Business News Holding

Author: admin

  • Discover More Easily The Best Apps In Android Market

    Google continues its string of good news for Android fans, revealing the new Android Market, in the second day of the Google I/O conference in Moscone Center, San Francisco.

    Google’s application store has always been criticized for its cumbersome and obscure system of presenting the applications, in contrast with Apple’s App Store, so the IT giant has decided to take action.

    Android Market has now five new functions that will help any user find games and applications more easily. First is Top Apps that comes in a more complex shape, with recommendations by country, a top of both free and paid applications, and also a top of applications with the highest revenues.

    The second novelty is the Editor’s Choice, which contains a collection of the best applications at the moment, carefully selected by the Android Market’s reps.

    Next is Top Developers that will reward the best designers of applications with a special icon, which will ensure quality, they also being present in a special list in the Android Market. Currently the list contains 150 companies.

    Another innovation will give the user a recommendation of any downloaded software by other users who have also viewed the same program analyzed at that time. For example, if you’re using ScoreMobile, an application that gives you the latest scores in sports, you will be advised of other similar applications that sports fans have downloaded.

    The last section introduced is Trending Apps and will contain the applications and the games that are recording an upward trend in terms of download, in other words, the most promising titles of the moment.

    The new features of the Android Market are currently available only for the online version, but Google promises that the mobile version will be upgraded pretty soon.

  • Google Ice Cream Sandwich, Android 3.1, Movies and Music, Announced At Google I/O

    Google moves on with their global domination plans, announcing a lot of operating systems and services from the Google Ice Cream Sandwich to the new Android 3.1, Google Music and the possibility of renting movies on Android Market, all in one single day at the Google I/O 2011 event held at Moscone Center, San Francisco.

    Although it is difficult to say that a story would be more important than another, the operating system called Google Ice Cream Sandwich is certainly a highly awaited announcement. A combination between the Android software for tablets, Honeycomb and for smartphones, Gingerbread, the new Sandwich will be a universal version that will run on smart gadgets, from the smallest cell phones to the most generous tablets. It will offer a series of revolutionary features and is scheduled for the end of 2011.

    Google has decided that it’s time to enter the game of emphasizing the multimedia content and has launched Google Music service, which allows a server to store up to 20,000 songs, from its own collection, which will be played then by streaming on notebook, smartphone or other device. Google Music Beta is already live.

    The video part could not be absent from the equation, Google being able to offer us a service that allows users to rent movies directly from Android Market, at very good prices.

    Another thing that deserves to be noted from the Google I/O conference, which is still ongoing, is the launch of Android 3.1, the new version of the most popular operating system, which brings, among others, the possibility to resize the widgets and to import photos from digital cameras via USB host.

    Stay tuned for more details and fresh news from the Google I/O conference.

  • Microsoft to Acquire Skype for $8.5 Billion

    Microsoft and Skype have just announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which Microsoft will acquire Skype for $8.5 billion in cash from the investor group led by Silver Lake.

    With 170 million connected users and over 207 billion minutes of voice and video conversations in 2010, Skype has been a pioneer in creating connections among friends, families and business colleagues globally. Microsoft has a long-standing focus and investment in real-time communications across its various platforms, including Lync (which saw 30 percent revenue growth in Q3), Outlook, Messenger, Hotmail and Xbox LIVE.

    The companies informed that Skype will support Microsoft devices like Xbox and Kinect, Windows Phone and a wide array of Windows devices, and Microsoft will connect Skype users with Lync, Outlook, Xbox Live and other communities. Microsoft will continue to invest in and support Skype clients on non-Microsoft platforms.

    "Skype is a phenomenal service that is loved by millions of people around the world," said Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. "Together we will create the future of real-time communications so people can easily stay connected to family, friends, clients and colleagues anywhere in the world."

    Skype will become a new business division within Microsoft, and Skype CEO Tony Bates will assume the title of president of the Microsoft Skype Division, reporting directly to Ballmer.

