Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime vs Apple iPad 2

It's fair to say Apple's iPad 2 has enjoyed relatively unimpeded dominance in the tablet market. The device is powerful, user friendly and just oozes with Apple appeal, making it a sure-fire hit. But now we're starting to see tablets from Apple's competitors roll-out with some striking design features of their own.

Foremost among these contenders to the iPad 2's crown is Asus' Eee Pad Transformer Prime, a device that may have a silly name but is rather more smart when you dig below the surface. Will it offer enough to topple Apple's tablet from its lofty perch, though?

Display

The screen is the heart and soul of any decent tablet and both of our contenders are able to give plenty in the display department.

The Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime offers up a 10.1-inch Super IPS+ LCD that operates at a resolution of 1280x800 pixels and has a pixel density of 149PPI, which is pretty impressive.

The screen is striking, with sharp detail, vivid colours and pleasing viewing angles and it's big enough to enjoy movies and other media, without having to screw your eyes up and resort to painkillers after 15 minutes.

The iPad 2's display is equally as impressive. It's 9.7-inch LED-backlit IPS TFT operates at a resolution of 768x1024 pixels and has a pixel density of 132PPI which is good, but on this occasion not good enough.

The iPad 2's screen performs exceptionally, though, and is responsive to the lightest of touches making it a pleasure to surf the Web.

Winner - Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime

Power

Beneath the stunning screen technology lurks the engine room, and what is secreted therein usually makes or breaks a tablet in today's market.

Apple's iPad 2 is imbued with a dual-core Cortex-A9 CPU clocked to 1GHz and also offers a PowerVR SGX543MP2 GPU to take care of the eye-candy and gaming.

Disappointingly, though, the iPad 2 only has 512MB RAM, leaving it well behind the leading tablets from other manufacturers.

The Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime is a heavy hitter. Far too heavy for the iPad 2. The device is driven by a quad-core 1.3GHz Cortex-A9 CPU and offers up a ULP GeForce GPU, which will have any game you throw at it running full-tilt.

On top of the monster processor the device also boasts 1GB RAM and 32 or 64GB of on-board storage, compared with the iPad 2's 16/32/64GB options.

It will come as no surprise to you that the Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime wipes the floor with the iPad 2 in the power stakes and we're quite sure it would out perform many laptops and desktops too.

Winner - Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime

Software

The iPad 2 runs on Apple's iOS platform, the latest iteration of which, version 5.0, is simply fantastic.

It's so easy to use a toddler could get things done in short order and has enough visual appeal to excite the most discriminating design student.

In addition to its simplicity and power, the device also has at its disposal Apple's App Store, which is brimming with apps, many of which have been designed with the tablet in mind.

Asus' Eee Pad Transformer Prime runs on version 3.2 of Google's Android OS, which is a specially tweaked version of the OS, designed for tablets only.

It's attractive, powerful, offers a ton of customisation options and benefits from Google's Android Market, which is full of apps, many of which are free.

Where it falls flat, though, is tablet-specific apps, or more appropriately the lack thereof. Many of the titles on offer, though, excellent in smaller resolutions, appear misshapen and out of whack on the tablet's screen and this is a massive let-down for a device that's otherwise incredible.

Winner - Apple iPad 2

Camera

The iPad 2 has a 0.7-megapixel primary camera (yes, you read that correctly) which is, to be fair to it, quite the let-down.

The device does capture 720p video and offer a secondary VGA camera for video-calling but 0.7-megapixel? Come on, Apple!

The Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime is much more in keeping with current form and offers up an impressive 8-megapixel snapper with LED flash, autofocus and geo-tagging as well as 1080p video capture and a 1.2-megapixel camera for video-calling - much more the ticket!

Winner - Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime

Form and Build

Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime - 263 x 180.8 x 8.3mm, 586g
Apple iPad 2 - 241.2 x 185.7 x 8.8 mm, 607g

Straight off the bat it's easy to see that both tablets are well built and pretty to look at.

The iPad 2 positively reeks of Apple's design standards and its minimalist facade and simple good-looks lend a certain style to the tablet that has often been copied but not yet bettered.

The Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime is no ugly duckling, though, it's thin, sleek and looks premium, in fact it looks very much like the iPad 2 which is no bad thing.

Overall, the iPad 2 just has that je ne sais quoi that Apple strives so hard to breed into its devices, and for that reason we love it. We don't dislike the Transformer Prime mind, but it just isn't an iPad 2.

Winner - Apple iPad 2

Conclusion

So Apple's tablet has had its cards. Its time at the top of the tablet tree has come to an end, and Asus' new Eee Transformer Prime is the new device in residence.

With a superior chipset, brighter, clearer screen and quality camera the Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime is a fantastic piece of hardware, one which is going to be very difficult to top.

Apple's iPad 2 can hold its head up high, though. It's still a brilliant device, but technology has moved on and it now needs to concentrate on growing old gracefully - we just get the feeling that Apple's pricing policy won't allow that to happen.

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New Carrier IQ Class Action Lawsuit Sues More OEMs, Carriers

As accusations of fouplay within Carrier IQ have turned up due to research work done by Trevor Eckhart – who exposed the company for collecting user information that may be violating the Federal Wiretap Act – some lawsuits shortly followed.
One early class action lawsuit targeted HTC, Samsung and Carrier IQ. A new one filed by three lawfirms in a joint effort is targeted at HTC, Samsung, Apple, Motorola, Sprint, AT&T and T-Mobile. Strangely enough, Carrier IQ itself isn’t being sued in this particular instance.

Carrier IQ has not been hit with a formal federal investigation yet but these lawsuits and pressure from government bodies all add nicely to a hopeful investigation sometime in the future.
Carrier IQ has admitted that their application may appear to be logging information that should be kept private, but they say it’s a byproduct of trying to send information to carriers and OEMs that is actually useful to helping them improve wireless service.
Saying it is one thing and proving it is another, though. Hopefully more of these lawsuits turn up and a big, bright spotlight will be put on the carriers and OEMs who use this service in order to put immense pressure on Carrier IQ to fully and accurately show what information really is or isn’t being transmitted from our phones.

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US judge denies Apple injunction – Samsung sales are safe for now

It’s a good evening for Truth, Justice and the American Way, even if those on the receiving end are Korean. Reuters reports that late Friday the judge on the docket in Apple’s suit against Samsung in the United States threw out the case, stating that an injunction on Samsung’s devices would not prevent serious damage to Apple’s sales. It’s the most significant development yet in a case that’s been going on since April of this year.

