qz.com - Despite a lot of investment and even more hype, mobile payments haven't really taken off. While the idea of using a mobile phone or other device to quickly and securely pay for things sounds appealing, only between 3% and 7% of consumers in the US and Europe use their phones to buy coffee, books, or other physical goods in stores, according to Bain (pdf).
Why? The system is still a mess. In the US, for example, no in-store mobile-payments system has reached critical mass-thanks to a complicated set of relationships between merchants, card companies, payment processors, mobile operators, handset makers, and mobile-wallet providers. Companies are so focused on claiming their share of the "value chain" that they've lost sight of the needs of the people who are actually supposed to be using these services. Payment providers have done such a lousy job with their early mobile products that Starbucks has emerged as a leader by simply doing its own thing.
Now Apple, which will reportedly announce its mobile payment system next week, has a chance to kickstart the market. And it might actually succeed. Because of its size, power, and-most importantly-its focus on the user, Apple is uniquely positioned to make in-store mobile payments work. Finally.
Critical mass
Apple could start by creating the first simple, global brand for mobile payments. Whether it's called iPay, AirPay, or something else, Apple could start by making something people will recognize. Apple is reportedly going straight to the source, forging partnerships with MasterCard, Visa, and American Express, so there shouldn't be any question of whether people can link the payment cards they're already comfortable using.
Apple, unlike Google, has absolute control over what goes into its phones, so it can ensure that all new iPhones-and other devices, such as its reportedly forthcoming wearable gadget-support its payment system. With more than 40% of the US smartphone market, Apple can get this service into millions of pockets faster than any other company. And because Apple insists on having the upper hand in its relationships with mobile operators, it shouldn't have any embarrassing situations like Google had with Verizon Wireless, which effectively blocked Google Wallet in 2011.
Apple's large and successful developer program means it can usually get merchants-large and small-to support new features. For example, it's easy to imagine Apple offering a new rewards platform for its payments system, or creating ways for merchants to link their existing rewards programs, as it did with its Passbook app that launched in 2012.
Cachet and trust
Let's face it, Apple has a unique ability among electronics brands to attract attention. Bain says that for a quarter of people who would consider using their mobiles for purchases, "novelty is reason enough to try it." While not everything Apple touches turns gold-such as its failed social network, Ping-it has a good chance of getting people to at least try its payment system.
And some 800 million people-iTunes account holders-already trust Apple with their payment information. In an era where retailers' databases seem to be compromised every week, with the right security features-such as potentially requiring a fingerprint scan to pay-Apple could foster the sense that its payment system is safer than swiping plastic. And also that it's more private than a similar wallet run by Google, which is known to feast on all available data.
The right business model
Apple also has a clear, hardware-sales-based business model that allows for long-term thinking around user experience and privacy.
Apple makes the vast majority of its profit by selling iPhones, iPads, and Macs. If its payment system becomes popular, it will sell more iPhones, iPads, and Macs. (And, perhaps, iWatches.) If it becomes something people don't want to live without, it will keep people loyal-and buying even more hardware. Apple's iTunes store-including the App Store-is now an almost $20 billion annual business, and is probably profitable. For years, Apple said it aimed to run iTunes near break-even to support its hardware business. This could be a similar story.
While Apple certainly will enjoy having more control over payments, and may even demand a cut of each transfer, it does not need its payment service to generate any massive immediate revenue or profit, nor drastic disruption. Nor does it need to create any new, invasive businesses selling its payment data to merchants or advertisers. If anything, Apple should use this to its advantage.
The right time
Timing is also in Apple's favor. Smartphones are now mainstream, a part of normal daily life. Payment processors have had time to build mobile support into enough point-of-sale systems that Apple could have decent take-up from the beginning. And more than half of consumers are already aware of mobile payments, according to Bain's study-even higher outside the US.

