Last month, Ubergizmo reported that the iPhone 5 will sport the Liquipel waterproof coating, which covers both the outside and inside of mobile phones to make it water repellent and reduces moisture and liquid damage. Now, the guys over at Today’s iPhone said that one of their sources claimed that both smartphones from Apple and Samsung will get Liquipel coating.

“Both will have had Liquipel treatment as they’ll be altering the wording on insurance,” said the report.

Moisture and liquid damage are known as the top reasons for insurance claims on smartphones, so placing more liquid protection on high-end mobile phones such as the Galaxy S III and the iPhone 5 could definitely change that.

For those who don’t know, Liquipel is a new technology that uses a proprietary compound that is coated on a mobile device. “Liquipel penetrates the entire device as a whole, including all of the vital components inside and out to provide optimal protection against accidental contact with liquids,” according to Liquipel’s website.

This would also mean that it will be good selling points for these smartphones that are also capable of pretty much anything.

via: Ubergizmo

iPhone 5 and Galaxy S III to sport Liquipel? is a post from: Gadgets and gizmos

Selling more than 66 million units of Xbox 360 consoles and around 18 million units of its Kinect peripheral since its launch, Microsoft is looking to generate more revenue when it releases Xbox Live to other platforms. Xbox Live are only available to Windows Phone at this time.

“While the Xbox Live experiences and games always work best on the Windows platform, we understand that some Xbox fans may be using other types of devices,” a spokesman from Microsoft said. “To satisfy that need, we are working to extend a few of our Xbox experiences and titles to other platforms.”

This is exciting news for those who want to use the service but opt to use Android and iOS platforms, which are the two leading mobile operating systems in the world. Microsoft has launched Xbox Live and Kinectimals on the iOS platform just recently.

Rumors began earlier this month when Microsoft posted a job listing for a Software Development Engineer, who will be working with the Xbox Live team “to bring the latest and greatest gaming and entertainment experience to mobile platforms including Windows Phone, iOS, and other mobile platforms.”

This would mean that Microsoft is willing to sacrifice its own mobile OS to get a greater share in the mobile gaming market.

Is this a right move for Microsoft?

via: Techradar

Microsoft to launch Xbox Live on Android and iOS is a post from: Gadgets and gizmos

According to a report from Reuters, the company has confirmed the move, which had been revealed by Kand Tae-jin, one of Samsung Electronics’ senior vice presidents, in an interview with Forbes Magazine.

Tizen, an open-source operating system is slated for a release in the first quarter of 2012. The OS is the combination of the Meego and Limo operating systems, which was done by the Linux Foundation and the Limo Foundation. The OS supports multiple device types, including smart TVs, tablets, smartphones, in-vehicle infotainment systems and netbooks.

The Tizen programming interface is based on HTML 5 and other web standards, and majority of development efforts for these Tizen applications will be based on these standards.

Samsung said that it have not yet decded whether they will let Tizen and Bada merge.

“Samsung and other members of Tizen Association have not made a firm decision regarding the merge of Bada and Tizen,” said Samsung in a statement. “We are carefully looking at it as an option to make the platforms serve better for customers.”

As of now, Tizen and Bada do not have much support from developers, but that is expected to change if both operating systems will appear on hundreds of millions of phones.

via: Reuters

Samsung to merge Bada OS with Linux-based Tizen is a post from: Gadgets and gizmos

The South Korean electronics giant confirmed through its official blog that its Galaxy smartphones and tablets can be upgraded to the latest Android OS.

“Samsung Electronics plan to provide the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich update for GALAXY devices,” announced the company. “The platform update for GALAXY S II and GALAXY Note will start in the first quarter 2012, and other GALAXY devices will soon follow.”

Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, together with the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, was first unveiled at a Samsung/Google news conference last October 19, 2011 in Hong Kong.

The new mobile OS version brings a new look and feel to the Android OS. It has a redesigned user interface with improvements in notifications, multi-tasking, NFC support, Wi-Fi hotspot and full Web browsing experience. It also features the new People App that enables users to browse messages, photos and social network updates from their friends and family.

Other Android device manufacturers have rushed to launch Android 4.0 to their customers. Sony Ericsson has already launched the Ice Cream Sandwich on a number of its Xperia devices. Motorola said that Droid Bionic and Razr will get the new version, while HTC is now working to bring the update to its devices early this year.

via: Electric Pig

Samsung to bring Ice Cream Sandwich update to S II by March is a post from: Gadgets and gizmos

In a Google+ post by Andy Rubin, Google’s senior vice president for mobile, on December 28, he said, “There were 3.7M Android devices activated on 12/24 and 12/25. Congrats team-Android!” This was after he tweeted that 700,000 Android devices are activated every day.

While the exec did not break down how many were activated on Christmas Eve and how many were on Christmas Day, there’s no doubt that one of those days set a new record for activations. Now, the rate at which new Android tablets and smartphones are being activated has grown 40 percent in just around six months.

Christmas activations for iOS devices may even be higher in the United States. According to data posted by Flurry Analytics, 6.8 million new Android and iOS devices were activated on Christmas alone, and if both posted small activation numbers on Christmas Eve, Apple’s mobile OS likely posted more activations than Android.

The data shows that even if Android had 80 percent activations on Christmas day (around 3 million devices); this leaves 3.8 million for iOS.

“On Christmas Day, activations jumped to more than 6.8 million, a 353 percent increase over the baseline,” said Peter Ferago, vice president of engineering at Flurry Analytics. “Compared with Christmas Day 2010, the previous single-day record, with 2.8 million device activations, Christmas 2011 grew by more than 140 percent.”

via: Android Police

3.7 million Android devices activated in Christmas is a post from: Gadgets and gizmos

The ITC ruled that HTC violated an Apple patent for a “system and method for performing an action on a structure in computer generated data.” The patent is for when a user taps a phone number located in an email to make a call.

