Artificial Life Launches Mobile Games with Talkweb for China Mobile
Artificial Life, Inc., (OTC BB: ALIFE), a leading provider of award-winning mobile technology and applications, announced today that it has signed a partnership and distribution agreement with Talkweb in the People’s Republic of China to publish a wide range of its Android and Java games on an upcoming Artificial Life Brand Shop for China Mobile’s app store, Mobile Market.
With 20 million users and 100 million downloads in 2010, China Mobile’s Mobile Market (MM) is one of the most prominent app stores in Mainland China. One of its key success factors lies in the Brand Shops, which provide high-quality apps and games developed by prestigious interactive gaming companies.
In this collaboration, Artificial Life (ALIFE( http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=alife&ql=1 )) will launch various mobile titles through its own Brand Shop in the Mobile Market, which will allow the Company to tap deeper into the thriving mobile market of Mainland China. Further information about the many mobile game titles and other products by Artificial Life can be found at the company’s m-commerce portal: www.botme.com.
“We are pleased to extend our presence in China through the main app store of the world’s biggest mobile phone operator, China Mobile. We will continue to explore more distribution platforms so that our games and apps can reach even more users around the world,” said Eberhard Schoneburg, CEO of Artificial Life, Inc.
About Artificial Life, Inc.
Artificial Life, Inc. has been a pioneer in artificial intelligence and mobile technology since its inception in Boston in 1994. We are a public US corporation (OTC BB:ALIFE( http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=alife&ql=1 )) with listing on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (Frankfurt: AIF.F( http://de.finance.yahoo.com/q?s=AIF.F ); Xetra: AIF.DE( http://de.finance.yahoo.com/q?s=AIF.DE )) and headquarters and production center in Hong Kong. We have additional offices in Berlin, Germany (EMEA headquarters), Tokyo, Japan, and Santa Monica, USA. Currently our main business areas are: high quality (3D) interactive (massively multiplayer) mobile games, mobile participation television, mobile business applications, our powerful mobile commerce technology platform OPUS-M(TM) and our green IT solutions provided by Green Cortex, Inc. We have won many industry awards for our outstanding technology and products.
About Talkweb:
Talkweb Information System Co., Ltd was founded in May 1996, at present with about 2000 staff in 29 offices located across mainland China; Company engaged mainly in the mobile internet, mobile animation, e-commerce support & operation and industry software development. We have 14 years of telecom industry experience and over 5 years of mobile internet product design, develop and mobile animation operation and marketing experience. Our company listed on Shenzhen SME board, Ticker symbol: 002261.
About China Mobile:
China Mobile Limited provides a range of mobile telecommunications services in all 31 provinces, autonomous regions and directly administered municipalities in Mainland China, as well as in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China. Ranked as international number one operators by revenue, the Company’s total number of customers reached approximately 589.3 million.
Acer delays tablet PC, smartphone launch (Taiwan)
If reports are to be believed, Acer will postpone the launch of its Android 3.0 tablet PC to August or September, from the originally scheduled launch date of May or June.
According to reports, the decision is due to compatibility issues between Android 3.0 and the 7-inch screen Acer uses.
From the time when Android 3.0 was specifically designed for 10-inch display, Acer has found that many applications are incompatible with its 7-inch device. The company has therefore decided to postpone the launch of the Iconia A100.
Acer will also postpone the launch of its 5-inch smartphone, Iconia Smart, from May to July over a shortage in the supply of key components following the earthquake in Japan.
SK Telecom to set up app store in China, Japan (Korea)
SK Telecom, which operates in South Korea, is planning to enter overseas markets with its app store.
According to the company’s officials, it will be setting up its T-Store in China in July on China Mobile’s Mobile Market.
SK Telecom has also signed a contract with China Mobile to team up on promoting mobile content exchanges.
According to Lee Joo-sik, executive vice president and head of the new app store business division at the company, SKT’s partnership with China Mobile will become an opportunity to accelerate global expansion of the T-Store platform.
Additionally, the company will enter Japan in September with the launch of a localized version of the T-Store, tentatively dubbed ‘J-Store’. SK Telecom is in talks with Japanese handset makers and content providers for marketing and operating the J-Store.
Sony Ericsson Canadian site hacked
Sony spokesman has stated that hackers have attacked Sony Ericsson’s Canadian eShop website, affecting 2,000 users, the latest online strike against the Japanese electronics and entertainment giant.
The new security infringe follows a massive theft of personal data from Sony’s PlayStation Network and Sony Online Entertainment services, including names, passwords and addresses from more than 100 million accounts.
