Hewlett Packard, known for its long history of technological innovation, released its Spectre One desktop computer over the weekend. And according to The Next Web, it looks like an Apple iMac replica.
“The phrase ‘Redmond, start your photocopiers’ was used to market Mac OS X Tiger back in 2006 and referred to Microsoft,” notes the post. “Microsoft is pushing something new and original with Windows 8, but the OEMs making computers for it seem to have done just that.”
“Note that even the keyboard and touchpad are nearly complete clones of Apple’s offerings,” writes TNW. “This is just a sad day for HP. There are nearly infinite combinations of components and design to choose from here and it decided to effectively clone Apple.”
Steve Jobs warned of this happening to HP during his interviews with biographer Walter Isaacson. He hoped he’d left a stronger legacy at Apple than Hewlett and Packard had at HP.
According to Engadget, the Spectre One desktop will be available November 14th starting at $1,299.
Businesses now invest more resources into individual computing, and particularly into Apple iPads, according to a report from Forrester Research.
Government and business computer purchases will grow only 1.7 percent over last year, according to Forrester’s estimates. Much of this growth comes from the purchase of iPads, expected to increase 76 percent in sales this year. This brings government and business iPad purchases to about $10 billion this year.
Forrester expects Mac sales to businesses to grow 9 percent while Windows products are expected to see a 3 percent drop over last year. Linux and Android tablets will rise 52 percent, estimates Forrester.
Forrester used surveys of I.T. managers to estimate Mac sales. Apple does not release corporate sales information, so it is difficult to verify the statistics.
One of the largest reasons for the Mac increase is the growing popularity of “bring your own device” policies. These types of policies often lead to Mac purchases, for which companies sometimes reimburse employees.
Forrester’s grim outlook for Microsoft assumes the upcoming release of Windows 8 and Surface Tablets will not create a great stir in the corporate world. “I think it will have a positive impact, but it just won’t be a great positive impact,” explained Forrester analyst Andrew Bartels.
Apple unveiled its new iPhone 5 and iOS 6 yesterday at a press event in San Francisco.
“This is a glass and aluminum two-tone affair and, at 7.6mm it’s a full 18 percent thinner than the 4S,” reports Engadget. “It’s even 20 percent lighter at 112 grams, which is even less than the mostly plastic Galaxy S III.”
The new phone touts a 4-inch in-cell display and 1136 x 640 Retina panel (closer to 16:9, but not quite there).
“That new longer screen allows for an extra set of icons to be displayed on the home screen, and first party apps have already been tweaked to take advantage of the additional real estate,” notes the post. “The iWork suite, Garage Band and iMovie have all been updated.”
Older apps will work, but will appear in letterbox format until an update arrives.
“The most exciting news is likely the addition of LTE,” suggests the post. “There’s still HSPA+, EV-DO, EDGE and all that jazz on board, but it’s the true 4G that is really generating excitement. Sprint, Verizon and AT&T will all be able to take advantage of the single chip (data and voice) LTE solution inside.”
The iPhone 5 features a 802.11 a/b/g/n antenna, but no NFC as previously speculated.
Apple claims the new A6 CPU is two times faster than the previous chip and 22 percent smaller. The energy efficient CPU allows for 8 hours of talk time, according to Apple.
The company also announced its new iOS 6, available September 19th. “The latest mobile system from Apple packs a boat load of exciting improvements, including tweaks to Siri and the new Passbook (which would have worked really well with that rumored, but ultimately non-existent NFC chip),” notes Engadget.
The iPhone 5 will ship on September 21st ($199-$399), while pre-orders are slated to begin on the 14th.
20th Century Fox has joined Disney to become the second major studio to support Dolby Laboratories’ Atmos audio platform to change “the way films sound at the megaplex,” reports Variety.
“The Fox deal is significant for Dolby as a sound system battle is quietly tuning up inside the world’s movie theaters,” notes the article.
“Dolby hopes the Atmos rollout will help it control a larger share of the in-theater surround sound biz as it competes with rivals like Barco, Immsound, Iosono and Illusonic 3D, which are also promoting new systems to exhibs, especially as more theaters make the transition to digital projection.”
Atmos has received high praise from sound designers and filmmakers thus far, and could end up saving theaters money in the long run because it “automatically creates mono, stereo and 5.1 and 7.1 mixes of a movie, optimizing distribution of one version of a film to most theaters and homevid formats,” according to Variety.
