Weekly mobile news recap: Feuding over filters, CES rumors begin

It's the holidays, so you know what that means: time for feuding, fighting, and battling for customers. Twitter and Instagram duke it out to be the service you send your holiday photos through, Apple and Samsung battle to be the most gifted, and more in this week's mobile news wrap.

The holiday season is one that brings thoughts of joy and giving shared among friends and family. That is, until you finally gather with your relatives and feuds get re-sparked and arguments break out between the opening of gifts. It’s out of love, of course, but there’s significantly less love when major companies get to feuding. Competing for customers, users, and sales, the holidays are the perfect time for mobile’s biggest makers to make a move for more loyal consumers. More on the fighting later, along with other stories like rumors for next year, Google Maps’ return to iOS, and more from the week of December 10-15, 2012. 

Holiday shopping is in full swing

We’re under two weeks away from the biggest gift-giving holiday of the season, which means you probably still have the majority of shopping to do. If you’d like to contribute to the companies that seem to be topping the sales chart this year, make sure you give your money to Apple or Samsung. Interestingly, if you want to give the gift your loved one probably wants, you’ll go with an iPhone. If you give what most people are giving, though, you’ll go with an Android device. Apple will probably spin that in to an argument that patent infringement is clearly costing them, rather than focus on the imposing price tag of their device. Let’s just hope it makes its finger pointing seasonal by doing it with holly and mistletoe.

Google Maps finds quickest route back to iOS

Doing some traveling this holiday season? Rejoice at the return of Google Maps on iOS to get you to your destination. Apple has made an effort to fix the problems of its often criticized Maps app, but it’s hard to update your app with a feature like, “Now no longer strands you in remote locations!” Taking a look at Google Maps on its own shows just how much work Google has put into improving the traveling tool. Putting it side-by-side with Apple’s homemade cartography project will create a stark comparison for you. We’re waiting for the first horror film that starts with a group of teens led astray by Apple Maps to a remote location where they are eventually greeted by a masked murderer.

Rumors all around

What good do rumors do aside from giving us something to talk about? Well it fills up this paragraph, for whatever that may be worth. There are always new devices coming out and others in development, but three of the current prospective portables being discussed already have current models on the market. One can never discount the idea that Apple has something shaping up at all times, and that appears to be the case now. An iPhone 5S could be on its way as soon as June of 2013, because why let people enjoy the iPhone 5 for too long? Keep it fresh! Same goes for the iPad, which will have its 5th version in under three years according to reports. Not to be left out, the iPad Mini will get a refresh as well. Samsung is Apple’s biggest competitor at the moment, so they’ve gotta keep up with the updates. First among them may be the huge Galaxy Note, will have its third installment in two years and will have a 6.3-inch screen. Samsung is apparently attempting to capture the NBA centers and power forwards market with this move.

Texting turns 20, goes through reckless years

Texting turned 20 last week, which means a couple things. First, it means that this time next year, all of our texts are going to be completely nonsensical because texting will be like bar-hopping. Secondly, it means we’ve seen a technology that has been around for two decades, which is well beyond the lifespan of many other things that have come and gone in that time. We don’t think texting is going anywhere any time soon, either. Studies are showing that people who walk while texting aren’t going anywhere good. You’re just as likely to connect with a street sign as you are with the person you’re texting if you walk and type. Keep your head up so we’ve still got people texting for the next decades to come.

Feuding over Filters

Apple and Samsung are fighting for sales and to push out updates, but the biggest feud of this past week came when Instagram discontinued its friendly relationship with Twitter. Photos from the filtered picture service will no longer show up when used on Twitter, the platform that helped make Instagram so popular in the first place. Twitter got its hands on its own set of filters and will be instituting its answer to Instagram since the two will no longer play nicely. Who would have thought that pictures with a slight tint on them would become such a battleground?

Source : http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/weekly-mobile-news-recap-12-15-2012/

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Android 4.1 Jelly Bean now available for AT&T’s Motorola Atrix HD

On Friday, AT&T announced that its Motorola Atrix HD will be updated to Android 4.1 Jelly Bean.

As 2012 comes to an end, Jelly Bean is on a rampage. In a slew of recent announcements concerning Android 4.1, Motorola’s Atrix HD has just been upgraded to Google’s most recent version of its mobile operating system.

