WATCH: Microsoft introduces HoloLens 2 with enhanced immersion

To open the Mobile World Congress this year, Microsoft unveiled the HoloLens 2 with better hand tracking and improved direct hologram manipulation without complementary hand controllers.

Three years after the release of the first HoloLens, Microsoft debuted the HoloLens 2 complete with an enhanced immersive experience and finished with a more comfortable headset design.


Most significantly, user interaction with the holograms, which are now more vibrant and more realistic, has been considerably improved without the addition of dedicated controllers, thanks to built-in AI tech and a new time-of-flight sensor.

The original HoloLens could only recognize basic tap and click gestures, but the second generation has been upgraded to recognize 21 points of articulation per hand. In the same way, you would manipulate objects in the real world, you can manipulate objects in the holographic world; the control has become more natural and instinctive.

Control has been further enhanced with integrated eye-tracking sensors which offer “enterprise-grade” authentication via iris recognition: it is easy for multiple people to log in and out quickly and efficiently. This is especially useful considering that a single headset is typically used by many.

Plus, if several people are using a device, it is now easier to adjust the fit. The headset has been redesigned to comfortably mold to anybody’s head, glasses or no glasses.

Like the first, the HoloLens 2 is targeted at businesses and academic settings including construction sites, factories, operating rooms and classrooms, so do not expect this headset to be popping up even in your tech-savvy friends’ homes. The price tag of $3,500 (about P182,000) certainly limits consumer accessibility, though Microsoft did say at the MWC that the upcoming HoloLens 3 may be more tailored and priced for the average person.

Enthusiasts can preorder the HoloLens 2, but the official launch date has not been announced. JB

source: technology.inquirer.net

Samsung launches new S9 phone with augmented reality features

BARCELONA, Spain — Samsung unveiled its new flagship smartphone on Sunday with a focus on augmented reality features as it seeks to keep its title as the world’s biggest smartphone maker.

The South Korean firm showcased the Galaxy S9 on the eve of the official start of the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, which comes after a year of flat smartphone sales.

With no other major handset maker using the annual event, the world’s largest phone show, to launch a new flagship device this year, Samsung had the opportunity to grab the spotlight.

The S9 features essentially the same design as last year’s previous flagship, with the full screen and curved glass edge of the S8, which was followed by Apple’s iPhone X and others.

But it includes louder sound, a faster processor and software that turns selfies into animated emojis, which will appeal to consumers who are increasingly preferring to use their phones to send text messages rather than talking.

Samsung also included a dual lens camera on the Galaxy S line for the first time, which will improve low-light capture and enhance slow motion video, which is popular on social media.

A service powered by artificial intelligence (AI) allows users to point its camera to instantly translate a sign in a foreign language.

It is also one of the few flagship phones left that still comes with a standard headphone jack.

“Despite these incremental innovations, Samsung will have to smartly leverage its brand and marketing machine to correctly position the new smartphones to a target audience,” said Forrester analyst Thomas Husson.

Global smartphone sales fell by 6.3 percent in the fourth quarter due to slower than expected Christmas sales, according to research firm IDC.

Overall global smartphone sales for 2017 were virtually flat — down 0.1 percent at 1.47 billion units — as phone makers struggled to come up with innovations that encourage customers to upgrade their devices.

Cost concerns

Samsung suffered a humiliating recall of its Galaxy Note 7 device in 2016 after several devices exploded, but its Galaxy 8 smartphone was a consumer and critical success.

While it kept its lead over Apple as the world’s biggest seller of smartphones in 2017 with a 21.6 percent market share, up from 21.1 percent in the previous year, Samsung faces stiffer competition from Chinese rivals like Huawei and Xiaomi that offer cheaper handsets with many high-end features.

The S9 will sell for 859 euros ($1,055), a price which analysts warned could turn off many consumers.

While the S9’s camera is “markedly different” in quality from older smartphones that people already own “consumers may delay purchase because of rising flagship prices,” IHS Markit said in a research note.

“Samsung must work hard to market the benefits of these designs to counter negative pricing perception.”

Huawei unveiled a new laptop and tablet in Barcelona earlier on Sunday but will present its new flagship smartphone — the P20 — on March 27 in Paris.

Thomas said this will allow it to “fine tune its marketing message based on how the new Samsung S9 devices are perceived by consumers”.

Earlier on Sunday South Korea’s LG unveiled the V30S — an updated version of its flagship V30 smartphone launched six months ago — which features higher memory and artificial intelligence-based technologies that focus on photos and voice recognition.

