The Cloud, Big Data and connected devices lift Intel semiconductors sales
For all the talk about the post-PC era and rise of alternate chip architectures, Intel defies gravity's pull. The microprocessing giant's dominance grows stronger, not lesser, which is strange juxtaposition to analyst predictions about media tablets and smartphones running ARM processors ending the PC's decades-long supremacy.
This week, iSuppli reports that Intel's share of the semiconductor market reached its highest level in a decade, 15.6 percent, largely based on its core chip business. "Intel in 2011 saw its revenue jump by 20.6 percent", Dale Ford, head of iSuppli Electronics and Semiconductor Research, says. "This outpaced every other semiconductor supplier in the Top 20 with the exception of Qualcomm Inc. and ON Semiconductor, both of which also saw exceptionally high levels of growth based on a combination of organic expansion and key acquisitions".
Don't cry for me, Steve Ballmer
But I'll shed a tear for you and remember the good times we had together.
That's because IDC asserts, despite exciting Windows 8's coming launch, that the PC era will be over by 2016. Gartner uses a different metric to arrive at 2014. But whatever the measure, the Windows era is over, too, as (gulp) Android becomes the most widely shipped operating system on the planet. I guess you were right to obsess about Google after all. Cripes! As long ago as 2003, wasn't it? Who could have imagined that it would really come to this? You weren't being paranoid at all.
Face.com: You can't stay 29 forever
Are you 35 and claiming to be 29? Don't post photos to Facebook. Today Face.com added a new attribute to its facial-detection API: age detection. The startup claims the new attribute will let developers create apps that use three criteria -- minimum, maximum and estimated age -- to determine how old people are in photos.
While the technology surely will appeal to social networkers, the big boon could be marketers looking to maximize exposure to select demographic groups, such as 18-24 year olds. Developers can set the attribute to look for specific age segments, hence the marketing potential. But there are others, such as detecting fake IDs at establishments serving alcoholic beverages. Additionally, Face.com claims to have improved facial recognition by 30 percent in this release of the API.
Got Ice Cream Sandwich? Get Google Maps 6.5 for Android now
Google isn't waiting for the install base of Android users to move to Ice Cream Sandwich, not that carriers or handset manufacturers help much (if you're waiting for that upgrade from Gingerbread, you know what I mean). Today the search and information giant updated Google Maps for Android to version 6.5, packing in capabilities specific to version 4.x. Don't you feel cheated? I would.
Google offers the best to a minority of users, and small is too big a word to describe them. According to Google's official stats, as of March 5, Ice Cream Sandwich accounts for a mere 1.6 percent of Android devices. But, hey, many of these users are the bleeding edge of influencers Google should want to reach -- and keep enthusiastic.
Box brings the mobile cloud to the enterprise
Today, cloud-storage provider Box updated its iPad and iPhone app to include support for the newly-launched Box OneCloud. The service is Box.com’s pitch to the enterprise and business market for the “post-PC era”, providing users with a means of using their iPad to directly edit documents that can be stored online, collaborated on and shared with other users as well as accessed via desktop.
Box for iPhone and iPad 2.7.1 is a free-for-personal use app that allows users to access the contents of their Box accounts via their iOS device. The app also allows users to upload files back to the service as well as edit them using supported apps on the mobile.
Consolidate your life with Windows 8 [video]
Microsoft’s image of the future makes Windows 8, supported by cloud services, the hub integrating all devices and personalization in the user’s life. The key is the new log-in method, which requires Windows Live ID. Metro application, user settings, Start Screen layout, desktop icons and user files follow the user wherever he or she signs in with Windows Live ID. Microsoft plans one consistent experience across devices. Apple and Google use similar identity mechanisms for iOS and Android devices and syncing content among them.
The problem, and perhaps it's one of those beta things, the process doesn't work so well. Then there's this: everything has to be stored within the Microsoft cloud -- that's Windows Live and SkyDrive, with the optional integration of DropBox. This is all nice if you don’t mind storing you information on someone else's server, with an unknown location and, even worse, risk some unknown people snooping inside your stuff. Do you really trust your files in someone else's hands? Even Microsoft's? There is another way to achieve this lifestyle.
Intel rises to the cloud
Cloud computing presents both challenges and opportunities for personal computing giants. Microsoft is "re-imagining" Windows for cloud-connected devices. Meanwhile, Intel rethinks its microprocessor strategies for mobile devices and servers, seeking to embrace the cloud at both ends of the consumption supply chain. For these incumbents that defined the personal computing era, the post-PC era future requires leaping from the past, not clinging to it.
Where the "Wintel" marriage is likely to remain strongest is the server. Microsoft's post-PC -- what I call cloud-connected device -- strategy is two-fold: Providing direct, hosted services or applications businesses can host internally and expanding Windows' support for additional chip architectures. For its part, Intel develops microprocessors for more device categories, while optimizing server chips for cloud applications and services, such as the recently announced Xeon processor E5-2600 product family.