    "Microsoft and Skype share the vision of bringing software innovation and products to our customers," said Tony Bates. "Together, we will be able to accelerate Skype’s plans to extend our global community and introduce new ways for everyone to communicate and collaborate," Bates said.

    According to the companies, the acquisition will increase the accessibility of real-time video and voice communications, bringing benefits to both consumers and enterprise users and "generating significant new business and revenue opportunities." The combination will extend Skype’s world-class brand and the reach of its networked platform, while enhancing Microsoft’s existing portfolio of real-time communications products and services.

    "Tony Bates has a great track record as a leader and will strengthen the Microsoft management team. I’m looking forward to Skype’s talented global workforce bringing its insights, ideas and experience to Microsoft," Ballmer said.

    Founded in 2003, Skype was acquired by eBay in September 2005, and then acquired by an investment group led by Silver Lake in November 2009. Skype has made impressive progress over the past 18 months under Silver Lake’s leadership, increasing monthly calling minutes by 150 percent, developing new revenue streams and strategic partnerships, acquiring the intellectual property powering its peer-to-peer network, and recruiting an outstanding senior management team.

    Other members of the selling investor group led by Silver Lake include eBay International AG, CPP Investment Board, Joltid Limited in partnership with Europlay Capital Advisors; and Andreessen Horowitz.

  • SAMSUNG GALAXY S II at 3M Pre-Orders

    Samsung continues to break records. After announcing a few days ago that it had sold 120,000 copies of the super-phone Galaxy S II only in South Korea, now Samsung makes public the real number of the preorders.

    According to the company, we are talking about 3 million people worldwide who had pre-ordered the new smartphone Samsung Galaxy S II at the end of April, when it was released in Korea.

    The Korean electronics giant says the 3-million demand is so unprecedented, the pre-orders being made before the official launch of its first dual-core Android. For comparison, it should be noted that the first Galaxy S has been sold in 10 million copies, so this 3m-demand is very huge. In addition, the demand is expected to continue its growth, since the phone will be launched in 120 countries worldwide.

    According to the analyses, in the current pace, the rapid increase in demand for Samsung smartphones continues to threaten companies like Apple or Nokia. Samsung Galaxy S II is the world’s first phone with a 4.3-inch Super AMOLED Plus screen.

    However, the demand for this new smartphone could be overtaken by the launching of the new HTC Sensation in summer or by the launching of the new iPhone in September this year.

  • Shipments of GPS-enabled GSM/WCDMA Handsets Grew 97 Percent in 2010

    According to a new research report by Berg Insight, global shipments of GPS-enabled GSM/WCDMA handsets increased almost 97 percent in 2010 to 295 million units. Growing at a CAGR of 28.8 percent, shipments are forecasted to reach 940 million units in 2015.

    The attach rates for wireless connectivity technologies in handsets including GPS, Bluetooth and WLAN are increasing steadily as the adoption of smartphones accelerates. These connectivity technologies are already a standard feature on high-end smartphones. Adoption of GPS and WLAN will also increase rapidly in the medium- and low-end smartphone segments.

    The attach rate for WLAN connectivity in handsets reached 20 percent in 2010. Berg Insight forecasts shipments of WLAN-enabled handsets to reach 900 million in 2015. “There are numerous compelling use cases for WLAN in mobile phones, ranging from offloading data traffic from increasingly congested mobile networks to media synchronisation and hybrid navigation services”, said André Malm, Senior Analyst, Berg Insight.

    “Hybrid navigation technologies are necessary to enable reliable positioning indoors. New multi-mode GPS receivers that also support the Russian GLONASS satellite system are already available in handsets. When using the two systems in combination, more visible satellites will increase the chance to receive sufficiently strong signals to get a fix in urban canyons,” he said.

