Last year U.S. consumers spent more than $170 million on products that assist use of portable media devices in their vehicles, according to the NPD Group.
The report found that 84 percent of owners possess a portable media device and 79 percent use them in their cars.
“Traditional radio and CD audio remain firmly entrenched in the vehicle from both a device and entertainment standpoint,” says Ben Arnold, NPD’s director of industry analysis. “But as ownership of mobile devices, digital content, and apps expands, consumers will be looking for ways to customize the in-vehicle environment with content and services.”
“The key is for auto makers and traditional audio manufacturers to facilitate consumer use of connected devices in the vehicle, allowing content from the smartphone, tablet, or digital media player to easily stream or be controlled through the deck mounted in the dashboard,” according to Arnold. “We’re only going to see greater consumer attachment to social media, streaming audio and video, and other services as content options grow.”
Research in Motion released a software update for its PlayBook tablet that includes new features, “some of which frankly should have been built into the device from day one,” reports TG Daily.
“Building on the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet’s proven Web browsing, multimedia and multitasking strengths, the new BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 introduces a range of new communications and productivity enhancements as well as expanded app and content support,” indicates RIM in a statement.
The update enables messaging and a calendar, previously only available to users with BlackBerry phones. Also included is a digital streaming Video Store and professional tools for email and Microsoft Office.
The article says the OS update could have an interesting effect on the new BlackBerry phones to be released by the end of the year.
“But now, with at least six or seven months to wait until this becomes a reality, it may very well be too little too late. By then, Nokia’s partnership with Windows Phone will be in its maturity and the dominance of Android and iOS will only continue to grow on a global scale,” the post states.
South Korean firm Samsung, the world’s biggest supplier of LCDs by sales, “plans to spin off its liquid-crystal display operations into a separate company in an effort to revive its unprofitable flat-panel business, and said it is considering merging the new entity with affiliates within the Samsung group,” reports the Wall Street Journal.
The new company, expected to be launched April 1st with capital of $668 million, will be called Samsung Display Co. and Samsung Electronics will hold all its shares.
The split is part of Samsung’s plan to focus on OLED and gain competitiveness in LCD. The LCD business might be merged with affiliates like Samsung Mobile Display (which holds a 95 percent share of the global OLED market) or S-LCD, an unsuccessful collaboration with Sony.
“(Shifting to OLED) is an inevitable trend now. There’s no reason for Samsung to pour in more investment into its LCD business, and it would rather focus on raising its OLED technology,” said HI Investment & Securities analyst Song Myung-sub, adding that “with the industry’s LCD supply shrinking overall, some Korean players will see a turnaround from the businesses from the third quarter of this year.”
CNET has posted a fascinating 2-minute video from SmartPlanet on how to convert personal photographs into 3D objects using new free software.
Autodesk recently released 123D Catch and 123D Make, both of which create “a 3D model of your images, which can then be sent to a 3D printer or can be constructed out of cardboard as a template,” indicates the post.
The video demo illustrates how multiple photographs of a garden buddha captured with a point-and-shoot camera are used to create a 3D model reference file in the cloud.
The recorded textures of the object become a wire frame model that can then be sent to a 3D printer or users can print their own cardboard model via 123D Make that slices the model into layers.
The company sees initial applications for hobbyists and educators.
Google is developing Android-based glasses that will stream online information to users and make it visible via a small screen near the eyes.
The glasses will identify an individual’s location and examine what that person is looking at to provide related information about location, objects and friends who might be nearby.
The glasses will have 3G or 4G connectivity along with motion sensors and GPS capability. Navigation will be motion-based; tilting of the head will allow for actions such as scrolling and clicking.
The Oakley Thumps-like glasses will be available later this year for a cost between $250 and $600.
Google is looking at the glasses as an experiment in real-time information. They are not yet looking at ways to monetize the technology.
The computing-for-hire division of Amazon called Amazon Web Services (AWS) is offering new products to make it easier to run workflow-based applications on Amazon computers or using its giant computing cloud.
The move is expected to help the division expand its reach to engineers and business people.
“This is a cheap (and probably easy) way for in-house engineers to build and deploy software that does tasks like analytics and billing, or internal financial operations and decision-making. It can even aid in the design logic of multiplayer games,” suggests The New York Times.
