Apple Vs. Google: Oh, It's On!
  • Sony Mobile steps up cooperation with Taiwan-based handset ODMs

    Sony Mobile Communications has stepped up cooperation with Taiwan-based handset ODMs, with Arima Communications, Compal Communications and Foxconn International Holdings (FIH) each receiving orders for one smartphone model slated for shipments from the fourth quarter of 2012 to the first quarter of 2013, according to industry sources.

    Each ODM is expected to ship 3-6 million smartphones to Sony Mobile, the sources estimated.

    Sony Mobile is expected to ship 40 million handsets in 2013, with 25-30% of smartphone models to be outsourced to ODMs, said the sources.

    http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20120614PD215.html

    Sony is gearing up for volume.
  • Canalys: 40% of Chinese smartphones to be priced below $200 by 2015, Alibaba and Baidu to lead the revolution

    When will chinese fab hitting 28nm anyway? early next year? flood of cheap dual/quad cores chips then.

  • Nvidia and the Problems with Closed Hardware

    Here at XDA-Developers we hold very few ideas close to our hearts:
    Openness, new concepts, and development. These all revolve around one
    core principal: Technological advancement of society. Those who do not
    practice these concepts are generally given warnings and eventually
    banned from XDA.


    What do we do when a manufacturer violates our values? We don’t support that manufacturer. Linus Torvalds sums it up nicely in this video from Aalto Talk with Linus Torvalds, hosted by Aalto Center for Entrepreneurship (ACE) in Otaniemi on June 14, 2012.


    I’ve been saying it for a long time
    Nvidia and Qualcomm are the problem children of Android. Yet HTC, for
    some reason embraces their closed and problem-causing ways.  There is
    quite simply no reason whatsoever for an Open Platform like Android to
    be reduced to running on Closed Hardware like Tegra or Snapdragon.


    Closed hardware makes it difficult for developers to isolate and
    troubleshoot problems.  You can take a look into the past, almost one
    year ago, when Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich was released.  The first
    fully supported processor was the Samsung Exynos, followed up quickly by
    the Texas Instruments OMAP, and shortly thereafter, the Samsung
    Hummingbird.  It was quite literally months of development work, which
    involved getting data through official and not-so-official channels to
    get ICS on these closed-hardware NVIDIA and Qualcomm processors.


    So, I will now end this bit of ranting by backing up Linus (father of
    Linux and Grandfather of Android) Torvalds by saying: “NVIDIA, F***
    you,” and follow up with a “Qualcomm, F*** you too.”

    http://www.xda-developers.com/android/nvidia-and-the-problems-with-closed-hardware/

  • Microsoft outsource Surface tablets to Pegatron; expected prices above US$599

    The sources also estimated the end-market price of the Windows 8 Pro-based Surface tablet PC with Ivy Bridge processor to be at least above US$799, while the Windows RT-based model, featuring Nvidia's Tegra 3, will be priced above US$599.

    http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20120619PD210.html

    who is going to buy them at that price? The rich hipsters already have iPad.

    ------------------

    With the ‘problem’ of partners taken care of, could things get worse
    for Microsoft? Sure. Without going over the inherent goodness of WART
    tablets, there is one thing that most people don’t realize, it is not
    compatible with Windows software. No, I am not kidding, WART runs none
    of the massive library of Windows programs, you need to code for it
    directly. Those new programs are incidentally not compatible with every
    Windows machine on the market. Please note that Windows Phone 7/7.5 is
    also a different and totally incompatible system, the tens of apps for
    that platform won’t run on WART either. See a problem?


    So, with no software, no partners, and the wonderful track record of
    success in phones that Microsoft leverages for tablets, why would anyone
    code for this debacle? If there were any reasons, companies not being
    paid handsomely to port will be thinking very hard about soldiering on
    in light of the impending hardware partner exodus. To make matters
    happier for Redmond, the only way to sell software for a WART device is
    through Microsoft.

    http://semiaccurate.com/2012/06/19/microsofts-tablet-moves-make-nokia-look-cunning/


  • SIII starts showing up on users hand. endless comparison youtube clip now... (majority are done by lesser geek so far. nobody knows android inside really well, jsut rattling spec.)

  • http://www.androidauthority.com/allwinner-arm-cheap-android-tablet-96529/

    ARM and Allwinner work together to jumpstart the cheap Android tablet market


    Allwinner is a chip maker not a tablet maker, but right now, the
    Chinese company’s products are a very popular choice for ~$100 Android
    devices, whether we’re talking about cheap Android tablets or those sub-$100 pocket PCs based on ARM chips.

    Allwinner
    chips usually have a 1-1.5 Ghz Cortex A8 CPU, coupled with a powerful
    Mali400 GPU (same as the one in the Galaxy S2), which enables even
    low-end tablets to smoothly run ICS and to play any type of HD content
    flawlessly.

    Analysts expect that 40 million tablets will be
    shipped in China alone this year, and it seems Allwinner’s chips will be
    in 60% of those tablets (or roughly 24 million). Allwinner achieved
    this excellent performance through a close cooperation with ARM, which
    enabled the IC maker to go from licensing ARM’s designs to manufacturing
    System-on-a-Chips
    in only 7 months. The fact that Allwinner is using both the CPU and the
    GPU from ARM means that they are also getting quality drivers from ARM,
    which contributes to making the process quicker and more efficient.

