its bigger screen and better graphics resolution. The iPad and iPhone apps not only download articles for offline reading, but also format the articles for on-screen reading by removing clutter, changing the font and automatically scaling the graphics. You can move through articles by either tapping the screen to turn pages or tilting the device forward or backward to make the article scroll. (It’s possible to accidentally tilt the iPad and start scrolling when you don’t want to, so I prefer to tap the screen to turn pages.)

Instapaper Pro runs on the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch, and it’s priced at $4.99. The latest version, written for the iPad, is a free upgrade for existing users of Instapaper Pro. There’s also a free, ad-supported Lite version for the iPhone and iPod Touch, but it lacks several features, including support for tilt-scrolling, tapping the screen to turn pages and sorting articles in folders. In addition, Instapaper Pro can handle 250 articles but the Lite version only handles 10.

Kindle

Apple’s iBooks app was one of the centerpieces of the iPad debut — it’s a gorgeous app that has its own online bookstore. However, I prefer Amazon’s Kindle e-book app.

It lets you buy and download books from Amazon’s Kindle store and read them on any device: a PC, a Mac, an iPad, an iPhone, a BlackBerry or a Kindle reader. As you read, the service saves your place, so if you read a few pages on a Kindle device but later switch to an iPad and then to an iPhone, you can instantly pick up where you left off each time.

Both the iBooks and the Kindle apps are free and have huge selections of free books, courtesy of Project Gutenberg and other Internet sources.

Which one should you use? Whichever one you need to read the book you want to read.

For example, while I think the Kindle app has a slight edge because of its multiplatform support, the iBooks app had the one book I’ve actually shopped for since I got the iPad, while the Kindle didn’t. And they both use Digital Rights Management (DRM) for many titles, which means you don’t really own the books — you’re just using them, and you lose access if the software vendor discontinues support.

Netflix

If you’re a Netflix fan, this one is a must — an app that lets you watch streaming movies and TV shows from your Netflix queues on your iPad.

The user interface looks as though it’s just a Web browser pointing at the Netflix Web site. If you stop watching a movie partway through, the app is designed to remember where you are and resume again after you close the app and return later, no matter which service you use to watch the movie. That’s a nice feature, but I found that it worked irregularly — sometimes the app remembered my place, sometimes it didn’t.

Fortunately, you can go back or fast-forward by dragging your finger along a horizontal scrollbar at the top of the screen. You can also tap a button at the bottom of the screen to rewind 30 seconds.

In addition, while the video streamed smoothly, without any jerks or stops, I found that the site itself seemed slower than usual, both in the app and in the iPad’s Safari browser.

The app itself is free but requires an unlimited rental membership from Netflix, which starts at $8.99 per month.

Pages

Apple’s Pages is an impressive little app. It’s a fully functional slimmed-down word processor that costs only $9.99. It has all the basic capabilities you expect from a word processor: You can write and edit, format text, embed images and charts, and more. For layout, you can move things around with your fingers or resize them by pinching with two fingers.

Pages can import documents in two formats: Pages ’09 for Mac and Microsoft Word (Office 97 and later). It can export to Pages ’09, Word 97 or later and PDF

As with many iPad apps, you turn the iPad to change modes. In landscape view, you get a full-screen view of your document; in portrait mode, you get a toolbar at the top. (You can make the toolbar disappear by tapping a button — it took me a couple of minutes to figure out how to bring the toolbar back by tapping on the text.)

The biggest problem with Pages is that it doesn’t really sync with the desktop — it just imports and exports files. And worse, when you import Pages or Microsoft Word files from the desktop, the iPad app strips out important metadata, such as running headers and footers, section breaks, comments and bookmarks. That makes it hard to switch back and forth between your iPad and desktop while editing a document.

Pages is part of the iWork suite for the iPad, along with the Keynote presentation software and Numbers spreadsheet, each priced at $9.99.

TweetDeck for iPad

There are already several Twitter clients available for the iPad. I’ve tried a few, and TweetDeck is my favorite.

It’s a version of the free desktop client that’s popular among Twitter power users. It has the familiar multicolumn view, which you can customize to show messages from all your friends, @mentions, direct messages, saved searches and your Twitter lists. TweetDeck also shortens URLs.

There are some rough edges. In portrait view, the upper third of the screen is just wasted space, filled with the TweetDeck logo and nothing else. That’s where you compose your tweets or view individual tweets. I wrote the developers to ask about this; they said they did this on purpose, to keep that upper third as a blank workspace. Hopefully, they’ll come to their senses and let the composition and other windows appear as pop-overs, which is how most other apps do it.

Links are not clickable in the tweets column — you have to open the tweet separately and tap the link. Judging from the comments on the App Store review and on Twitter, many users don’t know that trick; they think links don’t work at all.

Also, TweetDeck for the iPad is missing one of my favorite features of the desktop app: the word cloud of trending topics on Twitter. It’s an at-a-glance way to tell whether anything important is happening in the world and get a general idea of what that news might be. The developers say they’re working on a new way to display trending topics that will roll out on all platforms soon.

Things for iPad

Things is the control panel for my life. I depend on the Mac and iPhone versions, and I’m happy to see developer Cultured Code was quick out of the gate with a $19.99 iPad version. This version does all the basic tasks that the Mac and iPhone versions do: It keeps to-do lists with start and due dates, and organizes those lists into projects, areas of responsibility, next actions and more.

The iPad version has an attractive interface that looks like a ruled tablet of white paper. When you change projects or areas, the sheets of paper seem to curl upward, like a page that’s turning.

You can sync your Things data among the iPad, iMac and iPhone versions as long as they’re all on the same network. Simply open all three apps at the same time and stand back — they’ll take turns syncing to make sure all three apps are running copies of the same database, and will even prompt you on the Mac to re-open the iPad or iPhone version if you shut them down prematurely. The progress bar is kind of entertaining to watch, too.

Some features from the desktop are still missing in the iPad version — most notably the ability to duplicate projects. And syncing among all three apps is somewhat slow. The iPad and iPhone apps tend to lose their connections and have to be restarted once or twice.

Things for the iPad, Mac and iPhone will cost you $80. Many of the reviewers in the App Store say that’s too much. I think it’s worth it — I use it all day, every day. But you might feel differently.

The Weather Channel Max for iPad

The iPhone comes with a weather widget among its pre-installed apps, but that app is missing from the iPad. That means you need to either check the weather on the Web or download an app. My favorite app so far: The Weather Channel’s free offering.

The app is a candy store for weather geeks. You can use it not only to check your local forecast, but also to find out the day’s sunrise and sunset times without having to dig too deeply.

And you’re one tap away from a three-hour forecast, which is handy early in the morning or late in the afternoon when you can expect the weather to change rapidly.

You can also look at interactive weather maps and severe weather advisories and watch video forecasts from The Weather Channel.

The app was slow to start up, and it crashed once or twice the first few times I ran it, but since then it has run smoothly.

Resource:

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUS386045598720100413

There are over 50 million Opera Mini users globally.

Opera Mini uses Opera’s servers to render and compress pages, thus increasing speed for the end user, and also working around Apple’s stringent rules.

The company says users of the iPhone over AT&T’s slower 2G Edge data will definitely feel the “uptake in speed.”

Whether all the downloads are just a curiosity or proof that iPhone/iPod Touch users are looking for choice within their hardware remains to be seen, but it seems pretty clear that Opera will be gaining a significant amount of users.

Resource:

http://www.afterdawn.com/news/article.cfm/2010/04/15/opera_mini_tops_all_of_apple_s_top_app_charts

“The low-cost version of the phone will have a different chassis than version 1 to be launched by 2010 end,” said Sudeep Bharati, director, developer tools for Microsoft India’s Visual Studio Team at Tech.Ed 2010 being held here.

The Windows Phone 7 may be priced at $500- $600, same price as Google’s Nexus One. Microsoft officials denied to give any details on pricing .

The Windows Phone 7 will come with a 5 Mega Pixel camera, a large multi-touch screen, Wi-fi , bluetooth and a minimum of 128 MB RAM.

“The new version may also have a smaller screen and will thus be priced lower to suit developing markets like India. We are in talks with OEMs to gain their feedback on a new chassis,” he said. The existing chassis of Windows Phone 7 (due to be launched in December ), carries three buttons.

One of the buttons will carry the Windows symbol and will act like the “start up” key in MS Windows for PCs. The phones to be manufactured by OEMs like HTC, Samsung and LG for Windows Phone 7 will carry a joint branding by Microsoft and the mobile phone maker, the details of which are being worked out.

Resource:

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/infotech/software/MS-to-launch-low-cost-Windows-Phone-7/articleshow/5808152.cms

The new clause was almost certainly targeted directly at Adobe, whose popular, though arguably inefficient Flash plug-in has been locked out of Apple’s mobile platforms. A major feature of Adobe’s new Flash CS5 is the ability to package Flash projects as iPhone apps- a process which now goes against the iPhone Developer Agreement. As a result, apps created in this manner can (and will) be rejected from the App Store and Adobe just spent the last year or so of Flash R&D for nothing.

While section 3.3.1 was more than likely directed at Adobe, the question is, will other third party SDK’s be taken as collateral damage? PhoneGap, a cross platform mobile development suite, which lets users write apps for iPhone, Android, and Blackberry in JavaScript and HTML claims that their contacts at Apple have assured them their tool is not in violation. Another popular third party SDK, Ansca’s Corona, which allows users to write iPhone games in Lua- again seems like it should be out of bounds- though a blog on the company’s site claims Apple has not given them the cease and desist. In fact, none of the third party SDK’s I could find, such as MonoTouch, GameSalad, or Unity3D- all seemingly in violation of Apple’s new Terms of Service- have announced any bad news regarding iPhone OS 4. So what gives?

Well, the truth is, unlike Flash CS5, most of the aforementioned SDK’s produce 100% Objective-C code- they are more pre-compilers than true compilers. However, the vague wording of Section 3.3.1 could mean that if Apple ever wanted to pull the trigger, they would be well within their bounds to ban any or all of these third party iPhone SDK’s. Although there is something to be said about the added inefficiency and possible lack of UI uniformity of a translation layer, since they haven’t done so already I find the possibility of Apple banning such tools outright unlikely. This was, after all, probably a specific jab at Adobe in Apple’s quest to make Flash obsolete. If Apple were to expressly ban all third party SDK’s, however- from the standpoint of 99% of all iPhone developers, nothing will change. These tools are more for people coming from other development environments and those already used to XCode and Objective-C will continue to code as usual.

Despite the understandable optimism of the various SDK’s blogs- we may not get a true sense of the fallout until April 22- the deadline to agree to the new Terms of Service for an iPhone Developer Account. Even then, iPhone OS 4 is still in beta, and therefore subject to TOS changes until it is officially released in June.

Resource:

http://www.pcworld.com/article/194275/collateral_damage_iphone_os_4_developer_agreement_fallout.html

Looks like our guess was correct. On Tuesday, Skyfire, another mobile browser maker, blogged a post congratulating Opera for its success and stating Skyfire’s intention to speed up its own development for “iDevices” like the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad.

Of course, as a competitor, it is Skyfire CEO Jeff Glueck’s prerogative to point out that Skyfire supports Flash and plays back video with its mobile proxy browser where Opera Mini for iPhone doesn’t.

We’re always up for a good challenge, and we’d love to compare Safari, Opera Mini, and Skyfire side-by-side. We’re also curious if Skyfire manages to avoid some of Opera Mini’s proxy-related pitfalls, some of which we outline in this First Look video.

Alright, Skyfire, bring it on!

