The Iconia Tab A200 Android tablet

Acer has been a little busy these last few weeks of 2011. They've put out the word that they remain committed to more Android tablets with the Tegra 3 processor in 2012. We've also seen a video pop out before an announcement of a new Iconia Tab in a very feel good 'Apple-esc' style of marketing. Now, Acer has put out an official Press Release for the all new ICONIA TAB A200 Android tablet.

The Acer ICONIA TAB A200, is running Android 3.2 Honeycomb, with an Android 4.0 ICS available upgrade in January 2012. It has a couple of tricks up its sleeve on why you would want this tablet over the currently released A500 or A501 tablets in stores. We'll get to those reasons in just a minute. The ICONIA TAB A200 comes with 8GB or 16GB sizes, a choice of Titanium Grey or Metallic Red color panels, 10.1 inch capacitive multitouch screen with 1280 x 800 resolution, 1GB RAM, 1GHz NVIDIA Tegra 2 dual-core processor and a front facing 2 megapixel camera. It has an approximate 8 hours of battery life as well as the usual Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 2.1 and USB.

Samsung Transform Ultra

The Samsung Transform Ultra has a 3.5-inch HVGA touch screen and 1GHz processor

The good: Like its twin on Boost Mobile, the Samsung Transform Ultra has an uncluttered Android Gingerbread interface, a front-facing camera, and a fair price tag.

The bad: The keyboard on the Samsung Transform Ultra could rise a little higher, and camera quality could be improved.

The bottom line: Folks looking for a phone with a QWERTY keyboard will find in the Samsung Transform Ultra a reliable midtier device, though $20 more could nab you an even better phone.

It's rare for parent carrier Sprint to show a handset after one of its MVNOs, but that's exactly the order of arrival for the Samsung Transform Ultra, which first debuted on Boost Mobile in early October, about three weeks before the handset became available on Sprint.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus review

We've already established that the Galaxy Tab 10.1 is a great tablet. Then, just recently, we summarily found that the 1.2-inch smaller Galaxy Tab 8.9 is an even better tablet -- at least for anyone who wants to take their slate places. So, following that logic, the even more petite Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus should be the best of the three, right?

Not so fast. We've been here before, and things weren't exactly great. The original Galaxy Tab was, of course, a 7-incher and wasn't universally well received thanks to a number of problems -- the first being a $600 MSRP. Another issue was an Android 2.2 build that tried its best but was ultimately ill-suited for tablet duties. This new 7-inch installment packs a dual-core 1.2GHz processor, a tablet-friendlier build of Android 3.2 Honeycomb and a somewhat more palatable $400 price tag.

So, it's clearly better equipped than its predecessor, but that one shipped a whopping 12 months ago. How does the newer, fancier Tab compete in this newer, fancier present? Read on to find out.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus review

Hardware
Samsung's last tablet really did look like a slate that was run through the wrong washing cycle and came out a size 8.9 rather than the 10.1 it started as. The 7.0 Plus, however, is a rather different beast, slotting in somewhere between the 8.9 and the Galaxy Note both in terms of styling and, of course, size.

Sprint rides the Express to Budget Town

Do you choo-choo-choose the Sprint Express, or does it choose you? The Now Network's mixing things up this holiday season by adding its own branded device -- in reality, a reworked Huawei Boulder that Sprint slapped its name on -- to the low end of its smartphone lineup. Known simply as the Express, it's a portrait QWERTY Android 2.3 handset that will set you back $20 with a two-year contract (after a $50 mail-in rebate). What you'll get in return for that hard-earned Jackson is a 2.6-inch QVGA (320 x 240) display, 3.2MP camera, 256MB of RAM, 512MB of internal storage (with expandable microSD slot), a 1,500mAh battery and a 3G mobile hotspot that supports up to five devices. We doubt it'll be the first stop on anybody's Black Friday shopping list, but we think it may actually get penciled into the schedule somewhere.

Android Phones Seeing 'Malware Epidemic'

Mobile phones running on Google's Android operating system are experiencing a "malware epidemic," with the amount of malicious software having risen nearly fivefold since July, according to a post by the security research division of Juniper Networks.

