As reported here on Cell Phones Etc. and across the Web, here’s your daily brief on what happened in the world of mobile phones this Wednesday, July 6th 2011.
HTC Buys S3 Graphics From VIA For $300 Million
While HTC will certainly benefit from having a very experienced graphics company on its payroll, we suspect this is as much about the patents the company holds as the potential for future smartphone GPUs. The reason we think this is because Apple has just been found to infringe two patents owned by S3. As you may have guessed, one of those patents relates to texture compression while the other is about image data formats.
Geek
Microsoft Wants $15 From Samsung For Each Android Phone
Microsoft has demanded that Samsung pay it $15 in licensing fees for each Android-based smartphone that it sells. Microsoft owns a number of patented technologies used in Google’s mobile operating system, and has been seeking fees from Android handset makers. HTC and other phone makers have reached agreements with Microsoft over the patented technology. Reuters reports that Samsung will push to reduce the per-handset charge to $10 in conjunction with new agreements regarding Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 platform. Samsung has sold millions of smartphones based on Android.
Phone Scoop
iMobileMinutes For Android Refills Your Prepaid’s Empty Tank
For all you free-wheelers who prefer talking without commitment, iMobileMinutes is giving you one less excuse to go running to the gas station when it’s time to top up your cellular account — thanks to a free set of carrier-specific apps in the Android Market that perform the same function with considerably less effort. Now, you can purchase minutes directly (or get the necessary PIN), in the denomination of your choice, all from the comfort of your Google-powered smartphone.
Engadget
Games Were Most Downloaded And Most Purchased Mobile Apps In Q2, Nielsen Finds
The market research firm on Wednesday published some findings from its Mobile Insights and Mobile Apps Playbook reports for the second quarter of 2011, and “Games” was once again the most popular app category. In the second quarter, 64% of app downloaders — smartphone users surveyed who had downloaded an app within the past 30 days — reported having downloaded at least one game over the past 30 days, just ahead of weather apps at 60% and social networking apps at 56%. What’s more, a whopping 93% of app downloaders are willing to pay for the games they play.
BGR
Android Or iPhone? Here’s What A-List Celebrities Use
We mined the Twitter accounts of your favorite celebrities to determine the answer to the age old question: Android or iPhone? Or maybe a Blackberry here and there? The answers might surprise you, as will how many celebs are tweeting about planking. iPhone: 13.5 celebrities, Android: 1 celebrity, Blackberry: 9.5 celebrities, Dumphone?: 1 celebrity.
Business Insider
