WebProNews

Tag: tablet

  • Users Reading More News on Mobile Devices

    It was recently reported that news content brings in 7% of of Apple Newsstand’s monthly gross of roughly $70,000 – while this doesn’t seem like much, a newer study reveals that users of mobile news apps now read more articles and long-form content than regular computer users.

    news apps

    news apps

    The January Pew Project for Excellence in Journalism found that when searching for news stories, 33% of users went directly to the news outlets website, while using a desktop or a mobile device, while 38% of tablet users did the same. This suggests that readers go to sources they have existing knowledge of. In general, 54% of consumers in the US used the web to read the news, whether on a desktop or mobile device, and most those surveyed tend to mix it up – i.e. combine web-based formats when reading stories. Of those who read content on a desktop, 34% also read articles on their smartphones, and 17% used a tablet device. Those using both tablets and smartphones accounted for 27% of consumers in the study, and 5% of users get on all three.

    An interesting facet of the study concerns the general ineffectiveness of Facebook and Twitter regarding the relaying of news links. Recent reports have shown that both social networks were not particularly integral in the driving of new stories, and now data shows that only 8% and 3% of tablet uses follow links through Facebook and Twitter respectively. As for Facebook, this trend stands in contrast to its effectiveness in product marketing, as 92% of users queried in the Global Trust and Advertising Survey state that they would buy a product based on a friend’s recommendation. It would seem that users don’t trust the social network so much when it comes to news.

  • Tablet Sales To Hit 119 Million In 2012

    Tablet Sales To Hit 119 Million In 2012

    When Tim Cook took the stage to announce the new iPad on March 7th, he spent some time talking about the post-PC era, for which Apple’s iPad was the “poster child.” In the two short years since Apple basically created the tablet market with the launch of the original iPad, tablets have become a major player in the personal computing market.

    The prominence of tablets in this post-PC era is only going to increase, according to a recent report by Gartner. According to the report, tablet sales in 2012 will reach almost 119 million units across all models, of which Apple’s iPad will account for almost 73 million units. What’s more, those numbers will only go up in coming years, if Gartner’s forecast is correct. They project tablet sales to reach 182 million next year, and a staggering 369 million – over a third of a billion tablets – by 2016.

    Apple, Android, Windows Tablet sales through 2016

    Interestingly, they project that Android tablets will grow to rival – but not surpass – the iPad. As you can see from the chart above, the projection for 2016 shows Apple maintaining a solid lead in the tablet market, with Android coming in a relatively close (i.e., 30 million fewer units) second. They attribute this to the current lack of tablet-optimized Android apps. While Android has done enormously well as a smartphone platform, its performance as a tablet platform has lagged behind somewhat. Gartner foresees that changing in the coming years as the Android tablet app ecosystem improves.

    They also project decent performance for the forthcoming Windows 8 tablet market. They project Windows 8 tablets selling a modest (but respectable) 4.8 million units after their launch this sometime this year, with Windows 8 surpassing 2011-level iPad sales in 2016.

    What do you think of Gartner’s projections? Will Android ever pass Apple in the tablet market? Will Windows 8 tablets be a success? Let us know in the comments.

  • Kindle Fire Software Updated To Version 6.3

    There’s no denying that the Kindle Fire is a success for Amazon. While Apple still has a stranglehold on the tablet market, Amazon has carved itself out a nice little niche market. Even though Amazon might have three new Kindle Fire tablets coming out later this year, they aren’t going to let that stop them from updating the software of the current models to include nice new features.

    The Kindle Fire software has been updated to version 6.3. The update brings with it seven major changes that focus on ebooks, textbooks, movies and housekeeping. The big theme though is sharing as Amazon has added new social elements to reading ebooks.

    The new sharing mode allows readers to highlight specific passages in ebooks and share them with other Kindle Fire users and across Facebook and Twitter. A user can also make a note, perhaps explaining a passage in the Tao Te Ching, that other readers can view.

