Kodak calls it quits on cameras

Ancient American imaging company Kodak announced yesterday that it's pulling down the shutters on its long-standing camera business. By the end of June this year, Kodak expects to have phased out its range of digital cameras, pocket video cameras and digital picture frames.

The news follows the company filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last month. It marks the end of an era for Kodak, which enjoyed a dominant position in the industry for most of the 20th century, and is renowned for pioneering mass-market and amateur photography.

Kodak's Gallery service will remain online, as will its retail-based photo printing and range of inkjet printers, but the company will primarily focus (nope, not even sorry) on licensing, which makes sense considering it holds over 1,000 digital imaging patents.

"For some time, Kodak's strategy has been to improve margins in the capture device business by narrowing our participation in terms of product portfolio, geographies and retail outlets," Kodak consumer business president Pradeep Jotwani said in a statement.

"Today's announcement is the logical extension of that process, given our analysis of the industry trends."

It's a sad moment for Kodak, as the company has a long history of producing revolutionary cameras -- including the first digital camera, which was developed by a Kodak engineer in 1975. The Brownie box, launched in 1900, was the first camera that had widespread mass-market appeal and popularised low-cost, casual photography by introducing the concept of capturing a spontaneous snapshot of everyday life -- 'a Kodak moment'.

Kodak has always followed a 'razor-blade' sales strategy, selling simple and inexpensive cameras and making profit from pricier paper, chemicals and films. This was not a tactic that translated well into the new digital era, and despite being early to the party, Kodak was slow to implement its digital change strategy and got left far behind by Japanese rivals and, later, camera phones.

The company has been given until February 2013 to dust itself down and concoct a reorganisation plan, and from the looks of it, it's not messing about. We harbour a soft spot for venerable old tech companies, so we do wish it the best of luck.

Are you sad to see the back of Kodak cameras? Let know in the comments below or on our Facebook page.

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Phones 4u JUMP contract lets you hop phones, at a price

Phones 4u wants mobile users to take a running JUMP. Nothing to do with scaring you to death with zombie children -- or the eponymous 1992 hit single by Kris Kross. Oh no. The mobile retailer is launching a new contract called JUMP -- for people who just can't bear to wait a whole year (or more) to get their hands on the latest and greatest phones.

The 'Just Upgrade My Phone' contract -- see what they did there? -- lets mobile users upgrade to "a selection of the latest smart phones on the market" as often as every six months. Think of it as the Doodle Jump of mobile tariffs, allowing you to hop from shiny new handset to shiny new handset, leaving a trail of yesterday's models in your wake like a mobile Casanova.

There are no upfront fees for each upgrade, which Phones 4u reckons makes JUMP more accommodating than other flexible tariffs on the market. However, the monthly tariff price rises with each JUMP -- so you'll need to shell out an extra

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Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1N cleared as Apple loses case

Things have swung Samsung's way again in its ongoing court battle with Apple. A German court has ruled Samsung's redesigned Galaxy Tab doesn't infringe any of Apple's patents, meaning the tablet is cleared for sale, Reuters reports.

The ruling affirms a preliminary assessment, and states there are "clear differences" between the redesigned tablet (known as the Galaxy Tab 10.1N) and the iPad 2.

Apple accused Samsung of "slavishly copying" its iPhone and iPad, and sued the Korean company in countries all over the world, succeeding in imposing a ban in Germany. (Though that was overturned, then subsequently upheld. Come on, keep up.) The Tab was also banned in Australia.

Samsung redesigned the Galaxy Tab in November, giving it a new metal band around the edge that bleeds into the front of the device. And it seems that's done the trick, with Apple's patent claims rejected in a preliminary hearing. And now this.

Samsung -- which supplies parts for the iPad -- has counter-sued, claiming infringements of its patents for mobile tech, making the whole farrago all the more strange. A court in Mannheim has ruled against Samsung in two of the patent cases, and will decide on the third on 2 March.

