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4 personal finance technology trends for 2012 (AP) : Technet |
- 4 personal finance technology trends for 2012 (AP)
- Nevada adopts rules for Internet poker licenses (AP)
- Vietnam store makes Christmas tree from cellphones (AP)
- Physicist builds Lego Large Hadron Collider (Yahoo! News)
- Asus sued by toy robot maker for naming its tablet Transformer Prime (Yahoo! News)
- ConnectYard Connects Students and Profs Via Text, Social Media (Mashable)
- US appears to soften ban on online betting (AP)
- Kid band Vazquez Sounds takes Mexico by storm (AP)
- In China, a daring few challenge one-child limit (AP)
- Google activating 700,000 Android devices daily, nearing 250 million total (Appolicious)
- The Week's Top 20 in Social Media (The Atlantic Wire)
- Samsung says TouchWiz keeps Galaxy S from Ice Cream Sandwich (Digital Trends)
- Study finds ‘iPhone is for games, Android is for apps’ (Appolicious)
- FCC Approves AT&T's Spectrum Deal with Qualcomm (NewsFactor)
- Steve Jobs to receive posthumous Grammy (Digital Trends)
- Apple Files Patents for Fuel Cell Computers (NewsFactor)
- RIM now faces legal challenge on "BBM" trademark (Reuters)
- Researchers Create 'Sun-Believable' Solar Cell Paint (Mashable)
| 4 personal finance technology trends for 2012 (AP) Posted: 23 Dec 2011 12:34 PM PST NEW YORK – If you're one of the holdouts still paying bills with checks, tracking your accounts with pen and paper or clipping coupons from the newspaper, 2012 could be the year you take the digital plunge. A host of budding personal finance services and applications are poised to go mainstream in the new year, and together, they will likely have a big impact on the way Americans bank, shop, and track their finances. Some of the services are web-based, but many take advantage of the proliferation of smartphones, which are now carried by one-third of U.S. adults — with more likely to join that crowd in the next few days after receiving the gadgets as holiday gifts. Whether online or mobile, here are some personal finance technologies to watch in 2012: • Mobile money The September launch of Google Wallet was just one high-profile move toward the use of smartphones for payments, replacing credit or debit cards. The technology allows users to wave their phones in front of payment terminals and have transactions deducted from linked bank accounts or credit cards. Expect more options for electronic payments from mobile service providers and card networks next year, and wider adoption of the terminals by retailers, mass transit systems and more. Another innovation that is already being heavily promoted is person-to-person payments. American Express Co., MasterCard Inc., Visa Inc. and PayPal all offer ways for their customers to send and receive money using links to various accounts and cards. As the TV commercials depict, if this technology takes off there will be no more fumbling for cash when it's time to split the check at a restaurant, and sending money across town or across borders will be easier, faster and less expensive. • Non-bank money management Mint.com, the popular personal finance site, was only the beginning. A raft of new money management tools are now available that can help users keep track of bills, investments and other aspects of their financial lives. Among the standouts is Manilla.com, which not only pulls together household bills and financial accounts, but also helps users keep track of details like travel rewards points and magazine subscriptions. The service provides reminders for when bills are due and has features that make it easy to pay bills or set up auto payments. Since the company's goal is to help its customers eliminate paper clutter, there's even a way to store electronic account statements. And it has a smartphone app for accessing all these functions on the go. Other non-bank options include Pageonce, an app that automatically tracks bills and enables users to make payments on their phone; savvymoney.com, a site that offers debt-management help; and Betterment.com, a site designed to simplify investing. • Targeted deals The combination of geo-location technology that can track your movements when you're carrying your smartphone, and QR codes, those weird squares appearing more and more often in advertising, is enabling companies to offer personalized discounts and on-the-spot deals to customers willing to opt into their programs. Mall shoppers have already started getting texts and emails designed to lure them into certain stores, and the technology can also be used to encourage customers to enter contests, demonstrate new apps or products and even contact customer service. • Social commerce Javelin Strategy & Research, a financial services research firm, is using this term to identify the trend toward the combination of commerce and social networking on sites like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. While these sites are moving toward making it easier to shop without navigating toward a link, that's just one step toward social commerce. The concept of financial social networking is also being expanded by companies like Weemba.com, whose site allows individuals to search for a loan by posting nontraditional details like a description of the need for the money — debt consolidation, a mortgage refinance, or a kitchen makeover complete with the designer's plans, for instance. The details posted add depth to the usual credit score and financial information that banks and other funders may review, and the site opens the lending request to a wider audience. Other examples of the use or concept of social networking include Kickstarter.com, where creative types can seek funding for their artistic endeavors and those willing to provide seed money can choose to provide all or part of the needed funds to get the project off the ground. Saveup.com is a game aimed at helping individuals pay down debt and build savings, and Bundle.com uses data tracking and spending information to produce lists of popular restaurants and stores in selected cities, helping users find the right spot at the right price. Banks are also experimenting with ways to make use of social networking to interact with customers, with some success. Even Bank of America Corp., a recurring target for gripes large and small about the financial system this year, has nearly 365,000 "likes" on its official Facebook page, which it uses for efforts like supporting community causes and advertising opportunities like its Student Leader program, which offers paid internships to high schoolers who work at charitable organizations. Customers can expect more on these fronts from startups and big financial institutions in the next 12 months. |
