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Mobile Sports Report TechWatch: Microsoft Ticks off OEMs, Apple to Invest in Twitter?

July 30, 2012 by Leave a Comment

The China Times, via Endgadget, is reporting the Microsoft is limiting the number of OEMs that can build a tablet that runs the RT version of its upcoming Windows 8 operating system. This is the version that can be run on a tablet built using an ARM-based processor.

According to the piece the lucky few include Asus and Lenovo, which can use Nvidia processors, Texas instrument processors will be in Toshiba products while Samsung and Hewlett-Packard opting into the Qualcomm camp, with HP later dropping out at least in the near term.

Apple looking to invest in Twitter?
The New York Times has reported that Apple is in talks to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in Twitter, according to unnamed sources familiar with the talks. It appears that the talks are informal at this point so do not cross your fingers just yet if you like the deal. However it could lead to tighter integration between Twitter and Apple’s operating systems, much like what Apple is doing with Facebook.

Google breaks down Motorola Mobility purchase
Ever wonder what $12.5 billion will get you? Well that is the price that Google paid for Motorola and the company has recently explained what each of the major components was valued. The 17,000 patents in its portfolio were worth roughly $5.5 billion. It paid $2.9 bn for the cash acquired, $2.6 bn was goodwill, $670 million was other assets and $730 million was customer relations. You can look here for more details or head over to its 10-Q filings with the SEC.

Microsoft wins around in Germany vs Motorola
Microsoft has won a round when a German court ruled that Motorola Mobility has infringed on a patent that deals with common names for long and short file allocation tables. The two sides have been battling around the globe on the issues of patents and both sides have won, and so of course lost, various patent rulings in the last six months so if this sounds like a repeat, it is close to one.

Microsoft admits hostility over Surface
In a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Microsoft has said that there could be potential problems with its introduction of a table that would compete with its OEMs that purchase the Windows 8 operating system.

Microsoft said that smartphones and tablets from rivals such as Apple represent a threat to its current business, in part because their increased popularity coupled with declining PC sales makes Microsoft’s existing platforms less appealing to application developers.

Kickstarter favorite Pebble to deliver late
The Pebble smart watch, one of the real success stories in regards to funding via Kickstarter, has said that it will be delivering its product later than it had originally expected, IT Business is reporting. Part of the problem, according to the company, is the very success it had with Kickstarter.

The people that funded the company were to receive watches as part of compensation for their pledge, and originally the company had expected to produce 1,000 watches to meet that demand. Since it went off the rails in terms of funding the company now needs to produce over 68,000 watches for the investors.

Major settlement in patent case brings in major mobile players
The patent holding firm NTP has reached what is possibly an unprecedented settlement with 13 major mobile technology developers over the use of a number of patents that NTP owns. The companies included in the settlement are: Apple, Google, Microsoft, AT&T, Verizon Wireless, Sprint Nextel, T-Mobile, HTC, Motorola Mobility (now owned by Google), Palm (now owned by Hewlett-Packard), LG Electronics, Samsung, and Yahoo.

According to a piece in InfoWorld the terms of the deal were not revealed but it did say that all of the tech companies could use a number of NTP’s patents and that NTP will receive a licensing fee from the firms and that in turn it has ended its patent infringement suits against these companies.

Apple vs Samsung starts today in Calif.
The on again off again suit between the two will start in front of US District Court Judge Lucy Koh today as Apple seeks to prove its damage claims against rival Samsung revolving around a number of Apple patents that it claims Samsung has infringed on. The stakes are high as Apple has claimed that it is entitled to $2.525 billion in damages.

Filed Under: Android, Apple, Asus, AT&T, Google, Lawsuit, Mashable, Microsoft, Nvidia, Samsung, SEC, Sprint, Surface, T-Mobile, Tablets, The New York Times, Verizon Wireless, Windows 8 Tagged With: , , ,

When Do Olympic Events Start? Google Will Tell You

July 28, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Now that the opening ceremony is out of the way, let the Olympic Games begin. And if you want to know when any event will start, Google is ready to tell you — and will even handily sync it to your local time, all the better for those of us who want to watch things in real time, no matter how far we are from London.

As a cycling fan I knew the men’s road race was nearing its start time over in London but I didn’t know exactly when it kicked off, so off I went to Google — where I found a handy cycling schedule to the right hand side of the screen, telling me that the race started at 2:00 a.m. my time. Entering “swimming” in the Google search bar brought up an equally impressive interactive schedule (screen shot to the left) with all heat race times. I am assuming Google has this info sussed out for all events on all days. A handy and easy thing and a good way for the Googlers to make sure they get more than their share of search revenue during the games, by being the best at pointing people where they want to go.

With NBC promising to stream everything live, Google’s “Watch Online” button will probably get quite a workout. When it comes to the men’s road race Saturday I know Mark Cavendish is the favorite and if it comes to a field sprint he won’t be beaten. But Olympic races never seem to go as planned, and remember Cav ain’t racing here with the full Sky team but only four other teammates, with no radios so it’s not a given that Cav will deliver. Our good friend John Wilcockson earlier this year sussed out the strategies we may see on the London course. I’m going to go with Peter Sagan as my pick, just to seem smart.

Filed Under: Cycling, Google, NBC Sports, Olympics Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

YouTube Deal Will Enhance ACC’s Digital Network

July 24, 2012 by 1 Comment

The Atlantic Coast Conference’s digital network has introduced a channel on YouTube that will deliver live content from the ACC as YouTube continues to grow as a force in live sports broadcasting with deals such as this.

We have long talked about the emergence of YouTube as a de facto channel for sports, and YouTube has been working hard to cement that position with the ACC deal as one of its more notable deals. However in case you missed it will also be serving up some nice Olympic moments via a deal with NBC that will enable it to show highlights and live events from the London Olympics.

