Mobile Computing News

Photo: Georges Biard / Wikimedia Commons

Technology companies always feel validated when Hollywood begins to beat a path to their door. Well, it appears no company is getting that celebrity attention the way Facebook has been, with a movie about the company being released about in 2010. Now, in 2011, Harrison Ford is working on a Facebook game. True story.

That Harrison Ford?

Yes, that Harrison Ford, of Indiana Jones and Star Wars fame. That Harrison Ford who was the reason for many childhood dreams, and then the butcher of those very dreams in Indiana Jones 4.

He has teamed up with a new studio based in LA called Talkie for an upcoming Facebook game entitled Ecotopia.

The Hollywood Reporter – of course they would be the ones to break the news about what is still a video game, right? – says the title is a free-to-play city building game which ‘integrates cinematic storytelling and requires players to perform real-world green initiatives to earn virtual points for in-game advancement.’ So this is kind of like CityVille meets Green Peace, but – and this but it will be interesting to see how it all works.

Harrison is properly amped

Ford has long been an advocate for conservation and sustainability, and is currently serving as vice-chairman of Conservation International, which is an American NGO that does work around environmental issues.

He says ‘I’m excited to be involved with Ecotopia because I see it as a great way to engage millions of people in our fight to protect our planet by taking action online and in our daily lives’ – clearly he thinks the CityVille players will just come.

He continues, saying ‘As we work to address the most fundamental issues facing humanity, I think Ecotopia will help get people involved in a way that is fun, educational, and meaningful’.

How it will work

So some of the acts to earn in-game credit in this game will include activities like car-pooling together, or composting and so on. Again, how Ecotopia, Ford and Talkie will stop players from just lying remains to be seen, but it is a good initiative nevertheless.

Facebook games, the new PC games?

There’s growing – and unwarranted – concern that casual gaming experiences like Facebook games will replace fully-fledged PC games. The concern is misinformed. The bigger question is whether Facebook gamers will take to a video game that encourages you to get involved in real life as opposed to escaping it. Good luck, Harrison.

Photo: Gizmodo

Today has to be the day for off-the-wall awesome, yet oddly creepy, tech stories. The latest is that IBM is patenting technology that they will place in toys like teddy bears to help teach children how to behave accordingly. It’s technology that will function as substitute parents.

Tech overload

The technology is an ‘Adaptive System for Real-Time Behavioural Coaching, as well as Command Intermediation. In simpler terms, it’s a computer that will teach your child in real-time appropriate behaviours, but it’s wrapped in a device a child would want to interact with, such as a teddy bear.’

IBM explains a case of use, saying: ‘For example, to help a child who plays rough with other children the interaction data can include multiple interaction operations that can be performed by the interactive device for helping the child play less rough with other children. For example, one interaction operation can include an audible warning telling the child “to play nice” in a strict tone of voice, whereas another interaction operation can include an audible warning that asks the child ‘would you like someone to do that to you’ in a softer tone of voice along with a visual cue as well.’

First Watson, now this?

While we have our reservations about using technology as substitute parents, we’re certainly fascinated with the various computing systems coming out of IBM research lately. First it was Watson, which won Jeopardy and could have a massive impact on the medical world, and now it is this. What we’ve come to expect from computers, in terms of interaction, will be fundamentally altered by initiatives of this nature. Whether it will pay off monetarily remains to be seen, but IBM deserves the props for taking it this far. Soon we’ll speak of modern-day laptops fondly, saying ‘we’ve come a long way since those days’.

As for those looking at technology as substitute parents, perhaps you want to rethink that. While baby monitors and aids have gotten so advanced they allow parents to keep tabs on their children, they should never serve as complete substitutes.

Photo: shahid1618 / Flickr

In what could be a colossal development in the smartphone space, there’s a report circulating suggesting that RIM could bring its popular Blackberry Messenger service to iOS and Android devices. Given how important an offering is in RIM’s application suite, knowing what to make of this development is proving exceptionally difficult.

Boy, that would be genius… or stupid

Citing ‘multiple trusted sources’ popular tech blog, Boy Genius, says Research in Motion has been chatting to Apple and Google executives about bringing BBM to their mobile OS platforms.

While no deals or timelines have been finalised, apparently Research in Motion is hard at work on a strategy to make this work. BGR writes: ‘We’re also told strategy is still being developed, however, and RIM may end up charging users a one-time fee or even a recurring fee for access to its BBM service on third-party platforms’.