cnet.com - Mobile payments, or the notion that you can pay for goods and services at the checkout with your smartphone, may finally break into the mainstream if Apple and the iPhone 6 get involved.
While Apple doesn't talk about future products, Wired was the latest to report that the next iPhone would include mobile-payment capabilities powered by a short-distance wireless technology called near-field communication, or NFC. Apple is hosting an event on Sept. 9 that's widely expected to be the debut of the next iPhone or iPhones.
Apple's embrace of mobile payments would represent a watershed moment for how people pay at drugstores, supermarkets, or for cabs. The technology and capability to pay with a tap of your mobile device has been around for years -- you can tap an NFC-enabled Samsung Galaxy S5 or NFC-enabled credit card at point-of-sale terminals found at many Walgreen drugstores -- but awareness and usage remain low. Apple's visibility and massive user base - it already holds credit card data for about 800 million iTunes account holders -- could change that.
"Apple has again the opportunity to transform, disrupt and reshape an entire business sector," said Roger Entner, a consultant at Recon Analytics. "It is hard to overestimate what impact Apple could have if it really wants to play in the payments market."
Apple won't be the first to enter the mobile-payments arena. Google introduced its Google Wallet service in May 2011. The wireless carriers formed their joint venture with the intent to create a platform for mobile payments. More traditional financial companies such as Visa and PayPal have also tinkered with marrying payments to the smartphone.
Apple tends to stay away from new technologies until it has had a chance to smooth out the kinks. It was two years behind some smartphones in offering an iPhone that could tap into the faster LTE wireless network. NFC was rumored to be included in at least the last two iPhones, and could finally make its appearance in the iPhone 6. The technology will be the linchpin to enabling transactions at the checkout.
Early struggles
The notion of turning smartphones into true digital wallets -- including the ability to pay at the register -- has been hyped up for years. But so far, it's been more promise than results.
There have been many technical hurdles to making mobile devices an alternative to cash, checks, and credit cards. NFC technology has to be included in both the smartphone and the point-of-sale terminal to work, and it's been a slow process getting NFC chips into more equipment. NFC has largely been relegated to a feature found on higher-end smartphones such as the Galaxy S5 or the Nexus 5.
There's also confusion on both sides -- the merchant and the customer -- on how the tech works, and why tapping your smartphone on a checkout machine is any faster, better or easier than swiping a card.
"There's a chicken-and-egg problem between lack of user adoption and lack of retailer adoption," said Jan Dawson, an analyst at Jackdaw Research.
It's one reason why even powerhouses such as Google have struggled. Despite a splashy launch of its digital wallet and payment service more than three years ago, Google hasn't won mainstream acceptance -- or even awareness -- for its mobile wallet. Google hasn't said how many people are using Google Wallet, but a look at its page on the Google Play store lists more than 47,000 reviews giving it an average of a four-star rating. Google declined to comment on usage.
Meanwhile, three of the big four US wireless carriers -- Verizon Wireless, AT&T, and T-Mobile -- formed a joint venture to offer a similar kind of NFC-powered mobile-payment service. After a year-long trial period, the service, named Isis, launched across the nation in November with help from high-profile partners such as Coke and Jamba Juice, which offered freebies for early adopters. In July, Isis had to go dark to change its name, which too closely resembled the terrorist group Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, also known as ISIS. It has yet to emerge with a new name.
While online payment service PayPal can handle NFC-powered transactions, it also added other capabilities, such as ordering and paying on the phone ahead of picking up a product.
Pieces of the puzzle
Apple has quietly built the foundation to its mobile-payment service in Passbook, an app introduced two years ago in its iOS software and released as a feature with the iPhone 4S. Passbook has so far served as a repository for airline tickets, membership cards, and credit card statements. While it started out with just a handful of compatible apps, Passbook works with apps from Delta, Starbucks, Fandango, The Home Depot, and more. But it could potentially be more powerful.
"Apple's already made great inroads with Passbook," said Maribel Lopez, an analyst at Lopez Research. "It could totally crack open the mobile payments space in the US."
Apple
Apple could make up a fifth of the share of the mobile-payment transactions in a short few months after the launch, according to Lopez, who based her math on the assumption that half of iPhone users try the feature and the company's 35 percent market share among US smartphones.
The company also has the credit or debit card information for virtually all of its customers thanks to its iTunes service, so it doesn't have to go the extra step of asking people to sign up for a new service. That takes away one of the biggest hurdles to adoption.
The last piece of the mobile-payments puzzle with the iPhone is the fingerprint recognition sensor Apple added into last year's iPhone 5S. That sensor will almost certainly make its way to the upcoming iPhone 6. The fingerprint sensor, which Apple obtained through its acquisition of Authentec in 2012, could serve as a quick and secure way of verifying purchases, not just through online purchases, but large transactions made at big-box retailers such as Best Buy. Today, you can use the fingerprint sensor to quickly buy content from Apple's iTunes, App and iBooks stores.
The bigger win for Apple is the services and features it could add on to a simple transaction -- if it's successful in raising the awareness of a form of payment that has been quietly lingering for years. Google had previously seen mobile payments as the optimal location for targeted advertisements and offers.
It's those services and features that ultimately matter; in the end, replacing a simple credit card swipe isn't that big of a deal.

sfgate.com - With the holiday shopping season coming, Samsung and LG unveiled small improvements to their computerized wristwatches to try to sway shoppers.
Samsung's latest version can do more without a smartphone to go with it. LG's has a round screen. Apple is also believed to be working on its own smartwatch, and could announce it at a Sept. 9 event.
Smartwatches are another product technology companies can offer since many people already have smartphones and tablet computers. But companies have yet to make a strong case for why everyday consumers need smartwatches, especially when so far they have had little functionality without a phone nearby.
Samsung's new Gear S, the company's fourth major smartwatch in a year, will have 3G cellular connectivity so that it can receive notifications directly from social networks, calendars and other apps. The Gear S promises to offer turn-by-turn walking directions using mapping data from Nokia's Here service. It also promises to make and receive phone calls, though it's not clear how that will work without its own phone number.
For this watch, Samsung Electronics Co. is using a fledging operating system called Tizen rather than Google's Android Wear, which Google has promoted as a way for the same apps to work with watches from competing manufacturers. The new watch will have a screen that measures 2 inches diagonally, which is slightly larger than those on Samsung's previous watches. The display will be curved to fit better around the wrist.
Samsung on Thursday also unveiled a headset called Gear Circle.
Both products will be available starting in October, though the company didn't say whether they will be available in the U.S. then. Prices weren't announced.
LG Electronics Inc., meanwhile, unveiled a watch with a 1.3-inch circular screen - a departure from the rectangular design found in previous smartwatches from LG and others. Like the G Watch that came out in June, the new G Watch R will use Google's Android Wear system. LG said nothing about prices and release dates other than to say the watch will come out early in the fourth quarter.
Motorola also is expected to come out with a round-face smartwatch soon, the Moto 360, that uses Android Wear.

