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Thursday, August 11, 2011

Stick-on patch proposed for patient monitoring (AP) : Technet

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Stick-on patch proposed for patient monitoring (AP) : Technet

Stick-on patch proposed for patient monitoring (AP)

Posted: 11 Aug 2011 06:38 PM PDT

By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID, AP Science Writer Randolph E. Schmid, Ap Science Writer – Thu Aug 11, 9:38 pm ET

WASHINGTON – One day monitoring a patient's vital signs like temperature and heart rate could be a simple as sticking on a tiny, wireless patch, sort of like a temporary tattoo.

Eliminating the bulky wiring and electrodes used in current monitors would make the devices more comfortable for patients, says an international team of researchers who report their findings in Friday's edition of the journal Science.

"What we are trying to do here is to really reshape and redefine electronics ... to look a lot more like the human body, in this case the surface layers of the skin," said John A. Rogers of the University of Illinois. "The goal is really to blur the distinction between electronics and biological tissue."

The researchers embedded electronic sensors in a film thinner than the diameter of a human hair, which was placed on a polyester backing like those used for the temporary tattoos popular with kids. The result was a sensor that was flexible enough to move with the skin and would adhere without adhesives.

The researchers said the devices had remained in place for up to 24 hours. Rogers said in an briefing that, while normal shedding of skin cells would eventually cause the monitors to come off, he thought they could remain in place as long as two weeks.

In addition to monitoring patients in hospitals, other uses for the devices could include monitoring brain waves, muscle movement, sensing the larynx for speech, emitting heat to help heal wounds and perhaps even being made touch sensitive and placed on artificial limbs, Rogers said.

The device will help fill the need for equipment that is more convenient and less stressful for patients, permitting easier and more reliable monitoring, said Zhenqiang Ma, an engineering professor at the University of Wisconsin, who was not part of the research team. The electronic skin can simply be stuck on or peeled off like an adhesive bandage, he noted in a commentary on the report.

Rogers is a founder of the company MC10, based in Cambridge, Mass., which is working to develop commercial uses of the devices, but he declined to speculate on how soon the electronic skin would be ready for market or what it would cost.

The monitor looks rather like a bandage and contains an antenna that could be used to transmit data, though a radio to do that transmitting has not yet been tested, Rogers said.

The current design has a small coil and could be powered by induction — by placing it near an electrical coil — Rogers said. That would permit intermittent use, he said, and for longer-term monitoring a tiny battery or storage capacitor could be used.

The monitor doesn't use an adhesive, relying on a weak force called the van der Waals force that causes molecules and surfaces to stick together without interfering with motion. The ability of geckos to climb smooth surfaces has been attributed to the van der Waals force. For longer-term use the electronic skin could be coated with an adhesive.

Rogers and co-lead author Dae-Hyuong Kim, have been working on the technology for several years. They earlier worked together to develop flexible electronics for hemispherical camera sensors and other devices that have complex shapes.

Funding for the research came from the Air Force Research Laboratory, the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Energy, the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology at the University of Illinois, and a Defense Department National Security Science and Engineering Faculty Fellowship.

___

Online:

Science: http://www.sciencemag.org

Google adds games in its latest move on Facebook (AP)

Posted: 11 Aug 2011 08:03 PM PDT

By MICHAEL LIEDTKE, AP Technology Writer Michael Liedtke, Ap Technology Writer – 1 hr 51 mins ago

SAN FRANCISCO – Internet search leader Google Inc. is bringing a little more gamesmanship to its duel with Facebook.

Just like they have been doing for years on Facebook's website, Web surfers will now be able to play games with their friends and family on Google's blossoming social networking service.

Google's expansion into games, announced Thursday, had been expected since the company unveiled its "Plus" networking service in late June. The service is being groomed to be an alternative to Facebook's popular hangout.

By adding games to Plus, Google hopes to give its fledging network's more than 25 million users a reason to come to the service more frequently and stay longer once they're there.

The strategy has worked well at Facebook, where games requiring players to fill the roles of farmers, mob bosses and card sharks have attracted obsessive followings among its more than 750 million users.

Determined to protect its turf, Facebook unveiled its latest game features just a few hours after Google issued its challenge. The new tools will make it easier for Facebook users to bookmark their favorite games and keep track of what their friends are playing. Players will also be given the option of filling their entire computer screen with some of the games designed for Facebook.

