The platform wars is over: Apple and Google both won. Microsoft wanted to be the third mobile ecosystem, and it has got clear solid third position, but quite small market share of overall smart phone market. Apple now sells around 10% of all the 1.8bn (and growing) phones sold on Earth each year and Android the next 50%, split roughly between say 2/3 Google Android outside China and 1/3 non-Google Android inside China. So Apple and Google have both won, and both got what they wanted, more or less, and that’s not going to change imminently.
Wearables and phablets will be the big device stories of 2015. I think that the wearables will be the more interesting story of them, because I expect more innovation to happen there. The smart phone side seemed to already be a little bit boring during 2014 – lack of innovation from big players – and I can’t see how somewhat bigger screen size and higher resolution would change that considerably during 2015. CES 2015 debuts the future of smartphones coming from all places – maybe not very much new and exciting.
Say good-buy to to astronomical growth in smart phone sales in developed countries, as smartphone market is nearly saturated in certain regions. There will be still growth in east (China, India etc..), but most of this growth will be taken by the cheap Android phones made by companies that you might have not heard before because many of them don’t sell their products in western countries. The sales of “dumb phones” will decrease as cheap smart phone will take over. Over time this will expand such that smartphones take almost all phone sales (perhaps 400m or 500m units a quarter), with Apple taking the high-end and Android the rest.
The current biggest smart phone players (Samsung and Apple) will face challenges. Samsung’s steep Q3 profit decline shows ongoing struggles in mobile – Customers sought out lower priced older models and bought a higher percentage of mid-range smartphones, or bought from some other company making decent quality cheap phones. Samsung has long counted on its marketing and hardware prowess to attract customers seeking an alternative to Apple’s iPhone. But the company is now facing new competition from low-cost phone vendors such as China’s Xiaomi and India’s Micromax, which offer cheap devices with high-end specs in their local markets.
Apple has a very strong end of 2014 sales in USA: 51% of new devices activated during Christmas week were Apple, 18% were Samsung, 6% Nokia — Apple and Apps Dominated Christmas 2014 — Millions of people woke up and unwrapped a shiny new device under the Christmas tree. It is expected that Apple also will see slowing sales in 2015: Tech analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has predicted Apple will face a grim start to 2015 with iPhone sales plummeting by up to a third.
In few years there’ll be close to 4bn smartphones on earth. Ericsson’s annual mobility report forecasts increasing mobile subscriptions and connections through 2020.(9.5B Smartphone Subs by 2020 and eight-fold traffic increase). Ericsson’s annual mobility report expects that by 2020 90% of the world’s population over six years old will have a phone. It really talks about the connected world where everyone will have a connection one way or another.
What about the phone systems in use. Now majority of the world operates on GSM and HPSA (3G). Some countries are starting to have good 4G (LTE) coverage, but on average only 20% is covered by LTE. Ericsson expects that 85% of mobile subscriptions in the Asia Pacific, the Middle East, and Africa will be 3G or 4G by 2020. 75%-80% of North America and Western Europe are expected to be using LTE by 2020. China is by far the biggest smartphone market by current users in the world, and it is rapidly moving into high-speed 4G technology.
It seems that we change our behavior when networks become better: In South Korea, one third of all people are doing this ‘place shifting’ over 4G networks. When faster networks are taken into use, the people will start to use applications that need more bandwidth, for example watch more streamed video on their smart phones.
We’re all spending more time with smartphones and tablets. So much so that the “second screen” may now be the “first screen,” depending on the data you read. Many of us use both TV and mobile simultaneously: quickly responding to email, texting with friends, or browsing Twitter and the news if I lose interest with the bigger screen. Whatever it is I’m watching, my smartphone is always close at hand. There is rapid increase of mobile device usage—especially when it comes to apps.
The use of digital ads on mobile devices is increasing. Digital ad spend is forecast to increase 15% in 2015, with research saying it will equal ad spending on television by 2019. Mobile and social media will drive 2015 spending on digital to $163 billion, with mobile ad spending expected to jump 45%. “Almost all the growth is from mobile”
Mobile virtual reality will be talked about. 3D goggles like Sony Morpheus and Facebook’s Optimus Rift will get some attention. We’ll see them refined for augmented reality apps. hopefully we see DIY virtual reality kits that use current handsets and don’t cost thousands.
Google glass consumer market interest was fading in the end of 2014, and I expect that fading to continue in 2015. It seems that developers already may be losing interest in the smart eyewear platform. Google glass is expected to be consumer sales sometime in 2015, some fear consumer demand for Glass isn’t there right now and may never materialize. “All of the consumer glass startups are either completely dead or have pivoted” Although Google continues to say it’s 100% committed to Glass and the development of the product, the market may not be.
The other big headliner of the wearables segment was Apple’s basic $350 Watch. Apple invest its time when it released the Apple Watch last quarter, going up against the likes of Google’s Android Wear and others in the burgeoning wearables area of design. Once Apple’s bitten into a market, it’s somewhat a given that there’s good growth ahead and that the market is, indeed, stable enough.
As we turn to 2015 and beyond wearables becomes an explosive hardware design opportunity — one that is closely tied to both consumer and healthcare markets. It could pick up steam in the way software did during the smartphone app explosion. It seems that the hardware becomes hot again as Wearables make hardware the new software. It’s an opportunity that is still anyone’s game. Wearables will be important end-points both for cloud and for messaging. The wearable computing market is one of the biggest growth areas in tech. BI Intelligence estimates that 148 million wearable devices like smartwatches and fitness trackers will ship in 2019.
I see that wearables will be big in 2015 mainly in the form of smart watch. According to a survey by UBS, 10% of consumers said they were very likely to buy a smartwatch in 2015, even though so far, no smartwatches have resonated with consumers. I expect the Sales of fitness wearables to plunge in 2015 owing to smartwatch takeover. In the future you need to look at exercise and fashion products as being in the same space. Samsung, Motorola, LG, and Apple debuted or announced smartwatches in 2014, so it’s no surprise that smartwatches are expected to be huge in Las Vegas at CES January’s show.
The third mobile ecosystem Windows phone has some new thing coming as Microsoft ready to show off Windows 10 mobile SKU on January 21. But it does not well motivating to me. After all, the vision of a unified Microsoft world extending across all screens is great, and it’s what Microsoft has needed all along to make Windows Phone a winner. The problem that hits me: if you fail enough times at the same thing, people stop believing you. It’s not just that Microsoft keeps failing to integrate its mobile, desktop, and console products. But Microsoft keeps claiming it will, which starts to loose credibility.
Mobile will change on-line sales in 2015: Phones have already radically altered both the way Americans shop and how retail goods move about the economy, but the transformation is just beginning — and it is far from guaranteed that Amazon will emerge victorious from the transition (this will also apply to other “traditional” players in that space).
Mobile payment technology reaching maybe finally reaching critical mass this year. Long predicted but always seeming to be “just around the corner,” mobile payments may finally have arrived. While Apple’s recent Apple Pay announcement may in retrospect be seen as launching the coming mobile payment revolution, the underlying technologies – and alternative solutions – have been emerging for some time. Maybe it isn’t going to replace the credit card but it’s going to replace the wallet — the actual physical thing crammed with cards, cash, photos and receipts. When you are out shopping, it’s the wallet, not the credit card, that is the annoyance.
