SEARCH CLINIC

Apple has unveiled the latest iteration in its iPhone range, but there was no sign of the widely rumoured iPhone 5.The iPhone 4S, as the model will be known, boasts an improved camera, an extra antenna for faster loading, voice recognition software and a significantly extended battery life.

It will run the latest iOS5 operating system, which is set for release on 12 October.

The event was the first major announcement for new boss Tim Cook who took over from Steve Jobs in August.

The iPhone 4S, which will go on sale on 14 October, will be available in 16GB, 32GB and 64GB models – in both black and white.

It has the same look and feel as the existing iPhone 4 which was launched 15 months ago.

However, Apple said that updates to iOS meant the phone would boast some “200 new features”.

Shares in Apple fell by almost 5% within minutes of the eagerly anticipated launch, with analysts saying that investors and Apple fans had expected the latest version to be a more radical improvement over its predecessor.

However, the company’s shares later regained most of their losses to close down just 0.6%, albeit underperforming the NASDAQ index as a whole.

Among the additions is  a voice recognition software or a “intelligent assistant” that allows users to ask questions aloud and receive detailed answers back.

Siri, which began life as a third-party app, was purchased by Apple in 2010 but has yet to appear within its software.

Details of the new phone were unveiled by Apple’s Philip Schiller

For Apple’s new chief executive, the event was as much about making a statement about his leadership as it was new products.

Tim Cook had previously acted as interim boss, looking after the company while Steve Jobs was on sick leave.

Unlike his charismatic predecessor, Mr Cook left the biggest announcement of Tuesday’s event to a colleague – marketing boss Phil Schiller.

The new web browser designed by Amazon for its Kindle Fire tablet has sparked security concerns that the firm will be able to track users’ every online webpage.The new browser, Amazon Silk, uses the firm’s network of giant data centres to pre-load web pages before they are delivered to the device.

According to Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s founder and CEO, this “split browser” approach will offer “ultra-fast” mobile web access. It will reduce the computation required from the Kindle Fire’s processor, which is lower performance than that of Apple’s iPad 2.

But it also means that Amazon’s systems will keep a record of every single web page that Kindle Fire users visit, which could be used to profile their interests for advertising and other commercial purposes. The records will also be subject to data requests from police and intelligence agencies, as the relatively limited data held by broadband providers.

The browser will even aim to predict your next move in its effort to shave milliseconds off loading times, by learning how users tend to browse individual websites.

“All of your web surfing habits will transit to Amazon’s cloud,” said Chester Wisniewski, of the British computer security firm Sophos.

“If you think that Google AdWords and Facebook may be watching you, this Amazon service is guaranteed to have a record of everything you do on the web.”

Amazon’s approach is similar to that of Opera Mini, a mobile browser available on Android, iOS, Symbian and Windows Mobile smartphones. Its Norwegian developer, Opera, also pre-loads and compresses web pages to speed up browsing and cut the amount of 3G bandwidth that smartphones consume.

Unlike Amazon, however, Opera has undertaken not to keep records of the web pages Opera Mini users access or profile their individual browsing habits.

“The system brings with it a need to reassure people that their privacy is being protected,” said Pål Unanue-Zahl, Opera’s communication manager.

The terms and conditions announced for Amazon Silk provide no such reassurance.

“Amazon Silk also temporarily logs web addresses for the web pages it serves and certain identifiers, such as IP or MAC addresses, to troubleshoot and diagnose Amazon Silk technical issues,” they say, adding that users are also subject to Amazon’s broad privacy policy. It allows users’ personal information to be exploited for a host of commercial purposes.

“We generally do not keep this information for longer than 30 days,” the Amazon Silk terms and conditions say.

The new browser will also pose a challenge to website owners, including some of Amazon’s major rivals.

When a user directly accesses a website from a normal browser, the website typically logs their IP address. These unique numbers are used by firms to track where their visitors come from, and for other commercially-useful traffic analyses.

But when a Kindle Fire user accesses a website, all the website will be able to log is an IP address for one of Amazon’s network of giant data centres.

The users’ IP address will go no further than the dominant online retailer.

Given the rapid growth in mobile browsing, and Mr Bezos’ plan to sell “many millions” of Kindle Fires this year alone, rivals such as Google, whose advertising business relies heavily on being able to target individuals, will miss out on valuable data.

“If you buy a Fire device, think carefully as to whether your privacy is worth trading for a few milliseconds faster web surfing experience,” said Mr Wisniewski.

