Samsung sold the most mobile phones during Q3 of 2012, thanks in no small part to the Samsung Galaxy S3.
Technology research company Gartners claims that Samsung managed to outsell both Apple and Nokia during the third quarter of 2012 in terms of mobile phones sold. The South Korean company sold 98 million handsets, which is an increase of 18.6 per cent over the same quarter last year.
As reported by PCWorld, Samsung's sales success brings it a 22.9 per cent share of the overall mobile phone market.
The main reason for this success is the Samsung Galaxy S3, which was the top selling smartphone of Q3.
Meanwhile Nokia took second place with overall mobile phone sales of 82 million. The company still has a vast presence in developing countries with its roster of cheap feature phones like the Nokia Asha 311, though its only the number seven smartphone manufacturer in the world with sales of 7.2 million during Q3.
To put that last figure in context, Samsung sold 55 million smartphones and Apple 23.6 million during the same period. Samsung now has a considerable 32.5 per cent of the smartphone market compared to Apple's 14 per cent.
Gartner believes that he launch of Windows Phone 8 and Nokia's related handsets, the Nokia Lumia 920 and Nokia Lumia 820, should improve Nokia's smartphone fortunes in Q4. However, it doesn't think that there'll be any major improvements until next year.
One expected Q4 winner is Apple, which should received much stronger iPhone sales in the closing stretch of 2012. Many Apple customers would have been waiting for the launch of the iPhone 5 right at the end of Q3.
The patent deal between HTC and Apple doesn't mean HTC will lessen its focus on Google's Android OS, HTC Americas president Mike Woodward said yesterday.
HTC and Apple last week signed a 10-year deal immunising the smartphone makers against each others' patent claims, a deal which Wall Street analyst Shaw Wu said came out to $6-8 (around £4.40) per HTC phone. That led some observers to speculate HTC might be shifting its focus from Android to Microsoft's Windows Phone OS.
"It's clearly a positive event," Woodward said of the Apple deal. "Anything that eliminates distractions would be positive ... but our strategy is to lead in Android [and] to lead in Windows Phone."
For now, Android also lets HTC realise its software dreams more effectively than Windows Phone. Several of HTC's "Image Sense" camera features, including continuous shooting, are only available on Android devices and not the Windows Phone-based HTC 8X. That may change in the future, though, Woodward said, and HTC is working on bringing both that and other features to Windows Phone devices.
Financially, the Taiwanese firm has been struggling a little recently. Its most recent quarterly results, released in October, show net income at $137 million (£86 million), less than analysts expected and less than in the previous quarter. The latest round of Windows 8 releases could start to turn that around, Woodward said.
"I think you're seeing a manifestation of that strategy happening right now. There are really two big series of launches going on at the moment," he said. "One is Windows Phone 8, and Windows 8 in general. We think we have the leading Windows Phone 8 device ... and in the Android market, between the Droid DNA and the One X+, we think we have the leading edge there as well."
TAIWANESE PHONE MAKER HTC's One X smartphone has beaten the Apple iPhone 5 in a recent satisfaction survey.
The survey conducted by research firm Ondevice quizzed 320,000 mobile and tablet users across the globe, and the results were pretty shocking. While the iPhone typically scores highly in such satisfaction polls, Apple's smartphone was topped by the HTC One X here in the UK. According to Ondevice the Android-powered HTC One X scored 8.47, while the iPhone 5 scored 8.21.
Things went even worse for Apple over in the US, where the iPhone 5 ranked fifth in the satisfaction survey.
What's more surprising is that Motorola came top of the list, thanks to its seemingly very satisfying Motorola Atrix HD smartphone. It also came second with the Droid Razr M, which was followed by the HTC Rezound 4G and Samsung Galaxy Note 2 in third and fourth places, respectively.
Ondevice claimed that Apple's fall into fifth place could be because of the "4G effect," which has less affect here in Blighty due to the lack of 4G services available.
The research firm said, "The top 5 devices for satisfaction in the US are 4G capable devices, and users with a 4G subscription reported a higher device satisfaction (7.76) than those with no 4G subscription (7.28).
"In contrast, in the UK where there is only one 4G network operator EE, the iPhone 5 is under less pressure from competitive devices, ranking second in user satisfaction."
Despite the iPhone not proving as satisfying as it once was, Apple did well overall. The firm still held first place in the US on an aggregate level, followed closely by Google.
Motorola was third, while HTC and Nokia tied for fourth. Most surprisingly, Samsung was way down in 13th place, below rival Blackberry, which ranked 12th. ยต
Summary: The Tablet 2 from Lenovo has a pen option that brings inking capability in Windows 8. This video shows how well inking works on the tablet.
The ThinkPad Tablet 2 is a great tablet running Windows 8. It rivals the ipad in size and weight yet brings full Windows 8, including inking with the optional pen.
The video below shows a walk around the hardware that makes up the Tablet 2 and demonstrates using the pen. The demonstration shows inking in Windows Journal, OneNote, and Microsoft Word, along with using the pen in place of a mouse on the desktop.
Microsoft Office division President Kurt DelBene, at an event in 2010
(Credit: Ina Fried/CNET)
If Microsoft is cooking up an Office app for iPhones and iPads, Office division President Kurt DelBene isn't saying.
DelBene gave little insight into the possibility, bandied about for the last few years, at Morgan Stanley's Technology, Media & Telecom Conference this morning. During a question-and-answer session, DelBene noted the premium tablet experience for Office is on Microsoft's Surface RT and Surface Pro devices, which run Windows 8. As for iOS devices, DelBene said that users can view Office files, such as Excel spreadsheets, on Microsoft's SkyDrive storage service.
"We think we have a pretty good cross-device product today," DelBene said. "In the future, you should expect to see us bet on SkyDrive" even more.
During the session, DelBene also noted that the acquisitions of Skype and Yammer, both of which are being integrated into Office products and services, has helped Microsoft develop new skills at rapid product development. Throughout its history, Microsoft has focused largely on multiyear product development cycles. Skype and Yammer are pushing Microsoft to quickly evolve to the faster pace of developing Web services.
"The way they do software is real-time," DelBene said. "They think a quarter ahead."
That thinking is fueling the development of Office 365, Microsoft's subscription-based productivity service. DelBene dubbed the service a success and noted that Microsoft ultimately hopes its entire Office business shifts to a subscription model. But he recognizes that it will take time.
"We have aspirations that we ultimately might get there," DelBene said. "But it's a journey."
Electronics giant HP is selling off the code, staff and technology involved in its WebOS software to Korean firm LG.
HP acquired the WebOS operating system when it bought veteran gadget maker Palm in 2011 for $1.2bn (£789m).
Financial details of the deal have not been disclosed but HP is not thought to have recouped much of the money it paid for Palm.
LG said the WebOS code would be used to power its next-generation smart TV technology.
The WebOS was created to run smartphones, tablets and other devices developed by Palm that, in its early days, pioneered the handheld gadget industry. However, Palm's influence has diminished as Apple, Google's Android and RIM's Blackberry have come to dominate the smartphone and tablet markets.
In the deal, LG gets WebOS source code, engineers working on it, documentation and the websites that promote it. HP is holding on to patents underlying WebOS as well as technology that helps it connect to web-based services.
HP did launch products running WebOS, such as the TouchPad tablet, but poor sales led it to seek other ways to boost interest in the software. One way it chose was to open up the code to any developer to work on. LG was one of the first firms to take up this chance and the acquisition grew out of this relationship.
