As Apple preps the launch of its next-generation iPhone with bigger screen, Businessweek offers a prediction: “Apple devices will soon project holograms like you’ve never seen.”
“This is not mere speculation,” suggests the article, “but insight based on Apple’s patents, recent acquisitions, and the business imperative to do something to break free of the tablet clutter.”
The company patented a 3D display system in 2010 that would “mimic a hologram” and allow multiple users to view stereoscopic images simultaneously.
Businessweek offers several reasons why Apple would be interested in 3D screens, despite the technology’s slow adoption.
“Apple is the second-mover that makes failed first-mover ideas work,” notes the article, citing the company’s successful improvements upon Xerox’s mouse and Microsoft’s early pen-based Tablet PC. “Toshiba is now selling a 55-inch 3D television in Asia that doesn’t require glasses for viewing the effect. Do you think Apple will let such advances in screen technology pass it by?”
“Apple’s hologram technology will be different — and completely realistic,” adds the article, noting that the patent allows freedom of movement for each viewer without the need for special glasses, while taking into consideration ambient lighting and personal identification.
Recent acquisitions of 3D modeling businesses including C3 Technologies and Poly9 also serve as an indicator.
Apple will need to forge a new direction if faced with the possibility of touchscreens becoming irrelevant (the article notes Disney’s Touché “swept frequency capacitive sensing” system as a potential disruptor in this regard).
“As tablets become commodities, it’s not hard to predict the design battle will move from hardware to the virtual visual realm. Even Sir Jonathan Ive can take glass panes only so far,” comments Businessweek. “I don’t know if an iPhone 5 will hold holograms, but eventually Apple will serve us 3D images — because while anyone can copy a glass tablet, not everyone can make the world float in your hand.”
Warner Bros. will release the high-frame-rate version of Peter Jackson’s first “Hobbit” only to select cities, according to a source familiar with the plans.
“People who have seen much of the film in 48 frames-per-second 3D tell Variety the picture now looks vastly better than the test footage shown this April at CinemaCon, which had not yet undergone post-production polishing and got a mixed reception from exhibitors,” reports Variety.
The studio wants to test the marketplace with a limited HFR release and then expand with the next two installments.
“As of now, there are still no theaters ready for HFR projection, though some require only a software upgrade that will be ready in September,” notes the article. “Warners is satisfied with the pace of efforts to ready theaters for HFR.”
Although production gear vendors seem to agree that HFR is the future, equipment upgrades will differ for Series 1 and Series 2 Digital Cinema systems.
“Each of the makers of the most popular 3D projection systems (RealD, MasterImage, Xpand and Dolby) says its systems are either HFR ready or easily upgradable, though several doubt each others’ claims,” notes Variety. “One thing that won’t be happening soon is a combination of 4K resolution — which is already in some theaters — 3D and high frame rates. Today’s gear and networks can’t handle that much data.”
“That’s going to be a forklift upgrade when that comes about,” says Don Shaw, director, product management for Christie. “That would require a full-scale replacement of all of the equipment in a movie theater.”
A video that sharply accuses the U.S. government of selling out to Hollywood interests has drawn more than 10 million views after being featured on The Pirate Bay.
“Anti-Hollywood sentiment is nothing new, especially on The Pirate Bay, but what sets this video apart is its top-notch — one might even say Hollywood-caliber — production values,” notes Ars Technica.
The two individuals behind the video say they financed the $5,000 project on their own in hopes of raising awareness of repressive copyright policies.
In the video, a military-style raid leads to the arrest of a copyright infringer who is then treated as if he was a suspected terrorist.
“The website associated with the video depicts Kim Dotcom, Richard O’Dwyer, and others as victims of a copyright regime run amok,” explains the post. “The site is short on details about who’s behind it, providing only an email address.”
“If this video is a hit, it could be the first in a series of videos focused on ‘online freedom and copyright.’ The next one might be tied to the American elections in November,” suggests Ars Technica.
Huawei is a private $32 billion business that supplies 140 countries with inexpensive telecom equipment, recently outpacing Sweden’s Ericsson for the “world’s largest telecom equipment maker” title.
For some, its success ignites fear. “Westerners fret that the networks the firm is building are used by Chinese spooks to eavesdrop during peacetime and could be shut down suddenly during wartime,” reports The Economist. “They see the firm as a potent weapon in China’s burgeoning cyber-arsenal.”
