- Apple Plans Further Investment in China as Cook Visits – Bloomberg

International Business TimesApple Plans Further Investment in China as Cook Visits
Bloomberg
His visit comes almost three months after crowds threw eggs at another Apple store in Beijing’s Sanlitun district when it didn’t open on the first day of sales for the iPhone 4S. Demand for the iPhone in China was “staggering” and the company “didn’t …
Tim Cook spotted in China; next iPhone on the docket?CNET
Apple chief Tim Cook in China: 3 things he could be doingZDNet (blog)
Apple CEO Time Cook In China: Is IPhone 5 On Brink Of Release?International Business Times
Wall Street Journal -PC Magazine
all 80 news articles » - 511 Transit App Now Available for iPhone – MarketWatch (press release)
511 Transit App Now Available for iPhone
MarketWatch (press release)
OAKLAND, Calif., March 26, 2012 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ — The San Francisco Bay Area’s award-winning 511 traveler information system has released the iPhone version of its comprehensive transit trip planner app. The free 511 Transit App, designed for …and more » - AT&T to Sell Lumia for $99.99 as Nokia, Microsoft Take On IPhone – San Francisco Chronicle

CTV.caAT&T to Sell Lumia for $99.99 as Nokia, Microsoft Take On IPhone
San Francisco Chronicle
March 26 (Bloomberg) — AT&T Inc. plans to start selling a Nokia Oyj smartphone with Microsoft Corp. software for half of what it charges for the iPhone, as the device’s makers seek to break Apple Inc. and Google Inc.’s dominance of the US market.
AT&T to Sell $99.99 Lumia as Nokia Battles AppleBusinessWeek
Would you swap your iPhone for a Windows Phone?CNET
Nokia undercuts iPhone 4S as AT&T prices Lumia 900 at $99Pocket Gamer.Biz
PCWorld -Forbes
all 680 news articles » - Appigo’s Todo Gains Location Alerts on the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch – San Francisco Chronicle (press release)
Appigo’s Todo Gains Location Alerts on the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch
San Francisco Chronicle (press release)
Appigo adds location alerts to Todo on the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch as well as the ability to print your Todo lists from your computer on Todo for Mac. Orem, Utah (PRWEB) March 26, 2012 Appigo today announced that Todo on the iPhone, iPad and iPod …and more » - The iPhone Before the Apple iPhone – Xconomy
The iPhone Before the Apple iPhone
Xconomy
Ask most people to tell you the story of the iPhone, and you’ll likely hear about how an innovative computer company took the traditional telephone, combined it with the Internet, and came up with an attractive and low-cost device that pioneered a new … - iPhone 5 Gets A Release Date But Faces Fallout Over Foxconn – ValueWalk

Phones ReviewiPhone 5 Gets A Release Date But Faces Fallout Over Foxconn
ValueWalk
This time it is the iPhone 5. The new iPad released seemed to have quite a few flaws in the design and received quite a bit of complaints about the heat, low battery life, etc. It makes you think about what will happen next. The previous iPhones have …
iPhone 5 Release Date Rumors: Foxconn 20000 Hiring Spree Hints at June Launch?International Business Times
iPhone 5 production under threat as Foxconn workers strikePhones Review
Apple Called out for Omitting Factory Workers From Cash PilePCWorld
3G.co.uk -ITProPortal
all 37 news articles » - New Blog Post from iPhone Tips Blog, iPhoneSamurai.com, Announces Possible … – Houston Chronicle
New Blog Post from iPhone Tips Blog, iPhoneSamurai.com, Announces Possible …
Houston Chronicle
iPhone Samurai offers iPhone addicts around the world the latest tips and advice for their handheld device. In his latest blog post, Benny Meyer discusses possible new features of Apple’s iOS6 operating system. iPhoneSamurai.com is one of the world’s …and more » - Cracks appear in face of Apple’s iOS security – msnbc.com

Telegraph.co.ukCracks appear in face of Apple’s iOS security
msnbc.com
Several such exploits were discovered and reported by Ade Barkah on his tech blog, Peekay, including a method of gaining access to contacts and photos — and even making outgoing FaceTime calls — on a locked iPhone with Voice Dial disabled.