    On that same note, Amazon is also adding Book Extras to their ebook offerings. Readers can now view supplemental material about the book they are reading. This includes “descriptions of characters, a glossary of common terms referenced in the book, and more.” A colleague and I both agreed that this feature would be especially useful in fantasy or sci-fi novels that use their own vocabulary and sometimes have convoluted character relationships.

    All your notes and writings can now be backed up on Amazon Cloud. They can of course be retrieved at any time. This also allows personal documents to be synced with the server so that it saves your notes, highlights and last page read.

    The Kindle Fire now features “print replica textbooks.” It may not be as nice as Apple’s interactive iBooks option on the iPad, but it still beats out having to buy the actual textbooks in stores. Amazon claims that students can save up to 60 percent off the list price. They’re called “print replica” because they are exact clones of the print copies of the textbooks with all the “rich formatting, color and layout of the print editions.”

    A nice feature for online readers is a “reading view” for Amazon Silk. This feature brings a body of text on a Web site to the forefront while leaving the ads and other material behind. Silk will bring up the text content into a “reading optimized, single screen view.”

    In an effort to become more consumer friendly, movie rental times don’t begin to expire until the user begins to watch the movie. It used to be that it would begin the countdown when the user began downloading the movie.

    Amazon also says that the Kindle Fire is getting a few performance upgrades with the newest update. The most prominent being a faster reconnect of Wi-Fi after the Kindle Fire has been asleep.

    For more information and instructions on manually downloading the update, check out the Amazon Kindle page. The new update makes reading more fun and social which brings an almost book club feeling to ebooks. Apple would be smart to pay attention and bring that kind of functionality to their iBooks service.

    As an aside, it’s worth pointing out that the new update will un-root your Kindle Fire. According to The Next Web, however, there is already a work around if you want to keep custom software on your Kindle Fire.

  • Elephant Plays With A Samsung Galaxy Note [Video]

    The intelligence of elephants never ceases to amaze me. How they seem to grasp things that only humans do is unimaginable. In these sets of videos, we see Peter the elephant playing with a widely popular Samsung Galaxy Note. The video shows Peter playing some piano, choosing music to listen to, even going as far as to draw a picture of another elephant with the stylus pen.

    Samsung wanted to make sure that people don’t start to doubt that any of this video is real, so they also released 2 other ‘behind the scenes” videos showing a little bit of Peter playing the drums and playing the piano. These extra videos are unedited and fairly raw. I think the main video is cool and the only part i doubted was the drawing, but then they panned out and dang, this is real!

    Here is the “commercial’:

    Here is the unedited piece with Peter playing drums:

    Here is the unedited piece with Peter playing piano:

    (image)@ANshrikant
    AN SRIKANTH    Watch Peter the Elephant playing with apps on Samsung galaxy Note! View the videos at http://t.co/oQoC5vom(image) 39 minutes ago via Su.pr ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    (image)@KevinGilmartin
    Kevin Gilmartin    I can’t decide if this video of an elephant using a Samsung Galaxy Note is fake or not: http://t.co/I1s2rYFb(image) 32 minutes ago via TweetDeck ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    (image)@thisiswafiy
    Abdul Wafiy Baha    peter the elephant plays with the samsung galaxy note! 😀(image) 13 minutes ago via web ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

  • U.S., European Tablet Users Paying for More Content

    Regardless of huge amounts of free content available, tablet owners aren’t opposed to paying for media they really want. In a study by Neilsen, tablet owners in the U.S., UK, Germany and Italy were surveyed to see who was willing to pay for what, and it was found that American consumers were more apt to pay for all forms of media content, except for news.

    tablet media chart

    Other findings include:

    The majority of U.S. tablet owners have purchased digital music and books for their devices, at 62 percent and 58 percent respectively. About half have paid for movies, at 51 percent.

    News is the content most paid for among the European tablet users queried – 44 percent of tablet owners in Italy, 19 percent of tablet owners in the UK, and 15 percent of tablet owners in Germany stated they have paid for tablet news content. For the rest of the media content categories in Europe, users in Italy bought the most.

