Mobile infrastructure must catch up with user needs and demands. Ubiquitous mobile computing is all around us, not only when we use smartphones to connect with friends and family across states and countries, but also when we use ticketing systems on buses and trains, purchase food from mobile vendors, watch videos, and listen to music on our phones. As a result, mobile computing systems must rise to the demand. The number of smart phones will exceed the number of PCs in 2014.
Some time in the next six months, the number of smartphones on earth will pass the number of PCs. This shouldn’t really surprise anyone: the mobile business is much bigger than the computer industry. There are now perhaps 3.5-4 billion mobile phones, replaced every two years (versus 1.7-1.8 billion PCs replaced every 5 years).It means that mobile industry can sell more phones in a quarter than the PC industry sells in a year. After some years we will end up with somewhere over 3bn smartphones in use on earth, almost double the number of PCs. The smartphone revolution is changing how consumers use the Internet: Mobile browsing is set to overtake traditional desktop browsing in 2015.
It seems that 4G has really become the new high speed mobile standard widely wanted during 2013. 3G will become the low-cost option for those who think 4G option is too expensive, not everyone that has 4G capable device has 4G subscription. How the situation changes depends on how operators improve their 3G coverage, what will be the price difference from 3G to 4G and how well the service is marketed.
Mobile data increased very much last year. I expect the growth to continue pretty much as projected in Mobile Data Traffic To Grow 300% Globally By 2017 Led By Video, Web Use, Says Strategy Analytics and Cisco Visual Networking Index: Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast Update, 2012–2017 articles.
When 4G becomes mainstream, planning for next 5G communications starts. I will expect to see more and more writing on 5G as the vision what it will be destined to be clears more. Europe’s newly-minted 5GPPP Association plans to launch as many as 20 research projects in 2014, open to all comers, with a total budget of about 250 million euros. The groundwork for 5G, an ambitious vision for a next-generation network of networks that’s still being defined, and the definition will go on many years to come. No one really knows today what 5G will be because there are still several views. Europe’s new 5GPPP group published a draft proposal for 5G. 5GPPP is not the only group expected to work on standards for next-generation cellular networks, but it could become one of the most influential.
The shifting from “dumb” phones to smart phones continue. In USA and Europe smart phone penetration is already so high levels that there will not be very huge gains on the market expected. Very many consumers already have their smart phone, and the market will be more and more on updating to new model after two years or so use. At the end of 2013 Corporate-Owned Smartphones Back in Vogue, and I expect that companies continue to shop smart phones well in 2014.
The existing biggest smart phone players will continue to rule the markets. Google’s Android will continue to rule the markets. Samsung made most money in 2013 on Android phones (in 2013 in West only Samsung makes money from selling Android), and I expect that to continue. In 2013 Apple slurped down enormous profits but lost some of its bleeding-edge-tech street credit, and I expect that to continue in 2014.
The biggest stories of the year 2013 outside the Samsung/Apple duopoly were the sale of Nokia’s mobile phone business to Microsoft and the woes of BlackBerry. BlackBerry had an agonising year and suffered one of the most spectacular consumer collapses in history, and I can’t see how it would get to it’s feet during 2014. Nokia made good gains for Windows Phones during 2013, and I expect that Microsoft will put marketing effort to gain even more market share. Windows Phone became the third mobile ecosystem, and will most probably keep that position in 2014.
New players try to enter smart phone markets and some existing players that once tried that try to re-enter. There are rumors that for example HP tries to re-enter mobile market, and is probable that some other computer makers try to sell smart phones with their brands. In the Android front there will be new companies trying to push marker (for example OPPO and many smaller Chinese makers you have never heard earlier). Nokia had a number of Android projects going on in 2013, and some former Nokia people have put up company Newkia to follow on that road. To make a difference in the market there will be also push on some smaller mobile platforms as alternative to the big three (Google, Apple, Microsoft). Jolla is pushing Sailfish OS phones that can run Android applications and also pushing possibility to install that OS to Android phone. Mozilla will push on with it’s own Firefox OS phone. Canonical will try to get their Ubuntu phone released. Samsung is starting to make Tizen powered smart phones and NTT DoCoMo could be the first carrier to offer a Tizen powered device. None of those will be huge mainstream hits within one year, but could maybe could have their own working niche markets. The other OS brands combined do not amount to 1% of all smartphones sold in 2013, so even if they could have huge growth they would still be very small players on the end of 2014.
As smartphone and tablet makers desperately search for points of differentiation they will try to push the limits of performance on several fronts to extremes. Extreme inter-connectivity is one of the more useful features that is appearing in new products. More context-aware automatic wireless linking is coming: Phones will wirelessly link and sync with screens and sensors in the user’s vicinity.
You can also expect extreme sensor support to offer differentiation. Biomedical sensors have lots of potential (Apple already has fingerprint sensors). Indoor navigation will evolve. Intelligent systems and assistive devices will advance smart healthcare.
Several smartphone makers have clear strategies to take photography to extremes. 40 megapixel camera is already on the market and several manufacturers are playing with re-focus after shooting options.
In high-end models we may be moving into the overkill zone with extreme resolution that is higher than you can see on small screen: some makers have already demonstrated displays with twice the performance of 1080-progressive. Samsung is planned to release devices with 4k or UHD resolutions. As we have seen in many high tech gadget markets earlier it is a very short journey to copycat behavior.
It seems that amount of memory on high-end mobile devices is increasing this year. To be able to handle higher resolutions smart phones will also need more memory than earlier (for example Samsung lpddr 4 allows up to 4 GB or RAM on smart phone as now high-end devices now have typically 2GB). As the memory size starts to hit the limits of 32 bit processors (4GB), I will expect that there will be some push for chip makers to start to introduce more 64 bit processors for mobile devices. Apple already has 64-bit A7 microprocessor in iPhone 5s, all the other phone-makers want one too for their high-end models (which is a bit of panic to mobile chip makers).
You will be able to keep your mobile phone during some flights all the time and browser web on the plane more widely. At some planes you might also be able to make phone calls with your mobile phone during the flight. Calls on flights have been theoretically possible, and United States has recently looked at mobile phone calls allow the flights.
In year 2013 there were many releases on wearable technologies. Wearable is a trend with many big companies already in the space, and more are developing new products. It seems that on this field year 2013 was just putting on the initial flame, and I expect that the wearable market will start to heat up more during 2014. The advent of wearable technology brings new demands for components that can accommodate its small form factor, wireless requirements, and need for longer battery life.
