Latest news

Intel has confirmed today that it has deals with 10 tablet vendors.

The companies will help Intel design Windows 8 devices that use Intel chips.

Intel China chairman Sean Maloney said there will be "numerous" Intel-based tablets by the end of the year, each of which will use the Z2460 chip, code-named "Medfield."

Looking further into the year, Intel is developing the Clover Trail chip which is designed specifically for tablets. Clover Trail chips run at 1.8GHz, making them more powerful and more efficient than previous models.

Lenovo and ZTE have already confirmed devices using Intel chips, including Atom chips for smartphones.

The Nikkei is reporting that Apple Japan has been ordered to pay restitution to a couple whose iPod Nano exploded.

Apple will pay ¥600,000 (about $7,425) in medical fees and pain and suffering after the 1st-gen device spontaneously caught fire after regular use.

The Nano has well-documented issues, and Apple even started a recall in Korea in 2009 and then in 20 more countries including the U.S. in 2010.

According to the ruling, the couple purchased the device in early 2006, and kept using it regularly. In July, 2010, the couple tried to charge the device causing it to overheat and then catch on fire. The wife suffered burns on her hand that took 1 month to heal.

Apple had no comment.

The extremely popular Kickstarter project "Pebble" has raised $2 million in under 72 hours.

Pebble is a smartwatch that syncs with iOS and Android via Bluetooth, including the addition of apps.

The company only hoped to raise $100,000 before May, and the project has clearly exceeded expectations.

200 lucky backers were able to pledge just $99 to get the device, while everyone else will need to pay $115 or more to have the device. The watch will eventually retail for over $150.

There are currently over 14,200 backers of the project.

View details of the incredible little smartwatch here: Pebble Smartwatch on KickStarter

Microsoft developer Maarten Visser has leaked a roadmap for the company's software that covers the next two year's of releases.

Visser is the CEO of Meetroo, a cloud developer consultantcy.

The images show launch dates for Office 15, updates to Windows Phone and Internet Explorer 10.

Microsoft confirmed the images and responded: "We often provide forward-looking information to our partners and customers under our confidentially agreements with them. This information contains our best estimates and is, in no way, final or definitive."

Visser, a day after the tweets, released a YouTube video explaining why he "leaked" the pics, saying he did not do so with malicious intent: "I love Microsoft and the products they are producing. I have been evangelizing SharePoint since Microsoft produced the first beta in early 2000. For this reason I really hope my actions won't bring any damage to the company I love and might even have some positive effects to the partner eco-model (especially smaller ISV's who are betting their whole lives Microsoft add-ons.)"

Barnes & Noble has introduced a new version of the Nook e-reader that will have a glow in the dark screen, allowing for night time and dark room reading.

The new version of the Nook Simple Touch, which has an e-ink touchscreen, will incorporate the new light, a feature Amazon's rival Kindle devices do not have.

Says Chief Executive Officer William Lynch: "Having to clip on the light at night, there is the consumer cost of the hassle factor. The glow is the biggest revolution in the dedicated single-purpose e-reader market since the launch of the Kindle in 2007."

B&N is the world's largest bookstore chain and the company controls about 30 percent of the ebook market.

The new device will sell for $139, the same price the original Touch model launched at last year. The first-gen device (with no light) now sells for $99.

According to a new report in National Defense Magazine, airplane maker Boeing is looking into building its own Android smartphone.

The phone will be secured for government and military use and will likely be dubbed "The Boeing Phone."

Current devices, with similar military-grade encryption, can cost over $10,000 per unit and Boeing's new mobile phone will likely cost nowhere near there. Reports suggest it will run on Android 2.3 Gingerbread, as "the project is already near the end of its development cycle."

Android will remain mostly "vanilla," letting users keep the interface they are used to, but with an incredible jump in security. Users will not even be able to access the Google Play Store.

Mockup via AC:

Chad Bartley, analyst at Pacific Crest, has noted today that his research implies Amazon Kindle products are seeing demand deteriorate.

Demand for the Kindle Fire tablet is down "slightly" for the Q2 compared to last quarter, says Bartley, citing a survey of consumers.

Furthermore, Kindle e-reader demand is down as the market heads towards saturation.

Reads the research note:

Our Q2 Consumer Technology Survey revealed a slight decline in interest and demand for the Kindle Fire. For example, 4.5% of respondents plan to purchase a Kindle Fire, which is slightly down from 4.9% in our Q1 survey.

Our recent supply checks also indicated that demand for Kindle Fire weakened in Q1. Based on our checks, we estimate that component orders fell roughly 10% m/m in February and roughly 15% m/m March and that demand will fall sequentially in Q2. We see the potential for Q1 sales of roughly 2.0 million, compared to our forecast of 2.2 million, and 2012 sales of roughly 13.5 million, compared to our current forecast of 14.9 million. We are leaving our forecasts unchanged for now, in part due to the potential impact on demand from the pending launches of the new 7-inch and 9-inch Kindle Fires, which we expect in Q3.

Nokia has announced the launch of the Lumia 610, the first WP7 device with NFC.

The device will be available through carrier Orange, across Europe.

Orange says "the device has been certified for contactless payments both with MasterCard PayPass technology, and with Visa's mobile application for payments at the point of sale, Visa payWave, which means it will work when activated and used with merchants that have linked up with this technology."

