What it really be would be, will be totally public by the end of the next week. However, for the reasons of having some similarities to the already available brands and models, Facebook has been accused of stealing, but the company has denied any such charges. It was alleged that Facebook stole Apple’s iOS developers and through them got the technology on hand.

With such new additions like Poke, Facebook Messenger, and the Instagram, keen observers of Facebook are speculating this is just what it is, taking the best options and not calling them stolen. The Facebook Phone is expected to have a design of rounded edges, much similar to Apple’s iPhone just with a Facebook home button.

There were earlier such “Facebook phones” like HTC ChaCha and Nokia Asha 205 with prominent Facebook home button, that were not very successful. The display is rumoured to be 4.3 inches. The Facebook phone will have a 1.5Gz processor, 1GB of ram, 16GB of storage and a 5 megapixel rear camera and 1.6 megapixel front camera. So, more competitors for Apple and Samsung, however, Facebook will still have a long stride to make to even come closer.

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Since its launch in 2007, it has been steadily growing and by 2009, it really became a lot popular, though more so in America than in other parts of the world. It was founded in 2007 by David Karp and now has 167 employees. Tumblr is available in 12 languages. In 2012, it became one of the world’s top 10 most visited sites.

Now, the company will introduce mobile ads on the iOS and Android platforms in a couple of months this year. Any site that wants to see growth is also trying to capture the mobile market, because both the online world and the mobile world have intertwined in information technology and communication.

Tumblr users can monetise their blog and can start earning. Those who are avid bloggers will now the benefit of getting on this platform. It certainly is a great way to express one’s opinion, ideas, and anything that one wants to. There are not many Pakistani users on Tumblr, but it is also fairly popular amongst internet surfers here.

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Android and Samsung

Sales of smart phones during the years 2011- 2012 have boosted up to an extreme level. While comparing the average sales of smart phones and feature phones, it has been revealed that the graph of smart phone sales has shown a continuous increase in the following year with no downfall up till now. Due to the emergence of tablets technologies, most of the businessmen and education oriented people have demanded more advanced mobile phones that can fulfill their needs of a personal computer within their smart and handy cell phones. During the year 2012, smart phone companies have been highly enthusiastic to gain market share to the utmost level.

According to the latest figures of Gartner, it has been shown that a percentage increase in Samsung smart phones is greater than all other smart phones. Although Apple, Nokia and Google phones have successfully taken a lead in their own markets but Apple and Samsung have taken the highest lead. And among IOS and Android, it’s undoubtedly said that Android technology used in Samsung smart phones and tablets is considered as the best one. Hence, if one says that Android and Samsung have outpaced IOS and Apple, it won’t be denied. The customer’s pull towards the Samsung Galaxy mobile phones including S2, S3 and galaxy notes cannot be rejected.

Samsung and Android average sales figures:

According to research, during the year 2012, the average sales of Samsung smart phones has been reported to about 97,956.8 thousands of units hence attained a market share of about 22.2 percent. This percentage is quiet greater than the percentage of sales made in the year 2011. Let’s take a look at the average sale in terms of thousands of units and percentage of market share attained by galaxy smart phones during the year 2011. In 2011, Samsung sales were reported as 82,612 thousands of units thus gained an average market share of 18.7 percent. The above details have shown a smooth increase in market share year by year which seems to further increase in the coming years.

Apple and IOS Sales Figures:

In 2012, number of units of Apple smart phones sold was approximately 23,550 thousand making an average market share of about 13 percent. In 2011, this figure was slightly lower than the following year that is, 17,295 thousand units and market share of 13 percent.

It shows that both Apple and Samsung mobile phones have been successful in attaining the customer’s attention but Samsung has taken the highest lead in the smart phones market. This bolstered sale of Samsung smart phones is mainly due to the inviting android technology used in them. Apple is lagging behind due to some minor and ignorable reasons but still Apple lovers would not shift towards any other option and Apple Inc. is highly conscious and well aware of how to compete with the market and retain its potential and existing customers.

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This new burst of social media technology has its both up and down sides. All major newspapers and news channels have gone online to cater to an online audience for their appetite for news. A major news magazine, Newsweek, has recently decided that it is better off conducting all its business online, rather than through a print version for the United States. Thus, it will shut down its print publication from December 31 this year.

