The newest  iPhone has been one of Apple’s (NASDAQ: APPL) best-selling smartphones yet. We didn’t have to wait long for fully customized Apple iPhone 6 models to come out. This one, coming from Vorsteiner features a pure gold outer skin created by Gold & CO London. The fully functional mobile device now features a highly luxurious exterior added, allowing the owners in the higher income ranges to even further adhere to their personal choices and requests.

Working with several prominent luxury companies, the London based customizer has created some rather stunning showcases of their work (remember the modified BMW F82 M4 we wrote about a few weeks earlier). This, done for a high-performance and high-quality aftermarket aero parts company Vorsteiner, features the same level of expertise and allure as their other work. Gold & Co. London’s 2014 iPhone 6 range is available for order in multiple finishes ranging from 24kt Gold, rose gold, black gold, Platinum and carbon fiber.

The iPhone does look remarkable with the golden exterior, but some may find it over-the-top in certain ways. Regardless of personal opinions, the phone seen here is a clear-cut example of where the world of luxury hand-held devices is going and we’ll be there to report these to you right away. Check out the media gallery showcasing this device right below.

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Internet.org, the brainchild of Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, has the ambitious goal of “connecting the next 5 billion” Internet users by focusing on the emerging economies — the lower tiers of mobile users whose primary means of getting online is via mobile devices.

With a goal of having a presence in 100 countries within 2015, Internet.org sets foot in Southeast Asia through PLDT (NYSE:PHI), which operates the Philippines’ biggest mobile and fixed line network by subscriber base. According to estimates, only 38% of the country’s population had Internet access as of mid 2014. Meanwhile, mobile penetration rate has surpassed 100%, although only a minority are on smartphones.

Facebook’s effort to connect the otherwise underserved sectors of society is done in partnership with public and private organizations in its target countries. Internet.org vice president Chris Evans said in a keynote at the recently-concluded Mobile World Congress in Barcelona that the effort will essentially provide basic Internet services like access to educational and health information. But it also aims to be a feeder to other mobile services, as well, envisioning to “see more people coming online, buying data and voice and SMS bundles.”

Internet.org launched initially in countries like Zambia, Tanzania, Kenya, Colombia, Ghana and India. The Philippines launch marks the first Southeast Asian country that carries free basic Internet access through the initiative.

Through Internet.org, users can access a curated set of websites, currently numbering 24, which include sites like Wikipedia for news, Inquirer for news, Accuweather for meteorology and Jobstreet for job hunting (the list of services differs by market). As expected, the service will also provide free access to social networking staples Facebook and Facebook Messenger.

Access will be available to users within PLDT’s mobile brands, which includes SMART, Sun Cellular and Talk n’ Text. The biggest mobile network by subscriber base, the group counts about 71.2 million prepaid subscribers, which comprise about 90% of its cellular business.

Prior to the local Internet.org launch, PLDT already initiated its “Internet for All” campaign, which provided free access to mobile users, with 50MB daily allocation. While this is decidedly a small amount for most, it was deemed enough for basic access like instant messaging and light social networking.

“Smart’s partnership with Facebook is a big boost to our ‘Internet for All’ campaign, an advocacy we have been strongly pushing for,” says Smart president and CEO Napoleon L. Nazareno. “By launching Internet.org app with Facebook in the Philippines, we are making useful information within reach of millions of Filipinos.”

Earler this month, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg shared some statistics on Internet.org, saying about 7 million people used the Internet for the first time through the service. In addition, the carriers involved also saw an upsurge in data subscriptions and usage of basic services, an indication that Internet.org does not only serve to enhance access to the underserved, but it also contributes positively to carriers’ business. Other companies, such as Nokia, are also finding ways to enable Internet access with inexpensive Internet-enabled devices for the emerging markets.

The post Internet.org Launches in SEAsia With Free Access to Essential Online Services appeared first on VR World.

Earlier today, Facebook (NASDAQ: FB)  unveiled Facebook Payments to allow friends to send free friend-to-friend payments over the social network messages. This service can be seen as the direct response by the largest social media network in the world, all to the likes of Apple Pay and Samsung Pay, unveiled a few months earlier. It also shows how the financial sector is developing rapidly, all without much input from the older well-established companies in the sector recently.

The first time you send or receive money in Messenger, you’ll need to add a Visa or MasterCard debit card issued by a US bank to your account. Once you add a debit card, you can create a PIN to provide additional security the next time you send money. On iOS devices you can also enable Touch ID. As always, you can add another layer of authentication to your account at any time. The payment system lets you just tap a “$” button to send some of your friends money on iOS, Android, and desktop messenger applications, all with zero fees. Facebook Messenger payments will roll out first in the U.S. over the coming months.

European and Asian users will have to wait for Facebook to roll out the service to them. In accordance to recent developments in the sector, this serves as a reminder how quickly things can revolutionize in certain areas overall. This Facebook payment system will undoubtedly have a great argument for a choice between similar payment systems worldwide.

If Facebook can work out an agreement with European Union law makers, this could very well mean the payment system becomes one of the most popular money transfer systems out there. The zero fee approach is offset by companies paying a certain fee when payments are made with this system. Facebook may have a different approach to this aspect, but we believe this will be what the social network does in the future for this issue. While intended for friends, we can see a great deal of use by possible client to client transfers, but more importantly later we can expect this payment system to roll out for companies too.