More than half of the smartphones sold worldwide in the third quarter of the year use Android software, the research firm Gartner said this week. And as the platform grows, so do its malware woes. Cybersecurity firm McAfee reported in August that Android had become the number-one target for malicious software.

October and November are expected to see the fastest growth of malware in the history of the Android operating system, according to the post by Juniper Global Threat Center. This comes after a fourfold increase in Android malware from 2009 to the summer of 2010, the company said. By Juniper's count, that means Android malware has increased a stunning 427% from July 2011 to November 10, 2011.

Juniper said hackers have become more sophisticated in the malware they create for Android, writing malicious code that allows them to take control of the phone, spy on victims and send premium-rate text messages - which can cost $2 to $3 each - from a victim’s phone to the hacker, who collects the money.

Juniper said malware on Android devices has become widespread because Google’s method for policing its mobile app store is less stringent than Apple’s system for keeping malware out of its mobile app store.

"There is still no upfront review process in the official Android Market that offers even the hint of a challenge to malware writers that their investment in coding malware will be for naught," the report said.

Malicious applications in the Android market can be removed after the fact if someone discovers it and reports it, Juniper said.

"But how many unsuspecting people are going to download it before it is identified as malicious and removed?" the post said. "This is precisely what is playing out in the mind of mobile malware developers today."

A recent report by the malware testers at AV-Test.org found that most free Android malware scanners did a poor job of detecting malicious software. "[T]he circulation of obviously near to useless security apps endangers those, who trust them and install apps from 3rd party app markets without further suspiciousness," read AV-Test's report, according to ZDNET.

HTC Android phones can be synced with iTunes

HTC Android phone users can sync their devices with iTunes. Those who have the HTC Rhyme or HTC Sensation XL can now sync their images, music, videos in iTunes with their Android devices.

All the users need to do is install the latest version of HTC Sync and all the iTunes information of the users is detected by the software. It then asks the users which content they would want to sync on their phones.
There are other iTunes syncing methods available on web as well, but they haven't worked as smoothly as the new option from HTC has. The new feature has not been publicized by the company yet but all new devices of HTC are expected to come with this facility.

The idea behind this HTC move is to make its Android smartphones more user friendly than ever, but for the HTC Sync to work, the smartphones would still need to be connected with the computer, which might be okay for the users only because syncing with iTunes was not there before, otherwise it sounds inconvenient.
The Android smartphones from HTC, the Sensation XL and Rhyme were launched recently in Taiwan, and are soon expected to be launched in India as well.

Android App Downloads Surpass iOS App Downloads For the First Time

Android has taken the lead in application market downloads, according to reports by by market analysts. This is the first time for the platform to overtake iOS, although Apple still trumps Google in terms of revenue and per-user downloads

ABI Research recently revealed market findings during the 2nd quarter of 2011. According to the analysts, Android Market downloads have surpassed those of Apple’s App Store. During that period, Android got a 44% market share in app downloads, while Apple’s share slid to 31%.

ABI credits this trend to Google’s open approach to Android and application development, citing how the platform is open for use by multiple manufacturers, while Apple’s iOS is a closed ecosystem. Also, quarterly shipment figures point toward a decline in iPhone sales during 2Q 2011, with a 9% shipment growth compared to 15% in the previous quarter. Meanwhile, Android smartphone shipments grew 36% compared to 20% in Q1 2011.

However, ABI qualifies this trend, saying that Apple is not exactly a net loser. In terms of per-user downloads, iOS users still outnumber Android users in average, by a factor of 2-to-1. iOS is said to be a better ecosystem for developers and users. ABI attributes this to better monetization for developers and a better user experience for smartphone users. As such, Android may be overtaking iOS in terms of raw numbers, but Apple’s winning strategy is focusing its market on getting the most out of each user and out of each application.

ABI’s Mobile Applications Market Data research says the global app market is expected to reach 29 billion app downloads by end of the year, compared to 2010′s 9 billion. Meanwhile, the total smartphone install base is expected to grow 46% compared to last year’s.