Resource:

http://download.cnet.com/8301-2007_4-20002426-12.html

Microsoft has dabbled in social networking, but most of its efforts have resided in the desktop and online where it attempts to take on Google in search and advertising. Perhaps that’s why it’s so surprising that Microsoft is attempting to appeal to social-networking fans with the Microsoft Kin One and the Microsoft Kin Two.

The devices, which will be available on Verizon Wireless’ network in May, attempt to bridge the gap between the Web and mobile phones. But whether or not they actually do this successfully remains to be seen.

As excited as some folks are for the Microsoft Kin smartphones, others are scratching their heads. Both the Microsoft Kin One and the Microsoft Kin Two are lacking in several areas that should limit their appeal to the wider consumer market.

Considering there are so many other devices that consumers can choose from, it’s debatable just how much they will appeal to the average person. A solid argument can be made that Microsoft Kin devices are ill-fated in a market where innovation and uniqueness are coveted above all else

But simply saying that isn’t doing either device justice. That’s why it’s time to take a look at why 10 important features missing from the Kin phones could mean trouble for Microsoft once they’re released.

1. Carrier ubiquity

   According to Microsoft, the Kin One and Kin Two will only be available on Verizon Wireless’ network in the U.S. and Vodafone’s network in the U.K. That’s a problem. Although Apple has done a good job working with just one carrier, it’s the exception in the mobile market. For any other company, providing phones on as many carriers as possible is always the best strategy. After all, limiting a target market for the sake of a business deal just isn’t smart.

2. Lack of Uniqueness

   What makes the Kin unique in any way? The device features a multi-touch display, a slide-out physical keyboard, and a mobile operating system that lacks several key features that most consumers are currently looking for. In order to be successful in the increasingly competitive mobile marketplace, companies need to develop phones that are unique. Apple’s iPhone is unique. Even Google’s Android platform is unique. Unfortunately for Microsoft and Sharp, the devices’ designer, there’s nothing so unique about the Kin phones that would make users want to pick them over anything else.

3. Flash, anyone?

   Apple has been getting hit hard by tech pundits and critics who say that its devices should support Adobe’s Flash standard. But if Apple gets that treatment, so should Microsoft. Neither of the Kin phones will support Flash (or Microsoft’s own Silverlight, for that matter). Considering the device lacks an app store, that means that the vast majority of videos and games currently available on the Web will not be accessible from the Kin. Like Apple, Microsoft says that isn’t a big deal, but we all know that it is. And it’s a major omission.

4. It’s game-less

   Part of the value of a next-gen mobile device is its ability to play games. And since Microsoft is marketing the Kin phones as social-networking devices, it would only seem to make sense that the devices would boast social games for users to play with each other. Think again. According to Microsoft, Kin phones will not support games. And although they will have access to music, games are missing. Given the success of gaming on the iPhone, it will be extremely hard for Microsoft to justify that decision.

5. No app store

   As mentioned above, the Kin phones will not support an app store. That means that third-party developers won’t be able to bring apps to the device and owners will only be able to use the applications that come bundled on the Kin out of the box. Microsoft should know better. The company has spent years explaining why Windows Mobile devices lack in app support and now it’s delivering a product that lacks third-party apps? It doesn’t make sense. Mobile applications have quickly become a necessity in the mobile marketplace. Apple, Google, and RIM all offer apps. Even Microsoft plans to offer an App Store with its Windows Phone 7 software. Why it wouldn’t have third-party app support with Kin is anyone’s guess.

6. Communication without IM

   Part of being a social device is allowing users to communicate with each other. That means Kin owners will be able to correspond with MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter friends from the devices. But in an odd move, Microsoft has decided that instant messaging doesn’t fit in its plans; therefore the company said that Kin devices will not support instant-messaging. Since there’s no app store, third-party developers can’t bring clients to the device. If communication is what Kin phones are all about, instant messaging should have made its way to those devices.

7. Where’s the innovation?

   Take a look at either Kin device and attempt to find something that shows innovation. The devices are rather boring compared to many of the mobile products currently on the market. The iPhone and Google Nexus One offer something innovative that other products on the market have yet to muster. Because of that, any device that comes after them are expected to also do something innovative to make a mark. It might not be fair to those vendors, but it is an expectation that consumers have. The Kin phones do nothing of the sort. And it could hurt them when they hit store shelves next month.

8. No data tethering

   This might not come as a surprise, but Kin phones lack support for data tethering. That immediately pushes the enterprise out of the equation and could conceivably annoy some consumer road warriors that like having the option of connecting to the Web through their mobile phones. That said, a lack of data tethering support isn’t a deal breaker. Currently, the iPhone, like several other phones on the market, doesn’t support tethering. But if Microsoft had struck a deal with Verizon to bring tethering to the product, it might have helped it appeal to more customers that are looking for something new and fresh from the products.

9. Social, but no calendar?

   Microsoft has gone out of its way to say that its Kin phones are designed for younger social network users. But a key component in social networking is planning events that friends can attend with each other. Wouldn’t it have been nice to plan a get-together with Facebook friends and add that event to a calendar built into the Kin software? Yep. But it won’ t happen. The Kin doesn’t have a built-in calendar app, which means users will need to do scheduling somewhere else. It’s awfully counter-intuitive for a social-networking phone to not have a calendar app.

10. A cool factor

    Microsoft is attempting to market the Kin devices to cool, hipster twenty-somethings that spend time at clubs and communicate with their friends on social networks. That makes sense. But it seemed to forget one element: to those people, a phone is an extension of who they are. They want to look “cool” thumbing away on a Kin and sending messages to friends. The Kin doesn’t strike me as a cool device. It’s functional and it’s design is nice, but the cool factor is non-existent. The iPhone is a cool device. The Kin One and Kin Two just don’t seem to cut it.

Resource:

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Mobile-and-Wireless/10-Key-Features-Missing-from-Microsoft-Smartphones-529371/

MacBook Pro Software Update 1.3 “is recommended for all 15-inch and 17-inch MacBook Pro mid-2010 models and contains improvements for graphics stability for high-performance video and gaming applications as well as various bug fixes,” according to Apple.

The update was posted on April 13, and requires Mac OS X 10.6.3.

Resource:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2362615,00.asp

Although it’s a US version you’ll be buying, and you’ll have to pay a hefty premium to be a very-early-adopter.

Which means that all told, you’d be a bit mad not to wait a couple of weeks for the official UK iPads to be launched.

Still, if there’s no holding you back, you can secure your iPad from Simply Electronics, with prices starting from £540 for the 16GB wi-fi version (with free delivery).

Even more expensive, Purely Gadgets have the same model for £690. They don’t have stock of the 64GB version, though, which is probably just as well as it’s £870.

When it comes out here, which is rumoured to be April 24th, the basic 16GB wi-fi model of the iPad should go for around the £400 mark.

Resource:

http://www.techwatch.co.uk/2010/04/12/us-apple-ipad-on-sale-in-the-uk/

Alcatel, which like all equipment vendors is looking to get into services because they are less commoditised, plans to build on its existing relationships with operators to deliver targeted, relevant ads and new revenue streams.

Mobile advertising has long been touted as a new growth area for operators, although it is still in the early stages of development.

“We spent a lot of time with advertisers and their main message was that it needed to be easier for them to buy mobile media,” Thomas Labarthe, Vice President of Mobile Advertising at Alcatel-Lucent, told Reuters in an interview.

“They wanted simplicity and scale.”

Alcatel-Lucent already provides some advertising services built around content offerings but this is a new platform designed to connect advertisers and operators.

Some operators such as France Telecom’s Orange have launched their own platform to buy and sell online ads while Apple has also launched a new smartphone operating system with an advertising platform.

Google also owns the Admob network.

Alcatel said it hoped to make its hosted software offering attractive by making it relevant to consumers and easy to use for operators.

Alcatel-Lucent’s digital media and advertising business is part of its applications software segment, which made revenues of 334 million euros ($454 million) in the fourth quarter of 2009, about 8 percent of the company’s total revenues.

The French-American group said its service would ask mobile users to opt in or out of the service and it would then ask the user questions about certain brands and topics, to make the ads more relevant.

By pulling together mobile ad space from operators, such as mobile Internet pages, Alcatel hopes to give media buyers and media agencies enough inventory to conduct targeted ad campaigns across different countries.

“(This) helps advertisers reach wider, yet more targeted audiences through highly responsive, permission and preference based mobile marketing that is aggregated across multiple mobile operators, a capability unique in the industry,” Alcatel said.

The group, which has struggled to compete with larger European rivals Ericsson and Nokia-Siemens Networks, said its Optism Mobile Advertising Solution would have a media arm which would broker relationships between agencies and operators.

Alcatel said it would share the revenue from the deal, with the operator taking the larger share, but it did not give any further details. Labarthe said it had already signed up Orange Austria and was working with E-Plus in Germany. It said it would announce further operators shortly.

The group is also working with media agencies from WPP and media buyers.

Resource:
Yahoo News

The world’s largest mobile phone maker says it wants “to put better messaging and social networking tools in the hands of more people around the world at affordable prices.”

The new Nokia C3, Nokia E5 and Nokia C6 handsets have full QWERTY keyboards, enable instant messaging and give access to e-mails.

Their expected selling prices are euro90, euro180 and euro220 before taxes and subsidies.

The new phones will be available during the second and third quarters of this year.

Resource:
yahoo News

Google has basically just taken the iPad’s Safari browser and used this app to make it very Google-centric, but that’s about the only thing the app brings: no Chrome, no Android-ish interface, nothing. Sure, you get voice search and location-specified searches built in, but it comes across as a half-effort.

Google perhaps missed a chance to plant seeds for its own tablet that we know is on the way. It could have changed the interface of its app to match what it’s planning, thereby setting the stage for its own device. It could have also attempted to outdo Apple at the browser game, but it didn’t.

Of course, there’s no way to know if Apple would have let those changes into the App store. Apple is maintaining its filter on what appears in the store and what doesn’t, and given the climate between the two giants it’s possible a more full-featured app would have been rejected handily.

And that’s too bad for us, the end users.

Resource:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-20002421-1.html

Billed as Australia’s first smart home phone, the T-Hub is available only to Telstra customers.

The unit is an 18 centimetre touch screen device that allows phone calls and text messages, as well as internet applications such as news, sport and weather.

The phone plugs directly into a standard telephone socket and has access to BigPond and Sensis services, as well as online social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and Skype.

Calls can be made with a cordless handset or handsfree via the portable touch screen.

Telstra chief marketing officer, Kate McKenzie, said that a phone will suit Australian families.

“T-Hub will suit Australians’ appetite for quick access to information, while enabling customers to perform many mobile phone-type applications on their home phone.”

The phone will be available on Tuesday from most Telstra dealers, selected additional dealers, online and over the phone.

The T-Hub can be purchased by Telstra customers as either part of 15 different bundle options, such as the Home Bundle 12 gigabyte plan at costs $109 a month plus $35 upfront, or for a flat upfront price of $299.

Resource:

http://www.current.com.au/2010/04/14/article/Telstra-reveals-its-iPad-rival-the-T-Hub-prices-and-dates/XMDHMNOSXB.html

On April 13 Nokia announced the launch of three new handsets, the C3, C6 and E5. The devices have been streamlined to offer consumers round-the-clock access to their multiple email accounts, IM communities and social networks.

Microsoft also revealed two new “Social Phones” on April 12, marking the company’s entrance into the mobile phone market with their long-rumored Project Pink devices. The Sharp-manufactured phones, known as the Kin One and Kin Two will be marketed as Windows Phones and have “social networking built in to the fabric of the phone,” letting users broadcast and share everyday moments.

