Liam Casey, chief executive officer of PCH International, has recently noticed a renewed appreciation for hardware makers in an industry that once seemed to praise software developers above all others.
“Silicon Valley is interested in hardware again, and Casey is riding the trend,” writes Businessweek. In the interview, Casey said: “Hardware is the new software.”
This appreciation was highlighted by Microsoft’s recent unveiling of its Surface tablet, seen as “a move that puts the company in direct competition with its traditional PC partners. Instead of crowing about the device’s apps, Microsoft executives gushed about its magnesium finish, kickstand, and a clever cover that doubles as a keyboard,” notes the article.
Google is getting ready to launch its own tablet, the Nexus 7. Amazon has been making Kindle hardware since 2007, making it “hard to find a large technology outfit that traffics only in bits,” according to the report.
It has long been the standard of many technology companies to rely on creating software while outsourcing the hardware-building at a cheaper price.
But that’s changing, largely due to Apple’s end-to-end success over the years, according to Harmut Esslinger, founder of Frog Design.
“They all thought they could get someone else to do the hard work,” he says. “Now they’re realizing that their hardware partners don’t have the vision to create anything holistic. And meanwhile, Apple is eating their breakfast, lunch, and dinner.”
Businessweek notes that last year Apple earned more profits than Microsoft for the first time since 1990.
Twitter announced updates to its search function, which will include the addition of “autocomplete, spell check, related results relevant to the search query, and show both real names and Twitter handles for each search,” reports The Verge.
These are part of Twitter’s continued efforts to expand the social network more into the mainstream, especially the displaying of both Twitter handles and real names, “as it tries to ensure regular people don’t have a hard time finding their favorite athletes and celebrities among all the bizarre Twitter handles,” explains the post.
“These updates make search easier on twitter.com, and related search suggestions, search autocomplete and spelling corrections are also available on Twitter for iPhone and Twitter for Android,” notes the Twitter Blog.
One of the most interesting new developments, according to The Verge, is one that allows users to search for Tweets within a user’s own social circle. Instead of showing results of all “top tweets,” it will only show those search results from a user’s social stream, potentially narrowing a given search.
Much like Instagram and Hipstamatic for the still image, a certain suite of smartphone apps can turn otherwise mundane phone videos into visually interesting and memorable clips. “The secret to great smartphone video is to drown it in canned nostalgia,” writes the Wall Street Journal.
Apps like the Super 8 ($1) and 8mm Vintage Camera ($2) allow for mock-vintage camera actions and effects on a smartphone running iOS. WSJ writes that “those two, while relatively old, are still the best of the many vintage-video apps out for iOS.”
As for Android users, there are fewer options, but still some viable ones. Videocam Illusion Pro ($2) offers “a decent selection of filters, though none are as convincingly retro,” according to the article.
For those uninterested in filtering every video, there’s Filmic Pro ($4) available for iOS, which allows users to control other image aspects like exposure and focus. “Filmic Pro also lets you specify frame rate, dropping the unmistakably digital smoothness of 30 frames per second to a more film-like 24 or 25,” reports WSJ.
There are also editing apps available, such as the Avid Studio for iPad ($5).
More now than ever before, it is imperative for small businesses to project themselves from cyber-thieves, even if they have limited budgets.
“Small businesses feel like they’re immune from cybercrime, and they’re wrong,” says Larry Ponemon, chairman of the privacy think tank Ponemon Institute. “They are absolutely on the list of potential targets of cybercriminals.”
Research by Verizon’s forensic analysis unit reveals that of the 855 data breaches worldwide in 2011, 72 percent of those were done to companies with 100 or fewer employees (up from 63 percent in 2010). The small business is a very real target.
“A survey last year of executives at 500 U.S. companies of varying sizes found that 76 percent had had a cybersecurity incident within the past 12 months resulting in the loss of money, data, intellectual property or the ability to conduct day-to-day business, according to the Computing Technology Industry Association, an information-technology industry trade group,” reports the Wall Street Journal.
In many such cases, courts find that banks aren’t responsible for the money lost in cybercrime cases, “which a business client’s computer systems were breached,” notes the article.
“Cybersecurity experts say small-business owners need to do more to protect their firms from high-tech thieves than rely on standard security products,” adds WSJ.
Google has published a patent application for face detection in video, a technique that “uses video frames to generate clusters of face representations that are attached to a given person,” reports Engadget.
That would allow for Google to identify subjects from various angles and “then attach a name to a face whenever it shows up in a clip, even at different angles and in strange lighting conditions,” explains the post.
This could be useful on YouTube, so people could be tagged in uploaded videos. But, as Engadget notes, it could also be used to “spot people in augmented reality apps and get their details — imagine never being at a loss for information about a new friend as long as you’re wearing Project Glass.”
Of course, since it’s only a patent, it’s impossible to tell exactly what Google will do with this technology. But the possibilities are interesting.
Last week, Apple was granted a patent for a head-mounted display apparatus, that if ever produced could compete with the likes of Google Glass.
