Time Inc. Magazines Coming To a Tablet Near You

Time Inc. today announced that it'll be bringing all 21 of its magazine brands to tablet form -- that means Android Honeycomb tablets (along with the iPad and webOS TouchPad).

We've been enjoying the likes of Sports Illustrated on our smartphones and tablets for a while now -- the tablet version is excellent -- and seeing more titles added only makes Android tablets stronger.

In addition, Time Inc's penned a deal to bring subscriptions and single-copy sales to the Barnes & Noble Nook Color. Fortune, People, Sports Illustrated and Time will roll out later this month, with the other publications to follow by the end of the year.

Apple Now Going After Motorola Xoom in Europe

BRINGING SAMSUNG down wasn't enough for fruit themed phone maker Apple.Apparently it is also suing Motorola in Europe over the Xoom tablet's design.


The news comes after it emerged that Samsung has been forced to remove its Samsung Galaxy 10.1 from the shelves due to its similarities to Apple's Ipad.
When it filed for this injunction, it seems Apple also filed a complaint with the same court over the design of the Motorola Xoom tablet.

Apparently, Apple filed a complaint with the same court, the district court of Düsseldorf, over the design of the Motorola Xoom. However, it doesn't state whether that complaint included a request for a preliminary injunction.


While it's not stated explicitly, it is likely that the complaint against Motorola also asks the court for a temporary EU-wide injunction.
Apple and Motorola are currently suing each other over more than 40 US patents.
Apple's dispute with Motorola began in October 2010, but so far it was not known that it has also branched out to Europe, like Apple's

Eric Schmidt of Google Comments on Legal Suits Against Androids

At the Google Mobile Revolution conference in Tokyo yesterday, Eric Schmidt, former CEO and still Chairman of Google, had some choice words to say about all the "fruity" litigation that has been assailing Google and its OEMs lately. He said,

"We have seen an explosion of Android devices entering the market and, because of our successes, competitors are responding with lawsuits as they cannot respond through innovations. I’m not too worried about this.”

When asked specifically about the newest set-back with the ITC ruling against HTC in Apple's patent lawsuit, Schmidt remained confident and responded,

“We will make sure they don’t lose, then.”

In regards to the explosive growth of Android, Schmidt expects that to continue and sees Android as becoming the most popular platform in Asia due to lower prices brought about by increased competition. He added,

“Every month, China and India are adding 10 million mobile subscribers and we expect to see amazing growth in markets with lower penetration rates such as Indonesia and the Philippines. Smartphones used to be just for the elites in Western markets. But now that prices are coming down, we can make this technology more accessible for the 5 to 6 billion people [that could not previously afford such devices]”

He further indicated that Using Moore's Law coupled with Android's open system, prices for Android devices should continue to drop, and may go as low as US$50 to US$70 eventually. Schmidt also shared that he predicts that smartphones will overthrow PC adoption for many users in emerging markets and will overtake it in 2012.

Even though he didn't get specific as to how Google will help HTC in their current predicament, it's great to see someone directly from Google indicating publicly that they intend to back their OEMs. It would appear we are just seeing the beginning of a legal war of epic proportions very soon. And, it also looks like we are only seeing the beginning of an Android world-wide market domination

Samsung Galaxy R Officially Outed for Asia and Europe

The Samsung Galaxy R has been given the "official" treatment by Samsung and will be coming out in Asia and Europe. We have been hearing about this device for a few of weeks now, and pretty much already knew this was coming. Still, the device is a pretty impressive mid-range device and can almost compete with it's more powerful sibling. Here is a refresher of the specs:

• NVIDIA Tegra 2 processor
• 4.2-inch Super Clear LCD display
• 5MP rear and 2MP front camera
• Android 2.3 with Samsung’s TouchWiz interface

Flash Player for Android Gets New Security Update; Available Now

Adobe seems to be constantly dealing with security vulnerabilities and other issues with Flash Player, creating updates almost weekly now. They released another one today, version 10.3.186.3, that has several fixes and enhancements.

• Enabled NEON optimizations for OMAP4 (Cortex A-9) based devices.
• Corrected an issue on the Samsung Galaxy S where H.264 video at resolutions of 720p and below was not displayed.
• Fixed an issue where app packaging would fail for Android Apps using Flash Player in WebView that set android:hardwareAcceleration to True in their AndroidManifest.xml.
• Fixed a crash on the HTC EVO that some users encountered with specific video.
• Fixed an issue that caused video frames to stop rendering on long streaming videos (> 1 hour) on some Motorola devices.
• Fixed an issue where touch events were getting delayed with Kongregate.com games.
• Fixed an issue where games on Kongregate.com freeze when users exit from Full-Screen mode.

It's a shame there are unscrupulous folks out there that make it necessary to constantly fill holes in software, but at least this update seems to have some other fixes as well. Kudos to Adobe for trying to play "plug the dam with your finger."

Chrome Receives Official Netflix Add-on

Chrome users can now use Netflix to watch their favorite movies. Netflix just released their newest 1.0 app for Chrome that allows you to watch Netflix on your Chrome using computer or Chromebook. Supposedly, it works very similarly to the way Netflix works on the PS3. Here's a quote from the SlashGear article with a few more details,

You can search for your favorite content, resume watching content where you left off and anything else you can do directly on the Netflix site. If you don’t have a Netflix account, you can get a free month of use to try it out. A few users in the comments have noted that the CR-48 Chromebook gets out of sync when paused, but catches up quickly.

Could This Be What the iPhone 5 Looks Like?

