Author: Eva Glass

Eva Glass first rose to prominence in The INQUIRER. She continues to work behind the scenes to dig out the best stories.

Big data ready for the big time

Posted on September 18, 2014 by - News

Godzilla: Big DataEnterprises have got off the fence about adoption in big data technologies with 73 percent of those surveyed saying they either have invest or will invest in big data in the next 24 years.

That’s according to some data from Gartner, which says the pack is being led by North America, with 47 percent of organisations saying they’d invested in 2014.

But while these organisations might be ready for the big data big time, IDC says that most work is in strategy and starting pilots and experimental projects.

Lisa Kart, a research director at IDC, said: “The most dramatic changes are in enhancing customer experience, especially in transportation, healthcare, insurance, media and communications, retail, and banking. Another area where we see an increase is using big data to develop information products, where organisations are looking to monetise their data. This is especially true among IT vendors, government and manufacturing.”

What is big data, though? It appears that some are still trying to understand what big data is.  Gartner says increasing data volume is understandable because it’s just a massive amount of data, and volume is easy because you just add storage and computing capacity.

Getting value is more difficult because of the variety of data and sources including social media feeds, machine and sensor data and free form text which all require analysing.

Online holiday sales to burgeon

Posted on September 18, 2014 by - News

fatherchristmasHoliday sales in 2014 look set to bring a bumper harvest for online vendors.

Channel Advisor, a cloud company,  surveyed over 200 online shops in the UK and US with each averaging out $3 million to $5 million in 2013.

Redshift Research, which conducted the survey, said 86 percent of those surveyed expected to increase those sales this year.

Over a quarter of those  surveyed expect an 11 to 15 percent while half expect an increase between one and 10 percent.  Not one forecast a decline in their online sales.

And Christmas gets earlier by the year.  Many plan to push sales in September but 20 percent already started their holiday season promotions in August.

The online shops claim customer services are important to drive sales.  41 percent will offer free shipping and returns.  Most – 67 percent – said offering free shipping increases sales.

And there’s a push towards the companies increasing their digital marketing and advertising budgets this year.

Dell rules the PC monitor roost

Posted on September 18, 2014 by - News, Products

Dell logoPC monitor unit shipments amounted to 32.5 million units in the second quarter of this year – and that’s a fall of 2.9 percent compared to the year before.

IDC released findings on the quarter, said that tendency will continue over the next three years.

But LCD technology had a 93 percent market share in the second quarter, an increase of 10.5 percent compared to the same quarter a year before.

The favoured screen size is 21.x-inches, and had a market share of 22.5 percent in the quarter.

While touch screen monitors continue to hold only a tiny part of the total PC monitor share of 0.4 percent, there was stronger growth in the USA than in other markets.

Dell managed to stay number one in the quarter, with market share of 15.4 percent, representing five million units.

Samsung, at number two, had a 17.9 percent share in market value. In revenue terms, it was number one, shipping $1.04 billion wrth of units in the quarter.

HP is the number three worldwide, but held the number one position in Western Europe, and the number two position in the US.

Gartner talks up smart watches

Posted on September 18, 2014 by - News

fobwatchThe jury is still very much out on whether people will want to have a smart watch on their wrists, but a report from Gartner appears to favour the “yes” rather than the “no” vote.

Gartner’s notion is that Chinese original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and original design manufacturers (ODMs) will drive the price of smart watches down – with Android devices averaging $150 a throw. That will mean that by 2016 smart watches will account for 40 percent of wrist worn devices, Gartner predicts.

Apple’s iWatch starts at $350 and won’t be available until next year.

Gartner’s Angela McIntyre, a research director at Gartner, said: “Apple has finally unveiled its watch, which we expect to trigger more consumer interest once it starts shipping in 2015.”

Another research director, Annette Zimmermann, said that the latest smart watches show imprvements in design and Android Wear will include voice search, turn-by-turn navigation, contextual reminders and taking notes via voice output.

One of the obstacles to acceptance, however, is the sheer proliferation of devices that need charging, Gartner thinks.

Tablet sales slow down

Posted on September 17, 2014 by - News

cheap-tabletsSales of tablets are set to slow down next year because the market is saturated with devices.

So says Taiwanese market research company Market Intelligence and Consulting (MIC). MIC is a Taiwanese government quango and is in a position to know because most tablets are made in Taiwan and mainland China. Many are so-called “white box” units – often sold at rock bottom prices and unbranded.

