Tag: newstrack

Top TV makers reject OLED

Posted on October 31, 2014 by - News

tv58Samsung and LG have decided that the world is not ready for OLED and the next generation of TVs will run on quantum dot technology.

The problem is that they can’t come up with a way of making OLED affordable for the mass market.

Quantum dot involves incorporating a film of tiny light-emitting crystals into regular liquid crystal displays (LCD). The manufacturing process is relatively straightforward and offers improved picture quality at much cheaper cost than using organic light-emitting diodes (OLED).

The manufacturers think that the resulting lower prices could help the technology catch on far quicker. One industry analyst estimated a 55-inch quantum dot TV would be priced 30 to 35 percent more than a current LCD TV, while an OLED TV could be 5 times more expensive.

LG’s 65-inch ultra-high definition OLED TV cost $11,350  which is a big problem.

The only real difficulty is that the quantum dot material comes from a small pool of suppliers, including Quantum Materials and Nanoco who are almost certain to jack up the prices as it might be in short supply.

Nanoco said a South Korean plant being built by partner Dow Chemical will start quantum dot production in the first half of 2015. Analysts believe the output is destined for a local client.

LG plans to make quantum dot TVs in addition to OLED TVs. Analysts regarded that a tacit acknowledgement that OLED needs more time for prices to come down before eventually becoming the new standard.

LG Chief Financial Officer Jung Do-hyun told analysts after the company reported earnings that OLED is the fundamentally superior product.

Samsung Vice President Simon Sung said that quantum dot is among many technologies under consideration.

Sony is the only major electronics manufacturer selling quantum dot TVs. Researcher DisplaySearch forecasts 1.95 million quantum dot TV shipments next year, for just 0.8 percent of the market, growing to 25.5 million by 2020. IHS Technology sees OLED TV shipments at 7.8 million units by 2019 from 600,000 in 2015.

 

Dell comes back from the dead

Posted on October 31, 2014 by - News

i-walked-with-a-zombie-from-left-everettBeancounters at IDC are claiming that Dell’s US shipments grew 19.7 percent during the third calendar quarter of 2014.

If this is the case, then it would appear that business is turning around for the tin box shifter.

Jeff Clarke, Dell’s vice chairman, Operations, and president, Client Solutions said that the reason for the increase was a strong notebook performance in the US and accompanying overall worldwide growth reflects the continued momentum. He said Dell did not intend to slow down.

“You can expect us to maintain our strategy of investing in the PC business, with more additions to our portfolio to be announced next week at Dell World,”Clarke said.

Dell was showing off its PC business in which it said had its seventh consecutive quarter of year-over-year gains in global share and grew more in the third quarter than its top two US competitors combined.

Dell also talked about its commercial portfolio which appeared to be focusing on higher performance PCs and thin clients.

Dell also claimed there was a growing demand for flexible 2-in-1 products in the work environment with the Latitude 13 7000 Series 2-in-1.

Now that the outfit has gone private we have no way of checking any of this as it does not have to share anything and we have to take its word for it.

Tim Cook is gay – so what?

Posted on October 31, 2014 by - News, Opinions

tim-cook-glareThis morning the Tame Apple Press is full of praise for Apple CEO Tim Cook “coming out as gay as if it is really important.

Writing in Bloomberg Businessweek, Apple CEO Tim Cook, unprompted, has said that he is gay. It was news that comes as no surprise to anyone, so why in 2014 was it news?

Cook’s sexuality has been known  for ages, in fact when he took over, I mentioned it in his biography only to have it cut out by the news editor. “Who the hell cares?” he diplomatically pointed out. Indeed.

If Cook had come out in Oscar Wilde’s time, when it was illegal, it would be news. However, this is 2014 and being gay is normal. The sort of people who do not think it is normal are the sort of people who have all sorts of undesirable prejudices and no one wants to be like. Even the concept of “coming out” is a relic of a time when homosexuality had to be secret and not considered normal.

Why does it matter? The Tame Apple Press says that such an announcement will “save lives” because kids will no longer be bullied for their sexuality. After all if Tim Cook can come out then the other kids will say “It is ok the guy who makes our great gadgets is gay so we will accept you”. Clearly the Tame Apple Press has no understanding of the minds of bullies.

So if it does not really make a difference why is Cook saying it?

Apple has been in the press a lot lately and the news has not been good. Its iPhone 6 bent and caught fire, it was implicated in the bankruptcy of its Sapphire Glass maker, Apple Pay was rejected by retailers, its iCloud was hacked and celebrities had their naked selfies exposed, the iWatch is late and will probably be a turkey.

