SAN FRANCISCO: Wall Street has a long-running love affair with Google the search engine. But will it feel the same way about Google the hardware maker?
Google on Thursday will report quarterly results for the first time since closing its $12.5 billion acquisition of smartphone maker Motorola in May.
Google's purchase of Motorola, as well as ongoing uncertainty about the global economy, mean that Google suddenly looks a lot less familiar, and less predictable, to many investors - a fact that will be underscored in the company's second-quarter report.
"This is the first quarter that Motorola is going to be consolidated into results, and it's going to be messy," said BGC Partners analyst Colin Gillis.
t’s been more than two years since the first iPad hit the market and it's still the best-selling tablet despite a slew of challengers, commanding more than 60 per cent of global sales. Apple’s days of having the tablet market cornered may be numbered, though, as Google launches its Nexus 7.
The “7” in the title comes from the seven-inch high-definition screen, which means the tablet itself is about half the size of the iPad. Indeed, you could easily stack two of the smaller Google tablets side by side on the bigger Apple one.
The Nexus 7 is therefore just big enough to watch movies and play games on, but also a lot smaller, lighter and portable than an iPad, so it can fit in a purse and even a large jacket pocket.
Forget videos of cute kittens or good deals on iPads. For the past few months, Google has been quietly turning its search capabilities to something far more challenging: criminals.
Drug cartels, money launderers and human traffickers run their sophisticated operations online — and Google Ideas, Google Inc.'s think tank, is working with the Council on Foreign Relations and other organizations to look for ways to use technology to disrupt international crime.
Officials from Google and groups that combat illicit networks will meet Tuesday and Wednesday in Westlake Village, Calif., to develop strategies for fighting global crime.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2012/07/17/google-search-for-human-traffickers-drug-cartels/#ixzz20uP3K4kW
Taking the cyber war against Trinamool Congress to another level, state Congress took a dig at chief minister Mamata Banerjee on social networking site Facebook for proposing Krishna Bose as her vice-presidential nominee.
“Mamata Banerjee is playing dirty and opportunistic politics to
capitalise on the sentiments surrounding Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose by proposing Krishna Bose’s name for the vice-president,” alleged the post in the official WBPCC Facebook webpage that appeared around 3 pm on Monday, an hour before Congress took to the streets to protest against power tariff hike and submitted a deputation to the governor.
Krishna Bose, three-time MP, is also the grand daughter of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. She won the 1996 Lok Sabha election on a Congress ticket and the 1998 and 1999 Lok Sabha elections on Trinamool Congress ticket.http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-news/Kolkata/Congress-slams-Mamata-Banerjee-on-Facebook/Article1-890417.aspx
Late Monday, a Facebook engineer took to Reddit to apologize for inadvertently blocking Imgur, one of the most popular image sharing sites on the Web, from the social network.
Users were prevented from posting any Imgur links to their profile pages and timelines on Monday, and were greeted by a Facebook error message telling them the links were being "blocked for being spammy or unsafe."
The false positive may have gone unnoticed by Facebook's estimated 950 million users late on Monday night, but the block was enough to provoke a backlash from users of Reddit, the hugely popular community site.
WASHINGTON: Billionaire Facebook founderMark Zuckerberg has refinanced his 5.95 million dollar California mansion at a staggeringly low interest rate of 1.05 per cent.
According to public records for the property, Zuckerberg took out a 30-year adjustable-rate loan on his 5.95 million dollar home at just over one percent, a rate lower than inflation.When you can borrow at a rate below inflation, you're borrowing for free, " the New York Daily Newsquoted Greg McBride, senior financial analyst with Bankrate, as saying.
Facebook's reputation for customer satisfaction continues to tarnish while Google+ pops up on a customer satisfaction index for the first time and makes it to the top of the social network pyramid.
The story's an old one by now. Facebook is the Web's most popular site with hundreds of millions of users, but people still don't like it.
Now Google+, which has been dubbed by some as a ghost town, is gaining some traction with a higher customer satisfaction rating, according to the numbers released from the American Customer Satisfaction Index today. According to the new numbers, Facebook's rating drops 8 percent to 61 on a 100-point scale, while Google+ makes its index debut with a 78, putting it in line with Wikipedia.
SAN FRANCISCO: Facebook added more mobile technology to its arsenal with the acquisition of Spool, a startup specialising in bookmarking and sharing content on smartphones or tablets.
“The Spool team has deep expertise in mobile software development and a passion for making content easy to consume,” Facebook said Monday in response to an AFP inquiry.
“We’re excited for the team to join and accelerate their vision at Facebook.” Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
Spool let people organize online content using bookmarks so they could access digital stories, videos or other material at their leisure or on different Internet-linked gadgets. http://dawn.com/2012/07/17/facebook-buys-mobile-gadget-focused-spool/
Apple has just pushed the third beta of iOS 6 out to developers in order to get the software ready for its gold-standard launch alongside the iPhone 5.
Building on from beta 2 of iOS 6, Apple has added multiple bug fixes and improved the overall performance of the touchscreen keyboard, according sources familiar with the update.
