HTC sees Q1 revenue flat to 17 percent lower versus Q4

Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC Corp expects revenue to be flat to 17 percent lower in the first quarter compared with the previous three months, worse than forecast, while margins are also seen holding steady or shrinking.

 

The former contract manufacturer's fortunes have been declining sharply since the second half of 2011, as the growing dominance of Apple Inc's iPhone and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd's Galaxy range quickly deflated the success of its own brand's rapid rise.

HTC said on Monday that it expects first-quarter revenue of T$50 billion to T$60 billion ($1.69-2.03 billion). That compares with T$60 billion in the fourth quarter and T$65.75 billion a year ago.

Analysts have forecast HTC would earn revenue of T$62.77 billion for the quarter, according to the average projection of 18 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

HTC also said it expects a first-quarter gross margin of about 21 to 23 percent, flat to lower from 23 percent in the prior quarter, and an operating margin of 0.5 to 1.0 percent, also flat to lower from 1 percent.
The weaker-than-expected first-quarter revenue outlook follows a 91 percent year-on-year slide in the Taiwanese company's net profit in the fourth quarter that fell short of analyst forecasts.

Analysts doubt that 2013 will be a turnaround year for HTC as the strength of its brand lags far behind Apple and Samsung.

But some have said that the next version of its flagship smartphone, code-named "M7" and which they expect to be launched in the middle of this month in New York and London, could give the company a first-mover advantage of a few months on features such as higher-resolution cameras.

Samsung Electronics, the world's top smartphone maker, said last month that it expected the global smartphone market to shrink in the first quarter from the seasonally strong fourth quarter, while the overall handset market would see growth at a mid single-digit percentage rate this year from 2012, with the smartphone segment set to slow.

Strong smartphone sales powered an 89 percent increase in operating profit at the Korean company in the October-December quarter to a record $8.3 billion.

Cupertino, California-based Apple, which faces intense competition from Samsung, sparked a slide in its share price late last month when it forecast lower revenue of $41 billion to $43 billion in its current fiscal quarter, down from $54.5 billion in the previous quarter and below the average Wall Street forecast of more than $45 billion.

On Monday, shares of HTC fell 1.6 percent, versus a 0.9 percent rise in broader market. HTC's shares have fallen more than 40 percent since the start of last year, compared with a 12 percent rise in the Taiwan stock benchmark.

Acer tips quad-core low-cost tablets for 2013

Acer Iconia B1 Tablet

 Acer tips quad-core low-cost tablets for 2013

Acer has already received some positive attention for its Iconia B1 tablet, which is a 7-incher that’s aimed at the budget crowd. Looking to take a slice of Google’s Nexus 7 pie isn’t easy, but it seems that Acer wants to push forward by offering new budget-friendly tablets in 2013. Specifically, it appears that Acer CEO Linxian Lang told the China Times that it will have low-cost 8 and 10-inch tablets coming up later this year.

These tablets are said to have a price point ranging from 150 to 175 Euros, which puts them at about $202 to $236. That certainly isn’t bad considering how expensive some tablets can get, but of course, pricing hasn’t been set in stone yet, so that could change. These tablets will also come packed with quad-core processors, which will make them all the more attractive to those looking for a deal.

So, in 2013, we may see Acer try to corner the entry-level market. That isn’t a bad idea, because while others like Apple and Samsung duke it out over the high-end tablet crowd, Acer can make its tablets appeal to more mainstream users. That could potentially result in quite a few sales, so provided Acer can offer these quad-core tablets on the cheap, it might just have a winning strategy on its hands.

Lang discussed the tablet market when talking to the China Times, saying that the company expects 200 million tablets to be sold this year. Of those 200 million, 80 million will be expensive high-end devices, leaving 120 million sales to the mainsteam crowd. If those projections are accurate, then there should be plenty of market share to capture when it comes to entry-level and mid-range tablets. We’ll have to wait and see if Acer makes any formal announcements for these tablets, so stay tuned.

BlackBerry 10 faces uphill struggle

In the end, Carole Blake simply took a hammer to her BlackBerry smartphone, and smashed it into pieces. The London-based literary agent had had enough of what she saw as increasingly unreliable service.

In October 2011, BlackBerry servers were down for days including her time at the Frankfurt book fair. But that was just the beginning of her BlackBerry problems, as her handsets also started malfunctioning. "Four in a year left me frothing," she explained.

She switched to an iPhone 5. "It took five minutes to adjust, helped by having used an iPad. My unreliable BlackBerry was hurting business," she said.

For Research In Motion (RIM), the Canadian company that invented the BlackBerry, Blake's story illustrates some of the many blows to the company over the past two years.

Millions of users, and hundreds of businesses, have deserted BlackBerry for Apple, or Android phones such as Samsung's Galaxy S III, or Nokia. RIM suffered huge global operating losses last year including $643m in a single quarter and the board ejected its two co-founders, Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie, replacing them with operations chief Thorsten Heins.

So Wednesday is a very big day for BlackBerry, when Heins will unveil the company's latest offerings to try to reverse the tide and tempt back Blake and millions like her in what some analysts see as a last chance to survive.

Two new mobiles – one with a keyboard, and one with only a touchscreen – will showcase its new BB10 software, which brings a completely new interface to the phone once known as the "CrackBerry" because of its ability to serve round-the-clock email to workaholics.

Heins realises that he has a huge challenge but he recently told Die Welt that he believed RIM's role in the future will be substantial and that the new software is aimed not only at phones but also for cars. "We have taken the time to build a platform that is future-proof for the next 10 years," he said.

Benedict Evans, of Enders Analysis, sees BB10 as a last roll of the dice: "The question is, how long can they keep rolling it? How long can they wait for the right numbers? The high-end corporate users are abandoning it." Evans added that from talking to people in phone shops, it seemed teenagers were keen on rivals with more games apps.

