If you miss your
Android apps when using your PC, a start-up called BlueStacks says it has the answer.
Today, the company announced first-round funding of $7.6 million from
Ignition Ventures, Radar Partners, Helion Ventures, Redpoint Ventures,
and Andreessen Horowitz for its virtualization technology that provides a
foundation for Google's mobile operating system atop Windows. It's got
partnerships with Citrix for distribution to interested businesses and
with assorted as-yet unnamed PC makers for consumers.
"The idea is very simple," said Chief Executive and co-founder Rosen
Sharma, who previously was McAfee's chief technology officer. It started
when the 6-year-old daughter of another company co-founder was using
Android apps on his smartphone. "She went to a Netbook, and she wanted
the same apps on it," Sharma said. But it wasn't possible at the time.
"The number of people who want something like that is very, very large--both consumer and enterprise," Sharma said.
Consumers could be interested in having a Windows version of their
LinkedIn app for social and work connections, their sports app for
staying on top of the latest game results, or Pulse app for reading
news, Sharma said. And businesses are interested in extending the reach
of mobile apps they've created for their employees.
"A lot of people are doing their own apps" inside the company, Sharma
said. "The GM dealership app is an Android app. People who were doing
BlackBerry apps earlier are doing Android apps now."
The company, incorporated in 2008, plans to release a free beta version
of its software for people to download in June or July. It hasn't yet
set pricing for the final version, which is due to ship in the fourth
quarter. Partnerships with PC makers should be announced starting next
week, the company said.
Once people install the software, running an Android app is easy, Sharma
said. "From the user experience, it looks just like they're using an
app," he said.
Indeed, my CNET colleague Seth Rosenblatt found using Android apps on Windows with BlueStacks a seamless and effortless process.
BlueStacks uses Amazon.com's Android marketplace to distribute apps
because Google restricts its Android Market to specific ARM-based
devices.
User interface issues are one complication. Smartphone apps are designed
for a touch-screen interface and sometimes for a multitouch interface,
so some things won't work easily with a mouse and keyboard. Sharma
brushed the worry aside, though.
"We are seeing a lot of touch devices. In two years, a standard laptop
will have a touch screen," he said. In addition, trackpads on new
laptops support multitouch gestures such as pinching and zooming, he
said.
"That leaves very few apps that require absolute touch or multitouch,
like games," Sharma said. "The coverage you get is pretty large."
There are some caveats. Android today runs on the variety of ARM processors that are used in smartphones and
tablets,
but Windows machines--for now at least--use x86 chips from Intel or
Advanced Micro Devices. BlueStacks therefore runs its own build of the
OS from the open-source Android project.
The kind of high-powered apps you could run in Android include Microsoft Word and Adobe Photoshop.
(Credit:
BlueStacks)
Another processor complication is that some Android programs--the
Firefox
and Opera browsers, for example--use the Native Developer Kit that
Google provides for software makers that want to write software that
runs directly on the processor rather than on Android's Java-like
software foundation. Those won't run on BlueStacks today.
But they will later.
"Most apps are cross-platform. But any app that uses native ARM code
will not run today," Sharma said. "We will enable those apps by
December."
Ultimately, BlueStacks expects to bridge the gap the other way, too,
letting Windows apps run on Android. That will work only on x86 versions
of Android, which currently aren't on the market.
Campbell, Calif.-based BlueStacks has only 20 employees now, and most
are in India where expenses are lower, so payroll costs won't drain the
bank account quickly. Instead, the company plans to use its VC money to
try to spread its software foundation as rapidly as possible.
"Our question is getting distribution," Sharma said. He expects to have
20 million copies distributed through computer makers and 60 million
through Citrix's software channel, he said.
"Our goal is by end of 2012 to have a ridiculous-looking distribution number. Then the game changes completely," Sharma said.
With the GreenChip, each bulb becomes a small networked device
NXP has just announced its GreenChip, which gives every light bulb
the potential of being connected to a TCP/IP network to provide
real-time information and receive commands, wirelessly. This feels a bit
like science-fiction talk, but NXP has managed to build a chip that is
low-cost enough to be embedded into regular light bulbs (and more in the
future) with an increase of about $1 in manufacturing cost. Obviously,
$1 is not small relative to the price of a bulb but, in absolute terms,
it’s not bad at all — and the cost is bound to fall steadily, thanks to
Moore’s law.
But what can you do with wirelessly connected bulbs? For one, you can
dim, or turn them on and off using digital commands from any computer,
phone or tablet.