    He added that further performance increases will come from hybrid location technologies that fuse signal measurements from multiple satellite systems, cellular networks and WLAN, together with data from various forms of sensors such as accelerometers, gyroscopes and altimeters.

    Starting in the second half of 2011, more handsets supporting the Near Field Communication (NFC) standard for short-range wireless point-to-point communication will also become available. When deployed in mobile phones, NFC can be used for countless applications such as information exchange, electronic ticketing and mobile payments. Shipments of NFC-enabled handsets are forecasted to increase from less than two million units in 2010 to 400 million units in 2015.

  • Voxbone, Jajah Create Service That Localizes International Calling

    Voxbone has collaborated with Jajah to develop a value-added telecommunications service, which is said to make international calling "simple and affordable." The International Favorites service, which Jajah provides for mobile customers of O2 in the United Kingdom, offers a subscriber a virtual overseas number so the users can call at local rates.

    As part of the new service, Voxbone supplies an international “Call Me” number that directly reaches a customer’s mobile phone.

    The customer adds this second phone number from a country of choice to an existing mobile subscription. Calls to the number are dialed, delivered and billed like local PSTN calls. These calls are transmitted through Voxbone’s IP network to the O2 user’s mobile phone. The subscriber doesn’t need a special phone or application.

    The virtual number complements the subscriber’s U.K. mobile number, enabling two phone numbers to be mapped to the same device. The service works with most O2 phones.

    In addition, Voxbone is supplying numbers for another feature of International Favorites: provision of three local outbound numbers per subscriber that the customer may use to reach selected international landline and mobile numbers. A flat fee of £10 per month covers 3,000 minutes (50 hours) of calls to these numbers.

    “We are enthused about this opportunity to help a global telecom leader use our phone numbers and global VoIP backbone to create value for its customers and its business,” said Voxbone CEO Rod Ullens. “International Favorites enables customers to keep in closer touch with friends and loved ones in other countries, while it benefits operators by promoting customer loyalty and international calling.”

    “A new kind of geography is being formed that is about local presence and global relationships superseding distance or national borders,” said Trevor Healy, Chief Innovation Officer for Telefónica Europe. “International Favorites gives us a tremendous opportunity to innovate, reflect our users’ needs and open new revenue streams.”

  • Android To Become the Most Popular OS by the End of 2011

    Worldwide smartphone sales will reach 468 million units in 2011, a 57.7 percent increase from 2010, according to Gartner. By the end of 2011, Android will move to become the most popular operating system worldwide and will build on its strength to account for 49 percent of the smartphone market by 2012.

    According to the report, sales of open OS devices will account for 26 percent of all mobile handset device sales in 2011, and are expected to surpass the 1 billion mark by 2015, when they will account for 47 percent of the total mobile device market.

    “By 2015, 67 percent of all open OS devices will have an average selling price of $300 or below, proving that smartphones have been finally truly democratized,” said Roberta Cozza, principal analyst at Gartner.

    “As vendors delivering Android-based devices continue to fight for market share, price will decrease to further benefit consumers”, Cozza said. “Android’s position at the high end of the market will remain strong, but its greatest volume opportunity in the longer term will be in the mid- to low-cost smartphones, above all in emerging markets.”

    Gartner predicts that Apple’s iOS will remain the second biggest platform worldwide through 2014 despite its share deceasing slightly after 2011. This reflects Gartner’s underlying assumption that Apple will be interested in maintaining margins rather than pursuing market share by changing its pricing strategy. This will continue to limit adoption in emerging regions. iOS share will peak in 2011, with volume growth well above the market average. This is driven by increased channel reach in key mature markets like the U.S. and Western Europe.

    Research In Motion’s share over the forecast period will decline, reflecting the stronger competitive environment in the consumer market, as well as increased competition in the business sector. Gartner has factored in RIM’s migration from BlackBerry OS to QNX which is expected in 2012. Analysts said this transition makes sense because RIM can create a consistent experience going from smartphones to tablets with a single developer community and — given that QNX as a platform brings more advanced features than the classic BlackBerry OS — it can enable more competitive smartphone products.

