Google is hiring app developers to improve Android market

Google is now seriously thinking of getting into the mobile app industry. The search engine giant is going to hire software developers to create applications for smartphones and tablet PCs.

Apple App store is currently the market leader in the mobile app industry with a collection of more than 400,000 apps and 10 billionth app download as of January 22, 2011.

On the contrary, Google’s Android app store, Android Market, has more than 100,000 applications.

Google is going to hire “software engineers, product managers, user-interface experts and others who have ideas for mobile apps.” Some existing Google employees even changed jobs to speed up the effort.

According to Gartner Inc., revenue, generated from advertisements on free mobile apps and paid apps, is going to triple to $15.1 billion in 2011.

In order to grab a slice of the revenue, Google is required to produce better quality apps that would help the Android OS devices to gain more market share.

Related article:

The Wall Street Journal

AT&T missed customer growth target in the final quarter of iPhone exclusive deal

In the final quarter of its “exclusive U.S. deal with Apple” AT&T sold 4.1 million units of iPhones and 4,42,000 units of iPad and Android based tablets.

The network carrier published its fourth quarter financial results on January 27, 2011, which had been followed by a more than 3 percent dip in its share prices at the early morning trading as the company’s overall subscriber growth failed to reach target.

The carrier lost many users as the iPhone is about to be launched on Verizon Wireless. It added only 400,000 new subscribers in the current quarter, more than 100,000 subscribers less than Wall Street’s prediction and less than half of the 8,72,000 new subscribers of Verizon.

AT&T reported a profit of $1.09 billion or $0.18 per share which is 46 percent lower compared to its fourth quarter profit of $2.7 billion at the same quarter last year.

The company also observed growth in its “wireless data revenues” to $4.9 billion in the current quarter.

Related articles:

Apple Insider

The Mac Observer

Motorola Xoom tablet PC is coming on February 17th

Motorola Xoom tablet will be launched on February 17, 2011, at Best Buy. The U.S. Electronics retail store will receive a shipment of Motorola Xoom tablet with 32GB memories on February 16, 2011.

Leading tech website, Engadget, first published the news. Earlier, it also received a Verizon document showing the Minimum Advertised Price of the Motorola Xoom to be $799.99. In its latest update, it said that Best Buy would see Motorola Xoom for $699. Here are two official video clips of Motorola Xoom:

Here is the second official video:

Unveiled at CES 2011, The Motorola Xoom is the first tablet PC from Motorola and it will be launched in 2011. The device runs on Android 3.0 Honeycomb. Initially, the Xoom would support 3G network but a 4G network supporting version will be released soon.

Motorola Xoom has a 10.1 inch screen with a resolution of 1280x800 pixel. Other features include dual camera, dual-core NVIDIA Tegra 2 processor, 1GB DDR2 and Flash 10.1 support.

Related article:

Engadget

English woman became the 10 billionth app downloader from Apple iTunes

Gail Davis, a woman in Orpington, England, was the lucky winner of Apple App Store’s. Her daughter downloaded the 10 billionth app from Apple App store. It was a free app called Paper Glider.

When she got a call from Apple and was offered the prize, she replied, “Thank you very much; I’m not interested?” But when she came to know that her daughter downloaded the 10 billionth app she was ashamed and understood that the person from Apple was genuine.

She then called Apple again but this time Apple employee was not so polite with her. She said,

"The more I thought about it, the more I realized it was a genuine call. The girls were getting quite tense. They never would have forgiven me. They would have held it against me for all eternity."

She then received another call from the colleague of Eddy Cue, VP Apple iTunes. Apple announced that the 10billionth app downloader would receive $10,000 iTunes gift card.

Related article:

CNET

LG G-Slate tablet PC spotted on Seungri music video

The LG G-Slate tablet PC, that is scheduled to be launched on T-Mobile, has been spotted at the music video of the Korean Pop star Seungri. The tablets were spotted at 0.53 and 1.52.

Seungri is the stage name of Lee Seung-hyun and he is a member of the Korean group, Big Bang. It has been reported that LG has some kind of business relationship the band and for this reason LG showcased their product in the video. Here is the music video clip of the Seungri.

The video clip shows that the tablet has dual-camera. LG unveiled the tablet PC at the recently finished CES 2011. The device has an 8.9-inch screen and would run on Android 3.0 and it will be released on T-Mobile. Rumor also spread out that the G-Slate would sport a glasses-free 3D display and 3D camera but it has not been confirmed.

Verizon iPhone 4 costs more than AT&T

Verizon iPhone 4 is coming in February and it would cost you $50 more. The Verizon iPhone 4 and AT&T does not have any major difference except CDMA supporting chipset and a better antenna.

Both the carriers are offering 16GB iPhone4 for $200 and 32GB for $300 with two-year contract but there is a big difference in the retail price of the phones. At AT&T, the retail price of the 16GB iPhone 4 is $599 and Verizon is $649. The 32GB version costs $699 at AT&T while the 32GB version costs $749.

Existing Verizon phone owners, who would buy the iPhone 4 at full retail price, would receive $200 Visa Debit card. At the FAQ section, Verizon Wireless said:

A: Current Verizon customers who purchased and activated new smartphones, feature phones or certified pre-owned phones between Nov. 26, 2010, and Jan. 10 2011, are eligible to receive up to a $200 Visa debit card when they purchase an iPhone 4 at full retail price by Feb. 28, 2011 and return their existing phone. Note: This offer is only available on consumer accounts with five lines or less, who are purchasing iPhone 4 through Verizon Wireless retail stores, telesales, or through verizonwireless.com.

There would be fewer people who would pay the full retail price and would go for the $200 rebate plan but there are some major issues to consider such as Verizon’s data plan and data usage limits, extra costs. Early Termination Fee is another big issue.

Verizon has not revealed its data plan for the iPhone 4 and no specific reason has been mentioned behind this pricing difference but experts believe that Verizon would attract large number of iPhone owners.

