ZiiLABS unveils ZMS-08 Blu-ray quality media processor

Nov 11, 2009

ZiiLABS first has unveiled a new media processor called the ZMS-08. ZiiLABS is a subsidiary of Creative and the first product from Creative to carry the Zii name was the Zii Egg. The new media processor that the company is showing off today is designed to provide Blu-ray quality in handheld devices.

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The ZMS-08 provides Blu-ray quality H.264 decode for low-power devices. The processor also has multi-media processing capabilities of the ZiiLABS StemCell computing array with a 1GHz ARM Cortex processor. ZiiLABS is sampling the processor to certain customers now.

The device will be used in products including web tablets, netbooks, connected TVs, and home media hubs. The ZMS-08 supports full HD 1080p H.264 decode and simultaneous H.264 encode and decode at 720p along with 1080p 24fps encode. The chip can also support OpenGL ES 2.0 3D graphics and more. Xtreme Fidelity X-Fi audio effects are also supported. Volume shipments are expected in Q1 2010.

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Motorola sold 100K DROIDs in first weekend

We have already heard all there is to know about the sexy Motorola DROID smartphone. In fact we posted up our full review of the handset not long ago, and we really liked it. The only thing left to know now is how well Motorola did the first weekend of sales.

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Bloomberg reports that Motorola likely sold about 100,000 DROID handsets on the first weekend it was available. The sales figures are pointed at as a sign that Motorola is recovering, though it still trials Apple in the market.

Bloomberg reports that Verizon had 200,000 DROID handsets on hand and that stores sold about half their stock of devices the first weekend. Motorola is expected to sell about a million Android handsets in Q4 2009 counting the DROID and other devices. One analyst says that anyone expecting the DROID to outdo the iPhone on opening weekend had their goals set too high.

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Symbian Foundation roadmap, NFC, social networking hooks discussed

Remember the BeagleBoard prototyping platform, which was put to such cost-effective use in the DIY Beagle MID earlier this year? Expect to see plenty more of the $149 OMAP3 device in future, now that Symbian Foundation have released their latest build for the platform. Speaking at Nokia’s The Way We Live Next 3.0 conference today, Symbian Foundation’s Shaun Puckrin discussed the roadmap for Symbian^3 and Symbian^4, the next-shipping versions of the platform, together with some of the functionality that will be hard-baked into the OS.

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While there are currently 16 different packages of the current Symbian release available, together with an EPL release of the microkernel that, Puckrin expects, will see semiconductor firms proliferate low-cost chipsets for the platform, Symbian^3 is on course for completion in Q1 2010; handsets are expected to reach the market in the second half of next year. Meanwhile the Symbian^4 kits will begin to become available in Q1 2010, with the OS scheduled for completion in Q4 2010 and commercial availability of handsets in the first half of 2011.

Symbian^3 and ^4 will bring with them at least 466 new features from the Foundation team themselves; Puckrin also expects many more additions from the developer community itself. The Foundation expects to differentiate its offering from Google’s Android by virtue of broader access to core aspects of the OS, together with a different open-source license which will require those modifying and tweaking the Symbian code to resubmit their changes and adaptations, a move Puckrin believes will prevent fragmentation.

Among the native functionality baked into Symbian^3 will be near-field communications, which will allow mobile devices to communicate wirelessly with in-car electronics, media systems and other handsets, together with a new social web API. Similar to Android 2.0’s API “hooks”, this will allow social networks such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter to connect to core applications such as contacts and messaging, for aggregation of content and sharing profile photos and other information. The upcoming OS will also feature hardware graphics acceleration, potentially boosting video playback performance to hitherto unseen levels on mobile devices.

Rather than leave finding applications to chance – or to the occasionally clunky Ovi store, Symbian Foundation have developed Horizon, a combination application publishing system – which will push new code into the Ovi store for download – as well as act as a “yellow pages” for apps. Rather than replicate the Ovi functionality, Horizon will offer a full database of software from both large and small developers, as well as multiple links to the various places it’s possible to download those apps from. There’s also a suggestion site, ideas.symbian.org, where smartphone enthusiasts can suggest new features, vote for other suggestions, and the Foundation will attempt to connect developers and popular ideas for later inclusion in the core OS.