iPhone and iPad Apps We Want On Android Smartphones and TabletsGotta Be Mobile
Photos: We’re On Instagram Now, Are You?Gothamist
Instagram Photo App to Launch for AndroidTechNewsDaily
Ubergizmo -The Australian -3G.co.uk
all 93 news articles » - 15 things we want in the iPhone 5 – ZDNet

TG Daily15 things we want in the iPhone 5
ZDNet
by Zack Whittaker | March 25, 2012 9:00am PDT | Image 1 of 16 Apple is expected to announce the next-generation iPhone in the coming months, at the end of Q2 or early Q3. With an October release penciled in by analysts, we have less than six months …
Jаіlbrеаk/Unlock Iphone 4S/4/3Gs іoѕ 5.1 Released NowNOLA.com
Now Unlock and J ailbreak for iPhone 4/4S iOS 5.1 Untethered Live Online Today …The Star-Ledger – NJ.com
Report: Next iPhone is going 4G LTETG Daily
CNET -International Business Times
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Read more..- New iPhone To Have Larger Screen; Galaxy Note Getting Android 4.0; Angry Birds … – PC Magazine
New iPhone To Have Larger Screen; Galaxy Note Getting Android 4.0; Angry Birds …
PC Magazine
By Angela Moscaritolo Mobile news topped tech headlines on Thursday, as rumors surfaced that the next version of the iPhone will have a significantly larger screen. Reuters reported that Apple's new iPhone will have a massive 4.6-inch "retina display" … - Apple’s iPhone 5: What to Expect – TheStreet.com

TheStreet.comApple's iPhone 5: What to Expect
TheStreet.com
By Chris Ciaccia 03/23/12 – 10:06 AM EDT NEW YORK (TheStreet) – Now that Apple(AAPL) has unveiled its latest iPad, attention is now shifting to the company's most important product: the iPhone. Investor sentiment is soaring for Apple, as well as its … - Apple’s iPhone Conquers BlackBerry in Canada – PCWorld

VentureBeatApple's iPhone Conquers BlackBerry in Canada
PCWorld
By Ian Paul, PCWorld Mar 23, 2012 6:57 AM More bad news for BlackBerry maker Research In Motion: for the first time since its introduction in 2007, Apple's iPhone is more popular than BlackBerry devices sold on RIM's home turf of Canada.
Apple's iPhone takes top spot from RIM in CanadaCNET
iPhone beating BlackBerry in Canada shows how bad RIM is brokenVentureBeat
The iPhone overtakes RIM in CanadaTG Daily
Register -Computerworld (blog) -InformationWeek
all 194 news articles » - Unlock and Jailbreak iPhone 4/4S iOS 5.1 Untethered Live 2012 – The Star-Ledger – NJ.com

International Business TimesUnlock and Jailbreak iPhone 4/4S iOS 5.1 Untethered Live 2012
The Star-Ledger – NJ.com
By Lower111 Today I managed to find how to Unlock and Jailbreak iPhone 4/4S iPhone iOs 5.1 with the help of this new tool.WIthout this I was unneable to Unlock and Jailbreak iPhone 4/4S iPhone iOs 5.1.Apple recently launched iPhone OS 5.1, …
iPhone 5 Rumors: iOS 5.1 Strings Confirms 4G LTE for Next iPhone; New Concept …International Business Times
iOS 5.1 Code Suggests iPhone 5 Will Have 4G LTE SupportGeek Sailor
iOS 5.1 code reveals 4G enabled iPhone 5Know Your Mobile (blog)
The Boundary Sentinel (blog)
all 67 news articles » - Best Buy selling nearly as many iPhones as Apple – Fox News
Best Buy selling nearly as many iPhones as Apple
Fox News
Apple's move to make Best Buy an outlet for the iPhone back in 2008 is proving to be a wise and lucrative decision, according to data released Friday. Over the past few years, the retail chain became an increasingly important outlet for Apple, …
Best Buy Is Selling Nearly as Many iPhones as Apple ItselfAll Things Digital
Best Buy sells nearly as many iPhones as Apple does directlyApple Insider
Best Buy's iPhone Sales Nearly Equal to Apple's, Sprint Halfway There Already …24/7 Wall St.
