With Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal both reporting that Apple will launch a smaller version of its iPad later this year, the mini iPad seems to now be more of a reality than a rumor.
The new device may potentially lead to devastating competition for other products in the smaller tablet market including the Kindle Fire, Nook and Nexus 7.
Apple will likely sell its device at a premium, but the company “would do well against its competitors purely on the strength of its apps,” suggests TIME.
Other companies have tried to compete with Apple in the 10-inch tablet market, but none have succeeded, and companies may experience similar frustration as Apple and its ecosystem of apps migrates to smaller tablets.
Apple likes to profit from its hardware (Apple makes $150 on each Wi-Fi iPad 2), which means it will likely sell its mini iPad for $250 or $300.
With Apple dominating the market while selling at a premium, other companies will likely drive prices lower, “but they won’t come up with better products that way — only cheaper ones,” speculates TIME.
Walt Mossberg offers his take on the $199 Nexus 7, an Android tablet from Google set to launch next week. The new tablet, built by Asus, is Wi-Fi-only and features a 7-inch screen.
“After testing the Nexus 7 for a couple of weeks, I consider it the best Android tablet I’ve used,” he writes. “It’s a serious alternative to both Apple’s larger $499 iPad and to a more direct rival: Amazon’s $199, Android-based, 7-inch Kindle Fire. I prefer the Nexus 7 to 7-inch models from Google partners like Samsung, whose comparable product costs $250.”
Mossberg notes ways in which the Nexus 7 does not keep up with the iPad: no cellular connectivity option, no rear camera, less screen resolution, less memory, fewer content choices and fewer available apps.
“But Google’s tablet is a better choice than the iPad for people on a budget; for those who prefer a lighter, more compact tablet that’s easier to carry and operate with one hand; and for those who prefer Google’s ecosystem of apps, services and content to Apple’s,” he notes, adding that he found the Nexus 7 battery life to be better than that of the iPad.
The Nexus 7 touts an artificial-intelligence feature that “presents a screen, called Google Now, with information it considers relevant to you at your present location and time — like the weather, traffic conditions between home and work, your next calendar appointment, and information for flights you’ve been researching,” writes Mossberg.
He also points out that “Apple is rumored to be planning a smaller, less costly iPad, which could give the Nexus 7 a run for its money.”
The post includes a 6-minute video report from Mossberg.
Twenty years ago, Robert Cringely predicted that PCs would be dead by now. While his timing was off the mark, he still sees their demise.
“Fifteen years from now, we won’t be able to function without some sort of machine with a microprocessor and memory inside,” Cringely wrote in 1992. “Though we probably won’t call it a personal computer, that’s what it will be.”
Today, smartphones and PCs each comprise a $250 billion industry. However, the smartphone industry is still rapidly growing, while the PC industry is not.
We continue to rely on devices with processors and memory, but the mobility trend has led us to different devices such as notebooks. Still, hardware is becoming disposable while our data in the cloud becomes more important.
“How long before the PC as we knew it is dead? About five years I reckon, or 1.5 PC hardware replacement cycles,” writes Cringely today. “Nearly all of us are on our next-to-last PC.”
In a recent interview, Bill Gates spoke candidly about Microsoft’s decision to create its own tablet, Surface, that will compete with other tablets by HP, Dell, Lenovo and others running the company’s new Windows 8 operating system.
In an interview with Charlie Rose, Gates justified the company’s new initiative. “I actually believe you can have the best of both worlds,” he said. “You can have a rich ecosystem of manufacturers and you can have a few signature devices that show off, wow, what’s the difference between a tablet and a PC?”
“To Microsoft’s defense, Google is taking the same route with its Nexus 7 tablet and the other ‘Google Experience’ tablets planned in the near future,” writes Kevin Parrish for Tom’s Hardware. “These will be ‘signature’ devices offering the best of what Google has to offer while manufactured by one of its top-tier manufacturers. However, these devices will be competing not only with Amazon’s Kindle Fire and Apple’s iPad, but all the other Android tablets on the market.”
Gates also suggested that tablets like these will replace the traditional personal computer. “You can get everything you like about a tablet, everything you like about a PC, all in one device,” he told Rose. “That should change the way people look at things.”
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.
CBS, NBC and Fox have won the first round in the battle over Dish Network’s ad-skipping technology known as AutoHop.
“A New York federal court Monday denied Dish’s request for a declaratory ruling that the AutoHop does not violate copyright law,” reports the Los Angeles Times.
The networks had filed suit to block AutoHop (launched in May), which lets Dish customers bypass commercials on recorded versions of their shows.
“Now we move on to the real issue at hand — demonstrating that Dish Network has created and marketed a product with the clear goal of breaching its license with Fox, violating copyrights and destroying the fundamental underpinnings of the broadcast television business,” Fox said in a statement.
“We look forward to proceeding with this case, recognizing that it has been 28 years since the Supreme Court’s ‘Betamax’ decision held that a viewer, in the privacy of their home, could record a television show to watch later,” said R. Stanton Dodge, Dish’s general counsel. “Dish will stand behind consumers and their right to skip commercials, something they have been doing since the invention of the remote control.”
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).
Forbes contributor Shel Israel addresses the hype behind Google’s Project Glass and what he anticipates will occur when the glasses become available to third-party developers next year.
“I think that there are very complex unanticipated consequences coming down the line,” he writes. “There are obvious ones such as privacy, but there are also strange ones coming when the technology we use starts becoming our intimate advisor, when machines have personalities and start reminding us of R2D2 and the robots we have known in fiction.”
Israel lists some interesting applications in the consumer, military and medical sectors — and how the possibilities (and implications) will expand when the glasses are connected to big data.