The Internet of Things (IoT) will evolve into the Web of Things, increasing the coordination between things in the real world and their counterparts on the Web. The Internet is expanding into enterprise assets and consumer items such as cars and televisions. Gartner suggests that now through 2018, a variety of devices, user contexts, and interaction paradigms will make “everything everywhere” strategies unachievable.
Technology giants Google Inc. and Apple Inc. are about to expand their battle for digital supremacy to a new front: the automobile. The Android vs. iOS apps battle is coming to the automotive industry in 2014: car OEMs aren’t exactly known for their skills in developing apps and app developers don’t want to develop so many different versions of an app separately (for Ford, General Motors, BMW, and Toyota). I am waiting for Google’s response to Apple’s iOS in the Car. Next week at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Google and German auto maker Audi AG plan to announce that they are working together to develop in-car entertainment and information systems that are based on Google’s Android software. The push toward smarter cars is heating up: Right now, we are just scratching the surface.
For app development HTML5 will be on rise. Gartner predicts that through 2014, improved JavaScript performance will begin to push HTML5 and the browser as a mainstream enterprise application development environment. It will also work on many mobile applications as well.
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Tomi Engdahl says:
Broadcom to Divest Cellular Baseband Chip Business
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1322590&
Broadcom Corp. said it plans to sell or wind down its low-margin cellular baseband business to focus on three key sectors: infrastructure, broadband, and connectivity.
As part of the strategic move, Broadcom’s connectivity team will be merged with its broadband communications unit, forming the Broadband and Connectivity Group, which will be headed by Daniel Marotta. Rob Rango will oversee the baseband processor transition process.
Broadcom’s tough decision to exit the cellular baseband business was based on the challenges it has been facing in garnering revenue, particularly in the low-end and middle baseband markets, which are saturated with chip suppliers, McGregor said.
“The connectivity products (WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, FM, etc.) are very good and profitable. Nobody will want the older 2G/3G only modem business,” except at a fire-sale price.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Is Anybody HomeKit? Apple Wants To Make Your House Smarter
http://www.fastcompany.com/3031388/most-innovative-companies/is-anybody-homekit-apple-wants-to-make-your-house-smarter
With a new framework for controlling connected devices, Apple announced that it would like to visit your smart home sometime in the future.
Apple unveiled a platform for controlling everything from your garage door to your thermostat today at its World Wide Developers Conference. But it was hardly the centerpiece of today’s keynote.
“With Siri integration, you could say something like, ‘Get ready for bed,’ and be assured your garage door is closed, your door is locked, the thermostat is lowered, and your lights are dimmed,” Federighi said.
By opening up Siri to control third-party peripherals, the smart home experience will become infinitely more seamless. Up until now, controlling a smart device has meant unlocking a mobile device, launching an app, and then making adjustments–a bit too much friction for lowering the volume of the TV or dimming the lights.
According to IDG, the Internet of Things will grow into an $8.9 trillion market by 2020. Despite their adoption, connected home devices have for the most part operated independently–though some companies have tried to unify such products with their own solutions.
Tomi Engdahl says:
What’s Apple Really Up To? Keeping You in Apple World.
http://recode.net/2014/06/02/whats-apple-really-up-to-keeping-you-in-apple-world/
The biggest new features were about making iPhones, iPads and Macs work seamlessly together, so that people on Planet Apple have no reason to leave, and those toting other brands might be tempted to fully join the Apple tribe.
In one important case, Apple is looping in Windows users. The company is finally adding a face to its iCloud service with something called iCloud Drive, which allows you to store files in and retrieve them from the cloud. It’s like Dropbox, or Microsoft’s OneDrive, or Google Drive. But, while it works on Windows — a platform Apple fears less and less as it becomes a mobile-first company — it doesn’t work on Android, which is now Apple’s most dangerous competitor.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google’s Nexus devices get stealth Android update
Fourth KitKat revision brings unspecified fixes
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/06/03/android_4_4_3_update/
Google has quietly begun rolling out a new version of Android to its flagship Nexus devices, but so far it has remained shtum on just what has changed.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Broadcom: If no one buys our modem biz, we’ll DITCH IT
The real crime? It’s unlikely anyone will buy it
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/06/03/broadcom_exits_cellular_modem_biz/
Chipmaker Broadcom is moving out of the mobile modem business. The company has announced that if it can’t sell its cellular modem division, the operation will be shuttered.
The news has been greeted with glee by financial types, who point to the $600m the company expects to save as a result of the move. The Broadcom share price shot up by $4 on 2 June as a result, and it seems that this was the driver behind the decision.
Broadcom bought the exceptionally well-regarded Renesas team for $164m last September. Back in 2010 Renesas had taken on the Nokia modem development for $200m.
Modem development is hugely capital intensive, but with a billion phones being sold each year it has the potential to be lucrative
If Broadcom closes down the old Renesas modem development division, it leaves just Nvidia as a major player in a field which once saw Texas Instruments, Thompson, Ericsson Mobile Platforms, NXP, Freescale, Infineon and others as major competing players. The lack of competitors is not going to be good for the future price curve of LTE devices.
central vacuum reviews toronto says:
Hi! Do you know if they make any plugins to protect against
hackers? I’m kinda paranoid about losing everything I’ve worked hard on. Any suggestions?
Tomi Engdahl says:
Check out this posting on protection against hacking though smart phone charging connections:
USB charging dangers and USB Condom
http://www.epanorama.net/newepa/2013/09/23/usb-charging-dangers-and-usb-condom/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Apple’s Health Offerings Focus On Data Collection, Not Interpretation
http://techcrunch.com/2014/06/03/apples-health-offerings-focus-on-data-collection-not-interpretation/
One of the major announcements in Apple’s iOS 8 presentation yesterday was the Health app and the HealthKit system that allows developers to feed data into the app.
HealthKit is being billed as a unifying force that ties the enormous amount of health-related apps on the App Store together. Part of the goal is to take the load off of developers who will no longer have to build custom tools to transfer, sync and collate health data in a repository.
Instead, they can integrate HealthKit into their apps to pour data into Apple’s holistic data-gathering app, Health.
Though there are yards of health apps on the store, most of them fall into a few groups.
Tomi Engdahl says:
A Startup Called HealthKit Isn’t Pleased That Apple Is Using Its Name
http://www.wired.com/2014/06/apple-healthkit-taken/
HealthKit already exists, and it doesn’t belong to Apple.
The HealthKit website and Twitter handle both belong to an Australian startup of the same name. It’s a global health platform connecting doctors and patients that’s ostensibly very similar to Apple’s planned iOS 8 platform. And while based in Australia, it has users in a variety of English-speaking countries, including the U.S.
