Apple Said to be Currently Testing 4G LTE iPhone with Carriers

BGR has an exclusive report today saying that Apple has provided its carrier partners with LTE-enabled iPhones for testing purposes. BGR comes about this knowledge via an internal iOS test build that it has seen from one of Apple’s main carriers, which reveals in its firmware a property list for LTE. As BGR notes, they have no way of knowing yet whether or not the next iPhone will have LTE capability, all that they are able to say for sure right now is that Apple is testing the feature, not which device it will actually be used in, or when. As BGR notes, with 4G LTE networks starting to roll out all over the world, it’s no surprise that Apple would be testing this in the field with its carriers. However, it’s ironic that with all the many, many iPhone 5 rumours swirling around, there seemed to be a general consensus of opinion that it would be quite some time before Apple started implementing LTE capability in its devices, possibly way into next year. Looks like that chatter may well have been inaccurate, and it’s possible we could be looking at a 4G LTE iPhone sooner rather than later.

Apple Opens Five New Stores This Weekend

MacRumors Reports that Apple has opened five new retail stores this weekend, the first of 30 new stores that Apple intends to open over the next two months, which will eventually see Apple having more than 360 stores worldwide. The five that were opened this weekend include two in the U.S., the first of which is in the Anchorage 5th Avenue Mall in Anchorage, Alaska (the first Apple Store to open in Alaska!), and the second of which is in Fashion Place, Murray, Utah. Apple is also opening a Canadian store in Conestoga, Waterloo, Ontario, and one in Australia, Southland, in Cheltenham, Victoria. And finally, not to be left out, Europe gets a store in I Gigli, in Florence, Italy. MacRumors also notes that aside from these five new store openings, Apple is also renovating and expanding some of its existing stores, including a $6.6 million upgrade of the plaza and glass cube at Apple’s Fifth Avenue store in New York. According to newly revealed plans for the cube, that have been posted on the barrier around the plaza, Apple is “simplifying” the cube, using 15 bigger, seamless pieces of glass, instead of the previous 90 panes.

iPhone Rules Mobile Advertising for Third Straight Year

The Loop reports today that according to a new survey published by Millennial Media, Apple’s iPhone is still ruling the roost when it comes to mobile advertising, making it the third year in a row that the iPhone has come out on top in the quarterly report. The iPod touch and iPad also fared well, achieving first and second place respectively in Millennial Media’s Top 3 Connected Devices chart for 2011. The results of the survey are compiled from Millennial Media’s monthly report on trends in mobile advertising, based on the company’s own data, which it says is “the largest data set of any third-party U.S. mobile advertising network.” One facet of the survey involved Millennial Media comparing a list of the top 20 mobile phones from 2009 with a list of the top 20 mobile phones from 2011, with the result that the iPhone was one of the only models to appear on both lists, and at the number one position in both lists as well. Aside from holding on to the top spot, the survey found that the percentage of ads shown on the iPhone soared from 5.82 percent of ads in March 2009, to 16.9 percent of ads in June 2011. The iPhone was also the only device to to achieve double-digit growth. And, there’s even more good news in the survey for Apple, with the iPhone climbing from third place in Millennial Media’s manufacturer list to first place, up 11.35 percent to 30.76 percent.

Google to Acquire Motorola Mobility!

As Kirk Angle say's It is Real It's Dawn Real, you are reading it right. According to Official Google Blog, CEO Larry Page describes the company's success with Android, with 550,000 device activations per day and over 150 million activations worldwide. In their quest to "supercharge the Android ecosystem," they have decided that Motorola are the best handset manufacturer to help them do that.

Google or Motorola won’t give many details about, but you can tell that they are very pleased with this partnership. Rubin spoke with the top 5 manufacturers yesterday and made it very clear to all of them that nothing has changed. Motorola will operate as its own company and Android will remain open to use as it has been. The idea here is that it gives Google a chance to “supercharge” the OS.

Google to Acquire Motorola Mobility

Combination will Supercharge Android, Enhance Competition, and Offer Wonderful User Experiences

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. & LIBERTYVILLE, Ill. – Aug. 15, 2011 – Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) and Motorola Mobility Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: MMI) today announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which Google will acquire Motorola Mobility for $40.00 per share in cash, or a total of about $12.5 billion, a premium of 63% to the closing price of Motorola Mobility shares on Friday, August 12, 2011. The transaction was unanimously approved by the boards of directors of both companies.
The acquisition of Motorola Mobility, a dedicated Android partner, will enable Google to supercharge the Android ecosystem and will enhance competition in mobile computing. Motorola Mobility will remain a licensee of Android and Android will remain open. Google will run Motorola Mobility as a separate business.
Larry Page, CEO of Google, said, “Motorola Mobility’s total commitment to Android has created a natural fit for our two companies. Together, we will create amazing user experiences that supercharge the entire Android ecosystem for the benefit of consumers, partners and developers. I look forward to welcoming Motorolans to our family of Googlers.”
Sanjay Jha, CEO of Motorola Mobility, said, “This transaction offers significant value for Motorola Mobility’s stockholders and provides compelling new opportunities for our employees, customers, and partners around the world. We have shared a productive partnership with Google to advance the Android platform, and now through this combination we will be able to do even more to innovate and deliver outstanding mobility solutions across our mobile devices and home businesses.”
Andy Rubin, Senior Vice President of Mobile at Google, said, “We expect that

