Jordan Kahn

According to a report from Smart Office, Samsung is requesting Apple provide them with the “source code for iPhone 4S firmware” as it attempts to ban the device in Australia. Not only that, they also want Apple to hand over the details of subsidy agreements with all Australian carriers.

Samsung counsel Cynthia Cochrane told the federal court that on top of the source code, they would also need details on the agreements in place with Vodafone, Telstra, and Optus. Specifically, Samsung wants to know the subsidies these carriers are currently paying Apple (a subsidy that is typically higher by $200 than the industry average). Cochrane explains:

“It goes to show that since the iPhone 3G was made available in Australia in July 2008, the impact on the market for every iPhone product has been significant, and has lead to a substantial increase … in market share by revenue. If subsidies are given for the iPhone 4S, there are less to go around for my client’s products.”

Despite these subsidies, carriers such as Sprint think the iPhone is “worth every penny”. When it comes to handing over source code, Apple reportedly denies the infringement claims and says Samsung agreed to license the three wireless 3G-related patents in question under FRAND agreements. Samsung thinks that agreement doesn’t cover Apple in Australia and claims Apple denied previous attempts to extend the license internationally. While the report claims Apple “said they will have to wait for advice before” handing it over, they also claimed a third-party license owned by Qualcomm (who helped develop the MDM6610 chip inside the 4S that allegedly infringes on wireless patents) automatically covers the company.

While we will have to wait to find out what comes of this, it’s worth noting Justice Annabel Bennet, the same judge who handed out the injunction against Samsung’s Tab 10.1, will be handling the case.  The proceedings will continue November 4 and a full hearing will follow.

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Along with updates to the Google Reader UI and the roll out of the GoogleTV 2.0 update, an update to the Google+ app for Android is live on the market today. The update brings so many changes, Lead Product Manager of Google+ Games and Mobile is calling it a “completely new Google+ app”

The UI has been given a complete overhaul and now seems like it will fit in a little nicer with the impending Ice Cream Sandwich roll out (it also closer resembles the iOS Google+ app UI). Among the other enhancements to the app– improved battery performance, notification improvements, a new posting UI, support for Google Apps users, and the ability to sign out. You can also now add people to a circle from circle profiles.

Android Police notes that the update removes the Google+ widget but Google+ Mobile product manager Punit Soni has confirmed that it will return soon for non-ICS devices. You should see the new Google+ app appearing in the market today. More images and full list of new features below.

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You might associate Korea’s Pantech with cheap, entry-level Android phones, but their new line of Android-powered Vega LTE smartphones pack in some pretty competitive specs on top of Kinect-style gestures for navigating the phone without actually touching the screen.

As you can see in the video above, gestures will allow you to wave your hand in front of the device to perform tasks such as answering a call, and according to All Things D, playing music. The technology comes from Israeli touch-free interface experts eyeSight Mobile Technologies, who also mention the ability to browse eBooks, manage presentations, play games, and more on their website. The company is working with a ton of other OEMs shipping Android devices to integrate their software-based Hand Gesture Recognition Technology. We haven’t got our hands on the tech yet, and we’re not sure if it will eventually become the go-to technology for touch-free interfaces on Android (we already know Apple is experimenting), but it’s intriguing nonetheless.

We already learned about the Pantech Vega LTE earlier this month, which sports a 4.5-inch 1280 x 800 display, 1 GB of RAM, 1.5GHz Qualcomm processor, 1830mAh battery, 16GB internal memory, NFC-capabilities, and measures 9.35mm thin. The Vega LTE lineup will be hitting the Korean market in November. Images after the break.

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Not too much of a surprise following all of the new Kindle variants announced by Amazon, Barnes & Noble just sent out invites to a Nook-related media event slated for November 7th in New York. The company isn’t giving away too much on the invite, but as All Things D points out, they last used the venue to launch the 6-inch eInk touchscreen Nook. The “join us for a very special announcement” tagline leads us and just about everyone else to believe this will be a product unveiling, specifically, a new Nook.

Like everyone else, we’re not sure exactly what to expect. We could get an updated Nook Color, a variant or price drop on the e-ink Nook, or perhaps both. With the 7-inch Kindle Fire shipping November 15th for $199, perhaps a beefed up Nook Color 2 will land at the $249 price tag currently on the Nook Color, allowing the Nook Color to get a price drop and compete with the Fire at $199. At the very least we know whatever is announced will be geared towards competing with the new Kindle lineup.

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We got the highlights before but here’s the whole hour long interview.

