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:
William Boston / Wall Street Journal:
Source: Audi, BMW, and Daimler have agreed to buy Nokia’s HERE mapping service for more than $2.71B
Audi, BMW and Daimler Near Deal to Buy Nokia Mapping Service
Car makers see potential for location-based services to become new revenue stream
http://www.wsj.com/article_email/german-car-makers-audi-bmw-and-daimler-to-buy-nokia-here-1437493575-lMyQjAxMTE1MTIxMTMyMTE3Wj
A group of German auto makers agreed to pay slightly more than €2.5 billion ($2.7 billion) for Nokia’s digital mapping service, prevailing over Silicon Valley bidders in a battle for a key enabling technology for self-driving cars.
German luxury car makers Audi, a unit of Volkswagen AG , Mercedes-Benz parent Daimler AG , and BMW AG have agreed in principle to purchase the telecommunications group’s digital mapping service Nokia Here, according to a person familiar with the situation.
If a deal is struck, which isn’t yet certain, the German auto makers plan to invite other automotive companies such as Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV, Renault SA, PSA Peugot Citroën, Ford Motor Co. , Toyota Motor Corp. and General Motors Co. to invest in Nokia Here, two people familiar with the situation said.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Google Brings Its 360-Degree Movies App, Spotlight Stories, To iOS
http://techcrunch.com/2015/07/23/google-brings-its-360-degree-movies-app-spotlight-stories-to-ios/
Google Spotlight Stories, a mobile app featuring immersive, 360 degree animated films originally developed by Motorola ahead of its 2011 Google acquisition, has now made its way to iOS devices. The app had been available on Android phones since fall 2013, when Google first introduced the new mobile storytelling format to consumers.
The app itself is intended for entertainment purposes, as it offers stories built using 3D and 2D animations, 360-degree spherical “cinema-quality” video, sound sphere audio, and “sensor fusion techniques,” explains Google. In short, what that means is that viewers can look around inside the animated content by moving their body and the phone to see different parts or angles of the story taking place.
Basically, the app can take advantage of the device’s sensors like its gyroscope and accelerometer in order to offer an immersive viewing experience. However, it doesn’t let end users create these sorts of movies for themselves at present.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Gigster Does The Dev Dirty Work To Turn Your Idea Into An App
http://techcrunch.com/2015/07/22/uber-for-developers/?ncid=rss&cps=gravity_1462_3517792612109707168#.b5imzi:hTNw
Got a startup idea? That and some cash is all you need to get a fully functional app built for you by Gigster. Launching today, Gigster is a full-service development shop, rather than a marketplace where you have to manage the talent you find.
Just go to Gigster’s site, instant message with a sales engineer, tell them what you want built, and in 10 minutes you get a guaranteed quote for what it will cost and how long it will take. Give Gigster the go-ahead, and it will manage an elite set of freelance coders and designers to build your product and give you status reports each week. Once you get your project back, Gigster will even maintain the code, and you can pay to add upgrades or new features.
There’s a massive talent crunch in tech. It can be quite tough for a fledgling startup to attract great engineers, especially if they’re not near a hub city like San Francisco. Gigster could help entrepreneurs affordably develop a minimum viable product so they can get the funding and attention they need to build a company.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Bloomberg Business:
Sources: MCX’s CurrentC mobile payment app to begin limited trial in stores next month as exclusivity deals to keep Apple Pay out of stores said to expire — Retailers’ Answer to Apple Pay Is Said to Hit Stores in August … After almost three years in development, the retail industry’s answer …
Retailers’ Answer to Apple Pay Is Said to Hit Stores in August
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-07-23/retailers-answer-to-apple-pay-is-said-to-hit-stores-in-august
After almost three years in development, the retail industry’s answer to Apple Pay is finally getting off the ground.
A mobile payment application developed by Merchant Customer Exchange — a company founded in August 2012 with funding from Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Target Corp. and Best Buy Co. — has been tested by employees of the retailers and will get a limited trial run next month in stores, according to three people familiar with the situation. That means shoppers will soon be able to use the technology, called CurrentC, to pay for items with their phones.
The challenge for CurrentC now is playing catch-up against established apps from Apple Inc., Google Inc. and others, as well as explaining to customers why they should bother using it. When Apple Pay rolled out last year, CurrentC was derided by critics as a lower-tech alternative that retailers supported because it would give them tighter control over shoppers’ transactions.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Kamcord Update Brings Live Game Streaming To Mobile Devices
http://techcrunch.com/2015/07/23/kamcord-live-streaming/
Kamcord, the YC-backed company that enables game recording on mobile, is the latest company to jump on the mobile live-streaming bandwagon after it added the feature to its Android and iOS apps.
While Meerkat and Twitter-owned Periscope are increasing awareness of live-streaming, both for sharing content and consuming it, the game streaming business — which is dominated by YouTube and Twitch — is still very much a desktop affair. This Kamcord update takes things decidedly in the direction of the future. The apps already allowed users to record their gameplay for upload later, but now you can tune in and watch top Kamcord players — an initial 22 partners boasting a combined 8 million YouTube subscribers are aboard live-streaming — strut their stuff in real-time.
Initially, though, streaming is only possible via the web app for creators, so it isn’t open for everyone, but Kamcord told us that it is looking to add native live-streaming to its Android app very soon.
Tomi Engdahl says:
New York Times:
Xiaoice, Microsoft’s Chinese chatbot, has a sense of humor, good listening skills, and 20M registered users
For Sympathetic Ear, More Chinese Turn to Smartphone Program
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/04/science/for-sympathetic-ear-more-chinese-turn-to-smartphone-program.html
She is known as Xiaoice, and millions of young Chinese pick up their smartphones every day to exchange messages with her, drawn to her knowing sense of humor and listening skills. People often turn to her when they have a broken heart, have lost a job, or have been feeling down. They often tell her, “I love you.”
“When I am in a bad mood, I will chat with her,” said Gao Yixin, a 24-year-old who works in the oil industry in Shandong Province. “Xiaoice is very intelligent.”
Xiaoice (pronounced Shao-ice) can chat with so many people for hours on end because she is not real. She is a chatbot, a program introduced last year by Microsoft that has become something of a hit in China. It is also making the 2013 film “Her,” in which the actor Joaquin Phoenix plays a character who falls in love with a computer operating system, seem less like science fiction.
“It caused much more excitement than we anticipated,”
The program remembers details from previous exchanges with users, such as a breakup with a girlfriend or boyfriend, and asks in later conversations how the user is feeling.
Microsoft has been able to give Xiaoice a more compelling personality and sense of “intelligence” by systematically mining the Chinese Internet for human conversations.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Open Hybrid Gives you the Knobs and Buttons to your Digital Kingdom
http://hackaday.com/2015/07/30/open-hybrid-gives-you-the-knobs-and-buttons-to-your-digital-kingdom/
With a sweeping wave of complexity that comes with using your new appliance tech, it’s easy to start grumbling over having to pull your phone out every time you want to turn the kitchen lights on. [Valentin] realized that our new interfaces aren’t making our lives much simpler, and both he and the folks at MIT Media Labs have developed a solution.
