Mobile data increased very much last year. I expect the growth to continue. If operators do not invest enough to their network and/or find suitable charging schemes the network can become more congested than before.
4G mobile device speeds becomes the new standard. As competition move to that end, there will be fast growth there. Shipments of ’4G’ LTE devices, that is handsets, dongles and tablets, reached almost 103 million units in 2012, according to figures published by ABI Research. It interesting that almost 95% of the devices shipped went to North America and the Asia-Pacific.
3G will become the low-cost option for those who think 4G option is too expensive. What is interesting to note is that not everyone who upgraded to an LTE-capable device last year took out an LTE subscription; in fact, only around half of LTE device owners also have an LTE subscription.
The shift to 4G can take many more than year to fully happen even in USA. ABI expects the rate at which 3G subscribers with LTE handsets upgrade to LTE connections will gather pace over the next two years. And even longer in Europe. Carriers should not be panicking. And 3G will live and expand besides 4G for quite a long time. For many of those living outside cities, 3G internet connections are still hard to come by.
Apple and Samsung will continue to make money this year as well as people rate Apple and Samsung more highly than ever. Accountant Deloitte predicts that Smartphone sales to hit 1bn a year for first time in 2013.
Samsung is currently the world’s leading seller of phones and televisions. Those leaders should be careful because competition is getting harder all the time. Samsung boss has given warning on this to employees. Remember what what happened to Nokia.
Android will dominate smart phone market even stronger than before. Digitimes Research: Android phones to account for 70% of global smartphone market in 2013.
Windows Phone 8 situation is a question mark. Digitimes predicts that Shipments of Windows Phones, including 7.x and 8.x models, will grow 150% on year to 52.5 million units in 2013 for a 6.1% share. There is one big force against Windows Phone: Google does not bother doing services for Windows Phone 8, Google’s sync changes are going to screw Gmail users on Windows Phone and there are issues with YouTube. Does Windows Phone even have a chance without Google? For active Google service users the changes are pretty that they get this phone.
Competition on smart phones gets harder. It seems that smart phone business have evolved to point where even relatively small companies can start to make their own phones. Forbes sees that Amazon, Microsoft, Google, will all introduce branded mobile phones.
Patent battles are far from over. We will see many new patent fights on smart phones and tablets.
Mobile phones still cause other devices to become redundant. Tietoviikko tells that last year mobile phone made redundant the following devices: small screen smart phones (4 inch or more now), music buying as individual tracks or discs, navigators (smart phone can do that) and a separate pocket size camera. Let’s see what becomes redundant this year.
Many things happens on Linux on mobile devices. Ubuntu now fits in your phone. Firefox OS phones from ZTE will come to some markets. ZTE plans to make Open webOS phone. Meego is not dead, it resurrects with new names: Samsung will release Tizen based phones. Jolla will release Sailfish phones.
Cars become more and more mobile communications devices. Car of the future is M2M-ready. Think a future car as a big smart phone moving on wheels.
Nokia seemed to be getting better on the end of 2012, but 2013 does not look too good for Nokia. Especially on smart phones if you believe Tomi T Ahonen analysis Picture Tells it Better – first in series of Nokia Strategy Analysis diagrams, how Nokia smartphone sales collapsed. Even if shipment of Windows Phone 8 devices increase as Digitimes predicts the year will be hard for Nokia. Tristan Louis expects in Forbes magazine that Nokia abandons the mobile business in 2013. I think that will happen this year, at least for whole mobile business. I have understood that basic phone and feature phone phone business part of Nokia is quite good condition. The problems are on smart phones. I expect that Windows Phone 8 will not sell as well as Nokia hopes.
Because Nokia is reducing number of workers in Finland, there are other companies that try to use the situation: Two new Finnish mobile startups and Samsung opens a research center in Espoo Finland.
Finnish mobile gaming industry has been doing well on 2012. Rovio has been growing for years on the success of Angry Birds that does not show slowing down. Supercell had also huge success. I expect those businesses to grow this year. Maybe some new Finnish mobiel game company finds their own recipe for success.
Late addition: Wireless charging of mobile devices is get getting some popularity. Wireless charging for Qi technology is becoming the industry standard as Nokia, HTC and some other companies use that. There is a competing AW4P wireless charging standard pushed by Samsung ja Qualcomm. Toyota’s car will get wireless mobile phone charger, and other car manufacturers might follow that if buyers start to want them. Wireless charge option has already been surprisingly common variety of devices: Nokia Lumia 920, Nexus 4, HT, etc. We have to wait for some time for situation to stabilize before we see public charging points in cafeterias.
1,261 Comments
Tomi Engdahl says:
ZTE to flog Firefox OS mobe worldwide via eBay
Unlocked, low-powered, and dirt cheap
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/08/12/zte_open_to_sell_via_ebay/
Chinese mobile maker ZTE has announced plans to sell a smartphone running the Mozilla Foundation’s Firefox OS worldwide via online auction site eBay.
The company said the orange-colored version of the ZTE Open would go on sale “soon” for $79.99 on eBay’s US site and £59.99 in the UK, though no specific date was given.
“The ZTE Open offers customers a smartphone experience at an incredible price point, making it ideal for cost conscious consumers or those looking to upgrade to a smartphone for the first time,” ZTE vice president Dai Wenhong said in a statement.
Naturally, that low price tag won’t get you a flagship device. In fact, by most smartphone platform standards, the ZTE Open’s hardware specs are rather modest.
It’s based on a Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM7225A chip, which includes a single 1GHz Cortex A5 processor core and an Adreno 200 GPU. It comes with 256MB of RAM and 512MB of internal storage, expandable via microSD cards. It has a 3.5-inch multitouch screen with 480-by-320 pixel resolution.
With specs like those, the ZTE Open is hardly going to give the next iPhone a run for its money. But based on early reports, it does an adequate job of running Mozilla’s lightweight, HTML-based Firefox OS, which is only just beginning to trickle out into mobile markets worldwide.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Kim Jong Un inspects North Korea’s first smartphone, an Android clone
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2013/08/12/kim-jong-un-inspects-north-koreas-first-ever-smartphone-an-android-clone/
North Korea has unveiled its new smartphone, the “Arirang,” an Android clone named after a famous Korean folk song that’s also something of a national anthem. Leader Kim Jong Un visited the factory to inspect the phones to great fanfare, although cellphone data services are still illegal in the country, and the phone may not actually be made in North Korea at all.
North Korea analyst Martyn Williams suspects the phones may actually be produced in China and then quietly shuttled across the border so that North Korean workers can pretend to have built them. The Arirang phones, he writes, “are probably made to order by a Chinese manufacturer and shipped to the [North Korean] Factory where they are inspected before going on sale.”
So why would Kim be so excited about showing off the North Korean smartphones if they’re neither really North Korean-made nor yet usable as smartphones?
He’s previously been spotted with a smartphone at his side, a first for a North Korean leader.
The more likely explanation, though, is that North Korean officials may want to tamp down any internal North Korean demand for outside smartphones and get people to use these cheaper, officially approved phones instead.
North Korean demand for smartphones has reportedly been rising.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Mobile subscriber growth in the U.S. slows to a standstill
http://gigaom.com/2013/08/13/mobile-subscriber-growth-in-the-u-s-slows-to-a-standstill/
The mobile industry saw its slowest quarter of overall subscriber growth since the dawn of the cellular age. Without new customers to connect, carriers are stealing them from one another and looking toward M2M for future growth.
