As you might already know, the National Football League (NFL) allows coaches and players access to only laminated playbooks and Polaroid images, and strictly no device that records or plays video is allowed. But that’s going to change with this new deal between the NFL and Microsoft, which will bring the company’s Surface tablet on to the sidelines.

The deal is apparently worth $400 million over five years, and if everything goes as planned you will be seeing teams playing with the Surface to check out replays and plan their next move this season.

Currently many teams might prefer using the Apple iPad as a playbook, about which Darren Rovell says, “Under the Microsoft/NFL deal, players and teams can still use iPads for playbooks, but Apple branding has to be covered up”. There will be Microsoft branding on the replay booth.

Just in case you are wondering, one reason for NFL’s technophobia is that they want to ensure competitive balance. They do not want a team with good techies to have an advantage over other teams. If you are a Formula 1 fan, you should know what we are talking about.

The big question is whether or not the deal will help further popularize the Surface line or not? What do you think of the NFL agreement with Microsoft?

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Announced at last year’s Google I/O conference, Google Now is now bringing the personal assistant service and predictive search to iOS users. It has arrived as an update to the Google Search app for iOS and is available for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.

Google Now’s response via voice recognition is much quicker, compared to Siri. And iOS users will get predictive “cards”, whether you asked for it or not, for stuff such as weather, traffic, navigation and sports scores (you can choose what comes on), and this service depends on the way you use Google services. So it’s like getting an answer before you know you want one.

Unlike the Google Now on Android (4.1 and later), the iOS version requires you to log into your Google account for using Now. It also won’t run in the background, and there will be no notifications. This might not be a perfect version, but it certainly gives iDevice owners a taste of what Google Now has to offer.

To get your hands on Google Now for iOS, head over to the App Store.

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When is Microsoft Office going to arrive for iOS and Android? Not very soon it seems, that is if we are to believe a leaked Office roadmap brought to us by ZDNet. Apparently Microsoft’s strategy is to release Office for iOS and Android a year and a half from now on October of 2014.

There have been rumors for a while that Microsoft would extend Office to Android and iOS, but that hasn’t happened. If they are to introduce Office for iOS or Android, they will surely have to put it on Apple and Google’s stores which means sharing revenue with rivals. So, earlier Microsoft decided to release OneNote.

And now, if Microsoft has plans to introduce Office for iOS and Android in October 2014, that’s for attracting customers to its platforms with the exclusivity. But Windows Phone and Windows RT haven’t made waves on the market and if this continues that Office exclusivity until Q4 2014 might not bring good results for the company.

Furthermore, Quickoffice and Google Docs (Drive) could become a big headache in the future, and Apple’s upgraded iWork apps are also coming. The more time Google and Apple gets, the more they can plan for their best shot against Microsoft’s dominance.

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Tumblr is gaining popularity faster than ever before and it’s certainly a good idea to make things easier for its users. Aiming to make the Tumblr Android app clean and easy to use, they have released an update for it which comes with a redesigned interface and a “post anything” screen.

The new “post anything” screen allows you to share videos, chats, links, quotes, photos and text with just a single tap. The new version also allows you access to advanced controls such as saving drafts, queuing posts, and customizing tweets. And the entire look follows Google’s Holo design rules.

So far users seem to be satisfied with the arrival of the update, although there are a few complaints about refresh happening every few seconds automatically and problems getting gifs to load.

No word on an update for their iPhone and iPad apps. But it was about a year ago that they released a major update for its Android app and a month later they launched an iOS refresh. So, an iOS update might arrive sometime in the coming months.

What do you think about the new look? Are you having any problems?

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iOS 6 has been on Apple iPad and iPhone devices for a good while, and fans of Apple’s mobile products are looking forward to seeing what new features iOS 7 will bring to the table.

However, it’s not going to be just new features that iOS 7 promises, but the possibility of a much overdue makeover. From the original iPhone back in 2007 to the latest iPhone 5, there haven’t been any real significant changes to the OS. In comparison Android, and even Windows Phone, barely look anything like their originals.

Ever since Jonathan Ive took over the roll of human interface development, he has promised to bring a more modern look to iOS, one which could see the faux post-it look of notes disappear. In fact each of iOS’s apps could see a more simple redesign, which may not necessarily reflect their real world counterparts.

As you would imagine, with such a big change for iOS, Apple is rumoured to be working overtime on iOS 7 and might actually be behind schedule.  No firm release dates or details of the new version of iOS have been announced but we can expect to get a first official glimpse at it during this years Worldwide Developer Conference.

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Back in last December, Google Apps business subscribers got to play with Quickoffice for iPad for free. Now Google Apps users can use the Quickoffice app for editing Microsoft Office documents on iPhone and Android as well, and yes it’s available for free.