On Friday, AT&T announced that the Motorola handset would be one many to get the Jelly Bean update as of late. This over-the-air update will bring features such as Google Now and Android beam to the 4.5-inch smartphone. It’s also worth noting that this is AT&T’s fourth device to operate on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. Other gadgets that preceded it in getting the update include HTC’s One X +, Samsung’s Galaxy Note 2 and Galaxy S3. Jelly Bean is expected to arrive on smartphones such as the original HTC One X and LG Optimus G soon, but no launch window has been specified.

In addition to the features mentioned above, Jelly Bean brings a variety of enhancements such as a fresh, buttery smooth user interface, an improved camera app and a refreshed notification center among other additions.

Google officially announced its Jelly Bean operating system its I/O developers conference back in June. The update has been rolling out fairly slowly since then, but has seen a significant surge toward the end of the year. Verizon’s version of the Samsung Galaxy S3 was also upgraded to Android 4.1 today, and the AT&T variant saw the upgrade last week.

While many devices have been patiently waiting for Android 4.1, the search engine giant unveiled the second-generation of Jelly Bean last month: Android 4.2. This expanded and updated version of Jelly Bean saw its debut with Google’s Nexus 4 handset and Nexus 10 tablet, but was met with some harsh criticisms upon release.

The Android-loving world is still focused on Jelly Bean, but rumors about the next iteration of the mobile software have already begun to surface. Android’s next treat-themed operating system, believed to be called Android 5.0, is likely to be named Key Lime Pie.

Earlier this month a Google executive posted a cartoon to his Google+ profile that illustrated each generation of Android. The last image in the line depicted the loveable Android mascot holding a slice of Key Lime Pie, sparking speculation that Android 5.0 could be in the works. Before Google unveils “Key Lime Pie,” however, it should focus on launching Android Jelly Bean for all of its existing devices. 

Source : http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/android-4-1-jelly-bean-available-motorola-atrix-hd/

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2013 may be the year of the flexible screen

The flexible smartphone screen may soon lose its science fiction status and become science fact, as Samsung and LG work hard on a new technology which could change the face of smartphone design in 2013.

Could 2013 bring with it one of the biggest revolutions in mobile phone design since the advent of the touchscreen? If the growing rumors surrounding flexible displays are true, and that one of the major manufacturers will release a device with a bendable screen next year, then yes, we could see the start of a huge trend. While flexible smartphone screens will be new to most of us, the technology has been around for some time, and is already in several devices; you just may not realize it.

A decade of hype

Reports of companies developing flexible displays date back more than a decade, with a startup named Universal Display being linked with their development in 2002. Universal Display is now at the forefront of research into OLED screen technology and the creator of the panels used in Samsung’s Galaxy S2 and S3 smartphones. At the time, Universal Display’s CFO described flexible displays as, “sci-fi stuff;” however, despite ties with Samsung, it was Philips and Sony who both demonstrated the potential of flexible screens a few years later.

Philips effort was a monochrome, rollable E-Ink screen on a device named the Readius, which was shown off at CES 2006. A year or so later, Sony demonstrated a 2.5-inch flexible color screen, which it claimed was the first of its type in the world. Since then, different interpretations of these basic ideas have appeared on some interesting, low volume products. Most notably Seiko’s Spectrum SVRD001 watch, which used a flexible E-Ink screen, and a moderately flexible E-Ink section took pride and place on Esquire magazine’s October 2008 cover.

Non-rigid E-Ink displays have gone on to be featured on many e-readers, including the Amazon Kindle, but because the rest of the components aren’t flexible, you’d never know. An offshoot of this technology is LG’s Electronic Paper Displays or EPD, as shown recently on the Wexler Flex ONE e-reader. LG’s EPD screens are higher resolution than most standard E-Ink displays, plus they’re lighter, thinner and more bendy too.

Flexible OLED panels for smartphones

As versatile as E-Ink and EPD screens are, they’re not really suitable for use on smartphones. There are many reasons for this. Most obvious is that the response times are too slow, meaning they can’t display video, and they don’t handle color very well. Cost is a prohibitive factor too. For flexible screens on our phones, we need to return to Universal Display’s OLED technology.

Flexible OLED displays are light, thin, very flexible, and crucially, don’t need to be covered in glass, so they can be flexed and twisted to your heart’s content. They also perform in a very similar way to existing AMOLED screens. Because there’s no glass layer, there is nothing to break, making them considerably more durable that today’s glass-covered screens. Exactly how tough are flexible OLED screens? Tough enough to be abused with a hammer and still operate as normal.

