LG'S NEW G4 PHONES WILL HAVE LEATHER BACKS

Optional leather backs and manual camera controls are two ways LG is seeking to distinguish its new G4 phone from Apple's iPhones and Samsung's Galaxy smartphones.

Mark Lennihan

Juno Cho, President and CEO of LG Corp., holds the LG G4, during an event Tuesday, April 28, 2015 in New York. LG is making smartphones with leather backs as it seeks to distinguish its phones from Apple's iPhones and Samsung's Galaxy smartphones. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

LG's mobile chief, Juno Cho, said a wireless trade show in Barcelona, Spain, last month confirmed LG's belief that smartphones have become clones of one another.

"I was almost shocked," Cho told The Associated Press. "Almost all the phones on display and introduced looked very (much the) same — the same metal casing and emphasis on thinness, overall form factors that are very similar."

The message at Tuesday's announcement of the new G4: We're not like the others.

Apple and Samsung dominate the smartphone market, with LG Electronics Inc. and other companies vying for third place with market shares of less than 5 percent each.

LG will make phones with traditional backs, too — using metal or ceramic. Prices weren't announced, though LG said leather models will cost more in some markets. The G4 is available immediately in LG's home country of South Korea. It will debut around the world in the coming weeks and is expected to reach the U.S. in early June.

Here's how the G4 stacks up:

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THE DESIGN

Apple has long made design a priority, while Samsung began to embrace that this spring with phones that sport a metal frame and a glass back, rather than the plastic used in previous models. In many ways, Samsung's new Galaxy S6 came to resemble Apple's older iPhones. (The iPhone now has metal backs.)

At Tuesday's announcement, LG made a dig at Samsung, without naming it, by pointing out that glass backs can be marred with fingerprints. The G4 will have a choice of leather finishes. Some of Samsung's older phones had imitation leather backs. The G4 uses real leather and has stitching down the middle — for looks, more than anything.

If leather isn't for you, metal and ceramic backs are options. Motorola's Moto X phone offers leather, wood and other non-traditional materials as made-to-order options. With LG, they are part of standard models.

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Samsung Elec's mobile margins not out of the woods

Samsung Electronics may have put a floor under its mobile margins, but skeptics say profits will undergo a new test with the latest flagship Galaxy smartphones, among the most costly the South Korean company has ever made.

Samsung's mobile devices division, which accounted for nearly 60 percent of total profit last year, boosted its operating margin to 10.6 percent in January-to-March, according to the company's final quarterly results released on Wednesday. That's the highest in three quarters. Analysts say Samsung's roll-out of new mid-range products with revamped designs in key markets such as India likely boosted sales.

Mobile earnings slumped 42 percent last year due to intense competition in both the top and low-end segments. Samsung was forced to dump unsold inventory at steep discounts, pushing quarterly margins into the single digits for the first time since 2010.

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Why Google+ failed, according to Google insiders

Last month, Google announced that it’s changing up its strategy with Google+.

In a sense, it’s giving up on pitching Google+ as a social network aimed at competing with Facebook. Instead, Google+ will become two separate pieces: Photos and Streams.

This didn’t come as a surprise — Google+ never really caught on the same way social networks like Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn did.

Technically, tons of people use Google+, since logging into it gives you access to Gmail, Google Drive, and all of Google’s other apps.

But people aren’t actively using the social network aspect of it. 

Here’s a chart made by blogger Kevin Anderson, which is based on data compiled by researcher Edward Morbis. His research estimates active Google+ users defined as those that have made a post to Google+ in January 2015. He pulled Google’s on Profile sitemaps and sample profile pages based on them.

Rumors have been swirling for months that Google would change its direction with Google+. Business Insider spoke with a few insiders about what happened to the network that Google believed would change the way people share their lives online. Google+ was really important to Larry Page, too — one person said he was personally involved and wanted to get the whole company behind it. 

The main problem with Google+, one former Googler says, is the company tried to make it too much like Facebook. Another former Googler agrees, saying the company was “late to market” and motivated from “a competitive standpoint.”

There may have been some paranoia — Facebook was actively poaching Googlers at a certain point, one source said. Google+ employees within Google were sectioned off, this person said, possibly to prevent gossip about the product from spreading. Google+ employees had their own secret cafeteria called “Cloud,” for example, and others on the Mountain View campus weren’t permitted.