It was originally filed in 2006 and is titled “Peripheral treatment for head-mounted displays.” The patent describes “how images could be projected to generate a peripheral display that would create ‘an enhanced viewing experience’ for the user,” explains Wired.
It is designed to display video information in front of the user’s eyes. It’s not clear whether the headset would be in the form of a helmet, glasses, visor or other.
Apple’s proposed project could also be used for augmented reality. Wired notes that “in the patent, Apple provides a few examples of where this would be useful: in surgery applications where CAT scans or MRI images could be combined with the surgeon’s field of vision; for military personnel, firefighters and police, who could use the display to show tactical information (see ‘Terminator’); and for scientists and engineers who could benefit from viewing stereoscopic CAD drawings.”
Also within the patent is a description of how video and image information could be received from a portable device like an iPhone.
Wired makes note of the potential Google vs. Apple showdown, saying that “Google’s patent is very specific to Google Glass — it’s for a wearable display with an integrated finger-tracking input sensor. Apple’s on the other hand, seems pretty broad, covering a variety of head mounted display technology implementations.”
Music streaming competition continues to heat up and Microsoft plans to enter the mix with “an expansive Xbox music service joining Spotify-style streaming with download and online-storage functions similar to Apple Inc.’s iTunes,” according to Bloomberg.
Microsoft is in negotiations with major record companies now and plans to launch the service later this year.
“By combining the best features of competing services, Microsoft seeks to build a digital product that lets customers consume music any way they like,” notes the article. “The maker of the Xbox console is building the new music business after its unsuccessful effort with the Zune service, which will close and move customers to Xbox Music, the company said on its website.”
According to “several people with knowledge of the situation,” Xbox Music will offer a streaming subscription service similar to that of Spotify and enable customers to purchase digital music via an online store, similar to the model used by iTunes and Amazon.com.
Sources also say that Microsoft wants to offer Xbox Music users an online locker, from which they can access content from mobile devices running Windows 8.
Rumor has it that Apple is getting closer to revealing a 7-inch iPad (the Wall Street Journal reports that the company component suppliers in Asia are set to begin production in September of a tablet smaller than 8-inches).
However, reports indicate that Apple’s late CEO Steve Jobs was critical of such a tablet.
During a conference call in 2010, “Jobs talked about how such tablets offered just a fraction of the screen size as a 10-inch tablet, while not offering a significant boost over the smartphone that most tablet buyers were already carrying,” reports AllThingsD.
Even knowing the inevitability of improved pixel density in the future, Jobs said: “The reason we [won’t] make a 7-inch tablet isn’t because we don’t want to hit [a lower] price point. It’s because we think the screen is too small to express the software. As a software driven company, we think about the software strategies first.”
Serious competitors in the low-cost, smaller tablet sector continue to emerge, including last year’s Kindle Fire from Amazon and the pending arrival of the Nexus 7 from Asus and Google.
While competitors continue unveiling smaller, more affordable tablets, “Apple may well feel that it no longer makes sense to leave the segment to competitors,” notes the article.
While the iPhone was once considered just a fancy, expensive cellphone by some — it’s now obvious, five years after its initial launch, that the iPhone continues to revolutionize mobile phones and computing.
“The iPhone is not and never was a phone. It is a pocket-sized computer that obviates the phone. The iPhone is to cell phones what the Mac was to typewriters,” according to John Gruber of Daring Fireball.
Gruber suggests that the iPhone was the “world’s best portable computer… It was the best because it was always there, always on, always just a button-push away. The disruption was not that we now finally had a nice phone; it was that, for better or for worse, we would now never again be without a computer or the Internet. It was the Mac side of Apple, not the iPod side, that set the engineering foundation for the iPhone.”
The post claims that in the past five years, Apple has “destroyed the handset industry by disrupting the computer industry.”
“Today, cell phones are apps, not devices,” notes Gruber. “The companies that were the most successful at selling cell phones pre-iPhone are now dead or dying. Amazon, Google, and now even Microsoft are designing and selling their own integrated touchscreen portable tablets. ‘App’ is now a household word. All of this, because of the iPhone.”
Enterprise mobility company Good Technology polled 1,000 U.S. workers “to get a better understanding of their mobile work habits,” reports TechCrunch.
The findings show that 80 percent of Americans continue to work after leaving the office, while half of those people feel they have “no choice” but to do so.
“Connectedness means customers demand fast replies. There’s no off switch,” notes the article. “Half of respondents check their email in bed, starting at around 7:09 AM. 68 percent check email before 8 AM. And you wonder why people hate email so much? God forbid we get a cup of coffee in us before dealing with the latest work emergency.”
The average amount of “extra work” taking place outside the office amounts to an average of 7 hours per week, or about a full day. “That’s nearly 30 hours per month or 365 extra hours per year,” according to TechCrunch.
The article suggests the need for implementing a new system of communication, perhaps even an updated email system that allows for status messages, simple yes/no responses for minor or follow-up queries, and an automated routing mechanism for those clocked in as “on duty.”