However, just because the OLED screens don’t need to be covered in glass, doesn’t mean we’ll want them that way. Not only is plastic easily scratched and scuffed, but it’s not as pleasant to slide your finger across as glass. This is where Corning, makers of Gorilla Glass, comes in with its new Willow Glass. This incredibly thin, strong and flexible glass sheet has been expressly designed for use with non-rigid OLED displays, solving the inherent problems of a plastic touchscreen.

Fresh smartphone designs with unbreakable screens

So, let’s take a moment to think about how flexible OLED displays with Corning glass will be marketed to both manufacturers and to the consumer. Manufacturers will like them because they provide the opportunity to come up with new and interesting designs, plus their thinness means devices can be skinnier, and it’s expected the production costs will be low. For you and me, a device with a display that could realistically be called unbreakable is a huge benefit. Overall, just think of flexible OLED screens as thinner, lighter, and more durable than their rigid counterparts.

As different form factors are explored, other opportunities to exploit bendable screens will arise. Nokia created a prototype device with a flexible display and a kinetic user interface, where twisting and bending the phone resulted in actions similar to gesture controls on a touchscreen. Nokia has had a long history of experimenting with flexible smartphone screens, just take a look at its stunning Morph prototype from several years ago.

Expect curvy, but fixed position, flexible screens soon.

However, before you start imagining 2013 as a crazy year of flippity floppety, bendy smartphone designs, we must rain on your parade. The problem is going to be all of the other very stiff hardware needed to make a phone. There has been some research into making flexible memory sticks and batteries, but none of these technologies are close to being mainstream, so phones incorporating flexible screens will be fixed in position for a start. While this isn’t quite the sci-fi dream, it still provides plenty of opportunity for manufacturers to have fun with the design of their phones.

Smartphone design has stagnated over the past few years, but twisty screens could mean a resurgence in creativity when it comes to how they’re used. No longer will the rectangular screen be standard, as screens could curve all the way round the chassis – creating a true edge-to-edge display – as well as providing yet more opportunity for different control methods. Ergonomically shaped phones which incorporate the screen as well as the chassis could become more common.

As the technology continues to advance and we start to get flexible innards too, then we’ll get the super-thin displays that can be rolled up – harking back to Philips Readius – or collapsed down to a more manageable size, much like Nokia’s Morph.

Samsung and LG set to share the glory

Samsung is probably going to be the first manufacturer to release a phone with a flexible display in 2013, something it has been rumored to do by several sources over the past year. In 2011, a concept phone with the name Samsung Galaxy Skin appeared, which used a flexible display bent around a 1-inch cylinder for storage, giving us a basic idea of what a flexible screen phone could look like. An analyst for UBS has since speculated the next two generations of Galaxy S models, “will have unbreakable and even possibly flexible and foldable displays by 2014.” Samsung’s close association with Universal Display will certainly pay off, should this be the case.

Other rumors aren’t so positive and have indicated Samsung has had problems manufacturing the screens, causing the launch to be delayed until later in 2013. There’s a chance we’ll know more during CES 2013, where Samsung has teased that something innovative and exciting will arrive. Any new branding – the bizarre YOUM name has been linked with its flexy tech in the past – could be introduced alongside a new brand identity.

Arch-rival LG is also pushing forward with flexible OLED technology and has plans to put such screens into production after summer next year. Other companies such as Sony have shown an interest in flexible screens in the past, but haven’t invested in it as highly as Samsung and LG.

So why, aside from the benefits we’ve already discussed, are Samsung and LG so interested in flexible screens? According to UBI Research, next year 20 million flexible AMOLED panels are expected to ship, which will increase to 120 million by 2015, and revenue from them will rise to $1.2 billion. That’s quite an incentive to be among the first on the scene. While revenue is great for manufacturers, for us as consumers it will be the almost inevitable wave of innovative new smartphone designs, which the flexible display panel could prompt, that truly excite.

Source : http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/samsung-and-lg-to-launch-flexible-smartphone-screens-in-2013/

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Motorola Atrix HD receives Android 4.1 Jelly Bean update

Following closely behind its Verizon Wireless relatives, the Motorola Atrix HD for AT&T got treated to an update to Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. The OS update is available over-the-air at the moment.

Just like it the case of the Motorola DROID RAZR M and DROID RAZR HD, the Atrix HD gets all the usual Android 4.1 goodies such as Google Now and Project Butter. Motorola's own light custom UI keeps the experience as close to Pure Google as possible.

The Motorola Atrix HD for AT&T is the carrier's fourth phone to run Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. With a price tag of $49.99 on a contract, Moto's offering makes for an enticing proposition this holiday shopping season.