Facebook's top games are provided by Zynga Inc., a 4-year-old company hoping to sell its stock in an initial public offering this fall. Google is one of Zynga's investors, according to IPO documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The papers don't specify the size Google's stake in Zynga, which is based in San Francisco.

The investment evidently wasn't enough to buy Google access to Zynga's best-known games. The initial games on Plus include a poker game made by Zynga. Plus also will feature the "Angry Birds" game that so far has been played mostly on phones. The gaming option will gradually start appearing within the accounts of Plus' users.

But people who want to play other Zynga titles such as FarmVille, CityVille and Empires & Allies will still have go to Facebook.

Zynga and Facebook are already financially wedded to each other. Zynga gets most of its revenue from Facebook, which requires games on its site to use its payment system to sell the various items that can be used to playing more fun. Facebook keeps 30 percent of the revenue from Zynga's games.

Although the games may seem frivolous, they are emerging as a serious business. Zynga earned more than $90 million on revenue of nearly $600 million last year and the company is growing even faster this year as the number of people playing its games surpassed 230 million. In March, Zynga estimated its market value at $11 billion after hiring an expert to appraise its business, according to documents filed Thursday.

Google's expansion into Web games could cause headaches for Zynga. In its IPO documents, Zynga says it could be hurt if Google or other larger companies such as Microsoft Corp. and Amazon.com Inc. get into the Web game market.

Google mainly wants to undercut Facebook with Plus. The reason: As people spend more time and share more insights about themselves on its website, Facebook becomes an increasingly attractive advertising option. The trend poses a threat to Google because its search engine can't index most of the information on Facebook and its own revenue growth could slow if more online advertising shifts to Facebook.

iPads trump oil: Apple is most valuable US company (AP)

Posted: 10 Aug 2011 09:22 PM PDT

By BARBARA ORTUTAY, AP Technology Writer Barbara Ortutay, Ap Technology Writer – Thu Aug 11, 12:22 am ET

NEW YORK – It doesn't take a visit to the Genius Bar to figure out how Apple became the most valuable company in America.

Its lineup of sleek phones, computers and iPods, irresistible to customers even in tough economic times, propelled it to the No. 1 position by market value Wednesday, surpassing Exxon Mobil. Apple's stock on the open market is now worth more than any other company's.

Apple's stock fell for the day, but Exxon's fell more. Apple finished with a market value of $337 billion, beating Exxon's $331 billion. A single share of Apple stock now costs $363.

Apple occupies a rarefied spot once held by General Electric and Apple's own rival Microsoft. Exxon had held the top spot since 2005.

The power shift is a substantial milestone for Apple, which has enjoyed a triumphant comeback since the 1990s, when it struggled to stay afloat before its co-founder Steve Jobs returned to take the helm.

But it's not just the comeback. Gleacher & Co. analyst Brian Marshall says Apple is giving investors something that has never been seen before. Apple's numbers are huge, with $30 billion in revenue in the latest quarter, for example. Yet Marshall said the 35-year-old company is "growing like a startup."

"Even in 2008 and 2009 Apple grew like a weed and the world was coming to an end," Marshall said.

Apple grew its net income 70 percent to $14 billion and its revenue 52 percent to $65 billion in the fiscal year that ended last September. A year earlier, even as other companies — though not Exxon — were reeling from the economic meltdown, Apple's earnings grew 35 percent and its revenue 14 percent.

Apple wasn't always a tech darling. The company, known as Apple Computer Inc. when it was founded in 1976, was on a steep decline before Jobs returned in 1997.

With Jobs as CEO, Apple is known for dreaming up gadgets that people don't think they need until they get their hands on them — or see friends and relatives with them. There were music players, smartphones and tablet computers before Apple introduced the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad. But the Apple gadgets' sleek, minimalist design and intuitive software have garnered them a loyal following among tech geeks and everyday consumers alike.

"Never underestimate the power of Joe Sixpack relative to expenditures on consumer electronics," Marshall said.

People want their gadgets, especially those made by Apple, even in a recession and even as they watch their stock portfolios and retirement funds shrink.

Still, Apple commands just a sliver of the overall smartphone and computer market. For that reason, Apple can grow at such a fast pace. "They have just a tremendous runway in front of them," Marshall said.

Exxon, which set a record in 2008 for the highest quarterly earnings by any company, will find it hard to compete with Apple's growth because its prospects are tethered to oil prices and new oil discovery.

