iPhone Cruncher

In my review of the HP TouchPad, which we published last night, I went off on a tangent about the “touch-to-share” functionality Hewlett-Packard introduced with the TouchPad tablet and the Pre 3 smartphone. I think it bears repeating. In a nutshell, touch-to-share allows the user to tap a webOS smartphone to the TouchPad in order to push any URL in an open browser page from one device to the other. I wrote at length about this feature, which is still in its infancy but exhibits tremendous potential. But the real value for touch-to-share goes far beyond the technology itself. The feature is great and HP can take it in a million different directions, but the bigger picture here is that touch-to-share can become an amazing way for HP to differentiate its tablet from the competition in a way that might actually pique consumers’ interest. Tech companies are so concerned with catching up right now that they forgot a very important piece of the puzzle: valuable differentiation. Flash, for example, is not a way for a company to differentiate its products — just ask the senior RIM executive who recently made a plea for RIM to step up its game. Companies are so concerned with pushing media tablets out to market that they’re forgetting to give consumers a reason to buy them over the market leader, the Apple iPad. If an Apple competitor ever wants to see real, long-term success with a tablet line, valuable differentiated features like a mature touch-to-share solution are paramount. With that, hit the break for my thoughts on the technology, as originally seen in our review of the HP TouchPad.

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In BGR’s first ever podcast, I mentioned my fondness of HP’s touch-to-share feature. This Touchstone technology married with Bluetooth (we mistakenly said in the podcast that HP used NFC for the feature, however this is not the case) allows a user to tap a Pre 3 smartphone to a TouchPad in order to take a web page being viewed on one

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Now things are heating up:

Samsung Electronics Co. (SSNLF.PK), the world’s largest computer-memory chip maker, filed another lawsuit against Apple Inc. (AAPL), claiming the U.S. company infringed patents for technology used in its iPhone and iPad devices.

“Apple has copied many of Samsung’s innovations in its Apple iPhone, iPod and iPad products,” lawyers for the Suwon, South Korea-based company said in a lawsuit filed yesterday in federal court in Delaware.

Samsung also filed a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission in Washington on June 28 seeking to block imports of the devices containing the allegedly infringing technology.

Apple started this, of course, going after Samsung alleging violations of its intellectual property. The danger for Apple is that Samsung isn’t some “tiny little startup”; worse, it’s an important component source.

These sorts of lawsuits are not particularly uncommon, but the depth and breadth of the cross-complaints is significant.

The common wisdom would be that the end result both firms want is some sort of cross-licensing agreement. That would be the least disruptive outcome for both firms, but this sort of dance is much like a divorce; it’s possible to settle amicably, but only if both parties are willing to be reasonable. If either party decides to try to destroy the other over any of the issues on the table, then things get ugly and the potential for serious destruction of value exists.

Some of the “patents” in question here look rather stupid, to be blunt. A “flat black screen with a small border” is one of the claims. Can we have a “WTF” over at the patent office? That describes basically every flat-panel display ever made, or that ever could be made, and that a patent was issued on this obvious design is outrageous. Remember, patents are not supposed to be available on anything obvious to someone of ordinary skill in whatever art

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Flipboard is one of those apps that reminds iPad users why they dropped $500-plus on the tablet.

The beautiful app streams in RSS feeds, Twitter updates and other social media and news updates and uses them to populate an interface that looks like a newspaper page. It’s a great, clean organization for content and a fun way to read things on the iPad, probably why Apple named it its Best iPad App of 2010.

Flipboard has just received a big update to make even more useful. The improvements aren’t necessarily life-changing – none of the core functionality has been changed – but the developer behind the app has added some new features that make the whole thing work better and provide an even stronger content-reading experience than Flipboard was previously capable of delivering.

Chief among the new changes is the integration of LinkedIn, the business-oriented social media network. The new LinkedIn section in Flipboard pipes in stories recommended by users’ business contacts from the service, which basically creates a whole area full of stories that are just work-related.

What’s cool about this is, in addition to bringing new content in from another specific angle, is that it’s realistic to think of news stories from LinkedIn as a good way to create conversations and network with business buddies and acquaintances. Putting those stories in front of users more quickly and easily than before, and giving them a good way to read them through Flipboard, makes commenting, responding and talking to your connections about the stories they post – otherwise known by the business term of “networking” – a lot easier for Flipboard users.

Also appearing in the new update is the ability to bring an unlimited number of feeds into Flipboard, where the previous cap was 21; basically, opening the app to a near-infinite amount of content, especially for ravenous RSS feed subscribers and Twitter hounds.

The final big addition makes content easier to find and discover. Flipboard has added curated feeds of content as part of its new Content Guide feature, allowing

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HP’s TouchPad tablet has been put through the paces by a small army of the digerati, and the results are not spectacular. Almost to a reviewer, the Touchpad seems to have evoked the same response: a well-designed tablet with a great user interface that suffers from poor, buggy performance and clunky hardware. Read on for a sampling of the conclusions drawn by early reviews of the device, which goes on sale Friday:

Walt Mossberg, AllThingsD: “H-P stresses that webOS is a platform and that the TouchPad is just one iteration of it. The company plans to add the operating system to numerous devices, including laptops, and hopes that this scale will attract many more apps. And it pledges continuous updates to fix the current shortcomings.

