White iPhone 4 available at Apple Online Store

After an extended period of downtime, the white iPhone 4 is now available in Apple Online Store. The device should also become available in Apple retail stores as well as AT&T and Verizon Wireless stores and at select Apple authorized resellers.

The price and functionality of the white iPhone 4 is exactly the same as the black version, but the thrill of finally having the often delayed device should be enough to prompt quite a few customers to spend their hard-earned cash. Bear in mind that the shipping time for the black iPhone 4 is "within 24 hours," while the white version ships in "3-5 business days."

Nokia to slash 7000 jobs worldwide

Nokia Corp. said it will slash 7,000 jobs worldwide, through both layoffs and outsourcing, as it strives to cut costs and catch up with its top rivals in the smartphone market.

Most of the 4,000 layoffs, due by the end of 2012, will be in Denmark, Finland and Britain. It also plans to transfer 3,000 workers in China, Finland, India, Britain and the United States to Accenture PLC as it outsources Symbian platform operations to the global management-consulting firm, in a major shift of strategy.

The announcements came as the world's top cellphone maker seeks to cut operating expenses by euro1 billion ($1.5 billion) by 2013 amid fierce competition that has seen its market share plunge and its profits plummet.

Markets had been eagerly expecting signals about company policy from Nokia's new CEO Stephen Elop since he took over in September and even more so since the Feb. 11 announcement that Nokia and Microsoft Corp. were teaming up to challenge rivals such as Research in Motion, Apple Inc. and Google.

The announcements came as Nokia, which has 13,000 employees in Finland but indirectly provides work for more than 20,000 people, had called workers for company briefings in several cities.

Elop said that none of the employees will lose their jobs this year, and that the personnel transfers would be made "over time."

Recently, Nokia has faced stiff competition from Research in Motion's Blackberry, Apple's iPhone and Google's Android at the top end of the market, as well as feeling the pinch from numerous Asian handset makers that produce cheaper phones in emerging markets.

It has been the world's largest handset maker since 1998, selling 432 million devices last year - more than its three closest rivals combined. But its market share continues to fall, to 29 percent in this year's first quarter - its lowest level since the late 1990s.

Even more damaging has been Nokia's inability to meet the challenges of new smartphones, a field where it used to be the leading innovator.

Today, the iPhone has set the standard for smartphones while BlackBerrys have become the favorite of the corporate set. And on the software front, Android has emerged as the top choice for phone makers that want to challenge the iPhone.

According to industry experts, Nokia's future depends a lot on the success of its partnership with Microsoft and the type of phone they launch, expected late this year or in 2012.

The Espoo-based company, near Helsinki, employs 132,500 people - 7 percent more than a year ago.

HTC Flyer Tablet Priced at $499

The 7-inch Android tablet, HTC's Flyer goes up for pre-order in Best Buy stores. The tablet will cost $499 for a 16 GB model with Wi-Fi, but there's no firm release date. For now, Best Buy is going ahead with a vague timeline of "later this spring." A 4G model will launch on Sprint this summer as the HTC Evo View.

The Flyer's claim to fame is an optional pen-HTC calls it the "Scribe"-that doesn't quite behave like a stylus. The Scribe isn't used for navigation, but for marking up web pages and creating handwritten notes. A built-in notebook app allows the user to record audio. Eventually, HTC will open up Scribe to third-party developers who want to add notation to their own apps. No word on HTC Scribe pricing just yet.

It's a neat-sounding feature that distracts somewhat from the Flyer's potential drawbacks. Instead of Android 3.0 Honeycomb, the Flyer will ship with Android 2.4 and tablet optimizations through HTC's Sense interface although HTC's Flyer only matches it. The Flyer is also a bit chunky, at 0.51 inches thick.

Best Buy is taking pre-orders for HTC Flyer at $499.

Sony enters tablet PC market with S1, S2

Sony launched its first tablet computers in an ambitious attempt to grab the No.2 spot from Samsung in a fast-growing market dominated by Apple's year-old iPad.

The gadgets, based on Google's Android 3.0 operating system, could be some of the Japanese company's most important new products since the Playstation game console made its debut in 1994.

Sony, also the inventor of the Walkman and once a symbol of Japan's high-tech, is now struggling to come up with hit devices and improve profit margins as it competes with Apple, Samsung Electronics and Nintendo.

Sony's tablets join more than 100 iPad challengers based on Android, and may struggle to differentiate themselves, although Sony does have the advantage of being able to link the tablets to its gaming and entertainment offerings.

Samsung's Galaxy Tab is Apple's strongest competitor while Motorola, LG Electronics and HTC are flooding the market with tablets running Android.

Sony's black, glossy devices, code-named S1 and S2, will be the first tablets to enable the use of PlayStation games.

Sony is banking on the unusual, off-center design of the S1 and access to first generation PlayStation games and its other networked content to differentiate the products from the flood of tablets in the market.

RIM has priced its PlayBook to match the iPad, has struggled to win consumer fans since launching the device last week. Hewlett-Packard Co unveiled its entrant in the tablet race in February.

Sony's tablets will be WiFi and 3G/4G compatible. S1 has a 9.4-inch display and a curved design that Sony said makes it easier to hold for long periods of time. The S2 has two 5.5-inch displays in a clamshell design.

Acer Iconia Tab A500 available for $450 at Best Buy

Acer's Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) tablet has arrived on schedule, bringing an interesting array of features for a very competitive price.

