MacRumors

Bloomberg briefly reports that the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is preparing to fine Google over its efforts to circumvent privacy restrictions in Safari for iOS to track users through ads on numerous sites across the web. According to a source, the fine is likely to amount to tens of millions of dollars.

Google Inc. (GOOG) is negotiating with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission over how big a fine it will have to pay for its breach of Apple Inc. (AAPL)’s Safari Internet browser, a person familiar with the matter said. [...]

The fine would be the first by the FTC for a violation of Internet privacy safeguards as the agency steps up enforcement of the Web.

Google took advantage of a loophole in Safari's default privacy settings, making the browser think that the user was interacting with a given ad, thus allowing a tracking cookie to be installed. With that cookie installed, it became easy for Google to add additional cookies and to track users across the web as they visited other sites displaying ads from Google's networks.

Late yesterday, Cult of Mac reported that select Walmart locations had significantly dropped their prices on the AT&T iPhone 4S and iPhone 4, slashing the 16 GB AT&T iPhone 4S to just $114 and the AT&T 8GB iPhone 4 to $34 on contract. Walmart's usual pricing has been $188 for the iPhone 4S and $88 for the iPhone 4, already below Apple's standard $199/$99 pricing.

This news comes to us from Edmond, Oklahoma, and we’re not sure how widespread the sale is in the United States, or how long it will last. AT&T has yet to clarify if this price drop is a national carrier promotion, or a change decided by Walmart.

Highlighting the sporadic nature of the reports, The Verge notes that it contacted six Walmart stores around the United States and found only the initial Edmond, Oklahoma store and a store in Austin, Texas offering the discounted pricing. Walmart's website also has not been updated with the lower pricing.

Most observers expect that Apple will not introduce new iPhone hardware until the September-October timeframe, in line with the iPhone 4S debut last year. But for those still holding out hope for a launch next month at Apple's sold-out Worldwide Developers Conference, Walmart's price drop, even if only sporadic for the time being, may provide a reason to not yet give up.

Update: Walmart issued a statement to 9to5Mac saying the chain "experienced a pricing error in limited stores" and that the issue has since been corrected. The correct Walmart pricing for the 16GB iPhone 4S is $188; iPhone 4 at $88; and iPhone 3GS at $0.97.

Last month, it was discovered that Apple quietly tweaked the 16 GB Wi-Fi iPad 2, equipping the device with a smaller 32-nm die shrink of the A5 system-on-a-chip previously used in the line. The tweaked iPad 2 carries an internal identifier of "iPad2,4", which was first spotted in an iOS 5.1 beta back in November, but at the time it was unclear what the model represented.

A similar die shrink of the A5 was found in the new Apple TV, and it appears that Apple made the move in order to test out production of next-generation chip processes in lower-volume devices. The A5X used in the third-generation iPad continues to be based on a 45-nm process.

Anandtech has now gotten its hands on one of these new iPad 2 models and subjected it to a series of battery life and performance tests, finding that the revised model offers identical performance to other iPad 2 models but with battery life improvements of 15-30% in several benchmarking tests.

Assuming Apple didn't change any fundamentals of its microarchitecture, the iPad 2,4's gains in battery life can be attributed directly to the process. The gains themselves are significant. We measured a 15% increase in our web browsing battery life, a nearly 30% increase in gaming battery life and an 18% increase in video playback battery life. Although Apple hasn't revised its battery life specs, the iPad 2,4 definitely lasts longer on a single charge than the original iPad 2.

Unfortunately, Anandtech notes that there appears to be no way for customers to ensure that they receive one of these revised iPad 2 models for their $399 purchase, as there are still a significant number of the original iPad 2 models in circulation and they can not be distinguished based without opening the box and turning on the device.

Samsung has certainly become Apple's primary competition in the smartphone race, with the two companies currently taking nearly all of the profits in the mobile phone industry. Consequently, it pays for Apple and its fans to take note of Samsung's advances with its own hardware, and today's launch of the new flagship Galaxy S III smartphone is no exception.

