Tech Roundup: Aug 4, 2012

Samsung has put an end to all the speculation regarding its mystery event at IFA Germany. Yes, it’s none other than the Galaxy Note Successor. The Samsung Unpacked Event at Berlin on the 29th of this month will see the announcement of the device according to reports from Reuters. Unveiling the device comes at a certain risk of cannibalizing the sales of the recently out Galaxy S III smartphone, but what Samsung wants to do is steal the thunder from Apple, which is rumored to announce iPhone 5 on Sept 12. After all 10 million Galaxy S III phones have already been sold. Will this gambit pay off? Let's wait and watch.

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Microsoft is gearing up for the next big thing. In a rapidly changing market environment where traditional PC’s are struggling to get a foothold, Microsoft aims the situation will hopefully turnaround with the upcoming version of their operating system (OS), Windows 8. Scheduled for an October 26th release, it has announced that the development of the OS is complete and that the Release to Manufacturing (RTM) version will be released to hardware partners in the next few days. But surprisingly, the final build has already found its way to the internet, barely a day after the announcement.

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With all the negativity besieging Facebook, it has one more thing to worry about – its market performance. The social-networking giant’s growth has been nothing short of remarkable, ever since its inception at Harvard (as Facemash) in 2004. Its IPO was one of the most anticipated events in the tech history, even surpassing Google’s. But alas, what happened instead was a tragedy of sorts. Post its not so rosy first quarterly earnings call, the company’s share value has dropped to an all time low of 20.04 (as of Aug 2 end of day) after it revealed that the social network has at least 83 million fake users. Facing herculean challenges like user saturation, increasing smartphone adoption and lack of attractive monetization strategies, restoring investors’ confidence and arresting the sliding share value would be indeed an uphill task, which is forecasted to go downhill further to as low as $16.

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Talk about competition. Samsung and Apple seem to be at loggerheads over every single damn thing! The Korean manufacturer is planning to open its first Samsung Experience Store in Australia. But what’s so special about it is its location – the store is just a stone’s throw from Apple’s first Australian store. Am wondering why Sammy is so fixated on Apple to this extent!

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BlackBerry maker, Research in Motion, might be going through a harrowing time, but things continue to be bleak for the Canadian manufacturer. India, which is still one of the prominent users of BlackBerry phones, had earlier requested for access to its servers to examine user communications. Though back in February, it gave in and designed a server to monitor BB messages and emails, access to secure enterprise email services were still out of bounds. Amid a report in the Economic Times that it had handed over encryption keys to enterprise email server, RIM has denied the claim and reassured the users that enterprise communication continues to remain secure and encrypted.

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Microsoft sends Hotmail to cold storage; announces the Metro* styled Outlook.com. The new email client heavily borrows from the Windows 8 Metro user interface and existing Hotmail users are also eligible for an upgrade to the preview version – “with options to rename an existing @hotmail.com address to @outlook.com or to add an additional alias to an account — and new Outlook.com users can pick an @outlook.com email address,” according to The Verge. The social-friendly (supports direct Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Skype integration in addition to built-in document editing) service has seen a sharp uptick, with a million people signing up for an account within hours of the announcement.

*In a new development, the Redmond based tech behemoth is advising its developers to refrain from using the term ‘Metro’ in Windows apps or documentation (for Windows 8 and other Microsoft products) owing to a naming dispute (over ‘Metro’) between the company and a German firm. Microsoft has declined to comment whether this doing away from the naming was due to trademark issues. Meanwhile, it seems to be working on a replacement term and has urged its employees to refer the interface as Windows 8 style UI.

Microsoft / Windows / Windows Phone:
Samsung planning dual-core Windows Phone 8 smartphones; court documents as part of Apple vs. Samsung trial reveals.
Bing search takes social integration to another level, lets you ask your Facebook friends for help while searching.
Nokia launches limited “Nokia Lumia Pink” nail polish to match the new pink Lumia 900 smartphone. (Ahem!)

Apple / iOS:
Apple rumored to announce the iPhone 5 and iPad Mini on September 12, reports iMore.
Apple sells its 250th million iPhone the last quarter.
Apple in another patent brawl – Taiwan’s National Cheng Kung University slaps a lawsuit against the Silicon Valley giant over patent infringement claims concerning speech recognition aka Siri.
IPad takes 68% of the total tablets sold in the previous quarter; Samsung comes a distant second with 10% share.

Google / Android:
16GB Nexus 7 now available on Google Play Store, after being sold out.
Google Hangout now possible directly via Gmail.
Google Chrome 21 now official - gets built-in webcam and mic support; Mac version gets optimized for Retina Display.
FCC approves $22.5 million fine for Google in Apple Safari privacy violation case that bypassed user cookie settings.
Android Ice Cream Sandwich running on 15.9% of Android devices, Jelly Beans starts its innings at 0.8%.
Google Wallet update brings support for major credit and debit cards and remote disable feature.
Samsung set to launch the Galaxy Note 10.1 on the 15th of August.

Social Media:
Twitter makes cashtag symbol ‘$’ official, to display stock and company related information.
Facebook Photos page gets a facelift, photos displayed as a mosaic.
Facebook outs a new save for later feature for mobile and desktop versions; lets you favorite your friends’ posts.
Facebook Timeline to go live for all users this fall.
International Olympic Committee urges sports fans attending the London Olympics to avoid constant use of their phones for sending messages and tweets after data networks were overwhelmed leading to spotty television coverage.

Other:
Existing webOS phones not upgradeable to Open webOS; blamed on proprietary components.
American telecom service provider AT&T to shutdown its 2G service by January 1, 2017.

Tech Roundup is a weekly recurring feature on the latest trends in Technology.