AllThingsD » smartphone http://allthingsd.com Fri, 10 Feb 2012 18:36:28 +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 My So-Called Social Super Bowl http://allthingsd.com/20120206/my-so-called-social-super-bowl/ http://allthingsd.com/20120206/my-so-called-social-super-bowl/#comments Tue, 07 Feb 2012 00:19:46 +0000 Lauren Goode http://allthingsd.com/?p=171836 I am, by many measures, a digital enthusiast. I write almost exclusively for online media as part of my job, and in my Twitter profile, cop to being a 140-character addict.

But during last night’s super-media-saturated Super Bowl, I somehow managed to ignore digital media.

This wasn’t intentional (and it was very unlike our previous Footballmer dual-liveblog extravaganza, during which I balanced a laptop with a smartphone with 3-D glasses). The original plan was to watch the game at home and simultaneously monitor my multiple feeds. During the pregame festivities, I even used Foursquare to gauge how many people had already checked into a Boston-themed bar in downtown Manhattan.

Then a friend called and urged me to join him at a neighborhood bar. I brought along a tablet, its interface dotted with Super Bowl-related apps, on which I could keep an eye on the online stream. My Twitter app was open on my smartphone, and I eagerly awaited the smart and sassy commentary from the Twitterverse.

But once the game started, something happened. I decided to actually watch the game on TV and converse with the people around me. My phone was at hand, of course, in the event that someone might call or email with news, but I didn’t check my many apps.

I also paid attention to the commercials — even the ones I’d already seen on the Internet — and listened for the reactions of my fellow viewers.

By the end of the night, I had tweeted exactly once.

Apparently, my digital defection put me in the vast minority: My AllThingsD colleague Peter Kafka reports that social media commentary last night increased sixfold from the previous year’s Super Bowl broadcast. There were so many tweets flying at the end of the game that a new record for simultaneous Twitter messages was set; in television ratings, Super Bowl XLVI turned out to be the most-watched program in TV, with 111.3 million viewers.

But last night — even without reading updates on Facebook or Twitter — I sensed that the Audi “Vampire Party” ad was likely a winner, that people liked the idea of a slingshot-bound baby snatching a bag of Doritos, and that the newest Go Daddy commercial didn’t exactly resonate. According to data from the CNBC/Collective Intellect Super Sunday Ad Tracker, Doritos ads captured 15.8 percent of all engaged consumers, and the Go Daddy ad was deemed “offensive.”

Anecdotally, people like dogs. Also, Ferris Bueller triggers nostalgia in some, even if they could care less about Honda’s CR-V. And all you need to do is talk to people to get a feel for this. According to Hulu, “The Bark Side” and “Matthew’s Day Off” were the most-liked ads of the game.

Some people thought Madonna’s half-time “Vogue”-ing was impressive; others felt it was arthritic. This was later supported by postgame social media analysis from Networked Insights. But everyone I saw was glued to it, nonetheless — TiVo says so, too.

I knew that Tom Brady’s performance would be a hot topic of discussion, and that New Yorkers were pumped about the Giants’ victory, not because of Facebook status updates, but because when I walked through midtown after the game ended, the whoops and cheers could be heard for blocks.

Fortunately, I was not bound by my job to liveblog, tweet, tumble, update, text, post, buzz, pin or ping about the the big game. (AllThingsD’s Ina Fried, however, did an excellent job of liveblogging the Super Bowl for us.)

I’m sure if, say, CNBC’s Darren Rovell said, “I decided not to report on the game and just watch instead!” his bosses might have a different reaction than mine would. Not only that, but a strong voice in the field of sports business reporting would be sorely missed.

I doubt mine was missed all that much last night.

Generally, I enjoy monitoring — and contributing to — Twitter feeds while I watch live TV. I used Twitter while I watched the most recent State of the Union address. I followed along while the news of Osama bin Laden’s death was unfolding. And I chimed in during last year’s Academy Awards and March Madness games. I think the people I follow on Twitter are some of the brightest in the biz, so to speak, and I usually glean some good insights by following their tweets.

Unaccountably, last night, I just didn’t. And it ended up being the same game it would have been if I had been engaged in social media. I’m wondering if I didn’t even have a bit more fun because I communicated face to face instead of reflexively checking my little screens.

Even though I immediately returned to the social media water cooler this morning, enjoying a social Super Bowl in the old-fashioned sense of the term seems a good reminder that we don’t always need to be connected to feel connected.

(Image credit: Rickshaw_Man) | Flickr

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120206/my-so-called-social-super-bowl/feed/ 2 Corning Looks to Recreate the Viral Magic With New Video About Glass http://allthingsd.com/20120203/corning-looks-to-recreate-the-viral-magic-with-new-video-about-glass/ http://allthingsd.com/20120203/corning-looks-to-recreate-the-viral-magic-with-new-video-about-glass/#comments Fri, 03 Feb 2012 18:02:35 +0000 Lauren Goode http://allthingsd.com/?p=171135 One would hardly think a video about glass would go viral.

But that’s what happened a year ago, when upstate New York-based Corning Inc., maker of optical fiber, Pyrex and the ultra-thin chemically strengthened glass used in many newer tablets and smartphones, posted a slickly produced marketing video on YouTube.

The five-and-a-half minute spot gave more than 17 million viewers a futuristic glimpse at the ways glass could be used in day-to-day life, from tablet screens to home appliances to car dashboards to bus-stop poster panels. The video shows a shiny happy family interacting with the touch-friendly surfaces in a world that I can only guess has flawless, perpetual Internet connectivity.

Now, Corning is looking to recreate some of that viral magic with a sequel video, aptly named A Day Made of Glass … 2!

It’s not remarkably different from the original video. There are two versions of the sequel; one with a narrator, and another without all the explanatory dialogue.

The sequel features the same family, but takes the scenario a few steps further — for example, tablets are now present everywhere, from the bedroom to the classroom, and the neurosurgeon dad is using antimicrobial glass in the operating room, as well as large-panel, fiber-optic glass displays to communicate via video chat with fellow doctors in China.

Despite the fact that large displays play a prominent role in the videos, Corning’s chief financial officer, Jim Flaws, said that large-screen displays are still too expensive for the masses, and that the company sees smartphones and tablets as the fastest-growing area for Corning in the near term. Flaws also said we can expect to see more glass in smaller feature phones, not just in smartphones.

He reaffirmed that Corning is forecasting $10 billion in sales for 2014; last year, the company hit record annual sales of $7.9 billion.

Corning’s Gorilla Glass is currently used in more than 575 consumer-tech product models across 30 major brands, totaling more than 500 million units worldwide. While it’s unclear whether Apple’s latest iPhone and iPad displays are made using Gorilla Glass, Corning was tapped to supply its specialty glass for the original iPhone (which you can read more about in this New York Times story about Apple’s supply chain in China).

Recently, Corning unveiled a new version of its Gorilla Glass that is 20 percent thinner than the original glass.

For your viewing pleasure, the new Corning video is below:

And in other glass-related news — because it’s a slow Friday, so far — ScienceNOW says that researchers have accidentally created the world’s thinnest pane of glass, measuring just three atoms thick.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120203/corning-looks-to-recreate-the-viral-magic-with-new-video-about-glass/feed/ 2 Samsung Gears Up for Super Bowl Spot With Another Anti-Apple Ad http://allthingsd.com/20120120/samsung-gears-up-for-super-bowl-spot-with-another-anti-apple-ad/ http://allthingsd.com/20120120/samsung-gears-up-for-super-bowl-spot-with-another-anti-apple-ad/#comments Fri, 20 Jan 2012 18:08:56 +0000 Ina Fried http://allthingsd.com/?p=165913 With plans for a Super Bowl commercial in the works, Samsung has released yet another spot in its hard-hitting Galaxy II ad campaign.