According to Todd Juenger, an analyst for Sanford C. Bernstein, “Netflix seems highly dependent on kids TV” content. Because of that, he advises Disney and Viacom to make their content more expensive or limited.
“His advice for entertainment companies is to be cautious about how much kids programming they make available to the online video streaming provider and in which windows,” according to The Hollywood Reporter. “We remain firm in our belief Viacom and Walt Disney should limit their content availability on Netflix,” writes Juenger.
Bernstein hosted focus groups to analyze how mothers are encouraging their kids to intake content. Of these findings, Juenger notes: “Moms are increasingly directing their kids to alternative viewing modes for content control, commercial avoidance and time management. The moms we talked to originally subscribed to Netflix for themselves, but have recognized the dwindling supply of content for adults and are now using the service primarily for their kids.”
“The content selection is perceived to be significantly better for kids than for adults, and the lack of commercials and ability to control the viewing choices are seen as positives,” he adds.
But for Disney, Viacom and others, it’s more financially beneficial to have viewers watch on traditional TV or through Video On Demand services. When these companies renegotiate deals with Netflix, according to Jeunger, they should either limit the availability of kids’ content on the streaming service or increase prices to compensate for falling ratings.
Shazam is teaming with NBC to “enable TV viewers in the U.S. to interact with one of television’s biggest events: the London Olympics, spanning NBC, NBC Sports Network, MSNBC, Bravo and CNBC,” according to Lost Remote.
Viewers who tag the broadcast with their Shazam app will have access to information about athletes, polls, schedules, results and more, all sharable with a click to their social media sites.
“Our collaboration with NBC around the London Games marks an exciting milestone for Shazam for TV. As the leader in second-screen interactive television, we’re proud to work with NBC to make their coverage of the London 2012 Summer Olympics an even more engaging and interactive social experience,” explains Shazam CEO Andrew Fisher.
“Shazam will also promote NBC Olympics’ apps for video coverage and a more in-depth interactive experience,” indicates the post. “The partnership spans programming between the the Opening Ceremony on July 27 through the Closing Ceremony on August 12.”
Yahoo and Clear Channel have announced a multi-year deal through which “Yahoo will begin using Clear Channel’s iHeartRadio platform as its digital radio service and the station will promote both companies’ content,” according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The joint venture means Yahoo will have exclusive access “to various concert series and other music events, including the two-day iHeartRadio Music Festival in September at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas,” says the report.
According to CNET, 45 million unique listeners tune to iHeartRadio each month and the iHeartRadio app has been downloaded 80 million times. Clear Channel boasts more than 237 million listeners per month in 150 markets on terrestrial radio.
In an attempt to revamp the brand, Yahoo has been seeking content relationships with ABC News and CNBC, putting into focus its online ad business.
“We like the direction Yahoo is going and by working together we can accelerate growth for the both of us,” says Clear Channel CEO Bob Pittman.
“This partnership will expand our ability to provide consumers and advertisers with the best premium content available and provide Clear Channel with unmatched digital reach,” adds Yahoo interim CEO Ross Levinsohn.
There are signs of a possible trend reversal that suggests the manufacturing of consumer electronics is returning to the U.S.
Google’s new Nexus Q wireless home media player, for example, is being manufactured in California — and other American companies are doing the same.
“While many of those companies have been small, like ET Water Systems, there have also been some highly visible moves by America’s largest consumer and industrial manufacturers,” reports The New York Times.
“General Electric and Caterpillar, for example, have moved assembly operations back to the United States in the last year,” notes the article. “Airbus, a European company, said Wednesday it would build jets in Alabama.”
While there may not be a single reason responsible for the emerging trend, the article explains that “rising labor and energy costs have made manufacturing in China significantly more expensive; transportation costs have risen; companies have become increasingly aware of the risks of intellectual property theft when products are made in China; and in a business where time-to-market is a competitive advantage, it is easier for engineers to drive 10 minutes on the freeway to the factory than to fly for 16 hours.”
Beginning next Monday, free Wi-Fi will be available at some New York City subway stations courtesy of Google.
“Boingo Wireless, the Wi-Fi provider well known for its wireless service for airports, has teamed up with Google Offers, the search company’s Web page for getting deals, to offer the free Internet,” reports The New York Times.
Google will foot the bill from Monday until September 7. Beyond that, Boingo will offer service plans for its Wi-Fi, such as “$10 per month for unlimited use on any two Internet-enabled devices, or $8 per month for unlimited access on a mobile device,” details NYT.
Boingo also hopes for more sponsorships to provide free Wi-Fi in the NYC subway system regularly, said a spokesperson for the company.
The provider says its Wi-Fi will be available in 36 subway stations by the end of 2012 and in 270 stations within the next five years.
Liam Casey, chief executive officer of PCH International, has recently noticed a renewed appreciation for hardware makers in an industry that once seemed to praise software developers above all others.
