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In order to achieve its internal goal of shipping 40 million iPad products in 2011, Apple has occupied close to 60% of the global touch panel capacity causing tight supply among Apple's competitors, according to sources from upstream component makers. Sources from tablet PC makers also pointed out that the component shortage is causing their shipment volumes to be unable to catch up with their orders, especially for second-tier players. Touch panels are currently suffering the most serious shortage due to Apple holding control over the capacity of major touch panel makers such as Wintek and TPK, and with US-based...

Cisco CEO John Chambers wants to bring cash home without the tax hit.FORTUNE -- Economists, businessmen, and politicians of every stripe have spent months talking themselves hoarse about how to get the roughly $2 trillion in corporate reserves back into the economy. Get ready to start hearing a lot about that sum's international cousin. A group of tech, pharmaceutical and energy giants is readying a major lobbying blitz for a tax holiday that would allow them to bring home the estimated $1 trillion they've got parked overseas at a steeply discounted rate, Fortune has learned. The campaign is still in...

Apple didn't attend Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, but it took the event's top award for a mobile device. The event, a major confab of the mobile industry, has been virtually ignored by Apple in much the same way as the more general Consumer Electronics Show held in January. Apple not only fails to show at both events, but also appears to leak news or hold press events of its own that tend to overshadow the announcements of competing firms. Judges didn't hold that against the company however, calling iPhone 4 "Best Mobile Device," saying that it has a "great...

Our January infographic in the Mobclix Index series takes a look at the value of an app user. We have all seen the research and impressive numbers around app success in 2010 but how does this translate to revenue potential for developers on a per user basis? We analyzed apps in the Utilities, Entertainment and Games categories across iPhone and Android (based on specific criteria, see below) and have found a monthly value based on ARPU (average revenue per user).Highlights: iPhone app users have a higher value than Android app usersUtility app users have a higher value than game and...

Apple on Tuesday announced a new subscription service for publishers of content-based applications, requiring them to offer the lowest subscription rates in the company's App Store. Publishers set the price and length of subscription. They can offer subscription on their own websites, but "Apple does require that if a publisher chooses to sell a digital subscription separately outside of the app, that same subscription offer must be made available, at the same price or less, to customers who wish to subscribe from within the app," said the company in a statement. Apple said it will keep 30 percent of the...

Best Buy has begun promoting Motorola’s Xoom tablet. Pre-orders begin on Thursday at Best Buy stores (or so they delusionally dream). Price: $1,199.99. 1 month data activation with Verizon Wireless required.Best Buy’s Motorola Xoom page is here.MacDailyNews Take: No wonder Motorola named it “exhume,� it’s already dead.[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader "Dan K." for the heads up.]

BARCELONA, Spain – Nokia Corp. will get billions of dollars from Microsoft Corp. to ditch its current smart-phone software in favor of Windows Phone 7, Nokia CEO Stephen Elop said Sunday, in a defense of the deal. Nokia, the world's largest maker of phones, and Microsoft announced their alliance Friday. Both investors and employees reacted with dismay: Nokia's stock dived 14 percent and Finnish employees used flex time to go home early. On Sunday, a day ahead of the start of the Mobile World Congress cell phone trade show in Barcelona, Elop told press, analysts and industry players that apart...

Apple's new application-level encryption paves the way for companies to run business apps on the iPad As global accounts director at Altus, Inc., Michelle Klatt's job is to visit Fortune 500 companies and demonstrate her firm's video management software. When the iPad came out a year ago, she was all over it. "I was one of the first salespeople to get one," she says. "I fought very hard.'' Her company's videos look "absolutely beautiful" on the iPad, she says. And once the sales presentation is over, she uses her iPad to update the Salesforce.com entry for the sales prospect, log...

If you could get a tablet for the price of a smart phone, and if it also worked on one of the new, faster, 4G-class cellular networks, you’d jump at the chance, right? Dell and T-Mobile hope so, and that’s why they’ve brought out the Dell Streak 7, at just $200 with a two-year service contract. The Streak 7, Dell’s second effort to compete with Apple’s $500 iPad, is the least expensive tablet I’ve seen from a major manufacturer, and claims to be the first capable of 4G cellular speeds (it also has Wi-Fi). Like many planned iPad competitors, it...

