Bigmouthmedia Search Engine News: /europe/

Google introduces Chrome for Android

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 00:01:00 GMT

Google has introduced two of its most successful products to one another - Chrome and Android - releasing its Chrome Browser App for Android users.

Available in the Android Market for smartphones fitted with Ice Cream Sandwich, the new Chrome app is 'focused on speed and simplicity' and features many of the same features as the desktop version.

"Today, we're introducing Chrome for Android Beta, which brings many of the things you've come to love about Chrome to your Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich phone or tablet," Chrome and Apps Senior Vice President Sundar Pichai wrote on the Google blog.

"Like the desktop version, Chrome for Android Beta is focused on speed and simplicity, but it also features seamless sign in and sync so you can take your personalised web browsing experience with you wherever you go, across devices."

The new mobile Chrome features 'reimagined tabs' designed specifically to fit on a mobile browser, and makes use of gesture-based controls to move across tabs.

"You can flip or swipe between an unlimited number of tabs using intuitive gestures, as if you're holding a deck of cards in the palm of your hands, each one a new window to the web," Pichai said.

Users can also sync their mobile and desktop bookmarks, making it easy to access sites across different devices. Syncing also extends to autocomplete suggestions - for example, a site visited or searched regularly at home will also appear as an autocomplete suggestion on the mobile browser.

This, according to Pichai, allows users to 'bring your personalised Chrome experience with you'.
"When searching, your top search results are loaded in the background as you type so pages appear instantly," he said. "And of course, both search and navigation can all be done quickly from the Chrome omnibox."

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Apple warns appayola-using app-makers

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 09:37:00 GMT

App Store competition can be tough, but Apple has warned the consequences of trying to game the system are tougher.

Apple is reminding app-makers that using appayola services - paying to artificially inflate an app's chart ranking - will lead to them being stripped of their ability to release apps in the App Store.

In a post on Apple's Developer website, the company said: "Once you build a great app, you want everyone to know about it. However, when you promote your app, you should avoid using services that advertise or guarantee top placement in App Store charts.

"Even if you are not personally engaged in manipulating App Store chart rankings or user reviews, employing services that do so on your behalf may result in the loss of your Apple Developer Program membership."

The reminder appears to have come in response to a recent conversation on the forum for the mobile games site Touch Arcade. In the forum posting, an independent developer claimed to have been contacted by an ad network charging $5,000 (£3,200) for a guaranteed spot in the App Store's Top 25 placement listing for free apps.

The developer also alleged that the company claimed to use a bot farm to automatically download apps and drive up their rankings, as well as implicating eight free apps currently in the Top 25 listing as using the unnamed bot farm's services.

Making the Top 25 is a coveted position in the App Store, and the potential revenue rewards for download popularity are certainly alluring. However, analysts are quick to point out that long-term business models cannot be built on the artificial use of bot farms.

For example, a really bad game in the App Store may just make it into the Top 25 by using appayola firms, but once "real human" users start playing, the rankings can sink very quickly.

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Deleted photos live on in Facebook servers

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 09:24:00 GMT

Old Facebook photos may still be accessible for months - or even years - after being deleted, living on in the depths of the social network's servers.

First revealed in 2009 by Ars Technica, the firm recently queried Facebook again after discovering backup copies - that could potentially be accessed by users - still existed some three years later.

"Users who might have had second thoughts about posting a photo could certainly remove the image from Facebook's main user interface, but as long as someone had a direct link to the JPEG file in question, the photo would remain accessible for an indefinite amount of time," the company said in a blog post.

According to Facebook, a poorly-functioning legacy system is the culprit, but a new system is on its way to ensure deleted photos can no longer be accessed.

"We are in the process of migrating these photos to the newer system to ensure proper deletion, but until this migration is complete, CDN URLs from deleted photos stored on this legacy system may still be accessible," Facebook spokesman Frederic Wolens told CNET.

