Tech Industry

4,113 'Tech Industry' stories June 2007 - April 2013

Apple board member Bill Campbell points to future with intimate devices like Google Glass and iWatches [Video]

Seth Weintraub Apr 13 2013 - 6:08 am PT

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFWG51nGmGA]

Businessweek covers a talk given by Apple (and former Google) board member Bill Campbell who “held court” on Friday at the Mountain View headquarters of Intuit, where he serves as chairman. Notably, he discussed former Apple execs Tony Fadell who now runs Nest and Ron Johnson who just got fired from JCPenney. Of Nest, he pre-announced new products, saying

“You would think that people would yawn at something as boring as a thermostat,” Campbell said. “So, I’ve been surprised at how it has done and is doing. It will be the first of many products that come out of that company, which has a brilliant CEO and engineering team.”

Of Ron Johnson‘s exit at JCP, he said, “You have to keep your current business going while you experiment with a new one. He didn’t do that. He just put a bullet hole in his current business.”

GOOD ADVICE.

But perhaps most interesting for those yearning for an iWatch, Campbell told the business software company
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Verizon unveils 1 year “Device Payment Plan” for yearly updaters, moves full subsidies to 24 months

9to5 Staff Apr 13 2013 - 5:32 am PT

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Verizon announced a few notable changes this week, possibly in response to T-Mobile’s new ‘Uncarrier’ pricing structure.

The first change enforces 24-month contracts and restricts subsidized upgrades during that period. Customers will no longer enjoy ‘early upgrades’ after 20-months, as was previously the policy.

While the change may disappoint customers who enjoyed upgrading their devices more frequently, Verizon told The Verge that a new “Device Payment Plan” will be accompany the policy changes.

The new payment plan allows customers to upgrade their smartphone annually by paying the upgrade fee at the register and dividing the rest of the full-retail price over 12 months. This payment plan will include a $2/month finance charge through the duration of the year.

For people like us who update annually, this option is a more pragmatic approach, especially when vendors like Gazelle (as well as others) typically pay more than the subsidized cost of a new smartphone for last year’s smartphone.

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Pebble Watch SDK goes live, new watch faces and apps to come

9to5 Staff Apr 12 2013 - 12:56 pm PT

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Pebble, the E-Ink smart-watch for iPhones and Android devices which raised over 10 million dollars on Kickstarter is about to get a lot of new features. Today, Pebble announced that the watch SDK is being released today. The SDK will allow developers to create custom watch faces, alerts and new apps.

At the moment, there’s less than 10 available watch faces and only one app, but expect those numbers to grow dramatically now that developers can get their hands on a public SDK.

You can grab the SDK from Pebble’s website right here.

BlackBerry 10 launch: Over 50% returns, 71% don’t want ever, 83% unaware it even launched

Zac Hall Apr 11 2013 - 12:44 pm PT

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Six years after Apple took the smartphone industry by surprise with its release of the iPhone, former market leader BlackBerry Limited, or RIM as it called itself until just recently, launched what some consider to be a true iPhone competitor.

The problem is that almost no one has seemed to notice, and half of those who have were unhappy.

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Kickstarter: ZenBoxx promises to help eliminate desk clutter with the MacBook ZenDock

Mike Beasley Apr 10 2013 - 9:41 am PT

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If your desk looks anything like mine, seen above, then you probably know the joys of constantly connecting and disconnecting a handful of cables every time you need to move your MacBook away from your desk or put it back. In my case, I have to fiddle with these cables every few hours when I take my MacBook downstairs to work in the living room or bring it back upstairs to plug it into my monitor. I hate it.

The ZenDock, which hit Kickstarter today, promises to help eliminate most of this problem for me, and from the looks of it, the folks at ZenBoxx might just be on to something. The ZenDock comes in two varieties: Pro and Retina. As you might imagine, the names correspond to the MacBook model that the dock is designed to work with.

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Intel announces 2014 Thunderbolt update with 4K support; opens door for Retina iMacs?

Mark Gurman Apr 8 2013 - 12:53 pm PT

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Retina iMac mockup via <a href="http://macspoilers.com/665/a-slimmed-down-retina-imac-rumored-to-launch-with-the-ipad-min/"><em>MacSpoilers</em></a>

Today, Intel announced a new version of its Thunderbolt technology that will ship with devices in 2014. The new Thunderbolt technology supports up to 20Gbps throughput, which is up from the 10 Gbps supported by the current version of Thunderbolt.

