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Monday, August 29, 2011

Grilled cheese with a tech twist in San Francisco (AP) : Technet

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Grilled cheese with a tech twist in San Francisco (AP) : Technet

Grilled cheese with a tech twist in San Francisco (AP)

Posted: 29 Aug 2011 06:46 PM PDT

By RACHEL METZ, AP Technology Writer Rachel Metz, Ap Technology Writer – 2 hrs 49 mins ago

SAN FRANCISCO – Jonathan Kaplan made it easy for consumers to shoot cheesy home movies when he founded the company behind the Flip Video camcorder. Now, he's hoping to popularize something cheesier — and gooier — by starting a chain of grilled cheese restaurants that combine fast food with high tech.

Kaplan's latest creation, The Melt, opens its first location Tuesday in San Francisco's SoMa neighborhood. Plans are in the works for two more restaurants in San Francisco and one in nearby Palo Alto by Thanksgiving. With financial backing from a venture-capital heavyweight, Sequoia Capital, Kaplan hopes to open 25 to 50 restaurants within the next year and about 500 across the country within five years.

No matter how much people like grilled cheese, Kaplan's plan is audacious, considering the state of the economy. Still, he believes building this kind of business makes sense, particularly during a time of uncertainty.

"Economically, it's a good time right now because people want comfort food," he says, seated on a stool at one of the bar-height tables at his bright white-and-orange-hued eatery.

Kaplan was flipping around the idea for The Melt even before the creation of the Flip Video, which the company he co-founded, Pure Digital, began selling in 2007. About 10 years ago, Kaplan says, he started researching grilled cheese to see if it could become the main food attraction for a national chain. As part of his research, he solicited customers' opinions about the sandwich at the giant Mall of America in Bloomington, Minn. He was buoyed by their responses.

Kaplan was convinced a grilled cheese chain could succeed, but there was one big sticking point: How do you make the sandwiches consistent when you have hourly employees — who aren't professional chefs — behind the counter?

Not sure how to solve this problem at the time, he put his plan on the back burner. In the meantime, he started Pure Digital. The company's Flip Video, a simple, low-cost, pocket-sized video camera, paved the way for an entire market. In 2009, Cisco Systems Inc. bought Pure Digital for $590 million as part of an effort to branch out from its core business of making computer networking equipment. Kaplan became general manager of Cisco's consumer products division.

But Kaplan left Cisco in February. Two months later, Cisco discontinued Flip Video and shut down Pure Digital as it gave up in part on its goals for the consumer market. Kaplan decided it was time to give grilled cheese a go.

With a small group of advisers — including chef and restaurateur Michael Mina — Kaplan approached Swedish home appliance maker Electrolux about making a special contraption that would create uniform grilled cheese sandwiches. They came up with a machine that combines two induction burners, a microwave and non-stick pads, which allow the bread to toast while the cheese melts — without squishing the sandwich as a panini press might do.

Not surprisingly, given Kaplan's background, technology also comes into play in the way visitors can order their meals. If you don't want to wait in line, you can order on a smartphone using The Melt's website. After placing an order, you receive a QR code — a cousin to the traditional bar code, but with more data encoded in a smaller space. You bring that to a code reader in the restaurant for scanning, and an employee then gathers up your order.

When The Melt has more locations up and running, customers will be able to choose where to redeem their codes, Kaplan says.

He believes the technology in use at The Melt will improve the customer experience, "rather than technology that is just there for marketing reasons or technology for technology's sake."

Besides the traditional grilled cheese sandwich and tomato soup, The Melt's menu, at launch, features such variations as aged Gruyere on white wheat and smoked Gouda on eight-grain bread. Soup options include spicy black bean and creamy wild mushroom. Prices run $3.95 or $5.95 for a cup or bowl of soup, respectively, $5.95 for a sandwich. The restaurant offers soup and sandwich combos for $8.95.

In a sampling of some sandwiches, the cheese was flavorful and gooey, while the bread was somewhat crisp and airy. Soups, meanwhile, tasted rich, but not too thick.

