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Friday Grab Bag: Samsung News, New World Cup Mascot, Windows 8 Tablet Tidbits

September 21, 2012 by

World Cup 2014

Oddly I never think of an armadillo when I think of Brazil, yet in just a few years fans will be flocking to the country to watch the 2014 World Cup and no doubt will be inundated with images of the new World Cup mascot, an armadillo.

FIFA unveiled the mascot, which it has not yet completely ruined by giving it some cute name, Monday with the assistance of Brazilian soccer legend Ronaldo. Don’t worry, they are unveiling its official name in November.

Twitch gets a $15 million investment for eSports broadcasting
Twitch.tv has received a $15 million investment that is intended to help the company expand its eSports live streaming capabilities. The money, which came from venture capital investment firm Bessemer Venture Partners, will be used to expand its engineering team.

This is the company’s third round of funding, bringing its total to $23 million, with the last being a $8 million round in 2007 when the company was known as justin.tv. It received a small seed funding in 2007.

Samsung strikes back at the iPhone
Samsung has said that it plans to add Apple’s just released iPhone 5 to its existing patent lawsuit that it has with its rival. The move has been expected as the company said that if Apple included LTE Samsung believed that the technology would likely violate its extensive patent holdings in that area.

Hopefully this will go better than Samsung’s Facebook campaign, where it asked which smartphone a user would like to have if stranded on a desert island. The Apple faithful flooded the site and voted for the iPhone.

However on a brighter note the company has landed a major deal with American Airlines that calls for the airline to equip 17,000 flight attendants with the Samsung Galaxy Note, according to CIO.

StubHub out Ticketmaster in for MLB?
A report from the New York Post is claiming that Ticketmaster is seeking to replace StubHub as the office site to resell your MLB tickets. According to the piece the deal between MLB and StubHub has expired and there is pressure from several teams to switch.

The reason for the switch is pretty obvious; you can get discounted tickets for top teams at StubHub, while Ticketmaster has a reputation of piling on charges and raising the price. Teams like the Yankees want their seats sold at a higher price.

Intel gets first marquee Atom smartphone user in Motorola
Motorola Mobility has unveiled its Razr I smartphone, its first that is powered by Intel’s 2GHz Atom Z2460 processor. The phone features a 4.3 inch display that can use its entire area, displaying images from border to border.

Among its other features are an 8 MP camera, the ability to start up in one second, NFC and the screen has a resolution of 960 x 540 pixels. No pricing was announced at the rollout.

Anti-Japan protests lead to Intel Extreme Masters tournament cancellation in China
The latest round of the Intel Extreme Masters tournament was scheduled to take place in a few days in Guangzhou, China at the Anime Comics and Game Show has been canceled due to anti-Japanese protests, organizers have said.

The protests, sparked over a fight between Japan and China over a set of islands has led to the cancelation of a large number of Japanese vendors at the show.

More details on Surface Tablet from Microsoft
Microsoft’s CEO Steve Ballmer told the Seattle Times that company would be pricing the device in the same price range as Apple’s iPad rather than in the area that Amazon and Google are seeking to carve out at the low end.

This is not really a surprise since Amazon and Google are positioning their tablets as front end devices that will be used to purchase additional goods and services from the company, and are selling the tablets at cost. The range that Microsoft is looking at is from $300 to between $700-$800.

Leaked pricing on the pending Asus tablet, according to a report from ZDNet, is that it will be even pricier, coming in at $599, $799 and $1,299 depending on model and features. The most expensive is expected to have an 11.6 HD display.

Google asks ITC to ban wide array of Apple products
The International Trade Commission has agreed to investigate alleged patent violations by Apple based on charges brought by Google. Google is claiming that Apple is violated a number of patents that came to the company via its Motorola Mobility purchase. It is also asking the ITC to ban all Mac OS X computers, all iPads and most iPhones.

Microsoft wins a round in patent battles
Microsoft has earned a victory in its patent battle with Motorola in a lower regional German court that ruled that Motorola has infringed on a Microsoft patent that relates to text input. Motorola is expected to appeal in the case.

The ruling could result in both the banning of select Motorola smartphones as well as unspecified damages if the appeal is unsuccessful.

Filed Under: 4G LTE, Android, Apple, Asus, Baseball, Electronics Sports League, eSports, Facebook, FIFA, Galaxy Note, Intel, Intel Extreme Masters, iOS, Lawsuit, Major League Gaming, Microsoft, Motorola, Samsung, Smartphone, Soccer, Tablets, Venture Capital, Video Games Tagged With: , , , , , ,

As Expected Apple Unveils iPhone 5 in a More Mature Smartphone Market

September 12, 2012 by

Almost a year after it delivered the iPhone 4S, Apple is back on stage with its next generation iPhone, the iPhone 5 and the question that many have is not how good will it be but rather how fast will it sell.

