Intended for Education, India’s Aakash 2 is the World’s Cheapest Tablet PC

  • The Aakash 2 is a $20, 7-inch tablet developed by Indian company Datawind. According to Quartz, the device is “almost as capable” as the Nexus 7 tablet while selling for just one fifth the price of Google’s device.
  • CEO Suneet Tuli admits the hardware is “nothing too extraordinary,” since “the key focus is breaking that price barrier.”
  • There is a 4 million order backlog in India for the device, but Tuli believes his company will fill these orders. He also predicts that within a year there will be similar devices on the global market for under $50.
  • The device is targeted for Indian students, as Datawind sells the device for $40 to the Indian government, which then either gives them to students or re-sells them for $20.
  • “This may not be the perfect initial deployment, but the vision isn’t just for engineering students, the vision is from engineering students all the way down to all 220 million students, or potentially 360 million Indian kids across the country that should be in school,” Tuli notes.
  • The tablet has “standard Android apps” as well as ebooks and other educational applications. The Quartz post includes a 7-minute video in which Tuli discusses the tablet.

Android Falls Behind iOS Following Surge in iPhone 5 Sales in U.S.

  • Strong iPhone 5 sales have helped iOS devices overtake Android for the market share lead in the U.S., reports Kantar Worldpanel. Currently, iOS devices have a 48.1 percent share of smartphone sales, while Android controls 46.7 percent of the market.
  • “The last time we saw iOS overtake Android in the U.S. was when the iPhone 4S was released and Apple managed to retain its lead for three consecutive periods,” notes Dominic Sunnebo, global consumer insight director at Kantar Worldpanel ComTech. “This time we predict that Apple will beat its previous high of 49.3 percent and achieve its highest ever share of the U.S. smartphone market within the next two periods.”
  • Android still dominates European markets, controlling 81.7 percent and 73.9 percent in Spain and Germany respectively, but Apple has recently gained market share in four of the five main European countries, according to the report. Apple’s strongest European presence is in Great Britain, where it controls 32.7 percent of the market.
  • “Apple has always managed to maintain loyalty levels far above the competition, and this has clearly played a part in driving sales of its new device,” explains Sunnebo. “An impressive 92 percent of existing Apple owners in the U.S. said they will choose an iPhone the next time they upgrade.”
  • “While loyalty is clearly key, it is also important to make sure that new customers are attracted to your brand,” Sunnebo adds. “With roughly 60 percent of U.S. iPhone 5 sales coming from existing customers and 40 percent from new consumers, Apple is achieving this at the moment — a clear sign of the strength of the brand in the U.S. marketplace.”
  • This loyalty helps explain why 62 percent of American iPhone 5 sales were the result of consumers who owned older versions of the phone and wanted to upgrade.

For the Lucky Few, Pro Video Gaming Offers Potential Glory and Careers

  • While the world of professional gaming is on the rise, with some top players earning up to $200,000 annually, most players do not earn enough to sustain a living, writes The New York Times.
  • “We’re at a point where only about 40 people in the U.S. can make a living playing video games,” explains Sundance DiGiovanni, chief executive of Major League Gaming. “I’d like to get it to a hundred. I think we’re a year or two away from that.”
  • Some competitive gamers will sign with sponsored teams, but the salary for these types of players is only about $12,000 to $30,000.
  • Outsiders may see this as a lot of money to play a video game, but the players say they practice their game eight hours a day, and increase that to 10 to 14 hours a day as tournaments near. Additionally, the cost of competing (travel, hotels and registration fees) can be steep.
  • Marketing has seen recent changes as Major League Gaming has shifted its focus away from television and now broadcasts on the Internet on sites like CBS Interactive’s GameSpot.com.
  • Since most gamers cannot support themselves with gaming alone, many use their talent to advance themselves in related fields such as game development and competition broadcasting. Some young gamers even emphasize their video game successes on college applications to show they are passionate in a field.

Industrial Internet: Is Our Online Future All About Intelligent Machines?

