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Mobile Sports Report TechWatch: Google I/O This Week

June 25, 2012 by Paul Kapustka

Google’s Goggle I/O show is this week so expect to hear an onslaught of news from the company and its partners on all things related to Android, smartphones, tablets, Chrome and most likely a host of other issues that they are concerned with.

The show will be held from June 27 to June 29 at San Francisco’s Moscone Convention Center and most of the keynote sessions will be live streamed for those of you that are interested but don’t want to endure the cold of an SF summer. (editor’s note: 75 degrees here today, Oregon boy.)

One message I would like to hear is how it will deal with the growing fragmentation of its Android operating system. It seems that most of the major manufacturers are only now coming on board with Ice Cream Sandwich, and a new OS is expected this week.

The issue is important for a number of reasons but a major one is that continued fragmentation could lead to developers only focusing on Apple’s iOS and even Windows 8 when that OS is available.

Intel invests in touchscreen developer
Intel Capital was the lead investor in a EUR20 million investment funding round for touchscreen technology developer FlatFrog Laboratories. Invus was also an investor in the round. FlatFrog is developing technology that tracks light traveling inside the cover glass of a screen.

Apple dealt a setback in battle with Motorola
Judge Richard Posner, who is presiding over one of the major patent disputes between Apple and Motorola, has ruled that Apple cannot pursue an injunction against Motorola and has dismissed the case with prejudice.

Posner had previously indicated that this was the direction he was leaning in but relented to allow testimony from both sides of the case last week. Apple does have the option to appeal his ruling.

Apple moving ahead in Samsung patent suit
While losing an important round to Motorola, Apple is continuing to push ahead with its Samsung lawsuit and will have its request to have a court order blocking sales of Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 heard this week.

The judge in the case has also said that she hopes to rule on Apple’s bid to block sales of Samsung’s Galaxy Nexus smartphone at the June 29th hearing.

Microsoft says no to Motorola patent proposal payout
Microsoft has declined to accept the offer that Motorola made that would settle the patent dispute between the two companies that has threatened Microsoft’s ability to ship Xbox 360 consoles into the US and would bar some Android phones from Motorola as well.

Motorola was offering to pay 33 cents per phone that uses Microsoft’s ActiveSync software and wants Microsoft to pay it 50 cents for each device that uses Microsoft’s Windows operating system that uses Motorola’s industry standard video compression patent.

Mobile Carriers agree to alert travelers on roaming charges
Have you ever traveled in a foreign country and used your smartphone and had a slight heart attack when you got your bill at home with the huge roaming charges attached? Now carriers are going to do something about that.

What they are doing is to send you a message alerting you to the fact that your data plan has changed and new rates will apply. Among the 24 that have signed on are AT&T, China Mobile, China Unicom, Deutsche Telekom, France Telecom-Orange, Hutchison 3 Group, SoftBank Mobile Corp., Verizon Communications, America Movil, and Vodafone Group.

Apple fined over 4G claims
An Australian court has fined Apple $2.27 million over its claims for its iPad that included unsupported promises of 4G support. After the charges were brought Apple changed its advertising and offered refunds. Apple now touts the device as WiFi+ Cellular.

Filed Under: 4G LTE, Android, Apple, Apps, AT&T, Google, Intel Capital, Lawsuit, Microsoft, Motorola, Samsung, Smartphone, Tablets Tagged With: Apple, Microsoft, Motorola Mobility

Friday Grab Bag: X Games Coming, Soccer Corruption in China, Bike Lojack

June 22, 2012 by Paul Kapustka

ESPN’s annual summer X Games will begin next week on June 28 and run until July 1. Fans and athletes will descend on Los Angles for the events that will start with the X Fest that runs from noon until 7 pm on the opening day.

ESPN will be spreading the 21 hours of live broadcasting, both on-air and online, between a number of its properties: ESPN, ESPN2, and ABC will have the on-air duties with HD handled by ESPN 3D. For online, the games will also be digitally streamed on XGames.com and WatchESPN.com.

