Mobility COVERAGE FROM AROUND THE WEB
As already teased and promised, today Canonical is taking the wraps off the mobile version of Ubuntu, which is built around the existing Android kernel and drivers, but doesn't use a Java Virtual Machine and promises to use "the full power of the phone." Supporting both ARM and x86 processors, the Ubuntu phone OS will be compatible enough to let Android phone makers run it on their devices with minimal adaptation.Ubuntu for Android, announced in February of last year, will be the first step to getting this new ecosystem out to shipping devices, which Canonical chief Mark Shuttleworth says will definitely arrive at some point during this year. While no carrier or manufacturer support has yet been announced, the first Ubuntu for Android handset should be provided by a "high-end" Android device maker.Proper Ubuntu phones are promised to be out in early 2014, but the company has a number of demo phones out here in London and downloadable images of the development platform will be available for the Galaxy Nexus over the next couple of weeks. That's the only officially supported device for now, which Canonical expects developers to be working on as they start fleshing out the ecosystem.
j2 Global Announces Trends That Will Impact SMBs in 2013: Smarter Deployment of Mobile and Cloud Technologies Will Drive Greater Efficiency and Productivity
j2 Global Announces Trends That Will Impact SMBs in 2013: Smarter Deployment of Mobile and Cloud Technologies Will Drive Greater Efficiency and ProductivityLOS ANGELES, CA--(Marketwire - Dec 19, 2012) - j2 Global, Inc. (NASDAQ: JCOM), cloud services provider for small businesses, including leading brands eVoice, eFax and Campaigner, today announced key trends and predictions that will impact small-to medium-sized businesses in the coming year. Mobility, expansion of the cloud, and integration of business services are the three key trends that SMBs must be ready for in 2013. See an infographic showing the three key trends here.In 2011 we reached a new milestone with the number of smartphones sold exceeding the number of PCs sold. In a recent press release summarizing its 2011 country-level estimates, Canalys estimated that vendors shipped nearly 488 million smart phones to clients in 2011, compared to an estimated 414.6 million PCs.1 This trend suggests a continuing mass mobilization of the global workforce. Smartphones and tablets become ubiquitous. In 2013, companies will get smarter about how they use mobile devices. These tools are becoming ubiquitous, spanning industries, generations and job types. Smartphones and tablets will be leveraged more heavily as businesses move beyond using them just for simple communications. Business systems, such as CRM, will go mobile enabling teams to input and access sales information on-the-go, driving higher levels of communication and productivity. Collaboration tools that were previously office-bound -- like conference calling and web conferencing -- will be liberated to facilitate faster and more strategic responses to real-time business needs.
Cloud to-do list company Orchestra today announced Mailbox, an email client for the iPhone it's been building for the last year. I’ve been testing Mailbox for the last few weeks and it’s nothing short of spectactular. It’s the best (and certainly the most modern) Gmail client for iPhone since Sparrow, and operates on a simple premise: how do you turn the mobile email inbox into a to-do list, but in a non-obtrusive way? The app feels like a combination of Sparrow and Clear — a beautifully designed messaging client meshed with a swipe-able productivity app. "Most everyone uses email on their phones, and most everyone hates it," Orchestra CEO Gentry Underwood says. "We feel like that's a big opportunity to make a small improvement in a lot of people's lives." A few apps have tried and failed to accomplish this goal, but where they failed Mailbox succeeds. And yes — it has push notifications for new messages.Whereas most Mail apps rely on buttons to archive, delete, and file emails for later, Mailbox relies on a simple and colorful set of swipes. "Email was designed 30 years ago for computers chained to desks," Underwood says. "Everything about it is slow and clunky. If you want to make it fast and mobile-friendly, the entire experience needs to be modernized." Swiping a message to the right archives it (symbolized by a checkmark), while swiping a message to the left saves it for later (a yellow clock symbol). Swiping a message to the right and holding deletes it (symbolized by a red x), and swiping a message to the left and holding opens a List screen where you can move / label messages. In grand total, there are four ways to act on a message in your inbox, which means there’s a bit of a learning curve, but it’s worth it.