Under the new system, Facebook photos that have been removed from the social networking site will be deleted - permanently - within 45 days, and according to Facebook, only a very small percentage of photos are still accessible on the company's old servers.

"The process is nearly complete and there is only a very small percentage of user photos (fewer than 3 per cent) still on the old system awaiting migration," Wolens said.

"We expect this process to be completed within the next month or two, at which point we will verify the migration is complete and we will disable all the old content."

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Apple pulls iPad and iPhones in Germany

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 08:37:00 GMT

Motorola has dealt a double-whammy to Apple in Germany.

Following a December ruling by a German court that Apple failed to license one of Motorola's wireless intellectual properties and the ruling's subsequent patent injunction, the Cupertino-based company has now begun to pull older iPad and iPhone models from it German online store.

In a separate lawsuit, Motorola also won a permanent injunction against the push email service of Apple's iCloud and any devices that can access the services in Germany.

The sales ban relates to a Motorola-owned patent for a "method for performing a countdown function during a mobile-originated transfer for a packet radio system."

The separate push email ban would only come into effect if Motorola decides to enforce the judgement, which deals with a patent relating to two-way communications between pagers and other devices.

Apple isn't taking the news sitting down, however, and has vowed to appeal the rulings and to keep its products available elsewhere for its German customers.

"While some iPad and iPhone models are not available through Apple's online store in Germany right now, customers should have no problem finding them at one of our retail stores or an authorised reseller," Apple said in a statement.

"Apple is appealing the ruling because Motorola refuses to license this patent to Apple on reasonable terms, despite have declared it an industry standard patent seven years ago."

The ruling could also pit Apple against its arch-nemesis, Google, in the near future, as the search giant recently acquired Motorola for its patent portfolio.

The ruling only applies to Germany, but could have implications for other European lawsuits. The European Union allows member-states to reach different legal conclusions,but they must explain why.

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Sony names gaming chief Kazuo Hirai CEO

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 07:48:00 GMT

Sony has tapped Kazuo Hirai to replace chief executive Howard Stringer when he steps down from on 1 April.

Mr Hirai has long been considered the heir-apparent for the CEO position - as a savvy gaming executive; he has been credited with turning things around at the company's unprofitable PlayStation business and was promoted to head of consumer products last March.

He takes the helm just as Sony is predicting its fourth year of net losses for the fiscal year ending 31 March 2012. The company is likely to announce its third quarter results tomorrow and provide more information on the company's management shake-up.

Sony was once the darling of the technology industry, having given birth to the game-changing Walkman music player, but has struggled to compete in the digital era - falling behind the likes of Apple, Samsung and LG.

Additionally, conditions in Japan for the Tokyo-based company haven't helped matters. The global recession coupled with the earthquake and tsunami have stymied any meaningful comebacks for the company recently.

However, in an initiative started by Mr Stringer and likely to be accelerated under Mr Hirai's leadership, Sony aims to connect all of its electronic products to an emerging network offering music, games, movies and other services to increase consumer engagement.

"As challenging as times are for Sony now, were it not for the strong leadership of Sir Howard Stringer these past seven years, we would have been in a much more difficult position," Mr Hirai said in a statement.

"The path we must take is clear: to drive the growth of our core electronics businesses."

Mr Stringer will remain executive chairman until June and then become chairman of the board.

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Angry Birds boss doesn't see Piracy as a bad thing

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 07:36:00 GMT

Rovio boss Mikel Hed has said he doesn't necessarily see piracy as a bad thing when it comes to Angry Birds.

Speaking at the Midem conference in Cannes, the Angry Birds maker explained the company sees efforts to pursue pirates in the court system as 'futile' - so long as pirated products are not harmful to the brand or ripping off fans.

"We could learn a lot from the music industry, and the rather terrible ways the music industry has tried to combat piracy.

"We have some issues with piracy, not only in apps, but also especially in the consumer products," he said. "There is tons of merchandise out there, especially in Asia, which is not officially licensed products."

Hed also explained he believes there is a lesson to be learned from the music industry - namely, approaching customers as fans, rather than users.