The company isn’t too pleased with Apple’s name choice for its own health-focused services.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Some Thoughts on Apple’s Metal API
by Ryan Smith on June 3, 2014 10:30 AM EST
http://www.anandtech.com/show/8116/some-thoughts-on-apples-metal-api
Metal is Apple’s forthcoming low-overhead/low-level graphics and compute API for iOS. Metal is primarily geared towards gaming on iOS, and is intended to offer better graphics performance than the existing OpenGL ES API by curtailing driver overhead and giving developers more direct control over the GPU.
Metal is the latest in a wave of low-level graphics APIs to be introduced over the last year in the GPU space, joining the ranks of AMD’s Mantle and Microsoft’s DirectX 12.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Touch-first Microsoft Office for Android to beat Windows 8 version to market
http://www.zdnet.com/touch-first-microsoft-office-for-android-to-beat-windows-8-version-to-market-7000030162/
Summary: In another example of Microsoft’s mobile-first strategy, the company is expected to make the Android version of its core touch-first Office apps available months ahead of the Windows 8 variant.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google Begins Android 4.4.3 Rollout
by Brandon Chester on June 3, 2014 8:00 AM EST
http://www.anandtech.com/show/8108/google-begins-android-443-rollout
After initially posting factory images yesterday, Google has begun it’s OTA rollout of its latest iteration of Android 4.4 KitKat. Android 4.4 launched in October last year alongside Google’s newest smartphone, the Nexus 5.
It also featured the new Google Experience Launcher which features much deeper Google Now integration with the ability to trigger voice search by saying “OK Google” on your homescreen.
Under the hood, Google brought about optimizations like ZRAM support which allows data for idle background applications to be stored in a compressed RAM partition to free up RAM for applications in use.
Shortly afterward, Google released version 4.4.1 and 4.4.2 which included substantial improvements to the Nexus 5 camera performance
Android 4.4.3 is mainly an update to fix outstanding bugs with Android Kitkat
One of the long awaited fixes of this release is for excessive battery drain that could occur when an application used a device’s camera as a result of a process called ‘mm-qcamera-daemon’ which controls the camera on Qualcomm-powered devices.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Apple says many users “bought an Android phone by mistake”
http://www.neowin.net/news/apple-says-many-users-bought-an-android-phone-by-mistake
After sharing some pretty impressive sales figures for the company’s iOS devices, Cook said that around 130 million customers have purchased their first Apple device in the last twelve months.
“Many of these customers were switchers from Android,” he said. “They had bought an Android phone by mistake, and then had sought a better experience and a better life.” He added that almost half of those who have purchased an iPhone in China since December have switched from Android. However, it is worth noting that iPhones were not actually available in China until December, when pre-orders began, so it is unclear how much of the device’s popularity there is simply down to the novelty factor, rather than a burning desire to flee from Android.
Not content with leaving it at that, Cook went on to note that 89% of the installed user base has already upgraded to the most recent full release of Apple’s mobile operating system, iOS 7, before adding that this was “in stark contrast to Android”. Just 9% of Android users, he said, have so far upgraded to the latest version, 4.4 KitKat: “Many users are running an OS from four years ago. That’s like ancient history.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Apple has sold 800m iOS devices, including 500m iPhones
http://www.neowin.net/news/apple-has-sold-800m-ios-devices-including-500m-iphones
It’s no secret that Apple’s phones and tablets sell in enormous numbers (although its iPad sales did actually go down last quarter). But unlike Microsoft, which keeps sales figures of its own Surface tablets to itself, Apple has no qualms about sharing details of its sales performance.
At its Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) today, Apple revealed that it has sold over 800 million iOS devices so far – an increase of 100 million since September 2013. A staggering half a billion of those sales were iPhones – a remarkable figure by any reasonable measure.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Not just for phones: Samsung shows Tizen-powered TV, cameras
http://www.cnet.com/news/not-just-for-phones-samsung-shows-tizen-powered-tv-cameras/
Company has been pushing the open-source OS — an Android alternative — in everything from wearables to TVs.
The Korean electronics company, which earlier this week unveiled a new smartphone running the open-source operating system, on Tuesday showed off Tizen-based TVs, cameras, and wearables — some of these devices for the first time. The gadgets, displayed at the Tizen Developer Conference in San Francisco, all are part of Samsung’s efforts to create a broad ecosystem for Tizen, its alternative to Android.
Samsung and partner Intel are hosting a conference this week to boost developer support for Tizen. Though Tizen is an open operating system, Samsung and Intel have spearheaded the development of the standards behind it. Tizen has been mentioned most often in the context of smartphones, but Samsung has vowed to release the software in everything from cars to smartwatches.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ericsson: There’ll be over 9 BILLION mobe subscribers by 2019
And yes, that means more subs than humans on the planet
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/06/04/ericsson_mobility_report_2014/
Smartphones accounted for 65 per cent of the phones which sold in 2014 so far, and by 2016 the number of smartphones in use will overtake the number of basic feature phones. Of the 6.8 billion mobile phone connections in the world, 2.6 billion are mobile broadband.
While the GSMA claims that the number of mobile subscriptions will exceed the number of people on the planet this year, Ericsson says that’s more likely to happen in 2015
The greatest growth is coming from Asia. In the last quarter the world added 120m subscribers and over half of these came from these came from India (28m), China (19m), Indonesia (7m), Thailand (6m) and Bangladesh (4m) .
What can be seen as trends Ericsson turns into forecasts and the company predict that there will be 9.2 billion subscriptions by 2019, over 80 per cent of those will be for data. Data subs will overtake voice subs in 2016.
Wealthier customers means more data usage. Mobile data traffic grew 65 per cent in the last year, and like EE, Ericsson sees 10x data growth between 2013 and 2019
The growth comes from there being more video capable devices as people move to 4K video which will use 10-15MB/second on a big screen
Today about 60 per cent of the world’s population can get a 3G signal. Ericsson believes that by 2019 it will be 90 per cent of the population – and by then 60 per cent of the world will be on 4G anyway.
Indeed Ericsson sees Machine to Machine (M2M) applications – the report refreshingly avoids the term Internet of Things – as insignificant in current data consumption, accounting for 0.1 per cent of traffic, but a huge source of growth
Tomi Engdahl says:
Amazon’s 3D Smartphone Is Coming June 18
http://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-event-2014-6?op=1
Amazon is holding a product announcement on June 18.
It’s probably for the long-rumored Amazon smartphone. Amazon posted a video to YouTube that teases the device. The video shows a bunch of people moving their heads around and getting super excited.
