3d illusion arts: Walyou

Walyou

New Samsung Deal May Rock Blackberry’s Boat
Nokia Lumia Icon Launches on Verizon Wireless
Amazon Prime Price Increase Being “Considered” by Retailer
Rakuten Acquired Skype Rival Viber for $900m
Apple TV to Ink Content Deal With Time Warner (and Comcast)?

New Samsung Deal May Rock Blackberry’s Boat

Posted: 14 Feb 2014 06:00 AM PST

Samsung sold over 23 million Galaxy S4 units since last April, so contracts for a few thousand phones seem like ripples to them, but may make waves for others.

Samsung just closed a deal with the United States military to sell 7,000 Galaxy Note II smartphones for use in its "Nett Warrior System," which uses the phone as a chest mounted device for use in localization awareness and communications while on the battlefield.

While it may appear to just be a drop in the bucket for Samsung, this will have far reaching implications for Blackberry, who has relied on Government contracts just to stay afloat the past few years. This deal—alongside a pending deal with the NSA—will strike a major blow to Blackberry's image as the most secure and reliable option for tightly regulated organizations.

Blackberry was able to ink a recent deal with the Pentagon, though, so this doesn't take all the wind out of their sails, but it does signal a change in current, and Blackberry has already been swimming upstream. Now that the US Government well has begun to run dry, they will need to turn towards the consumer market, which has never been a large flow of income for the Canadian company.

That may change with the big improvements in the recent updates to the BB10 operating system—which enables a much more seamless integration with the Android app library—and the potential for a big splash with the rumored 64-Bit Octa core phone coming later this year, but they have a lot of work to do in order to turn the tide against a lot of businesses and customers that have soured on the brand over the past decade.

Prior to the acquisition of Motorola Mobility, Lenovo was looking at buying Blackberry, but the offer was turned down. Blackberry does still have value as a hardware manufacturer and has a large patent portfolio, which seems like it may wet the whistle for other potential acquisitions.

The fact that Blackberry is still around is considered a miracle by many, but they are running out of employees to lay off and can no longer spend money like water, so unless they can stop sinking, 2014 may be the last year of blackberry as we know it.

Source: BGR, US ARMY, Berry Review

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Nokia Lumia Icon Launches on Verizon Wireless

Posted: 14 Feb 2014 05:30 AM PST

The latest Windows Phone 8 flagship made by the Finnish company will be available exclusively on Verizon Wireless starting on February 20.

Thanks to the recent Windows Phone GDR3 update, smartphones running Microsoft’s mobile OS can now have large screens and 1080p resolutions, and Nokia Lumia Icon is a prime example of that. This 5-inch WP8 will come to Verizon in black or white on February 20, and pricing should start at $199.99. However, full retail or Edge pricing is said to be $550.

Ifi Majid, Nokia’s president of North American marketing, stated in an interview with The Verge that “We want people to really remember this product.” Even though it also has a number, namely 929, Nokia wants us to call this just Lumia Icon. Frankly, it certainly doesn’t look much different from its Lumia predecessors, so the only thing that could ever make this smartphone worth remembering is the internal hardware.

Nokia claims that Windows Phone 8 isn’t what it used to be, but even Microsoft, who considers bringing Android apps to WP, seems to think otherwise. Until WP 8.1 will be launched, Nokia is stuck with a poor app ecosystem that simply cannot be compared to Android or iOS.

In terms of remarkable features, Nokia Lumia Icon comes with an impressive 20 MP PureView rear camera whose shutter can be triggered either by tapping the screeen or by pressing the dedicated camera button. The 5-inch Full HD ClearBlack display is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 3, which should give users a bit of peace of mind. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 chipset powering this device packs a Quad-core 2.2 GHz Krait 400 CPU and an Adreno 330 GPU. As far as memory goes, the Icon comes with 2GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage that cannot be expanded in any way, since the device doesn’t have a microSD slot.

The 2,420mAh battery can be charged wirelessly, and in my opinion, all smartphones should carry this feature, not only flagships. The complete technical specs of Nokia Lumia Icon are available on GSMArena.

Lumia Icon is by no means a revolutionary device, but it’s a step forward for Nokia and Microsoft. Apart from the camera, every other specification can be easily surpassed by Android flagships. Speaking of Android, it will be interesting to see if Nokia finally decides to launch their Android-running Normandy at MWC, in Barcelona. The latest rumors claim that it will cost $110, so it will actually be a low-end Android device.

Be social! Follow Walyou on Facebook and Twitter, and read more related stories such as this comparison between Samsung Galaxy S4 and Nokia Lumia 1020, and the Android-running Nokia Normandy that might be launched later this month.

Amazon Prime Price Increase Being “Considered” by Retailer

Posted: 14 Feb 2014 05:00 AM PST

Previously a cheap and efficient way to get your Amazon packages in the post, Amazon Prime's price is reportedly set to increase in a big way.

No one very much likes to wait. It is, perhaps, the only downside to online shopping. The wait for your brown, niftily put together packages, emblazoned with the familiar Amazon logo, can be a long and arduous one; if you want to save money with the cheapest delivery option, that is. It's the sitting in front of the letter box waiting for the satisfying thud of a parcel hitting the mat and the seconds dripping away slowly from the listing-to-checkout clicks of your mouse to the arrival of your product. But as Amazon somewhat helped to cancel this out some time ago, by bringing in Amazon Prime, a service that gets orders to your door in just two days, there have been few of these extended waiting periods. However, as Amazon Prime's price is set to increase, speedy deliveries may become a luxury that many of us can't afford.

