Archives for 2012

Mobile Sports Report TechWatch: No Kodak Patents, iPhone 5 Sales Soar

September 17, 2012 by Paul Kapustka

Kodak has indefinitely postponed the auction of its imaging patents with the move coming after the company has already postponed the auction more than once. In the works since August the company, currently in bankruptcy protection, has been seeking to sell approximately 1,000 imaging patents.

Now it looks like the company is looking at alternatives to auctioning the patents off and that includes keeping the patents in house.

Will existing patent law seriously harm Android?
An interesting piece at ZDNet brings up the point that under current patent law there is the possibility that the Android ecosystem could wither and die if Apple wins additional rounds versus Samsung on Apple’s patent claims.

Part of the issue is that the utility patents which govern the way things work are harder to develop work arounds than the look and feel issue, which simply requires a new design paradigm. Head over here to read the piece.

AMD targeting tablets with Hondo
Advanced Micro Devices is looking at entering the rapidly growing market for tablets with its Hondo microprocessor, a chip that was designed for the market. The chip will be initially only support Windows 8 when AMD launches it, but unlike the Clover Trail family of chips from Intel, AMD’s processor will also support Linux at the same time.

Apple wins a round in Germany vs. Motorola
In the ongoing patent wars between Apple and Motorola/Google, chalk one up for Apple. It has won a judgment against Motorola in Germany that calls for the banning of select Motorola products that use its ‘rubber band’ technology.

The court ruled that Motorola must recall all Android tablet and smartphones that infringe on a select Apple patent, one that was also part of Apple’s victory over Samsung in its case in the US. Apple will be required to post a bond to cover enforcement.

Speaking of Samsung the company took another loss in the U.S. court system as a judge has denied the company’s request for a ban on imports of Apple’s iPad, iPhone and iPod devices due to their supposed infringement on Samsung patents.

iPhone sales break records over weekend
According to AT&T the iPhone 5, which went on sale last Friday, broke all previous sales records for iPhones at the carrier. Records were set both on Friday and for the overall weekend. The company said that the preorders will start to be filled on Friday, Sept. 21.

Hewlett-Packard to eventually enter smartphone space
HP CEO Meg Whitman has said that the company will enter the smartphone space; it is just a matter of when the company will do so that is at issue now. During an interview on Fox Business Network.she said that the company is already working on the development of a smartphone.

Tablets and smartphones now top memory consumers
The PC has been dethroned, at least as the top consumer of DRAM memory chips. The chips, which are a key technology for all computing devices has seen their demand shift from the PC space, the long term top consumer of the technology since the 1980s, to the merging tablet and smartphone space.

According to a report from research companyiSuppli showed that in the second quarter of 2012 PC consumption dropped to 49%. However it is not just tablets and smartphones that comprise the remaining 51% as a host of other devices also use DRAM.

Filed Under: Android, Apple, AT&T, Intel, iOS, iPhone, Lawsuit, Microsoft, Motorola, PCWorld, Samsung, Smartphone Tagged With: Apple, HP, Kodak, Motorola Mobility, Samsung

Watching NASCAR: The Chase Begins at Chicagoland

September 14, 2012 by Paul Kapustka

Richmond delivered on the promise of a wild race with racers dropping as much as 5 positions in the standings or rising as much as seven spots as a wild end to the regular season and now onto the race to the crown.

The culmination of the 26 races that comprise the qualifying round for the Chase seems like it went by in a flash, and no doubt that the drivers on the cusp that did not make the final cut as well as the ones that squeaked in will look back at the little things that either cost them or benefited them.

The final race prior to the Chase featured Jeff Gordon in a poorly handling car, falling a lap down and yet managing to qualify for the Chase for the Sprint Cup Championship by finishing second, edging out Kyle Busch for the last wild card sport. Busch finished 16th.

