The legal battle between Apple and Samsung seems to be never ending, with Apple grabbing a recent victory against Samsung when the later was asked by court to pay $1.05 billion to Apple in terms of damages. But on the other hand, Samsung devices continue to sell like hot cakes and bad news for Apple is that its iPhone 5 was not as successful as was expected. Samsung Galaxy S III, on the other hand, proved to be immensely successful and turned out to be the most popular Android smartphone of all time.
The new CEO of Apple, Tim Cook, seems to be taking measures in order to retain the market leadership of Apple. He recently announced that Apple would be brining the production of some Mac devices at home which would increase the jobs in the US. Sources have further revealed that the company is also gearing up for a new version of iPhone, dubbed iPhone 5S, along with the subsequent version of its mobile operating system, iOS7. The device and the OS combined have appeared on Apple app developer logs in recent weeks dubbed as iPhone 6,1. But of course, considering that most of this is speculation, there is no information about the specifications of the either. We also don’t have any official confirmation from Apple so far.
Several business analysts have also suggested that Apple is also considering increasing the variety of its smartphone and might offer 6 to 8 colors and screen sizes on the upcoming version of the iPhone. This would be more like the strategy of Samsung which has been offering its top devices like Galaxy phones in different colors. Due to the successful Samsung strategies, its high-end devices like Samsung Galaxy Note and Samsung Galaxy S III are proving to be highly successful in the market. There are also rumors that Samsung has already started the production of the upcoming version of its Galaxy phone, Samsung Galaxy S 4.
Regarding the news about the possible availability of the upcoming iPhone in different colors and screen sizes, Apple has not released any official statement. So we would have to wait for a while until some reliable information emerges and sheds some more light on the issue.

Vizio is a relatively new entrant in the PC space and is already making its presence felt. The retailer has taken a unique approach with the announcement of their standalone Windows 8 tablet called MT 11X-A1. Unlike this move from Vizio, all of the Windows 8 tablet-styled devices available so far are more like laptops that fold into quasi-slates. We also have a few hybrid devices whose displays can be separated from the bodies.
But other than mere physical size and display types, the new Vizio device also differs from the previous Windows 8 tablets in several other ways. Windows 8 tablet-styled devices released so far, hybrids as well as convertibles, have been running on Intel Core i-series or Atom processors. Unlike these devices, the 11.6-inch system offered by Vizio is equipped with a low-power AMD Z60.
Resolution of this new device would be 1,920x,1080 pixels, which seems perfect for the Windows 8 tile user interface. However, using this resolution on a traditional Windows desktop computers running Windows 8 might not be an altogether easy experience, particularly when we consider that Windows 8 is significantly different from all the previous versions of Windows OS.
A few technical specifications of this special tablet from Vizio include 2GB of RAM memory, 64GB SSD and a weight of 1.7 pounds. Remaining technical specs would be clear with the passage of time. Considering that this device comes with a low-power AMD processor and smaller SSD, price factor would be important for it. But so far there are no details regarding the price or exact release date of the device.
This move from Vizio is quite interesting and would determine the future course of the retailer with respect to Windows devices. Windows tablets have proven to be quite successful in the market during the first few months, although exact sales figures have not been released by Microsoft. During the holiday season, it was announced by Microsoft that due to the high demand for the tablet, the company has decided to increase its production. The company also converted many temporary tablet stores into permanent stores, due to the increased demand for the devices. Let’s see how this year turns out to be for Windows 8 devices.

Apple’s request to ban Samsung phones which supposedly infringe upon its patents has been denied by the court. This relates to eight Samsung phones, including Samsung Galaxy S II, which would not be removed from the market because there is no evidence that users are specifically seeking those features on these phones which are copied.

Previously, the court asked Samsung to pay $1.05 billion to Apple in terms of damages. However, Apple’s demand that these phones be banned from the market was denied by judge because of the lack of evidence from Apple to prove that the features used on these phones have resulted in the loss of iPhone sales. Apple said that Samsung phones have made iPhone lost its market share and hence these phones should be banned from the market. It also said that these phones have also rendered damage to Apple devices as well as software. However, this argument was not bought by the judge. But Apple seems adamant and might appeal later.

