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BetaNews.Com (6 non lus)

New Android market shows the future is in device-agnostic app stores

Publié: février 4, 2011, 9:30pm CET par Tim Conneally

By Tim Conneally, Betanews

Google on Thursday finally launched a renewed web-based Android Market that integrates with a user's Google account and lets him shop for applications and send them to the various Android-powered devices linked to the account. This new shop marks the industry-wide trend toward comprehensive device-agnostic software shopping solutions.
Amazon's Kindle store was the first major shopping outlet to take such a step. Users can shop for Kindle-formatted e-books on Amazon.com, and push their purchases to their Kindle device, regardless of whether it's a dedicated e-paper reader or a software application.
ABI Research released a study on Friday which said the market for digital content will not be tied to the success or failure of any single gadget, despite the widespread misconception that a single tablet or e-reader could "win" the market.
"Consumers can purchase digital texts through their PCs or smartphones, in addition to buying directly through their eReaders," said Larry Fisher, research director of NextGen, ABI Research's emerging technologies research incubator. "The variety of applications that allow people to buy this digital content reassures them that they won't be tied to a single store--or device--for content."
Similar to the "write once, run anywhere" ideal, the key to success in future e-commerce will be the ability to list once, buy anywhere.
Using common Web development standards and handy new HTML5 capabilities, mobile network operators, OEMs, and software retailers are taking up this mantra and optimizing their storefronts to be device-agnostic websites.
Though the new Web-based Android Market allows developers to post bigger photos and even videos of their applications in action, and the browsing experience is superior to the native Android Market app, the remote installation feature is by far the most important addition here. It means easier access to apps, easier purchase management, and even potentially innovative uses of the apps that are remotely installed.
Imagine, for example, a user has lost his phone and doesn't have any emergency tracking devices to locate it. You could conceivably make an auto-launching homing beacon app that users could send to their phone from the Web store; or even more severe, an automatic kill pill that could sync all data back to the Google account and then wipe the phone. Because it works over the web, there's no need for a mobile device to be anywhere near the user for him to install apps on it.
As Android is picked up as an embedded operating system for devices other than smartphones and tablets, this functionality could also come in extremely handy, as the device would not need a browser or a native market client to receive new applications.
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010
Nokia's experimental 'Bubbles' lets Symbian^3 users pop their way through common tasks

Publié: février 4, 2011, 8:59pm CET par Joe Wilcox

By Joe Wilcox, Betanews

Nokia Labs today revealed a new user interface motif called "Bubbles." It's one the many odd little research projects Nokia pops out. Some of them become real products, while many others do not. But I often see lots of creativity and invention in what these Nokia researchers dream up.
Nokia Bubbles is just that -- bubbles that move around the handset's display. They're essentially shortcuts to other functions, such as unlocking the phone, viewing missed calls, accessing e-mail or viewing text messages.
Nokia Labs is one of the handset manufacturer's best resources, not just for research and development but marketing. The Nokia Labs website and Nokia Conversations YouTube channel are approachable, informative and fun, and c`mon these developers are so stereotypical they could be cast in any movie calling for geeks.
Their announcements tend to be quite personal. For example, Pauli Asikainen explains about Nokia Bubbles: "When I invented the bubbles concept (with my friend Sami) the idea was to have a fun way to unlock the phone." I love it: "my friend Sami." He continues: "After some thinking it was obvious that bubbles can be used for many other purposes and at the same time have some fun things on your screen. Throwing the bubbles around was one of the first things we did with them. And when you have some event you want to respond to it is very easy and fast to do so."
While US bloggers and journalists overly obsess about iPhone and proclaim Nokia's demise, the reality is something else. Nokia still ships more handsets than any other company -- 123.7 million in fourth quarter 2010, according to IDC, or nearly 8 times more units than Apple. Nokia's culture is refreshingly open compared to Apple. There is no open Apple beta labs operation; development is kept secret, either completely or safeguarded by developer and manufacturing partner non-disclosure agreements. Nokia may be ailing and lost an enthusiast like me as customer, but its Labs operation and clever marketing show there's plenty of life in the body yet.
Bubbles is available for Symbian^3 handsets.
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010
Hacking Chrome? Google Bets $20,000 you can't