Apple’s iPad has captured 80% of the tablet computer market in the US in April to July new reserach has found.The iPad accounted for six million of all 7.5 million tablets shipped in North America during the second quarter of 2011, according to research group Strategy Analytics.

It described Apple as a “formidable market leader”.

Yet they added that Amazon – which has unveiled its own tablet yesterday – could become a big challenger.

Stategy Analytics senior analyst Alex Spektor said: “Apple remains a long way ahead of its main rivals such as Motorola, Samsung, RIM, Asus and HTC.

“A combination of cool branding, user-friendly hardware, entertaining services and savvy retail distribution has made Apple a formidable market leader.”

“Provided the pricing, screen size and hardware design are right, Amazon can be one of the main challengers to Apple’s dominance,” said Neil Mawston, director at Strategy Analytics.

“Like Apple, Amazon has a strong brand, compelling content, sophisticated billing systems and widespread distribution.

“In effect, Amazon’s new tablet product represents a good opportunity to place an Amazon shopping cart in the hands of American consumers, offering optimised access to purchasing digital content or physical goods from the Amazon online store.”

The continuing popularity of Apple’s iPad comes despite its incompatibility with Adobe Flash software, meaning that users cannot view a large number of online videos.

Rivals such as Samsung are quick to highlight in their advertising that their tablets are able to use Flash.

Apple and Samsung, which makes the Galaxy range of tablets, are also continuing a number of legal disputes over patents.

The iPad was first released in April 2010, with the second version, the iPad 2, following in March of this year.

Amazon has launched a new tablet computer called the Kindle Fire- which will undercut Apple’s iPad2.The £130 device will run a modified version of Google’s Android operating system.

As well as targeting Apple’s iPad, Amazon is likely to have its sights on rival bookseller US Barnes & Noble, which already has a colour tablet.

The Kindle Fire will enter a hugely competitive market, dominated by Apple’s iPad who currently have 80% of the tablet market.

Amazon will be hoping to leverage both the strength of the Kindle brand, built up over three generations of its popular e-book reader, and its ability to serve up content such as music and video.

In recent years, the company has begun offering downloadable music for sale, and also has a streaming video-on-demand service in the United States. Those, combined with its mobile application store, give it a more sophisticated content “ecosystem” than most of its rivals.

Amazon Kindle Fire Facts

7″ IPS (in-plane switching) display
1024 x 600 resolution
Customised Google Android operating system
$199 (£130)
Weighs 413 grammes
Dual core processor
8GB internal storage

Amazon sees the hardware almost as a loss leader who can make their money by selling content whereas Apple profit from hardware sales and software sales are a “nice to have”.

Digital content has already proved itself to be a money-spinner for Amazon.

Although the company has never released official sales figures for the Kindle, it did state – in December 2010 – that it was now selling more electronic copies of books than paper copies.

Its US rival, Barnes & Noble, has also enjoyed success with its Nook devices.

In October 2010, the company unveiled the Nook Color, which also runs a version of Android, albeit with lower hardware specs than many fully featured tablets.

While the Nook Color is largely focused on book and magazine reading, some users have managed to unlock its wider functionality and install third-party apps.
Kindle Touch Amazon has dropped the keyboard from some of its Kindles in favour of touch

The Kindle Fire’s £130 price tag undercuts the Nook Color by £30 and is significantly cheaper than more powerful tablets from Apple, Samsung, Motorola and others.

It is due to go on sale on 15 November in the US, although global release dates are currently unavailable.

“These are premium products at non premium prices,” said Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos. “We are going to sell millions of these.”

Google is marking its teenage years by turning its home page into a birthday party scene.Surrounded by multi-coloured balloons and streamers, its logo is adorned with party hats and sits behind a table heaped with wrapped presents and a large white birthday cake with 13 candles.

Although Google’s founders Stanford University graduate students Larry Page and Sergey Brin built their first search engine in 1996, it was not until 1998 when the graduated with PhDs that they formalised their research and created Google.

The company filed for incorporation on September 4, 1998, and the Google.com domain was registered on September 15. The search engine officially celebrates its birthday on September 27.

The pair came up with the name as a play on the word “googol”, the mathematical term for a 1 followed by 100 zeros.

“The name reflects the immense volume of information that exists and the scope of Google’s mission: To organise the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful,” claims Google.