BlackBerry's business problem

Addictions are tough to break, yet Research in Motion seems to be doing whatever it can to help users cast aside their CrackBerrys once and for all. Consider just a few of the reasons the Canadian maker of the BlackBerry smartphone is ailing: an international outage in mid-October; the Playbook tablet, a weak answer to the iPad; and phones with web browsing that is both laughably low-quality and slow as molasses.

All of these woes mean that RIM (RIMM) faces its greatest existential crisis yet. At a time when its product lineup and network service have never been weaker, Apple (AAPL) and Android users are fiercely attacking BlackBerry's greatest strength -- the business market. Sure, BlackBerry had its moment of hipness, when advertising built around the likes of U2's Bono helped convince kids its smartphones were cool. But "the enterprise" was always RIM's sweet spot. Selling functional e-mail devices with a proprietary -- and secure -- network is where BlackBerry has excelled. That's why its three-day service outage was such a black eye.

For a while now BlackBerry has lagged in the kind of applications that make iPhones and Android devices so popular. And recently Apple has been highlighting business applications like Dropbox and Cisco's (CSCO) WebEx in its iPhone advertising. Though Apple focuses on consumers, it frequently notes that 93% of the Fortune 500 is testing or has already deployed the iPhone -- a terrifying statistic for RIM.

Meet the top 7 app makers of 2011

At the same time Motorola (MMI), which Google (GOOG) is buying, suggests its new Droid RAZR will sell well to chief information officer buyers, who value its inexpensive but high-quality "cloud" capabilities. The cloud lets users access content on networks businesses don't have to maintain themselves. "CIOs today understand there is a shift in IT to cloud and mobilization, whether they like it or not," says Motorola Mobility CEO Sanjay Jha.

RIM still has plenty going for it. Peter Walker, the company's senior director for enterprise product management, trumpets the "BlackBerry Balance" technology, for example, which lets business customers control employees' devices while enabling the use of personal apps. It is also beefing up its offerings from independent app developers. A bevy of new phones and tablets built around a redesigned operating system is expected next year.

Most important, the company still has 70 million worldwide subscribers, and shipped some 10.6 million smartphones last quarter. "A whole lot of businesses remain BlackBerry loyalists," says Kevin Restivo, a Toronto-based analyst with market tracker IDC. He says RIM is still strong for businesses where compliance matters, like law firms. Still, he notes, "enterprise is not the exclusive domain of RIM anymore." The problem with this narcotic, it seems, is that there are many suitable replacements.

--Reporter associate Richard Nieva, This article is from the November 21, 2011 issue of Fortune.

Android & iOS Now Dominate the Mobile Gaming Market

Amid a changing mobile gaming landscape, portable gaming consoles are losing their edge among consumers. Analysts report that Apple’s and Google’s mobile platforms have surpassed the PSP and DS in terms of mobile gaming revenues.

Nintendo and Sony have traditionally led the mobile gaming market in terms of platform and revenue. But as mobile devices become more capable as gaming platforms, mobile consoles are losing their edge in the market. Figures from Flurry Analytics indicate that Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS are fast eating into the revenues of Nintendo and Sony in terms of mobile games.

In 2009, iOS and Android only had a 19% share of the market. In 2010, this grew to 34%. This year, Android and iOS are the dominant platform, with 58% of revenues from mobile games. Flurry says the entire mobile gaming industry is worth $3.3 billion this year, which fetches the iOS and Android platform almost $2 billion, distributed among game developers and the platform owners themselves.

Meanwhile, Nintendo now only owns 36% of the market it once dominated, and Sony has a paltry 6%.

Analyst Peter Farago says the mobile gaming business model is fast-changing. Portable gaming systems cost about $200, with games selling for $25 or more per cartridge. This has been supplanted by application ecosystems, with games selling for as little as $0.99. Many games even follow a “freemium” model, in which the games themselves are free, but developers earn from premium content, such as in-game items, add-on software, and the like.

As a result, companies like Nintendo are struggling. With falling Wii sales and difficulty in maintaining its market share in mobile games, Nintendo is facing a financial hardship, which is not helped by the fact that Google and Apple are also planning to take over the living room with integrated TVs and entertainment systems running their respective platforms.

With these developments, is it game over for Sony and Nintendo, at least in the mobile gaming race?