It also now allows developers to customize certain aspects like the volume of turn-by-turn navigation, and whether to measure distances in miles or kilometers.
iOS 6 beta 3 is compatible with iPad, iPad 2, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPhone 3GS, and, of course, Apple’s upcoming iPhone 5. Detailed at WWDC 2012, iOS 6 has all the makings of being yet another uneventful update for the company’s mobile operating system, particularly when compared to Google and Microsoft’s respective launches.
Now that we are in the age of the smartphone there isn’t really a need if you are into photography to carry a digital camera with you all the time, as your smartphone can capture pretty good photos; however the more ardent picture snapper is always looking to improve on their smartphones camera’ capability, and this is where a smartphone camera case comes into play.
Today we have a camera case for the consideration of those that own an iPhone, in the form of the Phocus for iPhone camera case. According to the guys over at TUAW, the Phocus for the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S is available in two versions, a two lens kit and a three lens kit.
The Phocus two lens kit consists of a wide angle lens and a removable macro lens and commands a price tag of $99.95, whilst the three lens kit has the above but also comes with a 2X portrait telephoto lens and commands a price of $134.95.
If you were ever curious to find out what the size of your phones and cameras’ sensor, the guys behind CameraSize have made SensorSize. It shows what your camera is really packing underneath those materials and whips ‘em out to compare it with other devices too.
Above shows the hilarious sensor comparison of the Canon 5D Mark III, Canon S100 and iPhone 4S. The iPhone 4S packs a lot of punch for such a small hitter but it obviously isn’t even in the same realm as the 5D Mark III. Same for the highly usable Canon S100 too. Can you imagine what a giganto sensor would look like on a phone?
COMMONWEALTH Bank hopes to make point-of-sale terminals "smarter" with a new mobile solution, Pi, that can process payments securely on the fly.
This could spell the end for queues, as the technology turns the humble iPhone 4/4S smartphone or iPod Touch into a sales register.
No more standing behind the counter - shop owners can approach customers directly and complete transactions on the spot.
A slimline terminal that looks like an iPhone case is attached to the smartphone to process chip and magnetic stripe credit and debit cards, as well as cash and contactless card payments.
Receipts can be printed or emailed to the customer.
We've heard rumors that the next iPhone's screen will measure "at least" 4 inches, but Apple may be planning to introduce a new display technology to ensure the screen remains thin. The Wall Street Journal reports that Apple is expected to use in-cell touch display technology, reducing the thickness of a device and ensuring it remains lightweight — perhaps in preparation for an increased screen size. Focus Taiwan originally reportedin April that Apple's next-generation iPhone may include in-cell touch panels.
Japanese liquid crystal display makers Sharp Corp. (6753.TO) and Japan Display Inc.--a new company that combined three Japanese electronics makers' display units--as well as South Korea's LG Display Co. (034220.SE) are currently mass producing panels for the next iPhone using so-called in-cell technology, the people said.
The technology integrates touch sensors into the LCD, making it unnecessary to have a separate touch-screen layer. The absence of the layer, usually about half a millimeter thick, not only makes the whole screen thinner, but the quality of displayed images would improve, said DisplaySearch analyst Hiroshi Hayase.
For Apple, the new technology would also simplify the supply chain and help cut costs as it would no longer have to buy touch panels and LCD panels from separate suppliers. Technological progress at LCD makers such as Sharp, Japan Display and LG Display is crucial for Apple, given that Samsung has been pushing its organic light emitting displays as one of the unique features of its Galaxy phones. Samsung's flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S III, comes with a 4.8-inch OLED screen and is thinner than the current iPhone.
Read more: http://www.foxbusiness.com/technology/2012/07/17/next-iphone-to-use-new-touch-screen-technology/#ixzz20rmiaqxd
The Wall Street Journal has just issued an alert saying that Apple’s next-generation iPhone will sport a new screen technology. According to the publication, this new technology will make this new iPhone’s display even thinner. This will likely yield a thinner device overall, somethingcorroborated by the numerous part leaks thus far.
Samsung Mobile Display says the leak of its organic light-emitting diode (OLED) screen technology was allegedly planned at the corporate level of LG Display, following the arrest of 11 people involved.
In a Yonhap News Agency report Monday, an unnamed Samsung executive said the company leads the world's OLED screen market with 97 percent share. However, the technology leak will cause Samsung to lose "trillions of won", the official said.
"Executives of LG Display, which lacks OLED technology and related human resources, took the lead in this criminal act in order to overcome their shortcomings as quickly as possible," the source said, adding that LG should take responsibility for the incident.
Nielsen has published a report on U.S. smartphones and their operating system. Of course, Android is in the lead, running on 51.8% of all smartphones. iOS came in second with 34.8%, which is a 17.5% difference between the two. It's interesting that Android and iOS combined make up for over 85% of the entire smartphone market, as RIM and "others" come in at a cool 14%
Android shows no signs of slowing down on this growth with the past 3 month's 54.6% of people have purchased there smartphone with Android on it!
Commonwealth Bank is betting that an EFTPOS terminal that looks like a tablet will give it the edge over competitors. The bank just announced Pi, a smart point-of-sale payment platform embracing modern touchscreen technology and apps.