The anniversary comes at a time when the company faces increasing legislative scrutiny and is locked in intense rivalries with the social networking site Facebook and smart phone operator Apple.

The search engine recently launched its Google+ social networking service to all users, in an effort to counter Facebook’s rising popularity.

However, other research shows that Google enjoys a 90 per cent share of the global internet search market and over 30% of the smart phone OS market.

Sony’s Tablet S is entering the markets in the US, UK and Japan.The tablets runs on Google’s operating system Android and has a new wedge shaped design.

Following the success of Apple’s iPad, other manufacturers such as Samsung and HTC have released their own tablets.

Analysts say while Tablet S may prove to be a popular Android tablet, it is not a serious threat to the iPad.

As it goes head-to-head with the iPad and others, analysts said the Sony Tablet S did have some unique features not available in other devices.

For one, the hardware design, a wedge shape, is different from most other flat, thin tablets.

“The unique form factor shifts the device’s weight closer to your palm, making it feel lighter and more comfortable while reading a book or magazine,” Sony said in a press release.

Other features include the ability to play PlayStation games on the device and stream music and video to your TV or home entertainment system from the tablet.

Even though Sony has come up with some distinctive features, analysts say Apple’s first mover advantage and its brand appeal has placed it squarely ahead of all others in the tablet market.

But it might still prove a threat to other tablets. Even though Sony entered the market later than many other competitors, the timing could work out in its favour.

The Tablet S is in stores in the UK on 15 September, the US on 16 September and in Japan on 17 September.

The mobile phone patents wars are escalating as Google is backing up HTC in its continuing war with Apple over patent infringement.HTC has used patents it bought from Google to lodge a fresh complaint against Apple with the US International Trade Commission (ITC).

It has alleged that Apple’s computers and mobile devices infringe patents involving wi-fi capability and processor communication technology.

This is the third complaint that HTC has filed against Apple.

“We are taking this action against Apple to protect our intellectual property, our industry partners, and most importantly our customers that use HTC phones,” said Grace Lei, general counsel of HTC.

HTC is not the only smartphone maker involved in a legal tussle with Apple.

Samsung Electronics, which makes the Galaxy series of smartphones and tablet PCs, has also been fighting a legal battle against Apple.

It is becoming an Apple versus Android war.

Apple has filed complaints against the South Korean manufacturer, accusing it of infringing its patents. It said that Samsung had copied the design and look of Apple’s iPhone and iPad devices.

Samsung has counter-sued Apple, saying it infringed Samsung’s wireless patents.

Both HTC and Samsung use Google’s Android operating system in most of their smartphones.

Analysts said that HTC’s latest legal action, which uses patents it acquired from Google, indicates that the tussle is becoming a much bigger issue than just a simple fight between two manufacturers.

Apple has accused Samsung of infringing its patents with the Galaxy line of smartphones and tablets. The companies have been stepping up their legal action against each other this year.

And in the early salvos, Apple seems to have got the upper hand.

Last month, a court in the Netherlands banned Samsung from selling three models of its Galaxy smartphones in a number of European countries after Apple filed a claim for patent infringement.

Earlier this week, Samsung pulled out its new Galaxy Tab 7.7 from the IFA electronics fair in Berlin, one the world’s largest electronics shows, after a court blocked sales of the product in Germany.

Analysts said the regularity with which these companies have been taking legal action against each other was also an indicator they may be using it as a competition tool.

Google has announced a deal to buy Motorola Mobility for £7.7 billion ($12.5 billion).In a joint statement both of the boards said that they had unanimously approved the deal, which should be completed early in 2012.

Earlier this year, Motorola split into two separate companies.

Mobility develops and manufactures mobile phones, while Motorola Solutions covers wider technologies for corporate customers and governments.

Google is making a high-stakes gamble in the global smartphone wars.

The search engine and developer of the Android operating system for mobile phones is gearing up for its confrontation with Apple- who owns the iOS and also makes smartphones.

Google has suffered a number of mobile phone setbacks recently, most of them in patent courts. Motorola Mobility holds 24,500 patents, which should allow Google to imitate Apple’s strategy of slowing down rivals by taking them to court for alleged patent infringements.

Google’s problem is that buying Motorola leaves its other Android partners potentially high and dry. Will they get the same early access to the latest versions of Android? Will Motorola get that little bit extra when it comes to smartphone features?