In the U.S., Apple claimed that the Samsung Galaxy S, Galaxy S II and Galaxy Tab 10.1 violated its design patents, bearing a resemblance to the iPhone and iPad, respectively. In November a judge ruled that Samsung’s tablet might indeed violate the patents, but expressed doubt that such was a justification for granting a sales injunction. District Judge Lucy Koh made good on those statements today, saying, “”It is not clear that an injunction on Samsung’s accused devices would prevent Apple from being irreparably harmed.”
This isn’t the end of Apple’s litigious crusade. The Cupertino company will almost certainly appeal, though at this level of the U.S. civil court system it’s entirely possible that the appeal will be denied. Apple has a stable of patent firepower, and if this case fails completely they’re likely to fire back at Samsung with another in a few months, as they are already doing with rival Android manufacturer HTC. Apple has been particularly litigious against Samsung worldwide, particularly in Germany and Australia. Down under Apple won a preliminary injunction against the Galaxy Tab 10.1, which is scheduled to lift on December 9th, baring a successful appeal. The injunction against the same model is still in place in Germany, though Samsung has released a revised Galaxy Tab 10.1N… which Apple promplty filed a lawsuit against.

It is to be hoped that a failure in the U.S. District court system, if indeed it comes to that, will influence Apple or at least other court systems to treat the company’s frivolous and vague design patents with more skepticism. Just today Apple’s requirements for a non-violating device were made public, including “a non-rectangular shape without rounded corners” and “a thicker profile”. Though Apple’s legal crusade against Android manufacturers (and notably not against Google) is likely to continue, the decisions handed down in the U.S. and Australia indicate that judicial systems worldwide are beginning to see the company’s flawed idea of a competitive market as just that: flawed.

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Motorola Xoom 2 vs Apple iPad 2

Android tablets are numerous but few have managed to come close enough to Apple's iPad 2 to provide a real challenge. Today's contender, the upcoming Xoom 2 from Motorola, aims to change that.

Will the Xoom 2 win the day, or will it be yet another contender steam-rollered by the iPad 2's seemingly limitless charm and good looks?

Build & Form
Apple iPad 2 - 241.2x185.7x8.8 mm, 607g
Motorola Xoom 2 - 253.9x173.6x8.8mm, 599g

There isn't much between these devices in terms of design and build. They are both slim, relatively light and admirably crafted.

The Xoom 2, with its nicely rounded off corners and slim bevel certainly looks as if someone with an artistic eye has had a hand in its design, and the improvements over the previous model are easy to see.

The iPad 2 is no ugly duckling though, and as with all Apple products you can see a lot of thought has gone into the aesthetic of the device.

Winner - Draw

Power
Motorola's Xoom 2 is powered by a dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 CPU clocked at 1.2GHz and also benefits from a ULP GeForce GPU, making it a peach for playing games and enjoying other visual content.

We'd hoped to see more than the requisite 1GB RAM, to give the device more lastability but it's by no means a deal breaker.

The iPad 2 runs on a dual-core 1GHz ARM Cortex-A9 CPU, making it a gnats slower than the Xoom 2. The device's PowerVR SGX543MP2 GPU is perfectly fast and capable though, making gaming a fast, fun experience on the device.

With only 512MB RAM the iPad 2 falls short of what we've come to expect from a top-level mobile device. iOS 5 uses what it has very efficiently though, so it needn't be a huge drawback.

Winner - Motorola Xoom 2

Camera
Apple's iPad 2 features a 0.7-megapixel primary camera which is, to be frank, a massive let down. Performance is weak even in ideal conditions and we'd really hoped to see more from Apple, especially after it gave us all such a treat with the iPhone 4 camera.

The device does capture video at 720P though, and the quality is pleasingly good. The secondary camera, a VGA, isn't hugely powerful, though it serves its purpose well enough.

The Motorola Xoom 2 is much more the ticket with a 5-megapixel primary camera, with LED flash, geo-tagging and 720P video capture and a secondary 1.3-megapixel offering for video chatting and the like.

Winner - Motorola Xoom 2


Software
Apple's mobile devices are known for their reliance on the company's iOS platform, and what a fantastic piece of software it is.

The user-interface is amazingly simple to use, but powerful and highly functional nonetheless, and the amount of apps on offer in the Apple App Store is huge, with over 4000 designed specifically for the iPad 2 and its older sibling.

The Xoom 2 runs version 3.2 of Android, which has been specifically designed by Google with tablets in mind.

The platform is fast, fun to use and offers plenty of customisation potential, as well as flash browsing - which is more than can be said for the iPad 2!

There are a good number of high quality app among the 352,000+ on offer in the Android Market, but if you're looking for tablet-centric applications you should give Android a wide-berth, as the amount designed for tablets is embarrassingly small.

Both operating systems have their own virtues. Android is much more open than Apple's software; which is a boon to advanced users, while iOS is much more polished and slick. Overall Apple's software is the more pleasing to use though, which is what counts.

Winner - Apple iPad 2

Display
The iPad 2 features a high quality 9.7-inch LED-backlit IPS TFT display which operates at a resolution of 768 x 1024 and has a pixel density of 132PPI.

The screen performs well and offers a consistently high visual standard, though it does fall well short of the Retina Display technology that you'll find in the iPhone 4 and 4S.

The Xoom 2's screen is decent, but doesn't really offer anything new or special.

It's responsive, hard-wearing (thanks to its Gorilla Glass frontage) and does the job but when compared the iPad 2 does appear a little flat and cold.

Winner - Apple iPad 2

It's a draw!

Both of these tablets have a lot to love about them. The iPad 2 is exceptionally easy to use and benefits from Apple's huge app library, while the Xoom 2 is more powerful and has by far the more pleasing photographic capabilities.

If we were put on the spot we'd take an iPad 2 over a Xoom 2 simply because there is more you can accomplish on the device, thanks to greater developer support. Sure, it may be less powerful but what's the point of having all that muscle if you're never in a position to really use it?

What matters is what you want though, and if you're weighing-up a new tablet then you could do far worse than either of these.

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Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1N still under attack by Apple

Uh oh folks, it looks like Apple isn’t ready to stop just yet and apparently the new Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1N that Samsung released in Germany specifically to avoid Apple’s lawsuits didn’t manage to escape. Samsung has been under some heavy attack in Germany, Australia and other parts of the world for the Galaxy Tab 10.1 because Apple claims it infringes on their patents and design. Today Apple seeks another injunction on the new Tab 10.1N and a court date has been set.