The carrier remains one of the few making pushes for NFC, saying it has sold 500,000 of such devices in France, alone. For the time being, NFC commercial services are not as widely available, making the phone's ability to use it useless.

Nokia's low-end device has a 3.7" LCD display with 800 x 480 resolution, Windows Phone 7.5 Mango, 8 GB storage and 256 MB RAM.

A new report from the NPD Group today claims the average cable subscription will increase to $200 per month by the end of the decade.

Nomura Equity Research says don't blame the cable companies, however. The research firm says program suppliers have increased their fees by 8.2 percent over the last year, alone, and those kind of increases are expected every year going forward.

Of the major media companies, Disney accounts for the largest chunk of fees, taking a massive 24 percent. ESPN, its most profitable venture, accounts for a good portion of its substantial fees, with ESPN bringing in an average of $4.69 from every U.S. cable subscriber.

Time Warner (distributor of HBO, TNT, TBS and CNN), controls 21 percent of the fees, followed by Comcast (Bravo, USA Network) at 16 percent and News Corp. (Fox) at 14 percent.

Furthermore, the analyst firm says "re-transmission fees paid to broadcast network affiliate stations totaled nearly $400 million in 2011 and should reach $750 million this year."

According to well-connected Microsoft reporter Mary Jo Foley, the company has only sold 3.5 million Windows Phone 7 devices, to date.

That number would be extremely low if true, given that Google activates over 800,000 Android devices every single day.

Other reporters have disputed the figure, claiming the software giant has sold 11 million units since launch early last year, but Folley stands by the number.

Nokia, for its part, sold 2 million Lumia phones in the last quarter and is expected to do much better thanks to stronger sales of the Lumia 900.

Microsoft will not comment on WP7 sales or shipments.

With its latest update, the Google Chrome browser has added the ability to sync open tabs between all devices.

Reads Google's post: "Imagine you've looked up directions to a cool new restaurant on your home computer. Later, when you're leaving work, you realize you can't quite remember how to get there. If only you could quickly pull up the same directions on your office computer with one click!

Well, with the latest Chrome Beta, you can. When you're signed in to Chrome, the tabs you have open on one device are available on all your other devices-just click the "Other devices" menu on the New Tab page."

Additionally, the tab's back and forward history is also saved so you can literally start where you leave off on any connected device you have.

The update also works with the Chrome browser beta for Android.

Verizon has announced today that it will start charging an upgrade fee for users upgrading to new phones.

The carrier was the final "holdout" among the American majors, who each already charge for upgrades.

Verizon will begin charging $30 on April 22nd, more expensive than T-Mobile but cheaper than AT&T and Sprint, who each charge $36.

T-Mobile charges $18, which was the standard until last year when Sprint doubled its fee and AT&T followed suit.

For its part, Verizon says the fees will "continue to provide customers with the level of service and support they have come to expect." The company also notes that trading in older handsets through Verizon's own trade-in program can help "offset the cost" of the new upgrade fee.

Spotify has created their new "Play Button' which will allow bloggers and other sites to embed songs from the company's vast catalog of streaming music.

The widget will let users listen to songs, playlists and even entire albums without having to leave the site their visiting.

Says Spotify: "The Spotify Play Button is a simple yet extremely powerful music widget that makes it easier than ever to deliver all the world's music to fans of your website or blog." In case anyone had any qualms about the new widget and its pricing, the company says its "Totally free. Totally legal. Totally awesome."

If you install the button, you can "simply click on songs on the site, then copy them onto their own site. It will work for people who use Spotify's free service as well as premium users who pay a monthly fee for ad-free, unlimited listening," explains CNN.

Finally, Tumblr announced a partnership with the company, incorporating the button directly into its blogging platform.

The U.S. government has sued Apple and the major book publishers today on claims of collusion and anti-trust in the ebook market.

Hachette SA, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Penguin and Simon & Schuster were all sued in New York district court, with Simon & Schuster, Hachette and HarperCollins already settling their suits.

Apple and Macmillan have refused to settle with the Justice Department and deny they had any part in colluding on the price of digital books. Both have agreed to argue "that pricing agreements between Apple and publishers enhanced competition in the e-book industry," an industry which used to be ruled by Amazon totally.

The Justice Department is looking into how Apple got publishers to change the way they charged for e-books. Before the iPad, Amazon sold ebooks for a lot cheaper than they currently sell for and prices were mixed whereas they are now standardized with little flexibility. This new model is called the "agency model," which only gives publishers, not the vendors, the ability to set ebook prices.

Last week we reported that over 500,000 Mac computers were infected with the BackDoor.Flashback trojan, which had turned the computers into a major botnet.

Apple has already patched the Java vulnerability that led to the exploit and is now working on a "Flashback removal tool" to help those already infected.

Additionally, the company says it is working with ISPs across the globe to disable any existing command and control centers, networks that tell the zombie computers what to do to victims.

Doctor Web, the Russian anti-virus company, first brought the trojan to the public's attention with a report.

The vendor said that the systems are infected with BackDoor.Flashback.39 "after a user is redirected to a bogus site from a compromised resource or via a traffic distribution system." JavaScript code will then be run with the exploit. Doctor Web said at the time that there can be thousands of compromised web-pages.