It has been running in print for the past 80 years, but now will be available only through a mobile app and on the Web through a paywall. Newsweek Editor-in-Chief, Tina Brown, announced this news recently. Newsweek was founded in 1933 and has gained lot of attention for its journalism and also criticism for its biased agenda over the years. Newsweek also merged with a Web-only news website, The Daily Beast.

Newsweek is also available for iOS, Android, and Kindle e-readers. Due to this shutting down of its print operation, its staff will get laid off in the process, both in the U.S. and internationally. Newsweek had also faced financial difficulty and had been losing around $40 million annually and according to Tina Brown, it is because news consumers are heading online and leaving off expensive paper version.

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The Apple frenzy on Friday continued its memorable run with lines snaking out of some of the company’s most high-profile stores, as consumers eagerly snapped up the iPhone 5. The figure, however, isn’t quite as high as some analysts expected.

(Customers wait outside Apple retail store for buying their new devices)

Still, the iPhone 5 re-establishes Apple’s dominance in the smartphone business. While Samsung Electronics may lead the market in total smartphones sold, no other company can garner the kind of excitement and anticipation for a new product, and few companies can reap the sheer amount of profit that Apple can with the iPhone.

The success comes despite criticism that the iPhone 5 isn’t a ground-breaking upgrade from the previous version, and that its key features — a bigger display and a 4G wireless connection — are elements that should have been included in the iPhone 4S.

More embarrassing is Apple’s own maps application, which contains a number of errors, distorted images and a lack of details in different locations that have many wishing the company hadn’t booted Google Maps out of iOS 6.

Still, the iPhone 5 has garnered strong reviews, and neither the lack of a major change in its esthetics nor the map flap have hurt demand. Apple also said today that more than 100 million devices have upgraded to iOS 6, the latest version of its mobile operating system.

It remains to be seen whether the long-term demand for the iPhone continues with the competition stepping up its game. Samsung has already gone after Apple with advertisements taking shots at the iPhone 5, while Microsoft is readying the launch of its Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8.

Meanwhile, the iPhone 5 marches on. This Thursday, Apple will release the iPhone 5 in Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.

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So the all new iPhone has finally arrived!

But is it all that amazing? Indeed all the rumors have been proven to be true. The new iPhone or iPhone 5, whatever you want to call it has all the specs and more that were accurately predicted in the past months.

For full specs, check out: http://www.vsocio.com/2012/09/12/apple-iphone-5-announced/

But, does it really surprise me? In a word, no. Now let me explain.

For two and a half very long years, Apple fanatics have been trying to piece together what it is Apple has had up its sleeve for the iPhone 5. Leading up to Apple’s announcement, we were asking ourselves the very same question we asked ourselves in October of last year: “What will the iPhone 5 entail?”

On top of all the mystery, something very saddening happened last year following the announcement of the iPhone 4S. Steve Jobs, Apple’s fearless and inspirational leader and former CEO, passed away the very next day. Since then, we’ve been wondering if Apple’s new products can live up to the quality of the Jobs-era products. Without Steve Jobs, can Apple execute the same level of efficiency in its products? Can Tim Cook instill the same level of desire in consumers?

Some feel Jobs could have made a $1,000 brick with an Apple logo appealing, a must-have item for any home. All eyes were on Tim Cook to recreate and emulate the same level of charisma and confidence in a product that Jobs could.

On the heels of a somewhat disappointing (yet widely popular) iPhone 4S, many were sceptical about the iPhone 5. It very well could be a make-or-break for the company in the volatile marketplace especially after the bitter legal dispute with Samsung over patent infringements.

Apple showed us the very device we’ve seen leaked in images around the Web for months now. The same two-toned metal (aluminum) backing, the taller, thinner design.

“Anyone can make a bigger phone,” said Phil Schiller, who introduced the iPhone 5 to the audience at the event.

The iPhone 5 is almost exactly what many were expecting. It hosts a 4-inch display (326 PPI, 1136 x 640 pixel resolution and 16:9 aspect ratio), 7.6mm thick, 18 percent thinner than the iPhone 4S, 20 percent lighter, all in a strikingly similar chassis.