Judge Koh wrote in her order that “Though evidence that Samsung attempted to copy certain Apple features may offer some limited support for Apple’s theory, it does not establish that those features actually drove consumer demand.” Apple was hoping to get eight out of 21 Samsung devices banned. Many of these devices are still being sold in the market, even though they are more than a year old. However, Apple is also trying to add latest devices from Samsung in the injunction, including Galaxy S III, which happens to be the most popular smartphone from Samsung. Samsung, on the other hand, said that it is pleased with the decision made by Judge Koh.

There are several matters that are yet to be decided regarding the decision. For instance, Judge Koh is yet to rule on other post-trial proceedings such as whether the entire amount of $1 billion should be withheld. Besides, it is also yet to be decided whether the copying of the alleged features was intentional, in which case Apple would receive increased amount in damages.

Samsung previously requested for a new trial, stating that jury foreman, Velvin Hogan, had a prejudice against Samsung since he was sued by Seagate, an associate of Samsung. Judge Koh, however, denied the request for a new trial. In a related matter, Samsung announced that is dropping injunction requests against Apple in several European countries. Although it is suing Apple, it no longer seeks a ban on iPhone in order to protect the interest of the consumers. Samsung is also facing an antitrust investigation in Europe, investigating whether Samsung illegally prevented competitors from licensing patents essential for wireless communications.

While it is hard to say that Surface RT from Microsoft has proven to be a massive hit in the market of tablets, Microsoft has said that due to high retailer interest in the device, it has decided to expand the production of the tablet. The company has also decided to allow the third-party retail stores to carry the device sooner than it was originally planned.
This expansion in the production and distribution of the slate would be started from mid-December. Previously, Microsoft had the plans of such an expansion after the start of the next year. However, due to the increased retailer interest in the device, the company has decided to make this move earlier than planned. Staples would be the first third-party retailer to carry the tablet.
It is hard to give a definitive opinion about the success of Surface RT, considering that Microsoft has so far not released the sales figure for the device. Surface RT runs a chip designed for smartphones, unlike the other computers running Windows. Due to this reason, Microsoft had to bring specific changes in its operating system in order to make it work for the new chip. An optional keyboard is also available separately for Surface RT which can be used to convert the tablet into a laptop with Microsoft Office applications.
The increased commitment of the company can also be estimated from the fact that some of the temporary holiday stores by Microsoft would be converted into permanent locations. Other than being available in all Microsoft retail stores from the US and Canada, the device would also be available online in Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States. The present temporary stores of the company would either be converted into brick-and-mortar retail outlets or specialty store locations.
The increased attention that Microsoft has been paying to Surface RT clearly shows that the company is serious in expanding its market share in the domain of tablet computers. This does make sense, since the tablet domain has proven to be a highly lucrative area for other tech giants such as Apple, Amazon and Google, while Microsoft has only recently entered in the competition. Surface RT is the sole product from Microsoft that would decide the company’s fate in the tablet market.

The shipping of the latest Nook HD tablet from Barnes & Noble has started. While this device would be available at a price of $199, the company has reduced prices of the previous versions of the tablet. For instance, price of the Nook tablet models from the last year has been reduced to $179 for the 16 GB version and $159 for the 8 GB version. Besides, the price of the entry level Nook Color has also been reduced to just $139.

Although the strategy of Barnes & Noble regarding the old devices is not clear yet, it appears that the company would sell these devices through the holiday season. The company, in past, also had the policy of delivering refurbished versions of some of these devices at these prices.

Nook tablet, having 1 GB of RAM memory, was originally launched back in 2011 and was sold at a price of $249 for the 16 GB version. After that, Amazon launched its seven inch Kindle Fire during the holiday season which was available at $199 for the 8GB model. Eventually another version of the Nook tablet followed with 512 MB of RAM memory, while the internal storage was also reduced to 8 GB, mainly to compete with Amazon Kindle Fire.

Recently, the company started shipping its latest Nook HD, a direct competitor of Kindle Fire HD, Google Nexus 7 and the Mini iPad. The device is available in two models of 8 GB (which costs $199) and 16 GB (available for $229). While there are several advantages that Amazon and Google tablets have over the Nook tablet such as more number of apps and more content, the Nook tablet has a clear edge with its highest resolution that is so far available on a 7 inch tablet. Besides, the device is also lighter than Kindle Fire HD and has support for microSD card for memory expansion.

