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No sooner had Steve Jobs taken the wraps off the Apple iPad 2, than Korean manufacturer Samsung realized that it had a problem with its upcoming Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet. Lee Don-joo, executive vice president of Samsung's mobile division, in an interview with the Yonhap News Agency, said about his company's device, "We will have to improve the parts that are inadequate."
Samsung's main concern is about the size of its device. Referring to Apple's sequel to its hugely successful iPad, Lee said, "Apple made it very thin." When the Galaxy Tab 10.1 was revealed at MWC last month, it weighed 21 ounces and was .44 inches thick. The Apple iPad 2, in comparison, is 21.28 ounces in weight but comes in at .35 inches thick.
While no pricing information has been revealed by Samsung, Lee says that the company will need to reconsider what price it will sell the device for. The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 will come to market powered by Android 3.0. The tablet will have a 1GHz dual-core processor under the hood and offers a 2MP front facing camera and an 8MP rear facing shooter that will capture video at HD 1080p. Unlike Samsung's earlier 7 inch Galaxy Tab, the newer product is designed to compete with the recently launched Motorola XOOM.
Asus has been super busy recently. During the CES, we’ve seen the Taiwanese company unveilingfewcooltablets and afterwards we heard about their plans to enter the ever-growing Chinese smartphone market in partnership with Marvell. Like that’s not enough, now they say a quad-core tablet with 3D display is in works.
The information comes from the Russian website Hi-tech.mail.ru, which had an opportunity to chat with the company’s CEO Jerry Chen, who unveiled some of their plans for 2011.
Unfortunately Mr Chen failed to mention exact launch date, leaving us room for speculation. If I had to bet, such a product will be announced in the next couple of months and will be available for the Christmas shopping season. That said we still wait for the “announced at CES” tablets to start hitting the store shelves.
In the other news, Asus’ CEO said they’ll focus on Androidphones this year, which makes us wonder – what happened to that Windows Phone 7-based E600 model we’ve seen in the wild? Isn’t that on the list, too? Guess we’ll have to wait a bit longer to get some answers…
With the iPhone 4 becoming available on Verizon's network some were predicting huge crowds of subscribers switching their carrier from AT&T, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Ralph de la Vega, president and CEO of AT&T, has stated that the company has not experienced anything beyond its expectations so far. ”We haven’t seen any surprises, and everything is pretty much within our expectations,” is what de la Vega shared with reporters on Wednesday.
Analysts at Wells Fargo initially projected 225,000 AT&T iPhone 4 users jumping over to Verizon within the first quarter of 2011, but their estimates have gradually gone down to 150,000, which to them now is a more likely figure. Ralph de la Vega further explained, that it is still early to tell how much subscribers AT&T will lose, as the situation remains “volatile.” Unfortunately, no details were given regarding the number of Verizon subscribers after the introduction of the iPhone 4 for the carrier earlier in February. It was suggested that some AT&T customers may be simply waiting for their contracts to expire before they grab a Verizon iPhone 4 instead.
Bell announced today that they’ll be officially releasing the highly anticipated and award winning Motorola ATRIX on March 17th. To celebrate this occasion they have thrown together a contest that will see 5 lucky Canadians walk away with the Motorola ATRIX, a Lapdock and a HD Multimedia Dock. To total value of each prize is $1,230 and all you have to do to register is submit your name into the contest section before March 16th.
Want an iPhone but need a physical keyboard? A New York-based developer has created a thin plastic screen cover with "ridges" that helps guide typing, ensuring thumbs don't slip and send embarrassing mistakes.
4i Concepts's 4iThumbs2 is an invisible, removable plastic film that sits over the face of an iPhone, with ridges between keys to help ensure a finger hits the intended key, not any of its neighbors. The film is held in place by a bumper, and can be easily removed and stored on the back of the phone when not in use.
4iThumbs2 is available in either a landscape or portrait version for $13, or $25 with bumper for the iPhone 4.
"As the only tactile ridged screen for the iPhone, 4iThumbs2 is sort of like training wheels for new iPhone users, making their transition to a touch screen comfortable and easy," said Jerry Rosengarten, founder of 4i Concepts.
A lot of iPhone owners complain about the virtual keypad -- their fingers slip and hit the wrong buttons, sending embarrassing mistakes. The problem is so widespread, in fact, that a popular website dedicated to slip-ups, called "Damn You Auto Correct," even got a book deal in January.
Meanwhile, Android users have Swype. Standard on many Android models and available in beta testing mode for others, Swype essentially predicts the words a user intends to write by monitoring finger swipes across the phone's virtual keyboard.
Swype builds on T9, the here-to-fore standard predictive text technology for mobile phones co-invented by Cliff Kushler, one of the Seattle-based Swype's founders.
This plethora of solutions testifies to the ongoing difficulty in typing on phones. Despite the ingenuity and variety of options, nobody enjoys the experience of composing an email on a tiny device. Voice input, still in its infancy, may ultimately prove a more workable answer to the problem. Google's Android platform already integrates voice searching and message dictation, and the voice recognition giant Nuance has released a dictation app for the iPhone as well.
