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Friday Grab Bag: Bud is Back!

January 13, 2012 by

Selig has two year extension in the works-I assume it is guaranteed

The Good people at HardballTalk, among others, are reporting that MLB Commissioner Allan “Bud” Selig will sign a two year extension to remain at the helm of the sports. The deal is expected to be announced at the owners meeting taking place in Az. this week.

It comes as no surprise that he is staying there, who wants to give up an $18.4 million annual salary. I imagine he will dedicate the next two years to keeping players salaries down. Did anyone really think that he planned to retire?

Microsoft notches another win in its patent push
Microsoft and LG Electronics have signed a broad cross patent licensing agreement that gives LG coverage for Microsoft patents for LG’s lineup of devices that run Android or Chrome operating systems.

Included will be LG’s phones, tablets as well as other current and emerging consumer electronic devices. This is the 11th company that has entered into this type of licensing agreement with Microsoft and others include Samsung, Acer and HTC.

Apple gets egg on face, store after iPhone cancellation
After an abrupt announcement that the store would not be selling Apple’s iPhone 4S on the first day of availability in Beijing, the large crowd that had formed outside one of Apple’s stores in China became unruly and started throwing eggs at the building.

According to a piece at IDG a crowd had formed prior to the store opening and when an employee announced that there would be no phones available that day and gave no reason why.

Rams sign Fisher- Dolphins feel used
The St. Louis Rams have signed Jeff Fisher as its next head coach, according to ESPN and other sources. Details have not been released but I think it will be very interesting to see what he managed to squeeze out of them.

This has apparently irritated the owner of the Miami Dolphins, the other major suitor for his services. He had seemed to vacillating between the two and it seems Miami now was just using it for leverage in St. Louis.

I guess that the team learned nothing from its pursuit of Jim Harbaugh last year. Not only did it jack up what Harbaugh earn as a 1st time NFL head coach, Miami then had to salve its current head coach’s feelings.

I cannot wait until Miami goes on a search again- I suspect they will now massively overpay one of the former head coach/announcers out there like Gruden.

3D for Apple iOS
According to Mac Daily News Apple has filed for a patent that shows it will be developing a 3D GUI for its iOS-based mobile products. Apparently this is just one of several 3D products that are/were nder development at the company Will I be able to interface with my phone like they in “Minority Report”?

Mizco delivers cross platform USB charger for phones, tablets
Mizco International has delivered a cross platform charger that it claims will handle a wide range of smartphones and tablets, something that could make traveling with multiple devices significantly easier in the future.

Called the Cross-Brand Tablet and Smartphone Charger it is from the company’s Digipower division and is designed to support USB charging for products from all of the major manufacturers.

The $29.99 charger has a featured called a SmartSwitch that can be set in one of three positions and is capable of optimally charge USB-powered tablets from major manufacturers such as Apple, Samsung, HTC and BlackBerry as well as USB-powered Smartphones.

Filed Under: Android, Apple, Apps, Baseball, iPhone, Major League Baseball, Microsoft, NFL, Smartphone, Tablets Tagged With: , ,

Intel Aggressively Pushes Smartphone, Tablet Vision at CES

January 11, 2012 by

CEO Paul Otellini brings out Lenovo, Motorola as first smartphone partners

Intel president and CEO Paul Otellini used his keynote speech at the International Consumer Electronics Show to roll out new partners, products and reference designs as the chip company ramps up an aggressive push into tablets, smartphones and ultrabooks.

Paul Otellini

While the company has been participating in all of these spaces, with varying degrees of success for years, this is one of the biggest concentrated pushes from the company and one that appears to be ready to bear some immediate fruit.

Smartphone partnerships
Two key players came on stage to show prototype smartphones that they said will be shipping later this year, possibly by the end of the summer, powered by the next generation Intel Atom processor Z2460 platform, formerly code-named “Medfield,” Atom processors.

The first on stage was Liu Jun, Lenovo senior vice president and president of Mobile Internet and Digital Home where he showed the pending Lenovo K800 smartphone, using the Atom processor. That will run the Android operating system. Expected to ship in the second quarter of this year the phone will run on China Unicom’s 21Mbs network and includes support for HSPA+ the Lenovo LeOS user interface for a localized experience in China.

The second is with Motorola Mobility and is a much more complex relationship. The two have amulti-year, multi-device strategic partnership that will also include tablets. Otellini said “Our long-term relationship with Motorola Mobility will help accelerate Intel architecture into new mobile market segments.”

Atom Processor Z2460

Motorola will be building Android devices using Intel’s Atom processors in both the smartphone and tablet space. The companies will collaborate across hardware, software and services, according to Sanjay Jha, chairman and CEO of Motorola Mobility.