If Dolby can continue to encourage theater chains to convert, “Atmos is expected to be used by exhibitors as a marketing tool to fill more theater seats the way they promoted screenings with THX in the 1980s and DTS and Dolby Digital in the 1990s.”
Live2D aims to take your 2D drawings and render them in 3D. Developed by Cybernoids, the technology “makes the graphics appear exactly as the creator intended,” according to the company’s CEO Tetsuya Nakajo.
“You can also use the tools to work more easily and efficiently. This can be done in all kinds of ways, with all kinds of emphasis, depending on what the creator wants to do,” notes Nakajo. “This technology is an extension of drawing, so it works best if the creator has a good artistic sense.”
The tools support “content creation using either polygons or vectors,” DigInfo TV writes. “A 3D engine is used to power the polygon-based version, so it can achieve fast, fluid motion even on mobile devices.”
Live2D is available across various portable consoles and smartphones. For now, the technology is mostly used for games with limited movement, but Cybernoids aims to provide 360 degree animations in the future.
“We’re aiming for this technology to be used worldwide, hopefully creating a market for revolving graphics in 2D, like with 3D. So, our goal is for this technology to become a de facto standard worldwide,” Nakajo says.
The FBI will devote $1 billion to its Next Generation Identification program. The facial recognition program will include iris scans, DNA analysis and voice identification, reports New Scientist.
The FBI hopes to use facial recognition data from existing mugshots to help track suspects in crowds. The agency can also scan existing mugshots for matches with new arrests.
“Another application would be the reverse,” explains the article. “Images of a person of interest from security cameras or public photos uploaded onto the Internet could be compared against a national repository of images held by the FBI.” This technology could help police find new leads in cases.
Privacy advocates argue against the FBI’s plans, noting that the Next Generation Identification program’s privacy statement does not clearly state that only known criminals will be included in the database.
Existing algorithms have achieved facial recognition accuracy of up to 92 percent when dealing with as many as 1.6 million mugshots.
Carnegie Mellon researcher Marios Savvides created an algorithm that can “analyze features of a front and side view set of mugshots, create a 3D model of the face, rotate it as much as 70 degrees to match the angle of the face in the photo, and then match the new 2D image with a fairly high degree of accuracy,” explains New Scientist.
The largest obstacle facing the FBI may be low light situations. Researchers have had difficulty matching faces in dimly lit situations. Although infrared cameras allow more accuracy, they are expensive.
The e-commerce battle between Amazon and Google continues to escalate. As more people are using the Amazon store to discover products, Google has begun to charge retailers for spots within its Google Shopping service, making each product listing an ad.
Charging is a way for Google to ensure that retailers keep their ads relevant and accurate, also ensuring a way to compete with the Amazon store.
According to Michael Griffin, founder and chief technology officer of online retail marketer Adlucent, Google needs to be making such moves: “Google and Amazon both have the same end goal, to be the destination that people go to do their product searches, and Amazon’s winning that battle.”
On Amazon’s side, the company has removed all of its listings from Google Shopping.
According to a Forrester Research study, about one-third of consumers start their shopping research on Amazon, while 13 percent start on a search engine. That’s a dramatic change from 2009, when nearly 25 percent began a search on a site like Google and just 18 percent started on Amazon.
According to eMarketer, mobile advertising will only make up one percent of the total U.S. ad spending in 2012. Even so, mobile advertising still stands to have a significant impact on companies such as Google, Twitter and Facebook.
Currently, Facebook only accounts for 2.8 percent of the mobile advertising market, eMarketer reports. The company has struggled to gain revenue from its mobile ads, which make up less than two percent of Facebook’s overall ad revenue.
“Next year, however, Facebook’s U.S. mobile-ad revenue is expected to jump to $387 million, according to eMarketer, or about 8.8 percent of the projected total U.S. mobile-ad sales for 2013,” the Wall Street Journal reports. “The company’s market share, which eMarketer expects to reach 9.5 percent by 2014, would transform Facebook from a newcomer into a distant No. 2 in a market dominated by Google.”
“The experimentation phase will come to an end, and Facebook will figure out what works in mobile, both for the advertiser and the user,” said eMarketer analyst Debra Aho Williamson.
“Even with the expected boom in Facebook’s mobile-ad revenue, eMarketer expects mobile advertising to account for roughly 20 percent of Facebook’s total U.S. advertising sales by 2014, lagging behind the proportion of mobile users who visit the site,” the article states.
