Motorola Xoom WiFi getting Android 3.1 update in Canada

Motorola has announced the availability of Android 3.1 for Xoom WiFi owners in Canada. This update will bring support for resizing widgets, use a Bluetooth headset during video chats and much more.
The software update includes:

• Improved multi-tasking providing instant visual access to a larger number of applications


• Support for USB-connected peripherals and accessories, such as keyboards, mice, game controllers and digital cameras


• Expanded Bluetooth® features to support Bluetooth® headsets in Google Talk™ video chats, Bluetooth® mouse support, and additional shortcut keys with the Bluetooth® keyboard


• SD Card support for up to 32GB expandable memory


• Preloaded File Manager


• Easy photo file transfer to a PC with the Picture Protocol Feature

Update has already started rolling out and will reach your device very soon.

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Microsoft moves to block sale of Motorola Android phones

Microsoft Corp. (MSFT), the world’s largest software maker, began arguing its U.S. trade case that Android- based smartphones made by Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. use technology derived from Microsoft inventions.
In a trial that began today before the International Trade Commission in Washington, Microsoft accused Motorola Mobility of infringing seven of its patents and requested a halt to imports of certain Motorola phones. The ITC has the power to stop imports of products that violate U.S. patent rights.
The case is the first smartphone dispute to be heard by the agency since Google Inc. (GOOG) said Aug. 15 it would buy Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion to obtain patents that could be used as a bulwark against a surge of lawsuits targeting handsets and tablet computers that use Google’s Android operating system.
“We have a responsibility to our employees, customers, partners and shareholders to safeguard our intellectual property,” David Howard, Microsoft’s corporate vice president and deputy general counsel for litigation, said in an e-mail. “Motorola is infringing our patents and we are confident that the ITC will rule in our favor.”
Motorola Mobility is “vigorously defending” itself “against Microsoft’s patent attack business strategy,” Jennifer Erickson, a Motorola Mobility spokeswoman, said in an e-mail. “We have also brought legal actions of our own in the U.S. and in Europe to address Microsoft’s large scale of infringement of Motorola Mobility’s patents.”

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Apple prepping cheaper iPhone 4 to launch in September alongside iPhone 5

Apple is preparing to launch a new, less expensive iPhone 4 model that will become available at the end of September alongside the iPhone 5, Reuters reported on Tuesday. Citing multiple anonymous sources, the news organization says that the retooled iPhone 4 will feature a smaller 8GB flash drive manufactured by an unnamed South Korean company. Apple has sourced flash drives for its current iPhone models from Toshiba and Samsung. Reuters also contradicts recent reports that the iPhone 5 will launch in early October, writing instead that Apple is “targeting an end-September launch for the next-generation iPhone 5.” The report restates numerous others that claim the iPhone 5 will feature a larger display, a new antenna design and an 8-megapixel camera.
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RIM unveils BlackBerry Curve 9350, 9360 and 9370 smartphones

Continuing on its peculiar path for BlackBerry 7 device announcements, RIM finally took the wraps off three new additions to its Curve smartphone line in the middle of the night. The BlackBerry Curve 9350, 9360 and 9370 smartphones, like the Curve models that came before them, take the best of what RIM has to offer and stuff it into an affordable package that sheds the bells and whistles. Spec highlights include RIM’s slimmest Curve design ever, GPS and Wi-Fi support, 5-megapixel cameras and the BlackBerry 7 OS. ”These new models will build on the incredible success of the BlackBerry Curve line and further expand the largest global launch of BlackBerry smartphones in our history,” said RIM Co-CEO Mike Lazaridis in a statement. “The new BlackBerry Curve smartphones are absolutely stunning and offer a significant performance upgrade with an unmatched mobile social experience for the millions of feature phone users in the market as well as our existing Curve customers.” RIM’s new Curve line will launch this month in Canada and beginning next month in additional markets. RIM’s full press release follows below.

