Wednesday 10 July 2013

New Google Maps for Android moves in on Yelp, Foursquare

Google Maps for Android updates with a refreshed interface for phones, a new tablet design, and enhanced features -- but no Waze.
Following the public unveiling of a major Google Maps overhaul at May's Google I/O, and subsequent reports of Google Maps for Android landing on the Google Play Store late Tuesday night, the company made an official announcement for the improved app early Wednesday morning.
The new Google Maps for Android includes features big and small that combine geolocation with more real-world information than just longitude and latitude. Restaurant reviews from Zagat target Yelp, and are available directly from within Maps when you look up a restaurant. You now can add your own score and comments from within Maps.
The new Explore feature sounds similar to one available in Foursquare. It provides an entirely touch-based way to explore a location without typing or speaking. It focuses on five categories: eat, shop, drink, sleep, and play, allowing people to learn more about urban locations in relationship to their restaurants, retail, bars, hotels, and activities.
What Google has built with Maps is good, Graf said, adding that it's made more useful when its users contribute to make it "even better."
While the more realistic Map view made big news at Google I/O this year, the mobile version exposes search results at the bottom of the screen in a format not unlike the Google Now cards. Swiping through the cards will show you other nearby results.
Traffic information in Maps now includes real-time traffic incident details with an notification to re-route you with one tap. While that sounds like Waze, the social maps app that Google recently purchased, Graf said that it was too soon to include features from Waze.
Google Maps on Android now offers real-time traffic re-routing.
(Credit: Google)
Street View has been improved on Android with "business photos," so that you can follow the street-level map directly into places of interest. Google Maps now offers a slightly different interface for Android tablets, as well.
Google Maps' offline mode in Android has been replaced. Now, if you speak or enter "OK Maps" into the search box when viewing a map you wish to save for offline use, it will automatically save that map and the surrounding area. Graf said that it covers enough ground so that if you're looking at a map of the Mission District in San Francisco, Maps will cache a map large enough to cover most of the Bay Area.
Google also announced that Latitude and check-ins will be removed from older versions of Google Maps on August 9, and are no longer part of the new Google Maps app for Android and the anticipated update for iOS.
Graf wouldn't reveal a launch date for the updated Google Maps for iOS, saying only that it was "coming soon" for Apple's phones and tablets

Apple's App Store turns five: You're great, now change

Apple's App Store redefined how we all downloaded programs on our smartphones. But with Google Play outstripping its number of apps, the challenge of the next five years isn't volume -- it's getting the right app in the right hands.
What a difference five years makes.
Apple's App Store has a lot to brag about as it celebrates its fifth birthday on Wednesday. Over the last half decade, it helped fully realize the Swiss army-capabilities of the smartphone, which could do far more than make phone calls and browse the Internet. While not the first, it set the standard for mobile application marketplaces to come. The best part: it made apps accessible to everyone.
"Nothing like the App Store existed before and it has fundamentally changed the world," Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook said last month, describing the store's launch at the company's yearly developer conference ahead of today's anniversary.
But things have changed since the App Store was first introduced by the late Steve Jobs, and Google Play has surpassed the App Store when it comes to sheer number of available apps. While Apple's App Store has always been home to the hottest big-name apps, its success over the next five years may be shaped by how well it can foster apps both big and small.
"It winds up being a popularity contest rather than people finding the content that they want," said Brian Blau, Gartner's research director of consumer technology. Users are exposed to the top few thousand most popular apps, he added, so apps must compete for rankings or to get promoted as, say, a staff favorite. That disenfranchises all the apps without brand recognition or marketing firepower.
For now, Apple has a lot of impressive numbers to tout. Its App Store has surpassed 50 billion apps downloaded, with 900,000 programs available. Apple brags it's paid out $10 billion to developers, testament that it pays to work with the company even as it takes a 30 percent cut of sales.
Apple has done a great job attracting the developers, Blau points out, by being the leader for developer revenues.
As a result, the iPhone franchise remains the envy of the smartphone industry, even as rival Samsung Electronics has made significant headway with its own flagship Galaxy S family of phones. In the U.S., iPhone sales still dominate, fueled at least in part by the breadth of apps.
What Apple did differently
It's easy to forget that Apple wasn't the first app marketplace. The App Store had precursors from the likes of Palm, Microsoft, and Salesforce.com's AppExchange. Jobs was friendly with Salesforce.com founder and CEO Marc Benioff, who had already taken over the "appstore" domain and trademark. When the time came for Apple to launch its App Store, Benioff gifted them to Jobs in a gesture of gratitude for Jobs advice to his team years before.
But Apple did something different with its App Store: it made it accessible to everyone. By offering the apps in a single, simple store, and making it easy to download and run programs, Apple sparked a new market. Sure, BlackBerrys and Windows Mobile phones could download their own apps, but users had to dig for them at different Web sites, and there was no real guarantee they would work well.
Apple, however, kept a tight rein on the kind of apps it would approve, and even offered its recommendations. It was a safe and convenient place for smartphone users who didn't want to deal with the headaches of downloading programs on other mobile platforms.
The App Store's featured apps.
(Credit: Screenshot by Jason Parker/CNET)
Analyst Al Hilwa, director of Applications Development Software at IDC, called Apple's idea of integrating a store into iTunes, which was already providing a tracking content and handling transactions for music, one of the strokes of genius that contributed to the success of the iPhone. Opening the platform up for app developers was another brilliant move, he said. iOS remains popular with developers not just because it's lucrative but also because of the simplicity of building for one line of smartphones.
While older smartphone marketplaces had an array of rudimentary games and business apps, Apple's App Store opened the door to all kinds of different programs. All of a sudden, fart apps were making a small fortune as users were eager to find new and innovative ways to use their smartphones. Games such as Rovio's Angry Birds became a phenomenon, with the franchise marked as a must-have for any mobile platform.
"The app store is a real reason for Shazam's success," said Rich Riley, CEO of the music-recognition app maker. "A lot of that is because the app store makes it so easy to find it, download it, and update it."
Pandora, the second most downloaded free app on the App Store behind Facebook, credits Apple for greatly changing the trajectory of the company. For three years before the App Store, Pandora was confined to the desktop and was "a shadow of the bigger vision," said Chief Technology Officer Tom Conrad. From day one of the App Store, Conrad said, the company realized this is the way Pandora is meant to be consumed.
The App Store's success spawned imitators, some successful (Google Play), while others quietly faded away (Palm and WebOS). Windows Phone has its Marketplace, while BlackBerry has its App World.
Competition heats up
Apple has long touted the number of apps available to its iOS devices, but it can no longer claim the title of largest app store. Google Play boasts 975,000 apps, edging out the App Store. It too has seen more than 50 billion app downloads.
(Credit: Apple)
It's no surprise the Google Play has exploded, thanks to the aggressive adoption and promotion of Google's Android platform, which was widely embraced by the carriers that didn't have exclusive deals to sell the iPhone. In the U.S., while AT&T dominated smartphone sales with the iPhone, Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile, and Sprint rallied behind Android and Google Play's predecessor, the Android Marketplace.
Android is the top smartphone operating system in the world, far outstripping Apple's iOS, according to market data.
Android's runaway expansion and its open-ended adaptability for multiple smartphone makers come at a price. The fragmented nature of the platform can make it more complicated and costly to build for, which is one reason most apps launch on App Store first with Android to follow.
IDC analyst Hilwa noted where Android apps must span multiple versions of the platform, Apple apps have one; where the number of Android apps shops is in the triple digits, App Store is Apple's only game in town. That's why Apple customers spend the most on content and apps, he said
Help for the little guy
But with the number of apps in App Store's inventory approaching a billion, that leaves a giant swath fighting for -- and seldom winning -- the spotlight.
Derek Lamberton's apps, and those like his, "just get sort of lost underneath the pile," he said. The independent app creator's company Blue Crow Media specializes in city guide apps. His best-selling one is London's Best Coffee, which is consistently in the top 10 for the food and drink category.
"All my apps at this stage will hit the top ten when they launch, but unless there is a serious social media effort...it's really really hard to get new users," he said.
Even with top-tier exposure, the halo effect is brief. The New York Times twice highlighted a Lamberton's Craft Beer New York app, and it would give him a big spike in sales the day immediately following. But after the one-off jump to 250 or so downloads, the norm of five to 10 a day quickly returned.
"I see it again and again, developers don't want to release their download numbers because I think because they're ashamed," he said. "Outside of super games, there isn't a lot of money to be made."
"I see it again and again, developers don't want to release their download numbers because I think because they're ashamed,"
--Derek Lamberton, independent app developer
The future
Lamberton's challenges show how Apple can be a victim of its own success as it embarks on its next five years of App Store.
As big as App Store has become, the "wander the aisles" method of app discovery doesn't work anymore, Pandora's Conrad said. "Looking forward, the big opportunities in the App Store are to move beyond this merchandised, best-seller based browsing model" to search relevance.
Last year, Apple purchased app search and discovery company Chomp only to quietly close it down within months. On its own, Chomp was an alternate search website for Apple's App Store and, later, Google's Android platform, that retrieved results based on app function, not name. Despite the takeover stoking expectations of app discovery improvement to come, Apple never integrated Chomp's search tools in the App Store.
The upshot is users have a hard time finding the exact app they're looking for. And unless they're blessed with a name like Facebook or a big marketing warchest, developers struggle to find their audience.
While Apple wouldn't provide anyone to talk for this story, Apple iTunes chief Eddy Cue said at WWDC last month that Apple is working on making app discovery better. The company has added a feature that finds apps based on age range so parents can find apps for kids, and it has launched Apps Near Me, which finds most popular apps in a smartphone's location.
But even that improvement relies on the same thing Apple always has for app discovery: popularity.
Gartner's Blau, noting that Apple hasn't done much to help the apps in its universe that are hobbled simply by obscurity, said the change will have to come from within.
"This is something only Apple can fix."

