Mereja

Author: Serkadis

  • Facebook’s mobile hype, eyeballs and dollars grow. Is that enough?

    Facebook is likely to announce its own interpretation of Android tomorrow, perhaps in partnership with HTC. This will be company’s first full-scale assault on the mobile business, a move that is being watched with much interest in the executives offices of Google, Apple and Twitter. But even without, the company seems to be doing quite well on the mobile — relatively, speaking.

    TimeSpent_App_vBrowserCats-resized-600

    For instance, Flurry Analytics pointed out Wednesday in a new release that in the U.S., smartphone users spend 18 percent of their time spent on smartphones on Facebook. And what’s more important, Facebook tends to keep the Facebook Mobile users inside the app, instead of sending them out to other apps or browsers. As Flurry noted:

    …it appears that mobile, once perceived as Facebook’s Achilles’ heel, has become Facebook’s biggest opportunity. Consumers are spending an average of nearly 30 minutes per day on Facebook. Add to that Facebook’s massive reach, as well as their roughly billion mobile users per month and you have a sizable mobile black hole sucking up peoples’ time. The 30 minutes a day is a worldwide average which means a large group spends even more time on Facebook (possibly hours) watching and participating in what has become the ultimate reality show in which the actors are you and your friends.

    Well, that does translate into big dollars for the company. According to market research firm eMarketer, Facebook is likely to bring in about $965 million in mobile advertising in 2013 and will see that number grow to $1.51 billion in 2014.

    Facebook, the No. 2 mobile ad publisher in the country, accounted for 9.5% of mobile ad revenues in 2012 and is expected to take 13.2% this year. In the mobile display market, however, Facebook is on top, projected to grab nearly three in 10 dollars this year. eMarketer revised Facebook’s share of US mobile display advertising ad revenue upward by several percentage points after fourth quarter results came in higher than previously expected.

    Now here is the problem: if folks are spending so much time on mobile already and all they can make is a billion dollars, how does the company start to goose up the overall revenues and justify its massive market capitalization? Any thoughts?

    Related piece: A Facebook Phone: Is this the final brick in the social network’s walled garden?

    emarketerdataforfacebook

    Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
    Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

  • Suspicious powder incidents require the right tools for quick action

    First responders know that white powder scenarios — or suspected biological threats — require quick and decisive action. Having the right field-deployable equipment available to determine what the suspicious substance is can be complicated, challenging and expensive.

    Recently, the Department of Homeland Security’s Science and Technology Directorate and Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory issued an informative report that summarizes an extensive list of commercially available, hand-portable biodetection technologies. The report — Biodetection Technologies for First Responders — helps end-users such as firefighters, police officers and HazMat workers make informed decisions about procuring the right technology for their particular need and circumstance.

    “The report serves as a product buying guide for end-users as well as procurement specialists,” says Cindy Bruckner-Lea, PNNL project manager. “It provides specifics and details on dozens of commercially available technologies. This free report will be an important and useful resource for first response teams everywhere.”

    The release of the report is one part of a larger effort at PNNL to create partnerships with first responders that provide value to all parties. Early on in the process, PNNL conducted dozens of interviews and surveys, and held a workshop at Seattle’s Joint Training Facility to better understand first responder biodetection and information needs, gaps and priorities. The exchanges helped researchers have a better grasp of the context by which first responders perform their duties. This leads to better results and the ability to get the best solution faster and more efficiently.

    PNNL is also conducting biodetection assay and instrument performance tests for both anthrax and ricin bio-threats and is investigating the impact of commonly encountered “hoax” white powders. PNNL plans to facilitate performance and ergonomic testing of the most promising technology by first responders. 

    PNNL is also working with other agencies to help refine detection system performance requirements, standardized test plans and conditions, create guidelines for use and limitations of biodetection technology, and establish training and proficiency testing procedures.

    According to law enforcement statistics, HazMat teams across the country respond to hundreds of white powder calls each year in large cities where quick decision-making is critical. 

    “Rapid biodetection is extremely important to the first responder community. In white powder response incidents where the health and safety of individuals may be in jeopardy, accurate and reliable results are needed promptly,” says Seattle Fire Department, Assistant Chief, A.D. Vickery.

    The information listed in the report is primarily provided by the vendor. However, when possible the report has been supplemented with additional information obtained from peer-reviewed publications, reports and websites that evaluate the performance of the technologies. Other findings and results will be published as the information becomes available.