“Quite simply, we’re deepening the relationship with all of our customers [including] merchants and consumers,” CIO Michael Harte told Computerworld Australia. “That’s something they can’t compete with.”
The rumors were true. T-Mobile has just revealed that it will offer the 5.3-inch Samsung Galaxy Note (reviewed here for AT&T) in "the coming weeks."
There's no price tag yet for the "phablet," an extra-large 1.5 GHz dual-core Android smartphone that's making its way to T-Mobile after debuting with AT&T earlier this year.
Samsung will be issuing the phone with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich on-board and the Premium Suite, which features the S Note app with enhanced productivity features. The Galaxy Note is based off the Samsung Galaxy S II series, and also has a thin profile, an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera, and a 2-megapixel front-facing camera.
Apple's iOS and Google's Android have been on opposite ends of the security continuum for the last few years, with iOS remaining resistant to malware and Android becoming a frequent target for attackers and malware authors. Google has been taking steps to change that in recent releases, and the latest version of its mobile operating system, Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, includes several new exploit mitigations and a more extensive implementation of ASLR to help defeat many kinds of exploits.
Google first included ASLR (address space layout randomization) support in Android 4.0, known as Ice Cream Sandwich in Google's dessert-centric nomenclature, but that implementation was only a partial solution. The ASLR support in Android 4.0 only randomized certain key locations in memory and did not prevent some common return-oriented programming attacks. Several other key parts of the Android operating system memory space were not randomized.
Merck & Co. (MRK) (MRK)’s Schering-Plough unit must face a challenge to its agreement with competitors to keep generic versions of its drug K-Dur off the market, an appeals court ruled, reversing a lower-court antitrust decision.
Wholesalers and pharmacies sued Schering-Plough beginning in 2001 over allegedly unlawful agreements to delay the entry into the market of generic versions of K-Dur, a treatment for low blood levels of potassium. Consumers incurred extra costs of more than $100 million because of the deals, according to the plaintiffs.
A lower court ruled in favor of the company in 2010. The federal appeals court in Philadelphia overturned that decision yesterday and asked the lower court to reconsider its ruling.
Google Inc. (GOOG) (GOOG)’s Motorola Mobility unit said it is working to ensure there is no disruption in sales of its Android mobile phones that were found to infringe a patent owned by Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) (MSFT)
Barring a last-minute reprieve from President Barack Obama, an order barring imports of some Motorola Mobility phones will take effect tomorrow. The company can get clearance from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection by certifying that it has worked around a Microsoft patent covering a program which lets users coordinate schedules between their phones and personal computers or removed that feature.
The $199 Nexus 7 tablet from Google is one of the most approachable full-fledged Androidtablets I've played with. Instead of the "Tron"-inspired graphic motifs and deliberately opaque navigation elements that defined Honeycomb (Android 3.0), the Nexus 7 feels like it was made for a human being.
But while Google's new emphasis on its media services (video, music, books) makes this tablet feel a little like more a Kindle Fire than a high-end Android tablet, there are number of customizations you can make to the Nexus 7 to make it uniquely your own.
Fairfax is moving 9000+ of its 10,000-odd staff to Google Apps - Google's online series of software and services that includes Docs (an anlogue of Microsoft Word), Spreadsheets, online file storage, email, internet voice calling and video chat.
The move is designed to save 40% over costs today, Fairfax CIO Andrew Lam-Po-Tan says.
You can get free versions of most Google Apps. The $US50 per user per year commercial version adds extras including customisable domains (web and email addresses), 25GB of online storage (vs5GB in the free version) and an up-time guarantee.
In a rare case of agreement between the two internet giants, Facebook has announced that it’s adopting the new protocol Google developed to speed the delivery of webpages across the net.
On Sunday, as first reported by CNET, Facebook engineering manager Doug Beaver announced on apublic mailing list that Facebook is moving to SPDY, a tweak to the web’s underlying HTTP protocol designed to significantly grease the transfer of data.
In addition to Google and Facebook, Twitter has adopted the protocol on its web services, and it’s now built into Google’s own Chrome web browser and Mozilla’s Firefox browser. In order to use the protocol, you need software on both the servers delivering the content and the browser receiving it.
Facebook Inc. (FB) (FB), operator of the world’s largest social-networking service, posted its biggest one-day drop since May 29 amid investor concerns the company’s earnings report next week will point to slowing sales growth.
The stock fell 8.1 percent to $28.25 at 4 p.m. in New York. It has slid 26 percent (FB) since the Menlo Park, California-based company sold shares in an initial public offering in May.
Some investors may be selling the stock before Facebook’s earnings report on July 26, said Laura Martin, an analyst at Needham & Co. in New York. The company will report second- quarter sales of $1.16 billion, according to analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg. That average has declined (FB) about 3.9 percent in the past four weeks, the data show. A report from Web portalYahoo! Inc. (YHOO) (YHOO) tomorrow will probably give Facebook investors an early glimpse into Internet advertising in the second quarter, she said.
Facebook's stock fell more than 8 percent Monday.
It lost $2.47 to close at $28.25. That's down 26 percent from its public offering price of $38.