More than 100,000 people are expected to descend on Barcelona for the annual show, which features driverless carmakers, social media giants and chip companies in addition to handset makers. /cbb

source: technology.inquirer.net

Samsung Galaxy S8 rumored to have 6-inch screen

Evan “Evleaks” Blass has done it again. As Samsung tries to keep the lid tight on its upcoming flagship smartphone, a mostly complete spec sheet has been leaked by the prominent phone leaker.

Engadget reports that while the leaked spec sheet is still very much in rumor territory, Blass has had a good track record so far. That said, it’s interesting to see that the Galaxy S8+ will be getting a very large 6.2-inch Quad HD+ Super AMOLED display. That is just 0.1mm shy of Lenovo’s 6.3-inch monster-of-a-phone, the Phab2. It’s even larger than the retired Galaxy Note 7.

Unlike the Phab2, the supposed Galaxy S8+ might actually be a lot smaller, thanks to Samsung’s super slim bezel design. After all, previous reports stated that Samsung is not quite done with the Note line and a phablet-sized flagship phone would essentially render any Note device in the future redundant.

The rest of the items listed on the spec sheet are hardly attention grabbers. An iris scanner, LTE connectivity, 4GB RAM, 64GB internal storage, and a 12-megapixel rear camera are all fairly standard for high-end devices.

Since Samsung won’t be launching the Galaxy S8 at the Mobile World Congress next week, we’ll just have to wait and see what innovations and gimmicks they will come up with to differentiate their device from the crop of flagship phones fresh from the congress. Alfred Bayle/JB

source: technology.inquirer.net

Chinese phones go global after pushing aside Apple, Samsung

SEOUL, South Korea — Move over, Apple and Samsung. The next big smartphone might be from little-known Chinese brands such as TCL and OPPO.

Along with other Chinese phone makers such as Huawei and Xiaomi, Chinese brands have surpassed Samsung in China and are encroaching on Apple’s turf. In the coming years, analysts forecast that these cheap Android phones with not-so-cheap features will likely attract more budget-conscious customers in Europe and even in Samsung’s and Apple’s home markets, South Korea and the United States.

Chinese phone makers made their global ambitions known at this week’s Mobile World Congress wireless show in Barcelona, Spain. Huawei and TCL vied to steal the spotlight from Samsung and LG, both of which announced new high-end phones at the show. Xiaomi, which typically launches phones in China, will preview the Mi 5 phone in Barcelona on Wednesday.

“The Chinese smartphone vendors have a very unique feature — it is the price,” said Shu On Kwok, editor of AndroidPIT, a website that tracks Android developments. “You get the same features as an LG or a Samsung smartphone has hardware-wise, but for a lower price.”

Samsung saw its market share decline in 2015, while Apple forecast its first revenue decline in over 13 years. Both will have to do more to prove the value of the extra dollars their customers pay.

Along with premium hardware, Apple has tried to position its products as unique by offering software, services and apps that work only on Apple devices — although in many cases comparable services are available for Android devices.

At Samsung’s product event Sunday, mobile chief D.J. Koh said “we have other ideas” beyond core smartphone features. Samsung, for instance, is promoting its Galaxy phones’ compatibility with a Samsung virtual-reality headset and an upcoming 360-degree camera. But VR is still in its early days, of interest largely to gamers and tech pioneers.

The Chinese brands have already taken their toll on Samsung. Although it’s still the largest smartphone maker in the world, Samsung is no longer among the top five phone makers in China, according to market research firms IDC and Counterpoint Technology. Profits from the mobile business have plunged to less than half of what it was in its heyday. Apple’s sales in China rose in the fourth quarter, but its growth was outshined by Huawei.

But bad news for manufacturers is good news for consumers.

Many of these Chinese companies sell decent phones for less than $200, compared with about $650 for an iPhone or high-end Samsung Galaxy phone. In other words, for the same price, customers can buy three or four smartphones with decent cameras and screens.

Chinese makers can keep prices low by reducing the profit margin and turning to cheaper components that are a year or two old. That means high-end phones still take better pictures and have sleeker, thinner designs. But phone innovation has slowed, and the advances appear marginal to many consumers. A Huawei photo taken in good light often looks just as good as an iPhone or Samsung shot when displayed on a small phone screen.

Melissa Chau, senior research manager at IDC, said Chinese companies are catching up on phone design and quality even more quickly than Samsung did a few years ago.

“Samsung was a fast follower in terms of innovation,” Chau said. “These Chinese players, they are even faster.”

And while these phone companies are pushing cheap phones, they are starting to succeed in getting customers to pay more — though still not as much as an iPhone or a high-end Galaxy. For instance, the average price for Huawei smartphones in China was $213 last year, up 21 percent from 2014, according to IDC.

