IBLOG SPACE

There’s a feature coming out in a future version of Chrome (either the browser or the OS or both) which will generate a password for you, one “impossible” for a human to remember, and sync that password across your Chrome account. The reason this method is terrible, I must explain, is that unless this generator also creates a password as long as the system will let it, it’s actually just as easy for a machine to crack as one you’d be able to remember on your own, without Chrome’s help. This system is made supposedly to keep human password crackers at bay, but the developers at Chrome don’t seem to be taking into account that these humans generally don’t use their knowledge of you to crack your secrets in the first place. This also has some security and privacy issues tied to it, perhaps at the least opportune time for Google in its relatively short history, and isn’t quite in play yet. Google is said to be working on this feature for the near future and will implement it only after ext

Filesharing hub The Pirate Bay could face an all-out ban in the UK, with a High Court judge ruling that the site is responsible for large scale copyright theft. “In my judgement, [The Pirate Bay] do authorise its users’ infringing acts of copying and communication to the public” Justice Arnold summarized today, The Guardian reports. “They go far beyond merely enabling or assisting … I conclude that both users and the operators of [The Pirate Bay] infringe the copyrights of the claimants … in the UK.” The case has been brought by various major record labels and other agencies connected with the music industry, and is a continuation of long-standing anti-piracy efforts that also saw the site’s founders face a $6.5m fine. Labels claim advertising run on the site made it in the region of $3m in October 2011 alone. “Despite their ability to do so and despite the judicial findings that have been made against them, the operators of [The Pirate Bay] take no steps to prevent infringement,” Just

If you’ve used a Motorola Android device over the past year or so, you’ve very likely experienced Motorola’s own “webtop” mode, this allowing your smartphone a desktop-like interface when plugged into an HDMI-capable display. The tip comes from Staska of Unwired View who notes that information he’s gathered leads to the idea that Android 5.0 will have a desktop mode which activates whenever the device is plugged into a larger display. Could this have anything to do with Google’s recent near-complete deal in which they’re acquiring Motorola Mobility? It certainly would allow them to avoid patent suits should they actually make a desktop mode! The next version of Android is almost certainly going to be called Jelly Bean simply because of the naming conventions that Google has adopted for Android. Treats at every level, starting with Donut, going to Eclair, FroYo, Gingerbread, Honeycomb, and now Ice Cream Sandwich – so named because it combines the smartphone and tablet versions together

PS Vita First Edition bundles have shown up in some US stores already, but meanwhile loyal Sony addicts are queuing for their turn at the cash-register with the OLED gaming portable: at least, a few are. PlayStation Europe tweeted out a photo of the first three in line outside a UK store, waiting for the PS Vita to officially go on sale on February 22. Whether they’ll be joined by many other eager Vita buyers remains to be seen. Japanese pre-orders sold out, but other countries have been more cautious about the handheld; still, there’s no telling how many units each store will actually have on launch day. Queuing for new gadgets is most often associated with Apple hardware, and indeed Samsung used the trend to take a few pot-shots at its Cupertino rival, most recently with its extravagant and expensive SuperBowl advert. Lines for other company’s hardware are less common, though, with many content to rely on online orders and home delivery rather than waiting in the cold. We spent some

Rovio’s teaser this past week of the newest Angry Birds release to be known as Angry Birds: Space has this week been given a PR boost by none other than NASA and National Geographic! In an interview with Yahoo Games, Rovio North America general manager had a bit more information on the game, especially in regards to what the game will hold for gameplay. We’d hypothesized that Angry Birds: Space would have at least one launch partner, Samsung’s Galaxy Note being amongst them, but now it looks more like Rovio will be going to space much more literally! Stalbow let the world know that the game will indeed have features that put it in a whole different environment – the moon! We’ve seen a space level in a past release of a secret in Angry Birds Summer Pignic – this level also showing off one of the times Samsung tied in with the Rovio crew for promotion of their Galaxy line. As Stalbow said on the development of this Space release: “Science and education are very important to us, and we’re