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Important quotes below:
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Much like they recently did in the streets of San Francisco, the Google Wallet team is partnering with Sprint and Samsung to bring demos of the Mastercard-powered NFC payment tech to retail stores in Chicago, Washington DC, New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles between now and January. In addition to trying out Google Wallet on a Samsung Nexus S demo unit during one of the half-day events, you’ll get $10 towards your purchase in the process. The events have already kicked off this month in New York and Chicago.

The roadshow will be hitting various retail locations including Jamba Juice, Walgreens, Foot Locker, Duane Reade, Peet’s Coffee & Tea, Chelsea Market, and Fat Witch Bakery, among others. You can check out the times (which are all in EST) at the full event calendar here. Dates for the five cities are listed below:

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AT&T just put out a press release announcing their first truly 4G LTE devices will be coming to their network this Sunday with the HTC Vivid and Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket.

First up is the Galaxy S II Skyrocket variant. Not so surprisingly, this device will sport a 4.5-inch Super AMOLED Plus display (800×480 pixels), 1.5GHz dual-core processor, 8-megapixel main cam (2-megapixel front-facing), Android 2.3.5, and comes with 16GB of internal memory. You’ll be able to grab the Skyrocket on the typical two-year commitment for $250.

The HTC Vivid will come with a 4.5-inch qHD display (960 x 540), 8-megapixel camera with f2.2 28mm wide angle lens and 1080p video recording, 16GB on-board storage (microSD expandable to 32GB), and a 1.2 GHz dual-core processor. The Vivid will be available in both black and white for $200 on the same two-year contract. Interestingly, neither device appears to be coming with any type of “4G” branding within its name.

The company will also be rolling out their 4G LTE network to four new markets including Washington DC, Boston, Athens GA, and Baltimore on the same day, November 6. The expansion brings the network to nine markets with current deployments in Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston and San Antonio and plans to reach 15 markets by the end of the year. Full press release and images below.

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If you had any doubt that HTC would indeed stick with the “Rezound” branding (Vigor?), the image above, snapped by someone over at the Droid Life community, showing the device with the expected Beats by Dr. Dre headphones and red soft buttons. The company is expected to unveil the Rezound at an upcoming November 3rd press event New York. The Rezound is rumored to sport a 4.3-inch 720p display, 1.5 GHz dual-core processor, 8-megapixel main camera, and 4G LTE capabilities.

HTC has also just announced their Q3 earnings report (via SlashGear) where they recorded 13.2 million handsets shipped, accounting for a 68 profit growth and 93 percent increase from the last year quarter. They also announced profits of NT$18.68 billion (US$624 million), and a 79 percent year over year increase for revenues with NT$135.82 billion (US$4.5 billion). The company didn’t disclose which products, or more specifically which Android devices, make up which portions of the numbers.  This comes on the heels of Samsung announcing an unconfirmed 28 million units shipped in Q3 to surpass Apple who announced approximately 17.1 million iPhones sold during the quarter (which of course didn’t include sales of the new iPhone 4S).

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Samsung wrapped up their Galaxy event in London last night (above) where they made a November 3rd UK launch date official for the 5.3-inch Galaxy Note and also gave us a closer look into the S-Pen SDK and “S Choice” apps designed specifically for the Note’s built-in Wacom digitizer stylus tech.

Among the “S Choice” apps that will be available upon launch include OmniSketch, Zen Brush, ComicBook!, iAnnotate PDF, ZigZag virtual whiteboard, and Soonr Workplace. The majority of these apps are art-focused sketching, animation, and annotation apps, but Soonr Workplace is a productivity suite of sorts that includes document collaboration among other features.

Samsung will be making the S-Pen SDK available to devs starting in December so they can start developing apps specifically for the stylus. If you haven’t yet got a chance to check out the S-Pen in action, the video of yesterday’s event above has some live demos of artists creating some pretty incredible creations using the apps we just told you about.

The Galaxy Note packs in a 5.3-inch Super AMOLED display, 1.4 GHz dual core processor, 5100 mAmp battery, supports native 720p video, and has a 7 1/2 mm thin design. Samsung will continue to roll out the Note to the rest of major European markets by the end of November. You can check out the latest Samsung Galaxy advert here.

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Following this afternoon’s announcement that Google Apps users would now have access to Google+, Google announced some updates to the service via the Official Google Blog.

While noting that over 1 billion items of content are shared on Google+ each day, they announced a  new “What’s Hot” (video above) feature that will display the most popular items in two different places. The first place is after the latest posts in your stream and the second place is a standalone stream accessible from the sidebar on the left.

The new Ripples feature will allow you view to track analytics of public posts by clicking the arrow in the upper right corner of a post followed by the “View Ripples” option from the context menu. From there you will be able to view top comments and public shares as well as view and zoom in on activity related to the post using a timeline and interactive infographics. Check out the video of Ripples in action below:

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We knew it was coming when Google’s Vic Gundotra told us it was just “a number of days”, and less than a week later Google has officially announced Google+ for Google Apps users. Apps users will have access to the same features as regular Google+ users and those who have new services set to automatically enable will notice the service become available for all members over the next few days. Apps users will also have the ability to share with everyone in an organization when making a post, opposed to only being able to select to share publicly or with a circle.