That aside there are a lot of interesting features in the new phone and now we can finally separate the facts from the rumors, which have been bouncing around the Internet almost since they finished the iPhone 4S press conference.

Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide marketing, vowed that the new phone would once again change phones forever, something that Time Magazine said about the first iPhone. From what he showed on stage it does appear that the company has once again raised the bar for rivals to match.

The new iPhone 5 is an all glass and aluminum device that features a 4-inch display and yet is 18% thinner than an iPhone 4S and 20% lighter and is powered by a new Apple A6 processor that is 2x faster than the previous chip and runs graphics at twice the rate as the older processor.

Phil Schiller

The display features has integrated touch technology with sensors built into the screen for faster response and the 4-inch screen has the same 326 ppi as the old one with an 1136 x 640 4-inch retina display. It now sports five rows of icons on-screen.

A number of features show that Apple has developed the knack of tightly integrating features in its components. It has a single chip radio that supports HSPA+, DC-HSDPA and LTE as well as new Wi-Fi with 2.4GHz, and 5GHz 802.11n.

As has long been rumored it has a new connector, called Lightning, that is an all digital, 8-signal design, adaptive interface that has improved durability and just as good for people that attach them in the dark, it is reversible. The company is developing an adapter for the older 30 pin accessories.

The camera, called iSight, was also a major rebuild. With an 8 mp sensor the camera has a range of new features including dynamic low light settings, precision lens adjustments, 40% faster photo taking, a panorama feature and the ability to use 720p HD video in FaceTime.

Siri, its voice command technology has been updated and made faster and now has the ability to post to Facebook directly from Siri. With all of the new features Apple has also extended the battery life in many usage models.

The iPhone 5 will be available in a black or white model with the same price for the iPhone 4S. Prices are $199 for a 16GB model, $299 for a 32GB model and $399 for a 64GB model while on a 2-year contract. Sept. 14 can preorder and they will start shipping on Sept. 21 in 9 countries including the U.S., with expanded availability a week later. In the U.S. the phone will be availabe from AT&T, Verizon and Sprint. The new lineup is iPhone 4, 4S, 5 with Apple eliminating the 3GS. The company also upgraded iTunes and the iPod and iOS 6 is expected to be available within a week.

Apple started the show by highlighting some of the successes its other products are currently enjoying. The recently introduced MacBook Air is tops in U.S. market the last three months, according to CEO Tim Cook, with a 27% share in July.

There were 17 million iPads sold in last quarter, which was more than any other PC manufacturer sold in its entire lineup, Cook said, adding that the company has now sold 84 million in just two and a half years and owns a 68% worldwide market share. There are now 700,000 apps in the app store with 250,000 designed for iPad. 90% of all apps downloaded at least once a month average customer has over 100 apps.

Google, which has recently released its own tablet, seems to be one of the losers with the new iPhone 5 as Apple has replaced Google Maps with its own technology, one that will be open to third party developers who can add transit and other information to the program, according to Apple Insider.

Apple will be using vector graphics in an attempt to provide a superior viewing experience and will be including a 3D Flyover feature that will be its alternative to Google’s Streetview.

In the past iPhone rollouts each successive generation has greatly outsold the previous one, even with the relatively minor updates that were included in the iPhone 4S. However not everyone is predicting a massive outpouring of the Apple faithful to buy the phones.

Steve Baker at The NPD Group said earlier this week in a blog post that the market the latest phone is being introduced into is greatly different that the market of just one year ago. He points out that the market is maturing and so demand, no matter how great the product is, could be lessened by the slowing overall growth of the market. According to NPD in the second quarter of 2012 the smartphone space in the IS grew 9% with the bulk of the sales being in pre-paid devices.

One group watching the potential sales of the new iPhone will be app developers. Over the past year almost every major app that we have looked at came out first for the iPhone, and strong initial sales will ensure that will continue.

The ability to have the app developers’ focus first on Apple’s iOS and the iPhone is a big advantage in keeping sports fans interesting. MLB’s apps come out first on the iPhone and often second on the iPad tablet. Apple is facing increasingly stiff competition in the smartphone business from the Android platform, with Microsoft starting to try and heat things up with its operating system via partner Nokia and others.