Even though the ruling of the ITC is in favor of Apple, the Taiwanese smartphone company described the decision as a victory for them.

“Since the infringing elements identified by the ITC involve and impact only a very minimal part of the user interface, we will remove it as soon as possible and sell non-infringing products,” HTC said in a statement.

The US ITC said that HTC has until April 19, 2012 to comply with its ruling, and its smartphones will be banned from importation to the country.

The ITC’s ruling is the latest in a number of patent issues between Apple and manufacturers of Android-powered handsets. Apple is also in a legal war against Samsung in Europe, the US and Australia over its Galaxy smartphones and tablets.

Apple has accused HTC of infringing 10 of its patents. Six of these patents were dropped from the case.

via: Venture Beat

Apple wins patent battle against HTC is a post from: Gadgets and gizmos

BT, who filed the lawsuit in Delaware in the United States, said that Google’s Android infringed six of its key patents, including Google Music, location-based advertising, Google Maps and other products found in the Android Marketplace.

This lawsuit means that the British telco company is the new addition to a number of companies that are battling Android, including Apple, Microsoft, Oracle, eBay and Gemalto. If BT becomes successful with the lawsuit, Google and its partners may have to pay royalties to the company for every smartphone that they produce. This also means that BT will get lots of money as Android dominates the smartphone market, making more than 40 percent of sales and producing more than 40 million handsets every quarter.

“BT can confirm that it has commenced legal proceedings against Google by filing a claim with the US District Court of Delaware for patent infringement,” a BT spokesman told news publication The Guardian. “The patents in question relate to technologies which underpin location-based services, navigation and guidance information and personalised access to services and content. BT’s constant investment in innovation has seen it develop a large portfolio of patents which are valuable corporate assets.”

A number of companies complain that Google deliberately infringes their patents. Before his death earlier this year, Steve Jobs said that the Android OS is based on copied technology.

via: The Guardian

British Telecom sues Google over patent infringement is a post from: Gadgets and gizmos

Dr. Roger Eglin, of the University of Portsmouth’s Department of Creative Technologies, hopes to develop smartphone apps that allow people with Parkinson’s improve their speech, enabling them to be better understood by friends, family and healthcare workers. He was awarded a £35,000 innovation grant from the Parkinson’s UK, a leading research charity on Parkinson’s, to develop the apps.

According to research, speech problems affect 3/4 of the 120,000 people with Parkinson’s in the country, and problems communicating with others have a great effect on their quality of life.

“Many people with Parkinson’s already have and use mobile phones, making them a low-cost, simple and effective way for helping people improve their own speech,” said Dr. Eglin. “We’ve already developed a basic mobile phone application to improve speech, but it needs to be further improved and tailored specifically for people with Parkinson’s. We will be testing our application with people with Parkinson’s at every stage of development to make sure it is effective and easy to use.”

The researchers are aiming to develop two key functions for the app: A feedback meter that will help them see how loud their speech is and indicate what they could do to be heard properly; and a training function to help them speak more loudly, making them easier to understand.

The app can also be used by healthcare professionals to remotely monitor their progress, making speech therapy more accessible and cheaper.

Mobile phone apps can help people with Parkinson’s is a post from: Gadgets and gizmos

According to Mark Mahaney of Citigoup’s research department, an Amazon smartphone could be ready for release in late 2012. He also said that Chinese electronics supplier Foxconn International is developing a smartphone with the company.

“With the clear success of the Kindle e-reader over the past three years, and Kindle Fire possibly succeeding in the low-priced tablet market, we view this as the next logical step for Amazon,” wrote Mahaney in a note. “Amazon has set its eyes on the mobile, including tablet, media and product consumption, frontier.”

A smartphone will be a logical addition to the company’s device lineup that includes a line of e-book readers and a 7-inch tablet. Amazon could increase revenue as it will be easier for users to buy content or programs from their webs store.

Mahaney added that the smartphone will adopt Texas Instrument’s OMAP 4 processor and it is likely to have the dual mode 6-series standalone baseband from QCOM, as it has been a long-time supplier for Amazon’s e-readers.

Citigroup suggested that the smartphone will cost $150 to $170 to build, and its price wouldn’t stray too far from that amount. The analyst also suggested that the phone will run Google’s Android mobile operating system.

via: The Telegraph

Amazon to launch its own smartphone next year is a post from: Gadgets and gizmos

In a statement posted on the Adobe website, the company announced that it will focus on the development o HTML 5, which allows modern browsers to have the same functions as Flash but without relying on the company’s proprietary technologies. HTML 5 can also be implemented across different platforms.

“Over the past two years, we’ve delivered Flash Player for mobile browsers and brought the full expressiveness of the web to many mobile devices,” said Adobe’s Vice President and General Manager of Interactive Development Danny Winokur. “However, HTML5 is now universally supported on major mobile devices, in some cases exclusively. This makes HTML5 the best solution for creating and deploying content in the browser across mobile platforms. We are excited about this, and will continue our work with key players in the HTML community, including Google, Apple, Microsoft and RIM, to drive HTML5 innovation they can use to advance their mobile browsers.”

Adobe’s Flash has been the company’s sore spot over the last few years after tech giant Apple refused to enable it to run on its iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch devices. Apple said that HTML is the future and will replace Flash, as it was too slow.

Lots of developers complained that the software was too slow on mobile devices and uses too much processing power. HTML 5 has become developers’ choice of platform as it renders animations and videos directly within the browser.

via: The Guardian

Adobe kills mobile Flash development, focuses on HTML 5 is a post from: Gadgets and gizmos