Enterprise Mobility: 10 Smartphone, Tablet Flaws That Must Disappear In 2011

By Don Reisinger on 2010-12-29 Never before has so much attention been placed on the smartphone market. Whether it’s Apple’s iPhone, RIM’s BlackBerry or countless devices from so many other vendors, the smartphone space is a critical battleground for a slew of companies. The same can be said for the tablet space. Although Apple’s iPad dominates that market, several competitors are vying for attention. But the chances of 2011 becoming a banner year for both smartphones and tablets will rely upon the ability of vendors to deliver products with features that consumers and enterprise customers really want. The only way to achieve that goal will be to find the issues that those customers are experiencing now with smartphones and tablets, and address them. Of course, some companies will be more likely to do that better than others. But the firm that eliminates the following features will be most likely to see success with smartphone or tablet designs. Read on to find out which shortcomings in tablet or smartphone designs must be banished in 2011.

Killer elephant taken to Cambodian zoo

Phnom Penh - An elephant that terrorized residents of a village in southern Cambodia has been transported to his new home at a zoo, local media reported.

The bull elephant named Sambo killed his owner and escaped from captivity this month, trampling crops and harassing residents who retaliated with sticks, knives and fireworks. Officials from the Cambodian Forestry Administration eventually tranquilized him and transported him Saturday to Phnom Tamao Zoo outside Phnom Penh, the Phnom Penh Post newspaper reported.

Is It Time to Leave Your Job?

by William C. Taylor
Monday, December 20, 2010

It's the holiday season, when we start making lists of the gifts we want -- and of the pros and cons of the jobs we have. The end of one year and the start of a New Year is the time when just about everyone takes stock of where they are with their work, and whether they are where they expected to be.

Fixing ITunes App Updates Process

By Ted Landau, Macworld

Do you own an iPhone, iPod touch or iPad?

LTE 4G phones for Verizon on the horizon from HTC, Samsung, Motorola

December 23, 2010 | Devindra Hardawar

The first wave of smartphones for Verizon’s LTE 4G network will include entries from HTC, Motorola and Samsung, judging from the rash of early hardware photos hitting gadget sites over the past few days.

We’ve known for some time that Android manufacturers were working on LTE 4G phones, but the photos in the wild tell us that they’re closer to release than we’ve previously thought. Manufacturers are most likely gearing up to finalize their hardware to show off at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in two weeks.

Shamika2Gold Executes Definitive Agreement to Acquire Gold and Ruby Licenses in Cambodia

Press Release Source: Shamika2Gold On Wednesday December 22, 2010, 9:54 am EST

MONTREAL--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Aultra Gold, Inc. (OTC BB:AGDI.ob - News), operating internationally as Shamika2Gold (“Shamika”), has executed a definitive securities exchange agreement to acquire a concession of a gold and ruby exploration license in Cambodia. The area covered in the license is comprised of approximately 158 square miles in the Samlaut district adjacent to the famous Pailin ruby gem area. A Phase 1 & 2 Survey Report on the project was prepared by Terra Insight Services, Inc., a subsidiary of Terra Energy & Resource Technologies, Inc. (TEGR.OB), suggesting potential resources of 1.5 million ounces of gold and 9,000 kilograms of rubies.

Silk weavers open their first fair-trade shop

THURSDAY, 23 DECEMBER 2010 15:00 OU MOM

Silkworm cocoons (above) being cultivated at the Khmer Silk Village Communities shop at Street 55. Below, colourful products for sale. Photo by: Heng Chivoan

Silk clothing, cloth and home furnishings made with fair-trade principles are on sale at a new showroom in Phnom Penh which aims to attract more Cambodian customers.

Khmer Silk Village Communities opened its new shop and exhibition area on Monday at 26 Street 55, on the corner of Street 228.

The community covers about 700 silk weavers and 500 silk farmers since it was established in 2005. KSVC has taught them how to develop their weaving and dyeing techniques to increase silk quality and quantity, said Ke Muny, the group’s deputy secretary.

All products in the showroom had been made to fair trade principles, he said, which meant banning child labour, avoiding environmental pollution, and guaranteeing the quality of raw materials.

Drunk Man Kills Shark, Saves Egyptian Beach Resort

BLACKED-OUT SERBIAN HAILED AS A HERO

By Nick McMaster, Newser Staff

Posted Dec 17, 2010 4:00 PM CST

(NEWSER) – A Serbian man is being hailed as a hero after killing—accidentally—a shark that had been terrorizing an Egyptian resort town. Dragan Stevic was black-out drunk when he vanquished the predator that has killed one beachgoer and injured four. He went with friends to the beach after a long night of drinking, announced that he would take a jump off a diving board, and the rest is history, the Macedonian International News Agency reports.