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Mobile World Congress is all about mobility-enhancing technologies. But while much of the technology media is focused on the consumer-facing technologies and devices during the event, MWC also celebrates innovations in the underlying tech that supports our devices and networks. As part of MWC 2015, this author was tasked to be among the panel of judges for the Best Mobile Technology Breakthrough category.

Entries in this field mostly consist of vendors and solution providers with devices or embedded technologies that improve performance, connectivity and platform convergence meant for mobile use.

One of the finalists is Airvana OneCell, which is an LTE small cell system meant for both enterprise and consumer-facing applications, which mobile operators can use to augment their capabilities in servicing customers in urban and indoor settings.

Airvana’s technology is borne out of the need to have strong wireless signals even inside buildings. One limitation of LTE — and wireless signals in general — is that signal strength is significantly reduced with obstructions. Building foundations act like a cage, after all, where radio signals are good at bouncing within the structure, but not necessarily across from inside-to-outside and vice-versa.

“Outdoor macro cell towers cannot fully penetrate building walls to deliver quality LTE service indoors, and upgrading legacy distributed antenna systems (DAS) for LTE is prohibitively expensive,” says Airvana. An alternative would be standalone small cells, but this is not effective in large enterprise settings, because these create many “cell borders.” In addition, these are not easy nor cost-efficient to deploy.

“These borders create large areas of interference between cells that result in low throughput, poor VoLTE quality, frequent handovers, complex RF planning, and macro interference challenges. Furthermore, they have static capacity, limited upgradeability, and support only a single operator.”

A cross-carrier solution

Airvana’s OneCell solution addresses the challenge of delivering consistent, high-speed LTE services for multiple operators, but without the cost and complexity of a DAS. Basically considered as a “cloud RAN”, the solution involves a single baseband controller, with radio points distributed throughout a building or establishment. These radio points act as a single cell, which results in zero cell borders, border interference and handovers — which mean better energy-efficiency for the connected mobile devices.

Industry experts consider cloud RAN as a disruptive technology because of two benefits: centralization and virtualization. Centralizing the baseband means significantly cheaper operational expenses — operators in South Korea, China and Japan have demonstrated 30% to 50% OPEX reduction with the use of such technologies. Meanwhile, virtualization of network functions will reduce capital expenditure, particularly the need to build standalone cell towers or micro-cell sites.

An added benefit of OneCell’s solution is that the nodes connect with each other via regular ethernet connection, and each radio point runs on power-over-ethernet, further reducing the complexity of deployment. According to a study by Real Wireless, deployment of OneCell is 69% less expensive than a traditional DAS. Material savings from the passive infrastructure can reach 90%, while simplified cabling means labor savings of 75% to 90%.

And a bigger benefit for enterprises: convergence across carriers. “Large enterprises and public spaces are typically multi-operator environments, and OneCell is designed to cost-effectively support multiple wireless providers with a single infrastructure,” says Airvana. “Architecture is designed to allow operators to take advantage of upcoming LTE capabilities, such as carrier aggregation, Coordinated Multipoint (CoMP) and distributed Multi-User MIMO (MU-MIMO) via software upgrades, without replacing any installed equipment.”

Full signal bars

Scalability and cost efficiency are the most relevant benefits for enterprises and other establishments that require indoor wireless broadband connectivity. Meanwhile, for consumers, it means excellent connectivity even within buildings, for a “five signal bar experience.”

“There’s a clear interest among operators in serving indoor enterprise environments with scalable, distributed solutions that are also cost-effective,” says Ed Gubbins, senior analyst at Current Analysis. The potential market for OneCell’s technology is 1 billion users, as the Chelmsford, MA-based firm has dealings with mobile operators from Europe, Asia and North America.

The direction here is clear: the combination of centralized and distributed architectures provided by technologies like the OneCell are a boon to those seeking scalable and cost-efficient means to improve quality of service for mobile broadband users.

The post MWC 2015: Airvana OneCell Enables Stronger Indoor LTE appeared first on VR World.

Job seekers, Rejoice. While unemployment tries to recover from stagnation, the IT industry has a bright outlook. CompTIA, a professional IT certification company, predicts a worldwide expansion in the industry of around five percent with only Canada and the UK lagging behind.

Companies are understaffed already in the technology department and 70 percent of managers report they expect to have a shortage of IT professionals to draw from to fill the gaps. The CompTIA report pegs unemployment in the IT industry lower than that of other fields nationally. In 2012, the Bureau of Labor Statistics averaged the unemployment rate for technology professionals at 4.4, about half the national average at that time. The image breaks that down by position. The picture hasn’t changed much.

A shifting environment due to acquisitions and mergers adds to the complexity of staffing. Not surprisingly, top on the list for growth are areas that make headlines: cloud computing, mobile, and as indicated by events such as Anthem Blue Cross’s hack attack, security. Established entities with familiar names have cash flow to entice employees with salaries and uncommon benefits that go beyond such traditional subsidies as health insurance.

If you plan to go job hunting, you might want to arm yourself with some hardware and software skills. That’s what companies continue to search for when interviewing applicants.

The post IT: It’s the Place to be for Job Hunting appeared first on VR World.

With over a million apps each on the Apple App Store and on Google Play, marketing one’s app must be tough business for any developer. With the multitude of copycat apps that essentially have similar functionalities, app developers will be lucky to have their offerings included in top and featured lists, whether in terms of downloads, ratings, reviews or revenues. How does one reach the tipping point, in which great traction — and organic revenue potential — will shortly come thereafter?

