Chipmaker AMD continues to struggle in the wake of a global downturn in PC sales, with the company on Thursday announcing further restructuring plans.
These are evidently troubled times for PC chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices (AMD). With revenue down in the its third quarter, and the outlook for the fourth equally grim, the Sunnyvale, California company has announced a second round of restructuring slated for the coming months that will see its workforce of 12,000 slashed by 15 percent.
Job cuts, site consolidations and other measures will see the world’s second biggest chipmaker make operational savings of some $190 million, Reuters reported on Thursday.
The chipmaker has been struggling for a number of reasons – PC sales have slumped due to a sluggish world economy where people are spending less, while those that do have the buy money for electronics are turning in ever greater numbers to tablet computers and smartphones, an area AMD has up to now failed to exploit. AMD has also been losing market share to the world’s leading chipmaker, Intel.
“The trends we knew would re-shape the industry are happening at a much faster pace than we anticipated,” AMD CEO Rory Read told analysts during a conference call following the release of the third quarter figures.
Read joined AMD in August last year and quickly set to work trying to turn the company around, saving $200 million in operating costs by shedding 10 percent of the workforce. But as this week’s news indicates, the chipmaker still has a mountain to climb to get the company back in shape.
One way would be to build an effective strategy for mobile, and quick. With PC sales not expected to see any significant growth in the coming years, and the tablet market booming, there seems only one way to go. This month AMD made a positive move with the launch of its Z-60 chip for Windows 8 tablets. With a slew of tablets running Microsoft’s new operating system expected to launch in the coming months, this is a great opportunity for AMD, although with Intel going for the same market, it’s going to be no walk in the park for the struggling chip maker.
Huawei may be off the hook with The White House, just not officially
A White House review has found no evidence that Chinese telecom company Huawei has been spying for its home country, according to a report from Reuters citing two unnamed sources.
This 18-month assessment by the executive branch stands in contrast to a year-long probe into China's Huawei and ZTE by the U.S. House Intelligence Committee.
The White House didn't find a smoking gun and only deemed Huawei a risk for other reasons, like the fact that its technology could be vulnerable to hackers. The Intelligence Committee had harsher words.
The House panel "has serious concerns" about both telecom companies, as "China is known to be the major perpetrator of cyber espionage." Its report concluded that "American businesses should use other vendors."
On top of that condemnation, the committee, headed by Chairman Mike Rogers (R-Mich), said it received "dozens and dozens" of fresh complaints about Huawei and ZTE after issuing the House report.
Officially, the White House minces words on Huawei
Huawei isn't completely off the hook with the White House either, though. National Security Council Spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden officially denied that the executive branch issued a review that came to a conclusion that exonerated Huawei.
"The White House has not conducted any classified inquiry that resulted in clearing any telecom equipment supplier," Hayden told Reuters without specifying further.
It's unclear if she meant that the review exists but was conducted outside of the White House, or if the alleged White House review just didn't come to that black-and-white "clearing" conclusion.
In an election year, it's become evident that even a few words matter in statements issued by the White House.
Huawei still a concern for all branches of government
In addition to saying that Huawei wasn't cleared by the White House, Hayden reiterated that the company had been banned from supplying U.S. emergency network infrastructure for first responders "due to U.S. government national security concerns."
Australia has also barred Huawei from becoming a government contractor, and Canada is looking to adopt a similar policy.
Huawei praises report, plays victim
Although official White House channels have denied the report, both the Chinese government and its media were immediately touting it as a proclamation of innocence.
The country's Foreign Ministry called for a "level and stable" playing field following the "White House-ordered review."
Meanwhile, China Daily quoted experts who criticized U.S. resistance to Huawei, reporting that "the U.S. will lose through such thinking."
Nokia CEO Stephen Elop seems to be tempting fate, encouraging Microsoft to make a Surface phone of its own.
While Microsoft is launching the Surface tablet with Windows 8, the company has not announced any plans to make its own Windows Phone 8 handset.
Elop thinks it would be a good idea, not just for Microsoft, but for the whole Windows Phone 8 ecosystem.
"It's certainly a stimulant to the ecosystem," Elop told investors in a conference call.
"We're encouraging of HTC and Samsung and Microsoft or whomever to have devices in the market and to be making whatever investments that helps spur the ecosystem on," he continued.
Surface phone for 2013?
Microsoft may not have announced a Windows 8 smartphone, but recent rumors suggest a Surface-branded handset could still be on the way.
Such a move would fit the company's lead-by-example approach to hardware that it's taking by launching the Windows RT Surface tablet alongside competing OEMs.
However, if a Microsoft-made Windows 8 handset is coming, it will not arrive before the end of the year.