French three-strikes law no longer suspends Net access

Dropping a punishment that could cut off Internet access for those who shared music or video illegally, a French ministry vows instead to target those who profit commercially from piracy.
The French Hadopi authority was responsible for sending warnings to copyright-infringing downloaders. It used a "graduated response" that could mean cutting off the person's Net access.
The French Hadopi authority was responsible for sending warnings to copyright-infringing downloaders. It used a "graduated response" that could mean cutting off the person's Net access.
(Credit: Hadopi) The French government has scrapped a provision that could cut off Internet access for those who downloaded copyrighted files illegally.
The so-called "three strikes" law brought first written warnings for infringement, then ultimately suspension of Internet access. The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) applauded the law.
But the French government is now taking a new approach, focusing its antipiracy efforts on commercial piracy, such as Internet sites that profit from infringing, rather than individuals, according to a statement by the French Ministry of Culture and Communication Tuesday.
Although suspended Net access is no longer an option, fines remain as a punishment.
Net access under the law has been suspended only in one case, an individual lost Internet access for 15 days and was fined 600 euros ($767), but cutting people off from Internet access has been a controversial issue. Shortly after approval of the law in 2009, the French Constitutional Council said Internet access was a human right. And in its statement Tuesday, the French ministry Internet Internet access has become a major means of access to culture, especially for young people.
A government journal on Monday logged the end of the decree, called the Hadopi law after the three-strikes law led to the creation of a public organization called the Haute Autorité pour la diffusion des uvres et la protection des droits sur internet.
The minister of culture and communication has named Mireille Imbert-Quaretta to lead new antipiracy work that involves several involved parties, including payment companies, advertising networks, search engines, and social networks.

Tuesday 9 July 2013

Cyberattack on South Korea was part of 4-year spying campaign

McAfee releases a report saying that the massive March attack on banks and TV stations was part of an extensive campaign to steal government and military secrets. 
South Korea has been under a concerted cyberattack for the last four years, according to a comprehensive new report (PDF) released Monday by security firm McAfee. That means the hack that crippled three TV broadcasters and two banks in March was possibly just the tip of the iceberg.
What has been the goal of these hackers? To steal South Korean government and military secrets, according to McAfee.
"Our analysis of this attack -- known first as Dark Seoul and now as Operation Troy -- has revealed that in addition to the data losses of the MBR wiping, the incident was more than cybervandalism," McAfee's report reads. "The attacks on South Korean targets were actually the conclusion of a covert espionage campaign."
Initially, in March, it was revealed that servers in South Korea were victims of a massive coordinated attack that erased data from tens of thousands of computers. At first, the government blamed China for the hack, and then pointed the finger at North Korea.
According to McAfee, it's still not clear who was behind the stunt. But, the security firm has garnered far more information about the attackers and their methods. Dubbing the hacking campaign "Operation Troy," McAfee says the attacks were a coordinated effort between two groups called the "Whois Team" and the "NewRomanic Cyber Army Team." It's possible, McAfee says, that these two teams may have been working for the same leadership.
The malware used in Operation Troy included two Trojans and a wiper that installed themselves on users' computers via file transfers from online bulletin boards and discussion forums. According to McAfee, once the malware was installed, it could spy on users' computers and then destroy the hard drive.
"McAfee Labs can connect the Dark Seoul and other government attacks to a secret, long-term campaign that reveals the true intention of the Dark Seoul adversaries: attempting to spy on and disrupt South Korea's military and government activities," the report reads. "From our analysis we have established that Operation Troy had a focus from the beginning to gather intelligence on South Korean military targets."