Intel buys InterDigital patent portfolio
Intel has reached an agreement to purchase approximately 1,700 patents and applications from wireless technology developer InterDigital for $375 million. The patents primarily are in the areas of 3G, LTE and 802.11 technologies.

Intel said that the move will be a benefit to its development efforts in the mobile segment, and the unspoken part of the deal is that it will no doubt provide ammunition in the ongoing legal spats over patents that are common in the mobile space as well.

Vungle creates App Fund for developers
Vungle, a startup that seeks to provide a variety of advertising and promotional avenues aside from the traditional pop-up ads has moved to draw more players to its platform. In a very interesting turn the company, which just closed a $2 million venture round last month will use half of that money and create a fund for other developers.

The purpose of the move, according to TechCrunch, is to lure developers to its platform and so gain a boost for its approach to alternative advertising for mobile apps. It will be interesting to see how this works out.

Corruption in Chinese soccer — who knew?
The New Yorker, where I often go for my sporting news, had an interesting piece on corruption in the world of Chinese soccer. League executives, players and refs have all been hauled away and imprisoned due to an apparent widespread match fixing epidemic.

It seems that it has been ongoing for several years and that one top referee received $128,000 to fix seven matches. The country, which is seeking to win the rights to host the World Cup in the future, is cracking down to show that it will not tolerate this type of blatant corruption. What impact that will have on FIFA I am not sure.

Apple and Motorola get chance to push claims
The Apple vs Motorola litigants had the opportunity to speak their piece to US Circuit Court Judge Richard Posner. Apple apparently does not want Motorola to pay royalties but wants it to change its design and also claims that since Motorola’s patent is never used it has no value. Motorola obviously does not agree with either position.

Oracle taking Google lawsuit to next level
Oracle has agreed to accept zero damages for the copyright infringement claims that it ‘won’ in its case versus Google over Java technology. Oracle had been seeking big money in the case, claiming that it suffered up to $6 billion in loses.

However this is not the end of the affair. Oracle has said it will appeal its claims in the case once again, including both the patent infringement and whether its APIs can be copyrighted, to the Ninth Circuit appeals court.

Amazon App Store goes International
I have to say that I was surprised when I read that Amazon had not really extended its App Store to other countries and that it was primarily focused on the US market, a short sighted deal since one of its top developers of Android running devices Samsung is so strong internationally.

But anyway that looks to be a thing of the past as the company has now started opening it up and now developers in the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy and Spain can release games and apps designed specifically for those markets and the company has promised that more nations will be opened up to the joys of apps in the near futire, according to Cnet.

Ever had your bike stolen? SpyBike GPS could track the next one
SpyBike is a product developed by Integrated Trackers that is designed to look like a normal headset cap. It is designed to be activated when the bike is locked and you use a simply arming key and if the bike is moved it starts sending out data via a GPRS message and uses GPS to locate the bike. If GPS fails it has a fall back technology to help locate it.

The device does not come cheap, at $153 as well as a per message charge. The company said that it costs a fraction of a penny per message, but that varies by country. It features a rechargeable battery that can hold a charge of months.

Microsoft is on a roll, but is it a good one?
PC Mag is reporting that the company only gave some of its top OEMs a few days notice prior to announcing its Surface tablet platform earlier this week. As a number of them have made a major investment in developing for the underlying operating system, Windows 8, this seems a bit shortsighted.

Then later in the week it talks about its Windows 8 for smartphones and reveals that customers that buy the current family of smartphones will not be supported by Windows 8. I am sure that cheers up Nokia which has made a major investment in promoting Windows Phone technology.