Carolina Milanesi, smartphones analyst at research group Gartner, said the company cannot carry on as before. "This is certainly key to RIM's survival and indeed BBM is just not enough anymore," she said."Even consumers that are price sensitive and who value messaging are looking for more than BlackBerry Messenger." BBM – the free messaging service that was blamed for helping rioters organise during the UK riots in summer 2011 – no longer ties people to the brand either. The rise of rival services such as WhatsApp, which has an estimated 100m users worldwide – compared to BBM's 79m. WhatsApp also lets users send text-style messages for free but works on any smartphone.

All of that means Heins and RIM have a mountain to climb. They have to tempt back people such as Mamun Ahmed, who switched from a BlackBerry to a phone using Google's Android software: "Being a BlackBerry user I started realising that, I couldn't keep up with the 'tried the cool app' trend, as very few app makers were making apps for BlackBerry," he said.

His bank only offered apps for the iPhone and for Android phones. He said: "All of the websites I was using on a day-to-day basis seemed only interested to make apps for the iPhone and Android and totally ignored others."

That has meant a flight of users – so pronounced in the US that in October the New York Times ran a story about people being embarrassed to show their BlackBerry in public. Heins wrote to the paper saying the article "lacks the balance" expected, saying "there are millions of BlackBerry fans out there who not only find value in their device, but also pride in being a BlackBerry owner."

Some remain loyal. Abigail Rudd, a student at Exeter University, stuck with her BlackBerry rather than buying an iPhone when she renewed her contract last April because it is more robust than other models. "In addition, the keyboard is great," she said.

Yet the outflow continues. ComScore, which calculates US smartphone ownership, reckons that there are now just 9 million BlackBerry users in the US, down from a peak of nearly 22 million in September 2010, while US smartphone ownership has doubled to 123 million.

Embarrassment can be a factor. Jamie Fox, in charge of communications for the TeamGB Ski and Snowboard teams, finally switched after 10 years with BlackBerry to an iPhone 5 this month. "I was just on a ski trip with [2012 long jump Olympic gold medallist] Greg Rutherford and [Olympic runner] Andrew Strong and was relentlessly ribbed about still having a BlackBerry. Whenever it was taken out in the bar, loud cheers would go up and the mocking would begin," he said.

But he had also become dissatisfied with the battery life, app choice and camera quality of the BlackBerry.

RIM has also lost its favoured position as the handset of choice with business people. It has lost corporate and government contracts, some in the wake of the service outage. Businesses which used to hand out BlackBerrys are often replacing them with iPhones, where the galaxy of apps (sometimes custom-made) and better web browsing are pushing the BlackBerry aside. The prestigious contracts that RIM has lost in the past two years include the US National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, the US National Transportation and Safety Board and the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency. In November, even the Pentagon sought to let in Apple and Android phones, even while stressing that it would still hold on to some BlackBerry phones.


The key to a BlackBerry revival, suggests Francisco Jeronimo, smartphone analyst at IDC, will be whether it can persuade those corporate customers – the segment where it first grew to fame as Wall Street financiers discovered they could get secure email while out of the office – to stay with it. "They could survive. You won't compare them to Apple and Samsung but they could be in the top five handset makers. If they can manage to regain trust from the companies who have been clients, they can survive, profitably, just by staying small and focused," he said.

And if they don't persuade those companies? "If they can't, it will be very hard," he said. At worst, RIM might be broken up for the value of its patents which are considerable.

Fox, for one, found his BlackBerry a source of irritation. "The big annoyance was the random red light flashing [on the top of the phone]. It wouldn't be for an email, but for some random BlackBerry update. And I could never get it to stop. So distracting. On the whole, it's just outdated," he said.

Persuading people that it is not is the task that lies ahead of Heins. Most of all, he wants to stop that red light going out.

O2 urges rivals to stop providing chargers with new phones

O2 has urged its industry peers to stop giving away chargers with new mobile phones, after a trial found the vast majority of customers were happy to buy handsets without chargers.

The telecom giant yesterday announced the results of a three-month pilot scheme, which saw it sell HTC One X+ handsets without the USB chargers they usually come with, but still with a detachable USB cable.

O2 had expected 70% of customers would be happy to take the greener option as most people already have a compatible charger at home. Anyone wanting an additional charger could buy one at cost price.

In fact, 82% of One X+ customers agreed to buy the handset on its own since the trial started in October, exceeding O2's expectations.

O2 believes there could be 100m unused chargers in people's homes and offices, enough to fill four Olympic-sized swimming pools if thrown away.

The company now estimates there would be 24m fewer charges sold in the UK each year if the results of its pilot were applied to the 30m new phones sold annually.

Ronan Dunne, chief executive of O2, urged other mobile retailers to follow its lead and pledge to phase out the automatic inclusion of chargers at the point of sale.

"The results of the trial demonstrate a clear willingness among consumers to consider and respond to the environmental argument for taking a phone charger-free," he said. "I now hope that as a result of this study the rest of the industry will now consider joining us in our campaign to take chargers out of the box for good."

Last year, O2 pledged to phase out mobile phone chargers for all new phones by 2015, as part of a broad new sustainability programme. At that time, Bill Eyres, O2 head of sustainability, predicted just 60 per cent of people would be prepared to buy a charger-free phone.

However, the results show people are receptive to the idea of reducing electronic waste, if they are given the right information.

"These trial results offer powerful evidence that customers are prepared to amend their purchasing decisions if they have more choice and more information," added Dunne.

"The lesson for the industry from this pilot is that consumers are very receptive to the message that they can benefit the environment by avoiding the needless purchase of chargers. I would now like to see others taking similar steps, working with us as we aim to ensure all our handsets are sold charger-free by 2015."

