iPad

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Q0pH1mD8sRk]

It is no secret that Google touts social as important, and the search engine is reiterating that focus today by announcing a new social feature combined with local search: Google+ Local.

“Today, we’re rolling out Google+ Local, a simple way to discover and share local information featuring Zagat scores and recommendations from people you trust in Google+,” explained Google’s Director of Product Management Avni Shah on the Official Google Blog.  

Users can search for places under the “Local” tab on the left-hand side of Google+, and once they select a place, they will find a local Google+ page equipped with photos, Zagat scores and summaries, reviews from people in their circles, and other related information.

Google+ Local also integrates with Search, Maps, and mobile, so it can streamline the experience across Google. It is rolling out now, including to Android and iOS, so as Shah put it, “if you don’t have it yet feel free to begin furiously refreshing your browser.”

Expand
Expanding
Close

According to a blog post by Cisco’s TelePresence Technology Group OJ Winge (via NetworkWorld), Cisco announced it is shutting down its Android-based Cius business tablet project. The roughly $1,000 tablet solution started shipping less than a year ago and clearly is not doing too well. The reason for killing off the 7-inch Cius tab? Winge noted 95 percent of organizations Cisco surveyed now allow employees to bring their own device, which he said underscores “a major shift in the way people are working, in the office, at home and on-the-go.”

There is no denying that iOS devices and cheaper Android solutions are taking the place of Cius. Recent studies show Apple with 97 percent of tablets in the enterprise, while 94 percent of the Fortune 500 is currently testing or deploying the iPad. The result is no further investment in the Cius tablet line and only limited support for what is currently available. The company will instead “double down” on Jabber and WebEx:

Over the last year, Cisco has demonstrated a commitment to delivering innovative software like Cisco Jabber and Cisco WebEx across a wide spectrum of operating systems, tablets and Smart Phones. We’re seeing tremendous interest in these software offerings. Customers see the value in how these offerings enable employees to work on their terms in the Post-PC era, while still having access to collaboration experiences… Based on these market transitions, Cisco will no longer invest in the Cisco Cius tablet form factor, and no further enhancements will be made to the current Cius endpoint beyond what’s available today. However, as we evaluate the market further, we will continue to offer Cius in a limited fashion to customers with specific needs or use cases.

Expand
Expanding
Close

Google updated its Google Search iPhone app to version 2.0.0 today, which introduced a completely redesigned app that focuses on improvements to speed and full screen browsing features. Among the new features are an auto full screen mode that hides controls when scrolling down and reveals when scrolling up, and a new full-screen image search view.

The updated app also includes “major speed improvements,” a built-in text finder for webpages, and quick links to Gmail, Calendar, Docs, and search options such as images, places, and news. The iPad did not receive the same update, but both the iPhone and iPad will now be able to save images to the iOS camera roll.

A full list of features is below, while the updated app is available on the App Store now.

Expand
Expanding
Close

Samsung’s shares dipped more than 6 percent yesterday, erasing $10 billion from the manufacturer’s market value, due to a rumor that claimed Apple ordered large amounts of chips with rebounding Japanese chipmaker Elpida.

According to Reuters, Taiwan tech website DigiTimes reported that the Cupertino, Calif.-based Company requested huge orders for dynamic random access memory chips with Elpida’s Hiroshima, Japan plant. Unnamed industry sources said the order fastened about 50 percent of the factory’s total chip production.

Samsung is the world’s foremost DRAM manufacturer, but its shares subsequently fell 6.2-percent to around $1,100 USD after the piping hot rumor circulated the blogosphere. The abrupt plunge is the stock’s 9-week low and sharpest daily fall in almost four years. SK Hynix is the second-largest memory chipmaker after Samsung, and its shares closed at 9 percent, which is a 20-week low and steepest slump in nine months.

Expand
Expanding
Close

Google launched a new “Go Google” campaign today to flaunt its array of cloud-based services, and now the Google Docs team is doing the same by rounding up a host of improvements it made to Google Docs in April with the announcement of 450 new fonts and 60 new templates.

“Today, we added over 450 new fonts to Google documents to make it easier for you to add a little something extra to whatever you create,” explained Software Engineer Isabella Ip on the Official Google Docs Blog.

To select the new fonts, click on the font menu, and then select “Add fonts” at the bottom. This will open a menu to all the Google Web Fonts available. Users can narrow their search for the perfect font by alphabetical order, date added, and “trending.” Once a font is selected, users are free to implement them in Google Docs, especially in one of the service’s 60 new templates that were unveiled today.