 Clearly Samsung made a few changes in hopes to avoid the fruit company by tweaking the design and making the bezel actually wrap around front of the device rather than lay flat. The video linked to above goes through the changes for those interested.
Today FOSSPatents has updated with new details claiming Apple has again asked the German courts to ban the Galaxy Tab in Germany and they are now claiming the design changes were not big enough, that it still infringes on their patents and design. We’ve been told the 10.1N was designed by Samsung with close help by their team of German lawyers so this would not happen. For now we don’t have any additional details and the Galaxy Tab 10.1N is currently still for sale in Germany. They have set an official court date for December 22nd where I’m sure Apple will request another ban and temporary injunction on the Samsung slate.
I’ve been trying to avoid these irritating lawsuit and patent cases but this one was worth a mention specifically because the device was designed to avoid this exact situation. We’ll be sure to update with any additional information as it becomes available.
[via FOSS Patents] — Thanks Dy4me

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Google, Apple and the war for your cloud loyalty

Apple and Google have been working hard to become the conduit through which you access all of your data. This process has involved replacing the desktop machine with ‘the cloud’ as a repository for all of your information.
In the process, these companies are waging a war for you. Not just for your patronage for their services, or as a customer for their devices. No, they want you to pledge your data loyalty to them exclusively.
They are looking to do this by helping you to embed your life so thoroughly into their respective systems that you become locked in, unwilling or unable to leave without a great expenditure of time, effort and money.
This war stands to get more intense as data lockin becomes a real metric by which observers and the companies themselves measure success.

The Cloud

The cloud is nothing new. The basic concepts of storing files in a remote location that can be accessed anywhere are as old as the internet. But the modern application of this technology, by companies like Apple and Google, is more aggressive than ever before.
The biggest reason for this is the shift from stationary to mobile computing. Products like Dropbox have proliferated by riding the frothy wave of the move away from the towers and boxes that sat on our desks, to the ever more powerful and portable laptop.
But a second, and overlapping, shift is underway. People are leaving their laptops behind for tablet computers and smartphones. These devices are insanely powerful when compared to even the laptops of a decade ago and feature a set of key benefits, as well as limitations.
The most important catalyst for this change was the availability of an always-on data connection. The expansion and near-ubiquity of data networks is the platform that has allowed smartphones to become our constant and necessary companions.
On the other side of the coin, we have the limitations of storage. Yes, these smartphones are robust compared to computers of a few years ago, but their storage capacities are nowhere near what is available on a desktop computer. This makes choosing what to bring and what to leave behind a massive headache, and something that many people will never bother to do.
Enter the cloud. A small, portable and connected device, with limited onboard storage makes the ideal companion for a system that allows all data to be hosted and facilitated by a service that allows you access to it from wherever you are.
The cloud has been shoved to the forefront of the struggle between Apple and Google because of the rise of smartphones and tablets. It would still exist without them, but now it has taken on a new meaning and has become the biggest battleground in this conflict.

A gateway drug

In fact, it can be argued that these clouds, each curated by a different company, provide the real value, not the phones or tablets. The devices are just the gateway drug, the cloud is the addiction.
The importance that is attached to this by these companies is illustrated when you compare the introduction of the first iPhone to the introduction of the iPhone 4S.
The first iPhone was introduced by Steve Jobs as three devices in one.

1. An iPod
2. A phone
3. An internet mobile communicator

If you watch the original announcement, which I highly recommend, as it is the gold standard of product introductions, you’ll notice that the first got some applause, the second almost brought the house down and the third was barely acknowledged.

If the iPhone were being introduced today, which of those three do you think would be the most important, the most emphasized?
Well, we don’t have to speculate, because the announcement of the iPhone 4S told us everything we needed to know when 70% of the event was devoted to iCloud and its various services.

Apple is heavily invested into iCloud because it realizes that the best way to gain a customer for life is to become the one way that they access their most important data.

Google rallies the troops

Although Apple has been flirting with the cloud for a while, with varying levels of failure, Google has built its entire business off of offering internet services that are based on storing customer data on its servers.
With the massive storage afforded Gmail users, Google invited them to simply archive their email, breaking the decade-old habit of deleting email due to a lack of space. This effectively creates an archive of your life from the day you signed up for Gmail until now.
Receipts, conversations, references, even files emailed to yourself in a crude approximation of what services like Dropbox do, all available to you with a quick Google search. This is the power of Gmail, not the fact that it’s a decent and normally reliable email system.
Google Docs, while still trailing Microsoft’s Office juggernaut, are also quickly becoming indispensible collaboration tools and its Google Apps offerings are almost always the default choice for startups and websites of all sorts.
These are great infrastructural services, but they aren’t all that smartphone consumer-facing. This is why a concentration on building out services that appeal to the mobile device user, and encourage them to make a heavy investment in Google for their data storage and serving are the next big focus for Google.
To this end, Google has been focusing on initiatives like Google Music and integration of Google+ into every product it makes. These are the things that an Android phone user will see as a benefit and figure that they should try out,
Google services, including Gmail, Google Music, Google+ and Google Docs are all part of its strategy to incur user loyalty. When the services are efficient and enjoyable to use, they get people in the door.
But once the data is there, once people have made a commitment to Google’s cloud, the services exist to create the lockin it needs to retain those customers beyond the life of their current device.
If you’ve got all of your music, movies, documents and more wrapped up in a cloud that is seamlessly integrated across your device, then you are less likely to jump ship to another system.

Google Music vs. iTunes Match

This concept is why it’s so silly to compare Google’s recently launched Music service with Apple’s iTunes Match.
These services aren’t competing with each other, they’re designed as a hook to get the user more deeply invested in the platform. And they stand a really good chance of doing so. Once you’ve got seamless access to your music from anywhere you want, without having to ever sync it, it’s fairly addictive.
After using iCloud for nearly 5 months, including the beta period, I can tell you that I think much less about where items are synced and what devices I pick up to use for certain things.

This has become especially evident over the past weeks as developers have begun releasing updates to their apps that take advantage of Apple’s CoreData syncing, making preferences, game progress, documents and other items transfer seamlessly to all iOS devices.
iTunes Match has only enhanced this cozy feeling of your data being taken care of for you. Sure, there are rough patches still, both in iTunes Match and iCloud at large, but by and large it just works.
Once users come to expect their music and application states to be seamlessly available across all of their devices, it will become unfathomable that any device won’t work this way. As this becomes a way of life when working with our devices, the concept of locking will become ever more valuable.
Every new smartphone user is essentially making a choice with the purchase of their first device that will chart the path of their operating system brand loyalty over years to come. And the cloud integrated services are just in their infancy.

