Apple TV, iPods, Ping Will Challenge Google, Facebook, Microsoft

Apple’s sept. 1 event saw the debut of new ipods, a revamped apple tv, and a music-centric social service, pushing the company towards greater conflict with Microsoft, Facebook and Google.

Apple’s Sept. 1 event in San Francisco saw the debut of new iPods, a revamped Apple TV, and several new services, including a social network devoted to music. Those items are virtually guaranteed to give Apple buzz heading into the holiday shopping season, but they could also bring the company into fiercer competition with some of the biggest names in tech: Facebook, Microsoft and Google.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs kicked off his presentation of the revamped iPods by saying, “This year, we’ve gone wild.” The iPod Shuffle, iPod Nano and iPod Touch all underwent substantial hardware and software upgrades, with the latter receiving an integrated HD video camera and FaceTime video-conferencing application. Previous to the event, pundits and analysts generally felt that Apple would refresh the iPod line, along with Apple TV —predictions that by and large proved correct.

Next week, the company will introduce iOS 4.1, with a number of bug fixes, followed by iOS 4.2 for iPad. The operating system updates will include a Games Center and wireless printing, two features guaranteed to clash with mobile offerings from Microsoft. Jobs spent some of his onstage time highlighting the Games Center’s focus on multiplayer, which makes the platform a contender against not only Nintendo and Sony’s portable game systems, but especially the upcoming Windows Phone 7’s “Games” Hub.

Microsoft intends that Hub, which will heavily leverage the Xbox brand, to help the smartphone platform gain traction with consumers. Given Apple’s built-in user base, though, iPads and iPhones with robust gaming capability represent a substantial threat to that initiative.

The iPad’s wireless printing also presents something of a challenge to Microsoft, which could have used a continued lack of that feature as a competitive differentiator for its own Windows 7 tablets.

More generally, Apple’s extensive refresh of its mobile line, paired with continued strong sales for both the iPhone 4 and the iPad, creates additional headwinds for Microsoft as it seeks to gain share in mobile through its own smartphones and tablets. Jobs claimed some 120 million devices running iOS, with 230,000 new iOS activations per day.

Source : eWeek

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Youtube en negociaciones para lanzar un servicio de películas por prepago

Los internautas podrían ver films en el sitio y pagar unos 5 dólares por los títulos de estreno

El sitio de Internet de Google para compartir videos, Youtube, está en negociaciones con estudios de Hollywood sobre un servicio global de películas por prepago que podría ser lanzado hacia fin de año, reportó el lunes el Financial Times.

El diario citó a personas con conocimiento de las negociaciones diciendo que el nuevo servicio posiblemente sería lanzado primero en Estados Unidos, para luego ser introducido en otros países. Google y Youtube “conversaron sobre a cuántas personas podrían atraer a esto (…) y es una cifra enorme”, citó el periódico a un ejecutivo con conocimiento de los planes del buscador.

Los internautas podrían ver películas en el sitio y pagar unos 5 dólares por los títulos de estreno, dijo el artículo del Financial Times. Las películas estarían disponibles al mismo tiempo que su estreno en DVD y en las tiendas iTunes de Apple y Amazon.com, agregó.

El diario dijo que las negociaciones han estado en marcha durante meses, aunque han sido tomadas con nueva urgencia en los últimos tiempos debido a que se espera que Apple de a conocer esta semana desarrollos para su servicio de televisión.

Fuente: La Vanguardia

Technology: Are we Human? (2)

Some very interesting developments (and vision) in how humans and technology can interact now and in the future can be seen via the work of Pranav Mistry of MIT. He offers an amazing synthesis of the potential of various technologies and trends in augmented reality, projection, touch, vision and mobility. This video of his work presented at the famous ‘TED talks’ is fascinating to watch.

You can see the full version of this post at http://blogs.salleurl.edu/feargalmac/, the new Business&Technology Blog by Feargal Mac Conuladh, Director of Technology & Business Development at laSalle.

Technology: Are we Human?

Despite the many technology advances of the past 100 years the basic way we interact with technology, the way we program, command and drive machines, has not really changed. How so? we still bang on keys, buttons and push levers. The modern PC might be a lot more advanced than (for instance) the steam engine, however the fundamental way we as humans engage with it is not so different. The question to think about is whether this is going to change? iPods, iPads and other devices are brining touch screens to the world; and that is incredible. However is it really a natural way to interact? is it a human way?

You can see the full version of this post at http://blogs.salleurl.edu/feargalmac/, the new Business&Technology Blog by Feargal Mac Conuladh, Director of Technology & Business Development at laSalle.

Lafarge Invention Awards 2010

Are you a researcher, entrepreneur, inventor, academic or member of a research team? Do you have a project involving a new product, industrial process, construction method or service, based on an invention less than 5 years old and which contributes to sustainable construction?

Lafarge is launching the Lafarge Invention Awards 2010 to reward and accompany the most inventive projects in Europe related to building materials: aggregates, cement, concrete, gypsum.

The Awards

• A prize of €20 000 for each of the 3 winners.
• Each prize winner will benefit from Lafarge support to set up an action plan to develop his/her project.

Key dates

• Submission of projects: from June 15 to October 15, 2010
• Evaluation of projects and selection of 10 finalists by jury: November 2010
• Oral presentation by finalists and selection of 3 winners: January 2011

More information at http://lafarge-inventionawards.com/index_en.html

PC gaming is ‘double the size of consoles’

PCGA report says platform is buoyant

The PC Gaming Alliance has released figures that suggest that annual shipping volumes for PC gaming were two times the combined amounts for all the major consoles last year.