Intel has made several products aimed at establishing itself as a provider of core technology in the cellular handset market over the last decade, with very poor results. However it has never had two major partners like Lenovo and Motorola not only on board but ready to ship products in the near future.

Strategic Reference Designs
Aside from the two key partners Intel has also delivered a pair of reference designs, one for tablets and one for smartphones, in order to help customers quickly build a phone that can also accept any innovation the partner may have internally.

The Intel Smartphone Reference Design features a 4.03-inch high-resolution LCD touch screen for crisp text and vibrant images, and two cameras delivering advanced imaging capabilities, including burst mode that allows individuals to capture 15 pictures in less than a second with 8-megapixel quality.

There is also a tablet reference design. A demonstration on stage had a Clover Trail processor running a tablet that had Microsoft’s Windows 8 operating system and Intel said that Clover Trail-based systems would support the Metro user interface from Microsoft as well as be compatible with millions of Windows applications.

Reference designs have long been a staple in Intel’s arsenal, providing a quick easy way for OEMs to enter a new or emerging space using Intel technology. The company faces an uphill climb in this market due to the firm establishment of ARM-based devices in the market already.

It appears that Intel’s long push for energy efficiency, and renewed push on advanced graphics will help it in this space but the battle here will be an interesting one, and one that for the most part Intel has lost the previous encounters.

Ultrabooks Galore
Ukltrabooks, for those that do not know, is a new and emerging class of notebook computers that closely resemble the shape and form factor of tablets but bring much more to the market. While smartphones, and phones in general, is a space Intel has struggled to enter and tablets are still a relatively new market, ultrabooks are right in the company’s wheelhouse.

The concept was introduced just over half a year ago and the company said that there are already 75 models in the pipeline, with virtually all of its major notebook partners involved. Dell showed one that it will be shipping next month, the new XPS 13, a sub-3lb system, that is less than half an inch think at its thinnest point and is powered by Intel’s i7 processor.

However Intel said that future ultrabooks will be powered by its future 22nm 3-D processor codenamed Ivy Bridge, due later this year. If you are wondering what advantage Intel gets by pushing processors down to smaller sizes, one is that they are faster because the signals have shorter distances to travel.

Intel showed a pair of prototypes on stage, one that really caught my eye was the one that allowed a user to flip the display over and turn it in to a tablet system. While I am sure this will not be for everyone I believe that people that need a full keyboard sometimes and want tablet functionality the rest this will be a strong selling point.

I will be very interested to come back to CES next year and see how well Intel has succeeded in getting the tablet and phone OEMs to adopt its technology. We will probably get a good feel for its acceptance later this year at the company’s annual developer forum.

Filed Under: Android, Apps, Lenovo, Motorola, Smartphone, Tablets Tagged With: , , , ,

Mobile Sports Report TechWatch: Solar Powered Cover for Kindle

January 9, 2012 by

SolarFlare develops sun-powered e-reader cover
SolarFlare Technology Co. has unveiled the SolarKindle this week at CES, a lightweight cover that features a built-in solar panel right in the cover. Built with a dual charging reserve battery that can get power from either a USB connection or the solar panel the company claims that it can give a Kindle user 3 moths reading time in the sunlight or 50 hours of reading using the lamp feature.

The integrated leather cover requires only one hour in the sun to fully charge the reserve battery to provide the users with days of use. The device was impressive enough that at the show it was an International CES Innovations Design & Engineering Awards Honoree

Marvell teams with One Laptop per Child for new tablet
Marvell is unveiling its XO 3.0, a low cost, low powered laptop that is designed for classrooms around the globe. The developer of integrated semiconductors has teamed with One Laptop per Child, a non-profit organization whose mission is to help child worldwide gain access to a modern education, to help its mission.

The two announced that they will start shipping a laptop developed by Marvell, the X 1.75, in March and that 75,000 have been ordered for OLPC projects in Uruguay and Nicaragua. The XO 1.75 and the XO 3.0 tablet are both powered by Marvell’s ARM-based Armada PXA618 system on a chip processor.

Windows 8 Tablet on the Horizon for ASUS
According to a report in Netbook News ASUS jumped the gun on CES by revealing that it has a new tablet that will be powered by an ARM processor and run the Windows 8 operating system in the works. However do not hold your breath since it appears that the product is slated for late in 2012.

In the short term the company plans to deliver a 7-inch tablet possibly named the ASUS Memo and a 10-inch tablet at CES and in a few months will refresh its Transformer Prime lineup with a 3G version and enhance some of its features including a more robust GPS unit.