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Facebook isn’t a charity. The poor will pay by surrendering their data

Luxury is already here – it’s just not very evenly distributed. Such, at any rate, is the provocative argument put forward by Hal Varian, Google’s chief economist. Recently dubbed “the Varian rule”, it states that to predict the future, we just have to look at what rich people already have and assume that the middle classes will have it in five years and poor people will have it in 10. Radio, TV, dishwashers, mobile phones, flatscreen TVs: Varian sees this principle at work in the history of many technologies.

So what is it that the rich have today that the poor will get in a decade? Varian bets on personal assistants. Instead of maids and chauffeurs we would have self-driving cars, housecleaning robots and clever, omniscient apps that can monitor, inform and nudge us in real time.

As Varian puts it: “These digital assistants will be so useful that everyone will want one and the scare stories you read today about privacy concerns will just seem quaint and old-fashioned.” Google Now, one such assistant, can monitor our emails, searches and locations and constantly remind us about forthcoming meetings or trips, all while patiently checking real-time weather and traffic in the background.

Varian’s juxtaposition of dishwashers with apps might seem reasonable but it’s actually misleading. When you hire somebody as your personal assistant, the transaction is relatively straightforward: you pay the person for the services tendered – often, in cash – and that’s the end of it. It’s tempting to say that the same logic is at work with virtual assistants: you surrender your data – the way you would surrender your cash – for Google to provide this otherwise free service.

But something doesn’t add up here: few of us expect our personal assistants to walk away with a copy of all our letters and files in order to make a buck off them. For our virtual assistants, on the other hand, this is the only reason they exist.

In fact, we are getting shortchanged twice: first, when we surrender our data – eventually, it ends up on Google’s balance sheet – in exchange for relatively trivial services, and, second, when that data is then later used to customise and structure our world in a way that is neither transparent nor desirable.

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Science Fiction: the latest must-reads

The Affinities

By Robert Charles Wilson

(Tor, 320 pages)

Robert Charles Wilson’s latest describes a social network that has evolved into something even more invasive and threatening than Facebook and Google.

The premise is that the new science of social teleodynamics has come up with complex algorithms that sort humanity into “socionomic affinities.” These proto-ethnicities have, in turn, stepped in to provide a sense of security, belonging and identity in a secular, post-nationalist world that has also turned its back on the dysfunctional train wreck of genetic kinship and family.

Of course, things don’t work out quite as planned. Intra-affiliation competition is as much a product of the new world order as co-operation, and high-tech social bonding turns out to be no match for old-fashioned tribal hatred of the other.

As always, Wilson has grounded his speculations in a suspenseful story focused on real people coping with these changes. It’s a troubling vision of the future, made all the more so by the ambiguity at its heart: are the affinities a good thing? Is this progress, or regression to a more primitive state?

The Machine Awakes

By Adam Christophe

(Tor, 352 pages)

The Machine Awakes is the second instalment in Adam Christopher’s Spider Wars trilogy, telling a stand-alone story set in the same universe as last year’s TheBurning Dark.

As things begin it seems something’s stirring on the moons of Jupiter, and it’s not those pesky Spiders again. Meanwhile, things aren’t going well on Earth either, as the Fleet Admiral has just been assassinated after being overthrown in a coup. But which of the many conspiracies out there is responsible?

It’s up to the Fleet Bureau of Investigation to get to the bottom of all this, and Special Agent Von Kodiak is the man for the job. Expect a really entertaining space opera with all the fixings from a young writer who is hitting his stride.

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Dodgy ‘No iOS Zone’ Wi-Fi Network Could Crash Every iPhone And iPad In Sight

A hacked Wi-Fi router could cause any iPhone or iPad device within range to be rendered absolutely useless, say security researchers.

A team at security firm Skycure has discovered an SSL vulnerability that causes iOS and apps to crash repeatedly by setting a router in a specific configuration.

It says that only iOS devices are affected and that if combined with a previously discovered bug called WiFiGate, which allows for the creation of a dodgy network that forces any device in its reach to automatically connect, entire areas could be declared ‘no iOS zones’.

No iOS Zone

“Basically, by generating a specially crafted SSL certificate, attackers can regenerate a bug and cause apps that perform SSL communication to crash at will,” said Yair Amit, CTO and co-founder of Skycure. “With our finding, we rushed to create a script that exploits the bug over a network interface.

“As SSL is a security best practice and is utilized in almost all apps in the Apple app store, the attack surface is very wide. We knew that any delay in patching the vulnerability could lead to a serious business impact: an organized denial of service (DoS) attack can lead to big losses.”

