Samsung Galaxy S III launching on Vodafone, Orange, O2, T-Mobile and Three in the UK

 
While we wait for the LTE version of the Samsung Galaxy S III to arrive in the US this summer, UK punters will have opportunities to preorder the new flagship device starting right away on these carriers: Vodafone, Orange, O2, T-Mobile and Three. Although details and specific availability vary from carrier to carrier, retailer Carphone Warehouse currently lists a SIM-free preorder price of £499.95. While Orange didn't mention any other details than that it will offer the phone, Vodafone has revealed that beyond the 16GB edition, it has a timed month long exclusive on the 32GB version. On Three, preorders open tomorrow, May 4th, with the all-you-can-eat data One plan for £34 monthly. The phone will launch May 30th in the UK, a day after the May 29th global release date. There's a few UK / Ireland specific press releases included after the break and links below, check those out for all details, preregistration and information on preorder bonuses some are offering.

SAMSUNG INTRODUCES THE GALAXY S III
Effortlessly smart and intuitively simple - a new kind of smartphone
3 May 2012, London, UK – Samsung Electronics today announced the third generation Galaxy S, the Galaxy S III, a phone so intuitive that it is able to recognise your voice and understand your intention. Sleek and innovative, this latest smartphone is packed with enhanced intelligence to make everyday life easier: designed for humans and inspired by nature.

With the Samsung Galaxy S IIII, you can view content like never before on a 4.8 inch HD Super AMOLED display, whilst an 8MP camera and an 1.9MP front camera offer a variety of intelligent camera features and face recognition related options so you can capture all moments easily and instantly. The Samsung Galaxy S III is powered by Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and full of intuitive technology, delivering a uniquely personalised mobile experience.

Andy Griffiths, Managing Director, Samsung UK and Ireland said: "Our aim with the Galaxy S III was to develop the best smartphone ever made, and by focusing on creating a unique user experience through superior hardware and enhanced usability we believe we have done just that. The device has been created by keeping in mind our daily needs and capabilities as human beings. Simple yet brilliant, the Galaxy S III is packed with smart features that enable it to understand and respond to our actions providing the most seamless, natural and human-centric mobile experience."

Introducing Natural Interaction
The Galaxy S III's main USP is that it enhances the interaction between the device and its owner. Smart enough to detect your face, voice and gestures, the Galaxy S III adapts to the individual user to provide a more convenient and natural user experience. With the innovative 'Smart stay' feature, the device recognises how you are using your phone – reading an e-book or browsing the web for instance – by using the front camera to identify your eyes; the phone maintains a bright display for continued viewing pleasure.

With 'S Voice,' an advanced natural language user interface, the Galaxy S III listens and responds to your words. In addition to allowing information search and basic device-user communication, 'S Voice' provides powerful device control and commands. When your phone alarm goes off but you need a little extra rest, just tell the Galaxy S III "snooze" – and it snoozes. You can also use 'S Voice' to play your favorite songs, turn the volume up or down, send text messages and emails, organise your schedules, or automatically launch the camera and capture a photo – all through you speaking to the device.

In addition to recognising your face and voice, the Galaxy S III understands your motions. If you are messaging someone but decide to call them instead, simply lift your phone to your ear and 'Direct call' will dial their number. With 'Smart alert,' the Galaxy S III will catch any missed messages or calls; your phone will vibrate to notify missed statuses when picked up after being idle.

Easy and Instant Sharing
The Samsung Galaxy S III is more than a personal device that can be enjoyed by one person - it wants you to share and experience smartphone benefits with family and friends, regardless of where you are. With the new 'S Beam,' the Galaxy S III expands upon Android™ Beam, allowing a 1GB movie file to be shared within three minutes and a 10MB music file within two seconds by simply touching another Galaxy S III phone, even without a Wi-Fi or cellular signal. The 'Buddy photo share' function also allows photos to be easily and simultaneously shared with all your friends pictured in an image directly from a camera or photo gallery.

With 'AllShare Cast', you can wirelessly connect your Galaxy S III to your television to immediately transfer smartphone content onto a larger display. 'AllShare Play' can be used to instantly share any files between your Galaxy S III and DLNA supported tablet, PC, and televisions regardless of the distance between the devices. The 'Group Cast' feature also allows you to share your screen among multiple friends on the same Wi-Fi network; you can make comments and draw changes at the same time with your co-workers, witnessing real-time sharing on your individual device.