Sony cuts Tablet S price $100
Sony has cut the price of its Tablet S line by $100 and is now offering five free downloadable “Classic PlayStation” games in its PlayStation Store app for new Tablet S owner. The Tablet S features a 9.4-inch display with 1280 x 800 resolution, a 5 megapixel rear facing camera and a 0.3 MP front facing camera and 1GB of RAM.

The version with 16GB of storage is now $400 while the 32GB version has a $500 price tag. Buyers will also receive a free 180-day trial of Sony’s Music Unlimited service, as well as five free rentals from Sony’s Video Unlimited Services.

Nokia acquires phone OS developer Smarterphone AS
Nokia has apparently purchased Oslo, Norway based Smarterphone AS for an undisclosed sum in a move that looks like it is once again going to be delivering a phone with a proprietary technology. Smarterphone reportedly is developing an operating system that will provide smartphone functionality on lower end hardware, according to BGR.

The company currently offers a lineup of smartphones that feature Microsoft Windows Phone operating system and in the past have offered other OSes including Symbian and MeeGo. So far Nokia has not indicated what it plans to do with the company and its technology.

The move comes at a time when some analysts are predicting that Windows Phone will help revive Nokia’s market share. I have to assume that an analyst from Credit Suisse would have at least had an inkling that the Smarterphone purchase was occurring and so sees this as just a personnel grab by Nokia.

The Green Bay Packers are the latest to adopt tablets for training purposes
The Green Bay Packers have taken to using Apple’s iPads along with specialized software so that receivers can watch game film and look for game trends as well as potential mismatches. The team provides its players with a complete look at how opponents play each possession based on down and distance. I wonder how much of a help this was for a team that tied the NFL record of 51 passing touchdowns this year?


This and that…
Apple, after losing its latest round in Germany has received good news in France and Italy, sort of- judges have refused to block sales of iOS devices.

Microsoft to develop Xbox Live games for rival platforms
Business Insider is reporting that Microsoft is planning on developing apps that will enable people that have Android and iOS products to play Xbox Live games.

According to BetaNews Microsoft and its partners including Nokia plan a $100 million ad blitz for the new Windows phones. Or is it $200 million?

Apple is reported to be preparing not one but two iPads for release in 2012, with the iPad 3 in March and the iPad 4 in October.

Filed Under: Amazon, Android, Apple, Apps, iPad, Kindle, Tablets Tagged With: ,

Mobile Sports Report TechWatch: Kindle Sales Still Burn Bright

January 2, 2012 by

Tablets the tops for Small and Medium businesses
According to market research firm NPD Group, the demand for tablets is expected to grow in the small and medium business market, which is companies with less than 1,000 employees, over the next year with Apple’s iPad leading as the most popular tablet choice.

According to the group’s SMB Technology Monitor for the third quarter 73% of respondents said that they intend to purchase a tablet in the next 12 months, up from 68% in the second quarter survey. 90% said that they plan to spend the same or more than in the previous year.

The largest firms, 501 to 999 employees, in the survey are the most likely to purchase tablets, with 89% indicating intent to purchase while in the smallest group, under 50 employees, only 54% expect to buy.

Amazon reports Kindle sales still sizzling
Amazon reported that it sold over 1 million Kindles each week of December, making it a very happy holiday for the on-line retailer. While other tablet manufacturers have struggled to gain traction in a market that has been dominated by Apple and its iPad since its introduction, Kindle has been a nice exception.

Amazon said that since the introduction of the Kindle Fire it has been the top selling product on its site for 13 consecutive weeks. It should be noted that Apple is expected to sell 61% of all tablets in the quarter but Amazon is starting to make a dent in Apple’s overall market share.

Will the next generation Android OS work in my device?
Always a good question. At first it seemed (maybe just to me) that 4.0, or Ice Cream Sandwich, would work on any existing Android device. ICS, built to work on both smartphones and tablets, will apparently not be backwardly compatible with all current devices. The people at International Business Times have gone to the trouble of listing many of the devices that will and will not be upgradeable.

Dell steps back into the Venture Capital market
Dell has returned to the venture capital market, its second effort in this space. During the heyday of the dot com boom and beyond Dell was an active investor with its Dell Ventures effort and reached over $1bn invested at one time. It started departing the space when it sold off the bulk of its portfolio in 2005 and then quietly exited afterwards.

Well now it is back with the formation of Dell Capital Ventures and has hired Northwest Venture Partners executive Jim Lussier as managing partner and Ingrid Vanderveldt, who has experience in founding and spinning off startups as the ‘entrepreneur in residence.”