    PNNL has significant expertise in studying the biodetection process and in evaluating biodetection assays. It also has established an ongoing relationship with first responders in the Pacific Northwest. In coming months, PNNL will conduct third-party testing of biodetection assay systems and instruments. Researchers will publish a report outlining performance testing in working with anthrax, ricin and commonly encountered white powders. 

    PNNL will attend the International Hazardous Materials Response Teams Conference on June 6-9 in Baltimore, MD, and will be available to discuss the report and the next phase of testing that is just getting underway.

  • Mozilla and Samsung team up to kill Chrome mobile

    Say, Google, do you feel a sharp burning sensation in your back? That’s the knife Samsung just plunged in. Ouch! The twisting motion must really hurt.

    Mozilla and Samsung are collaborating on a new mobile web browsing engine, Servo, which success would offer huge benefits to both companies. Apple and Google dominate mobile devices with their respective WebKit browsers, largely shutting out Firefox from the most important device category since the PC. Incumbency is an advantage, with browsers preinstalled on Android and iOS. Users must download rival products, and many don’t. Meanwhile the South Korean electronics giant accounted for nearly 43 percent of all Android smarthphone sales in fourth quarter, according to Gartner. The company controls the broader user experience via TouchWiz UI, but Google controls the browser.

    “Servo is an attempt to rebuild the Web browser from the ground up on modern hardware, rethinking old assumptions along the way”, Mozilla CTO Brendan Eich says. “Servo is written in Rust, a new, safe systems language developed by Mozilla along with a growing community of enthusiasts. We are now pleased to announce with Samsung that together we are bringing both the Rust programming language and Servo, the experimental web browser engine, to Android and ARM”.

    Eich describes the release as “an exciting step in the evolution of both projects that will allow us to start deeper research with Servo on mobile. Samsung has already contributed an ARM backend to Rust and the build infrastructure necessary to cross-compile to Android, along with many other improvements. You can try this now by downloading the code from Github, but it’s just the beginning”.

    Why Collaborate

    The collaboration is smart business and a win-win for both companies, depending how far the electronics giant takes Servo:

    Samsung develops ARM processors. If Mozilla really wants to create a new browsing engine, Samsung should want to make sure its Exynos chips are supported at the least. Participating in the development process could give some competitive advantages over ARM rivals.

    Google controls too much. Cumulative Android activations exceed 750 million, according to Google, since the OS launched in late 2008 — that’s 250 million more than iOS. Android browser or Chrome came preinstalled on all of them. That’s a huge barrier for Firefox, while making Samsung too beholden to Google technology, even as the South Korean company extends the user experience with TouchWiz UI.

    Digital lifestyle is key. Samsung could achieve with Servo what Amazon has with Silk, a fully integrated stack of curated products and services. The electronics giant already offers digital content via different “hubs” and sells a digital lifestyle around smartphones and tablets in conjunction with other gear — everything from digicams to refrigerators to televisions. What Samsung should want to do is unify and curate the experience, much as Amazon does on Android or Apple around its devices and services.

    Imagine Servo as default browser, and engine supporting TouchWiz UI, Samsung apps and those developed by third parties. Not just on smartphones and tablets, but on any device where Samsung puts a display and connects to the Internet. Going forward, Chrome is an impedance to a unified, curated Samsung digital lifestyle — something Amazon already remedies on Kindle Fire HD 7- and 8.9-inch tablets.

    Android isn’t secure enough. It’s not a matter of if but when a major malware attack sweeps the green robot ecosystem. The larger number of users and (presumably) low number using security software is reason enough to expect big trouble. Security is one of Servo’s design goals.

    “This means addressing the causes of security vulnerabilities while designing a platform that can fully utilize the performance of tomorrow’s massively parallel hardware to enable new and richer experiences on the Web”, Eich says.

    With the Samsung brand on more than 40 percent of smartphones sold, reliance on Google is a fool’s errand. The electronics giant should take charge by providing a safer browser.

    Who needs Whom?

    Mozilla needs Servo’s success much more than Samsung. There is the aforementioned barrier to entry, which is severe. According to Net Applications March data, Apple and Google browsers have 86 percent combined usage share on mobile phones and tablets. Firefox’s presence is too statistically small to measure. Reasons are more than just incumbency, however. Stability and speed criticisms dog Firefox mobile. So the Samsung collaboration is much bigger then.

