1/10/2012

Google overtakes Microsoft to become World Tech Giant No.2!

   We all know that the tech world is incredibly competitive and the big hitters come and go, we can look to people like RIM and Nokia for proof of that. But, at this moment in time Apple is the clear leader, being the most valuable company in the world, period. But, behind them and just in the tech sector we have you're everyday names; Google, Microsoft, IBM, AT&T and the list goes on.

   But, today we heard that Google now has over $249 billion in market cap which means they are now more valuable than Microsoft, which fell to around $248.8 billion today.

   While not important for much more than that, it does perhaps reflect where investors think technology is heading as the power of the internet continues to grow. But, Microsoft will remain an incredible powerful company for the foreseeable future irrespective of their market worth!

Barnes and Noble gives Nook Simple Touch GlowLight discounts!

   Most of you bookworms out there probably have an Amazon Kindle eReader by now. But, there might be a small portion of you who have opted for a Kobo, Sony or even a Barnes and Noble reader instead? If you fall into none of those categories and you're looking to purchase a new good quality one then B&N might have the answer for you!

   Barnes and Noble have chalked $20 off the price of the eReader, bringing it right into line with Amazon's Kindle at $119. 

   But, the company isn't happy with just a reduced price but the company has been explaining how the NOOK Simple Touch will actually be better value for money. They point out that their device includes an AC adapter, whereas Amazon only put a microUSB cable in the box for the Kindle Paperwhite. If you want a proper Amazon adaptor well that's $9.99 on top, but you don't need it, you could use any standard MicroUSB charger.

   There's also them pesky ads to consider. The Nook eReader won't have any, whereas Amazon's offering will, unless you chalk up another $20 to get rid of them too! So maybe you can have a second thought if you are looking for a shiny new eReader for Christmas.... It's not too early to be thinking about that is it?!?!

In other news:

• Nokia and Oracle have inked a deal which would see the latter integrate the formers Mapping solutions into their products, particularly for custom geo-location work in Enterprise servers!

• Sharp has announced they are beginning productions of 5" 1080p screens for upcoming smartphones!

• Samsung's Galaxy Note II is now officially on sale in the UK! And there's a drop test just below.

• Apple is facing an EU investigation after they have 'continually' ignored EU law. The company has been advertising their products with a 1 year warranty, when EU law stipulates that those sorts of products should have 2 years. The investigation will decide if Apple was intentionally trying to get customers to purchase AppleCare. If they're found guilty then there will be a lofty fine!

And finally, HP have unveiled their ElitePad 900. It's a stunning bit of kit that includes an Intel Clove Trail processor and 2GB of RAM inside a 1.5-pound brushed aluminum case! It's absolutely stunning. There's a picture and a video for you to marvel at below!

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28/09/2012

Tim Cook does the unthinkable! Suggests using other maps!

   

   The last few weeks since the release of iOS6 have been interesting to say the least. There's been various issues reported by iOS users especially with regard to dropping wifi signal. The other huge complaint has been about Apple's new Maps. The company chose to drop Google maps after Google refused to offer turn-by-turn navigation for Apple's products.

    The new solution has been nowhere near on par with the rest of Apple's historically excellent offerings. Today Tim Cook posted a message on Apple's website apologising to users for the poor performance of the new maps and he even suggested using alternative solutions until the team has had a chance to get them up to scratch! The full comment is just below:

"To our customers,

At Apple, we strive to make world-class products that deliver the best experience possible to our customers. With the launch of our new Maps last week, we fell short on this commitment. We are extremely sorry for the frustration this has caused our customers and we are doing everything we can to make Maps better.

We launched Maps initially with the first version of iOS. As time progressed, we wanted to provide our customers with even better Maps including features such as turn-by-turn directions, voice integration, Flyover and vector-based maps. In order to do this, we had to create a new version of Maps from the ground up.

There are already more than 100 million iOS devices using the new Apple Maps, with more and more joining us every day. In just over a week, iOS users with the new Maps have already searched for nearly half a billion locations. The more our customers use our Maps the better it will get and we greatly appreciate all of the feedback we have received from you.

