AllThingsD » GPS http://allthingsd.com Fri, 10 Feb 2012 01:43:30 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 http://allthingsd.com/theme/images/logo-rss.jpg All Things Digital http://allthingsd.com/ 144 22 These Boots Are Made for Tracking: GPS Technology Comes to Shoes http://allthingsd.com/20120130/gps-technology-comes-to-shoes/ http://allthingsd.com/20120130/gps-technology-comes-to-shoes/#comments Mon, 30 Jan 2012 17:03:18 +0000 Lauren Goode http://allthingsd.com/?p=168656 A shoe that blends wearable comfort with GPS technology has made its way to the market. The tech-enhanced footwear is aimed at those suffering from Alzheimer’s disease and dementia whose caretakers may want to monitor their whereabouts.

The GPS shoes have a tracking device implanted in the right sole, with a GSM/CDMA antenna snaking up behind the heel so that the GPS signal is not blocked by the body; the shoe also includes a USB port, primarily for charging the product’s battery.

Made by footwear company Aetrex, with GPS technology provided by GTX Corp., the shoes cost $299.99, with the added monthly cost of a tracking plan. Caretakers can opt to have the wearer’s location recorded every 10 minutes for $39.99 a month, or every 30 minutes for $35.99 a month.

Customers can visit the Aetrex Web site to purchase the shoes, set up an account for the shoes through GTX Corp. and, using Google Maps, create a “geo-fence” encompassing what’s considered a safe distance around a wearer’s house or living community. The caretaker can opt to have messages sent via email or receive simple SMS text messages on a cellphone when the wearer wanders outside of the geo-fence.

The caretaker can then access the online portal to find the wearer’s location on a Google Map. There’s also an emergency backup system the caretaker can call for additional help; that requires the caretaker to share the GPS information with the emergency-care provider.

Aetrex began planning and designing the GPS shoes two years ago; the product was certified by the Federal Communications Commission in September of last year and began shipping in late December. Only a few hundred pairs have sold so far, but Aetrex president Evan Schwartz said the companies have done little marketing at this point, and have been focused instead on a strategic rollout of the shoes.

Schwartz also said the company will begin shipping to Canada and other countries soon, and that Aetrex and GTX have struck a deal with an international SIM card provider to make the tech available internationally.

For now, Aetrex and GTX are selling the shoes directly to consumers, but they have been in talks with the Alzheimer’s Association and the Veterans Benefits Association to explore partnerships for marketing the shoes to assisted-living communities and geriatrics departments.

While the GPS shoes could give caregivers some peace of mind if a family member is prone to wandering, the concept of trackable clothing could raise questions from both a technical and legal standpoint.

Aetrex says the battery life of the shoes lasts two days on average, but the shoes would be rendered ineffective if a caretaker wasn’t around to charge them, or the wearer forgot to do so. Also, if the person monitoring the shoe-wearer opts in for more frequent pings, the battery will die more quickly. Aetrex says the GPS shoe system does send email or text notifications to remind the caretaker when the battery is getting low.

There’s also the possibility, of course, that the wearer could remove the shoes, or simply refuse to wear them.

When someone purchases the GPS shoes and goes to activate the online monitoring system, he or she has to sign off that they are a designated caregiver, and that they have the authority to monitor the wearer of the shoes and make those kinds of decisions for the wearer. But, as with many of the technologies we have at our fingertips, there is always the possibility of misuse.

A recent Supreme Court case involving law enforcement officials’ use of GPS to track a drug-trafficking suspect has also raised some questions about the rights civilians have when it comes tracking others using GPS technology (our Wall Street Journal/SmartMoney colleagues did a good rundown of some instances where it can be done legally). Stories like these indicate that we’re still in the early stages of setting privacy standards when it comes to digital tracking.

“It’s all kinds of good and bad and ugly popping up when it comes to GPS tech these days, and that’s definitely a concern,” Schwartz said. “There are enough people who make jokes about tracking a spouse, or what if you threw the shoe in the trunk of someone’s car and they never know it’s being used for that, that sort of thing.”

“But at the same time,” he added, “this shoe has been designed to serve a purpose, and it’s to help caregivers, so we have a hard time believing someone would abuse this.”

Correction: An earlier version of this article said the GPA shoes support CDMA technology. The shoes do not support CDMA; the antennae in the shoes are GSM/GPS.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120130/gps-technology-comes-to-shoes/feed/ 0 High Court Backs Privacy Rights in GPS Case http://allthingsd.com/20120123/high-court-backs-privacy-rights-in-gps-case/ http://allthingsd.com/20120123/high-court-backs-privacy-rights-in-gps-case/#comments Mon, 23 Jan 2012 17:43:49 +0000 Jess Bravin http://allthingsd.com/?p=166444 The Supreme Court ruled Monday that police must obtain a warrant before attaching a GPS tracker to a suspect’s vehicle, voting unanimously in one of the first major cases to test constitutional privacy rights in the digital age.

The government argued that attaching the tiny device to a car’s undercarriage was too trivial a violation of property rights to matter, and that no one who drove in public streets could expect his movements to go unmonitored. Thus, the technique was “reasonable,” meaning that police were free to employ it for any reason without first justifying it to a magistrate, the government said.

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]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120123/high-court-backs-privacy-rights-in-gps-case/feed/ 0 Those Contextual Ads on the Windshield Will Get Dismal Clickthrough Rates http://allthingsd.com/20120111/those-contextual-ads-on-the-windshield-will-get-dismal-clickthrough-rates/ http://allthingsd.com/20120111/those-contextual-ads-on-the-windshield-will-get-dismal-clickthrough-rates/#comments Wed, 11 Jan 2012 08:01:36 +0000 Voices http://allthingsd.com/?p=162663

One of the core things that people do on their screens in the car is GPS navigation and the ability to see which of your friends are nearby is something we think will be really interesting for people.

– Facebook Vice President of Partnerships and Platform Marketing Dan Rose, referring to the Mercedes version of Facebook

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120111/those-contextual-ads-on-the-windshield-will-get-dismal-clickthrough-rates/feed/ 1 CES Notebook: The Constant Search for Power and Vegas' Worst-Kept Secrets http://allthingsd.com/20120108/ces-notebook-the-constant-search-for-power-and-vegas-worst-kept-secret/ http://allthingsd.com/20120108/ces-notebook-the-constant-search-for-power-and-vegas-worst-kept-secret/#comments Mon, 09 Jan 2012 03:52:13 +0000 Ina Fried and Lauren Goode http://allthingsd.com/?p=161362 What we’d really like to see at CES are devices with markedly better battery life.

But since that clearly isn’t happening any time soon, we’re happy to see that this year’s show brings some creative options for recharging on the go.

And, really, what better time to show off your goods than when a bunch of frazzled reporters and producers are scrambling to find power outlets? (We’re writing this from a well-powered press room right now, though just a couple hours ago, we were in separate Vegas casinos, each trying to charge our laptops without attracting hotel security.)

Fortunately, electronics makers are plugged in to our needs. (Get it?!)