That leaves Nokia in a comfortable position with its own Lumia line of smartphones having a healthy head start over any potential Microsoft offering.
Nokia should not be too comfortable though, as it will still launch against the Huawei Ascend W1, Samsung Ativ S, and the flagship Windows Phone 8 HTC 8X.
But as Elop says, more competition is good for the Windows Phone 8 ecosystem as a whole, and with the launch coming soon the competition is about to ramp up.
Lightt is a new take on content sharing, producing animated GIF-like video clips of the world as you're seeing it. Will the platform prosper thanks to a future integration or is it doomed to fall on Instagram's sword?
You can’t launch a new photo-sharing app without being called an Instagram challenger, and the unfortunate label has not escaped Lightt. The new app launched yesterday, revealing a new take on the photo feed. Instead of creating a network based on stills and filters, Lightt takes 10-second videos and plays them back fast-forwarded with no sound. Will Lightt face the same fate as the amibitious yet ill-fated Color, or will its future integration with Google’s Project Glass keep it safe from being buried in the underbelly of the App Store?
How Lightt works
Your Lightt sign-up experience is nothing new: Download the app, create your account, idly flip through the initial instructions pointing out icons and what they do, and you’re off. Perhaps the strangest part of the whole thing is your profile picture: Instead of letting you pull a still from your gallery or even take a photo, you create a short video that Lightt speeds up and turns into your avatar. It’s disorienting… and honestly, the result is a little strange – it’s like one of those haunted house paintings where the eyes follow you.
After that, you should just jump in and start using Lightt. You hit the center camera icon to take quick videos. You can take one (10 seconds), or keep hitting the icon in order to continue to capture the scene – or what Lightt calls a highlight (“A highlight is a burst of pictures that captures about 10 seconds of time in one tap. Your highlights upload immediately and play back faster than real life, like the speed of our memories,” per the Lightt blog).
You can share photos to Facebook or Twitter – thought realize that they aren’t grouped together and you’ll just be posting continuous blocks of this content. From there, you’re sent to a Web viewer, but this is the only way to see your media via desktop, to share it out, and then hit the link. There aren’t any embed options right now, either, so you can’t host your Lightt content on your Tumblr, WordPress, or any other blog yet.
The app has a home page, which is segmented by your feed, a “happening now” feed, and a “featured” feed. You can also navigate to your own page, your friends list, and an activity bar. Users are able to leave comments or like highlights – and you can strangely share other users’ highlights to your own social networks.
The Color connection
If you immediately started playing with Lightt or looking through the available feed and thought things seemed familiar, you’re not the only one: My first thought is that this is exactly what Color tried to do. When the beleaguered startup first launched, it had a rather simple photo-sharing mechanism (no filters, no editing, no video, no captions, just point and capture) but did introduce what was a rather revolutionary location-aware social network.
Eventually Color pivoted into a video streaming application and became a Facebook Timeline app. The idea was to “show the world what you’re up to,” and users with the app would get an invitation to “visit” the recorded moment in real-time via Facebook. However, when I tried to use the Color app, I recieved this notification from Facebook.
This, on top of the mountain of rumors that Color is not long for this world (which, honestly, could end up meaning very little if the company is indeed acquired by Apple, not to mention the money it stands to make off patents), all points to the fact that the app wasn’t a hit with users.
And there are some similarities between Color and Lightt. There’s the fact that they are both image, media-focused apps. But that’s not exactly a novelty anymore (you could create a daily newsletter full of these app launches). Then there’s the location element; Color bet heavy on this and ended up scaring the crap out of users. Lightt is using location as well, but it’s not nearly as important to the app (you can choose to have location settings turned on or off, though Lightt will prompt you to give up the data so it can auto tag the vicinity of your content).
The big difference between the two apps is the fact that Lightt has a much more user-friendly, explanatory interface. Color was without words, without explanation, without guidance; you were thrown into this entirely new and unfamiliar territory with no gentle hand to lead you through it. Lightt didn’t make this mistake. And in Color’s defense, the team never thought they’d get the type of early fundraising or attention that they did – the startup has been honest about that fact that mistakes were made.
Don’t look a GIF horse in the mouth
While Lightt falls squarely into the photo-sharing genre, the media it creates is actually far more similar to apps like Cinemagram or Gifture, which take your short-form videos and turn them into animated GIFs.
Lightt sees the result as more of a visual timeline of your activity, but the rest of us are surely going to see the sped-up, stop-motion effect as an animated GIF. This medium has at once become the pride and joy as well as the scourge of the Internet. Twitter has fiercely fought animated GIF avatars (you’re no longer able to upload them to the site), and there’s a quiet but budding movement supporting cleaner Web design that eschews the ostentatious, attention-demanding art form. Despite any of this, they are assuredly the Web’s bread and butter, and it’s hardly an exaggeration to say Tumblr is bursting at the seams with the stuff.
