Getting an iPhone in China has always been hard. For most of its life-cycle, the phone has been unavailable in the Mainland except through the grey market. Now that Apple is allowed to sell units in Shenzhen, however, it’s gotten amazingly strict on sales per-person. → Read More
AT&T announced earlier this week that it start pushing its spate of Windows Phones starting this Friday, and now rival carrier Verizon Wireless has come out with an announcement of its own.
Apparently, VZW plans to begin taking pre-orders for the HTC Windows Phone 8X and the slightly chubby Nokia Lumia 822 starting at 1AM Eastern tomorrow, but the carrier has chosen to leave out a few key… → Read More
Apple had a couple of new patent applications published by the USPTO today (spotted by AppleInsider), including one detailing how internal fans could be made to fit mobile devices to help dissipate heat, and another for headphones that become speakers for when listening goes from private to shared scenarios, which even describes how in-ear models could work that way. The patent for internal fans… → Read More
U.K.-based distance learning university, the Open University, is developing a series of apps to deliver undergraduate course materials to students’ smartphones and tablet devices, starting next year. The OUAnywhere app will allow undergraduates to access their main course materials through their handheld devices, along with the audio and visual content the OU produces to support studies. → Read More
As if there wasn’t enough going on in the mobile payments space already, what with NFC, dongles, wallets and cloud apps. Now payments company MasterCard and ING Group have teamed up on a payment trial that mixes mobile and Internet payments to support shopping scenarios involving a mix of devices. One scenario involves using a mobile device to purchase an item the shopper is looking at on their PC… → Read More
Apple is hoping to add Samsung’s latest tablet, the Galaxy Note 10.1, and Android 4.1 Jelly Bean to a list of product it claims infringe its patents in an existing court case in California, Bloomberg reports. The arguments supporting these additions were made in federal court in San Jose today, and follow Samsung’s expressed intent to add the iPhone 5 its own infringement claims. → Read More
In 1987, as the first reduced instruction set computing (RISC) ARM chips hit the scene, programmers at Acorn Computers created RISC OS, a simple, ‘co-operatively multi-tasked’ OS designed for small computing environments. While it’s no Linux, it’s still a great way to get to know RISC computing and, more important, it boots fast and has a working GUI. Now, according to a post on Rasberrypi.org… → Read More
Well, there we have it: after vaguely pointing to a November launch window for its first batch of Windows Phone 8 handsets, AT&T has finally decided to get a bit more specific.
Nokia’s long-awaited Lumia 820 and 920 will both launch on November 9 (that’s this Friday, in case you were curious), with pre-orders for the handsets beginning tomorrow. → Read More
Apple was granted a couple of interesting patents today (spotted by AppleInsider), including one for multitouch surfaces embedded in devices that appear and disappear as needed, as well as a new cooling apparatus design that can redirect air to where it’s needed most within a device. One is just a twist on tech Apple already uses, and the other is something that could address warm lap issues… → Read More
The unstoppable rise of smartphones and tablets will see 1.2 billion of the devices being bought worldwide next year, analyst Gartner is predicting. It also forecasts sales of 821 million of the smart devices this year — accounting for 70 percent of total devices sold in 2012. Tablet sales to businesses are also set to grow substantially, says the analyst. → Read More
Apple is reportedly looking into ways to replace its Intel processors in Macs with new chips based on the designs it uses for its iOS-based devices. The company has previously been rumored to be contemplating such a move, but Bloomberg reports today that Apple’s engineers are now more confident in their underlying chip designs and their ability to power Mac desktops and notebooks. → Read More
Apple has just announced that the iPad mini and 4th generation iPad, both of which debuted on October 23 in San Francisco, have just topped 3 million sales in 3 days. The smaller, lighter tablet had been rumored for years, yet its arrival was somewhat overshadowed by Hurricane Sandy devastating the North East. And the 4th gen iPad came as a bit of a surprise, though it was also rumored prior to… → Read More
Google unveiled a new line of Nexus devices in a range of shapes and sizes, from the Nexus 4 smartphone to the Nexus 10 tablet, and some aspects of the product launch proved confusing. Why build a smartphone with modern specs across the board, and then leave out LTE connectivity? Or why push improved Nexus tablet hardware, when there’s a surprising lack of apps designed for those screens? → Read More
Apple’s lead in the tablet market took its first serious dent in Q3, according to estimates from analyst IDC. Apple’s dominant share of the market shrunk in the third quarter of this year, dropping to 50.4 percent in Q3 this year, while Samsung and Amazon both grew their share: Samsung took 18.4 percent of the market in Q3, while Amazon grew to 9 percent in Q3. → Read More
Editor’s note: Ross Rubin is principal analyst at Reticle Research and writer for Engadget. Each column will look at crowdfunded products that have either met or missed their funding goals.