“Western governments are also suspicious of the subsidies, low-interest loans and generous export credits lavished on favored champions, including Huawei,” the article continues.
The Economist validates some concerns of telecom security, noting Huawei’s position is ideal for sneaking malware in and sensitive data out through its networks. The article also notes reports of Chinese state-sponsored hackers who have targeted Western commercial secrets.
However, the article warns against blocking Huawei and imports, which could hurt competition and growth. Also, most telecom equipment comes from China today.
“The answer is to insist on greater scrutiny all round, not just of Chinese firms,” the article suggests. “Governments should be crystal clear about what conditions telecoms firms need to meet to win business — something America’s secretive security-review process does not do today. They should also do more to ensure that equipment is secure, no matter who makes it.”
“Such scrutiny will drive up costs, but these pale in comparison with those imposed by bans on Chinese firms, which diminish competition and push up prices,” the article states, adding that Huawei could also reduce worries with improved openness.
Nuance Communications has announced the availability of its open SDK for “Nina,” a new virtual assistant designed for mobile customer service apps.
“With Nina, companies can quickly add speech-based virtual assistant capabilities to their existing iOS and Android mobile apps, greatly enhancing the self-service experience for their customers,” explains the press release.
“Nina combines Nuance speech recognition, Text-to-Speech (TTS), voice biometrics, and Natural Language Understanding (NLU) technology hosted in the cloud to deliver an interactive user experience that not only understands what is said, but also can identify who is saying it,” adds the release.
The company claims that Nina is the first virtual assistant customer service app to utilize both speech recognition and voice biometrics. Companies can customize Nina to fit their brand image. They can alter the visual appearance and implement optional voices.
“Nina is a watershed innovation for the automated customer service industry, not only because it brings the virtual assistant directly into an app, but because it raises the bar through its level of interactive dialog and language understanding,” suggests Robert Weideman, executive vice president and general manager of the Nuance Enterprise Division.
The SDK and cloud service is currently available in English versions for the United States, United Kingdom and Australia. Additional languages will be available later in 2012.
Video-based social network Viddy is gaining traction, after amassing 38 million users in its first 16 months.
Often referred to as the Twitter for videos, Viddy is on the rise thanks to endorsements from celebrities such as Justin Bieber (who is just one of the app’s high-profile investors).
“I’m into Viddy because I can just be me and show my fans the fun parts of my day,” Bieber explains. “I’m big on talking with fans on Twitter and posting pictures on Facebook, but video is another level, and I like watching viddys my fans make for me.”
“Users shoot short video snippets, known as ‘viddys,’ and upload them from their iPhones and other mobile devices for their followers to watch,” explains the Los Angeles Times. “Like tweets, viddys capture everyday moments, with one caveat: They have to be 15 seconds or shorter.”
The network has attracted brands such as General Electric, Southwest Airlines and Diane von Furstenberg to share video messages, as the format allows for concise, engaging content.
Unlike notable Bay Area social heavyweights — including Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram — Viddy is headquartered in Los Angeles (Venice Beach).
“We have the ingredients to create what can become the next Twitter, the next YouTube, the next Facebook, and that’s what we’re setting out to do,” says Brett O’Brien, Viddy co-founder and chief exec. “Our ambition is very large.”
Google is releasing an update to its built-in YouTube Video Editor this week, possibly making video production as simple and fun as editing pictures on Instagram.
“The user interface has been redesigned, removing some of the clutter from the previous version, and the many Instagram-style filters can now easily be seen during the editing process,” reports The Verge. “Changes are also easier to make on the fly, with the help of real-time, interactive previews. Combined with the service’s improved audio editing options, YouTube’s Video Editor is shaping up to be a rather resourceful tool for quickly cleaning up footage.”
In a related TechCrunch post, ReelSurfer launched in public beta this week. The Menlo Park-based start-up from Christian Yang and Neil Joglekar allows users to clip and share video content from any website.
“ReelSurfer set out to solve the problem of finding the right video clips online, which, using YouTube as an example, can often be a fool’s errand,” explains the post. “So the co-founders developed technology to convert long-form video into 30-second clips, allowing users to then save, share and buy that content.”
As part of the beta launch, ReelSurfer is offering built-in clip commenting and advanced profiles so users can link reel collections to a central page.