Related articles:

PC Mag.com

CNN Tech

Apple App Store hits 10 billion download

Apple App Store has hit 10 billion download on January 22, 2011. On January 14, 2011, the company started its online counter. This is another major milestone for the Apple App store. The 10 billionth app downloader will receive $10,000 iTunes Gift Card.

Thanks to the ever rising popularity of the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPads, every day thousands of iOS device owners around the world are downloading various apps.

The interesting thing about this achievement is that even before the launch of the Verizon iPhone 4, Apple App store achieved this milestone. It would be only a matter of time, the App store would see 100 billion download. However, Apple never released the actual number of for purchase apps and free apps download.

The Apple App Store was launched in July 2008 with an initial collection of 500 apps. In less than one year, the app store saw one billionth app download. In early December 2010, Apple announced that the App store would not have any beta, demo or trial versions of its apps.

Related article:

T3

AMD posts $1.65 billion revenue in Q4 2010: Fusion APUs are gaining momentum

AMD announced its Q4 financial result of 2010. It posted $1.65 billion revenue, a 2 percent increase compared to the same quarter last year while its overall annual revenue stood at $6.49 billion, a 20 percent increase on a year-over-year basis.

The chipmaker’s quarterly net income stood at $375 million, operating income $413 million with $0.50 earnings per share while annual net income stood at $471 million with $0.64 earnings per share and $848 million operating income.

Thomas Seifert, who took over as the Senior vice president and Chief Financial Officer of AMD after Dirk Meyer, made some great announcement. He said that the company shipped 1.3 million Fusion APUs (Accelerated Processing Units) to its partners since November. At the company’s quarterly conference call, Siefert said:

"Industry momentum for Fusion is strong and growing. OEM adoption of Brazos is excellent. We shipped more than 1 million Brazos platforms in its debut quarter to world class OEMs including Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, Lenovo, MSI, Samsung, Sony and Toshiba,"

In the discrete graphics chip segment, AMD shipped more than 35 million units of its Radeon HD 5000 and HD 6000 series DirectX 11 GPUs. The company launched its first DirectX-11 graphics processors, ATI Radeon HD 5000 in 2009. In mid-October 2010, ATI announced to have shipped 25 million DX11 GPUs.

Related article:

Xbit

Google Offers will compete with Groupon

Google may not be able to buy Groupon, the online coupon serving website, it will not sit quietly. The search engine giant is well on its way to start its own local-deals website called “Google Offers.” The site is reported to be in the test phase.

Leading tech-website, Mashable, published pictures of a factsheet sent to them by a reliable source. The fact sheet says, “Google Offers is a new product to help potential customers and clientele find great deals in their area through a daily email,”

Google Offers operates the same way as Groupon or LivingSocial. Users receive an e-mail containing a deal offered via email. The user would have to accept the deal within a given hour and if enough people accept the deal, it will be “confirmed” or “on.”

Powered by Google Checkout, Google Offers enables users to share via email, Facebook, Twitter, Google Reader and Google Buzz.

Google is now communicating with different business organization to work with Google Offers. The company even assembled a writing team to create contents for the offers.

Last year, Google tried to acquire Groupon for $6 billion making it the biggest acquisition offer in the company’s history but it turned down the offer and is preparing for $15 billion IPO.

Related articles:

San Francisco Chronicle

Mashable

Facebook will take $1 billion from Goldman Sachs and disclose financial information next year

On January 21, 2011, Facebook, the leading social networking site of the world, announced that it has completed raising a $1.5 billion fund to expand its business.

It also announced to disclose its financial reports by April 30, 2012.

Most of the fund came from Goldman Sachs, the investment bank raised $1 billion from its overseas clients while Goldman and Sachs and a Russian investment firm called Digital Sky Technologies provided another $500 million.

On January 21, 2011, Goldman Sachs completed the offering of “Facebook Class A common stocks” to its overseas clients while in late December 2010, Goldman and DST raised $500 million.

Not only did the Goldman Sachs funding pushed the market value of Facebook to $50 billion but also made Facebook and Goldman Sachs subject to constant media scrutiny for the companies were believed to be circumventing the U.S security laws and refrain from disclosing financial information to the people.

If a company has more than 499 shareholders, according to the U.S. Security laws, it would have to disclose its financial information to the public and Facebook would cross that limit sometime this year even without the Goldman Sachs funding.

Of the $1.5 billion fund, Facebook has the option to accept somewhere between $375 million and $1.5 billion from Goldman Sachs but Facebook would only accept $1 billion. In a statement Facebook said that the Goldman Sachs offering was “oversubscribed.”

With the money, Facebook will continue investing in its business.

Related articles:

Reuters

Dealbook. New York Times.com

Bloomberg

HP Opal and Topaz tablet PC will sport touchstone, Beats audio and tap-to-share

By this time, all of you should know that HP is going to launch two tablet PCs with 9-inch and 7-inch display and the products will be unveiled on February 9, 2011.The tablet devices will be commonly known as “HP Touchpad” revealed from a trademark filing of HP. Both the devices would sport a 1.2GHz processor.

A recent leaked picture of the tablet PCs revealed that they would not have any physical buttons and will have a front-facing camera, a micro-USB port, and three speakers enabling users to enjoy audio in both landscape and portrait orientation.

They will also feature wireless inductive charging technology called “Touchstone.” The back of the tablet PC sports a glossy material indicating the possibility of a large “Touchstone charger.” It is a wireless charging dock that would convert the tablet into an alarm clock, digital photo frame and GPS unit.

The 7-inch device called Opal will be released in September in three flavors- WiFi-only, AT&T 3G, and Verizon LTE. Another version supporting the AT&T LTE would be launched in July 2012. The Opal tablet PC measuring 180mm x 144mm x 13mm will sport a TFT LCD display with a resolution of 1,024 x 768 pixel. It will be a reading focused device.

The 9-inch Topaz tablet will be released in March will measure 241mm x 190mm x 13mm almost the same size as iPad.

The tablet PCs will feature HP’s Beats audio processing and would offer cloud storage facilities allowing users to save and run their documents on any device.

