Microsoft sues Barnes & Noble and its manufacturers over Android based Nook

News

  • March 21, 2011 at 4:27 pm

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Nook Color by Barnes & Noble

We already knew that Barnes & Noble’s Nook line, and especially the Nook Color, was creating some waves and it didn’t take long for Microsoft to take aim at the largely popular e-reader. Microsoft has filled legal actions against Barnes & Noble and its Nook device manufacturers, Foxconn and Inventec.

The Nook runs on Android and the claimed patent infringements relate to the key Android user experience such as interacting via tabbing through various screens and interacting with documents and e-books.
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Firefox 4 joining the party, scheduled for March 22nd

News

  • March 17, 2011 at 1:10 pm

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Firefox 4 ~ Web-o-Wonder

Mozilla has announced that it will be releasing the final version of Firefox 4 on March 22nd; the first beta was made available in July 2010 and after eleven more betas, Release Candidate 1 made a public appearance on March 9th.

Firefox 4 was initially planned for last year but was delayed in order to stabilize the new JavaScript engine and because of additional work on hardware acceleration. Firefox 4 will be the third major browser release in March, following Chrome 10 and Internet Explorer 9.
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HTC Pyramid Android smartphone emerges with purported awesome specs – WP7 Ignite and Prime also make a cameo

News

  • March 15, 2011 at 1:27 pm

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HTC Pyramid Android smartphone

Renders of an upcoming Android smartphone from HTC, christened Pyramid, have emerged on a Chinese website. The list of specifications suggests this will be HTC’s flagship phone for the year.

The smartphone, which follows HTC’s design mantra, is claimed to feature a 4.3-inch Super-LCD 960 x 540 resolution display, 1.2 GHz processor, 768MB of RAM and front and back cameras. The website claims that the HTC Pyramid will be running Android 3.0; this however contrasts with what we’ve been hearing from Google that for now Honeycomb will only be used for tablets, so we’ll guess that it will most probably be running Android 2.x.

In addition, two Windows Phone 7 handsets have surfaced, named HTC Ignite and HTC Prime, both sporting a 3.7-inch 800 x 480 display while the latter opens up to reveal a physical landscape keyboard.

[xda.cn]

Microsoft may stop development of new Zune hardware, concentrate on software

EditorialsNews

  • March 14, 2011 at 4:55 pm

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Zune HD

Bloomberg has reported that Microsoft will not introduce any new versions of the Zune portable media player (PMP) and instead focus on mobile phones. The Zune software will continue to evolve on smartphones running Windows Phone 7.

Microsoft will however continue to produce existing hardware, which we guess includes the Zune HD. The decision hasn’t been officially announced, but was rather cited from a Bloomberg source.

Though lack-luster sales were quoted as being a key culprit for this decision, the Zune family has over the years created a very loyal following. As of today the Zune HD has an amazing 927 customer reviews on Amazon which really says the opposite.
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Angry Birds Rio launching exclusively on Amazon Appstore for Android

News

  • March 14, 2011 at 1:24 pm

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Angry Birds Rio Amazon Appstore exclusive

Amazon has long announced that it will be launching its own Android app store and it has just struck an exclusive debut of the next installment in the Angry Birds saga.

Angry Birds Rio will follow the very successful Angry Birds and Angry Birds Seasons which have more than 30 million downloads on Android. This latest installment ties with the release of the animated movie with the same title, Angry Birds Rio, on April 15.
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Winamp for Android goes gold brings a host of new features

News

  • March 12, 2011 at 8:05 am

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Winamp for Android 1.0

After spending some time as a beta version, the world’s favorite multiplatform music app has reached version 1.0 on Android. We’ve been using the application since it first came out and the latest version offers tighter integration with Android and some well-deserved UI redesign.

