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- Sony Forecasts US$1.15 Billion Loss For This Fiscal Year
- More Mind-Blowing Real-World Kinect Interaction From Microsoft Research
- Will The Next Wave Of E-Paper Devices Have Glowing Screens?
- Motorola’s Xoom 2 Spied In Catalog, Should Launch Before Christmas
- Samsung Asks Apple To Hand Over iPhone 4S Source Code
- FyreTV Now Streaming Porn To Boxee For $10 A Month
- Kindle Fire Code-Base Baffles Developers: Android, KF8, Or Both?
| Sony Forecasts US$1.15 Billion Loss For This Fiscal Year Posted: 02 Nov 2011 01:54 AM PDT  Sony issued their latest financial results today, and in a nutshell, the numbers aren’t looking good for the second quarter of the fiscal year, and they aren’t expected to improve for the fiscal as a whole either. Big S lost US$346 million in the quarter that ended on September 30, while the company reported US$397 million in profit in the same time frame last year. Sony revised both forecasted sales and income for this year downward and now expects revenue to hit US$83 billion (minus 10% when compared to the latest forecast in June) and a full-year loss of a whopping US$1.15 billion. In June, Sony predicted US$768 million in profit for the fiscal. So what happened? According to Sony, various factors are affecting their business this year, including the rising yen, the floods in Thailand (Sony is making electronics there and had to cope with production problems), and weak LCD TV sales.
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| More Mind-Blowing Real-World Kinect Interaction From Microsoft Research Posted: 01 Nov 2011 02:39 PM PDT  Have you had your share of augmented reality this month? Between CMU’s OmniTouch, Microsoft’s HoloDesk, and Metaio’s updated AR app, you could be forgiven. But trust me, you’ll want to watch this video of Microsoft Research prototypes using pico projectors and Kinect cameras. The ability to quickly build and track a 3D model of the environment (as we and Bill Gates both found amazing) is combined with the ability to display synthetic information onto the real environment. The result? The digital simulation of the world is overlaid on the world, in real time, and it’s utterly insane. Look, just watch. It’s six minutes you’ll be glad you wasted: The clincher is right there at the end. Virtual particles pouring off the desk and into a real drawer. The pico projector could be a little more wide-angle, but they’re getting there. Perhaps a 3D VR display a la Vuzix (I never thought I’d be recommending one) is the trick. Can you imagine playing a game where your body, hands, and fingers are all accurately tracked, and the line between digital and real items is blurred? It’s one more step towards a holodeck, but right now it’s still just collaborative research between Microsoft Research and Lancaster and Newcastle Universities (created for the Pervasive conference at Newcastle). Like so many things at Microsoft Research and Labs, it would require millions in development to make into a product, but it’s too cool not to share. [via HardOCP]
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| Will The Next Wave Of E-Paper Devices Have Glowing Screens? Posted: 01 Nov 2011 01:32 PM PDT  Depending on who you talk to, the fact that you need a light to read e-paper-based e-readers like the Kindle is either a strength or a weakness. It’s become part of the branding, after all: “just like real paper!” But with increasing competition from LCD-based devices, it might be that E-Ink and its many clients will need to level the playing field. How about a softly-glowing screen? The eBook Reader points out a newish technology being pitched as the next step in passive displays. Flex Lighting makes an extremely thin layer (0.05mm thick) that allows light from hidden LEDs to be distributed evenly over its whole surface. The light is directed towards the screen itself, it seems, which is certainly necessary for a reflective-type display. It only needs one or two LEDs, so battery draw is minimal, and the extreme thinness and flexibility make it work in practically any display stack. The technology has existed for ages, but they claim their new method is both thinner and superior to existing implementations. I’ll believe it when I see it, personally: this sounds pretty sweet, but how it performs in real life is all that matters. Will it be too dim? Too bright? Will people even want it? Is it expensive? Hopefully these guys will have a booth at CES and we can drop by and check out their technology in person.
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| Motorola’s Xoom 2 Spied In Catalog, Should Launch Before Christmas Posted: 01 Nov 2011 12:20 PM PDT  We were half-expecting to see the Xoom 2 officially break cover at Motorola’s Droid RAZR launch event (especially since some incriminating photos of the tab leaked just prior to it), but according to the latest Carphone Warehouse buyer’s guide, the Xoom 2 should make its debut in time for the holidays. I managed to scrounge up a high resolution shot of the page in question (below), and it points out a few interesting particulars. The 16GB WiFi-only model is slated to run tablet-hungry customers €399 (roughly $545) when it hits Ireland later this year. It also runs Android 3.2/Gingerbread, much to the consternation of Ice Cream Sandwich fans the world over. Sadly, Carphone Warehouse’s copywriters didn’t feel like waxing technical, so there’s still no confirmation regarding what the Xoom 2 has lurking under its hood. The ad’s spec sheet also lists the Xoom 2 as having a 8.2-inch touchscreen, which brings up a few questions — is this the rumored media-friendly model with a built-in IR blaster? Where’s the 10.1-inch model that we’ve seen so much of? Questions still outnumber answers at this point, but it shouldn’t be too long before things start coming into focus. For what it’s worth, I get the impression that the unit we see here is the most basic version of the smaller Xoom 2, codenamed “Fleming”. It lacks many of the frills that previous leaks have alluded to, like an LTE radio and higher-capacity flash memory chips. If nothing else, it gives me hope that a wallet-friendly Xoom 2 may soon see the light of day around these parts. Considering that Motorola is selling a “family version” of the original Xoom for $379, a $450 entry-level Xoom 2 wouldn’t be impossible, especially if Motorola just wants to move hardware over the holidays.
