While Nintendo is darn proud of its attempts to differentiate itself from other console manufacturers with its unusual hardware choices, it looks like Sony also had plenty of touchscreen-toting, TV-connected ideas way back in 2010.

These patent sketches explain a handheld device that bares a foggy resemblance to Nintendo’s incoming Wii U. The “position-dependent gaming, 3-D controller, and handheld as a remote,” would act as the “input to a video game” — or controller, as we technical types like to call it — adding in some augmented reality functionality as an overlay to camera input on the device.

The PS Vita is already capable of doing most of what’s posited above, including the ability to hook up to its older (bigger) brother, the PS3 — possibly that anonymous box you can see above. If such a mystery device does appear, at least it looks like Sony’s got its bases covered, again.

SOURCE via Joystiq

According to the latest research from the NPD group, Apple has got its second wind in smartphone sales. In the same quarter that saw the iPhone 4S reinvent the wheel obey our every vocal whim, the trio of available models soaked up a total of 43 percent of the US smartphone market in Q4 2012, apparently gnawing away at Android’s market share of 53 percent held during the rest of 2011. However, Google’s mobile OS appears to be the debutante smartphone of choice, cornering 57 percent of new purchases, with 34 percent going for Apple.

The remaining 9 percent is distributed between the smartphone also-rans, with the likes of Windows Phone and BlackBerry languishing in that anonymous grey bar at the top. The top five handsets from NPD’s Mobile Phone Track service is an Apple and Samsung love-in, with iOS devices claiming the three top spots, followed by the Samsung Galaxy S II (we assume collectively) and the Galaxy S 4G.

SOURCE via NPD

The latest figures are in from IDC: the top three global smartphone makers are Nokia, Samsung and Apple, in that order. Drilling down into the figures finds some surprises: Cupertino’s third-place with only 8.7 percent of the market, while the giants of Korea and Finland are duking it out with 22.8 percent and 26.6 respectively. LG and ZTE are tied for fourth, but that’s hardly good news for Goldstar, given that it’s lost a staggering 42.2 percent of its market share in the last twelve months (Nokia was the other loser, eating 8.2 percent). The cause for the drop is in part the world’s rejection of feature-phones (dropped faster than fashionistas rightly abandoned Ugg Boots and Jeggings) as millions upgraded to smartphones. After the break we’ve got the tables in full for anyone who wants to have their mind blown at the sheer quantity of handsets shipped in the last year, both financial and calendar.

Top five mobile phone vendors, shipments and market share: Q4 2011 (Units in millions)

Top five mobile phone vendors, shipments and market share: Calendar Year 2011 (Units in Millions)

SOURCE via IDC

2011: the year Smartphones supplanted computers, at least according to the bundle of spreadsheets that just arrived from Canalys Research. Vendors shipped (shipped, not sold) 488 million of the devices, compared to 414.6 million “PCs,” which erroneously includes Tablet PCs of all shapes and sizes. Looking at Smartphones exclusively (IDC’s numbers from yesterday concerned all mobile handsets), Apple remains king of the hill having shipped 93.1million iPhones. Samsung is close behind, with 91.9 million and Nokia is kicking along in third with 19.6 million. For all of the doomsaying around RIM, it’s nestled in fourth, although Canalys chose not to include its numbers. Framing the research as “PCs versus Smartphones” isn’t the wisest, given the fragmentation and hybridization prevalent in the market today. Drilling down into those numbers, we learn that 63.2 million tablets were pushed out last year, cannibalizing netbook shipments (dropping 34.5 percent in a year), but desktop and laptop movements remained relatively stable. We’ve included the full report and the most relevant table of data for your perusal and insight (hint: there’s no points for saying netbooks are on the way out).

Worldwide Smartphone and Client PC Shipments (in millions)

However, Samsung edged out the company by a small margin for the entire year. Samsung sold 36 million smartphones in Q4 and 95 million in 2011, followed by Apple with 93 million devices. Apple was able to grow its phone sales by 96 percent in 2011, while Samsung achieved a 278 percent jump.

Nokia fell into third place as smartphone shipments declined by 23 percent to 77 million units. Sony Ericsson was fourth with 20 million and Motorola fifth with 19 million smartphones. IHS said that it was not able shipment numbers from other suppliers, including HTC and LG, which have not reported their numbers yet.

