Religious reaction in brains of Apple fans is one reason for the brand popularity

According to a BBC documentary, Apple stimlates the same part of the brain as religious imagery does in believing people

The BBC documentary Secrets of the Superbrands found something interesting while doing research of how some of the technology brands such as Microsoft, Google and Apple manage to grow in an explosively pace. We all know that Apple fans are the most dedicated no matter which product we are talking about. Devices running iOS operating system is particular popular. The Apple product releases are something different and BBC's reporter was joining in on one of the events. The reporter said

The scenes I witnessed at the opening of the new Apple store in London's Covent Garden were more like an evangelical prayer meeting than a chance to buy a phone or a laptop

BBC investigated if it could be any truth in this and found out by using a MRI scanner on the brain of an Apple fanatic that there are similarities between Apple and religion. The result of the brain scanning suggested that Apple was stimulating the same parts of the brain as religious imagery does in people of faith.

 The documentary also admit that clever marketing and technical innovation also is a reason why Apple has grown to be one of the most valuable tech companies in the US.

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Sharp announces 16 megapixel Android smartphone Aquos 007SH

Sharp this week announced the worlds first Android smartphone with clamshell form factor

The Sharp AQUOS SoftBank 007SH is for customers of the Japanese network operator SoftBank. It is the fist clamshell model running Android having a regular number key dial pad. Strangely enough, Sharp did not equip the phone with a QWERTY keypad. We are not very familiar with Japanese testing preferences but they might prefer having a virtual keyboard with full set of Japanese characters instead of the Latin alphabet on a hardware keys. 

Apart from the unusual clamshell form factor on an Android smartphone, AQUOS 007SH has an impressive 16.1 megapixel camera, 720p HD video recording. It is running on Android 2.3 Gingerbread. It also has a uncommon display size of 3.4 inch.
While normal 3D recording is done using two lenses capturing two different images at the same time, Sharp AQUOS SoftBank 007SH can capture 3D images using one single lens. The phone are capturing images in a sequence and register and calculates the camera movement before merging two of those images into one 3D stereoscopic image.

The 007SH is a though smart phone. It has earned a IPX5 and IPX7 IP code which means it is waterproof and can be put under one meter of water for 30 minutes.
AQUOS 007SH highlights

• 140 gram
• 113 x 51.8 x 19.3 mm 
• 3.4 inch touch display, 480 x 854 pixel resolution. Sharp ASV LCD
• 16.1 megapixel camera with 3D image capture using Morpho Slide 3D technology
• 720p HD video capture
• Wi-Fi
• HDMI out
• Android 2.3 Gingerbread

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Dell Streak Pro Android tablet leaket

Information about an unnanounced 10 inch Dell tablet running Android Honeycomb on a dual-core Tegra 2 processor has leaked. Rumored name is Dell Streak Pro

Dell Streak Pro will have a 10 inch touch display and a 1280 x 800 pixel resolution. According to tweakers.net the operating system is Android Honeycomb and the CPU will be NVIDIA Tegra T20 running at 1 GHz. Older rumors claimed the Streak Pro would be running a T25 1.2 GHz CPU, but this turned out to be just that; a rumor.
The size of the tablet is 261 x 176,4 x 12,9 mm and the weight is 720 gram. The Streak 7 weight is 450 gram. It will have 1 GB memory installed and storage variants of 16, 32 and 64 GB. Streak Pro will get a 5 megapixel main camera and a 2 megapixel front camera. Battery capacity is 24.1 Wh giving a 12 hour usage time.
The leaked images seen below shows the Streak Pro attacked a docking station. Hopefully, the shipped power adapter will be smaller than the one we can see on the picture.

If the specifications turns out to be accurate, the Dell Streak Pro will be considerably larger than the 7 inch Streak as seen on the illustration below

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Motorola announces Droid X2 4.3 inch dual-core smartphone

Motorola today announced the DROID X2 Android smartphone with dual-core processor

Motorola joins the dual-core market are releasing the successor to the popular Droid X from last year. The most noticeable improvements over the original Droid X is the increased display resolution and a dual-core processor. The Droid X2 will get the same 4.3 inch display size, but the resolution increases from 480x854 to 540x960 pixels. A combination of such large 4.3 screen and high resolution is something only a handful of other phones can offer. For example the Motorola Bionic or HTC Sensation. The drawback in having such a large display is of course increased power consumption and added weight. Motorola Droid X2 is 155 gram heavy and has  220 hours standby time.
Motorola Droid X2 highlights