Samsung has inked a deal with Blockbuster to deliver on-demand streaming movie and TV shows to Samsungsmart TVs, ultrabooks, smartphones and tablets later in 2012. The service will hit Samsung hardware in the US, UK and across Europe in the first half of this year, according to Smarthouse, while other regions, including Australia, will have to wait until the second half of 2012 before they see it. Samsung is apparently cooking up a global billing system for easy content purchase no matter which device they’re using. Pricing for Samsung’s Blockbuster On Demand deal hasn’t been confirmed, but it will presumably fall into line with current purchase and rental offerings. Rentals are priced from $1.99 for a 24 hour period of access, while purchases also start at $1.99 but are continuously accessible from Blockbuster’s servers. Also unclear is how the system will handle multiple devices. Purchased content will presumably be accessible no matter which Samsung hardware you’re using – as long a

Apple’s iPad 3 hasn’t been shy of headlines in recent months, but in the last few days its leaked components that have made the news: Apple A5X chipsets and an 8-megapixel camera among others. With the third-gen model expected to break cover officially in early March, there’s no shortage of excitement around what, exactly, will differentiate it from predecessors and rivals. Still, take a step back, and some of the rumored specs arguably present more questions than answers, most obviously the huge improvement in photographic abilities. How will Apple convince us that an 8-megapixel camera is essential? Photos over the weekend showed off a tweaked rear panel said to be from the third-gen iPad, along with the suggestion that it would accommodate a much improved CMOS sensor. If true, the new iPad camera is an interesting shift from Apple. The tablet will have gone from no camera at all in its first generation, a meager 1-megapixel shooter prioritizing 720p video recording in its second, to

Nintendo’s 3DS is the company’s fastest device to reach 5m unit sales in Japan, the company has confirmed, beating sales records previously set by the GameBoy Advance. The glasses-free 3D capable portable had found the market tough to break into upon its launch, with Nintendo forced to dramatically slash the price in order to stimulate sales. At the time, Nintendo’s president issued an apologetic open letter explaining the motivation behind the cuts to early adopters, warning that if Nintendo hadn’t dropped the price then the handheld might not have gained sufficient traction among developers. That move seems to have worked, at least in terms of Nintendo’s immediate competitors; the 3DS is reportedly more popular among them than Sony’s new PS Vita. Meanwhile, sales in the US passed the 4m milestone back in January 2012, helped by a firmware update for the 3DS in late 2011 that brought 3D video capture and a download eShop store to the device. Whether 5m Japanese sales is sufficient to

Sony’s mini-Xperia has leaked, the dinky 3.5-inch dual-core previously known as the ST25i but tipped to launch as the Sony Xperia U. Running Android on a 1GHz processor with a WVGA display and 5-megapixel camera, the Xperia U doesn’t exactly deliver hyperbole like the Xperia S it’s shown next to in the photos HDBlog unearthed, but could be a welcome alternative for those that don’t want to give over an entire pocket to an oversized smartphone. Familial similarities between the two devices are clear. Both have the pared-down, squared off aesthetic Sony switched to with the Xperia S, with a compact strip of buttons along the chin and plastic construction. The Xperia U is perhaps unlikely to get the NFC of its bigger sibling, however. The expectation is that Sony will launch the Xperia U to replace the Neo, with a price point of around €349 ($463) unsubsidized. There’s no confirmation as to whether this will be one of the devices Sony unveils officially atMWC 2012 next week, but that does

