Samsung and Apple have more than doubled their combined market share in the global mobile phone market, with the manufacturers shipping almost half of the world's smartphones in the second quarter of 2012, according to market-research firm IDC.
Taking advantage of Apple's schedule that currently brings new devices only in the fall, Samsung launched its flagship Galaxy S III, of which the company is said to have already sold 10 million units. While Apple offers a small number of high-profile products, Samsung employs a shotgun strategy, where many models are produced to cover a wide range of market segments. Despite differences in market approach, the companies proved successful in creating even more distance between them and the competition.
Top Five
Samsung topped the ranks of smartphone shipments in 2Q12, with shipments of 50.2 million units and a market share of 32.6%. In addition to the popular third generation Galaxy, Samsung also experienced continued success with its smartphone/tablet hybrid, the Galaxy Note.
In second was Apple, shipping 26 million units and holding 16.9% of the market. While the Cupertino-based company posted an expected sequential decline last quarter, this activity is usual for Apple leading up to a new product release, say like the iPhone 5.
Far behind in third is Nokia, shipping 10.2 million units in 2Q12 and accounting for only 6.6% of the market. The company once again faced a transitional quarter, as demand for Symbian and MeeGo units declined.
HTC reclaimed the number four spot in the smartphone rankings, shipping 8.8 million units and holding 5.7% of the market, thanks to its relatively strong performance in the Asia/Pacific region.
Rounding out the list is ZTE, which climbed into the smartphone Top 5 for the first time thanks to shipments of its lower-cost entry-level smartphones in China. The manufacturer shipped 8.0 million units and accounted for 5.2% of the market in the second quarter.
Vendors are already looking ahead to 2013, focusing on how key markets, specifically Europe and emerging markets, will play out, according to IDC analyst Ramon Llamas. The effectiveness of recent maneuvers to shore up several countries within the Eurozone have yet to be seen, which could damper growth prospects for the mobile phone market. Yet, emerging markets will continue to be strong contributors, thanks to their size and growth trajectory, though it remains to be seen if they can offset potential declines in other countries.
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Behold, Early iPhone and iPad Prototypes
Saturday, July 28, 2012
Ahead Of Olympics, Samsung Supports Team Great Britain With Union Jack Galaxy S III
Just in time for the 2012 London Olympics, Samsung, one of the games’ official partners, has released a Union Jack-bearing Olympics-edition Galaxy S III, a little something special for Londoners enjoying one of the most revered sporting traditions on the planet.
Unfortunately for everyone who isn’t on the Queen’s team, the phone doesn’t actually support the Olympic games as much as it does the hosting country, Great Britain. It comes with a limited edition Union Jack back casing on the same blue background we’ve come to admire on the GSIII. The idea is that Brits can wave their phone during the game to show support.
The phone will officially be made available at Carphone Warehouse on August 1, with prices starting at £28 per month.
But the phone is more than a clever case to be waved. Samsung recently announced that the Galaxy S III and its awesome NFC capabilities will allow users to open their hotel room doors with the phone (instead of a keycard), courtesy of a deal with the Holiday Inn in Statford city.
The phone can also control lighting and change the channel on the TV for competing athletes, according to the Inquirer.
Samsung’s VP of Telecommunication and Networks, Simon Stanford, had the following to say:
As a Worldwide Olympic Partner, we at Samsung want everyone to get behind Team GB and offer them support during the Olympic Games.
We are delighted to be able to offer Carphone Warehouse customers the chance to own this exclusive London 2012 Samsung Galaxy SIII handset, combining the chance to support Team GB with owning a piece of cutting-edge Samsung technology.
Unfortunately for everyone who isn’t on the Queen’s team, the phone doesn’t actually support the Olympic games as much as it does the hosting country, Great Britain. It comes with a limited edition Union Jack back casing on the same blue background we’ve come to admire on the GSIII. The idea is that Brits can wave their phone during the game to show support.
The phone will officially be made available at Carphone Warehouse on August 1, with prices starting at £28 per month.
But the phone is more than a clever case to be waved. Samsung recently announced that the Galaxy S III and its awesome NFC capabilities will allow users to open their hotel room doors with the phone (instead of a keycard), courtesy of a deal with the Holiday Inn in Statford city.
The phone can also control lighting and change the channel on the TV for competing athletes, according to the Inquirer.
Samsung’s VP of Telecommunication and Networks, Simon Stanford, had the following to say:
As a Worldwide Olympic Partner, we at Samsung want everyone to get behind Team GB and offer them support during the Olympic Games.
We are delighted to be able to offer Carphone Warehouse customers the chance to own this exclusive London 2012 Samsung Galaxy SIII handset, combining the chance to support Team GB with owning a piece of cutting-edge Samsung technology.
Friday, July 27, 2012
Behold, Early iPhone and iPad Prototypes
The iPhone’s design is iconic but the final version looked rather different from early designs. With sleek but simple lines, the iPhone set the bar for smartphone design. This bar was set so high that most agree that the iPhone undeniably influenced other phones — a thought that Samsung is currently fighting against. However, as revealed by recent court documents, the iPhone we all know finally hit the market after several generations of wild concepts.