    In a related study, it was recently revealed that 24% of young, tech-savvy users in the U.S. plan to buy Apple’s new iPad, while 29% of international users in the same demographic plan to do the same.

  • Sony Tablets To Get Ice Cream Sandwich In April

    Sony has announced today that it’s Tablet P and Tablet S are scheduled to get the Android 4.0 (Ice Crem Sandwich) update at the end of April, just like a host of other tablets. They have also announced that they will be adding certain photo functionalities like the ability to activate the tablets’ cameras directly from their lock screens, edit photos in the gallery application, and take panoramic photos. These camera features were previously found on Sony’s NEX and Alpha series digital cameras. The update also allows Sony Tablet users to watch programs they’ve recorded on their compatible Sony Blu-Ray recorders with a downloadable app. Some of the features are for Japan only right now, but keep checking back for updates.

    Also announced is the introduction of “Small Apps.” With these small apps people will be able to open up a small calculator, remote control, or browser window on top of the currently running app. This new feature will probably only be available to apps that the developers have added the support to, but Sony shows this being used with big apps like Youtube and google maps.

    Sony has also announced a Wi-Fi-only version of its dual-screened Tablet P, going on sale on April 21st for about $600. Aside from being cheaper and lacking a 3G radio, this is the same as the Tablet P. Also, for Tablet P users looking to add a splash of personalization to their devices, Sony will be offering colored interchangeable front and back covers in gold, pink, and blue for about $60 starting April 21st.

  • Nokia Launching Windows 8 Tablet Later This Year [RUMOR]

    With Windows 8 scheduled to launch later this year, the question naturally arises: when will we begin to see Windows 8 tablets? The operating system is, after all, designed to function on a variety of platforms, including tablets and desktop/laptop computers. Well, it looks Nokia might have an answer in the works, according to recent rumors.

    Citing “sources at upstream component suppliers,” DigiTimes is reporting that Nokia is planning to produce a Windows 8 tablet. The tablet would have a 10-inch display and be available sometime in the fourth quarter of 2012. The tablet would run on Qualcomm dual-core processor.

    Of course, DigiTimes has a somewhat… spotty record on predictions of this kind, so don’t be too surprised if this one turns out wrong. At the same time, though, Nokia is a likely candidate for a Windows 8 tablet. Nokia has bet heavily on the Windows platform in recent months. Nokia’s own Symbian operating system has been effectively abandoned as the company has begun putting Windows Phone on all its new devices. The highly-anticipated Nokia Lumia 900, which may or may not be coming out in April, is the latest in this line.

    Would you like to see a Windows 8 tablet from Nokia? Let us know what you think in the comments.

  • Google, Asus Releasing A 7-Inch Tablet In May [RUMOR]

    It looks like Asus may be the manufacturing partner for the upcoming Google-branded tablet. Recent rumors suggest that the 7-inch tablet will be released in May, and will be priced around $199. At that size and price point, the device will be a direct competitor to Amazon’s popular Kindle Fire tablet, which released last year.

    Citing “industry sources,” DigiTimes reports that Google approached HTC (who produced the original Nexus Android phones) about the project. The deal reportedly fell through because HTC insisted on having too much control over the development of the device.

    Rumors of a Google-branded tablet have been around for several months, ever since Eric Schmidt confirmed in an interview that such a device was in the works. Though a spate of domain name purchases led to speculation that the new tablet would be called the Google Play, that name turned out to be for Google’s new unified music, ebook, and app market, wich was announced last week..

    Name confusion notwithstanding, a recent report seemed to confirm that Google had a 7-inch tablet in the works that would be launching sometime in the first half of 2012 (in keeping with Eric Schmidt’s timeline). What’s more, Asus corporate VP Benson Lin cited his company’s close relationship with Google to suggest that Asus devices would be among the first to offer upgrades to the next version of the Android operating system: Android 5.0 Jelly Bean. Given the rumored timeline for the Jelly Bean launch and the rumored timeline for the launch of Google’s tablet, it’s a fair bet that this new tablet will ship with Android 5.0.