Vatican spokesman Fr. Federico Lombardi Vatican City, Feb 9, 2011 / 12:12 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The sacrament of Confession "cannot be substituted by any computer application," the Vatican said Feb. 9. The remarks by papal spokesman Father Federico Lombardi, SJ, came amid a flurry of misleading international media reports on a new application developed for Apple’s iPhone, iPad and iPod. "Confession: A Roman Catholic App" helps Catholics prepare for confession by offering a “step-by-step” guide to the sacrament and a “personalized examination of conscience.” Many media outlets wrongly reported that the application allowed Catholics to go to Confession on...

We're here at HP's webOS 2.1 event in San Francisco. HP has announced a couple of big things today; a tablet (HP TouchPad), a (tiny) smartphone (HP Veer) and a professional phone (the Pre 3), all running the webOS 2.1 operating system.The TouchPad is a 9.7" (1024x768) tablet powered by the Qualcomm MSM8x60 SoC with a 1.2GHz dual-core Scorpion CPU, a 1.3MP webcam, 16 or 32GB storage, 1GB RAM and 802.11 b/g/n. The TouchPad weighs in at about 1.6 lbs and 13mm thick. The TouchPad WiFi-only version will be coming to US sometime this summer with 3G/4G versions and other...

HP unveiled its iPad clone, the TouchPad today. While the TouchPad is not a complete disaster -- it looks pretty nice, and seems to have good software -- it is NOT a significant threat to Apple's iPad. We still expect Apple to dominate the tablet market for years to come. Why isn't HP a threat? * It's not better than the iPad -- especially the improved iPad 2 that is already in production. The hardware and software need to be MUCH BETTER than the iPad to stand out -- a "leapfrog" product -- and they're not. Sure, there is nifty...

TUAW reader Aaron told the site "how an iPad belonging to a fellow employee handled being run over by the front and rear wheels of a Chrysler PT Cruiser," Steven Sande reports for TUAW. "As the video shows, the iPad was in the standard Apple Case and the front glass was crushed quite extensively," Sande reports. "However, the Home button still worked and the rest of the components in the display were totally functional. The touchscreen still responded to gestures, and the accelerometer responded by rotating the screen."

We got our hands on the new iPhone 4 Verizon on the morning of February 7th, 2011. Compare this phone to our original GSM iPhone 4 teardown. If you're happy with your current coverage, then by all means hang on to it! Keep it running if you drop it or your battery wears down using our iPhone 4 repair manual and parts. Make sure to also check out the Verizon iPhone 4 Teardown video on YouTube!

"The mission-style building that houses the recently renovated Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Library in Simi Valley, Calif., perches atop a bluff with spectacular views that conjure up the dozens of Westerns that Reagan the actor shot on location," Kelly DiNardo reports for The Washington Post. "But what's most in keeping with the 40th president's first career can be found inside: elaborate interactive programming that brings the Gipper to life." "The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation has orchestrated a $15 million renovation to be unveiled in a private ceremony as part of Reagan's 100th birthday celebration Sunday. It will open to...

According to the International Data Corporation's (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, vendors shipped a total of 100.9 million smartphones during the fourth quarter of 2010 (4Q10), up 87.2% from the 53.9 million smartphones shipped during 4Q09. For the full year, vendors shipped a total of 302.6 million smartphones worldwide, up 74.4% from the 173.5 million smartphones shipped in 2009. IDC expects further gains for the smartphone market in 2011, as smartphone vendors deepen and broaden their offerings. Top Five Smartphone Vendors Nokia noted the positive progress of its new Symbian^3 smartphones during 4Q10: five million units combined from the...

Countless bloggers and analysts have claimed that Steve Jobs has a divine touch. Apple's legions of devout follows have been compared to a spiritual sect. And overall, Cupertino's line of sleek gadgets and "enlightened lifestyle" has prompted many to deem Apple a religion. So it stands to reason that the Catholic Church would want in on that action and approve a church-themed iPhone app. Confession: A Roman Catholic App guides the user through the confession process and atoning for one's sins. Described as "the perfect aid for every penitent," the app features a step-by-step manual to the sacrament, password-protected profiles,...