SugarSync 3.0 gets darker look, improves iPad features
A huge proportion of us are now multi-device users. In addition to our home computers, there is also a work machine to think about and to this you can add other mobile devices such as iPads and Android phones. Almost without realizing it, we have become used to living in the cloud and web-based email services such as Gmail, and online office tools such as Google Doc, have made it possible to access our emails and files on any device with an internet connection.
There is no reason that the same philosophy should not be applied to files, and this is something that SugarSync aims to address. The latest version has been redesigned from scratch, bringing a new look and ways of working for anyone who managed to get their hands on a new iPad.
Will you deploy Office 365 now?
We gave you the weekend to ponder the significance to your business. Now it's time to ask: Will you deploy Office 365 (or additional seats), following last week's price cuts? Are you now more likely to adopt cloud-based productivity apps?
Four days ago, Microsoft cut Office 365 prices by up to 20 percent, depending on the plan and number of seats. It's a hefty cut coming at a time of increased Google Apps acceptance among enterprises. Microsoft's calling card is familiarity -- cloud apps connecting to Office on the desktop while providing anytime, anywhere access.
Microsoft Dynamics looks to the cloud
Today, Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft reaffirmed its commitment to bring business process software to Azure. Kirill Tatarinov, president of the company's Business Solutions group, promises that Dynamics NAV 2013 and Dynamics GP 2013, which are separately set to be available in calendar fourth quarter, "will run on Windows Azure in an elastic Microsoft cloud". Dynamics AX 2012 R2 is on track for similar release.
Dynamics NAV and GP are designed for small-to-midsize organizations. SMBs looking for an early taste of NAV 2013 will get their chance when a beta becomes available in May, says Tatarinov, during Microsoft Convergence 2012. The next AX version, which looks to be v2014, will evolve into an enterprise cloud service.
AirCover protects your phone and files via the cloud
Protection software is something that most people will most readily associate with desktop and laptop computers, but even owners of mobile devices such as cell phones and tablets have to take care. It is not just viruses, something that can affect Android users, that mobile device owners have to worry about. It is the risk of losing a device or having it stolen.
Besides the value of the device itself, there is also the data it contains to consider. If you have concerns in any of these areas, AirCover is a free tool for iOS and Android that could help to give you peace of mind.
Bing Maps is lost on the Internet
Is Microsoft's Bing having a meltdown? One of my colleagues just alerted me to troubles accessing Bing Maps. He gets an error message, as do two other BetaNews staffers. We're located in different parts of the country using various cable or DSL services. This is not a localized problem.
The outage appears to be broader than Bing Maps. I also can't get to Bing News, while someone else couldn't get Search, which works for me. Colleague Tim Conneally pinged Bing Maps while I wrote the first paragraph and got repeated timeouts. Are you having Bing troubles today?
If your Android is one of 1,000, you can stream Netflix
Who says Android device diversity is bad for developers? There has been lots of blabbering on the InterWebs about fragmentation and how it hurts Android compared to iOS. Not at Netflix, which claims support for about 1,000 different Androids. Yowza!
Fragmentation is real. As of March 5th, 93.9 percent of the install base was on Android 2.x -- 62 percent on Gingerbread (v2.3.x) and 25.3 percent on Froyo (v2.2). Newest version, Ice Cream Sandwich (v4.x) accounts, for just 1.2 percent, and that's nearly six months after release.
Jobs demanding 'cloud skills' increased 400% since 2010, says firm
Though it doesn't identify exactly what "cloud computing skills" actually are, business intelligence firm Wanted Analytics on Tuesday said more than 5,000 U.S. cloud computing job openings were listed online in February alone. This is up 92 percent from February 2011, and an impressive 400 percent from February 2010.
Software Engineers, Computer Systems Engineers and Architects, and Network and Computer Systems Administrators are the three jobs that most commonly listed cloud computing skills. However, Wanted Analytics said 2011 job listings weren't just in the engineering and administration sector. Jobs in marketing, sales, and financial and marketing analysis also demanded experience with cloud computing at much greater rates than previous years.
Rest in Peace, PC: 1975-2014
Today, Gartner made a bold prediction about changing computing eras, claiming that the cloud will replace the PC as the "center of users' digital lives" by 2014. Welcome to the cloud-connected device era.
The implications are staggering, if Gartner is right, and keep in mind the firm's core customers are enterprises not consumers -- hence the audience for this staggering prediction, which isn't so unbelievable. Computing and informational relevance has been shifting away from the PC to cloud-connected devices for nearly a decade. I started earnestly talking and writing about it in 2005, when still an analyst at Jupiter Research. Like other trends, this one started slowly and now accelerates quickly.
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