    This kind of integration will only get stronger with future chips from ARM, like Cortex A15, Cortex A7 (big.Little)
    and the Mali T6xx series GPUs, which will even share the same cache.
    Cache sharing will only be possible with ARM-designed CPUs and GPUs,
    which will put chip makers who are using all-ARM architectures
    (Allwinner, Samsung, etc.) at an advantage over those who aren’t (Apple,
    Nvidia, Qualcomm, etc).

    We probably won’t see such integration
    until the end of the year, and most likely until next year, especially
    for other companies besides Samsung. But things will get interesting
    quickly when even low-end devices will be able to run on Cortex A15, Cortex A7 and Mali T604 chips, thus enabling the release of very fast devices even in the $100-$150 price range.

    http://www.androidauthority.com/allwinner-arm-cheap-android-tablet-96529/

    man... SPLIT the wifi/wireless/FCC inspection stuff.  So the tablet will have a wireless slot that goes to FCC certification separately and the tablet can go straight to market.

    Tablet market introduction is too slow and complicated for low volume/low cost player. They need a way to go straight to market without FCC hassle.

    The wireless card/insert should be standardized and cheap ($10-20). skip the non chinese brand, they are too slow and unable to adapt to rapidly changing market (Motorola, Dell, toshiba, etc. are toooo big and toooooo sloooooooow.)

    They are still fiddling with omap4/tegra 2, when the grey market already spazzing over dual core all winner. By the time lumbering giants are done with tegra 3, the new dual cores with new mali chips already in the market at  a fifth of price.


  • Allwinner Technology has gone from the licensing of the Mali-400 to
    production silicon in 7 months. This speed of execution has been enabled
    by the close linkage between the CPU and GPU from a design perspective,
    the RVDS and ARM DS-5TM toolchain and the out-the-box quality software
    drivers which are all supported by localised support teams. All these
    elements combined have enabled Allwinner Technology to move swifter and
    in an agile way to address the needs of this market and we look forward
    to working with ARM going forward.

    --------------

    ....!!!!!  SEVEN months!  The other idiots probably still trying to design powerpoint prsentation plan instead of having finish product on the shelves ready to conquer the world....
  • New iPhone port tipped to lock out unlicensed accessories

    Scoble details how the new power connector will
    have a chip on both ends of the cable, giving Apple total control and
    leaving device manufacturers unable to make unlicensed third-party
    accessories. It’s a similar strategy that was used with the MagSafe
    connector on the current MacBook line, and something that battery
    specialist HyperMac fell foul of in the past.

    -----------

    lol. way to go apple. yer going Sony way of proprietary everything very fast. Before you know it you are building a wall that lock yourself out...

    I am fully supporting your approach, the faster you die, the better.

  • Microsoft Is Working On Building Its Own Phone, Says Nomura

    http://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-is-working-on-building-its-own-phone-says-nomura-2012-6

    who the fuck is dumb enough to buy microsoft phones? lol ... next thing you know it's 100% spyware, data hostage situation and perpetual license cram down... ..oh and internet explorer and virus to it...

  • android file explorer and automatic scan is a little toooo stooooooooopid... (It tries to scan every song titles in my 1TB harddrive. Everything works fine, but I have to reset my dumb music players everytime cause it scans my entire 1TB song titles... gah... noway of turning of this auto scan feature...all music players has this.)




    Like the Galaxy S II and Galaxy Note before it, the S III supports full USB host capabilities, meaning if you've got the right connector you can go completely nuts and plug all sorts of stuff into the phone. In our video, we tried USB memory sticks, full-sized SD card readers, USB hubs, hard drives, keyboards and mice. All of them worked. At one point we even had a hub plugged into the S III, allowing keyboard and mouse support simultaneously.

    http://www.androidcentral.com/samsung-galaxy-s-iii-usb-host-video-walkthrough
  • HTC’s next flagship, the One XXL, gets its specs revealed in leaked screenshot

    image

    The new One XXL can be called a next-gen device, seeing how it will have
    a quad-core S4 Pro SoC, with Adreno 320 GPU, and 2 GB of RAM, although
    the rest of the specs are not that new. You get the same 720p display
    (not that it should be any higher) and an 8MP rear-facing camera, which,
    if it would take higher quality pictures than the One X, could be
    called an upgrade. As for front-facing camera, it will have a 1.8 MP
    sensor, with presumably HD video recording.

    http://www.androidauthority.com/htc-one-xxl-specs-leaked-96824/

  • iPhone to Galaxy S3 switch made easy by Samsung with free Easy Phone Sync app

    http://www.androidauthority.com/iphone-galaxy-s3-switch-free-easy-phone-sync-app-96888/

    Samsung Mobile UK today announced it will be making Easy Phone Sync
    available for free to anyone purchasing a Samsung Galaxy device. Easy
    Phone Sync is a simple new way for people to transfer their iPhone and
    iTunes media – including music, videos, podcasts, pictures, contacts and
    text messages - to a Samsung Galaxy device including the new Galaxy S
    III.