“This is a big deal, because it shows AWS moving more decisively into the kind of broad-based computing and software services that will put it in competition with the likes of Oracle and Hewlett-Packard,” adds the article.
“AWS is going from basic but arcane core computing tasks, like setting up storage systems, to well-defined business software. Over the past few weeks, AWS has also started offering practical database software for large-scale corporate operations, and data storage that easily backs up what was on a corporate system.”
Connecting to a Wi-Fi hotspot is hopefully about to get easier by eliminating the need for pop-up log-in screens.
“The Wi-Fi Alliance will begin to certify wireless devices for its industry-wide Passpoint initiative this July,” reports GigaOM. “With devices using the Passpoint standard, users will be able to connect to Wi-Fi hotspots without having to enter logon credentials with each connection instance and will be able to seamlessly roam from one Passpoint-enabled Wi-Fi network to another.”
“WPA-2 Enterprise security for Passpoint-certified hotspots is important, but the seamless roaming to other Passpoint networks and simple connections will surely appeal to consumers and corporate types alike; especially as we all start to carry more wireless devices,” comments the post.
In a statement, the Wi-Fi Alliance explained how it will use SIM cards for authentication: “Devices can be automatically granted access to the network based on multiple credential types. Passpoint supports Subscriber Identity Module (SIM)-based authentication, widely used in cellular networks today, as well as username/password combinations and certificate credentials. No end-user intervention is required in order to establish a connection to a trusted network.”
IP-based instant messaging and text services such as iMessage, Facebook Chat, Skype and Google Voice cost mobile carriers $13.9 billion in potential SMS revenue last year.
GigaOM suggests “that the challenge for carriers is finding a way to continue getting the same total dollars from subscribers while transitioning them to new services. Otherwise they might lose valuable dollars to IP-based voice and messaging services without making up the loss of voice and testing plan revenue.”
Ovum, which analyzed the monetary effect of these services on carriers, said that “operators are in a position of strength because they control the entire messaging structure through their access to the user’s phone number and usage data. The established billing relationship is a great advantage, as is the fact that operators control to a great extent the services to which the user is exposed.”
Mobile operators will have to be cautious when attempting to secure their revenue because consumers now have a variety of options that bypass traditional plans.
“By using new services they can piece together their own IP-based communications using a device, some handy apps, and their mobile data plan,” notes the post, detailing options like using a $30/month data-only SIM card.
California Attorney General Kamala D. Harris reached an agreement with Apple, Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard and Research In Motion that could change how app makers address personal data and the way consumers download apps.
The companies have agreed “that California law requires apps to have privacy policies, and that they would begin asking app developers who collect personal information to include them,” reports the Wall Street Journal.
Twenty-two of the 30 most-downloaded mobile apps have no privacy policy. Moreover, most privacy policies are not clear to the average person.
The privacy policies will provide a means to prosecute companies which take or use consumer information improperly.
“Harris said that she agreed most privacy policies are ‘absolutely beyond the understanding of the average person,’ but that the six companies agreed in principle that app privacy policies ‘are going to be more clear and understandable,'” reports WSJ. “She said simply requiring privacy policies would force app developers to think about what information they are requiring from consumers — and why.”
The FBI is looking for developers for its Web alert system called the “FBI Social Media Application,” which plans to help the agency monitor social networks for threats.
The platform will cross-reference information from social sites with databases and will have the ability “to rapidly assemble critical open source information and intelligence … to quickly vet, identify and geo-locate breaking events, incidents and emerging threats,” according to a 12-page document posted online.
The FBI explained to Fox News: “[We] will not focus on specific persons or protected groups, but on words that relate to ‘events’ and ‘crisis’ and activities constituting violations of federal criminal law or threats to national security. Examples of these words will include lockdown, bomb, suspicious package, white powder, active shoot, school lockdown, etc.”
A forthcoming study from the Journal of Applied Social Psychology shows that Facebook profiles can actually be a good way for employers to judge potential employees because online personalities fairly represent the real you.
Unlike LinkedIn, Facebook is not strictly professional but shows a full view of the person.