  • While opportunities created by the Internet are boundless, the move to take advantage of them has been slow. Although the online world has dramatically changed how we access information or purchase products, “the real opportunity of change is still ahead of us,” and it’s all about machines, GigaOM writes.
  • “There are now many millions of machines across the world, ranging from simple electric motors to highly advanced MRI machines,” the article states. The Industrial Internet aims to connect these machines with people, big data and analytics — and the benefits of doing so could be significant.
  • “The Industrial Internet leverages the power of the cloud to connect machines embedded with sensors and sophisticated software to other machines (and to us) so we can extract data, make sense of it and find meaning where it did not exist before,” the post explains.
  • In the airline industry, “just a one percent improvement in aircraft engine maintenance efficiency can reduce related costs by $250 million annually. A similar one percent fuel savings in power generation could add more than $4 billion annually to the global economy.”
  • Other industries — health in particular — have similar opportunities to increase efficiency to cut operating costs. “Assuming growth similar to what prevailed during the Internet boom, the Industrial Internet revolution will add about $15 trillion to global GDP by 2030. That’s the equivalent of adding another U.S. economy to the world,” reports GigaOM.
  • “This Industrial Internet is not about a world run by robots, it is about combining the world’s best technologies to solve our biggest challenges,” the article continues. “It’s about economically and environmentally sustainable energy, curing the incurable diseases, and preparing our infrastructure and cities for the next 100 years.”

Editorial: Can Legal Torrent Sites Serve as Innovators for Media Discovery?

  • In 2001, Bram Cohen authored the BitTorrent spec as a way to speed up peer-to-peer sharing by downloading large files, like full-length movies, in multiple packets from various sources. Since then, BitTorrent has become strongly associated with The Pirate Bay and illegal practices.
  • “But legit players in the file-sharing biz quietly use BitTorrent for its network efficiency, while introducing new distribution and revenue opportunities for creators, and offering new media discovery sites for consumers,” writes Engadget.
  • Cohen made BitTorrent a legitimate, copyright-filtering service in 2005. Now the site is trying out a revenue model, which “hint[s] at an emerging media distribution and discovery future for the file-sharing protocol,” explains the post.
  • In the music industry, BitTorrent could become the fourth consumption tool, following a la carte, music subscriptions and streaming services.
  • “When basic access to galactic music libraries is free, and recommendations come from peers rather than from institutional power brokers, the door is wide open for peer-to-peer platforms to take an important role in marketing, distributing and delivering music,” the post suggests. “Same goes for film, as the pro-am moving picture landscape is re-drawn by Roku, Vimeo and many other disruptors.”
  • By some estimates, the BitTorrent platform transmits as much as half of all Internet traffic.
  • Even with continued pirating, BitTorrent’s “neutral malleability can be a great competitive advantage to the most resourceful creators, and a delight for the most inquisitive consumers. Both sides should advance the legal torrent movement by adopting the platform for distribution and discovery.”

New comScore Audience Measurement Tool Reports Digital Consumption

  • Media Metrix Multi-Platform, a new audience measurement and media planning product from comScore, has launched in beta in the U.S. The platform provides data regarding website, video, and app content views across multiple devices.
  • “Knowing the size of your website’s audience simply isn’t sufficient in today’s fragmented, multi-platform digital media environment,” explains comScore. “Media Metrix Multi-Platform provides the industry’s first comprehensive view of digital consumer behavior across desktop computers, smartphones and tablets.”
  • The new system uses comScore’s proprietary Unified Digital Measurement (UDM) methodology, that combines panel- and census-based data to provide estimates on digital audience size and consumption.
  • While comScore’s “unique visitor” metrics still remain central to the platform, it also considers duration-based metrics and content-specific engagement metrics including page views, video views and app starts.
  • “Media Metrix Multi-Platform offers comprehensive reporting on more than 300,000 digital media entities, including their un-duplicated audience size, demographic composition, engagement, performance within key user segments and behavioral trends,” notes the site.
  • To accompany the launch, comScore has released data involving top multiplatform properties. The Media Metrix Multi-Platform data shows that Google was the only property in September to reach over 100 million unique visitors/viewers across both desktop and mobile channels, while Yahoo and Facebook each topped 90 million.

