AllThingsD » mobile operating system

AsiaD Adventures: Walt and Kara in Seoul (Video)

Kara Swisher — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 23:01:33 +0000

This week, my AllThingsD partner-in-crime Walt Mossberg and I are in Asia as part of our planning for the upcoming AsiaD conference in the fall.

We’ll soon be announcing even more speakers for the event, which takes place in Hong Kong from Oct. 19-21.

And while AsiaD will have a Chinese flavor, by virtue of location and given how increasingly important the country is in the digital arena, we also want to make sure that the focus is pan-Asian.

Hence, our trip to South Korea — as well as to Tokyo, Japan — to meet companies, look at start-ups and get a feel for the key trends of these places.

In Seoul earlier this week, for example, Walt and I went to visit Samsung, the company that dominates most of tech in South Korea.

The giant conglomerate, which has been a major maker of televisions and other consumer electronics, is now aggressively competing in the smartphone and tablet arena.

It has partnered with Google Android as one of many handset and tablet makers using the mobile operating system. But from our talks with execs here, all Samsung seems to think about is Apple and its powerful iPhone and iPad, which it seems to consider its one and only rival.

We’ll be talking about all this and more at AsiaD, but until then, enjoy the video of our tour, which includes us as stars on the video wall at Samsung’s D’light exhibit in Seoul:

[ See post to watch video ]

Video: Steven Levy Talks About Google Book "In the Plex"

Kara Swisher — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 13:15:25 +0000

Earlier this week, BoomTown interviewed longtime author and tech journalist Steven Levy about his new book, “In The Plex: How Google Thinks, Works, and Shapes Our Lives” at a Churchill Club event in Silicon Valley.

Afterwards, I met Levy, who is a senior editor for Wired now, at the Plex in question–the Googleplex–to chitchat about what he learned after being embedded at the Borg, um, search giant for years.

Luckily for Levy, he was there during interesting times for Google, including its launch of the Android mobile operating system, its still fruitless struggles to get social networking to better compete with Facebook and the return of its decidedly quirky co-founder Larry Page to the CEO job.

Here’s the video of our longish chat, in which Levy opines on all that and more (and also shuts me down when I try to compare Google’s current fight with Facebook to the plot of HBO’s bloody and freaky “Game of Thrones”–without the swordfighting, natch!).

Enjoy–especially the shot of Levy on one of those multi-colored bikes Googlers ride around campus:

[ See post to watch video ]

Please see this disclosure related to me and Google.

Apple App Happy Sonos Also Goes Android

Kara Swisher — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 14:00:07 +0000

Sonos–the maker of innovative wireless music systems that has been boosted by its Apple iPhone and iPad Controller app–is set to roll out one for Google’s Android mobile operating system.

The Sonos Controller for Android will officially introduce the app at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona next week, although the Santa Barbara, Calif., company is announcing it today.

“It’s a no-brainer,” said Sonos CEO John MacFarlane in an interview with BoomTown yesterday. “It basically doubles our market space.”

The free app allows you to control Sonos’s various players wirelessly with a smartphone or tablet.

The impact of the iPhone and the iPad on sales of its various devices has been clear enough, said MacFarlane, as registrations of the app have escalated.

“There is more usage of the smartphone, but tablets are clearly happening, said MacFarlane. “But I have the same view of both that these devices are the Holy Grail everyone has always wanted.”

The move to Android will take longer to beta test, he said, since its ecosystem has a plethora of unit types from a variety of handset makers.

The app will be out in March.

Here’s an image of the app on an Android phone and the official press release:

ROCK THE HOUSE: SONOS INTRODUCES SONOS CONTROLLER FOR ANDROID

Wireless Music System for Android Provides Unlimited Music, Incredible Control and Amazing Sound in Every Room

SANTA BARBARA, CA–February 10, 2011–Sonos, the leading developer of wireless multi-room music systems for the home, today introduced the Sonos Controller for Android, a free app that transforms most Android™ smartphones into a wireless music controller for the award-winning Sonos Multi-Room Music System. The Sonos Controller for Android, available in late March as a free download from Android Market™, will make its public debut next week at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. To watch a video introduction of the Sonos Controller for Android, please visit www.sonos.com/android.

