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Mobile Sports Report TechWatch: Oracle vs Google Round 1 Almost Over

May 7, 2012 by 1 Comment

It seems that Microsoft is taking the next step in developing an ecosystem of apps around the next version of its operating system for smartphones with a developer conference at which it is suspected that the company will debut its Windows Phone 8. So save June 20-21 and plan on being in San Francisco.

iPad still hot as Kindle Fire cools?
Market research firm IDC has reported that Apple’s iPad tablet is still the tablet to own to most consumers as it gained market share in the first quarter of 2012, primarily at the expense of Amazon’s Kindle Fire.

The drop is rather sharp for Amazon, which at the end of 2011 it had a 17% market share which dropped to 4% in the first quarter. At the same time the iPad grew from 54.7% at the end of last year to 68%, according to the firm.

IDC said that it expected the drop because the iPad has international sales while the Fire is only available in the United States so that it was helped by the holidays and then the slump hit, but the drop was still larger than expected.

Did Kindle sales really die last quarter?
However its seems that the reports are overstated about the drop in Kindle sales, which while real to a degree seem to be overstated due to how the numbers are being looked at, or rather people are comparing apples to oranges.

Stephen Baker, NPD’s Group’s Vice President of Industry Analysts points out that people are mixing units shipped with units sold, and that not all of Amazon’s huge shipment numbers in the 4th quarter of 2011 were sold in that quarter, some of it leaked over into 2012, so that fewer units were shipped. To read his full comments go here.

Facebook buys another mobile developer
Facebook has purchased Glancee, a Menlo Park, Calif.-based startup that develops apps that help connect users with other people based on their location. The terms of the deal were not disclosed. The app helps connect people by allowing them to examine profiles of people who are in their vicinity and who have either mutual friends or mutual interests.

Use you smartphone as a PC? Yes you can
While this is a bit old it is certainly interesting. Canonical is preparing to release a program called Ubuntu of Android that will allow users to connect a smartphone to a display and have a full Ubuntu desktop computer.

The two programs will work side by side, with the phone operating as a traditional Android phone. When connected to a monitor the Ubuntu OS takes over and the device displays a full desktop for the user.

The two will share data and services so that both run simultaneously on the device. With Canonical’s developer conference starting this week hopefully more information will come out about this effort.

Partial Verdict reached in Google vs Oracle Java battle
The San Francisco Chronicle has reported that the jury has reached a partial verdict in Oracle’s lawsuit against Google. It is reported that there is still one issue that it is divided on and they were sent home for the weekend.

The Boston Globe reported that it sounds like the split might be permanent as the jury sent a note to the judge asking what would happen if they could not agree on a verdict and said that some jurors appear to not be willing to budge from their position, making a split likely.

An interesting side note in the case is the discussion that went on last week over how much money Google has actually made from Android, an issue that will go to the heart of any remedy if Oracle prevails in the case, and one that rival OS developers are watching with interest.

Google presented numbers in the case that reportedly showed what it had earned from the technology and the judge questions if those numbers were ‘manufactured’ for the trial. He asked for the original documents to be presented today.

This is just the first of two stages in the trial, it being concerned with Oracle’s claims of copyright violation and the second, which is expected to start immediately, will have to do with patent violations.

Samsung’s Galaxy S III is here
Samsung, the new king of handset sales has expanded its lineup with the release of the Galaxy S III smartphone as its new top of the class offering. I would say the long awaited release, but it has been less than a year since the Galaxy S II was released.

The phone features a 4.8-inch HD Super Amoled screen with 720p resolution. It will be available in 16GB, 32GB and 64GB versions. According to market research firm NPD Group, Samsung already accounts for a quarter of all US sales of smartphones and now it looks like it might increase on that lead.

Apple’s iOS device sales by quarter
A look at Apple’s smartphone and tablet shipments by quarter from the Boston Globe.
Quarter ending March 31, 2012: 35.1 million iPhones, 11.8 million iPads
Quarter ending Dec. 31, 2011: 37 million iPhones, 15.4 million iPads
Quarter ending Sept. 24, 2011: 17.1 million iPhones, 11.1 million iPads
Quarter ending June 25, 2011: 20.3 million iPhones, 9.25 million iPads
Quarter ending March 26, 2011: 18.65 million iPhones, 4.7 million iPads

Filed Under: Amazon, Android, Apple, Apps, Google, iPad, iPhone, Kindle, Microsoft, Oracle, Samsung, The Boston Globe Tagged With: , , , ,

Recapp Launches Simple But Powerful Sports News Reader App

May 2, 2012 by 4 Comments

Home page screen image of the Recapp app.

