One of the largest and most interesting of the social media start-ups of late has definitely been Skype. The video messaging system, which allows users to video message friends and families long distance, and even routes phone calls through the internet for a nominal fee has been a huge success. With the advent of webcams coming standard on most laptops and the world looking for even more ways to connect, Skype has become a major asset in the media industry.
That, I suppose, is why there was such competition to buy them, but in the end Microsoft won out. The deal, done through investor group Silver Lake, reportedly cost Microsoft $8.5 billion – in cash. Microsoft’s press release from their news site asserts that the deal will help out both companies, bringing a wider audience to the Skype market and boosting Microsoft’s communications portfolio.
The press release goes on to highlight that Skype will now be connected with Microsoft’s phone systems as well as with Xbox Live and Kinect, popular gaming devices. Therefore, Skype now has more avenues to connect via messaging, and Microsoft can add them to their long list of successes.
Skype, which was founded in 2003, was originally bought by eBay in 2005 and then bought by Silver Lake in 2009. Since that acquisition, Skype has shown vast improvement and reach over its now global market, making it a viable option for Microsoft to buy.
Of course, these types of deals take time and there are many more hoops the deal must jump through in order to be legitimate. Despite this, Microsoft’s press release states that they hope the deal will be settled by the end of this year.
Next week Apple will spill the beans on the iPad 2, which can only mean one thing: It's time to start focusing on the iPhone 5 -- which will (probably) be announced in June.
iPhone 5's digitizer panel?Like clockwork, 9 to 5 Mac on Friday uncovered a photo from a Chinese reseller of Apple parts that will get that process under way.
The site suggests the unconfirmed part could be the digitizer panel for the next iPhone. Interestingly enough, the part appears to have a larger cutout section for a screen which could support earlier reports from DigiTimes that the new model will feature a four-inch display to compete with some Android devices.
Besides being unconfirmed, the photo is problematic because the part doesn't appear next to anything -- giving it no scale. It could just as easily mean that the upcoming iPhone could be smaller if the screensize remains the same and the bezel shrinks. The screen could also be any other size, there's really no way to tell.
Regardless if this is a legit part or not, it seems like Apple has a few changes in store for the next iPhone besides a larger screen.
Jonny Evans of Computerworld reported last month that the new model is expected to run on a multi-core A5 CPU and may feature a dual-core graphics core. Evans also suggests that Apple will be getting into the NFC field after hiring veteran Benjamin Vigier as the Mobile Commerce Manager.
Stay tuned. The iPhone 5 rumor mill is sure to heat up in the coming months. iDealsChina, the website that leaked the part photo, seems to hint that more photos will be popping up soon.
Nokia and Microsoft just dropped a bomb - the two leading companies will be joining forces for an extensive collaboration. Windows Phone 7 becomes the primary smartphone OS for Nokia, but Symbian and MeeGo remain in the picture as well.
Following the recent internal memo of new CEO Stephen Elop, we knew there was change afoot, but this is a major change. It has been rumored many times and denied by Nokia, but now it's official and confirmed from the top of both companies.
Changes at the top of Nokia saw big changes - the Group Executive Board is being replaced by the Nokia Leadership Team. The company will also restructures itself into two distinct businesses - Smart Devices and Mobile Phones. Each unit will be responsible for developing its own devices and marketing them.
Both divisions will be headed by women - Mary McDowel will head the Mobile phones division, while Jo Harlow will take over the new Smart Devices division.
Mobile Phones will take over the feature phone business, while Smart Devices will inherit Symbian and MeeGo and work closely with Microsoft to develop the new Windows Phone devices, but also offer their expertise to enhance the OS and also offer hardware know-how (in areas like imaging and more).
Nokia and Microsoft will work to offer Windows Phone 7 devices in a "larger" range of price points (WP7 is exclusively high-end now) and countries, but also share a common development roadmap.