Having succeeded in China, these phone makers are looking elsewhere to grow. OPPO, China’s fourth-largest smartphone maker according to IDC, is marketing aggressively in southeast Asia. Xiaomi already sells phones in Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia.

At the Barcelona show, Huawei executive Adam Joshua said that while the company’s focus has been on emerging markets, it also has eyes on “the European market, Australia, and obviously the last big one, the U.S.”

Analysts said Huawei and Xiaomi will likely steal customers from Apple and Samsung in their strongholds as some budget-conscious consumers seek to upgrade their phones without financial pressure.

When South Koreans were just starting to buy smartphones, many upgraded frequently to get longer-lasting batteries, sharper cameras and larger screens.

Now fewer consumers care whether they have the latest technologies, said Oh Bong Yeon, a 38-year-old South Korean. They may even wait several months until the price drops. Although Oh has the iPhone 6, he said he would buy Huawei’s flagship smartphone if the company starts selling it in South Korea.

Raphael Rashid, 28, a British citizen living in Seoul, loves his Xiaomi Redmi Note 2, which his friend bought for him in China for about $120. Before Xiaomi, Rashid used a $150 Huawei smartphone for about a year.

“For a thousand dollars, I can get five new phones in the space of two years,” he said. “I’ll always have the latest phone.”

Much of the growth comes from consumers who feel comfortable buying phones directly from manufacturers online, rather than from the wireless carrier. In the U.S., consumers are just starting to warm up to direct online sales, especially as carriers stop offering discounts in exchange for two-year contracts.

Huawei is now the third-largest smartphone maker in the world. Its market share exceeded 7 percent last year, compared with less than 6 percent in 2014, according to IDC. That’s still far behind Samsung’s 23 percent and Apple’s 16 percent, but success doesn’t necessarily mean being No. 1 everywhere.

In fact, ZTE mobile chief Adam Zeng said the Chinese phone maker wants to be in the top three in selected markets — read that as No. 3 — and not necessarily worldwide.

And Xiaomi might have trouble expanding to established markets — particularly the U.S. — because of accusations it has copied or closely imitated designs from Apple and other companies. Phone manufacturers routinely sue each other in these markets, and Xiaomi will need to build up a portfolio of its own patents to defend itself.

Even if gaps remain in market share, IDC’s Chau said Chinese companies can at least close the gap in brand reputation in about three years. That’s partly because Apple and Samsung are struggling to stay cool.

She said that while Apple is still the premium brand in China, “it’s been around for a while and people are familiar with it. It lost the extra shine of being the new.”

source: technology.inquirer.net

Facebook’s Zuckerberg at crossroads in connecting the globe

SAN FRANCISCO — Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg likes to boast that his 3-year-old effort to bring the developing world online has reached millions of people in some of the world’s poorest nations.

But a central element of his Internet.org campaign was controversial even before it was shut down in a key market this month. Indian regulators banned one of the pillars of the campaign, a service known as Free Basics, because it provided access only to certain pre-approved services — including Facebook — rather than the full Internet.

That leaves the social media mogul at a crossroads. Though he has vowed not to give up, Zuckerberg hasn’t said whether he’ll alter his approach. Facebook declined to make executives available for comment. Zuckerberg could shed light on his plans when he speaks Monday at Mobile World Congress, an annual industry event in Barcelona, Spain, where he has touted Internet.org in previous years.

“Everyone in the world should have access to the Internet,” Zuckerberg wrote on Facebook this month, arguing that online connections can improve lives and fuel economic development.

To achieve that goal, Zuckerberg has high-flying dreams for someday providing Internet connections through a network of drones, satellites and lasers. But his near-term plan is simpler: Facebook works with wireless carriers in poorer nations to let people use streamlined versions of Facebook and certain other online services, without paying data charges.


While the drones may someday connect people in areas too remote for cables or cell towers, Free Basics is intended for people who live in areas with Internet service but still can’t afford it.

A low-income resident of urban Manila, for example, can use Free Basics to view thePhilippines‘ GMA News site. “He can be informed. He can research. He can read the news,” Ederic Eder of GMA News said.

The program varies by country, in offerings and effectiveness.

In South Africa, for instance, Facebook partnered with the third-largest wireless carrier, Cell C. But Johannesburg resident Priscilla de Klerk said she couldn’t get Free Basics to work on her phone.

“Cell C is much cheaper as far as everything else is concerned, but their free Facebook is not a reality,” she said.

Last fall, Facebook announced a major expansion in Africa, where another regional carrier, Bharti Airtel, said it will offer Free Basics in 17 countries.