Apple and Samsung are currently locked into several brutal court battles. Apple is winning some individual conflicts while Samsung wins others but neither side is absolutely dominating the other. However, for us bystanders, the court proceedings are turning out to be a rather entertaining sideshow that randomly turns out nuggets of fun Apple and Samsung trivia with the latest being these fun iPhone and iPad prototypes
The latest court documents tell a rather wild story. The iPhone was influenced by Sony products. Apparently, Tony Fadell, known as the godfather of the iPod, circulated an interview with a Sony designer and then instructed a 2006 industrial designer Shin Nishibori to develop an iPhone prototype with some serious nods to Sony’s design language. The rendered device looks an awful lot like an iPhone 4, while other prototypes (like one code-named N90, which BuzzFeed points out means it was likely an iPhone 4 prototype) go in different and sometimes whimsical directions.
The Verge points to court documents that also revealed early iPad models. Some pics show prototypes with kickstands (a common feature on HTC devices) while others show widescreen models. There are even some that show large handles flanking the screen.
It’s hard to look at these images and not see Steve Jobs’ influence. The late founder of Apple was notorious for his obsession over minute details. His biography explains that his adopted father explained to a then young Steve Jobs that the backside of a product is as important as the front even if no one sees it. It’s clear Jobs passed on that lesson to Apple designers; even early Apple products looked just as good from the back as they did from the front.
These images are a rare treat for Apple fanboys and critics alike. It’s rare for any company, especially one as secretive as Apple, to reveal early prototype designs. Although these models failed to make it to market, they might still hold design cues and decisions for future products — and they might not be protected with patents. But don’t worry. Apple and Samsung are going at it hard in several courts around the world. We might get see even more prototypes and early designs before the two sides call it quits.
View the original article here
Motorola & Sprint Preparing To Launch The LTE-Friendly
iPhone 5 Might Launch Sept. 21
The iPhone 4S debuted in mid-October 2011, but a few unconfirmed reports indicate that the next version is going to come out a bit earlier in the year than that.
In the past few days, a number of reports based on different sources have said that September is the launch window, and a couple have even gone so far as to name an exact date.
A large accessory-maker based in China allegedly let App4phone.fr know that Apple has pegged Friday, September 21 as the launch date for the next-generation iPhone.
[click to view image]An unnamed employee at a major electronics retail chain -- also unnamed -- supposedly informed phoneArena that the Sept. 21 date is accurate.
In addition, an analyst with KGI Securities, Ming-Chi Kuo, sent a note to investors this week predicting that the next iPhone will be out at some point in September.
Earlier reports had indicated that Apple is planning an October launch for this device, which often referred to as the iPhone 5. Other rumors have possibly revealed some of the hardware details, such as a larger screen and the inclusion of 4G LTE.
Apple may be pushing the launch of its next-generation smartphone up a bit to help the company compete better with the hot new Samsung Galaxy S III.
View the original article here
Apple Shipped 1.3M Apple TVs
In the past few days, a number of reports based on different sources have said that September is the launch window, and a couple have even gone so far as to name an exact date.
A large accessory-maker based in China allegedly let App4phone.fr know that Apple has pegged Friday, September 21 as the launch date for the next-generation iPhone.
[click to view image]An unnamed employee at a major electronics retail chain -- also unnamed -- supposedly informed phoneArena that the Sept. 21 date is accurate.
In addition, an analyst with KGI Securities, Ming-Chi Kuo, sent a note to investors this week predicting that the next iPhone will be out at some point in September.
Earlier reports had indicated that Apple is planning an October launch for this device, which often referred to as the iPhone 5. Other rumors have possibly revealed some of the hardware details, such as a larger screen and the inclusion of 4G LTE.
Apple may be pushing the launch of its next-generation smartphone up a bit to help the company compete better with the hot new Samsung Galaxy S III.
View the original article here
Apple Shipped 1.3M Apple TVs
Motorola & Sprint Preparing To Launch The LTE-Friendly, QWERTY-Packing Photon Q
The folks at Sprint seem to be having a busy day so far — this morning saw (among other things) the release of the carrier’s latest quarterly financials, an announcement about new LTE markets, and the revelation that birds are keeping the company from lighting up “hundreds” of LTE sites.
If that wasn’t enough Sprint for you, now the carrier has announced the Motorola Photon Q, a new LTE-capable handset with a physical keyboard for all those customers who could stand to do a little future-proofing.
Putting the sizable five-row QWERTY keyboard — which looks as though it’s been transplanted directly from a DROID 4 — the rest of the spec sheet looks rather familiar Like the recently-released Atrix HD for AT&T (which, if you’ll pardon the aside, was quite a treat), the Photon Q sports a lightly-tweaked version of Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich, 8GB of internal storage, and an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera. Sadly it sports a slightly smaller 4.3-inch qHD ColorBoost LCD than its 720p cousin on AT&T, but its support for NFC may help to take the sting out of the switch.
As usual, Motorola is playing its cards close to the metaphorical vest when it comes to the Photon Q’s chipset. The last time Motorola did that, it was to conceal the Atrix HD’s Snapdragon S4 MSM8960 SoC, so here’s hoping for another pleasant surprise. Also up in the air at this point is when exactly the device is going to be released; all Motorola and Sprint will say for now is that the hefty-looking device is “coming soon.” With any luck, you’ll have some sweet LTE access in your neck of the woods when the little guy launches, but I’d advise against holding your breath.
View the original article here
Samsung Officially Brings Motion-Controlled Angry Birds To Select Smart TVs
Thursday, July 26, 2012
Samsung Galaxy S III Sales Break 10 Million
Maybe Samsung is right and the next big thing really is here: sales of the company's Galaxy S III smartphone have officially broken 10 million units.