It seems developers are finding ways to game the system, in what can be considered shady practices or at least grey areas in building up the profile of one’s app. In a recent tweet, Hong Kong-based TapCase developer Simon Pang shares what appears to be a lady doing ratings and reviews on an array of tablets. Pang writes how “this is how App Store ratings work.”

This is how App Store ratings work. Welcome to the reality. pic.twitter.com/0MyHmTeqwE

— simonpang (@simonpang) February 2, 2015

Barry Mead of Fireproof Games tweets that “‘respected’ major developers use systems like these daily.”

This being Twitter, of course, there is no verification yet as to the original source of the image, and whether the photographed activity is, indeed, a pay-to-review or pay-to-rate service. However, it has shed some light into such practices that skew app store ratings, popularity, downloads and eventually revenues for these developers.

Wall Street Journal‘s Lisa Fleisher plans to dig deeper into the issue. But without prejudice to Fleisher’s journalistic work, we can already arrive at several questions and critiques with respect to how major app ecosystems are run.

Is it against policy? What is being done?

One might wonder whether Apple is aware of how developers are gaming its app discovery system. It’s reminiscent of how developers will jack up their app prices from $0.99 to $999 (the maximum that the App Store supports), and then having someone buy a copy of the app. Even as Apple gets a 30% share of the money, the app then gets a boost on the top paid apps list, after which the developer can revert the price back to $0.99. In essence, moneyed developers can shell out cash and then lose 30% of this value, but then get a potentially more popular (and revenue generating) application in return.

If pay-to-review farms are mass-producing ratings and reviews in exchange for pay, then it’s grossly unfair to developers who rely on organic reviews and ratings by actual users. Ratings affect discoverability and revenue potential. Developers can easily recoup their investment once they start getting millions of daily downloads.

Apple’s developer terms of service says this: “If you attempt to cheat the system (for example, by trying to trick the review process, steal data from users, copy another developer’s work, or manipulate the ratings) your Apps will be removed from the store and you will be expelled from the developer program.”

Google Play also has this to say in its developer program policies: “Developers must not attempt to change the placement of any Product in the Store, or manipulate any product ratings or reviews by unauthorized means such as fraudulent installs, paid or fake reviews or ratings, or by offering incentives to rate products.”

But “tricking the review process” and “manipulating the ratings” are quite broad terminology. Does it specifically ban paying someone to do manual reviews? Or does it only ban bots? Does it have a geographic dimension? And what does Apple do to apps that employed such practices, but then gained legitimate and organic ratings, reviews and downloads later on?

At least Google’s terminology explicitly calls out paid and fake reviews and ratings. The question is whether the app store ecosystems are actually doing concrete steps in going after violators.

Gaming and economics

This reminds me of the way people have gamed the big systems before. To wit:

• In the heyday of pay-per-click advertising, clickfraud was a big deal. But it did not prevent publishers from hiring third parties to do manual clicking to jack up revenue — or sometimes even to kill off competitors’ campaigns or screw with their ad budgets.
• Content farms used to be a popular way to earn millions. These companies paid measly cents for writers to churn out rehashed, SEO-friendly, but questionable quality articles, and then earn from the ad placements. This was a viable business model until Google pulled the plug with various search algorithm updates that ended up hurting both content farms and valid publications.
• While trading virtual goods with real money may be against the policies of most games, it has not stopped companies from doing “gold farming” activities — something that has implications not only within the dynamics of MMORPGs, but also development economics, as well (e.g., buyers tend to be from developed countries, while players who play to sell items come from emerging economies).
• Today, viral sites have the habit of ripping off content from other sources (in which the originating source is rarely credited), adding clickbait headlines for the benefit of social sharing, and earning from advertisements. Facebook has recently attempted to curtail these practices through algorithm changes, but viral junk still remains in our newsfeeds.

The common denominator among these examples is money. Where there is potential money involved, then people will tend to find ways to game the system for their economic advantage. Never mind user experience, content quality or business ethics.

Given that “respected major developers” are said to be doing this, can we still trust app store ratings and discovery mechanisms?

Feature image credit: Bloomua / Shutterstock.com

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Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) has announced the Lumia 435 and 532, two sub-$100 smartphones aimed at enabling Internet access for first-time smartphone users, especially in the emerging markets. The two devices will be powered by the latest Windows Phone 8.1 Denim, promising decent performance even at low price points.

Both devices will have a 4-inch 800×480 pixel screen, 1 GB of RAM and 8 GB of internal storage. While similar in form factor and in some specs, the two devices have their differences.  The Lumia 435 will feature a dual-core Snapdragon 201 chip and 2 megapixel camera and. The 532 will have a quad-core version of the same SoC, a 5 megapixel camera and support for the famed Glance screen feature. Both devices will come in single-SIM and dual-SIM configurations, with the latter being a popular feature in emerging markets.

The Lumia 435 will be priced at around $80, while the 532 will be around $95. According to Microsoft, the devices will be available in key markets in Europe, APAC and EMEA in February. As with most of Microsoft’s latest entry-level offerings, the devices are not likely to be marketed in the U.S.

This is not the first time Microsoft has announced a device meant to be accessible to the masses. The first Microsoft-branded Lumia — after its acquisition of Nokia’s mobile and services division — was the Lumia 535, a $120 device that touted as offering a “5-5-5″ experience: 5 megapixel main camera, 5 megapixel wide-angle selfie-friendly front camera, and a 5-inch screen. Microsoft also announced the Nokia 215, a sub-$30 Internet-capable feature phone.