Mobile money is hot also in developing countries: ordinary people in Africa using an SMS text-based currency called M-Pesa. M-Pesa was invented as a virtual currency by mobile network provider Vodafone after it was discovered that its airtime minutes were being used and traded in by people in Africa in lieu of actual money. In Kenya, a critical mass was quickly reached, and today, over 70% of the 40 million Kenyans use M-Pesa.
Mobile security will be talked about. Asian mobiles the DDOS threat of 2015, security mob says article tells that Vietnam, India and Indonesia will be the distributed denial of service volcanoes of next year due to the profieration of pwned mobiles.
Intel is heavily pushing to mobile and wearable markets. Intel is expected to expand its smartphone partnership with Lenovo: Intel will provide both its 64-bit Atom processor and LTE-Advanced modem chips for the Lenovo phones. The 4G phones follow Intel’s announcement in October of its first 4G smartphone in the US, the Asus PadFone X Mini. Now Intel remains well behind Qualcomm — which controls two-thirds of the global mobile modem market — and MediaTek as a supplier of chips for smartphones and tablets. Intel faces tough competition trying to fight its way into mobile — a market it ignored for years. Intel in early 2015 will introduce its first 4G system-on-a-chip under the new SoFIA name. Such chips include both a processor and modem together and are sought after by handset makers because they’re smaller in size than separate processor and radio chips, and use less power (matching Qualcomm’s Snapdragon).
Mobile chip leader Qualcomm will be going strong in 2015. Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 810 is not only a killer part, it has raised the bar on what a mobile SoC has to be in 2015. It can power devices that drive 4K (3840 x 2160) TV, take 4K videos, run AAA games and connect to 5-inch HD display. There are finished, branded products just waiting to be released. I am convinced Qualcomm is on track to deliver commercial devices with Snapdragon 810 in mid-2015. I expect Qualcomm to be strong leader throughout 2015.
More material worth to check out:
New questions in mobile
http://ben-evans.com/benedictevans/2014/11/20/time-for-new-questions-in-mobile
What’s Next in Wireless: My 2015 Predictions
http://newsroom.t-mobile.com/issues-insights-blog/2015-predictions.htm
1,230 Comments
Tomi Engdahl says:
Smartwatches to Outpace Trackers
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1326398&
Smartwatch ownership is on the rise and will likely surpass activity trackers, according to market researchers. A report from The NDP Group projected that 2016 activity tracker ownership will have peaked at 32 million in 2016 while nine percent of US consumers will own a smartwatch.
“The smartwatch will clearly begin to take a bite out of the activity tracker market moving forward,” said Eddie Hold, vice president of NPD’s connected intelligence group, said in a release. “The fact that the health and fitness apps on smartwatches are a key marketing focus will help draw consumers away from the simpler trackers.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Alexia Tsotsis / TechCrunch:
Sources: Apple gives Watch Edition with unique 18k gold link band to fashion icons like Beyonce, Karl Lagerfeld, and Anna Wintour — Put A Gold Band On It — Nothing separates the “haves” and the 1% like a prohibitively expensive consumer product. Whether it’s a Hermes Birkin Bag or a McLaren P1 GTR
Put A Gold Band On It
http://techcrunch.com/2015/04/21/beywatch/#.b5imzi:vW3b
The newest addition to the Pantheon of products you figuratively cannot buy is the Apple Watch Edition, which is made of 18k-solid, double-alloyed gold. But because it’s Apple, there’s even one more tier of exclusivity with the Edition, a product you literally cannot buy: The 18k Apple Watch Edition with an 18k-gold link bracelet, or as we like to call it here at TechCrunch, The Beywatch.
Tomi Engdahl says:
52 megapixels smartphone next year
When Nokia introduced in 2012, Pure View smart phone, with its 41 megapixel camera christened monster camera. New superlatives have to come up with next year, as the market is becoming smart phones with camera resolution reaches 52 million pixels.
Silicon Valley start-up company Light has developed a new camera technology that combines multi-camera image with a software as one of a high-quality, high-resolution digital image.
In demo Light used up to 16 camera matrix – user zoom determines which of the matrix cameras take a picture. The software generates an accurate combination picture of them all, which emulates a much larger sensor captured image.
Source: http://www.etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2720:52-megapikselia-alypuhelimeen-ensi-vuonna&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
The chip giant Qualcomm’s second-quarter profit fell 46 percent. The biggest reason for this drop was a company in China ordered a big abuse of the monopoly of the use of a financial penalty.
The allegations related to Qualcomm’s patent licensing practices, of which the Chinese authorities ordered the company to pay approximately over 900 million fine.
The company was also forced to cut its net sales forecast for the current year. The reason was reported the loss of a key customer of Samsung’s high end districts, as well as the smartphone market, the more expensive the equipment the concentration of Samsung and Apple’s hands.
Qualcomm lost part of Samsung’s orders, the Korean company chose to use in the most recent high end models it’s own Exynos circuits instead of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon chips.
Qualcomm’s Snapdragon fresh 810 chip has been very successful despite the fact that the district reportedly suffered on overheating issues – it is used in high end models from LG, Sony, Xiaomi and HTC.
Source: http://www.tivi.fi/Kaikki_uutiset/2015-04-23/Qualcommin-j%C3%A4ttisakko-Kiinassa-romautti-voitot—my%C3%B6s-Samsung-ahdistaa-3220448.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
An App for Hacking Fertility Now Also Works for Men
http://www.wired.com/2015/04/glow/
In our culture, reproduction is often seen as women’s work. From pregnancy to childbirth through nursing a newborn child, women are often expected to take the central role in creating new life by default.
But getting pregnant takes two, as Mike Huang is acutely aware
Until today, Glow was designed exclusively to help women either avoid a pregnancy or get pregnant. The app offers women insight on good habits to practice while they’re expecting and provides support during difficult times, such as miscarriage and the postpartum period. Now, after addressing a mother’s journey to parenthood, Huang and his team are rounding out Glow with an essential new component: support for male fertility.
There’s plenty of data to suggest that the app is addressing an unmet need. According to the National Infertility Association, one in eight couples in the US struggle with infertility. And among those couples, the male partner is either the sole cause or a contributing factor to infertility in 40 percent of cases, the American Society for Reproductive Medicine says. Yet statistics show that men are less likely to seek medical help than women.
Glow’s new features for men work much the same way they do for women. Male users can keep a daily log that tracks key aspects of their health. That data triggers insights related to their reproductive health.
Men will have access to forums where they can ask questions confidentially.
Huang thinks of Glow as a data science company, one that’s conducting the largest-ever study on reproductive health—an area the company says is in dire need of updated, quality information
Tomi Engdahl says:
Microsoft Health and Band Updates Bring New Cycling App Integrations, Insights and Features
by Stephen Barrett on April 23, 2015 8:00 PM EST
http://www.anandtech.com/show/9182/microsoft-health-and-band-updates-bring-new-cycling-app-integrations-insights-and-features
Today Microsoft launched a new update to their fitness wearable, Microsoft Band, and also to their health platform and smartphone app, Microsoft Health. These updates broaden the capabilities of features of each by integrating with third party apps and services, implementing new health insights (analysis), and enhancing the Microsoft Health app to now work stand-alone without a paired Microsoft Band.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Samsung’s next Gear smartwatch will have a round screen
http://www.androidcentral.com/samsungs-next-gear-smartwatch-will-have-round-screen
Samsung has announced that it’ll release the SDK for its next smartwatch to developers before the product launch itself — and in so doing, it’s given us a sneak peek at a big hardware change.
