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Apple has said today that Softbank will no longer be the exclusive Japanese carrier for the iPhone.

KDDI, the nation's second largest carrier will begin getting the iPhone 4S on October 14th.

Additionally, Apple is launching the 4S in the United States, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, and Britain on the same day.

Softbank, despite being the third largest carrier in the nation, has had exclusive rights to the iPhone since 2008.

The iPhone 4S adds an A5 processor, an 8MP camera, a built-in "personal assistant" named Siri and will launch with iOS 5.

Microsoft has launched its first native Android app for Hotmail/Live.

The app was created by software developer Seven and directed by Microsoft and will be the first official app for the email service.

Hotmail/Live currently has 360 million active account and is the biggest email provider in the world, ahead of Yahoo and Gmail.

The app will include "push-enabled access to the user inbox, contact list and calendars," says THG.

Microsoft says "it has reengineered Hotmail and the availability of its Android app reflects a commitment to provide a great Hotmail experience to users on whichever smartphones they use."

You can have it synced to your phone from here: Microsoft + Seven Hotmail app or search it from your tablet/smartphone.

HP has completed its $12 billion acquisition of software maker Autonomy today, with Autonomy shareholders overwhelmingly voting for the deal which paid an 80 percent premium to the company's closing price before HP offered.

The deal, and how expensive it is, cost CEO Leo Apotheker his job recently after just 11 months on the job.

New CEO Meg Whitman says the Autonomy purchase is "integral" to HP's expected software expansion.

Autonomy will run as a separate business under the lead of founder Mike Lynch.

HP rival Oracle admitted it was also approached as a potential buyer but CEO Larry Ellison, one of the world's richest men, called the price "absurdly high."

Adobe will be launching a family of tablet software in November which they're calling Abode Touch Apps.

The new apps were announced yesterday at the company's MAX 2011 technology conference, along with a new online service called Adobe Creative Cloud. Creative Cloud will be include hosted services, collaboration tools, and synchronization between devices.

The new apps, which will be released for Android tablets on November 12, when Adobe Creative Cloud is launched, include:

• Adobe Photoshop Touch - A scaled down version of Adobe's flagship photo processing software.


• Adobe Collage - An app for combining images which also includes basic support for drawing and adding text.


• Adobe Debut - A presentation app sith support for opening files from a variety of Adobe products, including Photoshop and Illustrator.


• Adobe Ideas - A vector based drawing app.


• Adobe Kuler - A tablet version of Adobe's color theme tool.


• Adobe Proto - A website prototyping tool

Versions of the apps for the iPad are planned for some time next year.

Apple has turned down Samsung's offer of a licensing agreement for Apple patents in an Australian lawsuit over the Galaxy Tab 10.1.

Apple wants the tablet banned from the Australian market, claiming it infringes on an Apple touchscreen patent. Samsung has already agreed to change the tablet to address two other patents cited in Apple's suit.

Samsung's offer for a preliminary settlement, made last week, would have involved paying Apple an undisclosed amount to license the remaining patent before the lawsuit is decided.

Samsung's goal is getting the tablet on the Australian market in time for Christmas.

Apple lawyer Steven Burley explained to the court, "The main reason we are here is to prevent the launch (of the Galaxy tablet) and maintain the status quo."

That statement may be a harbinger of future problems for Apple. As the tablet market grows, Apple will have to be careful about statements that give the appearance their primary goal is blocking competition.

Microsoft has announced today that it will shut down its Zune line of media devices.

Reads the support post:

We recently announced that, going forward, Windows Phone will be the focus of our mobile music and video strategy, and that we will no longer be producing Zune players. So what does this mean for our current Zune users? Absolutely nothing. Your device will continue to work with Zune services just as it does today. And we will continue to honor the warranties of all devices for both current owners and those who buy our very last devices. Customer service has been, and will remain a top priority for us.

Software will continue to be updated, as well as apps, but no more hardware will be sold.

Despite being critically praised, the Zune was too little too late, especially being launched 5 years after the first iPod.

Rhapsody is buying Napster from Best Buy. Details of the deal weren't disclosed, except that Best Buy will be getting a minority stake in Rhapsody.

Based on statements from Rhapsody executives, it appears this may mark the end of the Napster brand..

Rhapsody President Jon Irwin said:

This deal will further extend Rhapsody's lead over our competitors in the growing on-demand music market. There's substantial value in bringing Napster's subscribers and robust IP portfolio to Rhapsody as we execute on our strategy to expand our business via direct acquisition of members and distribution deals.

He added:

This is a 'go big or go home' business, so our focus is on sustainably growing the company. We're excited to welcome Napster music fans to the best on-demand music experience anywhere. Our new members will have more places to connect to the music they love and to discover new favorites, guided by Rhapsody's rockstar editorial team and the tastes of other Rhapsody members via our innovative social features.

The brand is really all that's left of the original Napster service, which brought file sharing to the masses in 1999 as broadband Internet was taking off.

New iPhone 4S is confirmed by Apple at 'Let's talk iPhone' event.

After being 'leaked' in an iTunes beta update, Apple has confirmed the existence of the iPhone 4S handset. It has been speculated that Apple would unveil a more affordable iPhone handset (though that's not exactly the case), as fierce rival Samsung has been showing strong growth driven by both high-end and low-end market sales of its devices.

