Galaxy Gear: Samsung unveils smartwatch

The company believes its new invention will set a new trend in wearable tech

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Smartphones, with their big screens and accurate clocks, have been blamed for the failing sales of wristwatches. But tonight in Berlin, Samsung announced a gadget that, it hopes, will soon be decking those currently empty wrists - a smart watch.

Tonight, modern, appealing wearable tech took a step closer to reality when Samsung announced the Galaxy Gear. And the Korean manufacturer will hope it is paving the way for a whole new category of gadget with this invention.
Nobody puts on a show quite like Samsung. A hidden orchestra played highly effective background music, giant screens showed images of new products and, suddenly, black cloths fell away to double the screen size. JK Shin, Samsung's president and CEO, revealed this highly secret product in the most sideways of fashions: when talking about another phone, the screen showed an image of the smart watch as if by accident, proving it can put text message alerts and reminders on your wrist.
So far, the buzzphrase of wearable tech has been mostly limited to gadgets that are not on widespread sale, like the Google Glass headset that is turning out to be the most Marmitey of gizmos, inspiring strong reactions even from people who have never even seen one. Or the Apple iWatch which remains nothing more than rumour at present.
Smart watches could be a more palatable bit of kit than a glasses headset. There are already smart wrist bands like the Nike+ FuelBand which monitors your every step to encourage you to get fitter, but the new breed of smart watch will do much more and will work in conjunction with your smartphone or tablet.
Since big-screen phones like the Sony Xperia Z Ultra with its gigantic 6.4 inch display can be unwieldy, a smart watch will let you see who is calling without retrieving the glass slab from your bag. In fact, Sony is already working on this and releases its second smart watch this month after the first one failed to take off. Samsung will hope for better sales with its model.
The Galaxy Gear is a watch with a 1.63-inch bright touchscreen display and slick stainless steel frame. It allows you to make and receive calls (think Dick Tracy but with a brighter watch strap – actually there are six straps to choose from). Other smart watches do not do this and Samsung sees it as a real game changer. Whether anyone really wants to make a phone call by shouting into their wrist without donning a trenchcoat and trilby is uncertain.
With the Gear, the speaker and microphone are embedded in the strap so you hold your hand to your ear to make calls – though Samsung says you can move your hand wherever you like during a call.
The Gear cannot do any of this unless you have a Samsung smartphone that links it to the mobile phone network. When it is connected it can show incoming texts and messages, or remind you of upcoming appointments. It also uses S Voice – Samsung’s voice-control app similar to Apple’s Siri – so you can set an alarm, check the weather and more using voice commands.
A camera in the strap will take a photo when you swipe the screen. And the Gear has apps which add extra functionality to make sharing photos and messages easier still. A motion sensor means you can use it as a pedometer to monitor your activity. Samsung says it will change how we interact with each other.
There is no doubt that Samsung is now one of the most innovative and influential companies in the world, in any field, showing that it can execute advanced products faster than rivals and at lower prices.
Samsung has done what Apple likes to do: taken a barely established product category and made it approachable, attractive and even desirable. But how many people really want the innovations it so effortlessly delivers remains to be seen.
Hands-on verdict
For all the gimmickry of the presentation announcement, when you get your hands on the Gear, it’s pretty persuasive. Light, sleek and highly tactile, the touchscreen is super-responsive. The camera is nimble and effective. When you’re wearing it, it suddenly makes sense: it is alluring, comfortable and enjoyable. Will it storm the barricades? Maybe. And if it does not, it is clear that wearable tech is about to become mainstream. 
The Gear will be launched on 25 September, no price has been confirmed.

 

 

 

 

Apple's new iPhone launch confirmed for 10 September

Colourful handsets seem definite with invitations to the event promising news that "should brighten everyone's day"

 

Apple have begun sending out invitations to the launch of their latest iPhone, announcing the date as 10 September and all but confirming that new colours will be on the horizons for the company’s smartphones.