The spots, which take direct aim at Apple, have a familiar ring at this point: Apple die-hards wait in line for the latest iPhone, only to be shown up by a passerby with a Galaxy in hand.

In the latest spot, the roommate of one of those in line stops by with a charger for his friends, who notice that his phone has turn-by-turn navigation. He smugly points out that it’s an included feature on his phone, unlike the iPhone, where live GPS-style directions require a third-party app.

“Oh, we just got Samsung-ed,” whines one of the queued-up Apple fans.

It’s another fun spot, though the comments on Samsung’s Facebook page suggest not everyone loves it. One Galaxy S II owner complains about dropped calls, while another bemoans how his phone doesn’t have LTE (of course, some Galaxy S II models do have LTE, and no iPhone supports it).

In any case, it will be interesting to see what Samsung comes up with for its Super Bowl spot.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120120/samsung-gears-up-for-super-bowl-spot-with-another-anti-apple-ad/feed/ 0 AT&T's New Plans Will Mean Higher Bills for Many http://allthingsd.com/20120119/atts-new-plans-will-mean-higher-bills-for-many/ http://allthingsd.com/20120119/atts-new-plans-will-mean-higher-bills-for-many/#comments Thu, 19 Jan 2012 17:00:36 +0000 Ina Fried http://allthingsd.com/?p=165119 AT&T is being quick to point out that the cost per megabyte is going down with the new rate plans it announced on Thursday.

However, because each of its three phone data plans is going up by $5 a month, the fact is that many new customers will be paying more each month. It also means that those who sign up for the new 3 gigabyte plan will be paying the same $30 a month that customers paid 18 months ago for an unlimited plan. It also means that the least a new customer can pay to have even minimal data on a smartphone is now $20 a month. (Existing customers can keep their existing plan, AT&T stresses.)

And all this is coming from a carrier that until recently was promising it wouldn’t hike rates as part of its pitch to acquire T-Mobile USA. But now, even without a deal, it appears higher prices are on the horizon.

It’s not the first time AT&T has found a way to change its plans in a way that is not necessarily a straight price hike, but is nonetheless likely to lead to higher average bills. Last August, the company dropped an option for new customers that allowed 1,000 text messages for $10 a month. That leaves new customers having to choose between only two options: Paying for an unlimited number of texts or paying a high rate for each such message sent.

The move also came as many customers are shifting part of their messaging habit to data-based services such as Apple’s iMessage. However, even those agressively moving their texts to alternate services may want to receive text messages for certain kinds of alerts.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120119/atts-new-plans-will-mean-higher-bills-for-many/feed/ 0 Sony Ericsson Reports Brutal Fourth Quarter as It Prepares for Life as Sony Unit http://allthingsd.com/20120119/sony-ericsson-reports-brutal-fourth-quarter-as-it-prepares-for-life-as-sony-unit/ http://allthingsd.com/20120119/sony-ericsson-reports-brutal-fourth-quarter-as-it-prepares-for-life-as-sony-unit/#comments Thu, 19 Jan 2012 09:56:46 +0000 Ina Fried http://allthingsd.com/?p=165236 Sony Ericsson, which is in the process of being wholly acquired by its Japanese co-owner, reported a particularly bad quarter on Thursday.

The cellphone maker reported a huge quarterly loss, and a drop in the number of phones sold from a year earlier — nine million units, down from 11.2 million shipments in the prior year’s fourth quarter.

For the three months ended Dec. 31, the company lost 207 million euros on revenue of 1.29 billion euros. That compares to a profit of eight million euros on sales of 1.53 million euros in the year-ago quarter. The just-reported quarter’s results included 93 million euros in restructuring charges.

“Our fourth quarter results reflected intense competition, unfavorable macroeconomic conditions and the effects of a natural disaster in Thailand this quarter,” CEO Bert Nordberg said in a statement. “We are aligning our business to drive profitability and to meet customer needs. In spite of these challenges, throughout 2011 we’ve shifted our business from feature phones to smartphones, and our Android-based smartphone sales in the quarter increased by 65% year-on-year.”

The division will soon be Sony’s to deal with, as the cellphone maker expects to complete its transition to full ownership this month or next, with Sony paying Ericsson 1.05 billion euros.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120119/sony-ericsson-reports-brutal-fourth-quarter-as-it-prepares-for-life-as-sony-unit/feed/ 0 Talk Is Cheap and Reliable on Nokia's $50 Phone http://allthingsd.com/20120118/talk-is-cheap-and-reliable-on-nokias-50-phone/ http://allthingsd.com/20120118/talk-is-cheap-and-reliable-on-nokias-50-phone/#comments Thu, 19 Jan 2012 02:03:34 +0000 Walter S. Mossberg http://allthingsd.com/?p=165066 The standard price of a smartphone running one of the modern mobile operating systems is typically $200, with a two-year service contract. Recently, there have even been a few, largely unsuccessful, attempts to boost prices to $300.


[ See post to watch video ]

But phone makers and carriers have been eager to push smartphones into lower price bands to expand the market. Older and more basic models have been showing up for less. Multiple Android models sell for around $100, and a few well below that. Even Apple, which established the $200 standard, sells its iPhone 4, which is outwardly identical to the current iPhone 4S, for $99. And its 2009-vintage iPhone 3GS is free with an AT&T contract.

So this week, I tested a new $50 smartphone to see what you get for that kind of money. It’s called the Nokia Lumia 710, and it runs Microsoft’s Windows Phone operating system, the much-praised, but late and struggling, competitor to Android and the Apple iOS software that powers the iPhone.

PTECH-JUMP

The Nokia Lumia 710 runs the same Mango version of Windows Phone as costlier models, with its bright tiles that can show live data, like the weather or favorite photos.

After a week of testing the Lumia 710, my verdict is that it’s a good value for the money, and a good choice for people moving up to their first smartphone, or those looking for an alternative to Android and Apple. It has some notable weaknesses and drawbacks, and it doesn’t compare with the iPhone 4S or elite Android models like the Samsung Galaxy S II. But it’s a decent phone that gets the most common smartphone tasks done.

I chose the Lumia 710 because it isn’t an old model or one that runs an outdated version of software. In fact, it’s the first Windows Phone device from Nokia, Microsoft’s principal phone partner, to be offered by an American wireless carrier—in this case, T-Mobile. And it was designed to be a low-cost alternative to most other smartphones, to boost the tepid sales of Windows Phone devices and to launch Nokia’s bid to regain a significant share of the U.S. market.

T-Mobile is promoting the phone heavily in its stores and in national TV ads, and says it will be a major focus for the carrier this winter. Wal-Mart is pushing it for $18.88 in its stores and free online, with a contract, according to T-Mobile and Nokia.

Though it’s the vanguard, the Lumia 710 won’t be the flagship of Nokia’s new Windows Phone line. An entirely different model, the larger but sleeker Lumia 900, is coming from AT&T, probably in March. It will boast a bigger, better screen, more storage and features and a better camera. No price has been announced, but it will certainly cost more than $50.

Another higher-end Nokia model, the Lumia 800, already is available overseas, but hasn’t been picked up yet by U.S. carriers.

The 710 is a somewhat thick, rounded phone that comes in black or white and has a 3.7-inch screen—bigger than the iPhone’s, but much smaller than the huge displays of 4.5 inches or more on some of the newer Android models.

The phone is plastic and fairly light, but doesn’t seem cheap or flimsy. It has a rubbery, curved back and feels good in the hand. And unlike many new smartphones, the back is removable and the battery is replaceable.

This phone runs on T-Mobile’s 4G network, which I have consistently found to be much slower than Verizon’s latest 4G technology, now also being rolled out by AT&T. In my tests, downloads averaged about 2 megabits per second, which isn’t much better than on many 3G phones.

