News Card 10

Cheap smartphones global market grows

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-20986550
By Zoe Kleinman Technology reporter, BBC News

Cheap smartphones global market grows

 

Asha, the budget smartphone line from Nokia, is outselling its premium handset offering, the Windows-run Lumia, by over two to one. The total number of both Asha and Lumia devices sold in the last three months of 2012 was 14 million. Only 4.4 million were Lumias.

 Apple may soon offer a lower-priced iPhone model. It is forecasted that by 2016, 31% of the global overall handset market will be low-end smartphones. The difference in cost to the consumer is significant: A basic smartphone in the UK can cost about 30 UK Pounds (฿1500), but the iPhone 5 currently costs over 500 UK Pounds (฿25000).

 It is questionable if Apple can maintain their market position, being in the small but premium end of the market. In the UK, for example, only 28% of smartphone owners had iPhones. The problem is cheaper phones have lower quality components and performance. Apple’s strategy has been to update older models rather than develop a new design. Analysts believe Apple should be more aggressive and develop a lower-price model

News Card 9

Toyota gives a sneak preview of its self-drive car

 Toyota has shown its self-drive car safety technology. The car maker revealed a video of a Lexus with safety features designed to minimise car crashes. The technology includes on-board radar and video cameras, and the car can communicate with other vehicles.

 The video shows a prototype Lexus LS fitted with "Intelligent Transport Systems" (ITS) technology. The "advanced active safety research vehicle" prototype uses ITS and existing Toyota technology to monitor whether the driver is awake, to keep the car on the road, detect the positions of pedestrians and obstacles and to stop at traffic signals.  The car can even communicate with a driver's smartphone, for example, to let the car know about upcoming places of interest.

Toyota is one of several car manufacturers and technology companies researching autonomous vehicles. Google was awarded an autonomous car patent in 2011 and has secured a Nevada driving licence for its self-drive car. Volvo also tested a self-drive convoy on a Spanish motorway.

Self-driving cars could drastically improve road safety, according to Professor Paul Newman, who heads an Oxford University autonomous car project, and explains that car systems can be engineered so that a systems failure will not result in a crash. Prof Newman's Wildcat project aims to use lasers and radar to make a car "sense" its surroundings.

New Cards Week 8

China toughens its restrictions on use of the internet

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2012/12/29/world/asia/china-toughens-restrictions-on-internet-use.xml

 

By KEITH BRADSHER

Published: December 29, 2012

29 December 2012

New rules from the Chinese government mean internet users must now provide real names to service providers. Internet companies will also have more responsibility for deleting forbidden postings and reporting them to the authorities. Whilst bloggers can still use pseudonyms, they must provide their real names first. This is in a country where internet users can be jailed for politically-sensitive comments.

Recently, internet users in China exposed scandals that led to resignations or dismissals of local officials. Furthermore, following international news media reporting the accumulation of wealth by the families of China's leaders, many sites were blocked. The government deny the new rules are to prevent the exposure of corruption. Instead they claim the measures will protect users from misuse of their personal data.

Meanwhile, China continues to block more foreign web sites and VPNs, virtual private networks, which are used to encrypt computer communication used by businesses and individuals in China to prevent government monitoring.

It seems that China is willing to have a freer economy in the future, the new internet restrictions show that free political discussion is still not wanted.

 

 

News Card VII

Instagram Does an About-Face 

By NICOLE PERLROTH and JENNA WORTHAM

December 20, 2012, 8:30 pm

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/20/instagram-does-about-face-reverts-to-previous-policy/?ref=technology

Photo-sharing service Instagram angered customers earlier this week by announcing its users’ data would be used by Facebook’s advertisers. Later on, however, Instagram changed this decision due to customers’ dissatisfaction.

Instagram will instead change its advertising policy after its users were concerned their information and photographs would be shared with Facebook and its advertisers. Instagram users had threatened to use other services, e.g. Flickr or the application Pheed, but the company promised to revise its plans. However, even these changes have not stopped users leaving Instagram.

The problem is that Facebook bought Instagram earlier this year for $735 million and is under pressure for it to make more money. Instagram is currently a free service. Banner advertising is not enough, and users’ data are far more valuable.

Despite competition, Instagram has 100 million members, but this success could change in light of recent events. Facebook and Instagram have so far declined to say if they had seen any significant number of account deletions.

News Card VI-

New Windows chief explains why Microsoft redesigned Windows

By Rick Burgess on December 14, 2012, 4:00 PM

Source: http://m.techspot.com/news/51101-new-windows-chief-explains-why-microsoft-redesigned-windows.html

 

 

New Windows chief explains why Microsoft redesigned Windows

 

New head of Microsoft’s Windows Division Julie Larson-Green discusses below some of the changes made to Windows.

 Windows was created 25 years ago, and computing is now completely different. Windows 8 features a kind of dashboard display with Live Tiles and touch display. In the future, the vast majority of PCs will have touch screens.

 Planning of Windows 8 began before the introduction of the iPad, with its mobile and touch features, but many of the iPad’s features were similar to Windows’ future plans. Windows 8 allows the user to type with the traditional keyboard and mouse or the touch screen. Windows state users need only up to two weeks to adjust to the new system, and a new customer experience improvement program shows positive results. Microsoft has also introduced its own hardware, the Surface Tablet, for Windows.

News Card Week 5

After Deal Changes With Zynga, Facebook Could Now Make Its Own Games

By Mike Isaac November 29, 2012 at 2:27 pm PT

Source: http://allthingsd.com/20121129/after-deal-changes-with-zynga-facebook-could-now-make-its-own-games/

Zynca, the world’s leading provider of social game services, signed a contract with Facebook in May 2010 which includes advertising revenue share deals and an agreement to use Facebook currency in its games.

Yesterday (29 November), both companies revised this contract. The changes include Zynga no longer having to display Facebook advertisements, and Facebook will no longer be the only social platform for Zynga, which means Zynga can now launch games on mobile or its own platform.

A notable change is that from March 2013, Facebook will be allowed to develop its own games. Until now, Facebook has shown no interest in creating games. In fact, Facebook plans to spread the business more evenly to other developers such as Wooga and King. Therefore, Facebook would alienate game-making companies if it started making its own games.

However, the legal message is clear: Facebook can now build its own games.

   

Summarised by Patcharaporn Boonkerd ID 5519505

Week 4- News Card

Samsung to view Apple-HTC settlement

by Josh Lowensohn  November 21, 2012 5:03 PM PST

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-57553311-37/judge-samsung-gets-to-view-apple-htc-settlement-details/

Smartphone competitors Apple and HTC recently agreed to a ten-year licencing deal on all current and future patents. The two companies had been in a legal dispute since March 2010 when HTC were sued for allegedly infringing twenty Apple iPhone patents. HTC later sued Apple for infringement of patents relating to mobile devices, but all legal action between the two companies was stopped when a confidential settlement agreement was reached on 10 November 2012.

Samsung, who are involved in a long-running legal dispute with Apple, then requested Apple provide a copy of the Apple-HTC license agreement. Samsung claim some patents included in the Apple-HTC agreement may be included in the Samsung-Apple legal dispute. Apple proposed details of the agreement be released to Samsung’s lawyers but with various information such as royalty rates edited. However, a California court ruled today that Samsung will be able to view full details of the Apple-HTC agreement.

The judgement ruled an edited version of the Apple-HTC agreement would not be acceptable because only Samsung lawyers would view the document.

Patcharaporn Boonkerd ID 5519505