Though he was unable to provide specific numbers, the head of Samsung's information technology and mobile communication division, Shin Jong-Kyun, told the Yonhap News Agency that the company has moved more than 10 million Galaxy S III units since its initial launch in the EU and Middle East at the very end of May.
This outstrips the pace of its predecessor, the Galaxy S II, which took five months to reach 10 million units in sales. And the company's executives are likely satisfied with the news, as Samsung previously stated that, despite fighting component shortages, its goal was to hit the 10 million mark by early July.
Sales in the United States have surely contributed to this figure, as Samsung's new flagship phone is available from all of the top carriers in this country.
To learn more about the Samsung Galaxy S III, have a look here at our review of the US version, or here for our review of the international version.
Though he was unable to provide specific numbers, the head of Samsung's information technology and mobile communication division, Shin Jong-Kyun, told the Yonhap News Agency that the company has moved more than 10 million Galaxy S III units since its initial launch in the EU and Middle East at the very end of May.
This outstrips the pace of its predecessor, the Galaxy S II, which took five months to reach 10 million units in sales. And the company's executives are likely satisfied with the news, as Samsung previously stated that, despite fighting component shortages, its goal was to hit the 10 million mark by early July.
Sales in the United States have surely contributed to this figure, as Samsung's new flagship phone is available from all of the top carriers in this country.
To learn more about the Samsung Galaxy S III, have a look here at our review of the US version, or here for our review of the international version.
View the original article here
Apple Shipped 1.3M Apple TVs In Q3 2012
Samsung Officially Brings Motion-Controlled Angry Birds To Select Smart TVs
You see, Angry Birds has been revamped to work with Samsung’s Smart Interaction feature, meaning that the user will sling birds without a remote control or touch interface, as the game is entirely gesture-controlled.
The Angry Birds game will work on Samsung’s 2012 LED 7500 Smart TV and up, along with the Plasma 8000 models.
The company first debuted the game on the 75-inch ES9000 LED Smart 3D TV. As you can expect, this model comes with all of Samsung’s new “smart” additions, such as Smart Interaction, Smart Content and Smart Evolution, which lets you control the TV with your voice or gestures, share content across devices, and upgrade the TV.
If you already own one of the LED 7500 (or ups) or the Plasma 8000, the Angry Birds app is available as a free download from Samsung’s Smart Hub. If, for some reason, you’re interested in the 75-inch ES9000 LED Smart 3D TV that Samsung’s just recently debuted, which packs Angry Birds right on the device, it’s expected to hit shelves in August starting $9,999.
View the original article here
Apple Now Has Over $117 Billion In Cash Reserves
Apple Shipped 1.3M Apple TVs In Q3 2012, Still Calls It A Hobby
“We are not going to keep products around we don’t believe in,” said Apple CEO Tim Cook in regards to the Apple TV on today’s earnings call. He also stated that Apple still considers the product a hobby although Apple keeps at the project because they stated “it will lead us [Apple] somewhere.”
Apple is very happy with Apple TV’s growth. The company shipped around 4 million so far during this fiscal year with 1.3 million units over the third quarter — not so bad for a hobby.
In many ways Apple TV is the missing link between Apple’s portables and the living room. It brings iTunes to the big screen but also, through the magic of Airplay, allows iPhone and iPad owners to quickly and easily stream content to the Apple TV. But for many, this little box is not enough.
A true Apple TV, an Apple HDTV if you will, has been rumored for sometime but Apple has been very quiet on its development. Like many companies, Apple tends to develop early and wait for the right time to release it in the wild. Apple could be waiting on the right content or hardware deals. But Cook’s statement seems to indicate something is in the pipeline. The Apple TV is likely leading Apple into the living room.
View the original article here
Apple Reports Disappointing Mac Sales Despite Retina MacBook Release
gadgets Comment 9 inShare10 Apple Q3 Earnings: Apple Now Has Over $117 Billion In Cash Reserves
Apple closed its record June quarter with $117 billion in cash reserves, up from $110 billion last quarter. Crediting strong sales of almost all products as well as an improved economy. Asia-Pacific growth increased 25% this quarter (down from 100% last quarter), 2/3s of which came from China.
Apple announced they would also continue their stock buyback program over the year.
AAPL closed with a market cap of 561.90B while competitors like Dell and HP closed at 20.23B and 35.46B respectively.
View the original article here
Apple Q3 2012: 26M iPhones
Apple Reports Disappointing Mac Sales Despite Retina MacBook Release: 4 Million Units Sold In Q3 2012
Analysts have been sharply divided in providing estimates for Apple’s third quarter earnings report. And it would appear that this time, predictions of a mild third quarter were correct. Apple saw a bit of a plateau in Mac sales, with 4 million Macs, 26 million iPhones, and 17 million iPads sold in Q3 2012. That’s compared to last quarter’s sales of 4 million Macs, 35.1 million iPhones, and 11.8 million iPads.
The main question was whether or not Apple’s MacBook Pro Retina would pick up declining Mac sales. As you can see from the numbers, it appears that 5.1 million pixels does not a spike in sales make, as this represents only a 2 percent increase in sales over the year-ago quarter. At the same time, the Retina MBP was only available for a short portion of the quarter being reported, so it’s possible we’ll see a spike in Q4.
On the earnings call, Tim Cook explained that the slowed growth in Mac sales has a lot to do with the timing of their portable announcement this year. It only left a few weeks for buyers to enjoy the new models, as opposed to the February announcement last year.