Motorola also threw its hat into the ring, succeeding in having several models of iPhone and iPad banned in Germany because of -- you guessed it -- a patent injunction. This one related to Moto's wireless intellectual properties. Just a few hours later Apple managed to overturn the ban though. It's a full-time job keeping track of these legal wrangles.

Steve Jobs saw Android as a stolen product, and declared "thermonuclear war" on Google. The search behemoth is in the process of acquiring Motorola, so don't expect these legal tussles to go away anytime soon.

Has anyone copied anyone else? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below, or on Facebook.

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How to stream Google Music on your Samsung Galaxy S2

When it comes to listening to music on your mobile, you never seem to have enough space to store all your tracks. Fear not, because we'll show you how to use the cloud-based Google Music storage service to stream tunes to your Android mobile, or any Apple iDevice, for that matter.

The Samsung Galaxy S2 -- which we used for this guide -- comes with 16GB of storage and a microSD card slot. Even so, true music lovers will find that to be woefully inadequate for holding their entire library of much-loved tracks. Thankfully, the way we store data on our phones and tablets is slowly shifting online and away from our hardware.

Cloud storage is already a reality for all Android users as contacts, email, photos and videos are uploaded to remote servers, freeing up valuable memory on your mobile device. Google is even said to be working on a cloud-based file storage option, which would allow you to upload pretty much anything.

It was only a matter of time before music followed suit. With iTunes launching its Match service and Amazon pushing its Cloud Player (in North America, at least), the competition to store your songs in the ether is hotting up.

Google's contribution to this technological craze is Google Music, an online service that lets users upload 20,000 tracks free of charge, as well as purchase new content. The big stumbling block is that it's currently only available in the US. Luckily, we're at hand to show you how to cunningly bypass this limitation and enjoy the benefits of cloud music storage.

Step 1: Grab the Google Music Android app

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ICS updates slowed by complex hardware, says Motorola exec

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Frustrated the latest version of Android is taking an age to come to your phone? Don't blame Google, or even the manufacturer for putting its own UI on top of the Android operating system. No, the complexity of modern hardware is to blame. According to a Motorola executive, that is.

Christy Wyatt, senior vice president and general manager of Motorola's Enterprise Business Unit, told PC Mag: "When Google does a release of the software... they do a version of the software for whatever phone they just shipped. The rest of the ecosystem doesn't see it until you see it.

"Hardware is the long pole in the tent, with multiple chipsets and multiple radio bands for multiple countries. It's a big machine to churn."

She went on to describe the process of upgrading the software, saying it's complicated. First comes hardware support, then the layering in of custom software from manufacturers, and then the phone has to be re-certified by the networks, which adds time.

Fine, we can get on board with all that. But it's still down to Google, isn't it? It doesn't have to release the code at the same time as the latest Nexus phone, it could release it earlier. The whole operation could also be much better handled in terms of setting users' expectations.

Wyatt wouldn't be drawn on exactly when Moto's handsets will get the jump to Ice Cream Sandwich. "I would have to know that every single operator I have is going to want to upgrade every single product, and sometimes they'll want to control the timing," she said. "It's just not easy to make that blanket statement."

Motorola announced it was "planning on upgrading as many of our phones as possible" in a blog post in December. It listed the Razr, Xoom and Droid Bionic, though there's a full list here. Seeing as Google is acquiring Motorola, we'd expect it to update ahead of everyone else. HTC announced its Sensation range will get ICS in the next six weeks, with the Desire line following later in the year. Sony also announced all its Xperias will upgrade.

Are you fed up of waiting for Ice Cream Sandwich? Let us know your experiences on our Facebook page, or below in the comments.

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Samsung Galaxy S2 Ice Cream Sandwich update on 1 March?

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Take this with a fistful of salt, but the Samsung Galaxy S2 will be getting updated to Ice Cream Sandwich on 1 March, if one industry speculator is to be believed.

Frequent tweeter on the subject of all things tech Eldar Murtazin took to the micro-blogging service to say, "Android 4 aka ICS for SGS2 will be officially available from March 1."