A smartphone in every home

In its early days, Microsoft’s vision was to “a computer on every desk and in every home.” While the company has succeeded in making the desktop accessible to the masses, mobile devices are more dominant today. The Redmond company’s focus has shifted quite drastically: “to create a family of devices and services for individuals and businesses that empower people around the globe at home, at work and on the go, for the activities they value most.” While this might be a mouthful, the company’s strategy for mobile devices is quite simple. It wants to focus on “connecting the next billion people to the Internet.”

This strategy is evident with how Microsoft has started focusing on low-end Internet-capable devices. While flagship devices have highlighted the Lumia platform especially in Nokia’s heyday, Microsoft is adamant at releasing devices priced within reach of the masses. While the market has been flooded with likewise cheaply-priced Android devices, the advantage of Windows Phone would be the platform’s focus on providing an almost consistent level of usability, with even low-spec’d devices offering decent performance. Windows Phones also come rich with Microsoft’s productivity offerings like Office, OneDrive and Skype.

The question now is whether Microsoft will be successful in this strategy, especially with developer and app support being the main concern with the Windows Phone platform. A rich app ecosystem has made Android a runaway success for Google. Apple touts the quality of apps on its own ecosystem, as well as tight hardware-software integration as among its main selling points. Windows Phone does have its own fanbase, but at about 3.5% market share, Microsoft will, indeed, have to focus on the next billion, in order to shore up numbers for the platform.

The post Microsoft’s Most Affordable Lumia Smartphones: On to the Next Billion? appeared first on VR World.

Tech research firm Gartner said on Jan. 7 that the global tablet market growth will continue to slow down this year.

“The collapse of the tablet market in 2014 was alarming,” said Ranjit Atwal, a research director for Gartner.

Atwal’s remarks were referred to the paltry 4.3% year-on-year increase to 207 units for 2014.

Gartner estimated that global tablet shipments will reach 233 million units in 2015, which will be an 8% increase from last year, when the tablet market saw a steep drop.

Atwal said that global sales for tablets during the past two years were growing in double-digits. The drop, however, can be referred to the lifetime of tablets is being extended, and the lack of innovation in hardware which refrains consumers from upgrading.

“Tablets are shared out amongst family members and software upgrades, especially for iOS devices, keep the tablets current,” Atwal said.

For the mobile phone segment, Gartner said that global mobile phone shipments will continue to grow 3.7% year-on-year to 1.91 billion units in 2015 and reach 1.97 billion units in 2016.

Annette Zimmermann, another research director for Gartner, said that the smartphone market is becoming polarized between the high- and low-end market price points. On one hand, she said, the premium phone with an average selling price at US$447 in 2014 saw growth dominated by iOS, and on the other end of the spectrum you have Android and other open OS phones’ growth area in the basic phone segment, where the average phone costs US$100.

“For the mid-range smartphones, the market opportunity is becoming increasingly limited,” she said.

The post Global Tablet Market Growth Will Continue to Slow Down in 2015: Gartner appeared first on VR World.

With the annual Consumer Electronics Show right around the corner and the industry’s marketing efforts going into overdrive, what is it that we will likely see next week?

It’s a safe bet that if will be a week of opposites.

From hardware going to both larger and smaller designs, Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) G-Sync versus AMD (NYSE: AMD) FreeSync, small displays with massive resolution, and gaming notebooks of both massive and diminutive sizes.

Small form factor hardware as is one of the fastest growing areas in the hardware segment, and no doubt there will be a lot of it on display at CES.  With hardware becoming so powerful and small we are seeing a lot of really powerful builds that can be done.  With even MATX X99 boards we are seeing that there is a move toward making things small and potent.  On the other side there is a lot of huge pieces of hardware showing up on the market, namely 4K and ultra wide monitors.  They are becoming even more prolific and the ultra wide monitors are drawing a lot of interest from gamers and power users who were once planning on going for a 4K monitor or two.  There will be a lot of talk this CES about AMD’s FreeSync for enthusiast gaming monitors as it is the newcomer challenging Nvidia’s established G-Sync.  FreeSync will draw the attention of monitor manufacturers since it is less costly to implement and license than the G-Sync solution.  The LG 34UM67 will be a curved ultra wide monitor that will feature AMD’s FreeSync, and should definitely steal a lot of the spotlight next week.

The mobile computing segment is also something to watch next week as we will see a lot of small notebooks with very high resolution displays.  It is easy to say that there will be a number of notebook models that will feature 3K and 4K screens, even at the 15.6-inch sizes.  There will also be a movement with ultraportable gaming notebooks of small size that can be docked with a desktop graphics card for superior gaming ability while at a desk.  With the shrinking of parts that make up computers we will be seeing a drastic reduction in size and weight of these ulta portable notebooks.  Not only will they be smaller but they will be potent and even come equipped with quad-core Intel i7 processors and decent graphics.  On the other hand you will also see that there is a move to the opposite extreme as there will be new 18″ gaming notebooks that will be the true embodiment of the “desktop replacement” name.  Some of these huge notebooks will even sport gaming grade mechanical keyboards featuring Cherry MX Brown switches.

Be sure to check back throughout next week as CES 2015 kicks off in Las Vegas.

The post PC Enthusiats: What Can We Expect to See at CES 2015? appeared first on VR World.