We pulled together professional estimates of 68 Apple analysts, as compiled by Fortune, who said that Apple would sell around 4.4 million Macs, 29 million iPhones and 15.7 million iPads.
As you can see, iPhone sales are down slightly from Q2 (and 3 million short of analyst expectations), while Mac sales stayed almost exactly the same as last quarter. If you remember, Q2′s 4 million Macs sold was down about 1 million units from the first quarter.
But after spending a full quarter on the market, the iPad is selling quite well, with 17 million units sold this quarter. That’s a whopping 84 percent increase from the same quarter last year, and a 5.2 million unit gain over last quarter.
Analysts also expected iPod sales figures to go down from last quarter’s 7.7 million, which is to be expected outside of gift-buying season. On this point, as well, they were right. Apple sold 6.8 million iPods in Q3 2012, a 10 percent unit decrease from last year.
View the original article here
Apple’s Q3 2012: $35B In Revenue
Apple Q3 2012: 26M iPhones, 17M iPads, 4M Macs, and 6.8M iPods
Apple managed to move a lot of iDevices over the last three months. The company just reported its third quarter financials and detailed iPhone, iPod, and iPad unit sales. The iPad saw a killer quarter with sales up from 11.8M units in Q2 to 17M in Q3. That said, the iPhone didn’t fare as well. The company shipped 26M down from 35.1M last quarter but up 28% from last year’s third quarter.
These numbers are mostly in line with analyst’s predictions who estimated that iPhone sales would decline while the iPad would see substantial growth. Apple actually managed to move fewer iPhones than expected with most analysts expecting sales numbers to hit between 29M and 31M.
The decline in iPhone sales is an important factor since that unit accounts for the bulk of AAPL’s revenue and profits. iPhone unit sales fell quarter-over-quarter for the first time since Q4 2011. iPhone sales declined 9.1M units, or rather 26%, over the previous quarter. This decline could be attributed to the iPhone 4/4S’ age when compared to new Android flagship models.
The iPad had a great last few months. Apple moved 17M units during the third quarter. Sales were up 44% over Apple’s second quarter and a whopping 84% year-over-year.
The iPod is slowly drifting into obscurity though. Sales are down nearly 10% from last year and 12% from over the last quarter. With a total sales of 6.8M units, it’s still likely the best-selling MP3/MP4 player on the market, but it’s quickly becoming a niche product. Apple’s senior vice president and Chief Financial Officer confirmed this thought during Apple’s financial call today, indicating that the iPad still holds 70% of the market.
Apple’s Macintosh sales fell short of analyst’s predictions, with only 4M units sold. This during a quarter that saw a significant model introduction with the MacBook Pro with Retina Display. However, the model’s supply levels have been limited, likely justifying the lower numbers sold.
View the original article here
Lytro Announces Support For Windows
Apple’s Q3 2012: $35B In Revenue, Net Profit Of $8.8B, Earnings Of $9.32 Per Share
Apple has just released its fiscal Q3 2012 earnings, and the Cupertino-based company reported revenues of $35 billion (compared to $28.6 billion in the year-ago quarter and $39.2 billion in Q2 2012) and quarterly net profit of $8.8 billion (compared to $7.3 billion in the year-ago quarter and $11.6B in Q2 2012). All that breaks down to earnings of $9.32 per diluted share.
During the days leading up to the disappointing release, analysts expected to see Apple rake in revenues of about $37.4 billion, with earnings of roughly $10.38 per share. Apple also reported gross margins of 42.8% (compared to the impressive 47.4% figure the company revealed last quarter) and noted that a full 62% of the quarter’s revenues were thanks to international sales.
Apple also announced that the company would be issuing a cash dividend of $2.65 per share of common stock.
For what it’s worth, Apple managed to blew past their own forecasted expectations ($34 billion in revenues, with earnings of at least $8.68/share). That’s not much of a surprise though, as Apple has historically tended to low-ball its quarterly performance estimates. To continue that tradition, Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer offered up yet another conservative forecast at the end of the release — according to him, Apple expects Q4 revenues of about $34 billion “and diluted earnings per share of about $7.65.”
Apple’s hardware sales contributed quite a bit to its performance this quarter, though one device in particular was picking up most of the steam. As rumors of a heavily-redesigned iPhone continue to swirl and consumers settle in for the wait, analysts also predicted that the company would report lower iPhone sales figures. Again, not much of a shock since Apple’s newest iPhone has been on the market for nearly a year now, but the consensus among analysts was that Apple would sell about 29 million iPhones.
It turns out that the number was indeed down compared to Apple’s strong first and second quarters — the company only reported 26 million iPhones sold. That said, Apple managed to move plenty of iPads over the past three months thanks to the introduction of the Retina-friendly model prior to beginning of the quarter and the accompanying price drop for the iPad 2. Estimates pegged the Cupertino company as selling roughly 15.7 million iPads, but Apple reported an impressive 17 million iPads sold.
Perhaps due to some (warranted) trepidation ahead of the release, Apple’s stock closed at $600.92 today, down 0.48% from when the market opened this morning. As usual, Apple will be holding a conference call to discuss its financial performance at 2:00 p.m. PT/5:00 p.m. ET. We’ll be live blogging the whole thing, so stay tuned for more as it happens.
During the days leading up to the disappointing release, analysts expected to see Apple rake in revenues of about $37.4 billion, with earnings of roughly $10.38 per share. Apple also reported gross margins of 42.8% (compared to the impressive 47.4% figure the company revealed last quarter) and noted that a full 62% of the quarter’s revenues were thanks to international sales.