Google vs. Apple will be decided in the cloud

Apple’s heavy investment in iCloud is its statement that the battle for customers will be won or lost in the cloud. Google, although effectively popularizing many cloud services for the first time, is playing a bit of catchup here.
It has yet to brand its cloud services under one name, although it is making attempts to do so with Google+. Pretty soon I feel we will see Google+ Docs, Google+ Music, Google+ Everything. The social layer is one more piece of lockin that Google is anxious to leverage, rather than succumbing to an external layer like Facebook.
That isn’t to say that it is completely ‘advantage Apple’ at the moment though. Google excels at single sign-on services and the Google ID has proven to be an excellent way to insta-personalize Android devices. If you ditch an old Android phone and grab a new one, you can be up and running in minutes, provided that you are invested in Google’s cloud of course.
Apple’s ‘PC-free’ improvements to the iPhone and iPad with iOS 5 are its answer to a seamless transition from one device to another, using the cloud. Beginning with iOS 5, it became possible to drop an iPhone in a river, walk into an Apple Store and be up and running with your essential information in minutes and a fully restored device within an hour.
These conveniences are all due to the cloud, and are completely incompatible with the opposing system. Switching customers are effectively starting over from scratch unless they put forth the effort to collate, download and re-upload their data from their current cloud.
This is something that we will see people less and less willing to do as the cloud experience gets better and more seamless. The increasing ‘stickyness’ will benefit whichever system got its hooks in first.

Different games

Google knows that the only way that Android is going to survive is by a superiority of numbers. By doing that, it is playing a completely different game than Apple, which is after profitability first, rather than market share.
This is the fact that is overlooked by most of the people writing “Android is Winning” or “Apple is Winning” pieces.
Apple is a hardware company that makes an insane amount of profit on its devices, which run its OS. Google is an OS company that has traded any amount of profit it might have made on Android for sheer market share of eyeballs.
Since Google makes its money almost entirely off of ads delivered through its services, this appears to be a reasonable plan of attack, at least for now. It remains to be seen if the strategy of making $10 per Android user, per year, is viable, but it is being pursued with vigor.
For Google, the eyes on its ads are the most important thing. Locking those eyes into its system is a matter of life and death on its chosen battlefield. This is where its goals overlap with Apple’s.
Apple also wants users locked into its system, in order to leverage the halo effect to promote cross-sales of iPhones, iPads and Macs.
To this end, Apple is working hard to divorce itself from Google in order to cease contributing to its opposing platform. That divorce may be easier in some areas, like Siri, than it is in areas like the default search engine on iPhones and iPads.
I’ve been using Bing for the last several weeks in an effort to explore the possibilities I laid out in this article. While I found Bing pleasant to look at and well organized, it’s clear that Google’s search is still far superior to Microsoft’s. It will take a lot of work before I feel that Apple would be able to swap those two.
This is good for Google, because about 2/3 of search queries it serves in mobile are done via Apple hardware.

Conclusion

The cloud is set as the battleground that will decide the fate of Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS as the dominant force in OS. It’s the shared piece of land that the two companies fight over, as they wage their own disparate battles in the profitability and market share spaces.
As each offering is improved and made more essential to your portable computing life, we should see the way that we use our devices getting less and less fiddly. Who knows what the future of this war will bring? Perhaps a culture of ‘pick up and use’ smartphones. Rented or ‘disposable’ devices that act as dumb terminals to our cloud data.
Regardless of the future impact, the lockin effects of the cloud are just beginning, and neither Apple or Google will give up your data without a fight.

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Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1N Apple-dodging slate gets caught on video

If you haven’t been following along, over in Germany the Galaxy Tab 10.1 has been banned thanks to Apple’s team of lawyers claiming it is a direct copy of the iPad and after plenty of litigation it was banned across Europe. Earlier this week we saw details of a Tab 10.1N with a very slight change of design to avoid those lawsuits so Samsung could sell their tablets in Germany. Today we have that new tablet on video in case you’d like to take a look.

Now that the new slate is on sale German site NewGadgets quickly picked one up and fondled it on camera with a nice English speaking review so we can all check it out, and know what is going on. The main differences on the slate are the bezel and metal around the device. Apple claimed the edge to edge glass was what made the iPad special and Samsung completely stole the look. You can see all the differences in the video and the demonstrator neatly walks us through them. Samsung has added a little to the bezel, shows more aluminum instead of all glass on top and even pointed the speakers more forward then sideways. I actually think I might like that as audio will be better. Here’s the video:

The final results of this new tab make it arguably better — and like I said above it probably has better audio quality now the speakers are aimed forward. Samsung took this opportunity to also put their logo front and center on the bottom of the device, and have also included Bluetooth 3.0 capabilities. The differences are subtle but should be enough to dodge any further lawsuits or issues with the fruit company. Apple has not yet commented on the new design but I have a feeling we may hear something soon. Go Samsung!
[via SlashGear]

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Android gets more IT developer interest than iOS and Windows Phone 7

Even the most ardent of iOS evangelists can’t argue with Android’s worldwide success, to the tune of a full 50% sales market share as of last quarter. It looks like developers, specifically in the IT area, are taking notice. When IBM gave a survey to IT pros on which platform they were more interested in, Android won by a landslide, beating out both Apple and Microsoft in their relevant areas.

That’s very interesting, given that it’s also undeniable that there’s more money to be made in direct sales on iOS (at the moment, at least). Android is beating out iOS by a solid 20%, though responders were able to answer for more than one platform in the survey. 70% of responders said they were interested in developing for Android, while 49% were interested in iOS. Just 35% were interested in Windows Phone 7, though to be honest, even that’s a little surprising given its market share at the moment.
IBM is an interesting one to make the conclusions it does in the survey, namely that “Developers looking to increase their mobile skills would be smart to look to Android.” Remember that IBM is no longer producing consumer-level hardware – Lenovo now owns the ThinkPad brand, and they’ve produced several Android tablets under their IdeaPad brand. The IBM study just serves to highlight what you, dear reader, already know: Android is crushing it in the app world as well as hardware.
[via BGR]

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Galaxy Tab 10.1N released in Germany, Samsung says “saugen sie es” to Apple

After winning an injunction against Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Germany over some extremely vague design patents, Apple was sitting high on the hog, keeping the South Korean company from selling tablets in the country. Months later Samsung has responded with the Galaxy Tab 10.1N, a redesigned model that presumably skirts Apple’s complaints to become legal in Deutschland. The new tablets will begin shipping in the next few days for €550, or about $743.

It’s not immediately clear what Samsung has done to the original design to make it comply with the German court’s ruling, or if Apple is planning a rebuttal on the new model. The latter wouldn’t be at all surprising, given Steve Jobs’ vitriolic mandate against Android and the company’s particular hatred for Samsung. But if the 10.1V successfully sidesteps Apple’s design patents, you can expect to see a similar model popping up in Australia soon, and perhaps even replacing the standard model worldwide to avoid future lawsuits.
That includes the United States, where Apple is currently suing Samsung over the Galaxy Tab 10.1 and other devices. Since the design looks like it’s got only a few minor changes, on the hardware side at least, it should be easy enough for Samsung to transition manufacturing for current and future models (assuming that it’s necessary). If Apple can raise any further objections, I’m sure we’ll hear about them in the coming months.
[via Engadget]

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Apple beats Australian retailers into submission over Galaxy Tab sales

A while back we told you about independent Australian retailers refusing to honor the ruling from Apple’s civil case against Samsung. A small number of independent shops and websites skirted the sales ban on the Galaxy Tab 10.1 by importing them directly from China without buying them from Samsung first. Well it looks like Apple’s legal reach (not to mention gall) knows no bounds: the company has halted sales at all but one of the “rogue” retailers, in some cases using threatening letters to convince them of their position.

