Hasta La Gadget!

Whether you believe we’re living in a post-PC world or not, there’s no denying the overwhelming growth of tablets in the past few years. Just this March, IDC put out figures saying 2010 saw the sale of 18 million tablets, but despite the recent boom, the outfit’s now reporting a 28 percent drop in tablet shipments in Q1 2011, bringing first quarter worldwide shipments to 7.2 million. IDC’s latest report points to “slower consumer demand, overall economic conditions, and supply-chain constraint,” but nonetheless estimates that total tablet sales will reach 53.5 million by year’s end, up from IDC’s original estimate of 50.4 million. Once again, Apple’s come out on top of the slate game, with the iPad 2 leading the market, despite its own dip in shipments. E-readers have apparently also seen a decline in the first quarter, with shipments dipping to 3.3 million units. Despite a slow start to the year, however, IDC’s optimistic about future sales, but you don’t have to take our word for it — full PR awaits you after the break.

Continue reading IDC: tablet shipments drop 28 percent in Q1 2011

IDC: tablet shipments drop 28 percent in Q1 2011 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 12 Jul 2011 21:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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LG has had a rough go of it recently. Its phones haven’t exactly wowed reviewers, and even the ones that do impress turn out to have major bugs that send customers running to other manufacturers. In the face of its struggles to keep up with the Joneses, the company has slashed its sales targets for 2011 from 30 million smartphones to 24 million, and overall handset shipments from 150 million to 114. In the first half of the year LG sold just over 10 million smartphones — by comparison, Samsung put an estimated 19 million such devices in the hands of consumers in Q2 alone. Despite posting its fifth straight quarterly loss there is some cause for optimism — the loses are getting smaller and, if it ever gets the kinks worked out with the G2x, it’ll have a serious competitor for your high-end Android dollar.

LG slashes sales targets, struggling in the smartphone market originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 08 Jul 2011 01:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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China’s control over the rare earths market hasn’t faced too many challenges over the past few years, but that may be changing, thanks to a major discovery in Japan. Geologists say they’ve uncovered expansive new deposits of rare earth minerals, buried within a seabed some 20,000 feet below the Pacific Ocean surface. Research leader Yasuhiro Kato estimates that the deposits contain anywhere from 80 to 100 billion metric tons of rare earths, which, if commercially viable, could pose a serious threat to China’s global hegemony. Supply shortages and aggressive Chinese export controls have combined to raise global prices in recent years, much to the chagrin of manufacturers who rely upon the metals to produce smartphones, tablets and a wide variety of other gadgets. But with analysts predicting a rare earth surplus within the next few years and Japan’s mining industry now poised for a potential resurgence, the outlook is certainly looking a lot brighter.

Japanese scientists discover massive rare earth deposits, China bristles originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 04 Jul 2011 21:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google’s legal woes are piling up in a hurry. French search engine 1PlusV is suing El Goog over alleged anti-competitive practices, less than a week after the Federal Trade Commission opened a formal inquiry into similar accusations levied stateside. The suit, set to be filed in a Paris court this week, claims that Google uses its market dominance to bury rival search results while unfairly promoting those for its own services. According to 1PlusV, Google “black-listed” 30 of its vertical search engines between 2007 and 2010, making it difficult for the firm to compete. The company is also complaining about having to adopt Mountain View’s technology in order to use AdSense and, in total, is seeking €295 million (about $418 million) in damages — the largest damage claim Google has ever faced in Europe. 1PlusV operates the legal search group EJustice.fr and, along with Microsoft, helped spur an EU antitrust probe against Google last year. The company says its forthcoming lawsuit represents the “logical” next step in its ongoing antitrust crusade, while Google issued a brief statement, saying it “look[s] forward to explaining this.”

Google to face €295 million French lawsuit over alleged anti-competitive practices originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 28 Jun 2011 09:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Have you ever missed an extremely important phone call or text because you were too busy finishing those TPS reports on your personal computing machine? There’s a Chrome add-on for that. We went hands-on with a new extension (and accompanying Android app) called MightyText, a free notification service launched today that syncs your phone’s texts and calls to your computer in real-time. The idea is crazy simple, yet adds unyielding convenience: incoming SMS messages appear on your screen as a pop-up, giving you the option to read and reply to them without touching or even looking at the phone. The full extension will show each conversation thread in its entirety, as well as call logs.

When sent from the computer, texts are still patched through from your phone number, so your colleagues will still see your messages coming through with your name on them. To make the service even more appealing, pop-ups alert you to incoming calls, so you can either hurry to find your phone or just send the caller a canned auto-text reply. It sounds like a great concept, but does it do the job? Head on past the break to learn our first impressions of the program.

Continue reading MightyText pushes messages and incoming call alerts to your computer (hands-on)

MightyText pushes messages and incoming call alerts to your computer (hands-on) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 22 Jun 2011 14:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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