As phones go, so do tablets. In other words, Android tablets handily became more popular than their iPad counterparts for the first time, according to new data today.

120.9 million people snubbed the iPad Air and iPad mini 2 with Retina display last year in order to pick up one of the many tablets that runs Google's dominant operating system.

These worldwide sales numbers give Android tabs a 61.9% market share in 2013 after having just 45.8% of the tablet pie in 2012, according to market research firm Gartner.

Buyers were interested in low-end smaller screen tablets, suggested the firm, which perfectly describes the inexpensive 7-inch duo, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 7.0 and Google Nexus 7.

iPad sales numbers

Apple's 7.9 and 9.7-inch hardware still sold a combined 70.4 million with a market share of 36%. That's up from the 61.4 million sold in 2012, but down from its 52.8% market share.

The company remains the No. 1 tablet maker if the sales and market share are broken down by individual tablet manufacturer, with Samsung and Asus in second and third.

Apple also has the excuse that its redesigned full-sized iPad Air and smaller iPad mini 2 with launched in November of last year. The new mini was actually in short supply too.

Contrast that to Samsung and Google's pint-sized slates. Both the Tab 3 7.0 and Nexus 7 launched in July, giving them an almost four-month head start.

iPad and Android tablet sales are trending toward the numbers we see from their phones. Android-powered nearly 80% of smartphones in 2013, while Apple clung to just 15%, down from 20% a year ago.

Can Apple turn it around?

Apple might have a few tricks up its sleeve when it introduces the iPad Air 2 and iPad Mini 3.

We could see a bigger screen via the rumored iPad Pro and Bluetooth mouse support to match what users like about the extra-large business-friendly tabs like the Samsung Galaxy Note Pro 12.2.

Touch ID could make the inevitable phone-to-tab transition and Apple sure has to do something with that Sapphire glass factory. A tougher screen and wireless charging are on a lot of peoples' wish lists.

More than anything, the sales trend could tempt Apple to release a cheaper iPad to compete. Rather than a plastic tablet akin to the iPhone 5C, a price cut could turn things around.

• Come together: Microsoft reportedly wants Xbox Live cross-platform play on Android and iOS

Source : techradar[dot]com

The Oscar selfie seen 'round the world was taken with an "organically" incorporated Galaxy Note 3, according to Samsung.

Viewers cried foul when host Ellen DeGeneres (with the long arm of Bradley Cooper) snapped an A-list-filled selfie that broke a retweet record using a Note 3. Product placement! She was using an iPhone backstage!

A Samsung spokesperson has since told TechCrunch that "[w]hile we were a sponsor of the Oscars and had an integration with ABC, we were delighted to see Ellen organically incorporate the device."

The pic, starring the likes of Kevin Spacey, JLaw and Meryl Streep, has been retweeted almost 3 million times, and to "honor" the achievement Samsung is donating $3 million (about £1.8m/AU$3.3m) to charities of DeGeneres' choice.

She picked St. Jude's Research Hospital and the Humane Society, which will split the cash equally. It's nice to know some good is coming out of something so self-absorbed.

More blips!

Smile for more blips in 3, 2, 1...

• You could've bought Instagram with this Kickstarter cash
• Two words: Mincraft movie. Yes, this seems to be happening
• Apple product in 'only OK' shocker

Source : techradar[dot]com

It looks like Microsoft is making a new play on mobile gaming beyond its own mobile handsets.

A newly discovered job posting suggests that Microsoft is looking for new software engineers to port the Xbox Live platform to iOS and Android devices. Going beyond the Smartglass app users can already download, it seems Microsoft wants to extend Xbox Live's functionality even further.

One of goals listed in the job description included creating "a modern framework that is open source, light-weight, extensible and scalable across various platforms including Windows Store, Windows Phone, iOS and Android."

The description also details that Microsoft is hoping to "win back" game developers from our competitors. Developers that are most likely switched from programming console and PC games to become mobile game makers.

Winning back developers

The Verge confirmed with a source familiar with the Redmond company's plans that it is building a platform to extend Xbox Live functionality to iOS and Android games directly.

Prior to this new job posting, Microsoft has already implemented achievements into the Wordament app on iOS and Android. So it's not a far stretch that it would want more Xbox Live integration in games.

For Xbox gamers, achievements are a big reason why they stick with Microsoft's gaming platform, which could completely steamroll over Game Center on iOS and Android's Play Games service.

Achievements aside implementing more chat messaging, leaderboards, and even voice chat could all add a whole new cross-platform layer to competitive and multiplayer mobile games.

• You can also get achievements on the Xbox One, check out our review

Source : techradar[dot]com

Just in case the Samsung Galaxy S5 isn't sweet enough on its own, Samsung is adding some extra sugar in the form of a "Galaxy Gifts" bundle of subscriptions, premium apps and more.

It includes a year's premium subscription to the fitness apps RunKeeper and Lark and six months with the similar Skimble and Map My Fitness, six months of The Wall Street Journal and three months of Businessweek+, three month premium subscriptions to LinkedIn and Evernote, and three months of massive 1TB storage with Bitcasa.

It also hahs special offers from select stores when you use Paypal, a free download of the to-do app EasilyDo Pro, $10 (about £6, AU$11) of Cut the Rope 2 credits, a six-month, 50GB subscription to the online storage service Box, and more.

Getting better all the time

All told Samsung says the Galaxy S5 bundle is worth $500 (about £300, AU$560).

The Galaxy Gifts bundle will be included with every Galaxy S5 purchase when the phone launches in April.

With a 5.1-inch full HD display, a 2.5GHz quad-core processor, a 16-megapixel camera, and a fingerprint scanner, the Galaxy S5 is not a gargantuan step up from its predecessor, but carries enough welcome improvements that it will no doubt sell like gangbusters come April.

• The Galaxy S5 has a lot in common with the Galaxy Note 3 - here's TechRadar's review

Source : techradar[dot]com

The smartphone megapixels wars are back on as a new image on the web suggest Oppo might have a 50-megapixel camera powered smartphone.

The Chinese phone manufacturer posted a new photo of a Ford classic taken by the upcoming Find 7 smartphone in a whopping 8,160 x 6,120 resolution.

The posted image may have been enhanced by some post-processing trickery, but it seems like the camera can also resolve some good dynamic range. On the surface we can see a lot of sharp details without any noticeably dark shadows or overblown highlights.

There's a fair bit of purple fringing around the leaves in the background as they meet the sunlight but this is usually a fault of the lens. However, it's still too early to call the smartphone camera's quality from just one image.

Widening the camera gap

If the teaser image turns out to really come from the Oppo Find 7 it would dethrone the Nokia Lumia 1020 from having the highest 41 megapixel camera around.

The smartphone camera technology war is picking this year and thus far we've already seen the 16-megapixel camera on the quicker auto-focusing Samsung Galaxy S5. Soon enough the dual-sensor HTC One 2 will make its reveal, and the iPhone 6 is likely to feature the same 8-megapixel sensor with a wider aperture sapphire lens.

We know megapixels don't account for even half the quality of an image, but it's a big gambit coming from Oppo. The smartphone maker has already put down some big bets on the Find 7. Earlier reports said that the phone will come with a 2,560 x 1,440 resolution display in addition to the more pedestrian 1080p model.

We'll find out if all of this hardware boasting is real very soon when the Oppo Find 7 is announced on March 19.

• Megapixels aren't everything, the Lytro Light Field Camera has over 100,000 microlenses

Source : techradar[dot]com