That’s right, it sure looks like the long-rumored circular Samsung Gear watch might finally come to fruition. The move to a rounded watch face would explain the need for Samsung to open up the SDK to developers ahead of launch day, as the move away from a rectangular face would be a significant change for Samsung’s seventh smartwatch.
In addition to showing off a large weather-themed watch face, Samsung’s teaser image also displays rounded smartwatch apps from a handful of major partners — CNN, Yelp, Baidu, FidMe and Apposter.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Did you know Twitter has a ‘consumer product division’? Ex-Google Maps boss now runs it
Put down the puns, Graf – you’ve got a profit to turn
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/04/16/twitter_hires_google_map_man_daniel_graf/
Profit-impaired Twitter has poached Google’s Maps director Daniel Graf to head up the micro-blogging site’s consumer product division.
Graf – who is rarely seen Google+ing, facebooking or indeed tweeting – confirmed via his Twitter account on Tuesday that he was moving on.
Tomi Engdahl says:
[Update: Probably Not Glass] New Google FCC Filing For “Smart Bluetooth LE Device” May Be The Next Version Of Glass, Or Something Else Entirely
http://www.androidpolice.com/2015/04/24/new-google-fcc-filing-for-smart-bluetooth-le-device-may-be-the-next-version-of-glass-or-something-else-entirely/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Drew Harwell / Washington Post:
Nike and Under Armour pour money into health tracking to develop connections with customers, recommend products based on exercise data, reach new markets
Why Nike and Under Armour are spending wildly to watch your every step
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2015/04/22/why-nike-and-under-armour-are-spending-wildly-to-watch-your-every-step/
Sportswear outfitters like Under Armour and Nike look increasingly like tech companies, with apps and digital ecosystems that stretch far beyond their traditional fitting rooms and football deals. In the age of the Fitbit and Apple Watch, where Web-connected fitness is increasingly de rigueur, the winner of the health-tracking arms race could potentially secure a goldmine from shoppers looking for the best way to break a sweat.
Boasting “the world’s largest digital health and fitness community,” Under Armour executives said Tuesday that their Connected Fitness platform now counts more than 130 million unique users. Most of those have come from Under Armour’s $700 million health-app buying spree, during which it gobbled up MapMyFitness in 2013 and, in February, MyFitnessPal and Endomondo.
It is another way America’s second-biggest sportswear firm is seeking to get ahead of its chief rival, Nike, and another way in which the underdog is already lagging behind. NikeFuel, the company’s athletic melange of fitness trackers and mobile apps, boasts a big user base, a longer track record and the backing of the Big Swoosh, which sells far more clothes than Under Armour and remains more easily recognized.
Under Armour has, in the Nike-Michael Jordan tradition, done incredibly well at signing on sports talent
But some sportswear executives think fitness tracking could give an even bigger sales boost than star partnerships. The apps offer personalized detail and encouragement for the everywoman exercise crowd, even those who couldn’t care less about major sports. And unlike athlete endorsement deals, they don’t leave the company at risk of a bad game or career-ending injury, and could offer a sales bump in every season.
Fitness trackers could also help the companies win over a fast-growing yet underrepresented market among amateur exercisers: women.
Health and wellness is one of the fastest-growing categories in app stores for Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android, which now count more than 100,000 apps for counting calories, tracking diets or logging workouts.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Smartwatch Uptick in Mobile Slump
Handsets, tablets slump to single-digit growth
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1326427&
Smartwatches will be one of the bright spots in an otherwise slowing mobile market, according to analyst Linley Gwennap. Over the next five years, both smartphones and tablets will slump to single-digit growth levels but smartwatches could rise to annual sales of 300 to 400 million units, he said at the Linley Mobile Conference here on Wednesday.
Forecasts that Apple could sell as many as 40 million of its watches in their first year are optimistic, nevertheless, “we expect a big jump,” Gwennap said. “In a year or so there will be a lot of knock-off products that look like the Apple Watch but sell for more like 50 bucks,” he said, estimating by 2019 the 17% of smartphone buyers purchasing high-end products will also get smartwatches.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Samsung’s Galaxy S6 Edge screen costs $200-$260 to replace, and isn’t covered under warranty
http://venturebeat.com/2015/04/23/samsungs-galaxy-s6-edge-screen-costs-200-260-to-replace-and-isnt-covered-under-warranty/
The curved glass display on Samsung’s new Galaxy S6 Edge smartphone could cost between $200 and $260 to replace, and the replacement screen is not covered under warranty.
The glass of the Edge’s display is curved downward on both sides, while the screens of most smartphones are flat.
Samsung says it charges $200 to replace the Edge’s display. A call to Samsung Service and Support confirmed this. The phone rep prefaced his remarks by saying “Hmmm it’s pretty expensive” before quoting me the price. He added that the price could be more, depending on what the service techs see when they get the busted device up on the bench.
One supplier we spoke with at Mobile World Congress said a replacement Edge display could cost up to $300.
According to http://www.phonescreenrepair.org, it usually costs between $50 and $170 to repair a cracked smartphone screen, depending upon the model of the phone.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Location Is Your Most Critical Data, and Everyone’s Watching
http://www.wired.com/2015/04/location/
A few years ago, one foolproof way of saving the battery on you phone was to turn off GPS. You didn’t really need it. At most, it was an added convenience in a few apps.
But it’s time to turn GPS back on. Your location has become one of the best things about your phone, your smartwatch, and every other connected device you carry. Our tech is learning to adapt to us, nestling into every aspect of our lives so it is more responsive, more useful, and more intuitive. This is awesome, and it’s happening because of three things: location, location, location.
Your phone’s ability to pinpoint your exact location and use that info to deliver services—a meal, a ride, a tip, a coupon—is reason for excitement. But this world of always-on GPS raises questions about what happens to our data. How much privacy are we willing to surrender? What can these services learn about our activities? What keeps detailed maps of our lives from being sold to the highest bidder? These have been issues as long as we’ve had cellphones, but they are more pressing than ever.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Apple Watch has now been in use for some short time, so the web is bursting with first reports. The largest reported problems related to the duration of the battery and third-party applications that do not work. One user Watch clock battery took quite the end of nine hours. We must, therefore, seem to get used to the fact that in addition to the smartphone their smart watch need to be charged at least once a day.
Apple’s own applications to receive praise. They are fitted in a unified voice on the screen nicely. In contrast, third-party applications that are already available in more than three thousand, operate with significantly worse.
Despite the problems, smart watch is expect to have a very rosy future, at least according to research institutes. Linley Gwennap predicted that the annual smart watch sales will grow in a few years to 300-400 million units – In practice, this means that in 2019 nearly one in five smartphone user buys smart watch on the side.
Source: http://www.etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2736:muiden-sovellukset-eivat-toimi-applen-kellossa&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
Reuters:
Tencent announces TOS+, an open smart hardware operating system for internet-connected devices such as TVs and watches, taking on Alibaba and Xiaomi
Tencent takes on Alibaba, Xiaomi with open smart hardware operating system
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/04/28/us-tencent-hardware-system-idUSKBN0NJ0DD20150428
(Reuters) – China’s Tencent Holdings Ltd launched on Tuesday an operating system for internet-connected devices such as TVs and watches that is open to all developers, taking on domestic rivals Alibaba Group Holding Ltd and Xiaomi Inc in the smart hardware space.
