No more sleepless nights for Apple’s lawyers, at least not until the Nokia and HTC suits begin to heat up. The company is now the proud owner of a slightly used trademark: iPad™, as of March 17, is no longer a Fujitsu mark and has been assigned to Apple. Much speculation had surrounded the trademark process for iPad, as Fujitsu’s mark was being challenged by Apple as early as September 2009, but it looks like the two companies have come to some sort of agreement.Despite Fujitsu’s original 2003 application to use iPad as a trademark for its line of retail handheld terminals, the name’s true master has never really been clear; as Engadget noted in January, there was already a company using “IPAD” as a product name in the payment space, and Fujitsu’s application went stale in April 2009 before the company tried to reactivate it. That’s when Apple’s team started getting into the mix.

Terms of the arrangement have not been disclosed. According to Patent Authority,

“Apple initiated opposition proceedings challenging the validity of the mark in September last year.  However, the proceedings never developed into anything substantive and Apple simply filed three requests for extensions of time, presumably while they were in talks with Fujitsu.”

[via Engadget]

It looks like the crafty folks over at MacRumors have figured out how to snake their way into the not-yet-public listing for top revenue iPad apps. Now, we’ve got a flood of information coming out about software for the device that’s not coming out for another week or so. As you can see above, quite a few rumored and revealed games are already charting on the iPad store, and it looks like prices are running from $3.99 to $9.99. “HD” appeared to be the preferred nomenclature for iPad games yesterday, but “for iPad” is in there as well. It also looks like Enigmo for the iPhone will be Enigmo Deluxe on the iPad. MacRumors says that some of the “released” dates on this listing go back as far as March 19th, which is presumably when Apple started approving iPad apps.

We’ve spoken to some of the developers whose games were revealed, and they are not very happy with the leaks. A few other details are showing up, presumably from App Store descriptions linked off of this top revenue list, but we’ve confirmed with at least one developer above that all of those details are still pending and not yet confirmed. It’s no surprise that Apple wanted to be on top of getting apps out on the iPad storebefore the device’s launch, but they’ve inadvertently revealed some of their developers’ hands prematurely.

Update: 9 to 5 Mac has a full list of the App Store chart. It’s not yet clear where all of these shots are coming from, but it seems like they’re being taken in the dev kit’s iPad simulator, which is supposedly still under developer NDA.

Let’s get the hard data out of the way first: 480 CUDA cores, 700 MHz graphics and 1,401MHz processor clock speeds, plus 1.5GB of onboard GDDR5 memory running at 1,848MHz (for a 3.7GHz effective data rate). Those are the specs upon which Fermi is built, and those are the numbers that will seek to justify a $499 price tag and a spectacular 250W TDP. We attended a presentation by NVIDIA this afternoon, where the above GTX 480 and its lite version, the GTX 470, were detailed. The latter card will come with a humbler 1.2GB of memory plus 607MHz, 1,215MHz and 1,674MHz clocks, while dinging your wallet for $349 and straining your case’s cooling with 215W of hotness.
NVIDIA’s first DirectX 11 parts are betting big on tessellation becoming the way games are rendered in the future, with the entire architecture being geared toward taking duties off the CPU and freeing up its cycles to deliver performance improvements elsewhere. This is perhaps no better evidenced than by the fact that both GTX models scored fewer 3DMarks than the Radeon HD 5870 and HD 5850 that they’re competing against, but managed to deliver higher frame rates than their respective competitors in in-game benchmarks from NVIDIA. The final bit of major news here relates to SLI scaling, which is frankly remarkable. NVIDIA claims a consistent 90 percent performance improvement (over a single card) when running GTX 480s in tandem, which is as efficient as any multi-GPU setup we’ve yet seen. After the break you’ll find a pair of tech demos and a roundup of the most cogent reviews.

Nokia said today it has purchased Novarra, a maker of mobile web browsing technology. The companies didn’t disclose the purchase price.

Nokia, the world’s largest mobile phone maker, currently builds its own mobile browser, so it can incorporate the Illinois company’s technology into its own future browsers. Since data service usage is skyrocketing, having a good mobile web browser is essential.

Novarra was founded in 1999 and raised $50 million in funding in 2007.  Novarra makes web-based technologies for low-end mobile feature phones. Palm and U.S. Cellular use Novarra’s technology for things like web access, portals, videos, widgets and advertising. Nokia has also acquired mobile companies such as Dopplr, Plum, Cellity, Bit-Side and Navteq. The latter was a big kahuna $8.1 billion deal.