Murtazin went on to qualify that the date of the much-anticipated upgrade would depend on your country and network operator, and that the bump to Android 4.0 would be available as as an over the air update, or using Samsung's Kies software.

Murtazin doesn't say what his sources are, and the prolific tweeter's futuregazing missives don't always seem to be on the money -- recently he tweeted a link to an image of what looked to be a new Samsung Galaxy phone, but we reckon that was just a dodgy Photoshop.

Still, if 1 March isn't when the S2 gets updated, it can't be far off the truth -- Samsung Norway has said it will update the S2 and the Galaxy Note in the first quarter of 2012, which means it should be sporting Ice Cream Sandwich by the end of March.

Murtazin later tweeted that the Note would be getting updated to Ice Cream Sandwich "from March to May". What would really help in this situation is for Samsung to be upfront with S2 owners about when they can expect an update. C'mon folks, put us out of our misery!

Motorola big cheese Christy Wyatt recently went on record blaming complex and diverse hardware for slowing down the rate of ICS updates.

Are you desperate for a scoop of Ice Cream Sandwich? Do you think Samsung has been communicative enough? Tell us in the comments or on our Facebook wall.

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Pink Samsung Galaxy Note en route, looking rosy

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A pink version of the Samsung Galaxy Note could be coming soon, delighting anyone who loves both massive phones and the Financial Times.

Word of the rose-tinted goliath comes via GSMArena, which claims it's been sent an image of the pink Note by an industry insider, showing the cheery-lookin' blower alongside the sombre black and white versions.

Unfortunately that image isn't particularly high on the ol' resolution front, but you can see that the front and back of the gargantuan Note have been given a lick of pink paint. There's no word on whether the stylu... -- sorry, the S Pen -- will be tinted pink as well.

The marketing name for the pink Note appears to be 'berry pink' though the bad news is it won't be arriving in time for Valentine's day -- instead it's reckoned to be made publicly available in the ninth week of the year, which is in three weeks' time.

On the plus side, the Note probably wouldn't make a great gift for your special someone -- it's extremely expensive, and while we were impressed with the 5.3-inch screen, the phone itself is so big, there's every chance you'll wind up frustrated with its pocket-swelling antics.

The pink version is also even more conspicuous than the existing black Note -- meaning this isn't an ideal choice for spies, or those who like to sneakily text their mates under the dinner table.

Fingers crossed we see some official pictures of the pink Note soon. While we wait, why not tell us whether you're keen on the pink edition in the comments, or over on our Facebook wall.

Image credit: GSMArena

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Apple sues Motorola over Qualcomm licensing deal

Apple has gone to court again, this time with Motorola. It's claiming Moto's patent infringement cases against Apple in Germany breach Motorola's licensing agreement with chip-maker Qualcomm, Reuters reports.

This is starting to feel a bit like a game of chess.

It all comes down to a legal principle called patent exhaustion, The Verge explains. Apple buys chips from Qualcomm, and argues that Qualcomm already pays Moto licensing fees for those components. Now, patent exhaustion states that a company can only claim one payment per use of patented technology. Seeing as Apple has paid Qualcomm to use Moto's patented tech when it coughed up for the chips, Motorola can't claim any more payments. Trying to double up on licensing fees would breach Motorola's contract with Qualcomm. Or so Apple is arguing anyway.

We'll have to see how this one pans out, especially seeing as German courts may rule differently to US ones. But things haven't been going Apple's way in court recently. It was forced to pull several models of iPad and iPhone from shelves in Germany following a patent dispute from Motorola, though it overturned the ruling just hours later. A German court also recently ruled that Samsung's redesigned Galaxy Tab 10.1N was fine to go on sale (the company changed its look after Apple had it yanked from the shelves, accusing it of "slavishly copying" the iPad).

Google is also in the process of taking over Motorola, meaning this kind of legal fracas is only going to become all the more common. Especially if Google took some of Steve Jobs' more contentious comments to heart.

Are these cases in anyone's interest? Or should the companies put their differences aside and focus on making better products? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below, or over on Facebook.

