MobileCrunch |  |
- After Ice Cream Sandwich Comes… Jelly Bean
- Tempting f8
- Rumor: Sprint Blacks Out Vacation Days In October To Prep For iPhone 5
- Nvidia: We’re No Longer In The Processor Business Because Intel “Preferred That We Weren’t”
- Lowe’s Invests In 42,000 iPhones To Improve Your Shopping Experience
- Adobe Gives Up On Apple, Works Around iOS’ Flash Video Limitations
- HTC Sends Out Invites For A Mystery Announcement On Sept. 20th
- Conan O’Brien: Apple Wants Its Lost iPhone 5 Back [Video]
- Samsung Responds To More OS Acquisition Rumors: Nope, We’re Not Buying MeeGo Either
- Sprint To Offer Unlimited Data For iPhone, But Will It Last?
| After Ice Cream Sandwich Comes… Jelly Bean Posted: 09 Sep 2011 05:24 PM PDT  In case you’ve lain awake nights wondering what tasty treat will follow Ice Cream Sandwich in Google’s sweet parade of Android versions, allow me to set your mind at ease. According to a “trusted source” speaking to This is my next, it’s going to be Jelly Bean. More importantly, this source says that some of the “game-changing stuff” that was going to hit with ICS is being pushed out to Jelly Bean. That isn’t exactly welcome news — not that we actually knew exactly what was coming. On the other hand, they have to ship sometime, and Schmidt has just confirmed that October-November is the window they’re aiming for. Excising a few of the peskier features is probably how they managed to nail the date down so semi-exactly, but I’m guessing the major functionality discussed (merging the tablet and mobile branches of the Android family tree) will be mostly intact. Depending on what they’re shipping with, this push to release could be either good timing or extremely poor timing. If it’s a compelling release, they might see a nice bump in sales for the holidays. On the other hand, everyone seems pretty sure that the iPad 3 is on its way come January or February. If the cool features from ICS are delayed past that, the opportunity will have come and gone. We’ll know more when Google releases more information about ICS next month. Perhaps they’ll even answer questions straight out about what wasn’t included. If we get a chance, we’ll ask.
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| Posted: 09 Sep 2011 04:15 PM PDT  We’re now less than two weeks away from Facebook’s f8 conference. While it’s later than usual this year, Facebook uses the event to lay out their vision for the upcoming year and beyond. Typically, the event is big for developers, but this year may feature a few user-facing surprises as well. Here’s what we’ve heard so far. As has been widely reported, Facebook’s music service is expected to be unveiled. Facebook is partnering with several prominent players in the streaming music space. Spotify, MOG, Rdio, etc — but again, don’t be surprised if Turntable.fm and maybe even Amazon are involved as well. The idea for the initial version of the product is all based around listening, but the roadmap is said to be larger. One other key thing that could be a part of this is Music for Credits. Inside Facebook talked about this a few months ago when detailing what they knew at the time about the Music Dashboard. It’s not believe that anything Facebook does in music will be an “iTunes killer”, but this is the closest possibility. The latest talk is that the elusive iPad app should make its debut at the event as well. It has been ready for some time (as indicated by its inclusion in the iPhone/iPod touch builds of the app) but Facebook has been sitting on it. The talk here is that this may be for political reasons with Apple more than anything else. In the latest build (3.5) of Facebook’s iOS app, they removed the iPad version. And there were a few other irregularities, such as the continued inclusion of Places, despite Facebook stating they were getting rid of Places. I suspect that f8 could see a 4.0 release of the app that includes both the iPhone and iPad versions largely re-worked. There are also some whispers out there that Facebook could launch their stand-alone Photos app at f8. We haven’t been able to confirm this, but we know the app is real because well, we’ve seen it (though that was an early build). Work continues on this app, including increased emphasis on filters, following Instagram’s rise to fame. Speaking of photos, we’ve heard that Blue, the Color pivot, will also be a part of f8. The new app, which will be available for both iOS and Android, ties in deeply with Facebook’s own Photos service. When you like a photo in Blue, you like it in Facebook. When you comment on a photo on Facebook, it transfers over to that photo in Blue. The app has a few other tricks up its sleeve as well, we’ve heard. Deep integration with mobile apps will be a big theme of the conference itself, we’re