Most people do not use antivirus software on mobile phones, but Verizon suggests that should change.
A new McAfee-based security application helps prevent malicious attacks on phones, which Verizon claims are “of the same security and privacy threats that plague laptops and desktops.”
The McAfee software is targeted at Android customers, as Google has made minimal strides in its efforts to thwart attacks. Only recently did Google implement key features such as remote wiping and device location.
“Mobile Security Basic offers McAfee’s antivirus and malicious website detection software, while Mobile Security Premium adds the ability to track what information apps are sending and receiving in addition to allowing users to locate, lock, or remotely wipe an Android device using My Verizon account details,” explains The Verge.
The Premium package costs $1.99 per month, while Verizon plans to make the Basic package available for free.
Intel has developed a prototype “adaptive all-in-one” PC that features a 27-inch screen with 1080p resolution. The PC can be docked as a desktop, detached for use as a tablet, or mounted as a television.
The 27-inch touchscreen operates for four hours as a tablet. The PC charges when docked as a desktop. The touchscreen also works when the computer is docked in PC mode.
The current model weighs fourteen pounds, but Intel hopes to improve future prototypes by working with screen and battery manufacturers to make slimmer parts.
Future prototypes will feature 4K displays with about four times as many pixels as standard HD resolution.
Intel also hopes that all-in-one PCs will spark interest in desktop computers. While other companies have put resources and innovation into mobile phones and tablets, Intel believes they have forgotten about PCs. By integrating voice and gesture controls, Intel believes all-in-one PCs can create a valuable market.
Intel argues the all-in-one model works well for businesses, where many can collaborate on one large touchscreen. The screen is also conducive for videoconferencing because of its larger screen.
Google has agreed to acquire German developer Nik Software, which produces multiple apps for photographers, most notably the iOS app Snapseed.
“The $4.99 app won Apple’s coveted iPad App Of The Year award in 2011 for its inventive multitouch photo editing interface, and gained over nine million users during its first year on sale,” The Verge reports. “Nik Software also sells Snapseed for Mac and Windows, and the company is apparently working on an Android app as well.”
Sources say the Nik Software team devoted to Snapseed will relocate to Google’s Mountain View headquarters to work on Google+.
Although Snapseed hasn’t seen the same traction as Instagram, the app could be integrated into the Google+ mobile app, which “would instantly put [Google+] on par with Facebook and Instagram’s mobile photo-editing capabilities,” the post suggests.
“We want to help our users create photos they absolutely love, and in our experience Nik does this better than anyone,” wrote Google+ senior VP Vic Gundotra in a blog post.
Fourth Wall Studios has integrated second screen interaction directly into its new Web series, “The Gamblers.”
“The interactive format — made possible by Fourth Wall’s Rides.tv platform, which augments the first seven-minute episode of ‘The Gamblers’ with text messages, bonus scenes and actual phone calls from the chatty narrators — gives viewers a fun way to play along with a show using some pretty cool technology,” reports Wired.
Fourth Wall does not view the experience as a traditional television show, but as a “Ride.” The experience synchronizes multiple devices so that as a viewer watches the Web series on a computer, text messages and phone calls can be received from characters in real time.
Much of the interaction involves betting on people’s lives, as the show’s plot involves narrators watching life threatening actions from a distance and handicapping the probability of death. Often, the betting comes through an online tool.
Director Rick Heinrichs used Lightcraft Technology’s Previzion system to allow his actors to see the environment around them, even when working with a green screen.
“The chief aspect of it is that it’s got camera-tracking technology, so that a computer knows where your camera is on the stage and it’s therefore able to put it into a three-dimensional model inside the computer,” explains Heinrichs.
“This is by no means the end product,” he notes. “We’re very involved with engineering something new, and with every iteration we’re making it better.”
Global high street retailer Topshop is offering London Fashion Week fans across the world a livestream of the event and adding social features that allow viewers to interact with the stream and related products.
