Archive for category Computers
Apple to launch smaller iPhone
Apple is working on new versions of the iPhone that are aimed at slowing the advance of competing handsets based on Google’s Android software, according to people who have been briefed on the plans.
One version would be cheaper and smaller than the most recent iPhone, said a person who has seen a prototype and asked not to be identified because the plans haven’t been made public. Apple also is developing technology that makes it easier to use the iPhone on multiple wireless networks, two people said.
Chief executive officer Steve Jobs, who remains involved in strategic decisions while on medical leave, aims to narrow the price gap that has made phones running Android more popular than iPhones. Google’s share of the global smartphone market more than tripled to 32.9 per cent in the fourth quarter, eclipsing Apple’s 16 per cent, according to Canalys.
Apple has considered selling the new iPhone for about $US200 in the US, without obligating users to sign a two-year service contract, said the person who has seen it. Android phones sell for a range of prices at AT&T, Verizon Wireless and other US carriers, and typically come with agreements that include a fee for broken contracts. The iPhone 4, sold in the U.S. by AT&T and Verizon Wireless, costs $US200 to $US300 with a contract.
Natalie Kerris, a spokeswoman for Apple, declined to comment.
While Apple has aimed to unveil the device near mid-year, the introduction may be delayed or scrapped, the person said. Few Apple employees know the details of the project, the person said. Apple often works on products that don’t get released.
The prototype was about one-third smaller than the iPhone 4, said the person, who saw it last year.
Apple can sell it at a low price mainly because the smartphone will use a processor, display and other components similar to those used in the current model, rather than pricier, more advanced parts that will be in the next iPhone, the person said. Component prices typically drop over time.
Apple is also working on a so-called dual-mode phone, two people said. This device would be able to work with the world’s two main wireless standards – the global system for mobile communications, used by AT&T and carriers such as Vodafone, and code division multiple access, used by Verizon Wireless. It isn’t known whether Apple intended to include this capability in the cheaper iPhone.
Universal SIM
Apple is working on a technology called a Universal SIM, which would let iPhone users toggle between GSM networks without having to switch the so-called SIM cards that associate a phone with a network, according to one person. This would help cut the cost of distributing and managing millions of SIM cards.
The new features could also give Apple an advantage over mobile carriers in influencing customers. The device would be affordable without a carrier subsidy, so buyers wouldn’t need to agree to terms, such as termination fees, that carriers demand in exchange for subsidising the cost of the phone.
Apple has also worked on redesigned iPhone software that would let customers choose a network and configure their device on their own, without relying on a store clerk or representative of a carrier, according to the person.
Information Source smh.com.au
HP hits tablet market with TouchPad
US computer powerhouse Hewlett-Packard has unveiled a TouchPad tablet computer as its entry in a booming market dominated by Apple’s iPad.
HP senior vice president Jon Rubinstein, who was part of the Apple team that brought the world the iPod, unveiled the TouchPad to applause in a pavilion on the San Francisco shoreline within sight of the Golden Gate Bridge.
“TouchPad is more than just a pretty face,” Rubinstein said as he caressed one on stage. “The TouchPad is all about you; how you work, play, and connect with the things you value most.”
TouchPad will be the first tablet in a family of products based on a webOS software platform Palm began building from the ground up about five years ago.
HP last year bought Palm in a $US1.2-billion deal in what analysts believe was a move to get its hands on the platform that could make it a player in the fast-growing market for smartphones and tablet computers.
“No one has come close to replicating our webOS experience,” said Rubinstein, who was chief executive of Palm when it was acquired by HP.
TouchPad weighs about 1.5 pounds (0.7 kilograms) and has a 9.7-inch (24.6 centimeter) display – the same weight and screen size as the iPad.
The tablet is built with a Qualcomm processor that is “screaming fast”, according to Rubinstein. HP did not disclose the price.
TouchPad software is crafted for easy multi-tasking and supports Adobe Flash software commonly used in online video. The tablet also features a camera for video calling.
“This product has a chance to beat RIM (BlackBerry maker Research In Motion) and any individual Android tablet, but not Apple,” Forrester Research analyst Sarah Rotman Epps said of the TouchPad.
“Consumers will consider the TouchPad, and then buy an iPad.”
The TouchPad is likely to win over application developers because it should be relatively easy to convert software crafted for iPads and HP will allow freedom when it comes to making money from “apps”, the analyst added.
Forrester predicted that more than 24 million tablets, most of them iPads, will be sold in the United States this year.
HP plans to use its global resources to back the TouchPad along with an entire webOS “ecosystem” consisting of two new smartphones and a line of personal computers built on the platform.
The California-based computer titan is putting “meaningful talent and significant resources” into webOS, according to Todd Bradley, executive vice president of the personal systems group at HP.