While we’re inherently cautious about any platform purporting to be “The Future of Mobile”, some of Symbian Foundation’s approaches certainly seem to make more sense than rival OSes and the relatively tight grip they’re held in by the manufacturers. More details on the Symbian port for BeagleBoard here; the device itself is available here.

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Don’t Do It Dell: Think Tablets, Not MIDs

It looks like Dell is planning to release a mobile internet device, or a MID. The details are few and far between but the product—code-named Streak—looks like it packs Wi-Fi, 3G and Android 2.0 all into one. It is exactly what Intel has been calling a mobile internet device for the past few years: larger than a smartphone, primarily for accessing the Net, and featuring multimedia and even GPS functionality. The Archos 5 Internet Tablet and the leaked video of the Dell device gives us a better glimpse of what is to come and what it can do. Ironically (and you will see why later), when I watched the video I immediately thought: ah, so Dell wants to make an iPhone with a larger 5-inch screen!

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Don’t tell Dell, but Apple also seems to have another mobile internet device brewing in Cupertino. That would be the rumored Apple tablet that is expected to have a larger screen than the iPhone (talk is about 10.2 inches ) and, if you think like an Apple diehard, it will completely change the way we look at the future of the tech universe. Truth is we don’t know what the Apple tablet does or what it looks like. We don’t know a thing about its connectivity or its main purpose, but we do know that, unlike the MIDs that Dell and others are releasing, it won’t try and compete with the iPhone or the iPod Touch, for that matter.

Of course, Apple makes the iPhone and wouldn’t want to compete with its own product but, luckily for the company, there is no need to try and compete with it. The popularity of the latest generation of smartphones, including the iPhone, Palm Pre and now the Motorola Droid, has confirmed that people prefer having a single device – a phone bred with ubiquitous Internet connectivity and applications. Consumers want to be able to get the information they need on-the-go without having to carry multiple devices. We left our PDAs back in the 90s!

As far as I am concerned, people want either a smaller phone or an accompanying device that is more versatile and can be used for the jobs their phones cannot handle. Not tweener devices. This is what netbooks have taught us. And though we don’t know much about Apple’s tablet I am fairly certain it will follow similar thinking. Sure, it won’t be a netbook as we know it today, but it will fill a void between Apple’s iPhone (and Touch) and its Macbook line. The larger screen device will be for content consumption, including the ability to visit Websites and read content. (Rumors are that Apple is teaming up with media organizations and publishers). It will likely run applications, whether on an iPhone OS or a full fledged version of OSX. I suspect that will allow for light content creation and sharing, like editing pictures with multitouch gestures or typing using the virtual keyboard. But this column is about what I think about the Apple will and won’t do.

Funny enough, it has been reported that Dell and Intel were actually working on a similar tablet-like device that would also be focused on digital content and Internet connectivity. While it is too early to say what the core purpose of these tablets will be, they will fill the void between smartphones and laptops much better than the mysterious MIDs. What I know is that Dell, you seem to be on a winning streak with the Dell Adamo XPS. Let’s not mess that up with a losing “Streak” or with a MID that’s reminiscent of the unsuccessful kinds we already have today.

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Nokia Vision of 2015 concept video

Nokia’s The Way We Live Next 3.0 event isn’t intended to launch new hardware – they had Nokia World a few months back for that – but they couldn’t let the day pass without revealing a few details as to how they envisage devices and services of the future functioning. Heikki Norta, SVP of corporate strategy, took to the stage to show a demo video of possible mobile life in 2015, complete with location sharing, face recognition and that old mainstay of futurology concepts, projection keyboards. There’s also a pretty impressive dual-display netbook and a modular system which can easily switch your “passport data” between a full-sized handset and a smaller unit more suited to exercise-wear.

