Sir Jonathan Ive plans to stay with Apple
Apple products are likely to remain at the peak of modern tech design for the foreseeable future after Sir Jonathan Ive vowed to remain with the company.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4 following his Knighthood on this week, Apple's Senior VP of Industrial Design says he wants to continue the fine work of the last 15 years.
Sir Jonathan, from Chingford, Essex, has been credited with masterminding the iconic look of the iPod, iPhone, MacBook Air and iPad during his stint at Infinite Loop.
Problem solver
Ive said he was committed to staying with "the same team I've been fortunate enough to work with for the past 15 years.He added he was hoping to continue working on "trying to solve the same sort of problems we've been trying to solve over the last fifteen years."
The news will come as a boon to Apple and its legions of fans. At various points during his Apple career there has been speculation that he may quit Cupertino for a return to the UK.
Spiritual partner
Now, more than ever, Ive is the man Apple looks to to continue the legacy of the late Steve Jobs, who in his 2011 biography, described his design guru as a "spiritual partner."In a separate interview with the Telegraph yesterday Ive dropped a hint about the company's next big thing. He said the current project "feels like the most important and best work we've done"
Could he mean Apple iTV?
 |  |
Read More ...
Intel to use London to research the city of the future
Intel has announced a UK-wide network of research labs as well as a partnership with two leading universities to research technologies that will contribute to the cities of the future.
The snappily-named Intel Collaborative Research Institute for Sustainable Connected Cities (ICRI) will be Intel's global centre for research and will be based in London with the aim of developing computing solutions to the problems of increased urbanisation and the need for sustainability in the face of global population growth.
Speaking at Intel's launch event at No 10 Downing Street, Chancellor George Osborne said: "This new investment from Intel is great news for the UK economy and is recognition of the Government's commitment to ensuring that the UK becomes the technology centre of Europe building on success such as Tech City and the recent investments in supercomputing.
"It's two years since we committed to the tech cluster in East London – [part of which] was already there…[it has] grown to 700 companies today including Google, Cisco, Vodafone and Amazon and of course Intel. I mention big companies, but there are many micro companies and start-ups."
Osborne also referenced the previous £10m of Government funding contributed to an open data institute in Shoreditch headed by Tim Berners-Lee.
Researching the cities of the future
"As leaders around the world look to the future there's a growing recognition that without the adoption of true sustainability we're going to be in deep trouble," said Justin Rattner, Intel chief technology officer and director of Intel Labs. "The cities of the wold continue to pose the greatest challenge for the future – half the world's population live in cities."The demands of cities will truly represent the demands of humanity. These demands are at the heart of Intel and UK's efforts to sustain practices. The city as a laboratory is just such a challenging and provocative idea."
Rattner talked about our phones and our vehicles as ideal ways to collect data within an urban environment. "They're all rolling sensor platforms – we just need to connect them. Once we do, you'll be amazed at what can take place [in terms of city management]."
"Once you give individuals feedback on how they use resources, they quickly change their habits. We think that city planners and futurists will use this data to plan these sustainable cities. Why London? It has the largest GDP in Europe. Importantly there are over 300 languages and 200 ethnic communities – it's a microcosm of the planet itself. The Olympics is a great experiment already in the making."
George Osborne said the research would be useful "…to create new products that can help us navigate our way through life". "It's fantastic that it's happening In London, I think the greatest city in the world, and the most international city in the world. It's fantastic working with Intel who already employ around 1,000 people in the UK and it's great these labs will be spread around the UK."
The ICRI will see Intel researchers working alongside academics from Imperial College London and University College London. It will join nine other R&D labs in the UK including London, Brighton, Swindon and Aylesbury, with further locations to be added by the end of the year. There will also be collaboration with Tech City companies to identify and analyse emerging trends within cities.
| |
Read More ...
Apple gets everyone excited by patenting a stylus
Apple has patented a couple of potential stylus solutions for the iPhone and iPad.
The first is an optical stylus; it has a camera at the tip which tracks special pixels and invisible markings on the screen to input directions.
The second relies on haptic feedback using a haptic actuator and short-range wireless receiver. It uses the bezel of the iPad or iPhone to receive vibration commands, which seems a rather round-about way of doing things.
That gum you like
It's not the first time Apple has mulled over the stylus conundrum. In 2010 it patented a pressure-sensitive stylus for low-res touch panels. And in the '90s the Apple Newton MessagePad actually had a stylus.We're not really expecting to see Apple launch a stylus alongside the iPhone 5 or next iPad or anything, but it's interesting to see the direction Apple could go in if it decides to hop aboard the stylus gravy train.
That's a train boarded by Samsung with its so-called 'phablet' Galaxy Note and the S Pen which is soon coming to the Galaxy Note 10.1.
| |
Read More ...
Updated: Vodafone: Samsung Galaxy S3 is 'most pre-ordered Android device' to date
Vodafone has confirmed to TechRadar that the incoming Samsung Galaxy S3 is a sales record-breaker already.
The new phone, which features a 4.8-inch HD screen, 8MP camera and a host of new fancy software features, was one of the most hyped phones before launch, and now the big red network has confirmed this is the case.
A spokesperson told TechRadar: "We've been really encouraged by our customers' response to the Samsung Galaxy SIII.
"With over a week to go until launch, it's already the most pre-ordered Android device we've brought into our smartphone line-up to date and our limited time offer of 2GB of mobile data and 100 free music tracks is being snapped up."
It's going to be huge
Self-promotion from the network aside, it's an interesting point to see outlets getting as excited over an Android phone as one from Apple - although clearly pre-orders haven't reached those levels.The Carphone Warehouse has echoed these findings, stating "Pre-order demand for the new Galaxy SIII has surpassed expectations since the handset was first unveiled two weeks ago. The first 24 hours alone saw thousands placing their pre-order at Carphone Warehouse".
With worldwide pre-orders apparently reaching 10 million already, it seems Samsung is going to have an even larger hit on its hands than the Samsung Galaxy S2, and is well on its way to reaching the 20m sales the predecessor garnered by February 2012.
Update: We contacted the other UK networks, with O2 saying they don't comment on sales, while Orange provided us with the following statement: "The Samsung S3 is proving hugely popular and we've seen a great deal of interest from customers".
We are still waiting to hear back from T-Mobile and Three, and we'll update this article when we do.
Update: Nigel Field, Director of Devices at Three commented, "Pre-orders for the Samsung Galaxy S3 are tracking phenomenally well".
| |
Read More ...
News in Brief: One More Thing: Angry Birds scammers get done
Bad app-le – Someone get us a catapult and some disgruntled fowl, we want to fire them at this Latvian firm that was publishing fake editions of Angry Birds and Cut the Rope which allowed it to send hidden premium texts to anyone who downloaded them. Happily, the firm has now been fined £50,000 and ordered to refund all the people caught out by the scam. [BBC]
Wooooay, football – Football's still going, apparently. The second test for Hawk-Eye's goal line tech is set to be England v Belgium on June 2, thus providing one more thing to blame when England doesn't win things. [FIFA]
What up Barack? - All you've got to do to get a call from the president is launch your own privately-funded space program. Sadly for Elon Musk said "Caller ID was blocked, so at first I thought it was a telemarketer." If it hadn't have been blocked it'd have flashed up "B-DAWG Calling", presumably. [TNW]
Dark matters – It seems there was some question mark over whether or not dark matter exists. Apparently it does. As you were. [New Scientist]
Get lost – Twitter won't tweet any two-word tweet starting with the word 'get' on account of it once being an SMS service. Not much good if you're in a hostage situation, risking your life to tweet and all you've got time to type is 'Get help'. We'd probably all ignore that anyway though so… no biggie. [Buzzfeed]
Where did dogs come from? – The eternal question. No one seems to know. And if you said WOLVES then QI KLAXON. [Ars Technica]
Like Mike - Google's shopping spree not only saw it picking up Motorola Mobility but also design studio Mike and Maaike, which worked on the first Android phone (the much-loved G1) as well as the Xbox 360. Controversial. [TNW]
Fashion - If you buy this R2D2 hoodie, you're only allowed to communicate in beeps and boops while wearing it. And maybe by projecting holograms. But that's really it. [Gizmodo UK]
Yes mate - One way to impress a person you quite fancy is this: on your first date, whip out your smartphone and fire up the new Poundland app. Guaranteed success. Plus, y'know, bargains. [Poundland]
Marvel-lous – Gorgeous 4-year-old Anthony Smith woke up one day and told his mum he wouldn't wear his hearing aid because superheroes don't wear hearing aids. Gorgeous Marvel was having none of that: when Anthony's mum emailed for help finding a hearing-impaired superhero, not only did Marvel respond with news of Hawkeye who lost 80% of his hearing, but it also created a whole new superhero named Blue Ear named after Anthony's hearing aid. Gorgeous. [Fox]
| |
Read More ...