While there are lots of options for those willing to tote around an external battery, one of the more intriguing new entries adds charging capability to something we are already carrying — a backpack. Made by RFA, the Powerbag series backpack carries along several hours’ worth of battery life, and the ability to charge up to four devices at once, using micro-USB, mini-USB, full-size USB and Apple’s 30-pin dock connector.

The bags are pretty well padded, too, and have water-resistant bottoms. The Powerbags aren’t cheap — they range from $139.99 to $249.99 — but they do look handy, and several models are already on the market.

Unfortunately, the backpacks don’t charge laptops. But for average consumers, as opposed to reporters filing stories, the included mobile chargers are probably much more useful.

SolarKindle from Solar Focus makes us think of a day at the beach, rather than five days at CES. But it packs two functions that could be useful into one Kindle case. The outside of the case has solar panels that power both an arm light on top of the Kindle screen and an extra battery that lives in the back of the case.

Because it uses comparatively little battery and lasts weeks at a time, the Kindle is a logical device for solar charging. Even hardcore geeks get at least one day of sun, right? However, the same logic suggests that Kindle owners can probably also find time to charge up, every month or so.

To that end, the Solar Focus device doesn’t work with the new Kindle Fire — as the company points out, the tablet has a backlit screen and doesn’t use E-ink, so the arm light isn’t needed — but it does work with a standard Kindle and Kindle Touch.

Still, the Solar Touch could make the Kindle a near-perfect choice for those asked to choose the one gadget they would want on a desert island.

So if you need to fire up your non-Kindle Fire, the SolarKindle launches midmonth, and will cost $79.99.

Lastly, if you really have run out of battery power options, and you’re desperate to write something on your iPad, Targus has partnered with iDevices to create a writing pen that transcribes what you write on plain paper directly to your iPad, using Bluetooth capabilities. Even better is that the pen, called the iNotebook, does have some memory built in and allows you to store your notes if your iPad is dead. Once it’s up and running again, the notes will automatically transfer over. A little bit more than a ballpoint pen, this device is going to cost $149.99.

Of course, plain old pen and paper also work without a battery and cost just a couple bucks. Heck, we each got a free pen and notepad with our Vegas hotel rooms. Although, don’t get us started on what those cost.

Lauren Goode

* * *

Nokia and Samsung are locked in a fierce battle.

No, not the race for the title of world’s largest cellphone maker, though that’s interesting, too. The pair are neck and neck in the battle for worst-kept secret in Vegas.

We’re not sure which unannounced announcement has been more clearly preannounced: Nokia’s LTE Windows Phone for AT&T, or the fact that Samsung’s 5-inch Galaxy Note tabletphone is also coming to AT&T.

Nokia isn’t commenting, but people familiar with the matter have been busy talking up the device, most recently to the New York Times. Coding in AT&T’s Web site also reveals a Nokia device is coming, we’re told.

Meanwhile, Samsung’s Note is also officially yet to be announced. But there are signs for it all over Vegas. Plus, accessory maker Anymode, closely tied to Samsung, announced a line of accessories for the device (an announcement that was also retracted, as if such a thing were possible.)

While Samsung is probably the leakiest of the two, Nokia’s product is a whole lot more important to that company than the Galaxy Note is to Samsung’s future.

For Nokia, the new AT&T device will be its flagship and the centerpiece of the company’s effort to get back into the U.S. smartphone game.

In Samsung’s case, the Galaxy Note just ensures that it has every screen size from 3 inches to 10 inches covered with an Android device of some shape. Dell didn’t find much love for its 5-inch Streak, but we’ll see if a stylus and some other features allow it to carve out a niche.

Ina Fried

* * *

We were going to do a whole big feature story on how smartphones were killing the market for GPS devices, MP3 players and point-and-shoot cameras, but NPD’s holiday sales figures say it all.

MP3 players are down 20.5 percent, point-and-shoot cameras down 20.8 percent and GPS units down 32.6 percent.

The only thing missing are some quotes. So here you go:

“Yup,” said the analyst.

“But just wait,” said the point-and-shoot camera maker. “Our new camera adds Wi-Fi.”

“We’re focusing on value added services,” said the GPS maker, while also asking bystanders for loose change.

“I’m sorry, I was listening to music on my phone,” said the MP3 maker.

Ina Fried

* * *

Our team is on the ground in Vegas looking for the really interesting stuff, the big trends and the fun things that make the long lines, long days and long speeches worth it. Check out the links below for all the latest from the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show.

MORE CES NEWS:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120108/ces-notebook-the-constant-search-for-power-and-vegas-worst-kept-secret/feed/ 0 There Better Be Some Cool Stuff at CES, Because CE Holiday Sales Data Bytes! http://allthingsd.com/20120108/there-better-be-some-cool-stuff-at-ces-because-ce-holiday-sales-data-bytes/ http://allthingsd.com/20120108/there-better-be-some-cool-stuff-at-ces-because-ce-holiday-sales-data-bytes/#comments Sun, 08 Jan 2012 19:26:06 +0000 Kara Swisher http://allthingsd.com/?p=161317

Just as the annual Consumer Electronics Show kicks off this week, according to a report from the NPD Group: Consumer electronics sales during this past holiday period dropped six percent from last year.

That should be some not-so-welcome news for the vendors at the Las Vegas gadget confab, which is seeking to show off new wares to excite said consumers.

Those offerings had better step it up, from a look at the NPD Weekly Tracking Service, which noted that the decline was coming off another decline from a year ago.

While 2011′s drop was not as bad as 2010′s, it’s not the right direction, although the tally did not include some of the more explosive device categories being prominently featured at CES, such as tablets.

Said NPD: “Total consumer technology sales (excluding cell phones, tablets, e-readers, and video games) fell 5.9 percent to around $9.5 billion for the 5 weeks ending December 24, a slight improvement over the 6.2 percent decline in 2010.”

Sales of personal computers and televisions fell 4 percent, with flat unit volumes.

“2010 was the first year in quite awhile where the real drags on the core CE marketplace were not TVs and PCs,” said Stephen Baker, VP of industry analysis at NPD, in a press release. “Revenue for those two segments outperformed while the rest of the market dropped by more than 7 percent. The accelerated rate of decline in older technology categories such as DVD, GPS and MP3 players put a ceiling on how well the industry could perform during the holiday.”

Consumers did snap up flat-panel TVs, with screen sizes of 50 inches and higher rising by 32 percent in unit sales.

And the rocky 3-D TV business also grew by more than 100 percent, with TVs with “3D capability accounting for more than one in every five dollars spent on TVs during the holiday.”

Also up: Home theater systems (10 percent) and stand-alone streaming devices (65 percent).

But those increases did not stem the overall negative tide.

For other sectors, here’s the damage to holiday revenue in percentage change from 2011 dollars spent:

Blu-ray players: Down 17 percent.

Camcorders: Down 42.5 percent.

Digital picture frames: Down 37.5 percent.

GPS: Down 32.6 percent.

HDD: Down 25.1 percent.

Mice and keyboards: Down 7.1 percent.

MP3 players: Down 20.5 percent.

Multifunction printers: Down 9.9 percent.

Point-and-shoot cameras: Down 20.8 percent.