| Nevada adopts rules for Internet poker licenses (AP) Posted: 23 Dec 2011 12:31 PM PST |
| Vietnam store makes Christmas tree from cellphones (AP) Posted: 23 Dec 2011 02:34 AM PST HANOI, Vietnam – Southeast Asia is closer to the equator than the North Pole, but an electronics store in Vietnam is ringing in the holidays with a 15-foot Christmas tree made from more than 2500 unusable cellular phones. Nguyen Trai, a store manager at Westcom Electronics in the southern city of My Tho, says 10 workers spent two weeks building the cellular Christmas tree that he hopes will raise awareness about hazardous waste and promote environmental responsibility. The glittering, cone-shaped creation has been on display for about two weeks outside the store in southern Tien Giang Province. Between 700 and 800 people visit daily, Trai told the Associated Press. "Many of them have taken pictures with the tree," he said. Cellphones are ubiquitous in Vietnam, where more than 60 percent of the population is under 30 and hordes of young people flaunt flashy electronics to mark their rising wealth even as the country struggles to contain one of Asia's highest inflation rates. Although the majority of communist Vietnam's 87 million people are Buddhist, there is a sizable Catholic minority and an enthusiastic general embrace of all things Christmas. The country's two largest cities — Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City — are studded with holiday lights all winter long, with bright-eyed teens promenading in Santa hats and yuletide-themed electronic music blaring in sidewalk cafes. Westcom Electronics plans to auction its cellphone tree next year and donate the proceeds to charity, said store manager Nguyen Trai, adding that staff members are already collecting unusable phones in hopes of erecting an even bigger Christmas "pine tree" next year. There are tens of millions of cellphones in circulation in Vietnam, but it's impossible to know how many used phones are dumped each year because the government doesn't collect such data, said Nguyen Thanh Yen of Vietnam's Environment Administration. Yen said he welcomed the idea of raising awareness about hazardous waste, but Westcom Electronics has violated Vietnamese law, which requires businesses to seek official permission before using hazardous waste for new purposes. According to the United Nations Environment Programme, people working in the informal sector collect the majority of "recyclable and reusable waste" in urban areas of Vietnam. Solid waste management is among the "major environmental burdens" in developed and developing countries across Asia, especially in megacities, the U.N. says. |
| Physicist builds Lego Large Hadron Collider (Yahoo! News) Posted: 23 Dec 2011 07:30 PM PST |
| Asus sued by toy robot maker for naming its tablet Transformer Prime (Yahoo! News) Posted: 23 Dec 2011 07:23 PM PST |
| ConnectYard Connects Students and Profs Via Text, Social Media (Mashable) Posted: 22 Dec 2011 03:19 PM PST The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here. Name: ConnectYard [More from Mashable: 6 Crazy Tech Predictions for 2012] Quick Pitch: A social media platform that connects students and professors through their preferred form of communication. Genius Idea: A professor emails a student and it's delivered in whatever form the student prefers, such as a text message or Twitter and Facebook post. [More from Mashable: How Facebook Conquered the Social Web in 2011]
More students these days prefer interacting on mobile devices and social media sites over traditional forms of communication such as email. To help eliminate the communication barriers between students and their professors, institutions from Cornell University to Georgia State University are turning to a social platform called ConnectYard that allows them both to send and receive messages however they like. If students prefer interacting through text messages or on Facebook and Twitter, they can send messages to their professors this way. In turn, professors can receive and send responses however they prefer – and typically, that's through email, according to ConnectYard CEO Donald Doane. "Faculty isn't always keen on adopting new technology and many don't want to encroach on the personal space of students on social networking sites," Doane told Mashable. "ConnectYard allows students and professors to interact on the platforms they prefer to use. If a teacher cancels a class and sends an email to students, some students might choose to receive the message as a text or Facebook post instead." Students can also respond to messages on whatever platform they choose. If they are on Facebook and send an email to their professor about a class, the professor can receive it through email. "We wanted to give students and faculty an easy way to reach each other and interact without having anyone change their communication habits," Doane said. "We've had great success with it so far and more institutions are jumping on board." ConnectYard also integrates with other popular learning platforms such as Blackboard and Desire2Learn, so students and professors can post and respond to queries, and the site archives all interactions as a reference, regardless of where they originate. In addition, if a student is reading an ebook, she can pose a question from their ereader and the professor can respond via email, It will then show up directly in the the student's ebook notes on the device. "ConnectYard is flexible in how it allows students and faculty members communicate," Doane said. "Everyone prefers to communicate in different ways, so we want to make sure people can interact with others however they feel most comfortable -- whether it's just through email or through a high-tech device or social platform." This story originally published on Mashable here. |
