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Will Google’s Android Issues Benefit Windows 8?

April 18, 2012 by

The just started Oracle vs Google legal battle has been billed by one observer as “The World Series” of IP lawsuits and while I know that many do not pay much attention to the legal battles between tech giants, this one could have a very direct impact on any user of an Android device and possible app developers as well. On the flip side other rivals may prosper.

The reason goes to the crux of the lawsuit, which claims that Google knowingly and willingly used a variety of patents and technologies that belong to Oracle, all of the them related to the Java language that it purchased from Sun.

So far the trial, which is being covered pretty closely by many in the tech world due to its potential major impact on Android, has been very interesting. With what looks to be damming internal e-mails from inside Google hurting its chances to Oracle’s CEO Larry Ellison admitting that he does not know if the charge for Java helping Google, I am sure it will continue to be interesting. In some cases Java is free while in others a license is required. Who is correct? Who knows?

Oracle wants billions in damages and Google is simply seeking to not get a permanent injunction against its using the technology in question. That could shut down Android for a while as they either work out a deal or Google develops a work around. This would have the potential to killing, in the near term, Android tablet developers that are still trying to establish themselves and on the flip side has the potential to be a major boost for Microsoft and its partner son the Windows Phone side, so stay tuned.

Filed Under: Android, Apps, Google, Lawsuit, Microsoft Tagged With: , , ,

Mobile Sports Report TechWatch: Preliminary Windows 8 Tablet Specs

April 16, 2012 by

Intel takes wraps off of Windows 8 tablet specs
Intel has showed the expected features and capabilities of the Windows 8 tablets at its Developer Forum in Beijing last week, a nugget that was dug up by Cnet. Not surprising is the chip powering these next generation devices will be Intel’s Z2760 ‘Clover Trail’ processor.

The chip is a multithreaded dual core processor with a feature called ‘burst mode’ that enables it to accelerate performance for short periods of time. There will be two basic designs, one a 10-inch model and the second a slightly larger 11-inch that will feature a keyboard.

It will have an estimated 9-hour battery life, support 3G/4G and also have NFC (near field communications) and Wi-Fi Direct. Its weight will be roughly 1.5 pounds and it s expected to be 9 mm thick. A second half 2012 release date is expected for the tablets based on the specs, but that is based on Microsoft releasing Windows 8 in that time frame.

Expect a wave of tablets of all size in next few months
A host of tablet manufacturers have tablets in the pipeline and they will start appearing on shelves very shortly, according to multiple reports. Samsung, Nokia, and even possibly Apple have products that should be are nearing the market.

The Asus Transformer Pad 300 is expected to hit the streets next week with a 4G LTE supporting pad that is expected to have a $399 price tag for a 32GB model. Amazon reportedly has three Kindle Fire models on the designing board including a 8.9-inch one.

Then there is the long awaited Google Nexus Tablet that has been rumored for some time and s expected to be built by Asus. It is believed to be a 7-inch tablet that will have a $199 starting price point. For more information on these and others including Nokia, Apple and Samsung’s potential offerings head over to the International Business Times site.

Apple loses appeal on ‘push’ email
Chalk one up for Motorola Mobility as a German court has upheld a ban that prevents Apple from using ‘push’ email in its iCloud and MobileMe service in Germany. The court, based in Mannheim, confirmed that Motorola owns the patent and that Apple must pay to use it.

The ruling keeps the services shut down in Germany and Apple is liable for damages and has been ordered to provide information that will enable the courts to determine the amount of the damage.

A look at how the current patent wars are hurting the market
A nice, general piece on the growing problem of patent conflicts and how it has erupted into major warfare. The rise of patent trolls, including corporate ones and how companies now go out and buy patents simply for protection. Nothing groundbreaking but nice to see that the issue is making more news.

On the same topic the fact that most of the patents in the smartphone area are held by international companies could stunt the growth of home grown developers in China, the world’s largest smartphone market.

Local handset manufacturers sold 455 million units last year but have been warned that they may be violating copyright laws with their devices. The news came from The Mobile Terminal White Paper, issued by the China Academy of Telecommunication Research.

