Research in Motion today announced its next-generation smartphone, the Z10. RIM also announced a corporate rebranding, officially changing the name of the company to BlackBerry.


All four U.S. carriers are expected to carry the Z10, shipping in March and starting at $199 with a two-year contract. Walt Mossberg, reviewing the Z10 for the Wall Street Journal, notes that a physical keyboard-equipped Q10 model is due in April as well. He notes that in "moderate to heavy use", the battery didn't last as long as a charge on an iPhone 5 in similar usage, but he did have some praise for the device.

BlackBerry has always leaned heavily on its physical keyboard, and, according to Mossberg, the virtual keyboard on the Z10 shines as well:

The Z10 keyboard is the best and fastest out-of-the-box virtual keyboard I’ve used. Master BlackBerry thumb typists might not find it as fast as the traditional physical keyboard, but, for a one-finger typist like me, it was faster and more accurate than either the native keyboards on the iPhone or Android. This is partly because it features predictive typing. It displays words that are likely to come next right above the rows of letters, and lets you flick these words upward into the text you’re composing. It learns what mistakes you typically make in hitting letters, and adjusts. And it learns words and abbreviations you frequently use, even proper names.

The company promises 70,000 apps at launch, including staples like Facebook, Twitter, Angry Birds, MLB, and more. Many notable apps are missing however, including Pandora, Spotify and Netflix.

The Z10 comes with a 4.2" 1280x768 display, giving it a higher pixel density than the iPhone 5; an 8 megapixel rear camera; 16GB capacity only, but includes a card slot for storage upgrades; available in white or black; a removable battery; and LTE support, though Mossberg got extremely poor data speeds on AT&T and RIM couldn't explain why.

While iOS 6.1 brought several widely publicized new features such as support for several dozen new LTE carriers and new support for ordering Fandango movie tickets through Siri in the United States, a number of other minor changes were also included in the update. Given the frequency with which our readers have been pointing some of them out, we thought it would be appropriate to make note of them in a brief roundup.

- Lock screen music controls: The music controls on the iPhone's lock screen have been enhanced as noted by TUAW, bringing them in line with those in the Music app.



The shortcut controls, accessed by pressing the home button twice while on the lock screen, have adopted both the look and layout of the Music app. One notable change is that the previous and next buttons are now much further apart from the play/pause button, making them much less likely to be pressed accidentally.

The volume knob also copies the Music app's visual trick of using the phone's accelerometer to vary the angle of virtual reflections on it.

- Maps "Report a Problem" button: Apple has tweaked the "Report a Problem" button in its Maps app, accessible in the preferences section by tapping at the lower right corner of the map page. The option had previously been a small text link, but Apple has now made it a much more prominent and accessible button which is actually now the largest button on the page.


- Rapid diagonal swiping issue improved: Several readers have noted that an issue with rapid diagonal swiping on the iPhone 5 and fifth-generation iPod touch resulting in loss of touch recognition appears to have been fixed or at least improved in iOS 6.1. Not all readers have experienced improvements, however, with some indicating that performance remains the same under iOS 6.1.

Apple has dropped out of the Top 20 list in world's largest survey of consumer trust. Apple's 21st ranking in the Ponemon Institute's Most Trusted Companies for Privacy Study is its lowest ranking in three years. The survey asks consumers to name and rate organizations they believe are most committed to protecting the privacy of their personal information.

Apple fell from 8th place in 2009 to 12th in 2010, 14th in 2011 and 21st in 2012. Apple was not the only major company to find itself having been knocked out of a top-20 place, being joined by both Google and Facebook.

The Ponemon Institute is careful to point out that the survey reflects consumer perceptions of privacy, rather than actual privacy practices. Apple Insider notes that Apple has tightened its privacy controls in a number of ways following revelations that the Path app was uploading users' address books without permission. Apple now requires apps to obtain explicit permission from users before contact information can be accessed. Apps also seek permission before using accessing location data.

Both Apple's App Store and Google's Android Market were criticised by the FTC in December for failing to disclose to parents ways in which data might be shared from children's apps.

Judge Lucy Koh ruled in a court filing (via The Verge) tonight that Samsung did not willfully infringe Apple patents. This decision denies any additional damages to the $1.05 billion awarded to Apple last August.

As this is the sum total of Apple's arguments and evidence that Samsung's infringement was willful, the Court cannot conclude that Apple has met its burden to show willfulness by clear and convincing evidence.

Samsung argued that they had reason to believe that Apple's patents were invalid and therefore did not willfully infringe Apple patents - Samsung basically didn't believe they did anything wrong. Judge Koh believed that Samsung's argument was reasonable enough to rule out willful infringement but not strong enough to overturn the validity of Apple's patents.



Judge Koh also denied Samsung's bid for a new trial, saying that "the trial was fairly conducted, with uniform time limits and rules of evidence applied on both sides." She went on to write that "a new trial would be contrary to the interests of justice."

