Verizon launches three new smart phones

Verizon’s ramping up its smartphone roster with a new lineup of devices, all featuring entertainment perks, speed boosts and new features. The four new devices include the Xperia Play, LG Revolution, HTC Trophy and Motorola Droid X2.

The Xperia Play is the darling of the bunch, manufactured by Sony Ericsson, and donning the PlayStation mark. It’s a gaming phone, connected to the PlayStation Network, and designed to handle high-end games, making it a hefty gaming device that happens to have phone capabilities. With a 4-inch 480x854 display, 1GHz CUP and an 8GB memory card, the long-awaited Xperia Play will cost you $199 if you give Verizon two years of your life.

LG’s hoping to make a splash in the device arena with the Revolution, touting LTE capabilities as one of its selling features. This makes the Revolution a speedy phone, with faster data transfer on the go. It’s slightly bigger than the Xperia Play, with a 4.3-inch screen, a single-core 1GHz Snapdragon CPU, a 5-megapixel back camera (and 1.3-megapixel front camera), and 16GB of storage. You’ll pay a premium for the speed, however, with the Revolution’s price tag of approximately $250 with a two-year contract.

The HTC Trophy, on the other hand, is the device maker’s latest Windows phone, boasting WP7 OS. It’s the cheapest in this freshly launched group, costing about $150 with a two-year contract. It’s also on the smaller side, with a 3.8-inch display, a 1GHz Snapdragon CPU, a 5-megapixel back camera and 16GB of storage memory.

Finally, there’s the Droid X2, which is roaring with power. It’s got the dual-core 1GHz CPU, with an 8-megapixel back camera and a 4.3 inch, 960x540 display. There’s no LTE on this phone, however, slightly dropping the price down to about $199 with a two-year contract. For all its beauty and brawn, the X2 is really missing out with no support for Verizon’s 4G capabilities, leaving it to city outskirts, while making way for faster phones.

Dish Network slashes Blockbuster prices

The satellite TV company said its recently acquired Blockbuster movie rental business will expand its 99-cents-a-day rate to thousands more films and cut prices on new releases. Dish Network bought the video chain for $320.6 mil after Blockbuster entered bankruptcy proceedings. The discounting will increase competitive pressure on Netflix and Coinstar's Redbox kiosks.

Twitter chief appointed telecom advisor

US President Barack Obama named Twitter's chief and a high-ranking Microsoft executive among a handful of technology veterans to be appointed as telecommunications security advisors.

"I am proud to appoint such impressive men and women to these important roles, and I am grateful they have agreed to lend their considerable talents to this administration," Obama said in a White House press release.

"I look forward to working with them in the months and years ahead," he continued in reference to those he picked to join his National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee.

The list of appointees included Twitter chief executive Dick Costolo; Microsoft vice president of trustworthy computing Scott Charney; McAfee computer security company president David DeWalt, and Lisa Hook, head of global communications technology firm Neustar.

The final appointee to the committee was Jamie Dos Santos, chief of the group that handles federal government information technology at Terremark Worldwide.

Costolo replaced Twitter co-founder Evan Williams as chief executive in October in a move that gave the San Francisco-based firm's helm to a Google veteran with a mandate to help the microblogging sensation make money.

Microsoft's trustworthy computing unit specializes in identifying Internet threats and protecting systems operated by the Redmond, Washington-based technology firm's widely used software.

Google unveils mobile pay service, PayPal and eBay sue

Google faced a lawsuit after it unveiled a free mobile application that turns a smartphone into an electronic wallet and is designed to replace plastic credit cards.

PayPal and eBay filed a lawsuit in a California state court charging that the Internet giant tapped into trade secrets for its newly released Google Wallet. Google did not immediately respond to the allegations.

PayPal spent three years trying to work out a deal in which it would handle payments for Android smartphones, only to see Google scuttle the talks and hire its lead negotiator Osama Bedier, according to court documents.

Bedier worked at the eBay-owned online financial services unit as a vice president of platform, mobile, and new ventures until being hired in January by Google.

He played a central role at Google's official unveiling in New York with financial partners Citibank, MasterCard and First Data and telecom ally Sprint, saying Google Wallet is being field tested and will be available this summer.

Google Wallet will initially work with Google's Nexus S 4G smartphone from Sprint, the third-largest US wireless provider, and will eventually be expanded to other phones equipped with near field communication (NFC) technology.

An NFC chip in a phone allows a user who has entered his or her credit card details to "tap-and-pay" for purchases at a checkout register equipped with the PayPass system from CitiMasterCard.

