Showing posts with label TECHNOLOGY. Show all posts
Showing posts with label TECHNOLOGY. Show all posts
Monday, June 3, 2013
Tim Cook talk about reason iPhone products have no big size
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At the meeting D11 held on May 29th, Apple CEO Tim Cook revealed much information about the product "Apple", which is why the company is not a large screen of the iPhone.
Photo: Business Insider
When Apple was busy with iPod, company has launched many an iPod with sizes from small to large, such as iPod Classic, iPod Mini, iPod Shuffle. But to break the mold when Samsung smartphone size 4.x to 5.x smartphones inch inch Galaxy (S3, Note), to create a new trend in the market, Apple is losing market share.
The reason for this, Apple CEO Tim Cook said: "Apple has sold many types of iPod because the market is large enough, should produce different sizes of products that meet the different needs each person is reasonable. "Every iPod has a different function separately.
So far, Apple has tried to serve all people with all kinds of needs with a single iPhone. "This may change over time," said Tim Cook said. "Apple could create a phone with a big screen."
The time it takes a long time to the details of a phone with hardware, software and services. To do this, well, he prefers to focus on a multi-line phone. That's why Apple has not released many smartphones already perform similar to the iPod.
In addition, according to Tim Cook, "a (smartphone) on the big screen today in many exchange market," as the display of the dark color of the screen brightness and use more power and less true. During this time, Apple's customers want the "burden" of the foregoing and "make a decision".
"And now Apple is making a slightly smaller screen, this is the best solution for most customers."
On the market trend and losing market share to rivals, says Tim Cook "victory is never on the creation of more." He continued to explain, "the Apple laptops to create the best, but not the best. Create the best MP3 player, but no more. Creating the best tablet sell more Best. Create the best smartphone, but no more. "
Tim Cook is based on three measures: the commitment, the level of customer satisfaction and business.
Video Apple CEO Tim Cook talk about "Why Apple Only Makes One iPhone" at the D11 Conference - Source: YouTube / WSJ / AllThingsD
Friday, May 31, 2013
Facebook seeks to protect women
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Facebook strengthening efforts against the hostile rhetoric, especially the message encouraging violence against women registered on their site.
Facebook's Graph Search bars adults snooping for minors
6 Tips For Accelerating Traffic From Facebook Fan Page
Facebook seeks to protect women
According to CNN, Marne Levine, Facebook's vice president said: "In those days, it is clear that our system did not detect and effectively eliminate the hostile arguments, particularly on the issue of equal world."
Levine admitted in some cases, the message encourages violence against women is not removed from Facebook or persist on the site quickly. "In recent months, we have tried to upgrade the system to react quickly, but without success We must do better and we will." - Said Mr. Levine.
A coalition of advocacy organizations for women called Women, Action and Media is in favor of the Facebook statement. Facebook Group confirms suggested they join the campaign against the hostile messages on social networks.
Facebook is committed to intensify efforts to detect hostile messages with the assistance of legal experts and advocacy groups for women's rights, training of company personnel to detect hostile messages. Facebook will force users intend to create pages whose content is to provide sensitive personal information.
The Facebook page of the group of people with names like "Kick ass girl because you do not get a sandwich", "girlfriend of a brutal rape for fun", "prostitutes Pierre flooding in their bellies" ... are labeled "offensive" (offensive, disgusting). These pages are no longer displayed in search results on Facebook ....
Mr. Levine said that this is a difficult challenge to Facebook. However, Facebook - with over one billion members - will create a balance between eliminating hostile to guarantee freedom of expression messages.
"We want to provide a platform for people to freely share ideas, but always respect the rights of others - he said Levine - To do this, we will make every effort to ensure that their sites are safe, clean , helping people to easily share and connect. "
Before that, in addition to anti-women messages, some users to create Facebook pages praising the perpetrator of the shooting of mass murder or suspect James Holmes Dzhokhar Tsarnaev Boston bomb. Therefore, the organization has protected rights group campaigns of violence against women message.
Some companies also pulled ads of the Facebook page to protest against the violent message. Including car brand Nissan, Dove ...
Thursday, May 30, 2013
Bill Gates still washes the dishes every night
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During his visit to Australia, the U.S. billionaire Bill Gates leads the world's richest, but he still washes the dishes every night.
