Google's Ice Cream Sandwich OS to launch before December

Android fans should expect to see Ice Cream Sandwich, the next version of Google's mobile operating system, in October or November, according to Google’s executive chairman, Eric Schmidt.

"We have a new [Android] operating system, internally known as Ice Cream Sandwich...which is being released in October/November," Schmidt said during a talk at Salesforce's Dreamforce conference in San Francisco. Schmidt's comments were first reported by Android and Me.

Google has already said that Ice Cream Sandwich would debut during the fourth quarter of 2011, but Schmidt's comments suggest the release might come earlier than later during the last three months of the year.

Then again, it's not as if Schmidt gave a specific date or time frame for the release such as the last week of October or mid-November. So Schmidt's vague "October/November" statement may have simply been a general reference to the fourth quarter.

Waiting for Ice Cream Sandwich

Ice Cream Sandwich is an anticipated Android release largely because it will unify the Android OS from Gingerbread for phones and Honeycomb for tablets into one OS for all devices. That basically means smartphones will get some of the features first released for tablets in Honeycomb such as sliding widgets, the new task launcher and multitasking interface.

In August, leaked screenshots purportedly showed Ice Cream Sandwich running on a Nexus S device. The reports said the Android update had some previously undisclosed features such as a revamped Gmail interface, panorama mode for device cameras, and a new notification bar.

One of the first phones expected to run Ice Cream Sandwich could be the rumored Nexus Prime handset manufactured by Samsung. Like previous Nexus devices such as HTC's Nexus One and Samsung's Nexus S, the Prime will reportedly be a pure Android experience with no manufacturer overlays or carrier bloatware. The device is expected to have a large, Super AMOLED display with 1280-by-768 resolution, a dual-core processor, and a 5 megapixel camera.

Google has yet to officially announce when Ice Cream Sandwich will debut, but if you're thinking of buying a new Android phone, you might want to hold off for a few months to see what the initial Ice Cream Sandwich lineup will have to offer.

Plants vs. Zombies for iPhone gets an update

PopCap has announced that the iPhone version of Plants vs. Zombies has got a big new update. The update adds nine new minigames taken from the computer versions of the game; a new microgame; and new Game Center achievements.

The 9 new minigames come in packs of 3 and can be purchased either using coins acquired in game or by paying £0.69 per pack to unlock them instantly. The first of the three packs includes Walnut Bowling, Seeing Stars and Bobsled Bonanza. The second includes Invisi-Ghoul, Last Stand and ZomBotany 2. The final pack includes Beghouled Twist, Pogo Party and Zombie Nimble Zombie Quick.

The update also includes a "Race to China" microgame challenging players to dig their way to China as quickly as possible with the promise of Game Center achievements for the victorious.

Update your copy of Plants vs. Zombies for iPhone today to get hold of the new content.

Adobe releases second free beta of Edge HTML5 animation tool

Adobe has released a second free beta version of its new Edge software for creating animated web pages and elements such as ads in HTML5. It's available from the Adobe Labs site.

Here's the skinny from the Labs site as to what's in the new version:

Smart guides — Precision guide and dimension markers are displayed when an object on the stage is moved/resized, helping to align objects in relation to others.

Specify semantic tags on managed elements — Change the tag type of each shape, image and text in Edge to reflect appearance in the HTML document object model (DOM).

Copy and paste elements — You can now copy and paste elements in Edge, to easily duplicate shapes, images or text. Duplicate images will refer to the same underlying asset.

Align and distribute elements — Select multiple elements, and align and distribute them via new options in the Modify menu.

Drag and drop z-index manipulation — In the elements panel, you can now control the z-order of shapes, text and images created in Edge.

Playhead time editing — You can now type into the timeline’s counter to move the playhead to a specific location, or by dragging the numeric value up or down with your mouse.

Windows 7 update — An error on the Windows version causing Edge to crash on startup is resolved, no longer requiring users to change the display bit depth from 32-bit to 16-bit.

jQuery update — Edge’s animation framework now works with the latest jQuery 1.6.2.

Further updates are expected soon.

Photograph 'taken on iPhone 5' emerges

What is claimed to be a photograph taken with the iPhone 5 has been circulated online.

The Pocket Now website has published the image which it says was shot by an Apple engineer eating his lunch at work.

The EXIF data of the image, which is of a rather appetising plate of sushi, shows that the original image was taken at a resolution of 3264 x 2448 pixels, which is just under 8MP.

However, the image has been cropped to 2235 x 2291, which is just over 5MP. But the EXIF data also shows the lens to be a 4.3mm f/2.4, whereas the iPhone 4 has a 3.85 f/2.8 lens.

The ThisIsMyNext website has further analysed the image and claims that the device that took the picture can be seen in the reflection from the edge of the plate. However, it's difficult to make anything out from the image, except for a person holding a something between two outstretched hands.