The stock has been up on 18 trading days and down on 22 since its initial public offering.
Facebook began trading publicly in mid-May following one of the most anticipated stock offerings in history. The IPO priced at $38, at the top of a projected range that Facebook had already boosted just days earlier.
Although many investors had hoped for a big first-day pop, Facebook's stock opened on May 18 at $42.05 and fluctuated between $45 and $38 throughout the day. It closed barely above its IPO price, at $38.23.
Facebook has reached agreements with game developers Electronic Arts, Kixeye, and Zynga to test a new "Start Now" option that allows users to start playing games without having to go through an app permissions dialog.
Games that have the new feature include Backyard Monsters, Battle Pirates, Indiana Jones Adventure World, and Zynga Slingo, among others. They can access a user's basic profile information and friend list without having to request doing so.
There were reports floating around that the date for the iPhone 5's launch was brought forward from October to August (most likely from increasing competition). Because it is just a rumor, there are no details on specs, design, pricing, or anything else really. According to previous rumors, Apple will break their usual stance of keeping the screen at just 3.5-inch, and increase it to 4-inch.
The Samsung Galaxy S3 is available and, despite being launched May 29, has sold 6.5 million units in just over a month. The device is estimated to sell 15 million units in the third quarter, consequently breaking sales records of previous Galaxy S devices. Its predecessor, the Galaxy S2 has sold 20 million units.
According to French newspaper Les Echos, JPMorgan analysts said that since it May 29 launch, the Galaxy S3 has sold 6.5 million devices. Touted as Samsung's most successful Android device to date, the Galaxy S3 is predicted to sell 20 million units in merely four months. This figure is a stark contrast to the Galaxy 2 and the original Galaxy, which sold 10 million and 5 million units, respectively, in the first six months. The estimation also shows how Samsung is powering its way into the smartphone market.
In a rather unexpected move, Samsung Mobile Display Co. is throwing a corporate espionage bomb, by accusing LG of stealing and leaking OLED technology secrets. The news comes as a shock indeed, because if found guilty of orchestrating it the consequences can be disastrous for LG.
Eleven people were indicted Sunday on charges of leaking or stealing core OLED technology from Samsung. The list also includes executives from LG, which currently trails Samsung as the second largest LCD panel manufacturer in the world. To top off bad news with more bad news, it is reported that six more suspects were formerly or currently working for Samsung.
The release of a brand-new, high-profile gadget always prompts a geeky ritual: videotaping the opening of its package, or “unboxing.” Unfortunately for Google, the ceremonial unboxing of its Nexus 7 tablet isn’t going so smoothly on YouTube.
There are already enough videos documenting the frustrating experience of opening the Nexus 7 box to fill a montage.
“I’ll go ahead and open this up — oh, there’s another sneaky piece of tape on the side,” one person complains.
“That is a hard sticker to open. Jeez,” says another.
On the other hand, a reporter who unboxed a Nexus 7 on Monday that had been sent by Google found the box to be mysteriously tape-free.
Google has changed the way you add extensions to Chrome. If your extensions are from the Chrome Web Store, then this does not affect you. If, however, you develop or install extensions not on the store, you'll find this change a very annoying one, even though it's being done to improve the browser's overall security.
Previously, any website could prompt you to add a Chrome extension. Now, however, you must explicitly tell Chrome that you want to install these extensions by adding them through the Extensions page. The goal here is to prevent websites from automatically trigger unauthorized extension installations, cutting down on how quickly malicious extensions can spread.
When you try to install a Google Chrome extension from anywhere else on the Web, the browser blocks you from doing so. It also pops up an alert bar with the following message: "Extensions, apps, and user scripts can only be added from the Chrome Web Store. Learn more" http://www.zdnet.com/google-unapproved-chrome-extensions-require-manual-install-7000000997/
When Google offered to give me a review unit of the Nexus 7, the company’s seven-inch Android tablet, I almost said, “No thanks.”
In the past, when I’ve tested a new Android tablet, the process is usually the same: Open the box, spend a few minutes trying to figure out where the power button is to turn it on, shuffling through the software, and then quickly realizing that it isn’t a contender to the Apple iPad. Back in the box it goes.
But with the Nexus 7, the opposite happened. I’ve been using it. A lot.
I have to say it created a strange impulse for me. Although I’m thoroughly happy with the iPad, I’m now yearning for a seven-inch version of — Apple’s flagship tablet.
Forget videos of cute kittens or good deals on iPads. For the past few months, Google has been quietly turning its search capabilities to something far more challenging: criminals.
Drug cartels, money launderers and human traffickers run their sophisticated operations online — and Google Ideas, Google Inc.'s think tank, is working with theCouncil on Foreign Relations and other organizations to look for ways to use technology to disrupt international crime.
Officials from Google and groups that combat illicit networks will meet Tuesday and Wednesday in Westlake Village, Calif., to develop strategies for fighting global crime.
Yahoo Inc. reached inside the ranks of rival Google Inc. in its latest changing of the guard, appointing longtime Web-search executive Marissa Mayer as its new chief and returning the struggling Internet company to a leader with deep technology experience.