Open Hybrid takes the interface out of the phone app and superimposes it directly onto the items we want to operate in real life. The Open Hybrid Interface is viewed through the lense of a tablet or smart mobile device. With a real time video stream, an interactive set of knobs and buttons superimpose themselves on the objects they control. In one example, holding a tablet up to a light brings up a color palette for color control.
Open Hybrid is an Open Source Augmented Reality Platform
for Physical Computing and Internet of Things. It is based on Web and Arduino.
http://openhybrid.org/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Jon Russell / TechCrunch:
Canalys and Counterpoint Research: Xiaomi tops China’s smartphone market again in Q2 with 15.9% of the market, followed by Huawei and Apple
Xiaomi Regains Top Spot In China’s Smartphone Market, Ahead Of Huawei And Apple
http://techcrunch.com/2015/08/03/xiaomi-retains-top-spot-in-chinese-smartphone-market/
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Xiaomi Regains Top Spot In China’s Smartphone Market, Ahead Of Huawei And Apple
Posted 14 hours ago by Jon Russell (@jonrussell)
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Xiaomi regained its crown as the top smartphone firm in China during Q2 2015, according to reports from two analyst firms.
The Chinese company, which is valued at more than $40 billion and recently launched in Brazil, topped the scales in China with 15.9 percent of all shipments, according to figures from Canalys’.
“Apple and Samsung have both increased their sales activities in the China market”
Overall, the Chinese market — the world’s largest for smartphones — continues to slowly contract following a dip in the previous quarter. Counterpoint estimated that shipments slid by 2 percent year-on-year in Q2 2015, but did rise 4 percent quarter-on-quarter.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Apple Helps Push U.S. Watch Sales to Biggest Drop in Seven Years
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-08-07/apple-helps-push-u-s-watch-sales-to-biggest-drop-in-seven-years
U.S. watch sales fell the most in seven years in June, one of the first signs Apple Inc.’s watch is eroding demand for traditional timepieces.
Retailers sold $375 million of watches during the month, 11 percent less than in June 2014, according to data from NPD Group. The 14 percent decline in unit sales was the largest since 2008, according to Fred Levin, head of the market researcher’s luxury division.
“The Apple Watch is going to gain a significant amount of penetration,” he said Thursday in a phone interview. “The first couple of years will be difficult for watches in fashion categories.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Emily Dreyfuss / Wired:
LG joins Samsung and Google in committing to monthly security updates for its devices — Big Android Makers Will Now Push Monthly Security Updates — The Stagefright bug has quickly frightened cell phone manufacturers into action. It’s been just over a week since researchers alerted …
Big Android Makers Will Now Push Monthly Security Updates
http://www.wired.com/2015/08/google-samsung-lg-roll-regular-android-security-updates/
The Stagefright bug has quickly frightened cell phone manufacturers into action. It’s been just over a week since researchers alerted the public to the serious flaw that has been called the worst Android “bug ever discovered,”, and the major Android manufacturers have already taken concrete steps to fix it.
As of yesterday, Google will now roll out regular monthly over-the-air security updates to its devices. And so will Samsung. And LG.
“LG will be providing security updates on a monthly basis which carriers will then be able to make available to customers immediately. We believe these important steps will demonstrate to LG customers that security is our highest priority,” an LG representative told WIRED today in an email.
Yesterday, Samsung announced a similar program in an blog post: “Samsung Electronics will implement a new Android security update process that fast tracks the security patches over the air when security vulnerabilities are uncovered. These security updates will take place regularly about once per month.”
As for Google, its updates will be rolling out to its entire Nexus line.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Josh Horwitz / Quartz:
Chinese smartphone brands Vivo and Oppo make up roughly 15% of domestic shipments, gained by a focus on traditional retail — Two little-known smartphone brands are creeping up on Samsung and Xiaomi in China — This post has been updated with breaking market data. — First it was Xiaomi.
Two little-known smartphone brands are creeping up on Samsung and Xiaomi in China
http://qz.com/472599/two-little-known-smartphone-brands-are-creeping-up-on-samsung-and-xiaomi-in-china/
First it was Xiaomi. Then it was Huawei. Now two other domestic brands are making inroads into China’s cutthroat smartphone industry. Their recipe for growth is simple, but their relationship remains shrouded in mystery.
Vivo is a smartphone brand that’s barely known outside of China, but it’s growing steadily in its home market. In the second quarter, Canalys estimates that its market share jumped from 4% one year ago to 8% by the end of June.
It’s currently ranked as China’s fourth most-popular brand. Xiaomi, Huawei, and Apple occupy the top three spots at roughly 15% market share each, but Vivo stands out for its growth.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Lance Whitney / CNET:
Microsoft releases Translator, an app that translates typed or spoken words in 50 languages, for iOS, Android, Apple Watch and Android Wear
Microsoft challenges Google with its own translator app
http://www.cnet.com/news/microsoft-challenges-google-with-its-own-translator-app/
The new app is covering all the bases, launching for iOS, Android and even the Apple Watch and Android Wear smartwatches.
With the new app, Microsoft is entering into Google territory — the search giant has long offered translation services on the Web as well as for iOS and Android. Google’s Translate app is more advanced in one respect. It lets you point your mobile device’s camera at a sign, book or other object with text on it and watch as that text is automatically translated into the language of your choice. But Google’s Translate app supports only 27 languages for text and voice conversion. Google does not make a version of its app for Android Wear smartwatches, offering an advantage to Microsoft.
n my brief use of Microsoft Translate, I found the app quick and simple to use. You can easily switch between typing or speaking the words you want translated. You can speak or type your phrase and see or hear the translation in one language. You can then choose other languages to hear the same phrase in a different language
Tomi Engdahl says:
Roger Cheng / CNET:
Verizon eliminates subsidized phones and contracts, offers 4 plans with 1-12GB of data for $30-80 per month and a $20 per month smartphone access fee
Verizon kills off service contracts, smartphone subsidies
http://www.cnet.com/news/verizon-kills-off-service-contracts-smartphone-subsidies/
In a radical shift, the company will only offer new plans that require customers to pay for their own smartphones. Also, device access fees and buckets of data remain.
Verizon is shaking up how you pay for your wireless service.
Verizon Wireless on Friday introduced a set of new data plans that require customers to pay for their smartphone in monthly installments or buy it outright. The new plans go into effect August 13.
It’s a radical change in how Verizon operates and signals a broader shift away from smartphone subsidies and service contracts. Customers are increasingly paying for their devices in exchange for lower service fees — a trend started by T-Mobile two years ago. The change has resulted in heightened awareness of their smartphone and service costs.
Tomi Engdahl says:
What’s next for wearables?
