Pocketables

Apple is awarded victory in German slide-to-unlock lawsuit against Motorola

Things had been looking up for Motorola in the ongoing Apple versus Android/Motorola lawsuit battle, so much so that the company even had the nerve to ask for a large chunk of Apple's iPhone revenue. Today, though, the tables have turned. Apple has used their trump card, a recently won slide-to-unlock patent, to score an important victory over Motorola in a German court.

According to the ruling, Motorola's implementation of slide-to-unlock in two of their smartphones infringes on Apple's aforementioned patent, number 1964022, which covers "unlocking a device by performing gestures on an unlock image." While Apple failed to comment, a seemingly unconcerned Motorola spokeswoman did say, "Motorola has implemented a new design for the feature. Therefore, we expect no impact on current supply or future sales.

However, patent consultant Florian Mueller of the FOSS Patents blog isn't so sure. Although the current ruling would, at best, prevent the sale of the two Motorola phones in question until the lockscreen is changed, he still considers the case a "very significant win for Apple against Android." A victory like this would likely have an impact on the numerous other Apple lawsuits against Android manufacturers, and since Google has recently acquired Motorola, could be seen as a ruling against the company and Android as a whole.

Personally, I hope this kind of ruling does not set a precedent, and I would love it if both Apple and Android manufacturers would fight with better products instead of lawsuits. I am fairly sure that "Gestures on an unlock image" are here to stay anyways, regardless of what Apple says, but it will still be interesting to see how far they try to take this.

[BBC Technology]

Aura Design's AuraSlate welcomes hacking, sells for cheap

One of Android's main draws is the fact that it is a supposedly "open" OS, allowing free development of things like custom ROMs and an approval-free Market. However, between locked bootloaders, which seriously inhibit custom software installation, and carriers taking certain applications out of the market on their phones, much of this freedom often lost by the time a device makes it into the hands of consumers.

Still, there are some manufacturers who promote free development around their devices. One such company is Aura Design, whose own website boasts, "Mischief encouraged, Hackers welcomed." They are currently a very small startup, but already have plans to release two new Android tablets under the Aura Slate brand.

Although we will obviously be focusing on the smaller of the two devices, both their 10-inch and 7-inch tablets appear to have the same specifications, or at least share a development board. All we know for sure, though, is that the tablets will have Gorilla Glass displays and ARM Cortex A9 processors with a clock speed of "800MHz to 1GHz."

While the hardware is likely just a rebranding of a budget OEM's design, the significant thing about the Aura Slate is software. Aura Designs will be shipping their tablets with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, and source code for the both the software and hardware will be available at launch.

The 7-inch Aura Slate Model 726B Development tablet is already available on the company's website for $139, so it follows that the updated Model 726M would sell for about the same price. It won't be bringing you the consumer experience of a Kindle Fire, but for developers who need an open source reference device that always has the latest software, or if you just want something affordable to tinker with, it seems like a perfect fit.

[Aura Designs via TechCrunch]

SmartDevices 2012 lineup revealed

 

Hey, look at what we have here. It's a new lineup of SmartDevices . . . devices! For a little bit of background for our newer readers, this company hasn't made any news in the past two years, but today has announced its 2012 lineup of Android tablets. 

Since Pocketables is a site about pocketable tech, we're going to focus on the new SmartDevices S7 tablet. As its name implies, this tablet has a 7-inch display so it certainly falls into our field of expertise. The S7 also includes an OMAP 1GHz dual-core processor, Ice Cream Sandwich, 1GB of RAM, 8GB of internal storage, and HDMI output. 

Unfortunately, the S7 (along with the rest of the lineup) will be released in China first, and I don't know if we'll see it elsewhere. Still, it's priced at just 元899 (Chinese yuan), which converts to roughly $142.66. If the device were to make its way over here, it would likely be priced a bit higher than the direct conversion, though. 

Even if this first batch of new devices from SmartDevices doesn't make its way to the US, it's still nice to see an old flame of ours back in the business. What do you think of the S7?