Verizon FiOS Announces Live TV Streaming App for LG Smart TVs

The Xbox 360 has it. Apple’s iPad and Samsung’s connected TVs have it. And now LG Smart TVs are also getting the Verizon FiOS TV app, bringing access to 75 channels and Flex View video on-demand.

“The expansive selection of channels from FiOS TV and on-demand content from Verizon’s Flex View library further strengthens LG’s Smart TV platform, giving consumers of all ages a virtually limitless amount of entertainment on TVs, Blu-ray players, PCs, even tablets and phones,” says Samuel Chang, VP of Smart TV and Innovation for LG Electronics.

According to the press release, FiOS TV’s Flex View “offers more than 25,000 on-demand movies and show titles for purchase or rent on any Internet-connected device, whether home on a TV or PC, or on-the-go on a mobile device.”

“As promised back at CES — when they said it would launch in the ‘first half of 2012’ — the app is of course customized for LG’s Magic Remote gesture control feature, and is available on all 2012 Smart TVs, plus the BP620 Blu-ray player via the Smart TV smart World app store,” reports Engadget.

“The good news is you can make use of it in a room with no cable box needed, however the lineup is still missing a few key channels (ESPN) that may be tough to do without,” notes the post.
Verizon also recently announced a partnership with NBCUniversal to expand its TV Everywhere offerings. “If [Verizon] can add a few more, the set-top box-less future may be within reach,” Engadget suggests.

Reinventing the Town Square: Twitter Real-Time Conversations and TV

  • Before Internet, TV, radio and newspapers, citizens would gather in the town square to share news, creating a multi-directional, real-time dialogue. Centuries later, Twitter is recreating this conversation across various media, with particular emphasis on real-time television events.
  • In a speech at his alma mater, the University of Michigan, Twitter CEO Dick Costolo discussed the tendency for new forms of media to disrupt established outlets. Although he acknowledges this “town square” reinvention creates problems such as rumor proliferation, he says Twitter is actually complementary, not harmful, to traditional media sources.
  • “We once start to see multiple perspectives on a particular news story or event that’s happening,” Costolo says. “We once again start to have a shared experience across the globe about what’s happening and what we’re viewing right now. We once get an unfiltered perspective on what’s happening.”
  • “But at the same time,” he adds, “it complements all these traditional forms of broadcast media, and all sorts of fascinating in ways that we would have never predicted.”
  • While the town square approach had benefits, there were also disadvantages involving mistakes, rumors and the amount of time required to distribute information.
  • “But while the invention of newspapers and radio and television solved the distribution problem and much of the accuracy problem, it dramatically increased the costs of distributing news or information, and it lost the multi-directional and unfiltered aspect that the town square used to provide,” notes GigaOM. “And it also made the news very ‘outside-in,’ with observers providing the details instead of participants.”
  • The CEO sees Twitter as “a way of injecting the real-time, multi-directional and unfiltered nature of the town square back into the media,” explains the post. And rather than being disruptive, Twitter is complementary to TV and serves as a “second screen” experience for real-time events such as the Olympics and Hurricane Sandy.
  • Costolo calls Twitter the “pulse of the planet” and sees it as a powerful media player that could drive viewership of live television events.

Study of Movie Audiences: IBM and USC Analyze Emotions Behind Tweets

  • In the 11 days leading up to Thanksgiving and through the weekend, “Twilight: Breaking Dawn – Part 2” generated millions of tweets, but unlike many of the other movies playing over the holiday, a fair share of the social chatter was negative.
  • A deeper analysis of the tweets found that the disappointment had more to do with the series ending, showing how engagement measurements have become more accurate.
  • IBM researchers partnered with the USC Annenberg Innovation Lab to analyze more than 5 million move-related tweets, finding “Twilight” accounted for 4.25 million. “Skyfall” came in second with only 700,000. However, the Bond film’s social sentiment was 90 percent positive, while “Twilight” dropped from 90 to 75 percent by Saturday.
  • “The mystery why a hit film like ‘Twilight’ might generate such a reception on Twitter could foreshadow the next advance in computer science,” notes The Hollywood Reporter. IBM used the artificial intelligence computer Watson, famous for beating humans on “Jeopardy!,” to determine the emotional content of tweets.
  • Steve Canepa, general manager for IBM’s Media & Entertainment Group, explains that “studios once had the luxury of slowly releasing a film, building audience momentum over time and adjusting marketing campaigns based on what was or wasn’t working,” THR reports.
  • “But now that social media audiences are rendering their snap viral judgments, Canepa believes it’s more important than ever that studios adapt likewise by getting their marketing correct at a film’s launch. And that means understanding more quickly than ever how audiences are reacting.”
  • “Canepa adds that predictive analytics driven by social sentiment also might help researchers appreciate which film and TV storylines work best in particular genres to precise demographics. Or which Hollywood stars match up best with each other,” the article explains.