Notably, the new technology supports 4K resolutions, which could open the door for even higher-resolution Mac displays. Perhaps, this is the technology that Apple needs to work with in order to begin a Retina display rollout for its all-in-one desktop computer, the iMac, or even Mac Pro compatible Thunderbolt displays.

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Virgin offers T-Mobile pre-paid customers $100 to switch with new ad campaign

Jordan Kahn Apr 8 2013 - 9:38 am PT

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Despite some carriers already showing interest in T-Mobile’s new no-contract strategy, it was only a matter of time until the competition started going after the carrier’s new Uncarrier unlimited plans with new promotions and marketing. Today, Virgin launched its “Retrain Your Brain” campaign offering T-Mobile customers $100 to switch their number to one of its no-contract, $35 unlimited plans:

It’s pretty simple: just choose your Virgin Mobile Beyond Talk smartphone. Transfer your existing T-Mobile number before May 31, activate your new phone and become a Virgin Mobile customer by May 31 and receive $100 credit.

You can check out Virgin’s comparison of its plan vs T-Mobile’s below and get more information on the promotion here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjZ0rXSXeBA

Internal DEA document complains it’s impossible to intercept iMessages

Jordan Kahn Apr 4 2013 - 6:14 am PT

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The Drug Enforcement Administration has warned in a recent internal document that iMessage’s secure end-to-end encryption is preventing law enforcement from eavesdropping on suspects in criminal investigations. CNET got its hands on the document that warned “it’s ‘impossible to intercept iMessages between two Apple devices’—even with a court order approved by a federal judge”:

The DEA’s “Intelligence Note” says that iMessage came to the attention of the agency’s San Jose, Calif., office as agents were drafting a request for a court order to perform real-time electronic surveillance under Title III of the Federal Wiretap Act. They discovered that records of text messages already obtained from Verizon Wireless were incomplete because the target of the investigation used iMessage: “It became apparent that not all text messages were being captured.”

Christopher Soghoian, a senior policy analyst at the American Civil Liberties Union, said yesterday that “Apple’s service is not designed to be government-proof.” “It’s much much more difficult to intercept than a telephone call or a text message” that federal agents are used to, Soghoian says. “The government would need to perform an active man-in-the-middle attack… The real issue is why the phone companies in 2013 are still delivering an unencrypted audio and text service to users. It’s disgraceful.”

Verizon and AT&T rumored to consider acquiring Vodafone assets, valuing the entity at quarter trilllion dollars

Élyse Betters Apr 2 2013 - 7:30 am PT

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AT&T and Verizon could soon jointly bid to acquire Vodafone.

Vodafone is second only to China Mobile for the world’s largest mobile telecommunications companies due to 439 million subscribers and high revenues in December 2011.

CNET reported the deal would value Vodafone at $245 billion, if signed. For reference purposes: Verizon’s market cap is now at $142.09 billion, and AT&T sits at 205.88 billion.

The deal would also allow Verizon to acquire Vodafone’s 45 percent stake in U.S. operations. AT&T would then acquire the remaining business outside of the U.S.

The Financial Times, which cited “usually reliable people,” noted both U.S. carriers feel comfortable sharing the risk associated with such a huge deal and further believe it will pass any regulatory obstacles.

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Aereo’s live broadcast TV doesn’t infringe broadcaster’s copyrights, says US Court of Appeals

Élyse Betters Apr 1 2013 - 8:47 am PT

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Aereo—the service that streams over-the-air local television to any Mac, iOS device, or PC running Safari for a monthly subscription—just landed a huge victory against television networks, as the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit rebuffed an appeal today and ruled Aereo does not infringe broadcaster’s copyrights.

Aereo transmits television over the Internet, but local broadcasters claimed it does not have the legal license to operate. The Court of Appeals, however, agreed that Aereo’s system—14 of its antennas to be specific—operate independently and a license is irrelevant because subscribers stream their own copies of programs.