The 710 runs the same Mango version of Windows Phone as costlier models and, in my tests, was generally snappy, though it lagged in a few instances. Like all Windows phones, it has a dedicated button that launches the camera even when the phone is locked. However, Windows Phone has about 10% of the third-party apps as the iPhone.

I was able to use all the main features of Mango, which distinguishes itself from its competitors with a user interface made up of bright tiles that can show live data, like the weather or favorite photos, even before you tap them to open apps. Mango’s “hubs”—features that aggregate information such as your friends’ contact info and social-networking status—also worked fine.

I was able to sync the phone with both a Windows PC and a Mac, using Microsoft software, to add music, photos and videos.

So what corner-cutting was done to get the price down? What are the missing features? One is the absence of a front camera, which means you can’t do video chats on the 710. Also, the phone can’t be used as a Wi-Fi hot spot to connect other devices, like laptops, to the Web. It has only 8 gigabytes of internal storage, which can’t be expanded. The base line for most other new smartphones is 16 gigabytes.

In addition, I found the 5 megapixel rear camera to be no better than adequate, with some pictures I took rapidly coming out fuzzy, though most others were acceptable.

I found the phone’s buttons required more pressure than they should have. The screen, while decent-looking when viewed straight on, was harder to read from an angle than on most competing smartphones.

I didn’t perform a formal battery test, but found the phone’s battery made it through the day in mixed, light-to-moderate use. Sound quality was good and calls didn’t drop.

T-Mobile’s service plans for the Nokia Lumia 710 start at $60 per month for 500 minutes of voice, unlimited texts and a paltry 200 megabytes of data. But the carrier recommends a plan that costs $80 monthly and boosts the data portion to unlimited (T-Mobile slows your connection if you exceed 5 gigabytes of data during the month.)

Bottom line: Nokia will soon have flashier, high-end Windows Phone models in the U.S., but you can get a lot for less in the Lumia 710.

Email Walt at mossberg@wsj.com.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120118/talk-is-cheap-and-reliable-on-nokias-50-phone/feed/ 0 AT&T Raising Monthly Data Plan Prices, but Throwing in More Data http://allthingsd.com/20120118/att-raising-monthly-data-plan-prices-but-throwing-in-more-data/ http://allthingsd.com/20120118/att-raising-monthly-data-plan-prices-but-throwing-in-more-data/#comments Wed, 18 Jan 2012 23:03:00 +0000 Ina Fried http://allthingsd.com/?p=164937 AT&T is changing its data rate plans for new smartphone and tablet customers on Sunday, upping the cost but adding more gigabytes for the price.

The carrier, which had charged $25 a month for 2GB of data, will now offer 3GB for $30 a month. Its entry-level data plan, which was $15 for 200 megabytes, will shift to $20 for 300MB, while its $45 high-end 4GB plan (which allows tethering to another device) will now be $50 for 5GB.

Existing customers will be able to keep their current data plan, even if they upgrade their phones, but can also opt to switch to one of the new plans.

AT&T says the change reflects the ever-increasing amounts of data that customers are consuming, noting that data usage is up 40 percent in the past year. The company expects data use to continue to rise as the carrier offers its new high-speed LTE network in more cities.

AT&T’s primary rival, Verizon, charges $30 for 2GB of data, though it has been running a “double your data” promotion offering 4G customers 4GB of data for that price.

Customers, meanwhile, are still trying to get a handle on just how much data they are using, now that most of the major carriers have moved away from fully unlimited plans.

Sprint still offers unlimited plans on phones, while Verizon and AT&T have tiered plans with overage charges and T-Mobile throttles the speed of users once they hit a certain level of paid data use.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120118/att-raising-monthly-data-plan-prices-but-throwing-in-more-data/feed/ 0 Airbnb Brings Its Apartment-Sharing Service to Android http://allthingsd.com/20120117/airbnb-brings-its-apartment-sharing-service-to-android/ http://allthingsd.com/20120117/airbnb-brings-its-apartment-sharing-service-to-android/#comments Tue, 17 Jan 2012 17:00:19 +0000 Ina Fried http://allthingsd.com/?p=164156 Airbnb, which already gets 10 percent of its mobile traffic via the iPhone, is adding an Android app for listing, searching and booking accommodations. The company said it is also revamping its mobile Web site.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120117/airbnb-brings-its-apartment-sharing-service-to-android/feed/ 0 Apple Seeks Ban on Samsung Smartphones in Germany http://allthingsd.com/20120117/apple-seeks-ban-on-samsung-smartphones-in-germany/ http://allthingsd.com/20120117/apple-seeks-ban-on-samsung-smartphones-in-germany/#comments Tue, 17 Jan 2012 16:15:34 +0000 John Paczkowski http://allthingsd.com/?p=164299 Yet another escalation of hostilities between Apple and Samsung.

Apple has filed suit against Samsung once again in Germany, looking to ban the sales of a number of smartphones and tablets. Filed in Dusseldorf Regional Court and based on a number of design patents, the suit targets Samsung’s Galaxy S II and its Galaxy S Plus, along with eight other smartphones.

Reached for comment, Apple reiterated the same line it has been using to upbraid Samsung throughout the pair’s legal spat:

“This kind of blatant copying is wrong, and we need to protect Apple’s intellectual property when companies steal our ideas.”

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120117/apple-seeks-ban-on-samsung-smartphones-in-germany/feed/ 0 Fujitsu Seeking Way Into Crowded U.S. Smartphone Market http://allthingsd.com/20120112/fujitsu-seeking-way-back-into-us-market/ http://allthingsd.com/20120112/fujitsu-seeking-way-back-into-us-market/#comments Thu, 12 Jan 2012 13:00:09 +0000 Ina Fried http://allthingsd.com/?p=163019 For the last several years, Fujitsu has been content to be a big mobile player in Japan, thanks to a close relationship with DoCoMo, and yet relatively unheard of in the rest of the smartphone universe.

That, however, is starting to change.

With the market increasingly global — and overseas players impinging on its domestic market, Fujitsu is looking overseas. And when it looks, it sees North America as the place it would most like to be.

“North America is our priority market,” Senior Executive Vice President Hideyuki Saso said in an interview at the Consumer Electronics Show. Fujitsu is also in the process of reacquiring full control of a mobile joint venture that had paired it with Toshiba in the phone business.

Fujitsu, which makes both Android and Windows Phone devices in Japan, isn’t quite sure what market niche it will target, but it is sure it doesn’t want to be just one among the smartphone masses.

“If we try to do same thing as how our competitors because of the competition, it is going to be tough,” Saso said via a translator. “We would like to identify the right way of entering the North American market that would make use of our technology and expertise to make a steady landing.”

Timing is also uncertain, though Saso said the company hopes it will be either later this year or next year. The key, he said, is to figure out where it can stand out from the pack.

“We don’t want to be just another mobile phone,” he said, “We want to be special.”

While the U.S. smartphone market is already crowded, Saso said Fujitsu has several strenghts it can draw on, including a wide range of thin, yet durable and waterproof models. Though not yet a player here, Fujitsu boasts it has the thinnest smartphone approved by the FCC for use in the U.S.

In making its phones waterproof, Saso said, the company had to also make them tough.

“For us to achieve this waterproof (capability), we also had to look at durability again, the rigidness and the toughness,” he said, banging a large pen on the phone’s screen for emphasis.

Fujitsu also has the noise cancellation used in a Formula One vehicle it sponsors — a position that explains the presence of the race car in its CES booth.

All of those, Saso says, could form the basis of Fujitsu’s entry, though the company is still evaluating its product options. Another approach would be to offer a phone similar to the Raku Raku (“easy easy”) phone it offers in Japan — a basic phone, aimed at seniors, that mixes in enhanced calling and health diagnostics such as heart rate, calorie and fat intake, and exercise. Fujitsu has sold 20 million of the devices in Japan.