Shipping of the larger tablet form Barnes & Noble, called Nook HD+, would also be started soon. This 9 inch tablet would be available at a price of $269 while the 32 GB model would cost $299. As per the announcement on the official website of the company, Nook HD+ would be available starting from November 8.

Apple has recently confirmed about a press event of the company that would take place on October 23 ^rd and as per the invitations that have been sent out, Apple says that “We’ve got a little more to show you.” The most anticipated product that is expected to come out of this event happens to be a mini iPad. However, Apple has not offered any details in this regard.
It is expected that iPad Mini would come with a 7 inch screen, mainly to compete with Amazon Kindle Fire and Google Nexus 7. Besides, quite evidently, it would also have a lower price, somewhere around $299. An analyst at Piper Jaffray, Gene Munster, also predicts that the device would only have support for WiFi, although Apple might decide to launch a 3G version in near future as well.

The timing for this launch is quite important since many tech giants have been launching smaller versions of their tablets and Amazon has recently launched the second generation version of its immensely popular Kindle Fire with HD display. The original version of Kindle Fire with HD display is available at a price of just $199 while 7 inch tablets form Samsung and Google are also available at the same price. Another expected launch is from Microsoft in the form of its Surface tablet which, however, would be a full-sized tablet and its price would most probably start at $499.

Various tech analysts believed that Apple was losing as much as 20% of the market by not launching a 7 inch tablet. And while the late CEO of Apple, Steve Jobs, believed that launching a 7 inch tablet would be a bad strategy, success of other 7 inch tablets seems to have made Apple change its stance. Analysts have also predicted that depending upon the company’s ability to fulfill the demand Apple might sell as many as 5 to 10 million mini iPads before the end this year.

Fulfilling the demand is an important issue since iPhone 5, which was launched only three weeks ago, have been facing trouble in fulfilling the demand of the consumers which is causing Apple to lose the profit. Overall, Apple tablet is the most popular tablet ever since the inception of tablet computers back in 2010 and to the date, Apple has sold more than 75 million iPads worldwide. Other than the mini iPad, Apple might also launch other products like slimmer MacBook Pro laptop and revamped Mac Minicomputer during the same event.

The latest interesting development regarding the rumored iPad mini is that its mock-up pictures have been revealed over a French tech blog which previously also leaked the pictures of the new iPhone. These photos show the front white part of iPad mini, held in various positions. There is another photo showing cases of the larger and smaller versions of iPad, along with the cases for iPhone 4S and iPhone 5.
So far it is not clear whether these mock-ups photos actually belong to the speculation mini iPad. Apple has also not commented on the situation and there is no official statement on the matter. Last few days were very important for Apple, considering the launch of the new iPhone 5. As always, the latest version of the smart phone from Apple is expected to be a huge hit among the customers. However, Apple might be back in a few days with the announcement of the mini version of its tablet.
So far Apple has refrained from entering in the domain of 7 inch tablets. However, during the recent months, the expectations about such a move from Apple have been very high. Apple is already the leader of the tablet market and with the launch of a smaller version of iPad, with lower price, it would certainly have a clear lead over its competitors. The two main rivals of Apple in the domain of 7 inch tablets would be Amazon with its Kindle Fire and Google with its Nexus 7. Both Nexus 7 and Amazon Kindle Fire have been doing very well in the market and have a wide user base. Amazon recently launched the second generation version of its Kindle Fire which would also be available in 8.9 inch form factor. This size is not very far away from 9.7 inches of the iPad, which has brought Amazon a bit closer in competition with Apple. However, any other tablet in the market has a long way to go before catching up with the iPad.
Everyone is impatiently waiting for Apple to come out and declare something related to the mini iPad. It might just happen in the next few days, so just keep your fingers crossed and wait for the long anticipated event.

Latest news about the upcoming version of Amazon Kindle Fire is that it would be displayed by Amazon during a press event. However, contradicting all the rumors and speculations, Amazon would not display any 10 inch version of its tablet and instead only two models of the 7 inch version of Kindle Fire would be shown.

The difference between the two 7 inch versions is that one of them would come with enhanced features while the other one would only be slightly upgraded from the first generation version. The enhanced version would have faster processor, increased internal storage, HDMI port and exterior volume controls, among other anticipated hardware enhancements.