An excerpt from the ruling (PDF):

Each user-associated copy of a program created by Aereo’s system is generated from a unique antenna assigned only to the user who requested that the copy be made. The feed from that antenna is not used to generate multiple copies of each program for different Aereo users but rather only one copy: the copy that can be watched by the user to whom that antenna is assigned. Thus even if we were to disregard Aereo’s copies, it would still be true that the potential audience of each of Aereo’s transmissions was the single user to whom each antenna was assigned. It is beyond dispute that the transmission of a broadcast TV program received by an individual’s rooftop antenna to the TV in his living room is private, because only that individual can receive the transmission from that antenna, ensuring that the potential audience of that transmission is only one person. Plaintiffs have presented no reason why the result should be any different when that rooftop antenna is rented from Aereo and its signals transmitted over the internet: it remains the case that only one person can receive that antenna’s transmissions.

Aereo launched in New York City last March and has since landed in dozens of cities, but it has consistently battled opposition from television networks, like Fox, CBS, and NBC, as they attempted to halt its expansion during the last year. Due to today’s ruling, though, as first noted by The Verge, television networks would now need to win an appeal through either the Second Circuit or Supreme Court in order to block Aereo.

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Facebook to hold Android event next week, likely to announce an iPhone competitor

Mar 28 2013 - 5:58 pm PT

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Mockup by Spencer Caldwell based on leaked descriptions

Facebook is having an event on April 4th where it will talk about the future of Android.

We’ve learned a little more.

Facebook and HTC are again tied up building a phone together in which Facebook plays a major role. This isn’t like the ChaCha or Salsa phones which were mostly flops. This is a “Face-forked” version of Android with many Facebook modifications. More details including information on the ad campaigns over at 9to5Google.

Invite below

Apple in Shanghai court over Siri speech recognition patent infringement claims

Jordan Kahn Mar 27 2013 - 5:56 am PT

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AFP reported Apple is in court in Shanghai, China again today, but this time it’s over a lawsuit alleging the company copied components of Siri’s speech recognition software. According to the report, Shanghai-based Zhizhen Network Technology Co. claimed in pretrial proceedings that Apple infringed its patent related to voice recognition technology via Siri. While the suit notes that development of Siri began in 2007, there is no mention of Nuance. Apple currently partners Nuance with to implement the speech recognition component in Siri, and it is also a market leader that presumably has its own arsenal of speech recognition related patents.

Zhizhen says it patented its “Xiao i Robot” software in 2004, while Apple’s Siri, which made its debut with the release of the iPhone 4S in 2011, was first developed in 2007.

“The company will ask Apple to stop manufacturing and selling products using its patent rights, once Apple’s infringement is confirmed,” Si Weijiang, a lawyer representing Zhizhen, told AFP.

“We don’t exclude the possibility of demanding compensation in the future,” he added.

The company is behind Siri-like software called ‘Xiao i Robot’ that it claimed was first developed before Siri in 2004. The technology is apparently available on some smart TVs and enterprise applications, but it doesn’t appear to be available as a consumer-facing app for smartphones or tablets. The video below appeared online when the company originally filed suit against Apple last year, and it shows the Xiao i Robot software running on a Lenovo smartphone:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ku0H10_G1X4

T-Mobile iPhone launch wrap up: LTE speed and HD audio tests, the new $579 AWS A1428 iPhone 5 and the plan gamechanger

Seth Weintraub Mar 26 2013 - 3:23 pm PT

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We were on hand in New York City today to watch the unveiling of the iPhone on T-Mobile and its new LTE/plans that purport to save T-Mobile customers a lot of money over its U.S. competitors.

T-Mobile tipped us to its grand plan to become the ‘Uncarrier’ at CES in January 2013. The idea is to radically simplify the phone plan purchasing experience by cutting away most complexities of the carrier agreements. The effort was very forward thinking and Apple-like in that sense, and the results are certainly a big change for the industry.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Zv5wdX1zp0

You basically start with a $50 a month unlimited data plan and go from there. T-Mobile will throttle you after 500MB, unless you give them $10 or $20 more a month, which gives you 2GB or unlimited before un-throttling. Family plans are $30 for the first extra device and $10 for each one thereafter. I imagine most normals will pay $50 a month. That’s a lot less than the typical iPhone user pays.

But, let’s not kid ourselves on what’s motivating T-Mobile here. It has been losing customers like crazy and that’s largely due to its failure to carry the iPhone. The iPhone represents well over half of all smartphones on every other big U.S. carrier, and it will likely dominate T-Mobile over the next few years. T-Mobile said that even though it won’t officially support the iPhone until April 12, it currently has over 2.1 million iPhones on the network. That’s about to skyrocket…

CEO John Legere comes from over a decade at Global Crossing, an IP Data backbone firm, so cutting through all the B.S. and delivering fat delicious packets of data is his specialty.