But this vulnerability affects iOS itself, with continued use of an iPhone in an affected network eventually causing the operating system to enter an endless reboot cycle.

“It puts the victim’s device in an unusable state for as long as the attack impacts a device. Even if victims understand that the attack comes from a Wi-Fi network, they can’t disable the Wi-Fi interface in the repeated restart state,” continued Amit, who discussed the possibility of combining the bug with WiFi Gate.

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Sony's Lost Confidence Will Doom The Xperia Z4

No matter the area of expertise, every manufacturer needs confidence. That is especially true in the current Android smartphone market. With consumers looking for the best value for money possible, margins have been shrinking and average handset prices falling while demands on performance and specifications have increased. The market is more cut-throat than in previous years, with younger and hungrier companies such as OnePlus and Xiaomi placing big bets on long-term growth with razor-thin margins on their current handsets.

In the middle of this, the more established companies need to match the upstarts. That means having a huge amount of corporate self-belief, an almost fanatical devotion to the product line, and an ability to continue to make big swings for the fences.

Samsung is the perfect example of this. Its corporate results for 2014 were not strong, with a significant fall in profits and revenue for the mobile devices department. Yet the launch of the Samsung Galaxy S6 family was done with a swagger that projected Samsung’s belief in both the vanilla Galaxy S6, but also the tweaked styling and futuristic look of the Galaxy S6 Edge.

HTC may have fallen behind in market share, but the solid design and clean user interface of the HTC One family has stood it in good stead and allowed it to carve out a solid sales numbers without projecting an aura of desperation.

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How Smart Managers Throw Employees Under the Bus

Your employee just made another terrible mistake. And you are going to suffer because of it. You both look bad now, and you are tired of being frowned upon for his incompetence. And let's get real, no one ever got promoted for failing fast. Failing is for losers. So, it's time he is exposed as the loser he is. You are ready for vengeance.

Let me share a quick story. And I am sure you have your own. You have probably flung a few folks around over the years and found yourself under the bus as well. This happened before I founded Aha!

We were planning a major launch of a new iOS application and had a few dozen influential media and analysts lined up to speak to. We also were going to be demoing the mobile app at a major industry event.

But the approval for the application seemed to be stalled and there were only a few days left before the launch. And the reason it never came is because it was not submitted to Apple for review. The person responsible for submitting it "forgot."

Oh, crap.

I was ultimately in charge of getting the app approved and successfully launching it. And I really wanted to take a screenshot that proved that the app was never submitted on time and blast it out to the team. In it, I was going to ask (let's call him Stan) why he never submitted the request. And yes, the GM was going to be cc'd.

But here is what I did. I laid down under the bus with him. It was not because I was a martyr, but because it was the fastest way to avoid a collective team meltdown and fix the situation.

At the end of the day, everyone figured out who messed up, so there was no good reason to focus on that. Here is how I handled the situation. I...

365 Foolish Mistakes Smart Managers Make Every Day: How and Why to Avoid Them

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Hey, why not phone your dead loved ones with Facebook's new 'Hello' call dialer app

Facebook on Wednesday launched a new caller ID and phone call dialer app for Android. iPhone users, this isn't for you: iOS won't give up the needed phone permissions. And maybe that's a good thing.

Called "Hello," the app allows you to preview info on people or businesses who are calling you, to help you avoid telemarketers, bill collectors, and exes. Hello also integrates your Facebook friends' phone numbers with their profiles, and other cool stuff. “It also might tell you you've recently had phone calls with dead people,” writes Damon Beres at HuffPo.

When I downloaded the "Hello" app to my smartphone, I swiped over to my call history and was startled to find that my friend's younger brother Oliver was showing up instead of him -- even though he passed away two years ago.

Apparently, the problem has to do with how phone numbers can be set up on Facebook. After looking into the issue following an inquiry from The Huffington Post, a spokeswoman for Facebook told me that my friend's number was registered under Oliver's account, though it's not viewable by his friends. In other words, Oliver had two numbers associated with his account: His own cell phone number that was posted on his Facebook profile for others to see, and, for reasons that aren't clear, my friend's cell phone number that was kept private but associated with his account.

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Apple Watch: Early impressions

In case you haven't heard, a smartwatch from a little fruit company in California started shipping today. Gizmag has an Apple Watch in house, along with some early thoughts (very early, mind you, as we're going to take some time before running our full Apple Watch review).

