Nexus 10 detailed as “highest resolution on the planet” tablet

This morning Google has gone through with announcing their full set of devices and software even without the accompanying event – hitting it all off with the Nexus 10, a tablet with a rather sharp display. This device has a 10.1-inch display with 2560 x 1600 pixel resolution (300ppi by Google’s count) and a battery they say will last 500 hours on standby – or 9 hours playing video. This unit works with a front-facing set of stereo speakers not unlike the Galaxy Note 10.1 or Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 and is indeed made by Samsung.


This device is what Google calls the “first truly sharable tablet” as its using Android 4.2 which works with multiple users that can be switched from the lockscreen. Each user has his or her own email, apps, bookmarks, and settings. Your own home screens, music, and gaming scores, too! This unit will be appearing on the 13th of November for a set of different prices depending on the internal storage in the USA, UK, Australia, France Germany, Spain, Canada and Japan.

Also note that the Nexus 10 has a PLS display – that meaning plane-to-line switching. It’s both absolutely bright and sharp as a tac. We’ll certainly be getting more hands-on time with this device as well as the Nexus 4 and its wireless charger soon. Google will have this device ready for the wi-fi seeking market first, then 4G LTE sooner than later – no word on exactly when quite yet!

Prices will be $399 for the 16GB version and $499 for the 32GB version, and inside with the newest version of Jelly Bean (that being essentially Jelly Bean+,) it would appear that Google has created another rather interesting value proposal, right alongside the Nexus 7 – also updated in price and specifications today – and the Nexus 4. Stay tuned for more via our Android portal! (Update: UK pricing is £319 for the 16GB model and £389 for the 32GB)

iPad Mini’s Initial Stock Gets Sold Out!

When Apple launched the iPad mini alongside many other products, many were not sure how well the iPad would do. Initially it seemed that the iPad mini would cannibalize it’s competitors but when Apple announced the price, it was a shocker. The iPad mini’s price was a staggering $329. But it seems it is doing well, as the iPad mini’s initial stock has been sold out!

iPad Mini Sold

iPad mini pre orders have been sold out. This previous Friday iPad mini was available for pre-order and after 2 days the initial stock has been sold out. This is good news for Apple, right? Well it is but we simply can not judge on how well it is doing by the initial pre-order.
People’s first reaction regarding the smaller tablet from Apple was that it is a good device but with a heft price tag. To an extend this is true but if you compare the device against its competitors it kind of falls short in many categories.

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iPad mini vs kindle fire HD vs Nexus 7

The entire iPad mini models have not been sold out. Actually the 16GB version of the iPad mini has been sold out, and that too after two days. This is well below Apple’s standard as they are normally sell out within some hours. But you have to give credit to Apple regarding selling out the 16GB version of the iPad mini.
Also we do not know how many were in Apple’ inventory so to get the idea of how many iPad mini’s have been sold thus far. We will have to wait until we get the official statement from Apple.
If you are going to buy an iPad mini you will now have to wait two more weeks.

Google Nexus 10 leaks: Android 4.2, Exynos 5250 (1.7GHz), 2,560 x 1,600 resolution

Unless we're looking at one of the most elaborately photographed fakes in the world, this is the Nexus 10. With the Nexus 7 apparently going over quite well at just $199, it was only ever a matter of time before the Nexus family expanded to house a 10-incher. With Google's own Vic Gundotra posting images from a unit that he's using at some exotic locale, it seems that another unit has slipped beneath the camera at BriefMobile. The site has managed to apprehend one of the 10.1-inch slates, and in turn has discovered quite the bounty of information.
Internally, there's (reportedly) a dual-core 1.7GHz Samsung Exynos 5250, a Mali-T604 GPU, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of internal storage (though no microSD expansion slot), a 5 megapixel rear-facing camera, NFC / WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0 and a Super AMOLED panel with a drool-worthy 2,560 x 1,600 screen resolution -- yeah, that's well into "Retina" territory at 298.9 pixels per inch. You may recognize that Exynos 5250 from Google's recently released $249 Chromebook, but here, it's being used to push Android 4.2. Those hungry for more can visit the source link, but don't go in hoping to extract an asking price.

iPad mini goes to school as Apple education focus tipped

Apple’s iPad mini event will see particular emphasis on the smaller tablet’s role in educational settings, sources claim, as part of a push to secure lucrative school district contracts to put IT equipment in classrooms. The educational capabilities of the slate – believed to run iOS, like its larger sibling, but on a 7.85-inch screen – will be one of a number of key themes at tomorrow’s event, Bloomberg‘s source suggests, with experts indicating that the rumored $249 starting price could prove the tipping point.