hearing. Many developers have been briefed, but under NDA. Still, the little we’ve heard says that Facebook is trying to work with third party mobile apps to make them less like second-class citizens in the ecosystem and more like integral parts. Facebook’s thought process here is believed to be that since they don’t control a mobile OS themselves (their attempts to fork Android to make their own version haven’t gone as well as it has for Amazon, for example) they need better hooks to get outside mobile app data into Facebook on both iOS and Android. Part of this is believed to be a mobile version of the Like Button for each platform. But the bigger picture remains Project Spartan. No, it’s not going to be called that when it’s launched at f8, but it is ready to go. And the latest we’ve heard is that the scope has expanded a bit. While at first, developers were asked to focus on mobile Safari, they’re now focused on desktop, iOS (including iPad), and Android. Facebook continues their moves to go all-in on HTML5 (well, aside from the mobile apps which they likely view as a necessary evil for now — and still use a lot of HTML5). And obviously, games remain a big part of this. One other thing we’ve heard is that developers were asked to make sure their Spartan apps work in UIWebView — likely because Facebook wants them to work within the Facebook iPad app itself as well. That may also be related to why the app has been delayed. Mobile Credits should be a part of Spartan as well (at least they were in the version we saw). We’ll see how Apple reacts to this if it’s a part of the apps — again, perhaps this is related to the iPad app delay. Maybe Facebook will keep it in the browser version only. Meanwhile, we’ve heard that while the secretive BoltJS project is important to Facebook in mobile, it is unrelated to Project Spartan right now. One reason is that six weeks ago, Spartan expanded beyond mobile Safari, but BoltJS is still tied to it. Facebook may or may not talk about BoltJS at f8. Facebook is the world’s largest social network, with over 500 million users. Facebook was founded by Mark Zuckerberg in February 2004, initially as an exclusive network for Harvard students. It was a huge hit: in 2 weeks, half of the schools in the Boston area began demanding a Facebook network. Zuckerberg immediately recruited his friends Dustin Moskowitz and Chris Hughes to help build Facebook, and within four months, Facebook added 30 more college networks. The original idea for the term...
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| Rumor: Sprint Blacks Out Vacation Days In October To Prep For iPhone 5 Posted: 09 Sep 2011 02:19 PM PDT  Oh, what’s this? Sprint is reportedly blacking out vacation days between September 30th and October 15th? For a “major phone launch”? Major phone launch. Early October (right when the iPhone 5 is likely to be launched.) Yeah, the rumor mill just caught on fire. Word of the blackout comes from Sprint Feed, who received the memo above from a source they’re confident enough in to refer to as a “beloved Super Spy”. Last time Sprint did this, it was for the launch of the Pre. That launch obviously wasn’t as big as they’d hoped, but it goes to show that it’s not something they do all that often. Of course, a memo like the one above isn’t exactly hard to fake — but for what it’s worth, the fonts, icons, and layout all look strikingly similar to the stuff I’ve seen on Sprint retail machines. If it is fake, it’s at least faked by someone who has spent some time working at a Sprint store. As for the possibility of it being a different major phone launch in early October: maybe if Sprint doesn’t want that phone to, you know, sell. Otherwise, the pieces of the puzzle just fit together way, way too well. Started by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne, Apple has expanded from computers to consumer electronics over the last 30 years, officially changing their name from Apple Computer, Inc. to Apple, Inc. in January 2007. Among the key offerings from Apple’s product line are: Pro line laptops (MacBook Pro) and desktops (Mac Pro), consumer line laptops (MacBook) and desktops (iMac), servers (Xserve), Apple TV, the Mac OS X and Mac OS X Server operating systems, the iPod (offered with... Sprint Nextel offers a comprehensive range of wireless and wireline communications services bringing the freedom of mobility to consumers, businesses and government users. Sprint Nextel is widely recognized for developing, engineering and deploying innovative technologies, including two wireless networks serving almost 49 million customers at the end of the second quarter of 2009; industry-leading mobile data services; instant national and international push-to-talk capabilities; and a global Tier 1 Internet backbone.