Sometimes, innovation is all about taking what exists and making it easier to use. That’s the key ingredient in Recapp, a simple but powerful sports news reading app that curates top sports content by team and sport and organizes it for easy-to-find consumption.

Available free now for the iPhone, Recapp is the brainchild of David Chen, a self-proclaimed sports-obsessed fan who was frustrated by having to visit multiple web sites a day to get his fill of news on his favorite teams. Like many fans, Chen has a diverse plate of devotions — a Dallas native who got his MBA from Cornell, Chen follows the Mavs and the Big Red, which often requires multiple sources to satisfy his news jones.

“I wondered why there wasn’t a site that brought all the news I wanted to read in one place,” said Chen in a phone interview last week. Unable to find one, Chen enlisted the help of two friends — Tyler Smith and Chase Johnson, who are the company’s co-founders and “programming whizzes” — and after about a year of work, Recapp recently went live in the iTunes store. There is no Android version of the app yet, but Chen said he hopes to build one later in the year.

While it doesn’t break any new technical ground, Recapp does fans a big favor simply by acting as a proxy to find the top professionaly produced content for all the major U.S. professional sports, as well as major college teams. Fans can pick which teams or sports they want to follow, and the Recapp app will deliver a steady stream of game stories and opinions.

Much like Bleacher Report’s Team Stream app Recapp replaces the often tedious searching process with a streamlined compilation of not just one media source’s stories but instead the best of the best. Mobile Sports Report senior editor Greg Quick took a quick look at the app and liked its speed of story delivery, and its focus on top-site content.

“Our focus is on quality [stories],” said Chen. “If you just search for sports info half of what you get is garbage. We want to give true fans the info they want.”

While the app is in its early stages and doesn’t have much in the way of bells and whistles, Chen hopes to add more social and perhaps commenting features in the near future. “We eventually want fans to connect, and comment,” Chen said. Right now the app is also advertising-free, but Chen said that after building some more audience traction Recapp will reach out to brands to see if there is value in bringing advertising messages closer to fans.

Recapp screen shot of a New York Yankees news feed

Filed Under: Apple, Apps, bleacherreport, iPhone Tagged With: ,

Research In Motion takes wraps off Next Generation BlackBerry Platform

May 1, 2012 by Leave a Comment

As Research In Motion struggles to retain relevancy in the smartphone market that it helped pioneer the company has started delivering a prototype version of its Blackberry 10 smartphone and development tools to developers at its BlackBerry World conference.

The company hopes that the device, along with the new tools for the development of apps for the platform will help revive its fortunes which have waned quite a bit in recent years that have included top management turnover and financial losses.

To help spur on development the company is promising that all of the developers at the conference will receive a prototype when the show is over. Better yet to developers the company has apparently promised that developers will receive $10,000 for top flight apps in their first year in the market.

The move to create a fuller ecosystem for the next generation smartphone is joined by an effort to fuel app growth in China along with subsidiary QNX Software Systems by encouraging university students to develop for both the smartphone and tablet platforms from the company.

The companies are launching a competition that will focus on apps developed in two categories-Mobility Lifestyle Use and Automotive Experience with the winners getting their apps made available at BlackBerry App World and receive internships at what it calls leading Chinese and multinational companies.

While BlackBerry execs claim that the new tools will developers to create apps that will wow the market, and that is exactly what it needs. With Apple still witnessing huge sales for its iPad and iPhone, Android growing strongly in the smartphone space and the pending Windows tablet and smartphone OS releases there is a lot of competition out there.

The company has already taken steps to hire a restructuring firm to examine it future, as it reported that it’s most recent quarter it lost $125 million as revenue dropped 19%. At that time the company said that it was going to increase its focus on the corporate market.

Filed Under: Android, Apple, Apps, BlackBerry, iPhone, Research in Morion, Smartphone, Tablets Tagged With: , ,

Startup seeks to turn iPhone into Sports Video Recording Device

May 1, 2012 by 1 Comment

I am slowly becoming addicted to Kickstarter, the funding platform that basically enables anybody to invest in small start up companies that need small infusions of cash to get going. We have already covered one such project here.