According to Google, there are currently 1.3 million Android devices added every day, up from 700,00 daily at the end of last year. Android sales surpassed Apple’s iOS in 2010 and could with products like Samsung’s Galaxy S III selling 20 million in two weeks the pressure is not likely to abate any time soon.

However from the initial look at the iPhone 5 Apple has delivered a product that will keep the pressure on its rivals to innovate and continue advancing their own platforms and do so in a manner that is unique to them, and not imitative of Apple.

Filed Under: 4G LTE, Apple, Apps, AT&T, Facebook, Google, iOS, iPhone, Microsoft, Samsung, Smartphone, Tablets, Windows 8 Tagged With: , , ,

Intel Talks Gesture and Facial Recognition, Low Powered Chips at Developer Forum

September 11, 2012 by

IDF 2012

The Intel Developers Forum officially launched today, although its Labs group had a Day Zero event yesterday, and as expected the company rolled out low powered processors along with some other interesting technologies on stage.

David Perlmutter, Intel’s head of its architectural group gave the opening keynote and showed quite an array of interesting technologies, not all of them home grown, before rolling out the big processor news.

He showed Nuance Communication’s software for a voice recognition demonstration. The software offers the type of help features that are currently available in both Apple’s iPhones and on Android devoices. Nuance expects to ship the software next quarter.

A key technology that will probably interest the growing group of people that use their smartphones for banking and purchasing products was a demo with MasterCard that showed Intel’s security technology authenticating a credit card- it was used with an ultrabook but there is little doubt that the company will also be looking at tablets and other mobile devices in the future.

The company reiterated its previous statement that there are 20 tablets based on it’s Atom processor technology currently in development by its OEMs, but the first on-stage demo went a bit awry. Expect to get a good look at most of these when Microsoft officially rolls out Windows 8 next month.

Intel's David Perlmutter

The company demoed its next generation Core microprocessor, code-named Haswell that will be targeted at next generation ultrabooks and tablets. The 22nm processor is will feature integrated HD graphics support, new instructions for faster encryption and performance, new hardware-based security features and low-power processor sub-states to enable longer battery life.

Perlmutter showed it against the company’s current Ivy Bridge processor and it ran more efficiently at half power than Ivy Bridge did at full power. The processor is expected to appear in products sometime next year.

The starting of the keynote with voice recognition software was a pointer in the direction the company is headed with its partners. It has released a Perceptual Computing Software Development Kit, available next quarter, that will allow hardware and software developers to incorporate gesture, voice and facial recognition capabilities in future products.

Filed Under: Apps, Intel, Tablets Tagged With: ,

Mobile Sports Report TechWatch: Nokia Tablet and Kindle Tidbits

September 10, 2012 by

Intel has reported that softer than expected demand for PCs along with partners reducing inventory has

led the company to lower its revenue forecast for the third quarter. The company now expects third-quarter revenue to be $13.2 billion, plus or minus $300 million, compared to the previous expectation of $13.8 billion to $14.8 billion.

Google buys security firm Virus Total
Google has added another company to its portfolio with its acquisition of internet security firm Virus Total. Virus Total is a free service that analyzes files and URLs looking for worms, viruses and other types of malware.

The deal, for an undisclosed amount, will provide Google with another tool to help eliminate malware and other unwanted travelers in its Gmail and other programs.

Will iPhone 5 support 4G LTE?
One of the interesting rumors that have been making the rounds over the last few weeks is that if Apple introduces the iPhone 5 with 4G LTE support Samsung will instantly sue Apple. Apparently Samsung owns a great number of important patents in this area and believes it can use them to strike back at Apple.

Now the Wall Street Journal is reporting that the phones will indeed support LTE, but possibly not in every country. The lack of access to the new high speed networks would have placed Apple at a competitive disadvantage to rivals that already feature support.

Kindle Fire HD to use Bing as default search engine
Chalk one up for Microsoft which has landed its Bing browser on the just announced Kindle Fire HD tablets, replacing rival Google. Users do have the option to change the search engine, according to a piece in ars technical.

Speaking of the Kindle, it looks like there will be permanent ads on both the revamped older Kindle models as well as on the new line of Kindle Fire HD tablets. According to Mashable, Amazon will include its Special Offers and Sponsored Screensavers on the lock screen and lower left hand corner of the home screen.

Well that did not take long. An hour after I wrote the above paragraph I saw that Cnet is reporting that Amazon has backtracked and will now allow users to opt out of the ads, for a $15 fee. Great, maybe I will opt in to a Nexus 7 instead as well.