Tencent Operating System (OS) and TOS+ allow manufacturers and developers to freely use the platform if they agree to share revenue. This model mirrors Google Inc’s Android mobile OS, and could help Tencent replicate the U.S. firm’s conquest of the majority of the world’s smartphones.
Tencent is the dominant social networking and online entertainment company in China, and the success of its OS would deepen its control over users’ screens. Tencent’s WeChat mobile messaging app is the most widely used for communication, and is also popular for shopping, gaming and other mobile services such as hailing a taxi.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Bodyprint could let you unlock your phone with your ear print
http://www.cnet.com/news/bodyprint-could-let-you-unlock-your-phone-with-your-ear-print/
An experimental system uses a smartphone’s capacitive screen as a low-res sensor keyed to the user’s body prints.
You may one day be able to unlock your smartphone by holding it against your ear instead of your finger.
That is the goal of Bodyprint, an authentication system created by Yahoo Labs that turns a smartphone’s capacitive touchscreen into a biometric scanner. But because the scanning device is much larger than a fingerprint scanner, the system allows smartphone owners to unlock their handsets using body parts other than their fingerprint — such as their ear when answering a call.
“While the input resolution of a touchscreen is about 6 dpi, the surface area is larger, allowing the touch sensor to scan users’ body parts, such as ears, fingers, fists, and palms by pressing them against the display,” the Yahoo Labs team wrote on the project’s web page.
From email to texts, phonebook entries, and pictures, your phone has lots of personal information that’s potentially accessible to prying eyes. Passcodes are effective but sometimes tedious. Fingerprint scanners are a convenient way to secure handsets, but they are pricey and often limited to high-end handsets, noted the Yahoo team, which was led by Christian Holz
“Bodyprint compensates for the low input resolution with an increased false rejection rate, but does not compromise on authentication precision,”
The results were precise: “Scanning users’ ears for identification, Bodyprint achieves 99.8 percent authentication precision with a false-rejection rate of 1 out of 13, thereby bringing reliable biometric user authentication to a vast number of commodity devices.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge review: Top-ranking Smartphone has the Edge
http://www.dxomark.com/Phones/Samsung-Galaxy-S6-Edge-review-Top-ranking-Smartphone-has-the-Edge
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google Now Expands Its Reach, Integrates 70 More Services
http://www.wired.com/2015/04/google-now-app-integrations/
Google Now lives life a quarter-second at a time. The feature, which comes standard on every Android phone, surfaces information to you based on the time of day and your current location. It always shows you a simple dashboard of cards, each filled with timely notifications, reminders, and real-time data.
With a newly open API, Google is working with its partners to present even more of that information on your mobile screen. And today, Google has announced more than 70 new integrations for Now. You can find new music to listen to, control your smart home, and even track the whereabouts of your food delivery from the restaurant to your door, all within the confines of Google Now. When you say “OK Google” into your watch or phone to activate Google Now, you’re not just searching for stuff—you’re doing stuff.
The Now platform is essentially the entire interface for Android Wear devices, and it’s becoming more and more important on Android phones as well.
But right now, Google Now is about push. It’s a new, smarter spin on notifications. It’s about showing you what you need to know, and speeding up the process of finding what you want to know. You need it, and you need it now.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Phone wars: Samsung earnings show signs of life
http://money.cnn.com/2015/04/06/investing/samsung-earnings/
Good news for Samsung: The company’s sales and profits appear to be stabilizing, raising hopes that the South Korean electronics giant will emerge from its smartphone-induced funk.
Samsung said Tuesday that it anticipates an operating profit of 5.9 trillion won ($5.4 billion) for January to March — a 31% decline from the previous year, but the strongest number in three quarters.
Tomi Engdahl says:
F*watch is a fully open electronic watch project featuring an integrated GPS receiver.
http://www.ohwr.org/projects/f-watch/wiki
Tomi Engdahl says:
How to make your own emoji
Turn your favorite photos into shareable emoji with this free app.
http://www.cnet.com/how-to/how-to-make-your-own-emojis/
With imoji, a free app for iOS and Android, you can make any picture — even one you’ve downloaded from the Web — into a custom emoji to share with your friends via MMS.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Windows 10 Can Run Reworked Android and iOS Apps
http://mobile.slashdot.org/story/15/04/29/1915246/windows-10-can-run-reworked-android-and-ios-apps
After months of rumors, Microsoft is revealing its plans to get mobile apps on Windows 10 today. While the company has been investigating emulating Android apps, it has settled on a different solution, or set of solutions, that will allow developers to bring their existing code to Windows 10. iOS and Android developers will be able to port their apps and games directly to Windows universal apps, and Microsoft is enabling this with two new software development kits. On the Android side, Microsoft is enabling developers to use Java and C++ code on Windows 10, and for iOS developers they’ll be able to take advantage of their existing Objective C code.
Huge news: Windows 10 can run reworked Android and iOS apps
http://www.theverge.com/2015/4/29/8511439/microsoft-windows-10-android-ios-apps-bridges
After months of rumors, Microsoft is revealing its plans to get mobile apps on Windows 10 today. While the company has been investigating emulating Android apps, it has settled on a different solution, or set of solutions, that will allow developers to bring their existing code to Windows 10.
iOS and Android developers will be able to port their apps and games directly to Windows universal apps, and Microsoft is enabling this with two new software development kits. On the Android side, Microsoft is enabling developers to use Java and C++ code on Windows 10, and for iOS developers they’ll be able to take advantage of their existing Objective C code.
The idea is simple, get apps on Windows 10 without the need for developers to rebuild them fully for Windows. While it sounds simple, the actual process will be a little more complicated than just pushing a few buttons to recompile apps. “Initially it will be analogous to what Amazon offers,” notes Myerson, referring to the Android work Microsoft is doing. “If they’re using some Google API… we have created Microsoft replacements for those APIs.” Microsoft’s pitch to developers is to bring their code across without many changes, and then eventually leverage the capabilities of Windows like Cortana, Xbox Live, Holograms, Live Tiles, and more.
During Microsoft’s planning for bringing iOS and Android apps to Windows, Myerson admits it wasn’t always an obvious choice to have both. “At times we’ve thought, let’s just do iOS,”
Supporting both Android and iOS developers allows Microsoft to capture everyone who is developing for mobile platforms right now, even if most companies still continue to target iOS first and port their apps to Android at the same time or shortly afterward.
Alongside the iOS and Android SDKs, Microsoft is also revealing ways for websites and Windows desktop apps to make their way over to Windows universal apps. Microsoft has created a way for websites to run inside a Windows universal app, and use system services like notifications and in-app purchases. This should allow website owners to easily create web apps without much effort, and list those apps in the Windows Store.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ending Ashan eroded Microsoft
In the first quarter sold more than 350 million smartphones. The amount is 23 per cent higher than a year earlier.
Ending Asha meant that Microsoft’s smartphone shipments shrank by 40 per cent a year.
Samsung is still the market leader. 82 million sold in the smart phone, brought a 23 percent market share. Apple sold a record number of iPhones, up 61 million.
Microsoft is not the only manufacturer in difficulties. Blackberry managed to sell in January-March, just one and a half million phones – could disappear from market this year at current trend.