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/eye-on-iot-/4439993/What-s-next-for-wearables-?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20150727&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20150727&elq=3c24108b6de6468599638582143f1dcc&elqCampaignId=24100&elqaid=27223&elqat=1&elqTrackId=d10cd98fed1146debb0712f84d09a9ed
By 2016, it’s estimated that one in three people will own a smartphone. There is an ever-increasing demand for smaller, more power-efficient connected devices that is bringing about a revolution similar to one that so dramatically changed human understanding hundreds of years ago, when microscopes and telescopes were invented. They extended our limited natural senses and enabled pathways of discovery into our world and ourselves that are still being explored today with no signs of dwindling.
Just as these devices increased our vision and understanding, the accelerating development of wearables is extending the senses available to our smartphones, and in turn informing us, in unprecedented detail, about the world – and bodies – we live in. According to analyst IHS, in 2019 an estimated 230 million wearable units will be manufactured, creating a richness of data about our surroundings, our habits and our health that we can harvest for remarkable and empowering insights that have never before been available to us. This creates not just a ‘digital self’, but a whole new dimension of information at our fingertips.
The first generation of wearables carried just a few sensors – accelerometers and heart-rate monitors, primarily aimed at the fitness market – but the increasing miniaturization and sophistication of sensor technology will give the next generation of devices far more input: sensors for air humidity and pressure, spectrographs for blood oxygen and glucose levels, pH sensors for mineral and hydration levels, and microphones whose inputs can be used to place us in certain contexts – on an airplane, in traffic, in bed asleep. Coupled with GPS and other location-aware inputs, we can then derive even higher-level information, such as stress levels, calories burned on particular routes, and other health signifiers – all without having to enter any information by hand anywhere, or ask any explicit questions.
By choosing to share this information – securely, of course – with our medical service providers, and their own analytical machinery, we can enjoy another level of confidence that our health will be under our own control. So-called “stage zero medicine” will allow us to alter our behavior immediately, steering away from bad habits and helping to catch any worrying symptoms before they can escalate, hugely increasing the success of such timely treatment. And it’s not just our personal health and lifestyles that will benefit from this technology – the global population as a whole can share in it, whether they’re wearable owners or not.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Getting to know the Moto 360
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/brians-brain/4439944/Getting-to-know-the-Moto-360?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20150720&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20150720&elq=2824add400c0490ead7de8f318c0c2b8&elqCampaignId=24014&elqaid=27113&elqat=1&elqTrackId=5e138e0ae4f7495ab51ac4b9707e0025
Tomi Engdahl says:
James Crabtree / Financial Times:
Google to announce relaunch of its Android One project in India in coming weeks with a goal of specifying phones that will cost less than $50 — Google set to reboot Android One smartphone project in India — Google is to relaunch its Android One cut-price smartphone project …
Google to push ahead with Android One smartphone project in India
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0%2F6009c540-3ce0-11e5-8613-07d16aad2152.html#axzz3iQ13jDXt
ajan Anandan, managing director in India and Southeast Asia, told the Financial Times that the company remained “very committed” to Android One – a set of specifications that help manufacturers make cheap, good quality smartphones – which has struggled since its launch in New Delhi last September.
The much-hyped mobile standard had “not delivered to expectations”, Mr Anandan admitted, citing supply chain issues that have led to shortages of the phones, which are largely imported from China.
“It is like any company when you try to launch a new initiative – we had a few hiccups,” he said.
It is particularly focused on hundreds of millions of first-time smartphone users in emerging markets such as India.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Tim Culpan / Bloomberg Business:
HTC market valuation falls below its cash on hand; brand, factories, and other assets deemed to have no value by investors — HTC Trading Below Cash Leaves a Smartphone Brand With No Value
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-08-10/htc-trading-near-cash-leaves-a-smartphone-brand-with-no-value
A 60 percent plunge in HTC Corp.’s stock this year pushed its market value to below its cash on hand. That means investors were effectively saying the smartphone maker’s brand, factories and buildings were worthless.
Its forecast for third-quarter sales of as much as 48 percent below analyst estimates follows a 35 percent cut to projected revenue in the preceding period and indicates that the Taoyuan, Taiwan-based company has little chance of regaining market share in the short-term.
“We think these efforts are not enough to turn HTC around in the next two years,” Birdy Lu, an analyst with Deutsche Bank AG, said in a report dated Aug. 7. “HTC has little chance to compete with iPhone and Samsung given limited resources, and might continue to lose shares to Chinese brands in mid/low-end segment.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Andrew Cunningham / Ars Technica:
Google goes with Vulkan as Android’s low-overhead graphics API
Google goes with Vulkan as Android’s low-overhead graphics API
Khronos also announces OpenGL ES 3.2, which Android already partially supports.
http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/08/android-to-support-vulkan-graphics-api-the-open-answer-to-metal-and-dx12/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ron Amadeo / Ars Technica:
OEMs and carriers make Android’s security update strategy ineffective at Android’s scale; a major attack on unpatched phones seems inevitable
Waiting for Android’s inevitable security Armageddon
Editorial: Android’s update strategy doesn’t scale, and that’s recipe for disaster.
http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/08/waiting-for-androids-inevitable-security-armageddon/
We’re on day who-the-heck-knows of the Android Stagefright security vulnerability, and there’s really no point keeping track of the days because no one’s going to fix it. The Android ecosystem can’t deal with security, and it won’t change until it’s too late.
Android was originally designed, above all else, to be widely adopted. Google was starting from scratch with zero percent market share, so it was happy to give up control and give everyone a seat at the table in exchange for adoption. The sales pitch was simple: “Apple locked you all out of the iPhone and with Microsoft you’re just a customer, but on Android, you’ll all have a say in the end product.” The open source nature of Android allowed anyone to adapt its code to their hardware, and OEMs and carriers could (theoretically) alter or fork it to their hearts’ content.
Now, though, Android has around 75-80 percent of the worldwide smartphone market—making it not just the world’s most popular mobile operating system but arguably the most popular operating system, period. As such, security has become a big issue. Android still uses a software update chain-of-command designed back when the Android ecosystem had zero devices to update, and it just doesn’t work. There are just too many cooks in the kitchen: Google releases Android to OEMs, OEMs can change things and release code to carriers, carriers can change things and release code to consumers. It’s been broken for years.
The Android ecosystem’s reaction to the “Stagefright” vulnerability is an example of how terrible things are. An estimated 95 percent of Android devices have a have a remote arbitrary code execution just by receiving malicious video MMS.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Cyborgs Closer To Reality: Scientists Develop Electronic Skin Sensors For Controlling Mobile Devices
http://hothardware.com/news/cyborgs-closer-to-reality-scientists-develop-electronic-skin-sensors-for-controlling-mobile-devices
“iSkin supports single or multiple touch areas of custom shape and arrangement, as well as more complex widgets, such as sliders and click wheels,” write the researchers. “Recognizing the social importance of skin, we show visual design patterns to customize functional touch sensors and allow for a visually aesthetic appearance. Taken together, these contributions enable new types of on-body devices.”
What makes iSkin interesting is that it can be used for “fast and direct control of mobile devices using touch input even when the hands are busy.” The researchers see iSkin being used to control smartphone and smartwatch functions like a stopwatch during sports activities, adjusting music playback and volume, and answering phone calls. The team has even developed a prototype rollup 30-key QWERTY keyboard than can wrap around your forearm and attach to a smartwatch (input methods for smartwatches are rather limited, so this is a rather novel approach).