The appointment showed how Yahoo, a onetime pioneer of Web search and online advertising, is going back to its Silicon Valley Internet roots.
Yahoo's board selected Ms. Mayer because "she stands for the user," in contrast with a string of the company's previous CEOs who had little experience with consumer websites, said a person with direct knowledge of the company's CEO search.http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303754904577531230541447956.html
The HTC Desire HD owner has awaited an Android 4.0 update for a while now. The update may just be akin to waiting for Godot and the Desire HD will have to do without its share of the Ice Cream Sandwich as recent reports indicate that HTC has axed the Android 4.0 ICS update.
According to Telus Canada, HTC has canceled the Android 4.0 ICS update for the Desire HD. The carrier released an update schedule document [PDF file] last week, reporting that the Desire HD will not receive the ICS update anymore.
Earlier this year, HTC added the Desire HD to its Android 4.0 update list committing that it will receive the update along with HTC Rhyme and Desire S series smartphones in July. The present scenario indicates that the Desire HD will not receive the much-awaited update and seems doomed to remain on the Android 2.3 Gingerbread. However, custom ROM makers like CyanogenMod are providing Android 4.0 ROMs for the device.
Sony today announced that a trio of its Xperia NXT series of Android smartphones is now available in the United States. Offered as unlocked GSM models, the three models span entry-level to high-end and come in a variety of colors.
Starting at the bottom, the Xperia U provides users with a dual-core 1GHz processor, 512MB of RAM, 8GB of internal memory, a 5-megapixel rear camera with 720p HD video recording, and a front-facing camera. Powered by Android 2.3 Gingerbread, the Xperia U features a 3.5-inch (854x480 pixels) Reality Display with Mobile Bravia Engine, the standard fare of connectivity,
Intel is dishing out a total of US$29,000 in cash prizes to Android developers in an effort to encourage coders to write games for tablets and smartphones using Intel chips.
Developers are expected to provide a short background and technical information about the game as part of the contest, details of which can be found on Code Project's website.
Users can also provide a brief description of the code used in the game, which can be tested in an Android 4.0.4 emulator available on Intel's website.
Intel will hand out a grand prize of $25,000, and prizes of $1,000 per month over the four months the contest runs. The contest started earlier this month and runs through Nov. 6 this year.
Open-source media player XBMC is coming to Android.
In a blog post, XBMC said its solution is "the real deal," and can be launched on a set-top box, tablet, phone, or any other Android-based device.
As PCMag noted in our Best Free Software of 2012, XBMC - once known as Xbox Media Center - has become an open-source media center for multiple OSes; it even runs on the original Apple TV box. "It's an elegant media center interface (that you can skin to personalize) for accessing your own video on any home theater system," PCMag wrote.
The latest release of Google's Android mobile operating system has finally been properly fortified with an industry-standard defense. It's designed to protect end users against hack attacks that install malware on handsets.
In an analysis published Monday, security researcher Jon Oberheide said Android version 4.1, aka Jelly Bean, is the first version of the Google-developed OS to properly implement a protection known as address space layout randomization. ASLR, as it's more often referred to, randomizes the memory locations for the library, stack, heap, and most other OS data structures. As a result, hackers who exploit memory corruption bugs that inevitably crop up in complex pieces of code are unable to know in advance where their malicious payloads will be loaded. When combined with a separate defense known as data execution prevention, ASLR can effectively neutralize such attacks.
Mugen Power Batteries (http://www.mugen-power-batteries.com) the manufacturer of high-capacity batteries for handheld devices, today announces the new HLI-i9300SL Mugen Power 2300mAh Extended Battery for Samsung Galaxy S3 which extends the time consumers can use this popular device. The battery is immediately available from Mugen Power Batteries with free shipping worldwide.
Designed to provide maximum mobile freedom, Mugen Power 2300mAh (milliamp hour) Lithium-Ion battery extends the life of the Samsung Galaxy S3 by 10% delivering more power than the stock 2100mAh battery. This impressive battery performance allows consumers, especially those who are often on the move, to use the device longer. The new battery is fully compatible with the Samsung Galaxy S3 and fits well into Samsung Galaxy S3.
Samsung continues to increase its dominance over Apple in the smartphone arena, thanks largely to the launch of its latest Galaxy S handset.
For more than a year, the two companies have been dueling for the bigger chunk of the smartphone market, with Samsung the winner more often than not. But analysts polled by Reuters say that Samsung's lead increased even further last quarter.
Boosted by heavy demand for its new Galaxy S3, Samsung likely sold around 50 million smartphones in the second quarter, according to the 41 analysts surveyed. That figure would easily surpass the 30.5 million iPhones that Apple is forecast to have sold.
The team of the Galaxy S2 and S3 may also deliver a record quarter for the Korean handset maker.
SAN JOSE – Smartphones are headed for the big screen and Samsung, not Apple, set the trend. Samsung’s Galaxy Note and S3 handsets foreshadow what I expect to be the next important element in smartphones, and in handset competition generally.
For the record, the Samsung Galaxy S3 uses a 4.8-inch active-matrix OLED screen with a 720 x 1280 pixel resolution. The Galaxy Note goes even further with its 5.3-inch 800x1280 pixel display.