• Dual-core 1 GHz processor
• 4.3 inch touch display, 540 x 960 pixel resolution, Gorilla Glass
• 8 megapixel camera, LED flash
• Android 2.2 Froyo which will be upgradable to Android 2.3 Gingerbread later
• HDMI out. Mirror mode
• Networks: CDMA 800 / CDMA 1900 (Verizon)
• Wi-Fi with Mobile Hotspot
• 512 MB RAM. 8 GB internal storage. Expandable with microSD card. 8 GB card inclued
• SWYPE virtual keyboard
• 1540 mAh battery. Standby time: 220 hours, talktime: 480 minutes
• aGPS
• Bluetooth

The Motorola Droid X2 will be available on Verizon on later this week

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Android 2.3 Gingerbread upgrade available to Samsung Galaxy devices

Samsung today announced the upcoming release of an Android 2.3 Gingerbread upgrade for Galaxy S, Galaxy Tab and Galaxy Ace/Gio/Fit/mini

The Android OS upgrade will be made available through Samsung Kies device management software and the roll out will start in the UK and Nordic countries from mid-May. It will gradually roll out to other European countries in Europe, North America, Southeast Asia the Middle East Asia, Africa and rest of the world according to the regional plan.
The upgrade from Android 2.2 Froyo to version 2.3 improves user experience, speeds up some applications and adds editing capabilities. Better battery and application management will improve talk time and stand by time.
The devices receiving the upgrade are Samsung Galaxy s, Galaxy Tab and Galaxy Ace / Gio / Fit and Galaxy mini

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Nokia changes name of the service branding Ovi to Nokia

Nokia today decided to change the name of their service branding from Ovi to Nokia

According to Nokia, none of the services offered by the company will be affected other than having the name changed. The transition is likely to begin in July and will be finished by 2012.
Ovi, which translates to door in Finnish, was launched in 2007 but was not promoted much by Nokia before 2009. Before Ovi was born, Nokia was running Club Nokia, a mobile store for ringtones, wallpapers and themes for Nokia handsets. But Club Nokia was soon closed down because network operators was dissatisfied with Nokia "stealing" their customers. Instead Ovi saw the light, offering photo sharing and digital maps. Later Ovi started offering Ovi Mail and Ovi Store (app store) and Ovi Music.
The only difference consumers can expect to see is the replacement of the brand Ovi with Nokia. The name change will affect the device software and web as well as printed material and online media.

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Android Market paid apps now available to users in 131 countries

Google announced the expansion of paid apps in Android Market to users in 100 more countries

Previously, paid apps in the Android Market was available only to 33 countries. These 33 countries, such as US, allmost all European countries, Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea, Australia, Canada, India, Pakistan and Hong Kong will still contribute most to the wallet of developers of Android apps. We do not think that selling apps to Malta, Luxembourg, Nigeria and Uzbekistan will increase revenue exceptionally.
Adding populated countries such as the Phillipines and Indonesia expands the number users but these are probably not those spending most money on world wide stores like the Android Market.
But users in China, the worlds largest country, all are still not able to access paid apps. Maybe Google did not want to follow the sensor-ship instructions given by the Chinese government?

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New Android devices will receive OS upgrades for at least 18 months

During the Google developer conference this week, Google announced that a group of Android manufatures will adopt guidelines for how quickly devices are update after a new platform release

The initiative by Google to have guidelines for how quickly devices are updated after a new platform release are embraced by all the major Android device manufactures and service providers. The founding partners are : Motorola, LG, HTC, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, T-Mobile, Verizon, Vodafone, AT&T and Sprint.
The first announcement from the the participating partners is that new devices will receive the latest Android platform upgrades for 18 months after the device is first released, as long as the hardware allows.
All the major manufactures has realized that continuous support to existing customers is an essential factor in succeeding in the mobile phone industry. And they have all been much better in releasing upgrades and application enhancement to older handsets.

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Microsoft to acquire Skype?

An announcement of Microsoft buying Skype could be official later this evening. Sources say USD 8.5 billion will change hands in what could be Microsofts biggest acquisition ever

According to Wall Street Journal, Microsoft is about to acquire Skype for $8.5 billion. The announcement will be made public later today. Skype has 663 million users where 8 million are paying customers. Microsoft will pay close to 13 USD per user if the acquisition numer is correct.
So what will Microsoft want with Skype? The Windows Phone 7 operating system could need some expansion help and Skype could be the must-have application that can attract more users to the platform.
If the acquisition is going through it will be Microsoft's largest ever.

