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:
News & Analysis
iOS 9, Mac OS X El Capitan Dominate WWDC 2015
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1326819&
The keynote presentations at this year’s Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) were lengthy, but that was expected given the number of updates and services predicted to debut during the event.
As predicted, many of the system upgrades involved stability and performance fixes, in addition to updates for many native apps. Here is a snapshot of what we learned today:
OS X: El Capitan
New Mac system El Capitan brings refinement and advancement to predecessor Yosemite. Apple is focusing on performance with this update and promises greater speed for opening and switching applications.
iOS 9
We also learned more details about iOS 9, which will be available on all devices that support iOS 8. Apple’s newest mobile OS is now available to all developers with a public beta version promised for July. When the full upgrade is available, you’ll only need 1.3GB of free space to download iOS 9.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Smart Glasses Strap On AR
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1326828&
Smart glasses were all the rage at the sixth annual Augmented World Expo (AWE) here. In talks and on the expo floor, established companies and startups demonstrated AR designed for consumers and industrial segments.
“From nurses with X-ray vision to technicians that can teleport, technology is bringing superpowers to the people,” said Ori Inbar, CEO and co-founder of AugmentedReality.org, the producing organization behind AWE. “Augmented and virtual reality, wearables and IoT are enabling us to be better at anything we do in work and life.”
”As augmented reality and virtual reality technologies are receiving more attention in the enterprise space, smart glasses are becoming more than a tiny monocular display and are transforming into an immersive 3D experience,”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Apple’s new Xcode lets anyone sideload apps and emulators onto their iOS device
http://www.pocketgamer.co.uk/r/iPhone/Emulation/news.asp?c=65781
The new version of Xcode – the program that developers use to create apps and games for iOS – will let you send apps to your iOS device, even if they haven’t been approved by Apple.
This means that you will be able to run apps that wouldn’t make it onto the App Store, like emulators, torrent clients, banned games, and other unavailable software.
On the website for Xcode 7, Apple says it’s now “easier for everyone to build apps and run them directly on their Apple devices. Program membership is not required.”
The feature is intended to let developers start building and testing apps before committing to the developer license
https://developer.apple.com/xcode/downloads/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Mobile Commerce: Huge Market With Untapped Potential — Mobile commerce has seen a 1,875% increase in the past 4 years, from a $2.2 billion market in 2010 to $42.8 billion in 2014, with the number of mobile users forecasted …
http://www.twinprime.com/mobile-commerce-huge-market-with-untapped-potential/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Joshua Benton / Nieman Lab:
A blow for mobile advertising: The next version of Safari will let users block ads on iPhones and iPads
http://www.niemanlab.org/2015/06/a-blow-for-mobile-advertising-the-next-version-of-safari-will-let-users-block-ads-on-iphones-and-ipads/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Virtual reality headsets are set to take off. Here’s how the market will grow.
Read more: http://uk.businessinsider.com/virtual-reality-headset-sales-explode-2015-04?utm_source=taboola&utm_medium=cpc&utm_content=taboola&utm_campaign=taboola&utm_term=eslmedia-theindependent?r=US#ixzz3ckWO6ELl
Tomi Engdahl says:
Analysts: Apple “earn too much” – which is why it happens like Nokia
In gadget business it is typical that the market leaders “earn too much” for their products. This can not, however, go on forever, like the Nokia got the note. And soon the same will find Apple.
Computers, phones and watches manufacturer Apple will soon feel the same fate as the lyrics of the mobile phone king Nokia.
This is the assessment of the German investment bank Berenberg analysts Adnaan Ahmad and Jean Beaubois shares analyzing the report.
However, the electronics sector, plush margins never last forever, and soon this will find an American Apple.
- In general, history repeats itself in consumer electronics, the analysts write.
When Apple introduced the Mac computers, their gross margins were moving from 50 to 60 per cent. Since then, gross margins have declined 20 per cent.
Examples of shrinking margins need not look far back in history, the analysts write. Until recently, Samsung’s margins were moving 22 per cent. A couple of quarters ago margins had slumped to seven per cent.
Berenberg believes that Apple will make the situation a threat to it, that company is so dependent on its product a hit.
- Apple is a single-product company. 70 per cent of the firm’s turnover and our calculations show that 85 percent of operating profit depends on the iPhone.
- We know that Apple Watch gross margins will remain below average throughout the company’s 39 percent. This is a surprise for many of the company’s followers, who had been waiting over 50 percent gross margins.
Source: http://www.digitoday.fi/mobiili/2015/06/10/analyytikot-apple-tienaa-liikaa–siksi-sille-kay-kuin-nokialle/20157452/66?rss=6
Tomi Engdahl says:
Euan Rocha / Reuters:
Sources: BlackBerry considering Android for upcoming smartphone as it moves focus to software and device management
Exclusive: BlackBerry may put Android system on new device: sources
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/06/11/us-blackberry-google-android-idUSKBN0OR2ZM20150611
BlackBerry (BB.TO) is considering equipping an upcoming smartphone with Google Inc.’s (GOOGL.O) Android software for the first time, an acknowledgement that its revamped line of devices has failed to win mass appeal, according to four sources familiar with the matter.