Customers can also use a Google Prepaid card to pay for purchases and take advantage of Google Offers, the Mountain View, California-based company's online discount coupon program.

The company said Google Wallet will be accepted at more than 124,000 US merchants at launch and more than 311,000 around the world.

Stephanie Tilenius, Google's vice president for commerce and payments, described Google Wallet as the "next generation of mobile commerce."

"We're building an open commerce ecosystem that for the first time will make it possible for you to pay with an NFC wallet and redeem consumer promotions all in one tap, while shopping offline," Tilenius said.

"We are looking at expanding internationally, Europe first and then Asia."

The PayPal lawsuit contends that Tilenius helped Google poach Bedier and named both executives and the Internet company as defendants in a civil case alleging misappropriation of trade secrets.

Mobile payments are being tested or used in a number of countries already, notably France and Japan, but Google Wallet will be among the first to bring NFC technology to stores in the United States.

NFC technology uses short-range, high frequency wireless to enable the encrypted exchange of information between devices at a short distance.

Three of the largest US wireless carriers - AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless - announced in November that they were teaming up to build a national network called "Isis" to allow for payments by mobile phones.

They said they expect to introduce the service during the next 18 months.

Then-Google chief executive Eric Schmidt said shortly before the Nexus S smartphone hit the market in December that he expects tap-and-pay technology to eventually replace credit cards.
Forrester Research analyst Charles Golvin said it remains to be seen, however, whether Google can change the payment behavior of consumers, and it will take time and more widespread adoption to find out.

"Relying on an installed base of phones that is today indistinguishable from zero, a single payment system, a single card issuer, and a modest network of merchants capable of accepting these phone-based payments means that the near-term impact will be negligible," Golvin said.
Andrew Eisner, director of community and content at Retrevo, agreed that "the big question is how consumers will warm up to NFC."

"So far it looks like consumers are a bit skeptical," Eisner said. "They worry about security and privacy issues."

Google said it has built a number of security systems into Google Wallet including the need for a PIN number and credit card encryption. If lost, the payment system can be disabled with a phone call.

In addition to allowing for mobile payments, Google Wallet lets consumers pay using gift cards and redeem promotions such as discounts or coupons.

"Google Wallet will start with offers, loyalty and gift cards, but some day items like receipts, boarding passes and tickets will all be seamlessly synced to your Google Wallet," Google said in a blog post.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 coming soon

A recent tweet from Samsung suggests the tablet, Galaxy Tab 10.1 is "only a few days away."

It’s another Honeycomb device that will feature resizable widgets, Google's new movie rentals service, and more. The Galaxy Tab 10.1, the big brother to the forthcoming Galaxy Tab 8.9, sports a 10.1" screen, along with a dual-core Tegra 2 processor, a front-and back-facing camera, and 1080p video recording.

At .33" thick, the Galaxy Tab 10.1 will squeak past the super slim iPad 2 to become the thinnest tablet on the market.

Japanese firm Ricoh to cut 10,000 jobs

Japanese office equipment and digital camera maker Ricoh said it plans to cut 10,000 jobs worldwide over three years to turn around sagging business operations.

Ricoh was hit hard by the 2008-09 global financial crisis and has struggled to recover in the face of stiff competition.

The cuts from a global workforce of over 100,000, Ricoh's first major wave of job losses, will be made both at home and abroad by March 2014.

The company currently employs 40,000 people in Japan and 68,900 overseas.

Company president Shiro Kondo said no area of the company would be exempt from streamlining.

"For example, you might have 10 people working together to develop software that two people could develop. You need to question whether having more people is really speeding things up," Kondo said.

He declined to disclose the details of the job cuts, such as which countries and business segments would be affected. But the company said it would shift 15,000 workers to areas with more growth potential, such as information technology services for corporate clients.

The firm also plans to revamp or withdraw from operations where it is making losses.

Ricoh said its market was still growing in emerging nations, but added that "purchases of printing devices and paper-printing volume are expected to decline in developed countries".

It attributed the rise of a "paperless trend" to the emergence of smartphones and tablet computers.

Ricoh has seen its group net profit drop sharply in recent years - from more than 100 billion yen ($1.2 billion) in the year to March 2008 to 6.5 billion yen a year later.

Net profit for the last business year stood at 19.6 billion yen, down 29.5 percent from the previous year.

Sales came to 1.94 trillion yen, missing a target of 2.3 trillion yen. Like many Japanese manufacturers, Ricoh continues to face challenges associated with the March 11 earthquake that struck northeastern Japan. The disaster caused disruption to supply chains and raised concerns about a possible power shortage this summer.

