Posts Tagged ‘Technology’

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Mobile phone users hungry for accessing online including Facebook

Friday, April 30th, 2010

ALMOST a third of mobile owners regularly access the internet on their phone.

Searching for information on the web is the most popular activity for the new generation of tech-savvy phone owners, research into the mobile phone habits of Australians has revealed.

More than three-quarters of people with internet connected phones use them to hunt for information online while on the move – up from just 30 per cent a year ago.

Popular online activities for mobile phone users include:

CHECKING news and weather (59 per cent).

EMAIL (58 per cent).

MAPS or directions (56 per cent).

SOCIAL networking (39 per cent).

Facebook is by far the most popular social networking site accessed via the mobile Web, snaring 98 per cent of visitors, followed by Twitter and MySpace.

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The Nielsen internet and technology report shows new activities, such as buying items online, jumped 10 per cent to 17 per cent.

The previously popular pastime of downloading ringtones dropped 9 per cent to 21 per cent.

The survey comes as new social networking-oriented phones hit the market. They boast iPhone-style touch screens, Qwerty keyboards and the ability to snap and instantly upload photos to sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

Samsung spokesman Tyler McGee said manufacturers were responding to the demands of consumers.

“Research shows that three out of five Australians under the age of 35 who access the internet claim to use social networking on their mobile phones,” he said.

Samsung has just released four internet-friendly phone models.

The survey said Nokia still leads the internet-capable mobile phone pack, controlling more than 35 per cent of the market. Apple’s iPhone has more than doubled its share to 28 per cent and is growing quickly.

About 13 per cent of Australians who have not yet used their mobile to go online plan to do so over the next 12 months.

“We’ve seen a big shift in the levels of activity among those who are using mobile internet,” Nielsen online spokesman Matt Bruce said.

Resource:

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/national/mobile-phone-users-hungry-for-accessing-online-including-facebook/story-e6frf7l6-1225860323408

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Posted in New Technology | 1 Comment »

Fusion Garage launches JooJoo web tablet in UK

Thursday, April 29th, 2010

Fusion Garage has begun taking orders for its JooJoo internet tablet from UK customers, the company announced on Wednesday.

The Linux-based tablet has a 12.1-inch screen, making it slightly larger than Apple’s rival device, the iPad, which will only go on sale in the UK at the end of May. The JooJoo has a resolution of 1,366×768 pixels and uses an Intel Atom processor with Nvidia Ion graphics processing. It has a 4GB solid-state drive and 1GB of RAM.

Like the iPad, the JooJoo has an onscreen virtual keyboard. Unlike the Apple slate, it runs Flash content and has a USB connection and a webcam.

The JooJoo has a nine-second boot-up time and a browser-based operating system. On Fusion Garage’s website, the company addresses the issue of an application store — the distribution method favoured by Apple for its iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad — by saying JooJoo “has the largest app store in the world… it’s called the internet”.

The JooJoo began its life as the CrunchPad, a collaboration between Fusion Garage and Michael Arrington, the entrepreneur behind the TechCrunch website. Arrington launched a lawsuit against Fusion Garage in December last year, after the company decided to release the device without his input.

The device is now shipping to US customers, after an initial delay. In a blog post on Monday, Fusion Garage chief Chandrasekar Rathakrishnan said the company had been overly optimistic in its delivery date estimates. He also conceded that the JooJoo’s software had needed major revisions since the first review samples were sent out to a generally tepid reception.

“We are in the midst of ‘bad JooJoo’ for a very simple reason: we were aggressive in our product delivery commitments, decided to completely revise our UI as we were readying the product for release, and our initial units shipped with software that proved to be problematic when put to the test in the real world,” Rathakrishnan wrote. “Embarrassing? Yes. Correctable? Absolutely. And we will.

“We will have a robust software update available shortly that we fully expect to eliminate many of the problems that were widely reported in our initial product review cycle. We will also be able to play full-screen HD video as promised via our Fusion Garage player,” he added.

According to Fusion Garage, the JooJoo receives over-the-air software updates to add new functionality as it is developed.

UK customers can order the JooJoo through the Fusion Garage website at a cost of £319 plus tax and shipping. An optional stand for the device is available for £30 plus tax and shipping.

Resource:

http://www.zdnet.co.uk/news/mobile-devices/2010/04/28/fusion-garage-launches-joojoo-web-tablet-in-uk-40088789/

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Posted in iPad/iPod | No Comments »

Google growls at Groggle

Thursday, April 29th, 2010

It appears that earlier this month, Google presented the owners of soon-to-be-launched Australian liquor price comparison website, Groggle.com.au, with a cease and desist letter demanding it stop using the Groggle brand.

It appears that earlier this month, Google presented the owners of soon-to-be-launched Australian liquor price comparison website, Groggle.com.au, with a cease and desist letter demanding it stop using the Groggle brand.

According to the letter, sighted by Delimiter, Google is alleging that “The mark is is substantially identical with and deceptively familiar to the Google trademarks which are extremely well known in Australia.” The search giant is represented by law firm Middletons.