    As part of an exclusive licensing agreement with Media Mushroom
    Applications, Samsung is making Easy Phone Sync available for free for
    UK customers to transfer content from their iOS device to their Samsung
    Galaxy device in a few simple clicks. As well as being able to access
    DRM free content they have purchased from iTunes music, customers can
    continue to use iTunes software on their PC to manage their music,
    videos and podcasts and keep their Android device in sync with it.



    Simon Stanford, Vice President, Telecommunications and Networks,
    Samsung UK and Ireland said: “We’re really proud to announce the launch
    of this new application and can’t wait to hear what our new and existing
    customers think of it. We know that traditionally iPhone users have
    been reluctant to switch to an Android device because they couldn’t use
    iTunes to manage their content. Easy Phone Sync means people can now
    enjoy their iTunes content on a Samsung Galaxy phone. What’s more is
    that it’s really easy for them to do, and literally takes five minutes
    to set up.”

    http://www.androidcentral.com/samsung-brings-itunes-and-ios-data-galaxy-devices-easy-phone-sync

    ... litigation time.. apple position in europe is noticeably cratering...

  • Nokia Oyj (NOK1V)’s handset revenue
    estimates were cut by Nomura Holdings Inc. analysts after
    Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) said the Finnish company’s current Lumia phones
    won’t be supported by its upcoming mobile operating system.

    Nokia’s revenue from Internet-surfing devices like the
    Lumia 900 will be 6 billion euros ($7.5 billion) next year,
    compared with an earlier estimate of 10.9 billion euros, Nomura
    analysts led by Stuart Jeffrey wrote in a note today. The
    company will sell 34 million devices running Windows Phone in
    2013, 41 percent less than previously estimated, they said.

    http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-06-22/nokia-sales-estimates-cut-by-nomura-on-microsoft-plans.html

    nokia isn't going to last.

    1. They are nowhere in microsoft windows8 big talk show. (Obviously Nokia isn't big in microsoft road map. They are the only partner that matter.)
    2. Nokia is now screwed, WP7 suddenly become obsolete. And microsoft once again ditching old loyal costumer of WP7. (guess which phone these people will buy next?) 
    3. no apps in windows8, devices are locked
    4. expensive.
  • image
    http://www.techinasia.com/nielsen-smartphone-insights-asia/

    smartphone is still too expensive and too fragile for younger buyers.
  • HTC says Apple’s recent ‘data tapping’ ITC claims unwarranted, new trial requested

    After obtaining an import ban in late 2011 with the International
    Trade Commission against certain HTC Android devices found to be
    infringing a certain Apple patent, the iPhone maker filed a new motion with the ITC
    a few weeks ago arguing that several other smartphone made by the
    Taiwanese company infringe the same patent. Among the 29 devices listed
    by Apple in its new complaint you can also find the HTC One X and the
    HTC EVO 4G LTE, the company’s 2012 flagship devices.

    Meanwhile,
    HTC has responded to Apple’s request to ban these 29 Android smartphones
    basically saying that Apple’s claims are unwarranted and that the
    iPhone maker should file a brand new suit with the ITC in order to
    obtain the ban the company is seeking.

    HTC argues that the “data
    tapping” patent is not infringed by these devices, while Apple says that
    the Taiwanese smartphone maker has not taken the necessary steps to
    correct the issue, and therefore a ban is in order.

    According to Foss Patents,
    HTC wants to prevent the ITC from “issuing temporary emergency relief,
    which could be another import ban or a requirement that HTC post a bond
    amounting to 100% of its U.S. revenues.” That’s certainly something HTC
    can’t agree with and the company says that a new investigation, which
    could take up to 18 months, is required in order for the ITC to issue a
    new ban.

    http://www.androidauthority.com/htc-apple-data-tapping-itc-claims-97096/

  • Yes, this is pervasive and
    utterly wrong. I wish people would stop spreading misinformation.
    Dianne does a good job explaining it but I see how it might be hard for
    someone without a background in low-level graphics to understand.



    Basically, iOS feels smoother than Android because Apple employs some
    very clever tricks to give the illusion of seamlessness, as well as the
    architectural differences between the two OSes.



    • iOS makes heavy use of bitmap caches. When you're opening an
      application, navigating between app windows and scrolling in an app what
      you're seeing is actually a cached screenshot. It's much easier for the
      GPU to render a static image than Android's real-time JIT approach.
      Dianne says that a bitmap cache can also be used in Android, but that's
      very expensive because of the way the windows are managed and also in
      the capabilities of early GPUs (expensive context switching). This will
      probably go away once we move to better GPU standards and Google doesn't
      have to pander to the lowest common denominator of cheap mobile GPUs.

    • Long window and transition animations in iOS. Notice how the
      "zoom-in" effect for opening an app, as well as the "swipe-left/right"
      effect for in-app navigation, takes somewhere between 1-1,5 seconds.
      Much longer than the animations in Android. This allows for an
      invaluable window of opportunity for the OS to render everything in the
      background without the user noticing lag while an app loads everything.



