Mikael Ricknäs

Author Archives: Mikael Ricknäs

European mobile operators seemingly divided over sanity of blocking ads

Several European telcos have come out against a scheme by their fellow operators to block advertising as a maneuver to force Google to share its revenue.An executive at a European telecom operator has said it and others are planning to start blocking online ads this year in their respective mobile networks, the Financial Times reported on Thursday.First, the unnamed operator will launch an advertising-free service for its subscribers on an opt-in basis. However, there are also plans to use the technology across its entire network. The plan is to specifically target Google, blocking ads on the company’s websites in an attempt to force the online giant to share its revenue, according to the Financial Times.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Spec showdown: HTC’s J Butterfly flies past its One M9

Unless you live in Japan, get ready to feel jealous: HTC on Thursday announced a new and impressive J Butterfly that is only available there. Here is how it compares to the One M9, currently the most advanced smartphone from HTC available globally.Both smartphones are powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 810 processor and have 32GB of integrated storage, but a review of the specs shows a number of opportunities HTC missed with the One M9, which started shipping in March.ScreenThe One M9 has a 5-inch screen and the Butterfly’s screen measures 5.2 inches. But the newcomer has a 1440 x 2560 pixel resolution compared to 1080 x 1920 pixels on the One M9. That puts the Butterfly on par with competitors like Samsung’s Galaxy S6 and LG’s G4. To go along with all those pixels, the Butterfly also has a bigger battery. You can say what you like about whether the higher resolution is necessary, but One M9 is at a distinct disadvantage.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Smartphones from Xiaomi and Micromax pressure established manufacturers

Indian smartphone manufacturer Micromax and Xiaomi from China have given the low-end segment a shake up with their latest products, and even if the devices don’t go on sale around the world, their launches will likely be felt globally.The Micromax Yu Yuphoria the Xiaomi Mi 4i’s combination of impressive specs and aggressive pricing will put pressure on the likes of Samsung Electronics and Motorola Mobility to step up their efforts in the segment for sub-US$200 smartphones.“It’s more pain for the established vendors. These devices have the potential to reset customer expectations,” said Ben Wood, chief of research at CCS Insight.The Yu Yuphoria was launched on Tuesday in India. It’s an LTE smartphone that will cost about $110 without a contract in that country. It has a 5-inch, 720 x 1280 pixel screen and a Snapdragon 410 processor. The specification also includes an 8-megapixel main camera and a 5-megapixel front camera, as well as 2GB of RAM and 16GB of integrated storage. While smartphones in this price category used to look as cheap as they were, the Yuphoria has a metal frame to help it look more premium.To read this article in full or to leave a Continue reading

Facebook wants to become your news destination of choice with Instant Articles

Facebook aims to speed up the delivery of news on the companys mobile apps with Instant Articles. The New York Times, National Geographic and others will use it to publish interactive articles directly on Facebooks iPhone app.People already share a lot of articles on Facebook, particularly on its mobile apps. To date, however, they take an average of eight seconds to load, by far the slowest content type on Facebook, the company said in a blog post on Tuesday. Instant Articles promises to change that with much better responsiveness.Users will be able to watch auto-play videos as they scroll through a story. They will also be able to view interactive maps, zoom in on high-resolution images, listen to audio captions, and comment on individual parts of an article in-line, as long as publishers have to added the necessary content.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Verizon bids $4.4 billion for AOL

Verizon Communications has agreed to buy AOL for about $4.4 billion, as it looks to build more extensive digital and video platforms to drive future growth.Network operators have to find new ways to make money as their traditional revenue streams are under pressure from a new generation of companies such as Skype, Facebook and WhatsApp.Verizon’s acquisition plan further drives its LTE wireless video and OTT (over-the-top) video strategy, the operator said, adding that its plan is to deliver services to customers over a global multiscreen network platform;AOL’s key assets include its subscription business: Media brands such as The Huffington Post, TechCrunch, Engadget, Makers and AOL.com, as well as original video content, according to Verizon. The company is also after AOL’s programmatic advertising platforms, and looks to combine that with its own assets to build a mobile-first advertising platform.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Super-fast Wi-Fi coming to a public hotspot near you

Wireless hotspots that can deliver hundreds of megabits per second in real-world bandwidth will become more common as operators increase their investments in Wi-Fi networks.Not much has been announced, but a range of fixed, cable and mobile operators have already started or are planning upgrades to 802.11ac, the fastest Wi-Fi technology yet, according to market research company IHS. By this time next year a noticeable number of hotspots will use it, said research director Richard Webb, who is currently conducting a survey to pinpoint operator plans.MORE ON NETWORK WORLD: How to use public Wi-Fi hotspots safely Overall operator spending on Wi-Fi networks in 2015 is expected to increase by 88 percent year-on-year.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Battle over app analytics accelerates with Apple’s entry

