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Intel Patent Buy from RealNetworks Targets Smartphones and Tablets

January 26, 2012 by

Intel has entered into a deal to buy a significant number of patents and next generation video codec software from RealNetworks for $120 million. As part of the deal RealNetworks will retain select rights to continue to use the patents in current and future products.

The deal includes the sale of the approximately 190 patents and 170 patent applications and next generation video codec software. In addition the two have signed a memorandum of understanding to collaborate on future support and development of the next-generation video codec software and related products

RealNetworks said that the sale will not materially alter its expectations for future sales and that it would use the funds from the deal to invest in new businesses and markets while also retaining its existing markets.

It is pretty obvious where Intel sees this technology going-it has been working feverishly to get its technology adopted in the smartphone and tablet space, and is seeking to enhance its notebook presence by working with partners to develop a new very slim category that it calls ultrabooks.

Renee James, Intel senior vice president and general manager of the Software and Services Group said in a release that “We believe this agreement enhances our ability to continue to offer richer experiences and innovative solutions to end users across a wide spectrum of devices, including through Ultrabook devices, smartphones and digital media.”

Intel has always been a strong advocate of investing in technology in good times and bad. During the Dot.Com bust it continued to heavily fund its massive research and development efforts, one of the biggest in the world.

It currently spends in excess of $6 billion annually in R&D and has labs around the world doing research not just in semiconductors but a surprising range of other activities as well including studying the habits of tech users to see how and why they use products.

But the company has also used its strong financial position to use cash as a form of R&D, purchasing companies and technologies that it sees as either important to it as a key competency or as an investment that can enable it to participate in new markets if they emerge.

Buying technology and even developing new technology is only one step. The seamless integration of that technology into core products, or passing it on to others to us in conjunction with Intel developed products is the next step.

It had once gone on a huge buying spree in the communications market only to sell off assets at pennies on the dollar. I expect that Intel has learned quite a bit from that experience a decade ago and will put that to good use.
Also in favor of a smooth integration of the acquired technology is the fact that RealNetworks is not just some startup that has ‘gee whiz’ technology but an established player with technology that Intel is no doubt very familiar with.

Filed Under: Smartphone, Tablets Tagged With: , ,

Fujitsu Contest Shows Flexible Design Concepts for All-in-One Device Combos

January 26, 2012 by

Want a quick glimpse of the future of high tech gear? Maybe these products will not see the light of day but a recent concept contest by Fujitsu has shown some great product ideas for a range of technologies.

Naturally a number caught my eye but one combo product really had me thinking that it would be interesting to own. The product was a combination notebook computer, tablet, smartphone and digital camera-but not as an all-in-one solution but rather as removable parts of a whole.

The concept design, which is on the short list in the Fujitsu Design Competition 2011 was created by designer Prashant Chandra which he named “Lifebook 2013”. It is designed to both provide a user with all of the tech tools that they might be carrying and put them into one slim, highly integrated package.

The drive behind the design is not just a gimmicky form factor that enables users to have a convenient place to keep all of their devices together. As additional devices are added their functions and capabilities are added as well.
Add the camera and get a high end digital imaging device as part of your notebook.

Add your phone you have communications, possibly your MP3 collection and other features. A tablet could serve as a second display or as a keyboard, helping to keep the weight down. Syncing all of a users devices should be a snap under a design like this.

But a key differentiator would be that the processors that are stored in the individual devices could also be tasked with some of the laptop’s functions as well.

If this device did manage to come to market in some form in the near future Fujitsu would have to exercise absolute control over both software and hardware design. Code would need to be written to enable programs to take advantage of the different processors, and to adapt when some processors or hardware are not present.

It would also have to be aware of what is and is not present so that it can alter its abilities in real time. A user would not want to constantly change settings when using a phone.

One hidden advantage is that a user might be able to use their smartphone as the communications device for the notebook and tablet without getting contracts for those devices. If nothing else it might serve to push telcos to offer better bundles so that a person can reasonably afford to have cellular capabilities on multiple devices with a reasonable contract covering them all. Ah to dream.

Filed Under: Fujitsu, Smartphone, Tablets Tagged With: , , ,

Dear NFL: We Want On-Field Tweets, Not Just Sideline Stuff! C’mon, Man!

