smaxp - Slashdot User

Submission + - Nest to build out IoT with acquisition of Revolv's home hub engineering team (networkworld.com)

Submitted by smaxp on Monday October 27, 2014 @06:21PM

smaxp writes: The next step for IoT in the home will enable devices from different manufacturers to communicate with each other.

Spending $3.2 billion for Nest in January, followed by a $555 million buyout of Dropcam in June and last week's acquisition of Revlov for an undisclosed amount, Google is moving quickly into the home Internet of Things (IoT) market.

Submission + - How Sony, Intel, and Unix made Apple's Mac a PC competitor (networkworld.com)

Submitted by smaxp on Thursday October 23, 2014 @01:09PM

smaxp writes: In 2007, Sony’s supply chain lessons, the network effect from the shift to Intel architecture, and a better OS X for developers combined to renew the Mac’s growth. The network effects of the Microsoft Wintel ecosystem that Rappaport explained 20 years ago in the Harvard Business Review are no longer a big advantage. By turning itself into a premium PC company with a proprietary OS, Apple has taken the best of PC ecosystem, but avoided taking on the disadvantages.

Submission + - Is the HTC Eye the Nexus 6? - Is RE Camera a new category? (networkworld.com)

Submitted by smaxp on Friday October 10, 2014 @02:40PM

smaxp writes: Perhaps the Eye will be a lower-cost option to the HTC One, like the iPhone 5C is to the 5S. The usual mobile carriers are supported, with the exclusion of Verizon Wireless. Verizon opted out of the Nexus 5 even though the internal radio hardware supports it. Perhaps the HTC Eye will be the new Nexus 6.

Submission + - The HTC Zoe ecosystem, a short automated video editor and cloud service (networkworld.com)

Submitted by smaxp on Friday October 10, 2014 @10:42AM

smaxp writes: HTC debuts Zoe, short automated video editor and cloud service. The Zoe short automated video editor and cloud service is HTC’s chance at creating a missing ingredient — an ongoing open ecosystem that keeps Android and iOS users engaged with the company between phone upgrades.

Zoe fits somewhere between Instagram’s Hyperlapse, which processes videos into short time-lapsed video, and Google Auto Awesome Stories,

A few details about the Zoe app and cloud service, users can combine videos automatically into a composite video of 7, 15, and 30 seconds in length. No surprise, the video lengths align with Snapchat, Hyperlapse, and Facebook. An algorithm chooses how to edit the videos into a short series of highlights. After the composite video has been created, it can be set to music with another algorithm aligning the music by beat with the video scene transitions. Themes with Instagram-like filters and special transitions can be applied to the video mashup.

Friends can be invited to collaborate and add their own video highlights to the video mashup uploaded to the Zoe cloud service.

Submission + - Highfive wants to become the Nest of B2B video conferencing

Submitted by smaxp on Tuesday October 07, 2014 @11:23AM

smaxp writes: Conference calls are notoriously unproductive, and one company wants to fix that with simple videoconferencing. Today, Highfive announced its video collaboration cloud service and purpose-built camera intent on inspiring business users to jump into face-to-face video conferences more often.

Highfive CEO Shan Sinha wants to change this, along with company culture, by replacing conference calls with conference-room-wide video calls integrated with a cloud-based video collaboration application and an integrated camera, speaker, and microphone.

The company has raised $13.4 million from investors such as Salesforce founder and CEO Marc Benioff, Box founder and CEO Aaron Levie, Dropbox founder and CEO Drew Houston, Google Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, and General Catalyst Partners

Submission + - Can't fix it, can't sell it: HP gives PC business to investors (networkworld.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 06, 2014 @02:30PM

An anonymous reader writes: Hewlett-Packard’s breakup into two companies was the company's third choice to save itself. The first two – a turnaround and the sale of the business – haven’t worked. According to Re/Code, HP approached both Dell and Lenovo to acquire the business and were rebuffed. Under PC and printer chief Dion Weisler, the business unit has started growing again, but it appears that HP's boat has been raised by the incoming tide of a new cycle of PC growth, which Richard Windsor of Radio Free Mobile once predicted. But in the longer term, the PC business isn’t a growth business.

Submission + - VoLTE - Once again Apple copies Android (networkworld.com)

Submitted by smaxp on Monday September 22, 2014 @04:53PM

smaxp writes: Apple and carriers are getting a lot attention with iPhone 6 bringing HD quality voice calls.

In reality, it’s the first Apple device consumers can use to both make phone calls and use the internet at fast 4G LTE speeds.