NPD Group restaurant analyst Bonnie Riggs says Kaplan's idea sounds interesting, but she warns that the restaurant industry overall has just gone through "the most prolonged period of weakness we've ever experienced" with eight straight quarters of declining customer traffic.

Kaplan, however, is confident that hungry consumers will catch on to The Melt.

"Grilled cheese makes people happy," he says.

Irene takes out some East Coast cellphone service (AP)

Posted: 29 Aug 2011 07:24 AM PDT

By PETER SVENSSON, AP Technology Writer Peter Svensson, Ap Technology Writer – Mon Aug 29, 10:24 am ET

NEW YORK – Wireless networks fell quiet Sunday in some coastal areas of North Carolina and southern Virginia, but calls were going through in most areas affected by Tropical Storm Irene, the Federal Communications Commission said.

In Lenoir, Greene and Carteret counties of North Carolina, 50 percent to 90 percent of cell towers went offline, said Rear Adm. Jamie Barnett, head of the public safety bureau of the Federal Communications Commission.

About 400 cell towers were offline in North Carolina and Virgina, with power outages the chief reason. Another 200 towers were running on backup power by Saturday night and could go silent as their backup batteries or generators run dry, Barnett said.

Landline phone service failed for about 125,000 households on the coast, the FCC said. Another 250,000 have lost cable service, and some of them could have phone service from the cable company, which would then also be out.

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said the 911 system has held up well. There were no reports of call-center outages or call congestion, he told The Associated Press.

Public-safety networks for police, firefighters and ambulance crews also were working.

Networks in the biggest population center in the path of the storm, the greater New York metropolitan area, were largely spared.

And Verizon Wireless spokesman Thomas Pica said most of its customers haven't experienced any disruptions.

"The Verizon Wireless network continues to perform well all along the East Coast, including in the many affected communities," Pica said in an emailed statement. "Some cell sites in communities that have lost commercial power are operating on our own emergency backup generators to help us continue providing wireless service to our customers."

In New York City itself, Barnett said, only 1 percent of cell towers went off the air. Time Warner Cable Inc., one of the city's two cable companies, said it had reports of sporadic outages. Verizon Communications Inc., the local phone company, was running some switching centers on backup power.

AI chatbots engage in an awkward showdown, bring laughs (Yahoo! News)

Posted: 29 Aug 2011 03:17 PM PDT

Fuel TV’s Pat Parnell talks sports and tech (Yahoo! News)

Posted: 29 Aug 2011 02:56 PM PDT

Eric Schmidt: If You Don't Want To Use Your Real Name, Don't Use Google+ (Mashable)

Posted: 28 Aug 2011 12:43 PM PDT

Emily Banks Emily Banks – Sun Aug 28, 3:43 pm ET

Already using Google+? Follow Mashable's Pete Cashmore for the latest about the platform's new features, tips and tricks as well as social media and technology updates. Google+ was meant to be an identity service, Google Chairman Eric Schmidt said this weekend, shedding some light on Google's reasoning behind Google+'s controversial real-name policy.

[More from Mashable: Twitter Reaction to Tropical Storm Irene: Relief]

Google's requirement that members of its social layer, Google+, use only their real names has been a point of contention for several weeks -- especially for people with uncommon names and people who prefer to use pseudonyms. Schmidt's comments at the Edinburgh International TV Festival reveal a new perspective on Google+.

NPR's Andy Carvin asked Schmidt how Google justifies its names policy when it could put people at risk.

[More from Mashable: 10 Must-Follow Spoof Tech & Social Media Twitter Accounts]

"He replied by saying that G+ was build primarily as an identity service, so fundamentally, it depends on people using their real names if they're going to build future products that leverage that information," Carvin wrote in a Google+ post. "Regarding people who are concerned about their safety, he said G+ is completely optional. No one is forcing you to use it. It's obvious for people at risk if they use their real names, they shouldn't use G+."