Google CEO Larry Page Comments on Motorola Purchase; So do HTC, Samsung & Others

Obviously the big news for the day, is that Google is set to acquire Motorola Mobility for $12.5 Billion dollars. Speculation as to the motivation of the acquisition has been running rampant across the internet. Most of it focused on the assumption that the primary reason is that Google wants Motorola's patents so they can help protect the Android ecosystem as a whole. That particular theory turns out to be spot on. Here's a quote from CEO of Google, Larry Page, from a post he wrote on Google's blog,

"We recently explained how companies including Microsoft and Apple are banding together in anti-competitive patent attacks on Android. The U.S. Department of Justice had to intervene in the results of one recent patent auction to 'protect competition and innovation in the open source software community' and it is currently looking into the results of the Nortel auction. Our acquisition of Motorola will increase competition by strengthening Google’s patent portfolio, which will enable us to better protect Android from anti-competitive threats from Microsoft, Apple and other companies."

iPad HD launching in September with iPhone 5?

Apple may be getting ready to launch a new iPad in September alongside the new iPhone 5, called the iPad HD. The new iPad would be essentially the same as the iPad in many ways, plus a few additions and upgrades to the specs with regards to the display resolution rumored at 2048×1536 pixels. This new tablet would be likened to a “Pro” modeled iPad, aimed at media industry professionals just the differences between the Apple MacBook and MacBook Pro.
To add to the rumors brought out by ‘thisismynext.com’, the new iPad HD may have new versions of Aperture or Final Cut pre-installed. Nice!

Samsung Galaxy S II goes on pre-sale at Best Buy Canada

The Samsung Galaxy S II is about to launch in Canada at Bell and Virgin Mobility on July 14th, just a couple of days. With that, it’s expected to sell like hotcakes, so Best Buy is offering anyone with a $50 bill the ability to put a down payment and pre-order one of these bad boy Android devices to ensure they get it at launch.
Anyone who pre-orders will be given notification from Best Buy that your device is in before they start selling to the general masses.

HTC Status launching on AT&T – pre-order for $49.99 on two year term

AT&T announced on Monday that the HTC Status smartphone, also known as the ‘facebook phone’, will be launching on July 17th 2011, with pre=orders starting now. The device will cost $49.99 with a new two year term contract, and we heard earlier it would only cost $179.99 outright. It runs Android 2.3.3 Gingerbread, has a dedicated facebook button for easy sharing, a 5 megapixel camera on the back, and a 2.6 inch touchscreen with 480×320 resolution.

T-Mobile myTouch 4G Slide available July 27th – that’s a mouthful

T-Mobile has finally spoken out about when the myTouch 4G Slide is launching as well as pricing. On July 27th, the myTouch 4g Slide will cost $199.99 on a new tow year contract. The T-Mobile myTouch 4g Slide has just as many specs as syllables in the name with a 1.2GHz dual-core Snapdragon processor, 3.7inch WVGA display, 8 megapixel camera with 1080p video, full QWERTY sliding keyboard with Android 2.3 Gingerbread. Pretty sweet actually.

Sony Ericsson Xperia Duo leaks online again – second image of dual-core device

It was just a couple of weeks ago we heard about the first image leaked for the Sony Ericsson Xperia Duo, the first dual-core device from Sony’s Xperia family (model # SK19I). Here we have another image leaked online again, showing the similarities to its currently released brother, the Xperia Arc (see our review on the Arc here). The Xperia Duo however will feature one major difference, it’s 1.4GHz dual-core processor. To add to improvements over the Arc, Sony is putting in a 12 megapixel camera with a 4.5 inch qHD display and a huge 2500mAh battery to keep it shooting HD video.
Still no word on launch dates or pricing, but we’re sure it’ll come soon.

Sony S2 dual screen Clamshell Android Tablet launching on AT&T – hit or miss for Sony?

Well, it looks like the cat is out of the bag when it comes to who is going to be moving the Sony S2 Clamshelled dual screened Android tablet running Android 3.1 Honeycomb. After AT&T put our the press release you can see below, people, including us, started wondering, ‘What is the price and when is it launching?’ Nobody knows yet. Whether this device will actually take off is a whole other set of concerns. Sony doesn’t have the greatest track record for releasing ‘revolutionary’ products at the right time. the PS3 took forever to gain any ground, the PSP never really gained any ground, and the PSP Go didn’t have any ground at all. Launching a dual screened Android tablet is a risk, but Sony is willing to take it.

Motorola releasing a 4:3 Android Ice Cream Sandwich tablet to rival Apple iPad

Motorola has had something over 7 months to figure out why they haven’t made near the dent in the tablet market to compete against the Apple iPad and iPad 2. We have our own ideas, you know, like a starting price higher than the iPad coupled with average hardware specs. That old chestnut. Well, a rumor is flying around the interwebs that Motorola is obsessed with catching Apple in the tablet wars, and may be looking at another feature which is very different, having a 4:3 display ratio rather than the 16:9 widescreen format. The iPad seems top be killing competition with its 4:3 display, so why not give it a shot right Motorola? I sense imminent FAIL for Motorola. How about you?