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Video demo after the cut

In their vision, neither the device nor the “cloud” services are totally responsible for the mobile experience. Rather than viewing the handset as a “window” onto the cloud, or as a standalone device, the system always uses the most efficient method of computation available to it. In an area overspilling with wireless bandwidth, that might mean using remote servers to crunch streaming video and pick out individual faces; while on a plane – assuming there’s no WiFi available, or airlines of 2015 have raised their prices so high we can’t afford to access it – the device would be self-sufficient.

It’s important to remember that, as a concept, we shouldn’t necessarily expect to see any of the functionality in the video arrive in shipping devices. Still, Nokia have told us they’re targeting 300m active service users by the end of 2011, and to reach that figure it’s going to take some serious selling of the benefits of not only innovative devices once every two years, but services that establish an ongoing relationship.

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Does Technology Reduce Social Isolation?

Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

Update | 11:19 p.m. Made slight clarifications throughout.

Hundreds of daily updates come from friends on Facebook and Twitter, but do people actually feel closer to each other?

It turns out the size of the average American’s social circle is smaller today than 20 years ago, as measured by the number of self-reported confidants in a person’s life. Yet contrary to popular opinion, use of cellphones and the Internet is not to blame, according to a new study released Wednesday by the Pew Internet and American Life Project.

In fact, people who regularly use digital technologies are more social than the average American and more likely to visit parks and cafes, or volunteer for local organizations, according to the study, which was based on telephone interviews with a national sample of 2,512 adults living in the continental United States.

The study found some less-than-social behavior, however. People who use social networks like Facebook or Linkedin are 30 percent less likely to know their neighbors and 26 percent less likely to provide them companionship.

Pew asked questions that would get at the heart of the link between social isolation in America and use of digital technologies, with an eye toward debunking earlier thinking that suggested technology caused people to hole up in their pajamas or lose some friendships.

Two years ago, a General Social Survey hypothesized that the average American was feeling more socially isolated because of the rise of the Internet and cellphones. That study found that from 1985 to 2004, the number of intimate friendships people reported dropped from three to two.

The Pew report confirmed those findings. But it also deflated other data in the previous study that indicated the number of people saying they had no one to confide in had nearly tripled from 1985 to 2004. Pew reported that only 6 percent of the American population fell into that category of isolation — with no significant change over the last 25 years.

The circle of close friends for mobile phone users tends to be 12 percent larger than for nonusers. People who share online photos or instant messages have 9 percent larger social circles than nonusers.

Pew also confirmed that Americans’ social networks were becoming less diverse, defined as relationships with people from different backgrounds. But on average, the social circles of cellphone and instant-message users were more diverse than those of nonusers.

“We identified Internet use, and especially using social networks, contributes to having more diverse social networks,” said Keith Hampton, lead researcher for the report and an assistant professor of communication at the University of Pennsylvania.

The study also found that people still prefer face-to-face communication as the primary means to stay in touch with friends and family (people see loved ones in person an average of 210 days a year). Respondents said that they were in touch via mobile phone an average of 195 days a year.

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R.I.M. Woos BlackBerry App Developers

Jae C. Hong/Associated Press

BlackBerry owners may be able to type circles around their iPhone-toting friends when it comes to speeding through e-mails. But when the work is over and it’s time to play with the latest useful or silly applications, their speedy thumbs have nowhere to go. By the latest count, the Apple iPhone has 100,000 apps and the BlackBerry has just a few thousand.

Research in Motion, the maker of the BlackBerry, is out to change that. On Monday, it began a conference for BlackBerry application developers in San Francisco. And it is announcing a series of new technologies meant to make it easier to make interesting apps for its phones.

Most significantly, the company will open the network of servers it uses to deliver e-mail to allow applications to send information and alerts to BlackBerry users. This network uses what is called push technology to send information, rather than requiring the phone to periodically check if there is any new message. R.I.M. says that its approach uses much less network bandwidth and battery power than other phones.