Here is the press release:-

Browser service technology will provide improved mobile web experience on mainstream mobile phones

Espoo, Finland – Nokia today announced it has signed an agreement to acquire 100% of the outstanding shares of Novarra, Inc., a privately-held company based in Chicago, IL. Novarra is a provider of a mobile browser and service platform and has more than 100 employees. Novarra’s mobile browser and services platform will be used by Nokia to deliver enhanced Internet experiences on Nokia mobile devices. Novarra has deployed their solution with leading mobile operator and internet services customers globally.

“Connecting the next billion consumers to the Internet will happen primarily on mobile devices,” said Niklas Savander, Executive Vice President, Services, Nokia, “and delivering an optimized internet experience on our devices is core to our mission. By driving innovation in all segments of our portfolio, we are building one of the largest consumer audiences for web services and content. Novarra’s Internet services technology delivered on the world’s most widely-used mobile platform, Nokia’s Series 40, will help us achieve this.”

Nokia expects a new service offering utilizing the Novarra technology platform to be available later this year. The acquisition is expected to close in the second quarter of 2010, and is subject to the customary closing conditions, including regulatory reviews. Following the acquisition, Novarra will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Nokia.

Acer’s aspirational laptops have a new Ethos to them now, and it clearly has something to do with entertainment. The newly revealed 18.4-inch 8943G sports a 1920 x 1080 resolution and a true 5.1 surround sound setup, meaning that somewhere within its shell reside five miniature speakers and a sub. Processor options range all the way up to the quad-core Core i7-820QM, which offers 8MB of built-in cache and a 1.73GHz clock speed that cranks all the way to 3.06GHz

when required. ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5850 graphics and up to 1.28TB of storage (2x 640GB) complete the overkill recipe. The 5943G is basically a scaled down version, offering as it does 1366 x 768 resolution across a 15.6-inch display, a 2.1 internal speaker arrangement, and a merely adequate 640GB storage maximum. The rest of the specs are shared, including a 4,800mAh battery, which should perish quicker than you can say “desktop replacement.” Pricing and availability have not yet been announced.

The Army uses Apple products for a host of reasons. They’re durable, easy to use in the field, tough to hack, and readily available (unlike many specialized computer hardware items). They’ve been known to use iPods Touch as simple translation tools (they can translate and say “get down!” in Arabic–useful in our worldwide exportation of freedom!). So what went on in Cupertino?

From the military’s site:

Apple officials gave the Army group tours of its laboratories and other facilities and talked about some examples of where the military is already using Apple technology. The Army’s research and development command is evaluating commercial hand-held solutions such as iPad, iPhone, iPod, iMac, and MacBook platforms.

It’s not made clear exactly what the Army plans to do with the iPad–but its large screen, faster processor and ability to display a large amount of text would make it an excellent digital clipboard. It’d be an easy way to deliver new briefings and other information to the troops (or as they dramatically call them, “warfighters”), if they can work out security properly.

But the Army is looking seriously at cellular technologies for transmitting and receiving information in the field–I’m not sure how that’d work in places without cellular service, but it’s clear that they’ll be working with Apple to equip our fine fighting men and women with the prettiest gadgetry out there.

Sprint may finally have the “hero” device it has been lacking: The EVO 4G, a feature-packed handset that will be the first to run on the company’s 4G WiMax network.

Designed by HTC, EVO runs Google’s (GOOG) Android 2.1 operating system and boasts some killer features: A 4.3-inch touchscreen display, a 1GHz Qualcomm (QCOM) Snapdragon processor, an eight-megapixel camera on the back, a 1.3-megapixel camera on the front (presumably for video chat), support for HD video capture, an FM radio and, of course, 3G/4G capability, which should theoretically support download speeds of more than 10 Mbps, assuming access to WiMax.

A superb feature set–on paper, anyway. Certainly, Sprint’s (S) leadership is convinced they’ve got a game-changer in the EVO: “This is going to be an iconic handset without question,” Sprint’s David Owens told Reuters.

And those who have gotten some early hands-on time with the device seem to agree. Engadget calls it “breathtaking.” Gizmodo was equally impressed: “[the] Evo 4G is the best Android phone out there. It may even be the best phone, period.”

