Adobe Upgrades Flash, Aiming to Prove Jobs Wrong

Adobe prepares update for its flagship product, Flash. The new version, Flash 10.1, supports touch screens and is especially aimed to improve performance on mobile devices. The company says that it runs videos more smoothly, uses less battery, thus extends battery life and takes advantage of faster mobile processors. As company has earlier announced, 19 of 20 largest handsets producers plan to offer Flash on their devices. Google's operating system, Android, is used by about dozen smartphone manufacturers, and Flash will be available on Android devices by December.
There is a bad side of this: Flash videos won't run the same way on all handsets. Much depends on mobile processors and graphic chips. Slower chips will result in larger battery consumption.
Apple's ban on Flash causes huge issues, for example for advertising companies, because most of ads are made in Flash and they just don't run on iPhone, iPod or new tablet, iPad. I think that consumers will decide whose strategy is better. Will Apple's stubbornness and consistency in maintaining its devices without Flash for better performance prove better? Or maybe other companies like Google will success with their openness for new untested technologies. 

Source: Businessweek
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Smartphones Drive Handset Sales

Cell phone and particularly smartphone industry is booming and growing very fast - reports Gartner research group. Global sales of mobile phones in first quarter of 2010 went up by 17%. The report says that sales reached 314.7 million handsets and were notably driven by sales of white-box phones (cheap, unbranded devices) in India. New prediction expects sales to rise around 14%. Smartphones had a big part in the overall sales accounting for 17.3% compares to 13.6% last year. Smartphones has also achieved a large rise of 49% (54 million handsets sold worldwide), which is the greatest annual increase since 2006.
The best results had RIM, Apple, and Google at the expense of Nokia. Nokia, the world's largest producer, has maintained its fist place, but lost market share, falling from 36.2% to 35%. While company's middle class phones sold well, Nokia evidently lacks a good high-end phone. Research in Motion, the BlackBerry producer, placed itself in the top five vendors worldwide thanks to good smartphone sales with global market of 3.4%. Apple also did a good job reaching seventh place due to iPhone sales, which have more than doubled. Google again has proved its great strategy and noted fourth place on the global market with an enormous increase from 1.6% to 9.6%.
I think that this report shows that my thesis about the market and smartphones becoming very popular is correct and we will see even better results soon. The video above also proves some of mine statements, for example one concerning AT&T network.

Source: The Wall Street Journal, MarketWatch, BBC, Reuters
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Garmin-Asus Garminfone

The connection between a smartphone and a personal navigation device is becoming better and stronger with new device from Garmin and Asus, called Garmifone. The author of the article says that is the best mix of navigation and smartphone ever created. I partly agree with him, because the device is really nice looking and has almost all features of an ordinary smartphone, but it is mostly aimed for navigation. We can see Garmin's (well-known producer of PNDs) influence at a first glance. Although the device is runing on Android, the home screen is different from all Android based phones, because it has three big icons, and two of them are connected with navigation, while one is just for calling. There is also a bar with favorites that can be extended to regular menu by sliding a finger. The phone is equipped with 3 megapixel camera, which offers descent quality pictures.
I think that this smartphone is made for people who travel a lot and either like or have to use navigation frequently. The phone isn't perfect, but it is a step forward in connecting a PND and a smartphone.

Source: Engadget
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Verizon to offer 'up to' five LTE handsets by next May, Android tablets from HTC and friends

I found another news connected with carriers upgrading their networks, but this time Verizon. Verizon plans to launch up to 5 mobile phones compatible with LTE, which is high speed network, considered 4G (4th generation network) by May 2011, which exactly a year from now. It means that the company may release from zero to five phones, because everything depends on phones producers like Motorola, HTC or RIM.
The company is also planning on releasing more than tablet. We have already heard about Verizon supposedly working with Google on Android based tablet. Furthermore, Verizon plans to release tablets from companies like Samsung, LG and Motorola.

I don't think that those devices can compete with iPad, but healthy rivalry is always a good thing. Verizon is also trying to compete with other wireless carriers by their plan to upgrade network to LTE, which is what AT&T is going.

Source: Engadget, Reuters
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AT&T to cover about 250M people with HSPA+ by year's end

While smartphones producers fight over shares in the market and develop their products, wireless carriers aren't sleeping and are adjusting to rising demand for data transfers. AT&T, one of the biggest carriers in the U.S. plans to provide HSPA+, high speed wireless network to 250 million people in the U.S. by the end of 2010. HSPA+ allows transfers between 7.2 and 14.4 Mbps (megabits per second). AT&T decided to take this step before upgrading its network to LTE, which is very high speed network, which is close to 4G.

AT&T has strong competition, because other giants like Verizon or Sprint are upgrading their networks as well. The most important thing is that users hopefully will benefit and that network won't be as overloaded as it used to be.