In an interview with ABC, when asked why he had all 10 million show, Bill Gates says he does not want too much money for their children because they want to "have the freedom to choose what we want to do in life."
The billionaire said that leaving too much money for the children of only negative rather than the positive effects. "I believe that a child should grow up knowing that he must find a way to have a job and money. And you will not be able to understand that all of a sudden there is money that the desired improvements" - Bill Gates said.
"I lost consciousness many things in life. I was weeding the garden in a long period of time - Bill Gates is a joke - I've forgotten how it works. But I always wash the dishes every night. There is much work to maintain." Bill Gates said.
Monday, January 21, 2013
Apple Lets Buyers on China Web Pay in 2-Year Installments
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Apple Inc. (AAPL) introduced installment payment plans for buyers of iPhones and MacBook laptops in China as it struggles to compete with low-cost devices in the world’s largest computer and mobile-phone market.
Jerome Favre/Bloomberg
Apple will let buyers
split payments into 3, 6, 12, 18 or 24 installments, according to its
website. Through Jan. 23, choosing 12 or fewer installments carries no
interest. An interest of 6.5 percent will be charged for 18
installments, and 8.5 percent for 24 installments.
Payments on purchases costing from 300 yuan
($48) to 30,000 yuan made via the company’s Chinese website can be
spread over as long as two years, according to the site. The plan, which
requires a China Merchants Bank Co. (600036) credit card, has fees ranging from zero to 8.5 percent.
Apple,
based in Cupertino, California, is trying to make its products more
affordable in China after being surpassed by local suppliers such as ZTE Corp. (000063) and Lenovo Group Ltd. (992)
in the smartphone market. The iPhone 5, released in China last month,
is priced at 5,288 yuan on Apple’s local site, equal to about six weeks’
pay for the average urban worker.
“There is an enormous
mid-range consumer market that they are not tapping into,” said Mark
Natkin, managing director of Marbridge Consulting Ltd., a Beijing-based
market research firm. “They’re trying to figure out how to make products
more accessible to that market segment. This is a good step in that
direction.”
Monthly Payments
Online customers in China will be able to split payments into three, six, 12, 18 or 24 installments, according to Apple’s website.
Through Jan. 23, choosing 12 or fewer installments carries no fee. A
fee of 6.5 percent of the selling price will be charged for 18
installments, and 8.5 percent for 24 installments.
Carolyn Wu, a
Beijing-based Apple spokeswoman, declined to say how or if those fees
are divided between the company and the bank.
Apple dropped to
sixth in China’s smartphone market in the third quarter, from fourth in
the prior three-month period, as local producers lured buyers with
smartphones costing less than 1,000 yuan each, according to researcher
IDC.
The phone-maker is also opening new stores in China and Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook
has visited twice in the past 10 months as the company tries to boost
sales. The country will eventually overtake the U.S. to become Apple’s
largest market, Cook said last week.
Urban workers in China had average monthly pay of about 3,585 yuan in the first nine months of last year, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics.
Apple
“has likely approached maximum penetration in China’s higher economic
stratas, and now needs to be able to appeal to students, workers and
rural residents to sustain robust growth,” said David Wolf, China
managing director for market consultant Allison+Partners in Beijing.
“Financing
is traditionally the best route to make expensive luxury items
affordable to those unable to save the cash for them, and if Apple pulls
it off it will be a pioneer in consumer credit in China,” Wolf said.
U.S., Brazil
Apple has used financing plans in other markets, including the U.S., Brazil and Singapore, according to its local sites for those countries.
In the U.S., a limited time offer allows new Visa card members with Barclays Bank Delaware to get no-interest financing for as long as 18 months. Users of the company’s online store in Brazil
can pay in 12 installments without interest when placing an order with
American Express, MasterCard or Visa, according to the local site. In
Singapore, the company offers a 12-month interest-free installment plan on purchases of at least S$668 ($545) with a Citibank credit card.
In
China, Apple recorded $5.7 billion of sales during the quarter ended
September. The company has 11 retail outlets in the country, including Hong Kong.
The phone-maker distributes iPhones in China through China Unicom (Hong Kong) Ltd. (762) and China Telecom Corp. (728),
the nation’s second- and third-largest carriers. Both companies offer
subsidies on the handset that can reduce the cost to consumers.