Expand
Expanding
Close

Microsoft’s search engine Bing unveiled a new look today, and, well, it looks strikingly like Google’s homepage user-interface.

“Starting today you will notice a fresh, de-cluttered experience designed to help you find the results you want faster,” announced Principal Group Program Manager Sally Salas on the Bing.com blog.

Bing stripped the gray-blue gradient, orange links, left sidebar, and the convolute of text and imagery from its website to reveal a simple, white background adorned with crisp, blue text.

“Over the past few months, we’ve run dozens of experiments to determine how you read our pages to deliver the link you’re looking for. Based on that feedback, we’ve tuned the site to make the entire page easier to scan, removing unnecessary distractions, and making the overall experience more predictable and useful,” Salas explained.

The obvious rip-off appears hypocritical, though, especially because the company often takes shots at Google for stealing its ideas. Microsoft Europe’s communication team used Twitter in 2010 to poke fun of Google’s ability to implement background images, which is popular feature that characterized Bing since it launched in 2009.

[tweet https://twitter.com/#!/MSEurope/status/15838998934]

Expand
Expanding
Close

[youtube=http://youtu.be/kcOUWjkGBUY]

It’s no secret that Google is fully cloud-compatible, from emails and documents to online storage and video chats, but now the search engine is boasting about its array of cloud-based tools in a new campaign that encourages folks to go Google.

“At the heart of it, Google is about cloud computing—helping people live online and get things done in the cloud,” explained Vice President of Engineering Venkat Panchapakesan on the Official Google Blog:

According to Panchapakesan, over 16 million students and teachers from 66 of the top 100 U.S. universities and more than 4 million businesses worldwide have gone Google through Google Apps:

“Whether you need to add ‘milk’ to a shared shopping list from the train, collaborate with your teammate back in the office to finish your presentation from a hotel lobby, or chat face-to-face with your mom from halfway around the world, we believe that getting stuff done in the cloud is a better way. We like to call it ‘going Google.'”

Expand
Expanding
Close

According to a report from Bloomberg, U.S. International Trade Commission Judge Thomas Pender has ruled in favor (PDF) of Motorola and claimed Apple’s devices infringe on one Android-related patent owned by the company. The ruling is only a partial victory for Motorola’s attempt to receive an injunction on iPhones and iPads, because the judge’s decision will still have to be reviewed before import blocks can be achieved:

ITC Judge Thomas Pender said Apple violated one of four Motorola Mobility patent rights. The patent relates to Wi-Fi technology. The judge’s findings are subject to review by the six-member commission, which has the power to block imports that infringe U.S. patents.

As for the Wi-Fi patent in question (# 6,246,697), Apple spokesperson Kristin Huguet told AllThingsD that Motorola refused to license its industry-standard technology on “reasonable terms”:

Expand
Expanding
Close

[viddler id=3cee268d w=637 h=466]

The Samsung Galaxy SIII is due to unveil May 3 in London, but the widely-anticipated smartphone just made an early appearance through Vietnamese blog Tinhte (original page is down).

The leaked device goes by model number GT-I9300. Pictures and video indicate the mysterious smartphone packs Ice Cream Sandwich OS, a 4.6-inch display at 720-by-1184-pixel resolution, a quad-core 1.4 GHz processor, 1GB of RAM and 16 GB of storage, an 8-megapixel camera, and a 2,050mAh battery.

More pictures and a video are below.

Expand
Expanding
Close

Photographer Scott Kelby is gathering 15 world-renowned photographers together for an unofficial Google+ Photographer’s Conference.

“On May 22-23, fifteen of the biggest photographers, instructors, and social media magnates on Google+ are gathering in San Francisco for the first-ever Google+ Photographer’s Conference at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (in San Francisco), “announced the Google+ Photographer’s Conference page.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=NcX9V86JB4Y]

The official Google+ page later reposted the conference’s announcement, but the social network clarified: “This is not an official Google event, but we are excited to see this launch! Hope you can attend.”

Registration information is below.

Expand
Expanding
Close

The Android rumor mill is quick to debate the authenticity of recently surfaced image leaks (above) that have an albeit-slim “Nexus Tablet” association.

The Android Community (via PocketNow) dissected the rendering and concluded the tablet boasts standard buttons and Ice Cream Sandwich-specific apps on the display, which means the leak is a potential Nexus Tablet rendering.

It also features an ASUS-style tablet port, MicroUSB port, USB port, SIM card slot, and full-sized SD card slot. It is worth mentioning the Android Market icon is visible, even though the Google Play Store replaced it last month.