With Apple offering its own tool for developers to see how their apps are selling, pressure is on specialist vendors to improve their offerings. On Wednesday, App Annie announced it had acquired mobile measurement company Mobidia to do just that.Last week Apple started sending out invites to test a beta version of its App Analytics tool.Even if Apple isn’t competing directly with paid services and tools from the likes of App Annie, Appsee and Yahoo-owned Flurry, the company’s entry will have an effect on the market.The features Apple offers are pretty basic, covering app installs, retention and in-app revenue, and are only compatible with iOS.However, Apple’s entry shows how the app analytics market is maturing and becoming a more integrated part of smartphone OS developer portals. As products from Apple and Google improve, stand-alone tools have to become increasingly advanced to remain relevant.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Citrix’s iPad mouse arrives next week

Apple iPad users will soon be able to interact with Citrix Systems’ virtual Windows apps using a mouse.When Citrix unveiled a prototype of the X1 mouse in January, the company wasn’t sure it would become a real product. But the high level of interest the mouse has generated convinced the company to develop it commercially. It will be launched on May 12 at Citrix’s Synergy conference.Citrix has received positive feedback from organizations of different sizes that want the mobility of an iPad and the security of its application virtualization platform XenApp, Chris Fleck, vice president of Emerging Solutions, said in a blog post.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Telerik pitches new framework for building Android, iOS, Windows apps

With Telerik’s open source framework NativeScript, programmers with expertise in JavaScript have a new option for cross-platform mobile app development. The resulting applications will be able to run directly on Android, iOS and Windows.After launching a beta in March, Progress Software-owned Telerik on Tuesday launched the first generally available version of NativeScript. The company describes it as a native framework that lets developers build apps for Android, iOS and later this year, Windows phones, with much of the same code. The choice of JavaScript as the underlying language wasn’t a coincidence.“We think it’s one of the most universal languages and skill sets out there,” said Todd Anglin, vice president of product management and marketing at Telerik.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Sony’s smartphone struggles continue as other areas look up

Sony’s CEO Kazuo Hirai has some difficult decisions to make as consumers continue to shun the company’s smartphones, resulting in continued losses.The company on Thursday reported a net loss of ¥126 billion (US$1.1 billion) for its latest fiscal year, which ended on March 31. Year-on-year, Sony’s revenue increased by 5.8 percent to ¥8.2 trillion.Not surprisingly, Sony’s Mobile Communications unit, which develops the Xperia smartphones, gets part of the blame for another year in the red.The future of the mobile division has been very much up in question since a new head of Sony Mobile Communications was appointed in October last year. Sony has announced layoffs and pulled the plug on the PlayStation Mobile platform, but hasn’t been able to turn around its fortunes.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Spec showdown: Samsung Galaxy S6 vs. LG G4

The Samsung Galaxy S6 has emerged as the benchmark for flagship smartphones running Android, but there are lots of challengers, including the new G4 from LG Electronics.The companies have had many of the same goals when building their respective high-end models, including improving the looks and the cameras. But there are still differences that may be relevant to your purchase decision. Here’s a spec comparison between the phones:DesignA more premium design has been a common theme for this year’s launches of high-end smartphones. The Galaxy S6 combines a metal frame with a glass back, while the G4 has a plastic frame and offers the option of a back made of leather or a mixture of ceramics and plastic.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

The LG G4 smartphone wins on flexibility, loses on design

LG Electronics’ G4 is a high-end smartphone with a removable battery and a microSD card slot, but its design falls short when compared with other expensive devices.Last year, LG had a hit with the G3, thanks to its high-resolution screen and aggressive pricing, but the company may have trouble replicating that success with the G4, announced on Tuesday.The phone has a 5.5-inch, 1440 by 2560 pixel screen and a Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 processor, which isn’t as powerful as the Snapdragon 810. LG thinks the Snapdragon 808 offers a better balance between performance and power efficiency. The G4 feels fast enough, so the company might be on to something, and the screen looks impressive.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

LG bets on battery life over performance with new G4 smartphone

LG Electronics is giving its latest flagship smartphone, the leather-covered G4, a big removable battery and a power-efficient processor, hoping a long battery life will help it stand out among tough competitors.The G4, teased for weeks, was finally unveiled on Tuesday at events around the world. The company hopes to repeat the success it had last year with the G3 and compete head-on with the Galaxy S6 from Samsung, arguably the best Android-based smartphone. But LG has chosen a slightly different approach on the inside and the outside.Like Samsung, LG used premium materials other than plastic. But instead of using a mixture of aluminium and glass, LG covered the back of the G4 in leather. There are six colors to choose from: black, red, brown, blue, beige and yellow. For leather-averse people, there is a version of the phone with a ceramic back covered in a diamond pattern.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Toshiba hopes to charm developers with kits for building wearables

