https://plus.google.com/u/0/118294875524051260123/posts
Tuesday, March 26, 2013
Monday, January 14, 2013
New Mobile App Launched
his.ie have now just released our brand new mobile app. Just visit www.his.ie on a mobile device to see it on action.
Friday, November 23, 2012
Microsoft patents smart glasses with augmented reality
Work on digital glasses that overlay information on top of the user's view of the world has been carried out by Microsoft.
A patent granted to the US tech firm describes how the eyewear could be used to bring up statistics over a wearer's view of a baseball game or details of characters in a play.
The newly-released document was filed in May 2011 and is highly detailed.
If a product comes to market it could challenge Google's Project Glass.
Google is planning to deliver its augmented reality glasses to developers early next year and then follow with a release to consumers in 2014.
Smaller firms - such as Vuzix, TTP and Explore Engage - are also working on rival systems.
The patent suggests the glasses would be attached to a wrist-worn computer
Although some have questioned how many people would want to wear such devices, a recent report by Juniper Research indicated that the market for smart glasses and other next-generation wearable tech could be worth $1.5bn (£940m) by 2014 and would multiply over following years.
No missed moments
Microsoft's patent was filed by Kathryn Stone Perez, executive producer of the Xbox Incubation unit which earlier developed the Kinect sensor; and John Tardiff, an audio-video engineer who previously worked at Apple.
It notes that entertainment organisers often provide screens showing information to enhance audience's enjoyment of their events. But looking at these displays forces the user to turn their head away from the action - for example looking at the scoreboard at a baseball game, or translated lyrics at the side of the stage at an opera.
Microsoft suggests augmented reality headwear would avoid the risk of missing a key moment and also make it possible to see effects otherwise reserved for people watching on TV - for example a computer-drawn line superimposed over an American Football pitch showing the minimum 10-yard distance a team needs to advance the ball.
The patent suggests the key to making this work would be to vary the transparency of the glasses lens.
Lyrics could be shown next to an opera singer as an alternative to displays placed at the side of the stage
"[It would be] capable of generating display elements on various portions of a user's display while remaining portions of the head mounted display are transparent to allow the user to continue to view events or occurrences within the live event," it says.
"Other alternatives allow the display to become completely opaque, in order for the display to provide, for example, a display of a video such as an instant replay of the live event."
Anticipated events
Microsoft suggests a wrist-worn computer could be used to operate the device, or alternatively the user might control it through voice-commands and flicking their eyes to a certain spot.
It indicates that most of the processing work - identifying people and other objects in view, and deciding what information to show about them - would likely be carried out by remote computer servers in order to keep the equipment slimline.
The firm adds that many entertainment events follow a set course - such as a character always appearing at the same point in a play - and this could be used to ready information in advance to ensure it is brought up quickly.
Microsoft suggests a wide range of sensors would need to be built into the eyewear - including a microphone, video camera, gyroscope, eye gaze-trackers, infra-red detector and magnetometer as well as wi-fi and/or bluetooth connectivity - to provide the functionality it describes.
Vuzix plans to show off its new augmented reality smart glasses at a Las Vegas trade show in January
The document also describes some of the technologies it could license that have been developed by other firms, suggesting Microsoft has explored the possibility of putting its ideas into practice.
Nitin Bhas, senior analyst at Juniper research said he would not be surprised to see the the Windows-maker release a device over the coming years.
"We think smart glasses and other head-worn displays will be the next major form-factor for
computing with adoption by consumers beginning around late-2014 to 2017," he told the BBC.
"The devices will help integrate technology into human life, making things like augmented reality more seamless than it is on smartphones at present.
"Compared to other devices we think the adoption rate will be low and price points high in the medium-term, but they will catch on eventually."
Source : http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-20462840 BBC News
Thursday, October 18, 2012
Web Summit Dublin
An estimated 4,000 people attended the conference, while over 250
startups populated the main hall's stands as they sought to attract
customers and investors.
On the main stage a range of speakers, including film director Barry Sonnenfeld and Moshi Monsters creator Michael Acton Smith addressed attendees and spoke about their experiences with technology.
A US-based startup, SmartThings, won the Electric Ireland Spark of Genius Award winner, taking home a €100,000 cash prize, along with support and help from industry experts.
The company offers a way for users to remotely control things in their house, like door locks and light switches, remotely through their smartphone.
The company's CEO Alex Hawkinson said winning the prize would help the company to increase its exposure and grow its customer base.
He also said Ireland had been an "incredible host" and he would like to see them open an office in the country in the near future.
While the Dublin Web Summit is now over, many of the conference's guests will now move on to the smaller .Founders event.
.Founders enables successful entrepreneurs, investors and technology experts to hold closed-door meetings and talks from this evening through to Saturday.
Many of the bigger names from the conference are due to attend, as are a number of so-far unnamed special guests.
Earlier, AOL Chief Executive Tim Armstrong said at the summit today that he is planning further expansion of the company's Irish operation.
Source : RTE News 18th October 2012
On the main stage a range of speakers, including film director Barry Sonnenfeld and Moshi Monsters creator Michael Acton Smith addressed attendees and spoke about their experiences with technology.
A US-based startup, SmartThings, won the Electric Ireland Spark of Genius Award winner, taking home a €100,000 cash prize, along with support and help from industry experts.
The company offers a way for users to remotely control things in their house, like door locks and light switches, remotely through their smartphone.
The company's CEO Alex Hawkinson said winning the prize would help the company to increase its exposure and grow its customer base.
He also said Ireland had been an "incredible host" and he would like to see them open an office in the country in the near future.
While the Dublin Web Summit is now over, many of the conference's guests will now move on to the smaller .Founders event.
.Founders enables successful entrepreneurs, investors and technology experts to hold closed-door meetings and talks from this evening through to Saturday.
Many of the bigger names from the conference are due to attend, as are a number of so-far unnamed special guests.
