iPad

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Nik Software, the company behind Snapseed, the popular image editing app for Apple’s iPhone and iPad, announced yesterday that it will “soon” port the program to Tegra-powered Android tablets running Ice Cream Sandwich for $5 a pop.

Nik Software President and CEO Michael J. Slater said:

We’re thrilled with the success and worldwide recognition of our popular mobile app and are excited to bring the Snapseed experience to Mac users for the first time. By bringing Snapseed to the Mac App Store, we’re able to quickly extend our reach to a worldwide audience of creative amateur photographers while offering our existing mobile users the fully-featured Mac experience they’ve been asking for.

Nik collaborated with Nvidia on the project so expect some snazzy visuals and smooth performance, which is the hallmark of the iOS version. Snapseed sports cool filters and tools like grunge, vintage and drama to make the best out of your photographs. The full list of features follows…

[slideshow]

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A new application in the Android Market available for GoogleTVs running 3.0 and up will allow users to stream content from the iPad or iPhone using Airplay, Apple’s wireless streaming feature built into iOS.

After downloading the 99-cent app called “Airtight” to Google TV, users will be able to stream videos and pictures by selecting a device from within the Airplay UI on the iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch (pictured above). Unfortunately, mirroring, DRM protected video, and music is not supported. Users will of course need the latest Google TV update to access the Android Market.

Apple has nothing to do with the app, and the developers said they are looking into methods of including music and the rest of Airplay’s functionality in a future update. We will keep you posted.

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As the production of the iPad 2 winds down, 7-inch panels are seeing a sales boost, reported trade publication DigiTimes. The sales boost of 7-inch panels is so high that they have passed the 9.7-inch panels for the first time in November. The 7-inch panels power popular tablets like Amazon’s Kindle Fire that is selling like crazy and Barnes and Noble’s Nook. They are both a very cheap buy for consumers this holiday season.

Earlier in the week, DigiTimes also reported that sources told them Apple was going to begin the production of a 7-inch tablet in the second quarter next year, for release in the fourth quarter. We doubt the 7-inch sales boost is due to any Apple orders just yet, even if the report is true. The 9.7-inch panel sales will most likely go up has Apple prepares for the launch of the iPad 3 that is rumored to hit in the Spring.

Google has just started rolling out an update to the Gmail app for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch with a few new welcomed features. First off, users now have the ability to set a custom signature for messages as well as a vacation responder. Both of those new features will be available via the gear icon at the top of the app’s new menu. The update also includes support for nested labels and the usual “bug fixes and UI improvements”.

A new Scribbles feature allows you to open a canvas, draw a picture or sketch with multiple colors, brush sizes and line elements, and attach it to a message within Gmail. Scribbles is available now in both the Gmail iOS app and Gmail mobile web app. Another notable and highly requested change is a new notification sound on iOS 5, making it easier to tell when you’ve received an email

Google also mentioned in their blog post that they are continuing to work on some of the most requested features from users including multiple login support, banner notifications, and a “send as” feature to mail send mail from multiple accounts within the app.

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Hop on board an American Airlines flight this holiday season and your pilot will be wielding an iPad as a flight bag replacement but you – a first-class passenger –  will be treated with a Galaxy Tab 10.1 to keep you entertained. Keen on bringing balance back to the force, the airliner teamed up with South Korea-based Samsung to offer the Galaxy Tab 10.1 on their premium cabins onboard certain transcontinental flights. Here’s the sales line:

Sit back, relax, and let the new Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 take you to the movies or catch up on your favorite shows. The new device enables a unique viewing experience, featuring a bold and vibrant LCD, with brilliant colors and crisp definition.

Go past the fold for a list of flights serving some Galaxy Tab in-flight entertainment.

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A week after an Australian court ruled that Samsung indeed didn’t “slavishly copy” the iPad with their Galaxy Tab 10.1, the company told the Sydney Morning Herald that the court cases have helped make their device a “household name”.

While declining to comment on sales potentially missed during the ongoing proceedings, Samsung’s vp of telecommunications for Australia, Tyler McGee, had this to say in an interview this morning:

At the end of the day the media awareness certainly made the Galaxy Tab 10.1 a household name compared to probably what it would’ve been based on the investment that we would’ve put into it from a marketing perspective.

He also made a point of noting that the altered Australian version of the Galaxy Tab will essentially be the same apart from minor design changes saying,”If you look at the specs of the device they’re identical to the global device that’s available out there.” The Galaxy Tab 10.1 is expected to land in Australian stores this week, while the company says the 7.7-inch version and 8.9-inch version would be available sometime in Q1 2012.