In 2009, leading mobile phone makers, including Samsung and Apple, signed an EU resolution to create a single universal charger, based on a micro USB connector by January 2012, in an effort to reduce unnecessary waste. 

However, Apple appears to have backtracked on the pledge, introducing its own new Lightning Charger for the iPhone5 last year.

Facebook adds free calling feature for US iPhones

Facebook 'free call' to iPhone with FB messenger

Facebook 'free call' to iPhone with FB messenger

Facebook has added a feature in its mobile phone app that allows free calling for US iPhone users. Users can now make calls to each other via the Facebook Messenger app anywhere they have a wi-fi or a cellular-data connection. The feature could be a boon for heavy talkers as they would avoid carrier call charges.

Facebook said it was working on adding the feature to its Messenger app for Android and BlackBerry users. Within the app, all a person needs to do is open a conversation with a partner, tap the "i" icon in the upper right hand corner and select "Free Call".

The calls, however, can only be made to another user who has Messenger installed on their iPhone. Users can neither call a Facebook friend who is logged in through the website or call a landline.

The latest mobile-to-mobile development was independent of the free video-calling software Skype, which was already integrated into Facebook's website, a spokesman said. The Messenger app is limited to voice calling.

The official said Facebook was expected to roll out the feature in its Messenger app for other operating systems and expand it overseas.

On Tuesday, Facebook unveiled a smart search engine - called Graph Search - that allows users to make "natural" searches of content shared by their friends.

New TV Tech

Screens with 33-megapixel resolutions, projectors that blend their output to go as large as you want and screenless displays hint at the future of TV at CES.

New TV tech has always been at the heart of the Consumer Electronics Show.

The focus of last year's event was smart TV interfaces, but attention has swung back to the screens themselves this year with Sony and others declaring 4k's time has come. The term "4K" refers to the horizontal resolution of such screens as they are all about 4,000 pixels in height.

Also known as "ultra-high definition", the format offers four times the resolution of the current 1080p HD standard and is best appreciated up close, or further away from a mega-sized screen.

There is a deluge of 4k displays on the show floor - some adding OLED (organic light-emitting diode) tech to offer richer colours, others slimming the screen's bezel down until it is almost not there. Samsung and China's HiSense have also made a splash by exhibiting sets with gargantuan 110in (279cm) images.

But the truth none of the manufacturers likes to talk about is that the challenge involved in packing so many pixels into a small space means their prices are likely to stay too high for most for a while longer.

Beyond 4k

Sharp 8k Sharp's prototype 8k screen was best appreciated close up.

So let's switch focus and explore what the next next-generation displays might be.

The most obvious bet can be found at Sharp's stall, where an 8k screen is on show. The 85-incher (216cm) offers more detail than a 33-megapixel photo. By contrast 1080p offers about 2MP.

Sitting at the back of a room our eyes simply aren't sophisticated enough to spot the difference, but close up the effect is startling. There's a real sense of depth without needing other 3D tech.

But bearing in mind most of us don't watch TV with our face centimetres away from our flatscreen, why bother?

"If 4k is the next great thing, then you can divide your screen into four sections and run simultaneous football games in full resolution on your 8k television," Sharp spokesman Brad Lyons says. "That has applications in bars."

Surgeons, he adds, would benefit from using TV equipment that can show up minute details hidden by current tech.

See-through TV

Samsung and LG' stalls have another hint of what's to come - the world's first curved OLED screens.
Samsung see-through Samsung's Transparent Showcase

They're not quite the bendy TVs some had predicted, but the firms say the innovation should improve viewing angles.

Perhaps more exciting is a product that has just made it to market. Samsung's 22in (56cm) Transparent Showcase is a glass box big enough to contain a product - shoes in this case - that lets retailers float video promotions over the front panel.

Then at the end of the day, when unplugged, the glass turns black.

It hints at a time when TVs might be used as augmented reality devices, providing information about objects placed behind them.

"All LCDs are transparent anyway - they're a piece of glass," explains Don Hickey, Samsung's solutions architect for large format displays.

"We've just moved the electronics to get them out of the way.

"Going forward [larger versions] could be used in schools as a show-and-tell type of device... and it could be used at trade shows."

In the meantime HiSense also has a transparent 3D TV on show which it says should go on sale later this year.
Samsung curved tv The first curved OLED TVs were on show proving TVs don't have to be flat

Projected pictures

A new product from LG suggests that the focus of future TV development might not be about screen tech at all. Hecto LG's projector can be placed within arm's reach of its screen.

It has unveiled Hecto - a laser projector which creates a 100in image when placed on the floor just 22in (56cm) away from a blank panel. One benefit is that video gamers and other viewers wanting to be close to the action can stand close to the picture without worrying about casting a shadow.

"We use lasers for brightness so it can be seen in a light environment," adds Malik Davis-Bey, the man responsible for showing it off at CES.

At $19,999 (£12,485) it's a lot to pay for an 1080p image whose colours are less vibrant than those of an LCD. But it's first generation and the technology is sure to improve.

Choose-your-own size

For those who don't mind dimming the lights and closing the blinds, Vivitek offers a cheaper projector that sits a mere 15.4in (39cm) away from the wall.

The Taiwanese firm's kit has the added benefit that projectors can be combined to create a display of whatever size or aspect ratio you prefer.
Vivitek Vivitek's projector can be combined to create different sized screens

"You install the projectors and their images overlap 10 to 20%," explains Holger Graeff, the firm's general manager for Europe.

"Then a camera looks at the entire screen and the software blends all the images to create one big monitor."

Mr Graeff adds that projected technologies hold the promise of even more advanced features down the line.

"[There will be] holographic applications like in Star Wars where you have your image projected in 3D and you can walk around it," he exclaims.

"But it will take quite some time before that is viable in the home."