As far as software goes, the extra vertical pixels call for an extra row of icons. The larger display yields a larger viewing space and, thus, allows you to view more content on a single page. Legacy applications, however, will just center themselves on the display at the old resolution, giving users a black margin at the top and bottom of the app. (That’s almost as bad as iPhone apps on an iPad.) Inside the display, Apple removed the touch sensitive layer and integrated it right into the display for a more responsive touch and crisper display.

I would be disappointed with anything but a totally redesigned, 4.3-inch (or larger) iPhone 5. I don’t care about a boost in performance or how thin Apple made the phone. LTE connectivity was a given (something that should have happened last year) and their “redesign” was haphazard. The two-tone back is not appealing, nor is it Apple-eqsue. And for some, a 4-inch phone is still too small. After all that its competitors have launched into the market, I expected Apple to reply in earnest (or at least come close to it).

While I’m sure it will be just as great of a device as the iPhone has been, the iPhone 5 is just as disappointing as the last.

That said, I did not at all expect Apple – of all companies – to have literally no surprises for us.

There was literally no aspect of the iPhone 5 we were unaware of leading into the event. I may have chosen to give Apple the benefit of a doubt, hoping they were a little more careful than to let the Internet spoil the surprise. I was wrong.

I hold my final opinion for when I get the phone in my hand. But I don’t like the aspect ratio or look of the iPhone 5. And nothing Apple announced today is terribly impressive. It’s not a total letdown, though. But Apple’s inability to keep a secret anymore is.

So, what’s your take, ladies and gentlemen? Is the iPhone 5 everything you’ve been hoping and waiting for? Is it a big enough improvement to upgrade your old iPhone or Android phone?

Or will you wait, like me, for Apple to genuinely surprise me with a radically new iPhone 6?

The post iPhone 5: Initial thoughts appeared first on Vsocio.

WWDC 2012 is only a few weeks away. Thus, all sorts of Apple software rumors are starting to make the rounds. Today, the Wall Street Journal is reporting that the iCloud will gain some new features, most notably, a way to share galleries of photos with other iCloud users. These photos would be open to comments by other iCloud users you share with and would be separate sets outside of a user’s standard Photo Stream, which currently stores the last 1000 photos you’ve shot with your iOS device or added via your computer. It is also stated that the web interface for iCloud will sync reminders and notes from iOS.

The inclusion of notes and reminders on iCloud is a necessary update but the revamped photo sharing features would mark a bit of a change of pace for Apple after the shutting down in a few weeks of MobileMe, Apple’s cloud solution prior to iCloud.

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A year ago, their combined share was only 65.7 percent.

In the second quarter, Android’s market share surged 45 percent to 68 percent, while Apple’s share declined 10 percent to 16.9 percent, IDC reported. Google’s gain came as more vendors such as Samsung Electronics (Seoul: 005930) rolled out more smartphones to compete against Apple’s iPhone 4S and older models.

Meanwhile, the share of BlackBerry developer Research in Motion (Nasdaq: RIMM) fell to only 4.8 percent from 11.5 percent a year ago, and the Symbian share declined to only 4.4 percent from 16.9 percent, mainly because Finland’s Nokia (NYSE: NOK) abandoned it for the Windows Phone OS from Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT), the world’s biggest software company.

Microsoft’s share rose to 3.5 percent to 2.3 percent, IDC reported. Microsoft plans to roll out a new version of Windows next quarter.

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android-vs-ios

It is the common perception that app design is app design; it does not matter whether it is made by iOS or Android. But Hipmunk UI/UX designer and iOS developer Danilo Campos said that it is easy to develop an elegant and attractive iOS app as compared with Android app. This statement is made by iOS developer so definitely he will say everything in favor iOS. It is known to everybody that Android is used by many mobile companies like Sony Ericson, HTC and Samsung etc. but iOS is only in Apple so it is quite easy to manage one thing rather than handling and dealing with thousand of models. Different models have different dimensions and resolutions, these factors will definitely make development slower. It is seen that when you install different app than your mobile gets slow.