With 350,000 Android phones and tablets being activated each day, there are now 30 Android units purchased daily for every child born in the U.S. Just four months ago, there were 200,000 Android devices being activated daily. The popularity of Google's open source OS remains strong and continues to grow.
From the launch of the G1 to the release of the "worlds most powerful smartphone"-the Motorola ATRIX 4G-Android has come from nowhere to reach its current heights. As we reported, according to Nielsen, from November 2010 through this past January, Android held a leading 29% share of the U.S. smartphone market, 2 percentage points ahead of iOS and BlackBerry.
Motorola continues to invest in services to bolster its mobile offerings as the company has announced an investment in the social game-maker Moblyng.
Moblyng is best-known for social games on the iOS platform and on Facebookand the company’s games have been downloaded more than 9 million times. It also has talent in the HTML5 gaming arena.
“Motorola Mobility Ventures seeks out the most innovative and promising new companies in which to invest, and we found a strong synergy between our vision for the future of mobile and Moblyng’s strategic direction,” said Harshul Sanghi, managing director of Motorola Mobility Ventures, in a prepared statement. “Moblyng was an early adopter of Android and is an industry leader in using HTML5 to bring cross-platform social gaming experiences to mobile devices. We look forward to accelerating the realization of their vision.”
The Motorola Moblyng investment comes as casual and social games are exploding – just look at the alleged $10 billion valuation of Farmville-creator Zynga. This market is also expected to be huge on the mobile side of things where many people can find a few minutes here or there to play a game while waiting in line or on public transportation.
This is just the latest investment from Motorola, as it has purchased or invested in multiple cloud services to help it stand out from the crowd. This is especially important for a company that has such a large bet on Android, which is essentially commodity software and that’s why many hardware makers customize it.
Other handset makers are looking at gaming as a way to differentiate, as HTC has invested in the cloud-gaming company OnLive. The company has promised that we’ll see the fruits of this deal with the upcoming HTC Flyer Android tablet, so mobile users can look forward to a ton of games in the near future.
The other day we reported on a promotion that Verizon had started which cut the price of all Droid phones by at least $100. For example, we pointed out that the flagship Motorola DROID X was priced at $49.99 with a new 2 year contract. Both the HTC Droid Incredible and the DROID R2-D2 limited edition were cut in price to free. While all of the prices are enticing, the promotion is available for new Verizon customers only with a signed 2-year contract and also includes price cuts on "Certified Pre-Owned" handsets.
No ending date was listed for the promotion. Verizon would love to clear out as much inventory as possible of their older Android models to make room for the new Android models that offer dual-core processors and 4G connectivity. Some of the upcoming handsets include the Motorola Droid Bionic, the HTC Merge and the HTC Thunderbolt.
Are you experiencing buyer's remorse from purchasing the original Apple iPad? After all, Apple reduced their original iPad prices by $100, and the iPad 2 is coming on March 11th. But Apple doesn't want to leave a bad taste in your mouth. They are offering a $100 refund to those who purchased an iPad in an Apple retail store in the last two weeks.
To qualify for the refund, you must have purchased an iPad on or after February 16th, in an official Apple retail store. And you obviously need your original receipt. You might think that a two-week window is pretty stingy of Apple, but you should consider how rare Apple refunds really are.
Apple made no such gesture with their iPhones, except for a $100 store-credit offered to early customers of the original iPhone. They have also extended similar refunds to Mac customers, but only when their purchase preceded a major OS update.
But the real question is this: Will Verizon iPhone customers cry out for a similar refund if the iPhone 5 comes to Verizon this summer? What do you think? After their patience and persistence, will Verizon iPhone customers deserve at least a credit on their wireless bill?
Good ol’ market economy never stops working for consumers. With major carriers in the U.S. fighting for the hearts, minds and ultimately wallets of the mobile users, smartphone prices keep going down.
Our latest catch is AT&T’s Motorola Atrix 4G which is now available for $129 on Amazon.com. A two-year contract is required but this is still an awesome deal that gets you a dual-core powered Android smartphone with gorgeous qHD (960×540) pixels capacitive touchscreen, 5-megapixel camera, front-facing camera for video calls, GPS, HSPA+, Bluetooth, sensors and “all that jazz.”
Previously, Amazon and some other retailers like Radio Shack asked for $20 more…
A ad for the HTC Thunderbolt received some airtime and if you have viewed the spot, you will know that the phone itself received some air time (courtesy of a toy helicopter). Yes, the 4G connectivity of the Thunderbolt was mentioned as well as the fact that it is available exclusively at Verizon.
In fact, much about the HTC Thunderbolt was discussed in the ad except for the one little piece of information that everyone has been waiting for: the launch date. Ah well, there is always tomorrow.
