Intel releases ‘Beacon Mountain’ Android-on-Atom dev tool
Indroid Inside Intel has released “Beacon Mountain” a development environment for Android apps on both its own Atom silicon and ARM chippery.
Beacon Mountain emerged over the weekend, promising “productivity-oriented design, coding, and debugging tools for apps targeting … smartphones and tablets.”
The software's in version 0.5 and runs on Windows 7 or 8. A Mac version is promised and doesn't look far off: one of the demos in the Intel video about the software below runs on a Mac (and doesn't look like it is in a virtual machine). Read more...
Sencha CEO: Treat HTML5 apps as a programming platform, not a Web page
Sencha provides tools for buildings Web applications to run on a variety of devices, including tablets, mobile phones, and laptops with touchscreens. Focused on HTML5, Sencha's products include its Sencha Touch mobile application development framework. InfoWorld Editor at Large Paul Krill recently met with Sencha CEO Michael Mullany to discuss the mobile application landscape, sizing up native versus Web development, and emerging platforms, including Tizen and Firefox OS. Read more...
FAQ: T-Mobile’s new phones, LTE in seven cities, and no-contract plans
In a set of announcements on Tuesday, T-Mobile USA said it would begin selling the iPhone 5 and other new phones, and announced that it had launched LTE in seven cities.
The new phones and LTE accompanied a new three-tiered pricing structure unveiled by T-Mobile on Sunday for unlimited voice, text and high-speed data at $50, $60 or $70 a month. The two cheapest plans throttle speeds to 2G levels -- perhaps 50 Kbps to 100 Kbps -- when the data usage exceeds 500 MB in a month for the $50 plan and 2.5 GB in a month for the $60 plan.
In a Webcast today, T-Mobile CEO John Legere described the new phone pricing and rate plans as a way to simplify and clarify how a wireless carrier should work for consumers. "It's more transparency, more certainty, with unlimited everything," he said. Read more...
Canonical announces Mir display server to replace X Windows
Canonical has announced plans to develop new, open source Linux display-server software called Mir, in a move that it says will help further its goal of offering a unified Ubuntu user experience across PCs, smartphones, tablets, and smart TVs.
Traditionally, desktop Linux distributions have rendered their GUIs using software derived from the X Window System – X, for short – a venerable graphics layer that was developed for Unix by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the 1980s.
But many Linux developers think X is showing its age, and that it makes it too cumbersome to create the kinds of sophisticated graphical effects that modern desktop users have come to expect. Read more...
Samsung bolsters BYOD management with a Fort Knox approach
Samsung Monday announced an improved version of its SAFE management and security system for popular Samsung-branded Android smartphones and tablets.
Samsung dubbed the updated tool set Knox, after the famous Fort Knox in Kentucky where much of the U.S. gold reserves are stored.
The Knox technology, to be demonstrated at Mobile World Congress here this week, means that Samsung smartphone and tablet users will soon be able to take advantage of a dual persona or containerization approach, where corporate and personal data are kept in separate spaces on the Android OS. Read more...
Ubuntu Preview alpha arrives for fondleslabs and phones
As promised, Canonical has released the Ubuntu Touch Developer Preview, complete with full source code and installation images for supported devices. The company warns, however, that this early, alpha-quality release is strictly for developers and enthusiasts only.
"While a huge amount of Engineering and Design work has been put into ensuring that the foundations for our user experience vision are in place, we want to stress that the Ubuntu Touch Developer Preview is currently work in progress," Canonical's David Planella wrote in the official announcement on Thursday. "It is not intended to replace production devices or the tablet or handset you use every day." Read more...
IT spending to grow in 2012 despite economic woes, says IDC
Worldwide IT spending remains on course to grow by 6 percent in 2012 despite the grim economic situation in Europe, thanks to strong software, storage, smartphone and tablet sales, according to IDC.
While 2012 has been a tough year for many IT vendors, they have done better overall than many expected in the first half of the year, IDC said.
For example, software spending has been robust, even in parts of the world where the economy has been weakest, as businesses hope software tools and applications will help them implement cost-reduction strategies.
The 6 percent growth compares to a 7 percent increase in worldwide IT spending last year. IDC expects 6 percent growth in 2013. Read more...
9 unheralded technology innovations
Because some of these achievements are so widespread, they are also easy to overlook. Not anymore. We're giving nine of these unheralded technology innovations their due here. Information comes directly from the people responsible for these advancements.
1. Server-side scripting
It all started with a TV show in Boston. In 1994, Fred DuFresne was working on an interactive website for the local station WCVB-TV. DuFrense created a technique called server-side scripting, which was a stark departure from the common programming techniques of the day. Essentially, it "programs" a server to carry out commands such as showing you a video or a Flash animation.