On the outside, it features the same glass finish front and back, Retina Display clarity and the same stainless steel band on the edges. The iPhone 4S is driven by a dual-core A5 chip, as is the iPad 2, up to twice as fast as iPhone 4. It offers dual core graphics, seven times faster than iPhone 4.

To drive home the point about iPhone being a platform for gaming, Epic Games President Mike Capps took the stage to demonstrate Infinity Blade 2, an iOS exclusive. The game will be available from December 1.

For battery life, the iPhone 4S provides up to 8 hours of 3G talk time, 14 hours talk on 2G networks, 6 hours browsing on 3G networks, 9 hours browsing on Wi-Fi, 10 hours playing video and 40 hours pumping out music. The model can automatically switch between two antennas to improve call quality and provide faster data performance. It supports GSM and CDMA networks.

Apple gives iOS sales information during 'Let's Talk iPhone' event.

It has been revealed that the company sold 250 million iOS devices in the products' lifespan so far. It is the number 1 mobile operating system with 43 percent of the market. The upcoming iOS 5.0 will launch October 12, along with iCloud.

IHS iSuppli had reported this week that Apple shipped 20.3 million smartphones during the second quarter of 2011, confirming Apple's figures from its quarterly earnings report in July. This puts Apple in pole position as a smartphone vendor, ahead of Samsung on 19.6 million and Nokia on 16.7 million.

Apple says that three out of every four tablet PCs bought are iPads

Over 140,000 apps are now made specifically for iPad, with Apple paying out over $3 billion to developers, according to Scott Forestall.

Earlier, Tim Cook also talked about Apple's retail success and continued momentum. He brought up the new Shanghai store, which is "absolutely gorgeous," and welcomed over 100,000 visitors on its opening weekend, whilst the LA store took a month to reach that milestone.

Apple now has 357 stores in 11 countries.

Sprint is preparing to purchase 30.5 million iPhones from Apple, worth around $20 billion, says the WSJ.

The deal will be from 2011-2015 and will finally allow the carrier to become the third in the U.S. to offer the popular smartphones.

At $20 billion over 4 years, CEO Dan Hesse says the company will not begin making money until 2014.

The CEO has told the board of directors that the company will need to double its current customer base to sell that many iPhones, or at least convert all of their current customers.

It appears the board had some reservations, but eventually signed off on the deal. One such reservation was worries that the iPhone would lose popularity by 2015.

The WSJ says the bet is an "all-or-nothing" and could very well bankrupt the company by 2015.

Apple CEO Tim Cook gives some information on Apple's music-related business.

It has been 10 years since the iPod launched and revolutionized the music industry. The market share of the iPod is more than 70% across the world, and has been for a long time now, Cook demonstrated on stage.

In total, Apple has sold over 300 million iPods around the world since it first launched. 45 million iPods were sold between July 2010 and June 2011, remaining a very strong part of Apple's overall business.

More than 16 billion songs have been downloaded from iTunes, being easily the world's number 1 music store.

Just 30 minutes from Apple's keynote address and it seems that the company's Japanese site has leaked pictures of the iPhone 4s.

The banner on the site reads (Google translated):

October 14, from 8:00 am to launch the Apple Store. Let staff help you choose the carrier and rate plan is right for you so the iPhone is ready to start using before leaving the store. Learn more.

Additionally, the Japanese site has let slip that an updated Nano is coming, with more fitness functions and a completely rehauled UI.

Please stay tuned for our full coverage of the event at 1pm EST.

GSMarena has posted a shot of the upcoming Nexus Prime Android flagship device.

The device will be officially launched next week on the 11th.

Samsung's new Google device, if the picture is accurate, a massive 1280 x 720 HD resolution.

The screen itself will be 4.6-inches, and the display will have a large 320dpi pixel density.

Furthermore, because the phone is based on Ice Cream Sandwich, there are no hardware keys on the device, just soft keys.

Picture here:

Google chairman Eric Schmidt has said today that despite the company's $12.5 billion acquisition of Motorola Mobility, the company will not pick favorites in the Android market, and that all current partners will remain equally competitive.

Says Schmidt (via Bloomberg):

The Android ecosystem is the No. 1 priority, and that we won?t do anything with Motorola, or anybody else by the way, that would screw up the dynamics of that industry. We need strong, hard competition among all the Android players. We won?t play favorites in the way people are concerned about.

The chairman also noted that the company would be acquiring 17,000 patents in the deal, which will certainly help the search engine giant protect its interests.

Main concerns over the acquisition were that Motorola devices would get access to the most updated versions of Android the soonest, thus leaving other companies like HTC, LG, Samsung and Acer at a disadvantage.

According to eDataSource, an online "competitive intelligence" firm, the new Amazon Kindle Fire has 95,000 pre-orders on its first day of availability alone.

Says CEO Carter Nichols:

eDataSource's panel of 800,000 inboxes allows us to gain insight into eCommerce sales. Within hours we can get a read on hot product launches based on sales from leading eCommerce websites.

The company analyzed purchase receipts received by email and can therefore accurately estimate the daily orders places at major ecommerce sites as well as what products are being purchased.

Amazon just launched the Kindle Fire at $199, with a shipping date of November 15th.

The tablet is, by far, the cheapest in the 7-inch category, and even undercuts the price of the Nook Color by $50, which is more of an e-reader but can be rooted to be an Android tablet.

Apple sold 300,000 iPad tablets on its first day, at $500 or more a pop, and remains the strong market leader. RIM, by comparison, only sold 200,000 PLayBooks the entire last quarter, and has been forced to slash prices.