“This start-up is a complement to my ‘hyper-personalized offer’ project,” notes ETCentric staffer Phil Lelyveld. “It is also an opportunity for the entertainment industry to either negotiate new revenue streams or repeat the mistakes of the past.”
Google is rolling out its “smart” recognition program Knowledge Graph for improved search results. The Graph will include location-aware searching as well as more accurate results for wider search queries, like “famous graffiti artists,” CNET explains.
“The Knowledge Graph results will appear to the right of the traditional search results, but when clicked they’ll appear across the top,” the article states. “Visual components of the results, such as pictures, will appear as a horizontal scroll bar for easy navigation.”
Another update brings Gmail to Graph search results for U.S. users who opt-in. To find a certain email, just type “Gmail” and whatever the message pertains to.
“However, you’ll also be able to use more natural queries to bring up the e-mails you want to see. Type in ‘My Flights,’ and your upcoming flight itinerary will appear, complete with confirmation number and flight information such as number, time, and seat number,” CNET writes. “The feature will also leverage the Knowledge Graph so that a real-time update of the flight status appears, a quick way to check whether your flight has been delayed.”
The Google Search iOS app will also be updated in the next few days to include voice searches.
Calendar and Drive are expected to be integrated into Knowledge Graph search eventually, bringing all your personal data into the same sphere of global results — something privacy advocates are likely to dispute.
“If we are to build the future of search, we have to solve the hard scientific problems of speech recognition and natural language understanding,” says Amit Singhal, senior vice president for Engineering Search at Google. “We will have to build artificial intelligence. We’re not there yet, but we’re taking baby steps today.”
Engadget reports that the release of the 12-bit RAW Blackmagic Cinema Camera has been delayed.
“The camera is ‘in the final stages of Thunderbolt certification and internal testing’ and manufacturing will follow as soon as that’s done — probably in the second week of August,” according to the post. “It will still hit the market with the $2,995 price tag, Canon lens mount, 15.6 x 8 mm sensor and built-in SSD recorder intact.”
The company also claims to have identified the cause of aliasing previously reported and has posted new videos to back up the claim.
As noted during NAB, the new Cinema Camera touts a 2.5K sensor with the ability to capture film quality video.
According to Blackmagic Design’s April press release: “One of the most important features of the camera is its super wide dynamic range of 13 stops, allowing feature film quality images. Commonly people focus on more pixels, however often this just creates a higher resolution, but still ‘video’ looking images that suffer from highlight and black clipping that limits details. Blackmagic Cinema Camera’s wide dynamic range eliminates this problem and provides film quality with dramatically more detail retained in black and whites in the image.”
For those interested in the camera’s capabilities, check out the videos recently shot by DP John Brawley.
Starbucks and Square have agreed to a $25 million deal to bring mobile payment solutions to Starbucks.
The deal officially applies to 7,000 Starbucks stores, but TechCrunch suggests it could expand to allow Square to reach international markets, as Starbucks currently boasts 20,000 worldwide locations.
TechCrunch speculates that other mobile payment options, such as Here from PayPal, will continue to push card-free payment on a global scale.
“The consumer is going through a seismic change in which cash is eventually going to be obsolete,” notes Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz.
“Pay with Square lets the company forge relationships directly with consumers rather than with merchants — and that means that whatever happens under the hood — whether it is about NFC or QR, or even if it decides to lift off the credit card platform to a different kind of financial instrument altogether — that customer relationship will remain, something that could be welcomed by a population that doesn’t really care about which technology does what,” explains the post.
Amazon has released “Living Classics” for Facebook. It is the company’s first “moving object” game on the social network and represents another foray into the mobile gaming market.
In the game, players control a family of foxes as it ventures through fairy tales like “Alice in Wonderland” and “The Wizard of Oz.”
Amazon continues to expand into mobile gaming with its new gaming options — such as tracking achievements, accessing leaderboards and syncing devices — offered through GameCircle for the Kindle Fire.
“In addition to debuting the above-mentioned Facebook app, the Seattle-based retailer took the opportunity to introduce its newly minted Game Studios, which Amazon says will focus on creating innovative, fun and well-crafted titles,” TG Daily reports.
