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  • CES 2013: Sony Launches Xperia Z and Xperia ZL

    Sony Xperia Z and Xperia ZL are the new flagships of the Japanese manufacturer, who have managed to make waves with their official announcement at CES 2013.

    No matter how new and powerful would be the two Xperia models, they have long been debated in the press and expected in the latter part of 2012. Thus, most of us suspected some of the most advanced specs and features of the new Sony smartphones.

    However, their official announcement has managed to arouse enough curiosity and awe among fans and beyond. Specifically, we are talking about two top smartphones that should help Sony in the fight against other major phone manufacturers, such as Samsung and Apple.

    Sony Xperia Z is based on next-generation hardware, SoC Snapdragon S4 Pro with quad-core processor Krait at 1.5 GHz, graphics processor Adreno 320 and 2GB RAM. Multimedia capabilities promise to be one of the strengths, especially with the 5-inch LED 1080p display which benefits from the latest technology Sony Mobile Bravia 2 Engine. In terms of photo/video, Sony Xperia Z boasts a 13-megapixel Exmor RS sensor capable to shoot Full HD 1080p and take HDR shots.

    Xperia Z is also respecting the IP57 standard, which provides resistance to dust and contact with water and comes in a unibody casing that “hides” a 2330 mAh battery.

    On the other hand, the second phone, the Xperia ZL, resembles the first in big lines, the differences being more in design and size. Xperia ZL will not benefit from water resistance, the rest of hardware specifications being almost identical.

    Both smartphones benefit from the latest communication options: LTE, HSPA +, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, NFC and come equipped with FM radio and supports internal memory expansion with microSD card. Both Xperia Z and Xperia ZL will run Android 4.1 Jelly Bean.

    For now Sony has not provided too many pricing details, but unofficial sources speak for amounts that exceed $650.

  • RIM announces BlackBerry Curve 9315

    RIM and T-Mobile have announced the release of BlackBerry Curve 9315, a brand new smartphone, which is ideal for those that don't spend a fortune for a phone, but are still looking for a decent choice.

    BlackBerry Curve 9315 is the next generation of Curve Blackberries, featuring a QWERTY keyboard once again, a 320×240 screen, a 512MB RAM, a 3.2MP camera and a 3G connectivity. It runs on BlackBerry 7.1 operating system and is considered a good choice for those that need an easy-to-use smartphone. What's more, it supports micro SD cards up to 32GB, it has a built-in FM radio and a built-in Wi-Fi connectivity that allows you to communicate with your friends instantly. There is also a button for BlackBerry Messenger and Facebook and Twitter are already preloaded, if you are the social type.

    According to Ricard Piasentin, managing director for RIM USA:

    "The Curve 9315 is designed to make it incredibly easy to stay connected with friends, family and coworkers and will be popular with customers upgrading to a smartphone for the first time, as well as existing Curve customers looking for a step up in speed and functionality."

    It is also characterized as a "great device to combine business and personal use" and also "T-Mobile's most affordable Blackberry smartphone", since it will cost $49.99 upfront and $10 per month on a 20-month plan.

    If you are excited about it, pre-sale starts on January 16 and the official sale is on January 23. It seems like a decent choice if you are a fan of the classic Blackberry smartphones. However, if you are looking for the next generation of Blackberries running on BB10, maybe you have to wait a litte bit more before purchasing your next smartphone.

  • Samsung Announces Galaxy Grand

    Samsung has presented a brand new phone, the Samsung Galaxy Grand, which hopes to become the next Galaxy Note II.

    With a 5-inch screen it's not just a smartphone, but more like a phablet, a new term that describes the gadget that is between phone and tablet. It looks like Galaxy S III and hopes to be the next big hit for Samsung. It has a 800×480 resolution, which is relatively low, it runs on Android 4.1.2 (JellyBean), which is the latest operating system by Google, and it has a 1.2GHz Dual Core processor to cover your multitasking needs. What's more, it has a camera of 8MP to capture your moments and also supports 1080p HD video recording. It has a built-in storage of 8GB and it allows expansions up to 64GB.