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| Nvidia: We’re No Longer In The Processor Business Because Intel “Preferred That We Weren’t” Posted: 09 Sep 2011 01:03 PM PDT  If the meek capitulation in the headline sounds uncharacteristic of Nvidia’s infamously outspoken CEO, Jen-Hsun Huang, it’s probably because he’s bitter. Though the GPU-focused company announced way back in 2008 that it was going to “open a can of whoop-ass” on Intel, very little has happened, at least on the consumer side. Intel and Nvidia have had some major differences, and remain fierce competitors, but it’s been made clear that Intel won’t tolerate anyone making a grab at its x86 treasure hoard. But Nvidia isn’t going quietly. Or rather, they’re going quietly just so they can sneak around the back. While Intel is cracking its whip at anyone who wants a piece of x86, Nvidia and ARM, among others, are performing a flanking maneuver in the mobile sector. Intel itself has expressed contrition regarding its mobile and tablet efforts. When you’re shipping a couple hundred million processors every year, things like the iPad get lost in the shuffle, apparently. But the power level of tablets and mobiles is growing, and Intel has not provided that growth. They promised an x86 handset in 2012, but at this point they’re playing catch-up. Only an tiny fraction of tablets and phones sold use Intel hardware — mainly the Windows-running ones. Meanwhile Nvidia is getting lean and focusing on blowing up their graphics and mobile divisions. The next couple years might see some interesting partnerships, however. The ARM-Nvidia alliance might go up against something like an Intel-Microsoft-Nokia conglomerate, while team Apple watches from the sidelines. It’ll be a hell of a battle, but the winner will really be the consumer, whom every company will be going out of their way to please. Faster, smaller, and cheaper chips and phones. Sounds like a good deal to me.
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| Lowe’s Invests In 42,000 iPhones To Improve Your Shopping Experience Posted: 09 Sep 2011 12:49 PM PDT  Take it from a former retail drone: trying to give customers a good shopping experience can be tough when you have to jostle with other employees for open computers. In-store networks are slow, and more often than not, the computers are even slower. It’s enough of a process that a once free-flowing conversation can dry up into an awkward silence while the computer struggles to find the widget in question. Thankfully, hardware retailer Lowe’s has decided to do something about that lackluster experience: they have (among other things) purchased 42,000 iPhones to make their employees walking, talking sources of home improvement information. The purchase is partially in response to a similar move made by their orange rival Home Depot. Last year, Home Depot spent $60 million on a fleet of Motorola mobile devices that were meant to keep employees with customers and out of the computer line. Lowe’s has similar hopes for their iPhones: they will allow employees to perform on-the-go product lookups, check stock, and pull up instructional videos for customers. Each Lowe’s location is slated to receive 25 iPhones, but the rollout schedule has yet to be announced. Lowe’s wants to expand the capabilities of their in-store iPhones, assuming this first rollout goes well. The iPhones presumably lock out certain features to reduce the amount of employee shirking that’s possible, so mundane features on the short list include mobile calling and email. Lowe’s also hopes to add the ability to ring up purchases directly from the phone a la Square. According to Lowe’s CIO Mike Brown, the plan is to “[play] catch-up with the customer psyche,” which shines a bit of light on the company’s choice of mobile device. The iPhone is, for better or worse, a status device — the “cool” alternative to Home Depot’s own Motorola handhelds. The company’s recent move to replace CRT displays with flat panels and installing WiFi in stores also point to a new strategy for them. It looks like Lowe’s is trying to fight a war of positioning: they want to assume the role of the modern, forward-thinking hardware store. Whether or not it’ll pan out has yet to be seen, but they at least deserve some credit for trying to keep the retail run-down to a minimum.