January 25, 2012 by

The game that nobody watches, aka this weekend’s NFL Pro Bowl, is all of a sudden more compelling because — in the No Fun League — players will be allowed to use Twitter during the game, for those random on-field thoughts that us fans just can’t do without.

In typical NFL fashion (see: instant replay) however the apparent way-cool thing is gummed up with controls — players won’t be able to use their mobile device of choice, but will instead be forced to use sideline computers to send their tweets out to the tweetosphere. Putting aside the obvious misstep and head-scratching decision to usurp potential mobile device sponsors (“Ray Lewis here on the Motorola Droid RAZR, LOL!”) the bigger question is if you are going to allow Twitter during games, why not go all the way?

Get coach Ditka on the line for a big C’MON MAN! Commish Rog, here’s the message: WANT LIVE TWEETS! Tweets from the bottom of the pile. Tweets during the snap count. (“One thousand one, Aaron Rodgers! Double-check this blitz!”) Tweets during the play (any wide receiver: “IM OPEN MOFOA!!!”) If anything the league should go completely in the other direction and REQUIRE all players to be using mobile devices at all times, while on the field of play. That would introduce a degree of difficulty that might make the Pro Bowl entertaining, instead of the flag football snoozefest it regularly becomes.

The possibility for new rules are endless… you have to send a tweet while the punt is in the air before you can catch it… if you want to blitz the entire D-line or the blitzing player has to send a DM to the quarterback before the ball is snapped… but instead we have the sanitized, red flag for coaches thinking from the NFL. (And get real: these guys are going to SHARE a computer? Riiiight.) Here’s the money quote on this “innovative” twist:

“This is an innovative way to further engage our fans who have an insatiable appetite for football,” league spokesman Brian McCarthy said. “NFL players have been very active on social media and enjoying talking to fans. The nature of the Pro Bowl enables us to have players tweet during the game.”

If we get some uncensored sideline emotion (like Tom Brady’s outburst earlier this year) then maybe the experiment will be worthwhile. But our guess is that the “sideline tweets” will be as useless as the Pro Bowl itself. #bringbackthecollegeallstars.

Filed Under: NFL, Twitter Tagged With: ,

Elemental Technologies Lands Stanford for its Sports Replay Solution

January 25, 2012 by

Elemental Technologies, a startup developing an array of technologies including instant replay for mobile devices, has signed a deal with Stanford University’s athletic department to show replays for events played at the school’s Maples Pavilion and Stanford Stadium.

Stanford is using the Elemental Live product as the basis for its Wi-Fi Instant Replay system that it is deploying on campus. The system will enable fans at events to view an instant replay immediately after the play occurred.

The solution takes input from four different camera sources that is continuously encoded in real time and immediately stores them on a local web server where clips are created and then pushed to fans within seconds after the play. Stanford fans can access the replays on their mobile devices via the school’s Stanford Gameday Live website.

This is just the latest in a line of strategic partners the company has signed deals with, but the first where its technology will be put in front of a cadre of experienced sports fans that have been weaned on instant replay and will know if it meets their needs or not.

The Portland, Ore.-based company was founded in 2006 and has had several rounds of venture funding. The first was in Dec. 2007 when it received $1.05 million from the Oregon Angle Fund. The Series A round of funding closed in July, 2008 with $7.1 million being raised in a round led by General Catalyst Partners and Voyager Capital.

The second round, in July, 2010, raised $7.5 million in Series B funding with Steamboat Ventures, a venture capital firm affiliated with The Walt Disney Co., joined existing venture funds General Catalyst and Voyager Capital in round.

The company is led by a trio of co-founders starting with CEO Sam Blackman. Blackman had previously has held a variety of positions in the industry including designing integrated circuits for Pixelworks and engineering positions at Intel and Silicon Graphics

Jesse Rosenzweig, the second co-founder, serves as Elemental’s chief technology officer. He also is a former Pixelworks employee and worked on developing software applications at that company. To fill out the triad of co-founders is Brian Lewis, who is the company’s chief architect. He also hails from Pixelworks and previously, he worked as an engineer and team leader at Rockwell Collins developing navigation, guidance and sensor control software for military transport aircraft.

The company has tested its technology with a range of companies in the high tech space and has a number of big-named partners including Amazon Web Services, Intel, nVidia, Adobe, Hewlett-Packard, Apple and Microsoft. Apple has been an important partner in helping with the live streaming technology.

