Business News Holding

Tag: hardware-and-technology

  • Apple’s 2014 Lineup includes iWatch and HDTV


    Apple’s media event on Oct. 22 turned into a bit of a damp squid with only some upgrades to the existing products being unveiled. However, reports indicate that Apple is ready with a new product line to be unveiled in 2014.

    According to CNET, Apple is also working on a HDTV. Apple may also release add-ons for its standalone TV set such as a Bluetooth controller and a gaming console to complement the former Apple TV.

    Apple’s upcoming products seem pretty interesting with amazing features such as bigger screens and finger print recognition. Amongst the most interesting products is the new Apple’s upcoming wearable tech. Apple is poised to release its wearable tech early next year, after Sony and Samsung released theirs and Google reportedly on its way. The much speculated iWatch is also set to be released next year as reports indicate that the company has been hiring employees on its engineering team.

    In September, Apple released the iPhone 5S and 5C models, which retained the screen size of 4 inches like their predecessors. Global smartphone leaders Samsung, Nokia and Sony are releasing smartphones with larger screens, which may provoke Apple to build their next generation iPhones with larger screens. An iPad maxi is also said to be in the lineup and is set to be accompanied by a keyboard cover.

    Images: Federico Ciccarese/Ciccarese Design

  • 3D VoIP Video Calling Technology Announced By Ozeki


    Ozeki has announced its next generation VoIP technology Ozeki Phone System XE, a software that made the company the first in the world to offer 3D video calls utilizing VoIP.

    With Ozeki's precision-engineered software, the scene is set for VOIP telephone providers and other companies to offer 3D video calls to their customers.

    The new technology is poised to transform visual industries such as online conferencing, product shows, sports broadcasting and many others.

    3D video calls on the Ozeki software can be initiated from any windows PC. For the calls to be made, you need Cyan/Magenta 3D glasses as well as two ordinary USB webcams. The 3D video calls can be made and viewed on PC, mobile phone or from any web browser. The 3D sound and video can be seen and heard simultaneously in several browsers, enabling users to reach a wide audience. This greatly increases the usability of the new system across many fields, especially product shows and broadcasting sports events.

    VOIP providers can offer 3D video calls and broadcasts to their clients through Ozeki Phone System XE software as well as a windows server. 

    You can find more info here. 

  • Smartphone Market Share Held by Samsung; 2.5x Apple’s


    Samsung's sales per quarter have reached 90 million for the first time. This means that Samsung Electronics has beat Apple with over 50 million units of sale. On the other hand, China’s Huawei is now in the third place after LG electronics showed some slowdown in sales in its third quarter smartphone sales.

    According to an American market survey company, Strategy Analytics, Samsung sold 88.4 million smartphones in its third quarter. This saw it clinch the first place in sales with 35.2% of the market share. This means that one in every three smartphones sold was made by Samsung.

    Apple sold 33.8 million units after the release of the iPhone5S. This saw a 2.6 million increase in sales compared to the second quarter. However, its market share dropped by 0.2%. Neil Mawston, SA Analyst indicated that Apple is poised to get back on its track in Q4 with sales from its iPhone5S.

    Huawei ranked  in third place with 12.7 million units, representing 5.1% market share. LG, which was in third place in Q1 and Q2 sold 12million units, representing 4.8% market share. Meanwhile, China’s Lenovo closely follows LG with 10.8 million units representing 4.3% market share.

    Neil Mawston indicated that Samsung’s Galaxy S4 had a reduction in sales, but the Galaxy Y and Galaxy Note 3 had good sales.

    He also indicated that the global smartphone market in the third quarter is 251.4 million, which grew by 45% as compared to last year. He asserts that six out of every ten mobile phones sold around the world are smartphones.

  • Displays for 4.7-Inch iPhone, Apple HDTV, Retina MacBook Air and iWatch Predicted by NPD DisplaySearch


    NPD DisplaySearch is a reputable source of supply chain chatter. They are currently making predictions on Apple’s future iOS device line up. These include the Retina MacBook air, Apple HDTV, iPhone 6 as well as the iWatch. NPD is indicating that Apple will certainly release a larger iPhone. Infact, they are of the view that Apple’s products across the board are set to have massive improvements. 