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Apple brand more valuable than Google brand according to research firm

After four years of dominance, the Google brand is pushed down from first place being replaced by the Apple brand according to research firm

BrandZ is Millward Brown's list of the worlds top 100 most Valuable Global Brands. The 2011 edition of BrandZ claims Apple has passed Google as the most valuable brand in the World. Google has been number one in four years, but Apple is now the leading brand.
Apple had an impressive 84% increase in value compared to 2010. Google on the other hand decreased 2% since last year. BrandZ valuations are based partly on brand-equity tracking surveys and financial data from Bloomber and analyst reports.
In 2010, Nokia was number 43 on the list with a Brand Value of 14,866 ($M). Nokia is now number 81 with a reduction in Brand Value of 10,735 (-28%).
Other well know companies found on the BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands are
1. Apple 153,285 (Brand Value in million) +84%
2. Google 111,498 -2%
5. Microsoft 78,243 2%
7. AT&T 69,916
9. China Mobile 57,326 9%
12. Vodafone 43,647 -2%
13. Verizon 42,828
19. Deuche Telecom 29,774
21. Movistar 27,249
25. BlackBerry 24,623 -20%
35. Facebook 19,012 246%
36. Orange 17,597
67. Samsung 12,160
74. O2 11,694
81. Nokia 10,735 -28%
85. Sony 10,443 19%
91. China Telecom 9,587
95. TIM 8,838 21%
Technology and telecom brands continue to grow as a portion of the list as Facebook joins in on number 35.

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Frustrated O2 customers waiting for Xperia Play release. Will be for sale in June

Customers of O2 in the UK are still waiting for the network operator to release the Xperia Play, five weeks after the availability of the generic version of the phone

O2 said in a blog post this week that the Xperia Play will be available to its customers in June. That is 8 weeks after the generic version of the phone became available, and several weeks after Vodafone availablilty. The white Xperia Play will be available exclusively on O2 so we guess many customers are waiting for the release.
What is interesting here is the reason why the Xperia Play is delayed. O2 claims to have found bugs in the device and wanted to sort this out before it goes on sale. O2 will not install any O2 branded software on top of Android except for the wallpaper and internet settings, so the bugs they are complaining about should be found in all Xperia Play phones. O2 has worked close with Sony Ericsson to solve the issues and have received new software from Sony Ericsson. Stuart Hibberd, head of O2's testing team said this new software fixed a lot of bugs that would have stopped our customers having a great experience. This implies that mr Hibberd thinks users buying the generic version of Xperia Play do not have a great experience using the phone.
Other network operators has sold the Xperia Play for weeks, so they are either quicker in testing devices, did not find any bugs or they know about the bugs but still wants to sell the device.

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Sony Ericsson expands the Android family and announces Xperia Mini and Xperia Mini Pro

Today Sony Ericsson expands their family of Android devices and announces two new 3 inch smartphones. 

It is finally official. Sony Ericsson has announced two new Xperia Minis. It is the same procedure as we saw when the Xperia X10 Mini Pro and Xperia X10 Mini was launched. The Mini Pro model has a slider QWERTY keyboard while the Xperia Mini is a little bit smaller and only has virtual keyboard.
The two new models share more features than their older predecessors did. This time both models has a 1200 mAh removable battery which the older Xperia Mini did not. 1200 mAh does not seem much these days, but as the screen is small the talktime might be competitive with large 4 inch phones and their 1500 mAh batteries. It is obvisous that Sony Ericsson are trying to make Android phones with all types of flavours. Small but powerfull such as these two Minis and large and stylish like the Arc. Sony Ericsson is one of the few manufactures making effort in making phones with distinguish form factor. You can allways see that these phones are made by Sony Ericsson which is not the case with many other 4 inch phones announced these days.
Both the Xperia Min and Xperia Min Pro has a 5 megapixel still photo camera with 720p HD video recording. Sony Ericsson has also implemented the Mobile Bravia Engine which in some cases improves the quality of the media shown on the display. Android 2.3 Gingerbread is of course the operating system of choice. Mini and Mini Pro can use the same networks: GSM / EDGE 850/900/1800/1900 and UMTS/HSPA 900/2100 or UMTS/HSPA 800/1900/2100. Both models has the same standby time of up to 340 hours, but strangely enough the stated talk time is 5 hours and 40 minutes for the Xperia Pro and only 4 hours and 30 minutes for the Xperia Mini. That is a difference of 20% in favour of the Xperia Pro. Strange.
Sony Ericsson Xperia Mini / Xperia Mini Pro specifications