Animated GIFs are the Internet’s comeback kid: After a brief love affair with them in the 90s, they died down for whatever reason. And now, they’re back with a vengeance.
However, while there are a handful of apps tapping into this popularity, they aren’t able to produce as high quality of results. The limitations of working on a small screen with nothing but your hands and the video you can capture with a smartphone means your creations probably won’t enjoy to the viral success many Web animated GIFs do.
While Lightt makes the process far easier (anyone who’s tried Cinemagram, Kinotopic, or Gifture knows the inaccuracy and frustration of coloring in the desired moving segment of media with your finger), the effect isn’t quite an animated GIF. Not that Lightt wants it to be – but maybe we want it to be. The jury is still out on how well we’ll ever be able to make these with mobile devices, or whether we even want to, but what you’re able to make with Lightt right now sort of feels like a half-hearted effort.
Instagram, you’re safe
Instagram killer, Lightt is not – but the most interesting part about the app is where it’s going, which is to Google Glasses. This is where Lightt could make sense; walking around, holding my iPhone up while I record a scene still just feels awkward. That’s the beauty of Instagram: It’s instant. It’s a quickly captured moment. Lightt is still a little too much work, but the minute you implement it into something I’m wearing, the results could be stunning.
For the time being, the actual quality of what you create using Lightt isn’t up to par – Instagrams, and photo apps for stills in general – are still much prettier to look at. Video is a trickier beast, it’s a much more complicated process under-the-hood. Which is why time will only tell if Lightt can bring something compelling to the table when it hits Google Glasses.
Google stock drops as company fails to meet expectations
Google's shares took a 9 percent hit, dropping to $687.30 on Thursday as news the company wouldn't make revenue or earnings expectations hit the market.
The bad news came a bit earlier than expected, as Google's quarterly financial report was released ahead of schedule and without proper authorization by the company's financial printer RR Donnelley.
In response, all trading on NASDAQ pertaining to Google's stock was halted.
"Earlier this morning RR Donnelley, the financial printer, informed us that they had filed our draft 8K earnings statement without authorization," said a statement from Google.
"We have ceased trading on NASDAQ while we work to finalize the document. Once it's finalized we will release our earnings, resume trading on NASDAQ and hold our earnings call as normal at 1:30 PM PT."
Analysts not surprised
Though the early peek at Google's financials came as a bit of a surprise, analysts weren't shocked by the quarterly results.
Speaking to Reuters, BCG analyst Colin Gillis shared his perspective on why Google took such a hit Thursday afternoon, and pointed the blame at the mobile market.
"Click prices declined for the fourth consecutive quarter after rising for eight consecutive quarters before then. That's a negative. This is the mobile problem."
"The other bit is the Motorola millstone had been ignored by the market, and - boom - now you've got weak revenue from Motorola. When you acquire a business and you're about to whack all kinds of people and close offices, you know what happens to the employees? They take their eye off the ball. Sales are down."
Google was expected to close the quarter with shares improving at $10.65 each, but instead the final numbers showed only a $9.03 increase.
Wall Street expected Google's overall revenue earnings were to approach $11.9 billion, but the third-quarter results showed only $11.3 billion in earnings.
What's next?
Google is scheduled to host an event in New York on Oct. 29, where it's expected the company will announce new Android devices.
With Apple potentially unveiling the Nexus 7 competitor, the iPad Mini, on Oct. 23, Google will have its work cut out for it if the company hopes to bounce back from a disappointing third quarter.
Google isn't going anywhere any time soon. However, it will be worth monitoring the company's progress during the fourth quarter to see if it can turn things around headed into 2013.
Nokia's financial results for Q3 2012 are out and things are still looking grim for the Finns, which have reported an operating loss of $754 million.
If you recall, for each of the last three quarters Nokia had to report north of a $1 billion loss. That's why the company had to undertake some unpleasant jobcuts and we guess the results are starting to show up.
There's more bad news for Nokia, too, as the company only managed to push 76.6 million featurephones, from which the Asha lineup accounted for 6.5 million units. The really bad news is that Lumia sales have dropped to 2.9 million (from a total of 6.3 million smartphones shipped) compared to last quarter's 4 million. The Windows Phone 8 launch just couldn't come soon enough for the Finns, which are now facing a do or die situation.
The report also shows that Nokia Siemens Networks managed to make a profit of $238.5 million, managing to helping the company in these hard times of transition to Windows Phone. Speaking of that, Microsoft also chimed in with their $250 million cheque for the quarter.