The advent of the iPhone had device manufactures scrambling over themselves to release the next generation of “iPhone-killing” handsets – complete with high-resolution cameras, HD video recording, HD touchscreens and an operating system that was capable of turning your device into a full-fledged mobile PC.

But a sub-trend has emerged during the past year that has seen the release of an increasing number of “Social Phones.” These devices, while not as (hardware) feature rich as their smartphone counterparts, capture the power of social networking and provide a connected-lifestyle experience for younger consumers that want all of their most important information aggregated within one place.

According to market researcher Gartner, mobile phone hardware features will continue to become less significant in 2010 and user experience will rule the mobile market.

During 2009 there was a marked shift from hardware to software and applications. “Technology for the sake of technology stopped being important and technology enhancements mattered only when they improved the overall user experience,” explained Gartner in a March 22 research note on the key issues for mobile devices in 2010.

“Many of the technologies that will continue to receive a lot of attention in 2010 will focus on mobile device user interfaces,” said Gartner.

With handset makers’ focus on developing rich user interfaces for their consumers, people can expect to see an increasing range of lower-priced Social Phones appearing in stores within 2010.

Resource:

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/mobile-makers-invest-in-social-networking-handsets-to-drive-their-brand-image-1943788.html

Google (GOOG) is said to be planning a rival device to Apple’s (AAPL) iPad that will run its Android operating system. Assuming this is true, what does Google need to do to make its slate competitive with the iPad?

Size matters—A “Google Pad” should target the sweet spot of screen sizes, that of 5 to 8 in. Any larger and some will complain that the device is too heavy—as is already happening with the iPad—while smaller devices simply don’t offer enough benefit over current smartphones, some of which have displays of 4 in. or larger ). Google would have to subsequently adjust how Android and its apps run on larger displays. When I ran Android on a 7-in. touchscreen computer, it offered a less-than-ideal experience because the user interface is built for small screens.

Fix the Market—Other companies already offer Android-powered tablets, but those devices are hobbled by limitations that include not having access to the Android Market for software. Google wouldn’t similarly constrain its own product, but it still needs to make finding and installing software from the marketplace easier. One small tweak that would yield huge benefits is an “update all” function. Users don’t want to have to update software one app at a time.

Sync or swim—Unlike its competitors, Google doesn’t offer software to synchronize data between Android devices and computers. The sync software Google offers is the cloud; e-mail, contacts, calendars, and other data are all available through an over-the-air Web connection. But not all consumers are ready for true wireless data synchronization. Google could either bundle solutions like DoubleTwist for media and application synchronization or The Missing Sync for personal data.

Boost productivity—While most people don’t buy tablets to replace the productivity offered by a traditional computer, if it’s making one, Google should include its Google Docs software. Android supports document viewing, but not much in the way of editing aside from limited spreadsheet changes. A native Android application or enhanced Google Docs functionality in the browser for basic document editing would rival Apple’s iWork software for the iPad.

Court developers—Apple has already got the attention of third-party developers, so Google will have to offer an equally if not more compelling development environment in order to have blockbuster applications on hand at launch. Netflix is a fine example. Apple successfully convinced the company to build media-streaming software for the iPad, enabling consumers to watch video wherever a Web connection could be found.

As someone who switched from an iPhone to a Nexus One earlier this year—(though I bought an iPad, too), I find the Apple experience more refined than Google’s. But Android still has much to offer, namely the lack of developer lock-in, easy integration with Google programs, and a growing number of software titles. If the company addresses the five areas I’ve outlined above, a Google Pad could be a very worthy alternative to Apple’s iPad.

Resource:

http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/apr2010/tc20100413_828372.htm

The Nokia C3 (pictured) is the vendor’s first Series 40 device to feature a QWERTY keyboard. It allows for Facebook, Twitter, and other network access directly from the home page. It also features Ovi Mail, Ovi Chat, Wi-Fi, a 2-megapixel camera, and a 2.4-inch screen. It will be available in a variety of colors.

The Nokia C6 runs full-blown Symbian, and features a 3.2-inch touch screen and a slide-out QWERTY keyboard. It also includes a 5-megapixel camera with auto-focus and flash, Ovi Maps with free walk and drive navigation, and access to Nokia’s Ovi Store for browsing, buying, and downloading thousands of third-party apps, assuming it works.

Finally, the Nokia E5 is a business-focused smartphone in the vein of the E72. It features numerous productivity apps, Mail for Exchange, and Lotus Notes Traveler, plus access to the Ovi Store.

All three are due for release in the second and third quarters overseas; no word yet on U.S. versions. But Nokia seems to have finally figured out how to get carriers to subsidize its handsets; my money is on at least one of these appearing here.

Resource:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2362564,00.asp

Murdoch renewed his attacks on search engines, such as Google, which he accused of stealing journalism from regular media outlets. He told a US National Press Club event at George Washington University the newspaper industry had to stand up for itself and charge for content, while using copyright law to defend its journalism from being used without its permission.

”We are going to stop people like Google or Microsoft or whoever from taking stories for nothing … there is a law of copyright and they recognise it,” he told a packed audience of students, journalists and other media professionals.

He said search engines had tapped into a ”river of gold” by aggregating content but that the days of free news had to come to an end. ”They take [news content] for nothing. They have got this very clever business model,” Murdoch said.

In June, online versions of Murdoch’s British titles The Times and The Sunday Times will be put behind a paywall, joining the online version of his business title, The Wall Street Journal.

However, some critics say consumers are accustomed to getting online news free and will not subscribe in sufficiently large numbers to form a viable business model for quality journalism. Murdoch dismissed this fear, saying consumers could be forced to change their habits.

”When they have got nowhere else to go, they will start paying if it is reasonable. No one is going to ask for a lot of money,” he said.

Murdoch also fired a shot at The New York Times – a common bete noire of Murdoch and the WSJ’s main rival – by saying The New York Times’s own paywall plans were half-hearted and needed to be more restrictive.

”They don’t seem to be able to make up their mind,” Murdoch said.

”They will have opposition internally from some of their journalists, especially their columnists. ”To really make it work, they have got to put a paywall up. I think most newspapers in [the US] have got to have a paywall.”

Advocates of free newspaper websites often accuse Murdoch of being a technophobe but the Australian media mogul was happy to embrace the technology of Apple’s iPad tablet device, launched in the US on April 3.

During an interview with journalist Marvin Kalb, Murdoch sat with an iPad and even picked it up to demonstrate how to navigate The Wall Street Journal’s website. He said the iPad could be the saviour of newspaper journalism – in electronic form, not print.

”I got a glimpse of the future … with the Apple iPad,” Murdoch said.

”It is a wonderful thing. If you have [fewer] newspapers and more of these … it may well be the saving of the newspaper industry.”

Murdoch was also given a grilling over the conservative bias of his Fox News cable television channel.

The audience regularly tittered when Murdoch said he thought the channel had no political bias in its news coverage.

”We have both sides. We have Democrats and Republicans, Libertarians and whatever,” he said.

However, when asked to name a single Democrat-leaning Fox commentator – alongside such famous conservative names as Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity and Bill O’Reilly – he struggled to remember one.

”I wish I could tell you a couple of names. But they are certainly there,” Murdoch said. He eventually settled on host Greta van Susteren, whom he said was ”close” to the Democratic party.

Resource:

http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/murdoch-hails-ipad-as-saviour-of-news-20100412-s447.html

Intel’s new Core i5 and i7 CPUs made it into this MacBook Pro generation, with the exception of the 13-inch MacBook Pro.

(What we said then: “We’re not saying that any laptop without Intel’s new mainstream CPUs is ready for the recycling bin, but now would be an ideal time to update the processors inside the entire line, to take advantage of the improved power efficiency and other advantages of the new Core i-series chips.”)

We’re also pleasantly surprised to see that Apple included automatic graphics switching, enabling MacBook Pros to enjoy a similarly seamless way to activate and deactivate discrete graphics in a way comparable to what we’ve seen in Nvidia’s new Optimus laptop graphics.

There’s even another boost to battery life, too. Yet, despite addressing a few of our biggest wishes, a lot of features remain to be addressed. Here’s our short list of five, culled from our previous post with a few new additions.

• SD card slots across the board

  Even a $299 Netbook has one of these useful little media card readers. And finally, after years of gentle ribbing from us and others, Apple added an SD card reader to the 13- and 15-inch MacBook Pro models. But, it’s still not on the most popular MacBook, the $999 base model. And it’s still not on the 17-inch model, either.

• Blu-ray drives

  For a high-end laptop with plenty of media cred, it’s a bit awkward for MacBooks to not at least offer the option of adding a Blu-ray drive. It’s clearly not a cost issue, as expensive SSD options have been available from Apple for some time. At this point, many high-end PCs in the MacBook’s price range include a Blu-ray drive by default.

• Mobile broadband options

  With the sheer number of Mac laptops we see at coffee shops and airports, having an always-on Internet connection seems like another natural fit. It’s widely available as a built-in option from most PC makers, and newer antenna hardware can work with more than one carrier. Sure, using a USB key antenna is always an option, but why mess up that sleek Apple silhouette? It’s a bit surprising post-iPad that no AT&T 3G option was included in any MacBook.

• HDMI outputs

  Though the mini-DisplayPort is Apple’s video connection of choice, actually hooking it up to monitors besides the ones Apple sells is a bit of a hassle. Some laptops, especially larger desktop replacements, offer a combo of HDMI, VGA, and even DVI. We’ll settle for a single HDMI, which carries both sound and video, and would make getting iTunes videos up on our big-screen TVs even easier. Now that Intel’s Wireless Display makes video streaming from a laptop even easier, it’s even harder to accept the MacBook’s awkward means of TV interfacing.

• Better tethering/interaction with iPhones/iPods/iPads

  Now that Apple has increased its iPhone OS-running family, we’re still waiting for slicker ways to interface our handheld Apple gadgets with their larger laptop brethren. Syncing is pretty much the only thing an iPad and a MacBook Pro have in common, and we’d love to see some better ways for the devices to interact wirelessly. There are already apps to use the iPad as a secondary display or as a giant touch pad, but it would be nice to see official Apple-branded solutions that could work even more smoothly. Yes, there is MobileMe, but it should ideally offer a more seamless cloud-computing-type environment as opposed to being limited to calendar/e-mail/bookmark syncing.

If any of these sound familiar, that’s because we’ve mentioned several of them before. Interestingly, though most of these have been on our wish list for some time, a few of our longtime MacBook suggestions have made their way into real life, from the SD card slots on select models to the inclusion of the large multitouch trackpad filtering down on the base $999 white MacBook.

Got anything on your own MacBook wish list? Sound off below and let us know.

Resource:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-20002383-1.html

Internet retailer Amazon.com (AMZN) may need to write a new chapter for the Kindle in the face of fierce competition from Apple’s iPad.

Since Apple (AAPL) announced on Jan. 27 that it would sell a versatile tablet computer that lets users read electronic books and perform a range of other computing tasks, analysts have said the iPad would likely take a bite out of sales of dedicated e-book readers such as Amazon’s popular Kindle. In light of Apple’s Apr. 8 announcement that it sold 450,000 iPads in less than a week, Wall Street analysts are already slicing their forecasts for Kindle sales.

Charlie Wolf, a senior analyst at Needham & Co. who has a “buy” rating on Apple shares, on Apr. 9 cut his forecast for Kindle sales this year, settling on a range from 2.5 million to 3 million units, in place of a previous forecast of 3.6 million units. Wolf estimates that Amazon sold 2.2 million Kindles in 2009. “It’s not a compelling product,” he says of the Kindle, because Apple’s iPad offers more features, such as the ability to play video, plus a more compelling design.

