Search Results for: Microsoft

Friday Grab Bag: Amazon Coins and a look at Sports Betting

February 8, 2013 by Paul Kapustka

Twitter has bought social media tracking company Bluefin Labs, a company that follows how much social media is talking about television shows. The TV analytics company has been in business since 2008 and has had a total of approximately $20 million in venture funding so far.

The reported cost was $100 million according to the New York Times, although Twitter did not release the information. Twitter executives said that they believe that Bluefin’s acquisition will open new ad opportunities for the company.

Amazon develops virtual currency for apps
Going where others have failed before Amazon is introducing Amazon Coins, virtual currency that can be used to purchase apps and will be used as real currency — that means you need to pay for them, although Amazon has not yet spelled out how that process will work.

The virtual currency market has left a trail of tears for developers that have tried to establish them. Failures include Microsoft’s Points, Facebook’s Facebook Credits and several attempts at stand alone currencies including Flooz.

Samsung launches new $100 million fund
Samsung has launched the $100 million Samsung Catalyst Fund, an investment effort that will taget companies seeking early stage or seed investment with an emphasis on mobility, security and mobile privacy among other areas.

At the same time Samsung is opening the Samsung Strategy and Innovation Center (SSIC) in Menlo Park, Calif. and plans to use it as a place where entrepreneurs can meet with executives from Samsung’s nine product divisions to develop products and ideas.

Microsoft talks Windows 8
Three months after Microsoft released its latest generation operating system Windows 8, the company is now providing some insight on how well the platform has been accepted by the industry in a posting at the Windows Blog.
In a Q&A at the blog Microsoft’s chief marketing officer Tami Reller revealed that the company sold 60 million licenses for the operating system, about the same as it had with Windows 7.

Tablets to emerge as major TV platform, research firm claims
The growing popularity of tablets has caused a slowdown in sales of PCs, and a recent study by The Diffusion Group shows that they will also become a stronger factor in the television viewing world as we go forward.

The group estimates that by 2017 television viewing on tablets will grow to 58 billion hours, with an estimated 65% of all US households according to TDG’s “Tablet Diffusion and Its Impact on Video Use – Forecasts and Recommendations” report.

A look at sports betting
Did you drop a dime on the Super Bowl last week? Then in all likelihood you were committing a crime, but then you probably already knew that. A nice piece in the New Yorker spells out what is the current state of sports betting and how appeals to a Federal law currently ongoing in New Jersey may change everything.

Filed Under: Twitter Tagged With: Amazon, Blue Fin, New Yorker, SPorts Betting, Twitter

Intel Will Have Major Smartphone Push in Barcelona

February 4, 2013 by Paul Kapustka

Intel will continue its aggressive efforts to penetrate the smartphone processor space and will be highlighting its latest processor family that is designed for that market at the upcoming Mobile World Congress.

It has already started to see some traction in recent months as it gained a major partner for the Asia Pacific market with its relationship with Acer as well as smaller deals in Africa. The deal with Acer has that company now offering the Acer Liquid C1 smartphone that is powered by Intel’s Atom Z2420 processor.

Looking forward to the show in Barcelona on February 25 to 28 Intel will be looking to show off its range of smartphone technologies highlighted by the Atom Z2420 processor, a chip that it has designed specifically for emerging markets.

That processor is just the start of a range of new chips expected from the company this year for the smartphone space. It showed an update to its current Atom Medfield family at the recent CES show with the Bay Trail-T processor and is expected to launch its Merrifield line later this year. It has so far seen some solid benchmarks that have been posted online.

Intel still faces a tough battle in this space, one that it has been trying to gain a substantial market share for the last decade. Qualcomm and others have had a big lead in providing chips to the mobile market. Qualcomm has even surpassed Intel recently in market cap, making it the most valuable semiconductor company.

While Intel is still a much bigger company what has been driving Qualcomm is its success in the mobile space, one that Intel is still fighting for. It should get a bit of a boost when the second half of Microsoft’s Surface family of tablets, the Surface Pro arrive, since they are powered by Intel chips.Still it is increasingly important to Intel to establish itself as a major player in the mobile space as the PC market has matured and is no longer seeing robust growth.

Filed Under: Smartphone Tagged With: Intel, Qualcomm, Smartphones

Friday Grab Bag: Tablet Sales Continue Strong Growth

February 1, 2013 by Paul Kapustka

Market research firm IDC’s latest study shows that in the fourth quarter of 2012 worldwide tablet sales hit 52.5 million units, a number that represents a 75.3% growth from the same period a year earlier when the industry sold 29.9 million units.