The investment effort will focus on early stage companies and Dell has not indicated what type of funding the effort will initially receive. According to the Wall Street Journal Dell will seek to eventually establish the program as its own business unit inside the company with its own resources and budget.

Microsoft’s new mobility
Will 2011 be the year that is remembered as the time when Microsoft breaks the tether of its desktop software/Windows business and embraces mobility and a more flexible software development approach as eWeek posts? If so that would make for an interesting company- you have to wonder how many solid products have been killed over the years due to turf wars dominated by the Windows team.

Cnet chimes in with a list of 5 things to look for from Microsoft in 2012, and includes its Windows 8 tablets due to the company’s decision deliver its tile-based OS rather than the Windows interface users are accustomed to. The piece also expects an increase in litigation from Microsoft towards Google’s customers for its Android and Chrome software.

This week in lawsuits
An intellectual property firm claims that Apple could make $10 per device in royalties from the vast array of Android manufacturers if it dropped its lawsuits and went the licensing route. Just over the holidays there were nearly 4 million Android activations. But where is the fun in settling? Intel and AMD once spent over $1 bn in legal fees in their dispute over x 86 technologies.

Do nice phones finish last? Or do people just not want Microsoft phones?
Is Microsoft’s lack of an intimate relationship with carriers the reason the Windows handsets have not been flying off the shelves? Well that is the position put out by former Windows Phone General Manager Charlie Kindel in a blog posting. A few interesting takes on his comments here and here. If you feel like it you can find more comments on the posting.

Filed Under: Amazon, Android, Apple, Apps, Dell, iPad

Friday Grab Bag: Sugar Bowl not so Sweet?

December 16, 2011 by

Virginia Tech in for a loss again on bowl game ticket sales?
Virginia Tech is on the way to selling 57% of its allotment of tickets to the Sugar Bowl, where the Hokies will face the Michigan Wolverines on Jan 3. 2012. The team reports that it expects to sell roughly 10,000 of its 17,500 tickets.

The team blames the Tuesday night game time as well as the readily availability to tickets in the secondary market. No comment on the fact that the cheapest ticket is $125. The Big Lead reported that the school is asking fans to buy proxy tickets to donate to various charities and the military.

So why is this news? Well last year the team also went to a bowl game, and also did not sell out its allocation of tickets. However the kindly NCAA does not simply allow you to send back the unneeded excess tickets. That is because many of the bowl games that we are about to be inundated with not actually sell out and how will the director justify a half million salary if the bowl does not turn a profit.

Top Linux predictions for 2012.
I love the end of the year predictions. I do not track them to see if they are accurate on an annual basis but do like to look back on occasion to see when the hover car was supposed to be here. Still when made by informed people they often do give insight into trends, be they sports, social or otherwise.

The Linux Insider has posted its Top 5 Linux predictions for the upcoming year and if they are accurate, or even near misses, it looks as if a lot of activity will be moving from the desktop and into mobile, cloud and consumer platforms.

I think this spells good news for users, Linux users and others, since competition should help continue a flow of new and innovative products and technologies. One interesting prediction is that all of the mobile and cloud growth will harm its efforts n the desktop- as well as help it. Read the reviews to see what you believe.

ESPN to broadcast many NCAA championships in $500m deal
The NCAA has expanded its multi-decade deal with ESPN that calls for the sports network to broadcast a huge range of the NCAA’s championships through the 2023-24 school year. The deal will pay ESPN $500m per year and will see 600 hours of broadcasting.

The deal expands on the current relationship between the two as ESPN already broadcasts 17 championships. Added to the deal will be broadcasts of women’s gymnastics, men’s and women’s fencing, Division I women’s lacrosse, Division I men’s and women’s outdoor track, and women’s bowling.

ESPN will also expand its broadcast coverage of the early rounds of the Division I FCS football, women’s volleyball, softball and baseball tournaments and will get international rights to the men’s basketball tournament.

Did its history with Windows hurt Microsoft’s mobile phone effort?
Windows baggage was a deterent that harmed the market’s perception of Microsoft’s Windows Phone, or at least that is the point of view of a piece by Jason Hiner in Tech Republic. He believes that it has harmed users perception of what is a quality device and so prevented Microsoft from being a dominate player in the space.

This comes at a time of mea culpa at Microsoft, admitting very poor sales, disappointment and the traditional rotating of top management. All that was missing was the “Airing of Grievances” to make the event complete.

He claims that people believe that the difficulty and frustration of using the Windows operating system such as malware, viruses and other issues will be present in the phones. Decide for yourself but if you started out using MS-DOS on old, very, very, slow PCs you know what a breath of fresh air Windows was. After they got the bugs out of course.

