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.