Tablet knockoffs running rampant

Shoppers may need to be careful when hunting for a deal on a tablet online, as they are at risk of picking up a knockoff, a new report says.

San Francisco-based enterprise brand protection company MarkMonitor today released results from its latest Brandjacking Index, a report that looks at how brands being "abused" online. It found more than 23,000 listings "for clones, suspected counterfeits, or gray market" tablet computers in a single day earlier this year.

The firm says it spent a day in July tracking the brands of five tablet makers in 23 online stores to get data for the study. Depicted in some of the example photos from the report--but not mentioned by name--are devices like Apple's iPad and the Motorola Xoom.

"We identified 15 distinct manufacturers of clone tablets and more than 16,000 listings representing those products on business-to-consumer and business-to-business sites," the report reads. "The majority of these clones, or 75 percent, are located in and shipped from Asia, which is also not surprising, given Asian manufacturing capacity."

The report goes on to say that most of these clone tablets are actually being listed for sale outside of the Asia region. That breaks down to 45 percent of the online clone listings being posted in Europe, versus 26 percent in North and South America.

The news comes just ahead of the holiday shopping season, which kicks off in earnest later this month. Some sites, including Amazon.com have already launched special sales sites to celebrate "Black Friday," the day after Thanksgiving Day in the United States.

"As we head into the holiday shopping season, consumers should beware these 'brand impersonators' who are hidden in plain sight, while brands need to be extra vigilant in foiling those who seek to profit at their expense," Frederick Felman, MarkMonitor's chief marketing officer, said in a statement.

Source:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-27076_3-20128602-248/tablet-knockoffs-running-rampant-brand-firm-says/?tag=mncol;subStories

iPhone 4S hitting 15 more countries on November 11

The iPhone 4S will soon be traveling further 'round the world.

Apple said today that its newest iPhone will be available in 15 additional countries starting Friday, November 11. Consumers waiting for the new phone will be able to buy one in Albania, Armenia, Bulgaria, El Salvador, Greece, Guatemala, Hong Kong, Malta, Montenegro, New Zealand, Panama, Poland, Portugal, Romania, and South Korea.

Preorders in most of those countries will kick off this Friday. But Apple noted that preorders would not be an option in Albania, El Salvador, Guatemala, Malta, Montenegro, or Panama.

Launched on October 14, the iPhone 4S is currently selling across 29 countries and will be available in a total of 70 countries by the end of the year. In its opening weekend, Apple witnessed sales of 4 million units.

Available in black or white, the iPhone 4S sells in the U.S. for $199 for the 16GB model, $299 for the 32GB model, and $399 for the new 64GB model with a two-year contract. The new phone is also the first iPhone to be available from three major U.S.

Source:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-20128346-37/iphone-4s-hitting-15-more-countries-on-november-11/?tag=mncol;posts

Sony's smartphone play: Too little, too late

The Japanese consumer electronics giant is ending its 10-year marriage with network-equipment provider Ericsson, spending $1.47 billion to buy out Ericsson's stake in Sony Ericsson, their mobile devices joint venture.
Sony's hope: that it can move faster alone to revive what was once a healthy business through a tighter integration with its other products and media content.
While many analysts agree Sony's takeover of the business is a positive, they are skeptical that it can actually turn the handset business around. Over the past few years, Sony Ericsson has ceded a significant amount of market share to competitors. It was slow to pounce on the smartphone trend, and even now stands as a second-tier Android player. Its relationship with carriers in the major markets (read: the U.S.) remains weak.

"It's not clear to me that Sony has the juice or the positioning to make a comeback now," said Roger Kay, an analyst at Endpoint Technologies.

Sony Ericsson's rapid decline in the mobile arena is just the latest example of the pitfalls to which joint ventures are often heir. The joint venture is book-ended with struggles, often due to conflicting interests and the frequently halfhearted commitment of its parents.