Earlier, AOL Chief Executive Tim Armstrong said at the summit today that he is planning further expansion of the company's Irish operation.
Source : RTE News 18th October 2012
Nasdaq halt Google for a while
The value of shares on the NASDAQ fell by 9% before trading in the stock was suspended.
Google has blamed a financial printing firm for releasing its earnings.
The record filed shows profits dropped to $2.18bn (€1.7bn) in the three months to the end of September, compared to the previous year.
Companies typically release results either before trading opens or after the market closes.
This gives investors time to scrutinise the financial reports and company statements before making trading decisions.
The filing made by the company to the stock exchange contains the line "pending Larry quote".
The reference appears to be to Larry Page, Google's chief executive.
A Google spokesperson said: "Earlier this morning RR Donnelley, the financial printer, informed us that they had filed our draft 8K earnings statement without authorization.
"We have ceased trading on NASDAQ while we work to finalize the document.
"Once it's finalized we will release our earnings, resume trading on NASDAQ and hold our earnings call as normal at 1:30 Pacific Time."
Google has blamed a financial printing firm for releasing its earnings.
The record filed shows profits dropped to $2.18bn (€1.7bn) in the three months to the end of September, compared to the previous year.
Companies typically release results either before trading opens or after the market closes.
This gives investors time to scrutinise the financial reports and company statements before making trading decisions.
The filing made by the company to the stock exchange contains the line "pending Larry quote".
The reference appears to be to Larry Page, Google's chief executive.
A Google spokesperson said: "Earlier this morning RR Donnelley, the financial printer, informed us that they had filed our draft 8K earnings statement without authorization.
"We have ceased trading on NASDAQ while we work to finalize the document.
"Once it's finalized we will release our earnings, resume trading on NASDAQ and hold our earnings call as normal at 1:30 Pacific Time."
Thursday, September 13, 2012
New Apple iPhone 5
Apple has launched its fastest, thinnest iPhone, which includes a significantly larger screen and 4G capability.
Chief Executive Tim Cook, who took over from the company's late co-founder Steve Jobs last year, faces pressure to keep Apple at the forefront of the industry.
The iPhone 5 sports a 10cm "retina" display, ability to surf a high-speed 4G LTE wireless network, and is 20% lighter than the previous iPhone 4S.
The latest iPhone comes as Apple tries to fend off strong competition.
Google’s Android has become the most-used mobile operating system in the world, while key supplier and rival Samsung Electronics has taken the lead in smartphone sales.
Microsoft is also pushing its Windows Phone 8 operating system as a third alternative to Apple and Google's.
Rivals have been first to market with phones that have bigger displays or run on faster wireless networks.
The iPhone 5 comes with Apple's newest "A6" processor, which executives claimed runs twice as fast as the previous generation.
It will have three microphones and a better eight megapixel camera that can take pictures on higher resolutions.
Apple has sold more than 243m iPhones since its 2007 arrival, after which the device proceeded to upend the industry.
Mr Cook told the audience that its Apps Store now has more than 700,000 apps available, which is the industry's largest library.
Chief Executive Tim Cook, who took over from the company's late co-founder Steve Jobs last year, faces pressure to keep Apple at the forefront of the industry.
The iPhone 5 sports a 10cm "retina" display, ability to surf a high-speed 4G LTE wireless network, and is 20% lighter than the previous iPhone 4S.
The latest iPhone comes as Apple tries to fend off strong competition.
Google’s Android has become the most-used mobile operating system in the world, while key supplier and rival Samsung Electronics has taken the lead in smartphone sales.
Microsoft is also pushing its Windows Phone 8 operating system as a third alternative to Apple and Google's.
Rivals have been first to market with phones that have bigger displays or run on faster wireless networks.
The iPhone 5 comes with Apple's newest "A6" processor, which executives claimed runs twice as fast as the previous generation.
It will have three microphones and a better eight megapixel camera that can take pictures on higher resolutions.
Apple has sold more than 243m iPhones since its 2007 arrival, after which the device proceeded to upend the industry.
Mr Cook told the audience that its Apps Store now has more than 700,000 apps available, which is the industry's largest library.
Saturday, August 25, 2012
No bite out of the Apple
After a year of litigation, which examined some 700 infringement
claims, the court in California ordered Samsung to pay more than $1
billion in damages.
The jury rejected claims by Samsung that several of its patents had been breached.
The verdict - which came after less than three days of jury deliberations - could lead to an outright ban on sales of key Samsung products and will likely solidify Apple's dominance of the exploding mobile computing market.
Apple's victory is a big blow to Google, whose Android software powers the Samsung products that were found to infringe on Apple patents.
Google and its hardware partners, including the company's own Motorola unit, could now face further legal hurdles in their effort to compete with the Apple juggernaut.
Samsung lawyers were grimfaced in the quiet but crowded San Jose courtroom as the verdict was read, and the company later put out a statement calling the outcome "a loss for the American consumer."
Apple upended the mobile phone business when it introduced the iPhone in 2007, and shook the industry again in 2010 when it rolled out the iPad.
It has been able to charge premium prices for the iPhone - with profit margins of as much as 58% per phone - for a product consumers regarded as a huge advance in design and usability.
The company's late founder, Steve Jobs, vowed to "go to thermonuclear war" when Google launched Android, according to his biographer, and the company has filed lawsuits around the world in an effort to block what it considers brazen copying of its inventions.
The legal win came one year after CEO Tim Cook assumed the helm of the company.
Shares in Apple, which just this week became the biggest company by market value in history, climbed almost 2% to a record high of $675 in after-hours trade.
The verdict comes as competition in the mobile device industry intensifies, with Google jumping into hardware for the first time with its Nexus 7 tablet, and Microsoft's new touchscreen friendly Windows 8 coming in October, led by its "Surface" tablet.
Apple's victory could present immediate issues for companies that sell Android-based smartphones and tablets, including Google's own Motorola subsidiary, which it acquired last year for $12.5 billion, and HTC of Taiwan.