U.S. mobile carriers added only 139,000 new connections to their networks in the second quarter, making it the most lackluster period of growth in the modern age of mobile, according to a new report from Chetan Sharma Consulting.
Creating new mobile subscribers has become increasingly difficult for carriers in recent years the mobile phone proliferate across society, but operators were hoping to keep the market humming along by connecting tablets, cameras, cars, farm equipment and every manner of object in the emerging internet of things. With the exception of tablets, that’s clearly not happening.
Tomi Engdahl says:
QNX Locks Down Key Contract With Panasonic, Reminding Us That BlackBerry Still Has Some Shine For Buyers
http://techcrunch.com/2013/08/13/qnx-locks-down-key-contract-with-panasonic-reminding-us-that-blackberry-still-has-some-shine-for-buyers/
QNX, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of BlackBerry, announced some news today that reminds us that parceling the company out could be among BlackBerry’s best options as it considers a sale and other alternatives. QNX Software Systems will partner with Panasonic Automotive Systems to create infotainment for North American, European and Japanese automakers, expanding its already considerable reach in the infotainment market.
QNX will be contracted by Japan to produce the infotainment software, and will also partner with the company to help build a platform that will generally improve next-gen car audio and information systems, including new architecture, mobile connectivity features and greater flexibility, according to the company.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Message unread: Silicon Valley’s secret, failed bid to save BlackBerry
http://www.theverge.com/2013/8/13/4617930/message-unread-silicon-valleys-secret-failed-bid-to-save-blackberry
Could switching to Android and focusing on business have turned the company around?
Yesterday, entrepreneur and angel investor Robin Chan posted a slide deck for “Project BBX,” a now-abandoned plan to turn around the company with a small product and engineering team. With BlackBerry now officially exploring a sale, Chan’s plan offers a glimpse of what BlackBerry might have become — a purely business-focused company with no BlackBerry 10, fewer devices, and no reason to hire Alicia Keys as a creative director. Instead, it would focus on its trademark phones and data network, leaning on iOS and Android in order to survive.
“There were a lot of people who loved the BlackBerry product and were sad to see it deteriorate.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
BlackBerry Said to Have Sought Buyers Since 2012
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-08-13/blackberry-said-to-have-sought-buyers-since-2012-without-success.html
BlackBerry Ltd.’s announcement that it will consider takeover bids followed almost a year of advisers unsuccessfully canvassing potential buyers in search of a deal, two people with knowledge of the matter said.
In recent months, as BlackBerry sales and subscriber numbers deteriorated, bankers from JPMorgan Chase & Co. and RBC Capital Markets quietly contacted possible bidders and found little interest in buying the whole company, especially among private-equity firms, said the people, who asked not to be named because the talks were private.
BlackBerry’s decline began at least three years ago, when its slow reaction to Apple Inc.’s smartphone innovations began taking a toll on the company’s once-torrid sales growth. The revamped BlackBerry 10 system didn’t debut until this January, six years after Steve Jobs unveiled the iPhone — too late for the company to recover from an exodus of users and developers.
BlackBerry’s advisers had suggested in late 2011 that it explore a sale as the company’s smartphones continued to lose market share to the iPhone and Samsung Electronics Co.’s Galaxy lineup of devices, said one of the people.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Telefonica pens deal with Evernote, gives global customers one year’s free premium access
http://www.engadget.com/2013/08/13/telefonica-pens-deal-with-evernote/
You’ve got to hand it to Evernote, it’s taking the initiative when it comes to getting its popular productivity tools into as many hands as possible. We’ve already seen Deutsche Telekom customers score access to it’s premium services for free, now over 247 million Telefonica customers are getting the same — a $45 saving.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Smartphones Finally Overtook Dumbphone Sales Globally In Q2, Android Now At 79%, Says Gartner
http://techcrunch.com/2013/08/14/gartner-q2-smartphone/
Analyst Gartner has put out its latest smartphone market report, and the Q2 2013 numbers show the inevitable finally occurred: smartphone sales exceeded feature phone sales for the first time.
ndroid has been strangling the life out of dumbphones for years, but it looks like the market tipping point is being reached.
In Q2, Gartner says worldwide smartphones sales rose 46.5% from the year earlier quarter to hit 225 million units shipped, while sales of feature phones declined 21% year-on-year to 210 million units.
Smartphone shipments grew most in Asia Pacific, Latin American and Eastern Europe, with growth rates of 74.1%, 55.7% and 31.6% respectively, but the analyst said sales grew in all regions.
The rising tide of global smartphone ownership is raising all boats, but Samsung continues to dominate the smartphone landscape.
The drop off in feature phone sales is bad news for Nokia, which still leans heavily on its feature phone business (being as its smartphone business is tied to the Windows Phone underdog). Nokia shipped just 61 million feature phones in Q2, down from 83 million in the year ago quarter. But the Finnish mobile maker is at least seeing some decent growth in smartphones
Tomi Engdahl says:
A clever loophole to win bids for contracts
The iPhone 4S costs 54 SEK or EUR 6.20. HTC’s One X model, the price is exactly 50 SEK or EUR 5.80.
These prices were found offers, the Swedish Kammarkollegiet tenders for public sector procurement framework contract mobile phone, write Tietoviikko Swedish sister publication Computer Sweden .
The operator TDC’s prices differed from abnormally low. The company offered a five universities in the invitation to tender referred to by a model around six euros per each.
But how does the TDC and other suppliers of Framework Agreement could provide hundreds of dollars of their smart phones to buy in at more reasonable prices?
Computer Sweden, the answer is simple. Suppliers are already aware of when submitting bids in that they never need to provide ridiculously cheap products.
Cheap product is replaced by another
Shock Prices are only used as a tool to tender is won. Reporters know for themselves that offered models are just about to leave the market – this, however, most of the buyers do not know.
If the offered model will exit the market, the supplier may supply instruments, replace it with one that is priced normally.
the trend has been strengthened recently through the framework agreement concluded in competitive tendering:
“Today, the price will need to drop 17 to 25 percent less than the purchase price in order to be able to win a tender.”
Source: http://www.tietoviikko.fi/kaikki_uutiset/iphone+tarjouksessa+6+euroa++et+saa+kuitenkaan/a921507
Tomi says:
HTC seems to be drifting away from WP8, say Taiwan makers
http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20130813PD205.html
HTC is likely to drift away from Windows Phone 8 (WP8) platform as it has seen its share in the global WP8 market drop to below 5%, while rivals Nokia has taken an 80% share in the segment and Samsung Electronics has become the second largest WP8 phone vendor, according to industry sources.
