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  • Mozilla Presents The First Firefox OS Smartphones

    Mozilla Foundation announced its first handsets powered by Firefox OS. Named Keon and Peak, the new mobile devices are developed by Telefonica and Geeksphone and are designed for developers interested in the platform.

    The first terminal, Keon, does not have too impressive specifications, but Mozilla Foundation’s ambitions also aims to emerging markets, where the price is a critical issue.

    Keon offers a 3.5-inch display with HVGA resolution, a Qualcomm Snapdragon S1 processor clocked at 1 GHz, RAM memory with a capacity of 512 MB and 4 GB internal storage which can be expanded with a MicroSD card. The first Firefox OS handset offers a 2G tri-band modem and 3G quad-band plus 802.11n wireless connectivity. The features list also includes a 3-megapixel camera, a battery with a capacity of 1580 mAh, GPS and accelerometer.

    With this terminal, Telefonica and Geeksphone have developed a second model, more impressive in terms of hardware, but the fact that Mozilla did not mention this product makes us think that this one might be launched later.

    Peak will offer a 4.3-inch screen, IPS panel and qHD resolution, while the hardware platform will be a much more powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 chip, clocked at 1.2 GHz. Connectivity and storage facilities are the same, but Peak’s camera will have a 8-megapixel sensor and a 2-megapixle front partner, the battery also making a jump to 1800 mAh.

    Unfortunately, Mozilla Foundation has not communicated the price of these terminals, but they will be launched the next month.

  • Alcatel-Lucent and Reliance Communications enter long term billion dollar contract

    Alcatel-Lucent and Reliance Communications (RCOM), a telecommunications service provider for India, announced that they had signed a contract for an innovative, end-to-end network that will provide service for customers in the Eastern and Southern regions of India through the year 2020.

    This contract means that the current business agreement between RCOM and Alcatel-Lucent will be continued with an additional 1 billion USD.

    The customer demand for communications applications and services is ever-changing and constantly evolving, thus making this agreement even more significant. According to the companies, the contract offers the first fully-integrated line of services for India, and is among only a handful across the world.

    Through the aid of Alcatel-Lucent, RCOM will combine both the wireless and wireline departments into a single, synergized organization. With this new streamlining in place, RCOM can then direct their energy toward business expansion and maintaining high-level communication services to patrons. RCOM's current practices and tools, with the help of Alcatel-Lucent, will be standardized in order to enable the optimum level of efficiency throughout the company.

    Through this contract, Reliance Communications will be able to provide quality and reliability across a variety of devices and connection mediums for its customer base. One of the first steps on Alcatel-Lucent's end of the deal will be to implement next-generation OSS (operation support systems), as well as high-end tools for improved network capabilities for the wireless, wireline, and long-distance features that RCOM has to offer. By working together, these two major companies will forge a road that the modern digital communications society of India demands.

    Gurdeep Singh, Chief Executive Officer of the Wireless Business division for RCOM, and Rajeev Singh-Molares, President of the Asia-Pacific division of Alcatel-Lucent, both commented on the contract, saying that the partnership can only bring good things for both companies, who have had a long-standing, positive relationship. Reliance Communications hopes to emerge from this agreement as the leading provider of voice and data communications services. The main priorities of Alcatel-Lucent in the relationship will be to improve quality and providing a reliable customer experience throughout all service areas.

    RCOM's Chief Executive Officer, Punit Garg, and Alcatel-Lucent India's President and Managing Director, Munish Seth, are both confident that the enhanced bond between the companies will bring great things, allowing customers to gain access to state-of-the-art technologies through this entirely re-invigorated, re-envisioned provider. Alcatel-Lucent has over 20 years of experience with outsourcing and network operation, with over 100 operations across the globe

  • Comcast and Google welcome ARRIS Group into Relationship

    Comcast has thrown its hat in the cable box and modem arena by pledging to invest in the ARRIS Group, Inc. to the tune of $150 million. In return for its investment, Comcast will acquire about 10.6 million shares of ARRIS, which amounts to approximately 7.85 percent of the company.

    The stock was purchased from Google, which previously owned 15.7 percent of ARRIS but with the Comcast deal found its shares reduced in half. This deal makes Comcast and Google equal holders of common stock in the company.

    Although Bob Stanzione, ARRIS CEO seemed pleased, "We believe this investment by one of our largest customers is a strong indication of customer support for the Motorola Home acquisition and its potential to accelerate innovation to the benefit of the industry and consumers." The deal between Comcast and ARRIS is small compared to ARRIS's acquisition of Motorola Home for $2.35 billion from Google. Motorola Home was part of Motorola Mobility, which was in turn a subsidiary of Google Inc. It is expected that ARRIS will be an active participant in Comcast and that the two companies will work in close conjunction with each other.