| US appears to soften ban on online betting (AP) Posted: 23 Dec 2011 08:10 PM PST WASHINGTON – The Obama administration appears to have softened a U.S. ban on Internet gambling. In a legal opinion posted Friday, the Justice Department said online betting unrelated to sporting events falls outside the reach of federal law. The U.S. government has long considered such gambling illegal when it crosses state lines. The gambling industry is worth billions worldwide but many operators are based overseas. Washington has cracked down on some of them, and a 2006 law forbade financial institutions from processing funds for most online wagering. Because of the difficulty in enforcing age and other requirements, the issue has divided lawmakers and the industry. But several states have been studying plans for web betting within states. The opinion letter was first reported by the Wall Street Journal. |
| Kid band Vazquez Sounds takes Mexico by storm (AP) Posted: 23 Dec 2011 07:30 PM PST vaz MEXICO CITY – Ten-year-old Angie Vazquez has become an Internet phenom belting out a soulful cover of Brit pop star Adele's "Rolling in the Deep." In an online video seemingly shot at home, her teenage brothers Abelardo and Gustavo play the keyboard, guitar and drums. The video drew almost 18 million views, interviews on Mexico's major television networks and a mention on Good Morning America. Within weeks of its Nov. 11 posting, the so-called Vazquez Sounds signed a contract with Sony Music Mexico. They released their first album this week that includes another Internet smash cover, of Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas is You." Their nearly overnight success online evokes the now legendary saga of Canadian 'tween idol Justin Bieber, who was discovered after his mother posted online amateur footage of him crooning and strumming. "We make a lot of videos of a lot of things, but my son Abelardo wanted to record this song and share it with friends and family," said father Abelardo Vazquez in a telephone interview from the family's hometown of Mexicali, on the California border. "We really didn't expect the cover to become such a phenomenon on the Web." Before you call the Vazquez clan Mexico's version of Bieber-mania, consider this: The elder Abelardo Vazquez is a professional music producer instrumental in creating the sound of well-known Mexican bands such as Reik and Nikki Clan, also from the border. The videos of Angie and her brothers in their home studio are also professionally produced, mixed and lighted, with slick camera work. Abelardo Vazquez says he's not driving his kids into the music business, though he acknowledges they've had a leg up. "My kids have had a musical education since they were very young, because I have worked producing groups for many years," the father said. When the video sparked interest in a few million people beyond the Vazquez's immediate circle, the decision to cut a CD was natural, Vazquez said. He added that he retains total control over the project, and Sony music is working as a distributor. "The contract with Sony isn't the traditional type," Vazquez said. "It isn't the typical contract with record companies, in which they used to control the artists' career. This is a family project." Although Vazquez has had an eight-year relationship with Sony, Roberto Lopez, president of the label, said he and his team were unaware of the Vazquez Sounds and first heard the group like everyone else — on the Internet. Working with such a young group poses special challenges and "very strong personal care," Lopez said. "It is something special because they are children, and we want them to stay in school," he said. "The agreement was that their involvement in music, which has been going on for years now, would continue without affecting their lifestyle." Vazquez said other record companies had expressed interest, but Sony was the only one that met his conditions for the kids. Cynics note that Sony is also the label that signed some of Vazquez's other acts. The CD includes the original cover of "Rolling in the Deep," a remix of that crowd pleaser and, at least in its online version, a more wobbly cover of the Mariah Carey song. Coincidentally, it's the same song Bieber included in his holiday season "Under the Mistletoe" disc. In the meantime, the Vazquez Sounds have been invited to perform on television programs in the United States, Italy and England. But they can pick and choose. "The kids are not obligated to do promotional work like other acts," said the elder Vazquez. "We want them to live a life like any other child their age." ___ Online: |
| In China, a daring few challenge one-child limit (AP) Posted: 23 Dec 2011 09:09 PM PST ZHUJI, China – Seven months pregnant, Wu Weiping sneaked out early in the morning carrying a shoulder bag with some clothes, her laptop and a knife. "It's good for me I wasn't caught, but it's lucky for them too," said Wu, 35, who feared that family planning officials were going to drag her to the hospital for a forced abortion. "I was going to fight to the death if they found me." With her escape, Wu joined an increasingly defiant community of parents in China who have risked their jobs, savings and physical safety to have a forbidden second child. Though their numbers are small, they represent changing ideas about individual rights. While violators in the past tended to be rural families who skirted the birth limits in relative obscurity, many today are urbanites like Wu who frame their defiance in overtly political terms, arguing that the government has no right to dictate how many children they have. Using Internet chat rooms and blogs, a few have begun airing their demands for a more liberal family planning policy and are hoping others will follow their lead. Several have gotten their stories into the tightly controlled media, an indication that their perspectives have resonance with the public. After finding