Once one of the five largest handset vendors in the world by shipments, Sony Ericsson has largely fallen off the radar. In the smartphone business, its share lags far behind its rivals. In the second quarter, its global share of the smartphone market was 3.6 percent, according to Gartner.
In comparison, Apple's share was 18.2 percent, while top tier Android player Samsung owned 15.8 percent of the market. Early Android adopter HTC held 10.2 percent.

Source:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-20126597-94/sonys-smartphone-play-too-little-too-late/?tag=mncol;topStories

How Steve Jobs Drove Without License Plates

The multitude of mysteries revealed following the death of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs' death now includes one that puzzled car enthusiasts for years: How did Jobs get away with driving without a license plate? It was common knowledge that Jobs would park his Mercedes SL55 AMG in a handicapped spot at Apple's Cupertino, Calif., headquarters, with nothing to identify his vehicle other than the tiny barcode that usually rests behind the rear license plate. According to Walter Isaacson's new biography, Jobs wanted to avoid having a plate for privacy reasons; and yet when having a license-less silver Mercedes became a kind of trademark, Jobs kept motoring without one "because I don't."

For years, rumors swirled that Jobs had either won a special dispensation from California authorities or was just daring police to stop him. While the why remains somewhat cloudy, an interview by ITWire with a former Apple security executive reveals the real reason: a little-known loophole in California vehicle laws that gives owners up to six months to get plates for their vehicles.

According to Jon Callas, now chief technical officer of Entrust, Jobs would arrange with his vehicle leasing company to switch out his silver Mercedes every six months with a new, identical model — just another of the complicated and expensive ways Jobs thought differently.

Source:

http://autos.yahoo.com/news/latest-steve-jobs-mystery-revealed--how-he-drove-without-license-plates.html

Samsung attempt to keep iPhone 4S out of Italy rejected

Samsung's campaign to keep Apple's iPhone 4S from being sold in Europe has hit a roadblock, with an Italian judge reportedly denying the injunctive effort.

Italian news outlet Agenzia Giornalistica Italia (AGI) today reports that Milan judges denied a request from Samsung filed earlier this month to keep Apple's iPhone 4S from being sold in the country.

The decision came during a hearing on the complaint, which was filed just a day after Apple's latest iPhone was announced and accuses Apple of infringing on two of its patents related to wireless technology.

"Apple has continued to flagrantly violate our intellectual property rights and free ride on our technology," the company wrote in a blog post announcing the legal effort earlier this month. "We believe it is now necessary to take legal action to protect our innovation."

A Samsung Telecommunications America spokesman declined to comment on today's decision, and Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Samsung's two complaints, which were filed in France and Italy, take aim at Apple's use of Wideband Code Division Multiple Access standards, which Samsung holds patents for. "The infringed technology is essential to the reliable functioning of telecom networks and devices and Samsung believes that Apple's violation (is) too severe and that the iPhone 4S should be barred from sales," the company wrote at the time.

The spat is just a part of a larger battle between the two companies in courts around the world. The dispute was kicked off with a U.S. lawsuit filed by Apple against Samsung in April that said Samsung was violating its intellectual property in the design of its mobile devices, specifically the Galaxy series smartphones and tablets. Samsung later countersued against Apple, saying the company was infringing on multiple patents.

Source:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-20126155-37/judges-rejects-samsung-attempt-to-keep-iphone-4s-out-of-italy/

Nokia's new interface is seriously twisted

LONDON--Multitouch revolutionized user interfaces, and if Nokia researchers get their way, a mobile device that's sensitive to how it's being flexed could be the next revolution.

At the Nokia World show here, the Finnish mobile phone maker showed off its "Nokia kinetic device" with a flexible display. Gripped with two hands, it would scroll through music collections or photo albums when twisted. Bowing it inward or outward zoomed photos in and out or paused and played music, while tapping the corners panned through photos.

While it was a real computing device with a real OLED display, it's most definitely not a real product anyone could buy today. More firmly in the prototype category was a related flexible device that looked like a slim remote control; it could be controlled with a single hand.

