Facebook and Face.com have finally made an official announcement regarding their much rumored acquisition deal after nearly a month of speculation. The two companies did not disclose the cost of the deal, but insider sources previously revealed that the deal should cost Facebook about $100 million.
Apple's major manufacturing partner, Foxconn, has revealed interest in purchasing more shares in Sharp, raising speculation that the two companies are working towards supplying Apple's rumored television set. Some analysts have dubbed the anticipated Apple HDTV the "iTV" and expect manufacturing for the device to being later this year.
The large capacity battery in Nissan's LEAF electric vehicle will soon be able to power entire homes. Nichicon has developed a new Vehicle to Home System called "EV Power Station" that can both charge and discharge the EV's batteries, distributing its electricity to the household. The EV Power Station is said to be the world's first such charging device capable of supplying household power.
According to new data from research firm IDC, it doesn't look like Android tablets will ever catch up to the iPad, at least not through 2016. IDC expects strong growth in the demand of tablets and has raised its forecast for the global tablet market to 107.4 million units this year, up from the previous forecast of 106.1 million units. However, Android's market share is expected to decline from 38.8 percent in 2011 to 36.5 percent in 2012.
AOC has begun shipping its new Aire iPlay monitor, which it first announced back at CES 2012. The 23-inch display features a built-in iPhone or iPod speaker dock so that you can charge your device right in front of you while you work and listen to music from the device at the same time.
Apple and Samsung continue to dominate the global smartphone market, capturing 55 percent of its shipments and over 90 percent of its profits in the first quarter of 2012. Smartphone shipments have been growing 41 percent year-over-year to 144.6 million in the quarter ending in March 2012, but other smartphone OEMs continue to trail far behind the two market leaders.
Several chip makers have already begun stockpiling parts for the production of Apple's next-gen iPhone, which is expected to arrive this fall along with iOS 6. According to DigiTimes, Qualcomm is set to produce the new iPhone's 4G LTE chips on the 28-nanometer process at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC).
T-Mobile has provided an update on the progress of its $4 billion 4G LTE buildout today, announcing that the network is on track to roll out in early 2013. The first 400 sites will get LTE equipment installed by the end of June and a total of 2,500 sites will be equipped by the end of July.
Apple has filed for a patent aimed at expanding the camera capabilities of the iPhone. Titled "Back Panel for a Portable Electronic Device with Different Camera Lens Options," the patent application details a removable back cover design for the iPhone that would allow users to swap camera lenses.
Apple recently confirmed that it will be offering Baidu as an additional search engine option for iOS users in China, while Google will remain the default. In an interview with Bloomberg, Baidu's vice president Wang Jing said that as part of the deal, it will be sharing its advertising revenue with Apple, although he did not reveal the specific commercial terms.
In response to the recent Flame malware attack, Microsoft has released a patch this week that introduces a digital certificate updater. The new feature automatically updates your Windows 7 or Windows Vista system to detect untrusted certificates. Known stolen or forged certificates are put on a "Disallowed Certificate Trust List," which is updated daily.
The first online orders for Apple's new MacBook Pro with Retina display have begun shipping. In fact, some customers have already received their shipments, while a few others say that they were able to purchase the Retina MacBook Pro in-store. However, many Apple retail stores are still out-of-stock on the new notebooks other than the display models.