Prior to the tie-up between Nokia and Microsoft, HTC had been the number one vendor for Windows Mobile- and Windows Phone-based smartphones. HTC then shifted its strategy to focus on Android phone along with the increasing popularity of the Android platform.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google blocks Microsoft’s new YouTube Windows Phone app
http://www.theverge.com/2013/8/15/4624706/google-blocks-window-phone-youtube-app
Microsoft’s recently released YouTube application for Windows Phone is being blocked by Google. In a statement issued to The Verge, Google confirms that the application has been blocked for violating the terms of use. Despite the two companies collaborating on an app based on HTML5, Microsoft’s app is still breaking YouTube’s terms of use.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Mercedes Is Testing Google Glass Integration, and It Actually Works
http://www.wired.com/autopia/2013/08/google-glass-mercedes-benz/
I put the car in park, unplug the phone, and put Google Glass on my face. Within seconds, I’ve got step-by-step directions to a coffee shop down the street beamed directly to my eyeballs. This is what Mercedes-Benz has planned for the future, and not only do they have a functioning prototype, they’re working with Google to make it a reality.
It’s called “Door-to-Door Navigation,” and it’s just the latest in a string of high-tech pushes the automaker has made in the past few years. It started with Mercedes doubling its resources and employees at its Silicon Valley research center, which allowed the automaker to work on a thoroughly revised infotainment platform and develop one of the first comprehensive integrations of Apple’s iPhone into its entry level and youth-focused CLA.
Now, it’s Google’s turn.
“We definitely see wearable devices as another trend in the industry that is important to us,” says Johann Jungwirth, Mercedes’ North American R&D President & CEO. “We have been working with Glass for roughly six months and meeting with the Google Glass team regularly.” And it’s helpful that Google HQ is just a 10-minute drive from the automaker’s Palo Alto research facility.
We’ve already established that cars are the killer app for Google Glass. And Mercedes agrees.
Android integration for Mercedes vehicles is coming in 2014.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Your Car Is the Killer App for Google Glass
http://www.wired.com/autopia/2013/04/google-glass-car/
Navigation is just one of the ways Google Glass could revolutionize the in-car experience.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Researchers develop acoustic based data transfer system for phones
Technology employs ‘self-jamming’ for security and could be an alternative to NFC. No word on whether it sounds like the squeal of a 56k modem.
http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/523718/researchers_develop_acoustic_based_data_transfer_system_phones/
Near Field Communication technologies incorporated in some of the latest smartphones can be used for applications such as contactless payments or data exchange between two devices. Although NFC support has found its way into some apps such as the Commonwealth Bank’s Kaching payment system, it’s still far from achieving widespread adoption.
One factor in this has been the lack of NFC support even in some leading smartphone models; for example Apple is yet to issue a handset that supports NFC. However, researchers at Microsoft have developed an alternative system that can offer NFC-like capabilities, but without requiring dedicated wireless hardware to make it work.
Instead, their system – which the team at Microsoft Research India, Rajalakshmi Nandakumar, Krishna Kant Chintalapudi, Venkata N. Padmanabhan and Ramarathnam Venkatesan dub ‘Dhwani’ – uses sound.
Dhwani uses the speaker and microphone on phones to securely exchange data, achieving speeds of up to 2.4Kbps; short of the peak rate of 424Kbps possible with NFC but “sufficient for most existing NFC applications” the researchers write in their paper.
For security Dhwani relies on a ‘JamSecure’ approach which “uses self-jamming coupled with self-interference cancellation at the receiver” to protect any data transmissions.
Essentially this relies on the receiving device transmitting pseudorandom noise while the transmitting device is sending data. Then this noise can be compensated for by the receiver.
The basis of Dhwani’s communication system is an ‘Acoustic Software Defined Radio’
Tomi Engdahl says:
Nokia to launch Windows RT tablet in September, alleged pictures leak
http://www.theverge.com/2013/8/16/4627220/nokia-windows-rt-tablet-pictures-leak-rumor
Nokia is planning to launch its first Windows RT tablet in September. Sources familiar with Nokia’s plans have revealed to The Verge that the company will unveil its tablet at a special launch event in New York next month. Nokia has been courting developers for the event, and it’s tentatively scheduled for September 26th
codenamed Vanquish, that features Qualcomm’s quad-core Snapdragon 800 processor and Windows RT. Nokia’s tablet will include LTE support, and will be made available on AT&T in the US.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Samsung Said to Unveil Wristwatch-Like Smartphone Next Month
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-08-16/samsung-said-to-introduce-smartphone-like-wristwatch-next-month.html
Samsung Electronics Co. (005930) will introduce a wristwatch-like device named the Galaxy Gear next month that can make phone calls, surf the Web and handle e-mails, according to two people familiar with the matter.
The Galaxy Gear will be powered by Google Inc.’s Android operating system and go on sale this year to beat a potentially competing product from Apple Inc. (AAPL), the people said. The device will be unveiled Sept. 4, two days before the IFA consumer electronics show begins in Berlin, one of the people said, asking not to be identified because the plans are private.
“It will carve a niche for sure as this is an initial product in the market,” said Chung Chang Won, an analyst at Nomura Holdings Inc. in Seoul. “Wearable devices could be one of the trends in the smartphone market, but I’m not sure yet whether watches or glasses will set the trend.”
Apple Watch
Apple had a team of about 100 designers working on watch-like device, two people familiar with the matter said in February. The Cupertino, California-based company is seeking to introduce its device this year, one of the people familiar said at the time.
Tomi Engdahl says:
What Ad Network Problem? Vungle Raises $6.5 Million for Mobile Video Ads.
http://allthingsd.com/20130815/what-ad-network-problem-vungle-raises-6-5-million-for-mobile-video-ads/
Public investors aren’t very excited about ad networks and ad technology. But private money is still placing bets.
The newest: A $6.5 million A round for Vungle, a mobile ad network focused on “in-app” ads.
Vungle’s main pitch is to app developers who want to promote their programs inside other people’s programs. But the company has also been branching out into more conventional brand advertisers, too.
It’s hard to imagine his big competitors leaving him much room — Facebook in particular has been talking up its success as an app advertising platform — but Jaffer does say he’s growing fast: He said his ads have been viewed two billion times in the last year.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Just ask Google for your flights, reservations, package delivery info and more
http://googleblog.blogspot.fi/2013/08/just-ask-google-for-your-flights.html
Ever had trouble checking your flight’s status on the go because it meant digging through your email for the flight number? Or wanted to just quickly see whether your package would arrive on time, without having to look up the tracking info first? You’ve told us it would be much easier if you could skip the fuss and just ask Google.
Soon you’ll be able to find this info instantly in Google Search if it’s in your Gmail, Google Calendar or Google+. For example, just ask or type, “What’s my flight status?” or “When will my package arrive?”
Over the next several days, we’ll be rolling this out to all U.S., English-speaking users on desktop, tablet and smartphone, with voice search (so you don’t have to type).
We’ve been offering this kind of info—flights, reservations, appointments and more—for more than a year in Google Now.
This information is just for you—secure, via encrypted connection, and visible only to you when you’re signed in to Google.
Tomi Engdahl says:
If you’re single, your mom is more likely to use an iPad than you are
http://gigaom.com/2013/08/16/if-youre-single-your-mom-is-more-likely-to-use-an-ipad-than-you-are/
A new study shows the who, what and when of iPhone and iPad usage. Singles are far more likely to spend the majority of their time on the iPhone, while moms rank tops among iPad usage.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Celebrity endorsements: Turning tech companies around since 2010
Op-ed: HTC’s big budget campaign is the latest questionable investment.
http://arstechnica.com/staff/2013/08/celebrity-endorsements-turning-tech-companies-around-since-2010/
HTC is struggling. Second quarter revenue fell sharply and the company is warning investors that it’ll post a loss for the third quarter of this year.