Sony NEX-F5 to feature inbuilt WiFi?
It's barely been a week (in fact's it's been 8 days) since Sony announced its latest compact system camera, but already the rumours about its next release are hotting up.
Several reports suggest that the NEX-F5 will be unveiled soon, with rumours hinting that it may be the first interchangeable lens camera from Sony to include integrated WiFi.
Samsung was the first manufacturer to produce an interchangeable lens camera with this function, with its recent upgrades to its NX range (NX20, NX210 and NX1000) announced just last month.
Inbuilt
Along with integrated WiFi, several of the features from the newly announced F3 are thought to be put to use. These include the 180 degree flip up screen, designed for taking self-portraits with ease and the 16 million pixel sensor.Rumours suggest that the F5 will be revealed in the summer, which would be in line with Sony's release schedule from last year. The company announced the NEX-7 and NEX-5N in August 2011.
It's shaping up to be a big year for Sony if all the rumours are to be believed. It's also thought that the company's first full-frame DSLT will be revealed, along with new optics for both its A-mount (DSLR/T) and E-mount (NEX) ranges.
Stay tuned for more updates as they arrive.
| |
Read More ...
In Depth: How Lulzsec cracked MilitarySingles.com
How MilitarySingles was hacked
A military dating site attacked by hackers in March had serious security flaws, a report has found.MilitarySingles.com, whose users' details were dumped online by Lulzsec hacktivists, failed to prevent the upload of malicious user content and did not properly encrypt its password database, according to data security company Imperva.
The report concludes that user-generated content is not just the lifeblood of the modern internet but also its Achilles' heel.
But Rob Rachwald, the company's director of security strategy, says the methods and aims of the hackers reflect those of major firms like Google and Facebook.
As Facebook stock flows into the public market, trading on the value of users' personal details, hackers are placing their own price on the vast quantities of data that internet companies hold.
"I have a bunch of geeks working for me that like to do this kind of thing," says Rachwald, a 42-year-old Californian who got into security when he saw Intel design specifications being sold in the streets of Tai Pei for $300 apiece.
"Some people like to go to the movies, some people like to read a book, and some people like to hack."
Imperva: "Enterprises are in a pre-pubescent phase when it comes to properly protecting passwords."
On March 26 this year, hackers under the banner of Lulzsec – an offshoot of the broad-church pseudo-movement known as Anonymous (Rachwald calls it a "global disorganisation") – dumped over 170,000 account details online.The first Lulzsec was responsible for a wave of online attacks last year, but had gone quiet after a leading member, Sabu, was co-opted as an FBI informant, leading to the arrest of three comrades. Now, apparently, it's back – or someone using its name.
Rachwald's "geeks" probed the MilitarySingles website ("using fully legal means," he notes) and found a series of vulnerabilities which made it easy to sneak malware onto its servers.
Central to the hack, Rachwald claims, was a method called Remote File Inclusion. RFI involves sneaking malicious code onto a file server by disguising it as or attaching it to legitimate content.
In Web 2.0 applications, Rachwald says, users uploading content can't be avoided. "Imagine a Facebook where you couldn't send photos, or email where you couldn't exchange attachments," he says.
MilitarySingles had a filter to stop this happening. In theory, only picture files like jpegs, gifs and pngs would be accepted. But the filter looked at file extension, not the file itself, meaning 'malware.php.jpg' would get through.
The filter was also programmed to check metadata submitted by users' browsers about the type of content they were uploading. But because such data is controlled from the user's own computer, the hackers were able to tamper with the upload after it left their machine by routing the file through a proxy – and trick the filter into accepting it.
Imperva were able to find records of rogue php files uploaded to the MilitarySingles file server.
Now Lulzsec had access to sensitive details – full names, addresses, email addresses, and logged interactions – about each user. But in such databases the passwords are usually encrypted.
Unfortunately for MilitarySingles, they weren't encrypted well. The site used an outdated encryption method, MD5, that had been broken in 2004.
It didn't help that users were allowed to choose very simple passwords that would take little time or processing power to decode. The most common password, used 763 times, was '123456'. 'Password', 'iloveyou', and 'military' came afterwards, while other common passwords included 'marines', 'jennifer', and 'freedom'.
Rachwald claims RFI vulnerabilities are "particularly acute to PHP" – used in 75-77 per cent of websites online today, including Facebook, Wordpress, Wikipedia, and Chinese search engine Baidu. The language was designed in the '90s to enable the kind of dynamic webpages that social networks rely on.
Looking for exploits
Of several million cyberattacks monitored by Imperva, roughly 20 per cent exploited RFI and its close relative, Local File Inclusion.The vulnerability is not inherent to PHP, but Rachwald believes that because the language is easy for inexperienced coders to pick up, it is often badly used. He says: "PHP is cheap, it's easy to deploy, but it's also easy to make a bunch of security mistakes.
"This is a big soft underbelly for a lot of organisations, and they're not even aware of it. Enterprises are in a pre-pubescent phase when it comes to properly protecting passwords."
But how much data is really out there to steal? In 2011, an Austrian law student, Max Schrems, used EU data protection laws to demand Facebook give him a copy of all the data they held about him. What the CD they posted to him contained was a 1,200 page file detailing every friending and de-friending, every 'like', every 'poke, every RSVP, and many details he had not actually submitted himself. Not all of it was on him; some was from his friends.
New Yorker journalist Ken Auletta, who profiled Larry Page and Sergey Brin in his 2009 book Googled: The End of the World As We Know It, doesn't believe companies are doing enough to protect their users' data.
"Most digital companies collect mountains of information about users," he says. "Advertisers crave this information because it is much more granular than the data they get from, say, print publications or broadcasting."
The Facebook effect
There is enough, at least, that researchers at Carnegie Mellon University were able to guess social security numbers from online information with up to 90 per cent accuracy. Such troves of information are tempting targets for hackers."If users (or customers) feel their data is vulnerable, they will move elsewhere, which no business wants," says Auletta. "The problem is that hackers can be very inventive in finding ways to invade."
Ken Auletta: "The problem is that hackers can be very inventive in finding ways to invade. "
In the past, criminals would typically hold websites to ransom, taking them offline and demanding money. "But over time," Rachwald says, "companies started transacting more and more data inside their website. As a consequence, the value of data went up, and people started going after credit card numbers, personal identification numbers. The game changed dramatically because you no longer make money by taking down a website but by taking data from a website." Sometimes the motives are political, as they appear to have been with MilitarySingles. But the real rewards are in an underground information economy that mirrors the legitimate one that sustains Google, Facebook and other web companies.
