A woman in France got the shock of her life when she received her cell phone bill recently. Although the $15 quadrillion was obviously wrong, she had a hard time trying to convince workers at the telecoms company of the fact.
Sometimes you get your cell phone bill through and it might seem a little more than what you’d been expecting, but what the heck, you pay it.
However, Solenne San Jose, from the French city of Bordeaux, would’ve been hard pressed to do such a thing as her bill was a lot, lot more than she’d been expecting. In fact, it had so many zeros on it that she didn’t even know how to say it.
San Jose had decided to pull out of her phone contract early and as a result was told by her carrier she’d have to pay a termination fee that would be included in her final bill which would be sent in the mail.
Upon opening the bill and seeing the final fee, San Jose said she “nearly had a heart attack.” Why? Because it was for €11,721,000,000,000,000 (about $15 quadrillion), that’s why.
Receiving a phone bill more than 5,000 times greater than the gross domestic product of the country in which you live is really no way to start the day, so San Jose called the company, Bouygues Telecom, to suggest there’d been some kind of mistake in an effort to get it to cancel the charge made to her bank account.
But this is where things got really absurd. On her first attempt to sort the problem out, she was reportedly told that nothing could be done, and informed that “it’s calculated automatically.”
Another person at the company said someone would be in touch to sort out paying the amount in instalments. Eventually, an employee with some common sense realized a mistake had been made. The real bill? €117 ($151).
The company have reportedly said sorry for the error and told San Jose she won’t have to pay anything at all. With the stress and hassle it must have caused, however, you might think it could’ve offered a more generous apology – a mistakenly written check for a couple of quadrillion dollars would’ve been nice.
Google chairman Eric Schmidt thinks that Android activations could top a billion by next year, as the operating system continues to reign over more than half of the mobile marketplace.
"We just announced 1.3 million activations of Android phones per day globally - per day," he underlined during a recent interview with AllThingsD.
"Do a little math with me," Schmidt asked. "If you're at 1.3 [million activations per day], times 365 [days a year], and of course that number doubling every six months or something like this."
"This is well more than a billion devices globally perhaps within a year."
Android vs Apple defining platform fight
Schmidt defined what 1 billion Android activations means in his company's constant tug-of-war with Apple.
"I believe that the Android-Apple platform fight is the defining fight in the industry today," Schmidt said, before noting Android's progress. "And I didn't say that two years ago."
As with any good fight, there's always a little smack talk and a good backhanded compliment.
"[Apple's has] an enormously large platform for developers, knowledge, cloud services, scale, and so forth." Schmidt went on to laud how many talented engineers Apple has, along with his rival's apps, content, and partnerships.
But that just set him up to say, "The Google platform, Android, is even larger."
"Surveys that we've seen of unit volume indicate that there are four times as many Android phones as there are iPhones."
"We have not seen in our industry platform-network fights of this scale."
With lower-cost devices and more innovative hardware teased by the Google chairman, Schmidt concluded, "And I go back to who's the beneficiary. And the beneficiary is you all - globally."
Other US tech companies are reportedly suspicious of Huawei, ZTE
Cisco Systems, among others, may have nudged Congress into investigating Chinese companies Huawei and ZTE for security concerns, according to a new report from the Washington Post.
China's two largest telecommunications companies have taken a beating from U.S. Congressmen as they tried to enter the States' technology market.
Politicians are concerned the tech giants will use their systems to help expand the Chinese government's spying networks into the US.
Earlier this week, the US Intelligence Committee said the duo shouldn't be allowed to operate in the U.S. But the only proof of those claims are held secret in classified reports.
Cisco in the captain's chair
Cisco and other U.S. tech companies urged Congress to investigate Huawei and ZTE, according to an unnamed senior Hill staffer.
The staffer said politicians were already concerned about the two companies, and major players in the U.S. tech industry just fanned the flames of their suspension.
"What happens is you get competitors who are able to gin up lawmakers who are already wound up about China," the anonymous staffer said to the Post. "What they do is pull the string and see where the top spins."
The Post even found a seven-page sales presentation called "Huawei's & National Security," which is meant to give ammo to Cisco representatives on why clients should avoid Chinese competitors and go with American companies.
"Fear of Huawei spreads globally," according to the presentation. "Despite denials, Huawei has struggled to de-link itself from China's People's Liberation Army and the Chinese government."
The vitriol is no surprise in the cutthroat world of telecommunications. Cisco CEO, John Chambers, has repeatedly criticized Huawei for "not playing by the rules" and declared the company a "long-term threat."
The new McCarthyism
Huawei has been repeatedly denied entry into the U.S. tech game by the Treasury Department's Committee on Foreign Investments for years. All based on security concerns.
The two Chinese companies and their government have all denied the allegations of spying.
Last month, Huawei published a 81-page document when its top brass was being grilled by the House Intelligence Committee.
The report made the case for the benefits of Huawei entering the U.S. tech market, but said the investigation was "allegations based on allegations" and likened its treatment to McCarthyism.
Even though the barriers to entering the U.S. market seem pretty high, Huawei and ZTE still seems pretty determined to take a slice of that American telecom pie.
Bruce Feirstein, the screenwriter responsible for several James Bond film and games, about honoring 50 years of Bond with the new game, 007 Legends.
After a very long wait, complicated by the bankruptcy of MGM Studios, James Bond fans are finally getting a new movie in Skyfall, just in time to celebrate a half century of Bond films. They’re also getting a new video game from Activision and developer Eurocom, 007 Legends, which recreates several of the characters most famous adventures including Skyfall, which will be released as DLC following the launch of the game and premier of the movie. And then there’s the just-released Bond 50 Blu-ray Collection with all 22 films, a must have for all die hard Bond fans. That’s a great way to celebrate 50 years of 007.
Bruce Feirstein, who penned GoldenEye, Tomorrow Never Dies, and The World Is Not Enough, is helping to bring Bond back virtually with an original story that links six classic Bond films (Goldfinger, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, Moonraker, License to Kill, Die Another Day, and Skyfall) together with an updated setting, and starring actor Daniel Craig as 007. The Hollywood scribe, who also penned the Bond games Agent Under Fire, From Russia with Love, GoldenEye, and Blood Stone, talks about the role video games have played in keeping Bond relevant with a new generation of fans in this exclusive interview.