Apple's growth is limited only by innovation. Investors expect it to grow as long as it keeps making products that people want. So investors are betting on Apple's stock even though it currently makes less money than Exxon.

In its latest quarterly report, Apple said stronger iPhone and iPad sales helped more than double its net income to $7.3 billion and grow revenue by 82 percent to $29 billion.

Exxon Mobil, meanwhile, posted a 41 percent increase in its second-quarter earnings to nearly $11 billion, the largest since it set a record of nearly $15 billion in the third quarter of 2008. Its revenue grew 36 percent to $125 billion.

International companies that vie for the most valuable spot include PetroChina Co., the publicly traded unit of China's biggest oil and gas company, and Petrobras, Brazil's state-controlled energy company.

In the U.S., Exxon and General Electric had been trading off the No. 1 and No. 2 spots until Microsoft surpassed them both in early 1999, at the height of the dot-com boom. By 2000, though, GE was No. 1 once again. According to data from FactSet, the three were close over the next five years, though Apple was ascending quickly. Irving, Texas-based Exxon Mobil took the top spot in 2005 and remained there until Wednesday.

Apple's ascendance to the top spot is a sign of the times. Howard Silverblatt, senior index analyst at Standard & Poor's, says the most valued company in the U.S. often reflects the demands of consumers. They also tend to have products that are unmatched by their rivals.

In 1986, for example, IBM Corp. was the most valuable company in the Standard & Poor's 500 index. At the time, the company was considered a pioneer in the technology world, having developed the floppy disk drive in 1971 and the personal computer ten years later.

AT&T Inc. was the most valuable company in the early 1980s when it was the dominant player in the telecommunications industry.

The top companies "tell us something about society, not just the market," Silverblatt said.

But, as history has shown, those companies can easily lose out to rivals if they don't keep coming out with products that appeal to consumers.

"If in 1999, you told anybody that one day Apple would be bigger than Microsoft, I think they would have laughed at you as if you were nuts," said Jonathan Berk, a professor of finance at Stanford University.

Apple generally introduces a new product every three years, which means something new in 2013. Marshall does not expect the company to slow down any time soon.

In fact, he expects Apple to pass yet another milestone next year, when it's likely to surpass Hewlett-Packard Co. as the world's largest technology company by revenue. In the most recent quarter, HP reported $31.6 billion in revenue, compared with Apple's $28.6 billion in its latest quarter.

___

AP Business Writer Chip Cutter contributed from New York.

University of Wisconsin hacked, 75,000 social security numbers at risk (Yahoo! News)

Posted: 11 Aug 2011 05:17 PM PDT

Tiny cubes with LCD screens are the smartest building blocks yet (Yahoo! News)

Posted: 11 Aug 2011 05:13 PM PDT

iPhone App Simulates Teen Dating Abuse (Mashable)

Posted: 10 Aug 2011 07:37 PM PDT

Zoe Fox Zoe Fox – Wed Aug 10, 10:37 pm ET

Parents may think they understand what it's like to be a teenager today, but they've never experienced their teen's technological life first hand. Until now. The Love is Not Abuse iPhone app is giving parents a taste of digital relationship abuse. While mobile technology has become more widespread, it has also led to new forms of abuse especially for teens in bad relationships.

[More from Mashable: The Social Tattoo Project Fights Apathy with Ink [VIDEOS]]

The app, launched by Liz Claibourne's Love is Not Abuse campaign, places parents in the positions of their teenage children -- texting, emailing and calling from a fictional abusive "boyfriend" or "girlfriend." These fake messages pose situations common in digital abuse, like threatening to remove friends from social networks or to post illicit photos. While the app does not actually access the user's Facebook account, parents get a taste of the controlling nature of a negative teen relationship.

Digital abuse is a rapidly growing trend. Nearly 24% of American teens have been a victim of technology abuse from a boyfriend or girlfriend and more than 50% know someone who's been victimized, according to a Liz Claibourne Inc. and Futures Without Violence 2009 Teen Dating Abuse survey

[More from Mashable: MTV App Locates Places To Get Condoms]

The app trains parents to recognize characteristics of abusive relationships. Psychotherapist Dr. Jill Murray, a contributor to the app's development, says most parents can't properly identify the warning signs of dating abuse. "The main point of the app is to get parents talking to their teens. While most parents discuss drugs, alcohol and sex with their kids, only slightly more than half discuss dating abuse."