    So, based on the two points above, this is how iOS handles the UI:
    you tap the icon for the app and the (long) animation begins. iOS
    zooms/swipes the cached "screenshot" on the screen. Meanwhile, in the
    background, iOS handles the app and presents it when everything is
    ready. You can test this while loading the "Photos" app and, while it
    appears to load instantly, try quickly and repeatedly scrolling with
    your finger as soon as the animation starts. You'll notice that the
    scrolling won't start until after some time the app is loaded.



    You can achieve this "long animation" effect in Android too if you
    have a custom ROM. It's just an illusion, but you might like it. Go to
    "ROM settings" or wherever the developer put it and change "window
    transitions" and "animation speed" to "slow" or "very slow". This is why
    my gf's Gingerbread ZTE Blade appears to load apps like the Contact
    list faster than my ICS Nexus S. ICS has very rapid transitions but it's
    up to you to change it (custom roms only, sorry about the terminology
    but I can't be bothered to actually look for the proper terms in
    Settings right now).



    But that's not all. Some more reasons for iOS smoothness:



    • Multitasking. We know that iOS isn't a true multitasking OS. So, when you're interacting with the device, iOS stops everything it's currently doing to render graphic elements. If you have an iOS device you can see it for yourself: load a webpage and try scrolling before
      it's finished loading. You'll notice that it stops loading the webpage
      and instead smooth-scrolls to blank tiles. Apple has improved on this
      with their dual-core chips (threading) but you can still see the
      remnants. Android, for better or worse, does true multitasking and it
      still has to continue processing everything in the queue, even when
      you're interacting with it. This can be handled with better scheduling
      and the "10% of the CPU for background threads" Dianne mentions, as well
      as better schedulers. This is why in custom ROMs you can select
      different schedulers with different results. Better heuristics is key
      here.

    • Dirty regions. The raster buffer has to update everything
      on the screen for about 45 fps (depending on the kernel), regardless of
      what changed and what not. "Dirty regions" is when the screen bitmap
      changes only parts of it where an actual change happens and it doesn't
      have to tax the GPU by updating everything for about 40-50 times per
      second. Try it for yourself by going in "Developer options" and turning
      "show screen updates" on. Now try slightly pulling down the notification
      shade. Notice how the entire screen flashes, even when some of the
      bottom screen remains the same. Ideally, only the "dirty region" should
      flash (where the notification shade actually exists). Again, this will
      get better with better GPUs and when Google finally decides to demand a
      standard set of OpenGL instructions.



    I could go on but I think I'm already blabbering too much.

    http://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/vffuz/can_we_stop_with_the_misinformation_randroid/

    Basically, Apple is going to be fucked big time as smartphones advances and need to display more and more complex moving data at the same time. (This is the reason apple is having widget problem, or that apple will never get S3, watch video in little screen while you go do something else.  Right now it's silly feature, but soon new apps will come along, just like widget, that has useful function.)

    1. audio translation - text stream while one dabbles with other apps.. (will be coming soon, as speech translation becomes  more common.

    2. handling external screen, while the smartphone is doing something else.. (not gonna happen in iOS unless they completely change the way they handle screen or do ugly temporary patch.) This is a big deal soon... everybody will plug their smartphones to big screen in less than a year...(as smartphones high definition content becomes more available)



  • Summary: Oracle, whose founder considers Apple’s Steve
    Jobs to be his “best friend”, is unable to tax Android (even by one
    cent) and Apple gets beaten in court also


    THE Android/Dalvik case continues to be studied whilst Oracle is expected to appeal the ruling. For the time being, Android remains free from Oracle tax. Steve Jobs’ war on Android surely is failing and Apple is falling in the ranks compared to Android. Apple cannot win against its main Android rival, not even in court:



    Apple has lost its legal battle against Samsung in the Netherlands. A
    judge ruled that Apple infringed upon Samsung’s 3G patent associated
    with the Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet.


    Here is another report:



    The Korean consumer electronics giant won the ruling in a court in The Hague, according to reports.

    http://techrights.org/2012/06/24/samsung-beats-apple/

  • Apple countersues HTC in Virginia for abuse of 4G LTE FRAND patents

    The legal battle between Apple and HTC is getting more and more
    complicated, as the two companies are filing more attacks against each
    other. Just yesterday, we talked about HTC’s defense against Apple’s most recent complaint with the ITC
    (the iPhone maker has three such lawsuits against HTC), with the
    Taiwanese company saying that Apple needs a whole new lawsuit in case it
    wants to obtain an import ban against 29 HTC devices including the HTC
    One X and the HTC EVO 4G LTE.

    But HTC also has itself two ITC
    actions against Apple, and we have recently reported on the second one,
    as the ITC decided not to allow HTC to use five of the eight patents
    included in its case against Apple, as they are owned by Google.
    Furthermore, from the three patents left in play, two of them are
    apparently FRAND patents, or standards-essential patents, related to 4G
    LTE technology.

