iPad 3 to go Beyond HD

If you drooled over the HD resolution of the iPad 2 and thought that it couldn’t get any better then maybe the iPad 3 will make you eat your words, at least that’s what a report in The Korea Times claims. The report, in an affirmative tone stated that Apple will maintain the screen size to 9.7-inches and is all set to wrap up its full HD stint, as well as make way for better, higher-resolution screens, which one of our earlier reports claimed could go up to 2,048 x 1,536 pixels. That was, of course, just a rumor back then. Beyond HD (Image credit: 9to5Mac.com) The report further revealed that technology giants, LG and Samsung are very close to bagging the deal with Apple. Apple apparently is currently testing the samples of high-resolution LCD displays belonging to LG and Samsung at a lab in China. Those keenly following our reports on the Apple vs. Samsung saga would find it difficult to believe that Apple is looking at employing Samsung’s technology to its own. But, Samsung’s multi-faceted approach (its presence in the finished goods, as well as parts) to business makes its friendship more desirable. However, reports also direct us to the fact that Apple has been known to keep its list of providers same for all versions, across all its product categories. Hence, Apple looking elsewhere for its needs seems unlikely.

Apple iOS 4.3.4 Fixes PDF Security Glitch, Still Jailbroken

Earlier today, Apple launched an update to Apple iOS enabled devices that fixes a security flaw in viewing PDF files. Apple indicates that the fix should prevent any potential threats when viewing 'maliciously crafted PDFs.’ However, this is not the first time Apple has had to fix its PDF viewing technology. The iOS 4.3.4 is now available for download as a free update for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad users. The update is also available for iPhone 4 users, as well as third-generation iPods running on iOS 3.0 and higher.  Apple claims that because of this security breach, hackers were able to remotely control iPhones, iPads after using manipulated PDF files. Jailbroken in no time at all The flaw was uncovered by 'Comex,"  a member of the hacking group who exploited it to create ways for users to jailbreak iOS devices and run unauthorized software. Apple however, has dealt with the problem fairly swiftly. The update means that the JailBreakMe tool will no longer work on updated devices but will prevent users from potential attacks. Even though this new patch has been released, it didn’t take hackers more than 12 hours to jailbreak the iOS 4.3.update. Pretty much every device has been unlocked except for the recent iPad 2.

Foursquare for iPhone Updates: Gets Newsfeed

Foursquare for iPhone got an update and now comes with a newsfeed. It also comes with a new system for notifications. This 'notification tray' was available for the Android app, earlier this month and tracks comments on check-ins, new comments on posts you've commented on (like Facebook), completion of tips by friends and mayor status. The app now also lets you know when your Facebook friends join Foursquare. For the iPhone app, notifications will also show up in a bubble on the right of the Foursquare logo just like it would on the Facebook app. In addition to the notification tray, the new version of Foursquare has a new venue page with better access to tips, photos and your to-do list.

Foursquare feeds up on iPhone

Ever since Facebook launched Places, Foursquare, of course has had to step up its game. However, will adopting some of Facebook's features themselves really help the location networking app? WIll you use Foursquare with these features more than you otherwise would? Let us know in the comments section below.

Apple Thunderbolt Displays Coming Soon

Apple’s MacBook Pros already have Intel’s new high-speed data interface, Thunderbolt. Now, rumours have cropped up that Apple is going to launch Thunderbolt enabled displays in the near future. Apple’s 27-inch LED displays, for example are very popular among Apple Mac users. MacRumours has unearthed a few images of a new LED-backlit display that haven’t been published on the site yet.  The image as can be seen below shows a screen with a wallpaper found on Mac OS X Lion, instead of Snow Leopard. 

For specific users only

There are also images of two similar displays being connected to a MacBook Pro. The displays seem to be connected to a single display using a single connector. Now, the 15-inch and 17-inch MacBook Pros are the only ones built with the Thunderbolt interface.  The display is likely to come built with a Thunderbolt interface at the rear instead of the existing DisplayPort connects. There’s no official launch date on the new Thunderbolt display, but one thing is for sure it’s bound to be happen soon after the official OS X Lion update. The only ones who’ll be able to use the new display will be those with the recently launched MacBook Pro.

