German court denies Apple's request to ban Samsung Galaxy Nexus and Galaxy Tab 10.1N

The Munich Regional Court in Germany on Wednesday rejected Apple's request to ban Samsung's local subsidiaries from selling the Samsung Galaxy Nexus smartphone and Galaxy Tab 10.1N tablet. “Samsung has shown that it is more likely than not that the patent will be revoked because of a technology that was already on the market before the intellectual property had been filed for protection," Judge Andreas Mueller said. In September, Samsung's local retailer arm was banned from selling the original Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet but the South Korea-based company skirted the ban by released a tweaked device called the Galaxy Tab 10.1N. Apple felt the new tablet  still infringed its patents, however, and asked the court to ban that device as well in November. In late December the presiding judge over the case said Apple was unlikely to win a ban on the Galaxy Tab 10.1N and a Dutch court rejected a similar request from Apple on January 24th.

Spark tablet is Linux powered

With the gazillion Android-powered tablets out there in the market trying to jostle with the Apple iPad for supremacy in the tablet market, sometimes an alternative could prove to be rather refreshing. Case in point, the Spark tablet which runs off a Linux-based operating system. First of all, let us delve into the specifications of the Spark tablet – it will come with a 1GHz processor alongside a Mali GPU, feature 512MB RAM, 4GB of internal memory, and a 7″ capacitive touchscreen display, all in exchange for $265. Since software will make or break even amazing hardware, we are well pleased to discover that the Spark tablet does have its fair share of hits in terms of software. Since the KDE Plasma Active team is involved with the Spark project, you can be sure that the Spark tablet will run Linux, coupled with the team's free software distribution platform. Since software distribution is wholly community-driven and open, you can be sure that enthusiasts who jump aboard the Spark tablet bandwagon will be on the lookout for some fun apps, and if none are available, I am quite sure that several of them will get down to code amazing software in due time – what do you think?

German court upholds Samsung tablet ban

It seems that things are not going too well for Samsung – in Germany, at least, where the European Union just announced whether it would look further into Samsung's tablet devices, and investigate as to whether the South Korean conglomerate was trying to hinder competitors in an illegal manner, not to mention having a German court uphold its ruling to block sales of select tablet models from Samsung. This strategic patent war with Apple is getting more and more bitter, and the EU's antitrust watchdog has grounds for suspicion that the South Korean company might just be dabbling with illegal or unfair means by using law suits over key patents on 3G wireless technology to hinder competitors such as Apple. EU patent rules do state that a company which hold patents for standardized products need to license them out indiscriminately (now that is certainly a keyword here) without slapping an insane price tag on it, and should Samsung be found guilty of restraining competition in an unfair manner, the company might actually be fined a maximum of 10% of its annual revenue which are related to the investigation. That's certainly a big deal, so hopefully everything will get sorted out the right way soon. As consumers, I think I speak for the majority when I say that we just want to see the entire thing resolved in an amicable manner, and we love our tablets  to bits, so manufacturers out there, do your best and create a healthy, competitive atmosphere!

PlayBook OS 2.0 released on February 17?

Many rumors that make their rounds on the Internet these days tend to have grounds for confirmation, simply because technology has enabled one working from within a company to be able to grab a snapshot here, or an image there, before releasing such information to the masses in a ninja-like manner. The BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 release date has certainly made its rounds on the rumor mill for some time, with many of them touting a February 2012 release date, but out of the 29 days of the month for this year, just which will be the correct one? It seems that February 17th is the most likely candidate at the moment, but there is still no concrete evidence of that. CES 2012 saw PlayBooks at RIM's booth running on OS 2.0.0.7116, and there were whispers on the ground that RIM was testing later versions in house as well. All in all, we will just sit down and patiently wait for February 17 to roll by – good things, after all, come to those who wait.

ASUS rumored to unveil a redesigned PadFone next month

ASUS has confirmed that the company is planning to announce a tweaked version of its tablet-smartphone hybrid at Mobile World Congress on February 27th in Barcelona, Spain, according to Modaco. The Padfone - which combines a smartphone, tablet and netbook all in one - was first unveiled at the Computex trade show in Taiwan last year by ASUS chairman Jonney Shih. The innovative device is expected to feature Ice Cream Sandwich and Qualcomm's new Snapdragon S4 processor. The PadFone consists of a 4.3-inch handset that has the ability dock inside a 10.1-inch tablet, which in turn can be docked into the Transformer's (or possibly Transformer Prime's) keyboard. When the device debuts next month, it is rumored to be redesigned with a slimmer form factor, and the the physical buttons seen on a PadFone prototype have reportedly been removed in favor of Ice Cream Sandwich's on-screen controls.