Smartphone Buying Guide

Before developing a purchasing strategy, organisations first need to understand the market including the major players and their operating system (OS) roadmaps. For example, Google’s Android platform and Apple’s iOS combined currently command 60 per cent market share.

The following guide outlines the top platforms and the roadmap issues that need to be considered prior to any significant investment.

Google

Android continues to be the platform of choice gaining 40 per cent of the smartphone market in 2011. Moreover, the platform will continue to mature driving developer interest in its ecosystem.

“The release of the Ice Cream Sandwich version will make the platform more appealing to developers, as the OS will unify user interfaces (UIs) across smartphones and tablet form factors,” according to Gartner analyst, Roberta Cozza.

Android’s position at the high end of the market will remain strong, but its greatest volume opportunity in the longer term will be in mid-to-low smartphones. Gartner expects Android to hold 50 per cent market share by 2015.

Nokia

Symbian’s appeal over the next two years will be limited to emerging markets and more price-sensitive consumers in mature markets. Following its alliance with Microsoft, Nokia is expected to retire Symbian during 2012 and to migrate to Windows Phone as its main smartphone OS.

This will impact Symbian’s market share, which is expected to drop globally to 21 per cent in 2011 and 6.6 per cent in 2012, Gartner said.

Nokia will push Windows Phone well into the mid-tier range of its portfolio by the end of 2012, driving the platform to be the third largest in worldwide rankings, ahead of RIM, by 2013.

Apple
Apple’s iOS will remain the second-biggest platform worldwide until 2014, according to Gartner. However, falling prices and increasing volumes of lower cost devices will impact Apple’s market share.

“Our assumption is that Apple will be interested in maintaining margins and profit, rather than pursuing market share by changing its pricing strategy, this will limit adoption in emerging markets,” Cozza said.

Blackberry

The transition to QNX will enable RIM to bring to market more competitive products which will mitigate an overall decline in market share during 2013, Gartner said.

With the migration of legacy Blackberry devices to QNX (the OS used on the Blackberry PlayBook in 2012), RIM will be able to offer users a consistent experience across its whole product portfolio and create a single developer community.

Gartner said organisations most interested in this platform will be those that have already deployed RIM infrastructure or have stringent security requirements.

HP

HP is currently undergoing a major transition. Earlier this year HP announced it would stop producing hardware based on the webOS with plans to explore new alternatives. The announcement came after continuing poor sales of new webOS smartphones and the TouchPad’s failure to capture consumer interest.

Although the webOS platform had potential as a modern OS with a good UI, Cozza said a lack of applications, services and content limited its appeal.

Samsung

Gartner said Bada has done relatively well at the low end of the smartphone market. But one problem with the platform is that it offers no development path for tablet devices. Users want to share applications across devices so this is likely to limit uptake.

Intel Without the support of Nokia, Gartner believes MeeGo has little potential to become a relevant platform in the smartphone market.

Intel has plans to merge MeeGo with another open source effort, the LiMo Foundation, to create a new platform called Tizen. Gartner said both MeeGo and LiMo have, as separate entities, failed to attract mind share and the support of developers.

“Gartner remains unconvinced that a combined effort will change that much,” Cozza said.

HTC Edge quad-core, Tegra 3 phone tipped

HTC is reportedly preparing the world's first quad-core smartphone, the HTC Edge.

According to PocketNow, which claims to have leaked images of the purported device, the Edge would boast a Tegra 3 processor, packing a whopping four 1.5GHz chips.

The Tegra 2 processor, made by NVIDIA, currently lives within the most powerful Android phones on the market and that boasts two 1.5GHz chips, so quad-core would represent a huge upgrade.

The HTC Edge in question reportedly has a 4.7-inch HD display, 1GB of RAM and an 8-megapixel camera with an LED flash, putting it up there with the top-specced Android devices.
MWC debut?

The first quad-core phones are expected in early 2012, so it would be a reasonable assumption to expect this device to appear at Mobile World congress in just three months time.

Given that time period, it's also likely that any new releases from HTC would arrive packing the new Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich operating system.

The NVIDA Tegra 2 processor has primarily made Android phones more of a competitor in terms of gaming and graphical capabilities.