MacRumors today publishes photos of some renders that it has commissioned from CiccareseDesign that are based on recently leaked case designs, and have come up with what MacRumors believes to be a realistic representation of the next iPhone, produced on 3D modelling software. As MacRumors notes, you can only tell so much from a case design, of course, but what you can tell is the size of the screen, and going by these renders and the leaked cases, it’s looking more and more likely that the mock up that first appeared on The Verge (previously called This Is My Next), months ago, is very close to the actual iPhone 5, with an edge-to-edge screen. The render also shows a much more oval-shaped home button, because that is how it is depicted on the leaked cases, but it’s possible that this oval space is not just for the home button, but also for some some sort of home-button swiping gesture. That’s just pure speculation of course, likewise the rumours that the iPhone 5 will have an aluminium back rather than a glass back.

Is Apple Planning on Releasing an iCloud iPhone?

MacRumors reports today on a story on AppleNApps that says that Apple is looking at launching a cheaper iPhone this fall, which will come with very little memory out of the box, and will instead be much more reliant on streaming content via the iCloud service. As MacRumors notes, this rumour first surfaced back in February on Cult of Mac, way before iCloud was announced, so it’s interesting that it should resurface now. According to AppleNApps’ sources, the new phone is code named the “iCloud iPhone” to Apple insiders. These sources also say that the iCloud iPhone will be launched simultaneously this fall with a fully featured iPhone 5. AppleNApps adds that it has been told that the new iPhone 5 will be thinner, and will contain a version of the A5 chip that currently powers the iPad 2, whereas the iCloud iPhone will have very similar components to those that are currently to be found in the iPhone 4, with the lack of storage meaning that production costs will be much less, enabling Apple to drop its price to $400 without a contract or free on a two-year contract. AppleNApps also mentions that this cheaper iPhone will have an aluminium back and siding. There’s no way of knowing if there’s any truth to this rumour, but I can see it as being a brilliant way for Apple to launch the iCloud service, giving it maximum publicity alongside a new iPhone.

Apple’s Share of Worldwide Mobile Phone Market Grows by 91 %

Tech Fortune’s Apple 2.0 blog reports that Gartner issued its Q2 report today, in which it said that Apple’s share of the global mobile phone market almost doubled year on year in Q2 of 2011, showing an increase from 2.4% to 4.6%. This means that Apple is now the fourth biggest mobile (not just smartphone) vendor in the world, but still trailing behind Nokia, Samsung and LG. As far as the purely smartphone market is concerned, Gartner’s figures show that Apple’s share of that rapidly growing market grew by 29% in Q2, up to 14.1% from 18.2%, meaning that Apple's iOS (not including the iPad or iPod touch) is now third in the smartphone operating systems list, behind Google’s Android, which grew by 152%, and Nokia’s Symbian, which fell by 46%. Gartner said that smartphone sales were up 74 % year-on-year.

Apple Said to be Launching iPad 3 Before the end of 2011 at Same Price as iPad 2

Yet another report surfaces today about a possible iPad 3 launch before the end of the year, according to Boy Genius Report. The latest rumour comes via the Taiwan Economic News, which says that Apple plans to launch the iPad 3 “by Thanksgiving or next year.” While it has to be said that “next year” doesn’t exactly narrow it down, this is the second time in the past few days that sources in Apple’s supply chain have mentioned Thanksgiving as a possible release date (which means the end of November, 2011). The Taiwan Economic News also says that according to its anonymous industry executive sources the iPad 3 will launch at the same price point as the iPad 2, and the remaining iPad 2s will then be heavily discounted in order to move any back stock.

BGR mentions in its report the recent rumours that the iPad 3 will have a Retina Display, but the Taiwan Economic News report does not appear to have any new information on this. The reason for Apple releasing another iPad so quickly after the launch of the iPad 2 is said to be so that it can keep one step ahead of the next wave of rival tablets that are due to hit the market towards the end of 2011.

New iPad 3 Parts Surface

9to5 Mac reports today that new parts that are supposedly from the iPad 3 have appeared on an online reseller site today. 9to5 Mac got the iFixYouri iPad repair shop to have a look at the parts in order to find out exactly what they are and what they might do, as it’s not immediately obvious just from looking at them. The repair shop also looked into the question of the authenticity of the parts, and found that the material used to make them is the same as that used to make iPad 2 parts, although the structure and switch location is very different to that of the iPad 2. The various images show the internal workings of the iPad 3’s power button, volume up and down buttons and silent/ringer switch, as well as the complete external button control cabling system for the iPad 3. iPhone 5 proximity sensor pictures also emerged today. As far as specific details about the next iPad go, these parts aren’t really giving much away, but what they do tell us is that the next iPad’s release is sooner rather than later, if parts are already being assembled.

iPad Could Have 61 percent of Tablet Market by End of 2011

MacWorld reports today on a DigiTimes survey that says that overall tablet shipments for the second half of 2011 will be up by 150 percent on the previous year, and that Apple will have sold 25.5 million iPads from the beginning of July to the end of December 2011, which would be an increase of 76 percent from the same time period in 2010. DigiTimes says that in total, it expects Apple to sell 40 million iPads in 2011, giving it a 61 percent market share.

The DigiTimes survey also says that non-iPad tablet shipments in the second half of 2011 should reach 15.65 million, which would be up by 65 percent from the first half of 2011, making up 39 percent of total tablet shipments.

However, DigiTimes does add a note of caution, saying that there are still some uncertainties surrounding tablet shipment figures towards the end of the year, and that Q4 will be very much the deciding quarter, with tablet strategy from key players such as Apple still undetermined for the end of the year. For example, it’s still not certain whether or not Apple might actually release the iPad 3 by the end of the year, which would obviously make a big difference in terms of projected figures.