German patent licensing firm IPCom has accused Apple of infringing a patent on 3G technology and wants €1.57 billion (US$2.1 billion) in damages, the Mannheim Regional Court said Wednesday.
IPCom has declared the patent, EP 1 841 268, essential to the implementation of 3G mobile standards, and a narrowed version of the patent was upheld by the European Patent Office (EPO) last month following challenges from Apple, Nokia, HTC, Ericsson and Vodafone.
The patent relates to the way handsets are allowed to access networks of various mobile telecommunications providers. The technology can be used to give some users priority access to networks in emergencies, even if the networks are overloaded, according to IPCom.
After the EPO had upheld the patent IPCom announced it would continue a number of related cases in the coming months.
The case against Apple is scheduled to be heard on Feb. 11 at the Mannheim Regional Court. It will deal with two patents that IPCom alleges Apple has infringed, the court said ina news release.
In addition to the recently upheld European patent, it also involves a German patent, DE 199 10 239, which relates to a way to manage access to overloaded wireless communication channels, the court said. IPCom did not demand a specific amount of damages from Apple for the second patent, the court added.
Apple and IPCom both declined to comment on the case.
When the EPO upheld the first patent in suit, IPCom said that it wanted companies to license the patent, adding that “the industry should bear in mind that damages for patent infringement set by the courts can be significantly higher than a license” on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms.
A separate case against Nokia over the European patent recently upheld by the EPO is scheduled to take place on May 28 at the Higher Regional Court of Karlsruhe.
IPCom was founded in 2007 and has a portfolio of almost 1,200 patents in about 160 patent families in the field of mobile communications. It says that 35 of those families are essential to implementation of key mobile communications standards in 2G (GSM), 2.5G (GPRS), 3G (UMTS) and subsequent generations.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation wants to make web browsing on mobile as secure as it is on the desktop—at least for Android users. The digital rights group recently released a mobile version of its stellar HTTPS Everywhere add-on for Firefox for Android.
Even though many sites offer HTTPS encryption, most offer it only on request, not by default. HTTPS Everywhere solves this problem by forcing websites to connect to a device using HTTPS encryption whenever possible. In a nutshell, using HTTPS Everywhere offers a more secure web browsing experience, deterring—among other things—snoops on a public Wi-Fi connection.
The add-on will only work if the site supports HTTPS connections to begin with and if the site is listed in the add-on’s database. HTTPS Everywhere does cover thousands of sites, so chances are the major sites you visit every day will work with the EFF’s add-on.
How to install HTTPS Everywhere for mobile Firefox
Here’s how to get started with HTTPS Everywhere:
If you haven’t already downloaded it, you can grab Firefox for Android from Google Play. Mozilla’s browser works with Android 2.2 (Froyo) and up.
The EFF doesn’t offer its add-on via Mozilla’s add-on catalog, so you’ll have to visit the EFF’s HTTPS Everywhere page to install it.
The page should auto-detect that you’re visiting from Firefox for Android. Tap the green robot to install HTTPS Everywhere.
This will cause Firefox to throw up a drop-down warning message that says, “Firefox prevented this site (www.eff.org) from asking you to install software on your device.” Click the “Allow” button below the warning to install HTTPS Everywhere.
You'll see another pop-up asking you to confirm again by tapping “Install.” Do so. Once the add-on is installed, Firefox will prompt you to restart the browser.
When the browser starts up again, visit a site like Twitter or Google and you should see the HTTPS Everywhere symbol on the right side of URL bar, and a lock symbol on the far left, as shown below.
That’s it! You’re now browsing somewhat more securely on your Android device. For added security, you could also use a VPN when browsing the web on a public Wi-Fi connection—although VPNs on mobile aren’t always bullet proof.
Intel’s Haswell processor line may have gotten all the glory at Computex this weekend, but ten years down the line, we may just remember Computex 2013 as the year that Intel’s most portable CPUs were finally embraced by mobile manufacturers.
Intel’s portable technology has made waves before, of course—remember those x86 smartphone processors from 2012? But for the first time ever, it’s looking as though all of Intel’s pie-in-the-sky promises are truly turning into real-world hardware wins. The prospect already has ARM bristling to defend its turf.
“If Intel continues on its trajectory, we’re going to look back on [Computex 2013] and say not necessarily that it’s where Intel’s mobile push started, but that it’s where it started to gain traction,” says Patrick Moorhead, founder and principal analyst at Moor Insights and Strategy.