French Startup Develops Wireless Internet Network Intended for Appliances

  • French startup SigFox plans to roll out a wireless network covering the whole of France with just 1,000 antennas. But unlike cellular connections for phones that demand 5,000 microwatts, SigFox’s connections will use only 100 and will connect devices, not humans.
  • “SigFox is focused on connecting cheap sensors and ‘dumb’ home appliances to the Internet,” reports Technology Review. “The goal is to make all kinds of appliances and infrastructure, from power grids to microwave ovens, smarter by letting them share data.”
  • Thomas Nicholls, chief of business development at SigFox, explains that the technology used for human networks is not suitable for appliances. The company developed its own radio technology called ultra narrow band that “allows devices connecting to the network to consume very little energy, says Nicholls, and it allows for very long-range connections,” notes the article.
  • “Further cost savings come from operating the technology on parts of the radio spectrum that are free to use,” not the expensive licensed spectrum that cellular networks operate on. “Nicholls says it should be possible for SigFox to offer its service to a connected device for as little as $1 a year.”
  • “The features that make SigFox’s network cheap to install and maintain have the downside of limiting the network’s speed. At best, it can currently transfer information at the rate of 100 bits per second; 3G mobile networks move data at least 1,000 times faster. That rules out some visions for the Internet of Things, such as distributing cheap video cameras or microphones across the world. But Nicholls says that his company’s focus is on making it cheap to install Internet-connected sensors.”
  • SigFox connections could replace Wi-Fi as the standard for medical devices and gadgets because they maintain constant connection.

ISSCC: Samsung to Present Details on 28nm SoC and New Architecture

  • “Samsung will describe the first mobile applications processor to use ARM’s big.little concept at the International Solid-State Circuits Conference in February,” reports EE Times.
  • The company is scheduled to present details on the 28-nanometer system-on-a-chip incorporating ARM’s big.little architecture during the semiconductor industry’s premier conference.
  • “We expect the Samsung part is the first big.little processor,” suggests senior analyst Kevin Krewell of The Linley Group. “The A7 cores should be capable of handling most [smartphone] tasks, with the A15 cores only required for maximum performance needs, like video games.”
  • “Samsung will detail a 28-nm SoC with two quad-core clusters,” explains the article. “One cluster runs at 1. 8 GHz, has a 2 MByte L2 cache and is geared for high performance apps; the other runs at 1.2 GHz and is tuned for energy efficiency.”
  • “The chip and ones like it from Qualcomm, Nvidia and others will roll out in 2013, competing for sockets in tablets with Intel’s 22-nm Haswell, which will not be described at ISSCC.”
  • Also expected to be described at the conference: Nvidia’s 20 Gbit/s serial die-to-die link made in 28-nm CMOS (which may be part of Nvidia’s Project Denver and its family of processors merging ARM and graphics cores), a new version of the Godson 3B processor made using a 32-nm process from China’s Institute of Computing Technology, and a 200-MHz video decoder from Texas Instruments and MIT implementing the High-Efficiency Video Coding draft standard.

