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Spillikins #91. Progress Prophets

Our time has infinite possibilities for self-expression. Imagine that any amateur can send into the stratosphere a probe with his/her mobile phone and a digital camera with remote. The resulting photos and the location of its landing are relatively easy to get. A century ago the technology was not available for entire countries, while today any person with some skills and savvy can do the trick. The price of the solution is hardly out of this world. You only have to want it badly.

Last week I was amazed by a photo of the Sun taken by an amateur astronomer Alan Friedman in his backyard in Buffalo, New York.

On his website you can find many night photos – Moon craters and other planets. I especially like a picture of Archimedes crater.

People from Wired prepared a short interview about the Sun picture and its processing. Curious minds can find answers to some questions in the interview.

Believe me, technology is much closer to us than we think and we literally have powers unheard of by our predecessors. Moreover, it can be purchased in a nearby electronics shop for pennies. How can we employ this technology is a whole different ball game. Our world has changed and we are no longer surprised by the internet connection on a plane travelling at the speed of 1000 kilometers per hour 10,000 meters above the ground. We are rather puzzled why internet connection is slow there. People used to dream about flying for centuries. Remember the Icarus! We view flying as a long distance bus now, which only moves us from A to B. At some point the technology changes our lives and provides new benchmarks. For example, a Nepalese mobile carrier NCell installed 3G base stations at Mount Everest. Between 2870 m and 5200 m we have 9 stations. Four of them are solar powered, which is a necessity at such altitudes. Theoretically, the data transfer speed reaches 3.6 Mbps, while NCell promises to increase the speed twice if necessary. The company's employees did not make calls from the top of the Mount Everest (8848 m) as there was nobody there when they were testing base stations. In the nearby foothills up to 30,000 mountaineers try to conquer this peak annually and new services target this demographic. The capacity of the network is limited to 50 simultaneous connections. On the other hand, when the demand grows the company will be ready to boost the capacity and increase the number of base stations.

I wouldn't be surprised if our children see base stations at the bottom of Mars craters, while the Earth will be surveyed and researched all over. To some extent we lose the feeling of a miracle as we get to know our world better. The ocean has not been researched until the end, there is some unchartered territory, but it is only a question of time until we solve all its puzzles. That is why I believe that people will venture into deeper space, study nearby planets and travel to other stars. We just need a bit more time.

Unfortunately, technologies are used not only to the benefit of people, but serve to kill as well. In the US were detected two bombs sent from Yemen. Both of them were packaged in a printer cartridge and controlled by a mobile phone.

This is a Nokia 6120 Classic board easy to buy in any shop around the world. Any other phone could have been used instead, because the technology behind a time fuse is as simple as they come. It costs no more than components for a stratospheric probe. In the first case people try to get positive emotions, while in the second one they create deadly weapons. Sadly, the terror attacks with a technological twist can only increase in number and the society must learn how to tackle the issue until it's too late. A human being is a perplexing mixture of beautiful and mean features. I do not remember the source of the quotation, but I cannot disagree.

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Motorola unveiled its 3rd quarter results

It's a pity, but Motorola increasingly retreats into its home market in the US and concentrates on Verizon, which helped to boost Droid sales and is effectively the major buyer of Motorola smartphones. The rationale of Verizon competing with AT&T is simple. They do not have their own iPhone and need to offer something against AT&T with its exclusive Apple agreements. Remember that the current agreement allegedly comes to an end in 2011. Apple may like to involve Verizon as well. If Verizon gets its own iPhone version, Motorola will suffer even further and its sales will be hit again.

At the moment Motorola attempts to prove to investors that it is trying hard to become profitable. This sound approach today will lead to the loss of markets in the long term. Impressing the market and investors is not the most difficult task for the company. It has to create products in demand not only in the US, but elsewhere too. However, Motorola has already left all major markets apart from the USA. Sadly, the process is only gaining momentum. Even excellent products in 2011-2012 will not turn Motorola into a market leader, even at home. They will keep sales at a certain level, but the company will not become a front runner again. But you never know! Certain models look revolutionary and Motorola will spearhead the first wave of new generation Android devices.

Main features of operation activities for Mobile Devices department in the 3rd quarter:

3.8 m devices were shipped and 22 new smartphones were unveiled during the year
3 new models in the MING lineup for China were launched: MT810 for TD-SCDMA of China Mobile, XT806 for CDMA-2000 of China Telecom and A1680 for WCDMA of China Unicom.
Compact and thin protected model DEFY was announced
The DROID lineup was replenished by DROID 2, DROID PRO and DROID R2-D2 limited edition
AT&T models were announced: BRAVO, FLIPSIDE and FLIPOUT
Wireless Bluetooth headsets were offered to the market: Motorola Oasis, S10-HD, Finiti and CommandOne

The results are not good enough for this period. The profits were generated not by US success, but courtesy of withdrawing from several markets outside its home market. The goal has been achieved and many analysts praise the management of Motorola for returning the mobile department of the company to profitability. I wonder what they will say when the sales in the US will be below par? Will they claim that expected it and the improvement was temporary?

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Samsung quarterly results and news generation

The key event of last week was the announcement planned for November 8. Nothing indicates that Nexus 2 was created by Samsung, but Gizmodo claims precisely this citing its own sources. The journalists even made the composite sketch of the upcoming model based on its descriptions.

If the handset receives this kind of curve there will be strong associations with Apple and its favorite design style. We know nothing about the features apart from a 4″ screen (its type has not been specified yet).We will judge after the announcement. I think it will not differ much from Galaxy S.

Las week I learnt about Samsung plans regarding SuperAmoled screens. Interestingly, the new plant will meet the demand of all Samsung departments by the end of January 2011. From the end of February SuperAMOLED will return to phones, tablets and other devices.

Starting from November entry level Bada models will be boosted by free download of certain games from Samsung App Store. These are FIFA 10, Tetris Refresh, Spore Creatures, Assassin's Creed II, DioDict French-English Dictionary, Princess Magic Therapy e-book and SSkin theme among other things. Downloads will be free with some restrictions. Their number will be limited. FIFA 10, Tetris Refresh and Spore Creatures will available for the first 250,000 users, and Assassin's Creed for 300,000 lucky ones. Other apps will be available for free during a limited time. First several hundreds of thousands will get free games valued at €5 - €15 each.

3rd quarter results in 2010 are wonderful for Samsung. Sales increased by 19% against the same period a year ago due to Samsung Wave and Galaxy S, while the average phone price grew 14% compared to the 2nd quarter. Samsung managed to sell 71.4 handsets during this quarter. Against the background of Nokia continuing to lose its market Samsung remains the only growing company in the last couple of years. Samsung aims at sustainable growth with the high average phone price. It allows investing into R&D, while its rivals do not have such funding possibilities.

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White iPhone 4

You may not believe it, but the model has been delayed again! The new date now is March 2011. Apple haters claim that the company cannot sell its model in another color. Surprisingly, everybody's happy! Apple sells black iPhones as hot cakes and do not care about the offered colors, while its critics were proved to be right once again. Boy Genius Report quotes its sources and claims that Apple has no plans for the white model until the introduction of iPhone 5. It is also possible!

If I were the CEO of Apple I would have offered the white model to Verizon. It could be nice if AT&T sells the black model, while Verizon boasts white. Everybody will be satisfied to some extent. White model will not be sold in Europe then. Do you really need it after all?

Do you want to talk about this? Please, go to our Forum and let your opinion to be known to the author and everybody else.

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Spillikins #91. Progress Prophets

Contents:

Motorola unveiled its 3rd quarter results

Samsung quarterly results and news generation

White iPhone 4

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