Google has released statements from three Android partners supporting the deal. They’re clearly written with clenched teeth. To handset-makers, Microsoft’s new Windows Phone software will suddenly look quite attractive.

And it puts a question mark over Google’s new boss Larry Page. Does he have no better use for the company’s cash than buying a fickle hardware business? Is Google losing corporate focus?

Shares in Motorola Mobility jumped 56% by the close of trading in New York on Monday, to $38.13, still below the offer price of $40 per share. Shares in Google fell 1.8%.

Meanwhile, Nokia shares listed in New York had jumped 17% by the end of trading on news of the deal, with renewed speculation that the Finnish mobile phone company could become a bid target itself, with Microsoft a likely suitor.

The deal would allow Google to “supercharge” its Android operating system, the joint statement said.

Google said it would continue to run Mobility as a separate business.

“Motorola Mobility’s total commitment to Android has created a natural fit for our two companies,” said Larry Page, Google’s chief executive.

Sanjay Jha, his counterpart at Mobility, said: “This transaction offers significant value for [our] stockholders and provides compelling new opportunities for our employees, customers and partners around the world.”

The deal is subject to shareholder and regulatory approval.

Motorola was once one of the world’s most successful mobile phone manufacturers, but has fallen behind the likes of Apple, Samsung and HTC in recent years. Many of its handsets already use Google’s Android operating system.

2G phones are often better for making phone calls than the latest 3G smartphones according to the communications regulator Ofcom.People living in rural areas should exchange their smartphones if they want to actually make phone calls new research from communications regulator Ofcom suggests.

New models, such as Apple’s top-selling iPhone and the Samsung Galaxy S2, offer sophisticated “third-generation” (3G) technology to allow access to high speed networks, email and the internet, but the new Ofcom study found that starting and completing calls made from rural areas was better on older 2G phones.

These devices, called feature phones rather than smartphones, allow more internal space for aerials.

Ofcom found that “in the more rural areas that the phones were tested, the feature/entry-level phones generally returned somewhat better performance than smartphones for call completion and call setup.”

The regulator suggested that “This may be due to the reduced complexity of antenna on these devices and 2G phones not having issues in switching between 2G and 3G networks.”

Quality of sound was found to be the same between devices, however.

Ofcom carried out its research to assess whether consumers were being properly informed about mobile network coverage.

It found that, while individual phone companies provided valuable network maps, just three out of every ten consumers consulted them.

The regulator wants to encourage shops to inform customers about coverage when they’re buying mobile phones, and it also wants different networks to standardise their information so that consumers can compare services across providers.

Ofcom’s comparison of 2G and 3G handsets aimed to examine whether coverage maps were accurate across different devices.

The regulator found that “performance differences are likely in practice to be modest, and not necessarily a factor that consumers should base their choice of phone on”.

Overall, Ofcom found that mobile networks were making progress at addressing areas of poor-coverage both in rural areas and in buildings.

The regulator added, however, that there were a number of areas where commercial organisations were unlikely to be able to justify making sufficient investment to seriously improve coverage.

Apple’s new rules for iPad and iPhone apps payments have been criticised after they forced Amazon to change the Kindle app to make buying new books more complicated.The new terms and conditions, which mean publishers must give Apple 30 per cent of the price of any content they sell via apps, came into force on 30 June.

In response, in July, Amazon removed a “Kindle Store” link within its app in order to preserve its profit margin on e-books.

Kindle app users are still able to buy more books, but they must exit the app and navigate to the Kindle Store via the iPad or iPhone web browser.

But the change has left users confused and angry. On the iTunes page for the app, some indicated they didn’t understand the new purchasing process.

“Pointless update,” said SJH31. “Wish I didn’t update now. What’s the point if I can’t buy books.” and “In reality Apple didn’t like the competition and so has hamstrung apps like Kindle. Shameful from Apple.”

Those who did understand the change overwhelmingly blamed Apple.

Apple is competing with Amazon via iBooks, which still allows users to make purchases from within the app. The rule change has forced Barnes and Noble, Kobo and Google to make similar changes to their e-books apps too.

Apple’s rivalry with Amazon is expected to intensify, with the online retail giant reportedly poised to expand its range of gadgets beyond e-readers to include a full colour touchscreen tablet.

Steve Jobs originally announced the new apps payments regime in February.

Apple has since softened it slightly by allowing publishers to charge more for content in apps than they do on their own website, where they do not have to pay a 30 per cent cut to a third party.