Michael Dell talked everything from big data and cloud computing to touchscreen PCs at the Dell World conference yesterday, with the Texan reserving special mention for bring-your-own-device (BYOD) and Windows 8.Talking at the conference, the Dell CEO first dismissed any suggestions of the ‘post-PC’ world, instead insisting that businesses are still using these devices for the bulk of their work.“There are about a quarter billion PCs sold every year and the installed base of PCs is about a billion and a half. Overwhelmingly, PCs are how business gets done in the world today.”"And now with Windows 8, we’re on the cusp of the next revolution of Windows hardware and software, bringing together the laptop and the touch screen." The latter point was arguably not so surprising given Dell’s gung-ho stance on Windows 8 tablets and PCs, but what proved more enlightening was the company’s attitude to Microsoft’s new operating system in regard to the BYOD trend."In the customer conversations that we’ve been having, the interest in Windows 8 is quite high, even with commercial customers, who would normally wait a few releases to adopt the new versions," stated the Dell founder."What we’re seeing here is really an immediate need [for Windows 8], because CIOs are worried about the ramifications of a BYOD world.”
printed December 4, 2012
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http://www.phonescoop.com/articles/article.php?a=11591Google today announced Gmail 2.0 for the Apple iPhone and iPad. The application has been given a visual overhaul to match Google's online design language. It also adds a number of new features, including profile pictures, message and inbox animations, autocomplete in the search field, the ability to reply to Google Calendar invites, as well as to comment on and +1 Google+ posts. Last, the Gmail for iOS adds support for multiple accounts, and can run up to five at a time. Gmail for iOS is a free download from the iTunes App Store. Google Voice Updated for iPhone 5more Apple iPhone 4 (CDMA) news
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Buy the Apple iPhone 4S & accessoriesFacebook Offering Photo Sync to More UsersApple Now Selling Unlocked iPhones in U.S.Apple Pushes iTunes 11 Arrival to Late Novembermore Apple iPhone 5 (AT&T) news
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Make no mistake: T-Mobile will get the iPhone. It’s just highly unlikely that it will get it next week as Merrill Lynch is predicting. T-Mobile is still in the early stages of a network overhaul that will make it compatible with the iPhone’s 3G radios.A Merrill Lynch analyst is hearing buzz that Apple could make the dreams of millions of T-Mobile customers come true next week by announcing the availability of its iconic smartphone on the nation’s fourth largest – and so far iPhone-less – carrier, Fortune reports. While there’s a possibility we might see some kind Apple-T-Mo announcement on Thursday, we’re probably not going to see an actual T-Mobile iPhone next week or even this year.T-Mobile’s networks simply aren’t ready yet. The reason T-Mobile has been left off the iPhone bandwagon for so long is that its HSPA networks don’t support the PCS 3G bands the iPhone uses. T-Mobile is fixing that issue, moving its network down the electromagnetic spectrum as part of a nationwide overhaul.T-Mobile, however, has officially completed that upgrade in only 15 cities. If the iPhone were to go live next week, the vast majority of T-Mobile’s customers who bought it would experience only 2G speeds. That’s to say nothing of the iPhone 5’s LTE capabilities, which T-Mobile won’t support until the second half of 2013. Considering the iPhone is first and foremost a mobile data device, I don’t think even Apple is willing to unleash it on a network that can perform only a fraction of the data functions it was designed for.
I'd done my research, having investigated major Windows 8 convertible laptops on the market. The one I'd settled on, the Lenovo Yoga 13, had arrived. So last week, I went cold turkey with it on a business trip, abandoning my
MacBook Air to see if
Windows 8 could deliver a product that was both
tablet and laptop in one.
As I explained in my last column, I've long wished for a device with the "instant-on" ability of my MacBook Air but also one that could transform into a tablet, for those times when a keyboard is unnecessary. I'd been waiting for Windows 8 convertible laptops to arrive, to see if they could make my wish come true.Last week, the Lenovo Yoga I ordered through Best Buy arrived just before a day-long business trip I had. I figured there would be no better way for me to get to know the device, and explore Windows 8 more, than to take it out for a spin.