Amazon - which has made major inroads into the tablet market with its cheaper Kindle Fire - uses a modified version of Android for its Kindle products but has not yet been subject to legal challenge by Apple.
The jury rejected claims by Samsung that several of its patents had been breached.
The verdict - which came after less than three days of jury deliberations - could lead to an outright ban on sales of key Samsung products and will likely solidify Apple's dominance of the exploding mobile computing market.
Apple's victory is a big blow to Google, whose Android software powers the Samsung products that were found to infringe on Apple patents.
Google and its hardware partners, including the company's own Motorola unit, could now face further legal hurdles in their effort to compete with the Apple juggernaut.
Samsung lawyers were grimfaced in the quiet but crowded San Jose courtroom as the verdict was read, and the company later put out a statement calling the outcome "a loss for the American consumer."
Apple upended the mobile phone business when it introduced the iPhone in 2007, and shook the industry again in 2010 when it rolled out the iPad.
It has been able to charge premium prices for the iPhone - with profit margins of as much as 58% per phone - for a product consumers regarded as a huge advance in design and usability.
The company's late founder, Steve Jobs, vowed to "go to thermonuclear war" when Google launched Android, according to his biographer, and the company has filed lawsuits around the world in an effort to block what it considers brazen copying of its inventions.
The legal win came one year after CEO Tim Cook assumed the helm of the company.
Shares in Apple, which just this week became the biggest company by market value in history, climbed almost 2% to a record high of $675 in after-hours trade.
The verdict comes as competition in the mobile device industry intensifies, with Google jumping into hardware for the first time with its Nexus 7 tablet, and Microsoft's new touchscreen friendly Windows 8 coming in October, led by its "Surface" tablet.
Apple's victory could present immediate issues for companies that sell Android-based smartphones and tablets, including Google's own Motorola subsidiary, which it acquired last year for $12.5 billion, and HTC of Taiwan.
Amazon - which has made major inroads into the tablet market with its cheaper Kindle Fire - uses a modified version of Android for its Kindle products but has not yet been subject to legal challenge by Apple.
Thursday, August 16, 2012
Facebook - Going, Going, Gone ??
Facebook's stock plunged to a new low as some of its early backers
got their first chance to sell their shares since its initial public
offering went awry.
Analysts interpreted the unusually high trading volume as a clear sign that at least a few of the insiders were seizing on a fresh selling opportunity.
That is stirring a debate over whether they are locking in long-awaited gains on investments made years ago or bailing out of the firm.
Facebook shares traded as low as $19.69 before bouncing back slightly. They closed at $19.87 last night, down $1.33, or over 6%.
Over 156 million shares were traded, more than five times the stock's average volume over the past month. Trading in the overall market was lighter than usual.
A breakdown on just how many major Facebook shareholders sold their
stock probably will not be available until next week at the earliest.
Securities regulations give them at least three business days before they have to disclose such transactions.
All told, investors who owned a combined 271 million Facebook shares could have sold their holdings yesterday with the expiration of a ban known as a lock-up period.
The restrictions were imposed on a group of venture capitalists, companies and Silicon Valley leaders who invested in Facebook during its formative years and sold some of their holdings three months ago when the company went public at $38 a share.
The highly anticipated IPO had valued the company at $104 billion, similar to those of Amazon.com and PepsiCo. The shares have plunged by nearly 50% since then amid concerns about whether Facebook is destined to become a passing fancy and worries about whether it will be able to sell more advertising on mobile devices as users gravitate there.
Facebook' stock traded as low as $19.69 before bouncing back slightly. The shares closed at $19.87 last night, down $1.33, or more than 6%. More than 156 million shares were traded, more than five times the stock's average volume over the past month. Trading in the overall market was lighter than usual.
The Facebook investors eligible to sell their shares yesterday included venture capital firms Accel Partners and Greylock Partners; investment banker Goldman Sachs, software maker Microsoft.; Zynga CEO Marc Pincus; LinkedIn chairman Reid Hoffman; and former PayPal CEO Peter Thiel.
If there was mass selling within this group, Facebook's stock could decline further because the market would be flooded with nearly two-thirds more shares. Given that most of these investors put their money into Facebook five to eight years ago, they probably were eager to sell, analysts said.
But despite the sharp drop in Facebook's market value during the past three months, the early investors can still reap huge windfalls by selling at the current price.
For instance, Thiel invested $500,000 in Facebook in 2004, the year CEO Mark Zuckerberg began the site in a Harvard dorm room. After selling 16.8 million shares for $640m at the time of the initial public offering in May, Thiel still owned nearly 28 million shares worth about $560m at yesterday's trading prices.
Accel Partners invested $12.7m in Facebook in 2005. The firm sold nearly 58 million shares for $2.2 billion as part of Facebook's IPO and still owned nearly 144 million shares worth about $2.9 billion.
On the other side, other key investors seem unlikely to sell additional shares right away. Microsoft, which invested $240m in Facebook in 2007, relies on Facebook's social network to help bring more traffic to its Bing search engine, making it less likely that it would risk antagonizing Facebook executives by bailing out. The software company also does not need the money, as it is already is sitting on $63 billion in cash.
The selling shackles will come off of an additional 1.66 billion locked-up Facebook shares during the next nine months to place more potential pressure on the stock. One of the biggest tests will come in November when about 1.2 billion insider shares will be eligible for sale.
The freed-up shares will include those owned by Zuckerberg, the Facebook chief executive and founder who sold 30 million shares for $1.1 billion in the May IPO to cover his taxes. Other Internet companies that have gone public in the past year have been hit hard by the expiration of their lock-up periods.
Shares of online reviews service Angie's List suffered their biggest one-day drop so far and closed at a new low following the expiration of a similar ban earlier this week. The price dropped, even though there was no word on whether any of the major investors had dumped their shares.