But Chief Marketing Officer Ben Ho has big plans to turn the company around. The smartphone veteran has signed up Iron Man star Robert Downey, Jr. for a two-year deal. Downey will feature in HTC’s new billion dollar “Change” campaign.
In picking a big-name actor to not only front its campaign, but also help shape it, HTC is following a well-trodden path. Got an ailing tech company that needs help becoming trendy, relevant, and, well, profitable? The answer is easy: pay big bucks to get a celebrity to endorse you.
Perhaps the finest example of this phenomenon is the recent example of BlackBerry, neé RIM.
The Canadians duly appointed singer-songwriter Alicia Keys as its “Global Creative Director.” The synergies are obvious. Keys uses BlackBerrys and is creative, and BlackBerry wants to sell more BlackBerrys, so uh. Yeah.
Naturally, the campaign has been fantastically successful, with BlackBerry cementing its position as a phone platform nobody wants to buy—the third place spot has now been firmly ceded to Windows Phone
But other celebrities are less disciplined. Oprah Winfrey raised a few laughs when her tweet endorsing Microsoft’s Surface tablets was made from an iPad.
Lady Gaga, well-known imaging expert and worthy replacement for the genius that was Edwin Land, was hired in 2010 by the resurrected corpse of the Polaroid Corporation.
Not every company that seeks celebrity inspiration is trying to resurrect an ailing brand or flog struggling products. Intel has gone this route too. Intel is a company in one of those awkward positions. It wants consumers to demand its products—hence da-dum-da-dum—but it essentially doesn’t sell any products to consumers.
Intel gave punctuation-abusing singer-songwriter will.i.am an Intel ID badge and the title “director of creative innovation.”
Intel wanted the musician to collaborate on devices such as laptops, smartphones, and tablets. Devices that, let’s not forget, Intel doesn’t build and doesn’t sell.
HTC went this very route when in 2010 it paid $309 million for a 50.1 percent stake in Beats Audio, the overpriced headphone company created by rapper Dr Dre and producer Jimmy Iovine. Famous for its “Beats By Dre” branding
HTC later sold 25 percent of the company back to Dre and Iovine for $150 million, retaining a 25.1 percent stake.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Li-Fi in the Real World
http://www.allledlighting.com/author.asp?section_id=560&doc_id=560700&elq=b968a3854691472699c474e1b301cba4&elqCampaignId=751
Boston startup ByteLight is developing software and protocols to use data transmitted over LED lighting as a way of pinning down a customer’s exact location within a store.
A couple of months back we discussed a concept that has been dubbed “Li-Fi,” or data transmitted over visible light. The idea is to modulate the light from an LED at rates above the megahertz range, well beyond what humans can detect. A suitable light detector (which could be a smartphone camera) and software reconstruct the message carried by the modulation. The first widespread public attention to this idea came following a TED talk on the subject by Harald Haas, in August 2011.
We have mostly seen the Li-Fi idea explored by academic researchers, such as those at the University of Strathclyde in England and Germany’s Heinrich Hertz Institute. But it turns out that a Boston-based startup, ByteLight, has been working on commercial applications of Li-Fi since the spring of 2011.
ByteLight emerged from its shroud of secrecy last fall, when the company discussed its vision of indoor geolocation with GigaOM. The idea is that each LED light in the ceiling of a retail shop or mall transmits data downward into the area it illuminates. A customer running a ByteLight app on her smartphone can be located within 1 meter based on the particular LED whose signal her app detects. Back-end software in the cloud would be involved to do the heavy lifting. Once the customer is located, the shop can send the app coupons, reviews, a map with “you are here,” exact in-store directions to the item of interest, etc.
Each LED lamp or luminaire in the shop would need a chip that implements ByteLight’s protocol and orchestrates the modulation of the LED. ByteLight could either manufacture the chips and sell them to luminaire and/or driver makers, or license the chips’ design.
ByteLight has executed a pivot and introduced a related service it calls “LFC,” in analogy with NFC (near-field communications). The latter is a technology for initiating point-of-sale transactions that requires a particular chip in the smartphone. ByteLight’s LFC uses an inexpensive device the size of a deck of cards, to be placed near the cash register, that modulates an LED’s light for consumption by a smartphone camera. Almost all smartphones have cameras while NFC chips are currently much less common.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Should Cops Wear Google Glass?
http://yro.slashdot.org/story/13/08/18/176205/should-cops-wear-google-glass
“Over at The Kernel, staff writer Greg Stevens wonders whether police departments around the world should outfit their officers with Google Glass. There’s some logic behind the idea. A cop with wearable electronics constantly streaming audio and video back to a supervisor (or even a Website) would be less likely, at least in theory, to take liberties with civilians’ civil liberties. But not everybody thinks it’s such a good idea.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Who’s Winning ‘Mobile Wars’
http://beyondthebookcast.com/whos-winning-mobile-wars/
As mobile devices – smartphones and tablets – grow roots ever deeper into our personal and professional lives, publishers may feel forced to choose sides in the various wars and battles raging among Apple and Samsung, iOS and Android, and various other players and platforms.
But a leading developer of mobile apps and related technology solutions for publishers sees a way to make peace with the many mobile wars. The trick, says Amphetamobile founder and CEO SiNae Pitts, is to pick your battles.
“There are many mobile wars,” Pitts explains for CCC’s Chris Kenneally. “There had been a lot of talk in the early days of whether publishers should develop native applications or should they be making mobile websites? And we’ve always taken the position that it’s never an either or – it always depends on the use case. With mobile-friendly websites, certainly there is a use case for creating a landing page and presenting information.” On the other hand, she adds, “native apps give a richer experience and enable people to take that content that you’re presenting and make it deeper into their workflow.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Metro experiment is dead: Time to unleash Windows Phone+
How Microsoft can capture the mobile market – properly
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/05/08/microsoft_metro_analysis/
Analysis Is this the moment for Windows Phone 8, the overlooked diamond in the Redmond rough, to shine?
Now that Microsoft bigwigs have realised that cramming their desktop operating system into a touchscreen tablet format was unwise, to put it generously, how about scaling up the smartphone cousin to capture the exploding mobe market and the tablet world? That’ll leave desktop users in peace with a desktop OS.
When panic breaks out at Microsoft, the company makes terrible decisions: the “Kill Java” panic of the mid-1990s is an example of the company behaving as if its very existence was at stake, and behaving badly. In 2010, Apple’s iPad caused another such fright.
In response, the early strategy was a bold but simple one: encourage third-party developers to create a new library of apps using a central Metro programming interface, allowing the software to run on Windows 8-powered PC desktops, ARM tablets, x86 slabs, laptop hybrids, smartphones and more without a rewrite for each targeted device.
Except it didn’t actually turn out that way. Under Windows chief Steven Sinofsky, the Windows 8 desktop team developed a messianic fervour. It became obsessed by distractions such as the Microsoft-specified Surface laptop-tablet computers and the ARM port of Windows 8, Windows RT. The team wouldn’t work with the Windows Phone 8 group to develop the crucial common programming interface the aforementioned strategy needed.