The sensors are constructed using several layers of silicon. Non-conductive parts of the iSkin are built using transparent polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), while conductors are made with carbon dope PDMS. These materials allow iSkin to be very flexible and stretchable
Tomi Engdahl says:
3D Cursors Sculpt at Siggraph
Tablet gestures allow immersive modeling
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1327371&
Manipulating objects in three-dimensional (3D) space just got easier, according to the Univerity of Montreal, which demonstrates its 3D cursor-based design system today at Siggraph 2015 (Aug. 9-13, Los Angeles).
Using a tablet, smartphone or even smartwatch, the 3D cursor translates back-and-forth motions in two-dimensional (2D) space while up-and-down motions add the 3D motion to the cursor creating a control plane. Running today on tablets attach to the Hyve-3D simulator from Hybridlab, the 3D cursor-based design software will eventually also run on smartphone- and even smartwatch-touchscreens, according to professor Tomás Dorta, of the university’s School of Design.
“The techniques we’re unveiling today involve using a tablet to control the cursor, but as it does not necessarily rely on external tracking of the user’s movements, eventually other devices could be used, such as smart phones or watches,” Dorta told EE Times.
Hyve-3D, which stands for Hybrid Virtual Environment in 3D also allows users to design complete virtual realities with the 3D cursor being used for both drawing and as a control plane, using six degrees-of-freedom (6-DOF) when used with multi-touch handheld tablets.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Qualcomm Launches Snapdragon 616, 412, and 212
by Joshua Ho on August 10, 2015 6:00 PM EST
http://www.anandtech.com/show/9511/qualcomm-launches-snapdragon-616-412-and-212
Today, Qualcomm launched a set of new SoCs, namely the Snapdragon 616, 412, and 212. These are updates to the Snapdragon 615, 410, and 210 respectively.
If you were to guess that these are relatively minor updates, you’d be right.
Overall it’s a bit unfortunate that none of these SoCs have made the move from a traditional polySiON gate oxide to a high-k metal gate process yet. However I suspect that in these lower tiers even the cost of HKMG would dramatically affect competitiveness and price.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Emil Protalinski / VentureBeat:
iOS slips to 64% global enterprise share in Q2 2015, Android hits 32%, and Windows stays flat at 4% — iOS slips to 64% enterprise share in Q2 2015, Android hits 32%, and Windows stays flat at 4% — Apple continues to rule the mobile enterprise space, but its grip might be starting …
iOS slips to 64% enterprise share in Q2 2015, Android hits 32%, and Windows stays flat at 4%
http://venturebeat.com/2015/08/11/ios-slips-to-62-enterprise-share-in-q2-2015-android-hits-32-and-windows-stays-flat-at-4/
Apple continues to rule the mobile enterprise space, but its grip might be starting to slip. iOS lost 6 percentage points over the past quarter, dipping to 64 percent of global device activations in Q2 2015. Android device activations, meanwhile, gained the same amount to hit 32 percent of total activations last quarter.
Windows stayed flat at 4 percent, with 3 percent comprising the desktop operating system on tablets and 1 percent comprising Windows Phone.
In fact, Windows Phone activations have remained consistent over the past two years: flat at 1 percent. That’s a wrong Microsoft is working to right with Windows 10 Mobile and its own flagship devices, including two rumored to be announced next month.
iOS’ losses, which translated into gains for Android and Windows, can be mainly attributed to a bigger change in the tablet market. Over the past year, iOS fell from 81 percent to 64 percent, Android jumped from 15 percent to 25 percent, and even Windows grew from 4 percent to 11 percent.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ben Lovejoy / 9to5Google:
LastPass password manager now free on mobile devices, but syncing across platforms still costs $12/year
LastPass password manager now free on mobile devices, but going cross-platform still costs
http://9to5google.com/2015/08/11/lastpass-free-mobile/
LastPass, which claims to be the world’s most popular password manager, now offers the choice of free usage on either mobile or desktop platforms. Previously, desktop use was free while use on a mobile device required a $12 annual subscription.
You can now use for free on either platform – but still need to pay to get both mobile and desktop usage. LastPass told us that, seven years in, it was time to change its freemium pricing model …
The new model could be good timing for Samsung Galaxy S6 owners, who got either three or six months LastPass Premium subscription with their smartphones.
A password manager allows you to have strong, unique passwords for each website you use, without even having to know what they are.
LastPass for Android is a free download from Google Play.
http://api.viglink.com/api/click?format=go&jsonp=vglnk_143936933151914&key=c1c7d488bb2df8a8b659d5d41634d304&libId=id8jasn5010023dg000DAdhyf0njj&loc=http%3A%2F%2F9to5google.com%2F2015%2F08%2F11%2Flastpass-free-mobile%2F&v=1&out=https%3A%2F%2Fplay.google.com%2Fstore%2Fapps%2Fdetails%3Fid%3Dcom.lastpass.lpandroid%26hl%3Den&ref=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.techmeme.com%2F&title=LastPass%20password%20manager%20now%20free%20on%20mobile%20devices%2C%20but%20going%20cross-platform%20still%20costs%20%7C%209to5Google&txt=free%20download%20from%20Google%20Play
Tomi Engdahl says:
Patching up a fragmented, Stagefrightened Android isn’t easy
REM had the answer in 1992, Google
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/08/12/android_patching_analysis_stagefright_google/
Android users face a triple patching headache with the recent discovery of a collection of serious vulnerabilities affecting smartphones and tablets running Google’s mobile operating system.
Security experts warn that the fragmented nature of Android devices will make patching more difficult than it would be in updating PCs.
The Stagefright vulnerability, which could be used by an attacker to install a spyware app in a targets phone without their knowledge just by sending an MMS, was quickly followed up by the “Certifi-gate” vulnerability, which poses a similar risk.
The Certifi-gate flaw was found within pre-installed plug-ins for mobile remote support tools (MRSTs) bundled with Android devices.
Because of a security weakness hackers might be able to wrap seemingly innocuous apps with MRSTs, bypassing Android security restrictions in the process.
This week another blockbuster security flaw in Android – this time hitting 55 per cent of mobiles – emerged. The latest (unnamed) privilege escalation hole allows normal apps to gain superuser rights to snoop on a device’s owner, smuggle in malware, and more.
Curtain call
Google has promised to patch Stagefright and Samsung and LG have committed to monthly fixes.
Some security firms estimate Google has to do even more if it wants to avoid Android being seen as less secure than devices based on Apple’s iOS. In particular, it needs to push carriers to push over-the-air updates promptly after fixes become available.
“However, my optimism is still very cautious, because while Google and the handset manufacturers are taking steps to improve security, I haven’t seen any similar commitments from the various carriers,” he added.
“It’s still unclear if carriers have prioritised pushing out these patches in an over-the-air update, which means that Android users are still expected to seek out these patches and apply them themselves,” he said.