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Apple closes gap on Samsung for connected device sales in Q4 as market hits 1B devices

Jordan Kahn Mar 26 2013 - 6:09 am PT

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Research firm IDC is out today with its latest report on the smart-connected device market, and it includes worldwide shipments of desktop PCs, notebook PCs, smartphones, and tablets. IDC predicted the market in total grew 29.1-percent year over year in 2012, crossing 1 billion units shipped and hitting a total value of $576.9 billion. According to the report, Apple significantly closed the gap on Samsung during the last quarter of the year. It jumped from 15.1-percent in Q3 to 20.3-percent of unit shipments in Q4 2012. That brings the company up right behind market leader Samsung, which dropped slightly from 21.8-percent to 21.2-percent in the fourth quarter:

Looking specifically at the results for the fourth quarter of 2012 (4Q12), combined shipments of desktop PCs, notebook PCs, tablets, and smartphones was nearly 378 million and revenues were more than $168 billion. In terms of market share, Apple significantly closed the gap with market leader Samsung in the quarter, as the combination of Apple’s iPhone 5 and iPad Mini brought Apple up to 20.3% unit shipment share versus 21.2% for Samsung.

Not surprisingly, Apple dominated Samsung when it came to revenue share. It took in 30.7-percent of the market compared to just 20.4-percent for Samsung by revenue:

On a revenue basis for the fourth quarter, Apple continued to dominate with 30.7% share versus 20.4% share for Samsung.

Apple’s increase is likely thanks to strong iPad and iPad mini sales, as growth in the market was “largely driven by 78.4-percent year-over-year growth in tablet shipments.” IDC expected tablet shipments to outgrow desktop PCs by the end of this year, while the tablet market could surpass the portable PC market in 2014 and provide Apple with even more opportunity to outgrow Samsung for total connected smart device shipments this year and next:
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Arrival of the Chromebook Pixel forces slight tagline change for Apple’s Retina MacBook Pro

Seth Weintraub Mar 24 2013 - 7:05 am PT

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Retina MacBook Pros with old tagline

When the 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro arrived, it was the second-highest resolution notebook ‘ever’ even though its 2,560-by-1,600 screen was a relatively diminutive 13.3 inches diagonally. The highest resolution laptop was of course on its big brother, the 15-inch Retina MacBook Pro. Apple made note of it with the tagline on its website: “The highest-resolution notebook ever. And the second highest.”

Unfortunately for the speeds and feeds crowd, Google came along last month and introduced the 12.75-inch screen Chromebook Pixel (review) with a 2,560-by-1,700 display. Say what you will about having a high-end notebook that is exclusively a browser, Google made a higher resolution display than Apple’s 13-incher… and added touch to it.

As of this week, Apple now has a new tagline on its MacBook Pro page that states, “High performance has never been so well defined”(image below). This change reflects the outdated nature of the previous tagline. There is also another copy change below because of the Pixel.

Speaking of which, Retina MacBook Pro owners, is it just me or did that latest SMC Update +10.8.3 clear up many of the issues around the 15-inch Retina MacBook Pro?

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Canon introduces world’s smallest and lightest Rebel SL1 — available in April starting at $799.99

Élyse Betters Mar 21 2013 - 7:55 am PT

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From 9to5Toys.com:

Canon, the Japanese company behind all-things imaging and optical, unveiled a bevy of new cameras on Thursday.

Canon notably manufactures compact digital cameras, as well as film SLR and digital SLR cameras, and now it has bulked its impressive lineup with the new EOS Rebel SL1 Digital SLR Camera, EOS Rebel T5i Digital SLR, and PowerShot SX280 HS Digital Camera.

The Rebel SL1 is the most noteworthy addition. Touted as the “World’s Smallest and Lightest DSLR Camera,” and in fact SL stands for “super lightweight,” the camera weighs just 14 ounces. Despite its smaller size, the SL1 carries a standard kit EF-S 18-55mm IS STM optic EOS lens, 3-inch Clear View LCD monitor with two-finger touch gesture support, 18-megapixel APS-C CMOS sensor, and DIGIC 5 image processor that allows up to four FPS.

The camera also offers an ISO range of 100-12800 for photos and ISO-6400 for video, as well as handles 1080p video at 34 or 30 FPS, and it features a built-in mono mic and stereo input jack.