Some of Ricoh's domestic production facilities were affected by the quake, but have since recovered to nearly normal operations. Ricoh estimated quake-related damage to earnings for the just-ended fiscal year at about 9.4 billion yen.

Ricoh said in its mid-term business plan announced Thursday it aims to achieve group sales of 2.4 trillion yen in fiscal 2013, which ends in March 2014, by expanding market share in emerging countries.

It also aims at an operating profit of 210 billion yen, more than three times higher than 60.1 billion yen in the last year.

The company plans to maintain capital spending at the current level, which would be 200 billion yen over the three years.

Ricoh's stock surged 4.11 percent in Tokyo to a closing price of 885 yen on the news.

Ricoh's announcement comes after Panasonic, one of Japan's largest tech companies, announced drastic job cuts in late April, saying it had already slashed 17,600 jobs over the past year, and planned to cut 17,000 more worldwide over the next two years.

HTC to bring Windows Mango Phones

Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC plans to bring out phones based on Microsoft's new Mango Windows phone software, HTC Chief Executive Peter Chou said.

Microsoft hopes a host of new features on Mango, a stepping stone to a full Windows phone software update due next year, will help it close the gap on smartphones leaders Google and Apple.

"We have some Windows Mango phones," Chou said in an interview on the fringes of an Internet conference hosted by President Nicolas Sarkozy in Paris. "We are very committed to Windows phone products."

Chou, who is known for killing off products he is not satisfied with at a late stage of development, declined to say when the first HTC Mango phones might appear.

Taiwan-based HTC has seen runaway success with smartphones based on Google's Android operating system, a rival to Microsoft's Windows phone. But it also has a long-standing partnership with Microsoft, which Chou said would not change.

Last month, HTC said it expected its revenue to double in the current quarter.

Opera unveils new browser for iPhone and iPad

Opera Software has unveiled a new version of its mobile browser for Apple's iPhone and iPad.

According to Web analytics firm StatCounter, Opera is the world's most used mobile browser ahead of Google's Android, Apple, and Nokia controlling 21.6 percent of the market in May so far.

The Android, iPhone and Nokia browsers all have 16-17 percent market shares.

Opera's new browser features a share button, so users can post, tweet, or share info on Facebook, vKontakte or My Opera.

In April 2010 Apple accepted distribution of Opera's browser for its iPhone after a long review, opening a market it had closely guarded.

Opera's iPhone browser was downloaded more than 2.6 million times in 2010 April alone and was at the time the most popular application in many countries.

Logitech launches Tablet Accessories for iOS and Android

After Logitech's recent release of the rebranded Zaggmate Keyboard Case for iPad, the peripheral manufacturer has finally decided to dive into the tablet market with its line of Android and iOS combatable devices.

The Tablet Keyboard for iPad and Android is a keyboard that comes with a carrying case. The bonus is that the keyboard's hard-shell case also doubles as a stand for the iPad or Android tablet, which can be displayed vertically or horizontally. It comes with pre-installed 4 AAA batteries. The Tablet Keyboard for Android is compatible with Android OS 3.0 and later and Bluetooth (HID profile) capable devices. The iPad version of course supports both iPad 1 and 2 and uses Bluetooth to connect to your iOS devices, so you could also connect the keyboard to your iPhone or iPod Touch. However, most Android smartphones don't support the HID Bluetooth profile required, so compatible Android devices will likely be limited to tablets. Aside from the usual QWERTY layout included on every keyboard, Logitech has also added play/pause and volume control for media.

Logitech has also included a Bluetooth wireless mouse among the roster, being that these tablets are touch-capable and the interfaces not intended for mouse use I see little a mouse can offer in this market.

The Logitech Tablet Keyboard for iPad and Android (69.99 direct) and the Tablet Mouse (49.99 direct) will be available sometime in May.

Nokia's mobile market share down to 25%

Nokia's share of the mobile phone market dropped to 25 percent in the first quarter of 2011, the lowest for 14 years, down from 30.6 percent at the same time last year, said technology research group Gartner.

"Its market share declined 5.5 percentage points year-on-year, and its share has reached its lowest since 1997," Gartner said in a study.

Nokia had released its own figures on April 21 putting first-quarter market share at 29 percent, down from 33 percent in the first quarter of 2010.

Earlier this year, the company announced a radical restructuring to overcome increasingly fierce competition in the smartphone market.

The Finnish company, which had a global market share of 40 percent as late as 2008, nonetheless remains the mobile industry leader.

It still ranking well ahead of second-place Samsung, which holds 16 percent, followed by LG in third with 5.6 percent, Apple in fourth with 3.9 percent and RIM with 3.0 percent.

