Amazon is reportedly developing a smartphone aimed at competing with Apple’s iPhone and Android devices.
Sources say Chinese mobile phone manufacturer Foxconn will work with Amazon. Additionally, Amazon is acquiring wireless technology patents. The sources do not mention what operating system Amazon plans to use to run the device.
“A smartphone would give Amazon a wider range of low-priced hardware devices that bolster its strategy of making money from digital books, songs and movies,” suggests Bloomberg.
“It would help Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos — who made a foray into tablets with the Kindle Fire — carve out a slice of the market for advanced wireless handsets,” notes the article.
In a related Bloomberg TV video interview, analyst Victor Anthony suggests the move is not necessarily about competing with leaders such as Samsung and Apple, but rather to provide a thin-margin device like the Kindle Fire.
“I do think it’s the next logical step for Amazon to follow,” he says. “I think what they want to do is really come out with a device that will allow them to increase the number of Amazon Store touch points whereas consumers could actually buy digital media content, they could buy physical goods. I think that’s the focus for Amazon launching a smartphone.”
According to IDC, manufacturers shipped 398.4 million smartphones and other mobile devices worldwide in Q1 2012.
Google has published a patent application for face detection in video, a technique that “uses video frames to generate clusters of face representations that are attached to a given person,” reports Engadget.
That would allow for Google to identify subjects from various angles and “then attach a name to a face whenever it shows up in a clip, even at different angles and in strange lighting conditions,” explains the post.
This could be useful on YouTube, so people could be tagged in uploaded videos. But, as Engadget notes, it could also be used to “spot people in augmented reality apps and get their details — imagine never being at a loss for information about a new friend as long as you’re wearing Project Glass.”
Of course, since it’s only a patent, it’s impossible to tell exactly what Google will do with this technology. But the possibilities are interesting.
Japanese camera maker Olympus has announced yet another prototype for a glasses-mounted heads-up display. The company has been working on prototypes in this space since 2005 and has shown several augmented reality concept devices in the past, none of which made it to market.
“Dubbed MEG4.0, the display features Bluetooth connectivity for interfacing with smartphones and uses Olympus’ own ‘proprietary optical technology’ to maximize the visibility of the outside world,” reports The Verge. “Unlike Project Glass, however, Olympus’ device doesn’t appear to include a camera — an odd choice for a company built on imaging products.”
Features include: QVGA 320×240 display, up to eight hours of battery life, and built-in accelerometer. The small wearable display is designed to fit on most glasses.
“The HMD (Head Mounted Display) renders information using Olympus’ proprietary Pupil Division Optical System, which, according to Olympus, is bright enough to be seen outdoors without sacrificing battery life,” notes Wired in a related post.
For those interested in the development of augmented reality glasses, Wired published an overview in April describing six glasses with integrated displays currently available. The report — which details the Vuzix Star 1200, Recon Mod Live Alpine Goggles, Brother AiRScouter, Epson Moverio BT-100, Sony HMZ T1 and Silicon Micro Display ST1080 — includes images and videos.
Last week, Apple was granted a patent for a head-mounted display apparatus, that if ever produced could compete with the likes of Google Glass.
It was originally filed in 2006 and is titled “Peripheral treatment for head-mounted displays.” The patent describes “how images could be projected to generate a peripheral display that would create ‘an enhanced viewing experience’ for the user,” explains Wired.
It is designed to display video information in front of the user’s eyes. It’s not clear whether the headset would be in the form of a helmet, glasses, visor or other.
Apple’s proposed project could also be used for augmented reality. Wired notes that “in the patent, Apple provides a few examples of where this would be useful: in surgery applications where CAT scans or MRI images could be combined with the surgeon’s field of vision; for military personnel, firefighters and police, who could use the display to show tactical information (see ‘Terminator’); and for scientists and engineers who could benefit from viewing stereoscopic CAD drawings.”
Also within the patent is a description of how video and image information could be received from a portable device like an iPhone.
Wired makes note of the potential Google vs. Apple showdown, saying that “Google’s patent is very specific to Google Glass — it’s for a wearable display with an integrated finger-tracking input sensor. Apple’s on the other hand, seems pretty broad, covering a variety of head mounted display technology implementations.”
In addition to a range of consumer-based products and services demonstrated at the recent Google I/O conference, the company announced some compelling solutions intended for enterprise customers.