Using WebOS in TV sets made "sense" for LG, said Ovum analyst Tony Cripps, adding that it could herald a return to the software's smartphone roots.
WebOS's use of core web technology left it well placed for the next generation of mobile apps that were likely to be based around the same code, he said.
The acquisition was probably driven by LG's recognition that it needed to make gadgets of all types easier to use, added Mr Cripps.
"Device manufacturers are recognising the need to differentiate through software-based innovation in user experience," he said.
The deal with LG was announced as HP took the wraps off its first Android-powered tablet, called the HP Slate 7, at the 2013 Mobile World Congress currently under way in Barcelona.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Microsoft is escalating its efforts to bring the latest version of Internet Explorer to more than 700 million personal computers in an attempt to re-establish the software maker's browser as the best way to surf the Web.
Tuesday's release of Internet Explorer 10 is aimed at PCs running on Windows 7, the most used version of Microsoft Corp.'s flagship operating system for PCs. A preview version of Internet Explorer 10 has been available for Windows 7 machines since mid-November. The final version of Internet Explorer 10 will be automatically sent to all Windows 7 computers set up to get updates.
Internet Explorer 10 is primarily designed for tablet computers and other devices responsive to touch, including a new breed of PCs. Even though relatively few Windows 7 PCs can be controlled with fingers on a display screen, Microsoft is confident Internet Explorer 10 will still have widespread appeal because it loads websites 20 percent faster than its predecessor, said Ryan Gavin, Microsoft's general manager for the browser.
"Tens of millions" of people downloaded the preview mode on Windows 7, Gavin said.
About 90 percent of Windows PCs have been programmed to get the automatic updates, Gavin said. It could take several weeks before the Internet Explorer 10 updates are sent to all those computers. Internet 10 doesn't work on XP, Vista or other older versions of Windows. Internet Explorer 10 already comes with machines running Windows 8, a dramatic makeover of the operating system that came out four months ago.
More than 670 million PCs rely on Windows 7. In addition, more than 60 million PCs and other devices have licensed Windows 8.
Microsoft, which is based in Redmond, Wash., is counting on Internet Explorer 10 to reverse recent trends in the Web browser market. By some estimates, Google Inc.'s Chrome browser has supplanted Internet Explorer as the world's most popular browser. Other research firms still assert that Internet Explorer remains the most widely used, although all measures show it has been losing market share to Chrome, Mozilla's Firefox and Apple Inc.'s Safari.
The new Web browser is the latest in a procession of products that Microsoft has unveiled in the past four months. Besides Windows 8, Microsoft has released a tablet computer called Surface, an update to its Office suite of programs and an overhaul of its Web mail service, which is now called Outlook.com.
Microsoft believes the barrage of new products will prove it remains on the cutting edge of the latest technology trends, 38 years after the company's founding. The push hasn't swayed Microsoft's stock, which is hovering around the same price as when Windows 8 came out in late October.
Microsoft's stock gained 18 cents to $27.55 in morning trading Tuesday.
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer gives his presentation at the launch of Microsoft Windows 8, in New York, Thursday, Oct. 25, 2012. – AP Photo
SAN FRANCISCO - Microsoft is escalating its efforts to bring the latest version of Internet Explorer to more than 700 million personal computers in an attempt to re-establish the software maker's browser as the best way to surf the Web.
Tuesday's release of Internet Explorer 10 is aimed at PCs running on Windows 7, the most used version of Microsoft Corp.'s flagship operating system for PCs.
A preview version of Internet Explorer 10 has been available for Windows 7 machines since mid-November. The final version of Internet Explorer 10 will be automatically sent to all Windows 7 computers set up to get updates.
Internet Explorer 10 is primarily designed for tablet computers and other devices responsive to touch, including a new breed of PCs.
Even though relatively few Windows 7 PCs can be controlled with fingers on a display screen, Microsoft is confident Internet Explorer 10 will still have widespread appeal because it loads websites 20 percent faster than its predecessor, said Ryan Gavin, Microsoft's general manager for the browser.
"Tens of millions" of people downloaded the preview mode on Windows 7, Gavin said.
About 90 percent of Windows PCs have been programmed to get the automatic updates, Gavin said. It could take several weeks before the Internet Explorer 10 updates are sent to all those computers. Internet 10 doesn't work on XP, Vista or other older versions of Windows.
Internet Explorer 10 already comes with machines running Windows 8, a dramatic makeover of the operating system that came out four months ago. More than 670 million PCs rely on Windows 7.
In addition, more than 60 million PCs and other devices have licensed Windows 8.
Microsoft, which is based in Redmond, Washington, is counting on Internet Explorer 10 to reverse recent trends in the Web browser market. By some estimates, Google Inc.'s Chrome browser has supplanted Internet Explorer as the world's most popular browser.
Other research firms still assert that Internet Explorer remains the most widely used, although all measures show it has been losing market share to Chrome, Mozilla's Firefox and Apple Inc.'s Safari.
The new Web browser is the latest in a procession of products that Microsoft has unveiled in the past four months.
Besides Windows 8, Microsoft has released a tablet computer called Surface, an update to its Office suite of programs and an overhaul of its Web mail service, which is now called Outlook.com.
Microsoft believes the barrage of new products will prove it remains on the cutting edge of the latest technology trends, 38 years after the company's founding.
The push hasn't swayed Microsoft's stock, which is hovering around the same price as when Windows 8 came out in late October.
Microsoft's stock gained 18 cents to $27.55 in morning trading Tuesday.
As enterprises move to adopt private clouds in the backend, Linux will increasingly become the operating system of choice for server infrastructures in Australia, according to IDC research director Matthew Oostveen.
In financial year 2012, AU$235.35 million was spent on Linux servers, and in the same year, one in four servers shipped in the Australian market was Linux-based. Approximately 29 percent of all the money spent on server infrastructure in Australia went towards Linux servers.
Based on those figures, IDC believes Linux is now running more enterprise mission and business critical workloads than other OSes such as Windows Server.
As CIOs and IT managers grapple with shrinking IT budgets, many are realising just how inefficiently they have been running their server environment, Oostveen said.
"The cost of infrastructure is cheap — what's expensive is actually running it, managing it, and administrating it," Oostveen said. This is mainly due to the advent of virtualisation, according to the analyst, and the cost is driven up because archaic ways of managing old server environments — the one server, one OS, one application approach — is still being used today.
"We are throwing too many people at a problem, and the people costs are getting out of control," he said.
Many IT managers have cottoned on to this issue, which has lead to huge amounts of server migration, a large portion of which are moving off-premise, according to IDC. This includes moving assets into the cloud, co-location, and managed services.
But what is left behind in on-premise datacentres will go through large transformations, Oostveen said. For Australia, 2013 will be the year of the converged infrastructure, with IDC predicting 66 per cent of servers shipped this year will be some kind of converged system, be it a Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS) or a VCE Vblock.
The reason behind the uptake is the increasing demand for private cloud and these converged systems ease the adoption process, Oostveen said.
"The dirty little secret of the IT industry is that private clouds are really hard to build," he said. "CIOs tear their hair out with these types of deployment, and if there is a way to buy infrastructure that enables them to just drop it into their datacentres, they will.
"This allows CIOs and organisations to divert innovation away from infrastructure, where they probably won't get the same return on investment than if they were to direct innovation towards services and software."
When these converged systems are used within a datacentre, there is a high probability the OS of choice for the servers will be Linux, according to Oostveen.
"We are going to see a lot of Linux acceleration, and that number is coming up this year," he said.
