Hasta La Gadget!

We’ve officially entered the final week in August, which means that the autumn months are right around the corner. Today, Apple delivered a list of 8 Samsung devices it would like to see banned in the US, and the Galaxy S II – which is still a popular phone for Samsung – attracted the lion’s share of the attention. We caught a glimpse of the amended verdict form from the trial today, and Google made a rather interesting statement on the outcome of the suit. Unsurprisingly, Samsung’s stock took a stumble today, while the stock of some other phone manufacturers went up.

Samsung has demanded that the ban on the Galaxy Tab 10.1 be lifted since it wasn’t found to be infringing on Apple patents, and Microsoft and Nokia are only seeing this Samsung defeat as an opportunity for them. Though it got the short of the end of the stick with this particular trial, Samsung says it will keep fighting until its “arguments have been accepted.” Speaking of Samsung, the company released a new teaser for its Series 5 Hybrid, suggesting that it will be at IFA later this week. A full spec list for the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 has apparently been leaked, so be sure to check that out if you’re interested in Samsung’s latest phablet.

A leaked press shot for the LG Intuition might give us a hint at its Verizon release date, and NFC implementation has been spotted in an image of the purported front panel of the iPhone 5. The HTC Proto may be the Desire X in disguise, the iPad Mini might be headed for an October reveal, and the LG TM2792 Personal Smart TV was detailed with the promise of more information coming at IFA. The Nexus 7 was overclocked to 2GHz and predictably blew away the competition when it came to benchmarks. If you read that and decided that you absolutely need to have one, you might be pleased to learn that the tablet went on sale in France, Germany and Spain today.

The incoming LG Optimus Vu II will be getting a universal remote app, while the same company announced “Game World” for its CINEMA 3D line of smart TVs today. The Wii U might be arriving on November 18, and Sony’s challenger to Microsoft Surface has been spotted in the wild. Apple has convinced Bob Mansfield to come out of retirement, and it may not be long before we have robots searching for clues beneath the surface of Mars.

Finally tonight, we have a “first drive” of the 2012 Hyundai Santa Fe Sport from Vincent Nguyen. Enjoy the rest of your evening folks!

SlashGear Evening Wrap-Up: August 27, 2012 is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology.

If widespread rumors hold true, the coming weeks will see two of the most successful tablet vendors invade each other’s screen size turf. Apple, which once rebuked the 7-inch tablet as unfit for normally proportioned human hands, appears ready to try its own hand at an iPad rumored to be on the larger side of the 7- to 8-inch range. Amazon, which lagged its bookselling rival Barnes & Noble in bringing out a color tablet, stands ready to introduce an infernal successor to the Kindle Fire that may include a display that is close to 9-inches or larger.

It’s not quite the first ride along the screen size escalator for either company. For Apple, a smaller iPad would fill in the iOS screen size gap between the iPhone and iPad. For Amazon, also rumored to be working on a phone, a larger color tablet would revisit the ground it explored to lackluster results with the Kindle DX. That product hasn’t kept up with even e-paper-based e-readers with advances such as touchscreens and side-lighting, both of which are found in the latest Nook Simple Nook.

Continue reading Switched On: Trading places

Filed under: Tablets

Switched On: Trading places originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 26 Aug 2012 17:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Tell me if this particular rumor sounds familiar — rather than lump the announcements of a new iPhone and a new iPad into a single event, Apple will instead unveil the products at two distinct events. Daring Fireball’s John Gruber offered up that tantalizing possibility earlier in the week, and now it seems that he may have hit the nail on the head.

According to a new report from AllThingsD, sources close to the situation have confirmed that Apple will pull back the curtain on a new, smaller iPad during a special event in October. Meanwhile, all signs still point to an iPhone unveiling on September 12, so rabid members of the tech press and Apple’s fan club should have plenty of time to dig into one new product before another takes the stage.