out his wife was expecting a second child, Liu Lianwen set up an online discussion group called "Free Birth" to swap information about the one-child policy and how to get around it. In less than six months, it has attracted nearly 200 members. "We are idealists," said the 37-year-old engineer from central China, whose daughter was born Oct. 18. "We want to change the attitudes of people around us by changing ourselves." Freed of the social controls imposed during the doctrinaire era of communist rule, Chinese today are free to choose where they live and work and whom they marry. But when it comes to having kids, the state says the majority must stop at one. Hefty fines for violators and rising economic pressures have helped compel most to abide by the limit. Many provinces claim near perfect compliance. It's impossible to know how many children have been born in violation of the one-child policy, but Zhai Zhenwu, director of Renmin University's School of Sociology and Population in Beijing, estimates that less than one percent of the 16 million babies born each year are "out of plan." Liu thinks his fellow citizens have been brainwashed. "They all feel it's glorious to have a small family," he said. "Thirty years of family planning propaganda have changed the way the majority of Chinese think about having children." The reluctance to procreate is also an issue of growing concern for demographers, who worry that the policy combined with a rising cost of living has brought the fertility rate down too sharply and too fast. Though still the world's largest nation with 1.3 billion people, China's population growth has slowed considerably. "The worry for China is not population growth — it's rapid population aging and young people not wanting to have children," said Wang Feng, director of the Brookings-Tsinghua Center for Public Policy, a joint U.S.-China academic research center in Beijing. Wang sees a looming disaster as the baby boom generation of the 1960s heads into retirement and old age. China's labor force, sharply reduced by the one-child policy, will struggle to support them. He argues that the government should allow everyone at least two children. He thinks many Chinese would still stop at one because of concerns about being able to afford to raise more than that. Penalties for violators are harsh. Those caught must pay a "social compensation fee," which can be four to nine times a family's annual income, depending on the province and the whim of the local family planning bureau. Parents with government jobs can also lose their posts or get demoted, and their "out of plan" children are denied education and health benefits. Those without government posts have less to worry about. If they can afford the steep fee and don't mind losing benefits, there's little to stop them from having another child. There's popular anger over this favoring of the wealthy but not much that ordinary people can do about it, since the policy is set behind closed doors by the communist leadership in Beijing. In 2007, officials in coastal Zhejiang province threatened to start naming and shaming well-off families who had extra kids, but the campaign never got off the ground, possibly because it threatened to tarnish the reputations of too many well-connected people. Hardest hit by the rules are urban middle class parents with Communist Party posts, teaching positions or jobs at state-run industries. Li Yongan was ordered to pay 240,000 yuan ($37,500) after his son was born in 2007 as he already had a 13-year-old daughter. After refusing to pay the fee, Li was denied a household registration permit for his son, forcing him to pay three times more for kindergarten. He was also barred from his job teaching physics at a state-run university in Beijing. "I never regret my second child, but I have been living with depression and anger for years," said Li, who struggles to make ends meet as a freelance chess teacher. Of course, there are surreptitious, though not foolproof, ways to evade punishment: paying a bribe or falsifying documents so that, for instance, a second child is registered as the twin of an older sibling. Or, sometimes second babies are registered to childless relatives or rural families that are allowed to have a second child but haven't done so. Wu, the woman who made the early morning escape, said she never intended to flout the one-child rule. She had resorted to fertility treatments to conceive her first child — a daughter nicknamed Le Le, or Happy — so she was stunned when a doctor told her she was expecting again in August, 2008. The news triggered a monthlong "cold war" with her husband, Wu said. Silent dinners, cold shoulders. She wanted to keep the baby. He didn't. After a few weeks, he came around, she explained with a satisfied smile. But family planning officials insisted on an abortion. The principal at her school also pressured her to end the pregnancy. Desperate, she went online for answers — and was led astray. At her home on the outskirts of Zhuji, a textile hub a few hours south of Shanghai, the energetic former high school teacher recounted how she divorced her husband, then married her cousin the next day, all in an attempt to evade the rules. The soap-opera-like subterfuge was meant to take advantage of a loophole that allows divorced parents to have a second child if their new spouse is a first-time parent. Wu had helped raise her cousin, who is 25 and 10 years younger than her, and when she asked if he would marry her to help save the baby, he agreed. The divorce, on Sept. 27, 2008 involved signing a document and posing for a photo. It was over in just a few minutes. The next day's marriage was similarly swift. "I remember I was very happy that day," Wu said holding the marriage certificate with a glued-on snapshot of the cousins. "Because I thought I'd figured out a way to save my baby." But her problem wasn't over. When the newlyweds applied for a birth permit, officials informed them conception had to take place after marriage. They were told to abort the baby, then try again. Wu was back to square one. A popular option that was out of reach for Wu economically is to have the