informationweek.com - LG's G Watch R and Samsung's Gear S do little to shake up the wearable market. Perhaps Apple's upcoming device will.
LG and Samsung just couldn't contain themselves: Both companies showed off new smart wearables just days before the IFA trade show starts in Berlin. LG's device uses Android Wear, while Samsung's relies on its homegrown Tizen platform. They will go head-to-head with Apple's wearable, which is expected to arrive shortly.
LG was first out of the gate with the G Watch R. The new smartwatch is LG's second stab at the Android Wear platform; the company released the G Watch in July. The G Watch R will go on sale in October. As its name implies, the R is round (the G Watch is square), and it features a 1.3-inch plastic OLED screen with 320 x 320 pixels. LG says the screen can be used both outdoors and in. LG further notes the R uses all the pixels of the screen, unlike the Moto 360 (also round), which has a black bar across the bottom.
LG G Watch R
LG put a bit more effort into the R's design. The chassis is made of stainless steel and the strap of calf skin. Despite the more refined look, it still garners an IP67 rating for protection against water and dust: The device can stand in a meter of water for up to 30 minutes with no fear of it going kaput. Powered by a 1.2-GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor, the device includes 512 MB of RAM and 4 GB of storage for apps and files. It comes with a full array of sensors, including a 9-axis gyroscope, as well as an accelerometer, a compass, a barometer, and a heart rate monitor. The watch has a 410mAh battery, but LG didn't say how long it will last. Pricing wasn't discussed.
Samsung's smartwatch, the Gear S, is novel in that it can make and receive phone calls. It supports global 3G frequencies and can also send and receive text messages without requiring a smartphone. It also has Bluetooth and WiFi radios and can connect to a smartphone when needed for smart notifications. It includes Samsung's S Voice tool, which can be used to control the device via voice commands.
Samsung Gear S
The Gear S features a large curved Super AMOLED display, which stretches 2 full inches across the diagonal and has 480 x 320 pixels for resolution that rivals some smartphones. It is powered by a dual-core 1.0-GHz processor and includes 512 MB of RAM and 4 GB of storage. Its battery is considerably smaller than the G Watch R's, at just 300mAh. Samsung says it is good for two days of use between charges.
Unlike the G Watch R, the Gear S relies on Samsung's Linux-based Tizen platform. Samsung claims to have more than 1,000 Tizen apps available to its smart devices. Google hasn't said how many Android Wear apps are available, but Tizen's future is cloudy at best. Developers may do well to hedge their bets with Android Wear over Tizen. The Samsung Gear S will also launch in October. Pricing will vary by market.
Both devices may arrive after Apple's smart wearable, which could be problematic for LG and Samsung. Re/Code reported late Wednesday that Apple will announce its wearable alongside the iPhone 6 on September 9. Re/Code's track record is pretty good as far as arrival dates are concerned. Many expect the iPhone 6 to reach stores as soon as September 19. It would behoove Apple to begin selling the iWatch (or whatever it is called) on the same day.
The market for wearables is clearly heating up. Neither the G Watch R nor the Gear S, however, do anything to shake up or disrupt the current thinking on wearables. Perhaps Apple's device will.

workforce.com - With the ubiquity of mobile access, it's more common than ever to look at job postings or manage one's profile via a smartphone.
While desktop computers are still the go-to platform for job searches, mobile technology isn't far behind, according to a recent survey of 4,000 job seekers by Beyond.com Inc., an online career network. Some 83 percent of respondents use a phone or tablet to search for jobs. More than half of job searchers will use a phone to find a job, but apply for the position on a computer. And 83 percent surveyed use a tablet to search for positions while watching television.
"It's all to do with the younger generation, who's very mobile," said Claire Schooley, principal analyst at Forrester Research Inc. "Mobile devices are growing all the time. Having a mobile-optimized career site is almost a necessity today. As these things change and they become user-friendly, you certainly don't want a 40-minute process."
The trend hasn't been lost on LinkedIn Corp. With almost half of the social media site's members visiting on smartphones or tablets and about 44,000 of them applying for jobs daily via mobile devices, its new Job Search app will increase visibility and distribution for mobile users. Currently only available for iOS-equipped tablets and phones in the United States, users can perform location-based searches, see recommendations based on viewing history and track ongoing and recent job applications.
Not all employers are adequately prepared for mobile job seekers, however. According to LinkedIn's statistics, only 13 percent of recruitment leaders invested enough in mobile-friendly recruiting, and 20 percent have a mobile-optimized career site. A recent study from consultancy Towers Watson & Co. found an increase in HR technology spending on a global scale, as well as greater adoption of mobile HR technology.

