Siri alternatives for Android

You all know about Siri — the cool iPhone 4S feature which acts as a virtual assistant and responds to voice queries? And you want to do the same on Android but don't know how to?

While Siri is unlikely to be ever ported to Android, there are various alternatives which try to mimic Siri, with some of them very powerful. The major feature that they lack currently is the integration with the Android OS, which will hopefully come as the apps mature.

All of these apps require Google's voice recognition system to function, for which an Internet connection is required, so none of them work offline.

Apple to spend cash on dividends and share repurchases

The speculation is over. Apple has announced that it will give a quarterly dividend of US$2.65/share starting from fourth quarter of 2012 (September quarter). The company will also use US$10bn for share repurchases.

Combined the dividend and the share buyback will involve an expenditure of US$22.4bn till Sep 2013.

Let consider what impact this will have on Apple by Sep 2013.

Apple scores crucial patent victory against Samsung; FRAND patent counter strategy of Google at risk

Photo credit: Wikipedia

As reported by Foss Patents, The dutch court has ruled that Samsung has to offer fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) licensing terms to Apple for patents essential to 3G/UMTS standard. The ruling will also prevent Samsung from seeking injunctions against Apple's products, using these standards.

This is a crucial victory for Apple which could have major impact not just on Samsung, but also on Google and Android as it limits the use of standards essential patents (SEP) as legal tools against competitors.

Yahoo takes Facebook to court: Start of the software/internet patent wars?

After threatening Facebook with a lawsuit last month, Yahoo has now acted upon the threat filing a case and accusing Facebook of infringing on 10 of its patents. The alleged infringed patents include those relating to messaging, news feeds, advertising, preventing click frauds and privacy controls. 

Yahoo had contacted Facebook recently asking for royalties, but filed the case after Facebook refused to pay them. 

Yahoo had earlier sued Google in 2004 for patent infringement related to "pay per click advertising method", which Google settled for ~US$230 million.

Apple v/s Google: Motorola tried to bully Apple in patent negotiations

We had earlier reported that Apple had offered cross-licensing deals to Motorola and Samsung, but the talks failed due to unknown reasons and the patent wars escalated.

Now, in a document filed by the European Commissions (EC) on the proposed merger of Google and Motorola, it has appeared that the licensing deal didn't happen as Motorola/Google tried to intimidate Apple into licensing ALL of its patents, something unacceptable to Apple.

The EC document does not go into much detail on the licensing deals, but there are two interesting points. One relates to Android cross-licensing and the other relates Apple's patents and potential carve outs.

Oracle could drop three more patents against Google; Case could become copyright infringement

Oracle has offered to withdraw three more patents in the case against Google/Android in exchange for a spring trial, albeit with a few caveats. If this happens Oracle will be left with only 2 of the initial 7 patent infringement filed against Oracle and the case could largely become a copyright case rather than a patent infringement one. This will come as a big boost to Google and Android.

Rotation Locker: Run Android apps in any orientation — Portrait or Landscape; Straight or Reverse

One  of the things that really irritates me on my Android Xoom tablet is that orientation of  a lot of apps, especially games, is fixed. Sometimes its understandable, when the app has been setup specifically for landscape or portrait. But many times an app capable of running in landscape mode, for ex, refuses to run in reverse landscape mode, when it should be perfectly capable of doing so.

This is probably due to the focus of the developer on phones, which are rarely, if ever, held in the reverse direction. Still, being on a tablet, this is incredibly frustrating, especially when the device is connected to the charger or the PC and I want to hold it in a particular way.

Fortunately, there is an app which can help add this functionality to Android and the best part is that almost all the apps are compatible!

January 2012 US smartphone market share: Google's Android wins; RIM, Microsoft Windows lose

According to the latest data released by Comscore, US smartphone subscribers grew by 3.5% QoQ to reach 101.3 million units in January 2012.

In terms of smartphone platforms, Android and IOS (Apple) continue to gain market share, while Microsoft's share declined in spite of the initial launch of Lumia 710 by Nokia. RIM's market share also declined.

Nokia's Windows Phone: Success or failure?

T-Mobile customer satisfaction

About a week ago Argus Insights said, in a blog post, that Nokia Lumia 710's customers are delighted, in fact far more delighted than iPhone 4S users. While that may appear so at first glance, a detailed analysis shows that it might not be the correct picture. But first, let see what Argus Insight says.

Best anti virus and anti malware app for Android

Malware have always been a concern on Android and, by some estimates, the number of malware apps on the Android Market (now rebranded as Play) is increasing, as we covered in a recent post AV-Test reviews anti-malware apps: avast! on top. Today we review some of the best antivirus apps available for Android, which hopefully will add another layer of defense.

It should be noted though, that the jury is out on how effective the anti virus apps on Android really are. Some people consider them useless, but a lot of people like me consider them a necessary evil.

Google & Asus teaming to launch a low cost tablet; Potential Jelly Bean device

It appears the close relationship between Asus and Google, as touted by Benson Lin, Corporate VP at Asus, has just gone closer. According to Digitimes, Google is working with Asus to develop a new 7 inch tablet which could be launched as early as May this year.

This nicely ties in with rumours of Q2 2012 launch of Jelly Bean and Asus' assertion that they will be among the first to release Jelly Bean on their devices. Though, according to Slashgear, the device will have ICS — in which case one can expect a quick upgrade to Jelly Bean very soon after launching.