Out of all the big new Apple products from the last 15 years – the iPod, iPhone and iPad – the Apple Watch makes the least striking first impression. Okay, well maybe if you've never used a smartwatch, you'll be blown away from the first moment you see notifications and voice control on your wrist, but we've already been there many times over. There were no "holy shit!" moments after strapping on the Apple Watch.

But that isn't to say this won't be a damn good smartwatch, and potentially a game-changer for wearables. And as the hours pass by in our first day with the Apple Watch, our appreciation has only grown.

First, there's an attention to detail here that we haven't yet seen in wearables. The software is a bit more complicated, with a steeper learning curve, than you might expect from Apple, but once you start getting used to the UI and navigation methods, you realize everything is placed very intuitively.

For example, "glances" (quick access cards for individual apps) live below the main clock face, just a swipe away. You check on notifications with a swipe down, just like on smartphones. The Digital Crown button mirrors an iPhone's home button: single tap to go your app home screen, double-tap to jump between your most recent app and the clock face. A long-press summons Siri. A second button below jumps to a list of frequent contacts.

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This Man Is Dating 365 Women This Year, And Goes On A Date Every Day

While most Indian men will after bagging a single date, this man from Chennai has been on 110 dates in just 4 months starting from 1st January 2015, and plans to do a total of 365 dates before the year ends. 

Meet the man who has managed to persuade over a hundred pretty women to go on a date with him. Sunder Ramu is a Chennai-based actor and photographer.

He has one rule – that the women take him out and pay for the meal. They can cook for him too. And women from different fields have taken him out on a date. Ain’t he a lucky man? To be dating so many women without spending a single penny! Well, he saves money for a greater cause, which is providing a day’s meal for an NGO every month.  

We caught Sunder in between his dates and quizzed him about his dating experience so far.

How Does He Set Up The Dates? 

“It’s mostly people I know. I always approach strangers face to face, and a lot of them now ask me on Facebook.”

The oldest woman he went on a date with was a 105-year-old granny from a village near Pondicherry. And the most adventurous date was when a journalist took him sailing! Here’s a photo blog of some of the many women who took our man out on a date. 

“I feel so loved and reenergized about people. It’s difficult to pick one because everyone is putting in a of thought n effort into the meals.”

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Chrome Notifications, “The Physical Web” And Google’s War On Apps

From day one Google has hated apps. It grudgingly built them because the iPhone and the culture of smartphones forced the company to. Now with Chrome notifications it has taken a very self-conscious step toward making apps less “essential.”

In a press meeting several years ago then Google Android boss Vic Gundotra and publisher/pundit Tim O’Reilly confidently but incorrectly predicted that apps would yield to the mobile web in a relatively short time.

Instead what we have today is a situation where users spend 60 percent of their digital media time with mobile devices (mostly smartphones) and almost 90 percent of that in apps. The mobile web has greater reach than most apps; but in terms of time spent it’s marginal.

Google doesn’t like this for obvious reasons.

Although it has several popular apps, Google is not the star of the mobile internet. Its relatively stable gatekeeping role on the PC has been replaced with an ongoing push to maintain mobile attention and usage. (On yesterday’s earnings call Google CFO Patrick Pichette said that the company is seeing “great momentum” in mobile search and mobile revenue.)

Make no mistake mobile search is widely used on smartphones and Google is dominant. But its position is not as central to mobile users. So-called navigational searches (not directions) and many types of category searches (e.g., restaurants, hotels) are diminished in mobile. People often go directly to relevant apps, without searching.

This is where Google’s “Physical Web” and Chrome notifications come in. The Physical Web project has declared war on apps:

The Physical Web is an approach to unleash the core superpower of the web: interaction on demand. People should be able to walk up to any smart device – a vending machine, a poster, a toy, a bus stop, a rental car – and not have to download an app first. Everything should be just a tap away.

The Physical Web is not shipping yet nor is it a Google product. This is an early-stage experimental project and we’re developing it out in the open as we do all things related to the web. This should only be of interest to developers looking to test out this feature and provide us feedback.

The number of smart devices is going to explode, and the assumption that each new device will require its own application just isn’t realistic. We need a system that lets anyone interact with any device at any time. The Physical Web isn’t about replacing native apps: it’s about enabling interaction when native apps just aren’t practical.

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Google’s sorry that this crudely offensive image of the Apple logo turned up in Maps

Google Map users scoping out Pakistan on Friday may have stumbled on something pretty rude: The mascot for Google's mobile operating system, Android, urinating on the Apple logo.

