Apple Announces iOS 7: the 'biggest change'

Apple has officially taken the wraps off of iOS 7 at its WorldwideDeveloper Conference today. iOS 7 is the latest version of Apple'smobile operating system that debuted back in 2007 on the original iPhone.

 According to Apple CEO Tim Cook, iOS 7 is the biggest change to the platform since the iPhone was introduced five years ago. The new design is evident in everything from sharper, flatter icons, slimmer fonts, a new slide-to-unlock function, and a new controlpanel that slides up from the bottom of the screen for frequently accessed settings.

 The stock apps have all been redesigned, including a major revamp of the weather app with new animations that are scarily reminiscent of Yahoo's great-looking Weather app graphics.

Apple's head of design Jony Ive notes that the new icons feature a new palette of colors — gone are the bold, primary colors of old, replaced by modern shades and tones. Flat design is very prominent in iOS 7 ,everything from the buttons to the switches to the chrome surrounding apps has been modernized and flattened. 

Apple says that the new design makes your phone "appear bigger" because each app makes better use of the screen real-estate available to it. The calendar, phone, messages, 

Game Center, and others have all lost their skeuomorphic designs and now feature clean, flat layouts. The signal bars in the upper left corner of the phone have also been replaced with a series of dots.

Source: theverge

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Apple (AAPL) Profit Beats Forecast

AppleInc. [NASDAQ: AAPL] reported better than expected earnings for the second quarter, but hinted at the sum of all fears on Wall Street as it revealed disappointing guidance for the next quarter.

The company's earnings release after the financial markets closed on Tuesday announced an increase in a stock buyback program to $60 billion from $10 billion. Apple increased its dividend by 15 percent to $3.05 a share.

Apple announced revenue of $43.6 billion in the second quarter, higher than the $42 billion expected on sales of 37.4 million iPhones and 19.5 million iPads. But it said that sales for the coming quarter will be $33.5 billion to $35.5 billion, below the $38.25 billion Wall Street was forecasting.

The stock was up about 5 percent in after-hours trading to about $426.

"I think it really comes down to the stock buyback and dividend overruling the earnings," said JJ Kinahan, chief derivatives strategist of TDAmeritrade. "The earnings were good, not great. But the fact that they announced an expanded stock buyback program and increased dividend per share per quarter sent the stock price up."

The company's stock had taken a beating in recent weeks, falling more than 13 percent since the last earnings report in January. It's down 40 percent from its peak last fall amid reports that the tech giant is losing its mojo and has new no exciting products like the iPad or iPhone to offer. Still, Apple is one of the most profitable companies in the U.S., earning $13 billion in the quarter ended in December.

The company reported profit fell 18 percent to $9.55 billion in the last quarter.

"Expectations are so low, they actually had a chance to beat the street," said Kinahan.

BrianColello, Morningstar senior equity analyst, said he was looking for three aspects of the earnings report on Tuesday.

The first, of course, is the tech company's revenue and sales figures for the first three months of the year. This report is the first time that Apple has given a range for its revenue forecast, instead of a conservative forecast.

"There wasn't a big expectation for upside or a massive earnings beat," Colello said.

The second item Colello is its outlook for the next quarter. However, because Apple does not reveal the timing of its new product releases, an earnings outlook would be a wildcard.

"If it's an especially weak outlook, certainly it would be bad, but if a new iPhone were to come out in July, it would be more palatable," Colello said.

He expected June's forecast to be worse than March, especially for the iPhone, because many customers will be holding off for a possible new model.

However, Colello expects continued sales of the iPad ahead for students and educators ahead of the back-to-school shopping season.

Colello expected around 36 to 37 million iPhone sales in the last quarter and 17 to 18 million iPads.

Apple announced that it sold 37.4 million iPhones compared to 35.1 million a year ago. The firm sold 19.5 million iPads in the quarter, up from 11.8 million a year ago.

The last announcement that many investors expected Apple to make was a dividend of stock buyback to use its pile of cash, which was reported to grow as large as $170 billion by the end of the year.