Another feature called “Tap-to-Share” would allow users to transfer, a website, document or song from their phones to their tablet devices by simply tapping on the two devices together.

Other features include Flash support, answering your phone calls from tablet PC (Phone-to-tablet communication), accessing your music library via Wi-Fi or 3G and running twenty apps simultaneously.

Related articles:

Engadget

ZD Net

OffMaps: Now get your city guides on your iPhone and iPad

You are planning to visit a new city and you are worried that you would not be able to access your iPhone’s “native maps app” if you are out of 3G and Wi-Fi. Then you should turn to OffMaps, a map app that would work without any Internet connection.

The app, developed by Felix Lamouroux, allows you to download local city guides and store it in your iOS device and use it like any other regular maps app. The OffMaps guide contains a list of local landmarks, restaurants and various important locations. Here is a vide clip showing how the OffMaps works.

It is a “for purchase” app with an initial entry fee of $2 and two free guide downloads. After that you would have to buy three tokens for $1 and every time you download a guide, you would have to pay with the tokens you bought.

Now, this is a good option for those who do not travel regularly but if you are a frequent traveler then it would cost you a lot of money just to download the city guides. For those who travel frequently and want to use this app all the time, should opt for unlimited downloads for $9.

Another great thing about the OffMaps is that if you download the app on your iPhone and iPad, you would not have to pay for using it on two different devices and you can sync the app between these two devices. The synching capability is limited to the iPhone and iPad

The OffMaps also allows you to access Wikipedia entries on your iOS device which means you can easily get all the necessary information about your tourist destination.

For more information visit: http://www.offmaps.com/

The iPad 2: Thinner, lighter, brighter display, micro SD, dual-camera and more

So far what we have heard, the second generation iPad will be thinner and lighter, and would feature a better display. It will also have a powerful processor and would support both CDMA and GSM network. The new iPad would also have SD card slot and dual-camera for taking pictures and Face Time video chat.

The first gen iPad was released in April. Since Apple releases its upgraded products after one year, it is widely believed that iPad 2 will also be launched in April. The new iPad will be thinner and lighter because Apple never makes its product upgrades heavier than its predecessors. Here is a picture of the two iPads showing how the second gen iPad would look like.

The iPad fans have been asking for a camera on their favorite device and Apple is going to fulfill their wish by providing two cameras on the device. Recently, another rumor came up that the iPad 2 would have a retina display but that is not the case. It would have a display with double the resolution of current iPad display. The new iPad display would have a resolution of 2048x1536 with 226 pixel per inch.

If you all remember the poolside TV commercial of Amazon Kindle 3 poking fun at the iPad reader. The new iPad screen can be used under sunlight as well. It will also have a spill-resistant body.

The iPad 2 will have a dual-core processor and more memory. It has also been reported that the new iPad 2 will have a Qualcomm chipset supporting CDMA/GSM network. It will also have a micro SD card slot but no USB slot.

Related article:

MSNBC.com

Gizmodo

Larry Page is named Google CEO: Schmidt will be Executive Chairman

On January 20, 2010, Google announced that Eric Schmidt will step down as the head of Google and his place will be taken up by Larry Page, the co-founder of Google. Schmidt will be replaced in April 2011.

Eric Schmidt has been serving as Google’s CEO since August 2001, when Kleiner Perkins, one of the chief investors of Google, insisted that the company should be under “adult supervision” as it was preparing for an IPO. The venture capitalists that invested in Google thought that Google’s IPO would be successful if the investors see Google is being led by an experienced Silicon Valley executive. Over the years, Larry Page, Eric Schmidt and Sergey Brin jointly looked after the company and Schmidt was responsible for executive decisions.

In a post at the official Google blog, Eric Schmidt said,

Larry will now lead product development and technology strategy, his greatest strengths, and starting from April 4 he will take charge of our day-to-day operations as Google’s Chief Executive Officer. In this new role I know he will merge Google’s technology and business vision brilliantly. I am enormously proud of my last decade as CEO, and I am certain that the next 10 years under Larry will be even better! Larry, in my clear opinion, is ready to lead.

Mr. Schmidt will serve as Executive Chairman while Sergey Brin would work on various strategic projects and will remain as “Co-Founder.” Schmidt referred Brin as “an innovator and entrepreneur to the core and his role suits him perfectly.”

Related articles:

San Francisco Gate

ZD Net

T-Mobile will launch Samsung Galaxy S and Sidekick supporting 4G HSPA+

T-Mobile is going to launch a new Sidekick messenger phone supporting its 4G HSPA+ network and a new Samsung Galaxy S 4G aka Vibrant 4G smartphone.

On January 20, 2010, at an event, Philipp Humm, CEO, T-Mobile said that his company is going to launch a 4G version of its Sidekick phones. The new Sidekick 4G would run on Android OS. He did not give out further details but it is believed that the Sidekick will come with the Gingerbread.

The T-Mobile Sidekick, earlier known as Danger Hiptop, was produced by Danger Inc. In 2008, Danger Inc. was acquired by Microsoft. The Sidekick has a tumultuous history. In 2009, after the data loss incident in October, T-Mobile temporarily stopped selling the phone. Then in July 2010, the carrier stopped selling the phone. However, at the same month, news of a newly developed Sidekick supporting its HSPA+ network came up.

T-Mobile will launch 25 4G supporting products in the market in 2011. It would launch Dell Streak 7, T-Mobile G-Slate tablet PC with Android Honeycomb, Sidekick and a new laptop data stick with a peak download speed of 42Mbps in the first six months.

The Samsung Galaxy S 4G will be announced at the upcoming MWC. Samsung said that it is going to make major announcement at a press conference on February 13, 2010.

Related articles:

PC Mag.com

T-Mobile

ZD Net

Tech Land

Nokia N9: The first smartphone with Intel processor is coming at MWC 2011

Nokia is gearing up with the MeeGo OS and Intel chip equipped smartphone to break into the U.S. smartphone market. News reports said that the Finnish handset maker is going to introduce Nokia N9 slider smartphone at the Mobile World Congress 2011.