The Australian news site was only able to find one website that’s still selling the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 down under, Dmavo.com.au. The sales injunction bans Samsung from selling its tablets to retailers and directly to consumers, but retailers are free to find alternates sources of inventory, in this case, electronics shops in China and Taiwan. The rest of the independent stores that were selling the tablets have all decided to stop, likely to keep from risking a civil suit from Apple’s Australian arm.
Samsung is currently appealing the sales ban, but since the preliminary and primary injunctions made it through, that seems unlikely. Apple previously refused a settlement of undisclosed terms in the case, and after the details of the late Steve Jobs’ vitriolic rants against Android, it’s unlikely that they ever will. Samsung has retaliated by seeking a ban on iPhone 4S sales, and that particular case goes before a judge today.

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Samsung Galaxy S3 vs Apple iPhone 4S

We're dealing with rumour and hyperbole this time around, as we compare Apple's newly released iPhone 4S with Samsung's Galaxy S3, courtesy of a juicy product leak

Most people are still arranging their upgrades to Apple's new iPhone 4S, but we're already concerning ourselves with what comes next. In this case it's the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S3.
We've recently got our hands on its intended specification via an internet leak. So in this face-off we'll be playing the 'suspected' Galaxy S3 specs off against the iPhone 4S.
How will this new Android powered device measure up to the sweetheart of the smartphone world? Well, let's delve into its  alleged specifications and find out.
It's worth remembering that at this stage in the game this is speculation, and there will no doubt be some changes before the final device hits the shops. But let's forget that and indulge ourselves!


Power
Apple's iPhone 4S packs a decent punch thanks to its dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 chip and PowerVR SGX543MP2 GPU, and as the first dual-core toting Apple smartphone to come to market you can enjoy solid, speedy performance throughout.
The device is equipped with 512MB RAM too, which provides a nice snap to proceedings and allows apps to open in a flash thanks to Apple's meticulous optimisations.
The iPhone 4S comes in 16, 32 and 64GB flavours.
The Galaxy S3 allegedly runs on Samsung's own Exynos 4212 chipset, which includes a huge 1.8GHz dual-core CPU and 2GB RAM (yes, you read that right!), which will have the device whizzing along at a rate previously reserved for laptops and top-end tablets.
In addition to its super powerful CPU, the Galaxy S3 will apparently come in 16 and 32GB flavours with additional support for Micro SD cards up to 32GB in size.
Winner - Samsung Galaxy S3
Display
The Galaxy S3 features a stellar Super AMOLED Plus HD display and rumour has it that it will be 4.6-inches in size and come with the usual array of accoutrements, including Gorilla Glass fronting.
The rumoured pixel density for the Galaxy S3 is 319PPI – only a gnats shy of the iPhone 4S – and if this is correct it will be the most advanced Android device around.
The iPhone 4S features Apple's famed Retina Display technology in the form of a 3.5-inch LED backlit IPS TFT screen, which weighs-in with a pixel density of 330PPI.
Visuals on the iPhone 4S are stunning and it's by far the best mobile display around – at the moment. How it stacks up against the Galaxy S3's Super AMOLED Plus HD in the real world may be cause for a changing of the guard though.
Winner - Apple iPhone 4S

Form
Apple iPhone 4S - 115.2 x 58.6 x 9.3 mm, 140G
Samsung Galaxy S3 - ?
Judging this category is going to be tough as no information has been leaked regarding the Galaxy S3's form and measurements – but we can let our imaginations run for a moment, right? No harm in that.
The iPhone 4S is a sleek, slim device which is constructed out of top quality materials. Design tweaks have all but eradicated 'death grip' concerns and, say what you like about Apple, it knows how to design a good looking piece of tech.
The 4S looks and feels like a finished article whereas in many areas the iPhone 4 did not. The antenna fix for one, then there's Siri and all that new hardware – dual-core CPU, 8-megapixel camera etc.
The Galaxy S3 will likely follow in the footsteps of its brother, the Galaxy S2, and be a big-screened, super skinny device.
We expect it to measure less than its stable-mate's 8.5mm thickness and be crafted from the same blend of plastics that let us down with the S2 as well.
In other areas it seems as though Samsung has chosen to refine things, giving the Galaxy S3 more sweeping edges, rather than the boxy shape its predecessor's boasted.

Related articles

• Samsung and Android continue their bullish run (goandroid.co.in)
• HTC Vivid and Raider Review (tech-gadget.co.in)
• Samsung Galaxy Nexus vs Samsung Galaxy Note (goandroid.co.in)
• Motorola Razr vs Apple iPhone 4S (goandroid.co.in)

Camera

Both devices in this comparison feature primary and secondary cameras.

The iPhone 4S features a very pleasing 8-megapixel primary, which benefits from auto-focus, LED flash, touch-focus, geo-tagging and face detection, and captures video at 1080P.

Its secondary camera is a VGA.

The Samsung Galaxy S3 is rumoured to feature a 12-megapixel primary camera with dual LED flash, geo-tagging, touch focus, face & smile detection and image stabilisation and will capture movies in 1080P too.

It's secondary camera is expected to be the same as the Galaxy S2's 2-megapixel offering.

The jury will stay out on this round until the Galaxy S3 hits our desk, ready for testing. In terms of specification it should best the iPhone 4S, but knowing how well the Apple performs we'll leave that proclamation until we're 100% sure.

Winner - Draw

Software

The iPhone 4S runs on version 5 of Apple's iOS operating system and it's the best iteration of the platform to date.

Its upgrades include a new Notification Centre (which is vaguely reminiscent of Android's own pull-down blind system), iMessage, a new, BBM inspired messaging solution, Newsstand, for keeping up-to-date with all your periodicals and native Twitter integration.

On top of the tweaks you'll still have the very best software QWERTY on the planet, access to the hundreds of thousands of apps available in the Apple App Store and the usual silky, seamless performance that we've come to expect of Apple.

The Galaxy S3 will apparently run on version 4.0 of Android, otherwise known as Ice Cream Sandwich, and the OS has undergone a bit of a face-lift in this iteration.

New features include a whole new visage, a new standard font throughout, giving the platform a much more mature and professional look, in-app spell checking, newly designed core applications, a neat folder system vaguely reminiscent of Apple's iOS system and Face Unlock, which should allow you and only you access to your device (the 'should' is italicised because it didn't quite work like that during Google's grand reveal).