The pain was real enough, though. Windows 8 insisted on replacing the familiar desktop with the Metro screen of noddy widgets, which may look nice on a tablet but is absurd on a 1,900-pixel wide monitor when you’re trying to do some work. It simply caused confusion and inconvenience for consumers and enterprise users.
Businesses didn’t have the training budget to retrain their staff to use the new Metro interface, or if they did, they were happy to sit on the cash instead. So Microsoft found itself sacrificing an enterprise IT upgrade cycle in order to maintain Metro-everywhere.
The Charge of the Metro Brigade may have made sense when the route to gaining tablet market share involved simplifying a PC into something that could be operated by a fingertip and slotted comfortably into an A5 envelope. But the market has changed in the past three years: smartphones grew bigger and became more sophisticated. With five-inch displays now common place and “phablets” appealing way beyond gadget geeks to reach some unlikely parts of the market, it now makes more sense to enhance Windows Phone rather than cripple the desktop.
Windows Phone 8, Redmond’s operating system for mobiles, is truly a jewel, and by contrast to Windows 8 desktop, it is well liked by its users.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Lifelogging: Come on in, the Water’s Fine
http://www.getsaga.com/blog/lifelogging-come-on-in-the-waters-fine/
Lifelogging, the act of creating a continual record of one’s everyday life, is here. It doesn’t have to involve a camera strapped to your forehead either (although we think that’s pretty cool!).
According to this report, 69% of adults already track a health indicator for themselves or others. 34% of individuals who track use non-technological methods such as notebooks or journals, and 21% of individuals who track use at least one form of technology such as apps or devices.
So, what’s the big deal? Well, there’s a growing body of evidence that self-tracking is good for you. That which is observed is changed.
Lifelogging means different things to different people. For some it’s pencil and paper, recording blood pressure, calories, moments of gratitude. An impressive 49% track health indicators “in their heads.”
For a growing number of people, lifelogging is accomplished automatically, using sensors in devices like FitBit, or even the sensors in a smartphone. Wearable sensors are primarily used to track health and fitness stats today, but innovative companies like Memoto are developing products to record memories…of every single moment.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Half of top iPad apps either unavailable or not optimized on Android
- 30% of the top 50 free and paid iPad apps in the US are absent from Google Play
- See more at: http://www.canalys.com/newsroom/half-top-ipad-apps-either-unavailable-or-not-optimized-android#sthash.jQiVtDWm.dpuf
Tomi Engdahl says:
Nokia Bandit: a 6-inch giant Windows Phone coming soon
http://www.theverge.com/2013/8/19/4634424/nokia-bandit-windows-phone
Nokia is planning a big-screen Windows Phone for release later this year. Sources familiar with Nokia’s plans have revealed to The Verge that the company is currently testing a 6-inch device with the latest version of Windows Phone. Codenamed “Bandit,” the handset includes a 1080p display and a Qualcomm Snapdragon quad-core processor. We understand that Bandit will be the first of many planned 1080p Windows Phone devices.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Tech industry slips into a surprising slump
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-tech-slump-20130819,0,871392.story
After a six-year boom ignited by the introduction of the iPhone in 2007, tech firms are in the unusual position of being laggards in the U.S. economy’s recovery.
Tomi Engdahl says:
CIRP survey: Where Apple and Samsung get their customers
http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2013/08/19/apple-samsung-survey-cirp/
Twenty percent of Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone customers over the past year were switching from an Android phone, but only 7% of Samsung buyers had previously owned an iPhone, according to a new study released to Fortune by Consumer Intelligence Research Partners.
The survey also gathered demographic data that showed, not surprisingly, that Apple’s customers tend to be richer and better educated than Samsung’s. More surprisingly, given the theme of Samsung’s “next big thing” TV ad campaign, iPhone owners also tend to be younger.
Tomi Engdahl says:
E Ink screen draws images, power from NFC-enabled smartphone
http://liliputing.com/2013/08/e-ink-screen-draws-images-power-from-nfc-enabled-smartphone.html
A growing number of smartphones are shipping with NFC, or Near Field Communication technology. This lets you send information between devices by tapping them together. For example you can share a photo with a friend or make a mobile payment from a digital wallet app.
But a team of researchers is showing off a way you can transmit more than just data — you can also transmit power.
For instance, you could pair a low-power E Ink display with your smartphone and send across pictures and enough power to flip through a few of those images.
This lets you use the E Ink screen as a secondary, low-power display for your smartphone. E Ink only uses power when you refresh the screen
Tomi Engdahl says:
Get 4K video from your phone’s USB port with the new MHL 3.0 spec
Updated standard does Slimport and Miracast one better.
http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013/08/get-4k-video-from-your-phones-usb-port-with-the-new-mhl-3-0-spec/
The Mobile High-Definition Link (MHL) standard already lets you connect certain phones, tablets, and other devices to your TV using adapters that connect to the devices’ micro-USB ports. But the consortium has just announced that an upgrade is coming: the new MHL 3.0 standard adds support for 4K displays. This will allow mobile devices that support the standard to output 3840×2160 (also known as 2160p) video at up to 30 frames per second, an upgrade from MHL 2.0′s 1080p.
The updated standard can transmit data and video simultaneously, and a device connected via MHL can draw up to 10 watts of power to charge your device. Backward compatibility with MHL versions 1.x and 2.x, HDCP 2.2 DRM support, and 7.1 channel surround sound support are also part of the standard.
The MHL standard competes with a few standards (as well as Apple’s proprietary AirPlay), all of which are designed to put your phone or tablet’s display up on your TV. There’s SlimPort (used most prominently in Google’s Nexus 4 and 2013 Nexus 7), a DisplayPort-compatible spec which like MHL uses the micro USB port to connect over HDMI. There’s also Miracast, an Airplay-like standard that uses a Wi-Fi-equipped receiver to beam video to your TV without the use of cables (Miracast support was baked into Android beginning in version 4.2, but it’s also included in a smattering of other devices). Neither standard supports 4K video at this point, making MHL 3.0 slightly more appealing for those on the bleeding edge of TV technology.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Technology Leaders Launch Partnership to Make Internet Access Available to All
http://newsroom.fb.com/News/690/Technology-Leaders-Launch-Partnership-to-Make-Internet-Access-Available-to-All
Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook, today announced the launch of internet.org, a global partnership with the goal of making internet access available to the next 5 billion people.
“There are huge barriers in developing countries to connecting and joining the knowledge economy. Internet.org brings together a global partnership that will work to overcome these challenges, including making internet access available to those who cannot currently afford it.”
Today, only 2.7 billion people – just over one-third of the world’s population — have access to the internet. Internet adoption is growing by less than 9% each year, which is slow considering how early we are in its development.
The goal of Internet.org is to make internet access available to the two-thirds of the world who are not yet connected, and to bring the same opportunities to everyone that the connected third of the world has today.
The founding members of internet.org — Facebook, Ericsson, MediaTek, Nokia, Opera, Qualcomm and Samsung — will develop joint projects, share knowledge, and mobilize industry and governments to bring the world online. These founding companies have a long history of working closely with mobile operators and expect them to play leading roles within the initiative, which over time will also include NGOs, academics and experts as well. Internet.org is influenced by the successful Open Compute Project, an industry-wide initiative that has lowered the costs of cloud computing by making hardware designs more efficient and innovative.
