Category: Mobile

Google’s I/O developer conference is happening next week in San Francisco, and one of the big questions around what we’ll see there includes hardware. Now KGI securities analyst Mingchi Kuo (via 9to5Google), who unlike other analysts actually has a good track record of predicting things accurately, has let slip that one big reveal will be an updated Nexus 7 tablet, with a 1920 x 1200 7-inch display, a 5 megapixel camera and a new sleek, light design for the same $199 price point as the current version.

The Asus-built tablet will boast a new Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor, a “narrow bezel” screen with pixel density of 323 (pretty close to that of the iPhone 5) and physical dimensions that make it either very close to or even smaller than Apple’s iPad mini. If true, that’ll make it handheld, and with a Retina-quality display, at a price that absolutely undercuts Apple’s $329 entry point with the mini.

Other additions to this model include wireless charging according to Kuo, which would be in keeping with that feature being offered standard with the Nexus 4. Google is using Qi-based induction charging, which means that it’s compatible with a wide range of chargers, and the new Nexus 7 would likely adopt the same tech.

Kuo also looked beyond the I/O conference to what we might see from Google in the coming months, which include some fairly surprising developments. There’s a plan to get Samsung Android-powered notebooks to market, for instance, over the next 3 or 4 months. Intel telegraphed Android-based notebooks via one of its executives in a report last month, as 9to5Google notes, but Kuo says that we won’t see these at I/O since the next major point release of Android, version 5.0, won’t be ready for the show.

Android-based notebooks are a bit of a head-scratcher since Google has already invested a lot in pushing Chrome OS on the desktop, and recent reports suggest Chrome OS might end up powering tablets, too. It seems contrary for Google to continue working on that while also building a version of Android that can power notebooks, but this may just be a case of Google putting bets on multiple horses over the long-term, which makes sense given that the company has repeatedly shown it’s willing to invest in products that end up being failures for the sake of gleaning insights from what went wrong.

Beyond that, Kuo says Google is still working on an a Google TV device which will compete with the existing Apple TV, which sounds like it might be a second, more feature-rich kick at the ill-fated Nexus Q can. Finally, he also says a smart watch device is expected to debut alongside Glass in Google’s wearable computing category, but that this won’t hit mass production until at least next year.

It looks like Nokia plans to make the camera the focal point of its upcoming new flagship Lumia 928 once again, but this time around it could be in even worse shape than before. Relatively slow sales of the Lumia 920 compared to other leading smartphones showed us that a fresh OS and a killer camera simply aren’t enough to entice users to switch away from Android and iOS. Nokia appears to be beating the same drum all over again with the upcoming Lumia 928 though, and what little appeal the handset’s camera features might have to consumers at large could be overshadowed almost immediately by Samsung’s upcoming Galaxy S4 Zoom.

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Apple faces a whole lot of inbound requests to unlock iPhone devices from law enforcement officials, according to a new report from CNET. Seized iPhones with a passcode lock are apparently secure enough to frustrate a lot of police agencies in the U.S., resulting in a wait list that Apple has put in place to help it deal with unlock requests from the authorities.

The waiting list was long enough that it resulted in a 7-week delay for a recent request by the ATF last summer, according to the CNET report. The good news for iPhone owners is that the ATF in that instance turned to Apple as a last resort, after trying to find a law enforcement body at either the local, state or federal level that had the capability to unlock the phone in-house for three months to no avail. The bad news is that an affidavit obtained by CNET, the decryptions seem to take place without necessarily requiring a customer’s knowledge, whereas with Google there’s a password reset involved that notifies a user via email of the unlock.

Apple can reportedly bypass the security lock to get access to data on a phone, download it to an external device and hand that over to the authorities, according to an ATF affidavit, which means that ultimately, the information on an iOS device isn’t 100 percent secure. But overall, repeated reports peg Apple devices as particularly resistant to prying eyes operating in law enforcement.

A previous report from CNET also identified iMessage as resilient in the face of outside surveillance attempts, especially compared to more common text communication methods like SMS. Combined, the reports suggest that Apple’s technology for its mobile devices is especially good at repelling unwanted advances, which is great for privacy buffs, though the policies around when and why Apple does share that information needs more fleshing out.

We’ve reached out to Apple to see if they have any official comment on the unlock queue from law enforcement and how they proceed with requests, and will update if we hear more.