The invitations show an Apple logo imposed over a series of different coloured circles with the strap line “This should brighten everyone’s day.”
The launch event will take place at 10am Pacific time (5pm GMT) at the Apple Campus in Cupertino on Tuesday 10 September. It will also be simulcast to European journalists in Berlin at its Kurfürstendamm Apple Store.
Most analysts predict that Apple will be launching two new smartphones at the event: an updated high-end model either named the iPhone 5S or iPhone6, and a cheaper, plastic-cased handset called the iPhone 5C.
It is the latter that has been the source of most speculation, with multiple sites leaking images which claim to show the new device. As well as leaked pictures, there has also been a video (see below). The 50 second clip was found on Chinese technology blog C Technology, and shows a colourful smartphone running Apple’s Safari browser.
The lower-cost iPhone 5C is expected to appeal to developing markets and first-time smartphone users. Around half of global mobile owners still use so called ‘dumb’ or feature phones, and as the market for high-end devices reaches saturation, analyst suggest that Apple needs to broaden its appeal.
 
An image purportedly showing the new iPhone 5C, leaked to iApps.im
As well as new iPhone models it’s also expected that Apple will offer up more details on iTunes Radio, a new music streaming service, and iOS 7, the latest update to the company’s mobile operating system.
Other rumours of new Apple launches include a larger, 13-inch iPad, an iPhone with a 5.7-inch screen, and an ‘iWatch’. However, even if these devices do exist, none are expected to be revealed at the event on 10 September. 

 

How to preview web fonts on live sites

TypeWonder enables you to try out web fonts on any live site

TypeWonder is a useful tool if you want to quickly see what a live site would look like in a different font. Just enter the URL of the target site, then select the font you want to use from the searchable list that pops up. There's a button that gives you the embed code when you find a font you like.
It's especially useful if you want to preview lots of fonts in quick succession, as you can switch from one to the next with just a couple of clicks. This simple functionality alone is great, but you may feel limited by the fact that only one font can be used at any one time - there's no way to try out font pairs by applying different typefaces to different areas.
If you have need of this service on a regular basis there's a Chrome extension which adds the functionality to your toolbar, with Firefox and Safari extensions to follow.
TypeWonder is in beta at the moment and is free to use.

 

Syrian Electronic Army hackers say 'many surprises' planned

Syrian hackers behind recent attacks on the New York Times and Twitter have warned media companies to "expect us".

The Syrian Electronic Army, which supports President Bashar al-Assad, added it had "many surprises" to come.
Interviewed via email following the UK Parliament's vote against military intervention on Thursday, a spokesman told BBC News: "It's the right thing."
He added: "Military intervention in Syria has many consequences and will affect the whole world.
"Our main mission is to spread truth about Syria and what is really happening."
The SEA has targeted various media companies, including the BBC, CNN and the Guardian.
Brian Krebs, a former Washington Post reporter, wrote that clues discovered when the SEA's own website was hacked earlier in the year pointed towards at least one member of the group being based in neighbouring country Turkey.
But the SEA's spokesman dismissed these claims, saying that "they keep publishing names so they can get attention".
"All the media outlets that we targeted were publishing false/fabricated news about the situation in Syria," he told the BBC.
"Our work doesn't need funds. It just needs a computer and internet connection."
Explosion tweet Until this week's attacks, the SEA's efforts had largely focused on "phishing" social media accounts, tricking users into handing over log-in details.
In one particularly effective attack, the Twitter account of the Associated Press was compromised, and the group posted a tweet saying US President Barack Obama had been hurt in an explosion.
The New York Times attack was more damaging, however, as the hackers were able to redirect people trying to visit the newspaper to the SEA's website instead, albeit briefly.
"Our goal was to deliver our anti-war message on NY Times website - but our server couldn't last for three minutes," the group said.
"The Twitter attack was because of the suspension of our accounts on Twitter by its management.
"We succeeded in our attack as we expected."

W3C P2P Web Browser Standards

The World Wide Web Consortium is to develop Web standards to enable direct peer-to-peer communications between Web browsers, without the need to go through centralized Web servers.

The Web standards could make it more difficult for repressive government action against Web communications, according to members of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) working group assigned to developing the Web standards. The group aims to define APIs that will allow Web browsers to communicate using audio, video and "supplementary" real-time communications, W3C said on Thursday.

"W3C today launched a new Web Real-Time Communications Working Group to define client-side APIs to enable real-time communications in Web browsers," the W3C said.

The APIs should allow applications that can be run inside a Web browser without extra downloads or plug-ins. The APIs will be programming-language agnostic, a W3C spokesman said on Friday.

Web browser company Opera is a member of the working group, Opera chief standards officer Charles McCathieNevile told on Friday. Opera platform architect Rich Tibbett is the main contact with the group.