The news of a price hike comes in a recent Amazon investors call, with Tom Szkutak, Amazon’s CFO, saying that the online retailer were "considering" a an increase on Amazon Prime's current $79 price tag. Should Amazon actually follow through, as suggested, the service, which includes free two-day shipping, could add between $20 and $40 onto that, making it almost twice as expensive for Amazon Prime's "tens of millions" of customers, a figure that the company cited in December. Also interesting is how much these same customers will be left in the lurch, as Amazon have failed to offer a timeline for when the possible price increase could take place when asked by an analyst, which is especially unhelpful given that users are automatically re-enrolled after a year of Amazon Prime.

Reasons for the price increase aren't clear either as while Szktuak explained that Amazon Prime Instant Video and the digital Kindle Owners' Lending Library (two features that Amazon Prime subscriptions give access to) were pricey for the company, rising fuel and shipping costs were also cited. However, another reason for the Amazon Prime price increase could actually be down to Amazon looking to increase their profit margins, as while they earned billions in revenue in the recent financial year, they almost failed to make a profit entirely, suggesting that extra charges will be used to boost not only their bottom line but future business ideas too, such as an Amazon Prime Air drone delivery service.

We'll keep you posted once we know more.

Source: The Huffington Post

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Rakuten Acquired Skype Rival Viber for $900m

Posted: 14 Feb 2014 04:30 AM PST

In order to expand its digital empire, Japanese Internet company Rakuten Inc bought what is thought to have become a true Skype competitor for $900 million.

The proprietary cross-platform instant messaging voice-over-IP smartphone app created by Israeli entrepreneur Talmon Marco in 2010 became quite a phenomenon in recent times. As a smartphone app, Viber did a lot of things right. For example, it enabled users to create a Viber account using only their phone number, without complicated usernames and passwords. Secondly, it was able to find people using Viber in the contacts list, without requiring to add each person. Later on, a Viber app for desktop was launched, making rivalry with Skype even more obvious. Now, e-commerce giant Rakuten will benefit not only of Viber’s features, but also of its user base, and everything for just $900m.

Hiroshi Mikitani, the Japanese billionaire who co-founded and currently controls Rakuten, told reporters in Tokyo that “This acquisition will take Rakuten to a different level. Developing this messaging system on our own would have been impossible.” In my opinion, he’s perfectly right. When there is a demand and the money for supplying it is not a problem, why spend time to develop a messaging system, if you can simply buy it?

One of the top 5 most downloaded smartphone phone call and messaging apps (the others being Skype, WeChat, Whatsapp and Line), Viber is primarily used by people from the United States, Russia and Australia. The app reached 300 million users recently, and Viber’s acquisition by Rakuten will see all of them added to the Japanese e-commerce giant’s existing 200 million users.

Mikitani couldn’t help to express his excitement regarding this important acquisition: “I am tremendously excited to welcome Viber to the Rakuten family. Viber delivers the most consistently high quality and convenient messaging and VoIP experience available. Additionally, Viber has introduced a great sticker market and has tremendous potential as a gaming platform.”

Viber and Rakuten claim that the acquisition will be completed by the end of March. There has been no word on whether Viber’s employees will continue working for Rakuten, but the way I see it, that would be very difficult. The employees would have to either work online for Rakuten or relocate have world away, from Cyprus, where Talmon Marco ran the company, to Japan.

Be social! Follow Walyou on Facebook and Twitter, and read more related stories such as the first post on Walyou about Viber and the DM-only app that Twitter was rumored to work on.

Apple TV to Ink Content Deal With Time Warner (and Comcast)?

Posted: 14 Feb 2014 04:00 AM PST

While rumors of an Apple television set still swirl, Apple TV continues to grow, and rumor has it Apple is about to release a new model this April.

Streaming services are starting to look even more appealing to cord-cutters as services such as Netflix have been producing award winning content that completes with the likes of Hollywood or HBO for the first time. As a result, streaming devices like Apple TV, Chromecast, and Roku are even more integral to a post cord household.

Recent rumors suggest that the newest Apple TV could be going a similar direction the the Xbox One, though, with a possible deal with Time Warner in the works. Having access to both premium internet and cable content could be a big selling point over other streaming services. The added benefit may be necessary as the $99 price tag is hard to justify when something like the Google Chromecast is only $35.

The recent announcement of a possible acquisition of Time Warner by Comcast may change Apple's plans for the device, but the Wall Street Journal suggests that Apple wants to make the 5 newest episodes of all TV shows available, also making them a direct competitor of services such as Hulu.

Whether or not this acquisition will actually be allowed is a big question, as the deal could be blocked by the US Department of Justice, or in court by competing companies (much in the same way that Sprint worked to block the acquisition of T-Mobile by AT&T a few years ago), but it’s doubtful the outcome will drastically affect any potential deal in the works with Apple.

With Internet content and broadcast/cable television content at odds, this device could be one to actually change the way we watch our video content, much in the same way that iTunes changed the way we purchase and listen to music.

the existence of such a device like won’t necessarily make the internet streaming industry and the cable/broadcast industry actually play nice, but so long as all the content is easily available to stream to our televisions, I'm not sure anyone really cares.

Source: Engadget, BGR, WSJ

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