Tomi Engdahl says:
7 Apple upgrades from WWDC 2015
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/brians-brain/4439665/7-Apple-upgrades-from-WWDC-2015?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_weekly_20150611&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_weekly_20150611&elq=4bde813709ed49a2845b39955b280054&elqCampaignId=23416&elqaid=26402&elqat=1&elqTrackId=6bc84c460d7d4a9e8c2210a88817bfa8
iOS 9
Mac OS 10.11
Metal
Swift
WatchOS
Subscription music
HomeKit
Tomi Engdahl says:
Klint Finley / Wired:
Facebook open sources Infer, a tool that uses AI to spot bugs in source code for mobile apps before release
Facebook’s AI Tool for Squashing Bugs Is Now Open to All
http://www.wired.com/2015/06/facebooks-ai-tool-squashing-bugs-now-open/
Facebook used to move fast and break things. Now it’s trying to move fast and fix things. To do that, the company developed an artificially intelligent tool called Infer that can spot bugs in its mobile apps before they ever reach customers. And now the company wants everyone to test their software this way.
Today the company open sourced Infer, making its code freely available to any company or independent developer looking for new ways to debug their apps.
“It looks at the program and makes guesses or hypotheses about the program, the way a human might,” says Peter O’Hearn, Infer’s co-creator.
But unlike a human, it can read thousands of lines of code in mere minutes to spot potential bugs. Facebook claims that it has a fix rate of about 80 percent, which is great for such an automated system.
Infer
http://fbinfer.com/
A tool to detect bugs in Android and iOS apps before they ship
Tomi Engdahl says:
Cyanogen Inc partners with Playphone — a Google Play Store competitor
http://betanews.com/2015/06/10/cyanogen-inc-partners-with-playphone-a-google-play-store-competitor/
If you are an Android user, there is a good chance you have downloaded apps and games from the Google Play Store. For many users, the search giant’s store is probably their only known way to install apps on their devices. In reality, however, there are many alternative app stores, with one of the most popular coming from Amazon.
Today, an app store called Playphone — focusing on distributing games — announces a partnership with Cyanogen. Yes, the CyanogenMod maker will be distributing Playphone with its Cyanogen OS in select markets. This alternative app store is home to popular developers such as SNK Playmore and Square Enix. Will this anger Google?
Tomi Engdahl says:
Xiaomi 1, Qualcomm 0
Executive swap telling
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1326850&
The shift of momentum in China’s smartphone market couldn’t have been more explicit than two contrasting announcements that surfaced on Wednesday (June 10) in China. Qualcomm named the company’s former executive as its new China chairman, while Xiaomi announced the hiring of Qualcomm’s China chief as its new senior vice president.
Qualcomm picked Frank Meng, who served as senior vice president and president of Qualcomm Greater China from 2008 to 2010, as a new chairman heading up its Greater China operations.
Meanwhile, Xiaomi, the world’s fastest growing smartphone vendor, didn’t miss a beat. It immediately disclosed Xiang Wang, president of Qualcomm Greater China and senior vice president of Qualcomm Inc., has now joined Xiaomi.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Facial recognition for birds is here
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2015-06/08/facial-recognition-for-birds
The life of a twitcher involves a good pair of binoculars, a lot of patience and reams of ornithological knowledge. Thanks to a new image recognition tool from Cornell’s Ornithology Lab, however, that last factor could soon become entirely unnecessary, empowering amateur birdwatchers in the process.
The Merlin Bird Photo ID system has been created by Cornell Tech, Caltech and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. It can currently recognise 400 of North America’s most common bird species based on an examination of imagery.
“Ultimately, we hope that Merlin will be a useful tool to identify birds from around the world — and that its technology will be used to identify other wildlife, plants, and objects too,” says the research team.
Free app can be downloaded for iOS and Android
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/merlin-bird-id-by-cornell/id773457673?mt=8
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.labs.merlinbirdid.app
Tomi Engdahl says:
Enterprise mobility slowed by security concerns
http://www.cio.com/article/2934333/mobile/enterprise-mobility-slowed-by-security-concerns.html
While mobile technology continues to move forward in all parts of the business, security issues threaten to slow the progress, according to attendees at this week’s MobileIron’s user conference.
On the upside, mobility in the enterprise has room to grow.
Even Uber is making moves in the mobility market with its new business initiative.
Will security concerns derail mobile?
Most companies, though, continue to face new mobile security challenges. Security can derail their mobile plans — “without it, we risk too much,” say polled attendees. It’s a big reason why MobileIron announced a slew of features to protect mobile enterprise data wherever it lives, such as the app, network and cloud.
In the network, for instance, MobileIron protects data with multi-OS app VPN. In the cloud, MobileIron gives companies control over content encryption keys.
Meanwhile, employees are concerned that companies secretly look at their private data on mobile devices. There’s a lot of private data, too. A recent MobileIron survey of millennials found that 87 percent say their “mobile device never leaves their side, night or day.” At MobileIron’s conference, attendees cited the challenge of gaining employee buy-in through education and communication as having the greatest risk of failure.
That’s why MobileIron announced a visual privacy tool that lets employees know exactly what data the company can see, what actions the company can take. The goal is to build trust between employer and employee.