If you're a Canadian with a Visa card, your details might only be worth $3 on the black market. But those of an EU citizen with a Discover card were fetching $8 each last October.
That may not sound like much, but credit card details like those held by Apple's AppleID service, Amazon, or the infamously compromised Sony are bought and sold in blocks of thousands – ironically through black market social networks and criminal Craigslist analogues. Facebook username and passwords, meanwhile, will set you back $6, according to one advert posted on a hacker website.
Yet this pales next to the value Facebook places on the data contained in each account. On May 18, Forbes estimated that each Facebook user is worth an average of $91.44 to advertisers, going by the stock price at the time. The online privacy company Abine, meanwhile, has made a free calculator that they claim can estimate your value to Facebook.
As in the black market, prices vary; I cost over $250, but a Latin American who rarely clicks 'like' and has fewer than 100 friends is worth a mere $46. Google offers money to users for allowing the company to track their browser data – though only in the form of $5 Amazon gift cards. You could get a better price from the hackers.
According to Rachwald, the two industries are two sides of the same coin: "One could say that the hackers did it first. They were very good at collecting personal details and monetising them; Facebook just did it legally."
In fact, the industries share plenty. "There's a fair bit of overlap," says Rachwald. "If you go for hacker forums you will see that a lot of security professionals clearly participate… if you look at the approach taken by certain hackers in certain campaigns, it mimics a lot of what we call white hat hackers do in order to test a website for vulnerabilities."
Imperva: "If Google had first asked for permission from newspapers or publishers, they never would have launched search in 1998."
Facebook even offers bounties on a special 'White Hat' visa debit card to hackers who can find and inform them of security bugs, and hired some of them as interns. Famously, the site began when Mark Zuckerberg broke into a variety of Harvard websites to download hundreds of pictures of fellow students.Auletta says the hacker mentality runs deep in Silicon Valley. "New, disruptive companies don't ask for permission before they act. If Google had first asked for permission from newspapers or publishers, they never would have launched search in 1998."
Ultimately, Rachwald believes, social networking and the public sector do not mix. Such sites pose "a significant security threat" for government employees. "MilitarySingles wasn't even sponsored by the government, and now there's a ton of publicly available information on various military personnel."
While Imperva's report recommends militaries impose social media rules on their members, Rachwald thinks training is key: "Military and government agencies need to tell their employees how to use social networking and give them guidelines on how details can be used. I don't think they understand how much information an adversary might be able to get."
When Rachwald visits local schools to teach them about social networking, he tells them to "treat it as a game" – use a fake name, a fake data of birth, fake details, and make things difficult for anyone trying to find you. The bottom line? "Don't trust social networks, because they don't respect your privacy."
"We're living in the age of social networking. It's a big new factor that won't go away, and it needs to be treated with a great degree of respect."
| |
Read More ...
In Depth: Nintendo at E3 2012: what to expect
Nintendo at E3 2012
Of the big three publishers, Nintendo is the one with the least to hide at E3. Its plans are fairly obvious: release the Wii U and try to get a jump on the next generation. Which is odd because the Wii U is about as powerful as a last generation machine, save for that controller.The side story that's more interesting is how many third-party developers Nintendo can get on board. Nintendo hasn't been good for third party developers since the GameCube, with third-party publishers in particular suffering from amazing piracy levels on the DS and no software sales on the Wii. Nintendo has to show that people want to buy games on its platform not made by Nintendo itself.
With that in mind, last year it recruited a host of luminaries to say that they'd be supporting the Wii U. Ken Levine's Bioshock Infinite might have slipped to next year, but the Wii U might actually have a reasonably large third-party launch line-up.
Action-RPG Darksiders II has been confirmed for launch, as has last year's amazing Batman: Arkham City. Later releases will include Tekken Wii U, Assassin's Creed, Ghost Recon Online, Ninja Gaiden 3, FIFA, Metro: Last Light, Dirt Showdown, F1 2012, Scribblenauts, Aliens Colonial Marines, Rayman Legends, Lego City Stories, Killer Freaks From Outer Space, Project Cars, Dragon Quest X and Project Nova.
Because of the older tech inside, these won't be the best-looking games, as Peter Molyneux recently said: "Nintendo's slightly lacklustre Wii U is going to have to blow us away with better specs and a great 1st party line up."
You can find more about its limited hardware in our Wii U news roundup, but it's notable that Nintendo has recently redesigned the controller - perhaps a hardware upgrade will also be revealed?
Despite this, Nintendo's gamble on that controller could pay off, as the combination of a touch-screen, traditional controller and motion sensitivity could be used for just about anything - if developers feel its worth spending their time doing so.
Add in the possibility of cross-platform play with the 3DS, which Smash Bros' Sakurai hinted at earlier in the year, and the device will have three different controllers - though it's a pity it can only cope with one Wii U controller at a time.
Not that this matters; as we said, people just want to play Mario, Zelda or Pokémon and, if those are onboard from the off, the device will fly off the shelves this Christmas.
Luckily, nostalgic Nintendo will pull new-old games out of the bag. It's the 20th anniversary of Mario Kart, so you can guarantee that'll make an appearance. New Super Mario Bros Mii (where your self-made avatar plays alongside Mario et al) will be a crowd pleaser.
Family favourites Wii U Fit and Wii U Sports were shown in the E3 2011 demo reel, so they're a certainty too. Legend of Zelda Wii U will be a big pull, as will Pikmin 3.
Rumours of a new Luigi's Mansion 2 have also been circulating and Retro Studios has been silent since Donkey Kong Country Returns - could it be working on a new Metroid Prime? We wouldn't be surprised at a new Smash Bros announcement either, as a spoiler to Sony's own platform-arena fighter.
Wii U's challenge isn't to defeat the existing consoles - it matches them in terms of power - but to convince third party developers that they can sell their games on it, and the public that the new controller is worth picking up a new console for.
Much of that depends on the price, which Nintendo won't be revealing at E3. Despite that, if any company is the favourite to win E3, it's Nintendo.
| |
Read More ...
Toshiba AT300 tablet ticks off thin, quad-core, ICS buzzwords
Toshiba has officially launched the AT300 which comes packing a quad-core Tegra 3 processor and Android 4.0.
The 10.1-inch LED display is fashioned from Gorilla glass, while the brushed aluminium chassis keeps it sleek with the 8.95mm-thin frame weighing in at 590g.
For the snap-happy there are two cameras – a 5MP affair on the rear with a 2MP on the front. Happily, there's a full-size SD card slot so you can up the internal storage of either 16GB or 32GB quite significantly.
AT-AT
Port-wise it's a micro-fest, with micro-HDMI and micro-USB both in attendance.Toshiba is also at great pains to point out that the AT300 also has access to Google Play and the many apps, ebooks, films and what have you contained therein. Quite revolutionary for an Android tablet, that.
Still, the Toshiba AT300 is quite a step up from its predecessor, the AT200, which managed only dual-core processing and old-school Honeycomb.
It's slightly cheaper too, with the Toshiba AT300 UK pricing comes in at £329 (around $500) for the 16GB model and £379 (around $600) for the 32GB edition. US prices are yet to be confirmed.
Whether the AT200 will get a little price cut remains to be seen but the AT300 is set to hit the shelves at some point in Q2 so should arrive sometime before the end of June.
| |
Read More ...
Zynga: Draw Something will live on for years
Crude drawings are here to stay according to Zynga, which believes Draw Something is here for the long run.
Zynga bought the popular drawing app for $183 million from OMGPOP back in March but since then the number of people using the app has declined – it is now 13th in the UK App Store charts, where once it was at the top.
This equates to 7.6 million users playing with the app, down from 14.5 million users at its peak, while Android users seem to still be in love with Draw Something as it remains top of the less lucrative Google Play chart.