The EOS Rebel SL1 Digital SLR Camera will become available in April at $649.99 for the body or $799.99 bundled with the new EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM kit lens, but it is available for pre-order at B&H now.

For more information on the EOS Rebel SL1 Digital SLR Camera Canon, as well as the EOS Rebel T5i Digital SLR for easy video capture and PowerShot SX280 HS with built-in Wi-Fi, see 9to5Toys.

: PowerShot SX280 HS Digital Camera

: EOS Rebel T5i Digital SLR Camera

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Will the looming $99 tablets threaten iPad market and margins?

Ben Lovejoy Mar 20 2013 - 9:03 am PT

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It sounds like 2013 might be the year of the $99 7-inch tablet with Google and now Amazon rumored to be putting low-cost devices together.

Will this threaten Apple’s market and margins? So far, the company has remained relatively immune to the influx of cheaper tablets, just as MacBook Pros and MacBook Airs have been largely unaffected by the mass of cheap Windows laptops. But, as CEO Tim Cook has himself said, if Apple doesn’t cannibalize its own market, someone else will. A decent $99 tablet will pull down prices of better-specced ones, and no brand —not even one with the halo effect enjoyed by Apple— can remain immune to market forces forever.

Update: Amazon has told BusinessInsider that it is not readying a $99 Kindle tablet: “It’s not happening–we are already at the lowest price points possible for that hardware.”

Smartwatch race is on as Samsung confirms it’s in the game

Ben Lovejoy Mar 19 2013 - 5:08 am PT

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Samsung has confirmed to Bloomberg the rumors that it’s working on a smartwatch to rival the widely-speculated Apple iWatch.

Known for being a ‘fast follower’, a company that, er, watches what others do and aims to quickly launch a competitive product, Samsung appears to be following Apple’s lead in revealing nothing at all about the device: no feature-list, no visuals, no price, no launch-date. Samsung’s executive vice president of mobile business Lee Young Hee said only: “We’ve been preparing the watch product for so long. We are working very hard to get ready for it. We are preparing products for the future, and the watch is definitely one of them.” Thanks for that, Samsung.

The alleged screenshots that appeared last month on Slashgear suggested a 500×500-pixel touchscreen device running a new operating system supposedly named AltiusOS.

The smartwatch market is estimated to be worth $60 billion a year. Just to put that in perspective, that’s about 16 percent of the $358 billion handset market. Marshal Cohen, an analyst at NPD Group in Port Washington, told Bloomberg: “We’re going to see formidable competition coming from many different directions — from device makers, accessory makers, even fashion designers.”

Laurence Balter, chief investment strategist at Oracle Investment Research, said he believed Apple’s strategy should be to use the iWatch as an affordable entry into the Apple ecosystem, generating sales for its more expensive products. “If I were Apple, I’d strategically price the watch as low as possible to bring as many as possible into the ecosystem,” he said.

It’s expected that most smart watches will follow Pebble’s lead in making the device a Bluetooth accessory to a phone and not a standalone gadget, but there has been speculation that the iWatch will run iOS, potentially allowing it to perform useful functions without a link to an iPhone.

Hacker ‘Weev’ gets 41 months for exploiting AT&T vulnerability, exposing iPad records to publication

Seth Weintraub Mar 18 2013 - 9:18 am PT

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Andrew ‘weev’ Auernheimer was sentenced today for his role in the 2010 ‘hack’ of AT&T’s iPad database in which he and an accomplice brute forced a weakness in AT&T’s network to gain access to the names and other details of iPad owners on AT&T’s network. His security group, ‘Goatse’ (don’t Google it), then showed the information to Gawker. It published some of the more famous names in the records including entertainment stars, active duty Congressmen, and high-ranking military figures.

Auernheimer was charged by a Newark, N.J., grand jury with one count of conspiracy to gain unauthorized access to computers and one count of identity theft in July of 2011.

In the initial search of Weev’s home, FBI agents also ‘discovered’ a cache of schedule 2 and 3 drugs including LSD, Ecstasy, and Cocaine.

Although he seems to be a particularly unsavory character, his case has drawn a lot of attention because of the contention “that he did not illegally access a private server and he wasn’t able to gain a list of user passwords — which was confirmed during testimony.”