In order to achieve its goal of connecting the two-thirds of the world who are not yet online, internet.org will focus on three key challenges in developing countries:
Making access affordable
Using data more efficiently
Helping businesses drive access
By reducing the cost and amount of data required for most apps and enabling new business models, Internet.org is focused on enabling the next 5 billion people to come online.
Facebook, Ericsson, MediaTek, Nokia, Opera, Qualcomm, Samsung and other partners will build on existing partnerships while exploring new ways to collaborate to solve these problems.
The Internet.org website launches today and provides an overview of the mission and goals, as well as a full list of the partners. In the coming weeks, it will feature interviews with technology leaders and experts, along with the latest news on Internet.org activities.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Your iPhone Uses More Energy Than A Refrigerator? Controversial New Research Spurs Debate
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/20/iphone-energy-refrigerator-controversial-study_n_3782211.html
Is your iPhone using more energy annually than your fridge?
That’s the surprising — and increasingly controversial — claim laid out by Digital Power CEO Mark P. Mills in his new paper, “The Cloud Begins With Coal: Big Data, Big Networks, Big Infrastructure, and Big Power.”
From the paper:
Reduced to personal terms, although charging up a single tablet or smart phone requires a negligible amount of electricity, using either to watch an hour of video weekly consumes annually more electricity in the remote networks than two new refrigerators use in a year. And as the world continues to electrify, migrating towards one refrigerator per household, it also evolves towards several smartphones and equivalent per person.
The claim is based on a smartphone’s total energy usage per year, meaning Mills’ conclusion takes into account the sum of energy used for wireless connections, data usage and battery charging.
In an email to TIME, Luke wrote:
Last year the average iPhone customer used 1.58 GB of data a month, which times 12 is 19 GB per year. The most recent data put out by a ATKearney for mobile industry association GSMA (p. 69) says that each GB requires 19 kW. That means the average iPhone uses (19kw X 19 GB) 361 kwh of electricity per year. In addition, ATKearney calculates each connection at 23.4 kWh. That brings the total to 384.4 kWh. The electricity used annually to charge the iPhone is 3.5 kWh, raising the total to 388 kWh per year. EPA’s Energy Star shows refrigerators with efficiency as low as 322 kWh annually.
However, not everyone is as convinced by Mills’ report, which was sponsored by the National Mining Association and the American Coalition for Clean Coal Energy. MSN News evaluated the study and found Mills’ claim about iPhone energy “false.”
The MSN article claims that Mills is actually recycling similar research he published in 2000 about the amount of energy needed to power a Palm Pilot vs. a refrigerator.
Tomi Engdahl says:
iPhone doesn’t really use more power than fridge
But scientists are bitterly divided over the smartphone’s carbon footprint
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/iphone-uses-100-times-less-electricity-than-fridge-2013-08-20
Charging an iPhone consumes 100 times less electricity than a fridge, researchers say, but a study released last week suggests that the smartphone’s hunger for power is far greater than that of even the biggest kitchen appliance.
And although a smartphone only costs about 500 kwh to manufacture — versus 1,000 kwh for a fridge — Mills contends that the annual energy allocated to making each smartphone is up to three times greater because, according to the Electric Power Research Institute, most fridges last 18 years and consumers update phones every three to five years. “When you buy a phone, you are also paying for the cost to build it,” Mills says. (His report “The Cloud Begins With Coal” is sponsored by the National Mining Association and American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity.)
The irony is that smartphones need only a minuscule amount of electricity to charge. It takes around 3.3 kilowatt hours per year to charge an iPhone 4, according to the Electric Power Research Institute, a nonprofit national energy research organization; that’s less than the 400 to 450 kwh per year it takes to charge the average family refrigerator. To put that in perspective: An iPhone costs around 38 cents per year to charge, based on one single charge per day, the EPRI found, compared with $65.72 per year for a refrigerator. (A desktop computer, by comparison, costs $28.21 a year to charge.)
The same is true for Samsung’s smartphone.
However, the carbon footprint also depends on whether people are using cellular or Wi-Fi, some researchers say.
Another variable that puts scientists at odds with each other: Researchers also argue about the amount of energy being used per gigabyte of data. Mills calculated use at 2 kWH per gigabyte on the cellular network, based on a 2012 European-wide study, “How Much Energy is Needed to Run a Wireless Network.” A 2013 “The Mobile Economy” report by management consultancy A.T. Kearney says the energy use per gigabyte could run as high as 19 kwH.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Siri vs. the Android: The Sequel
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/22/business/siri-vs-the-android-the-sequel.html?pagewanted=all
Man, I really was stupid. Who’d be dumb enough to take sides in a religious war?
But the superiority of cellphone speech-recognition technology is not an idle question. Once touch screens became the future of phones, voice recognition became desperately important. Without physical keys or buttons, entering text and manipulating software controls are fussy, multistep procedures.
So I’ve just spent two weeks immersed in voice recognition. I carried an iPhone and a phone running Google’s Android operating system with me everywhere. I spoke to both phones simultaneously. I wanted to get to know the differences, the strengths, the weaknesses.
When people talk about speech recognition, they mean, and often confuse, three different functions. There’s dictation, where the phone converts speech to text; commands, where you operate the phone by talking; and Internet information searches. There are vast differences among the successes of the three.
Dictation, for example, is still fairly poor on both systems. Both Android phones and Siri, the iPhone’s speech feature, make many transcription errors.
That’s forgivable, but come on. You’re asking your phone to understand varying accents at varying distances from its microphone, in rooms with varying background noise. It’s a wonder this feature works at all.
The latest Android version doesn’t require an Internet connection to do basic dictation. And in Android, the words appear on the screen as you utter them; Siri doesn’t transcribe until you stop talking.
On the other hand, Siri understands formatting controls like “capital,” “all caps” and “no space,” as well as all kinds of punctuation — “colon,” “dash,” “asterisk,” “ellipsis” and so on. Android understands only the basic symbols, like “period,” “comma” and “exclamation point.”
The second category, phone-control commands, is far more successful for far more people. This is when you say: “Call Mom,” “Text Emily,” “Wake me at 7:30,” “Play some Billy Joel,” “Remind me to feed the cat when I get home,” and so on.
Here, Siri has the edge. As you’re driving along, for example, and you hear the incoming message sound, you can say, “Read my new messages,” and Siri reads them aloud.
Both systems can tap into some of the phone’s own apps.
Android blows away iOS, though, in Web searches. Both kinds of phones do an amazing job fetching weather updates
But Google’s bread and butter is Web searches, so Android responses are generally much, much faster.
Android is especially amazing at dialing places without having to look them up (“Call the Macy’s on 34th Street”) and directions (“Get me to La Guardia airport by public transportation”), since its Map app is so unbelievably good.
And Google has a built-in music-recognition feature, like the Shazam app. Tap the voice-recognition icon, let the phone listen to whatever song is playing, and marvel as it instantly identifies the song and singer.
Unfortunately, Android has an Achilles’ heel — actually, more like Achilles’ entire leg. To issue spoken commands, you have to tap the microphone icon on the Google search bar. And it’s only on the home screen or the Google Now screen (swipe up from the bottom). So you can’t speak commands when your phone is locked, or when you’re in another app.
