Amazon teams with Nokia, snubs Google for maps

Amazon.com Inc’s new Kindle Fire will have mapping services via a tie-up with Nokia Oyj, according to two people familiar with the situation, filling a gap in the tablet’s capabilities while snubbing Google Inc’s popular service. The world’s largest Internet retailer, which says its nine-month old Kindle Fire now accounts for one in five US tablet sales, has teamed up with Nokia on mapping, the two people told Reuters. Amazon will release at least one new version of the Kindle Fire next Thursday.

Amazon will also add location capabilities to the new Kindle Fire, which requires either a GPS chip or a process known as WiFi triangulation, the people said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak ahead of the launch.

Apple to use LG Display screens
Apple Inc will use screens from AU Optronics Corp and LG Display for a smaller version of the iPad to be released in October, according to four people familiar with the plans. TPK Holding and Yeh Cheng Technology, a subsidiary of Foxconn Technology Group, will supply the lamination coating for the device that will measure 7.85 inches diagonally, said the people, who declined to be identified because the plans had not been made public. Current iPads measure 9.7 inches.

Samsung adds Google app store
Samsung Electronics, the largest maker of televisions, will combine Google Inc services with its internet-connected TVs, overcoming previous differences over how to replicate their partnership in smartphones. In the UK, Samsung plans to offer TVs with the Google Chrome browser and Android application store before the end of the year.

New spyware to controI iPhones
FinFisher spyware made by UK-based Gamma Group can take control of a range of mobile devices, including Apple’s iPhone and Research in Motion’s BlackBerry, an analysis of presumed samples of the software shows. The programme can secretly turn on a device’s microphone, track its location and monitor emails, text messages and voice calls, according to the findings, published by the University of Toronto Munk School of Global Affairs’ Citizen Lab.

Apple offers antitrust concessions
Apple and four major publishers have offered to allow retailers such as Amazon to sell e-books at a discount for two years in a bid to end an EU antitrust investigation and stave off possible fines. The publishers are: Simon & Schuster, News Corp unit HarperCollins, French group Lagardere SCA’s Hachette Livre and Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck, which owns Macmillan in Germany.