While Windows-based servers still dominate the market, that number is shrinking, according to IDC figures, and Linux is the only OS that has experienced growth in recent times.
As the server industry continues to evolve, the favoured x86 architecture, which is great for private cloud and on-premise systems, "skinless" servers running mobile CPUs will become more popular, IDC claims.
"They will be skinny servers, run by skinny OSes," Oostveen said. "At IDC, we believe Linux is going to be the OS of choice when you start building out these new infrastructures."
SEATTLE: A top Microsoft executive side-stepped questions about any plans the software maker may have to bring its Office suite of applications to Apple's iPad.
Talk has circulated for more than a year that Microsoft wants to bring native versions of its most profitable product to the hot-selling iPad, which one analyst estimates could generate $2.5 billion in extra revenue for Microsoft per year, but would remove an incentive to buying Windows-based tablets.
"We don't take it from the point of view, 'Do we need to have the PC software that's running on every single device?', we look very much at 'What is the experience that we are looking to have on those devices'," said Kurt DelBene, head of Microsoft's Office unit, asked about Office on the iPad at the Morgan Stanley technology investor conference in San Francisco, which was Webcast.
DelBene, who took over leadership of Office from Stephen Elop who left to lead phone maker Nokia in 2010, did not directly address putting native versions of Office applications on the iPad, a subject Microsoft has steered clear of in public.
Asked specifically about the availability of Office on Apple's iOS mobile system - which powers iPads and iPhones - DelBene instead stressed online versions of Office apps, which can be accessed via a browser but do not offer the full richness of installed software or an app.
"We've actually done a lot of work on iOS devices this time around," said DelBene. "We have enhanced the web applications pretty substantially, in partnership with Apple."
Microsoft does offer native iOS versions of some Office applications, including its OneNote note-sharing software, Lync communication suite and SharePoint collaboration site, as well as its SkyDrive online storage service.
But the more than 100 million iPad owners, many of whom want to bring their devices to work, have to use the limited online versions of desktop staples Word, Excel and PowerPoint.
Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Holt estimated earlier this month that Microsoft could generate $2.5 billion in extra annual revenue from Office on iPad by next year, less the commission Apple would take on sales of Office through its App Store.
But the risk for Microsoft is that putting Office on the iPad takes away one of the key advantages of its own Surface and other Windows tablets, that already run Office natively.
Removing incentives to buy Windows tablets would be a blow to Microsoft's flagship Windows unit, which although less profitable than Office, is still key to the company's overall strategy.
Asked by one investor at the conference when he would be able to use Excel on his iPad, DelBene instead pointed the questioner toward Microsoft's own Surface RT and Surface Pro tablets and urged him to use Web-based versions of Office apps.
"I think we've done a great job on both the consumer side, particularly with the Web apps that we are building, and on the enterprise side as well," said DelBene.
If you just got a shiny new iPod or iPhone and need help putting your music on it then you're in luck. We've outlined the simple steps to get your Apple device up and running without any guesswork.
1. Download iTunes. You can find the latest version here for free.
2. Add songs to your iTunes library. Open iTunes and go to "File" and then select "Add Folder to Library". Import all the music folders on your computer using this method. You can also add music by purchasing songs from the iTunes music store.
3. Connect your device. Connect your device to your computer using your USB cable. If you'd like to connect wirelessly, scroll down this page to the following section that will guide you through the process.
4. Decide which music to import. You can import your entire catalog of music if your device has the required capacity. If not, then make a playlist with a smaller selection of songs that will fit on your iPod or iPhone.
5. Sync your device. Now it's time to sync your device, click on the "iPod/iPhone" icon in the left hand column of iTunes. Next click on the "Music" button in the top bar. Make sure the "Sync Music" box is checked. If you're syncing your whole library then check "Entire music library." If you're just syncing a playlist then check "Selected playlists, artists, and genres" and select the playlist you made for your iPod or iPhone. Now select the "Sync" button in the bottom right hand corner of iTunes. iTunes will begin syncing your device and will notify you when it's complete.
6. Eject your device. Once the sync is complete select the small arrow eject button next to the iPod/iPhone icon under devices. Your device is now ready to listen to.
How to wirelessly sync your iPod or iPhone to your computer.
If you've developed a fear of cables in the past few years, don't worry. Apple has your back. With iOS 5, Apple gave users the option of syncing their devices wirelessly through a Wi-Fi connection. Here's a quick rundown on how to set this up.
1. Get updated. First of all, you'll need iOS 5 or higher. Get the latest version on your iPhone/iPod/iPad by tapping Settings> General > Software Update, and choosing the Download and Install button.
2. Get connected. Once your iPod/Pad/Phone is running iOS 5, the next step is to make sure your computer is connected to a wireless network, and is running iTunes.
3. Power up. Plug in your iDevice to a power source.
4. Find your device. On your iDevice, navigate to Settings > General > iTunes Wi-Fi Sync. Here you should see a list of computers connected to the wireless network.
5. Sync your device. Choose the computer with which you'd like to sync and tap the Sync Now button.
6. You're done! If everything worked correctly, your device will now automatically sync wirelessly to your computer whenever each are connected to the same Wi-Fi network.
This guide to downloading music to your iPod or iPhone has been updated to include steps for wireless syncing, an option that did not exist at the time of the article's initial publication.
There's a problem with most really usable iPad stands: they're too big to be portable. Sure, you could always use an iPad case that doubles as a stand, but it many situations that ends up being somewhat of a compromise. The team at Rain Design put their formidable minds to work on the problem and demonstrated their solution at Macworld/iWorld 2013. That solution is now shipping: the iSlider (US$49.90), a lightweight and portable iPad stand that adjusts over a 55° range to make your iPad more comfortable to use.
Design
At first glance, the iSlider might be mistaken for an aluminum doorstop or a compact (5.5" deep by 3" wide by a maximum of 1" high) trackpad. Seriously, it doesn't look like any other iPad stand you've seen. But with a quick pull on one end of the device, a mechanism slides out of the half-pound aluminum body and you have your iPad stand.
iSlider is built to accomodate both "naked" iPads and iPad minis, and also those in cases that are less than 5/8" thick when installed on the device. A set of grooves on the back of a padded arm are used to provide precise and sturdy lift to your device. A folding foot at the bottom of the iSlider holds your device in place and also provides access for a charging cable.
The iSlider works equally well at holding your digital toy in either landscape or portrait orientation, and a set of non-skid feet on the bottom keep the iPad and iSlider from ... well, sliding.
Functionality
Made out of brushed aluminum, iSlider is a nice match for your Apple devices and looks perfectly at home on a desk with your MacBook or iMac. One of the marketing images used by Rain shows an iSlider going into the front pocket of a pair of jeans, and I was surprised to see that I was actually able to plop it into a pocket without it looking too obvious.
I use a fun "Padintosh" case from ThinkGeek to protect the back of my iPad, with a standard Apple Smart Cover over the front. When I folded the Smart Cover over the back of the iPad and placed the entire handful onto the iSlider, it fit perfectly.
On the other hand, my iPad mini is unclothed at this time, so it is quite skinny. Unfortunately, that meant that there was plenty of space down in the foot at the bottom of the iSlider, so the iPad mini moves a little bit if you try typing on it or poke at icons. Fortunately, there's a solution right at your fingertips -- the iSlider comes with a small carrying bag, and I just put that behind the mini to keep it from moving. I suppose I really should just break down and order an iPad mini case, though...
