Top news this week: Import ban against Samsung, LG G2 unveiled, Whatsapp gets voice messaging and more

Another interesting, tech-filled week has gone by. If you found yourself caught amidst deadlines, Eid festivities, et al, scroll down to get your weekly fix of tech news.

Trouble ahead?

USITC orders import ban against Samsung in final ruling   
Cupertino-based Apple reportedly managed to secure an import ban against Samsung after the body found the latter to have infringed on two patents. Late by a week, the infringed patents include a software interface patent (also referred to as the “Steve Jobs patent”) and a hardware patent for detecting when a headset is connected – audio I/O headset plug and plug detection circuitry.

BlackBerry contemplating going private: Report
A report has revealed that the company is “warming up” to the idea of going private. The board could take the step of making BlackBerry private in order to raise its sagging fortunes. Sources familiar to the matter told Reuters that the company and its CEO Thorsten Heins had been contemplating the idea of pulling itself from the stock market in order to be able to take some “breathing room” to itself while it tried to fix issues plaguing it. While no decisions have been made yet, the “change of tone” by the board could act as a call to private firms to raise some money to acquire the Canadian company.

Asus RT tablets to go

Asus to halt production of Windows RT tablets
The Taiwanese company has confirmed that it will cease manufacturing Windows RT tablets. The Windows tablets that are struggling to sell anyway are now facing trouble with manufacturers pulling out of the project.

Asus reportedly manufacturing the new Nexus
New rumours have emerged that Asus could be building the new iteration of Google’s tablets. The reports emerge even as earlier rumours suggested that Samsung could be building the new Nexus 10.

A ‘Made in India’ chip may be a reality soon
India could soon be getting its first high-tech chip fabrication facility. According to The Economic Times, STMicroelectronics, Europe’s largest chip-maker, and a consortium led by IBM are in advanced stages of talks with the government for an investment of over Rs 50,000 crore for a fab unit. Both companies are likely to invest over Rs 25,000 crore each

Micromax owners arrested by CBI in bribery case
In a big jolt to the electronics company, it has been reported that the owners of Micromax, Rajesh Agarwal and Manish Tuli have been arrested for allegedly paying engineers of North Municipal Corporation a bribe. The partners were apparently held for trying to pay Rs 30 lakhs as bribe to get clearance for the construction of a banquet hall.

Finding your misplaced Android smartphone has now become easier
Google has started rolling out the Android Device Manager. The feature is starting to appear on devices running Android 2.2 and up and the site has gone live as well. Announced last week, the Android Device Manager had already been spotted running on several devices all over the world, including some in India. The feature is a response to Find My iPhone, Find my (Windows) Phone and the likes. It will help you find your Android device in case you have misplaced it.

Newly unveiled LG G2 smartphone

LG unveils the 5.2 inch full HD G2, takes on Samsung Galaxy S4
Few leaked images and many rumours later, the LG G2 smartphone is officially out. The smartphone was unveiled yesterday at an event in New York. For those of you who’re a little late to this party, the G2 is LG’s latest flagship smartphone. It is also the first smartphone introduced under LG’s new “G” Series.

Here’s a quick look at the specs of the LG G2:

• 5.2-inch Full HD IPS display with a resolution of 1080 x 1920 pixels
• 13MP camera with OIS, 2.1MP front-facing camera
• 32GB/16GB internal storage options

Android grabs 80 percent of global smartphone market in Q2 2013
A study by Strategy Analytics has found that Android is the most dominant operating system on smartphones in the world. The study states that around 80 percent of handsets that were sold in Q2 of 2013 ran on Android, according to Fox News.

iPhone sales, by comparison, accounted for 14 percent of the global smartphone sale pie. Microsoft, on the other hand, is a distant third with a meagre 4 percent of the market share.

Firefox 23 released for Windows, Mac, Linux and Android users
Mozilla Corporation has released an updated Firefox – Firefox 23 – for its Windows, Mac, Linux, and Android users. Among the newly introduced features is a share button on the Firefox toolbar that lets users share their favourite content faster with friends or followers directly from the browser. One can try it using Facebook Messenger for Firefox or Cliqz. Users can also interact with their friends and family via Firefox by commenting or accessing personal content on a consistent sidebar. They can also check their notifications directly within the Firefox toolbar, chat with friends without leaving the web page they are on, share content with friends, networks, et al, within Firefox.

Yahoo! to get a new logo with the same old flavour next month
Kathy Savitt, Chief Marketing Officer at Yahoo! announced that the company is going to introduce a brand new logo next month. To kick off the countdown to the new logo, Savitt announced that Yahoo! will be putting up a new design each day and on day number 30, will unveil the new Yahoo! logo.

Twitter for Android and iOS get two-step verification
Twitter is rolling out updates to its Android and iOS applications with a better way to securely login to your accounts on your mobile devices. After introducing the two-step verification feature to Twitter on the web, the micro-blogging website is extending this feature to mobile apps as well. Using the login verification you will be able to approve login requests straight from your mobile application. This might sound like the SMS based login verification system launched by Twitter around May, but the new system ensures that you do not need to rely on text messages anymore.

Add voice to your messages now …

WhatsApp gets voice messaging as it hits 300 million monthly users
The messaging giant has announced that it is finally adding the ability to send voice messages from its applications. The company also told AllThingsD that it had finally breached the 300 million monthly active users mark and that the application had more than 20 million active users each in Germany, Mexico and Spain. India too is ranked on the list of countries with the highest number of monthly active users on WhatsApp. To coincide with this occasion, WhatsApp has released a small update that lets you send short voice messages to your friends instead of typing long-winding texts out. The feature is rolling out slowly to all of WhatsApp’s applications on iPhone, BlackBerry, Android, Windows Phone and Nokia..

Sergey Brin invests in world’s first synthetic hamburger
For all of those who’re a little late to this party, Dr Post has prepared a beef burger in his lab using muscle stem cells. In fact, his dish was even shown off and promptly tasted at an event in London recently.

Zynga to shut down studio behind Draw Something
Ailing game company Zynga has finalised its plans to shut down OMGPOP—a studio well known for infamous Pictionary clone Draw Something. OMGPOP didn’t want to go down without a fight. The team attempted to work things out with Zynga and offered to buy back the site or continue operating it. However, Zynga seems to have refused and the studio is set to close down its shutters.