Cult of Mac -The Next Web (blog)
all 29 news articles » - iPhone 5 Rumored to Feature Larger Screen – eWeek

RedOrbitiPhone 5 Rumored to Feature Larger Screen
eWeek
Apple's iPhone 5 will feature a 4.6-inch screen, according to one new report. However, other sources moved quickly to undermine that rumor. Now that the new iPad is on store shelves across the country, attention is inevitably turning to the next Apple …
4.6-Inch iPhone? Don't Believe the HypePCWorld
Rumor: New iPhone to Have Larger 4.6-Inch Retina DisplayPC Magazine
Report: Bigger screen for next iPhoneAtlanta Journal Constitution (blog)
RedOrbit -ZDNet (blog)
all 255 news articles » - Future iPhone May Be Made Out of Glass – Mashable

Product ReviewsFuture iPhone May Be Made Out of Glass
Mashable
The iPhone 4 and 4S aren't really that far from this idea, their case consisting of two pieces of glass and a steel frame. Some problems immediately come to mind. While the glass material used in modern smartphones is quite tough, a smartphone made …
Could the next iPhone be made of glass?Orlando Business Journal
Differing approaches to new iPhone 5 notionProduct Reviews
Is Apple Working On A Glass iPhone?Huffington Post UK
Engadget
all 6 news articles » - Crave giveaway: Wahoo Run/Gym Pack for iPhone – CNET
Crave giveaway: Wahoo Run/Gym Pack for iPhone
CNET
Get your heart rate pumping with this week's Crave giveaway, the Wahoo Run/Gym Pack for the iPhone. by Bonnie Cha March 23, 2012 12:01 AM PDT Follow @bonnieCNET Did you make a New Year's resolution to work out more? How's that going for you? - A Larger iPhone Is Near Inevitable — But How Big Will It Be? – Wired News

PopHerald.comA Larger iPhone Is Near Inevitable — But How Big Will It Be?
Wired News
By Christina Bonnington The iPhone 4S kept the same aesthetic as the iPhone 4, but will the next iPhone do the same? Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired Now that the new iPad is here, speculation has shifted back to the iPhone — specifically, whether Apple will …
iPhone 5, MacBook Air and Pro 2012: Release Date?PopHerald.com
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Read more..Facebook starts rolling out controversial Timeline feature in New Zealand
Posted in Uncategorized by admin-TN
9 Dec 2011
Facebook has started making its Timeline feature available to the approximately two million Facebook users living in New Zealand.
Facebook’s Timeline acts like a digital diary, presenting a comprehensive and ongoing snapshot of your life on the social networking site. It showcases a chronological history of the most important moments in your life, collating (user-selected) pictures, videos, significant status updates and event “likes” that have been uploaded to Facebook.
“Starting today, we are making Timeline more widely available as we measure speed and other types of performance,” said Facebook Project manager Samuel Lessin in a December 6 update on the Tell Your Story with Timeline blog post. “We’ll begin by making it available to people in New Zealand and then roll it out more broadly in the near future.”
New Zealand-based Facebook users will be given the opportunity to fill out and modify their Timeline during a seven-day period before making it available to their friends to view.
More than one million developers (or people who were willing to pose as developers to try out the new feature) have already started creating their own Facebook Timeline on the site by signing up for the developer beta, said Facebook.
Timeline was first announced in September of this year and promoted as “an easy way to rediscover the things you shared, and collect all your best moments in a single place.” It has been praised and criticized by users and privacy advocates alike.
