HTC Endeavour C2 points to potential One X refresh

Last week we heard word that an improved version of the HTC One X was heading to T-Mobile USA, returning to the NVIDIA Tegra 3 quad-core processor from Qualcomm’s Snapdragon S4 chip and pairing it with Jelly Bean. Now word comes from Stuff.tv that HTC is planning something similar with the international version of the device, with the updated model codenamed “Endeavour C2.” The HTC One X originally carried the Endeavour codename, with details of this new device suggesting it will be a small refresh of the popular handset.

The improved version of the HTC One X is expected to retain its NVIDIA Tegra 3 quad-core processor, but it will receive a bump in clock speed to 1.7Ghz. The battery will also be improved – we’re assuming HTC will increase the capacity – and a new color option will be on offer, which should please those looking for something other than white or grey.

The handset will be bundled with Beats headphones just like the HTC One X and other HTC phones, with Stuff also hearing word that current HTC accessories will continue to work without any trouble with the refreshed model, suggesting that the design of the handset won’t be radically different. Meanwhile, HTC will add ClearVoice to “improve call quality”, which sounds similar to HD Voice offered on certain carriers’ handsets.

Finally, HTC Watch 2, an improved version of the company’s video streaming service, will be bundled with the new handset. Pricing hasn’t been finalized, but Stuff believes UK carriers will offer the refreshed model on tariffs £5 more expensive than the current HTC One X. The handset is expected to be released around October 1st, just in time to go toe-to-toe with the Galaxy Note II and the next iPhone.

Read more >>

Tweet

Wearable technology developer exclaims massive adoption potential

This week we had a brief chat with Will Powell, a developer responsible for some rather fantastic advances in the world of what Google has suddenly made a very visible category of devices: wearable technology. With Google’s Project Glass nearer and nearer reality with each passing day, we asked Powell how his own projects were making advances at the same time, and how he saw advances in mobile gadgets as moving forward – and possibly away from smartphones and tablets entirely.

Those of you unfamiliar with Powell’s work, you can hit up the following three links and see the videos of the projects he’s done throughout this post. Some of the products Powell uses are the Vuzix STAR 1200 AR glasses, Raspberry Pi – the fabulous miniature computer, and of course, a good ol’ fashioned ASUS Eee Pad Transformer.

• Raspberry Pi takes on Google’s Project Glass
• DIY Project Glass makes Google’s AR vision real
• Will Powell brings on AR vision real-time translation

SlashGear: Where you working with wearable technology before Google’s Project
Glass was revealed to the world?

Powell: Yes at Keytree we were working with wearable technology before the unveiling of project glass. I was working on CEO Vision a glasses based augmented reality that you could reach out and touch objects to interact or add interactive objects on top of an iPad. I have also had lots of personal projects.

SG: What is your ultimate goal in creating this set of projects with
Raspberry Pi, Vuzix 1200 Star, etc?

P: I would say that the ultimate goal is really to show what is possible. With CEO Vision at Keytree we showed that you could use a sheet of paper to interact with sales figures and masses of data using the SAP Hana database technology. Then creating my own version of project glass and now extending those ideas to cover translations as well, was just to show what is possible using off-the-shelf technology. The translation idea was to take down barriers between people.

SG: Do you believe wearable technology will replace our most common mobile tech – smartphones, laptops – in the near future?

P: Yes I do, but with an horizon of a couple of years. I think that with the desire for more content and easier simpler devices, using what we are looking at and hearing to tell our digital devices what we want to find and share is the way forward. Even now we have to get a tablet, phone or laptop out to look something up. Glasses would completely change this because they are potentially always on and are now adding full time to at least one of our fundamental senses. Also many of us already wear glasses, according to Vision Council of America, approximately 75% of U.S. adults use some sort of vision correction. About 64% of them wear eyeglasses so people are already wearing something that could be made smart. That is a huge number of potential adopters for mobile personal information delivery.

I think we still have a way to go with working out how everything will fit together and how exactly we would interact with glasses based technology. With the transition from a computer to tablets and smartphones we opened up gestured with glasses we have the potential to have body language and real life actions as interaction mechanisms. And it would be the first time that there is no keyboard. There is also the potential for specifically targeted ads that could end up with us having some parodies come true. However, I do think we will have an app store for a glasses based device in the next few years.

SG: What projects do you have coming up next?

