Mobile Devices - Page 182

Originally, I didn't want to use the headline with a swear word in it, but it does look catchy. Now that you're reading this news, the latest news out of the UK will interest you in regards to Apple's iPhone 4S personal assistant, Siri.

A demo version of the phone was on display in Tesco, where a 12-year-old kid was testing it and asked Siri "How many people are there in the world?" Siri replied with "Shut the f**k up, you ugly tw**." Wow. Just wow, Siri.

UK-based newspaper, The Sun, had an exclusive story, where the mother of the child is obviously rather shocked and annoyed with Siri's response. She told The Sun:

DigiTimes are reporting that Apple is going to unveil its next-generation iPad in January, where it will also unveil two different versions of the iPad. DigiTimes' sources claim that it is scheduled for iWorld which is being held on January 26, 2012.

The new models are set to join the existing iPad 2 to demonstrate Apple's iPad series targeting the entry-level, mid-range, and high-end market segments, the sources claimed. The sources said:

The next iPad is expected to sport the same 9.7-inch screen, but boast a QXGA resolution of 2048x1536, which would be quite amazing. Dual LED light bars are designed for the new iPads to strengthen the brightness of the panels, DigiTimes' sources said. Samsung are will manufacturing the A6 quad-core processors that will be used in the next iPad, with the existing iPad 2 only being the dual-core A5 processor.

Apple's biggest competitor, Samsung, will reportedly launch the Galaxy S III, the successor to the most popular Android smartphone on the market, Galaxy S II, at Mobile World Congress in February. At the same time they're said to be launching a new 3D-capable range of devices in the first quarter of 2012.

Almost a year after they launched the Galaxy S II, could Samsung really do it again? How could it be much better than the Galaxy S II? Well, it's expected to sport a quad-core processor and possibly even include 3D technology as Samsung look to differentiate their phone from the iPhone.

With 3D photo and video recording capabilities being baked into additional Samsung-branded smartphones next year, coming to a device being referred to as Galaxy S 3D, which helps users deliver 3D content to their 3D TVs. This device could be launched in Q2 2012. Right now, of course, the usual pinch of salt is required.

In a surprising move, The Pentagon have just officially certified an Android-powered device, alongside Android 2.2 for use on the Defense Department networks, which marks the first move away from RIM's BlackBerry. This is the first smartphone since the BlackBerry to receive approval.

The approval went to Dell's Venue, with Dell's now discontinued Streak tablet being the previously approved device. Other Android-based manufacturers such as Samsung, Motorola, HTC and others were not covered in the recently published document. DoD employees only have limited access to the device's feature set, of course.

The Android Market will be banned, and all web browsing must be done through a DoD proxy server. On top of these restrictions, classified information cannot be sent, received or accessed using the Android handsets. On the fruity side of things, Apple's iPhones and iPads are currently being tested for use on DoD networks, but the DoD are not making any comments on when the iOS-powered devices might get approval.

Intel is set to smash into the system-on-a-chip (SoC) market in 2012, where they are going to be "becoming mobile" in quite a serious way. Intel went through an internal reorganization and merged four distinctive business units into one: Mobile Communications, Mobile Wireless, Netbook & Tablet PC and Ultra-Mobility.

The new group is called "Mobile and Communications" and is lead by Mike Bell and Hermann Eul. The first product to come from the fancy new group is the 32nm chip called Medfield. Medfield is Intel's codename for their first SoC and first true highly-integrated-solution. Intel have in the past, talked of "vertically integrated platforms", without talking about how many chips were required in order to have a functional platform. This marks a new direction for Intel.

Intel's Medfield is competition against Apple's A-Series, NVIDIA's Tegra range, Qualcomm's Snapdragon, Samsung's Exynos, Texas Instruments OMAP and others. Out of the ranges just explained, Samsung's Exynos is the only SoC currently built on a 32nm process, just like Medfield.