The ACC and YouTube have been partners to a degree for several years and provided exclusive, but not live content at its site since at least 2009, however this takes it a significant step further.

Between that time and now the ACC started a deal with Silver Chalice that enabled it to launch the ACC Digital Network that provided broad coverage of the ACC schools including news conferences, highlights and analysis that could be delivered to both Apple and Android mobile devices.

Now it will also present live events as well as on demand videos that are created by the ACC as well as a live weekly studio program during football and basketball season. There will also be condensed replays of ACC Network productions of football and basketball games.

The current deal will call for the ACC to provide fan access and interaction to its analysts via Google’s Google Hangout. Fans can view, comment upon and share the programming by visiting youtube.com/accdigitalnetwork, or by searching for ACC Digital Network on YouTube.

Of course others are also working on attracting digital partners. The Big Ten Networks recently expanded to support Android in its broadcast and the Pac-12 is increasingly involved in digital media. Still it is nice that the ACC will be presenting live sports to its fan base and other interested parties.

Filed Under: Android, Apple, Apps, Atlantic Coast Conference, BCS, Big Ten Network, Google, iOS, Live sports via mobile, Live Sports Video Consumption, NCAA Football, NCAA Hoops, Pac-12, YouTube Tagged With: , ,

Google, Facebook buy Apple-Focused developers

July 24, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Hooking onto Apple’s money making bandwagon seems the way to go and two rival giants are doing just that, using their deep pockets to buy up technologies and development teams that will enable them to have more Apple iOS and related development skills in house.

The moves should not be a surprise for many reasons. Facebook and Apple have been moving closer together in recent days. Apple’s latest version of its mobile operating system, iOS 6 has a great deal of integration with Facebook.

Google, while there are some signs of discord between it and Apple, particularly in the area of maps, has been a very aggressive company in the mergers and acquisition space for some time and this seems like a natural continuation of that activity.

First up is Google, which has acquired a company called Sparrow that makes email clients for both Apple iPhones as well as for its Macintosh desktop products, as some call a better way to use Google’s Gmail. So the fit seems a natural in many ways as the development team, which will be attached to the Gmail team, will seek to simplify the communications app. The Verge is reporting that the deal may have been worth $25 million.

Facebook’s deal, acquiring the development team at Acrylic Software, is actually more personnel focused. Acrylic is an app design studio that also designs for Apple’s iOS. This move is also following a trend by Facebook, it did not acquire the apps that the company has developed, notably a news reader and a secure wallet app, but rather it gained the company’s two employees, it a move that is called an acqui-hire.

Filed Under: Acrylic Software, Apple, Apps, Facebook, Google, Sparrow, Uncategorized Tagged With: ,

Autodesk Snaps Up Socialcam for a Cool $60 Million

July 17, 2012 by 1 Comment

3D design powerhouse Autodesk has purchased startup Socialcam for $60 million in a deal that is expected to close in the third quarter that ends Oct. 31, 2012, according to a release from Autodesk.

Socialcam has only been on the scene since last year, but its technology that provides mobile social video capture, editing and sharing app and service has proven to be very popular with users. It is estimated that the platform has 54.7 million users. Top rival Viddy has half as many users and had a valuation of $200 million, at least at one point.

The move and the price both come as a bit of a surprise. While Autodesk has expanded from its core of delivering high end software for 3D modeling and architectural markets into entertainment, many had been predicting that Socialcam would go to Facebook, Google, Microsoft or one of the other major players in the social networking space.

Also the price was much lower than figures that had been tossed about when Facebook made its surprising purchase of Instagram for $1 billion. After that people were tossing around the question of what company would be the next Instagram, and the two most popular choices were Viddy and Socialcam, with an expectation that the winner’s valuation would skyrocket also.

Autodesk said that the move was due to the changing way in which its customer base was approaching their tasks, using cloud computing, mobile apps and social media for design purposes. The company said that video is a very good medium for communications and sharing of ideas and projects.

The first step will be to ensure that it supports and maintains the existing Socialcam customers, according to Autodesk. From there it seeks to scaling the platform and expanding its existing tool sets so that it can expand the technology into new and existing markets for Autodesk.

Filed Under: Apps, Autodesk, Facebook, Google, Klip, Microsoft, Social Media Data, Socialcam, Viddy Tagged With: , , ,

Facebook Gains Mobile Development Team with Spool Deal

July 16, 2012 by 2 Comments

Facebook has gained the development team, but not the technology or assets of startup Spool, a mobile app developer that has in the past created programs for both the Android and Apple iOS operating systems.

The terms of the deal were not disclosed but on its blog Spool announced that it was now becoming part of Facebook and that it was shutting down its site and provided instructions on how to move off of Spool.

The company had only come out of beta late last year and started 2012 off by raising $1 million from a number of angle investors that included SVAngle, Felicis Ventures, Start Fund, Stephen Chen, Bill Lohse and Charles River Ventures. Its apps enable users to bookmark Internet content, including video, for later reading both on and off line.

The move is part of a growing trend from Facebook, and others, to purchase companies more for their design teams and capabilities than their actual products. Some of the recent deals from Facebook include Face.com and Glancee. Google has recently purchased Quickoffice and Meebo.

For Facebook the recent deals all appear to be centered on enhancing its mobile technologies, an area that it has admitted it is having issues in monetizing. Facebook has said that Spool’s team will help develop building tools to facilitate consumption of mobile content.

Filed Under: Android, Apple, Apps, Facebook, Google, iOS, Meebo, QuickOffice, Spool, Startup, Venture Capital Tagged With: , , ,
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