P: I have many more ideas about what glasses based applications can be used for and am building some of them. I am creating another video around translation to show the multi lingual nature of the concept. Further to that, we are looking at what areas of everyday life could be helped with glasses based tech and the collaboration between glasses users. The translation application highlighted that glasses are even better with wide adoption because Elizabeth could not see the subtitles of what I was saying without using the TV or tablet.

Stick around as Powell’s mind continues to expand on the possibilities in augmented reality, wearable technology, and more!

Read more >>

Tweet

Why Google Plus is a Potential Facebook Killer!

The Seven Dwarfs Protected the Prettiest of them All!

Once upon a time in the early years of the Internet there was a mighty browser called Netscape Navigator. It was the default way to access the Internet for the majority of people lucky enough to have access to the web. In fact Netcape Navigator held 90% of the browser market in 1995.

Then came along a mighty software company called Microsoft.

So jealous were they of Netscape’s dominance over online access they created their own web browser and named it Internet Explorer, or IE, as it is now more commonly known.

By 2006 Netscape’s market share had dropped to 1%.

This Fairy-Tale doesn’t end here though, as is so often the case on the web no one company dominates a single market sector forever.

Microsoft dominated the PC market with its Windows operating system, and integrated IE into it. Within a few of years Netscape was no more. IE now dominated web access as much as it did the PC operating system market with Windows.

But times change and Microsofts grip on browser dominance is now slipping. Known for it’s sluggishness, non-standards compliance and generally bloated coding IE started to lose out to Firefox, which grew ever more popular, especially with developers. Quietly in the background the search giant of the web, Google, stepped into the browser market. Slowly at first, its light weight and speedy browser Chrome took time to get a foothold. The general public not really aware of the advantages it held and developers locked into Firefox because of developer friendly add-ons that assisted with web programming. It didn’t take long for Chrome to become a force to be reckoned with.

In 2008 IE had a 70% share of the browser market and therefore control of the individuals that used it. As of April 2012 Microsoft via IE now only has a 34.8% of the browser market, whilst Google with Chrome has grown rapidly to control nearly 31%. Leaving Firefox with just 25% of the market share. It is expected that in the next 12 months Chrome will become the most popular way for people to access the Internet.

Source: StatCounter Global Stats – Browser Market Share

Whilst the war over access to the web has been going on Facebook has grown the biggest online community that has ever existed. Over 850 million people use the social platform to chat, post photo’s, play games and do business.

But how they get there is Facebook’s achilles tendon.

Where Google+ has grown quickly, 170 million users according to Google CEO Larry Page, it still has a long way to go before it seriously contends with Facebook in user numbers. Yet we know that Google+ was never intended to be an independent platform. Many of Googles other products already integrate seamlessly with Google+, and Google has not been shy about its use of your Google+ activity to assist with personalised search results. Therefore it is only a matter of time before it leverages its coming browser dominance to deliver users into the Google+ platform.

In this version of the future Google would now control the way people look for things on the web with it’s search engine, and eventually the way people access the web in the first place. It would not be difficult for them to relegate Facebook to the back of the queue when it comes to social networking online. In fact there are currently many Chrome add-ons related to Google+ which may one day just be part of the default browser.

There are two opportunities for Facebook in this battle for access. One is Apps.

For all it’s advances online Google has yet to produce killer mobile applications that work with Google+. Facebook have been slow in coming forward but there is now a usable iPad App and other Apps for all popular smart phones. Yes Google has Android, but where the Android mobile platform is popular, the majority of serious web access is still currently via Apples iOS.

The second chance for Facebook is to develop it’s own browser. One that integrates seamlessly with the social network is likely to appeal to its users. Even if it doesn’t fancy building one itself, Microsoft is highly likely to do a deal over IE to ensure its chances of remaining dominant in the browser wars.

Facebook is not down and out yet, and Microsoft won’t give up without a fight. But if you ever doubted Google+ playing a part in your business’s social media strategy then this at least should get you rethinking.

Google lives off the data it collects, it’s this that it sells to you, allowing your businesses to target potential customers more accurately and efficiently. The more it can do to encourage people to use it’s products, whether through improved usability, Chrome, or better results in Google Search, this is what it will do.

Social Media offers the most valuable dataset of all, this fact alone will drive Google+ to own the social space. Make sure you don’t miss the ride!