baby elsewhere, where the limits don't apply. Some better-off Chinese go to Hong Kong, where private agencies charge mainland mothers hundreds of thousands of yuan (tens of thousands of dollars) for transport, lodging, and medical costs. The number giving birth in Hong Kong reached 40,000 last year, prompting the territory to cap the number of beds in public hospitals they are allowed from 2012. However, parents of kids born abroad face the bureaucratic hurdles of foreigners, having to pay premiums for school and other services. In the end, Wu also fled, but not as far as Hong Kong. Three months from her due date, she kissed her baby daughter goodbye, telling her she was going on vacation, and hopped an early morning train to nearby Hangzhou. There she switched to another train bound for Shanghai, hoping the roundabout route would throw off anyone trying to tail her. In Shanghai, Wu used a friend's ID to rent a one-room apartment with shared bathroom and kitchen. It was tiny and not cheap for her, 700 yuan a month (US$107), but it was across from a hospital that allowed her to register without a government-issued birth permission slip and it had an Internet connection. Wu had never used email, so her husband — the real one — set up a password-protected online journal that he titled "yixiaobb," or 'one tiny baby.' She posted to the journal up to nine times a day, describing where she was living without ever revealing her exact location. She prefaced every entry with a capital M for mother, and added a number to mark how many messages she wrote in a day. Using the same journal, her husband wrote to her, coding his messages with an F. It felt like an invisible tether linking Wu to her husband. He didn't know where she was, but knew she was OK. Shortly before her due date, she asked him to come to Shanghai, and he was present for the birth of their son. More than two years later, she and her former husband, the father to both her children, have yet to remarry — hoping it will legally shield him from any future punishment. The marriage with her cousin was easily dissolved after they discovered it was never valid, because marriages between first cousins is illegal in China. Wu was fired from her job as a public school teacher because of the baby and her ex-husband, who is also a teacher, was demoted to a freelance position at his school. Though told she has been assessed a 120,740 yuan ($18,575) social compensation fee, Wu has refused to pay. Enforcers of the family planning limits showed up at their house in July, and again in November, threatening legal action. Wu is afraid their property might be confiscated or that she or husband might end up in detention, but she doesn't want to pay the fine because she doesn't believe she's done anything wrong. "I don't think I've committed any crime," she said. "A crime is something that hurts other people or society or that infringes on other people's rights. I don't think having a baby is any kind of crime." |
| Google activating 700,000 Android devices daily, nearing 250 million total (Appolicious) Posted: 23 Dec 2011 11:11 AM PST |
| The Week's Top 20 in Social Media (The Atlantic Wire) Posted: 23 Dec 2011 03:34 PM PST
Related: The Week's Top Twenty in Social Media The social media sphere is an increasingly noisy place, especially for brands. But hiding somewhere in the static, some companies are sending strong signals that reaches their customers in innovative ways. The Dachis Group has recently begun a real-time ranking of which companies have the most effective social strategies with their Social Business Index. Every week we're taking a tally of who's getting heard, what they're saying, and why it matters. Related: The Week's Top Twenty in Social Media Related: The Week's Top Twenty in Social Media Related: The Week's Top 20 in Social Media Related: The Week's Top 20 in Social Media Guess what: kids love getting video games for Christmas, Hanukkah and the non-denominational holidays. This in mind, Electronic Arts (EA) kicked its social media team into high gear climbing a stunning 44 slots to break into the top 100 and settle at No. 91. Mastronardi attributes the success in part to well-run Twitter accounts for individual games like the Need for Speed and Deadspace. The campaign for the former, at least, is pretty ingenious. "@NeedforSpeed has taken its Dr. Pepper Code Giveaway to Twitter. Fans must follow the brand in order to receive a randomly tweeted code providing access to game bonus points and special autos," Mastronardi explained. "The time-sensitive nature of the promotion -- the first of 62,400 followers to enter the code wins -- keeps followers on the page and constantly engaging the brand for clues to when the next code will be released." On Facebook, EA saw some solid success with tis sports titles, as fans get psyched up for the Bowl games during the holidays. Madden NFL 2012, for instance, is running a holiday giveaway that requires both a Like and Comment in order to qualify. A single Michael Strahan jersey has so far earned nearly 4,000 Likes and Comments. And even though only one of those fans will win the prize, all of them will receive updates about EA Sports in their Newsfeeds. Guess what, round two: kids also love eating treats around the holidays. That whole milk and cookies for Santa thing? Kraft's Oreo brand is working that, and thanks to a successful Facebook campaign, Oreo is helping push the entire company 17 slots to No. 26 on the Social Business Index. In general, Oreo is awesome at Facebook, earning over a thousands Likes and Comments on its consistently frequent posts. Dachis analyst Brian Kotlyar told us that one post with a call-to-action to share, earned "a nearly unheard of level of engagement" with over 14,0000 Likes -- the fact that Oreo has nearly 24 million Fans certainly helps. The updates appear to be the main fuel in the Oreo fun engine as the company posts everything from holiday greetings to recipe ideas to cookie-themed games to -- and we didn't realize this was even a thing -- Oreo art. Also, did you know Kraft released Candy Cane flavor Oreos this year? Over 24 million of the brands Facebook page did.