Groggle Pty Ltd is a startup based in Brisbane founded by Cameron Collie and Alec Doughty and is planning to offer a location-driven alcohol price comparison service online. Currently in beta, the Groggle project is over two years in the making and the founders had hoped to launch in a few months, with a look at launching a similar website in the US within the year.

Google’s letter alleged the Groggle name was “likely to mislead and deceive consumers into believing that Groggle has a sponsorship, affiliation or approval with Google, when this is not the case”.

Collie said in response to the C&D letter: “We are a legitimate business that is just trying to launch a startup and now we are facing the wrath of Google’s lawyers because Google thinks it owns any word that ends in ‘gle’ and cannot see that our domain is a play on the word ‘Grog’ and has nothing to do with their name.”

Collie also mention that the URL “Groggle.com” is not a typo of Google.com and could not be considered for typo-squatting, a practise of URL hijacking when surfers type an Internet address in the address bar and are then taken to another website not of their choosing.

The directors of Groggle Pty Ltd had until the 14th April to meet Google’s demands as stated in the C&D, including withdrawal of the trademark application and transfer of all domain names to Google. Groggle Pty Ltd has eight different variations of Groggle domains registered.

The C&D is riddled with mistakes and refers to “Groggle” as “Groogle”, such as “change its company name to a name that does not include the word “GROOGLE” or “GOOGLE” and provide a written acknowledgement that Groogle has infringed upon the Google trademarks.

A follow up letter was sent to Groggle Pty Ltd on the 20th April notifying Collie and Doughty that they have until 4pm on Thursday 29 April to comply with the C&D.

The way the website operates is when consumers search for their poison of choice, for example “Boag’s Classic Blonde” on the Groggle site and enter their postcode. The results displays the retailer with the cheapest price for the product, within the consumers district.

Retailers have to register with the website in order to be included in the results, they can then update prices and products as needed.

Collie and Doughty had registered Groggle.com using Google Apps Premier Edition and paid Google the annual fee of $50 per user account, totalling $100 for 2 user accounts.

Google didn’t have a response at the time of writing this article.

Resource:

http://www.itwire.com/it-industry-news/strategy/38635-google-growls-at-groggle

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Posted in New Technology | 9 Comments »

Microsoft Says Google’s Android May Infringe Patents (Correct)

Thursday, April 29th, 2010

April 28 (Bloomberg) — Microsoft Corp., the world’s biggest software maker, is demanding patent royalties from mobile-phone makers that use Google Inc.’s Android operating system.

HTC Corp., which makes Google’s Nexus One mobile phone, has agreed to pay under a patent licensing agreement, Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft said in a statement today without disclosing the amount. Motorola Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. also make mobile devices that use Android.

Microsoft has been talking “with several device manufacturers to address our concerns relative to the Android mobile platform,” Horacio Gutierrez, the company’s deputy general counsel for intellectual property and licensing, said in an e-mailed statement without naming the companies involved.

Google, owner of the world’s most popular search engine, offers Android for free to handset companies, and seeks to make money instead from selling advertising tied to Android users’ searches and application uses. Microsoft’s demands expand the legal issues around Android and raise the possibility of more companies seeking royalties, said Michael Gartenberg, a partner at research firm Altimeter Group.

“The message is so not subtle — Android is not free and not only is not free, it can start being quite expensive over time,” Gartenberg said. “The irony of the fact is that for every HTC Android phone that ships, Microsoft will get a check.”

Dealing With Microsoft

Rob Enderle, principal analyst for the Enderle Group in San Jose, California, estimates that HTC and most other handset manufacturers would have to pay Microsoft $20 to $40 per phone to license the intellectual property required for Android.

Unless Google somehow figures out how to ax this cost, “Android is going to fall off as an expensive and risky platform,” he said. “Nobody wants to deal with Microsoft.”

Apple Inc. already has a patent-infringement complaint pending against HTC over phones that run on Android. Research In Motion Ltd., Nokia Oyj and Palm Inc. are among the device makers that might claim to have patent rights to Android, Gartenberg said.

HTC, based in Taoyuan, Taiwan, also makes phones that run on Microsoft’s Windows Mobile operating system.

Anthony House, a spokesman for Mountain View, California- based Google, said the company isn’t ready to comment on the matter.

Apple Case

Apple, maker of the iPhone, is seeking to block U.S. imports of HTC phones that run on Android. That case is pending before the U.S. International Trade Commission in Washington.

In a March 15 blog posting, Gutierrez said the Apple case is proof that the mobile phone industry “is in the process of sorting out what royalties will be” for the software that adds the features such as Internet access and downloading capabilities.

He said Microsoft has “consistently taken a proactive approach to licensing.” The company, which is typically defending itself against four dozen patent-infringement suits at any given time, isn’t known for filing lawsuits over its own patents. Since 2007, the company has filed two patent lawsuits against companies that didn’t sue it first, according to Bloomberg data.

Resource:

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-04-29/microsoft-says-google-s-android-may-infringe-patents-correct-.html

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Posted in Android Development | No Comments »

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