“Viewers will not only be able to click on clothes and accessories to browse color options in real-time, they’ll also be able to change the music, download the show soundtrack from iTunes, snap screenshots to share instantly on Facebook (a feature that was developed with in-house Facebook engineers), cut and share video clips, and order looks and makeup appearing on the catwalk,” Mashable reports.
The concept is not entirely new. Burberry has been offering a livestream/shopping experience since 2010 with “elaborate staging” and “panning shots,” the post explains.
One exciting feature of Topshop’s new social entertainment and commerce venture is getting the fashion to consumers faster. “Makeup will arrive within 48 hours in the 100+ markets Topshop.com ships to; clothes and accessories will ship in six to eight weeks, well ahead of their January arrival in stores,” the post states. “Topshop will be tracking early purchases to decide how much product to stock in store come January.”
“In addition to Topshop.com, the livestream will also be broadcast on large screens at its Oxford Circus flagship in London, the websites of 200+ media partners and pinned to the top of its Twitter page, though it will lack the aforementioned add-ons in all of the latter places,” Mashable writes.
“Hollywood is discovering there’s life after the DVD,” reports Businessweek.
Netflix, Amazon, Verizon Communications and Redbox are bidding for the rights to stream movies on mobile devices like Kindles, iPads and TVs, adding life to the home entertainment industry.
“These days digital outlets such as Netflix and Amazon vie with Time Warner’s HBO and CBS’s Showtime for movies at the so-called premium cable window, a lucrative stop that comes after films have run in theaters, been sold as DVDs, and appeared on pay-per-view,” according to the article.
“That’s given Hollywood the chance to play the services against each other and replace some of the revenue lost with the drop in DVD sales and the decline of rental outlets such as Blockbuster,” notes Businessweek.
Earlier this month, Epix signed a multiyear deal with Amazon to provide films for the Prime Instant Video service. The studio-backed pay TV channel “ended its exclusive deal with Netflix and is expected to make as much as $80 million more a year selling the same content to the two streaming rivals and a third venture financed by Verizon and Coinstar’s Redbox, BTIG Research analyst Rich Greenfield says.”
Home video sales have taken a significant dive in recent years, falling 16 percent from 2011. “And pay TV outlets are scrambling to find ways to retain viewers now that almost 90 percent of America’s 115 million TV households have the capacity to access a broad catalog of films via the Web,” adds the article.
But if these expensive deals with major studios don’t cause significant upticks in subscriber numbers for streaming services, it’s likely that those services will lean more on original programming.
Apple’s iPhone 5 sold more than two million units on its first day of pre-orders, doubling the sales record of the iPhone 4S.
“Despite widespread leaks rendering Apple’s latest flagship announcement a somewhat less exciting event than it perhaps could have been, it doesn’t seem that many purchasing decisions were affected,” reports The Verge.
“AT&T notes that the iPhone 5 has moved more overall units at this point than previous models, too, nullifying any suspicions that possible supply constraints may have accounted for the quick sell-through,” adds the post.
AT&T had a great consumer response for the new handset. “AT&T set a sales record with iPhone 5 over the weekend, making it the fastest-selling iPhone the company has ever offered. Customers ordered more iPhones from AT&T than any previous model both on its first day of pre-orders and over the weekend,” the company said.
Apple has sold out of its initial stock, which will be delivered by September 21st. Some pre-orders have been delayed two weeks and won’t be shipped until October, according to Apple.
Curators at the National Media Museum in Bradford, England believe they have discovered the world’s first color moving pictures.
Dating from 1902, the discovery may be a breakthrough in cinema history.
“The newly-discovered films were made by pioneer Edward Raymond Turner from London who patented his color process on 22 March 1899,” reports BBC News. The previous earliest color film was thought to date from 1909.
“Turner shot the test films in 1902 but his pioneering work ended abruptly when he died suddenly of a heart attack,” explains the post, which includes a video sample of the color footage.
“Race for Colour,” a half-hour special will air on BBC One today and will be available on BBC iPlayer during the next week. The special includes comments from filmmaker Martin Scorsese who describes the discovery as “something very unique and very, very special.”