Fairly or unfairly there are mutterings are that “none of this would happen under Jobs” and “Apple is not the same”,

The feeling is that Apple needs a “personality” as a leader and Cook is decidedly lacking in that regard. This announcement was like a back-story episode in Season 2 of a sci-fi drama. We have known that someone is two dimensionally evil, hates aliens, or has a phobia about custard, but in this episode we are shown the reason. This is “fleshing out of the character” is not designed to provide information, but is supposed to make a 2D character more three-dimensional.

The problem is that Tim Cook’s only back-story is that he is gay – the very thing that for the last two decades humanity in the Western world has decided is normal. As a result, he is still as two dimensional as his phones because really… who cares what Cook bonks?

 

Intel impedes Windows 10

Posted on October 31, 2014 by - News, Products

Intel-logoA report said that sales of notebooks using Microsoft Windows 10 are likely to be hit because Intel will be tardy releasing an appropriate chip.

Digitimes Research said that the Intel Skylake microprocessor is supposed to be ready at the beginning of the third quarter in 2015 but will probably not hit the streets until the end of next year or even 2016.

The news will plunge Microsoft into the depths of despondency.  It is already taking a hit because uptake of the notoriously shabby Windows 8.x isn’t going to plan.

Windows 10 is supposed to be the summum bonum – that is to say it will work properly because there won’t be a Windows 9.

Digitimes Research estimates that Intel’s delays won’t make the acceptance of Windows 10 any easier and it appears the alliance between Microsoft and Intel is crumbling.

Intel could not be contacted for comment at press time.

The report is here.

UK government to offer free wi-fi

Posted on October 30, 2014 by - News

Ed VaizeyThe government has a plan to offer free wi-fi in over 1,000 public buildings across the UK in a bid to make everything a little more accessible.

According to the Telegraph, we’ll soon have free wi-fi offered in libraries, museums, and other buildings as part of the government’s plans to turn our cities into “super connected cities”.

Oxford, London, Edinburgh, Leeds and Birmingham are just some of the places where the free wi-fi will be installed, said the report.

The Telegraph says that some free wi-fi hotspots have already gone live but the majority will offer service by March next year.

Ed Vaizey, who is the UK government’s digital economy minister, said it’s all part of a long term economic plan, to give access to businesses, visitors and the general public.

He claimed that the free hotspots will make UK cities more attractive to visitors.

Other places in the world have similar schemes but accessing the wi-fi is not necessarily a piece of cake because of high demands on services.

Tablet market continues to grow

Posted on October 30, 2014 by - News

iPad-miniWhile some say that the phenomenal growth of tablet sales is starting to wane, a report today claims that the situation is quite different.

IDC said that the worldwide tablet market grew by 11.5 percent in the third quarter of 2014 – shipments totalled 53.8 million units.

The market research company said that sales were boosted by the “back to school” season and also an increased appetite for tablets in the US – one of the biggest markets.

Apple is still the leader in tablets, but is continuing to see a decline in its sales.  It shipped 12.3 million units in the third quarter, while Samsung shipped 9.9 million units and despite being second has an 18.3 percent market share. Asus displaced Lenovo from number three.

Next was Asus, followed by Lenovo and in number five position is RCA, which got to its worldwide position by shipping 2.6 million tablets in the USA.

Parallel worlds really do exist

Posted on October 30, 2014 by - News

saturnIt seems that the dreams of sci-fi writers have a basis in science because academics have come up with a new theory based on the existence of parallel universes.

The scientists, at Griffith University, claim that they’ve taken interacting parallel worlds out of the realm of science fiction and into that of hard science.

The team of academics says that parallel universes interact with nearby worlds influencing each other by a subtle force of repulsion.

This theory, the team avers, explains the anomalistic and strange phenomena in quantum mechanics.

Professor Howard Wiseman says: “The universe we experience is just one of a gigantic number of worlds. Some are almost identical to ours while most are very different.”

He added: “All of these worlds are equally real, exist continuously through time, and possess precisely defined properties.”

The theory predicts something new that isn’t Newtonian nor confirms to quantum theory.  He believes that it will be possible to test for the existence of such worlds.

Semiconductor firms have Moore’s Law hope

Posted on October 30, 2014 by - News

minionsOne of the problems with semiconductor firms like Intel continually shrinking the size of chips is that soon they’ll be up against the limits of the lithographic methods used to make microprocessors.

But scientists at UC San Diego may have an answer which will let Intel engineers sleep easy in their bunny suits at night.

Nanoengineers at the university claim to have invented a new type of lithography in which – they say – nanoscale robots swim over the surface of light sensitive materials to create the surface patterns that conventional lithography produced.

The scientists said that not only does it solve some of the lithography problems of the future, but it also is a simple and more affordable way of doing the trick.

Electron beam writing is very expensive and complex.

How does it work?  The nanorobots are chemically powered, self propelled and magnetically controlled.  Jinxing Li, a student at UC San Diego said: “All we need is these self propelled nanobots and UV (ultraviolet) light. They work together like minion, moving and writing and are easily controlled by a simple magnet.”

