Thursday, April 04, 2013
ComScore: Apple up to 39 percent US smartphone share in February, Android on top at 52 percent
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/04/04/comscore-february-2013/
While there's no question that Android is thriving on the global scale, the situation is a little more complicated in the US when looking at ComScore's market share data for February. The platform is still comfortably ahead in the American smartphone sphere at 51.7 percent, but the figure represents the second consecutive dip in recent months, and roughly matches share that we saw back in June. Apple is headed in the opposite direction and appears to be the main beneficiary of Google's drop, albeit at a less-than-breakneck pace: the iPhone continued a gradual climb in February that put it at 38.9 percent. We're not surprised that BlackBerry declined once more in its last month before the Z10 reached the US, although Microsoft will be happy to hear that Windows Phone inched forward again to 3.2 percent.
Among individual smartphone makers, it's more of a familiar story. Apple's platform control gave it the lead at 38.9 percent, while Samsung at 21.3 percent was hovering roughly around the same share it had in January. As for everyone else? It's a bit ugly, to be honest. HTC, Motorola and LG all lost share in February, leaving the US ! firmly i n a two-horse race. That said, we wouldn't be surprised if the market plays a different tune around April and May: with 2013 Android flagships like the HTC One and Samsung Galaxy S 4 just around the corner, there's room for a potential upset.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Apple, Samsung, Microsoft, HTC, Google, LG, Blackberry
Source: ComScore
The Major Mobile Announcement Facebook Just Made Explained In A Single Graphic
Mark Zuckerberg swore his team wasn't making a Facebook phone. But today, he greeted a room full of press in Menlo Park with a different message.
"Today we're finally going to talk about that Facebook phone," the social network's CEO said.
But by "Facebook phone," Zuckerberg doesn't mean actual hardware. Instead his team created Home, a concept that changes the "soul of the phone," the home screen.
"What would it feel like if our phones were designed around people, not apps?" Zuckerberg asked the audience.
"We're not building a phone. We're not building a new MP3 player. And we're not building a new internet communication device," Zuckerberg said.
Instead, Facebook Home appears the moment you turn on your phone or wake it up from stand-by mode (Zuckerberg says people turn on their phones an average of 100 times per day).
Facebook Home doesn't display the typical static background photo. It shows story after story posted by friends to Facebook or Instagram in real-time. It displays status updates, photos, and other open graph stories with large images.
Below is a graphic that simply explains what Facebook Home is. It's an integration on top of Android's Operating System but beneath the app icon layer we're all used to seeing on our smart phones.
Facebook has built the first home screen that comes to life, and updates in real time.
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The Rise Of Bitcoin [INFOGRAPHIC]
Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/what-is-bitcoin-infographic-2013-4
Our friends at Visual Capitalist lay out everything you ever wanted to know about Bitcoin in this great infographic:
SEE ALSO: 16 Bubbles Getting Ready To Burst >
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Article: Scintillating specs: New 5.2-inch OLED display for smartphones
Japanese manufacturers unveil a white-hot display destined for future smartphones.
Get ready to see more smartphones sporting a spectacular OLED screen.
Japan Display -- a joint venture consisting of Sony, Toshiba, and Hitachi's manufacturing muscle -- revealed the development of a 5.2-inch O...
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-57577836-1/scintillating-specs-new-5.2-inch-oled-display-for-smartphones/?subj=News-Mobile&tag=feed
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Article: Seagate Ships World’s First 4TB HD With Four 1TB Platters
Seagate will be shipping a 4TB hard drive that has the distinction of being the world's first to include a 1TB per platter design. This basically means that each spinning disk in the hard drive has a capacity of 1TB, and that there are four of them.