You can also do it remotely: those chips have the potential of making
home automation much easier and more standard than anything that came
before. Better home automation can also mean smarter (and automated)
energy -and money- savings. the bulbs are also smart enough to know how
much energy they have consumed.
Although the bulbs use internet addresses, they are not connected
directly to the web. They don’t use WIFI either, because that protocol
is too expensive and not energy-efficient for this usage. Instead, the
bulbs are linked through a 2.4-GHz IEEE 802.15.4 network and in standby
mode, the GreenChip consumes about 50mW.
The network itself is a mesh network that is connected to a “box”
that will itself be connected to your home network. Computers and mobile
devices send commands to the box, which sends them to the bulbs.
Because it is a mesh network, every bulb is considered to be a “network
extender”, so as long as there is 30 meters between two bulbs, the
network can be extended across very large surfaces. In a typical house,
that would mean no “dead spots”.
The first products will be manufactured by TCP, which manufactures
about 1M efficient light bulbs (of all sorts) per day. TCP supplies
other brands like Philips or GE. The prices of the final products have
yet to be determined, but NXP expect them to be attractive to consumers.
Of course, we need to see what the applications will look like too.
This is an interesting first step in embedding low-cost smart chips
in low-cost goods. Yet, this is a critical step in creating a smarter
local energy grid in our homes.
During today’s opening keynote for Google I/O, they touched on all the major topics that folks were anticipating including Android Ice Cream Sandwich, Google Music, and Google TV,
but they also added some unexpected developments. One of them being
their new Android Open Accessory initiative, that will allow developers
to create their own hardware accessories that can be controlled by
Android.
The Android Open Accessory system is built on open-source Arduino. It
will will allow externally accessories connect to an Android-powered
device via USB and eventually Bluetooth. This could essentially mean the
start of a whole slew of “Made for Android” devices such as docks,
speakers, or even an exercise bike. This opens up a whole world of
possibilities now for external accessories to work with Android.
Google is offering an Android Device Kit or ADK for developers. The
kit comes with a sample implementation in the form of a USB accessory
along with all the hardware design files, the code for the accessory’s
firmware, and the Android application that interacts with the accessory.
What language is contained in the new Terms and Conditions page for iTunes? More than you might expect, according to CNN.com.
Each time Apple revises its terms, consumers are greeted with the
“iTunes Terms and Conditions have changed. Before you can proceed you
must read & accept the new Terms and Conditions” message. Naturally, most of us accept those terms without reading one word of the document.
And why would we? The latest document is 56 pages.
However, the latest agreement includes language readers may find interesting.
For example, under Genius, the terms state:
“When you use the Genius feature, Apple will use this
information and the contents of your iTunes library, as well as other
information, to give personalized recommendations to you.”
According to New York technology attorney Mark Grossman, consumers should take away from this paragraph the following:
“”It’s a long-winded way of saying we (Apple) can figure
out where you are through your IP address. You should assume that
everything you do is tracked or trackable.”
This is particularly eye opening given the recent “locationgate” controversy. Since we’ve accepted Apple’s terms, the company had every right to track our every move.
Another issue is that of licensing. Some consumers might find it
surprising that EVERY transaction in iTunes isn’t of a product, but
rather a “license.”
Accordingly under Licensing:
“You agree that the Service, including but not limited to
Products, graphics, user interface, audio clips, video clips [and]
editorial content … contains proprietary information and material that
is owned by Apple and/or its licensors, and is protected by applicable
intellectual property and other laws, including but not limited to
copyright.”
In other words:
That sounds confusing. Handel explained it this way: When
we buy something from iTunes, we are paying for the license to listen
to music or watch a movie on our iPhone or other Apple device. But we
are not buying the product itself and so we can’t actually own it, he
said.
Jonathan Handel is a Los Angeles-based entertainment attorney.
Finally, it’s worth mentioning Apple isn’t responsible for lost or deleted downloads.
Under Loss of purchases:
“Products may be downloaded only once and cannot be
replaced if lost for any reason. Once a Product is downloaded, it is
your responsibility not to lose, destroy, or damage it, and Apple shall
not be liable to you if you do so.”
This mean, according to Grossman, that anyone taking Apple to court over a lost digital file would lose very quickly:
“The contract clearly says ‘we are not responsible,’ and it’s firmly established in the law.”
Of course, we as consumers have every right to not accept
Apple’s terms and conditions. However, in doing so, we could no longer
make purchases. And this decision would make our iDevices much less
versatile.
