Friday, July 29, 2011

Android Boot Camp

The Android Bootcamp is brought you by:

Immersion Corporation

T-Mobile

Beyondsoft Consulting Inc.

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3 Advanced Android Development (starts 3:15pm)

This is composed from multiple advanced sessions.

- Adding Haptics to Android Applications 3:15pm – 4:15pm

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Speakers Bio:

David Birnbaum, Senior UX Researcher

Immersion Corporation

David is an inventor and human factors expert with a background in interactive systems, embodied communication, gesture, audio, music, and haptics. For the past several years he has been focused on using haptics (touch feedback) to revolutionize the mobile user experience. Is it possible to touch your friends through your phone? How can we transmit emotion effectively through digital networks? What does it really mean for an interface to feel “real”? The experiences I design try to answer these kinds of questions. Recently, David helped design Immersion’s MOTIV platform, which brings Android OS to life with haptic feedback. I also designed the haptic experience for GuitarSolo, a downloadable Android app that feels like a real guitar.

David's talk,"Haptic Design for Mobile Apps", will focus on how to design haptic feedback to make your user interface feel intuitive, engaging, and realistic.

http://www.android-android.net/events/25873721/?eventId=25873721&action=detail


Samsung Stops Reporting Phone Sales Data

from online.wsj.com:

>>Samsung Electronics Co. on Friday said it would stop disclosing sales figures and forecasts for its mobile phones and tablet computers, a step it attributed to business risks and that analysts said was probably due to its continuing legal battle with Apple Inc.


Equinix Delivers a Triple Play

Read the whole article at Seeking Akpha:

>>Equinix (EQIX) reported Q2 earnings last Wednesday, after market close. The company delivered solid results, exceeding both guidance and analysts' consensus and increased annual guidance – definitely a nice triple play.

A quick look at some of the highlights:

Samsung’s shipments grew a huge 520 percent annually

from www.businesswire.com:

>>According to the latest research from Strategy Analytics, global smartphone shipments grew an impressive 76 percent annually to reach a record 110 million units in the second quarter of 2011.

...

Neil Mawston, Director at Strategy Analytics, added, “Samsung overtook Nokia to become the world’s second largest smartphone vendor in Q2 2011. Samsung’s shipments grew a huge 520 percent annually, for 17 percent global smartphone market share. Samsung’s Galaxy portfolio has proven popular, especially the high-tier S2 Android model.”

Samsung 2Q11

from www.digitimes.com:

>>Samsung revealed that total shipments of its mobile handsets increased in the high-single-digit range sequentially in the second quarter, driven by brisk sales of smartphones.

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Forecast for 3Q11

Samsung believes that market demand for mobile handsets will increase by more than 15% in the second half of 2011 buoyed by consumers upgrading to smartphones. In the third quarter, Samsung will continue to drive sales of the Galaxy SII and strengthen its product lineup with new mobiles featuring LTE technology, and expand its Galaxy Tab portfolio in various sizes.

Nokia slips from 1 to 3 in smartphone sales

from Reuters:

>>Apple and Samsung Electronics ended struggling Nokia's 15-year reign at the top of the smartphone sales rankings in the second quarter, researchers said on Friday.

...

IDC said strong smartphone demand boosted the market to still grow 11.3 percent from a year ago to 365.4 million phones, but this was a clear slowdown from the 16.8 percent growth seen in the previous quarter.

Strategy Analytics estimated the total market at 361 million cellphones in the quarter.

In a Reuters poll, 29 analysts' average forecast for the total market stood at 374 million phones.

Thursday, July 28, 2011

Stifel Nicolaus Raising Price Target On Equinix

from Benzinga:

>>In a note to clients, Stifel Nicolaus writes, "We reiterate our Buy rating on shares of Equinix and are increasing our target price to $130 based on an EV/EBITDA multiple of 10x our upwardly revised 2012 estimate. Equinix delivered another beat-and-raise quarter that should serve to further rebuild confidence in the fundamental growth story for Equinix and the industry more broadly. We remain attracted to the growth outlook for Equinix, and we believe there continues to be an upward bias to estimates, which coupled with what we view to be additional room for multiple expansion results in an attractive risk/reward from current levels, in our opinion."

Piper Jaffray Raises PT On Equinix To $125

from Seeking Alpha:

>>Piper Jaffray has raised the price target on Equinix from $115 to $125 and maintains its Overweight rating.

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Samsung sells 5m GS2′s in 85 days

from http://gigaom.com:

>>Samsung has sold 5 million Galaxy S II (GS2) smartphones in 85 days, making it the fastest selling handset in the company’s history. According to Samsung’s figures, the device sales are actually accelerating as the phone debuts on more carriers around the world. It took 55 days for Samsung to sell the first 3 million GS2′s around the world, so in the past 30 days, another 2 million customers purchased the handset.

Bank of America Previews Earnings for Equinix

from www.benzinga.com:

>>Key issues we are watching into the quarter: Guidance. We expect EQIX to raise ‘11 guidance to reflect the closing of its Brazil acquisition and improved visibility into 2H11 growth. Our '11 revenue of $1.586b compares to guidance of ‘greater than' $1.525b and the Street at $1.536b; our adj. EBITDA of $712m compares to guidance of ‘greater than' $685m and consensus of $694m. We note that our estimates reflect an 8-mo. contribution from the Brazilian acquisition. We see upside to numbers based on expectations for increasing positive contributions from the SDXC footprint, a ramping marketing effort, and continued strong demand."