It's not everyday that you can claim to that ...
http://techcrunch.com/2013/04/03/seagate-ships-worlds-first-4tb-hd-with-four-1tb-platters-2/
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Google Is Forking WebKit to Create a New Rendering Engine For Chrome and Opera
That is, admittedly, super-nerdy news, but it's important. Google claims that WebKit has been slowing down the way it develops its web browser. That's mainly because of the way Chrome uses different methods to display web pages compared to other browsers—each tab in Chrome is a separate process—and WebKit doesn't quite fit the mold. That means you can expect to see Google's Chrome get better, quicker in the future. Google explains:
This was not an easy decision. We know that the introduction of a new rendering engine can have significant implications for the web. Nevertheless, we believe that having multiple rendering engines-similar to having multiple browsers-will spur innovation and over time improve the health of the entire open web ecosystem.
What it actually means for the rest of the internet is unclear. WebKit is certainly the dominant rendering engine for the mobile web, thanks in the most part to its use in Safari which dominates mobile browsing. That means that, since Blink is a fork of WebKit and not a reinvention of the wheel, developers likely won't have to do much to support the change. At least, in the first instance.
Elsewhere, Opera has announced that it's joining Google in the shift, explaining that "the new engine that will power Opera's browsers." It could also be good news for Microsoft and Mozilla: currently, many mobile websites cater entirely for WebKit, and this shift might be enough to convince developers to shift to a more inclusive regime in the future. As for Apple, the major user of WebKit—well, it seems unlikely it will bother it at all.
Of course, it's going to be a while before this has any major impact on the internet we all use. Blink's still being developed, and will be first appear in Chromium before it eventually makes its way into Chrome. [Google via Verge]
LG's 5-inch Optimus G Pro launches in Japan
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/04/03/lg-5-inch-optimus-g-pro-launches-in-japan/
South Korea gave the Optimus G Pro a reasonably warm reception after debuting, and now LG's hoping to pull off a similar victory in Japan. Those in the Land of the Rising Sun can now pick up the smartphone from NTT DoCoMo. Though the handset bears the same name as its Korean counterpart, it forgoes a 5.5-inch 1080p display for a smaller 5-inch screen with the same resolution. In case you're in need of a refresher, the hardware runs Jelly Bean 4.1.2 on a 1.7GHz quad-core Snapdragon 600 Processor and 2GB of RAM flanked by a 3,000mAh battery, 13-megapixel rear shooter, 2.1-megapixel front-facing cam, 32GB of built-in memory and a microSD slot. LG still hasn't pinned down just when in Q2 the phone will launch in North America, but with a Japanese release behind it, a US arrival shouldn't be far off.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, LG
Source: LG Newsroom Korea (translated)
Chrome 26 for Android gets stable release with autofill and password syncing
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/04/03/chrome-26-for-android-stable-with-autofill-and-password-sync/
Perpetually forgetful Android users no longer have to adopt a Chrome beta to coordinate their lives. Just a month after the test version of Chrome 26 arrived with autofill and password syncing, its stable version has appeared with the same option to remember form and login details between supporting desktop and mobile Chrome builds. There's no talk of the SPDY-based proxy, however: aside from tune-ups, the syncing is the main highlight. That's still enough for us to justify swinging by Google Play for the update.
Filed under: Cellphones, Software, Mobile, Google
Via: Chrome Releases
Source: Google Play
ASUS unveils GeForce GTX 670 DirectCU Mini graphics card destined for little rigs
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/04/04/asus-geforce-gtx-670-directcu-mini-graphics-card/
It's easy to chop and change components in spacious towers, but small PCs need upgrading, too. If your stunted desktop has fallen into the "minimum system requirements" category for the latest games, then maybe the newly announced ASUS GeForce GTX 670 DirectCU Mini graphics card will interest you. Quite the mouthful, we know, but its long name contrasts with its small size -- the dual-slot, 2GB card measures 6.7 inches on its longest edge, shaving almost 3 inches off the reference design. There's no reason you can't put the card in a regular case, of course, but it's intended mainly for compact rigs with mini ITX or micro ATX motherboards. We don't have pricing or release info yet, but if the cost of NVIDIA's GTX 670 is anything to go by, expect to drop at least a trio of Benjamins on the petite version. Glamor shots and all the finer specs are available at the source links below.