The good news is how remarkably easy it has become to get moving on a new computer these days thanks to cloud-based services. Windows 8 pulled in my calendar and email with no trouble from my Google account. Data stored on both Microsoft's SkyDrive and Google Drive also synced in.
By Tom Warren
@tomwarren
on November 28, 2012 09:33 am
144Comments
Microsoft is busy preparing its next-generation Windows client, shortly after shipping Windows 8 in October. The Verge has learned from several sources familiar with Microsoft’s plans that the company is planning to standardize on an approach, codenamed Blue, across Windows and Windows Phone in an effort to provide more regular updates to consumers.Originally unveiled by ZDNet, the update on the Windows side, due in mid-2013, will include UI changes and alterations to the entire platform and pricing. We’re told that Microsoft is aiming to make Windows Blue the next OS that everyone installs. The approach is simple, Microsoft will price its next Windows release at a low cost or even free to ensure users upgrade. Once Windows Blue is released, the Windows SDK will be updated to support the new release and Microsoft will stop accepting apps that are built specifically for Windows 8, pushing developers to create apps for Blue. Windows 8 apps will continue to run on Blue despite the planned SDK changes.We understand that you will need a genuine copy of Windows to upgrade to Windows Blue. Built-in apps and the Windows Store will cease functioning if a copy is upgraded that is pirated. Sources tell us that Microsoft will likely keep the Windows 8 name for the foreseeable future, despite the Windows Blue update. A big part of Windows Blue is the push towards yearly updates for Microsoft’s OS. Microsoft will kick off an annual upgrade cycle for Windows that is designed to make it more competitive against rival platforms from Apple and Google.
There has been much discussion from the venture capitalist angle on the failings of mobile companies, including posts by Fred Wilson and Om Malik. I wanted to share my perspective, having been the co-founder of a mobile-first startup for the past year and a half that fits their mold exactly. We’ve raised $3.65m to date, and have tried two mobile-first free social products. However, for our next product, we are going web-first and charging out of the gate.Ads are the Internet’s tax on users who want free apps and websites. All free apps and services have ads. I consider virtual goods like ads because everything I’m going to say about ads is also true for virtual goods. Ad-supported companies are akin to the government in the sense that they are both really good at finding ways to charge you without it seemingly coming out of your pocket. Many people’s taxes are taken automatically out of their payroll, so they don’t think of that money as being theirs to begin with. Similarly, we feel like everything that we don’t directly pay money for on the Internet is free, but that is simply not true.Unlike taxes, however, ad-based services target lower-income and lower-education audiences because that’s where they make all of their money. To take the largest example, Google makes $30.00 ARPU (Average Revenue Per User) per year and charges about $1/click on average to advertisers. That’s 30 ads clicked per user per year. I’m certainly not clicking that many Google ads per year and neither are you. I usually know where content stops and ads begin, partly because I’ve had access to the Internet longer than others. I think ads target the same audience that Nigerian scammers do, on average; read this Quora answer on that if you haven’t because it’s interesting.
WATERLOO, Ontario (Reuters) - Research In Motion is pushing for app quality, not quantity, with its make-or-break BlackBerry 10 devices set for launch on January 30, and targeting applications to customers in various regions.RIM's projected 100,000 apps - a record for any new platform at launch - will still be a fraction of those available on Apple Inc or Google Inc devices.But it is a stronger showing than RIM's PlayBook tablet computer which was slammed at its 2011 launch for a dearth of apps and incomplete software.In an interview with Reuters on Wednesday, RIM Chief Executive Thorsten Heins admitted that app libraries play a crucial role in the success or failure of smartphones. But he said the game is not just about numbers."The tactic we are deploying is by country and by region. We are aiming to have the most important 200 to 400 apps available, because many applications are regional and they really do have a regional flavor," Heins said.RIM says it aims to offer both the most popular applications in the market, and also those most relevant to Blackberry aficionados - people Heins described as hyper-connected multi-taskers who need to get things done.RIM's ultra-secure BlackBerry was once the smartphone of choice for government and corporate elites. But rivals have taken giant bites out of RIM's market share, especially in North America, and the company's stock has slumped. The BlackBerry remains popular in many emerging markets, partly for its popular BBM messaging system.
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