    Apple is poised to revamp almost all their displays according to NPD DisplaySearch blog. This will cut across almost every category in its product line. Apple has always had a unique way of doing things including doubling pixels and improving resolutions on its devices.

    NPD DisplaySearch believes that Apple will adopt both 5.7-inch display and 4.7-inch display for the iPhone 6. These will be running on 1080p and 720p displays. They also think that a 13 –inch iPad will be released running on oddball 2732 x 2048 resolution.

    NPD DisplaySearch also believes that a bizarre 2304 x 1440 display will be available on the new MacBook Air.

    The research company also predicts that the Apple HDTV will be a 4K set and will come in 55 inch and 65 inch varieties. As for the iWatch, they believe it will be a flexible AMOLED affair and will have a wimpy 320 x 320 display.

  • Co Star LT Stream Player Debuted By Vizio


    A new streaming media player was recently released by Vizio. The Co Star LT Stream Player is a small $80 box that is able to upgrade any HDTV into an internet connected app hub.

    The Co Star LT when connected brings Vizio apps including Hulu plus, Amazon instant video, iHeart Radio, Netflix, Vudu, You Tube and M-Go to any HDTV with an HDMI port. The set top box has a built-in WIFI and allows the users to watch TV live while browsing apps. It also features a second screen interactivity function for smartphones and tablets.

    Vizio CTO Matt McRae said that the latest generation of Vizio internet apps is a culmination of years of forward looking design and development. The app provides more power through a new full screen mode. It also has an enhanced multi screen viewing feature. The platform also offers a seamless entertainment experience as that is incredibly intuitive.

  • Seagate Disrupts Cloud Economics with Storage That Can Cut Infrastructure Costs by 50%

    The internet cloud storage stage is set to change following the launch of a new platform. The product is the brainchild of Seagate, a firm situated in Cupertino, California. Among the benefits of the new platform include reduced infrastructural cost, improved scalability and performance. It also makes data management simple.
    Among the salient features of this platform is that it eliminates the need for data centers. Users do not have to procure large storage devices. Organizations are able to maximize on savings owing to the reduction in the amount of hardware required as well as power costs.

    Rocky Pimentel, an executive official from Seagate said that their teams designed a unique platform that would minimize expenditure on unnecessary software and hardware. He added that IT personnel would make use of a cost effective technology that would save their organizations a lot of money.

    Yahoo is one of the clients giving the new technology a trial. Yahoo’s Kevin Graham said the company was continuously searching for ways of becoming more efficient while simplifying its infrastructure. Graham added that Yahoo had been consulting Seagate on ways through which the Kinetic Open Storage platform can yield an efficient and reliable way of storing Yahoo’s user data.

    An interface intended to enable connection from client to hard drives owned by Seagate will soon be launched. Seagate has acknowledged the help it has received from other companies. These include SwiftStack, Supermicro, Newisys, Rackspace, Huawei, EVault, Basho Technologies and Dell among others.

    Seagate’s core business has all along been the provision of virtual storage space. The new ambitious project, Kinetic Open Storage platform may soon change the way data centers should be formulated. Laura Dubois an authority within the industry reckons that the new technology has the potential to bring changes in the way storage is done.

  • HTC-built smartphone To Be Launched by Amazon, Reports Say


    Reports indicate that HTC and Amazon are working on a range of android-powered smartphones. According to people familiar with the project, three devices are on the roadmap and are set to be released in 2014. For a long time, there have been rumors that Amazon is working on a smartphone to pair with its Kindle Fire range of tablets as it seeks to compete with offering from Apple and Google.

    HTC faces expulsion from the Open handset alliance if it has worked with Amazon to release a forked version of the android operating system from Google. The OHA is a consortium of mobile phone makers that aims at accelerating innovation in mobile services.

    As part of the OHA, HTC has free access to the android software from Google. It also has certification for its android devices to be pre loaded with access to Google play as well as Google’s android app suit that comes with Gmail, Chrome, search, Maps and Calendar.

    In 2012, Amazon forked android to produce software for its kindle fire tablets in order to access their own app store. The kindle fire range makes use of Microsoft’s Bing search engine, Nokia’s maps as well as its own silk browser.