The Acer Iconia Tab A500 features a 10.1-inch screen 1280×800 TFT WXGA screen, an Nvidia Tegra 250 1GHz dual-core processor, 1 GB of RAM and 16 GB of flash storage with the possibility of extending the storage capacity up to 32 GB via a Micro-SD card. It's got a 5-megapixel rear camera and a 2-megapixel front one for video chats, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, a USB 2.0 port and a battery that should last around 10 hours if you're using the device for browsing the web.

While those specifications sound very similar to those of another Android 3.0 tablet, the Motorola Xoom, Acer's tablet does have the advantage of a brushed aluminum back and a much lower price.

The Acer Iconia Tab is available at Best Buy for $450..

T-Mobile launches new Android phones: LG G2x and Samsung Sidekick 4G

T-Mobile is in full-swing, as they recently launched two new Android smartphones, the LG G2x and the Samsung Sidekick 4G as well as a tablet, the LG-Slate.

The Sidekick 4G is the first edition of the handset to be powered by Android (2.2) and features a 3.5-inch display with a forward-facing camera and a 3-megapixel on its rear. The Sidekick also has Cloud Text, in which users can access their text messages via phone or PC.

After a $50 mail-in rebate and two-year contract with unlimited data, the handset costs about $100, but for those who opt for the two-year contract and go with a lower-end data plan will have to pay $149.99.

As for the LG G2X, you can buy it from Amazon Wireless for $149, or any T-Mobile retailer. It’s described as long and lean and the touchscreen measures in at 4-inches. The front camera is 1.3 megapixels and an 8-megapixel camera with autofocus and LED flash are on the rear of the smartphone.

Amazon selling HTC ThunderBolt for $129.99

The mobile division of Amazon is currently selling the HTC ThunderBolt 4G for $129.99 to all new customers who sign up for a plan on Verizon. Those looking to upgrade and renew their contract aren’t as fortunate. The renewal price is $199.99. Those who are interested will have to act fast. It expires at midnight on Monday, April 25.

The ThunderBolt, which normally retails for $249.99, is the first phone on Verizon to take advantage of the carrier’s new 4G LTE network. It has performed very well, selling 260,000 units in its first two weeks on the market. We have no complaints about the Android device except for its battery, which tends to drain very quickly due to the demands of Verizon’s 4G network.

IBM tailors BPM Software for Small Business

IBM has customized its new BPM (business process management) software to help small and midsized organizations set up their own automated workflows just like big businesses do.

Most BPM tools "are built for thousands of users and to run across multiple servers, and so they can get complex and expensive. This software addresses the BPM need in the mid-market," said Ron Kline, an IBM director for marketing to small and midsized businesses. "It fits the need for a midsized company, without it being too lightweight."

The software is based on the recently revamped enterprise BPM software IBM launched earlier this month, called Business Process Manager.

The standard edition of Business Process Manager combined two of IBM's previous BPM offerings, the WebSphere Process Server and IBM WebSphere Lombardi Edition. IBM obtained the latter when it purchased Lombardi last year.

This Express edition offers the same capabilities, though its usage is limited to four CPUs, 200 users and three "authors," or administrators who build the processes, Kline said.

BPM software is designed to automate routine business processes, such as hiring help or tracking shipments.

The new software is "departmentally oriented," Kline said. "You wouldn't use this software like a large enterprise would to track multiple processes across your entire business process."

Instead, this software could accommodate a handful of processes. Organizations can upgrade to the standard edition should they require larger deployments. The standard edition has no user limit and can be clustered across multiple servers.

Express is different from IBM's Blueworks Live, another lightweight IBM BPM offering, in that its processes can be coupled with back-office systems, such as CRM (customer relationship management) software.

This software could be used to automate simple processes such as filing and submitting expense reports, Kline said. Instead of having employees fill out spreadsheets and e-mail them to their supervisors to be approved, an organization could use this software to automatically shuttle the employee's expense data, once filled out, to the supervisor for approval, and then submit the approved data to the appropriate financial system.

BPM Express is available directly from IBM and through its partners. The price for the software itself starts at US$600 per author and $120 per user. An average deployment for about 200 users would cost around $25,000, Kline said.

Sony Delays Launch of 3D Camcorder

Sony is delaying the launch of its 3D Handycam video camera by roughly a month due to difficulty securing parts following the March 11 earthquake in Japan.

The magnitude 9.0 earthquake and subsequent tsunami halted factories and disrupted the distribution networks and supply chains on which Japanese electronics makers rely. For Sony, the knock-on effect of this disruption has been a shortage of at least one component for the new camcorders.

The camcorder was previously due to launch this month, but will now be available in Japan from May 13. Revised launch dates for other markets were not immediately available from the company's headquarters in Tokyo.

The HDR-T10 Handycam was first unveiled at January's International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas and is distinctive for its dual lenses. Behind the lenses are dual image sensors and processors, which add to the complexity and bulk of the camcorder but, according to Sony, result in a superior picture compared to single-lens 3D camcorders.

Other features include a screen that shows 3D images without the need for special glasses. In the U.S., the camcorder will cost around US$1,500.

It's the second Sony group announcement this week of quake-related disruptions to product plans. On Tuesday, Sony Ericsson said it faces difficulty obtaining some parts for high-end cell phones due to the earthquake. As a result, supplies of its flagship Xperia Arc, Xperia Play and Xperia Neo phones will be affected in the current quarter.