What do you feel having Daniel Craig as the James Bond in 007 Legends adds to the synergy with Skyfall hitting theaters?
When you look back over the history of Bond, every Bond was the right Bond for his time. Connery was clearly the perfect Cold War Bond. Pierce was clearly the perfect Bond for the post Cold War time and now Daniel perfectly reflects the post 9/11 world with the character that he created, his interpretation of Bond. In terms of doing the game, rather than go backwards into the missions, we update the stories slightly and modernized them to reflect the current Bond. That’s why Daniel is the current Bond who goes through all the levels of the game.
How does Craig’s Bond – which is much different than the Bonds in the original movies that are featured in the game — impact the experience people will be going through with the missions in 007 Legends?
Daniel Craig’s Bond is much more serious. He harkens back to the very lethal weapon aspect of Connery, so the missions have been tailored to reflect that character in that they’re more action based. It’s similar to what we did with the GoldenEyegame last year in that we changed the character and streamlined the storyline to reflect the Daniel Craig Bond.
Can you give some examples of how you’ve updated some of the classic films in this game?
Goldfinger is now set against the worldwide financial meltdown, which is why Goldfinger is going after the gold. He’s so involved in the gold. With Moonraker, these are the last space shuttles and we talk about the way the world has changed. Believe it or not, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service needed less updating because it’s a very personal story. The villains and action have modernized, so instead of the Italian Mafia it reflects the current world. When the player begins these missions you’re in today’s world and the Bond character is facing all of these villains in a parallel, but equal world to the Daniel Craig era. What we’re updating is the environments of where the game exists in today’s world.
How does writing Bond games compare to writing Bond movies?
Writing games is not unlike writing movies. Essentially, you open up a Final Draft file and you write through a 90-page script from start to finish. Then there are all the other hundreds of pages of dialogue and variations and things like that. Games are nice because you don’t need that third act where you find that Auric Goldfinger had an unhappy childhood or how this particular boss on some level became who he is. The game is much more streamlined storytelling, which plays perfectly into Daniel Craig because he’s a much more streamlined Bond.
What role have you seen the 007 video games play with the James Bond franchise over the years?
Bond is such a huge international character that there’s always a hunger for Bond. We always hear all of this nervousness about it being three or four years since the last Bond movie came out, but I believe Skyfall will do huge box office because there is a pent-up demand for it. James Bond is like Coca Cola. It’s everywhere. Everyone is aware of it. Any day of the week you can open up a newspaper and find something described as Bond-like. What the games do in a small way is they keep Bond in the forefront and they give Bond fans and video game players a refresh as the franchise goes along. The games run parallel to the movies. Clearly, the movies are the franchise and the games, while a huge business in and of themselves with millions of players, are supplemental.
What was it like working with the Skyfall filmmakers and bringing what they’re doing in the new movie to the DLC game?
We worked from the Skyfall script. I worked with Michael Wilson and Barbara Broccoli, and David Wilson (Michael’s son), who oversees the game. Barbara and Michael read the scripts and have input. It’s all knitted together. You also get feedback from the people at Eurocom who are making the game itself. Having written three James Bond movies, it’s like working with family. Cubby Broccoli used to talk about Bond being a big family and it is a family in that sense. I first met David Wilson when we all worked on GoldenEye the movie together. There’s not a lot of explaining that needs to go on. On the game side of it, David understands the parameters and what’s right and what’s wrong. It’s all inside the company.
Did you have the opportunity with the Skyfall game to go beyond what people are going to see on the big screen?
No, you don’t. The challenge here for me as the writer was to knit together all of these levels into a cohesive story with an overall arc, which culminates in Skyfall. By the time you get to Skyfall, it explains why you’ve played through all these other missions on the way there.
In general, have recent Bond movies been influenced by games?
In general, I believe that when you look at big action movies, they’ve unquestionably been influenced by games. If you look at the visual cues and the storytelling in something like Call of Duty and you’re aware of the game world you can see how there’s been synergy between action movies and action games. There’s no question in my mind that games have had an impact on movies, even if people in the movie business don’t realize it.
It doesn't take turn-by-turn directions to figure out that Google Maps is one of the biggest advantages that Androids now have over the iPhone 5 and Apple devices upgraded to iOS 6.
Former Google CEO and current chairman Eric Schmidt clearly agreed at an on-stage interview with AllThingsD.
"Apple should have kept with our maps," Schmidt said bluntly to some crowd laughter.
When asked if Apple's decision stemmed from Google not maintaining feature parity - specifically not allowing iOS to use and turn-by-turn directions and voice prompts with Google Maps - Schmidt deflected the question.
"We negotiated all of these details with Apple, and the fact of the matter is they had decided a long time ago to do their own maps," said Schmidt, neither confirming or denying turn-by-turn directions were on the table.
The lesson that Apple learned
"What Apple has learned is that maps are really hard," said Schmidt.
"We invested hundreds of millions of dollars in satellite work, airplane work, drive-by work to get the maps accurate. And we think we have the best product in the industry."
"Apple has done extremely well during the last five years," said Schmidt, before amending his statement to say Google played some part in that.
"Actually, Apple has done very well using our maps."
It would be up to Apple to approve a Google Maps app
Microsoft drags Motorola back into German courts today
Microsoft is readying itself for the next round of court battles, as it fires off another patent lawsuit aimed at Motorola and its owner, Google.
This marks a return to German courts today, where Microsoft now claims Motorola infringed on patents involving Google Maps overlaying multiple map data.
The case could not only affect Motorola's phones in Germany, but how its people use Google Maps as well.
The lawsuit claims the Razr maker violated a patent for taking one set of map data and overlaying it with another set of map information. For example, overlaying data of street geography with information about what businesses are on that street.
Tough case for Motorola?
All digital maps overlay multiple sets of data now-a-days, so Google and Motorola will have a hard time circumventing the patent if they lose.