Many schools have already adopted iPads for the classroom, swayed by the growth in availability of educational software in the App Store, the rise of iBooks textbook content, and the cheaper price of the tablet in comparison to Macs. However, even with the iPad range starting at $399 for the iPad 2, it’s still not an inexpensive buy when you have a classroom – or a school – full of students to cater for.
To that audience, however, the rumored $249 kicking off point for the iPad mini – together with the ecosystem of apps and services – might bring the slate under a budgetary ceiling whereby principles could equip whole classes with them. Final pricing for the iPad mini is unknown, though other sources have denied the $249 figure and instead argued Apple will launch the tablet at $329 and above.
SlashGear will be at Apple’s iPad mini event – also expected to see the reveal of updated iMacs and a new, 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display – bringing back all the news in our traditional liveblog. Join us at live.slashgear.com from 10am PT (1pm ET) on Tuesday, October 23 for all the news as it’s announced!

French hacker creates fake Android apps, steals over $600,000

By stealing tiny amounts of money from over 17,000 users, a 20-year-old in northern France accumulated about €500,000 (roughly $653,000 or £405,000) since 2011. Working out of the basement of his parent’s home, he would create fake apps mimicking legitimate applications and would attract downloads by making them free.

Once installed, the app would send a text message to a premium-rate number he set up and collect small sums of money. The virus would also send him log on IDs and passwords to gaming and gambling sites.

Once arrested, he admitted his crimes and told authorities he was not motivated by greed. Rather, he said he simply loves computers and wants to be a software developer. He has no formal training or education but is reported to be quite smart. Of course, given he let these scam apps go on for a year and the amount of money collected during that time, it is quite difficult to accept that money was not a factor.

Apple World We Found A New Bug In iOS 6

 

Folks over at AppAdvice have got the ability to have “per account” signatures, and as most of you know it’s a useful thing for those of you who are real on more than one E-mail account attached to Apple iDevcies.


If you create a new email and switch the account you’re sending it from, the signature also changes. It’s pretty nifty, but apparently this new feature is a little buggy.
Recently, esteemed editor Jay discovered a problem with “per account” signatures. If you have this feature enabled and don’t have a signature set up for each account,
switching to accounts with signatures can be problematic.

When you create a new email, your default account’s signature will be present. If your default email account lacks a signature in the “per account” settings, when you switch addresses to an account with a signature, it will not be displayed.

Furthermore, if your default account has a signature set up and you switch to an address without one, switching back to an account with a signature will yield the same results.

This may not be an issue for everyone, but it’s certainly a notable bug. If you have multiple email accounts on your iOS device and wish to use the “per account” signature setting, you can avoid this bug by creating a signature for each email address.

Well folks, it may not be a big problem with most of you but it’s certainly a notable bug found in Apple’s operating system!

Quad Core Tablet Acer Iconia Tab A110 Gets Priced at $230, Coming to USA on October 30

It appears that the Nexus 7 and Kindle Fire HD aren’t the only cheap tablets on the US market, since on October 30 the Acer Iconia Tab A110 will arrive. This model is a 7 incher quad core Tegra 3 device, with a very affordable price tag of $229.99, but there are also downsides to this unit.