However all is not well as it looks like Amazon will be tracking Kindle users’ online behavior. According to Tech Crunch, Amazon will update its Silk browser to include a ’trending now’ feature that shows what web pages and issues are hot. For now it looks like there is an opt out ability.


Kickstarter projects have raised $347 million
We have not reported on much from Kickstarter lately, in part because it seems to be increasingly funding video games and projects that just don’t appeal to us. However they are appealing to someone as Forbes has reported that the crowd funding site has raised $347 million for projects. An interesting tidbit is that $274.5 million has been spent on US-based efforts, so there is still a huge growth opportunity internationally.

Nokia hints at a tablet in its future
During its Windows Phone 8 smartphone rollout last week it appears that the company’s executives hinted at the possibility that the company would enter the tablet business, according Fast Company. The company’s CEO, Stephen Elop said that with Nokia’s strength in the mobile space other aspects of that market present a real opportunity for it.

Filed Under: 4G LTE, Apple, Google, Intel, Mashable, Microsoft, Nokia, Smartphone, Startup, Windows 8 Tagged With: , , , ,

Amazon refreshes Kindle Fire as More Competition Looms

September 6, 2012 by

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Amazon has come back to the market with its second generation Kindle Fire as well as its lowered prices and enhanced the performance of existing Kindle models. Declaring that the company has decided to go big, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos took the stage today to introduce a pair of new Kindle Fire tablets called the Kindle Fire HD including an 8.9-inch device that caught many by surprise. There is also a 7-inch version.

The latest device appears to have something for everybody with enhanced e-mail that will appeal to business users, the ability to limit screen time that will make parents happy and a faster device and wireless capabilities that everyone will like.

The screen on the Kindle Fire HD has a 1920 x 1200 resolution and Amazon has eliminated the air gap in the new Laminated Touch Sensor display, a move that it said will eliminate glare by 25%. The tablet will be powered by a Texas Instruments 4470 OMAP processor.

The company has adopted a MIMO (multiple input-multiple output) dual antenna structure in the devices that help with providing a stronger, faster Wi-Fi signal, operating in the 5GHz band. A key advantages that even with the higher speeds it does not use additional battery power. Amazon said that this is 41% faster that the new iPad.

Additional hardware features a front facing camera and dual stereo speakers with Dolby Digital Plus. The storage will start at 16GB, with Amazon saying that 8GB, common in most rival offerings, just would not work with high definition.

There is a range of new software features including Whispersync for voice that enables you to listen to a book and then later start up reading where you were last listening. There is also a version for games so that you can continue on from where you stopped in a game.

For users that view movies on their tablets there is now a feature called X-Ray for Movies that was developed in a partnership with IMDB that allows you to freeze a scene and the app will tell you who is currently on screen. If needed it can go into a great deal of additional detail.

For the corporate user it has an enhanced e-mail that will enable a very tight integration with Microsoft Exchange. There is also a feature called Kindle FreeTime that lets you set screen time limits for kids with different settings for movies and reading.

The entry level price for the 7-inch Kindle Fire HD will be $199 while the 8.9-inch model will start at $299 and a 4G LTE version will have a $499 sticker price. The first model is expected in the next few weeks but the higher end models will not be available unit late November.

Another new offering from the company is its slim and light Kindle Paperwhite, a 7.5-ounch 9.1 mm thick e-reader that will include a front lit display with user changeable fonts and a higher resolution display. Its base price will be $119 while a 3G version will have a $179 price tag. The company reduced its Kindle from $199 to $159 with more memory and a faster processor, available on September 14.

The company first delivered the Kindle Fire last fall and it was one of the hottest products gifts of the holiday season, topping the sales charts at Amazon in its first weeks. However a bevy of competitors have darkened the sheen of the product. Amazon estimates that it now has 22% of the tablet market in the United States.

Barnes & Noble are fighting to get share with its Nook but the bigger competition has come from market leader Apple and its iPad lineup and newcomer Google with its Nexus 7 offering. In the near future we will see a host of tablets based on the two versions of Microsoft’s Windows 8 operating system

We are already seeing hardware OEM’s such as Lenovo, Acer, Asus and Hewlett-Packard release advance information about next generation tablets as well as new hardware developer Microsoft with its Surface platform. Intel claims that at least 20 tablets will be using its chips in future releases, and it is not the market leader in this space.

That is a reason why Apple’s and Samsung’s offerings cost significantly more; they are looking for profits off of their hardware. Amazon’s Bezos talked about how customers want services not gadgets and that hardware is a service. He noted that most of its rivals in the tablet space have failed because they do not realize this. He said that Amazon does not expect to make money from its hardware but from the content it sells. Despite this he claims that it is not a razor/razor blade situation. However there are dangers to this approach as pointed out here at CNBC.