The phone will likely run a heavily modified version of Android, just like Amazon’s line of Kindle Fire tablets. That means you’ll have to get all your apps and services from Amazon’s own app store.
Amazon has made a big push in hardware recently. In addition to its Kindle Fire line of tablets, it now has Fire TV, a set-top box
Tomi Engdahl says:
Apple’s New iPhone Ad Stars A Bunch Of Health Gadgets That Are Not An iWatch
http://techcrunch.com/2014/06/04/apples-new-iphone-ad-stars-a-bunch-of-health-gadgets-that-are-not-an-iwatch/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Digesting WWDC: cloudy
http://ben-evans.com/benedictevans/2014/6/4/digesting-wwdc-cloudy
First, Apple is continuing the steady process of removing restrictions on what developers can do – but doing so in a very specific way. Almost all of these restrictions are necessarily trade-offs – on a smartphone more flexibility is ipso facto less security and less battery life.
The second theme, and a very interesting one, is cloud, the big Apple weakness. The whole of WWDC is full of cloud. A very large proportion of the new user-facing features touch the cloud in some way, as a conduit or as storage. And the ones that don’t use what you might call the personal cloud – the Bluetooth LE/Wifi mesh around you (such as HealthKit or HomeKit). So edit a photo and the edits are on all your devices, run out of room and your photos stay on the cloud but all but the previews are cleared off your phone, tap a phone number on a web page on your Mac and your phone dials it. But none of this says ‘CLOUD™’ and none of it is done in a web browser. Web browsers are for web pages, not for apps. Hence one could suggest that Apple loves the cloud, just not the web (or, not URLs).
This is obviously a contest with Google, which has pretty much the opposite approach. For Google, devices are dumb glass and the intelligence is in the cloud, but for Apple the cloud is just dumb storage and the device is the place for intelligence.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Doubletalk: Geeksphone Revolution dual-OS smartphone
Android or Firefox OS? The choice is yours
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/06/05/review_geeksphone_revolution_android_firefox_os_smartphone/
Open-source enthusiasts have hailed Mozilla’s Firefox smartphone operating system as a liberation from the power and intrusiveness of Google, Apple and Microsoft, who each demand your soul in return for getting the most out of their mobile OSes.
The open-source crowd may have a point, though a larger number of commentators are of the opinion that Firefox OS is an answer to a question nobody’s really asking.
Since its official announcement in February, Geeksphone has dropped the price of an unlocked Revolution twice and it now sits at a not unreasonable €199 including sales tax, or around £170 in old money. For your cash you get a 3G-only plastic handset with a rather fine 4.7-inch 960 x 540 IPS display, a dual-core Intel Atom Z2560 processor that can run at 1.6GHz when it puts its running shoes on, 1GB of RAM and 4GB of storage backed up by a microSD card slot.
That’s a thoroughly middle-of-the-road specification.
Depending on how you like your smartphone bread buttered you can set the Revolution up to run Android either with or without Google’s apps or boot to Gecko-cum-Firefox OS, Mozilla’s Linux kernel-based smartphone operating system. Thankfully, the Revolution is sold pre-rooted, so you don’t need to faff about before you start sampling the different options.
At the moment, the Revolution runs Android 4.2.2 but KitKat and CyanogenMod 11 ROMS are due imminently.
Swapping from Android to Firefox OS is easy enough, you just wander over to Settings, and find the “Install another OS” menu and bingo, the device reboots into Firefox OS.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Apple: We’ll tailor Swift to be a fast new programming language
Kiss goodbye to five years of Objective-C
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/06/02/apple_aims_to_speed_up_secure_coding_with_swift_programming_language/
Apple stunned the audience at its Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco on Monday with a tool few expected: a new programming language for iOS and OS X software called Swift.
There already is a programming language called Swift that was developed by the University of Chicago and Argonne National Laboratory for use in parallel computing applications. This isn’t that.
What it is, is an entirely new syntax that – in the words of Apple senior VP Craig Federighi, who unveiled it during the Monday morning WWDC keynote – aims to be “Objective-C without the baggage of C.”
Like scripting languages but unlike C, Swift lets you get straight to the point. The single line println(“Hello, world”) is a complete program in Swift.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Android is a BURNING ‘hellstew’ of malware, cackles Apple’s Cook
iOS rival ‘dominates the mobile malware market,’ says totally unbiased observer
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/06/02/apple_ceo_cook_lashes_out_at_androids_hellstew_of_malware/
Apple CEO Tim Cook took a few minutes of his two-hour keynote at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) on Monday morning in San Francisco to stick his thumb in Android’s eye
One of the reasons that iOS has such high customer satisfaction, he said – citing a 97 per cent satisfaction rating in a survey conducted by ChangeWave Research – “is that we make available our software updates for the OS available to as many customers as possible.”
The article’s title? “Android fragmentation turning devices into a toxic hellstew of vulnerabilities” – and Cook’s slide of that quote added animated flames to the word “hellstew.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Gunmaker finds KILLER APP for Google Glass
TrackingPoint software lets shooters aim around corners
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/06/04/gunmaker_taps_google_glass_to_aim_around_corners/
A US firearms manufacturer is touting a system that would allow a shooter to aim and fire a device via a wearable headset such as Google Glass.
TrackingPoint said that its ShotView software could be used with wearable headsets, mobile phones, or tablets to provide a direct feed with video and data from its Precision Guided Firearm (PGF) networked scope.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Fight the Google Glass Cyborgs with Glasshole.sh
http://hackaday.com/2014/06/05/fight-the-google-glass-cyborgs-with-glasshole-sh/
We live in a connected world where social media is ubiquitous and many people feel compelled to share every waking moment with anyone who will listen. In this type of world, wearable computers like Google Glass allow us to share experiences like never before. A Glass user can take photos, record video and audio, or potentially even stream video live on the Internet with the greatest of ease. That might be great for the Glass user, but what about the rest of us? As wearable computing becomes more and more mainstream, people are naturally going to become divided on the issue of privacy. Is it a good thing to have “cyborgs” with wearable computers and cameras constantly at the ready, or is it a privacy nightmare? The cyborg war is coming, and [Julian] has already chosen his side.