Source | Via

Source : http://www.gsmarena.com/motorola_atrix_hd_receives_android_41_jelly_bean_update_-news-5212.php

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Get some social shopping assistance during the holidays from these Facebook gifting apps

With the holidays two weeks away, we've rounded up just the right Facebook gifting apps to help you find the perfect gift for your friend and family.

Facebook Gifts recently launched worldwide with hundreds of partners in tote and the company is taking a second stab at physical gifting. Starbucks, iTunes and even Charities have been added to the expanding catelogue of physical gifts. But the options are rather limited.  There are expensive chocolates, bags of tea, wine, toys, apparel, and jewelry — but that’s about the end of Facebook’s variety. 

With the holidays just a couple of weeks away, we figured that you may want to check out products from some other Facebook-integrated apps. 

Treater

 

Treater uses Facebook to pull in your contacts and their birthdays. While you can browse its products on the Web app, Treater offers an iOS and Android mobile app. But the type of platform you decide to use really doesn’t make any difference. When you purchase a gift, a notification is sent to the recipient via a Facebook post, and when opened up in a mobile device, the recipient can claim their gift directly from the store.

Treater offers selections from categories including coffee, sweets, drinks, apparel, food, and “Night Out.” You’ll see products from Urban Outfitters, Pinkberry, Kiehls, various participating spas, movie theaters, and other companies. The selection of gifts is rather limited, but affordable. Only the gifts in the category for pampering cost more than $30.

As a warning to those of you shopping for a male friend or family we wouldn’t recommend Treater. Its gifts are best for the ladies in your life.

Gyft

Gyft is a mobile-only app that you can download from the Apple App Store or Google Play that takes a different approach from traditional gifting apps. You won’t find physical products here. Gyft takes the guessing game out of the equation by offering only gift cards. Users can sign in with Facebook, from which the app pulls your contact’s birthdays, and immediately purchase or upload existing gift cards by typing in the card’s number. There are hundreds of participating major retailers to choose from including Amazon, Gap, Fandango, and many others. There’s a slim chance you won’t be able to find a retailer that you’re confident in purchasing a gift card from; most are available. 

If not used for gifting, the app doubles as a personal digital wallet. You can store your gift cards on Gyft and even add your cards to Passbook. But what you might not know is that by adding and storing your gift cards, you can repurpose the credit that you may not have spent to use as a gift for your friend, without the recipient even realizing this. Sending your friends the gift after making the purchase can be done via Facebook, email, and text message. As an added bonus you can choose the date for when digital gift card gets delivered to the recipient.

The app is only available for U.S. users, and offers a $10 gift card as a bonus for new users.

Wrapp

Wrapp, like Gyft, gifts delivers gift cards and uses Facebook to find out your friend’s birthdays and send them gift notifications. But there are a few stark differences between Gyft and Wrapp.

First, unlike Gyft, Wrapp offers a Web-based app that is accessible via desktop. Wrapp does also offer a mobile app for both Android and iOS devices so you can enjoy its benefits and features on the go.

Second, Wrapp has partners globally in eight countries: Germany, Finland, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, United States, and Australia. So if your friend lives in any one of these countries, Wrapp is able to find out where they’re living and automatically tailor the location and types gift cards offered by retailers in the respective location. And if friend wasn’t living in those exact locations, the app would find the closest country and recommend gift cards from that location.

Wrapp also offers a digital wallet where you can store gift cards, and there are plenty of bonuses – for example I received $40 worth of gift cards from various retailers like Office Depot and Fab.com just for signing up. But the similarities to Gyft end there. Wrapp users aren’t able to add existing physical gift cards to the wallet, and there isn’t a way for you to purchase gift cards for yourself (for whatever reason that may be). But if you’re into freebies, Wrapp users will find a number of free gift cards that surface as promotions from time to time, although some come with strings attached. 

Wrapp is perfect for sending gift cards that might be slightly tailored for your non-U.S. friends. But the list of Wrapp’s participating retailers in the U.S. pales in comparison to Gyft. So if you’re shopping for an American friend, go with Gyft. 

Shopycat

Shopycat is a gifting Facebook app developed by Walmart Labs, an e-commerce innovation lab nurtured by Walmart. The app sits inside of Facebook, unlike those mentioned above, and it’s the simplest app to use in this roundup. The app recognizes upcoming birthdays among your friends and uses Facebook data to recommend Walmart products that would best fit that Facebook friend. In fact users aren’t able to browse for other types of gifts unless they navigate to Walmart’s website.