However, the beginning rounds of this court case did produce a bit of surprise. At today's hearing, Microsoft announced it will add Google to the list of defendants in the case. This is the first time Google is directly involved in the Microsoft/Motorola matter.
Microsoft usually fights its patent battles with proxy companies like Motorola. So the case presents a unique opportunity to watch the two tech giants duke it out in the same patent lawsuit.
Wheels, deals and court battles
Motorola is one of the few Android makers who doesn't pay a licensing fee to Microsoft for the mobile OS, unlike HTC and Samsung. Meanwhile, Microsoft takes a cut on half of all Android phones sold.
This is just the latest round of court skirmishes between the two companies. Microsoft has won three cases resulting in German sales bans of Motorola smartphones including the Droid Razr, Droid Razr Maxx and the Motorola Atrix.
What's more, the German court ruled Motorola infringed on patents involving a FAT file system, a SMS patent and one that described a method of handling communication between the keyboard and applications.
Microsoft bars games with the PEGI 18+ rating like Grand Theft Auto IV from the Windows 8 Marketplace in the UK. What will happen in the US?
Windows 8 is not earning Microsoft many fans in the video game development community. Marcus “Notch” Pearson, the creator of Minecraft, said that Microsoft is “ruining the PC as an open platform” with its new operating system that apes the contained, curated style of Apple’s iOS and OS X operating systems. His sentiments echoed those of Valve’s Gabe Newell and Blizzard’s Rob Pardo.
It would seem that Microsoft’s policies for selling games through the Windows 8 Marketplace are going to further incense those developers. Microsoft’s closed policy will see video games intended for adults only, meaning those games that could potentially receive an Adults Only rating from the ESRB in the US, will not be allowed on the platform.
GamesIndustry International reported on Thursday that Microsoft will indeed ban games rated for ages 18 and older, at least in the UK. Citing an article written by Casey Muratori which outlines Microsoft’s guidelines for apps sold on the Marketplace—apps cannot contain depictions that “glamorizes illegal activity,” “irresponsible use of alcohol or tobacco products,” or “excessive or gratuitous profanity”—this means that many games rated PEGI 18 cannot be sold through Microsoft’s store at all. Grand Theft Auto IV, the original version of Heavy Rain, and many other PEGI 18+ rated games would be blocked from the market.
Kotaku confirmed these rules were official and that no game can be sold through the Marketplace without meeting them. “No, you cannot distribute Windows Store apps without going through the Windows Store. The exception to this is for enterprise apps. Developers can, however, create and offer desktop apps the same way they always have—through their own site or distribution point.”
The question though is how these policies will affect the Windows 8 Marketplace globally. The UK’s PEGI rating system is different from the ESRB’s, designating some games that receive an M for Mature rating in the US PEGI 16+ and others PEGI 18+.
A representative of Microsoft’s PR agency handling the promotion of Windows 8 told Digital Trends, “We have nothing more to share beyond what is public on the Windows Dev Center (section 6.2 of the app certification requirements discusses ratings) and information on Rating boards for Windows apps.” Section 6.2 only restricts games with an “over ESRB Mature” rating, the same guideline that tickets what is and is not allowed on the Xbox Live marketplace.
According to Nintendo, games for its 3DS handheld have been selling like hotcakes. Incredibly lucrative hotcakes.
In a short message issued to members of the press this morning, Japanese gaming icon Nintendo claims that sales of games for its Nintendo 3DS handheld system have massively increased over the past year. According to Nintendo, software sales have shot up by 89 percent since last October.
The company cites a number of major releases for the system as the impetus for this windfall. Specifically, it points out that the relatively recent New Super Mario Bros. 2 is still going strong at retail, having sold over 295,000 units in its second month of availability. Nintendo also spotlights a number of other first-party games for the system as contributing to this sales feat, and mentions Mario Kart 7, Kid Icarus: Uprising, The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time 3D and Star Fox 64 3D by name.
Unsurprisingly, Nintendo executives are feeling pretty good about this news. “Hardware sales are up, software sales are increasing exponentially and the attach rate is growing stronger every month,” said Nintendo Of America’s executive vice president of Sales & Marketing Scott Moffitt. ”With a great slate of upcoming games, including Paper Mario: Sticker Star, which arrives exactly one month from today, we like our position heading into the crucial holiday selling season.”
Finally, as if to roll out every possible highlight of how well Nintendo’s handheld division is doing, the company points out that the Nintendo DS’ Super Mario 64 DS has finally topped five million total units sold. Given that the game was initially released in 2004 and that all Nintendo-developed games sell well, this news isn’t exactly amazing, but this does mean that Super Mario 64 DS now joins Mario Kart DS and the original New Super Mario Bros. on the short list of Nintendo DS titles that have surpassed the five million copies sold mark.
Though it’s likely little surprise to those familiar with Nintendo’s history, it seems important to point out that none of the games mentioned above were developed by third-party companies. Each and every one of them is a Nintendo game set within a famous Nintendo franchise. As we said, this isn’t all that surprising as Nintendo’s own games have always been the main selling point for the company’s gaming systems, but it does highlight how heavily Nintendo relies on its own decades-old series to bolster consumer support for each of its new hardware ventures.
For the second time this year, hacker "Pinkie Pie" gave Google a run for its money -- and won. The clever hacker exploited yet another vulnerability in Chrome during the second Pwnium conference this year, netting himself (or perhaps herself) a cool $60,000 cash award.
Pwn2Own, a contest which pits hackers against a variety of systems and software, served as the inspiration for Google's Pwnium contest. Google was once a huge Pwn2Own sponsor, but rule changes and a divergence of interests led to the company to offer its own event instead, birthing their very own challenge: Pwnium.
Google uses Pwnium exclusively to discover new Chrome vulnerabilities and very promptly releases patches once the exploits are revealed. In fact, Google patched Pinkie Pie's vector of attack just 10 hours after it was unearthed.
Earlier this year, Pinkie Pie and fellow cohort Sergey Glazunov received a $60,000 prize for finding a way to escape Chrome's much-touted sandbox feature. A "sandbox" serves as a barrier against would-be hackers, preventing nefarious individuals from making changes beyond the confines of the software itself.
