Another week has gone by, and boy was it a busy week. With MWC ending and CeBIT showing off the best electronics, there wasn’t much time for news outside of new product reviews and technology announcements, but there was still plenty of new things going on. Here is the top news for the past 7 days:
Apple launched the new iPad
Apple’s launch of the new iPad is pretty much the biggest thing that happened last week. The company sent invitations to a select number of magazines, businesses and individuals for their unveiling of the new device on March 7th. The new iPad (yes, it’s called simply the iPad, and as the old one is still on sale, everyone refers to it as the new iPad) brings along several key improvements over the previous model, the most important ones being the amazingly dense 2048×1536 pixels display (which isn’t even compatible with Apple’s own display!), the new A5X chipset with a dual core processor and quad core graphics adapter and a high capacity 11660 mAh battery that takes up almost the same space as the old 6945 mAh unit in the iPad 2.
ITunes App Store reaches 25 billion downloads
Apple has celebrated not only the launch of the new iPad, but also a milestone for their iTunes App Store, which has now served over 25 billion downloads, with the number of daily downloads increasing exponentially every month for the 500,000+ apps on the iTunes market. It’s pretty amazing how the app revolution changed the way people use smartphones, tablets and even desktop computers, and this massive number just proves that.
FCC presses Verizon to substantiate their claims to more AWS spectrum
Verizon’s relentless pursuit of new AWS spectrum when they don’t even make full use of the one they got has raised a few eyebrows with the government, competing companies and the FCC. After T-Mobile, Sprint and DirecTV have teamed up and filed with the FCC to halt Verizon’s expansion of their spectrum, the FCC also asked the company to prove that they really need new frequencies with substantial claims, setting a deadline by March 22nd. We’ll see if Verizon can come up with something, especially since they already own the largest AWS spectrum in the US.
Apple is building a new campus in Austin for chip research
Apple has committed to invest $304 million in the state of Texas, to build a new campus/research facility that would work on developing their existing chips and coming up with new ideas for the future. It seems that the company is serious about being more self-sufficient and building their own hardware in-house, which leads to a lot of advantages (as Ford already proved more than 100 years ago). The decision to build the new facility in Texas made a lot of people happy, but Apple’s reasons are simpler – the state has the necessary experienced engineers and designers that can take on the job.
Microsoft puts the last nail in Windows Mobile’s coffin – closes the Apps Marketplace
Microsoft’s Windows Mobile has been dead for quite some time, but apparently there were still some people and companies using the OS, which is why it took so long for the company to close the Windows Mobile 6.x apps market. Well, as of May 9th, the store will close for good, meaning that Microsoft is finally officially ending the life of the venerable OS.
Microsoft reveals that Windows Phone 7 Tango will have limitations on devices with 256 MB RAM
Microsoft is also in the news for their new OS, Windows Phone 7, or more precisely the latest Tango update, which promises to bring the OS to entry level smartphones that have less than 512 of RAM (down to a minimum of 256 MB, to be precise) and possibly a slower processor, as well. Everyone assumed there would be no downside, but they were wrong: the OS won’t be able to provide support for video podcasts, Bing local scout, fast app switching, automatic photo upload, HD video playback and background agents. All of the limitations are to ensure that the OS remains smooth overall, but it seems that it would be better for the end users to just use 512 MB of RAM and avoid the limitations completely.
There was quite a lot of other news in the tech industry in general, but the above items seem like the most important when it comes to the mobile niche. Stay tuned for more recaps in the following weeks on GadgetMania.com!