    And that’s exactly why Apple has sued HTC again,
    or better said filed a counterclaim, in the United States District Court
    of the Eastern District of Virginia – counterclaims can’t be filed with
    the ITC, but have to be filed in federal court. Apple basically says
    that HTC is abusing these 4G LTE patents, which the Taiwanese company
    deemed to be standards-essential patents in its original ITC complaint.

    http://www.androidauthority.com/apple-countersues-htc-4g-lte-frand-patents-97125/

    Good thing everybody knows Apple is litigious bastard, and everybody is very defensive when it comes to working with them. Pretty soon they gonna have to fight just about everybody. (and no, they are not going to be able to finally do anything when TSMC and Samsung have had enough and throw them out of their fabs.)

  • Nokia Shares drop to 16 year low as Lumia line obsoleted.

    image

    Microsoft’s move to abandon Windows Phone 7.5 users did not just hurt
    its biggest fans, but also its closest partner, as Nokia’s shares
    dropped to its lowest point in 16 years.

    Nokia is now trading at only 1.79 euros the lowest since August 1996,
    on fears that the Microsoft announcement will damage future sales of
    the current Nokia range.


    Stuart Jeffrey, a New York-based analyst at Nomura Holdings Inc.
    lowered his revenue estimate on June 22 for Espoo, Finland- based Nokia,
    citing the new Microsoft product.


    Nokia may sell fewer of its Lumia phones that run Windows Phone in
    the third quarter than previously estimated because some customers will
    wait until the Windows Phone 8 release before buying a new device, Jeff
    Kvaal and Andrew Gardiner, analysts at Barclays Capital, said in a note
    June 21. Current Lumia devices are “somehow already legacy products,”
    the analysts said.

    --------------------

    After Windows Phone 8 announcement, Nokia sales estimates cut


    Nokia stock plunges over no Windows upgrade for Lumia 900

    ‎-------------------------

    thunk.... there goes nokia. now they are in even bigger trouble, their main phone line is suddenly obsolete. Their lumia line is now exactly worth zero. not sure why they haven't forced that idiot CEO out.

    Maybe few more months from now, google can do hostile take over using left over changed found on their office couch.

  • Google Nexus 7 Tablet Leaked In Internal Training Document, 8GB To Cost $199 And 16GB $249

    • 7-inch IPS display with a resolution of 1280x800 and a 178-degree viewing angle
    • Android 4.1 Jelly Bean
    • 1.3Ghz quad-core Tegra 3 processor
    • nVidia GeForce 12-core GPU
    • 1GB of RAM
    • 8GB or 16GB of internal storage
    • 1.2 MP front-facing camera, no rear camera
    • NFC with Google Wallet
    • Android Beam
    • Battery life estimated at 9 hours

    --------------


    Come on google, you bother to put expensive NFC chip....and NOT a dinky micro sd slot? ...

  • Samsung: Galaxy S III sales to hit 10 mln in July


    uh oh, thats multiple times of apple ... not even close. (this explain why foxconn head even bother to say iphone 5 will be better than S3. By the time Iphone 5 is out, there will be about 50-60million S3 ... lol. Apple will need to double their current rate to catch up.. which mean even foxconn capacity isn't enough... that is if iphone S5 catch the world on fire at all... *cough* xperia sx *cough*

    optimistically speaking, there is going to be more S3 than entire iphone ever made... whew... apple gonna need to hire more lawyers to up their litigious bastard status.

    ---------------------

    South Korea’s Samsung Electronics, the world’s largest smartphone
    maker, said yesterday it expected to have sold 10 million of its newest
    Galaxy S3 model by the end of next month, two months after its launch.

    J.K.
    Shin, head of Samsung’s mobile communications division, said robust
    sales of the model would help Samsung’s mobile business post a
    second-quarter profit bigger than the first three months.

    http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/biz/archives/2012/06/26/2003536255






  • don't try this at home with your iphone kids... not gonna happen.



  • Look Ma, no network: Group drives LTE Direct

    More than a dozen companies are supporting a proposed standard for
    device-to-device links in Long Term Evolution handsets. They believe
    Direct LTE will offer capabilities and power efficiency for
    location-based applications not available with today’s Wi-Fi Direct and
    GPS links.

    Direct-LTE is based on line-of-sight links at a range
    up to 500 meters and 20-23 dBm signaling limits. The technique could
    discover local users more quickly with less processing overhead than
    Wi-Fi Direct or GPS, said Mahesh Makhijani, a director of technical
    marketing at Qualcomm, in a presentation at the conference here of the NGMN Alliance.

    Qualcomm said in its internal tests, LTE Direct discovered as many as
    7,200 terminals in 0.64 seconds compared to 369 terminals found in using
    Wi-Fi Direct that took 82 to 119 seconds. The chip makers tests also
    found latency for Wi-Fi Direct discovery degraded significantly as
    device density increased.

    http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-news/4375984/Group-drives-LTE-device-to-device-links

  • The ALJ’s initial finding was not a final decision, and the final ruling of the Commission can overturn it. In fact, Bloomberg on Monday reported that the ITC decided to review the ALJ’s initial determination and issue a final ruling on August 24.

