Apple Inc has sold 1 million iPads since their April 3 launch, as the company passed that sales milestone faster than many analysts had expected.

Do you carry a cell phone? Today, chances are it’s called a “smartphone” and it came with a three-to-five megapixel lens built-in — not to mention an MP3 player, GPS or even a bar code scanner. This ‘Swiss-Army-knife’ trend represents the natural progression of technology — as chips become smaller/more advanced, cell phones absorb new functions.

What if, in the future, new functions on our cell phones could also protect us from toxic chemicals?

Palm Inc., creator of the Pre smartphone, is seeking bids for the company as early as this week, according to three people familiar with the situation.

The company is working with Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Frank Quattrone’s Qatalyst Partners to find a buyer, said the people, who declined to be identified because a sale hasn’t been announced. Taiwan’s HTC Corp. and China’s Lenovo Group Ltd. have looked at the company and may make offers, said the people.

Palm, which helped pioneer the market for personal digital assistants, would offer suitors the WebOS software that competes against mobile operating systems from iPhone maker Apple Inc. and Google Inc. For Elevation Partners LP, the firm that owns about 30 percent of Palm, a sale would end the volatility associated with a stock that surged more than 10-fold since December 2008 before erasing most of the gain.

Microsoft Corp launched two new phones aimed at young people on Monday, marking a fresh assault on the low end of the growing smartphone market, where BlackBerry maker Research in Motion Ltd and Apple Inc now dominate.

The software company’s first foray into designing its own phones comes six months before it rolls out its new Windows software for phones made by handset makers HTC Corp, Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and others, which should be a more direct challenge to Apple’s iPhone and Google Inc’s Android phones.

“Kin is an interesting attempt to target the 15 to 25 market,” said Ross Rubin, consumer electronics and wireless industry analyst at market research firm NPD Group.

Success will depend heavily on the pricing of data plans, said Rubin, which is not expected for a few more weeks. Microsoft did not say how much the phones would sell for.

Apple Inc.’s Steve Jobs said the company sold more than 450,000 iPad tablet computers in less than a week and unveiled new software designed to make the iPhone more appealing to mobile users and developers.

The new iPhone operating system software adds support for multitasking and advertising, Apple’s chief executive officer said today at a company event. Called iPhone OS 4, the software will be available this summer.

The software escalates Apple’s rivalry with Google Inc. for customers and application developers at a time when demand for smartphones is outpacing orders for personal computers. Since the iPhone’s introduction in 2007, customers and developers have criticized its inability to run more than one third-party program at the same time — a feature that Google’s phones already offer. “We weren’t the first to this party, but we’re going to be the best,” Jobs, dressed in his trademark jeans and turtleneck, said about the addition of multitasking.

“After spending hours and hours with it, I believe this beautiful new touch-screen device from Apple has the potential to change portable computing profoundly, and to challenge the primacy of the laptop. It could even help, eventually, to propel the finger-driven, multitouch user interface ahead of the mouse-driven interface that has prevailed for decades.”

David Pogue (NYTimes) – a) from his “techie” review: “The bottom line is that you can get a laptop for much less money — with a full keyboard, DVD drive, U.S.B. jacks, camera-card slot, camera, the works. Besides: If you’ve already got a laptop and a smartphone, who’s going to carry around a third machine”

A new survey of U.S. smartphone users reveals a majority of them want to use mobile devices, including tablets like the upcoming Apple iPad, for work as well as personal activities. Yet the same users also see only limited productivity gains because they can access so little of the personal and business information they need.

The online survey polled 2,443 respondents, all adults with mobile phones. Of these, 770 were smartphone users. The study was commissioned by Sybase, which sells several mobile applications for enterprise customers, and conducted by Zogby International, which polled its online panel, a cross section of the U.S. adult population. (You can see the full set of slides here.)

The sample was asked how they would use a tablet device, which has video, office and e-mail applications, citing the iPad as an example. Not very surprisingly, entertainment-related uses were two of the top three picks. Forty-eight percent chose “watching movies, video, television programs” and 35% said they’d do “gaming and other entertainment.”

What was surprising was the No.1 use: 52% said they’d use an iPad-like tablet for “conducting work on the device.”

They’ve been tried before. Now, Apple’s iPad is bringing tablet computers back into the limelight. But will these devices fulfill your needs? Here’s what you need to know about this emerging platform.

They’re not mini-laptops. Tablets are handheld devices with touch screens ranging in size from five to 10 inches. Also called “slates” by PC makers, they include touch interfaces that allow users to surf the Web, play games, view movies and read e-books. One celebrated example is Apple’s iPad, which was announced in January and goes on sale this month. Makers expected to start shipping devices later this year include Dell and Hewlett-Packard.

They fill a gap. The rapid growth of mobile Internet and touch screens has created a new class of computing devices for consumers, says Phil McKinney, Hewlett-Packard’s CTO. Tablets enable mobile access to online content like newspapers, movies and games. Apple CEO Steve Jobs surfed the Internet and watched a movie on the iPad while sitting on a couch at that tablet’s unveiling. He said the iPad is meant to fill the void between the iPhone and the MacBook laptop.

Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, the world’s second-biggest mobile phone maker, on Tuesday unveiled a new smartphone, the Samsung Galaxy S, which is based on Google Inc’s Android software.

The Galaxy S, which will compete with devices from Nokia, Motorola Inc and Apple Inc’s iPhone, will be available for global distribution later this year, said JK Shin, head of Samsung’s mobile phone business.

Les partenaires collaboreront en vue de multiplier le nombre de services Orange portés sur cette plate-forme qui vise le marché des mobiles, mais aussi des netbooks, des TV connectées…
MeeGo commence à prendre du relief. Ce nouvel OS mobile a été présenté lors du dernier Mobile World Congress. Il s’agit en fait de la première concrétisation de l’accord passé entre Intel et Nokia en juin 2009. MeeGo est donc une plate-forme issue de la fusion de Moblin d’Intel, une distribution Linux basée sur Fedora et conçue pour les terminaux mobiles de petite taille, et de Maemo, le système d’exploitation dérivé de Linux conçu par Nokia qui équipe le N900.

Ce système sera “ouvert” à tous les fabricants et développeurs, et donc gratuit. Surtout, il pourra être utilisé dans toute une gamme d’appareils: smartphones haut de gamme, mini-PC, tablettes, télévisions connectées à internet, ou encore systèmes embarqués dans les véhicules.