This slate runs Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and supports a resolution of just 1024 x 600 pixels, plus it comes with 8 GB of storage, like the Nexus 7 basic version. 1GB of RAM is also on board, but this time we also get microSD storage, for up to 32 GB. Another advantage is the microHDMI port on board, that connects the Acer Iconia Tab A110 to a HDTV, something that the Nexus 7 lacks. Seeing that Google is rumored to offer a $99 version of the Nexus 7, this Acer product doesn’t sound that impressive any more.
In case you’re wondering, the CPU inside has a frequency of 1.2 GHz on the new Acer Iconia model and I sure hope the quality is better in this case compared to the previous Iconias I’ve seen in 2012. The Iconia Tab A510 had a lot of problems, for example…

South Korea Won’t Ban The iPhone And iPad Just Yet

In an amusing reversal of fates, Apple is facing problems at the hands of Samsung in South Korea that are quite similar to the ones they’ve inflicted upon Samsung in the United States. After Apple has handed injunctions to Samsung that prevent the sale of a few of their devices, including the Galaxy Nexus and Galaxy Tab 10.1, Samsung has returned the favour by getting injunctions against the iPad and iPhone in South Korea. It looks like Apple isn’t quite doomed in South Korea yet, though.

A report from Bloomberg today informs us that Apple has been granted a delay on the injunction until their appeal process can be completed. Until that appeal trial can happen, Apple will be allowed to continue selling iPads and iPhone, and only if they lose that appeal will the devices be banned from sale in South Korea. Yes, this is happening on the same day that an American court overturned the injunction against the Galaxy Nexus that Apple has been pushing. The world is weird sometimes.
The most intriguing part of this whole Apple vs. Samsung affair has been seeing how much the different countries’ judicial systems bat for their home teams. In the United States, Apple  - an American company – won a massive victory over Samsung that would have the Korean company paying them over $1 billion. At the same time, South Korea is seriously considering banning the iPhone and iPad from sale because of alleged patent infringements against Samsung – a South Korean company.

The courts of neutral third-party nations like the UK and Germany have ruled mostly in favour of Samsung, though Apple has also scored some international victories.
The fact that patent law is so open to wildly different interpretations like this might be the best evidence we’ve seen of just how broken beyond repair the current patent system is, in both the United States and other places that have modeled their systems off the American one.

iPad Mini’s Arrival Confirmed For October 23

Apple ruled the month September by releasing the most awaited product of the year, iPhone 5, but after this the releases are not going to come to a halt for this year, as more products from Apple are being expected. One such product that was in continuous rumors and whose leak parts were coming to the surface frequently is finally going to be launched. If you are still wondering about which product we are talking then to tell you that iPad mini’s arrival has been confirmed for October 23. This means get ready, as another Apple product is on its way. Here are the details.



This fascinating news has been confirmed by a Wall Street Journal-owned blog, who said that the fruit company is going to launch the smaller iPad, called iPad mini on October 23, but this time not in the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, where the company released its previous successful products. As this time Apple has chosen Town Hall Auditorium on its Cupertino, California headquarters for launching this innovation.
If October 23 is the date for the launch of iPad mini then the invitations will soon be sent, most probably in the upcoming week. This again is going to a big launch for the company, as this is the first smaller tablet introduced by the company.

With the launch date, that is another news to be shared, according to which iPad mini will surely have “a 7.85-inch liquid-crystal display and a Lightning connector”.
Another thing that should be taken into account is that Apple is going to launch its mini tablet just two days before the release of the Microsoft’s new Surface tablet. This also means that Apple will reveal iPad mini pricing and availability before Microsoft sets pricing for the Surface tablet.

HTC backing out of US tablet market

The tablet market has been fierce recently. The battle between Google, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and of course Apple has been making it more difficult for other manufacturers to gain traction with tablets of their own. HTC, specifically, has been having a hard time, which is why they’ve announced they’re intention to back out of the tablet game.


While the company will stop selling tablets, it said it may not be for good. HTC mentioned that it could possibly end up re-entering the market if it comes up with a tablet idea that it believes could shake up the tablet market. HTC’s global online communications manager, Jeff Gordon (no, not the Nascar driver), says that selling tablets “was a great learning experience for us, and they definitely met expectations.” He also mentioned that HTC is “watching that market very, very closely.”
Throughout the past two years, HTC has offered only a total of three tablet models in the US: the 7-inch Flyer and Evo View 4G, as well as the 10-inch Jetstream. All three tablets will be discontinued by HTC and no longer sold to users. It could be considered a sad day for HTC tablet lovers, but hopefully the company will continue to support these three models.
It’s not yet clear as to what strategy HTC might implement if they ever do end up returning to the tablet market, but Gordon said that the company would most likely try to compete with the budget tablets like Google’s Nexus 7 and Amazon’s Kindle Fire HD, but he also mentioned that the company could build a more powerful tablet that would take on the iPad.

