Posts Tagged ‘technology’
Samsung Tops the Smartphone Vendors Chart Claims IDC
Korean consumer electronics giant Samsung has been declared the world’s largest smartphone maker, according to new market research.
Market research firm IDC revealed in a report that during the three months ending September, the company’s smartphone business increased by 42.6 percent, with Samsung shipping a total of 118.1 million units.
IDC said that Samsung led the smartphone market by shipping 23.6 million units, garnering a 20 percent market share. Samsung was followed by iPhone marker Apple which shipped 17.1 million units which led to 14.5 percent market share. Finnish mobile phone marker Nokia shipped 16.8 million units with a market share of 14.2 percent.
“Samsung’s ascendancy to the leadership position is the direct result of its broad and deep product portfolio,” said Ramon Llamas, senior research analyst with IDC’s Mobile Phone Technology and Trends team.
“Ever since the first Galaxy device launched last year, the company has aggressively expanded and refreshed its selection to include the latest innovations and most popular features”, he added.
Canadian smartphone market Research in Motion, which produces the BlackBerry device, was pushed to the fifth spot by Taiwan based HTC.
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UANI Threatens Huawei with US Sanctions over Business in Iran
Chinese telecom equipment maker Huawei has been asked by United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) to end its operations in Iran.
The organisation set up by neo-cons in the US, claims that Huawei provides the Iranian government with cellular and electronic technology which is being used by Iran to monitor its citizens and track down human rights activists.
Ironically, the ultimatum comes as revelations about the use of covert suveillance equipment to track, intercept and block mobile phones by police in the UK as well as by US government agencies, have come to light.
Huawei has also been accused of partnering with Iranian companies that are working directly with Iran’s military and intelligence divisions, which include the Islamic Revolutionary Guards, which is a special forces unit.
“Many telecommunications firms have left Iran not only because of Iran’s dangerous and irresponsible behavior with respect to its nuclear weapons program and sponsorship of terrorism, but because of the ample and documented evidence of Iranian officials using the technology provided by the companies to conduct surveillance and track down human rights activists and dissidents,” the UANI letter to Huawei said.
Iran insists that its nuclear program is solely for peaceful purposes.
“We have repeatedly announced that we are just after a peaceful use of the nuclear energy and we consider production or use of nuclear bombs as Haram (religiously banned),” Iranian foreign minister Akbar Salehi said in a conference on Iran-Europe relations on Monday.
The Iranians question the legitimacy of the US as “a supervisor of countries using peaceful nuclear technology” being “the only country that has ever used nuclear weapons still maintains a sizable arsenal of thousands of nuclear warheads.”
The UANI said that it would welcome a decision by Huawei to end its operations in Iran. If not, then the “UANI and its supporters will push Huawei to be held accountable under U.S. sanctions law,” the hawkish organisation threatened.
The Chinese company has been given until November 15th to reply to the UANI.
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UK Uses Advanced Cell Phone Technology for Surveillance
According to a report on the Guardian, the biggest police force in Britain is using covert surveillance technology.
This technology can disguise itself as a mobile phone network to intercept communications as well as the unique IDs from phones. It can also transmit a signal which can shut phones off remotely.
Made by Datong in UK, the ICT hardware system was bought by the London Metropolitan police for $230,000 two years ago.
The system is a portable device that looks like legitimate tower for cell phones. It generates a signal which controls any number of mobile phones in the targeted area.
After gaining control, authorities can block phone calls, SMS messages, and other phone data like unique IMSI. IMEI identity codes allow authorities to keep a check on the movements of the phone user without extracting the location data from mobile phone carriers.
In addition, the system can effectively break down phone communications. This is very helpful during demonstrations, riots and war zones where phones are often used as a medium to organise crowds and trigger explosive devices.
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Apple, HTC Supplier Closes Pending Environmental Inspection in China; May Affect Sales
A Taiwan-based Apple supplier, which provides metal cases for MacBook devices, has announced it will be shutting down some of its operations due to pollution complaints from residents.
Catcher Technology, which operates out of Suzhou city, announced it will be shutting down some of its operations. China’s environment authorities have asked the company to close down the operation for inspection after residents complained about unbearable smells coming from the factory.
Catcher Technology Chairman Hung Shui-shu announced that the shut down might affect 40 percent of its supply chain. The company not only provides metal cases for MacBook, but also phone cases for HTC and several other major tech companies. Luo Xiaoqiang, who lives 2 KMs away from the Catcher factory, said that the smell was so unbearable that it was difficult to even sleep at night, PC World reports.