Filed under: Desktops, Gaming, Peripherals, ASUS
Via: Fareas tgizmos
Small Businesses Are Critical To The US Economic Recovery
Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/why-small-business-is-critical-2013-4
According to the ADP National Employment Report, which came out Wednesday morning, private sector employment increased by 158,000 in March. That was substantially below the consensus estimate of 197,000 and it was also way down from the revised 237,000 gain in February.
However, the most interesting part of the report was how it highlights the importance of small businesses to an economic recovery. Small businesses are typically defined as those that employ fewer than 500 people. Of the 158,000 payroll gains in March, 111,000 came from small businesses. In fact, 74,000 jobs were created by businesses that employ fewer than 50 people. Only 47,000 jobs were due to hiring from large companies.
Yet large businesses are the ones that have the clout and resources to lobby politicians. Perhaps it is time for elected officials who are interested in putting more people to work to start paying more attention to what small business owners have to say.
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Wednesday, April 03, 2013
Google forks WebKit with Blink, a new web engine for Chromium and Chrome
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/04/03/google-forks-webkit-with-blink-a-new-web-engine-for-chromium/
You could call WebKit the glue that binds the modern web: the rendering engine powers Apple's Safari, Google's Chrome, and many mobile browsers past and present. Things are about to unstick a little. Google believes that Chromium's multi-process approach has added too much complexity for both the browser and WebKit itself, so it's creating a separate, simpler fork named Blink. Although the new engine will be much the same as WebKit at the start, it's expected to differ over time as Google strips out unnecessary code and tweaks the underlying platform. We'd also expect it to spread, as the company has confirmed to us that both Chrome and Chrome OS will be using Blink in the future. We're safely distant from the Bad Old Days of wildly incompatible web engines, but the shift may prove a mixed blessing -- it could lead to more advancements on the web, but it also gives developers that much more code to support.
Filed under: Internet, Software, Google
Source: Chromium Blog
10 Of The World's Best Places To See Stunning Sunrise Views
Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/most-stunning-sunrise-views-in-the-world-2013-3
Let’s face it: Winter has left us chilled, pallid and perhaps a little less than energized. But the arrival of the vernal equinox on March 20—the first day of spring for the Northern Hemisphere—brought the promise of warmer temperatures and brighter days.Skip ahead to see the most stunning sunrise views >
Historically, pagans aligned this turn in season with the theme of rebirth, both spiritually and agriculturally. Likewise, many pagan deities were associated with renewal and rejuvenation. Egyptians looked to Hathor, daughter of the sun god Ra, who bore a golden solar disk between her horns. Greeks turned to Aphrodite of Cyprus, who is associated with love and fertility. And the Saxons honored Ostara, the goddess of springtime and the namesake of Easter.
Perhaps our ancestors were on to something. (Who doesn’t link the spring and summer months with growth and positive energy?) So take a cue from nature and begin the season of renewal with a visit to a place that celebrates and accentuates the beauty of the morning horizon. Soak in the silhouettes of Cambodian temples in Angkor Wat or peer out at the waters over the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. Take a walk by India’s Ganges River and see one of the world’s greatest tributes to romance, the Taj Mahal, or travel to the South Pacific archipelago of Tonga, where islanders are among the world’s first to see the sun rise each day. Each of our 11 favorites is bound to be enlightening.
Skip ahead to see the most stunning sunrise views >
More from Departures:
Angkor Wat, Cambodia
It’s only fitting that the Hindu deity Angkor Wat was erected for—Vishnu—would have a connection to the sun. Although he is known as “the Protector” today, Vishnu is referred to as the Sun God in ancient Hindu scriptures. And although Angkor Wat has since become a Buddhist site, it remains one of the world’s best vantage points for a sunrise.
Book a room at La Résidence d’Angkor, a lavish riverside resort located near both the majestic temples and Siem Reap’s vibrant markets. The hotel offers a daybreak tour of Angkor Wat, with an optional breakfast picnic or an early-morning water blessing, in which a monk bestows fragrant flowers on guests and blesses them against the backdrop of ancient temples. For the full experience, schedule a meditation session with a Cambodian monk.Rooms start at $280; River Rd.; 855-63/963-390;
Bali, Indonesia
Bali’s gorgeous seascape is perfect for the romantically inclined. Book a room at the Amankila, a cliffside resort perched high in the hills overlooking the Lombok Strait and the volcanic eastern coastline.
