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Friday Grab Bag: Kindle Rumors, Odd Olympic Facts

July 27, 2012 by

Every Olympics you see some piece about the sports that have come and gone for the games, baseball and shooting live pigeons being two that readily come to mind. However there is something much more fundamental about the games that has changed a great deal as well, mainly how you get your information.

Everybody on the Internet must know by now that this is the most social media Olympics in history (also the 1st?), but think about past games and how you got the news and how they were broadcast. A nice piece in Mashable and accompanying infographic lays it out quite well.

The first modern Olympics, in 1896 had carrier pigeons, first radio broadcasts in 1924, first live telecasts in 1936 but worldwide broadcasts had to wait until 1960. The Internet hit way back in 1996! In my opinion one of the best things is that you can now get all of the games not just the ones that the studios decide I want to see, and no tape delays!

Speaking of Pigeons — get a load of these Guinea Pigs
Ok, this rates as the dumb post of the week but it just cracked me up. It is just a series of six photos that show a set of guinea pigs competing in a number of Olympic events in London. So let the real games begin!

Record iPad sales not enough for Apple to meet expectations
Apple’s revenue for the past quarter and forecast for the current one did not meet with analysts’ expectations despite selling 17 million iPads during the quarter, up 84% compared to the same quarter a year ago and up 44% from the previous quarter. It sold 26 million iPhones, down 26% from the previous quarter.

The company did manage to have $35 billion in revenue for the quarter, up 22% from a year ago and had $8.8 billion in net profit, up 22% from the previous year. Apple plans to update its MacBook line this quarter, release a new Mac operating system and a new iOS later this fall.

Bucs bailing on iPads
The NFL seemed like the next conquest for Apple’s iPad but now a report from JoeBucsFan.com, as relayed by ProFootballTalk, makes it look like one team is backing away from the tablets. Tampa Bay is reportedly discontinuing the use of the tablets to its players according to the blog.

It seems that players were forgetting to charge them, did not update them automatically and the team could not be sure that players were using them. I wonder how they can be sure that the players are reading the 500+ page binders they issue each week?

Elemental streams Olympics
If you are watching the Summer Olympics in London on line, you can give thanks, at least in part, to Elemental Technologies. A product from the company, Elemental Alive, is the backbone to the live streams that will be seen worldwide.

While we have mentioned that NBC will be live streaming all of the events from the Olympics live in the US, it should be noted that the BBC will also be streaming the games to much of the rest of the world, and both rely on Element’s technology to send the video to computers, phones and tablets. That is quite an accomplishment for a company still in startup stage.

Apple, Motorola Mobility both appeal dismissal of patent infringement case
Well here is one thing that the two companies can agree on; both have appealed (separately) the decision from last month by a U.S. federal judge to dismiss their patent infringement case. The case was thrown out ‘with prejudice’ by Judge Richard Posner, who ruled that they could not resubmit the lawsuit.

The case has been ongoing for some time and had increasingly been drawing the ire of the judge, along with the overall US patent system. He has dismissed expert testimony and honed down the number of issues involved in previous ruling prior to his dismissal of the case.

Seattle pushing for new NBA team
After losing the Supersonics, its NBA team a few years ago, Seattle looks to be trying to be back in the mix for a team. The King County Council is about to vote on a proposal that is now in front of it regarding building a new arena, the lack of which was a core cause in losing its last team.

The proposal, from investor Chris Hansen would call for a $490 million new facility with private equity paying $290 million and the rest from bonds by the city and county that would be paid for by arena generated taxes and fees. The issue must also be passed by the Seattle City Council. No word on where the team is going to come from.

Kindle rumors galore
It seems with Google’s entrant into the 7-inch tablet space with its well received Nexus 7 and the possibility of an Apple product in the same space has cause a rise in the rumor mill about future Amazon Kindles to combat the new rivals.

Tom’s Hardware is reporting that the current Kindle’s may see a 15% drop in price, to around $150 as it prepares its new ones for market. The new ones may be here as soon as next week, according to SiliconAngle, which reports that a pair of tablets, a new 7-inch as well as its first 10-inch may be released as early as the 31st of July.