Evergreen, never blue
Games company Zynga isn't worried about its descent on iOS, however, with John Schappert, COO of Zynga explaining the app is one that's definitely going to stick around."We think of it as a game that's an evergreen franchise," explained Schappert to the WSJ. "It's a game that will live on for years."
If this is going to be the case, then Zynga will need to look at various revenue streams to make money from the app – something it is already doing.
It's penned a deal with DreamWorks to promote Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted within the app and there was also the recent news that brands will begin appearing as drawing options.
Given Zynga's track record in the gaming market, if there's any company that can make a success of Draw Something it will be it.
But those numbers must be giving the suits some food for thought, regardless of what they are saying on the record.
| |
Read More ...
HTC One XL unlikely to land in the UK
HTC is about to roll out its One XL handset to parts of Europe as it looks to cash in on the 4G market.
According to Vodafone Germany, the One XL will be available from early June, and KnowYourMobile reports that it should make it to the UK soon after.
TechRadar contacted HTC UK, who said "The HTC One XL is a 4G LTE device which we expect will roll out to markets where 4G is supported, but there is no word on it coming to the UK."
Dual-core power
The One XL, currently available in the US under the AT&T One X moniker, is a variant of the popular HTC One X, but it does come with a couple of key differences.The One XL will pack 4G LTE capabilities, allowing users to take advantage of the super fast 4G networks, unlike the One X which only supports 3G.
To compensate for the additional network boost the One XL has lost the quad-core Tegra 3 processor, instead having to make do with Qualcomm's dual-core S4 Snapdragon chip, which is found in the HTC One S.
Although on paper the One XL has the lesser processor, reports suggest the Snapdragon chip runs cooler, faster and more efficiently than the Tegra 3, meaning extended battery life on the handset.
If you're tempted to nab one for yourself in the UK then you will be able to purchase a One XL directly from HTC for €659 (around £530).
| |
Read More ...
Has RIM put BBM on the back burner?
Questions are being raised over the future of BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) as reports suggest Research in Motion (RIM) is focussing its efforts elsewhere.
We don't need to tell you that RIM has had a torrid time over the past couple of years, with network outages, riot-inducing allegations and declining sales seeing its BlackBerry range lose out to the likes of Apple and Android.
Now the Wall Street Journal reports that sources familiar with the situation at RIM have revealed: "BBM is taking a back seat to chief executive Thorsten Heins' focus on pushing out the company's new phone and operating system later this year."
Cook quashed BBM for iOS and Android
BBM now has a host of competition in the mobile instant messaging world, with Apple's iMessage for iPhones, Samsung's ChatOn service and third-party, multi-platform Whatsapp all vying for a spot on your smartphone.According to the sources, RIM was planning to licence the BBM platform (codenamed SMS 2.0) to other manufacturers and carriers, theoretically allowing it to run on iPhones and Android devices, but this initiative was stopped by Tim Cook when he took control of the company.
BBM is certainly far from dead and buried, with RIM recently launching the BlackBerry Curve 9320 which sports a dedicated button for the messaging service, but it looks like the core focus is now on the BB10 software and handsets which will be running it.
| |
Read More ...
IE10 will support Flash but only on selected websites
Microsoft has revealed that IE10 will indeed support Flash despite its push to HTML5, but not all sites will be supported.
According to screengrabs of the upcoming browser, there will be two versions of IE10 – one that's desktop based and one that's been given a Metro makeover. The latter is plug-in free but it seems there will be a version of Flash baked into the build.
This doesn't mean that all sites using Flash will be supported, however, as there's a whitelist of sites the browser will cater for.
These include YouTube, Vimeo, news sites such as the BBC, numerous gaming sites and Facebook. Oh, and TechRadar is on there as well.
If you want to view Flash content of sites not on this list, then you will have to switch to the plain-old desktop version.
Flash not quite in the pan
Adobe will be glad that Microsoft is taking this approach – even though the company is embracing HTML5 it won't have fully migrated by the time Windows 8 comes out.To ease the process, it has opened up its code to the likes of Microsoft and Google so they can tweak it enough to fit it into their own software without fear of security issues or Flash slowing things down.
According to Ars Technica, Windows RT – the ARM version of the software – will also have Flash thanks to the full-fat Flash player.
Interestingly, there's no word on what is happening with Microsoft's own plug-in Silverlight. As Netflix is on the 'Flash' whitelist, though, and doesn't actually use Flash it seems that a similar compromise will take place with this plug-in as well.
Microsoft is all set to release the Windows 8 Release Preview in early June.
| |
Read More ...
Google Nexus tablet could arrive in June, from Asus
Rumours surrounding Google's first own brand tablet have re-surfaced, with the latest claiming we are set to see the device in June.
The report comes via a Digitimes upstream supply chain source, who says Google is working with Asus on an entry level tablet, which was apparently originally slated for a May launch.
The source goes on to confirm that the Google tablet will sport a 7-inch display, as the search giant looks to take on the popular Amazon Kindle Fire.
Design and costs fail to reach expectations
Apparently the Google Nexus tablet will now start shipping in June, with an initial 600,000 units making their way to stores in time for July sales - with over 2 million units predicted to sell in 2012.According to the report, Google held back the tablet because "design and costs did not reach its expectations, and the product was delayed for some minor adjustments".
We've already seen reports that Asus was chosen by Google to produce a Nexus tablet, as well as several rumours surrounding the 7-inch display – which makes this latest news seem all the more real.
The annual Google I/O conference is going to take place on June 27-29, and this could be the platform where we see the Google tablet announced.
You can keep up to date will all the news with our Google Nexus tablet release date, news and rumours article.
| |
Read More ...
Gary Marshall: Why Yahoo Axis is the Rocky Balboa of the internet
Have you seen the Rocky films? Of course you have, everybody has. Well, imagine that instead of boxing, it was about web search, and instead of Sylvester Stallone, it starred Yahoo.
Who's with me?
Okay, okay, it doesn't sound like the most exciting film you'll ever see, but as a story there's a lot of parallels between Sylvester Stallone running up and down stairs, punching dead animals and mumbling stuff and Yahoo coming up with Axis.
When it came to the things Rocky Balboa and Yahoo became famous for — boxing and web search respectively — they had it, and they blew it, they lost it, and they want it back again.
Could Axis be Yahoo's fight with Apollo Creed?
Boxing clever
With Axis, Yahoo is attempting to do something very different in search. Where Bing's pitch is ultimately "if you like Google but don't like Google, why not try our very Google-y thing that isn't Google?" the idea behind Axis is much more interesting.It's essentially removing the familiar page of search results, replacing them with previews of the things it thinks you're looking for. Add in auto-complete, browser extensions and clever syncing with your iOS devices and you've got a rather nifty way of finding stuff online.
It's pretty slick, especially on the iPad; on a slow laptop connected to the world's worst broadband, which I am just now, it isn't so good. But it's interesting, and that's a great thing, because Yahoo's asking whether the current way of doing things is the best way, or if we're just doing it because, hey! That's how we've always done it.
Remember having to use operators to get the right results from AltaVista and HotBot? Ask people to do that today and they'll smack you with their laptop.
The odds of Yahoo actually usurping Bing, let alone Google, are astronomical - not least because Yahoo has a habit of hiring really smart people or buying really smart businesses, promising them the Earth and then locking them in a dungeon instead of investing in and supporting their products - and I'm sure if Axis took off Yahoo would soon plaster it with ads, but Yahoo's come out swinging. It's not a knockout product yet, but if Yahoo sticks with it, it could be.
| |
Read More ...