Nokia will take an integral part in the future development of the Windows Phone 7 platform by using its expertise on hardware optimization, software customization, language support and scale.
The Nokia/Microsoft cooperation runs deeper than the mobile phone manufacturing, they will build a whole ecosystem. Nokia Maps will become a core part of Microsoft's mapping services. Microsoft's Bing and adCenter will provide search and advertising services on Nokia Devices.
The former Ovi Store will be merged into the Microsoft Marketplace. Nokia's operator billing with many operators will make it easier for consumers to purchase things from the Marketplace in countries where credit cards are less common.
Symbian is still a big part of Nokia - they plan to sell 150 million devices in the coming years. However Nokia plans to turn Symbian into a "franchise platform", to recover at least a part of Nokia's investments in the platform.
As for MeeGo, it will become an open source mobile operating system, focusing on next-generation products and long-term market exploration. There will be a MeeGo device out this year (maybe it will be announced this Sunday at the MWC) but as a whole MeeGo steps off as one of the main platforms for Nokia.
Series 40 will be an essential part of Nokia's "web for the next billion" strategy. The strategy aims to bring affordable Internet access to developing markets with Ovi Browser (this one?) and web apps.
Unfortunately, developers won't be able to use Qt as their programming platform for Windows Phone 7. Qt will still be the means to create apps for Symbian and MeeGo, but Microsoft will provide their own tools for creating Windows Phone 7 apps.
Nokia plans 2011 and 2012 to be the transition years, in which they will build their "winning ecosystem" with Microsoft. After that they expect their net sales to grow faster than the market and the operating margin to reach 10% or more.
Stephen Elop and Steve Balmer posted a joint open letter on Nokia Conversations, discussing the future. They finished with this:
No 10. Polk HitMaster Gaming Audio System Sing-along games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band are immensely popular among the masses and you won’t be doing justice to them by playing on an age-old speaker system. This is why Polk made this high-end audio speaker and amplifier system provides the right way to game and it can be comfortably plugged into every gaming system. This gadget from Polk throws out an awesome 80 watts of powerful neat sound.
No 9. Panasonic 3D Camcorder AG-3DA1
It is the world’s first professional and fully integrated full HD camcorder. Equipped with dual lenses and 2 full 1920×1080 2.07 megapixel imagers, it can record everything from 24p to 1080/60i. The price is, well, $21000. It is scheduled to unleash for fall.
No 8. WD TV Live Plus HD media player
A device from Western Digital that allows you to watch movies, listen to music as well as view images on your big screen TV, all from a USB drive. This baby can play almost any format you can throw at it. The latest model also allows you to connect to the internet and stream live content from many sites such as Youtube, Flickr, Live365 or even from your own home network. Streaming over Wi-Fi is also possible with this model. Furthermore, this model also supports streaming from Netflix, and that too on HD. Whoa!
It is available now for around $120.
No 7. EnTourage eDGe
This tablet PC slash e-book reader device runs Google Android 1.6 and is world’s first dualbook; its one screen is touch sensitive e-Ink, while the other is full color LCD touch screen. In addition to boasting access to e-books, it will also allow for most of notebook computing functions, such as USB data transfer and normal web surfing. This gadget is rather absurdly priced at $499.
No 6. 4G Phones
Set to be released in 2010, these 4g devices are really going to set the wireless world ablaze. With data transfer rate of 100 Mbps that could also reach upto 1 gigabit per second when static, downloading a DVD movie will be only a half minute task.
No 5. Skiff Reader – The electric newspaper
It is being predicted that this gadget might be one of the top 10 “newspaper” in the market by the end of 2010. This e-book reader is said to be one of the thinnest readers around, although it is quite big, but that’s what makes it compatible with newspaper journalism.
No 4. 3M’s M2256PW – The ten finger touch screen
Although not intended for home usage (judging atleast from a price of $1500), this multi-touch beauty is sure to futurize your office. This 22-inch monitor can detect upto 20 simultaneous inputs through the screen. There is no specified release date till now though.