It would seem that [Julian] lands on the side of the privacy advocates, based on his “glasshole” script. Glasshole is a relatively simple bash script that relies on some other common network security tools to take care of the heavy lifting
[Julian's] script uses a utility called arp-scan to obtain a list of all MAC addresses on a given wireless network. It then loops through each address and compares it to the known Google Glass MAC prefix. If it finds a match, it will make an audible beeping noise to alert the script user. The script then launches aireplay-ng in de-authentication mode. This will send spoofed disassociate packets to the client (in this case the Google Glass device), hopefully forcing them to disconnect from the access point.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Sony’s SmartBand Activity Tracker Is Now Available In The US For $99
http://techcrunch.com/2014/06/04/sonys-smartband-activity-tracker-is-now-available-in-the-us-for-99/
Announced eons ago at CES 2014, the waterproof Sony SmartBand is finally available in the U.S. It’s $99 from Sony’s online store and offers a feature set slightly more loaded than that of the Jawbone UP24 and FitBit Flex but only those on Android should apply.
Sony has said from the start that the SmartBand is a life tracker, not an activity tracker. Sure, it counts steps, sleep activity and the like, but through Sony’s Android app, the tracker also helps the wearer note weather, photos, music and personal notes. It also vibrates for incoming text messages and phone calls.
The SmartBand is compatible with Android 4.4 devices.
Tomi Engdahl says:
In the future, we live online algorithms, and we meet there for each other, such as in the physical world , Lappeenranta University of Technology , Professor Anssi Vanjoki envisioned .
In the future, we live online algorithms, and we meet there for each other, such as in the physical world , Lappeenranta University of Technology , Professor Anssi Vanjoki envisioned .
According to him, the people passing in the future so-called digital aura. It creates new possibilities and makes people ubiquitous , omnipresent .
Equipment level, this means that the wearable electronics will be everywhere.
” Undeveloped display technology is the only reason why smart phone is as it is ,”
Vanjoki predicts the future of this: The world is full of sensors and displays are everywhere. Screens is the windows through which one can move from place to place in an instant . I also saw billions of people become closer to each other.
Mobility should instead talk about their presence. Precision and ubiquitous computing is changing the world of work .
” We have had the snares of information technology . We are back to work 24 hours a day , ” Vanjoki described .
“Digital Experience strengthen the physical.”
Source: http://summa.talentum.fi/article/tv/uutiset/68999
Tomi Engdahl says:
Wearable Survey Paints Mixed Outlook
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1322618&
More than half of adults in a recent survey said they don’t know what wearable technology is. The survey sent mixed signals on the outlook for the emerging market, according to speakers at the Glazed Developers Conference here.
“The barrier to technology adoption is actually decreasing over time,” said John Baird, vice president of marketing for Waggener Edstrom. The communications agency surveyed more than 2,000 people about their interest in wearables. It found that, though most people didn’t understand the term, 44% were familiar with brands like FitBit.
Twenty-seven percent of people called themselves early adopters, 80% had a mobile device, and 20% already have a wearable. Forty-eight percent of those surveyed said they would purchase a wearable device within the next year.
“This tells me that there is an appetite out there,”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google’s secretive 3D-mapping project now has a tablet: here it is
http://www.engadget.com/2014/06/05/project-tango-tablet/
Comprehending the world around us is something we humans take for granted, but it’s not so easy for our technology. Sure, autonomous robots and military-grade research labs have hardware that can approximate the same visual acuity of human eyes, but Google’s Advanced Technologies and Projects (ATAP) division started Project Tango to bring that sort of tech to the masses. Its mission is to make mobile devices capable of using depth sensors and high-spec cameras to craft three-dimensional maps more cheaply and easily than other current efforts. ATAP announced its first piece of hardware in February, a prototype smartphone equipped with Kinect-like 3D sensors and other components, but the team is now expanding the project to a new form factor: a seven-inch tablet that’s packed with a lot more power.
The project’s already getting plenty of support from the graphics community, with renowned game engine builders Unity and Epic among the many companies working with Tango; even Autodesk (the makers of AutoCAD) has several projects in the works. That corporate support, which began with Qualcomm’s Adreno GPU inside the Tango smartphone, should continue to grow stronger on the tablet because of the K1 chip involved. The NVIDIA chip uses desktop GPU architecture, making it easier for companies to port over complex programs that they’ve already spent years developing on PCs.
This 3D-mapping technology is still considered bleeding-edge, but Lee envisions a day in which the enhanced sensing capabilities are expected in a device, much like Bluetooth is a fundamental feature in phones today.
Like Google’s continued experiment in wearable computing, this isn’t a consumer product yet.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Safari in iOS 8 uses camera to scan and enter credit card info
http://9to5mac.com/2014/06/05/safari-in-ios-8-uses-camera-to-scan-and-enter-credit-card-info/
In iOS 8, Apple has a new feature in Safari that allows users to scan a credit card with the device’s camera rather than manually entering the number when making a purchase online.
Website developers don’t have to do anything to enable the feature, as Safari appears to automatically detect when a credit card number is being requested and presents the option to scan above the keypad.
Tomi Engdahl says:
FIGHT! Intel disputes ARM’s claims of Android superiority
Chipzilla rep: ‘Someone’s gotta be the truth squad around here’
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/06/05/intel_disputes_arms_claims_of_android_superiority/
Last month, The Reg published test results performed by ARM that the UK chip designers said show that mobile processors based on its technology have significant advantages over Intel’s chips when running Android apps. Intel would beg to differ.
“Someone’s gotta be the truth squad around here, right?” Intel corporate communications manager Bill Calder told The Reg.
Specifically, ARM senior technical marketing engineer Rod Watt had said at his company’s 2014 Tech Day in Austin, Texas, that if apps haven’t been recompiled to run natively on Intel-based Android devices and therefore have to be converted at runtime from native ARM code into native Intel x86 code using “binary translation” (aka “bridge technology”), the conversion caused “a huge impact to the user and to the performance of the system.”
What’s more, Watt said that in July 2013, 6 per cent of those apps simply didn’t work at all on x86-based Android devices, and that by January 2014, that number had risen to 9 per cent.
Watt added that binary translation exacted a heavy penalty on Android systems
“We don’t think that ARM’s presentation is a reflection of [Intel Architecture (IA)] device compatibility and performance – an accurate reflection,” Lavery politely countered.
Lavery agreed with ARM’s Watt that a “large percentage” of apps in Google Play only have an ARM-native version. “This is true,” he said, “but almost all these apps run with good user experiences on Intel devices.”
Lavery also took issue with ARM’s claims that binary translation has a heavy impact upon energy consumption. “We actually think that – not think that, but know that – the effect of the bridge technology on battery life is negligible,” he said.
As Calder put it, ARM was right about binary translation requiring more power – but not much. “We agree – but guess what? It’s like less than four minutes out of 10 hours.”