If you are an Android dedicated user then the title we have here is a little harsh, it will of course hit a nerve and get many thinking. We have said that the iPhone 5 threatens to embarrass the Samsung Galaxy S3 simply because Foxconn believes that the Apple smartphone will put the SGS3 to shame.
To date the Samsung Galaxy S3 Android phone has been slated one of the best mobile phones ever to be released, it has a large screen, looks stunningly sleek, very light indeed considering the size and it will obviously break the Android sales record. Apple according to the Examiner is still the top manufacture of smartphones with Samsung coming in at a close second, the only handset that can shame the Samsung phone has to be the iPhone 5 and Foxconn do believe this.
Samsung began distancing itself from Apple as the undisputed global leader in smartphone sales, according to a poll of 41 financial analysts released Monday by Reuters.
When the numbers for the quarter ending June 30 are finalized, Samsung will have sold some 50 million smartphones, compared to Apple's 30.5 million, Reuters reported.
Those numbers are in line with estimates of U.S. smartphone ownership released last week by Nielsen. The polling firm reported that 52 percent of U.S. smartphone users own Android phones, while 34.3 percent have iPhones.
The iPhone may already come with top-notch security to protect you from viruses, but what about a stun gun case to protect you from physical harm?
After surviving a traumatic personal experience, one entrepreneur invented the Yellow Jacket case for iPhones, which can protect both the phone and its owner from violent crime with a built-in stun gun.
Seth Froom came up with the idea for the Yellow Jacket iPhone case after an armed robber broke into his home and took cell phones, laptops and electronic devices from Froom and his friends. In the days following the incident, 23-year-old Froom, a former military police officer, wondered how the situation could have played out differently.
Crack the front panel on your iPhone and you have three choices -- live with it, buy a new one, or get it fixed.
If you have AppleCare+ or another warranty that covers accidental damage, the choice is easy. Get your phone fixed or replaced under the warranty. If your iPhone isn't under warranty, you don't want to buy a new one, and you're ready to tackle a challenging, but satisfying, do-it-yourself fix, here's a guide for replacing the entire display assembly.
Macworld - I happen to think my daughter is the most wonderful kid on the planet. Total strangers, however, may not agree. And instead of courting their dissent by posting videos of my child doing delightful things, I turn to a more private way of sharing videos with friends and family.
That method is the Givit mobile app from VMix Media. The iPhone and iPad app, along with the Givit website provides me with a way to easily upload videos from my mobile device and precisely control who sees what.
More than a few video upload services offer some measure of privacy controls. YouTube, for example, has a setting for keeping your video from the prying eyes of the public, and you can also turn off comments to keep the subhumanoids who dwell on YouTube from spewing their peculiar brand of insight. Facebook has privacy settings of its own that let you restrict who can see the videos you post. The trouble with the approaches these sites take, though, is that its just another step you have to remember.
Consider this a reminder: don't take all iPhone rumors at face value.
Over the last few days, a handful of sites have claimed to have details on the design and release date of Apple's next iPhone, possibly dubbed the iPhone 5. Some of these unconfirmed stories seem more likely than others.
In one case, images of an alleged iPhone 5 front panel appeared on the photo-sharing websitePhotobucket, where it was discovered by Apple.pro and other news sites. The images show panels with a longer frame where the screen would be, suggesting the next iPhone's display will be larger than previous models' displays. The frame's front-facing FaceTime camera is shown in the center of the device, just above the earpiece.
HERZELIA PITUACH, Israel, July 16, 2012 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Facebook is dead! Long live Facebook! One month since Facebook began trading as a public company, a new analysis of Android mobile users shows that the so-called "Facebook Backlash" doesn't seem to have much traction, particularly when comparing current Facebook usage to that of other mobile social networking apps.
Triapodi, Ltd., makers of the Appreciate Personal App Market, today revealed results of an analysis on the usage statistics of some of the popular social networking apps for Android: Facebook for Android, Google+, Instagram, Twitter and Path. The analysis was based on hundreds of thousands of Appreciate users before through and after Facebook's publicized IPO. Appreciate delivers a personalized view of any app in the Google Play Android Market with customized app pages and perfectly matching app recommendations delivered daily, based on the user's individual interests.
The new functionality lets users see if and when someone has seen a group post, Facebook said July 11. When someone posts to a Facebook group, that user would be able to track which group members have seen the message and a timestamp indicating when.
"Starting today when you visit a group, you can view who’s seen each post. This way you can stay updated on the group’s activity," the company said on its Newsroom page.
The social networking giant began rolling out the feature to some users last week, but not all users have it yet. Those users who have the capability would see a little check market and the text "Seen by everyone" if all the users have viewed the message. If not everyone has seen the message, the site would display a list of friends and a timestamp to indicate who has viewed the post so far.
No More Hiding Online
While knowing if someone has seen a group post, and when, can sometimes be useful, the fact that people can keep track (in a somewhat limited manner) of what you are up to on Facebook is a matter of concern, Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos, wrote on Naked Security. At the moment, users can hide their online activity to some extent by configuring the site to not show them as online to their friends when logged in, and despite the number of fake apps claiming otherwise, there is no way to tell who has viewed your profile or browsed through your photographs.