Remember last year when HP CTO Phil McKinney has blacked out 3 mysterious devices. They were a tablet, a new smartphone and a wristwatch. Well, McKinney was speaking at HP’s Future of Innovation event and revealed a concept watch called ‘Metal Watch’ that integrates all info from sorts of devices into this watch: “Printers, notebooks, desktops and mobile devices. How are all these devices going to work together. In our case one of the areas that we are keenly focused on is what is going to be the aggregation point of these connected devices? I guess it was back in 2007 when I was here in Shanghai I revealed some concept models as to what we refer to as the ‘Connected Watch’. The concept was that the watch would become the aggregation point of connectivity. The point that brings all the devices together rather than having each device operate independently… What I’m about to show you here is the first time that we’re actually going to show off the ‘Connected Watch’. So this is a watch concept that’s actually called ‘Metal Watch’ and it’s developed by Fossil… so this watch is the first generation as to what we’re doing as an investigation into this concept of not only the devices you carry in your pocket but the devices you wear. In this case this device runs a full software that fully integrates with the internet, allows you to carry it with you all the time… and allows you to connect it, share it, bring it together but again acts as the integration point for all of the family of devices that you carry with you.”
Chinese authorities in Beijing will track its citizens through phones, using location data from telecom China Mobile, in a bid to ease traffic congestion but raising privacy concerns over misuse.
The project, called the "Beijing Residents Real-time Travel Information Platform," will aggregate information on mobile users' movements around the Beijing, including their time of departure, destination and means of transport. Municipal officials hope to use this information to understand population flow at different times of the day and in certain parts of the city.
Tests will take place in two highly-populated districts in June and the plan could go a long way towards redeeming Beijing's reputation as the worst traffic blackspot in the world. Last year, it notoriously suffered a nine-day, 62-mile-long traffic jam.
"By sending dynamic travel information to citizens, they can adjust their trip plan in downtown areas to effectively relieve traffic congestion," said Li Guo-guang, deputy director of the Commission. "It is also fairly beneficial for population management. Information obtained through the mobile phone location is more thorough in terms of figuring out the population of a certain dwelling district."
Authorities want to use population flow information to keep drivers and other commuters up to date about traffic jams, alternative routes and delayed trains. The Beijing Commission of Science and Technology, the agency behind the plan, also wants to use the information to develop more effective public transport and traffic management strategies, and identify infrastructure bottlenecks.
Location information from phones has proved a powerful, but controversial, tool. AT&T now uses location to push relevant advertising and special offers to interested users, and Loopt will launch a similar service soon. Those services are opt-in, but some apps have angered users by sending data like age, gender, location and the unique handset ID to advertisers without permission.
Commentators in China have raised concerns that the Communist regime could use the Beijing real-time tracking platform to follow protesters or dissidents. Other proposals to use cell phone tracking for social good have raised privacy concerns, including Bill Gates' suggestion that the technology be used to track babies who need vaccines.
Controversy is likely to follow location based services as users, service providers, and governments seek a balance between potentially useful functionality and privacy concerns.
The most RIM has said about the price of their upcoming BlackBerry PlayBook tablet is that it will be “competitive”, and one suggestion put it under $500 for the base model (which was backed up with a retail listing). Mobile City Online has gotten a little more specific, and is listing the BlackBerry PlayBook at $599.99, with a “retail price” of $899.99. That price point isn’t particularly helpful since we don’t know if the listing is for the 16 GB, 32 GB, or 64 GB model. Meanwhile, Negri Electronics is listing the BlackBerry PlayBook for $798.50, which we can expect to be for the 64 GB version.
So what are you getting for all that scratch? The BlackBerry PlayBook has a pocketable 7-inch 1024 x 600 display, two cameras (3 megapixels and 5 megapixels, both HD capable), a dual-core TI 1 GHz processor, 1 GB of RAM, Wi-Fi, GPS, and 3G when tethered to a smartphone via Bluetooth. The brand new QNX-based operating system can handle graphics, multitasking, and stability particularly well. We’ve got a full tour of the hardware over here.
The BlackBerry PlayBook is expected to drop on April 10, so it’s not entirely a surprise to see third party retailers starting to at least set up placeholders. I’m not sure if I would trust the specific pricetags being listed, but it’s helpful for getting a rough idea of what to expect, especially when combined with previous estimates. The iPad 2 is priced comparably, sitting at $499 for the 16 GB model, $599 for the 32 GB model, and $699 for the 64 GB model. Even if the PlayBook matches the iPad 2 at every price point and you brazenly consider them on par in terms of specs and performance, Apple’s tablet is launching a full month earlier. On the other hand, the upcoming Android options, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2, Motorola Xoom and LG Optimus Pad, are larger (which could be considered a pro or a con), and it’s looking like they could be just as expensive, if not moreso – that could give the PlayBook some wriggle room to compete.
Now let’s be realistic – is anyone really going to bite at a $600 – $700 BlackBerry PlayBook, or any tablet for that matter? Are we going to have to wait for 3G and 4G models so carriers can step in and subsidize the thing?