Although there are still a goodly number of apps in Google Play that have yet to be ported into x86-native versions, Intel’s goal is to get that number up to 80 per cent – although neither Calder nor Lavery could provide a timeline for that effort.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Apple To Abandon Headphone Jack? Beats Deal Suddenly Makes Sense
http://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonkelly/2014/06/05/apple-to-abandon-headphone-jack-suddenly-beats-deal-makes-sense/
Suddenly why Apple AAPL +0.39% spent a seemingly ludicrous $3.2 billion buying Beats is starting to make sense. The reason: Apple is being more Apple than we ever imagined and it could mean saying goodbye to your favourite pair of headphones. Furthermore, if my theory is correct, then the new ones you buy will probably have Beats on the logo.
Like most Apple developments, the news emerged from a leak. 9to5Mac has learnt that Apple submitted a specification to its MFi (Made For) licensing program for headphones which connect using the company’s proprietary Lightning port instead of the standard 3.5mm jack.
The 3.5mm jack (technically called a ‘TRS’ connector) is rarely the bottleneck to audio quality, but the Lightning port will enable a switch from analogue to digital audio with an exceedingly high lossless stereo 48 kHz digital output and mono 48 kHz digital input.
Headphones with a Lightning connector would be able to do more than lower/increase volume, end calls and skip tracks.
But let’s cut to the chase. The biggest upside in this switch would be for Apple.
Right now you can plug any pair of headphones or earphones into an iPhone, iPod, iPad, Mac or MacBook, but with the switch Apple would control an essential peripheral and its MFi licensing program would see it start to take a sizeable fee for every pair of headphones sold for use with an Apple device.
As for users who want to stick with their headphones, they would need to pay for an adaptor which – like the $29 Lightning to 30-pin adaptor (below) – would inevitably be expensive and just bulky enough to make you want to buy dedicated Lightning headphones long term.
The problem is most customers will lose out
Make no mistake Apple is not stupid. It knows the state of the headphone market and it knows the risk of trying to impose too much too quickly.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Reverse Yelp: Restaurants Can Now Review Customers, Too
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-06-03/the-reverse-yelp-restaurants-can-now-review-customers-too
Your restaurant is watching you. Or if it isn’t yet, it probably will be soon. The Sydney-based restaurant reservation system Dimmi ResDiary, Australia’s version of OpenTable (OPEN), allows participating restaurants to track and rate customers’ dining “performance”—what they ordered, how much they tipped, whether they made any demanding requests (take note, dressing-on-the-side people), and anything else that might prepare waiters for their arrival.
Dimmi allows any of its 2,500 member restaurants to inform the others about you
This is, of course, in addition to the old fashioned Google (GOOG) search that some restaurant hosts already employ.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Wearable electronics is now an area where almost all consumer electronics companies are willing to invest. Work cut out for companies abound, as an American study, more than half of the people do not know what is wearable electronics.
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1482:puolet-ei-ymmarra-paallepuettavaa-tekniikkaa&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
Swedish company Tobii Technology has introduced the second generation of glasses that can track your eye movements and eye-register the destinations. Linux operating cost glasses glasses are paying the lowest prices by as much as 11900 euros.
Tobii Glasses 2 glasses has been improved in many ways the first generation, which was introduced in 2010. Resolution of glasses is better: TrueView to present a broad view of the level of 1080p Full HD picture. The glasses have been shrunk weight of 45 grams. Glasses can also be sent to the tablet with real-time information about eye movements.
TOBI glasses are targeted for research facility use. The glasses have four cameras: Two cameras on both eyes for the eye movement tracking.
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1416:linux-lasit-seuraavat-silman-liiketta&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
The average price of a smartphone EUR 252 last year
The smartphone paid last year, an average of 252 euros, while the price in 2012 was over 290 euros.
In 2017 the price tag is expected to be only 193 euros. Consumers want and need all the time features and performance at a lower price.
Last year, for the first time smart phones were sold over a billion units.
Of all mobile phones smart phones accounted for 55.1 per cent.
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1431:alypuhelimen-keskihinta-252-euroa&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
Philips’ former semiconductor group of NXP Semiconductors has introduced a smartphone solution that converts standard 3.5-millimeter audio-plug to data lines. It allows for external sensors, switches and peripherals of creating a universal interface.
NXP’s solution is to have the idea of the University of Michigan HiJack project.
NXP according to a number of applications there is no need to waste a USB data interface and the capacity of the wireless link is not always convenient. At least, it always requires a radio connection to a remote device, which increases production costs.
NXP’s Smartphone Quick-Jack – solution, for example, the sensing device on the smartphone easy, plug-and-play-type. Connected to the device can be, for example, then the air quality meter or a children’s toy, which you want to download more functions and features of the network. The possibilities are virtually endless.
Device manufacturers NXP offers a development card, free application example of the popular smartphone platforms, and documentation. LPC812 found in the card micro-controller to drive Manchester algorithm which allows the left audio channel may be used for data traffic.
More information can be found in NXP’s Quick-Jack-site.
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1428:alypuhelimen-audiopugista-datavayla&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
Smartphone Quick-Jack solution
http://www.lpcware.com/content/project/smartphone-quick-jack-solution
Transform the audio jack of a smartphone into a multi-purpose, self-powered data port. This hardware/software platform, designed for use with iPhone® and Android® smartphones, is the simplest way to design compact sensor peripherals that use the phone’s audio jack for data and power.
NXP Smarphone Quick-Jack solution will make it easy to connect external devices to smartphones for self-powered data communications. It gives smartphones app developers an easy way to add context-aware app features, input user or environment data, or connect peripherals
Tomi Engdahl says:
The smartphone measures air quality
In large towns, many wonder about the air quality. German researchers are working on a method which allows the smart phone to measure air quality. Thousands of users help to create a very accurate air pollution maps of cities.
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology) researchers based solutions in the sensor, which can be easily connected to your smartphone. The principle is simple: a cell phone with flash illuminated the air circuit and the image recorded image is the measurement result.
The recorded image pixel brightness can be among the dust concentration in the interaction. The smartphone of the sensor measurement is not yet as accurate as the results of the special equipment, but on the other hand the solution is very affordable compared to expensive and specialized equipment.
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1427:alypuhelin-mittaa-ilmanlaatua&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
LG Electronics has announced its new flagship smartphone. G3 model is the first Quad HD quality screen. 5.5-inch screen 2560 x 1440 dot resolution means that the screen is more than 75 percent more pixels than Full HD screen.
Images and other data is processed to 2.5 gigahertz Snapdragon 801 processor.