    “In the coming year, we are racing to complete the first major revision of Rust — cleaning up, expanding and documenting the libraries, building out our tools to improve the user experience, and beefing up performance”, Eich says. “At the same time, we will be putting more resources into Servo, trying to prove that we can build a fast web browser with pervasive parallelism, and in a safe, fun language. We, along with our friends at Samsung will be increasingly looking at opportunities on mobile platforms”.

    For Google, Servo’s success — and nothing’s assured — could be devastating, because Samsung sells so many more Android devices than any other company — 7 times its closest rival in Q4, according to Gartner. Imagine if, as part of a TouchWiz update, Samsung installed Servo on all its devices. Wham. Just like that.

    Chrome is quite vulnerable, with just 2.43 percent mobile usage share in March, according to NetApps. Android Browser is 9 times greater but no longer Google’s development priority. All new versions of Android ship with Chrome.

    Can Mozilla and Samsung succeed? You tell me.

    Photo Credit:  Margaret M Stewart/Shutterstock

  • Apple to reportedly unveil completely redesigned next-gen iPad in April

    iPad 5 Release Date
    Apple (AAPL) has long been rumored to be prepping a completely redesigned full-size iPad that will debut this year, and the new tablet will reportedly be unveiled at a press conference later this month. A number of well-known Apple bloggers held a public discussion on social site Branch on Tuesday, and they covered a number of topics. Among them were Apple’s efforts to overhaul the user interface in iOS 7 and the company’s plans to unveil its next-generation iPad during a press conference this month. Earlier reports suggested that Apple will release a redesigned iPad this year and images of a purported rear shell from the fifth-generation iPad leaked in January, revealing a new design resembling Apple’s smaller iPad mini tablet.

  • Here is an IPO you didn’t expect: Moleskine

    If you work in technology and still like to take notes, write, draw and imagine, then you are quite familiar with the Moleskine brand. What was once a cool but obscure brand of notebooks has become a product so ubiquitous that you can find it in swag bags for conferences, and venture capital firms hand them out like candy.

    In other words, it is very mainstream and very big. And that is why Moleskine went public today on the Milan Stock Exchange. Its shares were priced at 2.30 euros a share. The company raised 245 million euros, or roughly $314 million. It is valued at roughly $626 million. Moleskin had revenues of 78.1 million euros and a profit of about 18.1 million euros in 2012. The stock jumped 3.9 percent today before falling slightly.

    Here is a little background on the company from its prospectus:

    The company grew out of the experience of Modo&Modo, a small Milanese publisher that in 1997 created the Moleskine trademark, rediscovering and renewing an extraordinary tradition. In the fall of 2006, Modo&Modo was purchased by SGCapital Europe, now Syntegra Capital, with the objective of fully developing the potential of the Moleskine brand. Since 1 January 2007, Moleskine has also become the name of the company that owns the worldwide trademark rights for the brand.  In the fall of 2006, Modo&Modo was purchased by SGCapital Europe, now Syntegra Capital, with the objective of fully developing the potential of the Moleskine brand.

    evernote-smart-notebooks

    The IPO is a windfall for Index Ventures, one of the investors in Moleskine. The company is making efforts to cash in on its tech connections. It recently partnered with Evernote for a smart notebook and also has started a community for Moleskine customers. By the way, all the cool kids are now using Field Notes, which is, well, cooler.

    Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
    Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

  • ‘Your Survival Instinct is Killing You’ Author Marc Schoen Gives Google Talk

    Dr. Marc Schoen, author of Your Survival Instinct Is Killing You, recently spoke in one of Google’s “Authors @ Google” talks. The company has now posted that video to YouTube for your enjoyment. It’s about 42 minutes long.

    More recent @Google Talks here.

  • UCLA brain-imaging tool and stroke risk test help identify cognitive decline early

    UCLA researchers have used a brain-imaging tool and stroke risk assessment to identify signs of cognitive decline early on in individuals who don’t yet show symptoms of dementia.
     
    The connection between stroke risk and cognitive decline has been well established by previous research. Individuals with higher stroke risk, as measured by factors like high blood pressure, have traditionally performed worse on tests of memory, attention and abstract reasoning.
     
    The current small study demonstrated that not only stroke risk, but also the burden of plaques and tangles, as measured by a UCLA brain scan, may influence cognitive decline.
     
    The imaging tool used in the study was developed at UCLA and reveals early evidence of amyloid beta “plaques” and neurofibrillary tau “tangles” in the brain — the hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease.
     