"We took something from the music industry, which was to stop treating the customers as users, and start treating them as fans. We do that today: we talk about how many fans we have," he said.

"If we lose our fan base, our business is done, but it we can grow that fan base, our business will grow."

Hed also took the opportunity to discuss new avenues for the popular mobile game, saying the company hasn't ruled out working with musicians in the future.

Rather than just a game, Rovio sees Angry Birds as its own channel - where users are spending as much time in the app as they are with their favourite TV shows.

"Already our apps are becoming channels, and we can use that channel to cross-promote - to sell further content," he said.

"The content itself has transformed into the channel, and the traditional distribution channels are no longer the kingmakers."

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Apple overtakes HP as biggest PC-maker

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 07:01:00 GMT

The late great Steve Jobs may have declared it the "post-PC era," but Apple just became the biggest maker of personal computers in the world.

Apple pulled ahead of Hewlett Packard in the fourth quarter of last year to become the largest vendor of personal computers, due in large part to the extraordinary demand for its iPad.

According to a report by market research firm Canalys, Apple shipped more than 15 million iPads and 5 million Mac computers in the quarter ending 31 December 2011 - representing 17 per cent of the total 120 million client PCs shipped globally in Q4.

The client PC market - including desktops, netbooks, notebooks and pads - grew 16 per cent year-on-year; however, take away pads from the equation and the PC market declined by 0.4 per cent.

Of the other top five PC vendors, only Lenovo managed to increase its market share - growing by just two points in comparison to Apple's six-point gain. Acer, Dell and HP all lost market share.

Now the second largest PC vendor, HP was the hardest hit as the company struggles to keep up with competitors following the end of its Touchpad.

"Currently, HP is pursuing a Windows strategy for its pad portfolio, producing enterprise-focused products, such as the recently launched Slate 2, until the launch of Windows 8," said Canalys Analyst Tim Coulling in the company's official press release.

"However, questions remain over Microsoft's entry into the consumer pad space. While early demonstrations of the Windows 8 operating system seem promising, Microsoft must focus its efforts on creating an intuitive user experience that is far less resource intensive."

This is all continuing good Q4 news for the Cupertino-based company, after smashing Wall Street projections and announcing its highest quarterly profit on record.

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Twitter hushing tweets country-by-country

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 06:25:00 GMT

Twitter tells the little blue bird to hush - but only in certain countries.

In a sharp policy turnaround, Twitter has announced that it will now exercise the ability to withhold tweets depending on the rules and laws of specific countries.

Previously, the social network had held firm to a stance of refusing to censor tweets that may contravene a country's laws. However, until recently, the only way in which Twitter could block a tweet was to delete it across the service globally.

In an official blog post yesterday, Twitter stated: "As we continue to grow internationally, we will enter countries that have different ideas about the contours of freedom of expression. Some differ so much from our ideas that we will not be able to exist there. Others are similar but, for historical or cultural reasons, restrict certain types of content, such as France or Germany, which ban pro-Nazi content.

"Until now, the only way we could take account of those countries' limits was to remove content globally. Starting today, we give ourselves the ability to reactively withhold content from users in a specific country - while keeping it available in the rest of the world. We have also built in a way to communicate transparently to users when content is withheld, and why."

Twitter has become a powerful tool, helping to spur social change across the world. It has been credited for bringing people together during the "Arab Spring" and helping to coordinate the worldwide Occupy movement - although the service has also been blamed for playing a key part in the London riots.

As such, Twitter has begun to receive considerable backlash as a result of its announcement, with critics fearing that tyrannical governments will try to use the new censorship capabilities as a way of cracking down on their citizens.

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The growing Android challenge to iPad supremacy

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 06:13:00 GMT

The latest figures compiled by industry analysts show that the Apple iPad's market dominance continues for the moment - but that's set to be challenged by the growing popularity of Android-based tablets.