Lastly, Nokia reports cash reserves of $4.66 billion, which doesn't compare particularly favorably to the $6.64 billion the company had in its pockets at the same point of last year. In the report, the company issued a warning towards investors that the upcoming Q4 quarter will still be bumpy. The reason, as Stephen Elop puts it is "product transitions and our ramp up plan for our new devices."
Siri's understanding of context is the subject of a new Apple patent
Even as Apple works to defend existing technology patents in court, the iPhone maker continues to shore up its arsenal with a pair of new applications protecting AirPlay Mirroring and Siri.
CNET reported on Thursday that Apple filed new patent applications with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) aimed at keeping two of the company's key iOS technologies safe from copycats.
The patent appears to cover only the implementation of AirPlay Mirroring on iOS devices, although OS X Mountain Lion now allows the feature to also be used from a Mac, but that use does not appear to be covered with this filing.
Siri in context
The second patent offers additional protection for Siri, the virtual assistant feature first introduced a year ago with the iPhone 4S and finally brought to the third-generation iPad with iOS 6.
According to Patently Apple, Siri processes context clues, which "helps to clarify the user's intent and to reduce the number of candidate interpretations of the user's input, and reduces the need for the user to provide excessive clarification input."
The additional patent offers further detail into how Siri uses available search, database, dialog history and more to put a user's request into context.
Although Apple files many patent applications that never see the light of day, the latest pair cover technology already in use with iOS devices.
The Oppo Find 5 is no stranger to us, we've already heard the rumors. And this time around they seem to be confirmed to the letter.
The Oppo Find 5 has a 5-inch screen of FullHD resolution with a narrow 3mm bezel. It runs on 1.5Ghz Qualcomm's APQ8064 quad-core chipset with 2GB RAM. The aluminum unibody has a thickness of merely 6.9mm and the 12MP camera with a Sony backlit sensor allegedly doesn't bulge at all.
But that's not all, as there is also a nice and hefty 2500mAh battery inside to power the thing. Oh, and there's Android 4.1 Jelly Bean pre-installed.
Oppo Find 5
A 5-inch screen with Full HD resolution, now that does ring some bells, doesn't it? The recently introduced HTC J has similar specs but it's for Japan only.
The Oppo Find 5 will be available in 16GB and 32GB versions, priced at 3000 Chinese yuan (about US$475) and 3300 Chinese yuan (about US$520) respectively. Those are unsubsidized prices, but the Oppo Find 5 is reportedly coming with support for GSM and UMTS (with HSPA) networks, so it's compatible with China Unicom's network. This is also good news if you are planning to get one imported to Europe or America, as there are plenty of carriers to support those standards there.
Nokia has announced another steep loss of €969 million (£786 million, US$1.2 billion, AU$1.2 billion) for the third quarter of 2012.
Revenue was down 19 per cent after the July to September period, thanks in part to a 22 per cent drop in sales of Symbian handsets, Nokia's traditional cash-cow.
Sales of its Lumia line-up for the three months, including the Nokia Lumia 900, came in at 2.9 million devices – that's quite a dip compared to the previous quarter during which it sold four million handsets.
Lumia line-up
This may be less dramatic than it sounds, though, as eager Nokia-loving beavers hold out for the Nokia Lumia 820 and Nokia Lumia 920 handsets that form the company's Windows Phone 8 line-up.
Both handsets were announced during the disastrous quarter, but won't go on sale until November 2012.
Stephen Elop remained his usual bullish self when announcing the results, commenting that, "Next year is going to be a very interesting year."
He sees the Lumia line as a "credible third alternative" to Android and iOS, which is a little harsh on its previous BFF Microsoft and the other Windows Phone manufacturers.
Nokia is no doubt still smarting after Microsoft chose HTC to produce its flagship Windows Phone 8 device in the shape of the HTC 8X.
The data-championing network took to Twitter to announce the news, tweeting: "#ThreeSoftwareUpdate Jelly Bean has arrived for #GalaxySIII users :-)".
By the looks of it the update is available over the air, meaning you won't need to dig out your USB cable and tackle the somewhat disappointing Kies desktop software.
Update time
You'll need to head over to Settings > About device > Software update on your Galaxy S3 to check if Android 4.1 has made it to you.
It won't necessarily appear today as these updates sometimes take a few days to filter through to every handset, but you should be enjoying Jelly Bean on your S3 very soon.
We've contacted the other networks about their Galaxy S3 updates, but we're still waiting to hear back from O2, Vodafone, Orange and T-Mobile.
After losing in court to Samsung in the UK this July, Apple was ordered to publicly state its rival didn't copy the iPad. It appealed the verdict, but the decision was upheld in court today, meaning Apple's punishment stands.
