Category: Articles

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Analyst Report: Motorola Gains with Moto G and LG Moves up with G2

LG G2 Camera reviewGood news for two phone companies looking to step up some competition.

Kantar Worldpanel released European sales stats for phones last fiscal quarter (ending February 2014)., and both LG and Motorola saw gains.

Moto was practically absent from previous analyst reports, but following strong sales of their entry level Moto G handset, has climbed to 6% in less than six months. Lending further credence to the idea that the entry level phone market is primed for serious growth over the next couple years.

LG also saw some great gains moving the LG G2. LG was ahead of the curve with processor and battery tech at the end of last year, unseating the HTC One and GS4 as being the powerful “normal sized” phones in the Android ecosystem. That boundary pushing attitude paid off with LG becoming the fastest growing Android brand of last quarter.

The Moto and LG gains also helped secure Android as a whole positive growth over iOS and Windows Phone, maintaining Google’s top spot for phones. You can read the full report below.

Continue reading “Analyst Report: Motorola Gains with Moto G and LG Moves up with G2”

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UK Government Updates Copyright Regulations – Copying for Personal Use Now Legal

640px-Flag_of_the_United_Kingdom.svgGood news everybody! The UK is taking steps towards refining their copyright law, publishing new exceptions to their current set of regulations.

At play is new language which makes personal use copying way less illegal than it was before, and brings intellectual property law overseas into the 21st century. From the GOV.UK press release:

The changes make small but important reforms to UK copyright law and aim to end the current situation where minor and reasonable acts of copying which benefit consumers, society and the economy are unlawful. They also remove a range of unnecessary rules and regulations from the statute book in line with the government’s aim to reduce regulation.

The government has consulted extensively on these changes and on the draft legislation, and listened carefully to the views of a wide range of stakeholders. As a result of this process, the legislation published today strikes an important balance between enabling reasonable use of copyright material in the modern age with minimal impact on copyright owners.

Making personal use expressly clear could help clear up some of the legal grey area surround digital media duplication. Obviously this changes almost nothing in regards to distribution of copied files and file sharing.

Here in the USA, there’s often confusion as to whether personal copies are legal. Thanks to the DMCA, often the resulting copy is legal, but any methods used to circumvent copy protection are illegal. It would be nice if we could get similar clarification here as well, so hopefully this sets some kind of precedent for future negotiations with the RIAA and MPAA.

Changes to IP law should go into effect on June 1st. More info on the GOV.UK press release site.

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Catching up with Tesla Motors: Battery Armor, New Cars, and New York Sales!

model-s-blue-front2_960x640In light of Reddit banning Tesla related posts over the weekend, there were actually a couple interesting stories coming from the electric vehicle manufacturer.

New York!

Following the disappointing actions of the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission, and they’re success at sneaking in a ban on Tesla sales, the Associated Press is reporting that Governor Cuomo has laid out the details for an agreement between New York and Tesla Motors. The state will be examining how to strengthen automobile franchise protections, but Tesla will be allowed to keep its five retail locations in the state to sell directly to consumers.

Tesla Model S Battery Armor!

Following a pair of “extremely uncommon” collisions resulting in battery damage which led to fires, Tesla is introducing new undercarriage armor capable of crushing cinder-blocks. It will add a small bit of weight to the car, but Tesla estimates it will only reduce the car’s range by .1%.

underbody-shield-paving-stone-lq

Starting with vehicles manufactured March 6th, this shield comes standard on new Model S sedans. For those of you lucky enough to own a Model S made before that time, Tesla will install the shield on your car free of charge. More info (and shield tests) on the Tesla Blog.

Lower Priced Tesla to Arrive in 2015?

This one is from the rumor mill, but we’re deeming it as “likely”, that a new Tesla sedan will debut in 2015, as Tesla CEO Elon Musk is blaming himself for some of the car’s delays. In an interview with Bloomberg Musk said “I really am quite insistent that the production version be superior to anything we’ve demonstrated before.” There’s little room for error here as this car, often called the Model X, will represent the largest push into mainstream consumer sales. There’s plenty to focus on, and we know that Musk is also pushing for self driving vehicles to hit roads in the next three years.

 

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Corrupting User Moderated Web Sites: Reddit – r/Technology bans Tesla stories?

reddit bannerAn interesting meltdown happened this weekend on social news site Reddit. The popular site is divided into different categories, and the subreddit dedicated to Technology let slip they had banned stories related to the electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla.