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Analyst: Amazon prepping a 9-inch Kindle Fire

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Amazon is working on a larger Kindle Fire. At least, that's what one analyst reckons, CNET reports.

Pacific Crest analyst Chad Bartley told investors this week that a 9-inch Kindle Fire could launch by the middle of the year. (The current Fire has a 7-inch screen.) And what does Bartley cite as his evidence? Well, he carried out his own checks with Amazon component suppliers. Not definitive by any stretch of the imagination, but it comes off the back of a number of other rumours concerning a larger Fire.

DigiTimes reported at the end of last year that an 8.9-inch version of the Fire was due this summer, which would square with Chad's prediction. (It cited companies like LG and Samsung heavily discounting 8.9-inch panels, making them a tempting prospect for Amazon.) Then a 10.1-inch model could follow.

A larger Kindle Fire would mount an effective challenge to the iPad -- something Amazon is aiming to do, judging from its recent advert. The ad, posted to YouTube this week, points out you can buy three Kindles for less than the price of an iPad. And that the standard Kindle's e-ink screen is easier to see in bright sunlight.

Last year rumours broke of a Kindle-branded smart phone too, though we haven't heard anything else since then.

Last weekend Amazon started shipping the Kindle Touch internationally, though it still isn't available in the UK. The Kindle Fire still isn't shipping to these shores, though late last year came word we wouldn't have much longer to wait.

We're still keen to see the standard Fire, let alone a bigger version. Do you think a 9-inch model is likely? And will we ever see either version in the UK? Let us know in the comments below, or over on our Facebook page.

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Samsung Galaxy Mini 2 leaks, has better screen and processor

Mobile World Congress is just a couple of weeks away now, and another handset has leaked ahead of show.

The Samsung Galaxy Mini 2 is the follow-up to the Galaxy Mini, and is another budget Android phone, GSMArena reports. So what's new? Well there's a slightly larger screen (3.3-inches, up from 3.14-inches), and a better processor. And while it won't come with the Ice Cream Sandwich version of Android, it will have Gingerbread on board.

As well as the screen being slightly bigger, it has a higher resolution (up to HVGA from QVGA). The processor also gets a bump, from 600MHz to 800, and it'll have 3GB internal storage. The camera stays the same 3-megapixel effort though. Well it is a budget handset, so we can't expect too much.

The Galaxy Mini 2 also has a new look, looking a lot less squat than the original. The official product code is GT-S6500, Jena, if you're into that kind of thing. There's no word on pricing or availability, but "Feb2012" is mentioned alongside the specs, so we presume Samsung will make the announcement at Mobile World Congress.

MWC kicks off on 27 February, we'll be there bringing you all the news as it happens. We're expecting to see a pink Galaxy Note from Samsung, along with a slew of LG handsets, including a quad-core model, and another rocking Ice Cream Sandwich. HTC is also expected to out a quad-core phone, hinting this could be the year dual-core became passe.

What do you make of the Galaxy Mini 2? How does it compare to other budget Android phones? And what do you want to see at Mobile World Congress? Let us know on Facebook, or in the comments below.

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Acer CloudMobile spotted ahead of Mobile World Congress

Acer hadn't even announced the CloudMobile when it won an iF Product Design Award. And good news it did, as it prompted the company to tell us all about the phone early, ahead of its official outing at Mobile World Congress.

The CloudMobile syncs with your PC and stores your movies, music and photos in the cloud, so you can enjoy them on your phone whether you're at home or on the go. You can also check out your documents from the cloud, and print wirelessly using Acer Print.

It's not a bad looker either. On the front is a stainless steel receiver, and the back hosts a Dolby speaker plate with tiny perforations. There are tactile details on the volume button and rear, and a narrow bezel borders the phone, a little like Samsung's D8000 TV. That's a 4.3-inch screen, and while there's no word on exact resolution, Acer has said it will be HD and fully laminated.

The phone is less than a centimetre thick, so we could see it challenge for the title of world's slimmest phone. (The Samsung Galaxy S3 and Huawei Ascend P1S are quaking in their boots.) There's no word on which version of Android the CloudMobile will run, but we're expecting Ice Cream Sandwich. Acer's tablets run it, so we'd be disappointed if this handset came lacking.

