Google buys design firm to help make its secret projects look less weird
Some of Google's coolest projects are also its ugliest products - Google Glass, for example, or even Google's self-driving cars.
Thankfully the next version of Glass could look like normal glasses, California now requires Google's cars to have pedals and steering wheels - and Google has purchased its very own design firm, Gecko Designs.
Gecko has worked on tech ranging from the FitBit Ultra to the Sonos Zone Player, so it clearly knows what it's doing.
But its work with Google will be a lot more secretive, as the designers at Gecko will go straight to the Google X research labs.
More like Google Q
Gecko shared the news of its acquisition by Google on its official website."Gecko design and all of its Geckos are moving to Google(x)," Gecko Design President and Owner Jacques Gagne wrote.
"This is an incredible opportunity for everyone at Gecko," he continued. "We are very excited and honored to join Google(x) and work on a variety of cutting edge products."
Google X Research Labs is the division of Google that works on crazy futuristic projects, which it calls "moonshots," including a manufacturing robot army and high-tech smart contact lenses. It's where 007's friend Q would work if he were real.
As such we may never be 100% certain exactly what Gecko is working on, although when Google's secret projects start to look a lot better than they currently do we'll know why.
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An extra curvy Samsung Gear 3 could debut in a matter of weeks
It's been scant months since the Samsung Gear 2 hit shelves and wrists, but word is Samsung is already planning to release yet another in its line of smartwatches.
The Samsung Gear 3 will feature a curved, rectangular face, according to a "source familiar with the hardware" who spoke with PocketNow.
The Gear 3's display will reportedly be a bit longer than the Gear 2's, though not quite as rectangular as the extremely oblong Samsung Gear Fit's.
On the other hand, it's said that the Gear 3 will have very thin bezels, high brightness and color saturation, and a much more pronounced curve than the already quite curved Gear Fit has.
Iteration vs. saturation
Interestingly it seems the Gear 3 may not have a camera, but might include a cellular radio, though it's unknown what that would mean for the rumored Gear Solo branding.Finally the Gear 3 reportedly might sport a larger, rectangular home button, like Samsung's smartphones, and will continue to run Tizen, like other Gear devices.
Samsung has already proved that its strategy when it comes to smartwatches is the same as its smartphone strategy: release as many different models as possible and see what sticks.
Between the Samsung Gear 2, the Samsung Gear 2 Neo, the Samsung Gear Fit, and the Samsung Gear Live, one might think there are enough Samsung smartwatches on the market, but the company itself probably doesn't agree.
If Samsung does feel it's absolutely necessary to continue to saturate the market with minimally differentiated smartwatches, what better time for an unveiling than the IFA 2014 Samsung Unpacked event - the same event at which it's believed the Galaxy Note 4 and the Gear Solo will debut?
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Apple will replace your crummy iPhone 5 battery
Almost anyone with a smartphone can attest that phone batteries get crummier the longer you have them, so this iPhone 5 battery issue must be pretty severe if Apple is actually doing something about it.
Apple says it's determined that some iPhone 5 devices came with faulty batteries that after some time drain more quickly and require frequent charging, and now it's begun an official replacement program.
Apple will replace the battery in your iPhone 5 for free if you purchased it between September 2012 and January 2013, and if it falls within a certain serial number range.
The company says this includes only "a very small percentage" of devices, so it's best to check whether you're eligible before you start celebrating that you won't have to plug your phone in every two hours anymore.
Good company
You can check whether your iPhone 5 is eligible for battery replacement by entering its serial number here.Apple may also reimburse iPhone 5 owners who paid out of pocket to have their batteries replaced. However if your iPhone 5 also has a cracked screen or another issue, Apple will charge you to repair that before it replaces your battery.
The program began August 22 in the US and China, two of the iPhone's biggest markets, and it will be available elsewhere starting August 29.
It's unclear whether the iPhone 5's battery woes are related to the issues with iPhone 5S batteries that Apple acknowledged in 2013.
Hopefully the iPhone 6 doesn't face similar problems - enough attention's been paid to its battery already, after all.
- Maybe choose one of the 10 best smartphones that doesn't have a faulty battery
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Updated: Facebook is already working to fix forced-call iPhone app vulnerability
Updated: A Facebook spokesperson told TechRadar that the social network has already prepared an update to address the issue described below, in which clicking a web link from native iPhone apps can force your phone to automatically make a call, potentially to expensive or harmful numbers.
Facebook's iOS app fix should go out any time now, but that still leaves many other apps vulnerable.
Original story follows…
Ideally tapping on a phone number on your iPhone will prompt a pop-up asking whether you want to place a call, but one developer says he found a dangerous vulnerability in apps that don't ask first.
This security hole could let attackers force your phone to make a call when you click on a website link, potentially connecting your phone to expensive numbers without warning.
Developer Andrei Neculaesei of Copenhagen company Airtame described the issue on his blog, demonstrating how he created a web page with a link that opens a phone call automatically when accessed from certain native iOS apps.
It reportedly works because these apps, including Facebook Messenger, Apple's Facetime, Google+, Gmail, and others, don't issue a pop-up when users tap a phone number within them.
Hello Pretty!
Neculaesei says he used "some sneaky-beaky-like JavaScript" to make links embedded in websites click themselves. When those sites are accessed through apps other than Safari, the links automatically activate and the calls are placed.He imagines even more severe dangers than being charged for expensive calls, like users accessing a link through Facetime and automatically transmitting a live video feed to attackers - a tactic he's named "Hello Pretty!"
"Facetime calls are instant," he writes. "Imagine you clicking a link, your phone calls my (attacker) account, I instantly pick it up and (yes) save all the frames. Now I know how your face looks like and maybe where you are. Hello pretty!"
He also warns that although this applies to far more apps than the four he mentions, it's not only Apple's fault, since third-party app developers can configure their software to prompt users when a phone number is tapped.
Many, including big names like Google and Facebook, simply choose not to, but that could very well change in light of this discovery. We've asked Google, Facebook and Apple for comment, and we'll update here if we hear back.
Facebook forcing us to download Messenger is a brilliant move
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In Depth: Drones in the home: the 10 best drones you can buy
10 best drones you can buy
Drones have been around for a very long time, but it's safe to say that today's unmanned vehicles are a bit more sophisticated than the bomb-filled balloons the Austrians used to attack Venice in the mid-1800s.The technological advances that make today's military drones so terrifying can also be used for more peaceful projects - and as the tech gets better and the price plummets, drones could become an increasingly common sight in our skies as they do everything from filming to delivering products.
You can join the drone revolution right now, and it'll cost less than you think. But if you go for a flying drone it's important to stay within the law.
In the UK, drones over 20kg are illegal in almost all civilian airspaces and smaller drones can't fly within 150m of "large assemblies" or within 50m of people or buildings. Drones must remain in view (streaming video doesn't count) and you must be licensed by the CAA if you'll be using the drone for commercial purchases.
The reason for the rules are simple enough: a drone falling from a great height onto a person could do serious damage.
1. Parrot AR.Drone 2.0
Price: £320
Parrot's AR.Drone 2.0 is probably the best known of all the consumer drones, and the second iteration of this smartphone or tablet-controlled quadricopter is happy indoors or out. Twin batteries deliver an impressive 36 minutes of flying time, the built-in camera offers live HD video streaming and the 30m range is far enough to get some impressive aerial footage. There's an even more impressive Parrot drone on the way, the Bebop, but for now the AR.Drone 2.0 is Parrot's flagship drone.
2. Parrot Jumping Sumo
Price: £140
In addition to its aerial drones Parrot offers "minidrones" including the excellently named Jumping Sumo. It's a rolling robot that can travel up to 4.5mph and jump 80cm, and its wide-angle camera streams live video to your smartphone or tablet (Windows, iOS or Android).
3. Parrot Rolling Spider
Price: £90
Parrot's second minidrone is the Rolling Spider, a tiny quadricopter whose removable wheels mean it's a hoot on the ground as well as in the air. This one's best kept inside, as its diminutive dimensions mean it doesn't take much of a breeze to blow it away and the battery only delivers around six minutes of flying time, but it's a lot of fun while it lasts.
4. Hubsan X4 H107 with LEDs
Price: £25
Amazon UK is currently offering Hubsan's H107 for less than half of the RRP, and while most customers are happy with it, it does seem to have encountered a few quality control problems. The H107 is a cheap and cheerful way to explore the world of drones, but it's a good idea to hang on to the receipt just in case.
5. GAUI 330X-S Quad Flyer
Price: £346The Quad Flyer from Gaui comes in two versions: a kit for intermediate users who supply their own radio, and a ready-to-fly version for beginners. It's good for 12 minutes of flight time or 20 minutes with an optional high-capacity battery and can carry a payload of up to 700g (1.5lb) including its battery. It works just like a remote control helicopter but with the wind resistance and maneuverability of a quadricopter.
