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| Aki Anastasiou stops by David O'Sullivan's show to discuss the latest developments in the field of technology. Included is global IT news from the preceding week, major IT stock moves, virus warnings, interviews with experts in various sectors, the latest gadgets and technological advances. Podcast the latest Technobyte - click here. |
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TECHNOBYTE for 17 May 2013 |
On Technobyte today we are live from San Francisco at the Google I/O Conference, we look at the Blackberry Q10 and BBM is coming to an iPhone and Android phone soon.
Google has completed its mammoth 3-hour I/O 2013 keynote, and many announcements were made. We’ve compiled a handy list so you can catch up and make sure you haven’t missed anything.
thenextweb.com
If you’re already a fan of BlackBerry Messenger (BBM), we’ve got some exciting news designed to make it easier for you to connect with your entire mobile social network. BlackBerry plans to make BBM, our wildly popular mobile messaging service, available for the first time to iOS® and Android™ users this summer, (subject to approval by Google Play and the Apple App Store, as applicable). This means that, once available, you can welcome your friends and family using these other mobile platforms to connect over BBM and share in the Team BlackBerry love.
blogs.blackberry.com
From the vibrant, 3.1 inch OLED display, to the ergonomically sculpted keyboard and durable, lightweight materials – every detail has been meticulously designed for premium performance.
The classic BlackBerry® Keyboard has been re-engineered for the most effortless typing experience. Images appear in stunning detail on the 3.1 inch OLED display, and features and apps work seamlessly together, allowing your every move to flow into the next. The BlackBerry® Q10 smartphone is built to keep you moving.
global.blackberry.com
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TECHNOBYTE for 10 May 2013 |
On Technobyte today we review the Samsung Galaxy S4, YouTube introduces paid subscriptions and Viber expands to PCs and Macs
We’ve been building a YouTube partner program since 2007 that enables content creators to earn revenue for their creativity. We’ve watched them build amazing channels that have made YouTube into a news, education and entertainment destination 1 billion people around the world cannot do without. Today, there are more than 1 million channels generating revenue on YouTube, and one of the most frequent requests we hear from these creators behind them is for more flexibility in monetizing and distributing content. We’ve been working on that and wanted to fill you in on what to expect. Starting today, we’re launching a pilot program for a small group of partners that will offer paid channels on YouTube with subscription fees starting at $0.99 per month. Every channel has a 14-day free trial, and many offer discounted yearly rates. For example, Sesame Street will be offering full episodes on their paid channel when it launches. And UFC fans can see classic fights, like a full version of their first event from UFC’s new channel. You might run into more of these channels across YouTube, or look here for a list of pilot channels. Once you subscribe from a computer, you’ll be able to watch paid channels on your computer, phone, tablet and TV, and soon you’ll be able to subscribe to them from more devices.
youtube-global.blogspot.com
The much anticipated Samsung Galaxy S4 is now available in South Africa. The phone itself is thinner and faster the S3, it has a 13 MP camera, a brighter display and a more powerful battery.
They call the S4 a Life Companion and the focus is on what you can do with the phone and this is where Samsung has focused their attention on and differentiate.
The camera has cool features like the ‘Dual Camera’ function that allows both rear and front cameras to take simultaneous photos and videos. ‘Drama Shot’ allows you to see all the action in one continuous time-lapse, and ‘Sound & Shot’ stores sound and voice together as the picture is taken. The new ‘Story Album’ function stores photographs videos together with posts, memos, location and weather information to create a digital scrapbook.
‘Translator’ provides instant translation, using text or voice translation on applications including email, text message and ChatON. This instant translation is possible both from speech to text and text to speech and ensures that you can rely on the correct information whilst abroad.
‘Samsung Smart Pause’ enables you to control the screen by where you look. When you are watching a video, the video pauses when you look away then it starts right up again when you are back. ‘Samsung Smart Scroll’ allows you to scroll the browser or emails up and down without touching the screen. It detects your eyes and recognises movement of your wrist and then scroll the pages up or down accordingly.
The S4 can also keep you up to date with your health and wellbeing using the new ‘S Health’ software. The combination of sensors built within the device systematically and automatically monitors your health, surroundings and so much more to help improve your quality of life. Also, users can easily check their health conditions using food diary, exercise diary and sleep monitor to stay fit and healthy, however certain functions are enabled by specific accessories.
