Remember the infamous Steve Jobs put-down of 7-inch tablet screens, telling reporters buyers would need to file down their fingertips in order to use the darn thing? Although we don’t see tinier fingers becoming the in-style for Christmas, suppliers are pumping out more 7-inch screens for the Kindle Fire and Nook Tablet and fewer 9.7-inch displays for the iPad 2.
The International Trade Commission (ITC) recently placed an import ban on several HTC devices in the United States for violating an Apple design patent. The ban wasn’t set to take place until April of 2012, but Apple’s win would effectively end HTC’s short-term business in the US if HTC failed to develop a workaround.
Noting that it was already working on “alternate solutions” to sidestep the patent infringement issue when the ITC’s ban was announced, HTC has today confirmed that it has already developed a fix that will keep its Android-powered devices safe from Apple’s lawyers for the foreseeable future.
How many Android-powered devices are in use? Android promoter and Google Vice President Andy Rubin shed some light on the question Tuesday night. Rubin said 700,000 devices are being activated by carriers each day. However, the figure could confirm reports earlier this week that Android’s growth has slowed following a red-hot summer.
Google has issued an update to its Google Voice app for the iPhone today to introduce support for devices connected to Sprint, and multi-recipient texting — a feature that has been available in Google Voice for Android more than a month — a multi-line text entry field, and one-touch copy and paste within the Dialer.
The NFL has announced that NBC’s broadcasts of wild card Saturday, the Pro Bowl and the Super Bowl will be available online as well as via Verizon’s NFL Mobile app. This will mark the first time said events were streamed through a mobile platform and it comes as no surprise that their partner Verizon gets the honor. Here’s what Hans Shroeder, NFL senior vice president of media strategy and development had to say about the news:
If you’ve been looking to get some great music at a ridiculous price, now’s the time. Google Music has kicked off their “Music Blowout Sale,” discounting over half a million albums to $4.99 and over ten million tracks for only $.49! Now that’s a deal worth listening to. I’ve already perused over a bunch of discounted tracks and I’ve found a plethora of alternative classics from Radiohead, Beck, and Nirvana.
If you thought Android was on a roll and RIM was toast — surprise, surprise. The mobile operating system that Google built continues to cool down while Apple and the Waterloo, Ont. gang that can’t shoot straight gain momentum. Just half of November mobile ad requests came from Android-based devices, a new report shows.
The United States International Trade Commission (ITC) has ruled in favor of Apple and declared a ban on the import of many HTC devices in the US, including flagship phones like the Sprint Evo 4G and Verizon Droid Incredible. The ruling would effectively end HTC’s business in the US.
After a lengthy back-and-forth between the two companies, the ITC has ruled that HTC infringes on two of Apple’s patents. Should the President of the United States decide to let the decision pass through, the ban will be put into effect on April 19, 2012. HTC plans to implement “alternate solutions” to combat the ruling.
According to a report from App Data, Facebook for Android garners more daily users than Facebook for iPhone. Android’s very own Facebook app boasts 58.8 million daily active users while Facebook for iPhone attracts 57.6 million.
Based on App Data’s projections, the Android adoption of Facebook’s app is accelerating faster than iPhone user adoption.
Remember the Motorola Xoom tablet, Google’s first attempt to compete against Apple’s iPad? It was only a bad dream. Google Chairman Eric Schmidt is now promising a purely Android tablet “of the highest quality” in six months.
Earlier this month, Orbotix apologized for dropped the ball (all puns intended) on their shipment deadline of pre-holiday arrival. They blamed themselves entirely and promised to “ramp up” production. Thankfully they’ve gotten the ball moving and have rolled out their first batch of Spheros. We’re not entirely sure how many Spheros have gone out but some of you may have the opportunity to play with your balls right before for Christmas.
Here’s a sign of just how far BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion has fallen: Apple’s App Store is worth more than the entire Waterloo, Ont. company. Yes — just one Apple property could buy an entire company, lock, stock and smartphone.
The New York Times reports that Apple is “secretly” working on a number of wearable devices including a new “curved-glass iPod that would wrap around the wrist.” The devices will have Siri built-in allowing us to control them with our voice, and may even relay information back to our iPhones.
As Research In Motion circles the smartphone drain, its two CEOs cut their pay to $1. The Steve Jobs-like maneuver may not be enough to save a company that lost 70 percent of its profit to Apple and Android. The only question left: Are the BlackBerry maker’s leaders even worth a buck?