LinkedIn, which runs a professional networking version of Facebook, also took a big hit when restrictions on insider selling lifted last November. Its shares sank to their trading low of $55.98 after the lock-up period expired, but have since rebounded strongly. The shares closed at $103.99 last night, more than twice its IPO price of $45.
Source : RTE News 17th August 2012
Analysts interpreted the unusually high trading volume as a clear sign that at least a few of the insiders were seizing on a fresh selling opportunity.
That is stirring a debate over whether they are locking in long-awaited gains on investments made years ago or bailing out of the firm.
Facebook shares traded as low as $19.69 before bouncing back slightly. They closed at $19.87 last night, down $1.33, or over 6%.
Over 156 million shares were traded, more than five times the stock's average volume over the past month. Trading in the overall market was lighter than usual.
A breakdown on just how many major Facebook shareholders sold their
stock probably will not be available until next week at the earliest.Securities regulations give them at least three business days before they have to disclose such transactions.
All told, investors who owned a combined 271 million Facebook shares could have sold their holdings yesterday with the expiration of a ban known as a lock-up period.
The restrictions were imposed on a group of venture capitalists, companies and Silicon Valley leaders who invested in Facebook during its formative years and sold some of their holdings three months ago when the company went public at $38 a share.
The highly anticipated IPO had valued the company at $104 billion, similar to those of Amazon.com and PepsiCo. The shares have plunged by nearly 50% since then amid concerns about whether Facebook is destined to become a passing fancy and worries about whether it will be able to sell more advertising on mobile devices as users gravitate there.
Facebook' stock traded as low as $19.69 before bouncing back slightly. The shares closed at $19.87 last night, down $1.33, or more than 6%. More than 156 million shares were traded, more than five times the stock's average volume over the past month. Trading in the overall market was lighter than usual.
The Facebook investors eligible to sell their shares yesterday included venture capital firms Accel Partners and Greylock Partners; investment banker Goldman Sachs, software maker Microsoft.; Zynga CEO Marc Pincus; LinkedIn chairman Reid Hoffman; and former PayPal CEO Peter Thiel.
If there was mass selling within this group, Facebook's stock could decline further because the market would be flooded with nearly two-thirds more shares. Given that most of these investors put their money into Facebook five to eight years ago, they probably were eager to sell, analysts said.
But despite the sharp drop in Facebook's market value during the past three months, the early investors can still reap huge windfalls by selling at the current price.
For instance, Thiel invested $500,000 in Facebook in 2004, the year CEO Mark Zuckerberg began the site in a Harvard dorm room. After selling 16.8 million shares for $640m at the time of the initial public offering in May, Thiel still owned nearly 28 million shares worth about $560m at yesterday's trading prices.
Accel Partners invested $12.7m in Facebook in 2005. The firm sold nearly 58 million shares for $2.2 billion as part of Facebook's IPO and still owned nearly 144 million shares worth about $2.9 billion.
On the other side, other key investors seem unlikely to sell additional shares right away. Microsoft, which invested $240m in Facebook in 2007, relies on Facebook's social network to help bring more traffic to its Bing search engine, making it less likely that it would risk antagonizing Facebook executives by bailing out. The software company also does not need the money, as it is already is sitting on $63 billion in cash.
The selling shackles will come off of an additional 1.66 billion locked-up Facebook shares during the next nine months to place more potential pressure on the stock. One of the biggest tests will come in November when about 1.2 billion insider shares will be eligible for sale.
The freed-up shares will include those owned by Zuckerberg, the Facebook chief executive and founder who sold 30 million shares for $1.1 billion in the May IPO to cover his taxes. Other Internet companies that have gone public in the past year have been hit hard by the expiration of their lock-up periods.
Shares of online reviews service Angie's List suffered their biggest one-day drop so far and closed at a new low following the expiration of a similar ban earlier this week. The price dropped, even though there was no word on whether any of the major investors had dumped their shares.
LinkedIn, which runs a professional networking version of Facebook, also took a big hit when restrictions on insider selling lifted last November. Its shares sank to their trading low of $55.98 after the lock-up period expired, but have since rebounded strongly. The shares closed at $103.99 last night, more than twice its IPO price of $45.
Source : RTE News 17th August 2012
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
Amazon Smartphone
Last year, Amazon disrupted the tablet market by releasing a
comparatively low-end product with modest ambitions of being a simple
content delivery device. The Kindle Fire was an instant hit with users
tired of the eternal race between iOS and myriad Android pretenders. Now
Amazon is rumoured to be developing a handset but can it replicate the
success of the Fire? Using that experience as a template, here are five
questions Amazon will have to deal with before a (US) release and how it
might handle them.
Why does Amazon need a smartphone, anyway?
Amazon, in the US at least, has been developing a slate of cloud services from personal e-mail to enterprise storage. On the consumer side e-book ubiquity has now been augmented by a music download store, video on demand, textbook rentals, a curated app store and the impressive Silk Web browser. The building blocks of a successful smartphone service are already in place, the only thing that's missing is a handset to capitalise on it - a case of being all dressed up with nowhere to go.
Who is this aimed at?
The Kindle Fire did well as a content delivery device purely for consumers and any Amazon smartphone will have to adopt a similar posture. Where the Kindle created its own niche as low spec with good user experience the rules change dramatically in the bewildering mobile market. If Amazon wants to keep people within its ecosystem of cloud and content services it will need some kind of novelty. No one is going to ask for an Amazon phone to be put on a corporate network, so this gives enormous latitude in the design stakes. Blackberry fans need not apply.
Will this be a high or low tech device?
There is a long history of established tech brands failing to translate into hardware. Handsets boasting integration with iTunes, Skype and Facebook all flopped and Amazon will have to deal with the fact that recognition does not translate to loyalty across markets. In order to keep up with the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S, HTC One and iPhone certain standards will have to be adhered to. Even as a basic content delivery device a branded smartphone will need a dual core processor, 512Mb RAM, 4" screen and 8Gb internal memory (with microSD slot) to compete as an e-reader/multimedia device that happens to be a phone as well. Amazon will need a large screen to push its content to and that demands there be enough under it to compete. High tech it shall have to be.