Specifically the now playing screen has been streamlined and now there are also info and extras buttons giving access to bios, discographies, photos and the like. You also get additional overlaid track information at song changes and you can now swipe to change tracks.
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Bluetooth enabled on Nook Color courtesy of experimental CM7 and drivers

GuidesNews

  • March 11, 2011 at 6:35 pm

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Nook Color CyanogenMod 7 Bluetooth enabled

We’ve already known that the Nook Color’s chipset contained Bluetooth capabilities though these are disabled on the stock software. If you’ve gone ahead and rooted your device you are already discovering the large number of hidden possibilities of the Nook Color but also the frustrations of some of the hardware limitations.

Having Bluetooth connectivity means that you can by-pass some of these limitations and also extend the usefulness of the device, i.e. connect a Bluetooth headset for Skype calls or voice recording, a speaker for audio output, connect a keyboard for quick typing or even GPS devices and Bluetooth game controllers.

The guys over at xda-developers have just made available an experimental bootable SD card image of CyanogenMod 7 (based on Gingerbread Android 2.3.3) for the Nook Color with Bluetooth drivers installed. It’s very simple to try it out and as it runs from an SD card it does not affect or change your existing software; you also get to give CM7 a try without modifying your Nook:
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iPhone 5 engineering renderings show larger edge-to-edge screen, thin bezel, iPhone 4 design

News

  • March 11, 2011 at 9:42 am

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iPhone 5 mold rendering full

Well with the iPad 2 just beginning to ship, more rumors have started to surface on the next iPhone, the iPhone 5.

While initially it was rumored that the iPhone 5 would have a curved back with a milled aluminum body (like the iPad) and the Apple logo acting as the antenna port, CAD renderings have come up on a Chinese website, iDealsChina, of mold engineering drawings of the iPhone 5 having a body similar to the iPhone 4 but with a larger screen and much thinner bezel.
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Angry Birds Seasons goes green, celebrates St. Patrick’s Day

News

  • March 10, 2011 at 1:00 pm

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Angry Birds Seasons ~ St. Patrick's Day ~ Go Green, Get Lucky

Few have resisted the calling of slingshotting birds against funky structures and their green pig inhabitants. If you even remotely understand what we are saying it means you too have fallen victim to the crazily addictive Angry Birds game.

Well, then you will be happy to hear that Rovio has just released a new Angry Birds Seasons version which has gone completely green. Yep St. Patrick’s Day Edition is here to cure you from all that Valentine’s Day pinkness.
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Guided tours of the iPad 2 there now for your viewing

News

  • March 10, 2011 at 8:52 am

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iPad 2 ~ Facetime

With only a day away until the official launch of the iPad 2, Apple has just made available a number of guided tours covering almost everything you might need to know to get you started with the new tablet. There are videos on the new suspects, FaceTime, GarageBand, iMovie, AirPlay; and the typical culprits e.g. Safari, Maps, iTunes etc. No Photo Booth video tour for the moment unfortunately.
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iOS 4.3 software update available for iPhone, iPad and Apple TV

News

  • March 9, 2011 at 2:56 pm

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iOS 4.3 software update for iPhone, iPad, iPod touch

Although the iPad 2 is still two days away from being available, Apple has just released its latest version of iOS. You can now update your iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPod touch 3rd & 4th generation and original iPad to iOS 4.3.

To update, simply connect your device to your computer using the sync cable and click on “Check for Update” in iTunes.

The new update brings quite a few improvements:
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HTC Desire HD getting Android 2.3.2 Gingerbread in the form of a leaked ROM

News

  • March 8, 2011 at 6:38 pm

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HTC Desire HD running Android Gingerbread beta

Nexus One and Nexus S owners are not the only ones getting some Gingerbread love. A leaked ROM has emerged for the HTC Desire HD which updates the device to Android Gingerbread (2.3.2) and also includes HTC’s proprietary Sense.

Be warned however that this is not a final release and it’s also not for the faint hearted. So if you can’t wait to try Gingerbread with HTC Sense on your Desire HD and don’t mind fighting a few bugs or risking your device’s health hit the two links below. Note that we would recommend the pre-rooted version over the stock ROM which would make things simpler.

[xda-developers leaked stock ROM, xda-developers pre-rooted ROM]