15/08/2012

HTC promises to come back!

   There's quite a few mobile phone companies who are facing a tough time at the moment. The most obvious two are RIM and Nokia, but HTC is having a bit of a crisis at the moment after they lost all moment half way through last year when they released a huge group of decidedly average device. Unfortunately HTC's One Series wasn't quite good enough to steal mindshare back from Samsung and Apple; there were issues with small battery capacities in the One X and some dodgy ceramic work on the One S. 

   It's been reported today that the companies chairman has sent out an email to all their employees in a bid to rally the troops! Chou has laid out how his company needs to “kill bureaucracy” while improving communication; “We have people in meeting[s] and talking all the time but without decision, strategic direction or sense of urgency. Bureaucracy crept in without clear ownership. We agreed to do something but we either didn’t do it or executed it loosely.”

   He continues on to comment on his disappointment that the company’s sales have fallen despite the huge growth in the overall smartphone market. “Our competitors can leverage their scale, brand awareness and big marketing budget to do things which HTC could not do. The fast growth from the last two years has slowed us down.”

   But fear not Chou is confident in the company and promises “We are coming back.”

In other news:

• It's been reported today that Amazon's updated Kindle Fire has slipped through the FCC so hopefully we'll be hearing some sort of official announcement soon!

• Nokia has today reiterated their commitment to Windows Phone 8 and Stephen Elop didn't deny that the company could announce a new set of devices on September 7th, so not too long to wait now!

• Netflix has expanded their service to Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland!

• Samsung Vs Apple: Today Samsung has argued that Apple's designs are always 'obvious' and so they should not be patentable, we'll see whether people agree with that, it seems reasonable.

• Adobe has confirmed there will be no more Flash releases for Android, only security updates and from today you won't be able to install a copy on any devices that don't have it! Unless, that is, you have such a huge desire to find the APK and install it yourself from 'untrusted sources'.

• LG has managed to sell 5million LTE phones worldwide in the last few years! Not bad going now all we need is some updates LG!

And finally is this 5.5" (14cm) screen and bezel combination that of the upcoming Galaxy Note 2? Keep it locked here for all the news from IFA as it happens!

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23/07/2012

Staples confirms numerous new Kindle tablets incoming!

   Staples President, president Demos Parneros, has today told Reuters that Amazon are preparing '5 or 6 new SKU's' of Kindle tablets. Which in normal words means that Amazon are preparing 5 or 6 new tablet variants. 

   Now this could mean 2 new tablets and then 16, 32 and 64GB version of each tablet, but we're really hoping for 7", 8.9" and 10.1" tablets.There's also the possibility that one SKU could be dedicated to a 3G/4G capable version of the tablets.

   Interestingly, Parneros did explicitly say that a 10inch version is in the pipeline, something which will go head to head with Apple's iPad, but Amazon's offering is expected to have a much lower price point! We are also expecting a refreshed 7" Kindle Fire, something perfectly tailored to compete with Google's insanely popular, new Nexus 7.

   This might be a cheeky ploy to take some of Google's momentum away while Amazon's tablets are finished or Amazon might be slightly annoyed with Staples for revealing their plans prematurely. Either way Amazon declined to comment on the stories today!

   Keep it locked for all the latest news on Amazon's tablets!

Samsung splits from Qualcomm licensing deal to spite Apple.

   About 18 years ago, Samsung and Qualcomm made a little gentlemen's agreement, promising not to use 3G patents to Samsung's advantage, new documents have confirmed. Samsung promised not to sue Qualcomm or any of its customers for using these patents. It's been confirmed that Samsung saw it fit to dissolve these agreement in April 2011, so that the IP could be used to combat Apple's aggressive law department.

   Qualcomm was notified that the deal was ended as soon as Apple first filed against Samsung’s Galaxy Tab slate in the US, ZDNet claimed. ”There was an agreement between Samsung and Qualcomm. That agreement was not a licence agreement” Samsung’s counsel confirmed. “It contains a contractual provision that Samsung would not sue Qualcomm or customers of Qualcomm who apply [the 3G patents].”