You will be able to enable Google+ for your organization or for select members by clicking the “Organization & users” tab, followed by the “Services” sub-tab, and selecting “ON” next to Google+ under “Other Google Services”.

There will also be a migration tool in the next few weeks for those who started using Google+ with a regular Google account and want to switch to their Google apps account. This will allow you to import your ciricles and also allow you to remain in other people’s circles while switching to the new profile. Note: Google+ for Apps users requires Picasa Web Albums and Google Talk for chat services to be enabled.

Here’s the Admin video on how to enable your org:

As part of the announcement, Google also gave a list of Google Apps for Education universities that are rolling out Google+ to their campuses:

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As part of Google’s ongoing effort to expand their Google Offers service and compete with daily deal aggregators like Groupon, the company announced today plans to expand the service with 14 new deal providers and deals tuned to your interests with a new personalization quiz.

Included in the list of new (mostly little known) providers–Dealfind, Gilt City, DoodleDeals, HomeRun, Juice in the City, GolfNow, kgbdeals, TIPPR, PopSugar Shop, Mampedia, ReachDeals, Plum District, Active.com, zozi, and Schwaggle. All of these services will now have their daily deals displayed through Google Offers as the company aims to provide offers in several new categories including outdoor adventure sports, educational classes, luxury experiences, and events geared towards families. According to TechCrunch, Google will also be handling the customer support for the new deal providers as well.

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We reported earlier this month that the Wall Street Journal was claiming Sony was close to closing a deal to buy out swedish partner Telefon AB L.M. Ericsson’s 50% stake of the Sony Ericsson brand. Today the deal has been made official with Sony buying out Ericsson for 1.05 billion euros ($1.5 billion). According to the press release, the move will allow Sony to better integrate smartphones into its other product lines– tablets, PCs, TVs, and games consoles. It will also give them full ownership over “five essential patent families” related to wireless smartphone tech, which could obviously help the company easier implement tech being used in their smartphones into other devices.

Sony’s Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and President Sir Howard Stringer noted the deal would allow the company to put its “four-screen strategy in place” and allow them to offer services like the PlayStation and Sony Entertainment networks on all devices. We know Microsoft is focused on integrating Xbox Live and their other services with Windows phones, and it looks like Sony has plans to give the same treatment to their smartphones going forward with help from the PlayStation. Maybe the Xperia Play wont be the only PlayStation certified phone in the near future.

Its clear Sony isn’t going to just let the failing Sony Ericsson brand, which only captured approximately two percent of the worldwide mobile phone market last year, fall by the wayside in an Apple and Samsung dominated smartphone market. Even with considerable success since forming the partnership in 2001, Sony Ericsson’s brand recognition has arguably never been on par with the Sony brand associated with the Walkman, PlayStation, Sony TVs, and other iconic Sony products most of us grew up with. On top of acquiring the patents necessary to integrate smartphones with their other products, perhaps dropping Ericsson and branding devices simply as “Sony” smartphones will bring back some of that brand recognition that has obviously done companies like Apple well.

Full press release from Sony below:

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Qualcomm has just announced FastCV, the first “mobile-optimized computer vision (CV) library” of APIs that will help CV applications run smoother on ARM-based devices, specifically Qualcomm’s second-gen and up Snapdragon processors. While this might not mean much to you now, it will eventually enable devs to implement apps that utilize face & gesture detection and recognition more efficiently. Qualcomm explains in a blog post:

FastCV is designed for developers interested in creating sophisticated CV apps, as well as CV middleware developers looking to build the frameworks necessary for everyday developers to include computer vision functionality in their apps. Of course, FastCV is the framework at the heart of our vision-based Augmented Reality (AR) SDK, because AR is much more precise and useful when it’s based on camera input than on location-based estimates. We anticipate FastCV will be used by middleware developers to build additional frameworks that will allow developers of computer vision apps to build compelling experiences around CV that take advantage of: gesture recognition, face detection, tracking and recognition, text recognition and tracking, and depth of field calculations.

The FastCV SDK will be made available for Android first on October 26 at the IEEE ISMAR conference in Basel, Switzerland, but you can grab it here if you have a validated Qualcomm developer account.