RIM Introduces New BlackBerry Curve Smartphones
Sleek, fast and easy-to-use smartphones feature next-generation BlackBerry 7 OS and deliver smooth social experiences wherever you go
Waterloo, ON – Research In Motion (RIM) (NASDAQ: RIMM; TSX: RIM) today announced three new BlackBerry® smartphones featuring the BlackBerry® 7 Operating System (OS). The all-new BlackBerry® Curve™ 9350, BlackBerry® Curve™ 9360 and BlackBerry Curve™ 9370 smartphone are exciting additions to the popular BlackBerry Curve series.
These new models are designed to address a large and important segment of the global mobile phone market where customers are looking to upgrade their existing feature phone or existing BlackBerry Curve with an affordable, easy-to-use, full-featured and socially-connected smartphone.
“These new models will build on the incredible success of the BlackBerry Curve line and further expand the largest global launch of BlackBerry smartphones in our history,” said Mike Lazaridis, President and Co-CEO at Research In Motion. “The new BlackBerry Curve smartphones are absolutely stunning and offer a significant performance upgrade with an unmatched mobile social experience for the millions of feature phone users in the market as well as our existing Curve customers.”
Everything You NeedThe new BlackBerry Curve smartphones are slim, stylish and simply beautiful. They are ergonomically designed with a comfortable and iconic keyboard for fast, accurate typing and an optical trackpad for easy, one-handed navigation. GPS and Wi-Fi® support are also included, as well as a 5MP camera with flash and video recording so that memories can be captured and instantly shared on social networks. The microSD/SDHC slot supports up to 32 GB memory cards for additional media storage.
In addition to supporting the new BlackBerry 7 OS, the new BlackBerry Curve smartphones feature a range of powerful hardware enhancements including upgraded processors, displays and memory, and built-in support for NFC (Near Field Communications), a new technology that is enabling many exciting capabilities, including the ability to pair accessories or read SmartPoster tags with a simple tap of the smartphone.
Next-Generation BlackBerry 7 OSBlackBerry 7 introduces a next generation BlackBerry browser which combines the dramatically improved performance of the advanced WebKit browser engine with the hardware enhancements in the new BlackBerry Curve smartphones to deliver a significantly faster, more fluid web browsing experience. Additional enhancements to this next generation BlackBerry browser have also enabled smoother navigation and optimized HTML5 performance for incredible gaming and video experiences.
BlackBerry 7 OS also includes a number of other pre-loaded applications and integrated functionality for increased productivity and collaboration right out of the box. The Premium version of Documents To Go is included free of charge, offering users powerful document editing features as well as a native PDF document viewer. BlackBerry® Protect is also pre-loaded*, offering customers the peace of mind that personal data can be backed up and secured in the cloud. With BlackBerry Protect, users can locate their misplaced BlackBerry smartphone using GPS or remotely turn up the ringer for an audible notification if their handset is close-by. BlackBerry® Balance (announced May 2, 2011) is integrated in BlackBerry 7, allowing users to enjoy the full BlackBerry smartphone experience for both work and personal purposes without compromising the IT department’s need for advanced security and IT controls. The popular universal search capability has also been enhanced with support for voice-activated search, so users can now simply speak to begin searching their device and the web for information.
Best In Class Communications and Social ExperiencesThe next generation BlackBerry Curve smartphones deliver the world’s best mobile communications and social experiences with a highly refined and integrated suite of phone, email, messaging and social apps to keep users connected and productive throughout the day.
The latest release of BBM™ (BlackBerry® Messenger) is pre-loaded and now extends the real time BBM experience to a range of other apps, such as Foursquare, allowing users to easily interact with each other from within the ‘BBM connected’ app (see separate announcement on July 28, 2011).
The updated Social Feeds (2.0) app has been extended to capture updates from media, podcasts, and favorites all in one consolidated view. The new Facebook® for BlackBerry smartphones (2.0) app introduces features like Facebook chat and BBM integration that makes it easier for users to connect with their Facebook friends in real time utilizing push notifications. Twitter for BlackBerry smartphones also delivers a deeply integrated experience including use of real time push notifications and Social Feeds integration.

AvailabilityThe BlackBerry Curve 9350, 9360 and 9370 smartphones are expected to be available from carriers in Canada this month and from other carriers around the world beginning in September. Availability dates and pricing for specific devices from specific carriers will be announced in conjunction with RIM’s partners.

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Microsoft sues Motorola for patent infringement

We all know that one of the key reasons that Google gobbled up Motorola Mobility was for the patent treasure trove that Motorola owned. Microsoft was said to be eying the purchase of Motorola Mobility as well, strictly for the patents. In fact, some sources claimed that Motorola went with Google over Microsoft because Microsoft planned to shutter the mobile operations.