Which carriers will support it?
One of the mysteries of the Kindle e-reader is its free global 3G connectivity allowing for downloading reading matter within 60 seconds. The much more data-intensive Kindle Fire only comes in a Wi-Fi model so the issue of 3G coverage hasn’t arisen before. In the US Amazon has an arrangement with AT&T for e-book downloads, but the demands of streaming multimedia could force Amazon into a deal with a 4G long-term evolution network operator like US Cellular or T-Mobile. Download speeds of up to 300Mb/s are more than enough to handle streaming HD content and would be a strong selling point in a space where Samsung, HTC, LG and Motorola are only just establishing a presence. Should Amazon go with LTE (and really it has to) it could be some time before we see it in Ireland seeing as the infrastructure doesn't exist. Though a partnership signed between Three and Vodafone would indicate a national roll-out of 4G is on the way... at some stage.
When is it coming out?
The Kindle Fire was announced in September 2011 and was released the following November. Analyst firm IDC estimates it sold 4.7 million units in the final quarter of the year (just under 1 million units a week), so it's safe to say the scheduling was successful. A report in AllThingsD suggests a product announcement (most likely the Kindle Fire 2) will take place next month, leaving September wide open for a launch. Once again, Americans can look forward to a stocking-filler while everyone else gets to read the reviews in envy.
Niall Kitson is editor of TechCentral.ie www.techcentral.ie
Why does Amazon need a smartphone, anyway?
Amazon, in the US at least, has been developing a slate of cloud services from personal e-mail to enterprise storage. On the consumer side e-book ubiquity has now been augmented by a music download store, video on demand, textbook rentals, a curated app store and the impressive Silk Web browser. The building blocks of a successful smartphone service are already in place, the only thing that's missing is a handset to capitalise on it - a case of being all dressed up with nowhere to go.
Who is this aimed at?
The Kindle Fire did well as a content delivery device purely for consumers and any Amazon smartphone will have to adopt a similar posture. Where the Kindle created its own niche as low spec with good user experience the rules change dramatically in the bewildering mobile market. If Amazon wants to keep people within its ecosystem of cloud and content services it will need some kind of novelty. No one is going to ask for an Amazon phone to be put on a corporate network, so this gives enormous latitude in the design stakes. Blackberry fans need not apply.
Will this be a high or low tech device?
There is a long history of established tech brands failing to translate into hardware. Handsets boasting integration with iTunes, Skype and Facebook all flopped and Amazon will have to deal with the fact that recognition does not translate to loyalty across markets. In order to keep up with the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S, HTC One and iPhone certain standards will have to be adhered to. Even as a basic content delivery device a branded smartphone will need a dual core processor, 512Mb RAM, 4" screen and 8Gb internal memory (with microSD slot) to compete as an e-reader/multimedia device that happens to be a phone as well. Amazon will need a large screen to push its content to and that demands there be enough under it to compete. High tech it shall have to be.
Which carriers will support it?
One of the mysteries of the Kindle e-reader is its free global 3G connectivity allowing for downloading reading matter within 60 seconds. The much more data-intensive Kindle Fire only comes in a Wi-Fi model so the issue of 3G coverage hasn’t arisen before. In the US Amazon has an arrangement with AT&T for e-book downloads, but the demands of streaming multimedia could force Amazon into a deal with a 4G long-term evolution network operator like US Cellular or T-Mobile. Download speeds of up to 300Mb/s are more than enough to handle streaming HD content and would be a strong selling point in a space where Samsung, HTC, LG and Motorola are only just establishing a presence. Should Amazon go with LTE (and really it has to) it could be some time before we see it in Ireland seeing as the infrastructure doesn't exist. Though a partnership signed between Three and Vodafone would indicate a national roll-out of 4G is on the way... at some stage.
When is it coming out?
The Kindle Fire was announced in September 2011 and was released the following November. Analyst firm IDC estimates it sold 4.7 million units in the final quarter of the year (just under 1 million units a week), so it's safe to say the scheduling was successful. A report in AllThingsD suggests a product announcement (most likely the Kindle Fire 2) will take place next month, leaving September wide open for a launch. Once again, Americans can look forward to a stocking-filler while everyone else gets to read the reviews in envy.
Niall Kitson is editor of TechCentral.ie www.techcentral.ie
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
Facebook - Friends ?
(Reuters) - Nasdaq OMX Group Inc has been sued by an investor who claimed the exchange operator was negligent in handling orders for Facebook Inc shares following its initial public offering, causing losses for investors.
In addition, a different civil lawsuit was filed against Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, IPO underwriters Morgan Stanley & Co and others alleging violations of securities laws.
Phillip Goldberg, a Maryland resident, is seeking class-action status on behalf of all investors who lost money because Nasdaq delayed or otherwise mishandled their buy, sell or cancellation orders for Facebook stock on May 18, the day the social networking company went public.
A technical glitch delayed Facebook's market debut by roughly half an hour, and later delayed order confirmations.
Nasdaq Chief Executive Robert Greifeld told investors at his company's annual meeting on Tuesday that "clearly we had mistakes in the Facebook listing," but more than 570 million shares were processed on the first day.
Goldberg filed his lawsuit on Tuesday in the U.S. District Court in Manhattan.
SHARES SLIDE
Separately, investor Darryl Lazar filed a proposed class-action lawsuit in a California state court, alleging that Facebook's registration and prospectus were materially false, according to a statement from plaintiff law firm Glancy Binkow & Goldberg.
Reuters reported late on Monday that the consumer Internet analyst at lead underwriter Morgan Stanley cut his revenue forecasts for Facebook in the days before the offering, information that may not have reached many investors before the stock was listed.
Representatives from Facebook and Morgan Stanley could not immediately be reached for comment on the securities class-action.
Facebook shares sank on Monday and Tuesday -- their second and third days of trading -- to end at $31, more than 18 percent below the initial public offering price of $38.