Filed Under: Amazon, Apple, iPad, Kindle, Mashable, Motorola, NBA, NFL, ProFootballTalk Tagged With: , , ,

Mobile Sports Report TechWatch: Are Your Apps Tracking You?

July 24, 2012 by

In a move that is very likely to lead to even more patent conflict Apple has patented a mobile scroll bar, a patent that appears to cover portable devices with touchscreen displays and have a disappearing vertical scroll bar.

If that sounds familiar it is because it, or something very much like it, is widely used in the Android market. According to the Verge, Android has been using features such as this since version 2.1, so prepare for the worst.

Texting passes calling in popularity in UK
Text messaging has surpassed phone calls as the most popular method of communications in the United Kingdom, according to a report from Ofcom, an independent regulator of UK communications industries, which said that it found that 2/5 of all adults in the UK had a smartphone.

The trend is driven by younger users with 96% of people aged 16-24 using text messaging daily and only 67% in that age group using a phone for calling someone. Overall the use of phones for calls fell 1% from the previous year.

Nokia’s smartphone sales slump
Nokia reported another poor quarter as it smartphones continued to lose ground to rivals such as Samsung and Apple. The company reported that its net loss nearly quadrupled in the second quarter reached $1.72 billion compared to $450 million in the same period last year. However there were some bring points, its low end phone sales were strong and its Windows phone, the Lumia series, did not perform as poorly as had been anticipated.

Study finds 98% of Americans distrust Internet
A survey conducted by Harris Interactive found that an amazing 98% of Americans distrust the Internet and almost that many believe that bad things can happen if you act on information found there. Top reasons included outdated information and self promotional information. The real question is why is it so low?

Microsoft provides ship date for Windows 8
Microsoft has said that its next generation operating system, Windows 8, will ship on Oct. 26, 2012. So gentlemen start your engines since I expect a huge number of tablets using the OS to be announced on the same stage as the OS as a number of OEMs fight to be the next hot holiday property.

Windows phone slowly gaining ground
A recent report from market research firm Strategic Analytics, as reported in Cnet, shows that Windows phones moved from 3% of the U.S. smartphone market in 2011 to 4% in 2012. The report estimates that unit sales grew from 3.5 million to 5 million over that time period.

HTC countersues Apple
HTC has gone on the offensive against Apple by suing claiming that Apple infringes on two of its patents. The patents in question were purchased from Hewlett-Packard. Apple is suing HTC for patent issues as well.


Study finds Olympics helping electronic sales
A survey by TechBargins.com found that 16% of consumers plan on buying consumer electronics devices to watch the Summer Olympics, an increase from the 13% it found with a similar survey four years ago prior to the Beijing Olympics.

19% of iPhone apps access Address Book
A study by security firm Bitdefender has found that 19% of iOS apps that it studied accessed a user’s address book, sometimes with permission and sometimes without permission, according to a piece in Forbes.

The study looked at 65,000 apps and found that not only did they look at the information but also uploaded it. A whopping 41% used the location based services features to track the users position, also without the users consent in most cases.

Microsoft posts first loss
After an enviable 26 year run as a profitable company Microsoft has posted its first loss in its most recently completed quarter. While the company reported that its revenue increased 4% year to year, reaching $18.06 billion it reported a loss for the quarter of $492 million compared to $5.9 billion for the same period a year ago.

The driving force behind the loss was a massive $6.19 billion write-down on its 2007 purchase of aQuantive. The company appears optimistic about its outlook for the rest of the year which will see at least two major launches, Windows 8 and Office 15.

Samsung Galaxy S3 sales soar
Samsung’s latest smartphone, the Galaxy S3 has already hit 10 million in unit sales, and accomplished the feat in under two months, company executives said. As reported in Yonhap News, the company is selling 190,000 phones every day. The S3’s predecessor the S2 took five months to reach that sales figure.

Filed Under: Android, Apple, Apps, HTC, iOS, Lawsuit, Mashable, Microsoft, Samsung, Smartphone, Windows 8 Tagged With: , , ,

Mobile Sports Report TechWatch: Nexus 7 Sells Out

July 16, 2012 by

Demand for the Google Nexus 7 tablet that went on sale last week has been very strong, with reports of online retailers selling out of the devices in the first few days that it was available, according to Reuters.