    Gartner predicts that Nokia will push Windows Phone well into the mid-tier of its portfolio by the end of 2012, driving the platform to be the third largest in the worldwide ranking by 2013. Gartner has revised its forecast of Windows Phone’s market share upward, solely by virtue of Microsoft’s alliance with Nokia. Although this is an honorable performance it is considerably less than what Symbian had achieve in the past underlying the upward battle that Nokia has to face.

    Gartner analysts said new device types will widen ecosystems. “The growth in sales of media tablets expected in 2011 and future years will widen the ecosystems that open OS communications devices have created. This will, by and large, function more as a driver than an inhibitor for sales of open OS devices,” said Carolina Milanesi, research vice president at Gartner.

    “Consumers who already own an open OS communications device will be drawn to media tablets and more often than not, to media tablets that share the same OS as their smartphone,” Milanesi said. “This allows consumers to be able to share the same experience across devices as well as apps, settings or game scores. At the same time, tablet users who don’t own a smartphone could be prompted to adopt one to be able to share the experience they have on their tablets.”

  • Novell to Enable Development of .NET Apps for Android using Microsoft Visual Studio

    Novell today announced the availability of Mono for Android, the first solution for developing Microsoft .NET applications for the Android platform using Microsoft Visual Studio.

    With the addition of Mono for Android to its existing Mono development tools, Novell is enabling Microsoft .NET and C# developers using Visual Studio and other environments to utilize a common code base to create applications for the industry’s most widely-used mobile devices, including Android-based smartphones and tablets, Apple iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch.

    According to statistics released by research firm Nielson, Android has a 29 percent consumer market share, making it the most popular smartphone platform. With Mono for Android, .NET developers and independent software vendors (ISVs) can utilize Visual Studio and their existing skills to build a vast array of Android-based applications and sell their products into this massive market.

    "Since the introduction of MonoTouch in 2009, developers have experienced how Mono streamlines mobile application development," said Miguel de Icaza, Mono project founder and vice president of Developer Platforms at Novell. "As a result, many asked us to build a similar tool for Android. We developed Mono for Android to give both individual developers and businesses a way of sharing their code across multiple mobile platforms, increasing efficiency and reuse of their C# and .NET expertise across the board."

    Mono for Android consists of the core Mono runtime, bindings for native Android APIs, a Visual Studio 2010 plugin to develop Android applications, and a software development kit that contains all the tools needed to build, debug and deploy applications. Developers trained in Microsoft Visual Studio can stay within their preferred IDE, while using their existing skills and .NET code, libraries and tools, as well as C# programming knowledge, to create mobile applications for Android-based devices. With the Visual Studio 2010 plugin, engineers can develop, debug and deploy their applications to an Android simulator, an Android device or the Android Application Store.

    Mono for Android complements MonoTouch, Novell’s popular solution for developing applications for the iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch. Developers utilizing Mono for Android and MonoTouch can save time and money by sharing common code between iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch and Android phones and tablets, as well as Windows Phone 7, Windows desktops and Windows Server. A Mono for Android add-in also allows MonoDevelop users to develop on OS X.

    "As a mobile software developer and middleware vendor, Resco customers are enabled to use our products to develop MonoTouch, and now Mono for Android applications for Android and Apple devices," said Michal Sartoris, senior developer at Resco. "With more than 3,000 customers, our business success depends on us delivering feature-rich, highly-quality applications to the market before our competitors. Novell is providing us with innovative, cross-platform development tools that enable us to reduce the cost and resources required to create mobile applications."

    Mono for Android Enterprise Edition is available for US $999 per developer for a one-year subscription, which includes maintenance and updates. A five-developer Enterprise license supports five concurrent developers and is available for US $3,999 per year. Mono for Android Professional Edition is available for US $399 per developer for a one-year subscription. For a limited time, existing MonoTouch customers can receive a 50 percent discount off a similar Mono for Android Edition by using their activation code as a discount code.