Conclusion
Rain Design has solved the problem of carrying an adjustable iPad stand around by designing a unique folding mechanism for the iSlider. It looks good, it's built to last, and it provides both style and function in a pocketable design.
Pros
Rugged aluminum body should be able to survive drops and bumps
Eminently pocketable and adjustable over a wide range
Can accommodate iPads in a variety of cases and covers
Non-slip feet keep your iPad and iSlider from moving
Cons
Somewhat expensive, but worth every penny
Who is it for?
Anyone who needs a portable and sturdy iPad stand that looks ... mahvelous!
At long last, Adobe has launched Photoshop Touch for the iPhone and Android phones in a bid to make its flagship photo-editing software available across the most popular smart devices in the world.
"This will bring the power of Photoshop to millions of people worldwide," Photoshop product manager Stephen Nielson told VentureBeat. "My phone is the device I always have with me so I can be creative no matter where I am."
Adobe has offered Photoshop Touch for iPad and Android tablets since October 2011, showing its willingness to make its powerful software available outside traditional PCs. That application has been quite popular — it made Apple's Top Apps of 2012 list and the latest version of it on the iPad has an average rating for four stars.
But smartphones are much more ubiquitous than tablets, and if Adobe truly wants to be part of the mobile conversation it needs to have a presence on the iPhone and popular Android phones. Adobe previously only offered an extremely minimal app called Photoshop Express for iPhone and Android phones, but it did not encompass all the features a regular Photoshop user might want.
Photoshop Touch for iPhone and Android does at least offer some satisfaction for those that thought Express wasn't up to snuff. It lets you do a lot of what you do in Photoshop Touch on the iPad and Photoshop on the desktop. It's simple to start new projects, and popular tools like layers, levels, cropping, clone stamp, adjustments, and filters are all right there in the app and relatively easy to access and control with your fingers.
One especially cool feature is the ability to shoot a picture from your camera and have that automatically placed as a layer in your project. So if I was in the middle of a project on my phone and happened to be sitting in a park, I could see a live camera feed behind my layers, take the right shot, and then I can have a snazzy tree-and-grass background.
The app is also designed to be part of Adobe's Creative Cloud, so you can start a project on the iPhone or Android and then start back on it from a different device like the iPad or your desktop computer. Creative Cloud offers users free 2GB of storage so you can have one folder available everywhere for photo projects.
Maybe most importantly, it's easy to share your photo projects from the iPhone version of Photoshop Touch on Facebook and Twitter through the built-in iOS integration. To share a project on Instagram — one of the most popular photo-sharing apps out there — you'd need to save your photo to the iPhone's camera roll and then select it from there inside Instagram. Thankfully that's not too hard.
"I myself use Instagram all the time, but sometimes I'll use Photoshop Touch to touch up a photo," Nelson said. "It doesn't have to be one or the other."
Nelson said that Adobe not only wants to make this a fulfilling experience for the Photoshop faithful but also use this as a point to introduce some new users to Photoshop.
"On the tablet version, we've seen a lot of creative professionals and photographers using it, but there are also a lot of aspirational Photoshop users too," Nelson said.
Adobe has made this a powerful application that needs a lot of processing power. So the app only runs on the iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, and Android phones running version 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) or later. This clearly limits the number of people who will be able to use it (think of all the iPhone 4 users out there), but Nelson said it the experience has to be good to live up to the standards of Photoshop.
Photoshop Touch will cost $5 on both iPhone and Android. A full list of features from the iOS app (which are almost the same list on Android) can be read below.
• Use popular Photoshop features, such as layers, selection tools, adjustments, and filters, to create mind-blowing images. • Improve your photos using classic Photoshop features to bring out the best in your photography. Apply precise tone and color adjustments to your entire composition, a particular layer, or a select area. • Create something other-worldly using painting effects, filter brushes, and so much more. With Photoshop Touch, the creative possibilities are endless. • Make your images pop with graphical text. Apply strokes, add drop shadows and fades, and more. • Take advantage of your device's camera to fill an area on a layer with the unique Camera Fill feature. • Quickly combine images together. Select part of an image to extract just by scribbling with the Scribble Selection tool. With the Refine Edge feature, use your fingertip to easily capture hard-to-select image elements, like hair. • Start a project on your iPhone or iPod Touch and finish it on your iPad* or back in Photoshop** at your desk using a free membership to Adobe Creative Cloud™.*** Your projects are automatically synced between your devices. • Free membership to Creative Cloud provides 2GB of cloud storage. • Work on high-resolution images while maintaining the highest image quality. Images up to 12 megapixels are supported.
Sony's mantle as one of the major smartphone
manufacturers has slipped a little in recent years, but it still
produces some outstanding handsets. The Xperia Z is just such a
creature, with a powerful quad-core processor, 13-megapixel camera,
4G and a feast of extras.
It's on sale now for around £450.
The price puts it in the high-end category, but the spec more
than justifies it. This is a handset for high-flyers and phone fans
who like to be ahead of the curve and are prepared to pay for
it.
Design
The Xperia Z is not what you'd call a 'convenient' handset though,
with a five-inch screen it's a big ol' handful measuring
139x71x8mm. With shatter-proof glass both back and front it's no
lightweight either, tipping the scales at 146g. Around the sides is
a single large power/sleep button, a wafer-thin volume rocker and
dock connectors. Everything else is hidden behind sealed plastic
grommets, including microSD and SIM card slots, microUSB port and
3.5mm headphone jack.
The Xperia Z also makes a virtue of being a tough cookie; it's a
rugged phone in a smoothie body. It might be covered in glass, but
it's scratch resistant and shatterproof, as well as being water
resistant (much like the
Xperia Tablet Z). We were able to douse it under the tap and
leave it in a filled sink for a couple of minutes with no apparent
ill effects -- so it should be able to cope with the general perils
of the urban jungle. Sony makes no promises for deserts or
mountains but for most day-to-day attacks it should be fine.
Features
That "Reality Screen" is rather lovely though. With a pixel
resolution of 1,920x1,080 that boils down to 441 pixels-per-inch
(way ahead of the iPhone 5's 326, for instance) and 16 million
colours it looks stunning, and it's beautifully sensitive too,
responding instantly and accurately to every brush and press --
something you can't always say even for high-end handsets. It has
the latest Sony Mobile Bravia Engine to help smooth out video
play and we certainly couldn't detect any awkwardness in any of the
movies we played.
For such a forward-thinking handset it's a surprise to see the
4.1 version of Android Jelly Bean rather than the very latest 4.2,
for which we'll have to wait a little longer. It's not a disaster
by any means -- you still get the intuitive Google Now service that
punts info at you based on your location and previous choices
without the need to search, but it does take the shine off the
newness of it a little.
Sony's put its own skin over the top of Android of course,
notably with a lock screen that looks like rippling Venetian blinds
when you run your thumb over it, and its own distinctive array of
shortcut icons and widgets. The unloved Timescape, which pulled
together your social networking updates has been removed entirely
though, unable to compete with Google's own alerts bar.
Performance
The Xperia Z has 4G LTE capability though you'll need a contract
with
EE to take full advantage of it (or hold your breath for other
networks getting all their 4G ducks in a row later
this year). The 1.5GHz quad-core processor is one of the
heftiest beasts we've yet seen on a smartphone, and backed by a
full 2GB RAM it's a very powerful engine. Our regular AnTuTu
performance benchmark test delivered a score of 18,440 -- that's
the highest we've yet seen on a handset, defeating quad-core rivals
like the
Samsung Galaxy Note 2 (13,619),
HTC One X+ (16,157) and
Google Nexus 4 (17,903), though the last one at least has the
distinction of costing around half as much. In short, this is the
fastest smartphone we have ever reviewed.