Apple sues Samsung for copying product designs

According to a report published in the Wall Street Journal, Apple has sued Samsung for copying the iPad, iPod and iPhone with its Galaxy Tab and Galaxy handsets. The lawsuit says, Samsung has copied the designs of the Apple products with some of it’s leading smartphones (Galaxy S 4G, Epic 4G, Nexus S), as well as the Galaxy Tab touchscreen tablet.

Samsung copied Apple technologies, designs and even packaging with its Google Android-based products, according to a complaint filed Friday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. Apple’s action against Samsung includes trademark infringement claims, as well as a plethora of patent claims. Apple is seeking a jury trial in the case.

"Instead of pursuing independent product development, Samsung has chosen to slavishly copy Apple's innovative technology, distinctive user interfaces, and elegant and distinctive product and packaging design, in violation of Apple's valuable intellectual property rights," Apple said in the complaint.

Late last year, Samsung became the first major consumer electronics maker to roll out a tablet to compete with the iPad. It is also one of the world's largest makers of mobile phones, especially handsets that use Android.

The complaint includes 10 charges of patent infringement, two of trademark violation and two of trade dress violations, plus unjust enrichment and unfair business practices. Apple named Samsung Electronics, Samsung America and Samsung Telecommunications America as defendants. The case was filed at the district court in San Francisco but is being transferred to Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler at the court's Oakland, California, location.

The allegations span a broad range of Samsung's mobile devices, including the Epic 4G, Captivate, Indulge, Nexus S and Galaxy S 4G smartphones as well as the Galaxy Tab. Apple singled out the Galaxy product line for criticism.

"The copying is so pervasive, that the Samsung Galaxy products appear to be actual Apple products - with the same rectangular shape with rounded corners, silver edging, a flat surface face with substantial top and bottom black borders, gently curving edges on the back, and a display of colorful square icons with rounded corners," the complaint said.

Apple wants an injunction to stop Samsung's alleged intellectual property violations, along with actual and punitive damages, Samsung's "wrongfully obtained profits" and funds for corrective advertising about the allegedly confusing products.

A particularly interesting part of this legal action centers on the fact that Apple devices incorporate a number of components made by none other than Samsung. And even as recently as February it was being reported that Apple would be spending a whopping $7.8 billion on Samsung parts. It seems that Apple would prefer it if Samsung stuck to making components rather than complete devices.

RIM PlayBook hits market with an app deficit

Research In Motion’s PlayBook is starting off with a definite apps deficit as it hits the market Tuesday. It will only have 3,000 apps vs. the hundreds of thousands available for the iPad from Apple. Omar El Akkad reports in The Globe and Mail: “Apple’s iPad can make use of the hundreds of thousands of apps built for the smaller iPhone. But PlayBook owners won’t be able to use even the much smaller number of BlackBerry apps until RIM has a fix ready this summer.” He said RIM will enable PlayBook users to run apps designed for competing tablets from Google’s Android operating system this summer. “The move means an infusion of tens of thousands of apps for the PlayBook,” he said. Farhad Manjoo points out other issues in Slate: “Reviewers who have gotten early access to the PlayBook have been almost universally puzzled by how half-baked it is. In its current form, the PlayBook doesn't include any apps to access your email, calendar and address book. To get those things, you've got to have a BlackBerry phone, too.” He describes this approach as nothing less than insane and a sign of a company “circling the drain.” He said RIM’s co-CEOs have been “comically incoherent about their plans for the future” as its share of the smartphone market has been gobbled. RIM, based in Waterloo, Canada, seems to have taken on a bunker mentality. They’re not feeling the love. Mike Lazaridis, “the brain behind the BlackBerry,” is taking a leaf from the boys over at South Park who sang in the film South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut: “Blame Canada.” El Akkad said: “Lazaridis is proud of his role in turning this – RIM, the city of Waterloo, the university, the institutes – into a hotbed of innovation. But he is bothered, too, because he believes people don’t understand how much all of this is really worth. “Maybe we’re just not good at promoting ourselves. Maybe that’s the Canadian way.” He said that he and fellow CEO, Jim Balsillie, perhaps should have moved the company to Silicon Valley instead of remaining “loyal patriots” to the Great White North. PlayBook will show whether RIM has a second act in its playbook following its success with BlackBerry in the corporate and government markets, and whether it can penetrate a consumer market created by and dominated by Apple. El Akkad said, “It’s an audacious strategy. If it succeeds, RIM just might regain the ground it has lost in the smartphone market, while finding new sources of revenue. But if the strategy fails, then arguably so does RIM. At the very least, it would relegate it to No. 3 status for a long time to come, a poor cousin to Apple and Google – two companies that five years ago were not even in RIM’s business of wireless communications.”