“CIOs need new security, but it hasn’t been defined yet. They’ll have to buy again, and buy differently.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Creative Commons is building a mobile app to kill stock photos
http://thenextweb.com/apps/2015/06/12/creative-commons-is-building-a-mobile-app-to-kill-stock-photos/
Content sharing nonprofit Creative Commons has been hard at work over a mobile app that lets people and organizations request and use images from users under an open license — ringing the death knell for stock photos.
It’s called The List, because it provides lists of locations, people, objects and events that users need pictures of. Other users can view these requests and publish their own images for public use through the app.
Creative Commons currently allows people to search the Web for images under its open license. Its app will open up an avenue for contributors to share their work directly with those who need it.
https://thelist.creativecommons.org/
No one can be everywhere at once. But everyone can.
NGOs, journalists, government agencies, and cultural institutions all need photographs to tell their story and educate others. But there’s no way for those organizations to be in the right place at the right time, every time. That’s where we come in.
Through The List, organizations will provide lists of locations, people, and events that they need photographs of. And when users are in the right place at the right time, they can claim an item from the list and publish a photograph of it. All photos on The List are openly licensed, meaning that everyone can use them.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Apple’s new search API means war for Google
http://thenextweb.com/opinion/2015/06/08/apples-new-search-api-means-war-for-google/
Today, Apple unveiled that it’s allowing developers to tap into Spotlight search for the first time.
When iOS 9 is released to the world developers will be able to expose their app’s information to Spotlight for indexing in user searches.
A recipe app, for example, could make available its data for searches like “apple pie” and take the user directly to the recipe, inside its app, from a single tap inside Spotlight.
This new change is a huge opportunity for both developers and Apple, but it may matter most to Google.
This means war. Apple is now actively trying to keep users away from the search engine.
With Spotlight’s API, Apple is building a new kind of search engine that has deep access to the data that apps make available on the iPhone. The company is slowly removing every reason to head over to Google by providing the results users want without ever visiting a Web page.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Unlucky, Palmer: Facebook’s going to BAN Oculus pr0n apps
Virtual muck now struck from smut bucket content glut despite Luckey’s pluck
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/06/15/unlucky_palmer_facebook_now_going_to_ban_sexy_oculus_apps/
Facebook has contradicted a statement by Oculus founder Palmer Luckey and declared that pornographic content will be forbidden from appearing on the Oculus store.
Speaking at Silicon Valley’s Virtual Reality Conference in San Jose, in May, 22-year old Oculus founder Palmer Luckey was asked whether his company would be blocking adult content on its headsets.
Luckey said the company will allow pornography on its VR buckets because Oculus is committed to creating an open platform.
However, Business Insider reported the new details about the Rift that were released on Thursday, which appears to contradict this.
The report suggests that Oculus will run its own app store similar to Apple’s app store, which is the only means of getting mobile apps onto iOS devices.
Oculus would therefore not be an open platform, and Facebook has said it would use its control to “vet the apps that appear in its store, and even rate the apps” according to the report.
“Oculus only distributes developer content that meets its terms of service, which forbids pornographic content from being a part of the Oculus Store,” a spokesman told Business Insider.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Benedict Evans:
Google Play app downloads now 2x iOS, but Android users spend half as much as iOS users, up from 1/4 a year ago; Play revenues may overtake App Store this year
The (lack of) app store metrics
http://ben-evans.com/benedictevans/2015/6/13/the-lack-of-app-store-metrics
Apple and Google both give headline statistics of how well their respective app stores are doing, generally at their summer developer conferences. These are rounded numbers at scheduled events and they’re not always comparable, but they do give us a sense of what’s going on.
Last summer, at their developer events, both Apple and Google gave numbers for the money they had paid to developers in their respective app stores: $5bn in the previous 12 months for Google Play and $10bn for the iOS App Store. Given Android has double the user base of iOS, this meant that the average iOS user was worth around 4x the average Android user in app store revenue.
This year Apple gave the same number – $10bn (more precisely, it gave a cumulative figure of $30bn this WWDC versus $20bn last WWDC). The lack of growth may be partly due to rounding but still implies that people are spending less on average, since the user base is still growing. Google gave no number at Google IO but it gave one earlier in the year of $7bn. It looks as through Play is growing faster than iOS and might overtake it this year (unless Apple is rounding down very aggressively – certainly the uneven shape of the graph in 2013 is due to rounding).
Tomi Engdahl says:
Catherine Shu / TechCrunch:
Mobli launches EyeIn, an image search engine that crawls social networks for the best pictures for breaking news, trending topics, and live events
After Three Years In Development, Mobli Unveils Real-Time Image Search Engine EyeIn
http://techcrunch.com/2015/06/15/mobli-eyein/
Mobli, the photo- and video-based social network, launched in 2010, but it has just uncovered its flagship product, a real-time image search engine called EyeIn. Now available on the web and as a mobile app, EyeIn’s algorithms filter out content like selfies to return the most relevant results to users almost as soon as they are posted on social networks.
An embeddable plugin of EyeIn has also been piloted by six sites, including the Huffington Post and News Cult, and will use a revenue share model similar to Outbrain and Taboola.
“We have eyes all over the world. Everything worth seeing is being capture by someone with a smartphone. What we lack is a mechanism to collect those eyes, to enable us to look around,” says Sadeh.
“The other challenge is user-generated content that is not always relevant. For example, at a Lady Gaga concert, 70 percent of images are selfies, which are not the most relevant or interesting content that comes to mind. Our set of algorithms allows us to tune down the noise.”