The Samsung Galaxy S4 comes with a 24 month special warranty for devices bought anywhere in Africa. They call it the Accidental Damage From Handling. If you break your screen or get any water damage Samsung will repair your phone twice during the 24 month period at no extra cost at an authorised Samsung service centre.
www.samsung.com
Viber lets everyone in the world connect. Freely!
Millions of Viber users call, text, and send photos to each other, worldwide- for free! Viber calls are in HD quality and often offer better sound quality than regular carrier networks. We are free and do not accept advertising. We are committed to constant innovation and to keep bringing you new features and possibilities. Viber uses your mobile phone number and address book, and instantly shows you which of your friends already has Viber. While other apps such as Skype and Fring require you to "add contacts," wait to be approved, and maintain separate contact lists, Viber is hassle-free. With Viber you can call, text and share stuff with your friends using their real numbers, which are already in your phone anyway, instead of usernames.
www.viber.com
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TECHNOBYTE for 03 May 2013 |
On Technobyte today we look at how cell phone data is helping improve commuting in the Ivory Coast, we take a look at the HTC One smartphone and did you know that your email inbox may cause you a great deal of stress.
Researchers at IBM, using movement data collected from millions of cell-phone users in Ivory Coast in West Africa, have developed a new model for optimizing an urban transportation system. The IBM model prescribed changes in bus routes around the around Abidjan, the nation’s largest city. These changes—based on people’s movements as discerned from cell-phone records—could, in theory, slash travel times 10 percent.
While the results were preliminary, they point to the new ways that urban planners can use cell-phone data to design infrastructure, says Francesco Calabrese, a researcher at IBM’s research lab in Dublin, and a coauthor of a paper on the work. The IBM work centered on Abidjan, where 539 large buses are supplemented by 5,000 mini-buses and 11,000 shared taxis. The IBM researchers studied call records from about 500,000 phones with data relevant to the commuting question.
Mobility data is created when someone uses a phone for a call or text message. That action is registered on a cell-phone tower and serves as a report on the user’s general location somewhere within the tower’s radius. The person’s movement is then ascertained as the call is transferred to a new tower or when a new call is made that connects to a different tower.
www.technologyreview.com
Crafted with a distinct zero-gap aluminium unibody, the new HTC One introduces HTC BlinkFeed™, HTC Zoe™ and HTC BoomSound™, key new HTC Sense® innovations that reinvent the mobile experience and set a new standard for smartphones.
“People today immerse themselves in a constant stream of updates, news and information. Although smartphones are one of the main ways we stay in touch with the people and information we care about, conventional designs have failed to keep pace with how people are actually using them,” said Peter Chou, CEO of HTC Corporation. “A new, exciting approach to the smartphone is needed and with the new HTC One, we have re-imagined the mobile experience from the ground up to reflect this new reality.”
www.htc.com
Researcher Linda Stone says 80% of us suffer from so-called email apnea. That quelches our creativity and can contribute to stress-related diseases. Your inbox may be causing you more stress than you realize. According to Linda Stone, a former Microsoft researcher and tech executive, some 80% of people either hold their breath or breathe shallowly as they work through their email. She uses the term email apnea to describe this. That disruption in your breathing is a pretty big deal. Holding your breath alters the level of oxygen in your system, triggering that familiar fight-or-flight response and contributing to stress-related diseases. It’s also not, as you might imagine, the most productive or creative state to be in. “It isn’t email that is making us crazy. It’s how we’re doing email that is making us crazy,” says Stone. “If we were all driving with no speed limits and no stop signs, there would be chaos. That’s how I think about how many of us are doing email.”
www.inc.com
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TECHNOBYTE for 26 April 2013 |
On Technobyte we talk to the inventor of the world’s first smartphone for the blind and the Samsung Galaxy S4 arrives in South Africa.
The world's first smartphone for blind people is here. Soon, they will be able to read SMSes and emails on this phone, which converts all text into Braille patterns.
"We have created the world's first Braille smartphone," says its innovator, Sumit Dagar, whose company is being incubated at the Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship, located in IIM Ahmedabad campus.