Quad-core phones could allow users of Google's operating system to experience even more iOS-like games that require a lot of power and put greater tools in the hands of developers.

Via: PocketNow

Gingerbread Is The King for Android Platform

Google has released the latest Android Platform distribution data for the two weeks period ending on November 3, and there are three things that caught our attention.

First of all, Gingerbread has finally taken over as the top Android OS in the land of Android devices. Over 44% of devices that accessed the Android Market in the 2 week period ending in November 3 were Gingerbread devices.

This is due to the fact that pretty much all new Android devices that have launched in the past few months have launched with Gingerbread.

The second thing visible from the data is that Froyo still accounts for over 40% of phones out there. This is bad news because it means that the upgrade process to Android 2.3 is still moving at a slow pace.

The last thing that caught our attention is the Honeycomb distribution. Unfortunately, things aren’t looking so good for Honeycomb. Less than 2% of total Android devices are running a version of Honeycomb (Android 3.x). Yes, the number is climbing, but let’s be real, it’s climbing at a very slow pace.

via Android Developers

Panasonic Toughbook, Tablet Powered by Android

Panasonic’s line of Toughbook notebooks can handle a whole heap of abuse, and the company is now cleverly expanding into the tablet market with the same basic principles of durability and security. Panasonic on Monday unveiled its Toughpad family of Android-powered devices, with both 7 and 10-inch options. The first model, the Panasonic Toughpad A1, is a 10-inch tablet that features a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, 16GB of storage, FIPS 140-X compliance, optional LTE or WiMAX connectivity, GPS, a drop rating of 4 feet and 10 hours of battery life. Panasonic’s tablets will also be able to withstand a wide range of temperatures and are resistant to dust and water, in addition to sporting anti-reflective and anti-glare displays. The first Toughpad, the 10-inch A1, will go on sale starting in Spring of 2012 for $1,299, and the 7-inch Toughbook B1 will go on sale later in 2012. Panasonic’s full press release can be found after the break.

Tips to Buy the Best Tablet

It's difficult to remember a time before tablets, but it's been a mere 18 months since the first Apple iPad was released, and the current tablet market was born. Since then, we've seen scores of manufacturers trying to snag a slice of the tablet pie, which so far, has been dominated by Apple, who is now on its second iPad iteration. According to a study by Strategy Analytics, of the 7.5 million tablets that shipped during the second quarter, 80 percent were iPads, well ahead of those from rivals like Motorola, Samsung, RIM, Asus, and HTC.

That's not stopping others from trying. And the result so far has been a float of difficult-to-distinguish tablets at various price points, performance capabilities, and feature sets. There hasn't really been another standout. The latest big name to throw its hat in the already-crowded tablet ring: Amazon. The company's Android-based Kindle Fire won't be available until mid-November, but it comes at a very pleasing $199—a price low that no quality tablet has been able to yet manage. It will be interesting to see what Amazon's entry means for both the iPad and the non-Apple tablet market share.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus with 4G, available for $250

We were already expecting to see the WiFi-only version of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus make its American debut on November 13th, but it may be worth waiting an extra three days if you'd like to have some good old-fashioned HSPA+ connectivity on T-Mobile.

Indeed, the carrier announced its 4G-ified iteration of the tablet will be ready for your purchase on November 16th for a $250 down payment after a mail-in rebate and with a two-year contract. Oh, and that's not the only fine print: you'll need to shell out twenty monthly interest-free payments of $10 in addition to your normal data plan.

To sum up the specs, the seven-inch tablet has Android 3.2 preinstalled, runs on a 1.2GHz Exynos CPU, has 16GB of internal storage and takes advantage of a 3MP rear-facing camera and 2MP front-facing cam for video chat. Still intrigued? Read on through the press release to learn more about your potential Tab life.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus will join the recently announced T-Mobile® SpringBoard™ with Google™ and Samsung Galaxy Tab™ 10.1, as well as the T-Mobile G-Slate™ with Google, to offer an affordable and compelling portfolio of 7-, 9- and 10-inch 4G tablets with down payments ranging from $179.99 to $399.99***.