iOS 7 beta 3 brings bug fixes, other improvements

As expected, Apple releases the third beta of its software for developers right on schedule.
 
As expected, Apple on Monday released its third beta of iOS 7, exactly two weeks after it came out with the second iteration of the software for developers.
The release is in line with earlier speculation that the company planned to dole out betas in two-week cycles.
The new version includes some general performance improvements and fixes a number of issues that had cropped up in the second beta, including problems with iCloud, AirPlay, and the Messages application.
The user interface received a few tweaks as well, including more transparent folders, redesigned music controls, and the calendar now shows which days you have events on. The update also brought with it enhancements to FaceTime and a better Siri voice.
It's standard practice for Apple to release several beta versions of the software before it debuts it to the public. Apple has said iOS 7 will come to the public in the fall. iOS 6 had four different beta versions between its June debut and late September release last year, so we can expect at least one more beta to arrive for iOS 7.

Monday 8 July 2013

Facebook begins rolling out Graph Search to U.S. users

The search engine will allow people using Facebook to more quickly find answers to questions about friends in their Social Graph.

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Brace yourself for another Facebook search bar change.
The social-networking giant will begin rolling out an advanced search feature on Monday designed to tap its massive base of 1 billion users to answers users' questions about people, photos, places, and interests. Graph Search, which was announced earlier this year, will be available to users in the United States and others who use the American English version of the site, with access to other languages coming soon, a Facebook representative told CNET.

Facebook Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg announced the new feature in January, billing it as a new way find people, photos, places and interests that are most relevant to Facebook users. By incorporating various filters such as "place type," "liked by," and "visited by friends," users can use the structured search tool to find people in their network and uncover potential connections.
The new tool, which was rolled out to a limited number of users earlier this year, will appear as a bigger search bar at the top of each page, replacing the usual white search bar. Not to be confused with Web searches, which use a set of keywords to come up with results that best match the search words, Graph Search combines phrases to return content from its own audience.
Recognizing that the new tool exposes a copious amount of personal data that members may not realize is available for public scrutiny, Facebook has been working to quell users' privacy fears, including implementing specific search rules that dictate what results regarding teenagers that adults can see.
The search feature could prove key to keeping users members engaged on the site. My CNET colleague Jennifer Van Grove called the powerful discovery tool "smart, original, and a foundational piece of Facebook's future as a relevant social network.

RIP, WebTV: Microsoft to shut down MSN TV on Sept. 30

The interactive TV service began life in the mid-'90s as WebTV, one of the first set-top box services to offer Internet access via television sets.
 
 
Microsoft is pulling the plug on MSN TV, a service formerly known as WebTV, as Apple ramps up its set-top box efforts.
The pioneering service, one of the first to offer Internet access via television sets, will shut down September 30, Microsoft revealed in an e-mail to subscribers and an FAQ posted to its Web site. WebTV, which was founded by Web entrepreneur Steve Perlman in 1996, was acquired by Microsoft for $425 million in 1997.
WebTV offered television-based e-mail and Web browsing via wireless keyboards but struggled to gain traction with consumers. Microsoft rebranded the service as MSN TV in 2001 to accelerate integration with products such as MSN Messenger and MSN Hotmail.
The software giant even offered the interactive service for free to new MSN online service, but it has largely taken a backseat to the company's focus on the Xbox game console, which also offers Internet access.
Microsoft cited the myriad ways people can now access the Internet as a contributing factor to the service's demise:
WebTV (later called MSN TV) started in 1996 with the goal to bring new people 'online' and to give those already online an easy, hassle-free means of accessing the internet from the comfort of their homes. Later, MSN TV 2 was released with vastly greater power and features. Since then, the web has continued to evolve at a breathtaking pace, and there are many new ways to access the internet. Accordingly, we have made the difficult decision to end the MSN TV service on September 30th, 2013. We are working with our customers to ensure the transition is as seamless as possible.
Microsoft's exit comes as Apple puts more emphasis on the set-top box sector. Apple is reportedly near a deal with Time Warner Cable that would bring new a significant influx of new channels to the computer maker's set-top box, Apple TV, for subscribers of the cable television service. Last month, Apple TV lassoed Time Warner Inc.'s HBO GO and Disney's WatchESPN apps.

Sunday 7 July 2013

Facebook's Sandberg says she had planned to be aboard reportedly fatal flight

Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg posts to the social network, saying she was originally planning on taking an Asiana Airlines flight from Seoul, South Korea, that wound up crashing at San Francisco's main airport. Two people have reportedly died as a result of the crash.
Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg said she had planned to be on a flight that crashed on landing at San Francisco's main airport Saturday in an accident that reportedly killed two people. Meanwhile, a Samsung executive who was on board very quickly posted an eyewitness shot to the Web.
Sandberg posted to her page on the social network that she had originally intended to be on board the Asiana Airlines flight from Seoul, South Korea. "Thank you to everyone who is reaching out -- and sorry if we worried anyone," she wrote, explaining that she had switched to a different airline to take advantage of frequent flyer miles.
The shot by Samsung executive David Eun shows the smoking, tailless plane at the side of the runway with its emergency slides deployed and other passengers making their way toward where he is standing.
(Credit: Screenshot by CNET)
"I just crash landed at SFO. Tail ripped off. Most everyone seems fine. I'm ok. Surreal..." reads a tweet Eun sent with a link to the photo.
It's not clear at the time of this writing exactly what happened or precisely what the injury or fatality count might be. A Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman confirmed the crash, of Asiana Flight 214, and local television station KPIX reported that the San Francisco Fire Department had confirmed that two people had been killed and 61 injured.
The airport -- San Francisco's SFO -- has been closed to in-coming and out-bound traffic.
A Facebook representative told CNET that the social network had no official comment to make. "Her post says it all," the rep wrote in an e-mail. "Sheryl and her family are shocked and saddened but thankfully safe."
CBS News has ongoing coverage of the crash here. And here's a video posted by CBS:

Animated WebP graphics support no shoo-in for Chrome

Google WebP engineers are encountering resistance from Google Chrome engineers about whether it's worth supporting the animated version of the image format.
 Google Chrome logo

Google introduced WebP in an attempt to speed up the Web, but now the company's engineers are raising concerns that one of the graphics format's features will actually slow it down.
WebP is designed to compress graphics more efficiently than JPEG, GIF, and PNG. Shrinking file sizes more means data arrives faster, though there can be a penalty of longer times to encode and decode image files. One of WebP's newer features is support for animation -- a package of multiple images shown in sequence to display a short movie.
Animated GIFs have risen from obscurity to become an unlikely art form, but now there's the possibility that WebP could take their place. That's just what some WebP fans would like, and they've begun building animated WebP support for Chrome, as detailed in an announcement by Google's Urvang Joshi of a plan to ship the feature in Chrome.
But the announcement triggered a discussion this week about whether animated WebP support is worth messing with, in particular given that in the years since animated GIFs arrived on the scene, Web-based video has arrived, built into the HTML standard used to describe Web pages.
"Animated GIFs are power hogs and really contribute much to slowing down the Web," said Chrome team member Darin Fisher in a response. "I'd imagine that animated WebP is superior, but by how much? How does it compare to the equivalent content packaged up in a video format?"

One response from Alpha (Hin-Chung) Lam, analyzing 63 cat videos from Tumblr, found animated WebP file sizes to be 38 percent of the animated GIF format originals. Videos encoded with Google's VP8 video codec were 53 percent of the animated GIF originals, a notch larger than the animated WebP version but still smaller than the animated GIFs.
Another Google engineer, Peter Kasting, expressed worries that animated WebP would merely continue with problems on the Web that come with animated GIFs.
"If you're not trying to fix GIF, I am opposed to shipping animated WebP at all," Kasting said. "Since you're going to be trying to convince the entire world to change direction anyway [from animated GIF to animated WebP], you should convince them all to switch to <video> and be done with it."
Nonanimated WebP images -- the primary use case for the graphics format -- are a less contentious issue. Google itself has found the format to save dramatically on network bandwidth, and Facebook is a notable WebP ally.

Friday 5 July 2013

Western Powers Call for Democracy in Egypt as Muslim Brotherhood Threatens Action

Morsi's ouster could result in increased violence in Cairo

A deadly gunfight erupted in Cairo Friday as thousands of supporters of deposed Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi marched on the Republican Guard headquarters. (Mahmud Hams/AFP/Getty Images)  

 he violence does not appear to be de-escalating as the Muslim Brotherhood, Morsi's conservative Islamist Party that spread throughout his government, called on supporters to begin a "Friday of Rage."

The instability is beginning to spill over into parts of the already tense region of the Middle East. Militant political party Hamas, which rules the neighboring Gaza Strip, is reportedly jolted by the ouster of Morsi, a known ally. Morsi's alignment with the conservative Muslim Brotherhood was among the sources of discontent in the Egyptian protesters.
"We are not afraid of losing our cause, no fear that our cause will be absent from the Islamic nation's agenda, despite the difficulties and hard circumstances that sometimes the Islamic nation faces," said Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh on Friday.
The Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C. declined to comment Friday on the situation in Egypt.
The question remains whether the events that have occurred this week amount to a military coup. If overtly so the party, has called on supporters to protest. It has said it will not work with subsequent leadership appointed under military rule and says hardliner supporters should engage in a "Friday of Rage" if the military does not back down.
"We declare our complete rejection of the military coup staged against the elected president and the will of the nation," a spokesman said in a statement. "We refuse to participate in any activities with the usurping authorities."

01 THE qutes

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Jay-Z Android app cloned by hackers

Jay-Z Android app cloned by hackers

 Screengrab of cloned app

Hackers have cloned the Android app of rapper Jay-Z and inserted messages criticising the US government.
The official app is being used by the rapper as a way to promote his latest album - Magna Carta Holy Grail.
Cloned versions of the app available via unofficial sites contain code that unlocked anti-Obama messages on 4 July.
The attack is believed to be part of protests against US government surveillance programs revealed this month.
Security firm McAfee discovered the app on third-party Android app sites. In a blogpost, McAfee researcher Irfan Asrar said the program initially appeared to do everything that the official app did.
However, he wrote, code added to the cloned version copied and sent information to a command-and-control server every time the phone was re-started. Once it made contact, the app tried to download extra code that included the anti-government images and messages.
A timer in this extra code waited for 4 July and then changed the app's wallpaper from pictures of album artwork and Jay-Z to that of President Obama wearing headphones. Above his image were the words "Yes we scan"- believed to be a reference to the NSA's extensive Prism scanning system. It is also plays on the slogan that President Obama campaigned under "Yes, we can."
"The image and the service name NSAListener suggest a hacktivist agenda," wrote Mr Asrar, "but we haven't ruled out the possibility that additional malware may target financial transactions or other data."
To avoid falling victim to this and other mobile threats, users should avoid downloading apps from unofficial sources and ensure security software is kept up to date, he added.