Microsoft has now decided to fight the Google and Motorola Mobile tie up by filing a patent infringement suit against Motorola. Microsoft is alleging that Motorola is infringing on some of the patents that it owns covering Android devices. Microsoft is seeking a ban on the import of Motorola handsets into the US.
Microsoft claims that Motorola is infringing on seven patents. Some of the handsets that are covered in the litigation include the Droid 2, Droid X, Cliq XT, Devour, Backflip, and Charm. Microsoft feels certain the ITC will rule in its favor. The patents being infringed on according to Microsoft include those for things like displaying changes in battery charge level and the synchronization of email.
[via The Inquirer]

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Acer Iconia Tab A510/A500 gets Android 3.2 update

 This tablet was cool because it was the first tablet to hit the market that ran Android 3.0 Honeycomb. If you purchased one of the tablets or the A501, you will be glad to hear that a new Android update is reportedly available for the tablet right now. The update should be available OTA and will take the tablet from 3.0 to 3.2.

There are several new features that the update brings to the tablet including the ability to scale the smaller apps made for smartphones up to the full screen size of the tablet. The app zooming is done by scaling the pixels. The update also reportedly brings with it the ability to sync media from the SD card and increases the overall performance on the tablet. The tip comes from a Polish website called Tablet-online.pl. The publication says that sources have indicated in Poland the tablet will come with Android 3.2 from the factory starting this week.
The tablet has a 10.1-inch screen with a SIM card slot and a microSD card slot. It comes with 16GB of internal storage and a 2MP front camera. The rear camera is a 5MP unit with LED flash and auto-focus. The tablet uses the NVIDIA Tegra 250 dual Cortex A9 1GHz processor inside. One of the interesting features of the tablet is a USB port.
[via Tablet-online.pl]

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HTC Sensation 2.3.4 update now available on Vodafone UK

Good news for those of you who grabbed the HTC Sensation through Vodafone UK. The Big Red carrier has released a small firmware update for HTC’s baby to address several performance and stability issues. More precisely, the new software brings stability and performance updates, reduces heating in some scenarios by optimizing processor load, and improves browser performance.
To see if the new software version is available for your Sensation, hit “Settings,” scroll down to “About phone,” tap “System software updates,” and then “Check now.” Hit update and wait for several minutes for the update to complete. Make sure your battery is fully charged and that you’re in a fast Wi-Fi hotspot to make the download faster. If that’s on place – you’re ready to go. Good luck!
And before I let you go, I must remind you to backup the data. Yeah I know I’m getting repetitive with this – but trust me, this is how it should be done, with all of your data stored locally just in case something goes wrong…
[Via: EuroDroid]

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Google TV To Be Added To The Next Update of The Android SDK; Developers, Start Your Engines!

Google TV users will be happy to know that support for the platform is finally coming soon to the Android SDK. This will allow developers to unleash their apps on all Google TVs on the market, which in turn could help manufacturers eventually push more units given the renewed interest.

Since the Google TV Market announcement at Google I/O, the platform has had a lot of road bumps in both TV network and user adoption. However, since the SDK update will provide new APIs (such as channel line-ups),developers will have a wider array of tools to use while crafting applications.
These new options take the form of an add-on pack to the Android SDK, which interested parties can download here.
If you have a Logitech Revue and are interested in a leak of Honeycomb, we got you covered with a walkthrough from earlier this month. That build has fewer features (no Netflix!), but will give you an idea of what the Market environment will look like, and how it works.
Apps that are supported by Google TV will also show up in the Android Market, like they do for any other Android device. Certain apps, like those that require touchscreens, won't be able to be installed to the system.
I, for one, will watch for the development of new apps in earnest. I've always been curious about the potential of the platform, and perhaps these new possibilities are just what it needs.
Source: Android Developers

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Some Images of new purported iPhone 5 parts leak

China-based parts supplier TVC-Mall has published more images of various components claimed to be genuine parts from Apple’s upcoming iPhone 5. The supplier has gained access to genuine iPhone parts ahead of launch in the past, so it is possible that these components are once again authentic. Last week we saw what were claimed to be headphone jacks and camera lens replacement modules from Apple’s upcoming fifth-generation iPhone, and now TVC-Mall has posted images and information surrounding OEM rear camera lens assemblies, batteries and headphone jack flex cables said to belong to Apple’s iPhone 5. Little can be gleaned from the new images, though the camera lens module shows space for a single LED flash while earlier reports claimed that the new iPhone 5 would feature a dual-LED flash. More images of the purported iPhone 5 parts follow below.

[Via MacRumors]
Read [Camera] Read [Battery] Read [Flex cable]

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