The Nasdaq case is Goldberg v. Nasdaq OMX Group Inc et al, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 12-04054.
(Reporting By Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Gary Hill and Muralikumar Anantharaman)
Sunday, May 20, 2012
Our new Wordpress Website is now launched
Here at his.ie we understand that some customers need to have a quick
turn-a-round when it comes to having an on line presence. With this cms
system we can create very visual and seo friendly websites in a very
short period of time.
Advantages of using WordPress :
Advantages of using WordPress :
- Massive on-line community that help develop this cms system
- Nearly 20,000 plug ins available
- Thousands of user friendly templates to choose from
- Perfect for Blogging from
- Very quick build time from start to finish
- Very user friendly backend system to update pages / posts etc..
- Upload galleries, videos and many other types of media
- Very SEO friendly
- Perfect for small to medium sized websites with limited budgets
- Hosted on your own domain package
- Prices start from €699 ex VAT (Includes installation and set up on server)
- Templates are pretty much set in design and layout
- Bespoke websites it can’t cater for – eg – a particular unique structure you may require for your website
- If at a later stage you need to change part of the structure of the website this may cause problems for you.
Thursday, May 3, 2012
36 Websites shut down due to fraud
Thirty-six websites selling hacked payment card and bank details believed to be worth tens of millions of pounds have been closed down.
The move by the Serious Organised Crime Agency and the FBI is part of a day of joint action targeting cybercrime.
Officers also raided addresses in Birmingham and London and arrested two people suspected of purchasing large quantities of data to commit identity fraud.
The websites conducted transactions using an Automated Vending Cart, an e-commerce platform that allows rapid trading in large quantities of data.
The automated payment method made the sites user-friendly for purchasers unfamiliar with trading directly with organised criminals on hacking forums.
Although the sites were hosted in the US, the AVC transactions in the UK were tracked and monitored by a specialist team of Soca officers.
In a separate operation, the UK's Cheque & Plastic Crime Unit seized several computers suspected of being used to facilitate fraud offences.
Acting on information supplied by Soca, an AVC operator based in Macedonia was also arrested by the Macedonian Cybercrime Unit.
Data recovered from the sites has been passed to financial institutions to prevent potential fraud taking place against the accounts.
The move was a joint operation between Soca, the FBI and the US Department of Justice which targets organised cybercrime.
Visitors to the sites are now directed to a screen indicating the domain has been seized by the US government.
In the past two years, Soca officers have seized 2.5 million items of stolen personal data in joint operations with other international cybercrime agencies.
The total amount of data seized in these operations is estimated to have been worth £500m to cybercriminals.
Lee Miles, Head of Cyber Operations for Soca said: "This operation is an excellent example of the level of international co-operation being focused on tackling online fraud.
"Our activities have saved business, online retailers and financial institutions potential fraud losses estimated at more than half a billion pounds and protected thousands of individuals from the distress caused by being a victim of fraud."
Source SKY News May 4th 2012
The move by the Serious Organised Crime Agency and the FBI is part of a day of joint action targeting cybercrime.
Officers also raided addresses in Birmingham and London and arrested two people suspected of purchasing large quantities of data to commit identity fraud.
The websites conducted transactions using an Automated Vending Cart, an e-commerce platform that allows rapid trading in large quantities of data.
The automated payment method made the sites user-friendly for purchasers unfamiliar with trading directly with organised criminals on hacking forums.
Although the sites were hosted in the US, the AVC transactions in the UK were tracked and monitored by a specialist team of Soca officers.
In a separate operation, the UK's Cheque & Plastic Crime Unit seized several computers suspected of being used to facilitate fraud offences.
Acting on information supplied by Soca, an AVC operator based in Macedonia was also arrested by the Macedonian Cybercrime Unit.
Data recovered from the sites has been passed to financial institutions to prevent potential fraud taking place against the accounts.
The move was a joint operation between Soca, the FBI and the US Department of Justice which targets organised cybercrime.
Visitors to the sites are now directed to a screen indicating the domain has been seized by the US government.
In the past two years, Soca officers have seized 2.5 million items of stolen personal data in joint operations with other international cybercrime agencies.
The total amount of data seized in these operations is estimated to have been worth £500m to cybercriminals.
Lee Miles, Head of Cyber Operations for Soca said: "This operation is an excellent example of the level of international co-operation being focused on tackling online fraud.
"Our activities have saved business, online retailers and financial institutions potential fraud losses estimated at more than half a billion pounds and protected thousands of individuals from the distress caused by being a victim of fraud."
Source SKY News May 4th 2012
Google Drive is here !
Google Drive has now been launched. Their new FREE 5gb Cloud Storage is
available to use from yesterday and works on virtually all hardware
formats and os systems.
More can be found here http://www.youtube.com/user/Google
More can be found here http://www.youtube.com/user/Google
Thursday, April 19, 2012
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Watch out Dropbox - Google is coming
Google's long-anticipated
online storage service, Google Drive, should launch next week, with 5GB
of free storage space for users.
Google declined a request to either confirm or deny the authenticity of the image.
Google Drive will be competing with Amazon Cloud, Apple iCloud, Box.com, Dropbox, Microsoft SkyDrive, and other online storage services. It will be hosted at drive.google.com, though presently the URL is not functional.
Source : http://www.informationweek.com/news/storage/systems/232900386
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Yahoo - cutting jobs
US internet firm Yahoo says it is cutting roughly 2,000 jobs as it
seeks to build a "smaller, nimbler, more profitable" company and reduce
costs.
"We are intensifying our efforts on our core businesses and redeploying resources to our most urgent priorities.
"Our goal is to get back to our core purpose - putting our users and advertisers first - and we are moving aggressively to achieve that goal," said Scott Thompson, chief executive of Yahoo, in a statement.
The struggling internet pioneer announced a restructuring to focus on a "select" group of core businesses and the platforms that support them.