Timeline is an added feature that also helps Facebook differentiate itself from rival social networks Google+ and Twitter.
Read more..
IDG News Service - Verizon Wireless said Wednesday that its engineers are working to resolve an issue with its 4G (fourth-generation) LTE (Long Term Evolution) service, that is affecting some customers’ 4G devices.
The company said in an emailed statement that in the past 24 hours, some 4G LTE customers have reported that their devices are operating on 3G data service where they would normally get 4G.
The company did not specify what was the nature of the problem, and the locations and number of customers affected. On a Verizon community forum, customers from a number of locations in the U.S. were reporting problems with their 4G service on Wednesday.
Verizon’s 4G LTE is currently available in 179 cities and 114 major airports, covering more than 186 million people in the U.S., according to its website.
Verizon said that 3G data and voice devices were unaffected, and all customers’ voice calls and text messages continue to go through.
The operator said that while some customers have reported no issues, others are reporting that data access is either intermittent or unavailable. ” We are working to resolve the issue as quickly as possible,” it said.
Verizon plans to expand its 4G LTE network to cover two-thirds of the U.S population by mid-2012, and cover its entire existing nationwide 3G footprint with 4G LTE by the end of 2013.
The company had another network issue in April that affected some of its 4G LTE customers in the U.S.
Read more..“The problem with innovation in the television market is the go-to-market strategy,” Steve Jobs told Hillcrest Labs’ Dan Simpkins at the D8 conference in 2010.
“It’s not a problem of technology; it’s not a problem of vision; it’s a fundamental go-to-market problem.”
I don’t think Jobs was trying to throw Apple-watchers off the track with a coy answer. I don’t think we’ve taken this problem seriously enough when it comes to the future of television and living-room entertainment. And I don’t think either Apple’s current set-top box approach or the endlessly renewable speculations about a fully integrated big-screen Apple television set solve this problem.
The best approach we’ve seen to this problem, and the best approach we’re likely to see for some time, has been Microsoft’s efforts with Xbox 360. I want to explain why I think Microsoft is beating and will continue to beat Apple in this space. Then I want to outline what Apple would need to do differently in order to beat back Microsoft, Sony, Google and all other contenders if it wants to conquer the living room.
Xbox is winning because of content, not Kinect
For me, a light bulb went off when I saw Microsoft’s Black Friday sales numbers for Xbox 360 and Kinect. In the U.S., Microsoft sold 960,000 Xbox consoles and 750,000 Kinect sensors, including both standalone units and bundled with Xboxes.
It was Xbox’s biggest week ever; mighty impressive for a six-year-old game console likely to be displaced by a next-generation model in a year or so. But the total numbers are less interesting to me than the spread between them. It means there are at least 200,000 people, and quite possibly hundreds of thousands more, who are buying brand-new Xbox consoles without Kinect.
As ZDNet’s Mary Jo Foley writes, “who is buying all these Xboxes?” Are they gamers disaffected with the PS3 and Wii? Xbox superfans who want a second unit for the bedroom or basement? Media center shoppers who see the Xbox as an upgrade over the Apple TV or Roku boxes? Or Black Friday crazies who don’t know any better?
The mix doubtlessly includes all of these. But it suggests to me that Xbox’s growing popularity has less to do with Kinect than we might think. The emerging market isn’t being driven by the attraction of new user interfaces. It’s extremely price-sensitive, and it’s fundamentally driven by the availability of content. And that includes content of all kinds, from movies to gaming.
Xbox is selling more units because the available content has gotten drastically better. On Twitter, Joystiq’s Chris Grant writes that “six years after the launch of Xbox 360, we’re seeing games really push the thing: Gears [of War] 3, Rage, Crysis 2. They all look incredible.” And now, software updates bring live and on-demand TV content from both cable programmers like HBO and cable companies like Comcast and Verizon, plus a slew of other featuresthat integrate all this content.