Twitter tried to buy Instagram first
I did not hear about this when the huge deal went down with Facebook but apparently there was more than one company lining up for the photo sharing company. Seems that Twitter co-founder and Chairman Jack Dorsey had tried in the past to purchase the company, but failed to get any real traction on a deal.

However, since Dorsey was one of the investors in Instagram, he will be seeing a pretty penny from the deal. For a nice look at Instagram head over to the NY Times for this piece.

Pew study highlights technology rift
A recent study by the Pew Research Center shows how much of a gap still exists between have’s and have not’s in terms of technology. While a full 19% of Americans now have some form of tablet, be it a fully loaded Apple iPad or a bare bones Barnes & Noble Nook, a greater percentage, 22% do not even have Internet access.

The report is focused on digital access in this country and provides some great snapshots of who uses which technologies including cell phones and laptops as well as tablets, and that is broken down by a variety of demographics.

It is interesting to see that a fairly large number of adults that do not have Internet access do so because they believe that it adds nothing to their lives. Also the rise of mobile Internet access has helped level the playing field in areas that had traditionally lagged n terms of access and use.

Filed Under: 4G LTE, Android, Apple, Apps, Asus, Barnes & Noble, Facebook, Google, iPad, iPhone, Kindle, Lawsuit, Motorola, Samsung, Smartphone, Social Media, Tablets, The New York Times Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Friday Grab Bag: Who gets Hard Knocks and Tablet Sales Soaring

April 13, 2012 by

Nike’s push to establish its FuelBand, a rubber wrist band that it is seeking to establish as a standard piece of wearable sports technology continues to move forward as the APIs for the device have been given to developers, according to an article in PSFK.

The FuelBandAPI will enable developers to create a range of applications that reach from a user’s iPhone out to the FuelBand and back, not only for sports related apps but also ones that could provide access to music and other iPhone features.

Are four cores twice as good as two?
Have you ever wondered what the difference between a dual core processor and a quad core processor, aside from the very obvious in terms of number of cores? Well Cnet’s Jessica Dolcourt has taken the time to break down the issues and lay them out in a piece entitled 7 Myths about quad-core phones.

She looks into issues such as app development, impact on battery life and top down development of the cores, all with interviews with developers to fill in the gaps. After reading this you might not rush out and buy the first quad-core smartphone on the market

“Hard Knocks” heading to Atlanta?
ESPN is reporting that HBO has asked the Atlanta Falcons to be the subject of this year’s “Hard Knocks” a series that follows one NFL team throughout its entire preseason training camp. There have also been stories that the Jets management wanted the program again while the team’s coach did not.

And speaking of pro football don’t forget that it is just a mere two weeks until the annual draft. Get ready now to ridicule either a) your team, b) the sports channel you watch the event, c) one specific draft expert or d) all of the above.


Intel to push tablets in education
Intel has delivered Studybook, a ruggedized tablet for the education market that is part of the company’s Intel Learning Series family and will come with a range of software designed specifically for the education space.

The tablet features a range of education software including the Intel Learning Series software suite for both students and teachers. The tablet can also serve as an ereader and has an estimated 5.5 hour battery life.

It is powered by an Intel Atom Z650 processor and features 1GB DDR memory, a choice of 4GB, 8GB, 16GB or 32GB storage, a 7-inch 1024 x 600 resolution multitouch display, with optional front and rear cameras. Intel will license the reference design to company’s working in the education space and the tablets can run either Android or Windows tablet operating systems.

Tablets sales soaring-Apple leads the way
A recent report from market researcher Gartner Group shows strong growth in tablets from last year to this, from 60 million units to an estimated 118 million, and it shows that Apple’s iPad, not surprising, leads the way.

Gartner estimated that Apple sold roughly 40 million last year and will account for 73 million, or 61.4% of all tablet sales this year. By 2016 Apple is estimated to still be the market leader, but Android is expected to make a strong push into a very solid #2 position.