Nokia announced in February that it expected a "period of uncertainty" as it phased out its Symbian platform in favour of a tie-in with Microsoft's Windows Phone operating system for its smartphones.

But Gartner said the Finnish company was still taking a beating in the rapidly growing smartphone sector, pointing out that "Android and Apple's iOS continued to dominate the smartphone operating system wars."

"Smartphones accounted for 23.6 percent of overall sales in the first quarter of 2011, an increase of 85 percent year-on-year," said Roberta Cozza, Gartner's principal research analyst.

Worldwide mobile phone devices sales meanwhile increased by 19 percent year-on-year, according to Gartner's data, totalling 427.8 million units sold in the first quarter.

The research group said it expected the total number of mobile phone sold worldwide this year to tick in at nearly 1.8 billion units.

ViewSonic to launch First 7-Inch Android Honeycomb Tablet

Big screen Android tablets with Honeycomb 3.0 were all the rage, while smaller tablets were stuck with older smartphone versions of the OS-until now. The first 7-inch tablet featuring Honeycomb is set to arrive later this month from ViewSonic, and it will be dubbed the ViewPad 7x.

Because Google rushed Android 3.0 to the market to counter the popularity of the Apple iPad, the company was unable to optimize the OS for different-sized tablets fast enough. This meant that you could get Android 3.0 Honeycomb on 10-inch tablets such as the Motorola Xoom, but not on 7-inch tablets such as the HTC Flyer.

Now it seems that ViewSonic will be the first to get on the market a 7-inch Honeycomb tablet at the end of May, if Pocket-Lint's sources are accurate. The tablet will be called the ViewPad 7x, and will reportedly be sold alongside the ViewPad 7. Pricing and exact availability are unknown by this time for the ViewPad 7x.

While the details on the ViewPad 7x are sketchy, it runs on a 600MHz processor and has 512MB of RAM and 512MB of on-board storage (expandable to 32GB via microSD card). The 7-inch screen has 800 by 480 pixel resolution, and the tablet also features 3G antennas along Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.

The original ViewPad 7 sells for around $400.

Twitter releases new app for mobiles

The folks at Twitter have been working hard towards developing a new interface for mobile browsers – and the San Francisco company has began to roll it out.

The company said, “This web app allows us to provide a high-quality and consistent Twitter experience on high-end touchscreen devices – whether or not an official Twitter application is available.”

It further said: “It was built from the ground up for smartphones and tablets, which have more advanced browsers that support the latest web technologies, including HTML5.”

The new app replaces the previous rather cumbersome version with an interface that closely resembles the iPhone app, for example, the introduction of icons for @mentions, messages, stream and search – something the old mobile browser lacked. In the case of the new mobile web interface, however, the icons are at the top, not the bottom. Android users will be more familiar with the icons-on-top look.

The designers of the new interface say they have made something quick to use – quick to scroll through the timeline, quick to move between tabs and quick to compose tweets - although we think that rather depends on your typing prowess. The blog post says that the new interface “takes advantage of capabilities that high-end device browsers offer, such as touch gestures and a large screen. And it’s simple – it’s easy-to-use and has the features you’d expect from a Twitter application, including your timeline, @mentions, messages that you can read in conversation view, search, trending topics, lists, and more.”

The new application for mobile browsers is being rolled out gradually. Twitter says it is releasing it “to a small percentage of users on iPhone, iPod touch, and Android smartphones, and we’ll be rolling it out to additional folks with those devices in the coming weeks.” In the meantime, the old mobile interface will remain available to users.

Google to pay $500 mn to settle US ad probe

Internet giant Google has set aside $500 million in anticipation of the results of a US government investigation into the practices of some of its advertisers.

"In May 2011, in connection with a potential resolution of an investigation by the United States Department of Justice into the use of Google advertising by certain advertisers, we accrued $500 million for the three month period ended March 31, 2011," the company said.

"Although we cannot predict the ultimate outcome of this matter, we believe it will not have a material adverse effect on our business, consolidated financial position, results of operations, or cash flows."

The statement, which was filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), did not provide further details on the practices in question or what legal consequences the company might face.

The provision reduced Google's net income for the first quarter to $1.798 billion from $2.298 billion announced on April 14. Advertising accounted for 97 percent of the company's $8.575 billion revenue during the same period.

7th gen iPod Nano to regain camera

Taiwanese Apple.pro blog, known for leaking photos of apple products, has released photo of the next generation iPod Nano. The blog claims that the hole in the upper left corner will house a camera with a low-resolution 1.3 megapixel lens, perfect for the Nano screen’s size.