The Nokia N9 phone will sport a 1.2GHz Atom processor and it will be the first smartphone with Intel processor. Reputed Finnish technology magazine, Prosessori, reported that the phone will be unveiled at the upcoming Mobile World Congress, during the keynote speech of Nokia’s CEO, Stephen Elop.

The way Nokia failed to establish itself in the U.S. smartphone market, Intel is yet to establish itself in the mobile device chip market.

Earlier, Nokia was planning to introduce a Maemo based phone with TI OMAP processors but all that has changed. At the 2010 Mobile World Congress, Intel and Nokia, in a joint press conference, announced that Intel’s Moblin and Nokia’s Maemo will be rolled into a new platform called MeeGo that can run on “Moorestown platform.” In December 2010, Intel’s Paul Otellini said that smartphones with Medfield-based CPUs will be release in the middle of 2011. Medfield is the successor of Moorestown platform-based processors.

Related article:

MIBZ

Apple will not get into exclusive contract with carriers anymore

Apple signed a new non-exclusive contract with AT&T aside from Verizon this means there is a possibility for iPhone to become available on T-Mobile and Sprint as well.

From now on Apple will not get into any exclusive contract with any carrier. Apple COO, Tim Cook, said, “we are not in a contractual exclusivity now in any country in the world; the last one was the US. We have moved away from those.” Cook also said that in several markets, when they moved out from “exclusive carrier agreement to dual-or multi-carrier agreement” their market share increase.

However, Cook did not comment if Apple would launch its CDMA iPhone 4 in other markets. On January 17, 2010, Steve Jobs took his third leave of absence and appointed Tim Cook to look after Apple’s “day-to-day” operations.

Absence of Jobs worried investors but Apple’s holiday sales result eased their concern. On January 18, 2010, Apple posted the financial result of its holiday quarter results. Profit rose 78 percent driven by the sales of iPads, iPhone and Mac PCs. Net Income rose to $6 billion or $6.43 per share from $3.38 billion or $3.67 in 2009. Sales gained 71 percent to a record $26.7 billion with high demands of iPhone 4, iPad and new MacBook Air laptops.

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Bloomberg

Apple Insider

Starbucks starts nation wide mobile payment system

From now on, Starbucks customers will be able to pay through their iPhones, iPod Touch or BlackBerry. From January 19, 2011, Starbucks officially launched its mobile payment program. Nearly 6,800 Starbucks stores will now accept mobile payments but in order to do so customers would have to install the Starbucks Card Mobile app on their devices.

The pilot mobile payment program was launched at Target stores and selected Starbucks stores in San Francisco, Seattle, and New York. Mashable reports:

Starbucks Card Mobile [iTunes link] lets users add their Starbucks Cards, track rewards and reload cards as needed via PayPal or credit card. To pay with their phone, app users simply select “touch to pay” and hold up the barcode on their mobile device screen to the 2-D scanner at the register.

The Android version of the app is now under development and Starbucks did not mention any release date.

Payment via cell phones is yet to become popular in America and Starbucks is the biggest company to implement the mobile payment system. Another big problem is that retailers are required to install cellphone screen scanners that are quite expensive.

Starbucks is using custom-built 2-D mobile barcode scans developed by the company. The company did not opt for NFC system for it is not widely available.

HP Pavilion dm1z with AMD Fusion chip costs $450

HP has launched its Pavilion dm1z netbook that comes with AMD’s Fusion chip that combines CPU and GPU on the same chip. It is the first netbook with the AMD Fusion chip.

The netbook measures 11.45'' x 8.45'' x 0.9'' - 1.25'' and weighs 3.53 lbs. On the outside it has a black rubberized cover with silver color finish.

HP Pavilion dm1z sports a dual-core 1.6GHz E350 Zacate processor and dual DX-11 SIMDs at 500 MHz and AMD Radeon HD 6310 GPU on the same chip. It is equipped with 3GB DDR3 memory and 320GB HDD.

Engadget says:

…….the 1.6GHz E350 processor and 3GB of RAM managed to pull in 2,510 on PCMarkVantage – that's 987 more than a dual-core Atom N550 netbook and 999 more than a previous AMD Neo processor (though, only a few more points than a dual-core Neo processor). Anecdotal performance was in line with that as well – the dm1z felt much faster than any Atom netbook and closer to a ULV laptop like the ThinkPad Edge 11. We saw zero lag while simultaneously running Microsoft Word Starter 2010, TweetDeck, Skype, Trillian, and Firefox with 10 tabs open. Throwing a 1080p video into the mix didn't slow the system either. The only time we really did see the system start gasping for air was when we tried to install Batman: Arkham Asylum while running a few other programs in the background.

Computer World.com says:

.....the dm1z scored 55 in our WorldBench 6 tests. Most Atom-based netbooks (even the dual-core models) can't do better than around 35-40.....The integrated Radeon HD 6310M graphics performs quite well, offering full DirectX 11 compatibility and outperforming the integrated graphics on Intel's Atom CPUs by a factor of 3 or more. A game like Torchlight can be played with all the settings cranked up, and Left 4 Dead 2 runs amazingly well, but more intensive titles like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 will require you to reduce the settings to keep things smooth.....The fan gets a bit loud during gaming sessions, but never really spun up at all when we used the Pavilion dm1z for other tasks. 1080p web video plays smoothly and looks great. I even tried out the $130 external USB Blu-ray drive option, and hi-def Blu-ray movies are smooth, sharp...flawless.

The netbook has a chiclet keyboard with full size keys. The matte keys have a rubbery feeling and very comfortable to type. The clickpad is close to the keyboard and while typing the user’s wrist would accidentally touch the pad causing the cursor to jump around but it can be turned off by tapping on a small LED in the upper left corner.

Wireless communications include Gigabit Ethernet and 802.11 b/g/n wireless, and Bluetooth 3.0 (Ralink Motorola BC8).