Dr. Murray says teens, especially girls, misinterpret texts sent in the middle of the night as signs of affectionate attention. Oftentimes, this overbearing communication can be a sign of relationship abuse. "When a child is being abused, the first thing is they don't know that they're being abused," Murray says.

Other warning signs include when a teen constantly checks his or her phone at the dinner table, becomes frantic at the thought of disconnecting for 15 minutes, has unexplained scratches or bruises, stops spending time with friends and family or starts making excuses for a significant other's bad behavior.

The simulator is geared towards the specific characteristics of abusive males and females. The threatening messages come from a "boyfriend" and the excessive contact is from a "girlfriend."

Dr. Murray encourages parents to check their children's phone bills, doubting most parents realize their children may send up to 18,000 texts each month."I'm a really big advocate that the cell phone belongs to the parent. If you are suspicious or concerned you absolutely can put up your hands and say "Give me your phone.""

Before launching the app, the Love is Not Abuse campaign created school curricula and provided resources for parents on their website. The app is their first platform specifically targeting technology abuse.

Do you think this simulator can help parents understand how their teens communicate? Let us know in the comments below.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, Kalashnikov_O

This story originally published on Mashable here.

Renren posts small Q2 profit; Q3 view drags down stock (Reuters)

Posted: 11 Aug 2011 03:17 PM PDT

– Thu Aug 11, 6:17 pm ET

(Reuters) – Chinese social networking site Renren Inc posted a small quarterly profit as online advertisement segment rose, but forecast third-quarter revenue largely below market expectations, sending its shares down 8 percent in aftermarket trade.

For the third quarter, Renren, dubbed as China's Facebook, expects to report revenue of $33.5-$35.5 million while analysts were expecting $35.2 million, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

The company reported a net profit of $751,000, or break even per American Depository Share (ADS), compared with a loss of $25.5 million, or 31 cents per ADS, a year ago.

Net revenue rose 53 percent to $30.4 million, beating analysts' estimates of $29.5 million. Online advertising revenue rose 94 percent to $16.9 million.

Shares of Renren fell 58 cents in trading after the bell. The stock closed at $7.78 on Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange.

(Reporting by Supantha Mukherjee in Bangalore; Editing by Don Sebastian)

Developers complain Android Market payments aren’t matching app sales (Appolicious)

Posted: 11 Aug 2011 11:28 AM PDT

NPD: Video game sales in July fall to the lowest level in five years (Digital Trends)

Posted: 11 Aug 2011 08:49 PM PDT

Mike Flacy Mike Flacy – 1 hr 6 mins ago

ncaa-fb-12

As reported by the NPD group, video game sales over July dropped over 25 percent year over year and have fallen to the lowest levels since 2006. Total sales in July 2011 amounted to $707 million while sales just a year ago in July 2010 topped $960 million. The number of game systems sold was the source of the steepest decline at 29 percent, but last year's bump in sales is attributed to the release of a new Xbox 360 model. Software sales dropped from about $400 million to a bit over $336 million and accessory sales dipped just over $10 million year over year.  

video-game-storeElectronic Arts NCAA Football 12 was the top seller of the month, likely satisfying football fans until the release of Madden NFL 12 on August 30. Disney's Cars 2, Activision Blizzard's Call of Duty Black Ops, Lego Pirates of the Caribbean: The Video Game and Ubisoft's Just Dance 2 rounded out the top five. Other games that sold well in July included Take-Two's Major League Baseball 2K11, Zumba Fitness: Join the Party, Bethesda's Fallout: New Vegas, Nintendo's Super Mario Bros DS and Warner Brothers Mortal Kombat. 

Interestingly, the major releases in June like inFAMOUS 2 and Duke Nukem Forever didn't make the top 10 list in July. In addition, Rockstar's L.A. Noire fell out of the top rankings, unlike Rockstar's Red Dead Redemption in 2010. This report from NPD does not include sales of digital games on services like Xbox Live or PlayStation Network. DLC add-on content also isn't included in the totals. In a recent first quarter report from Electronic Arts, the company attributed more than a fifth of sales to digital downloads. The company expects to see that number rise to over 50 percent within the next five years. 

Industry experts are predicting that August will also continue the downward trend in video game sales, mostly due to major titles like Square Enix's Deus Ex Human Revolution and EA Sports Madden NFL 12 launching at the end of the month.