With the PC perceived as being increasingly marginalised by major companies, the figures from the PCGA Horizons report serve as a timely reminder that the platform remains not only buoyant but massively profitable.

“Annual shipment volumes for the PC gaming hardware market in 2009 were over two times larger than the combined Wii, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 console units shipped in the same period,” said the PCGA report.

Trend continues

“This trend for the PC Gaming hardware market to outpace all console shipments combined is expected to continue through the forecasted period of the research,” it adds

“In addition, revenues from consumer PCs capable of gaming that shipped with a discrete GPU (excludes netbooks and integrated graphics-based PCs) totalled approximately $54.6 billion in 2009 and are forecasted to grow to $61.3 billion by 2014.”

New era

“PC gaming is the highest profile and most mature example of a new era of computing systems based on usage,” said Richard Shim, research manager at IDC covering PCs.

“These new usage-based systems are hardware configurations optimized for an improved user experience.

“Consumers are often willing to pay more for such an experience. In the case of gaming PCs, up to 25% more as compared to a mainstream system.”

Fuente: TechRadar

Las empresas podrán usar otras marcas registradas en anuncios de Google

Cambio radical de su política en Europa

Google ha actualizado su política de marcas registradas en Europa y en la Asociación Europea de Libre Comercio (AELC),y a partir del 14 de septiembrecualquier empresa podrá pujar y usar otras marcas registradas como palabras clave en sus anuncios en Google.

En un comunicado Google explica que con este cambio -adoptado tras una decisión tomada por el Tribunal de Justicia Europeo-, una empresa, por ejemplo, de distribución de televisores podrá usar una marca registrada (Sony, Samsung, etcétera), como palabra clave en la búsqueda de sus anuncios.

La marca comercial no aparecerá en el texto de anuncios de terceros pero sí servirá para que el anuncio de esa empresa aparezca cuando se busca otra marca.

Según la anterior política de Google en Europa, los propietarios de marcas podían presentar una reclamación para evitar que sus marcas se mostrasen en anuncios de terceros.

Con esta modificación, Google equipara su política en Europa con la que aplica en la mayoría de los países del mundo.

No obstante, los propietarios de marcas que consideren que un anuncio de un tercero en Europa confunde a los usuarios acerca del origen de los productos y servicios que se anuncian podrá denunciarlo ante Google. Y si el buscador considera que el anuncio pueda confundir a los usuarios lo retirará.

Google explica que la actualización en la política de materia de marcas responde al fallo dictado en marzo por el Tribunal de Justicia de la Unión Europea, según el cual Google no ha infringido la ley de marcas registradas al permitir a los anunciantes pujar por palabras clave correspondientes a marcas de terceros.

Fuente: El Mundo

Samsung patents tablet with front and rear touch input

Samsung patents dual touch input tablet

Samsung has filed for a US patent for a tablet that has a traditional touchscreen on the front but adds a touch panel on the rear of the device as well, in the same fashion as the Motorola Backflip. The idea is to let users control the device without touching the screen, and perhaps allow them to perform multi-touch inputs from the screen side and the rear side at the same time.

Unlike the Galaxy Tab that is due for release later in August, there is no word when or even if the unnamed dual-touch input tablet shown in the patent drawings will make it to production. The Galaxy Tab will be powered by Android, and if this device were to use Android, Samsung would need to customize it extensively to take advantage of the dual touch input.
Source: Electronista

Microsoft Windows XP still favourite desktop OS, a decade on

Windows 7 adoption delayed by tight budgets, says survey, as firms cling to Windows XP

Three-quarters of companies are still wedded to WindowsXP as their desktop operating system, nearly a decade after the operating system was released.

Windows XP continues to dominate the desktop, with 75 per cent of businesses using it as their operating system, six per cent using Windows 7, and six per cent using Windows Vista.

Five per cent of respondents said they used Macs and one per cent said their OS was older than XP.

The survey by IT services company Plan-Net also showed the vast majority of businesses (87 per cent) were using Exchange 2003 or earlier. Seven per cent are using Exchange 2007 and just four per cent have moved to Exchange 2010.

The main reason businesses gave for not upgrading to Windows 7 and Exchange 2003 was the budget reduction as a result of the recession.

The findings also showed that one in three companies were happy with existing systems, and saw no reason to upgrade. But 16 per cent of businesses were wary of upgrading because of experience with previous versions and were waiting for the first Windows 7 service pack, due next year.

Figures from Microsoft show that Windows 7 is already selling well – more than 100 million licences – making it the fastest-selling Windows OS in history according to Microsoft.

Source: Silicon.com

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Transcend anuncia Class 10 Ultimate de 32 GB

Las tarjetas SDHC Class 10 serie Ultimate ofrecen una capacidad de almacenamiento masiva y velocidad de transferencia mejorada de hasta 20MB/s.

Transcend anuncia la incorporación de su tarjeta SDHC Class 10 de 32GB. Las tarjetas SDHC Class 10 serie Ultimate ofrecen una capacidad de almacenamiento masiva y velocidad de transferencia mejorada de hasta 20MB/s.

Esta combinación de velocidad y capacidad ayuda a una grabación de videos 1920 x 1080p Full HD limpia y cómoda, también permite disparos consecutivos de alta velocidad, especialmente importantes en eventos deportivos o situaciones de rápido movimiento.

La nueva tarjeta SDHC de 32GB puede almacenar hasta 13104 fotografías (sobre un formato de compresión JPEG de 5 megapíxeles), unas 176 horas de video de calidad estándar (video MPEG-4 a 384 Kbps) o 960 minutos de video HD (AVCHD a 9 Mbps), abasteciendo a los entusiastas de la fotografía con espacio suficiente para sus obras de arte digitales de alta resolución.

Fuente: DiarioTi