Review: Pentax K-01
Introduction
Pentax isn't a company to rest on its laurels. As we saw with the the Pentax Q compact system camera, it's willing to push camera design in often exciting and unconventional directions. With the K-01, Pentax has created a mirrorless system camera that can use any existing K-mount lens, without the need for adaptors, which should surely appeal to existing Pentax SLR owners.The Pentax K-01 differs from other mirrorless systems because it uses the same mirror box unit and lens mount found on Pentax DSLRs, but without the reflex mirror. Besides allowing existing lenses to fit, it means the lens is no closer to the sensor than it would be on a DSLR, so the camera isn't all that much smaller than the most compact DSLR bodies Pentax produces.
The APS-C CMOS sensor found in the Pentax K-5 camera body, which was very well received, has been transplanted into the Pentax K-01, along with the Pentax SR system, which moves the sensor to compensate for camera shake.
The design of the Pentax K-01 is quite striking too. Renowned designer Marc Newson has been drafted in to make the camera as unique in appearance as it is technically. It's his first camera design, since his staple work includes designing furniture, watches and champagne coolers, so it's quite intriguing that Pentax decided to go down this route.
For those who can't abide the usual black or silver colour choices most cameras are finished in, the Pentax K-01 is also available in yellow.
It's difficult to tell who exactly Pentax is aiming this camera at. Without a doubt, it may be appealing to owners of existing Pentax gear, as a slightly more compact alternative. However, photographers who are new to Pentax may be put off by the weighty body and chunky dimensions.
Pentax K-01 at a glance
Sensor: 16MP CMOS
ISO range: ISO 100-12800, expandable to 25600
LCD screen: 3-inch LCD
Dimensions: 79 x 121 x 59mm, 560g
It has plenty of features to tempt beginners and experienced photographers alike. A full range of exposure options (including manual) are at your disposal, as well as other more exotic features, such as automatic HDR. Beginners are catered for with a comprehensive range of automatic scene programs and two automatic modes, one of which disables the built-in flash.Sensor: 16MP CMOS
ISO range: ISO 100-12800, expandable to 25600
LCD screen: 3-inch LCD
Dimensions: 79 x 121 x 59mm, 560g
Videographers may also be interested in the Pentax K-01. Full HD video recording is possible, and an input for an external stereo microphone is provided, along with mini-HDMI connectivity.
Priced at £679.99 in the UK and $899.95 in the US, its rivals include the Panasonic Lumix GX1, Sony NEX-5N and Olympus PEN E-P3.
Features
At the heart of the Pentax K-01 lies the same 16MP APS-C CMOS sensor found in the Pentax K-5 DSLR, which offers a native ISO sensitivity range of ISO 100-12800 and ISO 25600 with ISO expansion enabled. This should provide ample scope for taking pictures in a wide range of conditions, whether it be dark or light, or for forcing faster shutter speeds to freeze fast action.
A sensor shift shake reduction system is also provided for those times you wish to take handheld shots at low shutter speeds. It works by moving the CMOS sensor to compensate for camera movement.
A range of creative manual exposure modes can be selected via the chunky exposure mode dial on top of the Pentax K-01. Accompanying these are a standard automatic mode, a comprehensive range of 18 auto-scene programs, an auto mode with flash disabled and an automatic HDR mode, which is ideal for shooting contrasty scenes.
This HDR mode works by taking three images at different exposures, which are then combined in-camera, producing an image with more detail in highlight and shadow areas. Three different levels of the effect can be selected, along with an auto mode, which attempts to gauge how contrasty the scene is, and apply the appropriate level of HDR effect.
A 3-inch screen with a resolution of 921,000 dots provides a clear view during picture composition and playback. The screen isn't articulated in any way, which is a shame, because this can help with taking pictures from low or high viewpoints.
Full HD video recording at up to 30 frames per second is possible, which is recorded using the popular H.264 codec. Higher frame rates of 60 frames per second are possible with the resolution dropped to 720p, which can be useful if the footage is intended to be played back slower, for a slow motion effect.
A stereo microphone input is provided, for use with high quality microphones for video, and the footage can be exported via the HDMI connector, beside the SD card slot. Unfortunately autofocus is disabled during recording, leaving you to adjust focus manually if the distance to your subject changes during recording.
A pop-up flash is provided, which covers the angle of view of an 18mm lens and provides ample illumination for fill-in at close quarters.
There's also a standard ISO hotshoe with connections for TTL operation with Pentax flashguns is located just behind the pop-up flash. This provides extra scope for shooting in low light, or using third-party flash accessories, such as wireless flash triggers.
SD, SDHC and SDXC memory cards are supported by the Pentax K-01, providing plenty of options for storage. However, during testing the camera refused to work with a couple of Class 4 Samsung-branded SDHC cards, both of which work fine in other cameras. Other brands of SD media we tried all worked perfectly.
Build quality and handling
Marc Newson's design touches make the Pentax K-01 look quite unlike other cameras available at the moment. Whether this look is appealing or not is subjective, but the flat, boxy design feels more brick-like, than like a sophisticated photographic tool in the hand.A rubber coating has been applied around the front and side of the camera body, which provides a firm grip, although part of this rubber forms a flap that covers the SD card slot, and is prone to flop open if care isn't taken to avoid catching the edge of it.
Many of the buttons for menus and features such as exposure compensation and video recording are laid out in a geometric fashion across the top and down the back of the camera body.
While, for the most part, the arrangement of controls is good, it can be difficult to operate the exposure compensation button without catching the video button, which can result in accidentally recording a short video clip. Also, the green function button is placed so far from the grip that it can be difficult to reach without some finger gymnastics.
The screen is bright and clear and provides wide viewing angles, but the glossy acrylic cover can hamper visibility when viewing the screen from an angle in bright conditions.
Helpfully, the flash unit pops up a fair distance above the camera, which should help to reduce the effects of red-eye in portraits. The articulated mechanism feels very sturdy, too.
In some respects, it can seem like a little too much attention has been paid to aesthetics, rather than ergonomics. However, the body does feel very solidly put together, and the dials on the camera especially have a quality feel to them, producing a good solid click when operated.
The same 1860mAh D-Li90 battery found in the Pentax K-5 DSLR powers the Pentax K-01. This chunky battery should provide most users with more than enough power for a lengthy photography session, since after taking over 200 shots and a few short video clips during testing, the camera still showed a full charge.
For a mirrorless camera, the Pentax K-01 certainly isn't compact, when compared to Micro Four Thirds and even Sony NEX cameras, and is also relatively heavy, weighing 560g with the battery and memory card installed.
The Pentax K-01 ships with a 40mm pancake lens, which is currently the thinnest lens of its type available, and does shave a fair chuck off the overall size of the camera. Kits with an 18-55mm and 55-200mm zoom are also available.
Performance
Pictures produced by the Pentax K-01 are rich in detail and vibrant in colour, without appearing unnatural, and it it more than capable of producing stunning results with the right subject, in the right conditions.Its multi-segment metering is consistent, but often tends to underexpose, even when scenes only have small bright areas in them. But at least the highlights are preserved, High-contrast scenes nearly always fool the multi-segment metering, so having three stops of exposure compensation either side of the metered value at your disposal is handy.
Meanwhile the auto white balance system does a decent job of correcting colour casts under artificial lighting, leaving a warm cast. However, under overcast conditions images can be left looking quite cold, with a noticeable blue cast being produced in the image.
Plenty of white balance presets are provided, which correct casts adequately, and a custom white balance function is there for times when the colour lighting is tricky to compensate for.
Because the sensor fitted to the Pentax K-01 CSC is the same unit found in the Pentax K-5 DSLR, noise control at high sensitivities is pretty much the same. This is a good thing, because the Pentax K-5 performs extremely well at high sensitivities.