Paraphrasing Schmidt's comments, Carvin wrote that the Google exec also said the Internet "would be better if we knew you were a real person rather than a dog or a fake person. Some people are just evil and we should be able to ID them and rank them downward."

Because Schmidt's comments were made during a Q&A session, Carvin said he wasn't able to ask any follow-up questions.

On Sunday, venture capitalist Fred Wilson followed up with his own thoughts on Schmidt's "identity service" comments and the products that Google might build based on users' information.

"It begs the question of whom Google built this service for? You or them," Wilson wrote in a blog post. "And the answer to why you need to use your real name in the service is because they need you to."

Since its launch in late June, Google+ has begun to spread its reach across the web. The +1 button now shares directly to Google+ and it's added friend annotations; and Google+ posts now appear in Google search results. The pieces all fit together to provide Google with a broader picture of its users -- not just on Google products anymore.

How could Google leverage users' identity information for new products? Perhaps through more targeted advertising or personalized search, or maybe something completely different.

Wilson seems to imply that just knowing Google's intentions is useful. "Well at least we got that out there and can deal with it," he concluded.

Image courtesy of Flickr, Charles Haynes

This story originally published on Mashable here.

Australia regulator may delay Telstra separation plan (Reuters)

Posted: 29 Aug 2011 08:44 PM PDT

– 52 mins ago

SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australia's competition regulator voiced objections on Tuesday to the terms of the proposed split of dominant phone company Telstra Corp, threatening to delay an historic reform designed to wire up the entire nation to high-speed broadband.

The news knocked Telstra shares down 2.6 percent at A$2.99, after touching a low of A$2.92, down 4.9 percent.

Telstra recently hammered out an agreement to hand over its fixed-line telecoms infrastructure, including cable ducts, to a state-run company for use in the government's $38 billion project to build a high-speed national broadband network.

But the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) said Telstra's separation plan could not go ahead in its current form and called for important changes.

Analysts said the watchdog's concerns would probably only mean a bump in the road to getting the deal done.

"It won't stop the process but delay it slightly," said fund manager Theo Maas, of Arnhem Investment Management.

"Telstra's shareholder vote, too, may be delayed but Telstra could still go with it on schedule even before ACCC approval, if its negotiations with the regulator are close to finalizing."

Telstra, whose shareholders are due to vote on the separation plan on October 18, said it had not seen the regulator's statement and would review it before making a comment.

The ACCC's new chairman, Rod Sims, said the commission had several concerns but noted some of them were "readily correctable" by Telstra.

The broadband project aims to bring high-speed Internet access to more than 90 percent of Australian households using fiber-optic cable, with the rest covered by wireless or satellite.

Broadband speeds in Australia are below the OECD average at 32.4 megabits per second. About 60 percent of households have a broadband connection, similar to New Zealand and the United States, but well behind South Korea on about 95 percent.

Arnhem Investment's Maas said the ACCC's concerns focused mainly on the transition period during which Telstra would hand over its fixed-line assets to the new network.

"The concern still lies on the road toward the National Broadband Network," he said.

"With NBN being a 10-year process, Telstra will have reasonable power to disadvantage competitors from access to their old copper network during the roll-out period," he said.

(Reporting by Mark Bendeich and Narayanan Somasundaram in SYDNEY and Sonali Paul and Victoria Thieberger in MELBOURNE; Editing by Ed Davies)

Amazon may sell 3-5 million tablets in Q4: Forrester (Reuters)

Posted: 29 Aug 2011 12:27 PM PDT

By Alistair Barr Alistair Barr – Mon Aug 29, 3:27 pm ET

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Amazon.com Inc may sell as many as 5 million tablet computers in the fourth quarter, making the largest Internet retailer the top competitor to Apple Inc in this fast-growing niche of the consumer PC market, Forrester Research said on Monday.

Amazon.com has to price its tablet "significantly" below competing products and have enough supply to meet demand, but if the company can pull this off it can "easily" sell 3 million to 5 million units in the final three months of 2011, Forrester's Sarah Rotman Epps predicted.