• Xperia Mini Pro: 92 x 53 x 18 mm, 136 gram
• Xperia Mini: 88 x 52 x 16 mm, 94 gram
• 3 inch touch display, 320 x 480 pixels, 16,777,216 colours
• Networks
  • GSM/GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900
  • UMTS/HSPA 900/2100 or UMTS/HSPA 800/1900/2100
• 1 GHz processor Qualcomm Snapdragon
• Android 2.3 Gingerbread
• Mobile Bravia Engine
• 5 megapixel camera, 8x digital zoom, LED flash, Geo tagging, face detection, smile detection
• 720p HD video recording, image stabiliser
• Bluetooth 2.1
• Wi-Fi
• 1200 mAh battery
• Talktime: Xperia Mini 340 minutes, Xperia Mini Pro 270 minutes
• Standby time: Xperia Mini 331 hours, Xperia Mini Pro 340 hours

Both models will be available from Q3 2011.

Sony Ericsson Xperia Mini Pro gallery

Sony Ericsson Xperia Mini gallery

 

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Apple releases iOS 4.3.3 which fixes location data tracking

You might have heard recently that Apple are storing location data in a hidden file on iPhones and iPads. These claims are only partly true but Apple has nevertheless released an OS update to delete the file in question

The Apple iOS is not the only operating system logging location data on the device without the user knowledge, but Apple is first in fixing the problem. Both Android and Windows Phone 7 OS does the same thing. A new version of iOS was release this week to deal with the tracking issue. Connect your Apple product to iTunes and download the 666 MB large file to update.
iPhone are sometime calculating the location of the devices by using the nearest Wi-Fi hotspots and cell tower locations. By knowing the approximately location of the phone, GPS lookup time could be reduced noticeable from several minutes to just a few seconds.
The time and location of the iPhone is stored in a file for quicker location lookup later. The problem was that this file was never deleted and location data was added even if Location Services was switched off on the phone. Users has reported up to a year's worth of location data on their iPhone. The OS update resolves this by

• reduce the size of the crowd-sourced Wi-Fi hotspot and cell tower database cached on the iPhone
• ceases backing up the cache to iTunes
• deletes this cache entirely when Location Services is turned off

Notice that the location data from all iPhones are still being sent anounymous and encrypted form to Apple for the benefit of other iPhone users. But that is not the only reason why Apple want this crowd-sourced Wi-Fi hotspot and cell tower data. Apple plans to build a crowd-sourced database for providing traffic service in the next couple of years. Apple also use this location data to serve iPhone users location targeted advertising via the iAds system.
Apple does not reveal if the location data is uploaded to Apple when the phone is connected via Wi-Fi or if this data could be transfered when connected via a network operator as well. Hopefully we are talking Wi-Fi only. We are sure no one are willing to pay for bandwith usage to their operator because Apple wants to server them better adds.

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RIM announced BlackBerry Bold 9900 and 9930 smartphones

RIM this week announced two new high end smartphones and the new BlackBerry OS 7

The two new phones are RIMs top of the range models as the high naming number reveals. Many BlackBerry models are given a number as the model name, and numbers are between 8100 and 9930. This tells us that the two models announced this week currently are the most powerful models from RIM.
BlackBerry 9900 and 9930 share the same features except differences in supported networks. As usuall, both BlackBerry devices have a full QWERTY keyboard and a small touch screen. Entirely new features from the Canada based company is the addition of Near Field Communication (NFC) which seems to be this cool feature of the year. RIM also announced a new version of the BlackBerry OS. Some of the enhancements in the new OS is easier and faster user experience with an updated BlackBerry Browser. The new browser supports HTML5 elements such as HTML5 video. BlackBerry 7 OS also introduces BlackBerry Balance where user can separate private content from corporate content.
BlackBerry 9900 and 9930 highlights

• 1.2 GHz processor
• 768 MB Ram
• 8 GB storage. Expandable up to 32 GB with microSD card
• Size: 115 x 66 x10.5 mm
• 130 gram
• 2.8 inch capactive touch screen, 640 x 480 pixel resolution
• QWERTY keyboard
• 5 megapixel camera
• 720p video recording
• aGPS
• Bluetooth 2.1
• WiFi: Dual-band 802.11 b/g/n at 2.4 GHz and 802.11 a/n at 5 GHz
• Near field communication
• Networks:
  • 9900: GSM/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900, Tri-Band HSPA+
  • 9930: GMS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900, CDMA 800/1900, Dual-band HDPA+
•  1230 mAh battery

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