A company can send messages to users, including sports scores or stock quotes, that can be displayed in applications or on widgets — mini-applications visible on a phone’s home screen. The system also allows an application to send information directly to another BlackBerry running the same application. This peer-to-peer communication can be useful for social networking and games.

R.I.M. is adding other features meant to make it easier for developers to write applications. For example, there are new tools to allow the sort of three-dimensional graphics used in games. And there are new programming tools meant to speed up what has been a difficult process of writing BlackBerry apps.

The company wants to make writing for its phones more lucrative as well. The programming system for apps will make it easy to include advertising sold by several advertising networks. And developers will be able to sell extra content or features to customers from inside the apps, with payments charged to a credit card or PayPal account. Soon, these fees will be able to be charged to cellphone bills.

“This is all about, how do developers make money not by being 1 in 100,000, but by offering rich transformative applications?” said Jim Balsillie, the co-chief executive of R.I.M., in a telephone interview.

A handful of companies, including Yahoo and Electronic Arts, have had a head start using these new tools and will have some applications available soon. But it will be months before BlackBerry users will see if R.I.M. has found a cure for their app deficiency.

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Parties Seek More Time to Craft Google Books Deal

From our colleagues at Media Decoder:

The parties to the Google book settlement, which would legalize the creation of a vast library of digital books, have asked the judge overseeing a revision of the agreement for an extension to this Friday, Nov. 13.

At a hearing in October, Google and its partners at the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers outlined an aggressive timeline for modifying the agreement to satisfy the objections of the Justice Department and other critics. The parties told Judge Denny Chin of the Federal District Court of the Southern District of New York that they would submit a revised settlement for the court’s preliminary approval by Nov. 9.

But on Monday, the parties submitted a letter to the court requesting an extension to Nov. 13. In the letter, the group indicated that it had met with the Justice Department before and after the October status hearing and had met as recently as Friday, Nov. 6. Read more…

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Tagged.com Settles Disputes Over Deceptive Invitations

Update | 5:38 p.m. Corrected post and headline to note that the state attorneys general had announced their intent to sue Tagged.com; they had not actually filed lawsuits.

Social Networking

Tagged.com, the San Francisco-based social network that was criticized earlier this year for deceiving people into signing up for the service, has settled two separate disputes with the attorneys general of New York and Texas.

From April to June of this year, the site sent 60 million messages to Internet users with personal entreaties to join the social network (e.g., “Brad has posted a private photo on tagged.com”). Many recipients say that when they clicked, Tagged.com sent the same invitation to everyone in their e-mail address books. After The Times wrote about the site in June, the two states threatened to sue, saying the company was engaged in illegal and deceptive practices.

Under the settlements, Tagged will pay a $500,000 penalty in New York, a $250,000 penalty in Texas and immediately cease and desist all misleading invitations.

So the company is properly chastised and repentant, right?

Well, in a blog post Monday, the founder of Tagged, Greg Tseng, was more begrudging than apologetic:

For much of the summer, we participated in spirited discussions with the attorneys general, arguing passionately that our business practices are honorable and that 3rd-ranked Tagged simply follows the same business model used by the top two social networking sites — which also rely on the popular ‘invite your friends’ practice to attract more users.

Despite differences of opinion about Tagged’s intentions, we did acknowledge that the membership drive aggravated some customers. We also agreed that Tagged had a responsibility to make sure people who interact with Tagged have a positive experience.

With this mess behind it, Tagged’s big challenge will to be convince people to voluntarily visit and join the site.

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Intel Sells Its Own Reader for the Health Care Market

Intel’s push into the health care arena has the company going some unusual places.

On Tuesday, the chip maker unveiled the Intel Reader, a handheld device for people who struggle to read standard texts because of conditions ranging from dyslexia to blindness. The Intel Reader can scan books and other printed material, turn the text into a digital form and then read it aloud. Intel looks to sell the device through resellers like HumanWare and Howard Technology Solutions that cater to the assistive technology and medical technology markets.