Samsung have a duo of products to release before Christmas, in the form of two new dual-SIM Android-powered handsets. The Galaxy Y Duos sports a 3.14-inch QVGA (243x320) touchscreen, 834MHz processor, HSDPA, a 3-megapixel rear-facing camera, and software wise we have Google's Android 2.3 Gingerbread.

The Galaxy Y Duos Pro is the same handset inside, but features a smaller 2.6-inch LQVGA TFT screen so make space for its physical keyboard. The new devices will hit Russia in January 2012, with the Galaxy Y Duos rolling out to Europe, CIS, Latin America, Southeast and Southwest Asia, Middle East, Africa, and finally, China.

Galaxy Y Pro Duos will arrive in Europe, CIS, Latin America, Southwest Asia, Middle East and Africa. Both phones sport the great feature of dual-SIM, which can be handy for those who want to either have one side for business, one for pleasure. Alternatively, if one carrier has better offers at certain times (or more data allowance), and then you could switch to the other SIM for everything else.

Amazon released version 6.2.1 of its Kindle Software. The aim of this update seems to be improving UI performance, which is something people have wanted since the Kindle Fire went on sale. The update is set to be delivered over-the-air, but for those who haven't received it OTA, you can download it manually, with some instructions below.

Amazon say that the 6.2.1 contains the following:

Enhanced fluidity and performance - The user interface felt choppy, especially with items like the coverflow or "carousel" feature. This update aims to improve that.

Usually when in a plane, all electronic devices such as smartphones, tablets and the like, are required to be turned off. Including the cockpit and its pilots. Not for American Airlines pilots in the cockpit, who have now been approved by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to use electronics, and more specifically, iPads in the cockpit.

The FAA announced on Tuesday that American Airlines pilots in the cockpit will no longer require the use of paper-based flight manuals during those times, and could now use Apple iPads instead.The FAA came to this decision after they conducting a test of the use of electronics in the cockpit, in an effort to potentially replace the use of paper manuals and charts.

Some are left wondering why the FAA didn't run the same tests for passengers, which would see passengers having the ability to use their electronic devices before and after takeoff, instead of having to wait until the plane reaches an altitude of 10,000 feet before the use of electronics is allowed. The New York Times called the rule that passengers needed to wait until the plane reached 10,000 feet "outdated," and even bought up the idea that the rule may just be used to keep passengers' attention during takeoff and landing announcements.

Ah, Nokia. Your days of being the king of the mountain are behind you, for now. Nokia's director of Portfolio, Product Marketing & Sales, Niels Munksgaard, has come out and said in an interview that young people are baffled by Android and are fed-up with iPhone's.

Here's a direct quote:

Really, Niels? Really? Until every man, woman, child and dog has a Nokia phone, I wouldn't be making bold claims like that. I see more people on the street with iPhone's then any other phone. I recently took my daughter to the Magic Cave here in South Australia to see Santa (where she cried in her photos, yay!) and I counted close to 20 mum's. 19 of them had iPhone variants, 1 of them had a pre-paid-looking Nokia of some sort.

Android owner? Malware victim? Like free stuff? Well, all you'll need to do is tell Microsoft about the problems you've had with malware on your Android-based phone.

Microsoft's latest social media marketing intiative, is not to push their own Windows Phone-based products, but to take a stab at Google and their malware woes. Ben Rudolph, Microsoft Windows Phone "evanglist", is behind the scheme, which uses the hashtag "#droidrage" on Twitter.

Linking followers to current news articles about Android malware, Rudolph says he will give an "upgrade" to a Windows Phone to the "5 best" stories of being a victim of Android malware.

We know it's coming, but building the excitement is part of the ride, isn't it? Apple's Asian part supplier believe that Apple is gearing up to release another iPad in just 3-4 months time. According to DigiTimes' sources, iPad 2 production is already beginning to wind down, to allow parts for a new tablet to begin making their way through the supply chain.

