Monday, September 12, 2011

Intel Atom E series processors could get Android Gingerbread in 2012


The world has gone Android crazy over the last few years with the operating system and the smartphones and tablets that run it being very popular with users around the world. Intel is far behind in the mobile game mostly thanks to the fact that its mobile chips are not as power efficient as others on the market and the expense. Intel is reportedly looking to bring a custom version of Android to the Atom E series of processors next year.

Carrypad reports that Intel is looking to get an open source version of Gingerbread that will be offered to third parties looking to use the E series chips inside a tablet or other device. The custom Gingerbread OS would allow companies to build tablets using the Atom processors that run on a version of Android specifically for the chips and optimized for battery life.
With the popularity of Android that would certainly be a good thing for Intel, if it can pull the custom version off. You can watch the video below to see Intel talk about the possibility of getting Android. Carrypad says that the chat about Android on Atom processors is about half way through the video. E series Atom processors are embedded offerings.

AT&T 4G Acer Iconia Tab A501 gets priced & dated

AT&T‘s 4G-enabled version of the 10.1-inch Acer Iconia Tab, the A501, will go on sale September 18 the carrier has confirmed, though don’t expect crazy fast data speeds. In fact, the 4G only refers to HSPA+, not the LTE on the roadmap for later this year. Priced at $330 with a new, two-year data agreement, or $480 without, the 16GB Iconia Tab A501 is, 4G connectivity aside, identical to the A500 we reviewed previously.


On the back there’s a 5-megapixel camera, while a 2-megapixel camera is up front for video calls. As well as the HSPA+ there’s WiFi b/g/n and Bluetooth, along with USB 2.0, HDMI and a microSDHC memory card slot. NVIDIA’s Tegra 2 processor keeps things running.
Acer says it will also be offering a 32GB version of the A501, though so far AT&T is yet to confirm it will be ranging the slate. OS is Android Honeycomb, and there’s access to the Tegra Zone of games and other downloads.

[App] 9s-Weather HD Free:Have 9-Weather HD Free & Have a Nice Day!


Product Name: 9s-Weather HD Free
Category: Weather
OS: Android 3.0 (Android 2.3 and above)
Price: Free

Description:
9s-Weather HD, a gorgeous weather forecast application specially designed for tablets and supporting Android 3.0, is the best choice to acquire weather information and decorate your home screen simultaneously. In addition to providing accurate, real-time, and useful weather information, 9s-Weather HD gets rid of the stereotype of traditional weather forecast app UI design, and displays a unique exquisite UI and fancy graphical animations to enrich your daily weather. Now, let 9s-Weather HD present the beauty of Nature and bring you to the ravishing “secret garden” to get some refreshments and to release annoying pressures.

*To equip a useful & fancy weather application for your phone also, please go searching”9s-Weather”!

Key Features
1. Support Android 3.0
2. Optimized design for tablets in 1280 x 800 and 1024 x 600
3. Portrait and landscape modes supported
4. English & Chinese supported
5. Various sizes of widgets supported
6. Digital clock, alarm,& date supported
7. Handy link to detailed weather forecast
8. Animated movement & fancy design
9. Current global weather information
10. Automatic & manual update supported
11. 3-day weather forecast
12. C/F supported
13. The most reliable weather database
14. Intuitive & Use-friendly UI
15. Useful & fancy weather application


Screenshots:










QR Code:

Only 5.9% people in U.K have Samsung Tabs Reports Says

Hot new analyst in town Kantar Worldpanel has just issued some data regarding UK Android tablet sales, claiming that Apple’s iPad is, unsurprisingly, the dominant force by a long, long way. Kantar says iPad has “almost three quarters” of the UK tablet market, with the best-selling Android model being the original Samsung Galaxy Tab – down on 5.9%.
The good news in general tablet terms is that 3.6million people in the UK now own a tablet of some sort. Albeit mostly iPads. But there’s potential.
Kantar also says that in November of 2010 only 2.8% of the UK population owned a tablet – that’s now up to 7.6% of everyone in the country. Link via the FT. You may need to register to read it.

Pocket League Story hits Android Market

The creator of one of the most addictive mobile game – Game Dev Story has recently announced a new game which has made its way to the Android market. It is called Pocket League Story and is yet another simulation game from Kairosoft.
Pocket League Story is a soccer simulation game, where you control the entire soccer team and it mainly includes selling merchandise, selecting players, building a stadium for your team and getting the best sponsors involved with your team.
Well, there might be a few people who never actually liked the simulation games from Kairosoft, but I certainly did enjoy them. So, if you did like their other titles it is up for grabs in the Android Market for 240 INR ($5 approx).

Amazon Tablet vs. Apple iPad: Who Wins?


The Amazon tablet may soon be upon us. And unlike some other tablet manufacturers that tried—and failed—to bend the touch-screen market in their favor, the online retailer has a sizable chance of leaving a lasting impact.

TechCrunch’s MG Siegler recently had an opportunity to play with an early version of the tablet and, in lieu of being able to snap photographs, did his best to describe its capabilities. In addition to a custom Android interface (complete with a tabbed Android Webkit browser and a dock for displaying available books and movies), the device offers a 7-inch screen and 6GB of internal storage for books and applications.
Those hardware features aren’t necessarily enough to rock Apple’s iPad back on its heels or carve out a sizable niche among the Android tablets currently on store shelves. However, Amazon offers an Android applications storefront in addition to a full collection of multimedia offerings, which could allow it to compete head-to-head against Apple’s iTunes and App Store. Other tablet manufacturers have been slow to build robust multimedia hubs, and their products rely on Google’s Android Marketplace for apps.  
Amazon also boasts considerable marketing muscle, and its Kindle efforts have already smoothed the path, so to speak, for people to perceive the retailer as an effective mobile-technology producer.
But the killer app of Amazon’s tablet—which has yet to be officially unveiled—isn’t hardware or software. Nor is it Amazon’s marketing or business skills. It’s the low starting price: $250, which considerably undercuts other tablets currently available.