Water TV

The challenges of making a screenless display hasn't stopped one Russian start-up from trying.

Displair is showing a system at CES which uses a humidifier to create a curtain of air made out of tiny water particles that feels dry to the touch, but is substantial enough to project an image on to.

It's even interactive - built-in cameras and software algorithms analyse your hand movements so that you can manipulate the image.

Volunteers have been able to use it to play Fruit Ninja, karate chopping the video game's virtual pineapples and bananas in half.
Displair Displair's screen adapts a humidifier to create an image in mid-air

The prototype's image quality isn't good enough to watch a show or movie on it at this point - but the firm says it will improve, adding that there are benefits beyond being able to mimic Tom Cruise in Minority Report.

"It's a greener option," says spokeswoman Kim Terca.

"Right now electronics make up a huge percentage of landfill waste. It doesn't make sense to make these glass and metal boxes that get used and then thrown away with all their lead and other toxic materials."

She adds that a spin-off benefit is that the moisture used is good for your skin.

So, 8k holographic humidifiers by 2023? Stranger things have happened at CES.

Apple's Next iPhone Could Use New Touch Technology

According to a report in The China Times (Translated by computing.co.uk), sources in the Apple supply chain claim that, “Apple intends to switch to alternative touch technology for its next generation of mobile phones iPHONE 6, stating that a ‘Touch On Display’ panel is being developed by Taiwanese Apple supplier Innolux.”

In November, game developers at CMA Megacorp in London identified a glitch with rapid diagonal scrolling on the iPhone 5. They tweeted that if you “slide [your] finger back and forth diagonally on screen, input events drop out or stop altogether.” The video above demonstrates the glitch by testing this kind of action on two iPhone 4 units, one running iOS 5 and the other iOS 6 against two iPhone 5 units with the same two versions of iOS. In both of the iPhone 5s, the screen froze up after a bunch of touch events piled up, but not on the iPhone 4s.

Consumer Reports Is No Fan Of iPhone 5 Nigam Arora Nigam Arora Contributor
Bring On The iPhone 6! First Fantasy Prototype Anthony Wing Kosner Anthony Wing Kosner Contributor

User comments I have read suggest that not all of the new iPhones are equally sensitive, and then only for users, like Fruit Ninja or Infinity Blade players, who routinely make this kind of diagonal swiping action on their phones.

Cult of Mac reported in September that the iPhone 5′s thin “in cell” combination of touch screen and LCD display in one, was ”causing ‘significant production constraints’ that mean Apple cannot produce the device fast enough.” It may be that quality control has been a significant issue.

According to the China Times report, the new Innolux “Touch On Display” panel will have “a thickness of only 0.5mm, [and] better sensitivity than previous iPhones with a ’10 point full featured multi-touch’ function.” This would suggest that the next iPhone will be a “5s” instead of a “6,” and that Apple will use this transitional model to work out some of the kinks with the iPhone 5. In general, these second models have been better bets than the splashy premieres, with higher user satisfaction ratings. Consumer Reports, for one, is not a big fan of the iPhone 5.

Australian tycon plans to create real Jurassic Park

Clive Palmer, a tycoon from Australia, wants to make Jurassic Park on his property in southern Queensland. He plans to clone dinosaurs, and make a real Jurassic Park, just like in a movie "Jurassic Park".

Clive Palmer has already been in contact with the man who cloned the sheep Dolly, and talked with him about this idea.

In the past, Clive had a few interesting ideas, like the idea of building a replica of the Titanic that if all goes to plan should 2016th sail from London to New York.

Nvidia hand-held video-games console

Nvidia plans to produce own hand-held video-games console.

Project Shield is Android-based and marries a 5in (12.7cm) touch-screen with joysticks, buttons and other controls, in a clam-shell design.

It is also designed to link to PCs offering access to more powerful games such as those on the Steam library.

The announcement was a surprise, as the US company has previously focused on selling chips and graphics cards to other manufacturers.

Intel, another chip manufacturer, is also reportedly working on its own device - a television set-top box.
Android apps

Nvidia's announcement came at the first major press conference of this year's Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas.

The company's chief executive, Jen-Hsun Huang, did not reveal a release date or price for the device, but he did show off a working prototype and outline its specifications.
Nvidia chief executive Jen-Hsun Huang Nvidia's chief executive said the console had taken five years to develop

The console is bigger than an Xbox controller but smaller than the Wii U's game-pad.

Its screen resolution is 720p, but the machine is capable of playing out games and video in the 4k standard - which offers eight times the detail - on compatible TVs via an HDMI cable.

At its heart is the firm's new quad-core Tegra 4 chip - which Mr Huang described as the fastest mobile processor on the market.

As well as keys representing the standard Android commands, the console also sports a "shield" button that takes users to a curated games store featuring titles selected from the Google Play marketplace. However, it can also be used to run other types of apps - Mr Huang gave music players and Facebook as two examples.

Using wi-fi it can also be paired with a computer containing one of Nvidia's GeForce video cards to run PC games. In this case the desktop computer's processors power the software, offering higher quality graphics than could be rendered by the mobile processor.

Mr Huang boasted that "latency was so short it was as if you are connected to the PC" - playing down potential concerns that this kind of set-up might involve a delay between a user pressing a button on the console and the connected PC registering the command.

A demonstration involving titles from Valve's Steam PC platform appeared to bear this out.

However, to avoid such latency issues, users will only be able to connect the console to a PC on the same home network - although Mr Huang said it was an ambition to allow them to go "beyond the house" with future devices.

Nvidia's move takes advantage of the growing number of games being released for the Android and Windows operating systems without it having to develop its own ecosystem - as is the case with the PlayStation, Wii and Xbox families.

However, it will have to convince consumers that they need a dedicated portable gaming console in addition to their other computing devices.