6. Walkera QR Ladybird V2
Price: £60
At just 3cm high and 8.5cm across the Walkera Ladybird is hardly much bigger than its natural namesake, and the price tag isn't massive either. With a flight time of up to 10 minutes and a range of up to 100m it isn't as powerful as pro-level drones, but then it costs a fraction of what they do. It's fairly damage-proof, with flexible plastic rotors that should retain their shape even if they get bent or twisted. It's definitely one to consider if you're new to flying drones.
7. Walkera Dragonfly Infra X
Price: £168 (transmitter/controller not included)
If the Ladybird is a little basic but you don't want to shell out really big money for a quadcopter, Walkera's Dragonfly is well worth a look. It boasts a GPS autopilot, up to 15 minutes flight time, self-stabilisation and an anti-vibration camera mount for the ubiquitous GoPro, although you'll need to buy the controller separately.
8. DJI Phantom 2 Vision+
Price: €1099 (about £880)
DJI's drones are well liked by users, and the Phantom 2 Vision Plus offers an easy to setup with easy to fly all-in-one system for aerial photography and filming. The camera shoots stabilised full HD video at 1080p at 30fps (60fps in interlaced mode) and takes 14MP still shots, you can even adjust the camera settings from the iOS app. It looks fantastic too.
9. AirDog
Price: $1,295 (about £780)
It won't ship until December, but Airdog is currently accepting pre-orders for its auto-follow drone for GoPro cameras. The drone connects wirelessly to the included Airleash box, which not only controls the device but acts as a beacon it can follow automatically - so for example you might get it to follow you as you plummet down the side of a mountain on a bike or snowboard. Although it is limited to 40mph it has a good for up to 20 minutes of flight time depending on how fast you fly it, and the Airleash has a range of up to 300m.
10. ROMO
Price: $129 (about £78)
Romo may look like a toy, but the friendly-faced iPhone-powered robot is also an excellent platform for modders, a fun telepresence robot and something that'll delight the kids as they make it roam around the house. There are two versions, one with a 30-pin connector (which can connect to the iPhone 4, 4S and iPod 4) and one with a Lightning connector (which connects to the iPhone 5, 5S and iPod 5).
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How can a business best manage and make use of customer feedback?
With mobile technology and social media helping consumers become more informed than ever about purchasing options, it's increasingly vital for companies to "wow" their customers with incredible experiences. Customer feedback holds the key to that wow factor. But how can companies keep a handle on the huge amounts of feedback they receive, and make sure it gets to the right people in time for them to act on it?
To answer this question, we sat down Sam Keninger, director of product marketing at Medallia – the company helping brands such as Nordstrom, PayPal and Four Seasons build their industry-leading customer experiences.
TechRadar Pro: What are your top three pieces of advice for companies implementing a customer experience program?
Sam Keninger: The first step is getting executive buy-in. The best customer experience program in the world won't succeed if people at the top of your organisation aren't engaged with it.
Once you've done that, it's also very important to make sure your program isn't stuck in an ivory tower. Employees throughout your whole organisation, particularly those on the front line, need to be involved. When feedback is operationalised – or integrated into every aspect of your company's business operations – you'll be able to maintain a more consistent focus on customers' needs.
Finally, the program must encourage employees to act on the feedback they receive, and use it to resolve customer issues. The more your employees are enabled to respond – particularly in real-time – the stronger your customer relationships will become.
TRP: How has the customer journey changed with mobile and social media? How is it defined today?
SK: Customer journeys have always varied from industry to industry and company to company. It's hard to have a catch-all definition, and trying to find one can actually make it harder for companies to see what makes their own customers' experiences unique.
In general, mobile technology and social media give customers more ways to interact with companies. This has meant more work for companies in engaging with customers, wherever they are. But the good news is that companies can use these new touch-points to solicit customer feedback and get a more nuanced understanding of the experiences they're providing.
Since mobile and social platforms are so prevalent, customers are going to say how they feel about companies one way or another. You can work with that, or try to fight it. We have found that companies able to collect and respond to mobile and social feedback are more closely aligning themselves with the customer – and they're the ones that are flourishing.
TRP: What tools and processes do companies need to map customer journeys?
SK: To do it properly, customer journey mapping takes a lot of effort, as you need input from people all across your organisation. It can be a bit overwhelming at first. A useful strategy is to focus initially on one critical journey that spans multiple business units – for example, the phone activation journey for a telco – instead of trying to map every possible journey at once.
If you're able to understand that one important journey, you'll gain insight into a wide variety of processes at once. You'll also be able to see how well different customer touch-points are sharing feedback with one another.
When mapping customer journeys, remember that the voice of the customer is also typically the voice of reason. Companies need tools that unify feedback from different touch-points and channels, make the customer's voice accessible to people all over the organisation, and show how it impacts business results. Your employees should see how their actions play out not only on end customers, but on their co-workers downstream as well.
TRP: What are the challenges companies face with the large amount of customer feedback they receive (social, etc.)?
SK: The main challenge is simply aggregating all of it! Especially in large companies, different business units often struggle to gather all of the relevant feedback that's available and share it with each other. This means they're unable to get a full view of how customers are responding to different steps of their journeys. Thankfully, customer experience management systems have come a long way in helping companies manage this aggregation.
Making sense of feedback and getting it quickly to people who can act on it is another common challenge. How can you be sure frontline employees across many locations and channels are seeing and acting on every piece of feedback that's relevant to them? Even a few unacknowledged complaints can be disastrous. And without a system in place to help, employees will probably be too busy to analyse feedback and develop personalised, strategically sound responses on the spot.
TRP: What kind of customer sentiment should companies track and capture?
SK: The short answer is: all of it! The beauty of feedback is that it's almost always associated with a valuable sentiment of some kind, either liking or disliking some aspect of the customer experience.
Positive and negative feedback are both very useful. Positive feedback helps companies focus on their own key differentiators and find new business opportunities. They can also strengthen existing relationships by simply thanking customers for the compliment. Negative feedback helps companies resolve individual problems, prevent churn, and identify processes that need to be fixed.
TRP: How does real-time feedback integrate into a company's customer relationship management program?
SK: Ironically, Voice of the Customer (VOC) – or Customer Experience Management – platforms have done a better job understanding the customer "relationship" than CRMs. Now that the customer experience has become such an important issue for CEOs, and since the technology needed to operationalise feedback has improved, customer experience platforms have found logical integration with CRM systems.
There are many ways integrating a system like Medallia's with CRM platforms can help companies handle feedback in real-time. For example, negative feedback can immediately trigger an alert in the CRM system, so users can close the loop with the customer by responding to their comment in a timely fashion. Also, data is typically passed both ways between the systems, helping employees better understand how these individual pieces of feedback tie into inferred, operational and financial data.
TRP: "Voice of the Customer" programs have grown as a result of social media – how have these programs evolved?
SK: In general, social media has increased the number of sources and touch-points for customer feedback. More feedback is always good for companies if they're able to understand and act on it.
Of course, effective Voice of the Customer programs must allow companies to look at social feedback in the context of larger customer journeys. They also have to help companies act on that feedback. But good VOC programs use social media proactively, too.
For example, in the hospitality industry, review sites like TripAdvisor play a big part in customers' booking decisions. Historically, those sites have tended slightly towards negative feedback. But hospitality companies with the right customer experience tools can actively solicit a wider range of feedback for those sites on a broad scale, so their ranking is more representative of their entire customer base.
TRP: What other ways has mobile technology impacted customer experience initiatives?
SK: Aside from helping organisations quickly access and respond to feedback, mobile technology allows customers to provide feedback immediately after – or even during – an interaction with a company. These comments are valuable because the customer's memory of the experience is still fresh. They're able to provide accurate, nuanced details about what worked and what didn't. That's something all companies should be curious and excited about.
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Nokia Lumia 830's Brazilian certification photos tell a strange tale
Now that Microsoft has killed any hope for more Android phone from Nokia, the companies can focus on making more Lumia handsets - like the rumored Nokia Lumia 830.
The Lumia 830 hasn't been officially announced, but it apparently has gone through certification in at least one country, if these photos and details from Brazil (via Windows Phone Central) are legit.
Like the Federal Communications Commission in the US, Brazil's Anatel certifies phones that come into the country, and just like the FCC, Anatel also occasionally spills the beans about them.
These photos match up fairly well with the alleged Lumia 830 images that appeared in July, although that metallic-looking frame is looking decidedly more plastic in these shots.
What else can be gleaned
Based on what Anatel published, it seems the Nokia Lumia 830 may be thinner than past Lumia phones and have a physical camera button and hardware-based capacitive navigation buttons, and that the charging port has been moved back up on top next to the headphone jack.