Apple remained the market leader with 43% of the total market share, but saw its position weaken as rivals continue to gain a foothold in the space. Last year in the fourth quarter Apple had almost 65% of the market. Samsung witnessed a 263% sales increase year over year and Asus saw 402% increase. Still Apple’s share is larger than its next few competitors combined.

Microsoft Surface Pro lacking in Storage?
Reports are emerging that the amount of storage available for use in the forthcoming Microsoft Surface Pro tablets will in no way match the amount of storage that is installed, at least in terms of accessibility by users.

According to a piece in The Verge, the tablet, due out on Feb. 9, will have significantly less storage available than will be advertised. Due to the operating systems, built-in apps and a recovery partition, a model advertised with 128GB will have 83GB of free storage. It notes that users can take steps after they purchase the device to open up additional space.

Search engine designed for tablets
As the number and type of mobile devices continues to grow an issue has been growing about how apps designed for one platform perform, or present themselves on another. What looks good on your PC very likely looks poor on your smartphone and the same can be said for tablets.

A new startup called Izak now has a free app that is designed specifically for tablets, both iPads and Android driven devices. The biggest difference is that it has the results in an array

of interactive tiles as opposed to static hyperlinks.

New Apple patent targeted at sneakers?
Have you ever looked at your shoes and not been able to honestly figure out of they were worn out or not? Well if this is an issue for you, have no fear because it looks like Apple has filed for a patent that will provide sensors in your shoes that can tell you just that.

It has developed what it calls a body bar sensing system that tracks movement and so can track how much the shoe is wearing out. Can I calibrate it for my sandals?

Apple loses Samsung sales ban effort
A U.S. appeals court has said no to Apple’s effort to revive the sales ban on Samung’s Galaxy Nexus smartphone, telling Apple that it will have to wait until at least a trial that is slated for March 2014 before any such action will be considered.

The full Federal Circuit Court of Appeals reaffirmed the earlier ruling made by a three judge panel from the same court that rejected Apple’s request for a sales ban.

Filed Under: Tablets Tagged With: Apple, Asus, Microsoft, Samsung, Surface, Tablet

Apple Expands Storage Capacity with Latest iPad Upgrade

January 29, 2013 by Paul Kapustka

Apple has said that it has expanded the storage capacity options on its flagship iPad platform with the addition of models that will now have feature 128GB of storage, doubling what had been previously available.

The 128GB iPad with Wi-Fi and iPad with Wi-Fi + Cellular models will be available starting next Tuesday, Feb. 5, and will be available in both black or white models. The MSRP for the iPad with Wi-Fi model is $799 and will be $929 (US) for the iPad with Wi-Fi + Cellular model.

The models will have what is expected of this generation iPads including a 9.7-inch Retina display, Apple’s iOS 6.1 operating system that includes built-in support for LTE networks. It will be powered by the company’s A6X dual core processor and will include the FaceTime HD camera.

The move could be seen as designed to counter Microsoft which is planning to release its Windows Surface 8 Pro tablet on Feb. 9, a tablet that will also have a 128GB capacity. The Surface RT that was released late last year currently supports 64GBs of storage.

At the upcoming World Mobile Congress next month in Barcelona a number of tablets are expected to be shown, including four from Samsung. It will be interesting to see if that company follows along and has its latest offering available with 128GBs as well.

Apple has been under increased pressure from its competitors in the second half of last year and continuing into 2013 as they have started bringing out significantly better developed and built products that they had previously. Samsung and Amazon have been the two most aggressive but Microsoft has also entered the game late last year with its Surface platform, and is expanding that soon with a model that is expected to be much better received that its Surface RT.

While this move is certainly more evolutionary rather than revolutionary it will help it keep its products features at the top of the charts.

Filed Under: 4G LTE, Amazon, Apple, Galaxy Tab 2 10.1, iOS, iOS 6, iPad, Microsoft, Samsung, Surface, Tablets, Windows 8 Tagged With: Amazon, Apple, iOS, iPad, Kindle, Microsoft, Samsung, Surface

Friday Grab Bag: Samsung to Launch 4 Tablets at MWC?

January 25, 2013 by Paul Kapustka

Microsoft had less than stellar numbers with its Surface RT tablet but now it’s time to see how well it will do focusing more on its basic operating system. The Surface Windows 8 Pro is expected to be released Feb. 8, an interesting choice since the first quarter of the year is traditionally the slowest time in consumer electronics retail sales.

The first tablet from Microsoft in this branch of the Surface family is designed to be integrated into a corporate infrastructure and has wider browser support than the RT version, which only had Internet Explorer support. The Surface Pro will be powered by an Intel Core i5 processor, 4GB of RAM, dual band Wi-Fi, dual 720p HD webcams, a full-sized USB 3.0 port, microSDXC slot, and mini DisplayPort. The 64GB version will list for $899 and the 128GB for $999. The tablets will be available from Microsoft’s retail stores as well as from Staples and Best Buy.