Rumor: WP7 Mango to come out on Sept 1, will compete with iPhone and Android launch (Digital Trends)

Posted: 11 Aug 2011 04:48 PM PDT

Mike Dunn Mike Dunn – Thu Aug 11, 7:48 pm ET

Windows Phone 7 Mango actual MangoWith all of the iPhone rumors swarming around lately there hasn't been much Windows Phone 7 news to talk about. Well that changed today, with reports that the Mango update to WP7 will come out on September 1. Just a couple of weeks ago we heard from Microsoft that the OS was ready for phones, and it was only a matter of time before we would see it in the wild.

There is still no word on exactly if new hardware will be coming out on September 1 along with the updated software.  When WP7 was first launched it was launched on several phones and carriers all at once, but we don't know if that will happen this year. The current generation of WP7 devices will start getting over the air updates on September 1, but everything else is still up in the air.

The Mango update to WP7 is supposed to address most of the main areas of concern with the current product, and add some features on top of those improvements. For a more in-depth overview of what to expect from Mango check out our post on its features. 

We just talked about Google bumping up the Ice Cream Sandwich launch to October to compete with Apple's still unannounced iPhone; Now with Microsoft launching Mango around the same time it will create a perfect storm of cell phone choices. The key features of both iOS 5 and Mango have already been highlighted so the only real wild card operating system wise will be Ice Cream Sandwich. On the hardware side of things it is pretty much anyone's guess to how most of the new phones will look or function. No matter what happens we are looking forward to this fall, and are starting to save up money now.

 

Google and Facebook face-off in social games (Reuters)

Posted: 11 Aug 2011 05:36 PM PDT

By Alexei Oreskovic Alexei Oreskovic – Thu Aug 11, 8:36 pm ET

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Facebook is not the only game in town anymore.

The world's largest Internet social network moved on Thursday to shore up support with game developers such as Zynga, who provide one of Facebook's biggest draws, on the same day that Google Inc introduced games on its recently-launched social network.

With the two Web giants competing to attract users to their respective online services, the dueling social gaming announcements underscored what could emerge as a key battleground between the two companies.

"It turns out that people like to play games, and it's core to the social networking use case," said Jeremy Liew, a partner at venture capital firm Lightspeed Venture Partners. Liew, who has invested in social game companies including Playdom, which was acquired by the Walt Disney Co last year, was commenting on Google's games announcement.

On Thursday, Google said it would offer 16 games from third party developers on Google+, including Zynga Poker and the popular Angry Birds game. Google, which previously made an unspecified investment in Zynga, said it will roll out games gradually on Google+, and will make the game feature available to everyone "soon."

Facebook, which is hosting 100 game developers at an event at its Palo Alto. California headquarters on Thursday evening, announced a handful of new features to improve the gaming experience on its website, as well as a new policy loosening restrictions on how developers can market their games on the social network.

The changes will expand the types of notifications that Facebook users see when their friends are playing games on the website, rolling back restrictions made last year that provoked grumbles among some game developers.

Social games, such as Zynga's Farmville, are some of the most popular activities on Facebook. More than 200 million users play games on Facebook every month, and the company takes a 30 percent cut of the sale of virtual goods that are bought by users as part of the game experience.

"Our games ecosystem has continued to grow. But there's no question that we want to grow it faster in a more high quality way for our users and developers," Facebook head of games Sean Ryan told Reuters in an interview.

Google launched its social networking site in June, signing up more than 10 million users in the first two weeks.

Google's move to offer games on its social network provides game developers with a compelling alternative to Facebook, said Lightspeed's Liew.

But he said the most important consideration for game makers is which social network has the most users.

"Right now no one is going to be willing to give up Facebook because it's where the users are Today. Google+ got a terrific start but it's got a ways to go," he said.

Among the new gaming features introduced by Facebook on Thursday are the ability to expand the size of the window in which games are played on Facebook's site, new ways for users to create bookmarks for their favorite games and a scrolling "ticker" that highlights the games a person's friends are playing, their recent scores and achievements.

In loosening restrictions on game updates within Facebook's general newsfeed, the company must walk a fine line between helping developers promote their games on the network and irking users that are not avid gamers.

Facebook's newsfeed - which displays a rolling stream of messages, photos and updates from friends - is a vital distribution channel for gamemakers, allowing companies like Zynga, Electronic Arts Inc's Playfish and Playdom to reach vast numbers of users. But is has caused some backlash among Facebook's non-gaming users, who found the constant notifications about their friends progress within various games to be irrelevant and annoying.