The iPad mini stole the show at Apple’s far-flung October 23rd product introduction, creating a more compelling alternative to the iPad 2 while taking a backseat to the muscled-up fourth-generation… → Read More
One thing that’s become apparent about the iPad mini during my past few days with it is just how well it fills the role of a second screen device. The iPhone and the iPad both have their merits as a companion while lounging around and watching TV, but the iPad mini hits the sweet spot of portability, power and connectivity for that use case. → Read More
Apple had to tone down the attitude in a re-issued “apology” it published today to its U.K. website after losing an appeal in a patent infringement case against Samsung. A U.K. judge smacked down its previous apology for being “incorrect” and “untrue” on Thursday. Above is the pared-down version that appears in a link at the bottom of the company’s U.K. homepage. → Read More
The iPad mini may have a display that’s being singled out in most reviews as below Apple’s recent standards, but a look under the microscope by Repair Labs affirms what I’ve been noticing in person: while the mini definitely doesn’t offer the same kind of quality as an iPad with Retina Display (3rd or 4th gen), its screen is a big step up from the 2nd-generation iPad. → Read More
Apple’s 4th generation iPad boasts a faster processor, the new A6X chip, which makes it twice as fast as the 3rd generation iPad, based on benchmark tests, in terms of raw processing power and graphics. That sounds good, but what does it mean in practice? Well, there’s a noticeable boost all around, but we’ve got a hands-on video with three scenarios where you can see the differences. → Read More
Originally a Kickstarter project, Ubi is a ubiquitous computing device. Designed to plug into your wall and remain dormant until you talk to it, this little computer can perform searches, wake you up, and even sense environmental conditions in every room. → Read More
The iPad mini hit store shelves today, and I got the chance to get one for myself. The device is a terrific consumer tablet, but it has a lot of potential to be an even more impressive player in retail, restaurant and industrial applications. The iPad mini’s big brother has done a good job of making headway in businesses and customer service, but the iPad mini has a strong chance to help drive… → Read More
Whelp, there you go. The MS Surface is one of Oprah’s favorite things, thus winning the oh-so-important housewives demographic. But no iPad mini. She said “The Surface, Microsoft’s first tablet, feels like a Mercedes-Benz to me, people!” → Read More
It seems like ages since Google and HTC first kicked off the Nexus experiment (it was 2010, but who’s counting?). Now here we are, over two years later, and we’re on our fourth Nexus smartphone. There’s no question that the hardware has gotten progressively better, but these past few months have also seen some notable changes in the Nexus brand itself.
With devices like the Nexus 7 picking… → Read More
This week, Google announced a new lineup of devices that would be running its Android OS, Jelly Bean version 4.2. Those new devices are a phone and a new 10-inch tablet, called the Nexus 10. I’ve had a chance to play with both devices, specifically the Nexus 10, and I actually surprised myself with how the device has fit into my daily routine. → Read More
The iPad mini officially went on sale today, and the response at physical retail stores has been mixed. Some areas are seeing decent-sized lines, according to Reuters this morning, including Tokyo and Seoul Apple Stores with crowds of 100 or more, but overall, the news organization notes that crowds are smaller than they have been in the past for other launches. → Read More
Apple has pulled down a legal statement posted on its website after it lost an appeal in a U.K. court against a ruling that Samsung’s Galaxy Tab tablets do not infringe the design of the iPad. It had been ordered to acknowledge the ruling in a public post. However yesterday, at another court hearing, Apple was criticized for adding erroneous information to the statement and ordered to remove it. → Read More
Turns out there are an awful lot of phablet fans out there. More than three million, in fact, have lined up to cram Samsung’s latest smartphone-cum-tablet, the Galaxy Note II, in their oversized pockets. It took 37 days for the device to pass three million sales. The Korean mobile maker confirmed these figures to AP. → Read More
As a scientist practicing actual, bona fide science, I have often found myself in need of immediate g-force readings or barometric pressure analyses for my scientific problems. Whereas before I had to use my sextant and trident and thermowhozzit, I can instead use the Node. → Read More
The story sounded far-fetched: OLPC researchers, working with a team of technicians in Ethiopia, created a special “hut” covered in solar panels where the children of a few distant towns could go to recharge some toys they were given. The toys were boxed Motorola Xoom tablets and every child between the age of four and eight got one. The researchers were expecting the children to play with the… → Read More
The U.S. Government will now be looking into solutions for provisioning iOS and Android devices in addition to those featuring RIM’s BlackBerry OS, according to a new report from Reuters. That means RIM will no longer have the exclusive contract for smartphone devices at the U.S. Defense Department, though it will remain another option. → Read More
