Tech Industry

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=quI2I8wLPdc&w=640&h=385]

Motorola has just posted their teaser video for their upcoming Android powered tablet. The teaser is quite interesting, going through the different types of tablets in history and noting the pros and cons of each. They bust down on the Galaxy Tab by calling its Android OS a phone operating system and what they say about the iPad is a bit confusing. If they were following the setup of the rest of the commercial they praised the iPad for being a “giant iPhone” but they also bash it by saying it’s “just a giant iPhone.” Make up your mind, Motorola.

As Engadget notes Motorola’s upcoming tablet will surely be running Android Honeycomb if the buzzing bee at the end of the teaser is any indication. Android master Andy Rubin recently showed off a prototype Motorola tablet running Honeycomb and said its set for next year. Oh, by next year he meant CES.

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Yet more fascinating action in the smartphone space with an unholy rumored combination between Nokia and Microsoft set to potentially change the structure of the market.

What’s happening?
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Electronic Arts set off an iApp price war last week when it discounted many of its games to just $0.99, sparking the release of Tap Tap Revenge 4 for free and a big games sale from other iOS heavyweight, Namco.

All the app makers are engaged in a stiff fight to populate the iTunes App Store top ten lists in time for Christmas — after all, Apple’s lists won’t be updated from December 23, so grabbing a good slot on those lists now is likely to translate into great sales opportunities as all those new iPads hit the store.
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Merry Christmas iPhone 4 lovers with Radio Shack’s impressive $149 price tag on the 16GB model now undercut by Sam’s Club, which plans to offer the device on AT&T for just $147 (plus 2-year contract).
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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bb3qZHQVe8&w=640&h=385]

Pretty darn good idea. via AutoBlog

These iPad adapters are starting to look like mini docking stations.  Earlier this week, we showed you a simple $25 3-in-1 adapter that simply pales next to this latest adapter which has USB, mini USB, SD, MicroSD, and a AV-Out port with an included RCA-jack adapter (below).  You simply need to buy at least 50 of them an arrange for shipping from China.  Again via MICGadget.
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COMPUTERWORLD: As per usual, Apple seems set to dominate CES once again next year, even though it won’t actually attend the show. And that’s despite a keynote speech from Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer. Here’s why Apple’s taking over.

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Research In Motion’s in the news today: not only is its iPad-killing PlayBook delayed until around the time iPad 2.0 is expected to ship, but Mac users with a BlackBerry can now download the latest desktop connection kit. Meanwhile the company’s financial results were alright but nothing supercalifragilistic.

By the numbers then:
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In case you’ve any doubt left, you can forget the notion of AMOLED screens in the next-generation iPad, there simply aren’t enough components to go round — indeed, Apple competitors who made the leap to the tech are already facing steep component shortages.

There’s an inevitability about all this. Even as Apple competitors attempt to leapfrog iOS devices by fielding more advanced technologies in their gadgets, they forget the need to serve mass market products up in reliable quantity.
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The figures are in and they confirm that iTunes remains the biggest US digital music retailer, with Amazon failing to grab too much of Apple’s digital music heartland.

NPD tells us AAPL’s iTunes took 66.2% of the digital music market in the third quarter of this year – that’s up from 63.2% in Q3 2009.  Easy still beats free.
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Forget Flash, really, forget it. I don’t care how much more efficient it is at last becoming now it faces much-needed competition — I do however care that US iPad users can now download Vevo HD, a beautiful app offering you access to all 25,000 videos in Vevo’s huge catalog — no Flash required.

“The app has a few special features created especially for the iPad, including our favorite one, Music Maps, which gives you a window into what videos people are watching in your neighborhood and around the world,” the company says on its website.
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Apple has lost one of its leading iTunes execs to UK major, EMI, which has announced that Alex Luke – content lead for Apple’s iTunes – has been appointed to a senior A&R position at EMI Music’s Capitol & Virgin Label Group.