Nielsen's latest graph showing cellphone manufacturer's share of the U.S. smartphone market uses colors to help viewers quickly see which firms were in control from November 2010 through January 2011. Taking a step back, the numbers show that Android had a two point lead over iOS and RIM's BlackBerry phones with 29% of the smartphone market.
Of those manufacturer's producing Android devices, HTC had the largest U.S. share with a 12% slice followed by the 10% piece owned by Motorola, and the 5% controlled by Samsung. The last group, "Others", consists of other manufacturers like LG, Sony Ericsson, Dell and Huawei, and had 2% of the U.S smartphone market.
10% of U.S. smartphones from last November through this January were powered by Windows Phone 7. HTC lead the way with 7% of U.S. smartphones flavored by Microsoft's OS. Samsung was next with a 2% piece of the pie, followed by the 1% slice controlled by HP and Motorola.
4% of U.S. smartphones during the November through January time period were powered by WebOS while Symbian flavored phones had half that share.
Another graph produced by Nielsen shows the popularity of operating systems depending on age. Those 18-24 favored Android while the 55-65+ demographic belonged to iOS.
Sprint has sent out invitations for an event scheduled for March 22nd. The carrier's CEO, Dan Hesse, will be showing off Sprint's latest and greatest new device at the event which dovetails with CTIA. You might recall the last time the nation's third largest carrier had everyone over for milk and cookies-that was the day when Sprint introduced the dual-screen Kyocera Echo.
Once again, speculation centers on a possible introduction of a 3D Android handset. Considering that the HTC EVO 4G was announced at last year's CTIA, another possibility could be the introduction of a sequel to Sprint's all-time best selling smartphone.
Sprint customers have been hoping to see a new high-end device, hopefully with a dual-core processor, that would compete with AT&T's Motorola ATRIX 4G, the upcoming LG Optimus 2X expected for T-Mobile, and the Motorola Droid Bionic coming to Verizon.
Some Android developers have decided to take the power into their own hands, and formed an anti-Google group called The Android Developers Union.
They present themselves in the following way:
"This is the Android Developers Union blog! This blog will host stories by developers and customers who have been screwed by the Android Market, updates about our campaigns to improve the Market conditions, and comments on the response from Google!"
One of the seven demands that these unhappy developers have made is the renegotiation of the 32% Google takes for every app that's sold through the Android Market. If their complaints are not taken into account, the devs claim that they will move to another platform and will try to convince other developers to follow their path.
The Union's blog is also a place where various developers write how they have been mistreated by Google. One such example is Ric, who has created more than 18 Android apps. His problems started when he released an application called Rapid Download!, which was later removed without any warning or notification.
After that, he contacted Google, and received some automated e-mails. When he started to receive non-automated e-mails, they were of no use, except for the one that he says "threatened" him. According to him, the mail read:
"[If he]... violated the rules again, [his] account would be deactivated and all of [his] applications would be removed from the Market."
As he makes a living from Android apps, this would mean he is without a job and without an income. He continues:
"This kind of treatment is unacceptable. Since I began developing Android applications two years ago, Google has collected over $14,000 in “service fees” as part of their 30 percent tax on all sales – and the only service they have ever provided me is a threatening letter."
Do you think these developers will succeed against Google?
The battle of the heavyweights has officially been staged – the Apple iPad 2 is the successor to the original iPad, which dominated the tablet segment in the last year, but the new contenders appear with an equally mighty dual-core muscle and tailor-made Android Honeycomb not breaking a sweat under its power.
The iPad 2 comes with a lot of swagger – Cupertino is saying that with it the company aims to retain a nearly 80% market share in 2011. Honeycomb on the other side comes in a variety of tablets like the already released Motorola XOOM and the upcoming Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1. But it's not the only one who wants a piece of the tablet pie as the webOS-based HP TouchPad is expected to make an appearance in the Summer months.
We shouldn't omit the rest of the tablets out there, but it seems that most of them fall in a slightly different category by either having a smaller screen or not having the type of carrier support these heavyweight will get. That – of course – doesn't make them less of a capable rival to the iPad, but for the time being let's focus on the biggest ones and see who wins in the first round where we clash the specs!
Ladies and gents, one of the most anticipated devices of the year, the iPad 2, was finally unveiled by Apple's very own Steve Jobs who appeared on stage winning thunderous applause. We're glad to see one of the most influential CEOs in good health, but we're also happy to see Apple bring out the next iPad 2 with a mighty dual-core A5 chipset clocked at 1GHz and with a 33% thinner body. The second-gen iPad's body measures at the razing sharp 0.34 inches (8.8mm) of depth, significantly less than the original iPad's 13.4mm. Yes, folks, it's even thinner than the iPhone 4 and it will weigh 1.3 pounds now. We know what you are all wondering now - the release date! No need to worry - March 11th is the official release date for the U.S. market, while another 26 countries will get it on March 25th. But before we jump into more details, don't forget that you can check out our brief comparison of the specs of Apple's original iPad and the new iPad 2.