In addition it's interesting that the 830 may carry the Microsoft Mobile label internally, though it will likely still be a Nokia phone as far as the public is concerned.
This leak also outs the Lumia 830's removable battery and microSD slot, as well as its fairly large camera housing, suggesting some form of Nokia's PureView tech will make it in here too.
Identity unknown
All in all the Lumia 830 is looking like a strange mix of mid- and upper-range specs and features, though until it's officially unveiled we won't know how to categorize it for sure.But this being the second Lumia 830 leak in less than two months, it seems a full announcement may indeed be coming soon.
Hm, Microsoft is hosting an event prior to IFA 2014 - think there could be any connection?
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Square screen aside, the BlackBerry Passport has decent specs
BlackBerry is taking a gamble on the square-screened Passport, but it's one that might pay off.
Now the phone's alleged full specs have leaked, according to N4BB, and it's clear that BlackBerry wants to leave as little to chance as possible when it comes to the Passport's success.
Even if users are initially put off by that boxy 4.5-inch 1,440 x 1,440 display, it's hard to argue with a pixel density of 453ppi, significantly more detailed than the iPhone 6 is rumored to be.
And a 2.2GHz quad-core Snapdragon 800 chip with 3GB of RAM - count 'em, three - ain't bad either.
Keep it coming
The BlackBerry site also says the Passport will have 32GB of storage with room for up to 64GB more via microSD, a 13-megapixel rear camera with Optical Image Stabilization (OIS), LED flash and 1080p 60FPS video recording, a 2MP front camera, and a large (but non-removable) 3450mAh battery, plus NFC, GPS, Bluetooth 4.0, HSPA+, LTE, and GSM.The BB Passport's hardware reportedly sports physical volume up/down, power and mute buttons, not to mention the physical QWERTY keyboard BlackBerry diehards will love.
And that keyboard also doubles as a capacitive pad, letting users scroll, move cursors and more by swiping around on top of the physical keys.
BlackBerry already confirmed that the Passport will launch at an event in September, so watch out for more info next month.
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A Chinese carrier just let the iPhone 6 out of the bag
Normally it's best to not incur the wrath of Apple, but then again maybe China Telecom knows something the rest of the industry doesn't.
Apple has yet to officially unveil the iPhone 6, but that didn't stop its Chinese carrier partner from posting to the Asian social network Weibo about the new iPhone, according to Sina Mobile News.
The post included the image you see below, as well as a tiny bit of new info about the iPhone 6: that the new Apple phone will feature a multitude of radios and be compatible with wireless networks that include TDD-LTE, FDD-LTE, WCDMA, CDMA2000, GSM, and CDMA1X.
In addition China Telecom confirmed that it will sell an unlocked iPhone 6 compatible with multiple Chinese carriers.
The rumors were true
Perhaps more interesting, though, is the image that came along with these details.
If
this is the official branding that carriers will use to promote the
iPhone 6 once Apple does announce it, then it looks like all the
previous rumors about a rounded design and a side power/lock button were accurate.The iPhone 6 is expected to come in two variants, one with a 4.7-inch display and the other at 5.5 inches, and actually be announced by Apple on September 9.
It's unknown whether Apple has any system of penalization in place for partners who jump the gun on massive announcements like this. But if China Telecom disappears from its home one night and is never seen again, we'll know the reason why.
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Would-be iWatch groupies might have to wait until 2015
iWatch hopefuls have been holding their breath in anticipation of a release this fall, possibly in September, or October at the latest.
But sources within the Apple smartwatch's supply chain say the iWatch won't arrive until December or, more likely, into 2015, according to the Chinese Economic Daily News.
Allegedly the iWatch hasn't even gone into production yet, but the lines will start moving in September.
After that point it will take one to two months for the iWatch to be ready to ship, contrary to reports we've been hearing for months.
It ain't easy
It seems natural that Apple would want to debut the iWatch alongside the new iPhone 6 in September, but sometimes even Apple's chips don't fall the way it wants.And this isn't the first iWatch delay that's been rumored. Apple has reportedly faced difficulties throughout the smartwatch's entire development.
This latest push back is reportedly thanks to difficulties integrating the smartwatch's hardware and software together and other obstacles in the manufacturing process.
We've heard lots of different numbers over the months when it comes to how many iWatches Apple will ship, but the other byproduct of these delays is allegedly that projections are down to just 1 million per month.
That doesn't bode well for the 10 million units Apple reportedly hoped to ship the iWatch with initially.
At least we know Apple is expanding its own sapphire production facilities, which bodes well for other future devices.
- Yeah, but Android Wear is already going strong
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Samsung Galaxy Alpha release date and price: When can I get it?
With the Galaxy Alpha Samsung is finally embracing metal and delivering a handset with a premium finish deserving of all the features that the company has packed in to it.
It looks good and compared to phones of Samsung past it looks great. But phones aren't just for looking at, they're for buying and using, so if you want to get your hands on the Samsung Galaxy Alpha here's what you need to know.
Samsung has announced that the Galaxy Alpha release date is pegged for September 12, but the price is currently unknown and will likely vary depending on network. Pre-orders are due to begin on August 28.
EE
EE has confirmed that the Samsung Galaxy Alpha will be coming to its network and will be available on a range of 4G plans.
Customers will be able to pre-order the handset, but just not quite yet. EE hasn't yet confirmed the exact price of the Samsung Galaxy Alpha but claims that these details will be announced 'in due course'.
Vodafone
Vodafone has also confirmed that it will be stocking the Samsung Galaxy Alpha and it's even talked colours.You'll be able to buy the phone in Charcoal Black, Dazzling White, Frosted Gold or Sleek Silver on the red network, but the price is yet to be confirmed.
Three
Three has told us that the Samsung Galaxy Alpha will be available on its network, but for now we don't know the when or how much of it.Three could be one to watch though, as it's likely to offer Samsung's new handset with unlimited 4G data.
O2
O2 has confirmed it will begin selling the Samsung Galaxy Alpha in September on its range of O2 Refresh tariffs. Exact pricing (including both pay monthly and PAYG options) will be confirmed in the coming weeks.Carphone Warehouse
Carphone Warehouse has confirmed that it will exclusively be stocking the blue version of the Samsung Galaxy Alpha at launch, as well as also having it in black, white, gold and silver.
In terms of a release date all it says is that the phone is expected in September, but you can already register your interest on the site and Carphone Warehouse will get in touch once it's available to order.
Phones 4u
The Samsung Galaxy Alpha is listed on Phones 4u's 'Coming Soon' page and you can register your interest in the device to receive updates on its availability.- The HTC One M8 is every bit as shiny as the Samsung Galaxy Alpha.
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Marketers, tweak your big data strategy to target audiences better: Here's how
We spoke to Dominic Joseph, the co-founder and CEO of Captify, a company pioneering search retargeting, about the growth in digital advertising, and how advertisers can better use big data to target their customers. Not to mention exactly what search retargeting is – read on to find out.
TechRadar Pro: How much has digital advertising grown over the past year compared to traditional advertising?
Dominic Joseph: More and more advertisers are evolving their campaigns in line with digital innovations in the industry, so much so that this year, digital will account for almost half of all UK ad spending. At the same time, newspaper ad spend is to fall below the £1bn (around US$1.68, AU$1.82bn) mark for the first time this year, which highlights the huge impact that digital is having on the advertising world. What advertisers need to do now is ensure their investment in digital is being spent wisely, so that they are getting their ads in front of their intended audience every time.
TRP: What factors are driving advertisers to convert more spend to digital?
DJ: Our changing media consumption habits are having a huge impact on which channels advertisers are allocating more budget to. The average British adult spends one in 12 of their waking hours on the internet. Some advertisers see this as a chance to push their brand in front of as many eyeballs as possible, and as a result, people are being subjected to increasing numbers of digital ads.
TRP: Why are marketers increasingly using big data to target their audience?
DJ: As the time that we spend online increases, so too does the amount of data we're generating. Today, the average family generates enough data to fill 65 iPhones each year, and this is set to increase fivefold by 2019. To put this into context, every two days in 2014, we create the same amount of information as we did from the very beginning of time up until 2003.
Undoubtedly, the sheer volume of data generated by each individual could overwhelm number-crunching marketers. Utilised effectively however, it can help marketers gain a far deeper insight into their customers' previous buying behaviours, and brand preferences. Focusing on specific data sets will enable marketers to pinpoint individuals rather than broad audience groups.
TRP: What tech tools are advertisers using to automate media buying?
DJ: Programmatic buying is an automated marketplace (controlled by humans) that gives advertisers an efficient way to scatter their display ads far and wide for relatively little investment. Just like a stock exchange, it relies on automated systems and algorithms to sift through huge volumes of data. Automatic bids for digital space on ad marketplaces are then placed in real-time.