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Right after rumors of Apple’s next-gen iPad landing in February with a Retina display, a report from BGR claims Samsung might beat them to it with their own 11.6-inch tablet. A “trusted source” tells them the yet to be unveiled device will have a resolution of 2560 x 1600 and a 16:10 aspect ratio. It will also apparently run Ice Cream Sandwich and pack in a 2GHz dual-core Exynos 5250 processor. This tablet will more than likely be aimed at the same market as a next-gen iPad, much like Samsung’s current Galaxy Tab family competes with iPad 2. The report also notes the 11.6-inch device will be almost the same size as the 10.1-inch Galaxy Tab thanks to a thinner bezel. We’ll keep you posted as we learn more.

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We already know that President Barak Obama and UK Prime Minister David Cameron have made the iPad their tablet of choice, but according to the Vatican Information Service, Pope Benedict XVI is opting for an Android powered tablet instead.

In order to turn on the lights of the world’s largest Christmas tree in Gubbio, Italy, yesterday the Pope used a Sony Tablet S to remotely trigger the lights on the 750 meter-high tree from his apartment in the Vatican Apostolic Palace. However, it’s likely this was just the preference of the developers who built the app necessary for the task, as the Pope has been spotted using an iPad in the past. The video below shows Benedict XVI using an iPad to send out his first tweet:

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OnLive has just announced (via TechCrunch) new mobile apps capable of accessing their cloud game streaming service previously only available to PC, Mac, and OnLive console owners. Launching in the US and UK first, 25 console titles have been ported to the smaller screen with touchscreen controls, and almost all 200 of the service’s library of console quality titles will be playable via the $50 OnLive wireless controller.

The OnLive service allows streaming of console quality games like Assassins Creed, L.A. Noire, and other titles typically reserved for consoles like the PS3, directly from the company’s servers. The service has received mixed reviews, mostly due to inconsistencies in performance. The same appears to be true for the mobile version, with early hands on reviews highlighting the same performance issues common on PCs. These are “console-class” games, but not always a console quality experience. It’s playable, but really laggy.

The free app should be launching in the Android Market any second now, and will still of course require that you purchase or rent the games. Fortunately, any purchased or rented content is instantly playable through any compatible device. As for supported Android devices, below is the complete list courtesy of TechCrunch (who also says the Kindle Fire is supported):

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AllThingsD’s review columnist Walt Mossberg has graced us with his Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime review this evening, giving the device a pretty high score. Mossberg, a renowned reviewer, calls the Prime the best Android tablet he has tested. Mossberg compliments the Prime on its fast quad-core Tegra 3 processor and keyboard dock which can be purchased separately.

Just as Joanna Stern from The Verge said, Mossberg isn’t too happy with the software on the Prime. He calls it sluggish and not as complete as the iPad. For his final words, Mossberg says the iPad is still the best tablet out there, but if you’re interested in Android and a physical keyboard this tablet is for you. Be sure to read his full review.

I still believe the iPad 2 is the best overall tablet available. However, if you’re looking for a model using Google’s Android interface and are yearning for a well-designed, easily integrated keyboard solution, or want to play more power-hungry games, the Transformer Prime is a good choice, as long as you can tolerate its software limitations.

The Prime launches in the United States on December 15th. The 32GB model will be available for $499, and the optional keyboard dock will be available for $149. We look forward to getting our hands on this!

Google has just pushed out an update to the Google+ iOS app compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad, bringing it up to version 1.0.7.2940 and introducing a few new features including full resolution photo uploads, search, and photo +1. Also included are the usual bug fixes and performance enhancements. As always, you can grab the update from the App Store now or download the free app if you haven’t already.

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While the documents were never submitted in court, The Verge has uncovered documents Apple was going to provide to highlight the work-arounds for their iPhone and iPad patents that Samsung could have utilized. The reason these were thought up is because Samsung claimed there was no way they could create their devices without the required elements of a smartphone or tablet today. Apple, however, said there were plenty of work arounds. For Samsung smartphones, Apple explained in the redacted documents:

• Front surface that isn’t black.
• Overall shape that isn’t rectangular, or doesn’t have rounded corners.
• Display screens that aren’t centered on the front face and have substantial lateral borders.
• Non-horizontal speaker slots.
• Front surfaces with substantial adornment.
• No front bezel at all.

Just this afternoon, a judge has decided to not grant the U.S. preliminary injunction Apple was pressing for against Samsung.

The list goes on for tablets:

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Meg Whitman, 55, a former eBay CEO and the president and chief executive officer of Hewlett-Packard since September 2011, hinted that anything is possible concerning the fate of webOS, including dropping the platform entirely and going with Google’s Android mobile operating system. Additionally, she also commented that Apple stands a chance of zooming past her company – which files as the world’s leading computer vendor – some time during next year, chiefly on the strength of the iPad 3 launch.