Apple has sold almost 30 million iPads since launching its tablet in April 2010. Rival products from companies including Samsung Electronics Co, Research in Motion and Motorola Mobility have failed to mount a serious challenge to that early lead. This month, Hewlett-Packard scrapped its TouchPad after sales languished.

"Thus far, Apple has faced many would-be competitors, but none have gained significant market share," Epps wrote. "Not only does Amazon have the potential to gain share quickly but its willingness to sell hardware at a loss, as it did with the Kindle, makes Amazon a nasty competitor."

One problem with iPad rivals has been that developers have so far waited before creating a lot of applications, or apps, for the devices, Forrester noted.

Apple claims about 100,000 custom-built iPad apps, while Google's Honeycomb platform, which is the tablet version of the Android operating system, has attracted fewer than 300 apps, according to Forrester.

"If Amazon's Android-based tablet sells in the millions, Android will suddenly appear much more attractive to developers who have taken a wait-and-see approach," Epps said.

Amazon's Kindle e-reader is lighter and smaller than the iPad, but Apple's tablet has a browser and other services for enhanced reading and researching, Fred Wilson, a venture capital investor and principal at Union Square Ventures, said in a recent blog.

"What we all want is a hybrid of the two -- a Kindle that is a full-blown tablet computer with a browser, apps, and an OS," Wilson added. "It looks like Amazon is going to bring that to market this fall ... It looks like a killer product."

Amazon shares were up 3.4 percent at $206.03 in afternoon trading on Monday, leaving them up more than 10 percent so far this year.

Apple shares were up 1.6 percent at $389.87. The stock is up almost 19 percent so far in 2011.

(Reporting by Alistair Barr; Editing by Tim Dobbyn and Matthew Lewis)

Logitech announces iPad 2 folding keyboard, joystick accessories (Digital Trends)

Posted: 29 Aug 2011 08:33 PM PDT

Mike Flacy Mike Flacy – 1 hr 3 mins ago

Custom_format_Fold-up_Keyboard_4

Designed to work with the iPad 2, Logitech announced the Fold-Up Keyboard for iPad. Powered by Bluetooth, the keyboard attaches to the bottom of the iPad and is designed to travel with the Apple tablet.  When in use, two sides of the keyboard rotate out and lock into place to form a full-sized keyboard. When the keyboard is unfolded and locked into place, it automatically powers up for use with the iPad 2. It also turns off automatically when unfolded and can be recharged through a USB connection. It's also compatible with the iPad 2 Smart Cover, thus both can be used to protect each side of the iPad 2. The keyboard also acts as a stand when in use and includes a variety of keyboard shortcuts to highlight areas of text within an app like Pages.

logitech-ipad-JOYSTICK-BTYLogitech also announced the release of a thumb-stick style joystick for the iPad or iPad 2 specifically for use in games that require an on-screen joystick. The clear plastic joystick attaches to the corner of the iPad with two small suction cups and uses a coiled spring to return the joystick to the center position. When not in use, the joystick comes with a small carrying case to travel with the tablet. A sampling of notable, compatible games include Madden NFL 11, Splinter Cell Conviction, Call of Duty: World at War: Zombies, Assassin's Creed: Altair's Chronicles, N.O.V.A. 2 Near Orbit Vanguard Alliance,Resident Evil 4, Ultimate Spider-man: Total Mayhem, Geometry Wars: Touch and Real Racing 2 HD.

The Logitech Fold-Up Keyboard for iPad is heading to both the United States and Europe in September. Priced higher than the Logitech Keyboard case by ZAGG, the folding keyboard will  run an approximate retail price of $129.99. The Logitech Joystick for iPad will be released in the same locales in September for an approximate retail price of $19.99.

Smartphones to Dominate in Four Years, Led by Low End (NewsFactor)

Posted: 29 Aug 2011 03:22 PM PDT

Jennifer LeClaire, newsfactor.com Jennifer Leclaire, newsfactor.com – Mon Aug 29, 6:22 pm ET

Feature phones are still the majority in the mobile phone market, but smartphones are quickly creeping up. Low-end smartphone models are leading the way. So says a report from IHS iSuppli.