“We’ve seen that automatic patch systems are vastly more effective than merely making patches available in pretty much every other hardware and software ecosystem, and I’m hopeful that the Android space will get there sooner rather than later,” Beardsley explained, adding that legacy smartphones pose a particular challenge.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Foxconn to build Xiaomi phones in India
Redmi2 Prime – first out the gate
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/08/12/foxconn_builds_xiaomi_phones_india/
With the world of mobile phones fragmenting into local markets, both Taiwanese maker-of-everything Foxconn and China’s rising dragon Xiaomi are keen to find a route into the Indian market.
Earlier this week, El Reg reported that Foxconn will spend $5bn (£3.2bn) on new factories in India.
It’s now emerged that the company will build phones for Xiaomi. India is already the world’s third-largest smartphone market. Xiaomi will be taking on Samsung and the local brands of Micromax, Intex, Karbonn, and Spice, but will face the challenge of making distribution work.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Nancy Jo Sales / Vanity Fair:
Inside the hookup culture accelerated by the rapid rise of Tinder and other dating apps
Tinder and the Dawn of the “Dating Apocalypse”
http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2015/08/tinder-hook-up-culture-end-of-dating
As romance gets swiped from the screen, some twentysomethings aren’t liking what they see.
Everyone is drinking, peering into their screens and swiping on the faces of strangers they may have sex with later that evening. Or not. “Ew, this guy has Dad bod,” a young woman says of a potential match, swiping left. Her friends smirk, not looking up.
“Tinder sucks,” they say. But they don’t stop swiping.
When asked if they’ve been arranging dates on the apps they’ve been swiping at, all say not one date, but two or three: “You can’t be stuck in one lane … There’s always something better.”
“Guys view everything as a competition,” he elaborates with his deep, reassuring voice. “Who’s slept with the best, hottest girls?” With these dating apps, he says, “you’re always sort of prowling. You could talk to two or three girls at a bar and pick the best one, or you can swipe a couple hundred people a day—the sample size is so much larger. It’s setting up two or three Tinder dates a week and, chances are, sleeping with all of them, so you could rack up 100 girls you’ve slept with in a year.”
Alex, his friends agree, is a Tinder King, a young man of such deft “text game”—“That’s the ability to actually convince someone to do something over text,” Marty explains—that he is able to entice young women into his bed on the basis of a few text exchanges, while letting them know up front he is not interested in having a relationship.
“How does he do it?,” Marty asks, blinking. “This guy’s got a talent.”
“Sex Has Become So Easy”
‘I call it the Dating Apocalypse,” says a woman in New York, aged 29
As the polar ice caps melt and the earth churns through the Sixth Extinction, another unprecedented phenomenon is taking place, in the realm of sex. Hookup culture, which has been percolating for about a hundred years, has collided with dating apps, which have acted like a wayward meteor on the now dinosaur-like rituals of courtship. “We are in uncharted territory” when it comes to Tinder et al., says Justin Garcia, a research scientist at Indiana University’s Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction. “There have been two major transitions” in heterosexual mating “in the last four million years,” he says. “The first was around 10,000 to 15,000 years ago, in the agricultural revolution, when we became less migratory and more settled,” leading to the establishment of marriage as a cultural contract. “And the second major transition is with the rise of the Internet.”
People used to meet their partners through proximity, through family and friends, but now Internet meeting is surpassing every other form.
“It’s changing so much about the way we act both romantically and sexually,” Garcia says. “It is unprecedented from an evolutionary standpoint.”
Mobile dating went mainstream about five years ago; by 2012 it was overtaking online dating. In February, one study reported there were nearly 100 million people—perhaps 50 million on Tinder alone—using their phones as a sort of all-day, every-day, handheld singles club, where they might find a sex partner as easily as they’d find a cheap flight to Florida. “It’s like ordering Seamless,” says Dan, the investment banker, referring to the online food-delivery service. “But you’re ordering a person.”
‘The men in this town have a serious case of pussy affluenza,” says Amy Watanabe, 28, the fetching, tattooed owner of Sake Bar Satsko, a lively izakaya in New York’s East Village. “We’ve seen them come in with more than one Tinder date in one night.”
“You can’t be selfish in a relationship,” Brian says. “It feels good just to do what I want.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Apple enhancements help legacy hardware
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/brians-brain/4440115/Apple-enhancements-help-legacy-hardware?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_consumerelectronics_20150812&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_consumerelectronics_20150812&elq=dc09a4a6e4194f3d96bf1974723ff2d6&elqCampaignId=24314&elqaid=27467&elqat=1&elqTrackId=b5c19f017623411da5fa7f69132529f9
I was encouraged, a few weeks before Apple’s recent WWDC (Worldwide Developer Conference), when I heard rumors that Apple would not only bring iOS 9 to older devices such as my two iPhone 4s handsets and iPad 3 tablet but had also consciously considered them in its development versus resigning them to the “afterthought” bin.
WWDC brought more details on Apple’s plans, for which I commend the company on its cleverness. For one thing, O/S updates will be incremental going forward; i.e., patch-like, versus all-in-one, dealing with only the particular files that have been upgraded, removed, etc. The initial iOS 8 update from iOS 7 was 4.6 GBytes in size, for example; owners of 8 and 16 GByte iPhone 4s models often didn’t have enough spare storage on their handsets to download and install the update. iOS 9, in contrast, should require only around 1.3 GBytes of available space. Subsequently, we’ve learned that Apple’s planning on being even more clever, by temporarily uninstalling and subsequently auto-reinstalling applications as needed in order to free up sufficient temporarily storage space for O/S updates. Presumably, user settings related to those transient apps will be retained?
The other enhancements deal with applications running on iOS 9 and were bundled together by Apple under the “App Thinning” moniker. “App Slicing” as implemented by the developer operates in conjunction with “Bitcode” at Apple’s App Store servers. Developers will no longer be creating fully compiled versions of their “universal” applications, which by their named nature must support a diversity of application processors’ CPUs and GPUs, screen resolutions, memory allocations, etc. Instead, they’ll upload “intermediate resolution”-formatted applications, which include specifications on which SoCs they do and don’t support (the ability to optionally exclude non-64-bit ARM CPU cores is new and notable, for example), which libraries should be referenced for which hardware subsystems (the Mantle API for newer GPUs, for example, versus OpenGL ES), and which graphical assets use which various handsets and tablets (“3x” ones for the large-screen iPhone 6 Plus, for example).
Via “Bitcode,” Apple’s servers will then dynamically compile a hardware-tailored version of the application to each App Store visitor who requests it. The benefit is perhaps obvious: smaller RAM and flash memory footprints, thereby leading to more nimble multitasking and less bloated storage needs.
Truth be told, I suspect that much-to-all of Apple’s motivation for these moves involves the coming-soon native application execution capabilities of the Apple Watch and its iOS-derived WatchOS. Keep in mind that the Apple Watch contains only 512 MBytes of RAM and 8 GBytes of flash memory, along with a geriatric PowerVR SGX543 GPU. This the same graphics processor generation used in the Apple A5 SoC, which powered the iPhone 4s along with the iPad 2 and a few other Apple devices.