This isn’t the BBM you’re used to

Apparently RIM has no intentions of making BBM Android or iOS anywhere near as fully-fledged or good as it is on Blackberry. Users of other mobile OS platforms will be able to communicate with other BBM users using chat, but added features like photos and videos may be removed.

Wait, why buy a Blackberry then?

While Blackberry Messenger isn’t the only redeeming feature on RIM’s handsets, it’s definitely one of the more attractive offerings, especially amongst younger users. Depending on how RIM price BBM Android and iOS, the company could, theoretically, negate a major reason people buy their smartphones. It’s difficult gauging what to make of this.

On the other hand, as Boy Genius Report points out, the numerous third-party applications offering such a service could be forcing RIM’s hand. They write: ‘It might seem a bit strange for RIM to want to bring the software that is responsible for keeping Blackberry devices in the hands of countless potential defectors, but in the big picture, we think it could make sense. The company is getting very frustrated with applications like WhatsApp and Kik offering third-party experiences based on a concept RIM invented, and RIM apparently wants to own the space.’

If someone asked you a year ago if you would see BBM Android and iOS, would you have said yes? As Bob Dylan says: ‘The times, they are a-changing’.

Photo: My Standard Break From Life / Flickr

It’s no secret that certain liberties in China are restricted, and that censorship, especially online censorship, is rife. However the story that has emerged today, saying that mobile phone users in Beijing will have their movement tracked and pinpointed using their handsets is another level of scary. Police state, anybody?

17 million being followed by Big Brother

Through an article posted on one of China’s government websites earlier this week [via PC World], the nation announced plans to track the movement of 17 million mobile phone users in Beijing. These are, effectively, all of the Beijing residence whose current mobile carrier is China Mobile. Pinpointing a user’s location once their handsets are turned on, the system is also able to tell which direction said user is moving in.

This is just for traffic

The Chinese government claims that this is not cause for alarm, and that this mobile phone tracking system is being developed to try deal with Beijing’s insane traffic problems, some of which have resulted in – get this – nine-day long traffic jams.

Oh, but given Chinese Democracy is only the title of a once iconic rock band’s not-so-great comeback album, it’s unsurprising the nation has used whatever technological means it has to squash decent. Now, being able to track the direction people are heading in, using the very same mobile phones they may use to rally the forces, it would make it infinitely easier to kill a Tiananmen Square-type gathering before it happens. Without being a cynic, what is to stop the government from using this mobile phone tracking system as a tool against activists?

Your mobile phone has become dangerous

While mobile phone tracking is not currently in operation in the Western world through governments, many contemporary smartphones have applications that gather a lot of data on you, from your use habits to your browsing habits and even your location. The smartphone may not be the great technological liberator many are heralding it as.

Photo: Intel Photos / Flickr

The next time one of your console-exclusive friends tells you PC gaming is dead, don’t react the way you usually do. Instead of getting defensive, reasoning with her, and eventually losing your cool, just pull out the facts. Look her dead in the eye, and point out to her that PC gaming grew by a cool 20 per cent in 2010. Then ask her which dead anything she knows that grows that much year on year.

PC Gaming Alliance aligned for truth

These figures come from the PC Gaming Alliance [via PC Gamer], who have released promising numbers for the industry. According to the group, revenue from PC games in 2010 was $16.2 billion (£9.93), an impressive 20 per cent increase over what was garnered in 2009.

What makes this performance so sweet for the PC Gaming Alliance and PC gamers worldwide is it is decidedly contrary to what people have been saying about the industry. After years of the ‘PC gaming is dead’ siren going off without fail, the naysayers can eat crow, with the platform showing robust growth in MMOs, RTS games and first-person shooters alike.

Thanks, China, and everybody else

While much of this growth is attributable to the burgeoning Chinese market, which on its own generated $4.8 billion (£2.94 billion) in 2010, established markets like the US, UK Korea, Japan and Germany saw healthy growth. In these ‘developed’ gaming markets, revenue grew an impressive 19 per cent to total $7.3 billion (£4.5 billion).

I still fire up the ol’ PC for games

What makes the ‘PC gaming is dead’ discussion so hilarious is that it is still the only platform that has mature MMO games – a burgeoning market that can no longer be ignored. Furthermore digital distribution on PC still runs circles around the equivalent on console gaming, with the DLC and arcade downloads on Live and PSN nowhere near comparable to the vast full titles downloads that is Valve Steam.