Apple's iOS and Android are bitter rivals in the mobile space -- but Google didn't include this particular image, versions of which are popular with Android fan boys, in their map product on purpose.

Google Maps relies on a feature called Map Maker that lets users around the world update it. This helps the company use local knowledge to keep up with ever-changing infrastructure. Those changes are theoretically reviewed by other users and a moderation team.

But it seems as though Google isn't keeping a super close eye on all of the changes -- as evidenced by another message found nearby.

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Samsung On The Edge As Galaxy S6 Edge Screen Problems Anger Buyers

The Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge has been called groundbreaking, beautiful, and an “iPhone 6 killer.” However, the phone can also now add the word “defective” to it’s adjectives. Computerworld explains the problem some Galaxy S6 Edge buyers are having.

Samsung acknowledged late Tuesday a screen rotation problem on a ‘very limited’ number of Galaxy S6 Edge devices, which went on sale April 10. The company said a solution is already available, but didn’t disclose whether it is related to the device’s hardware or software or both.

 The problem started becoming noticeable as soon as the Galaxy S6 Edge went on sale. There were a lot of new S6 Edge buyers claiming that many apps wouldn’t rotate into landscape mode. Perhaps Samsung was hoping by ignoring the problem, the publicity wouldn’t be as bad. However, they finally issued a statement to Computerworld this morning.

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SAY "HELLO" TO THE FACEBOOK PHONE (AGAIN)

Mark Zuckerberg's last attempt to overtake your smartphone may have flopped, but that isn't stopping him from giving it another try. Two years after the ill-fated Facebook Home project was first announced, the company is unveiling another phone-focused initiative today. Say hello to Facebook Hello.

As previously rumored, Facebook Hello is a blue-skinned replacement for the native phone dialer on Android. With it, users can mine Facebook's social graph for contacts and caller ID details, make calls over Wi-Fi, and easily move their conversations to the Facebook Messenger app, if desired. The app also supports call blocking, and even lets you know how many others have blocked the number.

With Hello, Facebook is taking a much quieter, less ambitious approach to creating what had for years been rumored as the inevitable "Facebook phone." Instead of building its handsets or even an operating system of its own, the company's foray into your pocket has focused more on individual apps. Facebook Home, which failed to win over many users, looked like something halfway between an OS and an app—essentially, a Facebook-branded skin for Android devices. When that didn't fly, Facebook switched to a much more subtle approach: infiltrating your phone by releasing one standalone app at a time, and even providing development and advertising tools for other app developers.

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You can download facebook hello from PlayStore here.

Why I do not plan on buying an Apple Watch

I don't own an iPhone. I really could end this train of thought with that, but here's what's more: study after study has shown that most people planning on purchasing an Apple Watch also have an iPhone. Many of those people also wear a watch on a regular basis. Apple is in a pretty good position to displace the watches on the wrists of iPhone users over the next few weeks, as it were. But for me - there're really no way I'd end up with an Apple Watch on my wrist.

Let me continue to be as up front with you as possible: I am not your average consumer. I haven't paid full price for a smartphone... ever. Over the past several years I've been using review unit after review unit for my main daily mobile phone, and I have no intention of changing out from this pattern of exchanges.

I'm currently using a Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge - I'm reviewing it for Android Community. For the past year or so, I'd been using an HTC One M8 in-between reviews of other devices.

I've reviewed several smartwatches over the past few months, including such excellent pieces of work as the LG G Watch R.

But I just can't manage to figure out what's so great about a smartwatch in the first place.

Why would I keep this device on my wrist if I didn't already have a need for a piece of hardware there in the first place?

For fashion, perhaps. Maybe in order to keep notifications from my phone up closer to my hand

I was really excited to review the Samsung Galaxy Gear back in October of 2013. The idea that I'd have a tiny computer on my wrist with a camera to boot - that was exciting to me.

But it wasn't long before, again, the lack of necessity turned the device into another desk-dweller.

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Apple Contacting Some Early Apple Watch Customers: 'We're Working on Your Order'

Apple on Wednesday emailed select customers that pre-ordered the Apple Watch to reassure them that the company is working on their orders and will provide them with specific delivery dates and tracking information when available. Apple appears to have sent the email to customers with Apple Watch pre-orders that have yet to be prepared for shipment ahead of Friday's launch. 

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Google launches its own mobile network for Nexus 6 owners

Google has made the details available here.