Let’s take a peek at that traction in action, starting with honest-to-goodness Android tablets with Intel Inside.
Android lands on Intel
While Intel has notched a few Android smartphone wins on its post, it was never able to convince a big manufacturer to take a stab at a proper Atom-powered Android tablet—until Computex, that is. And at Computex, it landed one of the biggest fish swimming around in the Android ocean: Samsung.
“Intel has made some dramatic improvements in the mobile market, and I think what we’re starting to see now are the fruits of their hard work and labor,” Moorhead says. Intel has been laying the groundwork for its mobile chips for more than four years. “They deserve a lot of credit. This is only stage two or three of a ten-stage plan by Intel for mobile, but this is very positive for them.”
Don’t celebrate too much just yet, however. “Intel still has a lot of work to do and its market share in the mobile space, be it tablet or smartphone, is very, very small,” CCS Insight analyst Geoff Blaber told IDG News Service earlier today.
The Intel-powered Asus Fonepad Note phablet.
That’s very, very true—but Intel’s processors didn’t just pop up in the Galaxy Tab. Clover Trail could also be found in the bizarre Asus Transformer Book Trio laptop-desktop-tablet“frankenconvertible” (as Moorhead calls it) that runs both Android and Windows; the 10-inch Asus Memo Pad FHD; and even the 6-inch Asus Fonepad Note phablet. Asus, it seems, is at least partially won over.
Intel’s Clover Trail processor can also be found in the world’s first 8-inch Windows tablet, the Acer Iconia W3. That, in fact, brings up a whole ’nother problem for ARM, and a whole ’nother win for Intel.
Where is Windows RT?
It’s not at Computex.
At this year’s Computex there’s nary a Windows RT tablet to be seen, while last year manufacturers were showing off ARM-powered slates like the Asus VivoTab.
Windows RT’s absence from Asia’s biggest trade show is nothing short of glaring, especially when you consider how most manufacturers were tripping over themselves to show off Windows RT slates—which run on ARM processors and aren’t compatible with classic Windows desktop programs—at last year’s show. In the 12 months since, manufacturers, developers, and consumers alike have avoided Windows RT like the plague.
That’s bad news for Microsoft and ARM, but it’s wonderful news for Intel. Manufacturers are rolling out droves of Windows tablets, but virtually all of those tablets run the full-blown version of Windows 8 on top of Intel’s x86 silicon, rather than the crippled monstrosity that is Windows RT.
There’s a reason for that. The mere threat posed by Microsoft’s ARM adoption spurred Intel into action, prompting it to devote its near-endless resources on energy efficiency.
“The power and performance gap to ARM for Intel Atom is a myth now,” Blaber says. And when Intel’s Atom or one of AMD’s mobile processors offer a true Windows experience and last just as long as an ARM chip, settling for Windows RT’s sea of compromises just doesn’t make much sense. Manufacturers know that.
INTELIntel has rethought power efficiency from the ground up with its Haswell and Silvermont CPU architectures. (Click to enlarge.)
Bay Trail chips will be even more powerful and long-lasting than the Clover Trail processors winning the hearts and hardware of manufacturers today. Haswell’s mobile power efficiencies are paving the way for a future where tablets can offer full laptop power with none of the compromises found in the powerful slates like the Surface Pro and Razer Edge Pro.
Yes, it appears as though the old Wintel hegemony will carry over to Microsoft tablets.Hybrids may just be the future of Windows, and it’s hard to see where ARM fits in to the picture. On Monday, Acer honcho J.T. Wang told The Wall Street Journal that Windows RT won’t be “so influential anymore.”
“I think Microsoft wants to give some separation between Computex and what’s going on with Windows RT,” says Moorhead. “Because if you did a comparison today, no matter how you slice it, there will be a lot fewer Windows RT devices than Windows 8 tablets.”
Thinking smaller
Update: Tablets weren't the only mobile devices on Intel's mind at Computex. Just after this article was published, Intel introduced the first smartphone based on its "Merrifield" Atom processor, which Intel claims has 50 percent better performance and a "much improved" battery life over its predecessors. So that's where those x86-based smartphone processors went!
Intel expects the chip to wind up in high-end phones early next year.
To (Transformer Pad) Infinity, and beyond!
Intel’s sudden mobile threat has prompted ARM to rattle its saber. The company unveiled a new Cortex-A12 processor, and at a Computex news conference of its own, the company claimed that its mobile processors are superior to Intel’s much-ballyhooed Silvermont Atom technology.