[iMP3] Thanks, Sere83!

GSM Samsung Galaxy Nexus with 32GB of internal storage cancelled

The Samsung Galaxy Nexus is one of the best Android smartphones out on the market today. It's got the latest version of Google's operating system, great hardware, and offers an all-around fantastic experience. 

But one of the unfortunate aspects of the latest (GSM) Nexus is the somewhat limited storage: 16GB, upgradable with an SD card. There was originally going to be a 32GB model, but today, it seems that it has been cancelled. 

Expansys-USA today announced that Samsung has cancelled the bigger version of the Galaxy Nexus. Here's the exact comment, made by Corey from Expansys-USA:

"We’ve just been notified this morning that Samsung have dropped the Galaxy Nexus 32GB from production. At this time it looks like they will not be releasing it. Not good news at all."

So, if you were wanting this model, it looks like it may not ever come. That's certainly too bad, as 16GB of internal storage just isn't enough these days. There is the option to expand it with an SD card, but an extra 16GB of included storage would've given people enough storage to store anything they would ever want onto their phones. 

Is this a dealbreaker for the GSM model for you? 

[Android Community]

ZTE Light Tab II released in the UK for under $400

Another day, another 7-inch Android tablet.

This time, the tablet comes from ZTE. The company has already offered quite a few 7-inch tablets, but this one seems to be behind the others. For example, its 7-inch display has a resolution of just 1024 x 600. Another component that is decidedly behind the times is a single core 1.4GHz processor. 

Other specs include 512MB of RAM, Android 2.3 Gingerbread, and 4GB of internal storage, which is expandable by way of a microSDHC slot. The tablet, like most others, also includes WiFi, Bluetooth, and 3G. Plus, if you're keen on taking pictures with your large tablet, the Light Tab II also includes front and back cameras. 

All of this can be yours for about (at the time of this publication) $360, or £235. At this price point, there are plenty of options: the Kindle Fire and ZTE's own Optik come to mind. If I were deciding on a new 7-inch tablet, I'd definitely take a look at those two before I made a final decision.

[Engadget]

Google's purchase of Motorola gets approved by the EC and U.S DOJ

Although we've been talking about Google's acquisition of Motorola as if it were already happening, the deal still has a lot of paperwork and red tape to get through before it is really final. Getting Department of Justice approval in the US and European Commission approval in Europe are a big part of that red tape, but as of today Google has both those things, meaning that the deal is now on the fast track to completion.

While they have gotten the deal approved, Google will still have to be careful what they do with the various patents and assets they will get when they acquire Motorola. According to the European Commission's competition commissioner Joaqin Almunia,

"Upon careful examination, this transaction does not itself raise competition issues...Of course, the Commission will continue to keep a close eye on the behavior of all market players in the sector, particularly the increasingly strategic use of patents."

This really shouldn't come as much of a surprise, especially in light of the various battles between Apple and Samsung over some fairly trivial patents. However, it is still worth nothing that Google may not be able to use its newly acquired patents to defend Android quite as much as it would have liked. 

I am still very interested to see what Google will do with Motorola once the purchase is complete. Will they simply force Motorola to use stock Android, use the company to produce reference hardware, or simply leave things how they have been? Ultimately, we will just have to wait and see. 

[Reuters|SlashGear]

Will HTC's future phones be PlayStation certified?

So, you love to play games on your phone and the PS3 is your favorite console, but the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play just didn't hit your technical sweet tooth, huh? 

No problem! If a new report is to be believed, you won't have to decide between the Play and not tying your phone into the PlayStation Network. That new report details that HTC may start producing PlayStation-certified phones in 2012, thereby removing Sony's distinction as the only manufacturer to offer such a thing. 

By offering PlayStation certification on other manufacturers' devices, we could see a lot more support for the PSN mobile platform. That basically means more games from Sony because more people can play them. 