MORE CES NEWS:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120112/fujitsu-seeking-way-back-into-us-market/feed/ 0 Intel Shows Just How It Plans to Get Into Phones (Video) http://allthingsd.com/20120110/intel-shows-just-how-it-plans-to-get-into-phones-video/ http://allthingsd.com/20120110/intel-shows-just-how-it-plans-to-get-into-phones-video/#comments Wed, 11 Jan 2012 01:00:34 +0000 Ina Fried http://allthingsd.com/?p=162455 For years, Intel has talked about using its chips to power smartphones. Now it actually has something in its hands.

At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Intel is showing a working reference design that it is offering to any phone maker that wants to use its chips. The phone itself packs a 1.6GHz single-core Atom chip along with an array of sensors and radios.

“The sample platform we have is fully buzzword compliant,” General Manager Mike Bell said in an interview.

The company has been testing thousands of phones internally and says the performance is top of class, with battery life at least as good as most Android devices.

“We are not the best at power, but we are definitely very, very competitive,” Bell said.

Compatibility is another issue that Bell said he is asked about a lot. Nearly all Java-based Android apps should run, as well as a good number of those designed specifically for chips based on cores from rival ARM.

“We think that gets rid of the last argument people have,” Bell said.

Of course, Intel faces plenty of competition in the phone chip space, including existing Android chip providers Qualcomm, Nvidia, Texas Instruments and other challengers, such as Broadcom.

Intel is announcing two phone customers running its chips — a Lenovo phone for China slated to be released in the first half of the year and a multi-year, multi-device alliance with Motorola Mobility that will begin with a phone in the second half of the year.

Although Intel announced only the two customers, Bell indicated more names will be coming soon. (Think next month’s Mobile World Congress for an update.)

“You can imagine our business is all about scale,” he said, declining to say how many phone designs are being built around its chips, or how many customers it has.

In a roundtable with reporters, Motorola CEO Sanjay Jha said he was attracted to the chipmaker by both its roadmap and its approach, which focuses as much on running multiple instructions on a single chip core as it does on packing in as many cores as possible.

“What they have done is multithreading vs. multicore,” Jha said, noting there is a big debate in computer science as to which is better. Jha said that, along with other innovations like three-dimensional transistors, this will be important as the laws of physics prevent rapid performance gains just by shrinking the size of transistors.

Intel has focused its phone efforts entirely on Android for now, noting that it believes it has more people working on Android than Google does.


[ See post to watch video ]

MORE CES NEWS:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120110/intel-shows-just-how-it-plans-to-get-into-phones-video/feed/ 0 Grover Is at CES and I Am Missing It http://allthingsd.com/20120110/grover-is-at-ces-and-i-am-missing-it/ http://allthingsd.com/20120110/grover-is-at-ces-and-i-am-missing-it/#comments Tue, 10 Jan 2012 17:30:36 +0000 Ina Fried http://allthingsd.com/?p=162176 As I’ve let slip in more than a few tweets and posts, I am a huge “Sesame Street” fan.

Which is why I can’t believe I am missing lovable, furry Grover. The blue Muppet is making an in-the-fur appearance at CES on Tuesday, in a speech by Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs, and I am already booked.

The chipmaker has worked with Sesame Workshop on an augmented reality application.

Jacobs is also set to show off other tech stuff, including a demo of Windows 8 running on its hardware and working over AT&T’s LTE network and Lenovo’s Android-based television, which is powered by a Qualcomm chip.

But what has me sore is missing the Muppets. If you are still in Vegas, Grover, call me!

MORE CES NEWS:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120110/grover-is-at-ces-and-i-am-missing-it/feed/ 0 LG Pushes 4G Smartphone Through Verizon: The LG Spectrum http://allthingsd.com/20120109/lg-pushes-4g-smartphone-through-verizon-the-lg-spectrum/ http://allthingsd.com/20120109/lg-pushes-4g-smartphone-through-verizon-the-lg-spectrum/#comments Mon, 09 Jan 2012 18:15:53 +0000 Lauren Goode http://allthingsd.com/?p=161628 In the smartphone market, LG Electronics has done well at the low end with the Optimus phone, which is popular with prepaid carriers. But the company has been largely absent in the high-end phone market.

Today, at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, LG showed off its new Spectrum, a 4G LTE smartphone with a 4.5 inch HD IPS display, through a partnership with Verizon. The phone runs Android’s Gingerbread operating system and is upgradable to Android Ice Cream Sandwich. It has rear- and front-facing cameras, and captures 8 megapixel images and 1080 HD video. The phone will be available on Jan. 19 in Verizon stores and will cost $199.99 with a two-year contract.

Through a partnership with ESPN, the Spectrum will stream exclusive mobile video content from ESPN in HD.

LG also teased its upcoming dual-solution VMware smartphone and said it would have more details at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. But what we know about the phone is that it will run two Android operating systems on a single device — one for work and one geared toward personal use. LG cited the growing trend of consumers using personal phones for work as evidence of a need for this sort of thing.

We also got a glimpse of the 55-inch OLED TV from LG — another one of the worst-kept secrets in Vegas — and learned a little bit more about the company’s 3-D TV efforts. More to come shortly.

Ina Fried contributed to this article.

MORE CES NEWS:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120109/lg-pushes-4g-smartphone-through-verizon-the-lg-spectrum/feed/ 0 Sprint: We're Not Really Throttling Our Customers http://allthingsd.com/20120106/sprint-we-are-not-really-throttling-our-customers/ http://allthingsd.com/20120106/sprint-we-are-not-really-throttling-our-customers/#comments Fri, 06 Jan 2012 19:09:22 +0000 Ina Fried http://allthingsd.com/?p=161040 Sprint CEO Dan Hesse stirred up a mini firestorm on Thursday when he assured investors at a financial conference that it had a way of dealing with those gobbling up too much data.

“For those that want to abuse it, we can knock them off,” Hesse said, according to a Dow Jones Newswires report. The report also said the carrier was slowing the speeds of about 1 percent of its most data-hungry customers.

However, in a blog post on Friday, the carrier insisted that it is not slowing down the speeds of any of its customers on traditional postpaid contract plans.

“Reports that Sprint throttles the top one percent of data users are false,” Sprint said in the post. “At yesterday’s investor conference, Sprint CEO Dan Hesse was referring to Sprint’s right to terminate service of data abusers who violate Sprint’s terms and conditions.”

Hesse’s comments raised a lot of eyebrows given that Sprint has spent a fortune on ads reminding Americans that it is not charging overages like AT&T or Verizon Wireless, nor is it slowing the speeds of those who use a lot of data, as does T-Mobile USA.

Sprint said it contacts customers doing things like using a ton of off-network data or tethering their devices, but says it reserves the right to terminate customers that don’t change that behavior. “Consistent with our advertising, engaging in such uses will not result in throttling for customers on unlimited data-included plans for phones.”

Also, as we’ve reported, the company is exploring using so-called throttling on its Virgin Mobile prepaid brand.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120106/sprint-we-are-not-really-throttling-our-customers/feed/ 0 Chomp: With App Searches, It's All "Free" and "Games" http://allthingsd.com/20120104/chomp-with-app-searches-its-all-free-and-games/ http://allthingsd.com/20120104/chomp-with-app-searches-its-all-free-and-games/#comments Wed, 04 Jan 2012 20:36:01 +0000 Lauren Goode http://allthingsd.com/?p=159841 You know what’s cool? A billion apps downloaded in a single week.

That milestone was reached in the last week of 2011. And what’s really interesting is how people are finding their apps. According to new monthly data from Chomp, a search engine for mobile apps, most users aren’t looking for specific app titles, but rather features and functions — and the top feature is “free.”