Source: Engadget
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Adobe targets Apple in ad campaign launched today, publishes open letter from founders

Adobe has launched a campaign to change Apple's mind about Flash. The campaign includes advertisements like the one above, a website promoting the idea with facts about the Web ("truth about Flash"), and an open letter from Adobe's co-founders. The letter doesn't say anything about Apple or Steve Jobs, but it is obviously aimed at the iPhone producer. The campaign is a response to Jobs' criticisms on Flash and the company's refusal to use Flash on its devices. The letter discusses the open market and the freedom of choice for users:
We believe that consumers should be able to freely access their favorite content and applications, regardless of what computer they have, what browser they like, or what device suits their needs. No company - no matter how big or how creative - should dictate what you can create, how you create it, or what you can experience on the web.
When markets are open, anyone with a great idea has a chance to drive innovation and find new customers. Adobe's business philosophy is based on a premise that, in an open market, the best products will win in the end - and the best way to compete is to create the best technology and innovate faster than your competitors.
We believe that Apple, by taking the opposite approach, has taken a step that could undermine this next chapter of the web - the chapter in which mobile devices outnumber computers, any individual can be a publisher, and content is accessed anywhere and at any time.
In the end, we believe the question is really this: Who controls the World Wide Web? And we believe the answer is: nobody - and everybody, but certainly not a single company.

It is a interesting move from Adobe, but in my opinion it unluckily it won't be successful, because Apple is unlikely to change its mind so easily. Apple probably new all these facts before and knowingly just ignored them. The company is sure that other technologies like HTML 5 will help in the future, but they don't have solution for the present situation. On the other hand, what this campaign is trying to achieve is to turn people against Apple and rise more complains on Jobs' company from users. The results will be visible soon.

Source: CNET, Engadget, Adobe
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The GM Android Car: Coming Soon?

Google is talking with General Motors about connecting Android smartphones and GM's OnStar car service. Although both Google and GM decline to comment, the connection would truly beneficial for both sides. Ford and Microsoft has already created something similar, called MyFord, but it is a little less developed than the planned Android system. Android would allow to control a car to a larger extent, for example it would let user start up or stop engine, unlock the doors and adjust other in-vehicle settings. The OnStar navigation system would also benefit, because the current one shows only turn-by-turn direction and Android could use its own GPS maps. 

It sounds really impressive and would be profitable for both companies, and what's more important for users as well. It would increase safety on roads, because as it is in MyFord the user will be probably able to control the phone by voice, and the car would for instance read text messages. Unluckily, the confirmation from either companies will come not sooner than 2011.

Source: Motor Trend, PC World
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Verizon and Google Developing iPad Rival

Verizon, the biggest carrier in the USA by subscribers, is working with Google on a tablet computer. Verizon's CEO said that the company wants to compete with AT&T, which is the carrier for Apple's iPad and Amazon's e-reader, Kindle. Google declined to comment on this announcement, it just said that anyone can use companies software in order to produce phones and other mobile devices. Verizon mentioned that the tablet will be possible available next year, when the company installs its faster network. We know one thing that Verizon and Google have been working together on smartphones, so their further cooperation may result in creation of a tablet. Both companies have rivals to compete with and that is Apple and AT&T.

But what does this mean for customer? It means alternative for the iPad, especially for people who don't like Apple. It will probably have new features, not seen on other tablet, so it enriches the offer on the fast growing tablet market.

Source: The Wall Street Journal
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NPD: Android ousts iPhone OS for second place in US smartphone market

First results of Google's strong promotion, good strategy and effective carrier distribution has just appeared. Google is second on the smartphone market in the United States. It is placed behind the strong leader, RIM, but it has moved ahead of Apple for the first time. According to NPD, a market research company, RIM maintained its domination on the market in Q1 2010 with 36 percent, and that's partly because of the BlackBerry 6 announcement. Android, thanks to all these things that I wrote about, like Flash, new innovative smartphones has jumped ahead of Apple reaching 28 percent. iPhone OS is on third place with 21 percent.

NPD has also presented that there was overall drop in mobile phones sold, and therefore the price of devices has gone up. However it doesn't apply to smartphones, because their price has an average of $151 and has noted a 3 percent decrease over the past year. This proves my thesis that smartphones are becoming cheaper and more accessible for masses.

Source: Engadget
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ARM Powered Android LEGO Rubik's Speedcuber

I found again an interesting piece of information concerning mobile processors. It is commonly known that solving Rubik's cube isn't very easy and takes usually a lot of time. Of course there people who can solve it in minutes, but computers are even faster. The video above shows a Lego set made from Lego Mindstorm NXT pieces powered by Motorola Droid, running on ARM Cortex A8 processor (550 MHz) and Google Android operating system. The machine solves the cube in amazing 24 seconds.

