As the Apple event draws near, more news regarding the iPad 3 keeps on surfacing the web.  There are now leaked images that the iPad 3 is equipped with Apple’s A5X processor, not the A6 chipset.  And if Chinese sources are to be trusted, the A5x processor would be accompanied by two 16GB Hynix flash memory chips and an Apple-branded chip believed to be responsible for power management.  We’ll find out more about the new iPad on March 7, the reported date of the Apple event.

Google’s Safari Tracking Will Be FTC Scrutinized

While details on the iPad 3 are elusive, it seems the Safari browser on current iOS devices are being explored by rivals inside and out.  The Wall Street Journal recently ran an expose regarding Google and other ad companies using code to bypass Safari’s security measures for tracking users’ browser activities.  Google denied the allegations made by Stanford researcher Jonathan Mayer, which was independently confirmed by a technical adviser of WSJ, Ashkan Soltani.  Because of the gravity of the situation, the Federal Trade Commission might investigate the issue.

Republican Representatives Cliff Stearns of Florida and Joe Barton of Texas, and Democrat Edward Markey of Massachusetts wrote a letter to the FTC asking what they plan to do about the Google tracking issue.

“As members of the Congressional Bi-Partisan Privacy Caucus, we are interested in any actions that FTC has taken or plans to take to investigate whether Google has violated the terms of its consent agreement” the Congressmen wrote to FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz.

Android Unlocking Mechanism

With Apple’s win against Motorola Mobility over the unlocking mechanism on their devices, Google is taking extra measures to escape Apple’s clutches.  Apparantly, Google is working on a few ways of unlocking a screen for Android OEMs.

One method is by dragging and dropping an application icon on top of an unlock icon on the touch-screen which might also prompt the launch of an application, such as Angry Birds or Gmail.

“In this two-icon dragging example, the motion may also be reversed, with the user starting at an unlock icon and dragging it to a command-related icon,”Patently Apple noted in a Feb. 16 blog post.

In other Android news, Swype, the technology that makes texting so much fun, has been upgraded to be compatible with the Android 4.0.  GigaOm claims that Swype has been “optimized for user control and ergonomics,” and it “includes a word suggestion feature for those who would rather tap a word after they’ve typed in a few letters than bother to finish writing the entire word themselves.”

But apparently, Ice Cream Sandwich’s dictionary interferes with the Swype dictionary, so there will be some bugs and incompatibilities with Swype for ICS.  So Swype developers asked ICS users to disable the ICS spellchecker to avoid the bugs.

Nokia Opens Up

In order to make a difference these days, you have to be available everywhere, and Nokia ses the importance of this move to regain traction.  Nokia’s Pulse application, which they introduced last year allowing users to keep in touch taking advantage of the GPS functionality inside phones, will be introduced on iOS and Android products sometime in the near future.

“These are social applications. To be social, you have to be on every platform”, said Basak Ozer, Nokia’s Lead for social and location applications.

ZTE’s New Phones

Ahead the Mobile World Congress 2012, ZTE has announced two Android 4.0 devices the PF200 and the N910.  The PF200 smart phone will have a 4.3 inch QHD capacitive touch screen, with an 8MP camera and 1080p front facing camera for video calling. The handset will work across all the main LTE, UMTS and GSM spectrums, and will come with Bluetooth 2.1, GPS, WiFi, A-GPS, digital living network alliance (DLNA) compatibility, mobile high-definition link (MHL) for connecting to home audio and video devices, and near field communications (NFC) capability.  The N910 handset will work across LTE FDD, CDMA and EVDO spectrums. It has a WVGA (800 x 480) capacitive touch screen, with 5MP autofocus and flash camera with a 1080p front facing camera for video calling. Features will include GPOS, WiFi, Bluetooth and DLNA capability.

“These LTE devices are the fore-runners of a wide range of LTE devices ZTE will bring to the market in the coming months, and as more and more LTE networks come on stream,” said Mr. He Shiyou, Executive Vice President and Head of the Terminal Division of ZTE. “They will be feature products – among a very wide range of devices on display at the ZTE stand at Mobile World Congress 2012.”

boxPAY Expands To North America
boxPAY, the mobile payments provider for web merchants, game developers, and other e-businesses, has announced the opening of their new North American base in San Francisco, California.

“The move to North America was crucial to boxPAY’s global expansion because of the significant amount of cellular subscribers in Canada and the US. We needed to offer our merchants from all over the globe access to these 350 million+ customers, especially because of the fact that mobile users here are comfortable with mobile payments,” boxPAY Co-Founder Gavin McConnon said.