Overall Ice Cream Sandwich looks set to be the most complete version of Android to date. With no more custom overlays delaying updates, and custom UI's draining resources away from the core functionality of the system. 

It will have to be good though, because as it stands iOS 5 is the best mobile platform on the market.

Winner - Apple iPhone 4S

Apple's iPhone 4S has given a good account of itself against its competitor from the future.

Even when held up against a smartphone that is months away from completion the device still looks complete and we can't see many devices having the nous to challenge its superiority until the Galaxy S3 arrives next year.

The aforementioned Galaxy S3 certainly looks to be a powerful and interesting Android device though, and with a few tweaks it could nick the top spot from Apple's baby.

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Apple CEO dismisses Kindle Fire as “more Android fragmentation”

Never let ‘em see you sweat, huh Apple? In a recent interview with Apple CEO Tim Cook, a question was posed about the disruptive power of the Kindle Fire, which many see as the first tablet to pose a threat to the iPad due to its $199 price. Cook responded that the Fire simply represents more fragmentation, and that that will lead more consumers to Apple’s walled garden of hardware and software.

There’s a bit of an issue with Cook’s reasoning, however. One, Android software is thriving despite the fragmentation issue, largely because most apps released will work on Android hardware running 2.2 or later, now comprising more than 85% of the devices sold worldwide. And two, Amazon’s approach to the Kindle Fire is basically its own walled garden – a closed-off boutique of media and software that can only be purchased directly from the company. Sound familiar? Sure, it’s technically running Gingerbread, but how many of the hundreds of thousands of people who pre-ordered know that, and how many simply care that the Fire can get them movies, music, books and apps at less than half the price of the iPad?
Apple has already lost the battle in the smartphone market, and signs are appearing that their stranglehold on tablets might be slipping. Current estimates give Android 27% of worldwide tablet sales in Q3, to the iPad’s 67%. This isn’t the first time that Cook has been dismissive of Android on tablets either: back in January he called Android competitors “bizarre” and “vapor.” With Amazon expected to ship at least a quarter-million Kindle Fires on launch day, and a capability of delivering 5 million during the holidays, it’s easy to see why Cook might want to start engaging in a flame war with a soon-to-be rival.
Don’t worry, Apple – if you lose yet another mobile market to Android, you can always just sic the lawyers on Jeff Bezos.
[via SlashGear]

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Android’s US Market Share Nearing 50 percent in Latest Nielsen Report

Android continues to lead US smartphone market share, and the gap is growing according to the latest figures from Nielsen. For the third quarter of 2011 Android’s share reached 43 percent, up from 39 percent, compared to Apple’s 28 percent, which saw no change. Android saw its gains at the expense of RIM and Microsoft, whose dropping share combined for 25 percent of the smartphone market. Symbian and webOS featured such a small showing that Nielsen dumped them into the “other” category with 4 perent total share.
Nielsen reports 43 percent of all mobile phone users own a smartphone, with Apple ranking as the top vendor despite conflicting reports from other analytics firms.
[via Nielsen]

Related articles

• Android serves up 56% of mobile ads in third quarter (goandroid.co.in)
• HTC takes top smartphone spot in U.S. according to Q3 data from Canalys (tech-gadget.co.in)

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Apple loses tablet patent lawsuit in Spain

La vaca santa! After winning injunctions against Samsung and its Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Germany and Australia, not to mention other various lawsuits around the world, a tiny Android tablet maker from Spain has successfully defended itself in a criminal patent suit. NK-T, makers of cheap Android tablets for their regional market, found themselves labelled as pirates and criminals when Apple filed an complaint against them in November, 2010. The court found NK-T innocent of criminal charges today.


The small company posted a victorious message to their blog. Via Google Translate:

Needless to clear all the damage it has caused this unjust accusation , both economically and emotionally to our company. We are a small company like many others in these times of crisis we are trying to get ahead, and it seems grossly unfair that a company the caliber of Apple has to use its dominant influence. Parallel to this, start the corresponding civil suit against Apple for consequential damages, lost profits and moral damage.

It looks like NT-K is going to pursue a civil case against Apple, and well they should – by filing the original complaint in criminal court, Apple saw to it that the company’s merchandise was seized and their EU import privileges suspended. looking through the company’s website, it looks like they only have one model for sale,a standard 7-inch Gingerbread tablet, which doesn’t even bear the resemblance to the iPad that Apple is claiming from Samsung’s devices.

With all the patent trolling Apple is doing in the US and abroad, it’s nice to see a win for the little guy. Of course, Apple went after a Spanish company on their home soil, and did it with an overbearing criminal case that they probably wouldn’t dare against the likes of Samsung or HTC. Here’s hoping this is a sign of more rational judicial decisions to come.

[via 9to5 Mac]

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Apple's iTunes vs Microsoft Zune

Which is the best for syncing with a mobile device and for everyday use as a PC-based media player, Apple’s iTunes or Microsoft’s Zune? We investigate

Apple, largely thanks to the success of the iPod and iPhone, is presently enjoying something of a monopoly in the personal music player markets, be it on its iPod devices, iPhones or iPads. And because Apple likes to keep everything connected (or under its control) iTunes has become, for the vast majority of people, the standard PC media player.
And this isn’t all that surprising when you consider that Microsoft’s attempt at an iPod-liked device, known as the Zune player, absolutely bombed upon release. In fact, it wans't even released here in the UK. But one good thing to come out of the ill-fated Zune campaign was Microsoft’s Zune PC software, which is starting to look every bit the iTunes-killer Microsoft fanbois have been saying it was since day one.
Of course to use either you’ll need to first align yourself with either Microsoft or Apple – iPhones won’t work on Zune, for example, which isn’t even available on Macs, and Windows Phone 7 devices won’t work with iTunes. So this is really an article for anyone out there that’s looking to upgrade to a new phone, but can’t decide between going with Apple or Microsoft.

Looks
This aspect of the comparison is pretty subjective as it’s based on looks and has nothing to do with functionality. As we established earlier, everybody knows what Apple’s iTunes looks like. It’s simple, grey, easy-to-use and acts as a portal to Apple’s iTunes Store, where you can buy apps, films and music.