In December, 82 percent of iOS users, and 86 percent of Android users, looked for apps using such common search terms as “free,” “games,” “free games,” “fun games,” “ringtones” and “shopping,” rather than searching by name.

The word “Christmas” appeared on Chomp’s list of top search terms for December, across multiple countries. The company says query volume for the word, already elevated that month, spiked an additional 300 percent immediately before the holiday, then decreased again on Dec. 25.

Chomp’s data was culled from a sample of one million search queries, across mobile platforms iOS 4.0 and higher, and Android 2.1 and higher. Chomp, which powers app searches on Verizon Android phones, just started measuring tablet-app downloads, so those apps currently account for a very small percentage of its data.

What is somewhat surprising about this report is that other data, put out last year by Latitude and MTV Networks, shows that personal recommendation is one of the biggest driving factors when it comes to app downloads, with an estimated 53 percent of mobile app users saying their friends’ suggestions are most important when it comes to finding and trying apps. If that’s the case — say, if someone asks, “What’s that iPhone app that makes photos look old and cool?” (as I was recently asked) — users wouldn’t necessarily tell their friends to search for “free photo app” but rather, look up “Instagram.”

Chomp’s technology, however, is meant to enable app search based on functionality; it also factors user recommendations and social recommendations into its algorithm. Ben Keighran, the company’s founder and CEO, says he believes Chomp’s app-recommendation engine offers more to users than just lists of top-selling apps. (For app creators, though, nabbing a top-ranking spot in app stores has been shown to boost downloads significantly, as evidenced by RunKeeper’s 637 percent increase in average daily downloads after it became a featured app in the Android store.)

Chomp’s own list of top apps for iOS devices in December included WhatsApp Messenger, JunoWallet GiftCards, Pandora, and Adobe Photoshop Express; the top Android downloads for December were Angry Birds Rio, eBay, Google+ and Google Sky Map. GT Racing: Motor Academy Free+ was at the top of Chomp’s international download charts.

Another interesting nugget from the monthly report: While paid-app downloads on Android showed no change, paid-app downloads for iOS jumped to 30 percent of all app downloads, for the first time ever. The jump was concentrated at the 99-cent price point, which increased from 15.9 percent to 17.8 percent of all apps.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120104/chomp-with-app-searches-its-all-free-and-games/feed/ 0 Was New Year's Eve a Netflix Moment for Uber? http://allthingsd.com/20120103/was-new-years-eve-a-netflix-moment-for-uber/ http://allthingsd.com/20120103/was-new-years-eve-a-netflix-moment-for-uber/#comments Tue, 03 Jan 2012 18:10:24 +0000 Lauren Goode http://allthingsd.com/?p=159279 On New Year’s Eve, some users of Uber’s driver-on-demand service discovered that a quick tap of a smartphone app could cost them $75 or more for a ride across town, thanks to demand-based pricing.

But despite the fact that some customers were dismayed, Uber isn’t throwing in the towel on dynamic pricing. In fact, the company, which is usually very transparent about its surge pricing plans, is considering whether to raise fares regularly on weekends.

Could this be a Netflix-like moment for small start-up Uber, just as it’s trying to grow?

You’re probably thinking, and rightly so, that Netflix and Uber are two very different companies: Netflix is a 14-year-old public company that faces tough competition in a growing premium video-streaming market; as of the quarter ending Sept. 30, it had around 24 million subscribers. Uber is a 1-and-a-half-year-old start-up using a mobile phone application to create a marketplace that connects consumers with a limited number of town-car drivers. Netflix is available in the U.S., Canada and 43 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean; Uber currently operates in six U.S. cities and in Paris. Subscribers pay a monthly fee to Netflix; Uber users pay per ride.

But Netflix provides a recent example of price adjustments that resulted in negative consumer reaction, to put it mildly. The company said last July that it was eliminating the option to combine DVD and streaming video services, and in doing so, hiked the price by 60 percent for consumers who wanted both options. Netflix’s stock plunged; the company later cut its guidance by one million subscribers, and eventually reversed its plans to offer a DVD-only service.

As Uber has explained a few times now, the sticker shock some customers experienced on New Year’s Eve was the result of surge pricing, which Uber has started putting into effect on nights when drivers might be busier than usual. Travis Kalanick, Uber’s founder and CEO, has pointed out that if Uber doesn’t make it worth its drivers’ while to be on the platform, there won’t be any drivers available.

When it comes to tech products and services, users often don’t react well to change — at first. Professionals and consumers alike become accustomed to a product, and some initially see change as disruptive to their productivity or proficiency in that tool. There’s also often a backlash when the change results in a threat — real or perceived — to privacy, as we’ve seen with reactions to Facebook’s ever-evolving settings.

But when the change ultimately costs users or subscribers something they can peg a dollar amount to — such as the Netflix price change, or as with last week’s Verizon Wireless convenience fee — the options being weighed become that much clearer for the consumer.

In other words: Should I stay, or should I go now?

Uber does not have to worry about shareholders, or FCC scrutiny. The number of complaints logged — 97 disgruntled users and 15 whose Uber apps on their smartphones might not have been working correctly — was a small percentage of the thousands of Uber rides that were booked on New Year’s Eve. It could be said that this is more of an Airbnb moment than a Netflix moment for Uber: A case of a small start-up needing to do a little damage control.

From a business perspective, Kalanick says, New Year’s Eve was still a success. Early-stage Uber investor Jason Calacanis tweeted that he “loves” Uber’s surge pricing, as it ensures availability. (Calacanis did not immediately respond to AllThingsD’s request for comment on his tweet.)


Love uber’s surge pricing as it helps drivers & ensures availability. 5x 3 days a year is ok by me. #angelinvestment http://t.co/v2XuLT80
January 1, 2012 5:44 pm via Tweet ButtonReplyRetweetFavorite
@Jason
Jason Calacanis

Another regular Uber user, SproutSocial CEO Justyn Howard, said he used Uber on New Year’s Eve, and noted that his car ride didn’t seem any different than usual. He said he believes Uber is especially good with data-driven strategy, and that supply-and-demand management will become easier for Uber over time. “Overall, I expect the feedback and data gathered from NYE will be put to good use,” Howard said.

Uber is currently refunding some unhappy customers, on a case-by-case basis.

But for Uber, and many other start-up companies, reaching the average consumer will be critical if it wants to grow into a bigger company. By working with town-car companies and not taxis — as some other app platforms do — and charging a $7 to $8 base fare for rides, Uber is already a company that delivers a premium service that not everyone can afford.

If Uber institutes dynamic pricing on regular weekend nights, the company could solve the problem of ensuring there are enough drivers willing to opt in to Uber’s app platform, but at the risk of losing out on customers that aren’t willing to pay two times or more the standard fare.

The tech-savvy crowd, after the initial sticker shock, might accept this.

The “normals,” however, will likely stand outside a little longer hailing taxi cabs — or find other means of getting around town.

(Image courtesy of Flickr/McSmith86)

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120103/was-new-years-eve-a-netflix-moment-for-uber/feed/ 2 Uber CEO Responds to New Year’s Eve Complaints, Plans More Surge Pricing http://allthingsd.com/20120101/uber-ceo-responds-to-new-years-eve-complaints-considers-dynamic-pricing-for-weekends/ http://allthingsd.com/20120101/uber-ceo-responds-to-new-years-eve-complaints-considers-dynamic-pricing-for-weekends/#comments Mon, 02 Jan 2012 04:31:56 +0000 Lauren Goode http://allthingsd.com/?p=158745 Uber, the San Francisco-based start-up behind a smartphone app that allows users to request car service, had some users uber-angry today over the fares they paid for rides on New Year’s Eve.

Complaints arose on Twitter about the high price of Uber car rides due to so-called surge prices that were put into effect across multiple cities. One user, a San Francisco-based entrepreneur named Brendan Mulligan, described in a blog post how a two-minute, half-mile Uber ride cost him $75. He also offered some tips for improving the app.