Apple has yet to reach agreement to offer the devices through China Mobile Ltd. (941), whose customers make up 64 percent of the nation’s 1.1 billion mobile users.
To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Edmond Lococo in Beijing at elococo@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Tighe at mtighe4@bloomberg.net
From Bloomberg
Thursday, December 27, 2012
Toyota seeks to settle acceleration cases for $1.1 billion
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By Deepa Seetharaman and Bernie Woodall
Toyota Motor Corp plans to spend $1.1 billion to resolve sweeping U.S. class-action litigation over claims that millions of its vehicles accelerate unintentionally, as the Japanese automaker looks to turn the page on the biggest safety crisis in its history.
About 16 million Toyota, Lexus
and Scion vehicles sold in the United States spanning the model years
1998 to 2010 are covered by the action, according to court filings made
public on Wednesday. Thirty nameplates are affected, including the
top-selling Toyota Camry midsize sedan and Corolla compact car.
A Toyota Logo is pictured on a Prius car at a Toyota dealership in west London February 9, 2010.
Credit: Reuters/Toby Melville
Toyota,
the No. 3 automaker in the U.S. market, admitted no fault in proposing
the settlement, one of the largest of U.S. mass class-action litigation
in the automotive sector. Investors snapped up shares of Toyota and its
stock rose 2 percent in early trading.
"This
was a difficult decision, especially since reliable scientific evidence
and multiple independent evaluations have confirmed the safety of
Toyota's electronic throttle control systems," Christopher Reynolds,
general counsel for Toyota Motor Sales, USA, said in a statement.
"However,
we concluded that turning the page on this legacy legal issue through
the positive steps we are taking is in the best interests of the
company, our employees, our dealers and, most of all, our customers."
The
figure eclipses other settlements in the auto industry including
Bridgestone Corp's $240 million payout to Ford Motor Co in 2005 over
Ford's massive Firestone tire safety recall in 2001. Ford replaced 13
million Firestone tires, installed mostly as original equipment on the
company's popular Explorer SUV, in one of the biggest recalls in U.S.
history.
Toyota said it would take a
one-time pretax charge of $1.1 billion to cover the costs. The company
said it plans to book the charge as operating expenses in its
October-December third quarter.
Hagens
Berman, the law firm representing Toyota owners who brought the lawsuit
in 2010, issued a statement saying that the settlement was valued
between $1.2 billion and $1.4 billion. In a memo filed in court, the
lawyers said the settlement was "a landmark, if not a record, settlement
in automobile defect class action litigation in the United States."
Toyota's
recall of more than 10 million vehicles between 2009 and 2011 hurt the
company's reputation for reliability and safety. Toyota faces an
estimated $10 billion in potential civil liability in U.S. courts, for
consumer fraud, personal injury and wrongful death claims stemming from
acceleration complaints.
Wednesday's $1.1. billion settlement does not cover the wrongful death or injury claims.
LINGERING EFFECTS
The effect of the recalls on sales and loyalty remains "difficult to isolate," IHS Automotive analyst Rebecca Lindland said.
"A
lot of their growth through the early 2000s were first-time Toyota
buyers," she said. "Those are the people that were most vulnerable to
saying, 'I'll never own a Toyota again.' The long term effects won't
fully be realized until all of the cars that have been impacted by the
recall have been retired."
The
biggest safety crisis in Toyota's history began to get public notice in
August 2009 when an off-duty California Highway Patrol officer Mark
Saylor and three members of his family were killed in a Lexus ES 350
that crashed at a high speed.
A
separate lawsuit over the death of the Saylor family was settled out of
court. A handful of wrongful death and personal injury cases are still
pending, but the vast majority of the litigation over this issue will be
finished if the proposed settlement is approved, said a person with
knowledge of the remaining lawsuits who wished to remain anonymous.
Within
a half year of the Saylor family crash, Toyota President Akio Toyoda
and other company executives were questioned in a high-profile U.S.
Congressional hearing, and Toyoda made a public apology.
Toyota maintained all along that its electronic throttle control system was not at fault. It reiterated that on Wednesday.
A
study by U.S. safety regulator the National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration and NASA found no link between the reports of unintended
acceleration and Toyota's electronic throttle control system.