While the PC gaming alliance no doubt has a vested interest in saying this industry isn’t dead, just a look at the PC games released in recent times is sufficient evidence that it could not possibly be.

Photo: beatak / Flickr

Whoa! Sometimes you read stories that make your heart skip beats. One such story that did the rounds at breakneck pace was that of Gmail users logging in to find their accounts completely wiped. As in completely empty inboxes with no ways for the users to retrieve their mails.

Initial reports – thousands affected

Google quickly responded to news of these Gmail accounts being wiped, initially pointing out that: ‘This is affecting less than 0.08% of our Gmail user base, and we’ve already fixed the problem for some individuals.’ Given that the service has an estimated user base of between 150 and 200 million, that would mean as few as 120,000 users were affected by the outage.

Data not permanently erased

On to the second part of the statement – ‘fixed the problem for some individuals’ – it’s clear that the delete was not a permanent one. Furthermore the company reported that its engineers were working on a fix for the outage.

Andrew Kovacs, a Google engineer, later tweeted: ‘re Gmail issue: affected 0.02% of users not 0.08%, restored access for 1/3, remaining 0.013% being restored on ongoing basis, all w/in 12 hrs’. So fewer Gmail accounts than initially suspected were actually affected.

Google really didn’t need this

What’s sad about this news for Google is that the company has been under fire for several months now. The tech community – equal parts Google’s biggest cheerleaders and Google’s biggest detractor – has been pounding the company for a degrading search experience, as well as its inability to ‘get’ social.

The damage is done

Now, with users discovering their Gmail accounts completely wiped, regardless of how small the sample size of the affected user base, confidence in Gmail has been dented. With Gmail being one of the web services I rely most on, I used to snicker at folks who ‘unnecessarily’ downloaded their mail for offline usage. That’s how much trust I had in my Gmail accounts always being safe. That has since changed, and, as crazy as it sounds, resulted in me using my Android smartphone with more hesitation than it otherwise would.

Photo: Apple

Apple has finally confirmed that the new Macbook Pro lineup that has been speculated for weeks is, in fact, real. The computers, which are available from the Apple store right now, see the 13-inch, 15-inch and 17-inch laptops updating with new processing and graphic tech, superspeed data transfer tech as well as a HD FaceTime camera.

What’s new?

Phil Schiller, who is the senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing at Apple talked up the new Macbook Pros, saying: ‘The new Macbook Pro brings next generation dual and quad Core processors, high performance graphics, Thunderbolt technology and FaceTime HD to the great design loved by our pro consumers’.

Thunderbolt, which seems to be what Apple is really punting for this release, is Intel’s highspeed data transfer technology that provides up to 10GB/s transfer speeds in either direction simultaneously. Up until Apple’s reveal, we thought it would be called LightPeak, but the guesses that it would debut with Apple’s technology proved true.

Pricing and specs

The entry-level 13-inch Macbook Pro starts at £999, with processing done by either intel Core i5 or Intel Core i7 dual-core processors, capable of speeds right through to 2.7GHz. Graphics processing is performed by Intel HD Graphics 3000.

A step up from the 13-inch is the 15-inch and 17-inch. Outside of display size, the configuration options for these two laptops are identical. Here you get quad-core Intel Core i7 processors, capable of speeds up to 2.3GHz. Graphics are provided by an AMD Radeon GPU that has up to 1GB memory. Pricing for the 15-inch model starts at £1549, with the entry-level 17-inch model starting at £2099.

The new Macbook Pros confirm that Apple has zero intention of marketing their pro lineup to the general market. That is the void the new Macbook Air will fill. With Thunderbolt and Sandy Bridge alone this looks a worthy update. If, however, you are hoping to save a little bit, the previous generation of Macbook Pros will likely be available at discount price, while retailers clear stock.

Photo: Tom Raftery / Flickr

After months of speculation, rumours, hypotheses, guesses and outright lies, it appears the iPad 2 chatter may soon stop. If a report is to be believed, the tech giant will reveal the successor to its insanely popular tablet PC in less than ten days.

Less than 10 days away

Kara Swisher of All Things D says multiple industry sources have revealed to her that Apple will unveil their hugely anticipated mobile device at a special press event on 2 March, 2011. Swisher says that the sources claim the date – a Wednesday – is firm, with the event’s venue likely to be in San Francisco.

If true, this will put an end to months of speculation on what the device will be, and when the device will release.

So what should you expect?