On sale since last Friday in most areas, the Nexus 7, a 7-inch tablet that starts at $199 has sold out at a number of locations including Sam’s Club, GameStop and Staples. The popularity is particularly good for the company because while rival Amazon set records selling its Kindle Fire during the Christmas holiday season, this time of year is usually the doldrums for electronic sales.

There are a lot of rumors of a new iPad in the 7-inch format as well as new products from Amazon that will seek to steal Google’s thunder in this space but it looks like Google has established itself as a major player in the tablet space with the Nexus 7.

A nice piece in Wired breaks down the Nexus 7 and its leading rival, Amazon’s Kindle and shows where the primary differences are between the two. According to the article it costs $19 more to build a Nexus 7 than a Kindle, but the money looks to be well spent.

Apple aggressive about Samsung ban
Apple has been contacting US carriers and retailers and demanding that they follow the court order that bans select Samsung products. According to Foss Patents this news came to light via a Samsung filing that claims that the letters that Apple is sending to these parties over reaches and and contain incorrect information.

It has only been slightly more than a week since US Courts ruled that Samsung would ot be allowed to sell its Galaxy Tab 10.1 in the US. The Koss newsletter is siding with Apple on its interpretation of the order.

FujiFilm joins the fun — Sues Motorola over patents
Motorola Mobility now finds itself in the sights of FujiFilm as that company has filed a suit claiming that Motorola is infringing on four patents, according to PC World. The filing comes after a number of face to face meetings between the two companies.

The patents in question cover some interesting areas including the ability to capture color pictures with a cell phone and converting them into monochrome and a manner in which data is transmitted using wireless methods such as Bluetooth.

Apple returns to EPEAT
Apple, after making waves by having its products delisted from the EPEAT list of environmentally approved products the company has made an about face and now will continue to return to EPEAT after strong feedback from its customers.

Sony has new tablet in the works
Sony has admitted that it will be ready during the fall holiday season with a new tablet as the manufacturer continues to try and gain traction in that space. The company currently has several offerings in this space including the Tablet P.

It currently only sells devices that run the Android operating system and it will be interesting if it moves onto the Windows 8 platform when that is delivered later this year.

Filed Under: Amazon, Apple, Asus, Kindle, Lawsuit, Microsoft, Motorola, PCWorld, Sony Tagged With: , , ,

Friday Grab Bag: Bannister returns, Big Ten embraces Android

July 13, 2012 by

A sip of soda cost Ronaldinho $1.57m?
Apparently drinking the wrong soda can be costly as Brazilian soccer superstar Ronaldinho found out. He appeared at a press conference for his new team, Atletico Mineiro sipping a Pepsi, which happens to be one of the teams’ sponsors.

However Coca-Cola happens to be one of Ronaldinho’s sponsors, with a deal valued at $1.57 million. Apparently the powers that be at Coke’s headquarters were less than pleased and canceled his contract.


Big Ten moves to Android
The Big Ten Network has expanded its mobile reach with the release of BTN2Go for Android. The app, which enables subscribers to the Big Ten Network via their cable supplier, to view a huge range of sports on smartphones, tablets and via the web.

They will be able to watch live feed of all of the networks programming that includes more than 40 football games and 100 men’s basketball games among the hundreds of programs. The app is available at Google Play.

2/3 of new mobile buyers opt for smartphones, Nielsen says
The latest newsletter from Nielsen Wire shows that the in the second quarter of 2012 smartphone growth has continued unabated. Currently 54.9% of all US mobile phone subscribes now use a smartphone as of its June 2012 study.

Two out of every three new phone purchases were a smartphone during the last three months. According to the survey Android is the operating system of choice with 51.8% of all users adopting that platform while 34.3% use an iPhone from Apple.

Despite past results RIM Exec takes upbeat view
Research in Motion has seen things go from bad to worse as it reports losses, declining customer base and delays in its next generation smartphone, a product that it is hoping will bring it out of the doldrums that surround the company.