EyeIn For Publishers
While EyeIn’s target user base is consumers, its program for partner sites is designed to help online companies increase user engagement and partake in ad revenue.
For ongoing event like a sport game, EyeIn’s plugin may get readers to return to the same site by providing ongoing live coverage with very little work required by the publisher.
“We are able to provide in real-time a social album with a very wide perspective as things happen. That is from a content perspective,” says Sadeh.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Vesper Piezoelectric MEMS Microphone with 68 dB SNR
http://www.edn.com/electronics-products/electronic-product-reviews/other/4439679/Vesper-Piezoelectric-MEMS-Microphone-with-68-dB-SNR?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_productsandtools_20150615&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_productsandtools_20150615&elq=e285574a28c84e2691aa66d3095e6b8c&elqCampaignId=23448&elqaid=26454&elqat=1&elqTrackId=8f3ed8e3973143e780a5c0b0d98bb832
Vesper’s recent launch of the VM101, a piezoelectric MEMS (microelectromechanical systems) microphone has achieved 68 dB typical signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) — the highest acoustic-performance benchmark of any commercially available MEMS microphone in the industry.
This is the first ultra-high SNR MEMS microphone and its unique architecture solves major performance issues facing consumer products manufacturers. This new design, first developed by founders at the University of Michigan in 2009, enhances the quality and clarity of audio capture to improve the voice user interface in smartphones, wearables, smart home appliances and Internet of Things (IoT) devices. I was told that this type of architecture was conceived back in 2006 when a cochlear implant model was built with it.
So not only is this the highest SNR device in the market, but it is also the only MEMS microphone that is waterproof, shockproof and dust- and particle-resistant – greatly helping to solve reliability issues with existing products.
A metal mesh used in a capacitive microphone to block dust and water can easily clog up especially with surfactants (soaps) or salt water, sweat or winding up in the laundry.
In the VM101 piezoelectric MEMS design, incoming sound impinges on the moving plates which have an opening for the sound to not be compressed as in the capacitive design.
This microphone design achieves 68 dB SNR, nearly doubling the performance over the current high-end 65 dB SNR capacitive MEMS microphones
MEMS microphones are typically used in microphone arrays of up to four microphones, which makes microphone stability critical. Higher SNR microphones enable larger arrays and give audio processors more signal with which to work. Arrays also give directionality and focus; they can be used with signal processing for effect at the push of a button. Be cautious because endlessly increasing the number of microphones in array will eventually give diminishing returns and actually hurt SNR.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Sunrise Calendar
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=am.sunrise.android.calendar
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/sunrise-calendrier-google/id599114150
Tomi Engdahl says:
Lack of encryption leaves LG and Samsung smartwatch data open to hackers
Researchers easily pull sensitive information from Android- and Tizen-powered wearables
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2413087/lack-of-encryption-leaves-lg-and-samsung-smartwatch-data-open-to-hackers
RESEARCHERS HAVE REVEALED that personal data can be easily swiped from the LG G Watch and Samsung Gear 2 as neither device encrypts user data.
The researchers from the University of New Haven said that hackers could easily extract data, including contacts, messages and health information, from the Tizen-powered Samsung Gear 2 and Android Wear-equipped LG G Watch.
Ibrahim Baggili, of the University of New Haven’s Cyber Forensics Research and Education Group, said: “It was not very difficult to get the data, but expertise and research was required.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
HTC: Asus Can’t Buy UsHTC: Asus Can’t Buy Us
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1326874&
HTC issued a thanks, but no thanks type of response after an Asus executive floated the idea that it could purchase the smartphone manufacturer.
Beleaguered smartphone manufacturer HTC issued a strong statement Monday, rejecting an overture from an Asus executive who suggested the PC maker was interested in buying the company.
“Our chairman has chatted about the topic internally,” Chang said, according to the Reuters report.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Chip, PC Demand Continues Decline
Some PC chips down as much as 20% in Q2
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1326870&
Demand for semiconductors continued to weaken in the second quarter with some PC assemblers in Asia suggesting a decline in purchases of some parts of as much as 15-20% from the second quarter of 2014, according to a report from Wall Street analysts at Deutsche Bank.
“The iPhone supply chain and the automotive market continue to remain the only bright spots,” said analysts who visited nearly 30 companies in Taiwan, Korea and Japan in five days.
Chip demand also is weak for tablets, TVs and many Android phones, according to the report that gave the chip sector a neutral ranking overall.
“Only Huawei and Xiaomi remain bright spots among the Chinese [smartphone] players,” the report said. “Samsung continues to struggle at the low-to-mid end, while the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge combined look on course to reach a respectable 45 million units this year,” it added.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Wearables, Home Devices Likely to Lead IoT Growth
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1326860&
Wearables and home devices are likely to lead growth in the Internet of Things (IoT) business during the rest of this decade, according to semiconductor companies and industry analysts at the Computex Taipei show that wrapped up last week.
This year, 72 million wearable devices worth $17 billion will ship, growing in dollar terms at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 18 percent to 156 million units or $39 billion in 2019, according to Bryan Ma, a vice president with market research firm IDC. But exactly what device is likely to be the wearable of choice?