Google should be worried about Amazon’s new Kindle Fire HD, suggests Business Insider: “Amazon’s Fire software is built using Google’s Android, but it cuts out Google search, which is how Google makes money.”
Most Android devices have a Google search bar on the device’s home screen, allowing the company to make money when people search for things to buy.
However, Android is an open system and can be altered. Amazon decided to eliminate the Google search bar on the Kindle Fire HD, opting instead to put in its own version of search that points customers directly to the Amazon store.
“Amazon now has a tablet that is cheaper than the Nexus 7 (the $159 Kindle Fire), as well as a tablet that is slightly more expensive than the Nexus 7, but appears to deliver more bang for the buck (the 8.9-inch Kindle Fire HD for $299),” notes BI. “Both are powered by Amazon’s variation of Android, which can easily just point directly to Amazon as a first option for any search query.”
“Amazon represents a two-fold problem for Google,” explains the article. “It’s eating up the most lucrative part of Google’s search business, while at the same time building a new rival operating system using Android, which Google invests heavily in.”
A new start-up hopes to change the VR game, providing a rich virtual gaming experience that could set it apart from other early failures.
Called the Oculus Rift, this new prototype accrued almost $2.5 million on Kickstarter by selling 10,000 game developer kits worldwide. The project has been backed by “Doom” and “Quake” creator John Carmack and Brenden Iribe, a former Autodesk, Scaleform and Gaikai executive.
“The most striking thing about the experience is the sheer depth of the stereoscopic image, which wraps around the field of view without the eye-crossing, headache-inducing out-of-sync effect that sometimes comes with 3D glasses or viewing a head-mounted LCD too closely,” writes Ars Technica.
“The creators told me that this is a result of the Rift’s optics… Those optics also help improve the Rift’s resolution where it’s needed most, increasing the functional pixel density in the center of the view, where your eyes naturally rest, while decreasing it on the periphery.”
The creators have focused on providing “incredibly smooth” head tracking, hoping to eventually get the refresh rate down to single digit milliseconds from 15-30 milliseconds by the time final consumer units are ready. Iribe says this refresh rate enables games to run faster than the current 60 frames per second, “which would lead to a noticeable improvement in the realism of the world the Rift immerses you in,” the article states.
The costs for small, thin, high-resolution, hi-def screens have gone down with the mobile expansion. This enables Rift to offer improved screens at a reasonable price. The team is also working to reduce the weight to make the device more comfortable and wearable.
Ars Technica did note that the games still require controllers for navigation. The team hopes developers will create new control schemes for the Rift.
According to a newly published patent application, Microsoft could very well be planning to take console gaming to the next level, adding a “peripheral image” around the room while users play, providing a 360-degree view of the game.
The application for an “immersive display experience” was “published by the U.S. Patent Office last week after being filed back in early 2011,” writes Ars Technica. “It describes a standard video game system with a connected ‘environmental display’ capable of projecting a panoramic image that ‘appears to surround the user.'”
It would not replace the TV, but would instead enhance the experience by adding to its periphery.
“The depth-sensing camera described in the patent application aids the environmental projector by sensing the layout and topography of the room,” Ars Technica explains. “This allows the projector to provide color and distortion correction, so the projected images look correct even when cast against different walls and pieces of furniture.”
This could be revolutionary for interactive gaming whether this specific design comes to life or not, notes the article. It could open the door for innovation, leading to gaming that doesn’t require users to face a singular screen.
Nintendo is set to release its next-generation console in the U.S. on November 18. The Wii U proves that Nintendo has more than just videogames in mind for its future.
“It has always been our goal to maximize consumer value with what we include in the hardware purchase,” says Reggie Fils-Aime, president and chief operating officer of Nintendo of America. “It’s not just a high-definition console that will change the way people play. Wii U is the only game console with a seamlessly connected, fully integrated second screen.”
The Wii U will include the Nintendo TVii service, which is “akin to Microsoft’s efforts in program discoverability on the Xbox 360” in that users will be able to stream programming from Netflix, Hulu and other services to their TV, including live streaming with a cable subscription, explains Variety.