MORE CES NEWS:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120108/there-better-be-some-cool-stuff-at-ces-because-ce-holiday-sales-data-bytes/feed/ 0 LightSquared Asks FCC to Declare GPS Interference Not Its Fault http://allthingsd.com/20111220/lightsquared-asks-fcc-to-declare-gps-interference-not-its-fault/ http://allthingsd.com/20111220/lightsquared-asks-fcc-to-declare-gps-interference-not-its-fault/#comments Tue, 20 Dec 2011 22:11:21 +0000 Ina Fried http://allthingsd.com/?p=155567 Aspiring wholesale wireless provider LightSquared wants the Federal Communications Commission to declare that any interference between its network and GPS systems is the fault of the way those systems are designed.

LightSquared aims to build a 4G network, and to offer that network to other companies on a wholesale basis. Among the hurdles it faces are complaints that such a network will interfere with millions of GPS systems already on the market. In a petition filed on Tuesday, LightSquared reiterated its position that the problem is that GPS systems “look into” the spectrum that has been licensed to LightSquared.

“The one inescapable conclusion from two rounds of independent testing is that the incompatibility problem is not caused by LightSquared’s network,” LightSquared Executive Vice President Jeff Carlisle said in a statement. “It is clear that GPS devices are purposefully designed to look into LightSquared’s licensed spectrum, and given this evidence, we believe decision-makers should consider LightSquared’s legal rights as the licensee.”

Even though it is asking the FCC to rule that it is the proper licensee of the spectrum in question, LightSquared said it still wants to work with the GPS industry to minimize potential problems. LightSquared has maintained that navigation-system makers can design systems that filter out any potential interference from devices that would run on its network.

“While we ask the FCC today to confirm our legal rights, LightSquared remains fully committed to cooperate with all parties — the GPS industry, GPS users, and the federal government — to ensure that LightSquared’s network is deployed in a way that is compatible with GPS users,” said Carlisle. “LightSquared has always recognized the critical importance of the GPS system, and we firmly believe that GPS devices can peacefully co-exist adjacent to our network.”

The GPS issue isn’t the only one facing the company. Reuters reported this week that LightSquared also faces a potential cash crunch. A company representative did not confirm or deny the authenticity of the data in the Reuters report, but told AllThingsD that LightSquared has enough cash for the next several quarters.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20111220/lightsquared-asks-fcc-to-declare-gps-interference-not-its-fault/feed/ 0 LightSquared Network Could Block GPS Devices, Report Says http://allthingsd.com/20111210/lightsquared-network-could-block-gps-devices-report-says/ http://allthingsd.com/20111210/lightsquared-network-could-block-gps-devices-report-says/#comments Sat, 10 Dec 2011 21:17:38 +0000 Amy Schatz http://allthingsd.com/?p=152675 New government tests show wireless start-up LightSquared’s network could knock out a “great majority” of GPS devices, according to a congressional aide who has seen a draft government report on the tests.

Preliminary data from recent government and industry tests of LightSquared’s network suggest that the start-up hasn’t solved concerns that its network would knock out a large number of personal or military GPS devices, the report said, according to the aide.

LightSquared, a startup funded largely by hedge fund Harbinger Capital Partners, wants to build a national wireless broadband network and offer wholesale Internet access to companies including Leap Wireless International Inc. and Best Buy Co.

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]]> http://allthingsd.com/20111210/lightsquared-network-could-block-gps-devices-report-says/feed/ 0 Google Maps the Indoors, So Navigating Ikea Is No Longer a Nightmare http://allthingsd.com/20111129/google-maps-the-indoors-so-navigating-ikea-is-no-longer-a-nightmare/ http://allthingsd.com/20111129/google-maps-the-indoors-so-navigating-ikea-is-no-longer-a-nightmare/#comments Tue, 29 Nov 2011 17:35:04 +0000 Tricia Duryee http://allthingsd.com/?p=147968 Even though GPS does not work reliably indoors, Google has found a tricky way around that limitation to map the insides of buildings, starting today with a handful of malls, airports and retailers in the U.S. and Japan.

Google Maps 6.0, available to Android users, will provide access to indoor layouts for a few dozen locations, so shoppers and travelers can find their way around without having to ask for directions.

Google’s Product Management Director Steve Lee told All Things D that — just as with outdoor Google maps — a person’s location will be highlighted by a flashing blue dot surrounded by points of interest.

In an airport, that means you’ll be able to find a particular gate or ATM, or if you are in a mall, you’ll be able to find the Gap or the kids’ play area. For Ikea, the home furnishings store known for its sprawling layout and chaotic atmosphere, it means finding the bathroom or the smorgasbord before a state of emergency is reached. Better yet, it could even mean figuring out where to park, based on which mall entrance is closest to the store you want to visit.

The announcement was made today on Google’s blog.

To make it all work, Lee says, they’ve been able to fine tune the location-based services Google uses for the outdoor locations, including cellphone towers, Wi-Fi hotspots and GPS — without requiring the retailer to install any new hardware. He claims it’s so accurate that the phone can pick up on the fact that a shopper is taking the escalator up or down and automatically changes the display of the store’s floor layout accordingly.

Bellevue, Wash.-based Point Inside has been working on this very problem for the past few years and has teamed up with several malls, retailers and other app developers to provide the indoor-mapping technology. Its technology works across iPhone and Android devices, but of course, Google’s advantage is that it will be able to leverage its install base of millions of Google Maps users, who will likely start using the new feature without having to change behavior or download a separate application.

Google said all the technology was built in-house by its own engineers.

For Google, the key will be accuracy. Getting location information even with the help of GPS can be challenging, even outdoors. Adding multiple floors, thick cement walls and getting up-to-date data from the retailer, mall or airport, adds to the complexity.

Starting today, there will be indoor maps for several hundred million square feet, including 17 airports, several department stores, including Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s; big-box retailers like Home Depot and Ikea; and major malls, such as the Mall of America in Minneapolis.

Lee said that for now the team’s focus is on adding more locations, not on monetizing the feature, but it’s easy to see how Google could present an advertisement to someone as they walk by a merchant in the mall. With the search provider already dabbling in daily deals and mobile payments, it’s not a stretch at all.

Here’s Google demonstrating how it works:

(Restroom photo credit: Pictonym.)

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20111129/google-maps-the-indoors-so-navigating-ikea-is-no-longer-a-nightmare/feed/ 0 Galaxy Nexus: An In-Your-Face Android Phone http://allthingsd.com/20111122/galaxy-nexus-an-in-your-face-android-phone/ http://allthingsd.com/20111122/galaxy-nexus-an-in-your-face-android-phone/#comments Wed, 23 Nov 2011 00:32:58 +0000 Katherine Boehret http://allthingsd.com/?p=146878 Thanksgiving is coming, but techies are salivating over something that doesn’t involve turkey and stuffing: Ice Cream Sandwich—the operating system of the newest Google phone, the Galaxy Nexus.


[ See post to watch video ]

The Galaxy Nexus from Samsung is the first device to run Google’s Android 4.0 operating system, known by its dessert code name. Ice Cream Sandwich is designed to be a blend of the Android phone and tablet operating systems that irons out many geeky wrinkles. Android’s former annoying reliance on menus to perform tasks is reduced with the inclusion of more user-friendly icons, and these dynamically change according to whatever program is opened.