Google ready to take driving seat

Posted on October 30, 2014 by - News

jalopyThe next battle between Apple and Google is set to take place in your car as you’re speeding down the motorway.

While Apple had the first to market software that synchronises iPhones to vehicle entertainment systems with Carplay, it seems that it faces tough competition from Google with Android Auto.

Apple initially had the backing of car companies like BMW, Citron, Ferrari, Jaguar, Mercedes, Peugeot and Toyota, according to ABI Research some of these players have unaccountably delayed implementing Carplay.

Meanwhile, the same report says that Android Auto will now be supported by Bentley, Infiniti, Maserati, Renault, SEAT, Skoda and Volkswagen.

According to Filomena Berardi, a senior analyst at ABI, it appears some car manufacturers like Android because it’s a more open operating system.

She thinks that most car manufacturers will now support both. Well, you wouldn’t want to turn down buying a Maserati because it only supports, iPhone, would you?

UK NHS keeps Windows XP on life support

Posted on October 30, 2014 by - News

heart-rate-on-a-screen-ekg-machineNHS Trusts are insisting on keeping Windows XP machines despite concerns that they are about as secure as a celeb’s naked picture on the iCloud and have cost £5.5 million from Microsoft to support.

According to Citrix, the mobile workspace company, which filed a freedom of information act request to get its data, all the of 35 NHS Trusts are still using Windows XP and that just five are using  desktop virtualisation technology to handle migration away from it.

Jason Tooley, UK country manager at Citrix, said that like the rest of the public sector, the NHS is under tremendous pressure to do more with less and the IT department is no exception.

He called on NHS trusts across the UK to harness technology today to transform IT processes for the better. Using IT — including desktop and application virtualisation — can positively impact the entire workplace, delivering increased productivity and ultimately improved patient care.

Microsoft announced Windows XP’s end of life on 8 April 2014 but the British government has an extension on support until 8 April 2015 and with this in mind. More than 74 percent of the trusts surveyed admitted their last devices wouldn’t be migrated until March 2015.

Another 14 percent are unsure when they will transition their last computer away from Windows XP and in addition to the five that are already using virtualisation, just two more plan to take a similar path before the deadline.

There are rumours that the UK government could end up signing another extension with Microsoft to provide a second year of support and it’s likely to cost the same £5.5 million it shelled out for help this year.

Under that deal, Vole provides security updates for the 12 year old OS as well as Office 2003 and Exchange 2003 for the entire UK public sector, and a similar deal was signed by the Dutch government for the same level of support.

World on the street is that  the UK government may wait for Windows 10 to come to its rescue and there’s a distinct possibility we will be talking about an NHS stuck on Windows XP this time next year.

Samsung promises a smartphone refresh

Posted on October 30, 2014 by - News

1920s-telephone-advertSamsung has promised to revamp its smartphone line-up to tackle what has been its worst third-quarter results since 2011.

The outfit said that it needed to take on competitors in the rapidly growing mid-to-low range segment, after third-quarter earnings set it on course for its worst year since 2011.

Samsung’s  market share fell like a free-fall team of parachuting elephants which had to forgotten to pack a key ingredient of their act. Samsung was behind Apple in the premium market and was eclipsed by Lenovo and Xiaomi at the bottom end.

Executives said the South Korean giant would overhaul its lower-tier line-up to boost price competitiveness and use higher-quality components to set its devices apart.

Samsung Senior Vice President Kim Hyun-joon said during a conference call with analysts that the mid-to-low end market is growing rapidly, and Samsung planned to respond actively in order to capitalise on that growth.

Samsung said its third quarter operating profit fell by $3.9 billion, matching its guidance issued earlier this month.

While the company expects profits to pick up in the fourth quarter on strong demand for televisions and memory chips, analysts still expect Samsung to record its worst annual operating profit in three years.

Profit for the mobile division fell 73.9 percent which was its worst performance since the second quarter of 2011.

Part of the problem was that Samsung spent most of the quarter without launching a new flagship device, and continued to struggle in the mid-to-low tier markets against cheaper and value-packed offerings like Xiaomi’s Redmi 1S.

Robert Yi, Samsung’s head of investor relations, said the firm would launch new mid-tier models in the fourth quarter, although he did not say what features they would have.

Samsung expects average selling prices for handsets will rise in the fourth quarter due to an increase in premium smartphone sales, namely of the Galaxy Note 4, and as demand picks up in the holiday shopping season.

 

Microsoft beats Apple to releasing a watch

Posted on October 30, 2014 by - News

Swiss Watches the BrandSoftware giant Microsoft has beaten Apple to releasing a new watch.