Toshiba is hoping developers will use its application processors to build wearable devices, and has launched hardware and software development kits to help make it happen.The chip industry has become transfixed by the massive potential of the market for wearables and other IoT (Internet of Things) devices. Vendors such as Intel and Broadcom are developing products and offering development tools to make them easier to integrate. Toshiba has now joined the fray.The company’s new development environment includes an HDK (hardware development kit) embedded with the TZ1001MBG application processor, an SDK (software development kit) that runs on it, as well as a software development tool, according to Toshiba.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

A year later, Microsoft’s Nokia deal isn’t a clear winner

It was a marriage of convenience for two industry giants whose past successes weren’t helping them win in the red-hot smartphone market. One year later, it’s hard to say that Microsoft’s acquisition of Nokia’s device business has produced the results its backers envisioned.In the wake of the US$7.2 billion acquisition, Lumia smartphones and the Windows Phone OS are still running into many of the same market roadblocks.But Microsoft isn’t throwing in the towel, and has high hopes that its phone business will get a major boost from Windows 10, which is meant to create an environment where users can move easily between desktops, tablets and their smartphones.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

A year later, Microsoft’s Nokia deal isn’t a clear winner

It was a marriage of convenience for two industry giants whose past successes weren’t helping them win in the red-hot smartphone market. One year later, it’s hard to say that Microsoft’s acquisition of Nokia’s device business has produced the results its backers envisioned. In the wake of the US$7.2 billion acquisition, Lumia smartphones and the Windows Phone OS are still running into many of the same market roadblocks. But Microsoft isn’t throwing in the towel, and has high hopes that its phone business will get a major boost from Windows 10, which is meant to create an environment where users can move easily between desktops, tablets and their smartphones.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Xiaomi Mi 4i combines impressive specs with a $200 price tag

Xiaomi is hoping the well-equipped Mi 4i will help the company grab a larger smartphone market share, but it’s still holding off entering the U.S, and Europe.Launching the smartphone at an event in India is a departure for the company, which thus far has launched its smartphones in China.The Mi 4i can be summed up as a souped-up midrange smartphone with a low-end price tag at 12,999 rupees (US$205) without a contract. It has a 5-inch, 1080 x 1920 pixel screen and is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 615, an octa-core processor with integrated support for LTE. The processor is a step below the Snapdragon 800 family, which is used to power high-end products.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Chipmakers lay groudwork for faster and smarter data center switches

Broadcom and Freescale Semiconductor have announced switching platforms that promise to improve the performance of network virtualization and make the underlying technologies more widely available.Just like other parts of enterprise IT infrastructures, the network is going through some major changes thanks to the growing importance of cloud services and virtualization. Two offerings launched by chipmakers Broadcom and Freescale highlight how switches will evolve going forward.The next-generation of Broadcom’s StrataXGS Trident ethernet switch portfolio, the Trident-II+ SoC (system-on-a-chip) is designed for virtualized data centers running on 10 Gigabit ethernet. The total switching capacity is 1.28Tbps.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Centrify adds extra protection for sensitive accounts with new cloud service

For CIOs worried about access to shared resources in the cloud and the data center, Centrify has launched an identity-management service that aims to improve protection for IT management accountsAs enterprises embrace cloud-based apps, access to privileged accounts used to manage the most sensitive parts of the supporting infrastructure increasingly lie outside the corporate perimeter. In addition, the accounts are frequently shared by both internal IT and third parties such as contractors. The entire scenario makes important accounts more vulnerable to attacks, according to Centrify.To address this issue the company on Tuesday launched CPS (Centrify Privilege Service), a cloud-based identity management offering that can be used to manage access to cloud and on-site systems by remote employees and third parties. It can be used to protect access to shared servers in the data center or in the cloud, along with routers, switches and social media accounts, for example.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Google makes mobile websites more app-like with Chrome push notifications

Google has taken a big step in its efforts to make mobile websites act more like native applications on Android smartphones, by adding notifications to its browser.One of the most convincing arguments for building an application instead of a website has been the ability to send notifications to users. Google is hoping to narrow that advantage by adding the feature to version 42 of its Chrome browser for Android.As a result, Android developers no longer have to decide between the engagement potential of a native app and the reach of a mobile website, Google said in a blog post on Monday.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

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