The site also says that the seventh generation Nano will retain its multi-touch screen but will have to ditch the clip because it will cover the camera lens. The Nano used to have a camera in its fifth-generation model back in 2009, and critics were unhappy when the current smaller model phased the camera out.

Apple Insider says that the Taiwanese blog had already released a photo of the Nano case in early April which suggested a camera, but that photo came around the time of April Fools’ and the authenticity wasn’t verified.

Apple Insider also says that the blog was right about the sixth-generation Nano, revealing the tiny screen of the multi-touch display before the device was officially released. Apple.pro also leaked photos of the iPhone 4G in early 2010 but they’ve had their share of misses, such as the false 15-inch Macbook Air.

Microsoft to buy Internet phone company Skype

US software giant Microsoft is all set to buy the Internet phone company Skype for $8.5 billion in cash as it battles to stay relevant in an online world dominated by Google and Apple.

Buying Skype is giving Microsoft Corp. a potentially valuable communications tool as it tries to make a bigger splash on the Internet and become a bigger force in the increasingly important smartphone market.

Skype boasts about 663 million users worldwide who make voice and video calls over the Internet.

Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer reportedly championed the deal, which was estimated to have a price tag of $8.5 billion in what would be the decades-old technology company's most expensive acquisition to date.

Skype was launched in 2003 by Estonian software developers who were part of the group that created peer-to-peer file-sharing service Kazaa.

Millions of people use Skype to make low cost or free phone calls over the Internet using their computers or smartphones.

Buying Skype could be a way for Microsoft to shed some of its business software image and gain momentum in a hot smartphone market at a time when Internet lifestyles are going mobile.

Skype in January closed a deal to buy Qik, a California startup that specializes in allowing people to use smartphones to stream video to Internet-linked friends in real time.

The acquisition came amid surging popularity of video chat using smartphones, tablets and desktop computers.

Skype handled 24.7 percent of all minutes spent on international phone calls last year and 40 percent of calls between Skype users were video, Skype chief executive Tony Bates said while announcing the Qik takeover.

Bates said Skype was also continuing its push into living rooms, expanding a line of televisions embedded with its Internet telephony service and even infusing the software in a Blu-ray player made by Panasonic.

Online auction giant eBay in 2009 sold most of its stake in Skype to an investment group that includes the two founders of the Web communications company. That deal valued Skype at $2.75 billion.

The firm, which has its headquarters in Luxembourg, bypasses the standard telephone network by channeling voice and video calls over the Internet.

It allows users to call others free of charge and provides the ability to connect with land lines or mobile devices at low rates.

Skype last year announced plans for an initial public offering of stock and appeared on its way to profitability, but investors are evidently eager for a pay-off.

Vaunted technology blogger Om Malik wrote that Facebook could benefit greatly from Microsoft buying Skype. Microsoft owns a minor share of Facebook and powers Internet searches at the social networking service.

Facebook members would likely get access to Skype tools while Microsoft keeps the telephony service out of the hands of competitor Google, Malik said.

A Skype version 5.0 for Windows unveiled in October included a Facebook tab and integrated Facebook's news feed and phonebook into the Internet communications service.

A Skype buy could also play into Microsoft's efforts to promote its new Windows Phone 7 mobile software in a fierce smartphone market.

Microsoft joined forces in February with Nokia, the world's largest mobile phone maker. In an effort to radically change course and fight off encroaching competition, Nokia smartphones will be powered by Microsoft software, according to Nokia chief executive Stephen Elop.

Google all set to launch online music

Google could launch a new online music service as early as Tuesday, which will be similar to a service recently started by Amazon.com Inc, The Wall Street Journal said, citing people familiar with the matter.

The Journal said Google is likely to announce the service at its annual Google I/O developers conference in San Francisco, adding that the service will operate in a testing mode initially and not be available to the public at large.

In April, Amazon unveiled a service that allows customers to store about 1,000 songs on its web servers for free instead of their own hard drives and play them over an Internet connection directly from web browsers.

The Journal said Google has not sought licenses from the four major recorded-music companies and the new feature is likely to include a system that functions much like a remote hard drive.

Users could listen to songs they have uploaded to the service in a "streaming" mode, but will not be able to download the files.

Google-owned YouTube said it will add more than 3,000 mainstream movies for users.

Apple becomes World’s Most Valuable Brand

According to a new study by global brands agency Millward Brown, Apple has overtaken Google as the world's most valuable brand, ending a four-year reign by the Internet search leader.