There is no significant image degradation due to noise until ISO 1600, where a little noise can be seen in midtones, and a little softening due to noise reduction can be seen on in-camera JPEGs. Even so, the effects of noise are only very slight, and even pictures taken at ISO 6400 should be printable to around A4 (US letter) size.
Beyond that, noise starts to become much more prominent, although images taken at ISO 25600 still have accurate colours, and should be more than adequate for sharing at low resolutions on the web.
Raw images taken at sensitivities of ISO 3200 and above display much higher levels of noise, but they also contain much more detail. A combination of careful noise reduction and sharpening in post processing can still yield good results though.
Auto focus speed and the (lack of) responsiveness of the shutter are both weak points of this camera. Even in good light, with a high-contrast subject, the autofocus system takes at least the best part of a second to lock onto a subject. In low light conditions and with low contrast subjects, a frustrating wait while the camera tracks back and forth attempting to find a lock is the norm.
Luckily, manual focusing is quite easy, since pressing the OK button magnifies the centre section of the image on the screen to improve accuracy.
But the delay between pressing the shutter release, once the lens is focused, and the shutter firing can be quite noticeable, especially when taking pictures of moving subjects. This can be very frustrating, since fleeting moments are easily missed, and even people's expressions may have changed during the delay.
Image quality and resolution
As part of our image quality testing for the Pentax K-01, we've shot our resolution chart with a Sigma 50mm f/1.4 EX DG HSM lens mounted.If you view our crops of the resolution chart's central section at 100% (or Actual Pixels) you will see that, for example, at ISO 100 the Pentax K-01 is capable of resolving up to around 22 (line widths per picture height x100) in its highest quality JPEG files.
For a full explanation of what our resolution charts mean, and how to read them, check out our full explanation of our camera testing resolution charts.
Examining images of the chart taken at each sensitivity setting reveals the following resolution scores in line widths per picture height x100:
JPEG images
ISO 100, score: 22 (Click here for the full resolution image)
ISO 200, score: 22 (Click here for the full resolution image)
ISO 400, score: 22 (Click here for the full resolution image)
ISO 800, score: 22 (Click here for the full resolution image)
ISO 1600, score: 20 (Click here for the full resolution image)
ISO 3200, score: 20 (Click here for the full resolution image)
ISO 6400, score: 22 (Click here for the full resolution image)
ISO 128000, score: 20 (Click here for the full resolution image)
ISO 25600, score: 18 (Click here for the full resolution image)
Raw images
ISO 100, score: 24 (Click here for the full resolution image)
ISO 200, score: 24 (Click here for the full resolution image)
ISO 400, score: 24 (Click here for the full resolution image)
ISO 800, score: 20 (Click here for the full resolution image)
ISO 1600, score: 20 (Click here for the full resolution image)
ISO 3200, score: 20 (Click here for the full resolution image)
ISO 6400, score: 20 (Click here for the full resolution image)
ISO 12800, score: 20 (Click here for the full resolution image)
ISO 25600, score: 16 (Click here for the full resolution image)
Noise and dynamic range
We shoot a specially designed chart in carefully controlled conditions and the resulting images are analysed using DXO Analyzer software to generate the data to produce the graphs below.A high signal to noise ratio (SNR) indicates a cleaner and better quality image.
For more details on how to interpret our test data, check out our full explanation of our noise and dynamic range tests.
JPEG signal to noise ratio
JPEG images from the Pentax K-01 have good signal to noise ratio results, and while just beaten by the Pentax K-5 at ISO 100 and 12800, at all other sensitivities the K-01 just has the edge.
Raw (after conversion to TIFF) signal to noise ratio
TIFF files (after conversion from raw) again show that the K-01 handles noise well across the sensitivity range, with noise only starting to become apparent from ISO 3200.
JPEG Dynamic range
Results show that the Pentax K-01 produces similar results to the Pentax K-5, Panasonic GF5 and Olympus E-P3 up to ISO 800. Above this sensitivity the K-01 show better dynamic range performance than the comparison cameras.
Raw (after conversion to TIFF) dynamic range
Between sensitivities of ISO 100 and 1600 the TIFF (after conversion from raw) dynamic range shows a big improvement over the K-5. Above this sensitivity the results are still respectable, but show that tonal graduation in the highlights and shadows can easily be lost at the highest ISO settings.
Sample images
Click here to see the full resolution image
The large APS-C sensor enables shallow depth of field, with images taken at fast apertures.
Click here to see the full resolution image
Shutter speeds as fast as 1/4000sec can be selected, for freezing fast action. A bulb option is also provided for extremely long exposures.
Click here to see the full resolution image
Auto white balance does an excellent job indoors
Click here to see the full resolution image
Colours are vibrant direct from the camera
Click here to see the full resolution image
Click here to see the full resolution image
Click here to see the full resolution image
Images are vibrant and contain plenty of detail straight from the camera. However, multi-segment metering tends to underexpose: +1.3 stops of exposure compensation were required for this shot.
Click here to see the full resolution image
Click here to see the full resolution image
Click here to see the full resolution image
Quality at high sensitivities is impressive
Click here to see the full resolution image
Three different levels of auto HDR effect can be selected by the user. Note the chromatic aberration around the arch caused by the pancake kit lens.
Click here to see the full resolution image
Colours straight from the camera are vibrant, without looking unnatural
Click here to see the full resolution image
Click here to see the full resolution image
Click here to see the full resolution image
Click here to see the full resolution image
Dynamic range is good, with plenty of detail being retained in shadow and highlight areas.
Click here to see the full resolution image
Click here to see the full resolution image
Click here to see the full resolution image
The addition of a standard hotshoe means third-party flash accessories can be used, which is great for studio photography.
Click here to see the full resolution image
Click here to see the full resolution image
The large APS-C sensor results in narrower depth of field, which is great for blurring background at wide apertures.
Click here to see the full resolution image
Click here to see the full resolution image
Click here to see the full resolution image
Click here to see the full resolution image
Plenty of detail is contained in images taken with the Pentax K-01.
Sensitivity and noise
Full ISO image, see the cropped (100%) versions below.
Click here to see the full resolution image
ISO 100
Click here to see the full resolution image
ISO 200
Click here to see the full resolution image
ISO 400
Click here to see the full resolution image
ISO 800
Click here to see the full resolution image
ISO 1600
Click here to see the full resolution image
ISO 3200
Click here to see the full resolution image
ISO 6400
Click here to see the full resolution image
ISO 12800
Click here to see the full resolution image
ISO 25600
Verdict
With current prices for the Pentax K-01 hovering around £680 in the UK and $900 in the US, this camera is about as inexpensive as it is compact. When compared to similarly specified competition, the price is a little dearer.Much of the competition, such as the Panasonic Lumix GX1, Olympus PEN E-P3 or the Sony NEX-5N, also benefit from a more compact body and faster autofocus performance. This makes it really difficult to see the value in the Pentax K-01, unless you already have a stash of Pentax K-mount lenses to use with the camera.
This is a shame because, frustrations with the slow autofocus performance and slightly odd handling aside, Pentax has created a very capable camera in the K-01.
We liked
The Pentax K-01 produces sharp, vibrant images with low noise at high sensitivities. The ability to use any K-mount lens with the camera is also an asset, especially for those who have already invested in Pentax optics.We disliked
Auto focus speeds are lacklustre when compared to the opposition, which may be frustrating if attempting to shoot erratically moving subjects. Some elements of the handling could be improved on, such as the rubber flap that protects the SD card slot and the positioning of some buttons.Final verdict
Image quality on the Pentax K-01 is excellent, with the camera yielding sharp, colourful images, with low noise at high sensitivities. Plus, it has the features to please both beginners and experienced photographers alike.The Pentax K-01 is certainly capable of producing excellent quality images, but unless you already own Pentax optics, it may not be the best value mirrorless camera available with current prices.