Weev did a Reddit AMA last night, and his pre-sentencing NSFW video below.
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BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins says iPhone is old news

9to5 Staff Mar 18 2013 - 4:54 am PT

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.
“Clackedy-Clack”

The CEO of BlackBerry, whose market cap is around $7.7 billion at the time of this writing, had some nice words and some harsh words for the folks doing the innovating over at Apple. According to the Australian Financial Review, Thorsten Heins doesn’t think Apple has done much in the way of innovation since its original and revolutionary iPhone touch-design in 2007.

“Apple did a fantastic job in bringing touch devices to market … They did a fantastic job with the user interface, they are a design icon. There is a reason why they were so successful, and we actually have to admit this and respect that,” Mr Heins said.

“History repeats itself again I guess … the rate of innovation is so high in our industry that if you don’t innovate at that speed you can be replaced pretty quickly. The user interface on the iPhone, with all due respect for what this invention was all about is now five years old.”

Mr Heins said one area that the new BlackBerry phones had surpassed the iPhone was in the ability to multi-task – running multiple apps at once – meaning that users could work in the same fashion on their smartphone as they liked to on a laptop.

Along with Samsung, other phone makers, like HTC and Nokia have also impressed industry watchers with the quality of their top-end smartphones, leading to questions about whether Apple needs to speed up its release cycle of new iPhones.

“The point is that you can never stand still. It is true for us as well. Launching BB10 just put us on the starting grid of the wider mobile computing grand prix, and now we need to win it,” Mr Heins said.

BlackBerry’s market share has collapsed in recent years and its hopes of survival are now pinned on the new BlackBerry 10 devices. With the $7.7 billion market valuation (much less than Apple’s quarterly profits), it doesn’t seem like investors are putting much faith in the new OS’s key differentiators that include multi-tasking of up to eight apps, BlackBerry Enterprise Server integration, and BlackBerry Messaging.

Reviews of the new BB10 phones have mostly been even-keeled to favorable, but most reviewers wonder if there is enough in the phones to turn the tide. With the new BB OS, IT integrators will face the question of whether to jump to the new OS or use one of the market leaders like iOS or Android.

As for tablets, Heins is taking a more measured approach by noting Apple’s iPad owns the space.

Former Apple CEO Steve Jobs told an analyst conference call that he viewed RIM [Blackberry] to be in Apple’s ‘rearview mirror’ in 2010.

THX sues Apple over iMac, iPhone and iPad narrow profile speaker design

9to5 Staff Mar 16 2013 - 11:00 am PT

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Images from Patent no. 7433483

Apple has found itself on the wrong side of another patent lawsuit. Lucasfilm-owned THX sued Apple yesterday over a claimed infringed patent relating to the speaker designs found on the new iMacs, iPhones, and iPads.

Patent no. 7433483, filed in 2008 by THX, protects “narrow profile sound systems” that shoot sound out a “narrow sound duct.” The exact patent description reads as follows:

A narrow profile speaker unit comprises at least one speaker outputting sound towards an internal surface and through a duct with an output terminus, such as a slot, having a narrow dimension, effectively changing the cross-section of the speaker’s audio output wave. A pair of speakers may face one another, outputting sound towards a common output slot. Multiple pairs of speakers may be used to form an inline speaker unit for increased sound output. A slotted speaker unit may include multiple speakers facing the same direction, towards a groundplane or reflecting surface, and having parallel apertures for allowing sound radiation. The speaker units may be integral with or attached to electronic appliances such as desktop computers or flatscreen devices, or may be used in automobiles or other contexts.

THX was founded in 1983 as a division of Lucasfilm and was re-booted in 2001 as an independent company. Apple and THX have never had friction in the past, and, just two months ago, THX released ‘THX tune-up’. It’s an app that allows you to adjust your “TV, projector and speakers” all from your iPhone or iPad.

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Samsung goes theatrical, launches Galaxy S4 with 5-inch 1080P, 441ppi display

Jordan Kahn Mar 14 2013 - 5:25 pm PT

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Following Apple’s Phil Schiller’s comments on the eve of the Galaxy S4 launch yesterday, Samsung has now finally unveiled the device at its launch event live in New York. While Schiller was quick to point out that the S4 was rumored to ship with an OS that’s almost a year old, Samsung announced today the S4 would launch with the latest Android 4.2.2 at the end of April on 327 carriers in 155 countries.