Microsoft’s forthcoming tablet OS and accompanying hardware partners will see it gain a very distant third by 2016, with estimated sales of 43 million, or slightly better than what Apple did last year. Head over to look at the charts here.

MLB.TV Blackout Rules in need of a revamp?
While we here at MSR are pretty big fans of MLB’s wide variety of tools and apps that allow access at some level to baseball, one that has always been an issue is its blackout rules for MLB.TV, which seem more than a bit arbitrary.

A post by Chad Moriyama recently brought home a major flaw in the program. He was informed that the newly revised blackout rules would not only block Dodgers and Giant games, but all West Coast teams as well as some others for a total of nine teams, including games in Texas.

So you might wonder if he lives in some wonderful central location that enables him to easily drive a wide variety of parks, possible the Springfield that the Simpsons live in. No, he lives in Hawaii, 3,000 miles from a Dodgers game.

If Internet Commentators were around then…
The Sports Pickle has really hit it on the head about Internet commenting, not just on sports but on pretty much anything these days. I always seems that you cannot get 10 posts before one is a troll, and trolls attract more trolls.

Even so this recreation of what comments would look like for four famous events- The Steelers Immaculate Reception, US beats USSR in Olympics hockey, Frazier beats Ali and Lou Gerhig’s farewell at Yankee Stadium are all spot on.

How many smartphones?
Analyst estimates are always to be taken with a grain of salt, at a bare minimum, but no matter which estimation you believe smartphone sales are continuing to grow at a very fast pace. Credit Suisse is predicting that sales will grow 46%, to 687.9 million units this year. It estimates 1 billon sold in 2014.

Gartner has estimates that last year all forms of mobile phones reached a total of 1.8 billion units. Then there is Cisco, which has forecast that by 2016 there will be 1.4 smartphones for every person on the planet. Head over to Mashable to look at all of the numbers. I imagine that half of them will be lost in the back of a cab.

Filed Under: Android, Apple, Apps, Baseball, Humor, iPad, iPhone, Major League Baseball, Mashable, NFL, Tablets Tagged With: , ,

U.S. Justice Department Charges Apple, 5 Publishers with Price Fixing

April 11, 2012 by

High flying Apple, whose market value recently topped $600 billion, has been hit by charges from the United States Justice Department alleging that Apple and five publishing partners have engaged in price fixing.

The charges allege that Apple and five publishers: Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins, Hachette, Penguin Group (USA), and Macmillan conspired to end competition on ebooks and set a higher price, with Apple being guaranteed a 30% commission on each sale.

The deal was reached in 2010 the reports said, right when Apple introduced the iPad and was aimed at Amazon and was intended to limit Amazon’s ability to discount ebooks, which it was then selling at $9.99 for new and recently released offerings.

According to a report in the Wall Street Journal three of the publishers have already reached an accord with the Justice Department and have said that they will terminate any such agreement with Apple. Those are Hachett, Simon & Schuster and HarperCollins.

The overall outcome of this will be interesting to see. In the past the Justice Department has gone after some other major players in hi-tech, notably IBM and Microsoft, and has won its cases. Apple has been increasingly litigious in recent years but this is a much bigger foe than someone such as Samsung or Motorola Mobility.

However when you ask people about what Apple does, very few would mention that it makes a competitive e-reader. In fact some may not know that is a very valuable use of the iPad, showing that this is not really a major market for its products.

So why not settle? It has been reported that three of the publishers already have, but also that Apple has been fighting the charges. I suspect that in the long run Apple will find that it is cheaper simply to tag along on the settlements negotiated by its former partners.

Filed Under: Amazon, Apple, Apps, iPad, Kindle, Lawsuit, Motorola, Samsung, Tablets, Top News, Wall Street Journal Tagged With: ,

Mobile Sports Report TechWatch: Padfone Tablet Near?

April 9, 2012 by

Microsoft obviously realizes two major hurdles exist in front of its push to get its Windows Phone to become an established, viable player in the smartphone space. It is way behind in the app space, and it needs apps to succeed.