Most Samsung smartphones were VoLTE-enabled since the Samsung Galaxy S III, announced almost two and a half years ago. AT&T introduced VoLTE with the Samsung S4 Mini last May.

Android users have long enjoyed simultaneous voice calls and the 4G internet because most Android smartphones have two chips and two antennas, one for the 4G mobile data network and the other for the old GSM/UMTS and CDMA2000 mobile voice networks

Submission + - How to watch the Apple's iPhone announcement without an Apple device (networkworld.com) 1

Submitted by smaxp on Tuesday September 09, 2014 @12:43PM

smaxp writes: If your a linux or Windows user her is a tutorial about how to watch the Apple announcement without a Mac or iPad

Submission + - Will Apple's iWatch be smart or dumb? (networkworld.com)

Submitted by smaxp on Monday September 08, 2014 @05:59PM

smaxp writes: Looking back at the smartwatches and activity trackers built by others begs the question — will the iWatch be a smart microprocessor-based device to which Apple’s developers can add value, like Android Wear watches from Samsung, LG, and Motorola? Or will it be a dumb-but-power-efficient microcontroller device like the Fitbit or Jawbone?

Submission + - Emerging smartphone markets to soar as mature market growth slows, IDC says (networkworld.com)

Submitted by smaxp on Friday August 29, 2014 @01:30PM

smaxp writes: Emerging smartphone markets to soar as mature market growth slows, IDC says. Established mobile ecosystems, Apple, Google, Facebook and Yahoo will face new challenges repeating earlier success in emerging markets.

Submission + - Vine competitor - Facebook Hyperlapse: sidesteps newsfeed video fatigue (networkworld.com)

Submitted by smaxp on Tuesday August 26, 2014 @06:59PM

smaxp writes: Hyperlapse merges image stabilization and fast forward to automatically compress mobile videos into short stories, sidestepping Facebook video fatigue.

Face it — most mobile videos shot by your friends are hard to watch. The popularity of Vine’s seven-second videos has made this abundantly clear. Unless it’s a video of a cat attacking a dog to protect a toddler, longer videos are just not that engaging and won’t be shared that much.

Submission + - Twitter tells tale of LinkedIn outage (networkworld.com)

Submitted by smaxp on Wednesday August 20, 2014 @03:51PM

smaxp writes: The first tweeted report appeared in the twitter stream on Friday morning Aug. 15 was sent to @Linkedinhelp. Based on Linkedin’s recommendation to try a different browser, the company seemed unaware of the problem.

Submission + - Peace in the Middle East at Last (facebook.com)

Submitted by smaxp on Sunday July 27, 2014 @12:28PM

smaxp writes: Disney CEO IIger, obviously elated opened saying "Walt Disney wanted to scoop up this property [Israel and Palestine] back in 1947 and was close to a deal with the Brits but then history got in the way."We've always wanted to buildout a real historic destination into a theme park instead of building places in the middle of nowhere like Epcot Center that only Americans who never go anywhere would want to go.”

Submission + - The post-iPhone era began today at noon in India, GMT +5:30 hours (networkworld.com)

Submitted by smaxp on Tuesday July 22, 2014 @10:20PM

smaxp writes: Steven Max Patterson writes that The post-iPhone era began today at noon in India, GMT +5:30 hours. Earlier today Xiaomi’s Mi3 stock was sold out in 38 minutes and 50 seconds on Flipkart, India's largest ecommerce website.This marks the beginning of the post-iPhone era.

This is because the 80% of the smartphones sold in India cost less than $250. Apple's expectations are so low in India that the company has not even opened one of its revenue generating Apple retail stores anywhere in India.

In markets with lower per capita incomes (GDP) Android market share eclipses iOS challenging Apple to compete with its premium priced iPhone 5s that costs $901 in India where mobile carriers don't subsidize smartphones.

The problem for Apple is all the smartphone growth in the future will come from developing markets where Android dominates with low cost and rich features.

Submission + - Revenue from the Google Play store will overtake Apple's app store in 2018 (qz.com)

Submitted by smaxp on Thursday July 17, 2014 @09:27AM

smaxp writes: If Clay Christensen is right, the lower income, underserved market that can’t afford Apple products is open for Google to disrupt. IDC has forecasted an average smartphone selling price of $335 this year, which is nearly half the price of an iPhone 5s. As the iPhone price premium grows relative to Android, the differences between what Apple and Google offers to consumers and developers has narrowed significantly.

If Android retains its dominant market share and the emerging app marketing and mobile advertising industry increase the amount of money spent by each Android consumer, Google’s app revenue will likely eclipse Apple’s. It’ll be hard for Apple to stop Google’s momentum short of introducing a cheaper iPhone.

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