AGAM SHAHARM touted its mobile superiority at Computex, though graphs tend to be more persuasive when they include hard values on their axes. Just sayin’. (Click to enlarge.)
Analysts feel that Intel and ARM are now fairly equal on the performance-per-watt front, however, and Moorhead thinks Intel’s refocusing on the mobile market—could—make things interesting going forward.
“If Intel executes on its 22nm and 14nm [processor architecture] roadmaps, they are going to be a force to be reckoned with,” Moorhead says. “Not just an ARM alternative, but in a position where you’d have to think that you may be putting your mobile product line at risk by not having Intel in it.”
We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: Intel’s future hinges on cracking the mobile market as the masses migrate to tablet technology. Cornering the moribund Windows slate market and achieving a handful of Android design wins isn’t anywhere near a resounding success, but Computex 2013 certainly shows that Intel isn’t just spinning its wheels. Chipzilla’s long-term plan for mobile is on the right track and gaining traction.
Last year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo, the most important gaming convention of the year, was a letdown. There were plenty of good games, sure, but with console hardware running long in the tooth and an annoying focus on prosaic sequels to popular games, there just wasn’t a lot for hard-core gamers to get excited about.
This year is going to be different—the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 are nigh. So, with Sony and Microsoft launching a new generation of living room consoles, we can expect a huge investment in new games and powerful new technology for developers to exploit.
We hope to be wowed by what we see in Los Angeles when the show opens June 11, but if game makers really want this to go down as one of the greatest E3 shows of all time, they’ll need to do more than give us the same old sequels with fancier graphics and sound.
I’m looking at you, Call of Duty and Killzone.
New franchises
Okay, we get it. Sequels to established blockbuster franchises aren’t going away—the general public looks forward to them. Activision is going to ram a new Call of Dutydown our throats every year until people stop buying it. (Can we get on that, gamers?) But new console launches are a time for change and growth. New hardware with new capabilities offers developers the opportunity to design new kinds of experiences, and is often a launching point for brand-new game franchises.
Watch Dogs looks like an intriguing new game, but we want more—much more.
Some, like Ubisoft’s Watch Dogs, Microsoft’s Quantum Break, and Sony’s Driveclubhave already been announced. We want more—much more. Microsoft has promised that it will publish 15 games for the Xbox One in its first year (a surprisingly large number), of which 8 will be new intellectual properties. That’s great news, and I hope we'll see all of them at this year’s show. Let’s hope Sony and Nintendo have similar commitments, and that big third-party publishers are driven to give us new games, not just sequels to popular series. Nintendo, in particular, could stand to deliver new games with new characters.
Nintendo gets its act together
The Wii U is in trouble. It’s a fine system, but it’s still in need of a firmware update or two to fix some nagging problems, and it doesn’t have that must-have aura yet. There’s no grand new 3D Mario game, no Smash Bros., no Animal Crossing, noMetroid, no Zelda; even Pikmin 3, once a launch title, still hasn’t seen the light of day. When E3 is over, gamers need to feel like they just gotta have a Wii U, and that’s going to be a tall order.
This year marks the first time Nintendo will not host a major E3 press conference. Instead it will rely on Nintendo Direct online streaming presentations to take its message to gamers. We expect Nintendo to announce a few new games during E3, and to showcase them during a special Wii U event on Tuesday morning. The next day, some 110 Best Buy stores across the U.S. and Canada will host the same demos so that you can try them yourself.
The Wii U has been on the market for seven months and Nintendo still hasn't given us a good reason to buy one. E3 is its last, best chance to make good.
It’s an intriguing approach, but it doesn’t necessarily inspire confidence. If Nintendo doesn’t show a handful of must-have new games alongside fresh entries in beloved Nintendo franchises, scheduled to hit the market before the Xbox One and PlayStation 4, it’s going to have a really hard time competing for living rooms this generation.
While we’re setting the bar for Nintendo, it’s worth bringing up its portable business. With the rise of smartphones and tablets as gaming devices, Nintendo needs a compelling list of reasons why someone should buy a dedicated portable game console—and presumably pay more for its games than gaming apps on smartphones and tablets.
Bottom line: The Wii U is not nearly as powerful as the Xbox One or PlayStation 4. Many of the multiplatform games destined for those systems either won’t make it to the Wii U or will offer a significantly downgraded experience. Nintendo’s path is clear: Beat Sony and Microsoft on price and deliver the games. The gaming market is better off with a thriving Nintendo, but the world has changed—and Nintendo hardware must evolve beyond “the system with Mario, Zelda and unique controls” if it hopes to survive.
The PC keeps shining on
You know what PC gaming doesn’t need? Another hyper-accurate mouse or super-customizable keyboard. Enough with the gimmicks and gadgets already. What PC gaming needs is to avoid playing second fiddle to home consoles. Show us the big, beautiful, quirky games that can exist only on the PC.
PC gaming is thriving because the barrier to entry for both developers and players is so low. Everyone owns a PC, and every PC is also its own development platform—meaning independent developers can create and publish their own games without having to worry about licensing fees, royalties, or restrictive legal agreements with Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo.
Indie games like Gunpoint thrive on the PC, and we'd be delighted to see more excellent independent PC games at E3 2013.
The PC is also years ahead of consoles in realizing a fully digital distribution platform with multiple competing vendors. You can already acquire the biggest PC gameswithout leaving your house. So why do consoles dominate E3? The answer—this year, at least—is shiny new hardware.
With all the attention on two new huge console launches, the PC might get lost in the shuffle. We’ve long since given up hope that Microsoft would use part of its E3 press event to talk about Windows gaming, but it would be nice if some of the other publishers did. Most of the really big new games launching with the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 will probably never see release on the PC (they’re meant to sell new console systems, after all), but we’d love to be wrong about that.
Indies get their due
Independent games are experiencing a renaissance. The abundance of cheap, powerful hardware, better tools, and easy digital distribution has helped independent game makers thrive. Today more than ever, a handful of developers with little funding can create a game that takes the world by storm and competes directly with super-size franchise games. Think I’m exaggerating? I have two words for you: Angry Birds.
Sony and Microsoft did the right thing by bringing indie darling Spelunky to Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Vita. Let's hope they keep it up.
It’s time for the big console makers to embrace the independent games movement. They need to do more than make one-off deals with indie developers that are already established. Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo have to court indie developers by making their platforms easier and cheaper to develop for, and—perhaps most importantly—giving indies control over their own economics. Let them set the price, change it freely, and update their game as often as they want. Let them explore new economic models of their own devising. Make it simple for a small studio with a 5-person development staff can cheaply and easily add Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Wii U to its list of supported platforms.
We hope E3 shows us not just a bunch of great new independent games, but delivers great news for independent game developers looking to break into the living room.
Make us believe in new control methods
On a purely technical level, Kinect is pretty cool. The new Kinect included with the Xbox One looks like it could be way cool. Sony’s PlayStation Eye and Move controllers held a lot of promise, and the new Eye for the PS4 is more promising still. But as much as we like these things for all their technical gee-whiz appeal, they just haven’t delivered for gamers.
The squat, boxy new Kinect camera will be included with every Xbox One. E3 is Microsoft's best opportunity to convince us that it's an addition worth paying for.
Maybe it’s simply a fact that the best way to experience most games is always going to be pressing buttons, wiggling sticks, and squeezing triggers. Maybe fancy cameras, microphones, touchpads, and accelerometers can’t really add that much for gaming enthusiasts. We hold out hope that the technology simply hasn’t been good enough to meet our demands yet. Maybe this is the year where the quality of the hardware and sophistication of the software is finally such that, no matter what kind of player you are and what kind of game you’re playing, there will be something useful and fun, truly fun, about these alternative inputs.
We want to believe in the Kinect, the PlayStation Eye, and their ilk. We want them to make all our games better. And there’s no better time to convince us than the dawn of a new generation of consoles. Let's hope Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo take this opportunity to knock our socks off.
You've seen the inflammatory NSA slides, and now you can attach a name to the paperwork: His name is Edward Snowden, he has a 10-year history in government defense and intelligence gathering, and now, he tells The Guardian, he's leaked classified documents because he thinks current NSA surveillance techniques pose "an existential threat to democracy."
"My sole motive is to inform the public as to that which is done in their name and that which is done against them," he told Guardian reporter Glenn Greenwald in an interview conducted in Hong Kong.
Snowden is a former CIA technical assistant, and a current employee of defense contractor Booz Allen Hamilton, where he has worked for less than three months according to the company. For the last four years, Snowden has done contract work for the NSA as an employee of various outside firms. In 2003, Snowden enlisted in the U.S. Army to join the Special Forces, but broke both his legs during a training mission, and was discharged. From there, the Guardian reports, Snowden took a job as a security guard for the NSA, and then later joined the CIA to work in IT security before returning to the NSA as a contractor, including his current position as an infrastructure analyst.
In a 12-plus-minute video interview conducted June 6 with Greenwald, Snowden explains his motivations for leaking classified NSA information, though it's worth noting that the now infamous PRISM program is never mentioned on camera, nor does the specific program name appear in the accompanying Guardian article.
Nonetheless, Snowden's words on video seem to reaffirm the Post's and Guardian's initial reports that the NSA has deep hooks into Big Tech, including real-time access to the data of American citizens—an assertion that's now being vigorously disputed by Director of Intelligence James R. Clapper. CNET has also quoted an anonymous former government official who says "None of it is true," referring to original reporting by The Guardian andWashinginton Post.
The following three paragraphs contain the meat of Snowden's indictment.
"The NSA and the intelligence community in general is focused on getting intelligence wherever it can, by any means possible," says Snowden in the video. "It believes on the grounds of sort of a self-certification that they serve the national interest. Originally, we saw that focused very narrowly tailored as foreign intelligence gathered overseas. Now, increasingly, we see that it's happening domestically."
"And do to that, they, the NSA specifically targets the communications of everyone. It ingests them by default. It collects them in it system and it filters them, and analyzes them, and it measures and it stores them for periods of time, simply because that's the easiest, most efficient, and most invaluable way to achieve these ends.
"So, while they may be intending to target someone associated with a foreign government, or someone they suspect of terrorism, they're collecting your communication to do so. An analyst at any time can target anyone. I, sitting at my desk, certainly had the authorities to wiretap anyone, from you or your accountant to a federal judge, to even the President if I had a personal email."
So far, the Guardian has leaked five NSA slides, ostensibly supplied by Snowden. This one indicates when various tech companies joined the NSA PRISM program.
Snowden lived in Hawaii before he jumped into the whistleblower abyss. But three weeks ago he copied documents that were later disclosed, and on May 20 left behind a girlfriend and a salary of roughly $200,000, and flew to Hong Kong, where he remains.
He told the Guardian that he expects to be prosecuted under the Espionage Act for revealing classified information. His words, in fact, took a particularly ominous turn: "Yes, I could be rendered by the CIA. I could have people come after me. Or any of the third-party partners. They work closely with a number of other nations. Or they could pay off the Triads. Any of their agents or assets," he told The Guardian.
As of press time, there was no official word from the Obama administration on Snowden's revelation. But speaking on ABC News Sunday morning—just hours before Snowden came clean—House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-Michigan) telegraphed at least one government position: "Taking a very sensitive classified program that targets foreign persons on foreign lands, and putting just enough out there to be dangerous, is dangerous to us. It's dangerous to our national security, and it violates the oath of which that person took. I absolutely think they should be prosecuted," Rogers said.
Intel has confirmed that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire certain assets of the Global Navigation Satellite System business of ST-Ericsson, extending its investments in positioning technology.
The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
ST-Ericsson, a 50-50 semiconductor joint venture by STMicroelectronics and Ericsson, announced earlier on Tuesday that it had sold the assets and intellectual property rights associated with its mobile connectivity GNSS business to an unnamed “leading semiconductor company.”
STMicroelectronics and Ericsson announced in March that they were winding down the operations of the joint venture, with each parent taking on parts of ST-Ericsson. The joint venture said it was pursuing external options for its connectivity business.
The deal, signed last week, extends Intel’s investments in positioning technology “with a team of industry veterans that has a successful track record of developing and commercializing GPS [global positioning system] silicon spanning more than 20 years and 11 generations of GPS/GNSS silicon,” Intel said in an emailed statement.
The GNSS team of about 130 people located in Daventry in the U.K., Bangalore and Singapore are expected to join Intel at closing of the transaction.
The staff will be integrated into the Mobile and Communications Group’s Wireless Platform R&D (WPRD) organization. Employees based in the UK and Singapore will remain at their current locations, while employees based in India will join WPRD employees at Intel’s existing Bangalore location, Intel said.
The proceeds from the sale, combined with the avoidance of employee restructuring charges and other related restructuring costs, will reduce ST-Ericsson’s cash needs by about US$90 million, the company said. The transaction is expected to be completed in August, and is subject to regulatory approvals and standard conditions.
Now, with Windows tablets struggling to catch consumers’ attention, Microsoft is shifting gears. The company has already paved the way for smaller Windows tablets, and Windows co-chief Tami Reller promises that the impending Windows Blue update will pack even better support for 7- and 8-inch slates. Asus and Acer have hopped aboard the diminutive display bandwagon, where other manufacturers are bound to join them.
Prepare for the deluge!
But before the floodgates open, I have to ask: Are small screens really the cure for Microsoft’s Windows tablet woes? Ehhhh...
Small screens, small price tag
Before we discuss anything else, we have to talk about price. Android is freely available to manufacturers (though many OEMs pay “don’t sue me” royalties to Microsoft). On the other hand, Microsoft makes a big chunk of its money by selling Windows, and that includes selling Windows to manufacturers. Basically, Windows tablets will always cost more than a similarly spec'ed Android tablet.
Windows tablet enemy, thy name is Nexus.
That alone could be a killer for small-screen Windows tablets. Paying $380 for an 8-inch Windows tablet (the price of theleaked Acer Iconia W3) seems crazy when you can pick up a Nexus 7 for $200.
A Microsoft spokesperson told PCWorld that the company does not comment on OEM pricing, but some indications suggest that the discount is real. In early May, Asus CEO Jerry Shen went on record saying that his company plans to release a small Windows 8 tablet, and that he expects prices of sub-10-inch Windows tablets to drop below $300.
Carolina Milanesi, research VP of consumer devices at Gartner, says that a sub-$300 price is critical.
“I think 8-inch Windows RT tablets could be the right formula to appeal to consumers, but the price gap over Android cannot be too big,” she told PCWorld via email. “$299 would be as high as I would go if I were the vendors, unless there were some clever bundles offered for tablets and smartphones.”
Even at $300, Windows 8 tablets will have to offer genuine value to trump the $200 Nexus 7 and its ilk. How can it do that? One potential answer is to embrace the Windows 8 element that Microsoft seems most intent on forgetting.
Yes, I’m talking about the desktop.
Down on the desktop
That seemingly obvious answer carries some not-so-obvious caveats, however. While the energy-efficient features that Intel has been working into its chips—most notably its power-sipping Atom processors—make it technically possible to rock the Windows desktop in small-screen tablet form, would you really want to?
ACERThe misposting on Acer's Finnish website showed that the company plans to offer a keyboard accessory for its 8.1-inch Iconia W3.
“Windows participation in [the 7- to 8-inch tablet] space is interesting, but I only think the desktop plays a factor here if manufacturers make it easy to connect a mouse, keyboard, and large display to dock with,” says Patrick Moorhead, founder and principal analyst at Moor Insights and Strategy. “The desktop on a 7- to 8-inch form factor is the makings of a horrible experience.”
Remember how the first Asus Eee PC packed an itty-bitty 7-inch display? There’s a reason why netbooks quickly shifted to 10- to 12-inch displays: Trying to use the traditional desktop on such a small screen utterly sucks. Seriously. It’s wretched. The text is waaaaaay too tiny to be useful, and trying to click buttons or navigate menus accurately is a nightmare.
And that was with the Eee PC’s 800-by-480 pixel resolution. Today’s more pixelicious displays would only exacerbate the issue.
Windows 8 lets you scale the size of desktop text to create a more acceptable experience, but it has some hiccups. The trickery does make text more readable, but it tends to blur the visuals in non-Microsoft websites and programs. On the Surface Pro—which ships with its desktop text scaled to 150 percent by default—many menus and controls are still just a bit too tiny to be finger-friendly.
Shufflin' spreadsheets on the small screen
Microsoft may have yet another ace up its small-screen sleeve: Office.
MICROSOFTMicrosoft already offers a OneNote modern app, and its Office brethren may follow suit.
Some of the rumors about slashed license fees also included talk about reduced licensing costs for Microsoft Office on small touchscreen devices. Indeed, the leaked Iconia W3 appeared on Acer’s Finnish website soon after its brief Amazon debut, and it came with Office Home & Student bundled. That’s par for the course with Windows RT, but it has not been for Windows 8 proper.
Office, as it stands today—a desktop app—isn’t a magic charm for increasing the attractiveness of mobile devices. If it were, Windows RT tablets would be jumping off the shelves. (They’re not.) And Office’s appeal drops even further on small screens with their smaller interfaces.
“Although Office is a nice thing to have, it is not enough of a differentiator,” says Gartner’s Milanesi.
The arrival of finger-friendly modern Office apps might make this particular carrot more enticing. If nothing else, it would make Office much more usable on a pint-size tablet, which brings up an interesting point.
Windows 8 isn’t the perfect operating system for Microsoft’s small-screen tablets. Windows RT is.
The Windows RT conundrum
Unfortunately, Windows RT is sucking wind. People ain’t buying it and manufacturers ain’t making it, even though Windows Store apps and large Live Tiles were created with tablets in mind.
Even Microsoft's Surface RT, the one bright spot in the Windows RT lineup, has allegedly struggled at retail.
Why is Microsoft’s high-stakes throw of the dice coming up snake eyes? Possible causes include the ambitiousness of introducing a whole new interface, and some irritants that linger in the half-baked modern UI. But one problem is especially glaring: the severe dearth of apps.
That weakness, not screen size, is the major issue for Windows tablets. And it goes double for Windows RT tablets, which aren’t compatible with desktop programs and thus depend entirely on the offerings in the Windows Store.
Windows 8's biggest focus is also its biggest weakness.
“The biggest thing holding back the Windows tablet market is a lack of premier and long-tail apps,” says Moorhead. “It’s almost been nine months since Windows 8 was launched and there is no Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, or Google+ app, and Windows 8 apps like Evernote are well below par. Small-form-factor Windows 8 tablets will help, but aren’t the fix.”
Gartner’s Milanesi agrees that Windows 8’s biggest problem is content.
“I think Microsoft needs to focus more on content—not Office—to appeal to consumers,” she says. “At the end of the day, smaller-size tablets are all about consumption, not so much about creation of content. Adding books from their Barnes and Nobles relationship, along with games, music, and video from Xbox would be much more appealing.”
Windows 8 on a small tablet? Meh. Windows RT, on the other hand, could shine on 7- to 8-inch slates—but only if Microsoft manages to fix the mistakes in the modern UI, enhance its app selection, and shake the death stench that’s beginning to emanate from all things RT-related.
Too many compromises
While diminutive displays are all the rage these days and Microsoft needs to be in that space to “stay” competitive, the shift to small screens doesn’t look like a panacea from where I’m standing. If anything, small Windows tablets will demand even more compromises than the other (already highly compromising) Windows 8 devices available today, because they’ll subject users to the double trouble of a frustrating desktop experience and the desert known as the Windows Store.
Small tablets aren’t the cure for Microsoft’s Windows tablet woes. The answer is apps, plain and simple. More apps. Better apps. Appealing, high-quality apps that distinguish themselves from the Android and Apple horde.
Microsoft is doing all it can to woo developers to its new-look Windows, but the effort hasn’t succeeded yet. Until it does—if it does—Windows tablets will never truly take off with consumers.
HTC knows how to make good-looking hardware. I loved the white ceramic body of the HTC One X and Nokia could learn a thing or two about making Windows phones by taking a closer look at the HTC Windows Phone 8X. The company’s latest offering, the HTC One, is a paragon of industrial design: Its chiseled chamfers, rounded edges, and chrome accents are sure to turn more than a few heads when you whip out the phone in public. But the One is more than just a pretty face: HTC packed a lot of power under the phone’s hood, and the handset’s camera benefits from numerous software and hardware tweaks that should excite fans of mobile photography.
A feast for the eyes
JASON CROSSThe HTC One is a well-crafted handset.
The first thing you’ll notice when holding the One is how well it sits in your hand. At 5.4 by 2.7 by 0.4 inches, the phone is larger than Apple’s iPhone 5 but smaller than HTC’s previous handset, the Droid DNA. Though the phone comes with a 4.7-inch display (shades of the Samsung Galaxy S III), the One’s aluminum unibody design and gentle curves compare favorably to the S III’s primarily plastic body. That slick exterior does come at a price, however: The One’s power and volume buttons sit flush with the phone’s chassis—which makes them difficult to press—and the 2300mAh battery is nonremovable. The phone also lacks a microSD card slot, meaning that you’re stuck using the supplied 32GB (or 64GB, if you buy the larger model) of on-board memory to store your photos, apps, music, and movies.
JASON CROSSThe One has two front-facing stereo speakers.
The absence of expandable storage is lamentable, especially since in other respects HTC designed the One to function as a multimedia powerhouse. The One’s 1920-by-1080-pixel display packs 468 pixels per inch, which makes viewing HD content a feast for the eyes. Bordering that gorgeous display are two large, front-facing stereo speakers, which pump out surprisingly loud, clear audio. One big advantage of positioning the speakers on the front of the device rather than on the back is that audio doesn’t get muffled when you set the phone down on a flat surface. I did notice an occasional pop at higher volumes, but the speakers’ sound quality was more than acceptable overall.
The TV app on the HTC One.
If you tend to mislay your TV remote, you’ll appreciate the One’s built-in IR blaster, which lets you use the phone as a universal remote control. The phone has a TV app with a setup wizard that simplifies the task of programming the One to work with your TV, cable box, and home theater. The app also pulls listing information from Peel, showing which TV shows and movies are currently playing. You can arrange for the phone to remind you when your favorite shows are on and to provide a brief synopsis of specific episodes. I tested the remote functionality of the phone with an LG TV and a Motorola cable box in our office and was surprised at how well the combination worked. Though I was 13 feet away from the cable box, I noticed little or no delay when I changed channels or browsed through the guide. The app is so well made that I almost wish I subscribed to cable...almost.
Built to be social
HTC’s BlinkFeed app.
Another cool bit of software that the One offers is BlinkFeed. HTC is marketing BlinkFeed—which resembles the Live Tiles on Windows Phone to some extent—as a “magical” way to stay up-to-date on your social networks and news feeds, but in reality it’s just a glorified RSS reader that lives on your home screen. You can tie BlinkFeed to your Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter accounts so that your friends’ updates show up there; however, clicking an update just kicks you into the corresponding app. You can also instruct BlinkFeed to display news headlines, but the news outlets you can subscribe to are limited to a handful of blogs—though you can subscribe to a catch-all news category like ‘lifestyle’.
Despite using the phone for several days, I never felt inclined to spend much time with BlinkFeed. Though I loaded all of my social accounts into it, I ended up using the stand-alone Twitter and Facebook apps to update my status and to see what my friends were up to. Being able to browse headlines quickly was convenient, but other dedicated apps such as Zite perform better in that regard. Most annoyingly, you can’t turn BlinkFeed off: It always appears as your leftmost home screen, and you can’t get rid of it without installing a different launcher.
UltraPixels make a difference
JASON CROSSThe HTC One has a 4-megapixel camera.
The other features that HTC played up when it announced the phone were the One’s camera and camera software. Rather than perpetuate the myth that the more numerous the megapixels, the better a camera’s image quality, HTC opted in favor of a 4-megapixel camera with larger pixels than those traditionally used in smartphones. These UltraPixels are designed to take in more light, making them better for capturing photos in low-light environments.
After taking the One’s camera out for a spin, I think HTC may be on to something with UltraPixels. The One handled everyday shots well enough, but it excelled at taking photos in areas with less-than-optimal lighting. Photos were less noisy than comparable shots taken with an iPhone 5 or a Nokia Lumia 920 under the same conditions, and the One’s flash didn’t completely wash out the subject. The iPhone 5’s outside shots looked better than the One’s, but the two were more evenly matched on indoor photos.
A sample photo taken with the HTC One.
The One’s biggest advantage over the iPhone, however, is in the number of features that HTC packs into the phone’s native camera app. The default Android camera has various extras built into it already, but HTC seems to have omitted only a kitchen sink app in assembling the One’s camera software: Among the available shooting modes are HDR and panorama; and you can apply filters to your photos without having to resort to third-party apps such as Instagram.
Another noteworthy shooting mode is Zoe. When you activate Zoe, the phone takes up to 20 photos and records about 3. seconds of 1080p video. The feature is designed for action shots, of course, where you’d expect a lot of movement; and you can select and pull additional stills from the 1080p video. Though Zoe mode is a neat extra, I didn’t find much use for it in my day-to-day life. Perhaps very creative people will find some cool uses for the feature.
The processor steps up the power
The One’s many features require a lot of processing power, which the One has in good supply. The One is the first handset to ship with Qualcomm’s quad-core Snapdragon 600 processor, which is supposed to deliver superior graphics and battery life. The phone gracefully handled every app I threw at it, including games like Shadow Gun and Temple Run, though it did get noticeably warm when performing processor-intensive tasks (like gaming) or downloading 20+ apps at once.
The phone’s battery should survive an entire day of normal use (about 9 hours), so you don’t have to worry about the One dying on you in the middle of the day. If you like to play lots of movies or games on your phone, however, you’re well advised to bring along your charger: The One’s high-resolution screen can be a real drain on the battery if left on too long.
We received the Sprint version of the One for testing. (It will also be available on AT&T and T-Mobile.) Call quality over Sprint’s network was solid, with little or no static on either end of the call. Unfortunately, Sprint’s data speeds were somewhat underwhelming. In San Francisco, where we have access to Sprint’s LTE network, I often found myself using the One on Wi-Fi when streaming HD video or downloading large apps. Its performance might improve as Sprint fleshes out its LTE network, but for now don’t expect miracles if you’re a Sprint customer looking to upgrade to the One.