Clint Boyer, in a rain plagued race, and the field trailed Denny Hamlin for much of the race as he seemed to have the dominate ride vying with Dale Earnhardt Jr. for the lead. Late in the race there was some jockeying for the lead but Boyer bulled his way to the front and as they say, never looked back for the win. The top five was filled out with Mark Martin in third followed by Tony Stewart and Matt Kenseth.

Other interesting news is that NASCAR is considering providing a bonus for the regular season point’s leader. The reasoning can be seen quite clearly in the standings chart below where Greg Biffle finished first in points and yet is ranked fifth in the Chase.

This Week: Geico 400
Now the Chase begins with the Geico 400 at the 1.5 mile, tri-oval Chicagoland Speedway. As the Chase begins I am always interested in watching the drivers that are not involved because it often seems that they have as big an impact, intentionally or not, in the standings as everybody tries for the championship. Will somebody seek revenge on a earlier mixup harm a drivers chances in the next few races? I guess we will see.

Broadcast: Sept 16, 1 pm ET ESPN

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Sprint Cup Standings
1) Denny Hamlin
2) Jimmie Johnson -3
3) Tony Stewart -3
4) Brad Keselowski -3
5) Greg Biffle -6
6) Clint Bowyer -6
7) Dale Earnhardt Jr. -9
8 ) Matt Kenseth -9
9) Kevin Harvick -12
10) Martin Truex Jr. -12
11) Kasey Kahne -12
12) Jeff Gordon -12

Nationwide Series

Kevin Harvick has gotten the monkey off his back by breaking a 30 race losing streak by winning at Richmond, a track that he obviously likes as it is his sixth career win there. With a powerful car and some smooth driving he was a dominate car on the track for the bulk of the race only occasionally being challenged.
http://youtu.be/v2DXaVBMhsw

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. tried to take a few shots but failed and then engaged in his own battle for second, edging out Kurt Busch for that position, with Busch taking third. The last two positions were taken by Denny Hamlin and Michael Annett.

This Week: Dollar General 300 powered by Coca-Cola

Broadcast: Sept. 15, 3 pm ET ESPN

Nationwide Standing
1) Elliott Sadler
2) Ricky Stenhouse Jr. -1
3) Austin Dillon -30
4) Sam Hornish Jr. -50
5) Justin Allgaier -95

Filed Under: Athlete to Follow, Chicagoland Speedway, Dale Earnhardt Jr., ESPN, Greg Biffle, Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Kurt Busch, NASCAR, Nationwide Series, Sam Hornish Jr., Sprint Cup Series, Tony Stewart Tagged With: ESPN, NASCAR, Sprint Cup

Mobile Sports Report Grab Bag: New Tablets from ZTE & Huawei and MNF Flop

September 14, 2012 by Paul Kapustka

Toys 'R' Us Tabeo

Tired of losing your pricey iPad to your kids and then they yell when you try and take it back? Well Toys “R” Us has stepped in with a product that just might save the day with its Tabeo offering. A 7-inch tablet that runs the Android operating system will be available in stores Oct. 21, but will start shipping Oct. 1.

The $149.99 device will feature 4GB of storage that is expandable to 32GB, but the big plus for parents is that it will come with more than 50 books, games and educational apps preloaded including such popular ones as Angry Birds and Fruit Ninja. The Tabeo is now available for preorder.

Chinese vendors ZTE & Huawei catching tablet fever?
DigiTimes is reporting that both Huawei Technologies and ZTE have both shown a good deal of interest in entering the tablet space. The move is seen as an effort to expand their respective footprints globally as well as take advantage of the huge Chinese market.

First Monday Night Football game of season a flop with fans
The first MNF games have come and gone, and thank goodness if you were forced to watch them. Apparently not that many did as Sports Media Watch reports that the opening game, a Ravens blowout of the Bengals only managed an 8.1 rating.

Monday Night Football

The season opener, shown on ESPN, was down 21% from last year when the Patriots and Dolphins played and down 23% from the Jets vs. Ravens in 2010. It was the lowest rated MNF broadcast by ESPN since it took over broadcast duties of the iconic show in 2007.