With the award-winning Sonos S5 in any room and an Android phone in hand, music lovers will enjoy an unmatched wireless music experience in the home. You’ll be able to access and play all the music on earth–from the Internet and your personal music library–throughout the home, wirelessly. Use the free Sonos Controller for Android app to control all your music and rooms, all from the palm of your hand. And, Sonos Controller for Android features Sonos’ latest innovation in the home music experience–music voice search–allowing users to find any artist, album or track by simply speaking into the phone.

“Sonos’ mission is to fill every home with music,” said John MacFarlane, CEO, Sonos, Inc. “We are thrilled to bring the joy of music to the homes of Android fans worldwide.”

To get started enjoying music in any or every room of the home, all you need is a Sonos ZonePlayer and a Sonos Controller such as the free Sonos Controller for Android. The most popular Sonos ZonePlayer is the Sonos S5, an all-in-one wireless music system you can plug in anywhere. Now you can play any track you like, anytime you like, in any room you like. Wirelessly play the same song in every room of the house–perfectly synchronized. Or, mix it up and play different songs in different rooms.

When it comes to controlling Sonos, you simply reach into your pocket for your Android smartphone. With Sonos Controller for Android, you can search for songs and stations by typing or speaking, choose the music and control the volume in as many rooms as you like. And because your Android phone is controlling the music, and not the source of it, when a text comes in or you need to make a phone call, the music doesn’t stop.

Sonos connects directly to the Internet so you can access a world of music without ever turning on your computer. Search and play more than 100,000 Internet radio stations, shows and podcasts–from around the world. Play songs, playlists and radio from the most popular music services like Deezer, iheartradio, Last.fm, Napster, Pandora, Rdio, Rhapsody, SiriusXM Internet Radio, Spotify, Wolfgang’s Vault, and more. And of course, Sonos can play your entire digital music library (such as iTunes) stored on a computer or Network Attached storage drive.

The Sonos Controller for Android is designed to work on any Android smartphone running Android 2.1 or later with a screen size of HVGA 320 x 480, WVGA 480 x 800 or WVGA 480 x 854. Sonos Controller for Android joins the family of Sonos Controllers which includes free apps for iPhone and iPad, a dedicated touchscreen controller, the Sonos Controller 200, and free software for your Mac or PC, included with every ZonePlayer. All controllers work together seamlessly.

Sonos will be demonstrating the Sonos Controller for Android at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain February 13-17, 2011. For a demonstration in person, you’ll find Sonos at the following locations:
• Android: Hall 8; Booth 8C25
• Motorola: Hall 8, Booth 8A28
• Sonos: Hall 7; Suite 7HS11

For more information about Sonos or to locate an authorized Sonos dealer in your area, please visit www.sonos.com or call 877.80.SONOS.

HTC Well-Served by Android

Voices — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 20:17:33 +0000

Taiwan handset maker HTC, producer of many of the top Android-based smartphones, is seeing a payoff from its embrace of Google’s mobile operating system. The company’s second-quarter results show a 58 percent increase in revenue and a 33 percent gain in profits year-over-year, both well above forecasts.

Android 2.2 Lands on Nexus One

John Paczkowski — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 12:01:04 +0000

Froyo, a.k.a. Android 2.2, has arrived. Google (GOOG) began a staggered release of the latest version of its mobile operating system Monday, delivering it via an over-the-air update to Nexus One users.

Froyo brings a number of enhancements to the OS, among them better support for Microsoft Exchange, improved performance and the ability to turn phones that run it into mobile Wi-Fi hotspots.

Motorola to Layoff Staff, Operating Systems

John Paczkowski — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 18:00:26 +0000

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Yahoo Under Siege

John Paczkowski — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 18:00:22 +0000

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YouTube MacGyver-ized

John Paczkowski — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 18:00:55 +0000

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Yahoo: Start Bleeding Purple

John Paczkowski — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 19:00:54 +0000

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Microsoft Live Labs Creates Web 'Synth' For 3-D Photo Tour

Walter S. Mossberg — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 01:02:03 +0000

Microsoft is a little like the General Motors of technology. The software giant is, of course, much more successful, financially and in market share, than the troubled auto maker. But, as at GM (GM), Microsoft‘s (MSFT) very size — over 90,000 employees — and its bureaucratic structure often make the company seem more stolid and less innovative than smaller, nimbler rivals like Google (GOOG) and Apple (AAPL).