    Of course, things are still at the speculation phase at this point. Apart from Eric Schmidt’s statement last year, Google has refrained from commenting on the issue.

    What do you think? Do you like the idea of a Google-branded tablet? Let us know in the comments.

  • New, Cheaper iPad 2 to Launch With iPad 3?

    The latest leaks anticipate a newer, slimmer, cheaper version of the iPad 2 will launch today along with the much anticipated iPad 3, aka iPad HD. Digitimes is reporting the cheaper iPad will rival other budget tablet models like the Kindle Fire and the upcoming Windows 8 tablets.

    The site is reporting that the new tablet will include a 8GB hard drive, though it does not make claims as to how cheap it will be. Current iPads start around $500 dollars; the new iPad 3 is anticipated to keep this price point.

    As of January, Apple has sold an estimated 55 million iPads. They are planning to keep this trend alive and bring in new buyers with today’s releases. 78% of the new iPad sales are anticipated to be from first time buyers. Some people are even anticipating the market to take over laptops and ultrabooks, as touch-screen tablets continue to rise in popularity.

    If rumors of the cheaper iPad 2 turn out to false, you can always purchase a used one on ebay or Craigslist. Insiders are anticipating up to 75% of current iPad owners plan to upgrade. That equates to a lot of previously owned iPads hitting the market at once. Current iPad 2 resale prices are around $325 on ebay.

  • World’s Thinnest Tablet From Toshiba

    World’s Thinnest Tablet From Toshiba

    On Tuesday, Toshiba will be bringing the world’s thinnest 10 inch tablet to stores. The product was announced at the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show in January and bas received wide praise ever since. The ultra sleek and sexy Excite 10 LE tablet is just 0.3 inches thick and weighs only 1.18 lbs. The device is 0.04 inches thinner than the 0.34 inch thick iPad. The unit will be priced at $530 for the 16GB model and $600 for the 32GB model.

    The tablet runs on the Android 3.2 “Honeycomb” operating system with plans to be upgraded in Spring to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. The slim device is packing some punch with a powerful Texas Instruments OMAP 4430 dual-core mobile processor along with dual-channel memory, front and rear facing cameras and 8 hours of battery life. It also features a 10.1 inch diagonal LED backlit widescreen display with scratch-resistant Corning Gorilla Glass.

    Carl Pinto, Vice President of Product Development for Toshiba America says, “Excite 10 LE embodies what a luxury tablet should be. We have engineered this tablet with premium materials and components and given it an elegant yet durable styling. It also has more connectivity options than any other tablet in it’s class, while fitting everything into an astonishingly thin and light design.”

    @ZamoraO
    Oscar Zamora    Wow this one came from left field. Never expected Toshiba to Launch the World’s Thinnest Tablet http://t.co/b01qJIE9 1 hour ago via Tweet Button ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    @SpitzStrategy
    Michael Spitz    iPad still untappable: RT @mashable: Toshiba to Launch World’s Thinnest Tablet Next Week – http://t.co/YfmlRHCp #mhealth 4 hours ago via TweetDeck ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

  • Is Google Play The New Google Tablet?

    A recent spate of domain name purchases appears to confirm that Google does have a new Google-branded tablet in the works. What’s more, the domain names may even tell us the name of the new tablet: Google Play.