During his seven years at iTunes, Luke has been responsible for the digital platform’s music programming, music content acquisition, and artist and industry relationships.
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COMPUTERWORLD: Apple is making Macs more touch-friendly when touch makes sense. Magic Trackpad is the touch interface for desktops, but how long will it be until we see the Mac keyboard replaced by a touch-sensitive, intelligent device? What would it do?

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-4mYehiNpI&w=640&h=505]

Or so they say anyway. It probably runs Android. via NowhereElse.fr.
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Apple  generates more column inches of coverage than any other firm on the planet. Love or loathe, millions worldwide are fascinated by what happens in Cupertino — and that’s probably why the company is now one of the biggest in the world dominating the smartphone and tablet industries.

What follows are some of the most essential titles any Apple watcher should read and own if they really want to build up their understanding of the company.

We’ve been watching Apple at work and play for a long, long time. We consider these to be the key titles to help boost understanding of the history and philosophy of the company.

We know that Mac website editors across the planet have a few books forever in the shelf behind their desk, and we figured it would be of some interest if told you which books they are.

So, whether it’s to satisfy your own curiousity, or for a Christmas or birthday present for an Apple fan, we think you really can’t go wrong with any one or all of these titles. Read on…

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Some interesting survey results from Changewave today: While the iPad is mopping up in the enterprise today (satisfaction levels above) , it looks like next quarter is going to be even more lucrative for Apple, who have 80% of the market already..

A 1st Quarter Explosion in Corporate Tablet Demand

While 7% of business respondents say their company currently provide employees with tablet devices, an astonishing 14% of businesses report their company will be buying Tablets in 1st Quarter 2011.

In other words, the total number of companies making use of tablet devices is set to double in just the next three months – an explosive surge in demand going forward.

This breaks down into the following usage categories…
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As expected, Apple has updated its iBooks app to version 1.2. The new version has just made its quiet debut on the AAPL servers.

What’s new?

Yep, as we exclusively revealed hereand here: better organization and printing and emailing of PDF’s. And that’s only part of the mix.
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Google is about to change the music economy, preparing to hand over huge amounts of cash to win rights to offer the music locker service it has been trying to build for Google Music.  However, confused internal politics and music licensing complexity mean Google, just like Spotify and Apple, isn’t set to launch its service before the end of the year.
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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVeKbsFL_tM&w=670&h=527]

While we wait for iTunes in the cloud, we may as well begin using an iTunes in the cloud service that isn’t from Apple, a free service for iPhones from mSpot, the app for which is now available via the iTunes App Store.

What’s it do? Essentially it is like a music locker service to which you upload your music in order to then enjoy streaming access to that music via your mSpot app.
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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=geK7geL3I40&w=640&h=390]
Here’s a demo showing a 10X reduction in CPU usage:

The video is from November but Adobe’s John Nack reports that Flash video sites across the web are updating their content to be optimized for the new version of Flash which purports to deliver video with 1/10th the CPU utilization of the current Flash plug-in.  YouTube, the biggie, is on board.  The original Flash 10.2 beta was released two weeks ago.

Good news, though: the new Flash Player 10.2 (download the beta) offers a new, video-playback-optimized mode called Stage Video.  Building on top of the GPU acceleration added earlier this year, Stage Video can leverage complete hardware acceleration of the video rendering pipeline, from video decoding to scaling/blitting, enabling best-in-class playback performance. Stage Video can dramatically decrease processor usage and enables higher frame rates, reduced memory usage, and greater pixel fidelity and quality.

Stage Video requires Flash developers to update the code in video players, so simply updating to the new player won’t automatically improve CPU usage on all sites, but YouTube has already updates its player & others will follow. If you’re a Flash developer and want to start experimenting, check out this tutorial from Lee Brimelow.

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Here’s an iPad clone from China, a full 9.7-inch affair based on the Freescale iMX515 hardware. It is powered by a 800MHz ARM Cortex A8 processor, 512MB DDRII memory and 4GB Flash. Oh yes, and it is Android-powred with 3G, Wi-Fi and a camera. Cost? Around $277 (in China).  See?  Same Same
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