So it is doing what you would expect from a company that has the vast resources of Microsoft, it is launching a variety of efforts to get developers to commit to creating apps for the platform, including paying them for the work, according to The New York Times.

The software company has a number of incentives that range from funding the development of apps, prime placement in its app store, free equipment and others. The company has also established a major app development effort with Nokia.

Problems pile up for Motorola- could this kill the merger?
First off it is investigating Motorola Mobility in two separate for using legal injunctions against Apple and Microsoft to gain an edge in the market. This investigation is rooted in complaints that both companies filed against Motorola.

Part of the question that the EU will look at is did Motorola break promises with standards setting organizations and if it offered unfair licensing conditions for its standard-essential patents. Fines for this violation can be substantial.

Then there is an apparent demand for $4 billion dollars annually as royalty payments made by Motorola to Microsoft to use its patents in the Xbox that is being heard in a US court. Microsoft is retaliating by asking a judge to block the importation of Motorola phones due to patent violations.

The net result of these and China’s delaying in giving regulatory approval to the deal is that Motorola investors are getting nervous, according to the Business Insider. Shares have been dropping in the past weeks due to the delays. However in a note on Google’s Investor Page, CEO Larry Page has a long note that mentions the Motorola deal in very positive terms and that he has great expectations for the deal.

Asus taking Padfone preorders
Asus is now taking orders for its hybrid table called the Padfone. The device has two main components. The first is smartphone that is powered by a a Snapdragon S4 dual core 1.5GHz processor running the latest version of the Android operating system, v. 4.0

Then there is a 10-inch tablet that has a docking bay for the phone, with the phones processor running the tablet. I will be very interested to see how this works because a user could then leverage their cell phone data plan on the tablet, and so not need two plans. Pricing and delivery date have not yet been announced although it is expected later this month.

Samsung’s Galaxy Notes hits 5 million in sales
When I saw the Galaxy Note at CES I was sure it would not be a winner. It was kind of a jackalope, neither a phone nor a tablet, and too big for one purpose and too small for the other IMHO. This wisdom is why I am not rich. The company, which had a record breaking quarter, sold 5 million of the devices.

Now some might point out that Apple sold 3 million of its new iPads in just three days, and that is all good and true. But this is not the only arrow in Samsung’s quiver, and the company has a range of tablets, and smartphones available. Its creative thinking looks to make it a true force to be dealt with in both market segments.

Tablet and smartphone owners multitask with TV
One of the latest news reports from Nielsen shows that globally 88% of tablet owners and 86% of smartphone owners said that they used their device at least once in a 30 day period while watching television.

In the United States 26% said that they used their tablet multiple times a day when watching television and 27% said that they did so with their smartphones. Those numbers were roughly double that of those who said that they never did.

The top purpose was to view e-mail, both during the actual broadcasts and during the commercial breaks. A popular alternative was to check out information related to ether the program, or good news for advertisers, looking up information on products shown during commercial breaks.

Apple closing on facial recognition software?
A new patent that Apple as filed for shows that the company is developing features that will enable control of an iOS device via facial recognition. The patent lists a method to create an automatic user-switching system which can lock, unlock, as well as reconfigure a device for users based on face detection using a front-facing camera.

As discussed in Ars technica the patent, “Electronic Device Operation Adjustment Based On Face Detection” it has the ability to lock out unauthorized users as well as be set for specific preferences. There is already a facial unlock feature on the Android side in v. 4.0.

Filed Under: Android, Apple, Apps, Asus, Google, iPad, iPhone, Lawsuit, Microsoft, Motorola, Samsung, Tablets, The New York Times, Uncategorized

Mobile Sports Report TechWatch: BlackBerry still in the Red

April 2, 2012 by

Research in Motion has revealed in its quarterly earnings call that revenue for its current quarter was down 19%, $4.2 billion compared to $5.2 billion in the previous quarter, for a net loss of $125 million. The results that have resulted in a management shift and a change on corporate focus. For the quarter the company shipped approximately 11.1 million BlackBerry phones and 500,000 tablets.