The video presents the power of ARM processors and Android OS. I think that it could possibly used as promotional material by both companies. I know that it is not connected with my topic to some extent, but ARM which provides chips for smartphones is an actual leader on the market, so it has to promote its products, because other companies like Intel are interested in this market. It indirectly shows increasing competition on the market.
UPDATE: Seems like video has been deleted so I'm putting up a picture.

Source: Engadget
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Intel Updates Its Atom Microprocessor

Intel announced yesterday a new Atom processor series called Z6xx. So what's new about? Atom processors has been traditionally made for netbooks, but now the new version will be also used on smartphones and tablets. Microprocessors for mobile devices has been made mostly by ARM, producer of popular and powerful Snapdragon chip. The Atom Z6xx is based on a new platform called Moorestown, which as Intel claims is much more powerful and energy-efficient. The company says that they have boosted performance while lowering power consumption. It resulted in up to 50-fold consumption reduction in the standby mode. The calculating speed has been boosted to 1.5 GHz on smartphones and up to 1.9 GHz on tablets. The Z6xx microprocessors will bring 3D graphics and what's shocking, possibility for playing 1080p HD videos.

It sounds impressive, but the information that Intel provided might not be completely true, because it hasn't been actually tested on portable devices. Of course the new processor brings variety to the market and we'll see if it will be able to compete with ARM, Apple or Nvidia.

Source: The Wall Street Journal

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Survey says: most teens don't have a data plan, almost all send texts

Survey made by Pew Internet Research group shows that new Microsoft Kin phones may fail. Kin phones that are made particularly for teenagers who love social networking will be available online tomorrow and in Verizon stores on May 13. According to the survey only 23 percent of American teenagers form 12 to 17 use social networks on their phones, while 72 percent of them uses their cellphones for texting. Microsoft may think that it is a great idea, but as we see from the survey, Kin phones probably won't find much popularity and many users. Especially that the data plan costs $30 per month and obviously not every parent is willing to pay price that high. Another thing that might not be appealing in Kin phones is that, games are not supported on these devices, and as the survey has shown 46 percent of teenagers uses phones for playing games. The survey shows also other interesting information presented on nice graphs. I think that Microsoft should have looked at the survey before releasing phones. On the other hand who knows, maybe Kin phones will fill the niche in the market and gain popularity.

Source: Engadget

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Shakira's 'Waka Waka' official song for World Cup

"Waka Waka - This is time for Africa" performed by Shakira has been chosen an official theme song for the soccer World Cup 2010 in South Africa. I listened to the song on YouTube and I can't say I liked it, because I'm not a fan of this type of music, but I overall I don't think it was very bad.
Song triggered off some protest. Local musician are offended that some Colombian singer is performing this song, instead of an African artist. I think that the are partly right, because they are hosting the World Cup and would like to present their original culture.
I couldn't find any information confirming that "waka waka" means something bad in one of African languages. But if this is true, it is obviously an inappropriate title for the song.

Source: City Press
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The H.264 Encoding Boom

Steve Jobs announced last month that Apple doesn't need Adobe Flash on its mobile devices and that the company has substitutions to Flash videos. He basically meant HTML 5 videos with H.264 codec. H.264 is a more modern format and that is why it is supported on Apple devices. Jobs believes that this the future of Web videos, and we have sufficient grounds for thinking so too. Based on Encoding.com data that is presented on the graph above H.264 is becoming more and more popular format. Encoding.com is a company that encoded over 5 million videos over the past year for many websites like Nokia or MTV. The company believes that the graph represents Web in general and they are right. 40 percent of all videos on the Web are YouTube videos that are available in H.264 format.

It's good that Apple is looking to the future, but I think they should concentrate a little bit on the present situation.Right now 70 percent of Web content is Flash based, and Apple doesn't have solution, so there are many complains. On the other hand, maybe it is not worth to come up with something for now, because the technology is developing so fast that we will see HTML 5 in very near future. 

Source: TechCrunch
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Microsoft Cancels Innovative Courier Tablet Project

Microsoft has cancelled a tablet project called Courier. The project was almost completed and it was in its late prototype version. Courier is rather a booklet than a tablet, because it has two 7 inch (or so) screens that with the iPhone like home button between them and it can be closed like a book. The prototype is very innovative and compelling, because it can be controlled by both fingers  and pen. Multi-touch screens support flicking, drawing, writing, and multi-touch gestures.

It's a pity that the project is being cancelled, because it is really innovative and would be  appealing for customers. It would also be a great rival for Apple's iPad, but maybe that's also the reason why it is not supported any more. Microsoft probably thought that iPad's launch was too strong and that the tablet market will become to crowded soon.

Source: GIZMODO, MobileBeat