   According to Australian court documents Apple sought independent licensing with Samsung, but Sammy claims that its FRAND-term “commercial rate” for use of the technology was rejected, and that Apple failed to continue taking part in negotiations. “Apple has refused to enter negotiations for the UMTS patent”.

   This is quite an interesting revelation and we'll see exactly what happened when we see some judgements coming in from the courts!

In other news:

• The ratings agency, Moody's, has downgraded Nokia again, the company now stands at a 'junk' rating. But, the company is still confident things will turn around with the release of WP8.
• The creators of the Android app 'Dead Trigger' have revealed their reasoning for making their quality game free recently. Apparently Android piracy is so rampant that the devs saw it as the best option to simply offer the game for free. At the moment they're considering in-app purchasing and ads as a way to earn some money from the game!
• Samsung has officially announced that they've shipped 10million Galaxy S3's in 2 months!
• LG's ICS update for the Spectrum is 'very close' to completion and is Verizon's hands for testing.

Finally, google has released their first advert for the Nexus 7 and it looks something like this...!!!

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09/07/2012

JollaMobile plans to give Meego the chance it deserves!

   Now many of you out there may have heard of Nokia and their much heralded N9. The N9 was the first, and only, smartphone to run Meego; a pleasant little OS which was widely described as a 'breath of fresh air' when it was shown off last year. Meego itself took the best of Nokia's Maemo and Intel's Moblin operating systems and merged them into one complete package specifically designed for ease of use and elegance. 

   Despite the N9 introducing beautiful industrial design and a great new OS, there was a problem and his name was Stephen Elop. You may know him as the man who was responsible for ending his company's work on Symbian, Meego and, the all but complete, Meltemi. Instead he jumped straight into the arms of his ex-employer, Microsoft and their little OS, Windows Phone 7. 

   As you can probably tell, I personally am a fan of diversity; Firefox OS, WebOS, Meego, Tizen, Bada, BB10/QNX and the like, are all great operating systems but they're either being created as we speak or have been all but archived after poor initial sales (yes HP we're looking at you).

   But, in the face of adversity a team of ex-Nokia employees have created a small start up called Jolla and they plan to create their 'Own hardware and own OS based on ‪#MeeGo‬'. The software will be able to run on both ARM and X86 processors so, in theory, there's quite a range of products this company could come out with, but they've made it clear that their initial focus is smartphones.

   The only problem is that the company has doesn't currently have any products to show off; they're working on something for release later this year, but it's been made clear on their Twitter page that they have investors and they are looking at possibilities such as Kickstarter to get the company off the ground.

   This is a very interesting project and only time will tell if the company can build on the solid foundation laid by Nokia and Intel, but I have my fingers crossed for them!

   Ohh, for the record the name isn't pronounced the way you expect; it's spelt Jolla but the company has said 'it should be said with a sharp 'z' in the beginning, like 'zholla' or 'tjolla'!

In other news:

• Samsung has all but confirmed they are planning to launch a Windows RT tablet in the fall.
• Torsten Heins, RIM's CEO has explained his company's decision to delay BB10 saying that he could 'still see the seams' and he wanted the OS to be flawless.
• Blackberry's app world has hit 3 billion downloads.
• Hot on the heels of HTC's win against Apple in the UK courts, the same decision has been reached  regarding Samsung tablets... Not Guilty!!! So head out and buy all the Galaxy Tab's you want, you lucky Brits!
• A new Kindle Fire has been tipped for Q3 with a 1280x800, Nexus 7 matching, display.
• LG are reported to be using a bit more in house production as they seek to regain some smartphone market share.
• US mobile carriers were asked over 1.3million times for information about their customers by law enforcement agencies in the US of A!!!
• Nokia has today confirmed that there will be a Windows Phone for Verizon 'very soon' and the same timescale has been applied to the release of Nokia phones with 'Pureview' camera technology.
• Ohhh and that exploding Samsung Galaxy S3, turns out it was microwaved, that's why it exploded! The things people will do to get attention these days!

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