It has familiar swiping gestures across apps, of which there are over 300,000 available in the Android Market, as well as playful new features like facial recognition to unlock the phone. Several existing Android devices from HTC and Motorola will receive free software updates so that they, too, can run this OS.

DSOLUTION

The Samsung Galaxy Nexus is stylish, with it’s 4.65 inch display and svelte profile.

There’s much speculation that the Galaxy Nexus will be available in the U.S. in the next two weeks, since its release in the U.K. last week. A Verizon spokeswoman says it will be out sometime before the end of the year and it will run on the carrier’s 4G network. It could cost as much as $300 if it’s treated like some other recent Android phones considered flagship models.

I got my hands on a U.K. version of the Galaxy Nexus and enjoyed using Ice Cream Sandwich, which is the most well-rounded version of Android yet. My phone’s battery lasted nearly a full day under heavy testing.

But some of Android’s inelegant traits remain, like the confusing way it organizes Widgets (icons representing programs) and restricts their placement on home screens according to the icons’ various shapes and sizes. And its folders for apps look cluttered.

The Galaxy Nexus itself is stylishly designed. Its giant 4.65-inch display may be overkill for some people. But its svelte build, which measures just over three-tenths of an inch thick, balances it out. Its rear- and front-facing cameras capture 5- and 1.3-megapixel images, respectively, and it records video in full 1080p HD quality. A built-in barometer helps with more precise GPS detection, and an NFC (near field communication) chip enables swapping data with other NFC-enabled Android phones, a process called Android Beam.

I found the facial-recognition feature to be unreliable. To set this up, I held the Galaxy Nexus up as if I was about to take a photo of myself with the front-facing camera, and a traced image of my face appeared on the screen. I also set up a back-up unlocking option: tracing a pattern on the screen. Whenever I wanted to use the phone, I held it up to my face and if facial recognition worked, it unlocked.

But this only worked half the time, sometimes because of low lighting, whether outside at night, in restaurants or even in my own kitchen. Other times it just didn’t recognize me. When I stood on city streets and held the phone up to my face to unlock it, I looked as if I was taking a photo of the people around me. And it’s impossible to slyly check your phone under the table during meetings or dinners using this unlocking method.

DSOLUTION

A facial-recognition feature unlocks the phone.

Google warns users this isn’t necessarily the safest method for locking a phone. Case in point: I was able to unlock the phone by holding a photo of my face up to its lock screen. But a Google engineer noted most people who find lost phones don’t know what the phone’s owner looks like.

Like Microsoft’s Windows Phones and the iPhone, the Galaxy Nexus can be unlocked just for using its camera, or unlocked fully to access the rest of the phone’s features. When calls come in, a large image representing the caller appears on the screen along with options to drag an on-screen icon to ignore, answer, or send a text reply.

In Ice Cream Sandwich, app folders can be created by dragging app icons on top of one another. These icons seem to stack up in a messy pile; in one folder I made, called “Social,” only the blue beak of Twitter’s bird icon was visible.

In place of the Android Menu button, a small three-dot icon appears in all apps and this opens the menu. More icons at the bottom of each app screen perform actions, such as an envelope with a plus sign beside it in Gmail that opens a screen for composing an email. A Multitasking soft key displays all opened apps in one tap. Small images show the screen last opened on these apps like a webpage or a search term in a box. And the Android Market icon is now easier to find in the top right corner of the App Tray.

The photo gallery feels more lush and magazine-like than the text lists of albums in previous versions of Android. Thumbnail images representing albums appear side-by-side and fill the phone’s screen in a checkerboard fashion. Albums from my Flickr account were automatically pulled in here, and any photos I captured on the phone were automatically sent to my Google+ account using Instant Upload, a feature also available on other iterations of Android.

Ice Cream Sandwich has more options for photo editing and adds silly effects and backgrounds to videos. You can even make a time-lapse video.

Typing on this phone felt more accurate than in the past, and text can be dragged and dropped to different places using a gesture to swipe down and up. Items in the drop-down Notifications menu can be deleted with a swipe right.

If you’ve been curious about Android, the release of Ice Cream Sandwich will mark a good time to jump in.

Write to Katherine Boehret at katherine.boehret@wsj.com

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20111122/galaxy-nexus-an-in-your-face-android-phone/feed/ 0 Judges Weigh Phone Tracking http://allthingsd.com/20111109/judges-weigh-phone-tracking/ http://allthingsd.com/20111109/judges-weigh-phone-tracking/#comments Wed, 09 Nov 2011 12:45:29 +0000 Julia Angwin and Scott Thurm http://allthingsd.com/?p=142134 State and federal authorities follow the movements of thousands of Americans each year by secretly monitoring the location of their cellphones, often with little judicial oversight, in a practice facing legal challenges.

Electronic tracking, used by police to investigate such crimes as drug dealing and murder, has become as routine as “looking for fingerprint evidence or DNA evidence,” said Gregg Rossman, a prosecutor in Broward County, Fla.

The use of cellphone tracking by authorities is among the most common types of electronic surveillance, exceeding wiretaps and the use of GPS tracking, according to a survey of local, state and federal authorities by The Wall Street Journal.

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]]> http://allthingsd.com/20111109/judges-weigh-phone-tracking/feed/ 0 For LightSquared, a High Bar http://allthingsd.com/20110928/for-lightsquared-a-high-bar/ http://allthingsd.com/20110928/for-lightsquared-a-high-bar/#comments Wed, 28 Sep 2011 11:30:32 +0000 Amy Schatz http://allthingsd.com/?p=125768 To make good on its planned $14 billion investment in a national high-speed wireless network, start-up LightSquared Inc. must prove to the government that its network is perfect, or nearly so, in avoiding interference with global-positioning devices. And that’s just one of its challenges.

A November deadline is approaching for federal regulators to finish their interference tests, raising the stakes for a project already confronting financial hurdles and political resistance.

Amid complaints by GPS users, company officials say they realize the bar will be high for the start-up to show its network won’t disrupt other traffic.

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]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110928/for-lightsquared-a-high-bar/feed/ 0 STMicro Makes Its Tiny Gyroscopes Even Tinier http://allthingsd.com/20110830/stmicro-makes-its-tiny-gyroscopes-even-tinier/ http://allthingsd.com/20110830/stmicro-makes-its-tiny-gyroscopes-even-tinier/#comments Tue, 30 Aug 2011 09:00:01 +0000 Arik Hesseldahl http://allthingsd.com/?p=114961 Have you ever wondered how your iPhone or iPad got so smart as to know which way you’re holding it and re-orient the picture accordingly?

It’s because of two tiny parts inside them, one called an accelerometer that detects movement. The other is a gyroscope that is basically used to help maintain orientation of an object or to measure any changes in its orientation.

The first three generations of iPhone had accelerometers, but the iPhone 4 and later the iPad had gyroscopes built into them in order to give software developers — game creators especially — a truly accurate way to measure how the phone is moved and thus change the action on-screen accordingly. Apple’s then-CEO Steve Jobs memorably demonstrated what the addition of gyroscopes meant with an on-screen game of Jenga on an iPhone at an Apple event last year.