"Dragan climbed on the jumping board, told me to hold his beer, and simply ran to jump. There was no time for me to react or to try to stop him, he just went for it," a friend who was there explained. As luck would have it, Stevic landed right on the shark's head—it had likely been lurking in the shallow waters waiting for a new victim—killing it instantly. When he returned to his friends, he complained that he had twisted his ankle because the water "wasn't soft." The kicker: Stevic is currently in the hospital ... for alcohol poisoning. (Update: Apparently you can make up stories about drunken Serbs fatally whacking tourist-eating sharks: This story originated on a site described as the “Serbian Onion,” and it turns out the Macedonian International News Agency has had some factual issues in the past. But we wish it was true.)

Sonck scores with a lovely overhead kick in a winter wonderland

Wed Dec 22 01:51pm EST

By Brooks Peck

What better way to celebrate the holiday season than with a goal off of a pretty bicycle kick on a snow-covered pitch? OK, so there are lots of better ways that involve getting presents and biting the heads of gingerbread men, but Wesley Sonck's way is pretty good, too.

In a Belgian Jupiler League match between Lierse and league-leaders Racing Genk, Sonck helped Lierse earn a 1-1 draw by looping the orange winter ball into the back of the net with an overhead kick. Bicycle kick, chilena -- whatever you want to call it, it appears the opposing goalkeeper either slipped on the snow or thought the ball would go over the crossbar, keeping him from making an attempt at the save.

Mozilla launches 2010's last Firefox 4 beta

Beta 8 renders JavaScript about 5% faster than predecessor

By Gregg Keizer

December 22, 2010 03:57 PM ET

Computerworld - Mozilla Wednesday shipped Firefox 4 Beta 8, the last preview it will release this year before it makes a run toward a final version in 2011.

Originally slated to appear last month, then delayed until December, Beta 8 of the open-source browser first appeared today, a day later than planned, on Mozilla's official download site and as updates for existing preview users.

The newest beta includes simplified setup for Firefox Sync, Mozilla's bookmark, password and open tabs synchronization service; additional Windows and Mac graphics card support for WebGL, the under-development standard for 3-D graphics rendering; and a revamped extension manager thatsilently updates any installed add-ons.

According to Mozilla, Beta 8 also sports more than 1,400 bug fixes or changes from its predecessor, which launched six weeks ago.

Although Mozilla once said it would wrap up work on Firefox 4 this year, delays this fall forced the company to push the final release date into 2011. Currently, Mozilla plans to produce at least two more betas -- it won't finalize a timetable for Beta 9 until after Jan. 1 -- and then a series of "release candidates" before greenlighting the code.

Beta 8 also was slightly faster than Beta 7 in rendering JavaScript.

According to quick tests run by Computerworldusing the SunSpider JavaScript benchmark suite, Firefox 4 Beta 8 is about 5% faster than its forerunner.

Mozilla had previously added other major features to Firefox 4, ranging from a new JavaScript JIT (Just In Time) compiler, dubbed "JagerMonkey," in Beta 7; hardware acceleration in Beta 5 last September; and a new tab manager, dubbed "Panorama," in Beta 4 a month earlier.

Alongside Beta 8 for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux, Mozilla today also issued an updated beta of its mobile browser, which runs on Android-powered smartphones. Changes in the mobile edition of Firefox were more noticeable, and included revisions to the user interface, changes to the add-on discovery process, and like its desktop cousin, streamlined Firefox Sync setup.

Firefox 4 Beta 8 can be downloaded for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux from Mozilla's site.

Microsoft Is Said to Announce Version of Windows for ARM Chips at CES Show

By Ian King and Dina Bass - Dec 22, 2010 5:23 AM GMT+0700

• Print
• Email

Microsoft Corp., the world’s largest software maker, will announce a version of its Windows computer operating system that runs on ARM Holdings Plc technology for the first time, said two people familiar with Microsoft’s plans.

The new product will debut at the Consumer Electronics Show in January, said the people, who asked not to be identified because Microsoft’s plans are confidential. The software would be tailored for battery-powered devices, such as tablet computers and other handhelds, the people said.

The operating system would give Microsoft another way to attack the market for tablets and phones, where it’s lost ground to Apple Inc. and Google Inc. ARM chips -- made by Qualcomm Inc., Texas Instruments Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. -- are used in most smartphones, as well as Apple’s best-selling iPad.

A full-featured version of Windows for ARM chips is the best way for Microsoft to make a dent in the iPad’s lead, said Robert Breza, a Minneapolis-based analyst for RBC Capital Markets. While Windows is dominant in the personal-computer market, it hasn’t parlayed that into tablet success yet.

“They’ve got to come back with a product that’s better than ‘me too’ and is equal if not better in features,” Breza said. He has an “outperform” rating on Microsoft’s stock, which he doesn’t own. “A lot of tablets today are inferior to PCs.”

ARM Climbs

Microsoft rose 26 cents to $28.07 at 4 p.m. New York time in Nasdaq Stock Market trading. The stock has lost 7.9 percent this year. ARM’s U.S.-traded shares, which have more than doubled in value this year, climbed 6.6 percent to $19.78.

