READ A BOOK: Cinder by Marissa Meyer

It’s almost impossible to miss,  spend 15 minutes on the internet and your sure to bump into some mention or other of Marissa Meyer’s Cinder, a new dystopian novel placing a pot of cyborgs, magical powers and evil stepmothers on the boil.

Cinder is the debut novel of New York Times bestselling author Marissa Meyer . The story is loosely based on the classic fairytale “Cinderella”. Though Cinder is aimed squarley at a young adult/scifi audience, it’s a surprising good read for those of us who have managed to grow facial hair.  Cinder was selected as one of IndieBound’s Kids’ Next List for winter 2012. Read the full article »»»»

Apple vs Samsung: A Galaxy of Litigation

We missed out on the Cretaceous Period, got our start in the Devonian Period,  woke up to ourselves in the Pliocene and have been running straight toward the Litigious Period. As megaliths and behemoths battle it out over who owns what patent, and which gadget belongs to who, the consumer is likely to be the victim in what looks to be a long and fierce battle. There seems to be the distinct possibility that more products will be blocked from sale. Samsung says its mammoth tit-for-tat patent battle with Apple could have been avoided if the latter wasn’t so trigger happy, as the Korean giant’s attempt to ban sales of Apple’s iPhone 4S in Australia gets set for a full court hearing in March 2012.

In the Federal Court in Sydney this week, it was decided that the patent infringement case would go to an early full hearing in March and in return Samsung would pause its attempt to temporarily ban the device between now and then. In an amusing turnaround – Apple has consistently argued it wants litigation NOW, and has repeatedly stated it wants this hearing to go ahead immediately – In this latest case, Apple has argued that it could not be ready for such an early final hearing. In what seemed like a replay of arguments in the Samsung vs Apple Galaxy Tab case, Apple, which wanted to ban the Samsung tablet from sale due to patent infringement, was seeking an early final hearing, while Samsung was arguing it could not be ready in time. This time the shoe was on the other foot.  Read the full article »»»»

Android Overtakes Apple Mobile App Downloads

​The growth of Googles Android platform has been stratospheric over the past 12 months, at October 2010 Android held 19 percent of the U.S. smartphone market – with Apples iPhone iOS at 24 percent. Fast forward 12 months to October 2011 and Android was holding 38 percent of the smartphone market, an increase of almost 20 percent, against Apples 26 percent, an increase of only 2 percent. Androids big big numbers is also reflected in it’s massive increase of available apps to 500,000.

Note worthy is Samsungs strangle hold on the smartphone market. Our favorite semiconductor behemoth has consistently outperformed Apple in sales. Samsung smartphones make up almost 25 percent of the U.S. market, while the much lauded Apple iPhone has consistently sat below 9 percent. This explains Apples aggression toward Samsung [check the litigation links]  84.5 million smartphone handsets in the U.S. equates to 21 million Samsung handsets to Apples 8 million iPhones, ouch! Read the full article »»»»

Samsungs Mawashi Move! Apples iPhone 4S Removed From Sale in Australia and Japan

UPDATE: Apple FAILS New Samsung Court Bid

Apple’s bid to prevent Samsung from launching any new tablet in Australia until its patent infringement case goes to a full hearing has been rejected by the Federal Court. Justice Bennett also denied Apple’s request that it be given advanced copies of any tablet that Samsung may launch in Australia until the full hearing, which is likely to take place next year. Justice Bennett’s final orders were that Samsung be prevented from launching “any version of the Galaxy Tab 10.1″ until the completion of proceedings.   Apple’s lawyer stated that the Apple was afraid that Samsung would launch a new tablet in Australia without Apple having the chance to check if it infringed its patents. “Our submission is that direction which would provide us a copy of the version proposed to be launched 10 days in advance,” said Apples Lawyer.

Read the full article »»»»

Kogans Budget Tablet PC: Agora, 1 Ghz 10 Inch Android Tab

Kogans’s new Android-powered Agora 8-inch and Agora 10-inch tablets join Kogan’s Agora line, which also includes laptops and a 7-inch Agora tablet that launched earlier this year.

Budget tablet-pc’s seem to be the order of the week. While not as easy on the pocket as the Indian made Aakash tablet unveiled earlier this week. Our favorite consumer electronics manufacturer and online retailer, Kogan, has announced its own budget tablet offerings. Aside from the screen size and resolution – 800 x 600 for the 8-inch and 1024 x 768 for the 10-inch – the specs of the two models are identical. Both feature a 4:3 ratio capacitive touchscreen, are powered by a 1 Ghz Cortex A8 CPU and 512 MB of RAM, and come running Google Android 2.3 with access to the Android Market. There’s also an internal G-Sensor, 2-megapixel front-facing camera and 4 GB of onboard storage, expandable up to 36 GB via microSD card. Read the full article »»»»