The iPhone and iPad maker's brand is now worth $153 billion, almost half Apple's market capitalization, says the annual BrandZ study of the world's top 100 brands.

Apple's portfolio of coveted consumer goods propelled it past Microsoft to become the world's most valuable technology company last year.

Peter Walshe, global brands director of Millward Brown, says Apple's meticulous attention to detail, along with an increasing presence of its gadgets in corporate environments, have allowed it to behave differently from other consumer-electronics makers.

"Apple is breaking the rules in terms of its pricing model. It's doing what luxury brands do, where the higher price the brand is, the more it seems to underpin and reinforce the desire."

"Obviously, it has to be allied to great products and a great experience, and Apple has nurtured that."

Of the top 10 brands in the report, six were technology and telecoms companies: Google at number two, IBM at number three, Microsoft at number five, AT&T at number seven and China Mobile at number nine.

McDonald's rose two places to number four, as fast food became the fastest-growing category, Coca-Cola slipped one place to number six, Marlboro was also down one to number eight, and General Electric was number 10.

Nineteen of the top 100 brands came from emerging markets, up from 13 last year.

Facebook entered the top 100 at number 35 with a brand valued at $19.1 billion, while Chinese search engine Baidu rose to number 29 from 46.

Toyota reclaimed its position as the world's most valuable car brand, as it recovered from a bungled 2010 product recall. The survey was carried out before the March earthquake that caused massive disruption to Japanese supply chains.

The total value of the top 100 brands rose by 17 percent to $2.4 trillion, as the global economy shifted to growth.

HP offers 3G Mobile Broadband Service to Business Laptops

Hewlett-Packard said it will start offering pay-as-you-go 3G mobile broadband services for its business laptops as the company looks to package more services with PCs.

HP is offering the DataPass mobile broadband service with its new 3G-enabled Elitebook business laptops, which were also announced on Monday. The service provides access to 3G data networks in the U.S., and does not require a user to sign a monthly or yearly contract with a wireless carrier.

The DataPass service can be purchased easily in blocks through the laptop, and users don't need to pay any activation fee, said Mike Hockey, an HP spokesman. With plans starting at US$5, the service is good for quick access to the Internet for different durations at places like airports or hotels, where Internet access could otherwise be expensive.

Users can buy a US$5 data plan for 75MB of data over 5 hours, $10 for 150MB of data over 3 days, $20 for 450MB of data over 14 days, or $30 for 1GB of data over 30 days.

The service is available in the U.S. only and worldwide availability is being explored. The service is 3G-only, and access to 4G networks is not yet offered through the service.

The service is available only with HP laptops, which could include optional hardware such as a modem to access 3G networks. Software on the laptop shows availability of a DataPass network at the user's location.

The company does not intend to become a telecom service provider, and the service is being provided as a convenience to customers. Users can continue using mobile broadband services from other network providers such as Verizon, AT&T or T-Mobile.

The service will be available with new Elitebook business laptops announced by HP on Monday. The laptops provide longer battery life than older models and are equipped with Intel's latest Sandy Bridge processors.

The Elitebook 5330m is less than 1 inch (25.4 millimeters) thick and weighs less than four pounds (1.81 kilograms). It includes a 13.3-inch screen and will be available with Intel's latest Core i5 and i3 processors. With a four-cell battery and solid-state drive storage, the laptop can provide up to 6.5 hours of battery life, according to the company. The laptop is priced starting at $799 and will become available worldwide this month.

HP also announced the Elitebook 2560p ultraportable and 2760p convertible tablets. The laptops come with Intel's latest Core i5 and i7 processors.

The 2560p weighs 3.68 pounds and comes with a 12.5-inch screen, which is the same size as the display on Lenovo's latest ThinkPad X220 tablet that is available since April. The Elitebook 2560p is priced starting at $1,099.

The 2760p is a convertible laptop with a 12.1-inch convertible screen that flips around for users to take notes using a pen input. With a six-cell battery and a hard drive, the laptop provides 8.5 hours of battery life. The laptop will become available worldwide this month starting at $1,499.

Lenovo infuses laptops with more fun

Chinese computer colossus Lenovo is infusing its leading business laptops with more fun features as Internet Age lifestyles blur lines between work and play.

Lenovo was at the San Francisco headquarters of Dolby Laboratories this week to show off theater quality sound, rich viewing and quick graphics handling in a ThinkPad laptop computer line that has become a top choice for businesses.

"We are adding elements that are more relevant and interesting to consumers," ThinkPad marketing director Tom Butler said while demonstrating new features that included audio enhanced with Dolby Home Theater 4.

