Chinese companies take a bite out of Apple
Today, China is a wonderful place for corporations around the world. The financial crisis laws don’t necessarily apply to China as they do to other places like Europe or the United States. So it comes natural for companies to invest more and more to expand into the Chinese market.
Since the end of 2011, China has surpassed the United States as the world"s largest phone market, which is great news for handset manufacturers. Smartphones also play an interesting role, as developers get interested in writing applications for the Chinese market, which would bring revenues to corporations like Apple and Google through their online stores, App Store and Google Play.
British Airways will Google passengers ahead of flights
British Airways faces criticism after unveiling plans to look up frequent fliers on Google as part of a customer service programme called "Know Me".
Two-thousand iPad wielding airline staff will be given access to the data, which will include travel history and, most interestingly of all, photos pulled from Google Images. BA says the idea of the initiative is to be able to offer a more personal service -- the photos will allow staff to greet recognized passengers with a smile when they arrive at the terminal or plane.
Ban on Galaxy Nexus lifted until Apple makes its case
Today, the U.S. Federal Circuit Court of Appeals announced the ban on the Samsung Galaxy Nexus smartphone has been lifted until July 12.
Samsung's week-by-week slog through patent hell continues.
HTC can blame themselves for weak financial results
HTC is one of the most important players in the Android world, delivering some of the best smartphones on the market today. In order to improve, HTC UK chief Phil Robertson said that for 2012 they will change their strategy to release only high-quality handsets rather than focus on a high number of devices. That sounded like a great idea at the time and one that was also reinforced by the CEO, Peter Chou. But does it match HTC's recent financial results?
HTC has seen rather disappointing financial results for the second quarter of 2012, the company posting a net income, after taxes of T$7.4 billion ($247.7 million). The profits increased by 65.5 percent over the previous quarter, up from T$4.47 billion ($149 million). Revenues were up as well from the first to the second quarter, from T$67.79 billion ($2.26 billion) to T$91.0 ($3.04 billion), a 34.2 percent increase.
Google Jelly Bean smokes Apple Siri
A week has passed since I started up my Google I/O-issue Galaxy Nexus and updated to Android 4.1 (aka Jelly Bean). Since then, my daughter and I faced off Google's Voice Assistant against Siri (on her iPhone 4S). The results aren't surprising. Google's depth as a search provider proves its wherewithal against Apple, which calls Siri a personal assistant. But Jelly Bean's feature, used alongside Google Now, is every bit more and every bit what a digital assistant should be. Siri sucks even more, by comparison.
I will be absolutely clear: Together, Voice Assistant and Google Now represent a watershed development, living up to what Apple promises with Siri. Google has successfully presented its depth of search in a truly meaningful manner -- one that can change how people interact with mobile devices. If execution improves over time, particularly as Google Now learns personal habits, these innovations could be as important to the search giant as the development of its algorithm.
An Amazon Smartphone could be the biggest loss leader of all
Following up on reports from the fourth quarter of 2011, Bloomberg on Friday cited anonymous sources that said Amazon is working on its own Smartphone in conjunction with noted Chinese device manufacturer Foxconn International Holdings. Additionally, the report pointed out that Amazon is also on the market to buy more wireless patents, highlighted by the fact that the company recently hired a new general manager for patent acquisitions.
Contemporaneously with the Bloomberg report, approximately a dozen new job listings at Amazon popped up today for mobile software engineers that can support "existing Amazon technologies and [build] support for next-generation technologies."
Could Apple be planning its own answer to Google Glass?
Apple, like all big tech companies, files patents for lots of things. Some are used in products it plans to make, but others are just ideas that may or may not ever come to fruition. For this reason you can never read too much into new patents, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t sit up and pay at least some attention to the news that Apple has been granted a broad patent for a head-mounted wearable computing device that sounds rather similar to Google Glass.
While the news might suggest that Apple has simply ripped off Google’s innovation, the truth is the patent was actually filed in October 2006 but just granted now.
Android botnets? Not so, says Google
A couple of days ago Microsoft researcher Terry Zink claimed he’d uncovered evidence of Android phones being used as part of a botnet to send spam from Yahoo Mail servers. In his blog post on July 3rd he reported that the spam, which included "androidMobile" in the message header, and "Sent from Yahoo! Mail on Android" at the bottom of the emails, was being sent from devices located in Chile, Indonesia, Lebanon, Oman, Philippines, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Ukraine and Venezuela. He then went on to speculate that users of the infected phones might have installed Trojanized pirated versions of legitimate apps, and become infected that way.