    Samsung added some useful features, making Galaxy Grand really easy to use:

    "Direct Call enables users to automatically dial a call by raising the device up to the ear; while users can also shake the phone to trigger status updates, or pan it to zoom into a screen. Smart Alert shows missed events such as missed calls and new messages just by picking up the phone. Popup Video, for example, lets users watch video in a pop-up window anywhere on the screen while running other tasks; S Voice lets you control the phone using your voice; and AllShare Play lets you share content across Samsung devices using a single account. "

    Moreover, it is available in Dual SIM version, or in a single SIM version, with the first one providing full communication flexibility and the choice of different billing plans for each SIM.

    For the time being we don't know when will Galaxy Grand be available on market, or how much will it cost, but it is expected to be a relatively low cost phablet, which will make it even more popular. 

  • Cloud Storage Vendors Aggressively Slash Prices Again

    Since November, the three leading cloud storage vendors have slashed prices for data storage per month, offering massive discounts for the first terabyte. Amazon Web Services reduced prices by up to 28% to 9.5 cents, extending reductions to its nine regional centers. Google Cloud Storage dropped data rates by 30% to 8.5 cents. Microsoft Windows Azure slashed its prices by 12% to 8.5 cents.

    Vendors are cutting prices to attract as many early cloud adopters as possible, with the knowledge that switching service provider later might prove to be difficult for customers.

    "It's definitely a race, but it's a land grab," said Terri McClure, senior analyst at the Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG). "The race is to the bottom to get more data into the cloud. They are trying to accelerate adoption because the service is very sticky. Once data is in the cloud, it's hard to switch providers."

    Steve Zivanic, vice president of marketing at Nirvanix, a San Diego based cloud storage provider, said the three dormant cloud providers keep competing on price because their services are similar.

    "If you have no technology differentiation between clouds, then it's the same as disk-drive vendors waging a war for the lowest price per raw drive," said Steve Zivanic, "The key is to wrap advanced storage services around the physical drive and sell business value of that overall service. The price cuts between Amazon, Google and Azure are basically battles for cheap, raw online disk."

    An analyst for IT infrastructure and cloud at 451 Research Cloud, Carl Brooks said that while storage prices have come down, the costs of bandwidth, replication, security, compliance and maintenance, make the price of cloud storage high compared to on-premises storage.

    "Cloud providers are well over the cost of actually provisioning on-premises storage," said Carl Brooks. "Hard drives are almost a commodity at this point. We have not seen that in the cloud market. The trend behind the price cuts are more about cloud providers trying to get ahead of the trend. They don't want to be undercut by other vendors."

    "Amazon, Azure and Google cut prices to continue to be relevant," Brooks said further. "You are going to see price competition for a couple of years, and you will see cloud service providers go out of business.

  • Hulu in 2012: $695M Revenue, 3M Paying Subscribers

    2012 has been a huge year for Hulu. The following article will go over the progress the company made over the past year, its current and future expansion plans and also what is in store for Hulu in the upcoming years.

    Hulu Revenue Update

    In the year 2012 Hulu earned $695 million dollars in revenue. This number represents a 65% growth in revenue over the past five years, which is high for general industry as well as tech companies.

    New Subscriber Numbers

    Hulu has expanded its subscriber base substantially in 2012, with around three million current users. These Hulu Plus subscribers represent users that pay to access Hulu and represent a revenue stream separate from the company's advertising based revenue model.

    How Has Hulu Content Changed in 2012?

    2012 has brought a plethora of new content to Hulu streaming video service. Total titles available have grown by 40% and much of the new content comes from premium, established media companies like Viacom, CBS, and World Wrestling Entertainment. The content additions have done a great deal to make Hulu more competitive with other streaming services like Netflix and Amazon.

    Hulu Advertising Changes in 2012

    This fiscal year has brought a large increase in the number of advertisers who work with Hulu. In 2012 Huku has worked with over a thousand different advertising firms which represents a 28% increase over the same advertising partnerships from one year ago. Not only are advertisers who work with Hulu becoming more diverse, they are being drawn to the company by the ability to effectively target an audience and reduce the amount of wasted commercial impressions.

    One big project that Hulu will be focusing on in 2013 will be to expand into the Japanese market with special Japan-only programming and production of domestic Japanese shows for usage on the Hulu Japan site. This expansion combined with the solid revenue and content numbers bodes well for the future of Hulu in the online content streaming industry.

  • Mobile UC Deployment the Key to Higher Productivity, Says Survey

    Adding mobile technology to a Unified Communications strategy could allow the average business to recover $5,500 per employee per annum in lost productivity.