"Pinkie Pie" is a pseudonym, of course, and yes -- its origin can be traced to the wildly popular children's show My Little Pony. The hacker's real name remains a public mystery, purportedly due to a potential conflict with his employer.
Google offers three types of awards: $60,000 for each "full exploit", $40,000 per "partial exploit" and $20,000 as "Consolation award" -- the consolation prize is for hacks not specific to Chrome. This year's total prize pool was $2,000,000.
MobileCon 2012 is the U.S. convention formerly known as CTIA MobileCon 2012. This isn't just a fall session of the CTIA convention in New Orleans.
It's a San Diego gathering of movers and shakers in the mobile computing scene, as well as tons of journalists and IT professionals looking to be moved and shook by the latest ideas and innovations in the field.
MobileCon 2012 will feature keynote speeches from industry leaders and demonstrations of the latest tech about to deploy in the enterprise workspace. Topics range from BYOD (bring your own device) security, cloud computing and peer-to-learning, to name a few.
MobileCon 2012 will be the convention for IT professionals and anyone whose lifestyle makes them a frequent telecommuter.
Huawei's growing pains
No, it's not "Hawai'i." Huawei's U.S. mobile device division has been in the country for more than five years, yet the company is still struggling to gain name and brand recognition.
Though phones like the Mercury help, deals that are "happening" with major carriers like Verizon will help elevate Huawei where it needs to be.
A panel of five executives took the MobileCon 2012 keynote stage to engage in a discussion as to what mobile commerce looks like and where it's going.
Success, to one exec, looks like one out of four Americans using a mobile wallet in 5-8 years. The issue of adoption, some said, lies in educating consumers on the need to actually chuck traditional payment modes.
It's hard not to like OtterBox, the plucky protective case company that's taken off thanks to its durable covers. The company had its paws at MobileCon 2012, showing off its new iPhone 5 cases as well as sleek tablet covers.
Look for a water proof case next year plus a host of other innovative devices, an Otter rep said.
Do you miss the days of full QWERTY keyboard phones? Well, the folks at Sprint must. They'll be the exclusive carrier for the LG Mach, which combines a touch screen and slide-out keyboard for real texting power.
While the Optimus G has gotten a lot of attention lately, LG isn't neglecting other sectors of the market. The T-Mobile exclusive Optimus L9 got to shine at MobileCon 2012, as did the LG Venice.
The Venice, priced at $219.99, hit Boost Mobile Wednesday, bringing an Ice Cream Sandwich Android to consumers looking for a deal.
When will we finally get to play with Windows 8 on a smartphone? Nokia's Lumia 810 was on the show floor, but we weren't allowed to turn it on and experience the OS goodness inside.
The Lumia 810 will be exclusive to T-Mobile's network in the U.S. The carrier hasn't yet started talking about release date or price, but has released the full hardware specs for the phone.
RIM CIO Robin Bienfait and Jeff Gadway, senior brand and marketing communications manager at RIM, talked up the company's upcoming OS, pointing to how it will revolutionize not just devices and OS's, but how users interact with their mobile machines.
It's inching closer to completion and final functionality, so look for it early next year.
On the show floor, LG unveiled the latest addition to its L-series of smartphones, the LG Optimus L9. This 4G capable phone will launch exclusively with T-Mobile.
The LG Optimus L9 packs a 1GHz dual-core processor and 1GB of RAM. Those specs put it heads and tails above its predecessor, the LG Optimus L7.
After the release of the awesome HTC One X, HTC is already refreshing its smartphone lineup. We got our hands on the HTC One VX, the budget minded but peppy handset with a 4.5 inch screen.
In the US, HTC's new line of mobile phones will be exclusive to AT&T. That's not just the One X+ and One VX, but also the Windows Phone 8X. They're all stylish devices with impressive specs.
Oct. 18 is a day of celebration for Verizon as it rolls out its 400th (and then some) 4G LTE market, the carrier announced at MobileCon 2012 Tuesday.
Expect to see AWS devices and Voice over LTE in the coming year, too, while 4G LTE looks to take up as much spectrum space as 3G, the company's CTO said.
Before the kickoff of MobileCon 2012, TechRadar created a list of products and news that we hoped to see at the CTIA-powered conference. Take a look at the 10 things we wanted to see at MobileCon.
1. Keeping up with the iPhone 5
The elephant on the exhibit floor and in the conference rooms will be how to compete with the iPhone 5. Apple, which won't be at MobileCon 2012, released the phone of the year (at least from a consumer perspective) and companies at this conference, like RIM, LG, Motorola, and HTC, need to lay the groundwork for a fruitful future moving forward.
The phone to beat in 2012
Will introducing devices with features like NFC (which the iPhone 5 lacks), better maps (for which iOS 6 have been universally panned), and better coverage (we'll get to 4G LTE later on) be the ways these manufacturers at least stay in the same waters as Apple's latest offering?
We'll keep our eyes peeled for how carriers who don't have the iPhone 5 (here's looking at you, T-Mobile and Boost Mobile) and makers who don't produce iPhones can keep up with the hottest device to land in a very long time.
2. The future of NFC
The iPhone 5 is here, sans NFC. A bit of a surprise, considering those early reports that swore up and down that the chip had been spotted in Apple's new baby. It's even more surprising since iOS 6 introduced Passbook, an app that seemed perfect for near field communication. Perhaps Apple's distribution of the new OS to so many old iDevices made reliance on NFC impossible?
Can Google Wallet take on Passbook?
Does Apple's choice not to embrace NFC spell trouble for the technology, or does it create an opportunity for its competitors? With Google Wallet, Android may have the chance to lay down an infrastructure before its Cupertino competitors. With the show's focus on enterprise-level mobile solutions, MobileCon 2012 could be the place to unveil the beginnings of such an ecosystem.
3. 4G LTE, moving forward
Now that the aforementioned iPhone 5 has 4G LTE connectivity (Apple's first iPhone with the 4G force) and U.S. carriers are turning more and more of the country into an LTE zone, we want to know where carriers and manufacturers are taking the coverage moving forward.