"I don't want to come across as a complete privacy zealot here…but is there anyone else who agrees that Facebook just became a little less private?" Cluley asked.
There doesn't appear to be a way to turn off the group post notification, either, Cluley said.
"I would, at least, have liked the option," Cluley added.
This functionality is similar to the one in the Facebook Messenger app, which tells you when a contact has viewed a message.
For now, this feature is limited to only Groups and hasn't spilled over to the news feed, according to TechCrunch. When the site asked Facebook if these read receipts would begin to show up on the News Feed, the company said it was "not going to discuss what we might (or might not) do in the future."
This "seen by" feature could make people self-conscious about visiting Facebook too often, or creeped out by that one person who is always the first one to see their posts. This is one "feature" I wish Facebook had created a way to opt-out of.
Cluley wondered if this meant that Facebook was going to eventually roll out that Who viewed your profile feature, "desired by many, and dreaded by the privacy conscious and anonymous snoopers."
(Count me in the dreaded camp!)
(CNN) -- A teenager charged with the fatal beating last week of a Chicago man had a video of the attack on his cell phone when arrested Saturday, a video he also posted on his Facebook page, prosecutors said Monday.
Malik Jones, 16, allegedly was playing a game called "pick 'em out and knock 'em out" when he punched Delfino Mora, 62, in his jaw, sending Mora to the ground, where the back of his head was cracked by concrete, a Cook County, Illinois, prosecutor told a judge during a hearing Monday.
Nicholas Ayala, 17, and Anthony Malcolm, 18, used Jones' cell phone camera to record the attack, picking up the "loud crack of his head hitting the cement," prosecutor's spokeswoman Tandra Simonton said.
All three teens were ordered held without bail until their next court date August 3, Simonton said. All three were being charged as adults with first-degree murder, prosecutors said.
SAN FRANCISCO — Billionaire Mark Zuckerberg is giving new meaning to the term “the one percent.”
The Facebook founder refinanced a $5.95 million mortgage on his Palo Alto, Calif., home with a 30-year adjustable-rate loan starting at 1.05 percent, according to public records for the property.
While almost all lending rates have reached historical lows this year, the borrowing costs available to high-net-worth individuals are even lower if the person is willing to bear the risk of monthly interest rate adjustments, said Greg McBride, senior financial analyst with Bankrate Inc., a North Palm Beach, Florida-based firm that tracks interest rates. Large increases are unlikely anytime soon with the Federal Reserve signaling it will keep interest rates near zero for at least two years.
Saturday's doodle infuses Google's name in gold into a reproduction of "The Kiss," which is arguably Klimt's most famous piece of art.
Klimt's paintings are some of the most expensive in the world. In 2006, Klimt's 1907 portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer -- the "Mona Lisa" of Austria sold for $135 million, eclipsing the then-record $104.1 million paid at auction for Picasso's 1905 "Boy With a Pipe (The Young Apprentice)."
The Kiss, a square oil painting with gold leaf that depicts a couple embracing, is currently hanging in a Vienna palace museum.
Read more: http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/news/photo-video/3370239/google-doodle-celebrates-life-of-gustav-klimt/#ixzz20rYJ0ETe
MINYANVILLE ORIGINAL Electricity has disappeared into the background -- at least in the developed world. We don't have to think about it, reboot it, line up at the store for the next big jolt of it, or become a fan of the utility company to get it. We are said to be entering an age where computing will slowly take the same route; it will disappear into the background, leaving us to improve on what we are good at: living and loving. Back in 2010, Eric Schmidt of Google (GOOG) called this vision "The Age of Augmented Humanity." Two years later, are we really entering this age?
Read more: http://www.minyanville.com/sectors/technology/articles/Google-Now-android-jelly-belly-android/7/16/2012/id/42455#ixzz20rY4SU3K
I have a theory about why The Wall Street Journal’s Walt Mossberg, David Pogue at The New York Times, and venture capitalist/TechCrunch columnist MG Siegler seem to compete to see who can say the nicest things about Apple’s products: Apple’s products are usually pretty good.
Of course, I couldn’t prove this theory true beyond all doubt until today, when all three acknowledged that someone has finally built a very serious contender to Apple in a portion (albeit just a portion) of the market that Apple originally ignited with the iPad.
Well it’s finally happened: MG Seiger became the last of the trio of high-profile Apple admirers in the tech press to gush aboutGoogle’s Nexus 7 — which went on sale last week — Monday morning. Let’s recap:
Microsoft might be a little more scared of Google Apps for Business than it's publicly letting on, according to a new report.
The software giant has, over the last several months, made several moves to stop enterprise customers from adopting Google Apps, according to The Wall Street Journal, which reported on those decisions today. Microsoft has cut pricing on its cloud-based alternative, Office 365, as well as increased commissions it pays to resellers to make the prospect of switching to Google's service less palatable.