In the mainstream computer market, Intel will sometimes make prototype products that show off the power of its chips. The company, however, has resisted bringing such products to market and always steps aside to let its PC-making customers go directly after end users. But, in the healthcare market, Intel has opted to sell its own gear.

The device costs about $1,500, which may sound pricey for a fixed-function type of computing device. But, as I pointed out in an article in September, many of the text-to-speech products covered by Medicare and healthy insurance companies start at $5,000 and run up to $10,000. The high-cost of such products, along with their limited functions, has resulted in people with a variety of conditions adding cheap text-to-speech software to iPhones and netbooks to create their own assistive devices.

“The direct sales of products is part of our strategy in the health area,” said Ben Foss, the director of access technology in Intel’s Digital Health Group. “These markets are large and going after them is important. We are trying to get economies of scale.”

For Mr. Foss, the Intel Reader arrives with a personal twist. Mr. Foss has dyslexia and went through special education classes in elementary school. In college, Mr. Foss would fax his assignments home, so that his mother could read the projects out loud to him on the phone.

“My speech technology was my mom,” he said.

The Intel Reader has a 5-megapixel camera that lets people point the device at reading material and capture the text. Software helps align pages correctly and fix things like shadows or curved pages. In addition, Intel is selling a complementary scanning station product that can digitize text and transfer the information over to the Intel Reader.

At its core, the Intel Reader runs on Intel’s own modified version of Linux called Moblin, although general purpose computing functions have been limited. For example, the computer lacks wireless support. “We didn’t put it in because we didn’t want students surfing the Internet,” Mr. Foss said.

As things stand today, health insurers decline to cover general purpose computing systems. Instead, they will cover the $5,000 to $10,000 products that can only perform text-to-speech functions. In some cases, people use their health insurance money to buy such text-to-speech devices and then pay about $50 later to “activate” the products and turn them into full-fledged computers.

“The product definitions the government and insurers use are a bit peculiar,” Mr. Foss said.

Interestingly, Mr. Foss said that Great Britain has a more flexible program in place that gives students a 5000-pound grant to buy whatever assistive technology they need before heading to university.

Intel looks to make a variety of devices for the healthcare market as it tries to find more uses for its chips. The company has been going after products that make it easier for doctors and nurses to pull up digital records along with talking up home health products that can perform certain tests and link patients remotely with their doctors.

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Google Latitude Gets Creepy With Location History And Alerts

Google already knows too much about me, yet Google Latitude's Location History and Location Alerts features are still creepy. But they're useful, because together they learn your usual hangouts and know when you don't need notifications of who's nearby.

The Location History feature does just what you think it would by allowing you to view your previous Latitude locations. And the Location Alerts are little notifications when a friend is nearby and spare you from constantly checking Latitude. Since it'd be pretty annoying to get a notification that your boss is in fact in his office every time you go to work, you can use both features together and let Latitude learn your frequently visited places. It'll keep track of patterns and skip sending unneeded alerts. Creepy, yet oh-so-useful. [Google Mobile Blog]

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Remainders - Things We Didn't Post (and Why)

Apple Stomps Over Nokia to Become Most Profitable Phone-Maker in US...Windows Mobile 7 Is on Track for an Early 2010 Release to OEMs...Bing Videos Aggregates Hulu, YouTube, ABC and More...Non-Apple Companies to Support Mini DisplayPort Soon...

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The Nokia N900 Isn't A Phone, It's A Psychotic ShapeshifterWhile we've been sitting, waiting, wishing for the Nokia N900, we missed something very i

While we've been sitting, waiting, wishing for the Nokia N900, we missed something very important: It's not a phone. As this Nokia ad shows, it's actually a psychotic shapeshifter. At least I think that's the message they're trying to send.

If you don't feel like watching the whole ad, jump to about 1:50. It's where the truth is revealed. It's also the moment when I began to daydream about the days when ads actually showed the product for more than a few seconds. [Thanks, GitEmSteveDave!]

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