The programmatic industry is still in its infancy, and as a result, there are some inefficiencies that advertisers should be aware of. For example, programmatic buying only allows advertisers to create broad, pre-packaged audience segments. Also, because of its "scattergun" approach, it doesn't let them have complete control over where their ads will appear and in front of whom, and therefore often results in wasted budget. However, there are some clever new technologies that advertisers are using to help them get down to a much more granular level of data analysis.
TRP: Why don't broad data sets work?
DJ: Not every 20-something professional male will be in the market for a brand new sports car and so serving ads for the latest model to every male in this demographic is unlikely to result in thousands of click throughs. In fact, serving an irrelevant ad to a consumer may have the opposite effect. Imagine if that individual has just ordered a new car, and then sees an ad for a better deal; or what if they were simply doing some research into the industry? Being subjected to an irrelevant banner ad time and time again could frustrate the consumer and turn them off from online ads for good.
TRP: How can advertisers use data to better target their audience?
DJ: To better target consumers, advertisers need to buy media at prices based not only on their audience's broad demographics, but also their personal tastes and interests. Whilst set algorithms are a good start, advertisers need to use more granular level targeting. By focusing on the quality, not quantity of consumer data, they will be empowered to segment audience groups down to an individual user level and target them more effectively.
Getting data to a point where it is as useful as it can possibly be will not just happen overnight. Proper data analysis will need to be fine-tuned over time until advertisers have a tried and tested method that learns from customer behaviour to deliver on results.
TRP: What is search retargeting?
DJ: Search retargeting is a revolutionary digital ad technique that takes an anonymised individual's recent search data from search engines likes Google, Yahoo! or Bing, or an on-site search box, to identify their intent to buy something. By then looking at the relationship between particular keyword phrases and other variables, like time lag between actions (recency) and browsing context, a relevant ad that corresponds to the user profile can be served.
TRP: Why not leave advertising to machines altogether?
DJ: Advertisers need to remember that consumers have different reactions and clients have different campaign requirements. It's therefore essential that advertising campaigns are being developed based on actual customer behaviour rather than generalised data sets. The best advertisers will be those who can balance automated bidding systems with intelligent campaign optimisation, creating more valuable insights than ever before and ultimately adding more value in the marketing chain.
About Dominic Joseph
Dominic is the co-founder and CEO of Captify, a company pioneering search retargeting in the European advertising market. Captify is a British business and was founded in 2011. Supported by its own purpose-built unique technology stack, Captify now dominates its sector of the industry and has a global customer base including American Express, Sony, Samsung and Warner Brothers.
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Samsung Galaxy Alpha release date confirmed for September 12
The Samsung Galaxy Alpha release date has been confirmed as September 12 by the Korean firm - potentially just three days after the iPhone 6 announcement.
If you already have the Galaxy Alpha in your sights then you can be an eager beaver and pre-order the handset from August 28.
The Galaxy Alpha sports a 4.7-inch 720p display, octa-core processor (1.8GHz quad + 1.3GHz quad), 2GB of RAM, 12MP camera, Android 4.4.4 KitKat and a 1860mAh battery.
All about the metal
It's the metal frame that runs around the outside of the Galaxy Alpha that Samsung is really keen on telling us about, as it looks to produce a premium looking and feeling handset that's also just a svelte 6.7mm thick.Samsung has confirmed that the Galaxy Alpha will arrive in the UK in a number of colours - Charcoal Black, Dazzling White, Frosted Gold, Sleek Silver, and Scuba Blue - and it will be available from a variety of high street retailers including Carphone Warehouse and Phones 4 U.
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Week in Tech: Week in Tech: Windows' best M8, Ballmer has a ball, and people on Twitter are bitter
In the immortal words of Taylor Swift, while the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, we're just gonna shake, shake, shake, shake, shake it off. It's like we've got this music in our mind, singing "Week in tech! Week in tech!"
And what a week it's been: we've seen Windows make a new friend and lose one of its biggest cheerleaders, Sharp banish the bezel, more iPhone 6 leaks than you can shake a stick at and yet more unpleasantness on Twitter. Not only that, but it's all happened while we've been dancing round our desks.
Windows' new M8
The excellent HTC One M8 was our favourite phone of 2014 - but would we still love it if HTC ripped out the Android operating system and stuck Windows Phone in there instead? Marc Flores knows: he's reviewed the HTC One M8 for Windows Phone. The hardware's as nice as ever, of course, and while Windows Phone 8.1 isn't quite there apps-wise it's still a pleasant place to spend time. It's US-only for now but may roll out to other countries if it sells well.Crystal yays
Could the Sharp Aquos Crystal be the best-looking phone in the world today? Its bezel-free design is certainly striking and fantastically futuristic, but as Joe Osborne reports its lovely looks don't compensate for what's ultimately a budget Android handset. The price is OK but it "feels hollow" and the plastic screen doesn't feel as good as it looks.Alpha versus everything
"What's this? A premium design in a small body with cutting edge specs?" asks Simon Hill. Yep, it's the Samsung Galaxy Alpha. Hill also sees how the Samsung Galaxy Alpha holds up vs the iPhone 5S and Sony Xperia Z1 Compact, its key rivals. The verdict? It'll all come down to the price, which Samsung's keeping schtum about until September.Six appeal
The iPhone 6 will be launched in just over two weeks' time, and that means we're seeing more leaks than a Welsh greengrocer. Keeping our news and rumour round-up up-to-date has become a full-time job, and the latest leak suggests that we'll see a 128GB model at long last.While the iPhone 6 is sneaking out all over the place, the iWatch remains top secret - but that doesn't mean we can't divine Apple's plans from published information. A new patent suggests it'll have a sapphire screen and "jewelry" components. Maybe it'll look like Flavor Flav's clock.
Build your own gaming PC
Last week we discovered how to build your own Steam Machine. This week, Joe Osborne explains how to build a fantastic gaming PC for considerably less cash than you might expect and without falling into the same traps he did. "Dude, this rig is sweet," he says.Twitter users getting bitter
We hate to say we told you so, but we told you so: a few weeks ago Gary Marshall warned that Twitter was about to get a lot more spammy, and this week it happened. Tweets you mark as favourites will now be treated as retweets, and they'll pop up on your followers' timelines whether you want them to or not. Thanks, Twitter. Thanks a bunch.Bye bye Ballmer (again)
Steve Ballmer, Microsoft's inimitable former CEO, has severed his last tie with the company by stepping down from Microsoft's board to spend more time with his basketball team. If you think we'd use that news as a flimsy excuse to dig out the videos of his most demented sales pitches, his portrayal of Dr Evil and his infamous "Developers! Developers! Developers!" rant you'd… well, you'd be absolutely right. We'll miss you, Steve.- And one more thing: you'll be able to charge your car wirelessly from 2015
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Will technology outpace the High Speed Two (HS2) rail project?
Despite the best efforts of those supporting the massive investment in the High Speed Two (HS2) rail project, the initial case for spending upwards of £40bn was speed – a shorter journey time between Birmingham and London. Apparently the current 81 minutes is just too long.
The project is opposed by many, for a variety of reasons, including cost, disruption, destruction of the countryside and energy usage, to name but a few. However, those advocating its construction marvel at the speed and capacity of the new trains, which is where the problems start.
The problem for the UK and the rail network is too many passengers. It's not that there are too few trains and they are too slow to cope with demand. The solution appears obvious: encourage people to use the latest technology to meet and converse with each other, rather than trudging to stations and climbing aboard the latest development of an almost 200 year old technology. It makes no sense.
Videoconference rather than travel
The concept of videoconferencing instead of travel has been given a boost in recent years thanks to the likes of Skype and FaceTime, but these are not standards-based and are the poor cousin of the current crop of commercial applications. Most, like Lifesize ClearSea, allow video calls and conferencing from any mobile device, on 3G, 4G or Wi-Fi, and Windows or Mac desktop environments.Video is presented in 1080p, full HD resolution, with crystal clear audio, so it's like a face-to-face meeting. It doesn't just have to be a chat either, but a collaborative meeting, with users able to share documents, discuss and amend them – no need to remember to take them all on the train. Unlike discussing work on the train, videoconferencing is secure too, with full encryption available on any H.323 device.