Back in July, Apple lost a court battle in the UK to ban the sale of Samsung’s Galaxy Tab family of tablets, which it claimed infringed on its design patents. Judge Colin Briss took a dim view of Apple dragging Samsung’s name through the legal mud, and came up with a novel and particularly embarrassing punishment for the Cupertino company.
It was ordered to take out an advertisement in a selection of publications apologizing to Samsung, and stating that it did not copy the design of the iPad after all. Feasting on national humble pie was the least of Apple’s problems though, as the same apology would also have to appear on Apple’s own website, and it would have to stay there for six months.
The advert would also appear in the Financial Times, The Daily Mail and The Guardian newspapers, plus Mobile Magazine and T3 Magazine, all before page 6 and within 7 days of the decision. The Arial font size could be no smaller than 14pt, while on its website, 11pt would suffice, but it would also have to include a link to the judgment.
Apple appealed on the grounds that this would involve “public groveling,” and would interfere with the layout and design of its website, something it called “an important marketing tool.” A hearing was set for today, October 18, and the order was put on hold.
Decision upheld
Sadly for Apple, the decision and punishment has been upheld, however there have been a few changes. Looking through the official court document, you can see the original wording of the advert is suggested in section 64, which has now been amended in section 87. Apple’s statement must read:
“On 9th July 2012 the High Court of Justice of England and Wales ruled that Samsung Electronic (UK) Limited’s Galaxy Tablet Computers, namely the Galaxy Tab 10.1, Tab 8.9 and Tab 7.7 do not infringe Apple’s registered design No. 0000181607-0001. A copy of the full judgment of the High court is available on the following link. That Judgment has effect throughout the European Union and was upheld by the Court of Appeal. A copy of the Court of Appeal’s judgment is available on the following link. There is no injunction in respect of the registered design in force anywhere in Europe.”
The order still applies to the newspapers and magazines, but the length of time the page must appear on Apple’s website has been reduced to a month. It’s also acceptable for Apple to hide the page away, and simply provide a link titled Samsung/Apple UK Judgment on the homepage.
Samsung told CNET UK that it welcomes the court’s decision, as it reaffirms its position “that our Galaxy Tab products do no infringe on Apple’s registered design right,” and that it “continues to believe” that Apple isn’t the “first to design a tablet with a rectangular shape and rounded corners.”
The Orange San Diego marks a significant milestone in the mobile industry. It's not the biggest, fastest, smallest, slimmest or cheapest phone, but Intel is inside.
It's not even the first handset to sport an Intel chip, that accolade goes to the Lenovo K800, but the San Diego is the first Intel phone to land in Europe.
It's now available for £169.99 on PAYG and for free on some pretty low 24 month contracts , which puts the San Diego below the likes of the Nokia Lumia 710. However, in terms of specs it challenges the more pricey Sony Xperia P and Nokia Lumia 800.
Intel is responsible for manufacturing the San Diego (through the little-known firm ODM Gigabyte), as Orange doesn't have the capabilities of producing its own handsets, although this isn't the first time the network has slapped its name on a phone.
There's no fancy dual- or quad-core action here though, since Intel has stuck its single-core 1.6GHz Atom Z2460 Medfield processor inside the San Diego, along with a 4.03-inch (600 x 1024) display and 16GB of internal memory.
Pop the San Diego out of its box and you'll get a bit of déjà vu, with the handset sporting a resemblance to the Samsung Galaxy S2, and the plastic, metallic coloured strip running around the edge conjuring up memories of the iPhone 4S.
Although not an original design, the San Diego is a decent looking handset, and the rubberised back provides a secure grip in the hand.
The San Diego is a slender device, at 9.99mm in depth, and sits comfortably in the palm. Evenly weighted, without being heavy, it tops the scales at a respectable 117g.
Even though the case is plastic, the San Diego feels sturdy and well built, although we could prise the plastic trim away from the edge of the screen with a fingernail, which may see a build up of dust and dirt over time.
Three physical buttons adorn the Orange San Diego, with a power/lock key located at the top of the handset, next to a 3.5mm headphone jack and volume rocker and dedicated camera shutter buttons on the right-hand side.
The volume rocker is easy to hit, but we found the lock key on top harder to navigate, especially when held in our left hand.
There's a micro HDMI port on the left-hand side and a micro USB port flanked by speakers on the base.
Orange and Intel have gone down the micro SIM route with the San Diego, with a pop-out tray for the chip located just above the shutter button – you even get a fancy iPhone-esque tool for opening the tray. Yippee.
Battery aficionados will be disappointed to learn that the back cover cannot be taken off the San Diego and thus the battery is locked away, however Intel claims battery life has been improved thanks to its new processor and integration methods. More on that later.