Analysts Predict BB10 Won’t Be Ready Until At Least March 2013

If the analysts have it right, it looks like BlackBerry is going to miss out on another holiday season before they’re able to launch their new operating system, which doesn’t sound like good news for Research in Motion. Forbes is reporting that the long-awaited BB10 platform could take until March 2013 before it launches.

Peter Misek, an analyst for Jefferies, wrote in a research note, “We had hoped for a January launch but now see a March launch as more likely.” As a result of this, Misek predicts a grim quarterly report for both the November quarter and the February quarter, since neither time period will bring much in the way of new products from the ailing Canadian smartphone maker.
Despite this delay, Misek remains optimistic about the potential for BB10 to find a market. He writes, “We still believe a third ecosystem [in addition to iOS and Android] will emerge, but the probability of BB10 filling the role is wholly dependent on whether RIM can convince Samsung, Huawei, and ZTE to license.”
In regards to the possible threat Windows Phone 8 may pose to BB10, Misak says the Microsoft mobile OS is “somewhat of a threat, but conflicting reviews, less-than-stellar developer feedback, and a desire by Microsoft to make hardware directly” will open the door for BlackBerry to steal the number three spot.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 Gets Android 4.0 ICS in Verizon Version

Well, better later than never, right? Sometimes, in Samsung’s case, people would even prefer never to actually getting a software update so shamefully late. I’m talking about the good old Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 getting Android 4.0 ICS waaay too late, at least in the Verizon version.

Verizon delayed the update for no less than 3 months, but the wait has finally come to an end. There’s no mention on the Verizon support website of an exact date for the upgrade, obviously, but what’s certain is that it’s coming. You need to know that the update takes up 283.1 MB of space and will take about 15 to 20 minutes to be downloaded and installed. You should be automatically notified of the OTA rolling out to the device, leaving with only the task to ensure you have a valid network connection and press download now.
You can always try a manual upgrade by going to Application – Settings – About Device – System updates. And if this doesn’t work, you need to allow it more time. The software brings a ton of upgrades, but you probably already know that, since there’s an obvious jump from Honeycomb to Ice Cream Sandwich and it doesn’t only involve face unlocking, pinch to zoom or the tweaked user interface.

More Than 10 Million iPad Mini Apple Ordered For The Media Event

The iPad mini looks closer, we have got the news says that Apple ordered 10 million iPad Minis, and we aready have many rumors says that Apple will start it’s big iPad mini media event this week, maybe October 10 or 17, news about the iPad mini flooded the world wide web and we have collected them and type them in lines after the break!

Apple Is iPad Mini

According to a report from WSJ, Apple has ordered more than 10 million iPad mini to be ready for it’s media event:

Some component suppliers to Apple in Asia say they have received orders to make more than 10 million units of the smaller tablets in the fourth quarter. That is roughly double the order that were placed for Amazon’s Kindle Fire tablets in the same quarter, these suppliers say.

The figure indicates that Apple believes demand for the product will be strong, despite stiff competition in the market.

Apple hasn’t responded to requests for comment on the smaller tablet dubbed by the industry as the iPad mini.

Moreover, Apple is iPad mini described as having a 7.85-inch screen, and it suggested to be confirmed from Apple on Wednesday, Oct. 17, with a launch day of Friday Nov.

Chameleon 1.1 Smart Launcher For Android Unveiled

Teknision has rolled out a new video for its Chameleon 1.1 Smart Launcher application currently under development for Android this week, after a number of users requested that the application should include more widgets.
The new Chameleon 1.1 now supports regular Android app widgets, even thought they are “extremely limited interactivity and poor adaptive layout” say its creators. Watch the video after the jump to see a sneak peak of the new Chameleon 1.1 software.

Teknision has also created additional widgets in its Chameleon 1.1 software for both Google+ and Calendar. Teknision has also  promised to support third-party developers, by updating the SDK and providing documentation, for those that would like to create their own widgets for the software.
“It’s been two weeks since we officially launched Chameleon version 1.0, and although we’ve been spending much of that time working on improvements and new Widgets, we’ve also been thinking a lot about the future. The very near future

Don’t Upgrade To iOS 6 Over Exchange Bug, Fortune 500 Company Urging Employees !!