Bank of America rated Equinix a BUY with a price target of $130.00.

Annual Smartphone Sales Could Reach 1 Billion by 2016

from allthingsd.com:

>>A new study from IMS Research predicts that smartphone sales this year will total 420 million units, making up 28 percent of the total handset market. With cheaper models on the way, smartphone sales could top 1 billion units a year, or one out of every two phones sold.

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The beneficiaries are no surprise — companies such as Apple, Samsung and HTC.

And while LG and Nokia are trying to bolster their position, they face steep competition in the short term from the current leaders, Builta said.

“Apple, they are going to get another boost in momentum here when the release the iPhone 5,” Builta said in a phone interview, adding that HTC and Samsung are also building on their strong positions. Android, as a whole, Builta said, should be the dominant operating system through 2016, thanks to its widespread adoption by multiple phone makers.

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

The Vanishing Data Center

from www.wallstreetandtech.com:

>>Typically, Equinix's Knuff confirms, financial firms will put their servers in multiple data centers to be near the liquidity. The trading system that executes on the NYSE will go into the NYSE data center; the system that focuses on Nasdaq will be located in Carteret, N.J., where Nasdaq's data center is located; and the strategy focused on Direct Edge or C2 would be colocated in the Equinix data center, he says.

But usually, Knuff adds, firms will house complex event processing technology and smart order routers in one data center, where they can connect all of the endpoints. Firms need to bring all the information into a central location and then make the decision on where or when to trade, he says. "That's where the network density of the data center as a hub is [critical]," Knuff asserts. "That's typically where we play in the financial markets."

Looking for Turnaround Investments in the Automotive Sector

Read the whole article at Seeking Alpha:

>>The automotive industry crisis of 2008–2010 forced several producers and most sector suppliers to deeply restructure their operations, especially in the USA.

The government bailouts of both General Motors (GM) and Chrysler made the headlines, but several other companies had to go through a severe re-thinking of their activity, which often meant using Chapter 11 as a tool to reduce both their debt and their cost structure. In some cases, these companies also re-emerged under a new management team.

Does it make sense to look for good opportunities in these post-emergence entities?

Apple Invents New Flat Keyless Keyboard for Desktops & More

from www.patentlyapple.com:

>>Late last week the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple that revealed yet another take on a possible future virtual keyboard for the iMac and other devices.

...

Glass Keyboard with Graphics on a Display Screen Below

In a glass embodiment, the keys may be painted on the surface or provided as graphics on a display screen located below the glass surface. The flat surface keyboard includes an indication of a standard computer keyboard layout including space bar, enter and function keys and so on.

Further, the flat surface keyboard may also include a haptic or tactile feedback mechanism that is activated when the user presses or taps on a key of the keyboard. In general, the haptic response may provide a force, vibration and/or motion to the user's fingers or hands in response to the user pressing on the keyboard surface.

Monday, July 25, 2011

Amazon AWS Cloud Computing Unit Drives Analysts Crazy

Read the whole article at Seeking Alpha:

>>Get out your crystal balls: join several analysts in today's guessing game, giving Amazon's (AMZN) AWS cloud computing unit a revenue run rate.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) provide companies with an infrastructure web services platform in the cloud. The company started offering these services in 2006, but only recently analysts have started considering the unit worth a closer look.

Back in 2010, Amazon's Chief Executive Jeff Bezos said, at the company's shareholder meeting, that AWS had the potential to be as big as the firm's retail business – giving investors a good reason for some added diligence into its financials.

Some Background on Jamba Juice's Turnaround

Read the whole article at Seeking Alpha:

>>Last week, Adam Muller wrote an article, Caribou Coffee and Jamba Juice: 2 Turnaround Plays at Different Stages, that covered the main reasons why Jamba Juice (JMBA) may represent an interesting turnaround story and a good investment opportunity.

Haptics technology: picking up good vibrations

from www.eetimes.com, written by Eric Siegel, Product Marketing Engineer, Texas Instrument:

>>Over the years, Haptic systems have spread to simulation and electronic environments. Devices that allow a user to sense and feel objects in a remote (or virtual) environment have been used in excavation, building design, education, and even remote medicine.

On a more personal level, Haptics is the reason you can (or at least should be able to) enjoy silence at the movies and still get reminded of that meeting you “forgot” about, or get that text message saying you won the lottery (why you’d be text messaged that I don’t know), and not alert your neighbors. In the gaming world, Haptics lets you know when your car is starting to veer off the road or when you are taking damage in a Halo grudge match, due to the embedded actuator in your controller and the programming in the game that utilizes it.

Sunday, July 24, 2011

Samsung Smartphone Sales May Pass Apple

from Bloomberg:

>>Samsung Electronics Co., the world’s second-largest handset maker, may have surpassed Nokia Oyj (NOK1V) and Apple Inc. (AAPL) in smartphone sales in the second quarter, driven by the popularity of Android-based models, according to Boston- based Strategy Analytics.

Samsung is estimated to have sold between 18 million and 21 million smartphones globally in the period, compared with 16.7 million for Nokia and 20.3 million iPhones, Neil Mawston, a London-based analyst at the research company, said in an e- mailed response to questions on July 22.