GM Says Some 2013 Vehicles to Be Compatible with Virtual Assistant Siri

  • When driving, it’s helpful to have a competent navigator and DJ so you can focus on the road. And who’s better suited for the task than the pithy female assistant you already carry around in your pocket?
  • “General Motors says a number of its 2013 models will be compatible with Apple’s wise-cracking, know-it-all virtual assistant, Siri,” Technology Review writes. “In the Chevrolet Spark or the Sonic LTZ or RS, you’ll be able to connect to an iPhone and then use Siri’s Eyes Free mode without ever glancing away from the road. Siri will find directions, look up information online, send e-mails, and the rest.”
  • Already, voice control has become fairly popular in newer vehicles, but many of the proprietary systems are faulty or limited.
  • “Siri could perhaps offer drivers a more sophisticated, and less annoying, kind of voice control,” the article suggests. GM is only one of many car manufacturers that have announced plans to integrate Siri in their cars.
  • The post includes a video of the iPhone Siri functionality in the Chevrolet Spark.
  • “Will in-car voice control really be less distracting when virtual navigator can do so much more: everything from checking your calendar to sending out snarky tweets about fellow drivers?” Technology Review asks. “Siri might answer that, too, in time.”

Android Smartphones Dominate Global Market, Yet Lag in Online Usage

  • Android phones currently control 75 percent of the global smartphone market and 53 percent of the American market, reports Business Insider. This is compared to 15 percent and 34 percent, respectively, for the iPhone.
  • However, despite this overwhelming lead in adoption, Android devices only contribute to about 20 percent of global Web traffic, notes the article. Comparatively, 60 percent of mobile Web visits come from iPhones.
  • This trend continued on Black Friday, as iPads and iPhones accounted for almost 20 percent of online sales, while Android only accounted for 5.5 percent, according to an IBM study.
  • “It seems like something is just fundamentally wrong with the Android platform, at least when it comes to interactive engagement by Android users,” writes Business Insider.
  • This trend could shape how app developers and advertisers approach the different platforms.

Windows 8 Sees More App Downloads, but Apple Generates More Revenue

  • In an effort to spur the success of Windows 8, Microsoft offered 20,000 apps through the Windows app store during its first month — and users have downloaded the top 300 apps at a rate three times higher than Apple’s top 300 apps, writes TechCrunch.
  • But while Windows has seen a high volume of downloads, about 86 percent of the apps are free, which has resulted in Apple generating revenues five times as high as Windows, according to research from Distimo.
  • Windows has thrived in localized content. For example, 41 percent of the top apps in Japan are local applications, while 30 percent of Korea’s applications are local.
  • “The strong local proportion, Distimo notes, is because of two reasons. One, Microsoft has been effective at marketing them to local audiences. Two, there are actually a higher proportion of local apps. The percentage of apps that are U.S.-only in the Windows 8 app store is 65 percent, compared to 85 percent and higher in most other app stores,” writes TechCrunch.
  • The best way for Windows to monetize the app growth may not be to charge for the apps, but to use the app store popularity as an incentive to upgrade to new versions of Windows as they are released, suggest the post. If Windows can make the app store an essential part of the Windows ecosystem, people will be more inclined to upgrade to new software.

Facebook to Roll Out External Advertising Network Based on User Data

  • According to recent changes to Facebook’s privacy and governance policies, the social network could soon leverage user data — namely likes and dislikes — to build an external advertising network.
  • This means Facebook would generate revenue by showing relevant advertisements on sites other than Facebook, similar to how Google makes billions of dollars every year.
  • “This is the first real confirmation that the company is going to roll out an advertising network that extends beyond just its own walled garden, and it could turn out to be one of the biggest factors in the success or failure of Facebook’s revenue-growth strategy,” reports GigaOM.
  • “Everything you do and say on Facebook can be used to serve you ads,” explained Chief Privacy Officer Erin Egan to Forbes back in May. “Our policy says that we can advertise services to you off of Facebook based on data we have on Facebook.”
  • An external advertising network could double Facebook’s revenues, bringing the company to $10 billion a year, suggests the article.
  • Facebook could begin its advertising endeavors on Instagram. After implementing the system on its own entities, it could then expand to external sites.
  • “Access to information about the browsing and liking habits of a billion people isn’t something that comes along every day,” notes the article, underscoring the potential of a Facebook-driven advertising entity.