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| Adobe Gives Up On Apple, Works Around iOS’ Flash Video Limitations Posted: 09 Sep 2011 10:20 AM PDT  Ardent iOS supporters have been clamoring for true Flash support for years, and with the announcement of their new version of Flash Media Server, Adobe completely fails to deliver. Instead, they’ve managed to update their media server with a way to get streaming Flash video running on Apple’s myriad iOS devices. Alas, while you can’t start working through your backlog of artsy Flash games, Flash Media Server 4.5 allows content producers to easily to get their Flash content onto iOS devices without any additional headache. While older versions of the media server served up video streams in the F4F format, the update has added support for the HTTP Live Streaming format, which iPads and the like can handle just fine. The media server system, according to ZDNet, detects the device’s level of Flash-capability and will switch over to using the HLS format when it sees an iOS device. It’s actually pretty ironic: in order to make Flash video streaming work, the new version of Media Server actually has to un-Flash the content and wrap it in another, more iOS-friendly container. While it isn’t the Holy Grail of iOS Flash support, it’s a solution that works, and will make life easier for those in the unenviable position of managing live video streams. Hopefully Adobe has a team sequestered in a bunker working getting actual Flash support working now that they’ve managed to cross “streaming video” off the list.
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| HTC Sends Out Invites For A Mystery Announcement On Sept. 20th Posted: 09 Sep 2011 09:58 AM PDT  “Come celebrate in style with HTC,” they say. Celebrate what? HTC has just begun to send out press invites for a mystery event in New York City on September 20th. Unlike Samsung, who tends to make it blatantly obvious what they plan to discuss, HTC is being a bit more cryptic here. Given the ambiguous nature of the invite, that HTC makes both Android handsets and Windows Phone 7 handsets (and a BREW handset from time to time), and that there are around a dozen rumored HTC handsets floating around at any given time (see: HTC Bliss, HTC Titan, HTC Amaze 4G, HTC Vigor), it’s tough to nail down exactly what they might have up their sleeve. With that said: we will, of course, be digging around for more info on what they might unveil. Be sure to let us know if you hear anything, won’t you? HTC Corp, (TAIEX: 2498) produces smartphones running the Android and Windows Phone 7 operating systems for themselves and as an OEM to other manufacturers. Since launching its own brand in late 2006, the company has introduced dozens of HTC-branded products around the world. The company recently introduced the HTC diamond to compete with Apple’s iPhone. Founded in 1997 by Cher Wang, Chairwoman, and Peter Chou, President and CEO, HTC made its name as the company behind many of the...
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| Conan O’Brien: Apple Wants Its Lost iPhone 5 Back [Video] Posted: 09 Sep 2011 09:46 AM PDT  “We are planning things that will make Vlad the Impaler look like Mr. **** Rogers.” That’s what Graham Davies, the fictional Apple VP of Marketing in Conan’s many Apple spoofs, stated in response to someone stealing a misplaced iPhone 5. Supposedly, this latest bit, which aired last night, is Apple’s commercial, not for the iPhone 5 itself, but rather as a lethal warning for the person who stole the iPhone 5 prototype. Get it? You see, if the Internet is to be believed, an Apple engineer left an iPhone 5 prototype in a bar (again) and then someone else took it home. Instead of selling it to Gizmodo like with the iPhone 4, this person just held on to it and then Apple security personal enlisted the help of the local police for a little off-the-books search and rescue based on the phone’s GPS records. This all reportedly went down in July and the San Francisco police just started an internal investigation into the allegations the officers overstepped their bounds. It’s no doubt a serious matter. Enter Conan.
