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  • Seagate Announces Interest Regarding A Going Private Transaction

    Seagate has announced that it has received a preliminary indication of interest regarding a going private transaction. The company is in discussions with the party from whom it received the indication of interest, and its board of directors is evaluating the indication of interest and other strategic alternatives.

    The company has retained Morgan Stanley & Co. Incorporated and Perella Weinberg Partners LP to provide financial advice and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati and Arthur Cox as legal counsel.

    Seagate said that there is no assurance that the company will receive a formal offer or that any transaction will take place.

    According to a report by Reuters, last month, TPG Capital LP and Silver Lake held early stage talks about buying Seagate, but it then appeared unlikely to result in a deal, a source familiar with the situation said at the time.

    Seagate also said that neither the company nor its representatives will be providing any additional comments regarding the preliminary indication of interest.

  • 3D TV Not Growing as Fast as TV Makers Expected in 2010

    3D TV is now readily available in retail, but the uptake among consumers has been limited by high prices and lack of content. However, with falling prices, increased content availability, and improvements in technology all expected, there will be tremendous growth in 3D TV shipments over the next few years.

    DisplaySearch forecasts that 3.2 million 3D TVs will be shipped in 2010, with growth to over 90 million in 2014. Based on this forecast, 3D will grow from 2% of all flat panel TVs shipped in 2010, to 41% in 2014.

    “While TV manufacturers have bold plans and a lot of new products, consumers remain cautious,” said Paul Gray, Director of TV Electronics Research. “Consumers have been told that 3D TV is the future, but there still remains a huge price jump and little 3D content to watch.”

    “North American consumers in particular appear to be playing a waiting game,” noted Paul Gagnon, Director of North America TV Research. “Set makers have trained consumers to expect rapid price falls for new technology, and consumers seem happy to wait a little.” As a result, DisplaySearch forecasts that 3D shipments in North America will be just under 1.6 million this year.

    The Quarterly TV Design and Features Report results also found that sales of 3D glasses in Western Europe remain low, with most countries failing to achieve 1:1 sales of glasses to sets.

    “This is particularly disappointing,” noted Gray, “A healthy level would be closer to two pairs of 3D glasses per TV, so it’s clear that these sets at best are being chosen for future-proofing, and at worst it’s an indication that consumers cannot buy a premium set without 3D.”

    Nevertheless, 3D is a feature that set makers are determined to develop. 3D product choice is expanding fast with increased product launch plans and more set makers adding 3D. Rapidly expanding product offerings and 3D TV set prices have led DisplaySearch to increase its forecast for 3D in later years, with an anticipated 90 million sets being shipped in 2014.

    “TV manufacturers strongly believe in 3D and are driving its cost downward, but its value to consumers relies strongly on the availability of quality material to watch,” Gray concluded.

  • Microsoft Unveils Windows Phone 7 Global Portfolio

    Microsoft announced nine new Windows Phone 7 handsets that will be available this October and November from over 60 mobile operators in 30 countries in Europe, North America and Asia Pacific.

    Windows Phone 7 will be available in a variety of form factors from device-makers such as Dell, HTC Corp., LG and Samsung, and from mobile operators including América Móvil, AT&T, Deutsche Telekom AG, Movistar, O2, Orange, SFR, SingTel, Telstra, TELUS, T-Mobile USA and Vodafone.

    All Windows Phone 7 phones will include the Snapdragon processor from Qualcomm. A broad selection of phones will begin shipping in October 2010 with more arriving in 2011, including phones from Sprint and Verizon Wireless.

    The following devices will come to North America, Europe and Asia Pacific in the holiday 2010 timeframe.