mashable.com - Five years isn't a long way away, but human-resources experts predict significant changes within the workforce over the next half-decade.
A sizable shift is coming as millennials take their seats at businesses large and small, and Baby Boomers simultaneously either retire or modify their work styles to reflect increasingly flexible and mobile opportunities.
To get some answers, we spoke to analysts from different business and staffing sectors. With their expertise, a picture of what business leaders - and employees - can expect from their professional landscape emerged. Here are five key points from that conversation.
1. Freelance employees will approach the 50% mark
The freelancer is on the rise, and if you ask proponents of the "contingent" (freelance) economy, they expect that by 2020 some 40% of the workforce will soon be made up of contract-only employees. "This is in part because millennials don't want to stay in one job forever, but also in part because companies prefer to try out employees before committing to them," says Stephen Robert Morse, co-founder of SkillBridge, via email. "These changes will affect the white-collar economy, just as they have already disrupted the blue-collar economy (e.g. Uber)."
2. Flex-work becomes a new normal
We already live in a largely work-anywhere world, thanks to the cloud and mobile tech, but shifting employee demographics will drive further alterations to the way we think about clocking in. "By 2016, 63 million Americans will be working in a virtual or flexible role, up sharply from 2010's 34 million," says Ellen Grealish, co-founder of FlexProfessionals. Business leaders can expect millennials to account for some 50% of that workforce by 2020, but she also sees a growing incidence of Boomers who are close to retirement but who keep on working to some extent - often from offsite. "The demand and creation of flexible-work options will continue to rise over the next five years," Grealish says.
3. Career 'impatience' a driving factor
A recent Georgetown University study showed that millennials already switch jobs some 6.3 times between ages 18 and 25. Only 1 in 10, according to the report, considers their current job to be part of their career. "In other words, companies are not prepared for the millennial generation's impatience companies are not prepared for the millennial generation's impatience," says Pamela Stambaugh, founder and president of Accountability Pays. Throughout the next five years, employers can expect to see talent land, learn, lift off, and then move on with greater frequency than that of their Generation X and Baby Boomer predecessors.
4. The new workforce works small
Recent monthly employment numbers from ADP show that approximately 65% of all new non-farm jobs created are coming from small and medium-sized businesses. Especially hungry for new talent: High-growth small shops within the technology, health care and social-media marketing sectors, says Robert J. LaBombard, CEO of GradStaff. However, some of this SMB job creation is due to Baby Boomers who are retiring from their posts at older companies - a phenomenon expected to continue for up to 15 years.
5. Gen X may have its day
As Boomers step aside, or decrease their engagement with the companies at which they remain in a part-time or flexible capacity, the 34- to 49-year-old set stands to reap new opportunities. Their experience relative to millennials should prove an advantage. "However, as a smaller demographic group, there will be a shortage of qualified workers in this age bracket, so companies hiring will have to hire more at the entry-level to compensate for the loss of Baby Boomers to retirement," says LaBombard.
These five factors that employers and employees need to heed in the coming 60 months each deeply relate to one generation aging out of career-building efforts and another phasing into their own. But what can companies do to prepare for these changes? Strategies lie in responding to the cultural and technological elements of the predicted shifts.

winsupersite.com - Before this year's explosion of new Windows Phone licensees, Microsoft could point to one post-Nokia success story: Huawei. The Chinese smart phone company adopted Windows Phone in 2012 and has shipped devices in China and abroad. But now, the bad news: Huawei's Windows Phone releases are "on hold," and the firm plans to focus exclusively on Android.
It was big news 'round here parts when Huawei entered the Windows Phone market two years ago.
But it is likewise big news to discover this week that Huawei is now no longer interested in Windows Phone.
"We have tried using the Windows Phone OS," Richard Yu, the head of Huawei's consumer business group, told the Wall Street Journal. "But it has been difficult to persuade consumers to buy a Windows Phone. It wasn't profitable for us. We were losing money for two years on those phones. So for now we've decided to put any releases of new Windows phones on hold. We have worries about Android being the only option, but we have no choice. And we have a good collaboration with Google."
If it helps-and it shouldn't- Huawei's focus on Android exclusively means that it is also dropping plans to use Samsung's DOA mobile OS Tizen. Huawei never actually shipped a Tizen phone, of course. But it was planning to do so.
Likewise, Huawei has no plans to develop its own OS, having discovered what so many others have discovered before it: It is hard to create and foster a successful ecosystem. So far, only major players like Google, Apple, Amazon and Microsoft have been able to do that.
Going all-in on Android isn't super surprising. But as a Windows Phone fan, the revelation hurts. As with HTC, I look at Huawei's phones (and phablets and tablets) and think "what-if." And this is especially poignant since Huawei is now plotting a massive international expansion. The firm is already the third-largest smart phone maker in the world, behind Samsung and Apple, and ahead of Lenovo, and its market share jumped 95 percent in a year in which both Samsung and Apple lost share. The firm shipped 52 million smartphones in 2013, and it plans to ship more than 80 million smart phones to consumers in 2014.
And virtually none of them will be Windows Phones.

geobrava.wordpress.com - Smartphone sales to business users - both though corporate-liable purchasing and from BYOD volume - is on pace to grow more than 20% in 2014 over last year's volume of nearly 280 million units. Despite the disparity in volume, where global personal-liable sales will be more than double the unit count of corporate purchases in 2014, the gap between the two classes of device ownership can slightly shrink over the next few years if corporate purchases continue their current surge.

money.cnn.com - Having trouble with your iPhone 5 battery? You might be eligible for a free replacement.
Apple (AAPL, Tech30) said "a very small percentage" of iPhone 5 smartphones may "suddenly experience shorter battery life or need to be charged more frequently."
Don't get too excited just yet. After a year or two, everyone's iPhone battery seems to carry less juice than it once did. But Apple's repair program is limited to certain customers in the United States and China.
Only iPhone 5 smartphones sold between September 2012 and January 2013 are eligible, and only those that fall within a certain range of serial numbers. Apple has opened a website that allows people to determine whether their phones are eligible. (To access your serial number, tap Settings > General > About > Serial Number).
Apple announced an even smaller iPhone 5S battery recall program last year. In June, Apple issued a recall in 37 countries for European iPhone chargers that were overheating.