While looking for something else I found a project that incorporate iPhones for (mostly) sports purposes. The simple device is called the ProtoSports Holster for iPhone from a start up named ProtoSports. The idea is pretty simple; it has developed a case that holds an iPhone 4 or 4S for use in creating feedback videos

The case can be attached to a thin alignment sticks in either landscape or portrait mode and enables a user to have it operate as a hands free, standalone video camera that record their actions, such as a golf swing or time in a batting cage. The plastic holster and the alignment sticks could easily fit into a golf bag.

I have no idea how well this would work, or how hard it would be for your average DIY handyman to develop something similar in their shop but I like the fact that a garage inventor can throw an idea out there and get funding from people if they like the project.

Of course not all ideas that get presented at Kickstarter are well thought out. There is a funny, and kind of sad, piece on some of the failed efforts on that site presented by Buzz Feed. There is a whole lot of fail going on!

Filed Under: Apple, Golf, Humor, iPhone, Kickstarter, Startup Tagged With: , , ,

Mobile Sports Report TechWatch: Is Android in Trouble?

April 30, 2012 by 3 Comments


The Kindle Fire Rules Android Market
A recent study by comScore shows that Amazon’s Kindle Fire tablet has remained a hot property, doubling its market share in just two months. According to the study the tablets share of the Android market jumped from 29.4% in December 2011 to 54.4% in February 2012.

The report does not count Barnes & Noble’s Nook due to classifying it as an ereader and not a multipurpose tablet, but if you combine the two they have a huge share of the Android market, and it appears that Android users opt for the lower cost offerings from Amazon and Barnes & Noble rather than the pricier ones from players like Asus.

So with Apple dominating the high end and these two at the low end of the tablet market what else is there. I suspect lots of room to grow in both. Many of the first generation Android tablets were touted as iPad killers and were not. They should instead seek to meet specific market needs and stop worrying about other players’ products.

Google Patent Trial shows past expectations.
One piece of evidence that has come out during the Oracle vs Google trial around Java patents has been the revelation of what Google’s expectations for Android were two years ago according to a presentation at the trial.

Some of the information listed was highlights that included device activation and searches while the lowlights noted that the company was behind in music, video and books and said that Apple was maintain momentum with strong product launches.

This is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of information available from the trial, and The Verge has a full readout on what is going on as well as a great deal more data on Android sales and expectations.

Has Google lost control of Android?
Joe Wilcox over at Beta News makes a strong argument that Google has lost control of Android and that it could have very negative repercussions to the developer if it does not actively and quickly reassert control over the platform.

Fragmentation is occurring, and as he noted the most successful implementation of Android that used by Amazon in its very popular Kindle line, does not greatly resemble the version that is available elsewhere. Proprietary versions of the operating system can cause big problems.

The old saying that “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it” certainly resonates here. This issue occurred with DOS before Microsoft exerted control over the OS. Then again with Sun Microsystems’ Java, which it just barely managed to prevent fragmentation, interestingly enough, at the hands of Microsoft.

So I imagine that Google’s first priority if to get the Oracle lawsuit finished prior to any work on the OS but I would not be surprised if shortly afterwards the company announced a developer conference and new guidelines for developing on the platform.

Samsung is the King-of smartphones
Samsung released its sales figures last month and it has knocked off Nokia as king of the hill in smartphone sales. Samsung has shipped 93.5 million phones in the first quarter and of that number 44.5 million were smartphones.

Nokia had been top dog for 14 years, with a very brief sojourn at the top for Apple. In the first quarter Nokia is estimated to have shipped 82.7 million phones while Apple shipped 35.1 million in the same period.

According to market research firm Strategy Analytics Samsung’s strong quarter helped move its overall market share to 25.4% from 19.3%, year over year while Nokia went in the opposite direction falling from 30.4% to 22.5%

For the quarter Samsung posted a $5.2 billion profit on $39.8 billion in revenue. Aside from the strong growth in handsets the company also experienced strong sales of its tablet products such as its Galaxy Note.

Winklevoss twins announce venture capital firm
The Winklevoss twins of Facebook fame have launched a venture capital firm called Winklevoss Capital. The firm will focus on early stage, disruptive startups. They said that they expect to close a couple of deals within the next few months.

A $20 trillion rock?
I love all of this space mining talk. The value of what they are doing just keeps going up and up. In case you missed it a company called Planetary Resources and bills itself as an asteroid mining company was announced last week.

Among its backers are Ross Perot Jr., James Cameron, some Google billionaires and Microsoft. The plan is to develop not only the capability to mine asteroids but also to have space-based refilling stations for spaceships.