    In North America:

    AT&T
    • HTC Surround, United States
    • Samsung Focus, United States
    • LG Quantum, United States

    T-Mobile USA
    • HTC HD7, United States
    • Dell Venue Pro, United States

    TELUS
    • HTC 7 Surround, Canada
    • LG Optimus 7, Canada

    América Móvil
    • LG Optimus 7, Mexico

    In Europe:

    O2
    • HTC HD7, United Kingdom, Germany

    Orange
    • HTC 7 Mozart, including France, United Kingdom
    • Samsung OMNIA 7, including France, United Kingdom

    SFR
    • HTC 7 Trophy, France
    • Samsung OMNIA 7, France

    Movistar
    • LG Optimus 7, Spain
    • HTC HD7, Spain
    • Samsung OMNIA 7, Spain

    Deutsche Telekom AG
    • HTC 7 Mozart, Germany
    • Samsung OMNIA 7, Germany

    Vodafone
    • HTC 7 Trophy, including Germany, Spain, United Kingdom
    • LG Optimus 7, including Germany, Italy, Spain, United Kingdom

    In Asia Pacific:

    SingTel
    • HTC HD 7, Singapore
    • LG Optimus 7, Singapore

    Telstra
    • HTC 7 Mozart, Australia
    • LG Optimus 7Q, Australia

    Vodafone
    • HTC 7 Trophy, including Australia

    “We have a beautiful lineup in this first wave of Windows Phone 7 handsets,” said Steve Ballmer, chief executive officer at Microsoft. “Microsoft and its partners are delivering a different kind of mobile phone and experience — one that makes everyday tasks faster by getting more done in fewer steps and providing timely information in a ‘glance and go’ format.”

  • IPsmarx and VoIP Innovations Announce Partnership and API Integration

    IPsmarx Technology and VoIP Innovations have announced compatibility and API Integration for local and toll free DIDs. According to the companies, this integration will enable VoIP service providers to easily and quickly offer services to a new market.

    VoIP Innovations has over 120,000 DIDs available for instant provisioning. Their platform includes a full suite of tools to automate service delivery in one easy to use web portal. They also guarantee “clear call quality” and customer service that is available to assist 24/7.

    The API integration will allow service providers the ability to connect to a live database and view VoIP Innovations current inventory of local and toll free DID numbers. They will then have the ability to purchase right from this database. Service Providers no longer have to purchase DIDs in bulk, in advance.

    The IPsmarx SIP Based Calling Card incorporates both Pin & Pinless service management with advanced recharge options, e-commerce, recharge through IVR, as well as marketing features. Servicing the residential market by implementing IPsmarx’ Class 5 Softswitch.

    IPsmarx has also helped revolutionize telecom in Africa by allowing emerging service providers in the Middle East and Africa to provide low-cost alternative calling methods to their customer base without having to install costly hardware and phone lines in their country, itself by implementing the IPsmarx Callback solution.

    “Creating a partnership and implementing the API integration with VoIP Innovations, will allow our customers to have access to quality products and services. This will also provide a great convenience to the customer, having access to the services they need anytime, day or night”, stated William Pourmajidi, Technical Support Manager at IPsmarx”.

    Related news
    IPsmarx Wants to Revolutionize the Calling Card Industry
    VoIP Innovations Launches Canadian Origination
    IPsmarx Partners with snom to Deliver VoIP Services for SMBs and Global Enterprises
    Winning VoIP Philosophy: Interview with Arash Vahidnia, CEO of IPsmarx

  • Logitech Delivers Google TV to Living Rooms

    Consumers today have access to an enormous amount of content, delivered by a range of sources and increasingly complex devices. To bring this content together through a single interface on the best screen in the house – the TV screen – Logitech has worked with Google on a line of products designed to create the Google TV experience for the U.S. households with an HDMI-ready TV.

    Google TV brings traditional TV programming together with the entire Internet, with the ability to search across them both.

    Logitech yesterday unveiled Logitech Revue with Google TV, a compact, plug-and-play companion box with its Logitech Keyboard Controller, which together provide control over the Google TV experience and home-entertainment devices. The company’s portfolio of products for Google TV also includes the Logitech TV Cam and Vid HD service for HD video calling, Mini Controller as well as other applications designed for the Google TV platform.

