UPDATED 07:45 EDT / MARCH 13 2012

Apple’s Siri Faces Lawsuit, ICS Rolls Out to Galaxy SII, Sony’s New Xperia sola

Today’s mobile roundup features a man suing Apple over Siri, the new Sony Xperia sola, the ICS roll out and more.

Apple

The iPhone maker is facing a new lawsuit, this time from New Yorker Frank M. Fazio with regards to false advertising of the capabilities of Siri – the talking personal assistant that debuted on the iPhone 4S in October last year.

“Through an extensive and comprehensive nationwide marketing campaign, Defendant has conveyed the misleading and deceptive message that the iPhone 4S’s Siri feature, a so-called voice-activated assistant, performs useful functions and otherwise works as advertised,” the suit alleges.

“For example, in many of Apple’s television advertisements, individuals are shown using Siri to make appointments, find restaurants, and even learn the guitar chords to classic rock songs or how to tie a tie. In the commercials, all of these tasks are done with ease with the assistance of the iPhone 4S’s Siri feature, a represented functionality contrary to the actual operating results and performance of Siri.”

Fazio, represented by Robbins Geller, claims that it’s not that easy to use Siri and oftentimes it either doesn’t understand his queries or gives him a wrong answer.  He also claims that the iPhone 4S is just an expensive iPhone 4.  The suit was filed on Monday.

Sony

Sony unveils the latest addition to their Xperia lineup, Xperia sola, which will be available in black, white and red sometime in the second quarter.  The Xperia sola features Sony technology, premium entertainment, and is NFC enabled with Xperia SmartTags, but what makes this Android smartphone a standout is the floating touch, which lets you navigate the web by hovering their finger above the screen, like a moving cursor without actually touching the screen.  And when the desired link is found, it can be highlighted and a simple tap will load the page.

“Xperia sola comes with the power of Sony and a sense of magic with floating touch, giving consumers a fun new way to browse the web and latest technology to show off,” Calum MacDougall, Head of Xperia Marketing for Sony Mobile Communications, said.

“With Xperia SmartTags out of the box and access to the latest content through Sony Entertainment Network, Xperia sola is perfect for consumers looking for ease of use and the best in entertainment in a smart and innovative smartphone.”

Android ICS for Samsung Galaxy SII

Android 4.0 a.k.a. Ice Cream Sandwich began rolling out to Samsung’s best selling device, Samsung Galaxy SII, in Korea and select European countries – Poland, Hungary and Sweden.  Samsung claims that the ICS update for Samsung’s Galaxy Note, Galaxy SII LTE, Galaxy R, Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus, 7.7, 8.9, 8.9 LTE and 10.1 will “follow soon.”  The Galaxy S, original Galaxy Tab 7″, Galaxy S Plus, Galaxy S SCL (Super Clear LCD), and Galaxy W will all get Android 2.3 Gingerbread by the end of March.

It’s a Virtual App World

Splashtop, a leader in cross-device computing, will demonstrate for the first time anywhere Splashtop Whiteboard, which allows teachers and students to easily turn their tablet into an interactive whiteboard, for Android at the Computer Using Educators’ Conference, CUE 2012, March 15-17, in Palm Springs, CA.  Splashtop Whiteboard is built on top of Splashtop Remote Desktop, the company’s award-winning app that enables users to create their own personal cloud to access files, applications, as well as view and listen to content, directly from a PC or Mac without the need to sync or copy files or applications across devices.

“We listened to our customers and we delivered. Since the launch of Whiteboard, teachers have been clamoring for Whiteboard for Android,” said Mark Lee, CEO of Splashtop. “Now teachers and students can enjoy the best interactive whiteboard app solution streamed to their favorite Android tablet at a fraction of the cost of traditional interactive whiteboard products.”

Another app making its way to the Android platform comes from Davinci Virtual, a leading provider of global virtual office services.  The new mobile app allows Davinci Virtual clients to place VOIP calls from their mobile phone over WiFi, receive, view and send faxes from anywhere as well as search and listen to voicemail messages, make conference calls from their mobile device via the Davinci Virtual platform and much more.

“By launching our Android app shortly after our iPhone app release, we now enable most of our client base to interact with the Davinci Virtual Communication Services from their mobile devices — no matter if Android or iPhone,” said Bill Grodnik, CEO of Davinci Virtual.

The free Davinci Virtual app is now available in Google Play for download.


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