Source:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-30685_3-20125870-264/flex-it-baby-nokias-new-interface-is-seriously-twisted/

Making thermostats sexy

It's hard to imagine making thermostats sexy, but if anyone could do it, it would be the "father of the iPod."

In 2008, amid renewed concerns about Steve Jobs' health, Fortune ranked the probable candidates to someday replace the famed Apple CEO. The first choice? Then COO and eventual successor Tim Cook. The second? Tony Fadell, chief of the iPod division and the man credited with the ideas that resulted in the creation of the iPod and its marriage with the iTunes Music Store.

Around that time, Fadell left Apple, his next move unknown, and since then, he's been in stealth mode. But today, he re-emerged, announcing Nest, a 100-person startup that's applying the design and user-experience DNA of Apple and many other top Silicon Valley firms to a humdrum home appliance that just happens to govern the largest share of American households' energy spending: the thermostat.

With its Learning Thermostat, Nest is going all in and telling the world that a ubiquitous but hard-to-master device that hasn't had a major redesign in decades is due for a shot of iPod and iPhone design magic. Fadell and his team think they've come up with an alternative that's easy to use and that learns from what we do. Along the way, the company thinks it could cut 20 percent to 30 percent off the average household's $1,000 or so in annual energy bills.

The new device is small and round and has a bright and simple digital screen and you jog the outer case left or right or push-click the front to make selections. Sound familiar? Plus it works hand in hand with an iOS--and soon an Android--app that lets users control the system from afar.

Source:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13772_3-20124057-52/ipod-creators-next-quest-making-thermostats-sexy/?tag=mncol

Apple wins 'slide to unlock' patent

Many of the patent applications and grants we come across involving Apple relate to theoretical products that may never see the light of day. Today, Apple has been granted a patent that covers one of the most basic (and copied) processes in iOS, slide to unlock.

Though Apple holds many patents pertaining to gestures, the slide-to-unlock gesture is both symbolically and practically the one that gets everything started. Here is the official wording from the United States Patent & Trademark Office, describing what other companies are now restricted from including in their touch-sensitive operating systems:

"The device is unlocked if contact with the display corresponds to a predefined gesture for unlocking the device. The device displays one or more unlock images with respect to which the predefined gesture is to be performed in order to unlock the device."

That's one way to say it. The easier way came from Jobs himself as he introduced the original iPhone in 2007, saying, "We wanted something you couldn't do by accident in your pocket. Just slide it across--BOOM."

Given the ongoing legal battles that Apple is facing with companies like Samsung over design stealing, another major patent win can only serve to strengthen Apple's position.

Should Apple go on the offensive with its new patent for slide-to-unlock or sit back and use it for legal-defense purposes? Let me know your thoughts in the comments!

Source:

http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-19512_7-20125417-233/apple-wins-slide-to-unlock-patent/?tag=mncol

iPhone, Android users worry about security

iOS and Android users don't seem to share the same views on much when it comes to the mobile space, but they both appear to have concerns about security threats to their devices. According to recent data from the NPD Group, users of both platforms are worried about having their credit card info stolen, device theft, hackers accessing personal information, harmful apps, and unwanted location tracking. Very few have chosen to do anything besides worry, however.

The breakdowns between iOS and Android users are similar for each security point, but overall, a lower percentage of iPhone owners expressed concern for most items than Android users. For example, 46 percent of Android owners and 38 percent of iPhone owners were worried about their credit card information being stolen. Similarly, 46 percent of Android owners and 37 percent of iPhone owners worried about hackers accessing personal information, and 43 percent of Android owners versus 37 percent of iPhone owners were worried about acquiring viruses or spyware.

Despite these slight differences, when averaged together, most of the numbers floated around the 40 percent mark (give or take) for most items in the list. NPD expressed concern, however, in the low number of users who had taken any kind of security measures—the firm said that more than 25 percent of all smartphone owners (35 percent of iPhone owners) had no idea how to acquire any kind of security software for their devices. And among those who did know but still had no security products installed, one quarter said they were too expensive.