Apple's Upcoming MacBook Air to Have More Storage

People considering to buy the new MacBook Air will be in for a treat. Not only will the new model be coming out with the new Lion OS, but there’s bound to be a bunch of improvements and additions. Reports have suggested that the new MacBook Air will be upgraded from 2GB RAM to 4GB RAM, an upgrade which previously cost users $100.

New MacBook Air

Ming - Chi Kuo, an analyst from Concord Securities noted that the memory upgrades along with the new Lion OS should yield good performance. Kuo also stated that Apple will be upgrading the SSD of the 11.6-inch model from 64GB to a 128GB one. Reports from CNET also state that Apple will sell 128GB and 256GB SSD versions of the notebook. The new MacBook Air will be coming out later this week.

This second generation model will be more refined and will be completely redesigned. It’ll include a high-density screen, an additional USB port and SD card slot. The new Macbook Air will also have upgraded new-generation processors, graphics cards and a Flash-based storage. About the battery life, Apple have stated that it would give users up to 7 hours of usage time and up to 30 hours of standby time. Along with these features, Apple will also include a back-lit keyboard.

Apart from the new MacBook Air, other Macs will also be recipients of the new Mac OS update. Reports note that Apple will be launching Lion, sometime this month, Although so far, no additional information has been given on the official date of release. We did however make a trip to our local Apple retailers and were informed not expect the new MacBook Air with Lion before August.

Apple Alleges that HTC Infringed Five of its Patents

Popular handset manufacturer, HTC is the latest one to have got its head trapped under Apple’s axe. In a complaint filed with the U.S. International Trade Commission, Apple leveled allegations against HTC over its patented iPad, and iPhone. In the filed complaint, although a copy of the same wasn’t available, it was learned that Apple approached the U.S. ITC with charges of five infringed patents by HTC. Patent woes.. According to the complaint filed on the 8th of July, 2011, HTC has infringed patents pertaining to software architecture and user interfaces in portable electronic devices, touch screens' hardware and movement sensors, among others, which according to Apple constitute its ‘path-breaking technology’. If the judgment sways in Apple’s favor, then the U.S. ITC will look at the complete ban on the imports of HTC products.  Apple had launched a similar case with the U.S. ITC against HTC, the verdict of which can be expected to come out around August 5th, this year. Observers however believe that this move by Apple is triggered by the competition from players like HTC, Samsung, and Motorola in the smartphone and tablet sphere. Source: Agencies

Apple to Own Two Stylus Patents

Apple’s at it again. According to two patent requests to the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), the iPad manufacturer would soon be the patentee of the stylus. Apple had applied for the patent requests in January; however, it was not until late this week that the news of the same leaked out. Reports suggest that the first stylus patent request pertained to a possibly-heated conductive tip, using which the stylus can be powered.

Patented...

The second one, on the other hand mentions a stylus in the context of a tool to write on any surface, the impressions of which could be seen on another device, an example being a Livescribe pen. These patents are among scores of others, some of which have been taken up by popular brands like RIM (hybrid capacitive-resistive screen), and HTC being the patentee of magnet-on-a stick stylus.

More Rumors About Apple iPad HD with High-Res Display Surface

While news is abuzz about the possible inclusion of a retina display on the next-gen iPad that’s being called the ‘iPad HD’, it’s been a curious question on everyone’s mind as to whether or not the iPhone 5 will have a higher resolution Retina display as well. As if the existing resolution of 640 x 960 with 326 ppi wasn’t high enough, but progress does mean moving ahead so it’s a possibly that Apple just might take things up a notch with the next model handset. The resolution that the ‘iPad HD’ is reportedly aiming to support is 2048 x 1536 with pixel density of 260 ppi for extra crisp viewing. Although we heard this rumor before we also heard that the possibility of this a high a resolution on a 9.7-inch display might not be realistically possible. Higher resolution for crisper images Never the less with details emerging about iOS 5 being able to sync 1080p videos with the iPad 2 and iTunes bringing a few Full HD movies to the scene, it’s quite possible that Apple would be working on high resolution displays for their devices. Come September/October when Apple makes it’s announcements for that part of the year and the iPhone 5 comes to light, I’d be pleasantly surprised if an iPad 2 variant or iPad 3 with a high-res display is also announced. We already know that the iPad 2’s A5 chips are quite capable of running Full HD videos which hopefully means Apple will kick things up a notch by showing off a high resolution display for better viewing. LG is responsible for the Retina display and they just happened to showcase a few high-res mobile type displays at an event held in May. That’s possibly another clue to the possibility of an iPad or iPhone HD making it out come the latter half of 2011. I believe it might be a little too soon to spring this on the customers who have only just dished out a lump-sum of cash on an iPad 2. But with Apple, you just never know.

