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.