The types of products that are recommended aren’t cursory recommendations. Walmart spent $300 million to acquire Kosmix, social-genome startup that built the “Social Genome” techonology, which now powers Shopycat.

Giftivo

If you want an extremely personalized and customizable gift recommendation, look no further than Giftivo. The Web app launched in November 2012, recommends Amazon products. Note that the company doesn’t have a partnership with Amazon. Giftivo requires that you sign up and log in with Facebook, but in this case it’s for a good reason. Giftivo pulls all of your friend’s interests (in other words, Facebook Likes) and displays it on one page. You can even add or delete your friend’s interests to better refine Giftivo’s recommendation algorithm. Then clicking on “Find Gift Suggestions” will aggregate and list hundreds of your Facebook friend’s personalized gift recommendations.

The app works for eight different regions including the U.S., Canada, U.K., Germany, France, Spain, Italy, and Japan, and the recommended gifts change based on the location. But unlike Wrapp, the regions aren’t automatically detected. So if you want to send a gift to someone outside the U.S., you’ll have to manually select the closest region and re-click the “Find Gift Suggestions” button.

Clutch

Clutch, which recently rolled out its iOS app, is trying to be the single mobile destination for everything related to shopping and deals. Despite displaying physical products, the types of gifts that you can purchase for friends are gift cards. Other than that the only way to purchase physical gifts for your friends is if they have downloaded the app and created wish lists. Clutch does, however, provide value in other areas, such as its mobile shopping guide, which is perfect for the holidays.

Initially you won’t have to sign into the app with your Facebook account like the apps above require you to do. But if you want Clutch to store your friends’ birthdays, you’ll be required to sign in with your Facebook account. But before you make another move, we have to warn you that Clutch is not shy to admit that it’s monetizing your data. So anything you do on Clutch, from browsing the app, choosing deals, adding gift cards, all of that will be tracked so retailers can learn about your shopping habits. If you’re OK with the above (and acknowledge that nearly all online retailers are doing the same, admittedly or not), then read on.

Clutch, though fun to use, is rather dizzying to navigate and will be slow to open up new pages. There are so many features packed into one app that it almost masks the app’s potential. In addition to purchasing or storing gift cards, you can search for shopping deals among brands, find local offers, and even compare prices by scanning the product’s barcode. If you’re physically walking near a retail outlet, the app will pop up and recommend a coupon that could be used toward a purchase. If it were up to us, we’d use Clutch exclusively for browsing shopping deals, granted that we’re willing to divulge our shopping habits with unknown retailers. Leave it up to Gyft and Wrap if you’d like to purchase gift cards for friends and family, however. 

Source : http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/facebook-gifting-apps-roundup/

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Nokia Lumia 505 is now official, pricing remains unknown

Nokia Mexico has made the Lumia 505 official, after teasing it last week. The exclusive low-end Windows Phone device modeled after the Lumia 510 and is going to launch on Mexico's Telcel network in the upcoming weeks.

Launching in red, pink or black, the Lumia 505 runs on Windows Phone 7.8 and features a 3.7" AMOLED display and a single-core 800MHz CPU with 256MB of RAM. It's not known whether the display is going to utilize Nokia's ClearBlack technology just yet, but it's still a solid feature in a budget phone.

On the back, there's an 8MP camera, albeit sans Carl Zeiss technology. To keep the price down, Nokia hasn't included a front-facing camera and has reduced the amount of user available storage to 4GB. Sadly, it's not user expandable, but Nokia and Microsoft will throw in 7GB of free SkyDrive storage.

The Nokia Lumia 505 weighs 131 grams and measures 118.1 x 61.2 x 11.3 mm. It rocks a 1300mAh battery, which Nokia says will be good for 36 hours of music playback and 7.2 hours of 3G talk time. The maximum standby time is reported at 600 hours.

Pricing and exact availability are still to be announced by Telcel, with the Lumia 505 expected to be launched in the coming weeks.

Source | Via

Source : http://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_lumia_505_is_now_official_pricing_remains_unknown-news-5211.php

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Will Dell’s secret 18-inch tablet herald the rise of the Super Tablet?

Dell has an 18-inch tablet in development, and it could open the door for the same type of “board game” computing we first saw on Microsoft’ Surface table.

Though the company hasn’t said a word about it publicly, Dell has an 18-inch tablet in development that I recently learned about at a company event. I’ll avoid calling it an iPad killer largely because it isn’t. In fact, it isn’t an anything killer, because nothing like it exists to kill. As Apple did with the iPad, Dell is trying to open up an entirely new market with this jumbo-sized tablet. You won’t be using this one to read books or play handheld games – you’ll use it in different ways entirely.