Here’s a sampling of complaints from irate Uber customers on Twitter:


Got charged $150 for 2.4 mile ride from @ last night.
January 1, 2012 5:08 pm via webReplyRetweetFavorite
@peternudo
Peter Nudo


While I’m glad I’m home safely, the $107 charge for my @ to drive 1.5 miles last night seems insanely excessive. :(
January 1, 2012 9:46 am via Tweetbot for iPhoneReplyRetweetFavorite
@Aubs
Aubrey Sabala

A total of 97 complaints have been logged since Saturday night about surge pricing, Uber says. That does not include the 15 users the company believes may not have gotten the surge-pricing notifications through their apps when requesting cars. The company declined to say exactly how many customers requested cars via Uber on Saturday night, but founder and CEO Travis Kalanick says the total number of rides was in the five figures. Overall, he says, the evening was a success despite the complaints.

The company is reversing charges for some unhappy customers on a “case by case basis,” Kalanick says.

Uber, which launched in 2010, currently dispatches car services in seven cities, including San Francisco, New York, Washington, D.C. and Paris.

Uber doesn’t dispatch its own cars, but acts as a marketplace through which users can connect with drivers. Kalanick says the surge pricing is to ensure there are drivers available for Uber customers, since those drivers could theoretically make money elsewhere during holidays and other high-demand days.

Since Uber doesn’t dispatch taxi cabs, rates are generally higher than regular cab rides to begin with. Users get a direct-dial option for calling the driver as he or she approaches them, and the cars that arrive are usually high-end town cars. Uber rides also include a base fare of between $7 and $8 depending on the city, and the tip is automatically factored into the final price per ride.

The company has been known to put surge pricing into effect on nights when it anticipates demand to outpace the supply of car services available. The company did this on New Year’s Eve last year, and also on Halloween. When prices are about to surge, Uber sends a mass email out to its users, puts up a blog post detailing the pricing changes, and, barring technical issues, users should also get notifications through the app during times that surge pricing is in effect.

Dynamic pricing — especially when it comes to the travel industry — is not a new concept. Kalanick says Uber faces a unique challenge when it comes to changing expectations that come with decades of fixed pricing in car transportation.

“If you look at a club that charges a $20 cover on a normal night and then charges $100 on New Year’s Eve — that’s just what happens,” he told me. “But with Uber, we understand there are some people who feel the pain of that transition and we take some responsibility for making it as smooth a transition as possible.”

He said the company will still put variable pricing into effect during holidays in the future, and is currently considering whether to do the same during weekend nights.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120101/uber-ceo-responds-to-new-years-eve-complaints-considers-dynamic-pricing-for-weekends/feed/ 10 And We Call It … iLandline http://allthingsd.com/20111230/ladies-and-gentlemen-i-give-you-the-ilandline/ http://allthingsd.com/20111230/ladies-and-gentlemen-i-give-you-the-ilandline/#comments Fri, 30 Dec 2011 23:20:36 +0000 John Paczkowski http://allthingsd.com/?p=158598 Turns out the iPhone that Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled back in January of 2007 wasn’t the company’s first shot at creating a phone. Apple had tried its hand at designing a smartphone nearly 25 years earlier — a very different smartphone from the ones we’re familiar with today.


Designed by Frog Design founder Hartmut Esslinger this device, too, featured a touchscreen and was reportedly conceptualized with some help from AT&T. But as you can see from the photo above, it was anything but portable. It was ultimately consigned to Stanford’s Island of Lost Apple Prototypes.

(Image courtesy of Jay Mug)

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20111230/ladies-and-gentlemen-i-give-you-the-ilandline/feed/ 0 RIM's Share of the U.S. Smartphone Market Slips Again http://allthingsd.com/20111230/rims-share-of-the-u-s-smartphone-market-slips-again/ http://allthingsd.com/20111230/rims-share-of-the-u-s-smartphone-market-slips-again/#comments Fri, 30 Dec 2011 11:00:21 +0000 John Paczkowski http://allthingsd.com/?p=158328 ComScore has published its latest report on the U.S. smartphone market and, as expected, the numbers look pretty grim for Research In Motion. Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android continue to bleed the BlackBerry of share in the States.

For the three-month period ending in November, RIM’s share of U.S. smartphone subscribers fell to 16.6 percent from 19.7 percent. That’s a 3.1 point change from August, and another nasty decline for RIM, which continues to struggle against subscriber losses in the U.S.

Meanwhile, the BlackBerry-maker’s misfortune continues to be its rivals’ gain. For the same period, iOS’s market share rose 1.4 percentage points to 28.7 percent, and Android’s to 46.9 percent from 43.8 percent.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20111230/rims-share-of-the-u-s-smartphone-market-slips-again/feed/ 0 Non-Fairytale Ending for 2011 Movie B.O. -- Time to Blame the Internet Again (Or Just Bad Movies)? http://allthingsd.com/20111226/non-fairytale-ending-for-2011-movie-b-o-time-to-blame-the-internet-again-or-just-bad-movies/ http://allthingsd.com/20111226/non-fairytale-ending-for-2011-movie-b-o-time-to-blame-the-internet-again-or-just-bad-movies/#comments Mon, 26 Dec 2011 16:52:35 +0000 Kara Swisher http://allthingsd.com/?p=156931

According to the expected year-end box-office data figures compiled by Hollywood.com, the industry raked in $10.1 billion for 2011 in North America.

While that seems like a nice haul, it’s 4.5 percent less than in 2010. While not enough to result a major downturn in limo-riding and Botox, the results are likely to cause entertainment moguls some worry, since they are accompanied by continuing trends, including another year of lower attendance.

And given that the revenue was unusually bolstered by more higher-priced 3-D movie-ticket prices — Hollywood released several dozen 3-D films in 2011, double the previous year’s amount — the latest numbers are even more disappointing.

While some holiday movies did well — namely “Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol,” which has taken in about $70 million domestically since its opening less than two weeks ago — it pales in comparison to such digital hits as Activision’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 videogame, which pulled in $400 million in one day from the much-desired youth market.

It surpassed $1 billion in sales in 16 days, eclipsing the box office of the blockbuster movie “Avatar,” which took 17 days to gross seven figures.

Does that mean that the continued competition for the leisure time of pretty much everyone between digital and analog has gotten worse — an epic battle of the movie industry versus game players, tablets and smartphones?

Or is it because so many movies made in 2011 turned out to be just awful? (If you saw “New Year’s Eve,” you’ll know exactly what I mean.)

One thing is clear: No one is going to pay for poor-quality content, no matter the screen size.

More number-crunching to come, as the industry debates the issue into 2012 (coincidentally, the title of a movie I happened to like, as you can see below!), and at the upcoming D: Dive Into Media at the end of the month, down near Los Angeles, in the belly of the Web-smacked beast.

Until then, let’s hope it does not come to this next year:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20111226/non-fairytale-ending-for-2011-movie-b-o-time-to-blame-the-internet-again-or-just-bad-movies/feed/ 0 Retailers Try to Thwart Price Apps http://allthingsd.com/20111223/retailers-try-to-thwart-price-apps/ http://allthingsd.com/20111223/retailers-try-to-thwart-price-apps/#comments Fri, 23 Dec 2011 08:00:44 +0000 Dana Mattioli http://allthingsd.com/?p=156557 The smartphone boom is unleashing a new era of pricing transparency to consumers able to use wireless apps and search engines on their mobile devices in stores to check if they are offering the best deal. But retailers are fighting back harder than ever to prevent their stores from becoming mere showrooms.

More bricks-and-mortar stores are reviewing prices of online stores when setting initial price of an item. If prices are out of whack, they are more aggressively matching the prices of their online rivals. Some retailers are investing heavily in exclusive products that are less vulnerable to price competition.