The fundamental mistake of Apple-watchers (and almost everybody else)
The major mistake made by most gadget reporters and future of technology speculators is drawing too close an analogy between smartphones and smart televisions. We’ve assumed that the next generation of televisions would have a silver-bullet user interface, as gesture-enabled touchscreens were for smartphones. And every time a new user interface comes along, whether it’s Microsoft’s Kinect or Apple’s Siri, we argue that it’s the future of television.
As a consequence, we’ve misunderstood television’s user interface problem. It’s not really about too many cables and too many remotes, as annoying as that can be. It’s really about having the right kind of user interface for the task at hand.
That means pluralism, not minimalism. It means that remote controls and game controllers, with all their ugly buttons, aren’t going away, because they’re actually quite good at what they do.
Instead, they’ll be connected to and complemented by specialized interface devices like cameras, microphones, and touchscreen smartphones and tablets. These will take over some functions, introduce new ones, or even duplicate functionality.
It’s not one ring to rule them all. It’s e pluribus unum.
What will Apple do?
Let’s be clear; we don’t know what Apple is going to do. So when I say “Apple is wrong,” I really mean that the conventional wisdom about what Apple will do is wrong. If true, it’s the wrong strategy to bring a product to the market. I also have my doubts that this is what Apple will actually do.
Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster, who’s been beating the drum like mad for an integrated Apple TV since at least early 2009, thinks he knows exactly what Apple will do, telling audience members at the Ignition conference that they should wait to buy a new TV set until Apple releases its own in 2012. (Note: On Wednesday, I called and emailed Piper Jaffray to ask for a copy of Munster’s full analyst report and an interview, but they haven’t responded; I’m unfortunately stuck with relying on secondhand accounts.)
In 2009, Munster thought the Apple TV set would be a large HDTV and would sport a built-in Cable Card and DVR, and replace both the cable box and TiVo; now, he thinks it will come in many different sizes, will still require a cable box, and will be controlled by Apple’s new Siri voice/AI technology.
Munster also thinks that Apple TVs will be priced at roughly twice what comparable “dumb” TVs would cost; i.e., if a 40″ LCD TV costs around $1000, a 40″ Apple TV will cost $2000. In this way, Apple will be able to both pack serious tech into the guts of the TV set and turn the high-volume, low-margin business of selling TVs into something closer to the high-margin, high-end computing product market that has propelled it into the most profitable tech company in the world.
I think Munster’s argument has become more or less the conventional wisdom for what Apple will do next with television. This was reinforced by Jobs’ statements about his vision for television to his biographer Walter Isaacson. (If anyone else has articulated a better or radically different vision or interpretation of what Jobs meant, please let me know.)
Now, I think this conventional wisdom is wrong for a handful of reasons.
It’s the wrong price for the market. The bulk of television buyers are extremely price-sensitive. I know, I know; mobile phone buyers were (and are) price-sensitive, too. But 1) people replace their phones a lot more often than they replace their television sets, and 2) the iPhone didn’t take off when it cost $700, but when it cost $200. Likewise, the MacBook Air didn’t take off when it cost $1800-$3100, but when it dropped below $1000. If an Apple TV costs double its equivalent, it’s like the Mac Pro, or the first Apple TV; a specialty product, a marker, a hobby. I think Apple is through with hobbies.
It doesn’t match Apple’s strategic trajectory. Now, a premium television set could be a strong, profitable product. And Apple could start at a high price and gradually work to lower the cost and bring it to more customers, like they did with the iPod, iPhone or MacBook Air. But this seems more like a move Apple would have made ten years ago, or even four, when its products didn’t have great market share, and its customers were overwhelmingly concentrated in the U.S., where it sold premium computers to a dedicated base.
Everything Apple’s done in the last three years has been moving in the opposite direction. So has the market for HDTVs. I don’t think either of those will backtrack easily. And if they do, it’s actually a step backwards, not forwards. If Apple’s going to succeed in television, I think it will be by surprising everyone like they did with the first iPad: by bringing in a product right away that’s both inherently compelling and priced much lower than everyone expects. That will also keep copycat products from Google, Sony, Samsung or whomever at arm’s length.
