Business News Holding

Tag: hardware-and-technology

  • ASUS to Launch Four New Tablets by the End of 2011

    ASUS has recently introduced, at COMPUTEX 2011, new mobile devices such as Eee Slate, Eee Pad and recent Eee PC models. They are extending Eee’s portfolio, diversifying the range of options to users. As a single unit cannot meet the requirements of all mobile users, ASUS will launch four different pieces by the end of 2011.

    Tablet users who want a compact device for viewing and creating digital content can purchase the two ASUS models announced in early 2011: Eee Pad Transformer TF101 and Eee Pad Slider SL101. Winner of "Best Choice" and "Best Design" at COMPUTEX 2011, Transformer represents a more traditional approach to the concept of tablet, running on Android OS 3.0 ‘Honeycomb‘ 1 and 10.1-inch IPS multi-touch screen. When docking, the device turns into an ultra-portable QWERTY keyboard with 16-hour power autonomy.

    Transformer recently runs Android 3.1 – the latest version of Honeycomb, available to users through the update on May 31. FOTA update brings significant improvements in operating experience. The 3.1 version will be an important step forward for the tablet based on Android and ASUS is proud to be a market leader, taking the lead when it comes to providing the best to consumers.

    Eee Pad Slider, on the other hand, is a tablet that runs Android 3 and incorporates a QWERTY keyboard behind the 10-inch multi-touch screen.

    For users on the move, who are focusing on portability above all, ASUS created Eee Pad MeMO 3D. This 3.0 Android tablet has a 7-inch multi-touch screen which can be used in custom applications using a stylus, becoming a productive tool. MeMIC headsets in the package are perfect for music or phone calls. If turning the MeMO 3D back in "landscape", it will become a 3D display that does not require glasses, adding a new dimension to the tablets.

    Launched earlier this year, Eee Slate EP121, with 12-inch screen, is already selling well in USA and Europe. Powered by an Intel Core i5 and running on Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium, Eee Slate is the best tablet available at this time.

  • Nokia E6 and X7 Ready for Delivery in Europe

    The first two Nokia phones that come with Symbian Anna, Nokia E6 and Nokia X7 have been launched commercially. Fortunately, both phones will be available on the European market.

    Symbian Anna brings a better browser, faster, QWERTY keyboard in portrait mode and also new additions to Ovi Maps.

    The Nokia E6 model is the next evolutionary step in Nokia’s business line, following successful models such as Nokia E71 or Nokia E72. Nokia E6 has in its turn an elegant case, with steel and glass elements, full QWERTY keyboard and a 2.4-inch TFT LCD screen. Business functions are solid and we can mention here the access to Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft Communicator Mobile and Microsoft SharePoint, applications such as QuickOffice or World Traveler and business applications on Ovi Store, such as Sale Force. Its connectivity is also excellent, with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 3.0 and HSDPA 9.

    The Nokia X7 distinguish itself by its superb design made of steel and glass that combines in sharp geometric shapes. Nokia X7 has a 4-inch AMOLED touch screen with a resolution of 640 x 360 and resistant glass from Gorilla Glass, an 8-megapixel camera with dual LED flash and HD recording and 8 GB memory, expandable to 32 GB. The phone also offers easy access to social networks, Facebook and Twitter, navigation with Ovi Maps and preinstalled HD games such as Galaxy on Fire HD and Asphalt 5 HD.

    This event comes in the same time when Nokia passes through a tough period, its shares continuing to decrease with 10, after an initial decrease of 18%, reaching the minimum value of the last 13 years.

    The company makes the transition to Microsoft software, part of a restructuring process of mobile production division, which began three months ago. The main concern of analysts is that Nokia will not be able to recover an important part of the market share even after the launching phones based on Microsoft’s software.

  • ASUS PadFone – a hybrid between smartphone and tablet

    ASUS PadFone, the latest product of the Taiwanese company, has been officially launched. PadFone, the first model of what appears to be a new class of portable devices, lures features borrowed from both smartphone and tablet.