And it also forecasts that the global PC market will shrink next year because enterprises are slowing down buying the gear, according to a report in English language newspaper the Taipei Times.

MIC said global shipments will be 293 million units next year, which represents a 9.2 increase from sales this year. But the rate of increase is in decline.

One of the reasons is that smartphones are getting bigger.

Meanwhile, MIC said worldwide shipments of PCs will be 295 million units, that’s down from shipments this year. Sales this year got a boost because Microsoft stopped supporting Windows XP.

More women play vid games than men

Posted on September 17, 2014 by - News

pacmanResearch from the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) claims more women now play video games than men.

The trend is being driven by 25-44 year old women downloading trivia games and free puzzle games, the IAB said.

The research, conducted by Populus, show that women account for 52 percent of people who played a video game in the last six months.  The figure was 49 percent three years ago.
vidgame

The IAB says the entire gaming audience amounts to 69 percent of the UK population – that’s 33.5 million people.

More people aged over 44 play games than children and teenagers combined.

As you’d expect, its smartphones that are behind the trend. They hog 54 percent of those surveyed, followed by computers (51%), consoles (45%) and tablets (44%).  But the average gamer uses three different devices.

And an average gamer aged over 18 spends something like 11 hours gaming a week, compared to 20 hours for eight to 15 year olds.

4,058 people between the ages of eight and 74 were surveyed online in June for the purposes of the survey.

Smart watches a danger to driving

Posted on September 17, 2014 by - News

fobwatchLegislation that makes it an offence to use a mobile phone while driving will also apply to the use of smart watches.

That’s according to the Daily Telegraph, which said today the Department for Transport confirmed using smart watches while driving will face the same sanctions as mobile phone use at the wheel.

It says the Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM) said that devices, such as the Apple iWatch is as dangerous to use while driving because it distracts motorists.

It quoted a representative for the IAM as saying smart watches could be more distracting than mobile phones because you have to take your hand off the wheel to communicate with it.

While the Apple iWatch won’t be available until next year, the IAM appears to think that the Apple tag will make them popular.  It wants manufacturers of smart watches to warn of the possible dangers.

Drivers distracted by phones or other gadgets face three on the spot penalty points and a £100 fine if they’re pulled over by the police.

Watson becomes a Sherlock

Posted on September 17, 2014 by - News

ibm-officeIBM formally announced Watson Analytics and, somewhat modestly, said it was its biggest announcement in a decade in analytics.

The software is a natural language based service that gives access to predictive and visual analytic tools for business.

The first version of Watson Analytics includes a version of its cloud service for desktops and mobiles.  The service allows access to data warehousing services.

IBM said Watson brings together self service analytics capabilities on the cloud and refine it, discover insights, predict outcomes, visualise results, create reports and allow collaboration with other people.

The company claims that using natural language lets people ask the right questions and get results that can be read and manipulated.  They can then refine their questions.

Cisco rules the security appliance roost

Posted on September 17, 2014 by - News

ciscologoWhile there was only moderate growth for security appliances in EMEA during the second quarter of this year, Cisco has the most market share.

That’s according to technology market research company IDC, which said the market in Q2 was worth $654.80 million, a rise compared to the same quarter in 2013 of 6.2 percent.

Cisco has 20.2 percent revenue share, up one percent year on year.

The runners up in shipments during the quarter were Check Point (17.5%), Fortinet (8.5%), McAfee (6%) and Juniper (5.5%), with the others commanding 42.3 percent.

However, McAfee’s growth between Q2 2013 and Q2 2014 was a massive 66.9 percent, IDC said.

Unified threat management (UMT) was the fast growing security appliance product category – that’s the eighth consecutive quarter and UTM appliances account for 48.4 percent of total vendor revenue.

One in six emails goes missing

Posted on September 16, 2014 by - News

Penny Black - Wikimedia CommonsA survey has revealed that one in every six email messages never reaches peoples’ inboxes.

Return Path surveyed nearly 500 million messages from email marketers who have requested to be sent messages, and found that 11 percent of all emails goes missing while another six percent go straight into peoples’ spam or junk folders.

No region scores more than 90 percent getting emails into the inboxes, but some countries are worse than others.

Australian and German senders failed to deliver one in eight messages.  Brazilians only get two thirds of the messages they’re sent.  The UK and the US fare better, with 87 percent gliding through the interweb.