INCREASINGLY COMMON
The
settlement, which must be approved by a California federal judge,
includes direct payments to customers as well as the installation of a
brake override system in more than 2.7 million vehicles, according to
the settlement agreement filed in court.
The
terms include a $250 million fund for former Toyota owners who sold
vehicles at reduced prices and a separate $250 million fund for owners
not eligible for the brake override system.
Attorneys
for the plaintiffs are slated to receive up to $200 million in fees and
$27 million in costs, according to court documents.
Richard
Cupp, a professor at Pepperdine University School of Law, said the
settlement was large for the automotive sector but was dwarfed by other
litigation involving economic loss claims. State cases against the
tobacco industry, for instance, amounted to more than $200 billion.
"That
could mean that lawsuits like these could become increasingly common,
even where there is not provable physical injury on large scale," Cupp
said.
The case is In re: Toyota
Motor Corp. Unintended Acceleration Marketing, Sales Practices and
Products Liability Litigation, U.S. District Court, Central District of
California, No. 10-ml-02151.
(Reporting
by Deepa Seetharaman and Bernie Woodall; Additional reporting by Dan
Levine and Jonathan Stempel, and Yoko Kubota in Tokyo; Editing by Dan
Grebler, Cynthia Osterman and Chris Gallagher)
Tuesday, December 4, 2012
Galaxy S4 will be launched in April next year?
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According to SamMobile, Samsung is currently working with a project called "Project J" to develop the next generation of Galaxy S devices (called Galaxy S IV).
Pictures are only for illustration
As expected, the Korean manufacturer will officially introduce this device in April next year, in accordance with the refresh cycle of a year that Samsung has applied to the Galaxy S smartphone. The source could not confirm the configuration of the Galaxy S IV, but some previous rumors say that it will use AMOLED display 5 "Full-HD resolution, 13MP camera and run a quad-core processor clocked at 2GHz. Comes in it's latest version of Android to date Announces S IV.
SamMobile also revealed another rumors regarding the Galaxy Note II. They say Samsung is planning to launch a new variant of the Note II for Europe with the configuration and lower price than the original, from which the company can reach more customers. Samsung will remove the S-Pen feature on variations to help distinguish it from the traditional Note II. Maybe Samsung will not use Super AMOLED screen for the lower rate.
Final rumors regarding a new tablet that Samsung plans to use it to compete with the ASUS Transformer. This tablet has a large screen 13.3 "and the option to the QWERTY keyboard. SamMobile not mention the operating system that the device will use, but if it was released to confront Transformer machines, Android may be a reasonable prediction.
SamMobile
Facebook will get WhatsApp?
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According to TechCrunch, Facebook is in talks to acquire messaging applications on mobile devices WhatsApp is a large number of users.
Established since 2009 in the United States, WhatsApp company offers an application for smartphones, is compatible multiple mobile platforms including Android, BlackBerry, iOS, Symbian and Windows Phone. Application (app) WhatsApp messages using group data network (Wi-Fi, 3G), do not use telecommunication networks such as SMS, MMS.
WhatsApp's attraction is its ability to attach multimedia files such as images, audio or video message. The user can share the current geographical location to another, chatting in groups. All are free, not including subscription fees or annoying ads. Users simply connect to the Internet via Wi-Fi.
For Facebook, WhatsApp is a "potential gold mine" when the application now has 100 million users daily, a presence in 250 countries around the world and is compatible several different devices or platforms. As announced from WhatsApp, calculated to 10-2011 application has 1 billion messages per day.
There Facebook IM independence by building social networks is Facebook Messenger. Still available on most mobile platforms today, but Facebook Messenger still can not be compared with WhatsApp.
Meanwhile, the Google Talk instant messaging applications, Google Hangouts increasingly popular due to be built on the Android platform. Mobile messaging market more and more bloated by the rapid growth of smartphones. The market share pie lucrative untapped.
Data security concerns with WhatsApp
Dangerous error for user data WhatsApp Youth was published in the article "Gender graphics from free messaging application" (30-9-2012) has not been completely overcome.
Exchange of user data when sending from mobile devices via WhatsApp to the server can be stolen and decrypted easily, even accounting for the victim's account.