    The tablet serves as a dock for the phone, providing an interface optimized for a larger screen of the same applications present on the phone. Being embedded in the tablet, the phone can be charged through its internal battery. Also, if it is connected to a 3G network, the tablet can also use the network to connect to the internet.

    The two devices are as one, each complementing the other. In times when the speed and the mobility are needed, the phone is the preferred device, but when it comes to productivity and media, the tablet wins.

    Among the benefits obtained by using ASUS PadFone include a significantly improved battery life and extended desktop display.

    The idea of creating two devices able not only to “discuss”, but also to integrate, represents a new concept, which opens new horizons for the technologies in this sector.

    The body of the tablet in which ASUS PadFone is housed, seems to have similar size with the ASUS Transformer tablet, but the weight is probably slightly bigger because of the carcass.

    Among the visible enhancements on the tablet include a set of stereo speakers, front camera and a 5MP camera, mounted on the back of the PadFone. Currently weren’t disclosed any technical details, but it seems that will have HDM and micro-USB ports.

    ASUS’ choice regarding the version of Android that the new PadFone will run on is currently unknown, but certainly the future Ice Cream Sandwich is among the favorites, being the first version of Android adapted for both tablets and smartphones.

    Even if it wouldn’t please everyone, ASUS PadFone may be a good compromise for those who want to enjoy the functionality of a smartphone and of a tablet, without spending an exorbitant amount of money for purchasing two separate products.


  • Apple iOS 5 May be Credited with Widgets and Revamped Notifications

    The latest version of Apple’s iOS – iOS 5 – is almost ready and planned to be introduced at this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference. It is already rumored that the upcoming OS is featuring many advancements along with widgets and revamped notifications.

    Last year June was the first time to rumors floats all around about the improved notifications for the latest iOS. This was started through Apple’s recruiting a designer to create notification system for Plam’s WebOS. The widget issue came into light when Apple started filing patent for the always-in-sync widget for touchscreen devices.

    Some sources already revealed that the Apple is more into pushing journalists for the introduction of iOS 5 and planning this announcement in a big way. It is also informed that the latest iOS changes are designed to make up the hardware deficiencies and this will be the highlight of the software announcement from Apple.

    It is also presumed that the Apple may make announcement about cloud storage for their both operating systems iOS and Mac OS X  Lion. In fact, Apple blog mentioned in March that they may not release cloud-based iOS 5 until this fall.

    Earlier we mentioned about the Nuance deal with Apple for Voice Recognition. Surprisingly, some of the reliable sources confirmed that the “voice control” feature with the latest Apple mobile operating system got nothing to do with the licensing deal with Nuance.

    It looks like Apple is not interested in taking chances as the current feature is doing pretty well with the customer base. Also, iOS 5 is still under test, and perhaps planned changes might take place at a later stage. Also, it seems to be the planned “Voice Navigation” feature through Nuance Technologies might have taken a back seat and some core aspects might have considered for this time.

    In fact, ignoring “Voice Navigation” feature definitely will be a greatest disappointment for the Apple’s customer base as most of the Android based smartphones overtaking the iPhone success just because of this only feature. Already many experts are clearly indicating this feature as a major drawback for the popular iPhone to maintain its ruling in the market. Everyone expected this feature from the latest iOS 5, but looks like still further wait is needed for this feature.

  • Google Wallet, Launch Followed by Trial

    Google faces a trial, just few hours after the launch of a free application designed to replace the classic credit cards and which turns a smartphone into an "electronic wallet".

    In the trial issued against Google in a Californian Court, the company was accused of using PayPal and eBay’s technology for the newly launched Google Wallet application. Google officials did not comment on these allegations.

    In the document filed in court states that PayPal specialists working for about three years at a technology that allows payments using smartphones with operating system and that the people at Google have mastered the technology illegally, hiring the Head of the project, Osama Bedier.

