Latest news

According to a new report from the Brazilian tech site MacMagazine, Apple may be ready to unveil its most updated iPod Touch, one with two cameras, on August 16th, earlier than its expected September launch date.

The site cites a "a reliable source within Apple," who says the company could unveil the device as early as on the 14th, but being a Saturday that does not seem as likely.

Since 2007 Apple has held its iPod press events in September, and most believe the new iPods will be unveiled this September, as well.

However, before 2007, the company released iPod models in any month from March until October.

The new iPod Touch will (rumored) have a front-facing and a standard camera, allowing for FaceTime video conferencing. Additionally, it will include a gyroscope.

Apple's senior VP of engineering Mark Papermaster is leaving the company, says The NYTimes, following the recent "antennagate" debacle of the iPhone 4.

Apple spokesman Steve Dowling confirmed the report, and added that his position will be taken over by Bob Mansfield, VP of Macintosh engineering.

Papermaster was formally IBM's vice president of microprocessor technology development, working primarily in processor design.

"Antennagate" refers to the ongoing situation in which iPhone 4 users lose cell reception when holding the phone in their left hand, covering the antenna.

Apple has repaired the situation by offering all iPhone 4 owners free cases for their devices, eliminating the problem.

While many believe that Papermaster's departure is directly correlated to "antennagate," Gleacher & Company analyst Brian Marshall thinks differently (via CW): "I don't think that's the case. When you have a company the size of Apple, you're going to have turnover at low levels and high levels. I don't see this as that big of a deal."

Vonage has introduced apps for Android and the iPhone this week that will allow users to make free domestic and international calls to their Facebook friends.

The apps, dubbed Vonage Mobile for Facebook, are free for smartphones running iOS or Android.

Open the app, sign in with your Facebook and then you will be asked "what information you want to allow your friends access to." At that point you will probably get the message: "Less than 5 of your friends have Vonage mobile for Facebook." You then have the opportunity to invite more.

You can make the phone calls over Wi-Fi or 3G, although 3G will use up minutes. Wi-Fi-connected calls are free, and will save you minutes.

Vonage says it plans to add pay services to the apps in the future, such as low-priced text messaging.

Google has confirmed that it has acquired Slide, the social networking gaming site.

Says Google: "We’re excited to announce we’ve acquired Slide, a social technology company with an extensive history of building new ways for people to connect with others across numerous platforms online."

The startup was created in 2005 by Max Levchin, the co-founder of PayPal.

NYTimes reported the acquistion price at $228 million while TechCrunch said $182 million. Google did not reveal the final number. Regardless, the price is a lot cheaper than the $500 million valuation the service was given in 2008.

When Slide began, Levchin used it as a third-party photo sharing service but it quickly evolved into a widget and app service, used in social networking giants like Facebook and MySpace.

The company's two most popular apps are SuperPoke and SPP Ranch. The first allows you to adopt a virtual pet, and exchange money for virtual goods.

Google has been spending significant amounts of money in an effort to start a social gaming platform, investing $150 million in market leader Zynga among other purchases.

After reporting their quarterly earnings this week, T-Mobile USA made it clear that smartphones are here to stay, seeing subscriptions triple year-on-year despite losing customers overall.

Users with 3G-capable smartphones are now 19 percent of the entire T-Mobile USA subscriber base, with subscriptions over tripling to 6.5 million from 2.1 million in the Q2 2009.

T-Mobile noted its most popular smartphones included Android devices like the MyTouch 3G and Nexus One, as well as the BlackBerry Bold and HTC HD2, which use the BlackBerry OS and Windows Mobile operating systems, respectively.

During the quarter, T-Mobile upgraded its network to HSPA+, giving some T-Mobile users faster data than even Sprint's 4G networks.

15 cities, covering 85 million people, now have access to T-Mobile's HSPA+ upgrade. By the end of the year the company says it hopes to have HSPA+ available to 185 million Americans.

Overall, the carrier saw a decline in subscriptions, due to a high rate of decline in the prepaid business. The company lost 199,000 prepaid subscribers while only gaining 106,000 contract customers.

Sharp has said this week that it plans to release a smartphone by the end of 2010 that will feature a 3D display allowing for 3D viewing without special glasses.

Furthermore, the phone will likely have a 3D-capable camera, added a Sharp spokesperson.

While the company is the largest mobile phone maker in Japan, globally it has fallen very far behind, especially in the rapidly growing smartphone market.

Sharp's recent foray into the smartphone market, building the Microsoft Kin models, proved to be disastrous, with less than 7000 units being sold in 90 days.

The company first unveiled its 3D panel technology in April, and many believe it will be used in the upcoming Nintendo 3DS handheld, as well.

CBS CEO Les Moonves has confirmed this week that the number one U.S. broadcaster is in active talks to bring some of its shows to Hulu, the popular online streaming service.

Hulu Plus is the site's new premium version which launched in June and costs $9 per month.

Users of Hulu Plus can watch full back-catalogs of available shows while free Hulu users can only watch the trailing five episodes of a current season.

CBS has the incredibly popular shows "CSI," "Two and a Half Men," and "Big Bang Theory" among others, and remains the only broadcaster to not include its content on Hulu.

"Are we having discussions with the Hulu subscription service? Yes we are," Moonves says. "Our goal is to get paid for our content in as many different ways as we can without hurting the mother ship. The key here is flexibility."

CBS recently signed a 10-year content deal with Comcast for on-demand and Web video.

Android device owners will finally soon be able to stream Netflix's popular Watch Instantly catalog on their phones and tablets, as the rental company has confirmed it is working on an application for the mobile OS.