I have no idea if this will get off the ground but I really hope it does because it sounds like it will be very interesting to follow. The first asteroid that it has its eye on has an estimated value of $20 trillion dollars.

Filed Under: Amazon, Android, Apple, Apps, Asus, Barnes & Noble, iPad, iPhone, Kindle, Lawsuit, Mashable, Samsung, Tablets Tagged With: , ,

Friday Grab Bag: Harvard Bass Fishing?

April 27, 2012 by 2 Comments

MLB has teamed with Kinect Star Wars to present what it calls the “Ultimate Father-Son Sweepstake” in which participants can win a variety of prizes including a grand prize that includes 2 tickets to any 2012 MLB game and 2012 Opening Day game of their choice and a $200 MLB gift certificate.

What strikes me as odd is that of course in Star Wars the father spends the bulk of three movies trying to kill his son (and daughter) and is only reconciled on his deathbed. Not quite the message you might want to send.

App helps you see what apps are stealing your info
With all of the news about how insecure some apps are, and that they harvest data from your smartphone, tablet or elsewhere, the question is how do you find out which are secure and which are not?

Well one company, research firm PrivacyChoice has a program called Privacyscore for Facebook that it claims will explain which are and which are not to be trusted. The program explains the degree to which your information is protected, if you are being tracked and if so by whom.

It looks at each app and examines the privacy policy, and notes that some basically have none whatsoever, and provides a rated listing. The program is endorsed by the FCC.

NHL jumps of PrePlay bandwagon
So PrePlay, the app developer that lets you make micro-bets on any individual event during a sporting event has extended its reach and now covers the National Hockey League games. The goal of this and other predictive games is to engage users with fans around them or online where they challenge each other to predict the outcome, in this case maybe the final score or who wins a faceoff.

The company had a Subway sponsored Super Bowl push but that did not have the blessing from the NFL while this does have the NHL’s approval. The app, which is available at iTunes, will compete with others such as GrabFan that seek to establish themselves in this area.

Apple’s latest iPad has connectivity woes?
After the iPad overheating issue cooled it now appears that the very popular tablet may have connectivity issues. According to a report in Macworld it has a range of Wi-Fi issues that are annoying users.

It appears that the device has problems finding local Wi-Fi networks, drops connections and has slow upload and download speeds, among other issues. And that is just the Wi-Fi, for people that paid for cellular connectivity it apparently also has issues with connecting to 3G networks.

Harvard has a bass fishing team?
For that matter I was surprised that there is fishing tournaments in college-man did I go to the wrong school! This nice read from the Harvard Crimson talks about the challenges of forming a fishing team in an area, and at a school, that does not have a tradition of bass boats.

The overall sport is run by the Association of Collegiate Anglers (ACA) that currently has 30,000 members across 47 states. I wonder who the holdout states are? The ACA holds tournaments, offers discounts and provides a host of other amenities.

Ice Core Beer Pitcher
With summer looming we owe it to ourselves to ensure that we have the best tools available to enjoy the outdoors. One such tool, perfect for BBQs, is this simply device that is designed to keep beer ice cold without watering it down.

Using a center core made from aluminum a user simply fills the core with ice and attaches it to the center of the pitcher, which holds 60 oz. In a pinch you could fill it with ice tea or soda, I guess.

Microsoft loses Motorola patent case
The ITC has ruled that Microsoft did infringe on patents that are held by Motorola Mobility. The issue has to do with patents that relate to wireless connections and video compression that is incorporated in Microsoft’s popular Xbox game console.

The ruling found that Microsoft infringed on four of the five patents in dispute. It will have an opportunity to respond to the court’s ruling next month and if the comments from Microsoft are any indication expect more action on this front, not less.

And Motorola beats Apple as well
The ITC also handed Motorola a victory in one of its cases against Apple, this time ruling that Apple was guilty of infringing on a 3G wireless patent that is owned by Motorola. In addition the court found that Apple induced others to do the same.

The ruling comes on a lawsuit filed in 2010 and initially covered 5 patents but as the case progressed the case was whittled down to one. There is still a lot to be seen in this case as much of the determination is still classified but Apple appears confident that it can develop a work around to the issue, either via an alliance with partners that have rights to the technology or by developing alternatives itself.

Filed Under: Apple, Apps, Baseball, Humor, iPad, iPhone, Lawsuit, Major League Baseball, Microsoft, Motorola, NHL Tagged With: , , , ,
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