Tag Archives: Samsung

Business, Technology

Galaxy Gear: Samsung’s Watch Ready to Wear Soon

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Galaxy Gear: Samsung’s big move to one-up Apple | Mobile – CNET News.

Looking at this article, I would consider another draw as a smashing success.  Looking at the analog clock mode on the watch, I would think if Samsung could partner with some of the best watch makers in the world to get unique designs, digitize them, and bring them to Samsung’s Watch Face, this would be a tremendous draw.  People often look at other people’s watches, and say, wow, face design.  It would’t be a stretch to get a few unique designs from some of these designers:

Business, Technology

NFC Replaces Secure Digital Memory for Data Transfer in Art Galleries?

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NFC (Near Field Communications) has significant potential in the transfer of information, and has already proven to be a lightweight technology to transfer and store data.  We have already seen at this year’s CES conference business cards enable the transfer of songs from an NFC enabled business card to a car radio.  Samsung has enabled this technology in their smartphones to transfer data such as videos and pictures.

There will come a day soon where we will have built in storage in a device, such as a picture frame, or television, and the NFC card will allow the transfer of information to this temporary buffer in the device for playing music, watching videos, or looking at pictures. This day is not far off.  Yes, those LCD picture frames in your home that take SD memory are outdated.

Apple made an acquisition of a company that has the ability to enable an LCD touch screen to raise a keyboard through the touch screen, so the user has the tactile contact of the keyboard.  We may go back to typing on the keyboard without looking, like we do with smartphones with keyboards.  I envision an art gallery that has huge LCD screens all around the room, and switching an artist on display would be as easy as walking over to each LCD picture frame and taping the frame enabled with this raised, tactile LCD technology.  In the artist’s creation, the paint of the brushstrokes may appear raised from the LCD canvas, with a three dimensional effect on the picture frame.  An artist making an art creation would make brush strokes using a digital brush, pressing like you would on a canvas, choosing the appropriate paint may record the additional information required to display a three dimensional painting.

Picture that.

Addendum:

After additional research, the one inhibitor, which may pose a significant barrier, and provides optimal data transfer of smaller data packets.

The maximum data transfer rate of NFC (424 kbit/s) is slower than that of Bluetooth V2.1 (2.1 Mbit/s), as noted in Wikipedia.

The speed of MicroSD Speed Class 10 is 10 MB/sec, significantly greater, as well as the advanced UHS, or Ultra High Speed Class, UHS-I has a 50 MB/s, and UHS-II has a theoretical maximum transfer rate of 312 MB/s.

Although, the idea of NFC, or Bluetooth for the matter, has a conceptual idea of tap and transfer high rates for large data to internal memory buffers in devices, the reality is that the  WiFi connectivity speeds outweigh both NFC and Bluetooth, and MicroSD, physical medium outweighs NFC / Bluetooth.  If this idea had merit today, you would need to apply a WiFi connected device to get the maximum throughput without physical media, such as secure digital, or continue to leverage physical media for transfer and still use the memory buffer as a temporary storage in devices, as noted in the article.

Business, Technology

Retail Boutique Model a Good Move for Electronics Manufacturers?

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Samsung To Open Retail Boutiques In 1,400 Best Buy Stores | TechCrunch.

In large retail stores like Bloomingdales, they commonly have sections within a floor, that contain sales representatives that work directly for the manufacturer.   For example, a Ralph Lauren representative works in their section, and is indirectly motivated by Bloomingdales, but is directly motivated by their sales manufacturer, Ralph Lauren.  This happens with many retail manufacturers, from cutlery to clothing.  Retail manufacturers ae embedded in the retail stores, and speaking with a manager of one of these retail departments, it seems to work.  The representative didn’t report directly to the store manager, it was more like a matrix management, but they were aligned to the manufacturer and the manager stated in some good years, these manufacturing sales representatives did extremely well financially.

So, does this model work?  It sure seems like it.  When I was at the 2013 CES show this year, I saw several amazing booths, including the Samsung booth.  It’s style was amazing, and the layout was beautiful.  In retail outlets like the Bloomingdales example I mentioned, the manufacturer representative has a certain amount of design and layout abilities, so long as it fits in with the store main style guidelines.  This is a perfect opportunity for Samsung and Best Buy to make the concept wildly successful, and they are betting big.  When I go into electronics stores, the sales representatives are not typically motivated one way or the other by which product to motivate the consumer.  I was in Target, where there ws one sales representative / manager that handled all of the carriers, as well as all of the handset models.   What if these carriers, and/or manufacturers were parsed off, botiques were created, and sales representatives were now incentised by the manufacturers, their layouts may conform to their corporate standards, and they were additionally monetarily incentized by their sales.

We could be in unique situation for an uptick in Brick and Mortar retail sales.

Business, Technology

Samsung and Cambridge to Produce Interactive Avatar

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BBC News – Is this interactive avatar the face of the future?.