Methodology: A project of the Dachis Group, a social business professional services group, the Social Business Index analyzes the conversations on social platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and othrs. The index, which currently covers approximately 25,0000 companies and 27,000 brands, detects behaviors and activities exhibited by these companies, analyzes their execution and effectiveness at driving outcomes such as brand awareness, brand love, mind share, and advocacy. The Atlantic Wire takes a snapshot of the rankings at the close of business on Thursdays. |
| Samsung says TouchWiz keeps Galaxy S from Ice Cream Sandwich (Digital Trends) Posted: 23 Dec 2011 07:00 PM PST
Samsung recently announced that a number of the Galaxy line will be joining the Galaxy Nexus and Nexus S in running Android 4.0 early 2012, but on the company blog they confirmed that the Galaxy S as well as the 7 inch Galaxy Tab will not be getting the upgrade. The reason for the upset? Samsung points out that the culpability lies with TouchWiz, Samsung Widgets, Video Calls and other functions which rob both the Galaxy Tab and the the Galaxy S of the necessary RAM or ROM to run the new OS without taking a hit in usability. There's just no room for the Ice Cream Sandwich update. The Verge points out that this comes as a major disappointment as the Galaxy S runs the same 1GHz Hummingbird processor and memory as the Nexus S, which is currently able to accommodate ICS, but of course the Samsung Nexus S doesn't run TouchWiz. Those of you that don't want to shell out for a completely new phone for ICS, TechCrunch points to a fully functioning Ice Cream Sandwich ROM for the Galaxy S; TouchWiz gets the boot, though its supposedly not the smoothest. Keep in mind that if you go this route you'll invalidate your warranty or you could possibly screw up your smartphone. Some of the phones that are getting the ICS update include the Galaxy S II, Galaxy S II LTE, Galaxy Note, and the Galaxy R. Owners will most likely get the update in the early months of 2012. This article was originally posted on Digital Trends More from Digital Trends The Samsung Galaxy Nexus goes on sale December 15 Samsung finally pushing Gingerbread to Galaxy S Half of all Android phones now operating on Froyo Adobe releases final mobile Flash update, includes Ice Cream Sandwich support |
| Study finds ‘iPhone is for games, Android is for apps’ (Appolicious) Posted: 23 Dec 2011 10:29 AM PST |
| FCC Approves AT&T's Spectrum Deal with Qualcomm (NewsFactor) Posted: 23 Dec 2011 11:39 AM PST Seeking to expand mobile broadband deployments throughout the United States, the FCC has given AT&T the green light to begin using the 700MHz spectrum licenses the carrier purchased from Qualcomm for $1.925 billion in December 2010. AT&T and Qualcomm expect to close their transaction shortly, and with AT&T bent on deploying this spectrum as soon as compatible handsets and network equipment are developed. AT&T's new spectrum blocks collectively cover more than 300 million people nationwide, including 70 million U.S. residents living in five major metropolitan areas: New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Los Angeles and San Francisco. To promote competition, consumer advocacy groups had asked the Federal Communications Commission to include a provision that would require any AT&T device operating on paired spectrum in the lower 700 MHz band to also operate on all paired spectrum in that part of the band. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski has agreed to expeditiously conduct a separate interoperability proceeding next year. "As spectrum is the lifeblood of the U.S. wireless industry, we are pleased that the FCC did not reduce the spectrum screen," said AT&T Senior Vice President Bob Quinn. "However, we continue to believe any changes to the process by which it is allocated should be subject to open and transparent public discussion." Dissenting Opinion In its ruling on AT&T's spectrum acquisition, the FCC said competitive concerns can be mitigated by ensuring that AT&T's new 700MHz spectrum use does not impede the operations of competitors using neighboring spectrum. AT&T cannot use its new spectrum in ways that deprive other providers from attaining any of the potential benefits accruing from the FCC's roaming rules. Still, Commissioner Michael Copps expressed concern that the deal's approval means that AT&T and Verizon Wireless will collectively control 73 percent of the spectrum below 1 gigahertz available for broadband wireless services. "By any reasonable spectrum screen or other spectrum holdings analysis, this level of concentration should give us pause," Copps said. As a result, AT&T will have even more device buying power as well as the potential ability to thwart competition by hampering interoperability, Copps warned. "This license transfer takes a pre-existing competitive problem --- the lack of interoperability in the Lower 700MHz [spectrum blocks] -- and aggravates it by giving one of the two dominant carriers an enhanced ability to ensure that interoperability doesn't happen without a regulatory requirement," Copps said. Short-Term Solutions In the wake of the dissolution of AT&T's proposed merger with T-Mobile this week, AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson said that regulatory approval of its spectrum deal with Qualcomm would be the best short-term solution. AT&T intends to use this spectrum for supplemental downlinks designed to deliver substantial capacity gains. In the long run, however, Stephenson said U.S. policy-makers should enact legislation to meet the nation's longer-term spectrum needs, a point with which the FCC concurs. "We agree with AT&T that Congress should pass incentive auction legislation that will unleash new spectrum for mobile broadband," Genachowski said. Genachowski also noted Thursday that currently unused spectrum between TV stations -- known as "white spaces" -- can potentially provide the nation with yet another wireless broadband platform. The FCC's approval of the first TV white spaces database and device is an important step in making this new wireless technology a viable broadband option for American consumers, Genachowski said. "Unleashing white spaces spectrum has the potential to exceed even the many billions of dollars in economic benefit from Wi-Fi -- the last significant release of unlicensed spectrum -- and drive private investment and job creation," Genachowski added. |