    Bedier has worked in online financial services unit owned by eBay as the Vice-President of the mobile platform until he was hired (in January) by Google. He played an important role at the official launch of Google Wallet, which took place Thursday in New York, during which he stated that the service is being tested and will be available this summer.

    What is Google Wallet?

    Google Wallet will be available initially only for Google Nexus S 4G terminals from Sprint and will be extended later to other phones equipped with Near Field Communication (NFC).

    The NFC chip embedded in mobile device allows a user, who previously entered his bank card details, to use his terminal to make purchases via the PayPass payment systems from Citi MasterCard.

    Customers can also use a Google prepaid card to pay for purchases, benefiting from Google Offers advantages – the online system of coupons of the American company, which claims that Google Wallet will be accepted by more than 124,000 U.S. merchants and more than 311,000 worldwide.

    The application will require a PIN for each transaction. Payment credentials will be encrypted and stored on a chip, the safety feature of the phone. The application itself will be free for the users.

    Stephanie Tilenius, Vice-President for Trade and Payments Division at Google, describes Google Wallet as "the next generation of mobile commerce”: “We are building an opened trading ecosystem that will bring, in premiere, the opportunity to pay with a NFC wallet and to announce the consumers all promotions – all of them with just a touch, while the user will make his shopping offline," said Tilenius, who added that the system will first expand in Europe and then Asia.

    Who and what betrayed

    PayPal says that Tilenius (who was also an employee of eBay, from 2001 until October 2009 as a consultant) helped Bedier’s recruitment by Google and quoted both company’s executives as defendants in a civil lawsuit based on the misuse of trading secrets.

    Bedier was accused that he would revealed Google certain secrets on PayPal projects. PayPal and Google have collaborated over the past three years to establish a technology developed on the PayPal platform that would serve as payment option using the mobile apps from the Android smartphones.

    NFC – the future wallet

    Mobile payments are already tested and used by several countries, notably France and Japan, but Google Wallet is the first service that brings NFC in U.S. stores. NFC technology uses short-range wireless communications action to allow the exchange of encrypted information between devices at short distance.

    Three of the largest providers of mobile communications in the U.S. – AT & T, T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless – have announced in November 2010 that have joined forces to establish a national network called "Isis" to allow the payments via mobile phones, the service being introduced in the next 18 months. Google executive, Eric Schmidt, said shortly before the launch of the Nexus S, in December 2010, that the NFC technology it’s expected to take the place of the classic credit cards.

  • Microsoft Announces Windows Phone Mango

    Microsoft has announced the new version of Windows Phone, Mango, which is said to bring over 500 new features to Microsoft’s mobile OS users. The new version will be available from this fall and will be downloadable for free.

    Windows Phone Mango, will be present on the first Nokia smartphone that will end the partnership with Symbian. It seems that Nokia already has mobile phones with Windows Phone in their "laboratory" and a small selection of smartphones with Mango will be launched by the end of this year.

    "Seven months ago, we started our mission to make smartphones smarter and easier for people to do more. With Mango, Windows Phone takes a major step forward in redefining how people communicate and use apps and the internet, giving you better results with less effort,” said Andy Lees, President of Mobile Communications Business at Microsoft.

    Among the most important features Mango brings to the users are:

    • Threads. Switch between text, Facebook chat and Windows Live Messenger within the same conversation.
    • Groups. Group contacts into personalized Live Tiles to see the latest status updates right from the Start Screen and quickly send a text, email or IM to the whole group.
    • Deeper social network integration. Twitter and LinkedIn feeds are now integrated into contact cards, and “Mango” includes built-in Facebook check-ins and new face detection software that makes it easier to quickly tag photos and post to the Web.
    • Linked inbox. See multiple email accounts in one linked inbox. Conversations are organized to make it easy to stay on top of the latest mail.
    • Hands-free messaging. Built-in voice-to-text and text-to-voice support enables hands-free texting or chatting.
    • App Connect. By connecting apps to search results and deepening their integration with Windows Phone Hubs, including Music and Video and Pictures, “Mango” allows apps to be surfaced when and where they make sense.
    • Improved Live Tiles. Get real-time information from apps without having to open them. Live Tiles can be more dynamic and hold more information.
    • Multitasking. Quickly switch between apps in use and allow apps to run in the background, helping to preserve battery life and performance.
    • Internet Explorer 9. A browser based on the powerful Internet Explorer 9 and including support for HTML5 and full hardware acceleration.
    • Local Scout. Provides hyperlocal search results and recommends nearby restaurants, shopping and activities in an easy-to-use guide.
    • Bing on Windows Phone. More ways to search the Web, including Bing Vision, Music Search and Voice so it’s easy to discover and decide.
    • Quick Cards. When searching for a product, movie, event or place, see a quick summary of relevant information, including related apps.

    According to Jo Harlow, Vice President of Nokia, Mango is the perfect operating system for use on the first Nokia mobile phones that are making the switch to Windows, and both developers and consumers will benefit from the new selection of phones.

  • The Future Smartphone Designs Presented

    Changing trends and interests got a lot of influence over the smartphone design and features. This kind of situation is asking all the techies a question "How the future smartphone will look like?" What kind of role these future smartphone going to occupy in people’s lives? There are many astonishing and interesting answers to summarize. Some of the creative minds come up with more imaginations in this aspect.

    One creative idea mentioned that the future smartphone should be simple and small. It should be thinner to fit all the needs like in the above picture.

    Another creative imagination said this future smartphone should be a central device in the all people’s daily routines. Functionality is needed to be improved more than what it is now. It should replace successfully the tablet PC, smartphone and PC. It should also serve as a passport, credit card and universal key .

    There are many ideas to list out, a few of them are mentioning the necessity for the smartphones to be eco-friendly and a few suggest that the future smartphone should be a transparent tool for all the daily routines.

    Already some of the popular mobile phone manufacturers such as Ericsson and Nokia are on the latest designs and prototypes, but failing to reach the breakout products and endeavors of few such as Apple through their prototypes.

    There are two promising ideas that are truly captivating and promise something exciting for all the smartphone enthusiasts. Let us see whether Apple or some other manufacturer will come up with such kind of idea in the nearby future.

    There are two winning concepts we are interested to share with you. This first idea is showcasing a “Roundphone” concept which uses holographic projections as a screen.

    The device is described as "the future perfect smartphone idea for us all". We have to admit this is truly captivating to call through hologram.

    The second concept video is showcasing a “Flexphone”, which is a complete folding screen device. Flexible OLED technology would be most ideal for this concept.

    [via: eyeka]

  • Google Movies Blocked on Modified Versions of Android

    Google has decided to block the access to Google Movies for all devices running on any unofficial versions of the Android operating system, modified through the process known as Android root.

    This type of intervention provides users with administrative rights on the operating system installed on the phone, thus removing all the restrictions which protected the Android platform against any unauthorized interferences on system’s components.

    From the explanations given by Google Support results that the Google Movies is blocked for all unofficial versions of the Android operating system, due to restrictions imposed by the terms of copyright licensing for media content distribution. Thus, users who have modified their smartphone or tablet devices by installing an unsupported version of Android, will be welcomed by the error message "Failed to fetch license for [movie title] (error 49).", every time when trying to watch content distributed via Google Movies.

    The position taken by Google is somewhat ironic, considering the fact that Android is an open source, which, by definition, should have fewer restrictions than the alternatives of the competition. In contrast, Apple iPhone devices which passed through the jailbreak process can now easily download movies from iTunes.

    The users of Motorola Xoom tablet, running on the 3.1 version of the Android Honeycomb operating system, continue to have access to Google Movies as long as it does not interfere with the Android root process.

    Once the Google Movies service will also be released for the users of the Android 2.2 – 2.3 platform, during the coming weeks, the access will only be allowed for the devices running on the OEM version of the Android operating system, such as the one delivered when buying a smartphone or tablet.