Piper Jaffray (PJC) analyst Gene Munster, who has an “overweight” rating on Amazon shares, cut his 2010 forecast for Kindle sales by 400,000 units, to 3.45 million. Amazon’s top-of-the-line Kindle DX, which is designed to let users read e-books on a black-and-white screen, is selling for $489, just $10 less than Apple’s least-expensive iPad.

The iPad starts at $499 for a model with 16 gigabytes of storage, a color touchscreen, and a library of 60,000 e-books. It also affords users the ability to watch videos, listen to music, and run a wide variety of applications. “No one in their right mind is going to buy a Kindle DX,” says Munster.

consumers dumping Kindles for iPads

To keep pace with consumers’ heightened expectations about what a tablet-style computer should do, Amazon may need to lower the Kindle’s price or introduce such new features as a color screen to make the device more compelling, analysts say.

Many iPad buyers seem poised to use them as e-reader replacements. On Apr. 3, the day the tablet went on sale, Piper Jaffray surveyed 448 customers in line at Apple’s New York and Minneapolis stores. Ten percent of prospective buyers said they had considered a Kindle but decided instead to buy an iPad. And 58% of the respondents who already owned Kindles said they planned to stop using them in light of their iPad purchase.

Munster recommends that Amazon drop prices by $100 on its smaller Kindle reader, which costs $259 and sports a 6-in. screen, as well as on the Kindle DX, which has a 9.7-in. screen. “If they lower the Kindle’s price, it’ll survive,” says Munster. “If they don’t, it won’t.”

Susan Kevorkian, an analyst at market researcher IDC, says Amazon needs to update the Kindle with a color screen and replace its buttons with touchscreen capabilities. “They absolutely need a color screen—the sooner the better,” she says. Earlier this year, Amazon acquired Touchco, a company that makes touchscreen technology

Amazon isn’t the only company whose products are suffering from comparisons with Apple’s tablet. The iPad is drawing consumers’ attention away from such other dedicated e-book readers as Barnes & Noble’s (BKS) Nook, and Sony’s (SNE) Reader, analysts say.

devices channel buyers to e-stores

To be sure, the fortunes of Amazon, which reported $24.5 billion in sales last year, won’t rise or fall on the Kindle’s success. The device contributes a small portion of overall revenues, with analysts estimating that Amazon has sold 2 million to 3 million Kindles since its 2007 introduction.

Still, digital books are a key to Amazon’s future as consumers buy more reading material in electronic form. Controlling the device on which that material is read is a way for tech vendors and retailers to steer consumers to their online stores.

In an Apr. 12 report, Goldman Sachs (GS) said e-book sales will more than quadruple from 2010 to 2015, reaching $3.19 billion. Goldman predicted that Apple’s share of the e-book market would more than triple, to 33% in 2015, and forecast that Amazon’s share would fall to 28% in 2015, from 50% this year.

Shares of Amazon gained 1.14, or 0.8%, on Apr. 12 to close at 141.20. The shares have gained nearly 5% this year, compared with an 8.3% increase in the Nasdaq Composite Index.

Apple has emphasized the iPad’s reading capability in its TV ads. At an Apr. 8 press conference at Apple’s headquarters, Chief Executive Steve Jobs said iPad owners had downloaded more than 600,000 e-books for the device. Apple spokesman Tom Neumayr had no comment on Apple’s strategy for competing with the Kindle.

Apple’s rivals in the e-reader market are taking steps to fight back. Barnes & Noble on Apr. 12 said it will begin selling the Nook in 1,070 Best Buy (BBY) stores and through the retailer’s Web site.

Kindle: lighter and no network charge

Steve Haber, president of Sony’s digital reading business, said in an e-mailed statement that “the introduction of a tablet device, which includes digital reading as part of its functionality, is a good thing for the digital book business.”

Amazon spokesman Andrew Herdener wouldn’t comment on future product plans. He says the Kindle’s light weight (two-thirds of a pound for the smaller model, vs. 1.5 lbs. for the iPad) and ability to download books without incurring cellular network charges constitute advantages over the iPad.

Three initial iPad models can connect to the Internet via WiFi to download books and magazines, run applications, and browse the Web. Three additional models due later in April will connect to AT&T’s cellular network for additional charges of $15 or $30 per month.

Offering third-party applications for the Kindle could help keep buyers interested. In January, Amazon let developers start creating Kindle apps, which Amazon says will be available later this year. Developer Sonic Boom is building word games and puzzles. Handmark is creating a Zagat-branded restaurant-ratings guide, according to Amazon.

Amazon has also been distributing software for Research In Motion’s (RIMM) BlackBerry smartphones, Apple’s iPhone, and—yes—the iPad, that let users of those devices read the more than 480,000 digital titles Amazon is selling. “Being able to offer Kindle on other devices buys Amazon some time and keeps [Kindle] relevant,” IDC’s Kevorkian says.

To compete with Apple’s iPad, Amazon will need to keep finding innovative ways to draw readers to its digital books—and must roll some of them out soon.

Resource:

http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/apr2010/tc20100412_516320.htm

The package, which sees the cost of a 3GS 16GB handset tumble from £320 to £200, includes unlimited texts and 750 minutes of calls.

Tesco’s price crash comes just four months after it put the iPhone into stores – and the chain’s telecoms boss Lance Batchelor reckons the Apple gadget is just about to become even more affordable.

He says: “Tesco Mobile’s iPhone tariffs have been very popular – we’ve now made them even better.” Direct comparisons are difficult as rivals like O2, Orange and Vodafone don’t yet offer year-long iPhone contracts.

Vodafone has a two-year contract for a 3GS 16GB iPhone for £89 on a £35 monthly package with unlimited texts and 600 minutes of talk time. O2 offers unlimited texts and an 18-month deal for £35 a month, with 300 minutes of talking – but the handset is dear at £249.

Orange has an 18-month contract for £35 a month offering a handset for £189 but texts are limited to 500 a month and there’s 600 minutes of speech.

Basically, the longer and dearer the contract, the less the handset costs… unless you pick up a bargain from an auction site (£99, say) and use a SIM-only tariff.

Resource:

http://www.mirror.co.uk/advice/money/2010/04/14/prepare-for-an-iphone-price-war-thanks-to-tesco-mobile-s-new-12-month-deal-115875-22184008/

Opera promises faster downloads, less data traffic (Adds background)

HELSINKI, April 13 (Reuters) – Apple Inc (AAPL.O) has accepted distribution of Opera Software’s (OPERA.OL) Internet browser for its iPhone after a long review, opening a new and potentially lucrative market so far closely guarded by Apple.

There are numerous versions of Apple’s own browser on App Store, but Norway-based Opera is the first rival to get access to iPhone.

Opera applied on March 23 for its mobile browser to be distributed on iPhone, and it was available for downloading to consumers early on Tuesday, three weeks later. Usually the review process takes up to one week, developers say.

Analysts have said the decision was difficult for Apple — whose application store is the only way to distribute software for iPhone users — as its Internet browsing function is key behind the success of the iPhone.

Opera’s browser promises up to six times faster download speeds than Apple’s own browser and to cut data traffic by up to 90 percent.

Massive data traffic from iPhone mobile phones has caused problems for many operators’ networks

Resource:

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSLDE63C02620100413?type=marketsNews

But last week’s iPhone 4.0 preview, which isn’t due on the iPad until autumn, already makes it look much more attractive as a netbook or laptop replacement than it did on Wednesday.

I’ll admit I truly loathe netbooks. When the first models emerged at least they had their size going for them. Now they’re bigger and more expensive, but mostly dog slow.

Size and weight matters to me, and the iPad has had these advantages from the start. The disadvantages of an iPad over a laptop were many, but the lack of multitasking was the biggest. That’s been fixed now – at least well enough so most people don’t notice.

Lack of a physical keyboard is another problem, but iPhone 4.0 gets proper third-party Bluetooth keyboard support. Apple’s official keyboard accessory, the ‘iPad Keyboard Dock’, is very unlike-Apple. It can only be used on a flat surface, and doesn’t look toddler proof: it places a lot of strain on a fragile connection. The Apple Wireless Keyboard will work, but it’s a generic device. It doesn’t make typing on your lap practical, as a custom-designed keyboard might*.

But the iPad has gained VPN support and crypto, two strong candidates for grown-up computing. Whether any of the iPhone OS ssh clients can now sprout standard features such as port forwarding remains to be seen. I have no fear of jailbreaking to get at such raw features, but plenty of people quite understandably do.

Apple’s version of multitasking may almost be good enough. I liked the observation that “if you see a stylus, they blew it. In multitasking, if you see a task manager… they blew it. Users shouldn’t ever have to think about it.”

True, but Apple’s method gets weary and RSI-inducing very quickly. Remember that most of us, most of the time, switch between just two tasks. iPhone OS 4.0 lacks a quick gesture to achieve this.

But I think with the OS update, the iPad will be finding its way into potential buying decisions in a way it didn’t at launch.

In January I had three good reasons to dismiss it as a laptop alternative: price, multitasking and the lack of a USB port. I consider the latter an essential gateway to a wider world of hardware such as cameras, card readers, controllers and things we haven’t thought of yet.

Well, USB obviously isn’t going to be fixed in this year’s model, and may never be. It clashes with the purity, or puritanism, of the Steve approach. Multitasking has been fixed. The price for UK users still hasn’t been revealed – so that’s a variable. Obviously I’m not going to be writing a book on an iPad. But quite unexpectedly, it’s looking like a useful bit of daily computing kit.

What are your deal breakers?

In the past ten years I’ve tried every Bluetooth keyboard going and paired it with a smartphone. Each time, against my better judgement, I thought it might work. They were all more trouble than they were worth.

Resource:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/04/12/ipad_for_work/

Back in February, Opera announced that it was completing work on a version of its browser for the iPhone and that it planned to submit it to Apple for approval and distribution. The move was widely seen as risky, since Apple has, in the past, been dodgy on the subject of whether browsers that aren’t built on Mobile Safari’s underlying technology would be allowed on its iPhone OS platform.

However, Opera Mini had several things going for it: for example, it’s not a full-fledged client-side app, relying instead on Opera’s own server-side functionality to handle much of the content rendering and manipulation tasks, including interpreting and executing JavaScript code, which would otherwise be against App Store policies.

Opera’s announcement that it has submitted the browser to Apple for approval on March 23 was, unsurprisingly, met with a fair amount of skepticism; in a bit of App Store mockery, the company even set up a web page to keep track of the amount of time during which the app had been in the approval process. The final tally: a little less than three weeks.

A free download, Opera Mini works on all iPhone OS devices running version 2.2.1 of the operating system or higher.

Resource:

http://www.macworld.com/article/150569/2010/04/opera_mini.html

Did you know that you will soon get to load your mobile phone with an app (short for an application) that can kill mosquitoes?!! This particular mobile phone module will use light and sound generated at a specific frequency to repel mosquitoes.

Indeed, mobile apps today can take on just about any role, or even channel a recital for that matter. Take Shafeeq Khan, for instance. This 29-year-old mobile repair shop owner in Uttar Pradesh has close to 30,000 followers who listen to his shayari over a mobile app called RockeTalk in India, Bangladesh and Pakistan the US and UK.

Besides these two examples, there are thousands of more utility-based apps to be purchased — a combination of products and services that enhance personalised experience on mobile phones. Most utility or productivity apps, offer a blend of technologies with functional benefits that cater to various social or professional requirements. With over 500 million mobile subscribers, growing by approximately 10 million per month, mobile networks in India have undeniably become the country’s largest distribution platform for delivering information and services to the masses through innovative applications.