I read this article, and instantly saw a logical progression of taking the eye & facial tracking software, such as built in Samsung S4, and integrating that feature with a cost effective version of the Cambridge project.  There are many applications:

  • The S Voice Drive, or another voice recognition component driving smartphone features may display, instead of the typical microphone, a ‘friendly’ avatar, such as one of several choices, e.g. a famous star, a comedian  an actress, or sports athlete.   Then the eye and facial tracking software may ask you what you want smartphone functions you want to perform.
  • An AI induction engine, i.e. an learning rules engine, may record your facial gestures, eye movements, as well as sounds, even inflection, as data points to correlate, so now the responses can be proactive, not reactive, e.g. the avatar would say, “Should I call your wife?   You seem tense, and you may want to call her to relax you.”
  • This is a slippery slope with respect to an AI providing advice on how to react to human output, such as eye movements and facial gestures.  It seems people are, at present, more comfortable with integrating mechanical AI induction engines, such as an eye movement to turn a page, read mail or make a phone call.  These very mechanical processes and allow people to feel more comfortable with the technology.
Business, Mobility, Technology

Actor Voice Overs for Apple’s Siri and Google’s AI Voice

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There should be add on, for purchase, modification packs, for the smartphone’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) Voice Command module, e.g. SIRI, or Google’s AI Voice Recognition, this way any retired, or semi retired actor gets easy money going into a studio recording their well known voice, and royalties go to the companies that are selling the AI voice over modification package, so instead of the standard woman’s voice, you can get anyone who would sell their voice.  It should be extremely easy to implement, the voice is probably a vocabulary indexed with certain words.  The actors or actresses need to record their voices saying a specific set of words as defined by the library of words, and I hope the Android and Apple operating system companies thought ahead to make these libraries like plug and play adaptable.  If Apple or Google made the AI Voice API open so anyone can record their voice and interchange with the default voice, actors, actresses, musicians, or anyone can sell their voice in the Mobile Vendor’s marketplace as an add on module.

Business, Technology

Microsoft Surface, MacBook Pro, the MagSafe 2 Power Port, & Licensing

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I checked out the Microsoft Surface in the Microsoft Store, and the new Microsoft Operating System is leaps and bounds beyond Windows 7, on par with the intuitiveness of Apple.  I recently purchased a MacBook Pro to replace my daughter’s old hand me down MacBook I had from January 2009.  It is awesome, I wanted another white one, but I am ok with the silver one as well.  Still the Apple OS is amazingly intuitive, and in many cases my 12 year old runs rings around me with knowing her Mac OS.  It’s the first time something like that happened.  I’ve been programming since I was 8 in original basic, and had a BBS when I was 12, program in 9+ computer languages, but my 9 year old put me in my place. It was a bit of a humbling experience, but I gave her a computer when she was 3, and she was using it like a champ then, so I should be proud, and am.  For my other daughter, she is a PC girl, nine years old, my little blond, my first is a brunette, and my son now is just over 1 1/2 another blond, my luck.  Tough guy too so far.  Anyway, We went into the Windows store and Eric, the sales representative, was very knowedgable about the OS.  I am a flurry with questions but tried to guide my nine year old, and shut my mouth, after all, it will be her PC/Tablet, with the cute little Keyboard.  I was initially worried about the physical design with respect to the keyboard, popping on and off, thought they were using some kind of classic interlink, cartridge like, locking mechanism, but the sales representative said they were using a magnetic locking mechanism.  So, slowly in my mind I thought about the power of the magnetics, interference with the display, electronics, and the half life of a weak magnetic, and came to the conclusion, if Apple could do it with their powering mechanism, although small, same physics should apply.  Further into the sales presentation, he showed me each of the ports, and wouldn’t you know it, powering the Surface Tablet also uses a similar technology of magnetics, same as the Apple, so after I was completely sold on getting my youngest daughter a Surface Tablet, despite small evolutionary, yet, I am sure, with progression, they would develop the obvious small features I would like to see, I was again, enamored with Microsoft, and that has not happened in a long time.  I’m already trying to pitch to my wife all the angles how to spend the money for the device.  Office is included in the Surface RT Tablet, so that’s a ~300 USD savings right there, I say to the guy, as I am trying out my own pitch to the wife.  Already lowers the price of the device, so I go home, and start thinking, I always knew there was some kind of Gentleman’s agreement between MSFT and Apple, and even saw the presence of that in an article.

Here was the bit, with all the lawsuits, why is Apple not suing Microsoft over the “MagSafe 2 Power Port” magnetic power outlet, from their specification? They must be either licensing the technology from Apple, right?  If not, there must be a major deviation in the specification of the port, although it clearly looks similar.  Anyway, it was just something to think about, because if Apple is not suing Microsoft, they are not officially licensing the port specification, and the magnetic powering specification is similar enough, then that seems to be a huge double standard between Apple and Samsung.  Thoughts?  Interestingly, the Windows Surface RT Specifications don’t even mention the power port as a feature where as Apple does highlight this feature, great feature by the way.