The first solely Sony-branded Android smartphone, the Sony Xperia S, has gone up for sale, with pre-orders accepted in the UK ahead of the 4.3-inch handset’s release in early March. Priced at free with a new agreement from retailer Phones 4u, the Xperia S has a 1280 x 720 display, a 1.5GHz dual-core processor, 32GB of storage and 1080p HD video recording support, in addition to NFC and HDMI connectivity. You also get WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS and DLNA support, together with a 12-megapixel main camera and a front-facing camera for video calls. Like LG with the Optimus LTE Tag, Sony will be offering NFC tags that can instantly switch the Xperia S into silent mode or trigger other macros when the smartphone is held nearby. The only blot on the landscape is the OS: Sony has used Android 2.3 Gingerbread rather than Ice Cream Sandwich, though an upgrade is in the pipeline. That should take place in Q2 2012, the company said at the Xperia S’ launch back at CES (where we also grabbed some hands-on

Apple has fired back at Chinese firm Proview, threatening legal action for potentially damaging its reputation with “information contrary to the facts” about the iPad trademark in China. “It is inappropriate to release information contrary to the facts to the media, especially when such disclosures have the effect of wrongfully causing damage to Apple’s reputation” the letter, provided to PC World, reads; Apple sent it to Proview after the company’s founder held a press conference last week. Proview founder Yang Rongshan had claimed Apple attempted to buy the Chinese iPad trademark from a subsidiary of the company which did not have the authority to sell it, and insisted that the deal was thus invalid. Yang also claimed to be unaware at the time of the deal that Apple was seeking to buy the trademark from the Proview subsidiary. However, Apple argues that this is not in fact the case, pointing to documentation and emails from the period – that have subsequently leaked - that indicate Y

Apple‘s supplier worker conditions are again making headlines, with a behind-the-scenes report into Foxconn along with news of a significant pay increase for employees going some way to diffuse criticisms of workforce standards. Foxconn announced this weekend that it was increasing worker salaries by up to 24-percent, pointing out that even before the raise it was still paying above Chinese minimum wage requirements. Meanwhile, ABC’sNightline was invited to tour a Foxconn facility in Shenzen, China, to get a rare chance to see the production processes behind the coveted Apple devices. Foxconn’s pay increase will take effect as of February 1, the company has confirmed. Salaries are rising by between 16- and 25-percent, though the actual figure depends on which of the company’s facilities staff are employed at. Monthly pay now climbs to between 2,200 yuan and 2,500 yuan ($220 to $250) at the Shenzhen plant Nightline visited, up from roughly 1,800 yuan ($180) previously. Overtime has also

Barnes & Noble is reportedly readying a cheaper version of its NOOK Tablet for launch this week, with the 7-inch ereader/slate dropping onboard storage so as to shave away at its price. The new 8GB variant will be officially unveiled on Wednesday, February 22, according to internal Walmart documentation shared with The Verge, though there’s no indication of quite how much cheaper than the existing $249 NOOK Tablet the new entry-level version will be. Still, given the status of the tablet/ereader market at the moment, a good guess would be around the $199.99 mark. That would pit the NOOK Tablet head-to-head with high-profile rivals like Amazon’s Kindle Fire, as well as cut-price Android tablets commonly seen in discount stores. Despite its $249 price tag, the NOOK Tablet has been quite the success for Barnes & Noble. The slate was the retailer’s fastest selling device to-date in Q2 2012, leading B&N to consider splitting off the NOOK business. In store availability of the ne

DARPA has funds set aside in its budget for 2012 that will pour $7 million into a plan that sounds so much like the James Cameron flick Avatar or that Bruce Willis movie Surrogates, that it’s hard to believe DARPA is actually spending money on the project. DARPA says the goal of the plan is to “develop interfaces and algorithms to enable a soldier to effectively partner with a semi-autonomous bi-pedal machine and allow it to act as the soldier’s surrogate.” This Sounds like brain controlled robots to me. DARPA isn’t looking for giant Kevlar skinned blue aliens, but rather robots it seems. DARPA wants those that participate in the program to make “key advancements in telepresence in remote operation of the ground system” but those key advancements aren’t specified. DARPA is specifically looking for “semi-autonomous bi-pedal machines” so it doesn’t seem any of the tracked or wheeled variety of robots the military has today will do the trick. It sounds more than a little like DARPA wants