Source:

http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2011/09/iphone-android-users-worry-about-security-but-dont-know-what-to-do.ars

Apple’s lower prices are all part of the plan

Something unexpected has happened at Apple, once known as the tech industry’s high-price leader,” Nick Wingfield reports for The New York Times. “Over the last several years it began beating rivals on price.”

“Apple’s new pricing strategy is a big change from the 1990s, when consumers regarded Apple as a producer of overpriced tech baubles, unable to compete effectively with its Macintosh family of computers against the far cheaper Windows PCs,” Wingfield reports. “But more recently, it began using its growing manufacturing scale and logistics prowess to deliver Apple products at far more aggressive prices, which in turn gave it more power to influence pricing industrywide.”

Wingfield reports, “Analysts and industry executives say Apple’s pricing is an overlooked part of its ability to find a large audience for those products beyond hard-core Apple fans.”

Source:

http://macdailynews.com/2011/10/24/apple%e2%80%99s-lower-prices-are-all-part-of-the-plan/

Microsoft signs Compal to Android-Chrome licensing deal

Microsoft announced today it had signed another hardware maker to a patent-protection deal, marking the milestone of having half the world's original design manufacturers on board with its Android-Chrome licensing effort.

China-based Compal Electronics will pay undisclosed royalties to the software giant for use of Google's Android and Chrome operating systems used in smartphones, tablet, and other consumer electronics, the company said.

Rather than going after Google for patent violations, Microsoft has targeted device makers, pressing them to license Microsoft's patents that it alleges Android and Chrome infringe upon. Earlier this month, Microsoft signed Quanta Computer to an Android licensing deal for both operating systems. In July, Microsoft reached a deal with another Taiwanese contract manufacturer, Wistron, over Chrome.

Microsoft has sued Barnes & Noble for violating patents that cover its Nook electronic reader, which runs on Android, and Motorola, alleging that several of the handset maker's Android devices infringe on Microsoft patents.

Source:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-10805_3-20124374-75/microsoft-signs-compal-to-android-chrome-licensing-deal/?tag=mncol

Steve Jobs’ bio on ‘60 minutes’

The official Steve Jobs biography is due out Monday. An interview with the author appeared Sunday on "60 Minutes," taking a look at the life of the Apple co-founder.

Apple co-founder Steve Jobs was already gravely ill with cancer when he asked author Walter Isaacson to write his biography. Jobs told Isaacson to write an honest book--about his failings and his strengths. In addition to more than 40 interviews with Jobs, the book is based on more than 100 interviews with friends, family, colleagues, and competitors. "He's not warm and fuzzy," Isaacson says.

When Steve Jobs returned to Apple in 1997, the company had just 5 percent of the computer market. When Jobs died of cancer 14 years later, Apple was the second most valuable company in the world. In his new biography of Jobs, Walter Isaacson writes that he revolutionized or re-imagined seven industries: personal computers, animated movies, music, telephones, tablet computing, digital publishing, and retail stores.

Source:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-20124431-37/60-minutes-on-steve-jobs-hear-icons-last-pitch/?tag=mncol;topStories

Siri poised to take Apple into search

Apple's virtual personal assistant, Siri, has led to an avalanche of buzz. Siri's ability to interpret natural language--something that other voice recognition systems just don't yet do--has won plenty of praise. And her sassy personality--yes, she seems to have a personality--has created quite a few fans.

Yet entertainment value aside, Siri is serious business; and depending on how Apple plays it, Siri gives Apple a big opportunity to go after Google's core business of search. That, at least, is the opinion of Gary Morgenthaler, a partner at the venture capital firm Morgenthaler Ventures in Menlo Park, Calif. Morgenthaler was the first investor in Siri, sat on its board until it sold to Apple in April 2010, and was on the board of voice-recognition company Nuance Communications, which provides the underlying technology for Siri.

Source:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-20123265-37/look-out-google-siri-is-poised-to-take-apple-into-search-q-a/

Your phone is no assistant

You and your smartphone may be inseparable, but that doesn't mean you ought to be best friends.

