Samsung launching Galaxy Tab 10.1 4G on July 28

The Galaxy Tab 10.1 4G, available with either a white or dark gray plastic back, will sell through Verizon (with a two-year 4G contract) for $529.99 for the 16-gigabyte model and $629.99 for the 32-gigabyte model, said Ken Muche, a Verizon spokesman.

The wi-fi-only version of the 16-gigabyte model sells for $499.99 while the wi-fi-only 32-gigabyte version sells for $599.99.

Without a 2-year 4G-LTE data plan, the carrier will sell the 4G-capable Galaxy Tab 10.1 at iPad-3G-matching prices that are $100 more than than with a contract -- $629.99 for the 16-gigabyte model and $729.99 for the 32-gigabyte model, Verizon's website said.

Meanwhile, some owners of the Motorola Xoom tablet may be feeling a bit burned right about now. The Xoom went on sale through Verizon in February with 3G connectivity and the promise of a soon-to-come free 4G-LTE upgrade from Motorola and Verizon (which will eventually require Xoom owners to mail in their tablets to get 4G antennas installed).

Microsoft Windows Phone codenamed Mango

Designed to be the best Windows Phone yet. Check out how the next Windows Phone release, codenamed Mango, will deliver smarter and easier mobile apps, web, and communication. Coming Fall 2011 to a Windows Phone mobile smartphone near you. Tons of new features and everything you love about Windows Phone 7.

Nokia New Windows Mobile Phones 2012

Nokia board chairman said on Wednesday Nokia Windows phones will be on the markets from 2012 on and renowned that Nokia had other possible partners in addition to Microsoft and Google.

Nokia announced last Friday it would associate with Microsoft and would adopt Windows Phone software crossways its devices, replacing its home-grown Symbian display place and turning the world's biggest cell phone maker into a uncontaminated hardware player.
"These Windows-based products (will be on markets) from 2012 onwards," Jorma Ollila said in a meeting with Finnish broadcaster YLE.
Nokia Chief Executive Stephen Elop said on Tuesday the firm was emotion the pressure and aimed to make a phone running new partner Microsoft's operating system by the end of this year.
Ollila said Microsoft had not been the only alternative for Nokia and noted various companies had showed their attention in cooperating with the Finnish mobile phone maker.
"There were Microsoft, Google and our own option (to continue alone). And in adding up to these we as well had other suitors."
He also said he had not been pressured by any shareholders about who should be Nokia's chief executive. Elop started at the wheel of Nokia last September and the Canadian is the primary non-Finn to head the firm.
Ollila frequent that he is to hand to work at Nokia board until 2012.
(Reporting by Terhi Kinnunen)
Microsoft and Nokia signed a ultimate agreement that seals the dealannounced in February between the two companies, creating a formidable competitor against Google‘s Android and Apple‘s iOS.
Now, Nokia can travel away from its aging Symbian operating system, embracing the Windows Phone software to create a new ecosystem of Nokia hardware and Microsoft software. The companies announced that Nokia-built Windows Phones are previously in development, “with the aim of securing volume machine shipments in 2012.”
While Nokia engineers are busying themselves creating hardware for the Windows Phone, Microsoft gains the authority of Nokia’s mapping and navigation platform, certain to enhance Microsoft’s Bing search engine. Those mapping services will also show up on Nokia phones organization Windows Phone, but there was no word about whether those mapping services would also run on Windows Phone handsets not made by Nokia.

Apple record iPhone and iPad sales, largest revenues

Apple has reported a record number of iPhones and iPad sales in the second quarter of 2011, powering revenues of $28.6 billion, also a record.
Brian White, an analyst with Ticonderoga Securities, simply used the word "wow" in the title of a note to his clients.
"Apple deliver[ed] nothing short of a blowout performance," White said in that note on Tuesday.

Apple's revenues were the fourth consecutive quarter over the $20 billion mark, and represented an 82% increase over the same period last year.
The $28.6 billion in revenue was significantly higher than Wall Street's average projection of $25 billion, and beat the company's conservative estimate three months ago of just $23 billion by 24%.
Profits were $7.31 billion, yet another record for a quarter, up 125% from the same quarter of 2010.
"They knocked it out of the park," Brian Marshall, an analyst with Gleacher & Co., told Computerworld after Apple's earnings call on Tuesday. "They just crushed it."
Marshall, other analysts and Apple executives all pointed to iPhone and iPad sales as the driving forces for the record quarter.
"The quarter was driven by dramatic growth in iPhone and iPad sales," Peter Oppenheimer, Apple's chief financial officer, said during the conference call.
Apple sold 20.3 million iPhones, up 142% over the same period last year and a 9% increase over the first quarter of 2011, which was the previous record. On a revenue basis, the iPhone's contribution was 46.6% of total revenues, more than two-and-a-half times that of the Mac or over twice that of the iPad.
What impressed Ezra Gottheil, an analyst with Technology Business Research, wasn't simply the strong iPhone sales, but that Apple was able to maintain its high margin on the smartphone and sell more than 20 million during the quarter even though it didn't release a new model last month, as it has done in three out of the last four years.
"The ASP [average sales price] of the iPhone hasn't moved noticeably at all, which surprised me," Gottheil said. "They keep building and building them, but the ASP doesn't move."
Apple's decision to push back the launch of the next iPhone to this fall -- most experts have pegged September as the most likely month -- didn't hurt sales of the current model, Gottheil also noted.
Meanwhile, Apple sold 9.2 million iPads, nearly triple the number it sold in the same quarter last year and almost double the 4.7 million it sold in the first three months of 2011.
Apple launched the iPad 2 in mid-March, just weeks before the start of the second quarter, and only recently has been able to meet demand, and then only in some markets.

