Mobile Devices, Tablets & Phones News - Page 296

Regardless if the majority of people were less than impressed with the new iPad mini and 4th generation iPad, the rule of thumb has always been if there's an Apple logo on it, it'll sell millions. That's exactly what happened this weekend as Apple has announced it has sold 3 million iPads this past weekend.

Friday was the official release date of both the iPad mini and 4th generation iPad around the world and marks the first time Apple has launched two new products on the same day, not counting new releases made available through the Apple Store.

As of now, Apple has yet to release sales data for individual sales of the iPad mini and 4th Generation iPad which we're sure to hear about in an upcoming Apple Event with nothing but praise coming from the company.

We already have a super cheap $199 slate from Google, the amazing Nexus 7 tablet, but it looks like they're about to set that price bar a fair bit lower, again.

DigiTimes is reporting that the Mountain View-based company is working on an "entry-level Nexus tablet that has not yet been announced". Nothing more from this is known, but that is quite the tease.

What could we see? A $99 tablet? $149 maybe? What could Google do to reduce the pricing? We're already getting a quad-core tablet with a 7-inch 1280x800-pixel display running Android 4.1 Jelly Bean for just $199. They could knock it down to 5-inch, a dual-core processor and keep Jelly Bean, while knocking $50-$100 off the price. That would surely shake the market up, a lot.

Android 4.2 has, until now, only been talked about for the Nexus 4 and Nexus 10 devices that were announced last week - but in the UK, it seems that the 32GB Nexus 7 variant will come "with Android 4.2 Jelly Bean".

UK retailer HMV, has been advertising in newspaper ads of the tablet sporting the latest Android OS, but with Android 4.2 not yet finalized or open-sourced, it shouldn't be baked into any tablets sitting on store shelves just yet.

With the Nexus 7 being a Nexus device, Google should get Android 4.2 out to it as quick as possible, but I'm guessing we'll see the release of the latest iteration of Android closer to the release of the new Nexus 4 and Nexus 10 tablets next week on November 13.

Word on the street is that Microsoft is working with component suppliers in Asia to test their very own smartphone design, at least if the Wall Street Journal's sources are to be believed. There has been a rumor circulating that this was the case ever since Microsoft unveiled their new Surface tablets.

Of course, Microsoft has refused to comment on the rumor, neither confirming nor denying the smartphone's existence. Microsoft's parts suppliers say that there is a current device being tested, though its not clear that the device will go into mass production or not. The screen is reportedly between 4 and 5 inches, slotting in between the iPhone 5 and the Galaxy S III.

"We're quite happy this holiday [season] going to market hard with Nokia, Samsung and HTC," said Mr. Ballmer. "Whether we had a plan to do something different or we didn't have a plan I wouldn't comment in any dimension."

With every new mobile device launch, somebody inevitably decides its a good idea to drop it from various heights onto hard surfaces. The launch of the iPad mini today is no different as drop test videos have already appeared online. SquareTrade, a company that deals in extended warranties is the perpetrator of the following video that compares the iPad 3, iPad mini, and Nexus 7:

In the video, the iPad mini performs well when dropped from 4 feet on its corner. The Nexus 7 cracks in the corner ever so slightly, and the iPad 3's screen is destroyed. The folks at SquareTrade then dropped the tablets on their faces. The iPad mini's screen cracked everywhere and would need to be replaced. The iPad 3's screen also cracked quite a bit and the Nexus 7's screen did the best.

The tablets were then placed in water for 10 seconds to see how they would survive an accidental dunking. The iPad mini performed the best out of the three and seemed to be fully functional. The iPad 3 seemed to have a couple of bugs from the water, and the Nexus 7 was unresponsive, likely due to resetting from going into the water.

Some bad news for Australians regarding the Nexus 4 and Nexus 7 3G devices, big Australian telcos Telstra and Vodafone won't be stocking them. Telstra have weighed in, saying they won't be stocking either of the Nexus devices:

At this stage we don't plan to offer the Nexus 4 smartphone or the Nexus 7 3G tablet. Our customers are increasingly demanding a high speed mobile internet experience on their devices so we are focused on bringing 4G LTE compatible models to market.

Telstra are expanding their LTE network, but their 3G side of things has far more customers and is a way bigger piece of the network pie. Myself and 99% of everyone I know is on 3G, with the only people I know on 4G are one, with Telstra, and two, have an iPhone 5. It was only on the first day that I saw people bragging about 4G speeds, and now it has died off - the honeymoon period for 4G disappears quite quickly, it seems.

Users of Android on the Verizon network will now have the ability to bill their Verizon Wireless account, instead of using a credit card or other form of payment. This change should help users purchase more apps easily, and is especially important for those users who do not have another form of payment, such as a credit card.

Users will be able to charge up to $25 of apps and other Google Play "merchandise" to their wireless bill every month and then they only have to pay through one channel. This latest addition brings the feature to Verizon, a feature that Sprint, T-Mobile, and AT&T have had for a while now. Just be sure to keep track of how much you're spending.

If you'd like, it appears to be something you can disable by going to Verizon's site and enabling "Block Web Purchases."

According to Strategy Analytics' latest figures, loyalty for the iPhone has dropped in both the US and Europe. This marks the first time since the iPhone launched in 2007 that the number of iPhone users stating they'd either definitely, or will probably purchase their next phone from Apple has dropped, both in the US and Europe.

The latest figures from the Wireless Device Lab Report found that 88% of US-based iPhone owners planned on upgrading to another iPhone, which is down from 93% last year. Over in Europe, 75% would stay with the iPhone, down from 88% in 2011.

Strategy Analytics' director said that the new numbers show a continuing success for Apple, where they've been able to retain their existing user base, while attracting new customers. He did cite that negative press and accusations of a lack of innovation by Apple are pushing customers toward other products from different manufacturers like Samsung, for example.

I know I used the whole "can it play Crysis" thing yesterday when we reported about the new Titan supercomputer - but how can I pass up the chance again? Intel have announced plans to use their 48-core processor in future mobile devices, such as tablets and smartphones.

Intel CTO, Justin Rattner, has said that baking the powerful chips into mobile devices could arrive "much sooner" than the 10-year window predicted by researchers. The chip is currently used for linear algebra and fluid dynamics, but being the heart and soul of a mobile device could speed up just about everything.

Having 48 cores on top would lead to immensely powerful multitasking that dual- or quad-core parts just can't even dream of doing. Future mobile devices could be running a Full HD (or 4K) game in the background, a 4K movie, while streaming YouTube, and sending e-mails, all while it feels like it has just loaded up and isn't even running a single task. The problem is now software developers having to develop the goods to take advantage of 48 cores. Let's just hope it's capable of running Crysis.

Amazon has started the tablet wars. On their homepage, you will see the ad, pictured below, which compares the Kindle Fire HD to the newly released iPad min. Sure, they pick on a few features where the iPad mini is weak, but what is even more interesting is the quote they picked up from Gizmodo. Take a look for yourself:

Pretty funny, right? Everything about that ad is factual. The Kindle Fire HD does feature a higher resolution screen and pixel-per-inch count. It also picks on the iPad mini for not featuring stereo speakers, though I imagine most people use headphones when watching a move or listening to music as the built-in speakers of most mobile devices are pitiful.

I had to laugh at the quote Amazon pulled from Gizmodo: "...Your 7.9-inch tablet has far fewer pixels than the competing 7-inch tablets! You're cramming a worse screen in there, charging more and accusing others of compromise? Ballsy." However, what Amazon is forgetting to compare is the "cool factor" of the iPad mini, something that famous UK judge noted about the original iPad.