“The service will be the most useful for those who continue to pay for cable or satellite TV, along with other on-demand services, making it very comparable what Microsoft’s Xbox provides today,” explains AllThingsD in a related report.
All of this will be managed through the Wii U tablet-like controller, which functions as a second screen online device once programming has started.
The Wii U’s GamePad can be used as a second screen device. “Additionally, short video segments, or thumbnails, can be viewed from the device, which can be shared with friends via Twitter, Facebook or the Wii U’s social network called Miiverse,” writes AllThingsD.
Nintendo will launch two version of the system. The Basic will cost $300 and the Deluxe will cost $350.
Apple’s new iPhone 5 features an 8-megapixel camera that also shoots 1080p HD video. The camera touts an LED flash, face detection and can take wide panoramic shots.
According to Businessweek, this makes the iPhone camera equal to many available point-and-shoot cameras.
But it goes beyond that, offering “the things people care about — sharing photos, using filters, and having a device by their side at all times,” which “trump most of the features and settings camera makers offer with their standalone products,” suggests the article.
In other words, the point-and-shoot industry may be in even more trouble than before.
“The introduction of a stronger camera in the iPhone 5 and the new iPod touch — which comes with a very camera-like wrist strap, just to drive home the point Apple is making about how they think people will use that device — is just another step on the point-and-shoot’s accelerating journey to obsolescence,” writes Businessweek.
“In the near few months, Apple will see sales of its iPhone soar, and in record numbers. In the longer term, Android will not be affected all that much and we’ll likely see the platform pulling closer to 60 percent market share or greater,” writes blogger Scott Webster for CNET.
“Less expensive phones, more hardware options, and a wider variety of carrier options will see that Android continues its growth. In other words, it’s the same today as it was in 2009.”
Although he admits that the iPhone 5 adds some noteworthy improvements to Apple’s handset line, “there’s nothing in the iPhone 5 that puts it far above the competition,” Webster suggests. “The larger 4-inch display and 4G LTE connectivity are two of the biggest, and only improvements over last year’s model, yet it’s still a matter of catching up to the industry. Android users have enjoyed these features in one capacity or the other for the better part of two years now.”
Apple has already seen a drop in the smartphone market share, but still continues making record profits. Unlike previous iPhone launches where Apple “was able to extend its reach to new markets, carriers, and consumers… there’s very little room to grow and tap into a new segment of customer,” notes Webster.
On the other hand, other smartphones are becoming more competitive with rich features, improved interfaces and low price tags, the post states, noting that Android phones even offer things that the new iPhone 5 doesn’t, like NFC support or quad-core processors.
“I didn’t see anything that would send an Android handset maker scrambling to respond,” Webster concludes. “Along those lines, I’m hard-pressed to find someone who saw something in the iPhone 5 that will have them defect from Android.”
Despite early mixed reviews of the iPhone 5, Apple reportedly sold out its initial inventory of the new handset within an hour of preorders opening.
The device is set to launch September 21, but after an hour of accepting preorders, Apple’s website explained to customers that new orders would be available to ship in two weeks.
Carriers are also taking orders for the new iPhone, but so far have not changed their shipping dates, suggesting they may still have sufficient inventory for the demand.
The iPhone 5 is an expensive endeavor for carriers and some have experienced a dip in revenue projections. Apple, on the other hand, saw its stock again soar to a new record, $696.98.
“The iPhone 5 is critical to Apple’s continued success,” the Wall Street Journal reports. “Not only have the phones powered Apple to become the world’s largest company by value, they have become the bedrock of the company’s mobile-device strategy. Software in the iPad tablet computer is shared with the iPhone, largely intertwining the fate of both devices.”
“Apple is charging $199 for the cheapest iPhone 5 if customers sign up for a new two-year contract with their carriers,” notes the article, adding the rollout is Apple’s most aggressive to date, with plans to reach 100 countries by the end of the year. “The company is also selling a version of its year-old iPhone 4S for $99. The iPhone 4, launched in 2010, is being offered free.”