  • Information Leaks at 99.7% of Android Smartphones

    Researchers at the German University of Ulm have uncovered a vulnerability that exposes most of the Android mobile operating systems to attacks that may stole the personal data stored in the memory of the smartphone.

    The discovered vulnerability allows attackers to obtain authentication data needed to access the calendar function, the contacts and other information stored on Google servers.

    The blame for this security flaw is the poor implementation of an authentication protocol called ClientLogin used by all versions of the Android operating system, including the recently released Gingerbread 2.3.3.

    At each login, the relevant information to access Google Calendar and Contacts applications are sent in unencrypted format, with the possibility to be intercepted before reaching its destination, which can then be used to access the personal data of the targeted user for 14 days.

    Attacks carried out by stealing the authentication data are very easy, especially if the users targeted are connected to an unsecured wireless network, such as those found in public places. The systematic obtaining of the authentication data from multiple users is possible by creating a Wi-Fi access point with same SSID identification code as one of the nearest public network, where mobile visitors are already configured to connect automatically and the new entrants have no reason to doubt the security of the network.

    In most cases the applications installed on Android phones are configured to automatically synchronize with Google’s servers as soon as an Internet connection is available. While the syncing with such a hotspot phantom probably it would fail, the initiation of the operation being sufficient for attackers to obtain authentication data for any of the applications that have tried to contact Google’s servers.

    Given the facts that you probably are in the 99%-area of vulnerability, it’s good to know how you can protect:
    1. Temporarily disable the function of synchronizing contacts and calendar (Settings, Accounts & sync, choose the current account – and there uncheck Gmail or ActiveSync synchronization for contacts and calendar). Reactivate the sync when you’re confident that there aren’t any eyes that spies your traffic;
    2. Use as less as possible the free WiFi connections;
    3. Take a quick update to the newer version of Android;
    4. Even if more expensive, choose to synchronize via 3G.

  • Nokia’s Ovi Label Metamorphoses into Nokia Services Soon

    Nokia is planning to start services on some of the latest Nokia devices by July and August of this year. Also, the company is planning some more transition in the form Ovi label into Nokia services by the end of 2012. This is indicating that the current services under the Ovi umbrella will be soon branded as Nokia without affecting present service and the roadmap.

    Jerri DeVard, Nokia’s EVP and Chief marketing Officer said in this context: “We have made the decision to change our service branding from Ovi to Nokia. By centralizing our services identity under one brand, not two, we will reinforce the powerful master brand of Nokia and unify our brand architecture-while continuing to deliver compelling opportunities and experiences for partners and consumers alike”.

    The planned metamorphoses will be started from July this year and intended to complete all over the world including all services by the closing of year 2012. There is a possibility that the every latest Nokia smartphone purchased by the user will see the new branding procedure over it. Perhaps, future software updates might perform this new branding procedure for the old Nokia smartphones.

    Jerri also added that “the reasons for this decision includes the fact that nokia is a well-known and highly-loved brand the world over. Our mobile experiences are tightly integrated with our devices-there is no longer a differentiation. For example, if consumers want the best mobile navigation experience, they know it’s a Nokia that they can rely on. These last few years, and moving forward, our mission remains unchanged. We will continue our work to deliver compelling, unified mobile service offerings and next-generation, disruptive technologies”.

    The Finnish company’s sudden decision for the transition got many behind the screen reasons. Earlier this year, Nokia got hooked up with Microsoft. The vital parts of that agreement comprise for Nokia software, and Nokia maps are to be made available for all Windows Phone devices and over Microsoft’s range of services. Definitely, the latest decision from Nokia is making a lot of sense and serious about keeping its own name on all its wares. There will be no other structural changes or transformations from Nokia in this aspect, except the change of new name plate atop. Let us wait and see how much more benefit this act is going to gain for Nokia, but many existing users of Ovi Store are finding it wrong at the first place.