Jordan Kahn

JK Shin, head of Samsung’s mobile division, told reporters today (via Reuters) that the company expects to sell over 10 million units of the recently launched Galaxy S III during July. Despite concerns of component shortages for the flagship device, the company is expecting higher earnings for its current quarter compared to the $3.6 billion profit generated from January to March:

Samsung kicked off global sales of its Galaxy S III on May 29, but shipments have been affected by the tight supply of parts such as the handset casing for the pebble-blue model… In the United States, where sales were launched last Thursday, major carriers including Sprint Nextel Corp, T-Mobile and AT&T have not been able to offer the Galaxy with 32 gigabytes of memory, partly due to tight supply… “Due to overwhelming demand for the Galaxy S III worldwide, Samsung has informed us they will not be able to deliver enough inventory of Galaxy S III for Sprint to begin selling the device on June 21.”

Shin assured reporters that the company is not worried about the shortages affecting second quarter results. Shin noted “supply simply can’t meet soaring demand,” but he claimed, “things will get better from next week”:

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Gizmodo AU claimed this morning to have reviewed a training document related to Google’s upcoming tablet that is set to be unveiled at Google I/O this month. While we have had several leaks in the months leading up to the event, today’s report —if legitimate—provides us with some exact specs for the Nexus-branded, Asus-built slate. According to Gizmodo, the tablet will hit at least Australia in July and be the first to run Jelly Bean with the following specs:

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jh3N_9Vd8Us&feature=player_embedded]

Last night, during our coverage of Samsung’s U.S. Galaxy S III launch event in New York, we told you Chief Marketing Officer Tom Pendleton claimed the company would be “launching the biggest marketing campaign in Samsung’s U.S. history” for the device. The marketing strategy would include 40,000 interactive posters and 50 kiosks popping up around the country in the coming weeks, but first we get a pair of new ads. The first ad, titled “The Next Big Thing Is Here” (above), shows off a few of the device’s flagship features such as AllShare Play and S Beam. The second ad, below, highlights the “Pop up play” feature that allows you to watch video and text simultaneously. If you have not made up your mind the on the S III, check out our full hands-on review of the device.

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In a post on the Android Developers blog, Google today outlined how it will be improving the ability for developers and app users to connect with one another through Google Play. Starting with an initial rollout today for Top Developers, devs will now have the ability to reply to user reviews from within the Google Play Android Developer Cosnole:

Developers can gather additional information, provide guidance, and — perhaps most importantly — let users know when their feature requests have been implemented…We’ll also notify the user who wrote the review via email that the developer has responded. Users can then contact the developer directly if additional followup is needed or update their review.

Google noted it will begin to offer the feature to additional developers as it gathers feedback on the feature from developers and users.

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bn2QbwcjmOI&feature=player_embedded]

In a post on the Official Google Blog, Google today outlined the work it has done on a new initiative called the “Endangered Languages Project.” In partnership with the Alliance for Linguistic Diversity, Google put together a new website with the goal of allowing people to “find and share the most up-to-date and comprehensive information about endangered languages.”

Documenting the 3,000+ languages that are on the verge of extinction (about half of all languages in the world) is an important step in preserving cultural diversity, honoring the knowledge of our elders and empowering our youth. Technology can strengthen these efforts by helping people create high-quality recordings of their elders (often the last speakers of a language), connecting diaspora communities through social media and facilitating language learning.

As part of the project, the website will allow people to upload content to help document over 3,000 languages that are on the brink of extinction. Google gave an example of materials that have already been uploaded to the website, including: “18th-century manuscripts to modern teaching tools like video and audio language samples and knowledge-sharing articles.” The post also noted the project will aid people in creating and uploading “high-quality recordings of their elders (often the last speakers of a language),” which allows communities to connect through social networking and provide tools to facilitate language learning.

Going forward, Google will allow a number of organizations already involved in preserving the dying languages to run its project:

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After years of major record labels keeping the revenue from their ad-supported content on YouTube and VEVO, HollywoodReporter reported today that the National Music Publishers’ Association announced a deal with Universal Music Group (one of the owners of VEVO), which will see the label pay indie music publishers for the content:

The NMPA termed the agreement, which covers North America, a groundbreaking model licensing deal because it will allow songwriters and music publishers to share in revenue from music videos. Up until now, while Youtube and VEVO were making money on their ad-supported services, indie music publishers had not shared in that revenue because the major labels long considered videos as promotional tools and never paid for licensing the songs used in the videos. But as it became a growing revenue stream, indie publishers began to grumble that the major labels paid the major publishing companies but none of the independent music publishers.