The company that made them is the Italian-French semiconductor company STMicroelectronics. Neither company will ever say that out loud, Apple for its own reasons and STMicro out of fear of annoying Apple. However, teardown analyses of both the iPhone 4 and the iPad 2 conducted by the research house IHS iSuppli have confirmed this.

I bring it up because STMicro will announce today that it has made its gyroscope chips even smaller than before. The most recent one was about about 17 cubic millimeters, and the new one is just slightly above 10 cubic millimeters. What’s the point in making them smaller? For one, real estate inside a device like an iPhone is precious, so when any one component gets smaller, designers have more space to work with. And often, smaller parts require incrementally less power, which means only good things for battery life.

STMicro has already built more than a billion and a half of these little things — not all of them for use in the iPhone and other Apple iThings, obviously. They do show up in other phones and gaming devices, GPS navigators, robots and scores of other things. ISuppli pegged STMicro’s share of the gyroscope market at 30 percent in 2010, which is pretty impressive considering that it was all of 1 percent the prior year.

Yet as is usually the case with chip companies, the company rarely gets to brag about the identity of its customers, even though it would like nothing better than to shout their names from the rooftops. Instead, you can hear Steve Jobs himself sing the praises of the gyroscope, though without naming the company that made it, in this video excerpt from last year’s Apple Worldwide Developers Conference.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110830/stmicro-makes-its-tiny-gyroscopes-even-tinier/feed/ 0 DARPA: That's Mach 20, Baby http://allthingsd.com/20110810/darpa-thats-mach-20-baby/ http://allthingsd.com/20110810/darpa-thats-mach-20-baby/#comments Wed, 10 Aug 2011 13:50:21 +0000 Kara Swisher http://allthingsd.com/?p=108014

In an onstage interview at the ninth D: All Things Digital conference in June, Regina Dugan — who is director of the federal government’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency — riveted the crowd by talking about a plane in development that can fly at a speed of Mach 20.

That would be 13,000 miles per hour, or 20 times the speed of sound.

Now DARPA is trotting out the Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle 2 for its second and final launch this morning at 7 am PT from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

According to the DARPA site, the aircraft will be boosted into the atmosphere via a rocket, and will blast around for 30 minutes. (See the chart below for the info as to how it does so.)

On its first outing, the plane already proved it can maintain Global Positioning System (GPS) signals while traveling 3.6 miles per second. But DARPA also lost contact with the vehicle, which had a controlled landing in the ocean.

The goal of the second flight, said DARPA, “is to validate current assumptions and increase technical understanding of the hypersonic flight regime. More than 20 test assets will collect continuous flight data to achieve this goal.”

Cool.

Here’s a video of the full interview at D9, with DARPA director Dugan talking about the Mach 20 flight and more:


[ See post to watch video ]

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110810/darpa-thats-mach-20-baby/feed/ 0 Cycling Tracker Strava Takes Quick $12.6M http://allthingsd.com/20110729/cycling-tracker-strava-takes-quick-12-6m/ http://allthingsd.com/20110729/cycling-tracker-strava-takes-quick-12-6m/#comments Fri, 29 Jul 2011 11:00:31 +0000 Liz Gannes http://allthingsd.com/?p=104084 Strava, the competitive social network and personal tracking tool for avid cyclists that announced its previous round of funding only this January, has already raised some more.

The San Francisco-based company said this week it had taken $12.6 million in Series B funding led by Madrone Capital and including Sigma Partners. (The round from January was $3.5 million.)

A representative for Strava said the company “has been growing like crazy, primarily through word-of-mouth.”

She added that Strava plans to expand from cycling to running and triathlons, and to expand internationally and to additional mobile devices. I covered Strava’s iPhone app launch in March. The company also has an Android app, and syncs with Garmin devices.

Elsewhere in fitness apps, this week WorkSmart Labs launched its first iPhone app, Calorific Lite. And if you happen to know someone running the San Francisco Marathon this weekend, you may want to track them using MapMyRUN, which has partnered with the race.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110729/cycling-tracker-strava-takes-quick-12-6m/feed/ 0 LightSquared Raises an Additional $265 Million http://allthingsd.com/20110705/lightsquared-raises-an-additional-265-million/ http://allthingsd.com/20110705/lightsquared-raises-an-additional-265-million/#comments Tue, 05 Jul 2011 15:44:39 +0000 Ina Fried http://allthingsd.com/?p=94443 LightSquared, which aims to build a 4G cellular network to sell on a wholesale basis to others, said on Monday that it has raised an additional $265 million from a combination of new and existing investors.

With the new money, LightSquared has pulled in $2.3 billion in funding over the last 12 months.

“This latest round of financing signals another endorsement by the financial markets of our business model, and LightSquared’s intent to use private capital to build out a new network to meet the growing demand across this entire nation for wireless broadband access,” LightSquared CEO Sanjiv Ahuja said in a statement.

Meanwhile, the company is also working to address concerns that there could be interference with GPS systems if LightSquared builds its network on the spectrum it currently has a license for.

Last week the company submitted a plan to the Federal Communications Commission that it says takes care of 99.5 percent of interference issues.

“In contrast, the GPS device manufacturers, unlike relevant government agencies, have been largely uninterested in finding a win-win solution,” LightSquared said in a statement. “Rather, their only answer to a problem of their own making is to demand that the government simply block LightSquared from using the company’s own spectrum to roll out the first wholesale-only wireless broadband network for the entire nation -– an economic benefit worth as much as $120 billion to consumers.”

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110705/lightsquared-raises-an-additional-265-million/feed/ 0 Mobile Apps, GPS Tracking Let Cycling Fans Keep Tabs on Tour de France http://allthingsd.com/20110624/mobile-apps-gps-tracking-let-cycling-fans-keep-tabs-on-tour-de-france/ http://allthingsd.com/20110624/mobile-apps-gps-tracking-let-cycling-fans-keep-tabs-on-tour-de-france/#comments Fri, 24 Jun 2011 12:00:19 +0000 Ina Fried http://allthingsd.com/?p=90434 Aiming to make the most of its contract to carry the Tour de France, NBC Sports is taking pains to ensure that even those who can’t sit in front of the TV for 14 hours a day during next month’s race can still be engrossed in the coverage.

The company is offering “All Access” subscription packages for the Web and an array of mobile devices, including iPhones, iPads and Android devices.

Although the company offered some rider-tracking features last year, the GPS tracking is greatly expanded. On the mobile side, Android and iPad support are new, while iPhone coverage is expanded from the $14.95 live video package offered last year.

“It is a world where you can definitely not say we want to do what we did last year,” said NBCSports.com coordinating producer Tom Seeley. “That’s not acceptable.”

Last year, the tour was under the auspices of then-separate cable channel Versus, which has since become part of NBC Sports, thanks to the Comcast acquisition. On the TV side, the networks are splitting coverage, with the first few stages on NBC and the remainder on Versus. While there was some tracking of each cyclist, this year there will be more detailed GPS tracking for every rider in the race.

Even those who don’t want to pay will still have access to some Web and mobile features that complement the broadcast coverage, such as overall standings, news articles and highlights. Before the tour starts on July 2, there is also free content on NBCSports.com, including breakdowns of each of the race’s 21 stages, details on the top contenders, a variety of historical Top 10 lists and a look back at last year’s event.