  • iSuppli: Apple’s A5 Microprocessor Builds on Success of Predecessor

    Driven by the soaring sales of products including the iPad and the iPhone 4, Apple’s shipments of products based on its A4 microprocessor reached nearly 50 million units in 2010 from virtually zero sales in 2009, IHS iSuppli research indicates.

    Building on the success of its A4 microprocessor, Apple recently announced that its second-generation iPad line will be based on a new microprocessor, the A5, which the company said doubles the performance of the A4. Apple said the A5 will include dual microprocessor cores, compared to a single core for the A4. Along with the rise in computing power, Apple said the A5 will offer nine times faster graphics performance than the A4.

    In an indication of how successful the microprocessor has been, Apple in 2010 shipped nearly four times as many units of A4-based products as it did of X86-based .

    According to the analysts, the low-cost, highly integrated A4 and A5 designs represent an important element in Apple’s philosophy of offering products focused on delivering a compelling user interface (UI) and a greatly optimized computing platform for Apple’s iOS operating system.

    "In the new design paradigm of smart phones and tablets, computing efficiency trumps raw computing power. Designs like the iPad demand highly integrated microprocessors that emphasize graphics performance, lower power consumption and small space usage," Wayne Lam, Senior Analyst at iSuppli.

    Apple so far has introduced five products based on the A4: the first-generation iPad, the AT&T version of the iPhone 4, the Apple TV, the iPod Touch and the CDMA iPhone 4 carried by Verizon Wireless.

    The A4 combines an A4 microprocessor core and a graphics processing unit (GPU). The device was custom designed by P.A. Semi—a company acquired by Apple in 2008—and is manufactured by Samsung Electronics Co.

    Partly because of the popularity of Apple’s iPad, companies around the world are developing media tablets and other products that feature small and innovative form factors. These products require highly integrated semiconductor solutions that consume less power and space, similar to the A4 microprocessor.

    "In the PC market, this trend is driving rising sales of notebook microprocessors that integrate graphics processing capabilities, eliminating the need for separate GPUs," said Lam.

    In tablets and smart phones, companies are offering alternatives to the A4 that provide similar levels of integration. For instance, Intel and Nvidia have announced plans for tablet-oriented microprocessors with similar characteristics to the A4.

  • Samsung Becomes the World's First in Mass Production of Transparent LCD Panel

    Samsung has announced that it began mass production of a 22-inch transparent LCD panel in March this year. The panels come in two types, the black-and-white type and the color type, and they have a contrast ratio of 500:1 with WSXGA+ (1680*1050) resolution.

    Compared with the conventional LCD panels that use back light unit (BLU) and have 5% transparency, Samsung’s transparent LCD panel boasts the world’s best transparency rate of over 20% for the black-and-white type and over 15% for the color type.

    The transparent LCD panel has a high transparency rate, which enables a person to look right through the panel like glass, and it consumes 90% less electricity compared with a conventional LCD panel using back light unit.

    It’s because a transparent LCD panel utilizes ambient light such as sun light, which consequently reduces the dependency on electricity for generating power.

    According to Samsung, its transparent LCD panel maximizes convenience for not only manufacturers but also consumers by incorporating the HDMI and the USB interface.

    Transparent display panels have endless possibilities as an advertising tool, which can be applied to show windows and outdoor billboards or used in showcase events.

    Corporations and schools can also adopt the panel as an interactive communication device, which enables information to be displayed more effectively.

    Younghwan Park, a senior vice president of Samsung Electronics LCD Business, said, “Transparent displays will have a wide range of use in all industry areas as an efficient tool for delivering information and communication. With the world’s first mass production of the transparent LCD panel, Samsung Electronics plans to lead the global transparent LCD market by developing various applications.”