The laptop is equipped with a 11.6-inch HD glossy display with LED backlighting 1366 x 768 HD glossy display with LED backlighting.

I/O ports include three USB sockets, headphone / microphone jack, VGA and HDMI outputs, and an Ethernet port, and a 2-in-1 card reader on the left edge.

The device is equipped with 6-cell Li-ion battery and comes with Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit). PC Mag.com says:

Battery life was easily the biggest question mark, since AMD is known to underwhelm in this department. The AMD E-350, for the record, will put these worries to rest. It's as battery efficient as an Intel Atom N550, holding its own with a score of 7 hours 8 minutes—3 minutes better than the Atom-equipped Samsung NF310 (7:05).

The HP Pavilion dm1z would cost $449 and you can also upgrade to Windows 7 professional, 4GB or 8GB RAM, up to 750GB of HDD or 128 GB SSD and a spare battery but that would drive the total cost up to $1000.

Taiwanese hardware makers will ship two million tablet PCs in the first quarter of 2011

With the rise in non-Apple tablet PCs, Taiwanese hardware makers are expecting large shipments in the first quarter of 2011. Digitimes reported that Quanta Computer Inc. has started the production of one million RIM PlayBook tablet PCs.

RIM is known for making products targeted towards corporate people. Its BlackBerry smartphone is very much popular among business people. Quanta Computer expects such huge demand for RIM PlayBook as well.

Motorola Xoom is reported to have placed orders for 700,000-800,000 tablet PCs and it would top one million units in the first quarter. However, Quanta Computer officials did not comment on the matter.

With shipments of more than one million Samsung Galaxy tabs, total supply of

non-iPad tablet PCs would go up to three-million in the first quarter of 2011.

RIM PlayBook was unveiled in September 2010. In March, RIM will launch a Wi-Fi only version of the PlayBook while a 3G version with Push Mail functions will be launched after that. RIM would also launch another version of PlayBook supporting 4G-LTE in cooperation with Sprint Nextel in the second quarter.

The Motorola Xoom on the other hand, will be launched in February 2011 and another version supporting the 4G LTE network will be launched later this year.

Related articles:

Digi Times

eWeek

Verizon Wireless is now available at Apple retail store EasyPay terminal

Now Verizon Wireless is available at the EasyPay terminal at Apple stores. With this service, new iPhone buyers would be able to know if they are eligible for upgrade.

On January 11, 2011, Verizon unveiled Verizon iPhone 4 which will be launched on February 11, 2011. Here is a screen shot of the EasyPay “Check Upgrade Eligibility.”

The new Verizon iPhone 4 would support Verizon 3G CDMA network and unlike the AT&T’s 3G GSM network, Verizon’s CDMA network would not support simultaneous voice and data transmission. However, Verizon iPhone 4 can be used as a Wi-Fi hotspot supporting up to five devices.

At the press conference, Verizon officials said that its calling plans would remain the same for Verizon iPhone 4 users. However, Verizon did not give out details of its data plans for its existing subscribers and new iPhone subscribers.

With the availability of iPhone on Verizon, a heated debate has started if iPhone’s availability would affect Google Android based handsets. According to MSNBC’s Rick Aristotle Munarriz, Google Android does not need to worry about Apple because Google Android is backed by top handset producers like Samsung, LG and Motorola

and there are lots of room for growth for both parties.

Related articles:

Apple Insider

MSNBC

Dell Adamo is now available for $799

Price of Dell Adamo has been slashed one more. This time, Dell is offering its Adamo laptop for $799. In December 2010, the price was reduced to $899.

The Dell Adamo measures 13.03'' x 0.65'' x 9.5'' and weighs 3.97 lb. The laptop has 13.4-inch HD (720p) WLED display with a 1366x768 resolution. It has full-size keyboard with backlighting and scalloped and metallic key cap.

It is now being offered with 1.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo SU9400 processor with 800MHz FSB and 3MB cache and 2GB DDR3 SDRAM at 800MHz instead of the earlier 2.1GHz Core 2 Duo SL9600 processor and 4GB DDR3-800 RAM.

It has 128GB SSD, 1.3 megapixel webcam, 256MB Intel GS45 Graphics Media Accelerator, and 6-cell Lit-Ion battery.

Wireless options include Intel 5300 WLAN 802.11n (3x3) mini card, Dell Wireless 5530 HSPA mini card for AT&T, Dell Wireless 370 Bluetooth Module (2.1+EDR).

The laptop comes with pre-installed Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit OS.

The Dell Adamo laptop was introduced at the 2009 Consumer Electronics Show and was created to compete with Apple MacBook laptops.

Related article:

CNET

Apple iPad2 will have higher resolution screen and Qualcomm dual-mode chipset

Apple iPad 2 is rumored to have a higher resolution screen and new chipset to support both GSM and CDMA network. A new graphics discovered in Apple iBook app shows it to be true. However, the display of the iPad 2 will not be the Retina display that is found in iPhone 4.

The display of iPhone 4 has 326 ppi which has more resolution than a typical human eye. Hence, it is called Retina display. The original iPad comes with a 9.7 inch screen and has a resolution of 1024x768 (at 132 ppi). Building a 9.7 inch screen with more than 300 ppi would require exceptionally high resolution.

So, instead of building a Retina display for the iPad2, Apple decided to increase the native resolution of the display of the iPad2 four times than that of the iPhone 4 creating a very high resolution display with a pixel density of around 260ppi.

It has also been reported that Apple would strap iPad2 with Qualcomm chipset instead of Infineon chipset it has been using in its first-gen iPad. The Qualcomm chipset would support both CDMA and GSM network but not the 4G LTE network. However, it has not been confirmed if the chipsets would be based on Qualcomm’s “EV-DO/HSPA Gobi variety or an entirely new design.”

Such change has been brought to enable the second gen-iPad run on both Verizon and AT&T’s network.