If it were to hit in 3-4 months time, it would launch perfectly in the spring time set by the two previous iPad launches. This news does come with an included pinch of salt, as Apple is quite the sneaky company when it comes to this type of news.

According to Apple's supply chain partners, production of the iPad 3 is expected to include just under 10 million units during Q1 2012. This is an expanded number, that has increased as its thought that most first-generation iPad owners will upgrade to the new iPad when it hits. iPad 2 production is said to drop to 4-5 million for Q1 2012, with the iPad 3 the reason of its declined production.

Earlier on today we attended a Qualcomm media roundtable in Taipei where we were introduced to a partner product of theirs from a Korean bookstore company called Kyobo.

Kyobo is famous in Korea and its digital catalog includes some 90,000 titles including regular ebooks, children's books, video books and video lectures. With almost a 100% literacy rate and an aggressive government very keen on high levels of education and parents with enough deposable income for youth learning gadgets, Korea is a perfect market for Qualcomm to spread its wings and work with its partners to bundle its mirasol display technology on mobile products.

The result of said above is the launch of the first color e-reader featuring Qualcomm's mirasol display tech. Mirasol is different to that of LCD, LED or plasma in that there are no harmful chemicals used in the production of the display and there is no back light, which some consider harmful to human eyes over extended periods of use. Mirasol reflects natural ambient light in your surrounding and uses it to create the color display. So, you aren't going to get the same quality display as LCD, but Qualcomm are not trying to compete with LCD and mirasol displays use less power. This is only going to result in a device with longer battery life at the end of the day.

OnLive have released a new update to its Android and iOS app which allows PC-quality high-definition gameplay to a very wide range of smartphones, tablets and media players. This includes the iPad, iPhone, iPod touch and Kindle Fire.

The app is available on Thursday, December 8 and will add complete gameplay support for any game offered through the OnLive service, which includes some of the latest AAA games on the market right now such as Batman: Arkham City, L.A. Noire, Assassin's Creed: Revelations and more.

The previous version of the OnLive app only allowed users to use the OnLive marketplace and access the social features of the service, but after tomorrow, you'll be able to play any game as long as you're connected to Wi-Fi, and if not, it'll also work over 3G and 4G LTE connections with a minimum speed of just 1Mbps.

Samsung's Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich phone may be available internationally, but U.S.-based fans are still waiting on the subsidized CDMA version to be sold by none other than Verizon and made available this Friday.

The Galaxy Nexus will be available for $199 on a two-year contract, which is something that has now been confirmed. The smartphone will also be the first Ice Cream Sandwich phone to officially arrive in the U.S. market. If you don't already know, the Galaxy Nexus sports the beautiful AMOLED display which comes in at 4.65-inches with a high-density resolution of 1280x720.

[edit] I have received some e-mails and comments on this article, after some more digging around - there are conflicting reports of a $199 figure, which could've been a Black Friday sale amount, and there is a $299 figure floating around too. It could all be a marketing stunt too, as the Galaxy Nexus is most likely going to be the biggest competitor against the iPhone 4S. I guess we'll see in just over a days time.

China, where all things like this seem to start, has done it again. A first-of-its-kind tablet, which sports Google's latest Android 4.0 OS is priced under $100 and for sale right now. It will reach the shores of other countries in the coming weeks and months.

The tablet comes from a company called Ainol, and is called the "Novo7". Novo7 sports a 7-inch capacitive screen and runs on just a 1GHz single-core MIPS processor. Battery life seems good, with claims of eight hours whilst watching video, seven hours if you're just browsing the web and six hours when playing games.

Software wise, Android 4.0 is the joy of this unit. For $100 its feature list is quite good: front and rear-facing cameras, 3D graphics capabilities, 1080p video decoding and an HDMI port.