Samsung is in a unique position among Android smartphone manufacturers, which allows it to create devices like the Galaxy S4 Zoom, a rumored S4 variant that showed up for certification at the Bluetooth SIG this week (via UnwiredView) as the “SM-C101.” The S4 Zoom is reportedly going to resemble the unreleased S4 Mini, but boast a 16 megapixel rear camera with optical zoom.

Optical zoom is really the one remaining advantage that point and shoot cameras have over smartphone shooters, at least from a hardware perspective. Other companies, including LG and Huawei have been working on building smartphone optical zoom tech, too, but if Samsung brings this one to market with its rumored 10x zoom, it’ll be the strongest one currently available, beating the Nokia 808 PureView’s measly 3X power.

Samsung has the luxury of experimenting with different form factors, and using its flagship branding to offer a range of devices that potentially cut off competitors by giving users a complete device to match ever competitive advantage. Like the S4 but want a more manageably sized screen like on the iPhone 5? Get the S4 mini. Like the S4 but want something a little better able to withstand the environment and harsh conditions like the Xperia Z? Get the rumored rugged S4 variant. Want an S4 but with the best smartphone camera in the business, which exceeds even Nokia’s most ambitious efforts? Get the S4 Zoom.

Samsung’s lineup variety strategy may be more about blocking the competition and casting a wide net than anything else, but a big zoom on a mobile camera will have a lasting effect on the industry if it goes over well and produces impressive results. More importantly, it could bring about even bigger changes for the dwindling standalone point-and-shoot camera market, which means other smartphone OEMs won’t be the only ones watching to see if and when the Galaxy S4 Zoom makes a splash, which could happen as early as June according to release date rumors.

Pegatron may or may not be seeing falling demand for the iPad mini but it’s clear that the Apple device manufacturer won’t be slacking off for the next several months. Reuters reports that Pegatron is planning to boost its workforce in China by 40% in the second half of 2013, right when Apple is expected to start manufacturing its long-rumored low-cost iPhone. While there’s no definitive information linking Pegatron to the low-cost iPhone, Reuters says that the company expects its “revenue from communication products” to “contribute up to 40% to total in the six months from June, compared to 24% in the three months in the beginning of the year.” Or put another way, Pegatron expects to get a major revenue boost from producing “communications products” that will likely include some variant of Apple’s iPhone.

Sony has had surprising early success with its Xperia Z smartphone so it shouldn’t be much of a shock that the company wants to keep the momentum going by releasing yet another high-end device by the end of the year. Engadget notes that both specifications and pictures of Sony’s upcoming Xperia A have been posted on the Federal Communications Commission’s website and show that the new device will feature a 5-inch 1080p HD display, a 2,300mAh battery, a 13-megapixel camera and 16GB of storage. Given these specs, the Xperia A sounds more like an updated version of the Xperia Z rather than the full-blown monster 6.44-inch Xperia phablet that the company has been working on.

Failing to drive down the price on its Windows Phone devices, Nokia on Thursday announced a refresh of its Asha mobile operating system and the affordable Asha 501 phone. The handset is equipped with a 3-inch display, a 3.2-megapixel rear camera and either a single-SIM or dual-SIM configuration. The new Asha 501 is remarkably efficient, with Nokia promising a whopping 48 days of standby battery life for the single-SIM model and 26 days for the dual-SIM option.

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A new report has found that mobile device shipments, including notebooks, tablets and smartphones, exceeded 300 million units in the first quarter of 2013. According to research from Canalys, shipments increased 37.4% year-over-year to reach 308.7 units. Android manufacturers continue to ship more devices than any other vendor, totaling 59.5% of all shipments. Strong demand for the iPhone and iPad gave Apple a 19.3% share, ahead of Microsoft’s 18.1% share from shipments of Windows-powered notebooks, tablets and smartphones.

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With Nokia’s share of handset sales in emerging markets under assault, the company may have an unlikely white knight come to its rescue: Facebook. No, Facebook isn’t planning to release a version of Facebook Home for Lumia models anytime soon but Quartz’s Leo Mirani explains that Facebook is bringing some features to Nokia’s $99 line of new Asha phones that could make them very attractive to first-time handset buyers. In particular, Mirani says that the new Asha 501 comes with “free data for Facebook if consumers use one of the wireless carriers that have agreed” to provide it.