On Tuesday Sony stated its websites in three countries had been hacked with 8,500 Greek user accounts compromised, while sites in Thailand and Indonesia were also affected.
As per Sony’s spokesperson, the most recent attack — targeting the mobile phone joint venture between Sony and Sweden’s Ericsson — was discovered on Tuesday local time, and the affected website was shut down. Sony Ericsson’s website in Canada, which advertises its products, has been hacked, affecting 2,000 people.
He added that their personal information was posted on a website called ‘The Hacker News’. The information includes registered names, email addresses and encrypted passwords. But it does not include credit card information.
Rohde & Schwarz and Synopsys Form Strategic Collaboration for LTE/LTE-Advanced Design Acceleration (Germany) to accelerate LTE product testing
Synopsys, Inc. (Nasdaq: SNPS), a world leader in software and IP for semiconductor design, verification and manufacturing, and Rohde & Schwarz, a premium supplier of test and measurement solutions to the wireless and cellular industry, today announced the formation of a strategic collaboration to accelerate the design and verification of chipsets, handsets and base stations that serve the next-generation LTE and LTE-Advanced standards. Synopsys is contributing to the collaboration its strength in algorithm design and verification solutions, including standard-compliant reference libraries. Rohde & Schwarz is contributing its signal generation expertise and proven test and measurement solutions that are used worldwide in research and development, verification, production and service.
Synopsys’ LTE Library for its System Studio and SPW algorithm design products includes models of the transmitter and the physical channel as defined in the standard, as well as functional models of ideal receivers that can serve as references. The library provides an end-to-end simulation chain for both uplink and downlink transmission and reception. Through the collaboration, Synopsys’ LTE library, including the upcoming LTE-Advanced enhancements, will be verified against Rohde & Schwarz’s test and measurement solutions, greatly increasing design confidence for algorithm designers needing to achieve standards compliance. Starting with signal generators, Rohde & Schwarz test equipment will be able to automatically derive its configuration from the Synopsys simulation setup. Since typical configurations consist of more than 100 parameters, this integration significantly reduces the time it takes to achieve a correct setup. It also reduces the risk of configuration inconsistencies that often result in losing days of system integration time in the lab.
“As long-time users of both Synopsys’ SPW algorithm design and analysis products and the Rohde & Schwarz signal generator solutions, a combined compliance approach significantly reduces the time to the first test and enables the most efficient interaction between our algorithm designers and system integration engineers,” said Robert Peloso, Director of Engineering Management at InterDigital. “In making robust contributions to the standards bodies and other partners, we rely on standard-compliant signal generation in simulation and hardware testing. Ensuring full compliance between both simulation and hardware testing gives us an additional level of confidence in this verified approach. Just as important, bringing our advanced solutions in to the market more rapidly helps to proliferate the advances in wireless technologies more rapidly.”
LTE and LTE-Advanced, standardized by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), are evolutionary advancements of today’s mobile communication technologies such as GSM and WCDMA/HSPA. The primary goal for LTE/LTE-Advanced is to serve the surging demand for mobile broadband data by increasing peak and average data throughput, as well as to significantly reduce latency. These improvements, combined with a simpler network architecture, lower operation and maintenance costs for the service provider.
“Synopsys has been a supplier to leading wireless algorithm design teams since the early days of GSM. The collaboration with Rohde & Schwarz enables us to deliver additional customer value by providing the fastest simulation technology and validated reference models,” said John Koeter, vice president of marketing for IP and systems at Synopsys. “With this joint design-to-lab technology, we expect our customers to realize a significant reduction in time-to-volume.”
“With this strategic collaboration, we are able to provide a complete solution that seamlessly bridges the gap between system design and hardware prototype verification,” said Wolfgang Kernchen, director of test & measurement subdivision for signal generators, power meters, audio analyzers at Rohde & Schwarz. “System simulation customers will benefit from Rohde & Schwarz’s strength in test and measurement, and test equipment users will be able to minimize efforts to verify real silicon against the simulation results. We are happy that we have found a strategic partner that stands for the same values as Rohde & Schwarz and are looking forward to a great business relationship that will add unique value in the market.”
Availability
The validated Synopsys LTE library will become available with the 2011.06 release. This will also include the initial version of LTE-Advanced. Access is free to all Synopsys LTE library customers under maintenance. The LTE library works for both SPW and System Studio.
The automatic configuration of Rohde & Schwarz signal generators from Synopsys’ algorithm simulation tools, SPW and System Studio, will become available to select customers in June 2011, with general availability expected in October 2011.