By 2015, IHS iSuppli expects smartphones to take over. The firm's data predict that global smartphone unit shipments will soar to 1.03 billion units in 2015, more than double the 478 million in 2011.

That would increase the smartphone sector's share of the global mobile phone market to 54.4 percent in 2015, up from 32.5 percent in 2011. Smartphones made up only 15.8 percent of the total cell phone market in 2009.

Low-End Leads the Way

"With their affordable prices, low-end smartphones are attractive to first-time users and to consumers in emerging economies where subscriber levels are rising at the fastest rates of all regions of the world, such as China, India, South Asia and Africa," said Francis Sideco, principal analyst of wireless communications for IHS.

IHS iSuppli research indicates the fastest-growing category within the smartphone market will be low-end models. Low-end models are defined as devices with limited features and lower memory densities compared with higher-end products, like the iPhone.

IHS iSuppli expects shipments of low-end smartphones to rise at a compound annual growth rate of 115.4 percent from 2010 through 2015, compared with just 16.4 percent for midrange to high-end smartphones.

"Low-end smartphones often are sold with inexpensive tiered data plans that target consumers who do not yet need full-featured services," Sideco said. "This further reduces these phones' total cost of ownership, making them attractive to vast numbers of entry-level consumers."

Samsung's Upside

Apple dominates in the high-end smartphone space. Who will win in the low-end space? IHS iSuppli pointed to Samsung as a contender. Samsung posted the strongest growth of all companies in the second quarter, with a 600 percent sequential increase in shipments. Its line of low-end smartphones that appeal to consumers in China and Latin America drove that performance.

That said, mobile apps are also driving the adoption of smartphones.

"Success in the mobile phone industry is no longer purely a function of hardware capabilities," Sideco said. "Growth for all players is being determined by a number of other important factors, such as software capabilities, the sleekness and intuitiveness of the user interface and the availability of a variety of applications."

Michael Disabato, vice president of Network and Telecom at Gartner, agreed with the overall predictions in IHS iSuppli's report. He, too, expects smartphones to overtake feature phones in the next few years.

"Consumers in countries like China and India are getting the low-end smartphones, and they will get the higher-end smartphones as they can afford them," Disabato said.

"Advertising is selling these devices, and the kids are going to school, where peer pressure is selling the devices. Handset makers are putting more and more functionality on a smartphone and giving you less and less a need for a laptop."

Facebook pays bug hunters $40,000 in less than a month (Digital Trends)

Posted: 29 Aug 2011 07:00 PM PDT

Trevor Mogg Trevor Mogg – 2 hrs 35 mins ago

unlock facebookExactly a month ago, Facebook launched a scheme that offered payments to bug hunters who reported flaws in the site's security system.

On Monday, the social networking giant announced that in the space of just three weeks the bug bounty program has paid out over $40,000 to people who've helped identify problems, with one particular bug spotter pocketing over $7,000 for reporting six different issues. Another expert picked up $5,000 for a single report.

In a blog post on Monday, Facebook's chief security officer, Joe Sullivan, wrote about the success of the bug bounty program. "It has been amazing to see how independent security talent around the world has mobilized to help. The program has also been great because it has made our site more secure–by surfacing issues large and small, introducing us to novel attack vectors, and helping us improve lots of corners in our code," he wrote.

Sullivan was also keen to clarify the terms of the program, saying, "Some stories said that the maximum payment would be $500, when in fact that is the minimum amount we will pay. In fact, we've already paid a $5,000 bounty for one really good report. On the other end of the spectrum, we've had to deal with bogus reports from people who were just looking for publicity."

Of the independent security experts involved in the bug bounty program, Sullivan said some had requested Facebook extend it to third-party applications and programs. Sullivan says in response: "Unfortunately, that's just not practical because of the hundreds of thousands of independent Internet services implicated, but we do care deeply about security on the Platform." Indeed, considering the amount of third-party software involved, such a bug-spotting scheme would probably bankrupt the social networking site within days.