The specifics of the deal have not been made public, but the report claimed that sources said publishers would get 15 percent of advertising revenues related to their content. It also claimed the deal would be “retroactive back to 2008” with the amount for 2008 and 2009 set at 10 percent. The deal is said to cover not just music videos, but also “concert footage, backstage videos and artist interviews.”

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Amazon officially confirmed this morning that it would open its Appstore to international users for the first time since launching in the United States last year. The countries in the initial international rollout scheduled for “this summer” include the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, and Spain. Amazon is inviting developers to visit its developer portal to begin localizing and preparing their apps for distribution in the new countries. It also noted developers would be able to select specific countries and set prices by market, but developers will by default have their apps made available internationally.

As part of the announcement, Amazon also explained it would introduce two new changes to the Amazon Mobile App Distribution Agreement that benefit developers. Most importantly, developers will now earn 70 percent of paid app sales starting July 1.

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According to a report from Bloomberg, LG decided to put its tablet development on hold to focus on smartphones and other devices:

“We’ve decided to put all new tablet development on the back burner for the time being in order to focus on smartphones,” Ken Hong, a spokesman for Seoul-based LG, said in an e-mailed response to queries.

Clearly, LG’s Optimus Pad LTE that released earlier this year is not doing too well. The report continued by claiming Hong confirmed LG was still open to making Windows phones, but it would focus on its Android smartphones, such as the Optimus line, for the time being. So why is LG shutting down its tablet business? A few of our best guesses are below:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYEtiWUHCRM&feature=player_embedded]

Google just announced new custom themes will come to Gmail that allows users to upload their own background images (or select from Google+ photos), browse from a selection of “Featured Photos,” or enter a URL of any image. The video above pretty much speaks for itself, but Google noted it would roll out the new themes for users over the next couple of days with both Light and Dark options.

You can upload your own images directly, select from your Google+ photos or simply paste any image URL. Or, if you don’t have a particular image in mind, you can browse our searchable Featured Photos section to find one that speaks to you. With so many great options, it may be hard to choose, so to get a sense of the images available, try searching for ‘hdr scenery’ or ‘bokeh wallpaper’ in the Featured tab.

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Google just announced on the official Google Mobile Blog that it is releasing a Google Offers app for iPhone. The app is available on the App Store now for United States users, which is just in time to take advantage of today’s Netflix deal that offers movie theatre tickets for $1 to new subscribers (free one-month trial available here). Google outlined the available cities and some features for the iPhone app below:

Cities available (US only): Atlanta, Austin, Baltimore, Boston, Brooklyn, Charlotte, Chicago, Columbus, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Fort Worth, Houston, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Miami, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, NYC, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Pittsburgh, Portland, Oakland / East Bay, Oklahoma City, Omaha, Orlando, Sacramento, Salt Lake City, San Antonio, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose, Seattle, St. Paul, St. Louis, Tampa and Washington D.C.

• Instant savings, just around the corner: Quickly discover offers near you in map view or search for deals by category to easily find the right deal for you.
• See & use the deals you want, when you want them: All of your purchased and saved offers are tracked in “My Offers,” for easy access from your iPhone or online.
• Savings made simple: Instantly redeem most offers with your iPhone, without having to print vouchers.
• Never miss a great deal: Get notifications when new deals are available or when a deal that you’ve purchased or saved is about to expire.

We heard several reports in the past that Google was working on various evolutions of its Voice Actions platform for Android. We heard of “Project Majel” in December, which, according to reports, is the codename for a new voice-controlled assistant app similar to Siri. In March, TechCrunch reported on a similar project dubbed “Google Assistant.” According to a new report from the Wall Street Journal, Google is accelerating its plans to launch a competitor to Apple’s Siri:

Google, meanwhile, has accelerated plans to launch its own Siri competitor that would work on Android-powered devices, people familiar with the matter have said.

The report does not offer any additional details on the project, but it noted: “In coming weeks, Google is expected to unveil a lower-priced Android tablet that it developed with Asustek Computer.” Google recently acquired Clever Sense, the makers of popular local recommendations app Alfred, and some have speculated the technology could be included in Google Siri competitor. Many expect the Google tablet, mentioned by WSJ, to unveil later this month at Google I/O, where we could also possibly see some of Jelly Bean and this rumored assistant feature.