Gigabyte to launch Dual-boot Windows-Android Tablet

Taiwanese motherboard maker Gigabyte Technology will come out with two Android tablets later this year, including one that can also run Windows, and a Windows 8 tablet next year, the company senior vice president has said. Those tablets follow the release of Gigabyte's S1080, a heavy tablet that runs Windows 7 Home Premium. The Gigabyte tablets will enter an increasingly crowded tablet market, as makers from Apple to obscure white-box brands launch new models this year. Gigabyte tablets due by July will come in two screen sizes, 7 inches and 10 inches, said Senior Vice President Richard Ma. The larger ones will run Google's Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) OS, which was designed expressly for tablets, and the smaller ones will run the older Android 2.2 system. Android 3.0 better supports bigger screens, whereas Android 2.x was designed for mobile phones. Another line of Gigabyte tablets, due in October, will be able to run either Windows 7 or Android, letting users choose when they start up the machine. That would give something to both casual Internet users who prefer Android and to business users who find Windows more compatible with Microsoft Office software. Gigabyte has not decided which Android version to use. Although Android users can use tablets to read documents, compatible tablet software seldom allows editing those files and therefore the system does not appeal to business users. Both the tablets release in July and in October will use Intel Atom processors but not include USB ports. They will sell for less than US$400 per unit, he said. He would not release other specifications, saying they had not been finalized. Gigabyte will also begin developing a Windows 8 tablet by the end of the year. That tablet will be on the market in the final quarter of 2012, possibly using an ARM processor. Microsoft demonstrated an early build of Internet Explorer 10 running on an ARM chip at the Mix11 conference in Las Vegas on Tuesday, and has said that the next version of Windows will work on ARM processors as well as those based on the x86 architecture. "Everyone is hoping that Windows 8 will support ARM," Ma said. If ARM and Windows don't work together by late next year then, the tablet due on the market then will use an Intel x86 processor, Ma said. He did not give detailed specifications for the planned Windows 8 tablet. Gigabyte, not a household name in many developed markets, will sell tablets and notebook computers through B2C e-commerce channels to cut retail costs. But the tablets are more likely to gain a following in developing markets, said Michael Clendenin, managing director of RedTech Advisors in Shanghai.

T-Mobile unveils HTC Sensation 4G Smartphone

In the midst of potentially being acquired by AT&T, the HTC Sensation 4G, formally known as the HTC Pyramid, has finally been unveiled and will be released by T-Mobile this summer. The Android-powered phone is comparable to the Sprint Evo and includes a 4.3-inch super LCD screen, with a 540x960 resolution, dual-core 1.2GHz Snapdragon processor, Android Gingerbread (2.3) with Sense 3.0 and a qHD display. It also contains many new features, such as a personalized lock screen that allows the user to visit their most used apps. The Sensation will have Bluetooth 3.0 connectivity, Wi-Fi, DLNA and the ability to stream to other DLNA-enabled devices. It will also come equipped with 1GB of internal memory and 768MB of RAM. “Consumers have quickly transformed smartphones into consumer lifestyle hubs that are pocket-sized entertainment centers that enable people to take their favorite multimedia content with them wherever they go. The new HTC Watch service makes it fun and easy for people to access premium movies and TV shows while on the go,” says Peter Chou, CEO of HTC Corporation. “The HTC Sensation 4G combines this great multimedia experience within the latest HTC Sense experience in a premium device that delivers a powerful and unprecedented smartphone to our customers.” Before its release date in the summer, the Sensation will launch in the UK, Germany, and the rest of HTC’s key spots in the European market.

T-Mobile G2x available for 200 dollars

T-Mobile has a new device in its Android roster, the T-Mobile G2x. It is essentially the same phone as LG Optimus 2X, which makes it one of the most powerful Android devices on the market. The T-Mobile G2x features a dual-core 1 Ghz Tegra chip, a 4-inch WVGA screen, 8 GB of memory, which is expandable up to 32 GB via microSD memory cards, a 1,500 mAh battery, an 8-megapixel rear camera with 1080p recording capabilities and a 1.3-megapixel front camera for video calls. Also present are HDMI, accelerometer, a gyro sensor, and a micro-USB port. The device is currently running Android 2.2, upgradeable to 2.3 at a later date. The suggested retail price for the T-Mobile G2x is $499.99, but after an in-stand discount and a mail-in rebate it goes down to the price of $199.99, with a two-year contract attached. The device is currently available exclusively online; it will be hitting the store on April 20.

Google Activates 350K Android Devices Each Day

The growth of Google's Android platform is undeniable, and an analyst says Google is now activating 350,000 Android devices every day.
According to Brian Pitz, an executive director and senior research analyst at UBS Investment Bank, that's a 16 percent increase from just a few months ago, when Google's vice president of engineering, Andy Rubin, tweeted that the company was activating more than 300,000 Android phones daily.
That announcement came just two months after Google chairman Eric Schmidt divulged that Google was activating 200,000 Android devices per day.
If Pitz is correct, his analysis is in line with figures released by Gartner earlier this week, which said Android is in line to overtake Symbian as the most popular smartphone operating system worldwide by the end of the year. According to Gartner, Android will only continue to gain steam, capturing nearly half of the smartphone OS market in 2012.
On the other hand, Gartner also predicted that Apple will maintain its position as the second-place mobile platform with iOS through 2014. However, it said Apple will peak this year, securing about 20 percent of the space. There have been rumors that Apple won't release the iPhone 5 this summer as expected. Although these reports are unconfirmed, it's possible Apple would want to release a phone, even if it's just an intermediate update, in order to complete with the rapid growth of Android.
Part of Android's growth can be attributed to the openness of the platform and the fact that it's available across a wealth of devices. But this has led to some criticism about fragmentation, prompting Rubin to pen a blog post that defended Android and insisted that the company remains committed to developing an open platform.
Pitz also noted in his report that Google has been very successful through its mobile advertising platform, AdMob, delivering more than two billion ad impressions every day.