While we’re improving Maps, you can try alternatives by downloading map apps from the App Store like Bing, MapQuest and Waze, or use Google or Nokia maps by going to their websites and creating an icon on your home screen to their web app.

Everything we do at Apple is aimed at making our products the best in the world. We know that you expect that from us, and we will keep working non-stop until Maps lives up to the same incredibly high standard."

Tim Cook

Apple’s CEO

 In other news:

• Microsoft has been complaining that there are not enough highly-skilled workers coming into the technology world. The company publicly announced that they have had a lack of suitably qualified  applicants and the situation is reaching the point of being a “genuine crisis.” Microsoft has announced they are going to lobby the US government in an attempt to boost applicant numbers in a bit to fill some of the thousands of vacant technology and engineering jobs within the company.
  
  The company also wants to boost the number of visas available for foreign workers with technology skills to fill its vacant positions. On top of this the company is happy to pledge millions of dollars to help get school children into the field! 

• HP has reiterated to their investors that they are going to 'aggressively tackle' the smartphone and tablet market in the near future!

• Sony have invested $640m in Olympus. The deal involves buying 11% of Olympus with the primary aim to acquire new 4K medical camera technology.

And finally, is this picture below the upcoming HTC One X+ for O2? It may very well be and it might be coming without a charger to save on costs too!

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17/09/2012

Is there a PadFone 2 on the way?

   The Asus PadFone... The phone/tablet mash up that I and numerous other said we'd get because it's such a good idea. The original PadFone was no slouch though; it had the dual-core Snapdragon S4 chipset running the show and everything was good if a little mid-range.

    Of the rumours are to be believed then the PadFone 2 should kick things up a notch with the inclusion of a quad-core Snapdragon S4 Pro. An AnTuTu benchmark result shows a device that’s generally on the level of Samsung's Exynos 4 Quad figures! 

   At the moment we know very little about the whole device apart from the odd bit of speculation. It's been thrown around that we might be seeing 2Gb's of RAM and better resolution screens, but we'll probably have to wait until the start of next year before anything concrete comes out!

   It would be great to see a hugely powerful and genuinely impress device come out of the PadFone project and just like last time I would love to own one!

In other news:

• Cloud storage company Box has announced they are rolling out Box Accelerator. This is a service which has been launched today and it promises 10x faster upload speeds than before. They're able to do this thanks to new network infrastructure that spreads upload hubs across the globe. This has been so efficient in testing that an independent review marks the service as comfortably faster than; Dropbox, Microsoft’s SkyDrive, and Google Drive.

• If you're a Tesco mobile customer then we've got good news for you if you like everything with an 'i' in front of it's name. Tesco has released an 'register your interest page' for the iPhone 5! If you want to show your interest head over here and you might have one in your hands relatively soon!

• Just in case anyone doubted the appeal of Apple's new iPhone 5 then you should see some of these stats! In the first 24 hours of pre-orders the company sold over 2m units. For those of you talented with numbers you'll instantly know that that's more than 23 units a second or 1,389 a minute, that's why the delivery time slipped after a while ladies and gentlemen! That also reinforces AT&T's statement which said it was their most successful iPhone launch ever!

• Amazon has quietly outed a maps API to compete with Google's solution. The API was sneeked out during the companies Kindle Fire HD release and it's looking like a year of Google Maps challengers. Now you've got Bing maps, iOS maps, Amazon apps, but there's still a place in our heart for Ordance Survey maps!

• Smartphones and tablets have officially overtaken PCs as major consumer of DRAM chips.

• Microsoft have confirmed the price range for their Surface tablets; they will be anywhere from $300-$700 depending on whether you opt for a RT version or full Windows experience!

And finally, is the a new upcoming smartphone from HP running... Android?!?! This is relatively easy to fake by the way, but after last weeks announcement HP is getting back in the game it could be a very well placed teaser! As you can see there's ICS at the moment and a nice little lovely 1366 x 720 pixel resolution display with 1.5GHz on each of its Snapdragon CPU cores. So what do you think? Real or fake?

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