The Android-based Samsung Galaxy S III offers a large 4.8-inch Super AMOLED display with a resolution of 1280x720. The large screen means that Galaxy S III measures nearly 20% taller and wider than the iPhone 4S, but is slightly thinner and actually lighter. The device also includes an 8-megapixel rear camera and a 1.9-megapixel front camera that can be used for face recognition and tracking features.

Samsung Galaxy S III side-by-side with iPhone 4S (Source: Android Central)

With the innovative ‘Smart stay’ feature, the GALAXY S III recognizes how you are using your phone – reading an e-book or browsing the web for instance – by having the front camera identify your eyes; the phone maintains a bright display for continued viewing pleasure.

The GALAXY S III features ‘S Voice,’ the advanced natural language user interface, to listen and respond to your words. In addition to allowing information search and basic device-user communication, S Voice presents powerful functions in regards to device control and commands. When your phone alarm goes off but you need a little extra rest, just tell the GALAXY S III “snooze.” You can also use S Voice to play your favorite songs, turn the volume up or down, send text messages and emails, organize your schedules, or automatically launch the camera and capture a photo.

In addition to recognizing your face and voice, the GALAXY S III understands your motions to offer maximized usability. If you are messaging someone but decide to call them instead, simply lift your phone to your ear and ‘Direct call’ will dial their number.

Other features include "Pop up play", which allows users to play videos anywhere on their screen while still using other apps, camera improvements including zero-lag shutter and burst shot mode, and NFC capabilities. Samsung has also partnered with Dropbox to offer Galaxy S III users 50 GB of free storage for two years, a deal that will extend to all Samsung phones and tablets later this year and see the Dropbox app come preinstalled on the devices.

In another bid to take on Apple, Samsung is also rolling out a new Music Hub service that integrates both a streaming service and an iTunes Match-like scan-and-match service to provide users with access to their own music from anywhere. As noted by The Verge, Music Hub will cost $9.99 per month for one device or $12.99 per month for up to four devices plus web access.

The Samsung Galaxy S III will launch in Europe on May 29 before extending to the United States in June and other markets around the world going forward.

Asymco's Horace Dediu has released his data on operating profits among the eight top mobile phone vendors for the first quarter of 2012, finding that Apple and Samsung together now hold 99% of the profits with Apple representing the lion's share at 73%. Apple's share was down slightly from 75% in the previous quarter, but Samsung boosted its share from 16% to 26% to shut out nearly all other vendors.

Among the other six vendors, only HTC managed to eke out a profit, taking 1% of the total industry profits. Research in Motion, LG, Sony Ericsson, Motorola, and Nokia each failed to turn a profit on their handset businesses.

The rise of Apple and Samsung at the expense of all of the other major vendors comes as the mobile phone market continues to expand and more expensive smartphones make up an increasing percentage of overall mobile phone sales. Consequently, Apple and Samsung share growth is coming even as the total pool of profits is surging. Over the past two years, profits taken by these top eight vendors has risen from $5.3 billion to $14.4 billion, driven in large part by carrier subsidies worth hundreds of dollars on each of the growing number of smartphones sold.

Logitech today announced the launch of its Solar Keyboard Folio, a folding case for the new iPad and iPad 2 that incorporates a solar-powered Bluetooth keyboard.

Similar to Logitech’s solar keyboards for Mac and PC, the Logitech Solar Keyboard Folio includes onboard solar cells that charge the built-in Bluetooth keyboard in any light, whether indoors or outdoors. When fully charged, the battery lasts for up to two years, even in complete darkness (based on a average use of two hours per day).

Much like Apple's Smart Cover, the folio also folds to serve as a stand for the iPad, with two positions available: an upright orientation offering full access to the keyboard and a more reclined position that offers access to only the bottom row of the keyboard for media playback controls.

Logitech's Solar Keyboard Folio will carry a retail price of $129.99 and will launch in the United States and Europe later this month.

IDC today released its data on worldwide tablet shipments for the first quarter of 2012, revealing that despite a quarterly drop in iPad shipments of over 20%, Apple's share of the tablet market rose to 68% from last quarter's 54.7%. Apple's boost came at the expense of Android-based tablets, most notably Amazon's Kindle Fire which appears to have seen its shipments collapse from 4.8 million units in the fourth quarter of 2011 to less than 750,000 units last quarter.