With the app you will be able to edit, create and view Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents and then save or share documents through your Google Drive account. Google Drive might become capable of natively opening those types of files and editing them in the future, but until then Quickoffice is what you will need.

If interested, Android users can download from here and the iOS version is available here. As for those of you who don’t have a Google Apps for Business account, you can check out Quickoffice Pro which is available as a paid app priced between $15 to $20. So, are you downloading it already?

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Apple is famous for its products but the Mac maker is equally famous for its trademark issues. You might not have forgotten the company’s secret moves to acquire the iPad trademark and their eventual payment of $60 million. Now they are having trouble with ‘iPad Mini’.

The US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has denied Apple’s application for a trademark on ‘iPad mini’. According to the USPTO, “The term “MINI” in the applied for mark is also descriptive of a feature of applicant’s product. Specifically, the attached evidence shows this wording means “something that is distinctively smaller than other members of its type or class”. It means that even a company as big as Apple can’t patent words.

And it appears like the USPTO is against the name ‘iPad’ as well, since the ‘i’ stands for internet, and therefore also descriptive. They are saying, “When a mark consists of this prefix coupled with a descriptive word or term for Internet-related goods and/or services, then the entire mark may be considered merely descriptive”. But iPad is a registered trademark of Apple in the US.

Now, if Apple plans to get ‘iPad Mini’ they can only do it by proving to the USPTO that the name is descriptive of the entire device and not a smaller iPad. But that might be difficult to do as, according to Apple, the iPad Mini is “Every inch an iPad”, only smaller.

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The iPhone (or any other smartphone) certainly makes people’s lives a whole lot easier with all sorts of apps, but this new app called the BioAid, from the folks over at the University of Essex, is going to be a blessing for people with a hearing impairment. It converts the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad into hearing aids.

The BioAid app makes use of the iPhone’s microphone, audio processing capability, and earphones. All that a user has to do is install the app and choose a setting that will allow them to hear properly. And since the app has six fixed settings, each one of which has four fine-tuning sub-settings, users will be able to target specific frequencies. And that’s not all. The app can bring up low sounds while simultaneously turning down loud noises in the earphones.

In theory, there’s no need for those hearing aids worth hundreds of dollars and no need to visit the hearing aid specialist. There is that need to own an iDevice, though. It will be a great help if there is also an Android app available. Hopefully in the future we might see BioAid available with tiny behind-the-ear gadgets or smartwatches, and its settings might even be adjusted remotely.

A beta version of the BioAid is available for free on iTunes. It is certainly an interesting idea, though it probably is no match for specialized hearing equipment at this stage. What do you think?

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Apple has now created a new iPad page highlighting the features of both the iPad and iPad mini on their website. The new page is much like the iPhone page they launched earlier this month and points out everything that is ‘great’ about the iOS tablets.

Obviously it’s just Apple marketing going in to high gear in order to better fight off growth from competing tablets, particularly Android devices. The page is actually quite informative and gives you all the best bits of the iPad on one continuous page. Other areas on the Apple site have you navigation from page to page to get the full story.

Apple is obviously feeling the pressure from Android devices, and hopes that this new targeted campaign will be enough to keep people in their camp. What do you think of their recent iPhone/iPad campaign, does it smell of desperation or do you agree that the iPhone and iPad are the best consumer smartphone and tablet options on the market right now?

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At present, there are many 7 inch Androids tablets out there for customers to choose from such as the Nexus 7, the HP Slate 7, or devices from Acer, Asus, Lenovo and countless others. Being highly portable and offering lower price tags, smaller Android tablets are becoming quite popular. And now, it appears like these new tablets will be overtaking the iPad in quarterly market share, according to estimates by Sameer Singh at Tech Thoughts.

Data suggests that 57% of the market will be taken by Android tablets while iPad will take 40% by the end of Q1. These predictions are mostly based on tablet display shipments. Of course we can’t say that these figures will be completely accurate, but analysis of the supply chain sometimes does tell us what is coming especially in the near future.

According to available data, compared to the shipments of the iPad Mini and the full-sized iPad, the shipments of 7-inch Android tablets are on the rise which might be suggesting an increasing demand for cheaper 7 inchers. Although 10-inch tablets are still popular, they don’t seem to be growing at the same rate as 7-inchers, both running Android or even Apple’s own iPad Mini. In fact the iPad Mini is also affecting the sales of the 9.7-inch iPad.

Will 7-inch Android tablets overcome Apple’s iPad in the tablet market soon, or will these predictions prove wrong? We will have to wait and see. In the meantime, you can share your thoughts on the matter.

Do you prefer iOS, Android, or maybe even Windows on a tablet? What size of display, 7 to 8 inches or 9 inches plus?

The post Look Out iPad, 7-Inch Android Tablet Market Continues to Grow appeared first on Mobile Magazine.