The trains will apparently shuffle 1100 passengers onto 400m long trains and hurl them along at 250mph, up to 14 times an hour each way between London and Birmingham. So that's around 15,000 passengers trying to reach each of the main stations, in city centre locations, every hour, either on local trains, taxis or by car. Presumably the likely congestion has been taken into account in the journey time savings. Or not…
Efficient meetings
And of course there is no commuting with videoconferencing, not even the short walk to the VC suite, as users can now connect from their desktop, home or mobile. Meetings can be short, sharp and to the point, taking far less time out of everyone's day, compared to a meeting that has to be at least a few hours to warrant the cost of the train ticket.Surely the money would be better spent on making high-speed broadband connectivity available to every business in the UK so the entire country benefits from this massive investment, not just the business communities in and around Birmingham and London. As the world gets smaller and exports become more important, HS2 isn't the answer, however fast it goes – the answer is videoconferencing which connects people everywhere at the speed of light.
- Matt Rhodes is Commercial Services Manager for Tamworth-based IT specialists Quiss Technology.
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Salesforce.com revenues up as cloud firm outflanks analysts
Cloud service provider Salesforce.com saw a big year-on-year jump in its Q2 2015 results (38%) to $1.32 billion (about £800 million, AU$ 1.5 billion), one that didn't translate into a big jump in share prices.
Salesforce.com's stock briefly sunk in the red after the announcement, probably because analysts were expecting a higher earnings per share (expected, $0.12, achieved $0.13) but recovered later in the day.
In pre-market trading, it has reached $56.10 (about £800 million, AU$ 1.5 billion), valuing the company at more than $34.2 billion (about £800 million, AU$ 1.5 billion).
Its CEO, Marc Benioff, expects the full fiscal 2015 revenue to reach $5.37 billion, ballooned by a rise in subscription and support revenues as well as professional services.
The company is currently sitting on cash reserves of $1.67 billion, one which could be used in the short term to fill gaps in its services portfolio. Salesforce.com acquired four companies last year (Exacttarget, EdgeSpring, EntropySoft and Clipboard) but only one (RelateIQ) so far in 2014.
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Self-driving cars banned from roads until Google adds manual controls
In case you've forgotten, Google self-driving car currently has no physical controls beyond a start and stop button, but California's Department of Motor Vehicles isn't too hot on the idea.
New rules, which will come into place next month, will prevent Google's autonomous vehicle from public road testing in the US State unless it adds manual controls.
And according to The Wall Street Journal, Google will oblige by building in a steering wheel and pedal system for its test vehicles, allowing it to stay on course for its rollout.
As for Britain, the UK Department of Transport told TechRadar that a regulatory review is currently underway, as changes to the highway code are being considered - but a similar rule could apply.
"We'd anticipate that early cars would have to have a driver in the seat ready to take over [with manual controls]," said a spokesperson, but "nothing has been decided yet".
Stop-start
Google is building around one hundred autonomous cars to start testing next month. It won't be long until they make their way here - the UK government has outlined plans to start testing vehicles on public roads from January 2015.Google's self-driving cars will be limited to speed of 25mph, but will be allowed to exceed that limit when it believes doing so will improve road safety.
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In depth: 4K TV and Ultra HD: Everything you need to know
4K
If you pay attention to entertainment tech at all, you've heard about 4K TVs. But beyond being the hottest buzzword in the business, 4K is a breakthrough technology that's shaking up the industry and rewriting the rulebook on image quality.4K TV sets are now available from most of the major TV manufacturers, but these are merely the tip of the technological iceberg. This new standard affects not just the world of TV and cinema, but cameras, smartphones, tablets, computer monitors and video games. Practically anything that displays images or records video will need to reckon with 4K in the coming years.
But before we get ahead of ourselves, let's make sure we all understand the basics. What the heck is 4K and why should you care?
What do I need to know about 4K?
In a minute we're going to explain precisely how 4K is defined, how it works and why you should care, but to tell you the truth, you only need to know one thing about it: 4K means more pixels.That's it?
That's it.How many more pixels are we talking about?
About 8 million. Which is around four times what your current 1080p set can display. Think of your TV like a grid, with rows and columns. A full HD 1080p image is 1080 rows high and 1920 columns wide. A 4K image approximately doubles both those numbers, yielding approximately 4 times as many pixels total. To put it another way, you could fit every pixel from your 1080p set onto one quarter of a 4K screen.Why is it called 4K?
Because the images are around 4,000 pixels wide. And before you ask, yes, the industry named 1080 resolution after image height, but named 4K after image width. For extra added fun, you also might hear this resolution referred to as 2160p. Welcome to the future. It's confusing here.Do all those extra pixels matter?
They matter very much. More pixels means more information. More information means sharper pictures. Sharper pictures are more engaging. More engaging content is more fun. And fun... well fun is the thing, isn't it?So I'll see a huge difference?
That's where it gets sticky. We're talking about a similar jump in resolution as the one from SD (480 lines high) to HD (1080 lines high). And 4K screens are noticeably sharper than 1080p screens. But there are a few reasons you might not feel the same thrill you did when you upgraded your old CRT to a flatscreen.When most people went from a 480 to a 1080p set, there was a good chance they were making a big jump in TV size as well. In terms of wow factor, display size is more powerful than any resolution jump could ever hope to be. Last time around most people got big jumps to both screen size and resolution. But this time screen sizes are staying about the same, with the most popular models falling in the 40 inch to 70 inch range.
Most importantly, though, you'll only be able to see the resolution difference on a 4K set if you're 1) watching 4K content through it and 2) you're sitting close enough.
Sitting close enough?
Yup. Remember when Apple made a big fuss about "retina" displays a few iPhones back? "Retina" refers to screens that have sufficient resolution that at a normal viewing distance your eye can't make out individual pixels. Get far enough away from a 1080p set and, hey presto, It's a retina display! More importantly, at that same distance, your eyeballs won't be able to squeeze any more detail out of a 4K image than a 1080 one. If you're at "retina distance" from your 1080p set now and don't plan on moving your couch closer, upgrading to 4K may not make a big difference to your experience. This chart [[http://s3.carltonbale.com/resolution_chart.html]] shows how close you need to sit at any given screen size to see the difference.So I should sit closer?
Oh my yes. The ability to get up close to the screen without the image breaking down is one of the most intoxicating things about 4K. Sitting closer allows the same sized screen to fill more of your visual field, which yields greater immersion. The up-close factor is one of the reasons 4K computer monitors have become one of the technology's fastest growing sectors. 4K monitors remain pin-sharp even when you're just a foot or two from the screen, as you are when you're sitting at your desk.This jerkface salesperson keeps going on about something called UHD. What fresh hell is this?
Remember when I said the industry liked to confuse people? UHD stands for Ultra High Definition. Basically, the term designates TVs that are 4K resolution or greater. It's a slightly silly, slightly confusing term, but at the same time it's a memorable and useful catchall for the TL;DR consumer. It makes things sound simpler, even when they aren't. So your jerkface pal is just a pawn in a larger game. Don't blame him or his jerk face. In technical terms UHD is any display that has a resolution of more than 3840 by 2160.Didn't you just say UHD meant 4K and up? 3840 is less than 4000!
Man alive, you are sharp. This is why UHD is slightly silly. I like to pretend the extra 160 pixels went on a trip to Thailand to "find themselves" and never came back. Don't worry, you won't miss them. For now, it's safe to think of UHD and 4K interchangeably.You also said "and up." Can UHD also designate higher resolutions than 4K?
Yes. This is the slightly confusing part. An 8K display would also be UHD.What is this 8K you speak of?
It's the next resolution standard up from 4K. Basically it doubles the pixel height and width again to yield approximately 32 million pixels. It's a regular pixel party.That sounds awesome. Should I just get one of those?
Absolutely not. The 8K standard is primarily for the exhibition market (aka movie theaters). To make that many pixels matter, you need to be feeding a truly gigantic screen and sitting right in front of it. Besides, you can't buy an 8K screen today without having it custom built, which would cost approximately seven hojillion dollars. And there's no commercially available 8K content. You'd need to get movies directly from distributors the same way theaters do. You do not need this unless you are Jerry Bruckheimer. (If you are Jerry Bruckheimer, though, give me a call. I know a guy.)What about 4K content? Can I get that?
Yeah, about that... There's actually not much 4K content to be had right now.Why not?
Because every 4K frame contains four times the information, in terms of file size 4K content is four times more bulky than regular HD content. That makes it a challenge to get it to you. Broadcast TV hasn't made the 4K switch yet (indeed, it's only recently that hard drive sizes have gotten big enough to manage DVRing HD programs comfortably). There's not even a 4K standard for optical discs (though a 4K Blu-ray standard has been teased and yanked away a few times and could come later this year).On the streaming side, bandwidth is a definite issue. The internet's bandwidth is already dominated [[http://www.techradar.com/us/news/internet/netflix-accounts-for-one-third-of-all-north-american-bandwidth-1110904]] by Netflix's traffic, prompting ISPs to go after them for extra cash [[http://www.techradar.com/us/news/internet/netflix-is-now-streaming-65-faster-after-its-deal-with-comcast-1242453]], and that's with most of its streams at SD and HD levels. Upping everything to 4K doesn't sound like a reasonable option just yet. And even if it were possible to stream 4K content to everyone without breaking the internet, streaming 4K content requires a 25Mbps or faster downstream internet connection, which is faster than most people have at the moment.