Rumors of a smaller iPad have been making the rounds ever since Apple’s 10-inch tablet first hit the market, and those rumblings have only grown in intensity since companies like Amazon and Google entered the fray. At this point, there’s still hardly any concrete information about Apple’s smaller iPad (unless you’re the type to read too much into sketchy Chinese cases), but there’s little question that Apple’s tiny tablet would mean plenty of trouble for those two players in particular.

Amazon’s pint-sized Kindle Fire has been one of the only tablets to give the iPad line a run for its money in terms of sales, and the company is expected to unveil the Fire’s successor at a press event on September 6. Meanwhile, Google worked with Asus to produce the impressive Nexus 7, and recent speculation seems to indicate that Nexus 7 sales could easily outpace Google’s own expectations. Considering the iPad’s tremendous popularity though, we may soon see Amazon and Google’s momentum take a nosedive should Apple push out a product to compete in the same niche those companies’ devices currently occupy.

Friday is here once again folks, and what a Friday it was. What started out as a relatively slow news day became very exciting later on, as the jury deciding the Apple and Samsung case delivered their verdict after only three days of deliberation. The verdict? Let’s just say that Apple’s lawyers will be having a celebration tonight. Samsung was found guilty of multiple patent infringements, and a lot of that patent infringement was found willful by the jury. To make matters worse for Samsung, the jury found that it wasn’t owed any damages by Apple. Needless to say, we think there will be an appeal.

This verdict comes on the same day that Tim Cook wraps up his first year as Apple CEO, and elsewhere in the world, a similar lawsuit between Apple and Samsung ended with both companies facing bans in South Korea. Ouch. After a bit of a shake up at the OnLive headquarters, things seem to have calmed down a bit, and Steve Perlman will be staying on as OnLive CEO. LG has teased an incoming smartphone with an S4 quad-core processor, and Google’s legendary I’m Feeling Lucky button has been given a pretty major update. It isn’t the same I’m Feeling Lucky button it once was, of course, but we think it’ll begin to grow on you after awhile.

The presidential campaigns will soon begin receiving donations through text messages, and the Nikon D600 full-frame DSLR camera may be getting a release in September. Speaking of cameras, beleaguered Kodak has come up with a new way to raise some quick cash after patent auctions left something to be desired. The much-rumored iPad Mini has apparently popped up in some photos for a pre-fab case, and it seems that Samsung has a new smartphone called the Galaxy Stellar coming to Verizon, which is all well and good, but Samsung actually has yet to announce the phone or release a list of specs.

The Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 has beaten the iPad when it comes to profit margins, and for the third time this week, Rockstar has released a new batch of Grand Theft Auto V screenshots. Astronomers have discovered a pair of new spiral galaxies that have a lot in common with our own, and it would appear that Amazon has leaked its tablet plans through a new advertisement. Wrapping up the news tonight, Facebook is having its developers use the Facebook app for Android in order to get them motivated to fix it, or at least that’s what the rumors say.

As is usually the case here at SlashGear, we didn’t just have news for you today, as Chris Burns provides a review of SuperTooth DISCO 2 for you to check out. Have a good weekend everyone!

SlashGear Evening Wrap-Up: August 24, 2012 is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

While the iPad mini has not been confirmed by the folks at Apple just yet, according to the leaked photos and whatnot, it supposedly resembles a larger iPod touch with thinner bezels on its side. While it remains to be seen if those rumors and mockups are right on the money, some case manufacturers have taken it upon themselves (via GizChina) to start creating cases for the tablet which seems to be consistent with the leaked dimensions.

Of course there is a chance that these manufacturers have their facts wrong. Back in 2011 prior to the iPhone 4S being released, many believed it would sport a larger display and some case manufacturers reportedly started creating cases for those dimensions. Safe to say they made a bad bet as the iPhone 4S turned out to be the iPhone 4 with some internal hardware changes, not so much on the surface. In any case many believe the iPad mini could be announced in September alongside the iPhone 5, but if the latest set of rumors have suggested, we could be looking at a separate event instead. We’ll be keeping our eyes peeled so stay tuned for more updates!

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: iPad mini to be announced separately from iPhone 5?, Apple rumored to be instructing its resellers in Europe to clear more display space for iPads,