It sure explains how Rajiv Kumar, CEO and founder of RockeTalk, managed to get a subscriber-base of 1.5 million users for his mobile app, which runs on close to 550 models of mobile phones, mostly low-end ones (priced at about Rs 4,000). RockeTalk is a free mobile phone app that enables users to create text, voice, photo and video messages, and share them. It also enables users to join communities and chat with individuals and groups over GPRS (mobile internet). “Next step is to get the app on Apple’s iPhone and introduce it to 3G markets in the West. “In India, too, 3G will accelerate growth since it will enable real-time networking,” says Kumar. With no advertising budgets, RockeTalk was introduced to users by bundling it on LG and Samsung handsets and through tie-ups with operators like Idea and Airtel.

Innovation: Name of the game

Mobile device makers like Micromax believe a mosquito repelling app on its low-cost handsets would do well with consumers. Rohit Sharma, COO of Micromax, draws on Nokia’s torch-phone that became vastly popular among the masses, “If a torch-phone can work, then a mosquito-repelling phone can be a hit, too.”

Media, pharmaceutical, retail and even governments are asking app developers to create mobile apps. App developers like 2ergo, which have created iPhone apps for the UK-based newspaper The Guardian, have seen their apps being downloaded 70,000 times in just four weeks. Ramesh Krishnan, COO of 2ergo, explains how a pharmaceutical company approached the developer for an app that could prescribe a healthy diet to individual users to maintain the right body mass index (BMI). “We are developing this app for devices based on various mobile operating systems and it will be offered by the pharma company as an advisory app to healthy living,” adds Krishnan.

The company is also keen on developing a voice-based app, along with state governments and local governing institutions that will enable users to request a birth certificate, marriage licence or register real estate with just a click on their mobile phones. “This app needs extensive government support. We have received encouraging feedback from government bodies. We strongly believe that e-governance can take a new leap with mobile apps,” says Krishnan.

Companies call in

Krishnan’s confidence is shared by Infosys. The software major has forayed into developing mobile applications and is working with a large retail partner to launch an app that would manage your grocery list. Subhash Dhar, senior vice-president and head (communications, media and entertainment business) Infosys, explains: “Infosys is keenly following the mobile app economy and is working with partners on various productivity and utility- based apps.” The company is also developing apps that will allow users to book, rent and even schedule taxi pick-ups (GPS-controlled vehicles) from any part of the country.

With Nokia continuing to command 60 per cent of the handset market, the company is making sure that its users carry the ‘smartest’ phones. Soon, Nokia mobile phones will come with ‘Nokia Bots’, a collection of add-ons that autonomously learn a user’s personal preferences and improve experience with customised features and tricks. These add-ons observe how the phone is being used and automatically configure and activate themselves. So, for instance, if you are in a meeting, your phone can automatically set itself to silent mode or prompt you to activate the same.

With user spending an average seven minutes on apps on every usage, Jasmeet Gandhi, head (services marketing), Nokia, reckons the company needs to have apps that will deliver services within the stipulated time. “We are also hopeful of engaging our rural customers with transaction-based apps and services that work on the SMS platform.” For its urban consumer, Nokia hopes to put the mobile phone’s camera to good use. “We are experimenting with apps that will allow users to capture images, upload them directly and even search details of the captured visual images,” he explains.

‘Walmart of mobile apps’

CanvasM, the joint venture between Tech Mahindra and Motorola, is yet another company purely focusing on utility applications. The company has close to 6,000 applications still under wraps. Jagdish Mitra, CEO of CanvasM, is confident about apps meant for commercial transactions and mobile banking. Mitra’s aim is to be the “Walmart of mobile applications”. The company is also working on a project for a retail giant to deliver barcode-based discount coupons. “The idea is that the customer will just have to put their mobile’s screen in front of the scanner and the barcode will be read for earning discounts,” explains Mitra. Industry research suggests that mobile coupons can increase footfalls by almost 17 per cent.

Operators like Virgin Mobile, too, have caught on. Beginning with apps like Hatke Learning, Virgin Mobile provides insights into various alternative career options. Another app, called Hatke Naukri, developed with Naukri.com, informs users about openings.

Apps unbound

There are hundreds of utilities out there on app stores — some useful, some not. Here are a couple of our recommendations that we believe will give a bang for your buck:

Making mouse of an iPhone

For $1.99 (Rs 88), Air Mouse Pro (AMP) lets you convert your iPhone into a wireless mouse or trackpad. The app puts to use the phone’s built-in accelerometer to translate hand motions into mouse movements. AMP gives you two options to control your system. The first is via a touch-pad-style interface, where you drag your fingers around the screen in the same way you would on a notebook. The second mode is through the use of the accelerometer. The basic concept is that you press and hold the button in the middle of the mouse buttons and then tilt the phone in the direction you wish to move the mouse.

Do you have Wikitude?

Wikitude is a free, location-based Wikipedia app for mobile phones based on the Google Android platform. Aimed at tourists, this app superimposes information about points of interest on either a Google map or through the mobile camera’s viewfinder. The app calls this ‘augmented reality’, and it’s a pretty cool effect. If you’re looking for more information on where you’re located and the surrounding area, this app is perfect.

Readymade emails

If you want to cut short the time taken for emailing people you stay in touch with a lot, go to the Apple’s App Store and download the $0.99 (Rs 44) Mail Quick app. This allows a user to, with one or two clicks, open an e-mail template already addressed to a person on a favourites, list. Users can select a person they email often and, by clicking on the app icon, a mail already addressed to that person will open. They can also enter multiple addresses and have preset subject lines.

Location-based friendships

Affle, better known as creators of SMS 2.0, plan to have a location-sharing and -tracking service (for the Symbian platform) that lets members know where their friends are and share photos or notes about locations with others in an area. Members can post photos or comments about their location or activities and discover new people who use this niche app, ranging from within a few feet to an entire region. Affle has not indicated the app’s price.

Compile your own dictionary

Nokia is testing a new app for its mobile device, called the custom dictionary. This app can store user-defined words that are used frequently while typing. The words are then used in predictive text input. While price is undecided, the app will allow users to add and delete words from the dictionary, and even scan text files to add them to a text library. Other features include ability to transfer the dictionary to other devices.

Resource:

http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/ringing-in-an-appday/391576/

We also have the first impressions of the lovely iPad and, for the most part, we like it. And the apps. And the accessories. It’s a win.

But it’s not all Apple news. Research In Motion finally released an official Twitter client for BlackBerrys. It’s an open beta test, and it seems pretty solid so far, though it could use a few more features.

On the green-tech front, we mentioned a new power strip concept from Fujitsu that keeps a log of your power usage on a PC so you can see what’s using energy, even when you’re not home.

Linux on the PS3 is hot again, as iPhone hacker GeoHot demoed a hacked PS3 running Linux. The latest PS3 firmware disallows this, but GeoHot’s hack re-enables it. No word yet on when a userland hack will be available

Resource:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-20002196-1.html

The company, which came into the iPhone market last December promising to bring a bit of “Tesco value” to the must-have phone, said it had also cut the cost of the more advanced 3GS handset.

The move is the latest in a series of small price cuts by network providers which mean slowly but surely the cost of buying and running an iPhone has been coming down to more affordable levels.

At Tesco, the cost of an 8GB 3G iPhone now starts at £100. The 16GB 3GS handset, which is faster and comes with longer lasting batteries, costs £200, while the 32GB 3GS model is retailing at £275.

For each deal customers have to sign a 12-month contract at a cost of £35 a month. The price includes unlimited texts, data and Wi-Fi, as well as 750 voice minutes a month.

Anyone willing to pay £45 a month over 24 months can get a 16GB 3GS handset for free.

When Apple launched the iPhone in the UK three years ago, buyers had to pay £269 upfront and sign an 18-month contract costing at least £35 a month. O2 had sole rights to sell it in the UK until last year.

But in the face of a growing number of similar smart phones which are significantly cheaper than the iPhone, Apple has relaxed its pricing and sales controls – a little.

Orange, Vodafone and Tesco now also sell the phones, and in recent months the prices have started to fall.

Tesco was the first to introduce 12-month contracts last December. Until then buyers either had to sign up for an 18-month contract or pay the full price for the phone and opt for a pay-as-you-go plan.

“Tesco Mobile’s iPhone tariffs have been very popular,” said Lance Batchelor, chief executive officer of Tesco Telecoms and Tesco Mobile. “We’ve now made them even better with a lower upfront cost for an iPhone and a new 12-month contract.”

The supermarket giant has declined to say how many Apple handsets it has sold in the past four months but said buyers had been attracted to its shorter 12-month contracts. It is also hoping to bring out a range of sim-only deals for iPhone users who are out of contract.

Rival operator O2 is selling the basic iPhone for £59 but requires buyers to agree to an 18-month, £35-a-month contract, and buyers get far fewer calls included in the package.

The price cuts may be influenced by the fact that the fourth generation iPhone is rumoured to be imminent and could be in the shops in as little as three months.

Resource:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2010/apr/12/tesco-mobile-iphone-tariff

The software platform also paves the way for the next iPhone which should be launched by the end of June 2010 during Apple’s annual Worldwide Developer Conference and coincides with the official “summer” availability of the iPhone OS 4.

The single most important feature that Steve Jobs showed yesterday was the introduction of multitasking, something that almost all competing platforms have had for quite some time already.

Steve Jobs acknowledged this fact but also promised that while they weren’t the first to the party, they would still be the best at it. Unfortunately because of hardware demands, only the latest iPod Touch and iPhone GS smartphones will be able to offer multitasking capabilities.

Apple also showed that it is aiming to become a massive mobile player with the introduction of mobile advertising platform iAd, which came out of the acquisition of Quattro Wireless earlier this year

Also of interest to the mobile gaming industry is the Apple Game Centre which some have compared to Sony’s own Playstation Network or Microsoft Xbox popular online gaming platform.

To help develop new products, 1500 brand new application programming interfaces (APIs) will be released as well as a brand new software development kit for Apple coders.

The analysis (or dissection) of the iPhone OS 4.0 has only just begun and we will be probing the platform and the numerous announcements that Steve Jobs has done during what has been a rather long intervention.

Resource:

http://www.itproportal.com/portal/news/article/2010/4/9/apple-finally-launches-iphone-os-40/

According to the iPhone OS 4 SDK Developer Program License Agreement released by the company, developers will have to create applications using Objective-C, C, C++, or JavaScript as executed by the iPhone OS WebKit engine because applications which will be created using an intermediary translation or compatibility layer or tool will not be approved by the company.

With this not-so-surprising move, Steve Jobs, who has been actively campaigning against Adobe Flash, has ensured the exclusion of Adobe and its software from everything even remotely related to Apple, starting with the iPad and its blockbuster iPhone smartphone device.

The new iPhone OS 4.0 SDK licensing agreement will prohibit the use of Adobe’s upcoming Flash-to-iPhone compiler which has been touted as one of USPs of Flash CS5 which will be launched on April 12th.

When contacted, an Adobe spokesperson said in statement that “We are aware of the new SDK language and are looking into it.” while Apple refrained from making any comments regarding the new app development rules.

That was something unexpected and could have some devastating consequences for small developers. Apple seems to have changed its strategy from being neutral (towards the likes of Adobe or Google) and going outright on the offensive.

Resource:

http://www.itproportal.com/portal/news/article/2010/4/10/apple-iphone-os4-introduces-legal-adobe-flash-block/

In that earlier blog, I listed some of the reasons buyers gave for lining up to purchase the iPad on April 3, the first day of sales. The reasons and reader responses to those reasons are worth a second look since the iPad, like the iPhone, is one of those products that could alter the computing landscape permanently.