Of course, these are simply first impressions. And it’s important to remember that while EVO specs out quite nicely, one of its biggest selling points, 4G support, involves a network that isn’t yet widely available.

In any event, the EVO seems to be a nice piece of hardware, one that’s likely to raise the table stakes in the mobile market. The smartphone goes on sale sometime this summer for an as yet undisclosed price.

The new Canon EOS-1D Mark IV Digital SLR camera is a high-speed multimedia performance monster with a 16-megapixel Canon CMOS sensor, Dual DIGIC 4 Imaging Processors, and 14-bit A/D data conversion, all at 10 frames-per-second (fps), with the widest ISO range Canon has produced to date. Canon EOS-1D Mark IV also features 1080p Full High-Definition video capture at selectable frame rates packaged in Canon’s most rugged and durable professional camera body.

The Canon EOS-1D Mark IV allows for three video recording resolutions – 1080p Full HD and 720p HD in a 16:9 aspect ratio and Standard Definition (SD) in a 4:3 aspect ratio. The camera will record Full HD at 1920 x 1080 in selectable frame rates of 24p (23.976), 25p, or 30p (29.97); and 720p HD or SD video recording at either 50p or 60p (59.94). SD video can be recorded in either NTSC or PAL standards. Sound is recorded either through the internal monaural microphone or via optional external microphones connected to the stereo microphone input. The camera also provides an in-camera video editing function.

The new EOS-1D Mark IV Digital SLR camera features Canon’s most advanced Autofocus system to date. It is equipped with a newly developed 45-point AF sensor featuring 39 high-precision cross-type AF points, and an all new AI Servo II AF mode that gives still photographers the power and performance to track and focus a fast-moving subject at speeds up to 10 frames per second.

The heart of the EOS-1D Mark IV camera’s outstanding image quality is a newly developed 16.1-Megapixel CMOS sensor featuring Canon’s latest and most advanced proprietary technologies. These technologies include improved photodiode construction to enhance dynamic range and gapless microlenses that are positioned closer to the photodiodes for improved light gathering efficiency.

With 60 percent more pixels than the EOS-1D Mark III, the EOS-1D Mark IV Digital SLR employs Dual DIGIC 4 Image Processors with approximately six times the processing power of DIGIC III for full 14-bit A/D conversion at 10 fps. High-speed continuous shooting up to 121 Large JPEGs is possible using a UDMA CF card.

The body covers and internal chassis, including the mirror box, are constructed with magnesium-alloy, one of the strongest and rigid metals available for its weight. For added strength, the lens mount is constructed with stainless steel.

The Canon 1D Mark IV’s body, chassis and lens mount are completely weather-resistant and 76 gaskets and seals surround all buttons and seams.

The Canon EOS-1D Mark IV Digital SLR camera is scheduled to be delivered in late December, and will be sold in a body-only configuration at an estimated retail price of $4,999.00.

Here’s a quick look  what you need to know about the new digital SLR:

• New 45-point Area AF sensor including 39 cross-type AF points with f/2.8 support plus new AI Servo II AF with improved algorithm.
• ISO 100 – 12800 (expandable to L: 50, H1: 25600, H2: 51200, H3: 102400) for shooting from bright to dim light with low noise levels.
• EOS HD movie capture with manual exposure control and multiple frame rates (1080: 30p (29.97) / 24p (23.976) / 25p, 720: 60p (59.94) / 50p, 480: 60p (59.94) / 50p).
• 16.1 Megapixel APS-H CMOS sensor and Dual DIGIC 4 Image Processors for high image quality and speed – Dual DIGIC 4 processors provide six times the processing power of DIGIC III for full 14 bit A/D conversion at 10fps
• 10.0 fps continuous shooting up to 121 Large JPEGS or 28 RAW using a UDMA CF card.
• 3.0-inch ClearView II LCD monitor, 160° viewing angle, 920,000-dot VGA, reflection resistance with multi coating and high-transparency materials for bright and clear viewing.
• Magnesium alloy body with shutter durability up to 300,000 cycles and exclusive dust- and weather-resistance.
• Fully compatible with over 50 EF lenses and a wide range of EOS System accessories.
• 60 percent more pixels than EOS-1D Mark III
• Peripheral Illumination Correction function corrects darkening that can occur in the corners of images with most lenses when used at their largest apertures
• Record on CF Type I and II, SD/SDHC memory cards, UDMA Mode 6 CF cards and/or external media