A key focus will be the data that drives "deep" personalization for users and return on investment for advertisers, the Sunnyvale, California-based company said.
"Today's actions are an important next step toward a bold, new Yahoo - smaller, nimbler, more profitable and better equipped to innovate as fast as our customers and our industry require," Thompson said.
The company said it would notify approximately 2,000 people that their jobs have been eliminated or would be in the future. It gave no details on the timing of the layoffs.
Yahoo said it expects the workforce reduction will produce about $375 million in annualised savings.
"With a clear focus on profitability and growth, the company will be disciplined in its investments and radically simplify how it builds, launches and maintains many of its properties and products," it said.
The 17-year-old company had more than 14,000 employees at the end of 2011. It also has a large number of software contract workers whose could also be affected in the shakeup.
A Yahoo spokeswoman has said that the 14% workforce reduction was "not across the board" but that "most units have been impacted." She declined to offer further details.
Yahoo investors welcomed the news, pushing shares up 0.3% to $15.23 in morning trade in an overall declining market.
Thompson, formerly head of mobile payments firm PayPal, became chief executive in early January after months of turmoil at Yahoo, including deadlocked talks over possibly selling off the company's valuable assets in China and Japan.
Operations income was up 3.5% in 2011 to $800 million, but net earnings fell 14.6% to $1.06 billion, and earnings per share for the year fell to 82 cents from 90 cents.
A spokesperson for Yahoo in London refused to reveal how many staff it employs in Ireland, and how many jobs might be cut here as part of their plan to axe 2000 jobs worldwide.
She would only say that they currently employ 14,000 people worldwide, and that they do not break down details of their locations.
She also said that they could not comment further because they have entered into a consultation process with staff.
No spokesperson in Ireland could be contacted.
Source : RTE News 4th April 2012
"We are intensifying our efforts on our core businesses and redeploying resources to our most urgent priorities.
"Our goal is to get back to our core purpose - putting our users and advertisers first - and we are moving aggressively to achieve that goal," said Scott Thompson, chief executive of Yahoo, in a statement.
The struggling internet pioneer announced a restructuring to focus on a "select" group of core businesses and the platforms that support them.
A key focus will be the data that drives "deep" personalization for users and return on investment for advertisers, the Sunnyvale, California-based company said.
"Today's actions are an important next step toward a bold, new Yahoo - smaller, nimbler, more profitable and better equipped to innovate as fast as our customers and our industry require," Thompson said.
The company said it would notify approximately 2,000 people that their jobs have been eliminated or would be in the future. It gave no details on the timing of the layoffs.
Yahoo said it expects the workforce reduction will produce about $375 million in annualised savings.
"With a clear focus on profitability and growth, the company will be disciplined in its investments and radically simplify how it builds, launches and maintains many of its properties and products," it said.
The 17-year-old company had more than 14,000 employees at the end of 2011. It also has a large number of software contract workers whose could also be affected in the shakeup.
A Yahoo spokeswoman has said that the 14% workforce reduction was "not across the board" but that "most units have been impacted." She declined to offer further details.
Yahoo investors welcomed the news, pushing shares up 0.3% to $15.23 in morning trade in an overall declining market.
Thompson, formerly head of mobile payments firm PayPal, became chief executive in early January after months of turmoil at Yahoo, including deadlocked talks over possibly selling off the company's valuable assets in China and Japan.
Operations income was up 3.5% in 2011 to $800 million, but net earnings fell 14.6% to $1.06 billion, and earnings per share for the year fell to 82 cents from 90 cents.
A spokesperson for Yahoo in London refused to reveal how many staff it employs in Ireland, and how many jobs might be cut here as part of their plan to axe 2000 jobs worldwide.
She would only say that they currently employ 14,000 people worldwide, and that they do not break down details of their locations.
She also said that they could not comment further because they have entered into a consultation process with staff.
No spokesperson in Ireland could be contacted.
Source : RTE News 4th April 2012
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
Is buying BACK LINKS bad ?
Have you recently gotten a warning from Google about having
“artificial” or “unnatural” links pointing at your site? Google says
this isn’t a fresh crackdown on link networks but rather a change from
bad links being “silently distrusted” to being more vocal about this
type of penalty.
Here is how one reads:
A Google spokesperson emailed this statement:
Source : http://searchengineland.com/google-warning-more-about-bad-link-networks-117079?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=feed-main
Warnings Issued
Many people have reported getting messages from Google regarding link violations. If you scan the Google Webmaster Help forums, for instance, you will see many examples of these being posted.Here is how one reads:
Dear site owner or webmaster of …. We’ve detected that some of your site’s pages may be using techniques that are outside Google’s Webmaster Guidelines.
Specifically, look for possibly artificial or unnatural links pointing to your site that could be intended to manipulate PageRank. Examples of unnatural linking could include buying links to pass PageRank or participating in link schemes.
We encourage you to make changes to your site so that it meets our quality guidelines. Once you’ve made these changes, please submit your site for reconsideration in Google’s search results.
If you find unnatural links to your site that you are unable to control or remove, please provide the details in your reconsideration request.
If you have any questions about how to resolve this issue, please see our Webmaster Help Forum for support.
Sincerely,
Google Search Quality Team
Links No Longer “Silently Distrusted”
Last month, Google appeared to take action against several blog/link networks. Are the messages going out because of that? Google told us no. Rather, it is that Google’s choosing to report penalties about bad linking issues more now than in the past.A Google spokesperson emailed this statement:
The majority of the increase in messages to webmasters is not due to messages about links. Rather, Google recently started sending messages to sites even for egregious or “blackhat” violations of our quality guidelines. The vast majority of the increase in messages is thus due to expanding the types of messages we send, not because of more warnings about links.Earlier this year, Google said that it significantly increased the number of messages they have sent through Webmaster Tools in 2012.It is true that actions on link networks have been more visible lately, but there’s an important disclaimer to that. Google has been able to trace and take action on many types of link networks; we recently decided to make that action more visible. In the past, some links might have been silently distrusted or might not have carried as much weight. More recently, we’ve been surfacing the fact that those links aren’t helping to improve ranking or indexing.