AT&T's Pantech Element and Burst with LTE available now

Pantech's newest Android devices made for AT&T - the Element tablet and the Burst smartphone - are now available for purchase, and you can get them either separately, or bundled (which will let you save $100). The Pantech Element costs $299.99 on contract, and is an Android 3.2 Honeycomb tablet packed in a splash-proof case. It features an 8 inch display with 1024 x 768 pixels, LTE connectivity, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1, HDMI, 5MP rear camera, 2MP front-facing camera, 1GB of RAM, 1.5GHz dual-core processor, 16GB of internal memory, MicroSD card support, and a 6400 mAh battery. You can go here to buy the Pantech Element right away. The Pantech Burst runs Android 2.3 Gingerbread, and features a 4 inch WVGA AMOLED display, LTE, Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth 3.0, 5MP rear camera, front-facing camera, 1.2GHz dual-core processor, and a 1650 mAh battery. The Burst is available here in Titanium and Ruby Red, for $49.99 on contract. Customers who buy the Pantech Element bundled with the Pantech Burst will pay just $249.99 for them (but you'll have to sign a new contract for each).

Amazon Kindle is most unloved Christmas present in the UK

How many of you out there know of someone who has yet to open his or her Christmas presents? Well, that might sound rather strange to most of us who cannot wait to tear those presents out from their wrapping paper prison, but here is another rather disturbing statistic if you are an Amazon executive. It seems that in the UK, the Amazon Kindle is the most unused Christmas present, where 22% of folks in a survey who received it as a gift have not used it yet, leaving it as a rather expensive paperweight. Not only that, out of the 48% of people surveyed (no idea on how large the total pool is, and how true to real life demographics the figures represent) who have yet to use their Christmas presents after opening them, 9% of them who received the iPad 2 did not bother to even use it. Sounds rather ridiculous, no? I guess if it was the Amazon Kindle Fire that was unwrapped, the statistics would have seen the pecking order change in terms of unused Christmas presents. Any idea what was going through these peoples' minds when they looked at the Apple iPad after unwrapping it?

Notion Ink Adam 2 tablet announced

Looking forward to the sequel tablet to the Adam from Notion Ink? Well it looks like the tablet is in its planning stages. The folks over at Notion Ink have announced on its blog its new partnership with Texas instruments for its next generation Adam 2 tablets. The Adam 2 will be using an OMAP44xx processor along with other Texas Instruments components like Wi-Link 7.0 and Phoenix Audio Power Amplifiers. The tablet will be designed specifically for “best power performance and multi-tasking experience” and will ship with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. No word on the other features of the tablet (i.e. PixelQi display etc) but I guess it's too early to tell. Either way, let's hope the second tablet from Notion Ink will help put the company's name on the map as it is still a relatively unknown brand at this point in time. Anybody excited about the Notion Ink Adam 2?

Acer Iconia Tab A200 now available at Best Buy USA

Acer's affordable Iconia Tab A200 tablet was supposed to be released in the US on January 15. However, it's only now (January 20) that it's actually available for purchase. Only Best Buy seems to have the Iconia Tab A200 in stock for the moment. The retailer is asking $349.99 for the tablet's 16GB model – go here to buy it. The 8GB model, which should cost $329.99, is not available yet (but I assume it will be soon). The Acer Iconia Tab A200 features a 10.1 inch display with 1280 x 800 pixels, Wi-Fi, Facebook and Twitter integration, USB (full size), 1GHz dual-core Nvidia Tegra 2 processor, 1GB of RAM, and a 2MP front-facing camera. The tablet currently runs Android 3.2 Honeycomb, but it will be updated to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich starting mid February.

Asus: Ice Cream Sandwich coming to Eee Pad Transformer in February

Eagerly awaiting that sweet Ice Cream Sandwich update for your original Eee Pad Transformer? Keep waiting. Asus recently told Android Police that the classic Transforming tablet wouldn't be getting its ICS update until early February. The statement came shortly after a mix up on Asus' Singapore Facebook page that mistakenly claimed the update was arriving this week. Bummer? For sure, but at least you'll get to practice the gadget lover's most valued virtue: patience.