I have never really thought about why the moon doesn’t have volcanoes. According to scientists, the moon has plenty of liquid magma locked away in its core to produce volcanoes. Scientists believe they have figured out why exactly that magma doesn’t bubble to the surface of the moon and create volcanoes such as the ones we have here on earth. The answer scientists settled on is that the magma inside the moon is so dense that it can’t bubble to the surface. The European scientists came to the theory after they took moon rocks collected by the Apollo missions and melted those rocks at high pressures and temperatures. The high pressure and temperatures used in the experiment are believed to be the same as conditions present inside the moon. After melting those rocks down, the density of the resulting magma was measured using X-rays. Measurements taken were combined with computer simulations that allowed scientists to calculate the density of the magma at any location on the moon’s surface

Panasonic has officially named its first smartphone for Europe, the Panasonic Eluga, a 4.3-inch Android handset expected to go on sale this spring. The Eluga – then unnamed – was first revealed back in December 2011, a waterproof, dustproof and generally resilient smartphone fronted by a qHD 960 x 540 OLED display and toting NFC. The device tips the scales at a scant 103g and will supposedly also operate as a remote control for Panasonic HDTVs. Full specifications of the Eluga aren’t yet available – for instance we don’t know what version of Android it runs – but previous indications suggest NFC and a sizable camera. It’ll also have a “D-shaped” cross-section, and Panasonic says it’s prioritizing slimline lines. Panasonic isn’t the only Japanese firm to be talking about European smartphone intentions today. Fujitsu is also looking to challenge the handset status-quo with a range of high-end Android and Windows Phone 7 devices, it’s been revealed, with those expected to be demonstrated

Scientists have created an exceptionally miniaturized transistor that uses a single atom. The breakthrough was made by physicists at the University of New South Wales, and the breakthrough is seen as a better foundation for scalable quantum computing. The transistor is composed of a single phosphorus-31 isotope that was precisely placed on the base of silicon using a Scanning Tunneling Microscope. The isotope was placed on the silicon base inside an ultra-high vacuum chamber. Forbes reports that one of the amazing things about the breakthrough is that the physicists could position the individual phosphorus atom very precisely. The atom was confirmed to be exactly where it needed to be placed to be effective. The precision achieved through this technique is very important because the margin of error with most single atom devices is reportedly 10nm, which is large considering the minuscule scale when talking about atoms. The team chose phosphorus-31 because it has two possible nuclear sp

Convergence is a big deal in the computer world. The more functions can be combined into a single chipset or processor, the less space is needed for hardware components and often less power is required. The less hardware is needed inside a device, the smaller the devices get. Less power consumption means that batteries inside notebooks and tablets run longer. Researchers at Intel have come up with a new way to make Wi-Fi faster and more energy-efficient by combining a Wi-Fi radio with the CPU. The Intel chip is called the Rosepoint and at least for now it’s a research project only. However, Wired reports that we could see this on the chip inside laptops and mobile phones by the end of the decade. Rosepoint is a big deal because engineers and researchers at Intel have been able to miniaturize the components of the 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi radio to the point where they can be placed directly beside an Atom CPU. Intel is able to miniaturize the components to the point where they can be made using th

There’ve been all sorts of remote-controlled toys that are controlled using the iPhone hit the market over the last year or more. The first of these devices we saw were remote-controlled helicopters, but there have been cars and other toys as well. A new iPhone controlled toy has now launched, and it is called the iPhone Controlled Stunt Car Racer. The little RC car measures 11.0 x 7.0 x 2.7 cm and has an internal 100mAh battery for power. The battery is a lithium polymer unit that charges from a USB port. The car comes with a small transmitter that plugs into the headphone port of the iPhone and offers control from up to 20 m from the car. The app can be downloaded from the App Store. The app offers a little virtual joystick controller and supports Gyro tilt controls as well. The app controls the car for left/right and forward/back. There are three bands to choose from allowing multiple cars to race at the same time. The transmitter that plugs into the iPhone charges from USB is good

