Sony and SanDisk look to improve video streams by predicting what you'll want to watch
Flash memory company SanDisk, along with content studio Sony Pictures Entertainment and mobile carriers SoftBank Mobile and Orange, are working on an IEEE draft standard that seeks to tackle the mobile network traffic problem created when too many people watch streaming video at the same time. The standard, called HQME (High Quality Mobile Experience) partitions off a section of a phone's memory and automatically caches the most popular web media content when network traffic is at its lowest.
The demand for mobile bandwidth is extremely high already, and only getting worse. At two points in the work day, there are huge spikes in consumption when everyone is simultaneously logged in and attempting to connect to some form of media.
The Bat! 5.0 improves comm features and email management
RITLabs has released a major update to its email client. The Bat! 5.0 features a complete rework of the program's intercommunication mechanisms, which significantly improves the way it access mail via IMAP. Not only does this make the program more stable and secure, but it also allows for the implementation of new search capabilities.
The Bat! 5.0 also boasts several new features, including folder information panels that display dynamically updated information about the currently selected mail folder, and a "smart" hints function that pops up relevant options when the mouse is pointed at specific parts of the program.
AdMob survey shows 28% of tablet owners use device as primary PC
Google is putting its AdMob acquisition to good data analysis use, releasing some fascinating findings about tablets. A March survey of 1,430 (presumably) tablet owners reveals that the majority (77 percent) use their desktop or laptop PC less after buying the device. Twenty-eight percent use the tablet as their primary PC. A tablet may not be a PC by definition, but it's functionally equivalent enough for some people.
Like I wrote in February: "The PC era is over."
Bing for iPad rocks
Earlier today, Microsoft released its Bing app for iPad -- and, whoa is it beautiful. The iPad screen grabs here are poor representations of how good this app looks and how functionally useful it is. Bing for iPad is so delish I could lick the screen. Did I mention that it's useful? I'd pay, even if Microsoft charged a buck ninety-nine.
Microsoft doesn't get the credit deserved for applications development. The company seems to do its best work when freed from Windows. Yes, that's a criticism. Windows is a ball and chain for Microsoft developers. Office for Macintosh is one of Microsoft's best applications, and it's exceptional among Mac software titles. Xbox and Xbox Live also show what Microsoft developers can do when their creative juices are freed from Windows. Kinect is even better example, and Bing for iPad is another.
FCC votes to force wireless data roaming agreements
On a party line vote, the Federal Communications Commission mandated larger carriers to sign roaming agreements for mobile data with their smaller competitors, a move that had been widely expected. Previously such agreements had been voluntary, allowing big carriers such as AT&T and Verizon to hold a competitive advantage over rivals.
Three Democratic commissioners -- Chairman Julius Genachowski, Mignon Clyburn, and Michael Copps -- voted for the deal, while the two Republicans -- Robert McDowell and Meredith Baker -- voted against it. McDowell went a step further and maintained the FCC lacked the legal authority to enforce the measure.
Online Armor 5: Still tough as nails but now prettier
Security specialist Emsisoft has released Online Armor 5.0, the latest version of their do-everything firewall package. If you've tried the program before then the most immediately obvious change will be its revamped interface, which makes it easier to locate the features you need and to understand the various alerts that you'll see.
Online Armor has now also extended its program trust level settings, which allow it to define exactly how much access your installed applications have to key files, folders and Registry keys.
Pandora sends personal data en masse to advertisers, researcher says
Federal prosecutors in New Jersey are looking into whether mobile application developers are illegally sharing personal data of their users with advertising firms, and now a security researcher may have just reinforced the the case against at least one of those involved.
Veracode senior researcher Tyler Shields shared details of their study on music service Pandora, and found that "personal information is being transmitted to advertising agencies in mass quantities." Shields did not explicitly say whether or not the information transmitted may be illegal.
Doh, of course Microsoft should open lots more retail stores
Matt Rosoff, a former analyst covering Microsoft and now working for Business Insider, has a startling and disturbing report today. Citing unnamed sources, Rosoff claims that Microsoft's leadership is divided about opening more retail stores.