Read Also : Why Must Buy Android Device

This thing never happens with iOS or iPhone. Secondly these apps takes so much time in uploading ad than in getting started that many people get bored and they lose the charm in operating that app. Developer tools and documentation is also quite slow in Android. Apple is getting perfect day by day as it is working on the same base since twenty years while Google is getting started from scratch with Android. For competing with Apple, Google has to work too hard. On highlighting more defects of Android, experts say that your stuff in your set does not feel documented. This is really annoying for any user. Detailed features of anything are more easily implemented in iOS because of the wide variety of APIs and libraries available. It is also said that it is a tough task for Android to develop such touch and round glass design that Apple is having. Android is in many mobile companies phones and all are making different designs i.e. some are sliding, some are flip etc. so it is difficult to manage screen resolution in all and this thing affects the app working in return. Google is trying hard to deal with the market pressure. The new Android 4.0 is one of the Android devices. Even according to few people it is better than iPhone. But again this Ice Cream Sandwich is only present in 3% of the Android devices. Android training classes are now offered by Android. Design guidelines are also made for developers. iOS also have some drawbacks. Everything is not rosy in iOS. The best part of Android is that it gives you more liberty to do things that you want to see and have in your mobile. Apple has limitations. It gives you access to few app unlike Android. Secondly you can’t upgrade you iPhone applications as new features and app are in the new iPhone models only. My view is that if you want to have a good looking app with a single pass than you should go for iOS. But if you want to manage things according to your taste, than you should go for Android.

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Notification:

Users were complaining Apple about the bad notification setup. Apple took notice of their pleas and developed a better notification setup in iPhone 5. It is called as Notification Center. It is the main spot of all the notifications. Notifications include all your social websites notifications and apps notifications. You can see them by swiping your finger from the top of your phone. This is a new feature for iPhone but it is present in Android smartphones.

iMessages:

Like notifications, a new messaging service is created that will be functional between iOS users. You will be able to send messages to the other iPhone, iPod and I Pad users. This feature is currently present in Blackberry as Blackberry messenger. It will show delivery receipt, read receipt and tying indications. Is it it awesome. Messages will be pushed to all the devices. But the drawback of this is that you can’t use it without internet I.e. Wi-Fi and 3G.

Reminders:

This is a list that will keep you organized. It means it will tell you what your plans are, where you have to go, where you right now, etc are.

Twitter integration:

Twitter is damn in these days. It is one of the most used sites. Seeing its popularity graph Apple has decided to integrate it into iOS. It means that you can tweet from your camera, photo, YouTube, maps, contacts and apps. You can set the function that will automatically update your contact list photos on twitter.

Newsstand:

It is the new feature created by Apple. It helps you in getting easy and direct access to magazines, newspaper and other media. It will automatically work at background and downloads media. The downloaded material will be uploaded I something that looks like iBook app.

Camera:

A lock screen shortcut is added that will help you taking pictures even faster. There is no need to enter passcode again and again. The new advanced feature is that you can use volume up button to take a picture. Zooming was not in the previous iPhones. But in iPhone this features is introduced. You can zoom right in the camera app.

Photo editing:

The most needed feature for editing pictures is in your access. You can crop, remove red eye, enhancements etc directly from your iPhone and right out of the box.

Game center:

Now you can compare your photos with your friends. You can see your friend’s mutual friends, can see recommendations, and give recommendations.  Turn-based games will be available in iOS, playable at multiple devices.

Safari:

Yu can easily a conveniently read a story on website.  Words will be clearer to your eyes and you can read them easily.

The post Apple iOS brings 200 new features appeared first on Vsocio.