The San Diego also fails to offer expandable storage, meaning you're stuck with the 16GB of internal, which will be plenty for most, but frustrating for those who need more or like to pop in a memory card full of content to consume immediately.
However, this is far more generous than the storage in the One V and Lumia 710, which offer 4GB and 8GB respectively.
Other goodies squeezed in to the Orange San Diego include an 8MP rear facing camera with single LED flash and 1080p video recording, front-facing 1.3MP snapper, NFC technology and HD voice, which enhances voices calls, making them clearer.
The Asus event, which brought us the new Padfone 2 smartphone/tablet was over all too quickly and some details almost slipped through. Among them were the Jelly Bean update schedule and the keyboard dock, which wasn’t presented.
According to an Asus representative, the company plans to have the Android 4.1 update ready by November. This means that even if you are among the very first to buy it, you will only have to wait a couple of weeks to get it.
As for the keyboard dock, that's still in development too. Asus says it's trying to create the best keyboard dock possible, but didn’t commit to a time frame. Of course, there's a possibility that Asus might ax the dock, but chances of that happening are slim.
After Color Labs was rumored to be closing its doors, the photo-sharing app startup refuted the allegation by saying it was doing no such thing. Now, a new rumor suggests it's be acquired by none other than Apple.
One minute Color Labs, creator of the photo-sharing social app Color, is closing down, then the next it’s not, and now there’s a rumor it’s about to be purchased by Apple. No matter which one is true, it has certainly put then app-the-world-forgot back in the news.
Today’s rumor comes from TheNextWeb.com, where “trusted sources” say Apple is about to hand over a figure in the high tens of millions for company, and perhaps more importantly, its patent portfolio. The patents up for grabs include those related to GPS, battery saving, group content sharing and HD video recording.
Forbes.com points out that Color has a trademark on its name, and an acquisition would also nab the desirable color.com URL. It also says that Google offered to purchase Color before it launched, and suggests that Apple wants to keep the patents out of Google’s hands.
The report says that Color founder Bill Nguyen has thrashed out a deal with Apple thanks in part to an existing relationship with Eddy Cue, Apple’s VP of Internet Software and Services. Apple also purchased Lala, an online music startup and another Nguyen project, back in 2009. It’s said the Color deal is complete, and only needs a few signatures before it’s final.
If the acquisition rumor is true, it clarifies Color’s statement that “Color is not shutting down,” which under the acquisition scenario, it’s not.
An acquisition would also net Apple some more talent, of which there should be plenty inside the company. Just before Color launched, a report in The Wall Street Journal from March 2011 told the story of how Sequoia Capital got involved with the project. They apparently told Nguyen — after a 45-minute demonstration — that the concept was “transformative” and “not since Google have we seen this.”
Throwing $25 million at the company was supposed to accelerate five years of development into one, which would be achieved by hiring the “best-of-the-best engineers who will rapidly iterate and advance this terrific product.”
Apple rarely talks about its acquisitions, but Color may spill the beans, should there be any truth to this new rumor.
Acer has announced the Iconia Tab A110, a budget Android tablet with a simila-but-subtly-different specification to the Google Nexus 7, leaving buyers to decide if they want more internal storage space or a higher screen resolution.
It was back in June that we last covered the Acer Iconia Tab A110, a time when the world of budget Android tablets was a very different place. Yes, we had the Amazon Kindle Fire, but the Nexus 7 was nothing but a rumor. Likewise the A110, said at the time to be a 7-inch tablet with a quad-core Tegra 3 and a sub-$200 price tag. Now, a little later than those early rumors suggested, Acer has made the A110 official.
As expected, the A110 has a 1024 x 600 pixel, 7-inch touchscreen and a quad-core Nvidia Tegra 3 processor, with a 1.2GHz clock speed. There’s 1GB of RAM and a tiny 8GB of internal memory, but thankfully there’s a microSD card slot to increase this by up to 32GB.
The spec list continues with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 3.0, a micro-HDMI out, a 2-megapixel video call camera above the screen and a 3420mAh battery that should provide 7 hours of use before needing a recharge.
This is all consistent with the spec rumored earlier in the year, however the operating system has been upgraded from Android 4.0 to Android 4.1 Jelly Bean.
So, the processor, screen size and OS are all identical to the Nexus 7, but the A110’s screen resolution doesn’t quite match up to Google’s HD tablet, however some may see the addition of a microSD card slot and the HDMI-out as an acceptable trade-off.
The A110 measures 11.4mm thick and weighs in at 390 grams, while the Nexus 7 is only 10.4mm thick and 340 grams, however Acer’s tablet has a slightly higher resolution camera than the Nexus 7, but a slightly smaller battery.