Human-centric Design with Uncompromised Performance
The Galaxy S III not only has features with enhanced usability, but also provides an ergonomic and comfortable experience through its human-centric design, with a comfortable grip, gentle curves, and organic form. Inspired by nature, its design concept is the flow and movement of nature. The elements of wind, water and light are all evoked in the physical construct of the Galaxy S III. Available in Pebble Blue and Marble White at launch, Samsung will introduce a variety of additional colour options at a later date.

Thanks to its 4.8" HD Super AMOLED display, the Galaxy S III offers a large and vivid viewing experience. Samsung Mobile's heritage Super AMOLED display even enhances to HD and 16:9 wider viewing angles. To ensure faster connectivity, the Galaxy S III offers Wi-Fi Channel Bonding which doubles the Wi-Fi bandwidth.

The Galaxy S III also sports a range of additional features that boost performance and the overall user experience in entirely new ways. It introduces 'Pop up play,' a feature that allows you to play a video anywhere on your screen while simultaneously running other tasks, eliminating the need to close and restart videos when checking new emails or surfing the Web. Its 8MP camera features a zero-lag shutter speed that lets you capture moving objects easily without delay – the image you see is the picture you take.

With the 'Burst shot' function that instantly captures twenty continuous frames, and the 'Best photo' feature that selects the best of eight photographs for you, the Galaxy S III offers a more enhanced and memorable camera experience. HD video can be recorded even with the 1.9MP front facing camera, which you can use to capture a video of yourself. Improved backside illumination further helps to eliminate blur in photos that result from shaking, even under low lights.

Mobile payment is also accessible with the device through advanced Near Field Communication (NFC) technology. The gaming experience is enhanced through 'Game Hub', providing access to numerous social games, whilst Video Hub brings users high quality TV and movies. Furthermore, Samsung Music Hub will offer a personal music streaming service. Game Hub, Video Hub and Music Hub will be introduced in select countries initially before being rolled out globally.

The Samsung Galaxy S III will be available in the UK from the Samsung Brand Store at Westfield Stratford City and all other retailers.
For multimedia content and more detailed information, please visit www.samsungmobilepress.com.
- Ends -
Note to Editors:
Samsung Galaxy S III Product Specifications
Network
2.5G (GSM/ GPRS/ EDGE): 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 MHz
3G (HSPA+ 21Mbps): 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100 MHz
4G (Dependent on market)
Display
4.8 inch HD Super AMOLED (1280x720) display
OS
Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich)
Camera
Main(Rear): 8 Mega pixel Auto Focus camera with Flash & Zero Shutter Lag, BIS
Sub (Front): 1.9 Mega pixel camera, HD recording @30fps with Zero Shutter Lag, BSI
Video
Codec: MPEG4, H.264, H.263, DivX, DivX3.11, VC-1, VP8, WMV7/8, Sorenson Spark
Recording & Playback: Full HD (1080p)
Audio
Codec: MP3, AMR-NB/WB, AAC/AAC+/eAAC+, WMA, OGG, FLAC, AC-3, apt-X
Additional
Features
S Beam, Buddy photo share, Share shot
AllShare Play, AllShare Cast
Smart stay, Social tag, Group tag, Face zoom, Face slide show
Direct call, Smart alert, Tap to top, Camera quick access
Pop up play
S Voice
Burst shot & Best photo, Recording snapshot, HDR
Google™ Mobile Services
Google Search, Google Maps, Gmail, Google Latitude
Google Play Store, Google Play Books, Google Play Movies
Google Plus, YouTube, Google Talk,
Google Places, Google Navigation, Google Downloads
Connectivity
WiFi a/b/g/n, WiFi HT40
GPS/GLONASS
NFC
Bluetooth® 4.0(LE)
Sensor
Accelerometer, RGB light, Digital compass, Proximity, Gyro, Barometer
Memory
16/ 32GB User memory (64GB available soon) + microSD slot (up to 64GB)
Dimension
136.6 x 70.6 x 8.6 mm, 133g
Battery
2,100 mAh
* Specifications above may differ on the LTE version.
* All functionality, features, specifications and other product information provided in this document including, but not limited to, the benefits, design, pricing, components, performance, availability, and capabilities of the product are subject to change without notice or obligation.
* Android, Google, Android Beam, Google Search, Google Maps, Gmail, Google Latitude, Google Play Store, Google Play Books, Google Play Movies, Google Plus, YouTube, Google Talk, Google Places, Google Navigation, Google Downloads are trademarks of Google Inc.
About Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. is a global leader in semiconductor, telecommunication, digital media and digital convergence technologies with 2011 consolidated sales of US$143.1 billion. Employing approximately 206,000 people in 197 offices across 72 countries, the company operates two separate organisations to coordinate its nine independent business units: Digital Media & Communications, comprising Visual Display, Mobile Communications, Telecommunication Systems, Digital Appliances, IT Solutions, and Digital Imaging; and Device Solutions, consisting of Memory, System LSI and LED. Recognised for its industry-leading performance across a range of economic, environmental and social criteria, Samsung Electronics was named the world's most sustainable technology company in the 2011 Dow Jones Sustainability Index. For more information, please visit www.samsung.com.
Samsung Galaxy SIII – available to pre-order on Three from 4th May.