“They’re getting a lot of traction in Africa,” said Danson Njue, a Kenya-based telecom analyst with the Ovum research firm. Tech rivals Google and Microsoft also have programs to expand Internet access, he noted, but their approaches are content neutral and involve extending networks to underserved areas.

Facebook doesn’t pay wireless companies for the cost of Free Basics. Carriers make money if new users eventually move to a paid data plan. Facebook also says it makes no money, as it doesn’t show ads, though Zuckerberg has conceded it benefits from gaining users in the long run.

While the company hasn’t released detailed usage figures, Facebook says Free Basics has brought more than 19 million people online for the first time. That counts any user who didn’t have Internet access before, regardless of whether they’re currently active.

On the Internet.org website, mixed in with videos about impoverished students using Free Basics to study and laborers starting small businesses, Facebook boasts more than 1 billion people “have access” to the service. That’s the combined population of regions where it’s available, not the number of users.

Free Basics is now in 36 countries. It was suspended last year in Egypt, on the anniversary of anti-government protests that were organized partly on Facebook. An earlier version of Free Basics, known as Facebook Zero, was shuttered three years ago in Chile, after authorities said Internet providers couldn’t offer discounts for accessing some content but not others.

Similar concerns turned India into the program’s biggest battleground.

Free Basics enrolled more than 1 million Indians in its first year, according to Facebook’s wireless partner, Reliance Communications. But critics, including many in the country’s growing tech community, complained it was a predatory scheme: If low-income users couldn’t afford anything besides Free Basics, opponents said, that meant Facebook was deciding which online services the nation’s poor could use.

“The government should not allow big players to monopolize the Internet,” said Manu Sharma, who runs a software development company in New Delhi.

Facebook responded last fall by announcing it would open Free Basics to any app that met its technical requirements for systems with limited capacity. Zuckerberg also changed the program’s name to Free Basics, after critics complained “Internet.org” sounded like a nonprofit, when it’s part of a for-profit company (the overall campaign is still called Internet.org).

But opponents still worry that Facebook could change requirements at any time, force competitors to pay higher rates to get into the program, or even block services that run afoul of powerful politicians.

“The fact that it could decide what apps could be hosted … was a huge problem for me,” said Basit Zaidi, a New Delhi attorney.

As Indian regulators began studying the issue, Facebook drew more resentment with a public-relations blitz that critics called heavy-handed and patronizing. The regulators effectively banned Free Basics after concluding Internet providers shouldn’t be allowed to charge different rates for certain services, because that discriminates against other content.

U.S. regulators have endorsed the concept of “net neutrality,” which says all websites and apps should be treated equally by Internet providers. They’re now studying whether “zero rating” programs, which offer some content for free, should be allowed. Net neutrality supporters are hoping India’s decision will influence other nations.

Facebook has also launched a program that helps Internet providers offer reliable Wi-Fi service in underserved areas at affordable rates and without limits on content. The program’s been limited to tests in a few countries.

The giant tech company could use its resources and clout with carriers to offer a similar wireless service, perhaps at limited speeds or volume, but without any restrictions on content, said Josh Levy of Access Now, a nonprofit that supports net neutrality. Zuckerberg has suggested in the past that such a service would be too expensive and difficult to offer.

Some Indians, meanwhile, say their country could have benefited from Free Basics.

“Ultimately, something is better than nothing, even if that something is flawed,” said Uday Singh Tomar, a software engineer in New Delhi. “If a person is hungry and getting nothing, a free meal is good enough.”

source: technology.inquirer.net

Samsung unveils sleek new Galaxy phones to take on Apple

SEOUL/BARCELONA - Samsung Electronics Co Ltd unveiled its latest Galaxy S smartphones featuring a slim body made from aircraft-grade metal, in a bid to reclaim its throne as undisputed global smartphone leader from Apple Inc.


 Designed from scratch in an operation dubbed "Project Zero", the Galaxy S6 and its curved-edges variant are critical for Samsung's plans to reverse plunging smartphone revenues that led to its first annual earnings fall in three years in 2014.

By some estimates, Apple surpassed Samsung as the world's biggest smartphone maker late last year, selling a record 74.5 million iPhones in the December quarter on the back of the success of its big-screen iPhone 6 and 6 Plus.

Samsung's previous flagship Galaxy S5 was outsold in its second full month of global sales by Apple's older iPhone 5S, according to researcher Counterpoint.

The South Korean giant begins its fight-back on April 10 when the revamped Galaxy phones, unveiled at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on Sunday, hit the market in one of the most important product launches in the company's history.

Samsung is yet to disclose pricing or where the phones will appear first.