    The result is, that after the dust settles, Comcast will have its foot in the door by owning part (7.85%) of the ARRIS Group's broadband media technological empire. ARRIS owns Motorola Home and Google is richer by $2.35 billion from the Motorola Home sale and $150 million from the Comcast deal. Additionally Google's shares of common stock in the ARRIS Group are now down to 7.85 percent.

  • Facebook, Google and Amazon reportedly outsourcing new storage product orders to Taiwan-based ODMs

    Inexpensive data storage boxes from Taiwan are being picked up in lieu of storage arrays from Dell, EMC, HP and NetApp by Facebook and other vast data-centre operators such as Google and Amazon.

    Supply chain insiders say that the juggernaut that is Facebook is about to buy bargain storage kits from original design manufacturers, or ODMs, based in Taiwan. Original design manufacturers work with customer specifications to design and produce hardware. Both Quanta Computer and Wistron will be likely bidders for Facebook's supply contracts.

    Facebook looks to save a small fortune by using arrays defined by its Open Compute Project standard and running its own software. It's quite possible this may not even occur, as reports from Far East supply chain sources tend to be a little questionable, but the information is interesting nonetheless.

    Using ODMs for storage gear doesn't come as a big surprise; Facebook is merely following a trend. According to Digitimes, Google buys all its servers from ODMs and Amazon follows suit about 30 per cent of the time.

    Sales of standardised hardware via distribution channel partners to the West and beyond could start happening anytime. Amazon, Baidu and other cloud giants are likely to expand their services into the cloud; businesses are purchasing fewer storage arrays because of the cloud, so it's no surprise that Amazon, Baidu and others are making forays into this area.

    DEY Storage, a startup company, claims it can follow the trend started by Amazon, Facebook and Google. The company claims they can unbundle "storage management from the physical layer to provide customers with a storage system which is massively scalable and designed to align and integrate with their services-based infrastructures".

    The current crop of servers, storage and network switch vendors may have to look to Taiwan for a new model if they want to continue to be successful.

  • Voxbone Launches VoIP Emergency-Calling Service in Europe

    VoIP telephony service providers are struggling to meet European regulatory requirements and market demand for access to emergency-calling services. Inability to fulfill these needs is deterring many enterprises from migrating to VoIP-based telecommunications and is necessitating costly, complex arrangements for those that make the move.

    Voxbone today launched an easily-set-up,cost-effective solution: VoxOUT, which enables providers of cloud communications, SIP trunking and other enterprise VolP services to support emergency calling.

    Available initially in seven countries – the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Ireland, Belgium, Luxembourg and Denmark – VoxOUT is claimed to be the first wholesale service that supports telephone access to emergency services in multiple European countries from a single IP-based interconnection. As a result, VoxOUT helps customers avoid the cost and complexity of alternatives for providing emergency-calling services in Europe, which require interconnecting with a local telco in each country or managing a local VoIP-to-PSTN gateway at every customer location.

    When a Voxbone customer’s subscriber calls an emergency number, Voxbone connects the call via the PSTN to the closest emergency service center. According to Voxbone, this process is completed in seconds and works with any SIP-compatible service platform.

    VoxOUT is available as an add-on to Voxbone’s VoxDID service, which offers global service providers local geographical telephone numbers and call capacity from more than 4,000 cities in 50-plus countries. VoxOUT is priced at a flat rate.

    “Our new VoxOUT service gives VoIP providers a competitive advantage when targeting European and multinational enterprises by helping them overcome one of the biggest barriers to migrating to VoIP,” said Voxbone CEO Rod Ullens.

    “While wholesale access to emergency services is widely available in North America, this is not common in other countries. This complicates things for U.S.-based cloud communication providers wanting to expand their services internationally. Combined with powerful IP-based communications applications and traditional voice-termination services for local calls to regular phone numbers, VoxOUT enables cloud providers to offer communications services that are superior to old-style telephony at all levels.”

    The company also informed that later this year, itwill make VoxOUT available in additional European countries, "followed by other major markets based on customer needs."

  • 3 New iPhones to be Released During 2013?

    Rumors about the new iPhone have already started circulating around and this time we're hearing about the possible release of 3 new iPhones during 2013.