Samsung's much anticipated smartphone, the Samsung Galaxy SIII, will be available to pre-order on Three from 4th May.

The Galaxy SIII will be available on The One Plan with all-you-can-eat data at £34 per month and with no upfront cost.
In addition, everyone that pre-orders the Samsung Galaxy SIII with Three before the 30th May will be automatically entered into a daily draw to win one of 26 brand new Samsung Smart TVs.
Nigel Field, director of devices at Three, said, "We can't wait to bring Samsung's amazing Galaxy SIII to Three, and we're very proud to be one of their UK launch partners. With our high speed, award-winning network and market-leading all-you-can-eat data, we believe we can deliver the ultimate mobile internet experience to our customers with this phone.
"The Galaxy SII was one of the smartphones of 2011, and we're expecting its successor, the Samsung Galaxy SIII, to be amongst 2012's biggest mobile success stories."
Customers can pre-order a Samsung Galaxy SIII by calling 0800 358 1799 from 9am tomorrow, or by visiting their local 3Store. They can register for updates and information about the Samsung Galaxy SIII at http://three.co.uk/SamsungGalaxy .
Pricing:
Samsung Galaxy SIII on The One Plan
£34 per month
No upfront cost
All-you-can-eat data
2000 any network minutes
5000 Three-to-Three minutes
5000 texts
Tethering included
Orange UK is pleased to confirm that it will be ranging the new Samsung Galaxy SIII. More details on pricing and availability will be announced on www.orange.co.uk in due course.
Carphone Warehouse confirms Samsung Galaxy SIII
First 1,000 customers to place pre-orders* online and over the phone
receive a 10" Galaxy Tab absolutely FREE!
http://www.carphonewarehouse.com/NEW-SAMSUNG-GALAXY
LONDON, 3rd May 2012 – Following today's announcement by Samsung in
London, Carphone Warehouse has confirmed that it will be stocking the
hotly anticipated Samsung Galaxy SIII. The new handset will be
available to purchase in stores nationwide, but eager fans who don't
want to wait can pre-order the new device in store, online and over
the phone. The handset is available on Vodafone, Orange, O2, T-Mobile
and Three and will be available for free on a selection of tariffs
from £36 per month.
The first 1,000 customers to place pay monthly pre-orders online and
on the phone (via the Carphone Warehouse call centre) will receive a
FREE 10" Samsung Galaxy Tab (worth at least £399), InvisibleSHIELD™
screen protector (RRP £14.99) and in-car micro USB charger (RRP
£14.99) – a combined value of £428.98.
All other customers who pre-order a device will receive a free Sandisk
32GB micro SD memory card (RRP normally £29.99), Invisishield Screen
Protector (RRP £14.99) and in-car micro USB charger (RRP 14.99) –a
combined value of £59.97. The addition of the Sandisk memory card will
bring the combined memory capacity of the device to a massive 48GB,
making it unlikely that even the most active users will be short on
space to store their videos, pictures, music and favourite apps.
Andrew Harrison, CEO of Carphone Warehouse said: "Anticipation
surrounding the Samsung Galaxy SIII launch has been huge, it's one of
the biggest launches of the year and marks an exciting and innovative
new stage in the smartphone market. The unveiling at Earl's Court
today certainly didn't disappoint - this phone is an impressive piece
of kit, perfect for people looking for a large high resolution screen
and a fluid user experience. We're sure that Carphone Warehouse
customers will be very keen to try it out".
The Samsung Galaxy SIII will be available from Carphone Warehouse
stores nationwide, and customers can pre-order at
http://www.carphonewarehouse.com/NEW-SAMSUNG-GALAXY now.
*Pre-orders are available on new subscriptions only and not on upgrades.

 

Source: Engadget

Barnes & Noble chops e-reader prices for Mother's Day

For a limited time, the Nook Simple Touch is available for $79 while the Nook Color drops to $149.

Barnes & Noble is also throwing in a gift bag when you order a Nook Simple Touch or Nook Color.