"This product is based on an innovative 'touch screen' which is capable of elevating and depressing the contents it receives to transform them into 'touchable' patterns," he says.
articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com
Samsung launched the much-anticipated Galaxy S4 in Johannesburg as part of its World Tour, which included another 7 cities around the world. Over 2500 telecommunication industry leaders came from all over Africa to welcome the new device, which goes on sale from Saturday 27 April across the continent. The SGS4 comes packed with features that Samsung call “Life Companions”
• Helps bring us closer and captures those fun moments when we are together
• Each feature was designed to simplify our daily lives
• It cares enough to monitor our health and well-being
• To put is simply, the Samsung GALAXY S4 is there for you
www.samsung.com
Patently Apple spotted two car-related Apple patent applications, one allowing an iPhone to act as a smart-key, the other helping you locate your car when parked in a large car-park. The smart-key idea uses a Bluetooth connection from the phone to unlock the car, which could be done either manually or via a proximity rule, unlocking your car as you approach it …
But it goes much further than this, offering similar functionality to Ford’s MyKey parental control system - allowing access to the car only during certain hours (for example, during the day but not late at night), setting a maximum speed limit for the car, setting geofence limits (perhaps not allowing it on freeways or outside the home town) and limiting access to the on-board entertainment systems while driving.
9to5mac.com
More than a million people have now used our Wolfram|Alpha Personal Analytics for Facebook. And as part of our latest update, in addition to collecting some anonymized statistics, we launched a Data Donor program that allows people to contribute detailed data to us for research purposes. A few weeks ago we decided to start analyzing all this data. And I have to say that if nothing else it’s been a terrific example of the power of Mathematica and the Wolfram Language for doing data science. (It’ll also be good fodder for the Data Science course I’m starting to create.) We’d always planned to use the data we collect to enhance our Personal Analytics system. But I couldn’t resist also trying to do some basic science with it.
blog.stephenwolfram.com
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TECHNOBYTE for 19 April 2013 |
On Technobyte we look at how social media will be key in solving the Boston Marathon Bombings and WhatsApp’s CEO say they are bigger than Twitter.
WhatsApp CEO Jan Koum was on stage today at the AllThingsD Dive Into Mobile conference in New York City, where he said that the app is now larger than Twitter by monthly active users. He wouldn’t say exactly how many the company had, just that it was north of 200 million users.
Koum also noted that the messaging app now sees an average of 8 billion inbound, and 12 million outbound messages per day, and with less than 50 engineers, the highest ratio of active users per long-term employee today of any active tech company.
techcrunch.com
Following the announcement of the Samsung free Wi-Fi offering through Always On last month, Samsung Electronics South Africa today announced that this free Wi-Fi access service, at the more than 1 000 local AlwaysOn hotspots, will be available for its customers as of today.
Customers will be able to register any of their Samsung Wi-Fi enabled smart devices purchased after March 2010 for the free Wi-Fi service – giving them 1GB of free AlwaysOn Wi-Fi data every month for 12 months, per Samsung device that they own.
The investigation of Monday’s deadly twin bombings in Boston will rely to an extraordinary extent on crowdsourced surveillance, provided by Marathon spectators’ cellphone photos, Vine videos, and Instagram feeds.
Investigators in Boston, led by FBI special agent in charge Richard DesLauriers, want to see any and all imagery taken by anyone and everyone where the blasts occurred Monday. In an unusual move, the team of local, state and federal authorities investigating the crime openly called for spectators to provide any images or video they might have, all of which could potentially provide leads or evidence in the case.
“We’d like to review any type of media,” to include “video [and] photographic evidence” of the attack that killed three and injured more than 150 people, Gene Marquez of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms said today.
Within minutes of the twin blasts, photos and videos of the bombing flooded Twitter, Facebook, Vine, YouTube and other social media. All that adds up to a vast, distributed unwieldy trove of potential information for the inquiry.
www.wired.com
Twitter #music released a new service that will change the way people find music, based on Twitter. It uses Twitter activity, including Tweets and engagement, to detect and surface the most popular tracks and emerging artists. It also brings artists’ music-related Twitter activity front and center: go to their profiles to see which music artists they follow and listen to songs by those artists.
And, of course, you can tweet songs right from the app. The songs on Twitter #music currently come from three sources: iTunes, Spotify or Rdio. By default, you will hear previews from iTunes when exploring music in the app. Subscribers to Rdio and Spotify can log in to their accounts to enjoy full tracks that are available in those respective catalogs.
We will continue to explore and add other music service providers. So, if you’re interested in the songs that have been tweeted by the artists and people you follow on Twitter, you can navigate to #NowPlaying to view and listen to those songs.
You can download Twitter #music from the App Store today, or enjoy the web version, which will be rolling out over the next few hours: music.twitter.com. Right now, the service is available in the US, Canada, the UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. Over time, we will bring the service to Android as well as to more countries.
blog.twitter.com
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