    The study, published in the April issue of the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, demonstrates that taking both stroke risk and the burden of plaques and tangles into accout may offer a more powerful assessment of factors determining how people are doing now and will do in the future.
     
    “The findings reinforce the importance of managing stroke risk factors to prevent cognitive decline even before clinical symptoms of dementia appear,” said first author Dr. David Merrill, an assistant clinical professor of psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA.
     
    This is one of the first studies to examine both stroke risk and plaque and tangle levels in the brain in relation to cognitive decline before dementia has even set in, Merrill said.
     
    According to the researchers, the UCLA brain-imaging tool could prove useful in tracking cognitive decline over time and offer additional insight when used with other assessment tools.
     
    For the study, the team assessed 75 people who were healthy or had mild cognitive impairment, a risk factor for the future development of Alzheimer’s. The average age of the participants was 63.
     
    The individuals underwent neuropsychological testing and physical assessments to calculate their stroke risk using the Framingham Stroke Risk Profile, which examines age, gender, smoking status, systolic blood pressure, diabetes, atrial fibrillation (irregular heart rhythm), use of blood pressure medications, and other factors.
     
    In addition, each participant was injected with a chemical marker called FDDNP, which binds to deposits of amyloid beta plaques and neurofibrillary tau tangles in the brain. The researchers then used positron emission tomography (PET) to image the brains of the subjects — a method that enabled them to pinpoint where these abnormal proteins accumulate.
     
    The study found that greater stroke risk was significantly related to lower performance in several cognitive areas, including language, attention, information-processing speed, memory, visual-spatial functioning (e.g., ability to read a map), problem-solving and verbal reasoning.
     
    The researchers also observed that FDDNP binding levels in the brain correlated with participants’ cognitive performance. For example, volunteers who had greater difficulties with problem-solving and language displayed higher levels of the FDDNP marker in areas of their brain that control those cognitive activities. 
     
    “Our findings demonstrate that the effects of elevated vascular risk, along with evidence of plaques and tangles, is apparent early on, even before vascular damage has occurred or a diagnosis of dementia has been confirmed,” said the study’s senior author, Dr. Gary Small, director of the UCLA Longevity Center and a professor of psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences who holds the Parlow–Solomon Chair on Aging at UCLA’s Semel Institute.
     
    Researchers found that several individual factors in the stroke assessment stood out as predictors of decline in cognitive function, including age, systolic blood pressure and use of blood pressure–related medications.
     
    Small noted that the next step in the research would be studies with a larger sample size to confirm and expand the findings.
     
    The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health (grants PO1-AG025831, AG13308, P50 AG 16570, MH/AG58156, MH52453, AG10123 and MO1-RR00865); the UCLA Claude Pepper Older Americans Independence Center, funded by the National Institute on Aging (grant 5P30AG028748); the American Federation for Aging Research; and the John A. Hartford Foundation Centers of Excellence National Program.
     
    UCLA owns three U.S. patents on the FDDNP chemical marker. Small and study author Dr. Jorge Barrio are among the inventors. 
     
    Additional UCLA authors included Prabha Sidarth, Pushpa V. Rajaa, Nathan Saito, Linda M. Ercoli, Karen J. Miller, Helen Lavretsky, Vladimir Kepe and Susan Y. Bookheimer.
     
    For more news, visit the UCLA Newsroom and follow us on Twitter. 

  • Convert PDF to RTF and Preserve Formatting

    Extracting text from a PDF file is a pretty simple operation that relies on copy/paste actions if the document is not protected against copying. But things are getting a little more complicated if you want to preserve the formatting, because simply pasting into a text processor does not save such information.

    With PDF Shaper you can convert a PDF file to RTF and k… (read more)

  • Apple said to be giving iOS 7 a major UI overhaul

    iOS 7 Leak
    The user interface that helped make Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone and iPad the most popular devices in their respective categories may be getting a major overhaul after six years on the market. The look of Apple’s mobile UI has remained essentially unchanged since it was first unveiled in January 2007, and its simplicity sparked a big shift in the look and feel of smartphone software. Now, according to Apple watcher John Gruber, the mobile platform will get its first overhaul since its debut when Apple takes the wraps off iOS 7 this summer.