“Our pricing has to be very competitive,” says Best Buy Co. Chief Marketing Officer Barry Judge. “We know what Amazon’s price is on everything they sell,” he says.

Read the rest of this post on the original site »

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20111223/retailers-try-to-thwart-price-apps/feed/ 0 More Picture-Takers Are Phoning It In http://allthingsd.com/20111222/more-picture-takers-are-phoning-it-in/ http://allthingsd.com/20111222/more-picture-takers-are-phoning-it-in/#comments Thu, 22 Dec 2011 17:53:05 +0000 John Paczkowski http://allthingsd.com/?p=156289 No big surprises here. The single-purpose camera is in decline, the smartphone camera on the rise.

New research from NPD finds that smartphones are now responsible for more than a quarter of the photos and videos people take in the U.S. About 27 percent of photographs taken in 2011 were captured by smartphones, up from 17 percent last year. Meanwhile, about 44 percent were taken with single-purpose cameras. That’s down from 52 percent in 2010. Standard cellphones, camcorders, webcams and tablets account for the remainder.

So, a significant decline, and one indicative of a trend that’s been emerging for years now: The smartphone as “good enough” camera. With our phones packing increasingly better cameras and improved optics, the reasons for carrying a dedicated point-and-shoot are growing fewer — unless you’re a professional photographer or a hobbyist. And that’s having a deleterious effect on the camera market. According to NPD’s Retail Tracking Service, the point-and-shoot camera market declined 17 percent in units and 18 percent in dollars for the first 11 months of 2011.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20111222/more-picture-takers-are-phoning-it-in/feed/ 0 Year of the Talking Phone and a Cloud That Got Hot http://allthingsd.com/20111221/year-of-the-talking-phone-and-a-cloud-that-got-hot/ http://allthingsd.com/20111221/year-of-the-talking-phone-and-a-cloud-that-got-hot/#comments Thu, 22 Dec 2011 02:04:22 +0000 Walter S. Mossberg http://allthingsd.com/?p=156106 While other industries struggled, consumer technology seemed to march ahead as always in 2011, with important new products and services continuing to roll out. Sure, some tech companies, like BlackBerry maker Research In Motion, suffered reverses. And some products, like Hewlett-Packard’s TouchPad, flopped. But many shone.


[ See post to watch video ]

So here is a look at a few of the biggest tech products of the past year, with some analysis of what they signified and what issues they raise for 2012. As with all my columns, this one is focused only on products and services provided to consumers. Also, as usual, this column isn’t meant to offer investment advice or to evaluate the management skills or financial condition of companies.

The iDevices
PTECH-JUMP

Siri, right, the voice-controlled artificial-intelligence system, made the iPhone 4S stand out even though it looked like its predecessor.

Even in a year when its iconic leader, Steve Jobs, resigned as CEO and then passed away, Apple kept going from success to success. In March, it introduced the iPad 2, a thinner, lighter, faster version of its groundbreaking tablet and sold tens of millions of them. In October, it brought out the iPhone 4S, which proved popular even though it looked identical to the prior model. One reason: The phone introduced a voice-controlled artificial-intelligence system called Siri that answers questions and performs tasks without requiring typing or searching. Siri, while still rudimentary, could herald a revolution in practical artificial intelligence for consumers.

The lesson here is that Apple is driving the industry toward simpler, more reliable digital experiences tied into ecosystems of content and cloud services. It is expected to bring out radically new iPhones and iPads in 2012. But can it fend off challenges from popular, rapidly improving rivals using Google’s Android operating system? And, in the absence of Mr. Jobs, can it keep churning out game-changing hits?

PTECH-JUMP

With its ultralow price and Amazon connection, the Kindle Fire may be the first tablet to gain significant traction against the iPad.
The Kindle Fire

Despite some initial software flaws and its chunky, plain hardware, the diminutive Fire appeared to be the first color tablet to gain significant traction against the iPad. The biggest reasons are its ultralow $199 price and its tie-in to Amazon’s huge content library. But the Fire may have started a trend that could be a problem for Google: It demotes the Android operating system to an under-the-covers piece of plumbing, ignoring Google’s user interface and apps marketplace.

In 2012, Amazon is expected to bring out a larger, possibly sleeker Fire, and, if it continues to prove popular, it could attract larger numbers of apps designed for the Fire and sold only through Amazon. But despite its success with simple e-readers, Amazon has little experience as a maker of general-purpose computing devices, and it will have to be nimble and creative to keep up with Apple and more-traditional Android rivals.

LTE

Though several cellular technologies claim the moniker “4G” to indicate fast data speeds and greater capacity, only one, LTE (Long Term Evolution), delivers true broadband speeds consistently. This past year, it finally spread significantly in the U.S., both in terms of geography and in the number of devices supporting it. The LTE leader by far is Verizon Wireless and it has the potential to make the wireless Web, and wireless streaming of video, the equal of their wired counterparts. AT&T is racing to catch up and Sprint, which uses a different 4G system, says it will join the LTE parade.

But at this stage, LTE still consumes too much battery power. And LTE networks, if they become the norm, could get overwhelmed. To fend off this prospect, the biggest carriers in 2011 began charging more for greater data usage, a move that could curb the spread of innovative services that rely on large data downloads, such as video streaming and sharing of music and high-resolution photos.

PTECH-JUMP

More companies took advantage of cloud computing, with Google introducing the Chromebook, which relies almost entirely on the cloud.
The Cloud

Many players began offering consumers the opportunity to both store their data on, and run apps from, remote servers on the Internet, a system called cloud computing. Google even introduced a new kind of laptop, the Chromebook, that has almost no internal storage and relies almost entirely on the cloud. An example of a cloud service: music “lockers” that store all your songs on multiple devices. Cloud services are sure to expand in 2012, but questions remain on their reliability, security and privacy. And while most now cost little or nothing, these offerings could become another monthly fee burden for consumers.

PTECH-JUMP

Android became easier to use with the release of the Ice Cream Sandwich version, used in the Samsung Galaxy Nexus.
The Android Army

In 2011, Android overtook Apple’s iPhone and iPad operating system, called iOS, in users. Though no single Android device is as popular as the iPhone or iPad, Android is now the collective leader, with hundreds of devices using it. Samsung, in particular, had success with its Android-based Galaxy devices. And a new version, called Ice Cream Sandwich, continued Android’s steady improvement by making it easier to use. However, Google may be losing control of Android, as hardware makers and cellular carriers redefine it to suit their own needs, and fail to offer consumers updates in a timely fashion. Except for the Kindle Fire, the operating system hasn’t caught on in tablets.

Windows

Microsoft has been way behind in the new areas of super-smartphones and tablets. In 2011, the software giant began to try to reverse that situation. It introduced the first competitive version of its sleek, sophisticated Windows Phone software, called Mango, though so far without much uptake by consumers. And it previewed a bold new version of main Windows, called Windows 8, with a multitouch interface that, unlike Apple’s approach, is a single operating system meant for both PCs and tablets. It will start shipping in 2012.

PTECH-JUMP

Following in the Apple MacBook Air’s footsteps, a crop of thin and speedy ultrabooks, such as the Toshiba Portege Z835, pictured, became the new standard for laptops, with Windows PC makers coming up with their own versions of the machines.

Still, Windows Phone must somehow attract many more users. And Windows 8 is a gamble, because it includes two interfaces: the new tabletlike face and the old, familiar Windows look, which could confuse consumers.

Ultrabooks

In 2011, Apple’s MacBook Air, previously a niche product, became the new standard for laptops—thin, light, speedy, with long battery life and solid-state memory for storage instead of a hard disk. Now, Windows PC makers are following suit with similar machines called Ultrabooks.