Related articles:

Apple Insider

CNET

Mozilla Firefox 4 beta 9 released on January 14th

On January 14, 2011, Mozilla released the Beta-9 version of its Firefox 4 browser. The first beta was released in July and the last beta was released on December 22, 2010. The next version is believed to be a release candidate. It has been reported that the final version will be released by the end of next month.

So far, the beta versions indicate that the Firefox 4 is going to be much faster than its predecessors. Firefox 4 Beta-9 offers better user-control over browsing. Features like App Tabs and Panorama makes it very easier to navigate and it also has faster page-load speed and can better handle various applications and games.

Mozilla said that in Beta-8, they fixed 1400 bugs while Beta-9 has 662 bug fixes. Digital Trends reports:

……Firefox Sync is integrated into the browser, giving you access to your Awesome Bar history, bookmarks, open tabs and passwords across computers and smartphones.

Firefox 4 Beta 9 makes it easier for web developers to create apps and Websites. This release includes full support for HTML5, WebM and HD video, 3D graphic rendering with WebGL, hardware acceleration and the Mozilla Audio API to help create visual experiences for sound.

Chris Blizzard, Director of Product Platform Management, has been very pleased with the performance of the new beta. He referred it a “huge pile of awesome.”

Currently 400 million users worldwide, Firefox heavily relies on feedback and testing from its community. Already, it has more user-base in Europe.

HP tablet PC would be unveiled on February 9, 2011

At the recently finished CES 2011, Todd Bradley, Executive Vice President, Hewlett-Packard’s Personal Systems Group, said that his company would unveil WebOS tablet on February 9, 2011.

In an interview with CNBC, at CES 2011, when asked how HP tablet would differentiate itself from iPad, he said “you and I will talk about that on the 9^th.” During the interview, he further said that it was the WebOS platform that interested HP to acquire Plam back in 2010 and WebOS would play a major role in HP’s plan to enter into the mobile phone arena.

On January 4, 2011, HP sent out invitations of a WebOS event in San Francisco. The invitation, which says, “Think Big, Think small, Think Beyond” led many to believe that HP will unveil its WebOS tablet PC at the event. Aside from tablet PCs, HP will unveil other products.

In CES 2009, Palm Inc. introduced Palm Pre, the first webOS based smartphone, which was launched in the mid-2009. Though the phone was widely appreciated by tech industry critics, it did not see much success. Later, HP acquired the company for $1.2 billion in April 2010.

Specs of HP tablet leaked on Internet earlier. On July 9, 2010, HP filed for a trademark for the term “PalmPad” which many thought would be the name of HP’s future tablet product. The device has been said to be supporting WiMAX. If that is true, then it might run on Sprint’s WiMAX-based 4G network. Thinner than iPad, the PalmPad will weigh 1.25lbs and will have rounded edges.

Other features include a mini-HDMI port, USB 3.0 port, a "multi-switch" like the Palm Pre, a 1.3-megapixel front-facing and a 3-megapixel rear-facing camera and two LED flashes.

Related articles:

Fierce Wireless

Tablet PC Review.com

BlackBerry Dakota specs leaked on Internet: Sports NFC and Micro USB

Specs of BlackBerry Dakota, the upcoming hybrid phone (physical keyboard and touchscreen) of RIM has been leaked on Internet. It was first reported by Boy Genius Report.

The phone will be Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE and Tri-band UMTS. It will have a thickness of 10.5mm and a 2.8-inch capacitive touchscreen with VGA 640X480 resolution. Compared to the 3.2-inch diagonal display of the BlackBerry torch, it is quite smaller but offers same resolution. However, images on Dakota’s screen would look sharper.

It will also have a 5 megapixel camera with HD video recording, flash and image stabilization. The phone will have 4GB memory and 768GB RAM. Wireless features include Wi-Fi b/g/n on 2.4GHz and 5GHz frequencies. The device would also serve as a 3G mobile hotspot.

Other features include- Micro USB port, Bluetooth, Near Field Communication (NFC), magnetometer, accelerometer, and proximity sensor. The phone will come with BlackBerry OS 6.1. RIM recently launched its developer tools for BlackBerry 6.1

Photos of BlackBerry Dakota surfaced back in early 2010. It is the first BlackBerry phones to sport NFC. Another important thing about the BlackBerry Dakota is that shuns the trackball. The keyboard design resembles with that of the 9700.

Related article:

Boy Genius Report

Information Week

Google will drop H.264 from Chrome browser: Starts a heated debate on the web

On January 11, 2011, Google announced that it would remove H.264 playback in its Chrome web browser. In its Chrome Official blog, the search engine giant said that it would gradually remove H.264 in the next few months. It would inform its content publishers and developers, who are using HTML

Google said that it is removing H.264 support for it is a closed system and Google is devoted to develop an “open and community-driven” web. Google will continue to support open codec technologies. From now on, Google will support only two formats- WebM codec and Theora.

The WebM project was launched in 2010 which is a free “web video standard.” The WebM technology had been actually developed by a company called On2. Google acquired On2 and opened up its VP8 codec. On the contrary, the H.264 technology is patented and adopters are required to pay royalties to MPEG-LA, a licensing consortium.

After the announcement, a heated debate started all over the web. Many are supporting Google while others are opposing its decision saying that it would only hamper the progress of the web for the WebM technology is not widespread like H.264.

Related articles:

Ars Technica

PC Mag.com

Apple Holiday season earnings announcement brings huge expectations among financial analysts

Apple is going to post its Holiday season earnings report in less than a week and it stirred a fresh round of predictions among financial analysts and all expects nothing less than “Great.” Let’s hope Apple can live up to their expectations.

RBC Capital Markets analyst, Mike Abramsky, predicts an 84 percent increase in the iPhone sales to 16 million units over the holidays on a year-over-year basis. Compared to the 14.1 million sales figure in the September 2010 quarter, this will be much bigger earning the company a “Holiday Hattrick.”

He further predicted that Apple would sell 6 million iPads and 4.2 million Macs in the holiday season.