So what can I watch?
The good news is many new films and some TV shows are now filming in 4K as a future-proofing measure. The bad news is all that content will have to wait until we have established avenues for getting it to people. Your best UHD options right now come from Sony and Netflix.Sony launched its Video Unlimited 4K service in 2013, which offers more than 70 films and TV shows for rental or purchase. It requires Sony's 4K Ultra HD Media Player, the FMP-X1 ($350), which comes with a 2TB hard drive and is only compatible with Sony 4K TVs. 24-hour TV show rentals are $4 and 24-hour film rentals cost $8. Film purchases are $30. It's not exactly instant gratification, though. Once you rent or buy something, it needs to download to your player, which Sony estimates can take 8 to 15 hours, depending on your Internet connection, so you'd better think ahead if you're planning a 4K movie night.
If you want to watch right away, Netflix is testing the 4K streaming waters with select shows (House of Cards, Breaking Bad) and films (Ghostbusters, The Smurfs 2) if you own a Samsung, Sony or LG 4K TV and have a 25Mbps internet connection. Currently, however, the content selection is limited at best. And contains The Smurfs 2.
Is it me or are those options are almost comically limited?
It's not you.Why are we even talking about 4K then?
Because it's awesome. Seriously, the pictures look amazing. You're going to love it.How does that help if there's nothing to watch?
It's a fair point. There is definitely a chicken and egg problem here. No one wants to spend money putting out 4K content until there's enough significant demand for it, and that means 4K sets showing up in homes. But 4K sets are a tough sell if there's nothing to watch on them except regular HD content. Which means we've been in this weird in-between time, waiting for significant numbers of people to make a relatively illogical decision to buy an extra-expensive TV that will only look marginally better than their old one for the next year or two.That's really dumb.
Hey, let's be careful with our mean words! Still, you've got a point. The current situation is a little silly. But 4K is legitimately awesome. And we're going to get there. We went through a similar transition a few years back with the move to HD (which came complete with the HD-DVD/Blu-ray format war and massive marketplace confusion) a few years back. Luckily that transition was eased a bit by the simultaneous move to the flatscreen form factor and a significant jump in screen sizes.So should I buy a 4K set now or should I wait?
It depends. If you want the absolute best TV you can get right now and don't mind paying a premium for it, it's a 4K set. If you're buying from one of the top tier manufacturers, you're going to get a good product that's reasonably future-proofed. As we said before, the sets look great. However, don't expect to be watching most of your video content in 4K for another two to three years. And make sure any set you buy has HDMI 2.0 ports (the first wave of 4K TVs used the previous HDMI 1.4 standard).On the other hand, if you're price sensitive or want to wait until the content side of the equation is a bit more solved, it absolutely makes sense to wait. You're not missing out on much at the moment. There are incredible values to be found in generously-sized 1080p sets right now. And 4K sets are only going to get cheaper.
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Google Drive for Work update: 15,000 clients, 99.985% availability, 0.3% penetration
Google revealed some more details about its recently released Google Drive for work service which was announced at Google IO developer conference in June.
In a http://googleenterprise.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/hotter-than-your-morning-coffee-google.html company blog, Scott Johnston, Director of Product Management, Google Drive said that more than 1,800 businesses have been signing for Drive for Work over the last eight weeks.
At least one of them - UK-based builders' merchant and home improvement retailer Travis Perkins - has stored and shared more than one million documents online.
What's more, Google Drive has enjoyed a 99.985% availability which, according to Johnston, amounts to less than 90 minutes downtime per year.
Still a long way to go
190 million people are using Google Drive at the last count (probably nearer to 200 million now) with 5 million companies using Google Apps for Business which means that Drive for Work has been adopted by 0.3% of Apps users.Drive for work can store files of up 5TB in size and offers unlimited storage for corporate and enterprise users for $10 (about UK£6, AU$11) per user per month.
Google's service competes with Box, which is used by 27 million users and 240,000 companies, as well as Dropbox, which is even larger with 300 million users and four million businesses.
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Buying Guide: Best cheap Xbox One Deals
Here at Techradar, we have rounded up the cheapest deals available to you for the Xbox One in the market now. There are several cheap Xbox One console bundle deals that have appeared in recent weeks.
If you're in the market for a new console there are some great cheap Xbox One deals to be had.
Since Kinect was unbundled from its console Microsoft tells us that sales have doubled - finally showing that the Xbox One can go toe-to-toe with the ubiquitous Sony PS4 which reached the 10 million sold milestone recently. You can buy the standalone console at Amazon for only £329.
Destiny, the most anticipated first person shooter of 2014 hits the shelves on September 9th. Asda currently have the Destiny bundle deal for £349 however if you use the code "CONSOLE", this is reduced down to £329 making it one of the best bundle deals currently available in the market.
Halo has always been a cult favourite for Xbox fans since the original Combat Evolved graced the scene back in 2001. It's making a return this November 14th which includes Anniversary versions of Halo and Halo 2 and also, a Halo 5: Guardians multiplayer beta – the fifth instalment in the Halo series. Pre order the Halo: The Master Chief Collection Bundle now for only £329 with the code "CONSOLE".
Grand Theft Auto V is currently being readied for the current generation of consoles and should take advantage of the increase in graphical and technical power available in the Xbox One. You can pre order the Grand Theft Auto V Bundle here, again costing you £329 with the code "CONSOLE".
Check out our other cheap Xbox One deals available.
- Call of Duty Advanced Warfare Bundle for only £329 with code "CONSOLE".
- Forza Horizon 2 Bundle for only £329 with code "CONSOLE".
- Dragon Age Inquisition Bundle for only £329 with code "CONSOLE".
- Xbox One White Special Edition Sunset Overdrive Bundle for only £334 with code "TDXR-PYRT".
- Xbox One Special Edition FIFA 15 Bundle for only £339.75.
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Is this the Moto X+1 in all its glory?
Just when you thought he was out, they pull him back in. Well not entirely, but @evleaks has spilled one more phone leak as a retirement gift to us all - some alleged press shots of the Moto X+1.
Evan Blass took to Twitter to post the images, which give us a clear look of the device from the front and back. It all looks pretty similar to what we've already seen: there's the optional wooden back, the dual LED flash, and front-facing speaker.
As ever, Blass didn't divulge any further details on the phone, but rumours claim it'll come with a full HD 5.2-inch display, a 12MP camera, a 2.5GHz quad core processor, and 16GB of storage. Sounds good to us, though this may remain a US-only device for some time.
Everything will be revealed at Motorola's big September 4 event - and we'll be there to bring you the news as it breaks.
- Guess what else is set to appear on September 4 - the Moto 360
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Review: HTC One E8
Introduction and key features
The HTC One E8 is the phone I never thought I'd see. Given HTC's big push into making design the most important element of its flagship One M8 phone, why lose it?And this theme returns when you turn the phone over: all the talk of the importance of the duo camera, with Ufocus and other assorted Ultrapixel gubbins, is gone in favour of an off-the-shelf 13MP sensor.
What gives, HTC? It's nearly 30% cheaper? Oh. That makes sense.
Beyond that, we're treated to the HTC One M8 spec for spec. That means a Snapdragon 801 chip inside, the same larger 2600mAh battery, a glorious Full HD 5-inch Super LCD3 screen, a microSD slot and, well, you might as well just read the spec sheet for the One M8 to get the full picture.
Oh - the IR blaster on the top is gone. That's important if you like the thought of controlling your TV with a phone.
The key question here is whether or not you'll be able to buy it. It's not a lot of good thinking about this as your next prospective phone when it might not be available in your country.
Annoyingly HTC is being a little cagey about this fact – so I'm not sure if it will be coming to the UK, US or Australia any time soon, and even the third party retailers, usually the treasure trove of underground handsets, have nothing to report.
So that presents a problem – but there are always ways to get your hands on one. So that begets the next question: by taking away the metal design, the reason for the HTC One M8 to enamour so many, has the company taken away the soul of an award winning phone and created a zombie version to just shift more units?
Will the plastic design cause users to remain disinterested in the HTC brand, causing fewer to buy in the future?
Plastic back
So, let's get down to it: how does the new polycarbonate cladding feel in the hand? I was sent the Electric Crimson version of the phone to test out (come on, if that's an option on the list to choose, it was impossible to go for anything else) and it's a shiny plastic, rather than the matte grey finish.This means it's as slippy, if not even less grippable, than the metal of the One M8, although if you plump for the matte version (rather than the gloss on test here) you'll be able to hold onto it a little better.