Ultrabooks may recharge the Windows laptop scene in 2012. However, they will have to become less costly—they now hover at around $1,000—and their solid-state drives don’t offer the capacity of hard disks at an affordable price.

PTECH-JUMP

The Lenovo IdeaPad U300
Television

The reinvention of television picked up steam in 2011, albeit in a small way. Despite some miscues, Netflix streaming of TV shows to many devices grew in popularity. Set-top boxes that bring Internet video to TVs, like the Roku box and Apple TV, got better and more popular, though Google’s competing effort was a dud. Microsoft’s Xbox is set to compete strongly, using its Kinect add-on to find and play media apps with gestures and voice commands.

The big test may come in 2012, when Apple is believed to plan to ship a whole new type of Internet-connected TV, which the company hasn’t confirmed. A big obstacle: Cable and media companies will have a huge say in this potential revolution, and the current system serves them well.

So, 2011 was an exciting year in consumer technology. I can’t wait for 2012.

Email Walt at mossberg@wsj.com.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20111221/year-of-the-talking-phone-and-a-cloud-that-got-hot/feed/ 0 Samsung Hires Former AOL and Google Content Exec David Eun to Lead Renewed Media Push http://allthingsd.com/20111214/samsung-hires-former-aol-and-google-content-exec-david-eun-to-lead-renewed-media-push/ http://allthingsd.com/20111214/samsung-hires-former-aol-and-google-content-exec-david-eun-to-lead-renewed-media-push/#comments Wed, 14 Dec 2011 14:20:46 +0000 Kara Swisher http://allthingsd.com/?p=153623

South Korean consumer electronics giant Samsung Electronics has hired former AOL and Google exec David Eun to lead a new push to create more media offerings, the company said.

In a press release, the maker of a wide range of devices — from televisions to tablets to smartphones and more — said Eun would serve as executive vice president of its media-related units.

About Eun’s role, Samsung said: “He will play a key role in developing a global media strategy and driving new business opportunities to take advantage of Samsung’s growing number of digital televisions and displays, mobile phones, tablets and other connected devices.”

It’s not clear what that means, but presumably it could spell more investments and acquisitions in digital media, and even in the social space.

The move is part of a larger reorganization at Samsung Electronics, which it also announced has divided into two parts, digital media and communications and device solutions.

Samsung’s deepening of its media efforts — it has previously launched various smaller content initiatives — is an interesting one, especially in light of the fast-changing market it now competes in, in which partners like Apple and Google have also become intense rivals.

Google bought Motorola recently and has been increasing its media offerings, as has Apple. Samsung and Apple are also engaged in a series of global legal battles over devices.

In turn, companies like Amazon — which recently released the Kindle Fire tablet — have upped their efforts in the consumer electronics area.

In addition, Japan’s Sony — which already owns a major Hollywood studio — now owns all its handset business and has recently added tablets to its lineup.

Eun is an interesting choice, having been part of Google’s earliest efforts to move beyond its core search business into media, such as its acquisition of YouTube.

He left his most recent job at AOL, where he had headed its content unit, earlier this year. Eun has also previously worked at both Time Warner and NBC.

Here’s the official press release about his hiring:

Samsung Electronics Appoints David Eun as Executive Vice President

Eun to Enhance Samsung’s Global Media and Content Efforts

SEOUL, Korea — December 14, 2011 –Samsung Electronics Co., the technology leader and innovator in consumer electronics and telecommunications, proudly announces the appointment of David Eun as Executive Vice President.

Eun joins Samsung after an accomplished career in media and content. He was most recently President of AOL Media and Studios, where he oversaw AOL’s efforts to become a leading provider of premium content, spanning over 100 different websites and production studios in NY and LA. Before that, he formed a global Content Partnerships group at Google with oversight for media strategy, partnerships and strategic alliances spanning over 30 different Google products including Google Books, Maps and YouTube. He also has a deep knowledge of traditional media businesses from working at Time Warner and NBC.

He will play a key role in developing a global media strategy and driving new business opportunities to take advantage of Samsung’s growing number of digital televisions and displays, mobile phones, tablets and other connected devices.

“Samsung Electronics has an unparalleled footprint across multiple devices and platforms that provides a unique experience to consumers around the world. The competition for prominence in the living room has already begun, and Samsung Electronics is ideally situated to extend beyond that to connect the entire home and the lives of consumers,” stated Eun. “I’m looking forward to joining the impressive leadership already in place and to building a new presence in media for Samsung Electronics.”

Eun received a J.D. from Harvard Law School, where he was a Teaching Fellow for the Harvard Negotiation Project, and an A.B., magna cum laude in Government, from Harvard College. He was selected “Digital Power Player of the Year” by the Hollywood Reporter in 2010, is an Advisory Board Member for the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and sits on the Board of the Television Academy of the Arts and Sciences Foundation.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20111214/samsung-hires-former-aol-and-google-content-exec-david-eun-to-lead-renewed-media-push/feed/ 0 Move Over, Picasso: Smartphone Photos Become Works of Art http://allthingsd.com/20111205/move-over-picasso-smartphone-photos-become-works-of-art/ http://allthingsd.com/20111205/move-over-picasso-smartphone-photos-become-works-of-art/#comments Mon, 05 Dec 2011 23:06:36 +0000 Lauren Goode http://allthingsd.com/?p=150331 Seems like only yesterday we were talking about the shift from analog photos to digital images that consumers can obsessively share online — and get immediate gratification from in the form of “likes.”

Now, photo printouts are all the rage again. But not just any photo printouts: These are physical Instagrams.

A crop of new services are riding the coattails of the popular iPhone photo-filter app by tapping into its open API (application programming interface) to allow users to order copies of their photos in various analog forms.

One of the more notable services comes from CanvasPop, a sister company of Ottawa- and Las Vegas-based DNA 11, which made its mark by making art out of DNA strands and fingerprints. CanvasPop is now offering medium-sized stretched-canvas prints for $29.95, and feature-sized, 20-inch square prints for $59.95.

For an idea of what a CanvasPop canvas looks like, see the image above of a 12-inch square canvas of a picture I took in Hong Kong using Instagram (so … meta).

Through a series of processes, CanvasPop is able to take low-resolution images from Instagram — generally 612 by 612 pixels — and create great-looking canvases that aren’t too pixelated but also aren’t blurry. (Based on this canvas, I’d say these printouts are pretty nifty.)

In terms of cost, $30 for a 12-inch square canvas seems like a good deal, but prices may change: That’s currently listed as an introductory price, and CanvasPop co-founder Adrian Salamunovic says the company will be establishing new price points in the new year, based on customer demand. He says that since the product’s launch two weeks ago, the company has shipped “thousands” of prints.

While CanvasPop will print out any smartphone photo for you, Instagram is the only API it has officially tapped into for one-step purchasing; CanvasPop cites the large user base of Instagram as the main draw. Photos from other apps, such as Hipstamatic or Picplz, will require that users upload the photo file to their computers and submit it to CanvasPop as they might other digital photos.

If Polaroid-style pics are your thing, a company called Printstagram offers a packet of 48 mini-printouts of your Instagrams for $12, as well as stickers and a 20-inch by 40-inch compilation poster of your favorite Instagrams. There’s also a tiny Tinybook option — ideal for low-resolution images, but I’m not sure what the use case is for a book that looks like it might go in a dollhouse.

StickyGram is also getting in on the game: For $14.99, Instagrammers can get a pack of nine magnets for the fridge or file cabinet. The magnets are 50mm by 50mm — approximately the same size as an actual Instagram on your phone — and the company offers free shipping.

Instagram, for those who aren’t part of the iPhone-photo-sharing crowd, is a Bay Area-based start-up that has grown to more than 10 million users since its launch in September of 2010. The iOS-only app allows for quick photo-taking and sharing, with a variety of filters available to apply to the images.

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