“It’s been so strong that even when you close the window, the fumes will still come through,” she said. “When I smell it, my body just feels heavy and worse. When I don’t smell it, the symptoms just go away.”
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4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) Tests Conducted in Rural UK Locations; Goal to Reduce ‘Notspot’ Areas
The 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) wireless technology tests have finally begun. With approximately 200 people from St Newlyn East and surrounding areas participating in this experimental program, the goal is to evaluate usability of the technology in rural locations.
The tests, according to authorities, will be used to find out whether the 4G LTE technology is capable of providing rural areas within the country with high speed broadband connections.
According to various reports, there are still a number of internal blackspots, also known as ‘notspots’, all across the country, meaning these areas have yet to share the traditional fibre optics high speed broadband connections.
If the new experimental project proves to be successful, soon those “notspot” areas will be equipped with high speed Internet connectivity. The participants in the test-program will enjoy download-speeds as high as 10 Mbps.
“BT is committed to working with the government and using technology innovation to find ways of addressing the remaining challenges within the UK where there are still broadband notspots,” said CEO of BT Wholesale, Neil Stagg in a statement, according to an article by Metro.co.uk.
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Enterprise Level Mobile Security Platform for Android Launched by 3LM
For the users of Android phones, 3LM is making its enterprise security platform available from this week.
3LM, which has been founded by former Android developers, has now been acquired by Motorola. 3LM claims itself to be different and unique from all other mobile security vendors on the ground that the technology offered by them secures all the apps that are present on a phone.
Tom Moss, 3LM President said, “There are solutions that allow you to create secure containers or some space on a device for the application”, reports PC World (http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/241569/motorolas_3lm_launches_mobile_security_platform.html). He also said that the limitation of the platforms is that the apps have to be written for that container as everything outside of the container is insecure.
To secure the entire Android phone 3LM insists that smartphone manufactures load a small piece of software on to the device.
Once the software is loaded, 3LM allows users to encrypt the device, set blacklists and white lists of applications as well as enforce password protection and would be able to execute a remote data wipe.
The 3LM president said that since about 4 months or so, almost a dozen phone makers are doing this. So, there are millions of mobile phones with the software available in the market right now. 3LM website named HTC, Sony Ericsson, Motorola, Sharp and Pantech as bearer of the software.
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Microsoft Accused of Collecting Geo-Location Data Unbeknownst to Windows Phone 7 Users
Microsoft Corp.’s Windows Phone 7 has been tracking and collecting location based data without notifying the user.
Worse even, the lawsuit filed against the company states that the WP7 device(s) in question were collecting and sending geo-location data to its servers even after users had declined authorisation to indulge in such practice.
Similar accusations were brought against other two big names in the smartphone market – Google’s Android and Apple’s iPhone. The intensity of the controversy at the time was so high that both Google and Apple eventually had to offer assurances that no such activities would continue in the future.
According to the lawsuit filed against the Windows maker, geo-location data are sent to inference.location.live.net, a Microsoft service. Microsoft denied the charges during the initial phases of the trial.
According to the Windows Phone 7 jailbreaker Rafael Rivera, the collected location based data, which he described as “pin point accurate” are sent to agps.location.live.net and inference.location.live.net.
If Rivera’s findings are fount to be correct, the lawsuit against the technology giant will be strengthened further, thus making it tougher for the company to deflect the charges.
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Cloudy with a Chance of Data! Everyday Life in the Mobile Cloud
Up until recently, computing in ‘the cloud’ has been a buzzword more commonly heard in business circles, with the suited ones chatting about side-loading documents, retrieving PowerPoint presentations and accessing extensive databases while out and about. To be honest, it wasn’t very exciting, and despite its cutesy name; the cloud seemed a bit dull.
However, just as they did with video-calling, Apple came along and showed us regular folk that cloud computing was actually cool and fun by introducing iCloud during WWDC 2011. Of course, just like FaceTime, iCloud was by no means the first of its kind; it’s just being an Apple product it gained a massive amount of publicity and captured the imagination of those not already familiar with the technology.
You may be wondering if there’s any difference between the ‘cloud’ that you’ll use with iOS 5 and the ‘cloud’ used by sales reps in Audi A4s. Basically, the cloud describes any process or application which can be accessed and operated from a connected device, including everything from online storage services such as Dropbox and online email systems such as Gmail, to apps which can remotely control other devices or even those which store pictures of receipts for personal accounting purposes.
