ITC Published Rules Against Apple,Which Kodak Gains Benefits From

ITC Published Rules Against Apple,Which Kodak Gains Benefits From

Yesterday,ITC came into a decision to make rules against Apple in patent infringement.

At issue are two digital camera technologies owned by Apple. One allows a camera to process multiple photos at the same time, while the other enables users to simultaneously adjust an image’s balance, color and resolution.

Apple claimed that Kodak illegally used these mechanisms in its Z-series, M-series, C-series, and Slice cameras, in addition to some video cameras. Judge Rogers clearly disagreed, though he won’t be able to publicly explain his reasoning until both sides have had enough time to review confidential documents. Rogers’ decision will also be subject to review by the full ITC, which is expected to issue a yea or nay on September 19th.

A Kodak spokesman said the company is understandably “pleased” by the decision, but it won’t have much time to rest on its laurels. On May 23rd, the ITC will announce a decision in a patent lawsuit that Kodak filed against both Apple and RIM, way back in January 2010.

Nokia Wants To Make A Difference

Nokia Wants To Make A Difference

Apple has a tablet. So does RIM. HP Palm too, soon enough.So Nokia want to make a change getting rid of the tablets.Even Sony has a few on the way.That leaves Nokia as the glaring anomaly conspicuously absent from the tablet wars.

Nokia CEO Stephen Elop is taking a very calculated approach to tablets, saying”We could take advantage of Microsoft technology and software, and build a Windows-oriented tablet, or we could do things with some of the other software assets that we have. Our team right now is assessing what’s the right tablet strategy for Nokia.”

In other words, Nokia is investigating tablets running Windows 7 (doubtful), MeeGo (doubtful), and Windows Next, aka that tablet-friendly Windows 8 OS (likely).

There are now over 200 different tablets on the marketplace, only one of them is doing really well.So it’s wise to make a change.

RIM's BBM Social Platform going to open beta, lets devs bake BBM into BlackBerry apps

Announced at BlackBerry's 2010 Developer Conference last fall, BBM Social Platform has just become available to interested third-party devs in beta form. Of course, you might be hoping that it opens BlackBerry Messenger to other (read: non-BlackBerry) platforms via API... but yeah, that's not happening quite yet. Instead, the SDK allows folks developing for BlackBerry OS to integrate BBM capabilities into their own apps, and the list of capabilities is pretty extensive: you'll be able to read and update user profiles, embed BBM chats inside your app, and transfer files, just to name a few of the big ones (with the user's permission, of course). The current beta works for Java apps, while RIM's hard at work crafting a new version for release in April that'll add WebWorks web app compatibility.

BlackBerry Protect moving to wider beta, ready to secure your stuff

After a limited beta last year, RIM's BlackBerry Protect service has been opened to a wider test audience with tweaks based on feedback collected in the first round. As you might recall, Protect is a fairly standard-issue suite of security features to put your mind at ease in the event your phone meets its maker or the hands of a thief, including location capability, a remote alarm, wireless backup, and -- of course -- the doomsday remote wipe option. It's available in North America and parts of Latin America for the moment through App World's Test Center, though RIM promises to open it to additional regions "in the next couple of months."

Leaked RIM Roadmap Mentioning BlackBerry OS 7

Scanning from left to right on this leaked roadmap, things may seem a bit… unexciting, at first. The Flickr product is reaching the end of its life? Meh. TicketMaster 2.0? Mega meh.

But then you get down to the end of the right side, and it’s just chillin’ there all by its lonesome: “BB 7 SN Core Integration (OS 7.0)”

So, what the heck is that? To be honest, your guess is as good as ours. It’s obviously something to do with BlackBerry OS 7.0 (given that it, you know, says “OS 7.0″) — but to assume that this would be the actual launch of OS 7.0, as some sites are running with, seems a bit.. daft. That talk of “Core Integration” is just vague enough to leave us hanging — is it an internal target window where all devices being worked on internally should be running 7.0? Might this be when they begin sending out minor patches to prep devices for the migration to 7.0? It is, unfortunately, a bit of a mystery.

Hell, pretty much all of OS 7.0 is a bit of a mystery at this point. Outside of the fact that RIM was (at least up until recently) considering it a “stepping stone” to QNX (the platform that runs on the BlackBerry Playbook) rather than a complete jump, there’s really not much known.

Shoppingkoo: Android leapfrogs BlackBerry among US smartphone subscribers to take first place in market share

Last time we checked in with ComScore's report on smartphone platform market share among US subscribers three months ago, Android was doing a little happy dance as it overtook iOS for the number two spot overall. Well, the cuddly green bots have self-replicated yet again, enough to overtake RIM this time thanks in part to a 5.4 percent decline on BlackBerry's part (down to 30.4 percent in January) coupled with a 7.7 percent boost on the Android side, moving up to 31.2 percent. We imagine ComScore's next report -- covering the period through March -- will see a little boost on the iOS side thanks to Verizon's iPhone launch, but RIM's knight in shining armor might be further out; we still don't know when QNX-based phones are going to happen, after all, and devices like the Monaco don't really seem like cure-alls.