Last year, Facebook clamped down on the practice, so that Facebook users would receive notifications only about games which they had also installed. Under the new policy, Facebook users will see notifications about any game their friends are playing.

But Ryan said the company had developed special algorithms that will only display updates if Facebook has a reason to believe they are relevant to the person. If the person shows no interest in certain types of games, Facebook won't serve them updates in the newsfeed.

"No one wants to go back to the bad old days of people being very unhappy about gaming because they feel like they're being spammed all the time," said Ryan.

"That's the key which we really spent months and months working on, is that tricky balance of trying to expose a lot more games to people, but only to the people who we think want to play those games."

(Reporting by Alexei Oreskovic. Editing by Andre Grenon, Robert MacMillan and Carol Bishopric)

NPD: Retail sales of video games tumbled in July (AP)

Posted: 11 Aug 2011 05:00 PM PDT

By BARBARA ORTUTAY, AP Technology Writer Barbara Ortutay, Ap Technology Writer – Thu Aug 11, 8:00 pm ET

NEW YORK – U.S. retail sales of video game hardware, software and accessories dropped 20 percent in July to $707.7 million, hurt especially by a sharp drop in demand for video game consoles, according to market researcher NPD Group.

NPD analyst Anita Frazier called July a "very rough month," though she added that for the full year game sales are poised to land in the flat to down 2 percent range from 2010 levels.

The NPD Group said in its monthly report Thursday that sales of video game hardware sank 29 percent to $223 million in July from a year earlier. This includes hand-held game systems and gaming consoles like the Wii. Microsoft Corp. says its Xbox 360 was the top-selling console during the month. Even so, NPD said the console saw its first year-over-year decline last month since December 2009.

Sales of software, or the video games themselves, fell 17 percent to $336.2 million. That's much worse than the 7 percent decline that Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter had expected. Sales of game accessories slid 8 percent to $127.8 million.

"There is no getting around the fact that video game sales in the new physical retail channel suffered its lowest month since October 2006," Frazier said, referring to new, packaged video games rather than used games or game downloads, which NPD does not provide in its report.

When including PC games in addition to games for consoles and hand-held gaming devices such as the Nintendo DS, software sales tumbled 30 percent to $356.9 million.

Because the research firm does not include game downloads and online games in its monthly retail sales data, the numbers can sometimes show a decline even if more people are playing games on Facebook, their mobile phones and elsewhere.

But the big July decline does not bode well for video game publishers that still depend on selling game discs for a large portion of their revenue. Among the month's best-selling games were "NCAA Football 12" from Electronic Arts Inc. and "Cars 2" from The Walt Disney Co.

July's lackluster sales report comes less than two weeks after Japan's Nintendo Co. cut the price of its portable 3DS gaming system to $170 from $250. The gadget, which allows for 3-D viewing without the need for special glasses, launched with much fanfare but has failed to meet expectations, due in large part to a lack of compelling games for it.

Kickin Momma leads iPhone Games of the Week (Appolicious)

Posted: 11 Aug 2011 04:00 PM PDT

T-Mobile removing unlimited data plans from some users on August 14 (Digital Trends)

Posted: 11 Aug 2011 04:43 PM PDT

Mike Dunn Mike Dunn – Thu Aug 11, 7:43 pm ET

t-mobile-logoT-Mobile gave birth to concept of throttling data speed instead of charging users overages when they surpassed their monthly data limit. T-Mobile confirmed today that it will be changing its tone slightly. The company's low-end data plan will now come with a hard limit of 200MB, and will charge $0.10 per MB after that.

T-Mobile isn't giving its customers much time to react to the news. The change will be taking place on August 14, so if you are a T-Mobile user make sure to watch your bill this month. The company said that it will warn users when they reach 90 percent of their monthly data quota, and again when they reach the 200MB limit. Once customers reach the limit they will be offered to be moved into a higher data plan. It seems as though T-Mobile is trying to move all of these discount users up to a slightly more expensive data plan as quickly as possible.

As of right now this change is only taking place on T-Mobile's cheapest plan, and the other throttled unlimited plans will remain intact for the time being. It is unclear if T-Mobile plans to make the same changes to its other data plans. It will be very interesting to see if there is any more news out of T-Mobile on this subject.

It would be nearly impossible to write this article without bringing up AT&T who is trying to buy T-Mobile. AT&T recently announced they will be throttling its grandfathered unlimited plan users. Right after the purchase was announced we predicted that this would mean the death of T-Mobile's unlimited plans. It looks as though that prediction might come true even before the buy-out is complete.