“At the top of the list was the launch of Google Compute Engine, an infrastructure-as-a-service product that lets developers run their applications on Google’s high-performance servers,” reports CNNMoney.
“This is an area which is core to us, and we are making a deep, long investment here,” says Sundar Pichai, senior VP for Chrome and Apps. “We think for the long haul.”
“The company also unveiled a few business-friendly upgrades to Google Apps, like the ability to edit documents offline, and the availability of the Chrome browser on Apple iPhones and iPads,” notes the article.
Google now has an enterprise sales and marketing team that is focusing on an evolving market and the crossover of consumer and business.
The company says its Android operating system is showing signs of acceptance in the workplace and the majority of its Gmail customers are now small businesses (five million in the U.S.).
Nielsen has acquired technology advertising analysis company Vizu and plans to make Vizu’s Ad Catalyst available immediately.
“Until now, Nielsen measured an online advertising’s reach but not its effectiveness,” reports TechCrunch. Vizu will allow advertisers to access real-time data regarding Internet advertising campaigns.
“Eventually, Nielsen will do more to integrate Vizu’s features with its measurement of online ad reach, and with its cross-platform products,” notes the post.
The goal, says Scott McKinley, Nielsen executive VP for Ad Effectiveness, is “bringing data out of Vizu systems and connecting up with how we measure television, so we can offer advertisers a complete picture of reach and effectiveness across television and online.”
In related news from Lost Remote: “The social TV analytics and curation company Trendrr is planning to launch a new service that will enable TV stations to measure social conversations around local programming and talent — and compare those conversations with their competitors.”
According to the report, Trendrr plans to initially launch the service in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago during the next quarter. It will add new sources to combine with the data it currently measures from Twitter, Facebook, GetGlue, Viggle and Miso.
In a guest post for AllThingsD, RBG Networks CEO Jef Graham argues the TV Everywhere concept can help cable companies fight Netflix, YouTube and Amazon — and add up to $12 billion in total revenue over the next three to five years.
Graham explains how traditional television advertisements are ineffective, as they are not focused. Yes, advertisers can choose specific shows, time slots, and, in some cases, can target viewers by area code, but these types of advertisements are still less focused than Internet-based advertising.
TV Everywhere allows advertisers to track IP addresses to better understand viewers, and thus better cater the advertising experience to particular interests.
“Men aren’t seeing ads for women’s shoes, for instance; someone doing Web searches in advance of a trip to Hawaii might see pitches for hotels or rental cars,” explains Graham. “And since there are now often multiple Internet-enabled devices in a given home, ads can be targeted directly to the device that a particular family member uses most often.”
TV Everywhere also helps to solve problems with DVRs and commercial-skipping technologies. People are more inclined to watch advertising while viewing on-demand content on a laptop or tablet than when they DVR a program, so this helps drive advertising dollars back into television programming.
“And as the technology side of the house has worked through its issues and stands poised for broad deployment, we see the barriers breaking down on the content side as well,” concludes Graham. “We expect to see a similar pattern for targeted advertising — the technology is in place, and the new ad model will follow as the stakeholders work through their negotiations, with everybody coming out a winner.”
Google and the UK’s PRS for Music have released a new study entitled “The six business models for copyright infringement.”
The research, conducted by BAE Systems Detica, finds that live television is the fastest-growing segment of copyright infringement. “Global page views of live TV sites were up 61 percent for the year ending May 2012,” notes paidContent.
The other business models featured in the report include P2P Community, Subscription Community, Music Transaction, Rewarded Freemium and Embedded Streaming.
“This study provides data-driven insight into how copyright infringement operates as a business across a range of business models,” explains the executive summary. “It shows that websites are most commonly funded in part or in combination by either advertising or payments.”
“For each segment, this study helps to identify which are the significant economic drivers. This data is likely to prove useful and insightful to industry and policymakers who seek to tackle infringement by ‘following the money.'”
The report notes that live TV sites link to a mixture of illegal streams and paid television, with a third based in the U.S. Two-thirds of these Live TV Gateway sites are funded by advertisers. Additionally, they are more likely than the other business models mentioned above to have mobile sites and a significant social network presence.