Apple also announced that the company would be issuing a cash dividend of $2.65 per share of common stock.
For what it’s worth, Apple managed to blew past their own forecasted expectations ($34 billion in revenues, with earnings of at least $8.68/share). That’s not much of a surprise though, as Apple has historically tended to low-ball its quarterly performance estimates. To continue that tradition, Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer offered up yet another conservative forecast at the end of the release — according to him, Apple expects Q4 revenues of about $34 billion “and diluted earnings per share of about $7.65.”
Apple’s hardware sales contributed quite a bit to its performance this quarter, though one device in particular was picking up most of the steam. As rumors of a heavily-redesigned iPhone continue to swirl and consumers settle in for the wait, analysts also predicted that the company would report lower iPhone sales figures. Again, not much of a shock since Apple’s newest iPhone has been on the market for nearly a year now, but the consensus among analysts was that Apple would sell about 29 million iPhones.
It turns out that the number was indeed down compared to Apple’s strong first and second quarters — the company only reported 26 million iPhones sold. That said, Apple managed to move plenty of iPads over the past three months thanks to the introduction of the Retina-friendly model prior to beginning of the quarter and the accompanying price drop for the iPad 2. Estimates pegged the Cupertino company as selling roughly 15.7 million iPads, but Apple reported an impressive 17 million iPads sold.
Perhaps due to some (warranted) trepidation ahead of the release, Apple’s stock closed at $600.92 today, down 0.48% from when the market opened this morning. As usual, Apple will be holding a conference call to discuss its financial performance at 2:00 p.m. PT/5:00 p.m. ET. We’ll be live blogging the whole thing, so stay tuned for more as it happens.
Lytro Announces Support For Windows, Two Accessories And Free Shipping (This Week)
After launching earlier this year with Mac-only compatibility, Lytro has just announced that its desktop application now supports Windows. The company behind the miniature light field camera also rolled out two new accessories: a $20 USB wall charger and $20 tripod mount. They’re also offering free shipping on all camera orders this week.
Minimum specs for Windows PC owners are as follows:
OS: Windows 7 (64 bit) ONLY Home, Professional, or Ultimate
CPU: Intel® Core 2 Duo or better
RAM: 2 GB or more
Graphics: DirectX 10
View the original article here
AOL Launches PLAY By AOL For The Kindle Fire
The $99 Vizio Co-Star Google TV Box Is Now Available To Pre-Order
Vizio pulled off a sort of coup with the Co-Star. This $99 Google TV box packs more features than Sony’s latest model and is half the price. Plus, I think the novel UI looks better than the standard Google TV interface. The box, which was announced last month, is now available for pre-order. It costs $99 and will ship August 14th.
The Co-Star ships with a dual-sided remote: QWERTY on one side and a touchpad on the other. A dual-core Marvell Armada 1500 powers the device. It sports the typical apps such as Netflix and Amazon, but also Onlive, which is the Co-Star’s prime attraction.
Onlive turns the Co-Star into a legitimate gaming machine. Owners simply need to pair one of the OnLive controllers to the box. From there, as long as the owner pays for the Onlive service, games are streamed to the box. And as someone who has played with Onlive since the beginning, I can attest that the service has matured from a novelty to a real thing. There is a touch of latency, but it’s hardly noticeable after a few minutes of playing. It’s almost like your mind adjusts for it.
With OnLive, a good price and Vizio’s typical stellar distribution, the Co-Star could turn out to be the star player Google TV so desperately needs.
The Co-Star ships with a dual-sided remote: QWERTY on one side and a touchpad on the other. A dual-core Marvell Armada 1500 powers the device. It sports the typical apps such as Netflix and Amazon, but also Onlive, which is the Co-Star’s prime attraction.
Onlive turns the Co-Star into a legitimate gaming machine. Owners simply need to pair one of the OnLive controllers to the box. From there, as long as the owner pays for the Onlive service, games are streamed to the box. And as someone who has played with Onlive since the beginning, I can attest that the service has matured from a novelty to a real thing. There is a touch of latency, but it’s hardly noticeable after a few minutes of playing. It’s almost like your mind adjusts for it.
With OnLive, a good price and Vizio’s typical stellar distribution, the Co-Star could turn out to be the star player Google TV so desperately needs.
AOL Launches PLAY By AOL For The Kindle Fire
Like the other versions of PLAY, this music app puts the device’s
on-board MP3 collection into an immersion environment. While it features
a media player, the entire app is built to provide an experience not
traditionally found in a simple player including social features and the
ability to share songs on Twitter, Facebook, and the PLAY network.
Plus, PLAY features a SHOUTcast player with access to 55,000+ stations.
Spiritual guru and AOL Mobile First Senior Director Sol Lipman said
in a released statement today, “The Kindle Fire can’t get much more
awesome, but somehow we made beautiful babies together with PLAY. It’s
the best social music experience on the Fire, and I say that because I’m
only mostly unbiased. Look, just stop reading and go try it.”
Aol released the Android and iOS versions of PLAY last summer.
Since then the app has been downloaded 1 million times. The Kindle Fire
version is the first edition of the app made specifically for a larger
screen.
The app costs $.99 on the Amazon App Store or there is an ad-supported version available as well.
