By Paul Thomson :: 8:51 AM
RIM is raising the stakes to ensure that when it launches its BlackBerry 10 soon, the app store will be well outfitted for users who have been waiting a long time for the new handset hardware to come to market.
The company just hosted two developer events that it called “Port-a-Thons” to encourage application developers to create apps and port over their existing apps to the RIM / BlackBerry App Store. They sweetened the pot by offering developers $100 for any application that was submitted and approved for the store. The cash offer seemed to do the trick, as over 15,000 apps were submitted in under two days.
Not all of those 15,000 apps submitted will make it to the app store, of course, but this showing, even though induced by some carrot-and-stick measures, does demonstrate that RIM is trying very hard to make BlackBerry 10 a viable platform in a world dominated by Apple’s iPhone and many Android devices.
In addition to the cash bounty, RIM also ran a contest with BlackBerry hardware as the prizes. The first developers submitting two to five apps that were then selected for the app store would receive a free PlayBook, and those writing more than five apps were entered into a drawing to receive a BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha device.
By Gilbert Falso :: 3:48 AM
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Apple Corp. is scaling back its orders on parts for the iPhone 5 handset.
Orders for screens for the iPhone 5 dropped in half compared to previous plans, sources told the Journal. This recent drop is for the current manufacturing quarter, January through March.
The sudden and sharp drop may illustrate just how far the new Android OS phones are encroaching on Apple’s territory.
Samsung has seen strong sales and followings for its Galaxy 3 handsets, and there is an almost rabid interest in the soon-to-be-released Galaxy 4 handset. Also, Android smartphone were clear winners across many companies at the recent Consumer Electronics Show (CES) earlier this month, as standout options from Sony (Xperia), Huawei (Ascend Mate), and Vizio all showed strong promise in features and style when compared to Apple’s iPhone.
According to IDC research, Apple held 14.6% of world-wide smartphone shipments in the third quarter of last year. This is down from their peak of 23% in the last quarter of 2011. Meanwhile, Samsung’s market share has risen to just over 30% in the third quarter of 2012. This is a jump from just below 9% in the third quarter of 2010.
By Cynthia Herbert :: 11:39 PM
Audi has announced a relationship with Qualcomm to produce in-car technology for Audi’s 2013 A3 model. The announcement came amid a flurry of connected car and automobile-as-platform activities at CES last week.
This Audi and Qualcomm project will feature wireless 4G LTE connectivity with data rates close to 100 megabits per second. Audi is calling the new service “Audi Connect,” and it will include Wi-Fi, internet radio, weather forecasts, web services and a navigation system that offers a street view option.
The service will use Qualcomm’s Gobi MDM9215 chipset to deliver Wi-Fi hotspot access for eight devices inside the car at speeds close to typical home broadband availability.
“Audi was the first automaker to highlight the potential for LTE connectivity in vehicles at CES 2012 and now becomes the first automaker to announce a commercial model with embedded 4G LTE connectivity,†Ricky Hudi, chief executive engineer of electrics/electronics at Audi said in a press release.
Audi’s new A3 will be in dealer showrooms later this spring.
By Cynthia Herbert :: 1:01 PM
The Kickstarter darling, watch company Pebble, made an announcement at CES last week that it will begin shipment of the long-awaited watch to its first backers on January 23.
Pebble chose CES as the venue to make their shipping announcement because many of the project’s early backers would be at the week-long convention in Las Vegas. Pebble did not have a booth on the show floor at CES, but did reserve a suite in a nearby hotel where it showed the watch prototype to backers and others that it welcomed in by special invitation.
Management expects that after shipping begins on January 23, it will take about eight weeks to get units out to all of the Kickstarter funders.
Pebble was not the only smart watch company at CES this year. Another Kickstarter watch program, Martian, and an Italian entry, I’m, were also presenting their connected timekeeping alternatives. Although not technically a smartwatch, there was also a great deal of attention for VIVOPlay, a device from Evado Filip that combined a watch with a phone designed to keep children safe when wearing the device. The VIVOPlay, uses GPS, Wi-Fi, and GSM for location tracking, and allows your children to call up to 5 designated phone numbers at the touch of a button.
By Gilbert Falso :: 3:34 PM
As law enforcement officials continue their investigation on the nation’s most recent school shooting at Taft Union High School outside of Bakersfield, Calif., they are beginning to turn to social media to see what clues may have foretold the event.
It appears that in December of 2012, some Taft students were talking on Twitter about the shooter, Bryan Oliver, a 16-year-old, sharing their concerns about his behavior at school.
Tweets discussing Oliver had apparently been sent in the middle of December, almost a full month before Oliver came to the school with a shotgun and opened fire in a classroom, wounding one student.
One fellow Taft student, a girl who goes by the name of “Allie Who” on Twitter tweeted, “If Brian Oliver shoots up the school, I swear to God. I have like four classes with him.”
Another student openly questioned school administration on Twitter in December saying, “He made a hit list. Why is he still allowed in school and he always talks about murder like he’s obsessed with it.”
The school and the school district have not responded to any media requests about the monitoring of social media accounts.
Students had told a local NBC affiliate television station that the shooter had been caught recently in possession of a “hit list” and had been suspended for a short time.