In what is certainly the most enticing phone we’ve seen at CES thus far, Sony’s Xperia Z1S is heading to the U.S. as a T-Mobile exclusive, and it looks like an absolute powerhouse (as does its little buddy, for those who like smaller phones). Where to begin?
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Samsung’s tablet family is about get a few new professional members. The new Android tablets, dubbed the Galaxy NotePRO and Galaxy TabPRO (which includes three sizes) are definitely aimed at the business sector, but they certainly look like flagship products that anybody would want to get their hands on.
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This year at CES 2014 there’s already one whole heck of a lot of new technologically advanced devices and software innovation, but for the reader, experiencing the action is much … Continue reading
Hours after LG unveiled its webOS-powered smart TV interface at CES, Panasonic has spilled the beans on its own mobile-inspired TV plans — announcing a partnership with Mozilla to use the latter’s Firefox OS (FFOS) and open Web standards ethos to open up the living room’s primary screen.
Firefox OS can currently be found cooling its heels on some low-end phone hardware — mostly in Europe and developing markets in South America. The HTML5-based mobile OS has a mountain to climb in competing with the dominance — and reach — of Google’s Android OS. So Mozilla seeking to push it beyond mobile hardware to expand the ecosystem’s reach makes some sense.
Whether the FFOS interface is going to be compelling enough to bag Panasonic smart TV buyers at the expense of other offerings, or for developers to rally behind an open platform banner for building TV apps and integration remains to be seen.
“Mozilla and Panasonic will work together to promote Firefox OS and its open ecosystem,” the pair said in a press release today. ”This development aims to deliver more expansive access into smart TVs by leveraging the HTML5 and Web technologies already prevalent on PCs, smartphones and tablets, to offer consumers more personalized and optimized access to Web and broadcasting content and Web services.”
Yuki Kusumi, Director of the TV Business Division of the AVC Networks Company of Panasonic, added in a statement that the partnership with Mozilla will be aimed at ramping up the interactivity and connectivity of its smart TVs — “both inside and outside of the home”.
“Panasonic had been expanding content and services dedicated for Panasonic TVs on our own portal site and our collaboration with Mozilla on Firefox OS will further accelerate various innovations and encourage many new services,” he added.
The forthcoming FFOS-powered Panasonic smart TVs will make use of Mozilla WebAPIs for hardware control and operation — meaning they will also be capable of monitoring and operating other devices, such as smart home appliances.
At the time of writing, Mozilla was unable to provide any screen shots of the FFOS TV interface but the pair talked up the potential offered by cross-leveraging Internet, cloud services and broadcast content, and using HTML5 to write native TV functions instead of having to create embedded programs.
With the launch of this new open platform, next generation smart TVs will gain full compatibility with Web technologies and HTML5 standards used for cloud services and various future networked devices, enabling data from Web services and devices to be easily mashed up on a single application. This ensures flexibility for developers to create new applications and services by using cross-leveraged content from the Internet and broadcasting.
In next generation smart TVs, basic functions, such as menus and EPGs (Electronic Program Guide) which are currently written as embedded programs, will be written in HTML5, making it possible for developers to easily create applications for smartphones or tablets to remotely access and operate the TV. In addition, through the Web services, next generation smart TVs can display personalized user interfaces, featuring the user’s favorites and even add new functions for multiple users sharing the same screen after devices are purchased.
“We are very excited to partner with Panasonic to bring Firefox OS to more people on more platforms. As we see more partners supporting Firefox OS and the open Web, Firefox OS helps solidify open Web standards for smart screen solutions,” added Dr. Li Gong, Senior Vice President of Mobile Devices and President of Asia Operations at Mozilla, in a statement.
“This new platform enables developers and service providers to create a wide range of applications and services to deliver a new user experience. We see a strong alignment between the visions of Mozilla and Panasonic, and by combining our collective expertise and know-how, we will create amazing products together.”
As well as committing to release next generation smart TVs powered by Firefox OS, Panasonic — itself also a mobile maker, albeit last year it announced would be withdrawing from the smartphone market to focus its manufacturing efforts elsewhere — said it will work together with Mozilla to promote the Firefox OS and its open ecosystem approach.
This week the folks at NVIDIA revealed their next-generation mobile processor, the NVIDIA Tegra K1, and with it the incorporation of Unreal Engine 4 technology. This release will allow the … Continue reading
Zippy 4G data speeds have made gobbling down data a cinch, but they’ve made bumping up against your mobile plan’s data caps even easier. AT&T might have found a way to provide some relief—by letting the companies whose sites you’re visiting foot the bill.
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Google is hoping to do it again with Android — and cars. The 2007 Open Handset Alliance helped drive Google’s mobile OS from new-kid-on-the-block to dominant force in smartphones. Today, the company has announced the Open Automotive Alliance (OAA) to attempt the same trick but for cars — persuading a small coterie of car makers and others to join it as founder members of the OAA.
As well as Mountain View itself, Audi, GM, Honda, Hyundai and NVIDIA have put their names to the OAA, which is described as “a global alliance of technology and auto industry leaders committed to bringing the Android platform to cars starting in 2014″. The OAA will be focused on establishing a common platform for Android integration with connected cars.
Google notes:
We’re working with our partners to enable better integration between cars and Android devices in order to create a safer, car optimized experience. We’re also developing new Android platform features that will enable the car itself to become a connected Android device. Stay tuned for more details coming soon.
As with Android, Google is a little late to the party here: back in June Apple confirmed it is working with car makers on an initiative called ‘iOS in The Car’ to enable iDevice owners to use their gadgets to do stuff like play music, display maps, dictate messages in their cars, starting in 2014.
Car makers signed up to Apple’s earlier automotive initiative are a little more plentiful and include Honda, Mercedes Benz, Nissan, Ferrari, Chevy, Infiniti, Kia, Hyundai, Volvo, Jaguar, and Acura. (So Honda and Hyundai are playing in both camps.)
The first cars with “Android integration” are expected by the end of this year, according to the OAA’s inaugural release (it does not say which car maker is expected to be first).
Back in October, in its Q3 results, HTC reported its first ever quarterly loss – of around $102 million. Now, in unaudited consolidated results for its Q4, released quietly Sunday as the tech press’ gaze is focused on Vegas for the annual Consumer Electronics Show, HTC revealed it has narrowly avoided a second consecutive quarter of loss.
HTC reported net profit after tax of NT$0.31 billion (circa $10.3 million) on total revenues of NT$42.89 billion ($1.4 billion). In its Q4 outlook, back in November, HTC had said it expected revenue for the quarter to be in the range of NT$40 billion to NT$45 billion.
However the small profit HTC squeaked in the quarter appears attached to the one-time windfall from selling its stake in Beats Audio, rather than selling enough phones to get back in the black. In September, HTC said it intended to sell its 24.84% stake in the audio brand for $265 million. Bloomberg expected the deal to close in the fourth quarter.
HTC’s unaudited results for its Q4 also report an operating loss of NT$1.56 billion (close to $52 million). Unaudited earnings per share after tax were NT$0.38 based on 823,541 thousand weighted average number of shares, which falls within HTC’s earlier expected EPS range of NT$0.1 to NT$1.7.
While it’s narrowly avoided another quarterly loss, there’s no denying HTC is running out of room for manoeuvre in the Samsung-dominated Android smartphone space. And that 2014 is going to be a critical year for the company.
Bringing on a 192-core processor in the NVIDIA Tegra K1 wasn’t a big enough release for NVIDIA at CES 2014. Instead they had to go beyond a single Quad-core A15 … Continue reading
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