The company has also surveyed the type of email client.  Apparently Gmail inboxes are happy to receive commercial messages – as long as those messages were put in the Promotions tab.

The survey showed that in November 2013 over 50 percent of email messages were read on mobile devices such as the iPhone or the iPad.

Cisco throws weight behind firewall

Posted on September 16, 2014 by - News

Cisco FirewallNetworking giant Cisco claims it has introduced the first threat focused firewall.

Cisco ASA with FirePOWER Services uses contextual awareness and controls to automatically assess threats, provide intelligence and improve defences to protect network.

Aimed at large enterprises, it includes Sourcefire’s Advanced Malware Protection and Next Generation Intrusion Prevention Systems.

The software management gives authorised users dashboards and drill down reports of discovered hosts, dodgy applications, threats and indicators of compromised systems.

Cisco claims its firewall is enterprise class, and supports VPN, advanced clustering and granular application layer and risk based controls.  Open source integration with Snort, OpenAppID and ClamAV let companies customise security.

No details of pricing are available.

Intel bullish on tablet front

Posted on September 16, 2014 by - News

Intel-Core-MA Taiwanese supplier has received strong order for Intel based Android “white box” tablets.

So says Digitimes, which quotes an insider at Insyde Software as spilling the beans. Insyde has investment from Intel inside.

He or she said Intel will ship 40 million tablet processors this year, according to the report. But as well as hoping to sell Windows tablets, the same report suggests Intel will push Android based tablets too, based on a reference design it showed off at last week’s Intel Developer Forum.

Apparently Intel is teaming up with original design manufacturers Pegatron and ECS in the hope they can bang out ultra cheap tablets.

Intel is way behind in its smartphone and tablet dreams, and is desperate to show it has what it takes to compete with ARM based microprocessors.

The chip inside with the Insyde BIOS will use entry level Bay Trail processors, says Digitimes, here.

Use your phone on the Tube

Posted on September 16, 2014 by - News

tubeEE said that you can now use your smartphone to travel on the London Underground.

Last month, EE introduced its “Cash on Tap” service for Transport for London (TFL) buses.  Now, it says, that service is compatible with the Underground, trans, DLR Overground and National Rail services that accept Oyster.

There’s no extra charge for using Cash on Tap to travel and Monday to Sunday capping offers best value fares.

Cash on Tap is already available for Marks and Spencer, Pret a Manger, WH Smith, McDonalds and Boots.

EE customers can download the app from the Google Play store and is compatible with a variety of Android devices.

EE says the app removes so-called card clash, where gates might not open if you have more than one contactless card.

UK biggest public sector IT spender

Posted on September 16, 2014 by - News

ukflagWhile the UK is the biggest IT public spender, growth is very slow.

That’s according to a report from IDC, which surveyed western European spending in the IT sector.

The big five western European countries – the UK, Germany, France, Spain and Italy –  represent over 75 percent of the $53 billion spent on hardware, software and IT services by the different government.  Over 50 percent of the spend takes place in local government.

IDC says that public administration and compulsory social activities are larges spenders within the sector.

It predicts that investment in pension administration, tax and revenue collection managment will grow more than investments in public safety and security.  Some areas, however, such as immigration and borders are attracting spends.

Germany will show the highest compound annual growth rate with a measly 1.2 percent, while Spain and Italy will suffer the biggest slump.

Toshiba releases 20 megapixel sensor

Posted on September 15, 2014 by - News

Toshiba imageThe chip division of Japanese giant Toshiba said it has started making fast 20 megapixel CMOS image sensors aimed at the high end smartphone market. Samples went out last month and full production will start in February next year.

That type of censor will give a smartphone the kind of capabilities more associated with high end and expensive digital cameras.

The sensor, bilt on a 1.12 micron CMOS process has an optical size of ½.4 inch and lets camera modules on smartphones be built to a-height of 6mm or less.  The chip has a pixel count of 5384×3752 with digital zoom capabilities, and includes 16Kbit memory.

The sensor – dubbed the T4KA7 – ddelivers a frame rate of 22 frames per second at full resolution image capture.  That’s an improvement of 83 percent compared to Toshiba’s previous 20MP sensor.

A Toshiba representative said that the sensor will let manufacturers to design next generation ultrathin, power aware high end mobile products.

The sensor will cost around $20 when bought in volumes.

Toshiba said that the CMOS image sensor market will experience a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10 percent between 2013 and 2018, with revenues reaching $13 billion.