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