(Credit: Barnes & Noble)

A day after getting a $300 investment from Microsoft, Barnes & Noble is on the offensive again, chopping $20 off its Nook Simple Touch e-ink e-reader and the Nook Color tablet for Mother's Day.
You can now pick up the Nook Simple Touch for $79 and the Nook Color for $149. The sale runs until May 12 and Barnes & Noble will also throw in a free Nook gift bag with purchases of those devices (while supplies last). The bag doesn't look all that exciting, but hey, it's better than a plastic bag.
It should be noted that the Nook Simple Touch didn't sell as well as Barnes & Noble had hoped during last year's holiday season and the company recently started shipping the hot-selling $139 Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight, which earned a CNET Editors' Choice and is back-ordered until May 7. The Nook Color is also an older model that came out in 2010 and doesn't have the faster processor of the $199 Nook Tablet.
Barnes & Noble has discounted the Nook Simple Touch to $79 a couple times before, but that price point is the lowest for a touch-screen e-reader and matches Amazon's highly rated non-touch Kindle 2011 with Special Offers, which costs $79 and is ad-supported.
CNET readers frequently point out that you can get refurbished Nook e-readers at nicely discounted prices. A quick look at Google shows that most refurbished Nook Simple Touch units are selling for $79, though I did spot one for $59.99.

How to spot dangerous links before you click them

 Internet crooks are adept at breaching Web security techniques, which makes it more important than ever for people to verify sites before they visit them.

You probably got to this page by clicking a link. Links are the ties that bind the Web. But each click is also a leap of faith. How do you know you're going to the page you think you're going to?
Google search results let you preview pages before you follow the link, but elsewhere the best you can do is hover over the link to see at the bottom of the browser the URL of the page the link will open. (See below for more on free browser add-ons that rate the security of links in search results.)
Since 1994 a Certificate Authority based on the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) standard has managed the validation of Web sites. Several private companies sell various levels of certificates to organizations that own domain names and host Web servers.
According to the recently released Volume 17 of Symantec's Internet Security Threat Report, on at least 10 occasions in 2011 an SSL certificate authority came under attack by Internet criminals.
One of the handful of successful attacks targeted a Comodo affiliate that had been granted authority to issue SSL certificates. The bad guys had stolen a user name and password. Elinor Mills and Declan McCullogh describe the attack in the Privacy, Inc. blog.
SSL implementation survey gives sites low grades for security
Last week more questions arose about SSL's ability to secure Web transactions. The Trustworthy Internet Movement's SSL Implementation survey of 200,000 popular SSL-secured Web sites found that only 10 percent of the sites were safe.
The organization's SSL Pulse page includes a link to SSL Labs' free service for testing a site's SSL security. Simply enter a domain name to run it through the labs' SSL Server Test.

SSL Labs' domain-name checker gives sites an overall letter grade and rates their SSL security in various categories.

(Credit: screenshot by Dennis O'Reilly/CNET)

There's nothing new about SSL vulnerabilities, which have been reported regularly by researchers since at least 2003. After nearly two decades and despite all the criticism, SSL has proven itself secure enough to protect nearly all online purchases and other sensitive Internet transactions. At least so far.
Browser add-ons add a safety rating to links
Unless you're a network manager, there's not much you can do to ensure that the sites you visit are secure. One way to lower the risk is to be warned about a potentially insecure site before you click the link that opens it.
My favorite link authenticator is the free Web of Trust (WOT), which is available for Firefox and Google Chrome. WOT adds a green-yellow-red rating to links in Web search results and to the top of each page you visit.
When you install WOT the program asks you to choose one of three settings: Basic (recommended), Light, and Parental Control, which blocks adult sites.

The Web of Trust add-on for Firefox and Google Chrome lets you choose one of three presets, one of which automatically blocks adult sites.

(Credit: screenshot by Dennis O'Reilly/CNET)