“If I were a betting man, it would be watches,” said James Bruce, director of mobile solutions for ARM, whose chip designs are in 90 percent of the world’s smartphones,” in a Computex presentation. “Wrist-based products are definitely going to be one of the leading categories. We’re at the start of that growth.”
Overall, the worldwide IoT market will grow from $655.8 billion in 2014 to $1.7 trillion in 2020 for a CAGR of 16.9 percent, IDC said in a June 2 report.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Emil Protalinski / VentureBeat:
BitTorrent debuts Shoot, a $2 photo sharing app with no file size limits, for Android, iOS, Windows Phone, bets on an ad-free experience that puts privacy first
BitTorrent launches $2 photo sharing app Shoot for Android, iOS, and Windows Phone
http://venturebeat.com/2015/06/16/bittorrent-launches-2-photo-sharing-app-shoot-for-android-ios-and-windows-phone/
BitTorrent launched a new photo and video sharing app today called BitTorrent Shoot. You can download the new paid app now directly from Google Play, Apple’s App Store, and the Windows Phone Store.
As a way to try the product, BitTorrent lets you make your first three sends for free. You’ll then be prompted to pay $1.99 after these three transfers complete. For the receiver, BitTorrent promises the product will always be free.
Tomi Engdahl says:
GSMArena.com:
LG licenses 2G, 3G and 4G patents to Nokia; royalty payments subject to arbitration, will be determined within the next two years
LG licenses 2G-4G patents from Nokia, will pay royalties
http://www.gsmarena.com/lg_licenses_2g4g_patents_from_nokia_will_pay_royalties-news-12673.php
Well, this is a curveball for Microsoft – Nokia and LG have reached a smartphone patent licensing agreement. LG will license over 60 Nokia patents related to 2G, 3G and 4G and will pay royalties to the Finns.
Certain terms of the agreement remain confidential, the details of the royalty payments will be ironed out within a year or two.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Sensors Behind the Apple Watch®
http://www.eeweb.com/blog/rob_riemen/the-sensors-behind-the-apple-watch
With the recent release of the Apple Watch®, wearable electronics are becoming more and more mainstream. The Apple Watch may just seem like another expensive replacement for a smartphone, but the device is marketed as Apple’s most “personal” device yet, with constant contact with the user’s wrist and a suite of sensors that deliver health data and vitals statistics. With the advent of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) and the technological advancement of the sensors used in these systems, it is possible to make a watch do way more than just tell time.
Wearable electronics generally use sensors to track certain aspects of the user’s life. The Apple Watch includes an accelerometer, a gyroscope, and a barometer—all of which are pretty common in smaller wearables. Along with these sensors, the Apple Watch utilizes two Apple-designed sensors: the Force Touch Sensor and the Heart Rate Sensor. The Force Touch sensor helps the watch determine the user’s intentions as they push on the screen, and the Heart Rate sensor uses a series of light sensors to determine vitals of the user. All five sensors work together to give a new and unique experience in a watch form factor.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Free ethical upgrade offered as Fairphone launches mobe No 2
Now you can rip it up and start again
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/06/18/crowd_funded_phone_launches_mobe_mark_2/
Fairphone, the crowd-funded mobe maker, has launched its second model, and in marked contrast to others (a sideways glance at you Apple) has literally taken the lid off.
Fairphone launched in 2013 with the aim of creating a mobile that was free from conflict minerals, and was generally more ethical all round.
More than 10,000 people each put up €325 for a device that didn’t even exist at the time. Since then, more than 60,000 Fairphones have been sold.
For the first mobe, the company used a design template. This time around it’s been designed from scratch.
“This design approach allows us to take our ambitions for fairness even further, paving the way to start gaining greater oversight of our supply chain, including improving our ability to select suppliers and increasing transparency,” said Olivier Hebert, Fairphone chief technology officer.
Pre-orders start this summer, with the first phones expected to ship in autumn. The retail price will be €525, including VAT. To date, more than 50,000 community members have already signed up to show their interest in the new phone.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Jacob Long / Android Police:
Pushbullet Introduces Portal, A New App For Easy File Sharing Between Your Android Device And PC
http://www.androidpolice.com/2015/06/16/pushbullet-introduces-portal-a-new-app-for-easily-sharing-files-between-your-android-device-and-pc/
The developers that brought us Pushbullet have announced a brand new app. Portal is designed to do one thing and one thing only: move files between your computer and your Android device. While this is possible with Pushbullet, it isn’t a strong point and requires sending those files to their servers and back. Portal sends them within your local wireless network, avoiding potentially costly data fees and making possible far faster transfer times.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Secret Agent Wearable Phone Keeps Track of Kids
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=216&doc_id=1326930&
This wearable phone allows your child to communicate with authorized adults and also lets you track him or her on your own smartphone via GPS.
the star of the show was the present from Bob and Gail — an amazing “Secret Agent” type wearable cellphone called the GizmoPal, which was created by LG and is available from Verizon.
The GizmoPal fits securely around the wrist and is both durable and water resistant, which is a must when you consider who is wearing it. In addition to playing fun sounds and speaking the current time, the GizmoPal allows its wearer to call two registered numbers, which you set up using a free iOS/Android app. These two registered numbers (along with an additional two approved contacts) can also call the GizmoPal.
