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Foxconn Signs License Agreement with Microsoft to Make Google Android- and Chrome-Based Devices.Microsoft and Foxconn Sign Patent Agreement For Android and Chrome DevicesMicrosoft Corp. and Hon Hai, the parent company of Foxconn, the world’s largest contract maker of electronics, signed a worldwide patent licensing agreement that provides broad coverage under Microsoft’s patent portfolio for devices running the Android and Chrome OS, including smartphones, tablets and televisions.

I have an IPad2 but am looking for an android tablet. Which one is the best?

Microsoft is rumored to cut the price of Windows 8 for tablets by 35-40 percent, according to Topeka Capital analyst Brian White. White is on a "China-Taiwan Technology Tour" talking to people in the industry. Currently, according to White's source, the tablet price for Windows is the same as the desktop/laptop pricing. If Microsoft is going to compete with Android, which is taking over the world, it needs to lower its price. Google's software is free. And it's just as good, if not better than, Windows on a tablet. Since consumers aren't clamoring to buy Windows-based tablets, there's little reason...

If you like what you've seen so far from RIM BlackBerry's big launch event today, then you might want to know when you can get it? Those in the US might have hoped the rumors weren't true, but indeed, you will have to wait until March before you can get your hands on BlackBerry 10. Though when it does land, customers of AT&T, Verizon, Sprint (only Q10 confirmed) and T-Mobile (Z10 confirmed) will all be able to get onboard. BlackBerry's giving its home turf a little bit of a head start with a February 5th release date and Bell,...

Japan gets first dibs Samsung will launch its first Tizen-based smartphone next year and Japanese consumers will get a taste of the new OS first. According to a Japanese daily, the new device will be sold through NTT Docomo and other carriers, starting at some point in 2013. European carriers are also interested in Tizen, including Vodafone and France Telecom.Samsung apparently hopes to build a platform around Tizen, to rival the likes of Apple and Google. High hopes to say the least, but then again we are already hearing rumours of an X phone from Motorola’s skunk works, which is apparently...

Samsung has created a new Linux file system called F2FS. Jaegeuk Kim of Samsung writes on the Linux Kernel Mailing List: F2FS is a new file system carefully designed for the NAND flash memory-based storage devices. We chose a log structure file system approach, but we tried to adapt it to the new form of storage. Also we remedy some known issues of the very old log structured file system, such as snowball effect of wandering tree and high cleaning overhead. Greg KH, the lead Linux kernel developer applauded the file system on his Google+ page, "Sweet, a new...

There’s no question that the Raspberry Pi is everyone’s favorite ARM development board right now: it’s cheap, silent, and exceptionally power efficient. The Raspberry Pi makes an excellent choice for low-energy applications like personal servers, routers, firewalls, environmental monitoring setups, etc, etc.But the Raspberry Pi has one big downside, it’s a fairly slow machine. With only 512 MB of RAM (if you have one of the newer builds) and a 700 MHz ARM, it certainly isn’t doing a lot of heavy lifting. Its dedicated GPU makes it possible to do things like playback HD video, but in terms of...

A Nokia job listing [since taken down] has been discovered seeking a Senior Engineer with Linux expertise, rather than Windows Phone experience, this leading the Android masses to have a freak-out-festival about the possibilities of a Google OS Nokia device. At the moment it’s a nearly all-Microsoft party at Nokia with the latter shaking hands heavily with the former for the launch of Windows Phone 8 with devices like the Nokia Lumia 920, a hero for the operating system. With a Linux expert on their team, (not that Nokia doesn’t already have engineers with such expertise), it would appear...

Microsoft is onto something. With Windows 8 it's better positioned than both Apple and Google to ride the coming laptop-tablet convergence wave.It might even eventually give Microsoft a shot at the all-important smartphone market. To understand why, let's count the ways in which Windows 8 is best.1. Tablet-laptop convergence Laptops and tablets are converging. And only Microsoft has an OS that's fit for that coming unification of devices.Apple has no convergence strategy at this time. That's because it fiercely guards product-specific profit streams and just doesn't go in for making things that cannibalise its own sales.So, Mac Mini is hobbled...

With so many fanboys spinning Silicon Valley history, it's sometimes easy to forget about the real chain of events that led to the ongoing Apple-Google thermonuclear war, how the romance turned to hate. This timeline presents an interesting case about why, despite patents and prior art, Steve Jobs had plenty of personal reasons to despise Schmidt, Page, and Brin.The simple answer is Google's leadership profoundly betrayed the longtime personal trust and friendship of Apple's leadership in stealing what Steve Jobs believed were Apple's most prized possessions. The fuller answer is below, in a telling timeline of the once exceptionally-close Apple-Google...