Stand-out features include casing made from light-weight metal used in airplanes, a step up from the plastic that disappointed many critics of the S5, and Corning Inc's Gorilla Glass on both front and back.

The Galaxy S6 upgrades the previous version's camera and screen, and strips out many of Samsung's unpopular in-house software apps that infuriated users by gobbling memory. It and the Galaxy S6 edge will also be powered by Samsung's new 64-bit, 14-nanometer Exynos processors.

The phones are also the first from Samsung to support wireless charging as a standard feature. In another departure, they have non-removable batteries to make them slimmer. To compensate for the lack of interchangeable batteries, Samsung says a 10-minute charge by cord gives four hours of power.

Samsung is also touting the Galaxy S6's compatibility with a new mobile payments system it is preparing to launch in the United States and South Korea in the second half of this year, using the technology of recently acquired startup LoopPay.

The system, in partnership with banks and credit card companies including MasterCard and Visa, will allow users to make mobile payments through magnetic strip-card readers without the additional accessory needed for other models.

The rival Apple Pay system, launched in the United States in September and rapidly winning retailer support, requires the installation of in-store near-field communication technology.

The new Samsung flagships will also come with free two-year, 115-gigabyte cloud storage through Microsoft Corp's OneDrive, suggesting improved relations between the firms after they settled a patent dispute last month. — Reuters

Mark Zuckerberg stars in the mobile industry's biggest fair Monday

BARCELONA - Billionaire 29-year-old Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg stars in the mobile industry's biggest fair Monday, fresh from his $19 billion (14-billion-euro) takeover of smartphone messenger WhatsApp.

The keynote speaker on the opening day of the February 24-27 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, Zuckerberg has come a long way in the mobile world in a short time.

When Facebook sold its shares to the public in an initial public offering in May 2012, "it literally had no mobile advertising revenues," said Eden Zoller, analyst at the research house Ovum.

"It did actually have a pretty strong mobile user base at IPO but what it had failed to do at that time was actually monetise those mobile users," she said.

At the time of the float, worries over the lack of money coming in from the mobile business sent Facebook's shares sliding.

But the social network — boasting more than 1.2 billion members — quickly repaired its strategy.

By the end of 2013, mobile devices accounted for 53 percent of Facebook's advertising revenue, bringing in $1.2 billion in the last quarter and more than $3 billion over the whole year.

However mobile advertising can be "highly intrusive", Zoller cautioned, especially if it interrupts a user's engagement with an application.

"You have to be very careful."

Nevertheless, the social network needs to keep up the momentum, the analyst said.

"It can't be complacent. On the mobile front it is particularly important. Consumers have an increasing number of social media and social messaging alternatives to Facebook."

The company still has a weak point, however, she added: its failure to carve out a strong position in mobile payment systems, which are expected to show strong growth in the next few years.

Nonetheless, Facebook is clearly building a base for further revenue growth.

On Wednesday, the social network announced its takeover of WhatsApp, which followed last year's smaller purchase of online photograph-sharing site Instagram.
 
Half a billion users on WhatsApp
 
"Facebook is paying for one of the fastest growing audiences in history — WhatsApp is now nearing half a billion users globally — and the monetisation potential that that brings," said Guillermo Escofet of research house Informa.

Facebook has captured 18.4 percent of the mobile publicity market, making it the number two force after Google, according to digital media analysts eMarketer.

"They performed a remarkable turnaround from about two years ago," said Escofet, recalling the social network's early reluctance to push advertising to mobile devices.

"The reason for that is because they did not want to compromise the user experience on mobile and they did not want to cram the small mobile screen with ads," he said.

Facebook's solution was to integrate advertising into its users' news stream, where members read the latest events in their "friends"' lives.

It has proven an efficient strategy. Of Facebook's 1.23 billion users who are active at least once a month, three-quarters access the site from their smartphones.

Today, it is a "mobile company", declared Sephi Shapira, chief executive of advertising platform MassiveImpact, a Facebook partner.

"We are very happy with them," he said.

MassiveImpact's clients publicise on Facebook but only pay when a user clicks on the advertisement and then actually buys the product.

For products such as insurance, the percentage of users who make a purchase after clicking on a web advertisement is often in single digits, but for mobile apps that figure can rise to 20 or 30 percent.

"For app promotion, I think they're definitely the best," Shapira said.

Many advertisers now devote all their publicity to mobile devices, not even spending on Internet advertising, he said.

But "I think we should not get too excited," Shapira cautioned.

"You have to run just to stay alive. So in this market, you have to constantly be innovating and developing new technologies just to survive, if you don't, you disappear." — Agence France-Presse

source: gmanetwork.com