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| Samsung Responds To More OS Acquisition Rumors: Nope, We’re Not Buying MeeGo Either Posted: 09 Sep 2011 09:41 AM PDT  MeeGo is up in the air. Nokia turned its back on MeeGo a while ago. Intel, meanwhile, promises to continue to support the open-source community, but reports claim that it has decided to temporarily suspend development of the platform. And so begins the rotation of a mighty rumor mill. Mobiledia reported on Tuesday that Samsung was interested in purchasing MeeGo, citing unidentified industry sources. It’s true that Samsung does need to diversify in the OS department. The Googorola deal should have that affect on all of the major Android partners. Plus, there’s that whole “Microsoft cashing in on Android” thing to worry about. But Samsung has even more to worry about. The company is Apple’s favorite litigation target (as well as one of its biggest competitors) and Android is Apple’s greatest obstacle on the path to mobile domination. A new OS would go a long way to get Apple off of Samsung’s back. But MeeGo? While it’s kind-of-sort-of-maybe plausible that Samsung would grab MeeGo, it’s a long shot. Samsung has its own software platform up and running: Bada. If the company really wanted to partially split from Android, why not just work on the platform it already owns and make it perfect? Plus, even MeeGo’s co-creator Nokia isn’t all that fond of the platform. And as I mentioned earlier, Intel seems to be kind of over it, too. Why would Samsung run to snatch up a platform that has already been dropped by its makers? Rather than dump on the platform, Samsung took the diplomatic route with its response: “Meego is an open source project which can not be a target of acquisition,” Samsung representative James Chung told CNET. As far as software acquisitions go, all eyes have been on Samsung. When webOS was partially ditched by HP, rumors also circulated that Samsung may be interested in picking it up. Samsung denied those rumors about as quickly as they denied these. Chung mentioned that “Samsung has been investing significantly in its own software, solutions, and content to differentiate its product offering and to provide a richer experience for consumers.” In other words, it sounds like Sammy will be sticking with Android for the time being, while continuing to tinker with Bada as a backup project. Samsung is one of the largest super-multinational companies in the world. It’s possibly best known for it’s subsidiary, Samsung Electronics, the largest electronics company in the world. Intel is best known for producing the microprocessors found in many personal computers. The company also makes a range of other hardware including network cards, motherboards, and graphics chips. Intel created the first commercial microprocessor chip in 1971, but it was not until the success of the personal computer that microprocessors became their primary business. In the 1980’s they were an early developer of SRAM and DRAM memory chip, and during the 1990s they invested heavily in new microprocessor...
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| Sprint To Offer Unlimited Data For iPhone, But Will It Last? Posted: 09 Sep 2011 08:27 AM PDT  Reports of the iPhone’s forthcoming launch on Sprint just don’t seem to quit, and today is no exception. Sources close to the situation say that Sprint plans to retain their unlimited data plans for use with the iPhone when it makes it official debut some time in October. If this actually pans out, then Sprint gains the lofty distinction of being the only nationwide carrier to offer unlimited data for use with the iPhone. This move stands in stark contrast to larger rivals AT&T and Verizon, who have both already made the shift into tiered data plans. Bloomberg’s sources say that Sprint hopes that by committing to unlimited data, they will siphon customers away from their larger, pricier rivals. Sprint is generally outgunned by the other two as far as network coverage, so it seems like they’re going to do whatever it takes to make their iPhone launch a fruitful one. While offering unlimited data is quite the competitive advantage, one big question is left hanging in the air: how long will it last? If demand for a Sprint iPhone is as high as they hope, then a big wave of new customers jonesing for all-you-can-eat data could ultimately end up straining Sprint’s network. A recent study from Validas shows that Sprint’s smartphone customers already are among the hungriest in the market, meaning that customers who show up expecting unlimited data are more likely to use it. The worst case scenario for Sprint would be if they decided to go the Verizon route: when they launched the iPhone 4 back in February, Verizon kept their unlimited data plan, only to kill it four months later. Verizon had the robustness of their network to fall back on, but with a smaller network, Sprint may not be able to accomplish that same feat. Once everyone has the iPhone, the only thing that will set Sprint apart is that data plan — let’s hope it’s here to stay.
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