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| Samsung Asks Apple To Hand Over iPhone 4S Source Code Posted: 01 Nov 2011 07:16 AM PDT  If Apple was a melody and Samsung was a beat, their legal battle would be the song that never ends. On the whole, the war has lasted more than six months, spanned more than half the continents, and is still only in its formative stages. Final decisions have yet to be made in almost all of the cases, and in predictable fashion, the duo are igniting new battles at what feels like a daily rate. This time, Samsung is asking for some juicy deets in its Australian counter suit against Apple. After Apple won a preliminary injunction on the Galaxy Tab 10.1, Samsung vowed to get more aggressive. And so they have, filing for a preliminary injunction against Apple’s brand new iPhone 4S. In doing so, Samsung has requested the source code for the iPhone 4S, as well as details on Apple’s subsidy deals with Australian carriers. Samsung’s argument is that the iPhone 4S infringes three patents it holds, all concerned with 3G wireless technology and the transmission of mobile data. However, the patents in question are standard essentials patents, which means the technology they cover is a necessity industry-wide, rather than a specific brand innovation. In that case, Samsung is required to offer FRAND (Fair, Reasonable, and Non-Discriminatory) licensing terms, which, according to Samsung, Apple refused. Apple, on the other hand, says its covered by a third-party licensing agreement made by Qualcomm on the MDM6610 chipset, reports SmartOffice. Still, Samsung asserts that whatever licensing deal is in place may not extend into Australian turf. In other words, this dueling duo can’t seem to get their licensing deals straight, or are at least doing a helluva job making it appear that way to the judge. Speaking of the judge, the same judge that ruled in the Apple vs. Samsung Galaxy Tab case is taking the reigns here: Judge Annabelle Bennett. She listened this morning as Samsung counsel Cynthia Cochrane asked for the iPhone source code, along with subsidy agreement details in order to make a case for a sales ban. “If subsidies are given for the iPhone 4S, there are less to go around for my client’s products,” said Cochrane. Samsung is looking to get the subsidy numbers from Vodafone, Telstra and Optus, the three major carriers in Australia. Meanwhile, Apple is looking for advice from counsel before agreeing to hand over the source code, which is a pretty solid idea. Who knows what infringing features Samsung will find in there? In any case, this is much less of a blow to Apple than the Galaxy Tab sales ban is for Samsung. The iPhone 4S is “a horse [that has] already bolted,” according to Apple’s lawyers. The iPhone, in particular, tends to sell fast directly at launch, presumably because people want as much time as possible with the “new” iPhone before Apple tosses something better into the market. Plus, if you don’t move fast for a new Apple product, it usually sells out. Despite Samsung’s 4S sales publicity stunt, Apple lawyers are indeed correct in saying that the iPhone has already left the building, while the GalTab never even made it to shelves. Past that, if Samsung can’t find any further infringement (should Apple offer up the source code), then the case will most likely result in FRAND licensing deals between Samsung and Apple. That is, if Apple’s Qualcomm deal doesn’t hold up. Summarily, Apple has more than a few lines of defense against this attack, and if Samsung wants more than a headache out of this, it’ll surely be an uphill battle. The case will continue on Friday, November 4. 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...
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| FyreTV Now Streaming Porn To Boxee For $10 A Month Posted: 01 Nov 2011 06:56 AM PDT  Porn sells. That’s the dirty truth of the Internet and Boxee is adding a new source of adult material on its streaming platform. FyreTV (NSFW LINK) joins YouPorn, Husler, PinkVisual in serving up, ummm, NSFTW (not safe for the wife) material on both the Boxee app and the standalone Boxee Box. For $10 a month, the FyreTV app opens a door to 15,000 movies from over 100 studios. Take that, Netflix! Porn isn’t a new venture for Boxee. The streaming app has featured adult apps for some time and allows users to lock out that content through a password-protected setting. There’s even a new dedicated adult app category. FyreTV recently launched on Roku devices as well, leaving behind its older model of leasing dedicated porn streaming boxes (our video review is below). Once again, consumers do not want a single use set-top box, especially one that’s dedicated just to smut. By bringing their huge porn library to popular streamers, FyreTV eliminates the expense of selling and supporting hardware while reaching a broader audience. Boxee likely doesn’t want to be known as the porn streamer box. However, as long as there’s sufficient parental controls in place (which there seems to be), the company is simply growing its business by offering more content to its users. It’s hard to hate on that.