According to Opera, real-time peer-to-peer Web communications will make it more difficult for government repression of communications, as seen in North Africa and the Middle East, where official measures have ranged from the blocking of Web sites like Facebook and Twitter to taking the entire country of Egypt off the Web.

"We are attempting to use peer-to-peer systems, so there's not a single shutdown point at a Web server - communications are much more ad hoc," said Tibbett. Charles McCathieNevile of W3C added that it is "very much easier to block a specific Web site than blocking communications across the Web."

Criminals and law enforcement will still be able to intercept Web communications even if the communications are encrypted, Tibbett said, explaining:

"Peer-to-peer Web browser communications are not going to stop the problem of sniffing, but will make it harder to sniff traffic."

Analyst Andy Buss of Freeform Dynamics also said the proposed Web standards would not stop governments forcing deep-packet inspection of Web communications and blocking encrypted peer-to-peer Web traffic. "It does start to depend on the co-operation of the ISP," he said. "If they detect peer-to-peer SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) Web traffic, they could block the Web traffic."

Chrome 11: The Best Web Browser?

Was it only a few weeks ago, that we were looking at the latest crop of Web browsers?

Why, yes, yes it was, but now Google has released yet another newer, faster, better, and more feature-full version of its Chrome Web browser: Chrome 11.

Voice to Data

Besides the usual improvements in security and speed, which I'll get to in a moment, Chrome 11 comes with a new, interesting feature: voice-to-text, or more properly, voice-to-data. So, with a Web site set up to handle it, such as Google Translate, you can "talk" to the Web.

Currently, Google Translate is the big Web application that uses it, but Google promises there will be more. It's clear, for example, that a voice to text feature, once it's perfected, for Google Docs would find fans.

This voice-to-data feature uses HTML 5's Speech Input Web application programming interface (API). This proposed API was developed and proposed by, guess who, Google.

I found it to work "amusingly" well. It made far too many mistakes for me to consider using it, but when you consider that it's a first try at a mass-market Web cloud-based real time translation tool, it is impressive–just not very useful yet.

Eventually it will mature, but for now it's a fun toy. For instance, with its Google Translate function you can use your PC as a universal translator ala Star Trek. It's not going to put Uhura out of work anytime soon. If privacy is a concern, and it should be, you should also keep in mind, as the feature currently tells you, "This page is recording speech from your computer. Click here to stop recording."

Chrome 11 on the Test Bench

I've been using Chrome 11 on my Linux and Windows PCs. For test purposes though I used my Windows 7 test box: a Gateway DX4710. This PC is powered by a 2.5-GHz Intel Core 2 Quad processor and has 6GBs of RAM and an Intel GMA (Graphics Media Accelerator) 3100 for graphics. It's not that fast, but it gets the job done. It's hooked to the Web via a Netgear Gigabit Ethernet switch, which, in turn, is hooked up to a 25Mbps (Megabit per second) cable Web connection.

On this system, I ran both Chrome 11 and the latest version of Internet Explorer (IE) 9 Web browser, using a variety of benchmarks. Here's how they did.

First up, I ran the Acid 3 compatibility test. This checks out how Web browser, or not, is with various Web standards such as Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), JavaScript, and Extensible Markup Language (XML). Here, Chrome, with a perfect score of 100, out did IE 9 with its 95.

Next up was the HTML5 Test. This benchmark is exactly what its sounds like" It checks to see how compliant the Web browser is with the HTML5 Web page standard. Once more Chrome came out on top with a score of 293 out of a maximum of 400. IE really trailed on this benchmark. It scored only 130 points.

Thus, if being compliant with Web standards matters to you, Chrome is the Web browser for you.

Moving on to Web performance benchmarks, I started with Kraken 1.0. This is Mozilla's update of its SunSpider JavaScript benchmark but, according to Mozilla, "Kraken focuses on realistic workloads and forward-looking applications." In Kraken, the lower scores are best. Here, Chrome blew away IE, 6,311.7 to 17,051.9.

Next up, was Peacekeeper bechmarking tool by FutureMark. In Peacekeeper, higher scores are better. Here, the two browsers were neck and neck. Chrome edged ahead with a score of 8,427 to IE's 8,343.