This and that
Was anybody amazed at how much grief was directed at Albert Pujols for leaving St. Louis for a much better contract elsewhere? Since when did sports writers spur higher offers?

Is it just my conspiracy theory of the week or did the NBA intentionally foul up the Chris Paul trades simply to intensify interest in the NBA, something that appeared to me to still be lagging due to the strike?

I wonder if there will be any fallout from the drug bust of (ex) Chicago Bear Sam Hurd? That is a lot of pot and coke to be selling on a weekly basis while still playing football. He must have had an impressive network in Chicago.

Startup investment analysis firm SigFig claims that investors with iPhones are 20% more likely than average to own Apple stock while owners of Android phones are 25% less likely than average to own Google stock.

Filed Under: Android, Apple, BCS, ESPN, iPhone, NBA, NCAA Hoops, NCAA.com Tagged With: , , , , ,

Mobile Sports Report TechWatch: Barnes & Noble Enhances Nook Color

December 12, 2011 by

OnLine’s new apps mean Tablets can be gaming consoles
Cloud gaming developer OnLive has developed a set of apps that bring console gaming to tablet and mobile (i.e smartphones) platforms. The company said that this will open up top ranked, high performance games that were once only available on consoles to a market that is at least 500 million strong.

The Universal OnLive Wireless Controller enable a player to use a Wi-Fi network to play a program that is stored in the cloud and streamed live to the tablet, phone, PC or Mac. A user must own the program and once purchased it can be used on any device.

OnLive currently has a stable of 25 games that have been adapted to work with touch screen devices including L.A. Noire, Batman: Arkham City, Assassin’s Creed: Revelations and Lord of the Rings: War in the North, and Defense Grid Gold. The Universal OnLive Wireless Controller uses technology that the company is expected to be available soon for a list price of $49.99.

Barnes & Noble enhances Nook software
Barnes & Noble has released a software upgrade for its Nook Color, a move that brings the low cost device closer in features and capabilities to its more expensive Nook Tablet as well as rivals from other developers.

Among the new found features is access to Barnes & Noble’s huge Marvel graphic novel collection via Nook Comic, streaming movies and TV shows via Netflix as well as the Flixster app for on-the-go access to digital streaming media.

In all the company said that it added 100 enhancements that ranged from increased font size to the ability to read books in either landscape or portrait mode. Head over to Cnet for a fuller listing of features as well as some issues with the product.

Microsoft to offer Open Source Apps for Windows 8
ExtreameTech has reported that the advocates for Open Source software have won an unexpected ally with the announcement that Microsoft will allow open source apps at its Windows 8 app store.

Microsoft has long been a foe of the open source movement, but entering the app space much later than rivals Apple and the Android lineup it needs a boost and it appears it is taking a chance that one of its rivals is willing to take.

While Apple prohibits open source apps for its iOS in its store Microsoft has stated that it will allow apps developed under a license from the Open Source Initiative and that the OSI license will trump the Microsoft Standard Application License Terms that have tough sharing provisions.

The lack of open source apps has not seemed to hurt Apple yet as it just reported that it just had its 100 millionth app downloaded from its Mac App Store.

The Patent wars heat up
Motorola won an important ruling in German courts last week that could shackle Apple and force the company to pay out royalties and make changes to its technology. The court ruled that Apple has failed to license one of Motorola Mobility’s patent technologies.

Motorola could seek an injunction preventing Apple from selling products that contain the technology in dispute, which basically means no iPhone or iPad sales in Germany if granted. Apple said that t will appeal the ruling.
If Motorola wishes to have a sales injunction enforced against Apple it will need to post a $133 million bond to cover costs in case Apple later prevails in court. Motorola has licensed the technology in question to others but wanted to charge Apple at a higher rate.

Looking for an Android to call your own?
Not exactly what Harrison Ford was in a search and destroy mode in “Blade Runner”, but not like any phone you have used before, a strange new communications technology is emerging from the Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International (ATR) .

Called the Elfoid P1, it is a prototype tele-operated android that will, in the future, mimic motion and appearance of that of the users, hopefully conveying a more human sense to phone conversations.

Sadly it is not a machine that you can send to work in your place but rather a pint sized device that stands in as a phone and resembles, well here is a photo you can decide for yourself what it resembles. Not sure I would want to whip one of these out of my pocket at a business meeting to update my calendar.

CES
If you have an interesting product or app showing at next month’s Consumer Electronics Show that you think we might be interested in drop us a line.

Filed Under: Amazon, Android, Apps, iPad, iPhone, Live sports via mobile, Motorola, OnLive, Tablets, Wi-Fi Video Streaming Tagged With: , , , , ,
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