However there is a light cutting through the clouds according to Frank Boulben, RIM’s chief marketing officer said that the late delivery of its BlackBerry 10, after the important Holiday shopping season, will actually benefit the company as it will allow carriers to prepare and allow it to have the spotlight to itself.


Microsoft/Motorola Patent tiff on hold
Microsoft and Motorola have decided to wait until the hearing over Fair, Reasonable and Non-Discriminatory (FRAND) licensing obligations is heard later this year before continuing their patent lawsuits against each other.

While this will slow the lawsuit issue to a degree it does not affect any potential ruling by the International Trade Commission on two complaints involving the two companies, according to a piece in Electronista.


Microsoft is also aiming at Apple- Shock
Microsoft’s CEO Steve Ballmer has said that it is a new day at Microsoft and that its Surface tablet will be taking on all comers, including Apple, vowing not to leave any market segments uncontested to its rival.

According to an exclusive in CRN Ballmer said that the company and its partners had ceded some areas in the high tech space to Apple and its innovative ways. Areas that Microsoft plans to now more fiercely compete include the consumer cloud and in the area of hardware/software innovation, he said.

It is interesting that one of the reasons Apple is still around as a company is because Microsoft invested $150 million in 1997, a deal that eventually netted Microsoft almost 19 million shares of Apple stock for an average cost of about $9 per share. Microsoft has since sold the stock.

NBC has an Olympic app-if you are a subscriber
NBC Olympics has developed the NBC Olympics Live Extra app that will enable users to watch every event live, which will run to an estimated 3,500 hours of coverage, according to a report from Michael Hiestand in USA Today.

The app will be available for Apple’s iPad and iPhone platforms as well as some Android devices. However NBC will only allow access to viewers who get NBC’s MSNBC and CNBC channels — that’s about 100 million households out of the 114 million total U.S. TV households.

London Olympics salutes Roger Bannister
Roger Bannister, now Sir Robert Bannister, the first man to break the sub-4 minute mile barrier carried the Olympic torch on the track where he broke the record 58 years ago. As part of the relay for the torch as it arrived in London he walked on the track and then handed it off. There is speculation that he will be selected to light the cauldron to start the Olympics.

Tablets continue to erode PC sales
Market research firm Gartner has reported that for the seventh consecutive quarter sales of PCs have continued a trend of anemic growth as demand lessens in favor of tablets. However it notes that economic weakness in both the US and Europe are also contributing to the poor demand.

According to the company sales in the second quarter were 87.5 million units with Hewlett-Packard the market leader followed by Lenovo and Dell.

Social news site Digg sold
Once high flyer Digg, a social news site, was a top destination on the Internet and it saw its valuation numbers soar with its popularity, but as with many popular sites, its appeal waned and viewership fell off as other newer technologies took its place.

The drop appears to now be complete as the site has been sold for $500,000 to Betaworks, which gains the site and its technology, which will be incorporated into a new unit that Betaworks will announce in the future, according to the New York Times.

Filed Under: Android, Apple, Apps, Big Ten Network, iPhone, Live sports via mobile, Microsoft, Motorola, NBC Sports, Nielsen Ratings, Olympics, Research in Morion, Smartphone, Tablets, The New York Times Tagged With: , , , , ,

Mobile Sports Report TechWatch: Top 5 Tablets, Nexus Components Breakdown = $184

July 9, 2012 by

Google is now asking for $4 million from Oracle to cover Google’s legal expenses it incurred during its recent copyright and patent infringement battle. According to a piece in Wired, Google claims that since it prevailed on the majority of issues it is entitled to recovery costs.

It has not made public an individual breakdown of the bill but it includes $2.9 million for the copying and organization of the 97 million documents used in the case. Oracle has already said that it will appeal the case.

Google Nexus component costs = $184
A teardown on the recently announced Google Nexus 7 appears to show that the company is basically selling the device at cost, something that is also believed to be true of its rival Amazon’s Kindle Fire. According to research done by Tech Insights a list of the components are available.