Filed Under: ABC, Amazon, Android, Apps, Dell, ESPN, ESPN3, FIFA, Intel, Lawsuit, Microsoft, Motorola, Oracle, Smartphone, Soccer, Surface, WatchESPN, Windows 8, X Games Tagged With: Apple, ESPN, Microsof, Motorola, Vungle

New Windows 8 Tablets from Acer and Asus Just the Start

June 11, 2012 by Paul Kapustka

Windows 8 got a boost at the Computex trade show last week in Taipei when it was talked up by a number of hardware developers ranging from tablet developers to microprocessor purveyors, creating some momentum prior to the release of the operating system.

As we noted last week Intel took the bull by the horns and talked about how 20 of its OEMs have tablets in development using its Atom Z2760 processor family as the company seeks to establish itself as a player in the tablet market.

But some of the Windows hardware developers were a good deal more specific about what they had in development, specifically Acer and Asus, both of which have been working hard in the Android spac to establish themselves as tablet developers and now look to Microsoft for a boost.

Acer is developing a pair of tablets for the market, and will use the letter “W” to indicate that the products are for Windows. The two are the Iconia Tab W510 and the Iconia Tab W700. The 10.1-inch W510 is a hybrid design that can be used as a touch screen and docked with a keyboard.

The Iconia Tab W700 has an 11.6-inch display with 1920 x 1080 pixels and will also include a docking station like the W510. It has the ability to display at a 70 degree angle, much greater than is commonly found in tablets. Both will use Intel processors, although the exact one was not revealed. The W510 is expected top be the workhorse while the W700 is the high end offring in the family.

Asustek has also come to the table last week with the Asus Tablet 600, but it will not be sporting Intel, using an Nvidia Tegra 3 processor. The 10-inch tablet will be using a version of Windows called Windows RT. The basic specs are that it will have 2GB of RAM, a 32GB storage capacity and Office 15 software.

Filed Under: Android, Apps, Asus, Dell, Intel, Lenovo, Microsoft, Tablets, Windows 8 Tagged With: Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, Tablet

Mobile Sports Report TechWatch: Judge Kills Patent Suit- Wave of the Future?

June 11, 2012 by Paul Kapustka

One of the many patent lawsuits from around the globe has been canceled by the presiding judge, although this may not end the case. In an Apple/Google lawsuit Judge Richard Posner has entered a tentative order dismissing the case because he believes that neither party can establish relief.

According to Foss Patents, which had previously speculated that this might occur, this is more likely a bigger setback to Google, but that it will take future court cases to see if that is true. One of the more interesting aspects of this ruling is the esteem with which Judge Posner is held in legal circles and his apparent disgust with the two companies and the patent system. I wonder if this is a trend that will continue going forward as judges try to clear up the huge logjam of patent cases?

Android not ready for quad core?
It appears Intel is complaining about the poor performance of the Android operating system when used on devices that feature quad core processors, according to the Android Guys. It seems that the guys at Intel are not so much complaining about the OS but rather the chips that it runs on in the smartphones.

It should be noted of course that virtually all of those chips are made by rivals, and that Intel is just now selling its processors t developers that create smartphones. In addition Intel does not currently offer a quad core in this space.

Will Windows Phone win out?
A recent study by market research firm IDC predicts the demise of the Android phone and the ascendency of the Windows Phone by 2016. The report predicts that Android phones will still be the dominate operating system over tge next 5 years but that its market share will peak this year.

Apple’s iOS operating system is expected to continue to grow, albeit at a slower rate than in the past. The winner over the next five years will be Microsoft’s Windows 7 operating system, which it claims will gain a 16% market share over the next few years.

Not everybody is on board with this bold prediction however, and a number of pieces have been published questioning the predictions. One that took the time to examine past IDC predictions with the subsequent results was run in The Street.

RIM kills one model of BlackBerry PlayBook
Research in Motion has killed its 16GB BlackBerry PlayBook tablet as the mobile device developer continues to find footing in the new market for connected devices. The company said that while it remains committed to the market overall it would discontinue the 16GB version but would continue to ship the 32GB and 64GB versions. A new generation of tablets is expected from RIM later this year.