It’s the end of the year once again, and it is during these times when companies release data and trends pertaining to the year that has gone by. In the music industry, with trends, artists and genres oft undergoing rapid peaks and declines, new and obscure tracks often pique the curiosity of listeners. And what better way to appease one’s musical curiosity than an app that accurately guesses information about a song after just a few seconds of listening?

Shazam is a wonderful piece of technology. When you hear a song on the radio, at a friend’s place or in public and don’t know the title or artist, you can simply fire up the app (on iOS, Android, Windows Phone and elsewhere), and it will tell you the details in a few seconds. The app actually has roots in a decade-and-a-half old technology, back when mobile phones only did voice and text. Back then, you had to call the service, point your phone’s mic, and then wait for the results.

Now, Shazam is much simpler, as the app works over data connections (no need to dial in). What’s so special about the app is that it recognizes audio signatures, so you don’t have to have it listen to a significant length of music in order to recognize.

The company regularly publishes its top lists near the year end, which includes the top songs and artists, or so-called most-“Shazamed” list. These are songs that are likely to have popular airplay, but users struggle to determine the singer or title. These can either be very new or very obscure. Or at the very least, the title is at the tip of your tongue, but you can’t bring yourself to mention who the artist or what the song name is.

In 2014, the top Shazamed song was Clean Bandit’s (feat. Jess Glynne) “Rather Be”, with John Legend’s “All of Me” as runner up. As for the top Shazemed artists, the list is led by Avicii, followed by David Guetta, Ed Sheeran and Katy Perry, among others. The lists are populated mostly by new songs and pop artists, so this might have a reflection on the preferences of people who use Shazam or their demographics.

Shazam does publish weekly charts, which include global lists and country-specific ones. It’s interesting to learn the differences in musical tastes and genres according to country. For the year’s top tracks and artists, here’s the complete list:

Top 2014 Shazamed songs

1. “Rather Be” by Clean Bandit feat. Jess Glynne
2. “All of Me” by John Legend
3. “Prayer in C” by Lilly Wood & The Prick and Robin Schulze
4. “Waves” by Mr. Probz
5. “Am I Wrong” by Nico & Vinz
6. “Rude” by Magic!
7. “Dark Horse” by Katy Perry feat. Juicy J
8. “Happy” by Pharrell Williams
9. “Stolen Dance” by Milky Chance
10. “Hideaway” by Kiesza

Top 2014 Shazamed artists

1. Avicii
2. David Guetta
3. Ed Sheeran
4. Katy Perry
5. Jason Derulo
6. Clean Bandit
7. OneRepublic
8. John Legend
9. Calvin Harris
10. Pharrell Williams

The company has also made predictions as to which artists will make big hits in 2015. The list mostly includes up-and-coming artists and producers that have become popular among Shazam users in the past months.

The post ‘Rather Be’ And Other Top 2014 Songs According to Shazam appeared first on VR World.

The Institute for Information Industry said on Dec. 29 that 70% of those Taiwanese people who are older than 12 possess their own mobile devices.

The institute’s latest research said that approximately 14 million Taiwanese people are mobile device users and the total number will continue to increase until 2016.

The research said that the total amount of those Taiwanese people who are older than 12 and possess mobile devices increased 1.01 million people during the past six months. Among them, approximately 5.27 million people are smartphone and tablet computer users.

The research also discovered that the total amount of smartphone users for the first six months and the last six months increased 7%, while at least 65.4% of Taiwanese people are now using smartphones.

The research said that Samsung (KRX: 005930) remains Taiwanese people’s favorite brand name, when it comes to smartphones, but the total amount of the Korean brand name fans is dropping 2.2%, while the same figure for Sony (TYO: 6758), Xiaomi and Asus (TPE: 2357) continued to grow 1% to 2% in 2014.

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For as much as Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) might try, it’s had a tough time convincing hardware partners to take the plunge and invest serious resources in developing Windows Phone powered handsets. Now, Huawei’s (SHE:002502) head of international media affairs has come out with a reason why vendors are hesitant to develop for the platform: it’s simply not a profitable endeavor.

“We didn’t make any money in Windows Phone,” Huawei head of international media affairs Joe Kelly told the Seattle Times in an interview. “Nobody made any money in Windows Phone.”

Earlier this year Huawei — which has a poor reputation in the US due to associations with Chinese espionage —  cancelled plans to develop a dual-boot Android and Windows Phone handset targeted to the US market. Huawei spokespeople later said to the press that the project was canned because the cost-benefit analysis was not there. The R&D costs did not meet the projected sales.

In order to drum up interest amongst vendors for the mobile operating system, Microsoft pledged earlier in the year to give it away for free.

The post Huawei Has Some Tough Words For Microsoft’s Windows Phone appeared first on VR World.

Gigabyte (TPE: 2376)  offered online gamers a new toy on Dec. 1 as it introduced the Force H1 wireless gaming headphones, which was designed for mobile gaming and entertainment.

With Bluetooth 3.0 technology, Force H1 provides hassle-free, wireless mobility for gaming enthusiasts who long for experiencing high-fidelity sound quality while playing their favorite games.

Today’s mobile gamers acquired much enhanced audio performances for their headsets, now that the mobile game content is rapidly getting more sophisticated, Gigabyte said. The Force H1 is specifically tuned to offer a comprehensive mobile gaming experience and delivering the optimized multi-dimensional comfort in sound, wear and control for mobile gamers.

The new headphones’ on-ear design padded with ultra-soft ear cushions would block all outside noise, while the built-in 40mm gold-plated driver creates rich and clear all-around stereo quality, allowing gamers to get immersed in their favorite games anytime and anywhere, Gigabyte said.