From the list it appears that a $199 version of the device would have a cost of $184, leaving the company a whopping $15 profit, as long as there was no shipping and handling charges for it. It looks like the razor/razor blade model is alive and well.

Top 5 Tablet companies
Google entered the tablet space to a great deal of fanfare last month when it introduced its Nexus 7, a 7-inch tablet that is being manufactured by AsusTek. Yet as even the most casual observer notes, Apple continues to dominate this space and new players are expected to enter with the expected onslaught on Windows 8-powered tablets including Microsoft’s Surface tablet will also be available, greatly increasing the level of competition in this space.

According to market research firm HIS iSuppli, as reported by the Ventura County Star, last year Apple owned 62% of the market with 40.5 million iPads sold.
2) Samsung 9% 6.1 million Galaxy’s sold
3) Amazon 6% 3.9 million Kindles
4) Barnes & Noble 5% 3.3 million Nooks
5) AsusTek 3% 2.1 million Transformers
• Other, 9.4 million, 14 percent

Samsung to offer Windows RT Tablet in fall?
Samsung is reportedly preparing a tablet that will run Microsoft’s forthcoming Windows RT software, a version of Windows 8 that is designed to operate on devices powered by the ARM processors that current dominate in the Android space.

Samsung had previously said that it would support the Windows 8 Pro that is designed to run on chips from Intel and AMD. Rival Hewlett-Packard has said that it will support Windows 8 Pro but was unclear if and when it would also support RT.

Facebook in new mobile ad push
The Wall Street Journal has reported that Facebook is addressing one of its perceived weaknesses, the lack of mobile revenue, with an advertising push that will be based on tracking which apps are used on phones.

This will not be all apps, just those that are used through its Facebook Connect feature, and then it will produce ads based on that usage. Apple and Google currently track what apps users have downloaded, and Apple targets them with specific ads while Google currently does not, the piece said.

Facebook and Yahoo kiss and make up on patents
In a move that stands out because it is so rare, Facebook and Yahoo have come to an agreement on patent infringement issues that had lead to the filing of lawsuits against each other. Rather than see the issue through the long and costly court system the two settled all patent issues between themselves.

In addition the two have launched a new advertising partnership and extended and expanded an existing distribution agreement between the two companies. As part of the advertising agreement their will work to get ads that run on both sites and work to integrate the two sites.

Leading Judge blasts US Patent system
On the flip side of the Facebook/Yahoo agreement is the Apple vs. Motorola Mobility lawsuits. U.S. Circuit Judge Richard Posner, the man who threw out the case between the two has said that the patent system resembles a jungle were rivals seek to wound foes by any means necessary.

Posner questioned whether patents should cover software in high tech and said that while it made sense to give intellectual property protection in some areas such as pharmaceuticals due to the huge investments, he wondered if that was true in other markets.

Samsung wins temporary stay on Galaxy Nexus ban
The US Court of Appeals has granted a temporary stay on the injunction that prevented Samsung from selling its popular Galaxy smartphones. Apple now has until July 12 to respond to the motion to stay, according to Foss Patents.

After Apple responds the court will then decide on a stay for the entire time that it takes fro Samsung’s formal appeal to be heard. Samsung had apparently lost its last 5 attempts to win a stay in this case, according to Foss.

Filed Under: Android, Apple, Apps, Asus, Barnes & Noble, Facebook, Kindle, Lawsuit, Mashable, Motorola, Nook, Oracle, Samsung, Tablets, Yahoo Tagged With: , , , ,

Friday Grab Bag: ESPN’s Strong Euro, Archos $250 Tablet

July 6, 2012 by

ESPN followed Spain’s’ lead and finished strong in the Euro 2012, bringing in its strongest soccer ratings to date. The broadcaster reported double and triple digit increases in viewers across all of its platforms that carried the matches.

The finals match that featured Italy against Spain, won by Spain 4-0, set a record as the most-watched UEFA Championship game in the United States and was watched by an average audience of 4.068 million viewers. This represented an 8% increase from four years ago from the Spain vs. Germany match.