Out is former co-CEO Jim Balsille who has resigned from the board of directors. Also gone are COO of Global Operations Jim Rowan and CTO David Yach. This coincides with a much stronger emphasis on developing and delivering products focused on the needs of the coporate IT department and the corporate user.

So security, reliability, manageability and messaging services will be the keywords going forward as it seeks to leverage what it views are corporate strengths-enterprise services and devices that handle them. On the flip side areas such as consumer oriented capabilities such as media consumption will be placed on a backburner.

The key to all of this, and for the company to successfully rebound, will hinge on the BlackBerry 10 launch, executives said. The release is due at some point later this year and will finally give the company a high end smartphone to compete with the Android and Apple devices that are already so prevalent. It has been working hard to develop a strong app ecosystem as well.

Nano-SIM standard vote delayed
The European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) after dueling proposals caused a rift. On one side is Apple, and select allies, and on the other is Nokia, Research in Motion and Motorola Mobility. TechWorld reports that a vote was scheduled last week but was postponed for at least a month due to strong differences between the two camps. The purpose is to develop a new, smaller form factor SIM card, officially called 4FF or fourth form factor.

Slow Tablet sales not Google’s fault?
An interesting piece from the good folks at The Motley Fool, or at least from Evan Niu, ponders why Google has not been able to transfer its tremendous success with its Android operating system in the smartphone market to the Tablet market. There are a variety of reasons mentioned but much of it boils down to the fact that many of the apps are simply slightly altered smartphone apps. It then ponders how Microsoft will do when it makes its big splash with its Windows 8 OS.

Google to sell self-labeled tablets?
An interesting sidebar to the while Android tablets are not doing well is the current rumors that not only will Google sell its own line of tablets, but will do so from its own store. Originally reported by the Wall Street Journal, the story is that Google will turn to partners, possibly Samsung and Asus to build tablets that Google will then sell under its own label.

In addition to selling under its own label it will also be selling them direct, much like Amazon does with its Kindle offerings and Apple with its iTunes store, among others. It is also expected to subsidize the cost of the tablet, a move that could alienate some of its hardware OEMs.

Google has already gone down the co-branding path once with HTC Nexus One a few years ago. Know anybody that has one? Well Google execs have said that the company plans to double down on Android tablets this year so it will be an interesting time. According to eWeek Google admitted that it has 300 million Android smartphones but only 12 million tablets in customers’ hands.

EU antitrust about to step in on Apple/Motorola Mobility/Microsoft patent issue?
Reuters is reporting that the head of the EU’s antitrust agency said that the group is considering opening an investigation into the patent disputes that are ongoing between Apple, Microsoft and Motorola Mobility.

While the EU has given the Motorola/Google $12.5 billion purchase a thumbs up it also said that it retained the right to investigate ongoing issues including the patent problems that have been a source of considerable litigation.

The group is already investigating if Samsung’s tactics in this area against Apple are a violation of EU antitrust rules. Google has said that it will offer Motorola patents on fair and reasonable terms once the deal is completed.


More Money = Less Entertainment apps on phones
The research firm The Luxury Group has done a study that shows that the wealthier an owner of a smartphone is the less likely to use it to play games or send tweets. It studied app usage among wealthy consumers, ones with income over $150,000.

The news is not really that startling as the users that fell into this area tended to have families and demanding jobs and tended to select apps that met those needs rather than ones for personal entertainment. Still it is sad on which side of this discussion I fall.

Hi-Tech a boon to local bookies
Automation has led to efficiency in so many areas since the days of Henry Ford, and now it looks like local bookies are getting in on the action, according to the New York Times. Rather than stand on street corners singing ‘Luck be a lady tonight’ all they need do these day is set up a web site, post odds and then direct the locals to it to place bets. Must make it real easy at tax time to see what you owe the government, and yes I know that is not where the song was sung in the movie.

Filed Under: Amazon, Android, Apple, Apps, Asus, BlackBerry, Google, iPad, Kindle, Lawsuit, Research in Morion, Samsung, Smartphone, Tablets, The New York Times, Wall Street Journal Tagged With: , , , ,
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