We have some bad news for TiVo owners who enjoy streaming video from Blockbuster On Demand. Blockbuster has announced that it will stop supporting TiVo DVR’s on March 31, 2012. You can read the official TiVo statement at the bottom of this post, but in a nutshell, Blockbuster claims it’s updating its technology platform and won’t be able to support TiVo in the future. Apparently, the video-on-demand app from Blockbuster is still available on different TiVo models as of now, but the registration page is no longer available on Blockbuster.com. While TiVo is losing Blockbuster support, fans of streaming media do have a couple of things to look forward to on their TiVo DVRs this year. An updated Netflix app is coming for one. An updated YouTube app is also coming with both of those app updates set for later this year. TiVo is also tipped to be opening a new SDK soon that could result in new apps for TiVo users. Does losing Blockbuster On Demand support make TiVo less attractive to you? We

Fujitsu is readying Android and Windows Phone smartphones for Mobile World Congress next week, it’s reported, ahead of the company’s re-entry into the European market and challenge to Apple and Samsung. Described as high-end devices, the new Fujitsu phones will pack LTE 4G, NFC and biometric security, the FT reports, and be so-called global phones with support for multiple networks. Fujitsu had announced its intention to re-enter the US market back in January, having withdrawn to Japan to focus on the home market some years earlier. There, the company offers both smartphones and tablets, and holds around a fifth of the market, but rivals like Samsung, Apple, HTC and Motorola have grown to dominate the North American and European markets. It now seems Fujitsu wants a slice of those pies too, and it believes a flagship line-up is the best way to achieve that. The company showed off its waterproof Arrows tablet at CES 2012 last month, while its super-skinny6.7mm thick Arrows F-07D smartph

by Shane McGlaun Some new features have surfaced that will be included in Microsoft’s SkyDrive cloud-based storage solution. Microsoft hasn’t confirmed these features, but they’re said to be part of SkyDrive Wave 5 M3. One of the new features is the ability to manage BitLocker recovery keys that are stored on SkyDrive. The feature will allow you to recover forgotten passwords easily. SkyDrive is also said to support OpenDocument formats and allows selection of default office document formats. The SkyDrive app for Windows and Mac is also tipped to allow the user to access files and folders on local computer via the SkyDrive web interface. A link shortening service is integrated into the latest update to significantly shorten long sharing URLs. The update also adds direct sharing to twitter and other services in addition to the previously supported Facebook, MySpace, and LinkedIn. The size of individual files has been increased to 300 MB from the previous allow 100 MB limit. These update

If you are using an original iPhone 4 today or used one in the past, you probably remember the so-called antennagate scandal. This scandal centered on the fact that if you held the iPhone just right the antenna would lose signal strength. The fix for the antenna issue was to hold the phone differently or use a case that prevented your skin from contacting the antenna area. Somewhere along the way, the 18 different lawsuits were filed against Apple over the antenna issue and all 18 were eventually consolidated into one class-action suit. The claim in the suit was that Apple was “misrepresenting and concealing material information in the marketing, advertising, sale, and servicing of its iPhone 4–particularly as it relates to the quality of the mobile phone antenna and reception and related software.” The class-action suit has now reached a settlement. A website has been set up for the settlement at www.iPhone4Settlement.com, which is not live as of now. The original buyers of the smartp

If you are using an original iPhone 4 today or used one in the past, you probably remember the so-called antennagate scandal. This scandal centered on the fact that if you held the iPhone just right the antenna would lose signal strength. The fix for the antenna issue was to hold the phone differently or use a case that prevented your skin from contacting the antenna area. Somewhere along the way, the 18 different lawsuits were filed against Apple over the antenna issue and all 18 were eventually consolidated into one class-action suit. The claim in the suit was that Apple was “misrepresenting and concealing material information in the marketing, advertising, sale, and servicing of its iPhone 4–particularly as it relates to the quality of the mobile phone antenna and reception and related software.” The class-action suit has now reached a settlement. A website has been set up for the settlement at www.iPhone4Settlement.com, which is not live as of now. The original buyers of the smartp