For the whole of the tournament, which took place over a three week period and featured 31 matches, ESPN’s English language presentation had a 51% viewership increase from 2008. Its digital properties were in some ways even stronger with 900,000 unique viewers on its ESPNFC.Com and ESPNSoccernet.com , up 54% and 28% respectively while mobile usage across its platforms was up 497%.

Samsung fails to block injunction
A US Court has denied Samsung’s request for a stay on a preliminary injunction against the company that is preventing it from selling its Galaxy Nexus smartphone as well as for a similar injunction against it selling its Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet.

The injunctions are the result of a ruling in a long running patent dispute between Samsung and Apple. The company wanted the suspension while it takes its case to the US Court of Appeals, according to an article in Infoworld.

Tablets to outsell notebooks in four years
A report from the research firm NPD Display Search predicted that notebooks will be supplanted by tablets and the mobile computing device of choice by 2016. It said that notebook sales will continue to increase, from an estimated 208 million units this year to 393 million units by 2017.

However during that same time span tablet sales will grow at a much faster pace, increasing from 121 million units this year to an estimated 416 million units by 2017. Among that factors that will fuel the growth are its improved portability and battery life when compared to notebooks.

Apple loses patent round in UK
While Apple has managed to block Samsung in the US, to a degree, it has failed in a similar suit in the United Kingdom, where the courts have ruled against it in a fight with HTC. The high Court ruled that HTC did not infringe on Apple’s photo management patent.

It also ruled that three additional patents that were in dispute were invalid, including apple’s ‘slide to unlock’ feature, according to TechWorld. If Apple had succeeded in its cases it would have affected both tablet and smartphone products from HTC.

Archos unveils 97 Carbon Tablet
Archos has taken the wraps off of its latest tablet, the Archos 97 Carbon. It features a 9.7-inch display with 1024 x 768 pixels that is capable of running 1080p HD video. The 1.5 pound tablet features 16GB built-in storage and supports an additional 16GB via either a SDHC card or a USB flash drive.

The tablet features a mini-HDMI port and has 1GB of memory. It runs the current Android 4.0 operating system and is powered by a 1GHz ARM Cortex processor. The starting price for the table is expected to be $250.

Recapp adds Summer Olympics news
Sports news aggregator Recapp has added support for the upcoming Summer Olympics in London. The app, which brings the leading news stories on user selected sports topics has expanded its support so that now you can follow your favorite teams and events during the games with articles from a wide source of news outlets including Sports Illustrated and ESPN.

A tale of two smartphones
Samsung, developer of some of the most popular smartphones, has reported that its latest quarter had a profit of $5.9 billion with earnings from its mobile phone division more than doubling in the quarter as Galaxy sales soared.

On the flip side is HTC, which had a very poor quarter, reporting that its net profits fell 58% from the same quarter a year ago, with a net profit of $247 million and it said that the current quarter’s outlook is cloudy due to increased competition.

LUMOback- the anti-couch potato device?
A sensor and app designed for better posture? That is what LUMOback is designed to provide. The sensor pad fits in your chair and vibrates when you slouch in your chair and provides feedback to your iPhone in an effort to promote good posture. Android and other platform support is on the horizon, the company said. The project on Kickstarter has already exceeded its $100,000 goal. I wonder if it is a comfortable vibration because I could get a pretty good massage while watching the NFL.

Rumors de jour
Amazon is planning on fighting back against Google and others by introducing its own smartphone and is looking to buy patents in that space first. Amazon has declined to comment.

It also looks like the next generation Kindle, the Kindle Fire 2, will be available in the fall as well. This is not really a surprise considering how hot the original Fire sales were during last year’s holiday season.

Is Apple preparing a mini iPad for Fall introduction, many sources say so. Numerous sites and news agencies have reported that a 7-inch version is on the way in order to fight Amazon, Google and others that are concentrating in this space.

Filed Under: Amazon, Android, Apple, Apps, ESPN, ESPN FC, ESPN3, Euro 2012, FTC, Google, HTC, iPad, iPhone, Kickstarter, Kindle, Live sports via mobile, Live Sports Video Consumption, Olympics, PCWorld, Samsung, Smartphone, Soccer, Tablets, WatchESPN Tagged With: , , , , ,
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