JailbreakMe 3.0 Available for the iPad 2 and iPhone 4

Good news for all you iPad 2 users. You can now jailbreak your beloved tablet and customize it the way you want. JailbreakMe’s latest version, brings the goodness of bringing a lot of unapproved-by-Apple applications and tweaks to your iPad 2.

Free the prisoner!

According to sources, all iPad 2 tablets that are running on iOS 4.3.3 can easily be jailbroken and the software is working fine on these devices. All you have to do is log on to their website through your Apple device and follow the instructions. It obviously means that JailbreakMe 3.0 is untethered, so you won’t have to sync it with your PC through iTunes and go through a lengthy procedure.

The goodness has not been restricted to the iPad 2 only, though. iPhone 4, 3GS, iPod touch 3G and 4G that are running on iOS 4.3.3 can be jailbroken. Check out the video below to see how jailbreaking takes place.



If you have jailbroken and found freedom on your iPad 2 (or any other iOS 4.3.3 device for that matter) please share your joy in our comments section.

LOLcats Now Purrs on the iPhone

Cheezburger's "LOLcats" site has enough furry goodness to keep you entertained for hours (if that is your kind of thing). The site already has fans make apps for it and this is the offical Cheezburger Network's effort to build an app for the site. The cats will now be available on iPhones, iPod Touches and iPads. The app itself is free and is a simpler version of the I Can Has Cheezburger's website. It carries content from ICanHasCheezburger.com, IHasAHotDog.com, RoflRazzi.com, and more. The Cheezburger Network says that with this app, users can check out content from LOLcats, LOLdogs, Daily Dose of Cute, LOLcelebs and more. The app presents the same memes with the ability to share them over Facebook and Twitter. It's already on version 2.0.

Cats do the darndest things... on iPhone!

The Cheezburger Network is looking to expand its app repertoire by building apps for its other sites like FAILblog and Memebase. The network was able to get $30 million in funding in January, so it does actually have the ability to build apps. They may even expand to other mobile systems like Android and maybe Symbian. Does LOLcats make you chuckle and would you download the app? Let us know in the comments section below.

Getting Under The Hood of a Tablet

Since tablets are light and compact, their primary purpose is mobile computing. This means that they must have sufficient battery life, despite the large display screens and touch interface. Here’s the hardware that helps manufacturers make that happen. Processors The brain of any tablet is the processor that powers its core working. Since most devices are touch sensitive, and need to connect to the Internet and offer a long battery life, the processor should be light on the system. Most tablets today are powered by the processors from ARM or those based on Intel’s x86 architecture. A typical chipset based on the simple ARM architecture can handle 4 million instructions per second at 8 MHz (ARM1) to a maximum of 220 million instructions per second at 200 MHz (ARM9E). The architecture is licensed to a host of companies to develop their own processors, including the Qualcomm Snapdragon, the Samsung Hummingbird, Nintendo, Nvidia Tegra and the Apple A4. Intel has developed the Atom processor based on its x86 architecture. The Atom Z6xx codenamed Lincroft, offers GPU speeds of 1.6 GHz. Operating Systems The heart of the tablet is its operating system. There are several OSs that are device and vendor specific, while others are multi-platform. The most prominent OSs for tablets include iOS (a proprietary OS for Apple devices), Microsoft Windows 7 and Google's Android OS and now the more recent Blackberry Tablet OS or the Playbook tablet. More OS' are expected to come up in the future, which will include the Maemo operating system based on Linux, which is being developed by Nokia, and the webOS, originally developed by Palm, which would now power tablets and smartphones from HP. There are also talks of Chrome OS for Google tablets being developed by Google and HTC. The two mobile opertaing systems that have yet to be spoken of in terms of tablet technology is Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 and the on-its-way-out Symbian opertaing system, butyou never know. The Apple iPad's innards Storage Space Tablets come with varying memory capacities, starting from 2GB (Wespro Epad) to, as much as 64GB (Apple iPad) built-in storage space. Tablets usually come with an SD card slot to increase storage space, but that is of limited use if the device is powered by Android 2.1 or lower, as those don’t let you install apps on external storage. Moreover, if your tablet offers USB ports, you can attach an external hard drive to get extra storage space for your data. Touch Screen UI A touch screen user interface is a bit different from the graphical user interface primarily due to touch-based inputs. While this kind of interface is useful to make the command selection via text more accurate, they offer extended features like adding widgets and live wallpaper to make your device more interactive. The iPad features a proprietary UI developed by Apple, there is the TouchWiz UI from Samsung, and the Sense UI by HTC. Sensors The touch screen in a tablet is not pressure-based, and relies on several sensors. The high-end tablets include an accelerometer, ambient light sensor and temperature sensor. The accelerometer or the gravity sensor helps to change the orientation of the screen in terms of how it is held. The ambient light sensor adjusts brightness and contrast of your tablet screen with respect to lighting conditions. The temperature sensor intimates you of your battery heat levels. The Galaxy Tab exposed Connectors Most of the tablets offer several ports like the USB and HDMI, plus audio connectors and SD card and SIM card slots. However, the iPad is one of the few tablets that sports only one outlet that doubles as a charging port for the device. Camera Tablets usually feature a front camera for video calls on-the-go. The camera quality ranges from VGA quality right up to 8 megapixels. With the introduction of the Android 3.0 OS, which supports 3D, tablets are likely to sport dual cameras to help capture 3D pictures and video.