If you are worried that your child won’t answer, you can set the auto-answer feature to prevent missed calls. But the real peace of mind comes from the fact that, using the GizmoPal app on your smartphone, you can see the GizmoPal’s location on a map, via GPS.
Even better, you can set the system up to update you with location notifications at scheduled times, such as when your child’s school bus typically arrives in the neighborhood.
I tell you, my mother would have loved for me to have something like this when I was a kid. It costs $79.99 with a 2-year contract, but you also get a $25 gift card to Toys R Us, and the cell phone charges are only $5 a month.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Windows Phone is like religion – it gets people when they are down
BlackBerry users fleeing doom-ridden devices land at altar of Microsoft
http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2015/06/22/q1_smartphones_uk/
Some 570,000 Brits worshipped at the altar of Redmond (bought a Windows Phone) in Q1, up 32 per cent year-on-year – like religions, it is easier for tech vendors to ensnare people when they are down.
“Microsoft is attacking B2B users with decent-quality, low-cost handsets, and people are refreshing BlackBerry with Microsoft,” claimed Tim Coulling, senior analyst at Canalys.
Why? Familiarity with the app seller’s products at home and work, the bean counter told us.
“Microsoft is slowly building share without a flagship or high-spec handset – they are after the volume end of the [professional] market. This strategy will probably change when Windows 10 comes out,” Coulling said.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Sony announces support for Android M developer preview on select Xperia devices
http://www.extremetech.com/mobile/208733-sony-announces-support-for-android-m-developer-preview-on-select-xperia-devices
Tomi Engdahl says:
New Smartphone Case Brings Back Old Smartphone Features
http://hackaday.com/2015/06/22/new-smartphone-case-brings-back-old-smartphone-features/
We all remember the good ol’ days when smartphones were just getting started. Realizing that we could take a fully functional computer and shove it into something the size of a phone was pretty revolutionary. Some of the early phones like the original Motorola Droid had some features that just aren’t very common today, and [liviu] set out to fix this situation by adding a sliding QWERTY keyboard to his modern smartphone.
Turning Samsung galaxy note 4 (SM-N910F) into a mobile pc – Part 2 – constructing
http://simpledevices.blogspot.ro/2015/06/turning-samsung-galaxy-note-4-sm-n910f.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
Review: Microsoft Azure beats Amazon and Google for mobile development
http://www.infoworld.com/article/2890167/application-development/review-microsoft-azure-beats-amazon-and-google-for-mobile-development.html
Easier than Amazon’s Mobile SDK and more complete than Google’s Firebase, Azure Mobile Services has more of what developers need
Tomi Engdahl says:
Review: 7 excellent mobile app builders
http://www.infoworld.com/article/2901514/mobile-development/review-7-excellent-mobile-app-builders.html
Alpha Anywhere, AnyPresence, and Salesforce1 lead a rich field of low-code mobile development tools
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google Reveals Health-Tracking Wristband
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-06-23/google-developing-health-tracking-wristband-for-health-research
Google Inc.’s life sciences group has created a health-tracking wristband that could be used in clinical trials and drug tests, giving researchers or physicians minute-by-minute data on how patients are faring.
The experimental device, developed within the company’s Google X research division, can measure pulse, heart rhythm and skin temperature, and also environmental information like light exposure and noise levels. It won’t be marketed as a consumer device, said Andy Conrad, head of the life sciences team at Google.
“Our intended use is for this to become a medical device that’s prescribed to patients or used for clinical trials,” Conrad said in a telephone interview.
Doctors, researchers and drugmakers have long craved a way to continuously track patients’ vital signs outside of a lab. Yet creating a device that’s easy for patients to use, while also capturing rich, accurate data has been a challenge, said Kara Dennis, managing director of mobile health at Medidata, a New York-based firm that specializes in data analytics.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Jordan Crook / TechCrunch:
Sense360 launches SDK enabling developers to capture and combine sensor data from smartphones
Sense360 Launches Out Of Stealth To Make Your Apps Smarter
http://techcrunch.com/2015/06/23/sense360-launches-out-of-stealth-to-make-your-apps-smarter/
The idea behind Sense360 is actually quite simple, though execution of that plan is anything but.
Essentially, Sense360 has found a way to combine all kinds of data from the sensors in a smartphone, paired with location, to deliver proactive user experiences for various apps. A very simple example would be Uber implementing a prompt to order a car whenever you are leaving a bar where you’ve spent more than two hours, if you’re more than a mile from home.
But as you can imagine, it can become far more nuanced and layered than that.
Cofounder Eli Portnoy explained that there are four major hurdles with implementing a system like this.
The first is that each sensor comes with its own set of APIs, meaning there is a lot of complexity around getting that data. And then once you have the data you need, you still have to take troves of raw data and turn it into something meaningful.
Sense360 tackles these first two problems by handling all of the data combing on their end. When a customer signs up and asks for various events to be detected, Sense360’s SDK spits out the code necessary to retrieve this exact data on the user without overloading the client with all the data coming from the necessary sensors.
But perhaps more compelling is Sense360’s approach to privacy and battery life.