 

Samsung issues weaker than expected profit forecast

 Samsung Galaxy S4

Samsung Electronics, the world's biggest mobile phone and TV maker, has forecast weaker-than-expected profits for the April to June quarter.
It has estimated an operating profit of 9.5 trillion won ($8.3bn; £5.5bn) for the quarter. Most analysts had expected a figure closer to 10.1tn won.
The success of its smartphones has been key to Samsung's recent growth.
However there have been concerns that its growth rate may be slowing despite the launch of new models.
Samsung shares fell 3.8% after the profit guidance. Its shares have dropped more than 15% since early June, after a various brokerages downgraded their outlook for the firm.
"The slowdown in its handset business appears to be worse than expected and the disappointing result simply reinforces the market view that Samsung's smartphone growth momentum is slowing," said Lee Sei-chul, an analyst at Seoul-based Meritz Securities.
'Diversification key'
Continue reading the main story

Start Quote

One of the biggest risks for Samsung Electronics going forward is that 70% of total operating profit comes from mobile business”
Jeff Kim Hyundai Securities
Samsung has enjoyed tremendous success in the smartphone market in recent years. The popularity of its Galaxy range of smartphone saw it replace Nokia as the world's biggest mobile phone maker last year.
According to research firm Strategy Analytics, Samsung accounts for almost 95% of the Android smartphone sector's profits.
But despite all that success, there have been concerns in recent weeks that the rate of growth that Samsung's smartphones have enjoyed in recent years may be slowing, a trend that may eventually hurt profits.
Earlier this month, South Korea's Woori Investment & Securities cut its earnings forecast for the technology giant. That was followed by similar moves from JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch and others.
The concerns have been triggered in part by the launch of new products from rival manufacturers as well as relatively low-cost smartphones by Chinese firms.
Analysts said that for Samsung to be able to maintain its high growth rate the firm needed to come up with new and innovative products and also reduce its reliance on the mobile phone business to drive growth.
"One of the biggest risks for Samsung Electronics going forward is that 70% of total operating profit comes from mobile business," said Jeff Kim of Hyundai Securities.
"Diversification is key. Wearable devices are the next stage in a saturated industry that needs constant innovation to survive.
"We'll see flexible smartphones in the fourth quarter from Samsung and LG Electronics, and iWatch and Galaxy Watch are expected to be one of the first waves."
However, some analysts were sceptical about whether wearable devices would bolster earnings.
"It's more likely to complement its earnings at best," said Byun Han-joon, an analyst at KB Investment & Securities.
Jung Sang-jin, a fund manager at Dongbu Asset Management, added: "The problem is no one is sure whether these products can really wow investors and consumers."

 

Human gestures perplex Asimo, Honda museum robot guide

 Asimo in action

Honda's popular robot Asimo faced problems with gesture recognition on its first day as a museum guide at the Miraikan science museum in Tokyo.
The machine struggled to differentiate between museum-goers raising their hands to ask a question and raising their hands to take photos, Associated Press reported.
It is "working" as a tour guide at the museum for the next four weeks as a trial.
Asimo cannot respond to voice commands.
The robot is instead designed to answer 100 questions selected via touchscreen from a written panel.
But during a demonstration it froze and asked: "Who wants to ask Asimo a question?" repeatedly when people pointed their cameras at it.
"Right now, it can recognize a child waving to it, but it's not able to comprehend the meaning of the waving," said Honda robotics technology specialist Satoshi Shigemi.
'Not able to comprehend' Asimo has been in development since 1996.
Speaking to the BBC last year, Prof Chris Melhuish, director of the British Robotics Laboratory at Bristol University, said that interaction with humans was the next big step for robotics.
"The key thing, and it's what we're working on at the moment, is safe human-robot interaction," he said.
"That's not just making the robot compliant, it's making it have advanced social intelligence. If a robot is handing you something hot or sharp, for example, it needs to know whether it has your attention."
Honda's head of robotics, Satoshi Shigemi, told the AP news agency: "Right now, it can recognise a child waving to it, but it's not able to comprehend the meaning of the waving."

Wednesday 3 July 2013

"Despicable Me 2"
In case those ubiquitous billboards featuring funny-faced yellow pills hadn't tipped you off, "Despicable Me 2" is coming to theaters this week, reuniting Gru with his wacky Minions for a whole new set of adventures. In this follow-up to the 2009 blockbuster, Gru (Steve Carell) trades in his supervillain costume in exchange for the life of a super-dad, only to find domestic bliss — and single-parenthood — challenged by the arrival of Lucy Wilde (Kristen Wiig), a government operative hoping to enlist him to hunt down another former baddie who's disappeared.
Whether or not Gru becomes a bona fide hero, the film certainly promises some hilarious hijinks. But do they live up to the ones in the original "Despicable Me?" MTV News took a look at some of the reviews that popped up as the film nears its July 3 release date and compiled some critics' thoughts about the film.
Despicable Me 2
How Worthy — Or Necessary — Is This Follow-Up To 'Despicable Me?'
"This new picture feels like... a hastily thought-up opportunity to put our characters through some kind of adventure. Any kind of adventure. Whereas the original had Steve Carell's evil genius and his cache of spazzed-out weapons trying to hijack the moon, this film sends him to the mall." — Jordan Hoffman, Screencrush
Still, What Can Audiences Look Forward To In the Sequel?
"After reluctantly admitting that he made a second-rate baddie at best, Steve Carell's overcompensating character gets a chance to prove himself a first-class hero, providing ample opportunity for comic support from his Minions. While not quite as charming or unique as the original, 'Despicable Me 2' comes awfully close, extending co-directors Chris Renaud and Pierre Coffin's delightfully silly sensibility to a bit larger universe." — Peter Debruge, Variety
How Are Steve Carell And Kristen Wiig As A Comedic Couple?
"Steve Carell's Slavic inflections as Gru do the trick, as before. Wiig's clever hesitations and comic timing help save the day." — Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune
Pharrell's 'Despicable Me 2' Soundtrack Makes Him 'The Luckiest Guy'
Will Grown-Ups And Kids Be Enertained?
"Little kids won't be too bored, but adults who found themselves charmed by the first "Despicable Me" may or may not be along for the ride this time. Universal has already announced a third sequel, 'Minions' (which, sadly, isn't solely centered on those walking ids), and here's hoping Gru can be a little despicable-r next time." — Alonso Duralde, The Wrap
How Funny Are Those Minions?
"The minions also routinely score on the comedy front, though let's be clear, they are basically glorified little yellow stooges. Their humor is completely based upon miscommunication and physical comedy. Again, not a bad thing, but a worry as the series goes forward, because physical comedy tends to wear thin if continually repeated." — Laremy Legel,Film.com