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As noted in a recent post on the Official Google Blog, Google recently made changes to the Transparency Report that launched a couple of years ago to report data on “government requests.” The interactive reports, which are available here, already included user data requests from courts and government agencies, real-time and historical traffic from various Google services worldwide, and removal requests from both governments and copyright owners. Google is adding data related to government requests today for user information and the removal of blogs posts and videos made from July 2011 to December 2011:

Today we’re releasing data showing government requests to remove blog posts or videos or hand over user information made from July to December 2011… Unfortunately, what we’ve seen over the past couple years has been troubling, and today is no different. When we started releasing this data in 2010, we also added annotations with some of the more interesting stories behind the numbers. We noticed that government agencies from different countries would sometimes ask us to remove political content that our users had posted on our services. We hoped this was an aberration. But now we know it’s not… For the six months of data we’re releasing today, we complied with an average of 65% of court orders, as opposed to 47% of more informal requests.

An example of some of the requests is outlined by Google’s Senior Policy Analyst Dorothy Chou:

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Speaking at the Reuters Media and Technology Summit yesterday, YouTube chief Salar Kamangar talked about the video service’s desire to include subscription-based offerings that would possibly rival traditional cable channels. Reuters explained:

Cable channels with smaller audiences will in the future migrate to the Web and become available on an “a la carte” basis, Kamangar said at the Reuters Media and Technology Summit on Thursday… Some of those channels, which Kamangar said receive little or no affiliate fees from cable distributors, could be one of the viable offerings for Google-owned YouTube as it weighs selling subscriptions to some of the hundreds of millions of people who watch videos on the website every month.

The report also noted YouTube is thinking about charging a fee for access to some of its recently launched partner content channels:

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Hangouts on Google+ are often touted as one of the social networks flagship features, which is why it is not too surprising that Google has now integrated YouTube into the feature. Available through a “YouTube” link at the top of the Hangouts screen, after users have allowed access to the app, members of the hangout can add videos for everyone to view in a familiar YouTube playlist on the right. The playing video airs in the large part of the screen above the active members, while everyone sees and can edit the same videos or playlist. Google explained:

Everyone can add videos in the Hangout through a search tool in the app, or remove the videos you don’t like. All your friends in the Hangout can drag and drop videos to sort the order in the playlist, or skip forward or backward to play the next one. Click the “Push to talk” button to chat with the group to give props to the best curator, or to hand out reprimands to the friend who keeps adding the 10-hour Nyan Cat video.

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William Blair analyst Anil Doradla (via Barron’s) wrote in his notes today that the iPhone is still the best-selling smartphone across the United States, but it is coming “under pressure, particularly at Verizon” due to the carrier’s aggressive marketing of 4G-capable devices. Citing his checks of sales for the current quarter as of June, Doradla claimed the Motorola Droid RAZR MAXX outsold the iPhone on Verizon:

Since Apple’s iPhone launch in North America, we believe this was the first quarter where the iPhone was not the best‐selling smartphone at a North American mobile operator (where it was available). While Apple continued to maintain its top position at AT&T and Sprint, Motorola’s Droid RAZR MAXX was the best‐ selling smartphone at Verizon. Our checks also indicate that at this stage consumers are not pausing in front of the iPhone launch as it is not influencing their purchasing decisions (but we expect it to start impacting over the next couple of months).

While the RAZR MAXX took the top spot, Samsung’s Galaxy Nexus grabbed third position behind the iPhone, according to Doradla. He backed his “outperform” rating on Apple by saying he is “not worried” given the next generation iPhone, which is likely due in October, is expected to include 4G LTE capabilities:

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While it already made the rounds at the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show, Sony and AT&T made things official today for the Xperia Ion. It is coming exclusively to the carrier starting June 24. Available for $100 on the usual two-year contract, Sony’s first LTE device packs a 4.6-inch (1,280-by-720) “Reality” display, 1.5Ghz dual-core processor, 12-megapixel main, 720p front-facing cameras, and 16GB of memory via microSD. It is also PlayStation Certified. AT&T will make the Sony Xperia Ion available through its regular retail channels on June 24.

[tweet https://twitter.com/reneritchie/status/213274278693576705]

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