Samsung Buyer, Pants On Fire! Korean Man’s Galaxy Note Explodes In His Pocket::

What reaction Samsung’s phones cause depends on the person, but one thing’s for sure – this Korean man was not expecting the one he got from his Galaxy Note. The battery of the device exploded in his pocket, setting fire to his pants and causing second degree burns on his thighs, The Chosunilbo reports (via Patently Apple). Ouch!

A Samsung spokesperson:

Lithium ion batteries can catch fire due to external pressure or sudden changes in temperature, so we’re trying to understand what really happened.

You might want to carry a fire extinguisher, just in case.

Amazon announces virtual currency for use with Kindle Fire, Appstore::

Amazon has announced their very own virtual currency for use with their popular Kindle Fire series of tablets and Amazon Appstore. They are calling it — wait for it — Amazon Coins. The virtual coins will enter circulation with the purpose to drive monetization for developers, allowing users to purchase apps, games, and in-app bonuses beginning this May.

For starters, Amazon is giving away “tens of millions of dollars’ worth” of the new currency to spark their virtual economy, but the goal is to get users spending real world cash on the digital dough. It’s a win-win for Amazon and developers. Money stays within the Kindle Fire ecosystem and devs earn the same as they would normally.

Developers have until April 25th to prepare their apps for Amazon Coins. Pricing details and exchange rates have yet to be disclosed.

Introducing Amazon Coins
Coming in May, Amazon Coins is a new virtual currency for purchasing apps, games, and in-app items on Kindle Fire
Amazon Coins is an easy way for Kindle Fire customers to spend money on developers’ apps in the Amazon Appstore, offering app and game developers another substantial opportunity to drive traffic, downloads and increase monetization even further
Amazon will give customers tens of millions of dollars’ worth of Amazon Coins to use on developers’ apps in the Amazon Appstore—apps and games must be submitted and approved by April 25 to be ready when Amazon Coins arrive in customers’ accounts
SEATTLE—February 5, 2013—(NASDAQ: AMZN)—Amazon today announced another new way for app and game developers to make money on Kindle Fire—introducing Amazon Coins—the new virtual currency for purchasing apps, games and in-app items on Kindle Fire. Amazon Coins is an easy way for Kindle Fire customers to spend money in the Amazon Appstore, offering app and game developers another substantial opportunity to drive traffic, downloads and increase monetization. When Amazon Coins launches in the U.S. this May, Amazon will give customers tens of millions of dollars’ worth of free Amazon Coins to spend on developers’ apps on Kindle Fire in the Amazon Appstore. Amazon will also make it quick and easy for customers to buy additional Amazon Coins using their Amazon accounts.
Amazon Appstore developers will earn their standard 70 percent revenue share when customers make purchases using Amazon Coins. Developers with apps and games currently in the Amazon Appstore for the U.S. don’t need to do anything with their apps to capitalize on this new opportunity. Developers not yet in the Amazon Appstore should submit their apps soon—only apps submitted and approved by April 25 will be ready when Kindle Fire customers have Amazon Coins to spend across the Amazon Appstore. Developers can learn more about Amazon Coins today at http://www.amazon.com/amazon-coins.
“Developers continue to report higher conversion rates on Amazon compared to other platforms,” said Paul Ryder, Vice President of Apps and Games for Amazon. “Now we have another new way to help developers reach even more of our millions of customers. Amazon Coins gives customers an easy way to spend money on developers’ apps on Kindle Fire in the Amazon Appstore—and we’re giving customers tens of millions of dollars in Amazon Coins to get started. Developers who aren’t yet in the Amazon Appstore will want to make sure their apps have been submitted and approved by April 25 so they’re ready for customers to start spending their Amazon Coins.”
“We’ve already found that the average revenue per user on Amazon is higher than other Android platforms,” said Keith Shepherd, CEO of Imangi Studios. “We’re very excited about the monetization opportunity with Amazon’s new virtual currency.”
“Everyone recognizes Amazon’s success in the e-commerce world – now the Amazon Appstore has become a major player in the mobile app marketplace,” said Misha Lyalin, ZeptoLab’s CEO. “Amazon’s new virtual currency is designed to open new opportunities for developers and make things easier for customers. This is a great example of appstore innovation and we want to support it.”
“We’ve been extremely pleased with how well our games monetize on Amazon,” said Michael Grobe, Chief Financial Officer of GameCircus. “We’re very excited about the launch of Amazon’s new virtual currency.”
Amazon Coins is the latest in a series of new features and services for developers that make Amazon the most complete end-to-end ecosystem for building, monetizing and marketing their apps and games. Recent announcements include:
· In-App Purchasing for Mac, PC and web-based games, enabling developers to let customers use their Amazon accounts to purchase virtual goods and currencies from games on those platforms
· Game Circle, which includes capabilities like Achievements, Leaderboards, Friends, and Whispersync for syncing games across devices, and leads to better engagement with games
· Game Connect, which lets developers marry the ease and security of shopping on Amazon with the convenience of having virtual goods delivered directly to customers’ game accounts
· A/B Testing, a service that helps developers improve app functionality, retain customers and increase monetization
· Adobe AIR Native Extensions, which makes it simple for Adobe Flash developers to add In-App Purchasing and Game Circle features to their apps and games
· Amazon Mobile App SDK Eclipse Plugin (beta) allows developers to rapidly and reliably integrate Amazon APIs into their Android projects, speeding up development and cutting down on project setup time
Developers can get started at the Amazon Mobile App Distribution Portal (https://developer.amazon.com/welcome.html).