Acer will officially announce the CloudMobile at MWC in a couple of weeks. It'll be available in Q3, so sometime around July. Also expected at Mobile World Congress? Some quad-core fun from LG and HTC, as well as some budget Android goodness from Samsung. But it looks like we won't be seeing that fabled Samsung Galaxy S3 for a while yet.

What do you think of the CloudMobile? Let us know in the comments, or on our Facebook page.

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Apple tries to ban Ice Cream Sandwich

The lawsuits continue. Now Apple has filed another against Samsung and its Galaxy Nexus, though it's not the hardware that's irked Apple. Rather, it's the Android Ice Cream Sandwich software.

Apple has filed a motion for a preliminary injunction to ban the Nexus because of a batch of software patents it claims Google has infringed, The Verge reports. These are wide-ranging, including such intricacies as clicking a phone number to call, and sliding across the screen to unlock. And if successful, it could put the brakes on the Ice Cream Sandwich rollout lots of other companies are trying to get going. Uh oh.

The patents Apple wants to defend cover quite a few of the iPhone's features. One focusses on detecting data like a phone number in an email or web page, and letting you call it by clicking. Another covers searching lots of sources of information on the device and online through a single interface, like Siri, or -- presumably -- the magnifying glass icon on Android devices.

Slide to unlock is covered by another patent. While Apple has patented an image unlock feature, this one looks to cover everyone else's subtly different variations. The last patent covers suggesting words while you type on a touchscreen keyboard, then allowing you to accept or reject said suggestions.

Predictive text? Clicking a phone number to call? Search? Is it just us or are these claims a step too far?

This news comes soon after Apple decided to sue Motorola concerning a Qualcomm licensing deal. Apple claims Qualcomm pays Motorola to licence the components used in its chips, so Apple shouldn't have to pay Moto again. Motorola recently had the iPhone and iPad banned in Germany, though Apple soon overturned the ban. Apple also banned the Samsung Galaxy Tab for being too similar to the iPad, though Samsung redesigned and now it's fine.

Which side are you on? Is Apple right to defend its software like this? Or is it being too litigious? Let us know in the comments below, or on our Facebook page.

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Saudi journalist deported for controversial tweet

Police have confirmed to the BBC that Saudi journalist Hamza Kashgari has been deported from Malaysia. He has been accused of insulting the Prophet Muhammad in a tweet.

Kashgari will be sent back to Saudi Arabia despite protests from human rights groups. His tweet last week prompted over 30,000 responses, including complaints and several death threats. This coincides with a Twitter trial in the UK, where Paul Chambers is in the Royal Courts of Justice over a joke he tweeted about threatening to blow up Robin Hood airport in Doncaster.

Kashgari, 23, chose the prophet's birthday for his tweet, and was promptly called blasphemous by Saudi clerics. He fled Saudi Arabia and was detained when he arrived in Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur on Thursday.

Amnesty International has warned Kashgari could face execution if found guilty of apostasy. "If the Malaysian authorities hand over Hamza Kashgari to Saudi Arabia, they could end up complicit in any violations he suffers," said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui from Amnesty International's Middle East division.

Kashgari apologised and deleted the tweet. His lawyer obtained an injunction on Sunday to allow him to stay in Malaysia until the case was heard, but it was too late, according to a BBC correspondent.

In the UK, comedians including Stephen Fry and Al Murray have come out in support of Paul Chambers, who 'threatened' to blow up Robin Hood Airport in a tweet. Stephen Fry claimed judges "don't understand Twitter," while Murray describes the case as a "Monty Python-does-Kafka brainfart."

Frustrated by snow delaying his flight, Chambers tweeted that he was going to blow the airport "sky high" in 2010.

It's a controversial issue, but the message is clear: be careful what you tweet. Let us know your thoughts on the matter below in the comments, or over on our Facebook page.

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Sony Vita smart phones and tablets coming soon?