Information Source smh.com.au
Apple begins production of new iPad
Apple has begun to make a new version of its iPad tablet computer with a front-facing camera and faster processor, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
The new iPad will be thinner and lighter than the first model and sport a more powerful graphics processor, the Journal said.
It will have at least one camera on its front for features such as video conferencing, and will also have more memory, according to the paper, adding Apple plans to unveil the new iPad through telcos Verizon Wireless and AT&T in the US.
Early in February, a Reuters eyewitness saw what appeared to be a working model of the next iPad with a front-facing camera at the top edge of the glass screen at a press conference to mark the debut of News Corp’s Daily online paper in New York.
Apple was not available for comment.
Information Source smh.com.au
Unreleased Apple iPad spotted at News Corp event
Spotted at Rupert Murdoch’s splashy digital newspaper launch overnight: a prototype of Apple’s newest iPad.
A Reuters eyewitness saw what appeared to be a working model of the next iPad with a front-facing camera at the top edge of the glass screen at a press conference to mark the debut of News Corp’s Daily online paper in New York.
A source with knowledge of the device confirmed its existence, adding that the final release model could have other features. News Corp and Apple declined to comment.
The next version of Apple’s popular tablet computer is expected to be announced in the next few months.
Manufacturing sources have said it will sport two cameras – one in the front and one in the back – enabling users to make video calls.
News Corp chairman Rupert Murdoch along with Apple executive Eddy Cue unveiled the Daily, a digital newspaper created from scratch for the iPad at a press conference in New York’s Solomon R. Guggenheim museum.
The Daily is Apple’s first foray into subscription sales through its iTunes store after having spent a year in talks with publishers with little progress.
The iPad was released in April 2010 and became one the hottest gadgets of the year.
The company sold 14.8 million iPads in 2010, and could double that this year, analysts estimated.
The 10-inch touchscreen device proved to be hugely popular as a media consumption device, good for games, video and Web browsing.
The iPad, which starts at $629 in Australia, added more than $US8 billion in sales for Apple last year and helped touch off a tablet-mania that is sweeping the technology business.
Nearly all of Apple’s rivals are working on tablets, with dozens of models expected to hit the market this year, providing the iPad with its first real competition.
Companies such as Samsung Electronics, Dell, Hewlett-Packard and Acer are attacking the tablet market, with global sales expected to surge to more than 50 million units in 2011.
Information Source smh.com.au
NBN to announce huge increase in speed
The national broadband network will enable speeds of one gigabit per second on its fibre optic network, 100 times faster than originally planned, the company building the network will announce today.
The speed is significantly faster than the maximum speeds promised by the opposition in its broadband policy, and highlights the growing gap between what a fibre-based broadband network can offer compared with existing technology.
It has also emerged that NBN Co told staff to ignore political attacks on the company by the opposition, after its finance spokesman, Andrew Robb, called it a ”stodgy” bureaucracy, labelled its staff ”talentless” and promised to close it down if elected to government.
One gigabit per second is 17,500 times faster than a dial-up connection and 167 times faster than the average ADSL broadband connection. ”I am trying to make sure people understand what it is that NBN Co is going to deliver,” its chief executive, Mike Quigley, said.
Increasing the speed would not add to the $43 billion construction price tag and the fibre could be upgraded to provide even faster speeds in coming years, Mr Quigley said.
The faster capability was already built into the equipment which the company was installing in homes and Mr Quigley said he decided to enable it after discussions with internet providers and the competition watchdog.
Telecommunications industry figures have given support to parts of the Coalition’s policy even as others decry the lack of investment and ”vision” in Tuesday’s $6 billion announcement.
The opposition communications spokesman, Tony Smith, announced the Coalition would spend $750 million on a fixed broadband optimisation grants program to overcome technical restrictions that stop 1 million households from using ADSL, the most common technology for broadband services.
The decision received praise from industry figures, who said it was a cost effective way to offer timely broadband to significant numbers of people using existing infrastructure.
”If you’re looking at an incremental approach to getting towards high-speed broadband, that’s the way to do it,” said an industry consultant, Kevin Morgan.
An Ovum broadband consultant and former Liberal policy adviser, David Kennedy, said mobile phone carriers, in particular Vodafone Hutchison Australia, had spare spectrum capacity in regional areas and could offer wireless broadband.
Ian Birks, the chief executive of the Australian Information Industry Association, said the Coalition’s plan showed a lack of commitment to broadband, but was ”reasonable” within the fiscal restraints imposed.
”I don’t think the Coalition policy recognises the vision for a digital future in Australia, that’s what makes it disappointing,” he said.
NBN Co has been instructed to replace Australia’s copper telephone network with fibre optic cable to 93 per cent of the population and high-speed wireless and satellite to remote areas.
NBN Co would offer unlimited download capacity at one gigabit per second wholesale rates to retail internet providers, but service provider Internode said it was not reasonable to give consumers unlimited downloads.
Information Source smh.com.au