It may seem like overkill at this point, but Barnes & Noble is releasing their own e-book reader today: the Nook, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Although an official event and annoucement is scheduled for later today, most of the important information has already been leaked. Like Spring Design’s Alex, it will run on Google Android OS. While it’s roughly the same price as Amazon’s Kindle, it’s not really cheap, with a reported price tag of $259. But with some extra assets like a color touchscreen and e-book lending abilities, I find it a bit more of a deal. Amazon should start planning a major holiday bargain if they want to continue their control of the e-book reader market this winter.

The Wall Street Journal say they’ve seen a full page ad for the Barnes and Noble Nook eReader and it’s loaded -

1. Allows lending – Lend eBooks to friends. This is the first confirmation. WSJ write -
   

   Details of the reader appear in a full-page advertisement viewed by The Wall Street Journal in the New York Times Book Review section dated Sunday, Oct. 25. The advertisement says the Nook will enable its owners to “Lend eBooks to friends.”

2. Color touchscreen. By this they mean the screen below the eInk screen.
3. $259 price to match the Kindle price. That is a BIG detail to ferret out.
4. The name is Nook – Athena was so much better  .
5. Wireless downloads.
6. There is a separate website called nook.com – although it’s not up yet. WSJ write -
   

   The New York Times Book Review ad urges readers to “experience nook at your local Barnes & Noble or at nook.com.”

Details are supposedly from an October 25th New York Times advertisement.

Here is what Nook means (from Kindle dictionary) -

a corner or recess, especially one offering seclusion or security: the nook beside the fire.

the nook beside the fire – You cannot make this stuff up. Amazon kindles a fire and B&N offers you security by the fire.

Apple enjoyed its most profitable quarter ever, as the company set sales marks for both Mac and iPhone sales. The company announced earnings for its fiscal fourth quarter on Monday. For the quarter ending September 30, Apple reported a net profit of $1.67 billion, or $1.82 per share, on revenue of $7.9 billion. Those numbers blew away analysts’ earnings and revenue estimates of $1.42 a share and $9.2 billion in sales, respectively. Mac sales floated 17% over the year-ago quarter to 3.1 million units, setting a new quarterly record. While Apple sold 7.4 million iPhones this quarter, realizing a 7% unit growth over the same quarter last year.

“We are thrilled to have sold more Macs and iPhones than in any previous quarter,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We’ve got a very strong lineup for the holiday season and some really great new products in the pipeline for 2010.”

Apple’s Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer also promised, “We are continuing to focus on delivering state-of-the-art products at price points our competitors can’t match,” Oppenheimer said, “and will provide increasing value to our customers.”

iPhone sales are expected to experience even further growth, as the iconic smartphone launches into China on October 30. The initial 1,000 points of sale will be expanded further over the next several months. Apple executive Tim Cook lobbed a timely grenade at wannabe iPhone competitors by saying;

“Frankly I think people are trying to catch up with the first iPhone two years ago,” Cook said. “We’ve long since moved beyond that.” “I think it shows there is an intense appetite for Apple’s latest technology,” he said, “and we were very pleased with the result.”

In this recession that’s a real understatement if I’ve ever heard one. Meanwhile, news of Richard Heene’s retarded weather balloon hoax was like cold product tossed off into the discount bin where it belonged in the first place.

Revo has outed the Domino D3, a new DAB radio that combines a whole range of radio formats with iPod connectivity, wireless streaming capabilities and Last.fm access for a whole myriad of music.

With a contemporary design, the Domino D3 features a joystick for users to navigate their way around the radio’s features, and an OLED display for showing off exactly what you’re listening to.

On the Domino D3, you’ll be able to tune in to DAB, DAB+ and internet radio, as well as good old FM with RDS, and you’ll also be able to wirelessly stream music from any PC or MAC.

There’s also an integrated iPod dock which will also work with you iPhone, and similarly to the Revo Ikon, you’ll also be able to get access to Last.fm playlists – or sign in to your profile to tailor make your own.

To kick you off you’ll get a 30 day free trial to Last.fm, but if you get hooked, it’s £3 per month to keep the service going.

The D3 is actually part of a larger Domino line-up, packing into it all the goodness of the two models below it.