Samsung buys set top box maker Boxee

Samsung is buying Boxee - an Israeli firm that makes media streaming devices.
The South Korean electronics giant said it had "acquired key talent and assets" from the company.
"This will help us continue to improve the overall user experience across our connected devices," it added.
Boxee's latest product lets subscribers record TV shows onto its servers and then stream them to TVs, computers and smart devices "from the cloud".
It had previously raised $26.5m (£17.3m) in funds from a range of US and Israeli investors.
Samsung is the world's best-selling maker of smart TVs - screens which which offer access to apps, video-on-demand and other internet content without the need for a separate set-top box.
Boxee
According to Informa Telecoms and Media, 54 million smart TVs were sold worldwide in the last year, and it expects that number to grow to 221 million in 2017.
The consultancy suggested the takeover might prove a good match because, despite its apparent success, Samsung was still struggling to convince consumers to use its services rather than those of others.
"When people are going into stores they may end up with a smart TV by default but at the moment they have little desire to use their internet functions even if they have a fast enough connection," said Paul Jackson, principal analyst at Informa.
"But within the TV industry there is a lot of optimism that consumers will want to use these kind services in the future.
"Boxee has been playing with its own TV user interface and has a good reputation for making a link between its hardware and a back-end service.
"But it's still early days for cloud TV services and it's been difficult for Boxee to make money. It makes more sense for it to be part of a wider offering rather than selling itself as a single function device."

Computer mouse inventor Doug Engelbart dies at 88

Dr Engelbart's first ever moThe inventor of the computer mouse, Doug Engelbart, has died aged 88.
Engelbart developed the tool in the 1960s as a wooden shell covering two metal wheels, patenting it long before the mouse's widespread use.
He also worked on early incarnations of email, word processing and video teleconferences at a California research institute.
The state's Computer History Museum was notified of his death by his daughter, Christina, in an email.
Her father had been in poor health and died peacefully on Tuesday night in his sleep, she said.
Doug Engelbart was born on 30 January 1925 in Portland, Oregon, to a radio repairman father and a housewife mother.
'Mother of all demos'
He studied electrical engineering at Oregon State University and served as a radar technician during World War II.
How the computer mouse got its name
He then worked at Nasa's predecessor, Naca, as an electrical engineer, but soon left to pursue a doctorate at University of California, Berkeley.
His interest in how computers could be used to aid human cognition eventually led him to Stanford Research Institute (SRI) and then his own laboratory, the Augmentation Research Center.
His laboratory helped develop ARPANet, the government research network that led to the internet.
Engelbart's ideas were way ahead of their time in an era when computers took up entire rooms and data was fed into the hulking machines on punch cards.
At a now legendary presentation that became known as the "mother of all demos" in San Francisco in 1968, he made the first public demonstration of the mouse.
At the same event, he held the first video teleconference and explained his theory of text-based links, which would form the architecture of the internet.
He did not make much money from the mouse because its patent ran out in 1987, before the device became widely used.
SRI licensed the technology in 1983 for $40,000 (£26,000) to Apple.
At least one billion computer mouses have been sold.
Engelbart had considered other designs for his most famous invention, including a device that could be fixed underneath a table and operated by the knee.
He was said to have been driven by the belief that computers could be used to augment human intellect.
Engelbart was awarded the $500,000 Lemelson-MIT prize in 1997 and the National Medal of Technology for "creating the foundations of personal computing" in 2000.
Since 2005, he had been a fellow at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California.
He is survived by his second wife, Karen O'Leary Engelbart, and four children.use demo

Yahoo's pre-fireworks news: We're buying Xobni

Yahoo's pre-fireworks news: We're buying Xobni

With purchase of email startup, Yahoo might be looking to take over your mobile phone from every possible angle, including where you store your contacts.
Yahoo can't seem to go one week without adding another startup to the portfolio.
Just before everyone takes off for Independence Day, the rejuvenated technology giant is making moves to acquire Xobni, a self-described "smart address book."
With products for Microsoft Outlook and Gmail, Xobni (or "inbox" spelled backwards) developed a platform that essentially aggregated everyone you have possibly contacted (whether it's via email, text message, phone call, etc.) and tried to unify and organize that data to provide more comprehensive contact files. Those files were also populated with updates from Facebook and Twitter.
Xobni also offered teams and enterprise subscription options for automatically managing emails, contacts, and folders with little to no IT help required.
The Xobni team confirmed the merger in a blog post on Wednesday, positing that Yahoo understands the startup's vision and benefits beyond just the "inbox or smartphone."
Xobni, which is based in San Francisco, will be moving its operations down to the Valley at Yahoo's headquarters in Sunnyvale.
While some current users (including existing business subscribers) will not be affected initially (or even until one year from now), a number of changes are going into effect immediately.
Xobni has an entire FAQ page for current and perhaps prospective customers ahead of today, explaining which products and features will continue to be available after today.
The most notable difference is that Xobni is no longer accepting new purchases of premium products. Furthermore, Smartr Contacts for Android and Xobni for BlackBerry are no longer available to download, signalling that these services are likely going to be folded into something else Yahoo is cooking up.
Financial details of the deal have not been disclosed, but AllThingsD reports that Yahoo is paying approximately $30 million to $40 million more for Xobni.
Rachel King is a staff writer for ZDNet based in San Francisco.

Egypt's Morsi had Twitter, the generals had the tanks

As the Egyptian leader was ousted by the military, he and his allies live-tweeted their side of the events. Now the world can read these tweets, because of Twitter's new translation tool.
By now it's almost cliche to note Twitter's involvement in breaking geopolitical news. The service has become so widely used globally, that it's almost expected to be part of any big story.
Even so, it was fascinating to watch Mohamed Morsi's use of the medium as he struggled to retain his presidency -- even after the Egyptian military officially declared him to be unemployed.
In the days leading up to his fall on Wednesday, Morsi and his comrades sent out a series of tweets, some defiant, some pleading, and all negating the legality of the president's takedown by Egypt's military.
This is Morsi's final tweet posted on Tuesday:
The official Egyptian presidency page was even more active in the lead-up to Morsi's ouster. Earlier today, it tweeted a quote from Morsi saying, "For the sake of #Egypt and for historical accuracy, let's call what is happening by its real name: Military coup." And then later it tweeted, "Pres. Morsy urges civilians and military members to uphold the law & the Constitution not to accept that coup which turns #Egypt backwards."
Typically, many of these tweets would be understandable only to those who read Arabic. However, Twitter began testing a Bing-powered English translation tool on Morsi's and other prominent Egyptian's accounts, so that users worldwide could understand what they were tweeting during these historic moments.
"As part of our experiment with Tweet text translation, we've enabled translation for some of the most-followed accounts in Egypt," a Twitter spokesperson told CNET, "so people around the world can better understand and keep up with what's happening there."
Included among the notables is Morsi, of course, along with prominent opposition leaderMohamed ElBaradei and Arab Spring activist Wael Ghonim. Twitter has also created a list of people to follow who are actively tweeting what's currently happening on the ground in Egypt.
Even though the novelty of Twitter live-broadcasting news seems to have worn off a bit, it appears that new features like the translation tool can help keep the world's breaking events fascinating on the social network.