The data entered by millions of social-network users could be turned into revealing infographics.
By Christopher Mims
Ever wondered just how much coffee you drank last year, or which
movies you saw, and when? New Web and mobile apps make it possible to
track, and visualize, this personal information graphically, and the
trend could be set to expand dramatically.
This is because Facebook recently acquired one of the leading
personal-data-tracking mobile apps and hired its creators. The
social-networking giant could be gearing up to offer users ways to chart
the minutiae of their lives with personalized infographics.
Nick Felton and Ryan Case,
two New York-based designers, have pioneered turning the mundane
contours of an everyday life into a kind of visual narrative. Each year,
Felton publishes an "annual report" on his own life: an infographic that charts out his habits and lifestyle in great detail.
Felton and Case have also created a mobile app, called Daytum, that
lets users gather personal data and represent it using infographics.
Daytum already has 80,000 users, whose pages provide a detailed snapshot
of everything from coffee drinking habits to baseball stadium visits.
The app gives users the ability to easily record their own information,
whatever it might be, and display it in an attractive manner, whether
or not they are a designer.
Daytum is part of a larger trend in tracking personal information.
But traditional personal tracking applications tend to revolve around
medical data, sleep schedules, and the like. In Felton's creative
visualizations, even something as mundane as how many concerts he
attended in the past year becomes a kind of art. "I think there's
storytelling potential in data," he says.
Felton says he can't talk about what he'll be doing at Facebook, but
says, "Clearly, companies like Facebook recognize the value of the kind
of work we were doing."
Intel’s WiDi technology is an interesting feature on some notebooks that allows the user to wirelessly shoot video from the computer over to another screen in range of the wireless transmission. WiDi stands for wireless display, and it supports 1080p video when used with machines that are running the new second-generation Core processors. Intel has announced that it has now updated WiDi to a later version, and the new version has some cool features that weren’t available before.
The release notes for the new 2.1 update tells what the new added
features are. Version 2.1 now has a unified 32-bit/64-bit installer
using a single file. The new version will stream up to 1080p resolution
video with hardware based H.264 encoding. The service now supports
802.11n PAN at 2.4GHz and 5GHz. Intel HD Graphics 3000 based hardware
encoding is supported with updated graphics drivers. Verizon 2.1 also
brings the ability to view HDCP 2.0 content with support for DVD,
Blu-ray and some online protected content.
Other new features include 6-channel 16-bit/48 kHz LPCM sound output
with playback application support. The latency in the new version has
dropped to under 300ms as well. WiDi will also now detect ISDB-T and
ISDB-S TV Tuners. You can download the update directly from Intel for
WiDi right now and enjoy shooting your wireless content over to a TV or
bigger computer screen.
Earlier today we mentioned that E-Ink, the company behind those Amazon Kindle displays, have been busy working on new and improved E-Ink screens that can display full-color content. And with that, were some nifty videos of the E-Ink screens in action on various flexible materials including cloth and Tyvek. Well now we have some more nifty videos, but of E-Ink technology being harnessed by a group of researchers to produce a flexible smartphone dubbed the “PaperPhone.”
The PaperPhone features advanced “thin-film” technology that allows
it to be thin like a sheet of paper, but function as a smartphone that
is operated by both touch and bending. It was developed by a
collaborative effort between researchers at Queen’s University in
Ontario, Canada, and Arizona State University.
“This computer looks, feels, and operates like a small sheet of
interactive paper,” says Roel Vertegaal, the inventor and director of
the Human Media Lab at Queen’s University. “You interact with it by
bending it into a cell phone, flipping the corner to turn pates, or
writing on it with a pen.”
It features a 9.5 cm diagonal E-ink display and can carry out the
tasks of most smartphone such as making phone calls, storing and playing
music, and accessing ebooks. Flipping pages in an ebook can be
programmed such that you bend the PaperPhone much like you would an
actual book. A myriad of touch and/or bend gestures can be programmed to
carry out various functions.
Vertegaal believes that this is the future of computing as we head
towards a truly paperless workflow, whether it be in offices, hospitals,
or schools. He will be presenting the project on May 10th in Vancouver
Canada to the Association of Computing Machinery’s CHI 2011 conference,
which is the premier international expo for the human-computer
interaction field.
The first video below shows the PaperPhone in action, while the
second video shows a modification of the technology in the form of a
wristband computer called the Snaplet. It demonstrates the Snaplet being
responsive to touch, bend, and even use with a stylus.