Zoom to make 3G phones with Qualcomm chips

Zoom Technologies Inc signed a licensing pact with chipmaker Qualcomm Inc, allowing the Chinese mobile phone maker to develop and sell 3G devices using Qualcomm's chip patents, sending its shares soaring as much as 64 percent.
Zoom's Nollec Wireless unit will develop the products for the Chinese market and pay royalties to Qualcomm at standard rates.
Qualcomm's chips are used by mobile device makers including Apple and HTC.
"With this (chips) we will make smartphones, the smarter the phones higher the margins," said Zoom Chief Financial Officer Anthony Chan.
Zoom plans to launch the new phones in China under its Leimone brand by summer this year and expects sales of these devices to show up in its third-quarter results.
"Our own products enjoy margins of 10-15 percent where as the OEM products have margins of 6 percent," Chan said.
Original equipment manufacturers, or OEMs, make products for larger companies to be branded and marketed by them.
Sales from Zoom's Leimone phones - its line of mobile phones sold through Chinese national carriers - contributed almost 19 percent to its top line last year.
Zoom will make some types of CDMA smartphones running on the Android operating system, targeting Asia and Europe.
Code Division Multiple Access, or CDMA, technology allows many signals to occupy a single transmission channel, optimizing the use of available bandwidth.
Zoom will expand to North America and European markets with these products by the end of 2011.
The company sells phones to major Chinese carriers such as China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom.

Apple suppliers making white iPhones

Suppliers to Apple Inc have begun production of white iPhones after a delay of almost 10 months, pointing to a launch date of within a month.
Industry sources reveal that Hon Hai Precision Industry Co Ltd, flagship of Taiwan's Foxconn Technology Group, would assemble the iPhone.
Apple Senior Vice-President of Marketing Phil Schiller first said in a Twitter post in March that the white iPhone would be available for sale by Spring, which ends in May in the northern hemisphere.
The white iPhone would be available from AT&T Inc and Verizon Communications Inc by the end of April, Bloomberg News reported on its website, citing a person familiar with the matter.
Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs first unveiled the white version of the smartphone when the iPhone 4 was launched in June last year, but it has been delayed because of a manufacturing issue that the company has not elaborated on.
Many telecommunications operators have been eager to sell the iPhone, hoping that the feature-jammed device will help boost data network use and increase revenue. For example, China Mobile Ltd, the world's biggest mobile operator, has been in talks with Apple for more than a year on distribution rights for the handset.
More than 16 million iPhones were sold in the last quarter of 2010, accounting for more than a third of Apple's sales in those three months.

Apple unveils Final Cut Pro X

Apple has unveiled Final Cut Pro X, the newest version of its popular video-editing software. According to Apple's Peter Steinauer and Randy Ubillos, Final Cut Pro X is a rebuild of the 12-year-old software. It's the first 64-bit version for the software, capable of utilizing all eight cores and more than 4 GB of RAM of the Mac for professional video editing. Apple revealed the new version of Final Cut Pro at an event at the National Association of Broadcasters trade show in Las Vegas. Final Cut Pro X comes with a slew of new features, including advanced people and shot detection, automatic audio cleanup and "range-based keywording," which give video editors the ability to apply keywords to specific portions of a video. The new Final Cut Pro also sports a feature that prevents audio and video tracks from being pushed out of sync by accident. Photography Bay also reports that Final Cut Pro X will come with feature that automatically matches color between two clips. Final Cut Pro X will be available for download via the Mac App Store in June for $299, far less than the Final Cut Studio's $999 price tag.

Foxconn to invest $12 billion in Brazil

Taiwan IT giant Foxconn, which makes iPads and iPhones, is considering investing $12 billion in Brazil to build computer and mobile phone components, said Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff. Rousseff, who is in China on her first major foreign trip since taking office in January, said that Foxconn had expressed its interest in investing the money in Brazil over the next "five to six years". The Brazilian leader said a working group had been formed to study the proposal. Taipei-based Foxconn, which has been plagued by a spate of suicides and labour problems in China in recent years, is the world's largest maker of computer components and produces goods for Apple, Sony and Nokia. It currently employs around one million workers in China, about half of them based in the southern boomtown of Shenzhen, which neighbours Hong Kong. The company said last month it planned to transform its factories in Shenzhen into an engineering base while moving about 200,000 jobs inland - where wages are lower than in manufacturing hubs on the coast. Foxconn has been expanding its workforce in central China as it seeks to scale back the size of its biggest facility in Shenzhen. It has previously said it plans to hire up to 400,000 new workers this year, mostly in the central provinces, partly to keep up production while cutting maximum overtime hours. Foxconn's investment in Brazil, if realised, would create massive job opportunities in the world's eighth-largest economy, and would advance Rousseff's goal of attracting more high-tech manufacturing. Brazil and China signed nearly two dozen agreements after talks between Rousseff and Chinese President Hu Jintao, including a deal for the sale of 35 Embraer E190 commercial jets to two Chinese airlines worth up to $1.4 billion.

Airtel, Aircel to launch Apple iPhone 4 in India

Bharti Airtel Ltd, India's top mobile phone carrier, and its smaller rival Aircel separately said they would launch Apple's iPhone 4 in India in the coming months. Bharti and Vodafone Essar already sell earlier models of the iPhone in India. With nearly 800 million mobile subscribers, India is the world's second-biggest market for mobile phone services and is also the fastest-growing. But smartphones are estimated to account for just over 5 percent of the mobile handset sales. Indian carriers have recently started rolling out high-speed third-generation (3G) mobile networks, which is expected to boost sales of smart-phones. As of end-February, Bharti had 159 million mobile subscribers, while Aircel had 53.5 million.