The House of Nines AW13 Clothing Collection

The House of Nines AW13 Clothing Collection

The House of Nines AW13 Clothing Collection

The House of Nines AW13 Collection
The House of Nines creators Ross Paul Keenan and Shamrez Marawat challenge the perception of British menswear with a truly beautiful collection for AW13.
The new range is classic and sleek in aesthetic, featuring sharply engineered silhouettes and muted tones. Almost architectural in feel, the prominent use of black ensures this contemporary approach to design retains a sense of timelessness.
The brand is renowned for their high quality construction, utilising traditional tailoring methods to craft and engineer each collection. For AW13, finely woven canvas and lightweight wool have been sourced direct from Italy to give the pieces their fine form and structure, whilst premium untreated soft lambs skin, calf leather and cashmere add to the sense of luxury.
Usability is at the forefront of each design, with detailing such as signature side seams inserted for comfort, fit and easier access to pockets.
Highlights of the latest offering include the effortlessly stylish range of white shirts. A must have in any man’s wardrobe, they are made from fine Italian cotton, with mother of pearl buttons sourced from Australia. Lines are kept clean and sharp, whilst military references help to create the ultimate staple piece for the modern gent.
Knitwear is also strong – in particular the ‘Serpico Jumper’, which incorporates the brand’s signature ‘suit of armour’ serpent motif along with leather shoulder patches and neck collar fasteners.

Bolivian president's plane redirected over Snowden suspicions

Bolivia claims that its president was "abducted" and that his plane's rerouting violates terms set by the Vienna Convention.

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The plane carrying Bolivian President Evo Morales was redirected to Austria after a number of European countries refused to allow airspace use due to concerns that NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden was on board.
According to Bolivian officials and the Associated Press, the plane was due to take Morales back to Bolivia after a convention in Moscow to discuss gas-exporting countries. However, after suspicions arose that Snowden was on board, the plane was forced to redirect to Vienna where the Bolivian president spent the night.
In response, the Bolivian President's Ministry released a statement denouncing the move and claiming that Evo Morales was "abducted." During a press conference in the Presidential Palace in La Paz, Bolivia, Vice President Garcia Linera commented (approximate translation):
We don't know who invented this lie. We want to tell the world that President Evo Morales, our president, President of the Bolivians, [has been] abducted in Europe and we want to tell the people of the world that President Evo Morales has been hijacked by imperialism.
The Bolivian President's Ministry said that by diverting the plane, the Vienna Convention was broken after France, Portugal, Italy, and Spain refused to authorize the use of their airspace and airports.
The Vienna Convention (PDF) stipulates that country leaders should not be hindered while traveling, and as several European governments prohibited the use of airspace over the Snowden suspicions, Morales believes this has broken the treaty.
Austrian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Schallenberg told the AP that Snowden was not on board. Linera believes that the United States government was behind Europe's refusal to allow the plane's use of airspace, saying:
We know that this trip obstruction of President Evo has been instructed by the U.S. government, the U.S. government is afraid that a peasant, a native fear, fear of an honest man who defends the sovereignty of our homeland.
In addition, Venezuela Foreign Minister Elias Jaua believes that by changing the flight's route without checking fuel levels, Morales' life was placed in danger.
 Snowden is wanted by the U.S. government after leaking documents to the media over the National Security Agency's surveillance practices. The U.S. government has revoked his passport, and Snowden is believed to be within the Moscow airport's transit lounge while applying for asylum to over a dozen countries. A number of countries, including Norway and Spain, have said that asylum applications must be made on the country's soil.
The 30 year-old withdrew an asylum bid to stay in Russia after President Vladmir Putin added a condition to asylum -- that Snowden must stop "his work aimed at harming our American partners." However, Russia does not have an extradition treaty with the United States, and Putin does not plan to hand over the whistleblower.
In a statement posted to WikiLeaks, Snowden said:
On Thursday, President Obama declared before the world that he would not permit any diplomatic "wheeling and dealing" over my case. Yet now it is being reported that after promising not to do so, the President ordered his Vice President to pressure the leaders of nations from which I have requested protection to deny my asylum petitions. This kind of deception from a world leader is not justice, and neither is the extralegal penalty of exile. These are the old, bad tools of political aggression. Their purpose is to frighten, not me, but those who would come after me.

Microsoft eyes 2014 launch for Xbox One in Japan

The company is releasing the Xbox One in the U.S. and 20 other countries in 2013, but Japan has been listed as "tier 2."
 
 
Microsoft's Xbox One console will hit Japanese store shelves in 2014, the company's Japan President has confirmed.
Speaking in an interview with gaming site 4 Gamer, Microsoft Japan President Yasuyuki Higuchi said that the Japanese market is considered "tier 2" by Microsoft, and thus, will not receive the Xbox One until next year. He didn't say exactly when the console will be available in Japan.