Before server-side scripting, programmers had to write complex HTML commands. Today, it is used on everything from Facebook pages to foodie blogs. "With SSS, the level of training required to create dynamic pages was drastically reduced. No formal training in computer science was required to create a simple PHP page. There is no linking to object libraries, no compiling source code to object code," DuFresne says. Read more...
YouTube app wrenched from next Apple iPhones, iPads
YouTube has been unceremoniously dumped from iOS 6, the latest beta version of Apple's mobile operating system reveals.
The Google-owned video website's native app for iPhones and iPads is bundled with Cupertino's shiny gadgets, and pops up to play video on behalf of other applications, but this cosy relationship is coming to an end - quite possibly a casualty of Apple and Google's ongoing thermonuclear war in the mobile sector.
Fanbois will eventually be able to download an app capable of playing YouTube videos - Google is working on one right now - but it won't be integrated into Apple's iThings.
Google's YouTube app follows Google Maps, also tossed out of the iOS party, revealing the increasing rift between the two tech titans. Read more...
A city’s history, made mobile
When Kris Pickel moved to Cleveland to take a job with a local television news show, she wanted to learn more about her new home. So she downloaded Cleveland Historical, a mobile historical application developed by the Center for Public History and the Digital Humanities at Cleveland State University. “I've spent hours walking around using the app. It's a great guide and introduction to Cleveland's history. I love downtown Cleveland and this app definitely helped spark that feeling.”
Cleveland Historical, which is available as a native app for iOS and Android and optimized for display on the mobile web, is just one of several dozen similar apps, each with their own twist on digital history. The majority, like Cleveland Historical, take advantage of a smart phone’s GPS capabilities to guide the user through the history of a neighborhood or a city, via text and photos and video. Read more...
Android Is Either “Winning” Because Apple Is Letting It, Or Losing
In September 2010, I wrote a post that ignited an absolute shitstorm around these parts. “Shitstorm” in this case meaning a post with a thousand comments, the majority of which were spewed up by rabid Android fanatics. The title of that post:
Is Android Surging Only Because Apple Is Letting It?
At the time, we were in the midst of a massive Android surge to the top of the smartphone ecosystem food chain. This was happening all around the world, but the focus of this particular post was the U.S. market. Based on some comments made by developer David Beach at the time, I wondered if, as the title suggested, Android was only doing so well in the U.S. because the iPhone was still only available on one carrier, AT&T? Read more...
How to pick the right tablet for your personality
At least a dozen times a week, someone asks me about buying a tablet. Inevitably, their one main question is, "Should I get the no-frills $499 version of the newest iPad or the fully loaded $829 model?" (By the way, we're talking about the latest iPad, the device we all keep calling the "iPad 3," even though Apple's gone all Prince/Artist-Formerly-Known-As and is just calling it the "iPad.") Anyway, my response is always to ask a few questions back that help me zero in on their particular tablet traits: Why do you want a tablet? What will you use it for? How much money do you want to spend? And what kind of smartphone and laptop do you already have? Read more...
ARM joint venture seeks common security standard for connected devices
ARM is setting up a joint venture with security technology companies Gemalto and Giesecke & Devrient to arrive at a common security standard for connected devices such as tablets, smart-TVs, games consoles, and smartphones, the company said Tuesday.
The Cambridge, U.K. company, which holds a dominant share of processors that go into smartphones, said it will hold 40 percent of the joint venture with the other partners holding 30 percent each.
Security is critical for companies that wish to do business over connected devices, ARM said in a statement. Read more...
Dutch consumer group unsatisfied with Apple’s updated warranty policy, may sue
About 10 months ago, Apple found itself under scrutiny from Italian “antitrust authority” AGCM over its warranty policy.
Apple was selling products like the iPhone, iPad, Apple TV and iPod devices with a one-year warranty, but was actually required under EU law to protect buyers with a minimum of two years protection (this goes for all consumer electronics). Read more...
Extreme mobility: Tools and tips for smartphone-only travel
After more than 20 years of dragging a notebook computer around whenever I traveled, I finally told myself that enough is enough. On two recent business trips, I joined the small but growing number of travelers who eschew a laptop in favor of a smaller, lighter device.
I could have opted for an iPad or an Android tablet, which would have lightened my load somewhat while providing a 7-to-10-in. screen. But that's an intermediary approach that would still require carrying a phone in addition to the tablet, probably shaving only a few pounds off my travel weight. I decided to go all the way to the light side and see if I could travel with just a smartphone. Call it extreme mobility. Read more...