    The threat for HTC being pulled out of the OHA could be double edged especially following its third quarter’s dip in loss. It is losing its market space to Samsung’s larger phone range and marketing spend, and has set its eyes on China where android is only used on a tiny percentage.

  • The Stunning Features of the new iPad Air from Apple


    The leaked videos, images and specs speculated for the past few months have finally proven true. The fifth generation iPad is now here and it resembles the iPad mini. However, Apple surprised many by giving the new gadget a new branding: the iPad Air.

    The Thinnest and Lightest Tablet

    Apple claims that the new tablet is the thinnest in the world. This is 20 percent thinner compared to its predecessor. The new tablet is also lighter and weighs only 1 pound compared to the previous version’s 1.4 pounds.

    A7 Chip

    The iPad Air’s A7 chip takes it to new peaks of speed and power. Games are even more responsive and apps run insanely fast. Everything you do with this gadget feels quicker. It also supports the OpenGL ES edition 3.0, which enables detailed visual effects and graphics once possible only among game consoles and desktop computers. The A7 chip has 64-bit architecture that opens a door for more powerful and robust apps hence more possibilities for the things you could do with the new iPad Air.

    M7 Coprocessor

    The M7 coprocessor is the main proof that iPad Air was created to be just on the move. The M7 coprocessor measures motion from the iPad Air by simply pulling data from the gyroscope, accelerometer, and compass.

    Thus, based on iPad Air’s movement, you can get a better experience from your apps. While A7 would typically shoulder this task, M7 does it more efficiently thus saving power.
    Awesome Battery Life

    Well, iPad Air remains powerful though not power-hungry. While it’s twice as fast and 20 percent thinner than the previous version, it still provides the same stunning battery life of 10 hours. This is because the A7 chip is not only more powerful but also more efficient.

    Ultrafast Wi-Fi

    Whether it’s your best app, movie, or book, iPad Air’s ultrafast wireless allows you to access what you love hence you can stay in touch and in sync. With the dual-band (2.4GHz & 5GHz), MIMO (multiple-input multiple-output) technology, and two antennas, the download speed can reach 300 Mbps. This is twice the previous version’s data rate.
    Pricing

    The cost of iPad Air will be $499 and above. The devices will be available starting November 1.

  • Top 5 Features of iPad mini with Retina Display


    The highly anticipated iPad mini’s second iteration was launched at Apple’s special event on Tuesday. Apple didn’t disappoint its customers and upgraded the renowned compact tablet. ipad mini with Retina display will be going for $399 and people will access it "sometime in November".

    Here are the top 5 feature of the newly released iPad mini:

    1. Advanced Retina Display

    Customers liked the iPad mini’s form factor and pricing but its low resolution display disappointed them. Apple has worked on the feedback and created a great 7.9-inch Retina display having a pixel density of 326ppi and a resolution of up to 2038×1536 pixels. This makes the new iPad mini a more appealing proposition.

    2. Dual-microphones

    The iPad mini with a Retina display has a different feature from the original version: two microphones, one being at the back and the other at the top edge. These two microphones function together in capturing better sound. They achieve this by suppressing any audio from a source, which the user doesn’t focus on. This helps to create high quality FaceTime Calls, enhances the capability of Siri’s voice recognition and makes video recording even better.

    3. New A7 Chip

    The latest iPad mini with a Retina display comes with a 64-bit, A7 chip that is also known to power the new iPhone 5s. This new chip provides 4 times faster CPU and a graphic performance, which is 8 times faster that of the previous version.
    The new gadget runs a 64-bit version of the iOS7, meant to function with the A7 chip. Besides, the A7 chip actually supports version 3.0 of OpenGLES to offer complex visual effects and detailed graphics.

    4. Quality Wi-Fi Reception

    The just released iPad mini has two antennas for supporting MIMO (multiple-input multiple-output), which makes the Wi-Fi to have a speed of up to 802.11n. The cellular model of the Wi-Fi has more LTE bands that offer support for more 4G LTE networks.

    5. M7 Coprocessor

    Similar to the iPhone 5s, this gadget sports the M7 motion coprocessor that helps to measure data from gyroscope, compass sensors, and accelerometer and then sends them to apps without affecting the A7 processor. This leads to an improved battery life. Moreover, it detects different kinds of motion.