| Steve Jobs to receive posthumous Grammy (Digital Trends) Posted: 23 Dec 2011 09:45 AM PST
The Recording Academy has announced it plans to award a posthumous Trustees Award Grammy to Apple co-founder Steve Jobs to recognize his role in revolutionizing the modern music industry. “A creative visionary, Jobs’ innovations such as the iPod and its counterpart, the online iTunes store, revolutionized the industry and how music was distributed and purchased,†Apple was indeed a pioneer in the digital music retailing business, launching its iTunes store in 2003 with the support of all major record labels after much arm-twisting from Steve Jobs to get them all to agree to uniform pricing (then $0.99 per track), with the concession that all tracks were protected with Apple's FairPlay DRM technology. The iTunes Store was greeted with some skepticism—after all, why buy digital tracks when CDs were often cheaper (especially for albums) and a vast library of pirated music was easily available (illegally) via peer-to-peer file sharing services? However, fueled by its iPod personal music player business, the iTunes Music Store turned into a strong success for Apple—although the store now has differential pricing, most tracks are now sold without DRM protection—another move Apple was early to embrace. As a result, Apple has long been the leading music retailer, leaving the likes of Walmart and Amazon in its wake. Apple was also the recipient of the first Grammy ever awarded to a PC company—back in 2002 when Apple was still considered a "PC company." The technical Grammy was awarded for Apple's then-nascent iTunes and iPod business, as well as for recognizing the Mac as the first computer with built-in audio capabilities—capabilities that were one chapter in the company's long-lasting legal entanglements with the Beatles' Apple Corps. The Recording Academy is expected to make a formal acknowledgment of Jobs' award during the Grammy Ceremony on February 14, 2012, in Los Angeles. The Grammys have always been a bit of a publicity stunt designed to boost sales and focus attention on the music industry—awarding a Grammy to Jobs personally is as much a recognition of his role in the industry as it is an effort to capitalize on the continuing accolades and memorializing of Jobs since his death in October. The Recording Academy is granting two other Trustees Awards this year, one to longtime producer/songwriter/big-band leader Dave Bartholomew (who wrote and produced for the likes of Elvis, Chuck Berry, and Fats Domino), and world-famous recording engineer Rudy Van Gelder, who virtually defined the warm, full-textured sound associate with many high-quality jazz recordings—if you love the Blue Note jazz catalog, Ruby Van Gelder is the guy who made it happen. This article was originally posted on Digital Trends More from Digital Trends Tech firm honors Steve Jobs with bronze statue of late Apple boss The iPhone gets banned in Syria to curb protest coverage Steve Jobs tribute exhibit on display at the US Patent Museum |
| Apple Files Patents for Fuel Cell Computers (NewsFactor) Posted: 23 Dec 2011 04:25 PM PST A laptop powered by a hydrogen fuel cell, going for weeks without refueling. That vision of the future is described in a pair of patent applications filed by Apple and made public Thursday. One of the patent applications, entitled Fuel Cell System to Power a Portable Computing Device, describes a fuel cell system with a fuel cell stack that generates electricity, as well as a system controller and a bidirectional communication link between the controller and the device. 'Days or Even Weeks' The other application, Fuel Cell System Coupled to a Portable Computing Device, describes a fuel cell system that "is capable of both providing power to and receiving power from a rechargeable battery in a portable computing device." The application notes that this would eliminate "the need for a bulky and heavy battery within the fuel cell system," thus significantly reducing the size, weight, and cost of the fuel cell. Fuel cells, such as hydrogen fuel cells, can pack a lot of electricity-generating power into a small package. As one of the applications noted, "Fuel cells and associated fuels can potentially achieve high volumetric and gravimetric energy densities," which could potentially mean that portable devices could operate for "days or even weeks without refueling." Similarly, the other application's description of linking the fuel cell to the rechargeable battery helps to keep size and weight down, and time between refueling up. Apple's applications discuss using sodium borohydride powder mixed with water as a fuel, and the hydrogen would be obtained from the sodium borohydride. The hydrogen then mixes with oxygen via a membrane, producing electricity and water vapor. 'Future Proofing' The integration of the fuel cell system into the device would assumedly be one of the key features for which patent protection is sought. Another patent application by Apple, published in October, described a design for fuel cell plates. Laura DiDio, an analyst with Information Technology Intelligence Corp., said Apple's patents indicated it was "future proofing and hedging its bets," and that the real question was whether the innovative company "has something cooking like this in the back room?" She added that it was possible that Apple is not moving forward on this front, but simply looking to protect itself against other companies' ventures into fuel-cell powered mobile computing devices. Even if the Cupertino, Calif.