“In short, they will be a multimedia, networked computer that serve as also as a Siri-type personal assistant that you wear in the guise of glasses,” he predicts, adding that the concept is actually part of something larger in personal tech that will eventually impact us professionally and personally.
“Wearable computers are a subset of a larger category — Contextual Computing,” says Israel. “The name may be boring, but the concept is very large and it rests at the point where the SciFi that entertained us yesterday become the essential tools our lives.”
Contextual computing will dramatically affect the way humans work, live and communicate — especially as the technology improves and machines merge more with people.
“Where is it all going? I have absolutely no idea,” concludes Israel. “Are their dangerous unintended consequences looming? Of course there are. Have we hit the point when [Dr. Frankenstein] should not be allowed to create the next sentient monster? Not a chance.”
Google will reportedly make only $15 on each Nexus 7 tablet, according to estimates from research firm UBM TechInsights.
CNET questions why Google would sell the tablet at such a thin profit margin.
“It’s possible that the Nexus 7 has been designed to either snatch away the consumers who are buying Kindle Fires or Barnes & Noble’s Nook tablets, or lure enough of a market share that constructing additional revenue streams based on the use of the tablet becomes worthwhile,” reasons the post.
The Nexus 7 has a higher resolution screen than the Kindle Fire and has a front-facing 1.2 megapixel camera, whereas the Kindle Fire does not have a camera with video chat capabilities.
Analysts suggest the Kindle Fire generates an estimated $46 per sale and a $499 iPad generates $171 per sale.
“If the estimated cost of construction proves sound, then the Nexus 7 must be intended for use in other ways to claw back some of the potential lost profit margin Google has established for itself,” notes CNET. “What has the company chosen? According to reports, online advertising revenues will make up the shortfall. In comparison, Amazon relies on downloaded, purchased content — and does well by it.”
Engadget reviews the Nexus Q, Google’s recently announced social media streamer. The $299 sphere-shaped device is priced higher than similar products from Apple, Roku and even the company’s own Google TV.
Features include micro-HDMI, micro-USB, TOSLINK, 10/100 Ethernet and powered stereo outputs. Connectivity options include Bluetooth, NFC and dual-band 802.11a/b/g/n.
Engadget points out that the Nexus Q is easy to set up, but is generally lacking in functionality when compared to its competitors. The review also suggests the device is in need of a Web-based interface.
“The Nexus Q is an impressive piece of hardware that, given time and a serious augmentation of capability, could mature into a very exciting little thing,” concludes the post. “Right now, though, the Q feels like a high-priced novelty.”
The hands-on review includes two videos and analysis of hardware, setup and performance.
“Overly aggressive ad networks — which can change users’ phone settings, send notifications and/or covertly access personally identifiable information — are present in 5 percent of free apps, according to new research by mobile security company Lookout,” reports AllThingsD.
Lookout also estimates users have downloaded applications including this technology “at least 80 million times, mostly on Android devices,” notes the article.
The security firm explains most developers use the software not because they have malicious intent, but because “they haven’t thought about the implications.”
The article features a chart that offers a breakdown of apps with aggressive ad networks based on specific categories. In order of popularity, the top four categories are: personalization, entertainment, games, and music and video.
Lookout found that “the alleged ‘bad actor’ ad networks — which include LeadBolt, Moolah Media, Appenda and IZP — are most common in personalization apps, to change phone wallpaper or make puzzles,” notes AllThingsD.
The United Nations Human Rights Council has declared Internet-based free speech and free expression as basic human rights. The ruling does not require countries to change their laws, but does establish standards by which countries will be judged.
Eileen Donahoe, U.S. ambassador to the U.N., hailed the decision as “momentous for the Human Rights Council.”
“It’s the first ever U.N. resolution affirming that human rights in the digital realm must be protected and promoted to the same extent and with the same commitment as human rights in the physical world,” she told reporters.
Although China ultimately supported the decision, ambassador Xia Jingge explained: “We believe that the free flow of information on the Internet and the safe flow of information on the Internet are mutually dependent… As the Internet develops rapidly, online gambling, pornography, violence, fraud and hacking are increasing its threat to the legal rights of society and the public.”
The decision puts Internet companies in an interesting position, as some will now expect the companies to promote freedom of speech at all costs.
But the decision does not change the fact that individual countries establish their own Internet laws. Thus, companies will likely continue to operate in accordance with local law.
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.
Yesterday, ETCentric reported that the office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) announced it would include a provision to recognize the “limitations and exceptions” to copyright, “consistent with the internationally recognized 3-part test” designed to identify what constitutes suitable limitations and exceptions in regards to intellectual property.
The announcement was made as part of the negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partners (TPP) trade agreement.
Harold Feld, senior VP of Washington, DC advocacy group Public Knowledge offers his take on the proposal through a post on Wetmachine, a group blog on telecom policy, software, science, technology and writing.
Feld suggests this provision was apparently made in response to an anticipated rejection by the European Parliament of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement largely due to objections “trying to force copyright maximalism on other countries” at the behest of the MPAA and RIAA.
“The Hollywood crazy train on intellectual property enforcement now very visibly threatens the ability to get future trade agreements ratified by Congress or by foreign governments,” he writes.
“The anti-SOPA campaign has genuinely changed the way in which IP policy gets negotiated, rather than fading away as memory of the legislation recedes,” notes Feld. “What the ACTA defeat in Europe and the pressure on USTR to shift position show is that the campaign to prevent the further erosion of free expression in the name of copyright maximalism has staying power. It now falls to all of us to ensure that we keep moving things in the right direction.”
With Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal both reporting that Apple will launch a smaller version of its iPad later this year, the mini iPad seems to now be more of a reality than a rumor.