How exactly this will play out is of course still unclear. One reader, however, argued that the iPad will create a more pronounced “schism” between those who “create a lot of content”–i.e., people who use more powerful Macs and PCs–and “all the rest”–the latter defined as people who use small, highly-mobile computers like the iPad and Netbook for media consumption and light productivity.

Comments were varied, running the gamut from readers who thought the device was redundant and/or impractical to those who thought it to be a worthy purchase.

Here’s a sampling, pro and con:

• Hard to justify: “I love Apple products….However I can’t justify purchasing this device…A novelty product.”
• Steamroller: “Apple haters, technical scowlers, squinters, and grouches–eat your hearts out because the IPad is going to take over the world.”
• Productivity versus consumption: “My home computer will suffice for the number crunching, code compiling and media encoding needs. The iPad will be my encyclopedia, mailbox, newspaper, library, music jukebox, video player for the home and on the go.”
• Regression: “People are paying for something that does less than what we’ve been doing before…Because we want to be able to do two things at once (multitasking)…that makes us nerds?”
• Better than a Kindle: “Much as I hate to admit it, I’m likely to be an early adopter as soon as the 3G arrives…I have to read & review a lot of academic papers on the go. Not a great use for a laptop, iPhone is too small, notetaking on the Kindle (and PDF handling) way too limited.”
• Useless: “The more i read about the iPad, the more it angers me…its SO useless. a 500 dollar + device, for really really bad reasons. High end netbooks, that can do multitudes more, are cheaper. I can’t wait till more people realize how bad this device is, and it plummets.”
• Apple allure: “One glaringly obvious reason is missing from this list. ‘Because it’s from apple.’ Like apple, hate it, or anything in between, you still have to recognize…brand loyalists who would buy any product Steve Jobs waved in front of their faces because it was the latest greatest thing.”

Resource:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13924_3-20002213-64.html

One of the features missing from the iPhone and related devices has been a front-facing camera to allow video calls or video chat.

While video calling is not as popular as some telcos might like, video chat and video conferencing is used quite widely. The difference largely comes down to cost: video calling is a premium service (eg, Telstra charges 55c per 30 seconds compared with 37c for voice), while video chat comes out of the user’s Internet quota for the month.

9to5mac has noted the presence of various resources in the iPhone SDK 4.0 that signal the addition of video chat or conferencing.

In particular, the Conference framework includes a number of strings such as “Creating video conference call” and “Finalizing video conference call”.

Video chat/conferencing is pretty pointless on a handheld device that lacks a front-facing camera, so it is a reasonable assumption that this year’s iPhone and iPod touch – plus the next revision of the iPad – will have front-facing cameras.

9to5mac speculates that video chat could be used as part of Game Center, Apple’s forthcoming social gaming network.

There’s also the question of when the relevant APIs will be opened to third party developers. It is quite possible that they will be initially available only to Apple software such as iChat.

Resource:

http://www.itwire.com/your-it-news/mobility/38234-iphone-sdk-40-suggests-new-cameras-for-iphone-ipod-touch-ipad

For ABC fans it sounds like a nightmare, and it’s great news for the ABC itself, since its app will remain ad-free. But in fact it’s great news all round: it means high-quality commercial publishing may yet live, not die under the benign, democratic, jackboot of Google.

The true genius of the iPhone, as well as any potential the iPad might have to change the world of publishing, lies in the invention of the application – something that didn’t really become clear until well after the iPhone was released in 2007 and the new app development industry really started hitting its straps.

It’s also a demonstration of the enduring power of great distribution to foster great content. We are learning that distribution is king (not content) but content is the monarch’s prime minister.

Apple created a seamless distribution system with the iPhone and the app store and now 185,000 apps have been created and 4 billion have been downloaded.

I’m now used to reading books on the iPhone. One app has 23,000 free books that are out of copyright that can be quickly downloaded and easily read, while another, Kobo, sells new releases.

So I’m reading books and newspapers, watching TV, playing Scrabble, doing my banking, running my calendar, looking for restaurants, checking the footy scores all through apps on my iPhone. The iPhone is becoming more and more essential every day, thanks to the apps.

The price range of the apps is huge – from zero to $70 (that I know of, for a GPS navigation system) – and some apps are asking for a monthly subscription (not very successfully I suspect).

In a couple of months Apple will launch a series of changes to the iPhone system that will take this system to the next stage, including embedded advertising.

When Apple’s new operating system for the iPhone, OS4, is released soon, it will contain what Apple calls iAd – an advertising platform that will allow app developers to put ads into their applications.

The most popular apps are free, or very cheap, which means no-one is making much money. But it turns it was a kind of Trojan horse strategy – either deliberate or not.

As Apple chief Steve Jobs said when he announced iAd a week ago: “The average iPhone user spends around 30 minutes a day using apps. Now, if we said we wanted to put an ad up every three minutes, that would be 10 ads per device per day. We’re going to soon have 100 million devices [running the iPhone OS]. That’s a billion ad opportunities per day in the iPhone and iPod touch community.”

Publishers thought the internet would be a Trojan horse as well – that they would give the content away for a while and then when everyone was hooked, start charging. But that didn’t work because, as I wrote on Friday in Business Spectator, content is not king, as they thought.

Presumably iAd will work on Apple’s new tablet machines as well, so publishers will be able to replicate and then enhance their traditional business model – charging for the content and putting advertising with it – on two devices, one large and one small.

Consumers will take their pick: one device that includes a phone and goes in your pocket, but has a small screen, or carrying an extra device with a big screen that’s easier to read. Maybe the iPad will eventually be a phone as well, so you just need that.

iAd is a direct assault on Google, or rather it completes the assault that began with the invention of the iPhone and continues with the iPad. Apps are simply a better and more reliable way to get content than the internet browsers on which Google relies.

More importantly, it turned out to be very difficult for a content vendor to make a living selling material of any value in a browser on the internet, distributed by Google.

Rupert Murdoch complains that Google “steals” the content, which is silly, but the effect is the same: content is being distributed for free.

The app store is now becoming much more analogous to the print distribution system that Murdoch grew up with, except for one thing: the barrier to entry into the system is very low, which means prices will be lower.

But at least they won’t have to be zero, and the publishing market will be able to find a new equilibrium that will support decent content.

Apple is taking a big risk, however, in making it a closed system. The new OS4 tightens controls so application developers can use no third party tools and software – mainly designed to prevent them using Adobe’s Flash system.

Jobs is once again betting that his fully integrated product design will prevail against an open platform.

It’s a repeat of the battle that Apple and Microsoft waged in the 1980s, which Microsoft won. This time Google’s Android smart phone operating system and Adobe’s Flash are taking the role of Microsoft.

Jobs is betting that, this time, his devices, the apps and the app store are a sufficiently unique distribution system to give Apple a decisive advantage. With iAd as well, he could be right.

The battle between Google and Adobe’s open system and Apple’s closed one will be a king War of the Worlds. At this stage Apple has the advantage, but that’s how it seemed earlier in the fight between it and Microsoft, until the cheap manufacturers of Asia drove down the prices of clone PCs.

This time manufacturing cost is not an issue – it’s all about distribution of content. And Google doesn’t have iTunes or an app store that channels money to those who make the content.

Resource:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/04/12/2869846.htm

Rumors are coming fast and furious because MacBook Pros are due to be updated with new Intel silicon–that is, new mobile Core i5 and/or Core i7 processors. PC makers like Hewlett-Packard, Toshiba, Dell, and Sony have already moved en masse to the Intel chips, which came out in January.

This time the speculation seems more legit because blogs are citing new MacBook part numbers that Macrumors says it has independently confirmed as real. Others also seem to be taking the new data seriously.

Though timing is not certain, the emergence of part numbers may indicate the update will happen sooner rather than later.

9to5Mac speculates that the updates are 15- and 17-inch MacBook Pros.

And that’s not all. Best Buy is showing no stock for certain MacBook Pro 15.4-inch models, both online and in-store at many locations. Whether this is indicative of an imminent MacBook update is not clear, however.

Resource:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13924_3-20002216-64.html

Apple and Google Android will grab 75 percent of the tablet market through 2010, as the iPad’s immediate success has proven the consumer market is hungry for tablet computers, according to IMS Research.

IMS projects Apple will capture 51 percent of a tablet market that could be worth $3.6 billion through 2010, which leaves plenty of opportunity for others.

IMS analyst Anna Hunt said she expects Android to follow Apple with 24 percent of the market, with 10 percent going to Windows 7 and the remaining 15 percent going to some proprietary and Linux-based platforms for the home.

HP’s Slate, for example, will run Windows Home 7 Premium Edition. Nokia is reportedly building a Windows 7-based device.

For developers who want more choice and flexibility, Android stands to be the perfect alternative to iPad and Windows 7, with a handful of Android machines coming to the fore, some of which are already out and well known. The Android-based Archos 5 Internet Tablet is a strong seller in Europe.

Dell’s Android 2.0-based Mini 5 tablet is expected in the U.S. this year, while several Android models will feature Nvidia’s delayed Tegra chipset, including the Adam from Notion Ink. ViewSonic offers the VTablet 101.

Currently, iPad is king. The iPad went on sale April 3 and by April 8 Apple CEO Steve Jobs said the company had sold more than 450,000 units.

While Android is expected to only command half the tablet market iPad will in 2010, Android tablet sales will be buoyed by a strong developer ecosystem and competitively priced content and services.

Hunt noted that many of the applications designed for the iPad platform are actually more expensive than apps for Apple’s iPhone OS platform. This presents an opportunity for suppliers that can offer a tablet that is more price competitive for the hardware and the content.

“Suppliers are realizing the importance of content and service and many are turning to the Android ecosystem to be able to offer the complete user experience and compete with Apple’s offering,” Hunt said.

Moreover, while the iPad starting price is $499 for the 16GB WiFi version, expect many of the Android machines to be cheaper, as low as $200, Hunt said.

“What we’ll see this year is a lot of these tablets in a smaller form factor that will not try to emulate the typical notebook computer experience, but have more of a smaller personal media player experience,” Hunt told eWEEK. “We’ll see those run on Android instead of Windows 7, for example.”

Such devices may not run spreadsheet or word processing software, but expect users to access Facebook, Twitter, online games and other Web apps from such machines. “Consumers will love them because they offer quick access to the Internet,” she said.

iPad’s early success will trickle down to the emerging home tablet sector, where special proprietary tablets are being integrated into the home network provided by residents’ broadband provider.

Sagem in France is already shipping tablets into homes deployed by ISPs that serve as a “control palette” or as another screen for IPTV or VOD. ICD makes the Vega tablet for T-Mobile in the U.K. and the Ultra tablet for Verizon Wireless in the U.S.

In the United States, AT&T is launching a service that employs OpenPeak’s Linux-based OpenTablet 7 tablet sometime this year.

“The hype that the iPad is getting is really helping a lot of the other devices, including the home devices,” Hunt said, adding that in 2012, over half of the tablets sold each year will be distributed via mobile and fixed carriers.

Resource:

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Mobile-and-Wireless/Apple-iPad-Google-Android-to-Grab-75-of-Tablet-Market-in-2010-819756/

Dubai: 3G is a synonym with the “third generation” of mobile telephony, officially named International Mobile Telecommunications-2000 (IMT-2000).

It comprises a couple of standards for mobile tele-communications fulfilling specifications by the International Telecommunication Union, which includes UMTS, and CDMA2000 as well as other wireless standards such as DECT and WiFi.

