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BetaNews.Com (4 non lus)

Jobs Lied: Apple not fixing iPhone 4 proximity sensor bug in iOS 4.1

Publié: août 30, 2010, 10:49pm CEST par Tim Conneally

By Tim Conneally, Betanews

Poor reception and easily disrupted wireless signals are not the only problem with Apple's iPhone 4, users have also complained of a bug in the smartphone's proximity sensor that caused the screen to flicker and accidentally registered screen touches.
"I am holding my phone in the exact same way I always did with my 3G, and it is right up against my face, but it continuously switches the screen on and off. I was just on a 10 minute call where mute was turned on 3 times and speaker once, all by my ear. " one user wrote in Apple's support forums in July. The Topic, "Issue with Proximity Sensor during calls." had nearly 1,700 replies.
When Apple CEO Steve Jobs gave an emergency press conference in July about the "Antennagate" issue, he also mentioned that the company was "tracking some problems with the proximity sensor" and that they were working on repairing it for the "next software update."
Since Jobs' presentation, there have been two incremental updates to iOS 4, but neither has fixed the problem with the proximity sensor.
There were rumors that iOS 4.1 would fix the issue, but on Friday, Apple Australia spokeswoman Fiona Martin told The Sydney Morning Herald that the problem had yet to be fixed.
iOS 4.1 has been in beta since July, and though users can only participate in the program on the condition of non-disclosure, a list of approximately a dozen improvements has been assembled from anonymous reports.
Thus far, there have been no reports of a fix to the proximity sensor bug, and the software update is expected within the next two weeks.
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010

IPhone - Steve Jobs - Apple - Smartphone - Apple Australia
Xbox Live Gold subscription price to rise for the first time

Publié: août 30, 2010, 7:24pm CEST par Tim Conneally

By Tim Conneally, Betanews

On November first, Xbox Live will get more expensive than it's ever been.
Since launching in 2002, Microsoft's Xbox Live subscription gaming service has retained the same price in the U.S.: $7.99 per month, $19.99 per 3 months, and $49.99 per year. Monday, Director of Programming for Xbox Live Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb announced a price increase coming to the service on November 1, 2010 which will raise it to $9.99 per month, $24.99 per 3 months, and $59.99 per year.
The subscription price will also be increased in Canada ($9.99CAD/mo), Mexico ($599MXN/mo), and The United Kingdom (£5.99/mo.)
Naturally, Hryb's announcement has been met with derision from many Xbox Live Gamers. Sony's PlayStation Network, though considered to be a less robust and useful environment for online gaming, has been free since its launch in 2006. In June, Sony introduced a premium tier to the service called PlayStation Plus, which costs $17.99 per 3 months or $49.99 per year.
"So what new features are you giving us to justify the $10 increase?" A user with the Gamertag ShaggyB asked. "Currently we pay $50 for the features we have to date, If you arent adding something totally new then how is this not just an increase to offset costs?"
Hryb did not announce the cause of the price increase, but there are a number of new features expected to come to Xbox Live before next year, including integration with Windows Phone 7, with voice and motion-based controls as the result of Kinect integration.
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010

Microsoft - Xbox Live - Mexico - PlayStation Network - Larry Hryb
DRM company acquires technology from music search engine killed by copyright suits

Publié: août 30, 2010, 6:47pm CEST par Tim Conneally

By Tim Conneally, Betanews

Monday, Intertrust Technologies Corporation, a company with more than a hundred patents for various Digital Rights Management (DRM) technologies, announced it has acquired all of SeeqPod's software and patents. The company went bankrupt after being sued by Warner Music Group in 2008.
SeeqPod was a music search engine that found, and let users listen to, songs in their entirety. The engine's algorithm set and technology reportedly were developed by biologists working at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory to discover hidden relationships in genomic data. The technology identifies patterns in data that are distributed across the Internet. This included indexing and finding playable search results for audio, video, podcasts and text.
The search engine was sued in 2008 by Warner Music Group for copyright infringement, and subsequently filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2009. The assets come to Intertrust via a Chapter 7 Bankruptcy proceeding.
"Intertrust plans to use SeeqPod's breakthrough technology in distributed search systems in a variety of applications and services for Internet television, targeted advertising, recommendation systems, electronic music distribution and healthcare information services," Dave Maher, executive vice president and chief technology officer for Intertrust said on Monday.
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010

Digital Rights Management - Warner Music Group - Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory - SeeqPod - Web search engine
Intel acquires Infineon's wireless group for $1.4B, picks up 2G, 3G, LTE tech

Publié: août 30, 2010, 4:56pm CEST par Tim Conneally

By Tim Conneally, Betanews

The world's largest chipmaker, Intel Corp. announced Monday morning that it will be acquiring the Wireless Solutions (WLS) business from German semiconductor company Infineon Technologies AG for approximately $1.4 billion. Last year, the division held about 11% of the global cellular baseband market.
"The global demand for wireless solutions continues to grow at an extraordinary rate," Paul Otellini, Intel president and CEO said in a statement today. "The acquisition of Infineon's WLS business strengthens the second pillar of our computing strategy - Internet connectivity - and enables us to offer a portfolio of products that covers the full range of wireless options from WiFi and 3G to WiMAX and LTE."
In July, Intel shut down its WiMAX Program office, and rumors arose that the company was backing off from supporting the WiMAX wireless standard in the face of rising support for LTE. Bill Kircos Director, Product and Technology Media Relations at Intel's Global Communications Group sought to quell such rumors, and said, "There has never been one single wireless standard out there, and WiMAX, LTE, 3G et al will all co-exist. And who knows, others will probably pop up, too, in the coming years. As we've said before, 4G WiMAX and LTE are very similar and Intel could support both technologies. Should LTE or other wireless technologies flourish, common sense says we'd be foolish to not ensure our ambitious Atom processor growth plans in cars, phones, netbooks, tablets, TVs etc. supported multiple wireless formats."
Infineon's wireless division, likewise, has products supporting both standards, including dual-band WiMAX, WLAN chips, and 2G/3G/LTE RF Transceivers. Intel says it will bring together its Wi-Fi and WiMAX offerings with WLS' leadership in 2G and 3G, and then take "a combined path to accelerate 4G LTE."
The cellular baseband market was led by Qualcomm and MediaTek, who held a combined 56% of the total revenue last year. But the market is changing shape as smartphones gradually replace the feature phones most consumers own.
Last week, Strategy Analytics Handset Component Technology analyst Sravan Kundojjala said, "A chip vendor's success in the smartphone world comes from scoring design wins at top-tier smartphone OEMs and supporting software platforms that have market momentum. This is one of the reasons why baseband vendors missed the smartphone boat as many of them were focusing on feature phone and basic phone segments. We think there is enough room for dynamism in the smartphone processor market as new entrants like Intel come into the value chain. If Intel acquires Infineon, as rumoured, that could put more pressure on standalone processor vendors, such as NVIDIA, that currently lack baseband products."
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010

Wi-Fi - WiMAX - Intel - Intel Corporation - Infineon Technologies