Microsoft's latest Windows 8 ad pits the Asus VivoTab against the iPad: Commentary from Siri!

   As you might have guessed already this is another one of Microsoft's adverts which uses other companies devices to compare with theirs or those of the manufacturers which makes Windows devices. It's relatively funny, but it's not as good as the wedding brawl Lumia ad which we've seen before.

   The ad stars the 64GB iPad and the Asus VivoTab 64GB, which we've currently got in for review! The commentary is offered by Siri and it's basically Microsoft manipulating what she says to compare the things which you can do on fully fledged Windows 8 based tablets for about $200 less!

   Check out the ad below and let us know which device you're more inclined to get in the comments below and keep and eye out for the VivoTab review!

Via MKBHD Twitter.

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Apple's Tim Cook mentions 'new' product category, whilst suggesting there's no new products until the autumn in their earnings call.

   It's that time of year again folks and the earnings are coming in fast and furiously and today we have the details of Apple's latest results as well as a few interesting comments from their CEO Tim Cook.

   The comments are the best place to start because they're pretty darn interesting to say the least. First and foremost Cook said that there's "the potential of exciting new product categories" later in the year, but he didn't say exactly what, but if we were to hedge our bets we'd say that Apple could be planning to put a touch screen on their computers, something to do with TV and we expect to see that iWatch too. Cook also suggested that the rest of the year will be pretty quiet other than that, saying that, "We've got some really great stuff coming in the fall and across 2014," when he was questioned on whether or not we have any products coming in the summer.

   There might be a distinct lack of new products at the moment, but we can at least expect to see iOS7 this summer, probably at some point in June just before the new iPhone arrives. Cook didn't really have much to say about that device, but when asked about the possibility of bigger screened iPhones he said that there were simply too many trade offs at the moment to justify a bigger screen. He listed "resolution, colour, white balance, reflectivity, [and] compatibility with apps," as the reasons why he doesn't feel there needs to be a bigger screen just yet and naturally he reiterated his belief that the iPhone 5 still has the best display on the market. It seems unlikely that the guys at Apple want to go with a bigger screen because that means a new resolution and seeing as they asked developers to patch up their apps last year, it would be a little harsh to make them rework their apps once again this year.

   There was also a small update on how iCloud is going and it seems that the amount of users keeps going up. This time it's been confirmed that Apple had 300 million people using the service, which is up from 250 million in January and it's a considerable increase from the 150 million people who were using it in July last year!

   So how did the actual results look now we know what Apple's planning for the future? Well the Q2 2013 financial results were again positive for Apple. They netted $43.6 billion in revenue giving them a net profit of $9.5 billion in net profit, so revenue is up from the same time last year, where they brought in $39.2 billion, but net profit is slightly down from the $11.6 billion, which is in part down to the smaller profit margin on the iPad Mini.

   When it comes to the actual numbers which Apple shipped then again things were favourable, with the iPhone sales now at 37.4 million which us up 2.3 million from the year before and iPad sales are now at 19.5 million per quarter which is 7.7 million more sales than the year before! iPods on the other hand were down 56% compared to the year before with 5.6 million iPods sold. Mac sales were flat year over year staying at a nice round 4 million units.

   All of that means that Apple are still in a great position; they now have $145 billion in the bank and the "cash generation remains very strong," especially overseas which is where Apple now pulls in 66% of their income from! Not too shabby at all guys and here's how the earnings look, it's very cyclical!

Apple revenue: cyclicality increasing twitter.com/BenedictEvans/…
— Benedict Evans (@BenedictEvans) April 23, 2013

Via PocketLint (1), (2) and (3) and TheVerge.

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YouGov reveal how 'quality Android tablets' affect Apple's market share.

   The tablet market is still very young, the first generation iPad was released three years ago and since then the tablet market has exploded. People have tried 3D tablets, they've tried 10 inch tablets, Microsoft has thrown in their 11.6" Surface tablets and Asus even made a 18.4" desktop tablet which dual-boots Android and Windows 8! 

   So there's been a heck of a lot of experimentation, but one form factor which has hit the sweet spot has been the 7-8" arena and the other area which manufacturers have had success is by offering well built devices.

   YouGov have today reported that consumers now perceive Android devices as 'equal in quality' to the iPad and that these devices are starting to cut into the 'premium' tablet niche which Apple carved out themselves.