It’s the ecosystem, stupid. The iPad was a success because it stood on the shoulders of the iPhone, the iPod Touch, the rejuvenated Mac lineup and the iOS App Store. At this point, Microsoft is trying to go in the other direction, borrowing elements from Xbox to drive interest in Windows Phone and Windows 8. In order to succeed, an Apple television set will have to employ the same kind of leverage. Only part of this can be the networked interaction between Mac and iOS devices or even apps common to all of them.
We’ve written before about the role Apple’s iPods still play as a gateway device to the iPhone, iPad and Mac. It’s been easier for Microsoft to drive content agreements for Xbox because it can point to its fifty million units. Apple needs to do something similar for TV. iPads are part of that, but so is that little Apple TV box.
If Apple introduced a new television set, don’t be surprised if they also overhaul that little box, but with much greater capabilities. It’s the iPod; it’s the Mac Mini; it’s their best chance to quickly turn an ecosystem of millions into tens or hundreds of millions.
A cool interface will not save you. Siri is remarkable, and over time, I can see both its voice interface and AI elements playing a huge role in search and commands on the television. But just like Kinect, Siri alone won’t get it done. Munster argues, and I agree, that the UI will have to incorporate and accommodate a mix of remotes, voice and touch control.
The problem is that still doesn’t get you applications like group chat or any serious gaming. You can wave around an iPhone or iPod like it’s a Wiimote, or play Angry Birds on a big screen. But if you’re otherwise still stuck plugging in your Xbox or Wii to the new Apple TV, aren’t we just back to the cords-and-remotes problem again?
Xbox solves this problem with some elegance; Kinect gives you motion and voice, remotes give you familiar interfaces that work for 80% of you want to do, paired smartphones give you added versatility, and wired or wireless controllers give you complete control for serious gaming. It’s easy to forget how huge the gaming industry is, and how closely it’s become tied to television, the broader world of entertainment, and global markets.
But Apple hasn’t forgotten. They know how exactly how many games they sell for iThings. They have to deliver something that takes advantage of that opportunity.
You have to deliver compelling content. Google tried to make a software-driven TV with a snappy interface that hooked into a cable box. Content makers and intermediaries balked. Google TV was stillborn, and the company’s now mulling getting into the cable business itself. Apple is and always has been much better at dealing with the entertainment industry than Google.
But its content strategy isn’t as clear as Microsoft’s, which has been willing to partner with anybody and everybody to bring movies, televisions, games and applications to Xbox.Does Apple continue on with iTunes a la carte model? Does it switch to a subscription model? Does it partner with the cable companies or try to route around them?
Either way, you’re stuck with the two problems Jobs identified back in 2010. If you partner with cable providers, you’re stuck with the fact that there are no truly national providers in the way that there are national cellular carriers. If you try to disrupt cable providers, you have to overcome the inertia that comes with a subsidized cable box, and that tangled mess of cords and remotes once again. There are no good moves here; Microsoft’s strategy so far has been the best. But Apple could always pull a rabbit out of its hat.
Microsoft has been more successful at partnering with telecom operators like Comcast and Verizon because it already has a large installed hardware base and because it has software developers who can work with content companies to create compelling Xbox-native experiences. It’s also not limited to the domestic market, but can roll out content partnerships globally. That’s where Apple needs to get in order to bring a comparable product to market.
I fully believe that Steve Jobs did have a vision for how he wanted television to work. I believe Apple has the technology to bring that vision to fruition. But remember where we started: It’s not a problem of technology. it’s not a problem of vision. It’s a problem with the market.
There are two ways to read Jobs’ now-famous line about television, “I finally cracked it.” The first is exuberant, a promise of an achieved future en route to delivery. The second is wry, ironic, wistful: the pronouncement of the consummate salesman who knows exactly what he wants to do, but also that he doesn’t have enough time to bring it all the way home.
Read more..The public beta of Windows 8 will launch in February, just one month behind the speculated January launch date.
