New smartphone OS in the works, courtesy Firefox developers (US)
The developers of the open-source Firefox web browser have set their eyes on developing a new mobile OS. It could give the existing smartphone operating systems a run for their money.
According the announcement on their website, the team of developers has named the project Boot to Gecko (B2G). In addition, they will find the gaps that keep web developers from being able to build apps that are – in every way – the equals of native apps built for the iPhone, Android, and WP7.
Under the umbrella of this project, the team is aiming at making the OS workable with Android compatible devices that will facilitate web-apps to directly access the telephone facilities, such as making calls, sending text messages among other things.
In addition, it was understood that the new OS will not depend too much on the Android OS except for the kernel and drivers. This information must have been released in a bid to encourage potential patent lawsuits preemptively.
Android smartphones to receive Gingerbread upgrade via AT&T (US)
A number of smartphones marketed by USA based AT&T are to receive an Android OS upgrade via the mobile network operator. The smartphones will be upgraded from Android 2.2 to Android 2.3; the latter is also known as Gingerbread. The Samsung Captivate handsets also stand to be upgraded to the Gingerbread version.
However, the methods of delivery will not be the same for every device. Over-the-air (OTA), in addition to Wi-Fi connection or the phone being connected to a PC for installing the update based on the file size will make up the delivery methods of the upgrade. Also, manufacturer-defined software and other device performance improvements result in each device requiring a separate update will determine the timing of the upgrade being deployed.
The roll out of the upgrade is slated for today, and it will continue over the next few weeks. In addition, Motorola ATRIX 4G users will be prompted to install the update.
The AT&T smartphones are poised to receive the Gingerbread update are:
-HTC Inspire 4G
-LG Phoenix
-Motorola ATRIX 4G
-Pantech Crossover
-Samsung Captivate 4G
-Samsung Infuse 4G
Once upgraded, the smartphones are expected to experience an improved power management capability that will in turn, facilitate for a more active role in managing applications, besides providing an improved on-screen keyboard with multi-touch support, making typing faster and more accurate.
2,000 job cuts await RIM’s workforce across the world (Canada)
In the face of augmented competition in the smartphone market, Research In Motion has announced 2,000 job cuts across the world. The company believes that it is a prudent and necessary move for its success in the long run.
Most likely, RIM would be officially informing the affected employees in North America, in addition to other countries this week. Keeping in mind local laws and regulations, redundancies for the remainder of the workforce across the world stand to take place at a later date.
Eventually, RIM will have about 17,000 people as part of its global workforce once the redundancies have been carried out.
According to the company, the redundancy programme was not reflected in its financial forecast released at the beginning of this year. However, it will be included in the company’s report for the Q2 results, come September 15, 2011.
There was also a rejig carried out with respect to the company’s senior management. However, the top jobs held by Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie respectively, were unaffected, pending a company-backed review being carried out at the behest of shareholders.
The COO, Product and Sales will go to Thorsten Heins, as part of his extended responsibilities. Thorsten is known to be orchestrating consolidation of all product engineering functions, including both hardware and software teams.
Robin Bienfait will continue with her portfolio of responsibilities, under the ambit of the role of CIO; constituted by BlackBerry Operations, Customer Service and Corporate IT functions, and also taking on responsibility for the Enterprise Business Unit, among other things.
David Yach will hold the role of CTO, Software that is associated with current and future software platforms, in addition to related developer and application ecosystem.
The impending retirement of Don Morrison from the position of Operating Officer has seen Jim Rowan taking over as COO, Operations as part of his additional responsibilities, and will be looking after manufacturing, global supply chain and repair services.
Sweden based online video editing developer acquired by Research In Motion
JayCut is a video editing software developer based in Sweden. Research In Motion has bought the company for an undisclosed fee.
JayCut employs seven persons, and found in the year 2007.
According to a note from the CEO of JayCut, after spending time with RIM’s CEO Mike Lazaridis as well as the founders of The Astonishing Tribe, an amazing group of creative individuals that was acquired by RIM in January, he could see that they would fit in well with them.