The PS Vita's success as a games system is far from secured, but Sony has just hinted that it might make tablets and smart phones using the Vita operating system.

Sony's yet-to-be-anointed president and CEO Kazuo Hirai told reporters that the company designed the OS to be expandable to these other devices, The Verge reports, quoting AV Watch. Sony's deputy president then said smart phone apps would be coming soon to Vita, via PlayStation Suite.

Hirai told reporters that we shouldn't forget Vita OS as a mobile platform, not just focussed on gaming. Sony Computer Entertainment's senior vice president Yoshio Matsumoto then said: "if you're asking if we've made it

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HTC Endeavour ROM leaks, confirms ICS, 720p screen

Call it what you want -- HTC Edge, HTC Supreme, or HTC Endeavour -- the phone looks like an absolute powerhouse. It's rumoured to be Europe's first quad-core handset, and now a leaked ROM has confirmed the specs we got all excited about back in November, Pocketnow reports.

So yes -- it will be quad-core, will have a 720p HD screen, and an 8-megapixel camera, if the ROM is correct. A quad-core nVidia Tegra 3 chip powers the device, and there'll be a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera on-board for video conferencing. Dropbox integration will come as standard.

Ice Cream Sandwich is the order of the day (unless Apple gets its way, of course), and HTC is slathering its own Sense 4.0 UI all over the top of it. The name is given as "HTC Endeavor" though here's hoping HTC adds the 'u' for us Brits.

The ROM is a hefty 620MB download, but you can head over here and have a rummage through for yourself if you like. We're pretty excited about the phone, if only to see what difference a quad-core processor makes to the performance.

LG is also rumoured to be unveiling a quad-core phone at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in a couple of weeks, and HTC is thought to have a quad-core tablet up its sleeve as well. Though admittedly it'd have to be a pretty wide sleeve.

Samsung's budget Galaxy Mini 2 is also expected to make an appearance at MWC, though we'll have to wait a while to see the fabled Galaxy S3. It promises to be pretty slim when it does launch though.

Are you excited about quad-core handsets? And can HTC turn around its fortunes? Let us know below, or on our Facebook page.

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Samsung Galaxy S3 could be just a month away

Will they or won't they? That's the question on everybody's lips as conflicting reports clash over the launch of the hotly anticipated Samsung Galaxy S3.

We had our fingers crossed the S3 would be revealed in the next month, until reports began to surface that the S3 will be delayed. Now it seems Samsung is still trying to make up its mind.

The Verge reports that the S3 won't be unveiled in February. But notorious Russian blogger Eldar Murtazin reckons not only will the phone be unveiled next month, it'll be in shops in April.

It's now a month until Mobile World Congress, the annual mobile trade show where phone companies gather in Barcelona to showcase their wares for the coming year. The S3 could take a bow there, but there a few reasons Samsung may decide to hold back.

The expected S3 will be the follow-up to the smash-hit Samsung Galaxy S2, the biggest Android smart phone going. The S2 was announced at MWC in February last year, so a year later would be a logical time for the S3 to take a bow.

But the S2 only actually launched on US phone networks as late as December of last year, and as the strongest rival to the iPhone it's clearly still got a lot of life left in it. So we wouldn't blame Samsung for holding back the S3 to make the most of the S2's success.

Samsung may also decide to hold back from the scrum of new phones unveiled at MWC to differentiate the S3 from the pack. After all, a little company called Apple never turns up at MWC, and yet seems to be doing quite nicely, thank you very much. If any phone launch can challenge the hype and spectacle of an iPhone announcement, surely it's the S3? 

All this speculation is whipping up to fever pitch -- but what will the S3 be like? Hit play below to check out our video roundup of the rumours surrounding one of the biggest phones of the year.

Whether or not the S3 turns up at MWC, CNET certainly will. We're hitting the Barcelona phonefest in force, so keep it CNET UK for all the up-to-the-minute phone and tablet news, previews and videos.

Tell us your predictions down in the comments or on our wildly inaccurate Facebook page.

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