“Our research shows there are many different business models for online infringement which can be tackled if we work together,” said Theo Bertram, Google’s UK policy manager. “The evidence suggests that one of the most effective ways to do this is to follow the money, targeting the advertisers who choose to make money from these sites and working with payment providers to ensure they know where their services are being used.”
The article includes a graphic from the study that offers an excellent overview of the different categories. The full report is available for download from PRS for Music.
The office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) has held private meetings to discuss and draft an international copyright provision to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).
USTR spokeswoman Carol Guthrie explains that “the United States is proposing a new provision, consistent with the internationally recognized ‘3-step test,’ that will obligate parties to seek to achieve an appropriate balance in their copyright systems in providing copyright exceptions and limitations for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.”
“These principles are critical aspects of the U.S. copyright system, and appear in both our law and jurisprudence,” adds Guthrie. “The balance sought by the U.S. TPP proposal recognizes and promotes respect for the important interests of individuals, businesses, and institutions who rely on appropriate exceptions and limitations in the TPP region.”
While most intellectual property holders have applauded the developments, they eagerly await the release of the treaty. Without the treaty in hand, no one can analyze the precise language, which “makes a big difference in how effective it will be on the ground,” according to intellectual property attorney Jonathan Band.
Critics, such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation, complain that the propositions are nothing more than “ACTA-plus.” The organization notes that the 3-step-test “imposes rigid constraints on the sorts of ‘fair use’ provisions countries may enact.”
The European Parliament rejected the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) with a 478 to 39 vote. The overwhelming dissent effectively served a death blow to the anti-piracy and anti-copyright infringement legislation drafted five years ago by the United States and Japan.
Supporters of the legislation, including President Obama, had hoped to establish a global copyright standard, but the recent decision hurts the possibility of establishing such standards.
ACTA could still pass if six countries choose to pass the legislation, but Canadian law professor Michael Geist explains how the legislation is “badly damaged and will seemingly never achieve the goals of its supporters as a model for other countries to adopt.”
Australia, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Morocco, New Zealand, and Singapore are among the nations yet to decide on the matter, but reports indicate the nations are unlikely to pass the legislation.
ACTA opponents celebrated the decision. Activist Mike Rispoli explained that his group Access “is ecstatic that the Parliament… by an overwhelming majority, said ‘No’ to ACTA, delivering the long-awaited fatal blow to this dangerous agreement.”
“The European Parliament vote is a triumph of democracy over special interests and shady back-room deals,” added UK Pirate Party leader Loz Kaye. “It is becoming increasingly politically poisonous to be ‘anti-Internet.'”
The Infinitec Pocket TV allows consumers to transform their HDTVs into smart TVs for under $200. By connecting a small microcomputer (similar in size to a USB dongle), users can turn their HDTV into a giant screen computer with access to the Google Play Store.
The device outputs 1080p resolution through a HDMI 1.3 connection, reports Digital Trends, and runs on Android 4.0. The device also includes “a MicroSD port that will accommodate any MiscroSD card up to 32GB in size” and “comes with 4GB of internal memory.”
Customers can choose to purchase either a standard remote or an Air Remote. The standard remote uses directional pad navigation, while the Air Remote uses a gyroscopic sensor that allows users to control their televisions with gestures. The Air Remote controls an on screen mouse cursor and includes a QWERTY keyboard.
Smartphone users can control the device using the Google Remote TV app. Infinitec plans to release its own mobile application soon.
Infinitec confirms that Hulu, Netflix, Amazon Video, Facebook, Twitter, Flipboard, Google Maps and Pulse applications, among others, all work with the device.
Infinitec plans to release Pocket TV by early October for $190. Interested customers can pre-order the device on Kickstarter for $110 for the standard remote and $135 for the Air Remote.
Amazon’s Kindle Fire has been the strongest competitor to Apple’s iPad and Google’s slew of Android devices. Amazon may now take on Apple and Google in the area of 3D mapping with its purchase of UpNext.
Amazon purchased the New York-based 3D map developer for an undisclosed sum. “UpNext offers interactive, detailed three-dimensional maps of cities and venues,” according to GigaOM.
“Currently, Kindle Fire owners must use third-party apps or access Google Maps (or another service) through the Web browser,” reports VentureBeat. “We could see UpNext’s mapping platform show up on Amazon.com or see it integrated with Amazon’s mobile apps.”
