ANDROID

No surprise. Smartphones operating on the Android OS from Google (Nasdaq: GOOG), the No. 1 search engine and the iOS from Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL), the world's most valuable technology company, now power 85 percent of all new smartphones, IDC estimated.

Rumor has it so far that Apple will follow suit of rival Android devices and release the iPhone 5, boasting a taller 640×1136 resolution display. A latest report has claimed that iOS 6 is completely scalable to the rumored taller iPhone 5 display, allowing five complete rows of apps in the home screen.

Microsoft has entered into an intellectual property (IP) licensing agreement with Sharp to use the latest Extended File Allocation Table (exFAT), a modern file system that facilitates large files for audiovisual media and enables seamless data portability for an easy interchange of files between desktop PCs and other electronic devices.

Google’s newly announced Android 4.1 Jelly Bean operating system may be making its way to two of the most popular Samsung devices this fall, lining up with Apple’s iOS 6 release date.

Siri's reputation is well-earned: But would you trust Siri, or any of her similar rivals out there for Android, to pay your bank bill? Nuance has clearly thought about what's missing from the voice recognition department, and unveiled its own solution on Monday, called "Nina." Apple's solution is better for casual users, while Nuance's solution is a must for business and customer service professionals.

Thanks to Apple's record-setting quarter of its iPad sales, the worldwide tablet market saw a better-than-anticipated second quarter with a robust year-over-year growth rate of 66.2 percent, according to a report by IDC.

Google's new Nexus 7 tablet may be garnering attention in the tablet industry, but there may be an unlikely competitor. An Indian company will be offering a tablet running Android 4.1 Jelly Bean that will only cost $125, PCWorld reported.

Samsung has confirmed that its Galaxy Note 2 will be unveiled this month. A representative from the company told Reuters that the device will be announced at a Samsung Mobile Unpacked event on August 29, similar to the way the Samsung Galaxy S3 was unveiled.

Premium handset manufacturer Samsung has confirmed that the next version of the popular Galaxy Note tablet will be released Aug 29.

Tucows, a provider of domain names and other Internet services, announced Thursday that its mobile phone service, Ting, has made the new Samsung Galaxy S3 available for pre-order on its website.

Android 4.1 Jelly Bean may be Google?s newest brag-worthy operating system, but Ice Cream Sandwich still reigns supreme in the mobile market. A new report from Google shows that Ice Cream Sandwich is powering nearly 16 percent of all Android devices.

This week has been good for Apple users who were presented with several options for watching video on their iPad. After the news of Hulu Plus being available on Apple, Amazon announced that Amazon?s video app will also be available for free download on Apple iTunes. The only other tablet that this app was available on was Kindle Fire and there were expectations that it would be made available on android tablets like Nexus 7.

Just a couple of weeks after Sprint announced that its HTC Evo 3D and Evo Design 4G would get Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich update by "early August," the U.S. carrier has now started pushing out the over-the-air (OTA) updates for both the devices.

Research in Motion (RIM.TO) refuted on Wednesday a new round of Indian media reports, which claim that the BlackBerry maker has granted the government the encryption keys to its secure corporate email and messaging services.

Google?s next operating system update, known as Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, is being rolled out for a number of mobile devices, one of which being the Nexus 7 tablet. At Google?s I/O developer?s conference at the end of June, the company showcased the new operating system along with its fresh self-branded tablet.