    According to a report posted early this morning on Fusible, Google has purchased eighteen domain names all related to the word “Play” and most containing the phrase “Google Play.” The domains were purchased through MarkMonitor, a company devoted to “protecting brands in the digital world.” Many companies – Google included – use MarkMonitor to prevent squatters from taking domains related to the names of their products. The full list of domains is below:

    appsonplay.com
    booksonplay.com
    gamesonplay.com
    googleplayapps.com
    googleplaybooks.com
    googleplaydownloads.com
    googleplaygames.com
    googleplaymagazines.com
    googleplaymovies.com
    googleplaymusic.com
    googleplaynewspapers.com
    googleplaynewsstand.com
    googleplaytv.com
    googleplayvideos.com
    magazinesonplay.com
    moviesonplay.com
    newspapersonplay.com
    tvonplay.com

    At the moment none of the domains actually go anywhere. As the Google Play nears release, it’s a safe bet that they’ll redirect to Google’s official site for the device (just as ipod.com and iphone.com take you to Apple’s site for those devices).

    While it’s possible that “Google Play” is something other than the rumored tablet, the timing is a little too convenient for that. Last year Eric Schmidt announced that Google was working on their own tablet, to be released within six months (i.e., by May or June of 2012). Last week industry analyst Richard Shim said that Google was preparing a 7-inch tablet, and that the device would be going into production in April.

    Both Shim’s prediction and this domain name purchase fit well in Schmidt’s six month time frame, so it’s a pretty good bet that we’ll be seeing the Google Play within the next couple months. We’ll bring you more news as it becomes available.

    Would you buy a Google-branded Android tablet? What do you think of the name “Google Play”? Let us know in the comments.

  • Apple Likely Producing iPad Mini Screens

    Apple Likely Producing iPad Mini Screens

    Apple’s iPad makers have began delivering samples of 7.85-inch tablet panels to manufacturers for verification, according to Digitimes. Volume production is said to begin some time in the third quarter of 2012, according to industry sources. An iPad Mini would be a direct response to Amazon’s bestselling Kindle Fire, Barnes and Noble’s Nook, as well as other 7-inch Android Tablets.

    One can pretend this iPad has a 7.85 inch screen, to visualize an iPad Mini:

    ipad

    Steve Jobs thought that the present size of an iPad is the smallest possible for a tablet, though some users consider its size to be bulky, and would like something sized between an iPad and an iPhone – about 7 inches. Earlier this month, Ezra Gottheil, an analyst with Technology Business Research, told the Chicago Tribune that Apple expects to release an iPad Mini later this year. In response to Jobs’ assertion that a 7-inch screen would be too small for an iPad to “express the software,” Gottheil speculates that Apple might include a keyboard accessory with a mini iPad. “I believe that’s always been in the plan,” Gottheil adds. “Actually, that’s a good form factor for some users, and although they will also charge a premium above other similar-sized tablets, they want to protect that price flank.”

    Apple has sold a lot of iPads so far, and grabbed a nearly 60% share of the tablet market in 2011. Still, Apple is losing market share to Android tablets, falling to 57.6% in Q4 2011, according to data from Strategy Analytics. In Q4 2010, iPads had 68.2% of the worlds tablet market. Digitimes estimates that the price of a 7.85-inch iPad would likely be set at US$249-299, considering Apple has lowered the price of the 16GB iPad 2 to US$449, as an addition to the latest on iPad mini rumors.

  • iPad Trade-Ins on eBay Rising

    iPad Trade-Ins on eBay Rising

    eBay has stated that customers are trading in their first and second generation iPads ten times more than they were last February, likely in anticipation of Apple’s release of its iPad 3. eBay said it received 125K tablet trade-in offers this month, 97.6% being iPads. These offers fall under eBay’s Instant Sale Program, which is different from its traditional auction service. Basically, sellers describe their item, eBay pays for the shipping, takes care of wiping the data on the device, and pays cash.

    eBay says that since the inception of its Instant Sale Program, 7.3 million trade-in offers have been made. Though Apple devices make up the majority of the trade-ins, other electronics are accepted, like Blackberries and Playstations. eBay has ranked its top-traded gadgets:

    Top Apple tablet models:
    1. iPad 1 Wi-Fi + 3G AT&T
    2. iPad 1 Wi-Fi only
    3. iPad 2 Wi-Fi only
    4. iPad 2 Wi-Fi + 3G Verizon
    5. iPad 2 Wi-Fi + 3G AT&T

    Top non-Apple tablet models:
    1. ViewSonic ViewPad 10 16GB
    2. Motorola XOOM 32GB Wi-Fi
    3. Asus Eee Pad Transformer 16GB
    4. Acer Iconia Tab A500 16GB
    5. Dell Streak 7 16GB Wi-Fi

    It’s not surprising that more eBayers are trading in their iPads. With the release of the earlier generations, there had been shortages, adding weeks to availability. Apple sold about 32 million iPads last year, and the iPad 3 will surely maintain the popularity of the device.