Announced the latest group in early December Heise Security said the latest version of WhatsApp can be exploited by hackers, send / receive messages from the victim's account that they did not know. The group for know WhatsApp company was "very slow" and "not positive" reception as well as error handling dangerous.
Now users can refer to group similar applications together, such as Skype, Line or Viber.
Monday, December 3, 2012
Windows 8 is not outpacing Windows 7 adoption rate?
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TECHNOLOGY
While Microsoft has hailed sales of more than 40 million licenses of Windows 8 in just the first month, traffic on the internet does not reflect a similar pattern based on the 15 billion page views per month that StatCounter analyzed. As of November 28, 2012, Windows 8 had an internet usage rate of 1.44% which is a fraction of what Windows 7 had in the month following its release. Windows 7 had a 4.93% share when it was one month old in November 2009.
Now before people start waling about the failure of the new OS or lies told by some evil software corporation, there may be some mitigating factors, most notably Hurricane Sandy which definitely had a significant impact on internet usage and shopping for an extended period of time. Another statistic that StatCounter noted was the relative increase in the adoption rate for each OS one month after release. Windows 8 had a 345% increase post-launch versus a 223% increase for Windows 7 for its relative period.
Windows 8 initial share at launch was also smaller, 0.38%, compared to 2.21% for Windows 7. The most immediate reason for that is that everyone was eager to upgrade out of disaster that was Windows Vista. The next immediate reason for the smaller share is because Windows 7, by-and-large, works great, thus the urgency to escape (like Vista) just is not there.
Another factor could be that the initial glut of licenses went to manufacturers and so we may yet see a surge in traffic as the holidays come to pass. Either way, Microsoft does not have that much to worry about. Windows holds a 90% share of the market based on the usage statistics gathered. Windows 7 has nearly 53% by itself, followed by Windows XP at 26%, Mac OS X with 8%, Vista at 6.6% and the iPad grabbing 2.91% all by itself. Linux holds on to a near constant 0.9%.
As to whether or not Windows 8 is outpacing Windows 7 or not, it depends on where you look, how you look, who you ask and when you ask. The initial user experience with Windows 8 is a drastic departure from previous versions. Naturally, people may be a bit cautious.
Have you taken Windows 8 for a spin? Microsoft is doing a lot to entice you to upgrade. Have you? Will you?
sources: StatCounter via BGR
Windows Phone 7.8 Is Even now Alive, Releases Beginning 2013
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Microsoft windows Mobile 8 is now out, and MS windows Cellphone 7 customers can only look on in jealousy. Well, that is until they get their own upgrade in the form of MS windows Cellphone 7.8 that contributes a variety of functions from MS windows Cellphone 8 to the foundation. Microsoft has not said much about the upgrade since it was declared, but at least we now know it’s still in existence.
In a post on the MS windows Cellphone blog, the team has finally damaged its quiet on the MS windows Cellphone 7.8 upgrade. The great thing is that the upgrade is still coming, and that Microsoft has not discontinued the customers of its previous cellular OS. The bad news is that the upgrade has been pressed returning from later this season to beginning next season.
Back when the upgrade was first declared, the only thing we really realized about MS windows Cellphone 7.8 is that it would resizable live flooring. That is a excellent enough upgrade as it is, but it will bring other functions from MS windows Cellphone 8 as well. For instance, MS windows Cellphone 7.8 enhances the variety of theme and feature colors to help create the phone more personal. It also functions some new secure screen options such as the Bing picture of the day.
Microsoft is not failing to remember about Mobile gamers either. The organization says that Words with Friends and Sketch Something are now available on MS windows Cellphone 7.5 and will be on 7.8 when it releases. Rovio is also operating on bringing Angry Birds Space and Angry Birds Star Wars to the foundation.
Windows Cellphone 7.8 gadgets will also launch in more countries around the world as we near its launch. It will be sold as an access Ms windows Cellphone compared to the current range of MS windows Cellphone 8 gadgets. The move to 7.8 should ensure that those who buy cheaper cellular phones will not be short changed out of the many improvements found on Ms windows Cellphone 8.
After all this, the big question now is when MS windows Cellphone 7.8 will be available. There is no tangible date just yet, but MS says that it’s currently wanting to start examining the update with its components and service provider associates to make sure its ready by a launch sometime in beginning 2013.