Digia has bought out Qt from Nokia. Uh oh? Nokia has announced today that Digia is acquiring the Qt software technologies and Qt business from Nokia. Digia is completely taking over Qt. Digia is the open-core company that previously took over Qt Commercial and releases their special version of Qt to customers. Digia claims they will take care of the commercial and open-source versions of the new Qt and they also want to bring the popular tool-kit to Android, Apple iOS, and Windows 8. With the Qt acquisition, a maximum of 125 people from Nokia will be joining Digia. Most...

Google massively underestimated demand This won’t come as a surprise to most of you, but according to our sources close to the matter, Google’s Nexus 7 tablets are selling beyond Google’s wildest dreams. This makes Google, Asus and even Nvidia happy as they are all part of the project and share the profits. Many investors in all three companies will like what they see. There is a big chance that Nexus 7 will outrun the Kindle Fire’s initial success with a big chance or being more than a one-quarter miracle. We can see many people wanting to buy Nexus...

It’s an amazing feat to behold when a company makes a device so popular that it sells out in one store, much less the entirety of the USA – but that’s what Google is doing with the Nexus 7. This ASUS-manufactured tablet appears very much to be capturing the imaginations – and pocketbooks – of users across the United States as well as the UK as retailers both offline and online are showing sold out signs galore. From what we understand it appears that 3rd party retailers are “frantically” attempting to get more units in stock as ASUS and Google...

SlashGearSamsung Galaxy S III blasts past 10m salesSlashGearSamsung has sold more than ten million Galaxy S III handsets, according to the company's president for mobile communications, passing the milestone less than two months after the smartphone hit shelves. Shin Jong-kyun, chief of Samsung's information ...Samsung Galaxy S3 hits 10 million sales mark earlyCNETSamsung Plans 64GB Galaxy S3 This YearPCWorldHow Does The Samsung Galaxy S III Fare In A Drop Test?TechCrunchPC Magazine -San Francisco Chronicle -AFPall 357 news articles »...

Google continues to negotiate with the European Union about its alleged anti-competitive behavior. A potential settlement directly involving Android, however, could make things "messier" for Google. - A settlement deal being negotiated between Google and the European Union to resolve antitrust issues could now be expanded to include Google's Android mobile technologies, in addition to Google search platforms. quot;The outcome is finely balanced and will partly depend on Google's willingness to ...... Published By: eWEEK - 2 days ago

Google's Nexus 7 tablet is off to an encouraging start, with major retailers running out of the gadgets as the Internet company's first entry in an increasingly crowded market showed up in U.S. stores on Friday. GameStop said on Friday it had already run through its first two allocations of the tablet, co-developed by Google and Taiwan's Asustek that starts at $199 and has drawn glowing reviews from major gadget reviewers.Sam's Club, the warehouse chain owned by Wal-Mart Stores Inc, and Staples listed the device as being out of stock on their websites as of Friday. Office Depot's website continued...

US startup Ouya has attracted $2.3m (£1.47m) of pledges for its Android-based games console, less than 24 hours after launching its campaign on crowdfunding website Kickstarter. Nearly 19,000 people have backed the project at the time of writing, and with 28 days still to go, it has a shot at rivalling the Pebble smart-watch, which attracted $10.3m of Kickstarter pledges earlier in 2012. Chief executive Julie Uhrman had told the Guardian that venture capital firms had been skittish about the prospects for the Ouya console, leading the company to raise its seed funding from family and friends, before turning to...

Veteran Judge Posner says "animals" like Apple are just exploiting the weapons an ineffectual gov't has created "It's a constant struggle for survival.  As in any jungle, the animals will use all the means at their disposal, all their teeth and claws that are permitted by the ecosystem," states Judge Richard A. Posner in a recent interview with Reuters.   As a sitting judge on the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals who occasionally moonlights as a judge in Chicago's U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois, Judge Posner has watched the devolution of America's intellectual property system over the past several decades. I. Google v. Apple -- A...

So you say your Android Phone has seized up and you're unable to access all that Intarweb Goodness*, let alone make phone calls? Have all other remedies failed?Is that what's got ya down, Bucky?WELL, I'VE GOT THE TOUGH LOVE CURE FOR YOU RIGHT HERE. Here are the steps for performing a "hard reset" of your Android phone.But this is the Nookyular Option, so only follow these steps if all other reset attempts have Epically Failed. Why do I post this? Just because it might not otherwise come up in Polite Conversation. Make sure your Android phone is off. The screen...

June 14 is Flag Day, a national holiday celebrating the Stars and Stripes since 1949. But don’t ask Google about it. The search giant is known for its colorful, interactive logos for everything from the 78th birthday of the inventor of the Moog synthesizer to Earth Day to the anniversary of Pac-Man. But for Flag Day, the company was presenting visitors with nothing but its usual site, declining to play up the red and blue in its logo. Even Google users noticed the omission. "You create elaborate doodle's for random holidays like when the Ferris wheel was created, but Memorial...