As for 2011, Abramsky expects Apple to sell 70 million iPhones accounting for 19 percent of the world smartphone market

On January 11, 2010, at a New York press conference, Verizon Wireless, the largest network carrier in the U.S., launched a 3G CDMA version of the iPhone 4. This is great news not only for iPhone fans but investors as well. Post announcement, Peter Misek of Jefferies & Company predicts a rise of $450 per Apple share from a previous price of $365.

He thinks that Apple would unveil two iPhone models- one by October supporting the 4G LTE network while a GSM-based iPhone 5 in June. He further predicts a new 4G-based iPad in late 2011.

The Wall Street Journal’s Brett Arends wrote that over the past five years, Apple stocks gained 56 percent on an average per year and if it continues to rise at a similar rate then by 2014 Apple’s market value would become $1.25 trillion. Even if it grows at a rate of 20 percent a year, its market value would become $333 billion making it more valuable than Exxon Mobil, Procter & Gamble and Johnson & Johnson.

Related articles:

The Wall Street Journal

Cult of Mac

Apple Insider

Google Android 2.4 aka Ice Cream Sandwich is coming after Android 3.0?

Google is not yet finished with its Android 2.X version. Rumor is out that the search engine giant is going to unveil a new version, Android 2.4, codenamed Ice Cream at the Google I/O conference in May 2011. Tech Crunch reported that the code name of the OS is “Ice Cream Sandwich” and it was mentioned by none other than the head of Android Andy Rubin during the launch of Google Nexus S in December.

Unlike the distributors of Linux OS, who publish release schedules for hardware vendors and third party app developers, Google does not give out any release schedule of its Android OS.

Google names all its Android OS after various desserts- Android 1.5 “Cupcake” released on April 30, 2009; Android 1.6 “Donut” released on September 15, 2009;

Android 2.0 “Eclair” released on October 26, 2009; Android 2.2 “Froyo” meaning Frozen Yogurt released on May 20, 2010; and Android 2.3 “Gingerbread” was released on December 6, 2010.

What makes all this so confusing is that the upcoming version is Android 3.0 aka Honeycomb. If Google is releasing Android 3.0 then the next version should be Android 3.1 but why Android 2.4?

All this confusion started with Sony Xperia Arc smartphone which was unveiled at CES 2011. Android 2.4 had been mentioned at the firmware configuration of Xperia Arc but Sony Ericsson officials said that it was a mistake.

What I think is Google is planning to roll out different versions of Android focusing on different devices. Android 3.0 has been reported to be focused on tablet PCs while Android 2.x version would focus on smartphones but it is all a guess. What do you think?

Related articles:

Ars Technica

Tech Crunch

Apple and Microsoft fight over “App Store”

Looks like Apple and Microsoft is going to get into another nasty fight over “App store.” In 2008, Apple filed for a trademark on the term “App Store” but Microsoft is arguing that “App” and “Store” are generic terms and other companies should be able to use them as well.

Apple submitted a file in 2008 with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. In the filing, Apple defined “App Store” as "retail store services featuring computer software provided via the internet and other computer and electronic communication networks."

In July 2008, Apple launched its App Store for iOS device owners including the Apple iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. The app store offers both free and paid apps.

Today, the Apple App Store is the most successful app store in the world with a collection of more than 300,000 apps. In just nine month since its launch, the app store observed one billion download. On January 6, 2011, Apple also launched Mac App Store for its Mac OS X devices.

On January 11, 2010, Microsoft filed a motion with Trademark Trial and Appeal Board challenging Apple’s claim.

Microsoft launched its own app store, Windows Market Place, along with the launch of its Windows Phone 7 OS in October 2010. To mid-December, it had 4,000 apps.

Related article:

Daily Tech

Android will have a great 2011: Scott Webster

Scott Webster has written at Cnet- Android in 2011: Bigger, faster, thinner, lighter. He has nothing but praise for this OS from Google. I also share his idea and I think that Android will have larger market share by the end of 2011.

Mr. Webster has stated that Android based phones will have larger display or screen size. I think that it has many advantages but also, size may matter if we want to carry our smartphones in our pockets. As for design, I am very happy to know the phones will become thinner and weight will decrease.

Just take a look at the following report: Android beats Apple iPhone in US market share

Many people think that iPhone will dominate in US market and most probably it will happen but you have to remember that as a platform or OS, Android is supported by companies like HTC, LG, Motorola and even Sony Ericsson. So, Android is naturally going to be a much bigger platform than Apple’s iOS.

I think that the main battleground for smartphones will soon be shifted to Asian countries like China, Japan and Korea. 

Still Love the Opera Browser: TechCrunch users may like IE

The only time, I used Internet Explorer was from December 2001 to March 2002. Then, I found Opera browser to surf Internet and never looked back. Those days, Opera was Ad supported but still, I enjoyed it more than IE. To me, IE was always heavy and slow. I just used it only when the web page did not load well in Opera (like some websites of newspapers in my mother tongue).

Then Firefox came and I realized that I even did not need to use IE even for most of the pages that Opera could not load well. Firefox became my tool for using websites like Gmail and Blogger. When Chrome came, I found another good browser and it became really very easy for me to totally leave Internet Explorer.

I honestly cannot remember when it is the last time that I used Internet Explorer continuously for one hour to browse Internet. I am almost sure that it has not happened in the last 6 months.

That is why, I got surprised that largest number of users came to TechCrunch via IE instead of Chrome or Firefox. Well, AOL home page is the secret behind it. 

Verizon iPhone 4: Coming to you in February 2011

I just finished reading the live coverage of Verizon New York Conference and there you go readers, the Verizon iPhone 4 has been announced today. At a New York press conference at Lincoln Center - Frederick P. Rose Hall, Verizon COO, Lowell Macadam, President & COO, Verizon, announced the Verizon iPhone 4. He started with Verizon’s supreme network infrastructure. Verizon was the first to offer “100GB commercial service.” He said that Verizon and Apple have been working to bring Apple on CDMA network since 2008. In late 2010, Verizon started to offer iPad on its network. Finally, Verizon brings the iPhone 4.