“Amazon’s decision to debut GameCircle and ‘Living Classics’ at this juncture is likely anything but arbitrary,” notes the post, “as the Seattle-based corporation is reportedly prepping at least three new Fire devices for launch later this fall. ”
Link to the post to access the “Living Classics” video trailer.
Facebook is launching a new advertising unit to promote sponsored mobile apps. Facebook will promote the apps as it does with naturally generated game recommendations.
The unit “joins Facebook’s ‘sponsored stories,’ which is the social network’s core product for brand advertisers,” explains Advertising Age.
The advertisers looking for installs of mobile apps will pay Facebook on a cost-per-click model and can target customers based on age, gender, location and interests.
“The promoted app will surface as a recommendation alongside apps that are being recommended organically based on a user’s history and social graph under the headings ‘Try These Games’ and ‘Try These Apps,’ but will be flagged with the text ‘sponsored,'” explains the post.
“Clicking on a promoted app will send users to the App Store if they have an iOS phone or to Google Play if they have an Android device,” notes the post. “According to the announcement on Facebook’s developer blog, the platform has sent users to those sources 146 million times in the last 30 days via clicks in their news feeds, timelines, bookmarks and the App Center it rolled out in May.”
Tablet shipments are expected to outpace those of notebooks by 2016, the same year an estimated 350 million smartphones will be used in the work place. In response, corporate America is starting to reorganize to meet the demands of new technology.
“Companies will soon be spending upwards of $1.3 trillion annually to equip employees with mobile devices and apps, according to Forrester Research,” reports Fortune.
Already, research shows 41 percent of companies accommodate the use of individually purchased tablets. Another 30 percent of companies even have sanctioned programs for partial deployment.
In the future, Fortune expects to see six new tech adaptations become commonplace: 1) projectors with tablet-friendly VGA adapters; 2) more robust Wi-Fi networks to combat cellular dead zones; 3) wireless printing from Web-connected printers; 4) desks outfitted with docking stations and mounts for mobile devices; 5) mobile shops for troubleshooting, which reinvent the IT experience; and 6) a chief mobility officer who manages the expansion of mobile for both employees and customers.
“It certainly seems that the industry as a whole is in a slump,” IHS iSuppli analyst Craig Stice says of the PC market. The bad economy paired with the growth of tablets has created a very weak demand for new PCs.
“Market research firm IDC reported that PC shipments totaled 86.7 million units last quarter, down 0.1 percent from the year earlier period. This was far below IDC’s projection of 2.1 percent growth,” reports Fortune. “Gartner also reported the decline in sales, counting approximately 87.5 million units.”
“Who out there now needs a PC and doesn’t have one?” says Bob O’Donnell, vice president of clients and displays for IDC. As sales in the developed world are slowing down, PC makers are looking to promising developing markets like Brazil, “…but that isn’t enough to keep the industry in good shape,” O’Donnell continues.
“A shaky economy, meanwhile, is convincing consumers they don’t really need an upgrade,” the article states. For example, high prices probably contributed to the lackluster adoption of the highly-anticipated Ultrabooks.
Windows 8 is unlikely to be able to help the flailing PC market as it will possibly also drive up prices. Users may also hold off if the update isn’t easy.
If you count tablets as PCs, Apple has surpassed HP as the top PC vendor, selling 17 million iPads and 4 million Macs in the second quarter of 2012. While the rest of the market struggles, Apple’s prospects are still positive; “… as Apple continues to dominate in the tablet space it could see some growth with its desktops and notebooks,” Fortune concludes.
Apple co-founder and Fusion-io chief scientist Steve Wozniak recently spoke out against cloud storage, suggesting that dependence on outside storage will lead to significant problems.
“I really worry about everything going to the cloud,” he said during an interview. “I think it’s going to be horrendous. I think there are going to be a lot of horrible problems in the next five years.”
Wozniak argues that by agreeing to cloud terms of service, users sign away their ownership of content. When content is on a personal computer, the user owns the information. But by storing data in the cloud, the consumer signs away control, according to Wozniak.
“I want to feel that I own things,” he explained. “A lot of people feel, ‘Oh, everything is really on my computer,’ but I say the more we transfer everything onto the Web, onto the cloud, the less we’re going to have control over it.”
“A major irony of Wozniak’s remarks is that he works for Fusion-io, which is working to improve cloud computing with flash storage and specialized applications,” notes VentureBeat.