The Chinese manufacturers of Juniper instead of predicting success: Huawei, HTC and Xiaom
Source: http://www.etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2758:ashan-lopettaminen-rokotti-microsoftia&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
How mHealth Will Change Your Life
http://rtcmagazine.com/articles/view/107935
Overcoming distance and delays is a big hurdle for many people seeking health care, as is the scarcity of qualified specialists in many cases. The emergence of mobile devices with wireless communications is helping to bring more patients the monitoring and care they need.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Juli Clover / MacRumors:
IHS: 38mm Apple Watch Sport component and manufacturing costs are $83.70, about 24% of retail price — Apple Watch Sport Component Costs Estimated at $83.70,
Apple Watch Sport Component Costs Estimated at $83.70, Which Won’t Sit Well With Tim Cook
http://www.macrumors.com/2015/04/30/ihs-apple-watch-component-costs/
Eric Slivka / MacRumors:
Teardown of Apple’s S1 Watch chip reveals custom CPU, 512MB RAM, 8GB flash storage, components from ADI and IDT
Early Looks Inside Apple Watch’s S1 Chip Confirm 512 MB RAM, Unexpected Suppliers
http://www.macrumors.com/2015/04/30/apple-watch-s1-512mb-ram/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Windows 10 won’t launch on phones this summer
http://www.theverge.com/2015/4/30/8525057/windows-10-mobile-release-date
While Microsoft is planning to launch Windows 10 on PCs this summer, the phone part of the operating system will debut at a later date. Speaking at a media event at Build in San Francisco today, Microsoft’s Joe Belfiore explained the company’s plans for the launch of Windows 10. “Our phone builds have not been as far along as our PC builds,” explained Belfiore. “We’re adapting the phone experiences later than we’re adding the PC experiences.”
That slower progress means Windows 10 on phones will show up after the PC launch this summer. “There are devices and features that will come not on launch date, but following it,” says Belfiore. “From the device view, our main focus is to kick off the Windows 10 launch wave with a great launch on the PC. You should expect that the other devices — phone, HoloLens, Xbox, Surface Hub — will be staggered, probably not on the same date as the PC.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
RANKED: The best smartphones in the world
http://uk.businessinsider.com/best-smartphones-2015-4?op=1
Tomi Engdahl says:
Africa’s Mobile-Sun Revolution
http://recode.net/2015/04/29/africas-mobile-sun-revolution/
The transformative potential for mobile communications is upon us in every aspect of life. In the developing world where infrastructure of all types is at a premium, few question the potential for mobile, but many wonder whether it should be a priority.
Many years of visiting the developing world have taught me that, given the tools, people — including the very poor — will quickly and easily put them to uses that exceed even the well-intentioned ideas of the developed world. Poor people want to and can do everything people of means can do, they just don’t have the money.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Matt Townsend / Bloomberg Business:
Home Depot announces it will accept Apple Pay after equipment upgrade, making it the biggest retailer to do so with more than 2K stores
Home Depot Aiming to Put Apple Pay in Its 2,000 Stores
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-05-05/home-depot-to-become-largest-retailer-to-accept-apple-pay
Home Depot Inc. has the goal of offering Apple Inc.’s mobile-payment platform at its more than 2,000 stores, which would make it the largest retailer yet to accept Apple Pay.
“It’s something we’d like to do,” Steve Holmes, a spokesman for Atlanta-based Home Depot, said on Tuesday. However, a deal with Apple isn’t in place, so the plan isn’t final, he said. The chain, which currently accepts PayPal, also may add other kinds of mobile payment, he said.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Apple Has Plans for Your DNA
The iPhone could become a new tool in genetic studies.
http://www.technologyreview.com/news/537081/apple-has-plans-for-your-dna/
Apple is collaborating with U.S. researchers to launch apps that would offer some iPhone owners the chance to get their DNA tested, many of them for the first time, according to people familiar with the plans.
The apps are based on ResearchKit, a software platform Apple introduced in March that helps hospitals or scientists run medical studies on iPhones by collecting data from the devices’ sensors or through surveys.
The first five ResearchKit apps, including one called mPower that tracks symptoms of Parkinson’s disease, quickly recruited thousands of participants in a few days, demonstrating the reach of Apple’s platform.
“Apple launched ResearchKit and got a fantastic response. The obvious next thing is to collect DNA,” says Gholson Lyon, a geneticist at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, who isn’t involved with the studies.
Nudging iPhone owners to submit DNA samples to researchers would thrust Apple’s devices into the center of a widening battle for genetic information. Universities, large technology companies like Google (see “Google Wants to Store Your Genome”), direct-to-consumer labs, and even the U.S. government (see “U.S. to Develop DNA Study of One Million People”) are all trying to amass mega-databases of gene information to uncover clues about the causes of disease (see “Internet of DNA”).
Tomi Engdahl says:
Apple to Cash on Watch, Says IHS
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1326538&
According to a preliminary estimate by IHS and its Teardown Mobile Handsets Intelligence Service, the Apple Watch has the lowest hardware costs compared to retail price of any Apple product, with actual hardware costs representing just under a quarter of the manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP).
In comparison, estimated hardware cost to MSRP ratios for other Apple products reviewed by IHS are in the range of 29 to 38 percent.
The teardown of the Apple Watch Sport 38mm shows a bill of materials of USD81.20 with the cost of production rising to USD83.70 when the USD2.50 manufacturing expense is added, for a retail price of USD349.00. The IHS Technology analysis does not include logistics, amortized capital expenses, overhead, SG&A, R&D, software, IP licensing and other variables throughout the supply chain such as the EMS provider.
The preliminary results of the teardown do not show any big surprises in the IC content; all of the manufacturers identified so far were expected.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Why LTE-A Carrier Aggregation Now?
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1326528&
Stop-gap measures like combining LTE and Wi-Fi carriers can help increase download speeds. But what about uploads?
It is apparent that the growing thirst for more wireless data is driven mostly by the increasing transfer of pictures and video on smartphones. Think Instagram, YouTube and Skype for starters.
Subscribers don’t usually associate their new, bigger smartphones with their larger screens and their higher resolution as consuming more data, but it is also a big factor in monthly data budgets.
And smartphone cameras have ever-growing pixel counts, with rear ones of 20 MP and front ones of 5 MP becoming more common. You can imagine that even higher pixel counts are coming, with their attendant greater data consumption.
Network giant Cisco Corp. estimates that mobile data traffic will grow at a compound annual rate of 65% from 2013 through 2018. Consequently, both network capacity and device throughput must outpace this growth to improve user experience of both consuming and (increasingly) generating all of this traffic.
To accommodate the growing data appetite of its subscribers, mobile operators like AT&T, Verizon, and China Mobile must provide greater spectral bandwidth.
How do we increase upload speeds?
There are stop-gap measures for increasing download (but not upload) speeds, like combining LTE and Wi-Fi carriers, but with higher upload speeds for Instagram and videoconferencing, a better way for increasing effective bandwidth (and its higher-speed capability) is through LTE carrier aggregation (LTE-CA).
Tomi Engdahl says:
Samsung S6: You might get a Sony camera in it – or you might not
Some S6s are more equal than others, even among the golden ones
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/05/06/samsung_s6_camera_sensor_lottery/
When you buy a Samsung S6 you might get the impressive Sony IMX240 camera sensor … or you might get the Samsung Isocell unit.