This give and take continues with the price, as the Acer Iconia Tab A110 is priced at $229, seeing it slot in between the two Nexus models. Buyers will have to choose between more storage, a better camera and an HDMI-out, over a higher screen resolution, larger battery and a lighter chassis — plus more timely OS updates.
You’ll be able to make your choice on October 30, when Acer’s Iconia Tab A110 will hit US and Canadian stores.
Training videos meant for AT&T staff show us that the exclusivity rights to the Nokia's latest and greats - the Lumia 920 - will only go on for 6 months.
Exclusivity to certain hot smartphones can be a big thing for carriers, potentially driving sales through the roof. However, you won't see any of this year's flagships messing with carrier exclusivity, simply because no carrier can afford that.
Well, obviously Nokia wasn't expecting hot sales on the US market even for its Lumia 920, since they succumbed to another exclusive deal with US carrier AT&T.
Of course, we're merely guessing here. It might as well be that Nokia just didn't want to bother with making a CDMA version to fit Sprint's or Verizon's networks (though it already has a TD-SCDMA version for China).
Whatever the reason, Nokia has again bet on the same single US carrier to carry them on their second serious attempt at conquering the US market. If you remember, the Lumia 900 was an AT&T exclusive too. Unfortunately, reports show it didn't do too good, despite the major advertising campaign.
And back to today's news, this time around Nokia went for only a 6-month exclusivity period. This sounds like a nice step forward, but when we think about it... In 6 month's time, the Lumia 920 won't be anywhere as hot as today. These phones go out of fashion really quickly, with the product cycle being around a year now. So even if Nokia comes up with a CDMA version in six months, this would still leave the other carriers only with scrapes. So we doubt any of those would pick up the phone at all.
Essentially, in this case even a 6-month exclusivity deal means Americans are not much likely to enjoy the 920 on another carrier.
Acer may be planning an Intel-powered smartphone as it aims to join the growing number of other manufacturers that have already dabbled with firm.
The Taipei Times and China Post quoted Acer's vice president Peter Shieh saying the company was planning on producing a smartphone with Intel inside before the end of the year.
Shieh did not provide any further details on Acer's plan with Intel, but a company official told the China Post: "Intel is a more familiar partner to us because we have been working together in the PC sector for a long time."
Growing
It's no great surprise that a firm with its roots in computing would talk to one of its key suppliers about potentially using its technology in other devices, so even if an Acer-Intel phone doesn't appear this year, the chance of one arriving in 2013 is pretty high.
Acer would be the sixth manufacturer to stick one of Intel's Atom processors inside a smartphone, with the likes of the Orange San Diego, Motorola Razr i and Lenovo K800 already leading the way.
We've contacted Acer in a bid to find out more information and we'll update this article once we hear back.
The Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini release date has been confirmed as November 8 by online retailer Expansys.
Apparently the November 8 Galaxy S3 Mini release date has been confirmed by the website's suppliers, but it's worth noting this is just for the 8GB white version.
If you fancy getting your hands on the pebble blue Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini you'll need to wait until "around November 23".
Bigger storage option
The Galaxy S3 Mini will also come in a 16GB variant, but there's currently no word on when we may expect to see this land in the UK.
While it may carry the same name as the Samsung Galaxy S3 superphone, the Mini doesn't quite meet the same high standards of its bigger brother, offering up a 4-inch Super AMOLED display, 1GHz dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM and 5MP rear camera, but it does come running Android 4.1.
Expansys is listing the Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini at £314.99, but if you shop around you may be able to pick it up for around £300 SIM-free, and it will also be available for free on contracts starting at £25 per month.
If you're in the US and want to update to a Samsung Galaxy S III, now might be a very good time to do it. Amazon Wireless is offering the Samsung flagship for $100 if you sign a contract with Verizon or Sprint and for $120 if you want to go with AT&T.
We checked the carriers' own web sites but the they still offer it on their usual prices ($200). Then we headed off to various etailers, but we only got the old prices there too.
The only other one with a reduced price that we managed to find is Staples - it's asking $150 for the Galaxy S III if you sign with Verizon. There's this offer too, but honestly, we can't tell which carrier that one is from.
Anyway, if you manage to figure out which carrier the second offer is from or find the S III on the cheap elsewhere, drop us a line in the comments.
Microsoft has launched a second ad for its Surface tablet, which launches next week. The new ad highlights some of the device's features and contains no dancing.
The first ad for Microsoft’s new Surface tablet may have been an all-clicking all-dancing affair, but its second has a little more substance. For a start, there’s a voiceover telling us a few things about the device, and look, occasional text appears on the screen too – words like “sleek”, “light”, and “durable”.