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Apple’s iPhone 5 became the best-selling smartphone in the world shortly after its launch last fall, and hype surrounding the upcoming iPhone 5S is starting to build. Rivals are preparing new flagship smartphones of their own to combat the new iPhone, however, which is expected to launch late in the third quarter. According to unnamed industry sources speaking with Digitimes, we can expect new flagship Android phones to launch around the same time as the iPhone 5S from several of Apple’s top competitors, including Samsung, LG and HTC.

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The Facebook-centric HTC First may be little more than a month old but that hasn’t stopped some analysts from already writing its obituary. Benzinga points us to new research from Global Equities Research analyst Trip Chowdhry, who estimates that the HTC First sold less than 10,000 units in its first three days of availability and who says the smartphone is “pretty much dead” despite its short time on the market. Facebook and HTC announced the First in April as a device to showcase Facebook’s new Facebook Home overlay for Android that essentially takes over Android home screens and replaces them with Facebook content.

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Amazon offers a range of hardware, including its Kindle e-readers and tablets, but now it’s looking to expand the line with two new smartphones and an audio-only device that streams music, according to the Wall Street Journal. The phones include a high-end one with a glasses-free 3D screen, as well as another about which details were not included in the report, which presumably would be a more traditional design.

Amazon has been rumored to have been working on a phone for a while now, and the recent hiring of top Windows Phone evangelist Charlie Kindel also raised alarms that Amazon might be in the smartphone business soon. Natasha wrote about how Kindel had previously discussed Android’s fragmentation problem, and how it provided opportunity for other players to step up and innovate. This could be what he’s attempting at Amazon, and these devices might be part of that project, although nothing about its plans have been officially revealed as of yet.

The rumored 3D device is said to use some kind of retina-tracking technology to present a holographic image that’s viewable without glasses, and that hovers above the screen. It sounds a little like a gimmick to be honest, especially considering how CE devices with 3D have fared so far, like the 3DS, which recently has downplayed its 3D capabilities in recent marketing. Other phone makers, including HTC and Sony, have also dabbled with 3D displays on phones, all of which have essentially failed to make an impact.

Lately, however, a lot of companies have been creating hardware which doesn’t necessarily have an immediately apparent niche. There’s the Chromebook Pixel, for instance, as well as Google Glass and rumors of the Apple smart watch. There’s the Acer Aspire R7 more recently, too, all of which essentially point to a need to have a big, splashy marquee product that isn’t necessarily the hottest consumer device.

Amazon’s other phone could be the more mass-market play, and the dedicated audio player sounds like it might want to become the iPhone of the streaming music generation. WSJ says that some of these devices might launch as soon as in the next few months, though there’s no guarantee that they won’t be shelved, so 3D screens could also just be something Amazon is testing internally.

We’ve reached out to Amazon for comment and have yet to hear back, but will update this post if they provide any official comment.

We’ve been waiting for a long time for Amazon to get into the smartphone game and now unnamed sources have told The Wall Street Journal that the company has been developing a smartphone with a full 3D screen. The Journal says that “Amazon has been developing a wide-ranging lineup of gadgets, including… an audio-only streaming device” and two smartphones, one of which will have a 3D display. The Journal’s sources say that the 3D display will use “retina-tracking technology” to make “images on the smartphone… seem to float above the screen like a hologram and appear three-dimensional at all angles.” The device could even allow users to “navigate through content using just their eyes,” two sources said. The reported smartphone would mark Amazon’s first attempt to get into the mobile handset business after experiencing some solid success with its Kindle Fire line of tablets. A release date for the new device is uncertain but according to the latest rumors it won’t launch until at least after June.

Google has long been rumored to be developing a high-end smartphone, codenamed the X Phone, in collaboration with its Motorola division that would be designed to push the boundaries of mobile innovation. New information suggests, however, that the company has abandoned the project because it could not achieve the level of innovation it had originally hoped for. The report comes from Chinese analyst Sun Changxu, who noted that the project has not been cancelled and instead is now being developed solely by Motorola. This could result in a device that doesn’t include the tight Google integration or stock version of Android earlier reports had indicated. While it was first reported that the X Phone would debut later this month at Google’s annual I/O Developers Conference, the latest rumors suggest the device will be announced later this year.

Images of what is claimed to be part of the motherboard from Apple’s next-generation iPhone 5S handset leaked on Thursday. The photos were originally published by Japan-based cell phone parts and accessories vendor Moumantai, and they show redesigned internal components that suggest earlier rumors claiming the iPhone 5S will include an upgraded rear camera may be accurate. Apple’s next iPhone is expected to launch this fall with an upgraded processor and a new camera, which may feature 12-megapixel resolution and improved low-light image capture capabilities. The photos of the purported iPhone 5S part, which features a new shape and redesigned connectors, follow below alongside comparison shots of the iPhone 5 motherboard.

