Microsoft has bragged about its growing app store for Windows Phone 7 devices, but the store's offerings are still puny compared to Apple's or Google's stores. The Windows Phone 7 app store has around 10 times less apps than the Android Market and around 30 times less than Apple's App Store. Will Microsoft ever catch up?
Apple's attempt to dominate the living room could stretch even further with the integration of AirPlay technology in HDTVs, according to a Bloomberg report. With AirPlay built into TV sets, users would be able to wirelessly stream content from an iPad, iPhone or Mac straight to the TV, without the need for a $99 Apple TV.
Barnes & Noble's Nook Color e-reader will receive a software update in April, transforming it into a cheap Android tablet. The Home Shopping Network (HSN) spilled the beans on the Nook software update via a product listing on its site.
Timesaving online abbreviations like LOL, OMG and IMHO are now part of the official English language. The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) announced the addition of several initialisms to its only dictionary, adding some interesting trivia behind the origins of these Internet-associated expressions.
With the iPad 2 out and in short supply, the rumor mill's attention is now shifting to what we could expect to see in the new iPhone and iOS 5, the next iteration of Apple's mobile OS. And while the new iPhone 5 is set to arrive some time this summer, a TechCrunch report suggests exciting developments for iOS are coming this fall too.
Microsoft is finally pushing out a software update for Windows Phone 7 devices dubbed NoDo, which brings copy and paste functionality among other minor improvements. Microsoft's revamped mobile OS has been missing copy and paste capabilities since its October launch.
The Nexus S smartphone from Google is coming to Sprint this spring, with added 4G flavors and Android 2.3 Gingerbread. Manufactured by Samsung, the Nexus S 4G will cost $199 with a two-year contract and will run you at $80 per month (including Sprint's $10 monthly 4G tax) for unlimited Web, texting and calling.
Microsoft has nixed any future iterations of its Zune music and video player, according to a Bloomberg report, adding another name on the list of devices killed by Apple's iPod hardware and entertainment ecosystem. Microsoft has yet to make the death of its Zune official, but unofficially it's believed the decision is based on poor demand for its players since the Zune line was introduced almost five years ago.
In anticipation of a new iPhone this summer, major wireless carriers say Apple won't include Near Field Communication (NFC) technology in the iPhone 5, according to the U.K.'s The Independent. Sources at "several of the largest mobile operators in the U.K." told the paper Apple disclosed in meetings that NFC won't be on the feature list of the next iPhone, expected in June or July.
After rushing its tablet to market ahead of Apple's iPad 2 announcement, Motorola is updating its Xoom tablet's software with Flash support. Is it a coincidence it's on the same day Apple's iPad 2 goes on sale? I think not.
The controversial Quickbar feature Twitter introduced in its latest iOS client is now less annoying. Twitter filed an update for the app with Apple, which now modifies the behavior of the Quickbar from floating over tweets to being pinned down at the top.
This time next year Steve Jobs may take to the stage and introduce the iPad 3, while Microsoft is still working on a tablet-tailored Windows, according to a Bloomberg report. A few months after, though, Microsoft will release a tablet-friendly version of Windows in time for the 2012 back-to-school season, according to the report's unnamed sources.
Judged on specs alone, the Apple iPad 2 doesn't do much more than keep pace with its tablet rivals. It's a bit thinner that its major rivals -- the Motorola Xoom, Galaxy Tab 10.1, HP TouchPad and BlackBerry PlayBook -- and lighter than most. But its processor appears to be on a par with other tablets and its cameras' resolutions seem to be less.
Openness, one of Android's big advantages, can also be the Achilles' heel of the platform. Google has pulled the kill switch on 21 free malware apps from the Android Market and from around 50,000 devices, according to reports. The apps were free illegal downloads of popular apps in the Android Market, repackaged with malware able to steal details from a user's phone.
Despite apparent light demand for the Verizon iPhone 4 on launch day, estimates suggest Verizon and Apple sold around one million of the devices by the end of its weekend. Scott Moritz of The Street reports that analyst estimates put the number of Verizon iPhone 4 sales on launch weekend to one million, 600,000 of which were preorders.