Copyright “bots” are becoming more prevalent, leading some to worry about the effects they could have on freedom of speech.
Wired reports that the bots (or systems) “can block streaming video in real time, while it is still being broadcast,” when they detect possible copyrighted material.
The problem here is that the machines cannot take into account instances of fair use or otherwise legitimate use of material.
In a recent example, “a livestream of the Hugo Awards — the sci-fi and fantasy version of the Oscars — was blocked on Ustream, moments before Neil Gaiman’s highly anticipated acceptance speech. Apparently, Ustream’s service detected that the awards were showing copyrighted film clips, and had no way to know that the awards ceremony had gotten permission to use them,” explains the article.
While a “notice-and-takedown” system is in place within the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), it doesn’t work well for live streaming. The notice would be too late and the opportunity for takedown would be over by the time the paperwork went through.
“It’s likely that this collision between algorithmic defense of copyright versus spontaneous speech isn’t going to be resolved soon,” writes Wired.
David Kelley, founder and chairman of design and innovation firm IDEO, launched “d.school” at Stanford in 2005 as a place to build creative confidence… and geniuses like Steve Jobs. Kelley recently joined Stanford professor Bob Sutton onstage at a MIX Mashup to discuss their philosophy.
Officially named the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design, d.school is “a multi-disciplinary mashup of design thinking principles, real-world projects, and collaboration,” Fortune explains. The 17 courses offered each semester cover a variety of themes, but are all aimed at breaking down the walls inhibiting innovation.
The first step in the program is “desensitize yourself to failure,” the article reports. In order to try out ground-breaking ideas, people have to be willing to fail, step outside their area of expertise and celebrate the small successes along the way.
Sutton describes the next big cornerstone in d.school philosophy as “do to think.” Instead of starting off planning or figuring how to make an idea profitable, jump into it and make a prototype. Next, play up your inner five-year-old and ask: Why? How? What if?
“Genuine questions demonstrate a sense of humility, curiosity, even vulnerability,” explains the article. “And they offer up a powerful advantage in a world of expanding complexity and change — a world in which no single individual can possibly have all of the answers, but an open, curious one can attract more perspectives, surface more possibilities, and enlist more help than if they’re closed off by certainty.”
Teaching these three elements at d.school, Kelley hopes to not only build creative confidence but also “self-efficacy,” or as psychologist Albert Bandura explains, “the sense that you can change the world and that you can do what you set out to do.”
A new concept called Government 2.0 leverages the power of online tech stars to solve offline problems. Want to keep city fire hydrants clear of hazardous snow build-up? There’s an app for that.
One notable Gov 2.0 non-profit called Code for America (CfA) has already made substantial improvements in the public sphere. Including the Web app for fire hydrants, CfA has created 35 apps, “for everything from urban blight to school buses,” notes the Wall Street Journal.
The apps work by inviting locals to take up small tasks that benefit the whole community. You can adopt a hydrant to keep clear for firefighters, take on the routine of clearing a storm drain or monitor batteries for local tsunami warning sirens.
“It’s irritatingly obvious, really: Shared technology saves time, money, even lives,” comments WSJ. “Government spending on information technology in 2012 is set at $79.5 billion federally and $55.4 billion for state and local. Meanwhile, to complete one government project — estimated at two years and $2 million — it took a couple of CfA fellows just [2.5] months.”
Besides bringing “online efficiency to offline civics,” the Gov 2.0 movement advocates transparency, calling openness the “next generation’s default setting when they’re up against big problems,” the article states.
It is with tremendous sorrow that ETCentric reports the passing of our good friend, colleague and adviser Bob Lambert.
Bob was a gentle guiding hand in a wide range of industry initiatives and a personal friend to the ETC where he served as chairman emeritus. He was instrumental in getting ETCentric off the ground.
“Bob was one of the most respected technology executives in the media and entertainment business,” comments Ken Williams, executive director and CEO of the ETC.
“Always generous with his time, Bob took a special interest in the Entertainment Technology Center @ USC, serving in numerous capacities, including most recently chief strategic and technology officer,” Ken explains. “Bob’s long service to the ETC was recognized by his being named chairman emeritus in 2010. His friendship and tremendous insight will be greatly missed.”
Bob was a thought leader whose work spanned all platforms, from cinema and television to online and mobile. He played a central role in the development of computer animated feature films and in the transition from film to digital cinema exhibition.
As a senior technology strategist at Disney for 25 years, Bob led the charge in strategic planning, intellectual property, patent strategy, standards and regulatory issues, and talent recruitment.