The new headphones’ lightweight design with the unique hexagonal structure evenly distributes contact pressure to ensure wearing comfort, especially for long gaming or jam sessions. The swiveling ear pad with memory foam wrapped in breathable leather offers superior ergonomic fit to add extra comfort, while the stainless steel reinforcement provides both durability and flexibility for the optimized fit.

Gigabyte said that the new headset is also good for listening to music, watching videos or movies or communicating on mobile devices. The integrated volume, call answering and playlist controls on the ear cup bring users with easy and intuitive control navigated by touch. Meanwhile, its battery is good for 10-hour of uninterrupted wireless playtime and up to 300 hours in standby with micro USB charging on the side.

Force H1 can be folded and stored in the supplied durable case, which was also designed for commuting or long-distance travels, Gigabyte said.

The post Gigabyte Introduces Force H1 Gaming Headphones appeared first on VR World.

While Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) already gave the world an official first look at its next operating system earlier this fall, the unveiling event in San Francisco was decidedly small and low key. According to a report, the operating system’s “real unveiling” — where consumer features will be revealed in full — will occur in late January.

A source within Microsoft that spoke with The Verge said that the company is planning a press event in January where executives will demonstrate a consumer preview of the new operating system.  Reportedly, Microsoft will also demonstrate the operating system on other platforms such as phones, tablets and the Xbox One. Microsoft will also demonstrate the operating system’s new touch platform called Continuum too.

The choice to put Windows 10 on stage at a press event in late January, and not at the Consumer Electronics Show, is an interesting yet understandable one. A trend over the past few years is for vendors to show off their big announcements for the year — and Windows 10 is certainly Microsoft’s — at press events outside of the big tent of CES. It’s far too noisy and chaotic for vendors to get adequate attention, which means that important launches are scheduled for press events outside of the time CES occupies.

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The Internet has changed the business model of music, and streaming services like Spotify has altogether changed the game again. While per-song or per-album orders were popularized by Apple’s iTunes, the ubiquity of mobile broadband connections and smartphones has also paved the way for streaming services to dominate, where music tracks and albums can be streamed on-demand.

Popular music streaming service Spotify has recently disclosed financial results for the past two years. With double growth during the period, with over $1 billion in revenue, the company has proven that the streaming business can be viable for all stakeholders involved, including artists, music labels, the platform and the users themselves.

Spotify was recently in the news after Taylor Swift and her Big Machine Records studio pulled out her entire catalog from the service, after Spotify denied to ban free access to Swift’s songs. Swift and BMR argued that the streaming service is not giving artists enough due, and that Spotify was essentially making money off the artists’ and songwriters’ work. Spotify CEO Daniel Ek defended the company’s business, saying it actually reduces the negative effects of music piracy by offering easy access to music in both free and paid models, whilst paying out royalty fees to songwriters and artists for their work.

Recently, we learned just how much Spotify earned and shared from these activities in the recent years. In a consolidated financial report published in Luxembourg and first disclosed by The Guardian, the company cites revenue figures of €746.9 million (about $932.5 million) for 2013, up from €430.3 million ($536.6 million) in the previous year. This is a 74% growth across Spotify’s businesses around the world, where it operates independent subsidiaries in certain markets.

The company has reported a rise in its operating losses, however, from €80 million ($99.9 million) in 2012 to €93.1 million ($116.2 million) in 2013, or a 16.4% growth. These account mostly for licensing payments — something that Swift and company say should actually be higher. Meanwhile, the company has posted a consolidated net loss after tax of €57.8 million ($72.2 billion). This has narrowed down from the previous year’s €86.7 million ($108.2 million) loss, although this was largely from the company posting “fair value gains on derivative liability,” or a rise in stock value over the said period.

What’s interesting to note is that Spotify cites a majority of its revenue to have come from paid subscriptions, rather than ads. As of November, Spotify reports to have 50 million active users, up 39% from about 36 million by end 2013. Paying subscribers were up from 8 million in 2013 to 12.5 million month-to-date. The company has cited that 91% of its revenue comes from these subscriptions, as opposed to advertisements on the free accounts.

“We have already proven that we’ve created real value for our users, and we know that the more time people spend with our product, the more likely they are to become paying subscribers,” said Ek in a statement. “We believe that we will generate substantial revenues as our reach expands, and that, at scale, our margins will improve.”

Still, Spotify’s free service continues to be a starting point for paid subscriptions. “Our free service drives our paid service,” Ek earlier wrote, highlighting that 80% of the company’s premium subscribers started out with the free subscription. It is here where Ek argues the value of providing free music to users, because denying free access will also reduce the likelihood of signing up paying users.

Spotify is reportedly planning an initial public offering, although this has not materialized yet, and will likely be pushed to the coming year.

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According to Roometrics’ latest data for the second half of 2014, if you are a customer of AT&T (NYSE: T), T-Mobile (NYSE: TMUS) or Verizon (NYSE: VZ) you are going to get about exactly the same experience. However, if you go with Sprint (NYSE: S), you will suffer some performance or coverage issues. That means, when you compare AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile you can do so knowing that your experience will essentially be around the same in San Diego and that you can buy based on value rather than ‘marketing’ from the carriers.

