We’ve been jonesing for a more international look at smartphone market share for the start of 2012, and IDC is now more than willing to oblige. In case you’d thought Android’s relentless march upwards was just an American fling, Google’s OS has jumped from 36.1 percent of the world’s share a year ago to exactly 59 percent in the first quarter of this year. That’s nearly two thirds of all smartphones, folks. As we’ve seen in the past, Android is siphoning off legacy users looking for something fresher: Symbian and the BlackBerry have both lost more than half of their share in one year’s time, while Linux (led mostly by Bada) and Windows Mobile / Phone together lost small pieces of the pie despite raw shipment numbers going up. As for Apple? Even with all the heat in the kitchen, the iPhone’s share grew to 23 percent, leading to a staggering 82 percent of smartphone buyers siding with either the Cupertino or Mountain View camps.

SOURCE via IDC

Did you see the Google+ 2.0 update for iPhone and wonder if Google’s attention had drifted away from its own baby? Don’t fret, as the Android app has just been given similarly loving treatment. The interface shares the reworked stream look that we saw on iOS while keeping the swipe-to-switch category filters that Google+ has used from the start. There’s even small rewards for having to watch your iPhone friends go first: you can now start a Hangout video chat from the main menu, get ringing Hangout notifications, download photos directly from conversations and edit your posts after the fact. The new look has already proved polarizing, but if you’re the sort who revels in the purity of a Google social network running on a Google platform, you can now try the overhaul for yourself.

SOURCE via Google

Android developers are all too familiar with not-so-hot emulator performance, so it’s a relief that there’s now an system image in a native x86 for testing. While you’ll still likely want to test on ARM, the x86 image will both help ferret out bugs specific to Intel’s architecture as well as provide a much faster experience debugging apps now that the ARM-to-Intel translation isn’t needed on top of running a whole second operating system. It’s not perfectly up to date, running on Android 4.0.3, but it’s close enough that the environment will mimic much of what users see — and a big help if you’re jumping into writing specifically for Intel devices. If speed is of the essence, or you’re not keen on importing a Lava Xolo X900, you just need to update the SDK Manager to start testing with an Intel-flavored green robot.

SOURCE via Android Central

Microsoft warned us last month that it would be snipping legacy OS support in Windows Phone Marketplace within a few weeks, and it just made good on that heads-up. As of now, you’ll need at least a Windows Phone 7.5 device to shop for, review and update apps, no matter how much you want that fix for Ilo Milo. The company still argues that the cutoff is needed to improve speed and security in the Marketplace as well as lay a foundation for a better Windows Phone future. Given that virtually every handset on the market can get 7.5 today, if it doesn’t already ship with 7.5 preloaded, you have every good reason to grab the update through Microsoft’s desktop apps and stay in the Marketplace downloading parade.

SOURCE via Microsoft

Are you so enthused with the 2012 Olympics that special tablets and non-stop TV coverage won’t fully scratch the itch? O2 UK is letting you flaunt your British competitive pride every time you check Twitter by selling Olympic editions of Samsung’s Galaxy Note and Galaxy Y. Either comes with a choice to drape your Android gear in a Union Jack or the Team Great Britain logo. If cosmetic patriotism isn’t enough, O2 is making it meaningful by contributing £1 from every sale to future athlete training along with giving a chance to win two tickets to attend the London games, a special event and even the training camp. The bundles are ready to go now, although we’re slightly bummed that there isn’t an extra-long S Pen to commemorate the javelin toss or pole vault.

SOURCE via Samsung

Kodak hasn’t caught a break lately, and that trend isn’t easing up any time soon with a second rejection arriving in its main International Trade Commission (ITC) patent dispute with Apple and RIM. Despite having had its case remanded after a loss last year, Kodak is once more being told that BlackBerrys and iPhones don’t violate a patent on previewing photos. The one violation was rendered moot through “obviousness,” according to administrative law judge Thomas Pender. It’s still an initial ruling, and Kodak is trying to put a positive light on the situation — it’s “pleased” there’s still an infringement, even if the patent claim is invalid — but the patent wars aren’t looking good for a photography company that has already had to give up cameras to have a chance of staying afloat. Most of Kodak’s hope, then, will be pinned on a second wave of ITC disputes that might stand a better chance of putting at least Apple’s feet to the fire.