    The box is capable of outputing a 1080p (60fps) signal and comes with with HDMI 1.3a in and out, two USB 2.0 ports, audio optical output (S/PDIF), 10/100BaseT Ethernet, 802.11b/g/n connectivity, the Logitech Harmony IR blaster port, and a built-in Logitech Unifying receiver.

    The box ships with a compact keyboard complete with integrated remote and touchpad, HDMI cable, and one IR mini blaster. There is also a selection of accessories: a $149 webcam, and the Revue-specific version of Mini controller for $129.99, as well as Logitech Harmony app for Android and iPhone.

    The Logitech TV Cam lets you make and receive high-definition video calls on your HDTV – no computer required. It has Carl Zeiss wide-angle autofocus lens with 5x digital zoom and two digital, directional microphones and connects with Logitech Revue box using USB. Together, the Logitech TV Cam and Vid HD software enable HD video calls of up to 720p.

    Available for pre-order on Logitech.com, Amazon.com and BestBuy.com, Logitech’s line of products for Google TV are expected to be available online and in Best Buy stores across the U.S. by the end of October. The Logitech Revue suggested retail price is $299.99. The Logitech Mini Controller will be selling for $129.99, and the Logitech TV Cam for $149.99.

    “Just as we have done with the PC and with home entertainment systems, our role with Google TV is to give people the ability to control and interact with their content and devices with unprecedented ease,” said Gerald P. Quindlen, Logitech president and chief executive officer. “With our line of products for Google TV, Logitech will help redefine the user experience in the digital living room.”

    “Logitech Revue with Google TV makes it easy for people to use just one controller to find and enjoy content from a variety of sources – programs from TV providers; the entire Web, including Flash-based games; music, photos and videos from their personal library; and a growing selection of apps,” said Ashish Arora, vice president and general manager of Logitech’s digital home products group. “Logitech not only delivers the Google TV experience for any HDMI-ready TV, but we build on it with exceptional interface devices, control of living room components through Logitech Harmony Link and enhanced experiences such as video calling in the living room.”

    “Google TV combines the power of search, a full Web browser, and Android apps with the TV experience you know and love,” said Mario Queiroz, vice president of product management for Google. “We’re proud to be working with Logitech to launch the very first set of Google TV devices, helping you and me easily access great Web and TV content, all on the same HD screen.”

    “Smart TV delivers a truly integrated experience, with broadcast and the Internet united on one screen,” said Wilfred Martis, general manager, Retail CE, Intel Digital Home Group. “The Logitech Revue brings Google TV to existing televisions, and also offers video calling to provide a new dimension to home entertainment. The smart TV experience requires advanced processing performance, as well as outstanding audio/visual capabilities, and we’re proud that Logitech selected the Intel Atom processor CE4100 to power this revolutionary product.”

  • Sony Commercializes World's First 16MP CMOS Sensors for Mobile Phones

    Sony announced the commercialization of two new "Exmor R" back-illuminated CMOS image sensors with improved photographic performance including high sensitivity and low noise.

    In addition, Sony will launch two new lens modules equipped with these image sensors, which also include the smallest and thinnest model for mobile phones. This is also the first time that "Exmor R" is commercialized for the use in mobile phones.

    "IMX081PQ" is world’s first type 1/2.8 back-illuminated CMOS image sensor which realizes 16.41 effective megapixel resolution, and adopts the industry’s smallest unit pixel size of 1.12μm achieved by the fine pixel fabrication process technology. In theory, when a unit pixel size is made smaller, there are also some issues such as color mixture among smaller unit pixels. Sony said they solved this problem by implementing a “unique” formation of photo diodes optimally designed for fine pixel structure to realize a CMOS image sensor with high resolution, high sensitivity and low noise.

    "IMX105PQ" is a type 1/3.2 back-illuminated CMOS image sensor which realizes 8.13 effective megapixel resolutions for higher sensitivity and adopts a unit pixel size of 1.4μm. By embedding these highly sensitive sensors into mobile phones, including those without camera flash, users can capture high quality photos and videos even in low light settings.

