97 percent of smartphones to have touchscreens by 2016 says research firm

Bad news for those who detest touchscreens, because, according to research firm ABI, 97 percent of smartphones will be equipped with a touchscreen of some form or another by the year 2016.

The research firm says that touchscreens have been as driving a factor in the explosive growth of smartphones as the proliferation of 3G data. Before the iPhone, smartphones with touchscreens made up only 7 percent of the total smartphone market in 2006. By 2010, 75 percent of the smartphones on the market were equipped with a touchscreen of some form or another.

Touchscreens today are very different than they were back in 2006, as well. Thanks to the success and influence of the iPhone, resistive touchscreens have pretty much gone the way of the dinosaur, with the superior, capacitive-type touchscreens taking their place. Capacitive touchscreens are more responsive to finger input than resistive screens, and do not require the use of a stylus. You can find capacitive touchscreens on the iPhone, most all Android phones, Windows Phone 7 smartphones, webOS devices, and even some BlackBerry and Symbian smartphones. ABI says that low-cost capacitive touchscreens will revolutionize the feature phone and e-reader market next.

ABI projects that by 2016, 97 percent of the smartphones available on the market will have a touchscreen, whether that is in conjunction with a physical keyboard or not. Though, even now, aside from the low-end BlackBerry models, its hard to find a smartphone that doesn't have a touchscreen today.

Samsung to unveil Galaxy Tab 8.9 tablet with LTE next week too

In addition to the previously mentioned upgrade to the Galaxy S II, complete with LTE, it seems that Samsung will be rolling out the Galaxy Tab 8.9 tablet with LTE next week as well. The Galaxy Tab 8.9 was originally announced way back at CTIA earlier this spring, but there has been nary a peep about it from Samsung since then.

The Galaxy Tab 8.9 with LTE is expected to be launched on August 29, and conveniently, Samsung has a press event scheduled in New York City on that date. In addition to the new LTE support, it should feature a faster, 1.5GHz, dual-core processor, likely the same one found in the upgraded Galaxy S II. The 8.9-inch display has a 1280 x 800 pixel resolution, and the tablet runs Android 3.2 Honeycomb.

If Samsung does unveil this new version of the Galaxy Tab 8.9 next week, it could be headed to either Verizon Wireless or AT&T, as both have promised more LTE-equipped tablets and devices are coming. Samsung would be required to make separate versions for each carrier for 3G fallback when out of 4G LTE range, though in theory, the company could pack GSM, CDMA, and LTE support into one model. We should know more about it soon enough, provided a certain natural disaster doesn't put NYC underwater

Facebook announces easier, better, faster, cleaner Photos

Facebook has announced that it is improving its Facebook Photos product once again. The social networking giant is allowing users to upload bigger photos, is making them load faster, and is also updating the photo viewer as well. These new features will be gradually rolling out to Facebook’s 750 million users over the next few days.

The photos you share on Facebook will now be bigger (from 720 pixels to 960 pixels). Photos you’ve already uploaded to the social network will also be displayed at this higher resolution, if available. Furthermore, the company is claiming photos will now load twice as fast.

Earlier this year, Facebook launched the first version of the photo viewer (and I wrote up how to revert to the old one). The company says it has now made changes based feedback it received from its users: the new photo viewer is more streamlined, features a cleaner interface, and makes it even easier to enjoy your photos. The light box is now set against a simple white background that puts more of the focus on the photo, and less on the surrounding frame.

Facebook also took the opportunity to reveal that the social network sees over 250 million photos uploaded each day. The service is thus still the biggest photo sharing website on the Internet.

Twitter Missives Stalking or Free Speech?

Twitter messages are the subject of a legal case that raises the question of whether public postings on the social networking service can amount to stalking if they are deemed threatening to another person.

Is posting a public message on Twitter the same as speaking publicly from a soapbox, or is it a more direct form of communication, such as a letter or phone call?

A federal criminal case involving a man accused of tweeting thousands of vehement messages aimed at a Maryland-based Buddhist leader tests the question.

According to The New York Times, William Lawrence Cassidy is accused of online stalking because of 8,000 Twitter and blog entries that he allegedly posted about Alyce Zeoli and her Buddhist group. The posts included messages such as “Do the world a favor and go kill yourself. P.S. Have a nice day,” or “Ya like haiku? Here’s one for ya. Long limb, sharp saw, hard drop.”

Zeoli says because of the posts she feared for her life and has locked herself up at home for extended periods of time, even hiring armed guards at one point.

There are federal laws against cyberstalking and many states have enacted such laws as well. The question, however, is whether or not they apply to messages posted publicly on Twitter.

Free speech advocates are wary.

“While not all speech is protected by the First Amendment, the idea that the courts must police every inflammatory word spoken online not only chills freedom of speech but is unsupported by decades of First Amendment jurisprudence,” writes the San Francisco-based Electronic Frontier Foundation, which wants the case dismissed.

Cassidy is now in jail in Maryland awaiting trial.

No more TV-show rentals on iTunes a sign of something bigger from Apple?

Citing tepid customer demand, Apple has pulled the virtual plug on TV-show rentals from the iTunes Store, according to AllThingsD, but could it actually be a harbinger of something much, much bigger from the tech giant?

A statement from an Apple spokesperson claims that the rental model was embraced by neither customers nor TV studios. A lot of that has to do with the fact that you can watch many new episodes at your convenience on Hulu for free or through the on-demand service of your pay TV provider. And now that you can store purchased TV shows from iTunes as part of Apple’s Cloud beta, users may prefer to buy an extra couple of bucks to own an episode permanently and access it through any iOS device.

But this being Apple, the tea readers are already trying to determine if the move is setting the stage for something bigger and more, well, Apple-like. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the company is working a “new technology” that would beam video to TVs. Presumably this would be related to the long-anticipated iTunes TV subscription service, and may be tied to the persistent rumors of an Apple HDTV.

What’s intriguing is the description of this as “new” technology, as it suggests something more disruptive that could potentially let customers bypass their cable or satellite providers. Imagine having a la carte options instead of a package of channels you have to subscribe to, whether you want to or not. Now imagine how hard every one of those pay TV providers will fight against this ever happening.

Still, you can’t count such a scenario out. Remember, it was iTunes that turned the CD from the principal money-maker for the music industry into a relic for many people under 30. Could it do it again to traditional pay TV?