If BlackBerry maker Research in Motion were going to dinner, it would arrive five hours late, finding Apple and Google had already eaten, told the best jokes and gone home with all the good-looking women. That’s the image analysts are offering in the wake of RIM announcing yet another delay entering the smartphone market.
Apple’s new Siri assistant has really revolutionized the way in which we interact with mobile devices using our voice. It’s no wonder, then, that rivals are scrambling to introduce their own alternatives. Google already has one for Android, according to some reports, called Majel, and it’ll debut during the first quarter of 2012.
In technology, two years can be a lifetime. It’s encouraging to learn the iPhone 3G is still going strong. According to reports, suppliers will ship 2 million of the handsets during the December quarter, making it the second best-selling iPhone behind the iPhone 4.
Today, Twitter announced a new design for the popular micro-blogging site that will start rolling out over the next couple of weeks, which they hope will make it easier than ever to connect with other users and discover great new content.
If you go to Twitter.com, you won’t see the sexy new interface for a while yet, but as part of their push to update all officially supported Twitter platforms to the new paradigm, Twitter has pushed out a totally overhauled version of the Twitter for iPhone app.
During an interview at the Le Web expo in Paris this week, Google chairman Eric Schmidt took a stab at Apple and insisted his company’s Android operating system is way ahead of iOS in a number of ways, including affordability and choice. What’s more, Schmidt claims that in six months, Ice Cream Sandwich will offer better functionality.
One of the things that really stands out using an iPhone is just how smooth it feels compared to using Android. Where as Android is laggy, with a measurable interim between when you touch the screen and when the OS responds, iOS almost seems to anticipate what you want to do before your finger touches the display.
How has Apple managed this incredible feat? A better question might be: “How has Google managed to screw up Android’s multitouch so much?” According to Andrew Munn — a software engineering student and ex-Google intern — Android is so messed up that Google might never be able to match an iPhone or iPad’s performance. Ouch!
We received some interesting insight into the contentious courtroom war between Apple and Samsung, thanks to a technical slip-up from the U.S. District Court in charge of the patent-infringement case. What was revealed appears more intriguing than the actual ruling denying Apple’s attempt to quickly block U.S. sales of Samsung’s Galaxy phone and tablet. Not so well hidden behind sloppy redaction was Apple’s own internal analysis finding Samsung’s devices would steal more Android than iOS users.
On Friday, Google opened a new Android store with Androidland in Melbourne, a place to hawk Android tablets and phones made by various manufacturers. So how’s it stand up against the Apple Store? Let’s see! (click to enlarge)
Apple Store (left) — Brightly lit, thronged with customers, tastefully designed with the finest materials and well-staffed with bright, enthusiastic employees at the top of their field who are constantly moving to help people with questions.
Androidland (right) — Dark and dimly lit, with a design more evocative of an early 90s Chuck E. Cheese arcade pit than a high-end retail store. Staffed by two disengaged lunkheads, who expertly manage not only to ignore the only customer on the floor, but to be at least fifty feet away from him.
Amazing.
Don’t miss Apple Store vs. Microsoft Store. It’s just as funny.
Ever since Electronic Artists (EA) started investing in the mobile games scene, the company has produced a flurry of titles that have been a big hit with Apple fans. With the combination of console to iOS ports (FIFA 12, NBA JAM, Dead Space) and original content made exclusively for iOS (Max & the Magic Marker, Fantasy Safari), EA has become one of the hottest game developers for the iPhone and iPad.
Now that we’re rolling into the holiday season, EA is starting to feel the Christmas spirit and has created a “Daily Deals” page that highlights new deals on their most popular games.
Despite the fact that Apple allows users an easy way to opt out of the service, have removed it entirely from most of their phones and that Apple’s implementation of Carrier IQ tracks no personal information whatsoever, guess what? Cupertino’s been named in a class action lawsuit over the notorious keylogging software, along with a host of other hardware makers, all of whom are way more guilty.
Although it is widely believed that Apple refuses to license its patents to competing companies, it turns out that’s a huge misconception. In fact, the company licenses a patent covering iOS touch-based scrolling to the likes of IBM and Nokia, and it offered the same deal to rival Samsung, who wasn’t at all interested. If it had taken Apple up on the offer, however, it could have spared the Korean company a whole load of trouble in court.