    Furthermore, Sony will commercialize "IU081F" and "IU105F2" compact auto-focus lens modules which include the two new "Exmor R" back-illuminated CMOS image sensors. According to Sony, these down-sized modules are “suitable and efficient for mobile phones with relatively limited space and are equipped with high performance lens which maximize the image sensors’ respective performances.”

    "IU081F" is the industry’s smallest and thinnest auto-focus lens module (W10.5 X D10.5 X H7.9mm) and is equipped with the 16.41 megapixel CMOS image sensor. "IU105F2" adopts the 8.13 effective megapixel CMOS image sensor, and belongs in the industry’s smallest and thinnest size class (W8.5 X D8.5 X H5.67mm).

    Sony first announced the development of "Exmor R" on Jun, 2008. "Exmor R" has been incorporated in Sony’s digital imaging products since 2009, and its use in other products has continued to expand.

    In this back-illuminated CMOS image sensor, light is directed onto the silicon substrate from behind, allowing light to be used with a level of efficiency not possible with conventional front-illuminated structures.

    Since 2009, Sony has been mass producing "Exmor R" for Digital Still Cameras and Digital Video Camcorders on wafer lines (with diameter of 200mm). At the end of 2010, the company plans to start the mass production of "Exmor R," including those for mobile phones announced today, on cutting-edge wafer lines (with diameter of 300mm).

  • Motorola and Verizon Introduce Droid Pro

    Verizon Wireless and Motorola today unveiled Droid Pro, an Android 2.2-based smartphone optimized for business use.

    According to the companies, Droid Pro meets employers’ and employees’ needs by addressing the productivity tools businesses require, including corporate connectivity and security; full push corporate e-mail with corporate level security; unified calendar with additional work features and pre-loaded Quickoffice Mobile Suite, a 1 GHz processor; 4 GB of memory (2 GB internal; and 2 GB removable) and a QWERTY keyboard.

    Among other features are:
    – multi-touch 3.1-inch display;
    – 5 megapixel auto-focus camera with dual LED flash;
    – Adobe Flash Player 10.1 support;
    – 3G Mobile HotSpot capabilities (allows customers to connect up to five other Wi-Fi-enabled devices and laptops);
    – dual-mode CDMA/GSM chip for worldwide roaming;
    – Wi-Fi-enabled DNLA connectivity;
    – 3G diversity antennae;
    – global roaming support in more than 220 countries and data coverage in more than 200 countries.

    Droid Pro also has built-in security features, including AuthenTec IPSec multi-headed VPN integration, remote wipe of device and SD card, and complex password support. The company informed that device and SD card encryption will be available in early 2011.

    The new Motorola’s handset will be available in the first week of November.

    Related news
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    Verizon Clarifies Succession Plans; Names Lowell McAdam as COO
    Nokia Siemens to Acquire Motorola’s Wireless Network Infrastructure
    Verizon to Build 4G LTE Network in Rural America

  • Gartner: The Use of Mobile Fraud Detection in Mobile Commerce Environments is Imperative

    By year-end 2013, location information or profile information from mobile phones will be used to validate 90 percent of mobile transactions, according to Gartner.

    The research firm says that the rapid adoption of smartphones is forcing banks, social networks and other e-commerce providers to implement the kinds of fraud detection capabilities that have become mainstream with fixed-line computing.

    "Because of the improving browser experiences on smartphones, mobile commerce and transaction execution are set to increase rapidly," said William Clark, research vice president at Gartner. "We estimate that by the end of 2013, 12.5 percent of all e-commerce transactions will be mobile."

    "Enterprise applications must detect fraud in these mobile environments, but fraud detection tools available today that work in fixed-line computing environments don’t work well or at all in the mobile world," Clark said.