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Yahoo announced that the teams from both Milewise and GoPollGo have joined Yahoo.

In an email, a spokesperson said, “Today Milewise and GoPollGo joined the Yahoo! mobile team. GoPollGo created a cool social polling app. The team has joined our mobile org in Sunnyvale. Milewise created a great app to make travel planning easier and personalized. They have joined our New York mobile team.”

Milewise will be shutting down its own service as it focuses on Yahoo’s mobile efforts. The company posted this message to its homepage:

MileWise began almost four years ago with the goal of creating a simple, powerful product to help people and providers get the most value out of their rewards.

Along the way, we’ve been lucky to connect with an incredible community of fellow travelers, without whom we wouldn’t have made it this far. To everyone who took MileWise for a spin: THANK YOU! You shared our vision of what MileWise could become, and generously donated your time and passion towards making it a reality.

As part of the transition, the MileWise service will be shutting down. It’s tough to say goodbye to something we’ve dedicated so much to. But, we’ve tried to make it easy to take your data with you. We’ll be sending everyone an email with instructions on exporting your data, and if you have any questions don’t hesitate to email us.

The MileWise team will be joining Yahoo! in NYC’s Bryant Park office. We’re thrilled to be joining such a talented group of inventors, and can’t wait to get working on the next big thing coming out of Yahoo.

Again, we’d like to thank everyone who supported us along the way: our investors, our employees, our partners, and most importantly, our fellow travelers.

Likewise, GoPollGo is shutting down support for its own properties, and will focus on Yahoo. The company shared this message on its site:

We are excited to share some big news: We’re joining Yahoo! For two years, we’ve worked incredibly hard to make it as easy as possible to get feedback from friends and followers. It has been so rewarding to build a product that scaled up to millions of people and supported large media properties and diverse brands — all while staying true to promise to deliver fun, engaging, real-time experiences.

We’re so excited to bring the knowledge and experience we’ve gained at GoPollGo to Yahoo!. We share an enthusiasm for building delightful user experiences, and we couldn’t be happier to join forces.

Huge thanks to all our users, partners and customers who helped us realize our vision. As of today, we’ll no longer be supporting GoPollGo’s properties on the site, embeddable widgets or mobile app. If you have any questions or want to get in touch, shoot us an email to [email protected].

Yahoo wasn’t joking when it was talking about its focus on mobile. We’ll see how long it takes for these acquisitions to surface in Yahoo properties. It didn’t take Summly very long.

Last week, Yahoo announced the acquisition of Astrid, another mobile app.

How big is the connected devices universe? Analyst ABI Research reckons the Internet of Things contains some 10 billion+ wireless connected devices today — but it’s predicting this figure will triple in size to more than 30 billion devices in an Internet of Everything by 2020 as more and more objects are plugged into the network. The figures come from new ABI research published today.

The analyst says the standardisation push behind ultra-low power wireless technologies is “one of the main enablers” of this Internet of Everything — which already contains such curios as the Hapifork and keyless entry systems that let you open your front door from an app. ABI analyst Peter Cooney notes that while 10 billion devices might sound like a lot, there’s still many years before the IoE “reaches its full potential” — whatever that means.

“The next 5 years will be pivotal in its growth and establishment as a tangible concept to the consumer,” says Cooney in a statement.

ABI says a range of wirelessless technologies — including Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, ZigBee, Cellular and RFID, plus many others — are all important to driving growth in smart connected devices but says the “long term expansion of the market” depends on wireless technology “becoming invisible so that the consumer will be oblivious to which technology is used and only know that it works”.

And while today, “hub devices” — namely smartphones, tablets and laptops — are the enablers of the IoE ecosystem (such as the iPad being used as the hub for a smart connected kitchen scales, for instance) ABI sees future growth in this network being driven by “node or sensor type devices”, as device-makers start to think about connecting more of the things more of the time, not just things that are in close proximity to people some of the time.

ABI predicts that by 2020 nodes/sensors will account for the majority (60%) of the total installed base of IoE devices. Personal connected mobile devices will still be “an essential building block”, however.