Hiring specialists used to just use social networks to eliminate candidates who were doing something inappropriate but social media is now useful in evaluating potential work performance.
“Who received the highest scores? Raters favored students who traveled, had more friends and showed interest in many hobbies. In other words, raters favored the well-rounded users. And those ‘partying’ photos didn’t count against the user — rather, raters believed that users who socialized were more likely to be extroverted and friendly,” reports ReadWriteWeb.
A study by app analytics group Distimo showed that 42 of the top 110 apps available on both the Android Market and Amazon Appstore made developers more money on Amazon.
“Okay, so that’s not even half,” TG Daily writes, “but look at what we’re saying — apps that are purchased through an external website, meaning users need to log onto a computer, register their Android phone, complete the purchase through Amazon, and follow the instructions on their Android phone to get the content, are doing better than the same apps that are available directly on the phone.”
The article attributes this trend to Amazon’s marketing abilities, the successful proliferation of the Kindle Fire — inherently linked to Amazon — and Google’s inability to make content easy to find on the Android Market.
“…this just goes to show that making an open platform allows third parties to make an even bigger impact,” comments TG Daily.
Mountain Lion, Apple’s latest OS for desktops and laptops, may challenge Android as it brings more of the iOS experience into OS X.
The new software creates a “grand unified user experience” (GUUX), enabling seamless interaction among all Apple devices. It brought many features over from iOS and its notifications are synched between devices.
“Reading an email on my iPhone, for example, removes the notification for that message on my desktop,” reports Kevin Tofel for GigaOM.
This “GUUX” could threaten Android’s share as people look to move easily from one device to another. “Simply put, Android doesn’t have native integration with a true desktop platform. Instead, it is cloud-focused from a data perspective while leaning heavily on third-party apps, browser extensions and its own Chrome browser to offer a ‘use anywhere’ experience. It works, but based on what I have seen from Mountain Lion so far, it is looking more disjointed,” writes Tofel.
Google may catch on to this trend later on with its Chrome OS. Its new Chrome browser for Android is an example of this synchronization, showing tabs open in Chrome on a desktop — something Safari doesn’t do yet.
“How much could this interaction between Mountain Lion and iOS hurt Android sales?” asks Tofel. “That is hard to say. Those who prefer a greater range of control over their mobile devices will still likely choose an Android device in the near term. But people looking for a ‘grand user interface unification’ may give up some control in order to gain a seamless experience across devices and choose iOS, especially if they are current or new Mac OS X users when Mountain Lion arrives this summer.”
On Thursday, Comcast will launch Xfinity Streampix, “its own streaming-video service that will give existing Comcast video customers a similar selection [to Netflix] of old TV shows and movies over the Web,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Comcast’s new service will include such shows as ’30 Rock,’ from its own NBCUniversal unit and ‘Lost’ from Walt Disney Co.’s ABC, as well as movies like ‘Ocean’s Eleven,’ from Time Warner Inc.’s Warner Bros. The programs, typically of prior seasons of shows, will be available on the Web and on mobile devices to subscribers in and out of the home, similarly to Netflix’s offering,” according to WSJ.
Compared to Netflix’s $7.99/month cost, the service will only cost Comcast customers $4.99/month. Streampix will also be made available for no additional charge to more than two million customers who subscribe for premium tiers of video service.
With Comcast’s 23 million subscriber base, Netflix subscriptions might be challenged.
Facebook accounts for more than 90 percent of Zynga’s sales, but the online-game company is trying to change that.
According to inside sources, the company is creating a new publishing program for other game developers to promote wares in Zynga titles and on a separate portal. Zynga would get a portion of the sales, thereby diversifying their revenue, branching away from Facebook.
“Promoting apps made by other developers is likely to carry fewer risks than Zynga’s main business of developing games itself. The company’s profitability has been crimped by the cost of creating new blockbuster titles,” Bloomberg reports.
The project relies on partnerships but could make millions if Zynga can control a good part of the market.
Facebook takes 30 percent of the sales of virtual goods sold in Zynga games and this most likely won’t change in the new network. “Because Facebook Credits are used by all developers selling virtual goods on the social network and games promoted by Zynga, participating developers will still pay Facebook a cut of sales,” says Bloomberg.