The device certainly sports some impressive specs (most of which were already rumored or confirmed in leaks), including a 5-inch Super AMOLED 1,920-by-1,080 display with 441 ppi. The S4 isn’t as thin as the iPhone 5 at 7.9MM thick, but it includes some other enticing specs compared to Apple’s latest offering, such as: a 13 megapixel camera, 2GB of RAM, and up to 64GB onboard storage. WSJ compared the two devices specs for spec here. Samsung put on quite a Broadway-style, theatrical presentation, and you can get the blow-by-blow and photos from the event on 9to5Google here.

Yesterday, Apple Worldwide Marketing SVP Schiller gave interviews to several media outlets and pointed to issues with the Android platform. As DaringFireball called an “unforced error,” Schiller said that the Galaxy S4 would contain an old OS:

“And that extends to the news we are hearing this week that the Samsung Galaxy S4 is being rumored to ship with an OS that is nearly a year old,” he said. “Customers will have to wait to get an update.”

and

“When you take an Android device out of the box, you have to sign up to nine accounts with different vendors to get the experience iOS comes with,” he said. “They don’t work seamlessly together.”

As noted above, the S4 will come out with Android 2.2.2 (though it is unlikely it will be upgraded to the next OS as it is introduced in May).

Samsung also announced a number of new camera features, the addition of new sensors including temperature and humidity sensors, and new software features exclusive to the S4. Get all the details on 9to5Google.com
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FreedomPop now lets users roll over unused data from one month to the next

Jordan Kahn Mar 14 2013 - 2:37 pm PT

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Ahead of the company’s plans to roll out LTE service and a new iPad clip through Sprint’s network later this year, wireless provider FreedomPop announced today a new rollover data feature that allows users to keep their unused data from one month to the next. As to be expected from FreedomPop, the service will also let users share data with friends as part of its social broadband feature that it enhanced last month.

FreedomPop told us the new rollover data feature is now available to all users. It also said “30 percent of FreedomPop’s users have opted into this value-added service within the first 24 hours it’s been live.”

FreedomPop is a wireless provider offering customers free 500MB to 1GB per month data plans through devices such as its $99 WiMAX sleeve for iPod touch or the recently announced $89 Burst 4G home wireless router. It also has an iPhone 4/4S case that is awaiting Federal Communication Commission approval. Last month, the company announced an extra $4.3 million in Series A1 funding, increased additional data rewarded for referrals from 10MB to 50MB, and it expanded its social broadband sharing platform.

EU privacy watchdog issues new recommendations for App Stores & developers

Jordan Kahn Mar 14 2013 - 7:50 am PT

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Following investigations into Google and others, EU privacy watchdog group known as the Article 29 working group have today issued new guidelines for mobile app developers. The group is made up of EU data and privacy protection authorities, and the new recommendations extend to “all other parties involved in the development and distribution of apps under European data protection law.” That means Apple’s App Store, Google Play, and other app marketplaces could be affected. IDG News Service reports Apple and other mobile platform owners will have to “implement consent collection mechanisms in their OSes at the first launch of the app or the first time the app attempts to access one of the categories of data that have significant impact on privacy.”

“The default settings must be such as to avoid any tracking. Third parties must not circumvent any mechanism designed to avoid tracking, as it currently often happens with the ‘Do Not Track’ mechanisms implemented in browsers,” according to the Article 29 document.

The rest of the recommendations focus on restricting the amount of data collected from users, and the group noted that special attention has been given to apps that target kids:

On average, a smart phone user downloads 37 apps. These apps are able to collect large quantities of personal data from the device, for example by having access to the photo album or using location data. “This often happens without the free and informed consent of users, resulting in a breach of European data protection law”,according to the Chairman of the Article 29 Working Party Jacob Kohnstamm.

Privacy risks mobile apps

Smart phones and tablets contain large quantities of intimate personal data from and about their users, such as contact details, locational information, banking details, photos and videos. In addition, these devices can record, or capture in real-time, a range of data types from a multitude of sensors including microphones, compasses or other devices used to track a user’s movement. Although app developers want to provide new and innovative services, the apps may have significant risks to the private life and reputation of users of smart devices if they do not comply with EU data protection law. Individuals must be in control of their own personal data. Therefore apps must provide sufficient information about what data they are processing before it takes place in order to obtain meaningful consent.Poor security is another data protection risk, which could lead to unauthorised processing of personal data through the trend of data maximisation and the elasticity of purposes for which personal data is being collected, such as for ‘market research’. This increases the possibility of a data breach.