Microsoft Surface

“The Surface is a PC. The Surface is a tablet. And the Surface is something new that we think people will absolutely love,” said Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.
Everyone is talking about this tablet, some critics say the tablets will fail while others say it will capture the market by destroying Apple’s iPad but it’s the quality, innovation, efficiency and the time that will judge its dominion.
Microsoft is going to launch its new tablet pc by the name of “Microsoft surface” approximately by August/September 2012 as per most of the blogs and websites. Microsoft is determined to release the Surface along with their much anticipated windows 8 operating system which has been designed with tablets in mind.
Surface will be available in two variants, one with windows RT and the other one with windows 8 operating system. Windows RT will come with a home and a student version of Microsoft Office making it more productive.
Microsoft surface comes with a 0.7 millimeter kickstand in order to keep it in an upright position along with a 3 millimeter thick touch keyboard which is snapped on using magnets. The total weight of the device is under 1.5 pounds which is similar to iPad’s which is 1.3 pounds.
Microsoft Surface screen measures 10.6 inches diagonally, compared to 9.7 inches of iPad. Along with this it has a 16:9 aspect ratio which has become the most common aspect ratio for sold televisions and computer monitors and is also the international standard format of HDTV as compared to iPad’s 4:3.
The price tag of Microsoft Surface will fall in between the range of $499 to $829, as most of the high end tablets fall in this range. But still we have to wait and see whether these prices are a real deal or not.
Microsoft is basically transferring from the old world of mice and keyboards to the new world of touch screens in order to become a tough competitor of iPad. Microsoft Surface has one new additional aspect which is its touch keyboard cover which is really thin and feels great to type with.
But most of the blogs are saying that Microsoft Surface will lag behind regarding the touch screen as compared to iPad because the image doesn’t come along in real time, that’s noticeable on Surface.
Microsoft surface has the fewest ports it can get away with, the bottom edge has a magnetic keyboard connector while the top has a power button and the sides have two speakers, micro SD, dual microphones, one USB 2.0 port ( USB 3.0 for the surface pro ) and micro HDMI.

Read Also: Best tablets of the year 2011

One advantage that a Microsoft surface has that unlike other tablets, it will be able to run any program or software that is capable of running on your home or office computer. On the same hand iPad has plethora of applications reaching up to 225,000 due to which its popular, Microsoft have to convince the third party app developers to start creating apps specifically for this new platform, which will be hard to do.
Overall its quite a surprise that Microsoft have created its own tablet but they have done a quite decent job. All they have to do is to get the price right and most of all get the consumers attention but most all convincing the world that Windows 8 is a comparable tablet OS to IOS and android.

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“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.”

Jobs expressed his extreme side saying:

“I’m going to destroy Android….I’m willing to go thermonuclear war on this.”

One does not expect just words and thoughts from Jobs, but then these really well could be his feelings. Despite this claim in the book on his life, Larry Page, Google’s CEO believes that these views are not true and Jobs believed as such for pretence only. Larry said:

“I think the Android differences were actually for show.”

The reason as to why Jobs would do this according to Larry is:

“For a lot of companies, it’s useful for them to feel like they have an obvious competitor and to rally around that.”

It is strange that technology innovators would need negative sentiments to motivate their own team rather than asking them to make the world better on their with technology regardless of who else is copying them. Google’s Larry wants to stand clean on this and said that it was his privilege to have met Jobs during his last year in life.

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At its event in San Francisco Wednesday, Apple announced it would release iOS 5.1 and that it would bring Japanese-language support for Siri, the voice assistant on the iPhone 4S.

The news had been rumored for a few weeks, but now it’s official. There were also rumors that iOS 5.1 would bring a new lock screen for the iPhone, with a camera icon that didn’t require pushing the home button to call up. Apple made no mention of that, but we’ll see if it’s there when we try it out later today.

When will the next major revision of iOS appear, the rumored iOS 6? Although we’ve seen evidence that Apple is testing iOS 6 on devices from its headquarters in California, Apple typically reserves the roll out of its big iOS updates for its developers conference at the beginning of summer. Consumers won’t likely see it available for their iDevices until fall.

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Apple will offer the iPad 2 in two configurations, a 16GB Wi-Fi only model sells for $399. A 16GB Wi-Fi and 3G model (available on either AT&T or Verizon) sells for $529. The iPad 2 will continue to be available in either black or white.

The price of used iPad 2 devices is also likely to drop as gadget enthusiasts rush to sell their current devices in preparation for adopting the newly announced model.

The new iPad has 2048 x 1536-pixel retina display, a 5-megapixel camera and 1080p video recording. It is available March 16 starting at $499.

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