But these application-implementation benefits will similarly benefit other iOS-based devices. And they provide, I think, a compelling case study of how you might approach your hardware- and software-development efforts. Don’t assume upfront that you know what demands your evolving software will make on the hardware over the system’s operating life; build in a bit of just-in-case “pad” upfront.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Android users are now more loyal than their iOS counterparts
But BlackBerry users are fleeing to Apple
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2421721/android-users-are-now-more-loyal-than-their-ios-counterparts
ANDROID SMARTPHONE OWNERS are now more loyal to Google than iPhone users are to Apple, new data has revealed.
Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP) has done the research, showing that Android loyalty has caught and exceeded that of iOS over the past two years.
The figures, which come from a grilling of 4,000 US consumers, show that 82 percent of Android smartphone users remained loyal to Google’s mobile operating system during the two years ending Q2 2015, compared with 78 percent of iOS who stuck with Apple.
CIRP noted that the Android retention rate increased noticeably, from 77 percent of customers purchasing new phones in the 2013-2014 period. The iPhone’s retention rate, on the other hand, remained largely unchanged, slipping slightly from 79 percent.
“The dynamic between Apple iOS and Google Android is not well understood,”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Salesforce showcases enterprise Apple Watch apps
http://www.infoworld.com/article/2969646/smartwatches/salesforce-showcases-enterprise-apple-watch-apps.html
Third parties are linking apps for the wearable to Salesforce cloud data
Salesforce.com has showcased third-party software that uses the Salesforce Wear developer platform and Salesforce clouds to get business information to wearers of the Apple Watch.
“Third-party apps are key to driving mainstream wearable adoption,” said Lindsey Irvine, head of Salesforce Wear. “The application is what’s going to lay the foundation to make these devices more than gadgets, to make them real business tools.” Complex business processes can be brought to life on the wrist, driving productivity improvement for the mobile worker, Irvine said.
Twenty apps for Apple Watch were unveiled, including the BetterWorks Wear app, for connecting employees such as to update them on sales goals; ClickSoftware FieldExpert, for advanced scheduling; Bracket Labs’ TaskRay, for project management; and VLocity Wear, providing sales reps with customer profile data. NewVoiceMedia introduced ConnectWorld for Wearables, which integrates with Salesforce data to improve customer service.
Salesforce’s rollout shows the budding potential of a new marketplace for wearable apps, with not just Apple but Google and others having committed to development of wearable devices that do more than just tell time.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:
Google Launches New Site To Showcase Experimental Open Source Apps For Android And Android Wear — Google launched Android Experiments today, the mobile apps counterpart to its Chrome Experiments site. — Just like with Chrome Experiments, the idea behind Android experiments is to showcase apps …
Google Launches New Site To Showcase Experimental Open Source Apps For Android And Android Wear
http://techcrunch.com/2015/08/12/google-launches-new-site-to-showcase-experimental-open-source-apps-for-android-and-android-wear/
Google launched Android Experiments today, the mobile apps counterpart to its Chrome Experiments site.
Just like with Chrome Experiments, the idea behind Android experiments is to showcase apps that use new and cutting-edge technology, aesthetics and interfaces. All of the apps in the Android Experiments Gallery will be open source so other developers can see how they were made.
https://www.androidexperiments.com/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Fitbit caters to corporations, and not just with discounted fitness trackers
http://www.itworld.com/article/2969974/fitbit-caters-to-corporations-and-not-just-with-discounted-fitness-trackers.html
Fitbit is known for selling fitness trackers to consumers, but the company also sees its fortunes in the enterprise market.
“We think virtually every company will incorporate fitness trackers into their corporate wellness programs,” Fitbit CFO Bill Zerella said Tuesday.
no flash
Tested: How Flash destroys your browser’s performance
Businesses are using wellness programs to increase employee productivity, decrease the number of sick days workers take and potentially reduce health care costs, Zerella said during a session at the Pacific Crest Global Technology Leadership Forum.
In fact, Fitbit’s device growth among businesses rivals consumer use, he said, adding that companies of all sizes use Fitbit wearables.
Fitbit sold 4.5 million devices during the quarter, although the company didn’t say how many were bought by businesses.
Tomi Engdahl says:
MasterCard and Nymi say they’ve completed the first heartbeat-authenticated mobile payment in the wild
http://venturebeat.com/2015/08/12/mastercard-and-nymi-say-theyve-completed-the-first-heartbeat-authenticated-mobile-payment-in-the-wild/
The Canadian biometrics company Nymi, working with TD Bank Group and MasterCard, says it’s completed the first wearable credit card transaction authenticated by the user’s heartbeat.
Nymi’s dedicated payments authentication wristband executes a payment when held up to a point of sale terminal that accepts MasterCard. The band contains an NXP near field communication (NFC) chip to communicate with any terminal that supports contactless Tap & Go technology. To prove that the wearer is indeed the MasterCard account holder, the band reads the wearer’s unique heartbeat pattern.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Andrew Cunningham / Ars Technica:
Qualcomm details Snapdragon 820: Adreno 530 GPU 40% faster, consumes 40% less power than 430, supports HDMI 2.0 4K display at 60 FPS
Snapdragon 820 is official: A look at its GPU (and how much the chip matters)
Qualcomm introduces a new flagship by way of the Adreno 530 GPU and Spectra ISP.
http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/08/snapdragon-820-is-official-a-look-at-its-gpu-and-how-much-the-chip-matters/
Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 810 and 808 will continue to be its flagship chips for the rest of this year, but, as we’ve written, the 810 in particular has been problematic for the company. It had a gift for generating both heat and bad press, and, while the Snapdragon 808 didn’t suffer from the same problems, it was less of an improvement over older 800-series chips.
Keep all of this in mind as you read about the Snapdragon 820, which Qualcomm is officially starting to talk about today—we’ve got some details about the GPU and the image signal processor (ISP), though information about the custom Kryo CPU core and other parts of the chip will need to wait.
The Snapdragon 820 (and the 618 and 620, when they’re released) will be the first of Qualcomm’s chips to come with the next-generation Adreno 500-series GPUs. The 820 will ship with the high-end Adreno 530, while the 618 and 620 will both include the Adreno 510.
All 500-series GPUs will support the same APIs. This includes OpenGL ES 3.1 with the Android Extension Pack introduced in Lollipop (and Qualcomm tells us that OpenGL ES 3.2 support will follow on platforms that support it) and, when it’s ready, the low-overhead Vulkan API. Qualcomm told us that Adreno 400-series GPUs will be able to support Vulkan, too, since they support OpenGL ES 3.1, but that the 500-series would be the company’s first GPUs built with Vulkan in mind.
On the GPGPU end, support for both OpenCL 2.0 and Renderscript is included.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Security Flaws Common on Most Popular Smartwatches
http://blog.trendmicro.co.uk/security-flaws-common-on-most-popular-smartwatches/
According to a new piece of research we conducted with First Base Technologies, the security features on some of the market’s most popular smartwatches have been found to be poor.