Earlier this year Sony had to cut sales forecasts for its PlayStation Vita hand-held - analysts linked the news to the growth of gaming on smartphones and tablets.

In addition, one industry watcher suggested Nvidia's move would prove controversial with hardware makers that currently use its chips.

"It is a bit of a reach for Nvidia as it does not typically involve itself much with the end-user," said Josh Walrath from the PC Perspective tech site.

"They normally have partners in between. So by doing such a thing you do have to wonder if they're going to alienate any of their really close partners, and if they have the ability to get consumers to buy into it."

Self-driving car from Toyota

Toyota has given a taste of self-drive car safety technology ahead of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas next week.

The car maker revealed a video clip of a Lexus fitted with safety features designed to minimise car crashes.

The technology includes on-board radar and video cameras to monitor the road, the surroundings, and the driver.

The car can also communicate with other vehicles, according to a Toyota spokesman.

"We're looking at a car that would eliminate crashes," said the spokesman. "Zero-collisions is our ultimate aim."

The "advanced active safety research vehicle" prototype uses ITS and existing Toyota technology to monitor whether the driver is awake, to keep the car on the road, and to stop at traffic signals. The technology is designed to be used in conjunction with a driver, but the car can control itself, said the spokesman.

A series of optical beacons on the roadside can detect the positions of pedestrians and obstacles, and relay information to the prototype about whether a traffic light is red or green, as part of ITS. The car can also independently monitor pedestrians' positions.

"Not the Jetsons yet, but our advanced active safety research car is leading the industry into a new automated era," Toyota said in a Tweet on Thursday.

Toyota has also developed technology that lets a car communicate with a driver's smartphone to offer augmented reality features. This would let the car know about places by the road letting it, for example. recommend an upcoming restaurant, said the spokesman.

Toyota is one of several heavy-weight car manufacturers and technology companies researching autonomous vehicles.

Ferrari F430 in leather outfit

Ferrari F430

Dartz is a French company engaged in tuning the cars, and they showed Ferrari F430 in the leather outfit. This is a unique car on French roads.

Top 30 Android apps this week

With the number of impressive Android smartphones and tablets increasing steadily – see this week's Nexus 4 review for the latest example – it's good to see that the flow of interesting Android apps is also continuing in early 2013.

Here's our pick of the 30 most notable new apps on the Google Play store, with a slightly extended focus to reflect the fact that the last weekly roundup was on 21 December. This week's 30 Best iPhone and iPad apps roundup is now also live.

Antiques Roadshow Play-along (Free)
The BBC has launched this "play-along" app for its Antiques Roadshow TV programme, taking the form of a valuation game that tests whether you can guess how much items are worth before they're valued on-screen by the show's experts. The app is designed to play along live with the show, whether you're watching live or on catchup.

Zombies, Run! 5k Training (L0.69)

The excellent Zombies, Run! was a fitness app with a twist: virtual zombies chasing you along your running paths. Now it's got a spin-off based on an eight-week training programme for people to work up to 5km runs. As before, it comes with a zombified storyline from author Naomi Alderman.

Pitfall! (Free)

Atari reinvented its classic Pitfall game as a freemium Temple Run-style game for iOS last year. Now it's available on Android too, as Pitfall Harry runs through jungles, caves and villages leaping over obstacles and whipping beasties. Power-ups add spice, with in-app purchases prominent in the gameplay mix.

Facebook Pages Manager (Free)

This app went live quietly on Google Play on 3 January with no official announcement at the time of writing, and it also appears to be US-only – something that may change by the time you read this. It's an Android version of Facebook's iPhone app for Page admins, helping them post updates, read and respond to comments, and analyse traffic to their Facebook Pages.

Sing! Karaoke (Free)

Developer Smule has made its name with a series of quirky-but-creative music apps, with Sing! Karaoke being its latest – initially for the Nexus 7 and Nexus 10 tablets, with more device support to follow. It gets people singing into their microphone to a selection of current hits, sharing their performances with the world and (hopefully) getting praise in return. In-app purchases are used to get premium songs to sing along with.

MailOnline Tablet

With website traffic continuing to rocket, MailOnline is also ramping up its tablet publishing with this new Android app. Designed for larger-screened devices, it offers the latest stories on all things Kardashian (plus other topics, of course) through themed channels, with social features and photo galleries thrown in.

Zime (BETA) | To-do + Calendar (Free)

Looking for a whizzy personal productivity app? Zime's schtick is its 3D timeline of upcoming tasks and meetings, which scrolls off into the distance on-screen. It syncs with various calendars, with the promise that it'll soon go beyond pure diary dates to "become your personal time coach". It's currently in public beta, so may be a bit crashy.

Tapatalk HD Beta (Free)

Another beta here to test out, this time for Android tablets. Based on the existing smartphone version, it's an app for visiting tens of thousands of online forums, making them play nicer with the touchscreen. Version 1.0 is set to launch as a paid app at the end of January, with a discount promised for beta users of this version.

Final Fantasy II (L6)

Games publisher Square Enix has been working hard on bumping up its Android efforts, particularly around its classic RPG franchise Final Fantasy. This is the second game in the series, originally released in 1988. Expect plenty of retro dungeoneering, although some device owners are reporting crashes while playing, so it's worth reading the Google Play comments before buying.

Final Fantasy Dimensions for Android Final Fantasy Dimensions for Android
Final Fantasy Dimensions (L13.99)

More expensive, but arguably more appealing to fans who've already played FFII a couple of times, is Final Fantasy Dimensions. The basic ingredients are similar: battles, character growth and a suitably epic storyline – plus chiptune background music as an additional in-app purchase, which feels a bit rich considering the basic price.