 

Yap.TV Brings Real-Time Chat to iOS TV Guide (Mashable)

Posted: 10 Aug 2011 06:31 PM PDT

Rumor: Apple releasing iCloud iPhone for free (Digital Trends)

Posted: 11 Aug 2011 04:31 PM PDT

Molly McHugh Molly Mchugh – Thu Aug 11, 7:31 pm ET

iCloudiPhoneThere are so many loose ends to the coming iPhone release that trying to pin down details is headache-inducing. One particular rumor about a less expensive, pared down iPhone won't die. We've heard iPhone nano and iPhone 4S, and now you can add a new moniker to the mix: The iCloud iPhone.

According to Apple'N'Apps, "Apple is planning to combine iOS 5 and iCloud with a piece of hardware internally referred to as the iCloud iPhone. The iCloud iPhone will rely heavily on Apple's new cloud based offering, and less on internal storage." The site sources three insiders who have correctly revealed past Apple information.

The iCloud iPhone would cost $400 without a carrier. With a two year contract, however, the subsidized cost would mean a free iCloud iPhone. And if the claims are true, you wouldn't be working with shoddy materials. The device would have similar internal hardware to the iPhone 4, and have a curved aluminum back plate–it's supposed to look like a small iPad. This means a cheaper look and feel than the iPhone 4, but that's to be expected. Such a significant price drop would make Apple a competitor to Android on all fronts. The two mobile operating systems remain hugely popular, but Android's carrier, manufacturer, and pricing variety mean it's a viable option for a wider range of consumers. Apple is definitely pigeon-holed in a certain income bracket, for the most part, and a low-priced iPhone seems like a guaranteed success.

If you're on board with the launch of an inexpensive iPhone but this whole iCloud meets iPhone thing doesn't quite gel, you're not alone. ICloud hasn't even officially launched yet, and from the initial outlook, it's not so much a way to access data as a way to store a copy of it. ICloud syncs with the respective device to continually update content, so the phone would need to have some sort of flash storage capabilities.

But the concept is interesting to say the least. Whether or not Apple releases an iCloud-dependent smartphone, we’re starting to become more and more convinced a cheaper iPhone is in the foreseeable future. 

Smartphone Sales Cannibalize Feature Phones (NewsFactor)

Posted: 11 Aug 2011 02:38 PM PDT

Mark Long, newsfactor.com Mark Long, newsfactor.com – Thu Aug 11, 5:38 pm ET

Google's Android operating system claimed a commanding share of the global smartphone market in the second quarter, Gartner reported Thursday. Android accounted for 43.4 percent of all smartphone shipments in the three months through June -- a dramatic rise from the mobile platform's 17.2 percent market share in the year-earlier period.

Smartphone shipments in the U.S. mobile handset market exceeded non-smartphone sales for the very first time, noted Hugues de la Vergne, Gartner's principal analyst for mobile-device research in North America. "Sales continue to be dominated by Android and Apple's iOS operating systems," he said.

In North America, iOS and Android accounted for a combined 83.5 percent of total smartphone sales, de la Vergne observed. "RIM's sales continue to fall quickly as Android takes market share at AT&T," de la Vergne explained. "Android has also grown in prepaid operators as Huawei's sell-through of their $99 Android phone has been extremely strong."

Robust Smartphone Growth

Second-quarter smartphone shipments overall rose 74 percent year over year on a global basis and accounted for 25 percent of all mobile handset sales -- up from 17 percent in the same quarter in 2010. Smartphone sales cannibalized feature-phone shipments somewhat as consumers in mature markets purchased more entry-level and midrange Android models due to carriers' and manufacturers' promotions and other factors, noted Roberta Cozza, Gartner's principal analyst for mobile-device research in Europe.

Apple's iOS and Google's Android collectively doubled their combined market share to nearly 62 percent in comparison with the year-earlier period. Both platforms currently feature "the usability that consumers enjoy, the apps that consumers feel they need, and increasingly a portfolio of services delivered by the platform owner as well," Gartner's analysts explained.

Apple claimed an 18.2 percent share of the global smartphone market in the second quarter -- up from 14.1 percent a year earlier. The result exceeded prior expectations among industry analysts that iPhone 4 sales would decline in advance of a widely anticipated iPhone refresh this autumn.