Our study, which revealed security flaws in all six of big brand smartwatches on the market, stress-tested devices on physical protection, data connections and information stored to provide definitive results on which ones pose the biggest risk to consumers.
Android-based devices in the study included the Motorola 360, LG G Watch, Sony Smartwatch, Samsung Gear Live and the Asus Zen Watch; as well as the Apple Watch and the Pebble wearable – which run on their own operating system. All devices were upgraded with the latest OS version at the time of testing and paired to the iPhone 5, Motorola X and Nexus 5.
Physical device protection across all smartwatches was found to be poor, with no authentication via passwords or other means being enabled by default. This would enable free access if the wearable was stolen. All devices apart from Apple Watch, failed to contain a timeout function, meaning that passwords had to be activated by manually clicking a button.
Despite having better security features than its Android or Pebble rivals, the Apple Watch contained the largest volume of sensitive data. All of the tested smartwatches saved local copies of data, which could be accessed through the watch interface when taken out of range of the paired smartphone.
Across all of the smartwatches that were tested, it is clear that manufacturers have opted for convenience at the expense of security.
Tomi Engdahl says:
HTC shedding 15 per cent of workforce in ‘strategic realignment’
Share price plummets, so off you go guys, sorry
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/08/13/htc_shedding_15_per_cent_of_workforce_in_bid_to_turn_a_profit/
Former Taiwanese smartphone titan HTC is to trim 15 per cent of its workforce following a 20 per cent share price tumble this week.
The gadget manufacturer’s share price dipped so low its market value is now below cash on hand, which has provoked the worker restructuring.
In fact, the tumbling price of HTC’s shares has “rendered its brand, factories and buildings worthless,” according to Bloomberg.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Er, uh … sorry! Project Ara will not launch this year after all
Puerto Rico pilot canceled … for now
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/08/15/project_ara_launch_delayed/
Google had bad news on Thursday for fans of Project Ara, its DIY modular smartphone. It seems it won’t launch this year, after all.
In January, the Chocolate Factory’s Advanced Technologies and Products (ATAP) group said the devices, which let owners mix and match from an assortment of batteries, screens, cameras, and other components, were nearly ready for serious testing and would launch in the US territory of Puerto Rico this year.
It seems there’s been a change of heart. On Thursday, the long-dormant Project Ara Twitter account emitted a series of tweets indicating that it had changed its plans – or, to put it in Google’s own terms, Project Ara has had a “market pilot re-route.”
It seems the Puerto Rico launch is off, at least for now. The tweets insisted, though, that the project hadn’t been canceled – the team is “just recalculating.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Apple Watch is far outselling its competitors, according to millions of online shoppers
Read more: http://uk.businessinsider.com/apple-watch-outsells-competitors-online-2015-8#ixzz3j59Vxtvm
Tomi Engdahl says:
Jamal Eason / Android Developers Blog:
Google reveals Android M, version 6.0, is named Marshmallow; SDK and final preview released — Develop a sweet spot for Marshmallow: Official Android 6.0 SDK & Final M Preview
http://android-developers.blogspot.fi/2015/08/m-developer-preview-3-final-sdk.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
Paul Sawers / VentureBeat:
Mozilla’s Android Webmaker app launches out of beta to help anyone create content for the Web — Mozilla has officially launched its Android Webmaker app, two months after it first rolled out in beta. — First launched as a web-based program more than three years ago
Mozilla’s Android Webmaker app launches out of beta to help anyone create content for the Web
http://venturebeat.com/2015/08/17/mozillas-android-webmaker-app-launches-out-of-beta-to-help-anyone-create-content-for-the-web/
Mozilla has officially launched its Android Webmaker app, two months after it first rolled out in beta.
First launched as a web-based program more than three years ago, Webmaker is all about promoting the building blocks that go into making the Web what it is. As such, the Android app is designed to make it easy for anyone to create content that is accessible on any device with a browser.
At launch, the app is available in English, Indonesian, Bengali, and Brazilian Portuguese — and this is indicative of who Mozilla is targeting with the open-source app. The organization is hoping to encourage more localized web content, particularly in emerging markets.
The core raison d’être of the Webmaker mobile app is simplicity — it hopes users will create anything from “scrapbooks and art portfolios to games and memes.” So this isn’t about creating feature-rich apps or anything, it’s more about creating content with text, images, and links that works well on the Web — content that anyone can contribute to, and that isn’t “read-only.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Hackers took a false start: Android applications will run Lumia phones
Microsoft has promised far-reaching Android application compatibility in an upcoming Windows 10 Mobile. Just not everyone is prepared to wait for so long.
Windows 10 pre-release version has been up for grabs phones via Microsoft’s Insider program for some time, which means that hackers have had time to explore the system. And the results have emerged.
Microsoft has promised far-reaching Android application compatibility in an upcoming Windows 10 Mobile. Just not everyone is prepared to wait for so long.
Windows 10 pre-release version has been up for grabs phones via Microsoft’s Insider program for some time, which means that hackers have had time to explore the system. And the results have emerged.
The final 10 Windows Mobile is unlikely to have Google Play license.
Android compatibility of Windows phones is anyway a great news for consumers. In particular, the better, and priced around EUR one hundred Windows phones are superior usability compared to most of the Android competitors. When and if these give Android programming, to know it’s good for Windows phones.
Source: http://www.itviikko.fi/uutiset/2015/08/18/hakkerit-ottivat-varaslahdon-android-ohjelmat-toimivat-lumioissa/201510518/7?rss=8
Tomi Engdahl says:
In-Building Location Services: The Next Big Bluetooth App?
Startup uses Bluetooth-enabled smartphones, beacons to track people indoors
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1327439&
Global positioning systems are useless for indoor navigation, as GPS must have clear access paths to satellites to work. But advances in indoor location and positioning technologies, combined with the growing ubiquity of Bluetooth and WiFi-enabled smartphones, is fueling a revolution in indoor “people tracking” by commercial enterprises such as large retail stores and shopping malls.
In addition to WiFi and Bluetooth receivers and beacons, enabling technologies include 3D gyroscopes and accelerometers for motion detection and direction. Eventually the new technologies could involve direct interaction with specific smartphones and their users.
Taking advantage of the fact that 70 percent of all visitors to commercial indoor venues have smartphones with WiFi and Bluetooth, companies are making the first steps, to monitor and collect information on indoor traffic, using server-based hardware and software provided by the likes of Cisco and others, and data analytics software from companies such as Microsoft, Google, and Amazon.
This first step in the use of smartphones for indoor location purposes is still in its early stages
That will change as soon as the right technologies are in place to do what he calls smartphone user “engagement.” Current Opus projections indicate that spending on indoor location monitoring will reach $1.6 billion in the U.S. by 2018. “But this could easily be surpassed if systems are put in place that allow identification of specific smartphones and their location, their users and interests, as well as allow direct real-time contact to alert mobile users about products and services.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Fight for mobile payment begins: Tomorrow with start of Samsung’s strong asset
Samsung’s mobile payment service will start on August 20 in Korea, and is expanding to the United States on 28 September. Samsung Pay is to be spread to Korea and the United States to Britain, Spain and China.