RIM's chief marketing officer resigning

We won't read too much into this, but it comes at an interesting time -- with only a month left before RIM is expected to debut the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet, the company's chief marketing officer has resigned. TheWall Street Journal reports that RIM CMO Keith Pardy (formerly with Nokia) will leave due to "personal reasons" after a six-month transition period is up. The publication's anonymous sources add that Pardy actually made the decision a month ago, and that the move "reflects larger turmoil" within RIM -- as opposed to any sort of knee-jerk reaction over the iPad 2 launch, we suppose. To be frank, we're a little worried about the fate of the PlayBook if it's indeed close to launch -- when we tried a prototype at the Game Developer's Conference this past week in San Francisco, the hardware was still pretty solid, but the software was a bit sparse, and what was there felt like it needed more than a few coats of polish.

Nielsen: Apple, RIM Are Now Beating Android OEMs In The U.S. Smartphone Race

Google’s Android OS is leading the pack for smartphone market share in the U.S., but when it comes to the largest smartphone manufacturer, RIM (NSDQ: RIMM) and Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) are neck-in-neck for the top position. Table after the jump.

The data, which comes from Nielsen and covers the period between November 2010 and February 2011, indicates that Apple and RIM are the biggest single smartphone vendors, at 27 percent each.

Meanwhile, Android devices collectively make up 29 percent of all smartphones in the U.S., making it the most popular OS, but that number is divided up between three main vendors—HTC (12 percent), Motorola (NYSE: MMI) (10 percent) and Samsung (five percent)—plus a selection of smaller shares that get grouped as “others” and account for just two percent of all Android sales. (Those others probably include the likes of LG (SEO: 066570), ZTE, Sony (NYSE: SNE) Ericsson (NSDQ: ERIC) and Huawei).

Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT), the other player that is deploying its OS across multiple vendors, has, at 10 percent, a far smaller market share than Android, but an equally fragmented number of vendors making devices on the platform.

Here are some takeaways:

—RIM and Apple, being both leaders in OS and in actual handsets sold, are in the stronger position as far as issues of fragmentation are concerned, compared to the likes of the Android and Windows Phone vendors.

—Nokia (NYSE: NOK), with only a two percent share of the market, has a very long way to go before it can claim a strong position, considering that it is partnering with an equally small-market-share OS, in the form of Microsoft’s Windows Phone. If anything, it would seem that partnering both with Google (NSDQ: GOOG) and Microsoft would have been the smart option, if one of Nokia’s biggest goals was to keep itself in the game in the U.S. market (and elsewhere). But that’s not something that has been entirely ruled out by either party.

—So far, HTC has been the most successful in playing the multiple OS game, but at a 19 percent share, it is still quite a ways behind RIM and Apple.

—Other data from Nielsen shows that in terms of age breakdown, all the OS’s are virtually identical, except for in one respect: Android leads by two percentage points as the most popular OS with 16-24 year olds. That points not only to lower prices but also securing key customers for years to come.

RIM now preparing to bring BBM to iOS and Android, change everything again?

Woah, now here's a juicy rumor to start your Thursday morning off with. BGR reports word from multiple trusted sources that RIM intends to take its BlackBerry Messenger outside the cozy confines of the BB ecosystem and straight into its competitors' app stores. BBM is reputedly all set to make its debut as a messaging app on both iOS and Android, though the specifics of what it might cost you have yet to be ironed out. It'll come in a stripped down version, you'll still need to own a BlackBerry for the full-flavored BBM experience, but that should nonetheless be extremely welcome news for folks finding themselves torn between platforms. The Android version is expected this year, say the sources, while the iOS app may take a little while longer thanks to Apple's more capricious approval requirements.

Hot : BlackBerry PlayBook app may hint 17 hours of battery

A PlayBook Battery Assistant app found for the BlackBerry PlayBook ahead of its launch has hinted that it will have very long battery life. Comparing the battery life at 50 percent and at 20 percent, BerryReview heard the tablet would get roughly 17 hours of battery life in web browsing and a still healthy eight hours for video playback. Full 3D gaming could still last for six hours.

The numbers are likely to vary somewhat depending on the usage and may not necessarily reflect the final numbers. RIM may have supported the claims itself since it has loaded the PlayBook with an unusually high-capacity battery and has estimated that it could match or beat the iPad despite the smaller size.

RIM still hasn't committed to a ship date for the PlayBook six months after its debut and is rumored to be rushing an April launch that would need a patch even as it arrives in stores, although this hasn't been corroborated by other sources. Battery life may have been one of the points needing improvement and is one of the frequent optimization tweaks necessary in the late stages of a product launch.

ShoppingKoo Interview: Ryan Bidan, BlackBerry PlayBook senior product manager

RIM held a little PlayBook party here in New York yesterday, giving us a chance to hang out with Ryan Bidan, the company's senior product manager for the seven-inch tablet. In addition to chatting with us about battery life, connectivity, and pricing, Ryan clarified the PlayBook's app development model -- although devs can choose to work with native code, Java, Adobe Air, and HTML5 / WebWorks, the idea is for the ultimate user experience to be seamless, and RIM is considering offering standard UI widgets for each environment. We also had to ask about those swirling rumors of Android support, and while we commend Ryan for his practiced non-answer, we can't help but feel we detected a hint of a smile on his face. Or was that just another tray of snacks going past? Check the video and decide for yourself.