No 3. Alienware M11x
With a starting price of only $799, this is one gadget of 2010 that you really cannot afford to miss! It truly is ultra-portable with a weight of less than 5 pounds and an 11-inch screen. It uses processors from Intel’s latest line of low-voltage processors. The main feature of this laptop though is its twin graphics cards; one is a low power chip that gives you almost 6 hours of computing and the other one, the GeForce 335M is for games. And this one can certainly play the top titles with high details as it runs COD – Modern Warfare 2 at exceptional frame rates (with highest details). It looks like Alienware had been developing this awesome technology for more than four years behind closed doors, while they even had to wait for technology to catch up with their ambitions. This piece of technology was held so secret that when it was finally revealed at CES 2010, there wasn’t a single competitor around. This can mean some serious revolution in laptop gaming. No 2. Xbox Natal
Now known as Kinect, it was known as Project Natal before this year’s E3. This peripheral for the Xbox360 is set to launch in November this year. There is hardly anyone who games and doesn’t know about Natal, unless he has been living under a rock. Sony and Nintendo revealed similar peripherals for the first time in this year’s E3 too, but Kinect looks way more cooler. It’s currently available for pre-order at various websites for $150.
No 1. 82-inch 3-D Readrt DLP TV
3D has taken the world by storm, as it looks and fittingly the number one gadget in our 2010 list is a 82-inch 3D TV from Mitsubishi Digital Electronics America. It will cost around $4499 when released. Well, you will still have to wear special glasses for this one, but Mitsubishi plans to bring out TVs that work both with 2D and 3D programming. That’s a talk of the future though. This 82 incher is a sure winner for Mitsubishi with its price expected to be dropping to around $3000 by the end of 2010.
Most of you have heard of this Google street view & some may not. So this thread is for all of you. What is Google street view? Google Street View is a technology featured in Google Maps and Google Earth that provides panoramic views from various positions along many streets in the world. It was launched on May 25, 2007, originally only in several cities in the United States, and has since gradually expanded to include more cities and rural areas worldwide.
Google street view images appear after zooming in beyond the highest zooming level in maps and satellite images, and also by dragging a "pegman" icon onto a location on a map. Using the keyboard or mouse the horizontal and vertical viewing direction and the zoom level can be selected. A solid or broken line in the photo shows the approximate path followed by the camera car, and arrows link to the next photo in each direction. At junctions and crossings of camera car routes, more arrows are shown.
Where Google street view is available?
Google earth is presently available in the countries that have been highlighted in dark blue. And the countries that have been highlighted in light blue they are still planing to introduce the Google street view. The cameras they used to develop the Google street view.
Google has used three types of car-mounted cameras in the past to take Street View photographs. Generations 1-3 were used to take photographs in the United States. The first generation was quickly superseded and images were replaced with images taken with 2nd and 3rd generation cameras. Second generation cameras were used to take photographs in Australia. The shadows caused by the 1st, 2nd and 4th generation cameras are occasionally viewable in images taken in mornings and evenings. The new 4th generation cameras will be used to completely replace all images taken with earlier generation cameras. 4th generation cameras take near-HD images and deliver much better quality than earlier cameras.
In October 2009, Google introduced the Street View Trike, a pedal tricycle with a 4th generation camera mounted to take images where cars cannot reach. All streetview images taken now will be taken with the 4th Generation streetview cameras.
In February 2010, Google introduced the Street View Snowmobile, a snowmobile with a 4th generation camera mounted to take images on the Whistler Blackcomb Ski Slopes in preparation for the winter olympics in Vancouver, Canada.
Google plans to re shoot areas with pre-4th generation cameras with 4th generation cameras.
Google's first street view van camera
Google's second street view camera Google's third streetview camera, similar to the second but with 3D mapping
Google's latest camera, which takes near HD imagery as well as 3D mapping.
