Hasta La Gadget!

The iPhone 4 was the top selling smartphone on both Verizon and AT&T this summer. Image: Cannacord

With all the rumor and mayhem around the upcoming iPhone 5, we almost forgot that the iPhone 4 is still on the market, and doing great.

T. Michael Walkley, an analyst with Canaccord Genuity, found the iPhone 4 leading the pack in smartphone sales despite being more than a year old and about to be eclipsed by a new model within months. It was the leading smartphone seller in June, July and August on AT&T and Verizon. On AT&T, the iPhone 3GS also performed exceedingly well, as the number two seller those months.

The iPhone 4 debuted on AT&T last summer, and on Verizon in Feburary, where it broke sales records in the first two hours.

But all the hype in recent months has surrounded the upcoming iPhone 5. Apple’s newest handset, a prototype of which appears to have gone missing from a San Francisco tequila bar, is rumored to sport a larger display, possibly with curved glass, and a metal back. An 8-megapixel camera upgrade is expected, as is an A5 processor like that of the iPad 2. It’s also likely that the next generation iPhone will be available on Sprint and possibly T-Mobile.

Outside the Apple arena, 4G phones dominated the sales figures.

On Sprint, the HTC EVO 3-D 4G dominated in sales, while on T-Mobile, the HTC Sensation was the best seller. On Verizon, the Samsung Charge 4G took second place and the HTC Thunderbolt 4G snagged third.

Walkley also found the iPad 2 (unsurprisingly) was the top-selling tablet on Verizon and AT&T. The first generation iPad also continues to sell well, beating out many newer Android tablets that are available.

via AppleInsider

This article was written on July 06, 2006 by CyberNet.

The Google Pack is a bundle that Google put together awhile back to give users access to all of their software in one simple download. In addition to containing all of Google’s software the package also includes Norton Antivirus, Mozilla Firefox, and Adaware. All of which helps users browse faster and safer.

Starting yesterday Google started offering the Google Pack in Australia,
Austria, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan, and the U.K.. Whew, what an exhausting list.

News Source: Official Google Blog

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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If you missed your shot at a special-edition Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh back in 1997, you can get your eBay bid in on a new, unopened computer.

The Android-running Samsung Infuse wowed us with its 4.5-inch display at CES. Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com

For much of the mobile world, the emphasis is smaller, slimmer and lighter. But when it comes to smartphones, it seems bigger is better.

A growing number of smartphone manufacturers are trying to distinguish themselves from the competition by giving their phones ever more spacious screens. It was definitely a trend at the big IFA consumer electronics show in Berlin, one we first spotted at CES.

The Samsung Galaxy S II LTE phone, Samsung Galaxy Note and HTC’s Windows Phone 7–running Titan all featured relatively ginormous 4.5-inch to 5.5-inch displays. The burrito-shaped Sony Tablet P follows that trend times two: It features a pair of 5.5-inch displays that open like a clamshell. Even Apple appears to be getting in on the act: The next iPhone reportedly sports a larger display.

At CES earlier this year we saw a number of large-screened beauties take the stage, including the 4.5-inch Samsung Infuse. Some 4.3-inchers also have appeared, like the Motorola Photon 4G and upcoming Motorola Droid Bionic.

And last year, the Dell Streak blurred the line between smartphone and tablet with its 5-inch screen.

There’s some hard data to back up the trend, too. The NPD Group found sales of smartphones with screens 4 inches or larger are definitely increasing. At the end of last year, 24 percent of smartphone handsets sold had a screen size of 4 inches or more. The number of phones with screens 3.4 inches or smaller dropped from 63 percent to 36 percent between 2009 and 2010.

“The explosion in web and video content available for smartphones has caused consumers to rethink their phones’ sizes,” Ross Rubin, NPD’s executive director of industry analysis, said in a statement. “Larger displays offer a richer media experience, as well as a roomier surface for onscreen keyboards.”

Rubin told Wired.com the Samsung Infuse has done relatively well at AT&T. As long as the increase in a device’s screen size doesn’t come with an overall increase in the size of the phone, we’ll continue to see more people adopt phones with larger displays.

And that raises an interesting point: Even if you need a screen that big, can you still call it a smartphone? No, said Ken Dulaney, an analyst at Gartner.

“We believe that a smartphone ends and a tablet begins at 4.2 inches diagonal,” Dulaney said. “A 4.5-inch device is a small tablet, in my opinion.”

A better definition might be how conveniently you can carry something that big.

“The question becomes what is the maximum screen size one can put in their pocket, which is the limiting factor,” Rubin said. “The Samsung Galaxy Note has a 5.3-inch screen. Samsung claims that’s the largest that can be accommodated in a pocket. I think that’s a tablet, not a phone.”

Whatever you call it, many manufacturers believe a larger display is a great way to distinguish a product from the competition because, let’s face it — a lot of smartphones look alike.

“Today’s smartphones are pretty difficult to distinguish when it comes to the customer actually looking at them in stores. Increasing the screen is a clear example of manufacturers trying to differentiate rather than following the established product classes,” Geoff Blaber, an analyst at CCS Insight, told MacWorld.

The screens aren’t only getting bigger, they’re getting sharper. Samsung has been developing miniature full-HD screens with its Super AMOLED Plus technology. We’ll probably see displays 5 inches or bigger with 1280 × 720 resolution by the end of the year.

The bigger screens reflect how a lot of people use their phones, which aren’t so much phones as media-consumption devices. People are more likely to use their phones to watch movies, stream videos and play games during the daily commute, that boring staff meeting or any other time the boredom is otherwise unbearable.

According to Pew Internet, 72 percent of smartphone owners turn to their device for entertainment when they are bored. Sixty-four percent use their phone for gaming, and 54 percent use it to watch video. Google’s study with research firm Ipsos OTX found similar numbers: 48 percent of us use our smartphones to watch videos.

All of these activities only improve with a larger screen. And a bigger screen means a bigger gadget, which means there’s room for a bigger keyboard. That’s good, too, because Pew found almost all of us use our smartphones for text messaging, and more than 75 percent of us use them to compose e-mail.

But a larger screen does pose some problems when, for example, making calls. Holding a device with a screen approaching 6 inches can look and feel a bit awkward.

“Assuming you have enough room in your purse, you could use the device only for surfing and then use a Bluetooth headset for calling,” Dulaney said.

True, but a larger display can suck up more battery life and will be more susceptible to cracking or breaking. It could also problematic, as we stream more content to our mobile device using services like HBO Go or Netflix, that almost every carrier has killed the option for unlimited data plans. Even with portable devices that make video consumption pleasant on the go, and the network connectivity to actually support it, you have to watch your data usage or literally pay for the consequences.

Rubin doesn’t believe that’s a big issue at the moment. Wi-Fi is still an option, especially if you’re somewhere like a coffee shop, and overall, the lower price point of capped data plans allows more consumers to enter the market.

Whether you consider them mammoth-screen smartphones or pocket-size tablets, we’re going to be seeing a lot more of them over the next few years.

If you like Cut the Rope, World of Goo, or hauntingly beautiful physics-puzzle games, you’ll go “sur la lune” (over the moon) for Contre Jour.

Originally posted at iPhone Atlas