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Google unveils Android 4.1, complete with Siri competitor and more

Apple kicked off this month with its WWDC keynote, unveiling the next version of its mobile operating system: iOS 6. Then Microsoft quickly followed with its Windows Phone 8 announcement. And now it's Google's turn.

Google's I/O keynote is already underway this morning, and the search giant just unveiled its next version of its mobile platform Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean). The update features a Siri competitor, UI enhancements, and more...

Google launches own tablet, Nexus 7 (video)

The Google I/O 2012 conference is still underway at San Francisco’s Moscone West and Google has finally taken the wraps off of its own branded tablet, called Nexus 7. It's designed with content consumption in mind and comes with an enhanced Google Play store which now lets you browse, download and enjoy digital magazines, television shows, movies, in addition to Android apps and more...

Did Android just outsell iOS devices?

Google I/O is underway at San Francisco's Moscone West and the company just shared a few interesting tidbits related to the momentum of its Android platform, announcing total activations of over four hundred million devices as of June of this year.

This means that a whopping 300 million new activations have been added over the past twelve months. On the surface, the number seems to compare favorably versus the 365 million cumulative iOS device sales Apple reported at WWDC earlier this month...

Google expected to unveil $199 tablet tomorrow

Apple's competitors have been extremely busy over the past few weeks. Last Monday, Microsoft announced their all-new Surface tablet. And a few days later, it showed off Windows Phone 8.

Tomorrow, Google is rumored to be making a major announcement of its own. The company's I/O developer conference starts this week, and Google is largely expected to kick things off by unveiling a new tablet...

Brightcove outs SDK for dual-screen Apple TV apps as Google TV update looms

The epic battle for the living room is about to get a lot more interesting in a matter of days. Brightcove, a Cambridge, Massachusetts-headquartered online video platform provider, today released its App Cloud platform on an open-source basis. The SDK lets content owners create dual-screen apps that stream high-definition video to a television set through an Apple TV and AirPlay protocol.

While streaming, these apps can render a bunch of useful information on your iPhone or iPad, turning your iOS device into a glorified remote control of sorts. Meanwhile, Google is expected to issue a significant update to the Google TV platform at its upcoming developers conference tomorrow, said to give the Apple TV a run for its money...

The realities of the smartphone biz today

Different stats and market research all point to the same conclusion: that the mobile market is being reduced to a two-horse race between iOS and Android (or Apple and Samsung, specifically) as once great incumbents such as RIM and Nokia get pushed aside, their market shares seriously declining.

In fact, it's fairly safe to say that on the fifth anniversary of iPhone, both RIM and Nokia are fighting for survival, quite possibly their lifecycle coming to an end. Meanwhile, only four companies are turning profit in the increasingly crowded smartphone space...

Apple could face U.S. ban on products over 3G patent

The U.S.-based court battle between Motorola and Apple may have been dismissed, but Apple's problems are far from over. As far as the ITC is concerned, the company is still facing a possible product import ban.

A new report is out this afternoon, claiming that the International Trade Commission is reviewing a previous ruling that says Apple is in violation of one of Motorola's patents. And the outcome, could be devastating...

Gmail for iOS gets true Notification Center support and “send-as” feature

Google has just pushed out an incremental update to its native Gmail client for iOS. The new version brings three little nice-to-haves to your email arsenal, including the ability to send email messages from your alternate email addresses and stay logged in longer.

The biggest enhancements is the full support for iOS notifications, meaning you can now finally set up banners, alerts and lock screen options in Notification Center...

Competition: Motorola exiting feature phones, 7″ slates from Amazon, Google loom

Several reports this morning sourced from Taiwanese supply chain indicate some pretty interesting reshuffling going on in the mobile space outside Apple. Samsung is shooting to cumulatively sell ten million Galaxy S III units by early July while Motorola Mobility is mulling exiting the feature phones business in order to focus all their energies on "innovative products".

In the non-iPad space, a contract manufacturer has apparently landed orders for both Amazon's seven-inch Kindle Fire tablet and Google's Nexus-branded expected to make an appearance at Google I/O on Wednesday...

Apple’s anti-Big Brother patent could help with de-Googlification of iOS

It's virtually impossible to find a business that doesn't mine data on its users, be it your local grocery store or an online-only outlet which carries digital warez. And it doesn't matter whether you're a prospective buyer browsing a collection of books on Amazon or a repeat customer using your credit card to purchase intangibles.

One way or another, you're getting profiled. It's happening all the time and all around us, insofar as we don't even pay notice though we should. Even searching the web leaves valuable data in server logs that can and is being traced to your anonymized profile. What you're getting in return is a more personalized experience and certain businesses like social networks (Facebook, Google+ and so forth) literally depend on this idea.

Apple begs to differ. Suggesting the practice is getting out of hand, the company scored a huge patent win for techniques that could make data profiling more difficult and the iOS ecosystem a place devoid of aggressive advertising...

Let the iOS maps war begin

One of the headlining stories of iOS 6 is the fact that Apple has taken over the Maps application. Not only did it rebuild the app from the ground up, but it also stopped using Google's mapping data.

From what we've heard, this was a long time coming. According to an ex-Google employee, the two companies have been battling for years over what Apple wanted to do with the Maps application.

So now that Apple has total control of it, the Maps war is over, right?