LG G3 is available in Finland since the last week of June. Its price tag is 599 euros, when memory is 16 GB. 32 gigs of memory a price tag of 649 euros.
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1425:lg-n-uusi-huippumalli-panostaa-pikseleihin&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
Android 4.5 brings real desktop to your mobile
Google is less than a month to get the public of the next Android platform: 4.5 The Lollipop.
According to preliminary data to be substantial update, as it will make the traditional desktop operating system features are mobile devices. Google is expected to work on improving Android security. Android 4.5, or Lollipop will be published on June 26th in the annual Google I / O conference.
After that: Google Android has been developed in a project called Hera. Its purpose is to harmonize the Google experience in the browser and search in all the different devices. This may mean significant changes in the size of the Android user interface. One of the most interesting rumor of the new features is the option to continue a task on another device.
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1410:android-4-5-tuo-oikean-tyopoydan-kannykkaan&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
In the Matrix of Mobile, Linux Is Zion
http://www.linuxjournal.com/content/matrix-mobile-linux-zion
In mobile we are losing the free world called the Web and the Net. How do we save it?
Already most of us spend more time on mobile devices than we do on desktops and laptops, put together. We also can do a lot more stuff, in a lot more places, on mobile devices than on computers.
According to Flurry Analytics, the Web’s share of mobile use dropped from 20% in 2013 to 14% in 2014. In “The Decline of the Mobile Web”,
This is a worrisome trend for the web. Mobile is the future. What wins mobile, wins the Internet. Right now, apps are winning and the web is losing.
Moreover, there are signs that it will only get worse. Ask any web company and they will tell you that they value app users more than web users. This is why you see so many popups and banners on mobile websites that try to get you to download apps.
He sees an end state that “will probably be like cable TV—a few dominant channels/apps that sit on users’ home screens and everything else relegated to lower tiers or irrelevance”.
Those millions of apps are a forest of silos, growing on land that is privately owned or controlled by Apple, Google and Microsoft.
Underneath it all, the Internet is getting harder and harder to see, understand and appreciate. Already mobile operators in India are offering free or cheaper plans just for Facebook, Whatsapp and Twitter.
Inside that show, small app developers become suburbs of large ones—for example, by requiring logins through Facebook or Twitter, rather than using an identity from the open world
if you want to see the music you’ve “tagged” with Shazam on the company’s Web site, the only way to log in is through Facebook. As for getting that data back out, good luck.
Even apps that do let you have your data back also make the process costly or difficult. Fitbit will give you XLS and CSV data, but only with a “premium” subscription of $49.99/year. To get personal data gathered by Nike+ devices and apps, you’ll need an external hack, such as fuel_dump. Integrating that data is also a steep challenge.
There are exceptions though. My favorite is Moves, a $2.99 app from Finland that produces an “activity diary” of your walking, running, cycling and riding around in the world. Its Web site kindly provides data exports in CSV, GEOSON, GEORSS, GPX, ICAL, JSONKML and KML_GE.
Nowhere is mobile infrastructure more locked down and controlled than with the app stores. These completely private marketplaces are monopolies to mobile customers and monopsonies to app companies. As sole intermediaries, the stores get to charge what they want, which is a lot. Apple and Google both take 30% of what you pay for an app. So does Microsoft, but it drops its cut to 20% after sales of an app reach $25k. These are monopoly rents. Ask your shoe or grocery store what kind of margins it gets—or hell, even Amazon.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Jellybean dominates Play, still seated atop rising KitKat
Sweet life threatened by Sammy?
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/06/06/android_kitkat_market_share/
The KitKat edition of Android now accounts for 13.6 per cent of all devices hitting Google’s Play store, the colossal advertising firm has disclosed.
Jellybean, released July 2012, remains the fatty for KitKat to take down – in terms of overall and mostly individual version market share.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Real killer application?
Gun company figures out how to shoot around corners using Google Glass
http://www.engadget.com/2014/06/04/trackingpoint-google-glass-rifle-sight-concept-video/?ncid=rss_truncated
TrackingPoint is a startup that’s building smart weapons, like rifles with targeting scopes that’ll turn a rank amateur into a crack sniper.
Pumping live video from the gun to nearby WiFi devices, the company wants smartphone, tablet and Google Glass users to be able to point their weapon around corners and over obstacles, “blind” firing with deadly accuracy.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Apple flexes healthcare muscles with new wearable device
http://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Trends/Apple-flexes-healthcare-muscles-with-new-wearable-device
Apple is getting set to move to its next stage of growth with a wearable health-monitoring device, hoping to establish a solid foothold in the promising healthcare sector.
The U.S. firm said Thursday at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference that it will this autumn bring to market an upgraded mobile operating system for smartphones and tablet devices. The new watch-like wearable gear will run on this OS, which will be equipped with a centralized function to manage users’ biometric information via smartphones. It is expected to hit the market in October.
Though the details of services have yet to be released, specs for the new product are being finalized, according to industry sources. It will likely use a curved organic light-emitting diode (OLED) touchscreen and collect health-related data, such as calorie consumption, sleep activity, blood glucose and blood oxygen levels. It will also allow users to read messages sent by smartphones.
Apple appears confident of the new product. According to a parts manufacturer, it plans monthly commercial output of about 3-5 million units, which exceeds the total global sales of watch-like devices last year.
This confidence is backed by its partnerships with high-profile hospitals — it has teamed up with the Mayo Clinic and the Cleveland Clinic, U.S. health institutes based in Minnesota and Ohio, respectively, to develop specific ways of analyzing the collected data and applying it to actual health management.
Services key
Health-monitoring services have been around for some time, but they did not really take off due to limited popularity. Google, for example, launched Google Health, a one-stop health-tracking database for individual use, in 2008, but scrapped it at the end of 2011. In Japan, Omron, a medical equipment maker, had a head start in the sector, but limiting services to its own devices meant it lost opportunities for service expansion.
Apple is well-positioned to come up with an easy-to-use product due to its design-focused development capabilities. In addition, the new OS is designed to manage health-related data collected through platforms developed by other companies.
Rivals are also broadening their reach in the healthcare sector.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Exclusive: Google Will Soon Introduce ‘Nearby’ To Let Other ‘People, Places, And Things’ Know When You’re Around
http://www.androidpolice.com/2014/06/06/exclusive-google-will-soon-introduce-nearby-to-let-other-people-places-and-things-know-when-youre-around/
a new feature in Android called Nearby, which will allow new interactions between you and nearby people, places, and things.