Geez Louise, it's not rocket science. Open lots more stores, Microsoft. Actually, you can't open them fast enough.
Facebook open sources the data center
To figure out how to most efficiently handle the massive amount of traffic to Facebook and its related pages, a team of just three engineers working for the popular social network designed a new style of servers and power management systems and a new data center architecture. This became Facebook's Prineville, Oregon data center.
On Thursday, Facebook debuted the Open Compute Project which open sourced all the data center and server designs that its Prineville team created.
There are millions to be made in the iPhone underground economy
For almost as long as there have been iPhones there has been "jailbreaking," the process of hacking the iPhone so that it will install apps not sold by Apple's App Store. Jailbreaking is popular, so much so that the Washington Post reports that software merchants supplying practitioners make millions doing so.
Cydia, the most famous, in fact dominant, source of jailbreak apps, pulls in over $10 million in annual revenue and has about 4.5 million active weekly users, according to the Post. Developers are making tens of thousands on their apps.
Google to add malware alert system to Chrome browser
Google is aiming to help stop the spread of malware, saying Thursday it plans to add a malware alert feature to prevent the download of malicious applications. The feature is an offshoot of its already popular Safe Browsing feature, which is a Google-maintained list of malicious sites.
Such functionality has been available as an API for developers for about two years now, and Chrome's anti-malware alert system also leans on this code. There are no restrictions on how this API could be used, so Chrome's competitors could just as easily add a similar feature using the same database. Currently Google is the only one using it, however.
AVG 'Summer Update' brings LiveKive and Family Safety tools
AVG has released a "Summer Update" for its security portfolio. AVG Internet Security 2011, AVG Anti-Virus 2011 and AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition 2011 all benefit from higher malware detection rates, faster scan times, a lighter user interface and user experience improvements.
At the same time, AVG has also rolled out two new standalone services, both of which will also be accessible through the main AVG interface. AVG LiveKive is an online backup service offering free (5GB) and paid (25GB and "unlimited", or 500GB in reality) subscriptions, while AVG Family Safety offers online protection for children from unsuitable social networking sites as well as the wider web.
Despite earthquakes, one billion camera phones will sell this year
Market research company Strategy Analytics issued a report on Thursday which predicted that sales of mobile phones equipped with cameras will exceed one billion per year for the first time in 2011.
This milestone would represent a 21% growth over the 918 million sold worldwide in 2010, and would solidify the mobile phone image sensor as the most successful mobile peripheral ever developed.
You can't trust Gartner's smartphone OS forecast, or any other
Gartner and IDC agree on something: Microsoft's mobile operating system will rank second to Google's by 2015. Both analyst firms largely, and possibly wrongly, assume that Windows Phone 7 will take over share given up by Symbian -- as Nokia swaps its mobile OS for Microsoft's. Meanwhile, Windows Phone would have little, perhaps no, organic sales growth. I don't believe it, and neither should you. The smartphone market is too volatile to predict that far ahead. The problem isn't specific to Gartner; every analyst firm is in the same boat trying to find land in stormy seas.
Gartner released its smartphone OS forecast today, and it is more bullish about the Symbian-Windows Phone switcheroo than IDC. Gartner predicts that Symbian will go from 19.3 percent market share this year to 0.1 percent in 2015. Windows Mobile will have 19.5 percent share, Gartner claims. IDC sees Symbian with 20.9 percent share this year and Microsoft's smartphone OS with the same percentage in 2015.
YouTube plans overhaul of site into 'channels'
YouTube is set to overhaul its service in an effort to prepare itself for the rise of connected devices, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday. Similar content would be grouped into "channels," including fee-based ones that would feature up to 10 hours of original content a week.
Sources told the paper that this would be a significant investment, to the tune of at least $100 million. However with content increasingly being viewed off-website, the move seems aimed to protect YouTube's strong position in the streaming media sector. It could also offer the site a new revenue stream outside of the sale of advertising.
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