On the iPhone, you hold down the Home button or the clicker on your earbuds cord, so the voice command feature works when the phone is asleep or in any app.
And so: Put down your swords, fanboys. Both systems are exceedingly useful, once you spend the time to learn them.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Nokia HERE 3D v2: We ride the 68MP rig putting Google Maps on notice
http://www.slashgear.com/nokia-here-3d-v2-we-ride-the-68mp-rig-putting-google-maps-on-notice-20294279/
Nokia may have come late to the game with Streetview-style 3D photography in its HERE Maps service, but the company is aiming to overtake Google with its second generation of mapping cars. Built using newly developed camera, LIDAR, and processing technology from 3D specialist Earthmine, which Nokia acquired last November, the updated system promises higher-resolution panoramic imagery than Google, as well as more accurate 3D buildings and sign recognition. SlashGear went out on the road in one of the prototype cars with Earthmine founder John Ristevski, to find out why Nokia’s 68-megapixel mobile mapping system should be giving the Google Maps team sleepless nights.
Tomi Engdahl says:
LG Display claims a world’s first with 2,560 x 1,440 LCD for smartphones
http://www.engadget.com/2013/08/20/lg-display-worlds-first-quad-hd-display/
Full HD displays? Eat your heart out, handset manufacturers. LG Display has just laid claim to the world’s first Quad HD (2,560 x 1,440) smartphone display, which also boasts the highest pixel density of a mobile device, clocking in at 538ppi. The firm’s panel measures up at 5.5-inches and is only 1.21mm thick, and just 1.2mm at its bezel.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Intel Talks about Multimode LTE Modems – XMM7160 and Beyond
by Brian Klug on August 20, 2013 8:35 PM EST
http://www.anandtech.com/show/7234/intel-talks-about-multimode-lte-modems-xmm7160-and-beyond
Since acquiring Infineon’s wireless division and forming the Mobile Communications Group, Intel has been relatively quiet about its modem portfolio and roadmap. Pre-acquisition parts from Infineon have continued to see broad adoption in the 2G (Nokia Asha phones) and 3G market, like XMM6260 and XMM6360 which was in the international version of the Galaxy S 4. However, Intel has been relatively silent about its multimode LTE offering, XMM7160, since talking about it MWC.
The timing of the event was interesting since the Galaxy Tab 3 10.1 will be the first tier–1 product to launch with Intel’s XMM7160 LTE modem inside, although Intel has been quick to point out that XMM7160 was used in a single mode LTE manner in another prior device.
So first up is Intel’s XMM7160 multimode 2G (GSM/EDGE), 3G (HSPA+) and 4G (LTE) modem, which is shipping this August in the Galaxy Tab 3 10.1 and apparently a few other devices. I don’t expect this to show up in many phones, but obviously tablets and other devices built on Intel’s SoC platforms are obvious places. This is Intel’s first multimode LTE modem, and is a UE Category 3 part at launch (100 Mbps downstream) but will receive an upgrade to Category 4 (150 Mbps) via a firmware update in the December timeframe.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Jolla phone ordered “tens of thousands”
Last spring officially launched and presented to the media Jolla phone has given rise to the expected interest. According to the company for the first Jolla phone has been ordered “tens of thousands”
The company has received orders for 136 countries.
Which does not tell you the exact figure, but suggests that the phones manufactured in the early stages, at least 50 000. This, in turn, is a direct indication of orders.
Jolla in May launched a pre-order campaign, the purpose of which was to obtain funding for telephone marketing and development. Those interested had the opportunity to pay in advance for $ 100, which allows the user to make sure the phone and the delivery of the first to normal more personalized device.
The phone has a 4.5-inch touch screen, eight megapixel camera and 16 GB of storage. The phone battery is user replaceable.
Juniper Research, the dinghy that is facing a challenging task in today’s competitive, but it can be a place for a small alternative manufacturer. Research must Jolla competitors such as Nokia’s low-end Asha phones.
“The new gamblers to achieve the 13 per cent share of the market by 2018,” the research company’s report is written.
Source: http://www.iltalehti.fi/digi/2013082117394338_du.shtml
Tomi Engdahl says:
LG exec: tablet, phablet, smartwatch and Firefox OS device coming soon
http://www.engadget.com/2013/08/21/lg-exec-tablet-phablet-smartwatch-and-firefox-os-device/
On the smartphone side, LG will trump its 5.5-inch Optimus G Pro model with a 6-inch handset and finally release its own Firefox OS device early next year. Most intriguingly, he said the company would give the smartwatch category another kick at the can, despite indifference to LG’s GD910 Watch Phone model several years ago — adding that the device might use flexible LCD tech.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Telepathy raises $5 million to develop Google Glass rival
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-57599592-94/telepathy-raises-$5-million-to-develop-google-glass-rival/
The Silicon Valley startup uses the funding to hire new engineers for its wearable, programmable computing device.
“Wearable technology will enable the next wave in social networking,” Telepathy CEO Takahito Iguchi said in a statement. “The $5 million funding will enable us to enrich the user experience of Telepathy One, which we expect to bring to market in 2014.”
The Telepathy One headset prototype, demonstrated earlier this year, is a hands-free communications device that wraps around the back of a wearer’s head. It has a small screen, earplugs for playing sound, and this fall will get a software developer kit so programmers can write apps for it.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Local TV facing increasing competition in weather and traffic
http://lostremote.com/local-tv-facing-increasing-competition-in-weather-and-traffic_b38436
The most popular mapping and navigational tool on the planet, Google Maps, is expanding its traffic coverage. This week the app added traffic accidents and other incidents courtesy of Waze, the mobile startup Google acquired for $1 billion earlier this summer. This is just one more sign that two of local TV’s biggest drivers — weather and traffic — are under increasing pressure from non-traditional competitors on the platform that increasingly matters the most: mobile.
Google Maps has an incredible footprint. It’s always in the top most-downloaded apps on iOS, and it’s pre-installed into most Android devices.
Meanwhile, Google Now is breaking new ground in anticipating what users want, and traffic is one of its key offerings. For example, the Google Now experience will automatically offer traffic reports when I’m about to travel to work — or back home at the end of the day
On the weather front, Google Now displays the forecast whenever I tap the search bar on my Nexus device — whenever I prepare to search (for anything), it displays the forecast (upper left).
Meanwhile, a recent survey discovered that four out of five smartphone owners check their phone in the first 15 minutes after waking up. Among those people, 80% say it’s the first thing they do when they wake up — not turn on the TV, but pick up their phone.
The massive reach and prominence of “good enough” weather and traffic on mobile devices is shaping up to be a strong competitive threat with the potential to cannibalize audiences outside periods of breaking news. If I glance at a forecast on my iPhone when I wake up, I’m less likely to watch the morning newscast for the weather. Unfortunately, most stations still view other stations — and increasingly the newspaper in town — as their sole competition.
At the same time, local TV stations are dedicating more coverage on weather and traffic.
There’s certainly reason to celebrate local TV’s growing mobile traction, but local stations should recalibrate their product and marketing strategies to combat the real competition.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Neighborhood network Nextdoor takes up residence on Android
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57599414-93/neighborhood-network-nextdoor-takes-up-residence-on-android/
Neighbors can now use their Android smartphones to exchange critical information, swap last-minute baking needs, and get police updates.