-based company is using some of its large supply of cash to conduct R&D in this area, DiDio said, it was unlikely that mainstream products would emerge in the next decade or so. As with many large technology companies, patents figure prominently in Apple's strategy. The biggest example of the importance of patents is the ongoing legal war by Apple with Samsung, HTC, and Motorola Mobility, over aspects of those companies' Android-based devices that Apple says violate its patents. Apple recently won a minor victory in its U.S. patent fight with HTC, lost a next step in its war with Samsung in Australia, and both won and lost some battles with Samsung in Europe. |
| RIM now faces legal challenge on "BBM" trademark (Reuters) Posted: 23 Dec 2011 12:28 PM PST TORONTO (Reuters) – Research In Motion, still smarting over having to change the name of its yet-to-come operating system, faces a similar trademark challenge to its popular instant-messaging service BlackBerry Messenger. The service, which allows BlackBerry users to send each other text and multimedia files and see when they are delivered and read, is widely known and even promoted by RIM via the shorthand BBM. That has proven an encumbrance to BBM Canada, which measures radio and television audience data and expects its day in a Federal Court against RIM by February. The company's chief executive, Jim MacLeod, said he wants RIM to stop advertising the BBM moniker but would also consider changing his much smaller company's name, for a price. "We have to be practical, they operate worldwide, we don't. But we're not prepared to just walk from our name," MacLeod said. RIM seems equally determined to keep using the BBM name and not to pay MacLeod's company anything. "We believe that BBM Canada is attempting to obtain trademark protection for the BBM acronym that is well beyond the narrow range of the services it provides and well beyond the scope of rights afforded by Canadian trademark law," it said in an emailed statement. RIM has launched its BBM Music song-sharing service in recent months, and heavily promoted third-party apps that tie into its instant messaging product, which boasts some 50 million active users. BBM Canada was established in 1944 as the Bureau of Broadcast Measurement. It changed its name to BBM in the 1960s and to BBM Canada in the early 1990s, MacLeod said. The company, owned by a collection of broadcasters and advertisers, has annual revenue of around $50 million. RIM's sales were more than $5 billion last quarter. "I'm sure to a really big company this looks like relatively small numbers, but to us it's a big deal," said MacLeod. BBM Canada employs around 650 people, compared with RIM's roughly 17,000. Earlier this month RIM dumped the "BBX" name for its new operating system after being served with an injunction in a trademark fight with U.S.-based Basis International. RIM has renamed the platform as BlackBerry 10. Industry Canada denied RIM's 2009 request to register the BBM trademark, saying the name was already in use, but has granted RIM until January 5 to respond. BBM Canada launched its legal action late last year. MacLeod said his company contacted RIM in July, soon after RIM launched a large-scale BBM advertising campaign. In response to BBM Canada's cease-and-desist letter RIM said there couldn't possibly be any confusion between the two names - a similar tactic was later used in the BBX spat. RIM repeated that line of argument in Friday's statement. "The services associated with RIM's BBM offering clearly do not overlap with BBM Canada's services and the two marks are therefore eligible to co-exist under Canadian trademark law. The two companies are in different industries and have never been competitors in any area." MacLeod sought a meeting to discuss the issue with RIM co-CEO Jim Balsillie several months ago, but said he has received no response. McLeod pointed out that RIM had even taken legal action of its own against software startup Kik Interactive over its instant messaging service that includes claims of trademark infringement. "It's a trademark they don't even own, it's ours," MacLeod said. (Reporting by Alastair Sharp; editing by Rob Wilson) |
| Researchers Create 'Sun-Believable' Solar Cell Paint (Mashable) Posted: 22 Dec 2011 02:58 AM PST Notre Dame researchers have created a semiconductive paste, which can turn surfaces its applied to into solar cells. A team of researchers, lead by Professor Prashant Kamat, created the new material by coating nano-sized particles of titanium dioxide with either cadmium sulfide or cadmium selenide, and then suspending them in a water-alcohol mixture to create a paste. [More from Mashable: Google Invests $280 Million in Solar Energy] The paste can then be applied to a transparent conducting material, which creates electricity when exposed to light. The solar cell paint is cheap to produce, but it currently has a serious drawback: low efficiency. Silicon solar cells typically have 10-15% efficiency, while the material created by Kamat and his team has a 1% efficiency at best. [More from Mashable: Google Invests in World's Largest Solar Power Tower Plant] "This paint can be made cheaply and in large quantities. If we can improve the efficiency somewhat, we may be able to make a real difference in meeting energy needs in the future," says Kamat. Due to its amazing properties, Kamat and his team dubbed the new material "Sun-Believable." The researcher believes that, if perfected, the new material could be a start of a new era in solar power.
This story originally published on Mashable here. |
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