  • Sony Tablet Goes Two-Screen: Priced Less Than $400

    Sony Tablet Goes Two-Screen: Priced Less Than $400

    This thing looks awesome! On March 4th Sony will release its new tablet which will feature dual screens. If you sign up for a two-year data plan with AT&T, they sell it for $399.99. Not a bad deal if you have the scratch.

    Sony already has apps available which are optimized for the device including games, lifestyle, and entertainment-based selections. The device is PlayStation certified and ready to provide any of the Sony Entertainment services.

    Obviously the device is wi-fi capable and it operates on the Android 3.2 system. Check out what Sony and AT&T promise with this innovative dual-screen creation:

    Specifications
    Display
    Resolution: 1024 x 480 (each screen)
    Screen Size: 5.5″ (x 2 – dual screens)
    Hardware
    Camera: Front – 0.3 Megapixel Rear – 5 Megapixel
    Inputs and Outputs
    Headphone Output: 1
    MicroUSB: 1
    Memory
    Internal Memory: 1GB
    Power
    Battery Life (Approx): Up to 7 hours (based on general usage)
    Battery Type: Li-Ion
    Processor
    Processor Type: NVIDIA® Tegra™2 mobile processor, dual-core 1GHz
    Software
    Operating System: Android 3.2
    Storage
    External storage: microSD card slot (expandable up to 32GB, 2GB microSD card included)
    Internal Storage Capacity: 4GB
    Weights and Measurements
    Dimensions (Approx.): Open – 6.23l x 7.09w x 0.56h (inches) Closed – 3.12l x 7.09w x 1.03 h (inches)
    Weight (Approx.): 0.83 lbs
    Wireless/Networking
    Bluetooth® Technology: Bluetooth version 2.1 + EDR
    Wi-Fi: IEEE802.11b/g/n

    AT&T is offering data plans that run between $15 and $50 for the tablet. Here’s another look at the device:

  • Consumers’ Financial Lives Becoming More Digital

    Cha-ching! In the United States, half of all bill payments made (by households with access to the Internet) are being paid online. Nearly forty percent of mobile banking users have paid a bill using their phone and one out of every four online households have used mobile banking. Interesting numbers and findings from the latest Fiserv Consumer Trends Survey announced today by Fiserv, a leading global provider of financial services technology solutions. The survey was completed in August of 2011 by 3,000 individuals representative of the U.S. online population and provides insight into the consumer use of digital channels for financial services since 2002.

    The survey revealed that consumers are increasingly moving toward online and mobile channels for their daily financial management and that demand for tablet banking services will be growing in the future. According to Fiserv, the proliferation of smartphones, changing consumer expectations and entrance of non-traditional competitors has sparked a literal mobile banking revolution that financial institutions should consider an urgent call to action. To remain competitive in this rapidly evolving area, financial institutions will have to utilize mobile banking and payments strategies. Detailed findings from the survey are available in a free research paper, “Financial Services Continue the Digital Shift,” at www.fiserv.com/research

    Consumers have definitely gone digital and are moving beyond only using mobile channels to check balances or locate an ATM. Mobile banking is gaining popularity with a remarkable increase in transactions. Smart users are now taking advantage of being able to pay bills and transfer money online. The survey results found that sixty percent of users use a mobile browser (most common) for mobile banking access. Forty-one percent of those surveyed utilized downloadable apps and thirty-two percent used text messaging.