In addition, RIM’s statement says that by working with Jaycut in adding video editing capabilities to the BlackBerry platform they can further enrich their customers’ multimedia experience with BlackBerry.
20 million DoCoMo Raku-Raku phones sold (Japan)
NTT DoCoMo based in Japan has announced the sale of 20 million Raku-Raku phones so far. The range of the Raku-Raku handset range was launched in 1999 and it aimed at ease of use more than technical features.
Since the unveiling of the P601es Raku-Raku PHONE I, the first of the Raku-Raku PHONE series in October 1999, DoCoMo has introduced 18 different models in this series so far.
The basic features of the Raku-Raku PHONE series have remained the same over the years. The three one-touch command buttons; large, easy-to-read characters on displays, and large, easy-to-operate buttons constitute the phone series fundamental features.
However, the Raku-Raku PHONE Basic 3 which is the latest model of this series brings with it a special button that, with a single push, connects users to a dedicated telephone support center.
Sale of Motorola’s patent portfolio advised by investor
Carl Icahn is a billionaire investor who had earlier managed to have his way and split Motorola into two separate entities. At the moment, he wants Motorola to sell its patent portfolio.
According to a stock market filing by Motorola Mobility, it was stated that Carl Icahn wants the company to explore alternatives with regard to its patent portfolio so as to improve shareholder value.
Motorola Mobility’s patent portfolio is considerably bigger than that of Nortel Networks’, in addition to boasting of a number of patents with respect to 4G technologies thereby having decent value, according to what Icahn is reported to have said. Icahn believes that there are many ways to actualize that value, in view of the current heightened market demand for intellectual property in the mobile telecommunications industry.
The sale of Motorola’s patent portfolio stands to infuse significant funds into the company for the short term. However, buying rights and paying license fees to new owners threaten to cost more at the end. The recent sale of Nortel’s patents does have a different twist to it though, in view of the long term due to its bankruptcy proceedings.
Motorola Mobility however, did not explicitly state refusal of the sale of its patent portfolio. The company did state that its recent 22% rise in revenues was, in part due to the fact that it has one of the strongest and most respected patent portfolios in the industry with over 17,000 patents and 7,500 pending.
Alleged conspiracy lands Ericsson, Alcatel-Lucent and Qualcomm in court
TruePosition is a location based services provider. The company has sued Ericsson, Alcatel-Lucent and Qualcomm over alleged conspiracy against it.
The three companies are accused of hijacking the Standard Setting Organizations (SSOs). The SSOs stand to determine the mobile positioning technologies to be used as part of the LTE networks standard. The company trio is facing the allegation of hindering the adoption of technologies presented by TruePosition as part of the new LTE standards while simultaneously, pushing for the inclusion of their own technologies.
In addition, the standard setting organizations were also named in the complaint. Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) as well as its organizational SSO partner besides the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) constitute the other associates.
The complaint states that inclusion in the 3GPP standard is vital to commercial success while exclusion from the standard guarantees commercial failure and, in most instances, absolute foreclosure from the market.
According to the lawsuit, Ericsson, Alcatel-Lucent and Qualcomm, in their roles as Chairmen of key 3GPP committees, took advantage of their authority and power to get hold of unjust competitive advantages for Observed Time Difference of Arrival (OTDOA), a positioning technology in which they hold economic interests, over a period of three years.
Liberty Media Corporation owns TruePosition.
Mobile phone emission levels to be measured as per IEEE standards
With the aim to measure the average Specific Absorption Rate (SAR), or radiation absorption from mobile phones, IEEE has given the green signal for developing three standards.
In a bid to determine the uncertainty by way of producing valid and repeatable data, the standards body will look to device standardized and accepted protocols, in addition to standardized anatomical models, validation techniques, benchmark data, reporting format and other means.