m.lesechos.fr - Doresa and Milena will have to wait a day or two more in the Guyanese heat before joining the space. Due to high winds, the fire of the Soyuz rocket, which was to send into orbit two large satellites 750 pounds, has been postponed to Friday, to 14.27 Paris time, in hopes of better weather . No luck! The cream of the European space industry had made the trip to Kourou to greet the event. With the commissioning orbit Doresa and Milena indeed begin the long-awaited deployment of the future European satellite navigation system Galileo, which will give Europe an alternative to the American GPS, towards the end of the decade phase.
But that additional time is nothing compared to twenty years of delay in Europe in the field of satellite geolocation. In 2001, thirty years after the launch of the GPS program by Richard Nixon and six years after its completion, that Europe decided to develop its own system. Meanwhile, GPS has made itself indispensable from both military and civilian perspective. And its users around the world have had the time to measure the disadvantages of a controlled by the American military system. Especially when it decides to limit GPS accuracy to 100 meters for civilians, as in the first Gulf War.
Two other satellites launched by the end of the year
Between budget issues and intra-European rivalries must not until October 2011 that the first two of the Galileo satellite constellation, out of 30, are finally put into orbit. Two others followed a year later. And it was not until February that the first phase of testing and validation is completed, paving the way for the deployment phase,
After Doresa and Milena, two other satellites expected to be launched towards the end of the year, bringing to eight the number of operational satellites, which already allow limited service. But the deployment will continue at least until 2018, at a rate of six to eight satellites per year. Terrestrial relay stations will be installed throughout the world. In total, the European Commission plans to spend 7 billion euros to Galileo.
Uncertainties
If all goes well, Galileo should be operational by 2019-2020. With an accuracy of less than 4 meters for the free service and less than 1 meter to the paid service. What would be better than the current GPS or its Russian equivalent Glonass (see article below cons). But on condition that German SMEs OHB chosen at the expense of Thales and Airbus Group to make 22 of the 30 satellites, takes its time. This has not been the case hitherto. Provided also that the tensions with Russia does not question the cooperation in space, still needing Arianespace Soyuz rockets to put satellites into orbit. And provided that the cuts do not come challenging schedule.
Thereafter, Galileo will still demonstrate the ability to operate without failure or costs. And win against American competition, but also Russian, Chinese and perhaps soon Indian and Japanese.

ibtimes.com - Start saving your pennies if you're planning to buy Motorola's (NYSE:MSI) Moto 360, the smartwatch expected to sell for $250. Best Buy (NYSE:BBY) has posted a product information page for the Moto 360, which indicates a $249.99 price tag and also lists the smartwatch's specifications.
Hardware for the Moto 360 includes a processor by Texas Instruments and 512MB of RAM. The product page confirms such rumored features for the Moto 360 as its 1.5-inch backlit LCD touch screen. The smartwatch also includes a heart rate monitor, water resistance and an ambient light sensor, among many other features.
Best Buy's product page indicates the Moto 360 is "coming soon," but the public likely won't know many other details until Motorola's press event on Sept. 4, where it is expected to showcase several pieces of hardware, including the Moto 360, two new smartphones and a headset of some sort.
The Moto 360 is one of the smartwatches to be powered by Google Inc.'s (NASDAQ:GOOG) Android Wear software. While Google announced other Android wear watches like the LG G Watch and the Samsung Gear Live at its I/O conference in June, the Mountain View, California, electronics giant could only say of the Moto 360 that it would be released later in the summer.
Currently, the Moto 360 stands out as one of the few smartwatches to feature a round face. Two weeks ago, Italian blogger, Luca Viscardi, the writer behind Mister Gadget shared supposed leaked images of the Moto 360 and said the smartwatch would include a wireless charging capability, a bright display and a heart rate sensor, features that are now listed on the Best Buy product page.
It is important to note that the product page could easily be a placeholder and contain incorrect information. Price and details for the Moto 360 cannot be fully confirmed until done so by Motorola.

mobileworldlive.com - Samsung Electronics has made a move into the growing 'connected home' space with the purchase of SmartThings - a US-based developer of a home automation platform - for a reported $200 million.
Using a single Android/iOS app, the company's $99 smart-home controller allows users to monitor, control and customise their connected devices.
SmartThings, which began as a Kickstarter project two years ago and has raised some $15 million in funding, is led by CEO and founder Alex Hawkinson.
Hawkinson said in a blog on the SmartThings website that it will continue to operate as an independent company within Samsung's Open Innovation Centre group in Palo Alto, California. This means the company's team of 55 employees working in three locations in the US will relocate to the new headquarters.
Hawkinson said: "We believe there is an enormous opportunity to leverage Samsung's global scale to help us realise our long-term vision. Joining forces with Samsung will enable us to support all of the leading smartphone vendors, devices and applications; expand our base of developers and enhance the tools and programs that they rely on; and help many more people around the world easily control and monitor their homes using SmartThings."
Of course, Samsung already makes a variety of home appliances like TVs, refrigerators, microwaves, washers and dryers. However, these have limited connectivity with each other and the SmartThings acquisition will enable it to strengthen its home automation capabilities.
The move comes after Google's $3.2 billion purchase of Nest, a maker of 'smart' thermostats and smoke alarms, and Dropcam, a supplier of Wi-Fi monitoring cameras, as well as Apple's launch of HomeKit, which will allow third-party gadgets to be controlled with iOS hardware.
A report from Strategy Analytics this week claimed spending on smart home systems and services in the US will hit $18 billion in 2014 and more than double to $39 billion by 2019. It said that Apple, Google and Samsung are among the big consumer brands posturing for position in the market as ADT, Vivint, Comcast and AT&T drive growth in the interactive security market.
SmartThings aims to differentiate itself "by creating an open platform for 3rd-party apps/services"; founder/CEO Hawkinson claims SmartThings supports more than one thousand devices and more than eight thousand apps.

