Posts Tagged ‘Blackberry’
U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron Wants a Master Kill-Switch for Social Networks
In to other members of Parliament (MPs), Cameron let loose with this bit of totalitarian wisdom:
"Free flow of information can be used for good. But it can also be used for ill. So we are working with the police, the intelligence services and industry to look at whether it would be right to stop people communicating via these websites and services when we know they are plotting violence, disorder and criminality."
That was about all the detail Cameron gave, so, as noted, we don't know how he might approach the task of shutting down Twitter's, Facebook's, and BlackBerry's U.K. services--though of course it is possible. Several Middle Eastern nations, including the United Arab Emirates, have in the past blocked BlackBerry from operating on their soil. But for the U.K. to even think about such a step, and to express it in such a high-profile speech, is a bit shocking.
Shutting down social networks is not an unfamiliar approach--we saw it in a more severe form in Egypt, when the government in an effort to quell protests mostly by stymying the use of Facebook and Twitter as protest coordination tools. (That didn't last, of course, and Egyptian Internet services went back online ) But it ignores that social media is also being used en masse for beneficial coordination, like the 20,000-person-strong . That's not even to mention the "Supporting the Met Police against the London rioters" page, which nearly a million Likes. It remains to be seen whether Cameron and the police forces will actually pursue this line of inquiry. In the meantime, authorities are using the country's of CCTV cameras (one for every 14 people!) to identify looters.
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Stop Rummaging for Your Phone and Check Texts, Emails on Cell-Connected Watches
Oh, and they tell time
Now: Text Check
Tethered to your BlackBerry or Android handset with Bluetooth, the inPulse watch (pictured above) displays texts, e-mails and your call log on its 1.3-inch screen, so your phone can stay tucked away. Downloadable apps allow users to check in on Facebook and load Twitter feeds.
Allerta inPulse $150;
Soon: Long Life
Most Bluetooth-equipped devices run on lithium-ion batteries, which require daily charging. uses a new, low-energy form of Bluetooth to pull caller ID and texts from your cellphone, so the timepiece runs for two years on one watch battery. The new Bluetooth standard, which will arrive next year, saves power by transmitting data intermittently, not continuously as it does now. We previewed the inPulse back in January at CES--it didn't even have a name at that point, but
Casio watch prototype with Bluetooth Low Energy;
Later:Wrist Net
As high-speed-cellular radios shrink to fit behind watch faces, your wrist could become a hotspot. The MetaWatch prototype, based on a concept by HP and built by Fossil, could one day create its own Wi-Fi network to share with nearby phones, tablets and other Web-ready gadgets. Similar watches may also have flash memory to store data--such as maps and calendars--for quick access.
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Why Verizon needs the iPhone to stay in the lead
Common wisdom is that Verizon Wireless is kicking butt and taking names with its Android phones, but recent sales data reveals that even a myriad of successful high-end Android phones isn’t enough to take on AT&T’s success with the iPhone.
Unless Verizon lands Apple’s iPhone soon, it could potentially lose its leading carrier status to AT&T.
The sales data comes from a report by analyst Matthew Goodman and is based on point-of-sale data from thousands of wireless retailers across the country. It — which went from over 90 percent of Verizon’s smartphones sales last year, to less than 20 percent last month. The reason, of course, was the rise in popularity of Android phones late last year. Android now accounts for over 80 percent of smartphone sales on the carrier.
But all is not rosy for Verizon. Horace Dediu from the industry analysis blog Asymco to show that Verizon is still losing out to the iPhone on AT&T (assuming ITG’s data is accurate). He concludes that the massive rise in iPhone sales following the release of the iPhone 4 (AT&T jumped from 2.7 million iPhones sold in the first quarter, to 5.7 million in the third) has stolen Verizon’s smartphone growth. In the same time period, Verizon went from 2.7 million smartphones sold (including Android, WebOS, BlackBerry and Windows Mobile) to 3.3 million.
That alone shows the power of the iPhone — Android, combined with other platforms, clearly isn’t enough for Verizon to keep up with AT&T in sales. Dediu also argues that Verizon is “growing its smartphone base slower than the overall market”, and that an over-reliance on Android may harm Verizon.
Verizon currently has over 92.1 million subscribers, compared to AT&T’s 90.1 million. Given the iPhone’s explosive growth compared to Android, Verizon’s dominance in the cellular arena is in danger of fading away if sales trends continue along the same lines.
The big conclusion? Verizon needs the iPhone, and it needs it soon.
Recent reports have all but confirmed that , so it will be interesting to see how Verizon’s sales shift once it comes over. We can expect other platforms on Verizon to lose some ground, and AT&T to lose a significant number of new iPhone subscribers, once the iPhone hits Verizon.
Credit Suisse predicted in September that if it gets the iPhone in 2011. Dediu takes things even further — he predicts that Verizon will land between 8 and 12 million new subscribers if it gets the iPhone.
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RIM’s BlackBerry PlayBook tablet is ready to take on the iPad (video)
Research in Motion’s BlackBerry PlayBook tablet is shaping up to be one of the most exciting devices in the coming months. Now we have 10 minutes of the tablet in action (below), courtesy of the folks over at .