“Apple’s introduction of the 4S in the fourth quarter unleashed tremendous pent-up demand for the iPhone as consumers awaited the arrival of the latest model,” said Wayne Lam, senior analyst, wireless communications at IHS. “This caused the company’s smartphone shipments to surge, allowing it to retake market leadership by a slight margin. However, Apple and Samsung continue to run neck and neck in global smartphone shipments, setting up a tight battle for leadership that will continue throughout 2012.”

It’s been over fifteen years since MasterCard, Visa and Europay developed EMV technology to make your credit cards more secure, but it has yet to really catch on here in the US. However, MasterCard has created a master plan to help usher in the EMV era and sound the death knell for the magnetic strip. Why? The EMV infrastructure is far more fraud-resistant because each transaction is authenticated dynamically using cryptographic algorithms and a user-specific PIN. That’s why MasterCard plans to help build out the EMV POS infrastructure by April of next year and have its secure e-payment system functioning at ATMs, online and with its myriad mobile payment options as well. For now, the nuts and bolts of how the credit card firm plans to bring its plan to fruition are few, but more details will be forthcoming.

SOURCE via MasterCard

Samsung’s European legal woes don’t look to be abating anytime soon, as the EU today formally launched an investigation into the Korean manufacturers’ competitive practices. At issue are, not surprisingly, a collection of patents that Samsung has used to launch a series of lawsuits against rival companies. The manufacturer maintains that these patents are essential to complying with European mobile standards, but the EU says Samsung may be in violation of a promise it made more than ten years ago. Back in 1998, the firm said it would license these essential telephonic patents to competing manufacturers, under the terms outlined in FRAND. The Commission explained the obligation and its potential ramifications in the following statement:

The Commission will investigate, in particular, whether in doing so (seeking injunctions on patent infringements in 2011) Samsung has failed to honor its irrevocable commitment given in 1998 to the European Telecommunications Standards Institute to license any standard essential patents relating to European mobile telephony standards on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms. The Commission will examine whether such behavior amounts to an abuse of a dominant position prohibited by Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU.

No word yet on how long the investigation may take, but we’ll be sure to keep you updated going forward.

SOURCE via Reuters

The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, or ACTA to its friends, is coming under fire in the EU from those who fear it will lead to online censorship. But it has received particular attention from the public of Poland and that has been reflected by some of the nation’s politicians.

ACTA is a far-reaching agreement. It’s designed to harmonize international standards on protecting the rights of those who produce music, movies, and god knows what else, and part of that includes tackling online piracy. Those who oppose it worry that the EU authorities will start blocking internet content.

Not everyone in the Polish government opposes ACTA, of course, but officials from the Palikot’s Movement do, and they decided to make it known by holding the famed Anonymous/Guy Fawkes masks to their faces in Parliament. Don’t you wish some US politicians took this kind of approach?

Microsoft’s patent-licensing ways continue, going after manufacturers of Android devices with wild abandon and, more often than not, wrangling them into (surely expensive) agreements. Latest to take the bait is LG and, interestingly, this one covers both Android and Google’s little laptop operating system: Chrome OS. With this agreement Microsoft now covers 70 percent of all Android smartphones sold in the US, which is a quite startling figure. And, of course, one could interpolate from this that LG must have designs on making a Chromebook at some point in the not too distant future.

SOURCE via Slashgear

You know the economy is really going to bloody hell when ATMs start to pay bank customers with dead rodents, which is exactly what happened to this guy on the right. He got his cash and the dead Mickey on the left.

His name is Gholam Hafezi and he was visiting his daughter in Ersboda, Umeå, in the north of Sweden. He wanted to take out 700 Swedish Kronor from this ATM located inside a Coop Forum, one of the shops of a famous Swedish supermarket chain: “I got my 700 kronor but I never got the receipt. At the same time, I saw a cord that was jamming the ATM slot.”

Yes, you know where this is going. But Hafezi didn’t at the time. He thought somebody may be trying to do something illegal, so he tried to pull the cord. He then realized it was a mouse tail.

He ran to the supermarket’s customer service people and asked for help. They told him that the ATM was not their responsibility but the guys in charge of the shopping carts offered their help. One of them was finally able to take out the whole mouse: “he took out the mouse. His head was intact although a little bit bloody. Then I got my receipt.”

Poor Mickey, RIP.