Long popular with big corporations, Lenovo recently launched ThinkPad models aimed at small businesses whose operators tend to shop for gear at retail shops and whose employees increasingly make work computers part of home lives.

"We see a clear merger of consumer and business in the small business space," Butler said.
"At the same time workers are using systems 24 hours a day, seven days a week. They are taking them home and checking personal email, searching the Web, playing music videos and other multi-media."

Dolby software added to freshly released ThinkPad laptop models dramatically ramps up the quality of any audio from film soundtracks or music to Internet conference calls.

Lenovo is the first to put Dolby Home Theater 4 on a business computer, according to Brennan.

Digital lifestyle enhancements included game-speed graphics, vivid screens, and HDMI ports for routing films or other data-rich digital content to high-definition television screens or muscular speakers.

ThinkPad laptops had keys devoted to quickly launching multimedia and slot-loading for DVDs.
Lenovo is the world's top seller of business laptops and the fourth largest computer company overall.

Lenovo's Bill Dominici provided an early look at an Edge 91Z all-in-one desktop computer hitting the market.

All the computing hardware was built into a sleek 2.5-inch (6.4 centimeter) thick black monitor with a 21.5-inch (54.6 centimeter) screen boasting high-definition imagery.

The starting price will be $699 with a "rich configuration" to be sold for $1,100.

Samsung infuses AT&T with 4G Smartphone

AT&T Wireless and Samsung Mobile announced the thin and light Infuse 4G smartphone during a press event in New York.

The phone is 8.99 millimeters (0.35 inches) thick - a fraction thinner than Apple's iPhone 4 - and has a 4.5-inch Super AMOLED display, one of Samsung's most advanced, said Jeff Bradley, senior vice president for devices at AT&T Wireless.

The device weighs 133 grams (4.7 ounces) and is powered by a single-core ARM processor running at 1.2GHz. It runs Google's Android 2.2 OS and will go on sale in the U.S. on May 15, priced at US$199 with a two-year wireless contract. It runs on AT&T's HSPA+ (Evolved High-Speed Packet Access) network, which AT&T considers a 4G service.

The display shows more pixels than Samsung's previous AMOLED smartphone screens offered on the AT&T network, Bradley said. Infuse also has an 8-megapixel camera with auto-focus and flash.

It's the latest addition to Samsung's portfolio, which also includes the Galaxy line of smartphones and tablets. The new phone was previewed in January at the Consumer Electronics Show, where AT&T said it would introduce multiple 4G and Android devices this year.

Samsung and AT&T have partnered with mobile gaming company Rovio to include a special Angry Birds edition for the smartphone.

Warner Music sold for $1.3 bn

The world's No. 3 recording company, Warner Music, is being acquired by Access Industries, which agreed to pay $8.25 a share and take on $2 bil in debt as well as $320 mil in cash. The deal comes as CD sales continue to drop and digital sales have flattened. Warner Music Group, known for artists like Eric Clapton and the Red Hot Chili Peppers, is now seen making steep cuts, after trimming its workforce to 3,700 from 5,100 in 2003.

Dell to bring a New Ultra-Thin Laptop

Dell steps up to challenge Apple's MacBook Air again, this time with a large-screen ultra-thin laptop and promises of better performance than the discontinued Dell Adamo.

Sources say that the initial 15.6-inch screen model will debut in the coming weeks for under $1,000-another big improvement on the ultra-premium price of the Adamo.

Before the Dell Adamo was launched earlier this year, it drew a lot of interest as a Windows alternative to the MacBook Air, but the high-style laptop was widely criticized for being overpriced (a deluxe version started at $2,700) and under-performing.

Now the company is back for more and determined to roll out a whole line of ultra-performance, ultra-thin laptops.

The debut model will be positioned as the first larger-screen ultra-thin laptop and will be targeted towards "prosumers". There's been a long and steady march of MacBook Air-rivals this year, from the business-oriented ThinkPad X1 to the curvy Samsung Series 9, but all of them, like the Adamo, copied the Air's 13.3-inch form factor.

Besides boasting a larger, high-resolution display, Dell's upcoming laptop will use Intel's second-generation Core i5 and i7 processors. Dell is also still emphasizing "style and beauty" for this new premium laptop, which will be crafted from special materials.

Next iPhone to have Over-the-Air Updates

The day is getting closer when you don't need to plug your iPhone, iPad or iPod into your computer to update its operating system. There's a report that iOS 5 will be capable of over-the-air updates. According to 9to5 Mac's multiple sources, Apple has been negotiating with Verizon Wireless to provide the over-the-air updates.