Call us crazy, but we're having a hard time interpreting this line of fine print in any other way: "To activate WiFi functionality on this device, a minimum of one month data subscription is required."That's listed under Best Buy's most recent ad highlighting the world's first Android 3.0 tablet, and it most certainly sounds both ominous and ridiculous. Hardcore Verizon followers may remember the days of Big Red crippling Bluetooth radios in phones in order to "coerce" users to purchase ringtones and such from them rather than snagging one on the subway from Tom, Dick and / Jane, so we...

WASHINGTON -- The FDA has moved into the "got an app for that" market by approving the first diagnostic radiology application for the iPhone and the iPad. In announcing the approval, the FDA said the application can be used to view results of CT, MRI, and PET scans on the mobile devices and use those images to make diagnoses. But the agency noted that the app was "not intended to replace full workstations and is indicated for use only when there is no access to a workstation." "This important mobile technology provides physicians with the ability to immediately view images...

With Verizon Wireless preparing to offer Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone starting Feb. 10, the news media have focused most of their attention on AT&T (T) iPhone users who might switch to Verizon. But a new survey shows an even bigger percentage of switchers to the Verizon iPhone coming from Verizon BlackBerry and Android users. A survey by uSamp found that 26% of current AT&T cell phone users are likely to switch to Verizon when it begins offering the iPhone.

I’m counting them out anyway... Don’t count out the iPad competitorsAccording to Adam Ostrow at CNN, we should not be counting out the iPad competitors.  On some level, I agree.  It’s good to have competitors, otherwise things would get boring.  However, let’s put things into a little perspective, shall we? To quote Adam: Fast forward to today and Android smartphones are outselling iPhones, thanks to the multitude of manufacturers now offering devices at a variety of price points — all the way down to free. If Android outsells, it’s only because it does many BOGO promotions (buy one, get one),...

The Department of the Interior will purchase a small number of the tablets in an effort to enhance worker productivity. The Department of Interior plans to purchase and distribute Apple iPads to see how the devices can improve worker productivity. More Government Insights The move is part of a larger acquisition of Apple hardware products the department plans to make and mirrors similar moves by businesses to experiment with giving employees iPads and similar tablet devices to see how it affects job performance. Interior is seeking to acquire the tablet devices, which will be "used in personal productivity and visual...

As the end draws near for AT&T’s exclusive hold on the coveted iPhone from Apple, uSamp today released a nationwide survey of AT&T and Verizon customers to gauge their plans for the February 10 launch of Verizon’s iPhone. uSamp’s iPhone survey was conducted online among 727 U.S. residents between Jan. 28 and Jan. 31, 2011 using the uSamp/DMS River Sample methodology and resulting in a 3.6 percent margin of error. Drawing from its highly profiled online panel from Jan. 28 to Jan. 31 to query AT&T customers -- as well as current Verizon users of Android and BlackBerry phones --...

Wireless carrier accused of inflating data transfers, billing for 'phantom' downloadsComputerworld - AT&T has "systematically" overcharged iPhone and iPad owners with capped data plans by inflating the amount of data they download and adding "phantom traffic," a lawsuit claimed last week. AT&T said it would "vigorously" fight the suit. The complaint, filed by Patrick Hendricks in federal court in California, claims that a "significant portion" of AT&T's $1.1 billion of wireless revenue gains in the last quarter came from the bogus charges and overbilling. Hendricks' lawyers asked a judge to grant the lawsuit class-action status; if that happens, the case...

Hot on the heels of Samsung admitting that it had exaggerated sales of its Android tablet to consumers, it is becoming clear that Google's Android platform definition is being stretched to include Chinese rivals, including China Mobile's Ophone and Tapas OS, a project run by the former president of Google China. A report by Canalys yesterday claimed that Google Android platform had taken the top spot in global smartphone platforms worldwide, edging in front of Nokia and making up about a third of all smartphones globally. That fourth quarter figure, collective of all manufacturers using Android in some fashion, is...