Peter Oppenheimer, Apple's CFO, announced that its ending cash balance is $145 billion for the quarter.

The company also announced gross margin of between 36 and 37 percent.

Kinahan said Wall Street analysts had hoped for gross margin of about 40 percent.

Source: abcnews

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Why Should Still Consider the Galaxy S3 over the Galaxy S4

The Samsung Galaxy S4 launched but savvy wireless customers looking for a bargain may still want to consider Galaxy S3. Some costumer asking about the newly upgraded flagship Samsung smartphone is worth the hype.

The device has improvement over it's processor but the upgraded specs and added bells and whistles might might not mean as much to the average consumer, who will be likely be just as happy with last year's model which costs less money.

GalaxyS4 is a terrific phone and it is a decent upgrade to the Galaxy S3 but Samsung has not revolutionized the smartphone with this new device. In fact, Galaxy S4 is very similar to the Galaxy S3. Samsung has used the same sturdy plastic for the that it used in the S3 . The home screen button and other buttons are in the same place on the S4 as they are on the S3. There are some hardware differences between the two devices even they're look the same, The S4 is actually a tad lighter and Thinner that S3. And the guts of the phone are different as well.

Some of these new software features include a TV control app, a built-intranslation tool, and an app that tracks your eye movement so that you can control the device. One example of how you'd use this is that you can pause a video simply by looking away from the screen. There are also some gesture capabilities and a hover feature that lets you wave your finger over something on the screen to preview an item.

Source: cnet

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What to Expect in Samasung's Galaxy S4

Last Thursday evening in New York ,the Samsung Electronics Co. is hosting a media event at Radio City Music Hall where it is expected to lift the wraps on this year iteration of the Galaxy S smartphone – the Galaxy S4.

The Korean electronics giant has said little ahead of time about what it plans to do with its best-selling line of smartphones that has helped catapult it to the number one slot for global market share in the fast-growing business — and making the company into the arch-rival of Apple Inc.

A Chinese gadget blog called IT 168 has run what is purported to be leaked images of the new Galaxy S4, confirming what have been some common expectations that have emerged about the new device. Those include:

• 5-inch high-def screen: Big screens have become the rage in the high-end smartphone business, with most Android-based devices eclipsing the 4-inch diagonal screen size of Apple’s iPhone 5. The previous Galaxy had a 4.8-inch screen, and most are expecting Samsung to use its strength in display manufacturing to go even bigger with the new model, sporting a high-definition 1080p resolution.

• Eye-tracking: Finger scrolling is the common method of navigation on smartphones, but the Galaxy S4 is believed by some to be incorporating a new type of user interface that would scroll content based on the movement of the user’s eyes. Other uses would include pausing a video when the user looks away from the screen.

• Eight-core chip: Difficult to verify, as the few reported leaks do not include tear-downs of the device, but Samsung already unveiled an eight-core Exynos chip at the Consumer Electronics Show back in January, and many believe it will be included in the new smartphone – though some reports say the U.S. version will actually make use of a quad-core Snapdragon chipset from Qualcomm.

• Launch date and price: Samsung unveiled the Galaxy S3 at a launch event in London on May 3 of last year, and the device saw its initial launch later than month (though didn’t come to the U.S. until late June). The timing of tonight’s event suggests that a launch of the S4 could come before the end of April, and a U.S. launch may get priority, given the event’s location.

The event gets underway at 7pm ET. Check back at MarketWatch for live stream coverage of the event.

– Dan Gallagher

Source: marketwatch

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HTC One faces shipment delays

The handset vendor said today it is pushing back the phone's arrival of preorders in certain markets to the end of the month, with a formalrollout to other markets in April, according to a company representative. HTC told CNET last week that Singapore wouldn't get the One until April.

HTC previously targeted the phone to launch globally this month.

It's another setback for a company that could ill afford another hiccup.HTC has struggled to turn around its flagging profit and sales, and had its hopes pegged to the One to reverse its fortunes.