The iPad 2 will come in black or white
Did we mention it will come in white as well as black from day one? Steve Jobs made sure to underline that the second-gen iPad will be the first dual-core tablet to ship "in volume" - so much for the rumors about component shortages, right? Performance-wise the A5 chip will bring double the processing speed of the original iPad and up to 9 times the graphical power. All of this won't compromise battery performance according to Jobs as the chip has the same low power consumption as the one on the A4 used on the iPad. And yes, that means the same good 10 hours of battery life you enjoyed on the first-gen tablet. The 9.7-inch screen size and the 1024 x 768 resolution remain unchanged, but this time the tablet is even better equipped for hardcore gaming with a built-in gyroscope.
The slate will come with both front (VGA) and rear-facing cameras for video chat and the photo enthusiasts out there. At such a light weight you might rethink the weirdness of carrying a huge tablet to shoot pictures - after all the camera on the back is capable of 720p HD recording. You can also easily transfer photos and videos of up 1080p full HD resolution with the new HDMI mirrored video output, which works with all apps. In addition, the iPad 2 will charge even while you watch movies via HDMI. Unfortunately, the cable would cost you $39 and you'll need an optional adapter, but hey - nothing surprising from Apple here, right?
Steve Jobs says he didn't like the original iPad's cases which only made the tablet bulkier. How about a new Smart Cover, which was tailor-made to fit alongside the product and doubles as a stand. Just bend and fold the thin cover to turn the tablet into a stand and don't worry about cleaning your iPad 2 - the micro-fiber lining does that when you open it. It also comes in a polyurethane ($39) and leather ($69) versions with 5 colors for each one of them. It also wakes the tablet on opening and puts it to sleep when it's inside.
What's a tablet without the apps? Cupertino has a lot of them, but some of the most notable additions include FaceTime for video chats, the self-explanatory Photo Booth and the useful Find My iPad app. All of this will run on iOS 4.3, but to learn about the highlights of the updated iOS take a look here.
Finally, the iPad still has an extremely competitive price when compared to the competition and the second one won't be an exception - the Wi-Fi version comes at the same price tag of $499 for 16GB of storage. Add to that the fact that U.S. biggest carriers AT&T and Verizon will offer it from day one and you have a sweet deal. Sprint and T-Mobile? Sorry folks, it seems they are not getting the iPad 2 initially. Take a look at the prices per model and memory capacity below:
Should we say Apple stock jumped right after the announcement? The new iPad seems to fulfil many dreams, let us know your thoughts about it!
The iPad 2 is finally here in its full glory! But is it nearly as good as it looks like? We quickly summed up the main novelties that the new iPad offers and compared them to the main features of the original one. It all starts from the design – Apple outshines itself with an even thinner tablet. Actually, the new iPad is even thinner than the iPhone 4 and while you might not want to cut cake with it, you certainly could. One of the few rumors that Cupertino didn't fulfil was the higher resolution expected by some. But in all honesty, we're pretty happy with the tablet's current pixel density.
A peek under the hood reveals amazing dual-core works in the face of an all-new A5 chipset with the processor clocked at 1GHz. It promises to deliver a lot more than the A4 chip on the first iPad with 9 times the graphical oomph. We only wish we knew the exact amount of RAM memory on the iPad 2 and the megapixel count of the rear facing camera (cough, Apple). We'll take Cupertino's word for the productivity boost, though, at least until we get the iPad 2 for a detailed review. The wait shouldn't take long – the tablet will hit shelves on March 11, but in the meantime take a look at our breakdown of the specs of the iPad 2 on the left and the original iPad on the right!
With the average wireless customer consuming more data than ever before, carriers have been moving away from their unlimited pricing models. And Verizon is no different. While they extended their $30 unlimited data plan to new Verizon iPhone customers, they admitted that they would switch to a usage-based model eventually.
In an investor conference webcast, Verizon CFO Fran Shammo discussed a change in mobile data pricing, as well as the possibility of an impending iPhone refresh. Regarding the change to usage-based data pricing, Shammo said that they "will probably do that in the mid-summer time frame." The announcement of data pricing was meant to encourage investors, as Shammo explained that it would help their financial outlook.
Surprisingly, investors were less than thrilled to hear that there may be an iPhone 5 on the horizon. In fact, Verizon shares dropped a full 2.4% after Shammo explained that "If there happens to be a new one that comes out, that quarter might not look so good either."
While Shammo didn't offer any time frame for the next iPhone, Apple's traditional release date for iPhones is during the summer. That could prove devastating to Verizon customers who find their nearly-new iPhone 4s getting quickly overshadowed. Credit Suisse analyst Jonathan Chaplin says that Verizon doesn't want to "be put in a position where it's forced to offer free trade-ins...There's some risk of that."
All we can say is that if the iPhone 5 does come to Verizon as early as summer, it had better include an LTE radio and NFC support.
