Apple’s iPad will continue to account for the lion’s share of the tablet market this year, with rival Android devices slowly closing in from behind.

According to latest estimates by Gartner, a technology research firm, the iPad is expected to end the year with 73.4 percent of the global tablet market, down from 83 percent in 2010.

Android’s slice of the pie will increase from 14.3 percent in 2010 to 17.3 percent this year, thanks to the success of low-end tablets in Asia and expectations around the launch of Amazon’s Android tablet. …

If you’ve been paying your credit card bills online, you should be familiar with the token PIN that’s required to access most Internet banking services in Singapore.

This security mechanism is commonly known as two-factor authentication (2FA), which requires users to enter a token-generated PIN, plus the usual username and password to access online banking sites and corporate networks.

Besides financial institutions, the Singapore government and some large corporations have also issued employees with tokens for an added layer of security. …

Bought a new iPod/iPhone/iPad and looking forward to buying music for your new device? Local users have always been out of luck in that respect, as despite being the market leader for years, Apple has failed to bring its music download service to Singapore.

Now, a new software update to Research in Motion’s (RIM) BlackBerry PlayBook tablet will certainly be discord to Apple’s ears. The former has stuck a partnership with online music store 7digital to bring more than 9 million high quality MP3 tracks for Singapore residents to purchase.

The new Music Store app will allow users to search for songs, albums, and artists, as well as receive recommendations through a music discovery feature. Not sure whether a particular artist suits your tastes? The music store lets you preview tracks before plunking down the cash.

The cost of full albums on this new music store will range from S$8 to S$12, although users can also download just one or a few tracks if they don’t want the whole album.

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At its annual Worldwide Developers Conference this week, Apple unveiled iOS 5, the latest update to their mobile operating system. The update brings some interesting and long-awaited features to the iPhone and iPad. Strangely enough, although many of these features are blatant copies of existing functionality on other platforms, almost the entire blogosphere is falling over in praise for iOS 5. …

UNWIRED, Singapore’s first and only independent wireless and mobile conference, returned for a second run last Thursday, and saw the attendance of top-level executives from the relevant industries from across Southeast Asia.

Opened by the Infocomm Development Authority’s assistance chief executive Khoong Hock Yun, it featured half a day’s discussion on hot topics affecting the industry and its users.

From Singapore’s expected move to next generation mobile broadband (4G/LTE) to the rise of mobile computing and winning features of a mobile operating system, the conference was packed with fresh insights from a who’s who list of the country’s industry experts, who fielded a number of questions from the audience. …

What features would users expect from the mobile OSes running their handheld gizmos in the next six to 12 months? What will LTE and 4G bring to telecom operators when the speedy networks are finally rolled out? And how can organisations gain by creating mobile apps that tap on “the cloud” through their smartphones?

These are just a sample of the issues that industry leaders from Singapore and the region will be discussing at the upcoming UNWIRED 2011 conference on May 26, 2011. …

With the number of mobile phones and tablets being launched, it is essential to keep up or get left behind.

This is the driving idea behind multimedia software giant Adobe shortening their product update releases for Creative Suites, their flagship bundle of graphic design and web editing tools. Previously, Adobe was on a 18 month cycle between major releases, but now, new “mid-cycle” releases are planned every 12 months, with major releases every 24 months.

At the Adobe Creative Suite 5.5 media launch event today in Singapore, Adobe’s regional director for SE Asia Vicky Skipp said that the change in the launch cycle was informed by their customers.

“If we had to wait 18 months for a new release, we might be out of the game in certain markets,” she said.

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They should call it iPad 1.5, said a pal of mine, of Apple’s iPad 2 featuring an “all-new design”. Other detractors called it “underwhelming”, while yet others said it was “evolutionary, not revolutionary”, but that’s putting things nicely.

The truth is, after all the rumours and usual hoopla surrounding Apple launches, what characterised the new tablet computer from the market leader seemed to be what’s not there. So, what was so disappointing about last night’s launch, where Steve Jobs made a surprise appearance?

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RIM is sticking to its guns with the BlackBerry Bold 9780.

Apart from its brand new BlackBerry 6 OS, the Bold 9780 looks like the twin brother of the Bold 9700.

When I first saw the Bold 9780, I was hard-pressed to find anything new in this latest BlackBerry number.

The only differing trait is its black trimmings along the edges of the phone. The Bold 9700 shares the same fittings in chrome.

The Bold has everything going right in a qwerty form factor, including a compact body and a much acclaimed keyboard.
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The BlackBerry Torch 9800 is RIM’s first slider phone and represents an attempt to reclaim its mindshare among businesses who are increasingly lured by the use of the iPhone within the enterprise.

The Torch is a marked improvement over its predecessors, with a new BlackBerry OS 6 that offers a more intuitive user interface, a faster Web browser (through its acquisition of Torch Mobile), a 3.2-inch capacitive touchscreen and better integration with social network sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

The phone is well-built, with a screen that slides upwards to expose the Qwerty keyboard. The sliding mechanism is smooth and offers good tactile feedback, unlike the Motorola Droid which can be difficult to slide open at times.

Those who are not used to a BlackBerry keyboard could take a while to acclimatize to the keys and the layout of symbols, numbers and punctuation marks. Though the keys are small, I managed to type comfortably with good accuracy, though those with larger fingers might encounter more typo errors. For folks who prefer to use a touchscreen to type, there’s an onscreen keyboard that will be activated when you slide the screen back down. …