GymPact - Reward your workout (Free)

It truly is the time of year for new fitness apps to launch, promising to help smartphone owners shift their festive bellies'n'bottoms. GymPact has been available on iPhone for a while, but now it's on Android too: a US-based app to track your workouts, and reward you with actual cash if you stick to your plan – funded by payments from those who don't. An intriguing idea.

Sonic Jump (L1.46)

More famous old gaming characters leaping onto Android – literally in the case of Sonic the Hedgehog in this game. It sees Sonic leaping upwards through a series of 48 platform levels, including boss battles with arch-foe Dr Eggmanm with online leaderboards and challenges adding a social spin.

BBC News Widget by Feedly (Free)

Feedly is a simple but effective Android homescreen widget for the BBC News website, joining several others for rival sites in its roster. Available for free, it's a quick way to keep abreast of popular news stories on the Beeb's news site.

Demons' Score THD (L13.99)

And one more game from Square Enix, albeit this time not based on Final Fantasy. Instead, this is a music rhythm game with umpteen demons, talking teddy bears and a college heroine called Serenity who has to make sense of it all. It sounds strange, but plays very well.

Dueling Blades (Free)

Social game publisher 6waves is also committed to Android releases, with Dueling Blades its latest. It's a 3D fantasy action strategy game that sees you battling against bandit, pirate and undead enemies, as well as your friends over the network.

Kii Keyboard (Free)

And still the alternative Android keyboard apps keep coming, despite SwiftKey, Swype and Google's own revamped keyboard seeming to have the market sewn up. Kii Keyboard is another beta, too, aiming to combine SwiftKey-style prediction with Swype-style, er, swiping.

Mrs. Brown's Boys (L0.99)

Love it or hate it – and there are plenty of people in both camps – TV sitcom Mrs. Brown's Boys has been a huge hit in the UK and Ireland. Its official app is more of a marketing tool, with soundboards, a translator and bundled ringtones.

Space Ace (L3.99)

Here's a blast from the past for gamers of a certain age: Don Bluth's Space Ace, which back in 1984 came from the same laserdisc studio that made Dragon's Lair. Running on smartphones and tablets, this Android version sees you guiding space-hero Ace through a series of perils.

Kasabian (Free)

Kasabian are the latest band to get their own Android app, serving up social media posts, backstage photos and video clips, and fresh tunes when they're posted online. The app also promises competitions, ticket access and "the facillity to interact with the band at live shows in real time".

Ant Raid (L0.60)

HeroCraft's Ant Raid has been getting some storming reviews on iOS and Android alike, putting you in charge of an ant colony trying to fend off swarms of monsters. It's real-time strategy meets Plants vs. Zombies, with lots of legs. Well worth a look.

It's a Small World (L0.61)

Here's an interesting idea from Disney: an Android live wallpaper based on a musical boat ride from its theme parks. The wallpaper features a number of Disney characters, with bright colours and a characterful visual style.

Metal Slug (L1.49)

More retro gaming here, courtesy of SNK Playmore's update of its Metal Slug 2D action-shooter. This is a port of the original NeoGeo version of the game, as you blast your way through a series of levels rescuing prisoners-of-war and upgrading your weapons. There's also a Bluetooth co-op mode for local multiplayer.

Zoo Train for Android Zoo Train for Android
Zoo Train (L1.22)
As more Android devices make their way (via parents) into the hands of children, there's going to be a big market for kids' apps on Google Play in 2013. Zoo Train is a good-looking example from developer Busy Bee Studios: a collection of five mini-games with light educational elements: letters, music, patterns and shapes.

Our Solar System - Kids Book (Free)

There's also an appetite for free children's apps on Android, meaning Our Solar System may prove popular in the weeks to come. It focuses on the planets of the solar system, with facts, memory quizzes and an asteroid-blasting mini-game.

Fitsby (Free)

Fitsby is another app aiming to help people stay motivated in the gym, with this one also focused on encouraging competitive support within groups of friends. The idea: you check in when starting a gym session, and bet real or virtual money against friends to see who works out most. I'm a bit uneasy about gambling as the mechanism to spur keeping fit, but it'll be interesting to see if others disagree.

ExZeus 2 (L2.57)

Another Android game that's good for showing off the capabilities of Tegra-powered devices, ExZeus 2 is a 3D shoot 'em up with robots battling in the air and on the ground, with an experience-point system to upgrade your own robo-fighter as you play through the game.

Killer Escape (Free)

One more game to cover this week: the spooky Killer Escape, which sees you waking up "in a cold and dirty cell confronted by a twisted serial killer". Those Christmas party comedowns can be tough... The Google Play description is terse, to say the least, but its demo video makes Killer Escape look like an interesting touchscreen take on point'n'click adventures.

GMD Smart Rotate (Free)

A simple, one-use app for Android devices that uses the front-facing camera to rotate the screen based on your face's orientation, as well as using it to keep the screen turned on when you're gazing at it.

MoodPanda - Mood Diary (Free)

This mood-tracking app has picked up some impressive reviews for its iPhone version. Now it's available on Android. It aims to get you tracking your moods day-to-day, then looking back at them over a period of weeks and months, for more awareness of what's been affecting your happiness.

SleepyTime: Bedtime Calculator (Free)

If it's lack of sleep that's making you grumpy, SleepyTime may help. It's one of a number of apps aiming to wake you up in a better mood by timing it between sleep cycles, so you're less "groggy and exhausted". If your morning routine allows you to be this flexible, it could be just the thing.

Review Planetside 2

Review Scores: 8.5

Planetside 2’s most expansive firefights might be among the most intense you’ve ever had. The massive first-person battles make you fear every step and celebrate every kill, knowing that one small victory contributes to the greater cause. A number of quality online shooters think big, but none think bigger; you are a small but vital cog in a restless war machine seeking to steamroll the opposition with a few dozen rumbling tanks and a vast swarm of armored soldiers.