Unlike Apple’s products iTunes isn’t really about looks. It even feels a bit old-hat these days, if we’re honest, as very little about the way it looks has changed that much since the service first launched. It serves it’s purpose and is very straight forward to use, but we think Apple could do something with the UI to make it a bit more attractive.
Microsoft’s Zune, on the other hand, is all about looks with its gorgeous wallpapers and Metro UI. So much so, in fact, that if you hadn’t seen either pieces of software before and had to guess which one was Apple’s, you’d probably assume it was Zune.
Zune will also load up backgrounds of the artist that you’re listening to. So if you’ve got some Mastodon playing you’ll get a lovely collage of Mastodon album covers making up wallpaper. The tiles that make up the wallpaper spin around revealing different images and collections of pictures – it really is a pleasure to look at. Apple doesn’t have anything that compares to this in iTunes.
Winner: Zune

Syncing
During that last month or so, we’ve tested quite a few Windows Phone 7 handsets. This is part of the reason why we’ve become so attached to Zune. It’s also the reason why Microsoft’s software and not iTunes is now the default music player on our PC at home, despite the fact that this scribbler is an iPhone 4S user.
Generally speaking we didn’t experience any issues whatsoever when syncing Zune with our Windows Phone 7 device. You simply connect it via a cable, or over Wi-Fi, and enable the syncing mode. Adding files manually is simple, too – just drag albums, songs or videos onto the phone symbol in the bottom left corner.
One big draw of Zune is that it automatically adds songs to itself once you’ve downloaded them. Apple’s iTunes won’t do this by itself – you’ll have to manually add them or set up a folder. We found this slightly annoying when switching back from Zune to iTunes. Zune also automatically imports your entire iTunes library across as well. Again, iTunes won’t do this by itself. You, once again, have to step in.
Both Zune and iTunes are evenly matched in the syncing stakes. Both support Wi-Fi syncing, for instance, and generally perform above average when updating your device with music, video and media.
Having said that, neither product’s Wi-Fi syncing options are particularly impressive. After trying and failing on numerous occasions with both products we opted back to using a cable – it’s faster and more secure.
One aspect where Microsoft kicks Apple’s ass though is the ease with which Zune updates the software on your Windows Phone handset. We can’t remember one instance where an iOS update has installed on the first go, there’s always at least one failure – always. This could be an issue with the number of people trying to download an update at any one time, but Apple should have rectified this issue by now.
But this isn’t the case with Zune. Both of Microsoft’s recent Windows Phone updates (NoDo and Mango) updated with ease. There were no restarts or no error messages. It was just a case of plugging in the handset and watching it go. Simple.
Of course this difference could be caused by the sheer amount of people accessing Apple’s servers once an update is made available – there is a lot more iPhone users out there after all. But this still doesn’t detract from the general experience: Zune seems better equipped to process and implement software onto handsets.
Winner: Zune

Getting album art work
If you’re anything like us, you hate having black squares where album artwork should be. In both iTunes and Zune this issue too much of a problem, as you can search and download the artwork for specific albums as and when you need it.
But say you’ve got some music that isn’t from Apple’s iTunes store or Microsoft’s Zune Market? It could be your ripped CDs or, god forbid, illegally downloaded – what then?
Well, you can drag and drop artwork from Google into iTunes and that will then become the default artwork for a band, which is always good for obscure artists. However, we’ve noticed some issues with this function in iTunes 10.5. In some instances we just can’t add artwork and this means lots of blank squares in our iPhone’s music application.
In Zune you just right-click and select search for Artist Artwork. That’s it. No Google searches, no magic and, most importantly, there’s no Zune registration required, a simple Hotmail/Live account will suffice. To date Zune has found every piece of album artwork we’ve asked it to – even really tricky ones like Rwake and Wolves in the Throne Room.
Winner: Zune

Buying music
iTunes is the default place to by music for practically every human being in the western world. It’s simple to use, well stocked and, generally speaking, priced accordingly. You can get video, music, books films and applications from inside iTunes. And if you have an iPhone/iPad/iPod, it’s the only way you can get content to and from a device (granted there’s other methods, but these are more of a pain than a solution).

Microsoft is similar to Apple in that to get content from your PC to your Windows Phone device you’ll need to use Zune. But the similarities end here, you see Microsoft lets you buy music via its Zune store but it’s taken a more Spotify-like approach to music consumption, which some users tend to prefer.

Here is what a $14.99 a month Zune Pass gets you, according to Microsoft:

A Zune Music Pass lets you stream and download as many songs as you like from Zune Marketplace and listen to them for as long as your subscription is active. You can get a 1-month Zune Music Pass or save money and get 12 months for the price of 10 by choosing an annual pass.

With an active Zune Music Pass, you can:
Play songs an unlimited number of times.
Download an unlimited number of songs to your computer, and sync them an unlimited number of times to your Windows Phone.
Stream music from Zune Marketplace, from your Xbox 360 using Zune on Xbox LIVE, and from Zune.net. You can also use Smart DJ to listen to spontaneous playlists.

At last count, Microsoft had about 17,000,000 tracks on Zune. That’s a lot of music. The only issue we have with Zune is that it’s reliant on the cloud. For instance, if you wanted to listen to music on the move you’d have to stream it to your device, which requires mobile data – and that costs money.

Zune would be an ideal solution in a world that had coast-to-coast 4G-connectivity and unlimited data plans. Unfortunately neither of these things exist in the UK, so for this reason we have to go with Apple on this one, despite the obvious benefits of Microsoft’s solution.

Winner: Apple

Compatibility
As you'd expect, Zune is compatible with Windows, and only Windows. If you have a Mac, you're left out, unless you opt to download Windows Phone 7 Connector for Mac, which will only sync files, rather than allow you to access your full music collection.

But if you’ve got a Windows PC, you have slightly more options, because iTunes works on PCs and Mac.

We use iTunes to sync our iPhone, for instance, but Zune as our PC media player – that way you get the best of both worlds.

Winner: iTunes

Final thoughts
It’s a pretty clean-cut victory for Zune in this instance. It looks better, performs better and is simpler to use and packs in lots more usual features, such as better syncing. Having said that, to make use of either you will need the appropriate hardware (either an iPhone or a Windows Phone).

In the grand scheme of things neither product is perfect, though. Both have their positives and negatives, but to get a real feel for the main differences (namely the quality of the user experience) we’d recommend using Zune if you haven’t already – it’s streets ahead of iTunes in this respect.

Both, however, suffer greatly on account of just how locked down they are – this is especially evident with Zune, which isn’t even available on Mac.

We’d love to see an OS X version of Zune and Zune support iPhone syncing, it’d be great for consumers – it’d give them a choice. But it won’t happen, so get used to one of the other (or in some instances both) depending on what type of hardware set-up you use.

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Samsung beats Apple with 28 million smartphones shipped in Q3

Deck the halls, break out the traditional holiday doughnuts and throw another TPS report on the fire, it’s quarterly earnings call season. Samsung certainly has reason to celebrate: in the last three months they’ve shipped 28 million smartphones worldwide, taking the #1 spot away from Apple. Samsung doesn’t use Android exclusively for their smartphone hardware, but needless to say, it plays a big part in their worldwide strategy.