If Samsung had been found to be willfully infringing Apple patents their penalty might have ballooned well over $1.05 billion that they must pay Apple. In December, Judge Koh had denied another Samsung retrial request based on juror misconduct. The decision is yet another milestone in the long saga that is Samsung v. Apple.

AnandTech has found that new Apple TV will use the same WLAN+Bluetooth antenna/chip combo that the iPhone 5 uses as well as an A5X processor rather than the A5.

The unreleased Apple TV revision was first suggested by an iOS 6.1 firmware release for a previously unseen AppleTV3,2 model. Then, a new FCC application revealed that the new Apple TV would have slightly smaller dimensions than the currently shipping model.


AnandTech writes:

Instead of the A5R2 SoC (S5L8942) inside the Apple TV 3,1, this new device contains an A5X SoC (S5L8947) as shown in the screenshots I've taken of the Restore.plist file, though there are numerous others. It's entirely possible that Apple is again using different bins of the A5X, it's not possible to tell whether CPU or GPU cores are fused off at this point from my digging through the IPSW.

The A5X chip (with Quad-Core graphics) was originally introduced to power the new Retina Display screen of the iPad 3.

It was in the current Apple TV that Apple first used the 32-nm (die shrunk) A5 chip. It was believed at the time that Apple had used the Apple TV has a test platform to start ramping up that new 32-nm A5 processor before they started using it more broadly to power the still-for-sale iPad 2.

It seems likely that Apple will follow the same pattern with this new A5X -- first ramp up production in the Apple TV, and later extend its use to the new iPad mini. The next iPad mini is believed to include a Retina display. Apple will need to upgrade the iPad mini's CPU/GPU in order to be able to accommodate the extra pixels of such a display.

Best Buy is offering Apple's June 2011 Airport Extreme Base Station -- the current model that Apple sells new for $179 -- for $89.99 as its deal of the day.

Apple sells the same device refurbished for $139.

Originally released June 2011

The sleek, easy-to-use AirPort Extreme Base Station with simultaneous dual-band support is the perfect wireless access point for home, school or small business. It offers fast, 802.11n Wi-Fi access for Mac computers, PCs and Wi-Fi devices such as iPhone, iPod touch and Apple TV.

Best Buy is offering Apple's June 2011 Airport Extreme Base Station -- the current model that Apple sells new for $179 -- for $89.99 as its deal of the day.

Apple sells the same device refurbished for $139.

Originally released June 2011

The sleek, easy-to-use AirPort Extreme Base Station with simultaneous dual-band support is the perfect wireless access point for home, school or small business. It offers fast, 802.11n Wi-Fi access for Mac computers, PCs and Wi-Fi devices such as iPhone, iPod touch and Apple TV.

Best Buy is offering Apple's June 2011 Airport Extreme Base Station -- the current model that Apple sells new for $179 -- for $89.99 as its deal of the day.

Apple sells the same device refurbished for $139.

Originally released June 2011

The sleek, easy-to-use AirPort Extreme Base Station with simultaneous dual-band support is the perfect wireless access point for home, school or small business. It offers fast, 802.11n Wi-Fi access for Mac computers, PCs and Wi-Fi devices such as iPhone, iPod touch and Apple TV.

The FCC has published paperwork, discovered by Engadget, that Apple filed late last week on what appears to be a new model of the Apple TV. This follows on yesterday's revelation that iOS 6.1 included support for an as yet unrevealed AppleTV3,2 model.

Engadget writes:

While the diagram pictured above doesn't suggest any major changes to the device's appearance, it does list some slightly smaller measurements: 93.78mm square compared to the 98mm of the current model. That's certainly not the biggest of differences, but the measurements in previous Apple FCC filing have been spot on. The model number, A1469, is also one that we haven't seen before, but the documents unfortunately don't offer much else in the way of details (only confirmation of the same WiFi capabilities as the current-gen Apple TV).

In the middle of this month, KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo -- who has been accurate in the past -- posted his expectations for Apple's various product launches this year. He expected a new Apple TV model late in the first calendar quarter, which lines up with the filing.

THX, the company behind Lucasfilm's audio/visual reproduction standard for movie theaters, A/V equipment, and more, has released a new iPhone app to assist consumers with calibrating their HDTV's and home theater setups. The app is currently free for one week, but will rise to $1.99 after.


THX prefers that users connect the app to their television via Apple's official HDMI adapter, but AirPlay Mirroring can also be used for the visual tests -- audio tests won't work over the AirPlay protocol.

But those that do try out THX's method will be rewarded with modest improvements. In our tests, it worked as advertised. Speaking to The Verge, company reps made clear that Tune-Up isn't meant to be a substitute for having a professional visit your home for a thorough calibration. Instead, it's a tool that can (fairly quickly) help your new TV look better than it did the first time you turned it on. And as an added bonus, you'll be able to play the famous "deep note" that moviegoers hear before THX-certified movies in lossless audio.

THX tune-up is a free download on the App Store for 1 week, before rising to $1.99. [Direct Link]