But whether you're doing 3D gaming, watching a movie or even
just listening to music, the Xperia Z does seem to get
uncomfortably hot during prolonged use. Battery life isn't great
either, and we barely got a full day's steady use out of it with
the standard settings. There is however Stamina Mode, which powers
down all the phone's functions when the screen goes dim. Good for
the battery, but not always so good for communication, though you
can customise the settings to leave certain functions on, depending
on what you need doing.
Camera quality
Considering the power of the processor, it's a bit of a surprise
that the 13.1-megapixel camera takes a good two seconds to start
up. Not great for speedy snaps, but once it's up and running, it's
a bit of a cracker. As well as Sony's Exmor R sensor, designed to
improve the quality of pics taken in low light, features include
touch-to-focus, face detection, image stabilisation, high dynamic
range (HDR) automation, sweep panorama and GPS geo-tagging. All of
that would matter naught if picture quality was sub par, but
thankfully, it isn't; picture quality is really very good, even in
low light, with sharp edges and realistic colours.
Video quality is up there too, with full HD 1,080p recording at
30fps. Unusually, the HDR setting is also available for video as
well as stills, which can add an interesting, other-worldly look to
your vids.
NFC and connectivity
Near-field communication (NFC) is on board for wireless payments
(when you can find a place that accepts them) and for instant
settings changes using Sony Smart Tags, though none seemed to be
included in the box. Sony has obviously been thinking about the
technology too, and it will work with the latest Sony Bravia TVs --
touch your phone to the TV, and it can be set to mirror what's on
the phone wirelessly. If you don't have one of the latest Bravias,
your options are more limited, since there's no HDMI port to run HD
video direct to your TV.
There's 16GB of memory on board, which offers an adequate bit of
room for HD pics and vids, but if you need more, it can carry
microSD cards up to 32GB in size.
Conclusion
The Sony Xperia Z is a terrific handset offering (almost) the best
of Android plus a terrific screen, very fine camera, super-powerful
processor and lots more besides. If you can handle the size and the
weight, it's a phone to be proud of, and throws down the gauntlet
for the soon-come
Samsung Galaxy S4.
Apple Inc. in recent months has radically overhauled its iPhone operations in the crucial Indian smartphone market, attempting to break Samsung Electronics Co.'s monopoly. WSJ's Jessica Lessin reports. (Photo: Getty Images)
Apple Inc. is overhauling its iPhone operations in the crucial Indian market, attempting to chip away at Samsung Electronics Co.'s dominance by adjusting to the country's retailing rules and convoluted distribution process.
But the Cupertino, Calif., company still has a long way to go.
That's no small matter as Apple's growth slows in the U.S. and other mature markets. India is poised to become the world's third-largest smartphone market this year, behind China and the U.S., according to Strategy Analytics.
Reuters
Apple doesn't have any of its own retail outlets in India and relies on distributors and resellers, such as this Croma store in Mumbai.
Apple is sidestepping wireless carriers to seize greater control over marketing in India and offering no-interest loans to lure lower-income consumers. The company has also boosted staff in India by 30% to 170 employees in the past six months. And it is ramping up the introduction of other products, with the Apple TV video-streaming gadget expected to reach stores in coming weeks, people familiar with the matter say.
The result is that Apple shipped more than 252,000 iPhones to India in the quarter through December, more than triple the number in the previous three months, according to research firm Canalys.
Yet Apple accounts for just 5% smartphone shipments to India, compared with 40% for market leader Samsung. The South Korean company surged ahead by making India a high-priority market earlier than Apple did and offering a range of phones based on Google Inc.'s Android software that start at just over $100. An older generation iPhone sells for around $500 while the latest model starts at nearly $850.
"Apple is still very much at the premium end and out of reach of average consumers," says Neil Shah, a senior analyst with U.S. based Strategy Analytics. Most of India's 865 million wireless users still use low-cost feature phones and carriers don't subsidize smartphone purchases, as they do in the U.S.
Apple in India isn't allowed to open its own retail stores or directly sell iPhones on the Web.
India was special to Apple co-founder Steve Jobs. As a 19-year-old, he made a seven-month spiritual sojourn to the country, traveling to the River Ganges to witness a holy festival and seeking enlightenment in the Himalayas, according to the biography "Steve Jobs."
Mr. Jobs said India and Eastern thinking had a huge influence on his work at Apple. "The people in the Indian countryside don't use their intellect like we do, they use their intuition instead," he said in the book. "Intuition is a very powerful thing."
Despite his affection for India, Apple made slow progress in the country even as it invested heavily in other emerging markets. Apple's 19.6 million iPhone shipments to China and 1.4 million to Brazil last year dwarfed the 460,000 units sent to India, according to Canalys.
Chief Executive Tim Cook has blamed India's messy distribution networks. Unlike in the U.S., wireless carriers generally don't have their own stores. Mobile devices in the country typically go through several layers—carriers, national and local distributors and mom-and-pop retail shops—before getting to consumers.
"The multilayer distribution there really adds to the cost of getting products to market," Mr. Cook told analysts last summer.
Apple responded last autumn by overhauling its distribution. Instead of going through wireless carriers, Apple began working directly with two national distributors. The company now tightly controls everything about advertising, the amount of inventory entering the country and which cities are targeted and when, a person familiar with the strategy says.
ndia still erects hurdles. Apple hasn't been able to open its trademark stores because of requirements that foreign retailers purchase 30% of the value of India sales from domestic suppliers—unmanageable in a country with virtually no electronics manufacturing.
New Delhi says it wants to encourage more foreign investment in retailing and that the sourcing requirement is a reasonable condition that will help develop domestic industries.
Apple sells in India through roughly 2,000 mom-and-pop stores and 65 franchisee-owned "Apple shops" in malls and other high-end spots. Apple has spoken to government officials about changing restrictions that prevent it from selling online, a government official says.
Apple sells older versions of the iPhone at a discount in India and elsewhere, but still at a hefty premium to local rivals. But as devices from competitors such as Samsung have gained traction in emerging markets, Apple has been rethinking its one-size-fits-all approach.
The company recently started letting Indian customers pay for iPhones in interest-free installments. Apple also has been developing a less-expensive iPhone.
And the company is narrowing the gap between product introductions in the U.S. and India. It took Apple 11 months to sell the iPhone 4 in India, but the iPhone 5 arrived in Indian stores just over a month after the device's global rollout.
Apple still is sixth in smartphone shipments in India, behind Samsung, Sony Corp., Nokia Corp., LG Electronics Inc. and Research In Motion Ltd.'s BlackBerry. BlackBerry's touch-screen Z10 went on sale in the country this week.
Samsung has benefited from high brand recognition in India, thanks to the company's household appliances, such as television sets and air conditioners. The company invested heavily in India to market its Galaxy smartphones, which start at $111. Samsung also has much greater retail reach than Apple, selling its devices through 100,000 franchisee-owned and mom-and-pop stores.
Such factors "have all worked in favor of Samsung creating a niche in India," says Katyayan Gupta, an analyst with Forrester Research Inc.
Despite Apple's recent advances, it will have to broaden its portfolio of phones in India, introduce a sub-$250 iPhone and further increase marketing "to really turn a corner this year" and take market share from its South Korean rival, says Mr. Shah, of Strategy Analytics.