The most important thing in this regard is that there won’t be any 10 inch version of the device. Previously, it was highly speculated that Amazon is developing a 10 inch version of its tablet, mainly to compete against Apple’s iPad. However, reliable sources have now claimed that other than the two 7 inch version of Kindle Fire, there would not be any 10 inch version.

Amazon’s decision of not entering in the domain of 10 inch tablets seems a bit reasonable since it would be quite useless competing against iPad which virtually has a monopoly among the 10 inch tablets. But on the other hand, it might have been a good idea since Amazon would face a real tough competition from Nexus 7 in the domain of 7 inch tablets and having a 10 inch tablet would’ve increased space for the company. Besides, there are also rumors that Apple is gearing up to launch a mini iPad, which would be a 7 inch device, and hence Amazon would inevitably have to compete with Apple. If this turns out to be the case, Amazon should consider launching a 10 inch version since it would already be competing against Apple in the domain of 7 inch tablets.

So far Amazon has not given any official information regarding the prices of the two updated Kindle Fire models. But rumors suggest that the improved model would come at a price between $149-$199 while the model with advanced features would cost between $199 and $249. However, there are also chances that Amazon might reduce the prices of the two models even further to retain its upper hand in 7 inch tablets.

Good news for the users of the Facebook app for iPhone and iPad is that Facebook has released an updated version of its app which would be much more faster compared to the previous version. Although the general user interface of the updated app is pretty similar to the older app, the major difference is that the programming code of the new app has been replaced with the new code used for iOS.

There are various notable changes that can be observed in the new app. For example, the code for the camera and messenger apps of Facebook has been integrated in the main app, replacing the older tools. This has increased the facility in messaging and managing photos in the new app. The news feed has also been improved and the new feed would be more dynamic. This means that with every “like” or comments on a status update, it could be observed directly without any need of refreshing the page.

The most important aspect of the recent major re-structuring in Facebook is that every product team is now working on mobile platforms. According to Facebook executives, special attention is being paid to major platforms such as iOS and Android. Instant operation of the apps is necessary when it comes to mobile platforms and this is precisely what the new Facebook app does.

An important question that was raised regarding the departure of Facebook from the native code is that would it still remain an open Web platform. According to the head of mobile engineering at Facebook, Cory Ondrejka, it would remain so. He said that wrapping the native around the web technology was not viable for Facebook apps, since the performance of these apps in past was not up to the mark. He further said that Facebook would continue to take advantage of the web technology in future as well.

An important advantage of the web based development is that the entire development team can work with the same code on all products, hence considerably increasing the productivity. This would also eliminate the need of writing a new code in a different language for each platform. Talking about the comparative advantage of the latest development techniques, Mr. Ondrejka said that “We would love the Web to be as capable as native to simplify development. But it’s just not there today.”

Puzzle and RPG games are usually very interesting since you actually do every task bit by bit and in a long run, can build up an entire empire. Puzzle Craft is one of the most interesting such games which, using a fairly basic yet amusing puzzle system, provides an interesting and rewarding system of progression.

The way to play this game is that users start with only a single farm field, and eventually houses, mines and windmills are built using the resources of that farm field. Eventually, you are able to make an entire metropolis with gradual expansion. Collecting the resources from the land is hence the most important job that you have to perform in this game, since you can build buildings, tools and hire workers. The graphics of the game are colorful and clear, and it is a delight to play the game on a high resolution device such as iPad. Specific icons are reserved to indicate different resources.

Puzzle Craft is based on the system of Dungeon Raid in which it is required to draw a line through the needed items. The difference between the two games is that Puzzle Craft lets the users combine objects when enough of them are collected. There are various interesting bits in the game as well. For example, users can combine 10 grain into a carrot and then combine carrots into a soup. Users can hire workers to suit the combination rules and tools can be used in certain situations in order to clear the screen or collecting other required resources.

Puzzle Craft can safely be regarded as one of the most popular and exciting games of this year on Apple App Store. Good thing is that it is available at a nominal price of 99 cent, and every fan of puzzle games should certainly get his or her hands on this game. At times the game can be quite complex, particularly when it comes to the right implementation of the strategy, but that is exactly what makes this game so exciting. Thanks to the variety of strategy options and a very engaging progression system, Puzzle Craft can be considered one of the very best games of its type. Spending a few hours playing this game would certainly be a worthwhile experience.