The first Thunderbolt compatible peripherals—Promise’s Pegasus RAIDs—started shipping on Tuesday. Using the RAIDs with a Thunderbolt equipped Mac, though, requires a rather expensive $50 cable that is
Policy dispute leads Google to disable Android app sales in Taiwan
A consumer protection law in Taiwan requires Internet software retailers to offer potential customers a week-long free trial of any application that can be purchased via download. According to the government of Taiwan, Apple’s App Store and Google’s Android Market both fell afoul of the policy.
Apple responded to the government’s warning by accommodating the request for a seven-day trial period for iOS users in Taiwan, but Google declined to make the requisite changes. Taiwan has fined the search giant approximately $35,000 for failing to comply with the law. In response to the fine, Google has disabled application purchasing functionality for Android users who live in Taiwan.
The complex and highly disparate nature of laws governing commerce around the world pose serious challenges for global software vendors. The difficulty of navigating and complying with regional legal obligations is one of the reasons why Google’s Android Market isn’t fully supported yet in every country.
Google used to offer a 24-hour refund policy for the Android Market, but controversially dropped the refund time limit to a mere 15 minutes last year. The move came alongside other changes to the Android Market that were intended to satisfy the requests of the third-party Android application development community. A number of application developers were concerned about potential abuses of the 24-hour return period and had asked that it be reduced or abolished.
It’s not yet clear how Google will proceed in handling this dispute over Taiwan’s mandatory seven-day trial period, but it seems like the move to shut down Android Market purchases for the country isn’t going to be the final word. Google is reportedly sending a delegation to Taiwan for further discussions with the government in Taipei.
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Policy dispute leads Google to disable Android app sales in Taiwan
Mango goodness: Windows Phone developer firmware invitations roll out
Registered Windows Phone developers now have access to a beta build of Windows Phone Mango, the major upgrade to the smartphone operating system that’s due in fall. The beta build doesn’t include everything that Mango will eventually include, but does have major features like multitasking, background tasks, programmatic access to the camera, network sockets, and more.
The Windows Phone Developer Tools have also been updated to bring them in-line with the beta firmware.
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Mango goodness: Windows Phone developer firmware invitations roll out
Feature: webOS takes on tablets: Ars reviews the HP TouchPad
First announced back in February, the HP TouchPad looked like a powerful way to extend the rescued-in-the-nick-of-time webOS user experience onto a hot new tablet. The faithful have waited, and their waiting has at last been rewarded: the TouchPad launches today with the much-improved webOS 3.0, a great set of native apps, and a new App Catalog feature to help consumers wade through their app options.
The TouchPad delivers smooth and snappy performance on everything from games to Web browsing, but it’s not without problems; it’s hefty and thick, it only has 300 native apps, and many app essentials are nonexistent or available only as phone version emulations.
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Feature: webOS takes on tablets: Ars reviews the HP TouchPad
webOS licensing talks are underway, Samsung possibly interested
When HP acquired Palm last year, it seemed obvious that the company’s webOS platform would be used exclusively on HP hardware. But at the D9 conference last month, HP indicated that the company would consider licensing the software to other hardware manufacturers that are interested in building devices that complement HP’s product lineup.
The possibility of third-party webOS devices is looking even more likely this week. HP has confirmed rumors that it is in talks with a number of companies regarding potential webOS licensing deals. In a statement to This is My Next, HP’s Jon Rubenstein said that the company is looking for partners who are willing to make a serious commitment to the platform and potentially contribute to development efforts. They aren’t going to make a deal with just anybody, and they aren’t going to do it in a hurry.
Citing three unnamed individuals who are said to be close to be close to the licensing discussions, Bloomberg reports that Samsung is interested in licensing webOS from HP to use as an alternative to Android on its tablet products. The Bloomberg article speculates that Samsung could be looking for more flexibility for customization. There is no official confirmation of Samsung’s involvement in webOS licensing talks at this time.
HP has lofty ambitions for webOS and aims to bring the platform to a wide range of different hardware products, including desktop computers and printers. Despite the platform’s numerous strengths, it faces an uphill battle competing against Android’s existing entrenchment. Winning over a major Android hardware vendor to webOS might help HP pursue its goals, but it would also risk eroding the value of having an exclusive platform.
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webOS licensing talks are underway, Samsung possibly interested
Nielsen: iPhone sales climb as Android sales flatten out
Apple’s iPhone is back to driving the growth of smartphones in the US, according to a recent Nielsen study. In a survey of recent cell phone acquirers, the proportion of new iPhone owners has jumped to 17 percent from 10 percent at the beginning of the year, while percentages of new Android phone owners has plateaued at 27 percent.
Those numbers show that Android still makes up the majority of new smartphone sales for customers who picked them up in the last three months, but interest in the platform has stopped growing for now. But Apple has managed to fight back: interest in iPhones has risen anew since January when iPhones sales had tapered off, while Android phones were climbing. The introduction of the Verizon iPhone likely had something to do with this swapping of roles, as analysts predicted shortly after its introduction.
BlackBerry is still going downhill, and fell from 11 percent of new sales to 6 percent in the last few months. Windows phones are hovering at one percent, apparently little more than a blip on consumer radar.
But all the brands together have made big strides for smartphone adoption as a whole: 55 percent of recent cell phone acquirers chose smartphones over feature phones, up from 34 percent a year ago.
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Nielsen: iPhone sales climb as Android sales flatten out
Sigma Designs Skini Platform: Home Convergence using Hybrid STBs
While smartphones are bringing about the personal convergence revolution, there is still a battle going on to determine the convergence product at the residential level. Sigma Designs, through various acquisitions over the years, is placing its bet on set top boxes (STBs) as the vehicle for in-home convergence.
Today, Sigma Designs is introducing Skini, a platform for hybrid set top boxes. Read on to find out more about this interesting platform.