Publié: février 4, 2011, 8:53pm CET par Ed Oswald

By Ed Oswald, Betanews

Google has donated $20,000 to a yearly hacking competition to be awarded to the first researcher able to crack its Chrome browser. The Mountain View, Calif. company's move marks the first time a browser developer has contributed money to the contest.
The Pwn2Own competition is in its fifth year and is held at the CanSecWest security conference. Participants are tasked with cracking a variety of other browsers too (Apple's Safari, Microsoft's Internet Explorer, and Mozilla's Firefox) on computers supplied by the contest creators running Windows 7. Those that perform a successful crack win the computer it was done on as well as a $15,000 cash prize.
Cracking Chrome will be hard. The browser uses what is called a "sandbox," which isolates system processes. In order for a crack to be successful, first the sandbox must be cracked, and then the exploit code itself executed.
Google is offering a CR-48 netbook as a prize itself in addition to the cash award. The netbook would only be offered as a prize -- the exploit would need to be performed on the other computers offered.
"Kudos to the Google security team for taking the initiative to approach us on this; we're always in favor of rewarding security researchers for the work they too-often do for free," HP TippingPoint security research team manager Aaron Portnoy said. Portnoy's firm runs the Pwn2Own competition.
Another portion of the contest will include hacks to popular mobile OS platforms including BlackBerry OS, iOS, and Android. Like the browser competition, a $15,000 prize and the device itself would be awarded.
Registration for the contest is open until February 15. Instructions and more information can be found from HP TippingPoint's website.
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010
Does a Microsoft-Nokia mashup make sense, or are its supporters just nuts?

Publié: février 4, 2011, 7:27pm CET par Joe Wilcox

By Joe Wilcox, Betanews

I disagree with TechFlash's Todd Bishop, who today writes that a "wholesale shift by Nokia to Windows Phone 7 from Symbian would be a huge change, similar in magnitude to, say, Apple adopting Intel chips." Oh, no, it would be much bigger than that and way riskier. [Editor's Note: Quote corrected for transposed "by" and "to"; I make that kind of mistake all the time.]
Bishop responds to yet another call for Nokia to enter an unholy operating system alliance with Microsoft or to merge -- this one from Berenberg Bank analyst Adnaan Ahmad. As the TechFlash managing editor rightly observes: "Ever since he went to Nokia, [Stephen] Elop's connection to Microsoft has been viewed as a possible prelude to a tighter relationship." Elop left Microsoft in September 2010, as president of the Business division, to become Nokia's chief executive. As I expressed nearly six months ago, Elop wouldn't be my first choice to run Nokia.
Perhaps other people are thinking the same thing, because a Microsoft-Nokia mashup dominates the commentary -- like that woud be the most valuable outcome of Elop's jumping ship. Frankly, unless Elop and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer had some increased partnership plan or merger in mind before the leadership change, a deal might be even less likely than before. Ballmer expects loyalty. Elop left the important Business division leadership with less than two weeks notice -- simply uncharacteristically short for an executive of high position. That bridge with Microsoft is burned, again, unless Ballmer and Elop already had an understanding.
A merger would only set back Nokia, at a time when it is facing increased competition from Android smartphones, iPhone and white box and branded feature and dumb phones coming out of China. Microsoft would buy market share that it likely couldn't keep. Nokia's Symbian has already ceded the market share lead in smartphone operating systems to Android. A switch from Symbian to Windows Phone would benefit Microsoft but prove to be disastrous for Nokia. Android share gains aside, the Finnish handset maker already has too much mobile OS fragmentation without taking on another wholesale.
Also, Nokia has too much invested in Symbian, particularly from its developer channel, that would likely be lost in an operating system transition. Today's loyal developers, particularly those thinking of switching major resources to Android or Apple's iOS, would have even fewer reasons not to jump platforms.
Then there are the cloud services. While I'm not really impressed with Ovi, Nokia has millions of subscribers who would be displaced in a move putting Windows Live alongside or ahead of existing cloud services. That said, surely Nokia's Windows-only Ovi Suite could be tweaked to sync with Windows Phone. Even so, in an OS switch, the last thing Nokia needs to do is create cloud services confusion or brand problems.
Long term, however, there are benefits to both companies -- more from a merger. Cloud-connected devices are the future of computing. A report today from All Things Digital claims that in just three weeks Intuit has had 350,000 downloads of its tax-filing app. That's a huge metaphor for the smartphone's future utility -- people filing tax returns. Merging with Nokia would likely cost customers and developers in the short term, but give Microsoft a mobile platform to build for the future -- and that could include tablets and other mobile devices. Microsoft would gain manufacturing and distribution mechanisms and global relationships it doesn't now have and the ability to offer an end-to-end software, hardware and services platform to compete with Apple, HP and Research in Motion.
The problem about the future is the present. Android and iPhone are competitors that likely will reshape the mobile device industry even before Microsoft and Nokia could complete a merger. It's a tough call for Ballmer and his executive team to make. I wouldn't want to make it. Would you?
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010
Motorola Atrix 4G notebook: a $500 conundrum