Reports fail to mention, however, that the slate in question looks uncannily similar to a first-generation Apple iPad (right). With that said, the image leak could easily be fabricated with a few spare Android tablet shots and a copy of Photoshop. Oh, and PocketNow’s absent source attribution begs the question of legitimacy.

Expand
Expanding
Close

[youtube=http://youtu.be/bkkBxY8OlaQ]

RadioShack’s “Trade & Save” app is now on Google Play and helps a user determine an old Android device’s worth for optimum trade-in value.

The app will also offer to buy the device, while providing the free prepaid shipping label, in exchange for a RadioShack gift card for use in-store or online. The gift card is sent by mail.

Screenshots are available below.

Expand
Expanding
Close

IDC just released its Q4 2011 report on tablet shipments and Apple continues to lead the market with 54.7-percent of global market share despite being down from 61.5-percent in the quarter before. Apple did increase shipments to 15.4 million units in Q4 (up from 11.1 million in Q3), but experienced an overall decrease in market share thanks to strong gains from Amazon’s Kindle Fire and other Android devices from competitors such as Samsung.

Kindle Fire is now the iPad’s biggest competitor with 16.8-percent of the tablet market due to 4.7 million units shipped during Q4, which is followed by Samsung with 5.8-percent of the market (up from 5.5-percent in Q3). IDC noted Apple’s results for the quarter represent “an increase of 110.5-percent from 4Q10.” The Nook Tablet from Barnes & Noble came in fourth, but it fell slightly to 3.5-percent of the market (from 4.5-percent the quarter before). Pandigital took the No. 5 spot, but it is down from 2.9-percent to 2.5-percent market share.

As for iOS vs. Android, IDC is expecting Android to overtake iOS for global market share by 2015 and noted that Android now has 44.6-percent of the market as of Q4 2011. That resulted in a decrease for iOS, which fell from 61.6-percent to 54.7-during the quarter. As we noted before, IDC’s report accounts for tablet shipments and not actual sales. We know Apple typically sells as many new devices as it can make, and the same cannot be said for devices shipped by all Android vendors. Research Director at IDC’s Mobile Connected Devices Tom Mainelli talked about the report:

Expand
Expanding
Close

[slideshow]

Coming on the heels of Samsung’s Galaxy Note, LG today is pushing its foray into the new Phablet market: The VU—a 5-inch 4:3 display device. The Vu will be shorter and wider than the Note due to the display ratio, and it seems to resemble the Nokia Lumia/older iPod Nano design.

LG today unveiled one of the most anticipated LTE devices, the Optimus Vu:. Equipped with LG’s advanced LTE and IPS display technology, the Optimus Vu: offers a unique combination of tablet-like viewing with smartphone portability. Running on a powerful 1.5GHz dual-core processor, 32GM internal memory and a large 2,080 mAh battery, the Optimus Vu: is a multimedia lover’s dream device.

“The Optimus Vu: was designed to maximize what customers could do with a smart-phone,” said Dr. Jong-seok Park, President and CEO of LG Mobile Communications Company. “By offering an optimal 4:3 ratio viewing experience, 5-inch display combined with superfast LTE technology, Optimus Vu: is just one example of what we can achieve when we combine our best technology with customer needs.”

Interestingly, this device is exactly one-quarter the size of Apple’s iPad with the same resolution. That means the screen resolution is likely the same as the likely upcoming iPad 3 with Retina Display.

One of the few downsides to the Galaxy Note was that it was hard to use in one hand. LG, making a wider version, will make it even harder.

The full-sized pictures and press release are below:

Expand
Expanding
Close

The iPhone is great in many ways, but perhaps one of the best cases is in a medical emergency. KVAL reported a 57-year-old Oregon man was suffering from a diabetic reaction while driving down a local highway. (Video link here.)

When two medical responders came to the scene and tried to assist the man, they ran into quite a language barrier. The man only spoke Chinese, but luckily, one of the responders knew to reach for his iPhone. He fired up Google Translate and was able to speak Chinese with the man to figure out his condition and give him the help he needed.

Cross posted on 9to5Mac.

Google just released an update to its Google+ for iOS, bringing it to version 1.0.9.4278. Today’s update for the iOS app brings it up-to-par with the Google+ Android app, which was updated last week. The update brings three new updates: Instant upload of photos, you can see who +1d posts, and the new “What’s Hot” stream.

You can grab the update on the iTunes App Store.