That's the essential message from Andy Rubin, Google's Android chief, who spoke at the AsiaD conference this week. Not so coincidentally, he said this just days after the launch of the iPhone 4S, a chief feature of which is Siri, a voice-activated feature that Apple is billing as a "personal assistant."

"I don't believe that your phone should be an assistant," Rubin said in an interview, as reported by AllThingsD.

Rather, he said, a telephonic gadget is a tool: "You shouldn't be communicating with the phone; you should be communicating with somebody on the other side of the phone."

Apple's Siri has been the object of great fascination for many in the short time since it burst onto the scene. People have used it to sing duets, to muse on the meaning of life, and to break into a locked iPhone 4S. They've speculated about its (her) personality and whether it will ruin our civil society.

Source:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-20123124-94/googles-rubin-your-phone-is-no-assistant/?tag=mncol

Capturing Living Pictures: Lytro’s Light Field Camera

Shooting an image in proper focus is a challenge for most budding photographers. Lytro’s revolutionary light field camera, which was officially unveiled today, aims to solve all the pain and heartache.

The Lytro camera is a light-field, or plenoptic, camera. An array of micro-lenses sits over the camera’s sensor, capturing all the light in the scene being photographed (11 million rays of light, to be precise). The Lytro then saves your image in a proprietary file format to deliver a “living picture” that you can manipulate on your computer, much like a raw file. By manipulating key attributes, you can effectively change the focus of the image. That’s right: After the image has been taken.

“There’s something about light field photography that’s just magical,” Lytro founder Ren Ng said in a previous interview with Wired.com. “It very much is photography as we’ve known it. It’s what we’ve always seen through cameras — we just had to fix it.”

Lytro was founded in 2006, but we first got a peep at its camera and the living pictures it produces in late June.

Source:

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/10/lytro-camera/lytro-red-hot_photo-credit-lytro/

Bad Siri! She'll let anyone use a locked iPhone 4S

The voice-activated feature on the new iPhone 4S will let anyone use the phone to send e-mails and text messages and make calls even if it is passcode locked, Macworld has reported.

Try it. Grab a friend's locked iPhone 4S, press the button and ask Siri to do something. I was able to send a text message, make a call and send an e-mail, all without knowing my friend's passcode. Another colleague confirmed that she could get an address and a phone number out of the phone and even see the calendar.

There is an easy fix for this situation, which was reported on by Macworld on Friday, followed by security firm Sophos today. In the Passcode Lock settings, switch Siri to "Off" (see below). This lets you continue to use the feature once your iPhone is unlocked, but keeps users from accessing these features when security is enabled.

To be clear, the phone is still locked in the sense that someone can't just grab it and make calls to any phone number by dialing. The users Siri lets in aren't able to launch apps, either. We also weren't able to send an e-mail to an address that wasn't in the contact list or to find other data for people who weren't already in the contact list.

Source:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-20121897-37/iphone-4s-users-seeing-yellowish-screen-tint/?tag=mncol

iPhone 4S users seeing yellowish screen tint

Some new iPhone 4S owners are saying that their screens display a yellowish tint, prompting a few of them to dub the alleged defect "yellowgate."
Posting messages at the Apple Support Forum, several of the users say that the screen looks washed out and that the whites look more yellow, especially when compared with the iPhone 4. Some say the issue is specific to the black iPhone 4S, noting that the display in the white version looks fine.

As a possible explanation, a couple of commenters said they believe the yellowish display is the result of the glue used to put the screens together not having fully cured or hardened. One poster noticed the same problem with the iPhone 4 last year and said it took about two weeks for the yellow tint to disappear.