engadget.com - Want to know a big reason why Android smartphones are virtually ubiquitous these days? Because many of them are very affordable, that's why. IDC's latest market share estimates show that 58.6 percent of Android phones shipped in the second quarter cost less than $200, many of them from surging Chinese manufacturers like Huawei, Lenovo and Xiaomi. Simply speaking, many in China and other developing countries can't (or won't) justify buying the expensive phones that thrive in regions like Europe and North America. It's no wonder that Samsung is losing the battle at the moment, then -- while the company has budget handsets, it's heavily invested in high-end hardware like the Galaxy S line.
The influx of low-cost devices also helps to explain year-over-year dips in market share for both iOS (11.7 percent) and Windows Phone (2.5 percent), which pale next to Android's 84.7 percent slice of the pie. Apple doesn't participate in the sub-$200 realm to start with, so it won't compete in terms of sheer units; it's doing fine profit-wise. Windows Phone, meanwhile, has few bona fide hits in this space outside of the aging Lumia 520. There are new iPhones and more budget-friendly Windows Phone makers right around the corner, though, so it won't be shocking if there's a different story in the months ahead.

theregister.co.uk - Google's Android mobile OS now runs on 84.7 per cent of the 301 million mobile phones the world created in the second quarter of 2014, according to market-watcher IDC.
The Google spawn's market share is up a third compared to the same quarter in 2013. Every other mobile operating system is not even eating Android's dust - they're so far back on the road they can see the plume of dust Android throws up are falling behind and don't even look to have a chance of choking.
We offer that analysis because, as the chart below shows, Android's nearest rival - Apple's iOS - now has just 11.7 per cent market share.
IDC says Android's winning because mobe-makers are using it to crack the sub-US$200 market. With Android One on the way and sub-$100 devices the target, the analyst says there's every chance Android will capture even more market share.
The data is also notable for reporting the first 300-million-phones-shipped quarter.
The new isn't all bad for the chasing pack as IDC says Q2 is Apple's annual low point thanks to punters either having bought an iPhone 5s already or being willing to wait for a new model. And despite Windows Phone's declining market share, the analyst thinks there's a chance for improvement once Microsoft's channels get Lumias into developing countries at attractive prices.
BlackBerry may not be entirely dead yet, as it is improving its position in the Asian markets it has targeted and recorded "some gains among enterprise users within North America and Western Europe."

money.cnn.com - USBs are getting a big makeover -- and you're going to like the new look.
The universal, ubiquitous computer ports, connectors and cables will soon be reversible. That means no more struggling to figure out which way the plug is supposed to go.
The USB 3.0 Promoter Group, which includes tech giants Hewlett-Packard (HPQ, Tech30), Intel (INTC, Tech30), Microsoft (MSFT, Tech30), Texas Instruments (TXN), said the blueprints for the "Type-C" reversible USB connector have been finished, and manufacturers can start making them.
So when will you see the new plugs?
It could be soon, but that's for the electronics industry to decide. There has been no shortage of interest in a reversible USB solution since Apple (AAPL, Tech30) made headlines in 2012 with its reversible Lightning connector for the iPhone and iPad.
But many governments, including the European Union, have mandated micro-USB as the standard for charging and connecting.
The oddly shaped micro-USB connector for the world's smartphones, tablets and cameras is slightly fatter on one side than the other.
Today's USB connectors can only plug in one way. Making one-sided USBs more annoying is the fact that it's not always obvious which way is the right way to plug in. The 15-year old technology has produced a fair share of headaches from strained, squinty eyes trying to discern which way is up.
In addition to being able to plug the cord in either way, the promoter group says the new USB design could free up device makers to position ports anywhere.
"This next generation of USB technology opens the door for the invention of an entirely new, super thin class of devices that consumers haven't even seen yet," said Alex Peleg, vice president of Intel's platform engineering group.

pcworld.com - Amazon has introduced a card reader coupled with smartphone and tablet apps that aim to provide small businesses with a way to accept mobile payments.
The company is positioning its Amazon Local Register as a secure card reader and mobile app that will provide local businesses a broad set of tools to accept credit and debit cards through a smartphone or tablet and keep track of their operations.
The service can only be used to accept payments in the U.S., and a U.S. bank account is required for transferring funds from the Amazon Payments account to the user's bank account.
The online retailer will go head-to-head with established players in the market, including Square, Intuit, and PayPal, which also offer small card readers that can be attached to smartphones and tablets. PayPal Here, Square, and Intuit QuickBooks GoPayment, for example, offer the card reader device free.
The fierce competition has not gone unnoticed by Amazon, which is offering customers who sign up for the service before Oct. 31 a promotional rate of 1.75 percent per card swipe on all major credit and debit cards through Dec. 31, 2015. After that, they will pay 2.5 percent per swipe. Customers who sign up after the promotional period pay a flat rate of 2.5 percent on all swiped transactions.
Square collects a fee of 2.75 percent per swipe, while PayPal Here charges 2.7 percent per swipe transaction in the U.S. and Intuit's GoPayment starts at 1.75 percent per transaction.
Customers can create accounts on Amazon Local Register, purchasing the $10 card reader and downloading a free mobile app from either the Amazon Appstore, Apple App Store, or Google Play. The $10 paid for the card reader will be repaid through a setoff toward the first $10 in transaction fees. The card reader will also be available for purchase from Staples retail outlets in the U.S. next Tuesday.
Amazon's card reader and mobile app work with Apple devices running iOS7, Kindle Fire tablets, and select Android smartphones. It will be offered soon on Amazon's Fire phone, the company said.
Like many of its competitors, the Amazon Local Register will offer additional tools for businesses, helping them track their businesses and monitor sales growth. It will also provide register functions like adding discounts and issuing refunds.