On the mobile side, all but the live video and GPS tracking will be free, including video highlights, rider profiles, detailed standings, course maps and more. For Android users, there will be a free and a paid app, while iPhone and iPad users will be able to download an app for free and then upgrade to premium content from within the app. The pricing for all of the mobile apps is the same: $14.99 for those subscribing from now through July 11. Those who subscribe while the event is already in its second week (July 12-16) can do so for $9.99, while those who only want the final week (July 17-25) can do so for $6.99.

The Web-based online package ranges from $4.95 for a daily pass to $29.95 for the full subscription.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110624/mobile-apps-gps-tracking-let-cycling-fans-keep-tabs-on-tour-de-france/feed/ 0 Report to FCC Will Find LightSquared Interferes With GPS http://allthingsd.com/20110614/report-to-fcc-will-find-lightsquared-interferes-with-gps/ http://allthingsd.com/20110614/report-to-fcc-will-find-lightsquared-interferes-with-gps/#comments Tue, 14 Jun 2011 21:56:18 +0000 Amy Schatz http://allthingsd.com/?p=86699 Wireless broadband startup LightSquared and a GPS industry group will tell federal regulators in a report due Wednesday that recent joint tests of the company’s network showed widespread interference with GPS receivers.

While LightSquared and the GPS industry agree that the tests showed interference, the two sides will disagree on whether the problem can be solved with filters or other technical fixes, according to several people with knowledge of the pending report.

Read the rest of this post on the original site »

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110614/report-to-fcc-will-find-lightsquared-interferes-with-gps/feed/ 0 Why Smartphones Can See More Than We Can http://allthingsd.com/20110503/why-smartphones-can-see-more-than-we-can/ http://allthingsd.com/20110503/why-smartphones-can-see-more-than-we-can/#comments Tue, 03 May 2011 22:42:29 +0000 Katherine Boehret http://solution.allthingsd.com/?p=1767 If you’re tired of looking at the world through the same lens all the time, try adding a few virtual objects.

This week, rather than do my usual product testing, I decided to offer a peek into one of the most exciting trends in technology: augmented reality. AR, as it’s commonly known, is about as close to magic as we can get without visiting Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.


[ See post to watch video ]

Not to be confused with virtual reality, which substitutes a simulated world for the real thing, AR takes a live view of the real world and/or a real object and adds computer-generated graphics or sounds that appear as if they’re right in the scene. The resulting visual can look convincing enough that people reach out and try to touch the AR object.

Built for AR

Most smartphones are now built with the technological requirements for AR—including a camera, accelerometer, compass and GPS—so developers are quickly building AR apps that take advantage of these devices. The technology started showing up in apps in 2009, and now hundreds of them use AR.

AR games add objects to real-life places and scenes, like ghosts in Ogmento Inc.’s Paranormal Activity: Sanctuary that appear as if they’re on the actual street that people are on, viewed through the people’s iPhones.

Viewdle’s Social Camera uses AR for social networking as it identifies people in photos by comparing their images to tagged photos of friends in Facebook. Google Goggles uses image recognition to provide information about real-life objects including books, artwork, wine and menus, which can be translated into a language you can read.

AR: It’s All Around You

You may not realize it, but basic forms of AR are at work in our everyday lives. Some cars, like the 7-series BMW, offer heads-up displays that impose data onto the windshield of the car so drivers don’t have to glance down to read things like current speed.

Armchair quarterbacks appreciate AR every time they see the National Football League’s first-down yellow line, visible only to the television audience. And some sporting events now include advertisements that appear on TV as if they’re painted on a field or basketball court.

Physical Object Attraction

Each of the developers with whom I spoke about AR’s future agreed: Computer vision is the central element to creating AR apps.

Computer vision describes a device’s ability to see, meaning it can recognize an object, extract information from that object and do something with that information.

AR apps that rely mostly on GPS do more guesswork than object recognition. Google Goggles, for example, takes advantage of GPS for local search when someone uses an Android phone to pan around and see points of interest identified on the screen, like businesses. An app called Layar uses GPS and helps people with things like finding the closest drugstore or getting extra points in a game by walking to a certain place.

One example of a device that uses full-fledged object recognition is Nintendo’s 3DS hand-held game, which comes with six AR Cards. With the naked eye, these cards look like small rectangles the size of playing cards with question marks printed on them. When viewed through the 3DS’s two outward-facing cameras while playing AR Games, the cards come to life with things like boxes that unfold, a dragon that pops out of the box and bull’s-eyes that must be shot using buttons on the 3DS.

Hallmark Cards Inc. is getting in on the AR action. Some of its greeting cards come with instructions to hold the card in front of a Mac or Windows PC webcam, which makes the characters drawn on the card appear animated on the computer screen.

Interactive Advertising

The AR Magic Mirror app uses the iPad 2′s cameras to impose objects on images of one’s face, including masks, hairstyles and marks. The app quickly analyzes the size of one’s face and different objects can be selected to appear as if they’re being worn in real life.

This app comes from Total Immersion, a company known for the way it incorporates AR into online and print ads. One online ad includes an interactive driving game that made users feel like they were driving the Volvo S60 through whatever their iPhone or Android camera displayed as AR obstacles fell into the road. In another campaign, people printed out a PDF of the Olympus PEN digital camera, held it to a webcam and saw animated demonstrations of the camera’s features, as if the camera—not a piece of paper—was in their hands.

Effortless Socializing

The Viewdle Social Camera, a free app for Android devices, suggests names of people in photos taken by an Android smartphone by comparing their faces to a database of friends tagged in a person’s Facebook account. Viewdle works completely on the smartphone so images don’t need to be slowly uploaded to a remote server each time a face is identified. No one is automatically tagged in Viewdle photos; rather, it suggests who it thinks the person is, and the phone’s owner approves this suggestion. The photos can then be shared from this app via Facebook, Flickr, email or MMS.

Viewdle’s future plans sound exciting: Devices with enough processor power, including some that are out now, will be able to display photos captured on the smartphone with each person’s most recent Facebook status update shown in bubbles above their heads.

Geek Alert

If you aren’t too keen on walking around holding your device up in front of you so you can play AR games or use AR apps, Vusix Corp. designs glasses with AR-visualization capability. But if you wear these glasses, don’t expect to get a date anytime soon.

From greeting cards to animated advertisements to mobile gaming, augmented reality is well suited for the smartphones people carry every day and we can expect to see much more of it in coming months and years.

Write to Katherine Boehret at katherine.boehret@wsj.com

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110503/why-smartphones-can-see-more-than-we-can/feed/ 0 A "Probe in Your Pocket"? Apple's Steve Jobs and Google's Andy Rubin Talk Smartphone Privacy at D8 and Dive. http://allthingsd.com/20110426/a-probe-in-your-pocket-heres-apples-steve-jobs-and-googles-andy-rubin-talking-privacy-at-d8-and-dive/ http://allthingsd.com/20110426/a-probe-in-your-pocket-heres-apples-steve-jobs-and-googles-andy-rubin-talking-privacy-at-d8-and-dive/#comments Tue, 26 Apr 2011 15:19:41 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=43052

We’ve done a lot of onstage interviews at our D: All Things Digital conferences with the leaders of tech.