The iPad 3‘s logic board bearing its new Apple A5X processor has leaked, if Chinese tipsters are to be believed, the latest component from the hotly-anticipated third generation tablet to break cover. Although previous speculation had centered on Apple using an A6 chip in the new iPad, the photo shared at forum WeiPhone suggests a more evolutionary rather than revolutionary upgrade is intended. Yesterday, another iPad 3 component leak indicated the new model would have an 8-megapixel camera and slightly different styling. Details on the Apple A5X processor are scant. The date code on the chip is 1146, which translates to the 46th week of 2011 (the week commencing November 14), while it’s accompanied by two 16GB Hynix flash memory chips and a further, Apple-branded chip believed to be responsible for power management. However, the latter also has a higher part number than its counterparts in previous iPads. Initial expectations around the Apple A6 chipset were that it would use a quad-c

If you’re one of the folks that likes to check in everywhere you go using Facebook or Foursquare, you’ll like this new feature on Google’s offering check in offering called Latitude. Competitive types that like to check in so everyone knows where they are at any particular moment like the new feature for Latitude called Latitude Leaderboard. This feature lets you compete with friends and other people that use Latitude and was announced with no fanfare. The way the Leaderboard works is that each time you check in you earn points that are tracked for all users globally and then the Leaderboard keeps track of all the points. Users are ranked by how many points they totaled during the week with the name, profile picture, and point total placed into the Leaderboard making the act of checking in somewhere a game. If you use Latitude and you haven’t seen this new feature yet, apparently not everyone is getting it at this point. You also have to register your location first before you can see

Google’s alleged bypassing of Safari privacy settings looks likely to come under FTC investigation, after three US Congressmen contacted the Commission to see whether the search giant has violated its consent agreement. Republican Representatives Cliff Stearns of Florida and Joe Barton of Texas, and Democrat Edward Markey of Massachusetts, penned a letter expressing their concerns to the Federal Trade Commission on Friday, citing Google’s recent – and contentious – privacy policy changes and describing the claims that the company tricked Safari into allowing users to be tracked as “a major concern.” “As members of the Congressional Bi-Partisan Privacy Caucus, we are interested in any actions that FTC has taken or plans to take to investigate whether Google has violated the terms of its consent agreement” the Congressmen wrote to FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz. That consent agreement came in the aftermath of the Google Buzz debacle, where the company had been found to use deceptive tactics

If you’re a fan of open source media players, you may be familiar with VLC. This open-source media player has received major new update bringing it to version 2.0 also known as “twoflower.” The new version has major improvements with faster decoding on systems with multi-core processors, GPUs, and on mobile hardware. The player also now supports more media formats. VLC 2.0 has a new rendering pipeline for video that generates higher-quality subtitles and has new video filters that enhance video. The update also brings experimental support for Blu-ray discs. Other notable improvements include a reworked Mac and web interfaces along with improvements in the software to other interfaces to make the player easier to use. The update also patches several hundred bugs that were reported in previous versions. The software also has new video outputs for Windows 7, Android, iOS, and OS/2. The experimental Blu-ray support has a few caveats with menus that are deactivated in this release, but the