No reason has been given for the delay, but it could potentially be the complicated process of manufacturing the all-metal frame around the phone. The company told CNET last month that each body takes roughly200minutes to cut and process the front and rear parts of each unit.

HTC is also running into a bad bit of timing, with Samsung Electronics scheduled to show off its GalaxyS4 at an event in New York on Thursday.

Source: cnet

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Samsung’s New Smartphone Will Track Eyes to Scroll Pages

Samsung’s next big smartphone, to be introduced this month, will have a strong focus on software. A person who has tried the phone, called the Galaxy S IV, described one feature as particularly new and exciting: Eye scrolling.

The phone will track a user’s eyes to determine where to scroll, said a Samsung employee who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the news media. For example, when users read articles and their eyes reach the bottom of the page, the software will automatically scroll down to reveal the next paragraphs of text.

The source would not explain what technology was being used to track eye movements, nor did he say whether the feature would be demonstrated at the Galaxy S IV press conference, which will be held in New York on March 14. The Samsung employee said that over all, the software features of the new phone outweighed the importance of the hardware.

Indeed, Samsung in January filed for a trademark in Europe for the name “EyeScroll” (No. 011510674). It filed for the “Samsung Eye Scroll” trademark in the United States in February, where it described the service as “Computer application software having a feature of sensing eye movements and scrolling displays of mobile devices, namely, mobile phones, smartphones and tablet computers according to eye movements; digital cameras; mobile telephones; smartphones; tablet computers.”

Samsung has also filed for the trademark “Eye Pause,” without describing what the feature does.

In an interview, Kevin Packingham, Samsung’s chief product officer, declined to share details about Samsung’s next phone. But he said he disagreed that the new hardware would be insignificant compared with the software, and over all, “It’s an amazing phone.”

Eye tracking systems have been in development for a while. Samsung’s current flagship phone, the Galaxy S III, already has a feature that watches you. The feature, Smart Stay, uses its front-facing camera to know to keep the screen lit up when a person is looking at it instead of dimming it automatically.

Tobii, a technology company that received $21 million in funding from Intel last year, has been working on a technique that uses infrared sensors to track precise eye movements.

Samsung’s Galaxy S III has been the company’s best-selling phone, so the release of its next flagship phone has been highly anticipated.

Source: nytimes


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Spanish ATM gives out free money to people willing to share it

In Spain, an ATM machine dispensesfree cash to people willing to share it with others.

"ElCajero de la felicidad," or "The ATM of Happiness," is part of Coca-Cola's "Share Happiness" campaign.

Gizmodo's Jesus Diaz offered a little background information on the significance of free money in his home country:

"You probably have heard that it's suffering a terrible recession. The situation is terrible: six million people without a job, corrupt politicians everywhere, gangster banks repossessing homes after receiving bailouts funded by taxpayers, and inept bureaucrats running every institution of the country. People are fed up, disgusted and poor. But there's hope, as this video shows."

"Get 100 euros ($131). Without card," a sign above the machine, which has been placed in different Spanish cities,reads.

The only condition for the free cash? The receiver must share their mini-jackpot with others.

After the individual agreed to share the money, the ATM offered several options, like "hire an storyteller for the kids in your neighbourhood" or "buy diapers for a pregnant woman."

Once the person agreed to a good deed, the money was theirs.

"The Happiness ATM was part of the company’s ongoing 'Share Happiness' campaign; participants who agreed to share were given ideas on how to share it through the ATM interface — instead of options to withdraw or deposit money, the participants saw sharing options. Coca-Cola states that they don’t know what everyone did with the money, but the experiences people shared with the company show that the participants took the challenge to heart," Emma Hutchings wrote for PSFK.

As the video shows, many people did follow through with their promise to share. Recipients of the cash submitted videos of themselves spreading happiness with their ATM withdrawal.