Adding insult to injury in Oracle/Google case
A judge has ordered Oracle to pay Google’s legal fees after the outcome of Oracle’s patent and copyright suit against the search giant did not go its way. Apparently Judge William Alsup had told Oracle that if it brought the case to court (it had failed twice before) that it would have to pay Google’s expenses, which apparently ran to $300,000.

Facebook’s app center opens
Facebook has officially opened its App Center and already has 600 apps available for Facebook users. The center is operating system agnostic and so there are apps for Android, iOS and others available. The purpose of the center is to encourage app developers to create programs that use Facebook as its front end, helping it in the mobile space.

Motorola, others violate RF patent?
EETimes is reporting that the International Trade Commission is investigating the use of select RF chips by Motorola Mobility, HTC Corp. and RF Micro Devices. The complaint was brought by Peregrine Semiconductor that claims that chips used by the companies violated its patents.

Mobile Apps in New York this month
If you happen to be in New York City and are interested in mobile technology, specifically mobile apps, then the Mobile App Showdown might be right up your alley. The two day showcase starts the 25th but if you want to vote online for the best app you can go online on June 15th and cast your vote. It should be interesting t see what direction the voting takes.

LinkedIn stops collecting calendar data
It appears that one of the fallouts from LinkedIn’s security breach that led to the loss of 6.5 million passwords was the revelation that the professional networking site had been surreptitiously collecting data from the private calendars of its members, at least iPad and iPhone users. The company has now said that it will discontinue that practice.

Asus PadFone hits the States
It looks like the Asus PadFone, a mobile device that combines a smartphone with a tablet to make a platform that can be used as a single product or separated into two distinct devices has finally made it to the US.

Filed Under: Amazon, Android, Apple, Apps, Asus, Facebook, FTC, Google, Research in Morion, Smartphone, Tablets Tagged With: Apple, Facebook, Google, LinkedIn

Friday Grab Bag: Replacement Refs, Sports Conspiracy and Windows 8 Coming

June 8, 2012 by Paul Kapustka

NFL’s contract talks with refs breaks down
The week started off with some bad news as it appears that the NFL and its referee’s union have not been able to come to a meeting of the minds in regards to the next contract for the refs. The most current one expired on May 31.

The two sides apparently met with a mediator to try and reach an agreement but that has not panned out and according to ESPN the talks have completely broken down. The league is now actively looking for replacement officials and will seek former officials and ones from smaller collegiate leagues but it is reported that it does not plan to raid BCS officials.

Apparently the NFL’s decision to hire backup refs does not sit well with the NFL Players Association, which has derided the hiring of ‘scab’ officials. Who would have guessed that these two would not get along.

Two trade associations seek to represent crowdfunders
You knew this was coming due to the growth of the number of crowd funding sites and the still undefined role that they play in providing funding for startups looking for a cash infusion. Now there are two lobbying groups vying for the crowd funding sites support.

The two are the National Crowdfunding Association and the Crowdfunding Professional Association both want to be the force for these companies in Washington D.C. This is still in its infancy since neither has yet hired a staff or leased offices, but you know it is coming.

Apple publishes guide on iOS security
With the growing concern about data security, especially on mobile devices Apple has moved to try and ease the concern about data on devices that run its iOS operating system by publishing a guide to how it implements security. Macnn has a nice breakdown here.

Window app numbers continue strong growth
The number of apps submitted to Microsoft’s Windows Phone Marketplace has now topped 100,000, double what it was just five months ago, according to a piece in Endgaget. For those of you scoring at home this is slower that Apple’s App Store but faster than the Android Marketplace.

One of the big differentiators between the rival Apple and Android apps has so far seemed to be that the Android apps are too often one size fits all, good for tablets and smartphones while for Apple there tends to be a clear differentiation. I wonder how this is panning out for Windows and will we see most of these apps available, unchanged, for Windows 8 tablets?