[Image by FutUndBeidl via Flickr]

According to a number of reports in the Israeli media, Facebook is in advanced talks with Waze — a mobile mapping and traffic-information service based in Israel — about acquiring the company for as much as $1 billion. This is not the first time Waze has been the subject of acquisition rumors: Apple was reported to be in talks with the company in January, although that report was later debunked. But while Apple could definitely benefit from buying Waze, the one who needs it most is Google.

For those who may not have used it, Waze — which won our Launchpad event at Mobilize in 2009 — provides real-time information about everything from road closures and accidents to traffic backups and police speed-traps. The information is superimposed on a scrollable map, and there are also a number of social features built in, which allow users to see and share information, including messages, with other drivers. Waze even provides gas-price data.

Facebook wants to acquire mobile users

If Facebook does acquire Waze for $1 billion, as reported by Israeli media outlets like Calcalist and Ynet, it would be one of the biggest acquisitions the social network has ever made, rivalling the purchase of mobile photo-sharing service Instagram (which signed a deal for $1 billion but actually wound up being acquired for $750 million due to a drop in Facebook’s share price). And the rationale for the deal would be much the same as it was for Instagram — namely, acquiring and holding onto mobile users.

As my colleague Erica Ogg explained when the Apple rumors were floated earlier this year, Apple would also make a good fit for Waze, in part because the company’s mapping app is seen by many as an also-ran to Google’s more feature-rich service — which is why there was such an outcry last year when Apple suddenly cut off Google and switched iOS users to its own maps.

But while Apple would be a good fit, and Facebook has its own reasons for wanting a service like Waze, I think Google would be the real loser if it went to either of these companies, for the simple reason that Google Maps is a big part of the company’s mobile appeal — at least for me, and I would suspect for many others. My reliance on Google Maps was one of the reasons why Apple’s move irritated me and helped push me towards the Android platform, and Waze is good enough that it could help either Apple or Facebook leap-frog Google.

Google has the most to lose

I’ll admit that I was somewhat skeptical about the value of Waze until I tried using it on a long drive from Florida to Toronto earlier this year. I had looked at the service a few times, but it didn’t have a lot of data or users in Canada (it now has about 45 million users worldwide) and I didn’t see the appeal of the social elements. But when I started using it during this long drive, its utility quickly became obvious — and I stopped using Google Maps altogether.

I’m not yet sold on the ability to connect with other users through the app (unless they are friends already, which would make sense if you were on a trip together), but being able to see at a glance where there is a traffic jam — and even what speed people are going who are stuck in it — and where there’s a speed trap or a police car on the roadside was hugely useful. The gas price data also came in handy more than once.

Google Maps also has traffic data, and it is also based on real-time information, which comes from other users of the service who have their GPS location turned on. It is pretty accurate — but I don’t find it nearly as useful as Waze. I didn’t think enough people would take the time to enter information about things like traffic or speed traps into Waze to make it useful, but I was wrong. And Google doesn’t seem to have any plans to try and duplicate that, since it is more focused on automating that whole process, in typical Google fashion.

There’s no sign that Google has shown an interest in acquiring Waze, but I think the company would be stupid not to at least consider trumping Facebook’s offer. It could wind up losing its way, and a bunch of mobile users to boot.

Post and thumbnail photos courtesy of Flickr user Dunechaser and Waze

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Last night I posted a tweet that drew some interesting responses. Beside the text “the back of a $640 phone,” I posted an image of the Galaxy S4’s case-back as I contorted the flexible paper-thin cover in my hand. I made no further comment. As I covered briefly for the umpteenth time in an article on Wednesday, the Galaxy S4 feels cheap. It feels flimsy. The fact of the matter is that the phone is neither cheap nor flimsy — at $237, the combined value of its parts is actually 10% higher than the aluminum iPhone 5’s bill of materials (BOM). But however expensive and durable the materials Samsung used in the Galaxy S4 may be, it still doesn’t feel like a high-end smartphone.

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Nokia’s Lumia 928 will launch soon and once again, Nokia is betting the farm on camera quality to sell its flagship phone. The chances that consumers will actually change their smartphone preference based on superior low-light photo quality are slim to nil, of course. Instagram topped 100 million users in February. AfterLight and Wood Camera are white-hot app market sensations. During all those years Nokia wasted chasing 41-megapixel perfection the consumers were headed for the opposite direction, clamoring for atmospheric, blurry, nostalgic, eerie, low-quality photos.

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