Beginning Nov. 16, customers can purchase the T-Mobile SpringBoard for a $179.99 down payment and the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus for a $249.99 down payment at T-Mobile retail stores. Each require a $50 mail-in rebate, with a T-Mobile Value Mobile Broadband plan, two-year service agreement, and 20 interest free monthly payments of $10 on approved credit. Overage-free Mobile Broadband Value plans start at $29.99 per month, and T-Mobile postpaid voice customers enjoy $10 off their monthly mobile broadband service. For more information, visit http://mobile-broadband.t-mobile.com/tablets.

Barnes & Noble's Nook Tablet Hands-On

Barnes & Noble announced a $249 Nook Tablet Monday that will compete with Amazon's not-yet-launched Kindle Fire tablet; the Nook Tablet sports a customized version of the Android OS, runs Android apps, streams video from content partners such as Hulu, and (of course) can be used as an e-book reader.

Barnes & Noble's Nook Tablet

Though it officially goes on sale at the end of next week, you can preorder the Nook Tablet now, according to Barnes & Noble.

A Closer Look

The 7-inch Nook Tablet is the second generation of B&N's Nook Color platform, and with the adoption of the simple name “Nook Tablet,” the company acknowledges what we've all known for the past year: That this LCD-based platform is as much a tablet as an e-reader. The Nook Tablet will cost $50 more than Amazon's Kindle Fire, but for that, you get more than what Amazon offers. Or what any other tablet offers, for that matter.

That said, the Nook Tablet's interface looks nothing like that of the Android masses. The software is a wholly customized version of Android 2.3, with optimizations for accessing your reading material. Like the Nook Color before it, the Nook Tablet lacks access to Google services, including Android Market; to download apps, you'll have to go through B&N's own app store, which is growing daily.

USB 3.0: Three Times Awesome

If you’ve ever connected a media player to your laptop to sync up a few gigabytes of music and movies, only to spend the next eight hours waiting … waiting … waiting for the job to complete, you’re the number one candidate for USB 3.0.

USB 3.0, as the name implies, is the third major version of the USB standard, perhaps the most successful, universally-adopted connector format in the history of computing.

USB is beloved for its simplicity, its ability to charge battery-powered electronics connected through it, and phenomenal availability among thousands of devices – not just computer peripherals but also consumer electronics galore.

That is, until you find yourself in the fourth hour of that eight-hour synchronization slog. Then USB becomes a pain instead of a savior.

And that’s the main issue that USB 3.0 (also known as SuperSpeed USB) was designed to address, pumping up the maximum throughput of USB from the 48Mbps of USB 2.0 to the 480Mbps of USB 3.0.
That alone solves a lot of problems, but USB 3.0 also has another trick up its sleeve: The ability to charge more power-hungry devices than USB 2.0 could. USB 2.0 could provide up to 100 milliamps of power to gadgets connected via the connector. That was fine for the cell phones of 2004, but in 2011, USB gizmos often need so much juice that they can’t charge via USB 2.0. Most tablets won’t charge at all via a USB connection, and those that do will usually only “trickle charge,” an agonizingly slow operation that can take all day.

USB 3.0 bumps power output up to 900 milliamps, providing power aplenty for just about anything you could think to throw at it.

Best of all, in keeping with USB’s history, USB 3.0 is backward compatible with USB 2.0 devices. In other words, if your computer has a USB 3.0 port, you can still plug a USB 2.0 hard drive into it – and vice versa – though in both cases the connection will operate at the slower, USB 2.0 speed.

While USB 3.0 was introduced last year, support for it remains spotty, and even computers that feature USB 3.0 ports tend to have only a couple instead of a full bank of four or more. Still, that support is coming, however slowly. USB 3.0 is on its way to everything – it’s just taking its sweet time getting there. Which, oddly, is so unlike the zippy USB 3!    (http://www.pcworld.com/article/242483/usb_30_three_times_the_awesome.html)

Steve Jobs Is Right about Android

Over the weekend I wrote an article titled "What If Steve Jobs Is Right?" As the title implies, the post was a hypothetical look at the possibility that Steve Jobs' assertion that Android is a "stolen product" is true.

Many of the comments I have received on the article itself, as well as on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ seem to be based on emotion and the personal opinion the commenter holds of Apple and Steve Jobs. Those things have nothing to do, though, with patent law or the realities of whether or not Android infringes on Apple patents.