theregister.co.uk - Intel disclosed on Monday technical details of its new microarchitecture for chips baked using its latest 14-nanometer process, known by the codename "Broadwell."
"This new microarchitecture is more than a remarkable technical achievement," Intel VP and general manager of product development Rani Borkar said in a canned statement. "It is a demonstration of the importance of our outside-in design philosophy that matches our design to customer requirements."
The first Broadwell chip to hit the market will be the cool-running Core M, which Chipzilla first demoed at the Computex event in Taipei in June.
Initially, Intel expected to roll out the first Broadwell chips in 2013, but quality-control problems with the 14nm process forced delays. Now the first Core M devices aren't expected to reach retail shelves until this year's holiday season, with broad availability beginning in the first quarter of 2015.
Intel said in a presentation [PDF] on Monday that it has achieved a four-times reduction in thermal design power (TDP) with Broadwell as compared to 2010's "Nehalem" chips. This means the Core M will be the first processor on Intel's Core road map that can run without a fan, which in turn means PC makers will be able to design Core M devices that are just 7.2mm thick.
That's pretty impressive, given that devices built using previous generations of Core chips had to be 26mm thick or more - and to prove that the numbers don't lie, Intel president Renee James showed off a 7.5mm-thick two-in-one typoslab at Computex that weighed just 670 grams.
Don't expect those skinny slabs to be speed demons, though. Running cool enough to go without a fan means dialing down the clock speeds, and one of the reference tablets Intel demoed at Computex actually included a "fan dock" that could blow air onto the device to let it run faster while docked.
On the plus side, Intel said the Core M's CPU cores deliver double the performance of the 2010 models, and the performance of its integrated graphics is seven times better.
But the real advantage of the Core M for the mobile market is how little power it draws. Chipzilla said Broadwell will allow manufacturers to build devices with batteries that are half the size but deliver double the run times as compared to kit built just four years ago.
Intel credits these improvements to its 14nm process, which is based on the second generation of its Tri-Gate transistor technology. The improved fins on these new transistors has allowed Intel to reduce the interconnect pitch of its 14nm silicon to 52nm, as compared to the 80nm pitch of its 22nm process. SRAM cells have also been reduced in size to just 0.0588µm2.
The 14nm wafers are costlier to produce, but their dramatically increased density means Broadwell still delivers lower overall cost-per-transistor, as has each new process Intel has introduced.
What's more, the Core M comes in a package that takes up half the board area that Intel's 22nm "Haswell" chips do and is 30 per cent thinner.
Chipzilla said the Core M is only the first of many products that will be released based on its 14nm process and the Broadwell microarchitecture, with new chip designs for servers, mobile devices, and embedded systems all to come. Expect the next such announcement to drop within the next few months.

mobile.nytimes.com - Sprint and its corporate parent, the Japanese telecommunications giant SoftBank, have decided to drop their pursuit of T-Mobile US after conceding that antitrust regulators would block a deal in an industry that is dominated by just a few large players, a person briefed on the matter said on Tuesday.
The decision, made at a Sprint board meeting on Tuesday afternoon, is the second failed effort by large American wireless carriers to merge in three years. And it represents a serious blow by SoftBank to develop a big new challenger to the two giants of the American cellphone industry, Verizon and AT&T.
The end of the deal leaves open the question of what paths Sprint and T-Mobile will forge as smaller competitors to the enormous titans of their industry. Combined, the two control less than a third of the United States' wireless market.
Shares in T-Mobile fell nearly 9 percent in after-hours trading on Tuesday, while Sprint's shares tumbled 15 percent after the markets had closed.
In recent years, T-Mobile has shaken up the industry with an array of novel pricing plans, gaining admirers among both analysts and investors, but Sprint has lost customers for several quarters as it struggles to upgrade its network.
"They have a lot of wood to chop," Craig Moffett, a research analyst at MoffettNathanson, said of Sprint. "They will have to spend a fortune to fix their network, and they will very likely have to cut prices to stay competitive at the same time."
Sprint is planning at least one major change in the near term. On Wednesday morning, the company is expected to announce that it will replace its current chief executive, Daniel Hesse, with Marcelo Claure, the person briefed on the matter said.
Mr. Claure is the founder of Brightstar, a wireless services company that sold a majority stake in itself to SoftBank last year. He joined Sprint's board in January.
The end of the talks also leaves open the question of what Deutsche Telekom, T-Mobile's majority owner, will do next. The German telecommunications company has signaled that it would like to eventually sell off its T-Mobile stake, and a deal with Sprint would have been the quickest path to that. Much of the telecom industry has barreled relentlessly toward consolidation, as companies have grasped for bigger scale. Already this year, both Comcast and AT&T have announced huge deals meant to bolster their reach.
But the existence of both transactions - Comcast's $45 billion takeover of Time Warner Cable and AT&T's $49 billion purchase of DirecTV - has made the Obama administration wary of concentrating too much power in the hands of too few companies.
And a proposed combination of Sprint and T-Mobile, uniting the third- and fourth-biggest carriers in the United States, had been fiercely questioned by officials at both the Federal Communications Commission and the Justice Department. In 2011, AT&T's attempts to buy T-Mobile for $39 billion failed after the Obama administration sued to block the deal.
As recently as last month, T-Mobile and Sprint were speaking on friendly terms. The two sides had discussed a potential deal worth about $32 billion, people said at the time.
Ever since SoftBank bought a majority stake in Sprint, a deal that closed last summer, the company had its eye on bigger ambitions. The Japanese company's voluble founder, Masayoshi Son, had frequently and publicly derided the state of the American wireless industry as antiquated, falling far behind other nations.
His model was what SoftBank had done in its home market, Japan, where he had taken Vodafone's tiny wireless operation and, through a combination of deal-making, marketing and intelligent pricing, broke into the top ranks of wireless companies.
Not known for backing down in the face of long odds - he once threatened to set himself on fire in a dispute with Japanese regulators - Mr. Son boasted that he could succeed similarly in the United States, despite facing bigger and more entrenched rivals.
Still, SoftBank was forced to concede that such a union would have little chance of clearing either government regulator, this person said. One of the latest reminders that a merger would meet serious opposition came last week, when the F.C.C. signaled that it would prevent the two companies from making a joint bid in an upcoming government auction of wireless spectrum.
"The deal never had a chance in Washington," Mr. Moffett said. "Sprint seems finally to have accepted the inevitable."
Instead, Sprint will pursue its own turnaround plan, built in large part on updating its network and offering new pricing plans for consumers.
The company also plans to name a new chief executive on Wednesday, replacing its current head, Daniel Hesse, the person briefed on the matter said.
Meanwhile, T-Mobile may have to contend with another takeover bid. A French mobile upstart, Iliad, disclosed last week that it had bid $15 billion for a 56.6 percent stake in T-Mobile US.
But Deutsche Telekom spurned the offer. Iliad now is reportedly seeking additional partners to shore up a revised bid, according to press reports. Still, analysts have questioned whether a merger with T-Mobile would make sense - and whether Iliad could afford a takeover.
It is unclear whether others, such as Dish Network, will re-emerge as potential suitors for T-Mobile.
News of Sprint and SoftBank's plan was reported earlier by The Wall Street Journal online.