Nokia's Mobile World Congress announcements may have disappointed those hoping for the Finnish firm's next flagship device, but they prove Nokia is committed to serving a broad range of customers.
The company took the stage this week to reveal the Lumia 720 and Lumia 520, two middle-of-the-road smartphones that run Microsoft's Windows Phone 8 platform. Neither is flagship material, and they instead fill empty spaces in Nokia's offerings.
The Lumia 720 is a midrange device that has a 4.3-inch display with Nokia's ClearBlack technology. The glass is curved so that it forms a smooth surface on the front of the phone. It makes use of the unibody style that Nokia has come to prefer, which means the battery cannot be removed. It has a memory card slot, and the camera features a Carl Ziess f/1.9 lens for better low-light performance.
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The 720 will not be sold in the United States. In order to keep the price down, it is targeting markets that don't yet have LTE 4G networks. This means the 720 will likely serve as Nokia's high-end device in emerging markets.
The Nokia 520, however, will be sold in the U.S. by T-Mobile USA. It is an entry-level Windows Phone 8 device that includes a 4-inch display that can be used with gloves on. It is powered by a 1-GHz Snapdragon S4 dual-core processor and includes a 5-megapixel camera, 8 GB of storage and a microSD card slot. It will reach stores during the second quarter, though pricing hasn't been revealed. Given the specs and cost of T-Mobile's other Windows Phone devices, the 520 will likely sell for $50 or less.
Beyond these two Lumia smartphones, Nokia announced several ultra-low-end devices for emerging markets, the 301 and the 105. Both are simple devices with few features other than basic telephony and messaging.
It has been about six months since Nokia announced a flagship device, the Lumia 920. The 920, sold by AT&T in the U.S., is still just reaching some markets around the world and clearly has some life left at the top of Nokia's smartphone heap. With the 720 and 520 added to its stable, Nokia now has devices in the 900, 800, 700, 600 and 500 range, each with clear differences in terms of features and price points. Covering such a range of prices with these phones is exactly what Nokia needs to do in order to get its phones into more hands.
Nokia isn't expected to name a successor to the 920 for at least a few more months.
Three technologies are vying to upend legacy data center networks. Which one will you back? Also in the new, all-digital Welcome To The Revolution(s) issue of Network Computing: Startups are bringing fine-grained I/O quality of service to solid-state arrays. (Free with registration.)
The Lenovo
IdeaTab A2107A is the Chinese company's entry-level seven-inch
tablet, coming in with a lower spec than the nine-inch A2109A and
running Android 4.0. But has it got the goods to make it worth your
while?
It's on sale now for around £150.
Design
This is very much a budget tablet, but that price tag stands
favourably against the likes of the
Google Nexus 7,
Kindle Fire HD and
Barnes & Noble Nook HD -- if it can perform well enough to
compete with those fine examples of the tablet maker's art.
In its favour, it certainly doesn't feel like a budget product
-- it's sturdy and robust, and you get the feeling it could stand
up to a fair bit of ill treatment. It's on the heavy side though,
at 400g, and none too slim either at a sliver under 12mm.
Features
At one end there's a panel that slides off to reveal space for a
microSD card to expand on the 16GB memory on board, plus not one,
but two 3G SIM card slots. So you can use two separate accounts --
one for work, one for home, perhaps, or you can slip in a foreign
SIM when you go abroad to cut down on roaming costs. It won't be
for everyone, but since very few tablets offer this option, the
A2107A could find itself a bit of a captive audience.
The seven-inch screen offers a not-bad resolution of 1,024x600
pixels (we weren't expecting HD at this price) which adds up to
169ppi -- it certainly won't compete with the best for sharpness,
but it's perfectly acceptable whether you're surfing the web,
watching movies or reading ebooks.
Performance
The single-core 1GHz MediaTek Cortex processor backed by 1GB RAM
won't win any prizes (it's lower powered than the A2109A) and we
found it occasionally laggy in general use with clunky animations
between screens (thanks Lenovo, but you really shouldn't have
bothered) and some sitting around time while you're waiting for
apps to open. Our AnTuTu benchmark test delivered a score of 4,369,
which won't get anyone too excited, though it's ahead of some other
single-core budget devices such as the Disgo 9000 and way behind
the Google Nexus 7's 13,210, which has more cores and very little
price difference.
Among the many preloaded apps are Amazon
Kindle, NewsRepublic, Evernote, Norton Security, ooVoo, Cut the
Rope and Docs2Go, along with the GameTanium games store, a
BackupAndRestore facility for backing up your contacts, messages,
call logs and apps to the SD card, and Lenovo's PrinterShare app. A
decent mix, and of course there are plenty more to choose from on
the Google Play store.
The three-megapixel camera is pretty rubbish, with poor picture
quality -- you really have to work hard to get anything even half
decent out of it. Likewise the 0.3-megapixel front-facing camera
for video calls, which certainly won't show you at your
best.
Conclusion For the price, the Lenovo A2107A is a decent little
seven-inch tablet, sturdily built, running Ice Cream Sandwich and
with a decent set of features. It's a bit underpowered, and the
camera's poor, but otherwise it's a decent budget introduction to
Android tabletville. For a similar price though, the
Nexus 7 is arguably a stronger offering.
Android, Kantar says, took 49.4% of smartphone sales, a growth of 6.4% points over the same period last year. Apple's 45.9% of sales was 4.7% points down one year ago. It sources these numbers by extrapolating from data collected from 240,000 consumers annually.
And when you add those two numbers together you can see how ridiculously big the challenge is for others to get a look in. No. 3, Windows Phone, just barely breaks 3% of sales, although that's an improvement on 2.1% last year.
Also notable: Windows Phone now leads BlackBerry, which was at 0.9% of sales. Can BB10 make a difference? (Thanks @modelportfolio2003 for the link.)
Amongst many other things, today I went to the Firefox stand at MWC. It was very full of excited people talking about their new venture with some of the leading mobile operators to launch a new phone OS, aimed at the tier just below 'real' smartphones. There was much talk of openness and other ideologically correct things, and none at all about any consumer benefits. I did hear someone from Mozilla say that 'Firefox is a great consumer brand', though, which is a pretty questionable claim: the target consumers would be pushed to name ANY browser, let alone Firefox. There is a reference phone from ZTE (and also one from Alcatel I haven't seen yet): the software is slow and not especially elegant, and the device is targeted to cost $100.
50 yards away there is a half-empty stand from Haier, a second-tier Chinese OEM. Their W619 is a 2G android smartphone running Android 4, with 2 SIM slots, a 3.5" screen and an MTK chipset. It is very solid and the UI is perfectly fluid. The wholesale price is $50: 3G versions are $75.
An Apple supplier known for making iPads has been penalized by Chinese authorities for turning a nearby river in Shanghai "white" after dumping pollutants during the nation's Spring Festival holiday.
The supplier, RiTeng Computer Accessory, had wrongfully dumped waste water used for cleaning processes due to suspected staff negligence, according to a Friday statement from a parent company.
The water couldn't be used for watering crops; the waste killed all the shellfish. RiTeng also assembles for HP, Dell and Asus; it has had industrial accidents before, including explosions. Basically, China needs to take tough action against polluters like this.
Boiled down, they are: (1) BBM, even though he says that WhatsApp actually does all he needs; (2) a physical keyboard, unlike the one on his last BlackBerry which broke (not an argument for the Z10); (3) he doesn't care about apps such as Instagram. Compelling?