During Pepcom's MobileFocus press event, we want to get our hands on what's next in the mobile and wireless space. With phones like the LG Optimus G, Motorola Droid Razr HD, and even the ZTE Anthem 4G by MetroPCS sporting quad-G capabilities, it's time to see where the industry is ready and willing to take it.
With a lot of catch-up left to do with Apple, how companies plan to compete connectivity-wise with the unofficial leader in mobile communications will be a huge part of this conference.
The iPhone 5 has a letter of feathers in its cap: it's new, it's tall, it's thin and it's made by Apple. The S3, however, has NFC capabilities, a quad-core processor and a maps app that isn't struggling in its infancy. This is the showdown we want to see, and we're hoping Samsung will launch its a plan of attack at Mobile Con 2012 (one that will take place outside of a courtroom, preferably).
5 . PC relevancy
In a world where the portability and speed of tablets and smartphones have users turning to those devices before booting up a desktop or even opening a laptop, what is the future of dedicated computing devices? Will they morph into combination tablet/laptop machines like the Asus Vivo Tab or the HP ENVY x2? And what about desktops? Will they be for hardcore users only until they go the way of the dodo?
The versatile HP Envy X2
Are these the kind of questions IBM will address with its keynote at MobileCon 2012? Or will it confirm a headlong dive into the mobile space? In August we saw the IT giant sniffing around BlackBerry-maker Research in Motion with a possible acquisition in the air. IBM has been steadily expanding its cloud-based services like IBM SmartCloud for years now.
As a true force in the enterprise space, we're excited to see IBM's thoughts on the future of mobile and business, and how it plans to move forward and "build a smarter world," as the company likes to say.
6. The future of Blackberry
Blackberry was one of the companies that ushered in the smartphone revolution, introducing Internet-capable phones with full keyboards and color displays. Best of all, they could still make a decent call connection, something other phones struggled with for a long time.
However, just as quickly as they helped make sweeping changes to mobile devices, the company's market share began to shrink due to massive competition, and a network outage that damaged its reputation for reliability.
While it seems to be courting consumers with its new tiled interface, business-level users have always been BlackBerry's bread and butter.
Robin Bienfait from Research in Motion (BlackBerry's parent company) will give a keynote speech at MobileCon 2012. This could be the perfect opportunity to win back some IT users.
7. Borderless Networks
Borderless Networks, according to Cisco they'll be what connect companies across continents, allowing them to share information and resources no matter where they are. However, with cloud services and Google hangouts already connecting teams world-wide, how can Cisco, or another company, further unify the experience?
And how can they remain safe and reliable? Splitting resources across the globe can be an IT nightmare, and we're interested to see if any other companies will have something to add to Cisco's Borderless Network solution, or perhaps launch something of their own.
8. Keeping our data secure
As more and more financial information makes its way onto our smartphones and into the digital space, security becomes a growing concern. After the recent Apple ID leak and the threat of Android malware, security across mobile devices has never been a higher priority, on both the customer and provider side.
The struggle for mobility and security
MobileCon 2012 will be hosting a series of talks on cybersecurity. Speakers range from representatives of sectors both public and private, including the US Department of Homeland Security, the National Institute of Standards & Technology, the US National Security Agency, the Defense Information & Systems Agency, as well as security software giant Symantec. We're curious to see what this panel will have to say about data security in a world of borderless mobile networks.
9. iPhone 5 accessories and apps
With the iPhone 5 in the process of boosting the US GDP (hopefully), accessories and apps for Apple's new phone are set to become an industry unto themselves. Cases are already here, and third-party Lightning adapters are on the way.
The iPhone 5 accessory industry
The shortcomings of Apple's new iOS 6 are also creating plenty of opportunities for app makers and competitors alike. For example, Apple's new Maps app doesn't do public transit, which has many bus and train riders looking to third parties to calculate their commute. We're curious to see what will be unveiled at MobileCon 2012 to capitalize on the strengths and weaknesses of Apple's latest toy.
10. More companies with Passbook support
Apple touted its Passbook feature as just as good if not better than NFC, but so far few companies have joined the movement. We'd like this to change.
Pass Passbook some more passes, please
As MobileCon 2012 is an enterprise meeting space, we want some of these businesses to jump aboard the Passbook boat. One analyst projected Passbook could help bring Apple App Store revenue to $4.9 billion by the end of the year, but for now the application is very much a fledgling service.
While we're sure it will grow in time, we want MobileCon to provide a glimpse at the real potential Apple says its native service offers.
Our hands-on impressions of the Samsung Galaxy Cam, which we liked a lot more than we thought we'd ever like a point-and-shoot camera with Android and a touchscreen.
When Samsung first unveiled its Galaxy Camera, I was more than skeptical. Samsung isn’t the first company to try this (Nikon’s Coolpix hybrid isn’t impressing anyone) and, as a general rule of thumb, things that seem too good to believe usually are. It’s often a perilous mission to jam two popular, expensive devices together. Somewhere, compromises have to be made and they’re usually crippling. Somehow, Samsung may have bucked the trend. The Galaxy Cam appears to be both a solid digital camera and a great touchscreen phone (minus voice service).
Tape a point-and-shoot camera to a Galaxy S3
If you want to know what it’s like to use the Galaxy Cam, try taping a Galaxy S3 to a digital camera. Now, imagine these two devices actually communicated. The Galaxy Cam has a 4.8-inch screen and internal processing power and specs that nearly match Samsung’s flagship phone. Only with a 21x optical zoom built into the front and other camera requirements like a 21x zoom.
It’s a great phone
The Galaxy Cam looks like a camera on the front, but it’s all touchscreen-operated Android joy in the back. I was pleasantly surprised how well the Android interface worked. It looks just like the Galaxy S3′s TouchWiz interface, but runs slightly smoother (my opinion), which may be due to Samsung upgrading the operating system to Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean), Google’s newest, slickest OS. The Cam packs a full 1.4GHz quad-core Samsung Exynos processor with 1GB of RAM and the 4.8-inch touchscreen is 1280 x 720 pixels and runs on a very nice “Super Clear” LCD technology. It can also connect up to 4G LTE networks. I lay out those hardware specifications not to bore you, but to illustrate that the Galaxy Cam is running on hardware that is as fast as what we’re seeing on top-of-the-line smartphones right now. As a phone (if it actually was a phone), it’s already very nice. We used several downloaded apps and poured through the menus like any other phone.