RIM's BlackBerry PlayBook has the QNX-based OS and the professional allure to turn some eyes, but up until now we had no specifics about the 7-inch tablet's release date. Not any more – various sources quoted by BGR claim that the PlayBook will hit retail stores' shelves on April 10th, while PlayBook OS will reach a release candidate stage on March 31st. The QNX-based platform looks great, but some proximity to HP/Palm's webOS could be noticed and accusations of “uncanny similarities” have started flying recently.
The PlayBook tablet, however, will probably get significant carrier support in the States as it is coming out in different flavors, compatible with all of the major carriers' high speed 4G networks. And with an April launch, this might heat up the tablet space even more. But before that there is one iPad 2 waiting to be unveiled, so let's wait up and see what Apple has in store.
We've already written that the next iPad, which will be announced today, is just a refresh to the existing one, whereas a third iPad is already in the works to appear in the fall, in the time slot when Cupertino usually announces its iPod, iTunes and MacBook Air refreshes, disrupting Apple's usual annual product cycle.
This rumor seems to be confirmed once again now by an Apple staffer, who allegedly said the iPad to be unveiled today pales in comparison with what will come in seven or eight months. The one today should just add dual-core processor, small rear camera and memory expansion slot, whereas the big hardware and design upgrade is expected in the fall.
“For the iPad 2 don’t get your hopes up too high. That’s all I’m going to say. They’ve had a number of problems along the way, and the third-generation iPad is the one to make a song and a dance about.”, the guy reportedly tipped.
It makes perfect sense, considering the march of dual-core tablets with Android 3.0 Honeycomb, which will chip away at Apple's tablet dominance. With the iPad 2 it will keep up with those, and, come holidays time, we'll be presented with something that most probably will be ahead of the curve, and in its turn cannibalize Android tablet sales during the holiday shopping craze.
Apple already disrupted its annual iPhone refresh cycle by issuing a version that works on Verizon's CDMA network, in order to milk as much sales as it could for six months or so, before the next iPhone is announced.
Whatever the reason, we are glad that things are progressing so fast, and we probably have Google to thank. The iPad 3 possibility first emerged in connection with Apple inking a deal with Samsung for its new PLS-LCD technology, which supports high resolutions, wider viewing angles, and is brighter than the current IPS-LCD in the iPad, plus much cheaper to produce. Sorry, no AMOLED display, Samsung will not be ready for mass producing 7" + of these any time soon.
The dual-core chipset will probably stay, but there are rumors that we might see a carbon fiber chassis to keep the weight in check. It is all speculative at this point, but one thing is for sure - the rumor mill will keep turning.
T-Mobile has announced that it will shut down the servers responsible for maintaining the functionality of the T-Mobile Sidekick series of devices on May 31st. Before then, the carrier has confirmed several methods of exporting the data on the device to a computer or to another phone, with upgrade offers also being proposed for current Sidekick owners.
This also follows the previous confirmation of an Android-powered Sidekick model slated for launch later this year with manufacturing handled by Samsung. Danger itself was founded in 2001 and became successful with the Hiptop device when it was picked up by T-Mobile and rebranded as the Sidekick. The device was known for delivering true push email to consumers and for its heavy focus on messaging before text messaging took hold in the US. Read More for the statement.
Bell recently discounted the Samsung Galaxy Tab to #349.95 on a 3-year contract and today Rogers has come out with a better price. From March 1st until march 31st Rogers is offering the Tab for $299.99 on a 3-year (either the White or the Black version).
Just remember if you are thinking about getting the Samsung Tab there is a WiFi only edition coming soon, plus the 8.9-inch and 10.1-inch models will be available sometime this year too.
Both Apple and Google are excelling in the consumer sectors. But in the corporate sphere, RIM and Microsoft still reign supreme. In the spirit of improving their enterprise credibility, Apple is working on a new small business support plan called Joint Venture.
According to Apple Insider, Apple held a secretive meeting for all their retail employees, where they briefed them on the new enterprise support plan. Joint Venture will reportedly be a priority service plan that will start at US$500 per year for 5 devices. When you purchase an Apple device for your small business, and add Joint Venture, you will enjoy a number of convenient perks.
Joint Venture will run with the tagline of "Get Setup. Get Trained. Keep running." Apple technicians will come to your office and set up your network, including Microsoft Exchange configuration. You will also get priority service at the Genius Bar, as well as a direct line to Genius-staffed technical support. When your devices are being repaired for longer than 24 hours, they will even lend you Apple devices in the meantime.
Perhaps the greatest service of Joint Venture is the on-site training sessions. With up to 3 sessions per year, and 8 people per session, you can make sure that your business won't lag due to a lack of education. Of course, this plan is remarkably similar to AppleOne and the ProCare service plan. The difference is that it's an affordable solution for an Apple-based business.
Yet another huge cellphone bill has surfaced. B.C. couple Daniel and Kate Methot bought themselves a Samsung Galaxy S Vibrant back in October and started to racked up charges into the thousands of dollars.