    Google And Motorola Ordered To Share Android Development Data With Apple

    In
    theory, in case Google will win this battle, the ITC can award an
    import ban against iPhones and iPads, which would mean that Apple would
    not be able to bring the devices that are manufactured in China to the
    U.S. anymore. In case that sounds familiar, that’s what happened with
    HTC in one of its legal fights with Apple. The iPhone maker won an
    import ban with that “data tapping” patent
    – a patent it also uses against Motorola and Samsung in other suits.
    Also worth mentioning is that Apple and HTC are still arguing on the
    matter, as Apple claims that more HTC devices continue to infringe that
    patent, and therefore the product ban should cover 29 more devices
    including the HTC EVO 4G LTE and the HTC One X. That only goes to show
    how complicated these ITC trials are, and how product import bans affect
    the companies involved in these lawsuits.

    But Google’s ITC
    complaint is slightly different as it’s based on a single patent, and
    that one is a standards-essential patent. Motorola is already
    investigated in the European Union for its FRAND patent use in such
    patent-based trials, right alongside Samsung, and it’s probably unlikely
    to see major injunctions and/or import bans on FRAND patents alone.

    Moreover,
    various third parties formally voiced their support for Apple and
    Microsoft in their defending ITC cases against FRAND patents owned by
    Motorola including U.S. senators and Congressmen, the United States
    Federal Trade Commission, HP, Nokia, Intel, AT&T, Verizon, IBM,
    Activision Blizzard, Cisco and others.

    http://www.androidauthority.com/itc-google-vs-apple-preliminary-win-reviewed-ipad-iphone-import-ban-97462/

  • According to DigiTimes, who spoke with Taiwanese supply chain sources, the production of the iPhone 5 is expected to begin around the end of Q2 or beginning of Q3 this year.

    As Apple plans to maintain its screen resolution of 326 pixels-per-inch, it will reportedly use LTPS technology.

    The in-cell touch panels will help build a slightly thinner device than current one.

    These displays awill reportedly be produced by LG Display, Japan Display, and Sharp, the same three suppliers that were recently rumored to be targeted by Apple for the purche of 4-inch displays for the next iPhone.

    The three companies have a quarterly production of 95 million LTPS panels, with the capacity of producing as many as 72 million panels.

    What this means for Apple is that the iPhone 5 could take up as much as 70% of the total output of LTPS panels in 2012 and 2013, according to sources.

    In this case, non-Apple vendors will be put in a difficult situation regarding components.

    http://www.inrumor.com/in/technology/iphone-5-rumors-apple’s-new-iphone-expected-to-use-70-of-the-high-res-ltps-screens/

    Quanta Computer expected to ship 12-15 million tablet PCs in 2012
    Aaron Lee, Taipei; Adam Hwang, DIGITIMES [Monday 25 June 2012]

    Quanta Computer is expected to ship 12-15 million tablet PCs to become the largest ODM maker of non-iPad tablet PCs in 2012, according to Taiwan-based supply chain makers.

    Quanta will undertake exclusive ODM production of Nexus, a 7-inch tablet PC jointly developed by Google and Asustek Computer and reportedly to be unveiled at Google I/O 2012 during June 27-29, the sources said, adding Quanta will ship three million units of Nexus in 2012.

    Amazon will launch a new version of the 7-inch Kindle Fire in the second half of 2012, with Quanta to be responsible for for ODM production, the sources said, adding that Quanta is the maker of the first-generation Kindle Fire.

    The ODM production of new 7-inch Kindle Fire will begin in July and shipments are expected to significantly increase in August, the sources noted.

    http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20120624PD201.html
  • this supposedly is one of the better iphone game graphic (tho' they need to update this game to current hardwae to make closer comparison. It kinda moves too slow for modern smartphones game. on android at least.)



  • Android Users Are a Bunch of Uneducated Degenerates

    Android users don't know enough to matter. That's the premise, and title, of a recent opinion article
    (read 3 page rant) by The Street's Eric Jackson. Mr. Jackson's article
    attempts to, poorly, make the case that Android users as a whole are
    pretty much a bunch of dumb schlubs that barely know how to turn on
    their phones, let alone make use of their features. Well, in the
    immortal words of another Mr. Jackson, "Allow me to retort."



    Mobile Browsing:



    Eric Jackson's opinion piece contains little in the way of hard evidence
    for any of his claims. While he does cite some limited studies for some
    of his information, he fails to take into account a number of factors
    that you would expect a writer with a Ph.D from a prominent university
    to examine. We're going to begin with an oft-studied, yet flawed metric
    that Jackson focuses on heavily in his piece. That's the web-browsing
    statistic of Android vs. Safari. One of the claims made is that "Apple
    users out-browse Google Android users by a 3.3x margin." To back up this
    claim, Jackson uses data from NetApplications, as cited by SlashGear. The data used is from February, and since that time more up-to-date data
    has become available. The newer data doesn't change the picture much,
    but it's the flaws in the data that make it a bad citation to use.

    http://rootzwiki.com/news/_/articles/android-users-are-a-bunch-of-uneducated-degenerates-r920

    fight fight fight..... lol (the fight doesn't have interesting insight. just old iphone jingle...