Apple Inc. Hacked

In what comes as an addition to the string of high-profile hacks, is the security breach that has hit the iPad manufacturer, early today. Hacking group, AntiSec – formed out of the union of former group, Lulz Security and Anonymous, claimed responsibility for the breach. Caught unawares! AntiSec claims that it gained advantage over a security flaw in a software used by Apple. However, AntiSec also stated that the hack attempt wasn’t a full-fledged one, and was just done to expose Apple’s flawed security system, and that Apple is a ‘later target’. Wall Street Journal reports that, the hack outfit put up a release revealing around 26 administrative usernames and passwords.

Samsung Discreetly Ends Californian Episode of Counter-Suit Against Apple

In a bid to streamline the legal proceedings, Samsung has ceremoniously dumped the patent-infringement suit it had filed against the iPad manufacturer. The infringement filed at a federal court in the U.S. arose out of Apple’s allegations that Samsung had duplicated the designs of the iPad and iPhone, and had replicated the same on its Galaxy line.

Relents..

Bloomberg reports that Samsung, however, rubbishes the claims that it has conceded defeat, and has taken back all infringement claims. In fact, the South Korea based company claims that it has simply put its own infringement allegations into the counter-claims bundle of the original suit. Even as this claim has been dropped, it would make for an interesting observation that currently the Apple-Samsung saga is on in at least 5 countries – South Korea, Japan, Germany and the U.K., of course, not letting out the battlefield called U.S.

The battle, for most parts, is still on. Neither of the heavyweights is blinking first.

Apple Wants Sale of Galaxy S 4G, Galaxy Tab 10.1 and Others Banned in US

Yet another twist has been added to the Apple – Samsung saga. Just a couple of days ago, it was learned that the South Korea based consumer electronics manufacturer, Samsung had approached the U.S. International Trade Commission to propose the ban of Apple products in U.S., in the form of sales, imports, among others. & the battle continues... CNET, now reports that the iPad manufacturer has retorted back with a similar proposal – that of having some of Samsung’s premier products banned in the U.S. As per the request forwarded to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, Apple seeks that Samsung’s Galaxy S 4G, Infuse 4G, Droid Charge smartphones, as also the Galaxy Tab 10.1 be banned in the U.S. Additionally, Apple also stated that it has let off Samsung’s other products like the yet-to-be-released Galaxy S II smartphone and Galaxy Tab 8.9, and decided to put the axe down on only four products, mentioned above.