8MP camera for iPhone 5 evidence strengthens

"Is this the first incredibly indistinct picture of the iPhone 5?" the site asks. We're not so sure - after all, the EXIF data could easily have been faked.

Lion compatibility is music to Sonos customers' ears

Lion users who found that they could no longer stream music to their Sonos speakers after upgrading from Snow Leopard are in luck: As promised, the company has released an update to its Sonos Controller app that corrects the issue; choose Check for Updates from the Sonos menu to get the latest version.

Back in July, Sonos wrote on its official blog:

At Sonos, one of our goals is to to provide you with uninterrupted access to all the music on earth. Earlier this week, we failed to deliver on this goal for many of our Mac OS X customers. We realize that our communication on the issue was tardy and did not provide the exemplary customer service we strive to provide. We're incredibly sorry for any inconvenience our error caused.

The company said that "a file-sharing bug that is inherent to the OS" caused the extended delay in releasing the software update, which, at the time, it said would be available "in the next few weeks." In a since-removed forum post, Sonos explained that Lion employs a new, proprietary implementation of the SMB protocol, not the open-source Samba implementation that Sonos previously relied upon.

The update is free, and of course recommended for all Sonos customers running Lion.

iPhone 5 assembly has begun - report

Apple manufacturers have begun assembling the iPhone 5 in preparation for an October launch, it has been claimed.

According to Macotakara, a Chinese source has reported that Foxconn and Pegatron have begun assembling the iPhone 5 in preparation for an early October launch in the US and a late October launch for Asia. Timescales for other territories are not mentioned.

The report also claims that the units, once assembled, are not being boxed up. This is because Apple is not ready to install iOS 5 on them yet, so presumably this will happen at a later date.

Lost iPhone 5 prototype and other rumours

We heard back in early August that Apple had ordered 10 million iPhone 5s from Pegatron and that the company would begin shipping them to Apple in September, which fits in with the latest reports. A photograph taken at a plant belonging to Wintek in mid-August was claimed to show an iPhone 5 production line.

Components for the iPhone 5 went into production in July , Digitimes reported, and since then there have been several mystery components that could be for the iPhone 5 or perhaps an iPhone 4S spotted in circulation.

Police did help Apple in hunt for lost iPhone

History does repeat itself: San Francisco Police Department confirms it helped Apple in a hunt for a lost iPhone 5 prototype that went missing in July. Don’t hold your breath, though -- no photographic evidence is available this time, as it was the case with the lost iPhone 4 prototype last year.

Just a few hours later after denying any involvement in the iPhone 5 prototype hunt, San Francisco police spilled the beans. SFPD says four of its officers accompanied in plainclothes two Apple investigators in the unusual search, led by Apple’s GPS trace on the device. The officers apparently never entered the man’s house, while Apple’s security officials scoured the 22-year-old man’s house and computer for any trace of the lost iPhone 5.

Still doubt what unreleased iPhone Apple was desperately seeking? Reuters has pieced it together -- even SFPD named the Word document statement on the search "iphone5.doc." What’s unclear is whether Apple managed to find the lost iPhone 5 prototype. CNet says the prototype might have been sold on Craigslist for a mere $200 (last year’s iPhone prototype finder got $5,000 for the phone, trial is ongoing).

Lost Again

The news of a second lost unreleased iPhone broke earlier this week. CNet first reported the device went missing at a San Francisco bar in July; two days later, Apple investigators and police officers searched the house of a young man who denied ever possessing such a device. They did not find the phone and even reportedly tried to offer the man cash, no questions asked, in exchange for its recovery.

Further details on the mysterious iPhone prototype search came from SFWeekly, which identified the young man whose house was searched. But in a weird twist of events, he claimed the four men and two women who came to his home searching for the lost phone were impersonators -- while San Francisco police said the department had no records of such an incident involving its officers. The man later acknowledged only Apple reps entered his home.

Even if an iPhone 5 prototype is still in the wild, pictures of it are yet to surface. This leaves us with rumors of the upcoming iPhone, said to arrive some time in October with a better processor, camera, and probably thinner and with a larger display.

Apple rules phone, tablet browsing market

Mobile browsing has more than doubled in the last year and now accounts for over 6% of all online activity, a Web statistics company said today.

And Apple's Safari -- the default browser on the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch -- rules the usage share roost, representing 53% of the mobile browsing market.

Two trends are clear, said Vince Vizzaccaro, a vice president with metrics firm Net Applications, which released new figures earlier today. "Phones and tablets are stealing [browsing] share from desktops at an accelerated pace," said Vizzaccaro.

Users still do nearly all of the their browsing from a desktop or notebook computer, Net Applications' numbers showed, but that's changing: A year ago, desktop browsing controlled a 97.2% share, compared to 93.2% in August.