In other information, Microsoft has shortened the Abominable Snow Monster from Rankin-Bass’ vacation traditional, Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer, to sell MS windows Phones for the organization. It’s one of the most wonderful vacation ads you’ll see this season.
Monday, November 26, 2012
Batman's CGI armor can helps he can fly really?
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TECHNOLOGY
Batman is a fictional comic book character of DC Comics, which was first released in May, 1939. Batman was created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger, Bill Finger said, at first see outlines iconic Batman by Bob Kane, he found this character very familiar appearance because distant for Superman (Super Man).
Therefore, Finger feedback and eliminate more borrowing, for example red on his clothes, and then added to the dish as gloves, gloves, hood, coat ...Flying is the dream of all of us, including the superhero in the movies, science fiction, unfortunately, Batman can not fly, so, a computer graphics artist (CGI - Computer-generated Imagery) is Mark Vick designed for this hero armor idea titled Batman Beyond, with wings so he can fly.
Current, Mark Vick does not describe the details of this idea in addition to armor post images. Accordingly, this armor (not the material) consists of two main colors are red and black, will cover the whole body of Batman, with a lot of sugar on and external motifs (see profile outside can see this outfit quite similar to the Dare Devil, a Marvel superhero).
Features in the wings armor, concealed behind his shoulder blades, as needed to expand rapidly, and this motorized wings to help him fly, freedom more convenient in the protection of his justice.
Monday, November 19, 2012
Video Game more than a pass-time
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TECHNOLOGY
A recent research taken out by a group of researchers from the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston has proved that video gaming is much more than just a pass-time. In their research, they have proved that video game players are better than medical residents when it comes to play the role of virtual surgeons.
In order to prove their hypothesis, the study researchers carried out an experiment in which they enrolled video game players and University of Texas Medical Branch residents. Both were asked to carry out tasks, which involved machines that are used in surgeries. Some of the tasks including suturing and needle task, said study researchers.
There were measures at which study researchers marked both the groups. Some of the points being assessed by study researchers were pressure points and co-ordination of hands and eyes. After assessing these and other factors, it was revealed that students, who are used to playing game, were better in the task.
"The inspiration for this study first developed when I saw my son, an avid video game player, take the reins of a robotic surgery simulator at a medical convention", said lead researcher of the study, Dr. Sami Kilic from the University of Texas Medical Branch.
Thursday, November 15, 2012
Seven days with Nokia's Lumia 920: The bad
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As regulars will know, I'm a fan of Nokia's hardware design, and I've liked Microsoft's mobile OS ever since it hit 7.5 (Mango). So I decided to spend a week using the Lumia 920, Nokia's flagship Windows Phone 8 handset, as my main phone to see what the two of them could come up with.
READ PART 1: Seven days with the Nokia Lumia 920: The good
I've already taken a look at what I like about the smartphone. Now it's time for the bad.
Topping the list of complaints I've seen from others is the weight. At 186g (0.41lbs), the Lumia 920 is heavier than its rivals, as well as being fatter. For me, this isn't a big deal, whether it's in my pocket or in my hand — it's only about as hefty as a 200-page paperback book. I'm including this here, though, as some people simply won't tolerate that weight in a phone.
While the phone's call quality is good, other essential communication features such as email and SMS are hampered by a keyboard I just can't abide. There's no haptic feedback, for example, and the predictive text often seems to miss the mark.
What's particularly frustrating is that it is nigh on impossible — I suspect it is actually impossible (NOTE: see update below) — to select a letter in the middle of a word you've already typed. Plus, it's annoying that you have to go to a separate screen of letters if you want to use an apostrophe — something I need frequently — but I could just about live with that.
Overall, the input has progressed little from Windows Phone 7, where the same things annoyed me there too.
It's a shame the keyboard is frustrating, as the messaging applications themselves are perfectly good. Setting up a Gmail, Nokia or a Microsoft-based account is easy enough. While corporate Google Apps accounts are a little trickier, once you know which options you are supposed to choose, it can be done. (Hint: Don't select 'other account', select 'Google' instead. Then get a one-time password from your organisation's intranet, most likely at 'gpw.yourcompanydomain.com', and use that to set up sync for the first time.)
I'm also disappointed by the browser in Windows Phone 8; it lacks maturity, especially some of the advanced features taken for granted in Firefox Mobile or Chrome on Android.