Traditionally, Verizon and AT&T are the most expensive, with T-Mobile coming in much cheaper, so if you are considering a new phone, you should probably look at T-Mobile before renewing your contract with AT&T and Verizon. Especially if you consider the fact that T-Mobile’s phone selection is just as good as or better than both Verizon and AT&T, even though AT&T does have a lot of exclusives. AT&T’s exclusives, however, can easily be purchased outright and get an unlock code and then you can activate it on T-Mobile. And if you’re happy with your phone and your contract is up on AT&T, you can very likely switch to T-Mobile without any issues and probably save $20-$30 a month, minimum and regain unlimited data, which AT&T doesn’t have.

Unfortunately for Sprint, they seriously lagged in reliability and data performance, which are the two major factors of why their score is so much lower than the rest of the carriers. Even though, if you looked at the scores of all four San Diego carriers you would realize that there really isn’t that much of a difference, even if you add Sprint. But, if you look at the observed data speeds from some of the carriers, there are some significant differences. Perhaps Rootmetrics’ Rootscore needs to re-weight certain factors like download speed more heavily over call quality, etc.

Rootmetrics measures their ‘coverage’ as a factor of reliability and speed, with Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile tying for reliability and Verizon and AT&T coming in as tied for speed, even though the difference between the three scores is 0.4 out of 100, or less than 1%. It makes you wonder why this wouldn’t be considered a three-way tie. Especially when you look at the differences in speeds.

According to Rootmetrics’ testing AT&T’s median download speed increased from 12.1 to 14.3 Mbps since the march testing. Sprint’s median download speed decreased from 7.5 Mbps to 5.2 Mbps and their upload suffered a drop from 3.2 to 1.1 Mbps, a very poor showing. T-Mobile’s median download speed also decreased from 17.3 Mbps to 15.3 Mbps, but still came in higher than AT&T’s. Curiously enough, Rootmetrics had Verizon win the Data RootScore award for the second consecutive time with the fastest median download speed of 18.4 Mbps while T-Mobile recorded the fastest median upload speed of 15.1 Mbps. This is where it gets interesting. If T-Mobile has the fastest upload speeds and the second fastest download speeds, why would they be ranked below AT&T in the Rootmetrics Speed Index? We will reach out to Rootmetrics to understand exactly what this means for San Diego carriers because it simply doesn’t make sense at AT&T would have a higher score than T-Mobile if T-Mobile actually has faster speeds for both upload and download.

Here are some of their scores, including data performance which varies from their ‘speed index’ every so slightly and somehow puts AT&T above T-Mobile even though T-Mobile has faster speeds according to their own tests. Either way, call performance is essentially the same and so is text performance even though T-Mobile and Verizon slightly edge out AT&T and Sprint.

What we can conclude from all of this, even with a few slight irregularities is that T-Mobile is still the best value in San Diego and Sprint is still the slowest in almost every measurement.

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The AT&T (NYSE:T) carrier version of the Google Nexus 6 and has been found to be SIM-locked and a tethering check built into the ROM.

With the release of the Google Nexus 6, came the release of individual carrier versions of the device as well, those include T-Mobile, AT&T and Sprint.  The Nexus line of devices that have been put out by Google with a stock Android experience.  Now with the Nexus 6 AT&T version it was revealed last night that the device is branded with the AT&T logo, both on the back of the phone and the boot screen.  Now there are revelations that there has been the inclusion of items from AT&T to lock down the phone.  First off the device is SIM-locked and will only be able to be unlocked with a code from the carrier after the AT&T contract is over or the device is paid in full, alternatively there are third parties that sell unlock codes if you are willing to pay for them.

The second problem that was found was that there is a tethering check that checks for a tethering subscription on the users plan.  This will prevent the device from sharing its connection via Wi-Fi if there is no provision for tethering on the customer’s plan.  What makes things worse is that the check is built into the roots of the Android Nexus 6 at the AOSP level, and this will mean that if you have any Nexus 6 (not just AT&T) the check will be done if there is an AT&T SIM card being used.  The third issue is that the ringtones are stored in a separate partition called “oem“, a part that will not be able to be removed.  The section may be able to be removed with root access or a custom ROM.

Though the device is supposed to be providing a pure Android experience that the Nexus line is known for, the addition of such carrier add-ons definitely will tarnish that pristine feel.  These issues will no doubt be wiped away for those that like to install custom ROMs on their phones and tinker with the inner workings. But it is highly unlikely that for the standard user these issues will be overcome easily. Not to mention that any OTA updates to the Android operating system beyond Android 5.0 Lollipop will likely take longer for AT&T to qualify and verify due to having their own customizations. This almost entirely invalidates the purpose of the Nexus platform which is that whenever Google releases the update to the Android OS, the Nexus users almost immediately start to get it.

Editor’s Take (Anshel):

Keep in mind that T-Mobile’s Nexus 6 has none of the bloatware that AT&T’s version has and it will work on AT&T without any problems. Furthermore, if you buy the Nexus 6 direct from Google Play or T-Mobile you should have no problems activating the phone with a Verizon SIM card and using it on their network as well. The beauty of the Nexus 6 is that it will work on virtually every network. These AT&T ‘customizations’ are similar to what Google did with the Galaxy Nexus and removing Google Wallet and that was already a huge deal and had a lot of people in arms. AT&T’s move with the Nexus 6 is arguably much much worse because it doesn’t only reduce the customer’s ability to choose, but it also reduces the functionality of the device and does not make that aware to people looking to buy the Nexus 6 for AT&T. The fact that they restrict tethering, SIM card access and put in their own ringtones clearly is a breach of what Nexus is about and AT&T should be ashamed of what they’ve done. Google is not without fault here either, after all, they are ultimately the final deciders of whether they want to have the Nexus 6 on AT&T in its current form, and they somehow believe that this is okay.