    Webtorials has collected survey responses from 200 people employed at companies which have over 500 employees, most of which are located in the United States. The survey, which was commissioned by the SIP communications company Sonus Networks, has some results that will interest business owners.

    Only one-quarter of the businesses surveyed stated that the saturation of Mobile UC in their workforce was intermediate, while another quarter said they were just starting to deploy the new technology. Another twenty-one percent said they had limited deployment of Mobile UC.

    With this technology only effectively deployed in around one-third of the businesses surveyed by Webtorials, there is a lot of room for improvement. The technology allows employees to communicate with each other on different mobile devices, such as tablets and smart phones, and can therefore boost employee productivity significantly.

    The report also stated that the shortfall in the widespread adoption of offsite UC capability could promote the development of a "productivity gap" between remote workers and onsite workers. This leads to a loss of around 2.5 hours per week per employee, a significant waste in productivity. Mobile UC allows enterprises to recover around $5,500 per annum in lost productivity.

    The use of smartphones and tablets at work is now widespread. According to the survey, two-thirds of knowledge workers in enterprise use their mobile devices at least one-quarter of the time.

    Steve Taylor, editor-in-chief of Webtorials, highlights the importance of this new technology, stating that mobility and flexibility is the key to the UC conundrum, especially for large enterprises. "Enterprises must push their Unified Communications capabilities beyond the office walls if they wish to get the maximum return on investment from their technology investments and the employees who use them."

    Wes Durow, the vice president of global marketing at Sonus, added: "Enabling mobility across the enterprise should be the first consideration as companies plan their UC deployments and that means having a robust, open-standard, SIP-based communications architecture in place that can support employees no matter where they are or what device they use."

  • Smartphones of the Future Will Be Able To See, Hear, Smell, Touch, and Taste Things

    What will the future look like? Though the answers may not be definite, IBM's annual Five in Five list does its best to answer this pressing question. The list, which enumerates five predictions about technological breakthroughs that may happen in the next five years, gives people an overview of how technology will develop in the future.

    What will the future look like? Though the answers may not be definite, IBM's annual Five in Five list does its best to answer this pressing question. The list, which enumerates five predictions about technological breakthroughs that may happen in the next five years, gives people an overview of how technology will develop in the future.

    Most of the visions that were included in the list seem impossible to achieve. But what most people don't know is that some predictions have already came true. For example in 2006, Five in Five have stated that real-time speech translation will become the norm in the near future. Fast forward a year later, IBM have started work on n.Fluent, a breakthrough technology that translates English and 11 other languages in real-time.

    This year, it's all about the senses. IBM believes that the gadgets of the future will have the ability to feel, see, hear, taste, and smell. This innovation will surely leave a huge impact on how we use devices like smartphones and tablets.

    Touch

    Through the use of infrared, vibration, and other haptic technologies, a smartphone's display will be able to render the texture and feel of physical surfaces. Imagine being able to feel the softness of a cotton sheet through a smartphone's display instead of just reading about it.

    See

    IBM thinks that today's visual recognition technologies can be taken one step further. For example, future systems would have the capability to detect minute details and anomalies in a patient's MRI scan which could help doctors do their work more efficiently.

    Hear

    Aside from merely recording audio, sensors will have the ability to analyze patterns and frequencies from the sounds that it picks up. Future audio technologies will be able to judge the structural integrity of a bridge through the use of sound data alone.

    Taste

    It may not sound that appetizing, but digital tastebuds might become a technological norm in the near future. This could help people keep up with their diets and/or everyday nutritional needs.

    Smell

    Computers might soon be able to distinguish odors from various substances. A person's breath can be analyzed for data that might reveal something about that person's health

  • Nokia Lumia 620 – Attractive Entry Level Smartphone with Windows Phone 8

    Taking the analysts by surprise, Nokia has launched a new model of its Lumia range – Lumia 620 – Nokia’s third phone that runs Microsoft’s latest version of Windows Phone, .

    Priced at $249, excluding taxes and subsidies from operators, the smartphone is a more attractive model in terms of price in the Lumia series. The new smartphone, launched during the salon Le Web 2012 in Paris, will enter the Asian market in January and will shortly be launched in Europe and the Middle East.

    Lumia 620 aims at younger customers, according to Nokia, and will be available in seven different housing colors.

    The 3.8-inch screen with 800 x 480 WVGA resolutions is more compact than the other two Lumia handsets, 920 and 820, which were harshly criticized for being too heavy and too thick.