Services include wide-area wireless voice tele-phone, video calls and wireless data, all in a mobile environment.

Compared to 2G and 2.5G services, 3G allows simultaneous use of speech and data services and higher data rates (at least 200 kbit per second peak bit rate to fulfil IMT-2000 specification). Today’s 3G systems can offer practice of up to 14.0 Mbit per second on the downlink and 5.8 Mbit per second on the uplink.

There is a broad range of applications for 3G, which makes investment into a licence very attractive to telecom operators due to high yields on the service. Some of the applications are:

• Mobile TV: A TV channel can be watched on a 3G mobile phone or PDA (personal digital assitant)
• Video on demand: Movies are sent to the subscriber’s phone.
• Video conferencing: Subscribers can see as well as talk to each other.
• Tele-medicine: A medical provider monitors or provides advice to the potentially isolated subscriber.
• Location-based services: A provider sends localised weather or traffic conditions to the phone, or the phone allows the subscriber to find nearby businesses or friends.

Requirements

To use 3G services, a compatible device is necessary. A phone that has 3G functionality has nothing to do with the number of cameras or the memory it has. The device is connected to the 3G network through its SIM card or its 3G data card, which are both generally provided by the telecom network operator. Through that, customers get connected to the internet whenever they are within a 3G network.

If they are not in one, the device switches automatically to 2G or 2.5G services without interruption, but with slower data services.

The service must be subscribed to, and many providers charge flat rates for mobile data usage. However, customers have to be careful when using 3G data abroad when they leave their home network, as costs for data transfer can dramatically rise.

Mobile infrastructure providers are currently working on a new technology called 4G or IMT Advanced. 4G refers to all IP packet switched networks, mobile ultra-broadband at gigabit speed access and multi-carrier transmission.

A 4G system is expected to provide a comprehensive and secure all-IP based solution.

Resource:

http://gulfnews.com/business/telecoms/next-generation-of-mobile-telephony-1.610154

The two companies worked together to develop the free application, according to Kevin Thau, from Twitter’s mobile products and partnerships team.

“When you talk about messaging and mobile phones, BlackBerry immediately comes to mind and it was no surprise to us that it has become one of the most popular mobile platforms for Twitter around the world,” Thau wrote in an official blog post.

The application features real-time push of Twitter direct messages, browser integration for Web links in “tweets,” an interface whose look-and-feel can be customized, recognition of Twitter @usernames linked to the users’ profiles and a search engine.

The interface is available in English, French, Italian, Spanish, German and Brazilian Portuguese.

Social media companies like Twitter and Facebook are busy trying to strengthen mobile versions of their sites and mobile applications, as more and more people become comfortable with posting status updates, checking friends’ profiles and publishing photos and videos from their smartphones.

Resource:

http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/193909/twitter_app_for_blackberry_released.html

The iPad launched to great fanfare over the weekend, complete with giddy sales forecasts from industry researchers and Wall Street investment banks.

By Thursday, the iPad had already reached sales of 450,000 units, confirmed Apple CEO Steve Jobs at a news conference, handily beating analysts’ first week sales forecasts of between 200,000 to 400,000 units.

Excitement over the new device is one reason stock market watchers say technology stocks have outperformed the broader market so far this week.

The technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index has risen 1.42 percent to end regular trade Thursday at 2436.81, compared to 2402.58 ahead of the holiday weekend and launch of the iPad.

The broader Dow Jones Industrial Average ended Thursday at 10,927.07, exactly the same as last Thursday. It flirted with 11,000 early this week for the first time in over a year and a half, but failed to retake that level due to renewed worries over Greek debt. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index finished Thursday at 1186.43, up 0.7 percent since last week.

The renewed interest in Apple has pushed its shares up to US$239.95. It is not a new high for the year, but a level at which the company’s market capitalization exceeds that of a number of blue chip companies.

Apple’s market capitalization — its value based on its share price times all outstanding shares — was $217.59 billion as of the end of trade on Thursday, compared to $208.17 billion for Wal-Mart Stores and $198.09 billion for General Electric. Among technology companies, Apple is above Google’s $198.09 billion, but below Microsoft’s $262.32 billion. Oil company Exxon Mobile remains the biggest company in America based on market capitalization, at $320.39 billion.

Some analysts see Apple’s rise as a result of strong research and development, particularly in products such as the iPad and iPhone.

Apple has spent a total of $3.94 billion on R&D over its past four fiscal years, the last of which ended Sep. 26, 2009, when its sales hit $36.54 billion. That figure is up 89 percent from $19.32 billion from its fiscal 2006, according to figures from Apple’s annual reports filed to the Securities and Exchange Commission. Over a similar time period, Microsoft has spent $30.88 billion on R&D to increase its sales 32 percent to $58.44 billion, according to figures in annual reports available on its Web site. Microsoft’s fiscal year ends on June 30 each year.

Expectations for Apple remain high, particularly for iPad sales through the rest of this year.

Market researcher iSuppli expects iPad sales to reach 7.1 million units this year due to an attractive design and compelling applications, while some investment banks forecast sales as high as 10 million.

Semico Research believes the iPad means the era of the tablet PC is finally here, after failed attempts in the past such as Apple’s Newton. Internet access, social networking and e-books have given tablet devices a new purpose, the market researcher said in a recent report.

Dozens of companies are planning rival tablet devices this year. Hewlett-Packard has already announced the Slate, while Asustek Computer is planning the Eee Pad. Over 50 tablet devices are expected to launch this year.

Semico believes most sales forecasts for the iPad are too high and predicts sales of the devices will likely reach about 1.8 million units this year. “Higher volumes will follow,” the researcher said, adding that, “this time around, tablet PCs will succeed.”

Resource:

http://www.businessweek.com/idg/2010-04-09/wall-street-beat-ipad-spurs-technology-shares-forward.html

The world’s largest software company is trying a new tack in the hotly contested arena with its long-awaited “Project Pink” devices.

Unlike Apple’s popular device or Research in Motion’s BlackBerry, they are aiming at hyperactive teenagers who want multiple instant messaging accounts, e-mail, games, music and Facebook in a cool-looking package.

The phones won’t be powered by Microsoft’s upcoming Windows Phone 7 software, and will be priced much lower than the iPhone or Google Inc’s Nexus One.

But investors will be watching closely as Microsoft, which has ceded ground in past years in handheld devices, attempts to reassert itself in a small but significant way.

The Microsoft-branded phones — made by Japan’s Sharp and sold by Verizon Wireless — are the souped-up descendants of the Sidekick, originally made by hip phone developers Danger, which Microsoft bought two years ago.

With distinctive slide-out keyboards and swiveling screens, Danger’s phones are popular with a young urban crowd that has more in common with Microsoft’s Xbox gaming audience than its mainstream business-oriented software.

“This is a trial for Microsoft,” said Toan Tran, an analyst at Morningstar. “If this goes well or better than they expect, they may be more willing to dip their toe in the water and build a full-fledged phone.”

AGE OF EXPERIMENTATION

Apple’s minutely designed iPhone showed the weakness in Microsoft’s approach of creating mobile software and letting handset makers like HTC, Samsung and Motorola control the rest.

Among the array of Windows-powered phones, few approach Apple’s smooth user experience, which has attracted tens of millions of customers and redefined the smartphone category.

Microsoft admitted as much when as it launched its new Windows phone software in February, saying it was working more closely with phone makers to make sure the resulting products hit the mark. The arrival of the first of the new phones this autumn will determine their success.

In the meantime, Monday’s “Project Pink” phones — which will have a new name at launch — appear to be an experiment in building its own-brand phone, if only for a limited market, reducing the chances of upsetting Microsoft’s handset partners.

“It’s the great age of experimentation in mobile devices,” said Kim Caughey, senior analyst at Fort Pitt Capital Group. “These companies are doing experiments to figure out how big all these sub-demographics are.”

Microsoft has a good chance of succeeding, said Caughey, citing sales of Xbox sales to a similar crowd.

LOOSE FOOTHOLD

But the scale of the experiment is small. No more than 30 million social networking/messaging phones were sold in the United States last year, according to Wall Street analysts. In total, 1.1 billion mobile phones were sold worldwide in 2009.

Making an impact in a small but important entry level market would be a significant win for Microsoft, which risks losing a generation of young users to Apple and Google.

“This is a critical product for Microsoft, they have been doing very badly in the smartphone market,” said Jack Gold, who heads technology research and consulting firm J. Gold Associates. “They basically have to do something to get back into the market space.”

The latest figures from comScore show that Microsoft lost 4 percentage points of U.S. smartphone market share in the last three months, leaving it with 15 percent, behind Research in Motion and Apple. If current trends continue, Microsoft will be pushed into fourth place this summer by fast-growing Google.

“The last two years, we have really seen nothing out of Microsoft around handheld devices that connect. That’s an eternity in this particular space,” said Professor N. Venkat Venkatraman, chairman of the Information Systems Department at Boston University’s School of Management.

Microsoft missed early opportunities to integrate the Xbox, Zune music player and social networking functions into a handheld format, said Venkatraman. Instead, the company is now offering a “patchwork of ideas from an over-bureaucracy.”

Monday’s phones are not an attempt to revolutionize mobile computing, like Apple’s iPad, but they will be a vital signpost showing Microsoft’s approach to innovation, and may give hints on the likely success of Windows 7 phones later this year.

“This is their last chance,” said Gold. “Microsoft’s got a lot of money, they can stay in a market forever if they choose. But if they don’t get this right over the next six to 12 months, they’re gone.”

Copyright 2010 Reuters News Service. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Resource:

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=10335467

Available exclusively on the Telecom network, the GW620 is packed with features which function on Google’s Android’s Open Operating System.

LG Mobile New Zealand Business Manager, Adam Gordon believes the release of the GW620 shows LG Mobile’s commitment to delivering products to New Zealand consumers hungry for the best, most up to date technology on offer.

“This launch of the GW620 is a fantastic development for LG Mobile in New Zealand, with the Android operating system providing an exciting new platform for mobile handsets.

“Through the GW620, LG is answering the consumer’s call to have handsets that deliver social networking capabilities wherever they might be. The built in SNS Manager allows users to keep in touch with friends, checking statuses, leaving comments and updating their own social networking sites remotely. The GW620 is packed with features and once again, LG is delivering a stylish handset designed for fast paced modern lifestyles,” said Gordon.

The LG GW620’s SNS Manager integrates a user’s social networking needs in one convenient platform, perfect for managing multiple accounts while receiving real-time updates from friends.

Telecom’s Head of Device Management, Graham Gordon says, “We are excited about the launch of the Android operating system on our XT Mobile Network and the world of possibilities it opens up to our customers.”

“The LG GW620 is a great starting point that will captivate the avid mobile social networker and we look forward to more exciting phones to be released on this platform in coming months,” he says.

The LG GW620 features a 3.0” full colour touch screen, which slides away to reveal a convenient, finger-friendly, five line QWERTY keyboard, perfect for typing messages at maximum speed.

The LG GW620 delivers a full multimedia experience, combining the latest in multi-entertainment features and providing genuine create-and-share capabilities. Featuring an autofocus 5.0MP camera and video recorder with advanced video editing tools, users can, shoot, capture and edit their experiences, sharing them instantly with the world at the touch of a button.

Unique to the GW620 is LG’s new Auto Face -Tagging and Face-To-Action technology. By simply tagging a friend’s face in a photo, one can easily execute a range of remote functions such as uploading photos to a favorite site or connecting through SMS, MMS or voice by simply touching the face on the display.

The GW620 allows users to organise their lives with ease through Android‘s Google sync application, synchronising the handset with the latest updates from Google Mail Contacts and Calendar.