Really, the only thing a Galaxy Cam can’t do that a phone can is make calls, but it can do Skype, so if you were really hell-bent on using it as your only device, you probably could. Chatting can be accomplished with any client.
Somehow, it’s a great camera too
Open up the camera app on the Galaxy Cam or press the shutter button, and you’re now using the best camera phone… possibly ever. The Galaxy Cam has 21x optical zoom, a pop-out flash for shooting in the dark, microSD card support, an easily removable battery, and Micro HDMI and USB slots for charging. But the real impressive part was the camera app itself. I fully expected Samsung to skimp on the software, but it has developed what appears to be a pretty thorough camera app that takes good advantage of the Cam’s abilities.
If you press the big silver onscreen button when in camera mode, you can enter four modes. You can set it on Auto, Casual, Smart Pro, or Expert mode. Auto and Casual are pretty basic, as is Smart Pro mode, which has some basic settings for camera novices looking to kick it up a notch. If you want to, say, take a macro shot, a silhouette a night shot, or an action shot, this mode lets you select between these types of environments with simple labels and pictures. Expert mode is where it’s at, though.
This is not a DSLR, but in Expert mode, Samsung has really given advanced users a lot of the settings they need. Using an onscreen camera lens with wheels for each setting, you can adjust your shutter speed, aperture, ISO and other settings. You can also set it to Manual, Auto, Aperture, or Shutter mode to help focus on the settings you need. I’m no camera expert, but I haven’t seen an expert touch menu this easy to use before. Samsung has made really good use of the touchscreen to simplify these settings.
I didn’t get a chance to try it out, but the Galaxy Cam can record video at up to 120 frames per second, which should excite those of you who love to play around with slow motion video.
Possible downsides
There are a lot of ways this device could still go wrong. Most importantly is price. I do not know how this device won’t cost at least $600, and at that price, it has a lot of competition. Then there’s the issue of sharing photos. Samsung has included some of its own sharing services, but not everyone is going to want to use them. Luckily, since it can download apps from the Google Play store, you can likely use other apps like Google Plus or Dropbox to upload photos automatically. Finally, connecting a camera to AT&T’s 4G LTE network might be expensive. Even if you have one of the company’s new Mobile Share plans, it will likely cost you $20 a month to just connect the Galaxy Cam to the network, and that’s before you start using data (which is shared between devices). You’ll need to upload your videos over Wi-Fi no matter what you do.
I must admit again that though the photos I took looked impressive, given the lighting conditions, I am not a camera reviewer. I can tell you that its capabilities are leagues above any cell phone, but looking at it, you would already expect that. The camera may fail to impress experts. Still, as someone who must routinely photograph gadgets in poor lighting conditions, it’s a device that seemed to mostly match the quality of photos I get out of my Olympus Pen E-PL2, which is a Micro Four Thirds device, and most definitely not a full-fledged DSLR. The Galaxy Cam doesn’t even have swappable lenses.
It’s looking good
Assuming Samsung doesn’t price it too high for the casual market and the final unit lives up to the experiences I had with it last week, the Galaxy Cam may be a really cool option for someone looking to merge more aspects of their gadget lives. It sounds bad, but I almost wish that this giant thing actually had phone functionality built into it. At least then it could actually eliminate the need to carry around two devices. As it stands, Galaxy Cam buyers will likely still have a smartphone and a really nice point-and-shoot camera. The big question is, are point-and-shoot camera buyers enthusiastic enough to buy a device like this, or will they just use the camera already on their iPhone or Galaxy S3? What I do know is that Samsung has made real progress here, whether the Galaxy Cam is a massive success or not. This is a device that will make a lot of camera owners jealous.
In a recent interview with Nintendo President Satoru Iwata, four of Nintendo's engineers give us our first official look at the inner workings of the Wii U.
Nintendo has released an internally conducted interview of four engineers working on the Wii U product. Though the company stopped short of getting into the specifics of clock speeds and architectures it does provide some new details about what is in the company’s latest console.
The juiciest information relates to the new processor, which Nintendo calls the multi-chip module (MCM). It is a package that puts both the CPU and the GPU onto a single die. This is similar to what both Intel and AMD do with the integrated graphics components in some products. In this case, however, the package combines hardware from IBM (the multi-core CPU), AMD (the GPU) and Renesis (RAM).
Genyo Takeda, one of the engineers on the project, stated this approach was beneficial because “the package costs less and we could speed up data exchange among two LSIs while lowering power consumption.” The MCM’s reduced latency between components and reduced power consumption has made it possible for Nintendo to extract respectable perform from a small, inexpensive part.
With that said, this decision bolsters complaints that the Wii U might not have mind-blowing performance. Placing the CPU and GPU on one package concentrates power draw and heat generation at a single location. This reduces the maximum performance potential relative to a system with a separate CPU and GPU.
Engineer Yasuhisa Kitano went further into the packaging of the new console. He revealed that Nintendo sees its console as a “stagehand” – something that works unobtrusively behind the scenes – and went on to describe how this influenced its design.
To be unobtrusive the Wii U had to be small, quiet, and reliable. The new MCM helped achieve this goal by reducing the areas responsible for producing significant heat from two to one. However, because of the console’s improved performance, overall heat generation tripled. The engineers dealt with this by substantially increasing the size of the heat sink and the fan. Even the system’s vents were tweaked to ensure maximum airflow.
Yet, in spite of these efforts, the system’s fan speed still had to be increased to keep the console cool. Kitano said that engineers accounted for this during testing. “If you increase the number of fan revolutions, it makes more noise, so we checked to see how much noise was acceptable while playing games.”
Some details about the console’s exterior emerged, as well. The engineers confirmed that it is designed to be primarily horizontal, but will work in a vertical position with a stand that comes in the Deluxe Set. They also revealed that the Wii U has moved the two USB ports found in the original Wii from the front to rear and made the remote sync button more accessible.