(I first wrote about WOT in a post from 2009 that also described McAfee's free SiteAdvisor and the LinkExtend add-ons for Firefox, as well as several other security extensions for the browser.)
The Tech Support Alert site describes several services that let you copy and paste a link into a text field and search the URL in databases of known dangerous domains. The downside of these services is the extra time required to run Web addresses you're leery about through the checkers.
Personal sites and blogs most likely to be infected
Conventional wisdom says malware lurks in the seamy regions of the Web. Certain to be one of the most-discussed findings of Symantec's latest Internet Security Threat Report is that pornographic sites are less likely to be infected than any of the 10 categories of sites in the survey.
Only 2.4 percent of adult sites scanned by Symantec were infected, the lowest infection rate of the 10 site categories, which include shopping (7.7 percent), education/reference (6.8 percent), entertainment and music (3.8 percent) and automotive (also 3.8 percent).
Be careful when you visit your brother-in-law's site highlighting his collection of 19th century beer bottles, though: nearly 20 percent of blogs and more than 15 percent of personal sites had malware, according to the report.
When it comes to browser plug-in vulnerabilities, ActiveX continues to be the most likely source of a Web-borne infection, accounting for 29 percent of the 308 vulnerabilities Symantec detected in 2011. That's a decrease from the 34 percent of the 346 plug-in vulnerabilities detected in 2010.
Java vulnerabilities accounted for 20 percent of the total recorded in 2011, up from 17 percent the year earlier. Likewise, Adobe Flash vulnerabilities represented 20 percent of the total number of browser plug-in vulnerabilities in 2011, a 2 percent increase from 2010.
As for the future, Symantec anticipates an increase in targeted attacks and advanced persistent threats, as well as malware authors using Facebook to take advantage of the lack of tech savvy among the service's users.
All the security software in the world will never take the place of a healthy dose of skepticism regarding the safety of any site. Whatever the address bar may say, if you get a bad feeling about the page you're on, close your browser (not just the suspicious tab).
And while we're talking paranoia, when was the last time you ran a full manual scan on your PC? (I'll leave Macs out of it... for now.)

Is RIM getting its mojo back with BlackBerry 10?

RIM shows off its new software at BlackBerry World to rave reviews. But can the company deliver? And will it be enough to compete with Apple and Google?

RIM's CEO Thorsten Heins shows off the company's new BlackBerry 10 software at the BlackBerry World event.

(Credit: Brian Bennett/CNET)

ORLANDO, Fla. -- BlackBerry maker Research In Motion showed off some cool new features today for its upcoming BlackBerry 10 software, but will it be enough to stop the company's free-fall into the smartphone abyss?
That's the big question that fans of the once mighty smartphone and other industry watchers are asking here today at the BlackBerry World conference. Gartner analyst Michael Gartenberg said he is optimistic about the company's prospects, if the company is really able to deliver on its promises.
"RIM's sneak peek of the new BlackBerry 10 shows the company is focused on details that differentiate meaningfully," Gartenberg said. "But the key will be shipping and execution."
Indeed, RIM did not show off any actual devices here at the conference, the company's annual pow-wow where customers, partners, fanboys, and press descend to hear what's next from the handset maker. Instead the company showed off reference devices it's calling BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha. It's even been handing out these reference devices to developers to help seed the market ahead of the launch of new smartphones that actually run BlackBerry 10.
RIM's new CEO Thorsten Heins said he understands that the market is anxious to get its hands on BlackBerry 10 devices. But he said the company is taking its time to make sure it is getting the software and the hardware just right. He didn't give any indication when the new devices will hit the market. But some rumors peg the launch as early as August of this year, while others say it could be October.

One thing is clear -- the longer that RIM waits to launch its device the more it risks losing even more market share to competitors, Apple and Android. In the past year, RIM has lost nearly half of its market share, according to Gartner. In the fourth quarter of 2010, the company had about 14 percent global market share. By the end of 2011, it had about 8.8 percent market share. RBC Capital Markets analyst Mark Sue told Reuters that RIM's market share could go down to less than 5 percent.
The problem that RIM faces as it tries to retrench and get its new software in order is that its competitors are not holding back. Google Android and Apple continue to pick up share from customers who are fleeing the tired and stale BlackBerry platform. A major worldwide outage in 2011 also didn't help build confidence among loyal enterprise users, who are now looking to other platforms as more and more of their employees bring their own devices to work.
But Heins said that the company is on track to deliver the devices this year. And he said he doesn't foresee any delays, something that has plagued the company in the past as it tried to launch new products.
"We are on schedule with the launch," he said. "And we are really close."
What's more, he indicated that the new BlackBerry devices will be using fully baked software. This was a problem with the launch of the BlackBerry PlayBook table a year ago. When the device launched, the software was still nearly in beta testing. Few apps existed and the software was buggy. The device has largely been a flop, and devices still sit on shelves unused and unsold.
Some of the new features that RIM showed off during its demo here today included a revamped virtual keyboard that learns not only the words users might use but the typing behavior of that user to make typing more accurate. It also showed off a camera app that allows users to recapture moments they may have missed because their fingers were too slow in hitting the shutter. The camera actually caches frames in view of the lens, so that users can roll back to images that may have been captured seconds earlier. And the company showed off the multitasking chops of the new device showing how apps can run in the background and can easily be tabbed and navigated.
Analysts, BlackBerry fans, and partners were generally impressed with the new features and what they foretell for the upcoming devices.
"If these demos are representative of the final BB10 experience, then RIM has its groove back," Ross Rubin, an analyst with NPD Group, tweeted during the keynote speech this morning.