Popular Apple Watch App Screenshots Revealed Ahead of Friday's Launch

A new tool created by developer Steven Troughton-Smith that allows you to search for Apple Watch app screenshots based on iTunes links has provided an early glimpse at several popular apps for the wrist-worn device. Some developers have already shared screenshots, and other websites have shared additional ones, but this tool provides the closest look yet at third-party apps for Apple Watch ahead of its April 24 launch. 

Apple Watch: Buyers Guide to the Best +50 Features

Find more screenshots here.

Win a Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge courtesy of Opera

Great smartphones need great apps to truly shine, and nowhere is that more visible than when it comes to browsers. The browser you use on your Android phone is your gateway to the web, making it a crucial part of the overall user experience.

One of the highest rated Android browsers out there is Opera Mini, which recently received a big update. Known for its data compression feature that enables users to save data by reducing download sizes, Opera Mini can really give you an edge. But it’s not all just data savings – Opera Mini is fast, fully featured, and user friendly.

That is why android authority have teamed up with the good folks at Opera to give away a Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge to one lucky winner. The contest runs for one week and there are multiple ways to get your entry tickets into the draw. Good luck everyone!

You can enter the give away here.

Fatigue in Children

Mummy, don’t wake me up, let me sleep a bit longer. I’m very tired and don’t feel like going to school…. Sounds familiar? If your child doesn’t want to wake up in the morning and go to school or has lost interest in studies and other activities, he may not have become lazy as you think. Chances are that he may be tired and suffering from fatigue.

Fatigue can be classified into two types –. Physical and mental fatigue. Physical fatigue is also defined as lack of energy or strength and is triggered due to muscle weakness. The affected individual tends to suffer from weakness and seems exhausted, most of the time. On the other hand, mental fatigue is referred to as being drowsy all the time. This condition is known as somnolence and the person tends to feel sleepy and is unable to concentrate on any task. Due to an unhealthy life-style, almost everyone suffers from fatigue, both mental as well as physical. Nowadays even children are being affected by fatigue. Lack of proper nutrients in the diet, consumption of junk food and no exercise can lead to a child feeling lethargic. Some other reasons that can cause fatigue in children are improper sleep cycle, stress or psychological problems, inactivity, etc. If this condition isn't diagnosed in time, it can lead to severe or chronic fatigue syndrome. Let’s see more about this disorder along with its causes, symptoms and treatment options.

Causes of Fatigue in Children

Owing to different activities, starting from going to school, playing, completing assignments and homework, a child tends to get tired. This phase can affect children from time to time, especially in their growing years. But if your child is overwhelmingly tired even after getting adequate rest, then he may be fatigued. This may also be an indication of some underlying health issue.

Anemia: One of the main reasons for fatigue is anaemia. Children who are anaemic often complain of being tired due to lack of iron in the blood. As there is a reduction in the amount of oxygen that reaches the brain due to anaemia, children are easily fatigued.

Lack of Exercise: A child may show inactivity or experience tiredness due to lack of proper exercise.

Lack of Proper Nutrition: Inadequate or improper nutrition is another reason for a child feeling low in energy. Children are more addicted to junk food like French fries, burgers and pizzas that make them ignore proper home cooked food. Eating fast food doesn't provide the required nutrients thus, leading to intense tiredness. It can also make the child obese.

Stress: Contrary to the popular belief that only adults suffer from depression, children also get stressed due to a number of reasons. Stress and depression are also major factors resulting in lethargy in children.

Genuine Joe Anti-Fatigue Mat, Beveled Edge, 2 by 3-Feet, Black

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Surprise, Samsung Also Has Cost Disadvantage With Exynos And Its Modems

Samsung Electronics has had a tough going lately. They’ve been losing smartphone market share to Apple at the high end and to local heroes at the lower end. It’s not all doom and gloom though, as their chip business, which had been losing lots of money, has been doing well recently. A lot of that had to do with memory and manufacturing Apple’s A8 SoCs in my backyard, Austin, TX. I believe more challenges are ahead, though, as Samsung has created a new set of cost issues with the Galaxy S6 and S6 edge, which could impact their smartphone competitiveness in the future. A little background first…

There has been a lot written lately about Samsung’s use of their own Exynos applications processor (AP) and modem in their latest crop of smartphones, the Samsung Galaxy S6 and the S6 edge.  The news factor here was big, particularly because Samsung Electronics previously used Qualcomm for APs and modems in their hero phones.  While Samsung routinely moves suppliers in and out of products, and in fact, had already used their own APs in other phones, that this was happening in North America at AT&T was viewed as a big deal.  Qualcomm’s CEO directed attention to it as well, when he publicly announced they had lost a very large customer.  I think many thought there would be a big cost savings moving away from Qualcomm for the AP and modem.