“Nearby lets you connect, share, and do more with people, places, and things near you.
When Nearby is turned on for your account, Google can periodically turn on the mic, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and similar features on all your current and future devices. Google+ and other Google services need this access to help you connect, share, and more.”
This is especially interesting in light of Apple’s recent announcement of Continuity, an iOS and OS X feature that allows Apple-made devices to interact with each other in really smart ways automatically, based on proximity.
It’s early, but Nearby is definitely a functionality to keep an eye out for. Besides the obvious applications like the previously rumored contact-based reminders, the feature could have huge potential for other areas.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Xiaomi’s Phones Have Conquered China.
Now It’s Aiming for the Rest of the World
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-06-04/chinas-xiaomi-the-worlds-fastest-growing-phone-maker
Xiaomi’s real invention is its business model. It sells online, never in stores, and avoids conventional advertising, devoting only about 1 percent of its revenue to marketing. (By comparison, Samsung earmarks 5.4 percent.) Instead, the company relies on China’s social networks, Weibo and WeChat, and the free press Lei gets as a national tech hero. The money Xiaomi saves on marketing lets it buy top-notch components while keeping retail prices down.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google wants to clamp down on websites that will guide the mobile user to the wrong place. Google does not want its users are no longer the frustration due to the expiry of the wrong page.
-> make smartphone users to avoid sites that do not work properly on mobile devices.
The problem is usually the so-called defective sending forward an issue where the user is redirected to the desired page instead of the site homepage. Usually this is due to the fact that the site can not handle the smartphone requests properly.
On Wednesday, from Google’s search results in English in the United States have announced the search results when they realize that smartphone users are being sent to the wrong page. The aim is also to encourage site developers to remedy the problem.
Source: http://www.tietoviikko.fi/kaikki_uutiset/google+haluaa+kuriin+sivustot+jotka+ohjaavat+mobiilikayttajan+vaaraan+paikkaan/a992334
Tomi Engdahl says:
Apple flexes healthcare muscles with new wearable device
http://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Trends/Apple-flexes-healthcare-muscles-with-new-wearable-device
Apple is getting set to move to its next stage of growth with a wearable health-monitoring device, hoping to establish a solid foothold in the promising healthcare sector.
The U.S. firm said Thursday at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference that it will this autumn bring to market an upgraded mobile operating system for smartphones and tablet devices. The new watch-like wearable gear will run on this OS, which will be equipped with a centralized function to manage users’ biometric information via smartphones. It is expected to hit the market in October.
It will likely use a curved organic light-emitting diode (OLED) touchscreen and collect health-related data, such as calorie consumption, sleep activity, blood glucose and blood oxygen levels. It will also allow users to read messages sent by smartphones.
Apple appears confident of the new product. According to a parts manufacturer, it plans monthly commercial output of about 3-5 million units, which exceeds the total global sales of watch-like devices last year.
Rivals are also broadening their reach in the healthcare sector.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Reports: Apple’s iWatch Coming This October
http://www.forbes.com/sites/parmyolson/2014/06/06/reports-apples-iwatch-coming-this-october/
Apple will be launching its much-rumored iWatch this October, according to multiple reports out today, and the company is so confident in the device that it’s reportedly looking to produce three to five million units per month.
Other companies in the wearable tech space believe that Apple will set a high standard with its first foray into wearables
Apple’s first wearable device will show messages sent by smartphones as well as health-related data, according to Nikkei. Among the health data that the watch will reportedly collect: calorie consumption, sleep data, blood oxygen levels and blood glucose levels.
That last data point – blood glucose levels – could be a big win for Apple if true.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Where Personal Computing is Morphing Into the Age of Smart Things
Innovative Technology
http://iq.intel.com/where-personal-computing-is-morphing-into-the-age-of-smart-things/
If Twitter is an indication, the Internet is getting a lot more action from people living in the Asia-Pacific region. It’s something that many believe reflects the region’s influence on the global pace of technology innovation, ranging from mobile devices to smart cities.
This shift could be analogous to Asia’s rising role in the future of the Internet and devices that connect to it. This region, which for decades has played a key role in the proliferation of personal computing, is rapidly moving into the creation and distribution of technology behind the success of Twitter and so many things on the Internet
“There’s an explosion of mobile devices here similar to rest of the world,” said Bryant, but he sees Asia reacting more quickly than other regions.
Asia Pacific is the world’s most exciting mobile market because of its young population, economic growth and how mobility is central to the lives of people living there, according to Charles Reed Anderson, head of Telecoms & Mobility, IDC Asia-Pacific.
“We are in the midst of an amazing transformation,”
“In the Associate of South East Asia Nations, we are seeing a huge growth in mobile commerce, with some leading eCommerce vendors reporting that between 20% – 40% of all their transactions come from mobile devices.”
Demographics throughout the region skew toward younger people, said Bryant.
“They are extremely mobile, very social, like to share information, photos and content with family and friends. They are very, very active on the Internet.”
For many living in those regions, their first Internet experience is on a mobile device, and increasingly it’s on a phablet.
“Often their first Internet capable device has all broadband and voice with a larger screen. It becomes a decent tool for social, browsing and sharing,” said Bryant.
Innovation in Asia is not all about smartphones, laptops, tablets and phablets. Bryant is seeing a sudden rise new wearable devices, including some prototypes that pop into his view while visiting parts of his region.
“I’ve seen some pretty amazing watches,”
Asia is home to the most mega cities and is experiencing the fastest urbanization process in the world
Tomi Engdahl says:
Samsung Joins Medical Revolution
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1322646&
Young Sohn has joined the digital medical revolution. He is building a platform for devices and apps that let consumers manage their fitness and ultimately, he hopes, their healthcare.
At a developer conference in San Francisco this fall Sohn will publish hardware interfaces for Simband, an open specification for a bracelet that can accommodate a wide array of fitness and medical sensors. At the event he also will release software interfaces for writing programs and cloud services for the platform.
An alpha version of the Simband is already in the hands of about ten developers, mainly startup companies. Sohn is also courting giants such as sensor maker Bosch whom he planned to visit on a swing through Europe.
“Think of it as Google Glass, our view of a wearable platform,” said Sohn.
Of course, Google already has its own recently announced platform called Android Wear. Sohn says Simband is not specifically tied to Android but will use Tizen and other mobile Linux variants including one developed by a software partner in England called TicTrac.
Samsung formally launched its initiative just days before Apple launched HealthKit and HomeKit, medical and home automation APIs in its iOS version 8.
Samsung may be a bit late to the revolution but it brings big guns and will attract followers