money.cnn.com - The iPhone 6 is coming into focus.
Apple (AAPL, Tech30) is set to unveil its next-generation iPhones at an event on Sept. 9, according to a report from the tech news site Re/code.
The tech giant is expected to release a pair of larger iPhones running faster, "A8" processors: one with a 4.7-inch screen, and one 5.5 inches. The compares with a 4-inch display on the iPhone 5S.
Related: Be wary of no money down on iPhone 6
Apple will likely provide more details on the forthcoming version of its mobile operating system, iOS 8. It is also widely expected to unveil a new smartwatch at the event.
An Apple spokeswoman declined to comment.

computerworld.com - French carrier Iliad's surprise unsolicited bid for T-Mobile US may be good news for everyone but Sprint.
Iliad confirmed on Wednesday it has offered to buy a majority stake in the fourth-largest U.S. mobile operator in a deal that values the company at about US$30 billion. The news followed months of reports about an impending takeover deal with Sprint, the third-largest carrier, that's never quite materialized.
The Iliad bid may have been unexpected, but it's not likely to be unwelcome. U.S. regulators will see a potential deal that changes the ownership of T-Mobile without affecting the makeup of the domestic mobile market. Consumers would be looking at a scrappy U.S. carrier now owned by a French company that's specialized in undercutting bigger rivals in its own market. And Deutsche Telekom, the majority owners of T-Mobile, may have a bidding war on its hands.
As simply one foreign owner looking to buy out another, Iliad would face dramatically less government scrutiny than Sprint would as a domestic player asking to further consolidate the market, said analyst Roger Entner of Recon Analytics. If Sprint bought T-Mobile, the U.S. would lose one of the four competitors that now vie for customers, a prospect that some regulators have said they wouldn't welcome. An Iliad buyout would preserve the four-carrier market.
"It would probably be very easy to approve," Entner said. The only condition he sees in such a deal would be including someone on T-Mobile's board who's been approved by U.S. agencies, to safeguard national security, as was required when Japan's SoftBank bought Sprint last year.
Four competitors, especially with an underdog as aggressive as T-Mobile has been under CEO John Legere, could continue the battle for consumers that has led to several new types of plans and price points across the U.S. mobile industry over the past couple of years. Iliad is known for the same kind of disruption in French telecommunications, Entner said.
Deutsche Telekom, which has been looking to cash out of the U.S. for years now, may benefit most of all from the entry of a rival bidder.
The prospect of going up against a proposal with a much easier path to approval won't scare off SoftBank Chairman and CEO Masayoshi Son, who controls Sprint, Entner said. "Masa-san is not a guy who gives up. He's tenacious. He's pugnacious," he said.
Iliad said nothing about the status of its dealings with T-Mobile, only that it's presented the offer to the board. But assuming that Sprint's still trying to seal a deal with Deutsche Telekom as this goes on, the conversations may be about to change.

newsmaine.net - On Friday, the cellphone unlocking bill became law in the US, with President Barack Obama having signed the bill, as expected. The new legislation gives cellphone users the right to unlock their devices, so that they can change their mobile operators.
The bill - the Unlocking Consumer Choice and Wireless Competition Act - was passed in the Senate on July 16. It was quickly passed by both Houses of the US Congress, with the House of Representatives unanimously approving it last Friday.
The law signed by Obama spells good news for cellphone users as the cellphone unlocking practice had been outlawed in January 2013, when the Library of Congress said in a ruling that the unlocking of cellphones by consumers marked a violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).
Despite fact that the new cellphone unlocking law's exemption to the DMCA will expire in 2015, when another rulemaking is scheduled to be made by the Library of Congress on the subject, the law will enable cellphone users to easily switch their devices to different networks if unlocked.
About the new law, the White House said: "The bill not only restores the rights of consumers to unlock their phones, but ensures that they can receive help doing so if they lack the technological savvy to unlock on their own."