Having said that, it may be worth keeping an eye on the street price of the Pentax K-01. If it were to fall, it could become a champion of good value, especially for existing Pentax lens owners, or those willing to sniff out a good lens bargain second-hand. It appears the ability to use any K-mount lens is this camera's main asset.
| |
Read More ...
Three out of five smartphone owners have shopped online
More than three out of five (64%) smartphone owners are now using their mobile devices to shop online, a number that has quadrupled since June 2010.
The study by eDigitalResearch and Portaltech Reply also found that an impressive 84% of smartphone owners have used their devices to browse websites, with one third (33%) doing so on a daily basis, whilst three quarters (77%) are using their smartphones to research products.
Derek Eccleston, Head of Research at eDigitalResearch, comments. "These results confirm that m-commerce has fundamentally revolutionised the way in which we shop and browse. The growth of mobile is completely unprecedented and the rate of change that we've tracked over the past two years is alarming. Back in June 2010, we predicted that smartphones were likely to play an increasingly significant part in consumer's busy lifestyles, and whilst in 2011 we found that great strides had been made towards this, these latest set of results demonstrate that this trend is now irreversible. It is therefore essential that all retailers and brands make their mobile channels as accessible as possible to maximise the potential that m-commerce has to offer".
The results also show that growth of mobile shopping shows no signs of slowing down. Almost half (44%) of the smartphone owners surveyed said that they would use their devices to browse more in the coming months, with one third (31%) claiming that they would then go on to make a purchase.
Shopping through an online mobile site has remained more popular than shopping on a mobile app, although it has to be taken into consideration that transactional retail apps are still a key future development for some retailers. The results also seem to suggest that there appears to be preference between shopping online and via an app for some users.
| |
Read More ...
Yahoo messes up Axis browser launch with major security flaw
Yahoo launched a new search-laden mobile browser this morning, but appeared to have forgotten a couple of teensy-weensy but ever so crucial little tiny details like, you know, robust security and terms of service.
Whoops! Yahoo Axis, which is available as an iOS browser as well as a Chrome extension, intends to cut out the usual search engine middle man by taking users straight from search query to web page.
It's an interesting one, and requires quite specific search terms to really work – for example, if we search 'bears' we're not really interested in the Chicago Bears American football team, we're rather more interested in the actual creatures of the ursine persuasion.
But because the Chicago Bears have significantly better SEO, they come top and we have to flick past them to get to Pooh and friends.
Trying
Anyway, it's worth giving it a go – and you'll be pleased to hear that those security issues have been addressed.One developer found that the Axis Chrome extension leaks its private certificate file, making it child's play for forgers and cloners to create fake extensions that phish for users' passwords, session cookies and the rest.
As a result, Yahoo disabled the Chrome extension for a time, although it is now back up and running. Yahoo says it has "blacklisted the exposed cert key with Google which has resolved the vulnerability".
The slightly panicked statement also reads, "We take issues like this very seriously and are dedicated to working around the clock to ensure resolution."
And the terms of service, which were once just a placeholder reading "Terms will go here", are now in place so you can merrily go on not reading them safe in the knowledge that they are actually there.
So it could be a case of all's well that ends well, although the fumbled launch doesn't make the already-troubled company look particularly good.
| |
Read More ...
How to grow your business with Facebook Pages
Facebook has recently been given a major overhaul with how information is presented with the new Timeline feature. How can businesses make the most of their Facebook Pages?
The extraordinary growth of Facebook – 900 million users and heading for a billion - means Facebook is now a commercial channel that no business can ignore. Today businesses use their Facebook pages to not only engage with their customers, but also to sell goods and services. Indeed, according to analysts IDC, 15 percent of the total customer spending in developed countries could be via Facebook within three to five years.
The big name brands may grab all the limelight, but even the smallest enterprise can use Facebook to shout about its service and products and make real - and lasting connections - with their paying customers. In essence when viewed from a business perspective, Facebook can offer any business:
- A direct connection with consumers to deliver high levels of brand recognition and brand recommendation
- Customer service opportunities that can develop close relationship that often result in up-selling activity
- A completely new commercial channel that can complement your normal website or physical stores
- Development opportunities for new social-based services
- Click through rates and conversion on your website can be radically improved with a Facebook campaign
- For business there has never been a platform that offers such a diverse range of potential customers that can be highly segmented to allow focused ad campaigns to target customers for even niche products or services.
Adapting the Facebook Timeline for your business
Facebook had a facelift recently introducing a range of new features most notably the Timeline. Your business now has a large image space (851 x 315) pixels in size for the larger image, and 180 x 180 for the smaller image to brand your Facebook Pages.Note that your cover page photos can't include any contact information, calls to action messages or pricing information for your enterprises goods or services. However, this doesn't mean you can't be creative as these businesses have been when designing their Timelines
StarBucks
Lexus
Nike
Dove
Your business can also make the most of some new features that include:
- Direct messages – you can allow users to send personal messages to your business reinforcing your brand values
- Milestones – these are highlights that your business can shout about and can include impressive images at 843 x 403 pixels
- Arrange your Timeline – any content on your Timeline can be highlighted with a star or icon, or deleted if you wish
New content can now be 'pinned' to the top of your Timeline giving your business a great opportunity to showcase its latest products, services or just tell your followers the latest news about your business.
And don't forget to ensure there is a call to action at the end of every piece of material you post. Remember, Facebook is about interaction and not just the passive consumption of content.
Sell your products and services with F-commerce
The SYZYGY Group stated in their F-commerce report: "There are no cookie cutter recipes for setting up successful Facebook stores for your brand fans; F-commerce is too new and experimental for that. The best that brands can do is adopt a strategic approach to F-commerce, adopting something similar to the LEAD approach proposed by the Sloan Center for Internet Retailing."The LEAD approach is designed to de-risk innovation in social media:
- LISTEN – First listen to your Facebook fans: Do they want a privileged and personal point of purchase on Facebook, and if so, what would they want to buy?
- EXPERIMENT – Limit initial investment to a small-scale fan-store and experiment with how you can use it to drive advocacy
- ADAPT – Adapt your fan-store into an outcome-driven solution based on fan feedback and on what drives advocacy in practice
- DEVELOP – Continuously develop your fan-store, improving the fan experience as new opportunities emerge
New ways to sell on Facebook
Selling products and services via your business' Facebook page is now easier than it has ever been. Vendors that offer e-commerce apps that can be easily integrated into your enterprises Facebook page including:Even with F-commerce gaining momentum with each passing day, remember that your business' Facebook Pages are first and foremost a way to interact and engage with your customers.
Turning your Facebook Page into yet another online store is not advisable, as consumers understand the difference between e-commerce pages and their favourite social networks. Yes, they are open to some commercial messages, but tread carefully.
| |
Read More ...
BusinessLink Social trading platform
The problem with social networks is they're very good for making new connections, but to sell your goods and services you need to then entice the customer out of the network and onto your website.
Workspace provider Regus has created a social network combined with a trading platform, creating a social trading platform. The BusinessLink, allows Regus customers worldwide to buy and sell products and services, and connect with other businesses using the Regus network.
BusinessLink comprises a website accessible via Regus global customer portal myregus.com, as well as informal networking events held around the world. The BusinessLink website allows users to browse through online offers posted by businesses using Regus workspace across 95 countries worldwide, or request specific products and services when needed.
Celia Donne, Regional Director at Regus notes, "The rise and rise of business social media networks mean that today they are as essential a tool to finding new customers as face-to-face interaction. For many years our customers have told us of the added value of being able to connect and do business with other companies using Regus.