IEEE P62704-1 – Standard for Determining the Peak Spatial Average Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) in the Human Body from Wireless Communications Devices, 30 MHz – 6 GHz. Part 1: General Requirements for using the Finite Difference Time Domain (FDTD) Method for SAR Calculations – will describe the concepts, anatomical models for compliance assessments, techniques, validation procedures, uncertainties and limitations of the FDTD technique when used for determining the spatial-peak SAR in standardized human anatomical models exposed to wireless communication devices.
IEEE P62704-2 – Standard for Determining the Peak Spatial Average Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) in the Human Body from Wireless Communications Devices, 30 MHz – 6 GHz. Part 2: Specific Requirements for Finite Difference Time Domain (FDTD) Modeling of Vehicle Mounted Antenna Configurations – will describe the concepts, techniques, vehicle models, validation procedures, uncertainties and limitations of the FDTD technique when used for determining the spatial-peak SAR in standardized human anatomical models exposed to vehicle-mounted antennas.
IEEE P62704-3 – Standard for Determining the Peak Spatial-Average Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) in the Human Body from Wireless Communications Devices, 30 MHz – 6 GHz. Part 3: Specific Requirements for Finite Difference Time Domain (FDTD) Modeling of Mobile Phones/Personal Wireless Devices – will describe the concepts, techniques, models, validation procedures, uncertainties and limitations of the FDTD technique when used for determining the spatial-peak SAR in standardized human anatomical models exposed to personal wireless devices (e.g., mobile phones).
10 percent slip in AT&T’s quarterly profits (US)
Although AT&T’s revenue increased by 2.2 percent to $31.5 billion, the company’s quarterly profits have slipped by 10.3 percent to account for $3.59 billion. There were 5.6 million smartphones sold by the company, representing its biggest ever smarthphone sales for the second quarter that accounted for a whopping 70 percent of the total postpaid sales.
The company’s operating income margin was 19.6 percent for the second quarter in 2010 while this year’s stands at 19.7 percent. In addition, last year’s operating expenses stood at $25.3 billion against this year’s $24.7 billion for the same quarter while the operating income improved to $6.2 billion from $6.1 billion.
The wireless subscriber base moved up to 98.6 million, representing an increase of 1.1 million. The figures show improvement in all customer categories while there were 331,000 net additions in the postpaid segment. Regarding customer churn, this year’s number for the second quarter stands at 1.43 percent against 1.29 percent in 2010.
Continuing the growth in iPhone activations, there were 3.6 million of them while 24 percent constituted new AT&T subscribers. In the same vein, iPhone subscriber churn showed a downward trend. Android smartphones sales doubled year-on-year, this quarter representing more than 40 percent of smartphone sales.
This quarter also represents the tenth consecutive quarter with a year-over-year increase in Postpaid subscriber ARPU (average monthly revenues per subscriber) up 2 percent to $63.87.
With one eye on the future and persuaded by increased wireless demand, AT&T is looking at the $20 billion range for full-year 2011 in terms of capital expenditures. Earlier, their expectations hovered around the low-to-mid $19 billion range for capital expenditures.
BlackBerry PlayBook tablet awarded first certificate for U.S. government
BlackBerry PlayBook tablet emerges as the first one to be awarded a certificate for deployment within U.S. federal government agencies, as announced by Research In Motion.
So far, there is no other tablet phone in the market that has achieved FIPS (Federal Information Processing Standard) certification by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), in accordance with the Federal Information Security Management Act of 2002 (FISMA).
According to Scott Totzke, Senior Vice President, BlackBerry Security at Research In Motion, RIM is pleased to announce that the BlackBerry PlayBook is the first tablet approved under FIPS for use within the U.S. federal government.
The FIPS-certified BlackBerry PlayBook tablet is slated to be demonstrated this week at the FOSE in Washington DC. The FOSE is apparently, the most significant Federal government information technology conference in the USA. In addition, that is where the BlackBerry PlayBook has been conferred the Best in Show, and also Best of FOSE in the Handheld Devices category.