If you need help getting up to speed with Google+ or any of the other social platforms call Sean on +44 (0)7850957506.

Read more >>

Tweet

Mark Pincus, a potential multibillionaire, finally takes center stage at Zynga (video)

Mark Pincus, chief executive of Zynga, has been out of the public eye for months, mainly due to regulatory restrictions on what CEOs of companies filing for initial public offerings can say in public. But yesterday, he finally got on stage for Zynga’s big games rollout.

Clearly, Pincus was careful to avoid saying anything that would derail the social game company’s IPO (if that IPO happens, he could become a multibillionaire). So his appearance  had to be a carefully planned event. He made no financial projections, and he focused on Zynga’s upcoming games and its goal of “connecting the world through games” that are played on any platform by everyone.

It’s been so long since Pincus has talked that it’s worth making some observations about what he said on stage and how he performed in front of the bright lights.

He hasn’t always been careful or scripted in the past. He is naturally folksy, casual and down to earth when he communicates on stage. And his talk yesterday didn’t seem scripted, although it probably was scrutinized by the company’s lawyers.

He started out with a story about the good old days at Zynga in 2007, when the company first started making games for Facebook. He said the team hired some students from the Culinary Academy across the street to create food in the company’s small headquarters. One of those students, Amelia, later became the fictional head chef in Zynga’s Cafe World game, and she’s now the head chef in Zynga’s sprawling new San Francisco headquarters for 1,700 employees. (The company has 2,500 employees worldwide.)

Pincus described how the team took the old Sega headquarters and converted it into a cool space that Zynga employees affectionately call the “doghouse.” At that point in his talk, he asked the crowd of journalists to turn around and look up. There, up on the upper balconies of the building were Zynga’s employees by the hundreds (pictured right). It was a moment when Pincus could recognize the efforts of his staff. He apologized to them for taking away their cafeteria for the day and asked them to go out for an expensive lunch.

Pincus laid the groundwork for all of the presentations by senior Zynga executives. He allowed each domain expert to get on stage to describe their own games. When he introduced the company’s chief operating officer, John Schappert, who was recruited away from Electronic Arts, he said Schappert had fulfilled Pincus’ goal of finding his own replacement. Pincus said hiring Schappert to run the game operations allowed him to focus on helping Zynga employees become entrepreneurs in their current jobs.

Pincus said, “We challenge ourselves every day to … get you guys to play. You are busy. You are on the move. You don’t have time to sit and play games. But we really think play is this macro theme and activity that we all need to fit back into our lives. Everything behind what we are building is this mission to build a platform for play.”

He added, “We are not trying to be a company that is making the next hit game. We would be happy to create the next hit game. But we are trying to do something broader than that. We are trying to have this experience make up a platform for play.” He said Zynga is trying to inspire “socialness,” or getting you to create many more friend connections. He said Zynga is tracking how well teams do at getting you to connect with people in meaningful ways.

Pincus said Zynga’s basic design principles focus on the FTUE, or first-time user experience. The best opportunity for Zynga to make an impression on a player is in the first three clicks of a game. He said that in casual games, you have to sell the player on the whole game in the first three clicks and that five to 15-minute experiences of playing should “feel like a meal.” You shouldn’t have to change your routine for Zynga’s sake.

He mentioned that one new initiative, Zynga Direct, which the company has been working on for two years. It’s a platform for creating more social interactions around Zynga games played on the web or on mobile devices. But he didn’t go into much detail.

Schappert later described Direct, dubbed Project Z, as an online destination where Zynga players can go to play Zynga games. Schappert said Project Z was a “social gaming playground,” where players could play under their own gamertag names. But he didn’t go into much detail, either. In fact, Zynga probably left that initiative shrouded a bit too much in mystery, as a number of the press left the event confused.

Pincus closed the event saying that Zynga is committed to one vision that hasn’t changed since the founding: ”We want to be the biggest macro bet on social gaming.”

“We believe that this is the way everyone around the world will want to embrace play in their lives,” he said. “We know it is early. We know it is primitive.” He said social gaming will come to life in the next few years and will become more mobile, so that you will get something like a World of Warcraft experience in five or fifteen minutes.

All in all, Pincus communicated the company’s vision and came off as personable. But he didn’t fully succeed in providing answers to questions that his own presentation raised.

Read more >>

Tweet