If it proves to be accurate, AandMe is reporting today that Amazon is working on a full family of Android devices for the holidays, including a smartphone, a 6-inch tablet and a 10-inch tablet.

The site says the rumor comes from an "industry insider with direct knowledge of the project. The information was shared with me in a recent face-to-face meeting and I believe the source to be trustworthy."

There are little other details because the rumors are unconfirmed, but the editor believes that Amazon may even consider a set-top box with Google TV, alongside the other devices.

In terms of pricing, speculation is the 6-inch tablet will match Barnes & Noble's $250 Nook Color, while the larger tablet will sell for $400 and the phone for $200 with contract.

Amazon could even undercut those prices by a decent amount by subsidizing the devices with ads (like the Kindle) or taking a short-term loss on the hardware in an effort to sell more apps, music, movies and especially, books.

Verizon and AT&T will likely be the carriers behind 4G connectivity, given their sheer size.

For display, it is rumored the company will use a Pixel Qi, which offers extremely low power consumption and great readability in direct sunlight.

Processor is also under speculation, but the editor believes a TXN dual-core 1.5 GHz OMAP4 is likely.

The devices will all ship with either Android 3.x Honeycomb or Android 2.4 Ice Cream Sandwich.

Permalink | Comments

---

According to Jeffries analyst Peter Misek, the upcoming iPhone will be called the "iPhone 4S," not the "iPhone 5" as anticipated.

The device will be released in September, adds the analyst, citing "industry checks."

Perhaps more notably, Misek says Apple will expand the smartphone to Sprint, T-Mobile and China Mobile, making it available to hundreds of millions of more potential customers.

The iPhone 4S will include better cameras, a dual-core A5 processor, HSPA+ support and some minor changes to the form factor, adds Misek.

This year, Apple is not expected to launch the iPhone at their June developer conference, instead they are expected to unveil iOS 5 and Mac OSX Lion.

Permalink | Comments

---

Adobe has launched Flash Player 10.3 for Windows, Mac and Linux systems this morning, as well as for Android phones and tablets including Android 3.1 Honeycomb.

The company says the latest Flash Player update includes "improved stability, stronger security and user privacy protection, and new desktop audio/video capabilities for businesses and developers."

Adobe posted most of the new features of the improved software:

Media measurement (desktop only) – Measuring video usage just got easier. Using Adobe® SiteCatalyst® with Flash Player 10.3, developers can implement video analytics for websites with as little as two lines of code for the first time. Media Measurement for Flash Player allows companies to get real-time, aggregated reporting of how their video content is distributed, what their audience reach is, and how much video is played. Mobile support will be available in an upcoming release.

Acoustic echo cancellation (desktop only) – With Flash Player 10.3, developers can create real-time online collaboration experiences with high-quality audio for telephony, in-game voice chat, and group conferencing applications. Developers can take advantage of acoustic echo cancellation, noise suppression, voice activity detection, and automatic compensation for various microphone input levels. End users will be able to experience higher quality audio facilitating smoother conversation flow, without using a headset.

Enhanced privacy protection – Flash Player 10.3 enables local storage clearing within browsers' privacy settings and streamlines the controls of the Flash Player privacy, security and storage settings within the local control panel of desktop OSes.

Security enhancements including the support of auto-update notification for MacOS – See the Security Bulletin APSB11-12 for more details.

Download it here or in the Android Market.

Permalink | Comments

---

Research firm Gartner has noted this week that it believes SSD drives will get much cheaper in 2012, in time for the market to have a break out.

SSD, 2.5-inch form factor NAND Flash chips that offer better speeds and reliability over traditional HDDs, have yet to reach mainstream popularity due to extremely high prices.

128GB SSD models sell for, on average, $225 while for that price you can purchase three 2TB HDDs. Certainly the average consumer would prefer 6TB of storage to a measly 128GB for the same price.

Over the past two years, however, SSD prices have marginally fallen, while capacities have increased thanks to better manufacturing processes.

Gartner says it expects SSD prices to fall to about $1 per GB next year, still not "cheap" but certainly more affordable than current prices.

Permalink | Comments

---

Samsung will show off their upcoming 300dpi WQXGA PenTile RGBW prototype tablet display at next week's SID Display 2011 conference, says the company.

The impressive 10.1-inch LCD display will have 2560 x 1600 resolution.

Pixel density is 300dpi meaning the resolution will fit in the definition of "Retina Display," as defined by Apple.

Says the company in the press release:

Samsung's PenTile display technology is the only display technology that operates at 40 percent less power yet provides twice that of Full HD-viewing performance for consumers compared to legacy RGB stripe LCDs. There is no other commercial display technology on the market today that offers this high of a resolution and pixel density in a 10.1-inch size display.

A few more highlights from the tablet display:

-This 10.1-inch tablet panel is capable of 300 cd/m2 of luminance, yet uses 40 percent less power than that used by legacy RGB stripe LCDs in power-saving modes.

-An outdoor brightness mode of as much as 600 cd/m2 luminance enables viewing in bright ambient lighting.

-The display's color gamut is 72 percent., allowing greater color realism than legacy RGB stripe tablet displays that have a typical color gamut of 55 percent NTSC.

-PenTile technology achieves 300 dpi resolution with two-thirds the number of subpixels, maintaining the VESA/ICDM display resolution standard.

Permalink | Comments

---

LimeWire has decided to settle with the record labels in their federal copyright infringement suit, paying $105 million and finally marking the very end of an era.

After five years of litigation, LimeWire will pay out the money to 13 record labels; Arista, Atlantic, BMG Music, Capitol, Elektra, Interscope, Laface, Motown, Priority, Sony BMG, UMG, Virgin and Warner Brothers

LimeWire was shut down in October by judge Kimba Wood, who ruled that the company behind the P2P service was liable for wrongfully assisting users in pirating digital recordings.

Had the trial continue on to a jury, LimeWire was facing penalties of up to $1.5 billion, $150,000 maximum each for 10,000 tracks.

At its peak, LimeWire had 50 million monthly users, sharing hundreds of millions of tracks.

Permalink | Comments

---