Bring on the muffin baskets. Nextdoor, a private social network for more than 18,000 U.S. neighborhoods, is moving into its new home on Android.
Wednesday, the 2-year-old company is expanding beyond its Web and iPhone origins to invite more people into its private communities where neighbors exchange critical information, swap last-minute baking needs, get police updates, and coordinate block parties.
Nextdoor for Android comes with the same feature set members find elsewhere, which means people can update their neighbors with goings-on, photos, and urgent alerts.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The application stores operating model blamed: “Only the best phones”
Chinese Internet giant Baidu to keep the application store model flawed because it only works with the best phones as well. For example, Android is fragmented, and a number of device and platform versions, which is why the applications functionality inexpensive devices is uncertain.
“App stores are fundamentally inadequate,” said Baidu CEO Robin Li, and notes that 70 percent of all downloads are made by a few top device.
To solve this problem, Baidu sees the web-based mobile applications, the development of which the company wants to support.
Baidu calls for mobile devices Web applications platform Light Apps by name. In practice, these applications it is possible to use the device without installing them.
Baidu Appseja Light will begin offering its own mobile browser, as well as through its own app Baidu application.
“Native application will always be,” Robin Li says. But in his view, less frequently used applications, such as those which may be brought against a doctor or to buy airline tickets to work quite well for the version.
Source: http://www.tietoviikko.fi/kaikki_uutiset/sovelluskauppojen+toimintamallia+soimataan+quotvain+parhaille+puhelimillequot/a923558
Tomi Engdahl says:
MeeGo Startup Jolla Closes Pre-Sales Campaign For Its First Phone, Booking Orders Of Up To 50,000 Units
http://techcrunch.com/2013/08/21/jolla-closes-first-pre-sales/
Jolla, the Finnish startup comprised of ex-Nokians that’s building its own MeeGo-based smartphone platform and phone hardware has closed out a pre-sales campaign for the device it showed off in May. Thing is, it’s not saying how many phones are in this first pre-order batch — so it’s not really saying very much about the level of demand it’s seeing (or not seeing).
Although Jolla is not giving out the exact number of devices prebooked it can be said that the size of the production batch for a mobile device vendor of this size is typically 50,000 units,” a Jolla spokesperson said.
Jolla’s pre-sales campaign took partial payments from buyers wanting to reserve a handset ahead of release later this year (the first device shipments are due at the start of Q4 2013).
Jolla said today it may do a second pre-sales campaign this year — but again, isn’t providing solid confirmation at this point.
Still, according to analyst Juniper Research, there is an opportunity for Jolla’s Sailfish to carve out a niche for itself as one of a number of “new emerging players” in the smartphone OS space. In a report this week the analyst said that while Android and iOS will continue to dominate the global landscape over the next five years, the “smartphone OS market will see new emerging players, such as Asha, Sailfish and emerging HTML 5 based OS players begin to gain ground in niche areas”. Collectively it’s predicting these new players could capture 13% of the market by 2018.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ubuntu Edge crowdsauce cash stash comes up short
Community-backed smartphone still breaks record for dosh-slosh
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/08/22/ubuntu_edge_no_go/
Canonical’s Ubuntu Edge crowd-funded smartphone will remain a Shuttleworthian dream, having failed to hit its $32m funding target.
The phone raised $12.8m ahead of today’s deadline on the Indiegogo site, less than half the figure stated necessary to fund production of 40,000 units when the campaign started on 23 July.
Canonical chief executive Jane Silber told The Reg in a statement that the Ubuntu Edge “as described in the Indiegogo campaign” will therefore not be produced.
Penguins who pledged money will get a full refund.
“We still believe that the campaign has ben successful in that it has given voice to the need for innovation. We hope that this campaign will positively disrupt the way the phone industry brings out new technology and devices,” she said.
The Edge set a record in raising “crowdfunds”, beating current record holder the Pebble smartwatch, which sourced $10m on Kickstarter.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google applies for location-based security patent, locks down your phone on the go
http://www.engadget.com/2013/08/22/google-location-security-patent-application/
Google’s knack with location services helps us to get around, but hopefully, that same tech will serve to keep our devices safe in the future. Mountain View has applied to patent a system that modifies your smartphone’s security depending on where you are. If you’re at home or work, for instance, then swipe-to-unlock will suffice, but if you venture into the unknown, then your handset will demand you enter a code or, you know, offer up a DNA sample.
Tomi Engdahl says:
According to http://www.tietoviikko.fi/kaikki_uutiset/apple+osti+sovelluksen+ja+poisti+sen+androidversion/a923928
Apple bought a mapping service with iOS and Android software, and immediately removed the Android application from Play store.
Apple Buys Another Mapping Company, Embark
http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2013/08/22/apple-buys-another-mapping-company-embark/
Apple acquired the mass-transit app company Embark, the latest move in the company’s long-running effort bulk up its mapping service.
Embark, a small Silicon Valley company that was founded in 2011, makes free mobile apps for Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android that provide mass transit information for a handful of U.S. cities like New York and Boston.
Tomi Engdahl says:
ONE App Developer Responsible for 47,000+ Apps in BlackBerry World?
http://www.berryreview.com/2013/08/20/one-app-developer-responsible-for-47000-apps-in-blackberry-world/
Some of you may have noticed that a few developers have been exploiting the free submission of apps to BlackBerry World and using it as a promotional tool. @gpheheise pointed out to me that the worst offender by far is S4BB. As of this article BlackBerry World is reporting that S4BB has over 47,000+ Apps in BlackBerry World. The first 20-30 actually seem like good to decent quality legitimate apps and then it rapidly goes downhill.
What really struck me is that these apps are actually borderline legitimate apps though they are really stretching the definition of an “app.” They offer different content in a similar wrapper so they show up in BlackBerry World’s search. Since they are actually legitimate apps I do not think that BlackBerry can keep them out of BlackBerry World but you would expect BlackBerry to discourage BlackBerry World flooding. I actually wonder how many of these 47,000 apps have ever been purchased or downloaded…
Either way having 47,000 apps definitely skews any BlackBerry World statistics. I am sure other App Stores have tons of spam and fart apps but I was not aware that BlackBerry World was similarly afflicted by a single developer.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Apple said to have tested 64-bit ‘A7′ chips for iPhone 5S, 31% speed increases reported
http://9to5mac.com/2013/08/25/apple-said-to-have-tested-64-bit-a7-chips-for-iphone-5s-31-speed-increases-reported/
As Apple’s iPhone 5S event approaches, some new details about the new device’s internals are emerging. Clayton Morris has claimed on Twitter that the iPhone 5S’s A7 processor is “running at about 31% faster” than the iPhone 5′s A6 chip. The iPhone 5′s A6 chip is dual-core, and it seems like the iPhone 5S will also remain dual-core.
However, there could be a major differentiator: 64-bit. We’ve independently heard claims that some of the iPhone 5S internal prototypes include 64-bit processors.
It’s unclear if 64-bit will make the cut, but it’s been in testing. We’re told that the 64-bit processing will assist the A7 chip in making animations, transparencies, and other iOS 7 graphical effects appear much more smoothly than on existing iOS Devices…
It’s likely that the upcoming fifth-generation iPad will gain the same chip, if not a more advanced one to support the additional pixels.