Last week, Arik Hesseldahl at Recode penned an article on an IHS teardown study on the Samsung Galaxy S6 edge. It said that Samsung added $34 of cost to the Galaxy S5.  IHS was quoted saying that, “The bottom line is that this phone costs less than an iPhone to buy, but it costs Samsung more to build.” That was a surprise to just about everyone. The S6 edge is a big improvement, but to cost more than the iPhone 6 is astounding.  Within this IHS revelation is that not only is the phone more expensive to make, but so are the home-grown Exynos SoC and modem. One would have thought that would have been a savings, right?

Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge (White, 32GB)

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Open Sales for the OnePlus One, Forever

OnePlus has announced that invites would no longer be required for the till recently very hard to grab flagship killer OnePlus One. The announcement coincides with anniversary of the One. The blog from OpePlus quoted.

This week marks a very special anniversary for OnePlus. Exactly one year ago this Thursday, April 23rd, we announced the OnePlus One to the world. Since then, we’ve been travelling down an exciting road; one with a few bumps, yes, but also one that has ultimately led to amazing things. We look at the OnePlus One and the community that has grown around it, and we feel proud.

Since the early days, our company has changed quite a lot. We’ve grown to over 700 employees and have sold over one million OnePlus Ones worldwide. We’ve also learned an immeasurable amount from all of you. We pour over your comments on our forums and social media and soak in the feedback you give us at events all around the world. We try to not just listen, but also act on these lessons. Your feedback has resulted in a wider range of accessories, better logistics options and an evolution from invites to pre-orders to Tuesday Open Sales. Now, we’re taking it one step further.

Starting today, the One will be available without an invite. Forever.

That’s right. In our first big celebration of the One’s successful year, we are opening up sales globally for everyone, every day of the week. We have always wanted to put great products into the hands of more people. And, we now feel confident that we have matured enough to handle the increased complexity that comes along with opening up sales completely.

OnePlus also commented on the OnePlus Two as:

With the experiences we’ve gained with the One, we will be far more prepared to make the same transition with the OnePlus 2. Yes, the 2 will initially launch with invites. We’re committed to maintaining razor-thin margins in order to give as much value as possible back to our users, and this drastically increases our risk. The OnePlus 2 will bring the challenges that come along with a brand new product, and initially, our invite system will help us to manage that risk. It also helps us to be sure that every OnePlus 2 user gets the amazing experience that they deserve.

The blog post from oneplus regarding this announcement can be found here.

The marvel named Garden by the Bay

I recently had an opportunity to visit Garden by the bay located near Marina Bay in Singapore.

The garden has  over 500,000 plants. The two cooled conservatories the Flower Dome and the Cloud Forest, feature rare and unique plants from around the world.

The Garden has an amazing collection of flora and fauna. The beautiful flowers are just astounding. The architecture of the domes them self are superb. 

Flower Dome

The Flower Dome replicates the cool and dry Mediterranean climate and shows off nine different gardens including Baobabs and Bottle Trees, Succulent Garden, Australian Garden, South African Garden, South American Garden, California Garden, Mediterranean Garden, Olive Grove and the Changing Flower Field Display from 5 continents namely Africa, America, Asia, Europe and Oceania.

The dome has a Footprint of 1.2 hectares (approx. 2.2 football fields). It has an overall surface area f 16,000 m² and is built by 3,332 glass panels of 42 varying shapes and sizes. The Height of the structure from floor to top is 38m and the volume is 195,000 m³ (approx. 75 Olympic swimming pools). The temperature inside the dome is 23°C to 25°C and humidity is maintained at 60% to 80%. The dome has a capacity of 1,400 people.

Cloud Forest

The Cloud Forest, is entirely different from the Flower Dome. A 35-meter tall mountain covered in lush vegetation shrouding the world’s tallest indoor waterfall showcases plant life from tropical highlands up to 2,000-meters above sea level.

You can ascend to the mountaintop by lift before descending via two walkways in the clouds for an aerial view of the canopy and mountainside below. 

