Archives for April 2012

Microsoft goes into a strategic partnership with Barnes & Noble

April 30, 2012 by admin

Microsoft has decided to go into a strategic partnership with Barnes & Noble to combat the fierceness of the competition from the likes of Amazon and Apple. The new joint venture will concentrate on developing a Nook e-reader application for the new Windows 8 platform. Microsoft will invest $300 million in this venture and Microsoft will own 17.6% of the new company through its investment, the other 82.4% will go to Barnes & Noble.

The new Nook e-reader application could prove to be a successful competitor to Apples ios ibooks app, if Windows 8 can do well in the new table market.

Filed Under: Microsoft, Other tech news and developments

Samsung Galaxy S Advance UK release on April 30

April 28, 2012 by admin

The Samsung Galaxy S Advance is to be released in the UK on April 30 Samsung has confirmed, which is a little behind Russia which is the first place it débuts.

It will be a beefed up version of the 2010’s Galaxy S according to Samsung. The specifications are likely to be between the the Galaxy S and Galaxy S II. It is expected to feature a dual-core 1.0GHz processor, 16 gb of storage, 768MB of RAM, a curved 4-inch Super 480×800-pixel display. But the camera specs are likely to disappoint, it is to get only a 5 Megapixel Auto Focus Camera with LED Flash. The operating system is likely to disappoint too. It is only to come with Android Version 2.3 (Gingerbread) rather than Ice Cream Sandwich which is currently being rolled out to many of the high to mid end Android devices.

To sum up the device it is a mix bag on the spec side of things. But if you have an old Samsung Galaxy S it is worth the upgrade, because you will benefit from the new faster dual core 1.0GHz processor and a LED flash which the Samsung Galaxy S did not have.

Filed Under: Android

Apple’s profits almost doubles in the first quarter of 2012

April 25, 2012 by admin

Apple’s profits have almost doubled in the first quarter of 2012. Sales rose 73% to $46.3 billion from $26.7 billion for the same time a year ago according to Bloomberg. These exceptional results were mainly due to the doubling of the sales of the iphone and the ipad within the year. These results went way past the market analysts expectations and as a consequence apple’s shares jumped almost 8% in after-hours trading to $453.16. But the majority of the increase in revenue came from sales outside of the US, these sales accounted for 64% of the quarter’s revenue, which suggests that the US market is reaching saturation point. Further evidence of this comes from Verizon Wireless that has reported in recent weeks a slight dip in iPhone sales. AT&T has also experienced a dip too in sales it had activated 4.3 million iPhones in this quarter which is down by 7.6 million compared to the fourth quarter.

The sales of the mac were also good, but not as exceptional. They were up from 5.2 million in this quarter compared with 4.1 million a year ago.

Filed Under: Apple

The new windows phone made by Nokia not doing as well as expected

April 23, 2012 by admin

Mobile carriers were hoping that there would be a 3rd force in terms of competition in the telephone market. But according to a website informationweek.com Nokia’s new brands of Lumia-branded Windows Phones aren’t filling this role, as some of the mobile carriers had expected. Evidence of this comes from Nokia latest quartely report that indicates that the Lumia 800 and 710 have only sold 2 million of these devices compared to five times as many Symbian devices sold since November.

This lackluster performance is due various issue. Firstly these phones have been plagued with various software issues since they were launched, which Nokia have now fixed. Another reason for the lumias poorer performance than expected is that Microsoft and Nokia are not doing nowhere near enough in terms of marketing and promoting their Lumia-branded Windows Phones. Also the Lumia phones don’t seem to be innovative enough. One of the reasons apple have done so well over the years is because until recently they were on the cutting edge of innovation.

Nokia made a big mistake tying itself totally to Windows mobile OS, because its backing a underdog at the moment in an already over crowded mobile OS market. It remains to be seen whether Microsoft and Nokia are able to compete effectively with Android or Apple in the future only time will tell. Nokias best strategy would have been to make produce some Android phones as an insurance policy to cover every eventuality.

Filed Under: Microsoft

Iphone 5 will be released in October and will be made out of liquid metal

April 20, 2012 by admin

There are rumours floating around according to the UK newspaper the telegraph that states that the Iphone 5 is to be made out of a type of metallic looking glass metal, which is called liquid metal. Evidence comes from fact that apple has signed an exclusive deal with liquid metal technologies ltd. It is believed that apple has paid 11 million for the rights for it. The use of liquid metal will be ideal for the iphone, because it will make the iphone look thinner, lighter and sexier looking. Its likely to be more durable than plastic and it will be easier to recycle too.

There is another rumour that indicates that the iphone 5 could be released in October rather than June. The evidence to back this claim up comes from Qualcomm, which makes some of the chips that go in the iphone. It seems that they do not have the production capacity to meet the production demands that are required for the June deadline.

Filed Under: Iphone XS and G8 news Tagged With: chip, date, glass, iphone 5, liquid, maker, metal, metallic, October, Qualcomm, release

Sprint is to quickly roll out 4g on time for the iPhone 5 release

April 19, 2012 by admin

There are various rumours flying around that suggests that the cell phone carrier Sprint, which is the 3rd biggest network in the USA is quickly rolling out its 4g network to the US biggest population areas in time for the release of the iphone 5. Some of these area include areas such as Tennessee, Illinois and New York. All this seems to indicate that this could mean a June release of the iphone 5. Sprint will have likely to have finished the roll out of 4g by 2013 according to various reports such as the iphone 5 news blog.

Filed Under: Iphone XS and G8 news

Encyclopaedia Britannica is coming to ios

April 19, 2012 by admin

The Encyclopaedia Britanica is to launch a subscription service on ios according to digitalspy. The app will cost around £1.99 or around 2.50 dollars per month.

If subscribers do not pay for the app, there is a free one available, but this free app will only offer a limited amount of data.

There is no doubt it will probably be ported to Android within a few months after it gets released on ios, because Android has a large user base.

Filed Under: Apps

Samsung Galaxy S3 could be a minor upgrade

April 17, 2012 by admin

A source from an insider in the UK telecoms industry suggests that the Samsung Galaxy S3 could be a minor upgrade, just like the iphone 4s was from its previous model. In my opinion if it does not get 1gb of ram and a 1.5ghz quad-core processor, then the upgrade will not be good enough to fight off the competition from newly released phones such as the HTC One X and from the soon to be released iphone 5, which is rumoured to have some of those specifications.

We don’t have long to wait until we find out if the Samsung Galaxy S3 is going to be a worthy upgrade or not, because rumours suggest that it is likely to be launched on May the 3rd at a London press event.

Filed Under: Android

Apple working to introduce 3D technology on new devices

April 17, 2012 by admin

Evidence has come to light that suggests that Apple is working on 3D technology for its devices, evidence comes from Apples own career website that states that Apple is advertising a position for a iOS Software Engineer with work experience in “multi-view stereo and 3D reconstruction” and “cameras and surfaces in a 3D environment”.

Apple needs to develop this technology and other technology’s such as 4g, near filed communication, because it is being left behind by the competition. Apple cannot afford to make the same mistakes as Nokia did a few years ago.