The plastic back feels solid, makes the phone lighter and, as I said, dispenses with the IR blaster on the top, which has the effect of moving the power button to the centre. It's a slightly odd place to put it, but it's easy to hit and still raised.
It's intriguingly the same design as seen on the original HTC One... well, intriguing if you've got nothing else to think about.
The volume key on the right-hand side is also plastic, as you'd expect, and probably feels like the cheapest part of the phone. I'm not a fan of the lighter chassis, as I loved the great balance of the One M8, but the One E8 will probably appeal to those looking to spend less without losing the unibody package experience.
I oddly didn't mind the plastic casing of the E8, despite going into the review thinking that would be the biggest problem. Some commenters have claimed that all phone reviewers only ever like metal phones, which simply isn't true. I like well-designed phones and you do too.
For instance, the Nokia Lumia 930 is mostly plastic, but retains a metal rim to add a touch of class. The LG G2 was all plastic, but the unibody design felt solid and impressive. Even Samsung's Galaxy S5 is the most sturdy of the interstellar range, but the faux-chrome outer and removable back mean you can feel the hollow nature of the phone.
It's the same as the LG G3 – a phone that looks metal and has all the removable battery and microSD slots people crave. But hold it and you can tell the back comes off, as there's a slight flex and lightness that ruins the ergonomics.
So is the HTC One E8 terribly designed as a result of being plastic? No – like the iPhone 5C, it retains a sense a fun and the colours really add to the mix. It's a good enough trade off if you want the HTC UI but can't afford the M8… although with the Duo Camera gone too, you'll have to REALLY want the Sense UI and Boomsound speakers… and I don't think enough people will be after that.
No IR
Is the lack of an infra-red port, the thing that lets you control your TV with your phone, a big loss to the phone? Well, apart from making the aesthetic of the One E8 a little less sumptuous, it's barely missed.I keep pointing out that holding your phone like a remote control is impossible as you're missing the tactility of the buttons, but apart from LG with the G Flex (which had the sensor on the back, meaning you could hold the phone up to see what you're pressing) nobody has done anything about it.
The disappearance might irk some, but in reality it wouldn't be missed on the One M8.
Lower price
As mentioned above, the main reason for losing many of the good bits of the One M8 on the E8 is the price drop, and it's pretty big considering.If it ever launches in developed smartphones markets, it should be around 30% cheaper than the One M8 (according to Russian price disparity, which is one of the few places you can currently pick this phone up).
So if you get your hands on the One E8 (and that's a big if, as HTC has yet to confirm availability in the more premium smartphone markets, focusing the E8 in other more developing parts of the world) you'll be paying a lot less.
It's hard to say whether this is the right move - it depends if the One M8 and E8 will be sold side by side. If they are, then it's a cannibalisation exercise. People won't want to pay that much more for a metal back and two cameras, and it could harm the sales of the One M8 as a result.
Also, where does the One Mini 2 fit into the equation? Or the Desire 816? For a company that was planning to make fewer phones, HTC is certainly churning out the handsets.
Upgraded camera
Here's something that will confuse a lot of people if the two phones are placed side by side in a shop: the camera on the HTC One E8 is going to be a 13MP affair, with single flash LED rather than the all-singing One M8, with its Duo Camera and Ultrapixels and Ufocus background defocus.The 13MP snapper here has all the power and toys the One M8 has (bar the defocus post processing) so you can take Zoes, HDR shots, videos and more without a problem.
The front facing camera isn't the same as found on the One M8, as it's not got the wide angle effect – so it's the same one as seen on the One Mini 2 and the Desire 816 – but that doesn't mean this isn't a strong phone if you like to take loads of self portraits.
But the back camera looks great still, and the sharpness from the off the shelf sensor seems to be very good indeed.
Motion launch
In terms of bringing the toys from the One M8 to the E8, the one I'm most glad to see it Motion Launch - mostly from a muscle memory point of view.This option allows you to double tap the screen to wake the phone (as long as you've moved it and activated the accelerometer, meaning you won't be able to use it when the phone is placed on a desk) and gain instant access to the time and the quick widgets in the lock screen.
(Side note: even picking it up and moving it around, the double tap screen unlock fails to work on occasion. It's like the One E8 can't always get its accelerometer to work).
But that might be a little bit too simple for some people - what if you want to wake the phone properly, or go into the Blinkfeed view? Perhaps you want to start the camera from cold?
The good news is all this is possible: swipe from the left or right, even with the screen off, and the One E8 is always ready to open up the home screen or Blinkfeed respectively. It's a neat trick and one that I find myself using more and more.
You can always tell when something is a good idea when I do the same thing on other phones - and that's the case here.
Sadly, there's something I'll never use: holding the volume down key and turning the phone on its side to wake the camera. It just doesn't work regularly, which leads to frustration and feeling like the phone doesn't work as well as it should.
You can just turn on the screen with a double tap and flick the camera icon to do the same thing - and this works much, much more quickly.
HTC has put a couple of other 'swipe commands' into the mix, with swiping down from the top activating voice dialler (good for in car) and from the bottom for Google Now.
I'd much rather be able to customise these to my own commands, but that's not possible for now.
Boomsound
Given the cut-down-but-powerful nature of the One E8, I'd have not been surprised to see the BoomSound speakers, which flank the screen at the top and bottom, be cast aside too, given they need extra circuitry and chips to work.But they're here, and they're still as bass-rich and powerful as before. I can't be sure, as it's hard to really tell the difference when the components aren't the same, but the plastic housing doesn't seem to give quite as clear a sound as the metal one does, which would make sense from a physics point of view.
Don't let that put you off though - the speakers are still one of the most stunning things about HTC phones, and frequently something I'll turn on to impress others.
Even playing a driving game is a much more delightful experience with BoomSound, as it means that the engine notes, the rich throttle sounds and brake squeals are brought to life in a way that you don't get if you're getting all the sound pumped out of the back of a tiny speaker.
Do you need BoomSound in day to day life? Not at all. It's certainly a luxury, but one that when you do use it, you'll be glad it's there.
Interface and Performance
The HTC One E8 is based largely on the same prowess and internal structure as the M8 – in fact, cameras aside, the two are identical.This means that everything I noted in the longer, in-depth review of the HTC One M8 is applicable here, so if you want to get the real deep dive, then here's the link to the interface section of that piece.
However, if you've not come across the UI before, or only want to know about it from a top level point of view, here are my main findings during the review period with the HTC One E8.
The main thing about the Sense UI is that it's one of the more masking skins that sits on top of Android. This means that it's a lot different to the experience on something like the Nexus 5, which runs naked, raw Android from Google, and instead gives something of HTC's identity.
The main feature is Blinkfeed, which gives instant access to a variety of topics and services, with a number of news outlets serviced as well as social networking information built right into the Windows Phone-a-like tiled interface.
It's simple and has been refined over the last year, but it's still something I have to remind myself to use from time to time.
That said, when I do remember it, I'll generally get a couple of decent news stories out of it to browse, so it's a long way from useless.
There's a weird gremlin in the Facebook app though – you'll sometimes have to click a story twice to get taken to the right page (rather than your news feed), which is to do with confused permissions from the Facebook server it seems. It can be righted, but it's easier to click twice.
The rest of the interface mimics Android, but looks a lot different. There's still the app drawer (although it cycles downwards and can be customised between simple mode, with fewer icons, or more apps to make use of the 1080p screen) and the notifications bar is as powerful as ever.
Swipe down with one finger, and get to the updates to your daily life, through messages, calendar and other notifications. Swipe with two and get quick access to settings you need to turn on and off swiftly; Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and mobile data, for instance.
For the most part, the interface from HTC is smart and simple to use, if a little overbearing for anyone that's a fan of rawer Android. What it does do is provide HTC with identity in a convoluted Android world, with so many phones trying to do the same thing.
Performance
Given HTC has put the same Snapdragon 801 processor under the hood of the One E8, the ability to fire well under any input is understandably good.Apps barely lagged at all for anything I wanted to do, and the good thing is that the same optimisation for heavier games seems to be present and correct.
It's unclear (OK, maybe not) whether HTC has optimised the benchmarks again, allowing the phone to enter a higher-power mode when being subjected to tests in order to gain favour among those looking to have the most efficient and powerful device.
But the results remain the same (to within a very fine degree on our Geekbench testing) meaning that the phones just work exactly the same way.
Either way, it's good news for any prospective buyer as it means you'll be getting a phone that can handle most apps with aplomb.
Battery and the essentials
The battery performance of the HTC One E8 is pretty good indeed – perhaps not at the level of the other phones on the market (the Samsung Galaxy S5 is one of the better ones around, for instance) but it still performs remarkably well during testing.The Extreme Power Saving Mode, enabled by the chipset, is once again in force, meaning that when you get into a situation where the battery is nearly dead, you can enable it to shut the phone down to all but the most rudimentary tasks, such as calling, text and a teeny bit of web browsing.