"Apple reasserted its dominance in the market this quarter, driving huge shipment totals at a time when all but a few Android vendors saw their numbers drop precipitously after posting big gains during the holiday buying season," said Tom Mainelli, research director, Mobile Connected Devices at IDC. "Apple's move to position the iPad as an all-purpose tablet, instead of just a content consumption device, is resonating with consumers as well as educational and commercial buyers. And its decision to keep a lower-priced iPad 2 in the market after it launched the new iPad in March seems to be paying off as well."

Amazon had surged into second place in the tablet market during the fourth quarter with a 16.8% share of the market as the Kindle Fire debuted in the United States. But while IDC did not report a number for Amazon's first quarter shipments in its press release, it did note that Amazon's share dropped to to "just over 4%" in the total tablet market of 17.4 million units, yielding shipment volume of roughly 700,000-750,000 units for Amazon.

As a result of Amazon's decline, Samsung was able to regain the second position in the tablet market, ahead of Amazon, Lenovo, and Barnes & Noble. Amazon's slide also comes as mass retailer Target yesterday announced plans to discontinue the sale of all Kindle devices and other Amazon- and Kindle-branded products.

The overall tablet market grew 120% year-over-year, but the 38% quarter-over-quarter decline was even steeper than expected coming off the strong holiday quarter. Apple obviously has a significant influence on the overall tablet market given its dominant position, and the company did ship slightly fewer than expected iPads during the quarter as consumers held off on iPad 2 purchases ahead of the new iPad's launch and Apple experienced some supply constraints when the device did launch with just three weeks left in the quarter.

iLounge reports on information it has received regarding the next-generation iPhone, claiming that Apple will indeed be making the move to a 4-inch display by increasing the height only has had been previously speculated. To accommodate the taller screen, the body of the device will also become slightly taller, but it will also see an approximately 20% reduction in thickness.

What we’ve learned: the new iPhone will indeed be longer and thinner than the iPhone 4 and 4S. Approximate measurements are 125mm by 58.5mm by 7.4mm—a 10mm jump in height, nearly 2mm reduction in thickness, and virtually identical width. According to our source, Apple will make one major change to the rear casing, adding a metal panel to the central back of the new iPhone. This panel will be flat, not curved, and metal, not ceramic. Our artist’s rendition provides a rough idea of what this change will look like; it echoes the current-generation iMac design, to be sure.

The report also claims that Apple will be adopting the rumored smaller dock connector for the device, which will be "closer to a pill shape" than the existing connector.

iLounge has offered some correct information in the past, and was rather accurate in its claims regarding the latest iPad. Not all of the site's claims came to fruition, however, with the new iPad's front-facing camera failing to gain HD resolution and Apple offering no sign of an enhanced smart cover for the device.

With many hoping that Apple will undertake a significant redesign effort for the next-generation iPhone, scattered claims have fueled speculation that Apple might base the design on amorphous metal alloys from Liquidmetal Technologies. Apple acquired exclusive rights to Liquidmetal's technologies for use in consumer electronics back in 2010, but so far as used the metal only in the iPhone 3G SIM removal tool.

Atakan Peker, one of the inventors of Liquidmetal alloys, reports in a new interview with Business Insider that Apple is unlikely to use the alloys as a major component for at least two to four years. The company may find uses for Liquidmetal alloys in minor capacities before that time, as it did with the SIM removal tool, but mass production on the scale needed for full device casings is still some time off.

Q: I've heard rumors that future MacBooks from Apple could use Liquidmetal casing, what would that be like? Is it likely to happen?

A: Given the size of MacBook and scale of Apple products, I think it's unlikely that Liquidmetal casing will be used in MacBooks in the near term. It's more likely in the form of small component such as a hinge or bracket. A MacBook casing, such as a unibody, will take two to four more years to implement.

While Peker does not have direct knowledge of Apple's plans for Liquidmetal alloys, he does expect that the company will seek to make a major impact with it and to use it in a breakthrough product down the road. In Peker's view, Apple will likely take advantage of the alloys' strength and durability, as well as the ease with which they can be cast into complex shapes, to bring a unique product to the market.