There’s no doubting the ambition and scope of this free-to-play massively multiplayer shooter, in which thousands of players vie for dominance across three spacious, persistent continents. Before entering the fray, you choose one of three empires: the authoritarian Terran Republic; the rebellious New Conglomerate; or the techno-cultist Vanu Sovereignty. All three boast faction-specific weaponry but share the same six classes, so whether you prefer playing a supportive role as a turret-repairing engineer or blowing up tanks as a heavy assault soldier, each faction has a place for you. There are no class-based vehicle restrictions: you can drive ground vehicles and pilot aircraft, or hop in the gunner's seat and harass the enemy on the go.
Discovering the ways you can contribute to your faction’s cause isn’t easy at first: Planetside 2 is daunting. There are numerous official videos that describe the game’s ins and outs, but they’re not a proper substitute for an interactive tutorial. When you first emerge from your landing pod, you are both awe-stricken and dumbfounded. Dozens of fellow soldiers rush about your faction’s primary base, armored vehicles ramble across the distant landscape, and the hum of nearby aircraft has you peering into the skies. If you’ve played a shooter before, you know how to aim and shoot; Planetside 2’s structural details, however, are initially elusive.

These are the brands of cars that is the cheapest for repair

A new survey conducted by CarMD, is ranked the cars based on the type of necessary repairs and how often they occur. In this study, they investigated 136 million of car models, produced from 2002 to 2012 year.

They singled out the 100 vehicles that represent the top 5 percent of the most reliable vehicles on the road.

For the second year in a row, at the top table is Toyota, then goes Hyundai, BMW, Honda and Volkswagen.

Most pirated show in the 2012 is Game of Thrones

Game of Thrones TV Show

With 2012 nearing its end we begin our annual look at the most-pirated entertainment titles across various categories, starting today with TV-shows. Game of Thrones comes out on top this year, followed by last year’s number one Dexter. Episodes of both shows are shared among millions of people, with airing delays and limited legal download options among the key reasons to pirate.

With 4,280,000 downloads for a single episode, Game of Thrones has the honor of becoming the most pirated TV-show of 2012.

Over the years the number of TV-show downloads on BitTorrent has leveled off a bit, but this year we saw a small increase again.

The majority of TV-show piracy, more than 80 percent, occurs outside the US and lacking availability is the top reason why people turn to BitTorrent.

For chart leader Game of Thrones this is no different. Airing delays and HBO’s choice not to make it widely available online are two of the top reasons why so many people pirated the show.

Game of Thrones is particularly popular in Australia, where people have to wait a week longer than fans in the U.S. to view the show. Nevertheless, even in the U.S. hundreds and thousands are downloading the show for free, although many would love to pay for it if HBO offered a standalone HBO GO subscription.

In common with many branches of the entertainment industry, the challenge for TV companies such as HBO is to come up with a business model that allows users to consume what they want at any given time, without losing existing revenue in the process.

When that puzzle is solved worldwide the number of unauthorized downloads will be pretty much insignificant.

Below we have compiled a list of the most-downloaded TV-shows (single episode) in 2012, together with the TV audience in the U.S. The data for the top 10 is collected by TorrentFreak from several sources, including reports from all public BitTorrent trackers.

10 Most downloaded tv show in the 2012 by torrentfreak.com

rank	show	downloads	est. US TV viewers
1	Game of Thrones	4,280,000	4,200,000
2	Dexter	3,850,000	2,750,000
3	The Big Bang Theory	3,200,000	15,820,000
4	How I Met Your Mother	2,960,000	10,140,000
5	Breaking Bad	2,580,000	2,980,000
6	The Walking Dead	2,550,000	10,870,000
7	Homeland	2,400,000	2,360,000
8	House	2,340,000	9,780,000
9	Fringe	2,280,000	3,120,000
10	Revolution	2,130,000	11,650,000

(article by: torrentfreak.com)

Google sells Motorola cable box unit for $2.4 billion

Google is selling its Motorola Mobility Home division, which includes cable set-top boxes and modems, to Arris Group for $2.35 billion.

Under the terms of the deal, which Google and Arris announced late Wednesday, Google will receive $2.05 billion in cash and $300 million in newly issued Arris shares. That will give Google (GOOG, Fortune 500) about a 16% ownership stake in Arris (ARRS), a communications technology company, when the deal closes sometime during the second quarter of 2013,Rumors that Google would unload the struggling cable-box division have been swirling since March, before the company's purchase of Motorola Mobility was even finalized.

Google first revealed its plan to buy Motorola Mobility in August 2011, but the $12.5 billion deal didn't clear regulatory procedures until May 2012. The deal was largely made so that Google could get access to Motorola Mobility's portfolio of patents and it was always thought that Motorola Mobility's set-top box business was not a great fit for Google.

Since the Motorola deal closed, Google has been quick to make moves aimed at turning the business around. In August, Google announced it would cut 4,000 Motorola employees, or 20% of the total workforce. At that point, Motorola Mobility had been unprofitable in 14 of the past 16 quarters.

Google and Arris noted in their press release that Motorola Home generated $3.4 billion in revenue for the four quarters ended September 30. Arris' purchase of the unit is expected to save $100-125 million in annual operating costs.

Shares of Arris were slightly higher in pre-market trading Thursday. Google investors might respond favorably as well. Jefferies analyst Brian Pitz wrote in a report Thursday that Wall Street was expecting Google would only raise between $1.5 billion and $2 billion for Motorola Home.

Therapeutic ultrasound can now blast and cut with targeted precision

Photo by: nature.com

A Nanotube Lens Focuses Sound Waves Into An Invisible Sonic Scalpel

A carbon-nanotube-coated lens that converts light to sound can focus high-pressure sound waves to finer points than ever before. The University of Michigan engineering researchers who developed the new therapeutic ultrasound approach say it could lead to an invisible knife for noninvasive surgery.