Last week, the US Patent & Trademark Office published a set of patent applications from Apple that reveal another series of iPhone camera technologies. Patently Apple covered this, as they're a site dedicated to Apple patents and have said:

Patently Apple goes into some extreme detail regarding the new technology, so if you're an iPhone owner, or would just like to know what Apple are baking in the oven for the iPhone 4S, then take a look.

This is not something you'd expect from the can't-do-anything-wrong Apple, but during a flight in Australia, an iPhone spontaneously began smoking and emitting a red glow. Passengers aboard Regional Express flight ZL319 were welcomed to their destination in Sydney, Australia by a somewhat frightening ordeal.

Regional Express said that a passenger's iPhone began "emitting a significant amount of dense smoke" shortly after the flight landed, and the smoke was accompanied by a red glow. The device was extinguished by a flight attendant with no passenger's or crew injured. The phone itself was an iPhone 4, and not the new iPhone 4S model.

It has been taken by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau as part of their investigation. The full press release is quoted below:

The company behind BlackBerry, Research In Motion (RIM) had a scheduled smartphone launch event in Indonesia, but had to cancel the event early. Thousands of people turned up to get their hands on the latest BlackBerry smartphone, but rumors began to spread like wildfire that the new phone had sold out, after which chaos broke out.

RIM had chosen Indonesia as the first country to receive the new Blackberry Bellagio, known as the Blackberry Bold 9790. Indonesia is a hot spot for Blackberry handsets, which is why RIM set up a special event at the Pacific Place mall in Jakarta to celebrate the event. RIM also offered a 50-percent discount to the first 1000 people to purchase the smartphone, which resulted in a line formed 24 hours before the event.

Those who were eligible for the discount were given a red wristband but as the crowd grew, organizers announced that everyone on hand would get a phone. Rumors began to wave through the crowd that the phone had actually sold out and people lost their patience. The crowd burst through security barriers to try get their hands on a new phone, with the Jakarta Globe reporting that as many as 90 people had to be treated for injuries ranging from broken or fractured bones to unconsciousness.

Samsung have a new series of commercials where they poke fun at Apple fans, its not a dark insult, but more of a realistic view of most Apple customers. The ad starts in a lineup for Apple's iPhone 4S in New York, a similar site in most cities around launch day. A large group of Apple fans are lined up, talking about how this is "an event" and they will "remember it for the rest of their lives."

Just after this, another guy outside the line is on his smartphone and it attracts the people in the lineup, he's holding a Samsung Galaxy S II. The Apple fanboys comment on how light and thin the device is and how large the display is. Some of the quotes are "I could never get a Samsung, I'm creative", with someone saying "Dude, your'e a barista."

One of the Samsung owners says "Why don't you guys just get 4G phones?", with one of the Apple fans in the lineup says in a very sarcastic tone, "Why don't you just get 4G phones?". "The battery looks sketchy", "If it looks the same, how will people know I upgraded?" All of the things that most Apple fans (who aren't completely stuck in the Apple rose garden) would say. If the phones look the same, how does someone know if you have a iPhone 4 or 4S from a distance?

Well, this is quite the development and is sure to set a fire under the rug for most people. The only method that Kindle Fire owners will be able to install apps is through the Amazon Appstore for Android, it does not ship with Google's Android Market, period.

This means that Android developers need to make sure that their apps will be available on the Amazon Appstore, if they want to get a piece of those 12 million Fire owners that Amazon hope to have in 2012. Right up until now, Amazon has been very Apple-esque in the way that they treat developers, and publishers. By having your app on the Amazon Appstore, you give up more control than Apple actually asks of you, with you giving up the control to set your own price and control your app's description, with more restrictions behind those Fire-y curtins.

Google's open approach to the Android Market is what draws a lot of people to it, versus the rose-tinted world of Apple's App Store, or Amazon's Appstore. If the Fire does indeed sell 12 million tablets next year, what will happen to owners who want a game, or app that just isn't made available on the Amazon Appstore? I hate to think that Amazon could have this plan back fire on them...