   The guys acknowledge that Apple is still the main player in the arena, but that also noted that the company saw their share of the market cut by 10% from Q1 2012 to the same time this year. That doesn't mean that sales of iPads went down, in fact it was the opposite, but other companies started selling more devices too and that ate into Apple's market share.

   According to the YouGov report Samsung has grown their market share by 150% in the past year, coming up from 4% to 10% of the market. Similarly the Nexus 7 has had the, 'most impressive' launch picking up an impressive 8% of the market in 10 months! Amazon's 7" slate the Kindle Fire is now also 5% of sales here in the UK too, so that's seen very impressive growth too! The graph below gives you a better idea of how things have changed!

   The one thing which YouGov highlights as being good news for Apple is how resilient the iPad mini has been to these new tablets. At the moment that device accounts for 4% of the market and it consistently scores higher in the overall satisfaction polls than its Android rivals in eight of nine quality attributes which YouGov uses.

   On a different note the research from the company now shows that nearly one in every five people own a tablet (18%) and that's up 5% since just after Christmas last year!

   All of this has lead the company's Consulting Director of Technology & Telecoms, John Gilbert to say that:

 “With a growing market, greater competition and falling prices, Apple was bound to lose some share.  However, it is not simply a matter of inexpensive products flooding the market.  It seems that Apple no longer has a monopoly on the “premium” share as other brands emerge with near-equal satisfaction scores. Given the market’s current expectations and considerations in purchasing tablets, we anticipate Apple to lose additional share throughout the coming year to Samsung, Google and Amazon.”

   What we want to know is what devices you've got? Have you got a tablet or do you want one? Are you one of those people who bought an iPad or did you pick up one of these new 'quality' Android devices? Let us know in the comments below!
YouGov via PCPro.

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Google set to unleash Google Now onto iOS devices?!

   Android users have probably come to love and be slightly scared by Google Now since it arrived last year! The super-smart people at Google have somehow worked out a way to get your smartphone to learn where you live, the things you like and so you always have a list of things nearby and you know exactly how long it'll take to get to work or back home when road delays have been factored in!

   The video embedded below was spotted by the guys over at Engadget and it seems to say that Google Now will be landing on iOS devices a lot sooner than we think! The YouTube video, which seemingly broke cover a bit too early and was subsequently pulled, has a demonstration of how to access the Now features via the iOS Google Search app!

   There's been no official statement from Google on the matter, as we've come to expect, but surely it'd be good to have a compelling alternative to Siri for Apple users? We're not sure if that means the video is an elaborate hoax, but with the speed at which the video disappeared, we think it was definitely real! What do you think, is this something you would be interested in? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
Via Engadget.

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Is the iPad Mini starting to show up its bigger brother?

   It seems that after last year's introduction of the iPad Mini has had a fair impact on its bigger full sized iPad according to a rumour from Digitimes. The rumour suggests that Apple has cut their shipment estimates of the bigger iPad's down to 33 million units from their original 60 million estimates!

    We think the iPad Mini has had a significant impact because Apple has speculated that they will ship somewhere in the region of 55 million of their smaller iPads, which is 15 million more than their initial estimates.

   Obviously if Digitimes has got this right then Apple will also not be shifting quite as many iPads as they had expected to originally! To compound that the iPad Mini is also the cheaper product which means that Apple will actually have a smaller revenue overall if that becomes the more popular device!

   Now this is just a rumour at the moment, but if it is correct then Apple might have to think about redesigning or doing something to make the standard iPad a more compelling option. It's hard to deny that the iPad Mini is a good looking device and the narrow bezels make it considerably nicer in the hand than the larger more unwieldy iPad.

Digitimes Via PhoneArena.

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02/10/2012

HTC announce the One X+.

   After a couple of leaks earlier in the week made this one of HTC's worst kept secrets in a while, the company has officially confirmed their brand spanking new One X+. 

   The comparisons to the Sensation XE have been acknowledged by HTC themselves, but it's a great attention-grabbing colour scheme and it certainly looks great to our eyes!

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22/08/2012

New iPad incoming? Apple asks for triple the presentation space!

   Today some of MacRumors trusted sources have said to them that Apple resellers in Europe are being asked to increase the display space devoted to the iPad in their stores. This could mean a number of things; Apple wants the iPad to sell better, they want a larger presence in store, but most of all it shoudts "incoming iPad announcement".