Dell, and other companies looking at this form factor, are likely going to go bigger before they go smaller. Some future Super Tablets may even approach 42-inch TV sizes. Sound familiar? Microsoft Surface covered this territory before anything else, and it was far different than the now popular Surface Tablet. Let’s take a look at where Microsoft’s innovative proto-tablet left off, and where the Super Tablet category may pick up.

Windows 8 magic

Now that Windows 8 has arrived, the move to a true touch-based OS is causing people to think differently about hardware. These super-sized tablets are only one of what will likely be stream of ever more creative touch hardware. Like every new OS, manufacturers initially try to fit it in existing form factors, and discover over time that other forms will work better. The best initial example of a fresh form factor was actually the Surface Tablet, which blended smartphone features like a kickstand and keyboard accessory with the existing tablet form factor, but with a laptop-like panoramic screen. It is a blend of technologies that likely wouldn’t have existed if it hadn’t been for Windows 8.

Windows 8 is getting people to think of things differently, and that means the limits of traditional forms and sizes will increasingly be tested.

Surface Table

One of the most interesting products that few people ever got to try was Microsoft’s Surface table. At one AMD event, I had the opportunity to sit and play with one for most of an evening, and became so enamored with it I actually tried to buy one several times. Unfortunately, I could never find the right mix of Samsung and Microsoft executives to take my money, so that desire was never met.

The Surface was uniquely fun because you played on it flat. It’s like playing a board game with multiple people, but where the game is actually a video game, so you can blend animation with traditional board-game features to make it more fun. Kind of like that chess game in Star Wars, but you could also play games made specifically for the medium. My favorite was a strategy game where you placed weapons to destroy aliens (the green kind) who were invading your solar system. I found this game addictive enough to want to pay $7,000 for the table.

Super Tablet

This is the area that these Super Tablets will explore. They are more than a portable all-in-one computer, they are a way to experience a display as you would a board game. This approach is not only better for group gaming, but better for virtual puzzles and drawing where your surface – no pun intended – functions more like a large piece of canvas.

Of course, that’s not where the possibilities end. It could also be better used to keep track of a game while sitting with your spouse who is watching one of “their” movies (you know what I mean), or by said spouse playing a social game while they pretend to watch one of your action flicks (my wife never does this). If a 10-inch iPad was OK for this second-screen experience, an 18-inch or larger lap-sized display will be even better. This size would also excel for streaming video when you’re traveling and want to watch TV as a group.

In short, Super Tablets may herald the return of the portable TV, but one that is both far more portable than the old CRT-based sets, potentially has a larger screen, and is far more useful (add a keyboard and you have a good-sized all-in-one).

Trying for the next amazing thing

I think we are all waiting for that next Amazing thing and with Steve Jobs gone it appears less and less likely that Apple will be stepping up. This opens the door for other firms to try to find the magic and a larger tablet has a huge potential to be that next thing if content, like that game I mentioned, can be found to make it as magical as the iPad initially was. Whether or not this product achieves that magic the more companies that try to find that magic product the more likely will get something amazing and I live for amazing products. And I’m still waiting to play that damned strategy game so if it doesn’t show up on this 18” tablet I’m going to be royally pissed.

Guest contributor Rob Enderle is the founder and principal analyst for the Enderle Group, and one of the most frequently quoted tech pundits in the world. Opinion pieces denote the opinions of the author, and do not necessarily represent the views of Digital Trends.

Source : http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/will-dells-secret-18-inch-tablet-herald-the-rise-of-the-super-tablet/

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Verizon DROIDs go up for cheap for the holidays

Motorola unveiled their new RAZR series a few months back at their On Display event in New York, where US residents were pleasantly surprised by the low on-contract prices for the DROID RAZR HD, RAZR MAXX HD, and RAZR M.

Verizon has slashed prices even further, and has knocked down the cost of each device by $50 a pop. The RAZR MAXX HD can be had for $249.99, the RAZR HD for $149.99, and the midrange RAZR M for $49.99. They're also putting up the DROID Incredible for $49.99 as well, among others.

Really savvy buyers can look to Amazon for even better deals, where the RAZR MAXX HD can be had for $149.99, the Incredible gets slashed down to $9.99, and the RAZR M can be had for just a penny.

Happy Shopping!

Via

Source : http://www.gsmarena.com/verizon_droids_go_up_for_cheap_for_the_holidays-news-5210.php

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