Source : http://searchengineland.com/google-warning-more-about-bad-link-networks-117079?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=feed-main
Monday, March 19, 2012
An Apple a Day !
Apple said it would pay a quarterly dividend of $2.65 per share from
its huge cash balance, estimated to be around $98 billion from sales of
its hugely successful gadgets like the iPad and iPhone.
The dividend payment would start with the company's 2012 fourth financial quarter, which begins on July 1, Apple said in a statement. The $10 billion share buyback will begin in its next financial year, which starts on September 30. Apple said it expected the repurchase programme to be executed over three years.
"We have used some of our cash to make great investments in our business through increased research and development, acquisitions, new retail store openings, strategic prepayments and capital expenditures in our supply chain, and building out our infrastructure. You'll see more of all of these in the future," Tim Cook, Apple's chief executive, said in the statement.
"Even with these investments, we can maintain a war chest for strategic opportunities and have plenty of cash to run our business."
Apple, with total available cash and securities at record highs - some reports have said it has more cash on hand than the US government - has been under pressure to pay dividends to shareholders with some of those funds. The company does not currently pay dividends on its common stock.
In its most recent quarter, Apple reported a record profit of just over $13 billion while revenue soared to an all-time high of $46.33 billion. Apple said it sold 37.04 million iPhones in the quarter that ended on December 31, up 128% from a year ago, and 15.43 million iPads, a 111% increase.
Its new iPad went on sale on Friday with Apple fans lining up from Sydney to San Francisco to snap up the latest model of the hot-selling tablet computer, but without the huge queues for some other Apple devices.
Souce : RTE News 19th March 2012
The dividend payment would start with the company's 2012 fourth financial quarter, which begins on July 1, Apple said in a statement. The $10 billion share buyback will begin in its next financial year, which starts on September 30. Apple said it expected the repurchase programme to be executed over three years.
"We have used some of our cash to make great investments in our business through increased research and development, acquisitions, new retail store openings, strategic prepayments and capital expenditures in our supply chain, and building out our infrastructure. You'll see more of all of these in the future," Tim Cook, Apple's chief executive, said in the statement.
"Even with these investments, we can maintain a war chest for strategic opportunities and have plenty of cash to run our business."
Apple, with total available cash and securities at record highs - some reports have said it has more cash on hand than the US government - has been under pressure to pay dividends to shareholders with some of those funds. The company does not currently pay dividends on its common stock.
In its most recent quarter, Apple reported a record profit of just over $13 billion while revenue soared to an all-time high of $46.33 billion. Apple said it sold 37.04 million iPhones in the quarter that ended on December 31, up 128% from a year ago, and 15.43 million iPads, a 111% increase.
Its new iPad went on sale on Friday with Apple fans lining up from Sydney to San Francisco to snap up the latest model of the hot-selling tablet computer, but without the huge queues for some other Apple devices.
Souce : RTE News 19th March 2012
Thursday, March 1, 2012
Google’s new privacy policy
European regulators on Tuesday warned Google that its new privacy policy set to take effect Thursday appears to violate privacy rules, and they asked the search giant to delay the changes.
In a letter to Google chief executive Larry Page, France’s data protection agency (CNIL) officials said on behalf of European Union members that, after a preliminary review of the company’s privacy policy changes, “Google’s new policy does not meet the requirements of the European Directive on Data Protection.”
In a response to the letter, Google declined to delay the launch of the new policy and said it has been reaching out to regulators.
“Over the past month we have asked to meet with the CNIL on several occasions to answer any questions they might have, and that offer remains open,” a Google spokesman wrote in a letter to the commission. “We believe we’ve found a reasonable balance between the Working Party’s recommendations: to “streamline and simplify” our policies while providing “comprehensive information” to users.
For users who are unhappy with the policy, Cecilia Kang reports that quitting Google products may be harder than one would think:
Google will begin Thursday creating far more comprehensive profiles of its users by following their activities across the company’s Web sites. From videos watched on YouTube to the terms typed in a Google search, tracking such behaviors will enable the firm to sell ads better suited to its customers’ tastes.
Users won’t be able to opt out. If they don’t like the change, Google has said, they can avoid signing into their accounts or stop using Google products altogether.
But that’s easier said than done, experts say. For the 350 million people using Gmail around the world, moving to a new e-mail program is perhaps more inconvenient than changing a mailing address or a bank account.
The “high switching cost” — as business parlance calls it — didn’t happen by accident, analysts say.
When Gmail launched eight years ago, it quickly supplanted AOL and Hotmail as a leading e-mail service. It was free, storage was unlimited and it was easy to search for past messages. Gmail became even more useful as the company integrated contact lists, word processing, live maps and then later integrated the services on smartphones.
The business plan was clear: Glean information from consumers, sell ads and keep everything free.
“Let’s not forget, Google is a huge advertising business,” said Morgan Reed, executive director of the Association for Competitive Technology, a trade group. Referring to the privacy policy shift, he added: “This was coming.”
Wondering how to clear your search history before the changes go into effect? Hayley Tsukayama reports:
The first and easiest way to use Google but keep the company from collecting information on you is to use the company’s services without signing in to your account. YouTube, Search and Maps don’t require users to be logged in to use the services, though even signed-out users will still see ads based on their search terms, etc.
If you, like many people, are constantly signed in to your Gmail account throughout the day, things get a little more complicated.
Users can turn off the setting that allows Google to record their search history. To get to this menu, go to www.google.com/history or head to the “Account Settings” menu from the top navigation bar you see when signed in to your Google account. Scroll down to the “Services” section. From here, you can pause, edit or remove all Web History. On some accounts, you can also go to the “Products” section of your account settings and click the “Edit” link next to “Your Products.”
Source : Click here
Friday, February 17, 2012
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