Security experts Sophos, agreed with his findings after running investigations of its own on the spam messages, but didn’t actually find or test any of the supposed malware itself. Google has since denied that any Android devices have been compromised in this way, stating there was no evidence to prove Zink’s claim, and that the junk messages had just been formatted to look as if they originated on Android handsets.
Smartphones lift Samsung profits by 79%
It seems that Samsung didn’t get the memo about the financial crisis, and they apparently seem to be unfazed by it. The South Korean company is the best-selling phone manufacturer in the world right now, according to Gartner, and today they collect the benefits for all their efforts, reporting huge profit gains, up 79 percent year over year.
Soaring Galaxy S smartphone sales have helped Samsung become the largest smartphone manufacturer in the world as well, beating Apple in the process. This was bound to have an effect over Samsung’s profits this year and the results are starting to show already in their second quarter profits.
Microsoft sets Server 2012 lineup and pricing, ditches Home Server
Server 2008 and Windows Home Server will soon be a part of Microsoft history. While Server 2008 provided many enhancements to the Server role in the Microsoft Network control system, the recent enhancements in technology, especially the Cloud, meant that the OS was behind the times in functionality. That is why the new OS will reflect the advances that are now prevalent in IT.
Server 2012 will be offered in four editions. These are Data Center, Standard, Essentials, and Foundation. A huge cut in versions when you compare it to the 12 versions that Windows Server 2008 R2 was available in. Microsoft continues its efforts to streamline its product line. The details of the four models appear below the fold.
What if Windows 8 fails?
It’s the hypothetical scenario many IT pros try to ignore: What if Microsoft’s Windows 8 launch is a dud? What if Surface is a flop, the $40 upgrade promotion fizzles and all of those slick new Windows RT tablets don’t fly off the shelves?
Given today’s consumer-driven BYOD IT culture, it’s a very real possibility. The Windows ecosystem simply doesn’t hold the gravitas it once did, with users finding every possible excuse to cut the enterprise cord and dump their clunky old IT-issued laptops and desktops. It’s like the cold war-era Soviet Union facing off against Western society: Once the populace got a taste of Levis and free speech, there was no holding them back.
Get a dark menu bar that matches OS X's cosmic desktop
Unlike Windows computers, Macs tend to have something of a uniform look to them. Sure, you can move the dock around the screen and choose a new background image, but there just isn’t the same tweaking and customization community that exists for Windows. MenuBarFilter is a free tool that brings basic, if much welcome, customization of the menu bar to OSX.
This is a tiny utility that you need simply unzip, copy to your Applications folder and then add to your list of login Items. Once this has been done, the menu bar will no longer be silvery grey with black text, but the exact opposite. The light text on a dark background look is not only somewhat classier than the default colors, it is also in keeping with how things are in iOS.
.NET Framework Setup Verification tool now supports Windows 8
Microsoft engineer Aaron Stebner has released a new version of his .NET Framework Setup Verification tool, with preliminary support for Windows 8 and the .NET Framework 4.5.
The program’s interface remains the same as in previous builds. To use it, just launch netfx_setupverifier.exe and choose the .NET version you’d like to verify from the list (which is also a convenient way to see which .NET editions are installed on the current system).
Do you text and drive? Don't [infographic]
True story: While driving down Qualcomm Way into Mission Valley area of San Diego, a motorcycle cut across my lane. He moved from the right through the middle lane to the left. The guy was lucky that I saw him. I looked over while passing the motorcyclist, who was stopped in the left turn lane hunched over a cell phone. He had been texting! While driving a motorcycle! I've seen bicyclists do this, too.
The folks over at CarInsurance.org sent me an infographic with stats about texting and driving that should just chill your spine. For example: Most teens agree that texting and driving isn't good, but 30 percent do it anyway. Thirty-seven states ban the practice. Confess -- do you text and drive? I don't. But imagine if I had the day that the motorcycle crossed my lane -- both of us texting and driving and neither paying attention to the road.
HP should save the enterprise from Windows 8
With Microsoft bringing their own branded tablets to market, what is left for major OEMs like Hewlett Packard? One's first reaction may be to consider trying to do one better with the hardware. While this is still possible, maybe HP should consider getting back into the software business.
HP is making a good decision by concentrating on the x86 platform, rather than ARM in future tablets. Windows RT is untested at this point. Also Windows RT will not run the huge existing x86 based Windows software base that dwarfs any current app store in quantity and quality. There can be many advantages to HP's current decision.
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