In the published specifications for S6 and S6 Edge, Samsung doesn’t give any details on the camera sensor, saying just “16MP OIS(rear), 5MP (front)” but the two sensors are pretty different and there is no way of knowing which you are going to get before you leave the shop.
Tests by Samsung fanboi site Sammobile show the homegrown sensor to be more vivid, while the Sony sensor gives more realistic results. The Sony produced sharper images too. Files saved using the Sony powered devices were a shade larger than those using the Samsung technology.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ubuntu’s top mobile phone will be this year
Ubuntu Linux administering of Canonical tried autumn 2013 to apply for a number of financial campaign finance Ubuntu-based Edge mobile phone. Now, Ubuntu founder Mark Shuttleworth promises that the same type of top-equipped device will be launched during this year.
Ubuntu’s Mark Shuttleworth has not told the forthcoming Ubuntu super phone manufacturer or device information, but it will be the first two screens doing linux smartphone.
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2773:ubuntu-huippukannykka-tulee-tana-vuonna&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
There is of course a lot of fun, that Microsoft is now copying failed Ubuntu Edge phone ideas in future Windows 10 smartphones. Continuum feature allows Windows smartphone will be a desktop when it is connected to an external monitor, keyboard and mouse.
According to Microsoft, this does not work with the current hardware
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2773:ubuntu-huippukannykka-tulee-tana-vuonna&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google Can’t Ignore the Android Update Problem Any Longer
http://mobile.slashdot.org/story/15/05/05/2140216/google-cant-ignore-the-android-update-problem-any-longer
An editorial at Tom’s Hardware makes the case that Google’s Android fragmentation problem has gotten too big to ignore any longer. Android 5.0 Lollipop and its successor 5.1 have seen very low adoption rates — 9.0% and 0.7% respectively. Almost 40% of users are still on KitKat. 6% lag far behind on Gingerbread and Froyo.
Google Can’t Ignore The Android Update Problem Any Longer (Op Ed)
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/google-android-update-problem-fix,29042.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
There’s a Way to Control Phones With Sound, Not Electronics
http://www.wired.com/2015/05/theres-way-control-phones-sound-not-electronics/
Gierad Laput thinks the future of smartphone interaction could look a lot like playing the flute. For his most recent project, Acoustruments, Laput, a researcher at Carnegie Mellon’s Future Interfaces Group and Eric Brockmeyer, from the Disney Research Lab, have developed a series of phone accessories that function less like the electronic gadgets you see at Best Buy and more like simple, tiny woodwind instruments.
Gierad Laput thinks the future of smartphone interaction could look a lot like playing the flute. For his most recent project, Acoustruments, Laput, a researcher at Carnegie Mellon’s Future Interfaces Group and Eric Brockmeyer, from the Disney Research Lab, have developed a series of phone accessories that function less like the electronic gadgets you see at Best Buy and more like simple, tiny woodwind instruments.
To make Acoustruments work, Laput and his colleagues built each accessory so that a hollow tube connects runs between the phone’s speaker and microphone. The speaker emits a high-frequency sound (imperceptible to you and me but maybe not to your dog) which the microphone measures. On its own, this signal flows through the tube like water through a freshly cleaned pipe. But make a change—add a hole, thicken the plastic walls, pinch the tube, lengthen the tube—and that signal gets disrupted. Like plugging a valve on a flute to make a note, you can control your phone’s actions by physically altering how that signal flows.
The appeal of this sort of interaction is apparent. A simple 3-D printed accessory could add an element of tangible interaction to smartphones without much cost or complexity.
Acoustruments: Passive, Acoustically-Driven Interactive Controls for Hand Held Devices
http://www.disneyresearch.com/publication/acoustruments/
We introduce Acoustruments: low-cost, passive, and powerless mechanisms, made from plastic, that can bring rich, tangible functionality to handheld devices.
Acoustruments can achieve 99% accuracy with minimal training, is robust to noise, and can be rapidly prototyped. Acoustruments adds a new method to the toolbox HCI practitioners and researchers can draw upon, while introducing a cheap and passive method for adding interactive controls to consumer products.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Nvidia Exits LTE Modems
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1326546&
While having an integrated modem is still a critical differentiator in some applications, not having one will not preclude Nvidia from succeeding in other applications.
Nvidia made it official that it is winding down the LTE modem business that it purchased from Icera in 2011. The decision does not come as a complete surprise, as the company has more recently focused on gaming, automotive, enterprise graphics and the cloud applications. These are areas where Nvidia has had recent success leveraging its GPU expertise, but these applications do not require modem technology. The Tegra product line in particular has been refocused on gaming platforms and automotive applications.
Icera was one of the many LTE start-ups that were swallowed up in the cellular modem and wi-fi grab that occurred several years ago.
When Icera was purchased, well over a dozen semiconductor companies were vying for a piece of the growing smartphone market, which shipped over 1.2 billion units in 2014. Since then, companies like Broadcom, TI, Freescale, Renesas Mobile, and ST-Ericsson have all exited the mobile market. In addition, many of the leading smartphone vendors like Apple, Samsung, and Huawei, have begun using their own applications processors, which account for over a third of the total market. As a result, there are only two remaining major smartphone chipset providers, Qualcomm and MediaTek, and a handful of Chinese start-ups competing for the rest of the market.
At the same time, competing in the market for discrete or integrated modems has become more challenging. Wireless carriers in developed markets have rapidly shifted to new LTE revisions and adopted new features, such as carrier aggregation, to improve performance and network efficiency, as well as providing differentiation to competitors.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Robinson Meyer / The Atlantic:
Mobile Justice CA app uploads all video footage as it’s being captured to servers owned by ACLU, available for iOS and Android for now
Film the Police
A new app makes it easier.
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/05/film-the-police/392483/?google_editors_picks=true
Last month, video footage emerged that appeared to show something illegal: A U.S. marshal approached a woman who was filming him on duty, snatched her smartphone, and smashed it on the ground.
That incident only became news because someone else was filming the encounter. But not every bystander filming a police encounter can have a backup. What should a person do when there’s no one else on the scene?
A new app tries to answer this question by offering, in effect, a different kind of backup. Called Mobile Justice CA, the app uploads all video footage as it’s being captured to servers owned by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). Even if the phone is destroyed, the video will survive.
The app was co-released Friday by the ACLU of Southern California and the Oakland-based Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, and it’s available now for iOS and Android devices.
Within a year, Cullors told me, the Center plans to debut a “web-based platform” that will help communities track behaviors—both positive and negative—among law-enforcement agencies and individual police officers. Cullors described the platform as “a Facebook for challenging criminalization in your community.”
For now, there’s the app. Video uploaded to ACLU servers will be reviewed by the organization’s lawyers, but it will still belong to the person who captured it.
Body cameras have been hailed as a solution to police brutality, and in that they’ve proven popular but fraught: They improve officer accountability while functioning as one more surveillance tool in communities often already riddled with them.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Facebook wants to turn its mobile ad network into an even bigger business by running ‘native’ ads on other apps
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-audience-network-ads-native-ad-tools-2015-5#ixzz3ZRvsJf00
Tomi Engdahl says:
Asif Shaik / SamMobile:
Some Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge units have Sony IMX240 camera sensors, others have Samsung’s own ISOCELL sensors
Here’s the difference between Samsung and Sony camera sensors on the Galaxy S6 and S6 edge
http://www.sammobile.com/2015/05/05/heres-the-difference-between-samsung-and-sony-camera-sensors-on-the-galaxy-s6-and-s6-edge/
After a first glance, we think that the images shot using the IMX240 display vibrant and warmer colors than the ones clicked using the ISOCELL sensor. Also, the images captured using the Sony sensor appear to have more depth in them. In bright conditions, the IMX240 captured original colors, but it was the opposite otherwise – the ISOCELL sensor captured truer-to-life colors during low-light conditions.
