Oct 14
Google’s share price last week broke through the $600 (£300) ceiling and looks set to rise even higher, with a strong set of results expected this week and the company poised to enter lucrative new markets.
Not content with dominating the internet, the search giant is now believed to be planning to take the mobile communications market by storm. Analysts at Lehman Brothers predict that when it unveils its third-quarter results on Thursday, Google’s revenues will rise 8.6 per cent quarter-on-quarter to $2.98bn with earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) of $1.8bn. For the full year 2007, Lehman predicts a 58 per cent year-on-year increase in turnover to $11.56bn with Ebitda of $7.03bn, representing a year-on-year rise of over 52 per cent. The investment bank has raised its target price for Google shares to $714. Continue reading »
Oct 13
Apparently putting your iPhone in airplane mode is not the digital equivalent of returning your seatback to the upright position.
A flight attendant for ATA Airlines recently asked a flier watching a movie midflight on the way to Hawaii to shut off his iPhone, not for the perfectly reasonable reason that the man was watching the inane Jennifer-Love Hewitt vehicle I Know What You Did Last Summer, but because you’re not allowed to use cell phones inflight. Casey, the iPhone user, told Consumerist that he tried several times to explain to the flight attendant that the iPhone was in “airplane mode,” with all the radios disabled. But the flight attendants did not accept that explanation, and continued to insist that FAA regulations prohibit talking on cell phones when the cabin door is closed, despite the fact that Casey wasn’t actually talking and the fact they were over the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Continue reading »
Oct 11
SAN JOSE, California (AP) — Complaints over Apple Inc.’s use restrictions and recent software update for the iPhone have erupted in two lawsuits alleging Apple and its carrier partner, AT&T Inc., engaged in illegal monopolistic behavior.
Two separate lawsuits were filed Friday in San Jose — one in federal court and the other in state court and both seeking class-action status.
The federal case accuses the companies of unfair business practices and violations of antitrust, telecommunications and warranty laws. The state case raises some of the same allegations. Continue reading »
Oct 05
Nokia’s recent $8.1 billion purchase of Navteq is evidence of continued consolidation among map data providers, and will pave the way for cell phone-based GPS systems to replace portable and vehicular mapping devices, according to analysts and industry executives.
On Monday, Nokia agreed to pay $8.1 billion in cash for Navteq in a deal that will likely help the cell phone maker break into the GPS/navigational space. After the deal closes in the first quarter of 2008, Navteq’s current map data business will continue to operate independently, but will be known as a Nokia Group company, Nokia said. The move comes after European car navigation maker TomTom in July said it would shell out approximately $2.8 billion for digital mapping company TeleAtlas; the deal became a formal takeover bid earlier this month. Continue reading »
Oct 05
Blackberry maker Research In Motion (RIM) has seen its second-quarter profits more than double on the back of surging subscriber numbers.
For the three months to 1 September, the Canadian firm made a net profit of $287.7m (£141m), compared with $140.2m for the same period in 2006.
RIM said the profit jump, which beat market targets, was helped by global users breaking the 10-million mark.
Blackberry is the market leader in handheld e-mail devices. Continue reading »
Oct 03
SAN JOSE, California (AP) — A New York woman is so angry at Apple Inc. for lopping $200 off the price of the iPhone that she’s filed a lawsuit seeking $1 million in damages.
Dongmei Li of Queens, New York, claimed the company violated price discrimination laws when it slashed the price of the 8-gigabyte iPhone by a third, from $599 to $399, within two months of the gadget’s June debut.
Apple lowered the iPhone’s price on September 5 and also said it would stop selling the $499 4-gigabyte model. Hundreds of early customers who paid full price didn’t expect a reduction so soon and complained. Continue reading »
Oct 03
Microsoft has launched three new models of its Zune digital media player in an effort to compete with Apple’s iPod.
The players - which come in 4GB, 8GB and 80GB models - have wi-fi so users can automatically download music, photos, and video from their computer.
Microsoft is also launching a social networking site dubbed Zune Social to allow users to display and share music.
Last year Microsoft sold 1.2 million Zunes compared to 100 million iPods shifted since its launch in 2001.
The new players go on sale in the US in mid-November. There are no details yet as to when they will be released in Europe. Continue reading »
Oct 02
Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. and audio product maker Bang & Olufsen on Tuesday unveiled their latest joint music-mobile phone, Serenata, which holds 4G bytes of songs and has a number of other music features similar to the iPhone.
The handsets will go on sale in Europe by the end of the month, said Anthony Lee, a spokesman at Samsung. Pricing has not yet been determined.
The handset doesn’t look much like a mobile phone: the top half is dominated by a navigation wheel, the designers having dispensed with buttons. The 2.26-inch LCD (liquid crystal display) touch screen is below the navigation wheel, in the place where the buttons are found on conventional mobile phones. Continue reading »
Oct 02
WORRIED Iphoners who have used hacks were left in the deep end when Apple sent out a firmware upgrade which turned their phones into shiny, pretty bricks. However, hackers have figured out how to roll back the upgrade, reports Macworld.
Instructions, available here on an iPhone development wiki, have been tested by the folk at Macworld and it turns out they’re in working order - a previously broken iPhone was reverted to a usable state although it had no access to the phone itself or data network. Continue reading »
Oct 02
HTC HAS launched in London its Q4 2007 product line-up of new mobiles. This consisted of a new extension to the touch family, the firm’s first enterprise phone, a mobile computing device and an update to an existing handset.
First out was the ever-so imaginatively named HTC P6500. This is the firm’s first ever venture into the grown-up enterprise world of mobile handsets. It’s a Windows Mobile 6 Professional driven device with open platform support for industry applications. All meaning it shouldn’t struggle with running off-the-shelf mobile business apps or bespoke, as now seen in other competitors’ products. It’s a Tri-Band HSDPA with Quad-Band GSM/EDGE support, bundled with Wifi and Bluetooth. Hitting all the possible angles for connections, operator and otherwise. They’ve even gone as far to build in GPS and include a three mega-pixel camera. The latter could provide 2D barcode scanning and business card recognition. It has 1GB internal memory and 2 SDIO slots for expansion with a nice fingerprint ID sensor for security conscious individuals. This will be wandering to the regular outlets in November; unfortunately no prices were given out. Continue reading »
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