Tag: TechEye. newstrack

Free is the about the right price for software

Posted on December 5, 2014 by - News

5360989064_19643132d7_b (1)The  CEO of Cheetah Mobile, a Chinese mobile software company that went public earlier this year is telling the world+dog that he thinks free is about the right price for software.

In the west few have heard of Cheetah Mobile, it has several Android utility products that are consistently among the top downloads in the Google Play store. They are unglamorous but useful titles like Clean Master, Battery Doctor and Photo Grid.

Sheng Fu who took four years to build his company for an IPO, and 18 months to expand globally, is being seen as a Chinese Steve Jobs – at least in China.

Despite its products being free, Fu says Cheetah’s business is strong, with sales increasing 150 percent per year for the past two years, with third-quarter sales of more than $77.7 million.

Part of Cheetah’s success  is that the intense competition of the Chinese market leads to products that can compete globally. There are so many recent university graduates working in tech, all with their startups looking to find their place in the market, he said.

Also, Chinese companies saw the impact that piracy played in the PC software era, and China’s mobile companies grew up knowing they would need to make money without getting consumers to open their wallets.

“Chinese companies are so good at making free but high-quality products,” he said.

Microsoft loses ground in schools race

Posted on November 13, 2014 by - News

1920-track_field_bellcounty_30yd_dashSoftware giant Microsoft is losing ground to the likes of Apple and Google in the race to get its gear into schools.

According to consultant Pablo Valerio,  the reason is nothing to do with marketing to kids and parents, but because it is falling short when it comes to providing teaching apps and its licencing arrangements.

Apple’s Teacher Tools and Google’s Chromebook Management Console are fuelling the adoption of Chromebooks and iPads, leaving Microsoft behind.

The recent Microsoft TechEd Europe event showed that Microsoft was close to sorting out the lack of Apps with the upcoming Windows 10 operating system.

However, Microsoft has not solved the issue of having to purchase a licence for each user as each user that logs into a device will use a licence, so that license will be taken down and it would not go back dynamically.

This will cause a heavy bill for schools with limited numbers of computers and hundreds of students using them.

Google Chromebooks have Chrome OS with specific tools for schools to manage the devices, their apps and users. Its Chromebooks for Education program is helping schools deploy large numbers of devices with an easy management system.

While it is possible to buy a small Windows laptop for about the same price of a basic Chromebook, the associated management and support costs are enormous in comparison. Also Chromebooks are pre-loaded with apps such as Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides, with similar functionality to Microsoft’s Office.

Apple is the leader in the education market thanks to having the biggest collection of education apps available today, plus some unique management tools, some by Apple and some by MDM providers such as AirWatch, he said.

 

US spectrum launch delayed

Posted on October 27, 2014 by - News

LPSpectrumThe chance of the US leading the world when it comes to hi-spec mobile networks were put on ice by its regulatory authority.

The FCC has delayed the incentive auction and has prompted the agency to push the spectrum swap until 2016 thanks to a legal challenge.

The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) started the court case because the incentive auction could hurt TV stations that choose not to participate in the auction.

Final briefs in the case are not due until late January 2015, meaning a decision is probably not likely until mid-2015.

An FCC spokesman said it was confident it wouldl prevail in court, but given the reality of that schedule, the complexity of designing and implementing the auction, and the need for all auction participants to have certainty well in advance of the auction, a delay is necessary.

The spectrum auction will allow broadcasters to sell their unused spectrum to mobile carriers and get a cut of the purchase price. NAB has been cautiously supportive of the move, but the group’s lawsuit says that the FCC is not providing adequate protection for broadcasters who decline to participate.

NAB said it was not its narrowly focused lawsuit which was the cause for delay. NAB Executive Vice President of Communications Dennis Wharton said the  NAB has said repeatedly, it is more important to get the auction done right than right now. Given its complexity, there is good reason Congress gave the FCC 10 years to complete the proceeding.

Internet trolls face two years porridge in Blighty

Posted on October 20, 2014 by - News

trollUK justice secretary Chris Grayling has promised to drag internet trolls from under their bridges and lock them up for longer.

Grayling has announced a plan to change maximum prison sentence for online abuse from six months to two years

Grayling spoke of a “baying cybermob” and believed that the changes will allow magistrates to pass on the most serious cases to crown courts.

The case appeared to have been inspired by Chloe Madeley, the daughter of television presenters Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan, who was trolled after she defended her mother’s remarks about the convicted rapist Ched Evans.

Madeley faced rape threats on social media after she defended her mother’s remarks that Evans, who was released from prison last week after serving half of a five-year sentence for raping a 19-year-old woman, should be allowed to resume his career as a footballer because his rape had not been violent and he had not caused “any bodily harm.”

Grayling told the Mail on Sunday: “These internet trolls are cowards who are poisoning our national life. No one would permit such venom in person, so there should be no place for it on social media. That is why we are determined to quadruple the six-month sentence.

“People are being abused online in the most crude and degrading fashion. This is a law to combat cruelty – and marks our determination to take a stand against a baying cyber-mob. We must send out a clear message: if you troll you risk being behind bars for two years,” he said.

Chloe Madeley told the Wail on Sunday that the law needs to be reviewed. It needs to be accepted that physical threats should not fall under the ‘freedom of speech’ umbrella. It should be seen as online terrorism and it should be illegal.

 

 

 

Quantum silicon computer gets accurate

Posted on October 13, 2014 by - News

Scientists at the University of New South WalesTwo teams working at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) claim to have an answer to problems creating quantum supercomputers.

Quantum bits – qubits – are building blocks for quantum computers and the teams now say they’ve come up with qubits that process data with an accuracy above 99 percent.

Quantum computers won’t become a reality until very low error rates are achieved, said Professor Andrew Dzurak, director of the Aussie fabrication unit at UNSW.

The teams claim to have arrived at two parallel pathways for building a quantum computer in silicon.

Dzurak said that the teams have created a so-called artificial atom that is very similar to silicon transistors used in MOSFETs. He said the experiments are the earliest using solid state devices and the first in silicon.

How far off is an effective quantum supercomputer?  The answer to that question is unclear but the next step is to create pairs of qubits, with the real thing containing thousands of millions of qubits, perhaps using thousands of millions of artificial and natural atoms.