The dome has a Footprint of 0.8 hectares (approx. 1.5 football fields). It has an overall surface area f 12,000 m² and is built by 2,577 glass panels of 690 varying shapes and sizes. The Height of the structure from floor to top is 58m and the volume is 153,000 m³ (approx. 60 Olympic swimming pools). The temperature inside the dome is 23°C to 25°C and humidity is maintained at 80% to 90%. The dome has a capacity of 1,200 people.

The complete gallery of my photographs shot there can be found here on Google plus and here on Facebook.

It’s time for Google to throw ‘open’ Android under the bus

Europe has been investigating Google Search for so long now, that the filing of formal antitrust charges last Wednesday was almost anticlimactic.

But there was one part that stuck out. In addition to filing formal charges related to Google Search, the European authorities also said they were launching an investigation into Android. 

This is new

European authorities are looking at three things:

Did Google force or incentivize Android phone and tablet makers to “exclusively pre-install Google’s own applications or services”? 

Did Google prevent smartphone and tablet makers who wanted to install Google applications and services on some devices from shipping “modified and potentially competing versions of Android (known as ‘Android forks’) on other devices”?

Did Google tie or bundle certain Google applications and services that shipped with Android devices, with other Google applications, services, and APIs? 

Cyanogen is using the AOSP to build a viable version of Android that’s out of Google’s control.

This sounds complicated – and it is – because there are really two Androids.

There’s the Android Open Source Platform, or AOSP — let’s call it “open” Android.

Open Android provides a fully functional mobile operating system and some scaffolding to build certain types of apps. Google develops open Android and publishes the code under an open source license, meaning anybody can take it and do whatever they want with it. 

Amazon used this platform to build the Kindle Fire and Fire Phone. Many Chinese handset makers like Xiaomi use it to build smartphones and tablets. Cyanogen is using it to create a separate version of Android that Google doesn’t control.

Google makes no money from these versions of Android, which don’t include any Google apps or links back to Google services (or Google ads).

Android Programming: Pushing the Limits

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Mortal Kombat X: The Most Violent Video Game Ever?

With its gruesome symphony of spine-ripping fatalities, the tenth (!) installment in the Mortal Kombat video game franchise is gory as hell—but is it any good?

Jax grabs his opponent’s arms, holds them up over their head, and then—with a squish—he jams them all the way into their body so only the hands are visible. He takes a moment to light a cigar. He grabs his opponent’s mouth and rips the head in half. He puts out his cigar on the tongue as blood gurgles out.

Jax wins. Fatality.

Even if you haven’t heard of the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB), you’ve seen their work. Before every game commercial, a big letter comes up “Rated E for Everyone,” “T for Teen,” or “M for Mature.” Their ratings can be found on every single game box in the lower right hand corner. When the original Mortal Kombat was released back in 1992, the ESRB had not yet been created. Its release was one of the reasons it was.

Mortal Kombat is one of the most infamous game franchises of all time. It’s pretty simple, really: Two characters hit each other until one of them dies. Rinse, repeat. Fighting games don’t get much simpler than that. But what made Mortal Kombat stick out was its “realistic” depiction of violence. The characters were digitized versions of real actors so each punch looked, sort of, like one person actually punching another one. It wasn’t a cartoon, and censors were not pleased.

But what really stuck out, then as now, was the “Fatality” system. When a player has truly beaten his opponent, the victor has the chance to make the victory just a little bit sweeter. And by sweeter, I mean bloodier. “FINISH HIM!” the announcer booms. Press the right combination of buttons and you’ll be treated to a jaw-dropping display of virtual violence.

I witnessed a character’s testicles literally pop under the pressure of an uppercut—and that was in only my second fight.

Sub-Zero freezes his opponent’s torso with a frozen punch. He follows it up with a regular punch—one that leaves a gaping hole in their body. Only its spine remains, but not for long. He reaches in and snaps the spine in two. Then he lifts the body up, rips it in half, and drops the pieces to the ground.

Sub-Zero wins. Fatality.

Though Mortal Kombat X is the tenth official iteration in a series with many more spinoffs and side projects, the “X” is a letter, not a number. Mortal Kombat 9 was just called “Mortal Kombat,” one of those reboots that’s so popular with games these days. Mortal Kombat was a step forward for the series, and many critics and fans hailed it as such. I didn’t play Mortal Kombat. Not the 2011 one, anyway. I did play Mortal Kombat in the arcades when I was young, though. It wasn’t a good game, really, but it was definitely fun to punch off my friend’s digital head.

Mortal Kombat X

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