The resort’s 35 thatched-roof suites embody refuge and relaxation; each suite is elevated and connected to the main hotel by tiny walkways. Start the day with a combination of light cardio and yoga, or opt for a sunrise cruise up the coastline for radiant views of Mount Rinjani, a volcano on the island of Lombok. Eat breakfast onboard and try your hand at fishing on the tranquil ride back. Another reason to set your alarm? A cooking class at dawn includes a guided market tour during which guests can handpick ingredients to cook an authentic Indonesian feast. Rooms start at $950; Manggis; 62-363/41333; amanresorts.com.
Great Barrier Reef, Bedarra Island, Australia
Located just off the coast of Mission Beach, Bedarra Island is a secluded alternative to Cairns, the city where most tourists end up when seeking out Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. With a maximum capacity of 14 guests, Bedarra Island has all the amenities of a large resort combined with the intimacy of a bed-and-breakfast.
Soak up the sun on a nearby deserted island, book a private deep-sea fishing charter or explore the lush rainforest surrounding the hotel. The privately owned island has seven villas, each nestled away with private beaches and commanding views of the reef. Sustainability is important here, so expect fresh produce from the island’s garden, water-saving d! evices a nd a new off-grid hybrid solar system. Rooms start at $990; Bedarra Island; 61-7/4047-4747; bedarra.com.au.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
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Draft Is a Writing App with Serious Version and Draft Control
Source: http://lifehacker.com/5993339/draft-is-a-writing-app-with-serious-version-and-draft-control
Google Drive/Docs is great at working everywhere and offering instantaneous collaboration. Drive is not so great at letting you review changes and track specific versions of your document. Enter Draft, a writing webapp that works with Drive—and Dropbox, and Evernote, and Markdown.
On its own, Draft is a very nice and minimalist place to write. What sets Draft apart is its collaborative editing powers. You can invite people to pick at your words, but Draft tracks the changes they make and asks you to accept or reject them, individually, while showing the two different versions of the document in side-by-side columns. This way, you can invite more than one person to review your work and keep track of who made which suggestion. You also mark drafts as you write, making it easy to get back to ideas you may have discarded as you went along. That is, suffice to say, nicer than running through Drive's color-coded overwriting and immense list of revisions by username.
Draft packs in a lot of other features without intruding on the writing-focused interface. You can bring in professional copyeditors for important work, write and convert from Markdown, and import and export documents from all the popular cloud services. But my favorite feature involves installing a Draft Chrome extension that lets you click in any text field on the web to open a new Draft, then click again to paste your work back into that field, in HTML or Markdown or regular text again. In fact, that's how I wrote this Lifehacker post.
Draft is free to use, and you can sign in using your Google account.
Slight disclosure: Draft's creator is a friend-of-a-friend, and I had access to a test version of the Chrome extension for a short period before Draft promoted it.
Twitter Cards for apps, products and photo galleries unveiled
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/04/02/twitter-cards-apps-products-photo-galleries/
Twitter just wrapped up a developer shindig at its San Francisco HQ and trotted out three new content preview cards. When a user links to a page with Twitter-specific markup, a tweet will feature an application's name, icon, description, rating and price within the freshly unveiled App Card and link to its Google Play or App Store page, to boot. Product Cards on the other hand, highlight merchandise with an image, price and even ratings. When tweets link to a photo gallery on the web, the social network will use a Gallery Card to display a collection of four photos, indicating that it points to an image set, and not just a lone picture. The firm rounded off the updates with "mobile app deep-linking," which means that tweets can sport a download link for the app which was used to publish them. Flickr, Foursquare, Path, Vine and others will make use of the new features when they launch, which should be tomorrow according to word from the coder get-together.
Via: TechCrunch
Source: Twitter Dev Blog
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