RIM showed off its new virtual keyboard as part of its demo of the BlackBerry 10 software here at BlackBerry World 2012.

(Credit: Brian Bennett/CNET)

Still, there's no question RIM has a long road ahead of it. And many here were reminded of the failings of other companies that developed slick new software that came much too late to the market. Palm, which essentially invented the smartphone market with its early Palm Pilots, had lagged behind its competitors for years. The company tried to revive its fortunes with the WebOS platform, which got rave reviews from the technology press and from some consumers. But the software came much too late. And the hardware was only so-so. Palm, which didn't have the scale to compete against the likes of the iPhone and the growing dominance of Google, sold out to Hewlett-Packard. And with that sale, the WebOS platform died a quick death.
But Kevin Michaluk of the blog Crackberry said that BlackBerry is in a far different place than Palm.
"BlackBerry devices are in the mainstream," he said. "Palm was for early adopters. It never had the scale that BlackBerry has had."
Indeed, even with RIM's declining market share, BlackBerry still has more than 77 million customers. And its reach is global. RIM says that its customers are in 164 markets and territories worldwide. And it has plans to roll out devices in additional countries.
RIM executives also say the company is making headway with developers. And at the BlackBerry World conference here the company highlighted the fact that it's seen a 240 percent growth in Playbook apps over the past year. Of course this growth isn't so impressive when you think that it was starting from zero. But executives say that even this growth shows that some developers still see RIM as a valuable company to develop applications for. And the company sees Playbook app development as a precursor to BlackBerry 10 apps.
Alec Saunders, vice president of developer relations for RIM, said that his team is working hard to sign up new developers and to get them excited about the platform. He said that apps will be an important selling point for the new BlackBerry 10 smartphones because they must be able to compete with the iPhone and Google Android devices. But he said that the company's real focus and differentiation is creating devices that will help communicate more efficiently. After all, he said that is what BlackBerry has always been about.
"BlackBerry users are people who are hungry to get something done," he said. "They aren't the ones sitting on the train watching episodes of Seinfeld."
Still he said that carrying all the popular apps and having a good multimedia experience for users is necessary to compete.
"It has to be a great multimedia device," he said. "That's table stakes these days. But that doesn't mean we have to go out and build an iTunes-like store."

Best iPad accessories

The iPad doesn't need much in the way of extras, but these essential peripherals are, for the most part, highly useful (that iCade's just fun).
peripherals are, for the most part, highly useful (that iCade's just fun).

by Scott Stein May 1, 2012 9:30 AM PDT

(Credit: Sarah Tew/CNET)

(Updated May 1, 2012 with one new accessory.)
I've owned an iPad since 2010, and I have to admit, it's pretty self-sufficient. That's the appeal: one simple slab that can do everything. Or, nearly everything.

Must-have iPad accessories (photos)

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Of course, we all know the iPad has its limitations. That's where peripherals can come in handy. For instance, how do you connect a camera? What about streaming audio or video out to a TV or stereo? How do you go about protecting your investment with a case?
Here are some of the most useful iPad accessories you're likely to find. You probably won't need all of them, but you're almost guaranteed to get serious use out of more than one of them. New to the list, and perhaps one of the most impressive accessories I've seen, is the Logitech Ultrathin Keyboard Cover.
Any I left out? Share below.

Apple doesn't want jurors to see Samsung logo at trial

Obscuring Samsung's logo from the court's video equipment is just one of the requests to be made by Apple for the upcoming patent trial between the rivals, a report says. Samsung has its own requests as well.