Analyst: iPhone 5, iPad Mini Coming In September
Thus far, we’ve heard that the iPhone 5 will have a larger 4.08-inch display maintaining the same width as current models, at 640 pixels. TechCrunch has also confirmed — along with Reuters more recently — that the new iPhone will replace its original 30-pin connector dock with a 19-pin mini port.
The iPad mini, on the other hand, is said to be the same thickness as the iPod touch 4G, with a screen measuring 7.85-inches. He expects that iPad mini sales should hit 1.8 million units during the time its available (1-2 weeks) in Q3.
Of course, Kuo (and the rest of the world) expects Q4 numbers for both products to be ridiculously high, with iPhone projections at 55 million units and iPad estimates hitting 24 million (including both iPad mini, new iPad, and iPad 2).
Here’s Kuo’s official word:
Though shipments of iPad mini’s components will start in August, the new iPad line will end production, ready for transition to a modified New iPad line. As such, component shipments will drop in August as iPad mini’s components shipments growth will be offset. On a side note, the modified New iPad shares the same exterior as the original model, but contains modifications to correct its thermal dissipation problem and lower-cost components.
The September timeline is just a prediction made by this analyst, but it makes sense considering we’ve already heard that the iPhone is in production.
View the original article here
The RollPro III Is A Must-Have GoPro Camera Storage Case
Amazon Finally Cracking Down On 3G Browsing Cap
There’s a little-known stipulation in Amazon’s 3G browsing, available primarily on their e-ink devices. Ostensibly, downloading items over 3G is completely free but browsing the web using the device’s weird and slow experimental interface is capped at 50MB. Most users have never hit that cap and there haven’t been many reports of actual notifications.
That’s recently changed. One user of the Kindle Keyboard 3G noticed the message when he was browsing the web in Canada. He received a message that said he could only browse Amazon.com, Wikipedia, and the Kindle Store. Wi-Fi access was unaffected.
In the terms of use, Amazon notes:
The Experimental Web Browser is currently only available for some customers outside of the United States and may be limited to 50MB of browsing over 3G per month. This limit does not apply when customers are browsing over Wi-Fi.
This could be a reaction to folks tethering their Kindles, resulting in a tragedy of the commons effect where some users are using a piddling amount of data while others are blowing out Amazon’s allocations in a few hours.
That’s recently changed. One user of the Kindle Keyboard 3G noticed the message when he was browsing the web in Canada. He received a message that said he could only browse Amazon.com, Wikipedia, and the Kindle Store. Wi-Fi access was unaffected.
In the terms of use, Amazon notes:
The Experimental Web Browser is currently only available for some customers outside of the United States and may be limited to 50MB of browsing over 3G per month. This limit does not apply when customers are browsing over Wi-Fi.
This could be a reaction to folks tethering their Kindles, resulting in a tragedy of the commons effect where some users are using a piddling amount of data while others are blowing out Amazon’s allocations in a few hours.
Kickstarter: The RollPro III Is A Must-Have GoPro Camera Storage Case
I’m a GoPro fanboy. It’s an amazing camera born from an even more amazing American company. But, as any GoPro owner quickly discovers, the camera demands all sorts of accouterments and add-ons. Mine are stored in a large camera bag with different parts haphazardly thrown into a different compartments. It’s essentially a grab bag of GoPro parts. Clearly I’m not alone. Riseful’s Kickstarter campaign for the RollPro III tackles this problem with an age-old design.
The RollPro III is a simple but seemingly effective GoPro roll up organizer. Everything has a spot in the roll-up case from the mounts to the backplates to the cameras themselves. Made out of industrial grade marine fabric, it can hold three cameras and most of their accessories; it seems to hold everything but the large suction mounts. Then, once everything is safely stashed away in their separate compartments, the whole thing neatly rolls up.
The company is looking to raise a modest $10,000 on Kickstarter and they’re almost there. As of this post’s writing, the project is $500 shy of their goal with 16 days remaining on the campaign. Pledge $59 or more to pre-order the case and help make it a reality.
View the original article here
Latest Siri Commercial
As Nokia Completes Scalado Buy, Another ex-Nokia Spinoff Emerges: Oulutalent
Today Nokia announced that its deal to buy imaging company Scalado has been finalized — a sign of another piece of the puzzle falling into place for Nokia as it continues to restructure to reverse huge declines in handset sales. But that dark, Finnish cloud has a silver lining that we’ve been noticing: the emergence of a bunch of startups being formed by many among the 40,000 people that have been laid off. The other day we wrote about how some of the smaller players have been picking up funding from Nokia courtesy of its Bridge program. And now we’ve come across what might possibly be one of the more ambitious spin-offs yet.
Oulutalent is a team of no less than 500 former-Nokia employees based in the town of Oulu. The skills on offer, and the ready-made team, is a testament to what Nokia has had to drop by the wayside, but also what is on the market for the many tech companies out there fighting the war for talent.
Averaging more than 10 years of experience, the group claims to have “created over 50 devices including major blockbusters. In addition to devices, we have done novel cloud services and UI platforms from scratch. We are on the leading edge with touch and LTE phones, Linux and WiMax tablets and we have world-class technical competence on all.”
The group is being led by Pekka Väyrynen, an engineer who developed patented wireless technology for Nokia (that is, the patents that are reported worth up to $6 billion and may well start getting sold off to help Nokia’s cash position).