On the flip side, this was a big selling point for Sony; a phone that can also play games would appease to the gaming crowd, which is a pretty large crowd, to say the least. 

Of course, this is just a rumor. I honestly don't know how I feel about it, either. Like I said, Sony would be losing a major selling point for its own devices, but in turn, would be upping the members for its PlayStation Network. 

Choices. What are your thoughts on this?

[Good and EVO]

Samsung announces the Galaxy Tab 2, a Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus with Ice Cream Sandwich

Sometimes, I have no idea what Samsung's strategy is. Either they are trying to fill every possible need with a unique device, or their tablet strategy is just extremely disjointed.  For example, they already have two 7-inch Android tablets, the Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus and the Galaxy Tab 7.7, but today they announced another device, the Galaxy Tab 2, with almost nothing to differentiate it from the other devices.

The Galaxy Tab 2, presumably successor to the original Galaxy Tab, will have a 1GHz dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM, a 7-inch 1024 x 600 display, WiFi, 3MP rear and VGA front camera, and variable choices for storage up to 32GB. Cellular connectivity includes GSM HSPA+ support, and GPS is included as well.

In case you missed our coverage of the Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus, let me just tell you that the specifications match up almost exactly. In fact, the 7.0 Plus even has a slightly faster clock speed at 1.2GHz. Only software differentiates the Tab 2, which will ship with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich to the Plus's Honeycomb. 

Frankly, I am confounded by this decision. Not only is the Galaxy Tab 2 nearly the same device as the Plus, it will supposedly be retailing around $450. With the 7.0 Plus at $350, this is simply unacceptable. In fact, it appears that Samsung is actually trying to charge users for the upgrade to Android 4.0, while leaving Plus owners out in the cold. 

Even if Samsung is planning to update the Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus, as far as I can tell it would have made much more sense for the company to focus resources on getting that update out instead of releasing an entirely new device. I have no idea what Samsung's reasoning for this release may be, but this is one of the clearest symptoms of Android fragmentation I have seen.

[SammyHub]

Verizon Samsung Galaxy Nexus review

Every time Google releases a Nexus device, it is a pretty big deal. And rightly so, because the Nexus is presented as the defining standard for Android software and hardware for at least the next year. As such, Samsung's new Galaxy Nexus is a significant device for Google, Android, and the mobile market in general.

This latest iteration of the Nexus line has received a more major redesign than the last version, quite a bump in specifications, and a completely revamped version of Android. There's a lot going on, and a lot of questions about these changes.

Does the impressive on paper hardware really stack up in daily use? More importantly, though, has Google finally solved problems with both fragmentation and usability with Android 4.0? Read on past the break to find out.

LG Optimus Vu poses next to a Galaxy Note, almost makes it look small

As we have mentioned before, LG has really been working hard to get back into the US mobile market. They already have both Android and WIndows Phone offerings, but the image above purports to be a leak of a new phoneblet device, which is clearly poised to compete with the Samsung Galaxy Note.

While it only sports a 5-inch display, it is actually has a 4:3 aspect ratio. As you can see, that makes it look at least as big, if not bigger, than the Note's. The rest of the hardware also challenges the Note almost directly, including the 1.5GHz dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM, 8MP rear camera and an unconfirmed front camera, and the display resolution of at least 1024 x 768. There is no S-Pen or AMOLED to be found, but other than that the Vu appears to stack up pretty well.

The one obvious problem that I see with the Vu is the software. Clearly, it is running a pre-Ice Cream Sandwich build of Android in the above image, and I don't have as much faith in LG's upgrade process as Samsung's. Not only that, LG's custom UI simply isn't going to be as polished as Samsung's offering, and certainly won't take advantage of the larger screen as well. For example, notice how much LG's dock icons resemble Samsung's, and consider what that implies about their software efforts.

Of course, as soon as the developers get their hands on the Vu, all those bad things can change. The hardware, price, and release date are what will really matter, but we won't find those out until the LG actually announces the device, which will probably be at Mobile World Congress later this spring.

[UnwiredView]