Nokia unveils new models of E6 and X7

The world's largest phone maker by volume, Nokia, has unveiled two new smartphone models running on a new version of its Symbian software platform. The new models, the E6 and the X7, will go on sale for 340 euros ($491.6) and 380 euros respectively excluding subsidies and taxes, later this quarter. In February, Nokia's new chief executive Stephen Elop dumped Symbian software - which lost most of its lead on the smartphone market last year - saying the company would instead use Microsoft Corp's unproven software as its primary platform. Elop compared Symbian to a burning platform in a widely leaked internal memo, saying it was not good enough for Nokia's future. Nokia unveiled a new version of Symbian software, with new icons, improved text input, faster Internet browsing and a refreshed Ovi Maps application. "Several Nokia executives have attempted to walk back from Elop's February comments and limit the damage he did to Symbian products. It's just a bit too late to put Humpty Dumpty back together. Developers are bailing out in droves," said Tero Kuittinen, analyst at MKM Partners.

Acer Iconia Tab A500 Priced at $449

Acer's first tablet based on Google's Android 3.0 OS will ship later this month for US$449. The Acer Iconia Tab A500 will have a 10.1-inch screen and Wi-Fi capabilities and will ship for the U.S. market on April 24, an Acer spokeswoman said. The A500's price is lower than the $499 entry-level price for Apple's iPad 2. Acer has said that the A500 will ship worldwide starting in April. The company has also announced an LTE (Long-Term Evolution) version of the A500 and a W500 model that will run Windows 7. Shipment dates for the tablets were not disclosed. The company announced the shipment date for the Acer Iconia Tab a week after President and CEO Gianfranco Lanci resigned over disagreements with the board about the company's future direction. Analysts said reasons for Lanci's resignation included the company's unwavering commitment to the PC market and lack of aggression expanding in the burgeoning tablet market. The Iconia Tab A500 was first shown at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in early January. The tablet is powered by a Nvidia Tegra 2 dual-core processor running at 1GHz, a chip that is also used in Motorola's Xoom and LG's G-Slate tablets. The Tegra processor has a powerful graphics core that will allow users to play high-definition games and 1080p video, Acer said in a statement. Users will be able to watch 720p video on the tablet, with an HDMI (high-definition multimedia interface) port to connect to TVs to watch 1080p video. The tablet will handle up to eight hours of gaming or high-definition video time, or 10 hours of Wi-Fi Internet browsing, on one battery charge, Acer said. The A500 weighs around 1.69 pounds (0.76 kilograms) and measures 0.52 inches at its thinnest point. It includes a 5-megapixel rear-facing camera with flash and a 2-megapixel front-facing camera. It comes with 16GB of internal storage and a Micro SD card slot for up to 32GB of extended storage. The Android 3.0 OS is Google's tablet operating system with a specialized user interface optimized for larger screens. The OS lets users navigate back and forth between multiple applications and has features that enable tablets to be used as gaming consoles.

Boost unveils First CDMA Android Smartphone

The difference between Sprint's two prepaid brands, Boost and Virgin Mobile, just got a little more confusing with the introduction of the Samsung Galaxy Prevail, a midrange CDMA Android smartphone for Boost. The Prevail is a bit like a stripped-down version of one of Samsung's popular Galaxy S smartphones. Like the Galaxy S line, it's a sleek black plastic slab running Android 2.2. But all the specs are knocked down a notch: there's a 3.2-inch, 320-by-480 screen, a 2-megapixel camera, and a 2GB MicroSD card for storage. The lower specifications let Sprint sell the phone for less: $179.99 prepaid, with Boost's $50 unlimited plan on Sprint's 3G network. Even better, for every six months a customer pays on time, Boost reduces the monthly fee by $5 until it's only $35. This is very competitive with devices like the LG Optimus M and LG Optimus C on MetroPCS and Cricket's $40-50/month unlimited plans. Sprint's two prepaid brands, Boost and Virgin, differ in tone but they also used to differ in technology. Boost ran iDen phones with the Nextel push-to-talk system; Virgin ran CDMA phones on Sprint's nationwide network. Boost then started getting CDMA phones, but Virgin got some smartphones, which appeared to shift their focus into Boost being a more talk/text-centric versus Virgin being a more data-heavy brand.