Since the whole tech world has become rather adept at guessing what Apple is cooking up with its major product releases, indulge us as we round up the various ‘stabs in the dark’ regarding what you should expect.

While rumours were once rife that the iPad 2 would be getting a retina display, it appears this may be unfeasible with Apple using a superior display in terms of brightness and outdoor use, but resolution would remain fixed at 1024×768.

What looks all but certain is a front-facing camera bringing video chat to the iPad 2. The form factor on the tablet PC will also be thinner than that of its predecessor. The final rumour is Qualcomm is developing a chip that will allow the iPad to work on either GSM or CDMA networks.

Shake your moneymaker

The iPad has become big business for Apple and the successor to the tablet PC will have a lot of hopes riding on its ability to continue the early momentum. Apple is not alone anymore though, with numerous tablet PCs recently hitting the market, or being on the horizon, so it will be interesting to see how the company fares against this increased competition.

Photo: Masaru Kamikura / Flickr

On Tuesday, Lenovo unveiled its updated ThinkPad range. The major attraction for the Chinese computer manufacturer’s new PCs is the inclusion of Intel’s Sandy Bridge processors technology, as well as superior battery life when compared to previous models.

TLW models get TLC from Sandy Bridge

The company’s latest ThinkPad W, L and T computers run on Intel’s second generation Core i7, i5 and i3 respectfully. Not only does this mean the Lenovo Thinkpad range will get a major boost in processing prowess, the company’s power-saving features coupled with Sandy Bridge’s power-efficiency feature means the computers can run for longer, according to Lenovo’s Preston Taylor [via PC World].

That sure is a lot of battery life

Taylor gives an example of just how much juice the new Lenovo ThinkPad range has, citing the 14-inch ThinkPad T430 battery life lasting up to 15 hours. This is remarkable in itself, as well as a massive leap over the 11 hours its predecessor had.

From an Intel Sandy Bridge perspective, the silicon giant’s latest chipset features Intel’s Turbo Boost 2.0 feature, where inactive cores are automated to shutdown so as to preserve battery power.

Release date and availability

Lenovo says the range will be available around the globe in March, made of quad- and dual-core Intel Sandy Bridge Core i3, 15, 16 processors, with clock speeds ranging from 2GHz to 2.7GHz. The entry level Thinkpad T520, which has a 15-inch display starts from $999, while the most expensive unit in the range, the ThinkPad W520, starts at a princely $1,529. The ThinPad T420 and T420S start as $1029 and $1,399 respectively.

Crossed the threshold

At 15 hours battery life, the latest Lenovo ThinkPad range has pretty much reached the promised land in terms of computing juice. It means one can go the whole day working on a single charge without stressing about finding power. Given I remember days when you could only get an hour and a half on one charge – and this is just three, four years ago – the convenience factor is definitely worth consideration. We’ll put these computers through their paces once review units arrive. Given how strong the current ThinkPads are, in terms of price to capability, we’re keenly optimistic.

Photo: Mike Turner / Flickr

Intel, the microchip giant, has laid bare its intention to dramatically increase production of Intel CPUs. With eyes set on expanding around the globe, the company has earmarked up to $8 billion (£4.92b) on its manufacturing facilities, including $5 billion (£3.07b) dedicated to building a brand new plant.

2013, we see you

In one of the most significant signs that a major tech company thinks the rumours of the world ending in 2012 are greatly exaggerated, Intel has eyes set on building a major, cutting edge chip factory in the state of Arizona, USA, come 2013. This high-tech plant, as well as one in Oregon, will see Intel spend in the region of $6 billion to $8 billion, boosting the US job market through the creation of 8,000 construction jobs.

This will allow the company to dramatically increase manufacturing of Intel CPUs in the US, as it looks to expand more aggressively into other markets around the globe.

Bad form doesn’t last forever

Intel, a long-term tech star, is comparable to a great footballer going through a bad patch of form, a la Wayne Rooney throughout most of this season. The company incurred major expenses when it had to pay Nvidia $1.5 billion in the interest of keeping the two companies out of court. Intel also had to recall its recently release Sandy Bridge next-generation processing technology after a long-term fault was discovered with the chipset. And, as if that’s not bad, the company’s brief fling with Nokia was broken up when Nokia decided to go steady with Microsoft.

All of that has added up to a FML period for the microchip giant, but Intel’s plans for the future indicate the company is already looking to put this bad patch behind it. We’ll see if Intel’s business, and Intel CPUs, make as spectacular a return as the aforementioned Wayne Rooney did recently.