They are the D1, packing DAB/DAB+ and iPod & iPhone docking, and the D2 offering audio streaming, FM radio, iPod & iPhone docking and Last.fm access.

If you want it all, the Domino D3 will set you back £169.95, while the D1 and D2 will be priced at £129.95 and £149.95 respectively, and all will be available from 1 November.

Microsoft is launching the first smartphones packing Windows Mobile today, and has shared a few details on the new OS ahead of its full announcement.

With a cleaned up, easier-to-use interface, WinMo 6.5 promises better browsing capabilities and easy access to services such as Windows Live, Bing, Mobile Office Communicator and Microsoft Online Services such as Exchange and Sharepoint.

Microsoft has also shared more details on the two new service platforms we’d heard would launch with the OS – My Phone and Windows Marketplace for Mobile.

The former will allow you to back up and manage all your content including photos, apps, contacts and text messages on you PC, and will also offer a premium package some time soon that will help you relocate your phone if lost.

This will include showing the phone’s location on a map, remotely locking it, posting an “if found” message to the screen and setting off a loud ring – just in case you’ve just lost it down the side of the sofa.

Windows Marketplace for Mobile on the other hand is Microsoft’s crack at an app store with a current choice of over 200 mobile apps for business and pleasure.

We knew it would be coming this month, but now with Nokia has ‘fessed up as to when we can expect to see the Nokia N97 Mini in the shops.

If you’ve been waiting to get your hands on the smaller handset, Nokia has confirmed via its Flagship Store Twitter feed that we’ll be able to pick it up from 23 October.

This means Nokia’s central London Regent Street store will be getting the phone on this date, with other stores to get it in the days following.

As for how much it’s going to set you back, Nokia has the price listed as £429, but Vodafone, who leaked the handset earlier this year, has no such details as yet.

As its name suggests, the N97 Mini is a smaller version of this year’s N97, dropping 3 inches from its screen size down to 3.2, and cutting internal storage from 32GB to 8GB.

What do you think to the smaller N97 Mini – is it worth it? Let us know what you think below

TomTom has launched a new sat nav that drops a few of the more advanced TomTom features in exchange for a lower price tag. With a simplified menu, the TomTom Start is aimed at motorists just looking for a bit of a hand getting from A to B as quickly as possible. This means you’ll get the TomTom IQ Routes which will judge the fastest way to get to your destination, while Map Share will allow users to share map corrections so you never get stuck up the wrong street.

This does mean users won’t get the advanced handiness of LIVE services such as traffic updates, but you will still get safety camera alerts and all the Points of Interests already pre-installed on the device.

However, the user interface is not the only thing that’s been simplified on the TomTom Start – the design is clean and simple as well, with only one button. 

Made up mostly of its 3.5-inch screen, the Start is available in a choice of black or white, with six different StartSkins colours available separately to customise it with if you so wish.

The new addition to the TomTom family will cost you £119 for UK maps, or £139 for a European map, while the StartSkins will cost £14.99 each.

We’ll be getting hands on with it later on so keep it locked for some hands on snaps later on.

So we knew it was coming, and now the HTC HD2 has been officially outed and confirmed to go on sale later this month.

Although it packs Windows Mobile 6.5, the HD2 benefits from the rather lovely HTC Sense skin we’ve seen on the Android-loving Hero, bringing multi-touch to the a Windows Mobile phone for the first time.

This means you can zoom in on images and resize websites by simply pinching your fingers, as you would on the iPhone.

The high-res 4.3-inch touchscreen ensures accurate typing and easier web browsin, while the Qualcomm 1Ghz Snapdragon processor under the hood will improve the speed of of the phone, including apps, videos and games.

With HTC Sense you are able to customise your homepage with different widgets, such as a Windows-based version of its Twitter application HTC Peep, as well as download apps from Windows Marketplace.

There’s also the feature that bundles all of your contact with one person into a single contact view, so you can see calls, texts, Facebook status updates and emails in one glance. You’re also able to switch between an email conversation to a phone call in a jiffy by simply pressing the call button.

As for other specs, you can expect a 5 megapixel camera, 3.5mm jack, 3G and Wifi, as well as an optional car kit that’ll turn your HD2 in to your very own sat nav.

This is very possibly one of the most promising Windows Mobile phones yet. Keep your eyes peeled for a hands on video very shortly, and let us know what you think to it below.