Will The HP TouchPad Finally Bring A True iPad Competitor To Market?

Just yesterday, HP finally let slip pricing and availabilityfor the HP TouchPad tablet, which we now know will hit stores July 1. In terms of competition, HP is top-dog when it comes to PCs, but thus far, Apple has dominated the tablet market. The question now is, will HP’s TouchPad finally create a true, aggressive competitor for the iPad?

The Kno Textbook App Hits The iPad

Last night, Kno quietly released its first digital textbook app for the iPad. It includes its own store of “over 700,000 titles at 30% to 50% off list” price. And the app is a full textbook reader.

Kno, whose CEO Osman Rashid previously founded textbook-rental service Chegg, originally developed its own oversized tablet for textbooks. But once the iPad and Android tablets hit the market, the company saw the writing on the touchscreen and bailed on its hardware efforts last April.

At that time, when I spoke to Rashid, he was talking down the iPad because it does not support a stylus, which is the input method the Know software was designed for (although there are styluses that do work with the iPad). Maybe he was just trying to throw me off the trail.

The iPad app allows you to organize your digital textbooks and PDFs by dragging and dropping them into “courses.” Once you open a textbook, you can swipe through the pages or navigate via a filmstrip of thumbnails up top. There is also full text search. Pages can be bookmarked and highlighted. You can also add digital sticky notes which pop out from the margins.

The highlight feature is a nice touch. You can also launch a Web or Wikipedia search based on a highlighted word. There is also a “WTF” feature, which stands for “Words to Friends,” although it could mean the more common acronym since it’s a nit of a head-scratcher. It allows you to send out little study messages to friends on Facebook or Twitter, but doesn’t link back to the text or even make it easy to cut and paste a quote. WTF, indeed.

All in all, though, the Kno textbook app is pretty solid and will compete based on the breadth of its textbook selection and pricing. It certainly beats lugging around a backpack full of books

Samsung asks to see Apple's next iPhone, iPad

In an interesting turn of events, Samsung's legal team has asked Apple to hand over next-generation versions of the iPhone and iPad to make sure its own future devices will not be subjected to the same infringement claims the company currently faces as part of Apple's lawsuit from last month.

The motion, filed on Friday with the U.S. District Court in San Jose, Calif., and discovered by This Is My Next, asks the court to make Apple provide samples of the "final, commercial version(s)" of the iPhone and iPad, along with whatever retail packaging those products come in. Again, these aren't announced products, they're named in the filing as the "iPhone 4S," "iPhone 5," "iPad 3," and "third generation iPad."

The news comes a week after Apple filed a motion to see final production samples of a number of announced, though unreleased, Samsung products, including the Galaxy Tab 10.1 and 8.9 tablets, and smartphones like the Galaxy S II, Droid Charge, and Infuse 4G. The idea behind that was to evaluate whether these devices would fall under the same intellectual-property infringement claims Apple had already placed on Samsung devices like the Nexus S, Captivate, Continuum, and Mesmerize in its original court filing.

Nilay Patel, of This Is My Next, notes that as with Apple's handling of the request to see Samsung's unreleased products, the Samsung request asks only that Samsung's lawyers, and not the company's product teams, be allowed to see the Apple devices. That said, the retaliation preys on the element of surprise, historically one of Apple's biggest strengths when introducing new products.

Apple's lawsuit against Samsung (PDF), back in April, alleged that Samsung had copied Apple's mobile devices both in terms of user interface and design features. Apple also alleged that the Samsung devices in question infringed on Apple's patents, and resulted in Samsung practicing unfair competition. Samsung fired back by launching a wave of patent infringement lawsuits targeting Apple's products in multiple countries.

The case continues to generate intense interest from tech onlookers. While the two companies compete, Apple and Samsung have historically been close business partners, with Apple making use of a number of Samsung components across the range of its devices. Nonetheless, the relationship has not kept Samsung and its telecommunications group from being targeted.

Samsung is requesting a court order to have Apple provide the samples by June 17, 2011. Samsung's filing can be seen here.

Apple iPad 2 Price in India – New Slim Sleek Apple Tablet

Apple iPad 2 India

The new Apple iPad 2 the successor of the popular Apple iPad Tablet .It is thinner and lighter than the iPad (1) , more powerful with double speed CPU and 9 times speed GPU and comes with the latest iOS 4.3 .

Apple iPad 2 features :

• 9.7 inches LED-backlit Multi-Touch display , IPS technology , Fingerprint-resistant coating
• Dual core Processors – Dual-core A5 chip
• up to 2x faster CPU
• Up to 9x faster graphics
• Low power consuming processor
• 8.8mm thick ! – that is 33% thinner
• Lighter – up to 15% lighter
• Two colors – Black and White
• Up to 10 hours battery life
• One month standby
• WiFi + 3G connectivity (in iPad 2 3G model)
• Dual Camera – Front and Rear
• FaceTime HD
• Sensors : Gyro, accelerometer, and compass
• iPad Smart Cover – Available in various vibrant colors

                                                                                                   IPAD COVER

Apple iPad 2 specifications :

• Dimensions (HxWxD) : 241.2×185.7×8.8mm
• Weight : 601 gm
• Storage : 16GB/32GB/64GB
• Wi-Fi (802.11a/b/g/n)
• Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR technology
• 3G : UMTS/HSDPA/HSUPA , Quad band GSM/EDGE
• Digital compass
• Sensors : Three-axis gyro , Accelerometer , Ambient light sensor
• GPS with A-GPS
• Display : 9.7-inch LED-back-lit Multi-Touch display with IPS technology , 1024×768 resolution
• Processor : 1GHz dual-core Apple A5 Processor
• Camera : 5MP Rear and Front VGA
• Audio Player and HD Video Player
• Battery :
  • Up to 10 hours of surfing the web on Wi-Fi
  • Up to 9 hours of surfing the web using 3G data network
  • Charging via power adapter or USB to computer system
• 3.5mm stereo headphone jack
• Built-in speaker
• Micro-SIM card tray (Wi-Fi + 3G model)

Apple iPad 2 Price in India

• Apple iPad 2 WiFi Price in India
  • 16GB – Rs.29,500
  • 32GB – Rs.34,500
  • 64GB – Rs.39,500
• Apple iPad 2 3G Price in India (3G +WiFi)
  • 16GB – Rs.36,900
  • 32GB – Rs.41,900
  • 64GB – Rs.46,900