Samsung Seeks Import Ban on Apple Products in U.S

Recently when a decision was announced regarding the infamous Samsung-Apple patent tussle, albeit in Apple’s favor; we thought that one of the most high-profile battles had come to an end. Well! We couldn’t have been more wrong! ...And, there they go again....! Yahoo! News reports that Samsung, the South Korea-based consumer electronics manufacturer has now approached the U.S. International Trade Commission to seek the imposition of a permanent import ban on Apple, thereby preventing the iPad manufacturer from importing Apple products into the U.S. If you have been following all the updates on the Samsung-Apple patent tussle, then you’d know that the two technological majors had been, or rather still continue to be at loggerheads owing to a patent infringement issue. Although, according to a court directive, Apple did win, or so it seemed, the case, Samsung’s latest move clearly narrates another story.

Apple May Face Antitrust Probe in India

MUMBAI – India's antitrust agency has received a complaint against Apple Inc. requesting that the body look into whether the U.S. smartphone maker violated local competition laws when selling its popular iPhone 4 smartphone to select mobile phone operators, a senior official at the country's Competition Commission said.

The official said the agency may examine the complaint but added it is not necessary for the commission to act on the complaint if no violation was found.

"We may examine the complaint to see if it [Apple] is violating any law," the official said, declining to say where the complaint came from or to provide further details.

Under India's Competition Act of 2002, the country bars agreements that are "likely to cause an appreciable adverse effect on competition within India."

Apple officials couldn't immediately be reached for comment on Wednesday.

The Cupertino, Calif.-based company launched the iPhone 4 in May in India through tie-ups with two Indian mobile phone operators, Bharti Airtel Ltd. and Aircel Ltd. Both started selling the iPhone 4 from May 27 to take better advantaged of the recently acquired third-generation wireless spectrum. Five other Indian mobile phone operators also won 3G radio bandwidth last year.

With 167.1 million subscribers, Bharti Airtel is India's largest mobile phone operator. The company also has India's largest number of 3G users, which totaled around 2 million at the end of April. Aircel, a relatively new but fast-growing operator, had 57.1 million users at the end of May. Aircel has not made its number of 3G users public.

It is unclear what steps the agency could ask Apple to take should it find that the company has violated competition laws.

"The first test of whether Apple violates the Competition Act will essentially be if it adversely affects public interest," Akil Hirani, a managing partner at law firm Majmudar & Co., said. He said the agency could ask Apple to broaden the scope of its distribution to more operators to make its products more accessible.

Gaurang Kanth, a managing partner at legal firm Kanth & Associates, said the agency could also request Apple to cease its existing contracts with Bharti and Aircel.

In India, Apple has previously tied up with Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Essar Ltd., a unit of Vodafone Group PLC, to sell earlier versions of Apple's smartphone, the iPhone 3G and the iPhone 3GS. No complaint was filed against the U.S. company at that time, the official said. In other markets in Asia, Apple typically works with one exclusive carrier.

With nearly 827 million subscribers, India is the world's second-largest mobile phone market after China. Mobile phone makers in India rarely sell through phone companies as Indian operators do not subsidize handsets since costumers lack strong credit history and accountability. Companies like Nokia Corp., Samsung Electronics Co. and Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB sell in India through retailers and rarely partner up with phone companies to bundle data or other offers.

India's CyberMedia Research said in a recent note that it expects 12 million smartphones will be sold in India this year, nearly double the amount sold in 2010. Smartphones are expected to account for 5.7% of total mobile handset sales in India this year, compared with 3.6% last year, the firm said.

Friendthem Allows You to Add Facebook Friends Around You

Friendthem is an iPhone app that allows you to friend people around you on Facebook. The goal of the app is to reduce the friction involved in friending people on Facebook, which is usually an important step in keeping in contact with people you meet for the first or second time. The app is free and is designed to allow users to friend people around them on Facebook, right away or file the friend request away for later. The idea is that when you meet someone, and want to keep in touch over a social network, you could go home and forget their name, or find a million results for that name. Location-based Facebook friend adding The way to get it to work is pretty simple, you just sign into Facebook and that's how you connect with the app. However, the other person also needs to have Friendthem on their phones in order to work. Once you sign in, you choose what information you want visible and if you don't want people to find you say at the office, or on vacation, you can put up 'geo-fences'. There are of course, two downsides to this application that are somewhat interrelated. Firstly, this is yet another application people have to download to be social. Also, people can find each other and friend each other on Facebook mobile apps a lot easier. And if there are multiple results for the same person, you can always just ask the other person which result they are (without being too terribly dorky)