Official statement Samsung Benelux.
“The Galaxy S6 and S6 edge utilize camera sensors from several different vendors. Like all of the technology used in our products, they meet our strict global quality and performance standards.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Meerkat Launches Developer Platform To Differentiate From Periscope
http://techcrunch.com/2015/05/06/meerkat-api/
How did it feel getting cut off by Twitter with just 2 hours notice? “It sucked” says Meerkat founder Ben Rubin. That’s why it’s determined to treat developers with more respect. In the nine weeks since Meerkat launched, 37 developers have built companion experiences to the livestreaming apps on its unofficial, private API, including stream discovery, automatic uploads of streams to YouTube, and audience analytics tools.
Today, Meerkat is legitimizing those developers by launching an official developer platform and APIs that it promises to never take away. By becoming a platform, Meerkat could allow outside developers to build tools for a much wider variety of use cases than its small, independent team build spawn itself. That might help it differentiate itself from fellow livestreaming app Periscope, which benefits from the massive team and deep pockets of its acquirer Twitter.
As for his hopes for the platform, Rubin tells me “one thing I want to see is how collaborative streams could be done around a topic or demographic.” A Map view based on the location of streams could also be helpful
The platform could be an especially sharp sword to brandish against Twitter, which has repeatedly burned its credibility with developers of app clients, data services, and consumer products like Meerkat by suddenly stripping their access to its systems or steamrolling them with acquisitions and in-house projects. Periscope could launch a platform, but few developers might trust it.
While livestreaming could become a market big enough for both Meerkat and Periscope, there’s no denying that they’re competing for users and attention. Until now, Meerkat’s basically just been Periscope without replays.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ubuntu May Beat Windows 10 To Phone-PC Convergence After All
http://news.slashdot.org/story/15/05/06/1844203/ubuntu-may-beat-windows-10-to-phone-pc-convergence-after-all
“Despite the recent announcement that Windows 10 phones will be able to be used as PCs when connected to an external monitor, Ubuntu—the first operating system to toy with the idea—hasn’t conceded the smartphone-PC convergence race to Microsoft just yet. ‘While I enjoy the race, I also like to win,’ Ubuntu Foundation founder Mark Shuttleworth said during a Ubuntu Online Summit keynote, before announcing that Canonical will partner with a hardware manufacturer to release a Ubuntu Phone with smartphone-PC convergence features this year.
Ubuntu may beat Windows 10 to phone-PC convergence after all
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2919552/ubuntu-may-beat-windows-10-to-phone-pc-convergence-after-all.html
Windows 10 for phones is slipping
Windows 10 for PCs will ship this summer—in late July, according to AMD’s CEO. But Microsoft recently announced that Windows 10 for phones will be released after Windows 10 for PCs. Microsoft called this a “staggered launch,” which is just another way of saying the phone version isn’t done yet and will be released later.
This is no surprise, as the phone version is in much rougher shape than the PC version. We don’t know when the phone version will ship, but we can probably expect to see Windows 10 for phones arrive later in 2015.
Microsoft isn’t waiting for third-party manufacturers to take advantage of the convergence features. It will reportedly release a flagship phone codenamed “Cityman” with support for Continuum for Windows 10 phones
Canonical’s schedules have been slipping, too
There are reasons to be a bit skeptical. The Unity 8 desktop interface and Mir are still in fairly rough, unpolished shape—you can see it for yourself by trying the Ubuntu Desktop Next images.
Unity 8 and Mir were supposed to have been part of the default Ubuntu desktop image for several releases now, but this is clearly taking longer than expected. Unity 8 and Mir may be ready for Ubuntu 15.10, “Wily Werewolf,” in October. We’ll see.
On the Ubuntu Phone front, the BQ Aquaris is still the only Ubuntu phone that’s ever been released, and it’s only available in Europe. The first Ubuntu phone for the rest of the world, the Meizu MX4, still isn’t out. Meizu and Canonical haven’t even announced a release date for it yet.
Canonical will probably still get there, but Microsoft might beat Ubuntu to convergence even if it does launch the new phone this year. If the phone slips to 2016, Microsoft will almost certainly beat them to market
Tomi Engdahl says:
Cell Phone identify molecules
Mobile phones have over the years developed a wide range of additional equipment. Finland has developed a solution that makes the smartphone’s camera microscope. Developed at the University of California, the device goes a step further: it is able to image and scan the DNA molecules.
UCLA developed by researchers from the external device consisting of a lens with a thin film-based EMC filters and laser diode. The whole is packed 3D-printed casing, which is placed on top of the smartphone.
The device operates as normal fluorescence microscope using UV light. The processor Aydogan Ozcanin the DNA molecule is stretched to about two microns wide. The camera can be detected by DNA-sample, for example, Alzheimer’s disease, or drug resistance in the treatment of infectious diseases.
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2768:kannykka-tunnistaa-molekyyleja&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
Here’s What A Web Browser Running On The Apple Watch Looks Like (Spoiler: Not Great)
http://techcrunch.com/2015/05/10/heres-what-a-web-browser-running-on-the-apple-watch-looks-like-spoiler-not-great/
“Wouldn’t it be neat to have a web browser on my Apple Watch?”
No, no it wouldn’t. It’s a thought most smartwatch owners have had at one time or another — but in the end, we probably don’t want that.
Comex, a well-known jailbreak developer who went off to spend some time as an Apple intern before moving on to other projects, has whipped up a fleeting but seemingly functional example of what a browser might look like running on the Apple Watch — and… well, again: you probably don’t want this.
The web just wasn’t built for screens this small. It took years for smartphone browsers to become more usable than frustrating, and a lot of the usability gains there came from massive screen spec jumps. A 1.5″ smartwatch screen never becomes particularly web-friendly, no matter how many pixels you cram in that screen.
Alas, Comex makes no mention of how he got this up and running. Out of the box, running arbitrary code like this shouldn’t be possible
This video explains why Apple didn’t put a Web browser on the Apple Watch
http://venturebeat.com/2015/05/10/apple-watch-web-browser-omg-no/
When Apple unveiled its Watch, hardly anyone bothered to point out that the company omitted a key technology from the wearable: the open Web.
For most of us, this omission makes complete sense. The Web, as it exists today, has no place on the Apple Watch; so far, nothing designed for a modern browser considers the specs or input methods of the device, and that’s not going to change any time soon
Tomi Engdahl says:
Wall Street Journal:
IDC: China Q1 smartphone shipments fall for the first time in 6 years, down 4.3% YoY, with Apple the largest vendor by market share
China’s Smartphone Market Slows Down
With 90% of Chinese already owning a smartphone, handset makers look to win over ‘upgraders’
http://www.wsj.com/article_email/chinas-smartphone-market-slows-down-1431296873-lMyQjAxMTE1MzEyMDQxNzAwWj
BEIJING—The world’s largest smartphone market doesn’t have much room left to grow.