On top of this, the browser deals with some redirects strangely. For instance, when you try to join a public or open Wi-Fi network that requires a splash-screen login, it sometimes leaves you unable to connect. On Virgin Media's London Underground Wi-Fi service, I've found that the phone just will not connect.
The other elephant in the room is the app store. There aren't many Windows Phone 8 appsknocking around right now, and whatever we heard on launch day about the likes of Skype, Pandora or features like Data Sense being available, they just aren't present on the platform or phone today; most are scheduled for release in early 2013.
Availability of apps really is one of the weakest points of Windows Phone 8, and everyone knows it. It's not about sheer volume of apps — the problem is there are so few of the ones that I use the most: Hailo or a decent dictaphone app, for example. The most frustrating thing is the knowledge that if you are looking for a specific app, chances are it won't be available yet.
There are other, more minor, disappointments. While the Lumia 920 has near-field communications (NFC) built in, you won't be able to use it for mobile payments unless your bank has made an app for Microsoft's OS.
The undecided
That's the bad, and I've previously covered the good: but there are a number of other features in the handset I'm still undecided on.
Nokia Maps, for example, is a mostly easy to use and feature-rich free mapping solution on the smartphone. However, whenever I needed to use it for public transport directions, I found myself wishing for Google's software. The Lumia 920 does in fact come with a separate app, Nokia Transit/Transport, for this — but why is that functionality not just built into Nokia Maps? On the other hand, Nokia Drive, particularly for its offline navigation, is a boon.
Availability of apps really is one of the weakest points of Windows Phone 8, and everyone knows it
The jury's also out on the City Lens augmented reality (AR) location tool and the phone's voice-recognition features. Both work well enough, but I'm not sure they have much application in the real world; in the last seven days, I've only used them for their novelty value.
Despite these complaints, I do like the Lumia 920 overall. I like the design of the handset itself, and the resizable, regularly refreshed live tiles on the home screen put Windows Phone 8 ahead in visual appeal. What's frustrating, though, is the things that I find annoying on the Lumia 920 were also irritations on the Lumia 900 — and there really isn't much of an excuse for that.
This has turned out to be like two separate reviews: one for the handset and one for Windows Phone 8. While I'm happy with Nokia's hardware and services, Microsoft's mobile OS has flaws that need rectifying before the handsets running it will truly be up to speed.
UPDATE: As several readers have pointed out in the comments below, you can in fact select a letter in the middle of the word by pushing down for about two seconds until a cursor appears, which you can then place in the desired position.
About Ben Woods
With several years' experience covering everything in the world of telecoms and mobility, Ben's your man if it involves a smartphone, tablet, laptop, or any other piece of tech small enough to carry around with you.
zdnet.com
Monday, November 12, 2012
The Obama Campaign’s Technology Is a Force Multiplier
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Technology doesn’t win political campaigns, but it certainly is a weapon — a force multiplier, in military terms.
President Barack Obama visits with volunteers in the call center of a Columbus, Ohio, campaign office Monday. Photo: Carolyn Kaster/Associated Press
Both sides in the presidential contest mined click-stream data as never before to target messages to potential voters. But a real edge for the Obama campaign was in its use of online and mobile technology to support its much-praised ground game, finding potential supporters and urging them to vote, either in person or by phone, according to two senior members of the Obama technology team, Michael Slaby, chief integration and innovation officer for the Obama campaign, and Harper Reed, chief technology officer for the Obama campaign.
A program called “Dashboard,” for example, allowed volunteers to join a local field team and get assignments remotely. The Web application — viewable on smartphones or tablets — showed the location of field workers, neighborhoods to be canvassed, and blocks where help was needed. “It allowed people to join a neighborhood team without ever going to a central office,” said Mr. Slaby.
Another ground-game program was a tool for telephone canvassing from people’s homes instead of having to travel to a campaign office and work from a telephone bank. The call tool was a Web program that let people sign up to make calls and receive a list of phone numbers, names and a script to use, noted Mr. Reed.
Often, the profiles of volunteer callers and the lists they received were matched. So the callers were people with similar life experiences to those being called, and thus more likely to be persuasive. Here is a YouTube video of a 91-year-old World War II veteran, who joined the Obama phone corps.