However, a couple of other users countered the glue argument by pointing out that the screen appears washed out, which wouldn't necessarily be caused by the glue not having hardened.
Summing up the issue, one person wrote that "my 4S screen is less contrasty, and the whites are more yellow (beyond 'warm') compared to my iPhone 4 screen. The colors are less vibrant, and some are pretty washed out. I've also noticed that the screen is more directional than the 4 screen, and in some viewing angles it's more yellow, and in others it's more contrasty. I'm really hoping this is a glue issue, which could improve. I don't think I'll be able to get used to this."

Source:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-20121897-37/iphone-4s-users-seeing-yellowish-screen-tint/?tag=mncol

Motorola announces Droid Razr

Motorola has officially announced the Droid Razr, which combines the power of the Droid branding with the iconic slimness of the Razr. Motorola says it is 7.1mm thin and is built out of Kevlar fiber and Corning Gorilla Glass, both of which contribute to the device's durability and scratch resistance. The Droid Razr also claims it has a water-repellent nanocoating.

As was leaked yesterday, the Droid Razr has a dual-core 1.2GHz processor along with support for Verizon Wireless 4G LTE. This makes it the second Verizon phone to have both these highly coveted specs--the Droid Bionic was the first. It also has a 4.3-inch Super AMOLED Advanced display with qHD resolution, and the company boasts that it's the first smartphone that is capable of streaming Netflix content in HD.

It ships with Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread, 1GB of RAM, an 8-megapixel rear camera with 1080p HD video capture and image stabilization, a front-facing HD camera for video chat, 4G LTE mobile ho tspot, and remote wipe, pin lock, and government grade encryption for enterprise minded customers. The Droid Razr is one of a few phones to ship with Bluetooth 4.0, which heretofore has only been on the iPhone 4S and the Nokia N9. It has 32GB of memory--16GB on board and a preinstalled 16GB microSD card. Other features include Quickoffice for documents, Motocast for streaming or downloading media from the PC to the phone, a Smart Actions app that automates tasks and optimizes battery efficiency, and of course the Webtop application that turns the phone into a portable PC by docking it into a Lapdock 100 or HD Station.

The Motorola Droid Razr will be available for $299.99 in early November after a new two-year service agreement with Verizon Wireless. You can start to preorder the phone on October 27.

Source:

http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-19736_7-20122006-251/motorola-announces-droid-razr/?tag=mncol

iPhone 4S: Available in-store 'by reservation only'

The iPhone 4S is now available to retail-store customers "by reservation only," an indication that the hot-selling phone is likely in short supply. Apple has asked would-be buyers to use a reservation system to request a unit the night before before heading to the company's retail stores.

The new system, picked up by MacRumors earlier today, lets buyers pick out one of Apple's 18 iPhone 4S variants, then request that the company holds the unit so they can come in to complete the purchase. The system doesn't open up each day until 9 p.m. Pacific time, with in-store pickup available the following day.

Apple employed a reservation system from the get go with last year's iPhone 4 and iPad launches. In the iPhone 4's case, that it resulted in a launch with multiple lines, whereas with the 4S launch last Friday, there was just one line and no reservations offered. With this year's iPad 2 launch, Apple moved to a similar reservation system shortly after units became scarce, suggesting the same thing's now going on with the company's new phone

Source:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-27076_3-20121544-248/iphone-4s-available-in-store-by-reservation-only/

RIM apps to placate for outage

Research In Motion is turning to its BlackBerry App World to try to make things right with customers who were affected by last week's BlackBerry service outage.

According to the company, BlackBerry owners will soon be able to download over $100 in free "premium" applications, which will be available through the end of the year. The applications include Sims 3, iSpeech Translator Pro, and Shazam Encore, among others. Enterprise users will also be given one month of free technical support from RIM.

In a statement, RIM said that the free apps are a token of its appreciation for customer patience.

"We are grateful to our loyal BlackBerry customers for their patience," RIM co-CEO Mike Lazaridis said in a statement today. "We have apologized to our customers and we will work tirelessly to restore their confidence. We are taking immediate and aggressive steps to help prevent something like this from happening again."

Source:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13506_3-20121261-17/blackberry-freebie-rim-apps-to-placate-for-outage/?tag=mncol