Let's take a closer look at some of the arguments being thrown about as evidence that Steve Jobs is wrong about Android:

Android Existed Before iOS Was Conceived

I have no idea when Jobs or Apple actually conceived iOS, but Android--the company--was founded in 2003, and bought by Google in 2005. Based on that simple chronology many Android loyalists and Apple bashers jump to the conclusion that Android couldn't possibly infringe on Apple patents for iOS that wasn't made available until 2007.

There are a couple flaws in this logic. First, he who patents first, wins. There are steps in the patent-granting process designed to identify similar technologies that already exist--or "prior art". The fact is that whatever concepts and technologies Apple owns patents for made it through that process and were awarded to Apple. Even if the developers at Android thought something up first--or something that was identical to what Apple came up with--Apple appears to have won the patent race.

The second flaw in this argument is that Android as it was released by Google, and as we see it today, is different than the Android operating system that Google bought in 2005. Just because there was an Android operating system prior to iOS doesnt preclude Google from going back and dramatically retooling it to mimic iOS.

Android Isnt an Exact Copy of iOS

Nobody is claiming that it is. Apple (and Microsoft) assert that key portions of Android infringe on technologies and concepts it owns patents for.

Sony Ericsson Xperia Active : The Rainmaker

Flick it, kick it, throw it, wet it. Drag and drop it. And watch it come back for more. The Sony Ericsson Xperia active is a survivor. The rugged smartphone has a Bravia Reality display and exchangeable covers, 1GHz of oomph and HD video, and plenty of sporty apps. It's got you - tucked under an arm strap. It goes wherever you go.

Durable smartphones are becoming an Android-exclusive niche and Sony Ericsson want in. But the Xperia active believes that an IP67-certified phone doesn't have to be all muscle and no charm.

The Xperia active is a cute little phone - the action-scene body double of the Xperia mini. Go ahead, laugh it up, Sonim. This is a phone that doesn't take much pocket space, which is a big plus in our book. And no, they don’t have to be cargo pockets either.

Sony Ericsson Xperia active

The IP67-certified Xperia active is supposed to withstand water immersion in up to a meter for as long as half an hour. It's also dust-proof and shock-resistant. Before you ask, we're not going to test it to the very limit of endurance. Like we said, some real heavy duty rugged phones can sneer all they want. It's just that a compact sporty smartphone for both urban and wilderness hikes may as well have the last laugh.

Key features

•     Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE support
•     3G with 7.2 Mbps HSDPA and 5.76 Mbps HSUPA
•     3.0" 16M-color LED-backlit LCD capacitive touchscreen of HVGA resolution (320 x 480 pixels) at around 192 ppi
•     Bravia Mobile engine
•     Dust and water resistant, wet-finger tracking
•     Dual back cover design for increased protection
•     Arm case and wrist strap in the bundle
•     Android OS v2.3 Gingerbread

Galaxy S II Skyrocket and HTC Vivid : Ice Cream Sandwich

Are you excited for the new Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket?  How about the HTC Vivid?  While these hot new phones will be blazing fast at 4G speeds, They’re both going to be running on Android Gingerbread, a fact that can be viewed as somewhat disappointing seeing as the next iteration – Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) – has already been announced.


Well, no need to fret, while you will be able to pick up both of the new devices this coming Sunday, November 6 with Gingerbread, sometime in early 2012 you’ll be enjoying the goodness of the Ice Cream Sandwich flavor.  AT&T has confirmed that after going through all of the proper testing, both devices will indeed receive the upgrade.  There is sadly no time frame mentioned outside of the ballpark date that could be anywhere up to June of next year, but our suspicions are that it won’t take quite that long.

While this news shouldn’t come as that big of a surprise to anyone considering the timing of these phones being released, it’s still nice to see some confirmation of the fact.  Any Android phone coming out from here on out that isn’t going to be receiving ICS is going to have a tough time getting picked up by consumers who keep up on this sort of information, so it’s going to be essential that carriers and manufacturers get the word out about when and which handsets will receive the update.

Does this news make you any more likely to pick up the Skyrocket or the Vivid?