   Apparently Apple has given re-sellers a deadline of September 12 to increase their iPad display space, just in time for a certain announcement date that Apple has scheduled! One of the sources specified that Apple has asked for resellers to triple the amount of space reserved for iPads. But, others disagree claiming Mac Pro and Mac Mini displays are the first on the chopping block in order to accommodate this shift.

   Since originally printing the rumor, MacRumors has changed their post saying that this shift in display space has occurred because Apple resellers have devoted only a small amount of space to the iPad and it’s one of Apple’s biggest sellers so they simply want to push the tablet more. September 12th will reveal all!

Everything Everywhere sell Three some spectrum!

   Yesterday Everything Everywhere got confirmation that they will be able to roll out 4G services on their existing range of spectrum and Huawei is hard at work installing 4G receivers in EE's 2G base stations. Everyone was slightly taken aback by the decision because it secured a monopoly period of about a year for the company.

   It seems that Three might have one little reason which helped convince OFCOM that this was a good move. That reason is that EE has sold Three two spectrum 'channels' and the statement below from Three's CEO, Dave Dyson, shows what this will mean to Three.

 “Acquiring this spectrum will more than double the capacity available to customers on our network.  We have seen a huge growth in data consumption with average mobile handset customer usage now more than 1.1GB per month. 

Three has led the market in the significant growth of mobile data consumption and the shift to consumer use of smartphones to access the internet.  New spectrum, supported by further committed technology spend, is a clear signal that we are committed to maintain our lead as the network built for the mobile internet.”

    This is 1800MHz radio spectrum that's been sold but there's one rather important condition. The sale briefly raised the possibility of the UK having competing 4G networks this year until EE crushed that dream by failing to relinquish the bands until September 2013 so Three's statement seems slightly excitable given the short term possibilities.

   The European Commission has already demanded that Everything Everywhere sell off this spectrum as a condition of the Orange and T-Mobile merger. This is pretty negligible to EE because the company is so huge that the network has hold of almost half the UK mobile radio spectrum. So EE offered to sell off two 15MHz-wide blocks before the 4G mega auction, which it has now done, but it won't let Three take possession until the last possible moment required by the EC: September 2013 for two 10MHz blocks, and September 2015 for the rest.

   What do you think is the 4G monopoly a bad thing or will it spur the others on to offer compelling alternatives when their time rolls round?

In other news:

• Microsoft is currently seeking new Beta testers for an upcoming update to their Xbox 360's!

• Our readers from the USA will have seen the news that T-Mobile USA will be offering unlimited internet and we can now confirm the service will be available from September 5th.

• Another interesting bit of news is that we expect Verizon Wireless to offer their customers the next round of Windows Phone 8 devices because everyone needs that third alternative option!

• Amazon's next Kindle tablet has hit the FCC along with the name 'Firedock', unfortunately all we Vknow is that the device will have the usual set of connections that every tablet has, but as soon as we hear more you will be first to know!

• Dell announced today that its profits in the second quarter of this year fell 18% from the year before. That means profits of $732 million something which prompted an after hours stock price dip. Dell's stock is currently down by 4.28% to $11.81 after hours, with the stock finishing the regular trading day at $12.34, only a 1.75% decrease. At least Dell is turning a profit!!!

• An unnamed Verizon employee has told TechCrunch that Verizon has blocked all employees from taking vacations between September 21 and September 30. This move was apparently made in anticipation of the new iPhone's launch.

• The Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 has received a software update today and it brings a bump to Android 4.0.4!

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05/07/2012

Presenting the Motorola Atrix HD for AT&T.

   The rather handsome device above has just popped out of Motorola today. But, we must say it's a looker and the specs are pretty darn good too.

   There's a 4.5-inch 1280 x 720 HD Colorboost display, LTE, and a 1.5GHz dual-core processor. Which is powers Ice Cream Sandwich,  8 and 1.3-megapixel front cameras and Motorola’s own SMARTACTIONS software on top of Android 4.0.

   The goodness doesn't stop here though;  there’s 8GB of user-storage and a microSD card slot, along with a 1,780 mAh battery. The device itself crams all of this into a shell that's 69.9 x 133.5 x 8.4 mm and weighs 140g, and is clad in a soft-touch plastic. The two-tone colour-scheme can be chosen over a titanium-esque finish depending on your preference.

   You also get mobile hotspot functionality – for up to five tethered devices – together with microUSB, HDMI, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS/aGPS, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and the usual bevy of sensors such as an accelerometer, proximity and ambient light. It’s splash-resistant and uses Kevlar for increased ruggedness, along with a Gorilla Glass front.