Here’s a gist of what happened: Apparently they received a text from Bell that they are using excessive data and warned them of their usage. In December their bill totaled $3,515.13 with 30 hours of data usage in one 24-hour period. Daniel Methot first thought it was himself who ran up the charges by having apps run in the background. He contacted Bell and said there must be a problem as he could never have used that much data. “I basically deleted every app that I had downloaded and just started to be a lot more conservative with the data use, and that’s all I could do”.
Bell started to looking into their account and immediately credited $3,330.88 from their bill for a “known” software problem. However, right back on track the next couple days they received another bill with the amount of $1,204. So Daniel and Kate have hired a lawyer to help them and stated that “they basically made us scared of our phone… We just stopped using it. We shut it off”.
Bell spokesperson Jason Laszlo believes that it could be possible that somebody has tapped into their device and is using their internet. “I’m still going to pursue the deeper, more intensive technical investigation into the Methots’ data usage and am hopeful that this will yield some answers… The one possibility that kept being raised was that the device’s mobile hot-spot feature may be on. This feature turns the device into a wireless modem which can connect up to three other devices via Wi-Fi.”
The Motorola XOOM is one impressive device, and part of that is due to the Nvidia Tegra 2 processor zipping along with 1GHz dual-core goodness.
We've been using the XOOM for a few days now, so we decided to see how it would square-off on some standardized benchmark programs. The first one we used was Quadrant. We tried it a few times during the day, and got scores between 1850 and 2100 on average, but did get up to 2249. On our video below we achieved a score of 2200. The second program we used was AnTuTu System Benchmark, which we averaged between 2266 and 2296. It shows detailed scores for each category: Memory 365, CPU Integer 694, CPU Float 511, 2D Graphics 149, 3D Graphics 189, Database I/O 20, SD Card Write 150 (16.8 MB/s), SD Card Read 188 (19.5 MB/s) - but keep in mind that is testing the internal 16GB memory, as the microSD memory card slot does not work with the current version of Honeycomb.
Naturally, you can attempt to root your XOOM and increase the clock speed to 1.5GHz, as this guy did to get a Quadrant score of 2854.
Clove UK has made public the price of the Samsung Galaxy S II, and it's not pretty - according to the online retailer, the successor of the much loved Samsung Galaxy S is to cost $820 for the 16GB version and $949 for the 32GB one. These prices are "subject to change", though, so Samsung may discount them a little bit when these two versions of the Galaxy S II are finally released.
Also, we have some availability details - the phone is set to arrive in "mid to late March" in the UK, and it's already available for pre-order.
As you know from our hands-on (which you can read again here), this monster of a phone is to pack a 4.3-inch Super AMOLED Plus display, a 1GHz dual-core Exynos processor (in some areas, Samsung Galaxy S II will be powered by a Tegra 2 processor), two cameras, Gingerbread and NFC support. Pretty impressive specs, indeed, but would you pay this steep, steep price for the Samsung Galaxy S II? Tell us with your comments.
AT&T will soon offer the Amazon Kindle 3G at its stores March 6 and the move shows how the carrier will position itself in a world where it no longer has exclusivity to devices like the Apple iPhone.
The Amazon Kindle 3G will land in store in about a week for $189 and the advantages over the iPad and other tablets is that the e-reader is easier to read in direct sunlight, the battery life can last for weeks on a single charge and the selection of books from Amazon is actually quite good. Thanks to the ubiquity of Kindle apps, you can also bring your e-books with you to most devices.
“We’re excited to work with AT&T to offer Kindle 3G to AT&T customers across the country,” said Mike McKenna, Vice President, Amazon Kindle, in a prepared statement. “Customers tell us they love Kindle 3G because of its light weight, battery life of up to one month, and advanced paper e-ink display that works in direct sunlight. Customers love being able to think of a book and be reading it in less than 60 seconds thanks to AT&T’s wireless network.”
AT&T offering the Amazon Kindle 3G shows how the company can also make money in a world without always having to have halo devices like the iPhone. I’ve spoken with the embedded devices team before and these people tell me that the market for this could be huge. Of course, things that come to mind are the iPad, tablets and e-readers but the carrier is aiming for even more devices.
Just think about how useful your car would be if it had a persistent mobile data connection in it. Sure, it would probably be expensive but you’d be able to not only stream content via your radio but also have your car’s computer send diagnostic information to your mechanic or home computer. Now, also think about how power meters, dog collars, medicinal containers and more could benefit from a data connection.
It looks like different variants of the Apple iPhone are on the way. Apple COO Tim Cook recently told Bernstein Research analyst Toni Sacconaghi that Apple will not cede in any market. Having said that, the executive hinted that a lower priced Apple iPhone is more than just a rumor when he said that the iPhone is not "just for the rich". Cook also said that his company is coming up with some "clever things" that would allow Apple to compete in the pre-paid market.
As we reported, the Cupertino based firm is allegedly working on a cheaper version of the iPhone that would cost less than $200 off-contract. The phone would be built using leftover components from the iPhone 4.