  • I want this game in ANDROID ......NOWWW........ (come on, split it up in chapters. make it happen google. android needs huge graphically rich game....all current game has poor emotional appeal, lousy narrative. It's just button mashing or angry bird finger action puzzle crap.)

    http://www.gizmag.com/reset-game-trailer/23085/


  • Mediatek Aims New Chip At Sub-$200 Android 4.0 Smartphones

    Chip maker MediaTek hopes to enable sub-$200 smartphones running the
    Android 4.0 operating system with its latest MT6577 dual-core processor,
    which the company announced on Wednesday.

    The chip is based on a Cortex-A9 processor design from ARM, and has a
    PowerVR graphics processor that is capable of handling high-definition
    video, the company said. The chip boosts application and browser
    performance by up to 40 percent compared to single-core processors that
    go into entry-level smartphones today, the company said.



    Smartphones today come with up to quad-core chips, with many
    entry-level handsets featuring single-core processors. MediaTak believes
    dual-core smartphones will take over a larger market share as low-end
    single-core smartphones phase out, and the company hopes to drop the
    entry-level price of dual-core smartphones to under $200.

    http://www.cio.com/article/709316/Mediatek_Aims_New_Chip_At_Sub_200_Android_4.0_Smartphones?taxonomyId=1375

  • image
    Red: Premium smartphones (>$300);
    Pink: High-end smartphones (>$191-$299); Light yellow: Mid-level
    smartphones ($100-$190); Green: Entry-level smartphones ($36-$99)


    Comparisons on feature sets: MT6577 vs. iPhone 4S

    The MT6577 enables an HD720 display, equivalent to the 720p
    resolution display featured in Samsung’s Galaxy S3 smartphone. The
    current iPhone, in contrast, features a 640 x 960 display. Moynihan
    said, “Although it is not our main focus, the MT6577 could be also
    designed into a good, entry-level 7-inch tablet with reasonably good
    display quality.” He added that the MT6577 comes with video post
    processing capabilities, enhancing picture quality both on smartphone
    and smart TV substantially – in terms of color depth and richness.
    image

    http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-news/4376108/MediaTek-to-bring-premier-smartphone-features-to--150----200-handsets?pageNumber=1

    This is going to be friggin' hilarious... 4S capability, which still be Apple's main customer base for its software store will be priced at $200 by next holiday buying. There is no way  Apple can bring down S4 that low cause it has different cost structure.

    So, the chinese grey market will soon eat apple alive in 45nm class. 4S level capability will be in everybody's pocket, including bunch of 4S chasis copy of every types.
  • end of 2012 pospect ...


    - suppose Apple next chip will be 28nm, A5+ type mod. Basically die shrink of current iPad 3. I seriously doubt Apple is crazy enough trying to pull A6 at current 28nm yield by the end of this year. They won't be able to sell  many iphone at current yield and available capacity. So they will be on the safe side and do die shrink of S5+, dual cores + high end graphics.

    - MediaTek MT6577 devices will start appearing in the market by fall, ready for holiday season. This will mark the end of all dual cores chips from last year. (every galaxy nexus, omap 4 class) All those are $600 phones...
    This chip is basically Apple's A5+, without the quad core graphics.

    - At the high end, this holiday season Android will have newer A15 or quad cores... something that Apple has yet to show. Only TI, Samsung have shown ready to sell chip so far.

    I don't know how apple will survive at the mid range now... Their $500+ phones only cost $200 on android side... ( , Nokia and RIMM will be pretty much dead for real by Christmas. no fighting chance whatsoever.)

    - windows 8? Who is going to buy those phones now?  no apps, low end features, but at high end price... no clear future roadmap. I suppose Microsoft will have to work harder to find some suckers.

    - Android will be the first platform to reach 1 billion users.
  • We're live at Google I/O right now
    where Product Management Director Hugo Barra has just announced that
    there have been, to date, 400 million Android devices sold. That's quite
    an impressive number for sure, and Hugo says that there are now 1
    million devices activated per day, and one every 12 seconds. For
    context, Apple's most recently publicized sales figures for iOS devices stand at 365 million, announced at WWDC.

    http://www.theverge.com/2012/6/27/3121029/google-400-million-android-devices-sold

    so there is more Android than there is iOS device of all sort. Raw number win!!

    next: there will be more android 4.0 device than there is iphone in its total existence. by the end of the year...(take that apple media fan, you can keep your 'fragmentation' jingle. ... a single version of android is bigger than your entire "ecosystem" bla bla....

  • new Nexus 7. looks promising. (mainly this seems to be a very tight integration with google play store. no complain. now if they can just get the damned tablet out already)






  • image

    Pinterest for Android is real.
    It exists. We've seen it. Here it is. Only, it's not quite ready for
    public consumption, and so this is all you get to see. But we can tell
    you all about what we've seen, and it's pretty much what you'd expect
    from a Pinterest
    app on Android. The pic above hosts the board, and from there you tap
    into the individual pins. Scrolling on the Nexus 7 with Jelly Bean was
    impressive to say the least. The big differentiator over the iOS version
    of Pinterest, of course, is sharing. You'll be able to share pins in
    the same way that you can share anything else on Android, and that's a
    powerful feature. And of course it'll sync up with your current
    Pinterest account.

    http://www.androidcentral.com/pinterest-android-first-look
  • Jelly
    Bean Feature Closer Look: Project Butter Means Enhanced Animations,
    Transitions, And More Responsive Apps That "Anticipate" Your Touch

    To ensure a consistent framerate, Android 4.1 extends vsync timing
    across all drawing and animation done by the Android framework.
    Everything runs in lockstep against a 16 millisecond vsync heartbeat —
    application rendering, touch events, screen composition, and display
    refresh — so frames don’t get ahead or behind.