While some business people may use these apps too, others will use a business focused cloud solution, such as SalesForce’s Sales Cloud and Service Cloud. In essence it’s all the same principle, it’s just the presentation and public perception that changes. Using applications which don’t make use of local storage or processing power, and are available through a variety of devices, makes cloud computing a perfect mate for mobile phones; hence the reason we’re seeing a big push in that direction now data speeds have increased and the smartphone has become more commonplace.
So which cloud services are vying for your attention, and who is backing them? Let’s find out in this roundup of the biggest players on the scene right now, before moving on to some of those who are planning for the future.
All Round Solutions in the Cloud:
Apple iCloud
An evolution of MobileMe, iCloud will be somewhere to store all your contacts, calendar updates, iWork files and even daily backups of your iPhone and iPad, including apps. iCloud will operate automatically too, meaning you won’t forget an important backup, plus the entire service will be free for all users.
Photo Stream and iTunes in the Cloud offers similar online storage options for pictures and music files, with images being pushed to almost any device, and previously purchased music able to be downloaded on a new device. It’s all part of the new iOS 5 software expected to launch in the coming weeks.
Microsoft’s SkyDrive
Windows phone 7.5 Mango will have SkyDrive built-in and like iCloud, SkyDrive provides online storage and wireless access to all your uploaded files and documents, including the opportunity to publicly share folders for collaborative purposes. All you need is a Windows Live ID and you’ll get a whopping 25GB of space for free, plus it’ll integrate with Office programs and both Windows Live Mail and Live Photos too.
Although it hasn’t been officially talked about all that much, beta versions of WP7 Mango have included an MP3 streaming option, so if you save your music on SkyDrive you’ll be able to listen to it at anytime, no matter whether it’s saved on your device or not. Windows Phone 7.5 Mango is also expected in the next few weeks.
Google’s Music Beta, Docs, ChromeOS and Chromebook
Google’s ChromeOS took its time coming to market, and the Chromebook computer managed to arrive just when tablets were all the rage, and the netbook trend had almost finished. ChromeOS only works online through the browser, with applications launched and operated in that one window, allowing the hardware specs to be kept to a minimum and the costs down, while still maintaining functionality. Another open-source netbook OS, Jolicloud, works in a similar way.
Additionally, Google’s Music Beta provides cloud storage and streaming for your music, and Google Docs allows you to create, upload and store documents and files to access via any browser. Then there’s Gmail for email, Picasa for photos and so on. Google’s suite of apps and services is cloud computing at its most accessible.
Music and Video in the Cloud:
Spotify and Netflix
Spotify lets you listen to music, wirelessly, almost anywhere you are in the world, even if you don’t own the music itself. Netflix, in the USA at least, offers streaming movies via Amazon’s own cloud services. These two are perfect examples of the cloud working really well outside of a business environment, and performing equally well on smartphones too.
Amazon’s Cloud Player and Cloud Drive
In the USA, Amazon offers both an online music service, Cloud Player, and an online storage solution, Cloud Drive. Cloud Player is notable because it integrates so well with iOS, even without a native app. Accessed through Safari, your stored music can be selected and streamed, and it even works in the background and mutes when a call comes through! Web-apps like this only need a data connection, as nothing is stored locally.
Storage in the Cloud:
SugarSync
Sync files from your computer by files, which then alter in real-time as you alter them at source! Files, folders and photos can be viewed and edited via a web interface, plus there are mobile apps for the majority of major platforms, when the sync-via-email service comes in handy.
Dropbox
The 2GB storage you get with a free account will probably be enough for most people, but this figure can be increased if you want to pay to upgrade your account. Syncing is automatic across your computers, and files can be shared with others with an invite. An excellent iOS app even lets you watch videos stored in your Dropbox!
Coming to a Cloud Near You Soon:
AliCloud
A cloud-based operating system from Alibaba, the popular Chinese e-commerce site. Supposedly heading to phones and tablets soon, AliCloud will provide all the usual online services such as email, maps and weather, along with web-apps, wireless syncing and 100GB of storage for each user. AliCloud will even run Android applications!
Huawei Cloud+
The Chinese manufacturer will offer Cloud+ services to users of their Vision Android smartphone, providing online storage for videos, pictures, email and documents. Their remote servers will also play host to some third-party apps, although exactly what they’ll do hasn’t been confirmed.