However just a few days later the NFL Network, with a much better matchup with the Packers vs. Bears, received the highest rating in its short history. However its numbers, at 6.3, are hurt because it still is not carried anywhere near as much by cable operators as ESPN.

Analysts predict 58 million iPhone sales in 2012
The iPhone orders only start today after the introduction earlier this week with the first phones expected to ship next week but analysts are predicting a tsunami of sales for Apple’s iPhone 5 smartphone in 2012.

According to a survey done by Bloomberg and reported in Mashable the consensus from analysts is 58 million sold this year and FBR Capital Market analyst Craig Berger is predicting 250 million over the life of the device.

Is Samsung’s LTE threat an issue still?
Samsung mentioned that if Apple included LTE in its iPhone 5 there was a high likelihood of Samsung suing Apple. Samsung owns a huge number of patents in this area and has a healthy business in the LTE area that is spate from the smartphone business.

Now so far Samsung has not acted but it might just be that the company is looking at the technology that is used in Apple’s LTE offering to make sure that it has it right. We could always hope that maybe the two are actually talking and can settle things out of court.

Samsung & MLB partner on contest
Speaking of Samsung the company has entered into a contest with Major League Baseball called Photo Hunt. It is a pretty basic game, one I think even I would have a decent chance at. Every week MLB, at @MLB, will tweet out a Samsung Photo Hunt item using the hash tag #SamsungMLB.

All a user has to do is take a picture of the item and share it with @MLB. Winners will get a Samsung S III phone and two free tickets to a game of their favorite team.

Kindle opens to lukewarm reviews
I was impressed by what I saw during the Kindle HD press conference last week, but reviewers with hands-on experience with the device have been less than complimentary. Some seems to be valid complaints, such as the speed apps load and a few issues with software.

Some of the complaints appear to be, well it is not an iPad, and that really is Amazon’s fault for proclaiming it the best tablet in the market. I still like it, but it is obviously what Amazon said it was at its introduction: a device that opens up other Amazon services to customers. It seems to me to make a product like that (in hindsight) that there will be features that are not included that a general purpose tablet user might want.

USA Today to look like iPad?
I have not been down to the local newsstand but it appears that USA Today will be sporting a new look starting this morning. The paper, which in many ways revolutionized the way papers look and how much space they devote to a story, is now taking on a sleeker appearance.

The paper took a lesson from the Web and how many sites present information. It will also feature input from social media users, including comments from Twitter and Facebook. Its web page will function more like an iPad, according to a piece in the New York Times.

Filed Under: 4G LTE, ABC, Amazon, Android, Apple, ESPN, Facebook, Gannett, iOS, iPad, iPhone, Kindle, Major League Baseball, Mashable, Monday Night Football, NFL, NFL Network, Samsung, Smartphone, Tablets, Twitter Tagged With: Amazon, Apple, ESPN, NFL, NFL Network, Tablet

NASCAR, Sprint, Turner Sports Collaborate For iPhone App

September 14, 2012 by Paul Kapustka

The most prominent racing series in the United States has joined the iPhone sports world.

NASCAR, Sprint and Turner Sports have launched the sport’s first official app for iPhone and iPod Touch. The NASCAR Sprint Cup Mobile App allows fans to follow their favorite drivers and keep informed on Chase for the Sprint Cup race action, including access to race day content, schedules, standings, breaking news and more.

iPhone customers with a Sprint Unlimited Data Plan will have access to a vast collection of additional live features:

MRN and PRN race radio broadcasts; in-car audio for all 43 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers; RaceBuddy in-car video and track camera views; NASCAR on SPEED broadcasts including live Qualifying, Practice and favorite trackside shows such as NASCAR RaceDay; In-race highlights and alerts, Post-race press conferences; Real-time leaderboards and Pit Pass telemetry data.