Bill Gates Admits Steve Jobs Was ‘always cooler than me’::

Steve Jobs and Bill Gates share a lot of history, despite the legendary rivalry between the two co-founders massive companies – and it’s always interesting to hear what the two tech titans have to say about one another. In a humorous interview on late-night political comedy show The Colbert Report, Gates sat down with Steven Colbert, and had some intriguing things to say about Jobs!

From the interview (via Colbert Nation):

Colbert: People say “what a cool guy, what a cool guy Steve Jobs was.” You are out there saving the world and yet, you don’t have the cool factor, no offense, not the same turtleneck cool factor. As a man who has contributed a great deal, does it ever bug you that you are out there saving the world and yet he has the memories a cool guy?

Gates: He was always cooler than me.

Colbert: Yeah?

Gates: Yeah.

Colbert: Maybe saving the world will get cool.

Gates: It’s okay.

Colbert: Really? You don’t care?

Gates: No. He was brilliant. He had his own style, his own approach and mine is a little geekier than his was.

There are also some awesome serious moments in the interview that emphasize Bill Gates extremely honorable contributions to human welfare and humanitarian efforts, and it’s worth watching the whole segment. Check it out, embedded below! Note: The actual interview is towards the end of the show.

Apple Releases iOS 6.1, With Expanded LTE Support, Siri Movie Ticket Purchases, and More::

After much anticipation, and 5 separate developer betas, Apple has finally released iOS 6.1 for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.  The update adds LTE support for 36 additional iPhone and 23 additional iPad carriers worldwide, brings the to purchase movie tickets in the U.S. using Siri and the Fandango app, and allows users to download songs individually from iTunes Match on iOS devices.

From Apple’s press release:

Apple® today updated iOS to version 6.1, adding LTE capabilities to 36 additional iPhone® carriers and 23 additional iPad® carriers around the world, so even more iPhone 5, iPad mini and iPad* with Retina® display users can experience ultrafast wireless performance** to browse, download and stream content at blazing fast speeds. To date, iOS users have uploaded over nine billion photos to Photo Stream, sent over 450 billion iMessages and received over four trillion notifications. 

“iOS 6 is the world’s most advanced mobile operating system, and with nearly 300 million iPhone, iPad and iPod touch devices on iOS 6 in just five months, it may be the most popular new version of an OS in history,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. “iOS 6.1 brings LTE support to more markets around the world, so even more users can enjoy ultrafast Safari browsing, FaceTime video calls, iCloud services, and iTunes and App Store downloads.”

Also worth noting: iOS 6.1 brings Bluetooth keyboard support to the Apple TV— a long-rumored feature that should be VERY welcome for users. The update comes about three months after the initial beta, and just three days after their latest iOS 6.1 beta for developers. The update is available now through iTunes. We’ll update this post with direct links as soon as we have them.