He continued: "We have a dedicated Platform Operations team that scrutinizes these partners and we frequently audit their security and privacy practices. Additionally, we have built a number of backend tools that help automatically detect and disable spammy or malicious applications."

It seems Facebook has come up with a great way to tap into the skills of the security research community to help make the site more secure. Sullivan certainly values the contributions from the independent experts, closing his blog post with the words: "Facebook truly does have the world's best neighborhood watch program, and [the bug bounty] program has proven that yet again for us."

BBC planning to broadcast 2012 Olympics in 3D and super hi-vision (Digital Trends)

Posted: 29 Aug 2011 08:21 PM PDT

Trevor Mogg Trevor Mogg – 1 hr 15 mins ago

london 2012If you thought HDTV was of a quality hard to beat, then think again. Apparently the BBC believes there is something 16 times better, and the British broadcaster is considering using it at the London Olympics next year.

It's also planning to broadcast a number of events, including the men's 100 meters final, in 3D. Imagine that, the imposing figure of Usain Bolt storming down the track toward the camera (as long as he doesn't make a false start, of course).

Speaking recently at the Edinburgh International Television Festival, Roger Mosey, the executive responsible for the BBC's Olympic coverage, said that the corporation was also thinking about testing "super hi-vision" technology. According to a Guardian report, the technology is "so advanced it is not expected to be in homes for a decade."

Super hi-vision broadcasts could be shown on large screens, around 15 meters (50ft) high, at various sites around the UK. Mosey said the quality is so good that spectators would feel as if they were actually inside the Olympic stadium.

“Super hi-vision might be a better long-term prospect than 3D in some ways as it gives you the feel of being in the stadium. People are knocked out by it,â€

According to Mosey, Japanese electronics company Sharp is developing a 215cm (85in) TV set incorporating super hi-vision technology, though it probably won't be widely available until 2022.

The BBC executive also explained that the 3D broadcasts at next year's Games would be limited so as not to interrupt HD programming. "It is fair to say there is a trade-off between 3D and HD. We don't want to damage the mass audience that watches HD with [too much] 3D, which is viewed by a minority."

Sports competitions broadcast in 3D using strategically placed cameras could certainly jazz things up a bit, with the javelin, shot put and hammer throw being three such events that may well have viewers around the world flinching in unison or watching nervously from behind cushions.

 

[Image: London 2012]

Social media magazine app Flipboard turns its sights to TV and film (Appolicious)

Posted: 29 Aug 2011 04:30 PM PDT

Mobile ad firm Blyk names insider Eric Kip as CEO (Reuters)

Posted: 29 Aug 2011 02:39 PM PDT

– Mon Aug 29, 5:39 pm ET

HELSINKI (Reuters) – Blyk, a pioneer in the mobile-telephone advertising business, said on Tuesday it has appointed its chief commercial officer, Eric Kip, to take over as chief executive, replacing co-founder Pekka Ala-Pietila.

Ala-Pietila -- a former president of cellphone maker Nokia -- will continue as chairman, overseeing Kip, who for years managed large media agencies before joining Blyk in 2009.

Blyk started in 2007 as a telecom operator in Britain, renting network from larger carriers and offering customers free calls in exchange for advertisements.

Two years later, at the height of the financial crisis, it dumped its operator business and focused solely on offering mobile advertising through operators -- Everything Everywhere in Britain, Vodafone in Netherlands and Aircel, a unit of Malaysia's Maxis Communications, in India.

Blyk said on Tuesday it has more than one million clients each in Britain and India.

Ad companies and operators are closely watching companies like Blyk as mobile advertising presents an opportunity for new revenue streams. Advertisers are attracted to the sheer size of the audience -- over 4 billion people globally use cellphones.