Quark launches QuarkXPress 9 test drive

Quark has announced a 30-day Test Drive of QuarkXPress 9, the upcoming new version of its flagship page-layout and graphic design software. The test drive is available for download from Quark's Website. With the evaluation software which is actually the gold master shipping version that will be commercially available on April 26th, users can try out the new features of QuarkXPress 9 before committing to a purchase. Any projects created in the Test Drive version will be compatible with the retail version of QuarkXPress 9, which will cost $799. Upgrades from QuarkXPress 8 and QuarkXPress 7 are $299. The software will be available for purchase through authorized Quark resellers and through the Quark Store. The Test Drive software is fully functional for 30 days, and includes the ability to save and print, as well as open QuarkXPress documents from version 3 and above. After 30 days (or beginning on April 26th), users will be able to convert the Test Drive version into a full retail copy by purchasing QuarkXPress 9 and entering their validation code. QuarkXPress 9 features new tools for advanced design automation as well as the ability to create content for delivery to digital devices like the iPad. Within 90 days of April 26th, App Studio for QuarkXPress 9 will also be available as a free update to all QuarkXPress 9 users. App Studio for QuarkXPress will give designers a dedicated environment within QuarkXPress 9 for creating content for the iPad. With QuarkXPress 9, designers have multiple options for publishing to digital devices, including all devices pre-installed with the Blio eReader. The Blio e-reader is a free multiplatform, multi-device application that viewers can use to read full-color e-books and multimedia-enhanced content on a wide variety of devices. It is not yet available on the Mac, but is slated for release on the Mac platform sometime this year. Similarly, an iOS version of Blio is under review with the Apple App Store, but there's no indication of when it will be available. Designers can also convert QuarkXPress print files into reflowable e-books using the ePub format to publish to Apple’s iBooks, the Barnes & Noble Nook, Sony Reader, Amazon Kindle, and others. The new Quark version also includes new features that help automate the design process by eliminating a number of manual and time-consuming tasks. These include the ability to set automated styling rules; Microsoft Word-compatible bullet and numbering features; and advanced callout and linking functionality. QuarkXPress 9 also makes it easier to edit text, clone design elements, create image grids, and duplicate objects or entire pages.

Mobile Payment System in Salt Lake City by 2012

Paying for things with your cell phone could soon become a reality, at least if you live in Salt Lake City. That's where Isis, a coalition formed by Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile to bring mobile payments to the masses, plans to begin its rollout its platform early next year. Isis chose Salt Lake City because its transit system, run by the Utah Transportation Authority (UTA), is already equipped with near-field communication (NFC) - the key to any mobile-payment system. Both the customer's phone and the merchant's equipment must have NFC in order for it to work. In Salt Lake, half of that battle is already won. Just having NFC in the city's transit system is far from having a complete infrastructure, however. Over the next year, Isis plans to work with merchants in Salt Lake City so that when the service debuts, consumers will be able to use the system for more than just taking a bus or train. The Isis platform, which includes apps, payment integration, and other factors, is still baking as well, with Johnson describing it as still "in build." On top of that, there are scant few NFC devices currently available in the U.S. market. "The biggest challenge is working with the local merchant community to take the NFC infrastructure outside of transit and into everyday shops, and get to a critical mass." Isis is one of many efforts underway to bring NFC and mobile payments to the U.S. The technology is already common overseas in places like Japan, but it's had many false starts here. Sprint, the only major carrier not involved with Isis, is planning to launch its own mobile-payment system later this year. Both American Express and MasterCard are also spearheading efforts into NFC, and it's been rumored that Google and Apple are getting into the NFC game as well. Despite all the competition, Johnson says Isis brings to the table scale that the other players don't. Between the three carriers involved, Isis will be able to reach more than 200 million wireless customers. "Scale is essential," Johnson says. "For merchants to invest, they need to know there will be critical mass o the consumer side. For consumers to find it relevant, they need to know there's critical mass on the merchant side. The only way to solve that chicken-and-the-egg scenario is if you have a catalyst like Isis that can readily step forward with enough scale to ensure both sides of the ecosystem are going to be there. That's really what I think will separate winners and losers in this market." On top of that, the carriers can put pressure on phone makers to come to market with phones equipped with NFC, though so far there's little evidence of that happening. Nevertheless, Johnson says the carriers "are committed" to NFC handsets. Johnson says that Salt Lake City will be just the beginning. While many NFC pilot programs have come and gone in the U.S. with little to show for them, he says the 2012 deployment of Isis isn't a tentative "wait and see" launch. "Salt Lake is the first of many markets. We are committed to full commercial availability."

Sony CEO reveals 8MP camera in iPhone 5

Late Friday, Sony CEO Sir Howard Stringer accidentally revealed a budding relationship between Sony and Apple. At a Wall Street Journal speaking event Stringer made an off-handed comment that may indicate that the next-generation iPhone will come loaded with an 8MP camera - a significant boost from the iPhone 4′s 5MP camera. He mentioned that one of Sony's best camera sensor factories in Sendai, Japan was damaged by the earthquake and subsequent tsunami. The damage, he noted, would delay shipments of sensors to Apple for its iPhones or iPads. The fact that he specifically mentioned iPhones is leading Apple-watchers to believe that Apple is ditching OmniVision, the company currently producing the 5-megapixel sensor on the iPhone 4, in favor of Sony, which has made 8-megapixel camera sensors for the Sony Ericsson smartphones, including the Xperia Arc. Last September rumours suggested that Samsung would make an offer for OmniVision but nothing ever came of it; perhaps this slip-up gives credence to a merger of Sony and OmniVision. Or perhaps Apple just wanted the best camera to compete with what's new on competing smartphones, and Sony prudently picked up another business opportunity despite its phones being in direct competition with Apple's.

Next iPod nano to Feature a Camera

The seventh-generation iPod nano might have some new bells and whistles. According to a report from 9to5Mac, the forthcoming iPod nano could feature a camera. The report came from a post originally published to Chinese site Apple.pro that said Apple would retain the same compact size of the sixth-generation nano, but would add a camera to the music player. The fifth-generation iPod nano was larger; it included a video camera, widescreen display, and video playback. For the current sixth generation nano, Apple stripped the device of the aforementioned features, made it smaller, and added a belt clip and a multitouch display. For the seventh generation device, Apple will maintain the smaller design, but will add a camera again, 9to5Mac says. Apple.pro reportedly obtained the image two days ago. 9to5Mac notes that Apple.pro has been accurate in the past. Previously, it has leaked images of the Verizon iPhone 4 from Foxconn, photos of the miniature touchscreen currently found in the iPod nano, details about the recently released iPad 2, and other rumors that later proved to be true. 9to5Mac also speculated that the addition of a camera in the nano would mean that Apple would have to rethink the position of the belt clip. The images show that the camera would be located similarly to where the belt clip is fixed in the current device. In other Apple rumor news, remarks from Sony CEO Howard Stringer have led many to believe that the iPhone 5 will have an 8-megapixel camera produced by Sony. Although Apple usually sticks to an annual product update cycle, there has been speculation that the next iPhone won't be released until this fall, rather than the summer debut that has been expected.