This contrast has appeared sharper in recent years, as Microsoft’s Windows Vista operating system received a tepid critical response compared with Apple’s Leopard platform and as the company’s Live Web search service has slipped further behind Google’s. In addition, Microsoft’s cellphone software, Windows Mobile, looks old and creaky compared with Apple’s sleek iPhone and Google’s forthcoming Android mobile operating system.

[ See post to watch video ]

But innovation does exist at Microsoft’s sprawling Redmond, Wash., campus. For instance, last year’s daring and radical redesign of Microsoft Office has been a critical and commercial success.

Now, there’s a sort of guerrilla team inside Microsoft designed to churn out innovative products more often and more rapidly. Called Live Labs, the unit is a small operation that aims to turn technology theories into real, Web-based products relatively quickly. It has only about 125 employees, and even that modest number is broken up into smaller teams tackling specific projects.

This week, Microsoft Live Labs is releasing its first broad consumer Web service, called Photosynth. This service turns multiple photos of a scene or site — say, an art gallery or a building — into a 3-D scene you can virtually “walk” through on the Web.

Unlike a simple 2-D panorama, which many photo programs can create from several pictures, a Photosynth creation, called a “synth,” is a virtual 3-D environment. It gives you the feeling you are in the middle of a room looking around, or circumnavigating a building or object. You can travel through a scene both laterally and vertically, and zoom in to see detailed, higher-resolution views of objects inside the synth, such as paintings on a wall.

For instance, you don’t just see a long, flat picture of Stonehenge or the Grand Canal in Venice. You are made to feel you are there, moving through these places, looking up at the sky or down at the ground, and pausing to examine more closely a particular stone, boat or building.

Such 3-D walk-through images have been around for awhile; they are used on some real-estate Web sites, for example, to show houses virtually. But Photosynth allows anyone to create them using any standard digital camera, and even using pictures you already possess that weren’t created with Photosynth in mind. You could even use photos of the same site taken by several people. The software will analyze the pictures, figure out which ones overlap and in what order, and then turn those shots that match up into a 3-D synth.

Photosynth, based on technology Microsoft acquired in 2006, is entirely free, and it’s entirely based on the Web, at photosynth.net (where it will be launched at midnight EST Thursday). At that site you can view not only your own synths, but the synths created by every other Photosynth user.

I’ve been testing this service for about a week, and while it has its flaws, I believe that Photosynth offers a dramatic new way to use your photos and to share them with others.

Photosynth works within a Web browser, using a small plug-in you install. Currently, it works only in Windows, using Microsoft’s own Internet Explorer browser or its rival, Firefox. A Macintosh version is in the works, but for now, you can’t even view others’ synths in the Mac operating system.

When Photosynth works right, the results are wonderfully satisfying. But it takes some skill to get a set of photos the service can match up well, a quality Microsoft calls being “synthy.” Ideally, portions of each slice of a 3-D scene should show up in at least three photos, with 50% overlap between them. After you upload your pictures and Photosynth does its best to make them into a 3-D scene, the service assigns them a percentage number that indicates how synthy they were.

In my tests, I tried both collections of photos I already possessed and some I snapped with Photosynth in mind. My pictures of a piazza in Verona, Italy, were only 38% synthy, while ones I took of a hotel room specifically for Photosynth use were 73% synthy.

One gripe I had was that Photosynth doesn’t tell you how synthy your pictures are until after you have uploaded them and waited until the system merges them, a process that can take a long time over a slow Internet connection. It would be much better if the service could tell you in advance how synthy the pictures are. Another objection is that Photosynth has no privacy settings. All your synths are open to viewing by everyone who uses the service.

But, overall, Photosynth is an impressive new way to view and share photos, and an encouraging sign that innovation and creativity still live in Redmond.

Find all of Walt Mossberg’s columns and videos online, free, at the All Things Digital Web site, walt.allthingsd.com. Email him at mossberg@wsj.com.