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Pocket Picks roundup: 27th August - Steve Jobs resigns, Amazon gets bullish over tablet pricing, TouchPad falls, Nokia keeps the Symbian flame burning

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Pocket Picks roundup: 27th August - Steve Jobs resigns, Amazon gets bullish over tablet pricing, TouchPad falls, Nokia keeps the Symbian flame burning
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Hello and welcome back to the Pocket Picks roundup. I hope you’ve had a pleasant few weeks while the column was away.

Lots of major events have happened since we last convened outside the Pocket Picks Shed (in the shadows of Pocket Gamer Towers).

There’s a focus on tablet news in this week’s edition, as that part of the mobile market appears to be really hotting up following news that HP is pulling out, Amazon is gearing up to enter in a big way, and Steve Jobs has stepped aside to let Tim Cook manage Apple’s strategy in the future.

But I don’t want to spoil it all in the introduction - let’s go straight to the news stories that have been making waves in the last fortnight.

Steve Jobs resigns as Apple CEO - takes up position as Chairman of the Board

steve-jobs-pocket-picks-1The biggest piece of news this week has to be the fact that Apple’s co-founder, showman, and one of the most successful CEOs of the 21st century has stepped down from his position as head of the company.

Steve Jobs has been in the role since his return in 1999, and has overseen the transformation from Apple as a company on the brink of extinction to one of the world’s richest technology firms, thanks to the iPod, iPhone, iPad, iMac, iTunes, and App Store.

Tim Cook, COO since 1998, will be the new CEO - a position he’s held on a temporary basis now for over a year due to Jobs’s uncertain health. Meanwhile Jobs will still be around at the company, just as chairman of the board.

HP pulls support for TouchPad

hp-touchpad-pocket-picks-1Last week while I was busy rushing around Gamescom for Pocket Gamer, HP completely blindsided everyone by announcing it was pulling support for the company’s tablet PC, the TouchPad, just over a month after it launched on shelves.

The sudden change of heart led to a firesale across the world of the webOS machine, prices dropping to such low levels that the device became a trending topic on Twitter, with people discussing which shops still had it in stock.

HP now plans to licence the operating system it had purchased from Palm out to third-party licensees, rather than attempt to take on the phone/tablet manufacturers directly.

Rumour: Amazon tablet to cost "hundreds less" than iPad

amazon-logo-pocket-picks-1From a company that’s pulled out of the tablet race to one about to enter. An unnamed source, reportedly from inside the world’s largest retailer, has said that the company’s first tablet PC will cost “hundreds less” than the Apple iPad.

Latest rumours suggest the company is planning to launch two tablets before the end of the year to compete with the iPad - codenamed ‘Coyote’ and ‘Hollywood’ - and both will be integrated into the firm’s Android and eBook store on launch, giving it a significant boost in terms of apps and services available.

Given that the main cause for the HP TouchPad’s demise appears to have been pricing (the hardware was actually quite good), this doesn’t appear to be too bad a plan from Amazon if true.

Samsung points to 2001: A Space Odyssey in ongoing legal fight with Apple

samsung-pocket-picks-1Samsung has managed to get the ban lifted on sales of its Galaxy Tab 10.1 in most of Europe (bar Germany) now, but that naturally isn’t the end to the long-running legal dispute between it and Apple over patents and design issues.

While a lot of what’s going on in the courts is either extremely dull or just plain baffling for those without a law degree, this recent piece of evidence submitted by the firm should amuse us laymen.

In it, the South Korean firm points to 2001: A Space Odyssey as an example of the design of a tablet PC existing before Apple put its stamp on the market with the iPad (albeit in a fictional form and not on screen for very long).

We doubt it’s the first instance of a company using an item that was designed for a film as evidence in court, but it’s still entertaining to see.

Nokia announces three new Symbian handsets and new version of OS

nokia-symbian-pocket-picks-1Well blow me down - I really didn’t expect Nokia to be telling the truth when it talked of continuing support for Symbian after the Microsoft deal.

However, the Finnish giant has just announced another major update to the OS, along with three new handsets that it will come preloaded on.

Symbian Belle (the successor to Anna), comes with a new drag-down notification bar (now where have I seen that before?) along with - hurrah - resizable widgets, which is a blessing to those who know how clunky the initial system was.

In terms of the new phones, Nokia plans on launching the 600, 700, and 701 to ship with the new OS.

They’re designed to tackle different demands, so the 600 is equipped with bus-hating rear speaker; the 700 is light (96 grams light) and dinky; while the 701 packs a 1GHz processor, 8-megapixel camera, and come with Gorllia Glass 3.5-inch screen.

Will Wilson
Will Wilson
Will's obsession with gaming started off with sketching Laser Squad levels on pads of paper, but recently grew into violently shouting "Tango Down!" at random strangers on the street. He now directs that positive energy into his writing (due in no small part to a binding court order).