Apple doesn't want jurors to see Samsung's logo on court video equipment, which is just one of many courtroom requests the two companies have made as they prepare to take their patent issues to trial.
With the upcoming jury trial currently set for July 30, the two have already revealed the issues they plan to raise ahead of their courtroom showdown, according to Foss Patents' Florian Mueller.
Apple's intention to file a motion to obscure the Samsung logo on the court's video displays may seem "funny," says Mueller. But Apple doesn't want to create an impression among jurors that Samsung equipment and the company itself are somehow favored by the court.
Apple also wants to ban any statements attributed to Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson, author of the recent biography about the late Apple leader. As Mueller points out, Apple clearly does not want jurors to hear Jobs' comments about destroying Android because it's a stolen product and going thermonuclear war about it.
Further, Apple doesn't want any references to Foxconn or working conditions in China to enter into the trial, Mueller says. Of course, the situation in China has little relevance to the claims to be made at the trial, so this may be a non-issue.
Samsung naturally has its own laundry list of requests, according to Mueller.
The Korean mobile phone maker wants to exclude "Apple-related blogs and articles by non-expert newspaper reporters, regarding any assessment of Apple and Samsung and/or their products."
It also wants to eliminate any testimony from Henry Urbach, "Apple's expert on the alleged cultural significance of Apple." Samsung believes Urbach's own opinions about Apple products are subjective and therefore "not helpful to the jury."
Finally, Samsung also wants to keep out the opinions of Sanjay Sood, "Apple's expert on consumer decision making," who it considers an unobjective and unhelpful source about Apple's design prowess.
At this stage, these are all just motions the companies plan to file. It will be up to the United States District Court for the Northern District of California to decide which ones have merit and which ones should be dismissed.
Source: news.cnet.com

Android's new ally against the iPhone: Ubuntu

Strong sales of the iPhone 4S are putting renewed pressure on Android to innovate. Ubuntu for Android could give the platform a key capability iPhone is still missing.

(Credit: Canonical)

Last year was a long time ago for Android.
That was when Google's mobile platform was stealing market share from all the other smartphone platforms -- winning even against the iPhone -- and beating a path toward market dominance.
But Android is now facing a renewed challenge from its archrival. Android's vulnerability against the iPhone can be summed up by looking at the two biggest wireless carriers in the U.S. -- AT&T and Verizon. At AT&T, the iPhone represented 78% of all smartphone sales in the first three months of 2012. At Verizon, which had been an Android stronghold since the launch of the original Motorola Droid in October 2009, the iPhone has picked up over 50 percent of all smartphone sales for each of the past two quarters (Q4 2011 and Q1 2012).
How'd that happen? Android won over more users than Apple during 2010 and 2011 because Android devices were available on more carriers and there were Android phones that cost a lot less than the $200 base model of the iPhone. But now the iPhone has spread to virtually all of the major carriers and there are now iPhone models available for under $100.
Android badly needs a new advantage against the iPhone in the next stage of the mobile platform fight. It may get it from Canonical's Ubuntu for Android.

The Ubuntu factor

Ubuntu is a friendly version of Linux aimed at the masses. Unfortunately, the masses have never embraced it on a large scale, but it has proven to be usable enough that even your technophobic uncle can easily use Ubuntu to do things like surf the Web, check e-mail, and download photos from a digital camera.
While the iPhone is winning on simplicity, Android is winning on expanded features (and it's still expected to have a 50 percent market share this year). One of those expanded features that the iPhone doesn't have is the ability to dock and act like a computer. Last week we looked at how Motorola Webtop pioneered this concept. However, Ubuntu has an alternative vision for smartphone/PC convergence and it's teaming with Android hardware makers on devices that will hit the market later in 2012.
Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu, has slowly and quietly evolved the Linux desktop into a legitimate low-cost alternative to Windows and Mac. Ubuntu's focus on usability with its Unity Desktop and Heads-Up Display (which is like a Google search for all of the menus on your computer) has given Ubuntu the simplicity it needs to compete in an era that's about to be dominated by touchscreens and cloud computing.
That's why when Canonical announced and demonstrated Ubuntu for Android at Mobile World Congress in February, it generated a lot of interest across the mobile industry. Users liked the idea of a more full-featured desktop than Motorola's Webtop. Android phone makers liked the idea of using the software to build high-powered multi-purpose devices and make more money off smartphones accessories like desktop docks. And, wireless carriers loved the idea of powerful smartphones running desktop-level applications that will demand more data than ever.

Mobile World Congress 2012 attendees flock to see Ubuntu for Android. Photo credit: Canonical