Hewlett-Packard happens to make printers that run Android which support Google’s Cloud Print. Therefore, it’s not terribly shocking that they’re questioning viability of the webOS platform. The company will reach a decision on webOS “soon”.

As you know, after HP indicated it might sell of webOS, that asset has remained in a state of turmoil, to say the least. Even though Whitman reassured fans of her company that the management is adamant to consider all available options, she did nod at Android as one of the choices being considered.

According to TechCrunch:

Interestingly enough, during the same interview, Whitman talked a bit about the future of webOS. She stated that a decision would be made in the next two weeks as there are currently 600 employees in ‘limbo’. The only hint about its future is that Whitman stated that HP needs two OSes but Android could replace webOS.

As for Apple beating HP to the PC punch, Whitman told French newspaper Le Figaro (machine translated):

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A new twist in the Apple vs. Samsung legal proceedings spanning more than two dozen lawsuits across continents as the Federal Court in Australia lifted sales ban on Samsung’s Galaxy Tab tablet today. The court unanimously overturned a ruling last month from Justice Annabelle Bennett which required that Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 be banned from sale in Australia.

Sydney Morning Hearld quoted the ruling:

Samsung will be permitted to launch the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Australia provided it keeps accounts of all transactions involving that device in Australia.

Samsung’s Australian subsidiary says it is “pleased with today’s unanimous decision”. Reacting to the decision, Apple plans on appealing to the High Court. The Federal Court also honored Apple’s request that its injunction remain in effect until Friday at 4pm, to allow the company time to prepare an appeal. A full hearing on copycat accusations is set for March 2012, which could still result in a permanent injunction.

Apple is also seeking a ban on the Galaxy Tab 10.1N, a revised version with an added metal frame around the edges. Samsung engineered the Galaxy Tab 10.1N after a district court in Dusseldorf blocked sales of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 on the grounds that the product bears too many similarities to Apple’s iPad. A hearing in that case is scheduled for December 22.

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ChangeWave Research in a new survey polled 3,043 consumers on consumer tablet demand for the holidays, including a close-up look at demand for the Amazon Kindle Fire vs. the Apple iPad. Overall, tablets are big this holidays as sales in the United States increase an estimated 130 percent.

Everybody wants a tablet, it seems. A total of 14 percent of respondents plan on buying a tablet in the next 90 days, an eight percentage points increase over an August ChangeWave survey and more than triple the level of a year ago. However, nowadays shoppers no longer have to pick between an iPad or an array of same-looking Android tablets because Amazon is now the second most-popular tablet brand (people clearly want an Amazon tablet).

According to ChangeWave:

The Amazon Kindle Fire is going to leapfrog the competition and become the number two product in the tablet market, as long as it can provide a quality user experience. But the Amazon surge may also contain a silver lining for Apple, by damaging the tablet market hopes of the remaining competitors in the field.

Nearly two-thirds of respondents (65 percent) plan on buying an iPad, or two out of three tablet buyers. People are loving their iPads and it shows in satisfaction ratings. A total of 74 percent of all iPad owners are Very Satisfied versus 49 percent for all other tablet manufacturers combined.

More than one in five, or 22 percent, eye an Amazon tablet and just four percent plan on buying a Galaxy Tab from Samsung. Apple’s score is in line with iPad’s IDC-estimated 68 percent share of the tablet market. In addition, Canalys projected Apple will overtake Hewlett-Packard to become the #1 PC maker globally on the heels of iPad 3 release, although not everybody is down with counting iPad as a computer. More tidbits and charts after the break.

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While we still don’t know exactly when Asus will let us get our hands on the Tegra 3 quad-core Transformer Prime, eeepc.it (via Android Police) just spotted an iPad-like “Smart Cover” belonging to the device on Amazon’s German site. While we don’t learn much from the Amazon listing, it’s clear from the images the accessory’s design is largely inspired by that of Apple’s iPad 2’s smart covers. Of course the notable twist being a more intricate origami-style folding system allowing you to prop up the device in various viewing modes. Some are saying it will connect magnetically like Apple’s smart covers, although we’ll have to wait to get our hands on it to see how it stacks up.

It’s available for pre-order now for EUR 39.99, however we still don’t know when it or the Transformer Prime will end up shipping. As of latest reports, we expect to see it sometime in December. More images after the break, if you’re interested.

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The fine folks over at iFixit have done their honorary teardown of the Kindle Fire, which just became available today. The teardown revealed the device is much easier to open than Apple’s iPad and iPod. Other things to note are its huge battery and shiny metal plates on the back case that help provide protection for the internal components, as well as heat sinking and EMI shielding. Head on over to iFixit for all of the technical details.