 No less than one Fortune 500 company is requesting that its employees not upgrade to iOS 6 over a bug with Microsoft Exchange meeting invitations…  The issue has also been reported on Apple’s support discussion boards…  It has been revealed that a bug in iOS 6 has an effect on Microsoft Exchange meeting invitations to such extent that the service becomes completely unreliable. 

It has been sent out this week, an “Information Technology Notice” to employees in an unnamed organization listed by Fortune 500 with information regarding a bug that could strictly influence procedures.

“on September 27, IT notified you of an intermittent issue caused when calendar appointments are declined from devices running the latest Apple operating system (iOS 6),” this memo has been addressed to “mobile device users who connect personal Apple mobile devices (iPhone, iPad, etc) with company email.”

It says, “Apple and Microsoft are providing IT with daily updates on their progress toward a resolution,” the company goes on  “When appointments are declined from an Apple mobile device running iOS 6, a cancellation is sometimes sent to all meeting attendees instead of sending a decline notice to the meeting organizer.”

A caution in opposition to upgrading to the most recent version of Apple’s mobile operating system, this is the memo sent out by the company “Action to take: Do not upgrade your Apple mobile device to iOS 6. If you have an iPhone 5 or have already upgraded a device to iOS 6, please do not accept or decline calendar appointments from your Apple device until further notice,” as stated by the clip…  A number of concerned companies are by now talking to Apple and Microsoft about the bug, in addition to another one causing push delivery of emails to fail

Microsoft Preparing Special Surface Tablet Event at Midnight October 26th

Microsoft is preparing for the big unveiling of Windows 8 and its associated tablets, taking place in a special event on October 26th, at midnight, as it was confirmed by MS itself. Microsoft already sent press invitations starting yesterday to the event, taking place in New York and kicking off at 10 am on October 25th and leading up to the midnight debut of the Surface on the 26th.

Other Microsoft Stores will start selling the device on October 26th and I guess that the products may be available as soon as midnight. Seeing how the PR machine over at Redmond works, I expect quite at crowd at the designed location, not an Apple launch type crowd, but still a decent queue of people. Also, it appears that Microsoft has another event ready, one that involves Windows Phone 8 and that one will go down on October 29th in San Francisco, so MS will have a busy end of October, by all indications.
We still have no prices for the Surface Tablet, last detailed by Steve Ballmer as priced at somewhere between $300 and $700 to $800, these being the sweet spot amounts of cash paid for the tablets. So, how much are you ready to shell for a Win RT Surface Tablet? How about the Win 8 Pro one?

Microsoft Working On Surface-Branded First-Party Smartphone

Remember back in June, when Microsoft showed us the Surface tablet, a first-party Windows 8 tablet they were working on? Remember how a lot of third-party manufacturers who had supported the Windows platform for years were really mad, because Microsoft was cutting into their business by making their own hardware now?
Well prepare for a similar backlash of perhaps far greater magnitude, because it looks like Microsoft might also be working on first-party Windows Phone 8 hardware. Yep, a Microsoft smartphone.

According to an exclusive report by BGR, they have an anonymous source telling them the hardware is in the late stages of development, and that the device will be a high-end flagship Windows 8 Phone, aimed firmly at other top of the line phones like the iPhone 5 and Galaxy S III.
They also report that the phone will bear the Surface branding as well, which makes sense given how closely related the device will likely be to the existing Surface tablet. In what might be good news for other Windows smartphone makers, BGR’s source says that the first-party offering probably won’t be part of the initial wave of Window Phone 8 devices this holiday season. Instead, we can expect to see it sometime in the first half of next year.

OEM backlash aside, the current Surface tablet looks quite nice, and it will be interesting to see what Microsoft can pull of in the smartphone arena. They’ve made some smart design choices with the Surface tablet, and the build quality appears to be rock solid, so if all of that carries over to the Surface Phone, Microsoft could really knock it out of the park. Of course, when competing for Windows Phone 8 users, they’ll have to beat the Lumia 920, which won’t be an easy task.