The purchase will allow Amazon to move away from its reliance on Google Maps for its new line of Kindle Fire tablets. “The Kindle Fire doesn’t currently include a GPS radio but the UpNext acquisition, which would help Amazon offer native mapping capabilities, potentially points to a more robust Kindle Fire in the future, as well as an Amazon smartphone,” notes GigaOM.
The VentureBeat post features two videos demonstrating UpNext’s 3D maps on the iPhone and iPad.
Google has released Chrome for iOS, but without the latitude to integrate its JavaScript rendering engine, the app runs slower than its Android cousin.
Rather than use the JavaScript engine, Chrome for iOS uses its UIWebView in order to comply with Apple’s strict third-party developers agreement.
TechCrunch notes that many users enjoy Chrome on other platforms for its speed, but that the absence of the JavaScript engine makes Chrome on iOS appear sluggish. The post adds that the lack of speed “doesn’t just apply to page loads,” but that “there is often a slight but noticeable lag when you scroll, too.”
Chrome on iOS still provides a valuable experience, and includes fluid tab switchers. Users can also sync their iOS device to their desktop with Chrome’s bookmark and tab syncing features.
According to a statement from Google, the company’s “goal was to bring the same fast, secure and stable Web browsing experience you’ve come to enjoy when using Chrome on your desktop or Android device, while also adapting to platform specific technical specifications.”
“Google’s engineers, though, did what they could on iOS,” comments TechCrunch. “Sadly, those platform specific technical specifications dictate that the current iteration of Chrome for iOS can’t quite live up to what we’ve come to expect from Chrome on other platforms.”
Music streaming competition continues to heat up and Microsoft plans to enter the mix with “an expansive Xbox music service joining Spotify-style streaming with download and online-storage functions similar to Apple Inc.’s iTunes,” according to Bloomberg.
Microsoft is in negotiations with major record companies now and plans to launch the service later this year.
“By combining the best features of competing services, Microsoft seeks to build a digital product that lets customers consume music any way they like,” notes the article. “The maker of the Xbox console is building the new music business after its unsuccessful effort with the Zune service, which will close and move customers to Xbox Music, the company said on its website.”
According to “several people with knowledge of the situation,” Xbox Music will offer a streaming subscription service similar to that of Spotify and enable customers to purchase digital music via an online store, similar to the model used by iTunes and Amazon.com.
Sources also say that Microsoft wants to offer Xbox Music users an online locker, from which they can access content from mobile devices running Windows 8.
Reports indicate that an issue with Apple’s App Store was causing problems for its users this week. According to CNET, “Marco Arment, the creator of Instapaper, reported…that he was ‘deluged’ earlier this week by users who had downloaded Instapaper 4.2.3 and found that upon opening it, the application ‘crashed immediately.'”
The issue continued to plague users even after uninstalling and reinstalling the app. Arment also suggested that he’d heard of other app developers having similar issues.
“Arment found that the problem was due to what he said was a corrupt update Apple distributed through its App Store. According to Arment, the update he sent over worked just fine, so he quickly complained to Apple about the issue. Within a couple of hours, a new, reliable update was distributed and the problem was addressed,” reports CNET.
“I haven’t yet received a response from App Review, so I don’t know whether the fix was because I made noise, or simply because time passed, which may, for instance, expire a cache with the bad data,” Arment wrote in a blog post. “The only fix for people with bad copies, once good copies are being served again by the App Store, is to delete and reinstall the app.”
TechCrunch reports that Apple is aware of the problem and has been working to resolve it. “The short of it is that corrupt app store binaries, and possibly some problem related to Apple’s FairPlay DRM, is at the root of these mysterious crashes,” notes the post.
Apple issued an update late last night: “We had a temporary issue that began yesterday with a server that generated DRM code for some apps being downloaded. The issue has been rectified and we don’t expect it to occur again.”
In a related report from International Business Times, Russian security firm Kaspersky Lab has reported an app named “Find and Call,” which it suggests is the first case of malware to enter Apple’s App Store. Reportedly also found in the Android Google Play store, the malware “steals your phonebook details and sends spam SMS messages to all your contacts, claiming to be from you,” explains the article.
Amazon is reportedly developing a smartphone aimed at competing with Apple’s iPhone and Android devices.