Today's ultrasound technology enables far more than glimpses into the womb. Doctors routinely use focused sound waves to blast apart kidney stones and prostate tumors, for example. The tools work primarily by focusing sound waves tightly enough to generate heat, says Jay Guo, a professor of electrical engineering and computer science, mechanical engineering, and macromolecular science and engineering. Guo is a co-author of a paper on the new technique published in the current issue of Nature's journal Scientific Reports.

The beams that today's technology produces can be unwieldy, says Hyoung Won Baac, a research fellow at Harvard Medical School who worked on this project as a doctoral student in Guo's lab.

"A major drawback of current strongly focused ultrasound technology is a bulky focal spot, which is on the order of several millimeters," Baac said. "A few centimeters is typical. Therefore, it can be difficult to treat tissue objects in a high-precision manner, for targeting delicate vasculature, thin tissue layer and cellular texture. We can enhance the focal accuracy 100-fold."

The team was able to concentrate high-amplitude sound waves to a speck just 75 by 400 micrometers (a micrometer is one-thousandth of a millimeter). Their beam can blast and cut with pressure, rather than heat. Guo speculates that it might be able to operate painlessly because its beam is so finely focused it could avoid nerve fibers. The device hasn't been tested in animals or humans yet, though.

"We believe this could be used as an invisible knife for noninvasive surgery," Guo said. "Nothing pokes into your body, just the ultrasound beam. And it is so tightly focused, you can disrupt individual cells."

To achieve this superfine beam, Guo's team took an optoacoustic approach that converts light from a pulsed laser to high-amplitude sound waves through a specially designed lens. The general technique has been around since Thomas Edison's time. It has advanced over the centuries, but for medical applications today, the process doesn't normally generate a sound signal strong enough to be useful.

The U-M researchers' system is unique because it performs three functions: it converts the light to sound, focuses it to a tiny spot and amplifies the sound waves. To achieve the amplification, the researchers coated their lens with a layer of carbon nanotubes and a layer of a rubbery material called polydimethylsiloxane. The carbon nanotube layer absorbs the light and generates heat from it. Then the rubbery layer, which expands when exposed to heat, drastically boosts the signal by the rapid thermal expansion.

The resulting sound waves are 10,000 times higher frequency than humans can hear. They work in tissues by creating shockwaves and microbubbles that exert pressure toward the target, which Guo envisions could be tiny cancerous tumors, artery-clogging plaques or single cells to deliver drugs. The technique might also have applications in cosmetic surgery.

In experiments, the researchers demonstrated micro ultrasonic surgery, accurately detaching a single ovarian cancer cell and blasting a hole less than 150 micrometers in an artificial kidney stone in less than a minute.

"This is just the beginning," Guo said. "This work opens a way to probe cells or tissues in much smaller scale."

The researchers will present the work at the SPIE Photonics West meeting in San Francisco. The research was funded by the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health.

By ANN ARBOR  

orginal article on this link

China promises to crack down on pirated software

China promised the United States that it would crack down on pirated software as the world's two largest economies looked to ease trade frictions amid political changes.

US and Chinese officials on Wednesday pointed to small signs of progress during annual trade talks, the nations' first high-level meeting since President Barack Obama's re-election and China's once-in-a-decade leadership transition.

Chinese officials said that the central and provincial governments along with major financial institutions would speed up work next year on ensuring they use only legal software, addressing a concern for a US industry which says that piracy costs it billions of dollars a year.

"We have confidence that the work will be completed at a faster pace," said Yan Xiaohong, the vice chairman of China's National Copyright Administration, told reporters after the two-day talks in Washington.

Commerce Minister Chen Deming said that the two powers took up 24 different issues during the talks and that Beijing's main priority was ensuring that it enjoys "fair and equal treatment" in trade and investment.

Chen said that the latest talks had yielded "some progress" on the issue but added: "Up to now we have not seen any substantial measures taken by the US side to implement or to honor its promises."

A congressional study in October called for the United States to ban contracts from telecom giants Huawei and ZTE, saying they posed a security threat. Similar concerns scuttled a 2005 bid by state-owned China National Offshore Oil Corp to take over former US oil giant Unocal.

But US Trade Representative Ron Kirk said after the meeting of the forum, known as the US-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade, that the United States welcomed rising Chinese investment.

"Chinese investors are investing in technology, in wind power, in energy and they do so freely in most cases without any government review or any government knowledge," Kirk told reporters.

"Conversely, we are urging China to have this open investment environment as we do in the United States," he said.

Acting US commerce secretary Rebecca Blank said that China would also benefit from an ongoing push by the United States to ease its tight restrictions on exports.

Most of the trade review focuses on military technology. The United States and European Union imposed an embargo on arms sales to China in the wake of its crushing of pro-democracy protests in Beijing's Tiananmen Square in 1989.

"But there are other items that will be decontrolled and, to the extent that China is looking at exports for civilian uses and civilian-end users, China will have access and will benefit," she said.

Blank said that the talks also yielded progress on US concerns about regulations related to US auto sales in China and the certification of foreign products.

Trade with China has often been politically explosive in the United States, with a number of candidates in November 6 elections including Obama's failed challenger Mitt Romney vowing a tougher line on Beijing if elected.

US lawmakers have been particularly critical of China over the value of its currency, which they charge is kept artificially low to boost exports, although it has been rising.

The talks were the first since China's leadership cemented the elevation of Vice President Xi Jinping to be the country's leader next year. US officials have closely watched moves out of Beijing for signs of Xi's inclinations.

The Chinese delegation was headed by Vice Premier Wang Qishan, a veteran trade negotiator who was named last month to the Communist Party's seven-man leadership council, taking the top spot on fighting corruption.

© 2012 AFP

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