Samsung Viewing Upcoming Designs is Harrassment: Apple

Samsung had previously asked Apple to show them their upcoming products in an attempt to make sure their future devices are not subjected to any potential infringement claims like the one Apple has currently filed against them. Apple has now filed a motion against Samsung in the District Court of California requesting a judge to deny the aforementioned request. The ongoing battle between Samsung and Apple ... It is reported that Apple claims that Samsung’s request is not a good faith attempt to obtain information needed to defend against a preliminary injunction. Rather, it is a transparent and improper attempt to harass Apple by demanding extremely sensitive trade secrets that have no relevance to Apple's infringement claims or to Samsung's defenses to a preliminary injunction. The document filed by Apple states that Samsung has made no display about Apple’s future products. Apple therefore has been claiming that Samsung's intentions to peek into its future designs is plain harassment. The report ends by saying that a judge will make a decision on Samsung’s request to view Apple’s products on Friday.

Microsoft Allows You To Search for iPhone Apps

Microsoft's including search results for apps, including iPhone apps in its Bing search engine. The feature is called "auto app discovery" and it surfaces apps along with regular web queries. For example, a search for "Hotels in Mumbai" will pull up a section called "app results" which shows results like Expedia and TripAdvisor. You can also search specifically for "Top iPhone Apps" and "Download Fruit Ninja" and you'll find the apps.

Search results in Bing lead to iPhone apps

Bing will also help you directly download the app where if you perform a search on Bing on your phone, it will give you a link to download the app. Clicking that link will take you to the app in the App Store. If the app is already downloaded on your phone and the developer's integrated the launch functionality, Bing will launch the app on your phone. Apps like Facebook and Yelp can be launched directly from Bing. Some of these apps will launch within context, so if you search for "X-Men", IMdB will open up to a results page for "X-Men".

IPad challenger Xoom: the rise of Android tablets

Apple has been dominating the market for tablet computers. But now, with Motorola’s Xoom and other tablet PCs rolling out, alternatives to the iPad are coming to stores, many using the new Google operating system Android Honeycomb.

Companies like Motorola, Samsung and LG are bringing out tablets with Google’s Android 3.0 operating system, also known as Honeycomb. In some ways, these new versions outscore the market leader.

One of the forerunners is Motorola’s Xoom. The U.S. company kept close tabs on the development of Honeycomb and was the first to be able to come out with an Android 3.0-ready tablet. At 730 grams, the Xoom is a little heavier than the 600-gram iPad and a bit wider. But it has a higher resolution in its 10.1-inch screen (1,280x800 pixels versus 1,024x768). Just like the iPad, the Xoom has solid aluminium housing.

Motorola took more pains with its built-in cameras than Apple. The camera on the back offers 5 megapixels, while the one on the front for video chat features has 2 megapixels, significantly more than the iPad 2. That means the Xoom can record videos in quality of up to 720 pixels, even though its recordings tend to have a slightly bluish tint.

Honeycomb tablets don’t have mechanical buttons for functions like menu, home, back and search, meaning the Xoom is completely controlled via its touch-sensitive screen.

Xoom runs with a dual-core processor (a set of 1 gigahertz processors) to allow speedy work and smooth video playback. Just like with the iPad, the Xoom’s battery has a charge of about eight hours, or the equivalent of a full workday or a long-range flight.

While there are more than 200,000 programmes available for Android, all of which should theoretically work on the Xoom, very few of those programmes were designed with the tablet exclusively in mind. Meanwhile, there are 10,000 programmes just for the iPad.

Unlike the iPad, Xoom supports Adobe’s Flash Player, which has to be separately installed. The player only plays a small role in video playback, since leading portals like YouTube have started distributing most of their online videos in the iPad-compatible format H.264. But Flash often crops up in interactive graphics, live tickers and online games.

Android Honeycomb also gives users more freedom in setting up the look of their homepage. While the iPad only allows the display of programme icons, links and notices, Honeycomb allows the display of up to five so-called widgets, small preview programmes for things like weather forecasts, email and stock market reports.

But these advantages don’t quite go far enough toward making up for the disadvantages the Google tablet suffers in its marketplace for apps and media services.