Are phones and tablets to unite?

Much of the trend in the mobile or portable computer industry is set by what manufacturers come to decide is to the likings of the end user. Of course this could go horribly wrong as Nokia found out with some of its bolder designs like the N-Gage series but again like Nokia knows this could also set what other manufacturers aspire to be for some years to come. But as much as it is the hardware that reels in the buyers it is also the software. Cue in Nokia again, this time with Symbian; a love affair that just went on for too long. Now if a manufacturer were to come across the Holy Grail that is top of the line hardware, running snappy software, only big money is to be made, or spent by us the users.

But the problem doesn’t end there. Very few of us, or maybe even none of us, will have only one device. Phones, pads and laptops are a way of life now, and  often  we decide on a device depending on how nicely it will play with our other devices.   Apple was the first in giving us a large, eye-friendly super powered device that worked and felt exactly like our smaller pocketable device. From then everyone was playing catch up. Google started to get the picture with Honeycomb and Microsoft insisted on playing ignorant.

But things have changed. Google finally developed Android to work exactly the same on tablets as it does on phones with the mighty Ice Cream Sandwich and Windows 8 shines rays of hope for Microsoft’s devotees showing it is moving in the right direction.

So the software is finally down and now it’s time to go back to the drawing boards with the hardware. These days every tablet looks like every other tablet and those tablets run or try to run exactly like our phones do. But unlike our tablets, our phones differ. They come in different shapes and sizes. Different specs, figures and numbers. So with the grand scheme of things, I think we will soon be deciding which phone we like and then we will be taking the pad that goes with it.

And here comes what I believe to be the industry trend. What if you could take your phone and make it a tablet and then take your tablet and make it a laptop? Sounds awfully like the Asus Padfone and the Transformer series.

Asus has got the shiny hardware just right to go along with the snappy software to create a device we want to have. It’s not easy business pulling off what Asus has. Each component of the magical four (phone, display dock, keyboard dock and software) has to be top of the line. Asus’ mythical “Eee Transformer Padfone” will not stay top of the line for long either. But as it is today, Asus has been able to bring an innovation, which I have to say makes sense, with hardware other manufacturers are compelled to compete against and out do. And to compete one much produce the same line up. You can’t beat a football team at a basketball match. And in this attempt to create hardware like Asus but only better than Asus we the users will see a trend.

And that’s how trends are set. Manufactures making us feel we want an ICS running Padfone with a keyboard dock, even though we already have a phone, a tablet and a laptop.

ASUS has announced that it will be releasing their unlock/root tool for use with the Transformer Prime.  After complaints from the dev community that the device shipped with a locked bootloader, they were unable to load custom ROMs of the Android OS.

Once release, developers and modders will full access to some very powerful hardware.  The only caveat being the warranty will be voided.  February is poised to be a big month for ASUS as besides this release, updates to Ice Cream Sandwich for the first version of the Transformer will be made available.

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It looks like someone at Verizon has taken the time to try and make sense as to who is suing who in the uber-competitive smartphone industry.

Although attempting to clear things up, upon first glance one can’t help but feel slightly overwhelmed and more confused.  Take a look for yourself to see if you can make sense of the insanity.  Click on the image for a larger view.

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Coming out of nowhere to blur the lines between phone and camera is Polaroid and their SC1630.  While most smartphones have taken to include camera functionalities into their devices, here is a long time camera manufacturer adding phone capabilities to their camera.

Make no mistake, this is a fully functioning point and shoot camera supporting 16 megapixels with an adjustable apeture of F3.1 – F5.6, 3X optical zoom and 5X digital zoom, shutter speed control, ISO sensitivity of up to 3200, image stabilizer and can shoot 720p video.  Oh yeah, it also runs Android and supports 850/1900/2100MHz WCDMA and 850/900/1800/1900 GSM radios, along with WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS and an FM antenna to boot.  Internally, it includes 512MB on board memory, 512 RAM, microSim slot, microUSB and 2.5mm headphone jack.  It is expected to hit the market this April at a price of $299.

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At the CES, LG officially announced the LG Spectrum for the Verizon network.  As a bonus, ESPN ScoreCenter app will be preloaded on all of the new devices which will stream HD video directly.  It will be available for Verizon only on the 19th of January for $199.  Here are the specs of the new smartphone:

• 1.5GHz dual-core Snapdragon S3 processor
• 1GB of RAM
• 4GB of on-board storage, 16GB micro SD card pre-installed
• 4.5-inch True HD IPS display,
• 8MP rear camera with 1080p video, 1.3MP front camera
• 4G LTE
• Mobile hotspot shares up to 10 connections
• Android 2.3
• 1830mAh battery (optional 3000mAh extended battery available at launch)
• Bluetooth 3.0
• Swype

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Perhaps in anticipation of the recent decision against them, HTC is reported already testing out their infringing devices in order to get around the import ban.

This further lessens the impact of Apple’s win and only brings to attention their failure to effectively protect their patent claims.

HTC confirmed that part of the UI would be removed in the near future and said that the ruling affects only a “small UI experience”.  Head of HTC, Peter Chou, said that the affected phones will get fixed and the new tested model will be made available without the minor feature.

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Apple has won one of their ongoing patent infringement cases involving some HTC devices.  This decision may have these particular devices banned from being imported into the US.  However HTC may be little affected as details of the decision emerge.

With the ban not taking effect until April 2012, there is still time for HTC and Google to remove any of the features that infringe on the patent in question.  This decision is a small victory for Apple whose initial claim had HTC violating 10 of it’s patents.  Of those, only two have been found to be actual violations with this decision being one of them.

According to Pierre Ferragu, a senior analyst at the London-based Sanford C. Bernstein research firm,  ”this ruling will represent absolutely no disruption at all to HTC’s business in the U.S.”

So will this latest decision affect HTC?  Apparently not.  It looks like Apple will have to keep digging.

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Not one the shy away from making bold statements, Acer’s CEO  J T Wang, sees a slowdown in growth for the famed iPhone maker.

In fact, he’s the same guy who said that the iPad is just a fad and that there’s still room for netbooks.  We can see how accurate his powers of prognostication are, but does he have a point this time?  He adds that he sees Wintel devices to pick up the slack once Apple begins to slow down.  This of course can only be taken with a grain of salt as he has a vested interest in seeing his competitor suffer while hoping for the success of Windows and Android, two platforms supported by his company.  Do you agree with his predicition or will Apple continue to barrel over the market?

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Lenovo recently announced two new Android based phone as part of their LePhone brand, the S760 and the K2.

The LePhone S760 is a nice little device with the following specs:

• 3.7AMOLED screen
• 5MP camera/1.3MP front camera
• 512 RAM
• Single core Scorpion CPU

Boasting a 4.3 inch display and a thickness (or thinness) of only 8.49m, the HTC “Ville” will reportedly run on the new Android Ice Cream Sandwich.

HTC just made the market for larger screen smartphones a little more interesting with this new render.  Featuring 4 capacitive buttons along the bottom, the device apparently will continue HTC’s tradition of using aluminum unibody construction.  Additional specs include:

• 1.5GHz Dual Core Snapdragon S4
• 8MP BSI camera
• HSPA+
• 1650mAh battery.