    Continue reading…

  • AT&T updates Samsung Galaxy S 4 pricing, will offer both a 16 and 32 GB model

    When AT&T announced its Galaxy S 4 contract pricing, I wondered which version of the phone it would be selling. Samsung has said that the Galaxy S 4 will be available in 16, 32 and 64 GB models; all of which can be expanded through a memory card. I asked AT&T which model consumers would get for $249.99 with contract and just received an email reply, which is also shown on the company’s blog.

    Per AT&T:  ”The 32GB model will be $249.99 with a two-year commitment and the 16GB model will be $199.99 with a two-year commitment.”

    That pricing makes sense, given that the carrier is also offering a 32 GB version of the HTC One smartphone for $199.99 with contract. Both the One and Galaxy S 4 have similar hardware components, but as I mentioned earlier today on our weekly podcast, the HTC One doesn’t offer expandable storage as it has no micro SD card slot.

    Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
    Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

  • AT&T prices Samsung’s entry-level Galaxy S4 at $199.99 following backlash

    Samsung Galaxy S4 Price AT&T
    AT&T (T) saw a fair amount of consumer backlash following its recent announcement that Samsung’s Galaxy S4 would start at $249.99, so the carrier has seemingly had a change of heart. When the announcement was first made, AT&T was careful to avoid mentioning the amount of storage its $250 Galaxy S4 would ship with, and now it has confirmed in a blog post that the 32GB version will be the handset that costs $249.99 while the 16GB model will cost a customary $199.99 on contract. Samsung’s (005930) Galaxy S4 features a 5-inch HD Super AMOLED display, a quad-core Snapdragon processor (U.S. model), up to 64GB of storage, 2GB of RAM and Android 4.2 Jelly Bean. AT&T subscribers will be able to preorder the Galaxy S4 beginning on April 16th.

  • Sorry Androids: Jawbone’s Big Jambox speaker gains battery life with iOS 6.1 devices

    One of the best purchases I made recently was a refurbished Jawbone Big Jambox wireless speaker. The sound quality, volume levels and use as a hands-free voice speaker for calls are all fantastic. My speaker is about to get even better though, depending on what device I pair it with: The biggest benefits will come when I stream music from my iOS devices and not those running Android.

    A new software update for the Big Jambox will soon be available on the MyTalk Jambox site that not only provides more stable streaming from an iOS device but also adds another two hours of playback.

    Here’s a rundown of what to expect after the update, per an email I received from the Jawbone folks:

    • Better Audio Experience: New AAC support for iOS 6.1 delivers improved audio streaming with fewer dropouts and interruptions at greater distances.
    • Longer Battery Life: Gain two additional hours of battery life (that’s 17 total hours of playback!) when streaming from your iOS 6.1 device. It’s also less taxing on your connected device, meaning you’ll have more battery life on your paired iOS device too.
    • Synced Volume Control: Now you can control the volume from your BIG JAMBOX or from your mobile device, without having to adjust the volume on both (requires AVRCP 1.4).
    • New Silent Mode: Stream music on BIG JAMBOX without the interruption of voice prompts and tones. Just hold down the ‘Talk’ & ‘Minus’ buttons while powering BIG JAMBOX on to disable all sounds aside from your tunes and calls – BIG JAMBOX will stay in Silent Mode until disabled by holding down the ‘Talk’ & ‘Plus’ buttons while powering on.
    • Performance Improvements: This update also improves the LED response on BIG JAMBOX and brings connectivity for PS Vita for killer mobile gaming audio.

    I’m looking forward to the extra battery life, though all of the new features are welcome. Currently, the Big Jambox is advertised  to provide 15 hours of run-time on one charge, which is plenty, but more is always better as I don’t typically charge the wireless speaker on a regular basis.

    Even though I have access to all of the same music — thanks to cloud storage — on my Android devices as well as my iPhone 5 and iPad mini, I’ll probably start streaming more from the iOS devices after updating my speaker.

    Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
    Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

  • ExtremeFliers Releases A Teeny-Tiny Quadcopter That Can Flip In Mid-Air

    Screen Shot 2013-04-03 at 10.04.43 AM

    We were lucky enough to meet with Vernon Kerswell at ExtremeFliers, a 20-something inventor with a passion for little flying things. His latest creation, the Microdrone 2.0, puts a surprisingly powerful brain inside a drone that is about as big as a baseball.

    The Microdrone has built-in IR sensors as well as a six-axis gyroscope that stabilizes the copter immediately. Vernon was an effusive and effective presenter, running the drone through its paces as he described his trip to China to find the parts he needed to mass produce these little things.