As you can see, it’s easy to live almost entirely in the cloud already, even without Apple’s iCloud service. The question is, would you want to? While the benefits to developers (only having to create a single web-app for all platforms) is clear, there is a rightful concern to consumers over security. Storing your entire life on someone else’s system, and trusting them to keep it safe and secure is a big ask; and shouldn’t take the place of local backups or sensible storage of your more sensitive data.
Cloud computing is another piece of the technological convergence puzzle, allowing all kinds of tasks and services – from watching video to storing files – to be carried out from any device wherever you are. It’s no passing fad either, as a recent Juniper Research study indicated the mobile cloud sector would be worth $9.5 billion by 2014, representing an 88% growth over today. You best become familiar with working in the cloud, as there are very cloudy skies ahead!
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Google Wallet Brings NFC Payments One Step Closer to the Mainstream
Google unveiled Google Wallet during a special New York press event back in May, something which represented a significant advance in NFC payment technology here in the west. The concept, if you’re unfamiliar with it, is simple; your phone has a virtual wallet complete with a credit card inside, which pays for goods and services when the device is waved over a compatible payment terminal.
At the time, Google Wallet was still a work in progress, with only a few small trials taking place in San Francisco and New York. Yesterday Google announced its Wallet is ready to proceed to the next stage, a rollout all over the US.
There are a few caveats though, as users will need to be Sprint subscribers and own the Nexus S 4G smartphone, as this is the only device and the only US carrier currently set up for Google Wallet. McDonald’s, BP, Best Buy and even New York taxis all have the ability to process Google Wallet transactions, but customers will need to have either a Citi MasterCard account or pay for Google’s own Prepaid card solution.
Google says there are 300,000 shops ready to take Wallet payments, including some international outlets such as Tesco and Boots. Shame we don’t have the Nexus S 4G then, really. Sprint customers can expect the Google Wallet app to appear on their Nexus S’s via an over-the-air update, and Google has indicated American Express, Visa and Discover cards are set to appear in a future version.
There’s still no indication when Google Wallet will come to the UK, however it’s likely the Nexus Prime will have NFC capabilities, so perhaps its release will also signify the start of an international trial too? Knowing Google’s slow-but-steady product transition from the US to the UK though, this is probably wishful thinking.
In the meantime, if you’d like to hear what Google Wallet’s founding engineers have to say on the technology, take a look at this video; however if you’d prefer to see George Costanza struggling with his infamous wallet, take a look at the fun Google promo video below:
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Get Fit With Your Phone
If you’ve over-indulged on luxury dinners during your summer holiday, or need to get match-fit for the new Sunday league season, there are more exciting ways to lose that extra weight than huffing and puffing along to the same old fitness DVD.
While you’re out trying to make it happen, you’re bound to have your mobile on you, so why not make it pull its weight too? Here’s a guide to some of the best apps to help you get back in shape.
Nike+
With the use of an accelerometer placed in the running shoe and the Nike+ app, which records what you do and how hard you work, Nike set out with the goal of making running fun.
With Nike+, users can keep track of their best times, routes taken and even the number of calories burned. All of that data can be displayed on your mobile screen or played through the headphones of your MP3 player.
There’s even ‘celebrity feedback’ which means that you can get congratulatory messages from the likes of Tiger Woods or Paula Radcliffe when you reach those personal landmarks. One of the only drawbacks of this technology is that it’s a stickler for accuracy; if the shoe dongle isn’t precisely placed, it can result in some slightly erroneous readings.
Adidas miCoach
A cheaper alternative to Nike+, Adidas’ miCoach doesn’t require users to wear (or shell out for) specially-designed gadgets. Instead, your phone’s GPS plans out and records routes as you run them and constantly measures your speed whilst you train. If it thinks you are tiring, it can encourage you accordingly with voice alerts or alterations to your regime.
You can also track your progress online so it is a very useful app for regular runners who are always looking to improve their times, though the GPS function will quickly drain your battery life.
Healthy Heart Recipe Finder
Though not strictly related to fitness, this app, which is produced by the British Heart Foundation, will ensure that you’re eating the right foods to begin with – saving valuable time and energy by not having to work out so strenuously to lose weight. Create a list of recipes you’d like to try out from the hundreds available and then generate your next shopping list from your favourites. There’s also a random recipe selector if you’re feeling adventurous and the option to email your favourite recipes to friends.
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