In 2008, there were some remote callers in the Obama campaign. But this year, there were ten times as many, Mr. Slaby said.
The sheer scale of the online outreach and data collection dwarfed the effort four years ago. For example, the Barack Obama Facebook site had 33 million “likes,” compared with 2 million for the previous campaign. A Facebook like, Mr. Slaby noted, is the “just the first rung on a ladder of engagement” but it is a starting point.
Another truly important change was in the technology itself. “Cloud computing barely existed in 2008,” Mr. Slaby said.
This time, the Obama campaign’s data center was mainly Amazon Web Services, the leading supplier of cloud services. The campaign’s engineers built about 200 different programs that ran on the Amazon service including Dashboard, the remote calling tool, the campaign Web site, donation processing and data analytics applications.
Using mainly open-source software and the Amazon service, the Obama campaign could inexpensively write and tailor its own programs instead of using off-the-shelf commercial software.
“It let us attack and engineer our own approach to problems, and build solutions for an environment that moves so rapidly you can’t plan,” Mr. Slaby said. “It made a huge difference this time.”
Video: New technology powers Germany's bike growth
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They have two wheels that can get drivers from one place to another with no effort, and they are taking Europe by storm. They are electric-powered bicycles, which are being built with the help of the multinational firm Daimler Benz.
The bikes, which cost as much as $5,000, only help cyclists pedal if they want them to, but their motors can also effortlessly push up drivers to 45 kilometres per hour.
Al Jazeera's Nick Spicer reports from Berlin.
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
Nexus 7, Kindle Fire HD 'outperform' iPad Mini display
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The iPad Mini's display tech is relatively uninspiring, display expert says.
iPad Mini ' does not follow in Apple's tradition of providing the best display,' according to DisplayMate Technologies.
(Credit: CNET)
A display expert echoed today what reviews have already said: the iPad Mini's display is not Apple's best display effort to date.
The Mini's display is "capable" but not great, said Raymond Soneira of DisplayMate Technologies in display "shoot-out" published today.
And, overall, it falls short of the higher resolution displays of its main rivals: the Google Nexus 7and Amazon Kindle Fire HD. "The displays on existing mini Tablets from Amazon and Google outperform the iPad mini in most of our lab tests," Soneira wrote.
And it falls short of Apple's own high standards, set by the gorgeous Retina displays on the last two generations of 9.7-inch iPads, iPhone 4/4S, iPhone 5, and Retina MacBooks. "So Apple, the inventor of Retina Display marketing, now has a significant competitive shortfall on this," wrote Soneira.
And this echoes CNET's take on iPad Mini's display. "If you own a recent iPhone or the last iPad, you'll feel that this screen is blurry. Text isn't as sharp. The pixels per inch don't even match what's available on a Kindle Fire HD or Nook HD," wrote CNET's Scott Stein.
Some salient critiques of the iPad Mini's display by DisplayMate :
Pixel resolution: iPad Mini has a 1,024x768 resolution with a pixel density of 163 pixels per inch (ppi). "That's now considered to be rather on the low side." The Nexus 7 and Kindle Fire HD are both rated at 216 ppi.
Screen reflectance: On the iPad Mini, screen reflectance "is a surprisingly high" 9 percent. On the Nexus 7 the reflectance is a much lower 5.9 percent, while on the Kindle Fire HD it is 6.4 percent. "As a result, the iPad mini reflects 53 percent more ambient light than the Nexus 7 and 41 percent more than the Kindle Fire HD."
Color gamut: The iPad Mini has an "antiquated" small 62 percent Color Gamut. The Kindle Fire HD and Google Nexus 7 both deliver a much larger 86 percent color gamut. And the iPad Mini compares even more unfavorably with iPad 3 and iPhone 5, which have full 100 percent standard Color gamuts.
But the iPad Mini's display doesn't fall flat across the board. DisplayMate gives it a "good" or "very good" rating in some key categories in the chart below, and CNET had good things to say about its aspect ratio.
The more booklike 4:3 aspect ratio and its more natural compatibility with PDF files, comics, magazines, and layout-sensitive graphic novels give the iPad Mini an edge over other 7-inch tablets," CNET Reviews said.
The iPad Mini's pixels per inch is low compared with the Nexus 7 and Kindle Fire HD.
(Credit: DisplayMate Technologies)
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