About Rohde & Schwarz
Rohde & Schwarz is an independent group of companies specializing in electronics. It is a leading supplier of solutions in the fields of test and measurement, broadcasting, radiomonitoring and radiolocation as well as secure communications. Established more than 75 years ago, Rohde & Schwarz has a global presence and a dedicated service network in over 70 countries. It has approx. 7400 employees and achieved a net revenue of euro 1.3 billion in fiscal year 2009/2010 (July 2009 to June 2010). Company headquarters are in Munich, Germany. Visit Rohde & Schwarz online at http://www.rohde-schwarz.com/.
About Synopsys
Synopsys, Inc. (Nasdaq: SNPS) is a world leader in electronic design automation (EDA), supplying the global electronics market with the software, intellectual property (IP) and services used in semiconductor design, verification and manufacturing. Synopsys’ comprehensive, integrated portfolio of implementation, verification, IP, manufacturing and field-programmable gate array (FPGA) solutions helps address the key challenges designers and manufacturers face today, such as power and yield management, system-to-silicon verification and time-to-results. These technology-leading solutions help give Synopsys customers a competitive edge in bringing the best products to market quickly while reducing costs and schedule risk. Synopsys is headquartered in Mountain View, California, and has approximately 70 offices located throughout North America, Europe, Japan, Asia and India. Visit Synopsys online at http://www.synopsys.com/.
Microsoft Previews Next Release of Windows Phone
Microsoft Corp. today previewed the next major release of Windows Phone, code-named “Mango,” through a series of media events around the world. “Mango” will deliver more than 500 new features to push the boundaries of the smartphone experience around communications, apps and the Internet. The “Mango” release will be available for free to Windows Phone 7 customers and is scheduled to ship on new phones beginning this fall. More details on device update timing will be provided closer to availability. Windows Phone will also add support for additional languages, expand access to apps by launching Windows Phone Marketplace in new countries, and partner with new OEMs to enable expansion to new markets.*
“Seven months ago we started our mission to make smartphones smarter and easier for people to do more,” said Andy Lees, president of the Mobile Communications Business at Microsoft. “With ‘Mango,’ Windows Phone takes a major step forward in redefining how people communicate and use apps and the Internet, giving you better results with less effort.”
Communications: Easier to Connect and Share
The smartphone experience can be complicated by a sea of disconnected apps and accounts as people attempt to keep pace with all the ways they communicate — from calls, texts, email and instant messages (IM) to status updates, Tweets, check-ins, photo posting and tagging. To help people stay on top of that growing complexity, the “Mango” release organizes information around the person or group people want to interact with, not the app they have to use.
| • | Threads. Switch between text, Facebook chat and Windows Live Messenger within the same conversation. |
| • | Groups. Group contacts into personalized Live Tiles to see the latest status updates right from the Start Screen and quickly send a text, email or IM to the whole group. |
| • | Deeper social network integration. Twitter and LinkedIn feeds are now integrated into contact cards, and “Mango” includes built-in Facebook check-ins and new face detection software that makes it easier to quickly tag photos and post to the Web. |
| • | Linked inbox. See multiple email accounts in one linked inbox. Conversations are organized to make it easy to stay on top of the latest mail. |
| • | Hands-free messaging. Built-in voice-to-text and text-to-voice support enables hands-free texting or chatting. |
A Smarter Approach to Apps
Windows Phone will challenge the way people think about apps. Today their usefulness is measured by what can be done within the app, but Microsoft sees the promise of apps in how they can be integrated directly into the core experiences of the phone. In addition to making it easy to get timely notifications and updates from apps right from the Start Screen, the “Mango” release also will surface apps as part of search results and within Windows Phone Hubs. As a result, a useful app is more likely to be right there when needed.
| • | App Connect. By connecting apps to search results and deepening their integration with Windows Phone Hubs, including Music and Video and Pictures, “Mango” allows apps to be surfaced when and where they make sense. |
| • | Improved Live Tiles. Get real-time information from apps without having to open them. Live Tiles can be more dynamic and hold more information. |
| • | Multitasking. Quickly switch between apps in use and allow apps to run in the background, helping to preserve battery life and performance. |
Taking the Internet Beyond the Browser
In addition to including Internet Explorer, the “Mango” release will connect the power of the Web to the unique capabilities of Windows Phones, such as location awareness, camera and access to apps, to present a way of viewing the Web that is more localized, actionable and relevant.