Amazon has really raised the bar on features and performance with the Kindle Fire HD and it will be very interesting to see how the competition reacts. With Apple’s new iPad expected soon, it will probably be the first to face a drect comparison, followed by the Windows 8 tablets.

Filed Under: 4G LTE, Android, Apple, Apps, Asus, Barnes & Noble, Dell, Google, Intel, iOS, iPad, Kindle, Lenovo, Microsoft, Nook, Samsung, Surface, Tablets, Windows 8 Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Friday Grab Bag: Replacement Refs Make the Cut, Apple/Motorola Bury the Ax, Sort of

August 31, 2012 by

ESPN pays out $5.6 billion for MLB broadcast rights
ESPN will remain the broadcaster of choice for Major League Baseball for Sunday, Monday and Wednesday night baseball as the broadcast giant has inked a new deal with the league for $5.6 bn according to the Sports Business Journal.

The eight year deal will work out to be approximately $700 million per annum, more than double the current deal. Other broadcast rights are still in the process of being bid and baseball may have many windfall years ahead. I wonder what this will do to the luxury tax in the league, although I am sure that it is already covered in the CBA.

Microsoft offers SkyDrive for Android
Although it sounds vaguely like the plot for Terminator 4, it is simply Microsoft offering its SkyDrive cloud storage service as an app for Android users and they can go over to the Google Play store and pick it up. While it can run on early versions of the Android operating system it is optimized for version 4.0.

Apple’s win a loss for standard-essential patents?
While I write a good deal about patent issues due to the seemingly constant state of litigation that is ongoing in the mobile and handheld space, I am far from an expert on the topic, and do not pretend to be so. An interesting look at some of the after affects from Apple’s win over Microsoft can be found at this piece from Reuters.

An interesting conclusion I gain from the piece is that the host of patents that Google gained in the Motorola purchase may not have quite the value that the company believed that it would have, and that could make the deal a lot less valuable than previously believed.

ESPN’s top college football markets
Ever wonder why a game is on and how well it did in terms of viewership? Well ESPN did not release all of its market data but it has provided a look at the top 25 markets, but from last year and going back 12 years.

There is a lot of interesting data in there, mined quite well to show you the shifting interest in teams , regions and leagues. The only two areas that stayed in the top 5 over the entire span were Birmingham and Columbus, Ohio.

Motorola and Apple bury the ax in Ge

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Peace at last? That is probably too much to ask but at least one bone of contention between the two has been buried as Motorola Mobility and Apple have agreed on a FRAND licenses in Germany. An earlier attempt had failed when Motorola asked for 2.25% revenue rate.

Apple called the deal “fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory” and will call for Apple to pay Motorola an unspecified sum for all previous use of Motorola technology, Foss Patents reports. It also said that the deal is probably a result of the ruling in the Apple/Samsung case.

Images of next generation Sony tablet leaked
As the release date for Windows 8 nears more news about the hardware developers plans appear to be leaking out, intentionally or unintentionally. Sony is the latest with a very interesting looking tablet called the VAIO Duo 11.

Sony’s efforts in the tablet space have been met with less than open arms but the image shows a tablet that has a built-in, fold out keyboard in a sharp looking industrial design. The tablet appears to be running Microsoft Office, meaning that it uses an Intel or AMD processor.

NFL Replacement Refs to start season
Well one group made it through the pre-season without getting the chop and that is the NFL’s replacement reps. Not happy with this since I am pretty sure I saw a couple of 17 yard penalties marched off last week.

I suspect that no matter how well they actually do, fans for half of the teams will be blaming the refs on everything from their teams’ loss to costing them in the points category in their Fantasy Football league. I wonder how long this will go on or will the NFL change its mind in less than a week?

Samsung shows five pending Windows 8 phones
Samsung took the floor at the IAF trade show in Berlin and backed the truck up with a wide range of new and future devices including the Galaxy Note II, hybrid PCs and a new high end camera. It also previewed five smartphones that will be using Microsoft’s Windows 8 operating system.

The devices, with info on them here from Gizmag, will all carry the brand name ATIV as the company appears ready to use that moniker to cover aa wide range of next generation devices including PCs and phones. The official launch of Windows 8 is in late October and expect to see more details from all of the players adopting Microsoft’s Windows 8 for a variety of products.

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Filed Under: Android, Apple, ESPN, Google, Intel, Microsoft, NFL, Samsung Tagged With: , , , ,
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