During a San Francisco developers event held on Tuesday, Microsoft confirmedthat it will release a public beta of Windows 8 in late February 2012 instead of the early January date indicated by a recently leaked roadmap. The news arrived as Antoine Leblond, vice president of Windows Web services, introduced the upcoming Windows Store to the press.
So far the new tablet-console-friendly OS seems to be on track for a full retail release in Fall 2012 based on the beta’s February launch. Given that Microsoft released a public beta of Windows 7 back in January 2009, there was speculation that the Redmond company was sticking to the same schedule. Yet the Developer Preview launched a month earlier (on September 13) than Windows 7′s October distribution. That said, comparing the two release schedules seems to be somewhat pointless.
According to Microsoft, more than 13 million copies of the Windows 8 Developer Preview had been downloaded since its release back in the fall. California-based Net Applications said that — based on the Developer Preview downloads — Windows 8 already accounts for three-hundredths of 1-percent of all PCs accessing the Internet. That’s reportedly one-fourth the number of Windows 2000-powered PCs and half the number of Windows 98 PCs.
Despite the beta announcement, Tuesday’s event was focused on Microsoft’s app market simply called Windows Store. It will open its doors at the launch of the Windows 8 Public Beta and only offer free apps.Previous reports indicated that the storefront will only provide Metro-style applications, and that legacy applications for Windows 7 and later will only have a landing page that links back to the software publisher.
On Tuesday Microsoft also launched the Windows 8 First Apps Contest, challenging developers to create Metro-style apps that will be chosen as launch applications in Windows Store in February. Winning developers will not only get a front-row seat on opening day, but a Samsung Windows Developer PreviewPC from the BUILD conference, a year of Windows Azure, and a two-year subscription to the Store. The deadline for submitting a Metro app to the contest is Jan. 8, 2012, so get busy.
Read more..
RIM to use BlackBerry 10 instead
.
RIM had been calling its latest OS BBX, but a software company already held that trademark. Basis International Basis sued RIM in U.S. Federal court in Albuquerque NM. The courts have ruled against RIM and declared that it can’t use the BBX trademark. That means that RIM couldn’t use the name for its OS at the DevCon conference in Asia.
Like most tech firms, RIM generally remains quiet about suits and litigation, but it commented this time out to say it had picked a new name for the OS ahead of the conference. RIMs BBX will now be called Blackberry 10. The move means that RIM won’t need to pay licensing fees for future use of the BBX name, but it still might be liable for damages for using the trademark in past.
RIM issued a statement to Reuters that read, “RIM doesn’t typically comment on pending litigation, however RIM has already unveiled a new brand name for its next generation mobile platform. As announced at DevCon Asia, RIM plans to use the ‘BlackBerry 10′ brand name for its next generation mobile platform.”
RIM recently fell short of its financial targets thanks in part to very weak sales of the PlayBook tablet. Despite massive price cuts on the PlayBook the tablet has still gained little traction in the tablet market. The PlayBook lacks basic functionality expected of tablets today like integrated email and other capabilities making it unpopular.
Nand shrinks: 20nm and counting
NAND shrinks sounds like a way of describing flash psychoanalysts who sort out NAND neuroses as flash dies go a bit haywire. It actually refers to the shrinking process geometry size of cells in NAND manufacturing.
Intel Micron Flash Technologies (IMTF) has just announced a 128Gbit capacity 20nm flash cell using 2-bit multi-level cell NAND, and say eight of these midget babies can be stacked to provide a single 1Tbit chip.
IMTF first announced its 2-bit, 20nm process product in April this year, when it was sampling 64Gbit product. Now it has tweaked the process and doubled both capacity and performance of that chip. How are its competitors doing?
There was mention of a 21nm process from Hynix in October last year. Hynix, which is being taken over by Korea’s SK Telecom, was planning to talk about a 15nm NAND technology at the ongoing International Electron Devices Meeting in Washington, DC, at which IBM has just revealed itsRacetrack memory prototype.