The final big value proposition from Sense360 is battery-life. Historically, trying to combine location data with sensor data has been a serious battery drain, making it hard for app developers to implement this kind of system on their own. But Portnoy says that even if every app on your phone was using the Sense360 SDK, battery drain from the technology would only hit about 5 percent after a full day of use.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ian Austen / New York Times:
BlackBerry Q1: misses expectations with an adjusted loss of $28M on $658M revenue, 1.1M devices sold
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/24/technology/blackberry-q1-earnings.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
IT pros blast Google over Android’s refusal to play nice with IPv6
http://www.networkworld.com/article/2939436/lan-wan/it-pros-blast-google-over-android-s-refusal-to-play-nice-with-ipv6.html
Two trains made of fiber, copper and code are on a collision course, as the widespread popularity of Android devices and the general move to IPv6 has put some businesses in a tough position, thanks to Android’s lack of support for a central component in the newer standard.
DHCPv6 is an outgrowth of the DHCP protocol used in the older IPv4 standard – it’s an acronym for “dynamic host configuration protocol,” and is a key building block of network management. Nevertheless, Google’s wildly popular Android devices – which accounted for 78% of all smartphones shipped worldwide in the first quarter of this year – don’t support DHCPv6 for address assignment.
That makes for an uncomfortable contrast with Windows, OS X, iOS, and many of the largest Linux distributions, which all support DHCPv6.
Google developer and noted IPv6 authority Lorenzo Colliti offers several reasons for the lack of DHCPv6 implementation, including the argument that it would break legacy apps that rely on IPv4 and force developers to adopt IPv6 network address translation (with negative app performance consequences).
“The problem I see is that stateful DHCPv6 address assignment imposes these disadvantages on users, but doesn’t actually seem to provide any *advantages* to users,” he wrote.
That hasn’t convinced the critics, however.
DHCPv6 is so important, in fact, that some companies have been advised to bar Android devices that can’t use the system from corporate networks by their legal departments – more than one university network operator said that legal requirements for identifying the sources of traffic, including the DMCA, made DHCPv6 crucially important.
“We are thinking to prohibit Android because we cannot fulfill the legal requirements with reasonable effort,” one such user stated.
“If we’re living in this BYOD world … that can be problematic, because the whole idea besides the money-saving thing is that the end-user is asking for this. By forfeiting [DHCPv6 support], I think Android and Google are causing some trouble in the near-term,” Stofega said.
Support for alternatives like Recursive DNS Server (RDNSS) has only been available on Android since the release of Version 5.0, or Lollipop – but this isn’t OK with the IT crowd, who argue that an IPv6 implementation without DHCPv6 support is incomplete.
According to Stofega, many large enterprises have already begun IPv6 rollouts, which makes the issue even more serious.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Meizu MX4 Ubuntu Edition gets an invitation-only European launch
Handset will be available to buy from Thursday, if you’re lucky
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2414490/meizu-mx4-ubuntu-edition-gets-an-invitation-only-european-launch
CANONICAL HAS ANNOUNCED that the Meizu MX4 Ubuntu Edition will be available to buy in Europe this week, but you’ll need an invitation to bag one.
Following in the footsteps of the OnePlus One, Canonical has said that those interested in picking up the Ubuntu-powered Meizu MX4 when it goes on sale on Thursday will need to get themselves an invitation.
Cristian Parrino, VP of mobile at Canonical, said during a briefing with The INQUIRER: “This is a device for enthusiasts. We want to make sure the right people are buying the Meizu MX4 Ubuntu Edition, for the right reasons.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Optus admits handing user phone numbers to websites
http://www.itnews.com.au/News/405656,optus-admits-handing-user-phone-numbers-to-websites.aspx
Without customer’s knowledge.
Optus has admitted to handing over its customer’s phone numbers to certain third-party websites accessed by the user.
As first flagged by a user on telco forum Whirlpool, when a user browses certain websites, Optus provides the customer’s mobile phone number to the website operator where a “commercial relationship” exists.
The practice, known as HTTP header enrichment, includes a mobile browser’s phone number in the HTTP header of the website request. The process aims to streamline direct billing for customers.
The Whirlpool user discovered the practice after receiving alerts about a subscription to a site they had not signed up to.
Optus confirmed its use of HTTP header enrichment to iTnews but said it only provided the details to certain sites involved in a “trusted” commercial relationship with the telco.
“When consumers browse the internet, information about the device they’re using is passed on to website owners in order to optimise websites for those users,” a spokesperson said.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Emil Protalinski / VentureBeat:
Microsoft launches Word, Excel, and PowerPoint apps for phones running Android 4.4 or higher
http://venturebeat.com/2015/06/24/microsoft-releases-word-excel-and-powerpoint-for-android-phones-out-of-preview/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Microsoft releases free Office apps for half of all Android phones
Word, Excel, and PowerPoint up for grabs
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/06/24/microsoft_releases_free_office_apps_for_half_of_android_phones/
Redmond’s plan to get its code running everywhere took another step forward on Wednesday when it released free versions of Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint for Android phones.
Ever since Satya Nadella took the top job at Microsoft he’s been banging on about getting its software on every platform. iOS got it first, then Android fondleslabs, and in May Microsoft issued a preview for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint for Android phones. That program has now finished and the full code is available for download from the Google Play Store.
“We are so grateful to our preview users, and with their help we were able to test the apps on over 1,900 different Android phone models in 83 countries,” said Kirk Koenigsbauer, corporate vice president for the Office 365 Client Apps and Services.
