23 April 2014

US Phone Subsidies Fading, Apple Vulnerable

As Phone Subsidies Fade, Apple Could Be Hurt: Wireless Carriers Shift Customers to Installment Plans, Where Sticker Shock Is Likely - U.S. wireless carriers are making unexpectedly fast progress moving their customers away from subsidized phones, a shift that could put further pressure on sales of expensive devices like the iPhone. (source: Wall Street Journal )

RIP Flash: Why HTML5 Will Finally Take Over Video and Web in 2014"...HTML5 isn’t perfect; it’s still in its early years. Fortunately, talented companies are focusing on solving those problems for you – doing the work with a SaaS platform so you can just concentrate on the creative. However, that’s not stopping enterprise and game developers. In a recent report from Sencha, a provider of open-source Web application frameworks, more than 60 percent of business application developers have converted to HTML5 and hybrid development of their key projects, and more than 70 percent of HTML5/hybrid developers are using HTML5 more this year than last...."

AT&T announces 21 potential markets for ultra-fast Internet service - latimes.com: "....Already, AT&T has rolled out U-Verse GigaPower in Austin, Texas, and it plans on launching the service in Dallas this summer. The company previously announced that it is in discussions to bring the service to the Raleigh-Durham and Winston-Salem markets in North Carolina Among the candidate cities announced Monday were Los Angeles, Houston, Chicago, San Francisco, San Diego and Atlanta. AT&T said it will commit to the candidate cities that demonstrate they have the necessary facilities, friendly policies and high demand for the U-Verse GigaPower service. AT&T said it will share more information once agreements are in place...."

Netflix Calls Out AT&T for Subpar Streaming Performance - Bloomberg: "Netflix Inc. (NFLX), stepping up its criticism of Internet service providers, called out AT&T Inc. (T) for offering video-streaming speeds that trail even those of phone companies with inferior technology. AT&T, the biggest landline phone company in the U.S., provided an average speed in March of 1.73 megabits a second for Netflix’s service on fiber-based connections, trailing CenturyLink Inc. and Windstream Holdings Inc., which use older DSL lines, Netflix said. AT&T could improve its speeds by using a free interconnection with Netflix, the video company said...."

Time Warner Cable's Hotspot 2.0 Network Off and Running
Channel Partners
Time Warner Cable's nationwide Hotspot 2.0 network has made its debut, allowing customers to connect to its 33,000-node wireless network without entering passwords or using login screens. Hotspot 2.0 makes public Wi-Fi work like a cellular network by ...

Report: New Start menu and free cloud-based Windows to debut this fall
PCWorld (blog)
Microsoft will reportedly debut its revamped Start menu—along with a free, cloud-based version of Windows—this fall. According to information reportedly authored by Wzor, a Russian blogger notorious for his accurate leaks of Windows information, Microsoft ...

Apple offers free recycling of its products worldwide
PCWorld
Apple is offering to recycle its products for free worldwide, and has included even third-party products like mobile phones and PCs in the program in ...

Amazon Sales Take a Hit in States With Online Tax
MSN Money
Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) is taking a hit in states that are collecting an online sales tax. In one of the first efforts to quantify the impact of states accruing ...

Facebook Plans Mobile-Ad Network
Wall Street Journal
Facebook's new ad network could increase the amount of targeted ads .... global mobile-advertising market last year, second only to Google's 53%.

Samsung expert: Apple should get only $38.4M for infringement, not $2.2B
CNET
Log In to CNET; Sign In with Facebook Google Yahoo; Join CNET ... Assuming Samsung infringed Apple's five patents, Apple should receive $1.75 per ... Apple and Samsung are battling in a San Jose, Calif., court. .... Android" and that Google had invented certain features before Apple patented them.

Google Glass eyeing nonprofits to discover new use cases
ZDNet
Highlighting the deployment of Glass and Glassware apps from the Arctic to the Amazonby the World Wildlife Fund as just one example, Google plans ...

Microsoft's new, new Windows cadence: Once a year is not enough
ZDNet
Just a year ago, Microsoft officials were crowing about Windows' much improved delivery cadence. Instead of rolling out a new version of Windows ...

Apple, Microsoft are not the keys to this week's news
MarketWatch
With Apple and Microsoft reporting quarterly earnings this week, we're getting the standard jeremiads about how the direction of the stock market rests ...

Facebook, Apple Q1 lobbying hit new records Netflix goes on record against Comcast deal
Politico
For Facebook, the filing — which eclipses their first-quarter spend from a ... Other figures:Microsoft was down to $2.1 million from $2.7 million in the ...

Microsoft Bing Enters Prediction Business
InformationWeek
From Google's Flu Trends project to Nate Silver's election forecasts, ... queries and social media data from sources such as Facebook and Twitter.

Google Glass dips its toe into iOS pool
Computerworld
Computerworld - As Google added a taste of iOS functionality to Glass, one analyst said the move is just the beginning of efforts to draw in Apple users ...

Mobile-Payments Startup Square Discusses Possible Sale - WSJ.com: "...The five-year-old company paid out roughly $110 million more in cash last year than it took in, according to two people familiar with the matter. Over the past three years, the startup has consumed more than half of the roughly $340 million it has raised from at least four rounds of equity financing since 2009, two people familiar with the company's performance said. A spokesman for Square said, "We are not, nor have we ever been in acquisition talks with Google."..."

Fred Wilson Leads $23M Funding In CrowdRise, A ‘Charity Water’ For Everyone | TechCrunch: "...Along with the financing, CrowdRise is also announcing partnerships with the New York City Marathon, the Boston Marathon, the Chicago Marathon, the Iron Man events, Red Cross, UNICEF, the wedding site The Knot, and the Today Show and a new “social good” functionality, which allows people to raise for good causes beyond non-profits, like for health care treatments a la Watsi. Wilson thinks that the company is a huge opportunity, not just from a business standpoint, but because it will eventually compel people to further donate to charity, “People are going to do a lot more donating because it’s going to be fast and easy. ” And that’s a good thing...."

Apple Takes Jab at Samsung in Full Page Earth Day Newspaper Ad - Mac Rumors
By Richard Padilla
Apple is honoring Earth Day in a new ad found on newspapers across the UK that appears to also include a jab at rival Samsung, reports CNET.
MacRumors: Mac News and Rumors...

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