Hynix is currently ramping production of a 64Gbit part using a 29-20nm process, which it terms a 27nm geometry. Possibly financial troubles have delayed its 15nm effort.
We understand Samsung is at the 27nm level with 2-bit MLC product. It introduced 20nm chips in the third quarter of this year and has reportedly said it will introduce 10nm-class chips in 2012.
SanDisk/Toshiba have a 19nm technology with a 2-bit, 64Gbit die which sampled in the second quarter of this year and was on track for general availability by the end of the year. A 3-bit version was mooted by the end of 2011 too.
Intel, Samsung and Toshiba are reportedly teaming up to develop 10nm-class flash product technology.
Micron’s 20nm, 2-bit flash won’t actually show up in Micron SSD product until next year, according to this chart, when we can expect SATA and mSATA client products, possibly called C500, and SAS enterprise product. Initial markets will be smartphones, tablets, and ultrabooks, taking advantage of the product’s finger-nail size to match space constraints inside these devices.
DRAMeXchange has flash suppliers ranked in this order:
- First is Samsung with a 37 per cent market share;
- second is Toshiba with 31.6 per cent;
- third is IMTF with 29.1 per cent; and
- fourth is Hynix with 11.8 per cent.
IMTF has Samsung in its sights and the industry leader knows it has hungry competitors. Having 20nm class product just keeps you in the race. The future: first sub-20nm process product, and then sub-10nm chips, with a post-NAND transition to unknown technology looming. The NAND game is like being on magic, unstoppable roundabouts costing billions of dollars to keep spinning while you keep hoping your competitors will be thrown off by selling too few chips to generate the cash to needed counter the centrifugal force threatening to throw them off.
No one is making bundles of money from this. They must be mad. Perhaps they need NAND shrinks after all. ®
Read more..A flaw in Facebook’s system for reporting inappropriate content made it possible copy a users’ private photos – including those of founder Mark Zuckerberg.
The security flaw was identified several weeks ago and had been circulating online since then but it came to wider attention yesterday when Mark Zuckerberg’s private photos were published on the web.
Facebook provides several tools for users to report inappropriate content so that it can be removed from the social network. Users discovered that reporting a photo as inappropriate because of “nudity or pornography” brought up an option to include other photos in the complaint.
In some cases this included photos that had been marked as private and would not otherwise be visible to the person making the complaint. A small change to the URL of those images revealed the full-size version of the private image, which could then be copied.
Facebook issued an immediate fix for the loophole. In a statement, the social network said: “Earlier today, we discovered a bug in one of our reporting flows that allows people to report multiple instances of inappropriate content simultaneously.
“The bug, was a result of one of our most recent code pushes and was live for a limited period of time. Not all content was accessible, rather a small number of one’s photos. Upon discovering the bug, we immediately disabled the system, and will only return functionality once we can confirm the bug has been fixed.”
Read more..
RIM Ordered in Basis Suit Not to Use BBX Trademark at Conference
Posted in Uncategorized by admin-TN
7 Dec 2011
Dec. 7 (Bloomberg) — Research In Motion Ltd. was barred by a federal judge from using Basis International Ltd.’s “BBX” trademark at an industry conference in Asia that begins today.
U.S. District Judge William P. Johnson in Albuquerque, New Mexico, yesterday ruled that Research in Motion can’t use the BBX trademark at the DevCon conference in Singapore being held today and tomorrow.
Basis is likely to win its trademark-infringement claims against Research In Motion, and consumers are “likely to be confused by RIM’s use of BBX in connection with RIM’s goods and services,” Johnson wrote in the ruling.
The conference will be attended by software developers who may be users of Basis’ BBX software, according to the ruling.
A representative of Waterloo, Ontario-based Research In Motion didn’t immediately return phone and e-mail messages after regular business hours seeking comment on the ruling.
The case is Basis International Ltd. v. Research in Motion, 11-00953, US. District Court, District of New Mexico (Albuquerque).
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