For iOS updates to be delivered over-the-air, Apple will need to make fundamental changes in the way its updates work. For one thing, Apple will need to stop requiring a download of the entire operating system for a simple update.

Perhaps Apple will let these updates take place only over Wi-Fi connections, as it does for some large app downloads. Even if that's the case, just for the sake of efficiency it would be a good idea to send incremental updates, similar to the way Microsoft has been updating its operating systems for years, in small pieces as they become available.

This would be a long-awaited and welcome capability - a feature that's commonplace in the Android operating system. So how longer must we wait? According to a general consensus, iOS 5 will launch when the iPhone 5 ships, and now the latest iPhone rumor is that it won't be happening in June or July. The next iPhone is expected to ship in September.

Amazon preparing its own tablet

According to a source, Amazon may be preparing to launch its own tablet. Taiwan's tech newspaper DigiTimes, claims that Amazon has placed orders for the device with Quanta Computer, the Taiwanese manufacturer supposedly tapped to crank out the tablets.

Quanta estimated that production of the forthcoming Amazon tablets would peak at 700,000 to 800,000 units a month and that the devices would begin shipping in the second half of 2011. The report also indicated that Amazon would be working with the company behind the Kindle's E Ink display, suggesting that a colorful screen readable in bright light could be in the cards.

While news that trickles out from Asian component product lines isn't historically the most reliable, these aren't the first murmurings of a tablet from the web retail giant. Amazon may be a name synonymous with online shopping, but it's also an aggressively innovative company that already has a gadget success story with its own e-reader, the Kindle.

The retailer has been expanding its horizons as of late and it appears that Amazon wants to get a foot in every door, from storage in the cloud with Amazon Cloud Drive to its own Android app store. Readying an Amazon-branded tablet would mean one more experiment, this time in the white-hot tablet market.

BlackBerry unveils Thinnest Smartphones

Research in Motion has unveiled two new BlackBerry Bold smartphones and BlackBerry 7 OS, in addition to announcing new Facebook and video chat apps for the BlackBerry PlayBook.

The BlackBerry Bold 9900 and 9930 smartphones look like the most competitive offerings RIM has had in years. RIM has upgraded the aging processor on existing Torch and Bold phones to 1.2 Ghz, added 8 GB of onboard memory, support for 720p HD video recording and support for 4G HSPA+ networks.

The 9900 and 9930 phones are also the thinnest BlackBerry smartphones yet - each measuring just 10.5mm thick. RIM has also added bells and whistles like dual-band Wi-Fi, NFC support, and the classic BlackBerry QWERTY keyboard in addition to a touch LCD screen.

This is the most competitive offering that RIM has produced since 2008. The design, while still classic BlackBerry, is thinner than in the past and the processor and onboard memory requirements are no longer embarrassingly passe.

As for the new BlackBerry 7 OS, RIM says that it features a better browser (with better HTML5 support), the ability to keep personal and corporate content separate and built-in productivity apps.
Sight unseen, we're still not convinced RIM can compete against the latest crop of Android and Windows Phone devices -- not to mention the next iPhone. Still, the newest BlackBerry Bold at least looks like a step in the right direction.

According to RIM, BlackBerry 9900 and 9930 will be available later this summer.

RIM brings Angry Birds to PlayBook

The widely popular mobile game Angry Birds will be available soon on Research In Motion's PlayBook tablet, the company said.

The game, which features birds destroying the pigs which stole their eggs with the help of a slingshot, is developed by Rovio, which plans to list on the Nasdaq within five years.

Google brings video chat to Android devices

Google has announced the imminent arrival of its video chat software for Android phones, Google Talk with video. While some apps for Android phones already allow you to video chat (eg. Fring and Tango), Google Talk will become part of the forthcoming Android OS update (2.3.4).

Google Talk with video will allow users to video chat with others using either the same software or Gmail with Google Talk on computers. It’ll be possible to make calls over 3G, 4G or Wi-Fi - unlike, for example, Apple’s FaceTime, which currently only works over Wi-Fi.

Google explains: “In your Google Talk friends list, a video or voice chat button will appear next to your contacts and you can simply touch the button to connect with them. Any text chats from the person you’re talking with will be overlaid on your phone’s screen so you can read them without having to leave the video. And, if you need to check something else, the video pauses automatically so you can go back to your phone’s home screen or another app. The audio will keep going even though the video has paused.”

Google Talk for Android isn’t available just yet. It’ll be coming to Samsung Nexus S devices over the next few weeks as part of the Android 2.3.4 over-the-air update, and then to other Android 2.3+ devices after that.