    Android 4.1 also adds triple buffering
    in the graphics pipeline, for more consistent rendering that makes
    everything feel smoother, from scrolling to paging and animations.

    Android 4.1 reduces touch latency not only by synchronizing touch to vsync timing, but also by actually anticipatingwhere
    your finger will be at the time of the screen refresh. This results in a
    more reactive and uniform touch response. In addition, after periods of
    inactivity, Android applies a CPU input boost at the next touch event, to make sure there’s no latency.

  • Expandable notifications



    Notifications have long been a unique and popular feature on Android.
    Developers can use them to place important or time-based information in
    front of users in the notification bar, outside of the app’s normal UI.



    Android 4.1 brings a major update to the Android notifications framework. Apps can now display larger, richer notifications to users that can be expanded and collapsed with a pinch. Notifications support new types of content, including photos, have configurable priority, and can even include multiple actions.



    Through an improved notification builder, apps can create notifications that use a larger area, up to 256 dp in height. Three templated notification styles are available:



    • BigTextStyle — a notification that includes a multiline TextView object.
    • BigInboxStyle — a notification the shows any kind of list such as messages, headlines, and so on.
    • BigPictureStyle — a notification that showcases visual content such as a bitmap.


    In addition to the templated styles, you can create you own notification styles using any remote View.



    Apps can add up to three actions to a notification,
    which are displayed below the notification content. The actions let the
    users respond directly to the information in the notification in
    alternative ways. such as by email or by phone call, without visiting
    the app.



    With expandable notifications, apps can give more information to the
    user, effortlessly and on demand. Users remain in control and can
    long-press any notification to get information about the sender and
    optionally disable further notifications from the app

    New Types of Connectivity



    Android Beam



    Android Beam is a popular NFC-based technology that lets users
    instantly share, just by touching two NFC-enabled phones together.



    In Android 4.1, Android Beam makes it easier to share images, videos, or other payloads by leveraging Bluetooth for the data transfer.
    When the user triggers a transfer, Android Beam hands over from NFC to
    Bluetooth, making it really easy to manage the transfer of a file from
    one device to another.



    Wi-fi Network Service Discovery



    Android 4.1 introduces support for multicast DNS-based service discovery,
    which lets applications find and connect to services offered by peer
    devices over Wi-Fi networks — including mobile devices, printers,
    cameras, media players, and others. Developers can take advantage of
    Wi-Fi network service discovery to build cross-platform or multiplayer
    games and application experiences.



    Using the service discovery API, apps can create and register any
    kind of service, for any other NSD-enabled device to discover. The
    service is advertised by multicast across the network using a
    human-readable string identifier, which lets user more easily identify
    the type of service.



    Consumer devices can use the API to scan and discover services
    available from devices connected to the local Wi-Fi network. After
    discovery, apps can use the API to resolve the service to an IP adress
    and port through which it can establish a socket connection.



    You can take advantage of this API to build new features into your
    apps. For example, you could let users connect to a webcam, a printer,
    or an app on another mobile device that supports Wi-Fi peer-to-peer
    connections.



    Wifi-Direct Service Discovery



    Ice Cream Sandwich introduced support for Wi-Fi Direct, a technology that lets apps discover and pair directly,
    over a high-bandwidth peer-to-peer connection. Wi-Fi Direct is an ideal
    way to share media, photos, files and other types of data and sessions,
    even where there is no cell network or Wi-Fi available.



    With Jelly Bean, Android takes Wi-Fi Direct further, adding API support for pre-associated service discovery.
    Pre-associated service discovery lets your apps get more useful
    information from nearby devices about the services they support, before
    they attempt to connect. Apps can initiate discovery for a specific
    service and filter the list of discovered devices to those that actually
    support the target service or application.



    For example, this means that your app could discover only devices
    that are “printers” or that have a specific game available, instead of
    discovering all nearby Wi-Fi Direct devices. On the other hand, your app
    can advertise the service it provides to other devices, which can
    discover it and then negotiate a connection. This greatly simplifies
    discovery and pairing for users and lets apps take advantage of Wi-Fi
    Direct more effectively.



    With Wi-Fi Direct service discovery, you can create apps and multiplayer games
    that can share photos, videos, gameplay, scores, or almost anything
    else — all without requiring any Internet or mobile network. Your users
    can connect using only a direct p2p connection, which avoids using
    mobile bandwidth.

    http://developer.android.com/about/versions/jelly-bean.html


    built in MEDIA Router.... yayyyy... finally... some music is going to to flow...


  • This is miles away than anything available to public...yay... times to duke it out with Siri...
    Multi language translation next, google... hurry up....I want next android to be able to translate me web pages in other language out loud.


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