“I feel blessed to have called Bob a close friend and colleague,” says David Wertheimer, president of digital at Fox and former CEO of the ETC. “He was not only the ‘Father of Digital Cinema’ as we know it today, but he was the ‘Godfather of the Entertainment Technology Center,’ and was one of the most widely respected and genuinely liked people I have ever known.”
Bob was a SMPTE fellow and active member of the AMPAS Science & Technology Council. He served on the board of directors for numerous universities, start-up ventures and non-profits in addition to serving as a judge for the Collegiate Inventors Awards and the ATAS Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards.
“Bob always cared more about people than himself, and he had a rare talent for helping people see through the challenges of the present and focus on the horizon,” David adds. “I know that the world of tomorrow will be a better place for having had Bob with us.”
The team at ETCentric will miss his generous spirit, insight, guidance and good humor. When thinking of Bob’s passion regarding innovation, we’ll remember his line from a letter he wrote about Steve Jobs last year: “When you see something inventive this week, celebrate it. There’s a little of that Jobs spirit in all of us, insisting there’s always a better way to do things. Tip your hat to the folks in your world who help make that happen.”
The Hollywood Post Alliance has announced the 2012 winners of its HPA Engineering Excellence Award.
“The coveted honor is an integral part of the HPA Awards, which have become the standard by which creative and technical excellence in the art, science and craft of post production is measured,” reports TV Technology.
This year’s winners include: Cinnafilm’s standards transcoder Tachyon; Crossroads Systems’ file-based, portable storage solution StrongBox; the Dolby Atmos sound system from Dolby Laboratories; and Sony’s F65 CineAlta digital motion picture camera system.
“The Engineering Award not only represents the creativity of technology and technical innovation, but also helps to enable the creative power of our artistic community,” notes Leon Silverman, president of the Hollywood Post Alliance. “The products and processes that we honor with this award continue to demonstrate the important engineering work that is done behind our industry’s scenes and screens.”
The 2012 HPA Engineering Excellence Awards event is slated for November 1 at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles.
The NPD Group has released a new report showing that 2012 has seen a loss of 12 million gamers in the U.S., a five percent decline from 2011. Even so, mobile gamers increased from nine to 22 percentage points and now make up the largest gamer segment.
The study divided gamers into six categories: mobile, digital, core, family+kid, light PC, and avid PC. The family+kid gamers saw the largest decline at 17.4 million gamers.
Last year, core gamers made up the largest segment but they still spend the most of any segment.
“Given the long lifecycles of the current consoles and the increasing installed base of smartphones and tablets, it’s not surprising to see a slight decline in the core gamer segment,” said NPD analyst Anita Frazier. “It’s the revenue contribution of the core gamer segment that continues to outpace all other segments, and remains vital to the future of the industry.”
In the past three months, core gamers spent an average of $65 on physical games — notably higher than the overall average of $48.
In the same time period, game purchasers spent an average of $16 on digital games-PC/console/portable and almost 14 percent reported buying microtransactions/additional game content, up from 11 percent in 2011.
As mobile continues to expand, game publishers are putting more focus on social, free-to-play, the cloud, and of course, mobile gaming. And EA is no exception.
“Going forward, every EA game will have some multi-player or social component,” Forbes reports. “This doesn’t mean single-player games will cease to be a part of the EA catalog, it just means that even single-player games will have tie-ins across multiple devices.”
The article notes that this transition to the cloud is very beneficial for certain games, enabling users to to pick up where they left off on any of their devices.
“The problem is, an immersive single-player game that tries to force people to play minigames on separate platforms is probably going to lose whatever immersion factor it ought to have had,” the article suggests. Additionally, requiring social integration, like a mandatory Facebook login, could deter gamers from playing at all.
“That’s not evolving with consumers, it’s adapting to what many in the industry see as the wave of the future: mobile, free-to-play, and social gaming displacing more traditional games,” Forbes writes. “It’s also a bit of sleight of hand. For all the talk of fan service, many of these mobile and social tie-ins are little more than the gamification of viral marketing.”
Mobile gaming is not necessarily growing at the expense of traditional gaming. “The two experiences are fundamentally different, especially since mobile touch-screens are essentially the most limited and limiting type of game controller on the market,” explains the article.
Hewlett Packard, known for its long history of technological innovation, released its Spectre One desktop computer over the weekend. And according to The Next Web, it looks like an Apple iMac replica.