Effectively, what we have in Oulutalent is a handset-making operation that could in theory be bolted on to a company with mobile ambitions (Amazon? A new Asian entrant? Nokia’s MeeGo spinoff Jolla?); or one that is growing already and needs to expand. It plays on the big area of outsourced operations — something that may have been too expensive for Nokia to maintain may well be hard for another as well; this lets that cost stay off the balance sheet.
Oulutalent notes that it can provide a range of consulting and technical services, from identifying market opportunities and planning product portfolios; to “concepting” (covering hardware and user experience, simulation and prototyping); turning those concepts into products; and then helping with the aftersales.
One twist is that the team is not in full effect yet, with some employees still working out their terms with Nokia, according to a spokesperson for the company.
And another is whether Oulutalent will be able to prove to the market that it’s worth the investment: its success is partly dependent on whether others believe Nokia’s downfall was mainly due to some bad decisions from management; or whether it was also down to those executing on decisions.
Oulutalent is offering itself as a group for “turn-key product creation,” but there may be possibilities to engage smaller teams, too. That is the approach being taken by a similar project called Kyvyt (Finnish for “talent”). Despite its Finnish name, Kyvyt is based in the German town of Ulm, where Nokia also had a large team of people who apparently were working on its low-end Linux based platform Meltemi (another project Nokia left on the cutting-room floor). Kyvyt is offering out its pool of talent as and where it is needed, and it is also running events like job fairs, as well as posting job adverts on its site.
The Oulutalent spokesperson says that it will cooperate with Kyvyt, although declined to specify what that will mean. More detailed information, she says, will be coming out in coming weeks.
Ironically, as Nokia has been cutting staff, it’s taken a few on, too, to focus on areas where it hopes to stand out against handset competitors. The Scalado purchase will see some 50 people join Nokia’s smartphone operations in Lund, Sweden, where Nokia will be incorporating Scalado’s technologies and IP into its imaging business:
“We believe that this acquisition will strengthen Nokia’s leading position in mobile imaging and provide us with a great opportunity to create even better imaging products and applications,” Jo Harlow, executive vice president, Smart Devices at Nokia, said in a statement.
In the bigger picture, Nokia has insisted that it is safe and secure as far as cash reserves are concerned, but at the same time it’s running out of goodwill with the investment community: Nokia’s debt rating yesterday was cut once again by Moody’s, as the agency noted that losses in the current quarter will be even greater than previously thought. The three major credit agencies, Standard & Poor’s; Fitch and Moody’s have all now graded Nokia’s debt down to “junk” status.
Nokia, as before, has said that the “impact on the company is limited” with the company taking action to turn things around. The company says at the end of June it had a cash balance of €9.4 billion and a net cash balance of €4.2 billion, both higher than a year ago.
It’s not clear who is providing the capital to finance Oulutalent, although the Bridge program we wrote about before is basically restricted to startups of four people or less, so it’s unlikely to play a role here. We’re asking questions and will update as we learn more.
View the original article here
Apple Said To Release Adapter For The New iPhone’s
Apple Taps Martin Scorsese And His Eyebrows For The Latest Siri Commercial
The latest Siri commercial just hit, and like recent ad spots, Apple turned to a celebrity to endorse the lackluster iOS feature. And, also like the other commercials, the dialog between Siri and the user seems a bit more simple, almost mundane, in comparisons to the early Siri commercials.
The first several Siri spots were filled with pie-in-the-sky optimism. They were very dreamy and nearly promised that Siri would change the world. But then people started using it and quickly discovered that Siri fell short of expectation.
A recent study found Siri to be horribly inaccurate. What’s worse, at least for Apple, users are finding that Google Now absolutely tramples Siri in both accuracy and features. Never mind what Scorsese says at the end of this commercial, even with the upgrades coming with iOS 6, Siri is not going places.
View the original article here
The Droid X360 Is The Standard-Bearer
The first several Siri spots were filled with pie-in-the-sky optimism. They were very dreamy and nearly promised that Siri would change the world. But then people started using it and quickly discovered that Siri fell short of expectation.
A recent study found Siri to be horribly inaccurate. What’s worse, at least for Apple, users are finding that Google Now absolutely tramples Siri in both accuracy and features. Never mind what Scorsese says at the end of this commercial, even with the upgrades coming with iOS 6, Siri is not going places.
View the original article here
The Droid X360 Is The Standard-Bearer
Well, Duh: Apple Said To Release Adapter For The New iPhone’s Tiny Dock Connector
Earlier today, a Reuters report added more fuel to a particularly nitpicky fire — according to its typically unnamed sources, Apple’s new iPhone indeed sports a smaller, 19 pin dock connector instead of the 30 pin relic the company’s iDevices have clung to for years.
The news itself isn’t particularly shocking — our own John Biggs locked down the 19-pin number last month — but now a new report from iMore points to an even less surprising development. The Cupertino company is allegedly working on a dock connector adapter to keep those iDevice accessories from becoming completely obsolete, or so the story from iMore’s supply chain sources go.
Yeah, There’s literally no way that Apple would risk pissing off longtime iDevice owners by making their scores of old accessories useless in one fell swoop. Sadly, that’s all iMore was able to confirm. At this point, there’s still no word on whether or not such an adapter will find its way inside the new iPhone’s box, nor how much it will cost customers to purchase it separately.
While Apple hasn’t officially confirmed any of this (and don’t expect them to until September at the earliest), there’s more than enough smoke to signal a fire here. What’s more, the incessant clatter of the rumor mill points to plenty of big hardware additions — a larger screen, an LTE radio, NFC, and more — so it’s not much of a stretch to imagine Apple grappling with the prospect of squeezing everything into a slim new chassis.