Cablevision launches iPad app to watch TV

Cablevision Systems Corp is launching an app for customers using its Optimum package to watch television on their iPads at home. The service, available at no extra charge, will allow the cable operator's more than 3 million customers to watch some 300 channels, search programming by genre and enable customers to record programs. The system uses Cablevision's digital cable television network to deliver programing to the iPad, so customers do not need to have Internet access on their devices to use the app. "This application allows the iPad to function as a television, delivering the full richness and diversity of our cable television service to a display device in the home," said Tom Rutledge, Cablevision chief operating officer. The move by New York-based Cablevision comes weeks after Time Warner Cable launched its own iPad app in mid-March. The Time Warner version allows users to watch live programing from 32 networks so long as they are at home using their Wi-Fi network. But Time Warner's app sparked controversy. A few days ago, after getting several "cease and desist" notices, the No. 2 U.S. cable company said it would no longer carry networks owned by News Corp's Fox, Viacom and Discovery Communications. The media companies believe the cable company needs to pay for new licenses in order for customers to use the iPad app.

HP preparing new versions of EliteBook ultraportables

Materials available from HP’s U.S. and Japanese Web sites indicate computer maker Hewlett-Packard is preparing new versions of its EliteBook ultraportable notebooks, including power-sipping versions of Intel’s Sandy Bridge processors and USB 3.0 for fast connectivity to peripherals. Although the EliteBooks have historically been oriented at business and enterprise users, they’ve also been embraced by road warriors and travelers, who value their performance-per-ounce ratio. According to information that’s come out of HP so far, the new EliteBook models - the 2560p and 2760p convertible tablet PC will feature second-generation Intel Core processors, including the Core i5-2537M and Core i7-2617M, matching processors already available in the 15-inch EliteBook model. HP’s ultraportable EliteBooks typically have 12.1-inch displays; however, material on HP’s Japanese site suggests HP might be offering a model with a 13-inch display with up to 1,440 by 900-pixel native resolution. Reports also have the new ultraportable EliteBooks offering integrated 33G connectivity as an option; the current EliteBook 3540p offers 3G service from Verizon, AT&T, or Sprint as an option in the United States.

Asus Eee Pad Transformer launched in US

Taiwan’s AsusTek has brought its Eee Pad Transformer to U.S. consumers by April by launching the device at electronics retailer Best Buy for a starting price of $399.99. The availability of the Eee Pad Transformer not only increases the number of Android tablet devices on the market running Android 3.0 “Honeycomb,” but also hits a very important price point: it undercuts the Apple iPad 2. The Eee Pad Transformer features a 10.1-inch display with a 1,280 by 800-pixel resolution, so it has more pixels than an iPad, and is powered by an Nvidia Tegra 2 processor and 1 GB of LPDDR2 memory. Rather than relying on flash storage, the Eee Pad Transformer carriers a 16 GB hard drive but the device still measures just half and inch thick, although it weighs a rather un-svelte 2.2 pounds. The Eee Pad Transformer features a 1.2 megapixel webcam with mic, a 4-in-1 media card reader, two USB 2.0 ports, 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.1 wireless networking, and is available in brown or black. The Transformer’s claim to fame is that it can dock with an optional keyboard and that keyboard contains a whole separate battery system, so the combined devices can run 16 hours rather than the 8 hours users can expect from the tablet alone. The keyboard is optional and Best Buy doesn’t seem to have it in stock yet but even with the keyboard dock the Eee Pad might give an iPad-and-keyboard combination some serious price competition. Asus is also launching the Eee Pad Transformer in France and the United Kingdom. In the UK, the 16 GB edition will apparently sell for £379, with a 32 GB edition selling for £50 more, with keyboard docking stations going for another £50. In France, the 16 GB version will apparently be priced at €399, but won’t be available until May.

HTC Flyer: The Pen Makes It Special

HTC has posted a new promotional video for its upcoming Android tablet, which will either be named the Flyer -its moniker in the video -or the smartphone-like Evo View 4G when it arrives this summer. As tablets go, the specifications for the Flyer are impressive but far from unique: a 7-inch, 1024-by-600 display; 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor; 1GB of RAM; 32GB of internal memory; a microSD card slot; and dual cameras (5-megapixel rear, 1.3-megapixel front). What makes the Flyer unique is its pen-input feature. Despite the woeful history of pen-based tablets, HTC is giving it another go with the Flyer. If one can trust HTC's promo video, the Flyer's pen implementation looks pretty slick. The abilities to notate in eBooks, comment on documents and Web pages, and sign contracts with a stylus add a new layer of functionality to today's tablets. A pen is also better for many drawing and photo-editing tasks, as the video carefully illustrates. It'll be interesting to see if HTC's pen-input makes the Flyer a standout in an increasingly crowded tablet market.