(Reporting by Tarmo Virki; Editing by Gary Hill)

Twitter breaks tweets per second record thanks to Beyonce (Digital Trends)

Posted: 29 Aug 2011 05:53 PM PDT

Mike Dunn Mike Dunn – Mon Aug 29, 8:53 pm ET

Beyonce prenant twitter recordTwitter has played a very active and vital role in several recent world events by being able to quickly spread information amongst its users.  Today Twitter announced that the service broke its previous tweets per second record during MTV's Video Music Award show.  Moments after Beyonce finished her performance at the award show she proceeded to open her jacket which revealed the baby bump that set Twitter a blaze with 8,868 tweets per second.

Beyonce's twitter uproar unseated the women's world cup as for the tweet per second record.  After Japan upset the USA in the World Cup finals there were 7,196 tweets per second.   Another game during the Women's World Cup also generated over 7,100 tweets per second, Paraguay vs Brazil, but they came up a few tweets short of the record. 

There were a number of other recent events that some might have expected to take the record instead of pregnancy announcement.  Steve Jobs resigning as Apple's CEO provided several thoughtful tweets, but did not produce the sheer volume of tweets as other events.  The Virginia earthquake had a decent showing with 5,500 tweets per second.

Lady Gaga is still the reigning Twitter leader with just under 10 million followers, but President Obama is second with about a million less followers.  The rest of the top ten are all celebrities with CNN's official Twitter account coming in at number 13, and the NY Time's account rounding out the top 25.  With celebrities generally having more twitter follows than world leaders or company CEOs, or news outlets it's easy to see why celebrity news cause an influx of tweets.

It is interesting to see what will set Twitter off on a tweeting frenzy, and it seems almost impossible to predict.  All four events outlined in this story are completely different, but were all popular twitter topics.  As the Twitter user base grows the current record is guaranteed to break in the near future, but what event will cause it remains a mystery.

Sprint Sales Force Told To Stay Mum on iPhone (NewsFactor)

Posted: 29 Aug 2011 04:07 PM PDT

Mark Long, newsfactor.com Mark Long, newsfactor.com – Mon Aug 29, 7:07 pm ET

Sprint Nextel has instructed its store employees to refrain from commenting on rumors about the arrival of Apple's next-generation iPhone for Sprint's nationwide network, according to an internal Sprint memo obtained by media outlets.

The Wall Street Journal reported last week that the iPhone 5 would be coming to Sprint's network following the new model's release this autumn.

The iPhone rumor will undoubtedly reduce the carrier's short-term smartphone sales as subscribers delay their handset upgrades in anticipation of getting one of Apple's iconic handsets during this year's holiday shopping season. So the memo's "no comment" stance in preference for a clear denial does lend some credence to the Sprint iPhone rumor.

"If you are asked by a customer or just talking to friends or family members, you need to avoid making any comments about the iPhone," the internal SprintFeed memo advised. "If you are asked a direct question by a customer about Sprint getting the iPhone, you can simply say, 'Yes, I saw a few of those reports [but] I don't have any information to share.' "

6 Million iPhones

Piper Jaffray projects that the number of iPhone 5 units sold by Verizon Wireless during the device's first 12 months of availability will be 11 percent of the carrier's smartphone sales overall.

What's more, a recent Piper Jaffray survey found that 55 percent of Verizon subscribers who did not already have one "expect their next phone to be an iPhone." And of those, 74 percent said they were "specifically waiting for the iPhone 5," said Piper Jaffray analysts Gene Munster and Andrew Murphy.

A Sprint iPhone deal would be good news to Apple investors, with Munster and Murphy predicting it could further boost Apple's iPhone shipments by 6 million units in 2012.

"If 11 percent of Sprint's phones sold in calendar year 2012 were iPhones, that would [increase the investment firm's] 2012 iPhone unit estimate by 5 percent, from 111 million to 117 million," the analysts said.

Even without the rumored Sprint deal, Piper Jaffray predicts Apple's iPhone shipments will grow 55 percent in the second half of this year in comparison with the year-earlier period, Murphy confirmed in an email Monday. And for all 2011, the investment firm's analysts expect iPhone growth of 81 percent in comparison with 2010.