Strategy Analytics say that Apple sold twice as many in the last quarter of 2011 as it did in the same period in 2010.

"Global tablet shipments reached an all-time high of 26.8 million units in Q4 2011, surging 150 per cent from 10.7 million in Q4 2010. Demand for tablets among consumer, business and education users remains strong. Apple shipped a robust 15.4 million iPads worldwide and maintained its strong market leadership with 58 per cent share during the fourth quarter of 2011" said Peter King, Director of Strategy Analytics, in a company press release.

However, Androids appear to be on the march, with their share of the global market reaching 39 per cent. A variety of companies are using Google's OS as the basis for their products, such as the Amazon Kindle Fire and Acer's Iconia Tab. Although not a perfect solution, utilising an 'off-the-peg' OS, such as Android, allows companies to reduce development time.

"Dozens of Android models distributed across multiple countries by numerous brands such as Amazon, Samsung, Asus and others have been driving volumes," added Neil Mawston, Executive Director at Strategy Analytics.

"Android is so far proving relatively popular with tablet manufacturers despite nagging concerns about fragmentation of Android's operating system, user-interface and app store ecosystem."

According to the report, the combined sales of the Windows 7 tablet and the BlackBerry PlayBook accounted for fewer than one million units.

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Google launches Public Alerts

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 05:49:00 GMT

Maps just got smarter, as Mountain View announced the launch of Google Public Alerts.

Google Maps users will now be able to see relevant 'Public Alerts' when using the popular tool, getting warning of weather, public safety and earthquake alerts.

"Today marks the launch of a new Google Crisis Response project: Google Public Alerts, a platform designed to bring you relevant emergency alerts when and where you're searching for them," Public alerts engineer Steve Hakusa wrote on the Google blog.

The tool is designed to alert users to things that might be happening in their area - tornado warnings, for example - and provide information about where and when the disaster might occur, as well as how severe the storm is expected to be and where resources can be found to help.

"The Google Crisis Response team works on providing critical emergency information during crises. Our goal is to surface emergency information through the online tools you use everyday, when that information is relevant and useful," Hakusa said.

Users can search directly on Google maps for specific warnings in their area, or alternatively, can go directly to the Public Alerts Page, where users can find a list of current emergency warnings from around the world. Warnings are displayed as hotspots which users can hover over or click to view more information.

"We're learning as we go and we're working hard to continuously improve the range and relevance of the content you see," Hakusa said of the newly-launched service.

"We hope Google Public Alerts provides you with information to make better decisions in times of crisis."

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Nokia profits take a big hit

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 06:00:00 GMT

Having once dominated the global cell phone market, Nokia Corp on Thursday posted a fourth-quarter net loss of €1.07 billion (£897 million), even as the company's first Windows smartphones went on the market in Europe and Asia.

The Finnish company had been trying to stage a comeback with the Nokia-backed Window phone, which analysts originally slated as an iPhone killer.

Unfortunately for the company's bottom line, Nokia said its net revenue from both mobile phones sales and its network divisions fell from €12.6 billion (£10.6 billion) in the fourth quarter of 2010 to €10 billion (£8.4 billion) during the same period in 2011, with smartphone sales dropping by 23 per cent.

On the bright side, Nokia is optimistic about its 2012 prospects. The Windows-powered Lumia 710 and Lumia 800 hit the market in Europe and Asia in November, and Nokia CEO Stephen Elop has said that "well over" 1 million have already been sold.

"From this beachhead of more than 1 million Lumia devices, you will see us push forward with the sales, marketing and successive product introductions necessary to be successful," Elop said.

"We also plan to bring the Lumia series to additional markets including China and Latin America in the first half of 2012."

Lumia phones may be gaining traction, but the company will undoubtedly face continue stiff competition from Apple's iPhone and Google's Android OS. Just this week Apple boasted record profits from its holiday sales of iPhones and iPads.

The company said it would not provide annual targets for 2012 as it was a "year in transition," but Nokia expects to "about break-even" in the first quarter of this year.

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