Samsung’s sales in the mobile department, including all smartphones and feature phones, rose by almost 40% to 13.05 billion dollars. It’s not all good news: the company’s gross profit was down 13% year over year. Total income, including all of Samsung’s various consumer electronics, semiconductor and business-to-business sales rose by 3% to $37.5 billion, with the mobile division driving the company and posting the only gains.

Samsung’s got a busy quarter ahead of them in the mobile space, with both the Galaxy Nexus and Galaxy Note coming to various markets within the next month. The Galaxy S line of smartphones, which has sold over30 million devices across the original and Galaxy S II models, will see high-definition and LTE updates soon as well. The Galaxy S III is expected sometime next year. Samsung’s bottom line might be affected by Apple’s lawsuits worldwide, which have already resulted in sales bans on the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Germany and Australia.

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Samsung Appeals Australian Galaxy Tab Ban

Not that anyone thought they wouldn’t, Samsung has formally filed to appeal an Australian court’s decision to ban importation and sales of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in the country. The ruling was made after Apple took its global patent war down under, making claims that Samsung has infringed on Apple’s product design. As part of their appeal, Samsung counsel Neil Young — not the guitar-weilding folk singer, though his penchant for standing against social injustice would be fitting in this case– argued that Justice Annabelle Bennet, the judge presiding over the original trial, made her decision based on “irrelevant considerations.” Samsung has been granted an appeal hearing, which is expected to begin the week of November 21st. Regardless of the final verdict, Samsung will likely miss any chance of delivering the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in time to make a big holiday splash.
[via Wall Street Journal]

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Motorola Razr vs Apple iPhone 4S

We compare the iPhone 4S with Motorola's upcoming Razr - an Android device which looks set to make a huge splash

Apple's iPhone 4S was announced recently and immediately set about doing what Apple devices do best: dividing opinion. Some people feel the device isn't much of an upgrade over the iPhone 4, others think it's all part of Apple's grand plan to enslave humanity and others, well, others fell in love with it.
So in the spirit of fair play we've decided to see what all the fuss is about by holding the 4S up against a device which is being lauded as the next big (Android) thing, Motorola's Razr, s device which is almost certain to enjoy a successful launch this November.
Will Apple's iPhone 4S reign supreme, or will Motorola's Razr cut it to pieces?
Let's find out.

Power
The iPhone 4S is the first smartphone from Apple to benefit from a dual-core processor, and the 1GHz ARM Cortex-A9 which powers the device is a great addition to the line.
In addition to the quality CPU you also have a PowerVR SGX543MP2 GPU, which should afford you countless hours of gaming fun, as well as excellent visual effects and top quality movie playback.
For reasons known only to Apple, it opted to leave this newly invigorated release with only a pedestrian 512MB RAM.
Motorola seems to have taken peoples power demands a little more seriously when designing the Razr, giving the device an Ti OMAP 4430 chipset which consists of a 1.2GHz dual-core CPU and PowerVR SGX540 GPU. Sure, it's similar to the iPhone 4S, but the extra oomph will certainly come in handy.
The improvements aren't limited to chipset either, as the Motorola Razr offers up a tidy 1GB RAM.
Winner - Motorola Razr

Display
The iPhone 4S features  Apple's fantastic Retina Display, a 3.5-inch LED-backlit IPS TFT which offers dazzling visual quality. The display operates at a resolution of 640 x 960 and has a pixel count of 330PPI, which is still the highest available on a smartphone (for now).
Motorola's Razr is no shrinking violet though, its 4.3-inch Super AMOLED screen is a superb feature which offers stunning, deep colours and responsive performance.
The display operates at a resolution of 540 x 960 and offers up a pixel count of 256PPI, which. although impressive, is still quite a ways behind the iPhone 4S.
Winner - Apple iPhone 4S

Software
Disappointingly the Motorola Razr runs on version 2.3.4 of Android. We'd hoped that the recent acquisition of the company by Google would have allowed the device to roll-off the production line with Ice Cream Sandwich, but hey, that would have ruined the Galaxy Nexus' exclusivity, right?
It may not be the latest and greatest iteration of the OS but it still performs brilliantly and with Motorola's custom UI additions there's tons of scope for customisation. On top of that there's loads of widgets, nice eye candy and, of course, all the games and apps you can shake a muddy stick at in the Android Market.
Apple's iPhone 4S ships with version 5.0 of the company's hugely impressive iOS and the improvements are noticeable as soon as you fire up the device.
There's improved multi-tasking, an updated notification system (think Android), Twitter integration, iMessage (Think BBM) and, of course, the latest version of Safari; which is better than ever.
On top of all those there's a host of other bits and pieces which help make the platform by far the most user friendly mobile OS on the market. Oh, and there's even more apps and games in Apple's App Store than there is in Android's Market, so there!
Winner - Apple iPhone 4S

Form

Apple iPhone 4S - 115.2 x 58.6 x 9.3 mm, 140g
Motorola Razr - 130.7 x 68.9 x 7.1 mm, 127g

This category is a tough one to judge because both Apple and Motorola have earned solid reputations for building top quality devices.

The iPhone 4S is typical Apple – it's sleek, minimalist and amazingly pretty. Plus at only 9.3mm thick you'll barely notice it in your pocket (we aren't sure whether that's a good thing or a bad thing though).

Motorola's Razr looks to be every bit as robust as the company's previous Android devices, which means you can look forward to a strong, attractive and immensely durable smartphone. It's also super thin at only 7.1mm.

Both devices offers toughened glass covers for their precious screens too, so you needn't worry about coin or key damage!

Winner - Draw

Camera

The Apple iPhone 4S has been given a camera upgrade, and its 8-megapixel primary offering, which also features touch focus, LED flash, geo-tagging and 1080P video capture, is among the best performing smartphone cameras we've ever clapped eyes on.

Shots are clear, captured quickly and easily print worthy.

The iPhone 4S also has a VGA secondary camera for video calling.

Motorola's Razr comes with an 8-megapixel camera too, which offers touch focus, geo-tagging, face detection, image stabilisation, LED flash, auto focus and 1080P video capture.

We can't comment on the quality of the images at this stage, but Motorola's no slouch when it comes to getting good quality images out of its smartphones, so we'd expect photos to be good.

As with the iPhone 4S, the Razr comes fitted with secondary optics for video calling, but Motorola has given the device a 1.3-megpixel front-facing camera, which will offer much better quality for those who need to video call or conference.

Winner - RAZR

Apple's iPhone 4S has taken the win, albeit by a nose.

The device is fast, beautiful, features the best mobile OS around and performs like a dream. What's not to like about that? Well, the price maybe, but other than that nothing.

Motorola's Razr looks to be a contender though, and the iPhone 4S had better watch its back come November, because it may just be the Android smartphone to topple it from its pedestal.

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