Like it or not, this sort of move isn’t anything new for Apple. Most recently, the company launched the new MacBook Air and retina MacBook Pro with smaller MagSafe connectors because of their slimmer frames, but Apple has attempted to ease the pain by selling an adapter for $9.99.
View the original article here
24.9M Tablets
The Droid X360 Is The Standard-Bearer For Counterfeit Chinese Products
Follow me here. The Droid X360 has the mind of Android, a body of a Vita, and branding of Verizon’s Android phones and Microsoft’s gaming system. Plus, the thing ships with 9 different emulators, allowing the owner to play games from Nintendo 64, Sony PlayStation, Game Boy Advance, Game boy Color, NES/FC, SNES, SEGA Mega Drive and SEGA Game Gear. The only way it could infringe on more trademarks would be if there was a Mercedes-Benz logo on the backside.
A 1.5Ghz CPU powers the Android 4.0.4 install. There’s a 5-inch display up front, dual cameras, HDMI-out and a microSD card slot. The best part, at least to me, is the sad-looking 8GB sticker on the bottom of the device.
Never mind that the device is essentially bursting with trademark infringements, the device seems to run rather well. And, as a PS Vita owner myself, I appreciate the form factor. No word on pricing but there really isn’t any reason to buy it. Just download an emulator to your smartphone and enjoy a little Kirby on the go.
View the original article here
24.9M Tablets Sold In Q2, With Apple’s Share Of That Now Over 68%, Says Strategy Analytics
24.9M Tablets Sold In Q2, With Apple’s Share Of That Now Over 68%, Says Strategy Analytics
One of the strong points in Apple’s quarterly earnings report yesterday was sales of the iPad. Globally, they were up 52% by revenue and 84% by unit sales, respectively to $9 billion and 17 million. In some new figures out today, Strategy Analytics notes that this translates to an increase in overall tablet market share for the company: Apple now controls 68.3% of the market, compared to 62% in Q2 a year ago, in an overall tablet market that saw shipments of 24.9 million units. So much for analyst predictions: here’s one (of several) that had forecast a decline in Apple’s market share.
So why the reversal? It looks like the competition that many had been expecting to give Apple a run for its money has failed to materialize. But while Apple’s market share is the best it’s been in years, Strategy Analytics also cautions that overall the market has also witnessed its slowest growth rate since the first iPad launched in Q2 2010, a result of a slowdown in the global economy, it says.
Microsoft, which will be releasing a new tablet-friendly OS in the form of Windows 8 later this year, has lost nearly 3% market share, according to figures from Strategy Analytics.
Collectively, all of the others (that would be PlayBook, primarily) have lost 3.5%.
And Android, meanwhile, has grown the number of units it has sold to 7.3 million compared to 4.4 million in 2011; but in the wider tablet market, that has only kept its market share level at 29.3%.
“Despite high expectations for companies like Amazon, Samsung, Acer and Asus, the Android community has yet to make a serious dent in Apple’s dominance of the tablet market,” said analyst Neil Mawston. “Unspectacular hardware designs, limited uptake of cellular models and a modest number of tablet-optimized services have been among some of the main reasons for Android’s mixed performance so far.” Whether a more comprehensive global rollout from Amazon, and the launch of more models, will turn that around remains to be seen.
In fact, Apple’s iPad share is not only going up; it’s the best it’s been in years — since Q3 2010, according to Peter King, a director at the analyst firm. The 24.9 million units sold works out to growth of 67% compared to the 14.9 million units shipped a year ago.
View the original article here
HTC One X+ Rumored To Launch On T-Mobile Come September
Motorola Aims For The Green With MOTOACTV Golf Edition
HTC One X+ Rumored To Launch On T-Mobile Come September
Early last week, a screenshot of an internal T-Mobile document revealed the existence of a device perplexingly called the “HTC Era 42,” which promptly caused some T-Mobile fans to drool uncontrollably. Some speculated that it would be the latest in T-Mobile’s G-series of Android devices and would sport a physical keyboard because of HTC’s track record with the carrier, but now TmoNews is calling it slightly differently. Instead of a brand new, keyboard-toting handset, editor David Beren has managed to confirm “with a small level of certainty” that the device is actually a tweaked version of the HTC One X called the One X+. Exactly what that plus refers to is still a mystery, but that hasn’t stopped the rumor mill from doing its usual thing. In this case, the cause for that additional + may be the inclusion of NVIDIA’s quad-core Tegra 3, a detail anonymous sources passed on to AndroidAndMe earlier this year. What’s more, the rumor also alleged that the device in question would run a stock version of Ice Cream Sandwich instead of HTC’s Sense-ified take on the OS — something that should please all those avid Android tweakers surfing T-Mobile’s spectrum. That T-Mobile’s version of the device would get the Tegra treatment doesn’t seem like much of stretch either, considering the issues that manufacturers have had getting quad-core chipsets to play nicely with LTE radios. That issue seems to be clearing up (take a look at Samsung’s quad-core LTE Galaxy S III), but T-Mobile won’t have to worry about that network technicality until next year anyway. There are still more questions than answers at this point, but we may not have much longer to wait. The leaked screenshot pegs the Era 42 with a September 26 release date, and if there’s actually something to it, HTC will probably come knocking with invitations soon.
View the original article here
HTC One X+ Rumored To Launch On T-Mobile Come September
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