The iPhone's robust sales during the second quarter were due in major part to the agreements that Apple signed with 42 new carriers in the second quarter as well as the device maker's entry into 15 new national markets in the three months through June. In mainland China, for example, Apple is the seventh-largest mobile-phone vendor and the third-largest smartphone vendor, Gartner analysts noted.

A Cautious Outlook

Though Nokia's Symbian operating system still held a 22.1 percent share of the global smartphone market in the second quarter, the platform's current standing is dramatically lower than its 40.9 percent share in the year-earlier period. What's more, Symbian's share of the smartphone market is expected to tumble even further in the quarter now under way.

Research In Motion's BlackBerry platform held a 12 percent share of the global smartphone market in the second quarter -- down from 19 percent one year earlier. Microsoft's new Windows Phone 7 operating system held a 1.6 percent market share at the end of the second quarter. By contrast, the software giant's previous Windows Mobile platform held a 4.9 percent share in the same period last year.

Shipments in the mobile-device market overall rose 16.5 percent year over year to 428.7 million worldwide. Nokia continued to lead the pack with a 22.8 percent market share, followed by Samsung (16.3 percent), LG (5.7 percent), Apple (4.6 percent), and ZTE (three percent). Despite the global market's robust growth in the second-quarter, however, Gartner's analysts anticipate lower growth of 12 percent for the full year due to world financial uncertainty.

IBM Sees Social Interactions Replacing the PC Age (NewsFactor)

Posted: 11 Aug 2011 10:49 AM PDT

Jennifer LeClaire, newsfactor.com Jennifer Leclaire, newsfactor.com – Thu Aug 11, 1:49 pm ET

Most Americans have a PC in the home somewhere -- and many have more than one. But executives from the company that introduced the world to personal computing are predicting the end of the PC age.

Thirty years after IBM rolled out the 5150 personal computer, which ushered in the PC revolution, Mark Dean, CTO for IBM's Middle East and Africa group, is crediting Big Blue with being a vanguard of the post-PC era. He has already moved beyond the PC.

"My primary computer now is a tablet. When I helped design the PC, I didn't think I'd live long enough to witness its decline," Dean wrote in a blog post. "But, while PCs will continue to be much-used devices, they're no longer at the leading edge of computing. They're going the way of the vacuum tube, typewriter, vinyl records, CRT and incandescent lightbulbs."

New Ideas Replace PCs

Dean said PCs are being replaced at the center of computing not by another type of device, but by new ideas about the role that computing plays in progress.

"These days, it's becoming clear that innovation flourishes best not on devices but in the social spaces between them, where people and ideas meet and interact," Dean said. "It is there that computing can have the most powerful impact on the economy, society and people's lives."

Dean's comments sound familiar. That's because Microsoft's retired Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie had similar words last October. In a company memo, Ozzie prophesied the Dawn of a New Day in computing.

Echoing Ozzie

Ozzie suggested that Microsoft close its eyes and form a realistic picture of what a post-PC world might look like. He added that those who can envision a plausible future brighter than today will earn the opportunity to lead, because if you can imagine it, you can build it.

He predicted we'll see decades of incredible innovation, from which will emerge all sorts of "connected companions" that we'll wear, carry and use on our desks and walls and the environment all around us. He pointed to service-connected devices going far beyond just the "screen, keyboard and mouse," such as devices that will see, recognize, hear and listen to consumers and what's around them.

IBM's Second Act

IBM has fared well by exiting the PC business. IBM's pre-tax income margin was 11.1 percent in 2004, the last full year in which it owned the PC business, and rose to 18.9 percent in 2010. Debunking conventional wisdom, Dean said IBM's growth businesses produce profit margins equal to or better than those in mature markets.

In a speech at the Computer History Museum last week, IBM CEO Samuel Palmisano brought up the company's development of the first personal computer and the particular success of its ThinkPad business notebooks, noted Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT.

"To his credit, he also noted some of IBM's less-shining personal-computing moments -- OS/2 and the PC Junior -- but Palmisano's discussion of why the company left the PC business was particularly germane," King said. "Basically, IBM prefers focusing on high margin, value-added enterprise solutions more than low-margin commodity products. That strategy was behind the sale of the ThinkPad line to Lenovo, as well as the sale of its hard-drive business -- another technology IBM first developed -- to Hitachi.

In essence, King concluded, a key to second-act success is a willingness to leave the first act behind.
at 10:06 PM

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