Although Japan is a key market for console makers, it's proven to be a major hole in Microsoft's business. Japanese customers have not warmed to the Xbox the way consumers in North America and Europe have. And although Microsoft wants to make a push for the Japanese market with the Xbox One, it appears to not be as important this time around.
The Xbox One is launching in the U.S. and 20 other countries later this year.
(Via GamesIndustry.biz)

Tuesday 2 July 2013

How To Be A Powerful Woman

How To Be A Powerful Woman

FOLLOWING her success on Desert Island Discs two weeks ago, British Vogue editor Alexandra Shulman will be back on BBC Radio 4 this morning, as part of its 2013 Woman's Hour  Power List which will celebrate the inspirational women it has had on the show in a series of short films. Artist Tracey Emin and MOBO founder Kanya King will also feature, to share their experiences and advice for achieving a successful working life.
There are six films in total, each 5 minutes long - with 15 women interviewed overall. The videos cover a broad range of subjects - from inspiration and ambition to dressing for the workplace.
"With the launch of the Woman's Hour Power List earlier this year, we started a conversation about women and power in the UK - recognising those who are making their mark in fields such as politics, business and science, whilst also identifying areas where women are not cutting through," explained Woman's Hour editor Alice Feinstein. "With these films we are going a step further and asking some of the women named in the Power List to share the lessons they have learnt on their way to the top. I'm delighted so many women were prepared to take part and I hope Woman's Hour listeners will find their advice useful and inspirational."
BBC Radio 4 compiled the 100-strong power list for 2013 - featuring the women who have the biggest impact on our economy, society, politics and culture - based on reader suggestions and judged by a panel including editor and author Eve Pollard; former Woman's Hour editor Jill Burridge; and journalist and presenter Dawn O'Porter. Singer Adele, author JK Rowling, BFC chair Natalie Massenet, and designers Stella McCartney and Victoria Beckham were  also named on the 2013 list.
"We're really keen for people to see these films as they are different to anything we've done before and we want to reach a new audience by letting them know how relevant our content is to them," said Jane Long, content producer at BBC Radio 4. "Sometimes there is a pre-conceived notion that Woman's Hour is something their grandparents would have listened to, but we have access to all these incredible women and we don't want it to go unnoticed."

Henry Holland And Jade Parfitt’s Hello! Marriage

JADE PARFITT and Henry Holland are married. Well, sort of. The happy couple were each other's date for Elton John's White Tie and Tiara ball last week and - even though nobody will see the pictures until they swipe the latest issue of a famous celebrity rag from their doctor's waiting room - they had their picture taken together. Tradition has it that couples featured in the magazine are married, and more often than not quite swiftly divorced - but we're confident that Henry and Jade will remain great friends.

"It was a fantastic night," said Jade, in the Vogue office early the following morning despite dancing into the early hours. "I was wearing Henry Holland and with Henry Holland, so you can imagine how much fun. Quite a surreal event though, I've never been to anything quite like it."

"I tried to ban my 'wife' from wearing heels and she disobeyed," said Henry. "Bad start."

If you don't have a doctor's appointment booked yet, we can't show you the photos sadly, but instead why don't you hang out with Henry as he gets dressed every day - he's taken over the Today I'm Wearing blog this month here: 

Monday 1 July 2013

Firefox OS phone launches Tuesday in Spain

Firefox OS phone launches Tuesday in Spain at $3 a month

Spain-based carrier Telefonica will release on Tuesday the very first Firefox OS phone -- the inexpensive ZTE Open. The launch is a significant milestone in Mozilla's attempt to crack the Apple and Google mobile strongholds.
 Firefox OS, shown here on the ZTE Open, has a gallery app, but if you want to share photos, you have to do so one at a time.
It's not every day that a new mobile operating system arrives, but Tuesday will be one of them as Telefonica begins selling the inexpensive ZTE Open with Mozilla's Firefox OS in Spain.
The move marks the commercial beginning of an effort by phone makers and network operators to use Mozilla's open-source, browser-based operating system to reclaim power in the mobile market lost to Apple and Google.
The phone itself costs 69 euros ($90), including 30 euros ($39) of pay-as-you-go credit -- or for those who sign up for a two-year contract, for 2.38 euros ($3.10) per month. That's a lot cheaper than most of the new Android and iOS smartphones on the market today that consumers have flocked to and that Firefox OS is competing with.
The ZTE Open won't impress smartphone power users who want more than its 3.5-inch 480x320-pixel touchscreen, 3.2MP camera, 256MB RAM, and 512MB flash memory that's boosted with an included 4GB microSD card. But it's not designed to win them over; it's more for new and cost-conscious smartphone buyers, Yotam Benami, Telefonica's digital director of open Web devices, said in an interview.

So why would a customer buy it? "We're excited about dynamic app search," which finds apps and pages on the Web rather than on app stores. "It's a very personalized experience. You can interact with Web apps in the cloud." He added, "The entire user experience is more simple and streamlined. Many users are frustrated with the complexities of Android," and low cost and long battery life are compelling advantages especially in emerging markets.
This single Firefox OS phone in a single market soon won't be alone. Telefonica also will sell another lower-end phone, the Alcatel One Touch Fire, and will launch the phones in Brazil, Venezuela, and Colombia, Benami said.
Telefonica is not the only carrier on board. Telenor will launch its first Firefox OS phones in central and eastern Europe later this year, and Deutsche Telekom will do so in Poland. There are also several other Firefox OS supporters, including original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) such as Sony and LG Electronics that build handsets -- and a sizeable list of carriers.
For many of these allies, Firefox OS provides a way to loosen the mobile marketplace control of Apple and Google, which control not only their operating systems but also the app stores used to distribute software.
"The current dynamics of the mobile ecosystem are problematic for OEMs, for developers, for end users, and for carriers," Benami said. "Firefox resolves many of these issues."
Developers get multiple pathways to market, he said. Handset makers get new choices and "a path to lower level of litigation," a reference to the swarm of mobile-market lawsuits between the biggest mobile players. And for carriers, "we are not bound by rules set by one particular company that owns the platform."
As the difficulties at Microsoft and BlackBerry have shown, it's hard to compete against Android and iOS. The Firefox OS supporters think they have a recipe that will work, though, in part because of the billions of people who haven't yet entered the market and because the operating system uses Web programming that means the developer and app ecosystem isn't starting from scratch.
It's that Web connection that gives Firefox OS its edge over other mobile OS challengers, said Mozilla Chief Operating Officer Jay Sullivan.
"The only remaining ecosystem is going to be around the Web," Sullivan said.
Even though Web pages and Web apps work on Firefox OS devices, there's still a lot of programming work to be done. Challenges include support for multi-touch interfaces, learning how to write Web apps that use new interfaces like accelerometers and offline support, and the much broader issue of adapting pages to small screens and slow mobile networks.
For that reason, Mozilla is fleshing out developer documentation and holding evangelism and training events around the world for programmers. And it's promoting the Geeksphone Keon for developers.
Plenty of developers will need a presence on the Web, and they'll be able to reach Firefox OS users, Sullivan argued.
"When you look at the long tail of highly relevant local apps, a lot of people developing those are small local developers," he said. "They don't have the money to develop an iOS app, an Android app, and a Web app."

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