An app distributed by Google's Android Market has collected private data from millions of users and forwarded it to servers China, validating Apple's uniquely strong stance on mobile security in the iPhone App Store. The exploit, tied to an app that appeared to simply load free custom background wallpapers, was downloaded "anywhere from 1.1 million to 4.6 million times. The exact number isn’t known because the Android Market doesn’t offer precise data," according to a report by Dean Takahashi of VentureBeat. The app "collects a user’s browsing history, text messages, your phone’s SIM card number, subscriber identification, and even your...

With just 4.2 percent of the global mobile phone market, Apple's iPhone accounts for a massive 51 percent of the total profits, a new report claims. Apple continues to dominate the market when profit is measured, according to a new report from Asymco's Horace Dediu. The iPhone maker managed to add one percent to last quarter's 50 percent share of profits from the top eight mobile phone vendors in the December quarter, the report noted. After data for the fourth quarter of 2010 was released last week, Apple placed fifth overall among global cell phone makers with 4 percent market...

The iPad is killing Microsoft (MSFT), at least if you believe the meme that has been spreading in the stock market. After Microsoft reported its second-quarter earnings last Thursday, the stock fell 4% despite stronger-than-expected financials and several analysts raising their price targets on the stock. But investors were taken in by the idea that Microsoft's future earnings are so much roadkill in the iPad Era. Microsoft's quarterly revenue came in at $19.95 billion, above the $19.14 billion estimated by analysts, and its earnings of 77 cents a share beat the analysts' expectations of 68 cents per share. Revenue was...

According to the latest research from Strategy Analytics, global tablet shipments reached 10 million units in the fourth quarter of 2010. Apple maintained first position, while Android soared and captured a record 22 percent global share. Peter King, Director at Strategy Analytics, said, 'Global tablet shipments grew 120 percent sequentially to reach 9.7 million units in Q4 2010. Apple maintained first position. Apple recorded an impressive 75 percent global marketshare during the fourth quarter, but it has slipped from a peak of 95 percent in Q3 2010 due to rising competition from Android.'" Neil Mawston, Director at Strategy Analytics, added,...

Despite crowing about shipping 2 million Galaxy Tabs, Samsung is now admitting that it's not selling very many of the seven-inch tablets. On the earnings call with analysts, Samsung VP Lee Young-hee said sales were "quite small." The Wall Street Journal has a transcript. Lee talks about sell-in, meaning shipments and sell-out, meaning sales to consumers. Lee doesn't quantify what "quite small" means, but it sure doesn't sound good. Here's the snippet: “Well, your question was on sell-in and sell-out. As you heard, our sell-in was quite aggressive and this first quarterly result was quite, you know, fourth-quarter unit [figure]...

"The global chairman and CEO of home networking giant Netgear has launched into a scathing attack on Apple and its founder Steve Jobs, criticising Jobs's 'ego' and Apple's closed up products," Asher Moses reports for The Sydney Morning Herald. "At a lunch in Sydney today, Patrick Lo said Apple's success was centred on closed and proprietary products that would soon be overtaken by open platforms like Google's Android." MacDailyNews Take: Patrick Lo is dead wrong. Here's why from someone who predicted the iPhone over 4 years before Steve Jobs unveiled it. What was the Patrick Lo doing in 2002? Making...

Android continues to take market share in smart phones, according to research firms presenting year-end tabulations this week. Getting a clear snapshot on Android is somewhat complicated in that the platform is spread across multiple vendors, including HTC, Motorola Mobility(MMI) and Samsung. The market for smart phone operating systems currently is dominated by Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone platform, Nokia’s (NOK) Symbian and Research In Motion’s (RIMM) BlackBerry OS. Collectively, though, the Google (GOOG) -backed Android operating system continues to move up the charts.

Palo Alto, Singapore and Reading (UK) - Canalys today announced strong PC industry growth of 19% in Q4 2010, with Apple climbing to third place in the market, thanks to impressive iPad and Mac sales, as well as fast growth in Asia Pacific. The analyst company attributes the majority of Q4 market growth to the rising demand for pads, a new product category. ‘Pads gave consumers increased product choice over the holiday season,’ said Canalys Analyst Tim Coulling. ‘While they do not appeal to first-time buyers or low-income households, they are proving extremely popular as additional computing devices.’ Canalys urges...