Nintendo’s engineers took time to talk about the extensive testing conducted on the Wii U to make sure defects won’t occur after launch. Using the MCM made this process particularly complicated because components from three different manufacturers were included. All four companies had to work closely during testing to locate and squash bugs.
While a fair amount of information was divulged in this interview there’s some that we’re still waiting to hear. Specifics about the architecture used in the CPU and GPU remain elusive, and the engineers did not reveal any new information about the technical specs regarding the console’s controller. It’s possible that we’ll have to wait until release, or even after, to know more.
Folks who installed Firefox 16 on Tuesday may want to ensure that they've received an update released this afternoon (16.0.1) which addresses a security flaw. On Wednesday, Mozilla halted distribution of Firefox 16 after learning about a vulnerability that could allow a malicious site to determine which sites users have visited and access the URL or URL parameters. Although the hole was revealed publicly on a UK JavaScript blog, Mozilla says there's no indication that the bug is being exploited in the wild.
Speaking with Ars Technica, Aspect Security CEO Jeff Williams offered a more detailed explanation: "Looks like Firefox introduced a code change that allows a malicious webpage to run some JavaScript that can access the 'location' (the URL bar) of windows," he said. "So attackers can abuse this by using JavaScript to open other windows to protected websites. Then that JavaScript can access the URL and give it to the attacker. This should result in an 'Error: Permission denied' message, but FF16 allows it."
Mozilla released a fix for the latest version of Firefox across all platforms including Windows, Mac, Linux and Android. You can download this update manually, though you shouldn't have to do anything if you have automatic updates enabled. This particular issue doesn't affect users running an older version of the browser.
Firefox 16's new developer command line
Security blunder aside, Firefox 16 brings many improvements over August's build, including improved support for Mac OS X Lion, the introduction of incremental garbage collection, a greater implementation of HTML5 and CSS3, a developer command line, a Reader Mode for Android and more bug fixes than we care to count.
Researchers and health care companies continue to find new ways to use Microsoft's motion-sensing Kinect.
The Kinect’s versatility never ceases to amaze. Microsoft introduced Poject Natal to the world in 2009 and it looked like little more than a new way to play Breakout by flailing your arms about in mid-air and looking like a moron in the process. Since then though, the spatial sensor array has proven useful in an ever-expanding number of practical applications beyond making Han Solo dance in Star Wars Kinect. Its use in treating medical conditions has been particularly impressive, and because of Kinect’s utility in hospitals, one of Microsoft’s gaming products is finally popular in Japan.
Health care and equipment company Nichii Gakkan announced a new tool named Opect, a complex imaging system used while performing surgery that relays sensitive information to the doctor without them needing to use their hands. Nichii Gakkan has developed the mobile workstation that doctors use with Opect, but the imaging technology in the 498,000 yen (around $6,350) machine is all Kinect.
According to an article at Kotaku, Opect is just one new medical application of Kinect in Japan. The Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology at the University of Tokyo is developing OAK (Observation and Access with Kinect), a software interface for helping severely disabled children communicate through motion.
Microsoft has been making headlines since releasing the Windows Kinect SDK that allows for more complex applications of the motion sensing technology. In late 2011, a team at the University of Missouri began using Kinect to monitor motion in elderly patients to help prevent potentially crippling falls. Senior centers also began using Kinect as part of physical therapy regiments. University of Konstanz researchers Michael Zollner and Stephan Huber, meanwhile, hacked the Kinect to be used as part of helmet that can, in a manner of speaking, help the blind to see.
Kinect isn’t only being used to improve mankind’s innerspace. Engineers at Surrey Satellite Technology Limited and the Univerity of Surrey used parts of Kinect’s imaging system to develop STRaND- 2 earlier this year. STRaND-2 is repair system of two satellites used for repairing orbiting equipment in space. The Kinect tech allows the device to intelligent determine how close objects are.
In short: Kinect can heal the sick and improve the exploration of space. It can make Microsoft’s video game technology successful in a country that has ignored the Xbox for over a decade. And yet somehow it can’t always detect when you’re trying to throw a fireball in Fable: The Journey.
Thanks to a new interview with director Ridley Scott, we've got confirmation of a Blade Runner sequel and obtuse hints about Prometheus 2.
Given the recent release of the Prometheus Blu-ray, it only makes that director Ridley Scott would be hitting the promotional circuit hard. Less expected however, is how liberally Scott has been discussing his upcoming projects. Increasingly it seems as if any question posed to the director will elicit a thoughtful reply.
You may recall that way back in May we brought you word that screenwriter Hampton Fancher (writer of the original Blade Runner screenplay) had been brought on board to pen a script for Blade Runner 2 — we’re still lacking any better title for the project, so consider that name to be a dull placeholder — and that Scott was keen on featuring a strong female protagonist in the then-still-arguably-hypothetical sequel. “… I started my first meetings on the Blade Runner sequel last week. We have a very good take on it. And we’ll definitely be featuring a female protagonist,” Scott told reporters at the time.
Following that, it was apparent that Blade Runner 2 was in the works, but apparently that wasn’t good enough for the inexplicably anonymous “Metro Film Reporter.” In a recent interview with Scott published this morning, the unnamed journalist asks Scott about the “rumour” that he’s working on a Blade Runner sequel. Scott’s response is both succinct and intriguing for fans of Blade Runner canon:
It’s not a rumour — it’s happening. With Harrison Ford? I don’t know yet. Is he too old? Well, he was a Nexus-6 so we don’t know how long he can live [laughs]. And that’s all I’m going to say at this stage.
We expected Scott to confirm the film, but what’s all this chatter about Harrison Ford? Scott never clarifies those words, so we’ll apparently have to wait until he’s next asked about Blade Runner 2 to find out whether or not Rick Deckard will return in the sequel.