What surprised me the most about the demonstration is just how well suited the PlayBook is to media. RIM has been positioning the device as a more business-oriented alternative to the iPad, but from the looks of it, the PlayBook also handles music and video effortlessly as well.
RIM’s new operating system — based on technology from QNX software, which RIM acquired earlier this year — looks absolutely modern with zippy touchscreen response, and overall more polish than the best Android tablet on the market right now, . The tablet also juggled multiple applications seamlessly in the demonstration, looking even better than the iPad’s recent multitasking update. One thing’s for sure, RIM needs to get this new OS on its phones as soon as possible.
The RIM representative also demonstrated the PlayBook’s touch sensitive bezel, which gives all four sides of the device’s bezel extra functionality. The top bezel will be left open to application developers — meaning users can swipe down from the top of the tablet to reveal application menus, or other options. The left, right and bottom bezels are reserved for system functionality. Swiping from the right bezel while a full-screen video was playing instantly minimized the video. It also looks like swiping up from the bottom bezel reveals the PlayBook’s software keyboard, which the rep confirmed is multitouch capable — meaning you can type on multiple keys at the same time.
RIM says it’s actively working on universal search capabilities, but it doesn’t sound like it will be available upon the PlayBook’s launch. The company is also now accepting PlayBook apps from developers for its BlackBerry App World store.
View the full PlayBook demo below:
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Android hits 300,000 daily activation milestone
Chalk another major milestone up for Google’s Android mobile OS. Google’s Andy Rubin tweeted last night that — that’s up from in August.
The news puts Android’s daily activations over both the iPhone and BlackBerry, and it even surpasses (though research firm Canalys says those numbers may be closer to 325,000), . Android’s daily activations also point to Google nearing 10 million Android activations a month. In comparison, Apple recently reported that in its last quarter.
What’s most interesting to me is that Android’s growth is completely organic. Since August, there hasn’t been a major Android phone release that would have sparked an influx of new customers. That tells us that consumers are gravitating towards the platform instead of any one flagship phone. Of course, the fact that more low-cost Android phones (like ) are hitting the market is also good news for sales. Low-cost Android phones, together with well-marketed high-end phones like Verizon’s Droid series, will surely continue to push Android’s activations higher into the next year.
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BlackBerry gets sexy: RIM acquires Swedish design firm TAT
BlackBerry-maker RIM that it’s acquiring Swedish design firm (TAT) to help sex up the user interface of its newest mobile operating system.
TAT is well-known for its attractive user interfaces. The company was chosen by Google to , the G1. That device wasn’t particularly attractive on the outside, but TAT’s interface design made it seem more like a legitimate competitor to the iPhone at the time. TAT has also designed a , and was selected by Fujitsu to .
RIM’s will be its first device to sport RIM’s new OS, which is based on software that RIM acquired from QNX. It promises to bring RIM into the modern age for mobile user interfaces with a focus on touchscreens and media. Eventually, the new OS will find its way to other BlackBerry devices. That’s a good thing, because as , RIM can only continue to stretch its existing BlackBerry OS so far.
That RIM bought TAT, instead of just contracting its services, is a sign that it’s taking mobile interface design more seriously than ever. It’s also a loss for other platforms — Android in particular — as I don’t suspect TAT will continue to produce any new design work outside of RIM.
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By suing popular chat app Kik, is RIM poisoning its own ecosystem?
has filed suit against , claiming patent infringement.
We’re still trying to get more details about the . But our . Kik uses the same “sent,” “delivered,” and “read” flags when a message is sent. RIM may be concerned because Kik does BBM one better by allowing chat across multiple smartphone platforms, including Android phones and iPhones. Kik is also blazing fast, and its adoption by threatens to.
This all puts a nail in the coffin of Kik’s chances to serve RIM’s Blackberry phones, and it seriously endanger’s the company’s chances of survival overall.
However, it’s still not clear why the service hurt Blackberry per se. According to our understanding, RIM isn’t . On the contrary, a fast, enjoyable chat application like Kik was one of the first apps built that worked really well on Blackberry, showcasing a great experience on the RIM platform at a time when most developers are focused more on the iPhone and Android platforms.
Evidently, RIM must feel its BBM service still has some sort of quality edge on its main rivals and that it must fight to protect its patent to protect that lead. But by moving to protect an app within its walled garden, RIM is fighting a questionable battle, now that we’re in an age where cross-platform apps are more relevant.
Here’s the bigger worry for RIM: With this move, is it inadvertently poisoning its own ecosystem? If people know they can work at RIM and then start a successful startup that rides on top of the BlackBerry platform, RIM becomes a more attractive place to work and BlackBerry becomes a more attractive platform to develop on. By making an example of Kik and its chief executive, Ted Livingston, who , RIM could be shooting itself in the foot for extremely questionable gain. Yes, RIM’s always been protective of its intellectual property, but as Apple’s iPhone and now more recently Google with its Android platform have shown, you have to leave something on the table for innovators to seize.
We’ve requested comment from both sides and will update if we hear back. [Update: Kik's Livingston has .]
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