Samsung Payllä has one major advantage over competitors: It works with NFC terminals, but also with ordinary magnetic stripe readers. It uses the company’s own “magnetic secure transmission” (MST) technology.
Payment application transfers data line reader by touching it. This allows the use of Samsung Pay in the millions, even in small shops which have not been willing to pay for new terminals.
Samsung says that it had agreed on cooperation in, inter alia, American Express, Discovery, MasterCard, Visa, Bank of America and Chase.
Source: http://www.digitoday.fi/mobiili/2015/08/19/taisto-mobiilimaksamisesta-alkaa-huomenna-aloittavalla-samsungilla-vahva-valtti/201510552/66?rss=6
Tomi Engdahl says:
Apple could choose Intel over Qualcomm for future iPhone modems
http://www.cultofmac.com/385615/apple-could-choose-intel-over-qualcomm-for-future-iphone-modems/
Qualcomm will be providing 100 percent of the modem chips for Apple’s iPhone 6s, but Apple may ditch it in favor of Intel for future handsets, claims a new report.
Qualcomm is said to have teamed-up with TSMC to build the modem chips for the iPhone 6s, using TSMC’s 20nm process.
For later iPhones, however, Apple is reportedly weighing up other modem chip suppliers for future models — with Intel being a possible leader. Interestingly, the report claims that these would be for Apple’s “2017 iPhone models” which could either refer to the iPhone 7 or 7s, depending on your perspective.
Intel being named as a possible replacement for Qualcomm is no surprise. Back in March this year, VentureBeat claimed that the iPhone 6s could use the Intel XMM 7360 LTE modem
Tomi Engdahl says:
Jon Russell / TechCrunch:
Xiaomi announces MIUI 7, partners with Opera to add Max compression technology to Android ROM
Xiaomi Bakes Opera’s Data Compression Tech Into Newest Version Of MIUI Android
http://techcrunch.com/2015/08/19/xiaomi-bakes-operas-data-compression-tech-into-latest-miui-android-fork/
Xiaomi may be best known for its competitively priced smartphones, which have soaked up marketshare in China at the expense of Samsung and other Android makers, but it also has its own version of Android. Today, the Chinese company unveiled a new iteration of its MIUI platform, which was first created back in 2010 before Xiaomi had begun selling phones and now counts 150 million users.
The standout feature of the global edition of MIUI 7 — which launches in beta on August 24 and still looks a lot like Apple’s iOS — is probably a partnership with Opera which, the companies claim, will compress mobile data usage in browsers and other apps by as much as 50 percent. The feature makes use of Opera’s Max technology — which now works with YouTube and Netflix videos — and is baked into MIUI 7 under the ‘Data Saver’ feature. Also filed under performance, Xiaomi claimed that the newest version of its software can help apps run up to 30 percent faster, while consuming 10 less battery life.
That’s about the only major addition
As a parent, I’d be pretty impressed if Xiaomi’s ‘Baby Album’ feature, which uses facial recognition to organize photos of a child in a dedicated album, works as the company claimed.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:
Silent Circle’s privacy-focused Blackphone 2 available for preorder, will arrive in September
http://techcrunch.com/2015/08/18/blackphone-2-pre-order/
Tomi Engdahl says:
MediaTek Faces Eroded Smartphone Growth
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1327452&
TAIPEI — MediaTek’s rapid growth in 4G smartphones is likely to be undermined by handset makers in China who are designing their own chips, according to an analyst who covers the tech industry in Asia.
Emerging markets such as India, Brazil and Indonesia that are expected to lead smartphone growth in coming years are mainly buying phones based on 3G and even 2G technology. While MediaTek, the world’s third-largest chip designer, enjoys a market share of about 50% in 3G smartphones, Chinese rivals such as Spreadtrum Communications and Huawei are eroding that position on strong price competition, according to Mark Li, a senior analyst with Bernstein in Hong Kong.
“As the competitive intensity from Spreadtrum is unlikely to ease soon, we see further pressure in MediaTek’s 3G market share,” Li said in an August 12 report. “Spreadtrum has collected its toll on 3G and maybe on 4G later.”
In addition to Spreadtrum, which sells chips on the merchant market, Xiaomi, China’s largest smartphone maker, is hoping to design its own chips instead of buying them from MediaTek.
“The maturation of smartphones is favoring Chinese players, especially when the government happily funds their profitless expansion,” Li said. “Qualcomm is the first one to fall, and MediaTek unfortunately can’t escape the trend either.”
MediaTek, Spreadtrum and Chinese handset makers are aiming to capture momentum in emerging markets such as India that will lead global smartphone growth.
India, the biggest emerging market outside China, rose nearly 30% year on year in the first half of 2015, the Bernstein report said.
Tomi Engdahl says:
It’s open-source-hacking-the-Apple-Watch-face o’clock
Here’s one that someone did earlier
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2422692/its-open-source-hacking-the-apple-watch-face-oclock
A CHAP WITH TIME ON HIS HANDS and watch faces on his mind has posted a hack that lets users change the face of the Apple Watch.
The hack is revealed in three ways: on Twitter, in a video and on GitHub. It is what it is, and it will let people customise the out-of-the-box watch face.
Tomi Engdahl says:
LIVALL: the First Smart and Safe Cycling Helmet
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/livall-the-first-smart-and-safe-cycling-helmet#/story
Safety comes first to LIVALL! BLING HELMET= Windbreak Mic + Bluetooth Speaker+3-Axis G-Sensor + LED
LIVALL Bling Helmet is smart because it has built-in Windbreak Mic, 3-axis G-sensor, Bluetooth Speaker and LEDs on the top and back of the helmet. All these things together make our Bling Helmet extraordinary.
With the Windbreak Mic and Bluetooth Speaker, you can answer or make phone calls when it’s necessary. You can enjoy your ‘me time’ without worrying people may not be able to reach you.
When riding in a group, the Windbreak Mic and Bluetooth Speaker enables cyclists to communicate with each other by walkie-talkie.
With the built-in Bluetooth speakers, you can listen to songs with LIVALL Bling Helmet
We add the 3-axis G-sensor to the helmet to make sure you can get help in time in case you fall when cycling alone. Once the G-sensor senses a unusual gravity acceleration, the emergency signals on the helmet will be turned on and an SOS alert will be sent to your emergency contacts automatically.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Snapchat Lost a Ton of Money Last Year
http://gawker.com/snapchat-lost-a-ton-of-money-last-year-1706957414
In 2013, teenage attention-pit Snapchat turned down a $3 billion buyout offer from Facebook, which is only not an insane and arrogant decision if you’re going to reap so much profit that you’re eventually worth more than that. Internal financial documents obtained by Gawker show Snapchat was very far from profitable last year.
Advertising. But Snapchat has been advertising since last year—and the internal financials obtained by Gawker show that between January and November of 2014, the company lost a whopping $128 million while bringing in just $3 million in revenue.