    Geoff Knapp, Vice President, Online Banking, Digital Channels for Fiserv remarks, “Consumers’ lives are becoming more and more digital, and their financial lives are no exception. They are increasingly turning to the online and mobile channels for everything from opening accounts to sending and receiving money, and their interest in using new devices like tablets for financial services is strong.”

    Nineteen percent of online households currently own a tablet and another twenty percent plan to purchase one according to the survey. This means almost forty percent of online households could own a tablet by the middle of 2012. Additionally, multi-tablet homes are emerging with thirty-seven percent of current tablet owners saying they plan to purchase another. These current and future tablet owners and operators plan to use them to view monthly statements, pay bills, view real-time account information and transfer money.

    Mobile and Tablet Banking – Fiserv Consumer Trends Survey

    View more presentations from Fiserv

  • ASUS Padfone Finally Revealed at MWC

    ASUS Padfone Finally Revealed at MWC

    The time has finally come for the ASUS PadFone at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. Previously announced at last years CES, the PadFone features a smartphone/tablet combo. In essence the PadFone combines a 4.3″ Super AMOLED screen powered by Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich), with a 10.1″ tablet that increases the battery life up to 5 times longer.

    The magic happens when you insert the PadPhone into the optional PadPhone Station. The “Station” is a dock on the back of the tablet that, when inserted, the system uses ASUS’ proprietary “Dynamic Display Technology ” to seamlessly transition between the PadFone and PadFone Station display screens. As an option, they also offer a keyboard which will essentially to turn your PadFone into an ultra portable computing device. This 3-in-one design is unique, but haven’t we all dreamed of this in the past? Here’s hoping more smartphone/tablet makers get on board….cough, cough….Apple.

    The new PadFone will feature the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 dual core processor clocked at up to 1.5GHz. It also features an ultra-sharp 8-megapixel digital camera with Fuji image processor, a front facing camera(VGA) and between 16 and 64 GB of memory which is expandable through microSD. The PadFone Station has an eight megapixel rear camera and a 1.3-megapixel front facing one. It also has a mini HDMI port and a microSD slot.

    As of this announcement there is no release date.

  • Google-Branded Tablet Coming Soon?

    Google-Branded Tablet Coming Soon?

    Back in December we brought you news that Google might have their own Google-branded tablet in the works. In an interview with an Italian newspaper, Eric Schmidt said that Google was working on a high-quality tablet to challenge the iPad. In the interview Schmidt promised that the tablet would be available sometime in the next six months.

    According to a report today from CNet, that Google-branded tablet might be well on its way to becoming a reality. According to DisplaySearch analyst Richard Shim, Google is preparing a 7-inch tablet with a resolution of 1280×800, slated to begin production in April. The tablet will likely sell in the same price range as the Kindle Fire (which has a slightly lower resolution). The tablet will almost certainly run Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich (or maybe 5.0 Jelly Bean?).

    A request for comment sent to Google has not yet received a response. Given Eric Schmidt’s certainty about a Google tablet back in December you can be pretty sure that such a device is somewhere in Google’s pipeline. Whether Shim’s details are correct or not remains to be seen. We will definitely keep you posted as more details become available.

    What do you think? Would you be interested in a Google-branded tablet? Let us know what you think in the comments.

  • Conan O’Brien Takes Two Screens To a New Level

    Conan O’Brien Takes Two Screens To a New Level

    The Team Coco Tablet App steps into the entertainment fray, bringing the “two screens” phenomenon to late night.

    Armed with the knowledge that many TV viewers have their smartphone or tablet handy when watching shows, the Team Coco visionaries aim to harness that power in a deliberate fashion. Their concept: watch Conan with the Team Coco Tablet App running, enable the new “Sync” feature within the app, and get bonus content synchronized with that show in real-time. Well, time-shifted time. But, synchronized time-shifted time. You get the idea.

    Feast your eyes.

  • Dell Reports Record Revenues in 2011

    Dell Reports Record Revenues in 2011

    Dell reported record-high revenues for the 4th quarter of 2011, though profits were slightly down. Desktop and laptop sales slumped, while server sales have increased.

