Daily News Courier

Monday Brief: Our EiCs and Their 2013 Predictions

Introducing phon.es – our new URL shortener for Android Central and Mobile Nations!

We've talked a bit in the past about URL shorteners and how they can save space — or wreak havoc. It's really all about trust, right? We've used third-party shorteners like bit.ly before, and since then we've been using Google's own shortener, goo.gl. Now we've got our own.

From here on out, if you see a link to phon.es (it's phones, get it?), you can rest assured that it's from us. Actually, it's from any one of the Mobile Nations sites, which comprises Android Central, CrackBerry, WPCentral, iMore and webOS Nation.

So when will you see a phon.es link? Most likely it'll be on a service like Twitter or App.net, where characters are at a premium. So instead of http://www.androidcentral.com/lg-nexus-4-review, you'll see http://phon.es/n4review — or something even shorter.

Nobody knows phones better the members of Mobile Nations, and phon.es is just one more way we're continuing to improve Android Central, the Mobile Nations network, and life on Earth in general. Enjoy!

Weekly photo contest: Purple Haze (lens flare)

Photo taken with the iPhone 5 by iMore.com's Leanna Lofte

A tricky subject in this weeks photo contest — lens flare. Supposedly every camera ever made has a level of purple flare surrounding bright lights in the viewfinder, but looking through past photo contests I sure don't see much of it. I'll let the experts argue that one, and let you guys get all sorts of funky and show me some high quality lens flare in this weeks photos.

The real question is how to create this purple flare. You should get varying degrees of it by adjusting the angle between your camera lens and any bright light sources. Now we don't want anyone staring into the sun, but we do want to see folks get creative and force some flare into their pictures. It doesn't have to be purple, but bonus style points if you can pull it off.

The prize is worth it, as it turns out we still have a few of the series 3 Android mini-collectables left, We've got five of them for the five best pictures, so get into the forums and show us your stuff!

While I'm still working on a proper gallery, here's last week's winning panorama shot.

Taken by cguella with his Samsung Galaxy Nexus. Congrats cguella, check your inbox!

Enter this week's photo contest

Monday Brief: iPhone 5, WP8 Goes Gold, Kindle Fire HD Hands-On, and more!

South Korean court rules on Apple v. Samsung patent infringement

Just in case you can't get enough Apple vs. Samsung news, the Seoul District Court has now laid out a split decision for both parties involved. Both Apple and Samsung have been found guilty of infringing on each others patents.

As part of the decision, Apple will no longer be allowed to offer their infringing products in South Korea that include the iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4 as well as the first two generations of the iPad. Something that shouldn't bother Apple all that much, given those devices are no longer sale anyhow. In addition to that, Apple will be required to pay a sum of about $35,000 to Samsung.

While that may sound like a small win for Samsung, they're not off the hook entirely either. Samsung will have to stop selling the Galaxy S II, Galaxy Nexus and Galaxy Tab 10.1 due to the decided infringement of Apple's elastic scrolling patent, but the court ruled they didn't copy Apple designs or violate their trade dress. Like Apple, Samsung will have to fork over damages as well to the tune of about $22,000.

This isn't likely to be the end though, as the courts differ in South Korea. Either side could technically file an appeal through the appeals court and keeping it going even further, all the way to the South Korea Supreme Court if they wanted to push it.

Source: WSJ, Bloomberg via: iMore

[Rumor] New iPad mini expected to look very similar to the iPod touch.

The above image is a mockup artist render, but may be a good approximation of what the iPad-Mini might look like.

The possible emergence of the iPad mini has been highlighted by publications like iMore ever since October 2011. It was reported that the new iDevice will hit the market at the more budget friendly price of $200-$250, thus becoming a serious competitor to the increasingly popular Amazon Kindle Fire. Back then only a few scattered details emerged including that the tablet will look like a scaled down version of the iPad.

Some new information regarding features of the device may have been revealed. Apparently the new tablet is going to look more like the iPod touch but with smaller bezels in portrait mode on the sides. Separate volume buttons will be added as well.

This move by Apple makes a lot of sense, especially with the arrival of the Google Nexus 7, which has been increasingly popular since its release not to long ago. Industry speculation also suggests that Apple will implement 4G LTE capabilities within the smaller iPad as well.

Rene Ritchie of iMore has been sharing some interesting details in an article about how the new tablet will look as well. Supposedly, the iPad mini will pretty much be as thin as the iPod touch, which is a lot thinner than the average 9.7-inch iPad. The shrunken tablet will also come packing a front-facing camera, but up no information has been uncovered about whether the tablet will feature a back camera.

By Radu

Source: iPad mini will look like a large iPod touch with smaller side bezels [Gallery] | 9to5Mac | Apple Intelligence and http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/16/te…ipad.html?_r=1

Criminals Luring Victims With Cheap iPad Adverts on Craigslist

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A cautionary tale on iMore today about people who have been mugged after being lured to remote areas by cheap iPads that have been advertised on Craigslist. The report comes out of Uniontown, Fayette County, in Pittsburgh, courtesy of local station, WTAE, which says that three people have been robbed on three separate occasions after seeing an advert on Craigslist for very cheap iPads, then arranging to meet the seller in Uniontown to hand over the cash for the iPad, only to be confronted by armed men who robbed them of several hundred dollars, with one victim even being forced to withdraw money from their ATM at gunpoint. ?The victims were pretty shaken up, and it was very clear they were totally unaware of what they were walking into,? Police Chief Jason Cox told Channel 4 News. iMore adds that it has heard of other such scams throughout the US and also in the UK.

Source: Cheap iPads sold on Craigslist to lure buyers into parking lots to be robbed | iMore.com
Craigslist iPad buyers being robbed instead | Fayette/Somerset Co. News – WTAE Home

How to: Sync OS X 10.8 Notes with your Android device

While we're all about the little green robot in this part of the Mobile Nations, when it comes to computers there are a good few of you out there rocking an Apple desktop or laptop. The latest incarnation of OS X, 10.8 Mountain Lion — check out our sister site iMore if you haven't already — brings a number of iOS flavored additions to the desktop environment. Using iCloud, new apps such as reminders and notes can sync with an iOS device so you have all of your stuff, all of the time. But, what if you use an Android phone or tablet, and a Mac? Can you get some everything everywhere syncing too? Of a fashion, yes.

The stock calendar, contacts and mail apps built into Mountain Lion will still continue to sync your Google stored information to your desktop. No issues there. But what about Notes? Despite having possibly the worst font ever put onto a computer screen, the stock Notes app is pretty handy. It's always there, or not far away at worst, and is as good a way as any of just jotting down some quick points. Everyone has a different preference, but personally I haven't found a total all-encompassing note taking solution that I like. So I make notes everywhere, including on my Mac. We're never in front of a computer for that long though, so it'd be pretty swell if we could take our notes with us and luckily Apple has made it really straight forward. It only works one way though, so while you can edit notes on your Mac and sync them with your Android device, it won't work the other way. Still, it can be done, so we'll show you how. 

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Watch Conan O?Brien Spoof Samsung?s Protestations That They Don?t Copy Apple

Watch Conan O?Brien Spoof Samsung?s Protestations That They Don?t Copy Apple