Motorola's Droid 3

The Droid 3, available now from Verizon Wireless, is the third phone to follow in the footsteps of Motorola's original Droid device. That first Droid set the standard for today's army of Android phones, and -- with the aid of its memorable marketing campaign -- helped turned "Android" into a household word.

The Droid 3 has a 4-inch, 960 x 540 LCD screen -- noticeably larger than the 3.7-inch, 854 x 480 displays on the previous Droid devices. The display is crisp and brilliant, with rich colors and true-to-life representation. While I might give a slight edge to Samsung's Super AMOLED Plus technology, I have no qualms about the quality of the Droid 3's screen, and I suspect most users won't, either.
The face of the Droid 3 slides sideways to reveal a newly designed five-row QWERTY keyboard. The keyboard, which features a top row dedicated exclusively to numbers, is a pleasure to type on: The keys are nicely spaced out and have a soft, rubber-like feel, and the sliding keyboard mechanism has a satisfying snap that sturdily holds the panel in position. If you like using a physical keyboard on your phone, you won't be disappointed.
Motorola's Droid 3 has a more rounded and less angular look than the Droid and Droid 2 before it. A power button is centered along the phone's top edge, with a headphone jack at the right; a charging port and HDMI port sit along the phone's left side, and a volume rocker lives on the right-hand side of the device. There's also an LED indicator on the phone's face that flashes to alert you of missed calls or new messages -- a nice touch absent in many other current devices.

Apple to sell contract-free to sell contract-free

The latest, courtesy of a story from Boy Genius Report today, has Apple selling a contract-free, $350 iPhone 3GS for the prepaid customer segment. The report also said the next iPhone, which may or may not feature a radical design, will be coming out or announced "by the end of summer, late August-ish."
An Apple representative wasn't immediately available to comment on the validity of the report.
Apple has been looking at ways to expand its potential base of customers and cement its leadership role in the smartphone world. The company has already expanded its distribution with the addition of Verizon Wireless as a carrier partner. But Apple wants to go after the burgeoning prepaid market, one of the few areas of customer growth still left in the wireless industry.
The move comes as Google's Android platform steadily overtakes Apple for smartphone supremacy. The free software is already used by a number of handset manufacturers, allowing it to tackle both the low and high ends of the market.

HTC faces an uncertain future.

HTC's fate up in the air

The Taiwanese company, which makes a number of very popular smartphones including several Android OS models, is feeling the impact of an administrative law judge's initial ruling for the U.S. International Trade Commission last week, which found HTC in violation of two of Apple's patents. HTC's stock in retreated more than 4 percent on the Taiwan Stock Exchange to its lowest level in six months, Bloomberg reported today.
While an administrative law judge's initial decision doesn't represent a death blow, it doesn't bode well for the final decision. If the six-member ITC panel agrees with the judge's decision, it could impose an embargo preventing the importation of HTC smartphones.
HTC has vowed to fight the decision and plans to appeal before a final ruling is made.
When the judge's ruling was made public last week, Apple responded by referring back to its initial statement in March 2010 when the first complaint was filed.
"We think competition is healthy, but competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours," Apple CEO Steve Jobs said in the release at the time.
Giving HTC some hope is its recent decision to acquire S3 Graphics for $300 million. S3 holds crucial patents that an ITC administrative law judge had determined in an initial ruling that Apple was violating.
While investors initially lambasted HTC's decision to acquire S3--criticizing the fact that HTC Chairwoman Cher Wang was a shareholder in S3--the patents will be invaluable if the ITC decides to favor Apple.
Foss Patents, a software patent blog, has an interesting--if somewhat complex--graphic illustrating HTC and Apple's respective patent positions.
In positions where both companies own valuable intellectual property, a settlement is typically reached, especially if the threat of an embargo hangs over one of the companies. But Foss' Florian Miller said he doesn't see a settlement as a foregone conclusion. Unless Apple truly needs all of HTC's patents, it may attempt to enforce the embargo, which would greatly hurt the progress of HTC and all Android supporters.