Update: Direct links to iOS 6.1 firmware can be found below (via TheNextWeb)

• iPhone 5 (A1428 AT&T)
• iPhone 5 (A1429 CDMA)
• iPhone 3GS
• iPhone 4
• iPhone 4 (CDMA)
• iPhone 4S
• iPad 4 (WiFi)
• iPad 4 (GSM)
• iPad 4 (CDMA)
• iPad 3  (WiFi)
• iPad 3 (GSM)
• iPad 3 (CDMA)
• iPad 2 (rev b 2, 4) (WiFi)
• iPad 2 (rev a 2, 1) (WiFi)
• iPad 2 (GSM)
• iPad 2 (CDMA)
• iPad mini (WiFi)
• iPad mini (GSM)
• iPad mini (CDMA)
• iPod touch 4G
• iPod touch 5G

Apple Confirms: There are Now 300M iOS Devices Running iOS 6 or Later::

Alongside the release of iOS 6.1 on Monday, Apple announced that there are now a massive 300 million iOS devices running iOS 6 or later. Considering that there are now about 500 millon iOS devices in use worldwide, that’s a pretty impressive adoption rate (around 60%)! If you judge by developer stats, the number may be more like 80%!

From the press release:

“iOS 6 is the world’s most advanced mobile operating system, and with nearly 300 million iPhone, iPad and iPod touch devices on iOS 6 in just five months, it may be the most popular new version of an OS in history,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. “iOS 6.1 brings LTE support to more markets around the world, so even more users can enjoy ultrafast Safari browsing, FaceTime video calls, iCloud services, and iTunes and App Store downloads.”

Over 100 million of those devices were upgraded to iOS 6 within the first week after it launched – and all devices sold since them have been pre-loaded with iOS 6. That’s a lot of iOS devices, and a pretty impressive figure from Apple. I wonder how many Android devices are running Jelly Bean? Oh, yeah – about 10 percent. How embarrassing.

Samsung Demands Access to Apple’s iOS 6 Source Code, Apple Says ‘Hell No!’

Samsung is back to their old legal tricks, and has once again demanded access to Apple’s iOS 6 source code, this time in a Korean court. The Korea Timesreports, noting Samsung’s argument that they need access to the source code to verify that Apple isn’t violating their patents:

Samsung Electronics claimed Friday it should be able to access Apple’s software source code to confirm whether or not its technology patents were infringed upon in the latest i0S 6 operating system powering iPhones and iPads.

Samsung claims that Apple’s i0S 6 borrowed from one of its software patents without consent.

Apple, of course, had something to say about this, issuing a response that effectively amounts to “Hell no!”

Apple has denied the request of its Korean rival, calling it ridiculous. Both Motorola and Google have also asked for the source code to be supplied but to no avail. 

“It doesn’t’ make any sense. Samsung is saying that we should give up protecting our most important data,’’ court officials recalled Apple lawyers as saying. The court requested Apple to have its software designers and engineers testify, but the American technology giant refused. 

It’s pretty obvious why Apple doesn’t want their competitors taking a lookie-loo at their source code – but Samsung’s argument isn’t completely ridiculous either (albeit that source code would need to be reviewed by legal counsel rather than any actual Samsung employee).

Microsoft Surface Pro Launches in U.S. and Canada on February 9::

Microsoft has officially announced that the high-end Windows 8-powered version of its Surface tablet will be available starting on January 9th in the U.S. and Canada. Microsoft initially announced a January launch, but missed their launch target.

The base model of the Surface Pro starts at a whopping $900, and includes 4GB of RAM, 64GB of storage (expandable up to 128GB using MicroSD), and an Intel Core i5 processor. The high-end model will be available for $999, and includes 128GB of storage with the same specs as the 64GB version.

It’s also worth noting that the Surface Pro’s $900 starting price doesn’t include a keyboard – the magnetic Touch Cover ($120) and Type Cover ($130) have to be purchased separately. A fully-functional Surface with PC-like input and a keyboard will cost over $100. At those prices, you could purchase a MacBook Air or an Ultrabook, which would have more power, more storage, more power, could be configured with more RAM, and which are all-around more capable of computing tasks.

It will be interesting to see how well the Surface Pro performs in its first round of sales – but it’s hard to imagine these flying off of the shelves… For more information, head on over to the Microsoft Store.