    Kerswell is the epitome of the start-up salesman and his excitement about his new product is palpable. I’m looking forward to trying it out in the harsh environment that is my home when it is launched in May for about $100.

  • Reuters: Next-gen Google Nexus 7 tablet coming in July, price may drop to $149

    Nexus 7.7 Release Date
    Google (GOOG) and vendor partner Asus are reportedly planning to launch their next-generation Nexus 7 tablet in or around this coming July. The news comes on Tuesday from Reuters, which claims the new device will be powered by a Snapdragon processor. The report also states that Google is aiming to ship 8 million Nexus tablets in the second half of the year, which is a goal that could be quite attainable if the company’s second-generation Nexus 7 slate is sold for just $149, as Reuters’ unnamed source says it may be. Earlier reports suggested that Google’s next tablet will be called the Nexus 7.7 and will ship with a display panel close to the size of Apple’s (AAPL) iPad mini display.

  • Google On iTunes Pages Missing In Search Results: It Wasn’t Anything On Our Side

    It has become harder to find iOS apps in Google results these days, as some have noticed. Is this Google being anti-competitive toward is rival? No, just an issue on Apple’s end that is out of Google’s hands, according to the company.

    When asked about why iTunes content appears to be ranking less well in search results these days, Google told Danny Sullivan at Search Engine Land:

    We’ve been having some issues fetching pages from the iTunes web servers, and as a result some people may have had problems finding iTunes apps in search easily. We’re working with the team there to ensure search users can find what they’re looking for.

    Matt Cutts has also been talking about it on Twitter:

     
     
     
     

  • Google Places For Business Interface Gets Update

    Google announced the launch of an update to Google Places for Business. With the update comes a simpler interface, more integration with other Google products, and quicker updates for edits.

    “The upgraded interface is simpler and more intuitive, so the process of updating your business information is quick and easy,” says senior product manager Qasar Younis. “There’s also a widget that helps you understand at a glance how much more you need to do to complete your business profile.”

    “When you make changes to your business, your customers want to know about it right away,” says Younis. “Most edits made via the upgraded user interface now appear on Google Maps and our suite of other services within 48 hours. As before, we may continue to moderate changes to ensure the highest quality local experience.”

    Google Places for Business update

    With the interface update, businesses will be able to access their local Google+ pages to take advantage of the social features, and AdWords Express/Google Offers users will be able to manage their ads and promotions more easily. Results can be checked, and edits can be made from the Places for Business dashboard.

    The update will roll out over the coming weeks.

  • Report: New Nexus 7 tablet due in July. Here’s what to expect.

    Watch for an updated Google Nexus 7 tablet as early as July, sources tell Reuters on Wednesday. Aside from a higher-resolution display, the refreshed 7-inch Android slate should also have a chip inside from Qualcomm instead of Nvidia. Pricing could change, say Reuters sources, but the focus will be on keeping the cost low in an effort to ship up to 8 million units in the second half of 2013.

    nexus-7-unboxedWith Google’s I/O developer conference scheduled for mid-May, I don’t think we’ll have to wait too long to see if this report pans out. And I suspect it well. The cycle of hardware technology improvements for mobile devices is running around 12 to 15 months and the original Nexus 7 debuted in June of last year. The current model has already seen a very minor refresh with a boost of internal storage at no additional cost: the original $199 model went from 8 GB of memory to 16 GB and Google later added a 32 GB model with integrated mobile broadband for $299, for example.

    It’s likely that Google will hold the $199 price point for the lowest new Nexus 7 model and drop the current model pricing by $50 until the older units are sold out. As for what to expect in a refreshed Nexus 7? Here are my thoughts, which are mostly minor improvements:

    • The same 7-inch screen size, but a higher-resolution panel of 1920 x 1080 for a pixel density of 315 pixels per inch (ppi). The current device uses a 1280 x 800 resolution display at 216 ppi.
    • It’s possible that Google keeps an improved 1280 x 800 model at $199 and offers the higher-resolution panel as a more expensive option; say $249.
    • Google opts for Qualcomm’s new quad-core Snapdragon 600 chipset. The company often switches hardware components between manufacturing partners on Nexus devices, but if this happens, it’s certainly not good for Nvidia and its Tegra 4 chip.
    • With a Qualcomm chip inside, it’s highly likely the Nexus 7 gets an LTE option due to the chipmaker’s solid modem integration on its silicon.
    • The new Nexus 7 will get a memory boost: 2 GB of RAM up from the current 1 GB.
    • A rear camera is added but it won’t be a top-of-the-line sensor: Just good enough for Google+ photos and such.
    • The refreshed tablet will ship with at least Android 4.2 software and a later version to quickly follow via software update; that software will be what Google announces at its developer event.
    • I expect the current metal pins to be in the same place on a new tablet model; this would keep the new device compatible with the Nexus 7 dock which only arrived on the market recently.