NFL concussion lawsuits consolidated
A large number of the many lawsuits now pending in a number of courts across the United States have been consolidated into a master complaint against the league. In all it looks like approximately 80 cases have been brought together in this effort.

The suits contend that the NFL both glorified violence and downplayed the damage that concussions had on players. The NFL contends that it always has the players safety at heart, well that and an 18 game season.
Windows 8 in two weeks?

Microsoft is reportedly going to make pubic a preview of Windows 8 on June 20th, according to a report in Digital Trends. The move will make it an interesting month for operating system fans since Apple’s World Wide Developer Conference is next week and should have some interesting updates while Google’s Google I/O event is at the end of the month.

The Windows Phone 8 preview is expected to happen at a Microsoft event called the Windows Phone Summit, billed as a sneak peak of the future of the Windows Phone.

The Greatest sports conspiracy story ever told
For years I have heard that the 1985 NBA draft was rigged so that Patrick Ewing would go to New York. Never paid any attention to that, and for that matter really do not to this day. But Patrick Hruby goes to town on the issue and a host of others in the piece “The Truth is out there: From the 1985 NBA Draft Lottery to the Olympics to Game-Fixing…”

It s all here, frozen envelopes, mafia controlling NFL games, IRS and FBI documents carefully redacted and so much more. I enjoyed it a great deal, but was not sure if it was one long rant or a very clever tongue in cheek piece. Bonus conspiracy flow chart here.

YouTube to broadcast Olympics
We have long talked about how YouTube can position itself as an almost independent sports network and now it looks like it is taking that next step. The site will be providing live webcasts of the upcoming London Summer Olympics to viewers in Asia and Africa.

The plan is to provide ten channels that will feature high definition video of a variety of events including the medal finals of all 32 sports. In all it will broadcast a total of 2,200 hours.

FTC claims import ban on Microsoft& Apple could hurt competition
The Federal Trade Commission has said that Google’s efforts to ban Xbox imports by Microsoft and Motorola/Google’s efforts to stifle Apple’s iPhone sales based on patents that Google owns and claims the two have violated could harm competition. It will be noteworthy if the FTC puts some muscle behind this comment as it does appear that patent lawsuits are going to stifle both competition but also innovation

Filed Under: Android, Apple, BCS, FTC, Google, Microsoft, NBA, NFL, Olympics, Startup, Windows 8, YouTube Tagged With: Apple, Microsoft, NBA, NFL

Intel Predicts a Wave of Windows 8 Tablets with Intel Inside

June 7, 2012 by Paul Kapustka

Intel started talking about a potential major move in the tablet space at January’s Consumer Electronics Show when CEO Paul Otellini took the stage for his keynote, but most of the hype that day was centered around its ultrabook slim form notebooks.

Now fast forward several months and a half a world away and the company is making some bold pronouncements in the tablet space at the Computex show in Taipei and the center of attention is on tablets, specifically ones powered by Intel’s Atom Z2760 chips that were formerly code-named Clover Trail.

According to IDG, Intel said that its OEM partners have a total of 20 tablets in the labs and in various stages of completion that are based on its processor. The big beneficiary of this, aside from Intel of course, appears to be Microsoft and its forthcoming Windows 8 operating systems that is expected sometime in the fall. Intel has had other offerings in this space but they have been a non-factor so far.

Acceptance of these tablets will be important for Intel because Windows 8 will also be designed to run on ARM-based processors and these chips now dominate the non-Apple side of the tablet market. There is expected to be compatibility issues with older Windows apps on ARM, however.

Next week we will deliver a wrap up of the tablets that were unveiled at the show this week and it looks like there are some interesting ones including hybrids, ones for Android and some of the first Windows 8 offerings.

Filed Under: Android, Apps, Intel, Microsoft, Tablets, Windows 8 Tagged With: Intel, Microsoft, Tablets