    Just a few months after the release of iPhone 5, Apple seems to be designing the next model, with an earlier rumor claiming that it will be presented in June. The new rumor comes from China Times and mentions of a brand new 4.8-inch iPhone that will arrive in June and two other models that are expected during the year. China Times claims that their news come from Apple's supply chain and that except for the traditional iPhone, we should expect one that will be a phablet, something between a phone and a tablet, and one that will have a 12MP camera. In addition, the 4.8-inch phone will have an 8MP camera and it might be the answer to Samsung Galaxy S III.

    It seems that the article is emphasizing on the 4.8-inch iPhone, since it might be the next bet for Apple. After noticing that the market is requesting bigger smartphones, but smaller than tablets, it could be possible indeed to be trying a bigger version of the iPhone we all know.

    However, can they really release 3 iPhones during a year? Will it be a wise move, or should we just wait for one or two models?

    Is there a real gap between iPad mini and iPhone or are they just thinking of ways to decrease Samsung's sales? Should we trust those rumors above or are they just speculations on Apple's future plans? So many questions are waiting to be answered the following months.

  • Samsung to Release a 5.8-inch Android Smartphone Called "Galaxy Fonblet"?

    Samsung seems to be ready to release a brand new Android smartphone in Europe with a 5.8-inch display. According to Sammobile, Samsung recently purchased the trademark for "Fonblet" in order to use it as the name of their brand new mobile.

    The 5.8-inch display will make it look more like a tablet and that's why its name seems to be realistic. What's more, Fonblet will look like Samsung Galaxy Player 5.8, which has only been released in Korea. However, this release, which is destined only for Europe, seems to be more than a media player and more than a smartphone.

    It is rumored to support DUAL-SIM, it will run Android 4.1.2/4.2.1 and it will only be released in white. The big challenge for Samsung will be persuading the customers to buy the "Fonblet" as they did with Galaxy Note II, when others considered it too big for a phone.

    Smartphones are increasing in size lately and this has created two opposite sides of customers. These types of phablets (which are something between a phone and a tablet) should be impressive enough to make us buy them and choose them over a phone or a tablet.

    For the time being, we do not know any other details about "Galaxy Fonblet" but if the rumors are true, we'll know everything about it quite soon.

    After all, Samsung seems to be more than stable on the market lately, with a 23% percent of demand on Samsung smartphones in the first month of 2013, which makes it quite easier for them to conquer the market once again. They don't have the luxury for any mistake and with the loyalty of the customers being increased, all they have to do is justify the demand.

    [image: Galaxy Player 5.8]

  • Samsung Galaxy S Range Sells Over 100 Million Copies

    Samsung has announced in a post on the official blog the number of over 100 million Galaxy S terminals sold.

    It all started two and a half years ago with the Samsung Galaxy S, top of the range at that time and a quite controversial terminal. It was cited often in the Apple-Samsung trial in the United States. From then until now, the No. 1 mobile phone manufacturer in the world sold over 100 million units of Galaxy S, Galaxy S II and Galaxy S III. The latter two models were able to sell each in an impressive number of 40 million units. It is possible that in the total figure to be included the supplies of Galaxy S Plus and Galaxy S III Mini, but the percentage is small.

    The most successful Galaxy smartphone is Galaxy S III, which, according to Samsung officials, at this moment sells about 190,000 units per day.

    Samsung Galaxy S III combines advanced technology developed by Google with high-end components. Thus, users of this top smartphone benefit from the experience offered by the 4.8-inch HD Super AMOLED display, with 720p HD resolution, supported by a 1.4GHz quad-core processor.

    With such popularity, the next Samsung Galaxy S is already in the top of terminals expected this year. We’d dare to say that the interest in the iPhone 5S or iPhone 6 is significantly lower. Apple has already provided a significant upgrade to the iPhone 5 and the next model could be a sort of facelift. As for the Samsung Galaxy S IV, it is expected even in this spring, with a 5-inch full HD screen. It seems that the “phablets” are on a roll and Samsung cannot get out of the trend.

    South Korean company will announce at the end of this month the quarterly earnings recorded in Q4 2012.

  • Ubuntu For Smartphones to be Launched in 2014

    Canonical has announced that it will launch early next year, the first version of Ubuntu for smartphones, a less conventional operating system for users, but which is expected by many fans.

    Ubuntu for smartphones is based on the same kernel and drivers as Android, but brings a new interface for the portable devices. For those who already use Ubuntu on PCs, the interface will not be surprising. We are talking about a redesign and reconfiguration of Unity, the UI promoted by Canonical on its last Ubuntu distributions.