After Hewlett-Packard announced it would shut down production of its TouchPad tablet and slashed the retail cost to a mere $99, customers turned out in droves to purchase a respectable touch-screen device at a bargain. Amazon seems similarly positioned to feed that hunger for a low-cost, quality tablet.
That’s not to say that Amazon has an easy path to victory in tablets. For one thing, it will have to compete against other Android tablets on the market, offered by some very aggressive and well-funded companies. Also, analysts generally predict that Apple’s iPad will continue to command the lion’s share of the market, which could make things difficult for any upstart trying to establish its own presence—whether or not the upstart in question is produced by one of the most recognizable brands in the world.

Third, based on MG Siegler’s posting, it seems that Amazon is aiming squarely at the consumer market with its tablet offering. That would effectively close off businesses, which represent a growing segment of the tablet-buying population.


Nonetheless, Amazon seems ready to make a splashy entrance into the tablet market. Whether it can score iPad-size sales is more of a question.

Sony Tablet S on display at Best Buy, available for pre-order

Want to get your hands on Sony’s upcoming Honeycomb tablet, the Tablet S? If you can’t wait until pre-orders start shipping from the Sony Online Store (September 16), and if you don’t want to buy it right now for $100 more at HSN.com, you might want to check out your local Best Buy.
It appears as if Best Buys have started to put the Sony Tablet S on display at some locations. At the moment, it doesn’t look like the new Honeycomb tablets could be purchased. The person who noticed the new tablet on display, Twitter user @DaHarder wasn’t able to purchase it; when he went to the register to attempt to purchase the tablet, Best Buy was unable to locate the tablet in their system.
So, it looks like it’s only available for display at the moment. If you want to get your hands on the display unit of the Tablet S, head over to your local Best Buy. Unfortunately, it looks like you’ll have to wait a few more days to own this tablet, unless you don’t mind paying an extra $100 from HSN.
Source: @DaHarder (Twitter), via Engadget

PSA: There is no 3D Facebook Phone

Even though an HTC Status 3D would be the talk of the town, certainly, if it were real, and certainly not only for positive reasons, we’ve got to let you know that the September Best Buy BUYER’S GUIDE has a slightly less than factual bit to it. On the back cover of our beloved Best Buy mobile-intensive mini magazine, (the one you can get when you walk in the door, right over by all the smartphones,) there are three devices, (four, technically,) sitting one next to another: the “ThunderBolt by HTC”, the “HTC EVO 3D” and the “HTC Status 3D” with new choice of either AT&T standard silver coloring or Best Buy’s exclusive Mauve coloring. I asked, they giggled.


Also technically it was less of a giggle and more of an uh-ohhh on behalf of the Best Buy Mobile Department attendant’s friend whom he says is one of or perhaps the only person in charge of proofreading the monthly guide. We’d just been speaking about 3D devices and how they certainly had a chance at catching on, but with a display as small as the HTC Status (called the HTC ChaCha internationally), there was just no chance that the current glasses-free mobile versions of 3D would be able to look at all good.

So rest easy, ladies and gentlemen, it’s only a typographical error. There will be no 3D Facebook phone any time soon, even though this paper would have you believe that such a thing exists. 

Sunday, September 11, 2011

HTC patents are at the center of lawsuit against Apple

It’s getting harder and harder to try and keep up on this one.  Google bought Motorola Mobility and that came with some patents which Google then sold to HTC including 5 others.  Then HTC used those nine patents to file a lawsuit in court against Apple.  Make sense?  As the patents fly around like currency in the mobile world and lawsuits pop up all over the place, the mobile competition keeps getting more aggressive as each company tries to position itself higher on the list.  The patents were sold to HTC on August 29th and lawsuit was filed by September 7th.
The lawsuit HTC filed against Apple comes after Apple has already filed similar lawsuits against HTC, but because Google has padded HTC with the new patents, this new lawsuit is looking to send a new message to Apple.  Of the nine patents that HTC is citing in the lawsuit, none of them actually originated from Google.  Two of them came from Palm and three more from the Openwave System.  The patents that seem to be getting the most attention are the ones from Motorola that Google acquired with the $12.5 billion purchase of Motorola Mobility.  Google reportedly called the move the only way they could protect Android from patent attack.  Motorola Mobility controlled more than 17,000 patents at the time of the purchase.
The four patents that Google owns were transferred before Motorola split into two branches and all were acquired before the end of March of this year.  With the four patents, HTC added five other patents in the lawsuit and the International Trade Commission.  In the meantime, the patent lawsuits are flying around but Google has never been sued by Apple in any way directly.  Google has been on watch for allegedly sitting by and not willing to protect partners that make Android devices.
Some experts say that by Google stepping in to help HTC against Apple, they are increasing the chances that Apple might just go after Google directly.  Google has applied for over 1,000 different patents since January of this year and vowed to build on that number in order to protect their intellectual property rights.  With the 17,000 they acquired with Motorola Mobility, that seems like a pretty good defense system to build on.