Author: Nic Boerma

Nokia’s design head Marko Ahtisaari has confirmed that the phone company is working on a tablet. Speaking in an interview with Finnish magazine Kauppalehti Optio Ahtisaari said that he was spending a considerable portion of his time on the tablet, which will apparently distinguish itself from the competition in the market. A Nokia spokesperson has been quoted as saying, “We continue to eye the tablet space with interest, but have made no specific announcements.” If Nokia does release a tablet it is widely expected to feature Windows 8 due to the company’s recent partnership with Microsoft. Source: Reuters

Apple has climbed to the top of the Japanese smartphone market, which has historically been hostile to foreign manufacturers. Apple’s iPhone has been driving their increase in market share. The company now accounts for 26.6% of smartphone sales in Japan, followed by Fujitsu (18.3%) and Sharp (15.7%). Shipments of phones to Japan increased by 15..2% from 2010 to 201 according to research company IDC Japan. Of the total shipped to the country, smartphones accounted for 64..7%. Source: CNET

A company, Cascades Computer Innovation, which owns over 100 patents has filed antitrust charges against LG, Samsung, Motorola, HTC and Dell, saying that the companies involved have colluded to avoid negotiating with Cascades. “Defendants have contracted, combined and conspired to restrain trade by jointly refusing to negotiate or accept licenses under the Cascades patents. Defendants’ goal is to force either a drastically reduced royalty for rights under the Cascades patents or no royalty payment at all.” A company formed to shield its customers from patent infringement suits, RPX, is also involved in the antitrust case due to their involvement in…

18 companies have been sued by a group of Android and iPhone users from Texas, alleging that created or sold mobile applications that illegally access a user’s address book.Among the accused are Apple, Facebook and Twitter. The lawsuit claims that, “The defendants — several of the world’s largest and most influential technology and social networking companies — have unfortunately made, distributed and sold mobile software applications that, once installed on a wireless mobile device, surreptitiously harvest, upload and illegally steal the owner’s address book data without the owner’s knowledge or consent.” The group is seeking an permanent injunction against these…

Acer and NVidia are teaming up to release an Ultrabook with enough graphics power to allow the slim device to function as a gaming machine. The Acer Timeline M3 Ultra will feature a discrete GeForce GT640M GPU which is based on NVidia’s Kepler architecture. According to NVidia this unit will be the first Ultrabook to boast a discrete GPU. “The GeForce GT640M is based on the power efficient Kepler architecture in 28nm silicon and boasts Optimus technology to reduce power consumption where it’s most important – an Ultrabook.” NVidia has said that there will be more Ultrabooks with discrete GPUs…

ARM has announced the ARM Cortex-M0+ processor, a chip that the company describes as “the world’s most energy-efficient microprocessor.” The processor could have applications in a range of household appliances, medical equipment, lighting and motor control devices according to ARM. “The Cortex-M0+ processor features enable the creation of smart, low-power, microcontrollers to provide efficient communication, management and maintenance across a multitude of wirelessly connected devices, a concept known as the ‘Internet of Things’.” ARM’s new microprocessor has the potential for chip-makers to create 32-bit versions of chips that were previously only capable of supporting an 8- or 16-bit architecture due…

The print edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica has been discontinued after 244 years of service. The publishers announced yesterday that, once their current inventory of 32-volume sets has been depleted, the printed version would cease to exist. It will give way to a digital-only edition of the educational tool. Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc. president Jorge Cauz said in a statement that “We are energized by the fact that our efforts of the last few years have been successful. We have completed our transition from print publisher of the Encyclopaedia Britannica to a digital provider of knowledge and e-learning solutions.” Cauz stressed…

HTC has listed which of its handsets will be getting upgrades to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. A total of 16 phone are due for upgrades, the first of which are the Sensation and Sensation XE. The Sensation 4G and XL models are next in line. The remaining phones on the list will have updates following the rollout for the Sensation line. The other handsets are: the EVO Design 4G, Raider, Rezound, Rhyme, Incredible S, Thunderbolt, Droid Incredible 2, Amaze 4G, Desire S, Desire HD, Vivid and EVO 3D. HTC unfortunately has not given time estimates for when the upgrades…

Launching anything into orbit has always been a costly exercise but the Startram Project is proposing building a train capable of transporting “300,000 tons of payload into orbit for less than $40/kg”, a considerable saving from the current cost of around $10,000 per kilogram. The concept involves constructing a maglev (magnetic levitation) train able to reach orbital velocities and launching it into Low Earth Orbit (LEO). The idea has been proposed by the inventor of superconducting magnetic levitation, Dr James Powell, and Dr George Maise, a mechanical/aeronautical engineer. The Startram is technically feasible but the scale of the project would…

Sony have just unveiled a new addition to their Xperia line of handsets, the Xperia sola. Two features of note in this Android phone are the new ‘floating touch’ screen and Near Field Communication (NFC) functionality. The Xperia sola’s ‘floating touch’ screen allows users to navigate websites by hovering their fingers above the screen. The onscreen cursor will follow a user’s fingers without them ever having to make contact with the screen. The device is also NFC enabled and will ship with two Xperia SmartTags that have been pre-configured with for several tasks around the home. “Xperia sola supports NFC…