The new software also will be able to work on Intel Corp. and Advanced Micro Devices Inc.processors -- the chips that power PC versions of Windows. While other versions of Microsoft software aimed at phones and mobile devices work on ARM chips, this is the first time it will make a full version of Windows available on that technology.

Intel is trying to make its own forays into tablets and smartphones, squaring off against ARM’s technology. ARM, based in Cambridge, England, sells the rights to use its patents and chip designs and doesn’t manufacture the electronic components.

Bill Cox, a spokesman for Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft, declined to comment. Charlene Marini, a California- based spokeswoman for ARM, said the company doesn’t comment on rumor or speculation. Tom Beermann, at Santa Clara, California- based Intel, also declined to comment.

Apple sold 7.46 million iPads from the product’s April debut through September. The device accounted for 95 percent of the tablet market last quarter, according to Strategy Analytics.

Microsoft may be able to win 10 percent to 20 percent of the as many as 50 million tablets that will be sold next year, Breza estimates. He predicted that Windows tablets will be cheaper than the iPad.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ian King in San Francisco at ianking@bloomberg.net;Dina Bass in Seattle at dbass2@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Tom Giles at tgiles5@bloomberg.net

the Belgian Ministry for Development Coooperation Scholarship

fulltime one-year Master's programmes Institute of Development Policy and Management (IOB)

Motorola video: iPad is just a 'giant iPhone'

December 20, 2010 3:38 PM PST

by Brooke Crothers

Motorola is already trying to elevate its unannounced tablet above the iPad in a promotional video released Sunday.

Of course, it's easy to claim just about anything when promoting a product that hasn't been formally announced and subjected to the rigors--and possible slings and arrows--of independent reviews.

But that hasn't stopped Motorola from denigrating the iPad by calling it a "giant iPhone" in the ad (above). That statement implies that Motorola's tablet isn't just a giant Droid X. We'll see, when Motorola shows its cards at CES next month.

What do we know about the tablet so far? Google's Andy Rubin demonstrated the new version of Google Maps running on a Motorola tablet at a recent conference. Rubin said the Motorola prototype was running Google's Honeycomb operating system, the next version of Android, on a dual-core Nvidia processor. At the conference, Rubin focused on the tablet's 3D image-processing capability.

The Motorola video does nothing to confirm the specs that Rubin discussed, though an animation of a buzzing bee at the end is a pretty clear reference to Honeycomb. Otherwise, the "Tablet Evolution" video conducts a tour of famous tablets throughout history, which includes citing the Rosetta Stone as providing "mutlilingual support," but at "low resolution."

So, guessing from some of the clues offered to date, the tablet will have a high-resolution screen powered by a dual-core Nvidia processor, packing a 3D graphics punch for which Nvidia is well known.

Read more: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13924_3-20026211-64.html#ixzz18p9qqCbr

Clouds might spoil lunar eclipse early Tuesday

The last time one occurred on winter solstice was in 1638

By ZAIN SHAUK
HOUSTON CHRONICLE

Dec. 19, 2010, 10:02PM

The Earth will cast a red shadow on the moon tonight in a lunar eclipse that coincides with the winter solstice for the first time since 1638.

But the eclipse, set to begin at 12:33 a.m. Tuesday, may be difficult to see over Houston because of clouds, according to the National Weather Service.

The winter solstice is the shortest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere.

The eclipse will occur while the moon is traveling along its highest path in the sky, said Patricia Reiff, director of the Rice Space Institute at Rice University.

"At midnight the full moon will be almost straight up, just like in the midsummer the sun is almost straight up" at noon, Reiff said.

The timing of the eclipse will not result in a longer duration for the event, but its high position in the sky will increase visibility in most of North America, she said.

If cloud cover over Houston is not too dense, the eclipse should be visible with the naked eye, Reiff said.

But clouds from the Gulf of Mexico are expected to sweep over the Southwest, meaning that visibility for the eclipse may not be clear anywhere west of eastern Louisiana, said Dan Reilly, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service.

"There's really no place nearby (Houstonians) can go to get better visibility," Reilly said.

During the event, the moon's orbit will carry it into the Earth's shadow, leaving the Earth between the sun and the moon. Light will be gradually blocked from the moon, until it is completely covered by the Earth's shadow at 1:41 a.m.

During the eclipse, portions of the moon will appear blood red, with refracted light from the atmosphere falling onto its surface. Parts of the moon will also appear to be a deep black, Reiff said.

"As seen from the moon, you would see the Earth's atmosphere as being a red glowing ring around the Earth," she said.

The moon will be in total eclipse for 72 minutes and be completely clear of the Earth's shadow at 4:01 a.m.

While an eclipse on a winter solstice has been extremely rare, it will not take centuries before the next one occurs, Reiff said. Another is expected in 2094.

zain.shauk@chron.com