Netflix has posted two new job listings on its website, both of which are looking for Android developers. The latest listing is searching for an "Android Video Playback Expert," one who can help the company "build Instant Streaming client implementations on Android devices."

Additionally, the developer must have 10 years of experience, already implemented video playback in an Android app, have experience with DRM, and experience "with other mobile application platforms (e.g. iPhone/iPad)."

Netflix's "Watch Instantly" remains one of the most popular free apps on the iPad tablet.

Confirming what the job listings were suggesting, a Netflix employee had this to say (via Electronista): "I just know we’re actively hiring Android devs. I wish I knew more about a timeframe for you. Good things come to those who wait. Netflix is essentially a tech company and with the way Android is blowing up it would be stupid of us to ignore that."

According to the research firm iSuppli, more smartphones will be using the Android operating system by 2012 than are using the Apple iOS.

Google recently announced 200,000 Android phones being activated each day.

iSuppli says Android will be used in 75 million smartphones in 2012, up 1500 percent from 2009, when 5 million Android devices were sold.

In the same period, Apple iOS devices will jump to 62 million from 25 million.

At that time, Android would control 19.4 percent of the global smartphone market while Apple would have just under 16 percent.

"The flexibility Android offers for hardware designs and its appealing business model in terms of revenue sharing have attracted vigorous support from all nodes in the value chain, including makers of high-end smart phone models," says iSuppli senior analyst Tina Teng.

The Dish Network has announced this week that it plans to let subscribers watch satellite TV programming on their mobile devices, for free, in the near future.

Starting in September, the iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch and BlackBerry devices will get the free functionality via an app.

Android devices will get the service a month later.

While on the surface the announcement sounds great for Dish owners, unless you have a dual-tuner DVR at home, you will have to watch whatever channel is on at home on your smartphone or tablet, without the ability to change it.

You will also be required to purchase a SlingBox, or SlingBox-supportive DVR from Dish.

Google has acquired the social networking gaming company Slide, according to multiple reports.

The startup was created in 2005 by Max Levchin, the co-founder of PayPal.

NYTimes reports the acquistion price at $228 million while TechCrunch says $182 million. Regardless, the price is a lot cheaper than the $500 million valuation the service was given in 2008.

When Slide began, Levchin used it as a third-party photo sharing service but it quickly evolved into a widget and app service, used in social networking giants like Facebook and MySpace.

The company's two most popular apps are SuperPoke and SPP Ranch. The first allows you to adopt a virtual pet, and exchange money for virtual goods.

Google has been spending significant amounts of money in an effort to start a social gaming platform, investing $150 million in market leader Zynga among other purchases.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt has said today that about 200,000 new Android devices are now being sold daily, leading to huge growth in revenue for the search giant thanks to mobile search traffic.

When asked about the recent studies showing Android outpacing the iPhone handily, Schmidt added: "People are finally beginning to figure out how successful Android is. The number was about 100,000 (a day) about two months ago. It looks like Android is not just phenomenal but incredibly phenomenal in its growth rate. God knows how long that will continue."

While Google does not directly gain revenue from Android (which is free and open source), the more successful the operating system is, the more people are connected to the Web from their mobile phones, leading to an increase in search.

"Trust me that revenue is large enough to pay for all of Android's activities and a whole bunch more," Schmidt added, via Cnet. "I should also say that we love the success of the iPhone because the iPhone also uses Google's search and we get a chunk of that revenue when people search on the iPhone."

The European Commission has now chosen the Apple iPhone and HTC devices over the RIM BlackBerry line, two years after beginning searching for a smartphone to support amongst its employees.

Security and financial impact were part of the criteria in choosing the phones, and BlackBerry security issues were a main concern.

Throughout the week, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, India and Kuwait all threatened to block features of BlackBerrys due to security concerns.

The EC employs 32,000 people.

"Following this evaluation, the HTC and the iPhones emerged at the most suitable platforms for voice/mail-centric mobile devices. As a result, the Commission currently supports these two platforms," said an EC spokesperson, via Reuters.

Google has said today it is killing off its Wave collaborative messaging service due to a lack of user interest.

The search giant revealed the Wave service last year, which allows people to "communicate online by letting them exchange messages in real-time and collaboratively edit documents."

Many called the service a hybrid Twitter, IM and email client.

The service itself was very confusing to many would-be users, however, and Google has decided to add the service to its growing list of failed projects.

"Wave has not seen the user adoption we would have liked. We don't plan to continue developing Wave as a standalone product," noted Google Senior Vice President of Operations Urs Hölzle.

Hölzle did add that Wave's technology will be used in other projects, and that the code is not dead. "Many of Wave's innovations, like drag-and-drop and character-by-character live typing, will still be available to customers and partners that want to build upon the technology," adds the WSJ.

Intel has agreed today to stop unfair practices including using threats and giving unfair discounts to block out rivals.

The company settled with the FTC (U.S. Federal Trade Commission) without paying any fine and without admitting any wrongdoing.

Furthermore, Intel pledged to give its rivals access to processor technology for the next six years.

Intel had been sued by Nvidia and rival AMD over the unfair practices. The Nvidia case is still pending.

The chip-maker has 80 percent of the microprocessor market.

"It's a landmark settlement that really will have a striking effect on improving competition in the market," says former FTC policy director David Balto.

Intel is now banned from "retaliating" against computer makers if they chose to do business with AMD or other non-Intel suppliers.

The European Union, Korea and Japan have all, over the past couple of years, accused Intel of similar unfair/anti-trust practices.