SOURCE via CNET

The at times very heated legal battle between Apple and Samsung might be softening just a bit ahead of truce talks on May 21st. Samsung’s mobile head JK Shin just left Seoul for the mediated discussions saying there were still “several negotiation options” on tap, including the possibility of cross-licensing patents. He warned that there was still a “big gap” between the two sides, and we’d tend to agree — neither Apple nor Samsung is exactly backing off just yet. However, it’s a definite shift in language from March, when Shin was vowing “no compromise,” and it parallels Apple CEO Tim Cook’s own disdain for lawsuits. We just wouldn’t bet money on the two singing “Kumbaya” this week.

In same breath, Shin added that an ongoing 4G chipset shortage wasn’t letting up: he didn’t see things getting better until the start of the fourth quarter, or October for us common folk. That’s a problem for Samsung’s phones and tablets most of all, of course, and in a dire case could see LTE-packing American Galaxy S III variants rely on other vendors’ chips to stay on the 4G bandwagon. There’s also a chance of a ripple effect on other companies that want Samsung’s parts, but short of getting a peek at Samsung’s inner workings, we won’t know the full impact for a while yet.

SOURCE via Reuters

The final significant roadblock to Google’s buyout of Motorola has been cleared, as Chinese regulators have just given their rubber stamp. Their approval follows a few months after the simultaneous American and European clearances, and virtually all that’s left now is to formally close the deal and start integrating the two mobile giants.

It might still come too late for the combined entity to present a united front at Google I/O, but at least they won’t have any awkward glances at each other across the room. We’re just trying to decide on whether or not Googorola is the best pet name for the loving, $12.5 billion-dollar Android union.

Google has told the AP that the deal will likely wrap up early next week, so Motorola should be part of the family well in advance of Google I/O. Also, Google has to keep Android freely usable by anyone for at least five years, although no one was expecting that to change anytime soon.

SOURCE via Wall Street Journal

As much as we’re familiar with wireless power, we know developing a truly contact-free form of charging has a whole raft of extra challenges, such as getting into the sweet spot for power delivery and the potential traffic jam caused by throwing another device into the mix. Sony thinks it has these problems licked through a newly-published patent application. Its method uses location-finding to steer users until they’re close enough for the wireless power source to reliably do its job. In some cases, it can use one mobile device to relay power to another, keeping everything fed even if the main power hub is tied up. Multiple power sources next to each other can go so far as to decide which of them should be the one to send power. The patent isn’t a certain sign that your VAIO or Xperia is about to cut the cord altogether — Sony first submitted this vision of the future in 2009. Even so, it gives us hope that our gadgets will one day start charging themselves instead of making us hunt down a wire or charging plate.

SOURCE via USPTO

While pre-release benchmarks have a very hit or miss record for clues as to what future devices will bring, they almost always raise eyebrows. Nowhere is that more true than in a round of NenaMark2 testing uncovered this weekend: a previously unknown Samsung SCH-i535 for Verizon has tipped up sporting a 1.5GHz, dual-core Snapdragon S4 instead of one of Samsung’s own chips, like the Exynos 4 Quad. Given that the SCH-i515 is the model badge for Verizon’s Galaxy Nexus, it’s not a great leap in logic to speculate that this is a custom version of the Galaxy S III. It’s entirely possible that something else might fit the bill, but knowing that Samsung has used Snapdragons itself to include 4G before and that HTC just recently switched up the One X with an S4 to give it LTE on North American networks, we may be looking at the compromise Samsung needs to make to get its 4.8-inch gigantophone on Big Red.

SOURCE via Nena.se