THE MAKER OF SHINY TOYS, Apple is starting to see sales of its Macintosh computers stunted by the Ipad. Market analysts Asymco produced not only evidence that Ipad sales grew massively in the fourth quarter of 2010 but also that a worrying trend is emerging for Apple, in that the sales growth of its Mac computers is falling. Even though its figures suggest otherwise, Asymco claimed that Ipads are in fact not cannibalising Mac sales. Further data presented by Asymco show that Apple is flogging fewer Ipods, with users opting for Iphones instead. That isn't particularly surprising as industry pundits...

Earlier this month, technology enthusiasts around the world awaited Microsoft's opening keynote address for the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show (CES), with the anticipation that CEO Steve Ballmer would talk up a new generation of Windows-based tablets that would take on Apple's surging iPad. Instead, Ballmer ignored some of Microsoft's key consumer brands, and he didn't use the word "tablet" until his closing remarks. Disappointing, sure. But a year after Ballmer and company promised a strong response to the iPad and explicitly noted it would do to the tablet market what it previously did with netbooks—come from behind for the win—Microsoft's...

The iPad continued to surge into the enterprise as Q4 activations jumped more than 50%, while Windows Mobile devices dropped out of Top 10, says Good Technology report.The good news for Google: CIOs seem to be very fond of Android devices, which accounted for 30% of net new devices deployed by enterprise users in the fourth quarter of 2010. The bad news for Google: CIOs are infatuated with Apple's iPad and iPhone, which rushed into big corporations at more than twice the rate of Android devices as iOS units accounted for 65% of Q4 enterprise activations. Those figures come from...

A UK toy company is hoping to turn the iPhone and iPod touch into a blaster gun, bringing the Apple tech to a whole new generation. In what is likely to appeal to kids of all ages, there will be three toys to kick off what the company is calling “Apptoyz” - a new range of accessories with apps to control them. The first will be the app gun, which takes your Apple device and puts it into a blaster for you to fend off invading aliens. The accompanying free application will be an Augmented Reality app that sees you...

Verizon has begun sending out information to corporate customers with more details about their iPhone launch. Verizon is offering existing customers a chance to buy the Verizon iPhone on February 3rd, a week before the general public. According to the email we've received, Verizon will begin pre-order sales at 3am Eastern on February 3rd. - Make sure you have your My Verizon self-serve account set-up online. Orders can only be placed through your my Verizon account. You can register/setup your account at... myaccount.verizonwireless.com - On February 3rd at 3am EST, Verizon Wireless will allow our current customers to order upgrades...

NEW YORK — Verizon Wireless will start offering the iPhone on Feb. 10 with a draw that AT&T Inc. no longer offers to new subscribers: a plan with unlimited data usage. But The Associated Press has learned that some AT&T iPhone users on limited plans won't need to move to Verizon for all-you-can-eat data. In an unadvertised loophole, AT&T has allowed subscribers who have had an unlimited data plan in the past to switch back. That includes anyone who had an iPhone before June, when the limited plans took effect. Jose Argumedo, of Brentwood, N.Y., says he and a friend...

An iPhone app that tracks down the Taliban has been developed by a US soldier who put $26,000 of his own money into the project. The idea for a smartphone application to assist soldiers in combat came to Captain Jonathan J. Springer in a dream last July. The 31-year-old, from Fort Wayne, Indiana, has worked with programmers ever since to make the idea a reality. Tactical Nav, which is expected to be available through Apple’s App Store next month, assists soldiers in mapping, plotting and photographing waypoints on a battleground and conveying coordinates to supporting units.

There have been in-numerable threads on Geek sites and Computer websites about the Geeks complaining about the failings of the Apple iPad... and how the various Android tablets are going to kick iPad butt in the near to distant future because THEY will have what the iPad doesn't have. The Geeks have had a litany of items that the iPad is missing... it doesn't have this, and it doesn't have that... It fails to meet a list of specs this, and list of specs that... and when the Android or Windows7 tablets finally hit the market, everyone will throw their...