According to the Journal, Microsoft has established a "Google Compete" team designed solely to stop its current Office customers from switching to Google Apps. The Compete team's practices weren't fully detailed by the Journal, but in one case, the members tried wooing a major company by inviting executives to Microsoft's Redmond headquarters and showing off product road maps.
Even though its official launch date is July 19, some Americans that pre-ordered the Google Nexus 7 tablet are already seeing tracking activity notices of their shipments. But Canadians waiting for the new tablet running the Android 4.1 Jelly Bean operating system don't have any such encouragement yet.
On Google+, U.S.-based Nexus 7 customers were posting updates that their UPS tracking numbers were working. But Canadians who ordered the tablet as far back as the June 27 launch day bemoaned they had nothing to report yet. Canadians buying the tablet from the Google Play store have the option of a $209.99 8 GB version or a $259.99 16 GB version. That's $10 more expensive than those same models sell for south of the border.
At major retail outlets such as Staples.ca and Future Shop, the 16 GB version is available for $259.99. Staples listed the item as "out of stock" today, while Futureship said it was available for online pre-order. But the estimated shipping time was between one and two weeks.
WASHINGTON — YouTube, the Google-owned video sharing website, has become a major platform around the world for news, posing challenges to media organizations, a study said Monday.
The Pew Research Center report said that news related events were the most searched items on YouTube in five months of a 15-month period in 2011 and early 2012.
That means that news is rapidly becoming important on the site, which is popularly known for amateur videos of children and pets.
Certain events like the Japan earthquake and tsunami in 2011 highlighted that point, the study found, with 96 million views of disaster-related news over a one-week period in March 2011.
The report found news viewership on YouTube is probably still outpaced by the audience for news on conventional television.
Google on Thursday will report quarterly results for the first time since closing its $12.5 billion acquisition of smartphone maker Motorola in May.
Google's purchase of Motorola, as well as ongoing uncertainty about the global economy, mean that Google suddenly looks a lot less familiar, and less predictable, to many investors - a fact that will be underscored in the company's second-quarter report.
"This is the first quarter that Motorola is going to be consolidated into results, and it's going to be messy," said BGC Partners analyst Colin Gillis.
The absence of Chief Executive Larry Page from the public eye, due to an unspecified ailment that has caused him to have "lost his voice," hasn't helped buoy investor confidence as the company faces a critical juncture.
At Google’s June 27-29 Google I/O conference in San Francisco, Calif., the Internet’s biggest success story introduced a new version of its immensely popular Android mobile operating system, a tablet and a strange media streaming device for the living room: The Nexus Q. The last of those wasn’t given much fanfare, mostly because it’s a niche device that will only appeal to those already fully invested in Google’s content ecosystem. On top of that, it’s not cheap — $299 is a lot to ask for a device that streams content to one’s TV.
At the same time, it has a gorgeous, unique design, with a sphere shape bisected by a ring of glowing lights. It looks downright futuristic. Initial reports and reviews were tepid, but then reporters at the The New York Times reporters started to notice some interesting branding on the device’s back:
OPEN SOURCE media player project XBMC has announced an Android port that doesn't require users to jailbreak or root their devices.
XBMC has become one of the most popular open source media players for home theatre PCs and has long been the must-have software addition for Apple TV. However as more firms decide to load set-top boxes with Google's Android operating system, the XBMC project started working with Piyos to port the software over to the Android operating system.
According to the XBMC team, the Android port of XBMC has the same feature set as the desktop edition. The team's port to Android is primarily for set-top boxes and low-power computers rather than smartphones.
While the XBMC team said there wouldn't be any difference in features between desktop and Android versions, the latter is still very much work in progress.
The Inquirer (http://s.tt/1i28y)
An ambitious little Kickstarter project has ballooned into a multi-million dollar video game venture. Meet the Ouya, a $99 Android-powered gaming console that could well turn the gaming industry on its head. Here's what you should know about the system, which has already raised more than a record $4 million from backers:
A lot has happen since we published our June’s Smartphone Buying Guide in this crazy world we know as Android. Verizon has seen the addition of a few new phones, something that was definitely needed, considering that Big Red’s last major launch was the RAZR MAXX back in February.
Also, the release of the Samsung Galaxy S3 across all carriers was probably the most notable happening since we posted the last edition of our buyer’s guide. So let’s get to it, and find out what are the best phones that potential customers can buy in July 2012.
People talk about a tablet revolution, but the reality is there hasn’t been one; there has been an iPad revolution.
Other manufacturers have attempted — with degrees of success ranging from none to barely — to chip away at Apple’s utter dominance. Google’s Nexus 7 is the first tablet that might give Apple some competition.
This is a nice tablet.
Manufactured by Taiwanese manufacturer Asus, this 7-inch tablet, while not without some annoyances, is pretty impressive. In the U.K., it’s on sale in 8GB and 16GB models priced at £159 and £199.
Let’s deal with the No. 1 annoyance: the screen. It’s not the fact that it’s not in 16:9 ratio, which is fine, nor is it the the quality of the display. (Until Apple introduced its “retina display” it would have passed without merit.) No, it is the fact that no matter how much you shake the thing on the home screen it won’t switch from portrait to landscape view.