That includes Apple CEO Steve Jobs and Google smartphone kingpin Andy Rubin, both of whom are now dealing with the fallout over a series of reports that iOS and Android smartphones regularly transmit their locations back to both companies.

The privacy implications are obvious.

As Mobilized’s Ina Fried wrote last week:

Questions about what location-based information Android makes use of followed reports that Apple’s iPhone and 3G-equipped iPads are storing a history of location information in an unencrypted database on the device. The Wall Street Journal on Thursday noted that both Android and Apple devices are sending certain location information back to the companies.

In addition to that issue, there are separate issues over the length of time such information is stored, both on the device and by Apple and Google. The iPhone (and 3G-equipped iPads) appear to be storing a long-term directory of where a device has been and keeping that information in an unencrypted database. Google keeps a small cache of such information, to allow mapping and search to work even if a device temporarily loses GPS signal. However, it doesn’t keep a long-term record on the device.

That’s why we cut this video of Jobs and Rubin talking about privacy, specifically and respectively at the eighth D: All Things Digital last summer and at D: Dive Into Mobile in December.

“We take privacy extremely seriously,” said Jobs, who addressed the smartphone location data issue in particular. “A lot of people in [Silicon] Valley think we’re old-fashioned about this.”

And I pressed Rubin on Android being a “probe in your pocket,” and he said its mobile open source operating system did not collect data, although Google services did.

“I think this is a trust and verify,” Rubin noted.

Both Jobs and Rubin make some pretty strong privacy-related statements in these videos, so it will be interesting to see how it all shakes out:


[ See post to watch video ]

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110426/a-probe-in-your-pocket-heres-apples-steve-jobs-and-googles-andy-rubin-talking-privacy-at-d8-and-dive/feed/ 10 Priceline Founder Sues More Than 100 Tech Companies http://allthingsd.com/20110413/priceline-founder-sues-more-than-100-tech-companies/ http://allthingsd.com/20110413/priceline-founder-sues-more-than-100-tech-companies/#comments Thu, 14 Apr 2011 00:12:11 +0000 Tricia Duryee http://emoney.allthingsd.com/?p=4485 Jay Walker, the founder of priceline.com, who is now associated with a company called Walker Digital, has filed 15 patent infringement lawsuits against more than 100 defendants, including Microsoft, eBay, Amazon, Facebook, Walmart, Groupon, Apple, Sony and Google, reports paidContent.org. The suits are similar to patent claims filed last year by Paul Allen against Google, Apple and others. Walker charges that he should be paid royalties for online games, banking and payment systems and GPS navigation, among other technologies.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110413/priceline-founder-sues-more-than-100-tech-companies/feed/ 3 Nokia to Apple: From Hell's Heart I Stab at Thee http://allthingsd.com/20110329/nokia-to-apple-from-hells-heart-i-stab-at-thee/ http://allthingsd.com/20110329/nokia-to-apple-from-hells-heart-i-stab-at-thee/#comments Tue, 29 Mar 2011 15:55:29 +0000 John Paczkowski http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/?p=59397 Nokia’s obsession with Apple has officially crossed over into the Ahabian.

Aghast at the U.S. International Trade Commission’s ruling on its first complaint against Apple, Nokia has filed a second, accusing Apple of infringing its patents “in virtually all of its mobile phones, portable music players, tablets, and computers.”

At issue in the complaint are seven patents that Nokia argues “are now being used by Apple to create key features in its products in the areas of multi-tasking operating systems, data synchronization, positioning, call quality and the use of Bluetooth accessories.” Taken together with the IP cited in Nokia’s previous ITC complaint and related cases in the U.S., U.K., Germany and The Netherlands, the company has nearly four dozen patents in play in its suit against Apple.

“Our latest ITC filing means we now have 46 Nokia patents in suit against Apple, many filed more than 10 years before Apple made its first iPhone,” Paul Melin, Nokia’s VP of intellectual property said in a statement. “Nokia is a leading innovator in technologies needed to build great mobile products and Apple must stop building its products using Nokia’s proprietary innovation.”

Almost sounds like Nokia’s saying it invented the iPhone, doesn’t it? Which is ironic, considering the company is on the record professing its fondness for Apple’s handset.

Asked once about the striking similarities between a touchscreen device it was designing and the iPhone, Anssi Vanjoki, Nokia’s head of multimedia devices at the time, replied, “If there is something good in the world then we copy with pride.”

PREVIOUSLY:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110329/nokia-to-apple-from-hells-heart-i-stab-at-thee/feed/ 2 Workout Logging for the Serious Athlete: Strava Launches iPhone App http://allthingsd.com/20110328/workout-logging-for-the-serious-athlete-strava-launches-iphone-app/ http://allthingsd.com/20110328/workout-logging-for-the-serious-athlete-strava-launches-iphone-app/#comments Mon, 28 Mar 2011 13:00:49 +0000 Liz Gannes http://networkeffect.allthingsd.com/?p=4842 Strava, the ride tracking tool for cyclists, is today releasing its first iPhone app.

Year-old Strava has only 10,000 users, but until now they had to use a dedicated GPS device or separate app to track their rides and then upload the data.

Even so, the existing userbase is extremely passionate about the site–even to the point that a cyclist’s death last year was connected to his efforts to regain a Strava descent record.

There are many fitness-tracking apps for smartphones, with interesting social features for competition and encouragement, but they are mostly aimed at helping users get off the couch. Strava distinguishes itself by catering to avid rather than casual athletes.

Apps like RunKeeper may have more mainstream appeal, but it seems logical that serious athletes might have the most interest in logging their data–and paying to do so. Strava charges $6 per month if users want to track more than five rides.

The free Strava iPhone app’s social features include friending, competitions with other users, and finding others to ride with offline. Users can see in real-time how their performance on hills and sprints compares to those of other users.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110328/workout-logging-for-the-serious-athlete-strava-launches-iphone-app/feed/ 1 Expedia Lays Out Travel Plans for Mobile; Hotel Booking Is First http://allthingsd.com/20110323/expedia-lays-out-travel-plans-for-mobile-hotel-booking-is-first/ http://allthingsd.com/20110323/expedia-lays-out-travel-plans-for-mobile-hotel-booking-is-first/#comments Wed, 23 Mar 2011 15:36:03 +0000 Tricia Duryee http://emoney.allthingsd.com/?p=3794 Expedia flew all the way to Orlando today to make a big splash at CTIA about its upcoming plans for the mobile space.

At a press conference, Scott Durchslag, president of Expedia.com, was expected to unveil Expedia Hotels, a free iPhone app that lets users filter and book hotel rooms from their device.

The app will be available once it gets rubber-stamped by Apple, and an Android version is expected to follow in April. Expedia Hotels is the first product built by Mobiata, a developer of mobile travel applications, that Expedia acquired in November 2010.

In an interview prior to the press conference today, Durchslag told us that the hotel app is the first in a series of initiatives that the company will roll out in mobile this year.