Reddit’s reputation is based on an almost obnoxiously user-generated democratic etiquette. On the ground level, users submit stories, and other users vote up or down for those stories to become more or less visible. With each subreddit, users also comprise the “governing bodies” responsible for maintaining order. This allows the people who actually own Reddit and keep the servers running to have a somewhat hands-off approach to Reddit’s daily operations. It also paints Reddit as being “pure”, a meritocracy, not owned by a corporate interest pushing some kind of commercial or political narrative.

Of course people are fallible and corruptible.

Reddit user canausernamebetolon posted that he had discovered an odd quirk in r/Technology, that stories with the word Tesla in the title were not showing up on the subreddit. Asking a moderator why that was, he was told “Battery cars aren’t ‘technolgy’ any more than normal cars are” [sic]. After pushing for more clarification, the user was banned from r/Technology with the following reply:

Car stories should be submitted to car-related subreddits. Please inform your supervisors in the Tesla Motors Marketing department.

Continue reading “Corrupting User Moderated Web Sites: Reddit – r/Technology bans Tesla stories?”

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Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella Unveils Office for iPad

Microsoft CEO Satya NadellaIt’s been years in the making. We’ve seen teases and rumors, and now it’s officially arriving on iPads DATE.

Microsoft Cloud For MobileMicrosoft’s new CEO Satya Nadella took the wraps off the app we all knew was coming today during his first public address. Stressing the five to ten year outlook for Microsoft, Nadella shared his ideas on changing computing form factors not resembling the machines we use today. User interactions, apps, services, and cloud computing defining the future of our interactions.

Microsoft Office powerpoint For Mobile giant tabletGeneral Manager for Office Development Julia White discussed the solutions Microsoft are developing to serve the crossover between corporate applications and consumer applications. Showing us a highly touch optimized version of the Office Suite for iPad. Continue reading “Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella Unveils Office for iPad”

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Microsoft developers receive Google’s official API

GAPI copy

This is great news for Window’s Phone 8 users and developers who miss Google’s official apps.  Back in January I wrote an article on Google VS. Microsoft.

Google has released over  50 API’s  for developers.  Here are a few that are on that list:

  • Google Plus
  • YouTube
  • Drive
  • Ad Exchange
  • Blogger
  • Orkut

Although we may never see any “official” apps from Google heading to the Microsoft Store, this does open up the door for developers to create an awesome Google app using the official Google API.

Personally I would love to see Rudy Huyn develop a really killer G+ app! If you are unfamiliar with Rudy then check out his apps. Rudy is responsible for one of the most awesome Instagram apps called 6tag!

Continue reading “Microsoft developers receive Google’s official API”

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The HTC One (M8) shipping experiment – Making up for lost time…

BjlVMumCUAAdNS6There used to be a time when a company would announce a new product, and that product would be available to purchase roughly around the time of the announcement. In the every increasingly visceral pace of tech advancement, now we hold previews to announcements, and once a gadget is announced it can take weeks or months before it’s actually available to consumers.

With the unveiling of the M8 yesterday, HTC launched an agressive campaign to make the phone available to consumers. Critical timing as Samsung has already taken the wraps off of the Galaxy S5, but hasn’t yet started shipping it.

Working with AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon, HTC is already selling and shipping the phones through carrier websites. Those signing up on Big Red can walk into select stores and see the phone in person. How refreshing. Announcing a product which is actually ready to ship. Continue reading “The HTC One (M8) shipping experiment – Making up for lost time…”

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AT&T Bringing Android 4.4.2 KitKat to HTC One Mini

htc one mini kitkat update somegadgetguyThis update could be interesting. HTC delivered a nicely styled phone with the HTC One Mini, but in reviewing it I was concerned with some sluggish UI responses and sub-par camera performance.

Google focused KitKat on improving hardware optimization for lower powered handsets. Cheap Android phone manufacturers would often turn to Gingerbread (Android 2.3), so Google is making efforts to polish up the experience for entry level handsets. As the HTC One Mini was last years mid-range entry, it stands to reason that it too might get a nice little performance boost.

The One Mini wasn’t a terrifically popular phone, so it’s really nice to see HTC continuing to support customers here even if the update has been a bit delayed. I’m updating my One Mini now to take it for a second test drive!

Hit the jump for the full changelog of additional updates and improvements. Continue reading “AT&T Bringing Android 4.4.2 KitKat to HTC One Mini”

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