LG has announced another new smartphone ahead of Mobile World Congress, the LG Optimus LTE Tag, to go with the LG Optimus Vu revealed over the weekend. A 4.3-inch Android 2.3 Gingerbread smartphone with a bright, 650 nits IPS LCD display and 1.2GHz dual-core processor, as the name suggests the Optimus LTE Tag prioritizes both 4G LTE connectivity and Near-Field Communication (NFC) with various sticky NFC labels used to switch the handset between different modes. So, a CAR Mode tag can automatically run the in-car UI, with an oversized interface for easier use of the Optimus LTE Tag while it’s docked in a windshield cradle. LG preloads its own Tag+ (or Tag Plus) app to handle reading the NFC tags, and three sheets of stickers will apparently be included in the box with the smartphone. Other possible uses will be switching into Office mode, as well as turning settings on and off for things like WiFi and muting the ringer, but users will also be able to program tags themselves. Otherwise,

Apple‘s Notification Center was one of our favorite elements in our OS X Mountain Lion preview, but third-party devs Growl claim not to be concerned that the big cat is moving on on their territory. In a blog post titled “Welcome to the party” the developers of the long-standing notifications tool for Macs deny that Growl is dead, and say that in fact they’re looking into whether it can be integrated into Notification Center. “It’s pretty early on,” the team claims, “but we expect to find some way to provide integration for both developers and users.” Even without that integration, Growl still has some advantages; as other developers have noted, Mountain Lion’s system only works with software released through the Mac App Store. If you download a third-party app through your browser, even if it’s signed with Gatekeeper’s Developer ID, it won’t be able to fire off alerts through the official Notifications Center. Meanwhile, there are also benefits in customization, with the Growl team po

ZTE has jumped the Mobile World Congress gun and unveiled two new Android 4.0 smartphones, the PF200 and N910, each toting LTE and running at up to 1.5GHz. The ZTE PF200 is the company’s new flagship, it seems, with a 4.3-inch qHD touchscreen, an 8-megapixel main camera and a 1080p Full HD capable front-facing camera. It also gets NFC and MHL-HDMI output. Going by ZTE’s press shot, it looks like the company has reskinned Ice Cream Sandwich, too. As well as LTE, there’s backward 3G/UMTS and GSM support, along with Bluetooth 2.1, GPS, WiFi, A-GPS and DLNA streaming support. It’s not clear which of the two processor speeds – or, indeed, which specific chipsets ZTE is using – the PF200 is packing, nor whether they’re single or dual-core (or a combination of both). As for the ZTE N910, that has a WVGA touchscreen and LTE FDD, CDMA and EVDO connectivity, along with a 5-megapixel main camera – with autofocus and flash – and a 1080p HD capable front video camera. It too has GPS, WiFi and Blue

Samsung has confirmed plans to divorce its LCD business, spinning off the slumping screen division as Samsung Display Company Ltd on April 1 after which point it will operate as a new corporation. Word of the plans broke earlier this month, with Samsung confirming rumors that it was considering a spin-off within the next few months; however, that decision came earlier than predicted, the BBC reports, leaving Samsung free to focus on OLED technology. “The spin-off will allow us to make quicker business decisions and respond to our clients’ needs more swiftly,” Donggun Park, executive vice president and head of Samsung’s LCD business said. ”Through enhancements in business competitiveness, we will continue to provide superior products and services for the market.” However, while Samsung Display Company may be competitive and swift, the real interest in the screen segment looks to be centering on OLED. Samsung has been tipped to tackle the Japanese market – which it abandoned some years a

While the Meizu electronics brand isn’t that well known outside of China at the moment, they’re certainly a brand to be reckoned with in the smartphone market, and if the Meizu MX is any indication, they’ll be a whole lot more well known in the very near future. The device you see before you is a high-end Android device made for release in China only, but because of its 2G and 3G network bands, we’re able to use it here in the USA with a micro SIM card from T-Mobile or AT&T, whichever we so choose to pop in. Because of this, the review of this device makes for a rather interesting exercise in testing Meizu on a global scale: can this MX smartphone stand up to the rest of the Android devices here in the USA? This device is currently available in China and can readily be purchased through carriers and resellers of hardware if you’re in the area. Should you want to use this device in the United States, you’ll want to make sure it’s set for English right out of the box or you may ha