Just as important it has a growing range of big name corporate and media customers that now number over 100. In that group are ABC, CBS Interactive, BTN, National Geographic, PBS, Oceanic Time Warner Cable, Comcast, HBO, and ESPN.

Filed Under: Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, NCAA Football, PBS, Startup

Apple has Record Quarter, iPhones, iPad Sales Soar

January 25, 2012 by

Apple continues to see strong sales for its mobile products as iPhones and iPads witnessed record sales, as did its Macintosh computers, in its fiscal first quarter that ended December 31, 2011. The company had quarterly revenue of $46.33 billion and a quarterly net profit of $13.06 billion.

It is interesting to note that in its product lineup Apple’s computers come in a far third place in terms of unit sales with only its iPod platform showing a decline, most likely because its iPhones, with their large storage capacity can easily double as a dedicated music player.

The company sold 15.43 million iPads during the quarter, a 111 percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter. The Company sold 5.2 million Macs during the quarter, a 26 percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter. Those figures are all time highs for the company. It only sold 15.4 million iPods, a 21 percent unit decline from the year-ago quarter.

Another fact that stands out from the results is that Apple admitted that its tablets are cannibalizing sales of its Macintosh computers, even when it has a record setting quarter for the computer.

It will be interesting to see how this phenomenon carries over to the Intel-based PC space. Will the ultrabooks stave off declining sales? If not Intel had better ramp up its push to establish its Atom processor in the tablet and smartphone space.

Apple also reported that it did not believe that the Kindle Fire, and other smaller form factor ebook readers that also had very strong holiday sales, had any material impact on its iPad sales.

While analysts had expected a strong quarter from the company some admitted that they were staggered by the results and predict that the company will be able to maintain its momentum going forward, at least in the near term, as it has just started to expand into the Chinese market. It is also expected to release at least one new generation of iPads as well as a new iPhone later this year, moves that should also help see a surge in demand for its products.

Filed Under: Amazon, Android, Apple, Barnes & Noble, iPad, iPhone, Kindle, Tablets Tagged With: , , ,

Super Cellular Battle II: AT&T, T-Mobile Beef Up Indy Coverage; But What About Twitter?

January 24, 2012 by

If your call, text or tweet doesn’t get through from the Super Bowl in Indianapolis, you probably won’t be able to blame the phone companies. Today AT&T and T-Mobile joined Verizon Wireless and Sprint in announcing special plans to increase wireless capacity for the Feb. 5 showdown between New England and New York, which is expected to attract enough folks to completely fill the 70,000-seat Lucas Oil Stadium.

From the info provided so far it looks like AT&T has done the most in terms of bringing wireless resources to the Indy table: According to the press release AT&T is not only expanding the DAS antenna coverage inside the arena, it is also firing up a public Wi-Fi hot zone in the adjacent neighborhood, while also adding some outside DAS deployments as well as driving nine COWs (cell towers on wheels) in for the party. Indy is also one of the select cities where AT&T has launched its new 4G LTE network, so it’s a good guess that the infrastructure there is new and ready to rock. Safe to say, AT&T probably isn’t going to experience a SXSW style cellular fail at the Super Bowl this year.

T-Mobile, the nation’s fourth largest wireless provider, had sort of a me-too feel to its announcement but things like free charging stations (at the T-Mobile store that is near the stadium) and a T-Mobile sponsored relaxation zone with couches and hot beverages might come in handy if you are in the area. T-Mobile says it has also beefed up backhaul inside the stadium and throughout Indianapolis in general, so if you are a T-Mobile customer you should be OK come game day.

Still unanswered is the question of whether or not popular Internet sites like Twitter are making similar infrastructure preparations for the expected surge in traffic. We still haven’t seen any explanation or mea culpas from Twitter in regards to Sunday’s multiple fail whale appearances, other than a small status report that says everything got fixed. As Jim Rome says, better head to Fry’s, guys, and beef up that server farm.

Awesome day for the NFL, terrible day for Twitter. Better hit up Fry’s for a server or two before the Super Bowl.

January 22, 2012 9:24 pm via webReplyRetweetFavorite
@jimrome

Jim Rome

Filed Under: 4G LTE, AT&T, NFL, Sprint, Super Bowl, T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless Tagged With: , , , , , , ,
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