Publié: février 4, 2011, 6:20am CET par Tim Conneally

By Tim Conneally, Betanews

Thursday, AT&T and Motorola announced pricing and availability of the Motorola Atrix 4G convertible smartphone. The public first recoiled at the pricetag --$199 for the phone and $500 for its notebook dock-- but the Atrix is an extremely enticing new type of gadget that could be a good solution for specific users.
The main idea behind the Atrix 4G is that the smartphone acts as a "brain" that can power a notebook computer, a set top box, or stand alone as a phone. It features a dual gigaherz core Nvidia Tegra 2 processor, 1 GB of RAM, up to 32 GB of storage, and features the Android 2.2 operating system with special dedicated interfaces for the notebook and multimedia set top box.
The notebook dock is extremely thin, light, and sturdy, with a bright and clear 11.6" display.
Unfortunately, without the Atrix 4G, it's also useless, and charging $500 for an accessory that has no standalone value is unprecedented in the mobile phone business. Furthermore, for the cost that the notebook dock adds, you could get all but one of the broadband-connected netbooks that AT&T offers unsubsidized.
The Atrix and its unique dockability have piqued a lot of people's interest, and the unfortunate truth of the matter is: there is no other Android solution that does what Motorola's Atrix does.
BlackBerry and Windows Mobile both have the REDFLY by Celio Corp, a $199 Bluetooth "netbook" that does something similar to the Atrix and the old, unreleased Palm Foleo, but without the need for a physical dock.
Back in 2009, Celio demonstrated REDFLY working with the Google G1, but unfortunately it has shown no progress since the video embedded below.
In December 2009, the company tweeted that Android REDFLY was "neither fail nor scam...we are making progress and hope to have something new to demo soon," but even the company's Twitter account has only posted a couple of updates in the time since that message. We've reached out to Celio to see what happened to the prototype and if development has ceased, but they haven't yet gotten back to us.
Still, short of building one yourself*, if you want a portable notebook-like solution for an Android phone, the Atrix is currently your only solution. It goes up for pre-order on February 13 and will be available at AT&T's retail stores on March 6 or earlier.
*I'm in the process of trying to assemble something portable and cheap that at least duplicates the functionality of REDFLY, which I'll post a story about as soon as I can.
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010
The pressure is on for Apple to think about life after Jobs

Publié: février 4, 2011, 5:47am CET par Ed Oswald

By Ed Oswald, Betanews

Ahead of its planned investor meeting on Feburary 23, Apple is once again having to deal with questions on a succession plan. The Cupertino company might have been able to avoid a lot of publicity surrounding an effort to force it to publicly disclose its plans, but Steve Jobs' indefinite leave of absence couldn't have come at a worse time.
Institutional Shareholder Services, a group that advises shareholders on how to vote on proxy ballot issues, has now said that it is advising a yes vote for the proposal. Under it, the company would be required to publicly disclose its plans for succession, and do so yearly.
Apple itself is urging shareholders to vote against it, claiming it already has a "comprehensive plan" in place, and letting the public know could give its competitors an "unfair advantage." Disclosure could harm its hiring practices, as companies may try to hire away potential successors listed, and unhappy executives not on the list may leave as a result, it argues.
The Central Laborers' Pension Fund is the group responsible for the proposal, and disclosed the ISS' endorsement in a press release on Thursday. "All companies should have succession planning policies and succession plans in place, and boards should periodically review and update them," the ISS said in a statement.
Succession plans are already in place in other Fortune 500 companies including American Express, Verizon, and HP, supporters note. To me, this is a no-brainer, and seems more an effort on Apple's part to maintain its secretive nature.
I'm not quite understanding why Apple believes these shareholders want to know who will replace Jobs. What I think people want to know is what the company's plans are should Jobs never come back -- investors are finicky folks.
Apple does owe it to shareholders to have this plan laid out in public. Keeping your products secret is one thing, keeping how you would plan to maintain the continuation of your business -- considering your CEO has pretty much been the company -- is another. Apple without Jobs is an unsettling thought, and investors want to know the company won't falter once he's gone.
Will this effort pass? Typically, shareholder proposals that aren't supported by the company will not. But Jobs is sick once again and a high-profile group supporting it may make the shareholder meeting interesting to watch.
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010