Source: yahoo.com

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TED 2013: Space Top 3D see-through computer revealed

TED fellow Jinha Lee has been working on the SpaceTop 3D desktop in collaboration with Microsoft.

Allowing people to interact with machines in the same way they do with solid objects could make computing much more intuitive, he told the BBC.

He can see the system coming into general use within a decade.

The system consists of a transparent LED display with built-in cameras, which track the user's gestures and eye movements.

Human touch

The design was inspired by what he sees as a human need to interact with things.

"Spatial memory, where the body intuitively remembers where things are, is a very human skill," he said.

Translating this to the digital world will enable people to use computers more easily as well as complete more complex tasks.

"If you are working on a document you can pick it up and flip through it like a book," he told the BBC.

For more precise tasks, where hand gestures are not accurate, there is a touchpad. It will allow, for example architects to manipulate 3Dmodels.

"The gap between what the designer thinks and what the computer can do is huge. If you can put your hands inside the computer and handle digital content you can express ideas more completely," he said.

Not everyone is convinced by the Minority Report-style future that will see us interact with machine via touch.

In an interview with The Awl website designer Christian Brown said: "Human hands and fingers are good at feeling texture and detail, and good at gripping things - neither of which touch interfaces take advantage of.

"The real future of interfaces will take advantage of our natural abilities to tell the difference between textures, to use our hands to do things without looking at them."

Magicball

Mr Lee, a graduate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is currently serving his military obligation in South Korea at Samsung Electronics, where he is working on TV interfaces.

At TED, which stands for Technology, Education and Design, he also demonstrated other projects he is working on, including ZeroN, a floating ball, which can literally be placed in midair.

It utilises electromagnetism to stay afloat and when coupled with software can be used for a variety of applications.

"It could be used in schools," said Mr Lee.

"If kids are learning about planetary movement they can pick up a model of a planet and place it in orbit. That is tangible and makes the learning experience so much more powerful."

He is also working on an augmented reality shopping app, which combined with a virtual reality handset would allow users to try on items such as watches from online shops.

For Mr Lee the ultimate goal is to unite the digital and physical worlds.

"I don't want to look back on my life and find that I have just been typing on a keyboard," he said.

"It is one of our key human skills to be able to interact with 3D spaces and I wanted to let people do the same with digital content."

Computers are becoming more user-friendly as the gap between the real world and technology closes.

"With the first computers there was a huge gap but that gap is getting smaller with things such as touchscreens," he said.

"The only boundary left is our imagination."

Source: bbc.co.uk

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NSN is planning to increase as much as 700 million Euros

NokiaSiemens Networks (NSN) is planning to increase as much as 700 million Euros or equivalent of $930 Million from public markets in the spring to pay down debt and fund investment.

The Financial Times said “ The high-yield bond will be the first time the Nokia and Siemens joint venture has tapped public markets and it will test the investor in the telecoms equipment maker ahead of possible listing .”

NSN has been turned around thanks to cost cuts and improved sales of higher margins network equipment gear to operators investing in faster 4G networks.

The Analysts said “the unit now looks an attractive proposition both for public investors and private equity firms, with estimates earlier this month that it could be worth well above 5 billion euros.'

Source: ca.yahoo.com

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Sony Unveils Next-Gen PlayStation

Sony unveiled the PlayStation4, which represents a shift from thinking of the PlayStation as a simply “a box or console” to simply the best place to play games, Sony executives said.

Sony did not actually show the PSP4 and they only say that it will available in time for 2013 holiday season and pricing was not mentioned.

"PlayStation4 will unleash imaginations to create next-gen experiences that surpass gamers' wildest expectations, while also allowing developers to explore other business models," Andrew House, president and Group CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment, said at a launch event. The PS4 is "founded on a conviction that we must give gamers the kind of multi-dimensional experiences they expect and observe."

The PS4 runs an x86 processor, as well as an enhanced PC GPU. It will have 8GB of high-speed unified memory, as well as system memory backed by local storage. For more information cleck here...

Source: psmag

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