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While you might usually ignore the 99 cent Android apps being discounted on Amazon, you’ll probably want to grab today’s deal with productivity suite OfficeSuite Professional 5 discounted from $15 to $0. If you’re unfamiliar with the app, expect the ability to create, view, edit, and share Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files. (as well as view PDFs) with a slick file browser, Google Docs integration, and a two-pane UI optimized for Honeycomb tablet users. The app’s page on the Market also claims it’s the only “mobile office for Android that allows opening of password protected” files. We haven’t had time to put OfficeSuite 5 to the test, but many OEMs including Sony Ericsson selected it to come preinstalled on over 20 million devices, so they must be doing something right. There’s a video of the app in action courtesy of AndroidAuthority after the break.

If you haven’t checked out the latest version, here’s what’s new in OfficeSuite 5:

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It looks like the Galaxy Nexus will be landing in the hands of UK customers first, as online retailer Phones4U has just posted a November 16th delivery date through carrier Orange. Google and Samsung haven’t made anything official on pricing and a solid release window, but a mid-November launch would certainly make sense leading up to the holidays.

In related news, Google has apparently confirmed that Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, which was launched alongside the Galaxy Nexus, will not be making its way to the original Nexus One. The Telegraph reports Google’s Hugo Barra has confirmed the device’s hardware is “simply too old” to run the new OS.

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Seen in the viral video above endorsing Ed Lee for mayor of San Francisco is Google’s vice president of Local, Maps & Location Services Marissa Mayer, and, director of Product Management focused on YouTube, Hunter Walk. You might also notice a couple of other notable appearances including Twitter’s Biz Stone, and will.i.am of  The Black Eye Peas.

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Android Product Manager at Google Gabe Cohen made a post on Google+ today entitled “This one goes out to my IT pals” outlining some of the new enterprise-focused features in Ice Cream Sandwich. Here’s what he had to say.

First Gabe talks about security and encryption:

“We openly share how we implemented encryption within Android using Linux dm-crypt (see more details at http://source.android.com/tech/encryption/android_crypto_implementation.html), and we will soon open-source our implementation for further review within the Android community. ICS adds ASLR to Android to protect the system and apps from memory exploits. ICS also has a new public keychain framework to make it easier for applications to manage authentication and secure sessions. And, as with every release, ICS fixes bugs, cleans up permissions, and improves end user insight into security issues.”

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HTC just sent out invites for the unveiling of their “latest innovation” slated for November 3rd in NYC. Judging by the Beats by Dr. Dre logo, whatever is announced will most likely benefit from that recently acquired audio tech. Many sources are speculating we’ll get a look at the leaked HTC Rezound  (codenamed HTC Vigor). That device is rumored to have a 1.5 GHz dual-core processor, 4.3-inch 720- HD display, 4G LTE capabilities, an 8-megapixel camera, and 2-megapixel front-facing camera. We’ll have to wait until next Thursday at 5PM EST to find out for sure.

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We first got a look at the Samsung Galaxy Note at IFA in Berlin early last month. While they’ve teased a November release date since, we haven’t heard much from Samsung regarding their stylus-equipped, hybrid tablet/smartphone until today.  The advert above, which in our opinion is done quite well, proves Samsung’s marketing team might actually be headed in the right direction.

Focusing mainly on the 5.3-inch Super AMOLED display and “S Pen” stylus apps, the advert shows off the advantages of apps designed specifically for the stylus. The user in the ad starts with an image, uses the S Pen to draw, saves and crops an image, adds that the cropped image to the drawing, and finally sends it.

The ad ends with the tagline, “Phone? Tablet? Feel Free, It’s Galaxy Note”, an obvious hint at making your own decision as to whether you consider it a tablet or phone. Either way, as the gimmick and shock value of the stylus wears away, the Galaxy Note is starting to look more and more enticing. If you’re unfamiliar, the device sports a 1.4 GHz dual core processor, runs Gingerbread (ICS?), 5100 mAamp battery, native 720p video, and is 7 and half mm thin. We’re expecting to learn more when Samsung takes the stage at their Galaxy Note event in London tomorrow. Stay tuned for the latest.

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Canadians are getting a little bit of love today from Google as Google Map Maker for Canada officially goes live. The project has been available in the U.S. since earlier this year and elsewhere since 2008, but now Canadians too can add local geographic data to Google Maps.

By heading over to www.google.ca/mapmaker, you can now start adding points of interest (adding/naming buildings, restaurants, schools, etc.), rivers, trails and roads, or update existing landmarks to make them more accurate. Of course all of your edits will first have to be approved for accuracy by Google engineers before being displayed on Google Maps.

The tool isn’t too difficult to use. You can easily select a route for a bike path or newly constructed road, drop a familiar red pin to add a point of interest, or draw a shape to add a building or landmark. You’ll already notice a lot of edits and additions to the Canada map, as Canadian Google employees have been testing out the tool in preparation of today’s launch.

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