    As Reuters correctly notes, this is a low- or zero-margin strategy for Google. The company isn’t looking to earn a high profit margin on the hardware. Instead, it wants to get as many Android devices out in the wild so it can collect data and earn money through targeted ads and services. An improved Nexus 7 tablet at current pricing would help do just that.

    Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
    Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

  • Apple’s ‘slower pace of product innovation’ seen hurting performance

    Apple Innovation
    Apple (AAPL) continues to feel the heat after a monumental shift in sentiment that saw the company’s share price plummet more than 35% after hitting a record high in late September. Though Apple posted record earnings for its most recent quarter, the Street continues to voice concern over the company’s future growth prospects. On Tuesday, Goldman Sachs became the latest high-profile Apple bull to cut its outlook as the firm voiced some worrisome concerns in a note to clients.

    Continue reading…

  • Prince files copyright complaint with Twitter’s Vine

    According to The Next Web…

    Twitter has been served a DMCA copyright complaint for content that was published using the Vine video platform it acquired and launched earlier this year. …

    In this particular case, the takedown request came from NPG Records, the 20-year old record label owned by Prince. ‘NPG’ is short for New Power Generation, the name of the artist’s former backing band.

    A representative of NPG Records wrote to Twitter to say eight video clips hosted on Vine contained “unauthorized recordings” and “unauthorized synchronizations” and asked the company to remove them immediately.

    The request was sent on March 22, 2013.

    The links to the Vine clips were included in the letter and no longer lead to playable videos, so it’s safe to assume Twitter followed up on the NPG representative’s request rather swiftly.

    Vine is a quick video sharing platform. As a content producer, you film, upload and share your videos. As a consumer you follow or view videos from friends and others. Kind of a streamlined YouTube platform.

    It’s an interesting conundrum. Producing and posting content is so easy. But is it fair if what you’re producing is someone else’s work? Some musicians are Very OK, in fact encouraging of audience members posting content; others, such as Prince, are not. Chilling Effects is a project/website that, with the help of everyone, tracks copyright issues…

    Chilling Effects aims to help you understand the protections that the First Amendment and intellectual property laws give to your online activities. We are excited about the new opportunities the Internet offers individuals to express their views, parody politicians, celebrate their favorite movie stars, or criticize businesses. But we’ve noticed that not everyone feels the same way. Anecdotal evidence suggests that some individuals and corporations are using intellectual property and other laws to silence other online users. Chilling Effects encourages respect for intellectual property law, while frowning on its misuse to “chill” legitimate activity.

    I’ve written about copyright before, but I always like to take the time to hammer on home again the importance of copyright and education about copyright. The lines between content producers, creators and consumers blur the optic gets trickier! Having someone high profile such as Prince take umbrage with copyright infringement may help smooth the path for emerging artists who want to own their artistic endeavors.

  • Mark Cuban: Brittney Griner Draft A Possibility

    Entrepreneur and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban says he would be willing to draft Baylor women’s basketball star Brittney Griner if she’s the best available player at the Mavs’ spot.

    ESPN quotes Cuban:

    “If she is the best on the board, I will take her,” Cuban said before the Mavs’ Tuesday night game against the Los Angeles Lakers. “I’ve thought about it. I’ve thought about it already. Would I do it? Right now, I’d lean toward yes, just to see if she can do it. You never know unless you give somebody a chance, and it’s not like the likelihood of any late-50s draft pick has a good chance of making it.”

    Here’s Griner dunking and “exploding” for 50 points:

    Griner is 6′ 8″, 207.2 lbs, according to Google’s Knowledge Graph. She is said to wear a men’s show size 17 or 18 shoe and to have an arm span of 86″.

    Griner is reportedly the first NCAA basketball player ever to score 2,000 points and block 500 shots. She won the 2012 AP Player of the Year.

    Cuban reportedly said that if the Mavericks don’t draft Griner, he would Have “no problem whatsoever” inviting her to try out for a spot on Dallas’ summer league team.