“Fan engagement during the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup is significantly elevated each and every season as the championship battle unfolds and ultimately culminates at Homestead-Miami Speedway in November,” said Marc Jenkins, NASCAR vice president of digital media. “With NASCAR Sprint Cup Mobile now available for the iPhone for the first time ever, fans will get a customized experience, bringing them closer to the racing action than ever before.”

The popular NASCAR Sprint Cup Mobile App provides fans with 24/7 access to all things NASCAR. Though Sprint had previously offered a NASCAR app for Android platforms, the nation’s third-largest carrier didn’t start offering Apple’s iPhone until late last year. Sprint will also be selling the new iPhone 5, which was announced earlier this week.

NASCAR’s digital rights including NASCAR.COM, the official online destination of NASCAR which provides racing enthusiasts with an all-inclusive offering of engaging content including fantasy games, video highlights, social elements and in-depth editorial content, are currently managed by Turner Sports.

As part of a restructured partnership announced earlier this year, Turner Sports remains the exclusive sales agent across the NASCAR Digital Media platform through 2016 while NASCAR assumes operational control on Jan. 1, 2013 of its interactive, digital and social media rights and all related platforms.

This is a boon for mobile customers that might not be able to catch a race live, or are watching but want different information that that which is provided by the broadcast. Many of the features of the mobile app are ones that a television viewer would get but they now have increased flexibility to hone the information that they are getting.

The NASCAR Sprint Cup Mobile App is available free from the App Store on iPhone and iPod Touch or at www.itunes.com/appstore. NASCAR has been increasingly aggressive in pushing its brand into new areas. It launched a major Twitter push earlier this summer and has been very proactive in having drivers participate with fans via social media.

James Raia is an editor and publisher in Sacramento, California. Visit his site: www.tourdefrancelife.com

Filed Under: AT&T, iPad, iPhone, Live sports via mobile, NASCAR, Sprint Cup Series, Turner Sports

Intel talks about a Wireless Future

September 13, 2012 by Paul Kapustka

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Justin Rattner at IDF 2010

Day Three of the Intel Developers Conference brought about my favorite part of the conference from when I was a regular attendee at the show- the day when the research and development people get to strut their stuff.

Today was no different as Justin Rattner, Intel’s chief technology officer took that stage and made this prediction about where things are going in the labs. “In the future, if it computes, it connects.” More importantly he was talking about doing so wirelessly.

There was plenty at the show that was interesting from Rattner, but the two items that stand out here and will help mobile users the most was his showing of a few specific areas that are under development from the company.

The first was an all digital Wi-Fi radio that is integrated into to a chip that has other digital technologies. Calling it a “Moore’s Law Radio” it shows that going forward Intel will be able to scale the chip as it shrinks it process geometry, enabling the company to make more chips at a lower price. In the past when chips featured a mix of analog and digital they did not scale efficiently and so were much more costly to develop and manufacture.

In addition the combination of additional digital technologies on top of the Wi-Fi should mean that developers of tablets and smartphones will be able to create full featured radios that take up less space and use less power, enabling the creation of smaller connected devices.

WiGig

The second area was on the development of the next generation wireless standard that is called Wireless Gigabit or WiGig, a technology that is gaining traction from a growing number of industry players. It has the ability to deliver as much as 5 gigabits per second. The effort is seeking to consolidate a many of the proprietary 60 GHz developments into one that is accepted as an industry standard.

Intel showed a WiGig docking station that eliminated the needs for most wires and portends a future when we can have devices such as wireless displays and docking stations, easing the clutter on desktops and in offices.

Filed Under: Intel Tagged With: Intel, Wireless

Archives for 2012

Mobile Sports Report TechWatch: No Kodak Patents, iPhone 5 Sales Soar

Watching NASCAR: The Chase Begins at Chicagoland

Mobile Sports Report Grab Bag: New Tablets from ZTE & Huawei and MNF Flop

NASCAR, Sprint, Turner Sports Collaborate For iPhone App

Intel talks about a Wireless Future

Michael Strahan Debuts Twitter Video Project: #StraysTakes

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