The other trend is Apple's clear-cut advantage. In the last 12 months, Safari's share has increased by 9.3 percentage points, and now owns a majority of the smartphone and tablet browsing market.

But Android also gained ground in the last year, boosting its browser share to 15.7%, an 8.1-point increase. Google's operating system dominates the smartphone market but badly lags behind Apple's iOS on tablets.

The clear loser has been Opera Mini, which lost 12.5 points in the same period, reducing its share to 20.8%. The Symbian browser that runs on Nokia smartphones has also been hit by the surge in sales of iOS and Android devices: It's down 3.6 percentage points in the past 12 months, and now controls just 5.8% of the market.

Apple's iPhone and iPad account for the bulk of Safari's share, although the former -- which has a nearly three-year lead on the latter -- remained slightly ahead last month. According to Net Applications, 27.4% of all mobile browsing was done from an iPhone, while 22.5% was conducted on an iPad.

Net Applications just revamped the way it tracks browser use by separating smartphone and tablet online activity from that on desktops and notebooks, a change Vizzaccaro said was prompted by the rise in mobile browsing.

"Mobile is such a big deal now," Vizzaccaro said.

Net Applications currently combines smartphone- and tablet-based browsing into a single number, but the company intends to break out tablets in the future.

Net Applications calculates browser usage share with data obtained from more than 160 million unique visitors who browse 40,000 Web sites that the company monitors for clients. More mobile browsing data can be found on the company's site.

Apple wants to put USB 3.0 alongside Thunderbolt in future Macs

Apple could build in USB 3.0 support in its future Macs to go alongside the high-speed Thunderbolt connection technology.

VR Zone reports that Apple is considering the move as prices for USB 3.0 host controllers at an all-time low - around $2-$3 apiece when bought in bulk. This compares to $10-$15 for a Thunderbolt chip, according to the report.

Though many commentators have put USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt down as competing technologies, Intel, the creator of Thunderbolt, plans to build USB 3.0 support into its hardware in the near future.

However, Apple will get there first, according to the VR Zone report, and Apple apparently sees the decision as a no-brainer, as USB 3.0 is backwards-compatible. Continuing to offer only USB 2.0 ports on future Macs when USB 3.0 controllers are so cheap just wouldn't make sense.

In terms of data transfer speeds, though, Thunderbolt has a clear edge over USB 3.0. But as the report points out, Thunderbolt-compatible peripherals are more expensive to produce than USB 3.0-compatible peripherals.

Thunderbolt ports were first introduced in the February 2011 refresh to the MacBook Pro line-up, and have since come to the iMac, MacBook Air and Mac mini ranges. Sony has also used the technology in its Vaio range.

Apple offers talks with Chinese environmental group

Apple has requested a Chinese environmental group to hold talks on a report that accuses the company's suppliers of polluting the environment and endangering the lives of residents.

On Wednesday, Apple's supplier responsibility department sent an e-mail with the request to the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs (IPE), which together with other environment groups, released a report investigating suppliers believed to be connected with the company.

The report, which was publicly released on Wednesday, provides several instances of manufacturers in China discharging harmful pollutants. In one case, the report links the pollution caused by two manufacturers with a rise in cancer rates among residents living nearby.

Apple said the company was "focused on constantly improving" its suppliers, according to a copy of the e-mail provided by IPE. But Apple said it found discrepancies with the list of suppliers IPE alleges are possible manufacturers of Apple products that have polluted the environment. IPE believes it has found 27 such suppliers.

"Several suppliers are not in our supply chain," Apple's e-mail said. "We would be interested in hearing more specifics on what you have discovered about these suppliers." The e-mail then asks if IPE would be interested in holding a private conference call to discuss the specifics.

IPE and other environmental groups have criticized Apple before, alleging that the company fails to monitor the work conditions and manufacturing processes used by its suppliers in China. But this is the first time Apple has responded to the groups' complaints, said Wang Jing Jing, vice director for IPE.

"This is a very positive sign," she said. "We are very willing to communicate with them."

IPE replied to Apple's e-mail and said the group welcomed discussions with the company. However, IPE wants the talks to include several other environmental groups, which were also involved in investigating the suppliers. IPE has also asked Apple to clarify which suppliers the company does not have a relationship with.

An Apple spokeswoman declined to comment on whether several manufacturers named in IPE's report were in fact suppliers of the company. Three suppliers named in IPE's report, Meiko Electronics, Kaedar Electronics and Unimicron have yet to comment.

Apple has previously defended itself by stating that the company works to achieve safe environmental standards with its suppliers. The company regularly conducts audits to ensure compliance and has made progress reports available online. In 2010, 127 Apple supplier facilities were audited. If violations are found, suppliers have to complete a plan to resolve the problem within 90 days after the audit.