Politicians in Germany are using iPads en masse in the Bundestag, the German parliament chamber. According to the English translation of this Spiegel article, the iPad is a reasonable expense claim for the politicians, so ownership has spread like wildfire through the chamber. Although a popular tool for research and answering email, one member has been caught out playing chess during a meeting. There’s a photo gallery of smiling German politicians and their iPads here, if that’s your sort of thing.

Google faces a steep challenge in its defense against Oracle's lawsuit over seven Java patents and some copyrighted material. More than five months after Oracle's complaint, Google appears unable to countersue Oracle over patent infringement, while evidence is mounting that different components of the Android mobile operating system may indeed violate copyrights of Sun Microsystems, a company Oracle acquired a year ago.I have discovered additional material that Oracle might present to the court as examples of copyright-infringing material in the Android codebase: Two months ago I took a close look at Exhibit J to Oracle's amended complaint, which contained a...

To the average consumer, the war between iPhone and Android is probably very confusing. Most people don’t know there’s a difference between a “Droid” and an “Android” phone or why these new phones are so different from what came before.

Apple's 91-day quarter yields some impressive numbers -- take them apart a little and you get the kind of stats you can reel off at a dinner party without being seen as too utterly crushing a bore, for example, did you know there's one iPhone being sold for every two people being born into this world today? Apple sold 16.24 million iPhones in the December quarter. That sure is a lot of iPhones, and while dwarfed by the 650 million bottles of Heinz Ketchup sold around the world each year means Apple sells more iPhones each year than there are...

From its very first issue in 1953 to its latest incarnation, the full catalog of Playboy Magazine is coming to the iPad this March. And not only that, it'll be faithful to its original form by arriving to your Apple slate uncensored. Such is the word direct from the man responsible for that first copy, one Mr. Hugh Hefner. Anyone who's followed Apple's App Store rulings and Steve Jobs' forthright comments on the subject of keeping adult material off mobile devices will surely find this a bemusing, if not entirely inconsistent, decision. The details of how this slice of software...

Live notes from Apple Inc.'s Fiscal First Quarter 2011 Conference Call appear in reverse chronological order:• Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer opens conference call
• Apple today announced financial results for its fiscal 2011 first quarter ended December 25, 2010
• Record revenue of $26.74 billion
• Record net quarterly profit of $6 billion or $6.43 per diluted share 
• Versus revenue of $15.68 billion and net quarterly profit of $3.38 billion, or $3.67 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter
• Gross margin was 38.5 percent compared to 40.9 percent in the year-ago quarter
• International sales accounted for 62 percent of the quarter’s revenue
• 4.13 million Macs sold during...

NEW YORK, Jan 18 (Reuters) - U.S. prosecutors have charged two people with stealing email addresses and other data of about 120,000 users of Apple Inc's (AAPL.O) iPad after finding a security weakness in AT&T Inc (T.N) servers. Prosecutors said the criminal charges arise from a "brute force" hacking over several days last June that affected iPad users who accessed the Internet through AT&T's 3G network.

The worldwide media tablet market grew 45.1% in the third quarter of 2010 (3Q10), driven almost exclusively by global demand for Apple's groundbreaking iPad. According to the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Media Tablet and eReader Tracker, vendors shipped 4.8 million units globally in 3Q10, compared to 3.3 million units in the second quarter of 2010 and Apple's iPad represented nearly 90% of the media tablets shipped worldwide in 3Q10. The growing popularity of tablet devices among consumers worldwide is evidenced not only by adoption of media tablets, but also of ereaders. The third quarter of 2010 saw global...

Street stays positive despite latest medical leave by Steve JobsSAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Apple Inc. shares recovered much of their lost territory on Tuesday afternoon following an earlier sell-off on news that Chief Executive Steve Jobs is taking another medical leave, for an undisclosed condition. After falling 5% at the open, Apple (AAPL 341.26, -7.23, -2.07%) was last trading down about 1.5% to $343 by early afternoon, as several Wall Street brokers reiterated positive views on the company’s and its management team. Apple is also expected to report strong earnings results after the closing bell. Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook...