Just one day after leaked photos of a black Nexus 5 smartphone appeared online, images of a white version of Google's alleged new flagship handset have surfaced.
Twitter user @evleaks, who has previously leaked photos of other devices — including the alleged black version of the Nexus 5 — tweeted a picture of the smartphone in white, along with news of a Nov. 1 release date.
Although the leaked photos show the Nexus 5's back casing to be white, it appears to be black on the front.
Details about Google's alleged new flagship phone have been no secret. The handset brieflyappeared in the Google Play store, and was listed for $349 for the 16GB model.
Earlier this month, a leaked LG manual for the Nexus 5 surfaced online. From wireless charging to camera specs and new design features, it included more than 200 pages of details about the smartphone.
The Nexus 5 has long been expected to launch later this month. The Nexus 4 is no longer available for purchase via the Google Play store, suggesting that the next-generation device is coming very soon.
Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments.
SEOUL, South Korea -- A patent filing shows Samsung Electronics Co. is working on a device it calls sports glasses in a possible response to Google's Internet-connected eyewear.
A design patent filing at the Korean Intellectual Property Office shows a Samsung design for smartphone-connected glasses that can display information from the handset.
It said the glasses can play music and receive phone calls through earphones built into the eyewear's frame. It also gives hands-free control over the smartphone.
Reminiscent of the Google Glass design, Samsung's sketch shows a thumbnail-sized display over the left eyeglass. Google's eyewear has a tiny display over the right eyeglass that shows information and websites.
It was not clear from Samsung's sketch and description whether its eyewear would be equipped with a touch control and a camera like Google Glass nor whether it would connect directly to the mobile Internet or be a slave to a smartphone.
The name and the description specify the Samsung product is designed for outdoors activities or sports.
Samsung did not respond to an email and a call seeking comment.
Google Inc. is testing an early version of Google Glass with 10,000 people in the U.S. after giving the public a first look at its Internet-connected eyewear in June last year. The early version can take pictures, record videos, navigate maps and works without a smartphone.
Other tech companies are also exploring ways to bring mobile computing to everyday objects such as watches and glasses.
Samsung introduced a smartphone-connected watch called the Galaxy Gear last month. Sony also announced a smart watch.
Samsung filed the application for the eyewear design patent on March 8.
The last quarterly report from LG noted record sales of 12.1 million smartphones in Q2, today's number's show the company has maintained that pace with 12 million units moved in Q3. It sold $2.75 billon worth of phones -- 24 percent more than during the same time period last year -- actually lost money thanks to competition driving prices down and the costs of a big marketing push. That won't stop LG though, as it plans to keep promoting the G2 and its back-mounted buttons, plus mid-tier phones like the L II and F line (there's no word on how much it's hoping the curved G Flex will contribute after it's unveiled next month).
If you're interested in how LG's TVs have managed, the answer is that they've continued a downward slide, with revenues in the home theater division dropping 7 percent from last year to a mere $4.5 billion. Lower demand and selling prices are cited as the culprits there, but LG's plan is to push OLED (at $10k a pop they should make up the shortfall easily, even after recent price cuts) and Ultra HDTVs. Overall, its net profit of $103 million in the July - September window dropped 34 percent from last year's results -- hit the PDF link below for the detailed results.
Press Release:
LG ANNOUNCES THIRD-QUARTER 2013 FINANCIAL RESULTS
Sales of Mobile Devices Increase 24 Percent From Same Period Previous Year
SEOUL, Oct. 24, 2013 - LG Electronics Inc. (LG) today announced third-quarter 2013 consolidated revenues of KRW 13.89 trillion (USD 12.51 billion). While competitive conditions in the TV sector and an unfavorable foreign currency exchange rate affected overall revenues compared with the 2012 third quarter, sales of mobile devices increased year-over-year by 24 percent. LG saw a 27 percent increase in third-quarter operating profit to KRW 217.80 billion (USD 196.34 million) compared with the same period last year.
The LG Home Entertainment Company reported revenues of KRW 5.01 trillion (USD 4.50 billion), a 7 percent decline from the same period a year ago, reflecting slower global TV demand and lower selling prices. Higher sales in developing markets such as Asia and the CIS region were offset by softness in Europe. Operating profit of KRW 124.40 billion (USD 111.68 million) increased both year-over-year and quarter-over-quarter as a result of more efficient management of operating and marketing expense. As it enters the holiday selling season, LG plans to expand global sales of premium products such as OLED TVs and Ultra HD TVs while continuing to carefully manage costs.
The LG Mobile Communications Company's third-quarter revenues increased by 24 percent compared with the same quarter a year ago to KRW 3.05 trillion (USD 2.75 billion). The company shipped 12 million smartphones in the third quarter but profitability and average selling price were affected by increased competition and higher marketing investments. LG plans to focus on increasing sales of new premium products such as the LG G2 smartphone during the peak holiday season as well as maximizing 3G and mid-tier mass devices such as the L II Series and F Series.
The LG Home Appliance Company recorded revenues of KRW 2.97 trillion (USD 2.68 billion), up 3 percent from the previous year largely due to the positive reception of its new washing machines and refrigerators. LG appliance sales increased in North America and China but slowed in developing markets. Despite higher overall revenues and improved cost structure, third-quarter operating profit decreased from the same period last year to KRW 109.20 billion (USD 98.17 million) primarily due to unfavorable foreign exchange movements.
The LG Air Conditioning and Energy Solutions Company reported relatively flat third-quarter sales and operating profit margin year-over-year with revenues of KRW 973 billion (USD 876.32 million). While increased R&D investments and weak global market conditions will continue to impact the business, the company will focus on growing its market share of non-seasonal products and higher-margin products such as new commercial air conditioning systems.
2013 3Q Exchange Rates Explained LG Electronics' unaudited quarterly earnings results are based on IFRS (International Financial Reporting Standards) for the three-month period ending September 30, 2013. Amounts in Korean won (KRW) are translated into U.S. dollars (USD) at the average rate of the three-month period of the corresponding quarter- KRW 1,110 per USD (2013 3Q).
Earnings Conference and Conference Call LG Electronics will hold a Korean language earnings conference on October 24, 2013 at 16:00 Korea Standard Time at the LG Twin Tower Auditorium (B1 East Tower, 20 Yeoui-daero, Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul, Korea). An English language conference call will follow later at 21:00 Korea Standard Time (12:00 GMT/UTC). Participants are instructed to call +82 31 810 3069 and enter the passcode 9084#. The corresponding presentation file will be available for download at the LG Electronics website (www.lg.com/global/ir/reports/earning-release.jsp) at 14:00 on October 24, 2013. Please visit http://pin.teletogether.com/eng/ and pre-register with the passcode provided. For those unable to participate, an audio recording of the news conference will be available for a period of 30 days after the conclusion of the call. To access the recording, dial +82 31 931 3100 and enter the passcode 142710# when prompted.
LG Electronics Inc. said its handset business sank into the red for the
first time in a year as it cut prices and spent more on marketing to
carve out a share of the high-end smartphone market.
The South Korean company reported Thursday that its mobile
communications business lost 79.7 billion won ($75.5 million) in the
July-September period, even after selling 12 million smartphones. It was
the first red ink since the third quarter last year.
The result shows the challenges faced by handset makers trying to break
into the premium smartphone market dominated by Samsung and Apple.
Samsung Electronics Co. and Apple Inc. captured 98 percent of profit
generated from smartphone sales worldwide in the April-June quarter,
according to Counterpoint Research, leaving just 2 percent for other
makers to scrap over.
LG blamed its weak result on higher marketing costs to promote the G2
smartphone, its flagship model released last month, and intense
competition that forced it to lower prices.
LG was a distant third in the smartphone market after Samsung and Apple
in the April-June period, according to Strategy Analytics.
The company has tried to elevate its brand to convince consumers to pay a
premium for its smartphones and also separate it from Chinese handset
makers that are doing well in sales of lower priced handsets. But that
has not proven easy as LG doesn't have as much cash as Samsung to spend
on lavish marketing campaigns.
LG reported overall third-quarter earnings far below forecast. Its
July-September net income was 108.5 billion won ($103 million) compared
with 164.5 billion won a year earlier.
Analysts forecast 197.6 billion won, according to financial data provider FactSet.
Quarterly sales rose 5 percent to 13.9 trillion won ($12.5 billion). Operating profit was up 27 percent to 217.8 billion won.
Firefox OS could be considered still in its infancy but as bigger OEMs hop on the train it could gain traction faster than expected. LG is the first major manufacture to premiere a Firefox OS handset of its own.
The LG Fireweb is the Mozilla-powered smartphone a 5MP autofocus and LED-enabled camera. It sports a 4" display of HVGA resolution (480 x 320 pixels), single-core 1 GHz Qualcomm processor, 4 GB built-in storage plus a microSD card slot.
The device has gone on sale on Brazilian carrier Vivo's network. It only costs prepaid customers BRL449 ($207), while on contract it can be had for BRL129 ($59).
We were so pleased for legacy UK music store HMV, when it turned up with a new iOS app last week.
It seems Apple was a little bit over-excited too, having apparently
mashed the approve button without really realizing what it was doing.
HMV was selling music downloads via the new app, a massive conflict of
interest for Apple, and a big no-no in relation to its Ts & Cs.
According to HMV Chairman Paul McGowan, Cupertino gave HMV Music the nod
on September 15th, but once it noticed the gaffe, only gave the UK
retailer until 6pm yesterday to remove the offending feature. Of course,
this was too short notice, and as such the app has been pulled. The Guardian
reports that the official word from Apple is that the app violated a
clause that prevents selling of goods or services outside of the app --
an experience the official press release described as "native" despite sending you off to an external site. Back to the developing board for HMV, we guess.
Peripherals specialist Logitech has launched a neat-looking speakerphone
that can also act as a stand for a smartphone or a tablet. Aimed at
mobile professionals or office workers seeking flexibility over meeting
rooms, the Mobile Speakerphone P710e
— which is Microsoft Lync-optimised, Cisco-compatible and
Skype-certified — allows you to set up audio and video conferences
anywhere you can get online.
Logitech's Mobile Speakerphone P710e is an NFC-enabled Bluetooth
speakerphone with a top that slides open to reveal a slot to hold your
smartphone or tablet. (Images: Logitech)
The Mobile Speakerphone P710e can pair with up to eight Bluetooth
devices, and connect with two simultaneously — a smartphone or tablet
and a keyboard, for example. Usefully, it also supports NFC (Near Field
Communications), making pairing a simple matter of touching an
NFC-enabled device to the speakerphone. The P710e also has a USB port
for charging and conventional wired connectivity to desktop or laptop
computers. According to Logitech, the speakerphone's battery will
deliver up to 15 hours of talk time.
Apart from NFC support, the other key feature about the P710e is its
sliding top cover, which opens to reveal a slot into which you can fit a
smartphone or a tablet, turning the speakerphone into a convenient
stand while conducting audio or video conferences on your mobile device. The
Mobile Speakerphone P710e acting as a stand for a smartphone and a
tablet. The front panel has touch controls for call answer/end, volume
up/down and microphone on/mute, plus LEDs that flash to signify an
incoming call. Logitech says that the device's battery is good for 15
hours of talk time. (Images: Logitech)
Until we get a hands-on look at the Mobile Speakerphone P710e, we
can't comment on audio quality. According to Logitech, it features
"wideband audio and advanced Digital Signal Processing that enables
precise tuning for both the omni-directional mic and speaker so
conversations are more lifelike".
Logitech's Mobile Speakerphone P710e will be available worldwide in
November with a suggested price tag of £129.99 (inc. VAT) or $169.99.
With a little perspective offered by historical data, the story of
smartphone and tablet growth is truly amazing. By the end of this year,
6% of the global population will own a tablet, 20% will own PCs, and 22%
will own smartphones.
At BI Intelligence, Business Insider's subscription research service,
we recently calculated these statistics by taking our proprietary
estimates for active devices globally (i.e., installed base) as a
percentage of the planet's population by year, resulting in a per-capita
annual penetration rate.
Our research reveals the
point in time when the global per-capita rate of smartphone ownership
beat that of personal computers: sometime in mid-2012. The tipping
point is where the red and blue lines cross in the chart below. The
slope of the lines also shows that while tablet and smartphone
penetration is still speeding up (the lines are getting steeper), PC
penetration growth has hit a wall.
Here are some other surprising numbers from our research:
By the end of 2013, global smartphone penetration will have exploded
from 5% of the global population in 2009, to 22%. That's an increase of
nearly 1.3 billion smartphones in four years.
On average, there will be two smartphones for every nine people on earth, or 1.4 billion smartphones, by the end of 2013.
Tablets
are showing faster adoption rates than smartphones. It took smartphones
nearly four years to reach 6% penetration from when the devices first
started to register on a global level. Tablets accomplished this in just
two years.
PCs have only gained 6 percentage points in per-capita penetration the last 6 years.
Of course, per-capita rates of device ownership are a very rough
guide to actual ownership patterns in individual markets. For example,
in many countries mobile subscriptions have reached over 1oo% of the
population, and plenty of individuals are likely to have more than one
smartphone. Conversely, many people share tablets, so they consider
themselves to be tablet owners even if they are not counted as such in
per-capita data.
Taiwanese smartphone maker might face expulsion from Android handset
alliance if it has worked with online retailer Amazon on a ‘range’ of
smartphones
Amazon
is set to partner with HTC to produce Amazon-branded Android-powered
smartphones to join the company's Kindle Fire Android tablet computers.
Photograph: David McNew/Getty Images
Amazon is working with HTC to produce a range of Android-powered smartphones according to a report.
According to people familiar with the project talking to the FT, Amazon and HTC have three devices on their product roadmap, with one likely to be released in 2014.
Amazon has long been rumoured to be working on a smartphone to pair
with its Kindle Fire range of Android tablets to compete with offerings
from Google and Apple.
HTC risks expulsion from Google's OHA
If HTC has worked with with Amazon to produce a "forked" version of
Google's Android operating system on the phones, then it could face
expulsion from the Open Handset Alliance (OHA) - a consortium of mobile phone makers
and networks whose stated purpose is to "accelerate innovation in
mobile and offer consumers a richer, less expensive, and better mobile
experience".
As part of the OHA, HTC gains free access to Google’s Android
software. It also means HTC can gain Google certification for its
Android devices allowing them to come pre-loaded with access to Google
Play and its 850,000 standard Android apps, as well as Google’s Android
app suite, which includes Chrome, Gmail, Calendar, Maps and Search.
Amazon "forked" Android to produce the software powering its Kindle
Fire tablets in 2012, so that they would access its own app store, not
Google's. The Kindle Fire range uses Microsoft's Bing for its search
engine, maps from Nokia, and its own Silk browser.
Previous attempts by another OHA member, Acer, to produce a
smartphone with a different variant of Android produced by China’s
Alibaba, resulted in a clash with Google which saw Acer abruptly pull out of its partnership with Alibaba.
For HTC, which dipped to a heavy loss in the third quarter, the
threat of being forced out of the OHA could be double-edged. It is
losing ground in the Android space in the west to Samsung's larger
marketing spend and phone range, and has set its sights on China - where
Google's Android is used on only a tiny percentage of smartphone
handsets, most of which run the Android Open Source Platform (AOSP)
without Google services.
Back to its roots
Founded in 1997 in Taiwan, HTC started life designing and
manufacturing devices, such as mobile phones and PDAs based on
Microsoft’s Windows Mobile operating system, for distribution by mobile
phone operators like Orange in the UK as own-brand products.
By partnering with Amazon and making smartphones to be sold under the
Amazon brand, HTC would be returning to its roots after branching out
with its own HTC-branded smartphones in 2009. • In October, HTC launched the latest in its One smartphone line and its first "phablet", the 5.9in HTC One Max.
According to a report in The Financial Times, HTC and Amazon
are working together on an upcoming smartphone. The article goes further
to point that there are three different devices in the works, with one
of them being in advanced stage of development.
Amazon has not responded to requests for comment on the report,
though it stated that it has “no plans to offer a phone this year”.
HTC’s chief of marketing Ben Ho also declined to comment on the Amazon
partnership, but said that the manufacture is “always exploring new
opportunities”.
A partnership with Amazon could give HTC a break from its troubles,
as the device will likely be a high-volume product which will give the
ailing company’s balance sheet a welcome boost. It will also represent a
back to basics approach for the Taiwanese manufacturer, which made a
name for itself by producing hardware under different brands.
As far as Amazon is concerned, a potential cooperation with HTC will
signal an even more aggressive stance towards the market for mobile
devices. The current family of Kindle Fire devices has been developed
in-house by the retail behemoth.
Apple's iPhone 5s handsets are reportedly suffering "Blue Screen of
Death" style crashes that are forcing users to reboot their devices.
The so-called Blue Screen of Death is an error screen displayed by operating
systems after a crash. It is generally associated with older versions of
Microsoft's Windows-based operating system.
However, numerous iPhone 5s users are reporting that their screens are turning
a solid blue for a couple of seconds, just before the device crashes and
reboots.
The error has been reported on Apple support
forums and on Twitter. Only the new iPhone 5s seems to be affected. A
video showing the problem has been viewed almost 900,000 times:
The crashes are thought to be triggered by Apple’s own iWorks apps that come
free with all new iOS devices. One way to stop the reboots is to disable
iCloud syncing for Apple's Pages, Keynote, and Numbers apps, according to The
Verge.
Google's next flagship phone, the Nexus 5, features in a leaked 7-minute video online
Following the LG Nexus 5 leaked manual revealed online last week, it appears Google's next flagship smartphone the Nexus 5 is shown at all angles in a new 7-minute long video leak.
First spotted by Android Police, the video supplied by smartphones.sfr.fr shows a prototype (due to the lack of branding) at all angles.
Android Police states the leak does miss some elements that have
recently been spotted on recent leaks of the Nexus 5 such as
"notification bar transparency in the launcher, the camera shortcut on
the lockscreen, the new dialer, app drawer, Search app icons, Google
Photos, etc."
The leak also lists the build as KeyLimePie, although Google only revealed the next version of Android, KitKat, last month.
The leaked manual which appeared online last week revealed specs such
as a 4.95" 1080p display, 32GB internal storage, 2GB Ram, Snapdragon
800 at 2.3 GHz, 2300mAh battery, Slimport compatibility, Micro SIM slot,
notification light, wireless charging, NFC, Bluetooth 3.0 (potential
error), and more.
The Nexus 5 is rumoured to launch at the end of month.
Read T3's Google Nexus 5 release date, price, specs, news and rumours here.
Watch the video of the Nexus 5 leak below.
Announced at a DoMoCo event, the Xperia Z1F (also known as the Xperia Z1 Mini) will only be available in Japan for the time being. It will be available from December.
As was hinted at in the leaked brochure yesterday, the phone departs from the Mini strategies of rivals HTC and Samsung. Read more: Sony Xperia Z1 Mini to launch in Japan on Thursday?
The Xperia Z1F comes with a spec sheet very similar to the full size
Z1, with a quad-core 2.2GHz Snapdragon 800 processor, 2GB of RAM, 16GB
of storage, NFC, Qi-wireless charging and a 2300mAh battery.
The only major difference is the – obviously – smaller 4.3-inch 720p display. Sony announced that it will be available in four colours, namely lime, black, white and pink. It will come with Android 4.2 with Sony’s own customisations.
Nokia wasn’t the first smartphone
maker to offer its smartphones in a variety of colors, but it looks to
have started a trend by making its flagship and mid-range Lumia phones
in various bold, bright colors. Apple followed Nokia’s lead last month when it launched the iPhone 5c, and now Samsung has taken a cue from the soon-to-be-former Finnish smartphone maker with its new Galaxy J. The handset moves away from Samsung’s
typical, somewhat subdued color palette and is available in deep blue
and hot pink in addition to a tamer white tone. Beyond that, it is very
much a standard Samsung smartphone with cutting-edge specs that
include a 5-inch full HD Super AMOLED display, a 2.3GHz quad-core
Snapdragon 800 processor, 3GB RAM, LTE-A support, a 13-megapixel main
camera, a 2,600 mAh battery and Android 4.3 Jelly Bean. The Galaxy J
will launch in Japan by the end of the month, but no word yet on an
International rollout.
If
you're looking to get weird with your phone, the curved screen of the
official Samsung Galaxy Round is a good start. Well, sort of. The curved
5.7-inch screen—same as the uncurved Note 3—is a real thing that Samsung is actually making but it's only launching on SK Telecom in South Korea.
There
doesn't seem to be any real sensible justification for a curved screen
(for the time being, at least) other than hey, look at this weird
technology that exists on my phone. That's not stopping Samsung from
marketing the Round's 'roll effect' as a feature though. You basically
roll the phone to wake the screen to see the time and your
notifications. I guess that's sort of justifying the curved screen but
still, baaaaaarely:
Marginally
cool? Maybe. Mostly just really weird. Everything else is solid though:
2.3GHz quad core. 3GB RAM. 32GB storage. 2800mAh battery. Let weird be
weird.
Google's Eric Schmidt has a reputation for
raising eyebrows with his public proclamations, so this latest episode
should come as little surprise — the company chairman declared during
the Gartner Symposium/ITxpo that Android has a security advantage over
Apple's iPhone. In comments reported by ZDNet, Schmidt responded to a question from Gartner analyst David Willis as such:
Willis: "If you polled many people in this audience they would
say Google Android is not their principal platform... When you say
Android, people say, wait a minute, Android is not secure." Schmidt: "Not secure? It's more secure than the iPhone."
The answer reportedly drew laughs from the
audience in attendance. Although Schmidt apparently did not give a
direct explanation, he pointed to Android's billion-plus device activations and stringent security testing.
"You will be happier with Gmail, Chrome and Android more than you can possibly imagine."
Schmidt also pre-empted the long-standing
criticism that Android is a fragmented platform by pointing to Google's
unified Play store. "With Android we have an agreement for vendors that
you keep the Android stores compatible and that is a great breakthrough
for Android," he said. A recent US government survey
declared that the lack of an upgrade path for many Android devices
could pose a malware risk. But Schmidt argues that "the key thing" is
that "when you buy an Android phone the apps are compatible."
"Android is very secure," said Schmidt at the end of the session, where he discussed other topics
including the future of email, consumers' privacy expectations, and the
possibility of Google Now in the enterprise. "You will be happier with
Gmail, Chrome and Android more than you can possibly imagine."
There are no physical signs you've entered the National Radio Quiet Zone,
a 13,000-square-mile area that covers the eastern half of West
Virginia. But the silence gives you a signal. Somewhere around the
Virginia-West Virginia state line, the periodic buzzes and pings of our
smartphones stopped.
"Zero [service]. Searching," said photographer John Poole, who traveled with me to the zone.
Almost every radio station disappeared, too, except for Allegheny Mountain Radio, which broadcasts at a low enough frequency to avoid being banned.
"We
didn't realize the rest of the world was getting connected and staying
connected constantly, via phones and computers and all that," said radio
host Caleb Diller, who grew up in Pocahontas County, W.Va. "So we were
kinda back in time a little bit. We hadn't progressed to that."
The
county still hasn't progressed to constant connectivity. That's because
it sits within a zone designed to protect a sophisticated radio
telescope at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory from interference.
The Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope is the world's largest fully steerable radio telescope.
Radio
telescopes work by tracking and reading the energy waves that come from
stars or gases, but they have to be located in sparsely populated areas
to avoid electromagnetic interference.
The Green Bank Telescope
looks like a giant dish. It's as tall as the Washington Monument and
large enough to fit 2 acres of land in it.
"It's a huge
collecting area and it's what allows us to see these incredibly small
energies that we're trying to study," says Karen O'Neil, who oversees
the site. "The types of energies we look at are less than the energy of a
single snowflake falling on the earth."
The energy of Wi-Fi or
cell signals can confuse or interfere with the telescope's readings —
and it can trip the receivers at the government's nearby Sugar Grove research facility, which is also in the zone.
"Because
we're looking at these very, very faint signals, we need to live in a
very, very quiet area. In the same way where if you had an optical
telescope, it needs to be high on the mountain away from other light,"
O'Neil says.
So a federal quiet zone law and an accompanying state law — the West Virginia Radio Astronomy Zoning Act — combine to keep the area very radio quiet. No interference is allowed.
"We
still have communications. I mean, it's just ... older. Dial-up
telephones. We still have phone booths," says Chuck Niday, an engineer
for the National Radio Astronomy Observatory and a volunteer at
Allegheny Mountain Radio.
Emergency communications are allowed in
the zone, as is ham radio, a hobby among a set of West Virginians who
chitchat or coordinate plans over their ham radios as they would their
cellphones — if they had cellphones.
"Last year the big windstorm
we had, we were without power for some days. And without a lot of
communications. All the phone lines were down, so we had different spots
around the county where we could talk from one end of the county to the
other, and maybe relay about a store being open or somewhere having
ice," said Pat Schaffner, a Green Bank native.
To keep the zone
protected from signals that could confuse the telescope, Niday and
others from the NRAO drive the 20-mile radius around the Green Bank
Telescope weekly, policing for possible interference.
"Say
someone has a Wi-Fi service set up near the observatory that's causing
us interference, we can ask them to shut it off and most of the time
they do," he says.
But keeping the noise down around here is getting harder these days.
"If
you think back to 1956 when this site was first built, there were
issues with radio noise, but most of those issues came about through
cars and spark plugs and power lines. And now we're living in a society
where everything is wireless," O'Neil says.
And constant
connectivity has become a consumer and cultural demand, as one of the
biggest employers in the county — Snowshoe Ski Resort — knows well. The
resort happens to sit right inside the Quiet Zone. On busy weekends, it
hosts as many out-of-towners as there are residents in Pocahontas
County. So Murphy has to get creative to get customers cell service
without running afoul of the astronomers.
"We have to find a way to communicate that doesn't interfere with them," says George Murphy, Snowshoe's IT director.
This
summer, Murphy got a system of shoebox-size antennas installed in the
resort's retail village. Using something called DAS technology, which
involves short-range cell receivers, he brought cellphone service to a
pocket of Snowshoe for the first time ever.
"This was huge," he
says of the limited cell service. "From the day I started here, I was
working on this project with several different companies."
Change
seems to be in the mountain air. But for most of the area, life remains
slower paced. Instant messaging and texting remain something Niday sees
on television and when he travels out of state.
"It's nice to be
able to pull something out of your pocket and send a message to someone
and get a response within 30 seconds or so. But I don't know that it's
that necessary. At least it's not around here," he says.
Around here, folks seem content to stay disconnected. At least for now.
A new app allows people in Staffordshire to nominate "grot spots" for criminals to clean up.
The smartphone program was developed by Staffordshire and West Midlands Probation Trust after winning funding in an Ordnance Survey (OS) competition.
Users send a picture of a place that needs attention and the app geo-tags it so probation can pinpoint the location.
It then notifies them once the work is complete. The trust won OS's GeoVation challenge competition in 2012.
Team spokesman Jason Davies said: "This app is free and it's easy to use. We hope it will make the public feel more engaged in decision-making and make the punishment and rehabilitation of offenders more visible and meaningful to people in their communities."
Google’s making head way these days pushing an app ecosystem out of the web browser and straight onto your desktop. It would seem that Google’s push to control the desktop doesn’t just stop with Chromebooks and full fledged desktop apps however. With the latest dev channel update of Chrome, Google is adding Chrome OS elements to the browser. When activated in Metro Mode, the browser acts just Chrome OS. You can drag, minimize or even expand windows. Heck, the app launcher is there as well allowing you to launch apps and shortcuts just as you would normally.
Windows 8 allows browsers, if they’re set to default, to run in a Metro environment. Although, it cannot be extended to Windows RT, aka the mobile version of Windows. Given that it was discovered and currently resides in the dev channel of Chrome, there are bugs and glitches. Even as such, it appears that Google has made its intentions perfectly clear. Even with the popularity in an ever increasing mobile ecosystem, Google wants to push its desktop ecosystem as well.
There’s no telling when the stable or beta versions of the browser will see this functionality as there is extensive testing that needs to be done. While some would suggest that desktop computing will soon be a relic of the past, it appears that Google is just getting started.
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