Only around half of Android users will be able to download the software, however: 51.6 per cent, to be exact. They need Android 4.4 or higher to work – only they won’t work on the preview build of Android M – plus a gig of RAM, and you’d better make sure you’ve got enough space for the software as well.
Word for Android is a 104MB download and takes up 177MB when unpacked, not including documents and other data. The Excel download is 93.27MB and unpacks to 168MB, and PowerPoint downloads as 91.07MB and is 166MB when installed.
The free versions of the apps support core functions, including file creation, editing, and sharing. Documents can be stored on OneDrive, but also Dropbox, Google Drive, or Box.
The new apps are available on the Google Play Store, but that doesn’t operate in China – a massive market for Android users. Instead Microsoft has put the apps on Tencent, Baidu, Xiaomi, CMCC, and the Samsung Galaxy Store.
Tomi Engdahl says:
iOS 9 will temporarily delete apps to make room for updates
Apple will remove apps and reinstall them
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2414625/ios-9-will-temporarily-delete-apps-to-make-room-for-updates
DEVELOPERS HAVE SPOTTED a new feature in iOS 9 that sees Apple prompting users to temporarily delete apps to make room for operating system updates.
iOS has long been criticised for its hefty software updates, which have caused users – particularly those with 16GB iPhones and iPads – to go through and delete apps to free up enough space for the installation.
It seems that Apple will soon make the process a little easier, offering the option to temporarily delete some apps to make room and automatically reinstalling them afterwards.
Developers discovered the feature in the second beta release of iOS 9, which was released this week.
This isn’t the only step Apple has taken to make software updates less of a chore to install.
The firm announced during its Worldwide Developer Conference that it has managed to reduce the space required for software updates, saying that iOS 9 will weigh in at just 1.3GB, down from the 4.58GB that iOS 8 required.
Tomi Engdahl says:
FeedHenry now Red Hat Mobile App Platform, gets OpenShift cloud integration
Company makes play for mobile app devs
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/06/25/feedhenry_becomes_red_hat_mobile_app_platform_gets_openshift_cloud_integration/
Red Hat has launched its Mobile Application Platform, at the company’s Summit under way in Boston.
The Mobile Application Platform consists of tools and templates for building mobile applications combined with back-end services to handle features including authentication, data, and integration with existing systems. It is based on FeedHenry, which Red Hat acquired in October 2014.
Supported mobile platforms include iOS, Android, Windows Phone and Apache Cordova.
Red Hat supports the native SDKs for these platforms as well as popular tools from companies including Xamarin, Sencha and Appcelerator. A hosted build farm provides builds for iOS, Android and Windows Phone. The server platform is based on node.js.
Red Hat has added three things to the platform, on top of what it acquired from FeedHenry. The first is integration with OpenShift, Red Hat’s public cloud application platform. OpenShift customers now have immediate access to the Mobile Application Platform.
Second, there are new node.js adapters to integrate with JBoss, Red Hat’s Java middleware product.
Third, the company has added a push notification service from Aerogear, another Red Hat project.
“We charge by utilisation of the cloud so it can be as little as $1,000 a month to as much as $30,000 or more.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Apple Pay: Everything you need to know about the iPhone payment service
A guide to Apple’s upcoming wallet tech hitting the UK high street in July
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2414786/apple-pay-everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-iphone-payment-service
Tomi Engdahl says:
Researchers Focus on Smart Contacts
Lenses actively refocus
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1326966&
Imec researchers hope to deliver within two years active contact lenses. The devices will detect where the user is looking and deliver the correct near or far focus.
Lens makers currently deliver passive versions of multifocal contacts, but they can confuse the user by presenting multiple fields of focus, said Jelle De Smet, a researcher leading the effort. He presented his work updating the 700-year-old technology of traditional glasses at the annual Imec Technology Forum here.
The current project is an ambitious one requiring several innovations in miniature, ruggedized building blocks. For example, researchers are developing tunable, flexible optics that refocus light, mimicking the eye’s intraocular lens.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Doctors and Hospitals Need to Talk More. This App Can Help
http://www.wired.com/2015/06/cureatr/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Reto Meier / Android Developers Blog:
Google to drop support for Android Developer Tools in Eclipse IDE to focus on developing Android Studio
An update on Eclipse Android Developer Tools
http://android-developers.blogspot.fi/2015/06/an-update-on-eclipse-android-developer.html
Over the past few years, our team has focused on improving the development experience for building Android apps with Android Studio. Since the launch of Android Studio, we have been impressed with the excitement and positive feedback. As the official Android IDE, Android Studio gives you access to a powerful and comprehensive suite of tools to evolve your app across Android platforms, whether it’s on the phone, wrist, car or TV.
To that end and to focus all of our efforts on making Android Studio better and faster, we are ending development and official support for the Android Developer Tools (ADT) in Eclipse at the end of the year. This specifically includes the Eclipse ADT plugin and Android Ant build system.
Time to Migrate
If you have not had the chance to migrate your projects to Android Studio, now is the time. To get started, download Android Studio. For many developers, migration is as simple as importing your existing Eclipse ADT projects in Android Studio with File → New→ Import Project as shown
Over the next few months, we are migrating the rest of the standalone performance tools (e.g. DDMS, Trace Viewer) and building in additional support for the Android NDK into Android Studio.