Of course, Scott wasn’t there to discuss the Blade Runner franchise. That interview was supposed to be promotional work for the Prometheus Blu-ray. Humorously, Scott used the opportunity to talk about almost anything but that home release. When asked why he opted to return to the hardcore sci-fi genre with Prometheus, Scott claimed that he wanted to explore the origin story of the universe created in his 1979 classic Alien. Seconds later, Scott diverts the conversation toward vague, semi-helpful hints about where the upcoming Prometheus sequel might take this story. Keep in mind that the following quotes are likely to contain spoilers both for Prometheus and, in all likelihood, its sequel. Additionally, these quotes don’t really work out of context, so we’re reprinting them verbatim with minor formatting changes due to the conversational nature of what you’re about to read:
Ridley Scott: You’ve got a person [Noomi Rapace’s Elizabeth Shaw] with a head in a bag [Michael Fassbender’s David] that functions and has an IQ of 350. It can explain to her how to put the head back on the body and she’s gonna think about that long and hard because, once the head is back on his body, he’s dangerous.
Metro: So that’s the sequel?
Ridley Scott: [Laughs] I wish it was that easy. They’re going off to paradise but it could be the most savage, horrible place. Who are the Engineers?
And that’s it. While the above certainly could inspire fan speculation on the Prometheus 2 plot, it isn’t exactly much to go on, is it? For that matter, with the recent revelation that the Blade Runner, Prometheus and Alien universes are all the same place separated only by vast stretches of time, and at least one of the characters mentioned by Scott could effectively be immortal, there’s a nearly infinite number of directions this story could take.
We don’t know about you, but we’ll be keeping our fingers crossed that most of those hypothetical directions involve acid blood, chestbursters and Noomi Rapace proving once again that a flamethrower is the perfect accessory for a latent maternal instincts. We’re not sure how Scott could make that work, but we’ve got faith in the man.
Andrian Chmielarz and other expatriates from the Gears of War: Judgment team have opened a brand new studio in Poland's thriving dev scene.
First, they were People Can Fly. Now they’re aiming higher than the sky. Now they are the Astronauts. Poland’s favorite shooter developers have started their very own studio, and they’ll be making games using the engine built by their former employers.
It’s hard not to be exhausted by the preponderance of guns in video games. There are other things to do in the digital world that are just as entertaining as shooting people, monsters, and aliens. When the games about shooting things are made by People Can Fly, though, it’s hard to complain. The studio’s signature work on games like Painkiller and Bulletstorm singled them out as makers of balletic chaos, games of cartoon bloodshed as concerned with momentum as with gore.
Excitement abounded when word came out that the Polish studio would take on Epic’s Gears of War series with next year’s Gears of War: Judgment. Concerns were raised one month after that game’s announcement though. Shortly after E3 2012, Epic announced that it would take full ownership of People Can Fly, but the studio’s co-founder Andrian Chmielarz, artist Andrezj Poznanski, and artist Michal Kosieradzki left the studio at the same time.
It turns out that all three creators, key minds behind Bulletstorm, Painkiller, and even Gears of War: Judgment, went off to found their very own independent studio. Enter The Astronauts. The studio announced itself to the world on Thursday, opening a funny website discussing the philosophy of the studio and the founders history together at People Can Fly.
No love was lost in their departure from Epic it seems since the studio has signed a “long-term” license to make games using the Unreal Engine. “We thought about making our own engine for our projects,” reads The Astronauts’ website, “That lasted about ten seconds, nine of which were filled with laughter.” It makes sense that The Astronauts would gravitate towards a development platform they have history with rather than devoting the massive resources necessary to develop their own technology, but the question remains: What will they make with it?
Unknown. The team is targeting its first release for next year, so it’s safe to assume that The Astronauts aren’t making a massive retail console game. They do say that there first game will be built on Unreal Engine 3, not the graphically and physics intensive Unreal Engine 4, so a downloadable or mobile title also seems like a good bet.
Wei, start your engines! The Street Racer DLC pack hits Sleeping Dogs on October 16.
Last month we brought you a brief overview of the downloadable additions coming to United Front Games’ Hong Kong action movie simulator Sleeping Dogs during the month of October. It being the 11t, we were growing a bit anxious over when this stuff would finally show up, but then this morning publisher Square Enix revealed that the upcoming “Street Racer Pack” would debut for the game’s PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC iterations on October 16. Regardless of platform, picking up this DLC offering will set you back about $4.
As for what your money will get you, that title should be a pretty big hint. This particular DLC offering is focused on the game’s racing elements, which while optional side missions in Sleeping Dogs were pretty entertaining. In an effort to boost the appeal of these diversions, the Street Racer Pack adds a new superbike, dubbed “Sting” that features “incredible acceleration and handling,” as well as a new racing jacket and helmet. Though these new clothes are labeled “Dragon,” they have nothing to do with the yellow jumpsuit homage to Bruce Lee found natively in Sleeping Dogs; instead they provide extra protection against both gunfire and car crashes.
As for new races, the Street Racer Pack has three on offer. The first, “Kamikaze,” is as described as a race “up and down the winding tracks of the city’s Victoria Peak.” Whether that suggests multiple routes, multiple races or simply one long relay-style race remains to be seen. The second race, “Cross Island Enduro,” is, as its name suggests, an endurance race where players are tasked with navigating a motorcycle from one end of Sleeping Dog’s fictionalized island of Hong Kong to the other as fast as possible. The final race, “Harbor Run,” throws a bit of variety into the mix, as instead of cars or bikes players are tasked with racing speedboats. As producer Dan Sochan points out, Harbor Run marks the first aquatic race in Sleeping Dogs to date. Intriguingly, Sochan did not say that this was the only boat race planned for the title.
As for the rest of the DLC we mentioned in September, there’s so far no word on when we might expect to see it appear. Given that there’s only about 20 days left in October, and United Front Games promised that the SWAT Pack, Tactical Soldier Pack and Community Gift Pack would appear this month, we’re hoping the studio gets a move on. Especially since we’ve so far failed to mention the firm’s other promise: That it would reveal the first story-expanding DLC addition for Sleeping Dogs during the 2012 New York Comic Con, an event which started this morning, and is scheduled to run through October 14. Hopefully whenever United Front Games gets around to detailing that addition, the company will also outline the next few weeks of Sleeping Dogs’ DLC road map. We’ll keep you updated as information appears.