We would have to go back only three years ago when there was no iPhone and the network carriers exercised tight control over their handsets and the contents. Apple then sat with Verizon to launch its new phone called iPhone but the two companies failed to reach any agreement for both of them were not ready to give up their controls over their products. As a result, Apple tagged up with AT&T and launched the device and the rest is known to you all.

Today, is the day of Apple and iPhone. Finally, Verizon is launching the Apple iPhone. It is also great news for numerous Apple iPhone fans all over the U.S. They have been waiting for this day. iPhone owners are unhappy with AT&T’s standard of service. Comparatively, Verizon network has better coverage in the region.

This brings us to another million dollar question- Can Verizon’s network handle the huge data pressure created by iPhone users? Well, no body could give any clear answer for that. However, Verizon has a better network coverage compared to AT&T.

Lowell then invited, Tim Cook, COO, Apple Inc. the stage to talk about the CDMA Verizon iPhone 4. The CDMA Verizon iPhone 4 would become available on Verizon from early next month. He said that Apple is very “excited to bring the iPhone to Verizon's customers." He further said,

"We're incredibly pleased to give Verizon's customers the choice we've been waiting for. We've designed an iPhone 4 which connects to the CDMA network -- and it has all the features that you'd expect. Like FaceTime. Features like Apple's stunning Retina Display……5 megapixel camera, HD video... the custom A4 chip. But most importantly, it provides an integrated customer experience that's far beyond what anyone else is providing. From iOS, to iTunes, to the App Store -- they're all designed to work together."

Existing Verizon subscribers would be able to place pre-orders starting from February 3, 2011 and from February 10, 2011, customers would get the phone in Apple and Verizon stores. The 16GB Verizon iPhone 4 would cost $199 while the 32GB version would cost $299. The device would also have free 3G Mobile Hotspot application for Wi-Fi tethering.

Now, do not get so excited. There are some things you should know about the Verizon iPhone 4. First, the Verizon iPhone would support Verizon’s 3G network, not the new 4G LTE network. According to Tim Cook, there were two reasons-First, the 4G LTE supporting chipsets required lots of design modification to Apple iPhone. Second, Verizon customers are not ready to wait that long. There is a huge demand of Verizon iPhone and Apple had to react on time. Verizon spokesperson, Dan Dee said that Verizon has a “tremendous 3G network” and his company took advantage of it. This means, you would see Verizon iPhone supporting the 4G LTE network later this year or who knows may be in February 2012.

If you remember, there was a major hullabaloo over the “Antennagate” issue of the iPhone 4. When asked if the Verizon iPhone 4 would have the same problem, Tim Cook said that his company made changes in the phone’s antenna to support CDMA network and assured reporters that the new device would not have any antenna problem.

Another big shocker for Verizon iPhone enthusiasts- the device would not handle simultaneous voice and data transmission.

I want to end this post with a good news. The Verizon Apple has a “multi-year, non exclusive deal” which means there is a possibility that the iPhone would become available in Sprint and T-Mobile. Now that Verizon has got iPhone, who do you think will be the next to get Apple’s blessings?

Related article:

Engadget

Tablets, Tablets everywhere but not too Many to Buy

CES 2011 was clearly dominated by tablet devices and there is no doubt that 2011 will be the year of tablet. However, still now, there are not too many to find in the markets.

Apple’s iPad is quite old and we are waiting for the second version of this product. The announcement may come from Apple any day this month. Samsung’s Galaxy Tab has also become some old. Except these two, there is hardly any tablet device that you can buy in a shop near you.

We wonder why companies like Acer, ASUS and RIM are taking so much time when time is really the important factor at this moment. 

Verizon iPhone Announcement: Time and Live Streaming Information

On January 11, 2011, Verizon is going to have a press conference in New York, where the company is going to unveil the new iPhone. It was first reported by The Wall Street Journal. The new iPhone would support Verizon’s CDMA network not the 4GLTE. Many people are eagerly waiting to get the details of the press conference. Many reputed tech blogs and websites would provide live coverage of the event. Unfortunately, we tried to find out which blog or website would provide live streaming of the conference but we could not find any. If anyone of you know any website or blog that is providing live streaming of the event please let us know. We would give out the link of that website or blog.

All Things Digital will provide live coverage of the event. I could not find any separate link but keep checking the blog.

Engadget has posted the time of the live coverage of the Verizon press conference. Here are the times-

06:00AM - Hawaii

08:00AM - Pacific

09:00AM - Mountain

10:00AM - Central

11:00AM - Eastern

04:00PM - London

05:00PM - Paris

07:00PM - Moscow

12:00AM - Perth (January 12th)

12:00AM - Shenzhen (January 12th)

01:00AM - Tokyo (January 12th)

03:00AM - Sydney (January 12th)

Another reputed tech website CNET would also give live coverage of the Verizon iPhone press conference. For more information visit:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-30686_3-20028073-266.html

Another website called iSmashphone.com would also provide live coverage of the event. For more information visit: http://www.ismashphone.com/2011/01/save-the-date-verizon-iphone-press-conference-live-blog.html

Here are some more links to websites that would provide live coverage of the Verizon press conference: http://www.differentdistrict.com/more.php?id=4507_0_25_0_C

Here is a video clip from The Wall Street Journal tech blog digits, where the experts talk about Verizon iPhone:

The invitation Verizon Wireless sent to the media people did not mention anything about iPhone.

After the news of Verizon came out, the media went into a frenzy, reports and blog posts started to talk about possible outcomes of the Verizon iPhone. However, the biggest question that is on everybody’s mind is- Will be Verizon be able to handle the data demand of iPhone users? Nobody could give any clear answer but iPhone users are not happy with AT&T. In early December Consumer Reports published results of a “satisfaction survey” it conducted on its 58,000 subscribers. AT&T came out as the worst carrier in the U.S. Paul Reynolds, Electronics Editor for Consumer Reports also said that iPhone from Verizon will be “good news” for iPhone fans.