As a mobile solution for a digital artist I'd say the Surface Pro is a winner. Now obviously if you need Photoshop you will probably want to wait until they get their driver issues worked out. If you're a Sketchbook user (or you could be) then this thing is ready to go right now. I had some people on Twitter asking if the Surface Pro makes sense as an alternative to a Cintiq at home or the office. That one is harder for me to answer. I personally really like my Cintiq 24HD and I would not use the Surface pro at the office instead of it.
He's generally positive, but notes some downsides: heat, battery life, storage, non-adjustable kickstand angle. Still, he thinks it could replace his iPad for a number of tasks.
While the Slate 7 does perform decently, it is noticeably slower than a Nexus 7 even in basic UI navigation tasks (thank that 1.6GHz dual-core processor), and that's really just the tip of the drawback iceberg. The 1024x600 screen is terrible. Let me say what I mean by terrible: the Nexus 7's display isn't winning any awards (it's good, but by no means great), and the Slate 7's display is pretty crappy even from that point of comparison. An aspect ratio of 16:9 and unusually large bezels on the top and bottom make the Slate 7 look unusually tall, too, and I can't say I'm a fan. The unit I played with also had some weird UI scaling issues going on (everything look 'squished'). There's no NFC, no GPS, and just 8GB on-board storage.
The upshot is that HP hopes you'll buy into are the presence of a microSD card slot, HP ePrint, and a 3MP rear camera, all at a cost $30 less than the Nexus 7. Maybe for some these could be a legitimate draw, but honestly, you're likely to pay for it in the long run - who knows what HP's software update schedule is going to look like (it's running Android 4.1.1 in our hands-on), or how well this untested hardware will age (a dual-core A9 processor isn't exactly cutting-edge).
Something priced to make a retail profit is bound to struggle against something being sold at wholesale prices.
[Saturday] morning, noted rumor purveyor Sam Mobile dropped a bomb on Samsung Galaxy S fans, with a report that allegedly contains the official specifications of the upcoming Galaxy S4. The shocker is that Samsung will supposedly not be using an Exynos processors nor an AMOLED display on their 2013 flagship.
Before we go any further, note that Sam Mobile claims that, while the information comes from a "trusted insider", it's not official. It wouldn't be the first time tech sites are served fake info, so don't take everything in this post at face value.
As reported by Facebook and Apple, Microsoft can confirm that we also recently experienced a similar security intrusion.
Consistent with our security response practices, we chose not to make a statement during the initial information gathering process. During our investigation, we found a small number of computers, including some in our Mac business unit, that were infected by malicious software using techniques similar to those documented by other organizations. We have no evidence of customer data being affected and our investigation is ongoing.
Would this have been down to the same iPhoneDevSDK site that affected Facebook and Apple? (Thanks @rquick for original pointer.)
Falcon Pro was, and technically still is, one of the most popular paid Twitter clients on the platform. According to the Falcon Pro Twitter account, only 40,000 users have actually paid for the app, with the remainder presumably made up by pirated users. Apps in excess of 100,000 user tokens or 200% of their original users require additional permissions from Twitter to exceed the limit - so far, Twitter has not deemed any third-party clients on any platform worthy, with the possible exception of first-party clients and acquisitions like TweetDeck.
Handset makers these days seem intent on blurring the line between phones and tablets, and while there are plenty of large-screened phones on the floor here at Mobile World Congress, no one is going to the lengths that is Asus. At the company's press conference yesterday, it revealed two devices of interest: the FonePad, a 7" Android tablet that features 3G data and voice capabilities; and the PadFone Infinity, the latest iteration of their phone-and-tablet-dock concept that has been kicking around for awhile now.
We stopped by Asus' booth to log some hands-on time with both devices. Neither has been announced for the United States just yet, but they're likely to be a sign of things to come.
The FonePad, a tablet that's also a phone
Let's start with the FonePad. On its surface, it's very much a 7" Android tablet in the style of the Nexus 7 (a comparison made all the more apt by the fact that both are made by the same company). It has a 1280×800 display and runs a lightly skinned version of Android 4.1.2—not the stock Android 4.2 experience you get on the Nexus 7, but not terribly different. Like the Nexus 7, it includes 16GB of storage and 1GB of RAM. The European model (pictured) is also missing a rear camera, something that may give you pause if you're looking at it as a potential phone replacement (the Asian version will sport a 3MP rear camera, though).
There are three differences of note. First, of course, is the device's signature voice calling capability—the top of the back case slides off to reveal a micro SIM slot (as well as a microSD slot, another difference from the Nexus 7), and once you've inserted one you can use it for data and for voice calls.
We couldn't test call quality, of course, since Asus' demo units didn't include SIMs, but we will say that it feels a little silly to hold something as large as the Fonepad up to your ear. It will no doubt be a workable solution for those who value a larger screen over all else in a phone—the ever-increasing size of smartphones seems to indicate that this demographic exists—or if you use a headset for most of your calls, but as a primary phone it strikes me as just a bit too large for comfort.
The second interesting thing about the Fonepad is that it's got Intel inside—though not, apparently, the same Clover Trail+ Atom processor we reported on yesterday. Rather, it uses the Atom Z2420 that Intel unveiled at CES last month, and while Jelly Bean seemed to run well enough on it it's certainly not Intel's fastest Atom. The Z2420 pairs a single-core 1.2GHz Hyperthreading-enabled Atom with a PowerVR SGX 540 GPU, the latter of which is even a bit slower than the GPU used in the Nexus 7's Tegra 3. It's also almost certain to be using and Intel modem—whether the older XMM 6260 or the newer 6360 isn't clear—but either way this means it won't support LTE.
And, finally, we get to the build quality—the Nexus 7 is made mostly of plastic, and while for a $200 tablet it doesn't feel terribly cheap, it's also not the sturdiest thing in the world (the back of my own Nexus 7 has been known to come loose from the front if it falls off the bed, and while it snaps back together easily it doesn't inspire a ton of confidence). The Fonepad, by contrast, has a slightly rounded, smooth metal back that feels nice to hold. Whether it stays together better than my Nexus 7 is hard to divine from using the tablet for 15 minutes, but it does feel a little better.
There's no word on US availability for the FonePad, but it should be available in Asia for $249 in March and in Europe for €219 in April.
The PadFone Infinity, a phone that turns into a tablet
Asus' PadFone product line isn't new, but the PadFone Infinity updates the hardware to bring it in line with the rest of the high-end Android competition.
It starts with the phone, which even by itself is a relatively impressive handset. Like other high-end Android phones of late, it includes a 5" 1080p IPS display, a 1.7GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 SoC, and 2GB of RAM. It's also got either 32 or 64GB of storage, a 13MP rear camera, a 2MP front camera, NFC, Bluetooth 4.0, dual-band Wi-Fi, and LTE support, all packed into a five ounce, 0.35" thick package.
The phone has a lightly curved, brushed metal back and feels pretty good to hold. We weren't able to run our standard suite of benchmarks on the phone (or perform any battery life tests, given how power-hungry some of these quad-core 1080p phones are), but Asus' skinned Android install ran smoothly and without issues (Asus' presentation and spec sheet lists Android 4.2, though the devices themselves appear to be running Android 4.1.2—we'll give Asus the benefit of the doubt and assume the update will be available by the time the device launches). By itself it would be a fairly impressive high-end Android phone along the lines of other high-end Android phones we've been seeing lately.