"The feedback has been great," Canonical CEO Mark Shuttleworth said. "People that really got their hands on it have raved about it."
After the announcement, the Canonical booth at MWC 2012 was flooded with interest from corporate tech managers, consumers, and representatives from telcos and handset makers. All of them wanted to see what Ubuntu for Android could do. Everyone has seen the capabilities of Motorola Webtop -- as we talked about last week -- but it's limited to mostly desktop Web browsing and it's only available on Motorola phones. Ubuntu takes the concept a step further by opening it up to more apps and to all Android phone makers.
Shuttleworth said, "Webtop reminds [me] of ChromeOS. It's a browser story. We've pulled off a very different feeling... The full range of desktop apps are there."
When Ubuntu is loaded on an Android phone, the two platforms share the same Linux kernel, so it's not like running two operating systems. The two pieces act like complementary partners. The Android phone functions normally when used as a smartphone or when making calls, but when it docks then the Ubuntu desktop pops up and acts like a standard computer. You can open a desktop Web browser, but you can also install and run standard Ubuntu desktop software for photo editing, word processing, etc.
Because Ubuntu is so lean, the entire Ubuntu software stack only takes up about 2GB, and that includes apps for e-mail, Web browsing, photo editing, music, and other basic stuff. If you install more applications from the large Ubuntu repository of open source apps then that will obviously take up more space, but there's still plenty of storage on most modern smartphones to handle it. While Ubuntu takes up more storage than Webtop, it's also giving you a lot more capabilities.
"The Ubuntu solution is providing a complete PC operating system," said Richard Collins, the Product Manager for Ubuntu for Android. "Canonical has always seen the opportunity for Ubuntu for Android. It's something that's always been discussed, but once the hardware was ready then we realized the timing was good for this. [The software] is mature enough for us to engage with an OEM today."
Before joining Canonical in December 2011, Collins previously worked on smartphones for Symbian -- the operating system that used to power Nokia smartphones before CEO Stephen Elop dumped it for Windows Phone 7 last year.
For Ubuntu for Android, Collins added, "We haven't touched Android at all."
But, while the Ubuntu solution doesn't alter Android, it provides deep integration with Android on the Ubuntu side, and that's where Canonical is bringing value that goes above and beyond what Motorola accomplished with Webtop.

Going beyond Webtop

Here are some examples of the ways Ubuntu integrates with Android:

• Web pages that you have open on your Android phone are automatically opened in Ubuntu when you dock. It even switches from the mobile site to the desktop version of the site, in many cases.
• View, search, and launch Android applications from within the Ubuntu desktop
• Access and edit photos and videos and then save them back to Android
• Wi-Fi networks and settings are shared between Android and Ubuntu
• View and search phone contacts from the Ubuntu desktop
• Use Dialer app to make calls on the phone while docked in Ubuntu
• Read and respond to text messages with full keyboard in Ubuntu
• Android calendar app is synced with Ubuntu calendar software
• Social networking account credentials are synced between Android and Ubuntu

Again, the other thing that Ubuntu has going for it over Webtop is that Webtop is currently only available on Motorola smartphones. In my Webtop article last week, I suggested that when Google buys Motorola Mobility it could choose to directly integrate Webtop into the next version of Android, which would turn almost every new Android device into a PC replacement.
In the meantime, Ubuntu for Android is bypassing Google and making its pitch directly to Android handset makers. Interestingly enough, once the announcement was made in February, several of the handset makers actually came and sought out Canonical to start the dialog on how to get it on their devices. Canonical said that virtually all of the major Android phone makers are considering Ubuntu for Android.

"We've engaged all the handset manufacturers that we feel were relevant to this solution," said Collins. "They were beating a path to our stand [at MWC]."
Collins said Ubuntu for Android is not something that is meant to be released as a download on the Internet and installed on existing Android phones. It's going to take close cooperation with the phone makers in order to optimize performance of the hardware for each smartphone and to build in all the hooks that are needed for the deep integration that Ubuntu is doing with Android.
Since Ubuntu for Android runs alongside Android, Collins argued that a handset manufacturer can integrate it with a phone that is currently in development without having to completely reboot the product. He said manufacturers that are planning to launch multi-core smartphones this year can still take this and launch with it before the end of the year. While that sounds a little oversimplified, the key is that Collins thinks we'll see Ubuntu integrated into high-end Android phones by the end of 2012.
Collins also said that Ubuntu would love to work with some Nvidia Tegra 3 quad-core devices. That's where the possibilities of this type of solution could start to shine through, since performance has been one of the big drawbacks of Motorola Webtop as well as the Motorola Atrix 2 device that Ubuntu of Android was demonstrated on at MWC.
While it's uncertain what Google is going to do with Motorola Mobility once the acquisition is complete, the search giant has said that it intends to run Motorola as a stand-alone business. If that's the case, then Shuttleworth said he's even open to collaborating with the Webtop creator. "I'd love to work with Motorola because I know the courage it took to bring Webtop to market."
One thing that's very clear in talking with Shuttleworth is that he has completely bought into the idea that the smartphone is the future of the PC. His only question was the timing. "It's a very natural step for us to be taking," he said. "[This is] an upcoming phase change. It might take five years. It might take 10 years."