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But, at least for now, I can’t recommend the TouchPad over the iPad 2.”

David Pogue, New York Times: “In this 1.0 incarnation, the TouchPad doesn’t come close to being as complete or mature as the iPad or the best Android tablets; you’d be shortchanging yourself by buying one right now, unless you’re some kind of rabid A.B.A. nut (Anything but Apple).

But there are signs of greatness here. H.P. is coming to this battle very late, but it says it intends to stay the course. True, it’s tilting at windmills—but at least it’s riding an impressive steed.”

Donald Bell, CNET: “The TouchPad would have made a great competitor for the original iPad, but its design, features, and speed put it behind today’s crop of tablet heavyweights.”

Joshua Topolsky, This Is My Next: “The TouchPad is far from perfect — really, not even close right now. Still, there is DNA here that is amazing, and deserves to be given a second look. What HP (NYSE: HPQ) has done in just a year with webOS

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Apple is looking to step up iPad 2 shipments, aiming to ship as many as 14 million units of its second-generation tablet in the third quarter.

According to DigiTimes, Apple has been “piling up its inventory of iPad 2 components such as panels in the second quarter to minimize the risk of facing component shortages.” Apple is expected to move between seven and nine million iPad 2s in the second quarter, the results of which it will report on July 19.

One of the biggest problems Apple has faced with the iPad 2 has been the inability to keep up with demand for the device, which quickly sold out around within days of its launch in both the U.S. and abroad. In the same quarter that Apple launched the iPad 2, it also reported a slump in sales of the popular tablet, dropping from 7.33 million units sold in the fourth quarter to 4.69 million in the first. In an earnings call, Apple COO Tim Cook said the company faced “the mother of all backlogs” with the iPad 2, which could have caused the decline.

“I wish that we could have made a lot more iPad 2s, because there were a lot of people waiting for them,” Cook said at the time.

Apple also had to overcome a shortage of touchscreen panels, allegedly caused by the March earthquake in Japan.

But if the DigiTimes report is true, it seems Apple has planned ahead in order to stay on top of anticipated demand for the iPad 2 in the coming months.

For the top stories in tech, follow us on Twitter at @PCMag.

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By AppleInsider Staff

Published: 02:10 PM EST

There are now more than 100,000 applications available on the iPad App Store written specifically for the 9.7-inch display found on Apple’s touchscreen tablet.

Apple crossed the six-figure milestone this week, a fact that was first noted by MacStories. The total applies to software written for the iPad, and does not include iPhone applications, which also work but do not take advantage of the larger screen size.

The 100,000 number was reached less than 16 months after the iPad first went on sale in April of 2010. Then, the iPad App Store opened with just 3,000 titles, and crossed the 10,000 milestone that June.

The total number of applications available on the iPad can be viewed in the App Store by choosing the “Featured” section, and then selecting “Release Date” at the top of the screen. As of Thursday afternoon, the App Store was shown to have a total of 100,159 iPad applications.

Apple’s App Store for iOS devices is the largest of its kind. At the Worldwide Developers Conference earlier this month, Apple Senior Vice President of iOS Software Scott Forstall revealed there are more than 425,000 applications available in the App Store, including both the iPhone and iPad, and that more than 14 billion applications have been downloaded since 2008.

The latest milestone passed without any public acknowledgement by Apple, though earlier this year the company did hold a contest to celebrate the 10 billionth download from the App Store. Also this year, the successful App Store model was brought to the Mac, and the Mac App Store will be the only place where users will be able to upgrade to Mac OS X 10.7 Lion.

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Are you a Transformers fan? Whether or not you’ve already made it to the theater to watch Transformers 3, you can leap into the action with Transformers: Dark of the Moon, an iOS game by Electronic Arts. In this dual-stick shooter, you can play as either Optimus Prime or Bumblebee to take on the Decepticons.

Review
TRANSFORMERS: DARK OF THE MOON for the iPhone and iPod Touch, and TRANSFORMERS: DARK OF THE MOON HD for the iPad offer 13 levels of non-stop action spread across various settings, from cities like Chernobyl and Atlantic City to the Moon. Just like in the movies, the Autobots can transform between robots and vehicles. Regardless of which form you’re in, you will be able to take aim at your enemies.

Other than destroying the Decepticons, you’ll also get to demolish cars, rocks, and some other small structures. For some of these, all it takes is for Optimus or Bumblebee to stomp on or roll over them; for larger trucks and rocks, you’ll have to blast them to smithereens with a barrage cannon or stronger weapon. You may unlock up to 13 weapons, each of which may be upgraded using blue energon cubes that you’ll be collecting as you roam about. In this same manner, you can also upgrade your character’s skills. All these upgrades may be performed between levels in the lab. In addition to the weapons, you have two types of special attacks, including one that allows you to lock onto multiple targets. You may also pummel the Decepticons at close range with a melee attack button.

You will be attacked pretty much continuously. Except for the bosses, the enemies generally aren’t too powerful (you can adjust this via the game’s difficulty settings), but they’ll drop around you in hordes. You may take two weapons into battle. Usually, you’d have one rapid fire weapon and another more powerful but slower weapon. When one overheats and turns red after heavy use, you’ll

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