Where the PadFone Infinity differs, of course, is in its tablet shell. I call it a shell because there's really not a lot in it—a 10.1" 1920x1200 display, a battery that can recharge and extend the phone's talk time, a front-facing 1MP camera, and some extra internal antennae. All of the heavy lifting is done by the phone—the tablet uses the same storage, internals, connectivity interfaces, and camera, and therein lies the appeal of the device. If you have issues keeping your phone and tablet in sync with one another, just fold them into the same device.
Depending on how you hold your tablet, the PadFone in tablet mode can be a bit uncomfortable—the back of the tablet is a nice, smooth metal, but there's a bulge in the center for the cradle where the phone is inserted that might get in your way if you hand reaches the center of your tablet to hold it. The phone does seem to fit pretty securely in the tablet-dock, though, and while there's no physical latch or anything that keeps the phone in place, we wouldn't be too worried about it falling out on accident.
There are two potential issues with the PadFone, which launches in Europe in April: the first, for many, will be its price tag of €999, or just over $1,300—roughly commensurate with what you'd pay for an unlocked iPhone and an iPad; that combination would include a whole lot of hardware that Asus simply doesn't have to pay for in the tablet part of the PadFone.
The second is the downside of having two devices in one—if you find one of the two to be in some way deficient, you've got to replace both to get something new. There are probably people for whom this model make sense, surely, but at least for my part I can say that I'd rather replace each on its own schedule.
As with the FonePad, we don't yet have information about US availability for the PadFone, but we'll keep our ears to the ground.
What's in a name?
We'd be remiss if we didn't say something about the names. While at first glance the FonePad name makes sense as a play on the existing PadFone brand, after some time spent writing and talking about them it's far too easy to get them confused—if you mention PadFone or FonePad to someone, it's a near-certainty that you'll have to clarify whether you're talking about the phone-tablet or the phone-and-tablet dock, since the person being spoken to is unlikely to know which you mean without additional context (and there's a chance that the speaker may be mixing them up anyway).
This will undoubtedly be a minor point for some, but the potential for confusion strikes us as high—staying with the existing PadFone name and tacking a "7" onto the end to refer to the screen size may have been a safer approach. In either case, Asus continues to put together interesting hardware—both of these products will undoubtedly serve niches rather than a mass market, but they should serve those niches well.
Microsoft is in talks to invest up to $3bn (£1.9bn) in the private equity buyout of personal computer maker Dell, according to a US report.
As the world's third largest PC manufacturer, Dell is one of the biggest distributors of Windowssoftware and its future is tightly bound with Microsoft's.
The software giant is in negotiations with the company's chief executive, Michael Dell, and buyout firm Silver Lake about helping finance a deal to acquire the company, currently valued at almost $23bn, according to the CNBC network.
Microsoft has yet to make headway against Apple and Google's Android operating system in the smartphone market, and sales of portable devices are beginning to stifle the PC market, threatening its core business. The group is said to be considering spending some of its $66bn cash reserves on an investment in Dell of between $1bn and $3bn, in a deal which could be announced by the end of the week. The commitment could take the form of a loan rather than an equity stake.
Global sales of PCs fell by 13m last year, the first drop since the dotcom crash produced a temporary dip in 2001. The software group has taken stakes in other companies in the past, including Apple and, more recently Facebook. Juliette Garside
A number of staff at UK studio Lionhead have his afternoon been told that their jobs are in danger.
It is hoped that at least some of those affected will be found new roles within the wider Microsoft Studios network. The exact number of staff affected remains unknown.
"Following the completion of Fable: The Journey, Lionhead Studios has begun work on its next projects," a statement released to MCV explains. "As is common in the games industry, a smaller headcount is needed as projects kick-off and ramp up as full-production gets underway.
"At this time a small number of positions have been identified as at risk of redundancy and the affected employees were notified today. We are working very closely with those people during this difficult time, to help them explore alternative opportunities within Microsoft – including new roles at Microsoft Studios which is growing in the UK and actively hiring across all locations, including Lionhead, Rare, Soho Productions and our recently announced new studio in London.
"There is a thoughtful and fair consultation process for all employees to ensure they have the best possible chance of finding a role inside Microsoft Studios. We are working closely with the affected employees during this difficult time, and helping them to explore opportunities.
"We do not have an exact number to share but by the end of 2012 these reductions will account for less than 10 per cent of the overall headcount at Lionhead. More importantly, we expect to add over 100 people to Microsoft Studios in the UK over the course of the year to June 2013."
Microsoft last month announced the formation of a brand new Soho-based development studio in London. It's being headed up by former Rare production director Lee Schuneman.
Whether Santa brought you a new Kindle Fire HD or your old one just needs the dust blown off, holiday down time is the perfect chance to side-load several of Google's apps onto your Amazon tablet without rooting the device. As you may know, the Kindle Fire tablets do not come with the standard suite of Google applications made available to other Android tablets. That can be a bit of a bummer for users who are particularly attached to their Google apps.
Reddit user InnerManRaptor came forward to save the day, posting a step-by-step account on how to side-load Google apps onto the Kindle Fire HD. It includes fiddling with the Kindle's settings to make side-loading possible, then downloading the APK (Android Package File) files onto your desktop and carefully transferring them over to the device. The APK includes Currents, Maps, Street View, Google Talk, YouTube, and Gmail, though not all the apps work perfectly. While YouTube, Gmail, and Currents work well, Google Maps cannot pinpoint the Kindle Fire HD's location from Wi-Fi as it would on a standard Android device. Additionally, these apps are not the same versions featured with the latest iterations of Android Ice Cream Sandwich and Jelly Bean. Still, if you ache for the ability to access your Google accounts on your Kindle tablet device, this is a worthy middle-ground without having to trade in the tablet for a Nexus device.
More information about side-loading Google applications on to a Kindle Fire HD is available in the intrepid XDA Developers forums. If you're also interested in Google Play functionality on your Kindle Fire HD, the folks at Android Authority have a helpful how-to on tweaking the System folder in order to get the Play store working on the 7-inch Fire.
Disclaimer: As always, use caution before downloading files from an unknown source.
Microsoft's Windows 8 platform certainly has its fair share of detractors, but perhaps the most vocal so far has been internet entrepreneur and MIT processor Phillip Greenspun who recently likened the OS to a 'dog's breakfast.'
Greenspun panned almost every aspect of Microsoft's new software, noting that Microsoft had four years to study Android and more than five to examine iOS, but still couldn't build a usable tablet experience, reports BGR.
Clearly not impressed by what Microsoft has come to the table with, Greenspun even went as far as saying that Windows 8 would be the perfect Christmas gift for somebody that you hate.
'The only device that I can remember being as confused by is the BlackBerry PlayBook,' added Greenspun on his blog.
'Suppose that you are an expert user of Windows NT/XP/Vista/7, an expert user of an iPad, and an expert user of an Android phone… you will have no idea how to use Windows 8.'
According to recent stats, Microsoft will sell less than 1 million Surface RT tablets this year. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said sales had been 'modest' but this is still an exceptionally low-figure.
Nonetheless, Microsoft has confirmed that Windows 8 has been installed 40 million times since its release, which isn't too bad at all.
Personally speaking, I don't mind Windows 8 having used it for a good couple of months on my main PC at home. Yes it does have its nuances but they're nothing compared to Windows RT, the ARM-specific version of Windows 8 that's about as useful as a one-legged dog.
So, are there any upsides to using Windows 8 in Greenspun's view?
Yep, just one: 'some of the supplied apps [notably Bing Finance] are wonderful.'
