Tablets Articles

A new flaw in Android security could potentially leads to stolen financial and personal details. It is all thanks to a “fake ID” style malware system that can sneak into other apps, undetected.

For some time, Android has been criticized for their lax approach to third-party app security. Fake applications, or those that only claim to provide a service but actually do nothing, have been featured in the past as “top apps” recommended by Google Play.

Now, a much bigger issue has been uncovered. A new form of malware could be using those apps to gain access to your information.

NVIDIA has announced their own tablet, a device meant to provide a high quality gaming experience.

The gaming industry has seen real advances, in everything from graphics and gameplay, just in the past year. From virtual reality to consoles that provide almost ridiculously realistic art, gaming has changed in ways that used to be science fiction.

NVIDIA is not on a mission to take that same concept to the world of mobile devices. SHIELD is a series aimed specifically at games, rather than as a broader media device.

After watching the trends for the last several fiscal quarters, Canalys has predicted that tablets are set to rise in sales to 50% of the PC market in 2014. In addition, they say that Android will be making up 32% of mobile operating systems by the end of that year.

Tablets have been growing in popularity as their applications grow, the greater synchronization with various PC services making them a valid replacement for PC’s. Companies have even been making laptop/tablet hybrids, which account for the growing trend. On the other side, phones have been integrating with tablets to create phablets.

If there is a need for a product, no matter how vague, someone will create a solution for it. So what happens if you need access to a tablet in an area where it might get shot at?

Well there is a new product from VestGuard UK that looks to solve that exact problem for you! They specialize in making personal body armor that is generally used by non-military in war zones, military, and has other various applications so they know how to keep people (and things) safe in a hostile environment.

So it doesn’t matter if you are a member of the armed forces, police, reporter, or 3rd world country dictator – your iPad is now safe from bullets being fired at you! I’m kidding on the 3rd world country dictator of course.

Google is going for Apple’s jugular by switching emphasis from smartphones to tablets. Is Apple scared? I doubt it. They will peddle tablets that are co-branded. Sources indicate that Google will sell them through a store much like Apple and Amazon. This is a last ditch effort to save struggling sales of Android based tablets. The question is whether or not it will work.

The Nexus One from HTC in 2010 was a similar flailing punch by Google, but they caved under the flood of better Android-based phones that hit the market a few months later. Google doesn’t get that having a piece of hardware with the search engine giants multi-colored logo on it makes it feel like a child’s toy – it cheapens it. Google is too full of themselves to get it though. I would never by hardware that has Google’s name on it. However, they have roped Samsung and AsusTek in on the deal of producing the hardware. So Google will not actually build the units, but they will be available from many retailers. In fact, Taiwan’s Asus is due to release the first co-branded tablet later this year, in the online store.

It’s hardly fair to group all Android OS tablets together and compare to Apple’s iPad. It is like 100 against 1, and as we used to say as children, “That’ not fair!” Nevertheless, Apple creams the whole bunch of Android hooligans whichever way you pick to look at it. You can talk about apps, profits, market share, or whatever, but Apple is leaps and bounds ahead of the whole pack of wolves.

That having been said, Strategy Analytics revealed that Android OS tablets accounted for 39 percent of the market share in the fourth quarter of 2011. Apple still is hard to catch up with, at 58 percent, down 10 percent from the previous year.

Global tablet shipments, not including over-the-counter sales, according to Peter King, Strategy Analytics’ research director, rocketed 150 percent, from 10.7 to 26.8 million between the fourth quarters of 2010 and 2011.

As 2011 is coming to an end wrap ups and overviews of the year spring up like weeds after a rain. Here, however, we have a somewhat different look back on this eventful year and it analyzes five different trends that have arisen in the mobile industry that will carry on to the coming year.

We all know mobile has completely changed everything and with each passing year it evolves more. This year was no different. These five trends all encompass various aspects of current mobile technology and some of the figures are somewhat surprising.