| • | Internet Explorer 9. A browser based on the powerful Internet Explorer 9 and including support for HTML5 and full hardware acceleration. |
| • | Local Scout. Provides hyperlocal search results and recommends nearby restaurants, shopping and activities in an easy-to-use guide. |
| • | Bing on Windows Phone. More ways to search the Web, including Bing Vision, Music Search and Voice so it’s easy to discover and decide. |
| • | Quick Cards. When searching for a product, movie, event or place, see a quick summary of relevant information, including related apps. |
Strengthening the Ecosystem
The Windows Phone ecosystem has grown steadily since Windows Phone 7 first launched in October, with more than 17,000 apps currently available on Windows Phone Marketplace and Windows Phone handsets available from a range of partners worldwide, and Microsoft’s recently announced partnership with Nokia. “Mango” will further expand and strengthen the Windows Phone ecosystem through new partnerships with Acer Inc., Fujitsu Ltd. and ZTE Corp., which today announced plans to deliver new Windows Phone devices in markets around the world. Furthermore, Microsoft announced it will support additional languages, including Brazilian Portuguese, Simplified and Traditional Chinese, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Greek, Hungarian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, and Swedish, and will greatly expand the list of countries where consumers have access to apps via Windows Phone Marketplace. As well, a beta release of the free Windows Phone Developer tools, which will be used to create the next generation of “Mango” apps and games, will be posted for public download to Microsoft’s website within 24 hours of today’s events. More information about what “Mango” means for developers, the tools and a link to the public download page is available at http://windowsteamblog.com/windows_phone/b/wpdev/archive/2011/05/24/developer-news-beta-mango-tools-available-today.aspx.
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.
DOCOMO Demonstrates the Effectiveness of Mobile Spatial Statistics for Disaster-Prevention and Urban Planning (Japan)
NTT DOCOMO, INC. announced today that two recently completed research projects conducted jointly with Japanese universities have demonstrated that mobile spatial statistics, or population statistics compiled from data used to provide mobile services, can provide useful information for planning disaster-prevention measures and urban development. If specific, practical applications are developed, it is envisioned that national and local governments will be able to use DOCOMO’s spatial statistics for planning in these fields.
Mobile spatial statistics are aggregate data about mobile phone locations and user attributes. In the use of such statistics, individual users are never identified.
A joint research project with Kogakuin University studied how DOCOMO’s mobile spatial statistics could support disaster-prevention planning. The project was conducted across Tokyo from November 22, 2010 to March 31, 2011. The results of the study showed that spatial statistics can be used to estimate the distribution of people who would have difficulties returning home if a major earthquake centered on Tokyo were ever to occur.
The study focusing on urban planning, which was carried out with the University of Tokyo from November 1, 2010 to March 31, 2011, proved that mobile spatial statistics provided by DOCOMO can be used to evaluate suburb communities that relatively large populations of daily commuters compared to their current scale of public busing.
The University of Tokyo and Kogakuin University will release the details of their respective studies with DOCOMO at future academic conferences.
The studies were two of DOCOMO’s latest initiatives to contribute proactively to society through its mobile business.
About NTT DOCOMO
NTT DOCOMO is a world-leading mobile operator and growing provider of comprehensive services centered on mobility. The company serves over 58 million customers in Japan via advanced wireless networks, including a nationwide 3G network and one of the world’s first commercial LTE networks. Leveraging its unique capabilities as a mobile operator, DOCOMO is a leading developer of cutting-edge technologies for NFC mobile payments, mobile GPS, mobile TV, intuitive mobile assistance, environmental monitoring, smart grids and much more. Overseas, the company provides technical and operational expertise to eight mobile operators and other partner companies. NTT DOCOMO is listed on the Tokyo (9437), London (NDCM) and New York (DCM) stock exchanges. Please visit www.nttdocomo.com for more information.
Sony Ericsson announces new Head of Operations
Sony Ericsson today announced that Tommi Laine-Ylijoki has joined the company as Corporate Vice President and Head of Operations, reporting to President and CEO Bert Nordberg. Tommi Laine-Ylijoki joins Sony Ericsson from Nokia Oyj where he was Vice President, Materials Management.
Tommi Laine-Ylijoki has more than 17 years of experience working at Nokia in Finland. Over the years he has worked in the areas of research in microelectronics, operations capacity management, direct sourcing and supply chain. In his last position at Nokia, as Vice President, Materials Management, he was responsible for all operational inbound supply-related activities for the company, working in both the Operations and Sourcing organisations.
Commenting on today’s announcement, Bert Nordberg, President and CEO, Sony Ericsson said, “Tommi Laine-Ylijoki’s track record in the area of operations and supply chain management in our industry is second to none, and he joins Sony Ericsson at a very important time. As we shift more and more of our product portfolio to Xperia smartphones based on the Android platform, we continue to look for ways to achieve a cost efficient operational framework on which to build future growth.”