Low Sprint Turnover

A Sprint iPhone would eliminate the temptation for some Sprint subscribers to defect to another network for one. According to Strategy Analytics, iPhones led the global smartphone field in this year's second quarter with 20.3 million unit shipments.

Still, Sprint's low subscriber turnover, or "churn," of 1.75 percent during the second quarter of 2011 was the network operator's all-time best performance. Moreover, the number of calls per customer "to customer care in the quarter, once a glaring Sprint weak spot, achieved an all-time best in the quarter -- and is now among the best-in-class in the industry," Sprint CEO Daniel Hesse told investors last month.

If Sprint does launch the iPhone 5 in October, the carrier's sterling standing with subscribers will be put to the test. The iPhone's demand on bandwidth would take its toll on Sprint's network in congested metropolitan markets, raising questions about the viability of the carrier's unlimited data plan strategy.

On the other hand, Sprint clearly values its position in the U.S. market as the only carrier offering unlimited data. "I think our new advertising and our distinct position in the market of being the only unlimited player is going to help us," Hess told investors at the end of July.

Samsung unveils 3 smartphones to run on own platform (Reuters)

Posted: 29 Aug 2011 08:18 PM PDT

– 1 hr 18 mins ago

SEOUL (Reuters) – Samsung Electronics unveiled three smartphone models that run on its own operating system, as it seeks to expand market share in the low-end segment and diversify its lineups heavily focused on Google's Android software.

The Wave series models backed by Samsung's proprietary system "bada" reflects the South Korean firm's shift in strategy from being a pure hardware manufacturer to become more software-focused.

It is also aimed at pulling together Samsung's different products of smartphones, televisions, printers and computers under its own software platform and online application store Samsung Apps.

Samsung on Tuesday unveiled Wave 3 with a 4-inch AMOLED screen and a 5 megapixel camera, as well as cheaper Wave M and Wave Y. The Wave M will have Samsung's first instant messaging tool chatON installed and entry-level Wave Y with 3.2-inch display will go on sale in October.

The three models add to 7 Wave series lineups Samsung introduced since first bada-based product went on sale in May 2010.

Samsung, whose flagship Android-based Galaxy S models helped it become the world's No.2 smartphone maker in the second quarter, is now focusing on emerging markets with cheaper phones costing $200 or below.

Last week Samsung unveiled four new mid-to-low end models running on Android to defend its market share, as Apple, which has long stuck to the higher end of a booming mobile device arena, is set to launch a lower-cost version of the iPhone 4 soon.

The Wave series will allow access to Samsung Apps, which has around 13,000 applications.

The number is dwarfed by more than 100,000 applications available in Android market and over 300,000 apps from Apple's App Store.

(Reporting by Miyoung Kim; Editing by Ken Wills)

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 for PC to use Steamworks (Digital Trends)

Posted: 29 Aug 2011 10:30 AM PDT

Adam Rosenberg Adam Rosenberg – Mon Aug 29, 1:30 pm ET

call-of-duty-modern-warfare-3

Valve confirmed today in a press release that the upcoming PC release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 on Steam will take advantage of the service's Steamworks. In practical terms for us gamers, that means you can expect the PC version of MW3 to support offline play, Achievemnts, auto-updates and dedicated servers. Modern Warfare 2 was notably built using Steamworks as well.

Valve launched Steamworks in 2008, offering developers a suite of tools that they could use to access the full range of Steam features. The net result is better integration of Steamworks-developed games with Valve's online games store. Developers using Steamworks also get to take advantage of built-in anti-cheating and copy protection tools.

More recently, Steamworks made its console debut with PlayStation 3 support for Portal 2. Cross-platform play and instant message is supported, as is Steam Cloud saving. The press release makes no mention of the PS3 version of Modern Warfare 3 offering the same support, but at least we know it's techonologically possible.

at 9:50 PM

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