According to SunSpider JavaScript 0.9.1, the most popular Web browser benchmark, IE finally won one. In this benchmark, lower is better and IE came on top with a score of 252.6 to Chrome's 316.8.

Finally, I looked at the V8 Benchmark Suite: This, yet another JavaScript benchmark, comes from Google and was designed as a way to tune up Chrome's V8 JavaScript engine. I'm sure it will come as no surprise to anyone to learn that Chrome beats IE hollow on this benchmark. In this test, higher is better and Chrome came in at 9122 with IE coming in with 2193.

So, which Web browser is really faster? For me, it's Chrome. Not only does it win at most of the benchmarks, it just feels faster.

In part, that's because, thanks to its support of SPDY, Chrome is actually about 15% faster at Web sites that support this replacement protocol to HTTP. For now, though, only Google-based Web sites commonly support SPDY. Still, if you spend a lot time with Gmail, doing Google Web searches, and other Google Web sites, there's no question that Chrome is the best choice of Web browser.

Beyond the Benchmarks

While Chrome still doesn't equal IE when it comes to defending against some kinds of social engineering attacks on the Web, it does include 25 other security fixes. It also has a security update to its built-in version of Adobe Flash. Chrome also includes some bug fixes to its Web cloud print feature.

Of course, Chrome has other useful built-in features as well. For example, I'm still pleased that Chrome lets me sync Web browser bookmarks and passwords between all my PCs using Chrome. And, of course, Chrome runs remarkably well on Linux, Mac OS X, and all versions of Windows.

Taken all-in-all, I think Chrome 11 is simply the best Web browser around. And, with its remarkable development speed, I don't see any of the other Web browsers catching up with it anytime soon.

The Web : Save with Cloud Computing?

The common perception is that Web cloud computing on the Web can save you a bundle, but a Forrester Research note indicates that the calculus is complicated.

In fact, companies that don't manage resource consumption well could get the short end of the stick:

Forrester analyst James Staten makes the following points:

• Low costs per employee can add up. A $99 per month deal for an on-demand Web CRM system works when you have just five employees. For larger companies, the math gets tricky. Toss in modules and you could be looking at a hefty annual bill.
• Web infrastructure as a service can add up with usage - especially if you add other services like storage, load balancing, monitoring, content delivery and other items.
• You still have operational costs. You still have to manage, secure, backup and recover cloud deployments on the Web.

So how do you make Web cloud computing pay off for you? When you manage your consumption tightly by turning off the meter. For instance, a batch report on a Web cloud platform can be completed in a few hours-once a month or week.

Vendor Responsibility Physical support of infrastructure (facilities, rack space, power, cooling, cabling, etc.) Abstracted services (SaaS application, hosted framework, hypervisor, virtual firewall, etc.) Physical infrastructure security and availability (servers, storage, network bandwidth, etc.) Basic monitoring Element management

Business Responsibility Your application Architectural views (e.g., scalability, availability, recovery, data quality, and security) Governance (who has authority/responsibility to make changes and how to make the changes) Life-cycle management (birth, growth, failure, and recovery) Enterprise integration (identity management, access control, etc.) Testing, monitoring, diagnosis, and verification Network of metadata (categories, capabilities, configurations, and dependencies)

Staten notes:

"Understanding the behavior of the applications and services you plan to deploy to the Web cloud is crucial to achieving success with cloud economics. Blindly buying cloud services and expecting substantial savings is a recipe for disaster. Understanding the business model behind the application is how you know whether cloud economics are simply a cost savings tool or a profit-maker for your company. While business buyers may provision certain cloud applications themselves, it still takes developers and IT administrators to activate infrastructure and platform cloud services. Much more importantly, it takes a CIO who can help bridge the understanding between IT and the business to make this a reality."

How many companies are tying applications to the business models that underpin them? Thought so.

In a nutshell, the Web cloud is a no-brainer for:

• Short-term and cyclical applications.
• Apps that fluctuate and have variable use cases.
• Companies that can throttle resources.
• Enterprises that can use the Web cloud to leverage new businesses and save on capital spending.

The hardest part is that companies need to monitor consumption and turn apps off with systems that sense inactivity. The rub: Many applications aren't built for this level of monitoring and neither are IT workers, who have grown up on ensuring capacity is always available.

In the end, companies need to profile apps, tools, developers and admins to gauge whether they can throttle performance enough to save money on Web cloud computing.