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Thursday 19 January 2012

Microsoft Windows Phone License Higher Than Previously Thought [ 19-01-2012 19:54 ]

Author: Ivanov Konstantin Source: Trusted Reviews Translation by: Paul Smith

Handset manufacturer ZTE launched a budget Windows Phone device in the UK this week, but that wasn't the interesting part of the launch. Rather some comments from one of the company's executives that went along with the launch have proved far more interesting. The executive, Santiago Sierra (he sound slike he should star in action films), revealed that ZTE was paying Microsoft in the region of $20-30 per handset for the license to use Windows Phone. The reason this is so interesting is because it was previously assumed that other manufacturers, such as HTC and Samsung, were paying in the region of $10-15 per handset. The conclusion to draw from this is that either these manufacturers are in fact paying a much higher price than was previously thought or Microsoft is triking individual deals with each manufacturer. That last theory does have some merit if you consider that Microsoft may charge lower selling manufacturers more to keep its income up whilst charging bigger selling manufacturers less due to their increased sales volume.

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2012 To See Apps Top 2 Million [ 19-01-2012 19:50 ]

Author: Serge Novikov Source: BGR Translation by: Paul Smith

Smartphones are becoming increasingly popular around the world, and whilst it is usually the high-end variety that gets the most column inches from people like me, it's the entry level stuff that is falling into the hands of more and more customers. Market research firm Deloitte is estimating that 2012 will see the number of smartphones costing less than $100 rise to 500 million. Along with that prediction they say that the number of apps available to users, across all platforms, will top 2 million. It's also interesting to note their forecast that globally there will be 200 million handsets packing NFC support too. Getting back to the apps though Deloitte points out that of that huge number a fairly small proportion cost money to download and that only 20% of downloaded apps sell more than 1,000 copies. It might be a gold mine for some developers, but not the majority it would seem.

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iBooks2, Textbooks, iTunes U - What Went Down At The Guggenheim [ 19-01-2012 19:37 ]

Author: Ivanov Konstantin Source: Apple via Gizmodoa & AllThingsD Translation by: Paul Smith

You may have heard that Apple was holding an event in New York today. An education event. What was it all about you may ask? Well they talked about a few different things, but it can be boiled down into two key points: iBooks 2 and iTunes U. Let's deal with iBooks 2 first.

iBooks 2

The whole iBooks 2 talk today centred around one key point: textbooks. That was of course one of the things on Steve Jobs' to do list before he died late last year. What Apple announced today was they are are to start providing textbooks for students through their iBooks service. It's a bit more involved than that though. For starters these aren't just copies of the existing paper textbooks. Apple has partnered with some of the textbook publishers to create new iPad versions that feature everything you would expect e.g. video, multi-touch and so on. To borrow a phrase from Apple, they look gorgeous.

There are some extra features though, such as the ability to make automatic flash cards out of content from these textbooks. No doubt that will be highly appreciated by students swotting for exams.

The other big thing Apple talked about here was the creative side of textbooks. Apple isn't just putting these textbooks in its store, they are also giving away the tools necessary to create them. The tool is called iBooks Author and it will be free as of today. It allows basically anyone to create a textbook (or any book for that matter) using a simple set of tools. You can drag and drop content and it will even soak in text from Word or Keynote. The audience at the event clearly loved this as there was a fair bit of applause for it. The big selling point here is that it's simple and free. How this will impact education remains to be seen, but giving teachers the ability to create their own textbooks sounds like a very powerful learning tool. Which brings us to ...

... iTunes U

For those unfamiliar with iTunes U it basically allows you to download educational content i.e. lectures, etc. Over the past four years there have been 700 million downloads of such content through iTunes U so it's a popular tool amongst the education crowd. What Apple is doing with this is to extend that creative reach provided with iBooks Author to iTunes U. Teachers and educators will be able to create entire class programmes using a new iTunes U app. Just to be clear here, we're not talking about creating a single textbook, but rather an entire course.

The app is already being used in some big universities such as Yale in the States. What some are saying is that this will be going after Blackboard, which is the current industry standard amongst universities for digital education software.

A couple of last points to consider when reading this. The iBooks 2 launch with textbooks is pretty significant for Apple, not just because it was a project of Steve Jobs', but because they appear to be taking the same route toward sit as they did with music. Back when iTunes launched Apple partnered with the big music labels and the rest, as they say, is history. What we see here is Apple partnering with the education textbook publishers. Will it work out as well as music did for them? Time will tell.

Having said all that it is not insignificant that Apple is also releasing tools for people to create their own textbooks. Sure they are looking to get the established order onboard, but they also seem to eyeing up teachers too, and to be fair anyone who wants to create a book. Whether that is a good thing or a bad thing remains to be seen. The textbook publishers obviously conform to a standard with their work, but whether any such standard will be enforced upon textbooks created by third parties isn't clear, but from the sounds of things there will be no regulation. That may lead to some shoddy textbooks being used in place of the standard texts.

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Leaked Sony 2012 Roadmap [ 19-01-2012 19:27 ]

Author: Serge Novikov Source: GSM Arena Translation by: Paul Smith

What do we have here? Why it's a sales report from Sony Mobile Communications India handily laying out their handsets for the coming year. At least that's what it appears to be. Accepting the list at face value we can see eleven handsets listed here along with their corresponding prices (listed in Indian Rupees). The summer period would seem to be especially busy for Sony with the lion's share of these handsets appearing between June and September.

Going by the prices it would appear that Hayabusa and Mint are flagship class devices. They are set for release in the second half of 2012 with Hayabusa coming first. What the handsets will be like and so on isn't clear unfortunartely as all we have here is a name and a price.