The Nexus 7 tablet has been an almost permanent fixture in tech news of late, and with sales currently through the roof, Google has finally given its cheap-yet-powerful tablet its very first advertisement.
Although Android is quite a distance ahead of the competition in terms of reach and overall user numbers, it does have its caveats, and one glaring issue prominent from the beginning has been that of audio latency. Android Jelly Bean (4.1) has just released to a number of devices, and although it is a significant improvement on previous iterations (ICS saw playback latency of around 88ms), the audio lag issue still exists.
Sparrow, the creator of those very popular iOS and OS X applications, has just been acquired by Google, in a move which will certainly raise more than a few eyebrows. Sparrow has dedicated its existence on making some altogether great apps for Apple's platforms, but it is the Big G that has decided to swoop for the start-up, and Sparrow will now join the Gmail team to "accomplish a bigger vision."
Some smartphones just outright refuse to die. The HTC HD2, released in late 2009, is the most recent example of this. It was the first smartphone with a 4.3” display*, powered by a 1GHz Snapdragon processor, 512MB of RAM, a 5-megapixel camera. The HD2 was the last smartphone that was based on Windows Mobile 6.5, but later, thanks to vibrant community support, the device was able to run Windows Phone 7, and Android all the way from 2.2 to the recently released 4.1 Jelly Bean.
Although it has been recently reported that current Apple CEO Tim Cook has been meeting with Samsung executives to discuss the ongoing patent battles which are becoming laborious to both sides, it seems that it hasn't stopped the disputes from hitting the courts once again. In a United States appeals court, Samsung again had to experience defeat as a judge has seen no reason to overturn a sales ban relating to their Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet.
As well as making any tech fan shudder, the drop tests of our much loved gadgets serve an educational purpose, because despite most consumers getting carried away with nice displays, sharp cameras and other great hardware features, few actually take into consideration how quickly it can all be lost with one spillage or drop on the floor.
The next phase of the continual trials between Samsung and Apple are expected to kick off in the US on July 30th, but as has been the case previously, no-nonsense Judge Lucy Koh ordered both parties to try and resolve their differences by means of a mediation meeting. According to an article previously accessible over at The Korea Times, Apple head honcho Tim Cook met with Samsung execs Choi Gee-sung and Shin Jong-Kyun on July 16th, but no agreement could be reached.
HTC completely refreshed their whole lineup earlier this year with the One series of smartphones. The aim was to focus on a minimum number of phones so as to increase their overall quality, provide quick software updates and generally just reduce customer confusion that was created as a result of HTC releasing new smartphones every few weeks.
Android Jelly Bean (4.1) has enjoyed a much warmer welcome into mobile space than its predecessor Ice Cream Sandwich (4.0), which took an age to trickle through to many Android devices, leaving quite a few consumers feeling somewhat disillusioned with the update process in general. Google has clearly regrouped and revaluated its battle plan this time around though, and as well as being arguably the best release of Android to date, the Big G isn't hanging around with its OTA updates.
Apple and Samsung have been through the courts numerous times, and although proceedings do often descend into farce with playground-like slander aimed in both directions, a UK judge has really sent Apple back to school. With the Cupertino company having dragged Samsung's name through the mud with claims the Korean company copied the iPad design for its tablets, the British Judge has ruled Apple must publicly state that Samsung did not plagiarize the design.