The hotel application will automatically use GPS to find hotels nearby. The results can be filtered by price, rating, popularity or distance, and ratings are provided by TripAdvisor. Durchslag said from their experience with users on the mobile web, 70 percent of people searching on the phone are looking for a room for a single person, for a single night for the same day.

The application will default to those settings.

To be sure, Expedia’s plans don’t stop there. More apps will come later this year, and it doesn’t intend to stop with smartphone owners.

Phase two and three includes working with handset makers and carriers to embed applications onto devices before they are shipped to consumers.

While those types of partnerships used to be standard in mobile in order for companies to get wide distribution, the focus more recently has shifted to building applications for smartphones because of the speed to market and fewer barriers.

Durchslag defends the strategy: “Expedia is the world’s largest travel site, and while smartphones are the trend, and they are big and growing in Europe and Asia, there’s still a big portion of the population that doesn’t have one. Preloading onto feature phones is phase two, and building an unbelievable experience on smartphones is job one.”

Durshlag also says the plans synch up with what Expedia’s broader goal is for the company, which he calls “Expedia Everywhere.”

“The essence of that vision is to delight the earth’s travelers, and to help them find the perfect trip whenever and wherever they want. Mobile becomes really important when you are traveling,” he said.

Other companies have also identified travel as the latest frontier on mobile. Kayak says its mobile applications have already been downloaded more than five million times, and it recently started allowing customers to book hotel accommodations directly from them instead of referring them out to third parties, such as Expedia.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110323/expedia-lays-out-travel-plans-for-mobile-hotel-booking-is-first/feed/ 0 Days After Its Release, the IPad 2 Gets the Teardown Treatment http://allthingsd.com/20110313/days-after-its-release-the-ipad-2-gets-the-teardown-treatment/ http://allthingsd.com/20110313/days-after-its-release-the-ipad-2-gets-the-teardown-treatment/#comments Sun, 13 Mar 2011 14:59:22 +0000 Arik Hesseldahl http://newenterprise.allthingsd.com/?p=3943 Part of the tradition of an Apple product release is the teardown. Usually within hours of the first sales, pictures begin to emerge from the odd people who delight in taking the new gadgets apart to see what’s going on inside. The days following Friday’s release of the iPad 2 have been no different. I’ve seen two different teardowns already.

But the teardown that Wall Street and the investment community is waiting on is the one from the market research firm IHS iSuppli, whose team spent all day Saturday in a furious effort to dissemble a 32-gigabyte iPad 2 and estimate the cost that Apple paid for every component. They gave me an exclusive early look at their findings.

The point is to form a partial picture of the gross profit margin on every unit, a figure that Apple generally keeps to itself. This information is useful to investors and analysts who then factor the findings in with other assumptions they use to predict how much of a profit Apple is going to report over the next few quarters.

The headline of iSuppli’s teardown researcher is always the estimated bill-of-materials cost, which is the sum cost that it thinks Apple has paid for all the hardware inside the iPad 2. It doesn’t take into account the cost to develop software, or other things like packaging, shipping and distribution, or manufacturing.

In this case the estimates are for the 32-gigabyte, 3G version of the iPad which sells for $729, and there are two estimates, one for the AT&T version–$326.60, and one for the Verizon Wireless version–$323.35. Some of the wireless chips used in the AT&T version are a little more expensive or require an extra part. For example, on the Verizon version, GPS is integrated with the Qualcomm-made wireless baseband chip. On the AT&T version, an extra GPS chip had to be added along with the Broadcom-made Bluteooth and Wi-Fi chips, adding an extra cost of $1.50 per unit.

The baseband wireless chips were naturally different because AT&T and Verizon use different wireless technologies. Intel, the new owner of the former wireless chip division of Infineon, supplied the main wireless chip in the AT&T version, with supporting chips coming from TriQuint Semiconductor and Skyworks for a combined cost of $18.70.

Qualcomm supplied the main wireless chip Verizon version, with supporting chips coming from Skyworks, Avago Technologies, and Murata for a combined cost of $16.35. While there had been some speculation that Apple had used a Qualcomm chip in both versions, but it turned out not to be the case.

Aside from the wireless chips, the components are otherwise identical across both versions. Both sport Apple’s A5 chip, and iSuppli says that Samsung is still manufacturing it for Apple at a cost of $14. While there had been some talk in recent weeks that Apple was moving its chip manufacturing contract to Tawain Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp, there’s no evidence that it has made such a move, at least not yet.

The most expensive component by far is the touch-sensitive display, coming at $127. ISuppli says that the LCD portion the unit they tore apart was built by LG Display, but Apple is known to use other sources for displays, including Samsung, and possibly ChiMei Innolux. The glass assembly covering the display is thought to come from TPK or WinTek. ISuppli says costs on the display are going up because manufacturing yields on LCDs have been lower. Apple is also thought to be using a more expensive glue to improve the efficiency of the process of bonding a new thinner type of Gorilla glass to the display.

Samsung supplied Apple with the NAND flash memory used in the iSuppli sample, holding on to a relationship that goes back several years to the days of the first iPod nano, though Toshiba is also known to supply Apple with flash. It is the world biggest consumer of flash memory, after all. Elpida supplied the DRAM memory. ISuppli estimates the combined cost of memory, both flash and DRAM plus a Micron-made MCP memory chip at $65.70.

Then there’s a set of components seen in the iPad 1 that remained the same in the iPad 2. STMicroelectronics supplied the gyroscope and the accelerometer, and AKM Semiconductor supplied the electronic compass. Broadcom supplied touch interface chips, while Texas Instruments supplied a touch screen driver chip. Analog Devices supplied a capacitive touch controller.

Finally there are the two cameras. ISuppli hasn’t yet named the suppliers there, though the usual candidate is Aptina, the former camera unit of Micron, though it’s possible that Apple sources them from more than one place.

ISuppli’s estimates are a lot higher than the findings of another teardown shop, UBM Techinsights. The Wall Street Journal reported that UBM’s cost estimate is about $270, but that estimate was made before it conducted its actual teardown, and didn’t change once it had.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110313/days-after-its-release-the-ipad-2-gets-the-teardown-treatment/feed/ 7 Terrorist Threat to GPS "Fanciful" http://allthingsd.com/20110309/terrorist-threat-to-gps-fanciful/ http://allthingsd.com/20110309/terrorist-threat-to-gps-fanciful/#comments Wed, 09 Mar 2011 12:30:19 +0000 Ben Rooney http://voices.allthingsd.com/?p=37414 A report by the U.K.’s Royal Academy of Engineering on the vulnerability of the GPS system has caused something of stir with apocalyptic visions of a cyber-hell.

“Cyber terrorists could cripple banks, send ships floundering on to rocks and bring death to the roads at the click of a mouse,” wrote one British newspaper.

The report’s author, Dr. Martyn Thomas, dismissed such reporting as hype. He said aim of the report, “Global Navigation Space Systems: reliance and vulnerabilities” was to highlight the “dangerous over-reliance” on satellite navigation and timing signals, which are vulnerable to disruption, either from natural events such as solar storms, or jamming.

While most people think of GPS as a navigation system such as your in-car navigation, it is also used in data networks, sea and air transport, railways and emergency services. It is also a global, synchronized, highly-accurate clock which is used in systems like high frequency trading.

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