    Motorola is keen to target the Atrix HD at business users; they've been pushing the Webtop app and it's ability to push your goods through a HDMI output and Bluetooth peripherals, somehting which they hope will make this a computer replacement, although hopefully this implementation will be better than past attempts from Moto. We don't know when it'll officially go on sale or for how much but our detective skills have pushed us to the conclusion that this is destined for AT&T when it eventually gets around to launching.

   One thing to keep an eye on is that the little guy seems to have a relatively stock implementation of Android so maybe, just maybe, Google is starting to assert some authority.

In other news:

• The domain ipad3.com has been handed over to Apple after they complained about someone else owning it.
• The new game Assassins Creed 3: Liberation will use live actors!
• If you've tried the Windows 8 preview then you can upgrade to the real thing for $40!
• The Google Nexus 7, when it hits the UK will lack access to tv shows, magazines and Google music, so perhaps that might take the gloss off of the device for you, but probably not!
• The PS Vita will be getting a whole host of PSOne games this summer as Sony continue to push their slick little gaming station.
• Lenovo have reportedly met with Microsoft to discuss the possibility of customising Windows Phone for use on future devices. This could work out well for both companies because Lenovo have access to their huge home market of China.
• The Nokia N9 received PR1.3 today, which brought over 1000 bug fixes, optimisations and updates.

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What we want from WWDC.

   The picture below was snapped the other day at WWDC, Apple's event where they announce almost everything, except the iPad and iPhones, which launch in March and September/October respectively. This means that the launch of iOS6 is imminent and what better chance to pause, get some more opinions and see where we want this to go and see whether Apple is giving us what we want in regards to all of their devices.

   For this post I've enlisted the help of our resident iOS expert, Shri Shah. He really knows his stuff when it comes to all things Apple and this is what he wants to see come from WWDC.

iOS6.

• Live widgets and wallpapers! It'd be great to see it if icons could reflect what's going on inside the app. A great example would be the weather app; if it's raining change the icon to a rain cloud, if it's sunny you get a sun and a live temperature. Live wallpapers would be a nice addition and although they're available on other operating systems already, it'd be interesting to see Apple's take on the effects on the battery life.

• Apple Maps: This is something which has been widely rumoured in the lead up to today's event and it's about time Apple went head to head with Google and Nokia and created a feasible navigation solution.

• Facebook integration: We've already got Twitter so why not Facebook?! This is something that'd be especially useful in the camera app, so that we don't need to go into the Facebook app and then locate the images again.

• Siri: Siri needs to be on the iPad! And it's already an extremely advanced application so it'd be great to see it officially come out of Beta.

• Safari: The navigation bar on the browser needs to be changed to work like Chrome's; it would make a lot more sense to be able to search and type in the URL in the same space as a time saving measure.

• Notifications: Just more basic options in the notification centre, at the moment it's a bit convoluted. 

• Mobile payments: Google has launched Google Wallet, Barclays has their Paytags and Apple could do... Bluetooth payments instead of NFC. This would allow backwards compatibility with all previous iPhones and would give the service a real impetus given the huge number of iPhones already in the wild.

• Mail filters: It'd be hugely beneficial to allow numbers to be blocked and email addresses to be filtered straight from the device. 

   The huge drive from the changes to iOS, in my mind, would be the creation of a whole new level of customisability within the OS. But, to an extent where everything is still usable and simple but with the added freedom.

Macs:

• The Macbook Pro: Perhaps it's time for the Macbook Pro to become the Macbook. This is something which has been widely rumoured and would greatly simplify the naming structure.

• The Macbook Air: A 15" Macbook Air would be great to see; a well proportioned laptop but with the thinness and portability of the Air Range.

• For all Macs: Retina displays throughout all ranges!!! That'd be perfect especially if it is twinned with a bump to all of the latest processors and SSD's.

Apple TV's.

   In the last few days there's been quite a lot of activity around the Apple TV's, with a refresh being widely tipped. There has also been reports that the UK Apple TV's have been getting software updates over the last few weeks and so there may well be an App Store heading to the device. But any update and refresh would be an improvement over the device at the moment.

   If any or most of these changes actually hit we're in for an exciting week! Keep it locked to TheTechFella for all the latest news from San Francisco this week.

Thanks again Shri!

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