Interested in our first thoughts on the $199 Fire? Check them out here. A few more teardown photos after the break:

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I’m just crossing 48 hours with the Kindle Fire and have a few quick observations that I think need to be brought to the surface on this great little device.

1. It isn’t an iPad competitor any more than a Mercedes SUV is a competitor to a Toyota Prius.  A 7-inch tablet is an entirely different use case than a 10-incher.  At $199, it is more likely to take away iPod touch customers rather than iPad customers from Apple.  But mostly, Kindle people will be people who wouldn’t have considered an Apple tablet previously.
2. The Fire isn’t a speed demon.  A few minutes navigating with the Fire is all it takes to realize that there are hiccups.  To me, it feels more sluggish than a Galaxy Tab 7 from last year, especially on CPU intensive stuff.  Amazon has done nice things with the interface and they should be congratulated on their virtual keyboard (it is one of the best I’ve used), but make no mistake, inside of this case is bargain basement components.
3. If you are new to Amazon’s ecosystem, there isn’t a lot of content in there.  Getting some will be expensive.  In my family, my wife has the Prime account and our music in the Amazon Cloud is tied there as well.  That means any audio and video has to be purchased or brought over manually.
4. The Kindle quickly became a Hulu Plus and Netflix player in our house – which the Barnes and Noble Nook can do just as well.  Or any Android tablet.
5. The Silk browser wasn’t impressive.  It is slow, (probably more a processor thing here than a software thing).  I had more success with the Dolphin browser.
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The $199 Amazon Kindle Fire lands this week and the embargo on reviews was just lifted.  Besides a well-timed gem of an interview of Jeff Bezos by Steven Levy, here are some of the bigger Kindle Fire reviews from around the web:

Fortune:

The Kindle Fire isn’t a revolutionary device, but it is Amazon’s most important product ever. [It] takes Amazon’s wildly popular services and presents them in a solid piece of hardware with a responsive, easy-to-understand interface that works. It doesn’t have the iPad’s extra layer of polish and sheen, but with the Amazon brand, a wide ecosystem of services at its disposal, and that $199 price point, it doesn’t really need it. In that sense, Apple’s tablet just met its first real competitor.

NYTimes

The Fire deserves to be a disruptive, gigantic force — it’s a cross between a Kindle and an iPad, a more compact Internet and video viewer at a great price. But at the moment, it needs a lot more polish; if you’re used to an iPad or “real” Android tablet, its software gremlins will drive you nuts.

Gizmodo:

(The iPad finally has serious competition). If you like what Amazon Prime has going on in the kitchen, the Fire is a terrific seat. It’s not as powerful or capable as an iPad, but it’s also a sliver of the price—and that $200 will let you jack into the Prime catalog (and the rest of your media collection) easily and comfortably. Simply, the Fire is a wonderful IRL compliment to Amazon’s digital abundance. It’s a terrific, compact little friend, and—is this even saying anything?—the best Android tablet to date.
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Google’s Propeller app is reportedly launching in a couple weeks says AllThingsD. The new app will be available on both Android and iPad tablets, and will act like Flipboard providing content from many different sources. Publishers will be able to package their content in a web app to be presented on tablets in HTML 5.

Propeller will launch with a frenzy of publications and be integrated into Google+ — like Google is doing with most of their products. Launching before Propeller however is Yahoo’s Livestand which will also have similar content delivery functionality. But I think we all know which is going to be better, right?

According to research firm Strategy Analytics (via Bloomberg), Google’s Android-based tablets gained market share in the iPad dominated tablet market during the third quarter, specifically led by new models from Samsung (presumably referring to the same Galaxy Tab family that is currently the focus of patent related litigation between Apple and Samsung).

The report claims Android was up from just 2.3 percent from the same three month period last year, to a 27 percent share of worldwide sales during the third quarter in 2011. The iPad’s market share during the same period reportedly fell from 96 percent to 67 percent. The research firm notes that Samsung’s Galaxy tablets currently account for 9 percent of the total tablet market.

There is also reason to believe Android’s growth on tablets will continue to grow into 2012, as the introduction of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich (the first Android OS specifically designed for both phones and tablets) could help tablet adoption among Android smartphone users. Strategy Analytics believes that Amazon’s Kindle Fire will also drive Android tablet sales, estimating the company will sell more than 15 million units by 2013.

In contrast to this obvious good news for the Android tablet market, which the WSJ’s Walt Mossberg recently described as having “flopped” in an interview with Google mobile chief Andy Rubin, there are conflicting stats for Android tabs in the enterprise. The recently released Good Technology Device Activations Report for Q3 2011 shows that when it comes to tablets in business, enterprise users are clearly choosing iPad over the alternatives, noting “iOS tablets represent over 96 percent of total tablet activations”. Their graphic (above) also speaks volumes.

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