    Dell’s revenue for Q4 last year was $16 billion, up 2%, while its net income was down 18%, at $764 million, compared to $927 million for the 4th quarter of 2010. Dell called 2011 the “company’s most successful financial year ever,” with a full year revenue increase of one percent to $62 billion, according to The Inquirer.

    Michael Dell, chairman and CEO of the company, goes on to say, “I’m very pleased with our fiscal year results and the strong performance we’re seeing in our commercial businesses. We remain focused on developing and acquiring new technologies and capabilities, and our IT solutions portfolio has never been stronger. Customers are now seeing Dell in a fresh light, and we’re heading into the new year with strength and optimism.” Dell’s expanding strength as an enterprise solutions provider helped to drive revenues of late, which saw a record $18.6 billion in 2011. Dell’s net income for the fiscal year was $3.5 billion, up 33%.

    Consumer business experienced a drop of 2% in revenue to $3.2 billion, and fell 43% in operating income to $39 million. The company attributed this to the general decline of the U.S. economy. Dell also released the Inspiron Duo last year, which has a unique flip-hinge design akin to a tablet, but likewise dropped out of the U.S. tablet market after discontinuing it’s Streak 7.

    Dell expects revenue growth of 5 to 9 percent for 2012, with typical seasonal declines in its consumer and public businesses, for Q1 of this year.

  • iPad’s Biggest Competitor Is iPhone 4S, Not Kindle Fire

    According to a recent study by iSuppli, the iPad so thoroughly owns the tablet market that its nearest competitor isn’t a tablet at all: it’s the iPhone 4S. In the fourth quarter of 2011 Apple shipped 15.4 million iPads. That number was lower than expected for the quarter, but the hit to the iPad’s market share came from the iPhone 4S, which launched at the beginning of the quarter, and which ate up a lot of disposable income that might otherwise have gone toward iPads.

    Amazon, meanwhile, had a strong showing with their Kindle Fire tablet, which sold 3.9 million units during the fourth quarter. Unlike the iPad, the Kindle Fire met analysts’ expecations almost exactly. Sales of the Kindle Fire also allowed Amazon to surpass Samsung to take second place in the tablet market for the quarter, after the iPad. Samsung retained second place for the year, however. In both cases, Amazon and Samsung were in second by a huge margin. Apple’s 15.4 million sales in the fourth quarter are almost quadruple Amazon’s Kindle Fire sales, and their 40.5 million sales for the year are nearly seven times Samsung’s sales.

    The study also predicted that Apple would make up for its losses in market share in the first half of 2012 with the launch of the iPad 3. The tablet market as a whole continued to grow in 2011. Total tablet sales came to 65.2 million units, beating analysts’ expectations by half a million units.

  • Mobile Devices Influencing Consumer Purchases

    According to the Google Mobile Ads Blog, in a 2011 study conducted in tandem with Ipsos, consumers are using mobile devices more and more, to help command the points of purchase while shopping online or in-store.

    During the holiday shopping season, 41% of consumers made purchases directly on their smartphones, 46% noted that they picked out their item on their smartphone, and completed the purchase in-store, and 37% said they researched their item on their phone, and bought it online. Of the three modes of purchase, it was also noted that consumers with tablet devices were more prone to read product reviews and look up more product information, likely due to their larger screens and portability, according to Dai Pham, of Google Mobile Ads Marketing. It’s now easier to get detailed information about a product from the couch, kitchen or bed, with a tablet device.

    Naturally, most consumers are using their smartphones to contact the retailers directly, with click-to-call phone numbers on company websites making this convenient. With 80% of consumers saying that they’d used their smartphones while shopping this year, along with 70% of tablet users, it is essentially that retailers optimize their websites to engage customers on all three devices.

    For more information on consumer trends in regards to desktop, mobile and tablet devices, check out a report on Post Holiday Learnings for 2012.