Twitter for BlackBerry 1.1 hits beta, adding new notifications and geotagging

The official Twitter app for BlackBerry has gotten a nice little bump today -- though you'll need to be a member of RIM's BlackBerry Beta Zone to get it at this point, since it's not quite gold yet. The new version adds a bunch of "features users have been asking for" including support for geotagging tweets, new push notifications for mentions, threaded direct messages, integration with BlackBerry OS' Social Feeds functionality, support for gestures on touchscreen devices, and new languages (Polish and Czech, it seems). As long as you've got a data plan and a device with BlackBerry OS 4.5 or higher, you should be good to go.

RIM To India: You do Know Google And Apple Encrypt Stuff Too, Right?

The ongoing dispute between the Indian government and RIM is… well, ongoing, and I get the feeling neither side will be happy with the inevitable compromises. This week the understandably sullen RIM mentioned in a statement what it has likely been telling Indian officials the whole time: Blackberries aren’t the only devices with encrypted data services. It suggested Google, Apple, Cisco, HP, and several other companies as examples of other companies with similarly protected services. Will pointing the finger make a difference? Probably not.

As the de facto default solution for enterprise mobile security, RIM is in more of a prickly situation than the others, who don’t make the same promises of security, and whose products aren’t aimed in the same direction. India wants a back door into secret international business relations; consumers come later, once a method is established and the carriers cowed. Blackberry is the hard case they need to crack first.

I do think it’s a bit silly, however, that the government there is worried about encryption fomenting dissent or allowing terrorists to organize. I think we’ve seen elsewhere in the world lately that people don’t need encryption to topple a government. So relax, India! If it’s going to happen, it’s going to happen!

BlackBerry PlayBook Price, Release Date Revealed

Do not tell major electronics retailers any important secrets.

Less than a week after Best Buy jumped the gun announcing the release date of the Motorola Xoom, Office Depot has let the price of the BlackBerry PlayBook slip.

BlackBerry's offering to the upcoming tablet onslaught will retail for $499.99, which barely keeps RIM CEO Jim Balsillie's promise that the PlayBook would cost under $500. The leaked Office Depot price sheet specifies that this price will be for the 16 GB PlayBook. This puts the PlayBook at exactly the same price point as Apple’s iPad with the same amount of storage.
RIM is also offering 32GB and 64GB PlayBooks, and if its price structure continues to mirror Apple’s, the versions with more memory could be expected to cost $600 and $700, respectively.

Office Depot’s leak also included a rough release date for the PlayBook, somewhere around the very end of March or very beginning of April. This will give the tablet a head start on HP’s recently announced TouchPad.

The PlayBook is being marketed as an enterprise-friendly device, offering pairings with BlackBerry smartphones, corporate data access, and increased security over what the iPad offers. But RIM is also attempting to draw in consumers, with features like a 3 MP front-facing camera and 5 MP rear-facing camera (both HD), a 1GHz dual-core processer, and a 7-inch LCD screen with 1024 x 600 resolution.

Check back to TabletPCReview for updates on the PlayBook as they become available.

RIM now Developing Software to Run Android Apps on PlayBook

BlackBerry PlayBook users are going to get the best of both worlds when the tablet from Research In Motion Ltd. is released: a BlackBerry OS with the ability to run Android applications.

Though there was previous speculation about the ability to run Android applications on the PlayBook, it had been nothing more than an unconfirmed rumor until now. Three anonymous insiders have maintained that RIM is, in fact, working on software that would give PlayBook users access to the more than 130,000 apps for Google's OS.

When the rumors first leaked, the explanation of the compatibility was that the new, QNX-based BlackBerry OS would possibly feature software called Dalvik, a Java-based virtual machine that was developed by Google for Android. But two inside sources have now claimed that RIM has decided not to go with Dalvik due to an ongoing patent dispute between Google and Oracle Corp., leading RIM to develop its own software to allow for Android app compatibility, due out by the second half of this year.

An enterprise-friendly tablet, we got our hands on the BlackBerry PlayBook at CES this year and were pleasantly surprised at how powerful and responsive it was. Sporting a 1 GHz TI OMAP processor and a 1024 x 600 capacitive touchscreen, the PlayBook demonstrated its power by running two HD movies simultaneously while allowing us to seamlessly swipe between them.

The PlayBook will also allow for one-to-one syncing with BlackBerrys, becoming an extension of the device and providing access to email, calendar, contacts, and more via Bluetooth over BlackBerry Bridge. When the two devices are not connected via Bluetooth, however, the PlayBook is just a Wi-Fi-only tablet with access to the web, but not the BlackBerry data.

Though pricing and release date details haven't been made official, Office Depotrecently posted a listing for the PlayBook, priced at $499.99, along with an approximate release date of late March or early April.