Amazon adds speech-recognition developer Ivona Software to its portfolio
Amazon has announced that it has purchased text-to-speech technology developer Ivona Software. The terms of the acquisition were not revealed. Amazon has a history with the company as Ivona already has a number of features that are included in Amazon’s products including the “Text-to-Speech,” “Voice Guide” and “Explore by Touch” features on Kindle Fire tablets.

Ivona is a 10-year-old company that currently has voice and language technology that includes 44 voices and support for 17 languages. Founded as IVO Software in 2001 by Łukasz Osowski and Michał Kaszczuk, a pair of graduates from the Gdansk University of Technology, they remain active in the company.

Samsung looks to have a busy Mobile World Congress with 4 new tablets
According to a report from SamMobile that was repeated in Tech Digest, Samsung will unveil four tablets at the show in Barcelona next month. Leading off will be the Galaxy Tab 3, with a 7-inch and 10.1-inch member of the family. These are expected to have 3G and Wi-Fi versions.

Then there is the already reported Galaxy Note 8, code-named Kona, also in 3G and Wi-Fi versions and it will be available in 16GB and 32GB versions. The last model, and the one with the fewest details is a high end model code-named Roma that is reported to have 16GB and 32GB versions.

Apple’s earnings disappoints Wall Street
It always seems odd to write a headline like that when a company posts record revenue and sales, but then it is not me who was disappointed. For Apple’s first quarter 2013, which ended Dec. 29, 2012 it posted quarterly revenue of $54.5 billion and a quarterly net profit of $13.1 billion.

It sold a record 47.8 million iPhones in the quarter, up from the same quarter a year ago when it sold 37 million. It also sold a record number of iPads, hitting the 22.9 million mark, compared to 15.4 million in the year-ago quarter.

Nike teams up for tradition post-holiday drive with Lose It!
As anyone who has gone to the gym after New Years knows, it is now the season to lose all of the weight that somehow managed to tag along for the ride amid the Egg Nogs and holiday cheer.

The Lose It! App is now connected to the Nike+ API and so users of NikeFuel can integrated data between the two. Lose It! Is designed to be set up as a personalized weight loss program that helps users by not only tracking calories but offering healthy choices in their diet.

Users can earn back calories into their daily diet with a seamless connection between the user’s NikeFuel and their daily calorie budget. The Nike+ FuelBand connection is available for free to all existing and new Lose It! users who have a Nike+ FuelBand. New users can join Lose It! at LoseIt.com or by downloading the Lose It! app from iTunes or Google Play.

Filed Under: Amazon, Android, Apps, Galaxy Note, iPad, iPhone, Microsoft, Nike, Samsung, Surface, Tablets, Windows 8 Tagged With: Apple, Lose It!, Microsoft, Nike, Samsung, Tablet

Sony Unveils Latest Tablet-The Xperia Z (Non-Smartphone Version)

January 22, 2013 by Paul Kapustka

Sony released a smartphone at CES called the Xperia Z and has now followed that release up with its latest tablet offering, the Xperia Tablet Z as the company continues to battle for relevancy in the tablet space.

The tablet is a light, thin device that features a 10.-1 inch display with a 1920 x 1200 pixel high definition display, 2GB of RAM, and a 1.5GHz quad core processor. It will run the Android 4.1 operating system.

Included will be support for 4G LTE as well as NFC (near field communications) capabilities and weights a very light 495 grams and is 6.8 millimeters thick, making it slightly thinner than Apple’s iPad Mini. The case is waterproof and dustproof.

Other features include a microSD slot for memory expansion and an 8 megapixel camera that can automatically adjust its settings in low light and dark conditions to provide the best possible image. Overall storage capability and the frequency for the NFC have not been unveiled yet.

There are a number of questions that have yet to be answered about the device that received a very quiet launch that consisted of a simply press release in Japan. The two biggest questions are will it be released in the United States, or for that matter outside of Japan, and what will its pricing be? It appears that the tablet will be available this spring with pricing set at that time.

Still the move shows that Sony, despite some missteps in the tablet, and smartphone space, are not ceding them to Apple, Microsoft, Samsung or any other player without a fight. That will be good for the market as the increased competition will continue to help drive innovation in this space and provide new features and technology for users.

Filed Under: 4G LTE, Android, Apple, iPad, Microsoft, Samsung, Sony, Surface, Tablets Tagged With: Android, Apple, Samsung, Sony, Tablets