Adding, "We are excited to respond to their needs with the launch of BusinessLink, which will instantly become one of the world's largest invite-only trading portals. Solely accessible by Regus office and virtual office customers, BusinessLink brings a global market within the reach of any company, no matter how large or small."
| |
Read More ...
Review: Huawei MediaPad 7
Huge in China, here in the UK Huawei is a name you might be tempted to pronounce 'who are we'. But it's a brand the company is determined to stamp on Western consciousnesses over the coming months.
It slunk into the low-end smartphone market with a series of Android phones a couple of years back, and in November of last year branched out with a noisy press party for the 7-inch MediaPad 7.
We've only just been able to get hold of a review device, so if this is a launch it's not exactly rushing, but the MediaPad 7 has been worth waiting for.
Done right
We're very much tempted to call this 'the iPad done right'. Even Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has confessed that he personally prefers Android's flexible openness to Apple's tightly closed and controlled iOS. And when it comes to form factor, we've always thought the iPad was too big and too heavy, and with version 3 it's even become a little heavier.One of our first portable phones was the Motorola Brick. It weighed 790g and was carried around in an enormous black leather bag along with a Sinclair Z88 and a whole bunch of papers. Since then, the definition of portability has changed.
However, many of us at PC Plus argue that if a thing needs a bag, it's not portable. In particular, should we consider the iPad to be portable? And what exactly is its function? They're flying off the shelves, but are defining a product category that's completely separate from regular work tools like phones, notebooks and desktops.
The conventional wisdom seems to be that it's a couch-potato toy, best suited for web browsing, photo viewing and movie watching. But how successful is the iPad and other tablets at achieving this?
The key problem is the 10-inch form factor insisted upon by Steve Jobs. It makes for a large device too heavy to hold in the hand for any length of time. So you put it on the table or rest it on your lap. In that mode if you want to do any data entry you would be much better off using one of the new breed of Ultrabooks.
Seven-inch tablets are a much better fit for the human hand. Huawei's new MediaPad 7, unlike the iPad, is so small that you can comfortably stick it in your inside jacket pocket, making it a fully portable no-brainer. It's less than half the weight of that Motorola Brick and around a third lighter than the newest iPad.
Can you do real work with it? You certainly can. Mostly by tapping and sliding on one of the many Android virtual keyboards available. It's also entirely feasible to mix in short bursts of dictation, which uses servers in the cloud to do the speech-to-text translation.
On rare occasions when a physical keyboard is needed it's easy enough to pair the tablet to a decent Bluetooth keyboard such as the ZAGkeys Flex.
A big deal
Huawei makes much of this being the first Android 3.2 Honeycomb tablet, but that's not much of a big deal now that Android 4.0, aka Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) has landed. In fact there's nothing about the MediaPad 7 that's a big deal. And that, for us, is the big deal.It's a well designed, more-or-less generic Android tablet, of excellent build quality, available with or without HSPA+, that will do everything you'd expect from this class of device. The aluminium body has a solid, creak-free feel and we particularly like the way access to the SIM and SD cards is concealed behind one of a pair of triangular black panels.
The two tiny speakers on the top edge in portrait mode create a surprisingly convincing stereo soundscape at close range, although they'd be more useful for movie-watching on opposite edges in landscape orientation.
The pre-installed software is sparse. Aside from the mandatory mission-critical Angry Birds, the only standout is Huawei Office, a Microsoft compatible spreadsheet, word processing and presentation package. But Android Market (recently renamed Google Play) is there to fill in with everything you might need.
We grabbed Google Docs right away (the newest version is a revelation) along with the Go Keyboard, and the indispensible TuneIn Radio.
Admittedly, tablets aren't quite there yet as a full-blown work tool, but the Huawei MediaPad 7 takes a big step forward towards convincing us this is the form factor of the future. If it has a challenger it would be the easier to hold and even smaller - but no less capable and considerably more costly - 5.3-inch Samsung Galaxy Note.
| |
Read More ...
Google looks to the future, doesn't expect smashing phones
Google's Larry Page has expressed his excitement about the increasingly connected and mobile landscape, and admitted that it's difficult to predict the next stage in technology beyond phones that don't smash as easily.
"I think that the pace of change is really accelerating," Google CEO Page said at the company's Zeitgeist conference this week.
"You know there are more devices being sold every day than there ever has been and that people are more interested in them and spending more money on them and everything else.
"I think it's very exciting that everyone in the world is going to get a smartphone now. And for most people in the world it's going to be their first computer."
Future tech
Page is reticent to make too many predictions about the changes that this will bring, although he is prepared to go out on a limb ad say that smartphones will be more robust by 2017.Page: "I don't think in five years time where if I drop it it's going to splatter into pieces...I'm sure that's not going to be the case!"
Even for those of us in the industry it's pretty hard for us to predict what's going to happen five, ten, 15 or 25 years from now"We do know things will look really different and again, it's easy to forget that.
"I don't think in five years' time where if I drop my phone it's going to splatter into pieces because it's basically a thin piece of glass. I'm sure that's not going to be the case!"
| |
Read More ...
LG 55-inch OLED TV to cost £6,000
TechRadar first spied LG's monster TV back at CES in January, but now comes word on a price and release date.
The huge OLED set will cost around 8,000 euros (£6,400). Ouch. The TV will find its way into flagship stores for July, but if you're one of the few to order one, it won't arrive until Christmas time.
So bad luck if you planned on watching the 100m final at this summer's Olympics on one.
LG showed off the TV at an event in Monaco. The set, named the 55EM9600, has changed very slightly since its unveiling at CES.
Slim bezel
The display base has been enlarged, and it now features a carbon fibre back.Its LG Cinema Screen design means it has a super slim bezel, meaning more screen real estate. It's also just 4mm thin. So while it may take up a fair part of your lounge, it won't encroach into your legroom.
The set is 3D, as you'd expect for this price. Actually, for this price you might expect the actors to come round and perform the film in your lounge.
OLED sets have come a long way in recent years. While this set is still far from affordable, it's a huge leap from the first OLED set to go on sale in the UK.
That was a Sony model, and was just 11-inches across. Three years ago, that would have cost you £3,489. So while LG's set may still be for the few, at least it shows larger OLED set are on the way.
| |
Read More ...
HP looks to its long-term health - cuts 27,000 jobs
The hard times continue in the tech industry: HP has announced it'll lose 27,000 jobs by 2014.
That's 8 per cent of its global workforce. The cuts are expected to save the company $3.5 billion (£2.2 billion).
HP has suffered a 31 per cent decline in profits for the second quarter, and a 3 per cent drop in revenue year-on-year.
CEO Meg Whitman said she recognised the cuts would "adversely impact people's lives, but in this case, they are absolutely critical to the long-term health of the company.
"This is broad-based," she added. "By design, it will touch all of HP."
A third of the jobs lost will be in the US. It's not known how many of these will be in the UK, but Mike Lynch is among the casualties. Lynch founded Autonomy, a company making search software that makes scouring emails a doddle.
Acquisitions gone wrong
HP acquired Autonomy, but the deal proved less successful than HP hoped.The company brought in Meg Whitman in September to replace Leo Apotheker as CEO, but things seem as bad as ever.
The company yanked the much-hyped TouchPad tablet PC, which ran HP's webOS operating system, from the shelves after just seven weeks, citing poor demand. HP also took over Palm a couple of years ago, but its Pre handsets went the way of the TouchPad.
Though Whitman has said HP plans to launch a Windows 8 tablet later in the year, as well as a tablet for businesses.
| |
Read More ...
Available Tags:Apple , Intel , Samsung , Galaxy , Android , Sony , Nintendo , Toshiba , tablet , HTC , UK , Google , Asus , Yahoo , smartphone , security , Facebook , LG , TV , HP ,
No comments:
Post a Comment