The Android operating system also allows users to download from a range of fun, helpful and entertaining applications, delivering unlimited new dimensions of functionality to their handset.

Connecting with the world through the GW620 has never been so easy, with MMS, video MMS and full push e-mail sitting alongside the easy to use SMS applications.

The LG GW620 is available exclusively on the Telecom XT network from 22 April with a RRP $699

Resource:

http://www.geekzone.co.nz/content.asp?contentid=8720

However, they also warned that making ads for iAd would be expensive and it was likely to take some time for Apple to demonstrate it could build a big enough market to make it worthwhile.

Announcing Apple’s first move into advertising on Thursday, Steve Jobs, the company’s chief executive, promised a new generation of mobile adverts that would be far more engaging than current formats, which he said “suck”.

Thanks to his company’s control of the operating system that underpins the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, Apple’s network would be able to serve up more creative forms of advertising to run inside the “apps” users download onto these devices, he said.

Advertising inside apps, although still small, has become the hottest corner of the mobile advertising business, prompting a race between Google and Apple.

While Google beat Apple to a deal to buy mobile network AdMob, Apple was now poised to leapfrog Google by enabling more effective “in-app” ads, according to agencies and developers. These would let advertisers do things like run video without forcing them first to leave an app to visit a different website.

“From a developer point of view it’s fantastic,” said Magnus Jern, chief executive of Golden Gekko, a mobile applications developer. “It has lots of advantages because users don’t need to leave the app and there would be higher CPM [ad rates].”

“It’s a major leap forward from the majority of ‘in-app’ iPhone advertising formats that have existed to date, which were just simple slabs of text with a logo and a call to action,” said Nigel Morris, chief executive of Aegis Media North America.

The new ad formats could also create big opportunities for e-commerce groups, as consumers would be able to buy things from inside an app, said Julie Ask, an analyst at Forrester.

Advertisers said iAd had the potential to be the first advertising network to take full advantage of new touch-screen smartphones.

“We are excited about them getting mobile advertising right because nobody has done that so far,” said Mark Cridge, chief executive of Glue London, a digital agency owned by Aegis.

“We are starting to see the whole idea of [touch]screen-based smartphones take root here,” said Jonathan Nelson, head of Omnicom Digital.

Yet, observers warned there could be drawbacks.

Calling the idea a “make or break”, Mr Jern said: “From an advertiser’s point of view, they will be worried about additional ad formats and [iAd] not having huge volume or reach initially.”

Eden Zoller, a principal analyst at Ovum, said producing the ads would be costly and there was a danger they could be intrusive.

Resource:

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/28c92a5a-4437-11df-b327-00144feab49a.html

As signs mount that the Federal Trade Commission will block its $750 million acquisition of mobile ad company AdMob, Google is preparing for a legal challenge, a source close to the situation said.

“There is a high likelihood Google will litigate,” the source told The Post.

The FTC’s staff wants to challenge Google’s proposed deal the source said, and will soon present its findings to the five FTC commissioners, two of whom have been seated in the last several days.

“My guess is they will be conservative in their judgments,” and might be reluctant to overrule their staff, said Stroock & Stroock & Lavan antitrust lawyer Bruce Schneider, who is not working on this case.

The argument against Google buying AdMob is that it already dominates the online-search advertising market and should not be allowed to do the same in mobile advertising, which is part of the same overall market. Google argues that they are two separate markets.

Apple’s unveiling of a new mobile ad platform, the iAd, yesterday, may help Google’s case, because it shows there will be robust competition in mobile advertising.

If Google sues, a district judge would decide whether to issue a temporary injunction stopping the merger. Judges do occasionally rule against the FTC, like in 2007 when it let Whole Foods buy Wild Oats — though the FTC succeeded with an appeal and eventually reached a compromise with Whole Foods.

A Google spokesman declined to comment on whether it was preparing to litigate, saying only that “there is overwhelming evidence that mobile advertising will remain competitive after this deal closes.”

Resource:

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/google_stoked_to_fight_ftc_over_vmYimI695hdri5MjBbPm0L

Yet after spending a few days buying and using applications on the iPad, I’m skeptical that many people will be willing to shell out for more than a few $5 to $10 apps. There’s just too much content that the iPad can access for free on the Web, and plenty of great apps in Apple’s own App Store that are cheap or free.

It’s possible people might be more inclined to pay for an app or a download from Apple’s iTunes store to access compelling videos. You’re mainly out of luck if you want to use the iPad’s Safari Web browser to watch free online videos, because many Web sites, such as Hulu, do that with Flash technology, which the iPad and iPhone don’t support.

But after shelling out at least $499 for an iPad, how much more will you really want to spend to fill the tablet with apps? I’m guessing that people fatigued by constant entreaties to pay for content on multiple devices will be more inclined to stick with what’s cheap and free.

The iPad itself is an amazing device. It’s comfortable in my hands, easy to use and beautifully designed. Right out of the box, it reminded me of other Apple ”firsts” that gave me a new way of interacting with electronics — the first Apple computer my family had in the early ’90s, the first iPod I bought in 2004.

When I turned it on for the first time, it practically looked naked with just a handful of included applications for doing things such as playing videos, listening to music and surfing the Web. I wanted to fill it up with apps, and fast.

Already it’s clear that many application makers are going to ask for more money for their iPad apps than for the ones they’ve been selling for the iPhone. (IPhone apps will work on the iPad but might not be optimized for the larger screen.) Of the 10 most-downloaded paid iPad apps, five of them are $10 apiece. Seven of them cost more than $4.

In comparison, only one of the top 10 paid apps for the iPhone costs more than $4. (It is MLB.com At Bat 2010, which at $15 is the same price on the iPhone and the iPad.)

To be sure, some expensive apps are cool. There’s an iPad version of Brushes ($10), a popular painting program for the iPhone. The iPad’s large, bright screen makes a great canvas, and I was impressed by the command I had using just a finger or two as my paintbrushes. The $10 Scrabble app is fun and includes a ”Party Play” feature that lets you take word play to the height of geekiness (and Apple mania) by using up to four iPhones as tile racks if they have a free Scrabble app to enable that. Bento ($5, the same price as on the iPhone) is an organizer program that helps you manage everything from contacts to recipes to work projects.

Even so, the most enjoyment I’ve been getting out of the iPad has come from things that are cheap or free.

For $3, Smule’s Magic Piano app kept me entranced for an embarrassing amount of time. It features a spiral-shaped piano keyboard that was fun to play (or, in my case, attempt to play). You can play duets with distant iPad users, which led to several cacophonous sessions with strangers, or listen to what people are playing around the world.

One of the best free apps, from Netflix, lets you stream movies and TV shows to the iPad. You need to have a Netflix account to use the application and it’s not that easy to navigate, but once you find what you want to watch, it streams well as long as you have a good Wi-Fi connection.

I also liked Voice Memos for iPad, a free voice recorder app. It was extremely simple to use and nicely fills a little void because the iPad doesn’t come with its own voice memo utility as the iPhone has.

And importantly, there are still lots of times when old-fashioned Web surfing beckons. The tablet’s super-crisp screen, 9.7 inches diagonally, makes the Internet look better, and it was a pleasure to read free blogs and news Web sites.

Many media companies that gave away content on the Web and on phones such as the iPhone, including The Associated Press, have built iPad apps that they hope can be a new way to make money. For now, though, many of these news apps are free. Ones from USA Today and The New York Times display the news more simply and more like a traditional newspaper than those newspapers’ Web sites do. Sometimes the Web offers a richer experience, though: You can watch videos posted on the front page of the Times’ Web site, for example, but I didn’t see any videos in the iPad app.

The browser also is the venue you’d use for checking and updating Facebook on an iPad; there isn’t yet a Facebook app for it and the one built for the iPhone was cumbersome to use on the larger device.

Whether you’re after entertainment, information or productivity, there are plenty of good ways to use the iPad that don’t require spending lots of money — and you probably won’t feel like you’re missing out.

Resource:

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/04/07/business/AP-US-TEC-Digital-Life-Tech-Test-iPad-Apps.html

Purelygadgets have confirmed to us that they have stocks of the three versions of the iPad currently on sale in the US. Prices range from £700 for the 16GB version to £870 for the 64GB version with the 32GB version for £786 including free next day delivery.

Simply Electronics are also stocking all three versions of the iPad for £540, £630 and £740 respectively with free delivery, prices that are more reasonable compared to Purelygadgets.

Apple has yet to confirm exactly when the iPad will be available in the UK although rumours point to the 24th of April, the only available “normal” weekend before the bank holiday one at the end of this month

Earlier this year, we guesstimated the price of the 16GB WiFi iPad to be around £385 in the UK, that’s a 25 percent premium over the US pricing.

However, things have changed for the worse and our current estimate would put the cheapest iPad at around £410 which is still more affordable than buying from Simply Electronics.

Alternatively, you could fly to any major US city with Iceland Express for around £250 and collect, amongst other things, your iPad from a certified Apple store for £329. Read our extensive coverage of the iPad here.

Resource:

http://www.itproportal.com/portal/news/article/2010/4/8/exclusive-apple-ipad-now-available-uk/

Thursday, the company added more missing pieces when it introduced the fourth generation of the iPhone operating system at its headquarters in Cupertino, Calif. After a wait of almost three years, we finally get multitasking–though not for everyone–and other sorely needed features like home screen folders and a unified e-mail in-box. The update is available for developers now with the general release for the iPhone and iPod Touch coming this summer and the iPad in the fall.

It doesn’t deliver quite the changes that we got from the iPhone 3.0 release last year (at least for now), but rest assured that OS 4.0 is a major update that checks off more boxes from our standing iPhone wish list. Though OS 4.0 is set to bring 100 new features, CEO Steve Jobs and Scott Forstall, senior vice president of iPhone software, focused on the seven biggest changes, or “tent poles,” during the course of Thursday’s event.

Multitasking

In our review of the iPhone 3GS, multitasking led our list of common cell phone features that were lacking. Granted, that list was shorter than it had been with previous iPhone versions, but multitasking remained a major omission in light of Android and the Palm Web OS.

Apple, however, has a special talent for making us forget such things by packaging an existing feature in a flashy new way. As Jobs said, Apple isn’t about being first, but rather about “being the best.” We’ll have to get our hands on the update before we fully agree, but Apple appears to have hit the mark. During the demo, Jobs showed how you’ll be able to tap the Home button twice to get a pop-up menu of running apps at the bottom of the display. As you switch back and forth, you’ll return to the exact point you left, even if you’re in the middle of a game. There’s no task manager of any kind and Jobs dismissed competitor devices that have one. As he put it, “If you see a task manager, they blew it.”

Though the pop-up menu only shows four apps at a time (you may be able to swipe through a longer list), you’ll be able to run at least 12 apps simultaneously. Jobs did not say if that number is a hard limit, but we’ll confirm that one exists when we get to play with the OS ourselves. Forstall insisted that multitasking would not affect performance because Apple distilled background processes into seven API services. They include audio from apps like Pandora Radio (yay!), VoIP (for Skype calls), push notifications, and task completion. Multitasking also will support local notifications and related security setting enhancements.

There is bad news with multitasking, though. The feature is compatible only with the iPhone 3GS and the third generation of the iPod Touch. Owners of other iPhone and iPod Touch models still get other OS 4.0 benefits, but you’ll need to upgrade if you want the full package. Before you run to the store, however, keep in mind that OS 4.0 probably won’t appear until after the Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference in June. At that event–we’re still waiting for firm dates–we should get new hardware, so make your upgrade decision then.