    "There are a number of methods that can be implemented to help enterprises detect fraud in the mobile space, but they are still in their early stages of development, and it will take until at least 2012 for them to transform from embryonic applications to technically mature systems that work easily and transparently across disparate mobile networks," he added.

    According to Gartner, fraud prevention methods available today to mobile applications include:

    Mobile device identification — This is enabled through a JavaScript on the server that the user logs in to, which captures whatever information it can get from the user’s browser and phone, depending on whether the user is using a browser or native application. If the application is browser-based, then the JavaScript application captures whatever information it can get from the user’s browser to uniquely identify that particular user’s browser and mobile device. If the mobile application is native and residing on the mobile handset, native applications can additionally gather the phone’s serial number and network card number. This will require opt-in by the user.

    Location of device — This is based on the phone’s location information independent of the browser (IP address), so the user does not have to have his or her mobile browser application open for this to work; the phone only needs to be turned on. Enterprises may want to check and correlate the location of the device relative to anything else they know about the user’s location through other systems they may interact with at the enterprise. For mobile phones, there are two architectures that are used to obtain location information: One relies on device information (e.g., using the GPS-API applications that the user must opt into); the other employs APIs provided through mobile network operators that don’t require the users to opt in to releasing this information.

    Some online fraud detection vendors are starting to tune their risk scoring and/or rule-based models specifically for mobile applications — For example, some vendors are looking at the mobile device itself, the location of the phone, and the behavior of the user inside the host application while transacting from the phone. This area is very new to the fraud detection vendors, as there is little mobile transaction experience to draw on in order to build effective risk models and scores that significantly improve on risk models that have already been built for fixed-line computing. It tries to combine some of the methods listed above, including mobile device identification and examining the location of the mobile phone in relation to other information known about the user and his/her location.

    Gartner estimates that 70 percent of the largest 20 global card issuers (who authorize more than 50 percent of all payment card transactions) will gradually adopt mobile context information to help detect fraud on fixed-line transactions, and that by year-end 2015, more than 15 percent of all payment card transactions will be validated using context-aware profile information.

    Related news
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  • fringOut’s “Almost-Free Calls” Coming to Android

    Two weeks after releasing fringOut that enables users to make cheap calls to any regular landline or mobile phone anywhere in the world, with rates as low as 1¢ a minute, fring announced the service is now available for Android phones.

    fring’s new service is currently available also for Nokia S60 (Symbian) devices and will soon be available on iPhone.

    fringOut’s rates for Germany, US, UK and India starts at 1¢.

    A list of rates is available at fring.com/fringOut/rates

    fring users will still be able to use other SIP service through fring (“We are sure you’ll love fringOut’s simplicity and its low prices. If for some reason, you still want to use other SIP providers, you are welcome too,” the company said).

    All the other fring features, like fring to fring calls (audio and video) are still available for free. The option to send an sms using fringOut credit is currently not available.

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  • Skype Now Available for Android Phones

    Skype has just announced the release of Skype for Android, a client for mobile handsets, built for smartphones running Android OS version 2.1 or above.

    Skype said that the application has been tested successfully by the company on HTC Desire, HTC Legend, Google Nexus One, Motorola Milestone XT720, and Motorola Milestone. It may work on other Android phones, but the company can’t guarantee full functionality or compatibility.

    In the US, Skype for Android calling works over WiFi only. Outside the US the app works over WiFi or mobile data connection (GPRS, EDGE, 3G). It is not available in China and Japan at this moment.

    The application is downloadable for free from the Android Market and supports the following languages: Brazilian Portuguese, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, Swedish, Polish, Russian, Simplified Chinese & Traditional Chinese.

    Mark Douglas, Product Manager of Android said: "The Skype experience is ubiquitous today. More and more people are using Skype to do things together when apart. With the addition of Android, we are pleased that Skype is now available on three of the most popular mobile platforms today: Android, iOS and Symbian"

    Related news
    Avaya and Skype Team Up to to Collaborate on Unified Communications
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