    The absolute novelty with which Canonical hopes to gain ground in the mobile segment is how the user will use gestures on a smartphone. More specifically, browsing through gestures will cause (or not) users to try the new interface. For example, a short finger swipe gesture from the left to the center of the screen activates a menu Unity alike in which the user will find his favorite applications.

    Also, swiping to the right of the screen will display the latest applications used, and a similar gesture made at the bottom of the screen will activate notifications.

    An important aspect is that, although it runs based on the Android kernel, Ubuntu Mobile does not use the Dalvik Virtual Machine, so that Android applications are not compatible with the mobile operating system from Canonical. However, Ubuntu Mobile will offer the advantage of running native applications without a dedicated virtual machine, which means that performance may be even better than that offered by Android.

    At the same time, through a stand, users of devices with Ubuntu Mobile are able to connect to a monitor and use it with the mouse and classic keyboard in the same way that they use their PC.

    Currently, Ubuntu for smartphones is running on Galaxy Nexus only, but Canonical will soon publish versions for other devices as well.

    The first smartphone with Ubuntu pre-installed will be launched in early 2014.

  • CES 2013: Huawei Launches Three New Smartphones – Ascend W1, Ascend W2 and Ascend Mate

    Present at CES 2013, Huawei wants to conquer the world by launching a really interesting range of smartphones.

    Huawei Ascend W1

    Huawei takes its first steps into the world of Windows Phone 8 with a quite promising entry-level smartphone. Huawei Ascend W1 could be an interesting choice for those in search of affordable smartphones based on Microsoft's latest mobile OS.

    It comes equipped with a Snapdragon S4 Plus chipset (MSM8230), composed of a dual-core CPU at 1.2 GHz and GPU Adreno 305 + 512 MB RAM.

    The 4-inch display is limited to WVGA resolution, but the matrix with IPS technology promises satisfactory image quality. Next to the screen we have a 0.3 MP webcam for video calls and on the back we find a 5-megapixel camera with LED flash. Photo & video collections are shot in 720p resolution accommodated in the 4 GB of internal memory, expandable up to 32 GB via microSD card.

    In connectivity, we have access to WiFi networks and Internet 3G HSPA+, module for NFC payments, Bluetooth and GPS. Even if has a battery of 1950 mAh only, it should have to cover without too much trouble the energy consumption generated by the chipset and the 4-inch screen.

    Huawei Ascend Mate

    The second smartphone presented in Las Vegas is Huawei Ascend Mate, which is also the smartphone with the largest screen so far. With a 6.1-inch screen, armed with a quad-core chipset and a customized version of Android Jelly Bean, adapted with the interface Huawei Emotion UI, the giant announces to be the star of the fair in terms of smartphones.

    Helped by the technology called Magic Touch, the giant HD screen can be controlled even with gloves on, so using the phone in cold winter days should not pose problems. In terms of software optimization, Ascend Mate enjoys a user interface mode for one-handed use, restricting virtual keyboard and dialpad in the bottom of the screen.

    In the 9.9 mm thick casing lies a 4050 mAh battery, which should cover without too much trouble energy requirements of the 6.1-inch screen with LTPS LCD technology and the Huawei K3V2 chipset clocked at a frequency of 1.5 GHz.

    The configuration also includes 2GB RAM and an 8-megapixel camera that promises to please fans of photography and videos at 1080p resolution.

    Unfortunately, the initial rumors that announced the presence of a Full HD screen and 1.8 GHz chipset were not true, Huawei probably choosing to cut these specifications hoping to obtain a lower price, which could increase its sales.

    Huawei Ascend D2

    Unlike its brother Mate, Ascend D2 presents itself as a more practical and comfortable smartphone, which also offers superior set of specifications. Ascend D2 comes with a 5-inch Full HD display capable of rendering images with unmatched clarity thanks to the LCD matrix with a density of 443 ppi. Huawei Ascend D2 has the same Huawei K3V2 chipset installed, but on the back we find a 13-megapixel camera assisted by an LED flash.

    The silver framed casing of Ascend D2 hides a 3000 mAh battery, sized for approximately two days of running and the operating system delivered is Android Jelly Bean, improved by adding split-screen multi-tasking support (running multiple applications simultaneously on screen) and technology of augmented reality technology.

    Compared to its predecessor Ascend D, the new Huawei Ascend D2 is a step forward on all fronts: screen size and resolution, the performance of the chipset and the design of the casing.

    At this point we don’t have any pricing details.