Most of the ad’s participants seem to be aged around 20 to 40. There are no kissing senior citizens in the 97-second promo, nor any dancing schoolgirls – both of which featured in the first ad, in case you thought I was just mentioning some odd, random scenarios.
The Redmond-based company is still going big-time with the Touch Cover and and kickstand, two features which it believes help make it stand apart from competing tablets. According to a report yesterday, however, it seems most people pre-ordering the device are going for the lowest-priced $499 Surface, which comes without the Touch Cover.
The new ad takes time to mention some of the features of the new tablet, which launches on October 26, including its HD video-out port, USB 2.0 port and microSD card slot.
“From touch to type, office to living room, from your screen to the big screen, you can see more, share more and do more with Surface,” the voiceover tells us at the close of the ad.
If you thought Microsoft’s first ad for the Surface was a bit light on information (like, therewasn’t any information), you’ll definitely prefer this one.
And if gradually increasing the amount of information while decreasing the amount of fluff is going to be a trend with these Surface ads, perhaps the next one will feature Steve Ballmer in a sparsely furnished room sitting at a desk staring straight down the barrel of the camera explaining in no uncertain terms exactly what’s so darn great about Microsoft’s new tablet. Without that clicking sound.
EE, O2, Three and Vodafone have joined forces to form a joint company focused on accelerating the 4G network rollout on the frequency freed up by the analogue TV switch off.
The company is called Digital Mobile Spectrum Limited and is responsible for ensuring Freeview customers continue to receive clear TV signal, while the 4G network is rolled out on the 800MHz spectrum – which is scheduled to start in spring next year.
The creation of this joint venture means 4G services can be accelerated, with the UK's competitive 4G network becoming available as soon as possible in 2013.
Ofcom and Government
This has all come about after Ofcom and the Government met with mobile operators to discuss how the UK's 4G network rollout could be accelerated – allowing all carriers to get in on the super-fast network, after EE was allowed to launch its service early.
There's still the small matter of the spectrum auction for the networks to fight over, but apparently everything is now in place to allow it to be processed as quickly as possible.
There's still no exact date for when the likes of O2, Three and Vodafone will be able to join EE in offering 4G to customers, but it could now be in the first half of next year with this major stumbling block out of the way.
The Huawei Ascend W1 has apparently been leaked in photos, sporting a design which may look familiar to some HTC owners.
Of all the initial Windows Phone 8 handsets set to launch alongside the new mobile platform at the end of the month, the Huawei Ascend W1 is the one we know least about.
Now images have appeared on Chinese site Blog of Mobile, showing a fetching blue handset, which sports a very similar camera layout to the HTC One X round the back.
On the front there's a slightly more original design, with a small lip at the bottom of the handset giving you a flash of the blue case in the sea of black glass which greets you.
The Ascend W1 will reportedly pack a 4-inch WVGA display, 1.2GHz dual-core processor, 512MB of RAM, 4GB of internal storage, 5MP rear camera, VGA front snapper and a 2,000mAh battery – so not really a One X, or even One S contender.
According to a report yesterday, the Huawei Ascend W1 could land for around $300-$350 (£185-215/AU$290-340), making it the cheapest of the Windows Phone 8 pack.
Once upon a time, Symbian was everywhere. It was the de facto operating system for mobile phones for years, before the iPhone was a twinkle in Steve Jobs' eye.
And now it's gone, with Nokia officially putting the humble operating system into maintenance mode.
The decision to kill off Symbian has been in the works for a while, although nobody quite expected for Nokia to pull the plug with such a whimper.
Following its last update, FP2, a user of Nokia's Drive app for the Nokia E7 lodged a bug report, only to get a response that Symbian is now in maintenance mode, and no new features will be added to the OS from here on out.
"Thank you for your improvement ideas, thus (sic) Symbian is in maintenance mode and no new features will be implement[ed] without extremely good reason (business case). We have written down your ideas for future development if there is a chance that new features will be released," read the response.
A long time coming
In many regards, Nokia's commitment to Symbian has been its achilles heel in the smartphone race. While the FInns pioneered early smartphones with the N95 and N96, it was totally unprepared for Apple, then Google's entry into the smartphone market.
Eventually, rapidly declining Symbian sales saw the phone manufacturer take the step of partnering with Microsoft to exclusively release Windows Phone devices. It also decided to rename the operating system as "Nokia Belle".
The name change did little to salvage market share, leading to the decision to put the operating system into maintenance mode.
With no updates to the operating system other than bug fixes, this is undoubtedly the end of the line for the mobile operating system that drove mobile phones into the mainstream.