Cook also stressed that Apple wants to increase the number of carriers that the manufacturer works with. According to Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer, 175 carriers are partners with Apple compared with 550 carriers that work with RIM. While the comments most likely were aimed at overseas mobile operators, did we just see the ears of Sprint and T-Mobile customers perk up?
Verizon's iPhone is beset by the same reception problems suffered by AT&T's model last year, according to the highly-influential watchdog Consumer Reports, who also left the device out of its list of recommended smartphones.
The Yonkers, N.Y.-based publication tested out the Apple smartphone and discovered it possesses the same call reception flaws that plague its AT&T counterpart. Tests by the magazine's engineers discovered that reception problems can occur by holding the iPhone "in a specific but quite natural way in which a gap in the phone's external casing is covered."
Verizon's iPhone also suffers from dropped calls, or is unable to place calls when signals are weak, according to the publication.
"The only phones in which the finger content caused any meaningful decline in performance was the iPhone 4, the sides of which compose a metal band broken by several thin gaps," the magazine said. As a result, it said it would not include the Verizon iPhone in its list of recommended smartphones.
Consumer Reports also tested the iPhone against five other Verizon smartphones -- the Samsung Fascinate, Motorola Droid 2 Global, HTC Droid Incredible, LG Ally and the Motorola Droid X.
Its criticism of the Verizon iPhone echo similar ones it made when AT&T's model released last summer. AT&T's version suffered from various antenna and reception problems, leading to huge public outcry in July.
Apple ended up being sued by a number of consumers, before acknowledging the problem and giving away free cases to avoid blocking the antenna.
Verizon rejected claims that users were having major problems, saying that any calls dropped were a tiny percentage -- less than one-half of one percent.
"Verizon iPhone 4 customers are experiencing stellar network performance," the company said in a statement.
The Basking Ridge, N.J.-based company, which so far has avoided the same media outcry that AT&T faced, is suffering from reports of poor sales for the iPhone. The carrier recently rejected those claims, saying that most of its sales were generated online, and that it is on pace to sell 11 million units in 2011.
Earlier this month, a teardown of the Verizon iPhone revealed a redesigned antenna, which split the functions of the reception, and new separated wire for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.
With the Samsung Galaxy Tab being in market for a few months now – and the WiFi version being released soon – Bell has made the tablet available on a 3-year contract. The no-contract price stays the same at $649.95 but the 3-year price still comes in $50 cheaper than Rogers at $349.95.
The HTC ThunderBolt - the first LTE phone in the Verizon line-up - has been held back from release for quite some time, and we reported to you that the reasons for this are said to be its terrible battery life and reception problems.
Now another date for this much-anticipated handset is available - March 4 - and there is official information how much this phone is going to cost if you buy it directly from the Taiwanese manufacturer.
Although it's now removed, we have a screenshot showing that the HTC ThunderBolt will have a $699 price without a contract when it's available for sale, but it's important to know this may change eventually.
If this is its final price, though, it will make the HTC ThunderBolt one of the most expensive smartphones, which also explains its expected high price with a contract - it is rumoured to be $249.99.
Is this is a fair price for the new HTC flagship smartphone?
Just when we might have seen just about everything now that both CES and MWC are behind us, some wonder at what we’ll be treated to during the events that unfold during CTIA late next month.
Well, it appears that tablets will once again be making its presence known as Samsung is giving us the slight indication that they will be unveiling their latest Android tablet. With the cryptic message of “78910” being displayed underneath a tablet that’s going to be flaunting Android 3.0 Honeycomb, it’s looking very promising that we’ll see them unveil their 8.9” Android tablet on March 22nd.
Although we only see the faint outline of the device in question from the image, we also notice a front-facing camera on board with the tablet. However, that’s pretty much the only thing we can gather at this point from the image. Still, it makes sense that we’ll be seeing an 8.9” tablet – especially when it fits perfectly between their 7” and 10.1” Galaxy Tabs.
Luckily, the wait won’t be long since we’re less than a month away from CTIA 2011!
The guys, who decided to found Joystickers must have been very irritated by the lack of any tactile feel while playing games on their iPhones. So irritated that they decided to make their own physical gaming buttons! That is right, the little buttons, that they have chosen to call “The Classic”, stick straight onto the screen of an iPhone, iPad, or any other device with a capacitive touchscreen, and promise not to leave any traces after being taken off.
The secret? A clever microsuction material, which has been imported straight from Japan, is found in the base of the buttons and helps them attach to the smooth glass surface of the screen without scratching it. Simply launch any game, which makes use of onscreen buttons, and place The Classics on top of them. This is excellent for bringing the action back to shooter and platformer games.
Unfortunately to anyone, who wishes to get their hands on a set of Classics, this can only be done after donating $30 to the project. A set will be shipped to all contributors as soon as production starts in May this year. Among the other touchscreen-friendly products by Joystickers are a stylus and a brush, which you could use to draw mustaches on people's pictures and do all sorts of other neat things.
