While sometimes it may seem that Samsung tries its hardest to taunt Apple’s legal department, the company’s mobile president has revealed that its latest Galaxy Nexus smartphone was built to avoid Apple patents, saving the Korean company yet another legal battle.
Sometimes is seems as though Samsung puts its greatest efforts into causing a ruckus with Apple’s legal team. The Korean electronics giant is already involved in countless legal spats with Apple for allegedly copying the iPhone and iPad, but it continues to closely follow Apple’s products… or just rip them off completely.
It’s USB charger, for example, is an exact replica of Apple’s, only in black instead of white. It recently littered one its retail stores with a bunch of Apple icons for the App Store and Safari. And its latest trick? Using an iPhone screenshot to sell its Galaxy Player 5.0 media device.
How do you sell a security product to owners of devices that have no real security problem? You get into hand-holding business. That’s what it’s like for Lookout Mobile Security, a San Francisco, Calif. firm unveiling Tuesday the free Lookout for iPhone app. Kevin Mahaffey, co-Founder and CTO, Lookout Mobile Security, says his new app is all about positive reinforcement.
Australia may soon become an Android-free zone. That’s the opinion of patent experts after an Australian court hit Samsung with a temporary sales ban. Although the sales halt mentions only the Galaxy Tab 10.1, the patents involved could touch every tablet and smartphone based on Google’s mobile software.
The developers at Myriad are working on porting Android apps to the iPad. Alien Dalvik 2.0 is a project that aims to run apps coded for Android in the iPad’s iOS environment.
Alien Dalvik effectively wraps Android apps in runtime packaging to create a seamless experience for the user. Android apps can be run on the iPad’s home screen like regular App Store apps.
Usually, where there’s smoke, there’s fire — except in the case of the iPad. Wealthy consumers are overwhelmingly opting for the Apple tablet, despite Amazon’s recent introduction of the Kindle Fire, a $199 alternative to the pricier iPad, indicates a survey of preferences based on income levels. More than 9 out of 10 tablet buyers with incomes above $100,000 prefer the Apple device, according to the figures.
Samsung’s desperate bid to save its Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet in Australia has been turned down by Apple, and could mean that one of the iPad’s biggest Android rival never sees its launch down under.
Apple continues to out-muscle Android online, according to a new report of devices using the Internet. Despite fewer mobile devices, iOS-powered products in September collectively accounted for 54.65 percent of the mobile market, versus 16.25 percent for Android.
Yesterday, Amazon announced what is likely the first and only true alternative to the iPad in the Kindle Fire, a $199 Android-based tablet smartly tied into Android rich cloud ecosystem of games, apps, books and video on demand.
No matter how you slice it, the Kindle Fire is the first tablet to really understand that most of what makes a mobile device isn’t just hardware or an off-the-shelf operating system, but a library of easily-accessed contents. It’s not just the apps, it’s the movies, it’s the music, it’s the magazines, it’s the ebooks. And Amazon is going to provide these things for $300 less than Apple does.
So now that all the dust has settled, we want to know what you think: does Apple have anything to worry about from the Kindle Fire, or is this less a fire than a bunch of smoke?
[polldaddy poll=”5544143″]
Let us know your answer in our poll after the jump, and feel free to expand upon them in the comments.
More than 75 percent of the handsets T-Mobile sells are smartphones, the carrier told a gathering at this week’s Mobilize 2011 forum held in San Francisco. What’s more, 90 percent of those smartphones are powered by the Android operating system.
Android-based tablets have become the technology equivalent of Charlie Brown, constantly warning Apple to ‘wait’ll next year’ following disappointing showing after depressing headline. Now research giant Gartner has weighed in on the issue and their advice: keep waiting. Apple’s iPad will be the most popular tablet through 2015, the research firm announced.
The iPhone is the equivalent of fly-paper when it comes to keeping customers. The Apple smartphone has at least an 89 percent allegiance, twice that of the closest Android handset, according to a Wall Street survey announced Friday.
Android smartphones will quickly dominate as home media hubs, beating out Apple’s AirPlay, one market research firm predicts.
AT&T is downplaying the impact of both Verizon and Sprint getting the iPhone 5. CEO Randall Stephenson told analysts the effect on the original U.S. iPhone carrier is “always overblown.” Instead, Stephenson said he was “very confident that we’ll do well” against the two CDMA carriers.
Apple fans hoping for an iPad 3 this year should just cool their jets, one analyst advises. There’s “no rush” to unveil a new version as rival devices stumble left and right. As Simon & Garfunkel might say: Slow down, you move too fast.
In the current wave of patent wars, Google has become an arms supplier, buying technology from other firms to increase Android’s ability to fight back against Apple. In its latest purchase in the Silicon Valley’s version of an arms bazaar, the Internet giant snapped up 1,023 IBM patents.
Apple wants courts to pause lawsuits with Motorola Mobility, claiming the Schaumberg, Il. company transferred ownership of contentious patents to Google. The legal wrangling cannot be settled until the Android maker’s acquisition of Motorola is finalized, the Cupertino, Calif. company charges.
Now that Samsung has denied that they are eying webOS as a potential platform for its mobile devices, HTC could end up being the one to purchase Palm’s former OS to compete against Apple’s iOS.
Not only would HTC buying webOS make sense financially, but it would also position HTC in a unique position to combat the growth of iOS in the mobile market.
New signs the iPhone 4 more than a year later is still hot in the minds of consumers. Last week, we wrote that the iPhone 4 is the top-selling U.S. smartphone despite cheaper Android alternatives. Another analyst tells investors the Apple handset shows ‘unexpected strength’ although the iPhone 5 is on the verge of hitting shelves.
For those concerned Android was catching up with Apple’s iPad, JPMorgan analyst Mark Moskowitz has this message: stop your worrying. “Beyond the iPad, there has not been another high-volume tablet offering, yet,” he told investors Thursday. When one does, don’t look to Mountain View, but Microsoft for a credible Apple competitor.
You would think all of the hype surrounding the much-anticipated iPhone 5 would leave consumers waiting for Apple’s new handset. Well, you’d be wrong. The iPhone 4 remains the top-selling U.S. smartphone at AT&T and Verizon, one analyst says.
Amazon’s rumored tablet is very real, according to MG Siegler of TechCrunch. The ‘Amazon Kindle’ tablet runs a fully-customized version of the Android OS that “you’ve never seen before.” The device will sell for half the price of the entry-level iPad, and it’s expected to ship in November.
If you are already sick of the two U.S. political parties slugging it out for voters’ attention, get ready for a political drama closer to home: your smartphone. Yes, Apple and Android’s Google want you – specifically the ‘undecided’ amongst consumers yet to decide which smartphone to buy.
iEmu is a Kickstarter project from Chris Wade — one of the guy’s behind the first iPhone jailbreak — and his team, which is aiming to emulate iOS applications on Android, Mac and Windows devices. But is it really possible?
In one of those rare Cumbaya moments in the wild-and-wooly wireless industry, Samsung wants all Apple, Android, and BlackBerry to join hands in messaging togetherness. Okay, moment’s over. Samsung, which is locked in a legal mud-wrestling match with Apple and eyes BlackBerry-maker RIM the way a hungry tiger looks at a wounded gazelle, plans to announce “ChatON”, a messaging service compatible with all major mobile handsets.