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The growing “blurred lines” between mobile devices and PCs is grounds to fold Intel’s mobile chip making division into the mothership of its PC unit.

That’s according to Intel spokesperson Chuck Mulloy, who is quoted in a Bloomberg story responding to a report that Intel will merge the two divisions. News first broke of this merger in a memo sent by CEO Brian Krzanich to employees.

“The lines are blurring between PCs, tablets, phablets and phones,” Mulloy is quoted as saying. “The idea is to accelerate the implementation and create some efficiency so that we can move even faster.”

The new combined unit will be led by Kirk Skaugen, who currently heads up the company’s PC division. The fate of Hermann Eul, who currently is in charge of the company’s mobile division, is unknown but a new position will be announced for him in the first quarter of next year.

Why the change?

An Intel insider that spoke to VR World said the point of the change is simply to make Intel’s internal organizational structure more efficient. There are more similarities between a tablet with a keyboard and a notebook than a tablet and a Xeon chip. Intel’s upcoming Broadwell and Skylake have TDPs for their respective notebook chips that would be appropriate for a tablet. Greater efficiency comes from merging these two teams.

The other reason for the reorganizing is the fact that Intel’s mobile division has been deeply unprofitable since its inception. In order to earn hardware wins the company has had to engage in an aggressive contra-revenue strategy — effectively paying vendors to take the chips. The cost of this strategy has been absolutely staggering: the division posted a loss of $1.04 billion in 2014’s third quarter while revenues declined from $353 million in the third quarter of 2013 to $1 million this year.

Intel has not announced any change in its goal to ship 40 million tablet processors this year.

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Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) released a tweet today that had a pixelated image of what appears to be a Shield Tablet with 3 different game images and a Shield wireless controller. The tag on the picture says “What is GreenBox”, and it looks like there will be a Valve game package coming to your Shield devices soon.

What Do You Think GreenBox Is?

What do you think #GreenBox is? http://t.co/GCAnLqptbm pic.twitter.com/aelLAXf9uU

— NVIDIA (@nvidia) November 11, 2014

Today Nvidia made a tweet today with the pixelated image of a Shield Tablet and what appears to be the art of three games on the screen.  A link takes you to the Nvidia Shield website and has the same image as the Twitter post, and has text that reads “What is GreenBox”.   The image also has text encouraging people to tell them what they thing Green Box is via the Twitter hashtag #GreenBox.  If you are a gamer you can probably notice that two of the images are likely Portal and Half-Life 2.  The name GreenBox is very obvious that it is the none to clever attempt to copy The Orange Box name.  The Orange Box was a release of three Valve games in one package.  The games in the package were Team Fortress 2, Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2 Episode 1, Half-Life 2 Episode 2, and Portal.

Could this mean that we should expect to see the release of Team Fortress 2 for Android?  Another possibility is that Half -Life Episode 1 is about to be released.  While one might hope that Team Fortress 2 will be the next game the fact is that a multiplayer game is likely going to be a lot more work than a single player game.  The other two games, Portal and Half-Life 2 are already available for Android.  Those games were released by Nvidia Tegra Partners on the Play Store and have gotten rave reviews.

What we can gain from the teaser is that this should be a package with 3 games from Valve, two of which are Portal and Half-Life 2.  It is likely the next chosen game will be just as big of a hit as the current games.  Either way this is good news for those who game on Android and those with Nvidia Shield devices.

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PayPal has announced the availability of its Pay After Delivery feature, which enables users to pay for goods up to 14 days after making the purchase. Announced at the ongoing Money2020 conference, the service had been in pilot in Europe for some time now, making its official debut in the US after positive consumer feedback.

According to PayPal, this move was done in order to give customers “the same level of confidence whether they shop online or in store.” By paying for goods once or after receiving the delivery, customers will have peace of mind that they will not need to part with their money even before receiving the goods in the mail.

Pay After Delivery also gives users a choice as to their source of funding once they decide to confirm the payment — this may include PayPal balance, credit card or bank account. Pay After Delivery essentially gives customers a 14-day line of credit for making online purchases, so the feature requires a Verified account and is currently available to US account holders. The company does plan to roll out the functionality to other regions on a gradual basis.

The electronic payments space is heating up, especially with Apple’s (NASDAQ:APPL) big push to popularize Apple Pay amongst users of compatible mobile and wearable devices. With mobile helping reduce transactional friction, companies like PayPal need to find ways to innovate or at least make existing offerings more convenient to use. PayPal is actually being spun off of its eBay parent company, in order to improve its focus.

Apart from the Pay After Delivery feature, the company has also made recent partnerships that enable users to place orders ahead of time and pay only when they get the actual goods. In this case, PayPal has co-developed a mobile app with Tillster for use across Burger King (NYSE: BKW) restaurants across the US. Diners can place orders through the iOS or Android app, and the payment will only be debited once the user shows a code to the Burger King cashier.

For its enterprise and small business customers, PayPal has also announced a partnership with GoDaddy, which will pre-install the PayPal Express Checkout button for its clients that use the GoDaddy Online Store. Likewise, PayPal has partnered with Visa-owned Authorize.Net and Cybersource, which will enable small business customers to accept PayPal payments along with other payment methods.

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