Smartphone shipments in China fell 4.3% in the first quarter compared with a year ago for the first time in six years, according to a new survey set to be released on Monday by International Data Corp. Rival surveys show continued growth during the quarter, but at much slower levels than previously.
Experts say the slowdown is largely driven by the disappearance of China’s first-time buyers. Smartphones now have a more than 90% penetration rate in China, said Tom Kang, research director with market-research firm Counterpoint, meaning just about everybody in China who wants a smartphone already has one. “China is now a replacement market,” Mr. Kang said.
“I won’t buy a new one in the near future unless it gets slow or broken,” Mr. Liao said. “I think I will still buy an iPhone in the future, but if Samsung produced a really fancy phone I would think about buying it.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Mark Bergen / Re/code:
Google’s strategy for making mobile searches more lucrative: new mobile ad formats, options for ordering food directly from inside mobile search, more
Google’s Mobile Search Strategy: Bake In and Take Out
http://recode.net/2015/05/09/googles-mobile-search-strategy-bake-in-and-take-out/
On Tuesday, Google confirmed what many had long suspected: Mobile searches now outnumber those on desktop.
That must have been worrying news in the Googleplex, because, while the company does not share the figures, evidence suggests mobile search is much less lucrative. That’s why executives spent most of the last earnings call assuring investors that, indeed, they do have a plan for mobile.
It’s important. On desktop, Google built a superior search engine and watched the dollars roll in. But, on mobile, it may have to fight harder. Rivals like Amazon and Pinterest* are beginning to lay the groundwork for search revenue products, which would give advertisers more than one option.
“It’s not going to be the Google show,” one media buyer said about mobile spending.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Cody Toombs / Android Police:
Android users can now pre-register for upcoming apps and games on Google Play, without obligation to buy at release
Pre-Registration Is Now Live For Apps On The Play Store, Starting With Terminator Genisys: Revolution
http://www.androidpolice.com/2015/05/08/pre-registration-is-now-live-for-apps-on-the-play-store-starting-with-terminator-genisys-revolution/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ariana Eunjung Cha / Washington Post:
As fitness wearables and sensors become more pervasive, important questions remain about privacy and the usefulness of health data tracking
The Human Upgrade
The revolution will be digitized
http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/national/2015/05/09/the-revolution-will-be-digitized/
Spearheaded by the flood of wearable devices, a movement to quantify consumers’ lifestyles is evolving into big business with immense health and privacy ramifications
Smarr, an astrophysicist and computer scientist, could be the world’s most self-measured man. For nearly 15 years, the professor at the University of California at San Diego has been obsessed with what he describes as the most complicated subject he has ever experimented on: his own body.
The Human Upgrade:
Using their ideas and their billions, the visionaries who created Silicon Valley’s biggest technology firms are trying to transform the most complicated system in existence: the human body.
Click to read Part I: Tech titans’ latest project: Defy death
Illustration by Sébastien Thibault
Smarr keeps track of more than 150 parameters. Some, such as his heartbeat, movement and whether he’s sitting, standing or lying down, he measures continuously in real time with a wireless gadget on his belt. Some, such as his weight, he logs daily. Others, such as his blood and the bacteria in his intestines, he tests only about once every month.
Smarr compares the way he treats his body with how people monitor and maintain their cars: “We know exactly how much gas we have, the engine temperature, how fast we are going. What I’m doing is creating a dashboard for my body.”
Once, Smarr was most renowned as the head of the research lab where Marc Andreessen developed the Web browser in the early 1990s. Now 66, Smarr is the unlikely hero of a global movement among ordinary people to “quantify” themselves using wearable fitness gadgets, medical equipment, headcams, traditional lab tests and homemade contraptions, all with the goal of finding ways to optimize their bodies and minds to live longer, healthier lives — and perhaps to discover some important truth about themselves and their purpose in life.
In the aggregate data being gathered by millions of personal tracking devices are patterns that may reveal what in the diet, exercise regimen and environment contributes to disease.
Could physical activity patterns be used to not only track individuals’ cardiac health but also to inform decisions about where to place a public park and improve walkability? Could trackers find cancer clusters or contaminated waterways? A pilot project in Louisville, for example, uses inhalers with special sensors to pinpoint asthma “hot spots” in the city.
“As we have more and more sophisticated wearables that can continuously measure things ranging from your physical activity to your stress levels to your emotional state, we can begin to cross-correlate and understand how each aspect of our life consciously and unconsciously impacts one another,”
The idea that data is a turnkey to self-discovery is not new.
Most extreme are “life loggers,” who wear cameras 24/7 , jot down every new idea and record their daily activities in exacting detail. Their goal is to create a collection of information that is an extension of their own memories.
At the 2015 Consumer Electronics Show in January, new gizmos on display included a baby bottle that measures nutritional intake, a band that measures how high you jump and “smart” clothing connected to smoke detectors. Google is working on a smart contact lens that can continuously measure a person’s glucose levels in his tears. The Apple Watch has a heart-rate sensor and quantifies when you move, exercise or stand. The company also has filed a patent to upgrade its earbuds to measure blood oxygen and temperature.
In the near future, companies hope to augment those trackers with new ones that will measure from the inside out — using chips that are ingestible or float in the bloodstream.
Some physicians, academics and ethicists criticize the utility of tracking as prime evidence of the narcissism of the technological age — and one that raises serious questions about the accuracy and privacy of the health data collected, who owns it and how it should be used.
Critics point to the brouhaha in 2011, when some owners of Fitbit exercise sensors noticed that their sexual activity — including information about the duration of an episode and whether it was “passive, light effort” or “active and vigorous” — was being publicly shared by default.
“Health and fitness have become the new social currency, spawning a ‘worried well’ generation,” he wrote in an opinion piece in the April issue of BMJ, the former British Medical Journal.
“Getting the data is much easier than making it useful,” said Deborah Estrin, a professor of computer science and public health at Cornell University.
Until about three years ago, it was nearly impossible for ordinary people to get a readout about the state of their bodies on a regular basis.
Now dozens of biosensing wearable technologies with names such as the Fitbit Surge, Misfit Shine and Jawbone UP have exploited the miniaturization of computer components and the ubiquity of cellphones to create an industry that is expected to reach $50 billion in sales by 2018, according to an estimate by Credit Suisse.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The SD card slot may be lost smartphones
In many particularly advantageous for smart phones internal memory is quite limited. Therefore, the extension of the SD memory card is the beer an excellent opportunity to increase the features of the device. Now this is a chance to show little by little to disappear from smartphones.
Apple’s smartphone has so far not been a SD card slot, but now it seems to have disappeared from many other top models. For example, Samsung’s S6-profile card slots is not. The same is true of Chinese Xiaomi new top models
Xiaomi second man Hugo Barra has gone so far as to say that there is an SD card in the smart phone “a bad idea” – the problem is related to the SD card performance. People buy cheap memory cards that are slow to receive applications to crash and eventually stop functioning altogether.
While SD cards can be found in a lot of defective and weak performance cards, manufacturers real reason is economic: For example, Apple’s iPhone gets instead of 128 GB of memory, 16GB $ 200. Yet the larger integrated memory costs Apple only $ 50.
In the end, the choice is left to the user or purchaser of the equipment. Contact to estimate how much memory it needs a couple of years
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2808:sd-korttipaikka-katoaa-alypuhelimista&catid=13&Itemid=101