Tommi Laine-Ylijoki said, “I am thrilled to have joined Sony Ericsson during this exciting time for both the company and our industry. I very much look forward to applying the experience I have gained over the past several years, and working with my new colleagues to realise our strategic ambitions and fuel the company’s next phase of growth.”
Tommi Laine-Ylijoki is based in Lund, Sweden. A native of Finland, Tommi Laine-Ylijoki has a Master’s Degree from Helsinki University of Technology.
About Sony Ericsson
Sony Ericsson celebrates its 10th year as a joint venture between Sony Corporation and Ericsson in October, 2011. Over the years Sony Ericsson has brought together the best communication technologies with superior entertainment user experiences to create its Xperia(TM) line of the “most entertaining smartphones” in the mobile handset industry. With its global corporate functions in London, Sony Ericsson has sales and marketing operations in all major regions of the world, as well as manufacturing in China, and product development sites in China, Japan, Sweden and Silicon Valley, California. For more information, please visit: www.sonyericsson.com/press.
KDDI and Facebook Collaboration (Japan)
KDDI and Facebook today announced an agreement to work together to provide KDDI users with a compelling social experience, and integrate Facebook across KDDI’s services.
KDDI refines the user interface of social address book “jibe” application to increase the usability of Facebook. We also provide Facebook widget with sophisticated user interface strictly designed for iida “INFOBAR A01.” We will connect KDDI’s services such as “au one portal,” music, and shopping to Facebook’s social graphs to add more values to KDDI’s services.
Under the partnership, the two companies will offer a new communications experience for au mobile phone users, offering them a more efficient way to communicate and share information with more than 500 million Facebook users around the world.
“We are always looking to work with innovative operators on ways to enable people to easily access Facebook wherever they are,” said Henri Moissinac, Head of Mobile Business, Facebook. “Through our collaboration with KDDI we’re thrilled to offer yet another way for people to stay connected with their friends and family through Facebook and bring a high quality mobile application.”
“Facebook is an innovation communication platform that makes it possible to be connected with 500 million Facebook users worldwide,” said Makoto Takahashi, Senior Vice President of KDDI. “We look forward to working closely with Facebook to extend these benefits beyond mobile to broadband and cable TV, and thereby maximize the satisfaction of our customers in every area of our business.”
About KDDI
KDDI, as a comprehensive communications company offering both fixed-line and mobile communications services, strives to be a leading company during changing times.
For individual customers, KDDI offers its mobile communications (au mobile phone) and fixed-line communications (broadband Internet/telephone) services under the brand name “au”, helping to realize FMBC (Fixed Mobile and Broadcasting Convergence). And for business clients, KDDI provides all services in the ICT (Information and Communication Technology) realm, from FMC (Fixed Mobile Convergence) networks to data centers, applications, and security strategies, to help clients strengthen their businesses.
About Facebook
Founded in February 2004, Facebook’s mission is to give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected. Anyone can sign up for Facebook and interact with the people they know in a trusted environment. Facebook is a privately held company and is headquartered in Palo Alto, Calif.
Visit http://www.kddi.com for more information about KDDI.
KDDI launches Infobar A01 (Japan)
KDDI, which is a service provider in Japan, has launched the ‘Infobar A01′, a smartphone under the iida brand. The smartphone will be offered in early July.
The Infobar A01 is the successor of the Infobar phone released in 2003 and also features the tile-style keys. The smartphone further comes with Osaifu-Keitai (mobile wallet), infrared communications, and One-Seg mobile digital terrestrial television.
KDDI will also release ten accessories such as an AC adaptor and special covers. The iida brand name comes from the first letters of the words innovation, imagination, design and art, and KDDI collaborates with various designers and creators to develop the handsets.
The KDDI iida INFOBAR A01 has a 3.7” qHD (540 x 960) pixels capacitive screen with about 300 ppi (Retina display on iPhone 4 has 326 ppi). The screen uses ASV LCD technology, which promises excellent viewing angles.
The iida INFOBAR A01 runs Android 2.3 Gingerbread with the custom iida UI – it’s a highly customizable interface that lets users arrange widgets into a grid.
Other specs of the INFOBAR A01 include an 8MP camera, microSD card slot (up to 32GB), Wi-Fi b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0, GPS, microUSB and an infrared port. There’s a digital tuner and an e-wallet function too. The phone measures 118 x 63 x 11.8 mm and weighs 113 grams.
The iida INFOBAR A01 has GSM/CDMA dual-mode connectivity, but there don’t seem to be any plans for a release outside of Japan.