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| Kindle Fire Code-Base Baffles Developers: Android, KF8, Or Both? Posted: 01 Nov 2011 06:30 AM PDT  Editor’s note: Guest contributor Steve Rosnebaum is CEO of Magnify. With two weeks to go before Amazon ships its highly anticipated Kindle Fire to the first 500,000 pre-order customers, folks in the developer community are finding it hard to sort out just what flavor of Android will run on the platform. One thing is for sure, Mobi is out—as Amazon embraces both HTML5 and CSS3 in the new format. Today Kindle Format 8 powers the book reader on the Kindle Fire device, and Amazon is now telling developers that KF8 will be available on all Kindle e-ink devices in months ahead, and importantly, KF8 will be available on the free Kindle reading apps as well. This means KF8 should be available on the iPad—which could be very interesting. KF8 is a major improvement over Mobi, with 150 new formatting styles including embedded fonts, drop caps and CSS selectors such as line spacing, alignment, justification, margin, color, style and borders. But, as of today, the tools to build in the KF8 format aren’t available—with ‘coming soon’ being as much as we know for the important KindleGen2 Publisher Tool and Kindle Previewer 2. Even the Kindle Publishing Guidelines aren’t yet published, leaving content owners with a lot of enthusiasm, but little actionable information. Kindle Fire will be backwards compatible, so all content published in Mobi format will work on the new devices, which may be one reason that Amazon isn’t rushing to put the KF8 tools in the market. Kindle Fire will launch with plenty of content, just not as snazzy as it could be if HTML5 and CSS3 specs for the device were in the hands of content owners a bit earlier. Once the Kindle Previewer 2 is available, publishers will be able to port old titles over from Mobi, and see how they appear on a range of new Kindle devices and free reader apps. So, for the ‘reader’ content world, there’s a clear path to the new world of KF8 – even if the timing of the publishing guidelines and tools are somewhat fuzzy. But, for Kindle Fire App developers, the roadmap to the device is less clear. The Kindle Fire is a tablet built on Android. Amazon developers forked Android along the way (rumors say either the Frozen Yogurt 2.2 or Gingerbread 2.3.4) Actually this a tablet built off a smartphone OS and not the current Android tablet OS, Ice Cream Sandwich. All developers know for sure are the specs of the device, and what it won’t support. At a high level, it must be optimized for Android 2.3.4 (Gingerbread) and a 7″ screen with a resolution of 1024 x 600. Your app cannot require Google Mobile Services (GMS), a gyroscope, camera, WAN module, Bluetooth, microphone, GPS, or micro-SD to function. Adobe AIR is pre-installed on Kindle Fire. And Amazon says that to increase the ‘probability’ that your app will be compatible with Kindle Fire, you should only use Ice Cream Sandwich APIs that are backwards compatible with Gingerbread. What about testing? Amazon suggests developers configure a standard Android emulator to simulate the Kindle Fire device platform at this time. It seems like the current focus at Amazon is testing the entire existing Amazon Marketplace Android marketplace, and then alerting app developers know if their app will work on the Kindle Fire. If it fails QA, then developers have a chance to make fixes and republishing the app in the Android Marketplace. Given the massive content resources of Amazon, it appears that the tablet wars are going to be a major theme of 2012. Already JP Morgan is reporting sales of the Fire on pace to sell up to 5 million units in Q4 of 2011. A fast start against the iPad market which currently reports 32 million iPads in consumer’s hands. The blog Cult of Android reported a "source" provided it with "exclusive screenshots of Amazon's internal inventory system" showing that 254,074 Kindle Fires were pre-ordered in the first 5 days: "over 2,000 units per hour, or over 50,000 per day." This puts the Kindle Fire on track to beat the iPad and iPad 2's first-month sales So, the Kindle Crusade is very much on a roll. Sales are robust. The KF8 standard will impact the current e-pub3 world. And the Kindle Fire will provide a new, large, and potentially profitable outlet for app developers once there’s clarity around the flavor of Android that will power the device and once the dev tools and an emulator make their way into the market. If Fire ends up equalling Android Tablet, Amazon will have created a powerful edge in race to win the new portable content consumer. Kindle Fire brings you Movies, apps, games, music, reading and more, plus Amazon’s cloud-accelerated web browser Product features: 18 million movies, TV shows, songs, magazines, and books Amazon Appstore - thousands of popular apps and games Ultra-fast web browsing - Amazon Silk Free cloud storage for all your Amazon content Vibrant color touchscreen with extra-wide viewing angle Fast, powerful dual-core processor Amazon Prime members enjoy unlimited, instant streaming of over 10,000 popular movies and TV shows Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) is a leading global Internet company and one of the most trafficked Internet retail destinations worldwide. Amazon is one of the first companies to sell products deep into the long tail by housing them all in numerous warehouses and distributing products from many partner companies. Amazon directly sells, or acts as a platform for the sale of a broad range of products. These include books, music, videos, consumer electronics, clothing and household products. The majority of Amazon's...
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