    The screen comes with ClearBlack technology and Nokia boasts that it will be as visible in daylight as Lumia 920 and Lumia 820. The chipset is more than decent and allows HD video camera. Dual band wireless card is a plus, and the 1300 mAh battery should provide a decent range, but it will not be able to be charged wirelessly. However, the smartphone supports NFC connectivity.

    Like most advanced models, Nokia Lumia 620 comes with Nokia Maps, Nokia Drive and Nokia City Lens. Operating system offers mobile browser Internet Explorer 10, support Windows Live, Microsoft Office Mobile applications and 7 GB SkyDrive storage.

    Lumia 620 has a 1 GHz Snapdragon S4 Plus processor, with 500 MB RAM, 8 GB internal storage (expandable up to 64 GB) and a battery of 1.300mAh, according to Engadget.

    Separately, Nokia has announced on Wednesday the launch of a new smartphone, Lumia 920T, in partnership with China Mobile, the largest mobile operator in China.

    Overall, we could say that Nokia Lumia 620 is a step in the right direction. The smartphone looks good, has good facilities and has an attractive price.

  • Revealed: 4K Ultra HD Video Player as "Only Sony can do"

    Home viewers are eagerly placing advance orders for a Sony 4K HD Video Player, included with each purchase of its 84-inch XBR-84X900 LED TV for a total "One Sony" experience that incorporates all of its electronics and entertainment capabilities into one black box.

    Phil Molyneux, Sony Electronics COO, told us this is something "only Sony can do." Obtainable exclusively with this particular HDTV on a no-cost lease, this is the first-ever 4K player for the residential consumer. Finally, we have the long-awaited details of what the new video player entails. Incorporated within the workings of the 84-inch screen, the 4K player is a hard-disc server in its own right. We'll be among the earliest proud recipients of a specimen model when the product is launched.

    The 4K comes pre-loaded with a small collection full-length feature films, including Total Recall (2012), Taxi Driver, The Amazing Spider-Man (refer to press release for a complete list of titles), along with brief sports clips from Red Bull and concert footage. The package comes with a remote controller in the form of an Experia Tablet S app along the same lines as its Movies Unlimited service. Ah, that would explain at least some of the eye-watering MRSP of $24,999.99. This is the first opportunity the home viewer will have the opportunity to experience this quality of 4K video under their own roof. By "home viewer" we are clearly not referring to your average university student living away from home for the first time, but purchasers with the means to acquire high-end gear.

    You've got to ask yourself if the human eye is even capable of discerning the difference in quality between bog-standard HD and 4K, or will all but the most well-heeled viewer look at it and see a late model two-door convertible. Kaz Hirai is counting on it. Having invested in its Colorworks digital production studio in 2009, white glove task force dedicated to updating content, not to mention two mega high-spec CinaAlta 4K camcorders (complete with matching prices), we can expect more of the same from Sony.

  • Unlocked iPhone 5 available in USA

    Apple has finally decided to provide an unlocked version of the iPhone 5 in USA, targeting the clients that want to avoid the commitment of a contract.

    Just before the Christmas period, when shopping craze is more intense than ever, Apple has updated the online store, allowing the clients to purchase a contract-free version of the iPhone 5, which will be shipped in one week of the purchase, in any capacity and color. The starting price is $649 for the 16GB, with the 32GB costing $749 and the 64GB model being priced $849. Even though some customers find the price relatively high and prefer the safety of a contract, there are also contract haters among us that prefer to buy a single handset, without any constraints of the carrier.

    No matter which side you are, Apple made sure that you understand how an unlocked phone works:

    If you don’t want a multiyear service contract, or if you prefer to use a local carrier when traveling abroad, the unlocked iPhone is the best choice. It does not come with a micro-SIM card for iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S, or a nano-SIM card for iPhone 5, so you’ll need to get one from any supported GSM carrier worldwide. To start using it, simply insert the card into the slot on your iPhone and turn it on by pressing and holding the On/Off button for a few seconds. Then follow the onscreen instructions to set up your iPhone.

    Thus, Apple clarifies that the unlocked version of the iPhone 5 is great if you are a frequent traveler and want to combine different networks on your handset. However, there is a price to pay for this, as it was on the previous iPhones. If you are thinking of buying the unlocked version then, you still have time before the holidays with the shipment in a week!