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Business, Science, Technology

Hotspot Companies Sell Smartphones and Data Plans, use Affiliate Networking to fill Gaps

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I’m using my Samsung S3, which I throughly enjoy, but I am eyeing the new Nokia Lumina 920 with Windows 8, and not to mention my old fling with the iPhone 5, and I see an article that AT&T is now the largest hotspot provider.  I’m also eyeing the prices of these phones without a contract, and don’t want to take out a 4th mortgage.  Alternatives?  Why aren’t the Wireless Carriers, and even cable companies that offer currently free hotspots add or change their business models, where we can sign up for two year agreements for data only plans, and sell subsidized smartphones and WiFi only usage?  Even cable companies that give away their hotspot coverage, start charging $20, $30 a month depending on GB usage plans and even $40 per month for unlimited.  Are the cable and wireless companies worried about coverage?  Treat it like toll charges and chargeback to the provider.  The consumer gets relatively seamless transition with an app that handles the switch between WiFi spots.  Even more wild, have any business or residence with a wireless router that wants to sign up to have the ability to sign up to be an ‘affiliate WiFi provider’, and they too can get a toll chargeback, given they are approved, e.g. running upgraded software on their router for handling transitions between WiFi hotspots and security.  The consumer can receive a credit on their monthly cable or wireless statement for their shared bandwidth chargeback usage.  Its like when people charge for their surplus of their energy from their solar panels.  It’s ok to charge a cancellation fee of $400 or prorated based on months of usage if the smartphone user exits the contract early.Get those cool devices in the hands of consumers, and you’re now able to pay for the WiFi infrastructure you’re built up, and your giving incentives to consumers with WiFI routers.   I like this technology because the Cable, and Cell Phone companies can even lease this to the consumer, and the consumer can get a charge back from usage.

The technology is primarily available, the business model is required to implement:

Note from Wikipedia: Femtocell

In telecommunications, a femtocell is a small, low-power cellular base station, typically designed for use in a home or small business. A broader term which is more widespread in the industry is small cell, with femtocell as a subset. It connects to the service provider’s network via broadband (such as DSLor cable); current designs typically support two to four active mobile phones in a residential setting, and eight to 16 active mobile phones in enterprise settings. A femtocell allows service providers to extend service coverage indoors or at the cell edge, especially where access would otherwise be limited or unavailable. Although much attention is focused on WCDMA, the concept is applicable to all standards, including GSM, CDMA2000, TD-SCDMA, WiMAXand LTE solutions.

Business, Finance, Politics, Technology

Is the Apple and Samsung Battle Really about Android verse iOS?

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Is this just a question of Samsung verse Apple, or iOS verse Android, but Apple is not battling the U.S. company, Google, and Google is not defending it’s partner because it has its own internally acquired hardware vendor, Motorola Mobility?

Since Samsung is a foreign company, should it be protected under United States Antitrust regulations, and if so, do they apply?  If by taking Samsung out of the U.S. marketplace, would Apple monopolize the marketplace?  Is it a grey area, the current number of mobile hardware manufacturers, relative to their share in the market, and how much control Apple would have shaping the U.S. marketplace if Samsung was removed?  Are the mobile hardware and/or OS manufactures an Oligopoly or a Monopoly?  As an example article, here is a brief statement on Monopolies and Oligopolies, and examples of Oligopolies. U.S Antitrust Laws could apply, but this decision should at least be presented to the U.S. Supreme Court, and possibly in a different context.  Is this a hardware manufacturer issue, or a mobile Operating System issue?

I continually see news articles like, Apple wants ban on Samsung products, even more damages.  Here is a solid paper from a Law student at Fordham regarding Oligopolies and Antitrust Law.  It started to make me think, along with another article from CNN Money, Android races past Apple in smartphone market share.  In the article it mentions how RIMM and Nokia / Symbian fell in market share significantly, and the top two competitors are Apple and Android.  For me, these articles raised a few questions.  Clearly RIMM and Nokia/Symbian differ in form factor and feature capabilities, and have been outpaced by Apple and Android.  Google purchasing Motorola Mobility seemed to enhance the lack of Google’s interest in backing other hardware manufacturers.  My first question is what is the difference between generic drugs and name brand drugs, and this situation, and how do Generics persist in the marketplace?  Is this battle really Android versus Apple, but Google is keeping an arm’s length because they have their own hardware manufacturer internally?  Second, are every single innovation adopted by one OS and/or hardware manufacturer, e.g. mutithreaded / multitasking support, all up for debate, fines, and closed the ability to compete in the marketplace.  This situation smells of geopolitics, and how American Capitalism marketplace may be leveraging some form of Protectionism.  Again, this case, and possibly Samsung should partner with another Android OS partner, possibly outside the U.S., to transform this case to the U.S. Supreme Court, and make this about the Operating Systems rather than hardware.