[Off Topic] Rahul Dravid retires from cricket

Kolkata 2001 — The greatest test in history. Image credit: MSN

Rahul Dravid, one of the greatest ever cricketer, has announced his retirement from all forms of cricket. While this is not at all related to the blog, I have been a huge admirer of him over the years and want to take this opportunity to salute this great man — an absolute legend.

Selective links:

Wikipedia — Profile

Wikipedia — List of centuries

Retirement statement — Cricinfo

Not just and overseas hero — Cricinfo
Eight of his best — Cricinfo
Player reactions — Cricinfo

Career stats page — Cricinfo

No more Flash or Office on iPad/Android devices; Microsoft says OnLive violates license

Credit: Xoomforums

OnLive, a company providing a cloud based gaming platform, had launched a virtual Windows 7 desktop service some time ago. The service offers access to Windows 7 desktop as well as MS Office, for free.

But in a blog post today, Microsoft has said that OnLive violates its licensing agreements and they are actively engaging with OnLive to resolve the situation.

Apple to face antitrust investigation over ebooks

Wall Street Journal has claimed that the DOJ has warned Apple along with five of the biggest US publishers that they could face an antitrust investigation for manipulating the prices of ebooks.

iPad 3 launched, specs as expected

Apple has just announced the launch of iPad 3. Most the features were as speculated. Following are the key features highlighted by Apple.

LIVE: Key highlights from Apple conference

• 172mn postpc devices (iPad, iPhone and iPod) were sold in 2011
• Postpc devices made up 76% of sales in Q4 2011
• Retial provide best buying experience
• iOS is an important part of the total experience
• One of the most popular feature of iOS is Siri
• Siri will now be avialable in other parts of the world
• Siri is going to be launched in Japanese
• Apple TV, available next next at US$99
• 15.5mn iPads sold in last quarter, more than any PC manufacturer sold PC's
• iPad is the favourite device for many things incuding reading and browsing
• iPad 3 launches
• Retina display - 2048*1536 pixels or 3.1mn
• 264 pixels per inch, enought o call it a retina display according to Apple
• A5Xchip - Quad core graphics
• Better camera: 5MP backside illuminated sensor, 5 element lens, hybrid IR filter
• Camera also has auto exposure, auto-focus, auto face detection, auto exposure lock and autofocus lock
• Full HD resolution, HD video recording now at 1080p resolution
• iPad now supports  English, British English, Australian English, French, German and Japanese languages
• iPad 3 has LTE
• iPad 2 supported EVDO, HSPA. iPad 3 supports HSPA+ and DC-HSDPA
• iPad 3 priced at US$499
• $499,$599,$699 for 16/32/64GB versions for wifi
• Available from Mar 16 in stores, preordering today
• 10 hours of battery life, 9 hours on 4G
• Safari updated to take care of retina display

That concludes the part of the event we were waiting for. The launch of iPad 3! Also check our previous speculation on iPad 3 in this post.

Thanks Ars Technica for the live coverage :)

Apple offered Motorola and Samsung licensing deals at US$15 per device



Apple has been portrayed in the general media as a bully trying the stop Android from becoming competitive. This had been reinforced when Steve Jobs famously called Android a “stolen product” and said “I will spend my last dying breath if I need to, and I will spend every penny of Apple's $40 billion in the bank, to right this wrong... I'm going to destroy Android, because it's a stolen product. I'm willing to go thermonuclear war on this.”

But according to sources at Dow Jones Newswires, Apple, like Microsoft, had offered Motorola and Samsung a licensing deal, albeit at a high price ranging from US$5-$15 or ~1.0-2.5% per device.

Sources also claimed that Apple wanted to offer licenses only to select competitors and not all of them, in line with the generally thinking at Cupertino to use patents as a strategic advantage.

AV-Test reviews anti-malware apps: avast! on top

There have been several malware scares in Android in the past, with Google even resorting to remove some of them directly from the users devices. Google has been trying through various ways like Bouncer, testing apps in emulators and increasing app sizes, but these methods are only good as a first-line of defence. Another good way to protect from rogue apps would be to use anti-virus or, in Android’s case, anti-malware apps.

AV-TEST, an IT Security Institute, has come out with a detailed report on the anti-malware apps available for the market. According to the report malware are on the rise, which contrasts with what Google has claimed. AV-TEST has also tested various anti-malware products and its no surprise that avast! has come on top.

Samsung targets iPad/iPhone again, this time in Korea

While Apple is looking to launch its much anticipated iPad 3 today, Samsung is playing the role of the spoisport by launching a new lawsuit in South Korea claiming that iPad 2/iPhone 4S infringers on three of its patents. It can be expected that after iPad 3 is launched, Samsung will add it to the list.

Google Play replaces Android market; unifies content

Google has replaced the Android market with a new service, Google Play. Google Play will replace Android Market, Google Music and the Google eBookstore and unify content across these services.

In line with Google's strategic direction, Play is a cloud based service - apps, music, books and movies will be stored online..

According to Google, Play includes:

• Up to 20,000 songs for free and buy millions of new tracks
• More than 450,000 Android apps and games
• World's largest selection of eBooks
• Movie renting

For the next 7 days, Google will be offering a different album, book, video rental and Android app for a special price every day. Also collections of hip-hop, rock and country albums will be sold at US$3.99, some movies at 99 cents as well as certain selected apps will be available starting from 49 cents, this week.

Android market on some of the phones have already started upgrading to Play, but some of the tablets like Xoom have still not been sent the upgrade.