Dubbed the “Microsoft Band,” which sounds a little like the volunteer brass band which plays at company events, the watch will allow users to monitor their fitness and exercise regime,

According to a Volish bog, the wrist-worn device has sensors that monitor pulse rate, measure calorie burn and track sleep quality.

It seems that Microsoft only wants to release the gear in the United States presumably because that is where the fittest people in the world can be found, who are always on their way to a gym. It will cost $199.

Jobs’ Mob showed off its smart watch on September 9, but it will not be in the shops until next year. It will be priced at $349

Microsoft also launched a health app called “Microsoft Health” that includes a cloud service for users to store and combine health and fitness data.

The Microsoft Health app will collect data from the fitness band and will work on iPhones and Android smartphones, as well as its own Windows Phone.

 

US companies take down Chinese hacker group

Posted on October 30, 2014 by - News

1220aAn alliance of US tech companies including Novetta and Microsoft hasbeen targeting the Hikit malware and have worked out a way to disrupt the Chinese cyber espionage gang Axiom’s antics.

Dubbed Operation SMN, the coalition of security companies has apparently given the hackers a Chinese burn after it detected and cleaned up malicious code on 43,000 computers worldwide infected by Axiom.

The effort was led by Novetta and included Bit9, Cisco, FireEye, F-Secure, iSIGHT Partners, Microsoft, Tenable, ThreatConnect Intelligence Research Team (TCIRT), ThreatTrack Security, Volexity, and was united as part of Microsoft’s Coordinated Malware Eradication (CME) campaign against Hikit.

Hikit is custom malware often used by Axiom to burrow into organisations and nick data. It works quietly and evades detection, sometimes for years.

Axiom used a variety of tools to access and re-infect environments including Derusbi, Deputy Dog, Hydraq, and others. Ludwig says, they expanded the group and its scope “so that we absolutely did the best possible job of clean-up and removal” and rolled it all into a Microsoft Malicious Software Removal Tool (MSRT) released Oct. 14.

Novetta thinks that while the MSRT was comprehensive, it may be only a temporary setback for Axiom, which will just work out another way of doing the same thing.

Novetta says it has “moderate to high confidence” that Axiom is a well-resourced and well-disciplined subgroup of the state-backed “Chinese Intelligence Apparatus.”

Axiom has been found in organisations that are of strategic economic interest, that influence environmental and energy policy and that develop integrated circuits, telecommunications equipment and infrastructure.

The target organisations are often related in some way, and once Hikit has burrowed its way into a computing environment, it can create a “mini-network,” communicating laterally with other Hikit installations within the organisation or related outside groups. What makes it difficult to track is that it uses proxies and never communicates with the command-and-control server directly. Hikit talks to companies in such a way that the traffic does not look dodgy.

 

Boffins will have a personal cloud

Posted on October 30, 2014 by - News

tornadoResearchers will soon have their own clouds, thanks to the efforts of a non-Profit organisation Internet2.

Internet2 has worked out a way to let scientists create and connect to virtual spaces, within which they will be able to conduct research across disciplines and to experiment on the nature of the web.

Robert Ricci, a research assistant professor at the University of Utah’s School of Computing said that this will allow computer-science researchers to look at new ways of potentially designing networks that could influence how the internet itself works.

Internet2 connects more than 250 American colleges and universities, as well as corporations, research groups, and government agencies. The group also facilitates research by connecting campuses and transmitting large amounts of data at a faster speed than commercial networks offer.

New software developed by the group divides the Internet2 network into private sectors with two projects, CloudLab and Chameleon, provide frameworks for the creation of clouds connected by Internet2.

Ricci said that this will enable computer scientists to do is come up with better network-management systems to support scientists who have these large data transfers.

Boffins will benefit from the project, but so should computational scientists and researchers in other fields.

This will be a big hand in situations where digital and physical worlds intersect, such as in the collaboration between researchers.

The programme is funded by a $10-million grant from the National Science Foundation, and will be free to researchers whose proposals are approved.

It means that Universities with a large hardware budget will not be the only ones who benefit from this sort of technology.

Dow Jones steps into Apple secrecy row

Posted on October 29, 2014 by - News

scalesAn agreement between Apple and its supplier GT Advanced (GTA) to seal documents relating to the latter company filed for bankruptcy earlier this month has been challenged by a third party,

GTA supplied sapphire substrates to Apple, an important ingredient of screens for smartphones but filed for protection under US regulation Chapter 11 earlier this month.

Dow Jones asked a US court to deny a request made by both Apple and GTA to keep some documents relating to their relationship under seal.  It said such a move offended principles of the US constitution.

Apple had threatened GTA with a law suit for over $1 billion alleging damages.

In cases of banruptcy in the USA there are only a few conditions which would allow documents to be made unavailable to the public and Dow Jones claims no documents in this case qualified under those rules.