The mode isn't designed to give stellar battery life for all time – rather it's meant to be something you use in an emergency, or when you've got a night out after work and can't find your charger.
You know, life or death situations.
It's not perfect though. If you still use the phone at all, the battery will stop drop too fast, but if you want a long-lasting phone on standby, this mode will make the phone icy cold.
Running the standard TechRadar battery test, I found that once again things were acceptable from a media standpoint – this isn't going to be the best phone for watching a movie and getting on with your day, with a significant chunk of battery going to firing up the Super LCD display, but it's a long way from where it was just a year ago, meaning you've got a much leaner media machine under your grasp here.
The essentials
The HTC One E8 follows its metal clad brother in a number of ways, but actually outperforms the M8 in terms of call quality, it seems.While it's hard to actually quantify, due to not being able to place the same SIM in the two phones at once, I found that in my house, which is a notoriously tricky spot to get any kind of signal, the connection on the One E8 seemed to be superior.
In terms of actual use day to day, the only difference between the E8 and the One M8 is that the phone is slightly harder to hold in the plastic version (if you've gone for the glossy one, that is) but it's nothing to really worry about.
The on screen keyboard is still one of the best on the market from an OEM (although I still rate options like Swiftkey over the inbuilt one here, simply for better word prediction) and the messaging methods are plentiful and mostly well-integrated.
If you want to read more about this – be it the call quality, options during a call, the messaging options or the internet browsing capabilities – then check out that section of the main M8 review to get your fix.
That said, I would like to talk up the screen again, even though it is the same one as found in the One M8. If you're using this phone to browse the internet, the 5-inch display is more than good enough – in fact, it's pin sharp with good colour reproduction to get you right what you need into your eyeballs.
You're now free to go and read more about this in the One M8 review – but you know me, always want to make sure those that hate clicking get the highlights.
Camera
The camera on the HTC One E8 is one of the biggest areas where the Taiwanese brand has decided to drop the component quality in order to bring the cost of the phone down to a more palatable level.The confusing thing for consumers, as I've mentioned already, is that the camera on the back seems to be more powerful, given it's a 13MP option rather than the much-hyped Ultrapixel Duo Camera that HTC has been pushing on the M8.
This means that while you get clearer snaps, in theory they'll look less well-lit in the darker scenes and there's no option to perform the 'U-focus' magic that you can when two cameras are working in tandem to allow refocusing of a scene post-snap.
The speed of the camera isn't limited too much by the newer sensor, which is at least a boon, as I would have worried that the processor would have been less able to cope with a larger picture size. Well, perhaps coping is the wrong word as the Snapdragon 801 CPU, combined with HTC's own imaging chip, should be able to handle even larger images easily.
But on the One M8, the picture size is much smaller, thanks to Ultrapixel technology topping out at about 4MP, so you can snap with more speed.
Apart from the U-focus option post-picture, the interface between the two cameras is identical. This means that you can jump between the normal camera, video, Zoe mode, and any other presets you've come up with and want to save. HTC has always allowed you to choose the brightness, exposure, contrast etc. levels for a long time, and you can now have one of these as an option from the camera as a preset.
Here's the odd thing with the One E8: with the M8, the normal camera mode used the Duo Camera, meaning it would automatically imbue the photo with depth information for post-snap processing - which was the reason Zoe mode wasn't a default.
(For those unaware, a Zoe is a mode where you can either take a picture as normal using the on screen shutter, or hold it down to take a short video. These videos and photos are then automatically combined into a highlights real, making a really neat movie of an event or a day out to share with others).
But given the main camera on the E8 doesn't have any special powers, why isn't Zoe mode offered as a default here? Would make a lot of sense and bring a key function and highlight to the fore.
The overall picture quality in bright, well-lit scenes is pretty good on the One E8, without being sensational. That makes sense given this is a sensor that's been bought off the shelf, rather than developed in house by HTC's creative imaging bods, in a bid to save cost again.
That said, there's a shutter and a flash, like there was on the One M7. Surely just bolting the new Ultrapixel sensor on there, perhaps devoid of the additional Duo camera, would have been a better sell? It must come down to the cost - I'll bet an off the shelf option is cheaper to put in compared to the higher-power Ultrapixel camera.
The other lowering of spec is on the front camera: the wide-angle sensor on the One M8 is one of the best 'self-photography' (no, I won't use that wretched new word) snappers on the market, taking the sensor from last year's One and using it to take awesome low-light self portraits.
That's sadly not here on the One E8, instead preferring the cheaper version used on the One Mini 2 and the Desire 816 - although it's got a 5MP resolution still.
Check out the picture comparison between the HTC One M8 and HTC One E8 below to see if you think the difference is worth the extra cost:
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Verdict
The HTC One E8 is an odd phone, mostly because it's offering the best of the One M8 but in a lower-spec framework.That doesn't mean it can't be a good smartphone in its own right, but it does feel like it's missing something of its soul simply due to the fact it doesn't have the emotional connection you get with a really solidly-made handset.
The loss of the Duo Camera will be a big deal for some and a blessing for others, in the same way as the missing infra red port at the top.
We liked
The HTC One E8 is built mostly on the foundations of an award-winning phone, but at a lower cost, so obviously many of things I appreciated before are present and correct here.I'm a fan of BoomSound, and am very glad HTC kept that in there as a differentiator in a congested smartphone market. I'm also very glad that the microSD slot is present and correct once more, as expandable memory is something that a lot of users really engage with.
The design isn't as terrible as I thought it would be either - the choice of colours from HTC is strong, and the Electric Crimson I was testing got some admiring looks.
The Sense interface is the best Android overlay out there for those that aren't bothered by naked Android - it's simple to use, has a good companion in Blinkfeed and is easily identifiable, even for those coming from an iPhone.
We disliked
The problem with the One E8 is that which I mentioned above: it doesn't have the emotional connection you get from the One M8. I get why this phone was made, to offer some of the featureset to those that can't afford a really high-end phone, but it feels like that loss is slightly too great.The camera is fine - it's not in the same league as the One M8 in terms of special ability, but the confusing thing is many will see this as a better snapper simply because the megapixel count is higher.
That's a failing from HTC to communicate the power of its Ultrapixel technology, but is an issue here. I do with the Duo camera power was on board, but for the price I'll accept it.
And while the battery is more than good enough for most, the fact is there are still better phones on the market that can last longer.
I'm loathe to put that in as a negative, as compared to the 2013 breed of smartphones this is miles better, but the fact is there are better options on the market.
Verdict
The HTC One E8 is a phone that I'm happy to carry around and use - as long as I don't remember than the One M8 exists.I always say: buy the best phone you can afford, as you'll be thankful in a year's time when you've still got 12 months left to run. With this handset, if you can, jump up to the full-fat One M8 to get the best experience, both aesthetically and spec-wise.
This is a phone that's in the weird situation of being bettered by a device that came out months before.
That said, if you can't (or don't want to) afford that, then the One E8 is a really great entry point into the higher echelons of the HTC ecosystem. But then so is the Desire 816. Or the One Mini 2.
It has all the power the One M8 did, but that's still not as much as other top phones, like the Galaxy S5 and LG G3. With the M8, that was offset by a beautifully created phone, but here that soul is missing.
It's not a bad phone for the cash by a long way, especially if you're a fan of top specs, but without the metal body and other HTC headliners, it feels like the One E8 is missing something - and the price reduction isn't enough to really quantify the loss of soul that the M8 has in spades.
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Alfresco raises $45 million to boost ECM market share
Nearly 10 years after it was founded, Alfresco Software has received its biggest funding yet, $45 billion (about £28 million, AU$50 million), from a number of investors led by Sageview Capital.
That amount dwarfs the previous investments and bring the total money injected in the open source enterprise content management (ECM) provider to $65.2 million (about £40 million, AU$70 million).
The company, which is based in the UK, wants to "increase velocity of its Go-To-Market (GTM) strategy globally" by adding sales people, ingesting in marketing and "expanding development to drive the SaaS-ification of the content market".
SAP again?
The move comes as the company failed to move from "Visionary" in Gartner's ECM Magic Quadrant to "Leader" for five year in a row. Still the company managed to grow by more than 30% year-on-year, three times faster than the overall ECM market according to its own figures.It is worth noting that SAP Ventures is one of the VC investing in that latest round. Although it is independent from software giant SAP, it gets all its capital from the latter.
Why is it worth underlining? Doug Dennerline, the CEO of Alfresco, joined the company in January 2013 from SuccessFactors who was acquired in 2012 by none other than .... SAP. Could lightning strike twice?
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